#well! didn't think i'd be including that backstory in this chapter!

[masque-of-plague]

what was one of ur fave scenes in supercritical to write?

FIRST OFF!! Omg hi?? 🥺🥺 Thank you for the ask!! 💕I'm so happy to have the platform to talk endlessly about supercritical asdfjals;djf

OUGH HARD QUESTION!! Specifically my favorite to write? I think my answer has to be the end of Chapter 5, with Xisuma's backstory. That scene is so much different than my normal way of writing and I really enjoyed having the opportunity to tell a short story within a longer story. It didn't matter that things were brief and vague, that was the style hehehehe I liked being able to drop little details without having to worry about resolving them or properly developing them over time. Like Three and Four can have mild homoerotic tension! Four's a grumpy tsundere who loves his wife, his daughter, and his best friend and just about nobody else. Little details that I can just say outright or include with off-handed details and either way works. In general, I just love a corruption arc as well, so that was very fun. And of course, I buried myself in Falsuma feels 😂 And now I have to live with the knowledge that if I want more supercritical!Falsuma, I have to create it. The Curse sdfasjdf

My favorite part to have written, even if I was complaining the entire time about the process of actually writing it is probably towards the end of Chapter 6. The Grian jumping scene was one of the first clear ideas that flashed through my brain when the plot came to me (I wasn't joking when I said that the plot of this story came to me fully formed skfadfj) so the reward of getting to finally write it was amazing. Along with that, I enjoyed Evil X being very very sadistic towards Grian. Might've had a little too much fun if I'm being honest 😂 And then of course their reunion and kiss 💕 Writing endings is something I put a lot of effort in, so again, the process of actually writing it was....grueling at time, but I was SO HAPPY to have written it. @mellioops illustrated the finale smooch and it felt like a part of my brain could rest happily, being able to visually see Scarian bloody and bruised but holding each other like nothing else mattered.

In GENERAL, I'd say the parts I enjoyed writing the most were definitely the office interludes with the reporters bantering with Grian. I loooove writing some silly banter. Similarly, Cub and Grian being catty at each other always made me laugh to write.

Honorable mentions for favorite scenes to write include:

The festival date where I got to be heavy handed with some metaphors and symbolism >:P Illustrated by @all54321

Their first flight where Grian goes from freaking out and being upset with Scar to actually really enjoying himself. Inspired a little bit by the time I made one of my friends go on a roller coaster with me which she hated until made her open her eyes and then we rode it again because of how much fun it was. 💕

Their first kiss scene which is ALSO NOW ILLUSTRATED BY @flykering WAHHHHH

afkasjdfa I know you asked for one scene anon but uhhhh I took the opportunity to talk about many 😂 Thank you again for the ask!! 💕

[bkblaise]

I'm dumb as hell, so can you explain me why JPtwt is so pressed about Manga leaks?

I mean, I have heard that those who leak spoilers earn some money out of it, so does this money come out of the Mangaka's pocket? If yes, then I'm against it. If not, then what's the big deal? I think there are many bigger issues than this to focus on.

Further, spoilers come weekly, I guess? That too, in Japanese language, so it's the same amount of time as the official release of a chapter—you getting me?

Hi there! Sorry the response is so long. Basically, JPtwt considers leaks ("hayabare") as a crime (it is), engaging with them is something they find extremely distasteful. Not sure why the reaction is so strong, but it is. Maybe it's being protective over manga bcs it's a big industry nationally. However me being Korean, a LOT of people pirate manhwa... so... (though manhwa is generally not as big so the gripe is spoilers & not leaks.) It's upsetting in my opinion specifically because of the fact that the spoilers themselves only come out like 2 days earlier, but, this time it came out on a Friday when they were originally on Mondays (officials come out on Wednesday. But a long time ago, I heard these came out on Fridays and in Korean? Lol. I wasn't there.) Most of the people who were targeted including myself are artists. This is the source of my gripe with this callout/block list, because we never reposted the official copyrighted material in the first place, so bombarding us with blocks and possibly getting our accounts locked when there are people who rely on commissions and a platform to gain said commissions/communicate with commissioners, for instance, is a bit... odd? They could mute us instead... Yes, there are also plenty of people posting the official panels as well, and I get their frustration. But a Japanese twitter user put it well, saying something along the lines of "these users were all also forced to see leaks just like you, except they're not being [immature] about it". In my opinion if I could disengage with leaks regarding manga I would, since this was my policy up until me getting super excited about Kaiser's backstory specifically. I previously did not post about leaks on twitter. The issue is the people posting the original leaks, but they didn't even put them front and center, which I just found confusing. I think technically since English has (online?) simurelease with Japan, it can affect sales. By how much, I'm not sure, because Twitter isn't a real good gauge of just HOW many people see the leaks (a user called Rayuga is the main one as far as I know, and their main has like 90k+ followers, so I'd imagine their reach is still above that follow count... but it also can be less, because twitter is twitter.) I apologize if this is already common knowledge because before joining twitter, I mainly got my leaks from Reddit without considering the source. Scanlations (A group called PO2? is currently scanlating Blue Lock) also probably has the same effect, which when I was in Scans, in my group we had a hard rule that an English official copy being released would warrant us to drop a series so that the author would receive fair support. So not doing that when there is an english copy, is probably damaging. I never checked if PO2 takes donations or have a Patreon or anything like that, which from my time in scans is GENERALLY looked down upon internally within the community. If they do, this is something that I wouldn't really condone openly, specifically because it's still unauthorized redistribution. Attempting to profit off of that usually is because sometimes scan groups will pay their staff. Me, personally, I always worked for free. But if they don't, then I have nothing to say. I don't think people who would have not bought the chapter even if that was their only option would've ever contributed to sales in the first place, right? So it depends. In conclusion, I'm sure there are losses. But it's hard to gauge by how much, so I simply listed all the possible factors for you to judge by yourself.

[silyabeeodess]

Thoughts on TWST Book 7: Knots in an Already Twisted History

Now that I've caught up to the available translations for Book 7's current chapters, I can't help having some thoughts on the lore that's been revealed to us. Much of this focuses on the world's history, specifically between humans and fairies, as there are some dots that aren't connecting when we look at the bigger picture. As this is a lengthy analysis, I've broken it down into sections. Please note there will be major spoilers ahead.

Where the history we know meets TWST's:

To begin, it's revealed to us in Book 7 that Night Raven College has been established since at least Lilia's days as a Royal Guardsman. While there weren't always seven distinct dorms, with Pomfiore's being the first/oldest, I get the feeling that at least Diasomnia's dorm must've existed by this time. My reasoning for this is because, even though Lilia's application came centuries ago, Maleficent still isn't mentioned except as a legendary figure in history.

I know there's probably some people who want to think of this Maleficent as the one from the 2014 film--especially with inclusion of Henry in TWST's story. However, I get a strong feeling that just isn't the case. All flashbacks have pointed us to the animated films alone and it's important to emphasize that the 2014 version of Maleficent is extremely different from every other incarnation of the character across the Disney franchise, including in Yuu's flashblacks. In 2014, she was painted as a tragic heroine that tried to undo her own curse on Aurora and helped save both the human and fairy kingdoms. I'd say that film was a complete middle finger to the original, but who's asking...? Moreover, that wouldn't explain how that ending where the two kingdoms merged peacefully changed to their being broken up again with no mention of how or why whatsoever.

More than likely, TWST's Henry is a reference, but not the same character. If he was, the timeframe also wouldn't fit since Maleficent is missing from Lilia's backstory. Even if we consider the possibility of her being Malleus' grandmother, it doesn't explain why Malenoa (except as maybe a Maleficent stand-in herself), Lord Longan, or Revaan exist or why Aurora is also missing. Yes, Silver is a heavy Aurora parallel, but Aurora should still exist just like every other Disney character explained in TWST's history: The Great Seven, the mermaid princess that was Ariel, the puppet that came to life as Pinocchio, etc., etc., etc. It wouldn't make any sense at all for only Aurora and/or Maleficent to be replaced across this entire game. Keep in mind, the characters in TWST mimic the original Disney ones, but those originals have also played their own, separate roles in the world. To call Silver Aurora's replacement would mean we would have to call all of the others replacements too when that is clearly false.

Therefore, the only possibility left is that Maleficent is much older than anyone we've seen and is no longer around because she was killed by Phillip well before even Lilia existed. This would also make sense with TWST's history being so distorted: Not even the long-lived fairies that were there during the events we see were old enough to witness Maleficent's downfall; ergo, none of them can say what truly happened outside of the stories that have been passed down to them. Which brings me to my bigger point: If Maleficent wasn't around to see the same conflict that we do, if her and Aurora's story already happened, what else has occurred that we didn't see?

A Fairy's Blessing:

This section is more of an in-between, but another point that adds to the events of Sleeping Beauty occurring much further in the past is Silver's and the Knight of Dawn's lineage. They're both described as these ethereal beauties recognizable for their blonde hair and unique eyes, a fact so important that Lilia was glad when Silver's hair color changed because other fairies would be suspicious of his features. As he points out though... they aren't natural colors. Just as Silver's hair turned to a color of moonlight from a Night Fairy's blessing, so should it have been that shining blonde from a Day Fairy's blessing. The Knight of Dawn was blessed the very same, having been given the ring that was passed on to Silver. And who else do we know that was extremely beautiful that was blessed by fairies at birth? Aurora.

Moving on...

Night Fairies vs. Day Fairies:

Despite the story pointing to a conflict between humans and fairies as a clash between species, although the Day Fairies have a direct connection to the Silver Owls, this alliance is never properly addressed. One would think that the Day Fairies would take issue with nature itself being destroyed just like the elemental fairies do, or that the Night Fairies would call them traitors or hypocrites, but neither happen. Moreover, again, what we see follows the flow of the original Sleeping Beauty, with the three fairies who give the Knight of Dawn his ring and guard Silver mimicking Flora, Fauna, and Merriweather blessing Aurora.

This conflict of interest was shown in both the animated and 2014 films: In the former, a matter of good vs. evil and, in the latter... Honestly, it wasn't well thought out beyond "spreading peace," since their entire characters were resigned mostly to comedic relief trying to wean off the original's. Thank goodness the names were changed so I don't even have to think of them as the same people. Maybe they were actually bodysnatchers that kidnapped the real Flora, Fauna, and Merriweather.

Let's review what fairies really are and how their hierarchy works in TWST's world. To repeat what was covered in the Fairy Gala event, the fairies aren't all one, solidary people like Book 7 presents them as. There are those like Malleus who can pass as human and there are those who take on a smaller, more traditional appearance like what we typically think of; there are those who transform into beasts and those who exist as manifestations of natural elements; they speak different languages and even their leaders won't recognize each other, just as human civilizations often don't. All of this, Malleus himself explains, which is why he couldn't help when the fairies came in and stole the mage stone. Clearly, the Day and Night fairies fall in-line with this example: They are literally named as polar opposites of each other.

There's another factor to consider as well, and that's that, just because the Day Fairies sided with the Knight of Dawn, that doesn't mean they were on the same side as Henry or the Silver Owls or are even necessarily against the Night Fairies as a whole. Why? Well, we see the Knight of Dawn disagree with Henry's actions and save Lilia with a pre-hatched Malleus. He didn't go directly against Henry because he felt indebted to and was scared for the king's life due to an illness. The Knight of Dawn was a good person forced to serve a bad one; facing Malenoa, an enemy just as prejudiced (it doesn't matter if you feel she's justified or not, she was still fine treating innocent humans like dirt like our NRC group); and doing the best he could to do what was right despite the terrible, complicated circumstances he was stuck with.

While this gets into strong theory territory, the reason I brought up Aurora before is because I think this might actually explain the Day Fairies' strange allegiance. They aren't allied with humans or fairies, but to one, special lineage: Aurora's and Phillip's. If you think about it, the Knight takes on the traits of both. He's as beautiful as Aurora, her blessings passed down to him, while as strong as Phillip in combat, his battle with Malenoa a much more tragic parallel to Phillip's battle with Maleficent. He carries himself with "virtue and truth," and even has a magic sword.

Why was he originally an abandoned orphan despite this royal lineage? Well, probably for the same reasons he died and Silver was left alone: Whether or not it was well after their deaths, someone took over Aurora's kingdom at some point in the timeline thanks to territorial disputes or other factors; Maybe even someone of Maleficent's lineage/species, since Malenoa's castle looked exactly like the Sleeping Beauty castle we know from the film. It's confirmed in-game as well that the Night Fairies had another, more fortified one that better matched Maleficent's. The Day Fairies' allegiance never changed, or at least the allegiance of three of those fairies: They've always supported Aurora's bloodline. As is true to real life, it's not as simple as one side started this conflict and is wholly evil--the Night Fairies aren't all like Maleficent; humans aren't all like Henry; and, even shown in individual relationships in the story, we have Malenoa and Lilia who weren't like Lord Longan in their original views of the world and its people--but rather that power dynamics have been constantly shifting over time with both good and evil individuals caught up in them. Moreover, because of that waxing and waning, Aurora's story is almost repeating itself in Silver's--only with other humans acting as an added threat to his life.

Is there another story playing out different from what we believe?

All that being said, there is another, small possibility that might be worth thinking about: That TWST's history as the characters know it might be real after all rather than distorted over the years as we thought. I take this into consideration because of our experiences with Mickey. Just like us, Mickey comes from another world, another reality in the Disney line-up. Therefore, there's a chance that, just like how we're able to communicate with him across dreams, maybe what we're seeing aren't flashbacks into TWST's past, but rather reflections of what has occurred in Mickey's timeline instead, as a world potentially existing similarly to Kingdom Hearts or how interactions in the parks are presented, to help us deal with the current issues we are having in TWST's world. This also would help us explain why territories are so different from the ones we know from the films. For example, barring a name change, there is no Greece that Hercules takes place in, but the Kingdom of Heroes and the Island of Woe. TWST may be taking the concept of separate canons into the realm of an existing multiverse within its lore. In this case, history isn't being twisted by those retelling it, but by alternate timelines taking shape. Because of this, anything that isn't adding up, like with the Draconias living in the Sleeping Beauty castle and the land being taken over by the Silver Owls, could be dismissed: We would have to take Yuu's visions simply as warnings and shake off everything we've known.

EDIT: Adding this late, but it occurred to me that the Tsum events could also possibly be evidence for this, as they also come from another world and act as AU versions of the characters. With those events seeming to be more of a simple, funny crossover with the brand, it's hard to consider it canon. Still, Yana Toboso is known for creating comedic side-stories in her works that hint/contain important information we wouldn't fully understand until later.

Again though, I list this as a small possibility rather than a theory. There's not much else to give way to it beyond that fact that other worlds exist like Yuu's and Mickey's. We would likely need to explore more of those worlds and how they're connected before considering this idea further. Another clear factor going against this is that there's also not enough in TWST's history altered except that certain events are being painted in a different light. Take Aladdin's story for instance: In one tale society passed down, he's a portrayed as trickster that Jafaar caught red-handed. In another, he's just a man that shared bread with starving children, leading to a saying that "if you eat a big baguette, you'll never go hungry again." They're both technically true events playing out just like we have always known them to since childhood: It's clearly how they've been told and in what way they're connected that's changed, with no one knowing that it's the same person in both stories.

Anyway, thank you all again for sticking with me through another long post.

[derangedanomaly]

Umm. . . May I ask about the growth of your characters? (Including Chaos?)

Ah! Sure! Alright- *cracks knuckles* gonna be yapping! :3

My very early idea of my AU, Overcopy, was never supposed to grow the way it did now. I was never planning to expand on it ever again after this one post, that I thought about when making myself a sandwich. I was never even expecting it getting kinda popular. But then I started getting asks about Chaos and the others.

So I started drawing these guys ironically. I was like "Oh yeah, I'll just draw these sillies for the hugs, kisses and everything! And then I'll stop!" Those who were here before this whole AU was created knows that I was mainly a writing blog. I wrote for the UTMV imagines, FICS, and other things. But the more that I drew, the more I enjoyed it. Every drawing made me feel happier! I was never so happy before.

Back then, I was really unorganized. I didn't even have Chaos' backstory created. Every post I made back then, was just what I thought would be good, and did it. That's why Chaos' old backstory is a little messy. It's not throughoutly thought about beforehand. The characters were also a really big mess. I was REALLY unprepared.

Chaos is a character that was remade MANY times before, simply because I couldn't figure it out. I honestly didn't even cared much for his design in my first ever post. Heck, he was created only because I wanted to make Nightmare suffer. I was going off of NOTHING at all when I got asks like: How was he created? I came up with everything on the spot. And I think it shows.. TT

I've started properly rewriting his story/writing a script like 5 months ago. I started out by writing like basic points. Some general idea. This was actually the first time that I've thought about the MTT boys being unfiltered. I honestly did that because I felt like they were being weirdly nice. It just doesn't suit them.. (I also love Horror/gore). I planned to reveal this in the comics actually, keeping it a secret. But my friend, @idkwhaticandonow asked about it in one of my asks. So... I caved in and revealed it to y'all.

I'm gonna be completely honest about Blade...... I didn't have much personality thought about in the past. The only thing that I had about him (and made it into his whole personality), was that he liked Anime, and was a loser with no game. I started fleshing him out when I was writing the psychology of the MTT boys. (Their unfiltered versions I mean.)

I started writing Blade first, because it was just much easier to visualize him as a psychopath.

The hardest one to write, was probably Ted. I made him in my AU into such a sweetheart, that I didn't know how to make his unfiltered version. I don't want to spoil much, since I'll reveal unfiltered Ted very soon.

Writing Ace was honestly a little refreshing. He's such a yapper when he's filtered, so it was nice writing him be deadly silent.

Writing their psychology was actually so much fun! But I won't deny that it was difficult at times. I had a lot of breakdowns where I just couldn't think about it anymore, and instead went to play a game. Other times, it was very easy and went smoothly. But still... It was fun!

Nightmare.... I honestly tried to write Nightmare as canon-like as possible. I don't know why, I just really like canon Nightmare. But, I'm not the og creator of Nightmare sans, so I couldn't really achieve that well. But I tried my best! Making his character was actually.... Very easy. I'd say that Nightmare was actually the easiest one to write! Which is insane thinking about it now. The only difficult part about him, are his complex feelings. Those are usually the times where I ask myself, "how would he even react to that?"

Overcopy is still a project in production, but I'm trying my hardest every day to make the finished product have some value, and actually look good. I'm working on the script almost every day, correcting errors or any nonsensical things. I'm almost done correcting chapter 1 and chapter 2, then, I'll go into choosing a format, which I'll present it in.

You can definitely be excited for it! This is probably my biggest project yet, and I'm actually proud of it by far. ^^

[mama-qwerty]

I seem to remember you mentioning in a post somewhere that you were planning on having Callie adopt Shadow as well. Is that still happening or am I completely making it up and you never said that?

Good memory!

So yeeeaaaah, here's the thing about that.

When I first created Callie, her backstory was a lot different. I changed it about a week before I wrote the most current chapter of Fall of the Status Quo.

Originally, Callie was Maria.

I've got something on here explaining my headcanon for their story, and bits of writing of Maria meeting Shadow and interacting with him and everything, and I have a story in mind that goes through everything she and Shadow went through on the Ark. Whether I actually get it written is in the air.

She eventually gets fed up with how they're treating the boy and tries to get him out of there. Things go to shit, she's shot, and Shadow's hauled away. A few soldiers loyal to Gerald get her out of there, patched up, and she changes her name to avoid being found by General Towers, the dude in charge of the Ark. She's told the whole site was scrubbed, meaning everything involved in it was destroyed--Shadow included.

She lost her boy, and was so hurt by everything she never wanted to get close to anyone else.

Why'd I change it?

Because it would have weakened Shadow's motivation. Finding out that the one person he loved most and thought was dead is alive--whew, good thing he didn't have to go through any personal struggles or layers of grief!--would have taken everything that is Shadow and tossed it aside.

And I finally realized that Callie being Maria was actually kinda dumb.

So I nixed it. I think Cal's backstory works better for her, and it makes her a person in her own right and not just someone that people should care about because she was Actually Someone Important all along!

Will I bring Shadow in? That's up in the air. I need to know how to handle him, and right now I don't. Maybe when the 3rd movie comes out I'll have ideas for him, but right now, I don't have his personality fleshed out well enough to warrant bringing him in. And I have a hard enough time with my current multi-chapter fics, I'd need to have a whole new one to bring in Shads, which I don't have the energy for right now.

If he does show up, I figure he and Cal can bond over losing someone they should have protected, and failed to do so. The one person they each loved and would have given their lives for is gone, all while protecting them.

[acacia-may]

Hello yello, it's me again, hope you're having a wonderful day so far! If it's not a bother, could I get a response from you about Nagisa in the numbers ask game?

10 and 23 since those are his birthday numbers. If it's no problem, I'd love to hear about 2 as well. Thanks again for everything you've written and done!

Hi friend! Aww you're so sweet. 🥰 I really should be thanking you for all the great Nagisa and Warriors of Hope content and for your ask. I would absolutely love to talk about my son, Nagisa! 💙 (I love that you picked his birthday numbers too! That's great!) Thank you so much for the ask, and I hope you're having a wonderful day as well. Take care and cheers!!😊

I'm including this picture from aminoapps and this gif from getyarn just because I can.

Questions from this Character Ask Game

Answers and Headcanons are below the cut. (Warnings: Spoilers for UDG and vague discussion of childhood trauma & abuse)

2. When I think I truly started to like them (or dislike them, if you've sent me a character I don't like)

This is kind of a complicated answer because as my sister would say I "did not experience Danganronpa like a normal person" 😂 so I apologise in advance for the ramblings. My younger sister was super into Danganronpa especially Ultra Despair Girls and when she told me about it (and suggested I play UDG), she actually told me a little about Nagisa and that she thought I would really like his character. (A/N: I have quite the collection of favourite characters who are high-strung, overachieving perfectionists). I usually don't play a lot of video games, but I was curious so I decided to compromise and read the manga for UDG (which definitely gave me a different perspective on things than my sister, I think, because there were some changes...but that's another story). Since I kind of went into the story with more information (from my sister) and the feeling I would probably end up liking his character, I think I had a more positive view of Nagisa much earlier on than I would have otherwise.

The big moment I started really liking him though was probably when he swooped in to protect Kotoko which was a much bigger and more dramatic thing in the manga than in the game. [A/N: There was definitely a bit of confusion there because my sister was really perplexed by why in my mind Nagisa and Kotoko were such close friends whereas in my sister's mind (from the game) she was much closer friends with Masaru. Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot of Masaru in the manga so I didn't really start to like him nearly as much until I played the game, but I digress...] Anyway... I'll include some of the frames just for reference.

So yes, Nagisa gets his heroic moment where he protects his friend and then he tries to help Komaru and Toko out of the city. If that isn't enough, he then starts to go into his backstory, and everything just clicks that he really is such a good kid at heart, he's just been corrupted and manipulated due to Junko (and Monaca) exploiting his trauma and taking advantage of the fact he was broken, vulnerable, and starving for love. He suddenly becomes a very tragic character, and I just wanted to adopt and protect him. My poor boy. He's been my son ever since.

And I will say it was such a fun perspective to go into the UDG game already liking his character because it was so exciting any time he and the other little hope warriors showed up. My sister was making fun of me (in good fun) when we were playing because I was very afraid cautious of the Monokumas (A/N: I'm not usually a fan of shoot 'em up games) and wouldn't never run (because you can't aim the weapon & run at the same time), so I was really just constantly shuffling around slowly, hiding behind things, and literally jumping during the jump scares. (A little pathetic, sure, but I was trying to survive here). But then we get to Chapter 4 when the objective is protecting Nagisa, and it completely cured me of my animatronic-robot-bear-phobia. I went full "Mama Bear" mode (no pun intended) running around destroying those things left and right like "Not My Son!!" My sister teases me about it to this day and says, "I'm so glad you finally learned how to run." 😂 Good times.

10. Describe the character in one sentence

This one is a bit difficult for me since I tend to be really wordy and also because I'm imagining Nagisa trying to describe himself in one sentence and I really don't know if he'd be able to do it--he'd have to fight that tendency to write a whole dissertation with subheadings and a table of contents. 😅 I'm going to have to fight that too, but I'll try my best...

Nagisa is wise beyond his years and an old-soul: highly intelligent, responsible, and conscientious, and though he can be perfectionistic, overachieving, and hard on himself and is burdened with deep internal pain from a childhood of abuse, he cares deeply for his friends and genuinely wants to make the world better so that other children don't have to suffer in the way that he did (he is misguided on this point, but his culpability is diminished given that he was a severely traumatized child who was taken advantage of and manipulated into criminal activity when he was vulnerable and he feels genuine guilt and remorse for what he did).

[A very long sentence 😅]

23. Future headcanon

I really want good things for Nagisa in the future and would love to see him reach a healthy, more well-adjusted place when he grows up. I know it's basically the apocalypse, but I really like to think that he and the other Warriors of Hope do eventually get the therapy they so desperately need and actually get to heal after all of the horrible and traumatic things they've all been through. In terms of more specific headcanons here are a few:

When they are all young professionals/working adults, Nagisa, Jataro, and Masaru are roommates which is often a bit of a comical arrangement since they are really so vastly different as people despite sharing a living space. Nagisa can be a little intense when it comes to keeping the apartment clean and organized, for instance. (To be fair, Masaru and Jataro are both kind of slobs if left to their own devices). However, he wants things to be fair and for everyone to do their part so he devises a chore chart to track who is supposed to clean what that week. Jataro and (especially) Masaru tend to act kind of like big kids, so Nagisa resorts to having incentives (like paying to get them ice cream) if they do all their chores. [Bonus: Masaru often complains to Kotoko about the chore chart, and she thinks it's kind of ridiculous à la 'You're a grown man--why don't you just buy your own ice cream?' but Masaru insists it tastes better when someone else is paying for it. 😂]

Nagisa eventually earns a Ph.D and works for Future Foundation. (As much as his friends like to teasingly refer to him as "Dr. Nagisa," it actually takes a while for them to all adjust to other people calling him "Dr. Shingetsu" all the time). Nagisa takes a lot of pride in his work developing and implementing air filtration systems worldwide. He is always very excited and enthusiastic whenever he talks about it, but his work is so complicated that none of his friends are entirely certain what it is he does exactly. He quickly rises through the ranks at Future Foundation until he works under the direct supervision of Togami who thinks he's very a conscientious employee and trusts him enough to put him in charge of several important projects. Since Nagisa still struggles with his perfectionism, he often ends up working long hours and has to fight a lot of self-imposed stress. His friends often take it upon themselves to remind Nagisa to take care of himself, and they periodically try to get him out of the apartment to do fun things. Nagisa's idea of fun, however, would be much more akin to staying home and relaxing with a good book.

I'm going to take some inspiration from you and also have a few headcanons about Older Nagisa as a dad since I would absolutely love to see him settle down and have a family of his own one day, when he is ready.

Nagisa's family is the most important thing in the world to him and his children are his pride and joy in life. He strives to be the best father he can, and he is incredibly devoted and attentive though he does have a tendency to worry about his children very much. When his son takes after him with similar worries, self-imposed stress, and perfectionism, for instance, Nagisa is very concerned, and it hits him particularly hard since the last thing he wanted was for his child to have the same kinds of burdens he does. However, he helps his son through that and reassures him that he has a father who loves him regardless of his successes or failures. It is incredibly important to Nagisa that his children never doubt that his love for them is unconditional and will never need to be earned by living up to any expectations--he will love and support his kids no matter what and just wants them to try their best.

Despite having several children in the house, Nagisa's home is not particularly chaotic and loud since most of his kids aren't particularly rambunctious. His eldest daughter has a big personality, however, and often gets Nagisa to play all kinds of dress up games and tea parties with her. She also often asks him to style her hair into little antenna like his, and though he doesn't quite understand the appeal, he tries his best as hairdresser.

His eldest daughter's more happy-go-lucky and generally upbeat and cheerful personality sometimes causes Nagisa to wonder if he and his friends may have been like his little girl if not for the abuse, and the thought breaks his heart a little. His younger daughter is much more quiet and pensive than her sister and was adopted by Nagisa and his family after being rescued from an abusive situation. Coming from the background that he did, Nagisa is very sensitive to his daughter's trauma as she slowly begins to heal and is welcomed into the family.

When Nagisa's kids are very, very little they love to play with their dad's hair antenna and his reading glasses (which he eventually has from squinting at his work from hours on end).

Nagisa tries his best to be a very involved and attentive father who always makes sure to spend time with his family despite his busy schedule. One of his favorite activities for his family to do together is reading aloud to his children before he tucks them in at night.

[kaydeefalls]

would love some director's commentary on basically any part of Carthaginians you'd like to talk about, but my favourite part was the second last chapter/the siege itself and I'd love to know how you worked out what trajectory to take the characters on through all the historical records. would also love to know more of your thoughts on Yusuf and Nico's backstory and families, if you have thoughts!

Thanks! <3 All right, Carthaginians, let's go.

The siege - or, more specifically, the final Fall of Carthage - was definitely what came first in terms of planning out this fic. When I first had the idea of writing Joe & Nicky's backstory further back in history, the Punic Wars were a logical setting to start with due to simple geography - Carthage being in modern day Tunisia, and Rome being, well, Rome.

So as with any vague idea, I started with a wikipedia deep dive, kind of assuming that I'd stick to the general canon template of them killing each other for the first time in battle and then becoming lovers afterward. But I immediately stumbled across the fact that Carthage's final stand, after the city had surrendered, consisted of about 900 Roman defectors in the Temple of Eshmoun setting the temple on fire around them rather than allowing Rome to execute them. Which. So that was obviously going to Nicky's arc. Which meant he would have to defect to Carthage much earlier on. Which meant I could give him and Joe a much richer relationship build over the course of the war itself. At that point, there was no question that their first deaths would be more of a suicide pact due to having no other options. I thought about having them, IDK, leap off the temple roof together or something, but nah, it felt much stronger to have them kill each other directly, as per canon, but with a complete subversion of what got them to that point.

I wrote chronologically and posted as I went, but it definitely helped going in to know exactly where they had to end up. For example, I deliberately seeded their exact dialogue together in the temple at the end of the siege as lines in their very first idle political debate in Rome in chapter one, so that Nicky could do a complete 180 on his initial stance in the debate by the end.

Embarrassingly, while that was all planned out from the beginning, I was WELL into the middle of the fic before realizing that, uh, Eshmoun is literally the god of healing. I mean, I knew that from the start, but I literally had my own personal OH DUH moment that they would be dying and resurrecting for the first time in the temple of the god of healing, and would OF COURSE think that Eshmoun himself had literally healed them due to their sacrifice on his own figurative altar. So that was an incredibly lucky piece of historical fact to tie into the immortality narrative.

In terms of their family backstories there - I think Yusuf's is about as fleshed out in the fic as it's going to be, it's all his POV and I included all the family info/dynamics I'd thought about. Nicky's didn't get as much detail in the fic, since we're never in his head and he didn't talk about it as much, but his family was the rough equivalent of landed gentry back in Genua - relatively high status for his own tribe, but doesn't mean much to the Roman Republic as a whole. They were granted Roman citizenship when the Genuates allied with Rome, and Nicky received a formal education, but their family wealth took a huge hit during the second Punic War (when Carthage sacked the city) and never really recovered, which is why Nicky left to join the Roman army and make his own fortune. I think he's not the oldest of his siblings - not the one expected to inherit and carry on the family legacy - but probably the second son, with several younger siblings in the mix as well. He has a strained relationship with his father and a better one with his mother, who I imagine died before he left home. He misses his younger sibs, who he helped raise, but never returns to Genua in their lifetimes.

So...yeah! I spent all year with the world of this fic in my head, it's been hard to let go of it. Thank you for asking!

[unintentional-edgelord]

Was scrolling through you’re blog and noticed for one post you had really neat designs for Ashe and Grey for a later chapter of your ZXA retelling, but that made me wonder: Do you have a written outline for the fic or is it just a bunch of ideas and you’re figuring out the rest? I ask cause when I write chapter fics I have to write an outline doc of what happens in every chapter, almost like a plot summary, just to keep track of my ideas in a cohesive order. But I wasn’t sure how other fanfic writers handle approaching things and well you got the advantage of also following the game so I thought I’d ask ahah.

Hey hey! First off, thanks for the ask, I hope you're enjoying the fic and the art for it!!

Secondly, I'm approaching the fic slightly differently to how I normally plan my writing. Since I know how the plot of Advent goes as per the game, I'm treating the original script as my "outline," and writing notes for what I really want to include or change from the game, and justifications for a level sometimes. These notes don't always stay the same though! For instance, a note I had written for an early chapter:

You can see I'd planned to have Grey stop Buckfire monologuing pretty early on, and shoot Rospark too. But the why of how it happened changed (ie, original plan as above to catch them off guard, vs Ashe telling him to because the Pseudoroid freaked her out).

Normally, when I write, I have a rough outline of events in chronological order and write the chapters based on that. I did try the "chapter by chapter" approach for my biggest original work, but unfortunately it went off the rails and I had to throw all the planning out the window! So I haven't really tried it again lol.

I also tend to have separate documents for lore and character notes as well, which goes for all of my work.

In the case of FTGFTF, I've got a massive document that details quirks and backstory notes for the characters - for instance, since we were only given hints of the Big Four's backstories in game, I wrote down a summary of what I think they were, and this colours the way I write them in the fic. That's definitely been a lot of fun to explore!

Hope this answers your question and I didn't go overboard in doing so!

[altocat]

”A Monster’s Threads” QnA please!!! (I know I’m late lol sorryyy)

Were there any films, songs, or other fics that particularly inspired you when developing the story?

If you added more chapters, where would they go and what would they cover?

Did you plan out the whole story or did you come up with it as you went?

Who was the easiest character to write? Who was the hardest?

Did you ever get emotional or cry when writing certain scenes?

Did you pull any punches with the heavier content? Where? When?

What was your fav scene to write in the whole fic?

How did your perspective grow/shift on certain characters after writing them?

If you could choose one scene to be fully illustrated, which one would it be?

Hhhhh yesss thank you! AMT is my first fic, though I was not nearly in the know as I am now. So let's see...

In terms of inspirations, it's weird. I remember reading a pretty accurate novelization of the Nibelheim Incident and feeling inspired to write my own version. There've also been plenty of Seph backstory fics out there as well and while I initially took inspiration from a few, I very quickly branched out from there. Novel inspirations included Gregory Maguire's Wicked, though only in design and not in practice or flow. I also listened to a LOT of Glass Animals for the Sephgen chapters.

My biggest regret is not having more Gast-Seph chapters. I'm still beating myself up over it. I maybe would have liked to have fleshed out a few more chapters with Seph in Wutai, and possibly integrating his scenes from Before Crisis as well, especially his encounter with Elfe. Her asking him why he fights I feel is an often overlooked but pivotal character moment for him. I also probably would have rewritten a lot of the Aerith chapters as well, with more of a focus on Ifalna.

AMT was originally going to be "snippets", hence the shortage of Gast chapters. It was going to jump through huge chunks of time with a focus on important canon moments. By chapter 7ish I started to get more ambitious.

Easiest character to write is Hojo. Or Jenova. Not that Jenova is an actual "character", but writing more animalistic horror characters is a lot easier than characters who go through an arc. Hojo is easy because he's a dick, and already knows the whole score. He knows exactly what he wants and what he expects. Less guessing work.

In terms of emotion, there were a few instances. Seph, Gen, and Angeal sharing pasta together. Angeal's farewell. And especially the ending. I'd been waiting for the ending for a long, long time.

There was lots of stuff that was eventually cut or shortened. Sephiroth was originally going to wear a shock collar most of his childhood. Angeal's body was going to take a bad tumble off the gurney and/or coffin while Seph and Zack had an argument over it. Hojo was going to be a lot creepier with some...unsettling implications. It was all too much. So I didn't go there.

Favorite scene was the penultimate confrontation between Sephiroth and Zack in Nibelheim. I just wanted to write Seph going apeshit insane. I was practically losing my mind during the buildup. It was the easiest chapter to write because I was blazing through on pure malicious glee.

I put some Sephzack in there, or at least hints of it. Probably wouldn't have leaned into that as much since I'm more staunchly into Sephgen. I know a lot more about certain points of lore now than I did at the time of writing it, though I did a lot of research. There's some things that are kind of screwy timeline-wise. I think I now view certain characters with a bit more sympathy now. Genesis, for example, while I liked him at the time of writing it, occasionally comes off as a genuine asshole. I might have softened him up a bit, though I did try to be really fair to him in the fic. At least, I hope I did.

HHHH illustrations. The waterfall scene was illustrated thanks to a lovely commission by @manalovebot. And that was one of the big ones for me. So if I really had to think about it...perhaps the end of part 2 with Seph on the roof. Or Lucrecia seeing baby Seph at the beginning of part 3. Or maybe even Sephiroth fighting Zack in Nibelheim. I'm really not kidding when I say that if I had any artistic abilities, I'd have every chapter illustrated.

[just-my-latest-hyperfixation]

Congrats on the (well-deserved) 1k! Can't miss that opportunity to ask you stuff >w< 🧠 What's a random little headcanon from (You got me) in the palm of your hand that you didn't get to include, a scene you scrapped or a detail you changed? 

✍️ What was your writing process like for Hic sunt dracones?

💀 Would you rather drink tea or coffee?

Thank you so much for the kind words and for the questions! 🥰💖

🧠

Altogether, there was not a lot I scrapped but rather a lot I added. The original outline for this fic was four chapters rather than the six and an epilogue it ended up with, but then the sex scene spiraled out of control (like they tend to do), and then Steve wanted to visit Eddie in his rent before Nancy showed up, and then the platonic soulmates wanted to have a moment in Robin's bedroom and how could I say no to extra Stobin?😅

I'm still very happy with how the fic turned out bc I really like the pacing and I think the extra bits really add to the character dynamics. 🥰

✍️

Oh my God, here we go!

So, everyone is gonna laugh at me now, but when I first thought of that story, I thought it would be SHORT! 🤣

When I started writing, I had everything up to Eddie’s first shift and the fullmoon sex scene planned out, and I thought it would be a relatively quick write that I just needed to get out of my system.

By the time I finished chapter 1, I began to realize that this would … not be the case. 😅 The thing kept getting longer and longer and the backstory and world building kept getting more and more complex, and that poor guy was still stuck in dragon form. 😂

By the time I finally got to the big reveal, I had a solid idea of the ending I wanted (dramatic tower plummet, followed by happy end and throne sex), but the in-between was very, very foggy, and remained like that until I wrote the escape scene almost. (The outline for the entire middle part literally read “they hang out at the lair and fuck a lot” for the longest time. It gave me massive anxiety.) It literally all fell into place when I figured out the role I wanted Wayne to play, and from that moment on, it finally came together. (Except for chapter 13, aka the longest fight scene in existence, which felt like I was bodily wrestling it out of my brain and into the doc.)

The flower crown, btw? Not mentioned in the outline with a single word, I only thought of adding that about one chapter prior. 😅🌸

💀

I'm a coffee gal through and through. There's one brand of tea I'd kill for, though - mango and ginger flavored. I can drink that stuff like water.

I'm celebrating 1k followers - let's chat! 💖

[themoomoorn]

LA SAGA DE BAGUETTE PART DEUX: BIENVENUE A CHILI'S

It's time to balance our blossoming war with activity micromanagement on a magical, overloaded airship-fortress-sports bar. Y'know, as you do.

The Somniel may not have a Chili's, but they better have a Chocolate Chip Paradise Pie in that kitchen anyway!

...what do you mean Chili's doesn't make it anymore!?

Emblème, Engager!

This enchanted doggo poops out Bond Shards if you feed and pet it. That's nice and all, but can it also poop out Happy Hour priced custom margaritas? Didn't think so.

Yeah, not weird at all /s

Also, can we please just have a normal war camp again??? I'm siding with the Tellius fandom on that one.

After getting acquainted with the Somniel, we begin our journey proper by getting a set of rings from Firene, the perpetual springtime kingdom and also the most peaceful and religious of the lot. Their current monarch is Ève, and her heir is Prince Alfred. We meet him his sister, Princess Céline, and their respective retainer duos after finding out that a local town is being sacked by Corrupted.

Per Lumera, Lythos kept two rings and the other countries got two to three apiece. She kept the ring for Sigurd, and Alear had Marth's on during their epic millenium-spanning post-con crash. For Firene, they have the rings for Celica and Micaiah (the latter we find for ourselves later on, as it's in a shrine at the border).

Here I have Alfred Engaged with Sigurd, and Céline will always enter combat in this Chapter with Celica in tow. Both of them rock their respective outfits well and are also good fits for their respective skillsets. I do find it odd that Sigurd's Engaged hair color is a vibrant lilac though.

I wonder if this crystal is made of trix yogurt?

Here we meet Veyle, our Mysterious Fragile Female Waif-type. As you can see by the BDSM choker and the chains on her legs, she will presumably continue the Great Shouzou Kaga's legacy of women being too "pure" and "innocent" to be evil. As these interviews show, the guy presumably needed to have his teeth pulled out with pliers to even conceive a character like Jugdral's Queen Hilda of Chronos.

This game continues the trend of NPCs having banger designs, and for Firene, this includes a lot of floral prints. I love the dresses, and I'd love a button-up with a pattern like it. The item shopkeeper is also really pretty!

Framme is the only character who sorta responds positively to being gifted horse manure. Sigh.

"Alear has that sadness and longing in his eyes that you only see in eastern European gay porn."

Exercise mini-games, which offer a temporary stat boost. Here we have Alear doing push-ups in improper form. Most of the Somniel activities are more valuable for grinding up Bond Fragments more than the activity itself, although fishing is a nice extra spot for cooking ingredients.

In contrast to her daughter's absurd gown, Queen Ève's is nicer, and also has a prettier color palette.

We are introduced to our smex appeal female henchman of the game, Zephia. I will be inevitably disappointed when we are forced to see her sob backstory and be forced to sympathize with her.

She's also voiced by Elizabeth Maxwell in English, and while I know she's had many, many roles, I still mainly hear P5's Sae Niijima, which in this case is kind of hilarious.

This line is actually pretty funny. And hey, if Alfred actually didn't have the capacity of trampling over people like Sigurd himself did, lance abilities, or a workout routine that would presumably fit right in on TikTok, then Nelucce would have a leg to stand on!

Hopefully his passing was uneventful and not the stuff of nightmares, like poor Cornelius.

...Is Vander a cat???

In good old Post-2012 FE fashion, we have a Paralogue off the beaten path to do before running to the border to get Micaiah's ring. And in said same fashion, this map is where we recruit our steroid-injected child who presumably got Tommy John surgery at the age of seven under the pretense that it would allegedly enhance their performance. Yes, I do like baseball actually.

Anyway, our trainee unit for this game is Jean, and he is my new fictional son. I love him. I also love his hot dad and his drip.

Alear raids a farm at night and steals a nice, light, feathery cock. Kinda shocked we don't have more memes of Alear hoarding animals for the Somniel's farm.

Hiyah Papaya, it's time to meet Yunaka, who's actually one of the best characters AND units in this game, despite having one of my least favorite designs, but that's also the power of a good story and good voiceover work (Laura Post in this case) for you.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about Emblem Micaiah, who, like some of the other Emblems, is presented here in sanitized fashion. Yunaka enters the scene Engaged with her, which is convenient as Micaiah's Shine tome lights up this Fog of War Map.

Also, Fog of War maps are back. Sweet.

Veyle is back. Another plot trinket is bestowed upon us. The vivid red shade presumably denotes that it's eeeeeeviiiiilllll.

Another Paralogue before we wrap things up and head to Brodia, and it's Anna's. We get a refreshing change of pace with a female bandit boss and some female bandits, which is pretty cool actually. She even has a 9/10 design.

The remaining 1 point was knocked off for the micro hot pants.

I didn't bother with screenshots, but Anna is a viable playable unit after being completely shitty in 3H. She's a pretty mixed bag in terms of stats, but her Personal Skill is extremely useful providing her Luck levels up (She can plunder 500 gold from an enemy she defeats off a percentage of her base Luck stat). This also might be the most likable Anna so far...not that that's a very high hurdle to clear.

Her being 11 in this game is also still odd, but she got a far better and less rotten English VA out of it in the end.

And that wraps up the Firene Arc. Next time, we head to Brodia, the testosterone-poisoned Sparta analogue. What rings will their royals have, and will they be as inoffensive and mild as -

...wait.

I hear rattling.

Rolling along the grass, over there...

Is that...a bracelet...?

...oh no.

ALEAR NO -

[baejax-the-great]

I have genuinely spent countless hours with nothing but All That Glitters on the brain since like mid December. As it comes to a close I just wanted to thank you for your writing. I’ve gotten so much happiness from it. (And also sadness but in a good, escapism-y way). I don’t think i’ve ever been so attached to a fic before. So sad to see this story end but grateful to have been blessed with ever encountering it in the first place. ❤️❤️

🎽👟🥇🐕

Thank you for this lovely message, Nonnie. I'm going to use it as an excuse to ramble way too long instead of writing the epilogue.

When I wrote even if it's a lie, I played around with a lot of tragic backstories for Achilles, though mostly non-seriously. I didn't really plan on including it--his relationship with Pat was basically comic relief. I wasn't even going to have it in eiial other than allusions to his fame and his clear fall from whatever fame that was, but a couple people asked, so I decided to have him give the abridged version to Zag.

Someone said they would read it if I ever elaborated on that story, and I remember thinking, lol I'm never writing that. Partly because at the time I assumed that painting Achilles in such a negative light just wouldn't go over well. But I also didn't really have an angle for how I wanted to tell that story, so it didn't interest me.

I don't totally remember how/when I came up with the plot for Gold, but I know @johaerys-writes was the one who really encouraged me to write it and I think @juliafied helped me with it a lot. I believe I posted the first chapter the day before I went out of town on what would be the first of many trips this autumn/winter. It's one of very few fics I wrote on google docs, mostly on my ipad because I don't own a laptop.

I think I was only a chapter or two into Gold when I started writing what is still titled in my docs as "Post-Gold." This fic ended up being such an interesting challenge because I had written what happens before and what happens after, and now I had over 20 years to cover to explain it all.

Here's what I knew at the start.

1. Patroclus got thrown out of his house the minute he got home from Seoul.

2. Achilles sets his own life on fire and Patroclus takes the blame for it, resulting in Achilles moving to Tartarus in shame and not returning until 2022 with Zagreus.

3. Because I'd already written it in eiial, the first time Patroclus sees Achilles in years, the first thing he does is make out with him. (I regretted this one a lot, but hopefully I made it work 🤣)

4. A 39yo got a silver medal in the javelin at the 2020 Olympics. As a result, one of the first lines I wrote was "Take me to Paris, Achilles." That entire scene changed, but I kept the line.

So then it was a game of filling in what actually happened (so much math to figure out the years and their ages lmao), and figuring out how to show the journey of two men growing up, growing apart, and then putting their lives back together. All the years were written out of order, which is why the different sections start the way they do-- originally it was just a system to help me keep track of what year it was and make sure I covered each one.

And with all of that, I thought this fic was going to be shorter than Gold. I figured each year would just be a snapshot--maybe 500-800 words to get a sense of it. Short and sweet.

I'm an idiot, of course. Just the reconciliation that took all of three sentences in eiial required over 15k words for this fic, and it could have been longer.

It was so fun to imagine all these eras of their life. I went from writing about guys who were much younger than me to men who were older than me. The way the world has changed between the year 2000 and the year 2022 is kind of astounding. Someone asked me why the boys couldn't just text each other in Gold and it's because it hadn't really been invented yet. We barely had wifi. They would have had an answering machine at their first apartment they shared with a goofy message recorded together.

To make a long, unnecessary essay short, this fic went from something I had no enthusiasm for and was certain I wouldn't write, to something I'm really proud of. I'm going to miss it.

I was talking recently with someone about this fic from Achilles' perspective-- over the 22 years, which moments would he pick as important in their lives for better or worse, and how many of them would match up with Pat's. I have no intention of writing that story, but it certainly would be a way to sit in this universe a little longer.

[bonesandthebees]

So glass divine. I knew Wilbur had trauma. I was well aware that was a thing. We’ve even had snippets of dialogue from his past, but I was Not ready for a flashback. I’m going to cry. They really just kidnapped him and did not tell him what his purpose was. He had no self-worth even before they got to him. He didn’t have a connection to Clara before She chose him! He felt like she didn’t even know he existed because that’s how shitty his cards were. It also makes it extra fucked up because he got dragged of the streets and told he was chosen to serve a goddess who had never done anything for him for the rest of his life. Sure, it came with lifting in the lap of luxury, but also incredible dehumanisation of a child.

Also, this chapter is just the ‘everyone finds out the Pythia and trauma’ chapter, and that includes us readers. And Phil, Techno and Tommy all see a different piece of the puzzle. Together it does not from a pretty picture. Phil learns that the Pythia still expects them to hurt him because they have no reason not to. I feel like this has to do with the trauma of living on the streets. There’s already implied verbal abuse in the flashback. And the group homes do not sound save. Combine that with stealing food from anger vendors and I’m sure that belief formed at some point. Maybe he grew out of it as the Pythia and being around the Deathlings made it resurface.

Then Techno gets a very clear look at the dehumanisation and how deep it runs in the Pythia himself even without him outright saying that he’s not a human being. He was going to though and the idea that he he was going to do so without a blink until he realised that he didn’t want to get into a religious debate with Techno makes me want to cry. There’s this very fun opposition in what’s normalised to the Deathlings vs what’s been normalised to Wilbur as the Pythia and both of them are horrified at the other side.

I feel like Techno’s conversation builds on Phil’s realisation that of course the Pythia was going to try and escape. They would try the same in his position. So that’s the “it’s mostly our fault” realisation. There’s still blame towards Wilbur. He still chose to hurt Tommy, but the Deathlings taking part of the blame is not helping Wikbjr realise that he has agency too. He later tells Tommy [I didn’t have a choice.”]. He still truly believes that. Tommy even checks by asking if he’d do anything Clara asked of him. (the answer is yes).

(1/?)

-🌲

yupppp wilbur has a very sad backstory. even though they told him he'd been chosen by clara for something, no one gave him specifics, so he was just super confused trying to figure out why he'd been dragged into the palace so suddenly. he was just a kid who was scared and alone and had no idea what was going on. and he didn't even have a connection to clara. he got to live in the lap of luxury and never had to worry about food or shelter again, but he had no say in the matter

LMAO YEAH this chapter is literally just all of sbi getting different glimpses of wilbur's trauma. I'd definitely say his reaction to phil is largely influenced by his time on the streets. he dealt with a lot of shit as a street kid. the group home wasn't a safe place for him, and he wasn't treated kindly by vendors a lot of the time either. he hasn't had to deal with his physical safety being threatened in a very long time, so now being in a situation where he isn't sure if he's physically safe or not has definitely made some of that surface again

techno got a glimpse at the dehumanization, but just barely scratched the surface. I want to emphasize what you said: that wilbur didn't say exactly what he was thinking because he didn't want to get into a religious debate with techno. wilbur KNOWS how it sounds from an outsiders viewpoint. he knows how horrifying a lot of what he says is. but it's become so normalized to him that he just convinces himself "well it sounds bad I know but it's actually not you just have to understand-" meanwhile everyone is giving him horrified looks

yeah techno's convo builds on phil's, with the two realizing aw shit we fucked up. but the real focus like you said is wilbur's lack of agency. he genuinely feels like he didn't have a choice because clara told him to do it. he's completely devoted to her in a very unhealthy way and tommy is the one who got a glimpse of that

[magpiefngrl]

returning the "how was your reading year" question right back! :D do you have any new favorites? also - how did you find the magpie ballads? what is your professional opinion as a magpie fangirl?😁

Hello!

In short, my reading year was good but not amazing. I think same as you? (I've also rambled here about the year's books in more detail.)

So, number one, similar to you: nothing truly blew me away. OK, Pawn was amazing, but I expected it to be good so I wasn't taken by surprise. Also, I'd read most of it previously and finished it by early Jan last year so it doesn't quite feel like a 2022 book, you know? The only time I felt thrilled this year was when I read The Queen of Attolia, and then The King, and Roanhorse's Black Sun. These are prob my fave new reads.

I'm also a completionist! I get a lot of satisfaction when I complete a series. There are some that I've abandoned (like the Simon Snow books. I've lost interest in that story) but there are still loads I want to finish. It's my 2023 goal to see a few of them to the end. However, I was good this year and read the entirety of The Queen's Thief and the entirety (bar one) of the Wimsey novels. I'm proud I started and finished both series in the same year.

I did a whole lot of rereads this year, most of them historical or fantasy romance. Some I enjoyed a lot more on a reread, like Joanna Chambers' Enlightenment series and Welch's Salt Magic, Skin Magic. Surprisingly (or maybe not so much), I enjoyed my CaPri reread less. Except for Ancel. I adore Ancel :)

As for the Magpie Ballads: when I began Elegy, I was excited because I could tell I was going to love the writing. The author's got a good command of their craft, and as the first chapter of a debut author's book, the beginning was pretty impressive. This was me in the first 10-20 pages:

Ultimately I was let down by some aspects of the story. My strongest impression by the time I finished Elegy was that it read like a fanfic. I don't mean in a derogatory (or praiseworthy) way but that the backstory seemed to be the important, juicy part and we were reading a... well, a fanfic of what might have come after. It's like there was a canon I wasn't aware of. You know how in some fics one of the characters will say something like "oh yeah? How about that time at the rooftop? Do you expect me to forgive you?" and if you don't know the canon, you're like "WHAT HAPPENED AT THE ROOFTOP?" I got this feeling throughout Elegy. The love between Savonn and Red is portrayed as this all-encompassing, epic love but we don't see any of it in Book 1, we're only told it's epic.

(more under the cut bc it got long)

This was rectified in the second novel. The flashbacks were useful in giving us an idea of what their brief relationship was like, and I think some flashbacks ought to have been included in Book 1. The second book helped in making me see why they love each other and making me root for a happy ending.

The other thing that I wasn't keen about: there was a little too much intrigue, a few too many devious and clever and manipulative characters, and not enough characters with, let's say, heart. The plot moved from one scheme to another without something emotional in-between to anchor the story. Whats more, I could tell the authorial intention was to see the devious characters as masters of intrigue but I couldn't see it. It didn't work for me.

You were right that Savonn felt like a Lymond cut-out. Eugenides is very much his own character. I couldn't quite get who Savonn was. He disguised himself constantly on page, and it's like those disguises also hid him from me.

In my professional opinion (lol) here's what I think: this is a good, solid story that needed an extra 300 pages. It needed room to breathe, character relationships to unfold in front of our eyes (friendships, siblings, soldier/captain, lovers etc) so we can witness their bonds and affection or their animosity. We love to see a character at its lowest, but Savonn's lowest point, imo, happened when he was sent to kill that general, fell in love, and had to leave his lover behind. And this is the backstory! I think this could've been Book 1 of a trilogy.

I sound overly critical but I enjoyed the books overall. The prose is good, descriptions and dialogue and suchlike are great, and the world building is confident. As a debut work, this is impressive. I just wish there was more emphasis on the relationships between characters, and less emphasis on cleverness and schemes and plot twists.

Well. I had a lot of thoughts! What did you think? I know you liked the books.

[deadendtracks]

Definitely don't feel obligated to answer this, but I've been reading your Peaky fic for--Jesus, it must be nearly three years now--and there is literally nothing in your repertoire that feels OOC or excessive. And the careful deliberation of everything you have the characters do or say fascinates me so much that I was wondering, how do you edit your fics? Is there a process or things that you look for when you write? I'm just honestly amazed by the quality, all the time.

This means a lot to me, thank you!! I can't believe I started posting PB fic in 2019. Seems like a hundred years ago, but also yesterday.

One of my great fears in writing the first fic I posted for this fandom (Into the earth I trampled it down) was that I'd gone over the top, that it was too much or excessive or OOC. And in the middle of writing a part I was particularly worried about (namely, the opium overdose), I realized that the season I was writing about in canon featured Tommy hallucinating his dead wife as a duchess strangled him during sex. Like... it'd be a challenge to top that in the "too much" department.

After that I relaxed a bit.

If I have a process it's both similar and different every time.

Generally I have no clue what's going to happen in a fic when I start writing. Had no idea Not the vacant wilderness vying was going to be about a miscarriage. I'd decided the miscarriage was backstory, but then the characters had other ideas by chapter 2. When I started Not to begin with it wasn't going to be a series or a whole involved AU, it was just supposed to be my attempt at writing PWP. Not even an omegaverse one! That just happened! Yeah. Well. 100,000+ words and several years later... And This Bed of Shattered Bone just came out from the beginning like it reads, Alfie waking to find Tommy in his sitting room.

Once I start writing a story it begins revealing itself. I like to compare it to driving a car down a very dark road at night, so you can only see what the headlights pick up. Sometimes you know approximately where you want to end up on your journey. Eventually you get there, you just aren't sure what you're going to see on the way. Other times you think you know where you're going and you end up detoured or some completely unknown place.

After I start to see more of the road, sometimes I will plan or roughly outline a bit. Not very coherently or in much detail, just notes to myself about what I think could happen or bits I want to include. Sometimes this suggests research I want to do to flesh out some things. Usually I'm doing a lot of ad hoc research as things come up that I want to get as accurately as possible for someone with little knowledge of the historical period and only Google to go on. Everything from "did they have electric fans in the 1920s" to "tell me everything about Oswald Mosley."

Research contributes to one process I have for when I get stuck-- often I'll get to the point where I know what I want the next chapter to be about, or roughly what's supposed to happen, but I don't know how to start it. I call it the 'hook' -- I have a hard time starting to write a chapter until I get snagged on a specific detail or find a handhold, like climbing a wall. Once I find that little spot to grab onto, usually it starts to flow. When I'm coming up empty and lacking a hook into the chapter, often doing research helps -- usually researching the setting. This aids with imagery, grounding it somewhere real and specific even if that detail isn't necessary. Most of the time it's not that I'm such a stickler for accurate historical detail (there are authors who are much better at this than I am!) it's that research gives my brain something to work with. A lump of modeling clay it can play with.

For instance, the chapter in the bar of the Ritz in Nor the ricochet in the cave, or the description of the skating rink where the boxing match was held in Not a ruse. In the case of the former, I didn't know what was going to happen after Tommy stormed out of his hotel room, so I thought oh, he goes to the hotel bar. I was still stuck, so I wondered what the bar looked like. I couldn't find a description from the 1920s, so I cheated and went with the (conveniently) art deco modern renovation in the current-day Ritz. In the case of the latter, I found information on real boxing matches at the real location in Birmingham, and a photo of what it looked like at the time. I also found a digitized article from a newspaper that described a fight between the same boxers basically blow-by-blow, and used that in the fic, though I took a lot of liberties.

A great many of Alfie's rambling speeches incorporate stuff I found while researching. It's not really like canon Alfie, to be honest, but has become my version of him.

So my basic process is a mixture of winging it, then once I have a better idea what the story wants to be about, researching and planning a bit. I don't plan or outline extensively, because if I do that, my brain decides the story has been told and gets bored and won't actually write it. My brain needs the mystery.

Sometimes I have an idea where I'd like the fic to end up, but usually it's more like... bookends. The frame for Into the earth was "Grace's death to the start of episode 3.03." The frame for This Bed of Shattered Bone was "Tommy shows up at Margate after having escaped from Bedlam to Tommy ready to rejoin the world." In both cases I had no idea what was going to happen between the bookends.

One thing I'd like to get better at is editing, because I don't do alot of formal editing or drafting. Part of this is because I tend to post as I write, so I never have a complete first draft that I then go back and revise. I don't have the patience for it, apparently. I think my writing would benefit from that so someday I'll give it a try. I'm an edit-as-I go person, so most of the time I write and rewrite as I'm writing, then get a draft of a chapter, and either have it beta read or do my own pass at it. Usually there aren't a lot of major revisions. Once in a while I decide to go back and start a chapter differently but usually that's while I'm in the middle of writing, not after I have a draft. Sometimes I write several chapters in a row before I start posting them, mostly if I'm not sure whether something needs to change -- for example, right now I have chapters 5-6 and half of chapter 7 written in my current WIP, but haven't posted chapter 5 because I wanted to get to a point where I was sure the later chapters wouldn't require additions or edits to chapter 5.

The beginning of Not a ruse was originally a bit from Tommy's POV I haven't posted yet, then it jumped to Alfie getting back from Margate and hearing from Irene. I didn't like how it flowed and decided I wanted to structure the story more like a reveal, where Alfie is trying to solve this mystery but not sure he really wants to know. But I wasn't sure how to anchor it in any kind of setting, to get beyond a bunch of exposition, until I remembered I'd referenced an upcoming boxing match in the previous story in the series. So that's where the research came in, and violà, I had a way to get Tommy and Alfie together and something for them to do while the real story unfolded.

What do I look for when I write? I'm not totally sure I know what you're asking, but here's an attempt to answer. I like putting characters into terrible situations and then seeing what happens. I like to find out what's happening as it happens. Often this takes the form of an outside POV to the main action -- so Polly or Alfie observing Tommy's shenanigans. They're not just observing, of course; that would be boring. But I do find it easier to write about Tommy from another POV. Tommy's POV isn't harder as far as understanding his internality, so much as it is getting his internal voice to sound right to me and feel in character while still revealing anything of use to the reader. Truly in character Tommy voice would be extremely curtailed compared to how I write him.

Because my sense of Tommy is that he doesn't spend a lot of time thinking about things in words, mulling them over, considering how he feels about them or how other people feel about them. All stuff a reader likes to dig their teeth into. Tommy seems to me like someone who acts on what for a lack of a better word I guess I'll call instinct and then gets frustrated if he has to slow down and actually articulate it to another person. It's not that he doesn't strategize and have plans or take in information about what's happening, etc, it's that all of this stuff takes place on this level that isn't particularly verbal. It's all in his head. He might love someone or care about them deeply or have an extensive strategy for how to deal with something, but he's not going to think about it to himself in words.

So I try to get at all of that through actions, through what he doesn't say, etc. Where with Alfie, I feel freer to write him thinking wordy thoughts and having more overt feelings in his own head.

Anyway, I realize this has become incredibly rambling. I've been writing fic for 30 years, and I guess it shows. I'm pretty happy with my writing by now. Though it never quite matches what I envision creating, often that's balanced by shit I'd never have thought of just... coming out and writing itself. That's the fun of it, when the characters and story take over.

[theheartlandsblog]

How did you come up with Adrik? He seems very interesting and stoic

hullo, anon! =)

this is gonna sound SO nerdy, i'm 100% aware of how nerdy it sounds, y'all can go ahead and mention how nerdy it is, i get it. but honestly? adrik started as literally just me wanting to learn to read and speak russian. ('T᷄⌑T᷅) from there, i wanted sincerely to create an outlet for that learning desire, in a way that A. was historically plausible, and B. was as nuanced and NOT stereotypical as possible!

more detail on all that below the cut, if you're interested, and willing to read a lot! thank you for asking about my darling boy! <3

i think i have always enjoyed just learning on my own terms, anyway. i had atrocious grades in high school and was abysmal in my japanese classes, but as soon as i got out of formal schooling, i started getting VORACIOUS about learning. yes. yep. i know it's nerdy. i'd always wanted to speak another language besides english, and i still do, which is why i study both russian and spanish, just cause i want to. so that's where it started - wanting to learn the language.

as all good writing projects begin, it started getting serious one day in the shower, i think it was shortly after or shortly before i had published my first complete RDR fanfic (the name is DUST, it's a little out there, but i am dearly fond of it), i was thinking about writing in general while i was in there, and thought to myself well, wouldn't it be interesting to write in a different language?

then i started reading the works of cormac mccarthy, an american author whose works are thoroughly bilingual in spanish/english, and it FASCINATED me. i'd published 2 RDR fics at that point, i think? and i started committing to language learning. i started with spanish in my fic called SAND (also pretty out there, again, just a warning) but i quickly remembered how i wanted to learn russian too. so i started researching on if russian immigrants came to the united states in the 1800s, to see if i could theoretically include the language into an RDR fic in a realistic manner/presence; to my utmost joy i absolutely could, and the thought-project took off. ;)

he stuck around as a stored-away project until i got the idea for HOMEWARD, i think that was late 2022, and THAT idea came to me while i was replaying the mission where you fetch john from the mountains in the beginning of RDR2. i'd never made an OC so detailed before and i wanted to ensure that whatever home of thought and writing he'd be born into would be properly big enough to house him when he got older. i didn't want to just throw an OC in willy-nilly! in the meantime (fair warning, i'm about to get a little preachy) i'd been inspired character-development-wise by creating someone who was an antithesis to the usual stereotype over in the united states about a russian person, or just kinda russia in general. you know, kind of a drunkard, loud, unintelligent, cruel. i wanted someone who felt like a real person, who was a victim of circumstance, who had an unlikely friend and a vast soul, someone who, like you said, was interesting! i'd decided on creating a russian character before the whole terrible war escalation broke out, but when it did, i think it made me even more determined. i mentioned it in my last ask but i'm ukrainian from my dad's side, so it's a matter close to home.

so, anon, that's his IRL backstory! it's how him and i met. <3 as for him, as a character, his story? i actually have a chapter in HOMEWARD planned for just that! now, though? the time has not yet come... (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧ but i can tell you a little. <3 he's forty-two years old in 1899/during the current events of HOMEWARD, and he was born on january 6th, in 1857. i call him "old" all the time only because with the life expectancy of the way he's lived, he's ancient. he's five-feet-eleven-inches tall, and he met annushka in the old country. he's stoic now, like you said, and standoffish as a general rule, but there is so, soooo much more personality in him that i pinky-promise will come out as my story progresses and as he settles in. he's had a brush with scurvy, a run-in with the law, and once upon a time lived upon the longest river in russia. him and i are very eager to tell stories. Вот он! Спасибо <3