#it's weird to say 'projecting' tho; as it's more I just heavily relate to them - especially Jacob - but close enough I guess?

[thatcrazycrowgirl]

Character bingo - Jacob Frye and Arno Dorian >:)

(Ah, my boys <3<3<3)

Jacob Frye

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Arno Dorian

(Thank you for sending something in! ^_^)

[oh-no-its-bird]

Omg I just finished reading svsss!!! And now you have a naruto au about it!!!

I think either way Houhua Uchiha is hilarious, but especially in that way of *what do you mean he's actually competent/dangerous?* from elite ninja. He's absolutely a sneaky coward.

If he gets noticed by Orochimaru I think Houhua entire.... *everything* will entice Orochimaru in a way that's like. Put it in a jar. I want to put my blorbo in situations! Especially with his .... lack? Weird relation with moral (I mean both of them).

I want to know more about his genin team. Especially his sensei. Like. I know he unplayed his skills, but also he alway somehow has exactly what the situation calls for on a mission. His mission reports would be weird as hell. "Successfully solved village dispute by realizing nearby village was messing for farmer Xs crops because of family dispute about prized cow, solved with better fence and different trade route."

Just. I love this au. <3

Another one falls to the scum villain agenda, let's go !!!

YEAHHH YOU GET IT! No matter how strong he gets or may be, Houhua continues to project the aura of a very scared genin. He has whatever the opposite of killing intent is, and it throws all of his opponents off

I think that Orochimaru and Houhua would be fucking amazing to watch interact w eachother actually— Houhua is so fucking scared of him, which is typical of people to act around Oro, but like. Orochimaru seeing past the layers (both real and carefully cultivated) of a coward to see the alarmingly smart little rat underneath.

Orochimaru is poking him with a stick

You know that one scene where Asuma like, tricks Shikamaru into playing some sort of strategy game? And realizes he's really smart? Or smthn like that? Ok so something similar to that for Orochimaru and Houhua could be fun.

Orochimaru somehow sniffed out that there's a LOT more to Houhua than there seems and he's got a bit of an eye on him now, just for funzies. Just as a little side project

(And then Houhua maybe says something incriminating about immortality bc he was an immortal cultivator, and Orochimaru is instantly right behind him breathing heavily over his shoulder)

I think that if Houhua ever tells anyone ab his past life, not that the system would let him, (tho considering the reincarnation in naruto, there might be a loop hole to exploit there?) I'd want it to be Orochimaru who he tells, just bc I think he'd be the most interesting character to get involved in that.

Like, other characters you might get the usual "omg no way" song and dance, maybe some hurt/comfort or whatever, and like that's fun! But Orochimaru you'd get him trying to fucking dissect the system. He's putting his plots on hold to try and figure out how to get this "system" to manifest. And if he can kill it. Or better yet: harness it's power

Oh shit Houhua's genin team, I didn't even think of that

I am suddenly struggling to think of any naruto characters who are Itachi and Houhua's age that I can throw into a team for him actually. Am I going to have to make some ocs for this? I hope not tbh, I like stuffing as many canon characters as I can everywhere

Oh god and who would their sensei be too

I can't use Itachi for the team bc he graduated early, do we even know if he was on a genin team or did he just go straight to ANBU? No but he'd have to take the chunin trials no matter what, so hmm

Yk what? I think it'd be funny if Houhua was on one of Kakashi's past teams Sarutobi tried to saddle him with, the ones he'd like fail on day 1 then dumped back into the system

I dont think the timeline on that would actually add up correctly, but it'd be really funny so I don't care actually

hear me out: Houhua was actually on the very first team Sarutobi tried to saddle Kakashi with. And at first, he's like "omg,,, isn't this Kakashi? did I stumble on a secret plot route???? Is this finally my chance to gain more character relevance points????"

But no. It's not. And Kakashi fails him and his team just like he would have anyways.

Possibly with even more ruthlessness, depending on if Houhua has interacted w him before that.

Hmmm ok so timeline.

Houhua and Itachi are both 13 during the massacre, Houhua was about to graduate, but the massacre and then taking care of Sasuke in the year that followed delayed his graduation, which also meant he got dropped from the team he was supposed to be on (whichever team it was)

So then he graduates fr a year or maybe more later, right around the time Sarutobi is starting to try and peer pressure Kakashi into taking a team.

Kakashi is given Houhua's team, makes eye contact w Houhua like once, then immediatley turns around and leaves without comment.

(This also adds tension between them later on when Kakashi eventually does take Sasuke on as a student. Plus tension between Kakashi and Sasuke, who would remember him as the sensei who failed Houhua + whatever else Houhua let slip, possibly about knowing Kakashi trained itachi)

No fucking clue who he gets saddled with in the end, but it'd be funny if his team gained some sort of reputation of being cursed bc they keep being passed around by sensei's who inevitably drop them for various reasons.

Who do u guys think would be fun to see on his team tho, I really can't think of anyone who's the right age so I'm struggling over here

LOVEEE THE IDEA OF HIM SOLVING CONFLICTS IN REALLY OUT OF NOWHERE WAYS THAT RESULT IN NO BLOODSHED AND 9 TIMES OUT OF 10 BETTER TRADE DEALS AND ROADS THATS SO FUNNY

Its not even that he he doesn't want to kill, he just thinks it's messy and will only lead to MORE problems they'd be called in to fix later down the line. This is actually the easy way, you know!!

(Somewhere far away but still watching through his crows, Itachi goes through several emotions as he watches Houhua peacefully solve more than one dispute when he was brought there specifically for murder. He's kind of going through a lot. Actually.)

(I like to think that if Houhua had been made aware of the root of the Uchiha Massacre, he could have fr helped think up a plot to get them all out of it. Unfortunatley everyone was under the impression he was a silly little untalented 13 year old. So that never happened.)

Houhua gets the nickname of "the beaurocrat nin" or smthn silly like that bc hes always resolving conflicts via the power of paperwork. The silly title only helps to make him seem more harmless, which gives him even more of an advantage in a fight when it comes to taking the enemy by surprise

[mercurytrinemoon]

On synastry and how to approach it

If you follow me you may have noticed few of my posts where I'm fixating on the fact that I don't know a certain person's birth date. And I said I'm sensing a nice Venus-Mars connection and honestly now that I think about it, I feel like Jupiter is heavily underlined in here as well. So that made me think of synastry a lot (not that I don't think about it on daily basis) and it made me want to elaborate a bit. Also because I see this weird approach where people single out certain aspects and turn them into "make it or break it" kind of deal and that is just wrong.

Actually it's similar with natal charts. The difference here is obvious - you have two individuals which means double the options in which way the energy may go and more potential for aspects to cancel each other out. So while natal interpretations of, for example, planets in the houses will resonate with you, all the black and white interpretations of synastry house overlays belong in the dumpster imho. And I knooow, I knoooow, one of my first posts was about house overlays. It was very generalized one and I did disclaim to take the entire chart into consideration. But sometimes I see these descriptions where people say "oh my god Venus in the 8th house! This is highly sexual aspect!" But what if none of the people have their Mars nor Venus activated, maybe except for a Venus-Saturn square that puts a big dump on the whole thing. Also, this may as well indicate taking care of shared resources (because that's one of the main themes of the 8th). Besides - and that's my personal take - overlays are less important than aspects between planets unless a) you’re putting a stellium in someone’s house b) it's about angles, because having the same planet as someone's ascendant is a big thing and I can guarantee you that most of the people you create bonds with will have that configuration with you.

Speaking of which, the type of people you attract is highly dependant on your chart. Angles are important but so are aspects and planet placements. I'll give you an example based on my own natal chart, because, obviously, I know myself well and I pay attention to charts of the people I come in contact with. As an Aquarius rising, I attract a lot of Aqua personal planets, Leo risings and people with personal planets in Leo - surprisingly not a single Leo Sun. As a Sagittarius dominant person, most of my friends are Gemini Moons or Sag Moons. Surprisingly I only befriended one Gemini Sun in my life + my belowed dog who was a Gemini. My Aries Moon makes me weak for Aries Suns. Sun is opposite Mars (5th house) - it, again, points to Aries (and Scorpios as well). Dominant fire element and Aries in the 3rd (easy communication) helps here a lot. Having Sagittarius in the 11th (house of friends) and Jupiter in the 7th (house of partnerships), I tend to be friends with other Sadges BUT that Jupiter in the 7th makes me very attracted to Pisces as well. So DO take classic rulership into consideration!

That leads me to another point - modalities. I have a lot of mutable energy so I love other mutable energies. SQUARES omg, especially in romantic/sexual relationships. They do bring tension but hear me out. You need trines and sextiles but squares bring spice. I can guarantee you that having a flowing Mars-Venus contact will give you a pleasant feelings for one another, easiness in communication and a natural synchronicity, but it's the square that will make you wanna rip each other's clothes off. Soooo... I mean, whichever you prefer I guess. Squares are also stimulating, with trines the energy flows nicely, squares bring interest... it's a different element, but the same modality... a perfect mix to make you drawn to the other person. It's similar yet intriguing. Another example, as a Sag Venus my tastes concerning arts and music should clash with a Pisces Venus - that’s what a textbook definition will tell you - but surprise, surprise, half of my favourite artists have Venus in Pisces.

Now with oppositions it's a completely different thing. I think they work wonderful when there are yin-yang planets involved. As I mentioned earlier, as a Sagittarius Sun I love Gemini Moons. They compliment each other. The thing is, with opposites you either get each other or you just pass each other. So it fluctuates. I've noticed that especially when there's the same planet involved. Two people having Mercury opposition will get each other so well they will finish each other's sentences one day and then completely miss the mark the next. Like two vehicles driving in opposite directions.

Trines aren't 100% amaaaazing. I know many people who, like me, have inner planets in fire signs and our values, ways of thinking and approach to certain issues are completely different. We do express them in the same manner though, which is by being loud lol. Trines also bring laziness so if you have too many of them the relationship may just fizzle out. Sextiles on the other hand are so underappreciated. Air fuels fire and water nourishes the earth - it’s way more interesting than a trine where both signs are in the same element, imho. Some astrologers will tell you sextiles are "weaker" but that's just stupid. They’re just as important, okay?  

Sometimes you don't even have to have an actual aspect. Whoa, I know, mind-blown. But I see that constantly. Obviously having planets in a tight aspects is very important but let's say you have Aquarius Venus at 5° and the other person has Sun in Aqua at 20°. They don't make an aspect but it's the same sign, therefore you're going to express these energies in the same manner - which makes you compatible (tho I don't like that word). Now the smaller the orb, the more significant the aspect is. I've read somewhere that the aspect with the tightest orb kind of represents the theme of the relationship - I haven't been able to really analyze this theory tho. When it comes to orbs overall, Alexander Von Pronay is suggesting to use aspects up to 7°. I'd do that and then look at aspects under 2° to really see which energies are stronger. Liz Greene said that if you're feeling an aspect, even if the orb is wider, well, you're feeling it and it's there. I suspect it may depend on what energies you're sensitive to. If, for example, your chart ruler is Venus, you may feel Venus aspects more. And then with Uranus, Neptune and Pluto I'd say up to 2°.  

What's actually awesome are so called double whammies. It's when the same two planets are aspected both ways. So A person's Sun is trining B's Venus and B's Venus is sextile A's Sun. Or A's Moon is conjunct B's Sun and B's Sun is opposite A's Moon. I like double whammies cause they provide mutuality. People often ask "wHo FeeLs iT mORe????". First of all, there's no clear answer to that because everyone's different and their charts are different and some respond to the energy one way and some, other. That's why I like to ask people: well, how do YOU feel about that aspect (if you, of course, know astrology well enough to pinpoint the energy). But with double whammies you basically exchange the same aspect so, hopefully, in 99%, it will be mutual.

What I also love is having the same aspect natally. Let's say you have a Mars-Mercury trine natally and the other person has it conjoined. That is awesome. It's like going through the same experiences in life and going "yeah! I went through that too! I understand!" Better yet if then those planets also make an aspect in the synastry chart. It's great. You're going to vibe so much.

About mutuality... A few weeks ago I was watching a livestream from Nina and Shaina from Party Trick Astrology (love those girls) and they were talking about synastry so I asked them a question related to these things cause, you know, I bet they've seen hundreds of charts and I'm always curious about other people's observations. So I asked about mutuality and one of them gave an example of a girl whose Venus was beautifully aspected by a guy and the guy's Venus not being aspected at all. And how this, for example, pointed to the guy being into the girl but not vice versa. And I thought that's interesting because I'd assume it would be the other way around. Her planets didn't activate his Venus so he shouldn't be into her romantically. And I actually experienced that myself one time. I had this Aqua friend and had literally zero aspects to my Venus. Not even a semi-sextile, not even a quincunx, not even a wide generational planet connection. And I didn't see him through these romantic lens. So I guess there are no rules to this. OR it’s all about projection (which btw happens a lot in astrology). That's why I like to look at synastry charts and just get the overall vibe. 

Now with that being said, the shocker. YOU DON'T HAVE TO HAVE ASPECTS WITH THE OTHER PERSON AT ALL. I know, a bummer. Here we, astrology junkies, are in the lookout for the perfect synastry chart but as I look at charts of celebrity couples I often see them having no Sun connections, no Venus or Mars connections, lame Moon aspects etc. That is indeed disappointing. That's why I was so stoked about that Britney-Justin synastry. Because I don't see connections like that one between all the "it” couples of today.

So I guess... astrology is bullshit... Nah, just kidding. But it is complex. Sometimes it’s quality over quantity. And you should approach synastry as a whole, just feel it out, you know? And I’ll leave you with that for today because it’s getting long.

[engekihaikyuu]

Fly High - Review

Check out the Read More if you’d like to hear about this show!  Askbox is open as well if you’d like me to elaborate on anything out of this.

I saw it twice today for both the matinee and soiree performances, so I can remember pretty much all of it.  The sequence of events in the play happen as follows:

New Year’s celebrations with Karasuno, the third years visit a temple and pray for good luck at Nationals....

Karasuno make the journey to Tokyo for Nationals, check into their old, run-down inn, third years reminisce, Hinata and Kageyama go for a night run with Tsukki following on a bike...

The next day they go to Nationals to check in and to do the opening ceremony, Hinata runs into Hoshiumi, Kageyama runs into Sakusa and Miya...

And then Kiyoko leads us into the flashback of how they got to the orange court.  She’s basically the narrator for this play in the same way Yachi was for Summer of Evolution.  

The flashback then takes us to Kageyama being called away to the National youth training camp and Tsukishima being called to the Miyagi First Years’ training camp, and Hinata sneaking his way in.  

Act 2 is when we get into the practice match with Datekou, Kageyama slipping into his old “King of the Court” tendencies, and Hinata re-crowning him.  

Then we slip back into the “present” where Karasuno is headed to their first match, Hinata forgot his shoes because he grabbed the wrong bag, and we get to see Kiyoko run to get it and do the hurdle jumping as she narrates her own journey as well as the team’s journey.  

This brings it back around to the beginning of the play where the team is gathered and Hinata and Kageyama are really excited to start their first match of Nationals, so the story winds back around in a circular fashion.

So now with the format of the storytelling, I’ll go into more detail: 

We no longer have the usual Engeki Haikyuu opening sequence that we’re used to, and this is in large part due to the fact that we had very few projections overall.  The play has a new choreographer now, and I feel like this may be the main reason for the shift.  They have 6 giant moving LED screens on-stage that they use heavily for background images, impact animation, showing us the text for what they’re saying, live video footage, but there just really aren’t projections anymore.  In place of an opening sequence, we pretty much just dive right into the story.  

Surprisingly, they begin the play with Hinata and Kageyama center-stage, with the screens on both sides projecting footage of THE PREVIOUS CAST.  Which was basically just a straight up, let’s-just-acknowledge-the-elephant-in-the-room-this-is-a-new-cast sequence, and then the screens show silhouettes of the new cast.  These screens do move up and down and when they move down, they reveal a raised platform behind them.  

So as the screens move down they reveal our new cast members behind them, and then they gather together on the center of the stage to get worked up and ready for their first match at Nationals.  We still do get the usual chorus speech of: Volleyball, Haikyuu, a game where two teams etc... 

After that we fade to black and move to the New Year’s sequence, which opens with New Year’s dreams.  Kiyoko’s dream includes her running as a voice calls out to her, and this is actually fairly elaborate because she’s lifted into the air by the entire cast and she does a horizontal run in the air as she narrates.  Daichi’s hilariously weird New Year’s Dream where Asahi becomes a zombie and infects everyone.  He meets up with Suga and Asahi at the temple for hatsumode, Kiyoko meets them too, and they pray for good luck at Nationals and also pull omikuji and things.  Supporting cast members have little New Year’s stalls and it’s a really cute set.  I really love the chemistry of our new third years, especially because Kiyoko is included in their unit.  The four of them together seem like a close group of friends and the way they joke around together was really cute.  With Satomi, Kiyoko no longer feels quite so removed from the other third-years. 

After the third-years finish their prayers, we see Datekou arrive to do the same thing, and Aone is in that lovely traditional black kimono, with Futakuchi and Sakunami in regular clothes in tow.  When Sakunami asked what Aone prayed for, assuming some volleyball-related answer, Aone replies that he prayed for world peace. Lol.  Later Koganegawa charges onto the stage and tackles into them with candied apples.  In the afternoon show, the other three had been lined up really close together, so when Koganegawa tackled them, only Futakuchi went flying because he was on the other end of the line.  In the evening show, I think he ran a little too hard into them so they just all went falling to the ground lol.  

We get to see the others of the team goofing around playing hanetsuki with the little wooden paddles (minus Tsukishima) and this is sort of where we get to see the first bit of Noya and Tanaka’s athleticism.  I can tell that they’ve got acrobatic ability, but the rest of the choreography in the show doesn’t really let them show it off yet.  When Yachi asked Yamaguchi why Tsukishima wasn’t with him, we got to see Tsukki in pajamas and slippers walk across the stage grumbling about how much he didn’t want to wake up early on one of his precious few vacation days just to spend time with the two idiots, grumble grumble as he shuffled across stage lol.

And then Hinata challenges Kageyama to their first contest of the New Year, and this is one of the ad-lib parts.  In the afternoon show, they get ready to race, and Hinata goes, “Look, a UFO!” and when Kageyama gets distracted, he breaks for a head start.  But in the evening show, Hinata goes, “Look—!” but Kageyama cuts him off going, “I’M NOT GONNA FALL FOR THAT!” and he makes a break for it instead lol.  

Pause in the review just so I can say: WINTER CLOTHES!!! CUUUUUTE!!!

Then we see Karasuno headed off to Tokyo in their bus which is just all of them shuffling together in a box formation on-stage with Kiyoko narrating at the start, Asahi throwing up into a bag, Daichi yelling at everyone to calm down, etc… and then they arrive!

There’s the funny little bit where they all think they’re staying at the nice big fancy hotel but then Ukai tells them they’re staying at the scary-looking, run-down inn instead.  Takeda-sensei cries that it was because they didn’t have enough money and crumples backward onto the ground by just like, bending his knees and then falling backward.  Very flexible, very funny.  The little hanging sign for the inn that was on the back of the stage tilts and stuff too to add to the effect.  

Then a bus arrives that has the Niiyama girls and here we see Tanaka being really cute with Kanokaaaaaa~ Oh my god they were so cute.  They had this secret handshake thing that was super cute and at one point, Tanaka crouches down on the ground to tell her, “You’re still super tall!” and she laughs and offers him a hand to help him up, and he stumbles forward into her and everyone on Karasuno is just watching like !!!!!  

Their first night at the inn was a really fun sequence, with it going back and forth between third-years reminiscing on the balcony, to Kiyoko and Yachi taking a bath together and chatting… to the obviously hilarious moment of Ennoshita sending Tsukishima after Kageyama and Hinata’s nighttime run on a bike.  The old lady who gives him the bike runs off the stage quietly adding, “The brakes are broken tho… but it works fiiiiine.”  So then later, we see Hinata and Kageyama sprint across the stage and then Tsukishima is following while riding the bike and he suddenly goes, “Brake… brake? Brake!!!”  

In the afternoon show, the next time we see them, Hinata and Kageyama have stolen the bike somehow lolololol.  So Kageyama’s driving it, Hinata is riding right behind him in the child’s seat and whining and Tsukishima is tiredly running after them. In the evening show we just see Hinata and Kageyama starting to tire as they run and Tsukishima is still riding the bike behind them.  

Tanaka sneaks out with a ball to practice and for some reason Yamaguchi follows him.  So then when he meets up with Kanoka outside by chance, Yamaguchi hides and watches everything unfold.  Tanaka and Kanoka sit together, Tanaka scoots away nervously… Kanoka seems on the verge of confessing something, Tanaka suddenly shouts that his heart’s already spoken for and then her cousin shows up and Tanaka thinks he’s misunderstood the entire situation and runs off screaming about that Ennoshita’s an idiot. Yamaguchi springs up because he’s shocked too, and Kanoka and her cousin are weirded out by Yamaguchi’s random presence on top of that lol.  In the afternoon show, Yamaguchi just kind of awkwardly apologized before running after Tanaka, in the evening show, he just awkwardly whistled a tune while slowly meandering off stage.  That super casual, not casual whistling lol.  

The next day we see them line up for opening ceremony with their little Karasuno sign and then Kiyoko starts narrating us into the flashbacks. They do a little rewind sequence, aka, let’s everyone walk backwards all jittery to reset the scene.  

Takeda-sensei enters screaming BIG NEWS BIG NEWS in English and Ukai tries to calm him down usually with a little ad-libbed joke.  We hear about Kageyama and Tsukishima being called away to their separate training camps, etc…

They integrated the Miyagi and Tokyo camps pretty heavily together on-stage because they wanted to keep Hinata and Kageyama’s stories together while they were apart.  So for example, when Hinata shows up suddenly at the Miyagi camp even without being invited and Tsukishima is pretending like he doesn’t know him while yelling at him that he’s an idiot, Kageyama is on the other side of the stage, getting lost in a station because he can’t read the instructions he has.  So Tsukishima screaming out ‘idiot’ really applies to both Hinata and Kageyama.  

Little side snippet for Ukai and Takeda co-parenting really well lololol. When Hinata has to call Coach Ukai because he did a bad by barging into the training camp he wasn’t invited to, Ukai is yelling at him on the other line.  But he only gets to yell about two things before Takeda-sensei quietly sidles up beside him and just wordlessly holds out his hand for the phone.  Ukai quietly obeys, because it’s CLEAR Takeda-sensei is the stricter parent in this situation and ooooooh Hinata’s in troublllleeeee lol. 

And when Hinata is struggling at the camp, so is Kageyama but for different reasons obviously.  Hinata is trying to figure out what he needs to do, how he needs to think while being ball boy, and Kageyama is trying to figure out why Miya would call him a goody-two-shoes…

They have a little sequence where Kageyama’s confused and goes out for a run at dinnertime to try and clear his head, and Hinata is going home from the Miyagi camp for the night (because he’s not allowed to stay in the dorm while being ball boy), and they both end up running next to each other on-stage, getting exhausted, and leaning into each other, supporting each other, helping each other up, so like… they’re apart in the story, but they’re still somehow there for each other.  

Eventually the rest of the team appear on stage together behind them, with every one of them getting a little monologue to show what they’re hoping to improve upon and then everyone is running frantically and stumbling together.

After they fall, we fade to black and that’s the end of Act 1.   Act 2 closes out both camps simultaneously, and Hinata and Kageyama race to school when they meet up again and also immediately almost fight again because that’s their routine.  Mostly because Kageyama is saying Hinata’s jumps are too light (after seeing Hoshiumi’s).  I have to say that Daigo and Akana have a lot of great chemistry on-stage and they play off of each other really well in their choreography.  

Then we get the Datekou match and obviously the big emotional moment in that involves Kageyama slipping into his King of the Court habits after having spent time at the Tokyo camp with a lot of high-caliber players.  I feel like the build-up to that was done really well with all the little stressors in the game, and adding in some of his frustrations from the Tokyo youth camp.  Akana plays Kageyama’s frustration really well, and because it’s Engeki, we get to re-crown him using the same cape and crown set that we’ve been using from the very first show lol.  Only this time, Hinata’s reframing it in a positive light, and of course because he has the support of everyone else on Karasuno too.  So at this point, Tatsunari, Kage-chan, and Akana have all done the rip-away-cape sequence lololol.  

I wish I had more to say about the match but we didn’t get much of it because of the focus given to Kageyama’s little breakdown.  Datekou’s dance choreography involves a lot of boxing other people in, arms wide out and stomping, and we got a little bit of explanation about Datekou’s blocking technique, Koganegawa’s high tosses, but that was about it.  I mean, at no point did they bring out a net, there’s not even really much room on that stage for a net, and we didn’t keep.... a score count.  Only at the end of the set did we see a scoreboard on the screens.

Kiyoko then narrates us back to the ‘present’ where Karasuno has to navigate public transit to get to the gym.  This involved almost losing Asahi to a crowd, and Hinata accidentally swapping his bag with someone else’s (which leads to the shoe problem).  

Back at the main gym venue, Noya runs into someone and falls into Kanoka, and we get the follow-up scene for her and Tanaka.  Because Yamaguchi saw what had happened at the inn, he basically shoves the other second years off-stage so that they can have a private moment, although he still stays behind to eavesdrop.  

After Kanoka tells Tanaka to watch her because she’s gotten better, Tanaka also runs off with some renewed conviction and a sense of not wanting to lose either.  Yamaguchi puts his hands to his heart going, “I feel like I just watched a romance drama.” AND HE’S NOT WRONG.

Then Hinata realizes he doesn’t have his shoes and we get to have Kiyoko running to get them.  She monologues and narrates the entire time she’s running and they have these moving frames for her to run through almost like the hurdling she used to do, and at the end, they actually tear away her clothes and she’s got her hurdling uniform on underneath!  

A lot of Kiyoko’s narration centers around the themes of finding one’s role in the team (she says that she still has things she can do for the team even if she doesn’t wear a uniform with them), remaking and reinventing yourself (cough* cast change), and Karasuno always being the underdogs and to remember that.

Overall, I enjoyed the show and I really love the new cast.  They’re great on-stage together, some core groups have really great chemistry, and some of them got a chance to really shine individually.  I have no criticisms about the cast, but I do have criticisms about the complete lack of projections.  It’s in the name of the show, and the projections have always been something very unique to Haikyuu and was its special trademark among other 2.5D productions.  They were always fun and colorful and very well-designed and choreographed, and they don’t go unnoticed.  I don’t know if it’s because we have a new choreographer, I haven’t checked my pamphlets to see what other major staff changes there have been.  I think that their use of the LED screens is creative and well-executed especially because they can move, but they just can’t completely replace the appeal of the projections for me.  So I hope that future shows bring those back and either do away with the screens or minimize how many big screens are used.  The closing sequence and bows are really plain visually when it’s just the black screens with their names in plain white font.  

And as much as I’ve loved Wada-san’s music for previous shows, it’s a little harder to work with in this play.  Very little of it is as energetic as we’re used to, and the opening and closing music just isn’t the adrenaline rush that the previous ones have been. Due to lack of music and visual cues, the audience got confused too; we weren’t sure when and where to clap because it’s not explicitly clear when they’re done.   I’m sure choreography will get more polished as the tour goes on, I’ve seen how much it can improve from the first show to the last in previous tours too.  

But I want to end on a high note (ha ha, get it) and say that it’s still a fun and great show and that I’ve fallen in love with all of the new actors immensely~ <3

I’ll be seeing it once again tomorrow evening, keeping my eye out for additional details... feel free to ask me questions!

[heeres-suffering]

Be More Alluring: a Personality Swap AU

[pic description and source will be at the bottom of this post, under the read more]

Start of summary:

“You need to be more alluring.”

"... don’t you mean attractive?”

“I do not. Your attractiveness is adequate, Brooke; if you want to mask your apparently latent queerness, you have to make them want you straight. Isn’t that why your step-father defended you?” 

Brooke Lohst is a loser.

But you know what? That was okay.

She always knew she was a weird one. The intensity of her affection for puppies, picture books, and near-constant daydreaming has lasted well-past a normalcy she can’t seem to grasp; when coupled with her inability to befriend anyone (besides the similarly self-identified loser Michael Mell), it’s not a surprise the rest of her peers have left her behind.

However, there were... ah, worse things in her life to worry about then some mild bullying. She liked her passion well enough, and all of her true insecurities went largely unnoticed, so any insults or weird looks rarely lingered in her mind. It’s not like she was a constant target either, which helped a lot. All in all, she just planned to hunker down, wait out the awkwardness of High School like everyone else, and move on to the rest of her life... 

Except.

When Brooke develops a crush on a girl she’s never talked to, after years of avoiding fairy tale romance and trying not to think about the inevitability of marriage (or how finicky her attraction to boys is in the first place), it feels like her whole world is about to cave in. She’d do anything to make sure her parents, especially daddy, never find out... including buying an edible super computer from the loudest, tiniest guy in school.

End of summary.

Alright!

Hi, hello, it’s Mod Seb, and here’s an AU I’ve been rolling around for a few days! You are free to do with this concept whatever you want, but I wanted to introduce it with a good chunk of the info I’ve already worked out in my head.

So. As the CWs are... too numerous, I’m going to go with a blanket “Dead Dove: Do Not Eat” label and encourage you not to read the rest of this if you have any big darkfic triggers that could be upset by mere mention; this isn’t a fic tho, so descriptions of anything awful won’t last long. 

Although, I will mention upfront that Brooke isn’t a binary lesbian. I know the description might read like I’m setting her up to be 100% homosexual; she’s bi with a strong preference for girls, and anyone who presents soft enough in gender or appearance. If it wasn’t for the end-game pairings, her unfamiliarity with smaller details/history of the LGBTQ+ community, and general “gay newb” status, she’d likely ID as a bi lesbian!

(ships and everything else under the Read More)

Okay. That out of the way, there’s quite a number of pairings; I’m pretty sure it’s a super polyamorous and sexual AU, though you’re free to change this list as much as you’d like:

[bolded are end-game ships. italics physically hook up at least once. strike-through means they were in a relationship but break-up in some way before the ending. (H) stands for healthy, while (T) is toxic and/or noncon. underlined characters are pining for the other and may never confess their true feelings]

Brooke/Christine (H), Brooke/Rich (H), Brooke/Jenna (H), Brooke/Michael (H), Brooke/Chloe (T), Brooke/her Daddy (T), Brooke/Squip (H), Brooke/Jeremy (soft T at first bc of mirrored canon-compliant manipulation, H later on), Brooke/Squip/Jeremy (H), Brooke/Squip/Jeremy/Rich (H), Rich/Moses (H), [insert every form of Rich/Mo/Squip/Jeremy here] (H), Jeremy/Chloe (T), Jeremy/Michael (H), Michael/Christine (H), Michael/Christine/Mr. Heere (H; no, seriously), Madeline/Brooke (H)

This is, of course, a role swap AU where Brooke and Jeremy trade places based on my personal lore for their home lives. I always have some pretty fucked ideas as I don’t imagine MB is a great place with great adults, and I pick and choose which parts of canons I use and which I don’t. 

There is no definite ending planned in mind as this isn’t an outline; it’s meta (or an imagine or w/e) for an AU that you’re free to do whatever with. 

So,

The big difference is that Brooke was picked by Michael, while Jeremy was picked by Chloe. Jeremy is trans and hadn’t come out yet; if Chloe had known he was a boy, she wouldn’t have grabbed him. In contrast, Michael’s never gave a shit about potential friends genders.

Jer and B’s personalities... are altered some. Not ALL the way, but kiiinda fusing into their roles, kinda tweaked (I'll get back to that).

The main point of this for me was Brooke/Squip/Jeremy, with B/Jer having a MUCH stronger focus than in canon, and a really bad Chloe acting as one of the major villains.

Michael gets roped into Chloe’s shit, even tho he's still generally a good guy here, bc he's worried about B and thinks she can't properly take care of herself.

While B DOES have a strong crush on Christine, she’s the opposite of the Squip’s “goal”; that’s (obvs) masking, or making passably digestible, her queerness.

Her Mom and step-’Daddy’ have reacted to her friendship w/ ‘openly gay moms, also very flamboyant and GNC’ Michael... poorly.

Michael thinks the solution has to be “act as aggressively yourself as you can, and if they reject you, you know me and the mom’s have a space for you”. This works for him bc he’s permanently hyper-visible, what with all of his own marginalized identities. But, not only has she flied under the radar in comparison to him for years, he doesn’t know everything about her life.

In fact, he doesn’t know most of it. She’s very good at hiding things.

Meanwhile, Jeremy, one of the more popular ‘boy... ish’ (we’ll get to this, too) people in school, is mid-psychosis and self-destruction. He actually has schizo-affective disorder--as is the case with all of my versions of Jeremy--which he needs medication for. Combined that with so many bad influences and trauma, he can no longer fully control himself or his life.

The way he handles this (badly) is to ‘whore around’--which, besides being Chloe’s pet, is kinda why he’s so popular. Nobody respects him, but he’s viewed some form of favorably.

Jeremy is in a relationship with Rich, but he won't let him get as close/protective as Rich wants; Mo and Rich were doing their own man-whoring (but healthy, just droppin’ panties and making dudes and chicks swoon--yeah, Rich is out as bisexual, this is a very ‘the Squips are a good thing’ AU) to gain their standard reputation, but in the course of that, they got together with Jeremy and it became... complicated. Both of them are very "nnn" about how bad his life is for Jer.

The way that their personalities are altered is... okay. To explain this, I have to talk about my characterization of canon-Brooke and Jeremy in relation to this, starting with Brooke:

I imagine B as just a liiittle below the line of "all the way there" for sorta-similar reasons to Jeremy here: trauma, and Chloe (which is why that’s what Jeremy gets in this, it’s just WAY worse when compounded by everything else). She’s also--like me, and like almost every character I write as a result--autistic, in a near-permanent state of “not enough accommodations” and over-stimulation. This leads to a lot of dissociation and a very wandering mind, as well as being perceived as a bimbo or dumb blonde or w/e misogynistic bullshit is projected onto her by the boys she dates (she’s also much more down the middle bi outside this AU).

So, going back to how she is for this AU: she's actually not super nerdy, despite the close connection she and Michael have. Honestly, it’s their general neurodivergent weirdness that bring them together, and so she’s mostly adopted her nerdy interests through him, whether directly a thing he likes, or finding a whimsical variant that fits her tastes.

Obviously, unlike Jeremy, she doesn’t mind being called a loser. She does any insinuation she might be queer. This including anyone who calls her gay or a dyke.

She has too much Cis Male Trauma (unlike canon, where it comes from both cis angles) to really entertain the idea of a Traditionally Male Partner. This means she skews HEAVILY towards hard GNC guys at the very least, and generally finds herself most interested in the idea of enbies and women. she's also not super into butches tho, bc her trauma mixing with her sexuality has latched on to Strong Masc People Are A Threat. 

An expansion on her interests, in canon and otherwise: animals, ASMR/sensual service work (including massages and stuff), spending hours just sorta sitting by herself and letting her imagination wander, fairy tales, and YA-and-under fantasy books.

(Here, she tries to avoid het or f/f romance... except that, this past year or two, she’s started really like m/m stuff--esp after getting REALLY into drag shows, which she could enjoy safely since girls like Chloe have gotten into them too; in canon, she’s a romance fanatic)

Now... this is one of the really darkfic element; she's fucking her step-dad. 

She does this so that he doesn't walk out on her, her mom, and her little sister*. Her mom has a good-enough job as a standard office woman, but he makes enough to pay the rent on their nice townhouse and all the bills she can’t. So, after he expressed interest in Brooke and then casually mentioned he could always just leave if she wasn’t comfortable, she reluctantly entered a relationship with him

(* = her sister is currently know as her brother; he’s like 12 or 13, and started showing signs of trans/queerness which have been Heavily Discouraged. Brooke worries about him a lot)

((I didn’t use she/her pronouns bc I’m not entirely sure he would change them? This is an OC Oli created at the beginning of our interest in BMC, and we haven’t worked on him at all since, so how his characterization will be is up in the air))

Canonically, Brooke's "in love" with her daddy, which is a self-imposed delusion; if she actually addressed it, she’d says she’s well aware that’s not true, but it's so much easier to pretend when you’re cornered like that. Brooke’s life blows.

She’s a lot more honest to herself about hating him here; still, she tries to be as polite and generally-friendly as she can, doing what he says whenever he wants.

OKAY, THAT’S BROOKE. If any of that is badly described or potentially-offensive, it’s just bc I glossed over SO MUCH DETAIL, even in that amount of it!

So. Jeremy.

I don’t have to go over him much and we’re all mostly aware of how I feel about him and also I don’t have the energy to do this again--

(just... read my fics The Devil at your Door or hello yesterday or something... eyyy actually do that, my ao3 username is Sedusa, blah blah blah ANYWAY)

--but basically: He's still very nerdy, like, he’s super into film as well as video games (which is another constant for me), but after being largely ignored in elementary, he's been trailing behind Chloe at her orders since they were in 6th grade. As a result he isn't very open about... any of his interests.

In 7th grade, he came out as trans to everyone. Chloe was furious, but at the same time, intrigued; this was around the time Chloe gets her own... ah shit I gotta go into that too--

--yet another hc of mine is that Chloe gets a Squip on accident around this time at a party (there was one in a “”candy bowl””), and from there, she claws her way up the ladder. I... will not go into that much, but her Squip was crippled by the drugs and alcohol in her system, and therefore largely at her mercy. She’s used his power to manipulate certain things about herself and to sharpen her focus on popularity to the point she’s full-blown Alpha Bitch.

Man, I’ve had to go on so many tangents, I apologize.

Anyway, she drags Jeremy around as a punching bag. She constantly mocks Jeremy's transness, even though she usually calls him by his correct name and pronouns.

This has made the rest of the school follow her lead, hence why I said “boy-ish”; he’s popular, he’s technically ‘well liked’, but nobody really takes him seriously. This is compounded by Chloe’s refusal to let him dress in 'dorky' casual clothes, and, as he’s both too poor to afford designer clothes and also generally hates popular guy fashion, he has to wear the hyper femme clothing Chloe specifically tells him too/

As such, people call him a boy but largely see him as either an idiot, a slut, an attention seeker, or all of the above.

So of course, in Brooke's place, his neurodivergence is more prominent than ever; every day he slips further into this psychosis and self-infantilization haze, as his his mom leaving, his dad severely depressed, Chloe's sexual violence, and other repressed trauma (see: my fic hello yesterday on ao3) all weighing on him. This makes him INCREDIBLY regressed, like, all the time by Junior year.

And then Brooke's Squip (IE: canon Squip) falls in love with Jeremy extremely fucking hard. He pushes her to date him as a way to compromise on her queer desires, since Jeremy is technically a boy, and certainly a few other straight-ish girls have hooked up with him in the past.

WHEW. That is a fucking lot. To wrap this up, lemme go over the interpersonal relationships not already mentioned, and what directions I think it takes.

First off, Madeline has a more prominent role, as I quite like her tbh; she’s a sex worker, she has her own Squip, she’s one of Chloe’s most hated enemies, and she gravitates towards both Brooke and Jeremy. She’s also Actually French, Chloe’s just weird.

(Anyway she prolly sees through Brooke’s straight act and asks her why she’s pretending to be a good little cishet. It rattles Brooke.)

Chloe is scum. This bears repeating. She DEFINITELY rapes Brooke at the Halloween party, and becomes obsessed with her, along with already being obsessed with Jeremy and Jake. 

Jake, by the way, has a lot of regressive behavior and impulsiveness bc he’s been in an abusive relationship off and on with Chloe for years now.

Speaking of Jake, moving on to his best bro: Rich doesn’t set himself on fire. He’s having a good time with his Squip.

But.

He IS set on fire at the Halloween party.

Instead of the Smartphone Hour being about Rich's instability, it's actually about the mystery of Someone Did It To Him But No One Saw Who It Was, They Were Disguised.

The answer relates to the fact that Rich and Brooke are ALSO hooking up, after she’s already with Jeremy, bc he Properly introduces her to him and the three of them hit it off really well.

(She initially wasn’t interested, but while Rich is loud and still kinda abrasive, his Squip doesn’t drive him to act like a bully--and in private, his nerdiness is really obvious and he’s extremely gentle with her and Jeremy. Add to that that he’s bi and trans*, when Brooke connects best w/ queer men over cishet one, and it off-sets his masc-ness enough to make him an Exception.

* = I always imagine him as trans. See: all of Vanceypants fics.)

Sooo... the culprit is actually Brooke's daddy, who sees her with this obvious heartthrob and Cannot let that be.

Chloe convinces Michael that the Squips are Very Very Bad and has him team up with her to force Brooke into drinking Red, with the intention to convince him to kill himself after to get him out of the way, bc she’s really going nuts at this point.

Eventually, he snaps out of it when he and Christine get together (he’s thought he was Full Homo all of his life, but Christine’s prolly genderqueer-ness makes him realize “oh shit, I’m bisexual”) and she starts to question why he’s acting the way he is towards Christine.

He also definitely has a crush on Jeremy and during his time with Chloe he kinda tried to flirt a little but couldn’t really... he’s not up for dating someone as sexually active and a push-over as Jeremy is in this.

However, when he snaps out of Chloe’s manipulation, he and Christine approach Mr. Heere to convince him to straighten up and help Jeremy and also bc they really need an adult to successfully fight Chloe.

This requires a month+ of Christine getting him to see her psychiatrist (the one who prescribes her ADHD meds). Jeremy spends the majority of his time staying with Chloe, and very rarely comes home to gather things or to make sure his dad is eating/still alive, as much as he can remember to in his own haze of mental illness. Anyway, point is, he doesn’t know Christine and Michael are there often... not that, in the course of growing close to Mr. H, they both fall for him hard and it becomes one of my stranger OT3s.

(God, Jeremy goes through a lot of shit in this, tho.)

Pre-Squip, Jenna was kinda-sorta Brooke’s friend--or, well, friendly. However, she’s actually full blown “oh my God she’s wonderful” in love with Brooke.

Brooke isn't aware of that, esp since Jenna tries her not to be around her a lot. She's also trying to hide her own queerness, bc she’s a trans woman and she knows Chloe finding that out would be extremely dangerous.

Eventually, Chloe succeeds in making Brooke take the Red months after canon usually ends, w/o Michael’s help. If you’re curious, Red doesn’t affect her normal Squip bc she’s had him too long and a lot of his receptors and stuff are damaged, so it’s the second one she gets in canon that turns off.

This plan backfires, however, as Brooke’s Squip comes back with a physical body w/ help from Rich and also-bodied-now Moses.

With a body, and shenanigans, Mo and Squip take out Brooke’s daddy too. His life insurance more than makes up for the loss of his income, as it’s a sizable amount. Now that Brooke feels more empowered and strong, she overrides her mother’s neglectfulness and takes control of the household w/ her boyfriends*, comes out as queer, helps her sister transition, and begin to heal from all of this trauma.

(* = Rich and Mo move in, as does Jeremy eventually, after graduation; Jeremy gets a psychiatrist and a therapist and prolly has to go through some intense outpatient care and possibly a stay in the hospital, before finally making major breakthroughs and looking like himself again. The five of them are now happy and in love.)

Chloe, after her arm gets twisted by the Squip’s protective presence so thoroughly, gives up on Jeremy and Brooke to focus on Jake. This too gets abandoned when Rich and Mo help him cut her off, and so she stays in her own popularity bubble, bitter, until graduating and going to a community college in a different state.

All in all, things work out well in the end, but getting there is a long, difficult process. This AU fascinates me immensely and feels like a great way to examine some of my really dark headcanons about MB, as I think it’s a town similar to Derry in Stephen King’s IT--as in, just chronically The Worst Place Ever, with this, like, miasma of low-key despair around it. People adjust and don’t question it, which is why so much of BMC is this flippant dark humor in the face of some highly questionable shit.

I’m so sorry this post is so long (I’ll be uploading it to AU under my usual Sedusa account, as metas like this are more than allowed), but I really adore these characters and the way they can be twisted around, so I had a lot to say!

Thank you for reading <3

-mod Seb

image description: virtual-like stairs pointed forward and bathed in neon yellow and blue to represent Brook and Jeremy, which I’ve modified from the original blue-only design.

source: x (link description: a free Wallpaper Flare image that I found off Google Image’s “filtered by ‘labeled and reuse with modification” feature) 

[euphoriecs]

11/11/11 tag !!!

thank u sm for tagging me @yikescomma​, @buckaroowrites​ nd @yikeskimi​ !!!

rules: answer 11 questions, write your own 11, tag 11 people !

under the cut bc its a Lotta questions KSKSKSHK

yikescomma’s questions!!

1. what’s your favourite place to write?

oh this is ?? kind of a tough one bc i feel like i never Branched out in my spaces when it comes 2 being productive,, like a lot of my work is done in my bedroom just bc my desk is there and it’s the most convenient,,,, honestly im jus gonna say my favorite place to write would be from . my desk . bc it faces the window :-)

2. which character(s) from your wip(s) is your favourite?

since i only have wtsf confidently worked out ,, i’ll use those ocs !! but i think , quite Honestlie ,,, that wendy is my favorite character !! im rly in love with how she progresses as a person nd also she’s jsut . she gets it u know .

3. what are some inspirations for your wip(s)?

I TALKED ABT THIS BEFORE but b/ts’ hyyh series, my neighborhood, spring day by b/ts are a few inspirations for wtsf !!! 

4. how did you start writing?

my dad got me hooked on reading when i was really really young !! and being able to read abt all these huge worlds nd being given an opportunity 2 fall in love w them rly inspired me to want to write worlds of my own . plus , i watch a lot of different shows nd animes that feed into my daydreams nd sometimes im like ‘yo,,, that was a good daydream,,,,, time 2 story it’ .

5. which of your ocs is most difficult to write?

uHGHHGHGS ARTHUR ...... trying to capture this like . enigmatic feeling while keeping close 2 his reasons for acting That way is actually ,, rly hard?? hes a tough cookie 2 crack but i will crack it .

6. what aesthetic do you associate with your wip(s)?

for wtsf ,,, quiet towns , lonely beaches , sunset nd sunrise ,,, running through the streets ?? 

7. do you like planning?

YEA !! i see it more as like . being able to explore ur wip and what directions it can take nd its also jsut rly helpful to have a solid foundation .

8. what is your favourite quote from your wip(s)?

i pulled this from my drabbles but: “Slow down.” Wendy grabbed Arthur’s wrist, pulling him down to sit on the sand. “This world can’t keep up with you.”

9. do you like to listen to music while you write?

yes and no ?? im very particular to the kind of music im listening to nd more often than not, i write in complete silence ,,, but sometimes i’ll find a song that i feel rly fits the vibe of what im writing nd i just put it on repeat HGSHJK

10. what do you like most about your own writing?

i think i like the descriptive aspects of it ?? like how i describe places nd feelings ,,,, :-) !

11. what are/were/would be your ocs favourite subjects in school?

everyone except piper in wtsf is graduated from high school but ,, wendy liked english class the best bc it was fun nd she got good grades !! rafael definitely loved psychology nd took it at an ap level ,, arthur liked math nd chemistry .. chemistry he liked More bc he got 2 blow stuff up SKKSKSEH and piper likes world history!! tho shes not good at it . but she likes it!!

buckaroowrites’ questions!!

what is your favorite subgenre to write? to read?

i lov urban fantasy and low fantasy JGHDSHGJKS like its my favorite to write nd read bc like .. o heck ?? ghosts nd ghouls nd just overall supernatural stuff irl ?? that’s the way 2 go

if you had to be trapped on a desert island with any of your ocs, who would it be and why?

if i had 2 be trapped on a desert island ...... i’d probably choose rafael . honestlie he just seems like he always knows what’s up nd my chances of survival would increase w him JHGJKSJKS

what is your favorite medium to write?

definitely novels !! its a format i’ve pretty much grown up w and im more comfortable w this medium than any others GHSHJKS but i’d love to explore like ,, screenplays nd see where that takes me

who was your first oc?

HYLLY SHITTTT THIS BRINGS ME BACK SJHJHJGJKS i used to draw a lot back when i was younger nd so i had this oc JHJS his name was ian and he was meant for the maximum ride universe but he was a dumb dude who was 2% cat . nd he had an adopted sister ,, i forgot her name but she was part bird .

what was your first wip about?

world end club is supposed 2 be abt a group of teens who work together 2 take down a corporation that wants 2 essentially control the artificial island they live on thru engineered soldiers . ITS A CONCEPT ,, nd it requires a little Too Much for my one brain cell to think abt

thoughts on shakespeare?

uhhh no thots bc i never read his work in high school i jus know macbeth is cursed .... wow i rly dont know anything abt shakespeare huh .

poetry or prose?

o this is TOUGH i rly adore both .......... im gonna . im gonna go w prose . i lvoe poetry so much sometimes there are lines that just rly fucken punch u in the face but im gonna go w prose bc its familiar !!

would you ever co-write a story?

nO ..... i wouldnt b able 2 compromise i’d jus b like oH ACTUALLY SKSKKS MY IDEA’S DUMB LETS JUST DO URS 

write what you want to write or write what you want to read/watch?

oh . fuc .... i feel like its important to have a good balance of both but . honestlie im very partial to what i want to read/watch ..

do you like to write violence?

i dont Like 2 write it but its In My Wips !

what is your favorite trope?

oH ,, probably ‘fire forged friends’ or like . mutual pining ... i have too many favorite tropes nd somehow im gonna incorporate them all .

yikeskimi’s questions!!

Tell us about the main character(s) in your current WIP!

oKAY SO im gonna try to not make this too long SJKHJGS !! wendy is a very like . prickly character . shes like a cactus . nd she’s not too fond of letting ppl get close, but the ppl who do manage to get close to her are happie 2 learn she would actually die for them . loyalty is a Huge Huge part of her character, and she cares very deeply abt the people she calls family . shes also v sarcastic nd like . ‘open ur eyes dummy’ .

arthur is a kind of person who lives heavily on false pretenses . like he projects this image bc its an image that he can control nd he jsut Rolls w it , but hes actually someone who likes 2 tease his friends nd be friendly to them ,, hes got Issuez nd is very much the type of person to be like ‘o lol im ok :-)...’ nd prioritize the needs of others 

rafael is , in all honesty , just babey . he studied a lot during high school nd rly pushed himself beyond his limits bc he wants to be able 2 go 2 a good college on scholarship nd get a job 2 support his family , nd hes just ?? very responsible nd sweet but that can also manifest into him taking on more than he should nd burning out . 

piper is a very ,, honestlie kinda sad character kjHGJSJ she spends a lot of time just trying 2 appeal to other ppl bc she knows her interest in the supernatural make her a ‘weird’ person nd she wants to be able 2 have real friends ,, but when she learns 2 let go of this she’s very silly nd always making jokes During The Right time ..

Do you have an all time favorite OC? Tell us about them!

hMMMM i dont think i do ??? my memory of my ocs is rly bad JHSJ so more often than not i just ,, rip i dont remember them </3

If you could be best friends with one of your OCs, who would it be and why?

ms piper chaiyathan !!!! shes a very open nd kind individual nd i feel like our humor nd joking style would match V v v well !!!

Last line you’ve written in your WIP?

Wendy, unlike her brothers Adam and Nate, had inherited her father’s rough touch, and that made them both unwanted in the high stakes setting of a diner kitchen.

If you have a chosen title for your WIP, were there any titles you considered before it? And if not, what are some titles you’re thinking of?

when the sun falls went through SO many titles nd i actually have them all here: where the sun goes / fever dreams / above the sun / where the sun follows / the drowned sun ... as u can see the sun was smth i Needed .

What is an important element in the world your WIP takes place in?

uHHHH the supernatural element is . Very important but i cant be too specific about it but i will tell u it involves a dead tree on the beach .

Tell us an out of context spoiler.

arthur gets a cool new set of eyes.

Any power couples/ships in your WIP?

wendy nd arthur babey ,,,,,, bat nd molotov cocktail duo ,,,, last name central until the important moment nd THEN they use each other’s first names ..

Any music you like listening to while you write?

uHHHH specifically for wtsf i listen 2 a lot of hozier, lorde, conan gray, khalid nd halsey :-)

What would your main character(s) favorite song be?

oH okay i got this in the BAG ... wendy’s favorite song would Absolutely be work place by hozier or more than sorrow by a-lin ,,, arthur would definitely b listening 2 like . free spirit by khalid .. piper, since she p much spent all of middle school nd 2 years of high school in thailand ,, i think she’

Which character in your WIP could you relate to the most?

honestly? all of them !!! a lot of the characters in wtsf have little bits nd pieces of me bc thats how all my ocs come into existence nd theres no One character thats like “oh,,, das me”

and here are my 11 questions !!

Which one of your OCs do you think could survive a zombie apocalypse? Why?

What’s something you’ve been itching to write about?

Share the last paragraph you wrote!

Do you prefer coming up with plots or characters? Why?

Do you have any abandoned WIPs? Tell us about them!

What are some favorite themes/tropes to write about?

How do you get into the zone for writing?

Tell us a random fact for any of your OCs !!!

Are you someone who needs a visual for your WIPs?

What are some influences to your writing style?

If you had to be a character in one of your WIPs, which WIP would it be and what role would you play?

i’m gonna tag @babyreeds @holotones @alejandroistyping @noloumna @faerisms @omniawrites @aslanwrites @ashesconstellation @thegrievingyoung @glittcrpeach @syposium !!! no pressure to do it if u dont want to tho <3

[smosh-stuff]

The Poll Results!

Alright folks, now that the poll is closed, let’s go over the results and what that means for the future!

Question One

So, this was me basically asking: should I wait until I’ve written a decent amount of the story to start uploading chapters and set up a regular upload schedule, or say FUCK a schedule and just upload whenever I finish a chapter? This was what yall answered:

19 Votes for a regular upload schedule, and 11 votes for no schedule. 

So, while I will try to get chapters written and posted as fast as possible, it’s gonna be a little bit before I start putting them out! Right now, I'm thinking a schedule of maybe two chapters a week, but I’ll wait until I start posting to say for sure.

Question Two

This was me simply asking, how long do you want the chapters to be? This was what yall gave back:

4 Votes for about 2000 words per chapter, 2 Votes for about 3000 words per chapter, 1 Vote for 4000+ words per chapter, 2 Votes for “just write the damn fic”, and 21 Votes for “that last option but nicer”.

First of all, to the two people who literally just chose to be mean to me: Alright, sluts, just because I gave you the option,

Fr tho- this was an interesting one! Seeing as most of you don’t care, I figure I’ll do my best to keep the chapters between 2000-3000 words, but I won't worry too much about the length.

Question Three

For this one, I asked if you want me to keep posting stuff about the universe in the AU, or stop and just keep everything in the fic. You answered:

26 Votes for more worldbuilding posts, and 4 Votes for them to stop.

Now, even though the majority of you want to see those posts, I don’t want the rest of you to feel like I’m ignoring your wishes. I also understand wanting to be totally immersed in the main story. Therefore, I’ve decided that I’m gonna start tagging every out-of-story worldbuilding post with “aa worldbuilding”. Those of you who don’t want to see those posts can blacklist the tag, and you won’t see any of them!

Question Four

This one was an extension of the last question- if I’m gonna keep making worldbuilding posts, what topics should I cover? A few of you gave me replies to this one! These included:

“The living conditions for children!!! how are they raised in this Weird Radioactive Hellscape, and how do they survive to adulthood?”

“Maybe things like environmental conditions, animal/plant life used by survivors, and stuff like that.”

“I’m super interested in the guard things”

“Law, and what the landscape is like, and the cause of the apocalypse”

“Maybe the environment and a little bit of enemies”

“Travel/transportation; sports/competitions; other notable figures in the land”

“Steven Universe”

“the mutated beasts bruh”

I took most of these answers into consideration! I definitely plan on covering these topics in future posts, so thanks for the feedback :)

Question Five

This question was just like question three, except asking if I should post about the characters themselves. This is how you all replied:

24 Votes for yes, 4 Votes for no, and 2 Votes that were somewhere in between.

For those that answered no- similarly to the worldbuilding posts, I’ve decided to make a tag for these! All character-building posts will be tagged with “aa characterbuilding”. I don’t plan to put anything spoiler-y in these, aside from maybe some vague foreshadowing, but again I understand wanting to be especially immersed in the written story.

I also took the custom answers into consideration as well! Don’t worry, I don’t plan on making a post about anything heavily plot-related. If I post about things like abilities, Guards, etc., I’ll only include information that isn’t directly related to the plot. I do think that I’ll save some topics for later down the line, when they’ve already come into play, to avoid any minor spoilers.

Question Six

Like question four, this one was an extension question, asking what character topics I should cover. These responses included:

“general hcs would be nice!!!”

“All of those things you've listed and maybe a bit of background as to how people met.”

“Combat is always super cool”

“Maybe abilities, combat and weapons”

“Steven Universe”

“Guards, backstories, combat styles, personal hc’s”

Again, I took most of these answers into careful consideration! I think general hc’s will be a good post to make in the near future. I’ll also make sure to cover combat styles, Guards, and more details about their backstories as well!

Again, thanks to everyone who responded! This was super helpful, and I’m really glad I’ll be able to go ahead with this project with yall’s interests in mind. :)

[portrayedby]

The Last Two Years and M*tski

Tw mitski

Tw lonely f*g ramblings

Tw #reflections

Okay first off idk how to make a read more on mobile...Second I need to VENT!!! So i have a lot of complicated feelings about mitski tbh like :

1. she’s sent my soul into an inescapable downward spiral of hellish proportions over the last two years but I digress...

2. She often mentions Kuala Lumpur in interviews and how she went to high school here for 3 years and it’s like i wanna feel a sense of kinship with her because we had our adolescences in the same place but at the same time I feel this intense misplaced sense of jealousy towards her because she had US citizenship all the while and got to move to New York to pursue her dreams and me and my third world ass literally could never...like we’re similar but wildly different, but also her songs feel like she’s speaking about me directly? idk I’ve always had “”white”” interests and couldn’t relate to my peers so listening to her talk and sing feels like a psychic attack on my soul and my brand LOL because her music deals heavily with topics like that

3. Puberty 2 like caught me completely off guard before I started med school. I had never even heard of her at that point in time, and I had just lost my grandfather (whom I’d been taking care of for 5 years and I feel like he was the only person who would be actually happy to see me)...and I was already going through a really bad mental health period in 2016 so his death made things in my life explode in a pretty terrible way. My mother was super super close to him but she was overseas at the time so she couldn’t bury him...and that made her have like this yearlong bout of religious grandiosity and she took all crazy out on me because I’m closest to her among my siblings. And i guess I didn’t realise how much it was to deal with at the time (God was like: i know you’re starting med school but you need to deal with your mom’s mental illness in addition to yours...also you’ll develop 50000 unrequited crushes on guys at the same time because you haven’t spoken to a man in a year you homo NEET...). Starting med school rly did feel like going through puberty all over again I wish there was a less corny way to say that but it DID okay

4. Listening to that album amidst all that emotional turmoil (which in retrospect I shouldn’t have done) made me realise that I never got to like have a real proper adolescence because I never got to come out properly on my own terms, or even have any kind of sexual or romantic experience with someone else for that matter because I’m just really terrified of all that. Also it’s illegal to be a faggot here so there’s that. And even now I’m kind of just flailing about/stalling with regards to my personal growth/career+academic path because I’m in the midst of an identity crisis because I’m realising that becoming a doctor would feel like crumpling my soul and stuffing it into a box (tho i guess that isn’t unique to medicine #fuckcapitalism right) and I desperately want to find a way to express myself musically/artistically because I used to in the past but I had to give it up to please my family... fuck REPRESSION!!!

5. In high school I literally put myself on hold and was pretending like every single day of my life (but also...who wasn’t) and that obviously burnt me tf out so by the time I graduated I didn’t who tf I was or what I wanted to do. From then till now I’ve felt like I’ve been in a fog blindly groping around desperately trying to find myself lol....It was only until like this year where I’ve started to feel almost sure of myself in my own small way, which is why I’m taking a gap year so I can really just deal i guess! I know it’s been like literally half a decade and I should be over this but I literally can’t LOL! So that album unearthed a lot of old feelings about my own experiences and my lifelong obsession with getting to grow up in the US which is a stupid dream but also I’m a stupid bitch so...

6. Kind of unrelated my sister who is basically a cis and less crazy version of me got married last year and moved to London to be a doctor and get her masters and it literally felt like I got my hands chopped off because a) I’m stuck here with my parents where I can’t be myself in many many ways b) I’m being forced to accept some random man into my life that I barely know!!! {how do other ppl deal when their siblings get married i have no clue}, and my younger brother who is a fellow f*g left soon after too so I’m double all alone now but again I digress...

7. Finally (!) Seeing miss miyawaki gain this crazy cuckoo gigantic level of acclaim and popularity is making me feel so strange because I’ve slowly and unwittingly integrated her music as part of my identity over the past 2 years but that’s my fault like who asked me to do all that!! Then again I guess a lot of ppl feel this way when something they like gets big wtv I’ll get over it I hope. Also I wonder what it’s like for her too tbh having random ppl like me live their whole life stories through her art...

Anyway idk why but I’ve never felt this way and this intensely for this long about an artist in my life and I’m lowkey starting to resent her in a weird complicated way and that’s really sad to me...Anyway #2 I like 1000% need to go to therapy and need to stop comparing myself to other people especially my idols + projecting my faggy problems onto them 😔❣️(and i really need to stop living in the past but it’s hard) Anyway #3 I wish I could transition too but I feel like I’m a very long way from that

[trcnquils-archive]

hihi everyone !! lily here with my favourite son , raffy !!! but like .. if you call him that he’ll definitely get booty tickled :/ anymeme , i’m just gonna warn you guys now that this intro’s gonna be pure garbage . like i know people joke but srsly ... anyways i have a stats page for raf here and a wc tag here but no bio bc i ... don’t have the emotional energy for that SO here’s the run down !

* raul esparza , forty five , cismale — hey , have you seen rafael romero anywhere ? i’m hearing beyond the sea by bobby darin so he must be around here somewhere . hm , maybe they’re at home in commercial drive or at work . they’re a high school teacher , y’know . people also call them the academic ‘cause they can be pretty reserved & stubborn . but others say they’re also benevolent & empathetic , so i guess it balances out .

okay not to be dramatic but .. raf had a pretty rough childhood idk why but ... all of my muses did .. maybe i’m projecting or maybe i like 2 suffer but uk.. its wtvr ig :/ 

background

death tw / cancer tw

— born in dawson creek , british columbia , raf’s family had to move to the small city of grande prairie when he was around eight years old . his dad was laid off from his job at the oil patch and they moved to alberta for the supposedly better jop opportunities but with only a high school diploma and his lack of ambition , there really wasn’t much there for him . 

— with 5 kids in the family and an unemployed dad , raf always kinda knew the #struggle . and when he thought things couldn’t get any harder ! raf’s mom was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer his freshman year of high school , it kinda ran in her side of the family . then by the time sophomore year rolled around , raf was helping his dad plan her funeral .

— after that , things really started going downhill fast . his dad still couldn’t find a job and started pretty much flaking on them , disappearing multiple nights in a row , drinking heavily . raf’s dad was a good man , respectful , and care about his kids but just not enough . it came to a point when raf reached his eighteenth birthday that he just left them , with nothing more than a note apologizing , saying they’d do better without him . 

— throughout high school and up until his college years you better believe that raf was on that work grind™ . his mom left him and his siblings the house plus a decent amount of money but he wanted to save that money for their schooling so he was working multiple jobs at a time , some full time , just to support himself and his siblings . raf missed so much school one year that he almost failed his junior year of high school . but grande prairie was a small place and all of his teachers pretty much knew what was going on so they cut him some slack .

— really , they pitied the kid . they tried really hard to help him in whatever way they could his senior year since they knew raf actually had potential . they got him to focus more on his education and work just that much harder and it all paid off ! because raf got a full-ride scholarship to the university of british columbia . things really started looking up after this .

— since he refused to leave his siblings behind , raf sold their house in grande prairie and used the money from that with the money their mom left them to move himself and his siblings to the tiniest , cheapest apartment he could find in vancouver . while still working , in ubc he completed his bachelor’s in english and afterwards he got accepted into their law school .

— after law school , raf flitted around the city between different jobs at smaller firms for a couple of years until landing a decent one at one of the city’s top corporate law firms . there , he worked his way up and up through the years , earning a name for himself in the city until he reached the title of senior partner . throughout this , he supported his siblings , helping put them through college , etc .

— it was some time around this point in his life that raf fell in love , got married , and had a kid of his own . but he was so focused on work , not wanting his family to go through the same financial struggles he did , that he completely forgot about spending time with his wife and son . this was the main reason his wife divorced him and moved out of their condo and this kinda .. what led raf to ~reinvent~ himself and have a reverse mid-life crisis jfdijfing

— so he dropped his HIGH-PAYING JOB AT A TOP NOTCH CORPORATE LAW FIRM smh ,,, and picked up a teaching job at his sons high school :/ can u say .. embarrasing .. but he a smort binch and worked smth out money wise so that they’re not broke .... like a savings ? im a dum binch so idk but like ... yeah ....

— so like right now , raf just wants to spend time with his son , inspire kids , help them the way his old teachers helped them in high school . even tho ... he kinda fucked emotionally , doesn’t think his feelings are valid ... #relatable #toxic masculinity ,, but like hes TRYING ok 

connections

— coworkers !! pls ! maybe they get along , maybe raf hates them , maybe they hate raf , gimme all of it !

— friends ! casual or more the ride or die , “i won’t let you go through this alone” type , whatever works !!

— former students . again , maybe they hated each other , or maybe ! raf changed someone’s life , a gal can only dream right ...

— neighbours . if ur muse lives in commercial drive in a maybe nicer condo , cause y’know , he spoils his son , then ! maybe they cld be neighbours !!

— uhhh people who are friends w his son ? idk that’s kinda weird but he’s like 17/18 sooo uk , go off

— someone that knew him from his #lawyerdays would be cool too ! so if your muse is in tht typa scene .. they cld meet him now n be like ... wow u rlly downgraded :/

— idk being a dad is natural to him , he’s been a dad since he was like 15 so if ur muse needs guidance ... the light ... a father figure ... big brother .... let a heaux know cause i think raf lowkey thrives off of being needed ....

— anything else ! if you have any other ideas or maybe we shld just surprise ourselves and completely do it chem based , that’s cool too ! i’m literally down for anything !!

there’s a bunch of personality stuff on  his stats page i don’t wanna make this any longer than it already is SO THATS IT IM DONE IM GOING TO STOP TYPING NOW BUT PLS !! give my sad boi some life

[seasonsandcenturies]

for the character ask meme: Pidge (if you haven't done her already) and/or Haggar

These are two characters I didn’t entirely expect to be asked about but here we go, anon!

Haggar

favorite thing about them: how SURPRISINGLY NUANCED she is as a villain?? she’s so loyal to Zarkon but she’s also kind of a wild card, because she doesn’t spend her time monologuing about what her plans are and it’s not clear just how much of her current actions are driven by remembering her past. she clearly doesn’t think the Galra need Voltron and is much more interested in using quintessence and genetic modification to make their empire last, but she’s also surprisingly invested in politics/maintaining the empire’s status quo, going out of her way to keep their crown prince alive despite not really getting along. she’s not a typical bad guy. it’s hard to say what really motivates her. is she self-serving? is she really just a mad scientist?  WHO KNOWS.

least favorite thing about them: specifically as Haggar, the basically immortal witch with rift-induced magic powers, and not as Honerva the potentially-redeemable genius alchemist? her cruelty. Haggar is not nice. it doesn’t seem possible for her arc to end in anything but a tragic death, because even if she regains her memories she can’t possibly atone for 10,000 years of torturing subjects in her experiments.

favorite line: to Shiro, “I made you strong and this is how you repay me? You could have been our greatest weapon.” expecting thanks for torture like it was a good thing?! yo this lady is super dangerous!! to me this was one of the first times Haggar really stood out as more than just Zarkon’s lackey but as a villain in her own right, because what she did to Shiro had nothing to do with Zarkon’s goals for the universe.

brOTP: I really want to see Haggar and the space!dangerous ladies/generals go on a zany adventure. at this point, I think they could all use a break.

OTP: while the obvious answer is Haggar/Zarkon, it’s also really weird because it’s heavily implied he never forgot anything the way she did… and he’s not very nice. so that’s problematic.

nOTP: everything. Haggar mostly seems to be heartless. how to ship this???

random headcanon: she made the druids. they are not bodies. or aliens. they are like suits, filled with a rift creature or something. that’s why they’re e x t r a  creepy.

unpopular opinion: I can’t even think of any popular opinions about Haggar.

song i associate with them: had to think about this for a bit but for its perf description of instability I’m gonna say MK Ultra by MuseHow much deception can you take/How many lies will you create/How much longer until you break/Your mind’s about to fall//And they’re breaking through

favorite picture of them: that Altean reveal tho!

Pidge

favorite thing about them: she’s incredibly relatable!! intelligent, nerdy, likes terrible puns, can dress up and look nice or chill and be comfortable, a little socially awkward, super passionate about hobbies/interests, very much into science/tech – this probably describes 90% of the people I went to school with, because I went to nerd school, and it’s SUPER EXCITING to see that kind of character be a hero! nerds are always side characters, they don’t get to be main characters until they seem “normal”. (example: haruhi in ouran host club, despite literally not caring how she looks, doesn’t get to be the heroine until getting a makeover.) Pidge doesn’t have that! she’s cool just the way she is.

least favorite thing about them: her lack of empathy/morally grey streak. it’s frustrating that literally no one calls her out on this, because at the rate she’s going Pidge is just as likely to grow into someone like Honerva, and the only thing keeping her from that are her friends acting as her moral compass.

favorite line: either “I’ve always been a tech junkie. That’s how I connected with the world. But, for the first time, I feel connected to everything.” orrrrr “STICK AROUND >:D”

brOTP: TEAM PUNK. I love how Hunk went from being the guy who rummages through her stuff to the guy who can finish her sentences because they are on the wavelength, except I’m pretty sure Hunk thinks she’s way nerdier than he could ever be. so far a lot of their relationship seems to be her bossing him around, I’d love to see a few scenes where Hunk just flat-out tells her not to do something and she has to listen because he’s actually…. not wrong??…

OTP: Pidge/Lance. I’m 100% on board with the Pidge-has-a-crush theory. also the VLD-drops-topics-that-are-important-immediately-before-they-come-up theory. (seasons 1 and 2, she mentions him by name the most. her vlog is almost all memories involving him, despite talking about her new friends. you’d think it’d be about how much she does with Hunk or something but nope!! she then almost ignores him for the next few seasons. and even when Lance is wayyyyy over the top with Allura (e.g. growling at Matt??), she barely reacts. doesn’t tease him, doesn’t snark, just doesn’t do anything.) and that quote from Lauren M. about how Lance needs someone who knows herself? that sure sounds like Pidge, who’s the only girl in the show who’s confident about who she is. Lance is the kind of person who can pull Pidge out of her shell, and make her slow down and explain her ideas so everyone can understand. I think there’s a lot of potential there.

nOTP: hmm, gonna go with Allura/Pidge?? it’s not very common, but also not my jam. Shiro/Pidge is a pretty common nOTP but aged up I could see it. (also: I can’t say I ship Pidge with anyone with the idea that that equates to immediately sleeping together? this is one of the weirder assumptions about shipping imo.)

random headcanon: Pidge’s balance and strength come from years of rhythmic gymnastics. she choreographed her own fight  sequences for the voltron show based on her old ribbon routines, but that’s a secret she’ll take to the grave. (Matt was the martial arts guy in their house, when he was little he demanded ninja lessons. he showed her a few moves. Katie taught him how to do a cartwheel.)

unpopular opinion: while I can understand why people see Pidge as trans/genderfluid etc., and that’s cool, I think she’s really just a tomboy. imo there’s no reason to think that she dislikes being feminine/going by Katie; her friends all know her as Pidge, they haven’t been in space long enough for her hair to grow back and they’ve had no reason to change out of their clothes, and her dad deciding to call her Pidge instead of Katie seemed more like showing support for being a Paladin. I mean, this is a character who spent her time listening to alien signals doodling ladybugs and princesses right along with a giant robot with a flaming sword, who nearly cries when she has to cut her hair, whose bedrooms have both been just as stereotypically ‘girly’ (pictures taped up, string lights, cute animal slippers, mermaids??) as geeky. sure, the only time she’s been seen in a dress was for a special occasion, but even her choice of casual clothing was much more feminine. she doesn’t seem to care if she’s mistaken for a boy so it clearly isn’t important to her to obviously be a girl, but it also seems like she really only cares what her friends/family think about her…… (and tbh I think modeling her hacking face on Ed’s from Cowboy Bebop is another nod to Pidge being a non-stereotypical girl – like Pidge, Ed is a young hacker of indeterminate gender who confides primarily in the other more intelligent non-verbal member of the ship (Ein the genius dog, instead of Rover the robot), and her crew is shocked by the reveal that she’s actually female. Ed doesn’t much care either way.)

song i associate with them: I’d like to suggest Science Fiction by Christine and The Queens. techno beat, space-themed, a little bittersweet, some random italian; it’s the kind of song you put on when you’re pulling a late night on a coding project. Scattered stars/You never come back from/Space with no memory//One day I’ll leave/For nine planets, as many lives

favorite picture of them: (shhhh it’s a gif but that’s okay)

[tevokkia]

Last Search Results Preview of November

Writing has pretty much stalled out, and I’ve moved on to separating the current 110k-ish words I have finished into chapters. After I’ve done that and broken the current list of events I have down into actual scenes, I’ll resume writing (although that may be after the first of the year with everything else going on.) For the last preview of the month, have the last scene of Chapter 1:

-------

Profile

Email: shimada.hanzo@gmail.jp

Password: *************

Display Name: BlueDragonArcher

Location: Seattle, WA USA

Age: 18

Birthday: 12/12/****

Hanzo had  never used this chat platform before: by his understanding, it had been primarily developed with gamers in mind, but had become popular with others that wanted to make use of its dedicated server system. He vaguely remembered Genji mentioning that he used it, but he didn't know his brother's display name and was pretty sure he didn't want to. It took a bit of navigating to figure out where he wanted to go at first -- he didn't want to join a server right now -- but eventually found where to send someone a direct message.

Chewing his lip nervously, Hanzo debated for awhile on what to say. What would HighNoon think of him when they weren't discussing their work? The two of them had spoken on other topics, of course, in their long comment threads, but those topics had been at least tangentially related to something in the chapter. Now that they would be talking in real time, there was probably the expectation that they would talk about themselves.

 Finally, he decided that he had best just say hello and see what happened from there.

BlueDragonArcher: Hello, it's DoubleDragon from the fanfiction archive. That name was taken here. ಠ_ಠ How are you?

HighNoon: Hey there! I was hoping I'd hear from you!

HighNoon: So are you really an archer or is your name a character reference?

 BlueDragonArcher: I am actually an archer. I used to shoot competitively, but stopped when my family moved to the United States.

 HighNoon: Wow, that's really cool! Where did you move from?

 BlueDragonArcher: I am from Japan. You live in the USA?

 HighNoon: Yeah, I'm in New Mexico

 BlueDragonArcher: I would have guessed Texas (￣ω￣)

 HighNoon: lol I knew you were going to say that

 BlueDragonArcher: It was all the cowboy AUs

 HighNoon: Hey, write what you know :)

 BlueDragonArcher: Are you a cowboy then?

 HighNoon: lol not really but that would be pretty cool. I grew up reading and watching Westerns, so it's a genre I'm comfortable with while I practice my writing.

 Jesse grinned over the rim of his water glass at the screen, his eyes crinkling at the edges. He hadn’t been sure that he’d hear from DoubleDragon, now BlueDragonArcher, and he felt a pleasant buzz in his chest that he had. Perhaps they had been thinking of him as a friend as much as he’d been thinking of them that way.

 The thing about Westerns had been a bit of a fib, but he wasn’t about to go into the truth of the matter right now.

BlueDragonArcher: You have written the fanfiction equivalent of 9 full-length novels. I believe you have gotten more than enough practice.

BlueDragonArcher: Not that I'm telling you that you should stop. Just that you are skilled enough to move on to other projects if that is what you wish to do

 HighNoon: Well aint you sweet. I'm trying for a college scholarship with writing since i cant get one for sports tho

 BlueDragonArcher: That is admirable. I'm beginning college in August

 HighNoon: Where at?

HighNoon: I’ll be a senior in high school.

 BlueDragonArcher: I'm going to Berkeley

BlueDragonArcher: Do you have a college you are looking at?

 HighNoon: Wow, Berkeley

HighNoon: Nah, no dream school. I figure I'll go anywhere I can get a scholarship, and if not, I'll settle for Santa Fe Community and try to work through it

Jesse crunched an ice cube as the conversation hit a momentary lull, and it occurred to him that now that they weren’t commenting publicly, it felt a little weird calling the person by their screen name. Or rather, it felt a little weird being called by his screen name.

HighNoon: Since we’re not on the fanfic boards anymore, you may as well call me Jesse.

 The bottom of the window flicked “BlueDragonArcher is typing …” on and off several times, as though they kept changing their mind as to how to reply. The pleasant buzzing threatened  to turn sour, nerves telling him that he may have crossed a line.

 BlueDragonArcher: My name is Hanzo

 Jesse exhaled heavily with relief, set his glass down, and began typing again. “So you mentioned awhile back about sparring ….”

[jefardi]

Not my story, just wrote a review that broke the character limit on Ao3 thrice over. So posting that here. @okapifeathers

Cool, awesome and Bravo!

This is going to be a long review, so strap yourself in!

Disclaimer: I thoroughly enjoyed this story and any critiques I make are with the best intentions of helping self-improvement. Also, I tend to jump around topics a lot, sorry (not sorry)

Let me take a bit of backstory before I begin the review proper;

I honestly was just browsing tumblr idly when I came into the NicoMaki tag out of pure boredom… I want to say either 3 or 4 days ago. Discovering that this was my jam happened fairly quickly and lo and behold I ended up searching invariably for fanfic on Ao3 (which, honestly was only because I was doing it mobile, else I would be using FF.net…). Love Novels (which a friend farrrr more into Love Live then I am, has pointed out is a song name, which I had not the faintest clue) was the first long formatted story I read in the Love Live Fandom. I’ve read a few Hogwarts AU for the same pair but that’s it. Nothing else.

To a certain degree, I think this is why I’m so enamored with this story; I have no pre-conceived notions or head canons that it could realistically conflict with… oddly enough, the reason I have trouble even reading RWBY fanfiction nowadays, is because I write my own, which then makes incompatible head canons with others’. To put it simply, I can hear Nico or Maki talking in your story exactly as they do in the dub (because I’m a scrub who can’t understand Japanese…).

Perhaps what draws me the most to this pairing is one of the things that stand out the most, that is to say, the way you do the chemistry between Maki and Nico.

That is the biggest selling point, one that all other stories I read after this for this fandom will have to hold themselves to; having dialogue that flows and ebbs like the way you write it. The back and forth that happens so naturally between two characters with misaligned world views or clashing personalities.

Very often in writing, especially in fanfiction, authors have a bad tendency to not understand or have trouble differentiating between saying something in-character or just having the character be a mouthpiece to what needs to be said. Which in turn breaks the suspension of disbelief that these are real, organic characters. Characters that exist just as well as any average person off the street. The manner in which you write them completely side jumps that.

With that out of the way, lets dive in, shall we?

You handled the slow burn extremely well, in fact it was rather incredible. I think the strongest point, though possibly the oddest to me, was how to handle Maki’s end of the romance. Throughout the first half (or was it 12 chapters? It blurs a bit to me), there was a lot of build up on Nico’s end, making the audience very firmly know her point of view of the dynamic. Yet Maki’s view…. Was, how to put this, rather vague?

Perhaps that was intentional, but it certainly seemed like that we weren’t given a clear understanding of what she thought of Nico until way, way later. At first this was a non-issue, seeing as it was thought/implied that she didn’t have feelings for her and it was a one-sided romance (poor Nico), except once Christmas hit, that all changed. It was weirdly jarring how Maki suddenly went from no clue to “yup, I’ve always had these feelings wheeeeeee”

On the one hand, it seems that Maki wasn’t thinking about it up until then because she was flying by the seat of her pants once school started, yet I can’t help but think back to when they are in Nico’s apartment, in the first chapter, eating cake. That is when Maki is not quite stressed, yet it’s not even something she brings up, when its later implied she thinks heavily on it.

Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, except your story relies heavily on introspection. In some ways, that might be an even bigger selling point then the interactions between the main characters; it is enlightening and amazing, and does exposition dumping far better and less jarring then any other way, especially since Maki is more of a introvert by her nature. Yet, by this very fact, the very fact that it isn’t brought up in introspection early one is a weird one, especially in hindsight.

This segue ways into the next thing I noticed; the way the introspection messes with the pacing.

Now that might be subjective on my end, but during the whole course of this, you’d have bits of dialogue with huge chunks of introspection. There was a tendency on my end to keep skipping the introspection to find the next dialogue, which resulted in a lot of rereading something.

The other issue I ran into during the pacing was how much it jumped around. One moment we’d be going through a very long scene and then line break, and it skims through the next several weeks. To a degree, I understand brevity is the soul of wit, but at the same time, it was beyond frustrating when this happened at several points of the story. If you want, I can go back and find though I think it’s a lost cause at this point, given that having already read it, my eagerness to jump ahead is sated haha.

Other pacing issues; this was a big one for me, but sometimes you’d have very important things happen… and then format in such a way that it didn’t pop out immediately. Again, possibly personal preference for me, but when Maki’s dad calls before the birthday, its like a sentence in the middle of the paragraph, and I swear I missed it twice before I could figure out why Maki was freaking out. This happened a few times, where a important thing that should, by all rights, have its own line, being jammed into the middle of a paragraph.

Another one of the strongest points of the story was honestly how you handled Maki and Nico’s ship sailing.

While I might have railed on it a bit, I certainly  enjoyed it when it wasn’t some awkward confession, or having to watch Maki’s feelings develop and effectively watching the story drag, but instead by revealing she has always had them… that made it good. Like really good. Like A+++++ give yourself a cookie, go to start and collection a thousand dollars kind of good.

Swinging back around to the interactions, between Maki and Nico, there are some of their exchanges which made me burst out with ugly laughter. Like holy shit dude, good shiiiit. Personal favourites are of course, the time when Maki attempts to make breakfast and drops it and Nico just deadpans “well, I’m sure the floor appreciates the meal.” Another, which while its not quite nicomaki, it is related, is Nico’s realization that she has indeed left Maki home. Alone. And her kitchen might not be standing when she gets back.

There are a lot of interactions that you wrote, that I just flat out found hilarious, okay? :P

Skipping back to critiques, I think there was one moment that stuck with me… not because it was amazing but because it was ultimately one of the most unsatisfying in it. The moment where Maki goes “they know.” It’s quite obviously cliffhanger material, but nothing is quite as much a punch in the gut as getting to the next chapter and realizing that the worry that Nico has is essentially worthless (not completely, but you get what I mean). It’s akin to seeing an episode of something and ending with major developments… only for It to get regened as a dream at the beginning of next episode. Maybe I’m being a bit overly harsh but that’s what it felt like to me.

Wow, okay, I’m at 1400 words. That’s, um, huh. More then I’ve done in a long while.

Moving on…

As a story, and from my own personal experience of trying to write semi-realistic slowburn, there is something that I have to say I’m most envious of and that is the way that you created drama within the story.

For instance, the way Maki’s father is set up.

For all intents and purposes, he is the primary antagonist, or as close as we get to one. He is the one that Maki is the most concerned with, the one that continually gives Maki stress like you wouldn’t believe, the one who basically drives her to the point of several mental breakdowns and a panic attack or two. Yet for all of this, outside of the final chapter, I don’t think he says more then maybe… 10 or 15 lines? Rather it’s the looming possibility that makes him such a negative force. Realistically, he can’t do all that much to harm Maki. I mean, he COULD, but I feel like that’d be a whole another type of story.

In that way, this story is very much about Maki failing to meet her father’s expectations. Its not something grandiose like saving the world or the school, nor is it about her father blowing up. Rather its infinitely a much smaller and larger thing. Perhaps the glory of it all is that he doesn’t need to be. In fact there is real no conflict besides what Maki sets up for herself. No external forces conspiring against them, just what Maki thinks would make her father happy.

To be perfectly honest, the moment Nico rang the doorbell, I was so into the story that I could feel Maki’s anxiety, my heart was just about to pound out of my chest.

I think, at it’s core, Love Novels’ theme is about choice.

While I would call Nico and Maki the main characters, I would argue heavily that Nico isn’t the main, main character. She effectively is the same person as she was at the beginning. The only character who experiences real character growth is, of course, Maki. She goes from being a caged bird to a freed one.  

To an extent.

I have to believe that this story is not over by a long shot(not just because part two is up to 3 chapters, of which I’ve read a bit of the first… thought I should this first tho).

Namely I’m wondering if Maki is actually going to finish her medical degree.

A reoccurring theme that occurs throughout this story is that of choice, and Nico brings up multiple times that Maki isn’t truly happy being a doctor, but instead hints at how she is happier being behind the piano, or being an idol. Which makes me think if she might change majors or drop out completely? Much like it was stated above, given her father isn’t abusive nor is the one with money and her mother actually gives a damn, she isn’t going to lose her inheritance at this point (though I do wonder if she will buy the café Nico works at just to make sure she doesn’t have to work ever again and lazes about in bed all day…)

At this point I’m getting speculative because I’m wanting to lock my speculations in a time capsule before starting part 2, so just a warning about that and what not…

Another thing I’ve noticed, and it still stumps me is the way the first chapter starts. The tone feels off. Like something much greater is about happen that day, when all conventional story telling wisdom would make it be the happy times before the bad, not Maki getting a sense of foreboding doom.

I have two great hopes for the next part. Maybe three, but the third is super long term.

First, I’m hoping that its something that focuses more on Nico’s development instead of Maki. I say this because as a character, Nico has literally no reason I can think of to block her from doing her dreams of being a professional idol. She doesn’t have to pay for the kids’ college, and Maki can pay her share of rent/food money. Going along with the theme of choice, it would be Nico’s turn to deal with that, albeit with some help from her ever so supportive girlfriend/soulmate/princess ;)

Another would be to see Maki’s continued development, i.e. seeing her continue her choice to do something she is passionate about not something that was pre-chosen for her at birth.

My final curiosity is less about the characters and more about the ship. Namely what you will do with a relationship in the long term. As of now, they are currently in their honey moon phase, and like all things, as the poem, Ozymandias teaches us, nothing is eternal. The good times won’t be around forever, or if they do this might get stale really quick.

I’m actually personally quite excited that you are continuing this on past the getting together stage. I’m very, VERY interested in the long term. How the stress of a first relationship would get to them, or how they would just do the wrong thing. Really anything like that. I want to see them screw up, and take a break, or get angry and yell at each other. Something that breaks their bond so it can be remolded. Speaking of which…

This might be a personal gripe, but while I can accept that they could all (Muse) of them be other than straight (quite easily, actually), I’m curious to why you had them all pair up (besides honoka)?

Buh, I think I may have missed a few things, but I’ve gone over triple the character limit that Ao3 allows so I think I should post this. I might update it later, however.

Like I said before, this was awesome! You should feel proud ^_^

Cheers!

[amatchforyourmadness]

Summary: If love was easy, Finn wouldn't have slept with Clarke five days into meeting her and Emori wouldn't be turned on by him only when he was recklessly putting his life on the line. Raven wasn't easy either, to her credit and his frustration, but she was comforting enough.

——

Chapter: 1/20.

Chapter Title: Abditory (read on AO3)

Abditory

(n.) a place into which you can disappear, a hiding place

He wasn't a fan of books, really, and he certainly wasn't a fan of dictionaries, but that one seemed interesting enough. 

Mostly because he was bored.

Echo and Bellamy were using the one room with a proper television for date night and all other books (exactly 6 of them) were either taken (Harper and that romance about the rich douche and the witty girl who lowers his standards), too complicated for him (some advanced chemistry shit that even Monty hadn't dared touch) or too complicated and taken (Raven and all the mechanic-related things about the ship and Monty once more with the guide to the synthetic crops of the ring).

He had hoped to use it on Emori; romantic words and poems were worth a shot to try and fuel that relationship as long as he could get it to last (probably not much) and he was always the closeted romantic. Nevertheless, the poetry book he could swear had been on the stand on the first day they had arrived in the Ring had disappeared, and Harper had swore she had not took it or seen it (and obviously he wasn’t about to go around asking people for a poetry book that he had probably made up). Three weeks in, he had become fascinated with the various words of seemingly different origins and all their meanings. In the ring, bored and restricted as they were, with most people getting the fun things first no one really missed a dictionary, so Murphy kept it without ever talking about it out loud.

So now he was in his abditory… And by that he meant Raven's lab, observing as she read lines of codes with blueprints displayed in every other screen, trying to link one thing to the other with such a concentrated expression she might as well have forgotten the rest of the universe existed. The frown to her brows, tho, was not good news and it did little to see such as faint hints of frustration and despair worked their way into her features, leaving Raven ever more tense and making her look ever more tired. Maybe he ought to ask, maybe he ought to offer his assistance, to try to help, but he has the nagging feeling he will be undoubtedly useless and that she would not very much like to answer him, anyways. Instead, he knocked softly against the doorframe he had been leaning. Her dark eyes rose to him, less surprised than curious about the visitor only for her to smile tiredly at the sight of him and return her gaze to her work.

“You do know this is my work area, not your hangout spot, right?"

“Yeah, but you're my hangout person and you won't ever leave this place so….”

She grunts something similar to a “touché” and he takes it as permission to stay (not that he needed anyways), making his way to behind her so he could watch over her shoulder whatever it was she was working in. It was worse than greek, and he had never even seen how greeks wrote back in the day.

He bet Bellamy knew though, the absolute nerd.

“How're you doing today, John?”

“Well enough.” He shrugs, snickering as he looked for somewhere to lean into. “Ate Monty's algae and didn't get comatosed. I appreciate the small things. You?”

“Trying to figure this ship out but what else is new?” Raven says, hand rested against her waist as she sighs heavily. “I hate to say it, but I miss ALIE sometimes.The bitch made everything easier, killing me or not.”

He grimaces at that, turning to her with disapproval all but irradiating from him like Clarke and Bellamy were prone to do.

“I'm biased, but I would put my life in Raven's hand a thousand times and in the lunatic AI who bombed Earth, hmmm, let me see… zero. Give yourself some credit, Reyes, you survived the end of the world. This is but a machine.”

“Did you honestly just reference Monty Phyton?”

“Yes. Go on, praise me, I'm many things but an uncultured swine isn't one of them. Hey, do you think that's where our Monty got his name from?”

“I sincerely doubt it.”

The good humour hangs on the air for a moment or two, before she's back at her work and John is back at being a living carpet, eyes closed and listening to the sounds Raven makes, reassuring him she's there still and still very willing to pay him company.

In a comfortable silence like that, all he had were his thoughts. And his thoughts were that abditory was a weird fucking world, but it has a nice meaning. But above all of this, he wonders how does one pinpoints their own when they have more options to them than the handful of rooms in a spaceship floating about space ( yes, he knows they're drifting, Raven, but he'll use the word he wants).

How did the lucky few who survived on the bunker below them found an abditory? Was there even a peaceful place for them to find in there? Had the ground ever had a peaceful place anywhere on it? Had space?

He frowns and cracks one of his eyes open at the curse Raven lets out from above him, pushing the papers and the screens away and taking her hands to her face and hair as she tried to work out her frustration.

There are a couple of realisations that hit him at once.

“Hey.” John offers, nudging her foot with his gently, until she glances downwards to him with that tired but endeared expression, actually taking a break from her work to hear him out. “You'll figure this out. You always do.”

Nowhere was peaceful. People made it peaceful, as much as they could manage.

She smiles, letting her head fall and shaking it lightly with a chuckle. He watches as she takes in a deep breath, nods to herself a couple of times and then at him once. She moves, braced leg and slight winces of pain, and bushes his foot back.

There was no natural abditory, no hole to hide on that a person could conveniently stumble on and settle for. People made their own abditory.

“Thank you, Murphy.”

And he quite liked his.