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alyjojo · 8 months ago

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Love Reading 💖 - March 2024 - Aries

Singles:

Who is Coming In: The Tower & The Chariot rev

Regarding: The Hierophant

Long-Term Potential: 4 Swords & Strength

222 on the clock as I start your message, you either have a tumultuous history with this person or maybe they do in general. The Hierophant is clarified by 9 Wands, which is hurt, pain, feeling wounded. You could be on again, off again, on again, off again, over and over. There’s always drama, but you’re still committed to this person. Or some may be married & separated, some are trying to work out a difficult connection, it’s been a hell of a ride no matter who it is. This person could be legally married or have been, and they’re just going through it when they/you come around. They could’ve just gone through hell or something like this, and aren’t ready for something serious. Whatever has happened with them or between you might be some kind of disaster, they’ve gone through some major obstacles, one in particular being unexpected and changed everything about everything. The Sun clarifying with the lightning storm of this Tower could be a trip that gets canceled, blocks and problems, near-misses, things coming to light you didn’t expect or never saw coming. Maybe with their ex. Or you with them. Long term, this doesn’t go anywhere, you two aren’t even speaking. It’s a heavy weight to have had to carry (for one or both of you) and it’s like done is done, it’s a burden to even consider a new beginning…or have to go down one because this connection caused CHAOS. You could ghost them, if they try. Or that could be switched. The Oracle shows meeting them for a reason or a season, but not forever.

Messages:

- Lighter Skin Tone

- Shady Ex’s 👀

SHIP 🛳️

- Cutting Ties

- Moving On

- Receive What You Need

- Progression & Arriving

“A toast to no worries.”

Signs you may be dealing with:

Heavy Cancer, Sagittarius, Taurus, Leo, Scorpio & Libra

Couples:

Them: The Hermit rev, 5 Pentacles, King of Pentacles

Regarding: Wheel of Fortune

Curious energy on their side. It’s definitely some drama, but on your side I can see you’re not pressed whatsoever, if anything you’re amused. A song started playing in my head that made me laugh, I’ll put it at the end. So this person, for many of you they were gone for awhile, could have even been with other people. Wheel of Fortune can show a karmic, someone you’ve known a long time, or things are just changing in a big way for them right now. The changes are probably job related, if you’re actively together. Losing a job, losing hours, getting a new boss that’s just the *worst*. If there’s a 3rd party situation, it’s looking like you’re the 3rd party. This person may be leaving someone else for you, or they’ve been left by someone and they’re crying on your shoulder. They don’t know what to do, they never planned on xyz, I’m sensing damsel in distress energy. They’re going through tough times or something karmic even, could also be relating to their family. Or you. You’re ready to jump in and play hero. Male or female, both significators are here, you got this 💯 Almost eagerly, an opportunist and it is your TIME to shine 😆

Messages:

- Cannot Handle Reality 😵‍💫

- Gorgeous 😍

CUT DOWN 🪓

- Cutting Out

- Separation

- Stop the Pattern

- Silent Treatment

“In other words, meditate.”

You: 4 Pentacles rev, The Fool, 3 Wands

Regarding: 9 Swords rev

Your energy has me 😂 In stitches. You’re amused as hell, like “it’s about time”. Especially for those where this person has been with someone else, I just keep hearing that song. It’s like this person is drama but they’re *yours* and “go be dumb all you want, that’s fine, I’ll wait.” You are the definition of unbothered, and when this person needs you, you’re ready to rub their face in it a little. Like they can replace you psh, go find better then! They can’t, won’t, or don’t want to, they’ll be back and you’ll be extremely giving and loving towards them…cuz you knew they would. If you were worried at times, it’s showing with 9 Swords rev, but they don’t gots ta know about that. It’s not obvious. Whatever they need, you’re there, immediately, and whatever issues or grudges you had, that’s gone just as fast too. Your “give that shit up” oracle feels like something you’re saying to them, you’re perfectly chipper, waiting on this goober to get on your page so you can prove *why* you’re the best. Or why they need you. You’re a winner, that’s why. I heard “silly bitch”, this reading is killing meeee. Some of you, this is flat out about money. You like someone that could be broke, and you are not only NOT broke but you enjoy flexing it, it’s part of your personal power. Aries to the rescue, financially, and then you can work them with the charm and passion once you get there right? People underestimate just how generous Aries is for their people, this reading is a perfect example. Is there something in it for you, psh yes, always 😆 but that’s besides the point. Now if this is someone that does it all the time, then yeah, give the shit up. I don’t think you will, engagement ring being the mutual Oracle, but it’s possible.

Messages:

- STATUS 😎

- I’ll Wait Forever

THE DRAGONFLY 🌺

- Light-hearted & Adapt

- Finding Out & Change

- Things Coming to Light & Heal

“Give That Shit Up.”

Mutual: The World, Queen of Wands, 9 Wands

Regarding: 6 Wands

You two are definitely making up, and however you act or whatever you do makes it seem to them like this all was supposed to be this way. Cheering them up, making them laugh, putting on the Aries special sauce or some shit, you’ve definitively got them right where you want them. And it’s mutual. You want it, they want it, you’re generous, they’re generous. You and they both could be questioning the dynamics of this, it’s off the wall or strange for sure, but stranger things have happened and “Silence Your Inner Critic” is like Spirit saying shh. Don’t worry how you got here, you got here. It’s being pointed out that the hard times are over, any hurt you’ve felt before is over with, even if you’re still a bit cautious, or they are. Both of you. That’s fine, and I don’t see anything to worry about. 6 Wands is victory. Ace of Wands is about that passion…which is inevitable too. I’m done here, it’s GREAT. You win. 5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Engagement Ring 💍

- Higher Commitment

- Eternity

- Partnership & Union

- Completion

“Silence Your Inner Critic.”

Signs you may be dealing with:

Heavy Aries, Taurus, Sagittarius, Leo, Capricorn & Pisces

#Aries #love tarot reading #march 2024 #singles #couples #love #tarot #tarotblr #Spotify

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missmeinyourbones · 3 years ago

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there’s been some age discourse circulating on anime tiktok about older folks liking minor anime characters and how they SHOULDNT simp for them and i wanted to ask (1) what did you think about that? and (2) we see how often adults write smut about fictional characters that are minors so ummm how does that work?

imo in general since a lot of underage characters are drawn to be REALLY attractive or rather older, if i like them??? i like them.... but i don’t necessarily come on the internet to openly make sexualizing comments or nothing like that so respectful simping = a okay. like i want to give xyz a hug and a poptart and they’re the cutest patootest person on the planet type vibes.

as i aged, with a lot of new animes like demon slayer and jjk, i simply do not find MYSELF attracted ??? to the minors like inosuke and megumi, who would have been my general favorite characters if i was 15 bc that is how all my favorite characters looked and acted like but stuff that ive grown up with and characters i aged (i was 15, same age as kageyama when i watched hq!!) with are still going to be like?? VERY pedestal heavy & ppl i still hyperfixate over since i am still very attached to them even if i don’t say a word online about them. i am kind of scared of being attacked for liking them :(

but EVEN WITH FICS??? like lol please let me READ them in peace i promise it’ll be between me and my phone but duuude i think actively reading fics about me x fictional character is insane /jk so let me live. i think it’s interesting though because yeah okay chara x reader is bad but people writing smut about underage characters in ships (kagehina as an example) and then ppl are okay with it.... ALSO not to mention how much doujins are made again with the minor characters and suggestive content..... but yeah food for thought

this has been sitting in my inbox for a few days bc ive been trying to think about how to properly gather my thoughts on it so if anyone wants to hear me rant about media literacy and fictional minors you can click below :)

i think people often forget that fiction is just that—fiction. its fake. yes we can pour our hearts and souls into loving certain characters or shows but at the end of the day they as "people" are lines on paper. they do not exist. i think the lines are extremely blurred when it comes to stuff like the age debate because people get weird w/ minors being written about or thought of in a certain way etc.

personally, when i think of a character (especially applied to noncanon universes) i think about them because i like the idea of them. i match them in my head to be fitting to me and my personal character (age included!!!!) so like yes i love canon megumi and his character, but when i write about megumi and "simp" for him in my head hes not 15. hes tailored to my personal demographic and interest (if that makes sense)

i think that people think too much into the whole fiction thing because its literally fake....like people get cancelled for writing FAKE SCENARIOS about FAKE PEOPLE because of their age. fiction is meant to be fake! its meant to be consumed knowing it is not real, and to explore hypotheticals and use your imagination to your own advantage

with that being said....in no way shape or form do i condone pedophilia or illegal age relationships. i think that people need to stop worrying about FICTIONAL age gaps and focus on the actual real life minors being groomed, harassed, assaulted, etc. because this is something that happens in real life to real people. worrying about fictional scenarios that will not be real no matter how hard you try is pointless when the reality of the situation is that real adults being interested in real minors is the real issue.

idk if i worded this nicely or if it makes sense but this is just my opinion on it <3 they’re literally not real and we should be focusing on protecting actual human real life minors <3

#long post #tw: age difference #l answers <3

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nneefa · 4 years ago

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For the ship ask- Rinshi: 9, 11, 12 and 23.

9. Do they discuss big issues? Religion? Marriage? Children? Death?

Hard to say, honestly, since Rin is predisposed to avoid these kinds of topic, more particularly death. Religion, I feel, would be a non-issue, because despite being raised in a church/monastery, Rin doesn't appear to be a devout follower of Christianity, nor any of the religions, and the same goes for Shiemi, except I picture her being traditional, in the sense that she knows the core values of Shintoism, maybe. I think that for them, they're more focused on the principles of the religion, like being kind; doing unto others as they would like done unto themselves, if that makes sense. That matters more to them than claiming a religion and its rituals, despite knowing those rituals.

There are times where I feel like marriage wouldn't matter to either of them; that they'd be in a long-term relationship without the title of husband and wife, because as long as they're together that's all that matters but then, knowing that Shiemi loves events and parties and celebrations, planning them and such, she'd definitely have a wedding and Rin wouldn't be opposed to it himself. A wedding would be the perfect excuse to have a swanky party and invite everyone they met since becoming exorcists. As for children, there's a mess of issues with them having biological kids, because Rin's the Son of Satan and Shiemi's the nephilim of Shemihaza. The Order would possibly try to restrict them from having children, because they don't want a repeat of Yuri/Satan and the Blue Night, and/or the "Beautiful People Club/Cult" would try and get their claws on them. That's not to say that neither Rin nor Shiemi wouldn't do everything in their power to protect their children, but I think that's something they'd both consider discussing. But, I also think they'd adopt. I can't see Rin not adopting at least 1-2 children, since he and Yukio are adopted themselves. He'd want to give a child in a need a better life the way Shiro did for them, and Shiemi would definitely be openminded, if not happy to do the same.

Rin does not like dealing with death, and Shiemi understands that but I feel like it's something they'd talk about, because Rin will outlive most all of his friends and possibly Yukio thanks to being half-demon and Shiemi would want to make sure he'll be okay.

11. Do they celebrate holidays? Anniversaries?

Absolutely, 100%. They love special occasions more than the Good Lord should allow, and it makes their friends, especially Yukio, antsy, lol. It gives Rin an excuse to cook a themed dinner and Shiemi an excuse to decorate, dress up, and create activities for everyone to bask in. Also, it gives them the opportunity to spend time with their friends and loved ones. Holidays at the Okumuras are the absolute best. They celebrate anniversaries, but I wonder if it's with the same gungho attitude they do holidays, but then, I picture Rin/Shiemi as one of those lovey dovey couples that just love being around each other no matter the occasion, so there's that too.

12. Is there a wedding? What was the proposal like? Any kind of honeymoon?

I mentioned previously that I can both see them getting married and not getting married. I can see there being a small, mixed Christian/Shinto wedding at the monastery where Rin grew up with a huge ass reception afterwards, where all their friends and family and peers would come. Rin would be in his tuxedo and Shiemi in her wedding kimono (oh, but also THIS)! There'd be a fight over who's Rin's best man - Yukio or Suguro, which like, obviously it's Yukio, but Shima insists on making it a thing when it's not - and, gosh, their wedding would be so chaotic because of everyone else, but also really fun!

Okay, so like proposal-wise, I've thought about this a lot, and I think I've settled on the idea that Rin would take Shiemi to his parents' graves and introduce her to them, and while rambling about all the things he accomplished that Shiro wanted for him - re: that day Shiro hugged him as a kid after he went berserk and broke his ribs - and just kinda blurts that he kinda wants to marry her/spend the rest of his life with her. Not that he has a ring on him, because he actually hadn't meant to propose that way, but it sort of happened on its own. And Shiemi would just kinda hold his hand in the process of all this, rambling to their graves as well about Rin and how much he means to her too and how she wants to be with him as well. Like, the whole thing is angtsy and sweet. Oooor, Shiemi would tell Rin that she wants to be with him forever, and Rin takes that to mean she wants to marry him, and y'know, he'd ask for clarification, and Shiemi would be like, "Of course!" Oooor, Rin would just blurt, "Let's get married!" or "I want to marry you!" after Shiemi does something sweet that overwhelms him emotionally, and Shiemi would like, "You mean like husband and wife?" and Rin would just flounder because holy crap, he didn't mean to say it like that, and Shiemi's just like, "Okay. I'd really like that a lot." And Rin would be like, "Really?! You mean it?!" And there'd be that nervous buzz of energy from Ch. 73 where they're all blushing and hiding their faces, but Rin wouldn't literally not being able to stop smiling and laughing and being happy that she wants to be with him.

Rin and Shiemi love the travel, so yes, there sure as hell is a honeymoon. They'd probably go to Aomori or Kyoto; maybe even travel outside of Japan to China or Mexico, where the other True Cross branches are.

23. How do they hug? Kiss? Tease? Flirt? Comfort?

They love hugs! Like, hugs are the essense of their affection for each other. Rin throwing his arm around her shoulder and tucking her head under his neck. Shiemi wrapping her arms around his middle and laying his head on his chest. Rin sweeping Shiemi off her feet and spinning her in a circle. Shiemi tackling Rin to the ground in a crushing hug out of pure joy. Like, they do Studio Ghibli hugs, and they're all filled with laughter. As for kisses: there's forehead kisses from Shiemi, either the kind where she stands on her toes or pulls his head to her level; there's the kiss where either of them call each other's name and they turn their heads and one of them kisses the other on the mouth. There's the "we're holding hands, but I'm going to plant one on the back of your hand just 'cause" kiss. There's the "can I kiss you?" kiss (which is their first kiss) and they bump teeth instead, and Shiemi settles for kissing Rin on the corner of his mouth (even though she was aiming for his lips). There's the "I really want to kiss you" kisses, and "that was really sweet what you did/said and the only way I can express how I feel is if I kiss you" kisses. And eye kisses, and nose kisses, cheek kisses, back of the neck kisses, hair kisses, kisses thar start off as pecks but get heated until they have to stop before it escalates! They love pecking on each other, really.

They tease each other over their quirks and habits - like how Rin teased Shiemi when they compared their grades because she used to use her own names for plants instead of the proper one, or how Shiemi teased Rin in the Phantom Train chapter. I don't think either of them know how to flirt, lol. Both Shiemi and Rin are too shy to do that, but when they're all lovey-dovey, like just buzzing around each other and being affectionate, their friends always tell them to stop flirting, even though they don't realize they're doing it and it immediately embarrasses them. "We're not flirting! I'm just showing/telling her XYZ!" like that. Hugs are the go-to for comfort; it always works. And they have honest, open dialogue with each other, like how Shiemi hugged him and told him she wasn't afraid of him, or how Rin opened up to her about Yukio.

#rinshi #okumura rin #moriyama shiemi #ao no exorcist #blue exorcist #otp: dance with me #ask neefa #blueexorshit #sorry this took so long!

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villa-kulla · 3 years ago

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Fic Writer Review

Tagged by @fontainebleau22, thanks for the tag, sorry for the delay!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

26 at the moment.

2. What’s your total AO3 wordcount?

722 309. I’d have thought it would be more considering how long some of mine seem to get, although looking at other people’s answers to this meme, I guess 26 isn’t really a huge number!

3. How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

My first fic ever was a little Lord of the Rings experiment for an exchange thing. But my first proper dip into writing for a fandom would have been Breaking Bad, where I wrote for a couple of years before it felt like my ideas had run their course. Then there was a Kingsman fic, and then Mag7 where - similarly to BrBa - wrote feverishly for a couple years until it felt like the well had been plumbed. Oh yeah and then jumped into the Marvel fandom to drop one Marvel fic before immediately jumping back out lol.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

So the Marvel fic has officially just become my most kudoed fic, which is kind of hilarious considering it was a SUEZ! CANAL! FIC! But in my opinion, a good one lol. So yeah, it would be 1. The SamBucky Suez Canal fic, 2. The Kingsman soccer AU, 3. Desert Sand, 4. Chisolm’s 7, and 5. Blue Devils. That last one surprises me, but I guess it was an early one for the fandom, so I think it became an automatic read.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not

I do! It’s possible I’ve missed some here and there, but generally I try to get them all.

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

I don’t think any of them! While my fics definitely include angst, ideally it’s still in a fun way, or at minimum, bittersweet? I don’t generally want the last taste in a reader’s mouth to be angst. ALTHOUGH. I really really wanted to include an epilogue to the selkie fic that’s kind of angsty. Basically the story would end, but then many years later we’d see an old man get off a bus on the coastal road, carrying a suitcase. He’d be wearing a suit, clearly back from many years travelling. He’d walk to the coast, back over a hill where there’d once been a little fishing cottage, long since torn down. He’d walk down to the beach and into a little cove where he’d kneel by the water he knew better than anyone. Opening the suitcase he’d take out a box which he’d then empty into the ocean, ashes spreading across the water. He’d take out a folded bundle of cloth and wrap it around his shoulders. Then he’d dive into the water, disappearing into the waves, leaving nothing but an empty suitcase behind him, and a folded pile of clothes.

I loved that ending but I’m still not 100% sure if it was keeping in tone with the actual ending, so I left it out. Maybe one day I’ll go and add it as en extra chapter snippet.

7. Do you write crossovers? If so what’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I don’t know if I’d call them ‘crossovers’ exactly, although I did stick Goody and Billy into a Some Like it Hot ‘jazz band on a train’ situation, and I also did a Breaking Bad one that used some elements of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Those feel more like ‘AUs’ though. I like situational crossovers, but I’ve never been super into fics where characters from different fandoms actually interact.

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Thankfully not. The most off-putting comment I’ve gotten was someone who - despite being very complimentary - decided to make a full-on laundry list all the anachronisms in a chapter lmao, like what. Stuff like "interesting that this character used this expression when XYZ would only been invented 10 years later!” etc. I’m positive they didn’t realize how it came off, but still, that was kind of hilarious in its.....obliviousness lol. It was special.

9. Do you write smut? If so what kind?

I do. And I guess I’ve done the full spectrum of ‘fade to black’ to ‘describe every bead of sweat in pearlescent detail’. It really depends on what the fic calls for! I’ve done some I’m quite proud of tbh, but there are others I’d like to go back and have another stab at, just because they felt kinda cookie-cutter.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of!

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

There’ve been a couple! I can’t remember which ones specially, but I had some people asking to translate some Breaking Bad ones, and I think a Mag7 one too. I remember someone messaging to ask permission like “We love your fics in Russia!” and that was a very sweet and wild thing to hear.

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes, I wrote one with @yoporkchopsandwiches! Our Victorian opium dens Breaking Bad AU lol. I was just thinking of that recently actually and remembering how fun it was to read what the other wrote! We plotted out most of it together, and then took turns writing chapters or scenes. But of course while writing you come up with other details or ideas, so we’d then present the new chapter to the other with all the new bits added. And it was so fun to read what the other came up with like ‘omg no way didn’t see that coming/good idea!’ and then picking up their idea from there. In that sense it was almost like improv but for writers.

13. What’s your all-time favourite ship?

That I’ve written? I think I’ve had the most fun with Goodnight/Billy, partly for the time period, partly for the dynamic, but mostly for the plausibility. While I really enjoyed writing BrBa, it felt more like it came from enthusiasm for the show, not the central ship lol. Don’t get me wrong, the chemistry and its potential was extremely fun to write in a fic setting, but I don’t find I actually shipped it while watching the show itself. Whereas it’s been nice with Mag7 to write for a ship that’s actually....more believable lol.

14. What’s a wip that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Ugh I can’t beLIEVE I have an unfinished fic up on ao3 lol it haunts me. I was sure I was done with Goodnight/Billy, and then early quarantine last year I had a train robbers AU idea, so I posted a couple chapters. But I don’t think my heart was super in it, I was more just messing around with the idea. I don’t want to delete it, but I’m also not super motivated to finish it haha, but we’ll see what happens. But tbh I like the poem summary better than the fic itself:P

15. What are your writing strengths?

Plotting, keeping things moving, and making stories feel visual maybe? They’re almost all movies in my head anyways, so I think I have good instincts for ‘cinematic moments’.

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

I think I’m a little lazy, and also ‘end-product oriented’. In some ways it’s helpful to picture the whole fic before you write it, but sometimes it results in some scenes feeling slightly slapdash because I’m just trying to get them out to move onto the next. Like ‘everyone did everything I wanted to in this scene? Great, next.’ I could stand to ‘stop and smell the roses’ more while I write, and actually see what else I can do to improve a scene.

(also if I use a word once it sticks in my head I end up using it like 5 other times in a scene and don’t notice lol, I need to stop that)

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

All for it! Depends how it’s done though. I personally find long scenes of dialogue where you have to constantly jump down to the author’s notes for the translations to be distracting. I like when it’s integrated more naturally where actual translations aren’t super important. Like in River Grit, Billy overhears this little exchange between Goodnight and his childhood nanny:

“Ah c’est vrai, mon petit Bonsoir! J’en peux pas le croire!” she cried out and laughed as she embraced Goody. Billy realized with a start that he actually recognized one of the words: ‘Bonsoir’. Goodnight. (insert brief flashback of Goody teaching him the nickname) / “Ma Serafine,” Goodnight said with a laugh. “C’est vrai que tu ne vieillis pas. Tu vas me rendre jaloux, heh?” / Billy had no idea what Goodnight was saying, but he sure as hell recognized Goodnight’s tone for flattery, and it was confirmed when the old woman laughed and smacked his arm.

What they’re actually saying is: “Oh it’s true, my little Goodnight! I can’t believe it!” / “My Serafine, it’s true you never age. You’re going to make me jealous”. But it doesn’t matter because this fic is from Billy’s POV so it’s about how he experiences the language around him, which is why I wouldn’t have included a translation for the reader. If you understand it then it’s a bonus, but the words themselves aren’t really the point!

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

That lil Lord of the Rings fic.

19. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

Hmm for Mag7 I’ve always liked River Grit and love how it turned out. I also think Ashes feels very complete as a fic and I liked the flashback format. And while it’s not my favourite fic, in hindsight I’m impressed with the Kingsman football fic and how I had to write about 5 different soccer games and make them all feel different and exciting, and not just some variation of ‘He kicked the ball!’ I’m really pleased with how those sequences all turned out.

La fin! Not tagging anyone this time, but please feel free to do this if you see it! I love when people just take initiative to do these things without waiting for a tag (also please tag me in it if you do, ‘cause I love reading these things lol)

#shares #fontainebleau22

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prolestariwrites · 3 years ago

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Are you still writing? I don't see you post as much stuff anymore.

I’m still here, alive and kicking and writing lol… I hope you don’t mind but I’m going to use this ask to give an update on me and what I’ve been doing.

The truth is, I write almost every single day. I have dozens of drafts and another dozen of nearly complete fics for different fandoms. I have some one shots that I never got around to publishing. I also have outlines for stories that I might or might not get around to doing. I have full fics that I’ve written in a discord server with my writing pals that are waiting for me to copy and paste into a document so I can edit and upload.

I’m going to go into my thoughts on these things, where I’m at, and what I’m working on under the cut. Maybe if you’re reading this you can help me piece it all together?

First I want to acknowledge that at least half of what I write, I do with my friend and writing partner @solynacea. We have novels of unpublished stuff that we’ve done just for fun that has never gotten published, and maybe never will. A lot of what I’ve written has been done with them, and many times we’re onto the next idea before editing and uploading and I think we’ve forgotten about half the stories we’ve written, lost into Google chat backlogs until one of us remembers something we can search to find it.

So if I’m doing all this writing, where is it? The truth I guess is that I’m still writing, but for a while I just haven’t been into publishing. And this isn’t going to be a sob story about not getting enough attention or credit, because I stopped looking at kudos and comments a long, long time ago. I like publishing my work because I like to know it’s somewhere where I can find it easily again. (My Google drive is a hot mess.) I like knowing that there is someone who read it and saved it to come back to again. If each of my fics has just that one person, I’m cool with it.

For me, writing is fun and publishing is work. I need to edit, I need to find visuals, I need to think of a title and write a summary and actually remember to update with new chapters. I need to be ready for other people to read it. So I’ve adapted this habit of writing without expecting to publish, and it’s helped me flourish.

But it’s also made me pretty inept at getting anything to the point where it can go on AO3. There is an expectation when publishing that things should be a bit polished. I’ve never been one to just throw whatever up unless I knew it would be finished, because I get the sense that people hate unfinished work. Am I wrong?

If you are asking about NnT, anon, I think we can agree that it’s unfortunately a bit dead. I do have one story to finish, The Dark Fate. I also have some outlines done, a bunch of completed or nearly (like just need one more chapter written) fics, some that were started and left halfway through.

But in general I feel like I’ve told the bulk of the stories I had for NnT. I don’t have much more left. Which really kind of sucks because it was the perfect place for a content creator. There were enough characters that you could interpret in a lot of ways, plenty of lore left undiscovered to flesh out, just fantasy enough to not get caught up in real-world locations or rules, but also not so big you get lost. Yet NnT is over and I’m not feeling the sequel. There’s just no inspiration.

I’m writing for a BNHA zine which is fun, and Kacchako is still one of my fave ships of all time. I have a story I’ve started about them that I can’t seem to get any gas on. The space though feels too big. I enjoy more of what other people do than what I can make myself. I do still want to write this fic though.

As for DMC, it was a nice place to hang my hat for a while, but I’m feeling like I’ve run out of things for it too. I wrote the things I wanted to say about Dante, Vergil, and Nero. I have a couple more chapters to do on The Wish and started writing a steampunk AU, but once those are done I’ll probably close the book, at least for a while. Writing in this fandom wasn’t at all what I expected coming from NnT, and the culture shock sort of zapped the inspiration for me, even though I’ve had a great time and met some great people. I also ended up liking the reboot more than the main games and finding anyone else in the same boat is like a needle in a haystack.

So what’s next? I’m on the hunt for inspiration. I’ve been catching up on Resident Evil and started writing for it. I’ve been editing an original work (supposed to be anyway, haha) and writing more original work with solynacea. I’ve tried my hand at the Witcher and looked into getting into other fandoms but nothing is striking my inspiration. Tried writing threads for a bit but it’s not my style. There are tons of things that I love, but it’s a whole other ballgame to have your own stories to tell outside of the original, and that’s what I’m waiting on.

I hope if you’ve read this far you can see that it’s not a lack of motivation or interest, just inspiration. I'm an author in need of a new home, so to speak. I’m not in a writing rut, and there are thousands and thousands of words unpublished that I’ve written over the past year since my publishing slowed down. I hope that RE can give me that push, and if it doesn’t, I’ll look for something else. Any ideas, anon?

In the meantime, I wonder, do you guys want rough or partially-finished stories though? Let me know. I can publish if you guys know what you’re getting into by reading it lol. And I don’t mind comments when people ask if I’ll ever finish xyz fic or asks like these that are about what I’m up to, so hit me up any time.

#personal #thanks for the ask!#and thanks for reading #maybe since there are people still out there I'll take some requests?#hmmmm #please feel free to add anything #free to comment or reblog if you agree or disagree

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lady-of-disdain · 4 years ago

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If you're so bothered by a cartoon ship (which... no words) still don't understand why you take it out on shippers, not like you could do much about the studio anyway, they don't care, as they should, but then being on our ass is entirely pointless... maybe that's the problem at the same time, maybe to some extent you do realise no one cares so you've decided persecuting a bunch of fan creators and consumers would be the next best thing. That said I feel it's imperative to point out, we're not Sunrise, we're not the ones with the power to shape this story, so you bullying us is frankly just devoid of any meaning other than raw intent for violence. At the very least admit that and drop the pretences, it's the only thing you've done after all, one would have to be blind not to see it.

If you're afraid a puny ship might be canon, and whatever you've twisted it to mean for you, take it up with the studio, alternatively with god since you're so into fictive characters over real life. Come to think of it didn't you guys have a friend that has a friend working at the studio? How come you're still so insecure? Why don't you tell the friend of the friend to influence the plot? Why hasn't this friend of a friend provided any other inside scoops to make themselves credible? Questions, questions.

Either way, hurting shippers will achieve nothing, we were gonna ship no matter the canon status of the ship, and I pity you people who think that shipping something has to be done because you want something canon, as opposed to just... for fun... but maybe that comes naturally with being pathetic, anyway, the possibility of it becoming canon now has nothing to do with us. Even less so as Westerners, if audience even has any sort of influence in all this, it would be the Japanese one way before it would be any Western one. Appreciate you giving us so much importance, but we don't need it, and we're just not really as important as you attribute, we'd just love it if you stopped hurting people over cartoons. You made something gruesome out of a fairy tale, that's on you, that's your problem, and we'd all be better off if you found a way to deal with that didn't rely on abusing others.

Honey, are you lost? I think there was maybe a different blog this rant was supposed to be sent to but I got it by mistake. Because I have no worldly idea what you are talking about in about half of this ask.

The first thing that confuses me: that I’m apparently “taking it out on shippers”, “ persecuting”, and “bullying” them? Please show me your receipts. I’ve literally never directly initiated contact with a sessrin blog. Hell, the one time I considered answering a post made by a pro blog, it was going to be in direct response to a question they posed in the anti tag, directed towards antis, and it turns out I couldn’t even answer the post because the user had most of the anti community blocked. (Silly, I know, but this is what we’ve been dealing with so what can I say.) Any time I want to respond to a sessrin argument that wasn’t directed to me anyways, I would usually screenshot it and blackout the names.

I can count on one hand the times I’ve even posted in the same thread as pro sessrin blogs, and in those cases, I either A) didn’t directly call out the other blog/blogs that were posting in the same thread as me, or @ them, or B) was only even interacting in said post because pro shippers were piling on and harassing people in the thread, and I was simply pointing out that there were shippers in said thread acting fools. The only time I ever even pointed out a particular blog I did it via screenshot and did it to keep a record of a blog that was admitting to flagging our posts as spam.

If you would like to see proof of my interactions, all you have to do is check the #receipts tags on my blog, you’ll find all of my interactions conveniently tagged. (Oh and don’t worry, I’ll get back to that receipts tag shorty.)

The second thing you said that confuses me, that I have a “friend that has a friend working at the studio”? What (and I can’t stress this enough) the FUCK, are you talking about?

I.....have never made this claim? Where have I ever said this, where have I ever reblogged this? I’ve never even read this? I need some clarification here, because either you are from an alternate timeline where I’m living a much cooler life, or like I said, you have the wrong blog.

Anyways, regardless of the fact that I’m pretty sure you sent this to the wrong person, I guess I can render a response to the base question you seem to be asking here: Why argue with shippers?

Really, at the end of the day, I’m not arguing with your average shipper. Hell, there are a few blogs I even follow and interact with that have said they like sessrin content, but they understand this is not an appropriate thing for a kid's show. And I can respect that because I’ve been in the problematic ship boat in other fandoms. (Here’s a hint, in one of the fandoms that I followed content for a problematic ship in, a content creator was given cookies with sewing needles baked into them, yikes right?!)

The main message of mine and many other blogs I follow is that this ship isn’t appropriate for children’s media, and what happens is a lot of salty people come out of the woodwork who feel the need to argue and say there is nothing wrong with it, which causes us to have to list the reasons why there is indeed something wrong with it (thus why it shouldn't be in said children’s media), then what happens is people like you come at us and act like all we’ve been doing is bullying shippers, and “why don’t you just let us ship in peace!?!?!?!!!??”

In fact, I shouldn’t even be surprised that I got this ask eventually, because as I’ve pointed out in the past, the shipper argument seems to be a cyclical one.

A blogger will make a statement something along the lines that they really don’t care if people ship sessrin, but the shippers really shouldn’t be making a lot of noise to the studio that they want to see this ship in the show because kids watch it, and it’s not a great message to send to kids.

A shipper will then message the blog (usually anonymously if possible) something along the lines of you’re wrong about the ship sending a bad message to kids because of xyz, or it’s a totally normal and healthy relationship, and you’re wrong, or Yashahime isn’t for kids, etc.

The Blogger will then respond with actual evidence, a well-worded response, or even just fucking common sense (like come on, some of the mental gymnastics I’ve seen people employ to try to validate this fucking ship to us is hilarious).

The blogger will then get another message something along the lines of “why don’t you just let us ship in peace!?!?!?!!!??”

The blogger responds with JESUS CHRIST I SAID FROM THE VERY START THAT I DON’T CARE WHAT YOU SHIP I JUST DON’T WANT TO SEE IT IN A GODDAMN KIDS CARTOON”

At which point the whole process is rinsed and repeated. Congratulations you’ve just witnessed a new grey hair grow out of my fucking scalp.

However, there is a new facet to this shit gem that I’ve noticed during this whole annoying cycle, and that is the fact that a lot of pro shippers are making claims that they are being harassed by anti blogs, but I’m not seeing a lot of proof of this. And make no mistake, if I see an established anti blog being terrible, or making a false claim, I have no problem calling them out, or correcting false information. Please, feel free to screenshot proof and post it in the anti tag, and see how many other blogs won't put up with this either.

And to be clear, I don’t really count anonymous asks as harassment, because people can be sending that shit to themselves. Just like I don’t mind asks I get like this one because I naively respond to them in the hopes that maybe someone will actually understand what the argument has been about this whole time. And if I didn’t like it, turning off anon magically gets rid of it, so *shrug*.

No, I’m talking about actual, out in the open harassment, or shitty behavior.

Like oh say, Patreon art being reposted in a discord server, then when a good samaritan reports the art theft they are harassed by their fellow discord members.

Or maybe the ongoing flagging and harassment campaigns that are going on over almost all online social media platforms.

Or how about the time some people tried to start a Twitter smear campaign against a voice actor who has some opinions about their ship they don’t like.

Yeah, remember how I said I’ve got a receipts tag. I see ya’ll.

#anti sessrin #anti rinsess #antisessrin #anon #yay I've finally reached the rinse and repeat stage of my blog #next ask from a shipper will be an excuse or validation of sessrin guaranteed

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davidjjohnston3 · 3 years ago

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The trees are straight and true here, and the help comes without seeming harpoons. I considered some insane things which were ‘above my pay-grade’ and as is my wont reflected on the state and implications of my former profession and what old friends and pharons meant to me. Right now think that my core goal in life is not to blow myself up. As a former would-have-been SecState said, ‘I love so many people.’ I am only sad that trying as I did to uproot that carrot of love just now could have resulted in the demolition of an entire root-network, of at least my own excision therefrom.

‘Some people’ want revenge against life for not going their way or not being the color or fragrance or face shape they like or feel it ought to be - ‘no that is not what I meant at all.’ They will never hold a life reliable which doesn’t resemble their ideal, imago, or ‘soul-idol’ &c. The meaning of the name ‘Cordelia’ as in King Lear is something like ‘heart’s ideal.’ I was driving and considering a novel that I feel touched absolute supreme greatness without knowing it or in a way that could mislead some readers Mrs. Mary HK Choi’s Yolk a novel I looked forward for a very long time. I had all these references and fractal coreferences and forgot about actual birds, like what does the chick eat in the egg.

‘Blood is the life’ - I liked etymologies for a long time and my intellectualism caused me acute trouble in Confirmation Class at Morrow Memorial United Methodist Church in about 1998. ‘Pastor’ Gretchen taught us the word root ‘consacramentum’ which comes from dipping the hand in blood in the concave of a Roman shield - those huge rectangular shields which could be used in formation as ‘testudo’ or turtle to stop projectile weapons and allowed soldiers to make pin-point stabbing attacks from a ‘matrix(?)’ of high protection. I forget what kind of animal was killed to pool the blood in the shield but it might have been a rabbit.

I was reading ‘Revelation,’ I don’t recall what everyone else was talking about. Some kind of community service project, interview your parents, buy a wedding-magazine and make a whole plan for how you would get married and how much it would cost (and while you’re at it describe how you would 1) restore a classic Shelby Cobra using newspaper and Krazy Glue 2) drive foresaid drop-top to the Moon).

The Pastor was a pipe-smoker named ‘Painter’ who used the NY Lotto’s ‘Hey you never know’ slogan to describe sth like Pascal’s Wager; OTOH St. Paul teaches us that everyone is born knowing God exists (Romans). The problem is that people fail or omit to glorify Him or subsequently ruin or betray their own best efforts through blasphemy, turning or falling away, cowardice, denial, attachment to certain sins or being ‘yoked unequally’ with non-believers.

I reflected starting in 2008 that I was shy of my ‘first love’ (rather, the woman I fell in love with at 14); at the time I gloried or reveled in the shyness like a Wallace Stevens poem that ends, ‘And not to have written a book.’ I could’ve written a few books by now or walked away from book-writing or changed my mind / specified which kind of book I might have written and for whom.

I remember always admiring the ‘magic’ of literature and feeling sad I had no characters or world of my own to work magic with. Star Wars and my own life and later much else supplied ‘materia poetica’ and till the point that I began to think in fiction and became addicted to interpreting my own in ‘story-ideas’ although that is not to say that what happened around me didn’t happen.

America is trying to become a better country in numerous valences, loving our neighbors, holding each other accountable. ‘Justice’ with or without the marks is important. It is a divine Judgment that Covid fell on the world even if eventually we all shall learn who devised the virus or leaked it or modulated its mutations. I was eager to rejoin the world feeling I might overcome my mental illness but I mishandled specific questions and tests. I ended up turning people against me and creating monsters more than ever as well as perhaps terminally sabotaging any chance I might’ve had of fulfilling a dream or making good on the past. I have a lot of opinions on the CCP but should’ve focused on love and family and personal responsibilities as in the past or at least held to my long-standing feeling that Chinese people deserve better rather than associating myself with hard-liners and racists or those who would simplify issues in order to bring about ultimate victory without temperance or concern for the side-effects.

In Milwaukee where I lived for far too long everyone’s spirit - electric, intellectual, visory(?), informational et cetera seemed to be militating against everybody else’s. There were fake vaccines, radioactive ice cream (or thermogenic ice-cream), gun-battles as usual, lines crossed, all kinds of scores that people tried to settle. I also realized that the police were probably tracking for years my various attempts to obtain weapons from samurai-swords to handguns though the purpose was defensive and I can only trust at this point that some good lawyer will prevent the bad lawyers and cops from presenting the most damning circumstantial case they could. People in Milwaukee own AK-47′s, automatic shotguns, probably all kinds of explosives, improvised chemical weapons and (’our Black brothers’ - Schopenhauer) biological weapons - the cops don’t stand a chance that I can tell and even the National Guard perhaps could get outclassed by retired military. I had told myself for years that it was only the ghetto’s that bore witness to this paramilitary equipage and that the retired SEAL Team 4 member with the ‘Stop Socialism’ and ‘Jobs Not Mobs’ sign on his front lawn would protect me from the Maoist-Covid Night of the Long Knives but I feel I tempted God a lot in the past.

I read all these books and took to heart that people thought I was just entertaining myself with but now as then I should’ve guarded my heart or not begged the question of what others thought about me or saw in me. I literally felt of late ‘I am the anti-Christ’ - good-looking at times, preach world peace, ‘form of godliness,’ want to be friends with everyone, build bridges - and had to rack my brains to come up with an ‘anti-Christology’ and science / concept of the Whore of Babylon just to make sure it was more than me alone. I also wished to simplify my past and help kids ‘get life right the right time’ doing battle with philosophies that opposed this consciously or otherwise but stepped into numerous minefields and also tried running when I should’ve flown over.

Everyone’s trying to get rich and build back better and I profoundly admired the American President for doing, finally, apparently, what presidents had tried to decades even as I remember ‘Flowers 1881′ a poem that implies that basically teachers can do only so much before turning their kids loose in a world no one has yet fixed and which others keep breaking; from a California almanac that also instructed me that the same old debates and cross-fires and burdens plague teachers as always, not that it is an ‘impossible profession’ but honestly that God won’t let us establish Heaven on Earth or at least not me or at least not America or at least not teachers who savor the experience of being a teacher or the beauty of their students more than the outcomes or commitment or intrinsic value of the work or the confirmed identity / vocation / personhood of the instructor. There are always new and old at any rate and different cultures all describe the teacher as needing to keep both alive; as do descriptions of higher education and scholarship.

I questioned my qualifications / background and wondered about re-training but can’t afford tuition anywhere so I am trying to cling to the core of my capabilities / blessings. ABC and XYZ. The glory of the soul or souls.

I kept theorizing Russian literature as well as weapons-systems and ultimate destiny, sailing ships, noble names, divisions, the flaming sword of Archangel Gabriel, the mission of Russia today with respect to the world order. I am also simply trying to be healthy and stop for a while trying to parse out who was the love of my life or what it still left in terms of action or redemption or justice or surrender or mitigation or meeting new friends or propounding the kind of understand with carefulness I have believed in - ‘saving people from themselves.’ Driving up here I remember being distressed at a gas-station in California when I was about 5 or 6 since the pump was leaking, being very upset with my parents and family. In those days I also disliked animal-cruelty though the world today seems so depraved and deprived with respect to human interests I would make no bones about neglecting most all animals outside of military or police use. When I was about 3 I saw white kids set a frog on fire; my mother has a history of running over cats.

I dislike winging it and taking risks. There is a song I call to myself ‘Run Away’ though its title is ‘Paradise.’ I am not a utopian communist for believing in secular justice and its instrinsic value... I wonder whether when I helped people in the past there were always strings attached or maybe I was just trying to close my case and discharge my responsibilities too rapidly without allowing others to gestate or make an abode in my heart besides and beyond what I could get out of them, glorifying myself, or tell others about.

What is motherhood? What is travail? Is there a kind of problematic ‘female gaze’ as feminists talk of a ‘male gaze’ associated with sadism or fascination / fetishism? It’s psychology which is not my first love at all since it appeared pretentious and distracting and retarding (in the literal sense of slowing down).

I also remembered reading various things about Victor Hugo whose ‘93′ is an important novel today due to its techno-utopianism, feminism or ‘new model egalitarianism,’ fusion of revolution and religion, etc. But I had forgotten ‘Les Miserable’ with its themes of ransom or eventual recompense, genealogies, caution, and more none of which is to negate the various complains against me or death-warrant from China or my parents with their partial private readings of Proverbs (’Let’s stone David for embarrassing us / not doing precisely what we want’ - no mention of witnesses, tribunals, questions, mitigation-hearings, actual counsels of judges etc. but just American-German ‘coalitions of the willing’ ‘run and get my gun’ ‘team-building’ etc. which in my experience ends with tanks on the street and military dictatorships as when at the end of the CultRev PLA regulars were gunning down former justice-fanatics who’d been stripping women, kicking pregnant stomachs etc. as in The Vagrants). Naturally having grown up in a family fascinated with Lee Kwanyew and Arnold Schwarzenegger and conflicted about ‘fascism’ I had reservations about the United States’ ability to suddenly dress up and ‘stand at perpetual moral attention’ but I guess my own problems are just that I am poor with a rich kid’s mind and no one really likes me except strangers and faraway friends who were easily spooked and/or just couldn’t be there. ‘King of South shall attack and King of North shall crush them with chariots &c.’ - in the end righteous will prevail whichever side of the line I end up on in the final assessment. I also remembered today a novel called ‘The Old Capital’ about a bad artist father, a virgin daughter, straight and true pines. Some other aspects of this novel are silly as well as criminally problematic and there's a lot of that going on in new-old old news America / Babylon or at least to quote my favorite lawyer / leave lawyering movie 'First let's get out of Milwaukee.' Miss the land of June snow.

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baebeyza · 4 years ago

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26, 17, and 4 for the salty asks~?

Thank you ~

26. Most shippable character?

Oh I think I’d say Mercy from Overwatch - she works with a lot of characters and while I haven’t consumed much content of them, I like the idea ~ Examples of peeps to ship her with that I like are Genji, Reaper, Soldier, Mccree, Widowmaker and Reinhardt :D Not to mention ships with her that exist and I don’t personally like much

17. Instead of XYZ happening, I would have made ABC happen…

Gotta make a list here:

Transformers:

G1: Not bring Optimus back and let Rodimus have his friggin’ story about learning to be a confident leader

Headmasters: NOT write Cyclonus like a fucking buttmonkey

Beast Machines: would have changed the heroes from constantly fighting with each other to fucking making up and being friends again. And make the Jetstorm=Silverbolt conflict be in an internal struggle between these two personalities, instead of Blackarachnia being a hypocrit and solving it herself by vile means.

Robots in Disguise 2015: Would rework the whole thing to make sense with the premise it has, corrupt cybertronian goverment and all, instead of that just being ignored til the last 3 episodes. And bring the main villains into the thing maybe before the finale?

Transformers Prime, Predacon Rising movie: Let Megatron stay fucking dead

Prime Wars: Actually explain what the conflict and situation is at the beginning of the first season, not the second season. Also not bring Optimus back, like wtf, can the twunk just stay dead for once? It’s not like his ressurection made sense or was in any way needed, it happened in the last two minutes!

To put it simply - stop ressurecting characters when their story is done!

TES:

Skyrim: Remove the whole Blades plotline, just remove everything about them. They don’t matter, nothing they do helps defeat Alduin and they are just annoying

Temeraire:

Tongue of Serpents: Let Kulingile stay disabled - would have made for a better narrative and message in my eyes than “Don’t kill the baby that is born disabled, he might turn out to be a really big dragon afterall!” I don’t believe that Novik wrote this with that idea in mind, but I would have enjoyed it more if the message was “Don’t kill the baby that is born disabled, because disabled people are people and don’t deserve to be killed.” Like him overcoming the bad physique he hatched with ruins that message for me.

League of Dragons: Remove the Laurence/Roland romance, don’t have it be about forgiveness, Laurence didn’t need forgiveness from her, I truly did not believe he ever craved her forgiveness either. The only context she had appeared in the previous 3 books was as his letter corrospodence.

And maybe give the characters besides Laurence and Temeraire an end to their arcs? I know last books are hard, but I feel like a 10th book would have been better. I was also disappointed that Junichiro, who was really well developed in the previous book, was only in one scene and only used to further the plot.

I could list more things, but these are the only ones I care about. Like what’s the point of ranting about Voltron when I don’t give a shit about it anymore?

4. Do you have a NoTP in your fandom? Are they a popular OTP?*

Nah, nothing of the sort. In no fandom, when it comes to shipping I really do not care at all and never once encountered a ship that made me mad or feel bad.

#asks #tes #transformers #temeraire #overwatch #fandom questions #SALTY fandom questions #sammiyaslife

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carbonatedcosmo · 4 years ago

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all the fandom questions for DMC

OH THAT’S NEARLY ALL OF EM LMAO THIS IS GONNA BE A DOOZY

“What OTPs in your fandom(s) do you just not get?”

ok so i know a pretty good portion of the dmc fandom is SUPER on board with nero x kyrie but like??? they’re basically adopted siblings??? and i HATE the adopted sibling romance trope so in my personal dmc canon nero and kyrie do love each other but Only As Siblings

“Are there any popular fandom OTPs you only BroTP?”

again, nero x kyrie! the way i see it, nero sees kyrie as his sister and kyrie sees nero as her brother because nero grew up with her in an environment that would lend to their relationship being more like that of siblings

“Have you ever unfollowed someone over a fandom opinion?”

uuuuhhh yes?? kind of??? they were someone who shipped nero x v, which is a ship im not overly comfortable with myself but that’s all i’ll say on that

“Do you have a NoTP in your fandom? Are they a popular OTP?”

uuuuuuhhhhhh???? i’ve seen a decent amount of fanart of vergil x dante like. come ON they’re BROTHERS stop making them KISS

“Has fandom ever ruined a pairing for you?”

uh? not that i can recall? i used to be on board with nero x kyrie myself but then i remembered that in kyrie’s character description in dmc4 it says her relationship with nero is that of a “brother, friend, and lover all in one” and that’s the fault of capcom themselves for describing the relationship that way, not necessarily the fandom’s fault

“Most disliked character(s)? Why?”

none i like all of them they’re all amazing

except arkham. absolute garbage dad in dmc3, lady deserved a better father than him

“Most disliked arc? Why?”

hm. im not really sure? i think all of the main characters have pretty decent arcs tbh

“Is there an unpopular character you like that the fandom doesn’t? Why?”

are there any unpopular characters in the dmc fandom??? i have no idea. i’ve seen a little bit of hate for nero (mostly in youtube comments) but idk if that counts. if it does, fuck those people nero’s baby and i adore him

“Is there an unpopular arc that you like that the fandom doesn’t? Why?”

again, i don’t think so? i don’t really get too into the discourse in the dmc fandom so i don’t have a full grasp over what’s popular and what’s not. though, i do recall seeing a bit of stuff about how people don’t like that v seems to have just been a one-off character and how they wish he could’ve been a completely separate character from vergil, but, as short as it was, i enjoyed v’s arc! i think, in the time that vergil’s human and demon halves were separated, v was able to grow a little and also sort of begin to start healing from his trauma when vergil wouldn’t let himself deal with it properly, and since v realized how important everything he threw away really was, i think vergil retained that when he became whole again and i think it’s really cool!!!

“Unpopular opinion about XXX character?’

SLAMS MY HANDS DOWN. LADY AND TRISH ARE BADASS QUEENS AND I AM LITERALLY SO MAD THAT THEY’RE ONLY IN DMC5 TO BE SEXY. THE ONLY THING THEY DID THAT IMPACTED THE PLOT EVEN A LITTLE WAS UNWILLFULLY BE SERVANTS OF URIZEN AND WHEN THEY WERE PULLED OUT OF THE DEMON BODIES URIZEN TRAPPED THEM IN THEY WERE NAKED AND A POINT WAS MADE OF SHOWING OFF THEIR BODIES AT LEAST A LITTLE AND I THINK THEIR POTENTIAL WAS WASTED

“Unpopular opinion about your fandom?”

why do so many people in this fandom seem to ship spardacest of any degree. why. can i just go through the dmc5 tag without seeing vergil smooching his son or vergil smooching his brother or v smooching nero or-

“Unpopular opinion about the manga/show?”

nothing the dmc anime is perfect in every single way

“If you could change anything in the show, what would you change?”

nothing the dmc anime is perfect in every single w-

“Instead of XYZ happening, I would have made ABC happen…”

ok there are very few moments in the game i would replace with something new entirely, but i would add nero calling urizen a whore at least once like just imagine nero gets yeeted into a wall by urizen and he just goes “ow...whore” like that’d be so fucking funny

“Does not shipping something ‘popular’ mean you’re in denial and/or biased?”

absolutely fuckin not my dude sometimes you’re just not on board with the most popular ships in the fandom and that’s totally okay! as long as ur not shipping incest or any kind of abusive dynamic i literally dont care if you don’t ship the popular ships

“What is the one thing you hate most about your fandom?”

*inhales deeply* spardacest

“What is the purest ship in the fandom?”

ok i’ve seen literally NO ONE ELSE who ships these but lady x trish and nero x nico. lady and trish are lesbians that are dating each other and my proof is that episode of the anime where lady and trish don’t know each other so they’re fighting because trish is a demon and lady’s someone who hunts demons and trish was just trying to Not Die so they fight for the whole episode but then they find out that they’re each a friend of dante’s so they go and buy a bunch of expensive clothes together and send the bill to dante and that was their first date and now they’re girlfriends and idk man nero and nico just have a fun dynamic that made me go “they’re totally dating each other”

“What are your thoughts on crack ships?”

ok so like, in general, crack ships are fun as hell just for some shits and giggles but i haven’t really seen any crack ships in the dmc fandom??? though i think there’s plenty of potential there for a few of those and im interested to see if the fandom will come up with any crack ships!!

“Popular character you hate?”

none i absolutely adore all of them

“Unpopular character you love?”

are there any unpopular characters in this fandom? are there??? though i guess if i wanna go back to what i said about seeing a little bit of nero hate (again, mainly in youtube comments), i absolutely LOVE nero and to those people who say he doesn’t have a lot of character: yes he DOES you’re just not LOOKING HARD ENOUGH

“Would you recommend XXX to a friend? Why or why not?”

OH YES ABSOLUTELY, bro even though i certainly have my gripes about the dmc franchise, it’s SUCH a good series in spite of all that! the combat system is pretty neat (and only gets better in the later games), the music is absolutely bangin, there’s so many fun, iconic characters, the story is, for the most part, incredibly engaging and compelling, and honestly pretty much the whole series is just a family squabble but if everyone in the family was superpowered by having demonic heritage and OH YEAH THEY HAVE SWORDS

“How would you end XXX/Would you change the ending of XXX?”

i wouldn’t end the dmc series any differently than capcom did!! i really enjoy that dmc5 ended with dante and vergil finally settling their differences and ending their lifelong rivalry (after nero bitch slapped dante and beat the shit out of vergil), and it looks like dante and vergil’s story has come to a very satisfying end! i don’t see where else capcom can go with the twins, but if they do make more dmc games, i would absolutely love to follow more of nero’s adventures and see how he continues to grow, both as a person and a devil hunter!!! you hear me, capcom??? give me more content with my hyper wild boy or i’ll personally come kick your asses

“Most shippable character?”

hm. im gonna say dante, i think!! let the man have a boyfriend

yeah i said it dante’s gay whatcha gonna do about it

“Least shippable character?”

vergil. definitely vergil, but that’s only because i personally see him as aromantic! i think he certainly wants to be loved, yes, but less in a romantic sense and more in a familial sense, ya feel? i would love to see him interact with nero more and see how he navigates that relationship, because i think it would be really interesting to see how he takes to having a son of his own!! but that’s a discussion for another post entirely; i view vergil as aromantic so he’s not really looking for a romantic relationship with someone but that won’t stop (and hasn’t stopped) him from sleeping with people lmao

was that all of them? i think that may have been all the fandom related ones but please let me know if i missed any!! hoo boy it feels good to go off about this LMAO

#senatorkyloren #ask #dmc #dmc5

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bigskydreaming · 4 years ago

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Anon who sent that ask about someone else - it might take me awhile to respond because there’s kinda an indepth answer to that.....like its not a long convoluted thing, honestly, its just something that’s a matter of saying it right so it comes out the way I mean it, y’know? But for the record, not everyone I reblog from is a mutual, sometimes I’m just seeing what other people are posting, and there’s a difference between people I interact with and people I let myself get close to. I’m kinda a stubborn fuck, lol, which means after a literal lifetime of isolating myself and making sure me and ‘my issues’ were only taking up as much space as others were willing to allot me, like, I just fucking got exhausted by that and decided awhile back that no. Fuck no, I’m not doing that anymore, because I shouldn’t HAVE to. I put a lot of effort into making sure I make room for problems people speak up about that I previously didn’t notice or wasn’t aware of, and so I think its only fair that people do the same in return for me when and where it becomes an issue. That’s how society is SUPPOSED to work, I believe. No, everybody doesn’t have to agree on everything, but when its a matter of just CARING how things we prioritize and make room for affect others around us and squeeze them into smaller and smaller spaces......eventually, it comes down to being either put up or shut up time.

And I know where I stand on those things, and since I’m also a big believer in personal accountability, like.....I’m just not someone who’s willing to make it easier for others to determine the same, like, at my expense. Not anymore. So....bottom line is, I don’t limit my interactions with others based on figuring out where they stand on stuff and building myself a fortress that boxes them out and has a sign out that says keep out if you don’t like xyz.

Instead, I do exactly what proponents of “Don’t like, don’t read” CLAIM they do.

I set out my blanket on this big fucking giant lawn that’s all tumblr really is, a communal space where anyone can set up shop and anyone can see what anyone else is doing over in their space and there really AREN’T ‘walls’ no matter how much we pretend there are.....and since there’s not really a finite amount of space, I take up as much space as I need to, over here in my personal bit of it, and I use it however the fuck I please. Just like everyone else.

And then I leave it up to other people to figure out for themselves how much they want to come into my space, or near my space, or how much distance they want to put between themselves and my space.....but I make damn clear that everyone knows: this is MY space, this is what *I* believe in and stand for and I will talk about whatever the hell I want to talk about, WHEN I want to talk about it, at the volume I want to talk about it. And anyone that doesn’t work for has pleeeeeeeenty of other space they can put between themselves and me so they 100% do not have to hear anything I’m saying, let alone interact with it.

And thing is....they absolutely can do whatever they want in their spaces too. They can talk about ME if they want to, and whatever it is that I’m saying - that’s their right! And if I see them or hear them talking about me I can share what I think about THAT, in a totally counter-productive never-ending spiral that yeah, we sometimes get sucked into.

Just like.....I accept that people CAN ship what they want to ship and write what they want to write and do all of that in their various spaces.....but when those spaces butt up next to mine or when they share space with somewhere that’s supposedly a communal space that all like-minded fans are welcome in....yup, I CAN say what I feel and think about those even just EXISTING. And then they can say and feel whatever they want about THAT and down the line it goes, lol.

(Its kinda hilarious to me how sometimes my little rants about fic result in people spitefully posting stuff that’s exactly what I was talking about and making sure to let me know if its in reaction to me being so damn annoying and loud. Its like....lol, adorable how you just flat out refuse to get that I’m only REACTING to what you put out there in the first place, so putting out MORE of the same to ‘spite’ me is never going to make me talk about it LESS. You fucking dumbasses.)

But you see what I’m saying right? Like.....it just doesn’t work for me anymore, to do what I did pretty much since I was ten years old, and continually retreat AWAY from the spaces taken up by EVERYONE else who refused to consider my needs or comfort or what I was asking in order to just....exist alongside them.

And that’s all ANYONE who says similar stuff to me in regards to ANY content is really saying, at the end of the day:

We all have as much right to exist in these allegedly COMMUNAL spaces as anyone else, and its fucked up that so many people think it should always be on us and only us to back away and tuck ourselves into little corners that don’t intrude on anyone else, when nobody else is remotely considerate of doing the same for us.

Especially not when the only REAL basis for people insisting that there’s nothing wrong with anything they do or say is because there’s MORE of them doing it and saying it than there are people protesting. Its like, lololol does the term tyranny of the majority not mean anything to anyone? Whether or not there’s MORE people doing something than saying hey could you not, has fuck all to do with whether or not people have a right or case for saying....hey could you not.

So....bottom line is, I just don’t fucking do it anymore. Not when I’ve done it most of my life and at the end of the day, the truth is I shouldn’t HAVE to, and should NEVER have had to....because I have as much right to be here as anyone.

So the way I go about it is, I just....set up shop in my little corner of the internet, and I mostly stay here and just say what I want to say and do what I want to do loudly and clearly, so there’s really no fucking confusion about what it is I’m saying or doing and its on everyone else who comes close to determine whether or not they WANT to be here or not. And if they do? If they’re interested in what I have to say about one subject? Then they can damn well listen through what I have to say on another subject, or they can leave and come back later to see if I’ve changed the channel since then. But they don’t get to insist on what programming I put out there, and fuck them for trying to influence that if they do.

And so when it comes to other fans in this fandom....I mostly let them come to me, y’know? I don’t really....go out there seeking out other fans to interact with, I’m just kinda....here, and if what I’m saying is of interest and we end up interacting, that’s cool. And I don’t really mind too much if they’re doing something entirely different elsewhere, cuz this is the part where I’m a petty, stubborn fuck comes into play, lol.....cuz if they want to interact with me regularly, well, whenever these subjects come up, they’re gonna hear what I have to say, and that’s on them and their own damn feelings to sort out. And if it makes them feel guilty or self-conscious, that’s that personal accountability thing - figure out for their own damn selves how to reconcile those things. I’ll still be here when they’re done.

But like I said at the top, that doesn’t mean like.....there’s a difference between interacting and getting close to, and trust me, I do get far more selective about the latter, just because....anyone I’m close to? I care about their comfort and peace of mind just as much as I expect them to prioritize mine. And so I’m damn selective about making sure I even CAN honestly commit to prioritizing the stuff they put out there as being most important to them, every bit as much as whether or not they might do the same for me.....and so y’know, it all kinda sorts itself out on its own, y’know? I’m not in a rush there, and so stuff like we’re talking about doesn’t really tend to fall through the cracks by that point, if that makes sense.

And sometimes the stuff we prioritize and care most about changes, and that changes how much even good friends occupy each other’s spaces and interact, and what I’m saying is....its a process, and not a short one or one that can be sorted out with minimal thought, and the people who think its easy to straddle certain lines or have their cake and eat it too or just never prioritize someone else’s fun over their own, like....they tend to figure out in the long run that this very rarely ever results in anything more than a surface level commitment to THEM anymore than it results in a commitment of any real depth FROM them.

Idk, did all that make sense? I’m not on my meds right now so kinda why I wasn’t intending to respond to this in full right now except oh look at that, I ended up anyway, WHEN WILL I STOP THIS, lmfao.

Anyway. So yeah. That. Hope that answered your question, anon? And sorry if it doesn’t work for you or is disappointing for you or feels like a cop-out. Its just....honestly what I’ve figured out works best for me in the long run, and we all ultimately have to figure out for ourselves what that is for each of us as individuals.....and sometimes that’s just not compatible, and that’s....kinda okay too.

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higuchimon · 4 years ago

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[fanfic] Rewards of Losing

Another pleasant evening, made even better by a successful duel. Ryou stepped out of the door, enjoying the warm summer air. Much better than the chilly inside of his current – location. He didn’t want to think of it as a lair, though the half-dozen opponents he’d called here would probably disagree.

Of course, they were all cards now. He wasn’t going to worry about their opinions.

But he’d done all that he could here. He’d sealed some of the finest duelists in the XYZ dimension in cards and had a very good idea of how XYZ Summoning worked. He was only one of several operatives from Fusion in this world, seeking out information and taking care of potential troublemakers before they ever knew there would be trouble to make.

That meant that he needed to destroy this place as quickly and cleanly as possible and then head on to his next location. It wouldn’t take long; he kept virtually nothing here anyway. All he needed was the time.

He would make certain that this wasn’t the only place that burned. It would have to burn totally but it would need to spread, just to cover his tracks. A building that only burned when it was surrounded by other, equally flammable buildings, would quickly give away that an unregistered Firestarter roamed the area. The locals – the Guild, he’d learned they were called – would start looking for said Firestarter.

Ryou had a lot invested in not being found and he’d done a very good job so far. He kept himself distant from as many people as possible, while not being standoff-ish to the point it caught other people’s attention. He couldn’t hide being a Firestarter but he could fly under their radar.

And once the invasion starts, I won’t have to hide at all. He didn’t know when the invasion would start. But he suspected it would be soon. Everything had to be put into place and enough people trained to make it happen.

Of course, Fusion and the Professor’s preparations had been built up for quite a while already.

He started to go back inside, intent on getting his prizes and starting the fire. But something across the alleyway shifted, and Ryou stopped, staring intently. Had someone connected to one his opponents followed him here?

He couldn’t see who it was, but his Firestarter senses flared up – he might not know who it was, but he could tell what it was.

There’s a Healer there. That didn’t seem quite right. What would a Healer be doing around here, even if they were allies to an opponent?

“Who are you?” He asked, wary, hand ready to activate his duel disk at a moment’s notice.

The voice that came back was – different in some ways that he’d never heard before. Soft and firm, laced with all the raw power of a Healer at least on his level, but coming from – farther down? A child? No, it couldn’t be.

“I am Kei. And you must stop.”

Ryou’s eyes narrowed. “What are you talking about?” Had they somehow seen him? If that were the case, then he’d make sure that they were the next one that he carded. He couldn’t allow them to spread the word. Even if he could escape, it would put the invasion at risk. He couldn’t let that happen.

“What you’re doing. Turning those who fall against you into cards. Denying yourself. You must stop.”

Ryou pressed his lips together. So they had seen him. He would at least give them a good duel before carding them, regardless of their age. “If you want to stop me, then you’ll have to defeat me.”

“That won’t happen.” A soft whisper of a laugh. “I cannot duel, my Firestarter.”

“What?” Ryou shook his head. “I’m not your Firestarter. I already am courting someone else.” Though truth to tell he wasn’t especially thrilled about it, but Firestarters and Healers at Academia weren’t always given the choice on who they courted or bonded to.

“You are. But as to why I can’t duel -”

Ryou could see a pair of gleaming gray eyes moving out in the darkness. They reminded him of Shou’s eyes, though not even as high off the ground as Shou’s would be, and they were – they had -

A light hung not that far from where he stood, so he saw what came out of the shadows very clearly. He simply didn’t believe what he saw. Slowly he shook his head. It wasn’t right. It wasn’t possible. But there it stood regardless, staring at him relentlessly.

It was a cat. A very large cat, one that he might have even thought of as a panther. The cat’s head rose at least to his waist and was as black as a starless night. Intelligence gleamed in those gray eyes that regarded him so calmly.

“No,” he whispered, shaking his head again. He’d clearly taken a harder hit in that last duel than he’d thought. That alone made sense. He wasn’t seeing a huge cat and if he did see a cat, the cat wasn’t talking to him. It wasn’t possible.

The cat did not smile. But from the set of the shoulders and the way the tail curled around the cat’s front paws, Ryou knew that it was amused at him.

“As I said, I am Kei. I am your Healer Cat. You are my Firestarter. Or we will be.”

Again Ryou shook his head. “Even if you exist – and you don’t – Yuuri doesn’t take very well to challengers.”

Yuuri won the right to court him against four other Healers. There wasn’t much left of them. If one could call mulch “much” anyway.

Kei’s tail twitched, head raising upward in a very confident gesture. “You may rest assured that I don’t care what he thinks. You are not his. You are mine.”

If this cat was as possessive as Yuuri – no. He’d hit his head, that was all there was to it. He wasn’t hearing this.

“I don’t have any food for you. Go try somewhere else,” Ryou snapped, turning on his heel and stalking back into the building. He locked the door behind himself and hurried to pick up the few items that he wanted to keep. He wasn’t even going to think that what had just happened could even be close to being real.

The last thing he needed in his life was another creature as possessive as Yuuri. It hadn’t yet been decided that they would bond, but as the two respective most powerful Firestarter and Healer at Academia, most people expected that they would, sooner or later. Ryou more or less expected it himself. Who else would he bond to, when he’d never met another Healer who came close to him in power?

Kei had that strength. Ryou knew that even when he didn’t want to know it. There wasn’t a single Firestarter or Healer who could have missed it.

But that’s a cat. Cats can’t be Healers. Or Firestarters. I’m hallucinating. He truly wanted to believe that with all of his heart. He didn’t dare think of what the other options might be.

He packed up what he needed – the decks and the Duel Disks would be sent back home, which meant that anyone searching for them here wouldn’t find them – and found himself grateful all over again that the building had no windows. He stepped out of a different door, cautiously making certain that no one was in the area to see him.

Especially not anyone with black fur and gray eyes.

At least on this side of the building, there were far more streetlights, which meant far fewer places for a large black cat – that didn’t talk, because cats couldn’t talk – to skulk around. He took the time to change out of his Academia uniform to the street clothes he’d picked up to help blend in around here. Perhaps the cat wouldn’t notice him like this.

I’m not trying to avoid a talking cat. He would tell himself that as often as he needed to.

When he was a decent distance from the building, he turned and regarded it for a few moments. His eyes narrowed and his mind lashed outward, igniting the building. Flowers of flame unfolded from one particular side of it, not that far from a bar. The fire probably wouldn’t spread that far, but it would likely be written off as a late night drunk doing something that he shouldn’t. With a small effort of will, he made sure the fire burned bright and strong enough so erase every trace of his presence.

He could hear fire alarms already on the way. He could only stay long enough to make sure any local Firestarters didn’t hear anything about him from the fire. Flames did not identify people by their names, but they could still give enough information to make him quite uncomfortable.

“This has to stop.” Again the cat sat there, tail curled around their paws, staring at Ryou. “You’re hurting people. You know this is wrong.”

Ryou’s first instinct was to correct that. He hurt people because he needed to; because it would help his people when the invasion came. But he wasn’t going to talk to a cat about things like that.

Instead, he finished off the fire, turned on his heel, and headed off into the night. The cat didn't follow.

Not that he looked. Really.

Kei watched his Firestarter until he was out of sight – a distance far greater than a human’s eyes would have been able to. He’d been watching this Firestarter for several days, learning what he could about him.

That wasn’t nearly as much as he wanted. For all that a Healer Cat could tell certain things about any Firestarter, most especially their Firestarter, he couldn’t quite pin down important points about Marufuji Ryou.

He knew that the Firestarter was a Firestarter, and one strong enough and with the right personality that if the wrong event happened, he might well frost over. A nascent Frostflame needed an equally strong partner, or even two on occasion.

He’d known before Ryou said a word that someone else was courting him. If one could call it courting. He could smell the scent of the other, a little faint but there, and he also smelled cruelty. It wasn’t so strong as to indicate it came from Ryou himself, though Ryou did have a few streaks of that himself. Not so much as to turn Kei off, though.

Slowly he got up and followed. He’d tracked Ryou to where he lived some days before and didn’t need to go behind him to get there. But he wanted to keep an eye on his future partner regardless.

What else he knew could be summed up very quickly and easily. Ryou wasn’t from this world. He didn’t carry any of the scents of it beyond what he’d picked up from living here for a scattering of months. But the fact he didn’t even know Healer Cats existed made that absolutely plain.

There were other cues as well. The way that Ryou didn’t seem to know what dueling just for pleasure was came close to the top of the list. He only dueled when he would turn his opponent into a card at the end.

That would definitely have to stop. He wasn’t sure of why Ryou was doing it – he couldn’t read the Firestarter’s mind, only be aware of certain emotions – but it could not keep on happening. He wasn’t even certain of how Ryou did it. That would have to be changed as soon as possible.

Silently Kei slipped through the night, considering his options. He knew the first and most powerful thing he needed to do – bond to Marufuji Ryou. It wouldn’t entirely eliminate his need for a human Healer but it would help balance him. Maybe then he would understand why what he did was wrong.

Assuming that he didn’t already. Without knowing why he did it, Kei couldn’t be certain. He would have to ask that as soon as possible.

There were routes in Heartland City – in any city where Cats dwelled – known only to those of the feline persuasion, be those Fire Cats, Healer Cats, or cats who were neither. Kei strolled down one of those, pausing at one of his favorite restaurants. He would have far preferred eating with his future Firestarter, but until he could convince Ryou that he was neither a hallucination nor a common cat, this would have to do.

This particular route catered to unpartnered Cats of both types. Kei ordered himself a delicately prepared meal of fish and happily tore into it while considering his options.

I’ll have to keep at it with him. He’s stubborn. Which wasn't a bad thing at all. Kei rather liked that, in fact.

His tail swished as he considered what else to do. Ryou would need a proper Healer, a human. Were there any that could serve the purpose? Someone far better than whoever it was that was trying to court him through cruelty now.

I need a duelist for this. He won’t be happy if his Healer can’t duel. Kei knew that already. Dueling sang in Ryou’s veins along with his blood and his flames.

Unfortunately, there weren’t any duelists randomly lurking along the way between here and where they were going. Fortunately, Kei knew exactly where to find duelists. Far too late now to go looking, but come the next day…

The sooner he could locate one, the better. If he wasted too much time, it wasn’t impossible that the Dark Healer who he scented around Ryou could make his move and they could begin to bond. That would be monstrous; not a true bond in the slightest.

But Kei refused to let that happen.

Once he finished his dinner, he loped off into the night, planning for what the following day would bring.

Mizael liked being out late at night. He had a taste for rare flowers that grew best by night – there were few enough Healers who specialized in those, so he had them all to himself more than he didn’t. So he wandered through one of Heartland’s loveliest gardens, one that he’d helped grow, one that featured a great deal of evening primroses, jasmine, and wisteria.

Sometimes he saw other Healers out in the gardens. That was hardly unusual; there were plenty of Healers who enjoyed the night-blooming blossoms, even if they weren’t good at growing them. Every Healer had their specialty, after all.

He was also used to seeing Healers who brought their prospective Firestarters on courting dates to the Night Gardens. Sometimes he wondered if he would ever do that; presuming that he ever found a Firestarter or even a Fire Cat that he might want to bond to. So far, none of the ones he knew who weren’t bonded ever quite seemed right.

What he wasn’t used to seeing in the Night Gardens was a Healer that he didn’t know whose presence sent a warning tingle up his spine. The stranger wasn’t doing anything untoward; he wasn’t even looking at Mizael right now, though he surely knew Mizael was there.

This wasn’t just a strange Healer, though – this was a strange unbonded Healer. He strolled along the walkways of the garden, whispering to the blossoms in the same style that any Healer would. He paused at one twining wisteria vine and regarded it thoughtfully, tracing it with one finger, and a soft chuckle that Mizael didn’t understand.

Mizael approached carefully. This wasn’t just a Healer who was new in town. The closer he got, the more he could feel that this was also a duelist, even if he couldn’t see a deck or a duel disk on them. But a duelist’s spirit could not be hidden.

“What are you doing here?” He finally asked. “Are you new to Heartland?” He’d heard nothing from the Guild about any new Healers and they were reasonably good about letting him know who might visit his gardens.

The new Healer turned towards him. His coloring was unusual, even for Heartland. His hair was mostly a deep shade of purple that matched his eyes, though there was pink in the back as well. He wore a uniform that Mizael didn’t recognize, as purple as his hair. His left arm cocked, as if intent on battle at a breath’s notice.

“Only visiting,” the newcomer said, lips turning upward into a smile. Mizael tried to ignore the shivers that the smile sparked. This was a face that seemed crafted to smile but when he actually did so, all Mizael could think was to make it stop. “Is this your garden?”

“It’s one of the city’s,” Mizael said, reaching up to brush his fingers over the wisteria. He’d always been rather fond of it. “But I take care of it, too.”

“How nice,” the stranger agreed with a slight tilt forward of his head, too slight to really be called a nod. “It’s larger than my garden, but I have to share space at – my school.” Again that way his lips moved that invoked a smile without actually being one.

Mizael nodded; he’d been through that experience when he was at school. All the student Healers had to share a communal garden. Which wasn’t a bad idea; it helped teach co-operation. But he far preferred having his own garden to himself.

“Are you going to be visiting long?” Mizael knew he’d never been good at small talk. There were far better ways to spend one’s time, he believed.

“Unfortunately, not. I came to visit the Firestarter that I’m courting.” Again his lips curved upward. “He’s in town for a time on – business.”

Mizael nodded. Before he could ask the other for a duel, the newcomer tilted his head a bit more. “I’m terribly sorry. I’ve neglected my manners. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Yuuri.”

Mizael nodded in return. “Mizael.” He had a family name, but he preferred not to use it. It had never meant that much to him and going only by his given name felt more fitting regardless. Then he smiled. “You wouldn’t happen to be a duelist, would you?”

To Be Continued

Notes: Because I wrote this for YGO Big Bang, I will update it daily until it’s done. Starting Monday I begin GX Month, which I’m quite looking forward to.

#fanfic #ygobb2020 #higuchimon writes #ygo gx #ygo zexal #ygo arc-v #marufuji ryou #mizael #yuuri (Arc-V)#au: healer firestarter #chapters: rewards of losing

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natsubeatsrock · 4 years ago

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Should our heroes kill?

So remember how I said that I'm glad that a problem detractors of Fairy Tail have is people being too forgiving? This is part of the reason why.

I can't think of a time I've seen people seriously complain that anyone didn't kill another character in Fairy Tail. Gray had to rush to catch Juvia in Phantom Lord, Erza could have killed Jellal back in Tower of Heaven, and fans are glad as their potential ships are still not unconfirmed by death. The closest thing I can think of is fans being mad that someone like Lisanna didn't die. However, not too many people are going out to say that any character should have killed any other.

That feels kind of weird.

Don't get me wrong. I like that Fairy Tail fans don't have the desire to see XYZ character get killed off for ABC reasons. That should be expected from the guy that says forgiveness is generally good. I'm glad that Natsu isn't expected to kill too many of his enemies or that people aren’t sad when he doesn't finish off someone like Jellal or Gajeel or whoever.

At the same time, this doesn't feel normal.

Like, I know of only one person who has encountered My Hero Academia that actually seems to like Mineta Minoru. Pretty much everyone else seems to either not like him or outright hate him. It's common to see him excluded from fan depictions of Class 1-A and be glad when bad things happen to him. I think it can get to be a bit much at times, but I see where it comes from.

And then people wish for his death. And I have to stop. Ignoring in-universe issues his death would cause for the school, I find it troubling that fans can talk so casually about killing a character in a universe who isn't a villain. I get that the dude's a huge pervert, but Himiko Toga kills people unapologetically and has an actual fanbase. Something feels off about fandom priorities.

And of course, there is the big one: Batman. For the uninitiated, Batman has one famous rule: he does not kill his enemies. While there have been characters he has killed in the past, these are exceptions to this rule. Generally speaking, Batman is not one to kill even the worst of enemies. Part of this is why Zack Snyder's depiction of the character in Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice is so contentious with fans, along with his insistence that Batman killing is within character. (among other stupid comments by him)

This all comes to a head in the famous story Under the Red Hood. Before the actual story starts, one of Batman's sidekicks, Jason Todd, was kidnapped, beaten, and presumably killed by the Joker. (Thanks to an IRL fan vote, of all things.) It is later revealed that he's back as the titular Red Hood and is mad that Batman didn't kill the Joker because of what happened to him. A lot of fans sympathize with Jason and believe it was wrong for Batman not to break his rule to avenge Jason Todd.

Though, I think that Batman's response to Jason's plea provides an important answer to this question. He admits that all he's wanted to kill the Joker, however, he refuses to allow himself to. Many interpret this to mean that he thinks he's strong for not killing the Joker. However, I interpret this to mean that he feels he's too weak to kill just the Joker.

And that is an important difference. Anyone who's even remotely aware of Batman knows that he should have no trouble killing the Joker if he actually wanted to. Some even argue he does exactly that at the end of the Killing Joke. The issue is whether or not he can draw the line at only killing the Joker. He could start by killing the Joker and end up becoming the very thing he's worked to destroy.

Thankfully, the troubles of this aren't lost on Batman. In The Dark Night Returns, he even comments on how doing that means that he’s murdered people. To put it in another way, Batman’s one rule doesn't exist because he thinks of himself as a hero. It's there to prevent himself from becoming a villain.

That is an important question to ask. Is it within a character's nature to kill another human being? When Deadpool pulls the trigger on the person responsible for his mutation, we know it to be within his nature. When Spiderman doesn't kill Uncle Ben's killer, we know that to be within his nature.

I don't know that people fully understand what they ask for when they say "someone should just kill a character". You're asking them to take the life of another person. From our perspective, these characters aren't real and have no technical agency. At the same time, the people in-series are real within their own universe.

Does it make sense for this character to take the life of any character? Would they be willing to make exceptions and kill a specific character for a specific reason? Is this the start of a change in their character or does it not affect them much?

Of course, there's a reason this comes after the talk about forgiveness. A lot of the same kinds of questions you'd ask regarding one character forgiving another are similar to if a character would kill another. Part of the reason is that the choice a character is often faced with is if they should kill a character for something they did or forgive them. Considering I've talked about the forgiveness angle, let's talk about the killing option.

I think that if you're going to set a character up to kill another character, go through with it. Don't set a character killing another and then fake us out by having them give the kind of weak version of forgiveness I talked about earlier. Have them die and get it over with.

If you want to have them change, set that up well in advance. Give them a reason not to want to kill them or to see them dead. (Note: there is a difference between the two.) Don't give them a cheap conversation about how "this isn't like you" or "you should do the right thing". Give the audience good reasons for why we should believe this specific hero shouldn't kill their specific target.

Rising of the Shield Hero somehow managed to do both in its anime adaptation (I've heard things are different in the original version). I don't love that Raphtalia was faced with a situation to kill and decided to not to go through with it. On the other hand, I appreciate that, when Naofumi had to make a similar decision, it was made under different situations. He decided to save the lives of his tormentors to help someone he actually cared about while coming up with a creative punishment for them instead.

That brings up a fun topic to end on. A lot of people argue that crimes against oppressors, whether they're abusers, ruling classes, or something similar, are justified if done by their those they're oppressing. This is something that I'd normally keep for the topic to come but it's worth talking about in the most extreme case possible - when it comes to killing them.

One of the most hotly debated points about Avatar: the Last Airbender has been its ending. It’s established early on that Aang has to defeat the Fire Lord to keep the world in balance. However, as the end draws near, it becomes clear that Aang has issues with how that may mean killing him. In the end, he is able to find a way to defeat the Fire Lord without having to shed blood. However, many fans think that he should have killed him and keeping him alive was a mistake. (In fairness, I was of this opinion until I saw the actual resolution of this conflict.)

At the same time, I’ve talked about Scar from Fullmetal Alchemist and his revenge quest. To be clear, I get why he went after State Alchemists but think his overall quest wasn’t good. I stand opposed to a lot of people who are very much willing to justify his entire quest, despite any and all drawbacks and in-series issues that his quest has. Mind you, this is one of the big reasons he starts the series out as an antagonist. In their mind, Scar killing the alchemists is a valid form of judgment and justice for their actions.

I bring these examples up to make an important point. Comeuppance comes in many different forms. Sometimes, it can mean getting one over the people who wouldn't think twice to help you. Other times, it can be making people hurt the same way they've made you hurt. I think that we do well to recognize that in our handling these types of dynamics, not everyone will agree with the conclusion your character makes in how they deal with abusers. Recognize that as you write these situations.

Or just don’t write abusers in fiction and let fans argue over ships, I don’t know.

To be continued...

#not fairy tail month: crisis on infinite fandoms #our heroes #this was a fun one #i edited this at like 1 in the morning #and am posting this during a meeting at 7pm #the mashima server finished up their pokemon tournament #i've gained an appreciation of time zones

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flyswhumpcenter · 5 years ago

Text

Keepsakes [Whumptober 2019 - Day 15: Scars]

Summary: Serena asks questions about Shun's scars, bringing them on the path of memories.

Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V (post-canon, implied alternate ending) Ship: Established Serena/Shun

Wordcount: 1.171 words

Content Warnings: Brief mentions of surgeries. Some references to a near-death experience. Consensual love.

Notes: It's whump if I mention how the scars happened, right? Because otherwise this is all fluff lol Nano and I got the same idea when I mentioned to her the next Whumptober prompts on my list being, back then, "Tear-Stained" and "Scars" : Peregrine stuff. We need more of it. I'll provide, I don't care how or when, I'll provide. I didn't intend this oneshot to have such a sensual tone, but I'm not against it, I've barely written any intimacy lately. The most sensual thing I've written aside from that was, like, a hug in BWI maybe? (spoils spoils) This is meant to be post-canon where the dimensions have fused together, but the Bracelet Girls and Yu Boys are free and not stuck in one mind because that was bogus/20. Bracelet Girls rights. (this story isn't the right place to complain about Arc-V disappointing us). And of course these two are a little older than they are in canon, they're young people who know what they're doing and can consent. I absolutely self-indulgently slipped a reference to a former work of mine, "Birds of a Feather, Fall Together". I've also included a modified reference to an older Arc-V fic I absolutely love, "placeholders" by harezora (who's most likely never gonna read these notes, but in case they do: I love this story so much it was great and better than canon holy shit).

Event hosted by @whumptober2019

AO3 version available here.

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The stare she was giving his chest was a bit too intense to his liking, as if her eyes were deciphering some ancient writing on a wall, scrolling from top to bottom, gliding from the left to the right. For a first night sharing a bed in peaceful condition with so little clothing on either of them (it had taken ages for him to even get comfortable with the idea, let alone putting it into place), it was a weird thing for her to do.

Not like he was any better, considering his own eyes couldn’t seem to unglue themselves from the bits of exposed skin left alone by her pyjamas, trailing from her slender shoulders to her hands, focusing on the few imperfections left on her skin by time and experiences, the easily seen and the barely visible, the memories’ physical form laid before him.

“What are you staring at like that?” he still asked, right as he himself didn’t look quite exactly into her gaze.

“Your scars”, she bluntly replied.

He found himself puffing.

“They’re terrible, right?”

“They’re scars, really,” she continued, crossing her legs on the bed. “You’ve got a lot of them, but they’re a part of yourself. We wouldn’t be the exact same without them.”

That was a bit too deep for his late-night brain, truth be told.

“I suppose so.”

She must have been right, he silently figured, considering the number of scars he could see on her body.

Serena’s eyes didn’t deter. In fact, her gaze only grew in strength as it continued deciphering the foreign inscriptions in front of her eyes. Her hand twitched on her tight, fingers in a dire want to move, as if she was preventing them from taking off somewhere else.

“I see that you too have a lot of-”

“Can I ask you about them?”

The question surprised him beyond his mind.

“…Come again?”

“Can I ask you about your scars?”

His eyes were furiously blinking.

“Sure, I guess…?”

What was so interesting about these? They were just ugly, abhorrent traces left behind by wounds of all sorts. And yet, and yet, he found himself with her fingers dancing around his chest, her touch almost sending shivers down his spine (it was closer to a fluttering feel he wasn’t very familiar with, at least not yet), her eyes shining with the light of the bedside lamp.

He didn’t mind, frankly. It had a weird sense of comfort to have her explore him like this, curiosity filling her every move. It made it far less awkward for him to do the same, his own hands brushing against her shoulders, questions coming to his mind. How had she gotten herself these blemishes on her shoulder blades, as light as they were, near a crescent-shaped birthmark right over her breast? Where did the little scars on her arms came from?

Serena was right: they wouldn’t be the same without their scars. This much he could only realize, now that he was actually discovering someone else’s body for the first time in his life.

Her fingertip stopped on the freshest scar on his skin, laying right under his ribcage.

“This one is from what I think, right?”

“Our first meeting,” he commented. “Well, the aftermath of it, at least.”

“I remember you trying to escape the hospital right before your surgery. Reiji had to send Tsukikage to stun you before you did because Yuya didn’t want to hurt you.”

Her laugh made it worth the embarrassment.

“Sorry, I just… remember your reaction to it. It wasn’t funny at the time, but now that I think about it… It’s kind of funny.”

Her eyebrows then slightly frowned, making her smile bittersweet.

“…we didn’t start on the best first impressions, did we? You know, being on the opposite sides of a war, my people wanting to slaughter yours and the opposite way around, the Lancers…”

“I wouldn’t have said that. You were the best first impression I had in that dimension.”

“Was it because I looked like Ruri?”

“Maybe.”

She smiled as her finger left its spot.

“I’m just glad we’re at peace now.”

“Same here.”

Silence fell between them, albeit only for a short-lived moment, as her finger was still dancing around, eyes following it, before it found itself another spot to ask about.

“And this one?”

Her touch landed on his abdomen, on an old scar he had almost forgotten about from how used he was to seeing it every morning, every evening, every day, every night. Her eyes were sharp, to notice such a faded-out line.

“An old surgery from when I was a kid. I tried ignoring it, but it wasn’t an option. The best thing I remember about it was Ruri sitting by the bed asking me if it hurt.”

“And, did it hurt?”

“It was just sore, really.”

“What surgery was it?”

“Appendicitis, I think.”

“Ah… Never got it myself. Sounds rough.”

“Don’t,” he laughed, looking back at his younger self lying frustrated in a hospital bed. “It was a terrible time to be alive.”

It wasn’t funny, but she giggled back anyway.

“I’m sure it was.”

Her irises continued their dance, accompanied by her lips shaped in a soft smile. This was a face he could have never resisted, the one who had won him over when he was refusing to show more skin than his arms to her. She’d be the death of him, now that the people trying to kill his entire kind were gone and on the path of redemption – but what a desirable demise she’d be.

“Oh, and this one?”

Her finger gently pressed against a deeper, much more visible scar on his left flank. That one displeased him much more than he’d have wished to admit.

“I got stabbed by an Obelisk Force jackass back in Xyz, before Yuto and I came to Standard, right in front of Ruri too. If it wasn’t for her, I’d have bled out there.”

“That’s horrible…”

“Wasn’t a cosy time to be alive either. Just shows you how strong my sister actually is. Heh, I was blind back there.”

Serena was quiet, her five fingers now flat on his abdomen.

“Hey, don’t make this face. I’m still here, alive and kicking, and so are you. That’s what matters.”

This managed to bring a small smirk back to her lips.

“You’re right.”

She eventually sighed, cupping his face with her hands, her slender fingers brushing through his hair.

“I’ll have to tell you about mine someday. I don’t have as many, or with as much history, but…”

“That’s wrong. I’m sure they have more meaning that you’re trying to imply.”

“You think?”

“Try me.”

They exchanged mischievous looks, smiles and gazes swapped.

“For another day, then. We got to make the fun last.”

Peace meant they finally had time before them to enjoy life and all the things it brought with it, good and bad.

“Of course,” he said, before they closed the space between their lips.

#arc-v #peregrineshipping #serena (arc v)#shun kurosaki #whumptober2019 #no.15 #scars #post-canon #au: canon divergence #otp: selene ourania

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