#dialogue changed going from comic to fic form. actually dialogue are so hard in fic form im used to small short sentences (irl too lol)

[sualne]

small oneshot turning into something longer than planned

[drbtinglecannon]

Hello, friend!!! Wishing you well so the Horrors can't beat you 💖

For the fic writer asks: 5, 7, 13, 18 and 30, if you feel like it!!!

Thank you 💖 the Horrors have been persistent but I continue to ignore them lol

5. First sentence of the fifth paragraph of an unpublished WIP

This was so difficult to choose bc so many of my WIP aren't in order and are just scrapped dialogue bits for various ideas haha

Uh, fuck it, fe fic time, have some lonlissa

“Yknow, Maribelle didn't believe me when I told her you can laugh.”

He smirked at her and pointedly chuckled again.

7. Your preferred writing fonts

Truthfully I don't really care enough to change from the default setting of whatever writing program. If I do consciously choose to change the font tho I always go with comic sans haha. It's my favorite, I enjoy the cringe reputation and it's good for dyslexia

13. A fandom you're thinking about writing for

100% dungeon meshi lol. I have, so many ideas, and I've applied to 1 zine (didn't get in) and have a couple more I was thinking of applying to. The issue is actually writing them oTL it's always so hard to start writing for a new fandom and new characters

18. If you keep them, share a deleted sentence or paragraph from a published fic

I do keep them sometimes! This was actually from the Dadrius zine, I originally extended that til the KT reunion but shortened it cuz it was kinda meh and I forgot someone else was writing the KT scene which was much better than what I did haha

Hunter’s feet moved of their own accord. He swung a leg off Flapjack, allowing the staff to shift back to bird form, and rushed over to the figure, dropping to his knees so quickly they banged roughly against the hard floor. He moved his good arm to gently jostle a shoulder much larger than his own.

"...Darius? Darius, wake up! Wake up!”

Here's another line from that same bit that comes before this that I liked but couldn't incorporate into the finished piece

Hunter's ears were ringing since the crash. But he's on a mission right now. If there's one thing Hunter was good at, it was ignoring pain.

30. Share a fic you're especially proud of

You give me endless opportunities to plug about my titans tome zine fic haha!

Thinking of a different fic I'm proud of, unfortunately I've fallen pretty hard off the fandoms for most of my published fics to the point I kinda don't like them being on my page (I have no intention of deleting stuff but I've been considering moving like "dead to me" fandom fics under a pseudonym specifying none of them will ever update), but I am still proud of "The extension of your soul in my unworthy hands", I was pretty ambitious with that one for writing so much action, I really did like the premise and title too, and I loved writing the bit where Qrow almost punches himself in the face picking up a significantly lighter weapon haha. It's one of my most underrated fg fics too, womp womp haha

From this ask!

[ghosthan]

what would you say are the differences between 616 Tony and MCU Tony? 🤔

Hi anon! Many people have talked about this and I'm certainly not the authority on the topic, but I’ll try my best to explain some of the major differences that I have noticed! Thank you for asking and I’m sorry it took me so long to answer you.

Important to note: neither version of Tony has had a totally consistent characterization. Depending on who you ask and which comics/movies they've consumed, they might give you a different answer here and not be wrong.

616 Tony is even harder to put into one box because his character has been around since Tales of Suspense in the 1950s. That’s a long time. Things have changed over time, under different writers, changing political atmospheres, and outside pop culture influence (including influence from the MCU, unfortunately, in recent years.) You get the picture. So I’ll be making some generalizations and try to be clear about which eras I’m speaking when I make these comparisons, but ultimately, if someone wanted to be contrarian, you could probably refute a lot of what I say here if you cherry pick canon. Which is fair enough! That’s sort of the fun of comics, there’s so much to choose from and something for everyone.

So here are some observations from me, under the ‘read more’.

1. Physical Appearance

This is sort of an easy one, but worth mentioning!

MCU Tony does not look like 616 Tony. RDJ is great, but he would not be most 616 fans’ casting choice on looks alone. MCU Tony is tan, a Malibu man, with brown hair and brown eyes, and RDJ has sort of round facial features (a funny sloped nose, big, round eyes, round forehead, not a particularly sharp or classically “superhero masculine” face.) As you may know, this lends well to certain fanworks and tropes, such as Tony having Bambi eyes.

Or Tiny Tony. He is not actually canonically small, but he's smaller in the MCU than in 616 and from what I can tell, a portion of fandom has latched onto that. He’s a grown man, but RDJ is pretty short, and of slighter build than 616 Tony. RDJ is 5′9, but they make him act in heels, and I believe his canon MCU height is 5′11. Another popular trope I’ve seen is shrinking Tony in fanfic/fanart for a dramatized height difference with Steve, making him weak or fragile; this is fine because everyone has their own taste, but for the official record, he’s a capable, strong guy! Especially in earlier stages of the MCU, in which he’s a bit younger. Tony isn’t just a brain; he carries out his plans with his own two hands! He builds his armor, he remodels his lab, he survives hand to hand combat when he doesn’t have the armor. Muscles!

616 Tony is 6′1 without armor and 6′6 in armor (making him taller than his 616 Steve counterpart in armor and very close to the same height out of armor!) 616 Tony is generally paler with black hair (sometimes the classic blue-black I love so much) and blue eyes, and it obviously depends on the artist, but he has a pretty typically ‘masculine’ face and build. Generally he is drawn with a squared jaw and a high bridged nose (such as in the Extremis storyline, or drawn by Marquez), but again, this varies from artist to artist! Here's some examples of 616 Tonys.

Wait, you might be saying, but I have seen comic panels where Tony has brown hair/brown eyes!

Yep. Due to a combination of forgetfulness, inconsistency, and the MCU bleeding into the general consciousness of the comics, sometimes Tony is randomly depicted in the image of RDJ, or if not in his image, at least visually inspired by the MCU-- hair color and style, eye color, dialogue, etc.

616 fans don’t typically love this; he’s very handsome when drawn this way, of course, (look at him!) But it isn’t really the same character.

Also, MCU Tony has (at least for some of his movies) a reactor built into his chest. While 616 Tony has, at times, been more or less physically connected/dependent to his tech, he doesn’t have the built in reactor (most generally speaking, there are times in comics when he temporarily has the tech built in, but this isn’t really the status quo.)

2. Relationship with parents/ family history

While it is definitely implied in the MCU that Howard was not a good father to Tony, (such as in Iron Man 2 when Tony says “You're talking about a man whose happiest day of his life was shipping me off to boarding school” and “He was cold, calculating, never told me he loved me, never even told me he liked me”), Tony has a different sort of attitude toward Howard in MCU than in 616. It’s kind of weird, and hard to discuss. To me, it seems implied that MCU Howard was emotionally abusive to Tony based on what Tony does say about his childhood, and yet, the films kind of randomly give Howard weird moments of “Well, he tried his best and deep down he loved me the whole time!” forgiveness. MCU has a Howard kink and I'm very cringe-face emoji about it.

For example, Iron Man 2 shows that old film reel of Howard talking about how Tony is the greatest thing he ever created, and in Endgame, when Tony goes back in time, he meets Howard and has a very weird interaction with him in which Howard declares he would do anything for his son, (to his deeply damaged son who is a new father himself.) Yet, for all his talk, it's his actions that speak, and his actions left Tony damaged, traumatized, and emotionally inept at forming healthy relationships. So.

Sorry. I’m a little bitter. I'm just uncomfortable with how they sort of set up an abuse history but then treated it kind of lightly and Howard gets off the hook as "well, he tried his best" without really acknowledging the hurt he caused.

Avengers: Endgame 2019

I won't go super in depth into the abuse stuff because it's a little touchy and could take up a lot of this post. But.

I’m not against any reconciliation and I do appreciate the fact that a lot of times, victims of abuse feel a desire to forgive and reconnect with their abuser-- my issue with the MCU depiction of Tony and Howard is that Tony never really gets the vindication of his abuse being recognized for what it was before he forgives Howard. To me, that’s not forgiveness as kind of... gaslighting himself that it wasn't as bad as he remembered his own experience being, because of a sense of nostalgia and grief. It’s not the same, and I have issues with it.

However, a lot of my opinion is based on subtext and it is just my opinion; with depictions of abuse, different people are going to react differently, and other people may have found these scenes touching and gotten something positive out of them, and that's totally fine too!

It’s also a bit difficult to talk about Tony’s relationship with Howard in 616, for a few reasons: shifting timelines, lots of canon that I have not read all of, and the fact that it really is difficult to sum up such a complicated relationship.

Right off the bat, I’ll address the basics. I used the same scene in another ask, and I think it's frequently cited in any meta regarding Howard, but in Iron Man Vol. 1, we see more into Tony’s childhood and see Howard verbally abusing his family, drunk, at the dinner table.

Iron Man Vol. 1 #285

We get this scene with adult Tony’s retrospective commentary on how his own issues that he blamed himself for were actually a cycle starting with his father, the insecurity and abuse and alcohol, and that he realizes how much this has influenced him. Both MCU Tony and 616 Tony have some form of “stop the cycle of shame” arcs, but I don’t really see how this works narratively in the MCU because Tony makes excuses for Howard and continues to blame himself for a lot of his own personal struggles, whereas I think there’s just a bit more nuance in 616.

But uh. This isn’t totally true, and in recent years, things got real weird. I choose to ignore this chapter of canon, but in the Dan Slott run, Tony Stark: Iron Man, Tony’s whole backstory gets imploded. For one thing, the little of Tony’s childhood it shows in a flashback is uh. Uh. Well, it’s certainly out of character compared with previous 616 material, depicting Tony as an overly confident poor sport.

Basically, Tony is adopted. Tony has an evil brother. Tony’s biological parents make an appearance, as do his ‘classic’ parents, Howard and Maria. It’s just weird. It’s kind of out there. I’m honestly not a huge fan of this and ignore a lot of it, but it is certainly a difference between MCU and 616.

3. Personality

I’m going to be very general. Both Tony’s have an outer self which they present to the public and an inner self, but they’re a bit different. Both Tony’s have struggled with self loathing, but I think MCU Tony’s actual self worth is a bit higher, even just at some points in time. Even if his ego is part of his facade, I think he does believe some amount of the “I’m awesome”, even if just when it applies to his own work/inventions/saving people. Not to say that these moments of fluctuating self esteem make him egotistical, but this combined with his egotistical act and snarky, non-stop sassy dialogue, he’s quite different in general personality from 616 Tony, who is much more reserved.

Some more recent iterations of 616 Tony have been adapted to reflect the snark of the MCU, but he’s not so snarky and he tends to approach things more seriously. This is not a dis on MCU Tony; I think MCU Tony uses false ego and excessive sassy jokes as a means to deflect and control, which I think is very interesting and it’s nice to see this explored more in depth in fic where you get to see the thought process behind the bravado. MCU Tony is a partier, a good times guy, especially during Iron Man 2, in which he really does disregard consequences to have fun (driving his race car, partying drunk in his suit, letting pretty  girls play with the armor, shooting off repulsor blasts for fun in a crowded room); I’m not bashing MCU Tony-- I think he had psychologically understandable reasons for behaving this way, the man was dying-- but 616 Tony really doesn’t act this way generally, and I think it’s a personality difference more than a difference of one being “better.”

616 Tony handles his stress differently, and they just have different psychological patterns, I think. I’m coming up kind of blank trying to think of a good comparable 616 arc, (sorry, I’m brain dead) but a less-than-perfect  example might be Tony’s brain delete arc; he’s “dying”, like in Iron Man 2 he  knows his expiration date, (circumstances are quite  a bit different), but he throws himself more into work, into a cause, and as he really fall apart, we  see him spiral into self doubt, remorse, fear, and insecurity, sort of falling into  himself with lots of manly tears and calling himself pathetic.

(Some things happen in this arc that a lot of people find Gross. I also find these events gross. But. I don’t count the sex in “World’s Most Wanted” as partying to cope with personal mortality, because I think both character involved are in “end of the world” mode, and it’s more seeking intimacy for comfort than partying to numb the hurt. Does this distinction make sense? No? Perfect, moving on.) 616 Tony is generally much more humble.

Whereas MCU Tony, I think, tries to outrun those feelings via parties or making dozens of new suits, or seeking comfort by comforting others! Gifting things to people, building things for people, highly personalized individual living quarters, teaching Nebula games and trying to show her a fun time when they were in peril together.

They have some traits in common, for sure! But canon being inconsistent both in the MCU and in 616, my observations aren’t the rule, because I’m kind of cherry picking and going based on limited memory. But off the top of my head, they’re both extravagant gift givers! Recall Tony gifting Pepper the giant bunny in Iron Man 3, and compare this with Tony carrying a mile high pile of Christmas gifts after shopping with Rumiko in Iron Man Vol. #3.

I would say that while both Tony Starks are considered humanitarians, this is much more fleshed out and supported by canon in 616. Some examples of his philanthropy in the MCU: Tony makes charitable donations of art and money, Tony has an organization which provides disaster relief/cleanup which is referenced in Spider-Man Homecoming, Tony has an MIT grant for students and staff members. But to be honest, a lot of his MCU philanthropy is only mentioned in passing, or is largely handled by other people on his behalf and on his dollar.

In 616, we see Tony using charity almost as a means of therapy: it’s something he does very privately, not in the public eye (at least, not always), and it’s something deeply personal to him. One example that immediately comes to mind is Tony’s home for disadvantaged girls in Iron Man Vol. 3, and we see scenes of Tony basically driving the streets at night, picking up underage prostitutes, feeding them and listening to their stories before bringing them to a home he’s established where he knows all the residents, and provides educational opportunities and protection.

Another more recent example in canon that the Tony fandom loves is that Tony canonically holds babies at an orphanage. Sorry I don’t have panels for all of this, this section got long and I have been working on answering this ask in a very scattered way for a very long time.

Both Tony’s are romantics, I literally could write a whole other post about their canon love life similarities and differences, but I will briefly say that while MCU Tony does the long on and off, and eventual ultimate commitment, to Pepper Potts, 616 Tony is a serial monogamist; he is always falling in love, and he’s definitely not a playboy, but the hero-ing, self loathing, and lifestyle make it very hard for him to keep anyone in his life, and most of his partners fuck his life up and betray him. Needless to say, 616 Tony is not married, and certainly not to Pepper Potts.

Oh, and I guess this is so obvious I almost forgot to include it, but a huge similarity between both iterations of Tony is that they both constantly use their own life as a bargaining chip, and will pretty much die for anything. Or be the bad guy for a good reason (at least, in his own mind... see Civil War, or Hickmanvengers; 616 Tony, especially, does not shy away from making the hard decisions, and this leads to a lot of guilt and tension in his  relationships-- often with Steve because 616 Steve/Tony angst fans are well fed, I guess)

Remember that time Tony had Steve’s mind wiped because Tony felt that Steve’s inflexible morality might hinder the Illuminati’s ability to save the world? And it eats Tony up inside and erupts into a homicidal fight when Steve finally gets his memory back? Me too.

Tony Stark as a character is defined by sacrifice, both of his own life but also of his own happiness and reputation and conscience, I think, in a lot of ways, and we see this in many universes. I could go on about Tony’s propensity for sacrifice in the less obvious ways, because I think in terms of heroic sacrifice, Tony has done a lot that other heroes wouldn’t be able to do because of moral inflexibility and conflicting philosophical schools of thought; Tony really is the “whatever it takes” type, and often believes the ends justify the means if he deems a threat worse than the potential wrong that could be done in preventing the threat. We see this a little bit in the MCU in the creation of Ultron, and in Civil War with the Accords. But there’s a whole lot more going on there I don’t want to get into.

4. Alcohol

MCU Tony’s alcoholism is never really explicitly explored. He is shown drinking in Iron Man 1, and in Iron Man 2 he drinks a lot and makes a fool of himself publicly, but MCU Tony doesn’t get any specific narrative arc focused on his drinking, and if I recall correctly, I don’t think he ever refers to his drinking as alcoholism in the movies? Also, while his binge drinking and embarrassing behaviors ostensibly stop after the events of Iron Man 2, he is shown drinking on screen at least one other time after that which I can remember, and it wasn’t a “falling off the wagon” moment, and an alcoholic in recovery such as 616 Tony would not take a drink casually. This article sheds a little light on some decisions made about Tony and alcohol in the MCU.

Alcoholism is a huge part of 616 Tony’s personality, which I went a bit more into depth about in this post, so I won’t repeat myself too much.

5. Their relationships with the Iron Man armor

A few points here: MCU Tony is famous for the “I am Iron Man” line being repeated throughout the franchise after he blows his own secret in the end of the first movie. MCU Tony sees himself as one with Iron Man, and the suit is the tech that enables him to be this version of himself. He sees Tony Stark and Iron Man as inextricable: you cannot separate them, and his identity is public. He, as Tony Stark, is an Avenger.

You may remember MCU Tony’s induction into the Avengers; in Iron Man 2, Nick Fury is forming the Avengers and tasks the Black Widow with going undercover to assess Tony to be a part of a hypothetical initiative. “Iron Man yes, Tony Stark no” and the comments about Tony as a narcissist may be funny, but the fact is, the snark and erratic personality of MCU Tony at the time of the formation of the Avengers in the movies is not at all like the Tony of the comics, at the time of the Avengers being formed. 

In 616, things are quite a bit different! Tony invents the Iron man armor to save himself (like in the MCU) and uses it for hero-ing, but in secret. He works very hard to protect his identity as Iron Man, and for a long time, as far as the world is concerned, Iron man is a mystery man piloting armor built by Tony, hired as Tony’s personal body guard, (hence the 616 Steve/Tony fandom’s proclivity for identity porn as a trope!) When the Avengers form, Iron Man is the Avenger, close friends with the Avengers, (particularly Steve!) and Tony Stark is just the benefactor of the Avengers, providing them with a place to live and finances with which to operate.

In the very early days, Tony did not have the “reactor” like in the MCU, but his chest plate did keep him alive, leading to some very dramatic shots of Tony charging up using a wall socket, lamenting the plight of a secret hero.

616 Tony, generally, and especially in some of these earlier comics, was quite reserved, rather serious, and very angsty, (in private of course.) He may be wealthy, but speaking generally, he’s much less ostentatious than MCU Tony, less of a show off, less into flashy things and grand gestures. Of course, this isn’t always true in the comics, and some iterations of Tony are more like this than others, but MCU Tony is showier, sillier, and more of a fun-times guy. Any MCU fan would find those panels quite contrary to the Tony Stark you know:

Iron Man 1

Iron Man 2

I think I would say that while MCU Tony sees himself and the Iron Man identity and the  armor as all being inextricably connected, we see a bit more compartmentalization with 616 Tony, who pretends that the armor is a whole separate person for years when his identity was private, and we see instances in older and newer comics, in which Tony  is uncomfortable with some aspect of himself as Iron Man (for instance, during the second drinking arc, Tony temporarily swears off being Iron Man entirely, or for another example, when Tony is in a comma and Tony AI exists during Secret Empire, Tony “lives” in the Iron Man suit, and I think this could be interpreted as a meta parallel to Steve during this arc; Steve has had some core aspect of his character inverted, Captain America becoming Captain Hydra, so Tony experiences a similar inversion-- Tony Stark and Iron Man are forcibly merged, in a way that Tony seems deeply uncomfortable with, if his digital drinking relapse is any indication. But I digress; sorry for the tangent.)

Okay this post is inexcusable long, and very, very tangential, and I don’t feel like I’ve really covered everything I wanted to. But it has been sitting in my inbox for too long and if I don’t post it now I never will, so I hope this long, rambling thing has been a little bit helpful to you! Thank you so much for asking, I had a lot of fun rambling about this.

If you want to read a similar post, but well written and organized, with other insights, this post by Sineala answers a similar question!

[galacticlamps]

Tagged by @the--highlanders​ ! Thanks!

How many works do you have on AO3?

13

What’s your total AO3 word count?

76,200

(oh what a nice even number - I should try to mess that up as soon as possible, shouldn’t I?)

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Aw man is this intentionally worded to be really hard to answer? I get that it says ‘written’ and not ‘posted’ but then what constitutes a ‘fandom?’ I definitely wrote fics for stuff I was interested in long before I even knew the word ‘fic’ - I did it throughout my childhood, and then in high school, and while I didn’t do it as much in college, it still happened from time to time. So a lot of the books/movies/tv shows/plays/musicals I wrote things for aren’t really fandoms, and frankly, I had to check my old folder just now to even remember some of them existed. I’ll just list the ones that I know for sure had fandoms, since that’s more fun (and embarrassing), right?

Obviously Doctor Who, classic and modern, Torchwood, Sherlock Holmes (ironically more of these seem to be about the books, but yes, I will admit, some for that tv show too), Les Mis, a couple different Marvel comics & movies, Good Omens, hell, I even found a Night Vale fic in there just now.

And I know there are other older things not even in that folder, some of which never made it to a computer at all, so if I had to ballpark a number I’d probably say around 25ish but really, who knows?

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Across the Gap

On the Spot

Expectations

Shards of Memories & Fragments of Glass

Itemized

(this was fun, I’d never noticed Ao3 even had a stats page until now lol)

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I try to! Sometimes I take a long time to do so but for the most part, I usually get around to it. The rare exception would be if I first saw the comment when I was super busy/distracted and then felt like way too much time passed before I noticed it again, that it might be awkward if I said something at that point.

I do genuinely enjoy hearing what people think, but I’m also weirdly terrified of making anyone feel like they have to reply to my comments. I know that’s probably a little strange, but it’s actually a large part of why I made this Ao3 account in the first place - my original one, from high school, is followed by some long-time friends of mine who aren’t interested in this fandom, some of whom are involved in art & writing professionally. The thought of anyone like that reading something I wrote out of friendliness or even just curiosity and potentially having to pretend they liked it for the same reasons stressed me tf out, so I like having this virtually anonymous one because I can relax knowing that anyone who reads or interacts with something I wrote has probably done so only because they wanted to, rather than feeling obligated, and there’s no pressure on them to be nice to me about it if anything I write or post annoys them - so I really hope nobody who does just know me as an anonymous blog has ever worried about offending me by not replying to something, trust me, I’m perfectly happy with it!

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

I don’t think I’ve really written any angsty endings? I guess the answer would have to be Reckless just because it involves the characters arguing about sad/weighty things and there isn’t really any solution to those issues - but even then I think I ended it with a kind of acceptance that stops it from really qualifying as angst? I also set it in the the same universe as other fics, so maybe that doesn’t even count as an ending? Am I that bad at ending things on angst? Lol

Do you write crossovers? If so what’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Obviously none of the fics I’ve posted are crossovers but I’m trying to think now if any of my WIP’s are - I’ve definitely poached setting/premise ideas from other media, but in terms of actual crossovers . . . I’ve got a few cross-era or cross-Doctor, a few involving Torchwood, but that’s already the same universe, so the only thing that’d qualify as a true crossover would be some vague pieces of a fic where Jamie, Zoe, and Two end up on the Enterprise, since I think the 60s series of Star Trek and Dr Who feel kind of compatible, don’t they? In fact, aren’t there like officially licensed crossover comics or something? Or did I make that up? Idk, and the ideas are very loose, so it’s not much of a WIP either

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Nope, never

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

I’ve never written smut, but I’m wondering if it’s possible that could change soon. There’s a longish multi-chapter fic I’ve been working on for a frankly embarrassing amount of time, and the plot does call for a sex scene at one point towards the end, but I can’t seem to make up my mind on how - uh, I guess the word is explicit? - it should get. I know I could easily do a fade to black/implication thing, but it’s kind of a source of contention and anxiety for the characters, so to skip over writing the actual scene and just revisit them afterwards rings of “and they slept together and now everything’s fine!” which feels kinda cheap to me - in this context, anyway - and not the right payoff for a long fic that’s otherwise more of an interpersonal drama/slightly a period piece, if I had to place it in a genre. I feel like my aversion to actually writing the scene might just be prudishness I should get over, or maybe just self-doubt, because I know I’d rather have a well-written, funny, character-development-supporting sex scene than nothing at all, but since I’ve never had any interest in writing a scene like that before, I don’t know if I can do it well, and I also don’t want to ruin a fic I’m otherwise proud of by doing it badly... ugh I have to figure this out

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I seriously doubt it

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope

What’s your all time favorite ship?

I mean, it’s gotta be Two & Jamie. I’ve shipped things before with varying levels of investment, but I’ve never been able to use the term ‘otp’ in a literal sense until I came across them, and now it’s already basically gone out of fashion, go figure!

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

I’m not sure if I have one? My WIP doc is huge, but I don’t actually intend to get around to finishing everything in it, so I’d like to think that anything I’ve currently singled out to complete can actually get done.

That said, I do have a few AU’s that I don’t really plan to finish, but it might be cool if I could. Two of them are for all the main + some supporting characters of the Second Doctor’s era - one’s a modern day school teachers AU, and the other is a typical fantasy/fairy tale AU. Another is just Two/Jamie, based on Doctor Faustus (specifically the Marlowe play version) but right now there are two different versions of the ending coexisting in my head. I’ve written parts of scenes & some gen. backstory for all of those ideas, but I don’t know if I’ll ever try to finish them, or what form a finished product would even take - a series of one-shots set in the same universe? one long multi-chapter fic with some kind of overarching plot? And the amount of context/worldbuilding a big AU like these would require might not make them very appealing fics for people to read, so maybe it is better if I just keep them to myself, since in my head I already know what’s going on in those worlds lol.

What are your writing strengths?

I honestly don’t know. I haven’t had a creative writing class since middle school, and since then I’ve only ever shown creative writing to others in a fandom context, so it’s been a while since I’ve discussed it or gotten critical feedback. I suppose when I work in other arts or even academic writing contexts, people usually say I’m kind of insightful or at least detail oriented, which might just be another way of saying I overthink things, but I like to imagine I’m decent at finding little points of interest to expand upon.

What are your writing weaknesses?

If you’ve read this far I feel like you must know what I’m about to say: I do not know how to be concise.

Usually when I’m writing a fic, I put down the dialogue first on its own, leaving out the action of the scene and whatever plot/context led there, even if I’ve already figured all of that out. But then when I go to add those things in, they’re always longer than I wanted them to be. I don’t mind writing something long, but I don’t want my fics to be a slog to get through either, and there can be a point at which the stuff I’ve added for context overwhelms the stuff that I wanted the fic to be about in the first place, so it becomes a structural/proportion issue too. I haven’t completely given up on any fics because of this yet, but there’s one I’ve been struggling with for a couple months now - probably because I’m even second-guessing myself on which scenes need to be written out and which can just be referenced like a recap. Hopefully I figure that one out soon.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

((this is karma isn’t it? i posted a fic last week with two words of gaelic in it and was worried about that and now this is karma))

In general, I don’t want to do it. I feel like you’ve gotta have a really good grasp of a language to write dialogue & speech patterns for someone who’s a native speaker, and since I’m far from fluent in any language the characters I write for are, I wouldn’t feel confident writing any significant amount of dialogue in, say, Gaelic.

As a sidenote, though, I kinda love it when other people do it, particularly for Jamie. Irish (Gaeilge) and Scottish (Gàidhlig) are both languages I’ve wanted to learn for a long time, because my family’s fresh out of living speakers of either & I think that’s a shame, but I started with Irish and at the moment I’m still very much learning it. As different as they are, it still helps me understand parts of lyrics or texts that I come across in Gàidhlig fairly frequently, so when it comes up in a fic I get to feel like I’m being responsible and practicing, and it’s great when I can actually understand what’s being said.

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

I’m gonna go with Harry Potter even though that’s probably not a perfectly accurate answer - it’s almost certainly the first thing that has a fandom that I ever wrote for, but it was in a notebook when I was a kid and never something that I even typed on a computer, much less posted online or shared with other members of a fandom. But even then, I’m sure it wasn’t the first pre-existing fictional universe I ever set an original story in, because I did that a lot when I was a kid, it’s just hard to remember those clearly or on any kind of timeline.

What’s your favorite fic that you’ve written?

I’m very partial to Across the Gap, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that ranked first on the kudos thing above - but I’ve also got a soft spot for So Merrily We’ll Sing. It’s so self-indulgent it feels silly saying ‘it was so easy to write!’ but I guess having a fic that’s already just 100% headcaonons and fluff tied together by a song you really love does prevent it from being much of a labor (I also managed to refrain from making that one unnecessarily long, so that’s another win there)

tagging @terryfphanatics and anyone else who wants to do it - sorry I’m bad at remembering whose tumblr goes with whose Ao3 account, but I really would be interested to read this if anyone else feels like answering them!

[poisonheadcrabsalesman]

More therapy thoughts part 1/?

Behavior Theory Frameworks/Conditioning and What the fuck does Master Chief talk about in therapy?

Ramblings below - like a lot, like I spent too much time writing this and you should not read this

Behavioral Theory could work well as a framework with rehabilitating Spartan IIs if the case worker focused on Operant Conditioning Theory and Cognitive Social Learning Theory, which I talked about in this ask because I think I’m funny and this blog is an archive of me applying human behavior theories to video games.

Spartans have always been taught the mission comes first! Always! The 2s are indoctrinated from age 6-14 and then have that reinforced the rest of their lives. From the beginning they are taught to push themselves to the limits, earn their food by winning, form bonds with teammates but be ready to sacrifice them for the mission. The whole lives wasted vs spent conversation between John and Mendez after the augmentation surgery!

What the UNSC/ONI wants comes before their lives, the lives of other soldiers, civilians, AI etc. This constant conditioning of expectations and rewards has created the norms cemented in their minds. This becomes standard operating procedure.

Spartans are also an entirely separated social group, other people have made really great posts on how they are Othered and have their own way of communicating with body language. ODSTs hate Spartans, marines see them as cyborgs or saviors, and while they’re allies, Spartans are not seen or treated as human, by literally everyone. They are a means to an end, with the original goal being to maintain the UNSC’s position of power and crush the insurrectionists in the outer colonies, but uh oh Aliens!

Maybe the 2s aren’t as expendable as the 3s but the mindset and reinforcement of “mission first, people second” being repeated their entire lives is going to stick. So is the constant mistreatment and abuse from their fellow soldiers and handlers. 

Addressing the cognitive distortions that come from their upbringing while also balancing the fact that Spartans are so fundamentally different from the way they developed to survive would be so much work, especially considering how much information on them is given to their therapist.  The main distortion I would apply is minimization, making large problems small and not properly dealing with them, and specifically for John, personification, accepting blame for negative events without sufficient evidence. 

Like these are grown ass super soldiers who can kill you in less than a second and calculate the amount of gravity in a room on the fly but then also can flounder when trying to comfort civilians or make small talk because their experiences and values are so alien to adults who had more developmentally “normal” lives. 

Literally applying therapy to Spartans would be like, what was done to you was wrong, the ends do not justify the means, you were children and the adults in your life failed to protect you. You are a human person who is fallible and did the best you could with what you had. And the Spartan would say, “sounds fake but okay, can I pass my psych eval and go back to war now please?”

Jumping back to Behavior Theory

Different approaches to therapy under the Behavior Theory umbrella help modify negative behaviors with treatments like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Dialectical behavior therapy that teach individuals adaptive coping like emotional regulation, distress tolerance, cognitive distortions, and interpersonal communication. And that’s just one framework under the umbrella of human behavior theories.

Social work therapy is different from psych as it approaches individuals with heavily researched, evidence-based theories and frameworks in a holistic viewing of person-in-environment, instead of a strong focus on internal psychology. 

Social work looks at all the interacting systems, environment, history, and internal and external factors affecting an individual. One of the most useful frameworks is the Biopsychosocial-Spiritual Frameworks (BPSS) when helping a client. It helps with identifying all the intersecting factors, both risk and protective, that shapes a client’s lived experiences. The most important thing to remember is that the individual is an expert in their own life, they know their experiences best.

The hardest part is applying this to Spartans because they Are So Fucked, their lived experiences, their environments and systems and institutions interacting with them, and the amount of their personal information that is probably so classified.

BPSS is a tool to help social workers assess individuals and their situations by collecting info that is related to the presenting issues and current and past circumstances. Info like medical history, hospitalizations, substance abuse, mental illness, personal relationships, family history and background, culture and norms, education, legal history, spirituality and participation etc. is all under this framework. 

For Spartan 2s most of this info is lost or classified and helping someone who has repressed every negative emotion they've had for the sake of the mission would be so much to unpack but that’s also why you’re reading the mad ramblings over an over caffeinated nerd on the internet.

Life Course Theory which looks at developmental milestones and the individual’s experiences versus the socially expected markers, how do you apply that to children who were taken and have lived such different lives? 

While early adolescence is when “normal” development of thoughts of self and identity take place alongside the physical changes of puberty, Spartans were being turned into emotionless calculating weapons. Sorry John, no forming a sense of identity and peer bonds for you, go kill that Watts guy who betrayed us and joined the insurrectionists. 

And now that I’ve gone this insane and opened 2 whole textbooks up, let’s get to Master Chief thoughts. If you’ve read this far thank you, I swear I’m normal, 2020 has just been a weird year. 

Why the fuck did I think I could write a therapy fic on a guy with 20 minutes of actual dialogue across almost 2 decades of games?

I make fun of him and call him a himbo, but he’s smart, he knows he’s being used and there is resentment there that’s been building for years. 

There’s also decades of trauma and combat experience, physical, and emotional abuse, the lack of a support network,  lack of an identity, the biological factors and aftermath of the augmentations and injuries he’s received, a whole lot of grief and self-inflicted guilt. 

The loss of a third of his peer group with the augmentation surgery, Sam’s death, the loss of Reach (the only place he’s considered home), Keyes, the Pillar of Autumn crew, Miranda Keyes, Johnson, Cortana. He cares about the marines who fight with him!!!

He just stands there and takes it and rarely snaps, and even then it’s just small cracks on the surface with fissures running deep. The few details I will pull from Halo 5 are Blue Team’s reactions to John pushing himself so hard from the beginning of the game, and the literal crack in his armor from the fight with Locke. Like dude.  

John’s a leader and will get the mission done but he tugs on the leash. He’s earned enough of a reputation and uses it to get his way.

Halo 2’s “Permission to leave the station” with Mr. “I’m going to hand deliver a bomb to the fusion reactor of a covenant supercarrier and hope my friends catch me”. 

Halo 4 is when we see him say no to a superior officer and then 5 is him going AWOL. Palmer literally points out that no one is going to stop him.

Halo 5 kills me for many reasons but John bringing up Halsey and what she did to him and also pointing out that he knows Halo 5 Cortana is trying to manipulate him with psychological tactics hurts. 

He knows what’s been done to him!

I cannot remember which book it was but John isn’t used to working alone. He literally takes fire because he was expecting someone to have his back! 

He’s lost without Cortana! She was in his brain! Y’all! I played Halo Combat Evolved on the original xbox when I was like 8 and I knew these two were meant to be together. From the moment they met they had great chemistry and relied on each other! Cortana literally goes after people who have it out for John! John wants her approval and shows off for her in one of the books. 

I’ve already written too much here but like all of the games have John showing off for Cortana, making dry jokes, jumping out of things he shouldn’t. 

The whole point of this rambling is to try and get my thoughts about how to approach John’s character under control.

And that’s the thing. He’s lost control. He’s lost people, he’s losing his position and being phased out as an aging spartan, a relic. John’s used to following orders and making some decisions on the battlefield but it was always short term.

He has no identity beyond being a weapon. Complete the mission, clear the LZ, get put in cryo. Rinse, repeat. 

The timeline of the games are what I'm most familiar with but with the comics and books too it’s one long run from Halo 2 to Halo 4. Cairo station to the Dreadnought to the crash landing to Forward Unto Dawn to Requiem to “The Didact is Dead but not really but we’ll deal with him off-screen”.

I know Hood apparently gave John R&R orders before Halo 5 that he ignored and kept running himself into the ground. This is a man who has to keep moving and keep being useful. 

I imagine him giving in and seeking help as a last resort to fix any problems he has with performing his duties rather than helping himself be healthier. 

Any professional he sees is going to have to approach him like they’re approaching a self sacrificing feral cat, with lunch meat and quiet. This man needs to have his support network closer, set up long term goals, and do some serious, and most likely incredibly painful, self reflection on where he’s come from and where he wants to go. Get him out of that tin can and into therapy. I don’t have a nice neat ending because this was a ramble and also therapy is not neat and tidy. Thanks for reading my words about mr halo

[blarrghe]

Fic writer meme!

Was tagged by @hawkeish @inquisitoracorn @hollyand-writes @musetta3 and @noire-pandora so it’s probably time I do this thing. Will tag @midnightprelude @oftachancer @silversynthesis and @fandomn00blr who have probably all already done this or at least been tagged but I lose track (let me know if you did this already) Name: I’m blarrghe on here and blarghe with only one r on AO3, keepin’ it simple. Fandoms: Just Dragon Age really Most popular oneshot: Anders, Attraction, Other Things That Start With A Most popular multichapter: The Merrill Sessions, by like, a lot. Which is a tad distressing because I’m not 100% on where it’s going yet... Actual worst part of writing: research probably. The other day I went “Halward Pavus is a venture capitalist!” and then I had to go learn what venture capitalists even do and on god it’s so boring. How you choose your titles: Depends. A few have shakespeare-inspired titles (regardless of any actually related shakespeare inspiration in the plot, but y’know, it’s shakespeare, so it’s in there somewhere.) My wips usually have silly titles so I just try to grab on to something from the story. Do you outline: Yes, to varying degrees. I usually write out a sort of point-form plan of events, and in places it might be elaborated on to the point of having full blocks of dialogue or basically perfect scenes. And it changes as the story shapes up. Every now and then a one-shot just pops out fully formed all by itself though. Usually between 2-4am or while I’m on a bus.

Ideas I probably won’t get around to, but wouldn’t it be nice?

- prequel fic to my longfic Shall We Not Revenge? that follows my OC Leila through the Fifth Blight when she was a child fleeing Kinloch Hold to the point where she joins the Inquisition, which would feature my Warden Surana and my Hawke both as background characters since she passes through both of their stories unseen. It would be very OC heavy, feature a lot of bardic intrigue in Orlais, and probably no one would read it but it would be a really fun and cool way to connect all my stories.

- Prequel fic for Taren Lavellan because wow I really did not have to go so hard on fleshing out his backstory but it’s all there. Would feature sexy sailors, a ton of Dalish lore that I just fully make up, and the Found Family trope. Would love to do it as a handful of comics one day or smth.

- post tresspasser “Veronica Mars style” canon-compliant college mystery fic where Taren goes to the University of Orlais to be a giant nerd/guest professor. It would feature Dorian being framed for murder and silly college roommate drama.

- Um, finishing Shall We Not Revenge. I’ll get back to it eventually. And then probably rewrite half of it because it’s a goddamn mess.

- A bunch of heavy metal power ballads about gay elves.

Callouts @ Me: I’ve never kept a regular schedule in my life. Best writing traits: People have said I am good at capturing character voices and I’d tend to agree. I think my dialogue is pretty good and I’ve definitely gotten better at descriptive metaphor of late. Also my OCs are very fleshed out & you should care about them.

Spicy Tangential Opinion: I’ve read so many good takes in response to this question over the last few days that it’s hard to think of something new to say! @inquisitoracorn in particular said something really good about recognition being more luck than skill which was true and also comforting.

Ok this has probably been said in a lot of ways but yesterday I went on a little rant because in this house we read a lot of comics and a lot of mythology. So recently it’s been the Poetic Edda and I found myself thinking about art and stories and human nature and Thor, who in Marvel comics is so wholly divorced from his Eddic origins. He’s walkin’ around in blue jeans and kissing scientists in a modern setting while having plotlines that are vaguely Norse-mythology-inspired and also other things. Meanwhile the mythology itself is just an accumulation of years of oral traditions that changed over time, and so on and so on. And so if a writer were to take the Thor of the MCU and stick him in a story based on like, a Jane Austen novel, the only difference there between that person and a Marvel writer is whether or not they’re getting paid.

Anyway the point is one part “fanfic is real writing” and one part “Information Wants To Be Free”. We talk about fanfic being great practice as if it’s practice for real writing, and while it is great practice, it’s also not actually any different to tell stories for free with characters and tropes and themes you took from other places because that’s all art ever is, anyway. And people do incredible things with themes and new riffs on existing thoughts and references to classics and on and on in fanfic! For the most part I think people in fandoms tend to understand and appreciate this, but because Anyone Can Put Anything On the Internet (even if it’s bad!) there’s a bit of stigma over the “realness” of the art. But making stories is what humans do and they should get to do it in whatever capacity they want. Art should be weird and personal and stolen from everywhere; there’s no such thing as a wholly original idea because that’s not how skills are learned. You gotta learn ‘em from somewhere -- from other people’s art. As long as you are not actively harming others or inciting harm then just like, make shit.

Oh also, that all said, you should definitely read real books to get better at writing.

[yuli-the-bi]

It took me a while to recollect myself after today's chapter. After excitedly getting up super early (went to bed around 4am, woke up at 7) and waiting patiently for the episode to come out, I had such high hopes, y'know? (Warning: this gets a bit long.)

But that quickly ended in a punch to the gut that, honestly, left me speechless and with full-body tremors. I haven't had an anxiety attack in a while but it hit me hard and took me some time to calm down. I'm used to disappointment from series I watched in the past, but I sincerely did have faith in this one. V7 was what got me back into rwby, mainly because I had dropped it after skipping around the events of V5. I had noticed Qrow getting attention on this site, and went "sure, why not?" and checked the tag. This was when chapter 3 aired, and man, was everyone going wild over it-- for completely good reason. I've always been attached to Qrow as a character. I've had the lowest times in my life where I didn't think I would get back up, and here he was, the character that I saw parts of myself reflected in-- suddenly earning a potential partner that, for once, could balance his semblance and quite possibly everything else. We weren't wrong in the least in that regard.

Speaking from a narrative design point, the outer, cinematic dialogue for c12 was just... so wrong in many ways. It felt like characterization was thrown out the window, Tyrian aside. I've written countless scripts for games, and as a writer you are responsible for forming an immersive dialogue/monologue that will direct the audience into experiencing specific emotions. The lines here, while beautifully delivered by the amazing voice actors, gave me the feeling of two utter, complete strangers that were pitted against each other rather than two people who have been together for quite some time and have developed a bond. The words, especially from Clover, were visceral, cold, and almost robotic. Completely OOC actions aside, the tone set in the scenes were so unnatural it caused me to pause the video several times to digest what had been said.

It hurt to hear Clover of all people, the same man throughout the volume show his concern for ALL civilians, including Mantle (cue back to c9 where he was the one to panic about rushing the rwbyjnr + ace ops/qrow to Mantle to save the people, as well as his stern orders to prioritize the safety of the people), to suddenly become a callous soldier set in his ways. He turned his back on the people that depended on him, which seems to be a reoccurring theme in these past few episodes. That doesn't reflect the man I've seen, admired, and analyzed throughout the volume. This one today felt unnatural and lacked all empathy that he had once shown (literally just in c11 you can *hear* the relief and joy in his voice once he reports that they've apprehended Tyrian, the psycho who has been out on a killing spree and Clover explicitly expressed malice to). This episode just completely forgoes the warmth I've been hearing in his voice.

I'm angry, depressed, and quite frankly, so fucking annoyed at how this episode was handled, from the standpoint of a narrative design/script writer and a fan of the show since high school. There were so many other routes they could have taken, granted, that could have given us just as much angst/shock value without the cost of a character that was a major pillar of support for Qrow. There has been so much wonderful development throughout the volume that sincerely gave me hope that it was going to be okay for him, and in turn, be okay for me and many other individuals who see themselves in Qrow's shoes. But that hope was demolished the moment I heard Clover speak so coldly, just barely showing reluctance he had so boldly delivered in previous chapters. I knew something was wrong, but didn't want to believe it. When I write dialogue for my scripts, I always envision myself as the character speaking, including gestures, facial expressions, and tone/pitch used to create a 'realistic' voice for them. I'm not one of the writers, but they demonstrated a very transparent purpose of closing off the possibilities of character growth with just those few lines. The intention was there. It probably has been from the start. And that isn't okay.

Not when there has been, admittedly, so many scenes where it touched upon gentler, more open emotions like trust, which is supposed to be such a huge factor in this volume. It was used horribly in this chapter, as it was meant to twist Clover's words, making it seem as though Qrow was completely in the wrong when we all fucking know it's two sides of the same coin. Not one side is completely right or wrong. "I wanted to trust you too" really hit me in all the wrong places. It crushed the hope for their bond, and all for what? Dramatic flair? If that's the case, then it was a real poor stylistic choice. Qrow was spot on when he said Clover was being manipulative-- because those words, while they sounded as if they were filled with pain, were all transparent in terms of closing off any more development between them. All these lines served one purpose, and that was to stamp out whatever had been blooming underneath all their previous interactions. Very melodramatic, I've seen about a thousand of these used, and none of them ever get me to react the way the writer intended for. It just left the worst taste in my mouth. (And don't even get me started on that ending. It might've appeased whatever audience they were going for, but bluntly put I've seen commercials that delivered stronger emotional impact than that. It clearly shows even more how Clover is distanced from Qrow in that regard. The "Good luck" at the end is a call back sure but the words exchanged really just... left me feeling so empty rather than a heart full of emotions. I only started crying once I heard Qrow's anguished scream and saw the light fade from Clover's eyes.)

I've seen all the wonderful AUs and fix-it scenarios that many of you have been posting and I really appreciate all your positivity through this horrible misstep in show production. (Thank you to those who are liking and reblogging my fair game comic I made a while back.) This has hurt me so badly that I know I probably won't open up and trust shows like this for quite some time, if ever. I'm skeptical about any changes that might occur in the finale, but I'll be looking at it with cold indifference nonetheless. I'll probably take a break from the series again afterward, but will definitely continue basking in the absolute joy of the fair game community and ignoring... whatever the hell that was. (I actually have some WIPs for fics saved that I might work on and publish once I get time off work). I'm sorry for my rambling and that it might not make much sense, but I had to voice my thoughts on the situation today. It is not okay by any means, and everyone who is upset by this is valid.

[korora12]

Tagged by @corisanna

1. What is your favorite relationship type to write/read? Romantic, platonic, familial, and any subtypes.

I like romantic relationships that don’t rely solely or primarily on physical attraction, but instead on a deep similarity between the two characters. I like when two people meet eyes and realize that “You understand me. You get me better than anyone else I’ve ever met, and I feel less lonely knowing that someone else sees the world the same way I do.”

2. How much or what kind of research do you do for your fiction? If you don’t write, has a fic ever made you curious enough to research something?

Only as much as is necessary. I usually use research as a springboard for inspiration when I hit a block, letting myself wander the fields of Wikipedia until I stumble upon something that knocks the block loose.

Of course, sometimes I research stuff just for fun, with no relation to my writing whatsoever, until some random point down the line where it suddenly does and I’m super happy I already know [Random Fact #237].

3. What was the first work of fiction you remember becoming completely engrossed in?

Hmm. Probably Animorphs. I remember doing everything I could to hunt down the numerous books in the series (back in the ancient, pre-Amazon Prime days). I’d prowl the various school and public libraries near me, ask for specific books in the series for Christmas and birthdays, and even buy the occasional book at the yearly Scholastic Book Fairs, using what little money I got for an allowance.

I made it most of the way through the series, but then there was one book, near the end, that I couldn’t find, no matter how hard I looked. And it was an important, plot-changing, book that I had to read before continuing. Which meant I never actually finished the series.

Of course, nowadays you can find them all online as pdfs. Maybe I should revisit the series sometime and finally finish it. I already know how it ends, but I still feel like those last few books deserve to be read.

4. What work(s) had a lasting influence on you or your writing style?

Going back to Animorphs again. There is a straight-line connection between me reading that series as a child, through my elementary school friends Brooke, who was obsessed with dogs, and Caitlin, who was even more obsessed with dolphins (I used to find pictures of dolphins in magazines and cut them out just to give to her), through my Grandma’s love of science, all the way to my decision to study Zoology in college. If I had never read those books, I wouldn’t have developed the passion for animals and animal behavior that has shaped my life for over two decades.

Also, stylistically speaking, I really respect that series for how it treated its readers. Its target audience was grade schoolers, and yet it never shied away from showing the realities of violence and war. I don’t know that I’ll ever write children’s literature, but I’ll always have this series to remind me of what kids are capable of understanding and handling.

5. What kind of sound environment do you prefer for writing/reading? Silent, white noise, music with/without words, sitting in a public place with the ambient noise of humanity, etc.

Depends on how well my brain is cooperating. Pure silence is ideal, but more often than not there’s some manner of song stuck on repeat in the background of my mind, and the only way to drown it out is with non-lyrical music of some sort. Usually I try to pick songs that match the mood of whatever scene I’m trying to write.

6. Are you or do you like authors who are teases, in story or out?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I’m a big fan of the Death of the Author trope, so I tend not to get too worked up by whatever the author may be saying and just let the story speak for itself.

My first instinct is to say that an author shouldn’t worry too much about what their fans think and should write the story they want to write, and it will find readers that appreciate it. However, I recognize that the nature of serial online writing, such as fanfiction, changes the game a bit. Such authors have a much more immediate, direct connection with their readers than authors who release one or two physical books every year or so. Some authors take that to an extreme, turning stories almost into a dialogue with their readers, each new chapter in some way defined by how people reacted to the previous one. And that doesn’t even touch on Quests, a type of story on forums sites such as Spacebattles and Sufficient Velocity that require player input on a regular basis to continue. In these types of situations, I can hardly blame an author for playing with their readers heads a bit. The reactions they have can be a form of entertainment all their own.

7. Have you ever experienced a “the characters write themselves” or “character rebellion” mental state?

Not yet. For the time being, I remain in complete control of my universes, but I recognize the hubris of assuming this to be a permanent state.

8. Do you have a favorite franchise crossover? Like Bleach/Harry Potter, Madoka Magica/Card Captor Sakura, etc.

I don’t know if I have a particular favorite. I was really fond of Secret Trio for a while, which is Danny Phantom, American Dragon Jake Long, and Randy Cunningham 9th Grade Ninja. I’m still very fond of the Disney/Square Enix megacrossover that is Kingdom Hearts, despite being very disappointed in the most recent game in the series. Then there’s Kino’s Journey/Anything, mostly because I love Kino’s Journey, and I love seeing her response/reaction to various other worlds.

Also, Stargate/Anything. The only reason I ever started watching the show was because I’d read several different fics, all in different fandoms (Avatar, Yu-Gi-Oh, Star Wars, Naruto), and all of which crossed over with Stargate. Despite the similarities, both being sci-fi stories set around the turn of the millennium involving mind-controlling aliens, I’ve yet to see a good Stargate/Animorphs crossover. It’d be pretty easy to do, too. There’s a point in the Animorphs series where they decide to bring knowledge of their guerrilla war to the attention of the US government. If they’re already in the Stargate universe, I’m sure the president will quickly pass the problem along to the experts, and suddenly you’ve got the perfect setup of adults who think they know how to handle the problem, are mostly right, and don’t want kids fighting in a war, vs child soldiers who have no intention of giving up the fight so near its end, even if the adults are more competent than they expected.

I’m gonna have to write it myself, one of these days, if no one else gets around to doing it.

9. Do you remember anything about the first fanfic you ever read?

Two Halves by DameWren. My first fandom was Naruto, and my first fanfic was a NaruHina fic that both introduced me to the concept of fandom, and also sold the ship for me in a way that I’ve never shaken. I remember very little beyond that, except that it managed to correctly predict that Naruto would go on a training trip, despite being written before such an event happened in canon.

10. Is there a work of fiction that you are annoyed doesn’t have much if any fic? Like Bizenghast.

Kino’s Journey, Cowboy Bebop, Double Arts (just never got enough attention in general)

11. What fictional character do you strongly identify with?

Weiss Schnee, from RWBY. While I’ve never been accused of being rich, I am a middle child with a much older sister that cut ties with the family when I was young and a younger brother that I never got along with while growing up. My parents were also abusive, my father physically and both of them emotionally, and they taught me a number of unhealthy ideas about race, amongst other things, that I’ve had to put serious effort into unlearning. And I have, since becoming an adult, traveled long distances across the world, partially for my own benefit, and partially to distance myself physically from a family I’ve never felt particularly close to, resulting in a drastic personality shift that took a couple years to complete, but ultimately left me a very different, and much better, person.

So, yeah, Weiss is basically my favorite RWBY character, and one I really need to write more often, all things considered.

That was fun! I’ve never been tagged in anything like this before. My turn for questions!

1. What is your the most recent fandom you’ve gotten involved in? Have you made any content for it?

2. Do you have a favorite AU/plotline that you love regardless of fandom (ie. Peggy Sue, Coffee Shop AU, Space AU, Self-Insert)? What about it do you like?

3. If you write, how do you go about deciding a character’s sexuality? If not, do you ever have any sexuality headcanons for characters?

4. What’s the longest fanfic that you’ve ever read, beginning to end?

5. How often do you make something you’re proud of? Doesn’t have to be writing, just has to be something that wouldn’t exist if you hadn’t made it yourself.

6. What are your opinions on OCs in fanfiction?

7. What is your favorite storytelling medium (ie. television, written word, spoken word, video games, song, etc.)?

8. What was the last song you had stuck in your head, and what was it about?

9. Do you prefer reading/writing stories set in fictional worlds, or stories set in the real world/real world analogous (ie. Supernatural or Marvel Comics)?

10. If you could bring one fictional character into the real world, who would it be and why?

11. Pick your favorite of the questions I was asked to answer for yourself.

I just realized that I don’t know how many of my followers are writers. I guess @hunkygoddess @tmifangirl21 @queendarktigress @ladyvallhalla @i-mushi @xekstrin @shinobicyrus and anyone else who sees this and might be interested. No pressure, it’s just for fun!

[silyabeeodess]

FusionFall Retro 2019 Holiday Event Fic: Icy Imagery, pt. 2

Previous: https://silyabeeodess.tumblr.com/post/189843252259/fusionfall-retro-2019-holiday-event-fic-icy

The next day—bundled in layers of clothes with a large, black sweater draped over her—Silya marched up the spire to find around a dozen soldiers at one of its lowest bases all gathered by the Ice King’s all but forced invitation.  Everyone had a holstered weapon, but fortunately, the area had already been cleared of Penguin Pests.  The Ice King had manifested a table beforehand, and had laid a small spread of chips, veggies, dip, liters of Super Porp, and what looked like some kind of potato salad, but they were either slushed or frozen by the time anyone got there. Despite this, everyone had one snack or another pushed on them.

Waiting for the last of the stragglers to arrive, Silya sloshed her iced drink around in its cup without taking a sip, not for the first time that day rethinking her decisions in life. She wondered how insane she had to be to let herself get talked into this and whether or not it would amount to anything.  Maybe she’d just spent so much time as one of Dexter’s lab rats that rational thought had abandoned her a long time ago.

Whatever the reason—passion, desperation, or her own madness—there she was, standing in the cold, about to take lessons from a raving lunatic.  Well, at least she wasn’t the only one crazy enough to be there…

Even if only a few others showed up after her.  Their pitiful numbers didn’t deter the wizard: He just glanced them over with a thoughtful pout and affirming nod before deciding to himself that they’d waited long enough. He raised his arms in a calling gesture, “Alright, alright, everybody, settle down.”

No one was saying much to begin with, all dialogue confined to a dull murmur, but they stopped to fire incredulous glances at him all the same.

The Ice King took on an authoritative persona that was almost comical, pacing in front of them as if he were their commander, ready to lead them into battle.  “Now, I’m sure you’re all wondering why I’ve called you here… It’s because your brains are all mush!” He waved his arms at the group. “You’re telling me that you all are capable of drawing from some kind of superpower, but you can’t even use it without a bunch of sciency junk? If it’s imaginary energy, then you should focus on using your imaginations a little.”

“Easier said than done…” someone muttered to Silya’s left.  They were right.  This was just the kind of thing she was worried about.  IE went a lot farther than what the Ice King described—if it didn’t, then it would’ve been seen used in almost every aspect of human life—so, no, just ‘using their imaginations’ wasn’t enough. She glanced back the way she came, already considering her escape.

An uncomfortable silence hung in the air.  Who knew what kind of response he was expecting, but clearly whatever speech the wizard had prepared didn’t go much farther than what he’d already said.  He glanced over the group again, the kind of look of his face that begged for someone else to step in.  When no one did, he held his hands up, “Uh… look, maybe it’d just be easier if I show you.”

A light blue aura shimmered around his fingers, a clear sign to everyone of Ice King’s elemental magic. Some recoiled instinctively, hands lingering by their sheathes and holsters. Instead of directing it at anyone there, however, Ice King instead aimed for the ground.  The magic scattered at their feet, manifesting in crackling icy, geometric patterns.  Then it swarmed around them, a cold chill pouring over them like a sudden, snowy blast of air.  Silya shielded her face from the winds with one arm, reaching for her sword with her free hand in case a stray bolt of ice trapped her legs.

Despite the Ice King’s bad history of encasing people in ice, however, none of them were harmed. Instead, the frosty cloud distorted their surroundings into some kind of strange, starry void washed in shades of green. The spire was gone and they were left hovering in the air.  A mix of excitement and panic took over the group.

“What is this? Where are we?!”

“Is this some kind of imaginary world?”

“It can’t be.  I’m checking the readings now, but I’m only picking up low traces of IE.”

Silya said nothing, taking it all in.  There was no way this could be an imaginary world.  Not that she’d ever had the chance to explore one herself, but no one could just summon one up like that!  Besides, it didn’t look like much of any kind she’d seen from the reports about them: They were always spawned with some kind of wonderland-like element to them. There was nothing here.  Nothing besides them…

Her eyes fell on the Ice King as their brief talk from yesterday entered her mind.  Sure enough, he called them back to attention with a proud grin on his face, “Fellas, you’re in my imagination zone!  Pretty cool, right?” He wiggled his brows. “It’s like a mindscape where anything goes.  Even Finn’s got one of these—and he’s got the imagination of a missing sock!”

“Mindscape?” a young man echoed to her right.  

Were they all currently somehow connected to the Ice King’s thoughts then?  Like some form of telepathy? She grimaced, unsure of how comfortable she actually was with that…

“Yeah, everyone’s got one they can go to.  Or should, I mean, I guess you shmoes never figured that out.  But that’s about to change.”  The Ice King hunted through his robes until he withdrew a worn, ruddy blue book.  “You guys read my fanfiction, right?  Since the ideas are all written out for you, it shouldn’t be a problem bringing Fiona and Cake and the rest into the world.”

Caught between a mix of irritation and guilt, Silya didn’t know what to feel worse.  Did he make us come here just to see if we could bring his fanfiction to life?  It didn’t exactly surprise her: Of course there was a catch.  There was always something like this no matter what villain joined the Fusion Fighters.  On the other hand, he had such an eager, puppy-like expression on his face that she felt bad for him.  She bit her lower lip.  While she didn’t have the hurt to dump her copy, she’d buried that brick of text somewhere so deep into her storage bank she didn’t even know where to find it without combing through everything.  

One look at the others told her that none of them had read it either.  Few of them answered him, and the ones that did had some excuse or another:

“I’ve been fighting fusion monsters, so I haven’t really gotten a chance to sit down with it…”

“Y-yeah! A-and it’d be a shame to rush through the story: It’s so… detailed.”

Miraculously, it worked, although the wizard still seemed disappointed.  He lowered the book, muttering a faint ‘oh,’ before a sudden anger took over him directed at no one in particular. “Well, this was a waste of time!”  The charge of emotion came and went, replaced with an excited smile, “Oh wait!  I can just read some of the good parts aloud right here then!  Makes sense, since it’ll keep us all on the same page.”

This time, at last, Silya finally interjected, raising her voice as a look of dread passed over the soldiers, “I think we’re good, Ice King.”  Caught under his curious stare, she thought up something quick, “Think about it: No one’s gonna know your characters quite like you do anyway, so even if we managed to create them, they wouldn’t exactly be the same.”  

She wasn’t lying: It was a case that happened all the time with imaginary friends.  People had their own needs, desires, and impressions, and those things always imprinted on imaginary beings.  It was even the case with their nanos, who took traits from themselves as often as they did their original counterparts.    

“Artistic interpretation and all…” she finished, scratching the back of her head.  “So, if you want to see Fionna and Cake, don’t you want them to be just like you’ve written them?”

He stared at her hard for a long moment—so long that she wondered if he’d snap again—but instead his expression turned a little sad and he dropped his gaze to the book in his hands with a casual shrug.  “Yeah, sure, but I tried all that before.  Even kidnapped some buddies of mine to find a life-giving mage to do it, but it didn’t work.  Took forever to write all the stories again after that…”

She wasn’t even going to ask: Somehow, she just knew that they and the Ice King had extremely different ideas about “buddies.”  However, it gave her an idea for how they all could get what they wanted.  “How about a trade then?  There this place called Fosters’ that specializes in imaginary friends. They might be able to help out.   You show us how to enter our own imaginary zones and we’ll get you in contact Fosters’.”      

Silya could feel the eyes drilling into the back of her skull from her fellow soldiers.  They could judge her all they wanted.  Frankie would probably kill her for passing the Ice King along like this, but after all the times she’d had to look after Cheese in the Darklands, the young woman felt that turnabout was fair play.  If this was their chance of getting one step closer to mastering IE, then it was worth it: He could make an army of Fionnas for all she cared.

Before she could get an answer though, one of the other Fusion Fighters spoke up, “Wait… If this is a mindscape, then what about our physical bodies?”

The area went so silent that you could hear a pin drop.  All heads turned to them, eyes wide with growing realization.  The wizard answered somewhat dismissively, “Duh, this is an imagination zone: It’s not like I could bring those here.  You’re lucky I was able to get everyone here at all.  I never tried it with so many people.”

“But if we’re all here, then who’s watching our backs in the real world?!”

Continued through the following fic... 

[pherryt]

#8, 18, 31, and 41

8. How did you get involved in your latest fandom?I was about to say Supernatural was my latest fandom, but it's just my biggest, most persevering fandom (My husband, btw, who first turned on netflix and said "Watch this. Yeah, I know you don't like horror. Watch it anyway. I promise you'll like it.")

so i think the correct answer would have to be Venom - and it's @feathers-and-cigarettes fault cause he talked up the movie so much I had to go watch it, and then i fell in love, and he's been spoon feeding me bits and pieces of the comic stuff here and there too

18. What ship have you written the most about?

probably destiel, to be honest. *does a quick check just for Shits and giggles*

Okay, so, out of my top 10 most used relationship tags on A03 - the top tag (Destiel) has 96 instances, and all the others combined come to 79. 

Yeaaaaaah. Destiel it is.

31. What’s the nicest thing someone has ever said about your writing?

I can't possibly pull receipts right now - I wouldn't even know where to look. Some of have been for my writing in general, some have been for specific stories, some have been in comments, others reblogs, or even PMS

but I've had other writers tell me how well my dialogue flows, others tell me how strong a certain character voice is, and those are definitely heartening to hear.

I've had a few readers say something along the lines of "This was great! I just finished and I'm about to re-read it" which is mindboggling.

any time i see my fic rec'd i'm absolutely tickled pink.

i love the short and sweet comments, the in depth comments. the comments on a long fic that only come at the end because they were so engrossed they couldn't put it down, or the commenters who manage to somehow comment on every chapter - I find all those things so awesome.

41. List and link to 5 fanfics you are currently reading:

I tend to start and finish stories in one sitting if I can - which is what makes reading longer fics more difficult for me. I love ‘em and I don’t want to put them down, even if i have to, so I actually LIKE reading WIPS because it helps me control myself. That means, my current reading list is full of WIPS:

manage me (i'm a mess) by technically_direct

Venom, symbrock, 17+ chapters, 76k+ words, Mature (Funny as hell!)

SummaryThe thing about Eddie, right, is that he's kinda an enormous fuckup. And it's starting to catch up to him a bit.

For real, the BEST thing to happen in those six months after he and Anne broke up was getting an alien parasite, and that was accounting for the whole 'it was eating his organs' thing.

Or Else by @jupiterjames

Supernatural, Destiel, sabriel, 15+ chapters, 78k+ words, Explicit (slow burn)

SummaryIn the years following his mother's death in a house fire, Dean Winchester begins to develop OCD as a way to cope with the loss. After more than a decade without a diagnosis, his symptoms grow more severe. And after the sudden death of John Winchester, Dean is left to cope by himself and Sam is forced to quit his undergrad in order to care for him. Ashamed of his shut-in life, and guilty that his little brother has become his caretaker at the expense of everything else, Dean seeks out therapy, and five years later, is holding down a full time job, can freely visit his favorite coffee shop to get a daily dose of Castiel, the (hot) hippie owner, and Sam is now free to return to school.

Sam Winchester would do anything for his brother, but he is more than thrilled to finally be returning to school, even if he is a 23 year-old sophomore. It also helps that a certain smart mouthed TA is helping him get back into the groove. Of course, getting a good read on Gabriel is just about as easy as advanced Chemistry, and he's not so great at that, either. As the semester goes on, he gets the distinct impression that his orderly life is about to get messy.

Crossing Lines by Hungrydean

Supernatural, Destiel, Saileen, 7+ chapters, 15k + words, Explicit

summaryHighly renowned therapist Dean Winchester knows how to help just about everyone. He's young yet experienced; the perfect blend of understanding his clients and knowing his job.

C. Novak is cheeky, bold, and obnoxious- but Dean does not shy away easily. Castiel Novak is a challenge, one Dean is determined to win. But Dean soon learns that Castiel is different from his other clients in more ways than he expected.

Pieced Together (part 2 of A Broken World) by mishaminion69 and sydkn3e

Supernatural, Destiel, Saileen, A/B/O, 15+ chapters, 154k+ words, Explicit

SummaryDean's equally exciting and terrifying news are forced to take a backseat for Castiel as he struggles to find the Omega ring for which his Omega's abuser was recruiting. While Cas is away, Dean grows closer to Eileen- also expecting her first pup- and her Alpha mate, Sam, which gives him insight into his foggy past and a glimpse into his future.

The increasing time apart proves difficult for both Dean and Castiel, leading way to feelings of inadequacy for Dean and discomfort in his rapidly changing body. Meanwhile, Cas fears that spending so much time in his wolf form while searching for the imprisoned Omegas will drain away his humanity...and ultimately lose him his mate.

Thursday's Angel by @unforth

Supernatural, Destiel, 14+ chapters, 65k + words, Explicit, Murder Husband

Summary:Castiel, angel of the Lord, is at peace with the mission assigned him by God almighty. His job - no, his purpose, the meaning of his existence - is to slay demons. He can see them, their eyes blackened by the evil they’ve done, their souls corrupted beyond hope of salvation, and when he finds one, he sends them to hell. Yes, the work is hard, the price to himself steep, but God has commanded it, and it’s better that Castiel bear the stain of murder than some poor mortal suffer because Castiel wasn’t strong enough to do what must be done.

And tonight’s demon - a murderer at least twice over, confirmed by Castiel's own eyes - is no different, no matter how fair his visage appears when not warped by sin.

Castiel will do his duty, as he always has, and when the deed is done - and no sooner - he’ll pray for the souls of the fallen, and for the forgiveness Castiel knows God will not - cannot - grant.

*Please see author's note for more information (this is dark but it's not as dark as it seems and I've added some explanatory information there)*

[tumblunni]

Okay I know that kingdom hearts has a bad reputation for sticking crucial plot information on obscure spinoff games but HOLY SHIT I just finally watched a lets play of the fuckin digimon tcg game and found out it ACTUALLY HAS A GODDAMN CONCLUSION TO ANALOGMAN FROM DIGIMON WORLD 1

like 90% of the damn game has no plot whatsoever let alone indicating its a digimon world sequel! and then suddenly in the last battle without being foreshadowed whatsoever analogman returns and gets possibly the best boss battle ever IN A GODDAMN TCG GAME

holy shit his whole fight is framed as ‘this is literally the same guy from digimon world 1, hacking another game’, the interface wigs out and a bunch of fake command windows pop up with rapidly scrolling code of the game supposedly falling apart. And then his boss battle flips the entire gameplay system on its head by giving him fourth wall breaking special moves that pull overpowered effects by “hacking the engine”, with cool animations to fit. Fuckin badasssss!!

and it also fuckin FINALLY EXPLAINS THE DAMN PLOT LIKE GEEZ

digimon world’s conclusion was so rushed, you never even meet the villain until the final battle and it ends all weird with just “something” going wrong that causes him to get sucked into a portal or something while screaming dramatically in weirdly high resolution terror faces??? the tcg game confirms that this was him attempting to flee back to the human world after you defeated him, but one of the stray attacks from the battle damaged his machine and it caused him to essentially commit accidental suicide when he turned it on.

and HOLY SHIT MY FUCKIN OBSCURE HEADCANON IS TRUE????

the game had some sequel bait hints that maybe analogman is somehow still around and that the portal explosion just turned him into “corrupted data” so he can never return to the human world. and i always thought it would be super ironic if he actually got turned into a digimon aka the thing he hates more than anything

WELL OKAY I GUESS CRITICAL LORE IN A TCG GAME IS OKAY WHEN ITS A BIG YES BUNNI U THEORY BE CORRECT

he appears in this game as a malomyotismon who does a damn good vexen face during the fight, lol. And he’s all “gahh that stupid kid ruined my plans but this accursed body at least improved my hacking abilities!” Tho its implied that his corrupted state is more like a bodyless cloud of data that can possess/copy different digimon, which would be REALLY FUCKIN CRITICAL to explaining the goddamn plot of Digimon World Next Order!

Seriously wtf is up with this series? Digimon World 2 is not the sequel to Digimon World 1, all the numbered games are entirely separate individual stories with wildly different genres from pet sim to roguelike strategy. The real sequel is fucking DIGIMON THE CARD GAME THE GAME and then Digimon World Next Order a bazillion years later for the ps4. In which i am STILL REALLY SALTY that they have a FUCKIN RAD remix of analogman’s boss theme yet he doesn’t appear in the game. The added context of this damn tcg game confirms once and for all that the Ambiguous As Fuck Ending actually WAS him appearing in the game, this unexplained “oh wait the villain was good all along and he was just possessed by an evil virus” was supposed to be corrupted-digi-analogman and seriously WHY DONT THEY JUST FUCKIN EXPLAIN IT!!! this tcg game wasnt even released in europe!! and even american fans probably had no clue it was linked to this entirely separate subseries! You have to friggin piece it together with context clues like the battle music and the fact analogman’s signature mon was machinedramon. I mean vjesus christ Next Order is a litera; sequel with the grown up version of Digimon World’s protagonist as a badass home ec teacher who still defends the digital world in his free time yet you couldnt spare ONE LINE OF DIALOGUE mentioning the name of the villain?? and summarizing the fuckin tcg game everyone missed??? AND CONFIRMING THAT THE VILLAIN IS INDEED MAKING A REAPPEARANCE POSSESSING THIS GUY??? oh god everything makes SENSE, thank you terrible card game adaptation. ehh but i do still love Next Order for making Hiro/Mameo’s canon partner Mamemon, he’s even more badass as this big tough bishie version of himself with a tiny adorable pal that can shoot rocket fists through space and time. (its funny tho cos the DW1 intro movie showed metalmamemon and metalgreymon and the american boxart flipped a coin and decided metalgreymon must have been the one the protagonist was using in that scene. Whoops!)

anyway even with the added context that IT WAS INDEED GODDAMN ANALOGMAN, the final boss fight in Next Order was as terrible as the rest of the plot. So I’m glad trash gramps got a suitably badass boss fight after all, even if it was a CARD GAME VERSION! lets all celebrate the awesomeness of this obscure fuckin spinoff game’s obscure fuckin intercontinuity cameo with the boss fight music that other game wasted

seriously fuckin hell the biggest challenge in that final boss was that i was so distracted by SHEER OFFENDEDNESS at the cool music not matching it that it was hard to keep focused

its not just a great boss theme for a terrible boss, its a really fuckin EMOTIONAL song for anyone whose childhood was fuckin defined by the first game!!!

and look you had a PERFECT FUCKIN EXCUSE for a REALLY GOOD boss battle against MY MAN GRUMPY GRANDPA OF THE COOL DAMN NAME. Seriously guys analogman was THE FIRST digimon villain! digimon world came out before the anime, digimon world was the BETA FOR THE ANIME! this was the first place they had the ideas for file island, so much of the areas in the game are awkwardly mistranslated versions of stuff that would later appear in the anime in a different form. before this digimon had never been anything more than a fuckin 2-bit graphics tamagotchi and this was (after the manga) only the second goddamn time these monsters had an actual full colour character design! all of those charmingly janky 90s gross out show styled tcg illustrations? that was concept art that this game was working from! fuckin hell this game thought up the idea for metalgreymon’s changed design that ended up becoming the iconic partner of tai in the anime. (you can also see beta tai in the manga with a beta veemon as a partner instead! o_O)

SO LIKE...

JUST....

I HAVE FEELINGS ABOUT ANALOGMAN OKAY!!! he’s a badly written guy with only like five sentences across all the videogames but fuckin hell he was such an Iconique part of the development of this series that they named him fucking ANALOGMAN

like dude you could have SO EASILY made me scream at my tv in a more positive way by bringing him out as the surprise villain and showing us wtf his deisgn is even supposed to look like cos god all we have is a blurry faceless early ps1 model buried under the glow filters of Mt Infinity’s funky background effects.

AND FUCKING

IF IT IS CANON

THAT MY FUCKIN

STUPID THEORY

IS CANON

slap a fuckin O on this man and LITERALLY LET ME BEAT HIM UP

like dont even give him a team or anything, just let me fight THE MAN HIMSELF

you canonically fuckin said he’s a digital ghost now and basically the same as a digimon

let me beat the shit out of a regular businessman in a suit and tie while he pulls his badass ‘i’m hacking the game i’m in’ bullshit from the GODDAMN TCG GAME THAT WAS MORE CLIMACTIC THAN YOUR SHITTY CASH GRAB FAKE SEQUEL

man god i didnt expect a fuckin TCG GAME to revive my righteous fury from back when i first played that piece of shit. i hate it cos Next order is so pretty and its gameplay is so good and i really loved my twin digis but there were SO MANY bugs and cut corners and missing content and really bad writing and GOD it made me so sad that the dub team really really tried, they tried so hard that they got fuckin renamon’s original voice actress back even though the renamon in this game has nothing to do with the anime one. THE DUB WAS REALLY GOOD BUT IT COULDNT SALVAGE THAT SCRIPT!! THE MUSIC WAS REALLY GOOD AND THE ART WAS REALLY GOOD AND THE DIGIMON THEMSELVES WERE MY BEST DAMN FRIENDS FOR THAT MONTH OF MY LIFE BUT THE GODDAMN FUCKIN SCRIPT!!! the postgame was MORE FUN because FINALLY everything opened up like the sandbox of the first game and you could just fuckin hug u digis without being distracted by constant cutscenes butchering your childhood nostalgia

man i wanted to write a fic/draw a comic about my headcanons on how to fix it but i never managed to do it cos holy shit it was basically “throw everything out and make a different game geez” I COULD RAMBLE FOR HOURS ABOUT THE ENTIRELY DIFFERENT SEQUEL THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN!! and a fuckin!! tcg game!! was closer to that sequel!!!

and fuckin MY THEORY WAS RIGHT AND MY BETTER GAME IDEA ACTUALLY WOULD WORK IN CANON

fuck it im gonna do draw myself decking business gramps in the face

oh! and the female protagonist design! thats another rare good part of that thing! i loved the pixellization effect on her ponytal, way better than the male equivelant having a very ordinary costume design just with a pixel corner taken out of his jacket. also why did the plot never actually make a thing out of that? like you’d think that ‘unlike every other digimon tamer i’ve got this scar of my digitization’ would be a plot point. like they didnt give everyone else a cool pixel squares mark! they could have at least used it as an excuse why the protagonist is the Only Chosen One who can do all this plot shit. or if it was me i would have made it early foreshadowing for the Return Of Business Gramps, like you were partially infected by the Oooo Mysterious Unexplained Digi Virus (seriously why did they not just have ONE SENTENCE explaining its the fuckin original villain returning????) during the prologue and i dunno somehow that gives you powers to break analogman’s control on the digimon he possesses. or maybe the pixel thing is like a tracking device he put on you? or just give that cool design trait to the protagonist of digimon cyber sleuth instead, whose entire plot is that theyre a digimon human hybrid with literaly the power to pixellize themself into computers.

ALSO!!! actually do something!!! with mameo!!!

they really fuckin hyped up in all the prelease materials that the digimon world 1 protagonist was gonna be in this game and he’s all grown up now. and then he does NOTHING in the plot except babble exposition and stand around your home base. and has one line about how he’s a badass teacher now and his partner is mamemon but hey we made a bullshit excuse for why his digimon is sealed away and he never gets to fight :<

give me an actual cool teamup of new protag girl and her cool teacher dude beating the shit out of business trash with their bare fists and also their digimon’s bare fists while THE BEST DAMN MUSIC GOES UNWASTED

...fuck i sure do Feel Intensely about nostalgic games lol. i wonder if i’ll be so rambley when i play kh3? maybe itd be a really shitty lp, aaagh...

[stareiiez]

Early Mornings

Dialogue Prompt Asks

#29“It’s too early for this, just go back to sleep.”

#30 “If I tell you I love you will you make me pancakes?”

#36 “Poke me once more and see what happens.”

Domestic AU Wash/Locus/Tucker

This is my first ever poly fic for my babies, so lets just all cross our fingers and hope for the best that I did this ship some justice!

Somewhere around the time of day where the early dawn of morning held the last glimmering stars in the violet lightening sky. Where it wasn’t black and the room had lightened with the promise of a brand new day. Everyone would still be seeping into the world, the rare few would be up for an early work day that was filled with papers and business meetings. What a torturous life those poor assholes had, stuck behind cubicles wearing tight suits that some expensive name brand company had the finest thread anyone could ever touch.

A pair of stormy grey eyes, that nearly matched the violet hue of dawn, fluttered gently open until his pupils met the ceiling of his bedroom. His breath left in the form of a long yawn while back arched off the bed just a little bit. A grumble had caused Washington’s head to turn just the slightest. The sight of Tucker sprawled out on his side of the bed, the grey linen sheets hugging his bare body and the little pout he had when he slept was heavenly. Oh right out of the three ex-soldiers that slept in this house Washington was the only one to be up before the sunrise.

His dry lips cracked in a sleepy smile before he leaned over to lay a good morning kiss upon the dark-skinned man’s head. It only caused Tucker to frown in his light sleep and respond with a ‘fuck off McScouty’ oh yeah he still dreams about that asshole of a merc. It was how much Tucker hated him. The weight of the bed lifted as Wash rolled out of bed, then started to change and get ready for the day. The slight traces of his dark circles had long since worn off years ago but the faded purple still clung to his skin like bruises.It was a sleepy little routine the male went through as he tugged on that dark blue uniform, and secure that bright golden police badge right over his heart. Yes even after getting out of the military, Washington was still fighting against the bad guys and kicking ass. That’s what Tucker like to believe his whole job as a Sheriff is anyway.

One more good yawn slipped past his lips, his coffee-deprived brain had sent his feet to drag across the white carpet of the house. It didn’t bother him that the coffee machine, which would growl loudly and pop once Wash had pressed the on button of the machine, to wake up Locus. Locus was just another early bird just like Washington that’s why he liked the ex-mercenary so much. He was almost up earlier than the blonde and would have his cup of black coffee ready and warm for his boyfriend to drink. Yes, all three had gotten along nice enough to actually fall for each other all at the same time its a shocker to everyone but not to the three men.

As predicted once the dark roasted coffee had started to brew and pour into a coffee cup, Wash conveniently placed under the little spout, the dark oak door of a spare bedroom had creaked open. Locus had run a hand through his long black hair that still was tangled from the long signs of sleep, he padded into the kitchen to the coffee machine without a word to Wash in return. Like the blonde, both ran on that coffee in the morning in order to brace themselves for whatever the day would hold. 

“Good morning to you too sunshine.” Wash talked into his coffee before he took a long hot drink. The slap of three shots of expresso had his blood pumping hard through his veins and straight to his heart.

“Good morning.” Locus replied lowly over the loud growling of the coffee machine. The deep roast of coffee beans filtered through the air once more and filled the house with its aroma nicely.

The door creaked open once again while Wash had taken the chance to drink the rest of his coffee in two gulps. A groan rang out while bare feet thudded against the floorboards, his blue eyes had peeked over the rim of his kitten coffee mug only to have that bitter drink nearly choke him from the sight of Tucker. Locus had stared at the dark-skinned male with no emotion while he took a long sip. 

“It’s too early for this, just go back to sleep.” Locus grounded out while his eyes tore away from the bare naked Tucker just to see Wash coughing up his coffee in the sink. 

His pale skin was flushed red and his eyes watered from the sudden harsh inhale of liquid. The large hand of the ex-mercenary struck down on Wash’s back hard enough to send the male nearly sprawling to his knees on the floor.Tucker scowled before he crossed his arms over his chest, his dark eyebrows furrowed while he marched over to Locus’s side. 

“If I go change will you do something for me?” Tucker raised a brow just like Locus did, while he set down the steaming cup of coffee. 

“No.” Locus had dared to keep his eyes above waist level. really he tried the ex-merc had so much more decency than any other human being that was staring at a naked person, but his eyes started to wander before he knew it. 

“What if I tell you I love you, will you make me pancakes?” Tucker cast his gaze to Wash and winked when he caught the blonde finally recovering from the sight. Although that wink he threw at his man had sent the male into a sputtering of coughs again.

“How about you go change and I’ll take the I love you as a favor that you’ll owe me for cooking.”

“Deal!” Tucker smirked confidently while he strode out of the kitchen with a small sway of achievement in his hips. That scene did not help Wash recover any faster, but it sure made Locus’s eyes never leave the male’s back until the bedroom door closed behind him.

With that Locus had set to cooking an early morning breakfast that Tucker would probably eat later once Wash was out the door and on his way to the crime-ridden streets of the city. 

As Locus had predicted once Wash had headed out the door after a few quiet minutes had passed by, which allowed the ex-freelancer to gather his bearings together somewhat easily. With a mumbling of ‘I need to go, don’t kill each other.’ and a kiss goodbye the blonde had his police hat that was pulled tightly over his hair and trudged out the door.  just as the bedroom door swung open.A tucker wearing aqua and grey clothing walked out into the kitchen, his senses being led to the frying pans that cooked sweet smelling brown pancakes, bacon, and Locus’s amazingly fluffy eggs that never seemed to burn or turned brown no matter how long they cooked. 

Tucker had snuck around the hulking form of his boyfriend and reached into frying pan that held a pile of sizzling strips of crisp bacon. With a huff a black spatula, that was once flipping pancakes over, had smacked his hand away from the hot pan. A scowl and a slight warning glare were traded between the two men that stood stoically in front of the stove. Without breaking eye contact from Locus’s hazel green yes the ex-soldier tried to reach into the pan again for the bacon but only received another smack from the spatula on the hand. \

“Stop it or else you’ll get burned.” Locus gritted out with an annoyed expression while his attention drifted elsewhere as he turned off the burners for all three pans that were on the stove. 

Tucker opened his mouth to say something maybe along the lines of ‘you know what else burns? Me when I take a piss.’ but before he could even utter out his comically bad sentence hot greasy pork had been stuffed in his mouth rather harshly. His eyes widened while he blinked in recognition, did Locus just feed him? Or just to shut him up? He had to just ask in order to piss the male off, with a mental smirk he did.

With a full mouth, the male had poked Locus’s side repeatedly his words were muffled. A broken record of Locus’s name muffled over the taste of greasy fatty foods while a bony finger had dug into his side nearly made the ex-merc snap with annoyance. The grip on the spatula tightened until the plastic cracked down the middle. 

“Poke me once more and see what happens, Lavernius.” Deadly words seeped from tight lips while he slipped the last pile of eggs onto freshly cleaned plates. 

The silence was golden. There was no more touching on his body and it seemed like Tucker had drifted away from his side to go sit down at the dinner table. Until Tucker had dared to ignore his request and poke his side, not one, or twice, but thrice times before he booked it away from Locus. Breakfast was long forgotten, as well as Wash’s threat, while the two men were locked in a chase around their two-story home with pleas of forgiveness and hollow threats that were almost loud enough to catch the neighbor’s attention. They should be used to this after all since things like this nearly occurred once in every early morning. 

[howlingmoonrise]

Dear Yuletide Author

Hi! Thanks for signing up for Yuletide despite the hell year it’s been, I hope you have fun with your assignment!

I ramble a lot so everything is below the cut. Obviously you don’t have to follow any of this (though I hope you’ll respect my squicks) but hopefully this will help you out!

general things i like

so much pining. all the pining. pining everywhere plz.

continuing from above, PINING. i mean it. i prefer a thousand times over idiots in love who are having a hard time wrapping their minds around it than an already established relationship.

either gen or romantic is fine! what really does it for me is the development of the relationship, platonic or otherwise. it’s all about the growing intimacy and understanding and character dynamics and interactions and developing trust and finding kinship and growing respect for the other and subconsciously learning to lean on the other over anyone else and--

i love love love enemies-to-reluctant-allies-(to-maybe-friends?)-to-lovers and bickering pairs in general! it’s so much fun and it gives us so many opportunities for character and relationship developments okay i’m a slut for that shit

sticking to the original characterizations and the tone of canon is a definite plus!!!

“missing scenes” and “what if” canon-divergent situations are excellent, as are continuations from where canon left us depending on the fandom! more details on the sections for the respective fandoms i GUESS

casual intimacy is super fun, especially when adapted to the character dynamics. a bickering pair being casually comfortable adds a whole new depth to it, enemy dynamics makes is hilarious since the other half would have zero clue as to how to react, a pair that is already comfortable with each other that they do stuff without communicating is so intimate, mix and match however you like!

fun tropes i enjoy (a bit romance-leaning but if you’re not into that then some of these can probably be adapted): fake dating, accidentally got roped into x and shenanigans of all sorts keep happening, misunderstood confessions, groundhog day au, one or both the characters having stupid levels of denial while technically in a relationship and just not realizing it like What Do You Mean We’re Dating??, that sorta thing.

TROPE SUBVERSION ALL THE WAY!

--

general things i dislike

kidfics. babyfics. next gen fics. pregnancy fics, or even pregnancy discussed in the fic is a major squick of mine. the one exception i make for kidfics is for kids already existent in canon and even then it depends, but no babies or children otherwise please.

future fics/time skips in general, actually. what i enjoy is the relationship development, so huge time skips make me feel like we missed way too much

angst is... mrrmf. it really depends on how it’s done, but usually it feels like it’s angst for the sake of angst instead of giving the fic some actual meat.  as a result of this, i’d pass at least on most content with major character death, sexual abuse, self-harm, gender/sexuality angst, the like. beyond that, feel free to go ahead!

hard AUs are a bit ugh to me. by this i mean AUs that rely heavily on setting, such as high school AUs, harry potter AUs, that sort of thing. i DO however enjoy stuff like soulmate AUs and alternate canon AUs, depending on the concept and on the fandom. more details in their own sections if you enjoy writing those!

i heavily dislike things involving cheating/infidelity, sickfics, and genderbending of any kind is a bit ehhhh for me, as are concepts such as ABO. hard pass on stuff like dysphoria and deep diving into mental illnesses and disorders, too.

script-based or roleplay fic is not really my preferred format, i really enjoy prose instead of nearly all dialogue!

stuff with bigotry in general, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, etc as well as discussions of it is a pass in general. it’s not a HUGE squick but i’d rather not see it if possible

discussions and thoughts on gender/sexuality. if you’re gonna make them gay/bi/etc, make them gay/bi/etc, no exploration of it added. delving into the psyche of it is a hard pass.

--

if you’re going for nsfw

kinks

moderate sadomasochism, uncommon forms of bondage (plants, stuck with strange substance or in awkward position, the shadows from p&tf as restraints, etc), choking/breathplay, xenophilia and tentacles/alien genitals (shadowplay in p&tf for example), moderate degradation, edging/desperation play, ladies topping and calling the shots, bloodplay/knifeplay, long hair dragging over skin, sharp nails/claws (charlotte la bouff, morticia), lowkey cannibalism imagery and hunger, biting, ladies stepping on body parts with their heels on

squicks

scat, vomit, praise kink, daddy/mommy or baby kink, vore, forced feminization, pet play, wound-fucking, abuse, abo, anything involving pregnancy at all

--

PRINCESS AND THE FROG

i am 100% aware this is a weird-ass pairing but gods, the possibilities. it has so much potential. there are few things i like quite as much as a villain and a good person developing a strange sort of kinship with each other >u> this doesn’t have to mean a romantic development, if it’s not your thing! as i said, for me it’s the building understanding and reluctant respect that i really love, far more than the actual romance.

ideas, ideas, ideas. i’m aware this is a rare relationship to either portray or ask for, so i’m gonna try to give some more concrete-ish ones for you to build up on if you have no clue as to how to approach this. 

we could have canonverse with charlotte dealing with the shadowman in some other, unrelated matter while the main plot is occurring, making him feel somewhat guilty about the whole marriage plot with laurence-turned-naveen. cue introspection, or even an entirely different outcome.

or a post-canon sort of hades&persephone plot (please no actual hades and persephone au though), with charlotte curious despite herself and tempted to listen to a shadow/dead/whatever!dr facilier when she’s the only one that can hear him.

in a continuation from above, OR her being dragged Beneath with him in a freak accident and then charming him into helping her back to the surface/living world (very, veeeeery reluctantly on his part, at least at the start, he might have even be thinking of tricking her but then change his mind when the time comes to do it).

i think dr facilier wouldn’t be sure how to deal with charlotte’s particular brand of personality and good humour, and it’d throw him off his rhythm a lot - that sort of thing is always super fun to write.

soulmate au in canon would work pretty well, but with this pairing? you could even do a FULL AU, keeping only basic stuff like the shadowman thing to her normal bougie self; it’s one of her charms. (and their personalities, of course). stuff like charlotte thinking that she wants one thing (her prince-slash-one-true-love, etc) while keeping getting drawn to him time and time again could work on pretty much any era or setting. vice-versa for him, thinking he wants to be rid of her but coming to realize he’d actually miss her if she were to be gone. OR, charlotte deciding she wants this sullen manipulative bastard and manipulating HIM into taking her out and hanging out with her would be hilarious.

if you wanna do nsfw, i have only one major request: charlotte calling the shots/topping. i think this arrangement would be in character for both of them (dr facilier would prob also enjoy having someone else do all the work lol) considering her go-getter attitude, but keeping in mind his manipulative personality i’d be more comfortable if she had some control over what was happening. ASIDE FROM THAT, d’you know what would be fun? a little darkness, and by that i mean consider dr facilier’s shadow joining in on the fun. shadows would also be an interesting sort of constraint. also i know i said charlotte calling the shots, but she can be constrained by the shadows while being amused by it or being used to it (implying it’s not the first time that they’ve used it in bed play and that it’s therefore negotiated), or charlotte could team up with the shadow to do it to facilier instead. charlotte using her nails and facilier being a bit of a sub/masochist would be excellent!

(actually in general it’d be really fun if there was some complicity between charlotte and facilier’s shadow in general, nsfw or otherwise. the shadow being wrapped around her little finger is an excellent concept, especially if facilier isn’t too fond of her just yet OwO)

--

THE ADDAMS FAMILY

oh boy. let me just begin by saying that this really isn’t my usual kind of pairing, by sheer virtue of them being perfectly happy and established in canon. HOWEVER, they’re goth and they’re odd and they’re kinky and they’re delightful to watch interact (i’m familiar with the movie canon featuring anjelica and raúl and a few (few!) of the comics, so idk about other dynamics) and so they’ve managed to creep their way into my blackened little heart.

THAT BEING SAID, my absolute biggest wish for this fandom would be pre-relationship. i don’t mind if canon is twisted a bit for this, considering that they presumably met and proposed on the very same day, so it’s definitely a bit hard to work with. perhaps some shenanigans with the funeral itself? or gomez has a date/fiancée already and so there’s some juggling of priorities here while he’s absolutely falling over himself in order to continue looking at that gothic vision of a woman? or an old family feud, or them just being downright useless at knowing how to deal with proper romance (on morticia’s side, i’d imagine she’d only grow more stoic and be at a loss of what to say. on gomez’s side, it’s probably his first time being speechless, or he’s not speechless but he’s flirted so much in his life that he doesn’t know what to do with these actual literal feelings, what the hell is this and how does he show he actually means it this time??), or morticia has a long string of dead fiancés black widow-style (i think she and debbie would have gotten along great if given the chance okay), or a soulmate au where they don’t realize it’s each other right away, or morticia amusedly pretends to be dating gomez before they know each other to get him out of a bind, or they’re somehow roped into someone else’s shenanigans and don’t know how to react to each other (my money is on either ophelia or cousin itt putting them in a bind), the sky is the limit!

if you’re more comfortable writing established, however, casual intimacy or smut are the best! give me a moment of respite where they are just comfortable basking in each other’s presence, or when they’re separated for a moment at an event or something and the longing is burning all the way across them until they come back together again (y’know, in the good old way of the script). for smut, morticia being a mostly stoic dom maybe? (though yes, i know she’s very much into being tied up and tortured, i can’t really see her as a normal sub unless it’s really something languid and drawn-out - she doesn’t really read as someone who spends a lot of energy doing things others will do for her). they’re both definitely into pain and bondage too; morticia conflating arousal with hunger would also be really interesting to see (think praying mantis or lady spider who is actually very invested on not taking off her partner’s head, but who dreams of it all the same. gomez is, of course, very much into it). something lowkey macabre would be amazing.

things i’d like to see for this fandom in general are:

morticia being her stoic vampiric goddess of a self

gomez being completely twitterpatted for her as usual

burning sultry glares/staring across the room

overly passionate hand-kissing

creepy/gothic atmosphere

you know, like canon. (with non-existent or minimal kid existence, though)

references to horror stuff/general creepiness like sudden lightning, casual poisonings and dealings with death, dracula references, etc, like the movies would be super fun, as campy as possible! half the greatness of the movies come from these imho

--

MONSTROUS REGIMENT

i have a confession to make: it’s been a while since i last read it, and so i fear i won’t be as helpful in giving ideas/dynamics for this fandom as i was in the others. 

i have one request - apart from what i’ve already rambled on about above - and that is for at least polly to be portrayed as female (or close enough, although not quite non-binary). to make it clearer: i usually see them both as female, even if not female-presenting (it’s funny because as i was writing this i actually kept writing about maladict as “he” so frankly it’s whatever, i definitely prefer “maladict” to “maladicta” at least in terms of names though) but chaffing to fit the roles that “female” comes along with, especially with maladict and the expectations for female vampires. i’d rather the fic not have gender or sexuality exploration, since like i said above i think it detracts from the meat of the stuff - if you want to see maladict as male, write him male with male pronouns (keeping the female vampire backstory if you’re keeping it canon, otherwise it wouldn’t really make sense). if you want to make her female, write her female with female pronouns. i’d pass on they/them pronouns though. i don’t particularly care either way outside of polly however, just don’t delve into the psyche/introspection of it please.

if you have different views on their genders and it would make you uncomfortable to write female polly or non-they/them maladict, then that’s fine with me as well! these are just my preferences, and i thought i’d elaborate on them since the fandom has many perspectives on this topic. 

with that out of the way, on to more interesting stuff!

what’s good: their interactions. oh dear loki, their interactions. they have my favourite dynamic in the whole book, and they’re weirdly comfortable with each other (especially since polly lowkey threatens maladict after kicking the other dude in the nads, in my view that moment probably got his undead little heart skipping a beat (do vampires have beating hearts on discworld? i haven’t read enough discworld to remember this)) and they understand each other the best out of the rest of the squad. maladict teasing polly and pretending to be cool before polly catches on to him is absolutely hilarious, and i absolutely love maladict trying (and failing!! horribly!!) at being smooth. also polly blackmailing people left and right is absolutely fantastic.

as you can probably guess, i’d love some canon-verse interactions. perhaps alternate scenes or what-ifs of canon events, or even extra scenes during the ongoing plot of the book. OR, post-book, once they have their own squad of little lads and have to figure out how the hell to handle that, or shenanigans where they have some sort of mission or official event elsewhere and resolutely stick together because “if i have to deal with this then so do you”. or some hilarity with maladict desperately going after every coffee grain available so he doesn’t just bury his face on polly’s neck because she smells so good but that would be an awkward conversation to have and he’d rather die (again) than admit to that. 

what else? AUs! feel free to completely tear apart the canon discworld, though i’d request polly remain her ass-kicking clever self and maladict an awkward vampire. maybe maladict has to deal with diaphanous underwired nightgowns. maybe polly has to deal with diaphanous underwired nightgowns. vampire politics? satirical awkward dracula au? maladict failing horribly at being a vampire (failing at being a female vampire or trying to pass at being a male vampire and failing at that, too)? they’re all great! 

what matters to me is their banter and the way they keep falling into pace with each other, regardless of the way they begin. a good dose of sardonical pratchett-style humour would also be welcome ;)

--

thank you so much for staying with me this far! i hope you have a grand time this yuletide, and that you enjoy your own requested fic as well!

[foxfireflamequeen]

ten awesome fics 🙌

tagged by @clotpolesonly to list 10 awesome fics!!! not a ranked all-time-favorites thing, but just fics form any fandom that i love, but um, these will probably be my all-time faves anyway (they’re not ranked though). Most of them aren’t actually from any of my usual fandoms, because sometimes I just like to read mindblowing fic, you know? And most of these mindblowing fics often show up in tiny fandoms with little drama and incredible authors who kinda pop in, drop a fic, and vanish back into their own regular fandoms.

(Limiting the number of Batfam fics on this list was really hard omg I should do a Batfam fic list at some point)

Can the City Forgive I Hear Its Sad Song by @victoriousscarf (Dick Grayson/Jason Todd, DC Comics) --- Hoooooooly shit guys this one’s fucking incredible (I mean this author’s incredible in general but this fic). Even if JayDick is not really your thing, you should absolutely consider giving this a shot. I know this is a JayDick fic and that relationship is great (like holy shit great it’s written really well), but what’s really fucking incredible in this is the Bruce and Dick relationship. The DC fandom, particularly the older DC fandom, used to put out some fucking incredible Bruce/Dick relationships, but this one, I think this is the closest thing to their canon relationship that you can get. Bruce and Dick aren’t even anywhere near each other throughout 98% of this fic but you can sense their relationship overwhelming everything else anyway. They’re not in love, they’re not really family, they’re not really friends, they can do without each other, but they love each other more than they’ll ever love anyone else, they are family, and they are friends, and most of all, they do need each other whether they want to or not. I can write a dissertation of Dick and Bruce’s relationship obviously, but the worldbuilding in this fic is also cray, and the plot, particularly the ending, blew my mind. The main story is COMPLETE, but I’m loving the AU of this AU too, even though it’s a WIP right now. Such an excellent read, I can’t emphasize it enough.

1000 Days by @zarabithia (Dick Grayson/Clark Kent, DC Comics) --- (full series linked in the masterlist) Okay, you know how there’s that one fic that can make you ship something so hard it becomes an OTP? This is that fic. This series is the definition of “writing makes the ship”. Before this I never even considered Dick/Clark and now it’s a DC OTP like what? How did that even happen? Except it is that good. And the crazy thing is that it works, with a canon premise. It’s not even an AU! Dick meets Clark when he’s just a baby Robin, and the series works through the entire timeline as Dick grows up and makes friends and faces life issues and becomes independent of Bruce, and the slow, realistic development of his relationship with Clark as he grows from the little boy who was starstruck by Superman, into his own, adult person. (Also the Roy/Dick friendship in this is bomb.)

Roadtrip Vigilantes by Beabae (beabaseball) (Dick Grayson & Bruce Wayne, DC Comics) --- I. I can’t. This one just. I love it so much Bruce and little Dick and running away from the League so they can stay together -lays down on the ground and cries-

Republic of Heaven Community Radio by @bicatperson (Carlos/Cecil, Welcome to Night Vale, His Dark Materials, Fusion) --- If you’re into Welcome to Night Vale and are familiar with His Dark Materials please do yourself a favor and read it. Incredible storytelling, incredible writing, incredible plot, incredible representation. There are like, two white characters in this, and the culture is marked out very clearly as Not White. Loved everything about it. Loved every character (but loved Cecil the most).

Sass-Badger Verses Son-of-No-One by @bewareofchris (Malik Al-Sayf/Altaïr Ibn-La’Ahad, Assassin’s Creed, Modern AU) --- I know nothing about Assassin’s Creed other than that they jump really high and wear cool outfits, but you don’t need to know anything about it either; this fic stands on its own two feet. This fic made me care about whatever plot point or character or relationship it was focusing on at the given time instead of only on the overarching plot or the romance or one or two characters. The storytelling is, frankly, the best I’ve read in a very, very, very long time.

A Deeper Season by lightgetsin, sahiya (Miles Vorkosigan/Gregor Vorbarra, Vorkosigan Saga) --- Fanfic series for the Vorkosigan Saga, which is a series of novels? Don’t know anything about them at all, never read ‘em and, after this fic, can never read them, because the original novels can’t possibly live up to this? This is my canon now. Amazing, amazing story. Amazing, amazing characters. Very unique take on a royal romance.

A Tithe to Hell by Aja (L/Light, Death Note) --- Okay, you do need to know the canon for this one. Basically, what if L was even more paranoid than he actually was, and L and Light’s, er, relationship, continued past episode 26. In case you haven’t guessed, this is my new canon for Death Note. I can never go back. Best characterization, amazing storytelling, incredible dialogue, and did I mention the characterization???

Single Use Weapon by @fahye (Jack Benjamin/David Shepherd, Kings) --- Fahye is one of my favorite authors of all time and this is, hands down, my favorite thing they’ve ever written, which is crazy, picking a favorite was really hard all their stuff is so good, but this is the one that’s going to stick with me for a long time I think. I love a good spy/double agent story, and this fic has the best plot and characterization of any spy(ish) fic I’ve ever read. It’s so good, guys, The way Jack is written, it’s droolworthy for so many reasons.

Whispers from the Rye by @@somniumquiesco (Wolfram von Bielefeld/Yuuri Shibuya, Kyou Kara Maou) --- ajshdkjafldksalkdsjl I don’t even know what to say I started reading this when I was a teenager and nearly ten years later I still read it over and over again. I’ve changed, my tastes have changed, but my love for this story has not changed one bit.

Shadowlord and Pirate King by Footloose (Merlin/Arthur Pendragon, BBC Merlin) --- Epic space adventure AU the worldbuilding in this is so fantastic it’s got magic, space pirates, assassins, intergalactic war, political intrigue, pirate politics, a prophecy, and a thousand other really fucking great things. The Merlin fandom and Footloose in particular regularly put out insanely amazing stuff, but this is the peak. I would pay actual money for this fic, which is more like a novel really. (Also @mushroomtale‘s art is A++++++ gorgeous as usual but extra gorgeous because I love this fic the most? Also the art goes so well with the fic in terms of style and tone too???)

One day I will probably be able to write an actual PhD dissertation on Bruce and Dick’s preboot relationship but today is not that day, so I’m going to sadly turn this over to @storiesintheashes, @ice-tiger-kitten, @procellariidae, @naiadique, @girlwithribbon, @merkitty, @imonajourney, @mtblackbearfic

[sasusakufestival]

Gal Friday

Summary: Sasuke frowns and puts down the tumbler and turns around, expecting one of his shareholders or perhaps one of the shark-like women from legal to be addressing him. What he encounters instead is a woman with a shock of bubble-gum pink hair and eyes the colour of seafoam, smiling at him as if she has known him her entire life. [SasuSaku Festival 2017 – Day 11 – Prompt: “CEO & Assistant”]

Disclaimer: This story utilizes characters, situations and premises that are copyright Masashi Kishimoto, Shueisha, Shonen Jump and Viz Media. No infringement on their respective copyrights pertaining to episodes, novelizations, comics or short stories is intended by the author in any way, shape or form. This fan oriented story is written solely for the author’s own amusement and the entertainment of the readers. It is not for profit. Any resemblance to real organizations, institutions, products or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. All fiction, plot and Original Characters with the exception of those introduced in the books, manga, video games, novelizations and anime, are the sole creation of KuriQuinn and using them without permission is considered rude, in bad-taste and will reflect seriously on your credibility as a writer. A pink-haired dynamo will deduce you into submission should you be found plagiarizing.

Warning: Real World AU.  Slight OOC? Maybe? Well, I kind of figure the Sakura of this fic is just who Inner Sakura would have been if she were the main character instead of Outer Sakura, so there. Some of Sakura’s dialogue based off of Donna Paulsen and Sherlock Holmes

AN: I think I will continue this one at a later date. I like the idea of assistant Sakura and CEO Sasuke intrigues me…

——————-

“You know, when someone is given his father’s flagship company, he can at least pretend to finish the drink his board of directors’ bought him.”

Sasuke frowns and puts down the tumbler, turning around. He expects the voice to belong to one of his shareholders or perhaps one of the shark-like women from legal to be addressing him. What he encounters instead is a woman with a shock of bubble-gum pink hair and eyes the colour of seafoam, smiling at him as if she has known him her entire life.

She’s around his age – early twenties – and from her posture, utterly at ease in her own skin, yet not in the aggressive way he has come to expect from the women that frequent this place.

His gaze lingers a half-second longer on her hair, then he raises an eyebrow. “Have we been introduced?”

“Not yet,” she replies, and her smile gets a little mischievous. “But that’s why today’s your lucky day.���

“I see. Because somehow, meeting you for the first time is going to be an epically life-changing moment.”

A flush of colour passes across her cheeks. “Oh. Well, I was going to say something like that, but you took the words right out of my mouth.”

“Hm.” He decides to drink the whiskey after all, downs it one gulp, and replaces the tumbler on the counter. “Please excuse me –”

“Haruno,” she supplies. “Haruno Sakura.”

“Whatever,” he dismisses, already tired of being polite. “I have to go –”

“ – pretend to give a shit about kabuki dolls to Sabaku Kankuro so that he puts a good word for you with Suna Corp?” This brings him up short and he shoots her another surprised glance as she continues, “Their nanotechnology has the potential to revolutionise your company’s work in the field of robotics. Especially when it comes to prosthetics. And it’s no secret you and the current CEO don’t get along, Uchiha-san.”

He narrows his eyes. “Are you some kind of reporter?”

“God, no.” She makes a face. “I like my soul where it is.”

“Then how is it you know so much about me?”

“I know about everybody,” she replies, “but what I don’t know is why when you were given the chance to take over one of your family’s companies, you didn’t jump at smartphones or defense tech. I mean, that’s where the market is right now. And probably for the foreseeable future.”

It’s a question no one else has bothered to ask him. Not even his father, when he gave him the company. The whole handover reeked of indifference, really. Perhaps that’s why he finds himself answering her.

“Because that’s what anyone in my position would be expected to do. The decision to tackle something as vital as medical prostheses, which need to be accessible to people, yet still profitable for the company is ambitious. And it’s the kind of move that –”

“ – puts your name in the paper and establishes your reputation,” she finishes. “Especially considering your age.”

Sasuke considers her for a minute and smirks. “So, the hair is to throw people off, right?”

“I have no idea what you mean,” she replies innocently, tossing the aforementioned locks. “It’s all the rage in Europe right now.”

“We’re not in Europe right now.”

“No, but with your money, we could be,” she quips. “So how about instead of heading across nine time zones to confirm that, you buy me a drink and we can continue this conversation in the corner?”

“How about we don’t and you just say what you came here to say?” he counters. “I doubt you approached me just to talk about my company. You want something.”

“I do.”

“I appreciate your blunt honesty,” he says. “Allow me to return it – I have no interest in sleeping with you.”

She turns slightly pinker, but it’s not in embarrassment or shame, the way someone who has been caught out would react. Instead, it’s almost in offense. “Well good, that’s something we can agree on up front.”

“Up front of…?”

“I want to work for you,” she tells him.

“I’m not a hiring manager.”

“No. You’re the CEO of a Fortune 500 Company, which is known for meticulously following every ethical guideline and standard of quality, and you’re planning on making prosthetic robot arms available for the underprivileged.” Off his surprised look she rolls her eyes and says, “Please, if you’re looking to make headlines, that’s the most obvious way to do it.”

He purses his lips. “And you want your name attached to that?”

He’s not actually entertaining this, but he can respect someone with ambition. Which is why her next response again surprises him.

“No, I don’t.”

He raises a questioning eyebrow.

“Listen, I’m pre-Med,” she tells him. “And I can’t afford school now, but one day I’m going to be the best damn pediatric surgeon in the country. And I want to work for someone whose products are helping to change the field I intend to work in, and who isn’t going to expect me to stick around for more than a few years. Someone who understands that I can perform with absolute perfection, but can also accept that I need certain nights off for school.”

“So, you’re already asking for time off.”

“Yes, but I feel I’m going above and beyond to tell you in advance.”

“Admirable of you, but for all I know you could be some deranged stalker off the streets.”

“Oh, I have credentials. I just think my talents are a better selling point. A man in your position needs someone working with him who knows people. Me? I know people.”

“I fail to be convinced.”

“Alright,” she replies, her eyes narrowing at him and her jaw clenched. “Let me demonstrate.” Her gaze roves over him for a split second, and then she nods to herself. “You’ve been overseas recently. Twice in the past month, actually. Somewhere sunny, but it wasn’t recreational. Business. Probably California, more likely Arizona.”

He raises an eyebrow. “And how would you know that?”

“Your watch. That’s the latest model A. Lange & Söhne, which only came out last month. And the date it’s set to is two days ago, which means you’ve crossed the dateline twice, but didn’t think to change it. If you’re too busy to change it, it means you were probably not relaxing on a beach somewhere. Silicone Valley is the home to a lot of your clients, which would make sense – but Arizona has a high concentration of optics companies, which would be more in tune with your plans for the company.”

Sasuke nods thoughtfully.

“That’s an impressive trick, but that’s information you could have read about in any business journal or newspaper, if you looked hard enough.”

“Oh, I’m not done,” she informs him unabashedly, and continues, “You’re glad for this opportunity, but you really only see it as a means to an end. If being appointed CEO was something you actually wanted, you’d be wearing better suit. That Brioni looks good on you, but it’s about four years old.” She peers closer and smirks a little. “The dimple in your tie is too far to the right, and considering how meticulously you’re wearing everything else, that means your mind is on something else. Girlfriend or family. Probably family, because you don’t have a girlfriend – or want one, if your earlier response to me was any indication. In fact, you’re uninterested in any kind of emotional attentions – possibly because of your family – as you completely ignored the phone number the bartender slipped when he gave you your drink.”

Sasuke has to reign in the impulse to check the napkin where he replaced his glass.

“You didn’t want to come to this dinner tonight, not just because it’s a family obligation, but because you’re already in a bad mood.”

“Why do you say that?” he asks before he can stop himself, and frowns, feeling abruptly furious with himself.

“Because of the way you hold your elbow,” she states. “Like it’s injured. All the magazines say you practice kendo – a shinai to the elbow is a common enough injury. It would cause massive bruising, even in a seasoned practitioner. Bending that arm is probably agonising right now, and pain makes even normal people grumpy. You’re already known for disliking social situations, so this is probably making it worse. You don’t strike me as the type who takes painkillers, either, so you’re powering through it.”

She stops, takes a few breaths, and then crosses her arms in challenge. “And that, Uchiha-san, is what I do. And considering from what I’ve seen you have the emotional range of a teaspoon, you’ll need someone like me if you want your business ventures to succeed.”

Sasuke sits in silence for almost a full minute, running through every bit of information she has just given him through his mind, all the while considering her. For such a tiny woman, she offers an intimidating picture, radiating stubborn will and composure at the same time. 

He doesn’t want to admit it, but he is impressed. He’s observant by nature, but he can freely admit that his lack of interest in other people stops him from considering their intentions or personal feelings. To have someone able to read a potential client or business partner to that extent would be helpful.

And having someone who has no problem waylaying irritating, blond attorneys that reek of ramen or stalling calls from his brother that he’ll return on the twelfth of never –

Well, that could be useful as well.

He snorts.

“You’re annoying,” he informs her, but something must show in his face that her ever observant eyes pick up, because she beams.

“I’ll email you my C.V. and references tomorrow morning.”

“Hm.” He turns back to the bar and motions for another two drinks. “Make an appointment with your hairdresser at the same time. The pink has to go.

“You’re going to learn to love the pink,” she informs him blithely, and with the same certainty she’s displayed the whole evening.

His eyes rove over her when she’s not looking, and he reflects that it’s possible she’s right about that.

——————-

終わり

I hope you enjoyed the story! As part of the SasuSakuFestival, please go to the ssfest page and vote, like and/or reblog, it would be majorly appreciated!

クリ

[evajellion]

Part 9, the finale and review overall

Richie doesn’t end it off with a bang, but with a lazy whimper, with a nonsensical partnership and rivalry that I can’t think to improve.

So… Pit and Olimar, of all things.

Pit is bowing down to Palutena as she looks through the Goddess Book.

Ah, the hero, Pit, having somehow defeated Hades and saved the world from peril, is once again called by the Goddess of Light, Palutena.

Mmmm, plagiarizing Sir Dan’s intro yet again, huh Richie?

I’m surprised he at least knows enough about (modern) Kid Icarus to mention Hades at least.

Both of them are in shock to see some pages have been missing.

But what's this? The pages from the Goddess Book has gone missing. Someone must have took them. Without it pages which guided the world, it would be in peril.

Oh, we’re ripping off Sly’s Arcade Mode too?

I dunno shit about Kid Icarus beyond a few key characters and the Eggplant Wizard being in Captain N, but a quick search on the wiki told me there’s no such thing as a “Goddess Book”. There’s a “Book of Divine Prophecy”, but why would the pages of that be taken?

And what's more. Below, 2 dimensions have clashed, all because of a false god which controlled the Hands. Pit decided to go and find the pages before it is too late.

Really, this should have been the big concern, not the shit plagiarizing Sly Cooper’s story. Pit and Palutena being concerned by a deity controlling Master and Crazy Hand was all they needed to set off for adventure!

As Pit about to leave, the door opened and to Pit's and Palutena's surprise, Olimar came in carrying his diary. Following him are the Pikmins.

Suddenly, a surprise guest appeared. Captain Olimar. His pages has been missing too which has notes on his research on Pikmins.

Pit and Olimar agreed to work together and sets off to recover their pages.

To recover the stolen pages and save both the world and Angel Land, Pit joins forces with Olimar. Their adventure is just beginning.

What fucking reason is there to steal pages from Olimar’s diary?

Pretty sure the plural for Pikmin, is also just Pikmin.

"Can you see them yet?" Olimar asked as Pit looked through his telescope on top of the Rival Arena.

"Aha. There they are" Pit said spotting the pages in Nathan Drake's hands, accompanied by Sly Cooper.

Does… Pit even have a telescope? 

I figured Olimar would be the one have some kinda fancy, hi-tech equipment to see things from a distance. But I’m saying this as someone who doesn’t know much about Pikmin either, other than the gameplay and some of the cool enemies.

Of course though, this is only happening because Richie is plagiarizing Sly’s rival scene.

"You decode them yet?" Sly asked getting impatient.

"Man, I'm sure we're getting closer" Drake said looking at the pages. "All we had to do is figure out the last bit."

At that point, Pit and Olimar stood before them making them stop.

"Careful, careful." Pit said pointing his blade at them. "Despicable thieves like you and your pet would know how treasured those pages are."

Really? Pit saying Sly’s line?

Pit is young, and panics over certain situations. I think he would be more like “Hey! W-what are you doing with those!?”, not acting chill on how they should “be careful”.

OOC Counter: 39

Rest of it is copypasted, with the only difference being an out of character Olimar, who I’m gonna slap the counter on for how he’s talking.

OOC Counter: 40

After beating Sly and Drake, Pit and Olimar recovered the pages, but before they can leave...

"Going somewhere, little men?" Polygon Man said with his controlled Hands "You're not going anyway!"

"Master Hand and Crazy Hand?" Olimar gasped "What the...?"

"They've being controlled by that giant head. We must stop them" Pit said as they prepare to fight.

Pit, you should have told Olimar about this beforehand, idiot. That’s a far bigger concern than some pages being stolen.

Also lol, the typos here. 

Pit and Olimar returned to Palutena safe and sound.

Pit and Olimar have successfully vanquished all their foes and recovered the stolen pages, and even stopped the ones controlling the chaos.

As Pit and Palutena put the pages back, they noticed something very unusual.

But as Pit put the pages back, they noticed some sort of code that could releashed demons from the underworld, and Hades and Medusa would eventually return. In order to prevent this, Pit and Palutena decide to find someone to undo this code.

Olimar turned to the doorway as Pit and Palutena waved.

Olimar boarded his ship and returned to Planet Hotate, his diary pages recovered. But if an new evil would rise, Olimar would rejoin Pit...

Both Pit and Olimar glowed blue.

...and stop them once again.

I guess this ending could have been worse. Palutena says nothing about what happened though? No cameo from Viridi either?

Then again, I’m not exactly fond of them to begin with, so I doubt I’d care if Richie ruined their character.

--

How much lazier is the scenario for Nathan and Sly?

One day in Paris, Sly is going through some pages with Bentley and Carmelita Fox.

Carmelita? And not Murray? Seriously, you’re leaving the big lug out?

Carmelita is only “forced” to help Sly a handful of times, otherwise, she’s trying to arrest him. Where does this take place in the Sly games anyway? Before, or after Thieves in Time? Because you already formed a big hole in any case.

"So, have any idea on deciphering this?" Bentley asked as Sly has got the pages from Goddess Book and Olimar's diary. Trouble is, the text is hard to read.

Bentley, you’re the smart one. He’s the fucking brains of the team. Did you switch out their dialogue by accident, Richie?

OOC Counter: 41

"Hmmm... this is bizarre." Sly said "But I cannot make out the writing."

"Yoink!"

Nathan Drake appears and snatched the pages from Sly's hands.

"What the...? You again?" Sly was shocked.

"Ha. Call yourself a master thief if you cannot understand the writing" Nathan said "I already have half of the pages already, and I'm getting closer."

"You think it would lead to untold mysteries, mr treasure hunter?" Carmelita said, surprised by Nathan's wit.

"Hmm... I guess it must be over there. I gonna need Racoon Boy's help here cause I heard other people are after this treasure" Nathan said, pointing to a distance.

"Really? Alright then. Lead on. But I am making my own shots of action, Mr. Two-bit treasure hunter" Sly said as he and Nathan set off.

"Whatever you say, roadkill" Nathan said.

It’s… not a bad way to start the team-up, but really? Bentley isn’t going to say a word about it?

I think it should be the other way around, Sly seems more like the type to approach Nathan Drake suddenly, brag, and then ask to work together. Yeah, Nathan stole pages from the Thievius Raccoonus, but Sly probably wouldn’t hold too much of a grudge. It’s not like the Panda King, who had a hand in killing his dad…

Rival scene is copypasted AGAIN, so here’s another OOC Counter for Pit stealing Sly’s lines, while Olimar is just… there.

OOC Counter: 42

With Pit and Olimar defeated, Sly and Nathan began to finish the pages until...

There was a laugher and they spun around to see Polygon Man appear with the hands. "Power is an illusion. Absolute power is a seamless illusion."

"Oh brother, not you again" Sly groaned.

Sly is about as fed up with the dialogue exchanges as much as I am.

Sly and Nathan founds Nate's plane where Bentley, Carmelita and Sully awaits them.

Richie seriously, what do you have against THE MURRAY?

Where’s my boy Dimitri Lousteau, for that matter? He’s like, the best character. 

Who am I kidding? It’s good to have him spared from this trainwreck.

Blahblah, copypasted scenes--

"Is something wrong, Drake?" Sly asked as the screen turned back.

Nathan only said "We've punched a chicken and a giant turtle."

… That… line doesn’t work when…

Uuuugh, I get he was trying to say “Nathan punched Bowser on their adventure”, but the line doesn’t fucking work when tied in with copypasted shit, and…

You know what? Because of how horribly delivered that was, I’m adding one more, the last time this counter had to be used.

OOC Counter: 43

A/N: Ok so next is Kat/Ememet VS Lucario/Meta Knight scenario and then the Fire Emblem vs Fat Princess and Sir Daniel Fortesque, stayed tuned.

Well, guess what? Richie never follows up on this.

My main man Dan remains untouched by Richie’s fan-fic to this day.

Also lol, how would those rivalries even work? Lucario sensing the aura that Kat and Emmett have? Would Lucario be a chick with tits like he is in the comics?

Actually, a badass, non-sexualized girl Lucario teaming up with Borb would be a much cuter pairing than the Bimbocario x Pikachu one.

Funny thing, even the reviews were confused by the chicken comment. And another reviewer said this, which made me laugh:

Is it me, or is the grammar becoming poorer and poorer as this goes on?

Same guy who pointed out how Richie plagiarized from Street Fighter x Tekken. Good on you, reviewer who I will keep anonymous.

Alright, so, enough of that… what could have been changed about this chapter?

Nothing.

You would have to delete this whole chapter, set up a rivalry that makes sense, and start from scratch in order to fix this big of a mess.

You kinda have a limited cast to work with in PSASBR, unless you’re adding new challengers, otherwise you’re not going to be able to have all the sensible rivalries against Smash Bros. characters, and eventually run out of material.

Of course, it could have simply been Richie lost interest because it didn’t have Crash maybe.

Yeah, I know. It’s not just a thing Richie does, I’m aware. A lot of writers on FF.net seem to drop off their stories and leave them hanging, and never say anything about them like “I can’t write this anymore because of something going on”, or just deleting them. It’s very annoying when they do it, and it encouraged me to give all of my stories an ending, even if they weren’t too great.

But enough about that, let’s get to…

--

Final Thoughts

This fan-fic has potential to do something good. The rivalries between Pikachu & Kirby vs. Sackboy & Toro, Ganondorf & Bowser vs. Zeus & Heihachi are the best ones that come to mind. Others however, make zero sense.

Granted, this was the earliest SSB x PSASBR fan-fic (and also one of the first to suddenly die), besides one other, which is basically just four one-shots.

Is this story any good? No, besides the fact it’s not finished, there are unfinished stories that do the rivalries much more nicely, and don’t insult the the existing characters, or the lore for each game represented.

The Smash Bros. and Playstation All-Stars were out of character, or ruining a certain continuity, 43 times altogether. Which is a lot, for something with only nine actual chapters.

These things could have been fixed by just looking further into each series. Even if you had never played them, it doesn’t kill to pull up a video, or a wiki, or ask someone who understand a particular franchise.

The ones that stand out the most, where I had to revise everything, were parts 4, 6, and 8. Meanwhile for part 9 (this one), it should have been purged completely.

Plotting everything out, especially the rivalries, will help you in the long run. Studying each character also helps a ton.

Another thing I obviously have to criticize, is Polygon Man.

I like Polgyon Man. I don’t think he’s a “bad Master Hand rip-off” like most Smash fans do. He’s his own character. He’s possibly driven by envy, being that the All-Stars are recognized amongst Playstation fans, but he was left behind-- rejected.

Him using Master and Crazy Hand? Perhaps that was fueled by jealousy over them being loved, and appreciated by the Smash Bros. 

His interactions with the Smash Bros. also could have been interesting. He could have recognized Snake, wondered why Sonic (a SEGA character) is suddenly with Nintendo mascots, or Lucas (and some other characters maybe) could have tried to turn Polygon Man around-- stopping him from being fueled by his god complex.

There was a lot of potential to be had, and some authors do that with Polygon Man in these crossovers. Richie doesn’t do anything, and makes him the generic baddie.

Oh, and the plagiarism, yes. The one thing that tells me Richie can’t think of a solid plot without having to resort to ripping something else off…

Nearly all of this is ripped from Playstation All-Stars, with the very small except of Street Fighter x Tekken not being safe either. Only a handful of times were the intros, rival scenes, and endings written to be rather creative.

That makes things very boring to read. No one wants to read a Playstation All-Star story, if it’s nothing new. The rival scenes in PSASBR, were great! And I do love them, it’s one of the things that drew me to the game, were the unique rival scenes, some of which were pretty silly. (Sir Dan and Radec instantly come to mind, along with Big Daddy and Sackboy)

You want to do that again, but in a new, creative twist involving the Smashers? That’s good, I’ve seen people try it before… but this wasn’t it, because a whole lot of them were fucking copied.

I’m not a perfect writing myself. I’m still learning, and when I look back at my older stuff, I kinda cringe-- but I leave it up, because I know people enjoyed it, and I still considering it an accomplishment. Yet, I’m trying to learn how to grow, how to do different things, and how to finish them.

Richie doesn’t want to change. He’s in his later 20′s, and hasn’t budged from his usual, predictable style. This is going to bite him when people get bored, have grown up from these sorts of things, and want to move on, away from his content. They’ll put on a new pair of glasses, and see things in a new light, so to speak.

Tl;dr

Overall Rating: 3/10

Pros:

+ Some of the rivalries aren’t too awful

+ The idea of tag-teams for both parties is different, and reminds me of Street Fighter x Tekken.

+ Some of the team-ups actually work-- in concept.

Cons:

- Nearly everyone is out of character. (Except perhaps Toro, Heihachi, PaRappa, and Sonic)

- A lot of things were copypasted, word for word.

- The two big Richie clichés. The damsel-in-distress fetish for one. Seriously Richie, stop doing this. This along with his “villain cliché” for Bowser and Ganondorf.

- Polygon Man doing nothing almost in his scenes, rather than something interesting.

- Potential rivalries and team-ups are uninteresting, and feel lifeless.

- The typos. 

- It’s not finished. People like an ending, and one that would have wrapped up all the scenarios would have helped.

Well, that’s it for this… I wonder, is there anything else I could tear apart that Richie wrote? It’s mostly boring, thankfully (for him) no Star Fox trash for me to rip into, considering how badly he would depict the characters.

Maybe I’ll poke around, if not, then I hope you enjoyed this series of riffs.