#so the bird one is my favorite bc its so ambiguous!

[teethburied]

rust + hallucinations

[zarinthelwrites]

How were the AN fables chosen for The Scorpion and the Frog?

It depends. For the first chapter, I already had that fable in mind for the start... the Oxen and the Donkey is a story that I already knew and liked. However, I had the last minute realization (based on a response from my friends who read that chapter before I ever put it up publically) that most people are not familiar. With obscure fables. So, I had the idea of rewriting them at the end-- but interestingly, in my google docs, those a/n: fables dont exist. that's because I just straight up tended to write them as I was publishing the chapter. that also lets me reinterpret those fables to better suit the chapter: I think it's actually fun to go look up the fables and then compare them to the version that I wrote down. so, for the second chapter, I was on aesop's fables wiki page, read through all the stories that had 'frog' as one of the animals, and went with the one I thought worked the best.

farmer and the viper, itachi's first pov chapter, I had that one picked out early, its another favorite fable of mine. goat and the vine: i went through a lot of different fables looking for something that suited this chapter, but in the end I really liked goat and the vine because of its nature: this is a sacrificial goat speaking to a grapevine that will also be poured on the altar. the dead speaking to the dead. i thought it was a great intro for the akatsuki, and for the fact that kaeru had now entered the "doomed" part of her life. I dont have a lot to say abt wolf and the crane, I think that's self explanatory...

Crow and the snake: i liked it bc id already given itachi a snake story earlier and crows are also his thing. like the farmer and the viper, itachi becomes the crow and the farmer, killed by the snake. in many ways its a deeply ironic fable for him, because while hes the one in the fable, the one who needs to learn the fable is his symbolized killer-- sasuke, the snake. lol

dog and the sheep. akatsuki chapters get akatsuki titles

hawk and the nightengale: you dont want to know what its like constantly googling stuff like "what birds eat frogs" "what predators preffer to eat frogs" "frog predators". anyway, its sasuke's first chance to be a bird! its ambiguous, naturally, which one he is. rivers and the sea: took me a long time to settle on this one. I think its a little cruel to say that all of itachi's fables are "what can you expect?" deals because itachi's inherent character demands he seek hope from a cruel universe. what did he expect indeed. deer without a heart: i liked the image of a zombie deer i will be real. but i also liked the idea of returning to the lion's cabin, a very literal representation of kaeru's actions compared with their metaphorical weight

scorpion and the frog: i was so happy to get to the name drop chapter. yes i outlined this in advance so i did always know what fight would be getting this name. black-bird and the birdcatcher: ... "friend, if this is what you offer your guests, no gods will answer" "but birds will." and the birds did come, did they not?