#super fun to write too!! helps my creativity flow a bit haha

[moonstruckme]

Mae!! I have a question for you. So I used to be very into creative writing but I stopped when I was in high school because I got too busy. Your work is inspiring me to maybe try creative writing again…

What advice would you give to someone wanting to get back into it? Thanks love, hope you’re having a wonderful day! 💖💖💖

Ahh Amber that's so exciting!! Honestly I think any advice is very flexible because everyone's process is so so different! For me one of the best things I did to get myself to actually produce writing was just taking myself (almost comically) seriously, like blocking off a certain amount of time a day to write or just not shying away from being like "sorry I don't feel like watching this movie right now, I need to write" which feels a bit ludicrous because no one is making you but for me I've found it's kind of important for my mental health so that's how I justify it--not that it needs justification, you should do whatever you want, I just convince myself I need to justify it somehow haha

Also, if writing in itself is difficult at first, I really recommend just writing the most self-indulgent stuff you want simply to "turn the tap on." If you're short on ideas you can use online prompts or even write your own version of an existing story (ofc that depends on whether you plan on publishing it anywhere, but I'm sure you're familiar with the ethics of that), but just giving yourself over to writing for the sake of writing even if you're not thrilled with what comes out. For me, making just writing my goal (as opposed to writing something "good") really helped me get into the flow

Of course, like I said at the beginning, this is all deeply deeply subjective! You'll probably have to feel out what works best for you as you go along, so try to pay attention to yourself and I hope it ends up being super fun for you! There's some more rambly writing advice under the tag below if you feel like looking there :))

[melodraca]

Hey! I saw in one of your posts, in the tags, that you were an English major. I'm going to college soon, and I was wondering if you had any advice on picking out your major. What do you like about majoring in English, and what exactly do English majors do? Thank you!

First of all, congrats! That's really exciting! I really hope you enjoy your time in college! Second, this is gonna be a bit long, so I apologize in advance o7

I'm honestly not sure how helpful this is, but for the longest time I didn't really know what I wanted to do. I actually enrolled in university as a mature student a good 5-ish years after I graduated high school. I was so tired of school-related stress (and the way that the public school system functioned in general) that I was honestly considering not even going to post-secondary. I bounced between different potential majors, although I couldn't help but feel tired just thinking about them, like I would be going to school out of obligation or societal expectation rather than genuine passion.

When I came back around to the idea years later, I started poking around my local university's website. As I was going through, reading everything over, and clicking through different subjects, I realized that I was actually really feeling excited about school for the first time... pretty much ever. Because I realized that I had the chance to do things at my own pace, with a focus on subjects that I actually liked, rather than what my family expected would get me a traditionally "good job."

I narrowed my major down to a choice between English and creative writing, but I ultimately went with English. As much as I love creative writing, I prefer doing it as a hobby. It's the same with art for me: getting too serious with it made me feel less passionate and creative (to be fair though, I did take two first year creative writing classes as electives and I am genuinely proud of the stuff I wrote for them!)

With English, I could do my favourite thing in the world: overthinking literature and talking ad nauseam about the media I like. I love rambling, and writing essays is pretty much just organized info-dumping. I also wanted to learn more about history and culture, especially the way that they influence and are influenced by the works of literature, film, etc. of the times. In my experience so far, English classes have mostly consisted of reading or watching a bunch of texts, analyzing them & picking them apart, discussing said texts with my peers, and comparing/contextualizing them with each other. It's way more fun for me than it probably sounds to most people haha

Side note: I'm also taking biology as a minor (specifically with a focus on zoology because I love animals). The contrast between using the more creative and writerly side of my brain, and the more logical sciencey and side works well for me.

I'm still not super career focused, though I have certainly thought about it. I'm on disability support right now, so thankfully I'm fortunate enough to not need to juggle work and school. Ideally, I would love it if my degree landed me a stable job that doesn't make me feel miserable or put the same strain on me that retail and food service do. But I'm kinda just going with the flow for now.

Anyways, that's all to say: look over all of your options and narrow it down to the ones that draw your interest and passion the most. Consider what you want out of school, explore the potential career options that each subject could bring if that's your goal, and generally go with what makes you feel the best.

I know most schools have exploratory courses and academic advisors that can help you figure out what you want to do, so I would definitely look into that! Oh, and look into the required classes for each subject too! It personally helped me organize and prepare for everything I would need to do so that I was less blind-sighted by, as an example, my mandatory statistics class for my biology minor (I'm DEFINITELY not a math person)

Good luck, and I'm sorry again for how long this got! I wish you the best :D

[you-cant-spell-subtext-without]

I used to write when I was younger for lots of fandoms but mainly Dark Angel. Then I went to university and I feel like academic writing killed my soul a little bit. I’m now a practicing psychologist and I really struggle to write creatively and I find it super hard to not write in ~work mode which is boring jargon. It may be that the nature of the job is zapping my creative resources… but who knows! I love SPN fics and consume them at inhuman rate haha and I would love to contribute to this fandom in some small way, everyone is so brilliant. Do you have any advice for getting back into the swing of writing outside of your ~work mode? This may not make any sense but thought I’d ask because you’ve just mentioned you’re a practicing lawyer and I thought maybe you’d have some good tips?

OMG FIRSTLY - DARK ANGEL MY BELOVED THE SHOW IN WHICH I WAS FIRST OBSESSED W JACKLES (AND SUBSEQUENTLY FORGOT AB IT UNTIL I ENTERED THIS FANDOM :D).

ok my basic rules for writing are simple.

1. do it for fun. what's inspiring? what's exciting to think about? when you find the fun thing, the words will flow out!

2. do it for you. Vonnegut says write for you and maybe one other person. write the thing you want to read! (this btw directly correlates to rule no. 1)

3. throw out the rest of the rules. write something insane! write an entire fic as a limerick! write from an object's pov. write a musical script. DO THE CRAZY THING IF YOU WANT TO. or do the not crazy thing. have fun (see how it all relates to chasing the fun? :)) Write what you know. Write what you don't know (research is fun too!). Just write.

that brings me to my other little tip re writing, which is going to sound silly but. its to just do it! writing is a muscle. the more it exercised the better it is (not easier. but better). write the bad first draft. HATE WHAT YOU PUT OUT! thats fine! there's a line in this movie on Netflix called Set It Up where the female lead is a writer, but she doesnt write bc she is scared it wont be any good. her roommate hits her w a pillow and tells her to write the bad first draft.

so write your bad first draft. I can't wait to read it. :) creation in and of itself is contribution.

another side tip is contractions. I think those of us who write formally for work forget them, so I specifically pay attention to that. I read my dialogue (and exposition sometimes too) out loud and ask myself how do these people talk ? does it sound like they're speaking irl? etc. (but also. if that's a rule you don't subscribe to, write them like they aren't speaking in real life! See: Hannibal).

finally, I also find reading some before I write always helps my style and the words come easier (and I try to read not fan fic RIGHT before I sit down to write, I can't explain why reading specifically other things is helpful for writing said fan fic?). Slaughterhouse Five is great brain lube. So is Mary Oliver (and poems are short so its a quick warm up).

Sorry to ramble. I hope this helps some :)

***Also it's so cool you are a psychologist. Thank you for helping people with their mental health. It's our most important thing <3

[snowstorm808]

More than Friends review eps 9-16

I previously posted my review of the first half of the series because I could not contain what I felt. It was quite impulsive of me but I wanted to let out everything I thought and felt for this drama. It is becoming better every time in such a way that I see the little creative ideas the writer or director is putting into each episode along with the development of the story. Familiar yet refreshing. I decided to create a new post because I saw that the first half recap was way too long if I would still add the remaining episode reviews because I just could not help it. I do understand that the length could be frustrating but I want my words to be read too, so thank you for everyone patient enough to read my words.

Episode 9 - Watching this episode made me realize a double standard I never really noticed before but I guess drama watchers would be able to relate to; the difference of pitiful and pathetic for female and male leads. I’m not yet certain if it’s deliberate but female characters locked in one sided love often seem pathetic but when it’s a male character they seem pitiful? Woo Yeon did seem pathetic in her one sided love in the earlier episodes so why does Soo get to be pitiful? It’s the same for the past dramas I’ve watched too. It’s just a food for thought. Based on last week’s preview, I really thought Joon Soo would punch Lee Soo after the drunk call but he held back so good job, Joon Soo. Honestly, I thought he wouldn’t be able to hold back because not only was he angry of the fact that Woo Yeon was getting swayed by Soo, but also because he knew how much it hurt, and hates the fact that she would still be hurt over the latter after a decade. This is why I keep wanting Joon Soo because he never thought selfishly when it came to Woo Yeon. I also love the fact that his character is being shown as someone seemingly perfect with a lot of flaws too. I love seeing his flaws and even relating to them! Being used to holding back is probably the reason why I write so much because I swear I can’t talk this much at all. I really hope he would stop holding back for his own sake. I think the most favorable Soo I have ever seen was him drunk calling his dad. I love the fact his parents went to his house to talk and console him. I also realized that Soo really closed himself up enough to have no one but his dad to drunk call. That was sad because the high school gang never really shunned him but he was the one who kept his heart closed. I half expected his folks to announce that hey would be back together because I feel that’s where those two are headed to eventually. As for Woo Yeon, I’m somehow glad she mustered up the courage to break up with Joon Soo after everything. As much as I was dreading it, I also felt that it was the right decision. She knew that it was too cruel to let him hurt quietly so I’m glad she had that decency; I could see that she was doing her best to be firm with her resolve. On her behalf, I get it why it’s difficult for her to let go of her feelings for Soo so I do not think she’s a weird one for that. I know that this is where my ship stops its sail but I’m satisfied that it’s not as I feared it would. The fight scene was reminiscent of Jealousy Incarnate, I just hope Dong Jun faked the punch because I know how athletic he has been from his Idol days which is enough for me to be scared for Seung Woo. Conveniently, it was only after this that Soo decides to take a break from pursuing Woo Yeon after ruining her chance to start anew with someone. Eventually, I know that Woo Yeon would not be able to defy the flow of her feelings towards Soo but I hope he can also grow up more because right now, I can still see him being selfish and self centered in his approach.

Episode 10 - How can one episode contain so much emotions? And it was all types of emotions at that! I mean one moment it’s awkward, cute, upsetting, lovely, funny then sad and even more! This episode was a roller coaster of emotions in my opinion. First thing’s first, the younger guy Jinju dated is a total loser and a scumbag. Good thing Sang-hyeok was there to the rescue. I feel so bad for Young-hee because every time she takes a step forward, she’s always dragged two steps back. She has a strong personality but it does not mean her situation does not wear her down too. So here comes the roller coaster because Lee Soo and On Joon Soo drinking together and ending up at Woo Yeon’s place is super cute. That includes her parents’ “interview” with the two men while they try to show off their “qualities”. I literally said “boom” when Joon Soo “let slipped” that Soo was the jerk Woo Yeon’s parents have been hunting for. That was really petty but I guess it’s his little revenge on Soo for interrupting their relationship when he used to date Woo Yeon. I am not going to lie about not loving the misunderstanding Soo had when he saw them together in the restaurant while he was with his parents. He tends to act so victimized which I really dislike then he readily blows up at Woo Yeon. But then again, it makes these characters more human then the usual kdrama characters I watched in the past. Lee Soo should really learn to express things more clearly so Woo Yeon would stop thinking that he’s simply bored or fooling around. As for Joon Soo, it’s a lost battle and I feel bad for him because he has become a masochist which is why I need to take care of him. I need Woo Yeon’s cooperation for this...

Episode 11 - Soo is finally given the chance he keeps on missing. As much as I am sad for my ship, I’m happy Woo Yeon and Soo are coming around although it isn’t the full circle yet. I do feel really bad for Joon Soo but it has always been clear how strong Woo Yeon’s feelings have been for Soo. I like how she at long last clearly stated that she will always give Soo the chance whatever he does because it has been evidently true for the past episodes. I guess that’s enough proof that feelings can’t be controlled easily. My favorite part in this episode would be her giving Soo an ultimatum because I always had a feeling he thought of her as a port always there for him. My second favorite in this episode would be Sang Hyuk and Jinju! He’s so sweet and caring which is exactly what she needs. Will they be my favorite couple? Hehe. I just want to take a bit of time to swoon over Joon Soo because he cares a lot for Woo Yeon though it isn’t returned, I appreciate him wishing her well. I can’t help but wonder if there will be another drama between Woo Yeon and Soo, because if he hurts her one more time then I would prefer her to be alone (I’ll be taking Joon Soo.)

Episode 12 - I never thought Soo and Woo Yeon together would be this mushy haha. They are making up for the lost time and I like seeing them happy and somewhat letting go of the inhibitions they had. And for the first time, I think I want to scold the writer for adding a character like Yura because seriously, those two no longer need another person to interrupt them. I suppose it’s to make up for the remining episodes? But then it could be expound on things like commitment issues for Woo Yeon and Soo, and taking the next step for their relationship. I do secretly hope for Joon Soo to make a comeback but not necessarily in a romantic light. Obviously, Soo is the one being careful now when it comes to dealing with Woo Yeon. I like seeing him nervous of losing her because it keeps him on his toes though I hope he would be more direct about it instead of acting cool so she won’t misunderstand anymore. I remember him saying he dated around too but Woo Yeon seems more like the one used to dating. I guess he never really thought of the other party when dating. I can sort of imagine his ex-girlfriends putting more effort than him.

Episode 13 - Lol, Soo should’ve been more sensitive when Woo Yeon insisted on going home by herself. I find it so cute when she defended Soo from her parents, she was so cheeky to point out her dad’s faults. After everything they have been through I hope they can do well from now on but something tells me otherwise. At least Woo Yeon finally said the magic words Soo has been so anxious to hear. It seems she was too nervous and being careful to say it though I had the initial impression that she must’ve had a stigma of some sort to those three words. I somehow feel nervous about Soo’s job offer from the airline because it might lead to a fight or even a break up. Speaking of a break up, I’m sad Hyun-jae and Young-hee had to part ways though it was one-sided. I do get the pov of his family but I can’t relate to the pressure of marriage. By the way, am I the only one who thinks Kwon Yura’s character is waste? I mean I don’t see much purpose for her character because she does not threaten the main lead’s relationship other than making Woo Yeon want to doll up herself. I must say one of my favorite scenes in this episode is when Woo Yeon went to the salon and told the staff she’s meeting with her boyfriend’s woman. I love how the customers and salon staff reacted even calling in their boss to style her. Was it a parody? I’m not sure because I have sworn to lay my hands and eyes off all dramas that deal with a husband’s mistress. Nevertheless, it was super witty and I had a lot of fun watching that scene including the one where she deliberately posed further behind Yura to make her face look smaller. Lastly, Sang-hyeok and Jinju are finally together! They look so cute together and make the perfect couple. In fact, all three couples seem to be perfect for each other because they complement each others’ personalities well. 

Episode 14 - This must be the episode where everyone breaks up or gets rejected. But before that, I can’t get over the expression Woo Yeon’s mom wore when she said to pack up contraception for her trip with Soo. One minute they were having a lovely mother-daughter moment then she suddenly brings that up. As much as most people would find it awkward, I think it was so funnily straightforward. Her mom cares which suddenly reminds me of the reaction of Young-hee’s mom when she found tons of condoms in her drawer. Another reaction I really enjoyed was when Woo Yeon and Soo found out Jinju and Sang-hyeok are dating! The way she splashed water out of shock really showed how it was the farthest thing in her mind. From the time Soo’s work offer came, it already seemed ominous along with Woo Yeon’s offer so I was not surprised with the break up. Maybe it was for the better; I have been mulling over Woo Yeon’s reasoning that she might end up hating Soo if they stayed together. The loneliness was eating her up which I believe is realistic in a long distance relationship like theirs. Soo shouldn’t have readily agreed regardless if he was thinking of her or not. Considering these two pursued their careers, I think this would leave less regrets in their hearts because they were able to fulfill the dreams they had. Their feelings for each other will always be there because they are Soo and Woo Yeon. I just need to wait how they will get back to each other.

Episode 15 - While watching this episode, I couldn’t stop thinking that this is the episode I finally see Lee Soo as someone heartbroken and not self centered, also, am I the only one who thinks his hair styled up is way better than his hair down? At last, I got to see Soo’s feelings of longing for Woo Yeon instead of his attitude of forcing his feelings like earlier into the series. I think it’s his maturity plus his sincerity in wanting her back because he now knows how it is to lose her. Their break up might just seem like another ploy by the writer to extend the series but I also think it was helpful to both Woo Yeon and Soo. In the first place, they decided to be apart so their careers could flourish which made them busy and drift apart. It also brought to light the insecurities they had especially Woo Yeon who had been so used to be the only one who in love. I think her fears of having the person she loved and wanted the most surfaced which keeps her from returning to him even if he’s practically begging her back. I just hope Soo would’ve made efforts to contact Woo Yeon or get her back after that break up call just as he was when he was courting her instead of stepping back. I guess it was partly a good thing because they were able to achieve certain things for their careers during that time too. Meanwhile Young-hee’s mom’s death was inevitable but at least they got to resolve the hard feelings and she was able to convey her love for her children. I think among the deaths I’ve seen in kdramas, this is the most touching for me. I must really be getting old to be sentimental like this. I also felt envious of the leads’ friendship. This episode showcased it the most especially how they supported Young-hee through the most difficult time in her life. I also love how they quietly support the complicated relationship of Soo and Woo Yeon. They have never attempted to kill him so yup they are good people.

Episode 16 - Loose strings are tied up in a pretty bow as the friends gear up for each of their happy endings. Joon Soo decides to let go of his feelings for Woo Yeon (he’s finally free to walk towards me! Yay!) I really like their hug because it sums up the affections and friendship they had. Good thing Soo wasn’t there to tear them apart. I also like that Soo is still a bit jealous of Joon Soo because whenever I remember how arrogant he was about stealing Woo Yeon away, I still want to punch him. His mom’s pushing aka guilting Woo Yeon was indeed effective, heh. Seriously though, it seems to me that his mom did it because she did not want him to end up like his parents and perhaps it was her way of making up for their negligence and mistreatment of him. I love the fact that Soo and Woo Yeon continued to fight and make up even after getting back together, it was very much in their character. It’s also nice that Soo’s parents decided to give their relationship another shot. It makes me think that they too learned from their son. Jinju’s and Sang-hyeok’s wedding pictorial was super lovely, it was very smart of them to trick Soo into it haha. Young-hee and Hyun-jae are finally back together too! Thank goodness, they’re getting married instead of returning to dating. As much as I cringed with their cheesiness, it was very much welcome and cute to watch. All six of them had their own cringey and cheesy way of saying and doing things. I think this drama has one of the most satisfactory endings ever, now, if only On Joon Soo can find his way to me...

More than Friends has met the amount of romance and tension that I always look for yet refreshing and not too cliché. I love the little details and the way it explored different types and stages of relationships including of different age groups. I hope other viewers would also get to see how the writer tried to portray these in the drama. Watching the ending made me realize the drama’s title was probably referred to these couples because they started as friends and became more than just that. Honestly, their situation is quite idealistic but I think it’s so cute if it does happen in real life. I’m happy I watched this even if it was mainly for Kim Dong Jun. Literally before watching this, I watched Moment of Eighteen then even prior to that, I watched Meow, The Secret Boy. MoE was sad because Junwoo had to put off his dreams and relationship to help out his mom. I initially wanted to skip or wait till later to watch it but ended up being hooked to it. Hehe.

One of the things I find fascinating in this drama is the casting! Shin Ye Eun’s step mom in MTSB became her actual mom while her dad became Lee Soo’s dad this time. There lots of familiar faces which made me like the drama even more. 

[lutrain2020]

Meet the Creator!

Introducing: Aprici / Soybean or Lili!

Commission:  I don't do commissions because I don't have a way to transfer payment, but I do take requests.

Social Media: AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Japo_Chan23

Tell us a little bit about you!

My name is Lili, but online I typically go by soybean or Aprici. My favorite color is blue/pink and I really enjoy playing video games and writing. Despite how long I've been writing, I've always dreamed of being a psychologist or therapist, so once I graduate high school I'm going to have a double major in psychology and social services. I might keep writing when I get older, but it would be more as a pass time than anything.

Is there someone who inspires you and your writing?

Barry Lyga and Neal Shusterman, for sure. They are both phenomenal writers and I want my style of writing to be similar to theirs because it just makes everything fit so well. Lyga, in his I Hunt Killers trilogy, was able to capture suspense perfectly and had very good pacing, and Shusterman was able to tell a great story with diverse and well thought out characters. I aspire to be able to write things that are well paced and have fully thought out characters one day. Lyga and Shusterman were the main reasons why I started writing again after I dropped it for a few years.  

What got you into writing?

I was looking at fanart of Gravity Falls on Deviantart and I found this one fanfiction and it just seemed really interesting so I read it. It then led me to fanfiction.net and then I decided that "why don't I wrote my own fanfiction?". So I did, and this was when I was in 5th grade so it was REALLY bad haha, but I ended up reading a lot in middle school and got a better grasp on storytelling and overall just how to write. I was writing constantly during middle school, and I got better once I entered high school.

What's your favorite part of the writing process?

Oh boy, I don't really have a writing process, so I just lack any outline whatsoever.  Sometimes I just get struck with some idea to write a story and then I'd go and do a livewrite immediately without a plan in mind. It makes me happy when I just start writing and then I don't stop. I like the ideas I get out of nowhere and then having the ability to execute that ability it just my favorite.

What's your least favorite part of the writing process?

I absolutely HATE editing and just rereading everything. When I think about what I'm going to write I end up losing the inspiration to actually write what I wanted, or if I do write it it just lacks the emotion or detail that I had originally wanted. It just doesn't work with me if I write something that I actually thought out. In the fanfiction I'm writing right now, "Pick Your Poison, Love" I was originally gonna just have it be like five chapters, but on the third chapter I was like, "hey, how interesting would it be if I just killed a character and made a murder mystery of sorts and then that's how the characters become closer?". I hate making a plan or thinking about what should come next. It ruins my flow, so whenever I decide to make a plan or something, everything I write ends up losing the love that I have for what I was writing because it just doesn't turn out like how I expected.

Whats your favorite type of scene to write?

I looooove writing characters bonding. It comes easily to me. I also love writing scenes of just detailing the world around you or the actions a character is doing. It just comes easily for me.

What's the hardest for you to write?

Fight scenes, anything super extreme, and adult content. I just struggled with writing the simple details that come with it. It's hard for me to write because if you miss one detail everything falls apart and it doesn't turn out well whatsoever. I'm very inexperienced in these areas because I just lack the detail in writing it out. It just comes out bad and bland.

What's your favorite genre to write?

I like to write a general hurt/comfort kind of thing, or something modern/realistic. I like the balance between fluff and angst. I never really enjoyed writing full on angst because I just lack the motivation to write someone getting hurt and then just not having support, and sometimes fluff is hard to write as well if it's just too much, you know? I just want to write something the embodies both elements of angst and fluff.

What fandoms do you enjoy writing for?

Right now I've mainly been writing for Legend of Zelda, hence why I'm doing this train. I used to write for a multitude of others fandom that I soon dropped. I've only wrote for Legend of Zelda right now, but I enjoy writing Twilight the most. He's just simple and I like writing him with Midna.Twilight Princess was one of my first Zelda games, so once I replayed it I just fell in love with the character again. The Linked Universe fandom is also really sweet and I love talking to everyone in the discord! I really appreciate everyone there because they all have so many ideas and they're all so creative, and I love just hearing what other people have to say about it. I used to write for Marvel a lot (specifically some Spiderman stuff), but I haven't recently, but I really like writing Peter Parker because it just came easily to me. Peter's a nerd who went through a lot of grief, and after my grandmother died I projected a lot onto him and wrote a lot of stuff relating to him and Gwen Stacy or Harry Osborn because it just came easily to me.

What's the work you are most proud of?

I wrote this fanfiction recently called Sunkissed (https://archiveofourown.org/works/24318283) and I ADORE it. I love it so much, it was fluff, but it wasn't too much, and I added some humor to it as well. It was just all the boys having fun and acting like a family and it just made me happy to write because the scene at the end where they're all playing in the river is literally just how I act with my friends sometimes. I just like this piece a lot because it just gives me a warm feeling. I'm also super proud of called It's Complicated (https://archiveofourown.org/works/14798700) which is based on Peter Parker trying to make amends with Harry Osborn. I really like it because I feel like this was the one time I was able to really capture who these characters are and it just had a good balance of emotions that these two had over everything that happened between them.

Is there a specific scene you are particularly proud of?

There's this one scene in Pick Your Poison, Love when Midna and Twilight are about to go and meet Dead Hand that I'm fond/proud of because it just seemed like, such a Midna thing to do. Cause Twilight fell from a ladder and instead of catching him she just let him fall. They just met so I tried to make her act more like how she did when you first meet her in Twilight Princess. Also I'm proud of the opening scene I had for Secret Agent W, when they all met Wolfie for the first time. I really enjoy that scene and I find it funny, even though I wasn't really intending there to be too many in your face jokes, you know?

Is there something you had to work through that forced you to grow as a writer?

I had to go through some things in real life relating to my family and my relationships, but going through everything made me grow as a person, which then impacted my writing as well. Growing as a writer was hard because a bunch of my super old works were REALLY bad, but it was just the act of writing them continually that helped me grow as a writer. I know what I was writing was bad, but I did it anyways because I liked it. I became a better writer when I got older because of how often I was writing.

Do you have any fics inspired by real life stories?

I wrote this one story that was just making a bunch of metaphors, but I just included this one scene I was asking this guy, Rick, if Italy was pretty when he went there and when he said it was beautiful and I was almost in tears haha. I include a lot of moments from my life. In Sunkissed, at the end when Warriors and Twilight are throwing Wind back and forth towards the other, that was what my brother and my dad did to me when we were in Florida! We were in a pool at night and they were just chucking me back and forth! It a memory I'm really fond of. There might be a bunch of references here and there in any of my stories that have happened in my life, but I can't think of any off the top of my head, and I have like 45 works posted on my ao3, so I don't really want to go check, haha.

Where do you post your finished works?

https://archiveofourown.org/users/Japo_Chan23

[polar-stars]

Hi! I dunno if this was already obvious, but I LOVED WHAT YOU DID FOR THE TRAINING CAMP SOOOO MUCH!! So I wanted to ask, what was your thought process for coming up with the challenges and characters who would feature in them, particularly the first and second ones? Love you :3

ahhaaaahhhhhhhhHHHHHHH //lies down//

I- I am so glad you enjoyed it ;w; Especially since it’s your favorite arc in canon, it makes me happy to hear I did a well a job on it. Because I was a little unsure if I did do it justice haha ovo;;;

I don’t know if I can reconstruct the entirety of my thought-processces throughout writing the arc, but I’ll try:

Regarding the alumni I chose: a lot of Shokugeki Fanfics that take place in the future and tackle a future Trainings Camp like to have the entirety of the 92nd Generation (+ even some of the senpais) show up at it. I don’t really want to let the canon characters enter all at once in SnKimiko but rather let them drop in one by one until a much later arc (2nd year) where the adults get a bit more relevance in general. Not a lot but a bit. I did end up going for Takumi and Ikumi, because Takumi was introduced in Trainings Camp and I thought that would be a nice throwback. The other alumni were also there mostly for throwback reasons, plus I wanted to introduce the admiration that Kimiko has for Kojiro Shinomiya actually meep (as well as that little Mini-Plottwist ahdh). Rui and Shigemichi got chosen rather spontaneously but I wanted someone from the 91st or 90th Generation there (because I thought it wouldn’t make sense if it’s constantly just the 92nd Generation that gets to do all the stuff) but thought it was way too soon to get the former Elites there. Adding to that, I just like Rui quite a lot 😌. Lastly, there’s Akari Miyano who’s pretty much the Easter Egg within Trainings Camp. I don’t know if I got it across well enough but who she actually is, but well she’s not a fanmade character by me but an actual canon character from Shokugeki. She’s a One-Off in Shokugeki though and not really a name that I think is present to anyone. 

I chose Rui as first examiner because she’s a character I was always curious about and I wanted to attempt getting some more character into her. Additionally it presented me with a good opportunity to introduce her most precious son. 

Mika and Hiroshi got added to echo Takumi’s and Isami’s introduction, but I wanted to handle things a tad bit differently considering that, different to their dads, the two were already formally introduced beforehand anyway. I wanted to make Kimiko’s and Mika’s rivalry an aspect. But once again, Mika had already more time to sink in as character than Takumi did and she already loudly declared herself as Kimiko’s rival...usually with not much acknowledging from Kimiko. So in the end, I decided that the first day of Trainings Camp would be a great opportunity to have Kimiko truly realize Mika’s capability of standing toe-to-toe with her. To not just have them face off against each other so early, I thought about the whole Itsuki-situation and how Kimiko first focuses on someone else. 

Regarding the challenge with the colors of ingredients, that’s just something that came to me some morning if I remember correctly. I wanted to do something that does involve a sort-off limitation and giving the students a limit through the ingredients they can use was an idea. I then thought I should add one color that has a wide array of ingredients going for it making it the more easier choice, that being yellow (lemons, bananas, potatoes, corn ...etc.) and one color with not a lot of ingredients going for it making that one the more harder challenge to work with, that being blue. At the same time, mixing these two gives green which is another color with a wide array of ingredients (spinach, green apples, salad, pears etc.) This challenge is also supposed to showcase that both Kimiko and Mika have quite the creativity going for them while also putting them on even level, with Kimiko being able to craft a good dish out of the color that is the hardest challenge while Mika is the only one to come up with the idea to mix the two colors presented to her. 

When it comes to the 2nd challenge, that majorly started out with me wanting to introduce Kazuo. I wanted to get his introduction done in Trainings Camp because I wanted him being introduced before his sister Ran. Ran will actually get her introduction insanely soon and she’ll also become pretty active rather soon as well. So yeah, I had to get Kazuo into Trainings Camp somehow. Somewhere along the lines, I got the idea of having him team up with Kimiko while also adding Takayuki to it. Takayuki was added for three reasons: simple reoccurrence as a character, he’s with Kazuo most of the time anyway, I thought it would be fun having him team up with Kimiko as well given that they last met as opponents. Another good factor that actually dawned to me a little bit later is that all three characters have older siblings in the Elite Ten and that fact often being pointed out to them by other students. 

Given Itsuki’s introduction on Day one already, I also thought this would be a nice opportunity to hint more onto a certain antagonist by also getting Emi into the spectacle, as a slight fun challenge on the side but also as a means to introduce the “Mafia”. 

Akari Miyano’s role in Trainings Camp was something I had already thought up ever since 2016 and I thought inserting her and the plan I had for her here would be perfect. Again, she’s much of a little Easter Egg.

I don’t really remember anymore how I came up with the challenge that is presented to the trio, but I think it does have something to do with the topic of harmony in a sense. And harmony is what our trio struggles with at first, so I thought it would be a good challenge. 

Regarding how things played out in the end, that just mainly came to me in the flow while writing the thing actually: The main dish task falling onto Kazuo who has the most eccentric style of cooking out of the three and that being something that Kimiko is at first doubtful about, additionally making him cook Mika’s dish (and Mika only cooked one thing yet which was a main dish) got me to introduce his heavy crush on her; Takayuki making too extravagant appetizers because he so badly wanted to the main dish; them being sabotaged by one of the Mafia’s member but not by Akiko (despite the one hint that she’d be the one to do so in the beginning); that finally leading to them working together; Takayuki’s first mistake of making too filling appetizers turning out well in the end while Kimiko’s everlasting creativity leads to her helping out Kazuo....that just all kind off came naturally to me while writing ;w;

When it comes to the Breakfast Challenge, I quickly decided I want Kaori to shine there. She already shone on the lines on Day 1, when she impressed Takumi, but I wanted her to shine in front of Kimiko, giving that the two will have a rivalry as well. In contrast to Kimiko’s and Mika’s rivalry which is similar to Soma’s and Takumi’s in which both parties are basically equal in skill; Kimiko’s and Kaori’s rivalry is much like Soma’s and Akira’s in which one of the two legit outdos the other one at that point in time. I also figured that the Breakfast Challenge is just perfect for Kaori, as her main gimmick is to energize people which is something that people look for in a breakfast in the early morning and while she does not have her father’s sense of smell, she does still have a good understanding on the utilization of fragrance which therefore gives her a large advantage on drawing customers to her stand. 

Sorry for getting so rambly ;w; I hope it wasn’t all too much all over the place (it probably was) and that I worded things at least a little decently....meep. 

But thank you so much for the question and the interest. I am super glad you enjoyed Trainings Camp so much!

Love ya too Emi ;w; !!

[altonadventures]

ALTON ADVENTURES BIG ANNOUNCEMENT

So...because its Friday and I usually update AA on Fridays, I figured it was time to make my big announcement! 

And that is...that Alton Adventures is changing. A little bit. 

Am I rebooted the comic again? No haha! Once I get back to it it shall continue as normal but some characters may look a bit different going forward. 

Who may those characters be?

Sir Gareth Nemesis 

Why is he changing? 

Sir Nemesis’ change is actually less drastic than one may think. For starters, he needed a design rehaul. I wanted his armor to be more simple, easier to draw but with still details that could tie him to Nemesis (the green eye, the arms, the light pink details instead of inconsistent tentacles). I also had an issue where his hair was too close to his skin color, so to combat this I turned him into a ginger! His eye color also changed from gold to green, another thing to visually tie him more to Nemesis. 

So yes, I changed Sir Nem’s design because I was unhappy with it. His armor was never drawn consistently ever, I was constantly changing the tone of his hair and his skin so that was inconsistent. I want my designs to be more consistent and polished going forward.

What else is different? Well, you can probably tell he looks much more serious, like in older pictures I drew of him. Why is that? Well, I was kind of..honestly tired of his role as the “dad character tm” that he kind of turned out to be. It almost undermined his true characterization and turned him into a typical over the top exaggerated hero character. And I started to realize how much I missed his original concept. A battle hardened solider that was filled with regret and remorse, who heavily sympathizes with the plight of the alien he’s locked in combat with. He’s still much a father however, as he has a biological son and adopts an alien who mimics his likeness (hence another reason he’s a ginger now as his Nemesis daughter always was one). He’s just returned to his roots as a character. Because I felt that characterization was a unique one for the Nemesis ride. And it was an idea I really loved. Sir Nemesis actually WAS one of my favorite characters...I wanted his role to be much larger than it is in the comics. I don’t blame anyone for him becoming a joke, I did initially kind of fuel the fire for it, I’m just hoping that its not to late to get back to the Sir Nemesis I originally wanted to write. And of course, all my characters are still meme and joke worthy. I just want to tackle much more serious issues with my comic and show the more serious side of some of my characters and don’t want there entire existence to be a joke Mr.S can’t have too many folks 1 uping him in the laughs department!  I guess to note with this change that his original voice claim has also been solidified as well. It’s a more somber and serious tone that I feel fits him as a character. 

Final Notes 

Sir Nemesis is a character that I have a lot of thought put into. His backstory is tragic, emotional, and his character is complex and he’s not the perfect hero people might image him as. I plan for his Arc to follow the Fireworks arc in the comic, as well as I am planning to start some more text heavy short stories about how the Secret Weapons became Secret Weapons (which I will likely call Secret Weapon Short Stories hehe) and will be writing his first. Also a very important thing i must address. Yes, the eye on his chest moves. (I have a gif but it doesn’t want to work on this post Ill have it up later ><)

Erica Annabelle Cloud 

ooof okay this is a huge one. Confession time. Erica was always my least favorite character. Why? She just had...no character. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with her, her design felt phoned in and there because I needed an Air/Galatica character, (yes, she is changing as her Galatica stage too). She was just. not well thought out. She had a dual identity but I think a lot of people didn’t pick up on that? She felt like a Rita 2.0 as just a nice and friendly optimistic person and literally had 0 backstory. Originally she was supposed to have had some sort of accident that turned her into Galatica and she had memory loss and forgotten about when she was Air, yeah it was a mess. That eventually just turned into Nebula Corona being a character she made up (bc her one trait was that she was into space and wrote a lot) that she played as when her rides themeing changed. 

She was just..barely a character and her design was abysmal (Her Galatica suit was okay but her Air outfit was an afterthought) She needed a massive visual upgrade. A sleeker flight suit that makes more sense (I used a ref or two for this design!) A different face shape to help her stand out more, my signature they wear glasses they have dot eyes look. Long, wispy, flowing hair to resemble those trails planes make. A bit more lanky and tall. And let me tell you I LOVE her design now. It looks so much more unique and you can just SEE she has so much more character now!  As for her characterization im going full into her being a nerd. A very tech nerd at that! She designed her suit to help her fly at her best, and eventually will be the one that designs and builds all her Galatica tech! Her Galatica design hasn’t been done yet, mostly bc I wanted to focus on her current comic canon design, but not much would change I feel with her upgrade anyways! She is effectively the brains of the group, and the others often turn to her for plans of attack when dealing with a situation, or innovative solutions to problems! I have yet to get a voice claim for her, but im sure one will come to me soon enough! 

Final Notes

Erica/Nebula was a character I struggled to connect with. Everyone else had Airs that were either super plot important, or just much more cool and creative in general. I felt, that with my Air/Galatica she was just there, and I wanted her to be more. So a full character rehaul was done with her and it makes me so happy. She feels much more fleshed out, better designed, and I’m super excited to do more stuff with her, and hopefully you will all see her much more now that I’m a lot happier with her as a character! <3 

Welp that's the end of the updates....wait. Hold on. I have something written here. What could this be? Oh! I remember now! 

Black Hole, AkA Beatrix, will be joining the MAIN CAST of Alton Adventures! 

When I drew my Black Hole design, I knew she was something special. She stands out compared to a lot of my characters, and her design SCREAMS main character. While the biggest main roles will still be held by Mr. S and Rita, I wanted to add another non SW coaster to the main crew, and because Canonically Corkscrew is MIA, Black Hole seemed like a fitting addition to the main crew! As she isn’t human, a species literally only referred to as Black Holes, I thought making her a main character and giving her a big arc would help flesh out the reality of non humans in Alton Adventures! Her powers and design and character and personality are just too fun to shove her into the background. I feel that adding her to the main cast gives them not only another character to support them, but a closer friend! You will all see her much more in the future for certain! 

Well that's about it! In terms of comic updates themselves...its still going to be hiatus as long as I’m being swamped with school work. I hope you all understand. I’ll try to squeeze in updates over the breaks I have IF im not working on assignments for class. As I also said, I wanna do short stories as well, to expand the world and explain it better, as a comic will only develop the world so quickly and lots of you have tons of questions! I also wanna do something animated at some point, that’s my dream. I’ve ALSO mentioned to some people about merch, likely going for making stickers first since that's simple. I got an excited reaction for that so I’ll come up with designs for them soon! I just wanna do a lot with Alton Adventures, because I know how much it means to people, and of course it means so much. Goodness I really need to actually get to this park, I look quiet silly constantly gushing over a themepark I’ve never been to all the time XP  That all aside I thank you all for sticking by me. I promise that even if I don’t do comic updates as frequently during the school year, I’ll still work to push out as much AA content I can outside of that! I’m always open to suggestions to what you guys want to see! ALSO, working on a big google doc spreadsheet with info on all the characters I’ll be posting when its more completed! So be on the lookout for that! 

Again thank you to everyone who’s stuck with me through this, Your support makes me feel nothing but proud of what I’ve created. These characters may have been created out of something some may consider silly or odd, but the only thing that matters to me if that I can make at least someone happy with what I create. 

Patreon (note that patrons got to see all of this content as it was being worked on!) l Ko-fi

[barleywhistle]

Getting to Know me

There’s a thought that often times pops into my head when I’m super depressed, “nobody knows who you are, not really.” You’d think that’s just the depression talking, but it’s actually true. I unintentionally do a pretty good job of hiding aspects of myself. In an attempt to rectify that, I’m going to ramble on about whatever comes to my mind. I’m not interesting or anything, but if I were to suddenly vanish I’d like if people actually had a proper idea of who I was. Here we go:

Name: My name is Reilly. That one I haven’t really kept much of a secret, haha. Who Am I: I’m a guy who was raised by two different households which I’m very greatful for because I think it helped me in being more open minded and aware of stuff in life. Later on I was also raised by an even larger household known as the internet. I loved going on to youtube to watch AMVs, listen to Linkin Park, and check out memes, but I loved it most of all for a chat site called TinierMe. TinierMe introduced me to so many people who had the same interests when back home nobody in the area really understood me or gave a shit about my interests. My pals from TinierMe helped me so so much in becoming who I am today, but its closure and the subsequent loss of said friends put me in a DEEP depression that hasn’t gone away no matter how many friends, exercise, medication, or improved eating habits I throw at it. I don’t let me depression define me, I’m not just a sad sack and I do what I can to keep people around me from being sad, but it’s also done a lot of damage and influenced many of my life decisions. Depending on my mood I could either give everyone in the world a hug and some good memories and compassion, or I could destroy the planet without a moments hesitation. At my worst and most depressed I used to go to certain websites and watch people die to make myself feel better, not because I liked watching people die, but because I liked to pretend they were me. It was fucked up, and I’m not like that anymore nor have I gone on to the site in years. I’m very ashamed and saddened at how desensitized I’ve made myself. These days I try to be far more positive and increase positivity in others as well, and it’s very hard work but also very worth it. In the end, I’m a passive average joe who likes to think, observe nature’s beauty (especially oceans and the stars), and dream about having dreams. I’m not really overly good or bad at anything, and when I die it’ll go unnoticed by the world.

Favorite Color: This is always changing. Usually though my favorite colors are shades of pink, purple, or green. 

Favorite Food: My food tastes are all over the place. I’m willing to try just about anything, though I tend to dislike foods that are eaten by themselves (Ex. steak, pork chops, chicken breast). That being said, my #1 comfort food would have to be fried/coconut shrimp with some fries and cola. It’s not something to have very often, but every time I do have it I’m relaxed and genuinely happy/SUPER.

Music Tastes: My musical tastes are about as varied as my food tastes but I’ll try to condense a list of some of my all-time favorite stuff:   Grynpyret - Boba Beach   Sonata Arctica - San Sebastian   Flight Facilities - Clair De Lune (feat. Christine Hoberg)   The Protomen - Keep Quiet   Flight of the Conchords - Rambling Through the Avenues of Time   The Pierces - We Are Stars   Oasis - Don’t Look Back in Anger   Milo - The Ballad of Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy   John Denver- Annie’s Song   Enigma - Sadeness   Akeboshi - Seeds   Rei Brown - Picture Frames This list was waaaaaay harder to make than I thought it’d be, and there’s stil a whole lot I’m leaving out haha. 

Favorite Movie: Swiss Army Man by far. The music, scenery, plot, symbolism, humor, writing, acting, every aspect of the film is pretty close to perfection in my eyes. When I saw it for the first time I was mentally in a situation very similar to the main character though, so I know there’s a bit of bias here. The movie is weird and definitely isn’t for everyone, but very few movies about a suicidal mean teaching a corpse that life’s worth living will be. Please go check this film out!

Hobbies: I really don’t do much in life aside from lay motionless in bed like a vampire waiting for the moon to rise. I enjoy scribbling and imagining about creatures and characters but never actually doing anything with these thoughts. I’ve also taken up painting miniatures which can be quite fun. My main hobby though is voice acting. Recently I’ve been straying away from it, but it’s brought me a lot of joy and helped me to meet a bunch of really cool people so I’m sure I won’t be gone for long.  Love Life: Once upon a time I had a wonderful dream, it took place in a wonderful Venice-like city with pastel colored buildings and vibrant plantlife everywhere. This dream spawned a crush that crippled me for YEARS. Nothing ever came of it in the end though, which is probably for the best. I’d like to think I’m a romantic, but really I’m just lazy and want someone to talk to haha. So, in conclusion I probably should not’ve added this segment, but oh well.  Friends: Over my life I’ve had so many friends. Frankly I’m a VERY shitty friend to have, and I feel bad for people who like me to tell you the truth. That being said I love each of my friends very much, even if I don’t show it and push them away. Favorite Book: When I was little I used to love reading and would read all kinds of stuff, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve read books less and less. I think school is to blame for this, but some of my favorite books have come from forced readings. At the height of my love for reading I actually used to browse a fanfiction site named after Lemmy Koopa from Super Mario every day haha. These days I mostly just read Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure with the occasional comic book or other Shonen Jump series. Favorite Video Game(s): This is always a hard question for me, but I always reach the same conclusion: The World Ends With You. It’s a game I picked up in my younger more emo and angsty about socity years, so the game and especially the ending were very influential to me. I play and have played all kinds of games, however, I love the culture and creativity of video games far more than actually playing them. When it comes to Nintendo stuff though, I could talk about most series’ all day (Yoshi and Kapp’n are two of my favorite characters in all of gaming), and Smash Bros. especially always makes me happy because of how it brings everyone together. P.S. A Rhythm Heaven rep for Smash PLEASE Random Thought/Philosophy: One of my favorite games is Yoshi’s Island on the SNES. That game in particular has a fantastic philosophy. The game is a simple platformer where you must traverse the level with a baby on your back who you have to take care of by not getting hit. You can beat the levels normally, or you can try to perfect the levels by finding all of the hidden red coins, hidden flowers, and by not allowing the baby to take damage. Each level has a brand new Yoshi (indicated by a new color) and introduces new elements and themes. These ideas translate well to a happy life in my eyes. Take good care of those who you love and those who you can protect, go with the flow and embrace whatever new experiences life throws at you, don’t be afraid of change, and you don’t always have to be perfect just make sure that you are having fun as you go along.

I think that’s good for now. Apologies for the long post, but this is something I’ve wanted to do for a very long time but haven’t really had the courage or the drive to do. If you’re reading this I both apologize and thank you for taking the time to do so, and I hope your opinion of me hasn’t soured (though if it has that’s completely understandable). If you have any other questions or clarifications about stuff that you’d like to know I’d be delighted to talk to you, but if not that’s cool too. Hope you’re having a wonderful day/night, and hope you keep having these wonderful days until we meet again. :)

[allywrites360]

Fanfiction Commentary

I’ve seen some people do this is the past, and I thought I’d give it a shot!! So here’s some context/backstory/analyses of my writing! I’ll only be including pieces written over quarantine; starting on march 29th. A lot of these talk about more ideas to expand one shots, so you can always send me an ask if you wanna hear more!!

Calm in the Storm - Inspired by this beautiful piece of fan art by one of my friends. I wrote it as a surprise while we were talking.

Reunited - This was a piece that was originally intended to be the ending of an entire work made up of letter between Cass and Varian. I’d been wanting to write it since the show’s finale, but since I’ve never done a story outside of the more traditional style, I just stuck with this one shot.

City Sounds - Written just after a thunder storm near where I live; and mostly inspired by that.

In this passage, “His vision finally coming into focus, Race was facing the freshly burnt out candle from the night before, topped by a trail of smoke curling up into the early morning air of the lodgehouse until it disappeared. Laying there in the sky’s soft light, Race couldn't help but smile, despite the lack of sleep from the night before. It wasn't often the newsies talked about nights like those, but he knew they meant as much to him as they did his brothers,” the candle is meant to be a metaphor for these brothers creating light for one another, hope, when there seems to be none.

Weightless - Written when I was in the car outside the grocery store. Proof that writing can take place anywhere, if you’re dedicated to making time for it.

Painted Skies - I let this piece be led entirely by emotion rather than a set outcome. I always compared Sokka and Suki’s relationship to the sun; passionate and filled with light, and this was my representation of that.

There was a cut piece of dialogue from this, which I really loved: “Kyoshi Island is my home,” Suki said softly, “And the South Pole is yours. It isn’t fair for either of us to give that up.” -- Sokka smiled softly in response, “But you’re my home too.”

The Game Begins - One of my friends requested I write Zuko, and another mentioned laser tag, and thus, this fic was born. I typed out most of the outline for this fic on a walk to my friend’s house (and yes, I was late, haha). The end is also inspired by conversations my friends and I have had at arcades in the past; 

Hold Me Too Tight - Not really ‘behind the scenes’ per se, but the title is taken from ‘As Long As You’re Mine’ from Wicked. One of the most endearing things in a relationship for me is when one person knows there’s nothing they can say to make the other person feel better, but they support them anyway. And that’s especially reminded me of Sukka; just look at The Boiling Rock.

Fountains - I’d never written for Jin before, nor do I really ship her with Zuko (they were cute, but honestly, single dad Zuko for the win), but my friend really wanted some content of them, so I obliged. Which meant rewatching Tales of Ba Sing Se, and making a list of Jin’s character traits. It was actually kinda fun.

A Million Miles Away - This is definitely part of a longer fic. I have a whole notebook filled, just with rough outlines and details. I was watching another cheesy royalty movie, and while I love royalty stories, I always hated the conventional ending. Royal doesn't want to be a royal, has an arc, then takes the throne. And I wanted a different ending. What if they’re not right for the throne? What if they just can’t take the pressure? What if they run and never look back? And thus, this fic was born. Super passionate about this one.

Summer Nights - This is the longest fic I’ve written so far!! And wow, was it fun. This started out as an idea for a screenplay, but after a day at the lake with my friends, I couldn’t resist writing it out in full, specifically the opening scene with Suki by the ocean. There were a few things I liked/challenged myself with in this fic; the first being ample foreshadowing for Suki’s big reveal at the end, hopefully without making it too obvious. The other was using less page breaks and adding transitions!! I had a lot of fun with the fluff here.

Quiet Nights - Character studying as a fic. And a bit of angst. After so long spent together, I always imagined it’d be hard for the gaang to be alone again. I really loved delving into Sokka’s emotions here. Also, the writing advice to only put in to the frame of your story what tells us something about a character was actually used here!!

“He looked around the room that he had spent so long away from, every detail of it committed to memory. There was the dresser, crafted from long worn wood, that he had carved Water Tribe symbols into years ago that he could trace easily in his mind. The facepaints his dad had made him lay on top of it, and he could tell without walking over there which container held which colour. There was the place he always threw his coat into the corner, never really bothering to hang it up. So why did it feel so strange… unfamiliar now?” The carving shows Sokka’s creative side (as well as more Indigenous crafts), the face paint is symbolic of Sokka trying to live up to the other warriors, and the thrown aside coat shows his more carefree side.

Secret Moments - Another Jin and Zuko fic. My friend asked for a sequel to Fountains, and she had a bad day, so I typed this out really quickly.

Walking in the Rain - I was listening to ‘Walking in the Rain’ from Beautiful: the Carole King Musical, and I got really inspired to write this. I’ve always loved rain; it’s my favourite weather, and I thought it’d be nice to see more positive descriptions of it in fanfics.

Grounded - Rather than the long, flowery prose I usually prefer, I intentionally used short, choppy sentences to convey the spiralling emotion they were feeling. I also used repetition to hammer home the tension, as that’s something that happens when you’re panicking. The emotions here were amazing to write, though. And I was really proud of the ending.

Falling Snow - I’ve been planning this fic since Christmas, yet I finally decided to write it in August. One thing that I purposely did in this fic was juxtapose Suki’s description of the cafe. at first, it’s too hot, and crowded, but after she settles in a bit, and meets everyone’s favourite sword bender, it’s more cozy.

Unfamiliar - This was my first time doing a character study of Suki, and let me tell you, I love her so much more now. I loved exploring her emotions outside of her relationship as well. And I always imagined her as the type to not ‘waste her time’ on someone who wasn’t her soulmate, hence the sentiment ending the first half of the story.

As for the latter half, entering around Sokka, I had always had the head canon that he kept the Kyoshi Warrior face paint on until sundown, holding on to the last fragment of that place as long as he could. Just added a little soulmate flair to it. And also, the parallel of him and Suki both knowing the pressure of being a leader is always amazing.

I’ll See You Around - I’ve always said Hugo is (one of) my favourite characters of all time, but I only now got around to writing him. And let me tell you, it was a blast. Normally it takes me a while to jump into a character’s body language, but for Hugo, it just flowed naturally. Maybe it’s because I’ve spent so much time reading him.

I’d also listened to ‘My Petersburg’ from Anastasia, which is such a Hugo song, by the way, and I think I was subconsciously inspired by the lyric, “Funny when a city is all you know, how even when you hate it, something in you loves it so.”

Home is Where the Heart Is - I wanted to try a different proposal for Sukka Week 2020, and I always imagined them to get married (or at least engaged) soon after the show, so I typed this up. Their relationship is what true love looks like, and I think they both know that the other is it for them. Why wait? Plus, getting married is one of the only ways for them to be together (paraphrased from an interview with Kara Lindsay).

Partners - I was watching Brooklyn Nine Nine, and made a comment about Sukka being pretty similar to Amy and Jake, and decided to type up a rendition of the ending scene from The Bet, but with these two. The ending doesn’t make total sense logically, but it was exciting/interesting to me, so I decided to just go with it.

Closed Distance - Rather than a serious piece for the prompt, ‘Letters’, I opted for the more comedic route. With an angsty characters study of Suki at the beginning, because I’ve fallen in love with her character all over again.

Always Come Back - (Sorry guys, no link yet. It’ll be up September 3rd for Water Sibling Week!!). After a post talking about the symbolism of Sokka’s weapon being a boomerang; something that always came back, when he was left behind more than once, I decided to set this whole fic around that metaphor, including these passages; 

“The weapon came back, but this time Sokka didn’t catch it. It slammed against the tips of his fingers before slipping through, landing beside him on the small cliff. He drew his wrist back, hissing slightly as he shook it out, impact echoing through his arm.”

“He put his arm around her shoulder, pulling her closer to his side. Katara moved her head to rest against his shoulder. Without saying a word, she picked up his boomerang, setting it back into his hand.”

Symbolic of Sokka allowing someone else to take on the role of ‘protector’, if only for a moment. And someone helping by ‘coming back’, when maybe he couldn't make it all the way himself. (Would’ve loved the ending to involve Suki, but I was writing for the water sibling event week, so this ending’ll do).

[whereisthefood123]

Writer Questions

Tagged by @theolddarkmachine and @nocturna131 thank you for the tag sweeties! I swear I’m not procastinating at work but if you want to send asks or distract me from my responsibilities I’m not going to complain lol

1) How many works in progress do you currently have?

Not counting the ones I just have the main idea or the outline? 14 works in progress that go from having just one paragraph already written up to 28 single-spacing-pages (and the 28-pages fic won’t be coming to light any time soon since there is so much editing to do!). Including outline or main idea: 32 (but some are very old, so I’ll probably just drop them but I still have them in a gdocs just in case). These include at least 6 multi-chapter fics that I haven’t been brave enough to finish or publish lol.

2) Do you/would you write fanfiction?

Yeap! I love writing fanfiction! I would have started years ago if I knew it was a thing lol. When I was a kid and got obsessed with a show or a movie, I tended to create all this alternative follow ups or side stories and I just enjoyed replaying them in my mind until I found something else to get myself busy with. So I don’t think I’ll stop writing fanfiction for a while. I might try to write an original story but not in the near future.

3) Do you prefer paper books or ebooks?

I’ll go with ebooks. I love the feeling and smell of paper books but for some odd reason, whenever I buy a new book I just store it away in my bookshelf and never open it lol kinda like I’m just hoarding books but never reading them xD Then I would look for the electronic version of it and read it in my phone or my computer lol. So, in a way I prefer both but I just read ebooks.

4) When did you start writing?

When I was 10 I used to write songs with a childhood friend (they were super silly cheesy friendship songs and we found the lyrics’ notebook like 8 years later and cringed and throw the notebook to the trash lol). Then, when I was 13 I wrote a small original story for a school contest and won two tickets for a concert. After that, I only wrote school related essays (engineering and environmental essays for the most part). A year ago I discovered fanfiction.net and I started writing my own fics for Cyborg 009 fandom and then for Fairy Tail fandom.

5) Do you have someone you trust that you share your work with?

I’ve shared my work with some of my tumblr friends when I’m doubting about triggers or I’m not too sure about my writing. But I don’t do this too often. I’m super insecure about my work and too proud to ask for help (lol worst combination ever) so if I’ve ever shared my work with you before posting it, it’s because I trust you so so much that I’m able to swallow my pride and my fears (if I haven’t shared it with you it has nothing to do with you but with my personal issues lol). I just tend to reread my work over and over and over again until I feel enough confidence in it to make it public. Honestly, that’s why I have so many WIPs. Some of them are practically finished stories but I didn’t feel that confidence in them so I just stored them away. 

6) Where is your favorite place to write?

I always get the best inspiration at work. Like, when I have a shit ton of reports to do, that’s when I feel the words flowing and the story taking shape real nicely that I just have to write everything down. Though I’m in dire need to change my writing environment at home. I can’t seem to focus any more in my room, so I might move to another place in my house or rearrange some things in my room to feel a different vibe. I might follow through @theolddarkmachine advice and start taking a notebook and a pen and write somewhere outside for a change. 

7) Favorite childhood book?

Honestly? I was never one to like books too much. I read some when I was a kid but I prefered watching tv or going outside. But I do remember one that I liked very much called “The Knight in Rusty Armor” and I think I still have it somewhere around my house. “Looking for Alaska” is another one I liked a lot that I read a bit older (though it had the fate described in question 3 lol).

8) Writing for fun or publication?

For fun definitely. I don’t think my writing is publishing material. Though if I ever get to the point where I deem my work good enough, I’d like to publish something I enjoyed writing.

9) Pen and paper or computer?

As of now, computer. But I’ll get my hands back to pen and paper to get my inspiration going! Though my handwriting is so awful that sometimes even I don’t understand what I wrote down (this was a big issue back in college when I wanted to study from my notes lol)

10) Have you ever taken any writing classes?

*nervous laughter* I haven’t haha. I took the normal classes in college on how to write a research paper and how to use references and that sort of things (both in english and spanish) but I never took any class on creative writing or something similar. I had the chance to take a creative writing class in college but I chose another class instead thinking I would fail creative writing lol. If I’d known it would be this fun I would have taken it haha. It probably would have helped me improve a lot lol well, live and learn.

11) What inspires you to write?

It highly depends on what I’m writing. Some fics are inspired by songs, other by prompts, other by posible canon divergences, and others by pure stubbornness of my mind to not let me sleep until I write that fic!! So my inspiration can come from any place actually.

Examples:

A fine Life was inspired by @bluuesparrow‘s art and by the movie “Tales of an Immoral couple”

Sun was inspired by a tumblr post

To the beat of my song was inspired by the song “93 million miles” by Jason Mraz

Broken was inspired by @neen-writes one-shot 

Auto-da-fé (coming soon) was inspired by that stubbornness I mentioned

Yes, I took the opportunity for some self-promotion time and to throw you the name for my newest upcoming fic (so it won’t be left into my pile of wips)

I’ll tag: Let’s tag a bunch of people, if you were tagged before or just don’t want to do this you can ignore it lol @ranunculus-fox @snowmadien @spikerr @writingissues @xambedo @moonbeammadness @sketcher1994 @aya-eisen @capaleran2 @mangaguitar96 @neen-writes @littlemumu and anyone else that wants to do this!

[vivis-heckin-art]

Okie this will be a lot of rambling under the cut so prepare yourselves.

I am not actually quite sure where to start with this, like there is a lot that I would like to be said but it is all kind of jumbling in my mind right now.

The Who Killed Markiplier project means a lot to me and I admire so much all of the work and effort and skill that went into creating all of this. So much was going on in the videos and then even some things off to the side were happening as well and it was just so amazing! I was going through a bit of an artist block and writing block. It happens pretty often more recently as I lose confidence and hope in my work. I was honestly starting to lose hope again when this all started. After watching the first chapter I was inspired and I wrote and wrote for the first time in months, and I actually was sort of proud of it. Then Chapter 3 came out and I drew again, I drew Damien as Dark and I was proud of that too. Then today I drew the side by side drawings and just. I am so grateful for that. I truly admire the work that you all put into this. It was truly amazing and so imersive. It has been a really long time since I have been super excited about things like this, like I woke up early every day since Chapter 1 so I could watch the others right as they were released. I was making my own theories, and even became a Jim for awhile haha. Just it really got my creativity flowing again and made me turn back to my own books and characters that I have created over the years. It made me start writing and drawing again. So thank you all for that. It means so much to me.

The egos in general mean a lot to me as they always inspired something in me and my creations. Warfstache was the first of the egos for me to come across so he means an extra lot to me! He is my favourite after all! :P But I remember the first Warfstache thing I came across and how it inspired me, and then with each character that you brought to life, Mark, more inspiration flowed. Then the others began to have egos and characters too! It just all means so much to me and helps so much more than you may think it does. I admire you all for all the work you have done on this project and every other one. Thank you for creating such inspiring and fun worlds and characters. Good vibes!~~ 

(tagging those who I know have tumblr--) @markiplier @crankgameplays (welp less than i thought sorry ;;)

[physticuffs]

Hello! I have a question.... what are your favorite books, and why? (I love your blog!)

@smallricochet

Wow, thank you! Took me forever to reply because my first answer got erased when i was halfway through. Rawr. anyway, here’s the thing: i don’t have favorites. I just love books so much i can’t choose! And there are books for different moods, too, or books that i love for different reasons. There are those that i can read anytime because they’re friendly and easy to sink into, but aren’t necessarily the best of anything in a particular aspect. There are books that i have to be in a specific mood to read but that i love more than anything when i am in that mood. There are books that are outstanding in one thing and lacking in another…so i don’t have favorite books, and when i have to think of my favorites, they’re divided by genre. This is gonna be a long post, haha. Without my bookshelf in front of me, there may be some I’m forgetting, but those are the ones that stand out in immediate memory.

Fantasy: most of the books i’ve read would probably count as fantasy if you included YA, but i’m going to break out YA as its own thing because i look for different things now than i did when i was younger. For one thing, the writing style plays a much larger role now for me, which is one of the things that makes Neil Gaiman one of my favorite authors. American Gods is this gorgeous book examining the nature of belief, with such evocative language that i felt like i was taking the journey alongside the characters. The characters themselves are rather stock, but that’s okay–Gaiman has a true sense of the mythic and interweaves old stories with new in a way that captivated me. I also loved The Ocean at the End of the Lane, which just felt…almost more real than our own world. I read the book (it’s quite short) in one sitting, and when i finished i realized i’d teared up. There’s a scene where the main character is immersed in this experience of understanding everything and then is pulled out of that state, and i felt the same way upon closing the book. The sense of the world-beyond-our-world was intense–again, taking the journey with the characters. I adore Good Omens, which was co-written with Terry Pratchett, and i think combines the best of both authors: Gaiman’s sense of mythology, Pratchett’s humor, and their shared love for stories that examine the values individual people hold. Individual values are a theme often repeated in Pratchett’s books, of which my favorites are Hogfather and Thud! because of the beautiful, hopeful characterizations and complex conflicts. Pratchett’s books really carry this sense of optimism and hope for how much better we can be; his characters have this evolving humanity (lol some of them are dwarves and trolls and werewolves) that really strikes a chord with me. Also, those books are fucking hilarious.

I’ve written about Guy Gavriel Kay recently; his novel Under Heaven is remarkable for its beautiful language, fascinating characters, and exciting political plot. I love that niche–historically-based political fantasy–and am really relieved to have found someone besides George R. R. Martin who does it, since Kay is much subtler and doesn’t have Martin’s penchant for shock and gore. I’m about to read every other political fantasy novel Kay has ever written. I used to think that if i could write like anyone i’d want to write like Gaiman, but now that i’ve read Kay’s work, i’d rather write like him, because that’s the genre i’d want to succeed in.

Then there’s Susanna Clarke’s exquisite Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. I know this is very much a love-it-or-hate-it book, and i love it. Actually, i think it’s a perfect novel. I would change nothing about that book; there’s nothing that could make me like it better. The descriptive visual language is rich and flowing, the dry humor is just right, and the mythology she builds is original and forms a perfect pattern. One of the things that stood out to me the most in the book are the names. I’ve never seen an author choose names like her–they’re all lyrical and evocative without being literal. I don’t even want a sequel because the plot is wrapped up perfectly; i just want a whole series set in that world. (Clarke also wrote a short story collection in that setting, The Ladies of Grace Adieu, which is excellent, but does not fulfill my desire for a million more full-length novels.)

Historical fiction: The Lymond Chronicles. This is a masterwork, to the point that the author, Dorothy Dunnett, was knighted for her books being such a huge contribution to UK culture. They’re hard to read, no denying that, but they are unparalleled for incredible descriptive language, depth of emotion, dexterity with shifting viewpoint, epic scope, characters’ journeys and personalities interwoven in fascinating ways…they so far outshine every other work of historical fiction i’ve read that i think i can say that series is my favorite. HOWEVER, the irony of it is, i have never reread those books, except the first. I flick around occasionally to reread passages, but they’re simply too dense to make for good light reading in between all my new reading material. I love Les Miserables too, in the sense that i think it’s one of those almost accidental masterpieces that would never make it to market in full form today. Victor Hugo was a mystic grandpa whose interest in architecture/public infrastructure reeeeally got in the way of his own plot. I can’t HELP but love that book and i don’t even know why, except that Hugo captures the emotions and complexities of youthful rebellion so well, and is deeply respectful to the tragedy of it–not flippant, not over-aggrandizing, but accepting in just the right way. I also wanna give a shoutout/honorary mention to Romance of the Three Kingdoms. (It’s sort of unfair to put it with historical fiction, given the part where a guy’s ghost wanders around beating people up, but like. What else do i call this book.) I mean, it’s not my usual fare, but it well deserves its place as one of China’s four great classics. It’s so different from modern writing, which places a lot of emphasis on knowing individual characters. Three Kingdoms doesn’t give a shit about the inner lives of the characters. This is a story about how empires are formed and fall. it’s a true epic, and a fascinating look into one of China’s most tumultuous historical periods. (most tumultuous, except for all the others. You do you, China.)

Nonfiction: I’ve only rather recently become interested in nonfiction, and most of what i like is just a combination of good writing style and a topic i’m specifically interested in. How Not To Be Wrong, by Jordan Ellenberg–applied math and statistics, written in a very fun way. The Disappearing Spoon and The Violinist’s Thumb, by Sam Kean–a history of the periodic table and genetics respectively; Kean is such an engaging writer and really knows how to draw a common thread through anecdotes. Fermat’s Enigma, by Simon Singh–a history of the quest to solve Fermat’s Last Theorem. Weapons and Fighting Arts of Indonesia, by Donn Draeger–uh, what it says on the cover, but also a very interesting cultural text, although the info is a bit out of date. Walking the Bible, by Bruce Feiler–Feiler travels through the Middle East, examining the historical context of biblical stories; i’m reading his other works now. There also have been a couple books i’ve read for school that i loved–one was a cultural study of Hello Kitty, of all things, and one was about coffee farming in Honduras. Both were for a globalization course, but i can’t remember the titles offhand. I also read Walkable City by Jeff Speck for urban studies, about the importance of building walkability into your urban planning, which kicked off an interest in urban planning for me. I wound up getting three other urban planning books out of the interest generated by that one.

YA: Most of the books that have stuck with me after i read them as a teen had characters i wanted to be friends with or that i strongly related to–books with a lot of analytical, assertive girls, or girls who loved stories and were very imaginative. These include Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery, the All-of-a-Kind Family series by Sydney Taylor (bonus points for multiple girls i related to and they were Jewish), The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall (again bonus points for multiple girls i related to), Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine, and The Princess Academy and The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale. These last three (modern takes on fairy tales) mattered so fucking much to me, and they seriously hold up on rereads. Hale and Levine don’t protect their readers from harsh events, but it’s still fantasy, still has the magic i love reading about. They show the young characters win magical battles and friendship through intelligence, creativity, and determination, instead of beauty like the original tales, so that was really inspiring for me, and i related really hard to the main characters personality-wise. All three main characters in these books do find relationships or even marry at the end, but it’s because they’ve already been best friends with their love interests for a while. There’s also The Hunger Games, which had fascinating characterization, and unusually subtle morality for a YA series, especially in the last book, and the similarly adventurous Icemark Chronicles series by Stuart Hill, which is historically-based fantasy–think Guy Gavriel Kay for younger readers–with a wonderful main character that i really looked up to. And then there’s The Pushcart War, by Jean Merrill. The Pushcart War is just completely charming. It’s a friendly, quick-read book about a group of pushcart vendors trying to make space for themselves in New York City, opposing the aggressive truckers, and it was just plain fun while also being…actually pretty educational about urban design.

So…i know that’s super long, but y’know, asking me about favorite books is a dangerous thing to do. And i can’t emphasize enough that this is only what i can think of off the top of my head, without my bookshelf in front of me. But thank you so much for the question!

[lynccycling]

The NUMBER ONE FITNESS CLASS IN DFW by Classpass, CORE, has people chatting. You’ve heard it’s challenging in more ways than one, so how do you stay mindful in the heat of the struggle and keep coming back for more? Our CORE Instructors weigh in on how they stay mindful in class & include some of their favorite CORE burning moves that they love to incorporate into their classes. Learn a little bit about them and book your next CORE class!

TELL US YOUR FAVORITE CORE MOVE “Any oblique combo series! Love giving the sides of the body some attention, especially when it means I can get creative and try some new sequences.”

HOW DO YOU STAY MINDFUL IN CLASS? “When I’m taking: paying attention to your body is the name of the game, so being aware of distractions. When I catch myself thinking about what happened earlier in the day, my to do list, or what someone else is doing in class, I start from my toes and work my way up bringing awareness back to each part of my body and placing an emphasis on how I would describe my feelings to someone else. It usually helps me recognize what it is I need to hear and tell myself to keep moving.

When I’m teaching: Not thinking ahead! I try to forget what’s coming up, talking too much about what’s left, or how much time is left in class. It takes me and the class out of the moment when I get ahead of myself, and doesn’t allow for concentration on the task at hand. Just like the class itself, practice is everything, and I don’t always teach exactly how I want. I make notes for how I can be more present after each class!”

WHAT IS KELSEY’S CORE CLASS LIKE ? “Challenging. On purpose. And both mentally and physically. I try to always incorporate very simple moves we’ve done before with something new that will remind you what kind of progress can be made. I hope that people become motivated not because I’m motivating or because I’m asking them to do something, but because they start to realize over time they are capable of the work and capable of doing the hard thing. It’s an empowering feeling to do something you’re scared of, and I try to get you to that place in class. Sydney told me it’s “humbling but extremely motivating.” I’ll take that as a compliment, haha.”

HOW HAS CORE MADE YOU BETTER & STRONGER? “How much time do you have? Haha, really it’s changed me in more ways than I can count. For years I’ve thought about a class like CORE, and to be able to create my vision, see it come to life at the studio, and hear how it impacts people has been one of the most amazing things I’ve accomplished. It’s been a really good reminder to me that follow through is as important as the dream itself, and your own power lies in your uniqueness, so trust your instincts. It’s made me feel so much more confident in my abilities as a leader and as a fitness professional in the Dallas market. As for the class itself, it’s improved my stability and stamina more than anything I’ve ever done. I’m a better runner, cycling instructor, and athlete because of the varied movements in class. It’s even brought back some of my flexibility from ice skating and dance days. I’m able to push myself further in other workouts because of my core strength from the body weight exercises. I know I’m biased, but truly the best workout to create real change in your body. Just be consistent!”

BOOK CLASS WITH KELSEY

TELL US YOUR FAVORITE CORE MOVE “No one favorite but I love flow work on the mat, all the oblique business and a good multi-part move.”

HOW DO YOU STAY MINDFUL IN CLASS? “Breath!!! It’s funny because the whole point of coming to a workout, at least for me, is to check out of my day and tune into me- yet I find myself (and I know others do too) trying to distract myself from the workout when it gets tough. Don’t do that! Tune into your breath, into your thoughts (whatever they may be), into the beat and stay aware and connected.”

WHAT IS LIZ’S CORE CLASS LIKE ? “I really want MY class to be YOUR class. At the end of the day, this is your workout. Your choices. Your journey. Your body. Etc. I want to give you the platform to realize how much deeper you can dig, how much harder you can push, and help you realize that you DO have the control to do so. I hope it’s a great sweat and heavy burn, but most importantly I hope you walk out feeling proud, resilient and like you’re carrying a little less weight on your shoulders than when you walked in.”

HOW HAS CORE MADE YOU BETTER & STRONGER? “Communication- not just with others (although talking on a mic has definitely given me strength in that area) but with myself. I feel like class can do one of two things for me: 1. Help me learn how to process what I’m feeling and talk myself through it/learn from it. 2. Teach me to hone into a silent mind and just breathe. Both of these lessons I use frequently off the mat.”

BOOK CLASS WITH LIZ

TELL US YOUR FAVORITE CORE MOVE “Starting in Plank: One knee comes into chest, place on floor and rotate knee,  side crunch up, reverse!”

HOW DO YOU STAY MINDFUL IN CLASS? “I still actively take a lot of classes and I always try to remember the things that resonated with me from other classes. I will change it around it make it my own but the feeling is what I want to achieve for my clients. I also love listening to inspirational podcasts before class to get me in the right mindset.”

WHAT IS GRACE’S CORE CLASS LIKE ? “I like to keep every class different, with lots of combo moves. It's going to be tough and challenging but you'll feel extremely powerful and strong after it's over! I always hear that class goes by super quick.”

HOW HAS CORE MADE YOU BETTER & STRONGER? “Obviously, the physical movement has made my body stronger but what I love is that it's made me train a lot of mental muscles. By nature, I'm a pretty introverted person but teaching CORE has allowed to step out of my comfort zone in such a natural, organic way!”

BOOK CLASS WITH GRACE

TELL US YOUR FAVORITE CORE MOVE “I love a simple move that pushes you to fight through some fire. One of my favs is plank to pike, plank to bear. Nonstop movement that makes you dig deep and push past the discomfort.”

HOW DO YOU STAY MINDFUL IN CLASS? “I try to play music that keeps me in the zone with lyrics that keep me focused on my theme for that class. Some classes are a little more light hearted and some are more intense.”

WHAT IS SYDNEY’S CORE CLASS LIKE ? “My class is a lot like me I think, we work hard but I don’t want it to be overly serious. I want it to be 45 mins that you enjoy and can escape into. I want you to push past the limits you have set in your head. And I want you to be proud of yourself when you walk out of the door.”

HOW HAS CORE MADE YOU BETTER & STRONGER? “Core has pushed me to become a better instructor. I was nervous at first when I first started teaching core. It’s so different than cycling. But teaching core has made me a better cycling instructor too. I feel more focused in class. I love being about to teach both cycling and core. It makes me a well rounded instructor.”

BOOK CLASS WITH SYDNEY

TELL US YOUR FAVORITE CORE MOVE “You can’t go wrong with a good plank series that burns from the inside out BUT one of my favorite aspects of CORE is the cardio at the end. It really ties the entire class together and makes you feel completely spent at the end of the 45 minutes. I love that we can take something so simple like jumping jacks and completely burn ourselves out (in a good way) from something we used to do for fun as kids.”

HOW DO YOU STAY MINDFUL IN CLASS? “When I’m taking class–its hard HA! No joke. But I try to stay focused and actually listen to what the instructors are telling my mind. I also remind myself that I’m still breathing and that if I’m breathing, I can keep moving.

When I’m teaching: before class I like to either look for a quote that stands out to me or listen to one of my many youtube motivational mantras and find a theme that I want to cover in class. Whether it be patience or letting go of perfection, overcoming fear or learning to have fun when we’re uncomfortable. Then I like to write down the quote or a few keywords on a post-it and put it on my laptop for class to refer back to when I am feeling like I’m being pulled from being present.”

WHAT IS KAYLA’S CORE CLASS LIKE ? “My nickname is the ‘Energizer Bunny’ so that’s pretty much what it’s like haha! A little more upbeat & funky. Fun and also motivating! I like to keep the moves simple but killer. If I can make you laugh during class then that really makes my day. You’ve GOT TO have fun during your workout or you won’t be motivated to keep doing it. It has to appeal to you in more ways than simply physical. I encourage you to keep thinking even though a lot of us tend to workout to escape everything us. In the end, it’s your mind that is going to continue to make your body move.”

HOW HAS CORE MADE YOU BETTER & STRONGER? “Wow. CORE has really made me step outside of my norm. From teaching, I had to take a step back from my normal instructing style & adapt to a unique format with different challenges. CORE has helped me overcome some personal fears & intimidations that held me back in order to get stronger mentally. From taking class... wow. It’s been humbling. I was so used to being a rockstar on my bike that it felt like a huge regression going to a bodyweight strength based class. I struggled and still struggle but CORE has taught me to let go of some perfectionist qualities and accept my body for what it has to give that day while also completely surprising myself on others. I’ve also learned to deal with my feelings. A LOT of feelings come up when you’re trying to push yourself physically. It’s been an eye-opening experience realizing I have so many feelings that need to be dealt with.”

BOOK CLASS WITH KAYLA

TELL US YOUR FAVORITE CORE MOVE “Warrior 2 flow OR jump squats!”

HOW DO YOU STAY MINDFUL IN CLASS? “Allowing the energy of the room to dictate the flow of the class. Being constantly aware of what people need as they move through the workout and giving it to them as we progress.”

WHAT IS OLIVIA’S CORE CLASS LIKE ? “A constant full body burn where we work really hard to really cool music. I try to pass along little nuggets of personal insight that I hope will translate to everyone individually as we sweat.”

HOW HAS CORE MADE YOU BETTER & STRONGER? “I have never been more aware of my mind and body before. I use core as an outlet for any pent up emotions (stress, anger, fear, etc) and it has really helped me move through so many challenges in my personal life. I am currently in a pretty intense internship environment and I don't think I would have made it through the constant stress of that without the 30+ people that show up to work out with me on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. I teach them, but they allow me to feel and be in a way that I can't during my internship.”

BOOK CLASS WITH OLIVIA

[darlingsteps]

Things to do with kids in any part of the world

Things to do with your kids in any part of the world: USA, Europe & Beyond

No matter where you are in the world, you don’t need a lot of money or extravagant things to make children happy and have fun. I’m a pure example of this. Here are some ideas to get your juices flowing:

Build a tent

Seriously, who buys those pop-up store tents anymore? (I’m not judging, I used to own them lol) When you have a small living space or live out of a suitcase like us, you have the luxury of having All. The. Things. amiright?

So, trust me, kids will much rather build their own tent with extra bedsheets, pillowcases, fabrics and chairs of all sorts.

Have bunk beds? Ohhh those are the best and bring back so many memories! #hello

Make cookies

(at least in my household) kids want IN on whatever you’re doing. Haha, My youngest child will harass my life to ‘help cook’ until I say yes. Obviously, I should be sterner and not give in (what the heck am I teaching her by giving in right? I know. moving on) but in this case, I adore the cuteness of a teeny tiny human with a cupcake for a face, trouting along to beg me to cook. How can I resist? So I now schedule time for the girls to cook. And what’s more fun than mixing, tasting and squishing!

Arts and crafts

This is my inner creative alter ego wanting to pry itself out. I LOVE arts and crafts (don’t be fooled, I’m by no means crafty or good haha) I enjoy it, and I promise if you let go of perfectionism you will too. Honestly, you don’t even need ‘a plan.’ Go to your craft store, i.e., any dollar store, and stock up on anything even remotely crafty, even if you think you won’t use it. Head straight to the stationary section, then head to the home/garden isle, after the tool and auto isle (you need something reasonable to hold all this crap, food aisle (for cheap dry goods. think beans, rice, and oats) and finally the kitchen isle for plastic cups, foil, etc. and those paper plates you’ll need for those maracas.

Make playdough

Why on Gods green earth is playdough SO DAMN EXPENSIVE???!!! Okay, I’m sorry for yelling. #Imdone. I’ve never purchased playdough for the girls because we afford it and when we could, why the heck would I pay that much anyway? And for the bargain shopper mamas reading this before you go on to tell me I can buy them in bulk, on sale, from said dollar store…I wrote above- here are my thoughts: my kids must be one a kind because these boogers go on to ‘make’ me food creations of all types and mix the playdough in all kinds of ways to make colors I didn’t even know existed. (and I’ve tried those cheaper ones and my goodness- NO THANKS) Kids enjoy cooking (see note above) and making messes, it’s a win-win. Plus it’s super easy, all types of recipes available online. So no excuses. (and no it doesn’t take that long. #aintnobodygottimeforthat

Have a Treasure Hunt

This is sooo fun. Honestly, it doesn’t need to be, and it gives you time to just sit down. Ah. You can hide anything from candy, new pencils, notes, etc. (Think the birthday section at a said dollar store) Play dress up we only have girls, and it goes without saying that they enjoy dressing up. (see toy section of any dollar store. do you see a pattern here lol) But I can only guess that boys would enjoy dressing up as well as it is a great pretend/imaginative play. Make pizza Let me start off by saying that if you don’t like pizza, I don’t know we can be friends. Ok just kidding maybe lol I don’t think I’ve ever met a kid but doesn’t like pizza and this is indeed such a versatile and cheap thing to make that there isn’t any excuse for you not to make it and it’s a lot of fun. I grew up pretty poor, and pizza for us consisted of a slice of white wonder bread cheap no-frills pasta sauce and a slice of what was supposed to be cheese. Then we popped it in the oven for a few minutes watching it until the cheese got ever so slightly burned and dug in. Do everyone in your family a favor and make the dough from scratch is pretty simple or you can just buy it one from the store it’s still a lot of fun!

Fly a kite (create a kite)

So self-explanatory and kids love it so go get one and get to your local park already if you don’t have a kite , crafts to the rescue! It is super easy to make, and they work!

Stargaze

This is one of my favorite pastimes, so I feel kind of selfish writing it but our kids loved it, and I think it’s because we are both from big cities in you don’t see stars are often and when you think it’s the one you realize that it’s just a helicopter. Enjoy the little things

Listen to books

Another guilty pleasure here but I’ve posted this love answer my children, and it’s always a good time. There are a few ways you can do this if you’re looking for free options the best way is to download the Overdrive or Libby app and entering your details and library card details, and you get to listen to audiobooks for free. If finances are no burden for you then audible is such an excellent option, and they have pretty much anything you could look for. Except The gruffalo…they don’t have that anymore because Julia Donaldson wants to do stick to print books…ok I digress. Haha. Another more affordable option is the Scribd app. it’s pretty amazing because you pay a small fee of about 5 to 8 books of month, and you get to listen to an unlimited amount books the downside is that you don’t keep it, so it’s kind of like a music subscription you get all the music you want while you’re paying subscriber otherwise you lose all your stuff.

  Read books

Same advice as above^

Make a play

Piggybacking off of the dress up here….our girls could do this all day long. Like seriously. They have. They do.

Keep all and any extra boxes you can get your hands on… The bigger, the better. (Invest in a good x-acto knife) < you’ll need this for the never-ending requests to make doors, windows and “secret exits.”

Build a snowman

If you’re in a climate where it permits this, don’t let the beauty of snow pass by because it’s bitterly cold. Trust me. I understand the struggle. But at the end of the day, it doesn’t last and the memories will.

Park

Does this really need a caption?

Train or bus ride

So, it doesn’t matter if you’re in NYC, London, Paris, or your tiny small town that’s barely making Google maps…if there are buses or trains, use em. Kids love this stuff.

Free workshops

Don’t underestimate your local library. They always have fantastic free workshops going on where all the is required is a simple registration.

Farmers market

This is such a great way to immerse yourself where you are. If you’re traveling like us, this allows you to see and meet new people. Engage in the culture and get fresh produce, food, and knick-knacks.

Make musical instruments

Here I am with the craft stuff again! If you’re like us and travel like it’s your second job, then this is a good one. Music is good for the spirit, and you wouldn’t believe how easy it is to use common household things to make instruments out of.

Have a parade

When you’re done making said instruments^ Be super silly and have a parade! Storm and stomp around the house and have fun. (Be mindful of the hour of course if you live above anyone)

Bubble bath

I can’t quite remember, but there was a time/age where our girls didn’t always get along so well. And the only time where there was a sense of peace was when they were taking baths. Seriously, don’t underestimate the power of simple water, soap and “toys” (I wrote that in quotes because I despise bath toys and much prefer temporary toys like plastic water bottles, used up lemon juice containers, etc)

Birdwatch

Children do mimic what they see. Obviously, this can be a good and bad thing. In this case, it’s alright. Many times throughout the day you can find me lost in thought #heyfellowinfj and wait for it: bird or human watching

The girls love seeing birds up close and analyzing their attributes. Have your kiddos try this!

Make confetti

Kids love to make messes so let them! Grab any old magazines, newspapers, leaflets, flyers, and pieces of scrap paper you no longer need and cut them up. You can simply put them through the shredder (this adds to the fun, but obviously watch out for those little fingers and blades) or cut shapes snowflakes, etc. Then toss them in the air and roll around in it and have a confetti party!

Outdoor sport

One of the joys of many sports is that you can travel with said instruments. Any game that involves a ball can fit in your luggage once deflated. Cricket is super lightweight, and the ball is small. Frisbee is a fantastic choice. It can get tricky with tennis as rackets tend to be heavy and bulky. (But relatively cheap to purchase)

Sidewalk drawing

Chalk is typically cheap anywhere you go and works on almost any sidewalk/balcony! If you have a private area you’re using, bring out the hose, a bucket or a bowl of water to wash away the drawings and begin fresh the next day.

Garden

Nature freedom!

Go to a museum, café, library or bookstore.

To find free museums, type “free museum, city” into your browser of choice….Same with the others.

Fire station

This may differ wherever you go, but in the US, most firefighters are happy to speak to children when they drop by to have a look but do call first to verify! (To avoid disappointment) We’ve never had an issue, but you never know.

Sing & dance

So I almost felt a bit hypocritical writing this one because I loathe doing both in public. Yes, even in front of my own family haha! But, I assure you, if you’re the same way, take it slow and do it scared! You’ll be glad you did. The easiest thing to do is go to YouTube and find some kid dance channels (maybe search for kid choreography) and let the magic happen. We also use a Toca Boca dance app!

Learn a language

After a certain amount of time traveling (it’s been years for us) your kiddos will grow to love languages. Naturally, as humans, especially little humans, we love communicating. And there’s no better way than completely immersing yourself into another one’s culture: language and all.

I realize this specifies toddlers in the heading. However, these activities can be easily adapted and enjoyed by older children as well. My kiddos are in the 10 and under range (as an example.)

What do you do for family fun? Tell me below!

The post Things to do with kids in any part of the world appeared first on Darling Steps.

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[philsadelphia]

Seven Lions & Friends Invaded the Fillmore, Plus an Exclusive Interview with SJ

Last Friday night Seven Lions alongside of producers Tritonal, Kill the Noise & SJ delivered a miraculous performance at Philadelphia’s premiere music venue, The Fillmore. All of the artists provided the atmosphere for a stunning night for all those who attended and one of the craziest nights in December for Philadelphia.

The Fillmore was a packed house right as Tritonal started there set. Tritonal hit the stage with some of their biggest hits and new remixes of their own. Kill the Noise provided an interesting take on remixing songs. Both Tritonal and Kill the Noise provided two very different sounds and once Seven Lions came on stage we had an electrifying combination of both. With no delay what so ever between sets Seven Lions, Tritonal, and Kill the Noise provided a night that no one will ever forget. A night of big bass drops, killer beats, and a stunning light show.

Once I arrived to the venue I could immediately feel the pulse of the beats flow through my body. You could feel everyone’s excitement within the Fillmore and it was contagious. I couldn’t help but dance myself to the beats of Seven Lions, and you couldn’t help but look up at the artists in awe as they stood on their platform above everyone else delivering an unforgettable night. As the show progressed time seem to be lost. Myself and everyone else didn’t care about what was going on around us, all we cared about was the music.

For more from Ryan, check him out here: Insta: https://www.instagram.com/leddy_ryan/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/led0nator

Exclusive Interview with Rising Dance Music Star, SJ:

To someone who hasn’t heard your music before, how would you briefly describe it?

This is always the first and hardest question. Haha. I would say some of it is house influenced but also song based which gives it a pop feel. I’m also constantly evolving, so the music I’m getting ready to release doesn’t sound like the music that I’m currently making. It’s a journey!

Your evolution to dance music wasn’t exactly stereotypical like most DJs, you started as a singer/songwriter. What were some of the biggest challenges you faced?

Honestly, the biggest challenge was mental. I was stepping into a space that was largely unfamiliar to me professionally. Every artist is plagued with doubt. For me, I had to release so much of what my ego was trying to tell me and lean into my passion. I love EDM. I reached a point in my career where I realized, if I’m not having fun making music then I’m doing something wrong. So I just said, “Fuck it.” I love what I’m doing and the music I’m making. It gives me creative life. Whenever voices tell me otherwise, and they are almost exclusively my own, I make a decision not to listen to them and follow my bliss. 

What happened/when did you realize that you could turn producing and DJing into a full-time job/living?

I remember it being in college. I had a band and we were touring the country. At that point, we were all in school and having fun playing music, but I realized that I had an opportunity to actually do music as my career. I remember thinking that I owed it to myself to go all out and give it a shot. Otherwise, I’d never know what would happen. I haven’t had a “real” job since.

 How did you meet up with Tritonal and get signed to their label?

I had a record that I had written and produced that I played for their manager, Joe Pepin. Joe is the best A&R I’ve ever worked with and he immediately knew the guys would love it. Sure enough, they did. That record was Hung Up. Chad and Dave came on board and took the record to the next level. Joe and I began working together and I signed to Enhanced. The rest is history! 

Tell us a little bit about the organization you started, One Life, because it is a truly awesome cause

One Life was an organization I started after a trip to India about 6 years ago. I never really had aspirations of starting a nonprofit, but I met some people when I was there and everything fell into place. Our mission is to turn places of poverty into places of possibility. We just completed an 8000 sq. ft. facility outside of Calcutta called The Dream Home where we provide extensive care for young girls who come from extreme poverty and abuse. We have young girls who have been victims of slavery, trafficking, and physical and sexual abuse. Right now we run a school and a variety of programs in a slum in Calcutta as well as The Dream Home. The Dream Home currently provides care for 25 girls. We’re currently raising money so that we can operate it at its capacity of 85 children. People can check out the Dream Home and the work we do at www.onelifeintl.org. 

What inspired you to want to give back to the community like that?

That’s a great question. Honestly, I believe love is what this life is about. Being conscious of love means living in the connection and being of oneness with all people and all things. We belong to one another. When someone hurts, we all hurt. I just happened to experience a world full of people who were desperately hurting and I had the resources to do something about it. It was all a response in love. 

Who are your influences, the people who inspired you to make the music you make today?

This is an impossible question for me to answer. There are too many at this point. For me it really started with old singer songwriters like James Taylor and Billy Joel. 

Tell us a little bit about working with David Ryan Harris, an absolute legend in the industry who has played guitar for perennial artists like John Mayer, Dave Matthews & Santana

It was fantastic. David and I have a lot of mutual friends and our paths have just missed each other over the years. The sessions we wrote Reflection wasn’t a typical EDM writing session. It was really cool to combine styles and influences. 

What is your favorite city in the world to play and why?

Oh man… this is a tough one. I’m going to go ahead and say Los Angeles just because of the hometown vibes, but that answer will probably always be changing. 

If you could play any festival in the world, which one would be it and why?

EDC Vegas has a special place for me because that was where a lot of my love for live shows and festivals started. To play the main stage there would be a huge full circle moment. 

Who is your dream collaborator, someone who you haven’t worked with yet and would love to?

I’d love to work with Jack Garratt. His album was one of my favorite in years. I’m also a big fan of Becky Hill’s voice. It would be awesome to do a record with her. 

Who are some DJs we should know about who are about to break onto the scene?

There’s a kid named Lophiile that I’m obsessed with right now. He’s doing some of the coolest stuff I’ve heard recently. 

What has it been like touring with Seven Lions, Tritonal and Kill the noise?  Should we be expecting some new collabs?

It’s been awesome. Seeing acts at that level play every night has taught me so much. It’s given me so much inspiration and so many ideas for my future show. Chad and Dave have been huge champions of me. We’ve got another collab coming out in January that I’m SUPER excited about. I think it’s our best work together yet. 

What does the new year hold for SJ (new music, festivals, etc.)? 

All of the above. I’ve got a single coming out this month followed by my new Tritonal collab in January. I’m releasing more singles off my upcoming EP in the new year and I’ll be hitting the road on some dates we’re getting close to announcing!

Lastly, I got to ask the stereotypical Philly question, favorite cheesesteak spot?

I’m going to say Joe’s! 

The post Seven Lions & Friends Invaded the Fillmore, Plus an Exclusive Interview with SJ appeared first on philly2night.

from philly2night https://philly2night.com/seven-lions-friends-fillmore-plus-exclusive-interview-sj/ from Phil's Blog http://philrobertson023.blogspot.com/2017/12/seven-lions-friends-invaded-fillmore.html

[thejpfdude-blog]

A Closer Look At... Tamako Market/Tamako Love Story

Heyo and welcome to a brand new series that hopefully actually becomes a series called “A Closer Look At...”! The goal of this series is to write reviews on anime series and for me to get a closer idea of why I love/hate a show. I’m still sort of tinkering with how I want to structure this, but for now I’m gonna do a standard rundown of the basic categories, you know stuff like Animation/Art, Characters, Story, Enjoyment, and Final Thoughts (that’s a basic category right?). So yeah, let’s kick off this double special with the first show on this list. But first, a WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS FOR TAMAKO MARKET AND TAMAKO LOVE STORY. You’ve been warned.

Tamako Market

First, a question for those of you in the audience. Raise your hand if you thought that Tamako Market would be my highest rated show I’ve watched this year, a show I rate higher than Bakemonogatari and Madoka Magica. Now put your hands down you liars.

Yeah, what a world. This show was many things: a show I’ve been told to trudge through to get to its movie sequel; a show I’ve been told is one of the worst Kyoto Animation works; a show I’ve been holding off on for a while. And here we are: writing a review for it so I can exclaim its praises. For those of you that don’t know about this show, Tamako Market is about the life of Tamako Kitashirakawa, a girl in a family of mochi bakers living her life in a shopping district with her friends. Shenanigans ensue when she runs into a bird named Dera who is looking for a bride for his country’s prince. Dera ends up eating too much mochi, becomes too fat, and cannot return to his faraway home. And thus the story begins.

Animation/Art

I mean it’s Kyoto Animation. That’s all that really needs to be said for this category.

But let me try to dive in deeper. The animation is great: I didn’t notice any inconsistencies with it, other than some weird CG in one of the episodes with the people in the market. Nice to have a show that doesn’t distract from the story with its inconsistent character models.

The character design itself isn’t anything amazing: most of the characters look liked they could have come from a different KyoAni show: Choi and Azusa from K-On was a similarity that really stuck out to me. I didn’t have a problem with it for the most part though: they were still really good looking and the stark similarities were few and far in between.

Color design-wise, the show used bright colors that popped, which reflected the overall tone of the show: happy and bright. Not to mention it helped create the carnival-like atmosphere that I think they tried to portray the shopping district as. Well, not try, more like did. Because it worked.

Overall, the art/animation of the show is a solid 5/5 stars. Sasuga KyoAni.

Characters

Let me start this off by saying I loved all of the characters in this show. Yes, even Dera. Before I started watching Tamako Market I was warned of the “annoying bird” and told that he ruined the dynamic of the show. To be honest though, I think that without him I wouldn’t have enjoyed this show as much. He acted as sort of the butt monkey (err butt bird) for the others and the jokes, which made him less annoying in my eyes. Plus adding him to the cast of “happy” characters prevented a Flying Witch situation where everybody was too happy, something I like to call the “/r/wholesomememes conundrum” (if you don’t know the Wholesome Memes subreddit is filled with people making happy comments and no negativity or even sarcasm, and it creeps me out a lot). 

Other than that, yeah the other characters were nice. Tamako was your standard genki girl, Mochizou was cute AF in a good way (and I related to his struggles), Kanna was low-key best girl, and Midori was all right I guess. Then there are the people in the shopping district, who all had their own little quirks with them. Individually they didn’t offer much, but putting them together really helped create the feeling of being in a shopping market, in sort of a village setting. Them helping Tamako with all of her stuff reminds me of that saying: it takes a village to raise a child (or something like that). Characters are super important for me, and for this show they were a solid 5/5 stars. Good on ya KyoAni.

Story

If there’s one thing that this show fell flat in, it’s this category. Not that it’s necessarily a bad thing. In fact, I didn’t mind it at all. This was a slice-of-life show, so the story doesn’t have to be amazingly original or creative, it just has to flow in a decent way so that I can enjoy it. I know for most people it was pretty boring, and that’s kinda true in a sense. The whole storyline of the show is that Dera is finding a bride for his prince, but that kinda doesn’t get prioritized until the last few episodes when they introduce Choi as a character and then when the prince comes to visit. Those last 2 or 3 episodes were for me the weakest in the show, only because it was heavily focused on that plotline. I enjoyed Tamako Market for the shopping market shenanigans, so it was kinda boring with the whole “wow Tamako is a princess??” stuff. And the ending of it seemed... anticlimactic: when the prince already knew she wasn’t the princess but went with the whole procedures anyway, it kinda gave those last 2 episodes no point. Even with that though, it was still a super fun watch, so I don’t fault it too much. Overall 3/5 stars on the story: it was all right for the first few episodes but the whole princess storyline was a bit out there.

Overall Enjoyment

I mean yeah it was a really fun show. I wouldn’t say it would be fun for everyone, but it just hit all of the right notes for me, and I really had a good time with it. A 5/5 stars for enjoyment.

Final Thoughts

So overall, Tamako Market was a pretty fun watch, complete with KyoAni visuals and good characters. Though the story is sometimes meh, it works out overall and became one of my favorite shows. A 9/10 show for me, would recommend to those of you who enjoy slice-of-life shows.

Tamako Love Story

“Haha, you thought it was over? No sir, there’s more.”

That’s what I assume KyoAni said to the anime community when this movie was announced. Because there was absolutely no indication that a sequel movie about LOVE would come out, given how dense Tamako was towards the crushes of both Mochizou and Midori (though the second one is more understandable). But what a great surprise, as this movie ended up becoming more popular than its prequel series. In fact, the movie is how I ended up getting into the show in the first place. So yeah, I was pretty excited to see how it was given I enjoyed the show so much.

Note that most of what I said about the show above is still the same in the movie, so I’ll just be talking about the story and overall enjoyment of the show.

Story

If you didn’t know the plot of Tamako LOVE STORY, then let me tell you. It’s about the LOVE STORY between Tamako and Mochizou. Simple as that. Though even with its simple premise, it executes it super well. The movie kicks off with Mochizou wanting to tell Tamako that he plans to go to Tokyo for college. Stuff escalates as he tells her this plus confesses to her, to which Tamako goes into love shock as she runs away and spends the next few days not knowing what to do. It’s cute stuff, really. But then she decides yes I do love this boy, so she runs off to the train station to catch up with him and confesses via the cup telephones that they used to communicate. And then the movie ends. Yeah, that’s my biggest complaint with this movie: like many anime romances, it ends with the confession, and the actual couple-y things don’t happen. Like come on man, I want some nice vanilla romance in my life.

To be fair, though, it was still really cute to see how Tamako handled her feelings and the whole process in which she accepted them. And I was still pretty dang happy when she confessed (though a bit confused and angry at first when the credits rolled). Overall, though I wanted to see more time between the two as a couple, I can’t complain too much considering it was what the title says: a nice love story. A nice 5/5 stars on the story: simple but well-executed.

Overall Enjoyment

Well what do you think? I think 5/5 stars, would re-watch multiple times.

Final Thoughts

This movie was a joy to the eyeballs, and to the brain as well. Writing about this movie makes me want to go watch it again, and that I will. 10/10 would recommend (but please watch Tamako Market first: it actually is pretty important).