#i definitely did not expect that kind of response from that ask haha thank you!

[moonspirit]

For that send a ship thing, I was hoping Levihan, but if you don't ship them then eremika??

(or maybe AruAni?)

Hiya!

And I definitely do ship Levihan haha xD So here goes:

{Edit: Whenever Hange is referred to as "she", please feel free to read as "them" if you prefer! I revert to using "she" by default because I've been doing it for a long time :<}

Who said “I love you” first

The way I see it, Hange probably always says "I love youuuuu" in that casual unserious kind of way - and its not just Levi who hears it, it's everyone. She needs someone to do her a task? It's a "Hey will you please do this for me, oh you will? Great, thanks I love youuuu~~"

Similarly Levi gets "I love youuuu~s" every so often when she's being annoying and needs him to put up with her rambling.

But the Real "I love you" probably comes first from Levi himself. It's hard to get him to be vulnerable with words, simply because he's a man of few words in the first place, but he says it quietly, and from his heart, taking Hange by surprise. There's no doubt he means every bit of it, and suddenly, she can't really come up with any silly joke to laugh it off.

Who would have the other’s picture as their phone background

Hange, lol. Levi looking grumpy and tired and cute, that's her wallpaper. He on the other hand, probably has a picture of the sunset (because he's secretly a sentimental man, but shhhh) with a shopping list widget stuck on the side so it's easy for him to see what he's got to do grocery runs for.

Who leaves notes written in fog on the bathroom mirror

Hange. And Levi fucking hates it because by the time he's reading it, the words are getting all runny and watery and blurring off, and asking her what the fuck she wrote on the mirror only gets him a "teehee! you're so slow, levi!" in response.

Who buys the other cheesy gifts

Listen, listen. I know it's easy to say Levi would get Hange very functional and useful gifts, but the man is a soppy romantic at heart. He's the one getting her a boquet of flowers, doing her a candle-lit dinner, and maybe a box of chocolates for valentines. It's his old-school gentlemanly side kicking in every time he goes gift-shopping. Hange on the other hand? Maybe a free-hot-springs gift voucher or a pair of boxers with rainbow ducks on them for him. She's a scientist, for god's sakes, don't expect her to spend time picking out the best gifts! (Secretly he finds them all cute).

Who initiated the first kiss

It was an accident. She meant to kiss him on the cheek, he turned, and smack, there it goes on the lips. She's shocked because that wasn't what she'd planned to do, and she's worried Levi will storm off, finding it to be crossing a line they've never spoken about crossing - and Levi would be disappointed inside, because that's not how he'd planned on kissing her, carelessly and without enough emotion put in. But accident it is, and now maybe they'll finally fucking talk about that stupid line - and cross it.

Once they recover, ofc.

Who kisses the other awake in the morning

Levi. I did say he's a romantic at heart. Hange sleeps late and wakes late, she's all over the bed and drooling into her pillow, he's the one getting up early to get the coffee and breakfast going. So he gives her a kiss with a scratchy "it's morning. wake up." before heading to the bathroom (because brushing teeth and shower comes first before anything else).

Who starts tickle fights

Hange! And she always loses! Cuz she's all pomp and victory at first but she's the ticklish one, not him, so when he finds an opening and stops grumbling, it's game over for her.

Who asks who if they can join the other in the shower

Hange. Because she's running late, she's got an experiment to get started on in her lab or a lecture to give, and she's got no time to wait until Levi finishes scrubbing himself spotlessly clean. So she asks him if she can join, and is stripping before he even says yes, prancing into the steamed-up bathroom shortly after.

Who surprises the other in the middle of the day at work with lunch

Levi. Because Hange forgets to eat when she's neck-deep in a lab-test or studying the results of a hypothesis. So he's there with all the food she hates, because she sucks at nutrition and whatnot, and she needs to get something in her system besides just junk. But he does have a very nice milkshake for her he thinks tastes like shit. But she loves it, and he loves her, and as long as she's polished off that broccoli piece she's trying to hide, then it's okay.

Who was nervous and shy on the first date

Levi!!! Romantic at heart, didn't I say! Is secretly worried and bothered about making sure Hange has a good time! Genuinely wants her to really enjoy the date, and make it as memorable as possible!

Not that you could tell any of this from his "fuck-this-shit-I'm-out" face.

Who kills/takes out the spiders

Levi. No spiders are taking up residence in his house. Nu uh. He doesn't want the cobwebs and spider eggs. Besides, he feels bad shooing them off or killing them. Better not to have them in the first place.

Who loudly proclaims their love when they’re drunk

Hange. She does it even when not drunk. Need I say more?

[suzukiblu]

hi! i have a question for you, if that’s ok? i always try to leave comments on fics i read, especially on ao3 where it’s really easy to do that. in other fandoms i’ve been in, before getting into dc, fic authors often responded to my comments on their works and it was pretty easy to make friends through that and other social media and have lots of fun interactions talking about the fandom and our favorite characters etc.

however, i’ve found with this fandom it seems to be very different? almost nobody seems to respond to comments on their fics and i’ve found it very difficult to make any fandom friends, even in a casual-tumblr-mutuals kind of way. (this isn’t about you btw, you seem like the friendliest person i’ve come across on here so far which is why i’m asking you haha)

i completely understand many people are busy or some authors may find responding to comments overwhelming, but i was just wondering if this is something you or anyone else has noticed? is it a quirk of the dc fandom in particular? or am i just getting older and fandoms in general are changing haha, idk.

anyway sorry for the long ramble, feel free to ignore if i’m making no sense. i really enjoy all your stories (and your art! your art style is so cute!) and i hope you’re having a great day :]

Thank you, I'm glad you like my stuff! Especially the art, that I always feel like I'm worse at, hah. ❤️ I hope you're having a great day too. And asking me questions is always okay, no worries! I can't always get to everything in my inbox, to be honest, but I do my best to respond to as much stuff as I can. Either way, though, I never mind getting questions.

Personally I don't currently respond to most of my comments (I try to answer questions that aren't spoilers, but that's usually it these days) because it's just really easy for me to run out of spoons doing it and end up down a rabbit hole of comments instead of actually WRITING, which stresses me out because then I don't feel suitably "productive" for my imposter syndrome brain, and I also know a few people who don't respond because of anxiety or things like that, but I don't know if it's specifically a DC fandom thing or an overall trend in fandom in general? Every fandom is different, obviously, and also certain SECTIONS of those fandoms are different. Like, when I was into MCU fandom, I never really expected super-involved responses when I wrote Stucky because there was SO MUCH Stucky that it seemed like a lot of people just kinda churned through it and it all blurred together for them, but when I wrote about Darcy Lewis oh BOY did people come out of the woodwork to tell me how much they loved it in GREAT detail. Having a niche in general helps, I think, because if you're doing something that isn't super-common or interested in something that isn't super-common, people will be more excited to see it from you or hear you appreciating it from them.

I WILL say there's only a couple DC authors I can currently think of who I generally assume I'll get replies from when I comment on their fic, but I don't know if that's the specific fandom or just that I'm not reading a ton of fic right now and therefore have a smaller pool of authors I'm commenting on. Like, it's hard to tell, honestly. Also DC is a very widespread fandom and pretty old and established, but there's definitely characters and series and canons that just get ignored by huge chunks of it, so if you're into them you either have a real easy time finding people who are excited to talk to you or a real HARD time, depending on where you're looking.

Either way, I think it's really great that you try to leave comments on everything you read and a really good habit for the fandom ecosystem, I know a TON of authors who appreciate getting even, like, a single friggin' emoji or kudos, whether they respond or not. Literally any not-a-hate-comment comment is good for the ecosystem, imo, even when it's not obvious that it is. I very literally once wrote, like, eighty thousand words pretty much just because someone left a very kind comment on an old fic I'd abandoned. I did not actually RESPOND to that comment, as far as I remember; I just changed my mind about abandoning the fic and went through the long-ass process of getting my brain back into it and then the even longer-ass process of writing another 80k over the next few months/year until I got to the end. So like, I VERY much am a person who believes in the value of feeding the ecosystem, hah.

I am largely a call-and-response type of writer myself, so like, getting comments or people talking to me in my replies/asks/messages is basically like somebody is putting tokens in the fic machine and pulling a lever, and we'll all just see if I write three sentences or 80k or secretly tailor a fic towards things a frequent commenter's mentioned appreciating/being into. It's a surprise every time, with me!! And like, that's just how I work, of course, everybody's different, but I have NEVER met anybody who told me they didn't like getting comments.

When I leave comments myself, I tend to feel like more like I'm just telling the author that I think they're on the right track with the thing they're writing, one way or another, and letting them know it got a reaction or feelings or the like out of me, but I'm generally not really expecting a response from them. For actually making friends, I've found MUCH more luck in talking to people on Tumblr and Discord than on AO3. I've made friends on AO3 on and off over the years, but it's just much, MUCH easier for me to do on Tumblr and Discord. Though I kind of have a cheat code there in the sense that I'm a pretty prolific writer and so I've kinda encouraged people to get into the habit of checking my blog pretty frequently or even put alerts on for it, so generally people have a lot of opportunities to talk to me or be reminded I'm around.

I tend to notice people who show up repeatedly in my Tumblr mentions, personally, especially when they talk in the tags or comment in the replies or send me asks, and some of them I've either become friends with or just, like, secretly adopted as secret faves and sometimes sneak little extra treats of Things I Think That One Tumblr Person Would Like into my writing or pick specific WIPs to work on because I think "hey last time I wrote this [ TUMBLR FAVE ] really liked it, I should write more!" (and then I cackle in triumph/delight when they reblog it later, for that is a Victory, mwahaha), but like, it's a process? I definitely feel like making friends in fandom is generally slower than it was once upon a time, but also I'm a Fandom Old so there's been a few migrations and such over my time online too. And also Discord confuses me, hahaha. Discord is VERY confusing to me.

Ummm . . . okay I got INTO that reply, I guess, lol, but I hope that answered your question? Or at least helped answer it, if nothing else!

[danieyells]

I'm the anon who asked for the Taiga lines, thank you so much for sharing!

I did not have much thoughts on Taiga before, other than him being surprisingly chill despite being a lil freaky but omg seeing his max affinity line along with his line on the ditched future.... the angst is unmatched.

You're stuck with him till death do us part? Whether you like it or not? Especially in a time loop situation, imagine that either of them have a high likelihood of dying within the year. One or both of them have tried to fix it, to no avail. Maybe they were a thing in one of the loops but only Taiga (vaguely) remembers it and that would make the max affinity line extra bittersweet because he's only succeeded at freaking out MC in the current timeline lol.

Maybe Taiga was invested in saving (everyone? himself? mc?) before but no matter what he does nothing changes? iirc he was an exemplary student going on a ton of missions to find anomalies, maybe he thought one of the random anomalies out there had something to do with their situation? But at some point between then and now he stopped giving a shit.

Also I find it interesting how the ghouls are constantly destroying anomalies instead of capturing them. It could be that they just don't give 2 fucks but also can't help but wonder if maybe the older ghouls have some kinda truce like don't bring back any anomalies if you can help it, nothing good can happen by giving the academy/institute more info on these things (bc at the very least Leo in the prologue implies the people up top are responsible for whatever messed up situation they were in, and he's the most likely person to uncover a conspiracy with his skillset + Jin and Tohma want to dethrone his dad as director or whatever his position was, possibly also found out smth behind the scenes)

It's all just speculation but god they are so good a pulling me around by the nose with this mystery when I had 0 expectations of this game (I mean, it still kinda sucks gameplay-wise but the story is so good)

Can't wait for new chapter soon, tho rn I am in gacha hell with wuwa, 18trip and gakuenmas.......

Thank you for being patient about them! I love Taiga so much hahaha

Yeah, the potential is there for this to be something big and for Taiga to be heavily involved in it, or at least the person who's most aware of it so far(Jin's "i know this won't last forever" line also kind of carries the implication that he knows but that has many other explanations.) It would probably be more angst-heavy if his memory weren't garbage lmaooooo THEN AGAIN maybe he'll remember you forever now that he loves you as much as he does haha. He definitely didn't remember you before this, or he didn't show any sign of remembering, so if he knew you in another timeline or you were together in another timeline i suspect he forgot, just like with everything.

As for dying, the PC is going to die within the next year if their curse isn't lifted and the prologue shows that someone else dies in the destruction of the school with the pc still alive(so either before the year is up or after the curse is lifted). So they both definitely have the potential to die in that period of time, if nothing is done to change the future. . ."if death do us part" is something Taiga very well might know will happen eventually. In fact, if his stigma actually does allow him to see the future like I'm beginning to suspect, he might know that that's what going to happen. I mean everybody dies eventually but I mean outside of a natural death.

From what Hyde says(I checked both Japanese and English) Taiga used to play more of an active part in the past, so yeah it seems like he's lost some of his enthusiasm. . .although it's very likely he's referring to that Sinostra's on probation and he can't go on missions at all right now, considering just a few months prior he was on a mission and seemed plenty enthusiastic. But as far as operating as captain goes(he's only been captain for around 6 months as of the start of the Sinostra chapter) it seems like he doesn't put any effort in. . .according to Romeo he only cares about anomalies and gambling, but if that were true he wouldn't care to tell you about the spy because he wouldn't even know. (Romeo also says he doesn't go after humans anymore which is. . .not true, so Romeo may just be blissfully unaware since their relationship is so bad these days.)

It'd make sense if this lack of enthusiasm arose from seeing an unfavorable future and thinking it isn't worth it to try at this point. He does say he's been telling someone(likely Romeo) that things will fall apart if they keep going the way they have been but since that person's been uncooperative with making changes he doesn't see a way things will change. . . .so why should he put in work? I assume he can see the future, not travel through it--hence 'ditch this future' he's simply refusing to play any part in impacting it. Even when he jumps from the ledge in the prologue if you choose to save him, he asks what he could have done to change things. I wonder how long he's been trying.

he doesn't even talk the same was he normally does, so you know it's kinda serious. He would love to know how to prevent this.

As for ghouls destroying anomalies, I think it's a matter of safety in the situation as well as a general lack of powers that can actually capture the anomalies. Most of them have weapons with destructive powers and stigmas that are destructive. But in almost every case capture wasn't much of an option due to safety concerns.

Frostheim had human children present. Jin's stigma only seems to work for a few minutes at best even with the PC buffing him. They didn't have a means to keep the anomaly contained and keep the children safe, not to mention the last living one was about to kill the PC and one of the kids. Like Kaito said, in a situation dealing with monsters it's hard to think to incapacitate and capture them, especially when someone else's life is at stake. To ensure their survival and minimize damage to civilians, the anomalies needed to be killed.

Vagastrom's anomaly was a tulpa and couldn't be captured in the first place. If people kept believing in it it would just reappear elsewhere. People no longer believing in it took it out of existence. No room at all for containment.

Jabberwock. . .well, they know Towa's unstable. Princess Oto severely injured Haru, and Towa wasn't going to let it get away with that. The Kraken and Calamari were allowed to escape because capturing them would do more harm to the ecosystem than good.

Sinostra had to destroy it theirs to prevent the destruction of the casino and prevent harm coming to the general students, Romeo, and the PC. Also Taiga's just a killing machine so--

Hotarubi. . .I kind of think I know what happens with them thanks to spoilers and one of Subaru's voicelines, but I won't spoil it.

If Obscuary doesn't accidentally kill their anomaly because it touches Rui I will be disappointed /joke

I feel like Mortkranken are going to successfully capture their anomaly simply because Yuri wants to run experiments on it. but it does depend on what their Stigmas are. We know that Jiro's chainsaw doesn't actually cut very well(Yuri told him to get them a Christmas tree and he said that his weapon doesn't cut stuff very well) and we also know that Jiro does all of the fighting in Mortkranken, whereas Yuri is ineffective in combat. They have the highest chance of capturing anomalies I think.

so like. I think that ultimately in those situations it was kind of the safest option for everyone present, killing the anomalies. Cornelius acts like 'just capture the anomalies it's easy!' but these are life or death situations. There were so many in Frostheim's case that they had to collapse a building to reduce the risk of them getting back out to the public. On the other hand, Jin probably could have teleported at least one of them back to Darkwick before they collapsed the building or instead of them killing one, but in the heat of the moment that probably doesn't occur to him as an option--also he probably wanted to make sure the pc was okay since he'd never be able to use his stigma again if she died, so going back in there to pull one of them out wasn't going to happen. Also he may or may not be rebelling against his dad, president of the Japanese branch of the Institution.

So I doubt it's something like an agreement between the third-years. I feel like it's just coincidence.

As for what Leo says in the pre-prologue, by then he would definitely be in on the situation simply because he's paying more attention than others and Alan is about as subtle as a firework no matter how hard Tohma tries to keep things secret. But maybe he gets roped in instead, since his power would be beneficial--they just have to make sure they can trust him first. . . . He does say that someone is responsible, but I think he means that regarding that life sucks, not the catastrophe occurring? Although that very well might be referring to the people at the top of the Institute too. . .on the other hand I would assume it's referring to whoever the spy is working with, and the Institute themselves aren't bad people(although Jin's dad sounds kinda like a piece of shit.) That or the Institute is the problem, or the prophecy somehow. . .if I could see the Japanese text I could see if there's a difference lol. . . .

Jin is going to inherit the position of president I'm pretty sure. I don't think that's a matter of usurping or anything like that where "Jin becomes the new president" is like, they take down Jin's father first. Like I'm pretty sure this is a familial inheritance thing--I feel like it's a "you're the eldest son so you're expected to take on the position of running the company" deal. You see it all the time in manga with office/business settings. Even Haku is supposed to take over the shrine his family owns. I don't think Jin and Tohma are dethroning Jin's father, it's just a matter of 'we need to prepare you to be in power here, you need to learn to be responsible and better than your father so you can do better than he does.'

BUT. YEAH. A LOT OF THEORIZING AND STUFF but I'm definitely surprised by how into it I ended up getting haha. My hyperfocus said "yeah I fuck with this" and now I'm stuck here. I don't really remember the abandoned concept they originally had(afair I was more unique than the current one, which is trying to stay in line with what's popular with the industry right now) but I really still would've loved to see it. . .but I'm still enjoying the current result and looking forward to the new chapters. (One week away for Hotarubi!!! Home stretch, just gotta survive one more week of work!) I feel like it's much less of a mystery as more. . .slowly growing suspense haha like it feels like a mystery because of the investigation we do as fandom, but the story itself is gonna reveal everything eventually. . .probably. So it's just anticipation on our parts hahaha. (And yeah the gameplay elements are uh nonexistent haha. Pretty sure the only reason I'm able to keep up with the chapters is because I spent money. 🙃)

Good luck with your other gacha games tho!! Fortunately the only other gachas I play I've got pretty good units for so I'm not so worried about what pulls I do or don't get. . . . I hope all of your future pulls are what you need them to be!!!

[ingravinoveritas]

Hi Amy, I'm the cursed anon who asked Neil lol (and I guess I'll stay anon for all my life after what happened today). I just wanted to thank you for what you wrote. I was sure my ask would have reached your blog somehow, alas. I don't know what to say, I'm mortified, it's been a rather hard day for me, since I felt completely misunderstood and belittled by someone I looked up to. I'm sorry because I must have phrased my ask in a weird way, an even "creepy" one, it seems.. By the way, I'm so glad you didn't find anything creepy in that, because I don't know for the life of me what I said that was perceived that way. I spent the entire day thinking about it and, at the same time, I tried to distract myself from shame. I don't know how to describe it, but this answer made me question so many things, about my mental health too, and I definitely didn't need that. He could have just said that he didn't quite understand what I meant, instead he only made me feel stupid and fed me to the lions. I mean, of course I know that season 2 is wrapped for example, I just wanted to tell him that maybe this sort of casting might be a future problem for season 3, and that I hope it won't be an issue for season 2, even though I saw many people turning up their nose already. (As I also bloody know that David Tennant and Michael Sheen are actors playing a part, evidently this is not what my concerns were!) I really don't know how to better explain it, English is a hard language to convey things sometimes. Neil doesn't speak any other language than it, and it shows honestly, because he doesn't know how hard it is for someone who is not native; me asking that might have been an impulsive decision, but I really tried to do my best with the language, it was hard, and it's like he pretended he didn't understand nevertheless. I don't know, I'm so disappointed by such a response. I thought it was more likely that he just read and didn't answer, but that condescending response? I didn't expect that. I'm sorry that I made him so sour/sharp/harsh (I don't know which adjective is the more appropriate in this case, and it drives me crazy that it can take so little to be misinterpreted, that's what I was referring to) because evidently I must have offended him or hit a nerve, which was not my intention. I might have been stupid to ask that, but if the ask was so annoying to him, it's not like he was obliged to answer it and being so cruel at the point to completely distort its meaning. Do I regret it? I do, but maybe without all of this, I wouldn't have ever seen this side of him, and I'm for the truth, even if it always tastes bittersweet, so.. Good to know, I guess. 

Sorry for ranting! Oh my god, I didn't realise, it's just that it's still an open wound to me. Coming back to you, I wanted to tell you that even if you might not agree with me (you have all the right not to), your response is actually the kind I expected from a man of power who is twice my age (just saying). Thank you for always being so considerate and tactful, you really did made me feel a little better. I wish there were more people like you in the world, I mean it.

(Sorry for the disappeared ask, I deleted the account after sending it, thinking that it would have stayed in your inbox once it was there.. Well, I was wrong haha. I'm going to delete it after you answer then, I had reactivated it just because you turned the anons off and I wanted to thank you instantly <3)

Hi, Anon. Oh, I am so sorry for what you went through yesterday. I'm also floored to have you reach out to me, as I didn't even realize you were aware of my blog, but I thank you for doing so and sharing your thoughts/feelings with me.

It saddens me so greatly to know how much Neil's response has hurt you, and how it has affected your mental health. If the comments on my post about what happened are indication, however, you are definitely not the only one who felt that his response was not okay. What you said about feeding you to the lions was something one of my followers also mentioned, and whether Neil intended it or not, I would have to agree with that assessment.

The fact is, Neil is a writer. He knows how powerful words can be, and how suggestive. So by calling your question "creepy" in that first sentence, he is creating the lens through which the reader is going to view your question. And so what I would say is that two things can be true here, which is that 1) You have every right to feel the concerns you do, but trying to engage Neil about it was probably not the best idea; and 2) Neil has the right to feel/say what he wants, but deciding to answer your question the way he did instead of simply ignoring it was also probably not the best idea.

I don't know if you've been on his blog at all today, but Neil actually went into a bit more detail about his rationale, re: the use of the word "creepy" in the comments on this post, as part of a back-and-forth exchange with another fan who again brought up the issue of nepotism. I thought I would highlight these two comments in particular:

What I was struck by in the comment on the left was two specific things: 1) Neil's mention of the "undertones" to your question. Going by what you wrote, Anon, as well as the message that you've written here, I do not think there were any undertones to your Ask--with the possible exception of calling Neil's character into question (which, if he was hoping to squash that, it is now beyond ironic that his response to you has achieved the exact opposite); and 2) That someone who has been described as "so Tumblr" and "Neil gets it" would somehow be oblivious to how venomous people can be on social media, especially when encouraged by the creators of their favorite works, and why someone would therefore not want to make themselves a potential target. In just the first sentence of his response to you, however, Neil proved exactly why you were right to use a burner account.

In terms of the comment on the right, we see Neil draw a false equivalence between your question and people criticizing him for casting POC actors in Sandman. This was (in my opinion) Neil doing this fan what he did to you, which is twist around what they were saying as a means of deflection and avoiding answering the question that was actually being asked, which was about nepotism. The other irony for me is him talking about people accusing him of having a secret agenda, while he was the one doing the same thing to you. The only difference is that his assumption ended up having serious consequences, as we are now seeing.

I think you did hit a nerve, Anon, but--as strange as it may sound--I don't think it had anything to do with you. My feeling is that there is something going on with Neil and he is using Tumblr as an outlet--much in the same way that Michael used Twitter as an outlet in 2019/2020. So I do not think you are "cursed" or "made" Neil be salty/harsh--I think he was already this way and took whatever is happening with him out on you. Because if everything was absolutely fine--if what you were mentioning in your question was totally ridiculous and Neil was entirely unbothered by it--I do not think he would have answered it, nor would he still have been engaging this fan about it for hours afterward.

I know this probably won't be of much comfort, and I am sorry. English is not my second language, but I am autistic, and I relate very deeply to what you described about searching so hard for the right words (which is probably why it takes me forever to answer my Anons) because of not wanting to be misunderstood. And I know very well what it's like to have someone you so greatly admired turn out to be not at all what you expected, especially when everyone else's perception of that person is so wildly different.

It is for that reason that I can understand fans on here and Twitter rushing to defend Neil, not wanting to feel that someone they love could possibly do anything wrong. "Neil is a human being" is a comment I've seen frequently...but if we are going to say that Neil is human, then that means he is imperfect. It means he makes mistakes. And it should not be controversial to say this. I've also seen people in the aftermath of this saying how kind Neil is to the fans...but his response to you was unkind. Setting someone up to be a target is not kind. Neil has so many people who write into him who are dealing with mental health issues and concerns, and at best his response to you was thoughtless...but at worst, it sends a message to other fans that they, too, could become targets for absolutely no reason. And while I do not believe that Neil owes the fans anything, having an awareness of the power he wields and a sense of basic human decency does not seem like much to ask.

You do not ever have to apologize for ranting to me, Anon. I'm so glad that what I wrote in my other post helped you to feel better, even if just a little. I am by no means perfect--far from it--but I've been in enough fandoms and had enough heartaches to know that I would want to do anything I could to spare someone else from going through the things I went through. The shame here is not yours for asking a question that yielded a disproportionate overreaction from Neil--the shame belongs to the people who piled onto you because of it.

I want you to know that I was truly touched by your compliments, and that you felt comfortable enough to be so vulnerable with me here. I'm sending you lots of love, as well as the hope that we can continue to have honest discussions about these subjects. A lot of people are with you, and believe me when I again tell you that you are not alone. xx

[patchwork-crow-writes]

I'm not sure if anyone has discussed this, (or whether this discussion feels proper enough to put in an ask box) but during the acid boat ride scene, if you choose the "…" option, you can see Ralsei excitedly say that it's just like Kris to be quiet and laughs.

Most people think that this means that Ralsei is acknowledging Kris as the quiet kid. But interestingly, the Japanese translation adds emphasis to this dialogue, with Ralsei noting that Kris not only becomes quiet, but specifically "clams up" at "times like this." The wording comes out like he's reminiscing some kind of past event with Kris. (I always thought that his reaction is a bit strange if Kris is always quiet all the time)

＊ こ…こういうときに 黙り込むのってすごくクリスらしいよね。 (TL: It’s very Kris-like to fall silent at times like this, isn’t it?)

I'm not sure what to make of this knowledge, but this scene reinforces the idea that Ralsei seem to know a good chunk of Kris's past memories. These could be Kris's own memories, or perhaps even someone else's memories of Kris. After all, a phrase like 'It's so like you!' feels more natural coming from other person's perspective. Asriel is a strong candidate, but the entire boat ride scene has a subtle romantic undertone that would make an Asriel connection feel a bit…awkward? So Idk, haha…

Okay, so. I ADORE this interaction, because you select it expecting a negative or disappointed response from Ralsei, and instead he effortlessly turns it around with the gem of a line "I guess I like you-like things". Absolutely destroyed me, let me tell you - to the point that it inspired me to write my very first fic for the Deltarune fandom, creatively titled "You-Like" :p

That said, I did NOT know about the Japanese translation, so this is a really interesting new angle to consider! Of course, the sense of familiarity Ralsei seems to have with Kris is there in the english text, but the addition of "times like this" in the translation definitely implies a much deeper familiarity than you might expect for someone who you only met yesterday! And the idea that a lightner's memories might have been implanted into him is also fascinating to consider! As you say, Asriel is a strong contender, but also as you say, the romantic undertone of the scene does kinda raise a question or two about that...

(also, subtle?! That entire sequence is about as subtle as Lancer is! XD) Whatever the explanation, it definitely does strengthen the argument that Ralsei has in some way been associated with Kris pre-canon. Exactly how that turns out to be, and how it might inform their dynamic going forward, is something I look forward to with great interest. Thank you very much for the cool info! :D

[vintersang]

🍓

let me compliment you / accepting / @esmerclda

Pearl, you have been a wonderful friend for me. I rarely ever talk to my dear mutual friends about my troubles since I’m so used to keeping things to myself, though they have always offered to talk to me, but you helped me out so much recently when I decided to talk to you. I really appreciate your patience as well as your help. I didn’t mean to ramble so much to you, especially so close to the holidays, but you met me with absolute kindness. Thank you so much for sending me that little thank you message for following you back. It was such a simple gesture, but your message really helped me to break the ice with you.

Such a tiny message gave me the push to welcome you, so I will always appreciate that moment. I know I often need someone to do the first move since I easily get nervous about starting a conversation, so I’m happy that you decided to message me that day. As you can probably tell, I’m usually pretty good at handling the rest from there since I quickly started to ramble to you shortly after welcoming you. I really hope other people realize that you are amazing because I sincerely want the best for you on both of your blogs, though I might be biased with your Esmeralda blog since that’s where we met.

Can I mention how much I love your revamp? I wasn’t expecting you to use my Christmas gift for you on your entire blog since I made that particular edit for your header, hence the matching background color on the bottom half of the edit. So, when I discovered that you went all out for that header banner definitely made me feel very happy!!! Not only that, but your dash icon as well as your revamped blog is so pleasant.

Your revamped blog is very pleasing to see, hehe. It definitely inspires me to try to revamp my Elsa blog, though my edits for her tend to be slow since I’m still adjusting to have Elsa as the focus of the edits. Either way, be on the lookout for more gifts in the future. I had so much fun with that banner of yours, but I definitely want to push myself more with Esmeralda because it’s genuinely so fun to make something for another muse. It allows me to appreciate the character even more, but it also gives me an excuse to analyze them as well as my choices for the edit. I hope that makes sense, haha.

Now, when it comes to your writing? You definitely inspire me, especially with how much writing you have in each of your responses. I’m incredibly slow, old mutuals already know this, but seeing you keep up the pace with your writing quality is beautiful. Did I mention how much I adore the fact that you wrote a drabble? I didn’t get to finish reading it since I wanted to answer this ask. Anyway, I have yet to do this with Elsa, even with my drabble tag, but you make me want to write more for the sake of writing!

Another thing I want to mention is how you definitely made me more inspired to keep writing without icons. I do plan on using icons in the future because Elsa is gorgeous, but doing icons from scratch on a new muse is so much work. Not only that, but I also tend to write when I’m away from home and my laptop. So, I have gotten more comfortable with writing without icons because seeing you without them is nice. You aren’t the only mutual of mine to not use icons, but it’s still inspiring to see you embrace the joy of writing by itself.

Okay, one more thing before this gets too long—

There are a lot of things I can compliment you on, especially since you made it this far. But what I want to tell you is how much I love your strength in uncertainties. As we both know, things have been rough for you since you weren’t feeling the best on Esmeralda. With this in mind, you still kept going. I hope things are not rough for you now after cleaning up your entire blog, but… I still admire how you kept going.

You could have easily given up, but you didn’t. Just like how you faced your holiday blues by focusing on the positive side of things, you also focused on the good parts on your dash/blog. As someone who easily wallows in sorrow and struggles to see the positive things, your determination is very important for me to see. It makes me want to be better. Not only are you determined to be strong and kind to yourself, but your support towards me and my mental health is something so important to me.

I hope this brightens your day, Pearl.

Stay safe and cozy!

[kmhnsecretexchange]

Title: you can (we will) be better

Author: dedfish on AO3 

For: logicdive (twitter) Pairings/Characters: Hinata Hajime/Komaeda Nagito 

Rating/Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Prompt: Post-Game — I feel like DR3’s ending for the cast of SDR2 is really underutilized, so it would be cool to see something going off of that! What’s it like having all these personalities crammed into a boat together to float around the ocean for the foreseeable future? It’s gotta get tense sometimes. How’s the sleeping situation? There can’t possibly be that much room in there, so maybe Hajime and Nagito are… roommates?  Do they ever get off of that boat, and what kind of problems do they face with most of the world still thinking that they’re Remnants of Despair? Ships can be pretty dangerous places too, I can definitely imagine something going wrong… Lots of opportunity for hurt/comfort and relationship growth!

Author’s notes: this fic is set right after dr3’s anime, as dr2 cast+mitarai(i cant remember lore anymore) set out to sea!

i hope you all enjoy this fic! and logicdive i hope you like it too!!! (ahhhh sorry for the late post, i am still paranoid about the quality)

enjoy the fic :DD!

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/52595074

The scent of the sea breeze was sharp and unforgiving against Hajime’s nose. When they made the Ultimate Hope, they didn’t exactly take any considerations for their new Izuru’s comfort, expecting a machine of pure talent. Expecting Izuru.

It wasn’t like any of those scientists had gotten their own payback in the Tragedy, and grudges weren’t meant for those already long dead—long gone to whatever hell they belonged. But his sharp senses—the feeling of coolness untouched by the pollution of the Despairs against the morning’s sun—was wonderful, for a short second. And then he turned around.

Teru had managed to convince the crew to haul out a grill on deck, of all things. The plans for a celebratory barbecue were obviously in the works, fondness escaped through a small smile, but for a second, he wished it wasn’t there, the smoke annoying.

What was he thinking? He was glad that his friends could even celebrate in the first place. Their weary smiles—all of them except… Chiaki—were worth it. Even if the scent was truly awful, fat sizzling with greasy coals.

Nagito’ s presence swished into being a couple feet away, and Hajime waited until his footsteps echoed closer, before he turned around slowly.

His hair—it truly looked like clouds—bobbed along with a muted, yet not any less, cheerful smile. Happiness suited him, and Hajime let a smile out in response, waving a little.

“A toast, Hajime?” He asked, nodding to the drinks beside him. But they were—

“Cider?” Hajime leaned forward, the apples and cinnamon delicious on the wind, a relief.

Nagito let his grin fall into a half-quirk of a small smile, “Of course. How lucky I guessed a drink you would like, huh?”

Hajime couldn’t think of anything to say besides a grateful, quick thanks, and gladly took it from his hands. The mechanical one whirred, almost soundlessly, as Hajime brushed against cold metal. Nagito noticed his look, and he sighed.

“Is it truly that unsightly, Hajime?” He questioned, leaning against the ship’s railing. His coat clinked against the metal.

“No, no, it’s great—I was just wondering if we need to do maintenance—” Hajime quickly tried to backtrack, feeling his ears go bright red. Hajime of all people, making others self-conscious—

“Haha, I’m just joking,” Nagito smiled, a mischievous twinkle in his eye, and he tilted his head against the sunrise, “but there you are.”

“Ah… that’s good,” the unspoken question hanging in the air between them. Hajime wondered if he asked, would it be too awkward?

“I was worried about you standing on the sidelines,” Nagito answered, surprisingly intuitive, “because, you know, you did great. And whenever Izuru used to be… bored, he looked like you.” He met Hajime’s eyes, before looking away.

“Thank you, Nagito. Really.” His denial hung at the end of sentence, but it would be a lie if he really didn’t just feel like an outsider. Just sometimes. “How much do you remember of… us? Me.”

“Enough.” He raised the glass to his lips, the light catching against crystals, and Hajime looked away. Hajime caught a sly smirk from the corner of his eye, and suspiciously glanced over, “I can, from what I remember—the hope inside of both of you, truly—it was fantastically—”

“Not again! Jeez, man. That came out of nowhere.” Hajime groaned, thunking his forehead against the railing, exasperatedly fond. He didn’t predict that today.

A chuckle rang out, low-toned but clear, besides him. Hajime tilted his head up, and watched the weak, golden sunlight play across his half-smiling, crescented seaglass eyes.

Beautiful. Wait, no, not like that! He firmly planted his face in his arms, determinedly ignoring his traitorous thoughts.

“I hope to surprise, Hajime,” Nagito’s elbow brushed against his. The ship slowly rocked against a wave, the sea’s spray crushingly loud. They had long sailed, and the journey away from the Foundation’s base had already been charted.

The silence was… nice.

And if Hajime could crystallize this moment—Ibuki’s laughter and Hiyoko’s dancing and Kazuichi’s whines and Sonia’s scolding with Tanaka’s musings for Imposter’s worry mixing into Mitarai’s giggles, Nagito’s contentment—it would be perfect.

He hoped this would be his future.

—

If Hajime had raised his head, or just looked up, he would see Nagito’s wistful tenderness, looking down on him.

He would see the slight, soft smile—but no, not yet. That was for the future too.

—

“Um, hey guys,” Hajime winced at how unsure he even sounded, “you… feeling good?” He glanced around the banquet table, attempting to plaster on confidence.

Everyone stared back at him. Hiyoko snorted, slapping Mikan’s shoulder.

“Are we a kindergarten class, you moron?” she grinned, lifting up an eyebrow.

“I certainly hope not,” Imposter whispered, barely audible. Mitarai weakly grinned and patted his shoulder.

“Ibuki feels amazing! This is a rocking boat!” Ibuki smiled, chin on her hands.

“Um… ah… yes? I agree?” Mikan uncertainly chimed in, still confused, with Hiyoko rolling her eyes.

Hajime sighed, smiling. He leaned back against the wall, and forcibly told himself to relax.

“Your complaints are noted, guys.” He briefly noticed Nagito’s white, fluffy hair from the corner of his eyes. Relax, Hajime, relax. You’re an Ultimate. “So, with the Future Foundation, we need to decide our next steps together. The way I see it, we can essentially go through with two options: Jabberwock… or back to Japan. Mixing both would be difficult, but also possible. I want all of our opinions to count.”

“Going back? But… we released that video… I mean, do I count? As part of you guys?” Mitarai asked, bags under his eyes seemingly deepening even further.

“We discussed this, commoner. Yes,” Imposter switched back to Byakuya, “you count as part of our class.”

“Yeah,” Haijime nodded, “you definitely count. The best way for us to figure this out is by discussion, but I think holding a vote would be helpful. Sonia, any suggestions?”

“Why, indeed! I think democracy is a novel idea that I certainly would love to experience!” Sonia’s eyes lit up enthusiastically, her smile beaming. However, her expression turned serious quickly. “Hajime, we should decide later, as we all, especially you, deserve rest.”

“Ha, yeah. I’ll… I mean, I think we had a good day today.” Hajime replied, a little sheepishly.

“And we’re back on a ship again!” Ibuki cheered, pumping up her hands. Chaos immediately descended, everyone’s chatter excited.

“How shall we decide on rooms?”

“Heh, how devilish. My Dark Devas and I desire to room with Sonia herself.”

“Huh? No way! We can room with the opposite gender? I refuse.”

“I AM FINE WITH WHOEVER! BAHAHAHA!”

“He’s gonna clog up our toilet again… anybody but him!”

They were kindergarteners.

“Guys,” Hajime sighed, “everyone can room with whomever they want. Not my business, but both parties have to approve. And first come, first serve for rooms.”

“Hajime… soul bro! I understand, I won’t let this chance slip by!” Kazuichi’s tears were a little excessive, but he marched off towards Sonia, obviously shooting to get a room with her.

The ruckus in the room reached new heights of noise, as everyone started pairing up. Hajime watched Tanaka and Kazuichi start arguing, and suddenly, he felt very, very tired. He slid down into a chair and felt a soft tap on his shoulder.

“Hey, you were pretty quiet today too,” Hajime cracked a small, sincere smile. Nagito rolled his eyes.

“I spared everyone the torture today.”

“No, we like hearing you talk.”

“We? I’m not sure if that’s true. Mahiru holds grudges, from what I remember, and I’m sure Fuyuhiko believes me to be strange. Oh—Teru can hate me, though.”

“Even so, that doesn’t mean we want you to shut up. They… changed, they don’t hate you,” because that would mean they would hate themselves for their actions too. “You can trust me when I say you should talk to them too. They’re pretty awesome.”

“Aha… I know. But you’re very kind,” Nagito responded quietly, “and… do you have a roommate yet?” Hajime looked up, opening his mouth to respond—

“Soul bro… you wanna room? Tanaka, that prick…” Kazuichi grumbled, dropping down next to him with a sigh. He looked incredibly disappointed. Hajime could guess what had happened.

“Kazuichi, I think I already have—”

Kazuichi’s eyes opened wide, jumping back and forth between Nagito’s hand and Hajime’s shoulder. A slow smile crept across his face.

“Oh. Ohhhh, I see, finally—not bad, Hajime, heh. I want you to know I support you.”

“I—what did I do? Finally?” He asked, confused. He turned to Nagito, who seemed equally as confused, judging by the furrow between the eyebrows. Kazuichi looked both elated and resolved, and about to burst into tears at any moment now.

“You don’t need to say anything, bro. You’ve got this—a bit of a… unique guy, but I can see it! Congratulations to you too, Nagito!” Kazuichi laughed, clapping them both on the back.

He turned to leave, but not before he turned to Hajime, mumbling, “And… Hajime? Erm, I’m glad you two figured it out—I was so oblivious…” Hajime just blinked, confused, “Of course, he wasn’t even interested… the girls’ swimsuits…”

He trailed off, sounding disgruntled even as he passed Hajime’s hearing range. Hajime didn’t know what to think, really.

Was there some miscommunication? It didn’t seem harmful, though, so that was excusable.

“Hajime, what just happened to him? He was weirder than usual.” Nagito’s expression twitched into an automatic smile, before falling into bewilderment. He grimaced, before he opened his eyes wide, turning ever-so-slightly pink. “Hm.”

Now, even Nagito? He was definitely missing something.

“No idea, honestly,” he stared after Kazuichi, watching him as he jerkily scooted near Nekomaru’s booming laughter.

“Then, well, would you still like to room, Hajime? I understand if I make you uncomfortable—of course, you might want to be with someone else, perhaps—I don’t want to make you do something out of obligation—”

“Of course, I want to.” Those words felt unexpectedly genuine, in a way that Hajime had difficulty adjusting to. Taking a deep breath, Hajime held out his hand. “Luggage? I don’t know where you kept yours.”

“Mm, it’s on deck. I can get it.” The breeze picked up, swirling the slight saltiness of the sea past him.

“No, please, don’t bother, Nagito. I haven’t had the time to adjust your hand yet—or do any maintenance checks for heavy weights—”

The sudden, bright burst of laughter that followed was beautiful, and it took his attention way too fast. Concerningly, it made him go blank for a second—like he was reacting, instead of knowing what and when and why and all possible escape routes and who was doing what and the Ultimates and he was the Ultimate.

It was… nice.

Nagito grinned, a small but genuine peek of joy, “Thank you, Hajime. We can do that after I get my stuff, okay? Don’t worry, Mr. Leader of Despair.”

“You…ugh… lovebirds! Get a goddamn room!” Fuyuhiko screamed, startling Hajime to attention. Had everyone else heard that?

Nagito went a bright red, like he was sunburned for a moment, before—

“Says you, baby gangster. Peko, he totallyyyy ruined the moment,” Hiyoko complained, poking Peko’s arm.

“I agree. I will remove him from this scene to let… that continue. Master? Let’s pick out our room, instead.” Fuyuhiko grumbled, but ultimately went off with Peko without another glance.

Hajime awkwardly scooted off to the side, feeling a bit embarrassed himself. He was not paying attention at all.

“Nagito?”

“Hm?” His face was still a little red, but it had settled into the impassivity he had held before. That face… was…

Maybe it was best if they left. Everyone seemed wrapped up in their own choices, and it wasn’t like they were malicious, anyways.

He looked around, and no one was appearing to pay attention anyways, wrapped up in their own laughter watching Peko drag Fuyuhiko across the deck.

“Can we leave? Please?”

“Of course. Let’s do that—come on,” Nagito muttered, pulling on his arm in an uncharacteristic show of force. Hajime let himself be dragged to the open door, the wide sea still glinting blue.

He could resist. No one could beat him with his extraordinary talents. They were good enough to pull him away, to stop, to put some distance.

The Nagito in front of him was far, far better, though. Hajime followed, feeling his voice swept past him from the ocean’s winds.

—

“This place is nice,” Nagito smiled, tracing patterns on the mattresses.

The room was actually quite nice—cruise-worthy for sure, and definitely a good holdover until they decided where they would go. A thin breeze fluttered between the door, ruffling Nagito’s hair slightly. He averted his eyes; the feeling in his chest didn’t feel friendly, but not angry, either.

“I know, the Foundation gave us a good one.”

“Mhm.” Nagito bent down over the bunks, curiously leaning over the edges.

“Find anything?”

“Nope, haha, but it looks like they definitely need an Ultimate House—sorry, Janitor here. Ah,” Nagito winced and so did Hajime. Should he say something? He was the de facto leader after all, he should such address emotional vulnerability—

“You know, it’s totally fine to talk about her. She was… our—your teacher.” Hajime stared at the floor, but lifted up his gaze to Nagito’s pause.

“Then, if you don’t mind hearing, Ms. Chisa… I thought she came out safe. All those years ago, with the Foundation, once she left us,” Nagito slowly said, turning around.

“I knew you guys liked her a lot, right?” Haijime asked, feeling himself mechanically go through the motions of unpacking. He turned away; somehow, it was easier to ask when they didn’t have to address anything they said, without facial expressions that Hajime couldn’t control well.

“She brought us together,” a shuffling sound echoed through the room, “when no one else could. In part, she’s the reason—the reason why the good of us is here today. She made us into a real class.”

A seagull screeched in the distance, interrupting Hajime’s train of thought. He spoke almost automatically.

“I see. That’s completely valid, but,” And then, as a quick afterthought, “None of you guys did anything. She… the real one you guys knew… probably died in the Tragedy.”

“Yeah. We did a lot of dying.” Nagito forced out a short, painful laugh, and Haijime smoothed out a corner of his bedsheets, gathering his thoughts.

“You don’t get to say that… with us around. Either way, on the island or with the Future Foundation, we’ll make it up for the rest of our lives.” He watched as a sliver of moonlight fell onto his hands.

At least his hands were unscarred. Nagito’s soft noise of agreement rocked them into the quiet of the cruise.

“You want to go on a walk later, Hajime?”

In response, his heart almost jumped to his throat, and he felt unexpectedly flustered. What was wrong with a simple question, it didn’t mean anything besides an offer of spending time together. They walked plenty on the island, why this reaction now?

Still panicking, he replied hastily, “Tomorrow, maybe? I’m, uh, feeling sleepy. We did a lot today.” He internally face-palmed and whirled around to… stare at nothing.

“Of course. I’ll explore the ship tonight, ” Nagito patted his shoulder, almost nonchalantly, and raised an eyebrow at his stutter, but left it alone. “Goodnight, Hajime.”

“Goodnight, I guess,” Hajime called behind him, hopefully casual. He stared after him, as Nagito brushed past the door.

What was wrong with him?

—

He doesn’t sleep at all.

And for Nagito? He slips into the room at approximately whatever-o-clock, quietly rustles for a couple minutes, and doesn’t sleep either, judging from constant turning.

They stay awake, until Nagito falls asleep an hour later. Hajime doesn’t.

—

Hajime stared at the ceiling. Was he supposed to get up now? It was already morning—the windows told him that much.

He wasn’t sleepy, though. It didn’t feel close to his limit at all—according to Izuru’s memories, there wasn’t exactly a hard limit to the amount of sleep the Ultimate Hope needed.

Subhuman, huh.

Nagito rustled underneath his covers, quietly moving. He was probably awake by now too.

“You awake?” Hajime quietly whispered. If he was truly asleep, Hajime had regulated his volume to not wake him up, hopefully. Nagito huffed quietly, and he turned around, smiling.

His hair was even fluffier than usual, spread out upon the sheets, and haloing his bright, green eyes.

“Nah, of course I’m not awake. But hey, Hajime. You look… tired.” Nagito’s contented expression waned slowly, as he scanned his face.

“I didn’t get to sleep much.” Hajime smiled sheepishly, sitting up and running his hand back through his hair. “I did get some sleep though.”

“Whatever the Ultimate Ultimate says.” He shrugged, seemingly relaxed. “If you’re not too sleep-deprived, how’re you thinking of a short walk? I heard it’s good for you.”

“The Ultimate Nurse, Pediatrician, and Psychologist certainly seem to think so,” Hajime smiled, gesturing out to the hallway, part of him aching to those words.

The hallway’s carpet muffled their steps, making everything that much quieter in the face of dawn. A new day.

“Do you have anywhere in particular you’d like to see? Future Foundation spared no expense on whatever cruise ship this used to be.” Nagito’s hair bobbed along every step they took, almost beige in the lamplights.

“Not particularly. I can guess how most designers would want anything.” His footsteps were always quiet anyways. He tried to deliberately make them louder, to match Nagito’s. “One thing I learned from all this is,” Nagito smiled, turning to face Hajime, “never say you know everything about anything.” His shoulders bumped against his, and Hajime narrowed his eyes playfully.

“Mhm, sure, All-Wise-And-Knowledgeable.”

“You know I didn’t mean it like that,” Nagito’s hand seemed only a whisper away and Hajime almost wanted to reach out, “but whatever floats your boat.”

“You dork.”

“The trashiest dork.” The weak sunlight brought a rose-gold tint upon everything and—well, everyone. The entire cruise ship seemed much more peaceful and calm, and Hajime could see why people got up early. On purpose, though, ugh.

“I believe that.” He joked. Hajime glanced down over the railing, watching the murky, deep blue waters. It reflected the ship’s paleness, and it was nice, too. Maybe. It looked scary, though.

“Come on,” Nagito motioned over to a glass door, “we aren’t going to brood near the sea today.”

“Aw, no,” Hajime rolled his eyes fondly, but he followed along anyway, “brooding, my favorite activity.” And, “Where are you taking me?” Hajime questioned slowly, watching the green coat bob from side to side.

Did he have a million of those? How did he manage to keep all his coats from Jabberwock?

“Well, as a part-time Ultimate, I found a pretty cool spot when I looked around last night,” Nagito turned into a smaller, more dim hallway, “and it really was quite, ha—lucky ultimately. And hopeful.”

Finally, he stopped suddenly at a simple, wooden door, where Hajime might’ve crashed into him, if he hadn’t had experience with Nagito leading him around anyways. He still almost tripped, though.

“You could be an Ultimate Joker too, with that,” Hajime groaned, slapping his forehead. How did he get stuck on a ship with this guy?

Well—rhetorical question.

“What?” Nagito frowned, opening the door. “I found it quite funny in my head.” He looked so disappointed, Hajime almost felt bad—key word, almost. But—ugh.

“It was super, erm, creative, though? I… don’t really know what else to say about it though, it just falls… sort of flat.” Hajime tried, okay.

This was exactly why he left the compliment business to literally anyone else.

“And—ow, wait, why did you stop?” Hajime grumbled, rubbing his forehead. Nagito’s hair was surprisingly fluffy.

Kinda cute.

No, no, stop this, no—not right now. He was not having those thoughts right now.

“Because we’re here, of course!” Nagito steered him to his side, happily staring around him. “I call it the Cruise of the Tough, Traumatized Ultimates: There’s a Garden!”

Real trees—a scattering of bonsai, with lavender circling around what was evidently an artificial spring of water—that were fashioned to look like an artificial garden, flowing around pebbles and drapes of flowering vines.

They stood on marble, a paved walkway winding around the sauna, with overgrown lavender and mosses peeking out between the cobblestones. In this world—in this time, it was almost untouched by the outside world.

It hadn’t been torn down by Despair, or tainted by it. A luxury even Jabberwock couldn’t count as.

…but it was tainted by a bit too much algae, judging from the thin green film across some of it. And also, what was that name Nagito just said?

“What the heck did you just call this?” Hajime blinked once. Before blinking again. He definitely heard that right.

“Hm? You mean there’s a garden? …I called it a garden.”

“With a couple other words, I think. But… I mean, thanks for showing me this. Pretty good luck, I’d say.” Hajime’s cheeks hurt. When had he broken into such a huge smile?

Nagito beamed widely, before nudging Hajime’s side. “My present for you! You’ve seemed down lately.”

“…ah. I can’t argue against that, but I thought—with the ship being down for so long, any plants would’ve been cleared out for Foundation preservation.” Hajime walked closer towards the lavender, poking it. It shook slightly.

“I thought so,” Nagito’s agreement echoed slightly. “Luckily, they missed a spot.”

The quiet peace of the impromptu visit was nice, broken only by the occasional gurgling of the spring’s waterways. It was probably clogged as hell, Hajime considered it a miracle the seawater was still being recycled back and forth, in whatever system the ship used to use for first-class passenger entertainment. Maybe he could clean it—he might as well, with all the free time they would have. With either decision.

The lavender’s buds brushed against his hands, and Nagito’s shoulders visibly relaxed. His shoulder bumped against Hajime’s, as he leaned against him. It strangely did feel casual—nice, although Hajime did notice his heartbeat speed up.

Ever so slightly, but still.

“Really, I’m glad you showed me this… Nagito. I’m happy to see this, honestly—especially since you found this place on our cruise ship?”

“Yes, of course. And what are best friends for?” Hajime stared up at Nagito, shocked. Best friends?

“We’re best friends… yeah. Uh, yeah,” Hajime felt like he was back in those earlier days before the game, stuttering and bright-faced in the face of Nagito’s friendship, “But how can I even beat this? This is… amazing.” Hajime felt like he was violently going to explode from… embarrassment, was that it?

“You don’t need to compete with me for something we both share, Hajime,” Nagito’s eyes were bright and knowing with… something, “And I just wanted to give you a place I knew to relax, sometimes. Especially with everyone deciding between Jabberwork and—”

Nagito was probably going to be the strangest best friend he had ever had. Kind of the most insane one he’d ever known, but hey. He wasn’t much better.

And—he had wanted to ask Nagito something else as well.

“Well,” Hajime rolled his eyes and turned towards Nagito, “Do yourself a favor and take breaks with me too. You hypocrite—I have no idea what thoughts go on up there.”

“Says you, leader. And kind of the whole reason we’re all alive in one—haha, mostly—hopeful piece.” He joked. Nagito elbowed him slightly, the only tell for his humor in his slight, barely noticeable smirk.

“I can’t take all the credit, you know that. What you did in the game—” Hajime tried to clarify, noticing Nagito’s expression cool.

“—what I did in the game was not… hope—argh. You know that.” Nagito’s cheer turned more strained, as he noticeably stiffened. Tension snapped into place, the atmosphere growing cold.

“I know. I’m not making excuses. I know you did terrible things, and I’m electing to also consider what good you did do,” Hajime replied, feeling slightly… angry. He didn’t want him talking about himself like that. Nagito’s arm whirred beside him as he stood up—the lavender crunched underneath him.

“I can’t do this right now, Hajime,” Nagito murmured. Tiredness overshadowed his posture, his expression cold and… terrified. “I’ll call it an early night. I’ll see you later.”

His footsteps sounded all the way to the door, before it screeched open. Nagito paused for a second, before he continued into the hallway. The footsteps disappeared then, too.

“I’ll… see you, too,” Hajime told nothingness. The door swung shut, creaking back awkwardly.

“I just… I wanted to make him feel better, at least. And, it’s not like I’m wrong—ugh, why am I like this…” Hajime buried his head in his hands, closing his eyes.

Everything just felt off. Wrong. Or maybe he was the one who was weird, instead. What was even wrong with him?

First, the isolation he felt from everyone else—that was understandable, things changed after he split with Izuru. His emotions—they kept on malfunctioning at unrelated situations. Now, his ability to even talk with his friends?

“What’s even going on?” He groaned. He raised up his head, squinting at the lavender.

The lavender rustled back, like that was supposed to be an answer.

“And why the hell am I talking to a plant!”

—

“Well, um… I don’t think you’re compromised by puberty or anything else physically? And, um, mentally, you’re still the same from our previous check-ups—I can ask for an evaluation by a psychiatrist from the Foundation. You—you probably don’t have anything wrong, still?” Mikan half-questioned, half-commanded. She flipped through his records on a clipboard, looking uncharacteristically serious.

She then looked back up. “W-What do you think you’re struggling with, Hajime?”

“I get like these… palpitations. I also get… emotional at weird times? I normally don’t feel much of anything, though,” Hajime responded, staring at his hands. He squinted at his shoes—they kinda looked dirty. And the clock was ticking. And what was this weird therapy roleplay?

Mikan blinked, slightly incredulous. “I… You’re supposed to feel emotions, n—normally. But, of course, Izuru—I would consider that as a good sign, that you’re feeling that. That you’re feeling, at least. More concerningly, moving on… when do you get these palpitations?”

Hajime sighed, slamming his head down on the table. It barely hurt. “Okay, that part’s fine—but for the interruptions, I have no idea! It just happens whenever. And I don’t think there’s a physical factor to that.”

“I read about this kind of situation! Ahaha… um… is it around… a certain guy? Maybe?” Mikan looked side to side, before leaning in. “Perhaps… Nagito?” She blushed violently, visibly excited. Was she really that interested?

“No… wait, maybe yes. It could be the feelings of friendship? But I don’t feel it around Kazuichi, or anyone else.”

Mikan blankly stared at him, before she slapped her forehead. “O—Of course. Of course, it’s and then they were roommates here. I’m literally—get out.” Her expression turned dark, almost angry, shadows looming over her eyes. She suddenly looked very much like an Ultimate Nurse… and ha… he felt like he was in danger.

“What do you mean? Get out? Wait, but you didn’t tell me why—”

“Go and talk to your best friend, Hajime. I s—swear, jeez,” Mikan rolled her eyes, looking less uncertain, “So that was the i—issue.”

“Mikan… your sarcasm, I don’t really get it—” Hajime raised his hands, flinching back from her annoyance.

“Then you don’t deserve to get it, I’m s—surrounded by the dumbest Ultimates ever.” She slammed her clipboard down on the desk, shaking in anger. “And talk to him! You adorab—agh, idiots.”

“But he got angry at me? I tried to talk about his actions in the game, and he kinda just left? I don’t know what happened!” Hajime, flustered, tried to ask. He needed to figure out what to do to fix this.

“O—oh, see now, that’s important. But still—go find him! Komaeda always likes to talk with you, and he’ll understand if you honestly just talk about it. Kids, I swear,” Mikan grumbled, before straightening up with an almost manic energy. She started shoving Hajime to the door, smiling menacingly behind him.

Shocked, Hajime could only follow along, before remembering, “And—wait! I’m bad at this stuff, what do I—”

And the door shut right in front of him. He sighed, as Mikan’s giggling faded with her retreat into her and Hiyoko’s room.

“Everyone’s insane, why did I even try.” Hajime groaned, trudging through the hallways. Time… to find Nagito. —

“Hey, Nagito? You okay to talk?” Hajime asked, slowly approaching Nagito on the ship’s deck. The evening’s sun flitted briefly over the clouds, before hiding behind the clouds again. He looked… lonely.

No better time than the present to get it over with.

“I am, of course. I would like to first apologize—” He started.

“I’m really sorry—”

“Oh.”

“Ah… yeah, both of us, I guess. But truthfully, you did nothing wrong, you… meant to say it from a sincere perspective. I reacted strangely… I just needed space.”

“I still brought up something you were uncomfortable with. And the game is a sore spot for all of us—I don’t blame you either, Nagito.” Hajime sheepishly smiled, rubbing the back of his head.

Nagito flashed a small smile in response, before falling back into seriousness yet again, “Still. I think we can both accept each other’s apologies?”

“Of course, yeah. Mikan literally pushed me out of her room—it was funny. ” Hajime grinned, before throwing an arm around his shoulder.

Nagito stiffened visibly, before asking, “And why—why were you in her room?”

“To ask her how to apologize to you. She was kinda weird though.”

“A—Ah, of course.” Nagito turned a slight shade of pink, looking slightly embarrassed. “I have no idea what got into me.”

“Um, yeah. Don’t worry—a common misunderstanding—you’re still definitely my best friend.” Hajime clapped his shoulder, grinning at him. Jeez, Nagito did overthink sometimes.

“Ah—yeah, best friends.” Nagito smirked, raising his eyes to the sky. “Best of friends. I’m fine with that for now.” He meaningfully looked back at Hajime, but what was that… undertone?

“I’m glad, honestly. You are. But also… I wanted to ask about you wanted to do? As well?” Hajime continued, trying to not read too much into that. Was it just him… or was that kind of… nah. Probably not, ha!

“Go ahead. Is this about where we’d head from here? For Jabberwock or back to Japan?”

“Oh, yeah. I think we’re going to meet up for it tomorrow… I just wanted to hear what you thought first.” Nagito nodded, seemingly deep in thought.

“Well, I’m for Jabberwock… actually. I don’t think what we did can ever be… redeemed. Or forgiven. And I don’t want to lose all of the class again so soon. Is it surprising?” Nagito smiled, looking down to the waves crashing against the ship. “You might’ve expected more from me—I do want consequences, but not at the cost of our lives.”

“That’s… I’m glad to hear that. It was honest.” Hajime murmured, lost in thought. He glanced at Nagito’s regretful smile. “But I was thinking about Jabberwock—and it might not be such a great idea after all.”

“Oh? Why not?”

“We’re only alive because of the Foundation’s grace—from the killing game we saw happening, it’s obvious the Foundation’s still unstable.” Hajime winced at the thought of Mitarai and the board member’s plan. “We owe them a lot, and hiding in Jabberwock while the world thinks we masterminded it all… it’s a good short-term plan, but it won’t last. Just like how we can’t blame Junko for everything we did, we can’t be blamed for everything the Foundation did.”

He looked out into the sea, watching as a seagull swooped on the horizon.

“It all gets out eventually.”

Nagito nodded approvingly, shifting towards Hajime. He let out a quiet breath of laughter, before glancing up.

“I see… you’re not wrong. I wouldn’t want the Foundation’s masterminds to escape infamy so easily either—but you propose we… go back to Japan? We will most likely get killed.”

“That’s my struggle as well. I don’t know how I can lead the class on this.” Hajime sighed.

Nagito’s eyes lit up, suddenly. He excitedly whirled around, “Not if we wait. Not if we let the world rebuild itself first. Why did we think we had two options in the first place? Since when did we let those options choose our lives?”

“That is… true. I had only thought that because…”

“Exactly, because we thought we were faced with either being cowards or getting sent to our deaths. But that’s not the case—the Foundation can bring us back from Jabberwock whenever we want.”

“Wait—yeah! If we take credit for the Foundation’s killing game for now…”

“… We can simply expose the truth of the incident later. We’ll face consequences, rightfully, for what we did do. And not only that—we’ll share what happened to us—how Junko messed us up.”

“We can’t let the world think those in despair were responsible for their actions… the brainwashing… What Hope’s Peak did ensure is that we should never have a Hope’s Peak again, but the Foundation didn’t learn from that because they refused to learn—they refused to look away from talents as the ultimate source of all Hope.”

“Especially what they did to you. And to Izuru. Talent shouldn’t ever be made like that again—and the public should know that. Hajime, what they did to you sucked.” Nagito scoffed, placing his hands on the railing.

Hajime laughed, feeling freer the first time in days. He threw his arms around Nagito in their first, real hug, and his ridiculously fluffy hair tickled his nose. Nagito was so, so warm, and this was awesome—why didn’t they hug before? Nagito let out a small, choked noise, before hugging back, gently.

“You’re amazing, Nagito.” Hajime replied, muffled in Nagito’s hair. He let himself enjoy the warmth a little longer, before raising his eyes up to meet Nagito’s.

“… And so are you,” Nagito whispered, his expression peaceful, if not a bit flushed again. Was it the wind?

“Ah, we should probably get inside. But c’mon, let’s find everyone—we got to do something.”

“I-I thought this meeting was tomorrow?”

“Well, now, it’s not.” Hajime let go… a bit regretfully. He would’ve hugged longer, but Nagito was starting to look concerningly red. “Let’s round up everyone from their rooms—I’ll take whoever I find back down into the banquet hall.”

“… Were you also referring to, uh, me?” Nagito looked confused, concerned, strangely flushed, and somehow determined at the same time, before awkwardly pointing to himself.

Sorta cute. Erm, nope, not thinking about it, not thinking about it—

“Yeah, of course.” Hajime agreed, before gently elbowing him. “Who else?”

Nagito gasped, before spinning around, with a new fire of determination within his eyes. He immediately started walking inside, grabbing Hajime’s wrist. Hajime flailed around for a second, shocked.

“Wait—wait, uh, not that fast. You don’t need to rush?” Hajime questioned, still allowing himself to be pulled along for some—no reason.

“I’ll grab anyone I see. Let’s do this. Now.” Nagito was unusually fast now, almost running.

Hajime… felt like he excited him a bit too much, with those words maybe? He sighed, still half-smiling.

“Alright—but jeez… fine. Let me go, I’ll get to the left side.”

“I’ll do the right. Prepare to be amazed by my speed.” Nagito grinned threateningly, before turning around the corner. He let go of his hand, waving goodbye and almost immediately disappearing into the hallway.

Hajime groaned. This guy, seriously…?

… He was the dorkiest dork he had ever seen.

The best one, though. Not that thought, again? Was this puberty or something?

—

The banquet door slammed shut, and with that, Hajime had an entire class of slightly startled, disgruntled, oblivious, or surprised Ultimates. Except for Peko and Fuyuhiko. Hajime had no illusions as to whether anyone could drag them to wherever the pair didn’t want to be.

“Alright, guys. Sorry for the sudden meeting.”

“—Yeah, it was sudden, alright.” Akane grumbled. “Is there any food here? I’m hungry.”

“Oh, yes, here Akane! Would you like to try my—” Teru grinned, before reaching into his pockets.

“Nah. Pass.” She instantly declined. Hajime pointedly stared at the both of them, before slapping his forehead. These kindergarteners.

“—But, Nagito and I had a bit of a revelation regarding the cruise ship’s destination. For Jabberwock, or for going back to Japan. We wanted to ask you guys what you thought about it.

“… I see this couldn’t have waited?”

“Not really… but, I do apologize for getting you guys out here so late.” Nagito chimed in, looking relatively… unapologetic.

“It was perfectly fine! Most of us were just goofing around anyways… I speak for both myself and Mahiru…” Sonia replied, perfectly composed and kind.

“I was just playing pool…”

“I FINISHED TAKING A SHIT.”

“Hajime… just kinda interrupted Imposter and my, uh, anime. It’s okay! This sounds… more important.” Mitarai muttered, looking faintly anxious. Scratch that, very anxious, judging by how much fidgeting he was doing.

“Indeed, commoner. Now—let Hajime and Nagito speak. What do you two propose?” Byakuya-Imposter questioned, folding his arms across his chest.

“Well, to put it simply,” Hajime looked around the room, making eye contact with each of his friends, “We don’t have to choose Jabberwock. Or the Foundation and Japan. Because, there’s a third option—to do both.”

“That would be ideal… indeed. But how?” Sonia questioned, raising herself from her chair.

Nagito nodded, raising a hand to his chin, “We can do so by splitting our time—to go back to Jabberwock now, and to go back to support the rebuilding of the world later on.”

“But—we should just return to Japan fully. If we truly want to support our victims—”

“Princess, that is not allowable by this dark one,” Tanaka turned towards Sonia, raising his eyebrow, “Seeing as that would result in our unfortunate demise, as my visions of the future warn.”

“Tanaka—I understand but, what we did, what I did to my people—” Sonia whispered, obviously heartbroken.

“No one’s dying today. None of us will be sacrificed.” Hajime interrupted, urgently stopping her from turning towards obvious shame, “Because we’ll go to Jabberwock to outwait just that. To let the Foundation stabilize the world, to prevent any further uprisings of Despair right now.”

“And,” Nagito smoothly joined in, “We will still allow the Foundation to take responsibility later. We’ll face our consequences—with the actual good we’ll be able to do, once we’re allowed into the rebuilding of Japan.”

“You’re just going to allow the Foundation to recover then? And then come back? But wouldn’t that undo everything—everything we did that video for?” Mahiru asked, quietly motioning to them all.

“That will undo it,” Peko seriously replied, “But that might be for the best. I do not wish for Fuyuhiko to be viewed as a monster… for that too.” She glanced towards Hajime meaningfully, then stared at Nagito, before she looked away.

Hajime… understood that feeling now. Not wanting someone to be deemed guilty—in reality too.

“I think it’s a great plan, as it lets us not be killed! Or run away, right, Coach?” Akane shouted excitedly. Nekomaru laughed, a booming sort of laughter that shook the room.

“INDEED! HAHA, WE CAN LIVE TO SEE ANOTHER DAY!”

“But what if… we get sentenced to death anyways? After we rebuild the world… and we come back.” Ibuki quietly spoke up, uncharacteristically doubtful.

“Then, we’ll argue our case, and we’ll defend ourselves fairly.” Nagito put his hand on his hip, while narrowing his eyes, “Consequences—we can’t just ignore those. We also have an Ultimate Lawyer here. And the Ultimate Prosecutor, etc. …And I guess Class 78 with the Foundation will probably be willing to lend a hand. After all we’ve done.” He gestured to Hajime, who felt himself blush a little from the embarrassment.

“I’ll do my best… and I’d say, we probably have a fighting chance. Compared to what’ll happen if people find us hiding in Jabberwock, like… idiots.” Hajime sighed, leaning against Nagito’s shoulder. The future sounded tough.

“Ha… yeah… I think that sounds pretty good. And those Monokumas all across Japan, I personally wanna still go back…” Kazuichi responded, looking a bit defeated. Nekomaru patted his back, and almost knocked him over.

“Kazuichi…” Hajime whispered, almost feeling a little proud. He really had grown, huh. “And remember what we resolved at the end of the killing game?”

“We’ll keep on forging our own path to the future, you mean?” Fuyuhiko asked, furrowing a brow. “Of course.”

“Yeah, where we learn from our mistakes?” Akane laughed, emboldened.

“And we won’t hide from our actions.” Nagito’s quiet voice carried across the room, as he met Hajime’s eyes.

“Well, of course, nothing’s over then, right? We’ll have to say how everything happened,” Kazuichi muttered, somber. He raised his eyes towards Tanaka, who, curiously enough, nodded in response. There was definitely a story there.

“Haha… if you think about it, Hope’s Peak—they tried to hide everything, and it came up anyways,” Teru agreed, looking around nervously.

“An’ we can’t let them forget that! We need to remind ‘em of what happens when you do that stuff to talent—when you become Despair like that.” Akane’s mouth was completely full from the snacks, but she somehow managed to talk around it anyways.

“I sincerely agree. We should face our past, present, and future with open eyes—we shalln’t run away!” Sonia victoriously grinned, pointing her finger forward… at Mitarai? Unexpected—but all the more welcome for it, as Mitarai nodded violently.

“To be honest with you guys, I don’t even want to run away. And there’s no way I’m leaving Hajime to clean up our mess alone.” Nagito added, shifting closer to Hajime’s side

“Hehe, looks like lover boy is stuck—”

“Oh, Hiyoko! This is serious,” Mikan sternly reprimanded. She happily glanced at their intertwined hands, “…and we both,” Mikan smiled at Hiyoko, “will go back. To Jabberwock and Japan—Future Foundation—everything.”

“I’m glad. And Hajime,” Nagito peered through his eyelashes mock-shyly, “you’re coming to Japan with me, right? As my best friend?”

“Maybe,” Hajime started, before frowning, “well, actually—that’s a stupid answer. Of course.”

“But… still, thanks.” He whispered.

Did Nagito hear that—well, judging by his hand’s comforting squeeze, he did. And his gentle expression, and his pretty, teasing seaglass eyes—argh.

That bastard was so—ugh. Did best friends usually make each other blush and hold hands? Yeah, probably.

(“The gayest freaking besties I’ve ever seen… and then, they were roommates. Ugh,” Hiyoko grumbled.

“I know, that’s what I said!” Mikan whisper-shouted.)

As if hearing his thoughts, Nagito laughed quietly, before knitting their hands together. It was time to face everything and everyone, and he did feel terrified. His heartbeat was racing, pumping like it had in the trials—Nagito’s fingers were cold with anxiety. But, hey, with Class 77 all together?

Things were gonna be better.

[aptericia]

Hi I'm Octopath-obsessed and was wondering if you accept random asks for your headcanons? I've been doing this lately to people... kind of like ask games but it's just whatever pops into my head at the time and it's all Octopath-related because... I have an issue I think. In any case I just want to ask if you'd like it if I did this with you? It's perfectly okay if you're not comfortable with it, and if you are okay with it and I send something you don't have an idea for I'd never expect a response, they're all just random prompts to answer if you want to answer. Oh and if you DO want me to start doing this, you can feel free to put whatever restrictions on my prompts that you want and I'll oblige (I don't generally do shipping-related prompts in general). Also feel free to do this headcanon-ask thing to me as well, regardless of whether or not you want me to do it to you. My blog is completely blank because I barely know how to work Tumblr (outside of comments and asks) but I'm happy to be super crazy about headcanons anyway. So yeah... um... hi and I'm sorry for being so random. ...I love the stuff you post I was just afraid to make contact before now I guess... but I'm trying to be social... if you'd like me to be social...

oh sure, I'd love to draw some requests or prompts from you!! I'm glad you like my stuff and it's not random or weird at all, it's lovely to hear from you!

I don't have any restrictions on prompts, I'll even draw ships on occasion, but since I do fanart in my spare time there will probably be quite a range in both quality and speed haha. As long as you're fine with that, I have no problem being sent lots of asks!

And I'll definitely take you up on your offer and ask you about your headcanons someday... 😉 Thanks for dropping by!

[thechaseofspades]

For the Real Writer Ask: 💝🕯️🤲

💝 what is a fic that got a different response than you were expecting?

I'm not sure if I realized the overlap of a-spec Ducktales enjoyers until I wrote "My Head is an Animal". If I didn't then, I definitely did after the fact. That story really came on a whim, and it ended up being a huge influence on my aro journey (as well as my connection with Violet). So I guess in a way, my own reaction was also unexpected!

🕯️was there a fic that was really hard on you to write, or took you to a place you didn't think it would take you?

I had "Lena's Groundhog Day" loosely mapped out from the beginning, in that I had an idea of how I wanted it to end, and some of the beats I wanted to hit. But the rest was kinda "seat of my pants". The biggest detail that came out of that was the angst on Webby's end of the story. I think it added a lot of emotional impact to the story, and emphasized the isolation Lena had been feeling throughout. My funny haha Groundhog Day homage turned into kinda its own thing which was pretty neat.

🤲 what do YOU get out of writing?

I've always had a knack for writing. In real life, I write non-fiction stuff. So to write fanfiction gives me a nice creative outlet to balance out my work. On top of that, I've never felt a connection to a show like I have for DuckTales, and obviously I love the characters, so it lets me continue the adventure. Especially with how the show ended, implying that there will be more adventures.

But more than all of that, I write because it's fun. I like sharing my stuff with the kind folks on the internet. I like being somewhat involved in or at least supportive of all the fandom stuff. I've had a great time in the year-plus of existing in this space, and I look forward to how things go in the future.

Thanks for the ask!

[meezer]

hi accy i love you so much. i just wanted to say i am a fellow gale lover and i love how he is a complete nerd but also a failure and i relate to it so much. what is your favorite thing about him i must know

SOSHIIIIII I LOVE YOU!!! AND I AM SOOO HAPPY THAT YOU'RE A FELLOW GALE LOVER. shaking with excitement. this was such a wonderful ask to wake up to. thank you so so much for asking. I ALSO LOVE HOW NERDY AND PATHETIC HE IS. every time there's an in-game acknowledgement of how... pathetic he is. that makes me swoon so much.

I love everything about him tbh so it's very hard to choose... when I was just starting to play the game I was Really taken in by how kind and altruistic he is. there's ofc the approval whenever you make a 'good' choice + how he's SO impressed when tav does something heroic! and when he talks about it, you definitely get this sense that he wants to make the world better and holds a ton of admiration for the people who do these grand gestures towards its betterment. when he first opens up to you about his folly he has this self-deprecating tone of "ahhh I'm such a piece of shit I'm the worst man alive... I understand if you don't want me around" it's like. man. it is so clearly obvious from everything you say and do that you care a whole lot about others. you're good. in every way that matters to me you are good. even the thing he did for mystra that resulted in him being stuck with the orb was, in part, because he wanted to do something nice for her, someone he loved. it's hard to fault him for that.

I also looove the way he speaks. besides the fact that he has a pleasant voice, it's the fact that he is SO eloquent and artistic and witty. I'm also thinking about how, if you imagine kissing or going on a walk with him hand-in-hand while you're channeling the weave together, and then you ask him how he felt about what you imagined, he's like "oh, I was surprised. but pleasantly so!!" 😭 and that just meant so much to me as someone who... needs reassurance from the people I love that they aren't mad at me. it's just so considerate of him to say it like that and. yeah it made me really happy. I made a post a while ago like "I'm bothered that when he first introduces himself he says he tries his hand at poetry when the mood strikes him but he never actually speaks any poetry in-game." I was referring to him actually reciting some poetry but like. in many ways I was so wrong because EVERYTHING he says is poetry. ugh don't get me started on the way he talks to a romanced tav because that's ESPECIALLY so. INSANITY. insane how perfect this man is. erm.

OH haha another thing is. when he tells you that the night you spent together was wonderful and that now he wants to live etc and he's expecting a response back you can tell him something like "I'm flattered, but you're putting too much pressure on me, I can't be your crutch" and if you say that he's like "OH NO NO NO you're not my crutch! I'm perfectly okay! perfectly stable! haha!! don't worry about me!!" and I always interpreted that as him... quite obviously lying but just not wanting to lose tav so making himself seem a lot more detached and cooler than he is. I love you so much water sign man... also the fact that if you tell him after your night together "funny you should say that, I recall you doing all the work" he specifically talks about giving tav oral sex. much ink has been spilled on this subject, I'm sure, but uh. yeah. it's such a cute moment. he's the best. he's the cutest and sweetest ever I think, and I would do anything for him. which I guess is lucky, because I'm told the feeling is mutual 😁

AND ALSO I LOOOOOOVE that he is kind of a homebody and a malewife... I'm specifically thinking about that one dialogue where he tells you about how he was planning to introduce you to tara over dinner and how he has a magnificent wine cellar and he makes his own homemade hundur sauce with a family recipe it is just. UGH 😩 it's very effective on me what can I say. also this is a very small thing but lately I've been thinking about how adorable it is that gale has a good relationship with his presumably large extended family ("the dekarios clan is scattered far and wide," he says when talking about sending invites for his and tav's wedding). it's very important and endearing to me especially as a guy who... has never had that kind of familial relationship but does kind of crave it.

the thing that especially strikes me rn is just how much he loves tav if you romance him. like he really falls deeply in love with them and he loves them more than he loves even the most important things in his life: mystra and himself. "With you, I forget my goddess. I love you." 🤪💔 GALEEE. I'M CRAZY. and he loves tav enough to listen when they ask him to abandon his dreams of godhood. can you imagine that? can you imagine listening to someone asking that of you just because you love them SO much that it's not worth losing them for anything in the world? yeah I really love that kind of DEEP DEEP devotion and self-sacrificial love that he has because well, I relate, a lot. and it's so beautiful to me that this experience of love that I've personally felt (though not ever reciprocated) was rendered into a digital format through gale's character. I just know we would be sooo uncannily obsessed and in love with each other. he's legit kind of perfect for me so I am glad we found each other 💗

*scrolls back up* *looks at the length of my response* OH MY! 😳 sorry about the long long response! I have also had some wine so hopefully I am coherent... thank you so much for the ask, I love talking about gale. he makes me happier than most other things in my life rn. love you soshi!!!!

[heretherebedork]

Thank you very much for your in-depth response! (Looks like I can't comment on the post, so I hope you don't mind me sending another ask to respond back. :) ) I thought about it some more, and IDK, maybe I just read and watched too much Japanese media when I was growing up, haha. Because (at least at that time, not sure about nowadays) even so many canon straight couples in J-fiction never showed much, or any, physical evidence of their partnership (sometimes even barely any verbal evidence either, TBH), especially in works where the plot was the main focus (as opposed to works where the main focus was on the romance itself, of course, because usually there was at least some in those haha!), so granted I likely have a large bias/skew on the shapes that fictional coupleship can take from all of that. The heat level itself wasn't really my point though (as I certainly am not expecting heat out of Museum's main pair either haha), it was just that for me it's still possible for characters of any gender(s) to be in an obvious canon relationship/partnership in-story even without any onscreen/on-page physical stuff being necessary (again, though, I admit that that probably includes a lot of my old-J-media bias talking :) ). I understand your discussion on all of that, though, as well as your point that in the current day, being super vague about relationships (particularly non-straight ones) doesn't really cut it. As for Midnight Museum, IDK, to me there just seems to be way too much obvious romance coding being used in everything to do with the main pair (both in terms of cinematography cues as well as all of the classic tropes present in the physicality they do have so far as well as the dialogue and script overall) for them to just end up explicitly passing it off by the end of the show as a 'Nope Not Any Kind Of Partnership No Way They Were Just Good Friends Y'all' or something, haha (especially with it being a Thai show, instead of, like, The Land Of Censorship Of Which We Do Not Speak or something, you know? :P ). Anyway, I love reading your thoughts on things, so thank you for the good discussion on this! :) <3

Glad to see that my response did speak to most of it.

But I still don't think there's going to be any romance. I don't think they're going to be brothers, I just think the show is... never going to touch on the idea of romance with them. They will be Something Important but not romance.

Yes, Thailand does produce queer shows and lots of them but I would not expect them to do a queer show without any kind of advertisement or mention or showing of it, even now. That doesn't feel like the GMMTV style, honestly. Maybe I'll be wrong. But who knows?

No idea why you can't reply to the post, my replies are definitely turned on.

Anyway, I get the idea of an implied relationship but I think it shows where the whole of their relationship involves lots of Mystic and Fated and Time Travel things like Midnight Museum it'd be very hard to just kind of do an implied vague romantic relationship if they were going to do that way.

I also get that a lot of more plotty shows can have background barely-there romances and that Japanese media definitely

I definitely look forward to it but I am very much in the 'this show will not be queer' camp just from the way the show has been teased. I suspect the romance is just a tease, a bit of baiting, them playing with Gun's typical roles.

Honestly, I'll just be happy if neither of them has a full on female love interest through the show. That's my entire hope. Just leave it vague enough that I don't have to fight canon. I mean, not like I haven't fought canon dozens of times before but, you know, I just want it easy this time.

[not-poignant]

Hi Pia! Hoping you can help explain something. Ash is aro in the canon and I understand what aro is (though maybe not, if I'm asking haha). I'm struggling to really understand what's termed "romantic attraction" since I see what Ash is doing as being friendly but sometimes I feel like it's what I should expect as being romantic. I did look up the definition of romantic attraction but it left me with more questions. It's such a vague definition! I guess, how does Ash explain it, if asked?

Aro anon, forgot to finish. I looked up signs up of how to tell when you're in love or feeling romantic attraction and even those just seemed like regular friend things. Thinking about a person often, feeling happy around them, wanting to do things with them. But I guess it's really the intent that matters or something along those lines? Thanks for letting me ramble on about this, it's been eating at my thoughts for months.

-

Hi anon

With this kind of stuff, you might not like the answer, but it's self defined.

You can look up as many definitions as you want, but ultimately the final arbiter of what is and feels like a romantic act, is you.

As an example, the guy I live with takes all of his friends out to one-on-one dinners at nice restaurants or cafes. He's aromantic as fuck, and he would take all of his friends - guys, girls, nonbinary - to cafes and restaurants for long chats, delicious meals, and that kind of conversational intimacy.

Some people might think that's romantic. He doesn't. His definition for the difference is: 'I would do that for/with any of my friends.'

On the other hand, he doesn't tend to care about or remember anniversaries, think flowers are important, care about receiving gifts at important events from a partner etc. For him, these things are romantically loaded a lot of the time, and while he'll do them for a romantic partner, he won't get any romantic satisfaction personally from performing these acts. To him, these are the acts that he feels are romantic: Celebrating and marking anniversaries, Valentine's Day, giving presents at 'expected' times of the year, particular kinds of presents.

To him, being expected to share a bed with the person you live with is 'romantic' - so he doesn't do that. It doesn't fit who he is as a person, and he doesn't think it adds anything meaningful or special to a relationship and can even detract from it. He can spend the night with a partner, but he wouldn't want that to be a defining aspect of a relationship. I.e. if a partner demanded it, that would be a dealbreaker for him.

It's up to you to define what you think of as romantic, and why. And it will be different for each person, and it can be strongly influenced by culture. It can even change from person to person. I'm gray-aromantic. So I like being in romantic friendships, but I usually prefer (not always) aromantic / queerplatonic relationships.

Sometimes the question 'would I do this for a friend, or do I only expect to do this for a partner' can help (but not always, obviously what we do for some friends is not what we'd do for all of them), sometimes the question 'do I want to engage in this romantic social ritual / does this feel meaningful to me / does this give me the ick' can help. Sometimes the question 'what feels romantic to me, and do I want that in my life' can help.

I can't answer this from Ash's perspective because he hates labels, and so he wouldn't call himself romantic or aromantic or any of those things. He just knows what he likes. But I know he's aromantic, so you're getting my response, lmao.

Also a lot of it comes down to what Ash feels is romantic. Ash would hug and cuddle all of his friends. (And strangers, let's admit it). He'd also fuck and kiss them. To him, all of those things aren't romantic. They're intimate, but that's not the same. And they're expressions of love, but that's also not the same.

If you feel like those things are romantic, then like, that's your definition for you, and that's awesome.

Romantic orientation is self-defined, because we decide what is romantic as we grow up, and we decide our feelings about it when it's time to form (or not form) relationships. It can be fluid, like all of the orientations.

[solomons-poison]

Hi Tarren! I read (and re-read) your Geto Suguru + 7. 'Sharing a kiss after not seeing them for an extended period of time' and must say it elicited quite a bit of emotion from me. It cut deep and pulled quite a few tears from me lol 😅 Initially unexpected but then again I did request suguru who is the pinnacle of tragedy and with the upcoming episodes about him, I should have expected a heart ripping romance 😣

I honestly have been slacking on typing this feedback ask because life has been busy (as always 😌) but also because i was indecisive in articulating myself and whether to scale back or just come forward with some personal things that resonate with parts of your writing. Complaining about the cold and pumpkin spices are one thing but more serious things are another beast altogether 😟 In the end, I know it is a matter of comfort levels on both sides so I made sure to re check your pinned posts on both of your blogs before sending this so I wouldn't be crossing any of your boundary lines.

Basically, I related to this a lot. I know all too well the pain of being separated from a lover and being unsure if I would ever see them again only to give them as much love as I can when I am with them before being inevitably parted. It is one of the reasons I actually requested this in the first place. I had gone into this with love for suguru but also for another.

The moments you encapsulated stood out to me in multiple sentences from 'It probably should have been enough of a red flag for you to reject him when he tried to court you. But his levels of charisma were just too powerful' to 'It was just for a few days at a time, but when it happened, he was completly unreachable' to 'As days passed and he didn't show, didn't send you any kind of message, a feeling of dread formed a ball in your stomach, hard and heavy' to 'All you could do was keep moving, keep your mind occupied on anything but your missing lover, before you got overwhelmed with a thousand what-ifs' and finally 'putting on tv or music to fill up the space, make it feel a little less lonely'.

Overall, I am glad you didn't make him into kenjaku (i am never forgiving gege for pulling that on us I swear 😤 why couldn't he have just been a dude with a stitched forehead as either a weird tattoo or healing from a nearly fatal blow from satoru since he did not have shoko to heal him 😭) and I am impressed you were able to convey this all without a single line of dialogue 😮 I already thanked you in advance but I would like to thank you again for writing this. It means a lot to me and I hope that despite my vigilance to make note of your rules, I have not made you uncomfortable with my personal baggage. I noticed another fic with my name on it and I'm definitely coming back with another feedback ask after sleep and groceries 😏 (if you aren't sick of me yet 😖). In the meantime, I hope the rest of the day treats you kindly (as you have with surprising me with another gojo piece 😍)

You are always, ALWAYS appreciated for your feedback!!!!! It means a lot to me to hear people's thoughts on what I write. I don't want to sound egotistical, but at that risk, it's really nice having someone point out particular things I put in and how it impacted them, because as the author, of course it means so much to me that someone noticed. Or especially, that what I did worked as intended/had the impact that I was looking for. And thank you for taking the time to send me this response, too, when you're busy!

Yeah I am also not happy with the Kenjaku route that Gege took (not as in bad writing, but because poor Geto already went through so much and then now to have his body used like a puppet?? Is awful). I couldn't really think of a reason Geto would disappear for a while, which is why it ended up that angsty idea instead haha.

Like I just imagine knowing/loving Geto before he leaves, trying desperately to keep him there before he completely falls to the "dark side". You know that something is wrong, but you don't really know what you can do or how to help. It would just be heartbreaking watching him slowly leaving...

I'm glad I was able convey him! And no worries about it making me uncomfortable, I'll usually be pretty straightforward about what I don't like or isn't allowed, so if there ever is a problem, I'll just let you know. :) and the kiss requests were pretty generic in prompt, giving me a lot of freedom in choosing why you/the reader and Geto would be separated, so it was my fault that it ended up as sad as it did haha, you're not to blame.

And yes! I made a second post for Geto for you that has a much happier note haha, that I hope you like~ but no rush to read it, get your rest and errands, and I'll be awaiting your feedback~

[katierosefun]

Hello hello! Big nosy as usual over here but these asks are really great so here's something to ponder over during your precious study break: 💫🪄☯️💝🍭

hiii iva!! thank you for the asks!! // from these asks

💫: what is your favorite kind of comment/feedback?

well, i love your comments, for starters—because i think they get at what i just prize in comments general? just, like, any account of feelings/reaction to a scene that i wrote or any kind of picking apart a specific line and how it works. any deeper analysis is also really nice, although def not necessary, just bc i know fic is an escape for lots of people, and i don’t want people to feel like commenting on fic is work haha! but when that does come in, i do feel very happy

🪄what is your post-writing/sharing aftercare? How do you take care of yourself or celebrate yourself when you've finished a fic?

depending on the time of day, i’ll usually settle down for a movie or an episode of a show i love. i’ve found that in order to keep myself from getting burnt out, it’s just as crucial for me to consume stories as it is for me to write them—so yeah, def reading or watching something is kind of my care post-fic! (and, occasionally, a glass of wine. if i’m living by myself, ofc.)

☯️how do you think engaging with each other through tumblr, twitter, comments, kudos, creates healthy fandom experiences? How do you deal with that if you're not a social person/experience social anxiety?

hm, i think to an extent, it can be helpful! i have only just gotten to answering comments on ao3, and i only got to that point bc i realized that i do love talking to other fandom people—but i only got to that conclusion after really having conversations more often with folks on twitter and tumblr.

however, i do think that like, with anything and everything, it can quickly become p toxic. i have a bit of an anxious and obsessive personality, for example, so ?? i will find that sometimes, i get really nervous about feeling as though i’m coming off more transactional or insincere, and sometimes i find myself thinking “oh boy, if i go quiet for too long, people will no longer find my stories worth reading or noticing” and that’s all definitely very dramatic, but! in those moments, it def helps for me to just. pause, take a step back. take a break, write stuff that makes only me happy. or just delete twitter and tumblr off my phone for a week or two haha

💝what is a fic that got a different response than you were expecting?

ooh. . . maybe shit my friends say because (1) it was my first fic in roughly a month, so when i posted it, i was kind of worried that people were no longer interested in my stories (haha, see above paragraph for my funny brain), and (2) it was one of my shorter fics? and the entire fic is told mostly through the perspectives of minor characters, and i wasn’t sure if that would really appeal to anyone? so i was so pleasantly surprised to find people enjoyed the style and the story overall :’))

🍭why did you start writing?

oh man, if we’re talking writing in general, i def started because i just always loved stories—like, as a little kid, i would scribble in scrap pieces of computer paper (and those scribbles were literally. scribbles. like, crayon and pencil squiggles) of stories that i wanted to tell. imagine my annoyance when i realized i couldn’t remember the story i was thinking of in my head from those squiggles! (and when i learned how to write, like just put together sentences, it was the only thing i was doing—and then, when i was in third grade, my dad realized that “shit, my daughter really loves writing little stories…and she doesn’t have a real notebook” so he gave me one of his old binders, filled it up with paper, and that was my first-ever notebook of stories, one that i didn’t need to like. steal extra little notebooks that they’d give to my kindergarten/first grade/second grade classes lol)

but if we’re talking writing fic, i just really, really loved the idea of adding deleted scenes, moments that could have happened but didn’t. and changing the ending of stories when i wanted them to continue. and i think, like, lol, this is def a TMI, but i was a pretty lonely kid growing up, and like! writing fic felt a bit like i was just hanging out with my friends or something. which maybe sounds a little sad, but i think that really opened up my obsession with dialogue—in that i really wanted it to feel real, not just for myself, but also, i learned as i was posting fic, for other people too? because when i started posting fic, i noticed how there were people who also just seemed to really need a distraction or escape, and i just. also really wanted to provide an escape through my stories too, if i could!

[yuesya]

hey there, it’s the chainsaw man theory anon again. I’m just going to go ahead and be identified as the h2o anon because it’s a hassle to type multiple words when I can just type one nickname. Unless this nickname got taken already uhhh oops?

Please go ahead and ramble! There’s no need to apologize. I don’t mind because it is, in a sense, kind of like reading your stories. Why else would I read all these fanfics written by you? Added bonus since I can see some thought process here too.

Thanks for wringing out this theory with me! Reading through your reply made it feel like you’re a blender with the theory being a lemon and the discussion was some nice lemonade.

For 1) and 2), not a lot of response from me here since I’m not entirely sure what to say other than agree and nod my head since as you had pointed out the manga did not outright confirm or deny anything. What you wrote out made sense anyways hahaha.

As for 3), I gasped. Because wow I did not make that connection. Makima slowly trapping Denji in her claws from the beginning was not clear to me. This is especially so since it is mostly from Denji’s POV and he’s an extremely biased narrator hahaha.

(It only became clear to me once Power was going to wish Denji happy birthday ueueue) (I would say that Reze’s death should’ve been a huge hint for me too except I was binge reading and it flew over my head until I looked back oops)

Honestly, Makima gave me sus vibes ever since I first watched the first episode. (Whoever was crazy enough to hug Denji at his request had to be off their rockers one way or another) I just had very mixed signals from her since she was a lot nicer at the start.

Don’t worry about your pen name since you make it easy to find your social media. Loyal fans will find their way one way or another! Just like I did :)

One possible suggestion would be if you can change your name to yuesya (XxZuiliu) on ao3 and/or XxZuiliu (yuesya) on fanfiction dot net, I suppose? I’m not clear how this works since I don’t have an account haha.

Thanks for indulging in my asks. Maybe I’ll ask something about jjk next ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ?

Hello again~ Great to have you back h2o anon xD

Glad you enjoyed reading my musings on this topic! Again, thanks for bringing up this theory and I appreciate the discussion. :D

Makima hugging Denji at his request when she first met him wasn't initially 'sus' to me, mostly because I just wrote it off as some 'manga character thing' at the time. Definitely suspicious when you look at it again with added perspective from the rest of Arc 1. I think I started getting a little anxious and suspicious during the udon incident, when Makima sent Denji off to fight a devil just so her noodles wouldn't get soggy.

Still, I didn't actually expect Makima to turn out to be the ultimate mastermind and a devil herself though akdfjhadsak ;;; Kudos to the mangaka for writing such a scary character!

I might look into that name thing, although my main concern in that case would be that it's too long of a username put together. Thanks for the suggestion, though, and I'll think on that a bit!

Always happy to chat! It's been great hearing from you, thanks again. :)

[elmaxlys]

🌿🕯️💝🍭💋 for the fic writer asks

ooh thank you so much :D

🌿 how does creating make you feel?

It ranges from exhilaration to complete anguish lmao I love creating, I love getting the scene how I want it on the page, be it writing or drawing. I love planning ahead and seeing it all unfold, reaching this or that scene, sneaking in details for symbolism or for the most attentive of my readers... but when I just. can't get it right, when none of the sentences have the adequate feelings, when the words just won't come and there's a story I want to tell... it feels awful, to the point of making me want to stop it all..

🕯️ was there a fic that was really hard on you to write, or took you to a place you didn't think it would take you?

The hardest on me, and not writing-wise, to write... has never been published (it's the Qs Amon AU). Among the ones I did publish, it'd probably be Blood Is Thicker. On some scenes, it was quite literally clawing my insides and then looking at the document and seeing the pain there. These scenes.. I cannot read them anymore. I barely edited them because of that. They probably don't make much sense and they're probably way OOC. But it was the only way I could write them, and they were necessary. Idk..

Also it was my first fic, and the first big thing I wrote in English, so the language part and finding my way around the language was also particularly difficult, especially as I was used to writing in French, and I liked said writing, so basically starting from scratch was. not good on me lol. reading the first chapters... you can definitely tell (or at least I can haha)

💝what is a fic that got a different response than you were expecting?

Desire or Duty! I legit thought I'd get no reader: between Adakiri being terribly left out and EDEN being terribly hated, and arranged marriage being quite the hit or miss, I never thought anyone would try to read my combination of all that, let alone be so involved in it that they leave nice comments on all chapters or tell me they started shipping the other ship that they came there from thanks to my fic. Genuinely thought I'd get, idk, massive amounts of hatred - and I got a ton of love instead. I'll never be more grateful.

🍭 why did you start writing?

In general, I honestly can't remember as I've, like, always written. But it's a "if I don't get the stories out I'll get sick" kind of deal, sorta. As for why I started writing fanfics.. on a whim. thought of an AU, heard back positively and off I went. Also a way to get the story out before I got sick, I guess

💋 when you leave comments on a fic, do you want to hear back from the writer?

Always! I notice writers who don't write back and I'll admit that afterwards I don't leave comments as often or as long if they don't.. I also notice the writers that always reply, even after months (and in some cases years). That also impacts the comments I leave, but in the opposite way: i'll try to comment as much as possible and be as precise as i can be, that kind of thing.

I also always answer comments left on my fics

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Fic writer asks