#where is the line between fic and weird quote thing?

[essentiallyleaf]

day 26. selfcest. with. miyeon.

854 words.

tags.

kinktober ‘23, idol x futa!idol (???), selfcest, narcissist miyeon, supposedly a mostly comedic piece but at the same time it’s not very funny, narrator might sound too salty though really they’re just annoyed [beep beep cop out alert beep beep], the real cop out is that miyeon sounds awfully similar to me in this and that’s scary, okay maybe outside of the selfcest part, this entire fic is a huge cop out for me having zero creativity and wit to be honest, sorry for the excessively long tags i’ll stop now, no i won’t, yes i will, no i- okay not funny.

notes.

-5. honestlycantwaitfortheendofoctoberly, leaf.

Miyeon always wanted to write an autobiography, maybe a script, or rather, to get it written for her, ‘cause “Who’s got the time for that, y’knowhatImean?”, and definitely not because she hasn’t used pen and paper for anything other than autographs since she - barely - got out of high school; “Maybe a book of quotes, that could be quicker. What? Whose quotes, you asked? Mine, who else’s? HaHA”

Nah, her life is not really book material. It’s more like a b-movie (or, Bee even?), with all the bad jokes and none of the ironic laughs. This one time she was asked, if you could describe your entire life in a frame - one shot, one opportunity; would your mom be making spaghetti in it? - what would it be? With an intense glare and an abnormal amount of dramatic pauses in between she answered, probably me, in front of a mirror, side-eyeing my own reflection, y’kno, because I, am my only, enemy, the biggest obstacle, on the road to success; wow, that deserves a spot in the book.

It doesn’t come as a shock that a person like her had weird dreams, dreams where she randomly comes across a woman that looks exactly like her, and starts researching about her, trying to get more information, discover where the woman comes from, what she does in her life; it also doesn’t come as a shock that none of that is a product of her own imagination, she just really likes any film with Jake Gyllenhaal in it and can’t come up with any original ideas, even in the hours of the day when her unconscious is completely free and unbound from the chains of the real, or even of the realistic. Joining this exhibition of the unshocking, the first words that Miyeon utters when she gets to meet the woman (even in a dream, where every texture, every face is out of focus and blurred, where humans have twelve fingers and mushrooms have eight legs, she can see the woman’s features clearly - almost like she spent about the same amount of time in a day sleeping and looking in the mirror and could draw her own face blindfolded - and they exactly resembles her own) are “Oh my God, I look so beautiful”. So beautiful that she wants to feel the woman’s sharp, V-lined jaw, her perfectly angled, straight, thin nose, her thick, juicy, pink lips and fuck, how good they’d feel on-

Her tongue invades the double’s mouth like she’s about to have a taste of heaven, and ascending is what Miyeon does as she gets a sample of her own flavor. She feels the woman’s body up all over, hungry for contact, swiping and gripping and tugging now on her soft thighs, now on her bouncy cheeks, now on her perky tits. I need this real fucking fast, she thinks as she feels dampness between her legs, so she kneels to pull the dress of the other her up to her waist, and what she finds is no underwear (it would have been worrying to know that her perfect double does wear it, to be fair) and a gargantuan semi-erect penis. An absolute utopia, truly, for Miyeon to be in front of the two things she loves the most, fused together: herself and dick. No questions asked then, - and honestly, who’s ever questioned anything in their own dreams, even when it’s sucking yourself off - she wraps her lips around the mushroom head and starts bobbing like it’s her favorite hobby, and it is. It’s like she’s practiced her entire life for the moment she gets to taste the cock she never knew she wanted, and that cock thrusts hard back into her moaning throat because only one can know what she always wanted. And as Miyeon loses herself, - in the music, the moment - that’s where it stops, and her body is turned around and put on all fours, her round ass in the air. She feels her slick being spread around and onto her puckered hole, and as the woman’s tip pushes into her back entrance. One thrust in, and then out. Two, a little further. The third time, the huge girth leaves her hole gaping. Four, five, six, and when she loses count (quite soon, and not because of her poor math abilities), that’s when she breaks. That’s when her moans turn into screams, when her hand automatically goes to her clit and starts rubbing, the pleasure from her own fingers causing her muscles to relax even more and her double’s length to reach even deeper into her. The sound of hips bumping into cheeks and of her own feral wails is all she hears before she feels herself cumming and concurrently several spurts of cum fill her ass.

When Miyeon wakes up she has another quote for her book in mind, one to be remembered for generations to come, surely, and just as surely not a stolen one: the opportunity to meet face to face with your greatest enemy comes once in a lifetime - and the enemy will certainly not miss her chance to blow.

-

footnotes.

getting repetitive. contritely, leaf.

[emoprincey]

Ok I'm thinking abt a human au where all the incorrect quotes happen, so here's a little bullet fic based on that:

Patton and Logan are married because I said so.

They have six dogs because one of Patton's friends had a dog that gave birth unexpectedly. The friend couldn't take care of the puppies, and wanted to know they'd gone to a good home, so Patton agreed to take the whole litter.

Patton now spends his time learning dog-friendly recipes for baked goods, and covering the lawn in mugs for the sake of a pun.

Virgil was Logan's roommate in college, and used to beta read his Star Trek fanfiction.

Logan in turn has assisted Virgil with phone calls that make him anxious. It usually went about as well as you'd expect.

Patton is strangely attached to Virgil and is very insistent that they become friends. The feeling seems mutual, even if Virgil is a little overwhelmed by him at times.

Virgil is also friends with Roman. They often play video games together, even though Roman isn't very good at it.

Roman lives with his twin brother Remus, who can often be found doing weird things like eating shaving cream or drinking spaghetti through a straw.

Janus was a bully when he was at school. His best friend, Virgil, ended up ditching him because of it, and the two of them haven't spoken since they were teenagers. (If Janus was extra put out because he'd lowkey been in love with Virgil since they were kids, well... who's to say)

Janus and Remus are spies. They're partners in crime and are absolutely inseparable.

Their line of work often leads them into predicaments, and they have a lot of 'sleepovers' in the emergency room. This isn't helped by Remus' penchant for committing arson.

Virgil ends up becoming a spy too. He works for a different organisation to Janus and Remus, but on one mission they end up working together to steal somthing.

Things are still rocky between him and Janus, but they're starting to put the past behind them and work things out.

Until Janus betrays Virgil and steals his credit card, breaks in and steals the target himself.

This whole debacle leads to Virgil getting stabbed by an enemy agent.

Patton and Logan happen to be passing by, and they find him. Logan has some medical expertise and asks what his blood type is. When Virgil says "B positive" Patton, who isn't used to this situation at all, replies "I'm trying!"

Virgil does end up making a full recovery.

When Janus finds out Virgil was injured, he regrets betraying him.

If I was writing this out as a full fic, this is where I'd end part one, but I think after this point I would have Janus and Remus become double agents working for Virgil’s organisation, as Janus slowly tries to regain Virgil’s trust and eventually they kiss or whatever.

[karliahs]

Aizawa, Present Mic, and All Might for the character ask!!

thank you anon!! here we go:

aizawa:

favorite thing about them

god i was hoping someone would ask aizawa for this but also. picking one fave thing is so so hard

this is kind of cheating but my fave thing might be...contrasts. like how in so much of his screentime he's lazing around, so languid and barely present, and then when needed he explodes into motion with this insane fighting style that's clearly the product of years and years of hard work. and how he has his whole strict teacher thing where he is harsh and scares kids on purpose, but is also capable of this incredible gentleness - the overhaul arc alone has so many examples, him with ochako & mirio & izuku...argh. his flat neutral monotone that then makes it so impactful when it breaks, like when he finds out about shirakumo/kurogiri and there's this incredible rage. i love that he's easy to interpret as kind of a hypocrite! it's extremely fun to play with in fic. i love that iconic all might line in the ep where aizawa's introduced - in your own strange way you're a very kind man, aizawa - and like that's...that's the thing. the kind and the strange. you've gotta have both for it to feel like aizawa

god this is already so long. please know that i could continue for like 19 more things and am actively restraining myself from doing so. thank you.

least favorite thing about them

hmmm i was gonna say the fact that he is a relatively minor character in this anime, but i wonder if he'd have quite the same impact for me if there wasn't that space to kind of read around the canon moments?

so i guess maybe the ways he falls victim to other flaws in the logic of the show, its biases and faults...mineta is a big one. i actually kind of hate the scenes where aizawa kind of offhand scolds/warns mineta for stuff bc it's so...inadequate. and kind of more damning than if he was never shown responding to it at all. but as with everything else concerning mineta i find it's best to just ignore it entirely

favorite line

"There's a difference between sacrifice for others and throwing your life away." and the parts that follow (approximate bc this was me scribbling down quotes while i watched): "When these naive kids get the two mixed up, I can expel them, give them a little death so they'll learn. That way they know what's at stake and they'll strive to reach even higher."

i just adore this encapsulation of the strange kindness embedded in his weird teaching philosophy. and maybe my favourite thing in this show is how it grapples over and over again with the intersection of self-sacrifice and self-destruction (even if for me it's maybe better at asking these questions than answering them).

it's also just very satisfying to have been writing aizawa having this exact perspective for years and then seeing it laid out so simply. there is a difference. and he's dedicating his life to trying to teach it to these kids.

brOTP

okay it's weird to use the word bro about a mentor-student relationship, but if we're taking this one to mean any platonic dynamic then...gestures to the number of midoriya & aizawa fics i've written. i just think they're neat...and i love aizawa's perspective on self-sacrifice playing off the way my boy mido is just...Like That

but also eri!! and shinsou. and i've been enjoying the hints of midnight-aizawa friendship in vigilantes especially

OTP

erasermic...honestly i find their dynamic equally interesting whether it's platonic or romantic but still. way back in 2018 when i first wrote bnha fic, i was very erasermic-focused. i enjoy the flavour that's v common in fic where they just in the background are secretly married, it's very cute. but in my heart of hearts i have a particular attachment to the erasermic variety where they have not at all figured their shit out by the time canon starts, bc i think it's so juicy and excellent if there's been some level of longing there for fifteen years, but they're still for one reason or another holding each other at arms length

nOTP

i don't really care for eraserjoke. i'm only just about capable of enjoying the joke of their interactions anyway, but if you put genuine romantic intent there then...bleh

random headcanon

torn between doing a sad one or a funny one. uhhh (spins mental wheel) i think he had a terrible energy drink phase in his early 20s in which he was like it's fine it's fine i can utilise caffeine to stay awake longer when required. it's logical. it's fine. and then it very much wasn't fine and since then he cannot even look at one without feeling a little bit sick

also sneaky second one: like many characters in this show, i do think he has some level of chronic pain. bc holy shit those usj injuries.

unpopular opinion

uhhhhhh. i don't know how many of my aizawa opinions are truly unpopular. i guess...i often see in fics him referring to his kids as stuff like hellions/hell class to their face. which i get bc i think it probs started out in more lighthearted crack fics etc and then spread through fanon. but I was surprised in rewatch by how formal and at times polite he is to the kids, like he's blunt but I think his variation of strictness precludes that kind of thing. behind their backs...possibly

song i associate with them

oh man I actually…don't have any aizawa songs. which is wild given how much real estate he occupies in my brain. if other people have aizawa songs, please tell me them

favorite picture of them

best hairstyle best look...i could and do stare at the gif version all day

i can't believe how long this has gotten....others below the cut

mic:

favorite thing about them

performance!!! how the idea of performing yourself is so baked into the whole character! the levels where like...it seems like an intentional joyful performance, but can also have sad flavours of hiding behind a mask to stay safe. and it's also very fun to bounce him off aizawa, who I think also performs himself if in a different way

i accidentally scrolled really far back in my notes app the other day and found a bunch of notes-form fic from 2018ish, one of which included a note at the end reading "loving present mic is lgbt culture bc complicated relationship with self-performance and artifice and also have you seen the way he dresses" and honestly. i stand by it

least favorite thing about them

once again i was briefly tempted to say the fact that he is such a minor character, but also i do enjoy that space to expand on stuff myself

okay this feels mean but...when i switched from subs to dubs i liked all the new voices pretty much immediately...except mic's. it's a reasonable choice to dial into the goofiness like that but...it took some getting used to for me for sure

favorite line

"Some people have arbor ardor but I'm more of a city kitty, ya dig?"

this. is the perfect line of dialogue actually. no notes. i think about it and the textpost referring to it as "the most delightfully gay thing" said tumblr user had ever heard...all the time.

the wordplay. having fun with language. the phrase city kitty in itself. we don't deserve present mic.

brOTP

shirakumo...it's interesting to me that the vibe i got from vigilantes is the strongest friendships in the trio aren't between mic & aizawa? like they are friends for sure but I got the vibe both of them were closer with shirakumo than they were with each other. that shirakumo mic friendship ahhh...

and I'm forever thinking about that panel of aizawa climbing the rope, mic left on the ground. aizawa coping in a very specific way that kind of…leaves mic behind. mic's grief. the feeling that he's lost both his closest friends all at once. ahhh.

OTP

hey look it's erasermic again

nOTP

i don't really have one! i don't often see him shipped with people other than aizawa honestly

random headcanon

i sprinkled a bunch of mic headcanons into the last chapter of swim or drown that i still like a lot...one is a little mention of him cooking. i like the idea of him being one of those people who doesn't like to make a recipe the same way twice, measuring with his heart and playing around a lot with big flavours...everything he makes either slaps or is inedible

unpopular opinion

hmmmm i think a lot of the time he gets kind of morphed into this profoundly well-adjusted dude to play off aizawa, and i don't necessarily object to that! i've arguably done it myself. and it's part of the comedy of taking these two weirdos and deciding they have a profoundly functional domestic relationship off-screen.

but i find it interesting to consider the inverse too - with his rage, especially. one of his earliest scenes is him suggesting using his quirk on a bunch of random journalists (maybe as a joke but...hm). and there's a line about what he's gonna do to the people responsible for making nomu that made me go "MIC. BUD" out loud to my screen. i think it's entirely possible he has dealt emotionally with...nothing, ever.

song i associate with them

i hadn't consciously connected this before, but thinking about it i think dirty imbecile by the happy fits could be a mic song

favorite picture of them

if i can cheat and use a gif then it's this:

i just love his wind-ups to gestures so much. he's so extra and it rules

all might:

favorite thing about them

how hard he tries. all that work for all those years because he cares about people and wants them to be safe. i love that little shot of young toshinori running towards the future like...even with all that insane power, it's about the work of it. the long, hard graft of trying to make the world safer

least favorite thing about them

i.......sometimes find the america gimmick distractingly silly

favorite line

gah i think it's the line after kamino to midoriya when he says "I will dedicate myself to raising you." like......them......and i also really love the whole speech where he talks about deciding he's going to live. idk it really moves me to see him discovering new purpose after he'd accepted that he was going to basically destroy himself for the world. picking yourself back up after that...finding new things to keep you going...

brOTP

midoriya!!! the mutual admiration, the devotion, all might bringing izuku into this world he's longed for for so long, izuku making all might remember the hope and idealism that almost burned out of him after all those lonely years. i'm nuts about it

OTP

i kind of like aroace all might honestly!! erasermight is cute though...

nOTP

don't really have one

random headcanon

hmmm i imagine him being kind of relieved when the dorm system was implemented and all the teachers start living on campus too. i imagine his living spaces at least for the last few years or so have always been...large, objectively comfortable, but very empty and lonely

unpopular opinion

aha this one might be very unpopular, but of all the stuff all might gets criticised for from the early eps, i actually get him telling mido he can't be a hero the most...it's definitely still bad! but i can really see it from his POV...like he's basically been fighting a war for decades. and for like 5 years he's been doing it basically alone, the people in his life unwilling to watch him do this to himself anymore. and it feels so necessary and vital and also he can feel his ability to do it draining more and more everyday, this awareness that any day now he might fall and leave a space for all that darkness to sweep back in...i feel like if any teenager, any child, looked at you and asked if they could head out onto that battlefield too, without even the weapon you've relied so heavily on...no is a really understandable answer! not a good answer, but very explicable in character terms at least

song i associate with them

the whole beat the champ album by the mountain goats is about wrestling, which i really like as a bnha heroes analogue because it's about fighting but also artifice, deliberate creation of identity, so a lot of beat the champ songs ping me when i think about bnha heroes and all might especially...there's a part in the legend of chavo guerrero that always makes me think about all might and midoriya: "and I need justice in my life, here it comes"

favorite picture of them

okay i love the whole scene in the forest where they're bathed in this golden light but also. maybe instead it's this:

iconic

[vimesbootstheory]

📚✨❤️

📚 Is there a fanfic or fanfic writer you recommend?

Hm well this is tricky 'cause I don't know what fandom you followed me for, 'cause anon. I've been on my CK bullshit for a while so that would be the most likely one? That's hard too, though, because honestly I don't tend to read a lot in the fandom I'm writing for. it's stupid, but I get competitive. So outside a couple of dark h/c fics that I wouldn't recommend to anyone I didn't know was already into that, I haven't read much CK fic in a while.

I will say, I really like GoldStarGrl's writing style, and have had two of their fics up in tabs for the last couple weeks, trying to be all 'two cakes' about it.

✨️ Out of the comments you’ve received on your fics, what are two or three of your favorites?

Ohh picking favourites from comments feels weird lol. I think the one that's stuck in my mind the most was on one of my Pretender fics, where someone said they missed their metro (train? bus? sth like that) stop because they were too engrossed in reading the fic. That was great.

It said two or three. I'll pick one from the latest chapter of the recidivists (or a part of one, since quoting the whole thing feels like I'm on an ego trip) from the lovely landslided:

"ugh, what a wonderful chapter! i love LOVE how much want daniel has, how much desire he’s battling because he shouldn’t want these things (johnny) but he does so very badly and he’s tired of not letting himself have them. and wow!! the whole scene where johnny is just, training daniel to look at him, to recognize that it’s JOHNNY who is giving him this and not whatever fantasy daniel can conjure up in his mind… these two are so crazy crazy, i love them so much."

Also lots of love to blak68, I'm enjoying slooowly picking up Italian from their wonderful comments <3

❤️ What is your favorite line that you’ve written in a fic?

I'm so bad with these superlative questions 'cause I'm like, my absolute FAVOURITE?? well now I must scour all my fics.

no, I'm not gonna do that. I know, here's a quote that I was unreasonably proud of and that made me giggle and then nobody mentioned, from the traditional card game between louie and the daves + daniel:

“Daniel doesn’t want to play for money, we’re not playing for money,” said Louie, putting his foot down. “If I’m honest, I’d rather play for giggles, anyway. Less fraught.”

“The fuck’s a fraught?”

“When two guys rub dicks. We’re playing spades, who’s in?”

there're lots of lines I love more but man the frot/fraught joke. where's the love for the stupid frot/fraught joke

Thanks for sending this! <3

[mareenavee]

For the ask game :D

54. What’s your favorite part about the fanfiction writing process?

35. What is one essential thing to remember when writing a villain?

16. How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Share one of them? ( 👀👀 at this one. No idea how you whip up so many ideas but more power to you LOL may they keep coming)

Hello <3 I haven't actually answered an ASK in forever, but I love these!! AH. Thank you.

54. What’s your favorite part about the fanfiction writing process?

My absolute favorite part is the ability to slightly twist canon and provide readers (and myself) with new takes on ✨weird magic shit.✨ Hehe. I really love when I can read TES like a text (which it kind of is), find a strange detail and absolutely go wild with it. I like writing on the rails for World, too, for the most part, but I'm really enjoying the bits I get to make up, like new pieces of dungeons, or worldbuilding that isn't touched on in the source material. It's a ton of fun.

35. What is one essential thing to remember when writing a villain?

@paraparadigm teaches us this best with Undnar, but the best kinds of villains believe wholeheartedly that what they are doing is the best way to proceed to get to their goals. That they are, without a doubt, wholly correct in their approach because to them, there is no other way. There is such a super fine line between a hero and a villain -- it should be that if you flip perspectives and hop into the villain's head, the HERO of the original story or POV looks like the villain from there. Evil for the sake of evil is hard to get right -- Evil because of really high stakes for that character is also difficult but I find it to be more satisfying to read and to write. :>

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

HEHE <3 I just stunlocked myself and @archangelsunited with the answer. I have 41 WIPS at the moment. BUT to be fair, I am participating in a prompt challenge or two, and more than half come from prompts and are mostly being collected as a crow might collect shiny things.

It's tough to narrow down a favorite 1 new WIP I'd like to talk about...but I can speak on one that's not related to the main fic's universe, and that's The Bitter, Bitter End.

It came up from some brainstorming sessions on Skywind and ultimately we didn't go in this particular direction because of...oof so many reasons...but I still LOVED the concept and, since I do write fanfic, I can twist it even further.

The quote might sound familiar to other Morrowind Fans. It will be a doomed Morrowind where the incarnate dies, but that's background as to why the world is as bleak as it is in that one. The main focus will be a political snakepit and the narrative will center around two slimy POVS: Nevena Ules and Orvas Dren. Or rather. Nevena/Orvas. It will end with what happens with the fact that Dren has linked up with the 6th house and nobody is around to stop the spiral of destruction. This links up super well with the villain question above. How does one build a story around two villainous POVs? I think it'll be a really fun challenge.

[slutnali]

3 Concepts and a Dare

tagged by mi amor @sweetlikesunflowersandhoney 💜💜

1. Do the dare of the person who tagged you in the game.

2. Write up three concepts* for a fic that you'd be interested in either writing or reading, but resist the temptation to write it before you've completed the tag game.

3. Come up with an easy dare that the ones tagged can do. Be nice!

4. Tag those writer friends of yours to do the game.

*You can do this in any way that you want, really. Like describing the world/setting the story would take place in, write a summary of this hypothetical fic, write a small blurb that gets the idea across, do it through headcanons... don't feel forced to do it in any one way.

1. I was dared to quote a line/paragraph/fragment from my own writing that I love, bonus points if I can say why I love it.

“So.. what’re your thoughts on the weather?”

He purposely uses the icebreaker and hopes against all odds she’d understand his humor and ridiculous attempt to fill the air between them and the hot tub jets.

Anetra knows it works in his favor as soon as he spots the smile forming on her lips paired with the shake of her head. 

“You’re dumb.”

I was rereading tripping, falling, with no safety net and smiling at it.. I loved how I captured the awkwardness and overthinking going on in Anetra's head! Not wanting to sit too far away but also would sitting too close to Sasha be weird? when they met not so long ago? Portraying the crush and admiration they have for one another, Sasha providing comfort when he's doubting his place in the competition. It was sweet and I've been thinking about cc sashnetra a lot recently since I've been rewatching season 15. I know what happens, I have their whole love story mapped out tbh. I just suck at sitting down and writing

2. Three concepts:

a. this is a wip i'm actually planning to write:

a/b/o sashmiranetra. married alphas anetra and sasha meeting sugar bb omega miri at an event where she was hanging off the arm of one of her clients. she's a pretty little thing, i dont blame them for being interested.

oh and masc dykenetra my utmost beloved

b. another wip i'm planning to write:

genv au and if u dont know what that is it's basically like sky high but set in college and some super fucked up shit going on. but anyway, bigender neech, blood bender sasha and mind manipulation miri. dont know who else im casting in the other roles.. maybe xu, morph, luxx... i dont know. still in a big planning phase. but rivals to protectors/teammates to lovers!!!!!!!!111

c. a concept thats up for grabs:

costume designer/seamstress neech x performer sasha and/or miri.. idk! just knowing that anetra makes a lot of her looks irl, so picturing neech as someone whose lost inspiration/motivation to create and design but then finding a muse in sasha and/or miri

3. the dare:

share a hc, fun fact or hidden gem from something you've written that you hoped readers would notice

4. tagging:

@goodemethyd , @hannahlovesdance07 , @adoordelano , @fuckyeah-dragrace

[twilightknight17]

P5T Story Finale - Part 1

I'm just starting off with the assumption that this will have to be 2 parts, to fit all the pictures I took. XD

So, where we left off, I was doing pretty good.

We'd beaten Metal Marie, and Lavenza had some challenges for us to unlock our final skills. I was kind of hyped, because honestly, it seemed like a good opportunity to get everyone's ultimate personas back. And then Erina could just have whatever.

It was not second awakenings, despite the way they talked about it sounding very second-awakening-ish. Instead, we get a maximum power skill for each Thief's specific element. And, sorry everyone, but Joker's is the coolest.

I also think that it's worth mentioning that when you die, Lavenza quotes Paradise Lost at you.

She also quotes it at the very start of the game, so she's very well-read. Probably Margaret and Theodore's influence; I can't see Elizabeth sitting through a book like that. XDDD

Anyway, Lavenza's challenges were some very elaborate puzzle levels and endurance missions with gimmicks, but nothing that was completely unreasonable. The one where you had to kill everything in one turn by using one-mores and platforms to get Joker to the top of the level to trigger the widest-possible AOA range was awesome. I felt smart when I finished them, which was the important part.

And my reward, other than skills, was......

You have to be level 96 to fuse Satanael, tho, so like... holy fuck, Atlus. Booooooo. And he's got like seven components, which I'm pretty sure he did in P5, but you couldn't fuse him til NG+, so you at least would have had most of them by then. This is just taunting me. Plus, it's not nearly as easy to get money in this. You have to replay missions, and later missions give more money but also take longer, so it seems like it'll be a little tedious to complete the compendium.

ANYWAY.

Metal Yoshiki and Metal Shadow Toshiro went down next, and I'm pretty sure it confirmed that it wasn't actually Toshiro's shadow, just a piece of Salmael masquerading as it. I wasn't... super impressed with these fights? They were basically the same as the first go round, just with more health, more damage, and slightly different arenas. Metal Shadow Toshiro skipped his first round and went right to Giant Scary Eri, so... Yeah. They were fine, I guess.

I did notice something a little funny, though. The final Kingdom is "The Path to God" in the replay menu, and there are six missions (not counting the bosses), each with a letter appended to them.

All six in order spells "A S Y L U M".

If Salmael rules this Kingdom, is he the crazy one, then? :P

So, we are off to the final boss. My goblin kids are ready to beat the shit out of their third god in like... four months? Wow.

Slap him so hard he drops his head, Futaba!

I finally realized what this thing's appearance reminds me of. Some weird fusion of Yald, and the Queen from Deltarune.

He has the SMUGGEST VOICE of any god so far and it just makes me want to hit him harder. Maybe I should have done some grinding for Satanael after all.

He just wants to ~save humanity~, and I'd just like to mention how much I love my wife.

Salmael is totally cool with our disagreement, obviously.

Us? All by ourselves? You think so highly of us~

Salmael says that his actions are the consensus of humanity, so we should just give in. The game gives you an option here between "Our wills are firm" and "Send us back to the real world." Which, if you remember, he offered to send us all home without our powers or memories, so... put a pin in that. We'll be back. In THIS timeline, we tell God to fuck off, as is our wont.

I feel justified in writing Ryuji calling Yaldabaoth "Yald" in an actual fic, now. XD

Seriously, Atlus, one line of dialogue. "We've already beat up a 'god' who thought he knew what was best for us." Call Maruki on his BS.

Anyway, as always, these gods who want peace and happiness and order are willing to murder us. Ooohhhh nooo, I don't waaaaant to use force, you just leave me no chooooooiiiiiice~ Blarg. XD

The battlefield is wild, though. I'm always down for a good giant clock.

The five platforms rotate either forward or back based on a skill that warns you in advance. Platforms that go past the end positions sink into the green, and more arise on the other side to replace them.

So, we wallop the shit out of god while avoiding being tossed into a green abyss. I only lost Toshiro during this stage of the fight, so I still had my three primary fighters and three baton passes.

Salmael, upon being knocked down in round 1, throws a temper tantrum, and... well, I guess calling it "going one-winged-angel" isn't appropriate here. He's still got all his wings, just gets more raggedy and dirty.

But the important part is that he loses the mask and his face is FUCKED UP

He gets two new attacks for this round. The first one is a very Dark Hour-esque clock which leaves numbers on some of the platforms. That's how many people need to be standing on that particular platform to avoid triggering an attack that paralyzes you on your next turn.

Overall, challenging! Especially because the numbers don't rotate with the platforms, so if he does both skills at the same time, you've gotta make sure you're not gonna rotate away from the number you need. (Learned that the hard way.)

The second one is some kind of giant antenna that spawns in the middle of the arena, and you have like... three turns to AOA it before he does some horrible targeted missile barrage. I had the worst time with that. That's how I lost all three of my remaining squad in one turn, because I couldn't get the downed enemy to line up right to allow the AOA.

So we're down Ann, Morgana, and Akira. Welcome to the fight, Haru, Yusuke, and Ryuji!

Salmael's second form has about twice as much health as his first form, which can be mitigated by AOA-ing the antenna, because Futaba can then turn the missiles on him. I only managed that once. X'D But the game REALLY smacked me when it did the clock attack and the arena rotation on the same turn, and the clock was four platforms, each with a 1 on it. I didn't have Toshiro anymore. I couldn't put one person on each platform. So everyone got paralyzed, and the rotation was poised to dump both Haru and Yusuke into the abyss with no way to move them.

It was going to be up to Ryuji to win this fight alone.

...or, it would have been, but as I watched Yusuke sink into the green depths, I realized that... the platform just popped back up on the other side. Yusuke was fine. Didn't even do any damage. X'D I spent the whole fight thinking that if I got sucked down with a platform, that person would just die. But no.

In the end, Haru dealt the final blow, and Salmael took that really well. He just straight up starts taking a swing at us and throwing gears. So I guess we DID slap him so hard he dropped his head!

My baby boy gets to say more than one line of dialogue in this game!

This is the smile of a savior, everyone.

Honestly this last AOA cutscene is wild. I like it better than Scramble's, I think? I need to watch it again, but it's really well done. Halfway through, Erina gets squashed by a whole ton of gears and ends up... I'm assuming drifting in the Sea of Souls, and Toshiro calls her back so she can take her Ernesto form and blast the hell out of Salmael. And then she turns back into Erina and she and Akira slam a flag through Salmael's face. :3

Yeah, yeah. Same as every other monster.

Salmael takes defeat well, of course. By exploding.

And Toshiro catches a brief glimpse of the overwhelming existential dread that knowing about meta-space can cause: namely that humanity is constantly accidentally almost destroying itself.

I like to think that he gets a phone call from the Shadow Ops at some point. XDDDD

Anyway, with Salmael dead, his primary Kingdom is collapsing, so it's time to get the hell out of here. And with this, I have hit the image limit, so... Off we go. Part 2 is next!

[akinomorie]

Black Sea

Author: Technicolour (Lirriel)

Summary:

A series of vignettes focusing on Atsushi - picked up by Mori and trained from a young age to be used as a tool. He's used to shackles, but he begins to seek freedom after meeting Dazai, an orphan eager to die. Alternatively: What if Atsushi and Dazai had been raised in the other's circumstances?

Relationship: Dazai Osamu/Nakajima Atsushi (Dazatsu)

Review:

• I'm absolutely in love with this fic. I've been rereading this tons of times already, analysing every sentence and theorising on the untold stories behind the words carefully left vague. This oneshot has so much potential I feel so inspired 😳✨

• I love the relationships between Atsushi and the PM members here. Mori is the horrible abusive adoptive father yet the one who saved Atsushi from his hell of the orphanage. Chuuya is still the same confident handsome bastard that I love in the canonverse, but with Atsushi as his partner he is gentler, calmer. And the Akutagawa siblings, who Atsushi cares for and grow to adore Atsushi in their own ways, really does weird things to my heart.

• The theme of this fic is freedom, which at first Atsushi didn't have because he was caged by the previous boss with a collar and later chained with thousands of ties to the Mafia by Mori, Chuuya, the Akutagawa siblings. His first meeting with one Dazai Osamu and many others later slowly change that. Personally I find the idea of relationship ties to be tragically romantic hhhhh.

• Atsushi's kindness. It is his kindness that leads to the, may I say, naive stubborn desire against killing, which Mori indulges, Chuuya sympathizes, and the Akutagawa siblings admire. Maybe I interpreted the lines wrong, or maybe I was right, but the PM members really try hard to protect this little hope of innocence that Atsushi holds, using their own twisted methods, despite how utterly foolish that hope is. Reminds me of the reasons why I fell in love with canon!Atsushi in the first place.

• Dazatsu's first meeting. I love the way Atsushi demands Dazai's will to live in exchange for the money, food and accommodation that he promises to provide. Really in character with Atsushi's love for life, both in this fic and the canon verse.

• Chuuya's gifts to Atsushi (and they are all expensive). Atsushi takes care of Chuuya when they go drinking. The two young boy comfort each other in the event of the trauma of their job.

• Akutagawa Ryuunosuke, calling Atsushi, "Atsushi-san" 😳😳😳 I also get this hunch quite often, that Akutagawa in this au is eager to kill because he wants to honor Atsushi's wish not to kill.

• Dazai's panic at seeing Atsushi's tears. Holy moly I felt like something in me was awakened when reading that part. Definitely one of my dazatsu favorite tropes.

• Atsushi! Smoking! (audible gasp)

• Dazai lit Atsushi's cigarettes 🤤 I want a cigarette kiss 🚬💋😉😘

• This fic was written back in 2017. The author admitted that they only read the manga and didn't know LN was a thing when they wrote it, which is why some details may seem out of place if you think about it. Personally I find this drawback to be quite appealing instead. I like to imagine how the other pieces of the BSD canonverse can fit into this au: Did Atsushi know about Yosano (because, Mori)? What would Fyodor do knowing Atsushi was the fearsome Beast of Calamity of the PM? How did Atsushi and Chuuya's first meeting go? How could Atsushi help dealing with Chuuya's Corruption power and Arahabaki? Where were Oda and Ango? How about Kyouka? So many questions, so many ideas...

Quotes:

*

“I’m never killing again.”

He doesn’t know where the sudden conviction comes from; he just knows that it bubbles and burns in his throat. The tiger paces inside his ribcage, making itself known in the ache that pushes up from the inside of his skin, pressing outward.

“What the hell, man.” Chuuya—doesn’t sound as angry as Atsushi would have expected, considering what he just said is tantamount to treason in their circle. Pacifists are dead weight, only good for menial tasks.

*

“I didn’t realize how famous Atsushi-san was,” Dazai says softly. He quirks his eyebrow at Atsushi, playful. “Imagine my surprise when I was being detailed on dangerous Port Mafia members and your name popped up.” He leans close to Atsushi, his breath hot against his skin and adds, “The reported number of deaths was strange, too.”

Atsushi shivers and says, “It’s complicated.”

Dazai shifts, turns his head fully to examine the camera that watches them. After a long pause, he turns back to Atsushi and asks, “Why are you with the Port Mafia, Atsushi-san? Someone like you...” and he pauses, looking down to where their hands are connected. “It just doesn’t make sense,” he says at last.

*

There are shouts, filled with rage and arrogance, as members of whatever organization has been marked for extinction surround him. They catcall and cajole him, laughing at the small, pretty sheep who has strayed from the flock and wandered into a concrete forest filled with wolves.

And always, always, Atsushi smiles mildly at them. Before each raid, he prays quietly for someone to have sense, for someone to escape into the night and not be foolish enough to stand and fight and die.

It is, Atsushi knows, a foolish wish borne from a foolish hope that this shall be the last death he must witness.

*

Dazai’s hand stills, and Atsushi feels his eyes. He continues to eat, quietly, layering the flavors that enter his mouth, trying to build a sensory symphony. “I have nothing to pay you with,” Dazai says, and Atsushi wonders if the lack of betrayal in his voice, the tired resignation, offers a clue.

“No, you do,” Atsushi says. “Something you hold little value in; something I consider to be of great value.”

*

Akutagawa does not quite smile at him – Atsushi does not think he even really knows what a smile is. But he quirks his lips, as if he is sharing something humorous with Atsushi, and Atsushi smiles back weakly.

“Atsushi-san could kill Mori-san and the other executives, and I would still want to follow Atsushi-san.” Akutagawa pauses, swallowing. And then he says, “Because Atsushi-san saved us… Our lives belong to you, Atsushi-san.”

Something weighty settles in the pit of Atsushi’s stomach, and he breathes out a hummingbird’s sigh. Akutagawa, he thinks, is so incredibly earnest. The obvious adoration in his voice makes Atsushi’s heart hurt.

*

We are only children, Atsushi thinks, as Chuuya lurches toward him with another sob, wrapping his arms around Atsushi’s neck. It is easier for him, like this – when Atsushi is in his tiger form, large enough that his bulk takes up almost the entire available space, with Chuuya curled into his belly.

He doubts Chuuya would treat his human form like this.

The tiger blinks, sharing its body with Atsushi, and chuffs softly at Chuuya, nudging at his head. It only succeeds in knocking his hat off. Tigers cannot purr, their vocal cords are not designed for it, but Atsushi tries to convey comfort in other ways. It is the only thing he can do.

It is his fault Chuuya is this way.

*

“Dazai-kun is incredibly kind,” Atsushi says.

There is a shadow of melancholy to Dazai’s face as he smiles and says softly, “No, but Atsushi-san is kind to think so.” He lets Atsushi eat a few more bites before asking tentatively, “Would you like me to leave?”

“No,” Atsushi answers immediately, and is surprised to find that it’s true. “I’d appreciate your company, if you have nothing else to do.”

“Never,” Dazai says. He smiles, and there is a gentleness to his expression that fills Atsushi with warmth.

*

“It was my home.” The “was” is weighty; there’s a finality to the words, and suddenly Atsushi sees what the tiger has seen all along, has known ever since that day by the river. There is a peace that comes from this knowledge, and he smiles at Dazai, trusting him to see what Atsushi saw. “But home is someplace different now.”

“I understand,” Dazai says. And he smiles back, a soft curve that dimples one cheek and makes his eyes shine like stars in the dark of night.

[hoodiehydra]

This is actually my fourth fic with @pro-ups-spamton's AU.

We had the very first post, then the second one, then came the sequel, then this.

Anyways, using this from the AU

Warnings: S W E A R I N G.

Enjoy :)

— — — —

“Uh- daddy? Where are you?” Fave called out into the yellow, creepy hallways. Did she get lost again? Not exactly. See, this time, it wasn’t her fault, The studios’ embodiment of Satan himself decided to just disappear out of thin fucking air.

For once, Ink here changed. From what was a 7 feet monster, came down to… 3 feet? Hard to tell.

Finally, his eyes could be seen. Toon eyes, a small bow and gloves, nothing like his other form, the terrifying one. He looked more… approachable.

He peered out from behind a corner, where he was in Fave’s line of sight. Small and tubby, he clumsily approached Fave. Fave, noticing the small movement from slightly in front of her, widened her eyes out of curiosity. She was wary of the creature, of course, from her dad’s words to “trust no one”.

Would she go against it? Maybe. It’s a close “maybe” to a definite “yes”. But she understood why he was so wary.

Right, I’m straying.

Well, the small toon peered at Fave from a distance, neither of them moving. He was harmless, in this form, at least.

Shakily, Fave asked, “You’re not… gonna hurt me, are you?”

The toon shook his head, showing he meant no harm.

Still afraid, Fave took hesitant steps towards him. Slowly, she inched towards the rather small toon, who stood there, bravely, since, well, what was there to be afraid of? She’s a fucking child, why- why would he even fear-

Point was, he never budged.

Fave finally approached him, with a certain level of caution. When she finally came to the conclusion that he had no intentions of harming her, she let down her guard and let the little guy come closer to her.

She was rather small, but Bendy was a little shorter than her, his head tilted up when looking at her, it was different now. Bendy surely wasn’t used to this angle, usually he would be the one much, much taller than her, but now where was he? Head up, it made his neck feel weird. He wasn’t used to looking upwards at anyone, honestly.

He was deep in thought, when a sudden small pair of arms wrapped around his small figure.

Yeah, this was definitely very weird. Her arms would not even be able to fully wrap around his leg, and here she was, hugging his entire body.

A little freaked out, he hesitantly returned the display of affection, awkwardly patting her back.

Sensing the small bit of awkwardness between them, Fave pulled away, but he latched onto her.

He was never a clinger, but maybe just this once, he could let it slide.

Smiling, Fave once again started to hug him, so he wouldn’t feel (too) awkward again. God damn, she was sweet.

The cartoon in her arms wanted to lick her, it was his Ink Demon instincts, I guess. Honestly, no one knows what goes on inside the poor dude’s mind. Lick her? No, that’s weird, that’s only for his demonic side. What- bite her? Ouch. Uh- kiss her? No idea.

To be fair, he… doesn’t have lips. Neither are his teeth very, well, you know. Easing? Calming? You get my point.

He gently pressed his lips against her soft cheek, giving it a quick kiss. Fave found it adorable, and squeezed him a little tighter. After getting the hang of it, he kissed her again, repeatedly. It was like licking her repeatedly.

As new as this was to the little girl, she lacked affection. I mean, she did receive some, but there was only so much she could get inside a cold, depressing studio and a demon for a dad.

Thus, she accepted it all, giggling softly with each feathery kiss.

This was no longer the Ink Demon, it was Bendy. In this state, at least.

Alas, all good things must come to an end… or whatever that quote is.

“YOU LITTLE BRAT! GET OVER HERE!” A shrill voice shrieked from behind Fave.

Oh, not that bitch again.

Guess who it was. Guess, I dare you.

Right, it’s Alice, the whore (if you read my last fic on this AU).

Bendy pushed himself out of Fave’s arms, begrudgingly. Growling lowly, he started to return back into his other form, and no, I will not give you the details. Fave just sat there… questioning whatever the fuck just happened. The adorable toon was her father? No freaking way.

Upon seeing the demon, Alice knew she fucked up and fled. Pussy.

“You’re the little guy?” Fave was really surprised, as you can see.

The demon nodded.

“Why did you kiss me?” She asked.

“Well, those small teeth can’t eat you so that was… a taste test.” His response was weird.

“I don’t believe you.” Fave grinned, completely seeing through him.

Oh well. The demon better have better lies next time then.

————

Damn. This was long asf.

THIS ACTUALLY WENT FOR 3 PAGES ON DOCS WTF-

[moinsbienquekaworu]

i am about to sleep but i wanted to ask what your favorite poem is? will you tell me about it? what you love and why it’s your favorite? do you like any of its translations? i love you. i hope you have a good day 🥰

(⁠〒⁠﹏⁠〒⁠) beloved thank you for the question!!! As per usual I am incapable of choosing just one of a thing, so I actually have two favourite poems, one in french and one in english (because poetry in french and in english can be pretty different since the codes and models and expectations aren't always the same!) They're the two poems I can recite and know by heart haha.

The english one is Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, by Robert Frost. I really like the last stanza (like everyone else) but also just the way when you say it out loud it does feel like a quiet moment watching the snow fall all on your own. I found it recently accompanying a fic (two different fics actually but the second time I knew it) and it entranced me!

The french one is Chanson d'Automne by Paul Verlaine. It's a classic in France, some of its lines were used as a signal for saboteurs during WWII and there's an urban legend it was used to signal the landing in Normandy. I personally had to learn it by heart in primary school (I think in 4th grade?) and it just stuck with me. I like it for the way it feels to me and the images it evokes, but also just because it was the first poem I learnt by heart and being able to recite a poem is an easily overlooked comfort of life (insert those posts and quotes about art being vital and what we need to be able to turn to in dark or light times)

Other poems I like include Remords Posthume and L'Albatros by Baudelaire, Le Dormeur du Val by Rimbaud, Le Déserteur and Je Voudrais Pas Crever by Boris Vian, Funeral Blues by W. H. Auden, and Mad Girl's Love Song by Sylvia Plath. The french ones I studied in school, and I found the english ones on my own (I feel like I found both in Johnlock fics?? but I might be wrong about Funeral Blues, it's been years) I included english translations where I could for the french ones, and they're not necessarily incredible but they should let you get the vibe. If one of them speaks to you I can try to explain what makes it tick! My personal anecdotes with those because that's half the fun: we had to analyse Remords Posthume for literature class with my best friend K, and what's really cool about it is the last line, "et le ver rongera ta peau comme un remords", because it plays on the homonymy between ver, the worm, and vers, the line of poetry, meaning she will be devoured physically by worms since she'll be dead but also that his verses, his poem, will make her feel remorse; I like the albatross analogy because I was a weird kid who felt comfortable with books but not with my peers; Le Dormeur du Val is extremely extremely sad and beautiful and I think Rimbaud was a very interesting guy; technically Le Déserteur is a song and not a poem but I first saw the text without knowing that so for me it's a poem forever now, and I love talking about the original versus final ending thing; the YouTube channel Le Mock did an excellent reading of Je Voudrais Pas Crever and it's a jewel, I love it so so much; Funeral Blues was the first english poem I ever liked (or maybe read honestly) and I wrote it on the cover of my 10th grade english notebook (because the teacher was great and said that if we forgot to do our homework he wouldn't punish us if we could recite a poem for him, so I wrote it down and tried to learn if by heart in case I forgot my homework); and Mad Girl's Love Song features in a fic I read a few weeks ago and I just think it's neat. I probably forgot some but those are the ones I remember right now (edit: ADA LIMÓN!! I FORGOT ADA LIMÓN!!! Accident Report in the Tall, Tall Weeds (the I can't help it, I love the way men love poem) hit me in the chest the first time I read it and it's so so good)

My favourites (and most of the poems I like actually) are pretty popular because I'm not really into poetry that much on my own. I get attached to poems once I see how they work inside and analyse them, but I don't sit down and decide to analyse some poem from Les Fleurs du Mal at random because it feels like homework, and I don't go looking for poetry because I'm very hit or miss (I get bored at long winded descriptions in those 4-part 7-pages poems and a lot of things trip up my instinctual Pretentiousness Radar™, and while it's not necessarily accurate it does turn me off poems). So I just stay with the basics, but that's fine, because the comfort of carrying poems with you is there whatever the poem is y'know?

Also question, do americans learn poetry in school? I assume you must analyse some in literature class, but I don't know if you learn poems when you're young. I know we also do lots of La Fontaine's Fables, though I personally never did, but learning poems to recite in primary school is a thing almost everyone has done here I think.

[misiwrites]

4KINGDOMS RE-READ ADVENTURE part 8

Chapter 33: the tyka hide-and-seek

this one got a pretty banging opening paragraph ngl

takao's daily hobby is just running around the garden finding kai. then talking to him. and kai is like fuck off. and takao is like ok :) i'll come again tomorrow! (and he does)

ralf's been setting up traps for miguel in the castle AJSDBHGD i forgot

so eventually takao is like wait. why do i always know where kai is. YER A WIZARD TARRY

the scene of him finding kai in the labyrinth is cooler than i remembered, pleasant surprise

this was a well written chapter. i got nothing to say. pleased

Chapter 34: the elders promise rei a reality tv appearance

yes we are back to rei unfortunately

it's the second time he talks about himself as a zoo animal. on brand. i mean white tigers are very rare

rei finds a library book that talks about some ancient king having invented the qiang spear fighting and he's like HA HA! FUNNY JOKE! AS IF A BYAKKO-OU COULD BE DOING THAt

oh lol rei thinking that he'll be able to do whatever he wants when he turns 18. you think! i have bad news for you

also rei feeling like he's been abandoned in the palace, better get used to that too. it feels weird reading this now after having worked on the newest byakko-ou chapters because here rei is still all preserved about olivier and doesn't like him much. but he does like the elders enough still to start talking to them in the council

holy shit rei is such an ass, talking shit about both olivier and mathilda here left and right

always thought myself it's fucking funny that daitenji is one of the elders. like idk what kind of role you'd expect him to have but here he is. a tool

this also was actually an interesting chapter, i can't believe i've written good things sometimes. a lot of tension thrown around between the elders and olivier and rei here. i can see this is where i was starting to plan the story much more systematically than before, probably started using my physical notebook for musing

Chapter 35: romantic tyka apple tree garden date (that involves blood)

takao: it was almost funny that kai carried me out of the garden like a princess! but not quite.

AGAIN WITH THE COTTON (CANDY) CLOUDS

takao keeps having weird experiences in the garden and kai is like, it's your magic. and takao is like i don't have magic, and kai is like yes you do. and takao is like no i don't. and kai is like yes you do and this is why. and takao is like wow you said more than 5 words to me in a row

takao is adorable being like "i thought i was pretty mature for having accepted that i didn't have any magic even though i'd been SO disappointed about it earlier!" yes you are a good mature boy. when you let yourself process things first which you never do

okay here, my favourite line that i have ever written, when takao takes a good grip on ryuushinken and gives it a pull. put this in as the quote when you in the future refer to me as a famous author with beautiful prose:

It slid out like sausage in gravy.

Chapter 36: rei gets his ass handed to him by sir livliv

takao is having a mental breakdown over his magic because it's SO uncool, but also over kai leaving soon (or so he thinks)

rei's life is boring and slow again, is it ever anything but

i sure had fun coming up with what kinds of metal-related magic rei's ancestors had. one of them is just uri geller. the one who ate coins was fun

olivier is trying to make rei LOOK AT THE FOLDER! LOOK AT THE FUCKING FOLDER YOUR MAJESTY!!!! and rei is like i can't i'm gay. and runs off to have a call with max

wowow max being like I WOULDN'T MIND FAKE BEING SICK AGAIN SO I COULD LIE IN BED FOR A FEW DAYS! be careful what you wish for in my fic. idiot

he also calls rick "a little bitch"

max telling about his adventures in okkusu like yeah rick was a total ass, we didn't get along at all, hated everything about it. then we had a big fight. now we are friends. and takao's reaction is "Fastest way to a dude’s heart is to punch him in the face"

rei getting all jealous that max has people other than him in his life. it sure is a struggle to be a rei in love.

it's also a struggle to be a rei being told by olivier that he's a stupid little shit who thought he could do things behind his knight's back while olivier knew everything all along

and then this line probably exists in about 100 different variations in the story, because rei never learns

Olivier seemed to read right into my thoughts – which he always did, and would always do, and truthfully I had been a complete fool for ever forgetting the extent of his powers of observation.

so, like takao&ralf, rei&olivier have a nice little king&knight moment of promising each other they'll share everything with each other from now on. and then they actually do! unlike ralf and takao

this chap was not well written tho. it probably took me two hours to go on a quest to fix just about every part of this in some way. i wasn't a good writer after all, emergency over everyone can go home

Chapter 37: max is back

and he was supposed to be all mature and let his feelings for rei fade away but he comes back and is like I FOCKIN MISSED HIM!!!!!!!!!

Ah, well. That only meant that I would have to start over. (But I allowed myself to admire his sad, beautiful face for just a bit longer first.)

i know right. who doesn't love a beautiful sadface

giancarlo being all proud that he got to solve a thing with olivier. he also in love.

gianni is surprisingly smart in this chap and tells max he should focus on the north instead of going around trying to fix rei or whatever. fair. he's also the one suggesting that. you know your highness. why don't you just go to the west to meet the other kings. and max is like. it's not as fun as repeatedly risking my life for rei tho

[blondiest]

I'll raise you a weird level and dare say, phantom Thread Hellcheer? Insane or genius?

okay before i even get into this, i should mention that i do have a hellcheer oneshot that is named after a line from that movie, though i will say it only shares, like, one theme with Phantom Thread (hunger/appetite as an analogy for love). it's called for the hungry girl, and the idea came to me very suddenly and very clearly when my husband served me a plate of absolutely perfect scrambled eggs while i was quite high. it's under 3k words, and of all the fics i have posted, i think it's the most personal.

alright, getting into the actual question here now— i LOVE your mind, love the boldness. i think there are a LOT of themes from that movie that work well for hellcheer, but there are a few reasons i can't personally imagine a full-on Phantom Thread AU working. i'm going to try and break down what i mean here by going through the different elements that i think connect quite well with hellcheer vs the ones i struggle to imagine meshing well with the ship. putting the rest under a cut bc spoilers (though i do keep it vague).

alright, so... warning that this may be disorganized and my thoughts are highly incomplete on the matter (there are many little themes and subtleties i can't spare the time to get into at the moment), but i'm gonna give it a stab. here goes, a little stream of consciousness:

when we first see Alma, she's alone, and we never really learn anything of her family other than the fact that she apparently looks similar to her mother. though we aren't given direct insight into what the deal with Alma's background is, i think this setup works well given Chrissy's fraught relationship with her family— i can easily imagine her having separated from them entirely and going off on her own.

Reynolds and Alma connect instantly and are immediately obsessed with each other — obviously this works for the hellcheer vibe. there's also the fact that their relationship is one of an artist and a muse, which i think transfers easily to a situation in which Eddie is a musician.

Reynolds' prevailing devotion to his late mother, his fondness for the idea that the dead watch over the living, his insistence that he's cursed in some way — all of these things work well for Eddie, imho. Same with Reynolds' absolute commitment / absorption in his work, though I struggle to see Eddie being quite that pathologically intense, even about music. I could see Chrissy needing to strongarm Eddie into taking a break (albeit... not in the same method as Alma bc i don't think it would ever get that far LMAO).

the major things i don't see working for hellcheer... the central issue is that i don't see Eddie ever being as combative / disrespectful towards Chrissy as Reynolds is towards Alma, nor as dismissive / neglectful. and this is where things really start to fall apart if you were trying to follow the plot of the movie, because i don't think that the distance between Eddie and Chrissy would ever get extreme enough for her to consider the drastic measures that Alma takes to get Reynolds to "slow down" & to force him to be vulnerable and reliant on her. i think it's just hard for me to see their relationship being that dysfunctional.

(to be clear i love Reynolds and Alma. i think they're actually very compatible by virtue of being extremely, extremely odd people who are able to, through absolutely deranged (and highly dubious, on Alma's part) means, find synergy and harmony with one another. the reason that it's one of my favorite movies is that i repeatedly thought it was about to pivot into a horror or thriller (and it does often have the same level of tension as a thriller, to me at least), but it is ultimately just a very weird love story, and i ended up finding it profoundly touching.)

here's a collection of quotes i like for them though:

there are totally more that i'm forgetting but i have a huge project & some homework to do so i am cutting myself off here. thank you for the ask!! this was really fun to think about.

[morethanonepage]

1 3 5 8 15?

What's something you've written that you know is OOC and you just don't care?

lmfaoooooo i'm torn between priding myself that NOTHING I EVER WRITE EVER IS OOC and being like, everything i ever write is ooc bc deep down i want even the messiest/most awful characters to have nice fluffy moments together and i know realistically that would not happen BUT THAT'S WHAT I WANT and so i continue to write it.

i think sometimes i *have* written stuff more for the joke of the thing (the one where chas shaves his beard, the javert-adopts-cossette-instead fic) that are MORE ooc bc again, i wrote them for the humor of the situation, but i like to think they're at least within a RANGE of characterization.

(also i mean any time you write non canon esp slash ships they're like, ooc bc the canon creators would NEVER take it there but i ESPECIALLY don't care about that).

3. Something you wish a commenter had called attention to, but got ignored.

oooh i don't know really, there's usually at least one line that i'm really proud of myself for writing in terms of character voice and/or rhythm and/or just like, quiet aching melancholy of the thing and they're rarely mentioned by commenters but like, that's ok mostly. like i think most people who enjoy my fics do so more bc of like, the whole of work & the characterizations over like really beautiful lines or whatever, esp since i see my style as very simple and efficient over it being especially flowery or explicitly emotional.

i do always kind of laugh when i get 'omg so many great lines here i'm not even going to try to quote them all' bc i'm like. well but also you could tho. at least one maybe. to soothe my fragile ego etc.

5. Something you hate to see in smut.

A/B/O.

I mean. Also what I hate in smut is what i hate in writing in general -- epithet abuse and OOC behavior. I'm also kind of weirded out by like. Explicit dick measurements (i.e., where inches/centimeters are specified) unless it's for the lulz (and even then i think it kills the ~sexy mood, which might be the intent so I don't mind in that case). Also really roll my eyes when it's a scene between two men and one or both devotes time to ~I don't have to worry about being rough with HIM, not like if he was a WOMAN. like ok bro sorry it's such a CHORE to treat a woman you're fucking with a modicum of care. (I know in a lot of cases this IS arguably in character. but i do genuinely just find it annoying to read). but like. some women like it rough. some men don't. let's broaden our horizons here.

8. Something you love to see in dialogue.

Inside jokes, esp if they're not explained. (like amongst the MCU's INFINITE crimes, the explicit clarification of 'what happened in budapest' is UP THERE)

And just like. Conversations that fit the canon/characters. Like I hate it when characters in fic sound like tiktok teens/tumblr millennials but i love it when they sound like THEMSELVES and aren't just talking about stuff that moves the plot forward. sometimes people just have conversations with their friends. it's part of worldbuilding/setting the mood. And it's ABOUT the conversation-- I hate big blocks of text where it's just one character dumping exposition, I like it when there's interruptions and responses and eyerolls and huffs of laughter etc etc etc.

y'know. the sicko to sicko communication of it all.

15. We all project onto our characters. Where has your personality or life choices leaked onto the page the most?

lolllll well my thirst for nbc!chas chandler is the basis for like, 75% of my johnchas fic (the 25% which is written from chas' POV is about my self esteem issues). also a lot of john being a jerk/saying the wrong things is like, catharsis for me bc i'm generally pretty careful about not upsetting people (shut up it's true in my real life) and i think on some level john enjoys being the worst and it's fun for me to imagine/write what that would be.

also a lot of my AUs have characters be lawyers. like it's pretty heavily implied in a last minute possibility that Poe is a public defender, mostly bc the idea delighted me. In my finnpoe big bang fic that has not seen the light of day, Poe is a political operative with most of my opinions, and Finn is a lawyer from New York who leaves his job to go work in a small up state new york town, which is what i randomly fantasized about doing after going to a wedding in the Hudson Valley. (i know the Hudson Valley isn't REALLY upstate new york. but to me it is.)

Oh god also the so-called travelogue fic (which is a gen fic where Poe spends time with his dad on Yavin IV before the events of TFA but after he joined the Resistance) is mostly just about my memories of visiting Mexico. Like embarrassingly so but I'm still proud of it.

[redactedgoose]

Good morning goose! Is it ok if I ask about your writing process? Like - do you have an outline for your fics, how close do you stick to it, do you listen to anything in the background when you write?

Yeah, of course! And it's a miracle I caught your ask this early, since usually I'm abjectly terrible at both noticing and remembering to reply. Like I have trick or treat asks from not the last Halloween this year (2024), but the Halloween before that (2023). I think I noticed them some time in... May? April? Next year, aka this year. So. Uh. Yeah. Whoops-

Anyway. To actually answer your question (read more because this got long for some reason)-

My process/method/etc, whatever you want to call it, starts with an idea that comes out in one of two ways.

Sometimes it's just a little pop up like "oh shit it'd be cool to do an AU where Izuku has Mahito JJK's power as his quirk. Shigaraki would be pissed at him for stealing his hand gimmick and there would be parallels between Izuku and [redacted1] and [redacted2]."

But more frequently, ideas 'manifest' as snippets immediately. Or a snippet pops in my head and I write it and then figure out the overarching idea/plot.

Because of that, it's usually pretty easy to then make an outline. The au with Izuku having Mahito's power for his quirk is actually something in one of my docs... but the most I've gotten re: planning is a couple bullet points with quotes, how some major plot points would change, and a family tree connecting him and his mom and [redacted2] together.

For an idea that already has a paragraph or three of snippets, I just... keep spooling it out from there. For Raise Hell, for example, the snippet popped out after I read the post here on Tumblr, then I started (mentally) sketching out a plan for the fic after. (It's not the best example, since I don't think I've done extensive planning with most of my DP or DPxDC fic (like I have with several BNHA fics) except for Danse Macabe but anyway-

From there, I continue generating snippets as I think of the progression of events, making little bullet point notes of events that don't spark a snippet but are chronologically next in line. All those get roughly divided into chapters (with room for error because if I write a crap ton more than I was expecting to, I'll split it up, and I am Very Bad at estimating how much I'll write).

From there, snippets and already written sections (because sometimes I go Overboard) get slapped into the doc that holds the actual fic. Bullet points are transformed into written bits and I stitch together the scenes (sometimes generating new things right then and there because I've neglected to give myself any direction on a transition event/etc) into an actual narrative chapter.

Now. The actual writing of the chapter has probably taken place over several days. When I come back to a work, whether it's a few hours later or days later or longer, I read what I've got so far and (basically) edit it as I go through it to the point where I stopped.

I don't usually properly edit stuff, tbh. I'm able to write things fairly free of grammatical and convention errors on the first go because that's just the flavor of my autism. Usually (but not always, and it has bitten me in the ass before) I won't have to worry about the throughline or any plot issues thanks to my outlining. Or I've already caught it in one of the skims getting back to the place I left off.

That's all to say that the most real, dedicated editing I do is reading over a chapter one last time in the Ao3 text box before I post it, and that's mostly so I can catch weird spacing issues or formatting fuckups that come with copying and pasting in.

And I'm most always listening to some kind of music whether I'm writing or not, tbh. I've made a couple different playlists on Spotify for specific fics, but I usually always just listen to my liked songs or a Spotify-generated daily mix or Discover Weekly—nothing specific, basically. No dedicated writing playlist! But sometimes if I'm writing something that has a specific mood, I'll go and search for a playlist that fits it.

[revvethasmythh]

17 25 30

17. talk about your writing and editing process

Honestly, it varies wildly from project to project, and is especially different between fic and original fiction. I'm much more lackadaisical about fic because it requires a lot less prep and usually will have a lot less length than my original fiction (I never mastered the short story--all I know how to do is write full length novels).

The writing process for fic is usually that I'll come up with a concept, maybe scribble down a few lines that could work as an entry point to the story, and then I'll just do it and see where it takes me. I keep editing to the minimal, usually just line edits, though I'll do some structural edits when absolutely necessary and obviously edit to correct mistakes regarding canon. But that's basically it, the process isn't very complicated for me even dealing with bigger pieces (or pieces that get bigger as I go along), I'll just outline as I go until I've got it all figured out. I wing it, basically.

Original fiction is a little trickier. There's a lot more that you have to build out in an original story and I tend to let ideas simmer for a long time before committing anything to paper. I like to have a full compendium of main characters, setting, worldbuilding, magic, and some philosophical concepts where necessary (such as, my current draft is highly focused on death and the afterlife, so what does that look like in-world? How do people interact with the afterlife/ghosts? Funerary rites, philosophy on death, that sort of stuff). I've sat on stories for a year or two figuring this sort of stuff out before writing anything beyond cursory character descriptions. And editing for original fiction is a lot harder for me specifically, because I'm not great at editing! Large, structural edits are very difficult for me! (And they're usually necessary due to the "figure it out as you go" nature of the way I write). I prefer drafting a lot more than editing, which is probably my biggest weakness as a writer. The day I crack outlining and editing it's over for you all. Alas, who knows when that will be.

The only consistent thing about my process between fic and original is that I pretty much always take notes/figure out my next steps in a physical journal. I don't know what it is about writing on actual paper, but it's the only way I can really organize my thoughts. It just doesn't happen when I'm typing on a computer the same way at all. So my journals are filled with weird quotes and half-concepts that help get the ball rolling again. If I didn't do that, I'd get stuck on just about everything I've ever written.

25. besides writing, what are your other hobbies?

I have a lot of random hobbies. I knit, sometimes I crochet even though I hate it (holding ONE needle?? uncomfortable, impossible, awful), I'm an equestrian, I'd consider myself a home-chef and a hobbyist baker, I kickbox, I cosplay, sometimes I draw--man, I don't know, I do a lot when I can. Does working out in general count as a hobby? I'm pretty fitness oriented on the day to day.

30. share a fic you’re especially proud of

I'm pretty proud of this bg3 fic I wrote (for my durge) during the holidays actually. Considering I was low-key delirious for half of the writing time (I wrote 7 out of 9.5k of it in one night!) I think it turned out remarkably well and has some in-character dialogue/conversations I'm especially proud of in all my work.

ask me about writing!

[the-truest-sentence-i-know]

Weird questions for writers: 4, 11, 18?

[weird questions for writers]

4. What’s a word that makes you go absolutely feral?

I love terms of endearment like dear, darling, love, sweetheart, etc. Used sincerely or not, I don't care. Both are phenomenal. (Or, you know, both; first used sarcastically and then sincerely. that's the good shit.)

11. Do you believe in the old advice to “kill your darlings?” Are you a ruthless darling assassin? What happens to the darlings you murder? Do you have a darling graveyard? Do you grieve?

I have such a hard time killing my darlings. There are lines and bits that I have kept even though I knew I should probably cut them. On the other hand, I have kept pieces that I thought I should've cut, but then got comments saying they liked that piece specifically. So, y'know, it's very much a subjective thing.

I do have a 'deleted bits' doc though, for things I do cut and hope to be able to use elsewhere (or, inspire some other writing thing). Sometimes, especially when writing fanfic, I suddenly get on a tangent about a character that doesn't really fit the fic I'm writing, but it's something I want to explore in another fic, so I definitely save those. For example, in the first draft of one of my daemyra fics I started going into some like gender stuff for Rhaenyra. The fic I was writing was like a fluffy-ish oneshot, so it didn't quite fit. So I cut it and hope to use it in another fic.

18. Choose a passage from your writing. Tell me about the backstory of this moment. How you came up with it, how it changed from start to end.

As Daemon slipped off to sleep, uncertainty began to broil in Rhaenyra’s stomach. His arm held her tightly to him and she began to feel like she couldn’t breathe. She carefully slipped out of his grasp and tiptoed to the bathroom, where she was once again confronted by her reflection. She stood there, frozen, bare feet on the cool tile floor, staring at her naked body in the low light. Her breath came and went harshly, so quickly that she felt lightheaded and had to reach out the stabilize herself on the sink.

So this is from the third part of The Serpent's Tongue. I had finished the fic before I started posting it because I cannot write serially. But, when I started posting it, I didn't have this scene yet.

(cw ahead for grooming & underage sex) Someone commented about how they couldn't wait to see Rhaenyra finally kinda break down about Daemon's manipulation and past abuse. And I realized that I didn't have a scene that did that and that I probably should. I also realized that maybe some of the details about the past abuse was a bit vague (I had some comments that made me think that maybe it wasn't clear enough).

So this scene leads into Rhaenyra kinda breaking down in the bathroom as she finally remembers the first time she and Daemon 'had sex' (in quotes bc she was fifteen). Throughout the fic, there have been indications that she sort of remembers some things that happened between them, but nothing specific. I imply that she's kind of repressed a lot of it, and because he started grooming her so young, sexual things just occupy a bit of a weird spot in her head.

Anyway, this is after she and Daemon sleep together for the first time after his return, so I thought it would make sense for her to remember now.

These answers were a lot longer than I intended! Thank you for asking! <3