#need to write up some more detailed info posts for the verses that still don't have one... i'll get there eventually

[byanyan]

finally got around to doing some sizeable updates to byan's google site!

relatively minor bio updates: tweaked a couple small things & updated based on some small headcanons that have developed, updated tattoos, added interests + hobbies, and added a small note regarding their fashion to help convey their appearance to people who haven't been around to read all my thoughts/headcanons since i made the blog

headcanons: just linked everything significant i've posted since my last update

verse updates: added fledgling verse, spider-twin verse, & post-fog verse info, updated space orphan verse info to be less catch-all and instead focus fully on byan being ardaka's bounty hunting apprentice

soft mains update: i know i'm still missing a lot of people who i want to include but for the time being everyone listed is someone i've written with and/or plotted with extensively & whose muse(s) are very significant in byan's life. also added a subtitle labelling which verse the relationship exists in.

[iryonin]

THE EARTH IS LIKE A CHILD THAT KNOWS POEMS BY HEART — — #IRYONIN: SELECTIVE, HIGHLY PRIVATE [ S̲A̲K̲U̲R̲A̲ H̲A̲R̲U̲N̲O̲ ] FROM MASASHI KISHIMOTO'S NARUTO SERIES. HEAVILY HEADCANONED. UNDER21 DNI. STANDARD RULES APPLY. BIOGRAPHY AND VERSE INFO UNDER READ-MORE.

— — i’m paranoid about thievery. bad experiences! so, you know, don’t lift my lore / take inspiration ('cause i’ll know) because i’ll turn into the hulk if the hulk was the hulk but worse. but also hi 💖 — — ask responses are left open-ended on purpose, to act as starters, considering i don't post starter calls often. feel free to continue them! * BLOG LINKS: PROMPTS. STUDY. META.

BASICS.

NAME: sakura haruno.     in japanese,   her full name can be interpreted as "spring field of cherry blossoms"   (春野桜,   haruno sakura)   or "cherry blossoms in spring"   (春の桜,   haru no sakura).  AGE: verse dependent,   12-36.     (part II is the baseline,   so upwards or backwards from there! i’m not caught up to boruto and i don’t really care about it,   either,   but the naruto timeline spans around 20 years,   give or take. by default, i write sakura in her late 20 / early 30s.) BIRTHDATE: march 28.   (an aries through and through!) SEXUALITY: bisexual. FAMILY: maternal grandparents. AFFILIATION: konohagakure. allied shinobi forces. shikkotsu forest. CLASSIFICATION: medical-nin. RANK: jonin.

* speaking of the basics, here's some extended reading!

APPEARANCE.  

HEIGHT: 5’9. HAIR: pink;   she keeps it relatively short   (shoulder-length)   for combat-convenience.  EYES: seafoam green;   her eyes used to be her biggest tell when she was younger.     still are,   if you know her.  OTHER DETAILS: 

her hands are pretty heavily scarred;   mainly the skin around her knuckles (from punching) but also the soft parts of her palm   (from palm strikes);   lots of healed-over blisters,   as well,   but the multitude of tiny scars on her knuckles are pretty immediately noticeable.     it was worse before she started wearing gloves   (her healing couldn’t keep up with it,   even with chakra coating)

her legs are the strongest part of her body;   stocky,   packed with hard,   dense muscle.     a lot of her taijutsu involves immobilization techniques so having strong legs to use in various locks comes in handy.

her nails stay trimmed short and neat,   but she likes to paint them;   her toenails too.     loves experimenting with colors.

she has a very faint scent... sort of leafy! medicinal, but organic — herb-like, like a home remedy. earthy, but fresh.  her hair probably catches the nose the most and smells the most like something definite; she deep treats and dry-conditions her hair so it's always distinctly sweet :)

her ears are pierced;   she has double sets of lobe piercings because she likes the one long/dangly   +   one stud earring combo,   but no other piercings,   and no artificial tattoos/body markings.

has freckles but they're so faint you don't notice them unless you’re super duper close to her face;   it’s like a little surprise :)

PREFERENCES.  

LIKES: sweet over savory desserts,   scoping out new restaurants to eat at,   feeding her friends and loved ones,   hair care,   memorizing difficult books on theory application she has no previous knowledge of,   visiting the market to pick out fresh produce,   following current trends,   meditation,   organizing dinner dates and little daily excursions in general,   feeling needed 👍 DISLIKES: weather that’s either too hot or too cold,   a messy work station,   protein bars,   rations in general,   being cooped up inside,   being on her own for too long,   foods that are too spicy,   being sedentary,   having her work habits criticized,   eating alone,   early-morning showers as opposed to late-evening ones,   feeling excluded👍 LOVE LANGUAGE: physical touch and acts of service.

PORTRAYAL NOTES.

almost totally immune to poisons and alcohol;   basically any inebriating substances have little-to-no effect on her.

has photographic memory! her hobby in the series is literally memorizing books on medical theory — this is also why she’s canonically super proficient at hand-signs.

sakura’s shallow chakra pool is a result of years of dietary restrictions and disordered eating: her poor self-image and her shaky relationship with food resulted in heaps of health problems;   she’s still working on it today and needs to stay mindful,   but her chakra pool does start growing once she starts focusing on her body’s needs.

combat medic 👍

canonically a sensor! this is so epic for her actually i’m so glad this was mentioned in the series.

* sakura’s old home ie. the haruno estate where she used to live with her parents gets completely destroyed in the orochimaru invasion;   she moves in with her maternal grandparents after the third’s funeral but eventually gets a place of her own some time during the blank period of the first timeskip.

she meditates every day;   it’s one of the ways in which she works on her chakra pool and her seal simultaneously.     her knowledge about chakra,   about the body,   about the connection between those two and her ability to mold it makes this a lot easier than it’d generally be for other ninja

her stamina’s her weakest point,   so she focuses a lot of attention on endurance exercises;   the seal helps,   of course,   but she doesn’t want to be put into a situation where she has to rely on it.

embodies medicine as an ideal;   something that's in place to serve your well-being,   and her approach to her patients exemplifies that.

VERSES.  

* under construction. the verses listed below are not the exhaustive list, but i have other shit to do. ask me about the others :)

NARUTO:     what it says on the tin; compliant with story canon. no boruto shit. MODERN: med school student. back alley doctor. other stuff going on. HAIKYUU: aoba johsai third year; nurse's aid. no volleyball for her! DRAGON AGE:     spirit healer + warrior berserker double-class.     resistant to mind-control   /   possession. JUJUTSU KAISEN:     part of the teaching staff generation,   but isn't actually part of the school in any official capacity. * EXTENDED INFO. WITCHER: a traveling doctor. keeps her rates humble. older than she looks. DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: keeping this simple: naruto verse sakura transmigrated into the forgotten realms; disguised as a cleric monk. doubles as a baldur's gate verse. VAMPIRE: monster hunter; sorceress; coincidentally, also a dhampir. THREE HOUSES: konoha's envoy. exchange student at garreg mach officer's academy.

[pastafossa]

Hello Pasta! I'm wanting to get into writing fanfiction. I'm having a hard time getting started and not feeling embarrassed at the idea of posting it. I don't really know where to start or how. I have adhd, so motivation and not getting distracted like a cat are not my strong suits. Any tips and suggestions on getting started?

As a writer with severe and currently untreated ADHD whose brain will happily chase leaves down the street when I should be doing something important, I feel you, anon. I'm happy to give tips and suggestions!

So the feeling embarrassed is, imo, the hardest part to overcome in the beginning. It is your biggest wall. The lingering cultural stigma against fanfic certainly doesn't help. But the good news is, I don't know anyone who wasn't nervous and embarrassed the first time around. It's normal. And half of it is... literally just about Trying To Do The New Thing. Nobody wants to be 'bad' at something, and unless someone's a prodigy, their early stuff won't be perfect in the same way that the first time someone tries to paint a picture, it's usually pretty wonky. The difference between trying the new thing or walking away, is whether or not you see it as a learning experience. If you're learning, you're allowed to make mistakes. I've used the gaming metaphor before because it works: consider yourself a level 1 writer. Your armor is mismatched. Your sword is blunt. Your only hope of leveling up is stabbing rats for 6 hours. And that's ok, because everyone starts at level 1. Even me! My early stuff was riddled with mistakes, wonky phrasing, awkward structuring, and garbled plotlines, because I'd never tried to write before. So grasp onto your sword, and remind yourself that it's ok to make mistakes.

To fight the cultural stigma embarrassment, take a look at the List of Star Trek novels list. It's a mile long. Try scrolling through; it'll take a while. You know what all that is? That's fanfiction. It's fic, written by people who love the universe and want to tell more stories inside that verse. Paradise Lost? Bible fanfic. Shakespeare's Julius Caesar? RPF. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies? AU fanfic. So much in the world is fanfic, and you're allowed to write it, just like everyone else.

For how to start, I'd advise looking at prompt or trope lists and choosing one you love! Something that sparks your creativity, whether that's the Cuddle for Warmth trope or a Snowball Fight prompt! The key is choosing something nice and concise when you're starting, since ideas like those are easier both to start and to finish. As you learn, you'll get the hang of longer works, but short helps so much in the beginning, especially when you're trying to keep your ADHD motivation going long enough to get it done.

Speaking of beginnings - a lot of writers get stuck on beginnings. And that's fair, because sometimes beginnings are boring and unnecessary. Some good advice I got? Consider starting in the middle! If we use, say, the Snowball Fight prompt, then there's no reason to start with Character A waking up and seeing the snow and getting dressed. Try jumping right to the fun part: them out in the snow, walking with Character B, and both of them now in the perfect position for banter to morph into the snowball fight itself.

If you're unsure how to literally make a paragraph happen, sometimes what you can do (and what I still sometimes do!) is essentially start with listing what needs to happen in that paragraph: 'Jane picks up a snowball. Jane squints at Matt. Jane throws snowball at his face.' Once you've written everything out (the whole fic), come back and add details paragraph by paragraph: sensory info, more specific words, adjectives. Which is how the paragraph becomes something like, 'Jane quietly scooped up a handful of glittering snow, narrowing her eyes at Matt in thought for only a brief second before rearing back and launching it at his face.' This is also essentially what my editing process looks like (which some people noticed when I accidentally left an unedited paragraph right above the edited paragraph in one chapter of TRT!). You can literally go through this process for the entire fic, starting with an outline (basic list of events) which you then break down into basic sentences (rough paragraphs) and then go back in and add details (editing process discussed above).

ADHD tip - distractions: first, have an area you devote to writing. Try to write there as often as you can, and make it a happy space! Your brain needs to learn this is the 'writing area' so it knows exactly what to do when you sit down. Make sure you have what you need nearby so you don't have to wander off - I have everything from hand lotion, a candle, chapstick, tissues, water, and fidget toys nearby. Consider using something like noise canceling headphones - I have a pair I use to block out sounds and play my TRT playlist for me while I write, so it's harder to get distracted by outside noise.

ADHD tip - fidgeting: I often reward my brain for every hour of writing by getting up to move around, stretch out. Sometimes I walk some loops around the house, or I go outside and chase the dog a little, hug a tree, the usual 'YAY NEW STIMULI' for my brain. I've found giving myself those regular moments of activity helps a huge amount.

Alternatively, if you're hyperfixating on writing, ride that train to the fucking end of the line. This is one of our strong points as writers. It won't happen every time, and you cannot rely on it occurring, but sometimes you reach this magical space where all else falls away. I've had nights where I fell into that mindset and pumped out 15k words in one long session (keep snacks and water nearby, otherwise you will forget to eat or drink - I've gone roughly 6-7 hours without eating or drinking before while in The Zone).

I drink a shit-ton of caffeine to make my brain go zoom, do with that what you will.

So your mileage may vary, but this generally works for both ADHDers and non-ADHDers: training your brain to focus on writing is essentially like training for a marathon. If you try to run a 50k on day one? You're fucked. Start with a goal of small word counts for each writing session. If you go longer? Great! But smaller goals in the beginning that are manageable are more useful. Instead of saying, 'I AM GOING TO WRITE 10K WORDS THIS WEEK/TODAY!', try, 'Every day I write 200 words.' Cause 200 words? You can do that! That's small! Enjoy your success and reward yourself, give your brain that sweet sweet dopamine reward at hitting that word goal. And as you go, and regularly start meeting that goal, you can consider adding a little more, bit by bit, but try to keep your goal achievable. Because writing a little is always better than writing nothing.

And above all... be kind to yourself. There's always someone out there who wants to read your story, no matter what that looks like.

I hope these tips help! It's definitely a challenge even for non-ADHDers to get into writing, and adding our unique brains into the mix can get a little wild, but it's definitely doable, and it's absolutely worth the effort to see if writing fic is something you want to do.

[compo67]

Good morning Lovely Person,

Hope this day finds you well and in good spirits.

Let me start out by saying that I love your writing, you are very detailed oriented and you really know how to tell a story, you are amazing.

I have recently read BackPccket verse. It is a very unique story, very colorful and musical and has wonderful characters.

I have a small inquiry though and hoping you can provide some insight on your thought process...

When Jared first arrived at the Island he was distressed to find it he had no service on his phone , nor was there Wi-Fi. Div played music on her phone, And it was later shown that Jensen was being contacted by others to write songs for them and that he Skypes with a friend. When NK arrived they were making phone calls during their stay. Jared had to use the phone at the store.

I know this is such a trivial thing.....but any insight on your thought process would be amazing.

P leaae, please don't take this as criticism, it's not... I love the story and how it is told...and I appreciate you being the wonderful writer you are. There are so few left who write for the fandom on a regular basis. Thank you for all your fantastic stories.

Have a blessed day.💙

Hellooooo anon!

Thank you for writing! I'm so glad to see you enjoyed Back Pocket. I love that verse. And thank you for the kind words about my writing, thank you thank you.

Oooooh my goodness, great question! I had to dig up my notes for BP and ask two of my betas. When I wrote this, it was simply: Jared's phone is out of range for signal. Expanding on this, I'd say he probably has a different carrier than folks on the island. Or, Cher just cut off his data and never told him. "Oh, must be the signal!" Ha! That's a real possibility.

In terms of Wi-Fi, there is purposefully no internet at Jared's cottage. Just like there's no phone. If he had Wi-Fi, all he'd do is stay in the cottage, posting to social media about how miserable he felt, and avoid getting any work done/convince himself the album didn't need any work. If he had a landline at the cottage (or cell signal) he'd still find a way to talk to Lindy or whatever other "friends" he had--nonstop. The superficial people around him would continue to influence him.

More under the cut!

Cher in this verse is an interesting mystery. We've never really "met" her, just kinda seen her in the periphery through Jared and Jensen's flashbacks in the sequel. But we do know that she sent Jensen to the island so he could detox from substance abuse and the vicarious trauma from dispatching. And he bought his house in the center of the village so he wouldn't isolate and increase the odds of relapse.

You can say Cher did the same for Jared. She sent him there to get the superficial out of his system. To reconnect to his music, and most importantly, to reconnect to himself. He can't do that with access to the internet or phone service, so she's gotta send him to the only place he won't have them around without effort. If he wants to use the phone, he's gotta go to the store. If he wants internet, he'll have to ask Jensen for the hotspot/WiFi info at his house. But by then, when Jared starts spending time at Jensen's, there are waaaay better things to do (ha!) other than scroll through Twitter.

And in the end, it is a sign of character growth that Jared's content not asking to use someone else's phone or internet. He survives without social media. When the city comes to him (Lindy visits the island), he rejects it. When an offer from a person uninterested in the superficial--NK-- comes in, Jared accepts it.

Cher's been working behind the scenes looking out for Jared and Jensen's well-beings. Jensen needed to be in the center of the village. Jared needed to be a little removed. Jensen needed folks to come to him so he could get their help (and offer his help in return). Jared needed to live a little ways out so he could learn how to be alone (at least for a little) and so he could learn the effort it takes to maintain quality relationships. But even Cher couldn't have predicted J2 would actually hit it off and get together.

So, there we have it! (TLDR: the reason how Jared doesn't have signal/internet is not as important as why--he needs to disconnect 100%.)

Wow, this ended up being way longer than I thought it'd be. You got me thinking! Thank you, anon. This was such a nice revisit to my favorite island folks. <3

-Cal

[whumpiary]

I'm not sure were the bergan estate timeline was? like what happened there? I don't understand how cass came to be there or what he was doing and his propose there? I'm just a dumbass child so can u explain a bit??

Oh no no! You are not a dumbass child! I’m just a horrible little goblin man who drip feeds her readers story points and hoards the rest instead of just writing them out like a normal writer! It makes sense that you’re confused.

My writing is just… A Mess. The timeline post is just to give y'all SOME kind of hope of understanding everything that’s all mixed in my brain because there is SO much and I have No idea how to write it.

All the stuff that happens during the Bergen Estate timeline is set before the Facility, and before Cass meets Josiah (or Lou or Tucker, etc etc). It’s Cassius backstory that I got way too invested in.

It’s also like… Kind of dependent on world building stuff that is still kind of gelatinous in my brain but I’ve started sharing more of it the more solid I get on it all. I struggle to write actual world-building and #lore into my drabbles and tbh since deciding a lot of the Bergen Estate details I’ve been in a Huge publishing rut

BUT IM ALWAYS A SLUT FOR AN INFO DUMP SO STRAP THE FUck IN

Bergen Estate is owned by Christopher Bergen, a billionaire mogul who’s best known for his extensive philanthropy and charity work, and Cassius’ first major whumper. It’s essentially just a big ass fucking mansion on a huge slap of land where Christopher lives. The estate is extensively staffed, and also houses a number of at-risk young people who are a part of Christopher’s charity outreach and rehabilitation program. 

The outreach of the program is massive. Christopher only houses 38 charges at Bergen Estate, but there are thousands of people throughout the country in one of his group homes and boarding schools.

The young people who go through the program are colloquially known as Bergen Boys, although that’s a term the foundation itself tries to formally keep distance from (privately,,,,,, Christopher quite likes the term). The program has the reputation of boy scouts meets finishing school, and, formally, it’s not unlike that. It’s a really thorough rehabilitation program that really genuinely facilitates juvenile delinquents, hard to home foster kids, and other at risk youths and then offers them counselling, education, and support to make them employable, functional, constructive members of society. 

The program also takes incarcerated youth under wing by taking full legal responsibility for their actions through an indenture arrangement. All of the graduates leave the program by the age of 25 and are known for being exceedingly polite, well educated, and multi skilled. Most leave multilingual and with a bachelor’s degree in their ~delegated~ chosen field. 

The thing is. 

That’s all the public really knows.

Christopher Bergen is charismatic and charming and very Open™ about the program and his estate. He regularly talks about it in interviews, and there are some relatively well known ex-Bergen Boys who also talk about the program favourably. But nobody actually knows what goes on there. They just know Bad Young People go in and Well Adjusted Adults come out. Nobody really thinks about it beyond that. Nobody really thinks about the ones that go missing, or that quietly and seamlessly end up back in the judicial system, or that just… seem to stay under 25 for a really really long time. 

Those staying at Bergen Estate are believed by the public to be individuals of particularly high risk or dangerous behaviours, who need additional support for success back in the real world. Kids on trial for murder, those exhibiting of particularly dangerous repeated behaviours, that sort of thing. The truth of it is these are just the people that Christopher has taken a particular specific liking to or interest in. 

In this ‘verse, a number of people ( the “evolutionarily advanced”) have telepathy-adjacent powers that they can use to varying levels of success. Often, the kids that end up at Bergen Estate just so happen to have these abilities, or at least seem to develop them after a few months. It’s not a hard-and-fast rule that those at the estate will have powers, it just seems to be a high correlation. 

Christopher is a combo of pretty common whumper tropes. He’s a collector. He likes pretty things. He likes unusual things. And he likes to be loved. The Bergen Foundation and the good reputation it gives means he can have those things on a large scale. But Bergen Estate means he can have them intimately. Christopher gets what he wants. But he’s a good person and he’ll go about getting them in the right way. Eye for an eye for an eye for an eye if he has to.

As for Cass.

Cass wasn’t particularly special, compared to any of the other charges at Christopher’s estate. He did something wrong, then he did something right, then he caught the attention of Christopher.

Surprising approximately no one, Cass had a rough upbringing. He was in and out of juvie from quite a young age, and soon enough had captured the attention of Bergen Foundation staff. He was bright enough, charming when he wanted to be, and the perfect candidate for a success story down the track.

Unfortunately for them, they pretty quickly realised he wouldn’t be a success story. Unfortunately for Cass, Christopher had already taken an interest in the boy in his program who could seemingly get whatever he wanted from whoever he wanted but still hadn’t run away.

At 16 he received a personal visit from Christopher, who gave him an offer he couldn’t refuse and legal proceedings immediately went underway to transfer Cassius’ sentence to the Estate. The rest, as they say, is trauma.

As for his purpose there…occasionally Christopher used Cass the way Tucker does, to sway business deals and woo clients and friends in whatever way Christopher wanted, but frankly Christopher doesn’t need a whole lot of help with business. So mostly, he was just there to give Christopher whatever he wanted. Because Christopher decided he liked him. Simple as that.

[whiskeysmulti]

Rules

1. Mun is 30+ so some mature themes may happen on this blog. 

2. No godmodding/metagaming, be respectful, etc. I am not afraid to instantly block anyone who can’t show some basic respect. 

3. I am indie, but highly selective and mutually exclusive, if I do not follow back, I have no interest in writing with you.

4. Please notify me of your triggers and blocked tags so I can tag appropriately. My own triggers are incest, rape, pedophilia, and sexual abuse in general. I will amend this list as other triggers come to light. That said, I do have muses who have SA and CSA as triggers in their info, it is only past mentions of it happening though, my own trigger with SA comes in with images and explicitly detailed writing. Interact with Ash Lynx and Shorter Wong with caution if CSA is a trigger, I write them both as survivors of it. I also black list the tag #one piece, please tag your content be it rp or art, I want nothing to do with this fandom and don't want it on my dash. While I have it in my DNI I understand some fandomless OCs and multi blogs rp in it still, I need you guys to tag your verses and content for it please.

5. I am a multi muse, please specify the muse you want to answer said ask when sending one, the only exception to this is OOC/Mun games, I will answer those as myself. Also if you’re a multi or sideblog please let me know the url/muse the ask is from when sending. I am also multiverse, multi ship, as well as duplicate friendly. Each ship is in it’s own verse, I do have mains and exclusives though. I am okay with some pre-established stuff as far as platonic goes, friends and familial bonds. All I ask is you just run it by me first to make sure it works with my headcanons, romantic ships though, I prefer chemistry.  

6. You are always welcome to turn answered asks into a thread, all I ask is that if you move it to a new post, please @ me because I use thread tracker, I also track my replies by the number of drafts I have. That way by @'ing me, I can throw it into my drafts as soon as I see it and then work on the reply when I have time. I use the thread tracker to keep track of my RPs and x-kit to trim them. Thread tracker tracks the thread by the post number from my own blog. Do not move the post every reply. If from an ask, I will allow you to move it once to a clean post and then I will reblog and track from there.

7. I am not an aesthetics source or RP resource and memes blog, please reblog from the source when possible.

8. Do not reblog in character threads you are not involved in. They are not fanfics, they are for my RP partner/s only. Personals please do not interact on them. Anything tagged #ic is off limits.

9. While I do not fully diverge, my portrayals are headcanon heavy. Keep this in mind when interacting with my muses. As some things may be applicable to them that are not discussed in the canon verses.

10. I will not interact if I find your blog to be utilizing A.I. or reposting stolen/uncredited art.

11. DNI: One Piece, Fullmetal Alchemist/Brotherhood blogs. More information here. 12. My timezone is US EST/GMT-5 (New York Time), so if you can't reach me at a certain hour, I am probably asleep or having connection issues with net and data.

This list will be amended as I see fit and is subject to change the longer I write on here.  

Muse List:

Banana Fish:

Ash Lynx

Shorter Wong

Bleach:

Neliel Tu Odelshwank

Nanao Ise

Karin Kurosaki

Yuzu Kurosaki

Naruto:

Shikamaru Nara

Temari

Itachi Uchiha

Katekyo Hitman Reborn:

Hayato Gokudera Hibari Kyouya

Shoichi Irie

Mukuro Rokudo

Dino Cavallone

Enma Cozzato

Trigger warnings associated with each muse can be found here. Character list with info links to wiki pages on each is found here. Back up Google doc with all rules, muses and info pages is found here in case prior links break.

Hidden/request only muse list can be found here. Mains and exclusives list can be found here. Affiliates can be found here. Ship wishlist can be found here. Verse list can be found here.

Please read these links before interacting!

[a-la-sante-du-progres]

Premise: this answer is not *against* yours, it's just what I thought while reading your reblog. Some things are direct answers, most stuff is related to what you said but they are comments more than counterarguments.

So I share your preference for characters, it's just I'm a big fan of historical and architectural details as well. Sure I could look up the sewers on Wikipedia but would I? No, there is too much choice and I wouldn't pick up the sewers randomly. I just like info I guess, I'm not able to explain why.

But I think super detailed descriptions serves the plot as well. Place descriptions shape the verse the story is in and shape the narrative tone as well, historical digression are useful to understand the characters if you are into them. I'm bringing a negative example I already alluded to in the OG post, skipping the 1830 revolution fucked up a bit the understanding of the motives of Enjolras and comrades to our modern eyes, some readers tend to judge Enjolras' determination as misplaced, naive and unnecessarily violent while if you know how 1830 and the aftermath went you get why revolution felt both like a necessity and very achievable to Les Amis. You also can understand why on the other side people was tired of the frequent republican revolts and lost faith. I get why Hugo didn't feel the need to include it, because he wanted to be Les Amis and the 1832 uprising symbols more than specific historical events related with other specific historical events, besides he thought all those events were obvious to the reader but now it's not true anymore so a historical digression would have been useful to better understand the characters. True, one could look up the details on Internet but how many people have done that?

Then

1)like you implied, fictional books had a strong divulgative role in the past but I don't think this role is dead. A fictional plot is still a motivator to learn "actual" knowledge for a lot of people. This goes for TV shows as well. Offtopic, that's why well written misinfo is dangerous in fiction, people learn from them.

2)A writer writes for fun too. So "for fun" is enough to answer to "why did Hugo add that". Obviously the reader is allowed to be bored while reading it, myself I like almost none of the canon romances I read from Hugo and I'm sure he enjoyed writing all of them. So I'm not saying you should enjoy everything the writer puts in a book, just that fun is a sufficient justification for adding one more digression/plot. I happen to love them anyway.

Anyway I prefer characters' details as well (but I like all kinds like I said) but the preference for characters' details is not universal, you and I love them, other people think they're a waste of time and words. There are also writing advices that suggest to avoid everything is not necessary to understand the main plot. So I don't think the contemporary culture favours character details over places and history, it may be a matter of personal preference as well.

I know Hugo's love for details gets made fun of a lot but I think it's honestly endearing. The sewer exploration was really interesting, I can't say Myriel's background left a mark in me but it was so pleasant to read. Loved the descriptions of Paris, the description of the light related to what was happening in the city. In fact often I've been left wanting more details when I read Les Miserablès (and Hugo in general). Why did Grantaire have that Robespierre waistcoat? How bad was his relationship with his father? How was he ugly? How was Enjolras' relationship with his (human) mother? How much did Cosette remember of Eponine? Would she be resentful? Favourite and Fantine. The whole story of Le Cabuc that sounds interesting as fuck? How did Les Amis react to 1830 victory (actually I think skipping the 1830 revolution brought some issues to the 1832 uprising plot)? How did they react when their victory was stolen? The background of Valjean and his sister? What was the impact of the ethnicity of Javert's mother on Javert? Etc etc

It's also... "relaxing", I don't know... in Les Mis as well in other novels of his, when I met a character I get to know their personality, at least a brief backstory usually, the context of their behaviour. If something happens I know how it happened usually. I don't have to keep asking myself wtf is happening, I don't have the risk to miss crucial event or motivations. And I can see literally the events unfold behind my eyes, either because the author is precise with his material descriptions or because he gets to portrait the "vibes" with vividness.