#kgb manga

[opalofoctober]

kagurabachi ch. 55

[devilsrains]

"making of" eroica

[thedevilsrain]

this is so fucking funny

[mahgck]

my special perfect mountain boy beautiful shark explosion sharknado lovely boy. i will give you the world

oh ichi the witch ohhhhh

[masodemic]

[Eroica Musical Rant] Dorian Red Gloria, Earl of Gloria, Codename: Eroica

(Series masterlist)

Somehow I am the least mad at what they did to him ...

Dorian Red Gloria, the Earl of Gloria, otherwise known as Eroica the Phantom Thief, is one of the most vibrant characters ever written in manga, and my personal favorite. A respected English aristocrat, a revered art thief, Dorian’s aspiration is to live a life full of – capital R – Romantic splendor, defined by thrill, desires and adventures, bordering on hedonism.

Agile, dynamic and fun, Dorian steals not for money but for said vision, as he thinks stealing art is the most Romantic profession – to the displeasure of his long-suffering accountant and countless museum curators around the world. Extremely intelligent, spontaneous, and armed with complete fearlessness, he outsmarts and baffles even the most cold-blooded, hard-boiled, thoroughly-trained international superspies. Other than those attributes, Dorian’s power is derived from being a people person. He has a charisma and wit that can persuade, trick, or provoke anybody.

With my love for this character, I went into this musical expecting to be severely disappointed. I thought at best he would be a gay stereotype, and at worst, boring. But to my surprise, Dorian in this musical is actually fairly decently played. Most of his scenes and lines are kept, and the actor himself does bring some life into the role. He sings, he dances, he delivers the sass required. And I think the decision to have him sing enka in the tank scene is still in-character.

Direction

My only criticism would be that, compared to the original manga, Dorian is not depicted and portrayed with nearly enough power. First of all, the actor is frequently seen very relaxed, and unfortunately, it translates to slight slouches in his posture. But more importantly, due to various factors like staging, writing and productions, some scenes, while kept, were changed massively.

Let’s take this scene where Dorian supplies Klaus with a key piece of information. The chapter leading up to this scene in the manga starts out with Dorian throwing a gala for his fellow crime lords, and Klaus being tasked with maintaining security for a peace conference between the USA and the USSR taking place nearby. Upon hearing that there is a gathering of some of the most powerful underground figures in that proximity, Klaus intrudes on Dorian’s soiree to warn them not to do anything that might disrupt the conference. Dorian reassures his alerted guests, and informs Klaus that they have no such intention.

It is then that a KGB and a CIA agent rush in to tell Klaus that they received a lead that could hint at a neo-Nazi plot aiming to bomb the conference. An argument soon breaks out amongst the uninvited guests and Dorian promptly kicks them all out. Afterwards, Dorian’s close friend Volvonte offhandedly muses that he remembers something about a neo-Nazi of some sort having borrowed money from his organization some time not so long ago – a piece of information crucial to Klaus’s investigation is now, accidentally, in Dorian’s hands. But the party resumes, and it is only later, once everything is done and cleared, that Dorian thinks to call Klaus before going to bed. He is in bed, phoning Klaus like it was a booty-call. He flirts, Klaus tries to hang up, Dorian supplies the piece of information, then flirts some more and ends the call with a big, fat, sloppy kiss over the telephone. So what is significant about this set-up?

For one, Dorian has no obligation to tell Klaus this information that would not only save a peace conference, but many lives, including Klaus’s. The casual manner with which he treats this key piece of information is also important. He doesn’t urge Volvonte to tell him more, he doesn’t rush to tell Klaus, and he doesn’t communicate with Klaus in the manner of subordination, taking the time for pleasantry and flirtation. A casual bedtime conversation for Dorian, in this case, is a matter of life and death for Klaus. Dorian holds the power.

In the stage show, while the context is the same, details are removed, while other unnecessary ones are added. Due to the rushed pace that the show is written with, Dorian’s feelings for Klaus in this arc is intensified, giving him a motivation to tell Klaus the vital piece of information, as he is now deeply worried about Klaus. This level of care at this point in the story is not seen in the manga. Because of this newly-slotted motivation, his nonchalance is diminished, resulting in a serious exchange where it appears as though Dorian also has stakes in the matter, almost like he is working for Klaus. And because he is not in bed, his “advice” to Klaus comes off less as banter and more like sincere advice, and it presents him as naggy, as opposed to flirtatious and funny. That kiss is also waaaayyy too timid.

Costume

When it comes to costume, Dorian in this musical still exceeds everyone else by a mile. I was concerned when promotional materials only show him in one outfit, but thankfully, they had others made as well. Most of them look glamorous enough to look like they could maybe be part of Dorian’s wardrobe (and he might have worn a few of them while extremely intoxicated because this is the 70s).

However, that is not to say they were perfect. Knowing that this is a small production with limited budget, I will look past the fact that even Dorian’s costumes look pretty cheap in terms of material and tailoring. Especially if you compare them to the Takarazuka Revue’s adaptation of Eroica’s spin-off, El Halcon. But what will always be a sore thumb in my eyes is his rubber-looking rubber-sole jagged platform boots.

Why couldn’t we have given him well-fitted heel leather boots? Manga Dorian is on heels even while scaling walls. And heels would certainly look better when he dances. My problem with the ill-fitted rubber sole boots is that they throw the outfit’s proportion and silhouette totally off balance, shortening his legs, the opposite of what you want for a 1970s look. Considering the actor himself is tall enough to pull off a 1970s shōjo manga type look with loooong legs, these boots definitely did him quite dirty.

Speaking of which, Dorian’s inspiration is Robert Plant. Therefore, I definitely would have loved to see the outfits taking more inspiration from the decade, the rock scene, and Robert Plant himself. Manga Dorian’s fashion is a showcase of Aoike’s love for rock’n’roll, European classic arts, and fantastical shōjo manga aesthetics.

It expresses Dorian’s character as someone who romanticizes the fictionalized past and at the same time, poses as a contradiction to convention and norm.

The outfits given to Dorian in this production don’t exactly hold such punch, some of them seem repetitive, while others pale in comparison to his manga counterpart. And that is without mentioning that godawful wig that's somehow both too flat and too frizzy (in a nylon way).

Overall, Dorian in this production worked and I am not mad about him. I would say that most of the criticisms I have for Dorian is the result of staging, writing, and costuming, and none for the casting itself. I do think Nakayama Yuki did, honestly, a good job.

[asnowperson]

Eroica vol. 28 - Turkey references (1/2)

Basically, each page in the Byzantine Meiro (Byzantine Labyrinth) arc is a reference to real life, but I'm having my best life reading this, so I'll list some of them as I read along. Mostly İstanbul stuff, because even I haven't been to other Turkish cities in this story, lol. Just a general remark: The architecture and the backgrounds are spot on. She even got the behavioral patterns of the random Turkish people in this story right. And the cats. Those are best and most accurate Turkish stray cats one can ever see in manga. Keep an eye out for them if you read this story!

This is one of the reasons why I love Aoike: She does her research well, and does not write solely based on her impressions (or she just has the right impressions, lol) and does not use second-hand knowledge. For instance, she could have just set this story in İstanbul, because that's the city people think of when you say "Turkey", right? But since this story has an ex-KGB agent, things kick off at Trabzon, a less known Turkish city for most. But that's where many Russians settled in after the fall of the USSR, so that choice makes perfect sense.

Okay, here is my list.

1. Mehmet Ali Ağca. He is real, and I knew him even as a kid.

2. "Handsome Turkish football player in the 2002 World Cup," whom Mischa's daughter became a fan of: It's got to be İlhan Mansız. No doubt about it. I was roughly Anna's age in 2002, and I can attest that all the girls at my school were going crazy over him. He also gained popularity in Japan.

3. Turkish greeting: Yes, Turkish men do hug and kiss each other as a form of greeting. Of course, it's exaggerated for purposes of comedy in the manga (and ngl, there are weirdos like the Pekel brothers; and old ladies would be more likely to give you a smack on the cheeks), but we don't actually use our lips to kiss the person we greet. You just brush your cheeks against the other person's. But the big hug is very real. Especially if you are happy to see the person, you go hard at hugging them. Searching for images for this made me feel weird, so make do with this picture of a famous football player and a coach. If Klaus was more willing, he'd be locked in a hug like this with those brothers.

4. Beko: Actual home appliances company.

Continued in part 2...

[moonsb1996]

Hello again everyone Because I'm writing a manga for my sister that has previously written OC characters in it. So I will bring it for you guys to read for fun again and we will get to know “Terrorist groups,” or so they are called. “League of Salem” and these are their characters.

Manus

Group leader of the League of Salem He has a body similar to the boss as seen in the picture and also has high attack power that makes him dangerous. Even though he is said to be the "leader" of the confederation, he does nothing but Sitting playing games to kill time and kill those who displease him. Until it was like he was just a name rather than a real person. But it wasn't that he didn't have the ability to plan and play a war of nerves. He personally disliked the Queen's family.

                (He is a relative of the Queen like Boss) so he made a plan for Boss Was sent to prison to solve problems. Because the person who is most problematic besides the Boss who is the knight escorting the Crown Princess is the Queen's personal chauffeur who is respected as the Queen's godfather. (I'll talk about the Queen's chauffeur later.) But because of the above, Boss intends to kill Manus no matter what body parts he takes. And it made Manus hate Boss even more.

                More importantly, Manus is interested in a 15-16 year old girl and wants her to join him. (You could call him a paedophile. ?) because he considered that the girl who had committed the school shooting that resulted in the deaths of four students and teachers was suitable to join the party. Destroy modern society so that the world descends into chaos because it's too much fun. And I'll write about her later as well. But spoiler first that that OC isn't interested in the offer. What's the reason? I'll write it for you to read later.

Manus' personal cases include Mass murder, Mass Destruction, Terrorism, Kidnapping, Torture, Theft.

Orpheus

The deputy leader of a new group who likes to act mysterious. And he didn't like Manus at first and called the boss a "foolish face." The history of him that I can write for you all to read is this: He has a past related to Asphodel. and hates everything that Asphodel values He felt that the world had abandoned him and had driven him away. So he wanted to destroy it and others to satisfy his own desires.

                And although secretive and unsympathetic to his fellow members, he was not unfaithful to his friends and preferred to entice people to work for him without the blood on Orpheus's hands. He also has knowledge about how government intelligence agencies work. and the military are so profound that it can be called If a case were to be committed by League of Salem, how would they cover up the traces so that the CIA or the KGB and MI6 couldn't track them down? Or how to shift the blame to another group

                And whether they are the same or other groups as long as they can bring about things Orpheus wanted it and he would use it without any hesitation. and also tricked people in into trusting him While secretly using them as a base to carry out his own plans, he rose to become deputy leader instead. Aspodel who was also sent to prison by Manus to keep his mouth shut. As for what made him want to resent Asphodel, even though Asphodel himself had never met Orpheus before, I'll leave it to you for now. The cases in which Orpheus has a criminal case are as follows: Serial Murder, kidnapping, Torture, Terrorism, Blackmail, Stalking.

Alida Hesfried or B, Miyar's younger sister AKA Bloody Camila.

Because anyone who reads this will already know some of her information. I will not mention it. And I will quote the case that she committed instead and they are as follows: Serial Murder, Stalking, kidnapping, Terrorism, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Assault, Identity theft.

Futel

Futel is another member of the League, but is a low-level villain with only a few crimes and doesn't stand out. He claims that he is. Another “bloodline of a great thief” or a cousin of PT and has the ability to act. High level of lies and disguises and refused to take off his mask for any member to see But let me tell you that Futel was a special agent sent in. (Think of him as the CIA)

                Because of his co-workers (Another OC that I will write about in the future as well) was contacted by a VIP (code of information provider to the organization) who would exchange information on terrorist plans for Fuelel's organization. The high-ranking official then sent Futel. A former desk agent who has the ability to infiltrate many underground organizations with his Oscar-level acting skills. (Futel colleague said so He is quite humble.)

                Futel now has a third-party mercenary partner from another organization, and they work together to prevent his true identity from being discovered by the Manus that he is a spy. Especially Orpheus, who was very suspicious of Futel to the point where he had trouble breathing. Moreover, and even though he was determined to work to investigate as much information as possible for the safety of the people, To fit the role “The heir to the great thief, Phantom Thief 5.”

                So he chose to "flirt" with his colleague "Thistle" because in addition to covering up the story of why He who has ideas and work that is different from other members in  League Salem refused to withdraw. Also really flirted with Thistle because of the famous catchphrase “My family is cursed Therefore, no human being can love us.” And that's right! He didn't lie that he was the "Heir of Phantom Thief", he just changed the truth a little so you can make up your own mind.

Thistle

Thistle was the name he had been given by Asphodel while they were both in the underground human trafficking ring before they escaped together. which for him Asphodel is the first family member and important friend who teaches Thistle about the outside world and humans (he's stuck in a warehouse that human traffickers have been working ever since he can remember until he was 16 years old) after trying to survive on the streets for many years Asphodel also left Thistle.

                After Asphodel entrusted him to work with mercenaries in a nearby area. Until he was confident that Thistle could survive without him. Thistle is a mercenary with no special powers. As a result, they were trained to be able to drive combat robots. (My world has robots fighting each other. But the person who can drive must not have special powers. Because they were created to kill people with special powers in past wars) and he became the only driver who studied with "D. Lia", a wartime robot pilot who only survived and He was also the only student to survive her training.

                Thistle has become a highly prized mercenary and at the same time, he is not a gentle person and tends to view humans as living beings. Therefore, he doesn't feel anything when Futel "flirts" with him and views it as flirtation. If he's not interested like a male animal, he'll be interested in other people instead. (Which he was wrong.) He was hired by a third organization to help with Futel's work. From a powerful organization that has been dissatisfied with League Salem for quite some time.

                Even though he and Asphodel had left each other without Asphodel saying goodbye, But Thistle is never upset and hopes to track down Asphodel one day to thank him for helping him until the last moment. and intended to give away half of the money he had saved while working. He plans to give it to Asphodel to use to treat Asphodel's illness. (Asphodel is currently ill due to his special powers) and Thistle is the only one who knows. Futel is a spy. But he didn't ask the employer if Futel was a CIA agent or not because in his employment contract he wouldn't ask for much customer information.

Well, I hope you guys like it!

[meanwhileinstasiville]

I have this idea that federal agencies decided to buy up the hosting costs that stored objectionable things on the internet. In effect, becoming the primary source and also stockpile of the very things they’re opposed to the digital presence of. 

Russia was sort of infamous for contraband that had to be imported by someone *cough* government officials. Distributed to the public as such by *someone* KGB et al. There was no free market. Soviet governments decided all commerce. “The fish rots from the head” they like to say. 

Emulation? Probably FBI servers. Mp3s, probably the same. Other objectionable content by the terabyte, same. On an internet populated by bots circulating media among themselves alongside Google spidering. 

Ever notice how news articles started to be “written” by people with meteorologist names like “ray sunshine” around the Trump administration? And how that was forever because he’s not president anymore? Yeah. 

(Did you know that videogames used to be made by the very same people who illustrated dime store manga? That never seemed to know what season it was, because they never got to go outside?)

[theodorebasmanov]

I’ve watched the nineteenth episode of “Banana Fish”.  (Spoilers!) We see Ash at Golzine’s, he’s working for him and not with his body, but with his mind – he helps him to push his political plans… What the hell is happening? What politics are you all talking about? I understand that they are just showing what Ash has to live through while working with Golzine, but all that stuff sounds like complete nonsense. Also, ew. I have probably already mentioned it before, but Golzine is disgusting. Eiji wants to save Ash, with Sin’s help he arranges a meeting with Yut-Lung to find out that Ash is in Golzine’s hands, that he did it only to save him and that Yut-Lung hates him. Eiji, being protective over Ash, is so sweet too – now he wants to prepare a good rescue plan. Ash’s gang comes together with Sin’s, Cain also joins. Golzine won a tax case and throughs a huge party. He’s going to bring Ash too and he had also prepared a surprise. Our united team is going to get into that party and get out of it with Ash. Ash sure isn’t okay – he had an anorexia attack and now Golzine says him that he’s going to officially adopt him – that’s the surprise for the party. Ash can’t take it and now is going crazy. Yut-Lung wants to hire Blanca to kill Eiji, Blanca declines, then the almost head of the Lee family finds out all the background information on him. Okay, so Blanca is a Kazakh, moreover from KGB. Funny. Blanca saves Yut-Lung from a murderous assault and agrees to work for him, but only as a bodyguard. Something big is sure going to happen in the next episode.

[darlingvagary]

I really thought this was about an obscure 1970s manga for a minute there.

So you’re telling me

That Klaus travelled back in time

Was stuck in 1968

Went to war

Fell in LOVE WITH A MAN

had to go back to his own time

AND WE DIDNT GET TO SEE ANY OF IT?!!!??!!?!

I would rather watch a whole show about that, than a show about people with powers

[thedevilsrain]

here's a handy comparison chart

[alphabetmafiaadventures]

Passione's Bizarre Adventure

It is an AU that I've been writing for a while. Unfortunately, I lost all the chapters I had written, but I found my old notebook with all of my thoughts about this fanfic. So I could do some incorrect quotes that fits the story or write bits of it as fake chat prints.

I had a lot of fun when writing this back in the days. I'm planning on re-write it one day.

You must read the settings of this AU so you won't be confused afterward:

Phantom Blood: [138 years ago (part written 5 years ago)]

- Jonathan survived but was turned into a vampire. Unfortunately, Dio took his body and left our dear sweet Joestar as a flying severed head. Because of it, he decided to stay hidden in the shadows since he didn't want to scare his friend and wife.

Battle Tendency: [64 years ago (part written 5 years ago)]

- Caesar lives.

- The four (4) pillar men lives.

- Joseph still loses his hand tho.

- Jonathan reappeared only to Robert E. O. Speedwagon. After some talk, he turns his friend into a vampire who helps him deal with Dio later.

- The Speedwagon Foundation is the only one who knows about them. The organization also helped Robert fakes his death.

Stardust Crusaders: [24 years ago (part written 5 years ago)]

- The crusaders' crew lives, with some scars and injuries but still alive.

- Jonathan appears to save the day. He manages to get his body back.

- Dio still lives, and now he's under SPW's care.

- Most of the foes are now under SPW's care.

Diamond's Unbreakable: [5 years ago]

- Everyone lives but Josuke's grandpa.

- Kira lives. He manages to convince everyone that he isn't a serial killer and that he only has a realist silicon hand for his pleasure. Still, he's under SPW's watchful eyes.

- Kishibe Rohan became interested in the Joestars' history. After some talk with the SPW and the Joestars, he gets permission to write a manga about them called: "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure."

- Rohan changed some things for artistic and aesthetic purposes.

- Posteriorly, the manga would become a series, and most of them would be interpreting themselves.

- The pillar men are now members of the SPW.

Vento Aureo: [3 years ago]

- Everyone lives but Polpo.

- Diavolo was underage when he became a father (14-15 years old).

- Donatella Una was 19 years old. She didn't know her one-night stand partner's age.

- After roughly ten (10) months after the baby was born, Donatella found Diavolo and gave him his daughter, claiming that she couldn't raise the baby. Posteriorly, Diavolo would erase everything about his past and disappear with the baby, now named Trish.

- At 14 years old, Trish got curious about who her mother was. Diavolo ordered Periculo to take his daughter to Donatella. Trish wasn't allowed to tell her about him.

- Almost a year after, a rival gang tries to kidnap Trish. Donatella's sent to the hospital for recovery.

- Diavolo ordered Bucciarati's team to escort Trish back to him.

- Giorno Giovanna did a deal with the Boss and became a Capo.

- Almost a year after, the SPW got in touch with Passione. Diavolo surprisingly agreed to be a public world-known figure.

- At the end of the Vento Aureo's part, Giorno become Passione's Underboss.

Stone Ocean: [1 year and 11 months ago]

- Everyone lives.

- Jotaro married Kakyoin a couple of years after divorcing Jolyne's mother.

- Dio stopped Pucci and convinced him to become a member of the Speedwagon Foundation.

- Dio manages to get a new body.

- The criminal crew plus Emporio lives with Jotaro and Kakyoin.

- Jotaro adopted Foo Fighters.

- Annasui's just 1 year older than Jolyne.

- Annasui and Jolyne are dating. Jotaro doesn't know how to deal with it.

- The info about Annasui's criminal record is a mystery. Everyone knows he killed someone but, who, how and why he did it is unclear. Besides some agents from SPW, Jolyne, Weather and Emporio, no one really knows the context behind his actions.

Steel Ball Run: [1 year ago]

- Everyone lives since the entire story of this part was created by Kishibe Rohan.

- SPW found them individually.

- Diego Brando's a distant relative of Dio. He's a famous English jockey.

- Johnny Joestar's a distant relative of Jonathan. He's a famous American jockey.

- Gyro Zeppeli's a distant relative of Caesar. He's a doctor who occasionally participates in races as a jockey.

- Lucy Pendleton is 18 years old.

- Funny Valentine's an ex-soldier who's still psychologically recovering from when he was held captive by guerrillas.

- Valentine's the same age as Diavolo and Kira. 33 years old.

- Valentine's reserved, keeping himself distant from everyone, and seems to be unapproachable. The majority of the SBR crew is unfamiliar with his past, Scarlet is the only one who knows about.

Jojolion: [currently]

- As SBR, it's an mostly original creation of Rohan. So everyone lives.

- Yoshikage Kira and Josefumi Kujo aren't Josuke Higashikata.

- Yoshikage isn't related to his namesake.

- Josefumi's a distant relative of the Kujo, he isn't from the Joestar bloodline.

- Josuke's a distant relative of both Higashikata and Joestar bloodline. Since he and part 4 Josuke has the exact same name, he's called Gappy or just Josu.

- The Higashikata family are close relatives of Tomoko.

OCs - Squadra del Drago captains:

- Rodrigo Castro Alves (33 years old), also known as Rodie. Formerly an elite soldier from Comandos (1° BAC - Brazil). He's one of the roughly 150 militarily trained stand users from Passione's Boss' security team "Squadra del Drago" (dragon team), known as "I Diavoli" (the devils). He is responsible for the security of the base they are on, he also acts as an infiltrated agent, easily blending in rival gangs to obtain information for his boss Diavolo.

- Vikhrov Viktor Zakharovich (36 years old), also known as Vitya, Vik, Vitcho, or Vitty. Formerly an elite soldier from Vympel (Spetsgruppa Vympel - Russia). He's mostly responsible for elite covers as an sniper but can also be a infiltrated agent on rival gangs as Rodie, thanks to his unexpected KGB training. Also a stand user.

- Heiner Kohlhase Wernz (37 years old), also known as Hei. Formerly an elite soldier from KSK (Kommando Spezialkräfte - Germany). They're mostly responsible for rescuing important targets in rival gang areas but they're mainly focused on planing strategies and collecting information through digital equipments. Also a Stand user.

- Heiner, Viktor and Rodie are the Squadra del Drago's leaders. They are always close to Diavolo.

OCs - Non criminal ocs... Yet:

- Yngvar Pris (20 years old), also known as Sir Sickness, is a childhood friend of Narciso Annasui. He works as a bartender at nigh clubs and sometimes as a freelancer writer and translator. Recently he gained Passione's attention through Annasui since his stand abilities could be well used and developed on la Squadra di Esecuzione.

- Myra d'Imperio (23 years old), also known as Imp or Myr, is a close friend and roommate of Yngvar. She's a freelancer stylist and makeup artist. She became Annasui and Jolyne's friend since they share some common aesthetic opinions. She's also a Stand user.

Notes:

- The villains are the main characters.

- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is Rohan's masterpiece, the series and manga is the same we all know from Araki but on this AU the “true story” is mostly different.

- Besides Diavolo, Dio and Kars, no one knows that Kira's a actual serial killer.

- Diavolo has a thing for blond guys.

- Diavolo, Kira and Funny are close friends even if FV doesn't know much about Kira.

- The ocs' infos and stand details will be added later.

[comicparanoia]

Billy Bat

- Vol. 1 Chapter 1:” Dreary Night Murders “ by Naoki Urasawa & Takashi Nagasaki       

Billy Bat (ビリーバット, Birī Batto) is a Japanese seinen thriller manga series written by Naoki Urasawa and Takashi Nagasaki and illustrated by Urasawa.

[asnowperson]

Your posts are always a joy to come by! I recently started reading Eroica and while I realise that a limited number of chapters have been translated and put up online, I was wondering if you know how Yasuko sensei handled the geopolitical changes in the real world? Was the fall of the Soviet Union mentioned in the manga? What happened to characters like Mischa the Cub?

Thank you anon!

Actually, a part of post-USSR chapters are translated. The manga went on a hiatus after volume 18 (1988), and started serialization again in 1995, and the fall of the Soviet Union happened . So, when you get to volume 19, which has story no.15-Nosferatu, you can see how she handles the fall of the Soviet Union. I don't want to spoil you with the details as you are already reading the manga, but I can say times move on and our characters go along with it. Overall, the "Soviet threat" is replaced with other modern-world problems, like neo-Nazis, the aftermath of the fall of the USSR and the German reunification, and the never-ending NATO-related problems (we still have that in 2023, don't we?)... So Major will always have a new mission for protecting the world peace, and Dorian will always have something to steal! And Mischa is alive and kicking with the rest of the (ex-) KGB gang, just less relevant this time.

Be ready to see Mr. James with a laptop and lots of Nokia phones!

[redlips-blooddrops-deux]

ANSWER THESE & TAG 9 PEOPLE YOU’D LIKE TO KNOW BETTER/CATCH UP WITH !

LAST SONG: BATTLE BEAST - Madness  CURRENTLY READING:Been a while since  I read actual books, mainly coz im lazy and fall asleep to quickly. But been reading a pretty nice manga called Jigokuraken or in English known as Hell’s Paradise....gud stuff CURRENTLY WATCHING:  Ernest Hemingway Was the Worst KGB Spy Ever > by Weird history channel on youtube....i just like interesting facts xD; LAST MOVIE: The Wolf of Snow Hollow, not bad at all would give it personally 8/10 CURRENTLY CRAVING: A shower coz I stink like a fekin puma :>

Tagged by this hoe @noknockingonmydoor​  ;) 

Tagging: anyone really :3

[flamingo-queen-writes]

not a question from the fanfic writer ask list, but can you tell us a bit about your initial process of starting a brand new fic? where does the idea come from? do you have to develop it a bit in your head or do you flesh it out while writing? do you write it in order or in jumbled up scenes? how different is the final piece from the first draft? etc etc...i am feeling like writing fanfic again for the first time in 6 years and have immense blank page, how to start panic

I welcome questions of every kind, whether on a list or off it! And this is a fantastic question!

It's great that you're thinking about getting into writing fanfic again, and I look forward to it, but in a completely non-pressure kind of way. ^_^

It'll probably make the most sense if I use examples of various things instead of gesturing vaguely toward theoretical situations. And that means an essay instead of organized answers to each part of the question. So here goes. (Be prepared, this is a novel.)

My totally brand new fic ideas almost always start with "what if" from some point in canon. Hazy is not where my head started on the trail. Hazy was only ever supposed to be snippets of found footage, HYDRA and KGB records, flashbacks/nightmares, and similar. Little pieces and clues sprinkled in a recovery story set right after Bucky drags Steve out of the Potomac--but stays put instead of leaving. (What if Bucky stays instead of taking off?)

It got complicated enough to become a prequel series, but the original seed was just a "what if." I don't actually consider Hazy to be a brand new fic idea, because it was always background material for the actual new fic idea.

That said, let's take Partridge for our first example as though it were a new fic idea. By that point, there was a General, a Lieutenant, a little girl, and so on. I did have several points on a timeline, and I did have multiple generations of Karpovs and the notion that Bucky was some kind of heirloom being passed down. (Inspiration for that point comes from Hellsing, actually, and the way Alucard is passed down to Integra. If gory manga involving Nazi vampires and the enslaved vampire who hunts them appeals to you, you might enjoy Hellsing.)

Regardless, Partridge itself wasn't a thing until the office put up the Christmas decorations. There was (and presumably still is) a railing that's right in front of the all the elevators in that building all the way to the top floor, and there was so much ridiculous froo-froo fake garland strung everywhere that you couldn't help but stare at it while waiting for an elevator. The glitter got on you even if you didn't brush up against it.

Enter Soldat, and part two of how an idea becomes a fic.

I'm a method writer in some ways. I might compose the plotline at a distance and verify that the actions are things the characters would likely do, but when writing the story, I put myself in my characters' shoes and try to see the world the way they might see it. (This is why Lukin, for instance, will get very few POV chapters in the entire Hazy series--dude is frightening and I don't wanna get in his head any more than I have to.)

So if I'm enjoying a stroll at lunch, I might play around with a pair of characters having a conversation, try to see how they think and feel about things, etc. If I'm driving, I might try to see if a character has anything to remark on. And if I'm waiting for an elevator for the eighth time in one day and lamenting the glitter getting on my pants just from standing there, maybe a character has something to say... or something to stare at... or something to try to touch before the elevator comes and it's too late.

At that point, the fic is born. If it's a conversation and that thing fits into an interaction that's been plotted, I can dig into the dialogue and get the characters to spill their introspective guts out onto a page for me. If it's an opinion about metal rooster wind-vanes, that detail is getting added to a fic somewhere (I happen to think they are charming--Soldat does not agree). And if it's an obsession with some element of a setting, that setting can become the main thrust of a fic.

Partridge, when boiled down, is the story of a man being tortured who latches onto the one beautiful element in his world as a form of escape, and who, in doing so, guarantees that the beautiful element is destroyed as a lesson in why he is not worthy of escape, has no right to beauty, and destroys everything he touches--or nearly touches.

And you can all thank the building management for that story because of those stupid, stupid glitter-bomb decorations. (Okay, the birds were adorable, and I may or may not have taken several pictures of them trying to capture how lovely they were. The point remains that glitter lasts forever and if I wanted my pants to sparkle, I'd bedazzle them.)

There are actually about four other fics set in that chunk of holiday season that all showed up as a result of decorations, music playing, the weather, and all that. I'm not even counting Mouse Song--there's one with lemon drops and an exploded head, two with Soldat on a roof/porch in the snow, and one with Soldat being very upset on behalf of poor murdered pine trees everywhere.

So for this one, the "where does the idea come from" answer is "my surroundings." Things I see and hear, the places I go, the things I do, all of that. I keep an eye out for things the characters I'm working on would possibly encounter, and I build from there. Sometimes it's a little detail in a bigger fic, and sometimes it becomes a huge part of the story.

Next there's the question of whether I let it sit and age in my head or if I dump it on a page and start poking it right away. The answer: both, often at the same time. From holiday decorations going up to Partridge posting took 5 weeks, and a good chunk of that time was actually spent writing Mouse Song, which I had intended to post first.

(I worried that starting off with an OC, and a child at that, would ensure that no one bothered to read a damn thing, and I knew I wanted that fic to start with Maria and not Soldat being tortured, so I hurriedly put Partridge together in about a week so it could go up first.)

Partridge, therefore, did percolate a bit before coming out onto the page. But once I started writing it, it just sort of dumped itself on the page and spread itself out. It was originally about 1200 words. The finished thing is about 16k. It just did that, because it had already had a few weeks of garland stewing in my head, maybe, and Soldat... really loved and really loathed those garland birds. The mewp on the rifle was added partway in, and was meant to be about 200 words in the middle of a chapter, just something to get us out of the base and show the Soldier some actual birds.

(And the story was almost called "Gone away is the bluebird" because I was on a "they have to be Christmas carol titles" kick, and since there wasn't a tree anywhere, Winter Wonderland was the only other song I could think of that had a lot of birds and wasn't totally obscure. I couldn't find a bird for the rifle scene that was pretty enough to the squishy mewp that was also likely to show up in late December in Moscow and that was blue, and I saw the Eurasian Bullfinch and fell in love with him. So obviously, the title had to change because the bird wasn't blue anymore. Other working title was "A bird in the hand" but that seemed cruel because he never does touch a single bird.)

Mouse Song comes from two scenes with a little girl who was merely some handler's daughter when the scenes first showed up. The first of the scenes didn't actually make it into Mouse Song, so maybe it'll be somewhere else. The other scene was Soldat sneering at the idea that flavors mingled, dumping in some creamer, and then gently waking up the little girl who was slumped against a window sleeping after being rescued so that she could have her dinner.

The next scene to appear for the story was Blond Bro on the roof getting his ribs broken. After that, I started writing Soldat's first POV chapter. Then I did Maria's chapters in full, picked up Soldat's next chapter, wrote the Coda, and then filled things in so that all the things alluded to in the Coda make sense, and all the things happening in Maria's POV can be seen from Soldat's POV. The hardest part of that was the first bit at the dacha where he's breaking the bros, because I'd only lightly choreographed the fight in Maria's POV because she was stuck in a closet and had to guess at what was happening. But then I had to adhere to that rough sketch because I'd already posted her chapters before deciding that I did want to include that from Soldat's POV.

Red Fish was supposed to be... sigh. It was going to be one of those 5 + 1 stories, kind of. Like, 5 scenes that were just vignette-style snapshots of Soldat and Vasily over the years, starting with an introduction that's maybe 2 chapters away in the current fic, followed by something a few years later that I've moved up to the end of this current fic, etc. And the + 1 vignette was supposed to be Vasily actually commanding Soldat for the first time, during a very tense situation where Vasily has to step up in order to derail a rampage.

It was going to be a one-shot. 🙃🙃🙃

Yeah, yeah. Get all that laughter out now. ^_^

Red Fish is also an example of how I actually write the fics. I have a doc that's just the finished chapters, a doc that's just the notes, a doc that's just the outlines (yes, plural), a doc that's research, and a doc that's "all the crap being written right now." That last doc is about 150 pages.

Why are there multiple outlines? When I realized it wasn't going to be a one-shot, I thought it could be a fic in about 15 chapters, maybe 20. There's an outline of how that would have gone. Then I thought it could be five sections, and each section could have however many chapters it needed and a codetta at the end, with the whole fic capped by a meaty Coda.

Then I realized that part of the purpose of the fic is to really set things up going forward and getting to know not just what happens but why and how. I couldn't just set up day one, skip to day five, and allude to what had happened in between. It's not enough to know that Vera's a jerk. We have to see her being a jerk so we can see Polina's reaction, Vladimir's reaction, the General's reaction, Soldat's reaction. It's not enough to know that Soldat's starting to remember flashes of Winifred, we have to see some of that. It's not enough to see that there are lots of people around, we need to at least kind of know who they all are.

So there are loads of outlines of how that intermediate span of days plays out. When does Vera get there, how detailed are the arguments between Vera and the General, when do others get there and how much do we need to know about them? Exactly when is Ana born, and how does that play out? (Also, how many cars are there? That’s so important to the shenanigans and I have page after page of possible rundowns about who is doing what with which car that all read like horrible story problems in a math textbook.)

See, there are a handful of key plot points that happen in a specific order. But there are also a ton of scenes and incidents that happen in an order that's less fixed in stone. After pie, Soldat goes on his little patrol. That's a given. That was set in stone. Pie was supposed to be about 5 paragraphs of recollection, though, and not actually on the page. But Polina's perceptive, Soldat is really off-balance, Vladimir needed to show himself as a handler, and the General needed to reveal a bit more of his insight. So pie expanded considerably to allow me to show and not merely tell.

So I have a lot of scenes from further into the fic already written. Some of them were written before the pastry even came together for that pie. I skip around and flesh out what is currently demanding my attention. That's actually why updates on Red Fish are currently so slow. I had a glorious buffer of chapters already written out, and then pie expanded so much that it changed a few chapters, and now I have a little gap between what's written and what's posted, and I have to fill in that gap before I can move on.

All of this goes to answer another of the parts of this question, too: how much does the final piece change compared to the first draft? So much. The main thrust of a story stays the same. The overall plot arc, the key points along the path, the atmosphere of the fic. But the getting from A to B can often loop around D real quick before getting on with it.

I'll switch over now to Fossilized yapping. This one is a series of one-shots, but the same general thing is going on here.

I have a beginning point (actually a prequel fic set in the "future" in which Steve and Bucky spend the day at that hot spring), and I have a concluding point (not really a spoiler: they get home). In between that, I have a grid of bingo squares to hit, and a rough order of when these things happen. At some point, they adopt a nest of dinosaurs. At some point, they go sailing and it sucks. At some point, they go sailing and it doesn't suck. At some point, they deal with some Arm-related trauma. At some point, there is hair-braiding and a marriage kind of thing. At some point, they make tacos.

All these little points show up along a timeline, and because of the nature of the bingo, each one has to be its own fill, so I can't combine them. But the order they happen in varies. Does the Arm stuff happen before they make tacos or after? Before they raise a family of dinosaurs or after? I've got a lot of these points fully written in fics that I can't post until I get there in the timeline, because I really do want to post this series chronologically. They have to build the boat before they can sail it.

So again, I'm writing out of order--massively so. And that means that what I've written often will need to be rewritten (sometimes just tweaking a few details, sometimes scrapping the whole concept) based on what I write later that takes place earlier. It's one of the risks of writing what your brain wants when it wants to. That's also one of the reasons I am not posting the recovery series until I have a significant chunk of Hazy out there, even though I have a ton of it written.

One of the pitfalls of writing totally out of order for Hazy, actually, is spoilers. You already know more or less what happens in Brick because it's been alluded to in fics already posted. You already know that Maria is a darling and very familiar with Soldat, so you can guess that Vladimir is wrong about how horrible it will be to introduce Soldat to Vasily--Soldat is great with kids, eventually. If I post too much of the Mouse Song sequel before getting to the Red Fish sequel, certain things will be utterly spoiled, and I have to decide how much that matters to me.

For Hazy, I'm posting out of order like this in part because I want it out there in the world and in part because the chaotic jumble of the timeline vs series order is a nice mirror for how fragmented and jumbled up Soldat's perception of his own timeline is. Everyone is an unreliable narrator, so when details are slightly off in different POVs from different stories, it's like when Soldat just has to take for truth whatever he's being told at any given point, even if he kind of recalls that it might have been different.

And to try to wrap this up because I swear I do value your time: Here's a possibly more reassuring note. Blue-eyed matador is a completely different process of creation altogether that still has some ties to the other processes. (There is no one true way to create stories, write stories, edit stories or post stories, even where just one person is concerned.)

Listen to this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmvu8yTCLQA

Now listen to it again, because it was dark and catchy.

Now listen to it a third time because, damn, so dark and catchy.

Keep listening to it on loop, and let the mood sink into your head. There's this guy, and they call him the matador. The killer, literally, in Spanish. And he grins at people and slices them up. Sometimes in broad daylight while the people around him cry out in outrage. He gleefully lifts up a bloody knife to show the world that he's killed that one guy.

"What if" comes back into play. What if the Soldier was like that? What if the Asset was like that? We see some stunning knife shenanigans in Winter Soldier, and dude has a ton of knives on him, not just a ton of guns. We see some rage eyes over that mask. We see some deeply emotional eyes in the night on the roof when he looks like he's about to cry.

So, what if the Asset was this matador dude, this killer who goes after people with a blade and a smile? At what point along the MCU timeline do we need to hop off the ride and take off in a new direction to make that happen? When would be convenient? 

2012. Post-Chitauri. Steve's still freshly thawed and getting over his losses. Clint's freshly un-brainwashed and dealing with his own trauma. Natasha is learning to exist as part of a team again. Tony's nearly died and has made a heroic self-sacrifice he probably didn't know he had in him. Bruce has seen again that he can be too destructive for crowds, but that he is still valuable despite that. Thor has had another brief "am I truly worthy?" struggle with his self-doubt.

The starting point of so many Avengers found family fics from back in the day. Now throw Asset!Bucky in there. Now play around with that silly Endgame time heist crap, but only the bits that are useful. Now see how everyone reacts once they are put on the page together. Does Coulson survive? Sure. Is Fury apologetic about doing what he had to do in order to bring the team together, even if that meant lying about Coulson's death? Of course not. Where's Sam? In D.C. Where's the Asset? In D.C. What is our matadorized Asset getting up to? Slaughtering the ones who deserve it, of course.

Go play, characters. Have fun.

That is literally the whole setup and starting point for that series. Hear a kick-ass song, listen to it too many times, put some characters on the board, and set them loose.

There is a very detailed scene-by-scene outline that I slammed out onto the page in one afternoon while listening to that song on repeat. It wasn’t me planning shit. It was me following the characters around the board as they wandered around. 

Since then, I've added three more Interludes, I've added Sam as a character in the first fic instead of waiting to bring him in for the sequel, I've rearranged certain killings to adjust the discovery of HYDRA in the timeline, I've embraced the time heist details and thus changed a few things up for character motivations, and I've generally had fun with it.

There's still a detailed outline. It's still scene-by-scene. I'm still only following it when it suits me. There are a few key plot points that must happen in a specific order, and specific things must be introduced in specific orders. And because I know those, I can write around them pretty well. My outline has a list of what information must be conveyed to the readers in each scene, what information must be conveyed (or withheld) from the characters in each scene, and so on.

I wrote the Coda for the first Matador fic before I wrote the Prologue. I know where it's going. I always know where things are going. I just keep my options open for how I get there, beyond a few key points along the way. Mostly those points have to do with information--who knows what, and when do they know it. That applies to readers and characters, both.

The very, very short tl;dr version of all that is this:

Find inspiration wherever it ambushes you. Canon is a good place to ask questions. Music, other stories, things you see or hear, and all manner of real-life events are great concepts to toss at a character and see how they stick--and nothing is too mundane to work for this point.

Develop things as much as you want, either in your head or on the page. Both is always an option. When in doubt, throw it at a sounding board (I'm happy to serve as one) and see what bounces back at you.

Write in the order that pleases you. If you know the end, write toward that goal. If you don't know the end, cool--write until you get to one. I do a cross between obsessively plotting and recklessly pantsing. There's no right answer there, but more importantly, there's no wrong answer.

Your final piece might be your first draft with a grammar check. It might a completely different story entirely. Neither one is a bad thing. In fact, if it changes enough, then one story idea can produce multiple stories, and that's always fun.

As for blank-page fear... That's kind of a whole different ramble, but I write in different mediums depending on my level of preparedness and my amount of blank-page fear.

I like the Q10 writing app because it's a full-screen black window with typewriter noises and super sparse features. There's nothing but you and the word-void and the black is somehow friendlier than the white. I also write a ton of stuff in Notepad and similar text-editors, or my phone's notes feature. Super light on the features, and sort of non-permanent in a way. Feels very loose and rough-drafty and there's lots less pressure. No spell-check, too, so I can't get dragged into that mess. And I'll recklessly write emails to myself in a hurry and risk a) sending them to the wrong person, b) losing them entirely or c) misplacing them in a huge pile of similar emails.

When it's time to really go to town, I move it over to google docs because it's easier to edit there. I also use Scrivener, though that's more for the recovery stuff. Scrivener and google docs have the same "oh no, it's an official-looking blank page and my ideas are afraid to emerge from my skull" vibe, so they are for later stages.

I'm hoping that's helpful, despite it being so very, very lengthy!

Thanks for asking @occulationary !!

Tagged in case you were interested: @glitter-cake20 @sunshineailin @eileenalone