#TNotG ch1

[phoenixtakaramono]

The Name of the Game - Ch1 Preview III

(CW: Supe terror/ism)

A/N: This might not make sense without the full context and tense build-up that’ll lead to all this, but you get the gist. The goal of Scene 1 (wordcount: 10K) is to speedrun through the important main cast of characters who’ll show up in the Task Worlds and then finagle a way to kick Billy into the System subspace—which officially starts us on Scene 2.

*Keep in mind, this snippet comes from an early draft so somethings might be subject to change in the final draft.

[gutsfics]

F, L, and P!!

F: Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

eeaaaah this is so hard to choose! i love the banter between Avalon and Janey in the first half of The Name Of The Game ch1, i really think i did a good job capturing their friendship

i think im gonna share just a bunch of (screenshots of) some of my favorite bits of dialouge bc i can't decide on just one

some of these i like bc im really proud of how i got the emotion across, but most of them i just think are funnie :) i love writing dialouge & i love writing jokes

limiting the screenshots to fics ive posted and not Everything Ive Written

the "sucking us silly" line was written by my friend @lame-kid-on-couch he added it as a joke bc i couldnt figure out what i wanted Lisa to say & it was so good i had to leave it in. Lisa should have been allowed to cuss in canon

L: How many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting?

depends on the fic. long/plot heavy fics like chapter 1 of TNoTG (or should the shorthand be NoG?) and Pre-Production i usually sit on & revise & revise & revise and drive myself mad over, but short ones like Starting The New Year Right and Holly-Gay Traditions it posted right after writing. like right after. i wrote em into my notebook & then transcribed them onto a tumblr post instead of opening new google docs for em

P: Are you what George R. R. Martin would call an “architect” or a “gardener”? (How much do you plan in advance, versus letting the story unfold as you go?)

yes.

multi-chapter fics i'll outline so i know where the plost is supposed to go even if it takes me to get a while to return to em

the shorter form ones i rotate in my mind for a bit before writing them down, and even if i Know how i want something to go and will be actively thinking about that i'll still write down something different. its annoying

Not Gonna Take It Anymore was straight up just me spitballing a plot at my boyf & a whole fic just fell out, i wrote it in fucking discord

[phoenixtakaramono]

The Name of the Game - Ch1 Preview (1/?)

Author’s Notes: We’re essentially speedrunning through the context of the Original World this AU Supe version of Billy Butcher is from, to make it friendly and accessible for new readers who do not know these characters or the show, before we jump into the QT.

The full sales pitch of this story premise can be read here!

[phoenixtakaramono]

:) If any of my readers who are eagerly anticipating my new upcoming writing project, you can head on over to my Twitter | X for another sneak peek of The Name of the Game ch1.

[phoenixtakaramono]

Hi wow okay I just needed to pause my reading and come over here and tell you that your recent additions to the multiverse thread????? Insane. Love it. It’s amazing. I really had to pause at some points and just sit there like wow. Wow this is art. I am reading and enjoying art right now. Thank you for sharing your writing with us!!

This Ask is regarding this 🔞 butchlander multiverse threadfic on Twitter (the first of many perhaps?)

Thank you so much for reading, luv! I’m thrilled to hear you’re enjoying it. 💞✨

I am extremely fond of the Quick Transmigration genre as a whole in general, and it’s funny to me how complimentary it is to the superhero multiverse trope. It pops up and I’m flooded by so many brainworms at all the inconvenient times, haha, like while I’m at work or grocery shopping. So when I get hit by these The Name of the Game stray thoughts, especially about certain details and 🔞 butchlander scenarios of the arcs I have written down in my plot outline, I feel a lil dismayed because I am only one writer and we are only ch1 into the—so far—planned 135 chapters. 😂😭 So rather than waiting till it’s appropriate to write these lil extras and possibly forgetting or losing the creative drive I have now, while the fire still burns bright, I might as well take advantage of it while it’s going strong and feed y’all tiny diegetic bites here and there.

I like to think of these as fun sort-of-“canon”/ sort-of-“non-canon” What-If outtake scenarios that take place after or during the main story (135ch), kinda like the main story’s unofficial extras or unofficial side stories y’all can read as threadfics so it’s probably not an extra just dumped in randomly or willy-nilly in the main story itself on AO3 whilst this writer tries to shoot for the moon and catch up to our ambitious goalpost of 135chs.

So whilst this one is a weeeeee on the not-so-much-plot-but-smuttier side, because it’s Homelander’s birthday soon, I thought it’d be amusing to write a 🔞 spicy threadfic where TNotG’s Homelander ends up topped by almost all the Butchers I’ve ever written in my AUs thus far. Because why not? YOLO, and it’s convenient that this writer happens to have several long threadfics, Truce, and one AO3 fic that precisely allows for them to all crossover like some kinda butchlander superhero electric boogaloo multiverse on steroids.

So far I’ve only provided snapshot glimpses into the QT arcs that TNotG Billy had to endure, threaded into the threadfic itself, but I want you to know the entire time when I’m slipping in subtle story arc references to scenarios like this:

My mind is like:

Because these so far only exist in my plot outline, none of these are considered TNotG main story official unless I publish it on the AO3 platform. I’d just rather write these now than let them gather dust and potentially never see the light of day, haha. It’s only a snapshot but :) what fun surprises I have awaiting y’all. So far in these two threadfic updates we got sneak peeks into the The Boys TV S1-S5 canon-compliant final arc pre-return home, the Showbiz/ Entertainment 3rd arc, and the Medieval Fantasy 1st arc. There’s one more arc I have yet to input, which is the 2nd arc and it just so happens to be my second favorite genre after the QT genre: the Unlimited/ Infinite Flow genre survival game horror. I also may or may not reference the other two arcs remaining (with one of them being A/B/O), but these diegetic bites are supposed to compliment the spotlight that’s gonna be on each Butcher (Butchers 1-5 & TNotG Butcher). 😌 Because what’s better than 1 Butcher? A spicy 6 Butchers “bullying” (affectionate) Homelander sandwich.

[phoenixtakaramono]

The Name of the Game - Ch 1 AO3 Publish Date Announcement

Since Gen V is airing on 9/29, this is a notice that chapter 1 of my 135ch QT will be posted to AO3 anytime after between 9/30-10/1. I'm currently editing the last action scene of TNotG ch1 but we're looking at approximately between 60+ to 70+ pages for the prologue itself.

Keep a lookout for it in the "Billy Butcher/The Homelander | John" tag! \(￣︶￣*\)) I'll also post here on tumblr and tweet a reminder of the official date and time before posting!

*EDIT (10/1/23): It’s up! The AO3 link is up above in the title.

[phoenixtakaramono]

Hi! I feel a bit bad asking this as I know you are focused on TNotG, but I'm still feeling too feral over Truce (and was trying to find previews here and couldn't), but how is that going? Ah, I also read your twitter threads, and loved both the Fix-it AU and the Sugar Baby AU (both are so good, so in character, and the way it's written from HL's POV makes it so intriguing, his choices, how he thinks about Billy, how he pretty much obsesses (which is very true for him!) Sorry for the ramble

Hullo, hullo~! With all your usernames, I'm not sure which one to use, dear reader, so since this was sent over on tumblr with this account, I shall refer to you with this moniker ☜(ﾟヮﾟ☜) but feel free to let me know if you prefer something else!

Chapter Previews for Truce

So fun fact regarding previews of ch3 (and ch4) from Truce: you're right; they don't exist here on tumblr. This was before I'd realized the butch/lander community is also active here on this platform as well, so under that mentality I'd mostly just tweeted screenshots of ch3 (and 1 tweet about ch4) over on my Twitter account. Because it's awhile back, they're buried under my 300+ tweets (especially with the daily/weekly updates from the three threadfics of then) but I believe you can still find them on Twitter if you search for "Truce ch3" and "Truce ch4" and sort them by Latest tweets. You can also find a few sneak peek snippets in the ch2 Comments section of Truce that I gifted a couple readers as thanks for their comments~.

Truce Ch3 Status

At the time I was juggling three threadfics and Truce all in one go. A lot of ch3 was written even before ch2, but it was the beginning scene and the last scene that stumped me. What happened essentially since was I had a conversation with two moots based on a NS/FW drawing planned for ch3 and ended up changing the location, so that scene has to be changed.

Then what was left was the beginning scene I had to first tackle, and I made the decision to go waaaaaaaay outside the box that no one has written before—which is the subtle romantic parody of Superman and Lois Lane in outerspace. A reader of mine tweeted under my tweet of me airing out that idea, and they essentially sent me a thread of questioning the logistics of how that'd work and how dumb it'd be essentially on HL's part (because, y'know, space and exposed human eyeballs and the human body, lack of oxygen/ inability to breath in space, and then there's the question about how Billy's and Homelander's bodies are gonna be able to withstand the heat of re-entering Earth's atmosphere even with their nigh "invulnerable" bodies)—and that fired me up to commit to the outerspace idea as the dramatic first scene because I'm a stubborn writer (/lh). The more you tell me an idea is dumb or cannot be done, the more I feel compelled to do it to prove the person wrong. (Mind you, though, we're good friends on Twitter; this is not meant as shade or anything, haha. They know I joke about how I'm a "stubborn writer" like a certain main character from one of my fics and how their thread fired me up to dig my heels in and give this insane idea a shot.)

After TNotG ch1 is posted to AO3, I'll go back to resuming the writing of Truce ch3. Originally I was thinking of maybe waiting for The Boys (TV) S4 to air so I can bring in Firecracker and Sister Sage and keep true to their canon show personalities instead of me making it up, but then I saw someone tweet that Erin Moriarty doesn't think post production of S4 will be done till 2024. So I think, as long as I'm not gripped by TNoTG ch2 feels, I'm probably going to jump ship briefly and finish Truce ch3 first after TNoTG ch1.

Fix-it AU and the Sugar Baby AU

I'm glad you're enjoying them! Presently as I'm writing TNotG ch1 (and later Truce ch3), I'm putting them on a short pause so I can focus on them individually and not have my wires crossed. HL's POV is always entertaining to write, and there is a certain type of Homelander that I very much enjoy in both my readings and writings. I have a soft spot for reading about a vain, clingy, narcissistic obsessive/ possessive manipulative psychopath HL who is codependent on his partner and wanting them so much he lets himself be dommed—and, after experiencing an earth-shattering revelation and bliss, he now expects to be catered to and pampered like a pillow princess and having Billy's attention revolve around him 24/7 (bc ofc). It's delightful to read about in the fictional sphere where we can play with such an unhinged character, and I like sharing that with my readers.

I'm still thinking maybe after Truce is completed and we just have TNotG in my AO3 portfolio left, that maybe I can migrate these threadfics over as part of my Butchlander Twitter Threadfics series—but obviously polish them up and change a few story decisions and, eventually, finish them. Right now these threadfics only exist on Twitter—and so they shall remain there until I'm ready to begin the migration.

I see you have two more Asks sent to my Inbox. I'm gonna answer them one by one. :) Thank you for sending me the Asks! I swear I cannot stop smiling reading through them.

[phoenixtakaramono]

29 - Truce or TNotG 50

Re: Questions for Fic Writers

Ty, anon, for the Ask! I’m gonna give a huge Spoiler Warning for Truce chs 3-4 (and TNotG ch1) which have not been posted to AO3 yet, so read at your own risk.

29) What songs would be (or are) on a playlist for [insert fic]? Explain your choices if you want!

…Oh goodness, last I checked there were 89+ songs I have for TNotG’s playlist, haha. They’re pretty self-explanatory, in my opinion, but I ordered the songs all by the first world we start in + the six arcs + return to Billy’s world. I’ll link the playlist at the bottom end Author’s Note when The Name of the Game ch1 is ready to be published to AO3 in September 2023, but you can also listen to it here:

As for Truce (which you can read ch1-2 here), there are 47 songs…ahhhhh, essentially for both fics, I listen to these songs I like to help set the vibe, mood, and atmosphere for me while I write. It’s like my background music/ white noise. For me, it’s usually the lyrics which tie into the story, usually highlighting a character motivation, their vibe, or just setting the scene. I can highlight a couple songs:

Crazy - Jake Daniels - It really set the vibe for me to get into Homelander’s headspace whilst writing the prologue, because everything in this chapter is from Homelander’s POV. The atmosphere, the lyrics, and the coincidental bloody superhero album art? I thought it was perfect.✨

Wolf - Zack Merci X Arcana - For ch2 (part I), this song encompasses Billy’s overall goal and manipulation of everyone (the Boys, Homelander, and Vought). It’s pretty much the theme song of this chapter.

(Keeping in mind: 🔴 Billy’s POV, 🔵 Homelander’s POV)

Lyrics:

Got you in the palm of my hand

Sowing distrust over this land

I can make it hurt till you understand […]

I was such a fool

Under your command […]

See the truth is I had change of heart

And all that I know is

I will be tearing you all apart […]

I’ll get in your head like a nightmare

And if I was you, I would be scared

Bet you never saw this coming

Don’t you know that I am a wolf in sheep’s clothing

Power - Isak Danielson - If Truce could have an opening number like how every show does, this is pretty much the theme song for Truce overall. It also sets the vibe for ch3 (part II) when Billy and Homelander finally get frisky on the kitchen island countertop, and kinda for ch4 as well. Although the entirety of the chapter will be in Billy’s POV, I want you to know as everything is happening, especially if you listen to this song when you read ch3, these lyrics represent the desperation of the ideal that Homelander sees in Billy. He’s ready for that unconditional love, for that perfect soulmate partner who gets him 100% and is just as obsessed with him as he is; in a dramatic turn of events, he’s now essentially pinning all his last hopes for a human connection onto Billy. (Notice ch1’s line: “keep me sane. Keep me grounded. You are the one person preventing me from razing this earth to the f*cking ground” before it shifts into the fear that Ryan, his flesh and blood, will end up disappointing him ➡️ pivoting to the line of how “the definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results. Failure, after failure, after failure […] Maybe what needed to be done was to reevaluate his life. Acquire a different perspective on things, a new outlook.” ➡️ The SHEER POETIC IRONY now that he’s shifted that target in his brain to Billy after what’d happened in ch1. It’s a disaster waiting to happen but we’ll only allude to the disastrous future potential at most because Truce is 4 chapters only and not 12 chapters so we’ll end on a Happy Ending for this PWP fourshot. For me, it’s a song that shows that it’s not always a women that can get stuck in a toxic codependent relationship and that men can also be stuck in the same shoes. And if that ain’t the situation with Homelander and Billy in Truce?

(Keeping in mind: 🔴 Billy’s POV, 🔵 Homelander’s POV)

Lyrics:

I still look at you with eyes that want you

when you move, you make my oceans move too

if I hear my name, I will run your way […]

it’s my desire that you feed, you know just what I need

you got power, you got power

you got power over me

I give my all now, can't you see, why won't you set me free?

you got power, you got power

you got power over me

I was lost until I found me in you

I saw a side of me that I was scared to

but now I hear my name and I’m running your way

All I feel as I get closer to you

is the Desire to move like you do

so now I hear my name and I’m running your way

I am ready now […]

I give my all now, can't you see, why won't you set me free? […]

You’re the one that seduced me, lured me in with your beauty, now I know that you used me

All you did was confuse me, you're no longer what I need, touch me slow, feel my heart bleed

(Also this song^ is the bee’s knees. I never skip this song in my iTunes playlist when it comes up and always belt it out when I’m alone. This song is very, very, very underrated. I highly rec you give it a listen.)

Rob a Bank - Confetti - “Who's to say that I can't break into your house / While you're working / I'm just lurking through your bedroom like a mouse / Gettin' naked on your sofa wearing just your penny loafers / Take some pictures leave 'em by your dirty dishes” ⬅️ What can I say? This screams Homelander to me and I laugh at the imagery of him breaking in, trying out Billy’s shiny new polished penny loafers whilst getting naked on his sofa and taking dirty pictures of himself to leave by the dirty dishes for Billy to find. It’s like a tomcat in heat scent-marking his territory. This song does help me imagine the dynamic when we get to the NS*W parts.

Religion - Isak Danielson / Dancing in the Sky - Kristen Cruz One of these songs will represent the penultimate ch4 which’ll entirely be written in HL’s POV; Religion mostly represents Homelander’s POV (which is really just him desperately trying to deceive himself if we look at it meta-ly, but shhh, he himself is not that self-aware in ch4) whereas Dancing in the Sky represents Billy’s side of things as we end the final scene in the story with Billy given approval to take Ryan to visit Becca’s grave to pay respects and for one last emotional send-off—whilst HL (who Billy doesn’t want to see him anywhere near this day) secretly watches the private moment from far away like a lurker outsider. It’s supposed to be a bittersweet emotional touching moment to tug at the readers’ heartstrings—which gets twisted because this is HL’s POV so it becomes tampered with his desperate obsessiveness and possessiveness of Billy being his and HL’s jealousy of Becca that he won’t admit to but, as an audience, we can tell he’s supeeeeer jealous (like, thanks for giving birth to my son—but you’re dead buried six-feet under, and your husband will be my husband now so good f*cking riddance; I will be the winner; he will come to forget you and love me only). It’s a very fatalistic self-fulfilling prophecy. I REMIND YOU, we will still have a Happy Ending for the Billy/ Homelander ship in Truce (hell, HL will even get to fondle Billy’s old wedding ring and think about having his own wedding ring on Billy’s wedding finger) but we’re gonna get a couple parting ouchies as a souvenir at the end a là Becca’s resting place visit.

Religion Lyrics (HL @ Billy):

Can we say goodbye to, to the lies you told

You know I’m wiser, I’ve been here before

I believed your stories, at least the blind in me

You gave my eyes what they wanted to see

I’ve lost my reality

I’ve lost everything in me […]

You act like a God and you’re trying too hard but I need it

I was once a believer

Now I’m back to believing

I’m trying to be smart with a stake through the heart but I feel it

Turning into addiction

Praying in your religion […]

Future doesn’t matter

I'd give it up for you

Even though I know that you’d never do

You know your power and I know it too

I’ll end up in fire, burning with you

Dancing in the Sky Lyrics (Billy @ Becca):

Tell me, what does it look like in heaven?

Is it peaceful? Is it free like they say?

Does the sun shine bright forever?

Have your fears and your pain gone away?

'Cause here on Earth it feels like everything

Good is missing since you left

And here on Earth, everything's different

There's an emptiness […]

I hope you're dancing in the sky

And I hope you're singing in the angel's choir

And I hope the angels know what they have

I'll bet it's so nice up in Heaven since you arrived

So tell me, what do you do up in Heaven?

Are your days filled with love and light?

Is there music? Is there art and adventure?

Tell me are you happy? Are you more alive?

50) Answer any question of your choice, or talk about anything you want to talk about!

HMMMM. Since the ball is in my court, I’ll answer 49) What are you currently working on? Share a few lines if you’re up for it! I tweeted a screenshot of TNotG ch1 - scene II yesterday night but I can give y’all a longer preview of a couple lines from my new QT:

Look forward to The Name of the Game being posted to AO3 on September 2023! Presently exposition scenes I-II (which total 38 pages, with scene I essentially being a speedrun to catch readers who are unfamiliar with these characters and the fandom up to speed whereas scene II is laying out all the story foreshadowings and as many Chekov Guns as I can reasonably shove in for now) are completely done and edited; I’m now trying to get to the finish line of scene III which is the more…exciting part of the three scenes (where dragon!Billy, our transmigrated black-bellied scumbag ML, meets knight!Homelander, our black-bellied scumbag shou, for the first time) before I can give an advanced notice on my socials of the week it’ll probably be posted. ✌️

[phoenixtakaramono]

The Name of the Game - Ch1 Writing Status

🤔 I’m finally getting near to the end of writing Scene II (thank g-o-d ) of TNotG ch1. Once I’m happy with it (aka I’ve read and reread it so many times writing and editing it, I cannot bear to look at it anymore, haha), I can finally kick Billy, our ML, into the penultimate Scene III which is our first introduction into Task World 1 where he, in his new body, meets Knight Commander Lord/Sir John (AU Homelander).

…Scene III is another brief action segment though. *screams* I also gotta set up the briefest worldbuilding context of the Medieval Fantasy world and mayhaps introduce a couple characters. Their first “Meet Cute” has to be bombastic and striking (for both our MC and our ML) as their first impression of each other.

[phoenixtakaramono]

Tagged by the lovely @deliciouskeys 💞! (You can read it here.) Thank you for the tag!

Rules: post the names of the files of your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you asks with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it. If you want, tag as many people as you have WIPS.

Honestly my file names are very to the point (acronyms of the AO3 fic titles) so there isn’t much of a guessing game for what you’re seeing, haha. I’ll only post the main ones I’d pinned on my tumblr bio (The Name of the Game, Truce, The Untold Tale, A Prince and His Baron, Finders Keepers, Green and Gold):

TNotG ch1

Truce ch3

Truce ch4

TUT ch6

P&B ch5

FK ch7

G&G ch17

Alternatively, to make things interesting, if you’d like, you’re free to Ask me anything from these works’ plot outline instead:

TNotG Plot Outline

Truce Plot Outline

TUT Plot Outline

P&B Plot Outline

FK Plot Outline

G&G Plot Outline

I tag: @fuckingpajamas, @the-legend-of-chel, @officially-tilly, and anyone else who wants to do this. ✨

[phoenixtakaramono]

You may or may not recognise me. Congratulations on getting the prologue up! 🎉💝

Kitakin, I recognize your pfp anywhere. 🎉Thank you! The behemoth that is TNotG ch1 is finally posted to AO3! Wow, I’d really played myself; 33K wordcount for just a prologue itself, haha. 🎉

It only took literal blood, sweat, and tears to get to the finish line but by golly, we got there.

[phoenixtakaramono]

RE: TNotG CH1 PUBLISH DATE TO AO3 (FINAL RESULTS FROM THE POLL)

…What did I say about a tie? 😂 The poll ends with our fourth tie, ahhhhhhhh!

Silver lining: you’ll get the full intended experience, and hopefully by then Twitter & Tumblr get their sh*t together so I can send the tweet/post out to alert my readers when it’s ready to be posted in September. Keep your eyes out 🫡 It’s 40+ pgs of food.