Machi's 2023 Year In Review
'23 was a bit of a wild one. A toast to the last twelve months (both in fandom and IRL) under the cut.
Fic
Here's what went out the door in '23:
Naruhata Noir
I started posting NN in December '22, about a month after finishing 9L. At one point last year I joked about finishing the entire thing in the week between Christmas and New years. Evidently, this did not happen for a variety of reasons:
A) A series of events occurring in my personal life that do not merit further detail that I will herein refer to as "the conga line of nonsense". That kicked off during last year's holiday season and bled into like...May. Which leads directly into:
B) Tears of the Kingdom came out. And;
C) A general loss of motivation in the project.
During the aforementioned Conga Line of Nonsense, I had a goal of finishing before TotK came out, but I only managed to cobble together another 4 chapters between January and May. After somehow managing weekly to biweekly chapters for 9L, NN was much more sporadic, and at one point I had people asking me if I was still alive. Which. sucked, since I generally strive to be a somewhat reliable person.
Once the TotK hyperfixation hit, I managed maaaaaaybe another 2 chapters before I finally got bored of grinding monsters to upgrade outfits. I did manage to meet the third self-imposed deadline of finishing before going to Japan for 2 weeks, so at least that's one W.
In addition to the distractions of Life, NN was more challenging to write for a few main reasons:
Aizawa is not the narrator. Look, I'm mature enough to acknowledge that he is Blorbo From My Shows, and everything I write wants to revolve around him. Taking a step back from that and trying to get into another character's head after spending 8 solid months on 9L was an adjustment. It took me a bit of time to find Shinsou's voice.
Most of the relationship dynamics in this fic are non-canonical, and pulled directly out of my ass. Shinsou's relationships with the Hottas are central to the back half of the fic, and his relationship with Mirko also becomes prominent at times. NONE OF THESE CHARACTERS HAVE EVER INTERACTED IN REAL LIFE I'M JUST SMASHING DOLLS TOGETHER LIKE I DID AS A 7 YEAR OLD.
Trying to parallel something I already wrote several months ago is hard. I wanted NN to make sense on its own, but also follow the relevant bits from 9L. This was next to impossible to accomplish without sounding clunky. Almost from the very beginning of the fic, the outsider's perspective of Aizawa's first steps, I felt the urge to change the dialogue because the story that I wanted to tell from Shinsou's perspective was different from the one I wanted to tell from Aizawa's perspective. I locked myself into that rigidity for a while, until I finally decided just to say fuck it at the end and modify the 9L dialogue slightly because the story had taken on a life of its own.
Erasermic took a major backseat in this one, but I still needed to scratch the itch, and I think that's why I ended up writing 2 emic one shots in between chapters.
I don't think a direct parallel spin-off is something I would try writing again, and the fic was probably a lot longer than it needed to be, but at the end of the day, I'm satisfied with the way it turned out, and I'm happy I was actually able to finish it this year.
Here's a collage of my inspo for Aizawa's apartment cobbled together from google maps and japanese real estate websites.
Being No One, Going Nowhere
The first of the 3 one shots that I put out this year, and a proof of concept that I can slap together 3k in a day and a half fever dream and call it a fic.
This one in particular was instigated by one of @o0fyuu0o's tweets that refused to leave me alone. And maybe also the two broken arms story from reddit, but you know, like, less incesty.
Mic was extremely pathetic in this one, which is immensely fun to write. Just a pathetic little meow meow. Sopping wet cat of a man.
College AU was fun to write, emboldened in part by @kyurilin's fic Stray. After being married to canon-verse for both 9L and NN, this was an exercise in just making shit up, and also living vicariously through the memories of the house I lived in for the better part of 2 years as an undergrad. I graduated 7 years ago and it is still crystallized in my memory.
A Tumultuous Sea, You and Me
I've been nursing a healthy crush on Pirate!Aizawa (or Paizawa, as the kids on JP Twit call him) since the Volume 35 character page came out in June '22. Paizawa even killed a 2 year long art block, that's how powerful he is. (Look!)
I do not remember what exactly spurned this one on, but it also got written in the span of about 2 days. I think I reread The Art of Drowning at some point this year, but I do not remember if it was during the writing frenzy, or sometime before it.
Aizawa gets to hold the meow meow card again in this one. His 2 sentence rivalry with Vlad is one of the best things I've ever written.
Of the 2 days I spent writing this, I probably spent 75% of that researching pirate ships. I used almost none of it, and have forgotten almost all of it by this point.
I feel like everyone that dips their toes into the realm of merpeople has a different interpretation on it, but I wanted to spend approximately 0 minutes on worldbuilding, so it's just kind of a chill coexistence between the pirates and the mermaids in this one lol. People were intrigued by said "worldbuilding" however and wanted more, but I think I've scratched the mer-pirate itch for now haha.
1966 Ford Nutstang GT350 Shelby
@kyurilin made a tumblr post that misspelled "mustang" as "nustang" and I skim-read it and saw "nutstang" and was like "you know what would be a terribad nickname for the car? Nutstang." At which point I immediately informed her, which led down the rabbit hole of a very loose RP (as it often does) and I decided YOU KNOW WHAT? I SHOULD JUST TURN THIS INTO A CRACK FIC.
At which point I had to sort of construct a loose plot around the entire bonkers concept. Nemuri held a key role in the pseudo-RP, but I ended up wanting to keep the fic tight and her role was mostly cut. But rest assured she is there in spirit, though, judging.
The plush nutsack is just a bastardization of a kangaroo ballsack coinpurse I saw in a Crap Souvenirs From Around The World calendar I had many years back that has imprinted on my memory. At no point did I seek out visual reference for it, and neither should you. It is up to the reader's imagination.
On the topic of bastardizations, the reappearing nutsack plotline is borrowed from the drawfee gnome saga.
Mic yelling GOOD MORNING and Aizawa banging his head on the underside of his desk is S tier slapstick.
PEOPLE MADE ART????
Some wonderful listeners readers are still making art for 9L, and we have been blessed with two beautiful new pieces this year:
Mic and Eri's selfie, from @kaleidoscopedrawsjpg
The Only One Bed scene, from @guiltyfixations
@obsessed-dragon also drew the photo of Shinsou holding Miso from Naruhata Noir, and Black Spider Eyes drew Aizawa dangling out the window from Tumultuous Sea.
Every time a piece of art drops on my dash, or I see my fic being recommended to other people, my brain does a lil short circuit and I have to go get up and walk around for a bit. I'm not sure words can express how much it means to me that people have enjoyed my writing enough to recommend it to other people, or sit down and create something of their own based off of it. It's humbling, and I'm truly grateful for every kind word or "sketch I should have maybe spent a little longer on" hahaha
Stats!
Look, I'm an engineer. I can't resist the thrall of Microsoft Excel. So here's A Chart.
I value Bookmarks the highest of all the stats that AO3 spits out. Views are pointless (skewed higher in the context of multi-chap fics). Kudos are an indicator of how many people read and liked enough to leave a kudos, but bookmarks are my indicator of how many people liked it enough to keep it around to read again, or recommend to others.
The bookmark-to-kudos ratio is (in my unscientific opinion) a measure of how many people loved the work vs how many people just liked it.
From the chart above, we can propose the following conclusions:
9L is still, far and away, the most popular, and most well-loved thing I've ever written. I'm fine with that.
The Nutstang fic was a certified cult classic, with a bookmark-to-kudos ratio of almost 0.3, second to only 9L.
NN is at a respectable ratio of 0.24 (middle of the pack), but in terms of number of kudos, is not that far ahead the mer-pirate fic. NN was not tagged as erasermic, so I do think this checks out in terms of sheer exposure.
Still Cooking:
FFXII AU
I started this one in March during the conga line of personal life nonsense. I somehow lured in Robbirdthe8th and @o0fyuu0o and @obsessed-dragon and got a solid month of drafting done before I was like "maybe I should work on NN again" and then it sat dormant until like. October.
It's up to almost 30k across 3 partially written chapters already, and I outlined 9 chapters. It is almost certainly overambitious, and I will almost certainly run into the same motivation issue I had with NN because it's a rooftop 4 fic and not just erasermic, and it has a demographic of approximately four people as an AU of a game that came out in uh........2006.
I thought I'd get at least some of it out in '23 but I'm taking it easy and just writing when inspiration strikes at the moment.
Fortuneteller AU
I started this one maybe a week-ish ago, in my quest for a pitch for the erasermic zine (surprise! they haven't made official announcements yet, but I'll be in it. this is an easter egg for those of you who made it this far). It's going to end up far too long for the 3k word limit for that, so I'm just co-opting it for another one-shot. Taisho era urban fantasy dabbling in some Violet Evergarden/FMA-esque post-war themes. Mic with pince nez. Aizawa in hakama. Gratuitous amateur tarot. It has gripped me by the throat.
More from the Nine Lives Extended Universe (canon-willing)
I've got 3 more spin-offs to 9L simmering, just waiting for canon to figure out its business. These are:
When The Battle's Lost and Won
A final battle post-mortem in 4 parts (if 3baka all make it out alive that is). Every few chapters of canon that come out, something gets added or tossed. Extremely fluid at this point, but there are some good quality blurbs and bullet points in there.
Kintsugi
The erasermic epilogue to 9L, from Mic's perspective. An exploration of their relationship beyond the final battle, with an overarching theme that I've borrowed from a Dorktown documentary on former Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Dave Stieb: Not at all, and then all at once.
This one's just pure body worship, punctuated by an extremely casual marriage proposal. A lot of people still comment on 9L like "THIS CAN'T BE IT, WHERE'S THE REST OF IT?", so I hope this will satisfy those looking for some closure from a relatively open ending.
The Way of the Househero
With the impending graduation of the hell class, and a body that doesn't quite move the way it used to, Aizawa has a bit of an existential crisis and semi-retires so he can be a full-time parent to Eri while figuring out what's next for him. Mostly slice of life. No real plot to this one yet, mostly just vignettes. Aizawa finally gets cats of his own, makes mom friends, and becomes more of a knife slut (only its in the kitchen now instead of on the streets).
IRL
Painting
Every room in my home is painted some sort of bland pastel, and this year we managed to purge pastels from four rooms: my home office, our living room / dining room, and our bedroom. I am enormously pleased with how each of these have turned out.
Gardening
We moved to this house in January '22, and last year was mostly seeing what came up in the garden. This year we cleared out a lot of the decorative shrubs in our backyard (turns out you can hock shrubs on facebook marketplace), and planted a veggie garden. The extent of my gardening experience prior to this year was mowing the lawn as a teenager, so this year was a continuous learning experience, and likely will be for many more years to come.
We had some big wins (potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, cherries, squash, dear god the squash), and some losses (apples that were infested with tent caterpillars, arugula that bolted, and lettuce that got eaten by bunnies to name a few).
In addition to veggies, we also did a lot of general cleanup around the rest of the yard, including clearing out some invasive species and thinning out some partially dead shrubs. We mostly let the yard do its own thing last year, and the previous owner of our home died about 6 months before we moved in, so it was probably neglected for a while. I cut out a blackberry cane that was as long as our driveway. I bought a wood chipper and a compost aerator and am learning the art and science of turning yard trash into yard treasure. (I have not peed on my compost pile yet, as recommended by /r/composting. Maybe some day.)
I also adopted a clipping from my sister-in-law's monstera, which has done quite well (except for the parts my cat has taken a mild interest in nibbling on from time to time)
Travel
Probably too much travel this year ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
3 Weddings (4 if you count the one in December '22 that's included in the Conga Line of Nonsense). Got covid at 2 of them. Invited to a fifth next year. Wishing everyone of marriageable age I know IRL a very elope
Trips for work to Winnipeg and Calgary (to which I have never been before, but are both underwhelming). Also got to fly on a floatplane for the first time, which is noisy, but the views are unbeatable
I turned 30 this year, and after the Conga Line of Nonsense, I said fuck it, we're going back to Japan for my birthday. 2 weeks, 8 cities.
L: Shimanami Kaido cycle (still somehow 30 degrees in September x full sun x forgot sunscreen x 80km = pain) (my husband has proofread this and insists that this is not an L but agree to disagree)
W: Hokkaido (beautiful scenery, incredible food, not 30 degrees in September lmao)
Anyways
If you made it this far, thanks for reading, and thanks for your love in '23. I hope to provide you with more of the same nonsense in '24. Let me know if you want a spinoff cats + gardening + DIY blog, since that's just my life now. Happy new year 🍾
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Touch and Fire
(18+) Present Mic snippets ( on AO3! )
I write these on-request in a Present Mic discord I’m apart of. Most of them are Erasermic, but others will occasionally make an appearance as well.
( I also take commissions for more specific, detailed requests, but non-commissioned prompts are also welcome!)
Chapter 1: One More
When Hizashi found he was capable of having multiple orgasms in a short time period, had laid it out for Shouta beforehand;
If I'm in tears, don't stop, Hizashi had said to Shouta . If I'm sweating or seem to be pulling away, don't stop.
Shouta understood. Rubbing the back of his head, he huffs a laugh.
"Maybe say 'pufferfish' if you actually need to stop?" he suggests. That garners a laugh out of them both, but they agree. The word was jarring enough and hard to miss.
Now, Hizashi's arms are bound to the bed with Shouta's capture weapon, and his second orgasm is ripping through his hips, garnering a harsh cry from Hizashi's mouth as Shouta takes him down his throat with slow, wet strokes of his tongue. He's shaking, sweat pouring down the sides of his face as ineligible sounds bubble from his lips in both slight pain and overwhelming pleasure that he's never felt before until now. He shakes and cries out Shouta's name as tears sting at the corner of his eyes.
"I can't — I can't — fuck ," he groans. He throws his head back, unable to move his arms as Shouta looks up, briefly removing his lips from his swollen member. He listens for the word but doesn't hear it.
"Do you need the word?"
Hizashi shakes his head, gasping as Shouta takes him down once more, getting him hard slowly as he builds up for a third.
"You're doing so well, you know that?" Shouta says slowly, carefully pulling his lips up the tip with a gentle swirl of his tongue around the head. Hizashi's eyes roll back, his shoulders shaking with scarcely-restrained sobs of pure, near-painful pleasure.
"You're so beautiful. You trust me so much to do things like this to you. You're being so good for me, Hizashi." Hizashi doesn't know if it's his voice, the praise, the way he's lapping at his member like he's enjoying every last taste of it, or something he can't coherently put into words; but his hands yank at the bonds in response, his whole body shuddering as tears leak down his cheeks.
Shouta takes him into his mouth and hums, pleased when Hizashi grows hard for the third time. Slowly bobbing his head, he keeps licking up the length of him, making Hizashi yell out his name again, and again, and again. His legs shake, curling away from him, but giving no indication he wants this to stop.
"One more for me, ‘Zashi? Think you can let me taste you one more time?"
Hizashi doesn't respond, but his low, drawn-out whimper as he bucks his hips into Shouta's mouth is an answer enough. He cries out, and the whimper lingers as Shouta keeps working him over, slow and unbearably tender — cherishing every single taste of him.
Hizashi's chest hitches as he lets out another, harsh yell from deep in his throat.
"Please. Please. I — please, Shouta," he gasps. Shouta nods, working his fingers through his hips muscle as he takes him down and bobs his head faster, meeting Hizashi's ragged, breathless pleas as he praises his body and his beautiful, beautiful voice. Hizashi comes for a third time, gasping 'pufferfish' with a weak, breathy laugh. Shouta makes quick work undoing his bonds, letting Hizashi cling to him and bury his face in his shoulder as he soothes a hand down his back.
"That feel good?" Shouta asks. Hizashi nods weakly, a light laugh bubbling from his throat again. He grins, clearly pleased with himself, when Hizashi proposes they do it again tomorrow.
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