#so writing his internal monologue will be really fascinating

[solibrie]

having big ideas for the space between lately... i kinda wanna try my hand at writing julie and luke's big songwriting weekend... especially since that is presumably the weekend julie caught feelings

[iamgonnagetyouback]

Heyy! Happy late Halloween 🎃 I looooveee your writing !! Could you do headcanons for how marauders would react if the reader could do legilimacy? They're muggleborn so they didn't think it was that big a deal bc they thougjg all wizards could do it and casually mention it

headcanons for marauders reacting to reader knowing legitimacy

𝐉𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 tries to brush it off as if he’s totally unfazed, but internally, he's panicking.

➯His first instinct is denial—surely, you’re just perceptive, right? But as soon as you respond to something he hasn’t said out loud, he’s rattled.

➯He’ll keep "testing" you, thinking ridiculous things like "I bet you can’t hear this" on a loop, only to break into a fit of laughter when you answer with an exasperated eye-roll.

➯When he finally accepts that you can actually read his mind, he goes into full-blown soulmate mode, convinced this is destiny.

➯James decides he’s above needing to verbalize “I love you” and will start giving you overly dramatic, lovesick looks whenever he thinks it, just to see if you’ll respond.

James is deep in thought about a prank idea. You: “Exploding ink? You know McGonagall’s going to see right through that.” James: choking “H-how did you know that?” You: “Because you were thinking about it.” James: “No, seriously, who told you? Sirius?! Remus? Who's the traitor?” You: “None of them. Just your brain.” James stares at you with a mix of awe and panic. James: “Brilliant. Terrifying, but brilliant.”

𝐒𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐮𝐬 jumps out of his skin when you first respond to his thoughts, staring at you like you’ve just sprouted horns.

➯He immediately calls you a demon and insists you’re here to haunt him specifically, but secretly, he finds it oddly thrilling.

➯Within minutes, he’s running around thinking of the most absurd things he can just to throw you off, like mentally chanting "I am an irresistible god of charm" to see if you’ll break.

➯Over time, he gets used to it and will sometimes think cute things at you, but never admit it if you notice.

➯Deep down, though, he’s convinced your Legilimency is proof that you’re some kind of witchy soulmate sent from the beyond to torture him, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Sirius is debating in his head whether he should wear his leather jacket to breakfast. You: “Leather jacket? Again?” Sirius: whipping around “What?! I didn’t say anything!” You: smirking “You didn’t have to.” Sirius: “I’m being haunted. This is it. You’re a witchy ghost sent to expose my every cool thought.” You: “What cool thoughts?” Sirius gasps dramatically. Sirius: “Betrayed by my own mind!”

𝐑𝐞𝐦𝐮𝐬, initially skeptical, quickly connects the dots when you casually respond to one of his unspoken worries.

➯His brain goes straight to over-analysis, and he spirals just a bit, convinced you’re both a prodigy and incredibly dangerous.

➯While he finds it fascinating, he's low-key embarrassed every time you catch his stray thoughts—he didn't mean for you to hear that, really!

➯He starts to watch his thoughts around you, editing his internal monologue as if he’s writing an essay for you to "read."

➯Every now and then, he’ll test the limits by thinking random trivia or book recommendations at you, silently thrilled every time you respond.

➯He’s careful but secretly loves that you can understand him on this completely new level.

Remus is mentally debating whether he should get more coffee or just stick with tea. You: “Coffee.” Remus: startles “I—pardon?” You: “Just get the coffee, Remus. You’re going to regret the tea halfway through.” Remus: nervously laughing “Are… are you reading my mind?” You: “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

𝐏𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫, the most openly freaked out, will start squinting at you like you’re the strangest creature he’s ever seen.

➯For days, he’s looking over his shoulder, convinced you’re pulling pranks on him somehow.

➯Every time you respond to his thoughts, he jolts and gives you a suspicious look, half-afraid and half-impressed.

➯It only takes one incident of you responding to something he really didn’t want to say out loud for him to become almost paranoid.

➯After a while, though, he’ll start to use it to his advantage, asking for silent reassurance when he's worried or seeking encouragement without having to say it—though he’ll always look a bit jittery when you respond, as if he still can’t quite believe it.

Peter is internally freaking out about his Potions essay, wondering if he should ask you for help. You: “I’ll help you with Potions later, don’t worry.” Peter: jumps “How did you…?” You: “You looked like you needed it.” Peter: “But… I didn’t… I didn’t even look at you!” You: “You don’t have to.” Peter stares at you, eyes wide, before finally mumbling. Peter: “...are you like… always in there?” You: grinning “Only sometimes.”

[dirtbra1n]

I’m all ego can u directors comment on the “fascinating” convo. also it’s like Fun to me.

oh I should definitely figure out how to format these. I got excited and just clicked Answer and now I have to think about it. one sec. coming back with hindsight to tell you This gets long. I’ve hind-seen it.

first things first This ask is asking about the very first portion of the yet-unnamed tashiro post that went live on. the gray area between sunday and monday, I think. when’d I post the thing again. whatever. figure I’ll just go at this piece mail You’ll see quick that I came out the gate swinging

he kind of doesn’t know why he does it, didn’t really take the time to think about it. all he knows is that the time read 2:41 a moment ago and changed the second shirahama’s voice crackled over the phone, “what?”

so if you’re a real #DBWRITINGHEAD you might see the emphasis on the time and think Okay so what’s happening here. just happens that I drudged up the reference point recently. specifically this chunk here

so you see there’s kind of a lot already happening.

firstly it tells you that time IS an object, and that it gets blended and molded together and thrown at walls to see if it sticks. and it does. secondly though it gets you familiar with tashiro and shirahama’s banter, and this is an especially good thing because there’s a lot of it moving forward. I love to write these two so much. it comes natural and it’s a riot I could write them sniping at each other forever. third it gives you tashiro’s perspective of an event that a experienced river-reader might have seen already, while also working just fine on its own. and fourth, I guess. just because this chunk is, spiritually. to me. just as part of tashiro post as the other nearly 7k words. So I guess it’s even closer to that number than I’d thought. go figure. FOURTH. if you have this chunk’s post’s context, if you see that time and think, Aw, hell, this is just like that chunk in db’s shirahama post from a few months ago, you might remember its surrounding context and then go, hanzawa and weird situation and almost-but-not-quite confession. Maybe. in a word: foreshadowing.

it’s also, if I say so myself, a pretty strong opening line. I think kiri that I’ve shown you and sunnfish the first line in the note on my phone enough times for you to remember that it DIDN’T start with this one. that was a day-of decision. was a good one.

figure I should also draw the comparison between the two pieces while this chunk is here—shirahama kyouji’s internal monologue, both here and in its prologue-and-chronological-pre-side-and-sequel. or whatever the relationship is on paper. makes use of his given name kyouji, whilst tashiro’s is tashiro, his family name, throughout. this is because tashiro, to me, is so bad at letting people in that he kind of locks himself out too. hasn’t got the keys. just drew a little connection with this other piece in my head right this second but This Ask Wasn’t About That Post, Now, Was It? anyway tashiro’s got himself locked out. so it makes it easier for him to watch himself plummet from the outside looking in. anyway this ask isn’t about that scene either. anyway anyway. Moving on

“gonna tell you something weird.”

“…mhm…?”

tashiro squeezes his eyes shut, groggily rubbing a thumb over quick-drying salt at the outer corner of his eye. “just dreamed about hanzawa senpai dying on me.”

tashiro’s levels of awareness are always really fun to me. because he’s a strange guy in how quick he can get hit with something and roll with it, but he Knows its weird. shirahama is of course a good friend who resolves to deal with this. and boy does he deal! also of course tashiro had at least a few tears leak out of his eyes. his hanzawa senpai just died on him in a dream, after all. tangentially Have you ever been dreaming when you’re about to wake up, and something in the dream is upsetting enough at least conceptually to make you cry, but the unsteadiness of your waning unconsciousness fights the tears from coming out, so what you get is unsatisfying denied catharsis? really makes you think.

“…” shirahama breathes in; tashiro can hear him hold it. similarly, the sound of his hand being dragged over his face is crisp and loud.

the entire scene, barring the opening paragraph, operates in the present moment and its Moments, but this paragraph I feel really does the best job at demonstrating that. you are tashiro, lying in bed, fresh off the water—if you’re wondering, which you probably weren’t until just now, I haven’t written masato’s death from this first time; tashiro has seen hanzawa senpai dying before now, but the key- and weight-bearing word here is ‘on’, implying that he wasn’t troubled enough by that first aesthetically striking drowning to tell anybody—and you’re on the phone with your best friend at probably 2:43 or :44 by now, and you can hear him thinking your words over as if he were right next to you, because that’s where you’ve got your phone.

finally, he says, “fascinating.”

as you well know, kiri, this one was both recommended by and consequently modeled off you. you are tashiro, lying in bed, fresh off the water, and your best friend thinks the whole thing is ‘fascinating.’

[fablecore]

i absolutely ADORE your “her bombastic materials” series! I only discovered it a little bit ago and it has completely nestled into the creases of my brain.

Sophie is such an interesting oc, from her origins to her character development to her personality and mannerisms there’s just something about her that makes her feel so well rounded and complex and ALIVE!

and your take on female pirates in the OP universe was such a cool route to explore in your story! it’s such a gut wrenching reflection of real world news and how the world treats women and seeing Sophie become a victim of that and become forcefully villainized by everyone is so devastating bc the world will believe what it wants even if it’s wrong especially if it’s being pushed into their faces every day and i JUST WANT MY SWEET LITTLE WEIRDO TO BE HAPPY! 😭😭😭

and the interactions between sophie and law in CBA have simultaneously given me butterflies and made me so UTTERLY DEVASTATED! watching these two people who obviously love each other so much just keep having this hang up about how to protect one another makes my wanna gnaw on the bars of my enclosure. but there’s something about them that’s just so fascinating bc they compliment each other so well despite the fact that Sophie thinks Law doesn’t love her more than his revenge and Law thinks that Sophie (and basically everything else) is too good for someone like him to ever truly deserve.

AND THEIR SIGN LANGUAGE CONVERSATION IN THE MOST RECENT UPDATE ACTUALLY MADE ME TEAR UP. the way you balance the goofy dialogue with her serious internal monologue and the serious events of the story is so *chefs kiss* and so OP it’s insane.

you have such a way with words watching you slowly build up Sophie through not only the things she’s gone through and the characters she’s met but also the environment around her makes this story feel so rich and full of life.

sophie’s just a kid who knew too little and now she’s trying to know so much to compensate for her past mistakes and she is so compassionate and forgiving to everyone but herself. she is hard and soft and cautious and reckless and trying so hard not to care while caring SO MUCH she has been fighting tooth and nail ever since she escaped G-13 and the world keeps pushing her down and she has no choice other than to get back up again even if no one else wants her to.

anyway sorry for kind of blowing up your inbox lol. thank you for blessing the world with your writing and i greatly look forward to seeing what comes next! 💛💛💛

have a lovely day!!!

what a sweet letter...! i'm so moved by how deeply you've been thinking about sophie. thank you very much for enjoying the story and the worldbuilding and my writing, i really appreciate it 🤍

her happiness will come and go like all of us, but you're correct in observing that she's got no choice but to keep getting up!

i hope you have a lovely day too 💐

[mapsareforbraindeads]

Light Yagami for Blorbo Bingo (I know exactly what I am getting into)

do you really, owl? do you really know?

surprising absolutely no one, i got a bingo!

i have so many thoughts on light. i am in love with him. i despise him. i want to shove him in a blender. i kin him. I AM HIM (sometimes)

more thoughts under the cut because i have a chance to ramble about light and i am TAKING IT. this will probably be my pinned post for a bit because i don’t want this to drown in my blog lmao

as someone who listened to “where is the justice?” months before watching the anime or reading the manga, i started out as a light sympathizer who didn’t see what he was doing wrong. i literally based my entire personality off of musical!light before i even saw his face. then i watched the anime in september 2021 and recognized him for the absolute BITCH (affectionate) that he is.

a month after watching the anime, i started up kira-ask-force as an exercise to learn how to write him and fell in love with the character. more than i already was. in less than two years i went from rageposting about L blasting nightcore at 3am to doing extensive psychoanalysis about kira. it’s been a wild ride; one that i’m so glad i had the courage to start.

something about light just fascinates me. i don’t know if it’s his ideology, his personality, or what, but it’s something. i can spend hours just listening to light shout, ramble, and monologue about his ideals and it’s captivating. everything down to his vocal inflections is permanently ingrained in my subconscious to the point where if someone asks me about the justice system, i manically laugh and throw myself into an extensive internal monologue while i try to sound remotely normal. i literally bought a (SFW, don’t worry) L body pillow to practice my light yagami (sub, dub, movie, drama, musical…) impression on 😭 i need help

ANYWAYS. light’s journey from a too-perfect high school student bored of his life to a wannabe god trying to make a difference is so incredibly interesting. for seventeen years, light was held above the rest of his peers, praised for every little thing he did. his father was proud that he was following in his footsteps. his mother was proud to have such a studious son. his sister was proud to have such a kind brother she could count on (see: “we all need a hero”) but light was bored of all of it. it was all mundane to him. he didn’t really have any close attachments whatsoever. he was just the perfect golden boy no matter what he did. hell, his cram school teacher catches him zoning out and only calls him out because light is there to “make the school look good”

needless to say, light was fed up with the world. that much is clear. i’d say he was probably severely depressed as well (and with an eating disorder but that’s getting into triggering territory that i will save for another day). i think anyone would get sick of being held up on a pedestal for so long, no matter how enlarged their ego is. it must have been exhausting for him to spend half of his day in perfection hell only to come home to his parents asking for his grades and proclaiming that it’s exactly what was expected of their perfect son. it’s a lot to handle, especially for a teenager.

but then, he found the death note. a weapon that could change the way his life went. he could do more than study in his room and be perfect. he could change the whole system. he had been dubbed the perfect student unwillingly at a young age, but now he could escape that and forge his own path. but how could one ascend past perfection? well, that’s easy. godhood.

of course, this decision didn’t come to him immediately. he entered a state of shock and denial after killing otoharada, and when he killed shibuimaru to verify that the notebook was real, he threw up in a nearby alleyway. until ryuk came along, he was constantly plagued with nightmares and lost ten pounds in five days. despite the mental strain, he still pushed forward. he knew that whoever the notebook belonged to would come for it, and that he might not survive the encounter. so he killed more people. hundreds of people. he targeted as many criminals as he could in those five days out of an attempt to cleanse his sins. but when ryuk tells him that he won’t be killed for his actions, this illusion breaks. at this point, he’s killed so many people that there’s no point to stopping now. he will cleanse the world no matter how long it takes. he will become god.

when L challenges him, light goes in head first. he takes the bait, taunting him. after all, what does light have to lose? he’s perfect. he’s righteous. surely this wannabe detective won’t come close to his power. right?

wrong. many people say that light’s biggest mistake was revealing that he was a student, that he was connected to the police, killing lind l. tailor and so on. in my opinion, light’s biggest weakness throughout the whole series is how easily he underestimates his opponents. he acts like he knows exactly what goes on in everyone’s heads. he’s spent his most of his time prior to receiving the notebook with people who will do whatever he says. he has them wrapped around his finger. but L, near, mello, maybe even matsuda, don’t act like that. they’re unpredictable. and that’s why light lost.

anyways, L awakens something different in light. something that nobody else has before. he’s challenging. he’s intelligent. he’s everything that light is and more. and light hates it. after all, he’s been placed above the rest for his entire life. who is L to kick him down and claim light’s throne for himself? so obviously, light lashes out. he aims to kill. anyone who defies god must die, after all. but that’s not why he wants L gone, necessarily. no, he wants L gone because he could be better than him. he has the power to take him down and light can’t take it. kira is justice, not L. and he’s going to prove it.

when L dies, a part of light does too. after all, he made light feel alive. more than a god, more than a perfect honors student. he made him feel like a person. L gave him a challenge, something to fight against. a reason to keep going. so naturally, when that motivation left, light cracked. everything became too easy. no matter how many slip-ups light made, he still won. it infuriated him. it felt wrong. this was the victory he wanted, but was it earned? in the years before the successors enter the scene, light is once again trapped within his own walls of perfection. no challenges. just another routine to follow. more expectations that he can reach with ease.

light never finds this same passion again. when near enters the scene, light despises him. in his mind, he’s nothing but a copy of L. he doesn’t bring that same challenge. to light, near doesn’t have that infuriatingly sharp tongue or any of L’s interesting traits. he doesn’t see a successor in near, he sees a cheap copy. mello infuriates him as well, though not nearly as much as near. he simply sees mello as an obstacle, an annoying roadblock in his mission. a side quest to beat before he can defeat near. obviously mello (and matt) are far more than this, but light can’t see this. too distracted by L’s figurative ghost looming over him, he underestimates the successors. and this is why he loses.

light dies in the warehouse as a bloodied mess. not with dignity nor with grace. he made one final mistake that cost him his life. he once again underestimated his opponents. he assumed near wouldn’t think ahead, being nothing more than a bootlegged version of L. obviously, he thought wrong.

this fact is further proven by matsuda, the one whose skills he underestimated the most. by framing matsuda as nothing more than the office idiot, he dismisses all of matsuda’s values. he assumes that matsuda will join his side and shoot his friends because he’s too weak to say no. when matsuda fires five shots into light, it’s a complete shock to his system. to have matsuda take him down… that’s a horrible fate that light couldn’t have imagined if he tried.

when ryuk kills him, light looks pitiful. he spent his final moments clinging to ryuk, begging for life from the literal god of death. he knew from day one that this would be how it ended. ryuk told him himself, but he brushed it off. as his final act, light underestimated yet another opponent: death itself.

WELL. that was a lot of writing. i wanted to explore a lot more, but i do not have the time nor energy. anyways, thank you for the ask, owl! enjoy your essay ❤️

[mikewheelerfan2022]

Book review: I Hunt Killers

Alright, I’ve never done a book review before, but I Hunt Killers was so good I just have to gush about it. Honestly, when I first saw this book at Barnes & Noble my first response was: this looks cringy. The title and cover both turned me off. I literally judged it by its cover. But then I read the description, and was like “Huh. This looks interesting. I’ll get it.” So I did. It took a while, but I started it last night and read about 100 pages before I was so tired I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore. Today, I’ve been reading it on and off, and managed to finish the remaining about 250 pages. Here are my thoughts.

The book follows Jasper “Jazz” Dent, a completely normal teenager, if you ignore the fact that his father is the world’s most notorious serial killer. So actually not that normal. The book establishes very early that Jazz’s upbringing was really fucked up. This has caused Jazz to have a different thought process from most people. When a normal person looks at a body, they’re disgusted and terrified. But Jazz is cold and fascinated. That makes for a really interesting POV. He’s low-empathy, but he hates it. He doesn’t want to be like his father, in fact a major plot point in the book is how he’s trying to stop himself from turning into his father. It’s genuinely one of the most interesting thought processes I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading.

At the beginning of the book, Jazz is sitting in a field, observing a crime scene with binoculars. Police are there, investigating the dead body of a woman. Jazz is intruded, yes. But he doesn’t care too much. Not until he sees what’s in a certain bag of evidence. (Minor spoilers ahead). It’s a finger. Three of the woman’s fingers have been removed, although only one remains at the crime scene. This leads Jazz to a disturbing realization: this isn’t an ordinary murderer. It’s a serial killer. The rest of the storyline follows his attempts to find this serial killer, and put a stop to the killings.

The two other main characters are Howie, Jazz’s best friend and Connie, Jazz’s girlfriend. Howie has a severe case of hemophilia, and bleeds very, very easily. I believe there’s even a passage in the book where it’s described that he’ll bleed if you look at him the wrong way. And yeah, without spoiling, there are a few situations where he does end up bleeding pretty heavily. I actually have a severe phobia of blood, and what’s funny is the descriptions of Howie’s injuries made me way more light headed than the descriptions of the bodies. I actually almost had to put the book down a couple of times and stop reading.

But anyways, on to Connie. I find her to be quite an interesting character. She doesn’t seem to care at all that she’s dating the son of a serial killer. And Jazz is thankful for that sense of normalcy. I wish I could say more about Connie, but I can’t without getting into some spoiler territory. Which sucks, because she’s such an interesting character and I love her so much. But oh well. She’s definitely my second favorite, just behind Jazz, if only because I find Jazz’s internal monologue so interesting.

There are also some more minor characters, which I won’t really get into. But practically every single one of them is a suspect, which is amazing. I constantly kept changing my guess of which one was the killer. Eventually, I just admitted “I don’t know.” Which honestly shocked me. Normally whenever I read a mystery book, I have a guess of who the culprit is, even if my guess is wrong. But with I Hunt Killers, I was genuinely stumped. That just goes to show the author is an absolute master at writing this genre. I was kept on the edge of my seat up until the ending.

Now, the ending. I don’t want to spoil anybody, so I’m not going to go into too much detail. But I loved the ending. I found myself shouting a few…interesting words in reaction to how it all played out. And you know a book is good when the first thing you do is immediately search up to get the sequels. Unfortunately my mom hasn’t put them on hold at the library yet, but hopefully she will soon. Until then, I will be desperately avoiding spoilers. If you have read the series, please don’t spoil me. If you haven’t, go read it right now. I’m serious. Right this second. Go on Amazon or Barnes & Noble and buy I Hunt Killers IMMEDIATELY. Or get it from the library, I don’t care. Either way, you need to read this absolute masterpiece.

5/5 stars!

[nokingsonlyfooles]

Finish the Feed, Plug the Thing

Hooo, this rice is spicy. They weren't kidding! But this person whom Canada is filling with "this won't actually be spicy" hubris writes a web serial! With magic! And marginalized folks! And it's super independent and unpopular! I'm trying to fix that!

Known readers: 3; 1st Goalpost: 10?

Known supporters: 2 (hi, 5th and Kith!); 1st Goalpost: 5?

In other news, I have a new favourite line I've written: “GOD HIMSELF sensed I was getting TOO POWERFUL and sent you here to RUIN ME SPECIFICALLY!”

I want that on a T-shirt so bad. But it's from the fic. I am still writing that fic that I feel I shouldn't be writing. It's very stressful right now. I'm sorry. That may be all you wind up with after two months of no updates. I have really stupid doctor stuff on my plate right now and it's eating my brain - that will abate somewhat. I might feel better next week. For the moment, I accidentally let David go someplace full of characters as outrageous as he is and I can't put it down. I challenged myself to ax the internal monologues and write music for it, too, and I'm doin it. It's fascinating. But these toys don't belong to be and I feel bad for playing with them this much.

I'm not even putting up new chapters because it all needs some complicated formatting to be legible - real bad. It's making me want to actually pen all the song lyrics from TS and SO as musical numbers too. I guess you might get that in the future. Maybe. But today, I'm just gonna try to finish this here rice, and let David torment Alastor some more.

[no-psi-nan]

@disgruntled-twig I've posted about Akechi and Kuboyasu specifically a couple of times (uh. wait a few years lol) and a few more times as a general "all the Psychickers have a huge crush on Kuboyasu" ship haha! It's on my ship chart and everything XD

I just think it would be SO funny if the Psychickers simped for Kuboyasu HARD on main and he's just completely oblivious and thinks they're platonic besties for like. Years.

The Psychickers aren't even mad about it because Kuboyasu's internal limit for what is acceptable to do with homies has been highly skewed by being in gangs from all-boys schools (imo), so they get to cuddle with him whenever he comes over to hang out. They put on their cutest fits, fight over who gets to sit on his lap this time, and flirt like hell and Kuboyasu is just like "hahaha these guys are great!".

It's just a total clown show and it's so so funny to me personally. They'll eventually get him in the polycule but the journey is long and hilarious.

So this is a thing that will canonically happen in my Moving Forward universe (I think it's already been mentioned that the Psychickers have lil crushes on him in Extra Love Stories 2 iirc?) and I've doodled it because it tickles my funny bone so much:

But as for Akechi and Kuboyasu specifically, I totally think they could have chemistry, but they need to spend more time together for that to happen.

It seems like Akechi can definitely dial down his chatter if he wants to– note how he behaves himself with Saiki's mom! So I think once Akechi officially joins the friend group post-canon, he'll try to limit his monologuing at first to give them all a chance to get used to him lol. EXTREMELY difficult for him but worth the effort since these are his Kusuo-kun's beloved friends.

Kuboyasu will be getting more patient over time, plus he'll be able to put up with Akechi a lot more once he learns to trust him and isn't on the defensive. That's the shadow leader's homie after all, if Saiki trusts Akechi then that's enough of an endorsement for him!

Once they're comfortable around each other, I think they'd get along really well! Kuboyasu is curious and kind of a romantic by nature, so I think he'd be fascinated by Akechi's knowledge of the natural world (as seen when he identified the bug in the sweet potato episode).

Akechi's nature knowledge seems to be based mostly on encyclopedias vs personal experience, so it would be SO fun for them to go hiking and find all of these creatures and plants in nature together! I usually include Nendo and Mera in the hiking club, but there's no reason why they can't go on solo adventures together haha.

Also, we know Akechi likes Cyborg Ciderman, which is an advertisement disguised as cheesy action anime (is it an anime in-universe actually?? hsfjdlshfks hard to tell). So I bet he'd have fun watching action flicks with Kuboyasu, and Kuboyasu would definitely like watching anime with Akechi, he clearly likes Dragonball and I can see them talking fan theories and stuff!

Another point of connection, and I've posted about it before but I can't find it, could be self-defense. Akechi would definitely ask Kuboyasu for some fighting tips n tricks, so he doesn't have to resort to ...chemical warfare... any more. And Kuboyasu wants to be a teacher, so this is good practice, and they start practicing and sparring.

Akechi isn't physically strong, and he'll never be as fast as Kuboyasu, but his ability to predict the opponent's moves are uncanny and he's clearly good at strategy, so he might be able to dodge and land hits unexpectedly. Not enough to rival Kuboyasu but enough to keep himself safe and be a fun challenge!

Anyways, I think it's an interesting and fun ship! Plan to write some formally eventually, just have a LOT of WIPs already and I've been more on a comics kick lately than writing so we'll see lol. Thanks for the ask!!

[azol-otl]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love ♥️

I won't lie, I had reread all my stuff to be able to answer this and it was actually harder than I thought it would be. Turns out I do actually like how I write, who'd have guessed.

But here we go:

With a Kiss From Your Blade: (JayTim) So this was actually the first fic I posted that actually got me to keep writing fics and it holds a special place in my heart for that. Plus I just love how sappy and goofy Jason and Tim are in this and it was the beginning of my hairy Tim Drake agenda.

Hunting Compulsion: (JayTim Digital Devil Saga au) Okay I didn't expect to love this fic as much as I did. It was an off the cuff idea with zero plans that was written in chunks and I wouldn't have it any other way. I've always loved fusion fics (no surprise there considering the amount I've written) and discovering in real time as I wrote all the backstory events and general suffering the bats are going through in this porn fic was really interesting. Also I've been a sucker for literal man eater bats since Gotham Ghoul and this felt right.

Fair Play: (JayDick) First off I love how much of a loser I made Jason in this. It's kink discovery in the best way because he's just silently freaking out the entire time and is a useless gay in the face of it and I had so much fun writing that. It was also my first real attempt at writing this kink and honestly there were so many times I had to be reassured that this was in fact hot and not just a me thing. Shouout to the ending third with Dick's happiness at his change because it was a single paragraph but it had strength that I didn't expect it to.

The Stopgap Favorite: (JayDick, dungeon mesh fusion) Man what can I even say about this besides that this might be the most unhealthy Jason I've ever written and the way his story would translate to the Dungeon Meshi universe is fascinating. It has some of my favorite internal Jason monologues and the sheer bitter resentment and love he has about Bruce despite having sex with Dick is really good like damn I'm proud of myself for that. I also think it has some of the best lines I've ever written, specifically where Jason compares himself to Dick in Bruce's eyes.

A Learning Experience: (BruJay) Look, I don't ship this pairing. I just generally don't like Bruce. But I had so much fun writing this. Between repressed Bruce and confident Jason and just their entire dynamic-! It was so easy to write like I absolutely had a blast doing it. The parts I'm the most proud of are anytime Jason's speaking to Bruce honestly because Jaybin is such much nicer than Jason normally is but also he's a huge brat who knows he has Bruce wrapped around his finger. I just really like this fic guys.

[stopthatfool]

Concerning getting to know one's fic writer, inquiring minds must know: 8, 16 & 18

Inquiring minds would also like you to choose one question you're hoping someone will ask and answer it! (It always pains me when I desperately want to discuss something, but the prompt is never picked! So, pick that question! :])

Thank youu, I can't wait to learn more about your writing process!! <3

Woodsy!! Thank you so much for the ask (omg i'm so excited to answer these)!!

8. Do you prefer the beginning, middle, or ending of a story?

Hmmmm... I think when it comes to fic writing I like the middle. Because i can just keep adding things and I don't have to worry about tying it all together to actually mean something. And the beginning is very intimidating. It's like the first page of new notebook or sketchbook. And the ending is very scary too, cuz that means it's over!

It's interesting though because whenever I watch movies, TV shows etc., etc., I always like the first movie/episode/season the best!

16. How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Share one of them?

I have kind of a one track mind when it comes to writing, so I'm pretty much only thinking of Your jeep. Your teeth. The coffee that you bought me. and that 'universe' (omfg why did i pick such a long name). BUT! I have been playing around with the idea of telling this story through the perspective of Ice... I would love to get up all inside his head and figure him out!

I've also been thinking about like a 'prequel' to this story. Like what happened in '86 and when 'my' Mav and Ice taught at TOP GUN together. I, of course, have ideas and I have alluded to what their relationship looked like in flashbacks and some of Mav's internal monologue, but I think eventually I would love to actually put it in writing and map it all out.

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

I came up with the title of this fanfic during the writing process! And all of the titles are lines from Richard Siken's Crush-- which i had just finished rereading as I was writing the first part of the first chapter. The line "Your jeep. Your teeth. The coffee that you bought me." really stuck out to me as I was thinking about IceMav, because I've always really liked Val Kilmer's teeth (which sounds weird as i type it out.... but it's purely from an artistic standpoint and fascination). So the jeep that Ice has in the fic, along with the coffee scene after Mav is let out from the hospital were really inspired from this line!

As for the chapter titles, I decided to keep going with the Richard Siken theme. Whenever I need a break from writing, typing, or editing, that's when I begin to brainstorm chapter titles. I'll look back at my fav lines that I wrote down, or I'll just straight up reread poems to find something that fits whatever things are happening in that chapter.

Initially, chapter 6's title was "Dear Forgiveness, I saved a plate for you" because of the first scene when Mav holds out a plate for Bradley. It wasn't until guns were brought up for like the third time that I changed the title to "It's a down right shoot-em-up."

Anyway! Long story short, it's just a process of going back and forth and reading poetry!

14. How do you write emotional scenes? Do you ever feel what the characters feel? Do you draw from emotional experience?

(the question i picked myself) I absolutely feel what the characters feel and draw from my personal experiences!! Most of Bradley's expressions of anxiety and sadness is inspired from my own teenage self (which was absolutely traumatic to look back on). Along with Bradley wearing Carole's old bracelet and Nick's old t-shirt!

One of my biggest goals within this story (along with other things), was to make these characters more human and really focus on their struggles-- therefore i write about things i know, aka my own personal experiences. Which can sometimes make things difficult to write, but usually it's okay!

Thank you so much for the ask Woodsy!! This was so much fun!! <333

[greenerteacups]

I absolutely adore the way you write Harry and Ron as clever and snarky in their own ways (Harry's conversation with Snape was hilarious and clever in Norberta). All too often in Dramione fanfics they are shown as lesser than because writers want to make Draco and Hermione exceptional, but your D and H are incredibly interesting and smart on a level that still allows them to shine next to remarkably wonderful Harry, Ron and all the other fascinating characters you write

Thank you so much! This is a really touching compliment, because I share the same pet peeve. Something I was careful of when writing the fic was not to pitch Harry and Ron too OOC (as with all canon divergences, you increasingly can't help it, and I think it shows in Harry the most — I just have to steer him a bit harder than JKR does in order to develop him when I can't rely on his internal monologue). I think there are three major reasons that Harry and Ron get washed out in Dramione fics — the first being a simple plot mechanic to get Hermione alone and in a mental state where she would be open to a connection with Draco, which, admittedly, is pretty unlikely if Harry and Ron remain in the picture. By the time OOTP wraps, she and Draco are just so ensconced in their separate social circles that she seems to regard him as irrelevant in HBP, so obviously, if they're going to get together sometime in that timeframe or afterward, their social situations need to change. On the other hand, though, if a fanfiction is taken in some respects as a theoretical argument for how a ship could happen, I always thought Harry/Ron bashing was implicitly a sort of weak argument for D/H, because it requires Hermione to be totally iced out of her own friend group before she considers Draco as a friend or partner. Not to mention that you lose the opportunity to develop these rich auxiliary relationships (Hermione and Harry as unofficial siblings, Draco and Harry as foils, Draco and Ron as foils, Harry and Ron as platonic soulmates) that provide shape and contrast to Draco and Hermione's relationship. The books are a story about love and family! Different kinds of love! And deep platonic love, honestly, more than anything else!

The other side of the coin is that bashing sometimes happens as a natural consequence of having to Do Something About Ron. The need to retcon Hermione's crush and/or relationship and/or marriage with Ron to clear the stage for Draco means that a fanfic author has to just fiat some stuff from the books out of existence. And so you get Death Eater Ron, or Ron as a terrible boyfriend, or cheating, or just being cruel. Or dead! I've read a few where Ron just gets unceremoniously fridged, which is maybe a little better than character assassination, but also pretty sad for all rare us Dramione Ron Enjoyers. Like, I don't think that Ron and Hermione would work out, but I think that's because they share zero interests and tend to aggravate each other's insecurities, not because they don't care about each other, or God forbid, that Ron was secretly a shit person and a bad friend for seven years.

Then you have the final group, which is people who actually do dislike Ron for his behavior in the text. Everyone has that right, so I don't hate, and I can especially understand it if you read his arcs in Goblet of Fire and Deathly Hallows a certain way (I hate the first half of Deathly Hallows, actually, almost exclusively because of the dumb ass Ron's Vacation subplot). JKR doesn't do him any favors here, because she doesn't give him a real reconciliation with Harry or Hermione before he comes back in Deathly Hallows — all their fights sort of end with a shrug and a joke and a comment like, "wow, that sucked, let's not do that again," which is not unrealistic, if you're talking about teenagers, but also does not solve the problem that caused the fight, and we know that because it keeps happening in other books: someone steps on Ron's feelings, he lashes out, they get hurt, and instead of asking for sympathy or trusting his friends to mend his feelings if he explains them, he storms off to sulk. (This is a pattern that I imagine starting at the Burrow, when poor Arthur and Molly just wouldn't have had time to have proper sit-downs and debriefs whenever their kids fought, and so Ron's self-soothing method was to isolate — we see hints of this in Chapter 32-33, and again near the end of Chapter 38 — until he can pretend to get over it.) But going from just canon, it's not impossible to come up with a reading of Ron as this selfish jerk who gets jealous of his friends and screws them over when he gets mad at them. A lot of those people come to Dramione for the catharsis of watching Hermione find a bond with someone who just... doesn't do that, and I don't blame them at all. All the same, I hope Lionheart!Ron can offer an opportunity to experience the joys of Ron Enjoyment for a wider demographic.

[schrijverr]

for the writer’s wrapped: 3, 20, 27, 29, and 30:)

3. What work are you most proud of (regardless kudos/hits)?

Oehh, that's a hard one, I like all my works (bc i am very egotistical haha), but I am most proud of I Found Myself a Cheerleader and The Queer Lives of the Party-verse. I've finally been getting into writing longer works and I'm proud of managing longer stories, as well as experimenting with how to tell a story :D

20. Which work of yours have you reread the most?

Well, probably I Found Myself a Cheerleader, but mostly bc I had to edit that to hell and back as I posted/wrote it lmao. For my own enjoyment, though? I think it has to be My Stabwound, Not Our Stabwound from this year.

27. What do you listen to while writing?

Okay, so if you're wondering why my work is Like That lmao, I have a playlist that I called 'Melancholy & Sad Feels' for when I write, but I also listen to the Howl's Moving Castle soundtrack, the LOTR soundtrack (specifically the Two Towers) and this year a bit of Hozier's new album, but mostly my sad feels playlist lmao xp

29. Favorite line/passage you wrote this year?

Oef that's a difficult one! I think, I really like this bit of internal monologue from Religion of the All in the One:

He’s not brave enough to have other s question his Truth. The Truth that took his limbs and Al’s body, meaning that It still has them and It is the only thing that can give them back. Ed can’t waver in that belief, but putting it into words makes him sound insane. It’s better to be an atheist, who has a disdain for religion than a religious nut, who looks down on other religions, because he has proof of his God.

Because Ed and his realtionship to Truth is so fascinating to me and I do really like this take on him :D

30. Biggest surprise while writing this year?

That I managed to keep it up honestly haha, I thought for sure that it would be a slow year, because I have gotten my BA with an extra minor and have now started my master. I thought I would drown in work and not be able to indulge my hobby, but it's been a great stress relief and I've actually never written as much as I have this year (guess I really, really needed that stress relief lmao), which I'm very happy about, because I've had so many lovely interactions this year that have kept me going <333

~

Thank you so so much for this ask, I really enjoyed looking back on the year and reflecting. I hope you have a wonderful day <3

[justsome-di]

Nobody Ends Up Dead in a Bathtub, Everyone Keeps Their Organs: Chapter 3

if you’d like to read chapters a week in advance, you can pledge to my patreon here.

“Dude, you’ve snapped.”

Alex walked up and down the short length of the living room. He tried to find something to distract him each round of his journey. Anything would do. He fixed the way the curtains were laying on their one window. He pulled off dead leaves from Eve’s plant. He examined the mason jar that held their savings. Eve watched with sick fascination over her video game.

“What the fuck happened?” she asked.

“Nothing.”

“Then why are you pacing?”

“I’m not.”

He pulled a book forward on their single hanging bookshelf and laid it in line with the others. Sometime Next Year. It was one of Eve’s. If Alex remembered correctly, it was for her queer book club—the one she always tried dragging him to but that his anxiety always held him back from. It was a good idea. She had organized the whole thing by herself, pitching the idea to her boss and scheduling the meetings and books. Alex really was proud of her. But he enjoyed his time away from Eve when she left the apartment for an extra hour every month.

And it filled him with guilt.

Damián would probably never think something like that about his brother. They binged shows together, and Damián let his brother live at his apartment rent-free. Damián probably showed him love in a thousand other ways.

“Do you want to do something?” Alex asked.

“Like, right now?”

“Yeah.”

“No. I’m trying to catch an Eevee.”

“You don’t want to get out for a little bit?”

He was bugging out. He needed to burn off all of the anxious energy that was boiling over inside of him even if it did make him look like a manic mess.

“What the fuck is wrong with you? You never want to do anything after 9 pm.” Eve raised her eyebrows and got a little evil smirk. “Did you try cocaine tonight?”

“No! I’m totally sober.” Alex closed his eyes for a second. “I’m mostly sober. We had wine.”

“Just tell me what the fuck happened!”

Alex couldn’t. He couldn’t tell her he had accidentally gone on a date with a sex worker and that the whole thing had been a set-up. He especially couldn’t tell her that he was going to hire said sex worker as revenge.

And maybe his internal monologue should have included Damián’s name. Damián. He was more than a sex worker.

Not that Alex was treating him like a real person. Fuck. He had to call it all off. He was totally using Damián.

Or maybe he wasn’t.

He was confused. Damián had consented to it. It was like he said. He was a professional companion, and Alex was in need of a companion for one night. The context shouldn’t have mattered all that much. No one would get hurt.

“Are you going to see him again?” Eve buried her face behind her game. “I think you should try. You were excited to meet him.”

“Um. Yeah. We exchanged numbers.”

“Good. You seemed happy, I guess.”

She usually did say things that made it sound like she approved his happiness.

Alex’s relationship with Eve was complicated. He loved her dearly. More than anything. But he was 14 years older than her.

He had offered her a place to stay the second she was accepting into SUNY. It was the first time they were living together in a decade. She had grown up so much in that time that it was like she was a new person.

For some reason, up until then, she had stayed in a permanent state of being a child in his mind. Every time he visited home, he assumed a 12-year-old would run up to him and show him something new she had done at school. But the day she moved in with him, she stopped looking so much like a little kid. She wasn’t running up to him. She wasn’t talking about cartoons and showing off hand-drawn picture books and instead started talking about finding a job and writing codes for Twitter bots.  

Eve never wanted to acknowledge any positive, loving emotions between them. But Alex didn’t know if they could be snappy full-time as siblings closer in age were.

It caught him off guard when she mentioned he seemed happy. He didn’t know she watched him that closely.

“I was,” he said. He had been. And now he was a mix of nerves and guilt and the residual happiness was beginning to fade.

“Then see him again,” she said. “What’s the worst that can happen? You already did the scariest part.”

If only she knew that he hadn’t.

“Can I ask you a question?” Eve paused her game and set it down. “Was he nice? Or was he an asshole and are you doing the whole thing where nice people fall in love with assholes?”

“I think you read too many trashy romance novels.”

“Answer my question.”

“He’s nice.”

“Name one nice thing he did tonight.”

There were a dozen. Damián was perfectly polite and kind. He not only comforted Alex when he was probably more justified in being upset and scared. He had led Alex through that hallway so nicely, he had held open the door and called the elevator for him.

“He asked about you,” Alex said.

“Gross. Don’t talk about me.” Eve screwed up her face. “What did you say?”

“I just said that you were a computer science student and that you’re struggling in a class—“

“Don’t tell people that! What’s wrong with you?”

“Why shouldn’t I tell people?”

Eve threw a throw pillow at his face, missed, and hit a floor lamp. Alex held his breath. The lamp rolled around on its edges, teetering from side to side. It settled back down with a rattle.

“Eve—“

“Sorry!” She was pale. “I didn’t mean to!”

“If you’re going to wreck my apartment, you can find a dorm on campus.”

She shoved herself far down into the couch and picked up her game. The paleness in her cheeks turned to bright red. It wasn’t fair of Alex. Threatening to send her to dorms was cruel. Implying she would have to spend summers back in New Jersey where their parents had moved was even crueler.

After all, he was pretty happy to have her around most of the time. The place felt a little less lonely with her stuff around. A backpack in the kitchen, a pair of black jeans in the bathroom, for some reason a bra in his room. She took up space, and while he could find it annoying, he did enjoy it. Even if he did enjoy the little moments he had alone. If she were gone for good, he’d miss her.

Damián surely would never threaten to kick out his brother.

Alex picked up the pillow and tossed it, gently, on her. She wiggled away from it.

“You shouldn’t have told your date that I’m failing a math class,” she said, quiet, like she didn’t totally want him to hear her and continue the conversation.

“I didn’t say it in a mean way.” Alex sat down next to her. “I wasn’t like, ‘And my sister is flunking math because she’s an idiot.’ I said you were struggling and that’s it.”

“You didn’t even have to say that. Is there nothing else you could have said about me?”

“I did say that you were smart.”

Eve scrunched her nose up. She didn’t want to be talked about at all, it seemed. Despite being 19, she still had some remaining teenage angst toward her whole existence. The less people outside her own little circle who knew she was alive, the better.

“Next time I see him I’ll tell him that you’re an idiot, don’t worry,” Alex said.

Eve kicked his shoulder with her socked foot. She pounded on him with her heel, but it didn’t hurt. Eve didn’t have impressive strength.

“I’ll tell him that you’re awful and that you two can never meet and that you’re just a nightmare to deal with,” he went on.

“No!”

“Fine. Then I’ll tell him you’re a wonderful princess who has never done any wrong.”

“Nooo!” Eve drew it out longer that time with a little bit more of a whine. It reminded him of someone he couldn’t quite put his finger on.

She kicked him one last time, putting all of her strength into it. Alex rocked just a little bit. Easily, he righted himself.

Eve threw her head back. She was probably too old to be acting like that, but Alex let it slide. Living with family and having limited independence could stunt one's emotional growth. One day, he would blink, and she would be a total grown-up with her own health benefits and her own apartment, and he would wonder if he got enough to taunt her and love her and threaten to replace her with a rabbit.

Oh. That was what the whining reminded him of.

“Do you want to watch Lilo & Stitch?” Alex asked.

“Ooh, fuck yeah.”

“Turn it on.”

They settled into the couch together, more comfortable, with all of the pillows where they belonged. For that, Alex was glad. He had bought the pillows not too long ago, and he wanted to get as much life out of them as he possibly could.

As the movie played, Alex wondered what Damián was doing right about then. Probably something a lot cooler than what he was doing.

He thought about their scheme, and he thought about how it would be worth it just to get out of the apartment with someone other than his sister. And he thought that it all sounded a little too selfish but that if he was paying Damián for it then maybe it wasn’t so bad to think about what he could get out of it, personally. Ethical or not, he was getting a little excitement.

Out of his boring life and into a briefly wondrous one.

[cabeswaterdrowned]

🔥

I’ll go with a TSC opinion because it’s you :). Although it is hard with such a vast fandom to completely speak on which opinions are or aren’t popular, and what’s popular here on tumblr is different from twitter is different from general opinions sometimes etc…. so I guess take that with a grain of salt! But an opinion floating around in my head right now is I don’t think that highly of the way cc writes villains generally speaking.  Ironically (since a lot of aspects of her characterization have improved since tmi to me) I think her best villains (in terms of big bads, I’ll speak on side villains separately) remain Valentine and Sebastian especially the latter. And I feel like a big part of that is how directly linked they are to the protagonists and driving their conflict, it allows them to be developed and feel vital to the story in a way a lot of her antagonists lack. As much as I adore TID it’s a very good thing so much of the story relies on the development of the protagonists relationships because Mortmain is such a lazily constructed villain, there’s like nothing there I’ve read those books like 5 times and he’s so unimpressive it’s sad… but within the narrative structure he does the job he’s meant to accomplish perfectly fine and that’s something. Malcolm and especially Annabel are the opposite: conceptually super interesting to me and awaken my imagination more than her other villains especially the backstory of their relationship which hits certain buttons for me, but aside from a few stand out moments ex: the scene where Annabel kills Malcolm after he resurrect her and he lets her, some of the scenes in Lord of Shadows of her interacting with the Blackthorns pre-the clave meeting, some Malcolm monologues in LM etc. the execution in the end is quite lacking. Tatiana is… very flat to me the only thing of interest about her is her dynamic with Grace and the framing of Grace’s pov about her and that’s underutilized in the end (that I was know for a fact is not unpopular though just while we’re talking about it). And even the tmi villains don’t quite make it to my hall of fame they aren’t say, Katherine Pierce or Mona Vanderwaal or Lilah Morgan or Carmilla or Darla or Miss Havisham (fun fact: I did also end up reading a studying GE for a class fall semester last year and found her fascinating tbh so I think that’s also contributing to my retrospect contempt for Tatiana). I do like some of her secondary recurring villains like The Seelie Queen and Camille are fun to me whenever they show up, and The Unseelie King was creepy in way that worked for me. Zara is definitely the worst of those secondary villains (of ones I’m remembering rn) but she doesn’t take away from things I like about tda as much as she has for other readers I think. Nate isn’t anything special as a villain but like I said in another post I think the way his existence is worked into Tessa’s arc and internal struggles is really great so he gets a passing grade on average. 

(send me a 🔥 + a topic and I’ll give an opinion about/related to it)

[starlight-time-machine]

Week in Review

06/09/2024 – 06/15/2024

Sunday

Week 18 of missing Cipher Academy

I re-watched Everything Everywhere All At Once with my friend and her brother who’s seeing it for the first time, and everything about it just hits me as hard as it did the first two times I saw it in theaters years ago. The themes of choosing joy in the nihilistic chaos that is being alive coupled with an Asian family trying to reach through generational and language barriers in order to connect…yeah, it kills me every single time. I was basically non-stop crying for the last forty minutes.

Undead Unluck very good and cute this week. I love the choices for the backing band (and I hope they’ll play a more pivotal role than just comedy) and Nico’s unethical training practices are so funny to watch. And I’m fascinated by this new connection between Kaede and Kururu, I love how Undead Unluck moves its characters around so freely and spark all these unexpected relationships.

Monday

I finally finished She Who Became the Sun…I think this is the first time I’ve truly seen an anti-hero protagonist that I enjoy reading about… Zhu’s killings near the end feel so brutal, but I can see why they were necessary. I really wish Zhu and Ma could’ve had that domestic bliss, but I suppose that was never going to happen. And speaking of things that were never going to happen…yeah…obviously Ouyang and Esen wouldn’t live happily ever after…but it would’ve been nice…and their final scene is so painful…it’s fine I’ll just imagine fix-it fics in my head… Overall I really enjoyed She Who Became the Sun. It’s been a long time since I’ve read an adult fiction book that truly captivated me, and I think it came down to a perfect intersection of a setting/aesthetic I like and a writing voice that I love – I love that it sounds like it was translated from Chinese, it adds to the vibes so much. (I feel like a major gripe I have with modern fiction is how bad the writing voices are…but I digress.) At the same time, though, I do sense some weaknesses from this being the author’s debut. Zhu’s motivations were understandable when they were literally life or death, but as they moved up in the world it became less and less convincing. I bought that they feared retaliation for not being Zhu Chongba so they continued on that path to greatness, but once that problem was out of the way I found it a bit difficult to stay on Zhu’s side as they did all these ruthless things in the name of a goal that I don’t believe that they want. I guess this is why Parker-Chan emphasized the “I HAVE to achieve GREATNESS” internal monologue so much, but it didn’t really solidify Zhu’s motivations in my mind. And for being a war novel, there’s shockingly little fighting or war-time strategic battles…a lot of the time, Zhu relies on using the environment around them rather than deploying their soldiers in specific formations or anything… I guess I was hoping for Hunter x Hunter Chimera Ant arc levels of back and forth but oh well lol I really loved this book…and I’ve already borrowed the sequel so I can read it while I’ve still got all the character and place names in my head. If Parker-Chan can stick the landing, I’ll probably buy a copy of the duology for myself, so for now I’ll give She Who Became the Sun a 9/10.

Read the new SpyFam because I’m enjoying this Henry/Martha arc so much, and while I’m a little miffed that the air sirens were just a false alarm to conveniently prevent Martha from confessing, I’m obsessed with the rest of this chapter… Endo’s writing and comicing is really incredible throughout, but I love love love the sequence of Henry facing his own obstacles and slowly awakening to his feeling for Martha…the letters they exchange are so heartbreaking, and then the panel where his hands and thoughts betray his gentlemanly image is so beautifully impactful. This is honestly the most I’ve been enjoying SpyFam since the cruise ship arc happened in the manga, so I’m really excited for the next chapter.

Tuesday

Ummm

Wednesday

Two more Simpsons episodes as I try to work…it was a bad idea, because I just got irritated with the show lmao. Bart the Daredevil was a pretty straightforward episode in terms of the arc/jokes, and then the episode about Marge campaigning against the violence in a kid’s cartoon just reminded me of the current puritanism streak in media and left a bad taste in my mouth…I mean I guess the episode ended on the side of artistic expression, but I feel like it flattened the discussion too much.

Thursday

Caught up with Hibi, Kimi and it’s as pleasantly cute as it’s always been.

Akuheki…the freaky sex scenes feel a little silly now that they’ve resolved all their backstory hangups and have an otherwise wholesomely romantic relationship, but whatever lol.

Friday

Absolutely nothing

Saturday

I’ve been going through my entire chart of all the anime and manga I’ve experienced in my life as part of work (don’t ask), and I found a few that I wanted to revisit, but the only one I actually read through was Nennen Saisai. And wow I have zero memory of ever reading this (as it happens with most of the BL I read), but revisiting it as an adult was really rewarding now that I know about rakugo, because I didn’t mention it at all in my earlier notes. This was such a tightly written love story between Jugemu and Shinigami…I love the transition of Jugemu going from staying by Shinigami’s side because he wants to die and then wanting to live because of Shinigami’s companionship… And then the final twist that his name truly holds the power of immortality and how he uses it to cheat death, not to mention how he was probably inadvertently replenishing his own lifespan just by going to rakugo performances…that’s so cute and funny. It was enough to bump my score from an 8 to a 9. It’s been a bit of a weird week lol I’ve been so obsessed with work that I can’t focus on anything else…not even the weekly manga I usually keep up with. I can’t promise to do better next week, but we’ll see.

[desolateice]

17 for the ao3 wrapped? :]

17. Your favorite character to write this year? This is hard. They're so many that are so fun. 💖 I love writing Daniel's rants and monologues. Whether it's because the fish stick that is mer!Johnny is stretching out his sweaters in Newark, or won't stop cuddling him as a snake!Johnny or ranting about pizza in Root Beer Floats and Green Tea, or being confused about language in Konpeito or all his terribly wonderful ideas it's just fun to write essentially a long internal monologue for him. His spirals while being pretty gutting are also fun to write. And his grief that he carries is also somewhat cathartic to write. I also like making him just a horny mess all the time. My other fav monologuer is Dutch. 😂 In my head no matter where I put him in a story it means chaos and fun is about to happen even if it won't always be fun for Johnny or Daniel. And I love writing him and Bobby because I like to write them as opposites. Bobby trying to keep everyone safe and out of trouble and Dutch ready to burn the world to the ground for fun. Chaos and mischief ready to get into a brawl or murder for his friends and Bobby just trying to reign him in. Though all of the cobras mean fun are on the way. Sometimes a character surprises me pending the fic. As I explored the characters in Okinawa in Root Beer Floats and Green Tea I ended up really enjoying writing Chozen and Kumiko. Which is why Buku Buku Cha exists. Because I looked at Tomi Village and wondered why, why would Chozen snap like and once Buku Buku Cha is over I may write at length about the head cannon reason I have for that. But I also love giving Chozen and Kumiko sibling arguing energy where they love each other but will tease each other to death. The other one that surprised me and I am having a lot of fun writing Sid in Cherry Cordial. I've written further than what's been posted, but I may have accidentally given him some Gomez Addams energy. 😅 Generally I paint him as a black and white villain but he's totally gray in Cherry Cordial and it's kind of fun. I do enjoy writing the adults and extra side characters a lot too, Laura and Lucille and Mr. Miyagi. Miyagi sensei in Buku Buku Cha has been fun too. But despite how much I love them all, really it's probably Johnny whose my favorite to write which is spawned by a curiosity of if he got kindness and love and support that wasn't ripped from him then what would happen intrigues me. If he's given a chance to apologize and actually improve, to grow and to heal that's so fascinating to me to explore. I like I guess poking at his wounds and then healing them. It gives me hope that he can avoid all the awful stuff that happens later so I enjoy writing him and what the relationships with other characters becomes and how it can improve his life. If only he got the support he needs, the care and love. Thank you for asking 💖 It's a lot of fun to answer these.

If anyone else wants to ask, I've answered 2, 5, 10, 16 and 19 the prompt is here.