#i literally wrote this entire fanfic around that one single pun

[yuriyuu]

Guilty

Yuri doesn’t always know what to do when someone’s upset, but he tries his best.

Pairing: JJ x Yuri

(I asked @otabekismybff to give me a short prompt bc I felt like writing but didn’t feel like working on my current projects, and it turned into this 1.5k monster. The prompt was similar to “JJ is upset and Yuri tries to comfort him but fails.”

(read on AO3)

JJ doesn’t mope. He gets irritable, he gets panic attacks, he gets loud, he gets needy, but JJ doesn’t mope, at least not that Yuri’s ever seen. So quite frankly, when JJ comes home to their shared apartment and holes himself away in their bedroom with nary a single word, Yuri is more than a little worried. But he figures, maybe what JJ needs is space. Yuri cannot count the number of times he’s barricaded himself in the bedroom and left poor JJ to fend for himself. As unusual as it is for JJ to willingly isolate himself from others, stranger things have happened during their time together. So he swallows his worry and waits for JJ to come seek him out.

Hours pass, and dinner time is lurking around the corner. There’s still no sign of JJ leaving their room, and Yuri wonders if he should go and get him at this point. By now, JJ should either be raging about what’s bothering him, or they should be participating in consolation snuggles, or perhaps both at the same time since the two of them seem to have a penchant for angry cuddles. Why is he shutting him out like this? Did he do something wrong? At any rate, he’s getting hungry and a lonely childhood full of absentee parental figures makes him resent the idea of eating alone, so into the lion’s den he goes.

Yuri knocks once. No response. Yuri knocks again. No response. He huffs slightly before letting himself in. JJ is currently a curled up lump under the blankets on his side of the bed. Yuri makes his way over, taking care not to step on any of their dirty clothes strewn across the floor all while making a mental note that maybe they should have a laundry date soon.  He kneels down beside him and peels back the covers JJ is hiding himself under.

“Hey...I’m getting hungry. What do you want--” Yuri stops mid sentence when he catches sight of JJ’s red, puffy eyes, “Holy shit, were you crying this entire time?”

“Are you serious? Are you fucking serious right now?” JJ’s voice drips venom as he bolts up. The look of shock, confusion, and hurt on Yuri’s face makes him want to laugh in disgust. “If you hadn’t been ignoring me all afternoon you would have known I was upset!”

“I wasn’t ignoring you!” Yuri says defensively, “You usually don’t mope around the house, and when you locked yourself in the room I thought you wanted to be left alone! I was trying to give you space!”

JJ narrows his eyes. “You thought I was moping? I feel the worst I have in years and you call it moping?! I can’t believe you.” He’s absolutely livid right now.

“Why didn’t you come get me?” Yuri’s voice is but a whisper, and while he tries to mask the hurt in his voice, he fails. JJ catches onto it immediately.

“You didn’t even look at me when I came home. Why the fuck would I want to spill my goddamn heart out to someone who can’t even be bothered to ask me how my day was? Hell, the only reason you came in to check on me is because you’re hungry.”

He’s so livid he doesn’t even care about the fresh tears forming in his eyes.

The tears forming in JJ’s eyes don’t go unnoticed by Yuri. He reaches out to to gently put his hand on JJ’s shoulder, and flinches when JJ slaps it away.

“Don’t.”

Tension crackles between them like wayward electricity. They both avert each other’s eyes, and neither of them are willing to say anything for reasons of their own.

It’s Yuri who decides to break the silence. “What do you want me to do?” He asks. His voice is soft, full of genuine care and concern, and if JJ weren’t so pissed off at him, he would pull Yuri down into the sheets with him and sob into his shoulder.

But he is pissed off at Yuri, and the last thing he wants to do is be anywhere near him, much less sob into his shoulder as Yuri holds him in his arms.

“Just leave. You’ve done enough,” is all he says before turns his back toward Yuri and retreats under the covers.

He hears the door open and close without a single word or protest from Yuri. He thought he’d be relieved once Yuri left, but the fact Yuri can’t even be bothered to argue back with him and fight his way by his side leaves him feeling even more upset.

Yuri throws himself down onto the couch and quietly groans into a pillow. A million scenarios play through his head, each one more dramatic than the last. What if he had been more attentive? What if he had said something like he originally wanted to? Why on earth did he think JJ, JJ of all people, would want space? Had he really given JJ such a cold shoulder when he came home this afternoon? Did he really leave JJ crying alone in their bedroom for hours? The guilt gnaws on his bones like a dog chewing a brand new rawhide.

And even still, instead of attempting to win his way back into his boyfriend’s good grace, he’s laying on the couch throwing himself his own personal pity party. Maybe JJ wasn’t moping earlier, but Yuri sure is now and it’s making him feel like an even bigger piece of shit.

Comforting people had never been his strong point, and he thinks back to all the times his grandpa had tried to comfort him with simple words of encouragement and freshly prepared food. Perhaps if things were especially bad, a special blend of tea. JJ might not want to be within a thousand feet of him right now, but at the very least Yuri could leave a cup of warm tea on his nightstand. So Yuri sighs, picks himself up off the couch, and drags himself into the kitchen to prepare JJ some tea.

When the water boils, at first he goes to reach for one his own teas. His expensive, high quality teas imported straight from Russia. But he hesitates for a moment, and instead chooses to brew a bag of the cheap tea JJ prefers from the grocery store. While JJ deserves nothing but the finest and most expensive teas, the cheap gross shit is what makes him happiest. It wounds Yuri’s pride to brew his boyfriend such bad tea, but if the cheap gross shit from the grocery store is what makes him happiest, then so be it.

He even throws extra cream in it, just like JJ likes it.

This time, Yuri doesn’t bother knocking on their door before entering.

“Hey, I uh...made you some tea,” Yuri says to JJ, who is still hiding under the covers. “Don’t worry, I promise it’s not one of mine. I’ll leave it on the nightstand for you, okay? I’ll uh, be in the living room if you wanna talk or something. I’m sorry and I love you. Hope you feel better soon.” Yuri feels a lump forming his in his throat as he tells this to JJ. It feels awkward and out of character for him, and it takes all of his willpower for him not to cut off his apology prematurely and make a run for it.

Before Yuri can leave, he hears JJ say, “Wait.”

Yuri turns around, heart beating rapidly in his chest. JJ’s sitting up, out from under the covers, and looking straight at him.

“Is this...guilt tea because you feel guilty?”

Fuck. Had he done the wrong thing again? His eyes dart toward JJ’s face to gauge his response.

JJ doesn’t look pissed off anymore, in fact he’s...smiling? Yuri is so utterly confused right now.

“Wow, you must really feel bad if you aren’t even gonna roll your eyes at my pun.”

The tension melts from Yuri’s face. “Oh fuck you,” he says,  but he’s now smiling too.

“Come here,” JJ says, motioning with his hands.

Yuri does. He crawls on the bed next to JJ, and JJ immediately throws his arms around Yuri, pulling them close together.

“I’m sorry for yelling at you earlier, forgive me?”

“Of course. How can I not? I even made you your shitty grocery store tea to earn your forgiveness.”

JJ leans in and kisses Yuri’s forehead. “I know, how can I not forgive you after that?”

“Gross. Just hurry up and drink your shitty tea before it gets cold. You know how I feel about cold tea.”

“Hey, let’s go get dinner after I finish drinking my shitty tea. Crying all day made me hungry, and I’m sure you’re still hungry because you refuse to eat without me.”

Yuri laces their hands together, and cuddles up against JJ’s body, leaning his head in the crook of JJ’s neck. “Sounds like a plan. Just next time you feel this bad and you think I’m ignoring you, please come talk to me, okay? I promise I was really just trying to give you space. I’m sorry for being an asshole earlier.”

In between sips of tea, JJ gives Yuri’s hand a reassuring squeeze. “I know. And I’m sorry for taking it the wrong way and yelling at you.”

“Love you.”

“Love you too”

[loopy777]

Non-Review: Free Comic Book Day 2021 - The Legend of Korra (Also Featuring Avatar: The Last Airbender)

With all the hype around 'Suki Alone,' it looks to me like most of the fandom missed that an additional Avatar comic with a story from each cartoon's era was just released for Free Comic Book Day. You can read them for yourself on either Dark Horse Digital or Comixology where it's mislabeled as being for ages 17+ (free accounts are required for both), but I'm sure one of the reasons you all love me is because of my willingness to jump in between you and these comics like the deadly bullets they can be. Well, I'm happy to die (metaphorically) for the sake of (a little anonymous internet) love, so I'm doing a full snarky review for each ten-page story. Also, I'm bored, and it's more fun to make fun of mediocre stuff than to praise stuff I like.

It's time for me to review "Free Comic Book Day 2021 - The Legend of Korra (Also Featuring Avatar: The Last Airbender)" or more specifically "The Legend of Korra: Clearing the Air" and "Avatar: The Last Airbender: Matcha Makers."

CLEARING THE AIR

The cover makes this look like a story about Jinora and Ikki having a sibling conflict. That's a lie. The Air Sisters arguing is merely the inciting incident for Tenzin telling a story of his youth. I should note that, as inconsequential as the Air Sisters stuff is, it's actually written very well because it posits Ikki as a victim of circumstance and Jinora as a bully who terrorizes her little sister with threats of getting thrown in jail by Metalbenders for an accident, cementing the characterization from the cartoon. This is not sarcasm. I really do think Jinora is presented by LoK as a Holier Than Thou little snot who just so happened to be naturally gifted with magic spirit-powers, but for some reason the rest of the fandom doesn't agree with me.

Anyway, Tenzin comes in to find the arguing (and Meelo just running amok for the fun of it and so far these characterizations are perfect), and rather than telling Jinora to shut her stupid face, he delivers a tale of his youth about conflict resolution.

So the meat of the story is how, when Tenzin was "a few years older" than Jinora, a pair of vandals got onto Air Temple Island and burned some graffiti into the spinning-panel things that Korra will destroy out of frustration during her Airbending training. Literally, the vandals are depicted as scorching the wood with enough smoke to be seen across a plaza. Tenzin goes after the vandals and they flee across the bay back to Republic City proper (one of the vandals is a Waterbender with a surf-plank). Tenzin pursues, catches them, and attacks them hard enough to smash some dockside crates. They are all then arrested by Metalbenders and dragged before Chief Toph. She's going to let Tenzin go (yay Toph!) and throw the vandals in jail (YAY TOPH!) and makes this face, and this entire comic is worth it:

However, Aang arrives and instead arranges to forgo the jail-time in favor of an Air Nomad Conflict Resolution Ceremony. This is nice and in-character, but I'm totally with Tenzin that these vandals should have been thrown in jail. They literally burned insulting graffiti into antiques from a genocided culture. But instead, Aang demonstrates conflict resolution by having Tenzin explain why he's hurt and what needs to be done to redress the wrong. And so the vandals help Tenzin scrub the graffiti off the panels with water and rags and mops- how, I don't know, since they were literally burned.

They also do a ceremony thing where they each take turns bending their element into a central space between them to 'clear the air' (GET IT GET IT HA HA IT'S ALMOST LIKE A PUN BUT NOT), so it's a good thing they were all Benders because this is kinda racist. This fixes all the problems and everyone is friends. Yay!

In the present, though, things are not so nice, because Tenzin's kids are still screaming at and provoking each other. Korra comes in with Asami at the end to ask what's going on, and Asami says nothing, so I still think everyone is characterized with perfect consistency with the cartoon.

I made this sound silly, but (aside from the spinny-panels getting cleaned with a little water and elbow-grease, which doesn't matter because Korra will eventually blow them all up anyway), I actually like this one. It has Tenzin demonstrate how much he's always had to work to be the Perfect Air Monk that everyone expects him to be, and Aang acknowledges how this is unfair but that Tenzin will never let him down no matter what. It also has Katara come in at the end (for just one line, boo!) to acknowledge that this was an especially easy little conflict for Tenzin to practice on and he'll eventually face worse. I found it a nice adult moment in a story that's otherwise clearly aimed at 8-year-olds.

The art is good. It's simpler than the LoK cartoon, with flat colors, but it captures the story and has enough liveliness for everyone's character to come across in their look and body-language. The brief action-sequence where Tenzin attacks the vandals is well done, moving quickly but showing the full flow of the fight and every move Tenzin makes.

MATCHA MAKERS

Apparently, "Matcha is finely ground powder of specially grown and processed green tea leaves, traditionally consumed in East Asia" according to Wikipedia. I had to look that up. I'm curious how many people understood the full reference in the title, especially since these comics are aimed at kids too young to be allowed on the internet.

This is a very simple story about Iroh in his tea-shop in Ba Sing Se. He has an assistant/waitress named Feng, a new character who wears glasses, ruining the hopes and dreams of all the fanfic-writers who were so sure he'd rescue Jin from the Lower Ring. A frequent patron of the tea shop is an elegant, older lady (very clearly Upper Ring material) named Li-Mei, who cannot go a single panel without giving Iroh a HEY BIG BOY look. She is very clearly smitten. Also, I feel the need to clarify that she knows his name is Iroh, so apparently Ba Sing Se is okay with the Dragon of the West serving tea to their wealthy. I don't say that as a criticism, I'm just noting it.

That night, Iroh meets up with his friends- the Pokemon-style spirits that we saw in Legend of Korra. (I don't know if they're the actual spirits from LoK, or just new spirits in the same style. This is because I would sooner grind matcha into my eyes than rewatch Book Spirits.) He serves them his special blend of tea and talks about how he's totally into Li-Mei but isn't going to pursue it because he's feeling old and doesn't want to take a risk. At this point, I could stop describing the plot because between the title and what I've said so far, I'm sure you could figure out every single plot beat that will follow.

The next day, the spirits trip Feng so that she drops Li-Mei's tea and Iroh needs to bring a replacement, and they've drawn hearts on top of the replacement tea with foam or sugar or milk or whatever. I don't know because I've never bought tea in a place that will even put the bag in the hot water for me. Iroh gets out of the situation without starting any love-affairs and runs into the back to tell the spirits to knock it off, dudes, they're totally embarrassing him! The spirits respond by giving him a flyer for a romantic restaurant. I don't know how they got it, so I can only assume that some Upper Ringer had their mail diverted.

Iroh refuses, so when Li-Mei orders more tea and he brings it to her, the spirits hover just out of her sight and threaten to smash the furniture. I am not making that up. They literally threaten to smash Iroh's furniture unless he asks the lady out. He submits to their tyrannical threats, Li-Mei happily accepts the date, he happily accepts her acceptance, and the story comes to a close. Iroh thanks his spirits friends for opening him up to new experience, but hopes that next time (so I guess Iroh is signing up for Tinder after this?) they won't threaten his shop.

At best, I can describe this story as 'harmless.' But it's been a long week and I just got a bunch more extra work at my day job that I really don't want to do, so I'm going to go ahead and call this story 'dumb.' It's rote, leans towards humor without actually being funny at all, and turns the spirits of the setting into Pokemon. And not even the cool dragon kind.

The art is strangely stiff. The coloring is soft and nice, but the drawings seems more 'assembled' than actually drawn. I swear there are even a few panels that reminded me of 'How I Became Yours' with janky poses, horrifying expressions, and just enough resemblance to the original cartoon to make me think a screenshot was partially traced and then ruined. (I'm not accusing the artist of tracing, BTW. I wouldn't even condemn the artist for tracing if they did. I'm just describing that HIBY feeling I got.) It was so stiff that rather than hear Iroh's dialogue in Mako's rich tones, I instead imagined Greg Baldwin doing a stiff Mako-impression with no naturalism to the delivery.

This story is definitely worthy of its "Also Featuring" billing. I'd rate it below Gene Yang's Mai and Suki FCBD short stories, but above everything else he wrote for Avatar.

So there you go. Overall, this is very middle-of-the-pack for Avatar FCBD stuff. It's very much of the nature of the 'Team Avatar Tales' stuff, and I wouldn't be surprised if the Iroh story was a leftover from that project. On Free Comic Book Day, you often get what you pay for.

[bigskydreaming]

So just out of curiosity, what inspired the whole Beacon Bay idea? What kind of sharks and dolphins are they? This entire thing is very intriguing to me and I can't wait to see more.

So first off, anyone who’s ever played soundingboard to my original stuff like Moukie or Adam can attest to the fact that I’m ocean obsessed, so there’s pretty much nothing I’m interested in that isn’t a mere two or three steps removed from an ocean/merfolk/sea witch AU in my head. Gimme anything and like, five minutes, and I can make it ocean themed. Space operas included. I grew up near the ocean, been surfing for ages though of course I haven’t in years, blah, but like. I’m a big fan of the deep blue sea. Its just....neat. ghaskfhalkfhla

So I’ve always had a bunch of ocean-set concepts. This particular AU came about from like, smashing a couple of them together to preserve them when my plans for doing original stuff with them fizzled out, at least for the time being. Cuz the other thing about me is the way some people like, take their fanfic and file off the serial numbers to turn it into original novels, I more often do the reverse, lmao. When I have something I can no longer do something with original-content-wise, for whatever reason, but I still like the idea, I turn it into fanfic so I can still play around with it whenever I want and like, have purpose to that, so I don’t feel like I’m wasting time by still ‘indulging’ in that concept or whatever.

Like my Batfandom fic By Lost Ways, as I’ve mentioned before....that actually started out as an original high fantasy novel set in my ‘Tales of the Citadel’ shared universe. BUT the setting ended up being similar enough to a sci-fi project I wanted I to move forward with, ‘Waveriders’ (the one with the sky pirates and the ATLA-style benders only instead of evoking the four classical elements, waveriders could each ‘hack’ a different kind of wavelength, that one) like....basically, the projects FELT similar enough in setting and various superficial elements that I started to feel derivative of myself moving forward with both, so I picked Waveriders and then recycled the setting and a lot of the plot of the sky-set fantasy novel for fanfic, just for fun.

Same thing here, though Beacon Bay is basically the mash-up of two different shelved original projects. Basically, its the plot of a CW-style show about teen sirens and the sea witch making like the Fagin to their Oliver Twists, from a pilot I wrote years ago.....it got some interest but I refused to make it less gay because lol have you met me, so it ultimately never went anywhere but I still liked the plot. 

And then remember the werewolf books I mentioned awhile back, that had the mongoose shifters in them? LOL. Yeah, so I’d written two and a half novels in that series and had this whole expansive worldbuilding of twelve different shifter clans each with their own innate magic, patron deity/creator, etc, but all my agent and editor contacts at the time were like yeah sorry, shifters are over for now, and I was like wow, can’t believe cancel culture’s real and publishing cancelled werewolves, wtf, rude, and then I was like eh, still wanna play in this universe especially with the dolphins and shark shifters which I never even really got to in those books, so I’m just gonna air-lift them out of that and drop them smack in the middle of my CW siren plot and fanfic away to my heart’s content and call that ‘being productive’ when I feel like it.

Anyway, found family was a big theme of those books and the world-building I did there in general, because again, have you met me, I’m not predictable or anything (shhh, the word is consistent), and one of my initial things there was I wanted the various shifter types to all have innate magic, because for literally no real reason that I can discern other than Whimsy, I have always been Team Werewolf in vampires vs werewolves, and I was tired of werewolves always being by default the underdogs in those narratives. Even if that does make for a good pun.

SO, I wanted to come up with werewolf magic that felt natural and organic to werewolves, like nothing too flashy or obscure, but that would make them a legitimate threat even to other supernatural creatures. And I made it so each of the shifter types were granted an active and a passive magic by the god that created their type of shifter, and with werewolves, their active magic was that of the pack gestalt. I took the idea of ‘their whole is greater than the sum of their parts’ that TW kinda briefly touched on when presenting (but never really doing much with) the idea that the more wolves in a pack, the stronger that pack was.....and I decided okay what if being part of a pack upped stats all across the board AND all shifters have a SLIGHT innate resistance to magic, being innately magical beings themselves? 

So a werewolf pack, with enough pack members, would thus not only be formidable in strength, speed, senses and speed of healing....but compound that innate shifter resistance to magic, which in a single shifter is negligible, like, just enough to make them slightly harder to track with magic or curse or whatever.....but in a whole werewolf pack, that adds up to make the pack effectively immune to foreign magic. Vampires can’t compel them, demons can’t possess them, witches can’t curse them, etc. So a lone werewolf, not part of a pack, is formidable, but nothing another supernatural being can’t take on. But a lone werewolf who IS part of a pack....different story entirely, because now most other supernatural beings, no matter what their USUAL strengths, are reduced to taking on that werewolf hand to hand, as their own supernatural gifts or spells or whatever, like, aren’t gonna do them any good against these particular foes. And werewolves are USED to fighting with just brute physical strength and attributes, which gives them the edge against opponents who are more used to being able to fall back on magic in battle.

But as much as I like sticking to a theme, I like to diversify that theme where possible, so when it came to the other shifter types, I wanted to similarly come up with ways where ‘the whole would be greater than the sum of their parts’ but in like, entirely different ways.

So with dolphin shifters, their ‘passive magic’ (in quotes cuz that’s not quite the right word for it but whatever) is that they’re all empaths, with their more active magic being weather manipulation. Their empathy is a two-way street....they project emotions as well as just feel other peoples’, which ties into the fact that their patron deity was Dionysus. Dolphin parties....legendary. But in an extremely wild, dangerous and Bacchanalian kinda way. In terms of Beacon Bay specifically, this is a bit of a problem for the BB dolphins, as the closest thing they had to an official Triton (the dolphin shifter version of an Alpha) was Peter, but they were like nope, not loving this guy, and kinda drove him out of town in the AU S1 backstory of this ‘verse, which means Scott and the others are kinda just making it up as they go along, and don’t really know the ins and outs of BEING dolphin shifters. (Derek is....elsewhere, in this. Mostly). 

So bottom line is they have reputations around school for being loud obnoxious goofs and trouble-makers, constantly playing hooky and such, but its because they don’t really know HOW to safeguard against spilling their emotions onto everyone around them so they try and err on the side of being the life of the party whenever possible, as that’s better than the alternatives in their opinion. And when they’re just having bad days and bumming hard, the whole pod will just skip school and glomp around the bumming pod member whilst self-caring, rather than like, accidentally bum out the entire school.

But their weather manipulation magic is where the gestalt idea comes into play with them, as I love weather manipulating powers, but I didn’t want to make them all Ororo Munroe, y’know? Only Ororo Munroe can be Ororo Munroe. Don’t make me scoff. I’ll do it. I’ll scoff so hard. SO I went with the idea of weather control married to manipulating storms via song and was like, okay what if a dolphin pod is like, a symphony of shifters. 

Basically, its like each individual dolphin shifter is a single voice in a chorus, and there’s magical equivalents of being a baritone, an alto, etc. Like, none of them can whip up a storm on their own. Its more that each of them can summon or conjure a PIECE of a storm with their song, with it being different for each of them....symptomatic of their magic as an expression of them as an individual. So for instance, Scott’s song is ‘tuned’ to lightning. He can call down a bolt of lightning from a clear blue sky.....but he can’t summon so much as a drop of rain to save his life. Literally. Its an actual plot point at one point. Whereas Isaac’s song is all about calling down rain, Boyd’s is more of an arctic wind, and Erica’s kinda summons a pressure front that in harmony with the two of theirs can whip up a mean waterspout. And then Corey’s all about conjuring fog banks with low visibility while Liam can whistle up a strong, gale-force wind but sucks at using his song as a precision instrument. Etc, etc. But the real magic is when they all use their voices and magic in concert....as a group, they can summon huge magical thunderstorms.

Also, one thing I love about using different kinds of shifters is the opportunity to explore enhanced supernatural senses that aren’t just keen sight, smell or hearing. So the dolphin shifters aren’t like wolf shifters in being able to detect chemosignals or anything like that....in fact, their sense of smell isn’t much different from anyone else’s. But they do have an ability to use what’s effectively supernatural echolocation even above water, and their sight is adapted for optimal viewing underwater, making them particularly good at seeing in the darkness even on land. 

(Also, related but somewhat tangential to both the shifter senses and dolphin ‘voices’....all dolphin shifters have a strong talent for mimicry, but this isn’t technically a form of magic, more just a combination of their control over their voice and their keen senses of pitch, etc).

The shark shifters, on the other hand, have some of the keenest senses of all shifters. Not only is their sense of smell even better than a werewolf’s, they’re sensitive to changes in pressure, for one thing. Which means on land, they can even feel changes in atmospheric pressure.....so like, the shark shifters of Beacon Bay could be in math class and then ‘feel’ a sudden drop in air pressure and thus even before some strange weather phenomenon occurs, they’re groaning like ugh fucking A, what the hell did the damn dolphins do now.

Also, their magnetic field perception is such that they can kinda ‘sense’ when people are around, just by being aware of the approaching magnetic field of another living being.

And then with the sharks, I was looking for ways to lean into the associations we have with sharks and blood, but subvert them to be less macabre and more communal. And another big theme of mine in general is like, I am DETERMINED to go to my grave shouting at the top of my lungs “Its THE BLOOD OF THE COVENANT IS THICKER THAN THE WATER OF THE WOMB, NOT BLOOD IS THICKER THAN WATER, HOW DID PEOPLE GET THAT SO BACKWARDS ITS SUPPOSED TO BE THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF HOW ITS USUALLY STATED!”

Like, that’s just...HUGE pet peeve of mine. Its like nails on a chalkboard, lmfao, that drives me nuts. That phrase is usually cited by people using it to express like, the idea that there’s no greater force than family, specifically BIOLOGICAL, ‘blood’ relations, but its literally meant to be the exact opposite, that the blood of CHOSEN bonds, of covenants, of vows or promises, is a greater force than the water of the womb, ie being born of the same womb, as in biological siblings. The entire point of the phrase is biology ain’t shit, family is what we choose. And somehow it got turned ENTIRELY around.

(Note: Okay, so for the record, its not ‘somehow’, there’s actually a very clear reason for why that particular interpretation gained so much momentum, and that’s because for a long time it was conflated with an old German proverb from like a thousand years ago that basically translates to “kin-blood is not spoiled by water.” Which basically was meant to mean that nothing can ‘dilute’ blood relations, not time, not distance, not water. So that phrase DOES correspond to the idea that ‘blood is thicker than water.’ Problem is, there isn’t a direct trace from that particular proverb TO most USAGES of ‘blood is thicker than water,’ which when you throw in the OTHER phrase, which in its entirety is “the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb,” what you end up with is a lot of people SAYING that one when they actually MEAN to say ‘kin-blood is not spoiled by water’ and that’s where the meanings get switched. But I fucking digress. Per usual).

Anyway. So combine that particular pet peeve with my found family fixation AND the fact that this is about magic and magic means I can do whatever the hell I want, fuck your biological connections mwahahaha.....I decided to base shark magic on the idea of the blood-ties of family....but CHOSEN blood-ties, as in blood of the covenant ties.

What I mean is okay, so it first of all just made sense to me to have shark shifter communities be heavily focused around adoption, because like....let’s be real, shark shifters going around biting people to change them into shifters, and then people magically healing from....shark bites....was going to attract a lot more attention than people turning after being attacked by other types of shifters. Not to mention the fact that not only are shark attacks always big news, part of why they’re big news is because they’re actually pretty rare.

So, shark shifter communities were never really gonna propagate via lots of random shark shifter attacks turning people. So the way they DO expand and grow is by, well, family. Both biological AND adoption...as well as of course shark shifter communities taking in people who ARE attacked by rogue shark shifters, when that does happen. 

But bottom line is, there’s an additional element in play in shark shifter communities, beyond just the gene pool....and that’s like, a magical tidepool of talents, let’s call it. Because I do love me some alliteration. But also tidepool of talents is just a cool phrase, IMO.

Anyway, the main part of shark shifter magic, and how THEIR whole is greater than the sum of their parts, is that any shark shifter can draw upon or channel the talents, skillsets or knowledge of anyone else in their communal family. And whenever that family gets added to, the talents, skillsets and knowledge of the new addition gets added to the pot, so to speak. So shark shifters are kinda all like Rogue, if Rogue’s focus was less on the superpowers of other people and more on things like Beast’s scientific knowledge, Cyclops’ strategic skills or Cable’s weapons expertise.

And then their ‘passive magic’ is a form of psychometry whenever they come into contact with blood. By touching even just a drop of someone’s blood, they can get a vision of how that blood was spilled or even get a sense of where the person who spilled it is now.

As to the types of sharks and dolphins they all are, for that I went with the thing about the shape you take reflects the person you are.....all the shifters here are full shifters, and there’s no genetic component to their shifting, its purely magical, so like....just because Peter turned the various dolphins of BB doesn’t mean they all turn into the same kind of dolphin he was. In fact, I don’t even know what kind of dolphin he was on account of I don’t really care tbh, lol. Whereas Erica’s an Atlantic spotted dolphin, Liam’s a pygmy killer whale which looks like an orca just tiny in comparison and is actually a dolphin, and I found that combination of factors hilarious, etc, etc.

Same thing with the shark shifters. Even among biological relations, there’s a ton of variety of shark types. Like the twins aren’t even the same type...Ethan’s a blue shark and Aiden’s a bull shark, Tracy’s a tiger shark and Hayden’s an angel shark. Danny’s actually a throwback to an unnamed prehistoric shark, not Megalodon big but big enough to shut up Jackson when he goes on about being a great white shark. Shark and crocodile shifters are the two oldest shifter clans, old enough that literal dinosaurs fall under the umbrella of their shifter type, and thus occasionally show up even in modern generations.

[threewaysdivided]

Author Meme

Tagged by @pi-cat000​. Hello to you too!  I'm also something of a lurking digital hermit, but more than happy to interact so feel free to tag me in stuff, send asks or just poke my blog with a stick if you want to chat.

Author Name:  Three Ways Divided across Tumblr, Archive of Our Own and  Fanfiction.net.  Occasionally I do art-stuff and post the High-Res versions to DeviantArt as RedMoonWhiteTiger.

Fandoms You Write For:  Pretty much just Young Justice and Danny Phantom.  I’m involved in other fandoms too but I don’t produce fic-content for them (maybe one day).

Where You Post: For Fanfic:  Started on FFN then began crossposting to Ao3 when I noticed people migrating across to the archive.  Now I simulpost to both, and drop a linked preview here when new content comes out.

For Art:  Any proper finished pieces go to DeviantArt for full res viewing, as well as under #my art here.  Sillier art stuff and WIPS are Tumblr-only.

Other stuff:  Tumblr.  Outside of fic and art the main things I do are long analytical meta-pieces under the #scattered thoughts tag, discussions of writing for the #writing advice tag, and food stuff under #3WD Cooks. 

Most Popular One-Shot:   I only have one official one-shot right now and it’s my DP piece Defining Moment, so I guess it wins by default.

Most Popular Multi-Chapter Story: There’s something to be said for limited choices - my one and only is, of course, Young Justice: Deathly Weapons.

Favourite Story You Wrote: I have a love-hate relationship with YJ:DW but I’m very happy with how the plan’s coming out so far.

Story You Were Nervous to Post:  I have exactly 2 stories and I wasn’t particularly nervous about posting either - either they’d work or they’d vanish and I’d let them go when my interest ran out.  There are some more out-there concepts that maybe one day might develop into fics, but if they survive workshopping then I’ll at least be confident that they’re not completely devoid of value.  

Right now I’m mostly nervous about ensuring that new YJ:DW chapters live up to the existing material.

How Do You Choose Your Titles:  Typically Wordplay.  If I can find a pun or phrase with double-meanings then I might use that.  Callbacks or references to the source material also work in a pinch. 

For example, “Young Justice: Deathly Weapons” is a reference to YJ’s canon titling style and a play on the phrase “Deadly Weapons” (i.e. lethal weapons) and the word “Deathly” (adj.: resembling or suggestive of death), because dangerous plot involving ghosts.  Several of the chapters and planned chapters have titles that are chemistry references, puns or nods to other series.

Do You Outline:  Do I outline?

You tell me.

Complete:

Unless it’s a one-shot, not for a very long time.  

I do plan my stories with the end in mind but I’m also a compulsively overambitious, overachieving, perfectionist gremlin so there’s a whole lot of content and drafting between here and there.  By a lot I mean an entire half-season of the show.  This one puts the long in long-fic.

In-Progress: 

I have one fic that’s not a one-shot, and I promise I’m still working on it.

Coming Soon: YJ:DW Chapter 17 “Assessment” is 1k from draft completion and getting closer each week.

Do You Accept Prompts: Not really, no.  My writing style typically involves a lot of planning and drafting so I find spontaneous flash-fic hard unless I’m especially inspired.

BUT!  Analysis is my bread and butter so if anyone ever wanted some fic-meta, or analysis of storytelling/ characters or even to pitch a story/scene/trope idea for feedback/suggestions, I can spin out a decent essay-style or research piece quite fast.  My brain is naturally geared towards analytical writing over narrative prose.

“My mind," he said, "rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse cryptogram or the most intricate analysis, and I am in my own proper atmosphere.” - Sherlock Holmes

Upcoming Story You Are Most Excited to Write:  Young Justice: Deathly Weapons is actually 12 semi-self-contained story-episodes, at least 2 significant character arcs, a long-running mystery and a bunch of short character essays stacked inside a trench coat and masquerading as a single sane fanfiction, so mostly I’d just like keep on with that.  I also have a few tie-in one-shots, so I’ll be prioritising this series before moving on to any other big projects.

Ideas I’ve been kicking around and may one day write when YJ:DW is closer to done and assuming they survive workshopping:

DP x YJS1 Danny-Dick Brother AU, of which there are three variant ideas for execution

DP x YJS1 dissection-fic in the vein of Unfair Justice

DP x YJS1 literal crossover in which Danny has to leave his universe behind and ends up on Earth 16

DP AU fic - in which the Fenton parents are much worse at parenting, Danny gets his powers a different way and we explore depression, isolation, self-perception, self-hatred and neglect

BNHA fic in which Izuku never gets One For All, tones down the fanboy after realising just how serious the issues with the status quo are and chooses to go into Support instead to change the system from within

Dark Souls one-shot mood piece

Yeah, YJ:DW is more light-hearted than all but two of these, my brain is just a barrel of laughs.

-

Tagging: @lunagalemaster @batmanisagatewaydrug @ao3commentoftheday I would be curious to hear from you if you’re interested and have the time.

If anyone else would like to participate but haven’t been tagged, please consider this your open invitation.

[bozeia]

I had a very nice conversation with a good friend about fan stuffs and meta stuff. I wanted to share it, tentatively. Very long though so it’s all going under the cut.

Bozeia: Fandom drama. Bozeia: x_x ( + ) Lomithiel: Stupid fandom drama x_x Bozeia: Normally I am actually one of those people that has never felt like other people "ruin" a show for me. Bozeia: No one else I know relates to that! Bozeia: They always tell me, like. Bozeia: "The Homestuck fandom ruined Homestuck for me" or something like that. Bozeia: But like I just look at it as fans being dumb and having no bearing on what the material is trying to say. ( + ) Lomithiel: *nodnod* Agreed Bozeia: Right? ( + ) Lomithiel: But in this case...?  Is it the Voltron fandom, or a different fandom? Bozeia: =w=;; You pay attention yes it's the Voltron fandom. Actually, maybe I'll be able to explain this to you better than with my other friend. Bozeia: Uuummm, mmmmmmm okay so like. Bozeia: Ack, it's always been this way. I don't ever, really, have the privlege of geeking out over a fandom with other fans of the thing I'm a fan of. Bozeia: At the time the thing I'm a fan of is running/in progress/et cetera. Bozeia: At this point, my experiences have made me way too shy. ( + ) Lomithiel: *nodnod* Bozeia: I have a difficult time reaching out and trying to make new fandom friends. Bozeia: So I just lurk a lot. Bozeia: And am basically a stalker. Bozeia: So I just followed a lot of blogs that shared my interests. Bozeia: But, like. Bozeia: It's tumblr. Bozeia: So stuff that's related to what I like and who my favorite characters are just ends up on my dash even if it's from a blog I wouldn't have followed. Bozeia: And like. Bozeia: I don't know what it is but tumblr has this trend where freakin' everyone loves a specific character to death to the point of ruining it for everyone else. Bozeia: Like, Sans. Or Junkrat. Or, in this case, Lance. Bozeia: And it's like. Bozeia: I really, really like Lance. That one is my favorite character. Bozeia: And I want to write fic about him! Bozeia: I have a few ideas. Bozeia: But I wanted to try and get a better handle on his character. Bozeia: And finding, like. Bozeia: Character analysis posts that are ACCURATE is really difficult? Bozeia: Because a lot of people are biased and don't look at it for what it IS sometimes. ( + ) Lomithiel: Yeah, I have that problem with some of the Sans-analysises I've stumbled across on tumblr ( + ) Lomithiel: People get attached and want them to be what they want them to be, rather than considering the character exactly for who they are, flaws and all. Bozeia: Right! See, that was my thing. Bozeia: I haven't written in so long that I doubt my ability to portray flaws and how they cause conflict? Bozeia: Because, like. Bozeia: Like, sometimes, I only really relate to MY flaws. Bozeia: And my flaws are, specifically, "disengage super hard and hide when you upset people". Bozeia: Which is not, probably, what Lance would always do. Bozeia: Lance is loud and emotional (which I can relate to) but he's also not shy about confrontation and saying the occasional Obnoxious, Dumb Thing. Bozeia: So it's like. Bozeia: Pls help. Bozeia: But tumblr is the worst for help. Bozeia: And it's been on the back of my mind. Bozeia: And then I saw a post just now reblogged by someone else who called out everyone who puts Lance on a pedestal to the detriment of the other characters and it just sort of irked me. Bozeia: Not, like, in that way where they're wrong. Bozeia: But, like. Bozeia: In that way where it had to be said at all. -.- Bozeia: And now I'm wondering if it's even worth it to write my thingers because what if people are just tired of Lance content. Bozeia: Hnnn. Bozeia: But yeah, other than that and the car thing that's all that's up with me. Bozeia: I'm sorry, I just sort of word spewed. ( + ) Lomithiel: <3 ( + ) Lomithiel: Naw, s'good. ( + ) Lomithiel: I would say it is worth it to write your thingers if it would bring YOU enjoyment. Bozeia: I guess. It should bring me enjoyment. Bozeia: I guess the thing that's bothering me is this feeling that I am somehow...typical? Bozeia: Or like. ( + ) Lomithiel: And I would bet anything there would be people out there who would like it, too. Bozeia: A fandom sheep. Bozeia: And yeah, probably. Bozeia: At the very least I hope that if I DO write The Thing(s). Bozeia: That it would set a good example! Bozeia: Like, "Hey! This is Lance! All of Lance! Including when he does not so fun things! Remember that this is him!" ( + ) Lomithiel: *nodnod* I would not by any means call you typical. ( + ) Lomithiel: And exactly! :D Bozeia: *Nodnod.* ( + ) Lomithiel: Sometimes you gotta write a fanfic to Do It Right. Bozeia: To, uh, express this sentiment exactly. Bozeia: I do want to provide the context that, um. Bozeia: I have a Type. Bozeia: As far as favorite characters go. Bozeia: And it is always exactly the same, there are only two conditions. Bozeia: It must be an Underappreciated Character that is Underappreciated by EITHER or BOTH of the following parties: Bozeia: 1. They are Underappreciated by other characters within the universe of the show. Bozeia: Or. Bozeia: 2. They are Underappreciated by the FANDOM for some reason. ( + ) Lomithiel: *nodnod* Bozeia: I have a TON of characters that I fucking adore because they're unappreciated by fandom. Bozeia: Like, Star Fox? Bozeia: My favorite fucking character is Andrew Oikonny. Bozeia: Who is a throwaway boss that everyone makes fun of. Bozeia: But he had so much potential! Bozeia: Or Dragon Ball Z? Bozeia: My favorite is Raditz. Bozeia: Which is absolutely a character people would make fun of me for liking. Bozeia: But. Other times. Bozeia: Rarely. Bozeia: My #favorite will sometimes fall in line with whom the fandom at large most adores. Bozeia: With Avatar, my favorite from that show was Zuko. Bozeia: Because! Bozeia: Literally his entire story was "EVERY SINGLE OTHER CHARACTER SHITS ON HIM IF THEY DON'T LOVE YOU I WILL". Bozeia: And it so happened to win him the adoration of every fangirl ever, go figure. Bozeia: And now in THIS show. Bozeia: Everyone's #favorite is Lance. ( + ) Lomithiel: And Lance is the unappreciated one? Bozeia: It's, hmmm. Bozeia: I want to say. Bozeia: And I am trying to be objective. Bozeia: That he may be slighty underappreciated by his team? Or. Bozeia: At the VERY least he has some very, very faint feelings of being underappreciated whether it's true or not. Bozeia: Lance's actual problem is that he actually just has low self-esteem. Bozeia: Most of the time he covers it up SUPER WELL by acting like a hot shot. Bozeia: To the point where most of the time I think he fools himself. Bozeia: I think he intentionally fools himself like he probably appreciates "fake it til you make it" in a real way. Bozeia: But when he's alone and there's no one there he'll have some very real existential moments where he worries that he doesn't have a "thing" and that he's not really super GOOD at anything like the rest of his team. Bozeia: Like, he actually comes out and wonders if he's bringing his team down. Bozeia: And he's not sure because they wouldn't keep him around if he didn't contribute? Bozeia: Question marks. Bozeia: So. Bozeia: Within the spectrum of the show I don't at all get the impression that Lance really blames his team for not appreciating him enough. Bozeia: I think he's more worried about not being good enough for THEM. Bozeia: But that by itself has the overtone of "do they appreciate him because if he's having self-esteem issues then is his team there for him emotionally?" Bozeia: Et cetera. Bozeia: So. Bozeia: I think like, collectively, a lot of Voltron tumblr saw him have this moment in season 2 that a lot of them SUPER related to. Bozeia: Because it was the kind of emotional crisis that every depressed emo loser would have. Bozeia: Me included. Bozeia: Super me included, I am that loser. Bozeia: I have had that exact Lance moment. Bozeia: Multiple times. Bozeia: Hence why I fucking love him and why he is my son. Bozeia: <<<<< ( + ) Lomithiel: *nodnod* ( + ) Lomithiel: that is a very relatable feel, for... I imagine lots of the tumbler folks. *heh* ( + ) Lomithiel: And the fanbase in general. ( + ) Lomithiel: (I really gotta watch this show now) Bozeia: It's super good. Bozeia: But yeah, like. Bozeia: I'm trying to figure out how to write my way around Lance's EXACT emotional nuances. Bozeia: It is there and real but it is not. Bozeia: Always how a lot of writers like to portray it? Bozeia: Like, I think there is potential to writing him struggling with self-esteem, and even with depression. But. There is a key to portraying it accurately. Bozeia: And I think portraying it accurately should include the fact that he seems to almost overcompensate in trying to cover up, or keep ahead of, his own insecurities and melancholy. Bozeia: To the point where he naturally brags, and boasts, and hyper flirts, and sometimes even picks fights, to keep his head above water so to speak (yeah! water puns!). Bozeia: So, like. ( + ) Lomithiel: Reminds me of Raf (the ninja turtle) in a lot of his portrayals. ( + ) Lomithiel: A little. ( + ) Lomithiel: So, like? Bozeia: I'm trying to organize my thoughts. Uuuuh. I think. Bozeia: To the rest of his team. Bozeia: It's like this situation where Lance is really, really good at wearing this really happy jokerster mask. Bozeia: And he's really good at faking high self-esteem. Bozeia: So it's not his team's fault for not realizing Lance might be having issues. Bozeia: And, you know. Bozeia: I don't think Lance thinks it's their problem that he's having issues. Bozeia: Which is where, maybe, I'm having my issue with fandom sometimes. Bozeia: ...Not that it stops me from partaking in the occasional super angst whump fic someone wrote. Bozeia: It's a guilty pleasure even if it's not how I would've written it fml. Bozeia: But yeah. Bozeia: The short of it is I read that post and now I feel almost guilty for liking Lance. Bozeia: And also I'm a little disappointed in a number of writers who maybe exaggerate the wrong things in their portrayal of him. Bozeia: And it just makes me go "grr". Bozeia: Also wait. Bozeia: Raf as in Raphael from TMNT? Bozeia: Isn't he like. Bozeia: Temperamental and super confrontational? Bozeia: I think? ( + ) Lomithiel: He's got kind of the self esteem complex, tho, too, in some iterations. ( + ) Lomithiel: Where he's kind of the tough guy to cover it up. Bozeia: Ahhhh. Bozeia: The only iteration I'm SUPER familiar with is the newest Nick show. Bozeia: I honestly don't remember if that one has self-esteem issues. ( + ) Lomithiel: (and totally, the "it's not how I would have written it but mmmmm guilty pleasure" fics are the sauce sometimes) ( + ) Lomithiel: That's the one I'm thinking of. ( + ) Lomithiel: And, like... it's not like he SHOWS it really ( + ) Lomithiel: And maybe it's bits that I'm reading too much into, but I get the sense that sometimes he feels like all his brothers are 'better' than him in different ways, I dunno. ( + ) Lomithiel: ANYWAY ( + ) Lomithiel: Yeh, it's hard.  Like, one day I'd like to write my Undertale fic, and Sans is a similar "rabid fanbase" character, where it's like "well of course you're writing a Sans-centric story doesn't EVERYONE?" Bozeia: Right??? That's how I feel. -.-;; Bozeia: To be fair, I only really have the strong desire to write three fics. Bozeia: And once I write them, barring new content from the upcoming Season Three maybe inspiring me, I think I'd probably be done with fic for Voltron. Bozeia: Two of them are Lance-centric, the last one isn't even centered around the main characters at all. Bozeia: I want to write a fic about fan characters set in the same setting. Bozeia: Which, I'm not sure how that'd be defined, exactly. Bozeia: But it is a thing.