#i'll probably come to you to plot out a concept if you're interested!

[herostoried]

i'm in a self-indulgent mood so does anyone want a supernatural themed thread with ochako or nighteye??

specifically, by supernatural i mean like... something set in the mha canon setting, but involving supernatural stuff OTHER THAN quirks that the characters generally don't know exists. like my witch!ochako verse that i had over on my old blog!

[knightyoomyoui]

TWICE Sana x M/F Reader - "I Want It That Way"

I'M BACK. After 3 months of no update, your one and only Knight Yoo-Myoui returns to bring you readers more stories in my book. Author's been in a really tough situation especially last month, but that still ain't gonna be enough to take out my passion and motivation to continue writing for both mine and your entertainment. I'm gonna continue this as long as I can. However, from now on; please understand and expect that I won't be updating very often like weekly or everyday as before. Studies is my current priority as of the moment but I promise that I will always update yall. Actually though, this new kind of pacing for both my writing procedure and publishing has somehow lessen the pressure in me. I'm really liking it so far, makes me comfortable. This story is requested by ShaShaSha029 BUT..., sorry Sha because I made some changes on your requested plot hehe. I already made the same concept from my previous works so I used your other request from another member to come up with something new that I haven't done yet. And as for the other member you requested to me, I'll give you a brand new plot for her. I hope you and the readers will like this. Enjoy reading! STREAM "I GOT YOU" and "ONE SPARK" MVs btw!

"I'm going home, guys. I'll leave the office to you all."

YN/LN, a current 4th year student from Cheongnamdong Polytechnic University and the campus' ongoing president of the student council, has just finished your tasks for today and is now about to depart from their office and send your goodbyes to your fellow members kindly to end the day on a positive note.

"Be safe on your way home, Pres!"

"You too."

You continued walking after sending him all the bright greetings, but before passing to your own cubicle and reaching the door, it opened. You then heard some footsteps behind it until a familiar figure made its presence known in front of you.

You watched your classmate, friend, and the secretary of their council, Yoo Janghoon, peeking at the door with a weird smile before you find him standing on your way.

Janghoon then approached YN.

"Seems like you're about to leave."

"Yeah." You nodded. " What's with your smile in your face? You look like you just saw something amusing.", he said in a judgmental look.

"Not with my own eyes, but the words I've heard are enough to picture her on mind." Janghoon smirked and bounced his brows.

"Her? You're into hunting chicks again?"

"Idiot, I have a girlfriend now, ofcourse I'm not." Janghoon mocked YN as he was about to throw a punch. "But seriously though, not even me could deny that it really does interest me."

"Why, what's going on out there?"

"Well, I've heard from my acquaintances from the other courses that there's a newly transferred female student here in the campus earlier after the class break."

"That late?"

"Yeah, I was a bit confused too but they said the professor just let it passed because they said that her documents were finalized at the last minute so that's why." YN hummed to react.

"And would you like to enlighten me what's so interesting with this random transferee student? I mean, no offense. Welcome aboard to the university but... what's special?"

"Dude, I'm telling you, it's not just "random", this girl was a legit bombshell. Based from how they described her, it was like when she stepped on the room, they felt like there was a legit goddess that got manifested into reality."

"And that's it?"

"Y-yeah... but you know and I know, dude. Our university has been missing it's "queen" for quite some time now. And probably the students are making noise about it is because they see a huge potential on her."

"Okay. Well, I do hope she doesn't feel overwhelmed with the attention she's about to receive on the next days of her stay here."

"But we're here as the council officers to take control, right?"

"Exactly." you nodded. "Anyways, gotta go now. I still have a family dinner not to miss."

"Alright, take care pres."

"You too, sec."

You left the office and the campus with a curiosity forming in your heart and mind on the identity of this woman that has been the center of the gossips you were unaware of due to how busy you are on the duties.

Arrived at home, you entered and got welcomed by your mother who is preparing their table for a lovely dinner tonight while your father is busy watching basketball on the living room.

"Good evening, mom."

"Good eve, YN. Tired?", she said while placing the plates on the table.

"Not that much but I would be glad to rest as always.", you spoke with a timid smile.

"Perfect, meal's coming right up real soon. Join your father there, okay?"

"Okay. Thanks, mom."

You walked near to your father and greeted him courteously. You sat beside him and laid your back comfortably on the soft cushion of the couch to release all the pent-up exhaustion your body has consumed on today's packed class schedule.

Minutes later, your mother commands both you and your father to position yourselves on the seats. Each grabbing their own meal, all of you started praying first before taking your first bites and swallow on such a delicious food.

"Uhm, dear. We want to talk to you about something." Your mother inserted a topic to be discussed.

"Sure, mom. I'll be listening. What is it about?"

"It's like a business talk but this also concerns about your personal life too, YN which we much rather prioritize." Your father said after swallowing his throat. "We meet up with our partners on the company regarding this and we all come to an agreement."

"Agreement to what?"

"Me and your mother are placing you in an arrangement contract with their child."

"Wait, come again?"

"Arrangement contract. It means we set you up with someone as your age to date and marry one day, and we figured out that to strengthen the connection between us, we decided to-"

"Yes, wait. I know that part, dad but... why need to? Wasn't it too early? I get that you want me to have a wife and a family someday but... it's not one of my priorities so far.", you complained.

"YN, please do understand that your mother and I ain't be getting younger as time goes on. Someday, you'll be alone, and we just wanted to give you another family that you would be glad to remain and... hopefully, to remember us like how we raised you from the beginning."

"But wasn't this too fast? You're making me rush things."

Both sides went silent, as the father felt guilty also for how true your words are.

"It's my life. You may be the one who gave me that but I developed and earned a right to decide what's right for my future."

"We know, son... but we had no choice. It's for the sake also of our business. You know that we have to keep it to the mountain top so that we don't have our efforts of raising it go to waste, especially when this is the main reason how me and your mother were able to give you a better life that you deserve. And some way or another, you will be for sure, the one who will take the mantle and own my properties. You can use it also to raise your family easier."

"We are not forcing you to do this, YN. Please, we just wanted to inform you and talk about this because you also have a side and opinion to be heard. Whatever your answer may be, we will respect it. We are just suggesting, but hopefully you can consider it, honey." Your mother's soft voice effectively kept you at ease more.

Taking deep breaths and a short length of silence to contemplate, you looked at them both as you made your choice. "Fine. This is because I love you both and I owe you two everything. I'm doing it."

They both smiled in relief. "Thank you for this, son/daughter."

"No problem. So... can you tell me more about this contract?"

"Well it's simple, an arranged contract but we requested to have you and the girl we chose to spend 30-days or let's say a month to get to know each other and figure things out if you two would believe that everything will work out as a couple." Your father explained.

"And who's the girl that you guys have prepared for me?"

"They have an only child just like us, and it's an easier idea to place her because as we learned, their daughter is currenly in search of finding somebody to love."

"Sadly, we're unalike."

"But she may be able to change your mind, on whatever that hold your heart back. You accepted the offer, now you just have to see how she really is, but we're certainly sure that she's good just like her parents."

"And what's her name?"

"We haven't been introduced nor asked for her name, but from what we know, her nickname should be "Minatozaki", and is Japanese. She was also studying now at the same campus as yours."

"I'll try to look for her and maybe we can talk there privately."

"Whatever you want, YN. Just keep us updated okay?"

"Noted." You replied before everyone returned on focusing to finish their foods.

The next day, you were a bit irritated from how the discussion last night distracts you in the middle of your duty. You couldn't concentrate at the curiousity that dwells inside of you.

So you decided to to take a break outside. You encountered a vacant spot to breathe some fresh air and drink at the iced coffee you prepared on your tumbler as you roam your eyes around at your surroundings.

That's where you spotted some group of students huddling around at a spot near the bulletin board, as if they're being crazy or attentive at something.

Eager to find out the rucus, you approached the scenario and tried to peek around, and there you noticed a female student entertaining the other fellow students by asking her randomly and even asking for some pictures like she is a celebrity.

As she turned around, her long chestnut colored hair flips around as if it denied the gravity, her side profile appeared, until it all fully rotated to have her face evident at you for the first time.

And my oh my the rumors shared by your secretary were true.

No wonder why she was already popular, she does look magnificent, enough to be mistaken as a famous personality.

Your eyes couldn't leave the sight of her just doing everything even in such bare minimum if movements that still effortlessly made her very attractive. Thankfully, there's your boy distracting you as you snapped back when you felt a shoulder wrapped on your neck.

"You finally met her." Janghoon said, smirking at you. "From what I heard earlier, the exchange student's name's Minatozaki Sana. She's a foreigner, a Japanese to be specific."

"Minatozaki?" Your thoughts murmured. Contemplating if you heard it right, but that was the same surname your father was tasked you to find, and she even has the same nationality.

Having exchange students in your campus are very rare.

You are flabbergasted as you slowly realize that... this woman is going to be the one you'll date and marry.

Unconsciously, you turned around at Janghoon with your forehead crumpled and mouth slightly gaped.

"What? Did I say something wrong?"

"Oh n-no. Not-thing." You shook your head swiftly. Returning your gaze back at her, you couldn't believe it at all that your parents and her friends does picked a perfect girl for you.

But you wondered if it could be said the same about you.

Hours later, Sana who was about to enjoy her recess, instead went to the council office to meet the president, as per the classmates told her after being tasked to do so.

She stepped in front of the door that says "Student Council Office, knock twice before entering". She followed and slowly pushed the doorknob. A person sitting at the far end of the room, looking busy on his desk greeted her.

As the door closed, it alarmed the president that the person is now here for a scheduled conversation, only that when you raised your head, you looked at her having a shocked reaction.

Sana stares at the reveal of this mysterious person that runs the entire student government of the campus. Flashbacks began to run back into her mind, slowly making her upset.

"Thank you for agreeing to come here and t-"

"Am I looking at this very clearly?" Sana immediately spoke.

"Pardon?"

"You? Out of everyone here... was chosen to become a leader?"

"W-what? Settle down, miss. I think you n-"

"A representative figure for everyone, and I get to be under your orders around here?" Sana chuckled bitterly. "I didn't know that even after years later, we'll still have our paths crossing onto each other despite how I wanted to never meet you in my life again."

"D-do we know each other?"

Sana scoffed as she looked at you ridiculously. "Ofcourse, how could you recognize me. First of all, I was just a complete nothing to you. A plaything of your cruel antics and delinquent actions. And second, I'm not the same girl you used to belittle everyday."

You furrowed your eyebrows as you looked at her intently. "W-what... you..."

"Still doesn't ring a bell? Oh, how about this. The name Minatozaki Sana? That fat nerdy girl back in elementary that you used to bully so hard in our 8th year that forced her to transfer to other school. How about that?"

Your eyes sprung open as you instantly remember the name and that student you used to include in one of your prime victims in your dark past.

That description of her past self brought you back to the times when you remembered looking for her first to rather mock, annoy, or play with her until her feelings broke and look helpless.

You were a bully before in elementary days, and she was your classmate back then. But that was all only the past now as you are now a changed person, with all the better and positive things that came into your life had taught you more valuable and nice things to consider yourself reevaluating your personality.

But it looks like it could tell the opposite for Sana's part.

"I remember you now, Sana. And... please, let me tell you right now that I'm not the same person you used to despise before."

"Do you really think I'll be fooled easily by that?" Sana retorted. "We just met after what... 7 years and you're supposed to have me believing that when in fact, I still look at you as that same horrific figure I never should've want to see again, but yet here you are."

Sana still didn't took a seat. She walked around and observed the room. You were a bit relieved that all of your council members are absent in this tense confrontation. "What a hypocrisy it is to have you getting involved in an organization that focuses on student rights when in fact, you have a record of violating it before. Shouldn't be a student fitting for that must be... clean?"

"Sana, believe me or not, I changed. I wouldn't even dare to take this position if I'm not sincere for it, and I'm not forcing you to believe me."

"Oh, ofcourse you should. Because I really don't buy everything that comes into your mind not until I see it" Sana shook her head and smugged. "Maybe it'll change my mind of me planning to expose you from every-"

"Wait! You can't be serious?"

"Oh indeed I am." Sana clicked her tongue. "You ruined me before, but here I am who helped myself and from people I loved to become this better version of mine to stand here in front of you, I'm going to get you this time, YN. I'm going to make you feel what is it like being... excluded."

She leaned forward on the desk, staring at you sharply and observing your nervous expression. "But...if there's some sort of a miracle that... you did changed. Then you're going to prove it on me. Make me convinced that this YN I hate with every fiber of my being is... gone."

"What if I tell you that you already have a chance to make me?"

"And that is?"

"Have you heard about an arrangement contract from your parents?"

"Y-yeah... but they don't tell me who it is because- WAIT" Sana quickly lunged back away from you. "Please tell me who I'm thinking is correct."

"Sorry to tell you but I was just in denial as you are yesterday."

"Oh God." Sana poured out the biggest disappointment she felt in her entire life so far. "W-why does my fate has to be very unlucky everytime when it's about you? Me being in an arranged contract with you? I think I have to vomit."

"Wait! But you said you want me to prove that I changed?"

"And you really think I want it this way?" Sana looked at you disgusted. "Being as this fabled student council president or just a random student from me would be fine but... YOU AS MY FIANCE? That won't do, mister." Sana swayed her pointing finger. "Unfortunately, the answer would be NO. Now please, I have to go already. I still have a lunch to take before I lose my appetite."

Sana walked away from you and left the room unbotheredly. You sat there, back falling flat on your swivel chair. Your hands caressed your hair as you reacted unbelievably and stunned that this heavily improved Sana that you used to know many years before has returned to actually be your woman, but unfortunately, her hatred for you still lives on her till this day.

Her opposal didn't worked however, as Sana tried to request later during dinner, she was informed by her parents that the contract can only be cancelled after 30-days for the people to finally reassure their decision.

She mentioned that YN and her have a bad history in the past, but instead her parents reasoned out that maybe YN has changed and it will not hurt to give another chance. If only they know what the real reason it is, but Sana was clearly affected by their suggestion because honestly, Sana is a forgiving soft type of person.

Still, confident that she's satisfied with her answer, she became impatient and hated being with YN more.

Meanwhile, you shared to your mother about how the unlikedness of you and Sana's interests about the marriage arrangement in a deatiled manner.

"We met and had a talk, but... it wasn't as proper and civil as I expected because, I was surprised that she confessed something very familiar to me. Something that I've been trying to get it out on my head. Something that I wanted to let go for a long time."

"What was she to you before?"

"A nuisance, even though she wasn't doing even wrong. I look at her before thinking it wasn't right for her to be in this type of high class campus that I study at too, but then I figured out that me ending up bullying and making her emotional and mental state suffer is way worse than she is."

You flinched when your mother slapped you in the head. "What??? How could you bully someone?! Is that how we raised you?"

"Mom, wait ofcourse no... but, I was just made to be like that because of what happened to us, you know that!"

Your mother became speechless and a glimpse of pity became visible to you. "But it's all good now, mom. I'm not like that anymore, I'm telling you.  And that's what I should've just wanted to prove to Sana but... I understand that she won't let me anymore. I broke her too much, I can't let it happen again."

Stepping closer in front of you, she placed her hands gently on your shoulders to massage them and make your ease down. "Even I was mad and disappointed that you once turned into that type of guy you never should be, but I know from the bottom of my heart that you will always be a good kid of mine because that's how I raised you to be. You just got affected too much by our struggles before. And I believe you always, YN. The only thing I can do now for you to support you, and that is for you to keep on moving forward and never stop to make Sana forgive you, alright?"

"I will. Thanks, mom."

She patted you on the cheek. "Goodluck, okay? You have a month to do it."

----------

"Okay, class dismissed. Group 1, remember to prepare your report by next week okay?"

"Yes, prof!", the students who are part of the group that the professor mentioned chanted.

The professor left the room, leaving the students have the freedom to eat lunch during their vacant time.

"Sana, cmon! Did you bring a lunch with you?", one of Sana's classmates asked her while she's clearing her table.

"No, I'm gonna buy for today."

"Nice, let's go!"

Sana brought her wallet and cellphone with her, joins her newfound friends named Miyeon and Sullyoon as they make their way out to the classroom.

However, as they were about to, a figure suddenly pops out of the doorway, stopping their tracks. The two classmates of hers had a visible shock in their faces unlike to Sana, her bright mood quickly shrank down into a gloomy one.

"Hi, sorry if I'm almost late." You straightened your lips. "Good thing I was about to catch you leaving yet, let's go eat lunch together."

Miyeon and Sullyoon's jaw dropped at the student council president's proposal. Sana's eyebrows knitted hardly. "Huh? What nonsense are you saying?"

"Why? I'm just going to invite you to eat with me?"

"With you?" Sana scoffed and chuckled. "You have the guts, I'll give you that... but NO." Sana leaned forward at you to say this.

"Let's go girls."

Sana was just commanding her classmates and taking a step again away from you but in her surprise, she felt her body being pulled by a force. She tried to process what happened, and there she found her skin contacting with yours as she stood by your side...

with your hands wrapped around her waist.

Miyeon and Sullyoon's eyes largened in utter shock at what they're seeing. They couldn't believe that such a new transferee would get to gain closeness and change the behavior of the famously respected and knowned leader of the students around the campus.

Sana's lungs skipped functioning as soon as she felt your fingers dug deeper into her skin. Her face then starts to turn red and her face showing almost hilariously stunned reaction, with no hint of an idea what has turned you to be like this today.

"Pardon me for Sana's antics right now, we just had a fight yesterday and I wanted to come up a solution to fix that." You said in a melodic and apologetic tone to them. Sana was dumbfounded at the ridiculous fake words you are talking about.

"W-wha"

Sana wasn't able to finish her words, when she felt herself getting pulled again, now squeezed against your body which intensified her heartbeat and blushes.

"So, please. Can we eat together today, love?"

Any words that are synonym to what I mentioned earlier can be heavily applied now to all three women witnessing the sudden change of the president's act.

You led the way, bringing Sana with you as both crossed the hallway with the confused and flabbergasted duo following on the back while some of the students can see the two having this kind of contact has began to grab attention.

As they reached the cafeteria, Miyeon and Sullyoon shyly approached the "couple". "Uhm, Sana. I think we can just eat sometime. We'll let you have you two your private time okay?"

"B-but w-"

"Thank you for being considerate on us, girls." You smiled humbly at them and they nodded before they left you and Sana to find their own seat. As the two of you remained, Sana's face crumpled and seethed much air to unleash her full force on escaping to your touch.

She quickly unhooks your arm on her waist, pushed you aside, and punched you in the shoulder. "Oww!"

"Seriously, what the hell did you do to me, YN?!" Sana started to bicker out on you. "How come you just started to spit out and let my friends hear and see you assuming that we have a relationship now, huh?! Did you ate something bad that had you acting like crazy today?"

"Nope. I'm perfectly fine, and what I did there earlier, consider getting used to that." You replied. "Because from now on, I'll be going to do it with you again and again and again a-"

"Woah wait no what?!" Sana paused you. "And why is that, huh? I haven't even agreed yet on the deal-"

"But was the contract got cancelled?"

Sana fell speechless. She remembered yesterday that she swore to dump the contract by requesting to her parents after she gave her disapproval. However, she failed to do so.

You took her silence as yes. "I suppose it didn't. If it does, my parents would've informed me immediately."

"Yeah yeah yeah, you won. So what? You still can't just do it like that to me randomly. I still haven't gave you the consent to touch me or do anything lovey dovey around me. Just because the contract states that we are arranged to be a couple that doesn't mean I can let you easily do everything free around me. Especially when the fact that I still hate you so much." Sana pointed at you as she stares deeply within you.

"Alright, fine. You do have a point. I shouldn't have done it. It's my fault, I made you uncomfortable, and I'm sorry for that." You spoke in a calm tone. Sana got her insides tugged at your sudden softer behavior. "But just know this, I hope you can let me do these with everything I can. No matter how much you deny, we are still stuck in an arranged contract that has a month allowed on us to come up on a decision if we'll take a marriage, and that gives each of us the right to do what couples does.

And I'm going to use it also, for me to prove myself to you that I've changed through all these years, Sana. Consider it me acting or say whatever you want, but when it comes to you, I'll show my improved self and nothing less than that." You said plainly to her. Sana is just listening at you patiently, sticking out important details to her mind while her emotions were a bit being brought by your committed words.

"I can't force you to love me back and have our marriage settled someday after the deadline comes, I wasn't even into love these days but I had no choice but to follow. But, I really do hope that before or when these all ends, I can hear you saying that I am now forgiven."

Sana was struggling to come up for a words to answer, and you took the opportunity to let her have time to remember and process everything as you locate a seat and bought foods for both of you. You left the still pissed off Sana became completely silent and come back to join her in an awkward lunch together.

That went on and on, with you trying to get along with Sana through most of the occasions. You supposed to take it all as a yes coming from Sana that you were being a chance to prove everything to her that you are not this same bad person she used to resist before.

With your frequent actions around Sana led to the campus knowing also about your rumored relationship with her.. Some were supportive that the president finally get to have a girlfriend such perfect as Sana while some were not due to the reason of jealousy most concerning about the fact that they are not the ones standing on the shoes or position of either you or Sana.

That didn't affected both of you, especially Sana who is trying her best to become unbothered with all of these because she is too tired to explain it to many people for some truth that everyone wouldn't accept easily. She knows it all to herself anyway that it's all part of the act, that none of them are interested with each other or has a growing fond being developed.

Not until one day, she accidentally finds you tutoring a female student in the library. She saw how entertained you are on how easily the girl gets to understand quickly with your teaching, thus turning you both looking happy together.

Feeling a bit uncomfortable at the scene, her lips unconsciously forming into a frown. Sana instead leaves the room and went on to return with her friends who noticed her bad mood as she buried her head around her crossed arms on the desk.

It all procceeded until their next subject when the girls tried to approach her about it. "Hey, Sana what's with the grumpy look?" Miyeon said as she peeked at Sana who looks completely out.

"You weren't participating with us lightly, what happened when you left the room earlier?" Sullyoon added.

"Yeah, you seemed in a no good mood."

"Nothing." Sana blabbered.

"Was it YN?"

"I said NOTH-" Sana paused and realized that she just made herself obvious, Miyeon and Sullyoon were just staring at her.

"Welp, that confirms it." Sana sighed. "Care to tell us what's the problem?"

She remained silent. She wasn't sure why she's getting a bit embarassed to reveal it until she also got nervous when her friends began to list down some of the possible things a couple creates problems.

"Was he cold to you today?"

"Hmm maybe you're the one who's not?"

"Or... could it be somebody's jealous-"

"What, no?!" Sana rapidly reacted. Miyeon and Sullyoon exchanged a "gotcha" look.

"Oh unnie, you're too obvious." Miyeon laughed.

"Jealous of what? Or should we say, who?" Sullyoon curiously asked.

"S-stop! I said it's nothing, okay! There's no chance in hell that I am jealous because of him." Sana made a "tch" sound on her mouth. "I don't even like him at all." She rolled her eyes as she whispered it, barely to be heard by her friends who returned focusing on their own. As she was left alone with her trouble, her eyes went staring at the window, she sighed deeply as she felt a strange regret inside her after saying those words while remembering what she saw back in the library.

As if she meant it.

Hours later, Sana bids goodbye to Miyeon and Sullyoon before she walked at the hallway all by herself. She stopped on her steps when she felt this unsettling feeling near her shoulder.

Her head goes turning around, searching for something but was unsuccessfully. Sana sighed and shook her head. "YN isn't coming. That guy/girl is a student council president, Sana. He/she's probably busy." she muttered to herself.

Sana continued to move, with a blank face and a moderate speed. As the afternoon light about to engulf her, she felt her sling bag slowly float, the weight she's carrying quickly became lighter.

Her breath got taken away shortly in surprise until she realized what caught her from that action.

It was you, smiling while standing beside her as you taking off her bag gently from her shoulder.

"May I?"

Sana didn't respond, she just let her arm spread a bit to let the strap fall, easily allowing it to fall from your posession.

"You do look like having a bad day." you peeked at her expression. Sana slightly got shy, and turns her face away as she pouted while rolling her eyes arrogantly.

"You just noticed? I'm always like this whenever you're around me."

"You sure there's nothing more than that? I know it's pretty much of a 'me' problem but... can you be more specific?"

"Oh come on, wasn't that enough for you? Stop triggering me, please. I said what I said, you are an eyesore that's why." Sana crosses her arm. She started to walk down the stairs as you slowly followed her with a faint smile on your lips.

"Okay, if that's what you say. I'll just be here behind you. Too bad, I wanted to lead the way because I want take us somewhere unwinding first." You sighed and tightened your lips. Sana heard it, sensing a weird sensation through her. She must be saying no or even meaner than that, but how come she became more curious?

Sana heaved out a large breath of air before pausing on her walk with a stomp. She turned around to face you as she gestures you to come forward. "It's only because I needed it."

And you grinned thankfully.

The two of you went to a cliff from a road outside of Seoul. Just in time, Sana was about to whine about how dangerous this place you chose until she was distracted of the magnificent sunset in display to the skyview.

Each of you took a picture, with her being first. You clicked the button, instead the shot accidentally captures Sana turning her attention back at you. As she approaches you, you dragged down your phone in embarassment and nervousness that she might found out and suspect that you're secretly spying on her.

"What happened to you?" Sana finds your tensed manner.

"N-nothing. I just... remembered something."

"Weirdo." She teases you. "So what's gotten into you choosing this place. Are you gonna push me there down the cliff to show me your true colors?"

You looked at her exhaustedly, no much in an energy to enlighten or defend yourself. "Say or think of anything suspicious about me, Sana but I wasn't even harming you even in my imaginations anymore." You didn't bother to look at her because all you'll see rather is an irritated, sassy woman whom you had a price to pay for.

"This is my favorite place to chill." You simply answered, leaning at the front of the car and posing your limbs as you supported yourself with your arms pressed on the car. Sana looked at your side-figure.

"I started finding this when me and my mom used to go here when I was young. She was the first one to notice how beautiful the sunset is to watch from here, and I did agree on her... and it turns out to become one of my favorite scenery." Sana just listened to your story as you continue to witness the sun hides from the clouds.

"My mother told me to stay with her longer here because for a moment, she found peace and serenity. She felt like there's nothing to worry about." You paused as you smiled proudly. "She felt like she wasn't going to be alone in this battle she's facing, because I was there by her side. Even though I... wasn't that too much vocal or expressive at what I've gone through in our family, but... my heart knows where I need to stay. Where I can surely find a better outcome for my life someday."

"That's why when the right thing happened one day, I started to listen and follow to my heart first. I kicked out all those delinquent students away from my company and I only remained my wonderful mom and dad... step-dad..." You corrected yourself, Sana shrank her eyes at that intentional pause. "Because it felt like it's the right thing to do, and it did. It helped me to get back up to my feet and reshape myself to become a proper man that my mom always wanted to see in me.

Sana, mind I if ask... am I progressing?"

Sana stares at you as you glanced at her with your glistening eyes full of hope. "I'm not gonna lie this time, but you sure are doing quite an effect on me..." Her voice is slowly decreasing through the words.

"But that won't still change anything about what you did to me before. People can say past is past easily but me? If it wasn't for that, which I don't know... should I say thank you atleast anyway... for motivating me to change my appearance? Lose a massive amount of weight, beautify myself more, get rid of those eyeglasses and braces just so that I can be accepted and liked by many for my features like what you said?" Sana said with a bit of a hatred rising through her again. You remain speechless as you understand why it's driving her mad.

"I achieved a better life too but unlike you, what I did I get? You put me into a trauma that I'm still bringing to myself till this day. Fear and anxious that...  makes me still remember it all."

"I like the passion, YN... but I will never going to forgive you for what you did to me. I will always hate you for that." Sana said it with all honesty. "And that's enough of a reason for me to have no interests on having our deal contract settled."

Heartbroken, you chose to ignore and hide as you have nothing more to do than to accepts her decision. After all, you were the one who already said that you can't force her to make amends with you.

"Understood."

The next week, Sana was about to go downstairs when she found a student sipping lollipop at the corner. The guy looks completely wasted, obviously breaking the proper uniform rules. She decided to ignore him as she continue to go through but insteas, the guy catcalled her before moving on its own, approaching Sana.

"Hi there, hot stuff." The guy said before taking off her lollipop with a slurp. "Where you going at?"

"A-at my class." Sana nervously said.

"Hmmm... okay. Nice and proper, I like it. Ladies like you are easy to be tamed, isn't it?" He smirked menacingly.

Sana stepped back and grabbed her sling bag. "E-excuse me? How dare you-"

"Ohhh, daring. Such a duality we got here huh, I wouldn't mind if you can do switch roles with me, however we can only apply that in the bed."

"Shut up, pervert!"

"Cmon, lady. It's that simply, feel free to take a shot on me, and you can be there to your classroom without a problem."

"And if I don't?!"

"Challenging and fightful, I like that."

"Then you're going to love me."

Sana and the delinquent both became surprised as you made your unexpected emergence from the stairs, hurrying down ss you pushed away the guy and had him bumping his back on the barred metal gate.

"This one's pestering you?" Sana only nodded.

"Ugh shit! Ah, look. It's the bastard of this goddamn student council!" The delinquent said while touching his upper back in pain.

"Choose your words more carefully. I can report you and have you be placed in a sanction that you'll regret."

"Go on, make me. As if I give a shit. This entire university is a complete bullshit anyway. The only reason it got me staying here everyday, is if wasn't for some sexy chicks like here roaming around-" The deliquent didn't had to speak disrespectfully and point at Sana longer as he ate a crunchy right punch from you straight to his face.

"You crazy bitch!"

The guy fights back at you, returning the punch you gave. It agitated you and led yourselves into a brawl that had the groans and growls echoing to the upper floor, catching student's attention. Sana panicked and tasked them to call a guard to seperate the two.

The guy got the advantage during the fight, he continues to give you a barrage of kicks to the waist before he pulled Sana closer to her and inappropriately traced her sides while he chuckles dangerously.

Sana felt disgusted and quickly slaps the guy. "What do you think you're doing, huh? Fucking slut!" He gave Sana a fast backhand slap that had her twirling and crashing next to the metal handles of the stairs.)+•~

You saw what he did, with anger fuming in you, you pulled his leg and sent him down on the ground before you tackled him andgave him multiple punches until the guards and the officials broke up the fight.

"THE TWO OF YOU, PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE. NOW!"

As a result of the fight and from the decision made by the higher ups, the guy was kicked out of the campus for multiple delinquent offenses while you got suspended for your role as the president for a couple of months when they learned that you just did that for self-defense.

Sana was sitting on the bed with the nurse preparing the first aid until you showed up and requested the nurse instead to leave it all on your hands. She hesitated for a minute that you are also bruised but you bargained until she gave up and listened to you as a respect for being a student leader.

Sana in her surprise, watched you sit down and grab the first aid beside you. "W-what are you doing?"

"Treating you."

"Don't make me a baby, YN. The nurse can do it herself."

You just stared at her and Sana felt a bit intimidated. She decided to shut up and forcefully let you do your thing. "Good. Now come closer and lemme see your cheek."

She leaned forward and directed her aching cheek on you. "That idiot." You cursed as you search around the reddening spot. You weren't aware that it was mixed by Sana's blush now to have you staring very closer at her.

You started applying the ice pack around the hurting spot as Sana hissed before she swallowed in her throat and spoke. "T-thank you... for earlier."

"No problem. That's unusual, atleast I got a positive comment from you.

"I- I wasn't expecting you to come to rescue me, okay. And I didn't know how much I needed it."

The awkwardness between each other formed as none dared to speak afterwards when both got lost in their words. However, you started a topic that might break the silence and for Sana to understand more.

"I wasn't always like this."

"I know, you said it. It's just that there's something happened that I don't know-"

"It's my dad." You answered it. Sana looked at you. "I know you've been itching to ask me what exactly happened."

"I just don't want to because I felt like it's not my intention to know more and all I had to do is to understand you because it seemed too personal that I might sound forceful. But I do really wanted to know why." Sana replied. "So... step-dad?"

"No. My biological dad." You revealed. "My original father was abusive to my mom. I learned that he became like that when he started to fell addiction to gambling and other crazy stuffs that risks your money badly. He releases his frustration to my mom until she couldn't take it no more when she heard it loud and clear from my father that he despises her for me not turning out to be the one he's expecting. He always wanted a son/daughter but... nope. That's just all a part of his excuses that made my mom snapped and file a divorce  and report to my dad, and guess what. Her attorney became so interested in my mom and here he is, my mom and my dad broke up and him, who is now my step-dad, saved mom and I." You said as you applied care on her bruises.

Sana looked at you pitifully and for the first time, she frowned for you. "W-why are still helping me or... treating me good, even though I don't return it back at you?"

"Because... I got influenced. At first, I look up to my dad. I thought at first that he was tough, strong... I started becoming like him when him and my mom always gets to have a proble but then I realized that he was a true coward for proving all that by beating up my mom. And she was the one who is actually tough, because despite of all the suffering she took from my dad, she didn't hurt him back physically but that doesn't she has no plans to fight. Because if she does, then I wouldn't be in a better state if it wasn't for her.

So I changed. I took mom as my role model. I remained calm as much as I can. I did it all to reshape myself from the ghost of the past. Now here I am, rather choosing to prove myself and mean it all on my words on you. I don't want to fight anymore to cause trauma, Instead, I'll do in a need to protect the people who are close to me."

Sana tied all the strings together, and it did finally all comes to a clear point that it wasn't really your fault that you turned out to be that reckless bully that she had to go through a hard time before. She would be lying if she won't admit that she is a supporter of a belief that people can change, and it comes through this moment that she decided that she can use that phrase for good.

"There, all done." You said as you tucked all the hair to her ear and patted the bandage firmly on her face. Sana was just staring back at your tender and admirable demeanor. "Does it still h-"

"I forgive you."

"..."

You fell silent. That was very out of nowhere, but suddenly it got so uplifted to hear that successfully.

"Y-you do?"

"And we still have a week remaining ahead of us. We can use it to finally be able get along together."

You smiled widely as you saw how Sana's bright and cute grin shines right in your eyes. She looked so beautiful, and you even felt more guilty and poor for her on vanishing this irresistable kine of joy within her before.

"Yeah we can. T-thank you a lot, Sana."

Sana patted your hand to calm your happiness down. She smiled as she stared down at your hands stacked together. She took a grip on it and even felt the heat crawling through her skin, sending to her overflowing emotions in her heart.

It actually does look... fitting in her opinion. And she even agreed more to herself when she looked back up to see the owner of the hand she would actually love to hold more in many occasions.

That moment, Sana confirmed to herself that she has now began to discover a liking on you, who is also discreetly sharing the same serenade as her too.

Days after you and Sana tried to start this brand new closeness both of you has started for each other, its aftermath had left you ran out to became so overwhelmed about it, now that have reminded you of something that requires to be done more important before the expiration was reached.

You wanted to be happy because you have now made peace with Sana, but today wasn't the right time for you to celebrate fully.

Too much occupied on spending time for each other, that it almost made both forgot that you had to deal with a serious matter when the next day comes.

Your mood disrupted as you got conscious of the date today, not even Sana's bubbly personality can distract you from it or anything. You couldn't even join her as you remained watching her instead for some reason.

"You seem like you're in deep thoughts again, YN." Sana poked you with the tip of the ice cream she bought. "Are you okay?"

You didn't answer right away as it took time for you to snap back into your senses and found yourself being confronted by Sana.

"Y-yeah."

A lie. Sana detected that disturbing twitch of a forced smile on your lips.

"Really, what's going on? I know i've seen this last time on you getting blacked out of nowhere but this one feels different."

"How can you say?" You asked in a dead tone.

She shrugged and opened her ice cream first before she continued speaking. "That something's definitely bothering you. You're so stiff and uneasy. Does it makes you scared?"

"M-maybe it is..."

"Care to share what it is then?"

You were about to respond but Sana introduces you to her cold palm blocking your sight.

"But first, eat your ice cream. It's gonna melt, plus... it's my favorite flavor, okay? I don't want it getting wasted." She pouted adorably.

You chuckled and sighed as you opened your ice cream. "Delicious."

"Who? Me or the ice cream?"

"W-what?" You looked so baffled at her suspicious remark.

She laughed loudly at your embarassed expression. "I'm sorry- it's just... you keep on staring at me while you're licking it and commenting it for me. I thought you're teasing me so... I tried to get back on you."

"S-stupid, you and your pervy thoughts..." You rolled your eyes and blushed intensely at her own silliness. "And what if I say you?" you smirked a little and glared at her.

"Then I don't mind having you grab a taste as much as you like~" Her eyes didn't even had to glare back at you to look flirty and seductive, instead aura changed on its own as Sana ensures that the one who started this kind of fun won't end up getting defeated in the end.

You gulped and looked away from her enticing look as she wheezes. "Sorry, what's gotten over me. Anyways, let's go backto where we left. Oh yeah, what's making you scared?"

You had to compose yourself before replying to her. "Of us. Certainly... for you."

"Why?"

"I can't tell if this luck that I have of making myself had to witness this whole you being... just the way you are is only temporary for me to see, because I fear that... I might lose this... real you, again." You said.

"I appreciate the consideration YN but, risks are inevitable okay? It's fine to take it as long as it won't step or abuse my whole being again." Sana said. "I know you're scared but... face your fears. This is why you seek for another opportunity, right? To make things right."

"But would it be wrong for me if..."

"If...?" Sana waited for your next words to follow up.

Your heartbeat quickened, nerves trembling, emotions rising, as there's no going back once you have revealed this secret you have been keeping from her in weeks. "Would it be wrong for me if I don't just want you as a friend anymore? That I also began to admire you more than that?"

Sana's smile dropped. Her gaze went more focused on you as she couldn't believe what she's hearing. "Y-you like me?"

"I know it's ridiculous of me to say that to you, because I feel like I don't have the right to feel this way because I made you like this... forcefully with my wrongdoings. But, I don't know why my heart is being like this." You said to her.

"Maybe it's due to what I've said to you last time that I started to follow what my heart wants, and it pains because... I feel like this is what I may be missing after all these years when I rather ending up hurting you against my will. And now it makes me worry if I continue this feeling i'm having now that we have buried your hatred, I might lose this... bright side that depicts the real you, Sana. That I mercilessly thrown away when we first met.

I don't want to let it go but... I couldn't  get rid of this feeling in me, even after you told me you have declined our contract, I'm heartbroken but I still keep on loving you." You started tearing up. For the first time, Sana has fully visualized this fragile self of yours and it truly does hurt her deep inside.

"But I don't want you to pity me. I still respect your decision, but... for the last time... a last hope in me, I just want to ask... do you... still want to reconsider it?"

You looked at her with your poor eyes. Sana got her breath taken away by your weakened state. Her heart crumples in pain seeing you like this because you are heavily concerned of something that you don't even had to.

Because she likes you too, and you don't even know yet.

If your heart chooses her, her heart needed you more.

"I'm sorry..." is what came out as a whisper to Sana's shaking tone. Your heart shattered and there's your last hope disappeared like a popped bubble in the air. She was about to speak but you interrupted her.

"I see. I get it, no matter how much a person forgives you for your sin, there's always be time that would grant you the punishment for wasting that moment that you should've been good rather. A karma, in short. And this one, is what I have to bring and suffer for the rest of my life."  You said to her with a bitter smile. Sana was in awe at your guilty pronounce.

"I enjoyed our time but I think I have to go now, Sana. I'm sorry." You excused yourself to Sana as you emptied your ice cream and left her speechless on your spot with her. Her frozen consciousness has what costs her to respond late to unable to catch you as you walked away from her sight.

Sana was left in distraught, as the words she was about to say and the entirety of your confession sinked down to her.

March 31. The day of the proclaimation has come. The month is ending and that means the contract has reached its breaking point. You and Sana met again in the court along with your parents in each of your sides.

Both parties are worried and confused on why you and Sana seemed so dull and devastated that neither couldn't look at each other's eyes anymore. This is what you feared, and the regret is eating you up again so bad.

"Mr/Ms. LN, are you in favor of the contract to be published and hereby signed by you?"

"I do, your honor." You said. You wanted to give it up but you chose to fight for what you have desired more. You wanted to be with Sana longer, and even if it won't grant you the same opportunity, it doesn't matter. Atleast you have become honest to your heart that you would've love to have her as yours.

Sana's lips trembled as she tried to fight the tears about to pour down on her face but was unsuccessful that the judge had to halt the question. It breaks your heart more to see her in an emotional breakdown in front of you.

"Miss Minatozaki, are you okay?"

"I... I'm not..." She sniffed her nose and wiped her tears before proceeding. " I'm not in favor of the contract, your honor."

Your family and Sana's both were in shock and saddened. You weren't surprised, but you are surely devastated that she is really this a hundred percent certain of her decision.

"Are you sure with your answer, Miss Minatozaki? You look hesitant. Perhaps you can provide a clear explaination why you still responded the opposite?"

"I'm really not in favor of the contract, your honor." Sana shook her head. She wiped her tears again before she stepped forward and came closer to you.

"Because I don't want to have it done arranged."

Your eyes widened. The collective gasps of the both sides can be heard from the court.

"I'm rather hesitant because I want to be with you more, YN... but not through this. I want us to build the story of our relationship through our own. I want it that way, not this where others had to dictate and rush us how things should go for us." She apologetically looks back at yours and her family, and gladly they nodded understandably at her point.

She immediately pulls you into a hug so tight that you wouldn't even care also if you got suffocated into her endearing gesture of what finding your home should feel like. "I'm glad that you didn't let go, YN... because I love you too."

She sobbed into your shoulder and you gave up with your emotions as flood of tears fell down on your face, but this time it was all full of joy and relief. You reciprocated her action as you wrapped her body into your own embrace and cuddled her head on your side.

"Thank you... thank you for giving me a chance, Sana. I'll do everything I can not to ruin this. I love you.

She leans away fron your shoulder and holds your shoulders as she traces your face super close between each other. "I'm so proud of you, YN. You deserve it."

"And yes, I would be glad to be your girlfriend... and your future wife soon." She winked before she pulls your head next for a wholesome romantic kiss.

Your families and even the judge clapped and congratulated in support for your newfound stronger relationship with Sana since this is a sight to behold seeing two couples aren't destined to be torn apart from each other... but rather to stay together forever despite all the harsh and crucial situations they had gone through.

Love, in cooperation with time; always finds a way to connect two people's hearts no matter how long it might take, and this... is the way their story had to go.

[cormorant-red]

I played 999 recently at @xivu-arath's recommendation, and I had so much fun that (inspired by that one polygon video) I illustrated my liveblog about it!

If you haven't played 999 and you are even a little bit intrigued by a puzzle/mystery visual novel with multiple timelines that all guide you towards wild plot twists...probably don't read the text! 999 is the kind of story that is best experienced with no knowledge besides the basic premise.

Transcript below the cut:

Cormorant: characters in this game really just say shit like "have you heard the story about the crystallization of glycerin?"

as a matter of fact i haven't, june, please enlighten me

Storm: "I know we're stuck in a freezer but. let's talk about weird mythical science!"

Cormorant: it's also killing me that junpei is dressed like marty mcfly and isn't sharing any of his jackets

-----

Cormorant: this game is leading me to arrive at mathematical concepts on my own. what the heck

Storm: kshgushhsg

I take it you're having a good time then

Cormorant: trying to check lotus's work and it turns out that no matter what group i arrange to take through a door, the people left behind will always have the same digital root

so to get through door 7 with snake missing, i could either send a group with sum 16 (junpei, ace, clover, and june) or with sum 25 (clover, june, seven, and lotus), but it doesn't matter because the remainder always have root 9 and can't get through doors 3 or 8! wild!

Storm: yeah the numbers and which doors end up barred to you is so cleverly deliberate

-----

Cormorant: i'm glad i finally checked what novel mode meant, because this is way more fun

Santa cocked his head to one side, like an inquisitive bird, and looked at them.

After several long moments, during which it became apparent that Santa had no idea what the cards meant, June took pity on him.

i'll have to go back and redo the beginning after i get to the first ending

Storm: oh yeah! as I recall that was done differently when it was originally a dual screen game... but it's much better when in novel style. gimme all the descriptions

-----

Cormorant: I had a long day of sitting though presentations and so I entertained myself by calculating digital roots

I discovered that adding 9 or any multiple of 9 to a number has no effect on the digital root, which is awfully interesting bc I got to the part where snake gets killed. Assuming door 3 was opened with 12 and not 21, the options are 7+3 (motive?), 6+4 (they’d both have to be REALLY good actors), or 9+1. And if bracelets work without a body attached, and if ace picked it up in door 5…

That would be a really useful tool to get around the 3-person minimum without altering the digital root

I’m also very intrigued by the theory that zero is also in the game but I don’t know what to do with that yet

Storm: forlornly having to keep myself from saying literally anything

Cormorant: Understandable, please don’t give me any hints! I’m just calling shots for the joy of being wrong

-----

Cormorant: and how do you know that, my traitorous friend?

Santa: “The RED doesn’t need a person, you know.”

Santa: “All I need is the bracelet.”

-----

Cormorant: y’know what i think he’s bluffing. he does need June specifically and that’s why he refused to consider leaving her when they first found door 9. if all he needed was a hostage, he could have grabbed junpei and forced ace to come along, and then he would be dealing with two people under duress instead of three

i peeked at a guide and apparently i found the ending adjacent to the true ending(?) first, oh well. time to see the others!

santa: i said i don't want to leave seven alone

me: bud you can't do a heroic sacrifice too, it'll mess up all the math

reader, he was not doing a heroic sacrifice

-----

Storm: got any character opinions or theories to share so far?

Cormorant: hmm I’ve got soft spots for santa and lotus maybe just because they were in the first group I went with. I like that the game makes a point of showing that lotus is quick with the math/technical knowledge. I warmed up to clover and seven more than I expected to! I have no evidence to mistrust ace….but I don’t trust him

Snake died before I before I could say two words to him

Or…didn’t. Forgot clover said he didn’t

I got info about the previous experiments from clover and I wonder if we’re like…reenacting the past somehow? Experiencing morphogenetic resonance with the last voyage?

Again no evidence i just wonder where the pseudoscience is going

Storm: santa was so my type as soon as I started playing that I just picked all rooms with him on my first run skugrhsghu

Cormorant: AHAHA that makes me feel better about going “yeahhh door 4 I like the cut of this guy’s jib”

-----

Cormorant: “the bracelet comes off when your heart rate reaches zero” interesting then that we’ve brought up cryostasis

-----

Cormorant: i simply don't trust him not to have a spare bracelet in his pocket!!!

They climbed into the elevator and Junpei listened to it creak and rattle its way to the bottom deck. Only Junpei, Ace, and Lotus were left.

As the elevator rumbled out of sight, Ace spoke.

Ace: “Lotus, would you be so kind as to go with me?”

Cormorant: “bad end” YEAH I’LL SAY

Storm: lkksghr yeah there's a few of those!

Cormorant: santa was really quick to declare that he, june, and seven needed to go with clover. waht's his game

june and ace could have done it just as easily

Storm: they could have! good catch

maybe he just thinks seven is cooler than ace,

Cormorant: i'm imagining clover taking all her grisly trophies to the door only to find it already engaged, because lotus needed no persuading,

and regarding the true ending requirements, it's also funny that santa's like "i hate this bookmark! get it out of my sight!" and this is a huge help in junpei befriending the girl who's otherwise about to snap

Storm: load bearing bookmark

Cormorant: good thing you threw that tantrum bud or you would have been killed with an axe

-----

Cormorant: in my suspicions i forgot a critical detail, which is that he didn't actually go into the door with the body this time

of course seven has been propping doors open, so it really could have been anybody

-----

Cormorant: "where have these 16 boys and girls disappeared to?" eight for each game and then an experimenter? again with the idea that zero might be in the game...

-----

Cormorant: bad endings complete! on to the normal ending, which hopefully has less of junpei getting stabbed to death

puzzling over who could have done all those murders, especially in the sub ending...or did everyone get killed? clover thinks that snake's death was faked. or did snake do all the murders, since he was the only one unaccounted for?...and then i remember what kind of game i'm playing. can't discount the ice mummy as a suspect.

Storm: you truly cannot ignore the possibility of the ice mummy

-----

Cormorant: ah no, so santa's sister was the kid that died...

i can't figure out the connection between events! why did the last games have the veneer of a science experiment, while this one has no context given? why was it all kids last time, and a random mix of ages this time, with some repeat subjects?

-----

Cormorant: called it!!!!

Junpei: “Ace, Guy X, and the 9th Man’s bracelet.”

Junpei: “That was all you needed to open door [3].”

Cormorant: called it before i even got to an ending ehehe

what i’ve been saying!!

Ace: “(9) is a potent ally in the Nonary Game.”

Ace: “Adding (9) to any set of numbers won’t alter the digital root.”

Ace: “As you can see, (9) is a very useful number here.”

Ace: “With it, one can go anywhere, with anyone.”

Ace: “It is, I suppose you could say, a game changer.”

-----

Cormorant: okay, normal ending finished! junpei did not get stabbed but we also didn’t resolve much…I’m now thinking that ace with his pocket drugs could have easily played dead in the sub ending

glad to see that snake is okay and hopefully can stay okay in the true ending. where did clover get that riddle, and will she still have it?

0=6. how much do I read into this

still don’t understand how we get from here to santa hostage situation. he’s been so consistent about not even considering betraying or abandoning people, so either he’s a better actor than ace…or it’s staged. are he and june in cahoots

Storm: augh so close now!! soon I can actually say things

-----

Cormorant: O FUCK

Seven: “Santa’s always in the room with her. That’s what you’re saying, isn’t it?”

Snake: “Yes, that’s right.”

Clover: “What about it…?”

Snake: “That’s quite simple, really.”

Snake: “You told me that the first time you came to this room…”

Snake: “…Santa was the first to refuse to leave June behind.”

Snake: “Now, doesn’t that beg the question “why?” Why would Santa do such a thing?”

Snake: “The answer is easy.”

Storm: B)

Cormorant: i've been thinking of them as a pair because it makes the math easier! if you've got 3 + 6 + 8, just cross out the ones that make 9 and don't even bother with the addition, your root is 8

Storm: B) B) B)

Cormorant: but god!! they are a pair, do not separate (or the jig is up)

Storm: they hid it soooo well

-----

Cormorant: was wondering when we would see the last cradle guy and oh duh, he was guy X

i did think it was odd that santa phrased it as "i need to leave two of you behind" rather than "i need three of you to come with me," but if he was responsible for everything (most things?), he knew that snake was there, and he was setting up a group that could follow him. excited to see where this is going!

[dreamy sigh] this game is so elegant. what a little puzzle box

Storm: yeah it is, it's just so wonderfully crafted. so little is wasted!

-----

Cormorant: oh boy [akane vision label]

"through the morphic fieldset we were resonant, and we were as one" i don't think i've mentioned it before but i'm constantly pleasantly surprised by the narration in this game. it's not flashy but it's evocative in a way that's really working for me

Storm: this is where the port falls short a bit of the original version... the ds really worked well with this aspect

-----

Cormorant: the number of times i thought "this will be totally wrong but i'll say it to storm anyway"

hello??? [arrow pointing back to the message “I wonder if we’re like…reenacting the past somehow? Experiencing morphogenetic resonance with the last voyage?”]

Storm: Y E A H

Cormorant: laser-guided spitballing

-----

Cormorant: man i said that 4+6 would have to be really good actors if they were the ones that opened door 3...and while they didn't kill snake, i sure underestimated our queen of the stage akane kurashiki

the baseline was NOT where i thought it was

Storm: no one does it like her

[hellionyura]

Jackunzel Animatic: Wherever You Are

Hi fellow Jackunzel shippers! I have something exciting to share!! I just made an animatic for Jackunzel. You can watch here: https://youtu.be/V8ey7SKI9_8

And a little preview:

Please give it a like and share if you could, it would really make my dreams come true to have more people watch my creations! <3

Anyways heavy texts below if you're interested to hear my ramblings thoughts while making this animatic: (Contains a little spoiler if you haven't watched the animatic yet so go watch it right now! Hehe)

This idea came to me in January 2023, when I heard the song 'Wherever You Are' by Kodaline. It was about finding each other and I related to how Jackunzel has two different appearances, and so I made them go through different lifetimes, and how they always find each other in each one. Also huge shoutout to @justinepush for inspiring me with this cute animatic.

1st life: Human Jack & Magic Hair Rapunzel

In their first lifetime, the story roughly follows the original Rapunzel's fairytale, where the witch found out that Rapunzel has been seeing the Prince secretly, and banished her from the tower, then threw the Prince out of the tower, landing on a bed of thorns below, thus blinding him. They managed to find each other years later, reunited with their twin children. In this animatic though, they both lost their lives to the thorns, and Gothel was shocked/surprised not because she was worried about Rapunzel, but because her treasured golden hair is no longer usable. So in this one, Jack was either a Noble from Corona Kingdom, or a Prince from a neighbouring kingdom?

2nd Life: Guardians Jack & Rapunzel

Rapunzel was chosen as a Guardian, with healing powers. I don't have much thought on her center, it was probably something along the lines of Guardian of Wish/Longing because of how Rapunzel's wish in Tangled was made true by herself (with the help of Flynn yeah but she was the one who initiated it).

I needed a simple design for her Guardian appearance so I whipped up something quickly:

3rd Life: High School students

They're both normal humans now, and meeting by coincidence, not confronting any dangers or whatever, so hopefully they can take it easy now and enjoy each other's company for a long time :)

I think it's interesting to note that they may not remember each other from their previous lives, but something does click when they meet each other. But I leave that interpretation up to you. They can also remember each other if you want ^3^

The only pairing I haven't touched is Guardian Jack and Brown-haired Rapunzel. I'll whip up something for those two in the future probs so look out!

This whole animatic took me a whole month, but of course the planning and conception was cut short because I wrote down the main plot back during its inception in January 2023. While drawing each picture, I would always lose confidence saying things like "yeah this isn't going to work out" or "aahhh this looks trash no one will like this" or "maybe i should just stop now because this didn't turn out as amazing as I thought it would be", and I had to take care of myself before burning out and quitting it altogether. I also lost confidence because my style is so anime-like, I thought people wouldn't like it since it's way different from the studio's artstyle, but anywayss...

This was my first animatic and deciding to draw 60 different coloured illustrations wasn't a good idea for a first-timer, but I kept going because even if people won't like it, I'll just do it for myself.

This was a long post, but whewww. I'll probably draw some fanarts of their High School AU. Thanks for reading! (If you actually reached here lol)

[ritcchamadayo]

Hello!

I saw that requests are open

Can i request an s/o that is a demon slayer? Then they tell them about their mission in the entertainment district?

Dorm leaders please

Thank you for sending a request! (⁠｡⁠･⁠ω⁠･⁠｡⁠)⁠ﾉ⁠♡ Kimetsu no Yaiba is a real interesting concept to work into TWST, but i hope this suits you well!

You did WHAT?!

Kimetsu no Yaiba x Twisted Wonderland Dorm Leaders x Demon Slayer!Reader ;

It's quite weird to see someone with an affinity for swords in Twisted Wonderland, so your appearance in NRC brought quite the attention onto yourself, especially from the housewardens. It isn't an exaggeration to say you missed your old life, your old job as a demon slayer fighting alongside your friends, but thankfully the NRC students really love hearing your stories and adventures!

"There was a time where I went on a really dangerous mission with my friends," you started. "An upper moon demon was sighted in the entertainment district, and I had to go undercover to lure them out!"

Riddle Rosehearts

Riddle didn't understand what "entertainment district" meant before you explained. He lived in solitude and his mother never taught him anything of the sorts, after all.

His face became as red as his hair when we understood what it meant. "S-so, you went undercover in t-that sort of situation..."

It's for the greater good, Riddle understands, but he can't help but wonder what you had to do there (he's overthinking it)

You recall your meeting with the demons. The housewarden was amazed that you could defend yourself against such enemy using only your katana, even if you had gotten beaten up pretty badly

"Even if it wasn't a... Noble place to have a fight, it's still very commendable that you defended the citizens. I can assure you Twisted Wonderland is much safer, but if any danger were to come up, I shall fight alongside you."

Leona Kingscholar

He understood what "entertainment district" meant almost immediately. He probably learnt it somewhere from the palace, but Leona doesn't pry.

"Ho? You, going undercover in a place like that? You have guts, I'll give you that."

Leona knows what kinds of business places like that entails, be it dirty businesses or dark businesses. The fact that you managed to navigate your way through it was very interesting.

You mentioned the demon siblings to him, and your stories about how the younger sibling kept whining reminded him of how clingy Cheka is to him. At least Cheka sounds less annoying, though.

"Well, I don't know what kind of dirty work you did back then, but ain't that an interesting story. Guess you're not a helpless little herbivore after all, huh?" He teased.

Azul Ashengrotto

"You WHAT?! You went WHERE?!???"

He's very flustered

You probably had to explain to him for a few minutes that nothing happened while you were undercover and that you only had to serve the Oiran and help her with her work

Yes the Oiran turned out to be the demon, Azul was shocked at the plot twist because he had thought it had stopped at her abuse of power

The demon's attack patterns using her obi sash reminded him of his own appendages. Perhaps he can use his tentacles that way if the Tweels decide to pick on his merform again someday..

"A-Ahem- My my, I did not expect such a feat from you.. But rest assured, there shall be no such thing when I'm by your side! And you won't have to do any undercover missions in dangerous places like that either.."

Kalim Al-Asim

Pure bby sunshine probably doesn't know what entertainment district entails, and you didn't want to explain either (or you'll face Jamil's wrath)

"Oh? Is it entertainment like singing and dancing?" "Uhh... Y-yeah...."

He thought the idea of meeting and going up against demons of that caliber was really scary, he held onto your arms the entire time you told the story

He was really worried about what kinds of injuries you got from the fight, pure sunshine ;;;; he'd trail his hands over your once-injured arm, or hug you tightly knowing that your broken ribs fully healed and you were no longer in pain

"T-that sounds scary!! Oh man, I'm so glad you're still alive and well... Next time, I'll protect you so you don't have to get hurt like that ever again! It's a promise!"

Vil Schoenheit

Another person who knows what "entertainment district" entails, and frowns when he heard you mention it.

"The Oiran must be quite the beauty, seeing that everyone in the district bows down to her. I'm sure she's no match for me, of course." You can't help but agree.

He can't help but wonder what kind of cover you used to infiltrate... He hopes it's not some tacky, badly worn make-up... Surely Vil could dress you up way better than that.

Vil notices that your calloused fingertips must be the results of your heavy training with the katana and your grip on it from the fight, and he truly respects the effort you put into it.

"Oh my, that's quite an adventure you got there. The callouses on your fingertips are proof of your hard work. But surely you could have dressed better for the occasion?" He said, while holding your hand in his and tracing over your fingertips.

Idia Shroud

It sounds like it came straight out of an anime and Idia's into it (he doesn't know it did come from an anime)

Oh he knows what an entertainment district is, of course. You could see the tips of his flaming hair turn pink if you didn't explain that you weren't doing anything "sus" in there

He took the story like a game- he'd visualize and analyze the enemies attack patterns and try to come up with an attack to thwart the enemies

He really wants to see your katana someday, he really REALLY wants to touch a real life-sized katana instead of the ones he uses in his games. As expected from Gloomurai, I suppose?

"You know, you could have leveled up your stats or took HP increasing buffs before fighting the final boss so suddenly like that... But I guess that's what makes a plot twist, fuhehe."

Malleus Draconia

"Child of Man, what is an.. entertainment district?"

You explain to him what kind of place it is, and Malleus was very intrigued. "You must be quite the brave one, throwing yourself into such a situation."

You explained the bond between the two demons and how they worked in tandem to each other. Malleus is reminded of Lilia's fighting style in regards to the elder brother demon.

His eyes widen in slight worry whenever you'd mention getting hit or getting badly injured, and he'd hold onto your hands gently as to reassure you it wouldn't happen again

"You are an interesting person, Child of Man. Not even fae can defend themselves using only a sword, even after years of perfecting the art. Perhaps you'd want to show me your sword arts someday?"

[hawkinasock]

TELL US ABOUT YOUR OTHER AUS (IF ABLE AND WILLING AND YOU WANT TO) ‼️‼️‼️

Tread carefully, Anon... Once I start yapping, I can't stop (jokes on you tho, I love yapping. Let's go)

I assume you mean aus for HSR specifically? I've got a lot more for genshin, but to stop myself from going on massive tangents, I'll just stick to HSR. I'll keep them all as summaries and go into more depth if there's any interest. Ok here we go:

Chimera Yanqing has kinda become my whole thing now, but I've never actually mentioned the other characters that I've also made chimera forms for. Namely Jing Yuan.

He doesn't really have any lore...? Unlike Yanqing, I was too focused on making him look pretty, which is easy because it's Jing Yuan. I'll make an update if I add anything more to his lore, cause I'd hate to just leave him unfinished forever. I do have a chimera Yunli au too, which I'll also save for another time. (Also keep in mind that he has wayyyy more fur than what I've shown. It just would've made his actual form unclear. He is very, very fluffy, canonically)

Mara-struck Yanqing (aka How the general ate the cabbage). Made a whole fic for this one, the plot is in the pudding, and by pudding I mean my ao3 lol. Instead of deflecting Jingliu's ult, Yanqing is instead killed and mara-stricken, and everything falls apart from there. Keeping it vague since it's still in progress. As of writing this, I'm three chapters in, so check it out if you're interested <3

Band au. I actually forgot about this one until I went through my list. Basically, It's a modern au where the high cloud quintet were a huge band back in ye olden days of the mid 1980s until their downfall, where the lead singer (Baiheng) is killed in an accident, triggering a series of unfortunate fates for 3 of the 4 remaining members. Jing Yuan is the only member still working in the industry and adopted Yanqing roughly 20 years after the the HCQ's fallout. One day, though, after years of no contact, Blade comes back into Jing Yuan's life, seeking refuge from law enforcement, and it all tumbles out of control from there after Jing Yuan accepts. The rest of the story would follow a very suspicious Yanqing wondering what the deal is with his dad's weird new boyfriend, and eventually reuniting the 4 remaining members (getting the band back together, as Phineas would say). There is SO much lore for this one, but it would take up this entire post to explain, so I'll probably just make it into its own post (with designs ofc). Tbh I haven't done as much work on this one as the others simply because I just don't know that much about music? Zel does though, so if I ever come back to it, I can go to him as a consultant.

Kind of an odd one, but I'm including it since it sorta counts, and I've become pretty fond of it over time. Mom Lumine au(s) Xiaother being Yanqing's dads is one of my favorite little crack aus. This au is the brainchild of imagining Yanqing as Lumine's child instead, but me as the author not enjoying xiaolumi as much. Thus, this was born. There's not really a story? Just a bunch of loosely put together concepts with multiple potential narratives that I find fun. Most of the time I default Childe as Yanqing's bio dad. In a weird way, it makes sense in my head? Yanqing resembles Lumine and uses a sword, and has that same go-getting, battle-hungry attitude as Childe, with all the knock-outs to boot. I mainly imagine chilumi as this interstellar crime duo; the Bonnie and Clyde of space, if you will. Because, honestly, if Yanqing's parents are ever to be revealed, would it not be the funniest thing for them to turn out to be criminals? I think it's hilarious, because Yanqing himself would be mortified.

Guardian Blade/Stellaron Hunter Yanqing au. These names are kinda lazy cause I usually don't make official titles for them unless their a fic, which this one happens to be. Here, Yanqing is an abomination of abundance, and as my interpretation usually goes, the only person who knows about this is Jing Yuan. Him and one other - blade, who was confided in the secret shortly after Jing Yuan had taken baby Yanqing in. Jing Yuan made Blade promise that, should the truth ever be uncovered and Jing Yuan punished, Blade is to take Yanqing and protect him. And years down the line, when the truth does finally reveal itself, Blade fulfills his promise. Theoretically, Yanqing would then join the stellaron hunters, albeit unenthusiastically. I haven't actually made any plans for that concept outside of a single one-shot. I still need to finish the actual fic first lmao.

Mara-struck Jing Yuan au. Probably the least original one I have to offer, because there's nothing particularly unique about it aside from one little twist I added that I think differentiates it, and that's that Yanqing doesn't actually kill Jing Yuan, or vice versa. Instead, Jing Yuan, in his current state, attacks everyone and everything except for Yanqing, and actually goes out of his way to keep Yanqing away from danger. The way I rationalize this (and this is me stretching the mara lore a LOT) is that Yanqing is so important to Jing Yuan that he creates a sort of blind spot to the mara when present; he is both innately precious and harbors only positive memories in Jing Yuan's mind, so in a way, he retroactively contradicts the way mara-struck!Jing Yuan would normally perceive him, seeing Yanqing as something to protect rather than attack (i hope that made any sense </3). This would probably never actually happen in canon. I just really like the idea of Jing Yuan's love for his son being so strong that it stays with him even after he's gone mad and can no longer remember what Yanqing means to him.

Progenitor au. Saved this one for last because it's been occupying my entire brain for the past few days. It's based on Dillongoo's Progenitor Albedo series, and by based, I mean it's just the same au, same universe and everything, but HSR. I won't go into the details because I'm planning to make it its own dedicated post as well, but I think its safe to say its becoming my favorite au out of all of these. I already have some designs and original lore cooked up, so hopefully I can post about it soon.

I think that's all of them? Debatable if some of these even count as aus, but who cares. I hope you enjoyed my rambles and found my ideas interesting enough to read through. I'm hoping to eventually give them some more life and make actual content with them.

Till next time <3

[copperbadge]

Cleaning out my Google Drive archive, I happened to stumble across the original spec Hallmark Movie script that Fete For A King was based on -- not that I had lost it, I'd just kind of forgotten about it. And it occurred to me you guys might enjoy seeing a scene or two from it.

I wrote Fete basically from the script -- I made a copy of the script and rewrote it into prose as I went, then did a second pass to make it less Scripty, so most of it would be very familiar. The plot came through basically intact. The one thing I significantly altered was Jerry and Alanna's subplot -- in the script, as often happens with Hallmark films, the supporting characters also have a love storyline. I took that out of the book because it didn't need the padding, and it allowed me to give them a book of their own later, but the script scenes were pretty fun. :D

(In this version Jerry still attends the Agricultural Cabinet meeting for Gregory, but mentions this fact to Michaelis, which gets Gregory in trouble for blowing it off.)

ALANNA, spying on the lunch meeting through the door to the Prince's office, leans back behind a column or wall. DUKE GERALD (JERRY), looking apologetic, winces.

ALANNA: How could you, Jerry?

JERRY: I told you, I didn't mean to! I thought if I told the king I stepped in for Gregory, it would show I'm taking an interest. Turning over a new leaf.

ALANNA: Nobody asked you to take an interest.

JERRY: Least of all me. But I was interested, really, Alanna. We could be doing so much more with olives. I didn't know crop planning was such a precise science.

ALANNA: And that's great, but you could have just said you went WITH Greg to the meeting.

JERRY: Why would I go with Greg to an agricultural meeting? Anyway, I would have but I didn't think of it. Don't be mad at me.

ALANNA: It's not me you have to worry about.

JERRY: But Greg knows I wouldn't sabotage him. Besides, uncle Mike would have heard about it eventually anyway. Everyone in town was talking about the Prince coming to try that cheese shop with the social media chef guy.

ALANNA: He's under a lot of pressure.

JERRY: I know.

ALANNA: And now unless that cheese REALLY impresses the king, he's going to start following Greg around everywhere and trying to offer his opinion.

JERRY: He's been king for forty years. His opinion's probably useful.

ALANNA: Not if the prince wants to make his own way.

JERRY: Well, what do you want me to do? I can't make uncle Mike like cheese.

ALANNA: I want you to keep an eye on them and keep the king distracted. Can't you do something mildly embarrassing?

JERRY: More or less embarrassing than visiting a cheese shop in a "Truly Tasty" hat?

ALANNA: Fix it, Jerry!

JERRY: Fine, I'll do my best. But I want you to make Greg make me his vizier when he's king.

ALANNA: We haven't had a vizier in a hundred years. What does a vizier even do?

JERRY: Nothing, but with drama.

ALANNA: Fine. I have meetings. Stay here, keep spying, report back when they leave.

JERRY gives her a thumbs up and watches her leave, then turns to spying on the meeting.

***

And then Alanna has a realization....

ALANNA is still leading JERRY away from the picnic.

JERRY: I thought you wanted me to keep Uncle Mike off Greg's case.

ALANNA: Not tonight. Eddie's pitching his new high-concept for the coronation feast, so they've got to be there together.

JERRY: Well, I wish someone would make up their mind around here.

ALANNA: You could set a trend.

JERRY: What's that supposed to mean?

ALANNA: You're not interested in olives, Jerry.

JERRY: Of course I am.

ALANNA: You're interested in the fact that my dad heads the cabinet board that supervises the olive harvest.

JERRY: Olives are very interesting to me. (deflating) And I wanted to impress your dad.

ALANNA: He's known you since we were kids running around the palace together.

JERRY: Is that good?

ALANNA: My father has literally watched you fall out of multiple trees you were trying to climb.

JERRY: Failing to climb, mostly.

ALANNA: So why are you trying to impress him now?

JERRY: Well, isn't it obvious?

They stare at each other.

ALANNA: I cannot go on a date with you.

JERRY looks crestfallen. ALANNA pulls out her phone.

ALANNA: There's too much to do, Jerry. Between now and the coronation every hour I'm awake is booked. The best I can give you is three weeks from Tuesday.

JERRY: What?

ALANNA: Three weeks from Tuesday. Does that work for you? Never mind, your calendar's on my phone. I'm booking us in. Dinner okay?

JERRY: Uh. Yes.

ALANNA: Good. I'll send you a calendar invite, you pick the place.

She walks off, still typing in her phone.

JERRY: What just happened?

[kaibutsushidousha]

To be honest, your discussion of Minase's positive and negative qualities piqued my interest. What do you think are the main recurring fgo writers' strong and weak points? Also where would you rank the lilim harlot event?

For the sake of brevity, I'll stick to one per writer. Picking apart everyone to the extent I did with Minase would take forever and would be better done after their respective Ordeal Calls.

I hesitate to call Higashide's comedy his strong point because his huge hits are about as frequent as his huge misses. I suppose I'll go with clarity for Higashide's main strong point. Even when I think he sucked at delivering his point, I can always tell what he's trying to say, which is not something I can say about Sakurai's most compressed scripts. His weak point is his lack of ambition. It's nice to have at least one person in FGO's team who will never try to escalate things, but I can't see it doesn't make his stories more forgettable in the long run.

Minase was already detailed in his own post.

Meteo’s best quality is a tone setter. Requiem, Salem, and all his events come with an atmosphere that feels very tangibly different from what FGO usually does. Often his events are bad, but never they lack a unique identity. Which segues into his weak point, being that many of his events are comedy events and the man is simply not funny. Bullying Erice is his only consistently good joke, and when he tries other things, the results are more miss than hit. See Las Vegas and Wandjina World Tour for major examples of comedy events that failed hard at the comedy side.

Nasu is a master recycler. I don't know how he does it but the man is constantly reusing the same structures, the same themes, or the same dynamics and somehow it never feels repetitive. There is always something that makes the whole recipe feel fresh and unique despite being so easy to recognize the same usual ingredients there. And what I dislike about Nasu in FGO is how he's still stuck at the concept of selling waifus from the girls with routes days. Everyone has their list of characters who get ship tease with Fujimaru but only in Nasu's case it feels like an overwhelming majority and that some of the choices create too large of a difference between the summoned character and the character in the main story. Was it really necessary to do this with, say, Morgan? Melusine? Tenochtitlan?

And Sakurai I saved for last because one major reason this post took this long is that I was struggling to sort out what is characteristically good and bad about her. Well, even now I don’t have a simple and satisfying answer. Things can’t be simple with Sakurai, unfortunately. One friend of mine described the experience of reading Sakurai scripts as “playing chess against an opponent that doesn’t tell that you are in a game of chess” and that’s honestly a fascinating way to phrase it.

Sakurai is an intriguing combination of inflexibly ambitious and inflexibly professional. She has grand ideas for her characters and she will include them in the script without fail. But she's also strictly adherent to script size limitations. While Nasu is making Camelot and Avalon le Fae with total disregard to every possible limit, Sakurai is cramming so much into Septem's and London's microscopic file space that it becomes utterly incomprehensible. Nasu wrote Last Encore's plot as a whole ass novel and hired Sakurai to convert that into anime scripts because Sakurai is his expert in fitting a lot of stuff into tiny spaces. Tunguska was tossed at Sakurai because probably no one else could fit into its raid event constraints. And because she doesn't compromise on what goes in, her alternative is not revealing the mysteries about her characters but laying out all the hints so the players can figure it out themselves, which is a really fun thing once you're used to it (read: aware that you're playing chess against her).

And the answer to "Where would I rank the Lilim Harlot event" is 1st place.

[pb-dot]

It's Peebsday

I don't normally make a big ado about my birthday, I don't like creating a fuss, and it doesn't exactly help that I share the date this year with another one of those apocalypticly pivotal US elections, as well as the always very important "Castiel goes to superhell day." This year though? I said fuck it, it's time to Make A Post.

The passing year has been frustrating for me along multiple angles. My efforts to seek therapy has been thwarted by the local healthcare bueracracy becoming temporarily very hostile to people looking for help with anything more complex than the most unambigiously diagnosed and treatment-responsive of cases, which is bad news for my treatment-resistant ass. On the bright side, this radio silence from the Healthcare State has prompted me to reflect on my condition, and even seek out an autism diagnosis, although the jury's still out on whether that's something I'll actually get or if I'll remain as one of God's Originals, too normal to diagnose, too abnormal to function? Time, I suppose, will tell.

As is perhaps typical for us Writerly Types, Employment has also been a struggle this year. This frustration in particular grew to a fever pitch over the summer, as my "Job Guy" from the local employment office went so thoroughly AWOL I still haven't been able to confirm whether he still works there or not. To her credit, his eventual replacement has shown great interest in getting me into a job that doesn't rely almost entirely on what I've now come to understand to be my ability to mask, or as I've referred to it, my "normal person cosplay."

There is, however, one bright side of this otherwise very frustrating state of affairs. I am writing. I'm not writing as much as I'd like, but it's way more consistent than I've ever done it, and it's at a pace I think I'll be able to maintain even under the duress of employment. Hell, it's even not a thing I need to worry about publishing, since I'm chucking it all out in the aether via a mailing list twice monthly. It won't pay the bills or anything since the mailing list is free, but it's not like my efforts at getting TCB published has gotten me anywhere either.

Thereafter, or as I would call it if I was angry at it, Thereafter Book 1: The City After The End, is a very fun book to work with. The concept of a postapocalyptic city made out of the flotsam and jetsam of destroyed fantasy worlds is ripe with opportunities for fun worldbuilding as well as a very effective underlying conflict. If our heroes don't figure their shit out and help everyone's going to panic and starve and things won't be very magical at all. Speaking of the heroes, the antagonistic-but-flirting-but-kinda-over-it banter between the four protagonists is a real blast to write, although I try to not over-indulge to actually get that fun plot I'm talking about going.

I feel like I'm laying it on thick here, but this isn't exactly me advertising the thing (although I will link the mailing list if it should rouse some interest,) as much it is talking about what a joy it is to write the thing. We writers should get better at that, I think. Yeah, some times writing sucks, and is difficult and hurts, but you know what? Some times it's not. A lot of the time for me, actually. Writing has a noticeable impact on my mental health. My last therapist noted that I seemed considerably less depressed than usual when I wrote the first draft of His Impossible Brushstrokes during NaNo last year.

So that's my year in brief review. It's been a tough year for me. Bearable? Yes, certainly, the fact that things are difficult right now only further motivates what I've come to call my "slightly overtuned sense of fairness and justice," and people have come to call "the reason you're so pissed off all the time."

It's not all bad though. I've come to really appreciate Writeblr as a community. Yeah we're all stressed and probably worrying about Writing The Middle Part, but I do find the cameraderie refreshing. @owlsandwich and @teacupsandstarlight in particular have been lights in my life, both thanks to their neverending patience in beta-reading Thereafter chapters with little to no warning, and in their boundless enthusiasm and commiseration with my various rants. You two have made a pretty shit year so much better just by being around!

Anyway, link to Thereafter below, it is 13 chapters long at the moment, book 1 is slated to be roughly 23-24 chapters long, but you know how it is with this kind of thing. Also if you've read this far I love you and hope you have as good of a Destiel Goes To Superhell Day as possible (also if you're an eligible voter in the US I pray of you that you Vote, I don't know if I have another Trump presidency in me and I don't even live over there.)

[shakingparadigm]

What if Luka expects Hyuna to come like she did in his round with Mizi and he is plotting something.He has the trust of aliens,the love of the public and no one would suspect him to do something outside the box,far from the image he created of himself.Hyuna made her appearence in round 5 when we didn't expected it. If the round isn't entirely dedicated to Ivan and Till,this may be an option.He may confront Mizi and Hyuna,they may not be able to rescue Ivan and Till and not make it in time. Luka may not appear at all.

(Me overthinking things: OMG Akugetsu will cover Hyuna's song this must mean something | The other me: OMG I can't wait,this song literally suits him!)

(I like the style of your drawings,the way you use colors and the way you phrase things! When something about ALNST comes out I just wait for your updates! I can't imagine what will happen on tumblr when round 6 is out. And then all of us will wait for the next one over again XD)

Till the end.

TILL... the end...

Ok this is the worst joke I could ever make.

Oohh. Luka appearing in ROUND 6 would honestly be insane. I thought about him making an appearance in the short teaser scene before credits, but if he actually confronted anyone himself that would be so interesting. Imagine all 6 of them in the same episode... the same room... no way... the Alien Stage would be real...

Luka attempting to sabotage Mizi and Hyuna is such an intriguing concept. I do think he's figured out that Hyuna will be returning, he grew up with her, after all. He's most likely aware of her penchant for protecting people. He probably expects Mizi to come back for the only friends she has left, too. He couldn't do anything the first time he saw Hyuna after ROUND 5, but he might be more eager to get his hands on her now. If we get our first adult Hyuna and Luka interaction during ROUND 6 I'd actually go insane. as much as I hope for it though, I'm not sure whether or not it will actually happen. ROUND 6 already has a lot going for it. A final confession of love already makes for a heavy episode, but with Till's newly revealed backstory added to the mix? Mizi and Hyuna's attempt at a jailbreak? The whole video would probably need an entire week to be processed and even comprehended, especially if they want to go into extensive detail on each aspect. Still, though, if Luka interfered... if Mizi and Hyuna were unable to save anyone and had to defeatedly return to the rebellion base carrying the weight of their failure, well, I DON'T THINK I'D BE REACHABLE FOR AT LEAST 10 BUSINESS DAYS I'd have to go into hiding in order to cope with that. But who knows! The fun part about VIVINOS videos is that they're always gonna leave you fucked up in one way or another!

AKUGETSU COVERING ALL-IN. TILL COVERING HYUNA'S SONG. I've posted so many times about this day holy shit its finally real. It really does suit him! Do you think AKUGETSU is

1) hinting that Till is joining the rebellion

or

2) giving us the All-In cover as compensation for whatever bad thing is going to happen to Till

(or a secret third thing: he literally just did it for fun and we've just gone insane.)

Ahh thank you so much for enjoying my stuff! I'm so happy, everyone's been really nice to me as of late and I don't know what to doooo hahaha I'm just really glad to share everyone's excitement for ALIEN STAGE :)

You wait for my updates??!! oh no I'm so sorry 😭 I'm quite late at times because I've had some stuff going on (I've barely said anything about the April Fools actor au 😭) but hopefully I'll be free to go absolutely nuts after the release of ROUND 6 tomorrow!! If you're ever in need of someone to scream about ROUND 6 with my inbox is always open!! Thank you for your kind words!!

Can't wait till I get to hear from you again! :)

[whataboutsimple]

Wait- you know The Promised Neverland?,

I know quite a lot of fandoms, actually!

Though some of them are like "I watched this thing for once or twice, read few fanfictions and saw art, but probably won't remember even the names of characters, just the concept of plot."

I'll put the whole list under the cut, if you're interested:

❀

Gravity Falls

Watched it a few times, in love with Stanley, but didn't saw anything outside of the show itself.

LadyBug

Stopped watching it a while ago, but I liked Gabriel a lot, pitty he died. It irritates me too much how everyone believe anyone but Marinette.

DDLC

Actually love it a lot, watched even mod about life with Monika after the games. She isy favorite, even though Natsuki is cute to.

CupHead

I've played the first game and actually love CupHead, MugMan and Dice king, but I'm not going to play the second game cause me nerves aren't that strong. Didn't watch the show either because of new character.

Poppy The Perfomer.

Okay, here me out. It's SO crazy and random, that it matches me just perfectly and I love strange animation.

FNaF

Freddy from the very first game is my favorite. I have nothing more to say.

Harry Potter

I think it's important to say here that I've watched the movies, not the books. And Dumbledore is my favorite old man. And I never actually liked Draco.

Piggy

The Roblox horror game? Hell yeah, I loved gacha reactions from this. Though I'm not like really, really in the fandom, I just like to experiment with design for this things.

Kindergarten

Played both first and second part, the game is good characters are goofy. My favorite one is probably the Principal from first game and I love the world ending ending.

Ninja Turtles

I think it's important to say here I watched the 2009, 2014 and 2018 and I love them all, but I never checked the comics or other shows.

Undertale

Literally the second favorite fandom, and probably the one who had my attention for the longest time. I'm in love with Papyrus and would marry him, but when it comes to AU, my favorite is Underfell! Papyrus.

Creepypasta

So, I didn't really watched this "All the creepy in one house" thing, but I loved them all seperatly. My favorites are probably Slender brother, like Slenderman, Trenderman, Offenderman, Splenderman and Ben Drowned.

Hazbin Hotel

Okay, so, I'm checking it from time to time but.. uh, I don't really like the fandom. I love Angel Dust though and the "If hell is forever than Heaven must be a lie" song. I don't remember the name.

My Hero Academy

Nothing much to say, Allmight is my favorite. I'm Deku in that case.

Happy Tree Friends

They are CRAZY and give me plenty of ideas how to kill my characters.

Afton Family

At this point it separate from FNaF fandom, and I must say I love Henry. That's it. I just love him. And the gacha videos about them all, but only the good one.

Mario

Now what I'm talking about is almost each game from Mario Franchise. But ironically my favorite is Luigi.. and Bowser.

Sally Face

You know how the cake is a lie? Well, now we need to talk about meat.. but if seriously, I like it. Not my favorite, but I like it.

Little Miss Fortune

Sad story to be honest, I'm craving for the good ending.

Coraline

I've made SO MUCH crossovers in my head about Coraline. Didn't read the book, but watched the movie and loved it.

Kung Fu Panda

Okay, it's my second obsession after Undertale, but the first fandom I've ever been into. I watched everything about Po, even the the series from Nickelodeon.

Ninjago

The same as with Kund Fu Panda, it's my childhood obsession, I love Kai and I love Lord Garmadon. Not the biggest fan of Lloyd though.. idk he's just too much for me.

Baldi Basics

This dumbass is the reason I don't like and like math. Love the fanarts, but have no idea why people ship him with the Principal.

TAMOG

Okay, so, hear me out.. us there anyone who doesn't like this show? Probably yes. It's still popular and I'm sad it ended.

Countryhumans

I'm not crazy.. I just love history and unique designs of different countries...

Yandere simulator

I love main character more than senpai. She would've slaedy so hard if not that idiot.

My Little Pony

Ha.. hahah...... Do I need to explain?

BATIM

I'M EATING THIS LITTLE DEMON, THAT'S ALL.

Socialmediahumans and planethumans

Okay, I just love humanization, okay, yep.

DSMP

Dream — fav, Techno — fav, BBH — fav, Sam — fav, Sapnap — fav. That's it.

Don't hug me I'm scared

It's strange. It's quirky.

Minecraft

Why is this list so long oh my god

Hello Neighbor

THE GAME IS UNDERRATED, like yeah a couple of years they didn't do the best job ever BUT first games where so cool. And the graphics are quirky.

Poppy Play Time

Dogday my wife, that's it.

Your Boyfriend Game

I need polymod where I can kinda pick up all of them and just live my best life.

Tiny Bunny

It's creative, it's quirky, it's brutal and underrated. At least in eng community.

Mr. Hopp's Play House

All the games are cool and scary, but Esther is my favorite girl.

Regular Show

Mordecai is my wife. That's it.

Sonic

The same situation as with Mario, but here I love Tails more.

Star vs. the Forces of Evil

It was.. good. Not the best, but acceptable. Marco is the best boy.

Steven Universe

I llllloved this show, but stopped watching at some point because got confused with the whole "pink diamond" thing.

Spiderman: No way home

Okay, it's not about Spiderman, it's about freaking Doctor Octavius and Norman Osborn. Literally the only reason I'm in the fandom is them.

Castle

IloveitIloveitIloveitIloveitIloveit I love castle with my whole heart, but the show is too much for adults, so it has a small fandom. Like, really really small fandom. I still love it. And the main gang should've been poly.

Welcome home

Frank, my beloved.. he's my wife. Third. Wife.

Amanda the adventurerer

The concept it cool. Woolly is cool. Amanda is cool.

Lifesteal smp

I've watched it from Branzy's perspective, cause he is my favourite out of all of them.. Yep. I'm a big fan of Branzy's and also Clownzy shipper (bonus points for Rekzy and Chiefzy)

Atomic Heart

IT'S THE BEST, OKAY???? Two old hot men fight over who's going to rule the world, but end up fighting over who's going to take the Soldier. Literally the best gay game.

Echocraft

I've watched it because of.. Branzy... yeah.....

When the Cicadas cry

This one I can ramble about the whole day, it's so good and my favorites are Maebara Keiichi, Tomitake Jiro, Irie Koysuke and Oishi Kuraudo.

TADC

Kinger. Kinger. Kinger. Kinger. Kinger. And his wife. And Caine. And the story itself. Just yes.

Jujutsu Kaisen

I was bumping my head so hard after the ending of the manga because COME ON, you made Yuta live but not NANAMI? That's just straight up rude.

Tomodachi Game

They promised me mind games. They gave me mind games. Though I would've loved to see more of Tenji, I'm satisfied with how it ended.

Juujika No Rokunin

Don't look for it. I kind love it, but don't recommend at all.

Junji Ito Collection

This thing is popular as far as I can tell. It's gross, but it's scary and unique, just what I like.

Andy's apple farm

Claus is my wife. Tall and grumpy wife.

Nimona

Gay gay homosexual gay Ballister is my wife.

Hermitcraft

Mumbo freaking Jumbo the only reason I'm watching Hermitcraft. Just like with Branzy.

Minecraft Story Mode

I don't think it needs an explanation. Also Gabriel.

Stardew Valley

Harvey is my wife, Shane is my wife, Haley is my wife. I've also download a few mods, so The Wizard is my wife, Marlon is my wife and Gunther is my wife. At some point the fam went from "farming" to "farming for the money to please my beloveds."

DDADDS

Gay gay homosexual gay thanks Markiplier for showing my this masterpiece, I'm ready to marry literally any of the dads.

The Outsider, Dream Catcher and It by Stephen king

I loves the books, pity that only "It" gained the popularity it deserves. I would literally die for some fanfiction abt Outsider or Dream Catcher.

I have a lot more fandoms I like, but these are the first I could've think of. Oh, yeah, I know about The Promised Neverland, loved the children eating part lmao

[hijinks-n-lowjinks]

Hi! For the WIP ask:

I'm sorry I gotta ask about and i've been tryin' not to feel it it's one of my fave JJK fics!

Specifically, how'd you come up with the overall concept and plot points in the fic? Is it inspired by anything from your own life experiences or solely the JJK source material?

Also: Is there anything in particular you keep in mind when you write Yuuji and Meg's characterization in the fic? Cuz you're one of the few writers who I think captures them PERFECTLY so tell me all ur secrets >:)

Thank you :D

Omg thank you so much, I'm so happy that you're enjoying it so far!!! This ask made me smile so big when I got it, this is exactly what I wanted to talk about for aibtntfi!!! warning, this will be a very long post lol. I'll explain further below the cut~

The overall concept was actually from me just daydreaming about what a regular itfs meeting would be life if they met in completely normal circumstances. I was still in college when I started writing this fic, and writing high school age setting feels unnatural to me now, so I just aged them up to make it easier on myself and more fun for me to write! This fic was also intended to only be a one shot, but..... then I thought of some cute little plotlines and rolled with it lol.

First off, I'm not gonna lie, I think a lot of jjk/itfs fics get them wrong—both their characterizations and their relationship.

I was determined to write my boys accurately, or at least as accurately characterized as I can imagine them being in a normal modern world! I couldn't picture Megumi being outgoing, or very willing to actively attempt to get to know anyone outside his current friend group, so I had to think of a way to get itfs to interact in a way that seemed natural and not forced.

Megumi has never been a problem for me to write. He's my favorite character, and I've loved him since the anime first started airing in 2020 and back then NOBODY gave a fuck about him (at least in my social circles). It felt like I was his sole fan, so I've always had a pretty good grasp on his character and personality due to having to defend my boy to the ends of the earth.

Something I've had to do to ensure that I keep him accurate is have little check ins. Whenever I write a chapter, I'll usually have a somewhat linear outline of what I want to put down, so I'll imagine if I could see canon Megumi saying/doing/thinking the same things as au Megumi. Obviously it's not a 1-to-1 (an au will immediate make a character different simply because of setting), but it does help!

For example, when itfs first met I couldn't imagine canon Megumi instantly fawning over him or getting googly eyes over him. That's just not my boy.

But I could imagine canon Megumi being slightly flustered and feeling mildly distressed when talking to a cute boy he just met and probably doesn't want to find as cute and interesting as he does. In a world where you can die on any mission you're sent on, Megumi likes having some feeling of control over himself and his reactions to things. That's why when he suddenly found himself inexplicably attracted to Yuuji for seemingly no apparent reason it distressed him; it's an emotion he doesn't typical find himself feeling strongly about and is more than likely in control of 24/7. That lack of control over his emotions is what causes him to begin to freak himself out and snap at Yuuji, becoming the catalyst for the entire fic.

Overall, Megumi is blunt, opinionated yet understated, responsible, petty, and he's kind of mean!!!! I mean that last one in the most affectionate way!!! He's constantly ready to insult or knock characters down a peg, but he's clever about it! He's a very emotionally complex character as well. He cares far more about things than he'd ever let on, and he's jaded as fuck. He has a very realistic (and slightly cynical) look at the world. He's extremely intelligent but has difficulty full expressing himself without wanting to put a gun to his head.

He's also a massive cutie! He's very quiet about his interests, but he does have love and passion for them. He adores his sister, unfortunately loves his friends and Gojo, and tries to maintain a level head and clear mind as much as he can while keeping a firm grip on what he deems realistic.

I also needed to imagine how the characters would have matured since I aged them up. 15 year old Yuuji does not have the emotional intelligence that 20 year old Yuuji does, and I needed to acknowledge that change. A 20 year old man should not be as immature as a 15 year old, not matter how closely you're attempting to maintain characterization.

Yuuji is much more difficult character for me to write. He's much more at ease with himself and the world around him, so it's a struggle to think of how he'd respond to others in different situations. Overall he's very understanding and sympathetic to others, but I think he also has a hard time knowing how to respond to them! With his older age in my fic, it was odd writing Yuuji with the emotional intelligence of a 20 year old because he just doesn't have that level at 15. That was a concession I had to make because writing 20 year old Yuuji that immature felt cringy and distasteful.

He's a silly guy! He likes to joke and mess around, but he's still capable of being serious. The balance between them is one of the harder parts of writing good Yuuji characterization, in my experience. A key part of his character is that he wants to be helpful. He's very easygoing and ready to provide assistance to anyone who might need it, sometimes even to the detriment of himself or others (in a damaging to their pride way).

The dynamic between the two is like gravity. There's something that somehow keeps them orbiting around each other no matter how hard one might attempt to break away from the other. They long to be near each other and don't know exactly how to define what they are to each other, they just are.

I can 100% get behind the idea that Megumi would be instantly drawn/attracted to Yuuji. That's more-or-less what happens in canon, so why would an au be any different? But the thing is, Megumi does not want to befriend Yuuji initially. He's civil with Yuuji, but he obviously doesn't care about being neighborly or getting on Yuuji's good side with the blunt-bordering-on-rude way he acts in the beginning of the manga.

I full leaned into that. I could absolutely see Megumi being irritated that he find this this stupid, kind, loud boy that he doesn't know frustratingly cute and I thought it would be a funny premise to get this little subtly tsundere boy to kiss a cute boy at the end of the night and get a boyfriend. That, in fact, did not end up happening and it instead stretched to them pining for each other for 14 chapters straight.

Yuuji is obviously far more outgoing than Megumi, so I had to play into that. He doesn't mind interacting and conversing with strangers, but he also doesn't really go out of his way to fully befriend them, so I needed another external force to really pique his interest in Megumi.

Megumi's resistance to chatting up with Yuuji is what draws the latter in. There's a deep curiosity engrained in Yuuji, because at his core he truly loves learning about things! I leaned into his curiosity for Megumi as a way to show that side of his character as well using it as a natural meet cute and spark.

When it comes to dialogue and interactions, I try to keep it as natural as I can! If I could picture a young adult have saying what they do or having a similar conversation then I know I've done my job! Repeating dialogue out loud or in your head REALLY helps. It helps your brain catch weird inflections or inconsistencies when just typing it out might not.

My final ace in the hole is my wonderful beta reader @kattythingz . They keep me in check for that sort of thing! They'll happily call me out if they think a line of dialogue sounds weird or that a character wouldn't say or act a certain way, and it's saved my ass over and over again. If you have people around you who are willing to read and can be honest about that sort of thing, then use them!!! You won't get better if people are sparing your feelings.

[7-ratsinatrenchcoat]

Two things I wanna know! (feel free to ignore obviously ^^ )

What are your top 5 favorite characters and why are they your favorite? Could be current favorites, favorites over the years that you still like, favorites in general, etc. Also any media

And/or gimme 1-5 of your ocs - whether they're your favorite, most recent, the one you've been having fun with recently, etc. Tell me some fun facts about them, and why you picked them!

Hope you're having a great day/night - and remember to stay hydrated!

TOP 5 CHARACTERS (AT THE MOMENT, IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER)

Elizabeth

My pookie! She got done so dirty by Nakaba, I could write a dissertation about how she deserves a better character arc than she was given and exactly how to do it. My version of her is so OOC that when I watch the series, it feels weird for her to be so different from how I think of her.

Nezuko

Okay, maybe I'm a sucker for poorly written female characters that deserve a better story. I wrote a fic where she learns sign and actually has complicated feelings about her brother, the Hashira and Urokodaki, which I wish the series would have explored more outside of 'oh it's fine/I forgot'.

Sukuna

I AM NOT HORNY ABOUT HIM. I AM A BIG FAT DYKE. I do think he's a well written villain in the sense that he's likeable enough not to be annoying, but not so likeable that he stops being an antagonist. It's hard to put your main villain and hero in the same body, but I think Gege does it wonderfully.

Meliodas

This list would be incomplete without him. Like Elizabeth, I have such a different conception of him in my brain than exists in canon, when I watch the series it feels like a different character completely. His concept is so good and juicy, he just happened to be written by a man.

Cast of Neon Genesis Evangelion

They gave us so much. My first mecha anime and my first psychological/existential/philosophical anime all in one! I can't think of a badly written character in this entire show, but it definitely exists on a different scope to me. It's just so far beyond what a lot of other shows want to say/have the writing to say. That said I do think Cyberpunk Edgerunner was a great show to follow it with, matched the futuristic vibes, complex characters and philosophical message well.

TOP 5 OCs (IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER)

Hikari (NNT)

I think she is my oldest OC out of this entire list at 5 years old this spring. I've seriously put her through so much for the plot, and at this point I think she and her entire universe have safely exited hyperfixation and entered special interest territory. Her ass is going nowhere soon, and even if I spend time with other OCs, it always comes back to her. I have her entire life developed from birth to at least ~50, and trust me, it's not all pretty. Some of it is! But not all of it.

Tristan (NNT)

He's only younger than Hikari by about two weeks, so almost 5 years for him. Not the same as 4KOTA Tristan, I heard that the canon melizabeth kid was named Tristan and went 'oh, sounds good I'll take it' before 4KOTA even came out. The two could not be more different. I almost put him and Hikari in the same entry, they come as a unit like that, but he deserves his own paragraph. He has also gone through more than any normal person would have put him through, but I am no normal bitch. I need a shirt that says 'I put blond men in situations'.

Natsuri Fujikawa (Demon Slayer)

She's much younger than the twins at about 1.5, but I'm still loving her storyline and plot development. She's in the Demon Slayer universe, and is only 10 when she goes through the Horrors, which might be a mary-sue type deal but I really don't care. It brings me joy. Does it say something about me that forced cannibalism, kidnapping and psychological torture sparks joy? Maybe. I haven't written any of her stuff down yet, I should probably do that.

Misoka (HXH)

Older than Natsuri but younger than the twins, let's call it about two years. Her story is a little looser, but goes through more ups and downs than straight misery punctuated by moments of brightness. She's fun for when I need a little more variety in the delusions, but is still versatile enough for me to put her in Situations and have it feel normal. I probably owe her an apology for making her try to kill her adoptive family.

Claudia and One (OG)

The original strangers -> friends -> lovers. I wrote a hundred pages of angst and whump about you before it was flagged by my middle school and I got called into the counselor's office because of it. Shoutout to the social worker who told me it was good writing and that I should keep working on it, I just had to move it off of my school account. You were a real one.

[thedragonagebigbang]

Bang Creator Interview: Tumblr: @oxygenforthewicked  |  AO3: Oxygenforthewicked

The Collaboration period has begun! In these quiet months before works are due, we want to foster a sense of excitement, camaraderie, and celebration among our participants. To that end, all participants were given the option of a formal interview by our mod, Dema, or an informal “ask-game” survey. We hope you enjoy getting to know our phenomenal creators as much as we have!

10 Reasons Why Rift Hopping Is Probably Hazardous to Your Health (Hint: Cassandra Is One of Them)

Gin and Dema talk process, inspiration, and what to do when a character kicks down your door

Dema: Since this is a Big Bang I'll start there: have you done one before? If you have, what made you want to do it again? If not: what made you wanna give it a go? 

Gin: I've considered being a part of a Big Bang event before but I haven't actually done one yet. However, after seeing all of the fics and artwork that came out of other bangs last year, I got a better feel for it and decided I wanted to give it a try!

Dema: So exciting! Are you finding that this process feels different from how you usually write?

Gin: Not really, honestly. I've done NaNoWriMo in the past, and this feels similar in terms of working towards a set goal. I think the big difference (and better difference, honestly) is that this is much more community-centered, and the goal is to finish the project instead of just reaching a word count minimum. That in and of itself is a really refreshing new challenge.

Dema: When you tackle a project like this, what does that look like for you?

Gin: Usually I like to prepare a concept/vague outline first, write out in more detail the major plot points, create a mood playlist, and just start writing! I do tend to carve out time for writing, too, as that helps me focus better.

Dema: How much time do you feel like you need in a chunk? (Me, interviewing: “So, writing. How Do You Do It. AND WHY??)

Gin: It depends. Sometimes I can write for several consecutive hours, other times my brain can only handle about thirty minutes. Either way, I know that as long as I get words on the page, I'm making progress! But creativity isn't something that can be forced, so if the words just aren't coming out, I'll take a break for a while and refresh my brain by reading a book or watching something. Once my creative battery is full again, I can knock out a huge chunk of the project, and that usually feels so much better than trying to strongarm my brain into getting words out.

Dema: Is there something you are reading or watching right now that is providing particular inspiration? Or if not inspiration, rejuvenation?

Gin: Yes, actually! I'm currently reading A Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss, and it's been giving me all sorts of good inspiration.

Dema: Oh yes! I love that book. Is there anything in particular about it that's scratching the itch?

Gin: The lore and worldbuilding are both so interesting, but I'm also just very invested in the characters. This series so far has done a great job of creating a rich world with fleshed-out characters, an intricate magic system, and I love the complexity of the relationships. (In short, all of it!) 

Dema: Hard agree, I love those complicated characters and dynamics. Speaking of characters, when you're crafting an OC, what's your starting point? What was the spark that birthed Saeris, if you want to be more specific?

Gin: Most of the time, it's a picture or a song that sparks the initial concept. But there are other times when OCs kick down the door in my head and decide that they live there rent-free. Saeris was one of those characters. Admittedly, I did intend on creating Saeris for a specific project after reading The Horror of Hormak, but he was supposed to be a minor character that I was going to write once and never write again after that. (Boy was I wrong.) But what really sparked the inspiration for him was a photo I found while looking up references for gray eyes. The vibe of that photo just seemed like it fit him so well that his entire character quickly started unfolding bit by bit after that. I chose a name for him, a class, and all of it snowballed until he became my most fleshed-out character (and my favorite).

Dema: How long ago was that?

Gin: April 2022

Dema: Awwww! He’s two! 

Gin: LOL! It was when the event I was writing him for took place. 

Dema: I will not ask you if your Bang fic involves Saeris because I do not want to pry any spoilers from you, but thank you for your click-bait title and for your interview! Gin: Sounds good! And thank you!! It was very fun chatting.

[siren-nate]

Metroid Dread review

I've now played through Dread twice, on both Normal and Hard difficulty. I'm probably gonna take a crack at Dread difficulty just for fun but I doubt I'll get far, the furthest I'll probably make it is Escue. So, I think I can pretty confidently gather my thoughts on it and review it unbiased.

From a gameplay standpoint... yeah, this is the best 2D Metroid. No surprises there. It's the most recent, so it has the most quality of life improvements. I think it's a bit unfair to say that too loudly because all prior 2D Metroids offer experiences that Dread doesn't, and the only game anywhere near to it in modernity is Samus Returns.

What I find interesting is that a lot of clever additions are very similar to ideas that the Prime series had, the chief among them being Storm Missile. It's a thing with Metroid games that by the time you have over a hundred missiles, every new pack you pick up feels like just a drop in the bucket, especially in Fusion where super missiles are a straight upgrade to all missiles rather than a separate weapon. Prime fixed this issue with the addition of Charge Combos. What are you gonna use all these hundreds of missiles on? Expensive specialty weapons that deal a LOT of damage in exchange for guzzling down your missiles much faster than normal use, that's what.

Dread has basically the exact same concept in the Storm Missile. It's the boss-melter of the game, you will use it on every single tough enemy or boss fight after you get it, especially since it pierces electrical shields when most of your arsenal doesn't. The trade-off is that one full use of it costs fifteen missiles and the actual damage-per-missile is much lower than Super or Ice missiles, so it's trading efficiency for raw DPS. It's a very good addition to the formula that kind of reimagines the whole Missile/Super Missile dichotomy in the earlier games.

Aside from that, though, most of the new additions are a bit underwhelming. A lot of them are just new midgrades between the start and established upgrades - the Spin Boost is a one-time Space Jump, the Diffusion Beam has been reimagined as a weaker Wave Beam, etc. I don't hate these, since they do mean that Dread has the longest and most involved journey towards getting stronger, and you really start to feel it. It's especially noticeable when you finish the game once and start again.

But in terms of actual fully new stuff, the only things that really come to mind are the Storm Missile, the Flash Shift, and the Cross Bomb, and... nobody gives a shit about the Cross Bomb. You use it to get like three items in the entire game and you get it about a stone's throw from the final boss, which is bizarre when it's really not that special or combat-useful (Unless you're a cracked-out speedrunner since rapidly laying them can do more damage than beam spam against the final boss).

On top of that, even Metroid staples from prior games in the series are hit or miss. Ice Missiles have been relegated to basically just doing slightly more damage than Super Missiles and opening up some enemies for an easy one-hit-kill follow-up by parrying them to shatter them. You never use it to ascend frozen enemies; the closest thing to it is when you freeze temporary platforms so they last longer under your feet, which is basically only used in a single room in the game. It's not a huge deal, but it just feels like such a disservice; the Ice Beam in the very first Metroid was one of the most novel and interesting ideas it had by letting you turn obstacles into something useful for vertical traversal. It's been a mainstay in every single 2D game even after being swapped over to missiles rather than a beam weapon, and here it's just flat-out not a factor in the game that ends the overarching Metroid and X-parasites plot started all the way back in the first game.

One thing I am not disappointed in however is the Speed Booster and Shinespark. I don't think I can overstate how much I love them in this game; you can slide, you can walljump to instantly go the other direction while keeping your speed, you can walljump multiple times consecutively to ascend without needing to store your Shinespark and then Space Jump upwards- combine it with Flash Shift, which is a fantastic addition to your movement kit, and Metroid Dread has breathtaking levels of schmovement that make me feel like a fucking ninja.

Going back to what I talked about before, the unique experience that this game offers is the EMMIs, and... yeah, they really are the identity of this game. They're pretty well-utilized, but I have multiple big gripes with them. For starters, the number of them feels... fake. There's seven of them, right? Except, actually, there's six, because the last one gets killed in a cutscene. Of those six EMMIs, three of them are basically tutorials; the first one can't climb, the second one can't go through small spaces, so it takes until the third one before you finally get to a fully-functioning baseline one. But it's alright, because that still means there's three EMMIs with unique abilities... two of whom inexplicably shut off their unique abilities for the final confrontations with them.

On top of that, I absolutely HATE the parry system for EMMIs. For those who don't know, their parry timing is 1) completely randomized, 2) frame-perfect, and 3) impossible to see coming. What I mean by that last one is, you cannot see the tell and then parry, even if you're a supercomputer; you have to anticipate it. Any one of these things would be difficult to deal with. Any two of these things would be extremely difficult - but I still wouldn't mind it because EMMIs are supposed to be the most dangerous thing in the game and parrying is an absolute last resort. But all three means it is literally just pure fucking luck whether you manage to parry an EMMI. You can't anticipate it because it's random, you can't react fast enough to parry after you see the flash, and the ungodly levels of precision required means there's absolutely no wiggle room. It's a complete roll of the dice. I'm not mad that it's too difficult, I'm mad because why even give me the option at all if it's an utter RNG check? Why not just have the EMMI kill me when it catches me and send me back?

But my biggest issue with the EMMIs is that the level design of their zones isn't always great. Dread has a big issue with linearity at times where what seems like multiple paths is really just a long hallway with a lot of locked doors that you're going to open in a very specific order, and it's at it most grating with the EMMI zones. Running from them is at its best when you have multiple routes to take, scrambling and doubling back while the killer robot is steadily chasing you down trying to flank you and find your position. That's exhilarating and fun. But there are a few occasions where the game basically locks you in a hallway with the EMMI between you and the exit, and trying to figure out how the fuck to get around it without touching it so you can progress becomes a lot more frustrating than exhilarating because there's literally no room for error.

This is compounded by how the Phantom Cloak is an utterly worthless upgrade in every way that should never have been added to the game. You never know where an EMMI is unless it's near enough to you to be a major threat, so you have no idea when you should use this thing to avoid detection - if it's close enough that you know for certain, it's already detected you and the cloak isn't useful anymore.

Like, which would you rather do: sprint and Flash Shift and Grapple Beam through the zone as quickly as possible, doing your best to stay out of its line of sight so the doors don't lock, OR use the thing that grinds your movement speed to a halt in exchange for five free seconds of not being detected, and then either turns off or starts draining your health so you can get instakilled by the first enemy you run into after escaping the zone? The Phantom Cloak only becomes more superfluous when you reach the final EMMI, which can detect you no matter where you are on the map - there's absolutely no point in putting the cloak up to build some distance, because no amount of distance will keep it from getting on your tail again.

I think what would have made the EMMIs better is if there were no locked doors or upgrade-checks in their zones. It's just you, a maze, and a killer robot somewhere inside, and you have to go through there if you want to make progress by reaching other areas that the zone connects to. To add to that, don't even tell me when it's hearing me, or nearby on the minimap. I want to have no idea if it's following me or not other than the sound of its movements getting steadily louder. I want that absolutely terrifying uncertainty.

That's about all I have to say on the gameplay front. When reviewing something, I like to try to condense my critique into one highest praise and one lowest criticism. The highest praise for Dread would basically just be "This is the most modern 2D Metroid game, of course it's going to be the most fun to play because it has the least irritations", even if I think the EMMIs needed more work. My lowest criticism would be... God, like, most things about the story?

Nintendo doesn't tend to tell complex stories with their big franchises. Metroid is the big exception. Yes, even if the 2D games never get as complex as the Prime games because the Prime games have the luxury of scanning lore, the last four games have set up as many interesting pieces as they've closed the book on, and Fusion ESPECIALLY left some intrigue with there being corruption in the Federation and the existential threat of the X-parasites. Dread... never talks about the corruption in the Federation. It's literally not even addressed. I don't give a shit if this was a mistranslation of the original Japanese in Fusion saying that it was a specific "splinter", that's just throwing away free intrigue in your plot and it's a massive waste.

Raven Beak is the weakest Metroid villain, full-stop. His entire motivation is "I am a warlord who wants to clone Metroids to conquer the universe", which means he's effectively just Mother Brain with a new coat of paint slapped on top and without even the interesting jealous characterization she gets in the Zero Mission manga. Yes, he slaughtered his own kind, and even fed traitors of his own clan to a monster in a ritualistic execution, but making a villain ruthless does not automatically make them interesting. It doesn't even automatically make them intimidating; Raven Beak spends the entire story talking himself up and sucking his own dick, then gets merc'd in the same game he debuts in after beating Samus twice exclusively by teleporting to grab her in cutscenes.

Introducing the Mawkin as a distinct faction from the Thoha was a mistake because it completely robs the idea of an evil Chozo of any weight. Oh, yeah, these are the bad Chozo who just care about war and conquering and physical prowess. All of those other Chozo are still saints who just made a mistake when they created the Metroids, don't worry.

Everything about Raven Beak is missed potential. An evil Chozo who takes Samus's ideology of "peace will come to the galaxy only when evil is vanquished" to the extreme? Who wants to see the legacy of the Chozo's projects like Metroids preserved, rather than eradicated and forgotten? Who creates the monster that is his undoing by allowing Samus to live and grow her Metroid powers, exactly as Ridley not finishing the job on K2-L eventually resulted in Samus killing him? There are so many interesting things you could do with Raven Beak, and Metroid Dread does none of them. He's just The Remorseless Guy Who Wants To Conquer. It's a crying fucking shame.

Even aside from him, the game introduces a friendly Chozo - a living, breathing member of the people who raised Samus and molded her into the hero she is and have been the linchpin of the entire greater universe of the franchise - so that he can dump exposition for one cutscene and then immediately be killed off. I timed it: Quiet Robe got to be a part of the Metroid canon for four minutes and forty-five seconds before he was killed. It's hilarious how clumsy and forced it is.

And this isn't even getting into the bottomless well of plot holes and unanswered questions in the game's story that piss me off more the more I think of them.

How did Kraid get to ZDR? If you're going to give us fanservice this loud and blatant, fucking explain how it happened. Are you telling me that - for SOME reason - the Mawkin showed up on Zebes during Samus's final mission there, captured Kraid, left without taking any of the Metroids just laying around, and then locked him up in their basement? Why???

Why do the X-infected Chozo soldiers still seem to be following Raven Beak's command? This one's not concretely spelled out, but the final, gold one seems to be specifically acting to guard Raven Beak. Either that or it's just a coincidence that the strongest one is right before the final boss fight with him.

Why doesn't Samus just continue shooting Raven Beak when he lifts her up by the neck? I get that the Metroid powers are talked up as the deadliest and most dangerous ability Samus has ever wielded, and maybe she didn't want to risk using them unless she could get him by the head, so grabbing his arm was out of the question. But if he's out of her reach, she still has a perfectly good arm cannon that she used for both confrontations she had with him. I'm already suspending my disbelief for the sake of him being able to choke her to death through a suit of powered armor, game - can you just have him grab her arm cannon with the same hand to pin it to her side, or something?

Why didn't the X leave ZDR when they had the chance? The entire impetus of the ending of Fusion is Samus realizing that "X-parasite with the knowledge of a pilot" + "Working starship to escape" = the end of galactic civilization as the X spread from planet to planet faster than she can contain them. Quiet Robe outright states that every single Mawkin Chozo was infected - even if they were ALL contained to Elun, are you telling me NONE of them were pilots despite traveling to and from SR388? Is Raven Beak the only pilot in the entire Mawkin civilization? We see ships in the background of Hanubia, like, at least four or five of them. Why didn't the X leave when they had the chance if their only instinct is to spread and grow their numbers?

Follow-up: Where did those ships go during the escape sequence? Were they all destroyed when shit started blowing up? If not, and the X fled the exploding planet when they had the chance, how the hell is the next game going to happen with only one Samus and 4-5 ships full of X beginning their spread to different planets? Exactly how dangerous do you want me to think the X are, Metroid? Is them getting loose a doomsday scenario for the entire galaxy or not? Make up your fucking mind!

In summary - the plot of this game is a bottomless well of missed potential. My friend Lilith has told me all about better ideas where instead of Samus gaining her power-ups from EMMIs, she fights other non-infected Mawkin who are still loyal to Raven Beak and using their own Chozo power suits, which would have been incredibly fucking sick. Samus being forced to grapple with the fact that evil really is everywhere in the galaxy, even in the Chozo who played a part in raising her? Fighting this shadow of herself, this monster she could become if she goes off the deep end in her desire to bring peace to the galaxy by fighting the battles civilians shouldn't have to?

But even putting aside how these base elements could have been used better, what we did get is riddled with plot holes and an incredibly inconsistent overall threat level regarding the X-parasites. There are good elements to the story, don't get me wrong, but it's 90% flash and 10% substance. Yes, it's cool that Samus gets Metroid powers when everyone and their grandmother wanted that to happen since the end of Fusion, and the sheer cinematic scale of the Metroid Suit is unbelievably kickass - but it has no weight without a villain that I can get invested in stopping. And I don't accept "No Metroid villain has been that deep" as an excuse, because A) like I said, Mother Brain and Ridley got some pretty interesting characterization in the manga, and B) that doesn't mean things can't improve. Dread improved a lot, but it didn't improve the story.

[sandalwoodbox]

Vidder asks: 12, 21, 27?

Thanks for asking!

(This is part of the Get to know the Vidder ask meme. See all my responses here and feel free to send me asks!)

12. Most underrated vid that you wished had gotten more views?

I'm going to say Stray Italian Greyhound for Dear Missy. I really like this vid because I think it most accurately summarizes what I see as the plot of the actual series - Lu Ke's journey to recognizing, accepting, and ultimately living her feelings for Shen Siyi. I'm pretty proud of how it turned out, and it can still fairly reliably make me tear up to watch. It's a really great show and more people should watch it! Even with the weird canonical straight ending it's pretty good tbh 🤣 it has things like men and women dating and breaking up and still being part of the same friend group 🤯 what a concept!

But personally I always advocate for just ignoring the heterosexuality in the last six episodes & just watching them for the bonus Lu Ke / Shen Siyi fluff.

21. How would you describe your vidding style?

Answered here with bonus "what is your vidding process" because I got distracted 😅

27. Advice for anyone just starting their channel?

I'm interpreting this to mean "advice for anyone starting out making fanvids"?

I'd say do what you want and don't expect anyone to see it. Exchanges (like Festivids) and cons (like VidUKon, Fanworks, or WisCon) are a great way to "force" people to watch your vids and not get criticism unless you want it. (YMMV - I am not sure what the experience of submitting to AMV contests is like, for example.)

I'd recommend using a modern fully-featured video editing program like Da Vinci Resolve from the beginning rather than something like iMovie - DVR is more complicated but makes it very easy to separate the vid itself from the source files. That is, you can move the files from your hard drive to a backup drive to free up space and work on something else, then put them back later if you want to go back to a previous fandom!

That said, if a low bar of entry is important, iMovie is also fine. Whatever works for you!

Bonus question 1 (from replies): How do you get ideas for vids?

It depends! Sometimes it comes from blorbos or otherwise loving a show such that I want to share it with other people. Other times it comes from frustration with something not being done the way I wanted in the show, or drawing out a theme that I think the show didn't fully explore. A large chunk of my vids are from Festivids, which is great because I can see what ideas other people have and then make treats for them if I'm excited about what they've suggested and think I have time to pull it off (which is usually only possible for movies and for shows I've already (mostly) clipped, in my experience.) From time to time I'll hear a song and think it's perfect for some character or concept, but I'll generally still end up spending a fair amount of time searching for other potential songs before I actually get started on the vid. More often I'll hear a song and think, that would make a fun vid but I don't know what for, so I stick it in a playlist that I go through every time I'm looking for potential vid songs.

If I have an idea for a vid, I write it down in a spreadsheet. I'll never make most of those ideas, either because I've moved on from the fandom or because I just ended up not liking it as much later. Here's a snippet of vids I will probably never make from my spreadsheet in case it's interesting:

Bonus question 2 (from replies): What makes a vid you're working on feel done to you?

I'm a bit of a perfectionist with my vids, so this can be tricky. I think I would say: Once I am satisfied that the clips on the timeline are doing what I want and there are no clips that I believe would be strictly better, I try to stop.

Overall my process is: I'll generally make a first draft that doesn't have things that feel obviously bad (but I might still have things I'm not satisfied with but don't know how to solve). I send that out for beta and work on other things in the meantime. Depending on how much I care about the vid / how uncertain I am about it, I might do multiple rounds of beta or send it to multiple betas at once.

Depending on the vid, I might do a pass specifically looking at clip timing or motion or color correction (for example, making sure dark scenes are possible to parse), or anything else that I particularly want to work well for the vid.

Once I have something that feels "final" I like to let it sit for a week to a month, then come back to it to see if there's anything else I notice that I'd want to change before calling it done.

But a lot of times I'm working on a deadline for an exchange or a con, which means that at some point I just have to stop and call it good enough.

By the time I'm done with a vid, I often no longer feel like I can tell whether it's good or not because I'm too deep in it, so I see things nobody else would. I can't necessarily tell how satisfied I'll be with a finished vid until 6-12 months after I've posted it. (So I try to keep that in mind if I'm agonizing over whether people will notice a cleancredits glitch that's only visible in the lower left corner of a clip for like 4 frames.)

I have a vidder friend who I can show things to at that point not for beta but just to ask, is there anything obviously wrong with this? Any reason I shouldn't post this? (The answer is usually: It's fine, just post it!)