#poor choice of wordplay lol

[fukia]

Uncontrollably sobbing;;; I’m so obsessed with how beautifully precious this very specific slade is,,,

He’s got that Bojack Horseman silly, that big round singular eye, and a mask that makes him looks like a fucking splitface tortie/calico/chimera kitty

//deathstroke more like deathheartattack// I love him with all my heart and soul//

[shivunin]

Hello! 💜

For the fanfiction writing ask…

11, 18, 22 and 35!

Hello! <3 Thanks for asking, Arja!! c:

(Questions here)

11. Do you write scenes in order, or do you jump around?

Both, depending on the story. I usually have one super clear scene in mind when I start writing, so I usually start there and work toward it from the beginning. Occasionally I'll have other clear ideas as I go and I'll jot them down before coming back to the beginning. I never, under any circumstances, write the ending until I get there, though---I might as well dig the poor thing a grave. Once I know how it ends, I lose all interest in actually finishing it.

18. Do you enjoy research?  Which fic of yours required the most research?

Yes and no! If I'm in the pre-writing process, I really enjoy research because it can help shape the narrative. If I'm already halfway through and I need to stop everything to look something up, it really interrupts the flow for me. So I try to get an idea of what I'll need to know beforehand so I don't have to stop.

So far, The Red Crossing Arrangement, which is still not finished or posted lol. I needed to know a lot about the elves post-Andraste and pre-Exalted March and invent a lot of other things that still felt like they fit into that period. I still have seven or eight tabs open of information that goes with that fic. Of the published ones, though, definitely Your Fate for Mine, since it was the first. I read a lot of wiki entries about the Dalish and the Fade going into that one.

22. Do you title your fics before, during, or after the writing process?  How do you come up with titles?

I've done all! Sometimes I hear an especially delightful word and I know I've got to use it. Sometimes I think of a name that just easily fits the story (see: The Red Crossing Arrangement, which I think has a nice flow and and directly relates to the content of the story; on the other hand, Wander the Drifting Roads was originally named Certain Purpose after a quote from the game and it has no flow and doesn't quite fit the narrative). Sometimes I don't publish something for a while precisely because I can't think of a decent name.

I pull titles from lines of poetry, neat words I've heard (Misericordia, for example), quotes in the story, or fun wordplay if I can think of it. I had the most fun naming the Checkmate fics, because I needed to look up all the ways you can check in chess and they already have fun names. If the stories are in a series, I try to keep names thematically similar (Unyielding/Inexorable, for example).

35. What’s your favorite fic you’ve posted?

Ouch!! That's hard. I think probably Wander, because it was devastating and healing to write, and because I have made some absolutely lovely friends because Wander exists c:

But my second choice would probably be Only Ghosts. It really has all my favorite things in it, tbh---I guess the only trope missing is Zev carving a bloody path through enemies to get to her, but I can always save that one for later!

[captain-of-the-historicfuture]

~hello~ !! For the meta asks!: 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, and 25 :))

Hello!! Thank you for sending these; I was really excited to see that ask game and I was hoping somebody would send some in. It still took me a while to actually answer them though, and for that I apologise. But without further ado! Some meta answers (under the cut because they ended up being fairly long, whoops):

3. What is that one scene that you’ve always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all of the set-up and context it would need? (Consider this permission to write it and/or share it anyway.)

I thought of a few examples, but they could basically be grouped together under a common theme: whumpy/angsty scenes that were self-indulgent as all heck. The whole self-indulgent aspect often required the characters to be just the teeniest, tiniest bit OOC and/or necessitated rather unrealistic plot circumstances. So it was simply easier to keep such scenes as maladaptive daydreams, rather than trying to think of explanations for the character/plot issues…or exposing myself to judgement for them LOL.

Receiving permission to write/share one such scene anyway is an opportunity I can’t let slip by though. It might be because I’m writing this while running on zero (0) hours of sleep—let’s hear it for insomnia, y’all!—but I suddenly couldn’t remember any of my newer ideas under this category. However, I did recall a one-shot I had started writing a couple of months ago that sort of counts? “Sort of” because I could actually be arsed to write it since I was, ya know, writing it. Only got about six hundred words down though.

…should I share those six hundred words…?

………nahhh. I don’t think I’m quite ready for that yet.

But here’s the gist of it: Coulson and May (because of course it’s Philinda) were married for quite some time before the Attack on New York. But then Coulson DiedTM and then got ResurrectedTM. But gasp of horror, he had to lose his memories of his romantic relationship with May because reasons. (I actually did have some ideas for those reasons but sshhhh this is about me yeeting context and setup.)

The first half of S1 still happens as normal (except MayWard doesn’t happen because??? Vows) and it’s now post-E20 “Nothing Personal”. The morning after (or a morning soon after, whatever) the T.A.H.I.T.I. reveal! May’s mom—who doesn’t know about GH.325 and whom May fed a cover story about Coulson divorcing her or something equally as oof, IDK—shows up at the hotel and starts ripping into Coulson for breaking her daughter’s heart, then dragging her back into the field with her ex-husband (him), then accusing her of terrible things and forcing her away again.

Poor guy’s confused as heck, and so is the team, and soon enough so is Lian. The only one who understands what’s going on is May, and she’s freaking dying off to the side like why is this happening to me and eventually everybody’s like! Explain??? (Was thinking about including something from Coulson like, “Are you still keeping things from me?” Just for that extra smidge of angst, yay!)

So yeah then May gives a, like, two-sentence debriefing that elicits more questions than answers. Coulson decides to take May aside and they have a heart-to-heart. Lots of feelings and angst and hurt/comfort and at some point plenty of kissing too. Just! May hiding her feelings for Coulson’s sake but really magnified, plus some actual apologies and consideration of the grief May’s been through on Coulson’s part.

And uhh yeah that’s basically it I dunno hdsjncjshd. I warned y’all it’s OOC, plot-bendy, and very self-indulgent!

6. What character do you have the most fun writing?

I don’t think I could name a single character for this. I get different things out of taking on different voices, you know? I guess recently I’ve found myself gravitating towards more taciturn and introspective points of view, like JQ from my original novel Rosewood or M. Yisbon from my…other original novel Temple.

Generally, however, I like tackling stories from an outsider’s perspective. That’s why I so rarely write my more “substantial” (serious? demanding? for lack of better words?) projects from the PoV of my “preferred” character. This usually means writing from their love interest’s perspective, but not always. With shorter fanfic, using a more removed/unconventional/niche PoV can be really fun. Like, I once wrote a canon compliant ficlet purely(-ish) about Philinda from Tony Stark’s perspective. That isn’t always sustainable with stories that demand more character development or closer character studies, however, which is why it’s a good thing I like writing drabbles!

9. Are you more of a drabble or a longfic kind of writer? Pantser or plotter? Do you wish you were the other?

My word counts tend to run long, but I usually only write one-shots for fanfic. If I’m even inspired with a novella- or novel-length story idea for a fandom, you already know I’m in deep with them. And if I actually find the motivation to plan and execute that idea? Dangg. That’s only ever happened…twice, maybe thrice, and I’m in a lot of fandoms.

At times, I wish I could go for more of a middle ground ’cause, like, you know what I love to see? An AO3 dashboard with several completed novellas for my ship/character of choice. I mean yes, I hecking love >90k fics, but sometimes I’m in the mood for quick reads…and what am I supposed to do when I burn through all the drabbles and 2k one-shots? (Besides despair and/or reread my faves desperately.) Novellas are basically always safe for me LOL, and I’d hope to be able to give as much as I take.

Ultimately though, I think I’m okay with where I am with regards to that. I wish I could write more in general, but I’d be okay with “writing more” just meaning “writing more one-shots”, ya know? More than okay, really. I have mad respect for fic writers who have, like, a hundred or more one-shots under their belt for this one ship. The fandom ecosystem would be incomplete without them (as well as every other type of writer, but sshhh that’s the type of writer I’m closest to being right now).

I’m definitely a plotter, and I definitely prefer it that way. It’s cool having such a detailed record of my process. I like feeling like a frazzled genius on the brink of a major discovery with all of my different outlines and colour coding and many drafts and various websites.

12. Do you want your writing to be famous?

Not exactly. It might be cool if my original works were recognisable in the world, but I don’t think I’d want to be recognisable. As for fanfic, I’d low-key enjoy gaining a place in that fandom’s community as a fic writer. Like someone who gave and got fic gifts from fic writer friends, who participated in challenges and GCs, who received writing prompts on Tumblr, whose name was known for doing a certain trope/genre a bunch of times… Ya know what I mean?

Unlikely to happen when I’m so hecking hesitant to publicly (i.e., outside of AO3) claim credit for my writing, but fjnskfsjhfjs. A writer can dream, right?

15. Which is harder: titles or summaries (or tags)?

Of those three, tags are the easiest for me, for I have a reliable system for figuring out those.

Next easiest would probably be titles. For fanfiction, I like to use titles that are a quote from the source material. You should have seen all of my old Hamilton fanfic… I was really proud of some of those titles. And I don’t mean, like, whole lines—usually only two to five words. It’s a unique type of wordplay that I just love dabbling in.

And lastly, summaries. Sometimes inspiration strikes me and a snappy and intriguing synopsis just jumps out—one that I’m quietly pleased with—but most of the time I’ll spend way too long trying to think of such a synopsis and eventually just go with whatever I’d come up with so far. And live with my quiet dissatisfaction for the rest of time.

18. Do any of your stories have alternative versions? (Plotlines that you abandoned, AUs of your own work, different characterisations...?) Tell us about them!

Typically, no. If I have deleted scenes, I save and publish them separately, but that’s about it. I sometimes think of AUs for my own work and might talk about them in my author’s notes—might even talk about writing them—but I never really do anything with them.

Although…

It’s not uncommon for me to decide a plotline isn’t working for a certain story or to think of an interesting but undoable arc for a certain character, but what I’ll do is make a whole new story for those ideas. Once I’m done developing the original idea and the branched-off one, you probably wouldn’t be able to tell they grew from the same roots. Does that count?

21. What other medium do you think your story would work well as (film, webcomic, animated series, etc.)?

That depends on the story. I’ve actually written stories in other mediums—movie screenplay, musical stageplay, poetry, TV show scripts, play scripts, roleplay—but the novel does tend to be my comfort zone. Sometimes, if I have an idea that I think could work, or would even work better, as another medium, I’ll label it as such in my folder of ideas and decide not to write it as a novel.

Most of the time, my non-book projects are collaborations. I’m working with five different people on six different story ideas: two webcomics, one stage musical, one anime, and two animated TV shows. Little concrete progress has been made in any of those, mind you, but they’re still fun to discuss!

24. Would you say your writing has changed over time?

Absolutely. But I’ve been writing stories since I was five years old, so we would hope so, huh?

I wouldn’t say my writing’s changed completely, though maybe that’s just my insider’s perspective.

25. What part of writing is the most fun?

Oh gosh, I can’t believe you’d make me choose. Writing is just such a wonderful experience for me; I love just about everything to do with it. Admittedly, not all the time, but. Since that barely qualifies as an answer, however, I’ll give you this—

The endings. Not only that intense feeling of rightness when you wrap up that last sentence, but also the moments before. The adrenaline of knowing you’re almost there but you gotta push just a bit more to actually get there. And also the part right after—the real wrap-up, honestly: the revision and the editing. Heavens, I love revising and editing my work.

Which is not to say I don’t like writing it out for the first time, too—there’s nothing quite like seeing your cursor scroll to the next page, like going from a blank expanse to a Oh man, how many more lines are even going to fit on this page?, like watching that page counter tick up another number. However, there’s something cathartic about finally ironing out those problems I had to force myself to stop worrying about earlier because “just finish the first draft dangit”.

I guess that’s not really the end of the writing process, but whatever. Close enough (as fic writers are wont to say).

Another thank-you for these asks, and feel free to come back with more at any time! ;P

Send in fun meta asks for your friendly neighbourhood writer!

[pamy92]

Tango on the Campania (Ishikawa run) Review

This is a fan review of the Ishikawa run of Musical Kuroshitsuji: Tango on the Campania (TotC), for both 3rd February (setsubun special) and 4th February shows. I also had a glorious close-up view of Ciel and Sebastian when they appeared behind my seat. SO READ ON TO FIND OUT MORE! 

ABOUT ME

 I have been watching Kuromyu ever since the first musical. I am glad to be able to finally watch it live in person after all these years. I am also a huge musical nerd, and am musically and dance trained. I also live in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, right now. 

I attended the opening show on Saturday and the closing show on Sunday! Super happy to be part of the special setsubun celebration during the curtain call, and I’ll share more later in this review. My seats were on row 10 (Saturday) and row 18 (sunday), so I am pretty close to the stage!

This review will not contain huge spoilers or a full summary of the entire plot, so you can go ahead and continue reading without dying from spoilers.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

IT. WAS. AMAZING! I was pretty bummed about the circus version last year because the music was just...bad. Pretty sure their entire budget went into the costumes and acrobatics department instead of music 

For TotC, It is pretty fast paced but it has the key stuff from the Campania arc! The set is beautiful, the Bizarre Dolls were great, dance choreography marvellous as usual. Kudos to the supporting cast! There was no bad singing at all (unlike in Noah’s Ark Circus).  You’ll tear up at the sad parts and you’ll get chills at the scary parts and great singing! It’s THAT good!

There are some slight changes in the Saturday and Sunday ad-libbed parts, in consideration to fans who attended both days. Bless them! <3

MUSIC & SONGS

The music in TotC was so good! But of course, it cannot beat the masterpiece of Lycoris featuring our vocal prowess Akane Liv. Yuta Furukawa (Sebastian) was so good, and his songs really show off his vocal talent. 

My favourite song is ‘私は執事、あなたは伯爵’ (I am a butler and you are an Earl), especially Part 2 reprise of this song when Sebastian sings about Ciel’s soul after realising his little Master isn’t content with just being an Earl and wants revenge. The lyrics then changed to ‘I am a demon butler and you are a fake Earl’. So so SO GOOD!! 

The other side characters had very nice songs too, especially the 2nd comic-relief song ‘Ey yo, Ey yo!’ sung by Viscount Druitt. It was hilarious! Druitt is a GREAT singer and in his first song, he did this flamboyant pose and crooned ‘PHOENIIIIiiiIIIX~!’ at his entrance. Yes, lucky dude got to sing two solos! I know some of you may be thinking oh man, a comic-relief song when zombies are killing everyone? Don’t worry! Because the whole second half of the story was super intense, the comic relief song by Druitt was refreshing and helps steer us out of this depressive wave. This song ended with Ciel, Sebastian, Grell, Ronald doing the fabulous mass Phoenix pose that is exactly like in the manga! The dancers encouraged us in the audience to clap along too! 

The actress for Lizzie sang really well in her solo song too! Her voice was very cute and she kept up the moe-vibe. But her song was really sad and some people cried when she sang about ditching everything to be cute for Ciel. 

BIZARRE DOLLS

The Bizarre Dolls (supporting cast) was marvellous! Their zombie-walk was great and their dance choreography was to die for (pun not intended). Remember the basement scene where Ciel, Lizzie and Snake discover thousands of coffins with Bizzare Dolls rising from the dead? The show used a projection screen to project the rattling coffins and it looks really good and realistic! Then suddenly, this screen was raised to reveal a hoard of Bizarre Dolls lunging forward for them. Accompanied by the music, I literally got chills running all over my skin. 

To make up for the lack of BIzarre Dolls, extra zombie mannequin dolls were used and tossed around to fill up the zombie numbers on stage. 

FLOODING & SINKING SHIPS

Screen projections were used to create many of the effects on the ship. They used a transparent projection screen to project the rising flood-waters as well as water raining down from the ceiling. It was pretty realistic considering they cannot have real knee-length water flooding the stage.

Projections were also used to show the Campania breaking in half and when the ship started tilting as it sank! 

KEY/ FAVOURITE MOMENTS

1. The playback of the pre-show announcements featured Reo’s super cute voice. I could see some fans of him squealing when they heard his voice.

2. Characters (AbberHank duo, Midford family, Ciel, Sebastian and Snake, Ronald) entered the stage from the audience exits and not from stage left/right. I am not sure if it is done at other shows or just for Ishikawa. In previous musicals, they did not have character entrances from the audience except for Hank/Abberline. 

In the Saturday show, Ciel, Sebastian and Snake appeared and stood behind my seat (to my shock and delight). I could see their gloriousness up close! Reo/Ciel was just scowling and man, Reo is so skinny up close! His black tights made his legs look like chicken legs! Yuta/Sebastian looked utterly (and perfectly) demonic! I swear my heart stopped beating right there and then. Unfortunately, my Sunday show seats were further back but the trio did not stop behind my Saturday seat but instead continued walking towards the stage.

3. The opening for TotC is also different from previous musicals. We usually start the musicals with the contract scene but this time around, we had a Campania song with the characters boarding the ship.

4. The amount of Campania wordplay jokes..god! They were so funny!

(While boarding the ship)

Abberline: I heard they are selling merchandise on the ship.

Hank: What? What kind?

Abberline: Cam-badge (Campania + can badge)

Audience: LOL

-------------------------------------------------

(At the banquet)

Ronald, Abberline, Hank: Kampai-nia! (kampai (cheers) + Campania)

5. Yuta/Sebastian & Reo/Ciel doing the Phoenix pose was hilarious! Reo/Ciel was wearing heels so he was wobbling on one leg. The rich man from the Aurora Society circled Reo/Ciel to make sure he is keeping his Phoenix pose and the audience laughed. 

In the Sunday show, poor Reo actually lost his footing but thankfully Yuta quickly caught his hand to stabilise him! It looks so authentic and in-character, and it delighted the audience! I am so sad that this probably won’t be in the DVD release... 

6. Ryan Stoker also interviewed the front row audience about what is the most crucial thing aside from life, and the poor lady (on both days) kept giggling uncontrollably.

7. In the scene where Yuta/Sebastian fights the hoard of Bizarre Dolls in the ship’s basement, a giant red silk cloth was run over the audience’s heads towards the stage to signify a bloodbath/ wave of blood. This scene then led to the belated contract scene song!

8. YES. THERE IS AN ICE-BERG IN THE MUSICAL! It is huge, it is fabulous and it had Grell standing on top of it as it neared and crashed into the ship! What a fabulous entrance!

9. Yes, the fan-favourite scene of Sebastian calling Grell a hentai (pervert) is in the musical and it is super hilarious.

Grell: Ehhhh. So mean! I even bought some bromides (of myself) as presents.

Audience: LOL

10. Lizzie’s badass reveal was perfectly executed! She even did the same fighting choreography in the anime movie! She also the same poses in the manga! It was so good and I think Momoko really delivered and a perfect casting choice. 

11. Undertaker’s shinigami reveal was really nice too! HIS DEATH SCYTHE IS GLORIOUS!!!!

12. In the stabbing scene, both Reo and Yuta were lifted by the supporting cast so it looks like they are ‘falling’ off from the top floor. The projection screen behind then projected the blood splatter as Undertaker’s scythe stabbed through Sebastian’s torso. 

13. My favourite part in the whole musical is when Sebastian narrated his initial life as a butler to Ciel. As we all know our!Ciel is not the real Ciel! Reo actually portrayed our!Ciel very well. He hesitated before calling himself with his dead twin brother’s name. Sebby says 「 かしこまりました/ I understand.」 in the most super lazy, sarcastic and reluctant way, it was super funny. In the Sunday show, Yuta/Sebastian sat on the Earl’s bed after serving him milk & honey, which led to Reo/Ciel shoving him off. Yuta/Sebastian also made a ‘tsk’ sound when Reo/Ciel reprimanded him about cooking everything from scratch like a real human butler should. And as he walked away, he spat out 「クソガキ」(stupid brat) before launching into my favourite song  ‘私は執事、あなたは伯爵’ (I am a butler and you are an Earl

14. The final Bizzare Doll fight scene in the middle of the ocean was beautifully executed. You can refer to the official trailer on the website to see how it was done! 

15. Grell was more worried about his false eyelashes after Ronald and Grell found a boat. It was super funny!

16. The musical ended with a reprise of ‘私は執事、あなたは伯爵‘  and the Campania theme song. 

SETSUBUN SPECIAL CURTAIN CALL 

So setsubun was on Saturday and the cast prepared a special curtain call for us! Abberline and Hank did their ad-libbed comedy routine, and here are some of my favourite parts:

Hank:「鬼はoutside！福はinside！」(starts rapping)...あ、でも、鬼がいないので‥ （‘Oni outside, luck inside, ahh, but there aren’t any oni inside here...)

Hank: Oh, look so many oni! (gestures to audience)

Abberline: Oi, don’t be rude! (smacks his head)

Hank: ...you’re right, there is only one oni...(gestures to one poor audience member in the first row)

Audience & Cast: LOL

Abberline:じゃ、「鬼はなし！福は内！」にしてた！(Well, let’s do `There is no Oni, Luck is inside’ then!)

The supporting cast then entered the hall and spread out, they tossed packets of 福豆 at us. I did not manage to catch a packet but the lady beside me did. Lucky girl.... 

The main cast also threw the packets of beans and Reo/Ciel got too excited and tried to fling the packet further out, and his Phantomhive ring flew out from his finger. He had to leap off the stage to recover it from the first row. The AbberHank emcees teased him about it 

How can Earl Ciel do that? 

That’s not something Ciel will do? (LOL)l

SATURDAY & SUNDAY CHANGES

As mentioned earlier, the cast made an effort to make every show unique so it doesn’t matter if you attend just one show or many shows. Each show has special changes in the actions and ad-libbed dialogue. Here are some of my favourites:

1.  Opening Entrance: On Saturday, Abberhanks appeared together in the audience. On Sunday, only Hanks appeared alone and was super happy. But he met Abberline as he was walking to the ship who pretended not to recognise him. 

Hank: Aren’t you Fred Abberline?

Abberline: No, I am Fured Abburraineee...(exaggerated accent)

Hank: No-th-that, besides the accent. The name is the same isn’t it? Fred Abberline! 

Abberline: It’s Fured Abburraineee...

2.  Banquet scene: Ronald taught Abberline how to pick up ladies, but Abberline was being socially awkward when flirting with them in the Sunday show. The trio only kept drinking in the Saturday show.

3. Ronald & Grell on a boat scene: In the Sunday show, Grell ad-libbed something random. Not sure if he forgot his lines but it was really funny...

Grell: (pauses before gesturing to the sky)  Look so many birds, I want to be a bird too...

Ronald: (bursts out laughing)

4. Curtain call: We did not have long thank you speeches on Saturday due to the Setsubun special. But we had it on Sunday for the closing show. 

Abberline: TADAIMAAAAA ~!  Audience: OKAERIIIIIIIII~!

Congratulations, you made it all the way to the end of my super long review! 

I will attend the live-viewing of their final performance at the cinema again on the 12th  (just so I can see the set/costumes and all that in super high-definition on the big screen). Also I kinda wanna see the cast start crying when they make their final thank you speeches! Also because they mentioned we will be watching exclusive back-stage clips and I really wanna watch it! 

Please, please PLEASE order a copy of the DVD/BLU-RAY. Please support the cast and giving them a well-deserved income from these sales.  

The DVD/BLU-RAY will be released in Japan in June 27. You can order it off CDJapan, Amazon Japan or Animate International.   I will be buying a copy myself as well!