#this may or may not be foreshadowing for a future fic

[writing-is-hard-af]

Adore the little details and bits of foreshadowing hinting at Sam being set to be a future president sprinkled throughout the show. Like it's so subtle but also so clear. It's so important to me for whatever reason.

[hrodvitnon]

ACH, WEH! ANOTHER SIGNALIS FIC PREVIEW!

Let's see if I can get this thing finished and published before Dragon's Dogma 2 releases...

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Ariane bites her lip.  "So, in the interest of science..."

"Dirty science."

"The dirtiest science!  But yeah, what I'm getting at is maybe we can test the hypothesis that you can, in fact, experience something along the lines of sexual arousal?"

"Now?"

Ariane considers their surroundings and finds they're standing between the reactor and personnel.  Elster is still carrying her and can very easily take her to bed.  The thought of it gives Ariane a thrill, but she still blushes shyly.

"Well, I mean, not right this second now!  But maybe later?  I uh... feel like this needs prep time?"

Which is silly because their heaviest make out sessions can happen at the drop of a hat, like that time Ariane planted herself onto Elster's lap while waiting for dinner to heat up and found herself dazing into dreamland with messy hair and multiple hickeys on her neck.  Fortunately, Elster finds this option agreeable if only because getting into it right now would be grossly neglecting her duties.

"So, uh... personnel after work?"

"Personnel after work," Elster nods.  "Should I do any research ahead of time, just in case?"

"What kind of research?  It's not like we have porn among our video options."

"You're the one with banned Imperial smut."

"Those are banned Imperial political dramas with only some smut, thank you very much!"

"They have pictures."

Now Ariane is laughing.  "Oh my god, you sound like a teenage boy!"  She emphasizes it by pantomiming a jerking motion with her right hand, and though Elster staunchly keeps her eyes forward while whisking Ariane into personnel there's a telltale twitching in her lips that indicates she's trying not to laugh.

"My smut collection's right there if you want to quote-unquote study for the experiment," Ariane giggles, pointing at her makeshift library.  "Don't forget tissues to clean up after yourself!"

"Enough with the penis metaphor!" Elster grouses but breaks into a grin.

"Don't blame me!  Rotfront's cultural obsession with pareidolia has infested my brain."

"So if you ever get kidnapped by nefarious forces and I have to rescue you with, say, a shotgun blasting left and right, would you say that's an apt demonstration of pareidolia?"

"In that case, yes, I would say that your shotgun is long and thick and powerful."

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

Elster doesn't wait for an answer, bending her knees and rocking Ariane towards her sleeping bunk as if readying a battering ram, eliciting a peak of laughter while the scout officer tries halting the motion with her hands on the shutters.

"Get back to work already!" Ariane giggles.  "I need to freshen up and look beautiful for you!"

"You're always beautiful."

This time she lets Elster settle her into the bunk, poses herself like an old-timey pinup.  "Are all LSTR units this smooth?"

"Just me," Elster smiles fondly.  "I'll try not to take too long.  This experiment of ours is going to need my full attention."

Elster leans in and the two enjoy a sweet, albeit brief kiss before the Replika stands up straight, fixes her hat and marches out to complete her tasks for the cycle.  But, because Ariane just can't help herself sometimes, she sneaks out of the bunk and sticks her head out the door to get one last crack in, raising her voice to a yell.

"Hey, is a silencer the gun equivalent of a condom?"

"SUCK MY SHOTGUN!" Elster shouts between guffaws from the reactor room.

[kamiversee]

The F*ck List (semi-official) Breakdown.

The following was submitted by my lovely ☃️anon, & I needed to make this it’s own post given how long it is, my replies & clarifications are written in between this breakdown & theory (Ex: A/N > Etc.). 

Here, you’ll find majority of details you may have missed & maybe even more to think about. Enjoy :)

(wc; 5.7k) (content; spoilers ofc)

holy shit Kami. i literally had to take the entire day to process everything. before anything else, i need you to know that you've created an absolute masterpiece. TFL was the first fic i ever cared to keep up with and it has set the bar impossibly high for any other writer out there. please take your time with TFL 2, i'm so excited to read your other work!! also a break sounds like it would be so good for your mind considering how long you've dedicated yourself to this story 😭😭😭 you're seriously impressive. heads up, i didn't proofread this at all bc i finished typing this at 4 am LMFAO so forgive me if it's all scrambled and makes no sense.

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A/N > Thank you for taking the time to write this breakdown, I seriously appreciate it so I wanted to take my time in responding to it & engaging with you :)

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now, on to the yap. i deadass cracked my knuckles before typing all this out.

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A/N > You’re so real for tht ngl

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i reread the entirety of TFL from chapter 1 and my brain is so melted from analyzing that i'll prob find more details tomorrow after i sleep on some theories 😭 BUT HOLY FUCK YOU REALLY WEREN'T KIDDING WHEN YOU SAID YOU WERE HINTING AT GOJO'S OBSESSION SINCE LITERALLY THE FIRST CHAPTER??? the fucking hint being that "Gojo's desire for you is so strong it's almost frightening." GIRLLLLLL 🫵🫵🫵🫵🫵🫵

your foreshadowing and referencing is insane. idk if you intended a lot of it, but a lot of it caught my eye.

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A/N> I TOLD YOU GUYS IVE BEEN DOIN IT SINCE THE FIRST CHAPTER !! Okay not exactly but like there was a vibe I had from the first chapter & when I later came up with the twist & went back and saw that everything would connect perfectly ^.^

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chapter 7; the reader and Gojo have lighthearted banter about how the reader "started this" situation.

"I made a mistake." [reader] 

"A good one." 

"Bad one." You correct.

this was regarding a completely different situation but it baffled me how much it connects to the plot itself; the reader making the "mistake" of leaving her door open, and how it lead to months full of trauma and love. probably completely unintentional, but such a good detail.

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A/N > Very intentional btw, it’s supposed to be known that, in a sense, Gojo x reader is forbidden :)

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Choso's still staring at you intently, "What version of you would someone not like?" 

The way he words his question only furthers that little feeling in your chest. It's almost as though he were implying that any and all versions of you would be acceptable in his eyes. - Chapter 16

THE WAY WE SHOULD HAVE KNOWN THAT CHOSO WOULD STICK BY US REGARDLESSSSSSSS AAAAAA WE'RE SO BLIND!!! i just hope this stays true to the sequel :')

"No, I wish you didn't have to hate me." He says, shutting his eyes again and sucking in a deep breath, "B-But... it's uh, It's okay. I can live with you hating me." - Chapter 21

AAAA WE SHOULD HAVE KNOWN!!!! WE SHOULD HAVE KNOWN THIS WAS FORESHADOWING OUR FUTURE WITHOUT GOJO 😭😭😭 how he can live with the idea of the reader hating him so long as she's happy with Choso, especially considering his later revelations of how twisted his actions were and how if you stuck with him, he'd view you differently. fuck.

You despise the fact that he loves you. To you, it's almost entitled for him to feel like he has that right. How dare he hold such a strong emotion for you? If he felt this way, why is he forcing you to sleep with people for him? It makes no sense. 

Why would someone claim to love you and put you through so much? 

If he's been in love with you all this time, why start the list in the first place? Why couldn't he have just tried to win your heart from the beginning? Why the list? Why the blackmail? You don't understand him. - Chapter 23

i'm crushed. we didn't understand because we didn't know that Sukuna was involved. that could mean a million other things. i have some far-fetched theories about this but hear me out later!!!

the entirety of chapter 23 had me fucking floored while i was rereading. THE FORESHADOWING WAS EVERYWHERE!!! EVERY FUCKING WHERE

"No sweetheart, Sukuna's an asshole but..." His expression flickers and his smile fades away. He swallows and then clears his throat, "I'm pretty sure he'll satisfy you just fine." 

...

You narrow your eyes at him, "Are you sure?" 

...

 "Fuckin' positive," Gojo suddenly sounds pissed and you grow concerned. The arm around you gets a little tighter while he walks you through some crowds and you keep looking at the man confused. 

There's a vein popping out along his jawline because of how hard he's gritting his teeth.

of course he's aggravated because he knows that Sukuna is the one behind the list in the first place 😭😭😭 I'M SORRY WE DOUBTED YOU SATORU, FUCKKKK

——FIFTEEN MINUTES. That was the exact amount of time it took you to seduce Sukuna. The act was way too easy. Actually, it was suspiciously easy.

BECAUSE HE FUCKING KNEW 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

"What all did you plan on doing tonight aside from getting harassed by strangers?" Sukuna suddenly questions against your skin. 

You ignore how close he is and the way his lips make you tense, turning your head to face forward. Chuckling at his last comment, "Same thing as everyone else here." You reply, slightly confused by his question. 

"Bullshit," He utters, "Nobody dresses like this without the intent of gaining my attention," Sukuna claims while his hands slide back down along your body.

this 100% could be just him being cocky and Sukuna, but the recent reveal just makes this feel like an extra demeaning interaction. but of course, it's Sukuna.

chapter 24 is so fucking shady too with everything we know. i know you addressed some of these points already bc i brought them up in previous anon messages, but these things still had me paranoid;

the way Sukuna leaves us and tells the reader to go to his room after a certain amount of time (i know he could have just been tidying up real quick but everything about this man has me on edge)

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A/N> A lot of people are on edge about this but I’ll be honest, there’s nothing crazy that happens in between this time period. Not saying nothing happens but nothing crazy— it’ll be addressed later (in the next fic most likely)

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the way he's been consistently on the phone since the reader entered the room, which is shortly after she messaged Gojo saying that she'll be able to cross Sukuna off of this list by tonight which he wasn't happy with at all.

no seriously, he kept diverting his attention to something in the bathroom and then came out, still on his phone. maybe he's talking to literally anyone else but STILL I'M PARANOID

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A/N> This is to show the fact that Sukuna is a very socially active individual, & hints to the theory (I think you later state) that he has connections.

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this happens in chapter 25 but the way he keeps smiling while the reader kisses him is just so smug of him especially considering the original reason as to why the reader's even interacting with him

then the spicy chapters with Sukuna…

the foreshadowing that the lack of knowledge of Sukuna's reputation will come back to bite her in the ass; first with the knowledge that he is abusive, and then her finding out that he is the curator of the list, knowing the full details of her blackmail and even threatening her again.

WHO DID HE FUCKING FIGHT HELPPPPP MY MIND IS BOGGLING there's no way it's Gojo, right? they're both too unscathed in these next few chapters for there to have been a fight between the two of them.

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A/N > It’s not Gojo. 🙏

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THE FUCKING MOMENT WHERE HE CONTEMPLATED SOMETHING WITH THE PHONE IN HIS HAND??? I FUCKING KNEW IT. I FUCKING CALLED IT WAS SOMETHING SHADY AS HELL.

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A/N> The other Sukuna hint I was talking about is right before this moment btw, you’re welcome ;)

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then he has the audacity to hold his tongue right afterwards?? it's such a big hint towards the fact that he knew about the list from the beginning UGHHHHHHHH.

the way he tried to humor the reader about her "job" even though he was in on the whole thing. UGH. SUKUNA WHEN I GET YOU SUKUNA?? 👊👊👊👊 especially with that "whore" joke right afterwards. i can't stand him. i know that it's implied that he has a twisted view on women from having abusive women in his life (his mom and his ex who he punched) BUT STILL. he's so lucky he's fictional and hot.

the fact that we're able to pick up on the fact that it's a "crazy coincidence" that he continues the whore jokes UGHHHHH HE HAS BEEN PLAYING US FROM THE STAAAAAARTT

Gojo got upset at something from Sukuna's party, he didn't want you to call yourself a whore all of a sudden, Sukuna seems to have believed that was your actual job, and you remember how pissed Gojo seemed as he thought about you sleeping with Sukuna- 

Holy fuck. Are the two connected somehow? Is something going on? What does Gojo owe Sukuna? Does Sukuna know you only slept with him as payment to clear Gojo's debt? Is-

GIRL YOU WERE ALMOST THERE!!!! YOU ALMOST HAD IT!!!

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A/N > I love teasing in my narration by nearly spoiling things 😹

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seriously though, these chapters killed me. the official end obliterated my heart. it's so fucking bittersweet i want to scream at the top of a high building. the reader ends up happy and with someone she loves, which is fantastic for her. she deserves that after everything she went through. Choso treats her so, so well.

but Gojo. with the theories i have, i feel horrible. i was so harsh towards him as a die hard Choso girly but these endings changed me. i just hope i'm right.

the fact that his healing journey is harsher than ours makes this ending sting so much. he's healed, and you can see it with his demeanor from the call and the way he interacted with the reader.

we were always made aware of the way he looked at us such deep attachment. the initial gleam shows that he's happy to see us, but that he's not reliant on us for his happiness anymore. he's finding that on his own, and it's a grueling process for him. i wished the reader gave him a hug, but that would probably make me feel even worse.

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A/N> He gave her a lil side hug (with his arm over her shoulder) & was resting his head on hers at the end if that makes you feel any better 😅

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"Through my blackmailing, I fell for you but I also did it because I loved you from the start." i'm gonna throw up bro i'm so sad. i'm proud of his growth. his obsession was so, so strong but he always prioritized the reader's happiness over himself. i know that being self-sacrificial is so core to his personality but it doesn't make it suck any less. i'm devastated. i started blasting mitski in the car on my way to work after reading this.

i thought i was ready for the journal burning. i was so ready for this tie to be severed, for them to finally move on. but i failed to realize that it could ultimately mean a life without each other. it makes sense as to why, but it still sucks.

kami i need that poly ending before i cry my eyes out at 4 am rn. you know i can't handle angst, but bittersweet endings lowkey hurt me even more. i need all my babies to be happy. i desperately need it.

but that alt ending... fuck. in a horrible, sick, and twisted way, i'm relieved. i'm a Choso girly from the bottom of my heart but i can't let this Gojo go omfg. even if he shows up for one more chapter, i think i'll be alright. BUT IT BETTER NOT BE FOR DEATH KAMI!!!! I HAVE A FEW EXCERPTS THAT SUGGEST DEATH FLAGS BUT I AM SIMPLY NOT LOOKING AT THEM. DON'T DO THIS TO ME KAMIIIIIII. i need this boy to be frolicking in a field of flowers or something. my heart can't take this.

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A/N> I know I reference death a lot but that’s just to add a sense of how dramatic the characters are 🫶

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okay, time for my mind-fucky theory. pls bare with me. if it wasn't obvious by my last post, i'm 100% on board with the theory that Sukuna's blackmailing Gojo, which started this whole thing. but the thing that is getting me is how this all connects. i have some assumptions that could make sense, but there are a handful of gaps. here's my thought process;

Sukuna's blackmailing Gojo by using his obsession/love against him.

we are already familiar with the fact that Gojo has liked the reader for years. there was a chapter where Gojo mentioned that it started off as a "crush" but he was so oblivious to his own obsession up until the reader mentioned it to him. it's to the point that he didn't understand what was wrong with the idea of hurting people for the reader. who's to say that Sukuna didn't catch him in some sort of heinous act regarding the reader like stalking?

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A/N > You’re cooking with this one and I almost, almost had to go get the fire extinguisher :D

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Gojo didn't understand the difference between love and obsession until later on in the story. this would be consistent with the implication that Gojo just loved her so deeply that his morals were askew as we have yet to find out how far his love goes.

what if Sukuna caught him in the act of doing god knows what, and brought up the fact that if the reader found out about this, that she'd get super freaked out and would do everything she can to get away from him (considering probably barely knew each other, if at all, at this point). but why would Sukuna devise such a plan over a money bribe? well, Sukuna's already revealed to be wealthy, and maybe he was bored. the same line that Gojo kept repeating to the reader whenever she questioned him as to why he did it. what if Gojo asked Sukuna why he's blackmailing him, and he said the exact same thing; "I was bored." we see how much Sukuna mirrors Gojo's speech by calling the reader "sweetheart" often, what if Gojo did the same thing? 

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A/N > Gojo & Sukuna do have a few parallels in this story & they will be addressed more in the sequel.

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we wondered in chapter 23 how Gojo reaches out to these men to ensure their debt is "paid," but considering how oblivious everyone else on the list is to Gojo owing them anything, it would make sense that he only reports to Sukuna as he is ordered to do so. but two things stumped me on this theory overall.

the reader said that she used to party a lot and get involved with boys before Gojo. if he was stalking her for so long, why did he wait so long to approach her?

what specifically would be the blackmail that Sukuna has on Gojo?

regarding the first point, it's been mentioned that Gojo has been "scared of women" and was shy when it came to approaching the reader. he knew of her for so long, but was able to constantly slip under her radar. considering how much of a pervert he is, it wouldn't have been surprising for him to sneak around and watch in on the reader hooking up with other guys. after all, these guys were probably complete strangers to him and all he cared about was you. remember how Gojo was basically able to tune out his own best friend, Suguru, when the reader was hooking up with him in their living room? it wouldn't be wild to assume that he was able to do the same for your other hookups as he spied on you.

to connect this with second point, what if Sukuna caught Gojo being a peeping tom on the reader during a party hook-up? while being so distracted in the act of spying, Sukuna spots him. the reader wouldn't be alright with the fact that someone who's barely an acquaintance (if that, depending on the time this occurred) to her has been perving around and watching her have sex without her consent. she would do anything to get away from Gojo, and of course that would crush him. Gojo tried to buy Sukuna's silence by any means necessary. so, Sukuna generated a list of people that he and Gojo mutually knew for the reader to fuck. the reasoning for it would be the fact that Gojo has to sit through the process of having the girl he likes fuck a bunch of guys besides him, and the fact that Gojo knew all these men would make it sting more. plus, he has a reputation for hookups. (chapter 8)

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A/N > You’re like RIGHT there with it and yet not there at the same time omg 😟

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but why would Gojo agree to this deal with Sukuna, and why would he also go with the method of blackmailing the reader? it's basically a guarantee that the reader would be scared away regardless. but again, we could recall that Shoko mentioned that he was too "scared of women" to approach the reader at first. this was his chance to finally approach her. plus, "once that video is gone, there is no excuse he'll have to be around you." (chapter 8)

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but the more i thought of this reasoning for the two points, the more bizarre it felt. so what if instead of Gojo being a peeping tom, it was Sukuna. we get so many hints that Sukuna has eyes and intel everywhere. we get an indirect implication of this when he called us out for rolling our eyes during our phone call with him. yes, it could be completely by chance, but it's still a great hint that he "sees everything" and "knows everything." we get an even bigger hint towards this in the alt ending when he directly references The F*ck List.

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A/N > Others have taken note of how Sukuna knew she rolled her eyes but trust me, that’s just to show that Sukuna knows the reader’s body language more than he’s let on & paid attention to her a lot during the time they were together. 

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it wouldn't be too far fetched to assume that he has some shady videos taken of people without his consent, some possibly acquired through other people (like how Gojo was revealed to have sent Sukuna the video of the reader from the first chapter). what if Gojo caught Sukuna with the video, threatened him to delete it, and Sukuna counterthreatened to have it be sent and posted everywhere. it would be highly ironic, but consistent with the way that Gojo and Sukuna practically mirror each other at times. the reasoning for the list choices would still be the same for this theory, too.

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my citations for these theories ☝️🤓

“You once asked me if I love you because I blackmailed you or if I blackmailed you because I love you and my answer is both,” Gojo confesses as he turns to meet your gaze, “Through my blackmailing, I fell for you but I also did it because I loved you from the start.” - Chapter 56

loved you from the start; his obsession has been consistent from the start (supports Gojo being a peeping tom theory) or he has always had a deep concern for you (supports him wanting to stop Sukuna from spreading blackmail of you instead).

“I’ve sacrificed everything for you, y’know.” 

“How? What’s everything that you’ve sacrificed, hm?” 

“You. I sacrificed the woman I love to make her happy.” Gojo admits, and of all he’s said thus far, that feels like the truest statement. 

“I could’ve been happy with you.” You remind him. 

He laughs, “Yeah well, I’m an idiot.” 

You scoff, “That’s all you have to say?” 

“Yup.” - Chapter 56

is he an idiot for being a peeping pervert instead of just approaching you normally? maybe. how does this make her happy? she ends up finding love through Choso, through the list, through the blackmail.

But deleting the video means ... he has no more leverage over you and can't force you to help him with the hole he's dug for himself. -  Chapter 8

the hole being the blackmail set against him by Sukuna.

Gojo's behind you cursing at himself for being unable to tell you the truth. 

He's so scared that you'll never help him without the blackmail and, well, he has every right to be because you're pretty sure that if it weren't for those videos he has over your head, you wouldn't be doing any of this. - Chapter 9

the videos he's referencing is the original video from chapter 1 and the fake video he lied about with Suguru, but he can't tell the reader the truth because it's too twisted and risky (supports Gojo peeping tom theory).

He silences himself in thought. There are so many ways he could go about answering such a question but the possibilities of how you may react are endless. Plus, you're drunk and if he's going to admit or explain anything to you, it'll be while you're sober. 

"Because..." Gojo's voice gets so quiet that you almost don't catch what he says, "...I don't have any other choice." - Chapter 21

if he didn't go through with his list, Sukuna would have went through with Gojo's blackmail, thus resulting in either you getting as far away from Gojo as soon as possible or Sukuna's video being sent around.

He let something slip abruptly, "W-Wish I c-could tell you everything, sweets..." 

Your brows furrow at that. 

Are you missing something here? - Chapter 22

YES GIRL!!!! SUKUNA'S BEHIND THE WHOLE LIST, HE'S BEHIND THE BLACKMAIL GIRLYPOP

"Anything," Gojo says, meeting your gaze. He's so serious that it's almost dark the way he looks at you, "I'd do anything for you." - Chapter 29

"I meant it when I said I'd do anything for you." 

You follow his motions and then end up right back in his arms, "Right..." 

"I'd sacrifice the very thing I love just to see you happy." Gojo claims proudly. 

You scoff, "Thought' I was the thing you loved?" 

"You are." 

His words bewilder you, "Then that makes no sense." 

"It won't." Gojo shrugs. - Chapter 29

🧍‍♀️

anything. even if it means putting your body, heart, mind, and career on the line. directly supports the theory that Sukuna initially had blackmail on the reader.

"We're the same, y'know..." He suddenly says, his voice breaking again, "We both want someone so terribly bad but our situations prohibit us from getting that person." 

"You could've prevented all this though..." 

Gojo sniffles and you feel a drop of wetness slide down his cheek and slip against your palm. The man was crying? Why? - Chapter 30

this whole time we've been told that Gojo and the reader share more similarities than the reader realizes. what Gojo is to the reader, the reader is to Choso. while Choso now knows of the men that the reader slept with, he doesn't know why. he doesn't know about you being blackmailed. you know that you had to sleep with these men. you don't know why. you didn't know it was because of Gojo being blackmailed.

"For loving me, Satoru. It's not a crime," You say, mocking a comment he made to you earlier, "You're allowed to love me. So, for that, and that only, I forgive you." 

Those words healed so many more wounds in his heart than you realized. It was like that was all he ever needed to hear. If Gojo's mistake was loving you and that's what caused this, then you forgive him. 

If in some twisted way, his feelings started the list, you forgive him.

COME ON NOW.

There’s so much going unspoken but the two of you knew what either was saying, you understood each other more than either of you realized. - Chapter 35

“Well,” Gojo sighs heavily and then draws your hands off his face, leaning down to you a bit, “Sometimes, sacrifices need to be made in exchange for one’s happiness.” 

“Are you telling me that all this was for the greater good?” You quiz as you raise a curious brow. 

“Something like that, yeah,” He shrugs. - Chapter 45

You tell him, “If I had one wish, it’d be that you did that from the beginning.” 

Gojo opens his mouth to say something but then he swallows his words down. He nearly fucked up. 

“All you had to do was talk to me,” Your shoulders raise into a shrug as you move a hand to the doorknob, “Things could’ve been different if you did.” 

“Even if I’ve been obsessed with you since the beginning?” He questions and he’s stepping closer to you again. He can’t possibly wrap his head around that possibility- 

You laugh a bit, “Especially if you were obsessed from the beginning,” You didn’t know it but that statement right there made the man feel as though his world was falling apart, loads of regret tumbling over him as he stares at you with wide eyes, “Satoru I think you forgot but, before all this started, aside from Shoko… I was lonely.” 

Gojo’s throat goes dry and he fails to form a response to that, “I…” 

“If you had just talked to me one time, and more than a hey or how are you,” The way your eyes soften, a slim sheer gloss of tears coating your gaze as you speak to him, “I would’ve fallen for you.” 

He grits his teeth, “Don’t tell me that.” 

“But it’s true.” You say. 

And just like that, Gojo was crumbling all over again. If only you knew how much he regretted everything after hearing you say that. - Chapter 46

if he had just spoke to the reader before all of this, maybe she wouldn't have gone to those parties, hooked up with those people, and caused whatever kind of blackmail Sukuna had on Gojo (or on her).

He wishes he could take it all back, his feelings for you included. If only he could go back and stop himself from ever being curious about you. That’s what started it after all. Because, at the end of the day, Gojo knew who you were before you knew who he was— hell, even before Shoko knew who you were. - Chapter 53

then what is the timeline of his obsession starting? has it been before Gojo? could his blackmail have taken place even before Shoko introduced you two, adding to the weight of the threat that Sukuna held over Gojo's head (regarding the peeping tom theory).

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A/N > The timeline on Gojo’s interest, not obsession just yet, on the reader will be addressed in the sequel so this’ll be answered there <3

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but there were certain parts that stumped me and my theories so i have some weird reasonings around them;

It's selfish of him and seriously fucked up but, he's said it before and he'll say it over and over again-- you're all he has. He made promises to everyone on that list, promises of delivering a woman to them at some point, and of course, he couldn't convince anyone he knew to do such a thing. 

So again, the situation with you just happened to be a coincidence. 

The problem is that Gojo hates that it's you. He hates that you're the one he ended up doing this to. - Chapter 8

Gojo's known to be a silly guy so it could make sense that he actually did promise these guys hookups for reasons unrelated to his blackmail. after all, he does have a reputation for getting people hookups. the coincidence is that Sukuna now has dirt on Gojo and wants to toy with him. by making the reader sleep with them the guys he coincidentally owes hookups to, he fulfills his role/reputation and relieves his debt at the same time. two birds, one stone.

┏━━━

A/N > As we later learn that some of the “debt” Satoru claimed to have isn’t real, we can also infer that his reputation & the promises he’s made to these men were done out of coincidence. Take Toji for example; tell me you can’t see an interaction between him & Gojo where Gojo gets a bad grade and wants to get it up so he taunts his professor with the idea of getting him a hookup & Toji would laugh it off considering Gojo’s reputation ;)

┗━━━

another thing that stumped me is why Gojo got so worked up with the reader referring herself as a whore, and the connection to Sukuna. my delulu reasoning is that once Sukuna threatened Gojo with blackmail by either of the two theories/methods i mentioned, Sukuna casually referred to the reader as a whore. that caused a major fight between the two, possibly even getting physical (which can refer back to the implication that Gojo has hurt people for the reader).

the fight could have increased the tension and severity of the situation, so Sukuna decides to add Choso to the list knowing how easily attached Choso gets. in chapter 5, the reader and Gojo were discussing the list and Choso specifically. Gojo was even noted to be relieved when the reader had mentioned that they'll just have to hope that Choso doesn't get attached, as he obviously holds deep feelings for the reader. Sukuna knows that by going through with the blackmail with Choso involved, Gojo most likely will not end up with the reader if Choso get attached and the reader reciprocates those feelings.

also, the counterargument that Sukuna and Gojo are actually friends/allies in this situation just doesn't sit well with me. it would make for a crazy twist but it just feels too out of character for Gojo. but then again, how would Sukuna specifically know about The F*ck List? but idk, it just feels so wrong to me. maybe i have too much faith in Gojo lmfao. after all, he has consistently shown a great dislike towards the guy since chapter 23. but maybe it's my denial speaking. i really don't want to think of Satoru going through this whole arc only for it to reveal that he truly is a piece of shit. pls don't do this to my pookie my heart cannot handle it </3

┏━━━

A/N > Remember, Gojo is a good actor & you go a long period of time in the book not realizing he’s not as much of a villain as he pretends to be 😉 

┗━━━

there's that moment after the reader fucked Sukuna that still messes with my brain. with my theories, my brain's thinking that he contemplated on collecting even more blackmail on the reader. for what reason? idk, to be an ass? to torment Gojo further and add more to his blackmail? but maybe he decided not to because he already has plenty of blackmail on the reader (if the theory of Sukuna having a video of her from way back then is true) and fucking her knowingly made Gojo pissed considering all the dirt Sukuna has.

so why can't Gojo tell her the truth now? why does he want to wait years in advance? maybe he's hoping that by that time, not only will you forget and not care about the situation overall, but maybe Sukuna will forget all about it as well. the chances of Sukuna holding on to the reader's blackmail for that long is slim and the reader would most likely be in a situation where she is completely separated from Sukuna depending on her job and living situation with Choso. the stakes are lower than if he were to reveal everything to you now, at a moment where your life is still so uncertain. it would go against his wish for you to end up happy.

┏━━━

A/N > Maybe Gojo doesn’t tell her the truth because he can’t, just as he said 🌚 Perhaps he’s not allowed to yet. After all, why would Sukuna even tell the reader he made the list in the end? ^.^ Just some food for thought!

┗━━━

---

regarding the future of TFL... fuck, bro. i have no fucking idea. i'm too caught up in the (presumed) past. i'm mourning fr. i love this fic sooooo fucking much. whenever you decide to pick up on the sequel, i will be there. if you choose to publish anything else in the meantime, i will be there. thanks for such a fun and memorable read, Kami. i'm excited to bookbind this soon 🤍🤍🤍 now, i need to watch blue lock to shove these feelings down.

yap fin (for now)

-☃️

A/N > I love you sosoosooooo much for this. These theories are like reading an entirely new fanfic sometimes except, I know all the answers & what’s going to happen next, which only makes me more excited ^.^ Thank you for taking the time to make this, thank you for reading, thank you for supporting, just, THANK YOU.

This right here is exactly what I write for; people like you :)

To the others reading this breakdown & theory, thank ☃️anon because she’s a damn godsend & ilhsm ^.^ (definitely showing favoritism rn, sorry not sorry, ily all I swear)

Edit; Since you’re watching Blue Lock, I can’t wait to bring my Shidou fanfic here because a lot of the drama in TFL has inspo from that fic, which I wrote first ^.^ & I could totally see you enjoying it because not only is it a childhood friends to lovers than enemies & back to lovers troupe BUT it also includes Itoshi Sae x reader which ofc, adds hella drama :))

P.S. It’s two am as I finally post this and omg sorry it took me a while, I wanted to answer other anons first before unpacking this badboy, again, tysm!!

[novantinuum]

Good question! I have five to give you today.

Think of my StrawPage kinda like a tumblr anon askbox- feel free to send me comments, questions, silly doodles, song recs, whatever!

_

So, my ultimate favorite SU fic will probably ALWAYS be Aid to Navigation, by @infriga.

There's just a LOT I can say about this one. I recommend it to people every chance I get when they ask for SU fic recs. I've re-read it countless times. It's so good and hits upon so many of my favorite tropes and nuances when it comes to Steven that there is a world in my brain where this fic is the CANON post-IAMM to me. And mind you, I've written a post IAMM fic myself. Do you know how hard it is to make something so tasty it makes someone want to toss aside their OWN headcanons? XD

_

My other HUGE favorite is a world for the birds, by @fanfoolishness.

I didn't think much about Uncle Andy as a character until I read this fic, and now he's one of my absolute favorite side characters. If you enjoy stories that glimpse into Steven's wild world from a complete outside perspective, then this fic is for you! It spans from post CYM all the way through Future, exploring the building rapport between Steven and Uncle Andy as he shares his birding hobby with the kid.

_

When it comes to shorter one shots, I'm quite fond of Potential Energy, by Mundivore.

I normally don't remember the shorter, sweeter fics quite as much as the longer ones, which may be ironic as one shots are mostly what I post- but this one always sticks out in my head quite starkly. It's such an interesting little philosophical exploration of Steven's components ala CYM, and what their truest nature actually is. Genuinely, I feel like this could've been a canon interaction. And... oh my god did it retroactively foreshadow Steven's growing power in SUF. (This fic was written in Jan 2019, so way before that.) Read that last scene with Future in mind and tell me I'm wrong, ahah.

_

This is a bit of a niche crossover pull, but another fic I ALWAYS think about is The 60th Cycle, by Four Faces.

It's a crossover between Steven Universe and The Adventure Zone: Balance, and it's fucking HEARTBREAKING. I don't want to spoil it, but any TAZ fans will take one look at the tags and understand exactly what I'm insinuating here. The number of parallels that are drawn between these characters and their experiences are so thought provoking, and the way this story is written ties things in to the canon story of the Balance arc so well.

_

And finally, I have one last rec under the cut for my adult followers! This one is explicit, fair warning.

Perhaps the MOST influential fic when it comes to the way I approach sexuality and kink within my writing is The Monster, Inside by @abelquartz.

This is another one of those stories I've come back to dozens of times. I have always been super fascinated by the intersections between kink and trauma, and the ways in which sex can be used as a conduit to sort of... act out and then reframe key traumas in one's life. Thus, the horrific lack of control Steven experienced when he transformed in IAMM is recontextualized here as something that can be tamed, something that can be triggered (and then de-triggered) at will. It's a genius idea, and has intensely inspired me in my own personal explorations of Steven and Connie's adult dynamic.

[cantareincminor]

Round 2: Fandom Wrapped (Writer Edition) 2024!

Thanks again to @kattyelf for the template. A blank one can be found at @twiyorbase for anyone who wants to do their own!

Detailed reflections under the cut.

This is a long, introspective post. Forgive me if I sound self-absorbed in all this reflection.

The past year has been a unique one. The last long fic I completed was more than ten years ago in the Aladdin fandom. I dabbled in shorter, more stream-of-consciousness fics after that, but hadn’t written or posted a fic since 2016. Then I got into Spy x Family in 2022, devoured tons of fics, and slowly, nervously considered writing again.

There were many reasons I stopped writing. Being busy with real life responsibilities, naturally. I got married and had kids. I had a highly stressful career. With so little time on my hands, I feared that if I tried to write after such a long hiatus, the result would be stilted and disappointing, and I would have “wasted” my precious free time feeling shittier about myself. I’ve had some version of this mindset my entire life: if I can’t do something well, then I shouldn’t bother.

I have @whateversawesome to thank for encouraging me to try my hand at writing again. After the mole hunt arc was published, an idea struck me quite suddenly—what if Yuri had died or been critically injured in Shellbury? How would Twilight deal with that guilt and how would the identity reveals unfurl in such an extreme scenario? Could Yor ever forgive him? 

For months I shied away from writing it. To do the idea justice, I knew it would have to be a long, complex fic. And I continued to have mixed feelings about my last long fic in the Aladdin fandom—regretting parts of the premise and the ship dynamics and the characterizations and just overall feeling ashamed about my writing. I didn’t want to fail—write myself into a corner and abandon the fic or something like that. Right now, on the other end, I still look back on Orpheus sometimes and wonder how the hell I managed to write it. I reread my favorite passages and wonder how I came up with those exact words.

If it may help any writers, I would be happy to share a copy of my brainstorming doc and outline of Orpheus, where I kept track of unresolved plot points, options to resolve those plot points, notes to self to go back and add foreshadowing, and calling out unexpected events in each chapter that I did not plan ahead for. It is a very long doc. But I wanted to remember everything I was thinking at the time as a gift to my future self, in case I ever attempt a big project like this again and feel paralyzed.

Orpheus allowed me to explore themes and beliefs I suppose have been marinating in my heart for years. For anyone who is still interested, below are some of my thoughts and personal experiences around the main themes.

Forgiveness

Forgiveness and redemption are always what I reach for in my serious fics. I think I fumbled it in my Aladdin fic (or didn’t really get to the redemption part), but I was able to explore it more thoroughly and with more integrity in Orpheus, with an additional decade of life experience. 

I think forgiveness is a difficult and fascinating theme to handle because it is so highly personal and often carries memories of deep hurt for ‘victims’ or shame for ‘perpetrators’. I was grateful when readers sometimes shared their personal beliefs and experiences with it in their comments. In order to treat this theme with respect, I wanted to convey that forgiveness should not come cheaply. That is not to say it’s bad to be merciful and quick to forgive—those are amazing virtues. But the act of forgiveness comes at a cost and can be incredibly painful. The cost does not simply vanish due to good feelings or an act of the will.

Someone can either withhold forgiveness and make the other person pay the cost—in Orpheus, this would have been Yor rejecting or taking revenge on Twilight and leaving him to feel horribly guilty about Yuri’s injury for the rest of his life. Or they can choose to forgive and pay the cost themselves. In my own experience it feels physically painful. It feels like extreme grief. This is what I wanted to portray, the devastation to the spirit, as well as the catharsis that can follow. Because after the cost is paid, what we gain is healing. The ability to move on and no longer feel like we’ve swallowed glass. And the mending of a relationship, if both sides are willing. In the case of Yor and Twilight, it makes their relationship even stronger, like a broken bone healing stronger than before. And it adds weight to the trials they would face together after that moment.

Forgiveness of self / Perfectionism

Of all the conflicts in the fic, “Twilight vs. himself” is the last one to be resolved. Even after the man has been forgiven by the people he loves, he still struggles not to hate himself. To find his life to hold any value outside of being a highly competent spy. I think many people go through some version of this struggle. I certainly did and still do sometimes, with regards to work and career.

I chose Orpheus as the title to illustrate the journey of someone who carries an enormous burden on their shoulders. Trying to save the person they love and having to follow a strict rule of never turning around or they will lose it all. All the while, the temptation to look back is incredibly powerful. Twilight bears the burden of WISE’s expectations as their top spy, the hero who has stopped nuclear missile launches, who will supposedly prevent the next war from breaking out. He also carries the expectations of his newfound family which call him to turn away from the ruthlessness of his mission. To look back at them, and not abandon them for the sake of world peace. And finally he carries the guilt of what happened to Yuri, and the pain of keeping all the secrets resulting from Shellbury.

In Orpheus, Twilight harbors both a very low sense of self-worth as well as a highly inflated sense of self-importance. He sees himself as a discardable tool who has done unforgivable things for his missions, with no right to love and be loved. But at the same time he sees himself as the lynchpin to maintaining the fragile geopolitical peace. Responsible for never screwing up, ever. Responsible for the fact Yuri was shot, even though he tried his best to spare him. He’s an unreliable, self-absorbed narrator, and the other characters around him also parrot his guilt back at him throughout most of the fic. Until the end, where I try to address the illusion of control and how a good portion of his guilt is unrealistic and undeserved. 

Unfortunately for many people who carry this kind of burden, no one tells us that it’s okay to turn around. That we are indeed not responsible for more than our own choices, and we certainly cannot be responsible for circumstances outside of our control. I’ve worked jobs where I’ve been asked to do the impossible. My first job out of college, the expectations were incredibly high. I got no training and was thrown into a project in a foreign language and an unfamiliar industry. I pulled so many late nights that in the second week I fainted on the way to the office. And I was told this was normal. That in order to succeed like everyone else, I would figure out a way to solve each problem thrown at me, no matter how impossible.

And what sucks is when you start succeeding. You pull off miracle after miracle and then people start expecting it of you like it’s normal. The reward for success isn’t a break. It’s more work. Harder work. And you buy into that unrealistic narrative that you should be able to do it or something must be wrong with you, you must be broken and can’t perform like you used to. And when you finally break, you get spit out and discarded like an outdated machine. They find the next, younger miracle worker to buy into the narrative.

Knowledge vs Wisdom

This is an easier one. Funny that Twilight’s agency is called WISE in canon. But what is wisdom? The ability to discern between right and wrong, to utilize knowledge effectively for the greater good, to know how to truly live life and live it well. 

Twilight strikes me as the kind of person who uses knowledge as a weapon, not too dissimilarly to Yuri who literally states “knowledge is power.” Twilight hoards knowledge like building an arsenal, so he can always be prepared for any problem. And this is how nations treat knowledge (intel) in the real world. Constantly trying to gain an information advantage on the enemy. 

But how does one know if one’s strategy to use all that knowledge is right? In Orpheus, the Ostanian state exhibits little wisdom in its pursuit of endless knowledge, experimenting on children and prisoners and animals to gain an edge over its rivals and amass more power for those at the top. At the same time the competition and backstabbing between the various arms of the state are almost childish in their motivations, the epitome of foolishness. Knowledge on its own does not build trust or confidence—but it can build hubris and confusion and distrust. 

One unexpectedly fun part of writing Orpheus was the dynamics between Garden and WISE. While there is distrust at the start, the leaders and members of both sides demonstrate wisdom in how they navigate the partnership and grant trust to each other bit by bit. And this feels very counterintuitive to spies who build careers off of lies and masks, as they find that truthfulness can unlock results so much faster than subterfuge. At least when it comes to dealing with Garden.

On a final note on this topic, I find it interesting that in canon Donovan Desmond claims it is impossible to know what other people are thinking and therefore human beings can never trust each other. And yet the highest form of knowledge (second only to knowing God), in my opinion, is to truly know another person to the depth of their soul. To know a person completely, and to trust and love them regardless. This is what all people yearn for, even people like Twilight who have made a fortress of masks around their true self. And this kind of knowledge is what requires deep wisdom to wield well.

Sigmund Authen’s gift of the Tree of Life plaque and the accompanying wisdom quote was an unexpected event I did not plan in my outline for Chapter 33. So was Barbara’s advice to Yor in Chapter 34, which I will end this long ramble with:

Before the two left, Barbara turned and patted Yor’s arm. “I know what it’s like to be married to a brilliant man, dear. Don’t feel discouraged. They don’t need their brilliance and worldly achievements so much as they need our love. I know it can be exhausting sometimes, but I’ve stuck by my Siggy this long through thick and thin. What he didn’t mention amidst all that blather about wisdom is that even wisdom isn’t the final goal of all of mankind’s striving. Love is. What is a life full of wisdom and philosophy if it doesn’t help you find love and keep it? In my simple little mind, that’s what wisdom is for. Goodnight, dear. Thank you for having us over.”

And that's a wrap for my 2024!

[trailmix-silent-old]

TDP: general thoughts about s7 (spoilers, duh)

Sooo I know it's been a week, but I wanted to get some of my thoughts about season 7 out. I'll be posting more TDP stuff for a while after this too. I haven't posted on tumblr in like 5 years (my old blog is @trailmixstar-blog) but the possible end of this show made me come out of hibernation.

So some general points I wanna make first:

AAAAAAAADHDKDKSFDJSKSK

I can't believe the arc is over omg

I've been following this show since the day it came out

I was such an early fan that I had a Rayllum fic on Wattpad that was top 10 in #thedragonprince

And now it may be over?????? FU-

Someone hold my hand

Now, some specific things I liked about this season:

Finally the Ruthari reunion 🥺

Kosmo and Wanda Astrid being relevant

Cute Rayllum moments

Also angsty Rayllum moments that almost gave me a heart attack

Ezran actually does something this season

It might be an unpopular opinion but I like what they did with Ezran's character, I might make a separate post about it later

Aanya is the queen we need but don't deserve

Human Aaravos is such a silly lil guy

Sorvus should've been canon but I enjoyed their banter nonetheless

The dry baguette is somehow still in the lodge

And so many other callbacks to earlier seasons

Terry finally joins the good side

Karim is still such a little bitch istg

(His death was gruesome but I still laughed)

Love how Callum still insists on using his elfsona even though the war is long over

Claudia's new armor? *chef's kiss*

Things I liked less:

Did- did they seriously confirm the Harrow bird theory in the last few minutes? Seriously?? Is this a joke to them? What's he been doing for over 2 years? Just eating worms while watching the potential end of the world?

Is it just me or was Aaravos dumbed down a little? Like him saying Callum's name while trying to give him the poisoned apple, like that's such an obvious mistake. And I didn't really understand why he killed the bird in front of Terry? He knew Terry would be upset, potentially leave and inform everyone about Aaravos returning. Was there a purpose?

I feel like the explosives could've been used more, but maybe if the series continues they'll be relevant then

Many things were left openended, many unanswered questions. What will happen to the novablade? And the evil coin? What about Miyana and her baby? And the self-eating to stay immortal they discovered? Was Harrow seriously the bird all this time?????

Overall, I really liked this finale. I especially loved all the callbacks to earlier in the show. When Aaravos said an archdragon's bite can kill a Startouch elf, I immediately thought of how Zym's bite was the only thing that could break Rayla's armband thingy in season 1. Was that subtle foreshadowing? Also, Runaan was the one who taught Rayla to sweep the leg!! And she used it against Soren, who said sweeping the leg wasn't a thing in swordfighting. Nice.

I think they tied up quite a few things in the plot, but left a bunch of unanswered questions for a potential continuation. I'm really curious about the self-eating, since I think it could be an important factor in a future arc.

That's it for now. Like I said, I'll make some more TDP posts for a while, but I'll probably mainly become a Hazbin Hotel/Helluva Boss focused blog after that.

If you read this far, thanks for the attention <3

[rubberduckyrye]

Option 1: "Make them optional and put them in a second document for optional reading."

This will follow the game's design and make the FTEs and Special Events optional to read and separated out from the main plot of the story.

Pros:

Will have 5 events for all characters, thus giving them much more depth and screen time

Leaves the FTEs to be ambiguous enough for you to read them at your own pace and insert them where you think

Builds better pacing for the main fic and doesn't slow things down

Can be used for any potential future projects that may or may not include fan games or modding.

Cons:

Makes the project much larger (and harder to complete)

If you do not read the FTES/Event fics then the character development for your faves in AWBHT might make you feel disappointed/like it's lacking (Do you know how hard it is to write 20+ characters at once???)

You have to pick out which chapters you want to read yourself/may break focus if you want to read an FTE before moving on to the action

There may or may not be foreshadowing of future fic events in the FTEs or Special Events that would be missing in the main fic

Option 2: "Bake them into the fic itself--character interaction is too important to cut."

This will throw out the game's design and bake some interaction between Kurochi and his peers as a natural part of the story.

Pros:

Allows some more downtime for the characters to breathe before the chaos erupts again

Blends the FTEs and Events into the story more and makes them feel less removed from the situation/Less jarring do go from one to the other

Doesn't add an intense amount of workload to the project

Behavioral foreshadowing will be directly in the fic

Cons:

Characters will get a SIGNIFICANTLY less amount of time to develop, even if it's all "on screen" (Only one chapter, if that)

Slow pacing, the action takes far longer to get to

The tone of the FTEs will be more based around the story, for better or for worse

What do you guys think? I'm getting mixed responses for what I should do regarding the FTEs/Events from my Betas/Editors, so I figured that a vote was in order!

[nocturne-side-blog]

I don’t think I sent you a WIP ask! Sorry about that! Wait for Me caught my eye. Please tell me more!

It's all good! I didn't have time to go back and answer these until just now!

Wait for Me is a Tears of the Kingdom fic that follows Zelda in the past. It's a tie in for Origins of Calamity! I don't want to spoil a whole lot on Tumblr (but I would absolutely LOVE to on Discord), but here are some of my favorite parts:

Giving Sonia the deserved spotlight she needed before she freaking died :(

Features Zelda's diary entries as she adapts to the past of Hyrule and lives out ancient history. She even makes some friends!

Features a rewrite of my one shot "A Glimpse into the Past and Future," in which Zelda meets Sonia and Rauru's baby - someone she actually ends up recognizing!

Tie in to Age of Calamity lore, and therefore my sequel AU Age of Imprisoning

Twinrova and the ancient Sages are given more lore - Naboris and Ganondorf have a history... Oh, yeah, and we get more on Ganondorf's upbringing.

A peek into Mineru influencing the blossoming technology of the Sheikah, leading to Zelda designing the first functional guardian model while in the past! She makes it not to destroy, but to protect and provide companionship. This guardian may be familiar >:)

FORESHADOWING TO ANCIENT HERO LORE!! And an explanation of the dragons and their origins. ^^

Annnnd, of course, a lot of yearning for Link. ;v; It's planned to go throughout her whole time in the past, up until her draconficiation.

Thank you for the ask!!!

[kitkatt0430]

You know, I'm still not over how The Flash's worldbuilding/foreshadowing of the Red Skies Crisis got shortchanged when the actual crisis happened.

S1 - foreshadows that the Red Skies Crisis ends with a fight between the Flash and the Reverse Flash disappearing; Eobard's obsession with using this as a touchstone implies this may have been the last big event that happened between him and the Flash before he ran back in time to murder Barry and wound up killing Nora instead.

S2 - S4 - They're aware of the article and it being written by someone not-Iris was a big plot point in S3, but no one takes the Flash disappearing to mean Barry dies in the Crisis.

S5 - Nora travels back from the future, revealing Barry's disappearance in the Crisis is a permanent one - he dies. No word on how, just that she wants to avert this and thought starting years early was a good idea - but it was Eobard manipulating her in order to get free. Given that the timeline change that led to the Red Skies Crisis moving up several years happened alongside the change that allowed Eobard to be freed from confinement moments before his execution, it seems likely that Eobard may be responsible for moving up the Red Skies Crisis arrival date.

S6 - The lead up from Arrow focuses on Red Skies Crisis to the detriment of it's hanging character arcs from it's previous season, establishes the destruction of E2 which was previously most strongly associated with The Flash and no one tells Team Flash that their friends on E2 are dead afterwards, and then the Crisis actually happens and all the lead up that focused on Eobard's involvement in the Crisis is... for absolutely nothing.

And while I was absolutely burning out on Eobard's chess master skills being more tell than show on the show runner's part at the time... they foreshadowed a story between the Flash and Reverse Flash was going to play out as part of the Crisis and then did not deliver. And intentional foreshadowing getting chucked out the window at the last minute is something that annoys me so very much. So much build up wasted.

Imagine if instead of Nash, S6 had Harry come back and it was Eobard who fucked up and released the Anti-Monitor and became Pariah - or somehow blame shifted Pariah onto Harry?

... and I guess I'll add that to the pile of fic ideas I might write one day.

[practically-an-x-man]

Could I humbly request a Talk Shop Tuesday for how you developed Madison's mutation, if you haven't done one already?

Yes you may!! Thank you so much!!

The biggest thing that led to Madison's mutation was just that I wanted to write about an aquatic-based character, since I was intrigued about how to play with that dimension! I had the image of Alex being out on a mission to somewhere with a body of water, and seeing Madison's face just barely visible under the water. That then evolved into him being thrown into the lake and brushing past her in the chapter, and her bursting out of the water later in the same scene, because I felt like that was a more dynamic and energetic introduction to her character; initially it was more like calm intrigue, with Madison more like this mysterious water spirit, and I ended up recycling part of that entrance in my Celtic myth AU!

And a bonus piece of insider trivia for you: when I first was developing Madison, I toyed with the idea of making her entirely aquatic, and needing to always be in water to breathe -- similar to Nina in Creature Commandos (though I created Madison before the show came out), where she'd need a specialized suit and would sleep in a tank of water. In the end I decided against that, not for any particular reason except that her character took me in a different direction than that.

When it comes to Madison's physical mutation, and it being enhanced later in the fic, I had that planned from the beginning. There's a scene earlier in the fic where she's choosing her codename, and decides on Lionfish because of the coral-colored markings on her arms, legs, and back - despite the fact that lionfish don't camouflage, and that she didn't have any spines or venom. I wanted that scene to be a bit of foreshadowing: the name seeming like it was picked largely on a whim, but her later developing venomous fins and other more lionfish-like traits once her mutation is enhanced. And as a bonus, the initial areas of those coral-colored markings are her down her spine and on the outsides of her legs and arms- the same areas that her spines develop later.

I really enjoy giving physical mutations to my X-Men characters, whether that's dramatic traits like Mira's or Madison's, or subtler details like the reflective silver veins Rae has. I feel like it makes the characters more striking, for one, but it also opens up a lot more opportunity for mutation as a symbol for being a minority and the bigotry that comes from that. There's plenty of thematic value to the characters with invisible mutations and those invisible struggles, but as a person who's very visibly queer and will likely end up visibly disabled in the future (thanks, progressive connective tissue problems), I tend to connect a lot more with the visible mutations, and especially with the visible mutations that develop later and the character needing to adjust to how society views them differently.

Finally, Madison as a character is one who's prone to hyperindependence, and I feel like her mutation reflects that. I'm not sure when this came into play, if the character trait influenced the design of her mutation or if I saw an opportunity with her mutation and went from there, but the two are connected. She runs away from other people because she feels like she has to, so I gave her a way to run where people can't follow: the bottom of a lake. I'm a big fan of characters whose fantastical abilities and base character traits work in tandem with each other (I could get into a WHOLE essay on this, believe me, it's something I incorporate a LOT), so Madison has both unintentional physical isolation in the form of being a visible mutant and in the form of developing venomous spines, and intentional physical isolation in the way that she can breathe underwater and use that to escape where others can't follow.

(also bonus points: Madison develops those venomous spines after she learns to start letting people in again and being vulnerable, which only adds to that angst and emotional punch)

I am... massively rambling, but man I love Madison as a character so much. The short answer is that I wanted an aquatic hero, I wanted a physical mutation in play, and I wanted her powers to play in tandem with her hyperindependence and habit of running away from emotional vulnerability.

Thank you so much for the ask!!

[ladyazurith]

Short Lilia & Cater friendship analysis.

So I touched on this a bit in my Cater Diamond OB fic, Kill the Lights, but I think Lilia and Cater have a very interesting relationship. For the most part, Lilia seems to treat the other students at NRC like amusing children he has to help guide. Which makes sense because he’s 800 years old and has a lot of experience. It’s understandable why he would see himself as a mentor figure for most of the student body, not just his charges in Diasomnia. 

Cater however is different. Usually, when we see them together, he treats Cater like an equal. Very rarely is Lilia shown to rely on someone else for an answer, but he has done so with Cater. In fact, in Cater’s SSR Halloween Card you can see a lot of their dynamic in this light. He listens to Cater when Malleus is being harassed, his friend being able to talk him down from a more violent course of action rather easily. When Lilia is notoriously hard to reason with when he has his mind set on a course of action and tends to seem put off when people won’t listen to him. 

Even earlier in Cater’s SSR  Halloween story, they’re talking about Cater’s lack of connection to people, and Lilia talks like he sees wisdom in Cater’s words (I at first thought this was a bit of character assassination on Lilia’s part but given how chapter 7 is going, I can’t help but wonder if it was more foreshadowing) 

And even in the end, when Cater’s left standing off to the side as Diasomnia has their bonding moment. I think this is more indicative of how Lilia sees Cater, rather than anything else. Lilia sees Cater as someone who can handle himself, and who doesn’t need someone to mentor or comfort him. Cater ends up bitter here, but that’s a post for another day. 

About the only times we really see Lilia relaxed is when he’s with Cater, and to an extent Kalim, but Lilia is shown more often with Cater. Especially in the main story, where they pretty much spend Chapter 5 together, given Kalim is pulled for the VDC team. 

And it sounds like Lilia may have intended to stay in contact with Cater when he attempts to leave during chapter 7, because Cater tells him to hit him up on Magicam whenever he wants, and Lilia doesn’t say anything about not being able to like he has with some of the others. If he’d deactivated his account, I’m sure that’s something Cater would have realized given how often he’s on it. But he doesn’t confirm he will either, so that’s up for interpretation. 

Overall, Lilia seems to genuinely like and respect Cater in a different way than everyone else around him. 

This is pure theorizing/thoughts and whatnot, but part of me wonders if Cater doesn’t remind Lilia of one of Malleus’s parents. Or at least made him feel like he did when they were young and still in his life. I doubt this is something that ever gets covered in canon, because of how Cater tends to get treated in the overall narrative, but It may be something I play with in a future fanfiction. 

[shewolfofvilnius]

My Own Soul's Warning Ch. 1/2 (Rolan x. Dark Urge Tavaria)

The first two chapters of my Dark Urge Tavaria x Rolan fic are now live. Read on AO3

(link to overall fic, which may have more chapters posted by the time you see this) Planned length: 80-90 Chapters. Planned romances: Rolan x Durge (Tavaria), past Gortash x Durge. Brief Karlach x Durge and Shadowheart x Wyll flings (and breakups). Ongoing C-plot involving Cal x Lae'zel. Will also have some occasional Lia x Gale pining. There might be more.

Please see the notes before chapter 1 for content warnings, many of which will be spoilers. -------

Agreeing to a deal with Raphael that she has no memory of, Tavaria - a champion of considerable talent - must fight. Fight to save the Elturel refugee tieflings, especially the powerful junior wizard Rolan and his siblings. Fight to stop the the Absolute from conquering all. Eventually, fighting an old love with whom she once harboured a deadly secret. And above all else, fighting the murderous urges clawing away at her sanity in order to keep all those whom she loves and holds dear alive against the murderous machinations of Bhaal.

The fight for Tavaria's soul and the fate of Feyrun starts all over again. Can her love for a grumpy wizard top the machinations of the gods and men? Or in fighting to save them did she inadvertently damn them all to death or to subjugation of the chosen of Bhaal and Bane.

--------

This is going to be a long fic. Probably 80-90 chapters. The act 3 material in particular is going to be wild, although it's most important dynamics will be foreshadowed starting around chapter 8 and will run through the retelling of Acts 1/2.

If you've read Found and Lost and the first 3/4 of The Sorceress of Ramazith's Tower, you already know that Tavaria ended one fic dreaming of a world where she and Rolan were married with a kid on the way, and she starts the other fic now engaged to him (and during the fic gets blasted with a healing spell that supercharges the tiefling reproductive cycle, no possible way that means anything in the future).

This is what happens betweens The Dream and Happily(ish) Ever After.

[pikahlua]

As for the prose, it is always descriptive and symbolic, yet concise. All of this just a super long-winded way of saying that I love your work. I'm a newbie fic writer, and I wanted to know how you manage deciding what would or wouldn't be ooc for your characters to do when drafting. And also how you think of ideas and get inspiration for what story beats you should write in the middle. Thank you for all that you do in the fandom :)

Again, thank you for the comment ❤️

Regarding your questions, I'm afraid I'll have to borrow from a post I saw on my dashboard recently that I wish I could find. When it comes to dialogue, I do often ask myself if I can "hear" a character saying what I've written, but in general, I don't think as much in terms of "Is this in- or out-of-character?" The better question to ask is "HOW would this be in-character?" In what circumstances would a character do this? What would it take for them to do that? How would they go about doing it? That's a large part of how I construct a scene, because I need to make sure the things happen that would MAKE the character do what I need them to do.

As for drafting story beats, everyone has a different approach to this, and I would highly recommend looking up the different drafting methods out there and seeing what resonates with you. I personally draft by writing out a story in full as a summary with notes made for all the little details I need to remember. Sometimes I think of these notes later and throw them in as reminders in a chapter draft that I figure out how to work in when I get to writing the rough draft. A lot of things that will happen in the story I don't know when I'm drafting though, and I come up with the ideas as I'm writing. Again, I often ask myself questions like "What would it take to get this character from where they are to where I need them to be?" I think a lot of people can relate to imagining individual scenes in their heads, but if you write that imagined scene down, it may become clear to you what needs to happen BEFORE that scene in order to have it play out like you imagine.

In the case of Dragonheart, a lot of basic story beats especially towards the beginning are borrowed from The Vision of Escaflowne. I diluted those chosen moments down to their most elemental story ideas and tried to develop how I would see them work out with the characters I'm using. The end product is something entirely different from what I based it on, but take any story and summarize it as quickly as possible and you should be able to work out a blueprint for that certain type of story. In the end, we learn to write stories by reading or hearing other stories. Look at stories you love and try to figure out what it is about them that appeals to you, and use that in your writing. The first 5 chapters of Dragonheart were originally drafted to be one chapter, but then I conceived of the courtroom scene one night and decided to figure out how to get my characters there. All of the foreshadowing in those chapters for future events not yet published is there because of those future scenes I've already planned out in my head. I just needed to set some things up early on to get to those story beats later. And so I had to figure out a scene to fit those setups into. Basically, I start with an outline and fill in the gaps more and more as I write the story.

I can't say whether or not my method would work for anyone else. After all, one chapter growing into five isn't exactly concise. I have a tendency to write things far longer than originally intended, and so I gravitate towards writing epics and other long-form stories. I can only encourage you to experiment with your own methods and hopefully land on something that feels right to you. Practice makes perfect, in this case. The more you write, the easier this will all come to you.

Well wishes! ❤️

[davonati]

My David/Jonathan fanfics

I'm so excited to be part of this (small but active) fandom! I've been writing David/Jonathan fics for years but never had anywhere share them outside of AO3. Please let me know if you read any of them and what you think!

Yonati My first published fic for them, a short fluffy one-shot about David singing Song of Songs for Jonathan. (This is also the origin of my username/my personal ship name for them: David+Yonati=Davonati)

Normal A one-shot exploration of Jonathan as a teenager, finding out that his dad has just been crowned king and that he's going to be a prince. Includes some ~magical foreshadowing~ of Jonathan's ~future~. I thought for a long time about writing a sequel, which I guess sort of turned into Two Things except not.

Mount Gilboa University Truly my albatross, my white whale. This is a college AU where David and Jonathan are students and Saul is president of their university. Sort of actually follows the plot of the Book of Samuel, believe it or not - points to anyone who reads it and finds all the references! (Currently unfinished... may or may not be finished some day... but if you message me I'll tell you the rest of the plot I have planned.)

In the Belly of the Beast One of only two smut fics that I've ever published, and the only one that I can still read without cringing too bad. Major warning for this one: the scenario is one of consensual-non-consent, i.e. where David and Jonathan are roleplaying a dubiously-consensual situtation, but outside the roleplay it is 100% consensual. It's honestly pretty milquetoast for a cnc fic in my opinion, but if that's not your thing, please don't read it!

Two Things Started out as an exploration of Jonathan's transition into palace life, turned into a story about transmasc!David??? Follows the two throughout the years as their relationship, as well as David's identity and presentation, develop. (This one is also unfinished but I PROMISE it will be finished soon, I'm in the middle of writing the last chapter.)

[vashonian]

Hey!! First off, my obligatory gushing over your stuff once again, both your writing and your art is amazing, it has such a detailed and rustic charm to it that I rarely ever see in fandom spaces. I've been wanting to ask this for a while because I'm absolutely awestruck at your turnout and how you've managed to create such an in-depth world and publish almost 500k words (and iirc you said before you plan ahead like 200-300k words too?) in the little over a year since Episode 2 dropped. Like, that grind is insane. Just curious if you have like a schedule planned out for yourself or a word quota you try to meet each week? Hope you don't mind me asking, I've just been trying to wrap my head around this for a while lol

(PS sorry I have to be asking this on the blog I made when I was 13 instead of the blog I actually use, Tumblr is a cruel mistress 😔)

Thank you so much! That's really kind! Love your art and fics too!

I think I spent a good chunk of May and June 2024 just mulling over the whole idea, like working out what went where and what sounded interesting and general plot things. I actually wasn't sure if it sounded all that good until totallyottie99's Peppermint Bandit AU really gave it the visual kick, and I got really motivated to do it. I think I spent most of July and August doodling and writing really rough drafts/outlines and things (and it was a good thing, because some of those things were really rough).

I had a bit of time off at work so I basically started cranking things out and editing and re-editing. It was really easy when it had been the things I had been churning over and internally editing and re-editing and then re-doing entirely, but it's a kinda slowed a bit as things got longer and less defined, I think. I find it really easy to make set-up and descriptions, but the making enough payoff and foreshadowing for future things so they don't come out of left field was something else. In the original concept, ABELLE was supposed to show up much later, but having an earlier setup ended up working better, especially as the fic grew longer and I ended up breaking it into three/four parts.

I try to get at least two or three chapters out a month - it's about two now. I usually set aside a couple hours a week to work on it - I sometimes have entire days off, so I'm either typing up something or editing. I usually have about three or so chapters around (and a few anchor scenes from the next fic) so if I'm stuck or burned out on the current chapter, I can at least make progress where the inspiration strikes. With the nature of my work free time can be all over the place, so I try to stick to time - the word and chapter quotas I tried back in the fall, and it ended up causing a bit more stress in December when work became really demanding.

Thanks for asking! No worries about the old blog either - Tumblr's a bit testy at times, lol.

[ckret2]

Oh my god you actually ARE including a romance element in the fic I’ve been sitting here for the last couple of months wondering if it was just gonna be a will they/won’t they

That's because for the past few months I've been going will they/won't they as I tried to figure out if I could get an airtight IC route Imao. I wouldn't go OOC and force it, so I didn't want to commit and start dropping It's Obviously Gonna Go There foreshadowing just to reach chapter 75 or whatever and go "oh damn nah turns out it doesn't work after all, never mind, sorry bout the foreshadowing guys." The Big Overarching Important Plot works whether or not there's any romance at all, so that was a decision I could put off for a while.

So I couldn't go "YES they will" until I myself knew I had a plan. But now I know I have a plan. So they will.

... though also probably part of the reason it feels will they/won't they is because right now zero romantic feelings are happening. There's no hidden feelings, no suppressed feelings, no denied feelings, no one-sided feelings, no past feelings cruelly smothered that may be rekindled. The romance is happening in the future exclusively. I decided if I'm gonna do this, I wanna do it on hard mode LMAO