#fave scenes fave characters fave perspectives thoughts etc.

[hiddencarpet]

FAVARO LEONE??

[palenutbasement]

(all scenes are depicted as platonic)

So every Inktober I try to do something more challenging, and this year I thought I would make a short comic/fanfic. I think I got the idea for this one a year ago but I was already wrapped up with another Inktober. Eventually I solidified the idea by making my own prompt list some time ago.

This comic is split into three parts with 10 days focusing on each of them, 30 in total, everything is compiled here. I wanted to post them after October in case I wanted to change anything.

This first part takes place in the summit.

The comic is basically all improvised, that means no planning for the composition, plot, or sketching any drawings. The most planning I did was write a few scripts ahead of time within the month to save me some time but most of them would be changed last minute anyways.

As for the plot, I won't go too deep into it because I don't want to talk too much, so you'll just find commentary on the making of the comic and stuff.

This first part is a little gimmick-y compared to the next two, with new elements appearing almost every day. It’s because I relied a lot on the prompts (dog, milk, etc.) to keep things happening, eventually I move further away from them.

What is surprising to me is how much the art changes as the days go by especially within the span of one month. I did refine a few things to keep it more consistent but this is nearly indistinguishable from the original drawings.

I should also mention that my favourite aspect of this project was adding references to the game and subtle details (if you can find it all, awesome!!) This may have been done quickly but I like to have those things and put at least a bit of effort into the dialogue.

Part 2

Eventually I figured that drawing the same setting for 30 days straight would drive me insane, hence why this comic is split like it is. I’m glad I did because it makes the story a little more interesting, seeing the characters have different attitudes in different places and whatnot.

This one takes place in the cave directly after pt 1. Admittedly I do better drawing outdoor settings, it's what I'm used to, but the cave wasn't so bad to figure out.

I remember these two days I was streaming drawing the comic to my friends, so I kinda zoned out while we were talking lol

One of the prompts was about napping, so I made Dwarf sleep. I believe I was tired that day too and it was therapeutic to draw and include that. Also they look cute, I think.

18 & 19 have some of my favourite drawings in the comic. The campfire lighting is what we'd get if I had a bit more energy each day, and I like the perspective in the first panel of 19.

I find this last section interesting, because of all the 30 days, it’s the only one in Dwarf’s POV. I felt like it was fitting to do something like that at the time.

Part 3

Since we were approaching Halloween, I wanted to have a special part for it. It’s related to the other two parts but it takes place some time after. I’m really sorry it’s out of season, if it were up to me I would have had this post out earlier (thank my midterms for the delay)

Out of all the other parts this one is my favourite. Maybe because it’s more recent I’m inclined to think that way but it has some of my fave moments that I've written here.

Other than that I don't have much commentary for this part. More thoughts at the end!

I was caught up everyday atp, but I didn’t have much spare time to prepare for the ending (I wrote it the morning of that day). I think this is a decent conclusion though.

I intend on coming back to this story, maybe next year to make a continuation but we'll see what happens. There are definitely things that I want to come back to someday.

Thank you for making it this far btw. It's been an eventful month for me beyond this (Untitled) comic, but there wasn't a single aspect of this that I didn't enjoy doing. It's a silly project and I care about it.

Also, I'm not going to neglect the 31st of October! That day will get an illustration, where I will pick my favourite panel and redraw it. I want to take my time with this one so it's not out yet, but hopefully I can finish by Christmas.

[pyrotechnicarus]

what's your experience re: the difference between writing prose and scripts 😭 i have to write plays for the first time for school and i miss my wife Purple Prose

Congrats on writing your first play! And I definitely empathize -- switching from one form to the other was hard for me, and something I still struggle with. Musical theater is arguably the novelist's crutch into scriptwriting because we have access to songs -- the kind of access to the characters' thoughts and intentions you get throughout a novel, you can inject into a song, whereas straight playwrights (especially realist playwrights) don't always have that built-in genre convention for theatricalizing their character's minds.

Unless you're working at a level of heightened text in your play that allows interior monologues to be spoken aloud or narrators to describe things (which, hey, you might want to consider!) then you'll have to really work on externalizing both beauty (your beautiful descriptions of things in your short stories? now someone has to say them out loud. Who would? What sort of person would speak this way? Would anyone?) and character development (often my playwriting teacher says that every shift in a piece has to be signaled through an action. A character can't just change their mind. That change doesn't exist to the audience until they do something with that new perspective -- hurt another character, avoid a situation, indulge in something they've opposed before, etc.) Writing for theater really forces you to make your character arcs visible in a way that prose doesn't.

On the other hand, you now have access to a ton of other tools that you didn't have as a prose writer! These usually fall under the broad umbrella of "theatricalization," but really just mean everything you can do in the theater that you can't do in any other medium. The intercut scene before Me, Myself, and I in Adamandi -- the casual, silent cohabitation of the past couple and the present couple at the start of Ghost Story -- the use of the edge of the stage to represent suicide in Adamandi -- all only work because the theatrical audience is willing to accept thematic intersections of space, time, and character because of the boundaries of the stage. When can two things happen simultaneously? When can your character make eye contact with an audience member? When can they leave the stage? What does having collective physical bodies perceiving your art allow you to do - when are they crying together, laughing together, when does their pulse race? Can you make them feel scared? Try out writing scenes that take place in the dark, in a spotlight, with a silent actor onstage, or with significant costume changes that can carry an equal amount of the story to your stage directions and spoken text.

Finally, I guess my overall advice would be to study plays you admire (my benchmarks are currently Is God Is, Escaped Alone, Streetcar Named Desire, M. Butterfly, and various Paula Vogel plays -- And Baby Makes Seven is my fave but The Baltimore Waltz is probably a gentler introduction to her) for their conventions and copy the shit out of them. Imitate their formatting, for a bit. Steal a staging that works in your context. Cut your dialogue down viciously -- words and exchanges that take a few seconds to read on the page take precious minutes to say out loud. Watch out for conversational cul-de-sacs -- ideally each line should advance the scene, advance the characters, and advance the plot. If your character is saying stuff like "What's your name?" then maybe the scene needs to start later -- you want every line to be one that only that character would be able to say.

Relatedly, and I think a failing of mine when I made the switch that is now getting better: don't rely on tone indicators to do the work of adaptation. Your actors and directors will ignore them, first of all, but also each line should contain its proper reading -- it should be clear from the context of the scene whether your character is saying "Hello." (angrily) or "Hello." (haughtily). I try to limit myself to 10-20 tone lines per 90-page musical script, if that's a helpful benchmark for you (this is different from stage directions, but you should also not be using stage directions to take the place of good dialogue. Anything inconsequential -- he paces or chewing his lip or with a sly grin -- ought to be cut.)

Anyway, overall, have fun and do whatever it takes (including disobeying all the advice above) to FINISH IT! You'll only know once you have a full draft A. whether you want to keep going with this medium and B. what your storytelling is Like; how you can improve it. Good luck!

[rikeijo]

Medalist ~early screening event report~

>>>((by a Yuri!!! on ICE fan and with spoilers))<<<

Just came back home from early screening of Medalist, episode 1.~! I've never read the manga and I know almost nothing about the plot 🙃

Part of my motivation to buy the ticket was to see full credits, haha... 😆😆Unfortunately, I saw no familiar names, although of course, I could only see it once, so I might have missed somebody... However, as it has been already announced, the skating was choreographed by Suzuki Akiko-san, and she also skated the choreography for motion capture. There was also Japanese Skating Federation in the credits, and TV Asahi participates in the production committee.

The event itself was very cute~ I got a ticket for the 'second skate' at Marunouchi Piccadilly. It was easy to get a ticket even earlier this week, but in the end, both 'skates' were fully sold out. What was quite amazing was that there were fans of literally all ages (except small kids, of course and it was quite late...). From high school students to ~70 old grandpas. Boys and girls, 50/50 (and I had a seat right next to a true Medalist otaku ((a guy in his 20s)), and that was quite funny and so wholesome, because the emotions were running sooo high...✨ and I was just so jealous, because yk... iceado😞).

First, the screening of the first episode! And as somebody, for whom it was the first meeting with Medalist, it definitely made me want to watch the whole thing, and it was a shame they only showed one, because I wanted to see mooore! 😆 The characters designs are, imo, very pretty (we saw Tsukasa-sensei as competitive ice dancer in episode 1. in flashbacks, and he reminded me a bit of blond Yuuri ((the hairstyle and eyebrows!)) but that's my bias 😂)

I remember seeing people (in Jp) lamenting on twitter that it's a small studio and the animation will be shit. The anime uses a lot of CGI, for sure, but imo, for the skating parts, it's definitively better than bad sakuga, or trying everything to avoid showing too much of movement. The backgrounds etc. looked very sterile because of it, though. (I personally understood very well, why YoI's director, Yamamoto Sayo, wanted to have everything hand-drawn, even though she was overworking her staff because of it, and still, eventually they had to use CGI, anyway. The imperfect, hand-drawn animation will certainly always have more soul in it.) That they used even more CGI for all those shojo manga-like sparklings on top of that, though... I understand that this is a part of the convention, but for me, that was the part that I thought didn't look that good.

Hitomi-san became my favorite character. So pretty and cute (and I want to know her backstory~~~)! Inori-chan is cute, too, but the first episode was mainly from Tsukasa-sensei perspective (I don't know if that's also how it is in the manga), so she didn't seem that fleshed out as a character, and to me, she seemed more like 'a child' category of character, than true protagonist. I'm curious to see, how she will develop. Her VA, Haruse Natsumi-san has a really beautiful voice. The first episode starts with Tsukasa coming to the rink for his job interview and ends just after Inori-chan becomes Tsukasa's student. So basically, the whole story of how Inori-chan started skating, but Tsukasa-sensei feels more like he's going to be the protagonist.

Next, the talk after the show! The MC was TV Asahi's announcer. The VAs (Inori-chan, Tsukasa-sensei, Hikaru-chan and Yodaka-san) entered and then the usual greetings. Then they each talked a bit about their own character, but naturally, they didn't reveal much, just basic info. They mainly talked about Tsukasa-sensei's perspective this time and eg. which scene is his VA, Otsuka-san's fave in episode 1. He answered that it was the scene, in which Tsukasa-sensei thinks that Inori-chan seems suspicious and then he runs after her when she runs away from the rink. They also mentioned, about episode 1. that figure skating, all of the basics, is very well-explained, so it's easy to follow even for people, who don't know anything about figure skating. Here, imo, the use of CGI was also an advantage, because the movements were very clear and precise, when they explained the the technique of how eg. a figure skater uses the inside/outside edge. After that Hikaru-chan and Yodaka-san also got an introduction by their VAs, but because they didn't appear in the first episode, scenes from episodes 2. were shown. For Yodaka-san, they showed a scene, in which he doesn't even talk, just smokes and looks all mysterious and cool, and everybody laughed at that. Then Uchida-san, his VA, laughed as well, and said that even though he has never smoked a cigarette in his life, he needed to go to the studio for recording, and his job in the first few episodes was only to pretend to smoke and nothing else. He also said that to him, his name, 'Jun' which means 'pure', is important part of the character. Then more characters were shown (including newly revealed ones and all are on twitter now), and the cast talked a bit, who they want to pay close attention to. They mainly talked about Sekoma-san (whose name was revealed to be 'Mamoru', which also means 'to protect') and Sonidori Junichiro, but again, they didn't reveal anything.

Then it was time for VA fanservice - the question corner and the question was 'what can you get a gold medal for?' Haruse-san: Can tell apart all 7 kinds of figure skating jumps, even just by what kind of approach the skater takes for the jump. Otsuka-san: Sleeping on the floor. Ichinose-san: Talking with her cat (that was super cute, she was describing what kind of conversations they have - apparently cats think that they speak human language). Uchida-san: Going to sleep very early, even at 7pm to wake up early and play games.

Then they talked about the future events, skating-related and special stage before the anime starts, and radio show etc. (all info also on twitter now) (as a YoI fan, massively jealous 😭😂)

And that's mainly it, it was about 1h? long event!

[dashielldeveron]

okay i just gotta talk about bnha's ending

and what i thought was gonna happen based on the way the narrative had been setting things up.

some light bnha meta. spoilers obviously.

i will preface with i am not concerned with ships. i would be fine with whatever, really, because ultimately, i am my favourite characters' girlfriend (and you are your fave's significant other, etc.). moving on.

1) the first major red flag for me, as a writer, was when we barely spent any time at all at shigaraki's childhood home with dark!deku. it signalled that midoriya wasn't going to fully understand what was going on with shigaraki and therefore lose some nuance/meaning to [what i thought was going to be] shigaraki's redemption. by only having the audience understand shig's tragedy but not midoriya, midoriya is not making a fully informed decision and therefore his choices weigh a bit less.

1a) additionally, with dark!deku, it sets us up to have a thorough examination of shig/deku mirroring each other. doesn't really happen. and midoriya's getting his arms back within one chapter takes away from the overarching motif of taking someone's hand to finally accept help. like captain kirk once said, the three most beautiful words in the universe are "please help me." this could've been a chance for deku to ask for help from shig or the vestiges and further blur the line between villains and heroes.

2) when nana shimura holds shigaraki--this is probably the most confusing narrative decision from my perspective, because i figured we were about to go into OFA with both shig and deku, have some sort of glorious discussion over a fight about what a hero is and saving yourself and accepting help and friendship and stuff, but we just...don't. we don't go see all the vestiges with shigaraki. i thought that was what we were building up to, this ultimate scene with all the OFA users and shig all in the same place, accepting shig as someone who was used/abused and could still move on. i fully thought this would happen and that some unfamilar, bodily form of tenko would be spat out after the discussion, a tenko who's shoved off all shreds of AFO and can begin as solely himself.

instead we get that weird-as-fuck evaporation scene where shigaraki still wanted to fight. which is weird to me, because i haven't read shigaraki as wanting to fight for a long, long time. i've been reading him as wanting to rest.

3) i didn't want toga to die, but i could feel it coming bc "bury your gays" pervades pop media. but holy shit. not even on screen? the last scene seems to set uraraka and toga up to sacrifice each other for the other, and i figured they'd survive, though both severely injured. toga's death (and other villain deaths/putting away in a box) feels contradictory to the story's themes of saving people, that anyone can change to be anything they want. killing/punishing the villains seems to be saying that villains will always be villains, and even if they showed some remorse, they have to die, because they did bad stuff once.

4) touya is more of that "punishing bc he's a villain" stuff. uh. okay. narratively, he seems to be alive to show endeavor's regret. okay. a better way of showing this would be to have touya medically healing and have endeavor supporting him every step of the recuperation. (not that i would personally want this, bc i don't think endeavor's shown enough growth to do this.) and like. how it is now, with endeavor saying that no one has to talk to him, but he's gonna come visit touya and how the others are going to visit touya as well--it feels like they're arguing over who gets touya in the divorce lol (well, it would be lol, except they're dehumanising/objectifying touya again).

4a) why set up the soba eating with touya/shouto if we're not going to see it. why do that, hori. why would you

5) the timeskip to the hospital was jarring. we spend over a year in this one battle, and then we don't see it wrap up. we're left with questions about characters that could've been answered here, in this moment, in the transitional period of getting everyone medical help.

6) okay this is me being very selfish, but as someone with a focus in disability studies, i'd like to know more about everyone's recuperation. mostly, you'd FUCKING THINK that once they're at the hospital, they'd be able to get a whole-ass edgeshot out of bakugou. that's unfair to both of them. edgeshot was taking the place of medical equipment on the battlefield, so why not replace him with actual medical equipment now that bakugou is safe? we also spend a bit talking about bakugou's damaged arm, so why don't we see him working with it?

7) weird amount of focus on new students. i understand some focus, because setting up the new generation, and all, but since hero society appears to be exactly the same, it means significantly less to set them up to be better than the mistakes this generation made. since society/worldbuilding isn't changing in a major way, the audience desire is primarily to see what's happening with the characters we care about. so this feels unsatisfying.

8) also. attached to point 2 about shigaraki being redeemed. hero society should be changed. there should be a new status quo about what being a hero means and how the whole system works in light of this knowledge. shigaraki, touya, spinner, and toga should be alive and out there doing other stuff, showing that you can grow past what you've gone through. deku should still be out there doing "hero stuff" regardless of quirk/power, because of his character and fortitude.

why the hell is the ending message that anyone with power can be a hero instead of the obvious (and more moral) moral of anyone with courage/determination/"my body moved on its own" to help others, as deku did, can be a hero, regardless of birth or status. it was right there!!!! how was this sidestepped!!!

9) no bookend to spinner? no spinner? babe. i'm not even the greatest fan of spinner, and it feels like we left him unfinished.

10) scratch that. it all feels unfinished. rushed. did something happen to end it this way?

anyway. thanks for reading. i'm confused about the writing choices.

TL;DR: recent narrative decisions make no sense based on what the manga has set up for us, particularly the evaporation/death of shigaraki bc it contradicts the message that anyone can be a hero, regardless of your past, and that it's okay to ask for help.

[kitkatkitchen]

Umbrella Academy - Season 4

Final thoughts (spoilers obviously)

Okay, I’m going to say that this was my least favourite season. However, that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it thoroughly haha

The ‘disappointing’ parts:

- Five and Lila - so weird and not needed! I feel Lila and Diego’s marital problems could have been outlined and accepted in a different way than the cheating way

- Klaus’ weird side plot - I LOVE klaus and I enjoyed his little shenanigans! However I don’t really see the point in his side plot? Or how it relates to the plot of the Cleanse? Klaus’ whole arc has been about not being taken seriously because of his addiction but that arc was not solved this season because all they did was make him the most useless part in ending the apocalypse? He at least could have kept the dog!

- Plotholes - Why did Klaus’ tattoos dissapear and then not reappear with the Marigold like Luther’s body? What’s the full story behind Ray and his absence (all that was mentioned was a separation with no real meat to it or emotion)? Etc etc

- Rushed - why did they choose to do six episodes? I guess we’ll never know. Some things could have been solved with more time? Maybe I could have grown to like Lila and Five if they had been given more than one episode? (I know it was seven years but it feels rushed from an audience perspective)

The parts that made it The Umbrella Academy:

- amazing acting from all parts. I’m so biased when it comes highlight Robert Sheehan but I always will. His ‘daddy issues’ monologue was CORRECT and so well acted <3 And, of course, Justin H Min knocking it out of the park! I really grew to love Luther this season! Tom Hopper does an excellent blend of comedy which makes up for our usual comic relief (Klaus’) more serious plot line. Also Claire’s actress (I don’t know her name, will find out) was great! I really enjoyed when her character was on screen!

- The overall ending - I personally liked the idea that the siblings accept that they were the issue all along. Some of the final moments hit very well. I loved Abigail’s discussion with Hargreeves. KLAUS CRYING CAUGHT ME OFF GUARD SO THANKS FOR THAT. And the cameos at the end were so fun to spot!

- CIA fight scene - such a highlight for me in classic umbrella academy style ! Diego and Luther really stood out to me where they didn’t usually, this season.

- Jean and Gene - classic umbrella academy villains with great wackiness to them.

- COMIC ACCURACY! Always a highlight for me. I’ve been waiting for Klaus to float for a very long time and some great comic cameos!

Overall, not my fave season but the finale made up for some parts that felt rushed or uncertain. I feel if they’d have kept to the ten episode format then a lot of these issues wouldn’t have occurred. For those wondering, season 2 is my favourite season overall <3

[pix-writes]

They also said David was right that he and Ellie have a violent heart and then compared Joel to him like a parallel. Like its purely to justify the second game/season beacuse he knows audiences wont receive it well in the first one.

Like its not in the first season beacuse it would ruin the story which is why they try so hard to justify their position to trick us into thinking seeds of violence were planted when they clearly weren't. If anything the actual show makes the second game look even MORE unrealistic.

And Neil recently reaffirming he does not care for people who dislike the second game. Like im sorry thats not a valid opinion he unironically based this game around Palestine and cycles of aggressive violence and promoted it through sabatoging beloved characters in favour of his new actual facist fave youre forced to play.

A good game is not devisive amongst the fanbase like the sequel was. Thats bad. And I think he will be in for a rude awakening at the reception to season 2. Beacuse general audiences will watch the show more then go out and play a game. Gamers paid already it doesnt matter if we stop playing half way through.

But TV shows with audience drop offs are much more brutal for a shows reception.

The amount of people already who refuse to tune in for a future season just from what ive seen on here is staggering.

Its a bad, brutal, punishing story with no mercy. And it'll be an even worse show.

I agree with these senitments, mutual!

I find it intersing making Ellie more used to violence (or using violence) in the TV series - of course she is a girl who's grown up in a miliatry school in a post-apocalypse, so it would make sense for her to be used or more ready to utilise violence in terms of survival. But I don't like the idea that she is violent like David is, or comparing his version of violence to Ellie's (or Joel's, for that matter) because its totally different - especailly as neither of them seek violence as a way of abusing people or to gain power like David most certainly does.

When I think of Ellie I don't think of her having a "violent heart" I think of her as a scared and yet feirce girl. I think the only thing David ever got right about her was that she is very loyal. I'd say that she has a loyal heart and one that puts loyalty into people who she cares deeply about & that show her that she can trust them/that they won't abandon her/that they can protect her.

^^^ I mean???!!!!??!!!!!! looook! the sweetest <3

Its intersting to hear Neil said that, I haven't seen much about what the creators have spoken about since the first game came out (/little snippets from the podcasts), to be honest, but its very disheartening. (And as a writer myself, I can't imagine having that perspective or lack of thought for fans by saying something like that publicly!)

I could go on about how I don't trust a lot of the men involved in this story (Pedro excepted ofc), for the way they treat David, like he's not an obvious predator, and how I didn't like that Joel doesn't intercept Ellie during the restaurant scene, but I'd just end up getting mad! ^^' and on top of that, the mentioned narrative that Ellie is 'forever changed' by what happens to her in her run-in with David & his cannibal crew (according to Craig/Neil). I've always taken issue with such things, as much as Ellie is a wondeful well-fleshed out female queer character (mad props to Ashley Johnson for being pivotal with that <3); and it makes me feel that tlou 2 was just made to be a rug-pull type story (as has been used in GoT and TWD) like 'oh you thought this? haha, well think again! your fave is dead because of tragedy!' --> its edgy for the sake of being edgy and missed out on being a meaningful additon to the first game & DLC and its themes...

I'm thinking the same, that the second season is going to be just as divisive - all the people who haven't been spoiled by the gameplay etc., are going to have a similar rude awakening to fans when tlou part 2 was released, and I don't think they'll get the reception they were hoping for (but then again, perhaps the writers don't care?). BUT it'll probably affect viewership dramatically, especiallly if (as I've heard other fans say) that they will sequence it much like in the game where it jumps back & forth in time/perspective (meaning *spoilers* - Joel 💀 in the first half of the series, most likely). I just can't fathom that going down well with general audiences. That's a recipe for a tv series bomb if ever I saw one.

... ... ....

Its probably kinda bad I do partly want the second season to bomb, isn't it? 😅 don't get me wrong, I love the first game/season, and the actors etc who've worked on it - but I just have so much issues with how they've handled the story since then/their interpretations of it, like I do with a lot of other tv series/tv in general right now, that I would just feel pure justified satisfction from it if it did!

[lucithornz]

My Top 10 Favorite Fanfiction Tropes

I wanted to make this list, as I think it's probably the best way to get to know me as a writer and a reader. This isn't strictly in order. But these tropes are what I devour as a reader, and live for as a writer.

Angst - I am a masochist™ so I cannot get enough angst, be it emotional, physical or some combination of the two. I want to be hurt by words, and I hope if you've read my fics you've cried at least once, or wished you could take back the kudos. But from a writing perspective conflict is really where plot and character motivation come from, so it's a really essential ingredient to my style of storytelling.

Slow burn - I like long stories(Stormlight Archive fan here) the payoff for 100k words of buildup is truly unmatched. As a writer it can be frustrating having to wait so long to write/publish certain scenes, but it serves as good motivation too.

Pining/Mutual pining - I mean, this goes right along with angst and slow burn. I like reading about the conflicted feelings, series of missed chances. All that good stuff. It does have to be two sided though.

Dark Fic/Dead Dove - Look, as a grimdark fantasy fan this is my bread and butter. I filter FOR dead-dove fics, hoping to find some thought provoking horror. It's a genre taste thing. I don't publish this as much, but I'd like to.

Enemies to Lovers - but like proper enemies to lovers, like these people better have tried to kill each other at some point. It's spicy, dark, and the possibilities for angst are endless.

Friends to Lovers - this has to be on my list because several of my favorite ships of all time fall under this category. Once again, the tension of trying to turn a long time friendship into a romantic one is fraught with problems, and comes with mutual pining.

Fake Dating - I have never been let down by this trope yet. This one is also interesting because it has a lot of comedy potential, which is fun. Angsty shenanigans at it's finest.

Crack Treated Seriously - so many of the best fics I've read fall into this category. It's really where the bounds of genre and literary devices get pushed. Some truly fucked up, and hilarious situations come from these. I don't know what it is about this trope specifically that appeals to some of the most talented fic writers.

Plot with Porn - that's right, heavier on the plot, but also getting to see those intimate moments between characters *chefs kiss*

Hurt Comfort - I prefer things on the side of hurt, with eventual comfort. This is a great trope to balance with angst as it promises some softer moments. But what I like in my writing is to have the hurt linger, almost make it seem like there won't be any comfort, then finally get that relief.

Bonus number 11! Friends with Benefits - I like this dynamic because it just sets up the potential for so many of my other favorite tropes(fake dating, pining, angst, friends to lovers, PWP, slow burn etc) Really is one of those things where I know if this is tagged that it will probably include a lot of my other faves. I also love writing this as it is an angst goldmine.

[sigmundite]

7, 20, 53, and/or 74 for the writers ask meme!

7. How do you choose which POV to write from?

It depends on whose feelings are most significant in that part of the story. I tend to write in third person limited perspective, so whatever's happening is going to be colored by that character's thoughts about them.

20. Have you noticed any patterns in your fics? Words/expressions that appear a lot, themes, common settings, etc?

Man.

The kind of shit I have discovered through writing and crafting stories is more suited for a psych eval. My fanfics tend to be shippier but my original stories had me pegged as aromantic long before I learned that was a thing. I have limits for how much angst/whump I can do in my writing but even when I start with a positive premise, everything is just a little bit off. Even when my blorbos of choice are engaging in human connection and affection, there's something wrong about it that manifests in my writing every time.

53. How do you spend your time when it comes to fanfiction? Are you primarily a fic reader, writer, or a perfect 50/50 split of both?

I spend more time and energy on the writing side. Even if I'm not actively working on something, I'm usually plotting. My fanfic reading habits are pretty irregular in comparison. I tend to go from not wanting to read anything to straight up binging tags for days. In the month leading up to Rebirth I read like a million words of Zakkura after leaving it on the backburner for years. It's always been a fave of mine but Remake didn't unleash the same insanity in me that Rebirth did.

74. You’ve posted a fic anonymously. How would someone be able to guess that you’d written it?

If it's a long enough fic to have multiple scene changes, it'd probably be a mildly ominous declarative statement about what just happened and the scene changes. If not, it might be the introspection.

There are probably more obvious tells than that but I think I'm just seeing them as flaws.

Get to know your fic writer meme!

[wegonbealright-09]

i tried hard not to post anything about my vmin thoughts because it seems like its everybody's heartbreaking topic. but still im here on one of my faves' tumblr pages.

i do believe that all bts members are friends - one way or another. but each friendship in this group is different - like in real life. some members can be these really close friends who constantly talk with each other on the phone, go out on weekends, have fun in every possible situation. some can understand each other well but don't hang out much only when it is needed. some can be just colleagues with 10 years of working together and litteraly survivng in this whole terrible world - they can also be called friends but not in a "best buddy" meaning, working next to each other for such a long time can also bring people closer. in other words, there are many types of friendship. what is more, people do change. so do their relationships. especially when you are popular/a star. you have no other option but to change yourself according to mass wishes.

next thing i want to say is that we are talking about idols. a lot of things they do in their lives are... fanservice. and fanservice is their job. and their job gives them money. fanservice is quite a sensitive topic. i mean, which of their actions can be called fanservice and which - not? we'll never know. but we still need to remember that some things can be pre-planned and scripted. especially such things as skinship, loving eyes, loud words as "i love you more than anyone else", etc.

vmin. how do i see them?

i believe that many years ago they became friends. they are the same age. they wanted to make friends. their characters and views on the nearest future did match. they wanted to have fun. they needed someone to be close to and to support them. they were bandmates after all and spent 24 hours a day together. voila!

but. they were yound maximalists on the one hand. on the other hand, they were public figures. don't you want to make the most of your friendship? i mean, to show it to the whole world? ofc you do. that's how this "soulmates thing" came about.

and company which sees everything is not consisted of idiots. two members are good friends. they call themselves soulmates. their fans like it. what does the company need to do? ofc, push it. push it day after day. and make money on it. and when smth makes the company good money it will never let it go.

however people do change. and jimin and th changed. and here goes my secret perspective of them. truth to be told, i don't consider them close friends now. just colleages with a great bonding history behind their backs. and for me they are not close for at least 3 years.

fame is not a good thing. fame do change people. and it changed th for the worse. why only th? you may say that im just heavily jimin-biased (and i am), but some things th did actually speak volumes for me. i don't mean that jimin is some kind of an angel and th is a devil, but i see that th changed more. and his changes do not look good. jimin is also an idol after all and he craves popularity too but ig his human principles value more (as well as his desire to develop, to work more). while th seeks praise but doesnt want to push himself too hard. i believe they tried to find smth in common/smth that can again bring them together but failed. now they just don't try anymore. and it is visible.

i believe a lot of things th said about vmin and his love for jimin at the very beginning were true. but most things he said about his friendship with jimin from 2019 (or even earlier) to 2023 is... fanservice. there is no going back for them. now they need to play the role. their company still wants money from "soulmates". but when soulmates are not needed on the scene, jimin and th are nowhere to be found together. it doesn't mean they hate each other. as i said, they are time-tested colleagues with a good basis in the form of strong friendship. but... just colleagues. with the most unnatural hugs in public.

.

Hi anon I want to take you out on a date like a real date I want to wine and dine you better than a psychic fr you literally put my thoughts into words, hit me tf up I need some heavily jimin biased people on my blog.

[lorirwritesfanfic]

Re: the memorable scenes in fanfic, I did want to point out one of yours! I think these were three of the most memorable ones:

1. The final scene in "Heavy" where Liam remembers Jade speaking about how heavy the Crown seems and contemplating how it didn't truly hit him until the moment he was actually crowned, without her by his side.

2. In "Fate/Coincidences" when Hayden and Natasha are teasing each other over birthmarks being places where lovers from a past life kissed them 🥺

3. In "In Bloom", undoubtedly the scene where Hana comes out to Leo. I don't mind fics where she is paired up with a guy as long as there is acknowledgment and preferably exploration of her being queer and you made that an integral part of that fic, with such lovely support from Leo.

So glad to see you keeping on writing and thank you so much for telling me what was your fave scene!!

Thank you so much! I didn't reblog the memorable scene post because I wasn't so active this year (and 95% of followers are either inactive or follow me for the stuff I reblog), but thank you so much for sharing these.

It's kinda ironic Liam deserved better from writers given that TRR/TRH/TRF series only exists because of Liam, but we never get to see those moments of vulnerability from him. And when we do, it's always through someone's perspective (Drake, Leo and even Eleanor through a freaking letter from the beyond 🤦🏻‍♀️). It was heartbreaking for me that he was only allowed to shed one single tear once. The dude has been through so much, but he has to pretend he's fine even to his wife?! I love Liam dearly and whenever I have the chance, I will write a more realistic version of him.

I saw this thing about birthmarks here on Tumblr and I found it adorable. Choosing Hayden for this may have looked odd for anyone who didn't pay close attention to the story, buy who is to say matches don't have souls and past lives? His creators didn't even expect his personality to evolve the way it did, so I thought "why not?" 💕

Oh, my dear Hana... She's adorable as friend and as LI and everyone who says she's meh or weak is just heartless lol. I can't even begin to say how much I wish she had a decent character development (because she deserved it), but anyway... If only fanfic writers can do justice for her, I'll gladly be among them 💕 Hana's sexuality is still unclear to me and there are so many nuances that could be considered. I like to go for bi because the bisexual spectrum includes so much than attraction to men and women (no one ever thought she could be bisexual but not biromantic, or demisexual, etc). It's a fun subject for me.

Btw, I still don't know what the hell I had the night I thought Leo and Hana would make a good ship (... 😂), but I like building their relationship from scratch.

Thank you once again for this and I wish you a wonderful new year!

[hesitationss]

not to relate everything to JJK fkgjgkskwnfjf but in re: to my last post… i never thought gege was bashing the idea that patriarchy exists when they wrote that momo and nobara scene. and i think a lot of dumbasses (a large number of shonen readers <\3) really have the inability to comprehend text beyond what is presented plainly. like they really need the author to state a clear moral compass for them and whatever reinforces their misogyny. like i love nobara as a complex character and because i love hicks lol but anytime some1 says nobara is their fave because she denounces the existence of patriarchy and pulls herself up by the boot straps and is a BAMF i’m just like… i see </3

like i know i can be too into it sometimes (linking theory to my geto posts lol) but understanding social / political / life etc makes reading so much more interesting! like the mainstream jjk fandom imo is going to be like every other piece of media where the overt themes of anti conservatism are going to be completely missed in their nuanced explorations. like only if gojo is talking about the higher ups will readers and waychers be like “they’re causing problems and are bad” like actually it’s misogyny and capitalism in the context of jjk </3 when we are shown characters w ideologies like nobara or megumi, we are shown how they think and feel because they are imperfect and are already a part of the sorcery world in very specific contexts. working w flawed characters is just so interesting from a writing and reading perspective if only readers could read deeper into the text <\3 idk i just like thinking about the nobara and momo scene a lot and thinking about mai <3 as well as how nobara’s positionality and then knowing what happens w the zenin clan. like to me that was some of gege’s stronger writing and i think nobara is definitely coming back because the zenin thing is probably going to change hiw she sees jujutsu society idk… like the i think the jjk girls are really complex, but they mostly get boiled down to “because they’re strong” like okay… i also feel the need to add that i enjoy reading other ppls posts and meta even if it differs from mine, i am just a hater when it comes to the obviously misogynistic and one dimensional readings or “analysis’s” lol esp when i see women saying anti feminist things about nobara… i’m like, patriarchial brainwashing won’t even let you understand a fictional woman complexly to the point where you see her interesting flaws as moral superior signalling </3

[opbackgrounds]

so I was doing some research after watching movie 6...

...and apparently it was originally written as a comedy

Yeah, I was surprised, too

Baron Omatsuri is not my favorite One Piece movie—Film Z has too many of my favorite tropes to be usurped from that position—but I do think it is the most daring. Of all the supplemental material I’ve seen and read, it feels the least...One Piece-ish. 

Yes, that includes the noodle commercials. 

If you haven’t seen the movie and can stomach a little spookiness, do yourself a favor and give it a watch. Unlike movies like Strong World or Z that have the look and feel of a manga arc, Movie 6 transplants the Straw Hat Pirates into a world that doesn’t feel like a One Piece story, taking risks and exploring themes that would never fit in the manga proper. 

In addition to the obvious changes in art and animation style, there are supernatural elements that don’t make sense within the One Piece world. None of the Straw Hats win a fight—Luffy included, although he is heavily implied to have killed the big bad at the end. The moral of the movie, if it can be said to have a moral, is if you lose the people closest to you, the answer is to forget about them and make new friends. The story ends with many questions left unanswered and the main drama between the crew unresolved.

And, if you allow me to get philosophical for a moment, I wish there were more movies like it. As I wrote in my review of Novel A, I don’t go to supplemental material or side stories looking for a repeat of what’s in the manga. Oda has written 1000 chapters of One Piece—why not spice things up a little and try something different for a change?

I know the answer isn’t that simple, and by their very nature not all risks will pan out. There will be people who don’t like this movie because it’s different, both in look and tone. But there’s something to be said about a creator putting their heart and soul into a work and having it show in the final product. 

Which brings us back to the original premise. How does a movie go from a light-hearted comedy based on a variety show theme to...this

Baron Omatsuri was directed by Mamoru Hosoda and came out in 2005. To put that into perspective, the movie was in production when the Luffy vs Usopp fight was first seen in the manga. Manga!Luffy had not yet faced the challenge of an inter-crew disputes when the story was being written and boarded, nor did the creative team have the events of Sabaody and Marineford to see how Luffy would react to the loss of his loved ones. They were working without a full understanding of Luffy’s character, and to a lessor extent the character of the Straw Hat Pirates, and it seems like Oda was much less involved In production than has been in movies since Strong World and beyond. 

Likewise, Hosoda had just left a tumultuous situation at Studio Ghibli while working on Howl’s Moving Castle, and if this interview is anything to go by (https://instrangeaeonsblog.wordpress.com/2016/04/24/mamoru-hosoda-on-omatsuri-danshaku-animestyle-interview-part-1/) was going through a lot of personal shit when he was brought on as director. The script he was given was originally written like a variety show—something that was carried over into the various trials seen in the final movie—and meant to be a lighthearted affair after the relatively serious Movie 5 (which I have not seen am thus unable to compare tone). 

With that backstory in mind, it’s easy to see how the bickering and backbiting between the Straw Hats early in the movie is a metaphor for Hosoda’s time at Ghibli, which is something he admits to in the interview. Movie 6 feels different than any other One Piece movie because it’s the project of a man who has had to endure the loss of those who he was close with, at least in a professional capacity. 

There are moments in Movie 6 where Luffy doesn’t feel like Luffy. More than once a member of the Straw Hats ask him to intervene during arguments, moments Luffy either ignores or doesn’t notice. It’s a version of Water 7 where instead of fighting Usopp, Luffy ignores the underlying differences within his crew, and as a result loses everybody. 

The structure of the three trials follows a clear path of deterioration within the crew, the initial goldfish scooping game showing the Straw Hats at their best and inciting the jealousy of the Baron, the ring toss sowing discord among the crew even as they snatch a narrow victory, only for them to be utterly crushed in the third and final challenge as they’re unable help one another survive. 

It is somewhat implied that the Breaking of the Fellowship(TM) is magical in nature—that like the One Ring, the Lily Carnation was able to influence the Straw Hat’s thoughts and actions, but this is never stated outright and I prefer the more mundane interpretation: That without strong leadership the Straw Hats fell victim to the manipulative machinations of the Baron, and simply self-destructed as a result.  In the end, it’s up to the interpretation of the viewer. 

And speaking of things up to interpretation, I love how the Lily Carnation isn’t explained in the slightest. The plant that initially absorbs the Straw Hats looks more like the stem of a devil fruit than a flower, it for some reason rings like a gong when hit, and somehow is able to turn pieces of itself into facsimile of the Baron’s old crew who can somehow move around despite being plans. It’s weird, it’s wonderful, and the element of the unknown works so well in the horror-lite setting. 

My personal theory is the island somehow managed to eat a devil fruit which manifests itself as the Lily Carnation (which due to the L/R conflation in Japanese, is pronounced ‘reincarnation’, which I think is a nice touch of foreshadowing that may or may not have been intentional).

(Also, I can’t decide if little chewing animation it makes when it’s eating people or the weird bullseyes it makes when shit gets real are the most terrifying thing in the movie.)

Hmmm, tasty.

Anyway, this is getting long, so here are some final thoughts:

1) This movie has some low key fantastic outfits. The Straw Hats all look very cool without being over designed like a lot of recent movies. Big hat Robin is of course a fave, and makes me really want to see her in a Carmen Sandiego getup.

2) Screenshots do not do the animation of the movie justice. It’s very fluid and has a lot of excellent expressions/poses, although I admit the 3D is jarring at times. Do not let the art put you off if you haven’t seen it 

3) Also, I don’t think there’s any shading? Like at all? The movie does a lot of cool stuff with color instead. For example, the scene where Luffy initially loses to the Baron his skin goes all grey, and I thought it was because he was fighting at night, but it stays grey even in the better lighting of the underground tunnels and stays that way until he finds out the Straw Hats are still alive, where it returns to his normal color

4) There’s an extended Benny Hill-type gag when Luffy first chases after the little mustache pirate that’s perfectly timed to the music, and ends when Luffy just uses his power to grab him. The comedic timing is amazing and it’s probably my favorite funny moment in the movie, of which there are several despite the overall darker tone

5) The extended jungle shot from Nami’s POV? Very cool

6) I love how from the earliest scenes nothing is as it seems. The opening text is Robin reading the map, but the storm that’s seen on screen is the one that sank the Baron’s crew. Likewise the whole fancy city is shown to be fake panels early on, the goldfish catching game is a trap, etc., etc. It does a good job clueing the viewer in early that’s something’s very wrong on the island, even if they don’t realize it at first

7) I don’t think this type of movie would work in modern One Piece without somehow nerfing Luffy. Horror works best when the protagonist is weak and vulnerable, and that fits best with a pre-Gear 2/3 Luffy (same with the rest of the crew, tbh. I was waiting for Nami to use her lightning stick during the games, forgetting it hadn’t been boosted yet). 

8) I like how there are four captains on the island representing different levels of loss—the Baron has lost his crew and wants to destroy all others because of it, mustache pirate lost his crew and is willing to put it behind him to make new friends, Luffy has freshly lost his crew and hasn’t decided what path he will go, and coward dad hasn’t lost his crew yet but is at risk if he doesn’t change his cowardly ways

9) I think the reason why Chopper was the first Straw Hat to disappear is he’s the most likely to play the part of peacemaker. He’s also the only crew member needing rescuing at the end of the goldfish scoop game, when Luffy foolishly puts his life at risk trying to save him from drowning, just like he recklessly charges the Baron at the end of the movie. Except that time there was no Sanji to save him, leaving Luffy to get his ass thoroughly kicked

10) This is a very good Halloween movie, and I’m glad I watched it in October

[liyuesbian]

AAAA kokomi quest time :>

same here I thought it was a pretty solid quest overall!! agree that the first half was kinda eh because she just felt too Nice about everything, a little too willing to help people instead of saying "i have some stuff to prepare and am not available rn" (when the Watatsumi citizens were crowding around Traveler and her, I had flashbacks to Barbara's hangout event rip). but the second half got better thankfully. I think even though there's no morally gray kokomi, they still gave her character some flair that's different from before? like you said, the thing where she's forced by heritage to be the divine priestess but doesn't actually want to; i quite liked that, since although she's emotionally drained from her job, she's not like Jean or other characters that sacrifice themselves because they truly like their job and want to help people in that way. kokomi helps people out of obligation and would much rather be doing military strategizing and i love that for her. I want her to be a bit more selfish too, even if it's not in a villainous kind of way; perhaps a scenario where she pulls a xingqiu and just becomes a military strategist/general instead of the job she inherited (actually her and xq would be really interesting together, even if xingqiu doesn't reveal that he's the legend of sword author lol). somehow she gives me only child vibes hahsdjfs

agree!! when she said "it would be so nice if all my work could do itself" I Felt that :') her moments of childishness are very endearing 😌

YEAH the war was finally addressed in some capacity and the Not All Is Well mood, especially the mixed opinions in Watatsumi among both civilians and the soldiers. also agree that the npc opinions were very good and it's nice that some of them are dissatisfied for different reasons, like that old woman you mentioned talking about Watatsumi's god vs the soldier's grievances against the Tenryou Commission! It's not just quietly resolved and that's way better than how the ei quest went hsdfjs. I also loved kokomi's and sara's scene hsdjfsd I was surprised but thankful they actually showed them negotiating the treaty terms instead of just doing a cutscene and illustrating that kokomi (and sara) are good diplomats and know their stuff. they need to put their brains on display more. the quest is also warming me up to kokosara lol

it's fine villain kokomi lives on in our hearts (or in aus lmao)

also expand on kokomi and hu tao? o-o they sound interesting

-mystic

OH YEAH i forgot about barbara's hangout event !

mhm my thoughts exactly. omg i never thought about that.. her and xingqiu would make such great friends! the indirect interaction through his book ties everything together well too :O i'm thinking the whole author-book lover dynamic ajiodfsfiadjn kokomi gushing over her favourite author, [xingqiu's pseudonym]. OR maybe a modern au where kkm is xq's editor?! OR her as a super fan and beta reader?! honestly, kkm and xq are one of my favourite characters so far and it'd rly make me happy to see them interacting 😭 OH did u happen to see this fanart of the hydro gang in a book club? (while i was trying to find the link to the post, i also found this gem! AHHH they're both so cute!)

they rly are!

yep yep haha O I FORGOT 2 TALK ABT THAT KOKOSARA MOMENT !!! i agree, that scene showed us all that kkm is very much capable in doing her job despite it not being her first choice in career.

yes (!!! hmm this is giving me ideas for kokosara angst hc.. after the negotiations are over and peace has somewhat returned between both sides, kkm stabs them in the back, sara hurt by the betrayal and kkm seemingly cold-hearted and stern-faced, unaffected by the situation saying it was all necessary as the divine priestess, the current heiress of sanganomiya, to carry out the will of her ancestors and to sustain the protection of her people in watatsumi but deep down she knows she doesn't want to do this (the same canon wanting to stray away from her lineage). either way, it is too late now. the destruction of the shogun's govt and her vision of eternity was always meant to happen in due time.)

as for kokotao, i think what initially attracted me to their ship is similar to what first drew me to kokosara...

right off the bat, their clashing visuals/aesthetics HAHAHA

hu tao would totally be down to read kkm books as she falls asleep, kkm would do the same too! (if she can get ht to sleep that is lol)

their clashing personalities and way of thinking, ht's chaotic mindset and kkm's well-planned and tactician-like abilities... even their food preferences differ too! (god, reading their voice lines for kkm's least/ht's fave food srsly makes me think they were made for each other)

i think in a modern au (and in genshin too i guess), they'd be great "business" partners. as in, they kind of make up for what the other lacks (in both a domestic and working way) - kkm's strategic skills could be used to bring more customers in for hu tao and hu tao would be able to deal with the social side of kkm's job (just thinking about it makes me swoon, they'd be so in love)

let's be real here, i think kkm would be p easy to tease and ht would have tons of fun pranking her and telling her jokes etc.

in a gameplay perspective, ht loses hp and kkm is a healer !! (aww only true gfs fight alongside each other)

in the same way hydro puts out pyro, kkm can reign ht in when it get's a little too much (but not in a way where she's stopping ht from being who she is if ygm) and vice versa for ht being able to "give" kkm a bit of her own energy

I THINK THEY'D MAKE A FORMIDABLE DUO WHEN PLAYING FPS GAMES (AND LASER TAG/PAINTBALL TOO)

there's probably a lot more but those are my reasons for now haha

[goblins-riddles-or-frocks]

Grishaverse for the fandom ask

the character I least understand

Hmmm I don’t think any of them are particularly opaque. I suppose from the main crew, Alina, not from the perspective of “I don’t understand her as a character” but more like she’s just decidedly the opposite kind of person as I am.

If we’re counting more ancillary characters, then the Apparat. Like bro... what are you doing? Again, he’s not opaque, but he’s also not particularly fleshed out, and I’d love more information on him. Creepy, religiously motivated characters are a lot of fun for me, and I love the weird place he briefly occupied in the narrative between minor antagonist and uneasy ally.

interactions I enjoyed the most

Alina’s time training with Baghra! Also Baghra’s interactions with the Darkling. She’s generally a really interesting character.

the character who scares me the most

None... of them? I guess the obligatory answer is supposed to be the Darkling because murder, fascism, burning down orphanages, etc. But as a character he’s just extremely funny to me.

the character who is most like me

I don’t particularly identify with any of them! Maybe Genya? But also not really.

hottest looks character

Zoya has the strongest hot girl energy lmao

one thing I dislike about my fave character

Alina is so steeped in mid 2000s Not Like Other Girls mentality. She has a variety of interesting flaws but they’re never fully addressed. Meanwhile she’s troubled the entire time by this very YA fear of corruption (over some incredibly mundane things tbh) that prevents her from making many interesting choices or really exploring any sort of darker aspect of her personality in a genuine way. I think she had the potential to be a much more interesting character, both emotionally, and with regards to her narrative decisions. But ah well.

one thing I like about my hated character

I don’t hate him, but the most aggravating character for me was definitely Mal. Like yes the Darkling’s got disney villain ridiculous evilness going on, but it’s fun. And the Tsar while extremely vile, also was too much of a no factor into the plot to matter much beyond “gross and two dimensional”

But yeah Mal annoyed me the most. That being said his tragic bodyguard thing he had going on in Ruin & Rising were fun, and I actually liked the fairytale protagonist vibes he had with Alina when they were on the run in Shadow & Bone.

a quote or scene that haunts me

Honestly the climactic battle up to and especially when she stabs Mal is really good. And as much as I dislike Alina losing her powers/the ending she got, I do love the moment where the Darkling realizes that she’s removed herself from the equation, and he’s going to be forever alone. And then she kills him lol. His death scene is also great imo.

a death that left me indifferent

I think the books in general aren’t great about portraying the magnitude of mass casualties. Like the deaths aboard the sand skiffs in S&B and the massacre at the end of S&S weren’t really emotional.

a character I wish died but didn’t

MAL SHOULD’VE STAYED DEAD

Like... way to undercut any emotional gravity that scene had. And the idea that she has to kill him to wear his bones as an amplifier to complete her magic and defeat the Darkling was so horribly macabre. And I was initially delighted that the book was actually going through with it! So just going back on that with Deus Ex Machina resurrection was extremely annoying. Either kill him or don’t, this fakeout was just felt cowardly.

my ship that never sailed

I liked Nikolina a lot as a tragic endgame, where they pick up the pieces together, and aren’t initially sure if they even like are actually into each other. Slow burn, marriage of convenience angst etc

Also Genyalina, because they were clearly in love. Also Zoyalina for the rivalry dynamic.

Send me a fandom for my thoughts on it!

[captain-of-the-historicfuture]

~hello~ !! For the meta asks!: 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, and 25 :))

Hello!! Thank you for sending these; I was really excited to see that ask game and I was hoping somebody would send some in. It still took me a while to actually answer them though, and for that I apologise. But without further ado! Some meta answers (under the cut because they ended up being fairly long, whoops):

3. What is that one scene that you’ve always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all of the set-up and context it would need? (Consider this permission to write it and/or share it anyway.)

I thought of a few examples, but they could basically be grouped together under a common theme: whumpy/angsty scenes that were self-indulgent as all heck. The whole self-indulgent aspect often required the characters to be just the teeniest, tiniest bit OOC and/or necessitated rather unrealistic plot circumstances. So it was simply easier to keep such scenes as maladaptive daydreams, rather than trying to think of explanations for the character/plot issues…or exposing myself to judgement for them LOL.

Receiving permission to write/share one such scene anyway is an opportunity I can’t let slip by though. It might be because I’m writing this while running on zero (0) hours of sleep—let’s hear it for insomnia, y’all!—but I suddenly couldn’t remember any of my newer ideas under this category. However, I did recall a one-shot I had started writing a couple of months ago that sort of counts? “Sort of” because I could actually be arsed to write it since I was, ya know, writing it. Only got about six hundred words down though.

…should I share those six hundred words…?

………nahhh. I don’t think I’m quite ready for that yet.

But here’s the gist of it: Coulson and May (because of course it’s Philinda) were married for quite some time before the Attack on New York. But then Coulson DiedTM and then got ResurrectedTM. But gasp of horror, he had to lose his memories of his romantic relationship with May because reasons. (I actually did have some ideas for those reasons but sshhhh this is about me yeeting context and setup.)

The first half of S1 still happens as normal (except MayWard doesn’t happen because??? Vows) and it’s now post-E20 “Nothing Personal”. The morning after (or a morning soon after, whatever) the T.A.H.I.T.I. reveal! May’s mom—who doesn’t know about GH.325 and whom May fed a cover story about Coulson divorcing her or something equally as oof, IDK—shows up at the hotel and starts ripping into Coulson for breaking her daughter’s heart, then dragging her back into the field with her ex-husband (him), then accusing her of terrible things and forcing her away again.

Poor guy’s confused as heck, and so is the team, and soon enough so is Lian. The only one who understands what’s going on is May, and she’s freaking dying off to the side like why is this happening to me and eventually everybody’s like! Explain??? (Was thinking about including something from Coulson like, “Are you still keeping things from me?” Just for that extra smidge of angst, yay!)

So yeah then May gives a, like, two-sentence debriefing that elicits more questions than answers. Coulson decides to take May aside and they have a heart-to-heart. Lots of feelings and angst and hurt/comfort and at some point plenty of kissing too. Just! May hiding her feelings for Coulson’s sake but really magnified, plus some actual apologies and consideration of the grief May’s been through on Coulson’s part.

And uhh yeah that’s basically it I dunno hdsjncjshd. I warned y’all it’s OOC, plot-bendy, and very self-indulgent!

6. What character do you have the most fun writing?

I don’t think I could name a single character for this. I get different things out of taking on different voices, you know? I guess recently I’ve found myself gravitating towards more taciturn and introspective points of view, like JQ from my original novel Rosewood or M. Yisbon from my…other original novel Temple.

Generally, however, I like tackling stories from an outsider’s perspective. That’s why I so rarely write my more “substantial” (serious? demanding? for lack of better words?) projects from the PoV of my “preferred” character. This usually means writing from their love interest’s perspective, but not always. With shorter fanfic, using a more removed/unconventional/niche PoV can be really fun. Like, I once wrote a canon compliant ficlet purely(-ish) about Philinda from Tony Stark’s perspective. That isn’t always sustainable with stories that demand more character development or closer character studies, however, which is why it’s a good thing I like writing drabbles!

9. Are you more of a drabble or a longfic kind of writer? Pantser or plotter? Do you wish you were the other?

My word counts tend to run long, but I usually only write one-shots for fanfic. If I’m even inspired with a novella- or novel-length story idea for a fandom, you already know I’m in deep with them. And if I actually find the motivation to plan and execute that idea? Dangg. That’s only ever happened…twice, maybe thrice, and I’m in a lot of fandoms.

At times, I wish I could go for more of a middle ground ’cause, like, you know what I love to see? An AO3 dashboard with several completed novellas for my ship/character of choice. I mean yes, I hecking love >90k fics, but sometimes I’m in the mood for quick reads…and what am I supposed to do when I burn through all the drabbles and 2k one-shots? (Besides despair and/or reread my faves desperately.) Novellas are basically always safe for me LOL, and I’d hope to be able to give as much as I take.

Ultimately though, I think I’m okay with where I am with regards to that. I wish I could write more in general, but I’d be okay with “writing more” just meaning “writing more one-shots”, ya know? More than okay, really. I have mad respect for fic writers who have, like, a hundred or more one-shots under their belt for this one ship. The fandom ecosystem would be incomplete without them (as well as every other type of writer, but sshhh that’s the type of writer I’m closest to being right now).

I’m definitely a plotter, and I definitely prefer it that way. It’s cool having such a detailed record of my process. I like feeling like a frazzled genius on the brink of a major discovery with all of my different outlines and colour coding and many drafts and various websites.

12. Do you want your writing to be famous?

Not exactly. It might be cool if my original works were recognisable in the world, but I don’t think I’d want to be recognisable. As for fanfic, I’d low-key enjoy gaining a place in that fandom’s community as a fic writer. Like someone who gave and got fic gifts from fic writer friends, who participated in challenges and GCs, who received writing prompts on Tumblr, whose name was known for doing a certain trope/genre a bunch of times… Ya know what I mean?

Unlikely to happen when I’m so hecking hesitant to publicly (i.e., outside of AO3) claim credit for my writing, but fjnskfsjhfjs. A writer can dream, right?

15. Which is harder: titles or summaries (or tags)?

Of those three, tags are the easiest for me, for I have a reliable system for figuring out those.

Next easiest would probably be titles. For fanfiction, I like to use titles that are a quote from the source material. You should have seen all of my old Hamilton fanfic… I was really proud of some of those titles. And I don’t mean, like, whole lines—usually only two to five words. It’s a unique type of wordplay that I just love dabbling in.

And lastly, summaries. Sometimes inspiration strikes me and a snappy and intriguing synopsis just jumps out—one that I’m quietly pleased with—but most of the time I’ll spend way too long trying to think of such a synopsis and eventually just go with whatever I’d come up with so far. And live with my quiet dissatisfaction for the rest of time.

18. Do any of your stories have alternative versions? (Plotlines that you abandoned, AUs of your own work, different characterisations...?) Tell us about them!

Typically, no. If I have deleted scenes, I save and publish them separately, but that’s about it. I sometimes think of AUs for my own work and might talk about them in my author’s notes—might even talk about writing them—but I never really do anything with them.

Although…

It’s not uncommon for me to decide a plotline isn’t working for a certain story or to think of an interesting but undoable arc for a certain character, but what I’ll do is make a whole new story for those ideas. Once I’m done developing the original idea and the branched-off one, you probably wouldn’t be able to tell they grew from the same roots. Does that count?

21. What other medium do you think your story would work well as (film, webcomic, animated series, etc.)?

That depends on the story. I’ve actually written stories in other mediums—movie screenplay, musical stageplay, poetry, TV show scripts, play scripts, roleplay—but the novel does tend to be my comfort zone. Sometimes, if I have an idea that I think could work, or would even work better, as another medium, I’ll label it as such in my folder of ideas and decide not to write it as a novel.

Most of the time, my non-book projects are collaborations. I’m working with five different people on six different story ideas: two webcomics, one stage musical, one anime, and two animated TV shows. Little concrete progress has been made in any of those, mind you, but they’re still fun to discuss!

24. Would you say your writing has changed over time?

Absolutely. But I’ve been writing stories since I was five years old, so we would hope so, huh?

I wouldn’t say my writing’s changed completely, though maybe that’s just my insider’s perspective.

25. What part of writing is the most fun?

Oh gosh, I can’t believe you’d make me choose. Writing is just such a wonderful experience for me; I love just about everything to do with it. Admittedly, not all the time, but. Since that barely qualifies as an answer, however, I’ll give you this—

The endings. Not only that intense feeling of rightness when you wrap up that last sentence, but also the moments before. The adrenaline of knowing you’re almost there but you gotta push just a bit more to actually get there. And also the part right after—the real wrap-up, honestly: the revision and the editing. Heavens, I love revising and editing my work.

Which is not to say I don’t like writing it out for the first time, too—there’s nothing quite like seeing your cursor scroll to the next page, like going from a blank expanse to a Oh man, how many more lines are even going to fit on this page?, like watching that page counter tick up another number. However, there’s something cathartic about finally ironing out those problems I had to force myself to stop worrying about earlier because “just finish the first draft dangit”.

I guess that’s not really the end of the writing process, but whatever. Close enough (as fic writers are wont to say).

Another thank-you for these asks, and feel free to come back with more at any time! ;P

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