#he taught me shadowboxing basics

[velvet-games]

more vox and vel things based on me n my bro

[prophecydungeon]

answer 3 questions from the fic writer meme that you didn't get asked and want to answer

oh this is a great way to do an ask meme, thank u

1. Describe your comfort zone — a typical you-fic.

canonverse codafic/"filling the gap"/extended scene, picking at a small detail until i can connect the dots in some wacky way, somebody has a Bad Time and then they have a Great Time, meticulous placement within canon (occasionally to my own detriment when writing).

7. Share a snippet from one of your favorite pieces of prose you've written and explain why you're proud of it.

EXTREMELY proud of this one:

("What's that for?" Sanji asks, early on, sometime in the vague past after Arlong Park but before they'd entered the Grand Line. "What," Zoro grunts back. He's shining with sweat here too, done with training; later Sanji will call this shadowboxing but with a sword and they'll squabble over it. "You always flick your sword like that," Sanji says, mimicking the motion with the edge of a hand before he digs in a pocket for his cigarettes. "Why?" Zoro shrugs. "It's what you're supposed to do," he answers. Sanji tips his head thoughtfully as he lights up. Even after so little time, Zoro does not strike him particularly as the type of person to do things without a practical reason. Zoro narrows his eyes right back. "Plenty of weird shit you do in the galley, you don't see me crawling up your ass about it." "Excuse me for being curious," Sanji snaps back around a ribbon of smoke. Zoro levels him with a look – and then he draws, swift and fluid, and Sanji blocks the cleaving strike with a heel on instinct. It had enough force to kill, but no real intent; Zoro trusted Sanji to block. Only later will Sanji realize the weight of this. Zoro's thunderhead eyes never leave Sanji's as he eases the pressure beating down on Sanji's heel, and Sanji breaks eye contact shamelessly to watch as Zoro pointedly brings his sword up before him and then down with a sharp snap of his elbow. He holds the sheath in his free hand and draws the spine of the sword carefully, almost languidly against the notch between his thumb and forefinger before sheathing it slowly till the hilt sinks home with a quiet click. The muscles in his forearm flex. Smoke slinks out quietly from between Sanji's lips. He meets Zoro’s eyes. Sanji thinks: this is a ritual like everything Zeff has ever taught me. The purpose is in its existence. There's nothing unpragmatic about that. And he thinks: yeah, he thinks— yeah, buried to the hilt; I could do that.)

this is A Good One in my books because it was so fun for me to write; the sword choreo in opla was soooooo so so so good and really reignited my interest in Sord (ask me about my new hobby :D), and in particular there are some really great shots emphasizing both chiburi and nōtō that got me so fired up that this passage was the result.

more in-universe-ly, i think this is precisely the kind of thing that sanji would really "get" about swordsmanship; you care for your tools and your space when you cook, you care for your swords when you use them, every decision or recipe or ritual has a purpose and a history. also, obligatory Phallic Sword Moment.

26. Do you beta yourself? If so, what kind of beta are you?

this question is phrased so ambiguously that i'm not actually sure if it's meant to be "do you beta your own fics" or "do you yourself also beta fics for others" but the answer to both is yes!

i really love betaing and editing in general; i copyedit For Fun for a local group, this is something i really enjoy doing. i don't beta other's work very often, just because most of my friends either edit their own stuff or would need betaing help that would require canon knowledge i don't have, but i am basically literally always down to do it.

i would say that i'm pretty aggressive when i'm editing, in the sense that i will not hesitate to cut massive chunks or recognize that something needs to be fleshed out more, and i don't let myself get away with halfassing something an important moment that would end up like using hot glue to assemble ikea furniture. when i beta for others, i always ask if they want a typo/grammar check or something deeper because i will rip your work to shreds if you ask me to, but ONLY if you ask.