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eliluvschan · 1 year ago

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New Year's Resolution?

pairing: bang chan x reader

word count: 928

warnings: little bit of cursing, just relationship things.

genre: fluff

a/n: happy new year everyoneeee

i opened my closet, ready for the day. i had to get my beanie from the top shelf, which is very high. i got on my toes, still no use. hey it's not my fault i'm a shorty.

then suddenly, two hands grabbed my a- little- exposed waist and lifted me up. i grabbed my purple beanie with different coloured pom poms and set me back down. he put his chin on my shoulder.

''good morning, shorty.'' he said in a sexy raspy voice. i relaxed into him. ''morning sunshine. happy birthday to mother nature.''

he chuckled really softly and by his lightly swaying figure against me, i could tell he was either half asleep, or just smiling with his eyes closed. ''mmm.'' he mumbled.

''okay, let's get ready.'' i said trying- yes trying to straighten up. ''no.'' he said and began to slowly drag me back into bed. yeah, and i'm such a goof that i let him. i'm supposed to be the more responsible one here. wow.

he softly pushed me into the beige quilt, eyes still closed and a cute smile playing on his soft pink plush lips. ''what's your new year's resolution?''

''sleep more, and spend more time with my girl.'' he said yawning and cuddling into my side. ''good night.''

''that's cute.''

he chuckled but kept his eyes closed.

''but, Chan?''

''hmm?''

''be serious please.''

''get in better shape.''

''you're in perfect shape.'' i told him, running my hands slowly over his belly.

''don't you want those hot packs of abs?'' he asked, finally opening his enchanting eyes. first one's of 2024.

''nope.'' i said, and traced my finger down to his V. he gasped at the sudden touch. ''i'm good with your sexy V-line.'' i said, smirking. ''really?'' he asked. i nodded in response.

''really?'' he asked again.

''yep, and if you really want to start working out, make sure your body doesn't turn out like Changbin. one Dorito chip is enough for the group and i kinda like your body how it is now.''

i finished the sentence and burst out in laughter as Chan also started laughing.

''yeah, one is enough.''

''okay, okay. i'll make sure my freakishly sexy V-line doesn't go anywhere.''

''good.''

''remember how i used to watch the other member's abs when i was just a fan?'' i ask him, he looks at me with wide eyes.

''you looked at their abs?'' he says sassily, holding a hand to his heart.

''duh. i mean, every Stay does it as well!'' i defend myself.

''so, what's your new year's resolution?''

''stay away from you as much as possible.''

''Jagiya!'' i squeal.

i laughed and pecked his lips. ''kidding.''

—❀—

''Channie, where are you?'' i asked, shouting around the house.

he came out of the bathroom, wearing a tank top and some shorts.

''you're coming with me.'' he said.

''why?'' i asked.

''your new year's resolution.'' he said.

''and that is?''

''kiss me every time i lift a dumbbell, and every time i do a push up.'' he said happily, smiling like a kid who got a giant box of his favourite candy for Christmas.

''don't i have better things to do?'' i asked, crossing my arms.

''is there something better than kissing me?'' he asked, his eyebrows disappearing under his bangs.

''of course! ironing your pants, walking Berry, reading, writing, sketching, messing with your sound system thingie...'' i said, counting on my fingers.

he pouted, angrily? pressed me against the wall, grabbed me and kissed me harshly. i kissed back thinking 'woah this guy can kiss!' okay, harsh but woah. he pulled away, panting, his grip on my shoulders very tight. ''Channie you aren't serious are you?'' i asked, still breathing hard.

his face cleared, and he looked down. ''sorry. got jealous.'' he murmured. i lifted his chin and kissed him one more time. ''i love you, okay? and i'll come to the gym with you.'' i smiled.

—❀—

''one!''

kiss.

''two!''

another kiss.

''three!''

and another.

''i could do this all day!''

another.

...after fifty times of lifting dumbbells, he did push-ups and made me lay underneath him. then i made him pick me up and run around. that was the best one. despite the fact that the trainers told us off- twice. but we had fun.

''baby!'' he yelled running into the house, sweaty, hot, stinking. the second day, we decided that i'll go to the gym with him once a week. he was satisfied and no more problems.

''you were right.'' he said, gulping down a bottle of water.

''i was right?''

''yes. one, i don't want to lose my 'sexy V'.'' he said emphasising with his hands. ''and two, working out alone isn't my thing.'' he said shaking his head. i laughed.

''that's where our Dorito chip comes in. you guys can workout together and stuff.''

''but he always makes me workout until the fullest. i'm convinced that man wants me dead by the end of the month.''

he smiled and hugged me. i literally pushed him off.

''get a fucking shower!'' i yelled.

''come with me.'' he smirked.

''hell no.'' i made a face.

he laughed, placed a kiss on me once, and turned towards the bathroom.

''we have a change of a new year's resolutions!!'' he yelled over his shoulder.

''happiness every year!'' i yelled back.

he laughed. ''new resolution! i love you more!''

''i think mine's changed too!''

''no!''

''yes!''

''what is it?!''

''make you take more showers!'

''what?!''

i laughed.

''kidding! love you more too!''

#bang chan #bang chan x reader #bang chan x y/n #skz fluff #skz imagines #skz scenarios #skz x reader #stray kids #stray kids x reader #stray kids fanfic #stray kids scenarios #stray kids imagines

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deramin2 · 24 days ago

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In a media landscape where "the protagonist is the hero" is such a dominant narrative, I find Critical Role Campaign 3 so refreshing.

Are Bell's Hells doing the right thing? No one at the table knows.

Are they being smart about their decisions? No one at the table cares.

Have they made a well-reasoned plan? Not one bit. They've been asking each other about their destination for 121 episodes like beat poets on a hitchhiking road trip to nowhere in particular.

"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, … "who drove crosscountry severtytwo hours to find out if I had a vision or you had a vision or he had a vision to find out Eternity, … "with the absolute heart of the poem of life butchered out of their own bodies good to eat a thousand years." - Allen Ginsberg, Howl

I just love seeing a show where the intention is to just feel out the story and create without a predestined path or destination. Where the creators talk about how their joy comes from not knowing what's going to happen and not being bound to "good" choices, but rather to interesting ones. Instead of "the narrative needs the characters to be these sorts of people" it's reversed into "these are the sort of people who cause this narrative."

It's so easy for storytellers to need to prove something, but most real people aren't living their lives to justify them to other people, but to justify them to themselves. And real people get caught up on their interiority a lot. A lot of historical turning points happened because certain people happened to be there, happened to believe certain things (cosmic truth being irrelevant), and happened to think specific actions were a good idea. No one was vetting who should swing hammers at the Berlin Wall.

Historians debate for a 1,000 years if acts were "justified" without consensus, while quite often the people doing them were thinking some version of "You know those days when you're like, this might as well happen?" Critical Role is all about "this might as well happen." Being adult is all about carefully planning out your choices to not fuck yourself over (and hopefully no one else). It's really fun to play out what the consequences of "poor" decisions could be. Who cares if you can back it up? It was fun!

"One of the things that often, I think, leads to people making poor choices in life is the misunderstanding that life doesn’t have a third act. Third acts are fictional. You have a first act, and you have a messy second act that’s really poorly written, and that’s it. The third act is like the worst invention of modern man because it doesn’t- The resolution is only something that happens when you sit down and write it. There’s no such thing as closure! No, there is no third act! It’s in your head!" - Taliesin Jaffe, The Wednesday Club: More on Moore

No one knows what life's going to turn into. There's no strategy guide that can actually chart the decision tree. Plenty of people have opinions about it, but no one knows. And no one can backseat game your life for you, though plenty try. There isn't a fixed destination you must get to. Critical Role doesn't really have third acts. Campaign 1 sort of did, but then the story didn't really end. Campaign 2 didn't have a 3rd act, and that upset a lot of people who had their own completionist agenda. No Exandria Unlimited mini series or Downfall really had a 3rd act. Since Matt came to view Campaign 3 as the end of a trilogy, maybe it will have something vaguely 3rd act shaped. But overall the 3rd act seems to be the heat death of the universe. That's so compelling to me.

It's all about cycles and how nothing is really new and nothing really ends. The Exandrian Pantheon was conceptual, immortal, and beyond reality before they came into the world. The world will doubtless persist beyond our gaze. We just see little drips and drabs of Exandria's history.

There are so many more stories to be told than "heroes made good choices and save the world through the power of undying loyalty." It's a good story, I do like hearing it, but it's boring when that's the only story that is ever allowed to be told. Sometimes I just want to put some fucked up little gremlins into a rat maze and just see what happens. And if they manage to overthrow the scientists and blow up the lab, at least it was a memorable day.

#critical role #critical role meta #critical role campaign 3 #CR C3 E121 #Critical Role Finale #Bell's Hells #Allen Ginsberg #Taliesin Jaffe

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did-i-do-this-write · 1 month ago

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Heyo! It’s meee (@mixing-bowl-of-stories), for writers roundtable!

I’m working on a fic for Raven and Summer that details a small adventure they go on! :)

I’m curious to know if anyone knows any tricks to extending some shorter stories? I’ve already got a handful of detail in the environment, and a good chunk of dialogue, but I’m not really sure how to get this to a better length lol

I’m not done obviously but one of my New Year’s resolutions was to write longer fics.

Not quite sure the word count I’m going for (I’m rlly bad about that) but I’m thinking something mid length ish.

Thanks y’all! Have a great time! :)

Hi, bestie!!!!! I hope the Round Table can help you out a little bit! Lets see what we got! :D

First of all, I hope you're talking about the fic I think you are 👀 (a prompt idea we talked about a while ago) but, regardless-

I am not the best person to ask this question, to be honest. I do not worry about length, word count or any other measurement. My best approach is to focus on purpose and structure.

What is the change that happens by the end of the fic? Is there character growth or realization? Is there a celebration or highlight? Is there a breakdown or falling out?

All of these can make a whole short story, even if they aren't resolved by the end. If you're looking to bulk it up and make it stronger (which usually means making it longer) I would consider two options: 1) pick an earlier starting point and/or a later end point. This means "showing" more. Show them getting ready for the adventure or coming home from the adventure or both!

If you already added scenes like that, you could show how and why they decided to go on the adventure in the first place or how the adventure effects their friendship later. It can also add context and weight if there's meaningful dialogue and changes.

2) Adding inner thoughts to slow things down. While they are waiting for their friend, Character A is bitching to themselves. They are silently grumbling. While they are traveling for the adventure, they are thinking about how stupid it is or how annoyed they are at their friend for dragging them along. By the end they are thinking about how cool it was and admitting that they liked it.

There's a bit of character development and you follow the character's internal journey and train of thought while slowing down the action and dialogue.

This was very long. I wanted to get my point across and provide ample examples. I hope it was helpful 😅

For the rest of the table! What do you guys think? How do you make sure you fit in all the details and story beats that you needed in a shorter format?

#ask and you shall receive #mixing bowl of stories #zac speaks #writing #writeblr #writing advice #writer's round table

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f4rtnite · 1 month ago

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New Year's Already?

Bkdk fanfic originally posted on ao3

Part 1/2

Summary: Bakugou only made one New Year's resolution, but it was already Christmas and he was nowhere near completing it. With only six days left in the year, would he be able to accomplish it in time or will it be too late?

~~~~~

It was 8 am on Christmas morning when Bakugou had woken up from his alarm clock. If it had been any other Christmas morning, Bakugou would’ve felt an abundance of joy and energy as he ran down the stairs to see the presents that his parents left him under the tree. However this morning, Bakugou woke up in his UA dorm room feeling more glum than ever. Bakugou only had one thing on his Christmas list, but he knew that no matter what, not even the fat man with magic, could give Bakugou what he truly wanted. Because of this, when some of his classmates came up with the idea of doing Secret Santa, Bakugou was completely against it. It wasn’t because he was a Scrooge who hated fun, he just couldn’t think of a gift to ask for. Unfortunately for him, thanks to majority rule, the gift exchange ended up happening after all, and Bakugou had to think of something random to put on a wish list.

Bakugou sat up from his bed and turned his alarm off. He let out a yawn as he rubbed his eyes to try to feel more awake. After a few minutes, he managed to get out of his bed and put his slippers on. He crouched under his bed and pulled out a neatly wrapped gift that had a fabric bow on the top and on the tag it read, “To Izuku.” Bakugou worked hard to make sure that the presentation of his gift was perfect. He took inspiration from Pinterest and watched a lot of YouTube videos to make sure everything was as good as it could possibly be. He even practiced his handwriting several times before actually writing Izuku’s name on it.

Bakugou carefully grabbed the gift and walked out of his dorm room down to the commons. He placed the gift under the Christmas tree that the whole class had decorated together. He looked at the gifts and noticed that almost everyone had already placed their presents under the tree. Usually, Bakugou would be curious to see what he got, but despite seeing the gift that had his name on it, he would have cared less to even take a peek at it. Once the gift was under the tree, Bakugou took himself back to his dorm room, as he still had a few hours to spare before it was time for everyone to meet and open presents.

Once Bakugou was back in his room, he laid down on his bed, pulled out his phone, and scrolled through TikTok to try and cheer himself up. Thirty minutes had passed and Bakugou was only feeling worse and worse. Bakugou's for you page was usually filled with random videos, usually of cute cats. Cat videos usually cheered him up but when he saw a video of two cats being cute with each other captioned “us,” he became angry. He never thought a video of cats being loving would make him so angry. Out of pure frustration, he threw his phone across his room, which made a loud noise as it hit his wall. He sat in silence for a moment until he heard the voice of two students in the hall outside of his room.

“Deku aren't you excited? It's Christmas!" Uraraka was filled with joy as she skipped through the halls with Midoriya following right behind her.

“I’ve never seen you this thrilled before, you must really like Christmas.” Midoriya was speed walking in order to keep up with Uraraka’s fast pace.

“Christmas always makes me feel happy especially when I'm around the people I love. Even though I'm not with my parents right now I still get to be here with you.” Uraraka had stopped skipping through the halls. Without her realizing it, she had stopped right in front of Bakugou’s room.

“Yeah, I guess that does make it more special…” Midoriya smiled.

“And I'm so excited to see what I got! Last year my parents got me a brand new pair of shoes and I was so happy. It was my first pair since forever that wasn't thrifted” Uraraka pointed down at the white shoes that she was wearing.

“Now come on Deku let's be the first ones in the Commons before everyone else gets there!”

“Uraraka we still have almost another hour, are you sure you want to go now?" Midoriya yawned as he was still sleepy, and his face showed it.

“Who cares, it's Christmas!"

Bakugou had heard every word of the other two’s conversation, and he felt his heart sank. The amount of joy that was audibly heard from Midoriya and Uraraka made Bakugou’s day go from bad, to worse.

“What the hell was I thinking?! I never stood a chance…" Bakugou felt tears forming in his eyes.

“This holiday is so stupid!” He stood up from his bed, grabbed his pillow, and threw it across his room.

He went up to his desk and kicked his chair to the ground. With the chair out of his way, he slammed both his first into his desk as he activated his quirk, turning the papers that were on his desk into ash. He tried to hold back his tears but once he let a single tear drop, he couldn't stop the rest. He only cried for a minute before he was able to snap himself out of it. He convinced himself that it was stupid to cry about something that he knew was going to happen eventually. It was obvious that Midoriya and Uraraka had chemistry and that they were going to end up together, even if he tried not to see it.

“If only I had brown hair, if only I were a girl… Maybe I’d at least have a chance…” He picked up his chair from the ground, slammed it back down, and kicked it.

“Damnit, I’m acting like an idiot. I need to sleep this off.” He laid down on his bed and reached out for his pillow, only to remember that it was on the other side of the room. He decided to sleep without it, as he was already relaxed and comfortable. It only took a few minutes for Bakugou to fall asleep, as he was exhausted from the meltdown he had just had. He shut his eyes and fell into a deep sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After eight years of saving every single penny that he had, Bakugou was ready to buy the perfect hero costume for Izuku. He had sketched out the design over a hundred times, determined to make it the best it can be and finally, the time had come. The case that held the costume was in Bakugou’s hands and now all he had to do was give it to the person he loved the most. Bakugou had rehearsed this day over and over again, countless times in his mind. He was going to gift the suit to Midoriya, they’ll form an agency together, and they will be with each other for the rest of their lives.

“So Izuku do you like the suit?”

“Wow, I mean, I can’t believe you did all of this for me…”

“Now that you have this, you can be a hero again. We can start an agency together, just like what we always dreamed of!”

“Kacchan, I really do appreciate all of this but, I don’t want to join your agency.”

“W-what..?” For Bakugou, time felt like it had abruptly stopped. The world around him became distorted, and nothing felt real.

“Well, Katsuki, we’re not kids anymore. Not only that, but I don’t have the time to be a hero. I’ve got a full-time job as a teacher, I have a wife and a child to take care of. I just really can’t be a hero now.”

“R-right that does make sense. I mean it only was a suggestion.” Bakugou felt himself fall apart. His whole world had been shattered and there was nothing he could do about it. If only he had been brave enough to ask Midoriya out when they were young. If only he didn’t crumble up his New Year’s resolution, which was to finally go out on a date with Midoriya. Bakugou heard a loud banging noise surround him that only grew louder.

“It’s alright Katsuki, you still have a different gift to give me today.” Midoriya crouched down and said to Bakugou, who was currently lying on the floor.

“What are you talking about? This suit was the only gift I had.”

“Did you already forget about Christmas? Wake up”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Kacchan wake up! We’re all waiting on you!” Midoriya shouted as he aggressively banged on Bakugou’s door.

Bakugou woke up suddenly, his body was sweaty and his breathing was heavy. He looked at his alarm clock and noticed the time.

“Shit, it’s already ten o'clock. I’m supposed to be in the commons!” Bakugou quickly got up and opened his door, only to be jumpscared by Midoriya, who was still standing outside his door.

“I’m surprised you slept in Kacchan, especially on Christmas.”

“You damn nerd why’d you have to knock on my door so damn loudly?”

“Someone’s cranky this morning.” Midoriya chuckled

“Shut up and get out of my way!” Bakugou pushed Midoriya to the side and walked to the commons.

All of class 1A was now gathered in the commons and were ready to celebrate Christmas together. All the girls had cute Christmas pajamas, with each girl matching in duos. Kaminari had bought Santa hats for all the guys to wear and passed them out to each of them. Jirou was the one in charge and leading the Christmas party since most of this was her idea to begin with.

“Alright so now that we finally have everyone here, we can start our Secret Santa gift exchange!” Jirou said as she smiled.

“Okay, guys so this is how we're going to do this. I’ll start off by giving my gift to the person I got, and then the person who received the gift will be the next person to hand out their gift.” Jirou walked up to the Christmas tree and grabbed her gift. Once the gift was in her hands, she handed it to Bakugou.

“Merry Christmas Bakugou. I was your secret Santa.” She handed the gift to Bakugou

Bakugou grabbed the gift and admired how nice it was wrapped. The Christmas spirit was starting to come back in him, and he enthusiastically opened the present.

“Holy shit!” Bakugou was extremely surprised with the gift he had received, and so was everyone else.

“Were those not the ones you wanted?” Jirou looked away shyly as she felt a wave of embarrassment flush over her.

“Are you kidding?! I didn’t think you would get me such an expensive pair of headphones! I was just expecting something cheap from the convenience store!” Bakugou held up the box which contained the pair of Apple Airpod Max headphones.

“I don’t understand what everyone is freaking out about. Aren’t those only 80,000 yen?” Momo said as she sipped her tea.

“80,000?! I think I might die just from being close to something that pricy!” Uraraka dramatically collapsed to the floor.

“Yeah, what happened to the agreed budget of 8,000 yen?!” Mineta yelled.

“Guys calm down. You guys do know that I get a bunch of PR for this type of stuff right? It’s not like I eventually went over the budget. Those were a brand new pair that was given to me and I knew it would just be perfect for Bakugou.” Jirou said

“Alright, can we just move on already?!” Bakugou yelled

“Yeah, Bakugou’s right, let us move on from this” Jirou said as she was visibly flustered.

Bakugou stood up and grabbed his gift for Midoriya. He walked up to him, and despite his cold face, he was tremendously nervous to hand his gift to him.

“Merry Christmas you damn nerd.” Bakugou looked away from Midoriya as he handed him his gift.

“Wow Kacchan, just the wrapping alone looks incredible!” Midoriya began to awkwardly analyze the wrapping alone as he was muttering to himself.

“Deku stop being weird and just open the damn gift already!” Bakugou yelled

“Sorry Kacchan!” Midoriya pulled the fabric, untying the perfect bow. Then, he carefully tore apart the paper. The gift was inside a taped-up box that he struggled to open for a minute before eventually having it open, revealing what was inside.

“An All Might squishmallow! This is exactly what I wanted!” Midoriya’s face lit up with joy as he aggressively hugged the squishmellow. “Thank you so much Kacchan!”

“Yeah, whatever. It was nothing.” Bakugou sat on the ground with his arms wrapped around his knees. He did his best to cover up his blushing face and luckily, nobody noticed.

“Now Midoriya go grab the gift you brought,” Jirou said

“Right!” Midoriya stood up and grabbed his present, which was in a gift bag.

“Here you go Uraraka. This one is for you.” Midoriya handed her the bag.

When Bakugou saw who Midoriya was giving his gift, he felt his blood boil. Out of all the people Midoriya could have gotten, of course, it had to be her. Bakugou didn’t even want to see what he got her, so he stood up and went to the bathroom.

“I saw that on your list you said that you’d be okay with receiving anything, so I made sure that what I got you was something very special,” Midoriya said as he watched Uraraka open her gift.

Uraraka pulled her gift out of the bag and what she saw, made her want to cry. “Oh my gosh Midoriya, this is the greatest gift ever.” tears started to form in her eyes as she held up the gift. Midoriya had gotten her a teal juicy couture jacket and a pair of low-rise jean shorts which seemed like a cute gift at a glance, but Uraraka knew the true meaning behind it.

Midoriya leaned in close and whispered into Uraraka’s ear, “Check the pocket”

Uraraka put her hand into the pocket of the jacket and pulled out a note.

“Dear Ochako,

Sorry I couldn't spend Christmas with you. Shigaraki said it would be a bad idea to break into UA even though I have both yours and Izuku’s blood It would make it super easy to get in, but, it’s the boss's orders after all so I’m stuck in our hideout for now.

Anyway, I was at the mall a few weeks ago when I ran into Izuku. Obviously, I started following him around just to see what he was up to, and that’s when I found out he was shopping for you.

I approached him and he started freaking out, his face was so cute, and I told him that I knew the perfect gift he could get for you.

Remember how the last time the League attacked, we got a chance to talk? I told you that I’d buy you a super cute outfit one day and that maybe we’ll even match. So I told him to get you the Juicy jacket, and I also got one myself. Mine is baby pink. As much as I wanted to get you a skirt, I knew you preferred shorts so I told Izuku to get you those while I got myself a cute skirt.

That’s also when I found out that you were telling Izuku about everything we’ve done together such as sneaking away from the battlefield just to have some girl time together. I thought you wanted to keep things secretive but I don’t mind, I like Izuku as well you know.

There’s so much I still want to say to you but Izuku is forcing me to hurry up and finish the letter since he doesn’t want to be seen out in public with me, so lame. Just know that the next time I see you, I want to see you wearing this adorable new outfit, okay?

Bye-bye, for now, I love you

Himiko Toga”

By the time Uraraka was done reading the letter, Bakugou had come out of the bathroom and was back in the commons.

“Wow, Midoriya you’re so romantic” Ashido teased, “So how much longer are you guys going to pretend that you aren’t dating?” She giggled

“No no no you’ve got the wrong idea, really! It’s nothing like that at all!” Midoriya exclaimed nervously.

“C’mon Midoriya you can admit it, we won't be jealous,” Kaminari said to Midoriya as he gave him a nudge on the shoulder.

“No guys seriously we're not dating,” Uraraka said, sounding more serious.

Bakugou just watched as the teasing went on. He thought that he would've been in the bathroom long enough for the rest of the class to move in already. Unfortunately, he was there to witness what was basically a confirmation of Midoriya and Uraraka being a couple.

“Alright let's move on. Nobody cares if they're dating or not." As Bakugou spoke, there was a huge shift in the atmosphere.

“Yeah, Bakugou’s right. Uraraka you should pass out your gift” Jirou continued on with the activity.

Once Secret Santa was over, the class stayed together for about another hour before going off to do their own thing for Christmas.

Now that things had settled down, Bakugou used this as his opportunity to talk to Midoriya and Uraraka properly. He wanted to hear from them directly that they were officially a couple.

The two were sitting down on the couch chatting when Bakugou approached them. Midoriya had his arms wrapped around his All Might Squishmallow since he hadn't let it go since he first got it. It did cheer up Bakugou’s soul slightly when he saw how much Midoriya appreciated his gift.

“So, you two are a couple?" Bakugou said as he tried to sound like he didn't care.

“Kacchan it's really not like that we're just friends”

As Midoriya spoke, Uraraka nodded her head quickly in agreement.

“You guys keep saying that but with the way you've been acting, it's becoming really hard to believe” Bakugou had his arms crossed.

Uraraka let out a sigh, "I can prove to you that we're not, but you also have to promise me that you can keep a secret."

“Sure. So now how are you going to prove it to me?”

Uraraka handed him the note from Toga. “I'm only allowing you to read this because Deku told me that you were good with secrets and that surprisingly you're a very understanding person."

“The reason why we've seemed so close recently is because I'm the only one who knows the truth,” Midoriya said as Bakugou read the note.

“So you guys have been working with the villains?!" Bakugou yelled

Midoriya quickly put his hands over Bakugou's mouth. “Don’t be so loud Kacchan! And no we’re not working for Toga. We only interact with her when she attacks and the moment comes we’re still going to turn her in,” Midoriya whispered.

“Okay well if I’m gonna be honest, I don’t care about what you guys have going on with Toga. As long as you two aren’t dating!” Bakugou handed the letter back to Uraraka as he yelled.

“Bakugou be careful with that!” Uraraka grabbed the note carefully and put it in her pocket.

“Well, I guess now would be a good time for me to leave. I promised my mom that I’d go visit her for Christmas and she’ll be mad at me if I show up late,” Midoriya said awkwardly.

“Bye Deku,” Uraraka and Bakugou said unanumusly.

Now with Midoriya gone, Bakugou had stared intensely at Uraraka, scaring her.

“You’re sure there’s so funny business going on between you two?” Bakugou was close too Uraraka’s personal space as he had completely towered over her.

“No Bakugou nothing is going on! How many times do I have to tell you? Why do you always get so upset anytime me and Deku are hanging out? Do I bother you that much?” Uraraka wrapped her arms around herself and looked down to the ground.

“No round face that’s not it. As corny as this may sound it’s not you it’s me,” Bakugou rolled his eyes.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” She had a puzzled look on her face.

“If you can trust me with your secret, then I’ll trust you with mine. But I swear to God if you spread around what I’m about to tell you, you will die!” He held his fist up to her as a threat.

“Okay I understand! You don’t need to be so scarry about it!” Uraraka brought her voice down to a whisper, “So what’s this big secret?”

Bakugou took a deep breath and looked away from Uraraka, “I have a crush on Izuku, and I’ve liked him for a while now. I told myself at the start of this year that I would eventually confess to him, but I couldn’t bring myself to it. Now the year’s practically over and I failed. I’m gonna be alone forever.”

“Hey don’t be so negative about it. You still have six more days in the year. There’s still time.” Uraraka tried to cheer up Bakugou.

“You don’t get it round face! Even if I did confess I’d still get rejected. Midoriya doesn’t like boys and even if he did, he would never like me. Not after everything I’ve done to him.” Bakugou’s voice was soft as he was having a hard time voicing his feelings.

“I’m sure things will be fine. I might not be the best person to take love advice from but if there’s one thing I know about Deku is that you are the most important person to him. He cares about you so much and would do anything for you.”

Bakugou smiled, “He does always follow me around”

“There you go that’s the spirit. You’ve just gotta go for it Bakugou!” Uraraka had jumped up with excitement and accidentally made herself and Bakugou float.

“Round face put me down right now!”

“Sorry Bakugou!” Uraraka released the two of them and they both landed on the couch.

Christmas went on and Bakugou ended up visiting his family for the rest of the day. It wasn’t until around nine pm that he and his classmates started returning back to the dorms. Bakugou was the first one back and he wanted to try out his new Christmas presents. He opened up the headphones that Jirou got him and connected them to his phone. ected them to his phone. After a long day of many mixed emotions, he need to unwind with some tunes.

#fanfic #fanfiction #bkdk #mha bkdk #bnha bkdk #bkdk fic #bakudeku #bakugou katsuki #izuku midoriya #ochako uraraka

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pimenita · 3 months ago

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I finished DATV so here are my thoughts:

First a bit of context: I became a dragon age fan around ten years ago, after playing Fable and looking for games that had a similar feel (and my 2 GB RAM PC could run) I knew DA Inquisition was out but there was no way my PC could take it, so I got Origins and holy shit… my 2010 PC could barely handle it too. When I tell you that the game craawwwled, that the best I could squeeze out of my computer was a stutter and that every quest must have taken me at least 3 times the normal amount of time they should have taken.

Dragon Age Origins is still one of my favorite games of all time, and as someone who joined the party very late, I'll admit experiencing that month of waiting for DATV was very exciting. After completing the game, I'll say the enthusiasm hasn't died down but not because the game is amazing, it's because DATV worked for me: it gave me what I wanted while avoiding most (most!) of the pitfalls of working on the 4th installment of a series that is close to being 20 years old.

We all know how turbulent the development of DATV was and how close to being cancelled for real it got. Is nothing better than the game we got? Not to me, I enjoyed it, I had fun, I'm still playing it (on my 2nd playthrough right now)

What saved DATV for me is what saves most everything for me: the characters. Some had good arcs, some had great arcs, and some were… there. But I never felt like they were a drag to be around. I like how they interact with each other, I love that nobody is calling anybody a slut or crazy (finally) because I get conflict, believe me, it's always fun to have your little guys wanting to kick one another's ass, but there was something so insidious in the way some conversations would go (Aveline and Isabela, just about every chat with Sera) that had me thinking it was more than just two characters tearing into each other. It was like the writer's barely disguised actual beliefs, if you know what I mean.

That being said, I know I'm not the only one that felt like some chats were too hamfisted, too on the nose—someone called the game Dragon Age: Friendship is Magic and I'm still laughing. I've seen the idea of "therapy speak" being used in books in ways that break immersion and I couldn't help feeling like some interactions the companions had were clear examples of this. What makes it weirder in my opinion is that the guys at bioware know how to write compelling conflict that makes sense and has a satisfying resolution. Let's take for example Lucanis' and Davrin's spat after the team fails to kill Ghilan'nain: they throw barbs at each other, then when they cool off they realize they were being asses, so they talk it out and make peace. Like adults, like a hardened assassin and warrior would. It adds to the conflict, it adds to the story, and it informs us of the type of people they are. Then there's Emmrich and Harding discussing a camping trip and waiting for my Rook to pick a side, and I'm like: dude you're both old enough to compromise? Also why do I care what you do with your time when we aren't fighting gods? Appalling stuff. Scrap it, think about better banter.

Then there's the huge elephant in the room: why is Thedas so sanitized? Is this the result of new writers not knowing enough about previous games?—it could be, they don't even know who Zevran is.

Or is it executive meddling?—maybe, there's a screenshot going around of the writers on bluesky (I think) where they vaguepost about critics of the game being right and how they (bioware team) fought against stuff that was included regardless. So, who knows.

On this front I will only reiterate that I'm glad Zev didn't show up. I already side-eyed Isabela (and also Taash) for her ideas about "treasure hunters" (read: pirates) and how they are actually good guys if you think about it (please, don't think about it too hard). Which, fine, let's say they really believe this, the same way the Crows believe they are freedom fighters or another vaguely Latin American coded thing; I understand that people entrenched in a system can truly believe what they're selling, but where's the other side of the coin? Where's the chats about the hurt they inflict on others to achieve what they want? The Crows have that one guy that ends up being a corrupt politician, and the Lords of Fortune… well, they are there.

Dragon Age is such a centrist series that I have heard just about everything about it. That it loves elves, that it hates elves, that it's pro-mage, that it's pro-templar. And it's because it has so many different factions that defend their ideologies that you can't say for sure what the writer's feelings are on the subject (and also because it's centrist, both sides are wrong bull most of the time). I swear I love Dragon Age; it's only because I care that I point out this stuff.

But that's the thing, I'm ok with both-sides-are-wrong fiction if it means it won't be a black and white take full of good guys telling me how good they are, while the bad guys twirl their mustaches evilly. And, unfortunately and except for a few cases (Solas) I feel like DATV dropped the ball here. Actually, I'm also fine with bad guys going full camp (Hezenkoss is one of the best parts of the game) just, you know, it has to be intentional, otherwise it feels like bad writing.

tl;dr DATV has very high highs, and very low lows, and I would've loved a more polished game, but I enjoy what we got and I will keep replaying it because of the companions and because it's a fun little game… most of the time at least.

#datv spoilers #now to keep waiting for BG3 to go on a hefty sale :3 #people say so many good things about it #and i know i'm going for the twink vampire #because of course

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dramavixen · 1 year ago

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watch this! – there will be ample time

Happy 2024, everyone! 'Tis the season to set goals. One of my New Year's resolutions is to be less of a drama snob and enjoy entertainment for entertainment's sake. The good news for my pretentious tastes is that most New Year's resolutions are doomed to fail.

Regardless of your television preferences, I believe that the media you consume should improve your quality of life. For me, that usually means sitting down and reflecting on how life sucks and letting that realization break my heart. That way, it can be sewn back together upon the next realization that sometimes life doesn't suck. It's a little masochistic of me.

what is there will be ample time?

An urban life drama centered around four friends in their 20s and 30s who, due to shifts in their personal and professional lives, return to their roots in the bustling city of Chengdu.

Focuses on the varying struggles of women in modern society while soothing your soul with the warmth of friendship and family.

I'm convinced that half of the lines are ad-libbed. Some of the stuff that comes out of the actors' mouths is way too natural.

why watch?

for and about the masses

The deeper I'm clamped into this world's trap of being a working-class human being, the more I'm drawn to television that depicts the average person's life. I can only watch so many shows about heirs to billionaires and gods on Earth before I start dissociating.

As you can guess, There Will Be Ample Time is a female-centric drama, but I wouldn't exactly consider it to be a "feminist" one in the traditional sense. Industry standard for feminist dramas tend to lean toward the "woman kicks male trash to the curb to live her glorious single life" trope. Those can be fun, but you can never escape the anger that comes along with seeing all those women being wronged by countless men like they're being passed along on some patriarchal assembly line. We're getting older. It's time to start looking after our blood pressures.

So here we are. Complemented by a relatively laidback Chengdu setting, our four leading ladies' lives aren't free from love life problems, but they have other things to do too:

Zhang Pei, an insurance agent with a smart eye for what work is worth doing. She's maintained a healthy relationship with her overbearing parents by keeping a distance of 1500 kilometers between them and herself for the past 15 years, but an unexpected incident makes her realize that there's no time to visit home like the present.

Gou Dandan, a beauty influencer who strives to make her life perfect both on- and off-camera. Reality hits when she discovers her husband is having an affair.

Dong Jiaxi, a recent graduate whose dream lies in writing and theater. She's just about to jump-start her career with great promise when her mother is diagnosed with cancer.

Wu Yun, a civil servant who moves to Chengdu for work. Though she visited her cousin Dandan in the city as a child, she's the only one in the group who didn't grow up in the region and needs to get accustomed to a new environment.

With the way that everyone speaks and interacts, it feels like you're taking a gander at someone's everyday life. Each character is someone you could meet on the street, a friend of yours, or just you yourself. The overarching normalcy makes you laugh that much harder at their humor and cry that many more tears when they break down.

move over, beijing and shanghai. it's chengdu hours

The Chinese title of the show, 故乡，别来无恙, translates to "my old home, hope you've been well." Chengdu's urban landscape has proliferated in recent years, but it remains in the main characters' hearts as a place of cozy memories—it's about the giant pandas, flavorful cuisine, and hordes of people drinking tea in a park and playing mahjong during a work day while some dude marches around asking if you would like to have your ears cleaned.

People in Chengdu have their struggles, but locals seem to take everything in stride. Most of your troubles can be alleviated by walking home where your parents have dinner ready or hanging out with your friends at the neighborhood barbecue joint. Take a break, have some tea. As hard as life can be, you should always take time to live.

(Disclaimer here that I'm definitely not biased for the place just because it's also where my roots are buried. I can testify that whenever this conditioned capitalist slave goes back to visit family, she starts having an anxious reaction to the free time and relaxation she's exposed to.)

The Chengdu dialect the actors use is...it's alright. I'm one to talk, considering I can't even get half a sentence out without stumbling on my American accent. Hey, at least they tried. If I harp on them, then I also have to harp on all the other actors out there who've spent years in the circle and still can't deliver a line with proper pronunciation or emotion.

relive your generational trauma in 4k imax surround sound

I don't know the writers' ages, but this work exudes the energy of Millennials finally aging into producing media that addresses generations' worth of mommy issues. You love to see it.

Do you see yourself in this picture? You're in high school. Call it hormones, call it rebelliousness, but you argue with your mom so frequently that it's become as routine and arduous as dragging yourself out of bed in the morning. Most often, one of these disputes ends with you shutting yourself in your room. Half an hour later, your mom bursts in without knocking to give you fruit on a plate. Ten years later, you feel like your frustrations were all so trivial in comparison to what your parents sacrificed for you. But does that make your feelings any less real?

There's something about Chinese families that makes us really good at hurting each other in the name of love and then never apologizing for it. Especially when compared to other family-centric shows, this one does an excellent job at portraying that exact issue. Each character deals with different forms of it, but they all struggle with being honest and respectful toward their family and face breaking points before they learn their lessons.

I saw myself in each of the children and my parents in their mothers and fathers. When you see a TV show reflect your family dynamics so accurately, it's hard not to cry when you see the aftermath of an argument on both sides. At the same time, you can't help but cackle when you witness some of the ridiculous things they fight over. In the end, why take things so far with your own family?

trying real hard over here to not spoil too much, but these. two. why am i like this? romance dramas give me romance and i'm disgusted because love is dumb. non-romance dramas give me romance and i'm on the floor searching for more crumbs. it's because i'm a snob, isn't it?

It's kind of difficult to summarize what this show does to your emotions. Somehow it manages to be an easy watch while squeezing a fist around your heart for all its worth. Most of all, it just makes you miss home, wherever that may be.

#there will be ample time #故乡别来无恙 #recs*#scribbles*#maybe some gif propaganda incoming i dunno #deciding between that and vanishing back under my rock :)

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mattstrahm · 2 months ago

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it's a new year and i've been thinking thoughts again

really kinda inactive past two weeks, was engaging in buddy business, altho i did scroll my feed every day because fir is the sleepiest human person on the planet so i had a lot of down time. it was good tho. i had a great time. really my-towncore that we had no snow and the day after they left it snowed. going to a liiga game last week got me thinking i really gotta start paying more attention. the standings are incredibly tight right now so everything is really interesting (and in the end tappara takes it all and we all have to just live with it blargh lmao)

i've never really believed in new years resolutions but i like the formatting options the start of a year gives me so i have set some goals. i started one of them color square calendar things for writing with the goal of writing over 100 words every day and i have colors corresponding to if i managed to write at all and if it was over 100 words. i also want to actually watch 12 movies and read 12 books this year... i fell short on both last year but oh well! i'll just try again! i also want to make more gifs and post more pictures this year, to make my blog look more like i want it to look. idk what that's gonna actually look like but i'm gonna try to make more of an effort. this does also mean if you 🫵 reading this post have any requests PLEASE send them my way. i'm retired from f1 but like other motored sports, hocke-y, based bawl, american egg bawl..... if i can find footage i'm happy to make gifs.

i think having a little piece of paper will motivate me to actually do stuff. i hit a bit of a writing slump bc as predicted if i make too good of a plan i then won't fucking execute bc i'm so happy with the plan. so now i'm trying to actively ignore the plan i already made to get shit done. better to focus on my own things and pay no mind to something picking up steam in sports rpf circles that's just a worse version of something you&friends introduced the organizer to a couple of years ago. i hope people have a lot of fun with that i guess. seeing the announcement for it was wild.

other tidbits that aren't a full paragraph but i feel like talking about anyway: went iceskating for the first time in years again, managed like five, maybe ten minutes with the skates on and they hurt my feet so badly, good god it's hard when you're not doing it regularly. also pro beloved said i should tag these as #n yaps to which i said NYAPS so... that's what we're going with. i hope you imagine i'm a cat going nyapnyapnyap :) and finally idk i've been thinking about petri vehanen a lot the past few days. that's all. thanks for your time <3

#nyaps

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macgyvertape · 2 years ago

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Venture Bros series finale thoughts (spoilers)

Watching the final work in a long running series (I started watching around 2012) is always a bit bitter-sweet, especially as a Venture Bros fans where there have been two or three year gaps between seasons, and after season 7 there was a lot of uncertainty of whether there would be another season or movie special. It was also extremely frustrating that hours after the movie came out, before most people had gotten to watch it, it was announced that Warner Bros who owns the rights would be delisting the show, WITHOUT telling the creators beforehand.

I reframed a lot of my initial thoughts after reading the Mashable interviews with the creators. “'The Venture Bros.' creators on saying goodbye to their show: 'It sucks'” where they discuss “kill you darlings” editing, and why some characters like Brock had less screen time and others like Sirena didn’t appear at all:

“"We put on our list — these are the things we want to include," Hammer recalled of the process. "These are the things that aren't important. These are the things that are funny. These are the things we care about. And we wrote out [a] way too long script and did a few rewrites."

"We wrote our most detailed outline ever," Publick said. "And we started writing the script. And when we got to the halfway point of the outline, we were already at the, like, seven-eighths point of what our page count should be. So we went, 'Oh, we gotta cut five scenes we wrote already and pare down the second act — like, way down.'" …

But it wasn't all bad news. Hammer found some joy in the process of paring down, telling Mashable, "It was also a treat because when we get to that point where we've overwritten, we can read it and go, 'Well, now I understand you.' We're good at looking at something and going, 'I know why this is broken. And I can fix it.' Jackson and I are both real good at repairing things."

And “Doc Hammer reveals the 'Venture Bros.' scene he regrets losing” which discusses Sirena specifically:

“Hammer began to explain, "I don't want people walking away going —"

"She's [Sirena] a bitch," Publick said, finishing the thought.

"Yeah," Hammer continued. "She's not a bad person. And we understood what happened (between her and Dean). And we wanted to tell people like, 'This is just a part of growing up. These terrible things just happen.'”

"The Monarch is a jackass, and he says terrible things," Hammer continued. "And Doc is a horrible narcissist, raised by toxic masculinity. I recognize this pantheon because they're in my life as well. But, I love all of them — as flawed as they are. And [Publick and I, in making the series] constantly walk that line of going, 'This is terrible. But look at the love in here.'"

The Sirena cut scene was meant to walk that line as well. The duo declined to reveal what would have happened in the scrapped Sirena scene. (Maybe they go into it on the DVD's commentary track?) But Hammer did share what he hopes fans realize about Sirena.

"We wanted people to walk away understanding her and understanding what happened," Hammer said. "Obviously, she's not in love with Dean. And hers is a very complicated relationship with Hank because it's his first relationship. And that's the age where we mess up."

I think the series finale is excellent within the way it works in that very strict time limit; it balances some fun new plots and characters with wrapping up a bunch of plot threads and speculation. Sure I would have loved to see more of Mantilla/Debra’s “stalker with a crush” interest in Dr. Mrs. The Monarch as the resolution was very quick but it still was my favorite plotline in the movie. It’s been amazing watching the quality of the animation increase over the course of 20 years, and I’m grateful the show got a high movie budget send off. There were a number of scenes like the Ven-tech tower liftoff where the animators really got to flex and make the moment spectacular and it was great to see.

It felt nice to end the series getting answers to some of the long running show mysteries and fan speculation; how are The Monarch and Rusty Venture related, what’s the deal with Hank and Dean’s parentage. This show has never done the sudden twist because fans figure things out and it wanted to “subvert expectations”, it instead rewards careful watching, and it was fun spotting old callbacks or visual Easter eggs (Dermott has a Deathklok poster). There were also a lot of emotional moments that landed for me, such as the rescue of Ven-Tech tower, just seeing these characters work together and succeed after all these years watching them.

This finale does one of my favorite things for a series finale to do, show a world where the characters have grown and changed but the world live on in a positive way, akin to riding off into the sunset where a new adventure is always possible. Things like Ven-tech tower settling in the old Venture Compound, the Monarch finds out the truth of his biological relationship to Rusty Venture but just adds a layer in the in the way he’ll continue to arch.

#venture bros #Radiant Is the Blood of the Baboon Heart #venture bros spoilers

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asksythe · 2 years ago

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Thanks for your translation and the footnotes explaining things. Those were a godsend!

If I may ask, you said you had been on the Chinese (and Vietnamese?) side of the fandom up until now, that you've been in MDZS fandom for a few years. I see that you have some MDZS English fics up recently. I love them too! The ideas are so new and fun! Do you have any favorites English fics? Why aren't you on the international side until now? You learned Mandarin just to read MDZS? That's amazing. Is it very hard? How did you do it? What gave you the idea of writing the footnotes? Are there any Chinese MDZS fics that you really like?

Thank you. I'm glad the notes were helpful to you.

Ehh... it's a lot of questions, huh.

1/ I don't have any true favorites on the international side. It's a matter of cultural differences, not the quality of the stories. MDZS... was not written with an international audience in mind. So there are a lot of tiny but deeply impactful details that just... fly over a lot of the international reader base's head. It doesn't help that Chinese is a high-context culture, the polar opposite of most Western cultures (low-context culture). So a tiny detail that doesn't mean anything to English speaking audience can be a really big deal for the Sinosphere audience.

So the English fics are written based on this foundation of cultural value mismatch and thousands of little things that don't quite line up. The result is... really weird and really jarring. So for me, I have tried reading English fics before. But usually, what happened is that I would get distracted by this thing or that thing in the story that didn't fit with the cultural setting, and I would not be able to enjoy the story at all. I'm not quite sure how else to explain this. It's like... if someone in the Sinosphere who only has a very vague understanding of say... modern American culture takes a glance at American media and equates popularity with actual governmental authority (which kinda is true in a way but not all the way) and they write a story with the premise of.. say... a young American with big dreams of becoming the president so this person starts out their career by writing long, thousand-word essays and post them on twitter to gain credibility and followers so they can then stage a coup like Jan 6th and become president, and then they use their position as president to order Amazon be the new headquarter of government and all of this is written super seriously and realistically... Like that, probably...

2/ Why aren't I on the international side of the fandom until now? Well, the reason above plus my work is hectic. I'm perpetually buried in works, scripts, drafts for books, magazine publication schedules, game publication schedules, media projects, client interviews, chasing down clients, etc... that's on top of family and my not-so-great health. This year though, I have made it my resolution to write more stuff for myself (and not paid by someone else). So that's why I'm here now.

3/ Yes, I did start to seriously learn Mandarin to read MDZS in its native language. I can't say it's easy. It's not an easy language by any stretch of the word. But it's probably fair to say it's significantly easier for me to learn it compared to a lot of other people. I'm Vietnamese. Vietnamese is a derivative of traditional Mandarin, even though our modern language is now written in the Latin alphabet. We also have a bridge language between Hanyu (Mandarin) and Vietnamese called Han Viet. This makes it much easier for a Vietnamese to learn Mandarin than most other nationalities (with the exception of Japanese and Korean, probably). Before I even learned Mandarin, with the right tool, I could already understand about 50-60 percent of Mandarin writings, provided it's not ancient writing (which goes by different rules). It also helps that modern Vietnam has really good access to Chinese media, both modern and old.

I practice by translating Chinese MDZS fics into Vietnamese. I translated 10 series in total last year, with each series averaging around 50-80k words. I recently dabbled in translating Chinese poems into English (There's no use translating Chinese poems into Vietnamese. Han Viet is built for that express purpose already.)

4/ There are a ton of Chinese fics that are really good. I can't even begin to list them. I have seen some of the first-generation MDZS fics that were so good they ended up influencing MXTX herself, ending with her accepting the details posited in those stories as part of MDZS canon. They are all on the Chinese side of the internet though, mostly on lofter and weibo.

5/ The idea of the footnotes came from a friend, really. I sometimes spontaneously rant at @erimies about MDZS. Haha, I should thank her for being so patient. Back then, she wasn't even in MDZS. Well, even now, she's only started to read a little. But basically, during my fairly one-sided ranting (or gushing), we would stumble into cultural concepts that she didn't understand and had no basis for. So I would explain these things to her, which sometimes would become entire essays in our chat box. So when I translated, I remembered this point, that international fans probably miss a lot of cultural concepts and references, so I made sure to add in explanations.

#ask sythe #mdzs #fanfic

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thunderberryz · 1 year ago

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Star's Rune Factory 3 Special 1st Playthrough, Part 3: It's... already nearly over?

So, going into Rune Factory 3 Special, I knew that the main story was going to be a fairly quick affair. That was one of the big things I heard about RF3; it's a good game, but it's not the longest. And I thought to myself "Well, I played RF5 and I'm pretty sure I finished the main story by early autumn of year 1 in my one playthrough. Surely, it can't be as quick or quicker than THAT."

It is, in fact, early autumn of Year 1 and I am just about to rescue Micah's fiancee AKA Shara from Aquaticus.

Knowing that I am very close to the end of the plot, I feel like it is a good opportunity to talk about the story. When I think about RF3's story... it's weird. Vishnal's marriage event comes to mind because the flaws of that event, I feel, encompasses a lot of the issues I have with RF3's plot. I have an older post going over my experience watching Vishnal's marriage event via YT, but to explain its biggest issue; it's short. I don't know if it's THE shortest of all the marriage events (I've still haven't gotten around to watching Forte's, Margaret's, Clorica's, Doug's, and Dylas'), but it is the shortest of the ones I have seen so far. And because it is so short, everything in that event comes in rapid fire--the plot, the emotions, Vishnal's proposal, the resolution--and so for what is there, it never feels like there's enough time to enjoy a scene and let it set in before the next thing happens.

That is essentially what happens with Rune Factory 3. The game has an incredibly good plot in concept, but because it's so short and things happen so quickly, it's difficult to appreciate what's there when it's there. For instance, compared to the likes of Frey/Lest and Alice/Ares, there is a lot less mystery with Micah; he starts recovering his memories immediately after defeating the first boss and it's always a sort of "Oh, that happened" kind of deal whenever he discovers an orb that triggers a recollection, even though him regaining his memories should really be that much bigger of a deal (the most emotional memory recovery scene was, I feel, the third where he remembered that he was the one tasked with defeating the monsters causing problems around Sharance, since it plays into the intro to the Death Wall fight later.)

There is also the matter of the Human-Univir conflict, which is its own problem. It's bad enough that it is resolved fairly easily, but the fact that the conflict isn't rationalized very well beyond "The Univir were exiled from Sharance at some point in the past--no one knows why, but the humans of Sharance and the Univir have hated each other since" is kind of... sad. In what I've experienced so far of the series, Rune Factory plots aren't anything to write home about, but... I don't know. I can't say whether RF3's plot turns out to be forgettable, but I can't say anything from the game's main story sticks out other than getting Kuruna to stop being so prejudiced against humans by giving her a handmade bouquet from the residents of Sharance.

But you know what they say; a mediocre story can be saved by good characters! And while I was initially overwhelmed by RF3's cast as mentioned in my first post, I've grown somewhat used to the eccentricities of Sharance by now and if there's anything memorable about the writing, it's how bonkers everyone is while still managing to convey some genuinely heartfelt storytelling. (And according to people on Reddit, XSEED's new translation for Special is apparently toned down from Natsume's original. Geez, I wonder how I would have reacted if this had been the original DS version.)

My favorites are the same as last time and... goddamn, I really do love Shara. Initially I figured I'd be marrying her purely to see if she was as bad as the fanbase makes her out to be and then in my second playthrough move on to a bachelorette I actually feel has genuine chemistry with Micah, but I really do like these two together. Granted, she doesn't have the most emotionally intensive plot associated with her requests (It's more about helping her younger sister, Monica, come out of her shell than any issues that Shara herself has), but she's so sweet and kind, cares for her family, and she loves flowers! I love flowers! And not gonna lie, her manner of teasing Micah and occasional bluntness do remind me of Frey, so that might have something to do with why she hits just right for me.

Girl, plz. You're killing poor boy.

That said, even though I made the firm decision this playthrough to marry her (and we would have had the wedding by now if Aquaticus didn't * grumbles *), there are other bachelorettes that I am considering marrying in subsequent playthroughs, which is pretty shocking considering my track record with RF4S. And by track record, I mean Arthur is the entire record.

Of the other bachelorettes, I've done a fair chunk of Sakuya's requests and I still like her a lot; besides having one of the more "normal" personalities, her love of travel and commerce reminds me a lot of Arthur (even though she's not a workaholic and is genuinely concerned with profits) and I'm liking the progress of her character development through her events. She also has a cute character design, but that's only ever a nice bonus and not something that determines whether I like a character or not.

The bachelorettes I was most skeptical of were Raven and Pia, and this is because I was aware of the fandom's opinions on those characters going in. Long story short: I figured this was going to be another Leon and Dylas situation for me, and by that, you know, I don't dislike either of them, they're pretty neat and I get why they hit close to home for some people, but it got annoying to see them constantly treated as objectively The Best when hey, their writing is not perfect, there's a reason why not everyone romances them; I'm certainly among those people. And at first, I was disappointed. Pia's personality was too airheaded for my tastes, and Raven... I liked her guest appearance in RF4S, but here, she's a straight up tsundere and tsunderes are one of those hit-or-miss kind of characters for me.

In Raven's case, I think I've done at least half her requests by now and by god, I feel bad for judging her so fast. Despite being a tsundere, she actually has an incredibly valid reason for telling Micah to stay away from her; according to her, anyone who becomes close to her disappears and she's afraid of the same thing happening to him. That... that hit hard and even if she doesn't end up being my favorite ship choice for Micah, I do want her to be happy.

Pia, I think, was just an instance of finding her initial personality overwhelming like many others in Sharance. I can't give any opinions on her character arc because I have only done one or two of her requests, but she is very cute. She is often lost in her own little world and tends to blatantly ignore things Micah says, but I do really love her happy-go-lucky approach to life and I unironically find her personal vendetta against squid hilarious. (She and Margaret would be friends.)

That is definitely the benefit of the romance system in RF3S. I'm sad there isn't a true dating phase and you can just go right to marriage once you've gotten the Engagement Ring recipe from Wells and Marjorie, but knowing that I can help these girls with their personal issues without having to turn down a heartwarming proposal at the end of their last request does make me feel a bit better about "hareming" all these bachelorettes. (And I say that as someone who detests harems and prefers a single dedicated romance in any narrative.)

My next post will presumably be my last for this first playthrough given how fast this has gone. I'm still incredibly attached to Selphia and RF4S is still my favorite game of the RFs I have played, but there really is a lot to love about RF3S despite its imperfections and I am already looking forward to my next playthrough. Cheers, everyone! I'll see you next time!

#rune factory #rune factory 3 #rf3 #star plays rf3S #spoilers

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dennydraws · 2 years ago

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No Buy 2023 - Art Supplies

Hello, hello and Good Morning! It's not quite January anymore to make new year resolutions but about a month ago I decided I need to do something about my art supply hoarding tendencies :D;;; Even if I'm not even close to what I see on art videos, it doesn't quite sit well with me when I have more than I use and clutter is something I don't like around me.

So! This year, let's tackle some art supplies with reckless abandon!!

Step 1 - Catalog all your supplies I want to say this was a tough one but it was actually fairly easy for me. I could mostly name everything from the top of my head xD:; And to be expected the most glaring issue with me was all the unfinished sketchbooks that I keep piling. I listed, ahem...about fourteen sketchbooks... 2 of which are pass half point to finish, 8 of which are started and for one reason or another abandoned and rest are not even opened.

Whenever I get the urge to buy new sketchbooks I will remind myself of the list I made. I'm fairly sure I got some more hiding in random corners too.

Anyway! Target list:

Step 2 - Discard what is no longer usable Ok testing everything did take time but it did also cut some chunk of art supplies. It also made me realize I had some markers I barely used and they had dried out exactly cause I had barely used them... a lesson to learn. Again. About a year ago I noticed some of my fave colors have dried cause I was savoring them maybe a bit too much lol. Once more the copics are holding up like absolute troopers. Sad to say the spectrum noir markers just dry really fast, especially if you aren't using them as soon as you open them. They are still wonderful markers mind you!

Well, I don't plan to use my copics with reckless abandon but I do plan to use all the watercolors I have for I have quite a lot xD;; including tubes, another set and gouache set that I have stashed away;;;

Step 3 - Pair the materials! I usually tend to make a test ground page at the start of every sketchbook but if I'm to test everything ... I may burn out so, I'll just stick to quick tests and if something doesn't work out, turn a page and carry on.

Step 4 - Write down the progress! If you're like me, you exist with little lists and check box and see everything as little exp bar that you feel and celebrate when you complete it :D;; And this challenge is no different for me. Every month I will be writing down what I've used, did I actually used all of it, did I learn or enjoy this medium etc...

But yes, this will be my process for the year! Maybe by end of December I will have a long post of what I finished, what I didn't etc :D;; hopefully more finished than unfinished! At the end art is personal and it should be done in a way that sparks joy for you. For me, I need order in my compulsive doodling tendencies. Unfinished things stress me and I hope I get to close the last pages of some sketchbooks and throw away some empty art supplies now that they served their purpose - maybe even discover that I really enjoy some mediums I barely had used before \o/

Thank you for stopping by, dear reader! I hope you have a wonderful week full of inspiration and ideas! Maybe this little read inspired you to catalog your own art supplies and do some spring cleaning!

#Good Morning!#Art Journal #about them art supplies hoardings #No Buy Year #Denny Rambles

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ofstormsandfire · 2 years ago

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Hello!!

Love your writing so much! After a decade of almost not thinking about the game, I recently started craving fics for Explorers of Sky. I'm so happy I found your Together We'll Be Heroes fic.

I'm new to your fics and blog, so I hope you don't mind me asking if you ever plan on continuing the pmd fic. Even if you never finished it, just wanted you to know that the fic brought me so much joy :D

Have a nice day/evening!!

hi hello! explorers of sky is such a good game, will always have a special place in my heart, which is a large part of why I started writing that fic in the first place lmao. cool to have you here! (I should... wait is my AO3 even linked on here? problem for future hope)

anyway, yes! I do plan on continuing it - my new years' resolution is to finish as many of my unfinished fics as possible, and Together We'll Be Heroes is one of the main ones I want to actually sit down and finish this year. some others that I really want to sit down and finish, that I haven't actively been writing recently and that aren't being cowritten with friends, include:

Ignite join our emo band Stars in the Northern Sky Field Notes on Operation Bloodline Prophecies, Dead Generals, and Other Forms of Guarshit

...all things considered, I actually have a lot fewer unfinished fics on AO3 than I thought I did. huh. that's cool.

first priority is of course finishing my main wip at the moment, no one ever mentions fear, a zelda botw fic where the champions come back from the dead, revali causes most of his own problems, and the reasons that this fic is like 10% a skyward sword crossover cause the rest. (you really don't need to know skyward sword to read it though.)

after that, it's time that I got back to the wip that I was really trying to juggle with noemf, a funky pokemon fic called there's blood on your lies where I punted cynthia into hisui, the wordcount and chapter count slightly spiraled out of control, and for some reason people really like that fic more than any other fic I've ever written by a rather large margin. juggling things that way wasn't working, so I'm focusing on noemf first while I take a break from tboyl for my mental health and also to give me time to figure out how I want to write the ending.

(I do have a solid plan at this point, so. that one's getting finished sooner rather than later.)

anyway, uh, got off on a slight tangent there, maybe I wanted to plug some of my writing as a treat. to me. and also because I don't really do that on tumblr at all lmao. maybe I should.

thank you very much for your kind words, anon, and I hope you have a good day/evening/timezone as well! but yes I will be continuing Together We'll Be Heroes, at some point this year. probably during the summer if I had to guess. I love writing and I also love pmd sky and if nintendo ever makes an explorers dx game it will be all that any of you hear about from me for at least a month at bare minimum.

#askbox #anonymous #my writing #there's blood on your lies #no one ever mentions fear #generally assume that unless I've stated otherwise a fic will get finished at some point tho!#I try not to start things I won't finish #both in life and in writing #writing things #fanfic things

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treadmilltreats · 2 months ago

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Don't make New Year's resolutions, make life resolutions

Every year, we all make New Year's resolutions. We vow to go to the gym more, eat right, make more money, and do the things we should be doing already but aren't. We gym rats know that the gym is packed the first month of the year, but by the last week in January, not so much. By the second week in February, it's just us die-hards that are in there again.

So why do we do that to ourselves? Why do we make these resolutions only to break them and then make ourselves feel bad? Ten years ago, I decided I wasn't going to make any more resolutions. I was going to make life resolutions to do something to change who I was as a person inside.

These have been my life resolutions that have literally, changed my life.

2014 was: Let go and let God

This meant I couldn't control everything. I couldn't figure out all of my problems, so if I wanted to change my life, I had to let go of control and give it to God. See, God kept giving me messages, but I thought I knew better. This was a game-changer for me.

2015 was: Pray and let God worry

I remember while I was getting divorced, I was stressing so much that I couldn't eat or sleep and my hair was falling out. I even thought I was having a heart attack at one point. I couldn't go on believing in God and keep stressing. It didn't make sense, did I believe it or not? Do I have faith or not? So I chose to pray and let God worry, and that was the best decision I ever made.

2016 was: Be present in my purpose

I know I am here for a purpose. I know God gave me this gift of writing to be able to touch others with my words. So, in 2016, I chose to be present in my purpose and know that this is where I am supposed to be.

My bible verse has always been: Romans 8.28

"God causes everything to happen for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them"

I have been present in this verse and my life ever since.

2017 was: Be real to yourself

For me, it's listening to that voice inside yourself. It's feeling what makes you happy, trusting what God is telling you, and what is real. We often poo poo things in our minds. We know deep down what the message is, but we don't want to listen.

I heard the messages, and I have acted quickly on them as I now trust God and my intuition. This was a hard one for me, and sometimes I reverted to my old ways, but since this resolution, I have been quicker to learn my lessons and move on.

2018: Knowing your self-worth.

This was also a hard one for me, as I lost my self-worth a long time ago and hadn't gotten it back. I used to let men use me. I'd run after men who aren't worth my time. I've made excuses for the bad behavior of people and given way too many chances to people who've hurt me.

I had to practice what I preached, the things I wrote about to my readers. I needed to show others how to treat me, with love and respect, and if not, then you're outta here. I now know my self-worth, and it's a wonderful feeling.

2019 was: To realize that I am a soldier.

I had to realize that God only gives his toughest battles to his strongest soldiers, and that's me. Whether I wanted it or not, this is who he called me to be. This is so I can share my testimony with others.

2020 was: To be happy within myself.

It doesn't matter what people say, whether they think it's right or wrong, this is your life. You can be dead tomorrow, and I know this as I lost many loved ones suddenly, and so I know how short life can truly be. You need to do what makes you happy now. Don't try to live your life pleasing others, because most times they will never be happy with themselves. I will do what makes me happy, as long as I am not hurting anyone. This is my life, and I will live it my way.

2021 was: Do not lose heart

It is from 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, inwardly we are being renewed day by day. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is"

2022 was: Be happy

This was about being happy with yourself. You can not make anyone else happy, but you can find the happiness within.

2023 was: Shit happens

A lot of shit happened, and I've realized that's just life.

Shit will happen, and life goes on, but we can't let it bring us down or knock us out. There will be some great years, and there will be some really, shitty years, but our attitude is the only thing we can change.

2024 was: There is always room for improvement.

I learned that I wasn't over my PTSD. I allowed someone to push my buttons and bring me back to a place I thought I was done with. I learned that money or a job is not worth your peace of mind. And that you can always make a change to fix yourself, which I did by going back to therapy.

2025 my life resolution is: It's okay to close a door

Sometimes you have to close a door. Sometimes we outgrow people or circumstances. We've learned our lessons and we are ready to move on and that's okay. Not everyone is coming with you for the whole ride.

I know this life is only temporary, and through it all, I have not lost heart. Even when I couldn't see what was coming at me, I held on to my faith, and I looked for the lessons in this craziness in the world. I was grateful for things even when the world seemed bleak.

See, you can not change, you cannot get this if you still will not let go. If you still do not have faith...it's all on you. Can you get out of your own way to make things happen?

Once we let go of these things, once we let go of control, once we learn faith and we pray and let God worry, things will change. Once we are present in our purpose, once we are real with ourselves, once we own who we are called to be, once we are happy with ourselves and our life then everything we ever wanted, everything we ever lost, everything that was stolen from us, will be returned in abundance.

So today, my friends, I tell you that this is your year, you are the only one that can change things in your life. If you truly want them to change, you have to do the work, and believe me, sometimes it's not easy.

If I can do it, then you can, too. Change your life today...

Don't make New Year's resolutions, make life resolutions...start today.

"Be the change you want to see”

@TreadmillTreats

#self help #positive #self improvement #love #mental health #god

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