#joshneshiki

[theriveroflight]

hi? hi. I don't feel too bad about taking time away from Nano to do this I'm going to a region meet-up later. moderately short twewy post-game fic.

[alto-tenure]

Some cool fics:

Found Treasure by OveliaGirlHadItRight (G, 3.3k, Neshiki with divorced background Uzuki/Kariya; National Treasure AU focused on the events of the second NY movie) (Apparently I'm the only person that's kudos'd this one somehow?)

Seamless Fusion by stealthclaw96 (G, 1.1k, platonic-ish Neshiki; canonverse relationship study -- I think the reason this hasn't gotten much focus is that it's a fairly recent publication)

dreams beautiful and grotesque (take my hand and run) by dustjacketduck (T, 14.5k, Joshneshiki; zombie apocalypse AU)

Like A Butterfly by Regalli (47.2k, Joshneshikibeat; crossover with Ya Boy Kongming)

Afterlife Anew by frozenCinders (67.9k, gen; crossover with Hades where Kanon and Zagreus switch places for an iteration of the Reaper's Game)

So I've been wanting to put together an underrated fic rec list for a while since I haven't seen too many floating around as of late, if anyone's got any recommendations please feel free to send em in! I'm mostly focusing on characters and ships (both platonic and romantic) that tend to not get as much attention as well as smaller authors who've so far gone unnoticed. Send in your favs! Send in your friends! Send in yourself who give a shit!

I know this is a vague category (which is intentional, I want as many fics to go through as possible) so use your own discretion as to what "underrated" means. Anything with background/minor characters, rare pairs, or unique premises (like backstory fics or AUs) and the like is a good start, but I'm happy to look at anything EXCEPT FOR NSFW.

Thanks all <3

[composeregg]

[ID: A discord conversation in light mode between Egg and Socks. The first message is Egg creating a shipping chart of Joshua heart Neku heart Shiki, and then using slashes and spaces connecting all three to the clubs emoji, referencing homestuck quadrant shipping. Egg then states “I worked way too hard on that”

Socks replies “It lines up really well!” and they say “Thank! I was tempted to make it Josh spades slash heart Neku but that would’ve made it harder to make lmao. End ID]

I endured light mode for this screenshot to be legible yall best enjoy it

me and @yoshiyakiryu​ have only the best of takes together

[yoshiyakiryu-archive]

Give me a 🌹 and I'll post a sentence from a wip.

This is so fancy! A whole gif. Have a whole three paragraphs because I cannot be concise for this i guess

"I'm not him," she says, voice tight as her grip on her sleeves. "I'm nothing like him."

"For all the tragedy and triumph that entails," Joshua drawls back, the slow tap of his finger on the tabletop giving away his irritation. "Neither of us would be here if you were. Thanks for that, by the way."

He shoots her a sidelong glance, and Shiki bristles, sure no one in the history of ever has sounded so affronted to have not been wiped out of existence.

[happyendingsong]

walking around shibuya in 2021 when CAT is gone, the ug is stagnant, and the two primary sources of Imagination influencing the city are shiki and joshua three years deep into their divorce eras

[subasekabang]

Writer: Dusty @denizenhardwick

Partners: HBKit, Del

Word Count: 7623

Link to fic

[yoshiyakiryu-archive]

@bitternanami

Shitty (in)corrects (N)TWEWY edited post 6/?

Extra:

Tagging this amazing people that pointed so right that this is JoshNekuShiki

@yoshiyakiryu @happyendingsong @anbashode @purplelea14

[oveliagirlhaditright]

I may understand the JoshNeShiki ship now.

[denizenhardwick]

UnderGround Online - Chapter 3

Neku stopped walking and turned to face Shiki head-on, crossing his arms. “You really want to know? Fine. It’s because it doesn’t matter, okay? No one in here is real. You know that, right? You, Joshua, Beat, Rhyme, and everyone else–you’re all just personas. You could be lying about anything, so why should I trust you? Why should I bother coddling you guys and trying to make friends when I have no way of knowing if anything about you is even real, huh?”

For a long moment, Shiki was quiet, staring down at her shoes as her grip on Mr. Mew tightened. Neku… almost felt bad, even if he knew that she could easily be faking. The silence went on for so long that Neku was almost beginning to consider apologizing when she spoke again.

“You can’t be having fun like this, can you?” she asked softly, still not looking at him. “Being suspicious all the time, shutting everyone out… do you treat your friends like that in real life, too?”

Chapter 1 - Chapter 2

[joshnekuu]

I DO GENUINELY THINK that Shiki and Josh would like each other, that Shiki would see the ugliness that Josh tries to hide under a different type of ugliness and see herself in it, and want to be there for him and reach out to him in the same way she does with Neku. And I think Joshua would find her interesting and also see parts of himself in her, even if he might not want to admit to that. But her kindness perplexes him. He isn’t sure what to do with it sometimes.

But at the same time Shiki would absolutely end his existence if he hurt Neku again. Like I think there’s definitely a time period at the beginning of their relationship where this friendship is tenuous and Shiki is perfectly fine with extending an olive branch on Neku’s behalf, and giving Josh a chance, but if he intentionally fucks up and hurts Neku she will not give him a second chance. I think eventually after they become genuine friends and she becomes accustomed to the tumultuous type of relationship Josh and Neku have, she would be a bit more lenient, she wouldn’t really be on edge- because she has a better understanding of who josh is, how he acts when he’s afraid of being vulnerable, and there’s a certain extent to which she doesn’t hold it against him because she knows he and Neku will either fight it out or they’ll have gotten over it the next day and things will be fine.

But at the start there’s definitely an underlying ‘I won’t hesitate bitch 🔫’ from Shiki and a ‘understandable have a nice day’ from Josh between them.

I am thinking a lot about joshiki friendship now tho… more in a non-neo context though. My imaginary world that existed for the last ten years with josh coming to hang with the others after the events of twewy.

[denizenhardwick]

For the ship bingo thing, can you do joshiki?

i can't see joshua as anything other than gay so their relationship is strictly platonic for me and as such i would hesitate to classify myself as a joshiki shipper. that said:

I FUCKING LOVE THEM. v-polyam joshneshiki is my FAVORITE twewy ship and joshua and shiki's relationship is a really important part of that! they never interacted in canon so it's free real estate and hnnnnn there's a LOT of real estate to build on! they have so many of their worst traits in common (that's why inherent eroticism of attempted murder is on here; it's not literal, but that's the Vibe), the fakeness and the lying and the selfishness, the desire for something else, this weird self-esteem where they hate themselves but still value themselves so highly, forming this sort of feedback loop. IT'S SO INTERESTING. i haven't put them in a situation alone together without neku but i should I SHOULD i want to see what they'll do i want to study them.

[denizenhardwick]

UnderGround Online - Chapter 2

Neku woke up groggy and tired, and, for the first time in several years, not excited to log into UGO. He glared up at the ceiling, a deep sense of dread seeping into his bones and weighing him down. It was a long couple minutes before he managed to force himself to sit up.

Brainy Cat stared at him from the poster on the opposite wall. The abstract form–its lopsided mouth and white hands and mismatched eyes–was a familiar, comforting sight, but that morning, Neku couldn’t decide whether it was encouraging him or mocking him.

Slowly, he dragged himself out of bed and down to the kitchen, his steps heavy and sloppy. His father looked up when he entered, flashing a warm smile as he carefully set his newspaper down on the table beside his cup of coffee. It was an actual, physical newspaper, probably one of the last of its kind. No one really made those anymore so they were only available through a few subscription services, because what was the point of getting late news from an obsolete medium when it was much faster and easier to plug into a cyberspace? Still, Neku’s dad had gotten really into print newspapers shortly after Neku himself had gotten into UGO, and neither of them had backed off their interests yet.

Chapter 1

[happyendingsong]

sorry lrb joshneshiki brain but like joshua specifically stealing neku's Gatto Nero Original jacket to specially claim ownership is so good, i love toxic gay people i love bad triads mwah