#well. anyways! i think i might edit the doc i'll see

[bejeweledmp3]

tell me why i'm considering opening the doc and writing fanfiction during my lunch break. ON MY PHONE

[mattodore]

best part of having ocs is that i can just write them doing whatever i want. like i can just do anything with them and it's like oh yeah. that's happening. and no one can be like hang on you can't do that bc actually i can since they're mine <3

[hydrangeyes]

Missing you

So if you don't know, Yes this already existed, my old account was deleted (accident but I can tell I won't be getting it back), and am reposting my old x male reader works!

I don't know if I saved all of them but here is one that was saved to my AO3 account.

Edit: So shuffling through my docs It's been brought to my attention that wattpad (who I use as backup) Cut a lot of my fics in half??? anyway I'll be trying to fix that also

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Aizawa x Male reader

(Y/n just returned from an out-of-the-country mission. And well how can you blame him for immediately looking for his precious boyfriend?) unedited

+Fluff (✿◠‿◠) +

Height: 6'2

Gender: Male

Age: 32

personality: Impulsive, bubbly, kinda forgetful

Hair color: Hazelnut brown

Eye color: honey brown

body type: Lean but muscular, not bulky, soft

Quirk: ????

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Y/n has never run so fast in his life.

Y/n didn't really think through exactly what he was currently doing. That is breaking into his boyfriend of 4 years, workplace. Well sort of breaking, he had a copy of his mans' teacher id..... did that count?

How was he supposed to know they added extra security!? Hell why was all might chasing after him, they knew each other dammit!! Y/n conveniently forgot just how different he looked now, being both taller and muscular than when he last saw the prized hero.

Thinking quickly Y/n scrambles to the nearest door and dove inside without (once again) thinking it through.

Panting and wheezing a little, Y/n blink seeing a bunch of eyes now on him.

"Y-yo..." he stutters out to apparently a bunch of kids mid-training.

"Y/n? You idiot how did you get in here?" a familiar tired voice call out not far from y/n. Immediately forgetting where he was Y/n tackles the man with a delighted laugh.

"Shota!!"

Said man was previously sitting on the floor next to his students' belongings, leaning back on his rolled-up sleeping bag. Both him and y/n now a sprawl on the bag and floor.

"I'm so happy to see you, as soon as I got off the plane-"

"Y/N!"

Aizawa groans as y/n finally stop talking looking at him with his full attention. (Y/n: ≧◉◡◉≦??) "Maybe here isn't the place for this? my students..." he grumbles. Y/n blinks finally catching on and looks from their little bubble to see the students all gathered and watching with interest.

"a-ah, um sorry about interrupting kiddos." y/n coughs out realizing he did it again. Getting up and helping Aizawa he bows deeply before straightening and rubbing the back of his next. " Couldn't help rushing to see my sweetheart."

the burst of surprised outcries filled the gym and Aizawa winced as he sees Mina and Denki grab onto Y/n demanding answers. glancing over at the door he waves off a thoroughly confused all might wondering if he should end the class early. He could sneak off while they were distracted with Y/n.....

"So Mr. L/n what's Mr. Aizawa like outside of school?"

"hm? well I guess it depends! usually he's cuddly and - mftt?"

Y/n blinks looking down to see aizawa's scarf covering his mouth. looking back y/n chuckles nervously seeing aizawa glare at them. "That is none of their business, also you still have yet to answer my question. How did you get in?"

Y/n fully turns and giving him a kiss on the cheek, "Come on sweetheart, I wasn't going to say anything embarrassing..." Y/n inwardly let's out a breathe when that seems to calm the man down.

"I do have a copy of your old id card, it still works apparently." Y/n shrugs.

sighing and rubbing his temple, Aizawa waves at his students. "Class dismissed, I have to get the situation this idiot no doubt caused cleared up."

:One awkward mini teacher meeting later:

Y/n pouts from where he is sitting on the couch. He wasn't exactly in trouble but he was told off once things were cleared. Now here he was in aizawa's dorm apartment, which was confusing they had a place already, waiting for his sweetheart to finish showering.

"oh peaches, It's not a crime to love someone too much right?" y/n dramatically coos to a black cat that comes to him sniffing his leg curiously. their collar pendant engraved with 'peachs <3'.

"In your case, no."

Smiling softly y/n looks back to see Aizawa drying his hair wearing black sweatpants and a long sleeve grey shirt. "Mmh good, I don't think I could stop." y/n teases. Aizawa rolls his eyes and comes around to sit next to him.

Laying back on the couch arms, Y/n tugs him to lay on top. "I've missed you."

Aizawa chuckles softly and gives him a kiss.

"I've missed you too."

------------------------------

short but felt like this would be a fun start to this book. I should say that the UA whenever I write about it or our beloved characters are in a college setting (U.A being the college). As well as characters being OOC canon-wise because of this.

anyway, Thanks cupcakekiller for the request!!

[tokyo-tower-symbolism]

I've been meaning to get into the re:live game story for a while now, but I don't know how necessary the event stories are in comparison to the main and school stories...

do you have a recommended reading order for main story and events if the timeline makes them interspersed?

Uhh, there was this one good google doc that had a bunch of stuff like what stories were important for each character, but I cannot find that right now so I'll do my best from memory but honestly I might miss a couple things so my bad.

Edit: thank you @pallastronomy for finding the doc in question, i really wanted to read that again too

To read it you can go to the wikia, read it on karth.top, or look up the parts on Youtube. That last one might be the best since you'll get the full visual novel experience.

So first off I would suggest reading the first part of the story, so Main Story chapters 1-6. Well, suggest is a strong word. I think those chapters kinda suck, but I guess they're necessary for the premise and to introduce the characters? But then again they abandon the original premise half way in favor of the performance festival so whatever. And if you want a better introduction to the characters you should read the School Stories (ignoring SJH) and also maybe watch Shoujo Cante All Starlight. So really I don't suggest you read those chapters but

I think at this point you are can read the event stories from "Hello to Halloween" to "Surprise! Rehearsal Friends!"

And you don't need to read them all, but they're fun! I couldn't really tell you which ones are super important to the plot, sorry about that. Honestly my personal opinion at this point is to just pick a couple characters you like to follow and read their stories. You can see who participates in each one on the Revue Starlight wikia

Plus, character card bond stories! Each event has a couple gacha cards they're trying to sell, and sometimes they're not super related to the story, but sometimes they are. If someone references something that happened off screen, it either happened in an earlier event or in the bond card, but I'd still only read the bond cards once you're done reading the event is over since otherwise they can be spoilers. Just think of those as prequels instead of preludes.

Then at this point you can read Main Story Chapters 7-11. And I really do think you should read these since they are juicy. There's a new plot and we really get to dive deep into the ReLive characters and see their individual pasts and why they now stand on stage. It's great.

Now for the Event Stories, feel free to read any story from "Starry Diamond Tragic Orion" up until "Royal Retainer"

Although now I gotta bring up some caveats. Anything with Seiran is not going to matter to the main plot of ReLive, and if you're curious about them, then that gets into Stage Play Territory which is much easier to follow but not in ReLive.

And honestly same with the Seisho only stories. They're fun, don't get me wrong, but they kinda don't affect the developments of the cast at all.

Starry Diamond is a live show that had some Revues, so some of the relive events are just rehashings of those. Except Venus & Cupid Story, which is a sequel to Zeus no Chuusai from the Starry Diamond Live, and that revue is actually super important to the Yumeoji Sisters's story but it is not in ReLive.

And once you've had your fill of those stories, you can start reading Main Story Chapters 12-18, Arcana Arcadia. And this one is really good. Iirc, the main revue starlight writer came in for these parts. There's some info that directly leads into the movie. And it's honestly great.

But the issue is that there are intermission bond stories that need to be read in the middle of the chapters. If you are reading it online that can be kind of pain, but in the game I think it's in the right order? I could not say for sure since I don't actually play it. Anyways, here's the vague order according to the wikia, but I'm not 100% on this

Chapter 12: 1-2

Chapter 13: Tower, Hermit, Empress, 1-3, High Priestess, 4-5, Magician, 6-9, Hanged Man, Strength, 10-15

Chapter 14: Wheel of Fortune, Chariot, 1-2, Lovers, 3-14, Faith, Hierophant, 15

Chapter 15: 1-2, Devil, Sun, Justice, 3-15

Chapter 16: Death, Charity, 1-15

Chapter 17: Temperance, 1, Fool, 2-4, World, Judgement, 5-15

Chapter 18: Hope, 1-9, Emperor, 10-14, 15/Moon

So yeah, after this you have basically free reign to read the remaining event stories. The next big ongoing plot seems to be about Siegfeld Junior High, but that one also isn't really connected to the previous stories at all.

Also some cards have connecting bond stories even without events, such as the Frontier Rangers, Orpheus, Camelot, Snow White, and Yin-Yang.

But for real, I think the best way to get into the story is to read the main story and then see what characters you like. Then you can read along all their bond stories and events that they star in, and maybe you'll find other characters that stand out. If you are missing any information, usually characters will reference whatever they are talking about, so you won't be completely lost.

So yeah, I hope you have fun with the relive story! It touches on a lot of the themes from the show and honestly I just really liked seeing the characters again. And also Arcana Arcadia is great, just so great.

[nevertheless-moving]

Hi! I love your writing snippets - have you thought about posting them on ao3

Thank you!! Yes, I have thought about it, for sure! I'm nevertheless_turtle on ao3.

(I have... six fics, all of them star wars, half of them unfinished, last one updated in January 2022. Unless someone decides to put a million dollars in my kofi jar, this is for Fun, so unfortunately once the hyperfixation fades...it fades*.

:( star wars back and forth tumblr fics with star wars mutuals my beloved... murderbot discord i loved collaborative storytelling with ya'll and i miss you...i don't know how to make friends on the internet i just talk blorbos in situations and my blorbos drift over time... hello stormlight archive fandom)

! anyone want to talk about putting my type of blorbo, which when i check my notes is a pathetic wet person who is very good at killing but somewhat tries to avoid it, if you want to talk putting someone like that in a Situation, Hey! i may or may not be your person. this ask is really getting away from me i might be tired from walking a bunch of miles today...

*i do historically cycle back around to fandoms! i was lurking on tumblr for over a decade before i posted anything and there was definitely a cyclical nature to it! i consistently knit furiously for 3 months and then take a 4 year break! star wars fics wait for me!

aNYWAY writing fic directly into Tumblr adn/or Discord or if i don't have internet connection then a fuckin shitty notes app appears to be the Key for me?? like i tried fic writing before that in Word or Docs and it just didn't go?? idk! I think it's like the comic sans trick.

wait i still haven't answered the question.

you know, the thing is, when i write a snippet at the end of 5 paragraphs of background meta for an au, or a literal bullet point list, i'm not really sure how to post that to ao3. can you post chatfic and bullet points to ao3? it feels weird? idk. real question for the crowd in the midst of an extremely incoherent ask answer. let me know what you think!

me to myself: the question. scroll back up. what was the question. myself to me: that was answering the question! somewhat!

Right now a bunch of fic writing is churning around and out of brain, and circumstances have aligned for better or worse such that i have time and mental energy and ideas to write. we'll see how it goes. Once I get a bit more posted on tumblr i'll probably put things together and either make seperate works for different aus, or a masterwork of different tumblr aus that i don't think i'll develop further. i may turn some of those bulletpoint lists into cleaner fics for posting, making my earlier point moot.

some of my aus i already have a bunch written on my phone over meals or stopped in the middle of a side walk or on bus and train rides (why would an ELEVEN HOUR TRAIN RIDE not have an outlet to charge my laptop??). so. if i clean that stuff up ill probably post it to tumblr, then immediately notice the spelling mistakes, edit, then post to ao3.

a perfect system.

for my most recent snippet, well, that's actually self contained (not an au that requires 6 paragraphs of background to understand the snippet) and not a chat fic, so i WAS thinking i would just post it to ao3 soonish. i asked in the tags if anyone felt like betaing for ao3, i am wildly but unquestioningly assuming that the sorta individual who would want to beta a fic for me are reading the tags on my tumblr fic post. if anyone likes betaing stormlight or is interested in betaing a specific au/fic idea i've mentioned, hit me up.

TLDR above, tumblr is a for fun rough draft looser writing form place for me. ao3 feels like its asking for a bit more polish and structure. i have writing bees in my brain right now so i'm slightly more focused on that then editing, but if anyone feels like doing some form of beta, reach out and we can chat about it. regardless, i will clean up at least some of my recent snippets and post to ao3 eventually.

[fazedlight]

20 Questions More

A deeper and more detailed version of the 20 questions for AO3 fanfic writers. Thanks @eqt-95 and @inkedroplets for the tag!!

1) How do you keep getting ideas for your ship/fandom?

Daydreaming. Writing fanfic is secondary to that. It was only in the past couple of years that it occurred to me that I could write some of it down and see what happens.

2) Which authors inspire you in your fandom, and why are they so freakishly good?

@searidings is my absolute favorite, the way she unravels the characters' emotions and angst is absolutely superb.

3) Aside from the characters of your main ship, who are the characters you love to write?

Ohhh I really love this question:

Cat in Inauthentic, as well as this ficlet and this one. I love her sense of humor.

Lillian in Darkness in All Things. For the same reason as Cat, I just love her snark.

Zor-El in Even Though You're Kryptonian. He kind of surprised me when I started writing him, and to this day I don't know if some of his lines are driven by genuine confusion or if he's just trolling.

4) Are there pairings or tropes you know for sure you'd never write about? Which ones?

I'm a never-say-never kind of person. There's a lot that I don't think I would ever write, but I've been surprised on where stories have taken me before, and may be surprised again.

5) What is your writing process and why is it cursed?

"Process" might be an overstatement...

I have a "scribbles" doc where I keep my ideas. I cull ideas often (though ideas often make their way back anyway). As I write more into the doc, a certain idea may get too big for it, so I spin it out into its own doc.

From there, I kind of go back and forward between outlining and writing. I write completely out of order. Which is why, so often, my multichaps are almost fully drafted by the time I publish chapter 1. I've usually already made it to the resolution point of the plot (meaning, no one's in danger anymore, the bad guy is gone, etc), though the final chapter often doesn't get written until later.

6) What is your favorite part of your writing process?

I love when I've finished the first pass of a chapter/one-shot, and I'm in the editing stage. The story really feels like it's coming together at that point, and it's before all the self-doubt starts bubbling up (that hits hard just before posting).

7) What’s the weirdest thing you’ve had to research for a fic?

A friend of mine is a professor in astroparticle physics, so I spent a couple of hours asking him about quantum mechanics stuff. But only a small portion of that ended up being relevant to the fic and the rest was just for fun.

8) Is there a particular writing rule you struggle with (grammar, spelling, tense, reality in general)?

When I'm first sketching out a scene, about half the time I write in present tense (it feels more like I'm writing a play at that point sometimes), but I publish in past tense. So I end up needing to do a bunch of revisions 😭

Also TYPOS.

9) What was your hardest scene to write so far and why?

Fight scenes are ROUGH, man.

This is probably one of those answers I'll change every time depending what's at the top of my mind. But writing out a fight scene - like in Even Though You're Kryptonian, Darkness in All Things, or It's a Metallo Life - gets surprisingly difficult if there are more than 2 people.

I know exactly how I'd shoot those scenes if I had a camera crew, special effects, etc. But it's hard making sure the audience is aware of where everyone is positioned, why they can/can't act in the moment, etc.

10) Have your characters ever done something you didn’t expect, changing your plot completely?

All the fucking time, man. From the very beginning, even. I was trying to have Lena still be angry by the DEO scene in So I Kept Pretending, but that didn't make sense anymore.

I actually recently had a fic idea dissolve because it wasn't vibing with the characters. Which is fine, it became a ficlet instead!

11) If you could converse with any of the characters, who would it be and why?

Absolutely Kara. I have so many questions about kryptonian culture and how it drives her character.

12) What are some of the tropes or themes that you find yourself returning to in your writing?

Trope-wise, I definitely return to the Rift again and again. I find themes around forgiveness and understanding to be really interesting. Can two good-hearted people with conflicting needs hurt each other while still loving each other? How? What does that mean for the aftermath?

I think that's part of what draws me to supercorp - the complexity of their relationship. How they can both be right, and both be wrong, and love each other enough to rebuild from the ashes.

13) What's your most important resource as a writer?

Coffeeshops and libraries. Getting into slightly busy, cozy environments, out of the house, really helps shake loose the stuff in my head.

14) Can you share some of your strategies for editing and revising your work?

Especially for longer works, I tend to put the work down (and circle to other works, or go outside, or whatever) before coming back to it. It helps to step away for a bit - it's easier to pick up on repetitiveness or unclear passages when coming back.

Though I always find mistakes in my stories much later, so I'm not sure I'm one to give advice on this anyway 🤣

15) Which is worse: making the summary, picking the tags, or the anxiety when you post your fic?

Posting anxiety is the absolute worst. If I leave myself in front of my computer I'll end up refreshing constantly waiting for the first kudos (if it's a one-shot or first chapter) or the first comment (if it's a later chapter) to figure out if I've accidentally pissed off everyone in the fandom somehow.

Luckily, my partner will usually pull me away to go on a walk or grab lunch or do something else to take my mind off it 💗

16) How do you define success for your fanfic - hits? Kudos? Comments? Bookmarks? Or just if you like it?

I only publish what I like. Sometimes I'm nervous that other people won't like it, but I will always like it. Stories that aren't going a way I like - even if I think the idea is cool! - will dissolve. Just recently I dissolved one that felt like it was a cool idea, but it didn't make enough sense for the characters.

Kudos and comments always make me feel appreciated as an author!! Sometimes I'll get a user subscriber out of it, too, and it feels like an honor that someone would want to hear from me more than once.

The thing that feels most precious, though, is when someone comments on how something made them feel (I love making people laugh at my dumb jokes, or cry when a story is supposed to hit emotionally), or when they pick up on something that I wasn't sure would get picked up on.

I tend to lean towards understatement in my stories. For me, the biggest success is knowing that someone recognized what I was going for, without me being overt.

17) Do you have a playlist for your favorite character/ship?

Alas, I don't. But given that Kara is canonically a Britney Spears fan and musicals nerd, I feel like my default playlist works 🤣

18) If fan art was going to be made from your work, which fic would you pick and which fan artist would you like to create it?

Oh gosh, I don't want to pick someone and create pressure, or not pick someone and make them feel bad. This fandom has so many great artists!

That said, some of my favorites do commissions, you can see everything I've commission here.

19) How many WIPs do you currently have?

1 supercorp & 1 rojarias (for @supergirlmayhem)

For me, 2-3 is my happy number, so I'm relieved to be down to this after being so high (I think up to 11?) for so long.

20) What's your advice to new fanfic writers?

If you're wondering why you can't find that story you want, it might mean that you're the one to write it 💗

- - - - -

Tagging (respectfully and without pressure) @rustingcat @luthordamnvers @sssammich @tinyvariations @thatonebirdwrites @theredcapeofk @sideguitars @luthordamnvers @mycatismyeditor @inkedroplets @nottawriter @snowydragonscave @jetgirl1832 if you want some rapid-fire q's thrown your way. But also anyone who'd like to do this!

[wootzietoozee]

update!!

hey y'all, wootzi here and soda's got great news lined up for all of ya!!

my new laptop came last night!! way quicker than i expected, plus i got paid recently, so it didn't damage my savings too much, lol.

which means i can work on red on blue again!!

...which is what i would say, but that's not the case.

"but aaaallllleeeexxxx, why aren't you gonna start working on the fandroid murder fic again??"

well, that brings me to my second great news!!

I FINALLY GOT AN APARTMENT!!!

...well, a room in an apartment, anyway. i'll be sharing the place with 5 other people, but i think it's worth it for the cheap rent. :) (also i have like 3 other siblings so i'm not new to having to share spaces with other people, lmao.)

i'll be a bit busy the next few days as i'm waiting for my rental application to process and also trying to get things together as move in day is this tuesday (aug 1st)! so i might be a bit mia on my other socials for a while, though i'll probably be a bit more active on discord if you wanna talk! (same handle as on here, wootzietoozee!)

i want to thank everyone who's supported me for the past while, finanically, emotionally, or otherwise. you guys have been so so supportive and i genuinely can't thank all of you enough.

i'll probably end up making a google doc that serves as an intro post to replace my pinned later, but for now i'll just edit it w a little footnote bc i'm lazy and don't have time, lol.

thanks again, everyone! see you on the other side, the side of freedom. <3

signing off for now,

alex/wootzie

[sailorsplatoon]

Chapter 4 of a Dedf1sh fanfic I wrote

This one's another fairly short chapter, I'm sorry. (The whole fanfiction is very short. I felt like it didn't need to be long to tell the full story though? I'll probably edit and re-release it later).

First

Previous

Next

Read it on ao3

Chapter 4 below!

(CW: Swearing)

Time worked strangely in the Deepsea Metro. Ahato knew they had spent a long time there, but they weren’t sure if it had been weeks, months, or years. Despite how long it had been, they only managed to collect one thang, and make one song. Surprisingly they were able to complete a lot of the tests, mostly because they loved how much happiness the mem cakes brought Iso Padre, but the thangs still alluded them. 

“I don’t know what to do,” they thought out loud while wandering around the central station. Ahato had gotten into the habit of going to the telephone when they couldn’t figure out a test, but it wasn’t much help. It either didn't speak at all or refused to provide anything that could aid them in any way. So the central station had become more of a place to think. “I’ve completed a bunch of tests but I still can’t find any thangs! And it takes me so long to complete the tests. Then once I do the mem cakes always just remind me of memories that I wish I could forget! And all I wanted to do when I came down here was make music but I’ve only made one song, and it took me so long! And the stations are too damn quiet for me to focus so I always get inspiration for music then when I can’t make it, but once I get back to the train the inspiration is gone! If only I could focus better or was more efficient in the tests or… or…”

“I might [ERROR] a solution for you, homeskillet,” the telephone suddenly burst to life.

Ahato looked at it confused for a second, then said, “Why the fuck are you talking like that?”

“It’s my brand spankin’ new contemporary speech mode, its very based, my dude.” The thing was even harder to understand now, but Ahato assumed that it would just grow out of it. Hopefully.

“Whatever. You said you had a solution? How is that possible?” If there was a way for Ahato to keep making music without getting so distracted, they would take it in a heartbeat.

“It’s this totally fleek thing called sanitization. It can sharpen your focus and efficiency like [SLANG NOT FOUND] and make those not chill memories stop hurtin’ too.”

“You can really do that? What would I have to do in order for that to happen?”

“Well you’d have to totally give up your ticket to the promised land and stop completing tests. Can’t go if you’re sanitized.” So that was the catch. Focus and efficiency in exchange for not being able to go to the promised land. Ahato had never really cared about the promised land anyway, but now it seemed like a bad idea to give it up so quickly. Then again, it wasn’t like they were any closer to collecting all the thangs, and they’d been stuck on Righteous Rails Station for days now. 

“Okay. I’ll do it. When?”

“It will take eight days for the docs to prepare the [SLANG NOT FOUND]. Come back then!”

***

Ahato sat silently on the train. They immediately regretted their commitment to the telephone’s offer once they saw Iso Padre. They hadn’t even thought about how they’d have to stop earning mem cakes. They’d be letting him down. And if they couldn’t complete tests, then they wouldn’t be able to see C.Q. Cumber anymore either. 

“Iso Padre, you’re really good at giving advice. I need you to give me some unbiased advice right now,” Ahato sighed, their hearts pounding in fear of what he’d say.

“I’d be happy to help however I can, Ahato.”

“So that telephone in the central station made me an offer. It said that there was this thing called sanitization, and it would make it so the I could focus on my music more and my memories wouldn’t hurt as much. But I wouldn’t be able to go to the promised land, and I’d have to stop taking tests, too. So I wouldn’t be able to collect any more mem cakes and I might even have to stop hanging out with you and C.Q. Cumber--" they interrupted themself with a sigh as they finally made eye contact with Iso Padre-- "It sounded like a great offer at the time, but now I don’t know. I love you guys, you’re like family to me, but at the same time I really want to make music, and I just can’t seem to focus.”

Iso Padre was silent for a long time before saying, “I want you to be happy, Ahato, but I do not think that this is the road to that happiness. I couldn’t care less wether or not you continue to collect mem cakes for me, but I don’t want to see you make an irreversible decision. I’ve heard about sanitization, it’s what Kamabo Co. does to the octolings in the tests to make them so strong. I’ve seen them, they have no life in their movements. I would hate to see you end up like that. I know that your memories hurt, but that’s how you know that they are important. The bad memories are what help you grow. And I have seen how happy it makes you to create music, I want nothing but that happiness for you. But part of that happiness comes from the hard work and the things that go wrong. I know this may not have been the answer you wanted to hear. For that I am sorry. I truly hope that you can understand why I ask for you not to go through with this.”

“I was actually kind of hoping you would say that. Thanks Iso Padre,” Ahato smiled up at the giant isopod, content with his advice.

[branmuffins22]

Moots said they wanna hear about WIPs and I feel like I gotta get this brainrot out anyways so HERE I GO

I've only got three projects I'm actively working on right now, all of which are Owl House fanfics, although I've got ideas here and there for other things (video games I might've made if I weren't so burnt out, ttrpg characters that might need their own goddamn settings and stories to themselves, a Code Lyoko fanfic, music (mostly loads of disconnected song lyrics), 3D avatars, etc).

The Owl House fanfics in question are three(-ish?) fold:

Theseus Who?, a mostly-canon-compliant 5+1 post-titanification headcanon compilation that DOESN'T just let Luz keep her titan form (mostly it's just a bunch of changes along the lines of when Hunter's eyes changed color after Flapjack saved him). - It's actually sort of a tie-in to another, bigger fic I'm writing that's gonna be point 2, so you can assume anything mentioned in this one will happen throughout the timeline of the next one as well. - I've currently already got the 5 written, so now I just need to buckle down and finish the +1, unless I decide to do another sweep of edits (I think the excessive parentheticals might be too excessive). - - I only started it like a week ago, and I've been waiting for motivation to strike again to let me finish it for like half that time.

Masha and the Very Normal Nocedas, a mostly-canon-compliant sorta-multimedia veesha longfic based on the dramatic irony of Masha slowly driving themself nuts trying to piece together what the Deal is with Luz, Vee, and the rest of the Nocedas. - by "sorta-multimedia" i mean its got plaintext segments describing the story, journal segments of Masha recounting events as they remember them and trying to organize their thoughts, chat segments when the characters interact over text, and possibly more if I feel the Need. - I've only outlined the three prologue chapters and the following intermission, only have snippets and vague ideas for scenes for the main bulk of the fic itself, and have only actually written two of the prologue chapters and the intermission. - - won't start posting it until I at least get the third prologue chapter done, so I've got a usable buffer. Hopefully that'll be sooner rather than later.

The Overthinker AU (or "The Artificer AU"? name is also very much a work in progress), a canon rewrite that I think I'll actually split into a bunch of shorter "episodes", so I can appropriately tag each one, rather than tagging one monolithic fic with Everything Under The Sun. The basic premise is "what if The Owl House, but there's more time", both in the meta sense of "not bound by the 20-minute TV episode format" and the diegetic sense of "the broad-strokes plot of the show will happen over a longer in-universe period of time" (though I'm a bit stuck on just how much more time I want to give em). - for the most part, I wanted to put more emphasis on Luz's magical development, and extrapolate a somewhat wider magic system out of what we see in the show, but I also want to go into more detail on how her actions affect those around her, even outside of all the friends she makes (stuff along the lines of the little things the crowd mentioned while protesting Eda's petrification at the end of season 1). - I'm almost (reluctantly) thinking of pulling a Grapes of Wrath with it, structure-wise, by having main plot/character development chapters alternate with shorter intermissions focused on magical exploration, worldbuilding, and so on. - this project is currently just the scribblings of a madwoman in my private discord server and three wildly unfinished fics in my google docs folder - - one of these fics is Something Like a Bible, which is essentially a condensed version of the entire broader project, boiled down to bare plot and occasional commentary. Like a series outline and a plot synopsis rolled into one, though perhaps not quite the series bible it claims to be. - - - honestly I REALLY aughtta work on this one some more, just so I can get most of the Big Ideas out of my head and share them with people. - - the other two fics are currently untitled snippets of scenes from the project, one a sentimental/instructional note from Eda to Luz, and the other sort of a ragefic twist on the ending of Thanks to Them. - this project is gonna include tons of ideas from and allusions to other fics which inspired it/me, such as The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled by IdeaHunter, All that's at Stake by The_Lampman, and Decorative by TheTokenAro, to name a few. - I could make a whole post about this project on its own (and in fact, I have before), talking about all the little changes I'd make, the developments I'd include, the more sweeping changes, the additional themes I'd toss in, and so on, but there are some I REALLY don't think fit well into the "rambling tumblr post" format (and/or just don't want to spoil yet), so I shall Abstain (for now :P).

[usersasaki]

hello tumblr user usersasaki 🫵 you will never know who i am! (or who knows lol hi karma <3) this anon has been looking into getting into orv but keeps procrastinating like they do on many other things and so asks you, one of their resident orv likers they know, to uh. idk. but feel free to ramble on about why you like orv so much & why someone should get into it (like me!) so maybe i can finally be convinced to read it Now instead of putting it off for later again and again !! ... or something like that 🥺✨

OK GUYS THIS IS NOT A DRILL. THIS IS NOT A DRILLLLL AAAAA HELLO U BEAUTIFUL PERSON I THINK IK WHO U ARE BUT RN I'M SO READY TO CRUSH U IN A BIG HUG REGARDLESS OF THAT

ahem. yes. anyways. i'm totally normal abt this, i totally didn't go feral for a few moments before i started typing this. OK BUT I'M SO READY TO TRY TO CONVINCE U TO READ THIS CUZ WHEN I SAY THIS WEBTOON + WEBNOVEL HAS CHANGED ME ENTIRELY. pls bear with me, giving me a chance to word vomit was not a good idea /hj. i'll put everything under the cut :] and i'll try to keep everything as spoilerless as possible so that u can safely enjoy the story when u get to it

i will apologise in advance for the person i've become, this might end up becoming a HUGE post (edit: i think it did, this is apparently at a lil more than 2k words rn cuz i typed this in google docs for fear of tumblr nuking my entire draft and me having to start all over again)

tldr for those who don't want to go through a 2k essay; orv is for you if you enjoy clean art, stories that will break down your initial expectations and surpass them, and things like found family, love (all kinds), and just an emotional rollercoaster in general. prepare snacks and tissues.

i'll start with the webtoon because that's where it started for me! honestly one of the things i look for most when i start a webtoon is the art. and there are times when even if i like the story, if the art ain't it for me, i'll drop the story 😭💀 but orv has such beautiful and crisp art, very edible art HAHAHA (both webtoon and novel by the way but i'll get to the novel in a bit) it makes me go so O.O sometimes. here's an example of the art, you might've seen it somewhere but i'm still adding it here for the pure beauty of these men named kim dokja and yoo joonghyuk AND ALSO han sooyoung and jung heewon (yes i'm gay, no it's not obvious /j). every character in this webtoon is so well drawn and just. chef's kiss okay, so if you like pretty art, you've got that right here folks.

moving on, the story seems, at first, like a very generic action fantasy webtoon where the world of a novel becomes reality and our mc aka kim dokja is the one who knows how to get to the end and he gets to meet his favourite novel’s protagonist yoo joonghyuk and decides to save the world. but as the story progresses on and on, it becomes so much more than that. the storytelling skills have to be applauded because webtoons can't use lots of words and have to convey things more concisely than their novel counterparts but they've done an amazing job of using the right dialogues in the right places with the right amount of impact. AND as of right now, the story is starting to head towards what i'd like to say is the actual beginning of this webtoon >:) that’s all i can say without spoiling some major things from the novel so,, yeah!

another beautiful part is the portrayal of each of the characters, especially kdj, and their different dynamics with kdj. now kim dokja is our mc and the main narrator of this entire thing so we’re quite limited in that sense because all we see and know is what kim dokja tells us through his narration. a lot of posts have accurately pinned him down as an unreliable narrator because he really only ever shows his companions (and us readers) one part of things and we’re all left to speculate about things. each companion holds a different opinion of kdj but all of them are united in the fact that they trust him to help them get through everything. while the webtoon hasn’t had a chance to explore that yet, i’m looking forward to how they will show it to us :] i’d say that this webtoon is worth a read also because kim dokja is the most mind boggling, intriguing and frustrating character you will ever meet. that’s a fact that’ll get clearer as you get closer to the recent chapters of the webtoon, but i love how he’s relatable in the sense that he both makes me screech in awe but also makes me want to wring his neck with how he is sometimes. i love him *holds him by the neck* (affectionately). oh and when i say every character is just a beautiful piece of art, i mean both their literal art and also the way they’ve been written, though it is more clear in the novel as of right now.

NOW i’m gonna move onto the webnovel because i honestly fell deeper into the rabbit hole purely because of the novel. and sing shong (the author of the webnovel) is an absolute genius for the way they have both intricately and simply pushed a single message throughout the length of the novel. i constantly joke about how reading the orv novel has changed my brain chemistry but i’m not joking most of the time because it really did. in many ways, i’m sure this is a novel i will remember for a very long time to come.

the same points i spoke about for the webtoon stand for the novel as well BUT of course the novel is just immaculately written and it deserves a chance of its own. it’s not that the writing of the novel is extraordinarily fancy or anything, it’s actually quite simple reading without too many complicated words but i think that has a beauty of its own. it’s able to convey what it needs to without having 10 pages of description and that’s awesome to me. there are issues with some things written in the novel but as it isn’t a focus or the point of orv (i got this point from this tumblr post, feel free to read through it if you want to because they have written some great points that can’t be said better by me!), it’s still a novel that entertains you to the fullest.

the characters are admittedly more fleshed out in the novel than the webtoon but that’s because the webtoon is still catching up while the novel is complete (it ended with epilogue chapters but recently the author came out with side stories). the relationships are just very detailed and it gives you a look into not only kim dokja’s head, but also yoo joonghyuk and other characters’ heads as well, though they’re not as common because the majority of the story is in kdj’s point of view. i’ve neglected mentioning other character names so far but kim dokja has a set of the most loyal and sweet and sometimes feral companions besides yoo joonghyuk like yoo sangah, who is someone kdj knew before the novel became their world, jung heewon and lee hyunsung, kdj’s trusty sword and shield, lee gilyoung and shin yoosung, his children (not biological but yes). there’s also lee jihye, an avid yoo joonghyuk follower who insults kdj at every turn but cares for him, and han sooyoung, who is portrayed as a bit of an antagonist or an anti-hero (as far as the webtoon goes anyway wink wink). and a lot of other characters you’ll grow to either love a lot or hate with a passion oR even have your opinion take a whole 180 about as you read on and on, that’s just the kinda novel this is.

don’t even get me started on the underlying themes of this novel. this is me being an english major (and psychology major unintentionally, double major woohoo) through and through but i love analysing characters and figuring out themes that come out through the writing. i won’t go too into the details so that i won’t spoil it for anyone who happens upon this post. but there’s the overarching theme of love; not just romantic love but also platonic love, familial love and the most important one of this novel, self-love. another theme i think is quite relevant and important to this story is more easily relatable to people who read often because it goes into how books can change you BUT you can also change books by reading them over and over again and understanding it better. also how stories can save you but you, as a reader, have the power to save stories by reading them. because in the end, a story continues because you read it. OH I CAN’T FORGET THIS, found family <3 if you’re a fan of found family, this is for you, it’s present throughout the story as a small but encompassing theme.

now this could be just me but i get extremely emotional when it comes to my favourite media, so i squeal with joy at happy parts, sob uncontrollably when sad scenes come up, punch my pillows when something makes me mad⏤ you get my point. and this novel gave me an entire rollercoaster of emotions and made me so URGH in good, bad and ugly ways. it kinda brings me back to my point about kdj being an unreliable narrator since the reason why it gets so hard and sad is because this man never tells anyone anything. he takes it upon himself to do everything, much to the annoyance and despair of his companions and us the readers. we know nothing other than what kdj is willing to tell us, not about his plans, not about him, not about his own feelings. and we’re left to guess and guess until everything is laid bare and then we’re still trying to. process everything. yeah i don’t know if this part is making any sense but i can’t really go into detail without majorly spoiling the story. so you’re gonna have to come back to my post once you’re done to be like “ohhh, right this is what they meant.” /j

To move to a lighter and probably my last point, the novel illustrations are gold i tell you. it’s done by a person named blackbox or bb-nim for short and i love just going through their art for fun. of course, if you’re reading it on a website like i did, then you’re not going to see the illustrations side by side so you should definitely check out blackbox’s twitter which i’ve linked here :] you’ll probably also find their art on pinterest. gorgeous art i tell you, BUT BUT BUT there are spoilers here and there so beware if you go digging through their media tab on their twt. I’ll put some of my favourite pieces that are as non-spoiler as possible under this

so. yeah. these are my reasons for why you should read both the orv webtoon and novel. In the end, all i can say is that if you give them a chance, you’ll probably get hooked just as i did. i knew to a certain extent about how the novel was but nothing prepared me enough but i’m not complaining because it is genuinely so good. i’ll add a list of content warnings here that i got from the wiki page because i don’t want anyone to be ambushed by anything they’re not comfortable with reading: graphic violence, death and murder, depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, suicide, body horror, dissociation, transphobia (this might be a deal breaker and it would be for me too as a nonbinary person but it’s not a major focus and happens a couple times throughout the story), cephalopods, tentacles (yes these are real content warnings on the wiki HAHAHA), and finally hospitals.

to all of you who actually read this far, thank you! you are a great person for reading through a random person on the internet go on and on about a webtoon and novel, hope you have an awesome day/night ahead of you! if you have any questions about things in the webtoon or novel, feel free to hit me up, i’m always down to have conversations about orv (none of my irls have read it but i will use this essay to convince one of them to give it a chance so wish me luck). anyway, peace out folks! :]

[michelemoutons]

and at last, the post that maybe three people maximum have been waiting for...

em's comfort retro rally videos: a masterlist!

in a much-needed return to this blog's roots, and as an antidote to all motorsport- and life-related chaos, i now present to you: the first edition of em's favorite retro rally videos!

general disclaimer/info: these videos mainly come from the group B era of the world rally championship (wrc), which generally speaking was in the '80s. i am only human, so expect a lot of bias toward my personal favorites...which will become very apparent as you read this list hehe. also i'm not even gonna pretend to be an expert on this or anything. a lot of these are literally just based on Vibes

table of contents

i. my top 5 rally coverage videos

mainly coverage for television, recorded on VHS and uploaded to YouTube by some truly incredible people

ii. honorable mentions

not rally coverage, but retro rally videos nevertheless

often documentaries, mini-doc features, interviews

for all videos, i have indicated the language (most are in english fyi); if any links fail or videos disappear, send me an ask or DM and i'll remove the culprit/find an alternative link.

and now, onward!

(TW for occasional flash photography in many of the night sequences of the videos, as well as a gif included in this post)

i. my top 5 rally coverage videos

in which my bias toward audi sport, mouton/pons, mikkola, toivonen, and vatanen are put on blast for all to see 🥴 i am not an expert in anything i am just very good at research and a whore for aud—[SNIPED]. for the sake of brevity, i narrowed my favorites down to 5. maybe another time i will share all the rest!

also, a general note about the commentary: sometimes, the commentary around michèle and fabrizia can get... weird. keep in mind, they were the most prominent female team partnership around that time, and the first to nearly clinch a wrc wdc, and to modern ears, the commentators really didn't know how to act around them. personally, it wasn't horrible for me, i just ignored the weirder bits, but i understand if others might find it off-putting. also for the sake of your sanity don't read the comments.

5. Rally of the 1000 Lakes, 1984 | finland

link: overall coverage (eng)

podium: vatanen/alén/toivonen (full final results)

comments: this was definitely a rally for most of audi sport's drivers to forget: bar stig blomqvist, who came quite close to the podium finishers with a 4:14:01 to henri toivonen's 4:12:57! both hannu mikkola and michèle mouton had to retire from the race, which may lead you to wonder: why does this rank among my favorites? well, it's always fun to watch group b rally cars sailing through the air against picturesque scenery, and this video also contains an intriguing (at least for me!) look at the scrutineering process, with drivers at their most casual.

owie :( they were fine though!

4. Lombard RAC Rally, 1981 | britain

link: overall coverage (eng)

podium: mikkola/vatanen/blomqvist (full final results)

comments: hannu winning by 11 whole minutes even after rolling his car in the middle of the forest is actual legend behavior! anyway this was michèle's first wrc outing in britain, and even though she and fabrizia had to retire, they still did quite well, consistently running high in the leaderboards after the first few stages. and that's considering the fact that michèle had a bad cold for much of the rally and had to ask fabrizia to drive the car to service park for her at one point bc she was so tired. which fabrizia did... with a pencil in her mouth. lot of big names in one video—also, jean todt makes an appearance as a co-driver!

shamelessly poached off of one of my text post edits

3. Marlboro Safari Rally, 1983 | kenya

link: overall coverage (eng)

podium: vatanen/mikkola/mouton (full final results)

comments: ok can i just say how stunning the video presentation is?? the opening sequence is just!!! the shots of the wildlife! the sprinting giraffes! wow! anyway the visual of drivers in deck chairs just tickles me for no reason, and michèle please tell me what you ask for at the hairdresser's and also where you got that orange blouse (this is obviously not just specific to this rally, she always eats and leaves no crumbs). this was michèle's first entry and only finish in kenya (and of course it was a podium mwah). it was also her last wrc entry in the A1 quattro, as she switched to the A2 for the rest of her program in the '83 season. also this is one of my favorite podium pictures ever.

lksdjffnnkd there's almost too much to unpack... fabrizia somehow surviving in high waist jeans in a hot car... michèle's do-it-yourself shorts... this podium picture was the subject of a very frantic video chat conversation between myself and a friend at 2am a few months ago

2. Rallye de Portugal, 1982 | portugal

links: short recap (eng) | overall coverage 1, stuck in the middle of two other rallies. timestamps in descrip. (eng) | overall coverage 2, very vibey with cool music (ita... also peep walter röhrl speaking italian)

podium: mouton/eklund/wittmann (full final results)

comments: GOD I LOVE THIS ONE SO MUCH AAAA! michèle's first podium of '82 being a win? this rally being the one where there's footage of her going shopping with fabrizia afterward? (more on that later) them winning by 13 whole minutes? and that's not even considering THEE most poetic victory ceremony of all time! in fact let me talk about that bc the racing and the win aside, that's why it's so high up on my list! literally poetic cinema! it's night, they're standing on top of the car and floodlit and surrounded by cheering crowds but they may as well be the only ones there in their own little world, laughing at each other and barely even having to look to each other when they're raising their hands—like god! shut up! we get it you're besties 😭

i_just_think_theyre_neat.png

and now... last but certainly never least...

1. Lombard RAC Rally, 1982 | britain

link: overall coverage (eng)

podium: mikkola/mouton/toivonen (full final results)

comments: firstly, if you were to ask me about my dream podium, this would be it. hands down, across all series of motorsport, my comfort podium would be hannu, michèle, and henri in any order. (there's such a cute picture of them from this rally on pinterest, standing in order on a staircase. henri is not looking at the camera because he is laughing at something michèle is saying and it's such a Vibe but i cannot find it wah). the battle for second between michèle and henri ran down to literally the last stage, and their times are separated by seconds, which is just wild to me. the context of this rally deserves another post, which i honestly don’t have the energy to make rn, but just take my word for it that it threatens to destroy me if i think about it too hard! anyway this is just such an awesome rally and i’ve watched this video so many times haha

i love this rally so much that i actually had a character in a story i was writing attend the ceremony captured in this picture as a small child and made it a formative moment in her life. no, there is nothing wrong with me.

ii. honorable mentions

(is it obvious who my faves are? yikes)

'Group B - Avec Michele Mouton' (eng) - taken from a longer feature presentation about group b, a segment specifically about michèle. a friend once described its vibes as ‘a synth wave edit of an 80s anime set in a cyberpunk world about racing’

'1983 Audi Sport National Rally with Michele Mouton' (eng) - in which michèle takes journalist sue baker as a co-driver for a spin in an A1 and a rally win. fun behind-the-scenes video

'Intervista a Fabrizia Pons, la Regina delle Note' 1, 2, 3 (ita) - very thorough interview which is mostly fabrizia telling all sorts of stories, including the very entertaining story of how she found out she was going to be michèle’s co-driver. also what a badass title

'2008 Otago International Classic Rally' (eng) - THE BESTIES REUNITE THE BESTIES REUNITE!!! michèle and fabrizia reunite for a rally that fabrizia convinced michèle to join, they suffer some problems but there are plenty of wholesome bestie moments to be had

'Michele Mouton hurls Group B Audi Quattro up Goodwood hill' (eng) - i mean, self explanatory. the sound of the chirping tires? asmr could never. very short watch if you want a quick pick-me-up

'1990 Louise Aitken-Walker feature' (eng) - a video featuring a female rally driver from scotland and her point-scoring run at the rallye monte -carlo. i am convinced that louise was john finnemore’s inspiration or at least an influence for the character of linda fairbairn. no my hat is not made of tin foil what are you talking about

hannu rocketing around michigan back in 2017 (eng)

hannu flying around goodwood in 2015 (eng)

sometimes i listen to fabrizia's recent onboards (yes, she's still at it!) and this one is one of my favorites, from 2016 (ita)

[creamypudding]

I finished my very tricky chapter 10. And before the weekend ever finished. And while I was sick with a cold and fatigued because I haven't been getting decent sleep the last few nights.

So I'm very pleased with myself.

As I suspected the dialogue was very tricky. I rewrote most of what I had already written in the 1st draft. I tried to keep some of the gold nuggets of dialogue but maybe about half of the stuff I wanted to keep didn't fit, or I had to alter it, which then lost the sheen of the gold nugget, which I'm sad about. But I got to work a few new bits of dialogue in and location changes which helped flesh out the scene and also build up the relationship better than what it was before.

There came a point in my writing where I realised I needed to change the beginning of the dialogue before I could proceed with the rest of it — because everything has cause and effect — so I copied and pasted the whole dialogue I had in the main chapter into a side document where I could retain the original, then version 1, and then alter it and create a version 2.

I'm trying to work a little smarter these days. Instead of editing things that I know will be tricky within the main body of the chapter I'm trying to remember to do this thing instead. So I have the version of one scene in one document and that saves me having to go through the many version histories on Google docs of the main chapter document, which will have so many revisions I wouldn't know where to begin looking to see what I had written previously.

So that's been a wonderful way of working, especially when I don't know what I might want to keep or cut from other scenarios that I've tried writing out.

I just about tripled my word count from 1st draft (2000) to 2nd draft (8000) of this chapter, which was stellar.

I've got some good ground elements established that will have ramifications for how I tackle the next few chapters — as I suspected would be the case, which is also what freaked me out initially.

I think I'll be ok though. I've got this. I even had some shower thoughts and epiphanies on how to strengthen the end, whenever I get to that part of the story.

Now I just need a way to catalogue these thoughts.

I wrote them down in my 'aside dialogue' document as I had that open and it was easiest to access... But now I should transfer it to some safe place. A vault of ideas or something where I clearly label the theme of the idea, or what chapter or scenario it pertains to. And then, of course, I'll need to remember to check that document when the time comes to implement these things.

Anyway... Chapter 11 is up next and I have no clue what to do about it, because it slips into the characters every day life when he is away from the main story arc.

I'm not sure how long to linger in that as in the 1st draft I glossed over that and just had him go back into the main story. But now that I'm allowing myself to explore more which helps to flesh everything out, I might need to explore this more too.

Who knows what I might find. And if it's nothing, well then, I guess I'll hop back into the main story.

But that's for my future self to worry about.

[lettalady]

Fandom questions: S and Z

Oooh thanks for the ask, darling!

Ask me: Fandom Edition

S - Show us an example of your personal headcanon

Well, let's see. I think I'll pull something from the world of TFATWS and the story I've been writing that ties to it. Blame the fact that I have several notebooks stacked next to me with bits and blurbs written out... or the fact that the docs are open on the computer. Docs. Yes. Because that world is an ever expanding one and I'm determined to keep it all organized somehow.

I may have mentioned it before in a note, or reply to a comment, but I have a very specific headcanon regarding John Walker and his backstory. Yes, yes, we all love to hate him and all his flaws. (I'll freely admit I haven't dug into the copious material out there to find proof of his backstory. It's out there, his progression from youth to young man to the soldier we were presented with in TFATWS. Yet somehow this made more sense to me. Anyway.... I'm rambling away from the ask.) We caught a glimpse of my personal headcanon about John Walker in LJH in his ability to pickpocket the reader, snatching her identification before she knew what was happening.

Of course thinking about LJH and backstory turns my mind to Helmut and the reader and the way things were for the Zemos before everything happened to set things in motion. In a document somewhere is the story about why Helmut holds his hand in that very specific way, why his fingers and joints of that hand are a little stiff, and why -- as we saw in one of the chapters of LJH -- he's a little sensitive to the notion of the reader and soldiers.

Z - Just ramble about something fan-related, go go go

Could I ramble on about Zemo since the letter is Z? Yes, yes I could. My head and my heart are at war, though, pulled various directions because I started watching Black Sails (oh lord there's the pull back towards pirates, privateers, and buccaneers) but I'm also hip deep in the starting-to-catch slow burn that is the relationship between the reader in LJH and Bucky, all while feeling that tug of Helmut and reader things. How many running WIPs = too many running WIPs?

But --

Z is for Zemo, so here we go. (and whoops maybe this also ties into the previous question too?)

I can't help but think about the path that brought Helmut J Zemo to the events of CA:CW et al. Before the loss, even, that took a dangerous man and pushed him a little bit further. I can't help but think about a young proud father and the struggle with the many parts of himself to be a man his son could not shy away from. Fear works to command, and command respect, but it was never something he wanted to shine from his son's eyes, particularly while looking at him. Going back further still -- thinking about the difficulty in navigating the expectations levied. Aristocrat. Solider. (He made it all work, sure. Excelled where others might have floundered, but then his father never would have settled for anything less, or let him settle, either. But what was the cost? What passions might he have pursued if given the freedom to do so?) There's that phrase that is stuck in my head about being in a gilded cage....

[imagine-fight-write]

BANANA FISH REVIEW - Part 7, Vol. 1

Edit: Reposting because I posted this without pictures????

I blame my internet.

Welcome to my in-depth gushing review of Banana Fish! If you want Part 1, See here:

https://imagine-fight-write.tumblr.com/post/626474762734092288/random-banana-fish-review-vol-1-part-1

Also I apologize. I thought I was going to post this last weekend but work happened. And then I was *kidnapped

*Not actually kidnapped, that was a joke. (Maybe I shouldn't use that as a joke.) I was just helping family members.

to help load up junk and take it home & then unload it. By the time I was done I was so exhausted & dirty, I seriously didn't want to do anything else for the little rest of the day that was left.

Supposedly it was expensive junk, but it looked old & rusted to me. Idk.

And then I got a really bad sinus infection (had to go to the doc & everything) & work has basically eaten up all my time.

And I'm bound & determined to finish writing a novel this year!

But that doesn't matter, because

I am so excited everyone!

Today we meet Eiji & Ibe!

#Eiji has the best fashion sense. Look at that jacket.

#I want it

There's also not a lot of singular gifs of him. Disappointment!

And there's almost no gifs of Ibe! This is probably the best one.

#I am mad Ibe is a great character!

And maybe we'll meet Max too, depending on how far I get.

Here is my favorite gif of Max. I have no idea what's going on, but I am intrigued! Also, Ash in the nurse's outfit makes me laugh every time.

Max & Ibe are the best partners in crime / not dad's to Ash & Eiji. I love them so much. They are just the best.

#LOL, no. I'm going to guess Ash has to save them. They try so hard but Ash is a femme fatale Rambo with all the enemies.

#actually mostly just Dino, who is the worst

*Ash & Eiji are the best too, but they obviously get more love & attention being, you know, the main characters. So I just want to point out how amazing Max & Ibe are.

Also, I'm not sure if Ibe has kids of his own (?), but we the readers know Max does. But it doesn't matter. They are the best dads.

Slight recap: Um . . .

Ash & Mr. Merridth (the no longer a doctor guy) have a hilarious, sick burns conversation, Dino is the murdering worst #like always (and is carving a wooden duck) # I have an entire post, & the autopsy Black guy, Gordon, at the end is hillarious.

Also, maybe I mentioned Ash laying down the law with his gang & showing how great a shot he is. Which is important & will come up later. Multiple times.

Now on to Part 7! (The lucky number.)

So, top of pg.72, the detectives, cops, inspectors, ???

er, whatever they are ---

#i pay attention so well

are talking. The Chief mentions Jerry Watts, that politician guy waayyy back in the 1st part, who murdered his bodyguard & then slashed his own throat. Whose death will be called a suicide (even though it clearly isn't.)

The Chief also mentions the "guests coming from Japan".

#this is one of the 1st gifs to pop up when I typed in "japan".

#imagine if everyone in this story was a lady or a girl, but otherwise be the same person - how would the story change? stay the same?

#Dino as a lady mob boss - go!

#I wrote that story

Anyway.

Charlie will go pick them up. He's also going to see Lobo. Max Lobo.

Max was sparingly mentioned way back on pg. 23, where Charlie mentions Max wrote a letter & can't come to see their Japanese guests Max invited because reasons (it's hilarious).

I'll correct myself later if I'm wrong, but Max is a work associate to Charlie & co. I think???

They might also just be friends, but I'm not sure.

#friends for the win

Also, am I the only one who thinks it's weird that Charlie refers to him by his last name? Just me? I mean, Max Lobo is a cool name, but still.

Anyway, we learn Max's life is sucking at the moment, since he's currently going through a divorce & custody battle for their kid.

In the 80s. Ouch.

And finally, we have a wonderful joke at the bottom of the page.

Inspector Bronson, to Charlie, "Isn't it about time you settled down? How about that girl in the bodega? I think she's got a thing for you."

Charlie, "Inspector, that's a man."

*Bodega is a small, street corner convince store, by the way. I had to look that up.

#it's not probably not this gif, but I don't care it's cozy

Bodega also a beautiful sounding word.

#though I'm probably pronouncing it wrong in my head

And on pg. 173 we meet Ibe & Eiji!!!!

I loved how the translation conveyed they were speaking Japanese by a string of untranslated Japanese kanji (??? I think?) followed by a carrot symbol < > when they speak, as opposed to a regular dialogue bubble when they speak English.

And (later) Ibe's nervousness is indicated not only in his expression, actions, & sweat beads but also how he meshes Japanese and English together. I love it.

There's a great dialog exchange:

Eiji, "Look at all the tourists."

Ibe, "Well, I guess we're two more."

Charlie appears (his face, top of pg 74, is kinda scary).

To his question, Ibe verifies he's Ibe, while thinking "Am I being mugged?" while Eiji wonders, "Is everyone blonde here?" which is hilarious.

We discover Eiji understands English really well (and probably better than Ibe) before Ibe asks the $10000 question:

"Where's Mr. Lobo?"

And Charlie's like, uh, well, Max is in jail.

Which is hilarious to me. For some reason.

#and guess why he's in prison?

Also Ibe & Eiji's reactions are priceless & exactly what mine would be if I went to an entirely different country, only to discover my contact was in jail.

We then cut to Charlie visiting Max in jail.

#because what are chapters

#no seriously, Banana Fish doesn't have chapters

Max seems to be doing alright. Considering what happens later, I speculate it's either

A) Bravado

B) True, because he has contacts & such, or

C) He's also a Vietnam vet, & if Rambo taught me anything, it's that you don't mess with them / mess with them to your peril.

Max has such great lines. In response to learning Inspector Jenkins having diabetes, he goes,

"Still, he's an inspiration to us all. Only man to drink the station's coffee black and live."

He also gives this wisdom to Charlie,

"Don't ever get married, Charlie. And if you ever do get married, for God's sake, don't get divorced."

We learn Charlie's in the can because he punched a cop. And he's talking to a cop, who he's clearly friends with. I love how Banana Fish always pokes at both sides of an issue.

Anyway, Max gets down to brass tacks. He's got an article for Charlie to read, by an Army Intelligence officer, Steven Johnson.

#guess who he is

He mentions banana fish & Charlie asks about it. I love the contrast between Charlie asking about it in the middle panel of pg. 78, contrasted with Max silhouetted in all black and grim. Max quotes the article,

"It remains unclear whether banana fish signified an individual person or an organization, but in either case it is believed to refer to those involved with a particular narcotics route active throughout the Mekong Delta region."

And it gets better. Because Charlie asks why Max is interested in all this. Max reveals he was in the same unit as Griffin.

Ash's brother. Who went crazy & killed everyone except Max & the sergeant.

And Max reveals Griffin said something to him after he finished shooting.

"I saw banana fish."

Duh duh duh!

#what is it??????

So naturally Max is curious about this "banana fish" mentioned in the article. Steven Johnson says he's going to start investigating it based on a lead he found in Los Angeles he found this year & once he gets out of jail, Max is going to chat him up.

Except Charlie looks at his profile & says,

"No, you're not going to talk to this guy."

Max, "Why the hell not, Charlie?"

His expression is great, (bottom of pg. 81) so is the flare of light and dark in the panel with Charlie's response:

"Because I saw him dead this morning."

Duh duh duh!

#the kitten is so cute I had to use it twice

So! We have learned so many things! Max was in the same unit Griffin was & was there when he went "crazy." Max is curious about banana fish.

And the banana fish guy Ash found in the beginning, which started this whole thing, is Steven Johnson, who'd been investigating banana fish before Dino sent Ash's (former) gang members to kill him.

But this only leads to more questions. How is Dino involved? What does he plan to use it for if all it does is make people go crazy? Why is banana fish showing up now, 12 years after the incident with Griffin?

I'm going to end here, because this post is super long. I want to point out before I go something I missed the 1st time I read this, which is Charlie became a cop specifically to counter all the awfulness brought about by drug use.

Max also has this great line, pg.79,

"It seemed like the country was drowning in dope. And a lot of it was cut with God knows what - people going to the hospital, the psych war, or just right into the body bag."

Akimi Yoshida's #the author's stance on this is clear. And intense.

Remember as always, this was written during the 80s, when this story is set. I find this snap shot fascinating.

Until next time, hope you have a marvelous day!

#yes I like cats, why do you ask?

[levi-supreme]

Hey Rei! Anon here!

I wanted to talk about this post. I won't tag the person who made it, but I was interested in your opinion on it. They bring up a great point in their tags as well.

I know for me I get really drained from writing. Not because I feel it's a chore, but writing, reading, editing, rereading and writing again can get quite exhausting and I feel that I don't even really want to read anyone's work after that.

This extends to me struggling to read other's writing who normally I might read, but can no longer do just because of being tired of words.

Anyway, I was wondering if you or other people felt this way as well since the post does have a lot of notes. Happy Tuesday!

Hi!!!!! Sorry I took so long to answer this T.T I'll answer below the cut because I'm prone to verbal diarrhoea lol!

A little background info, I started reading fanfics since 15 or 16, and I read loads of fanfics written of/about kpop idols (character x character, character x oc), Harry Potter (mainly Ronmione, AU, and canon-divergence), Digimon Adventure (the original 1998 characters hehe), and Final Fantasy (Cloti for life!!!!).

I wrote my first BTS fanfic in 2016, I write kny fics but I did not post any, and I only started writing for snk (specifically Levi) in 2021 after mustering the courage and getting over the shyness and anxiety lol.

I consider myself as a reader more than a writer because I don't think I'm good enough to be called a fanfic writer haha. Still, I'll give my comments in two parts. First as a writer, and next as a reader!

As a writer

I totally get what you mean!! Like, the constant brainstorming, writing, planning, and editing, it burns people out, and I feel like that too. Sometimes I feel like I am in the right headspace to write. But when I open up my Google docs, my drive suddenly just goes away.

And sometimes as a writer, I feel like I don't want to read fanfics for mainly two reasons:

1. I don't want to remember what I read in others fics and accidentally use it in my own fics.

Unfortunately my memory is pretty good lol, and I don't want to remember a scene, a line, or an idea that I read from a fic, and accidentally use it in my own writing.

And seeing as how I literally only write for Levi, and I tend to read more Levi x reader fics, I never ever want to risk the chance of me liking and remembering something that I've read, and then using it when I'm writing my own fics. I know to most this is just a small thing, but to me I feel like this is something that I should avoid in order to give that fic writer the respect and credit for writing something so good.

2. I don't want to read other people's writings and inadvertently compare it to my own.

I'm not sure about you, but despite the cheerful, friendly, sweet image I may give off to all of you, I'm actually very self-conscious and feel very inferior in terms of writing. I always have this feeling that my writing sucks, I'm mediocre, and no one likes what I'm writing.

Of course confidence is something that needs to be built and it takes time. But then, I don't want to read works of other writers (especially those that have a good number of audience/have really good 'representative' writings/are what you call the more 'popular' writers) and then comparing it to my own writing, because I know I will unknowingly tell myself "lmao haha you can't write something as good as that can you?"

And also, I feel like if I have a certain idea that I want to write, but I already see it being written, I'll feel demoralised to write it. I will think that oh, people might compare my writing to someone else's, and obviously mine going to be the inferior one.

As a reader

Also, I don't know about you, but I feel like fanfiction has changed a lot. Or maybe, it's because I've grown up and the type of fics I enjoy reading are now different.

Back when I was still an avid kpop fan, the amount of fanfics I've read were SO many, and they're all in different genres and AUs. Coffee shop au, spy au, police/mafia au, office au, magic au, super power au, canon-divergent, etc.

Yes these tropes are still being used in writing for anime fanfiction, but it just feels so... different? Like, the fics I read about a kpop character x oc/Ronmione/Cloti/Squinoa (Squall x Rinoa from FFVIII) feels so different from those written for anime characters.

But as a reader, I feel like these are the reasons why I don't see myself reading a lot of fanfiction nowadays.

1. The fics are chaptered/long fics are time consuming.

I'm not saying they're bad, I actually LOVE long fics. But then, I feel like I need to be in the right time to properly read them because just like reading a book, I want to be able to read these chaptered/long fics without distractions.

I feel like since these chaptered/long fics are like reading a book, I want to really enjoy the writing and imagery, so if I'm not in the correct 'mood' I find myself unable to focus and enjoy the fic as much as I want to.

2. There's nothing I like available.

I don't know about you, but I'm aversive to a lot of dark content and popular tropes. For one I really don't like the daddy kink, sugar daddy/baby kink, stepcest. I also can't stand like any rough play/three or more some/sex pollen and more. Yup. I know I am very vanilla. But do I care? Lmao no. It's my preference and it's who I am.

I love reading fluff and the occasional hurt/comfort and smut, but somehow that's about it. And I'm not bashing anyone, but there's so many fics with dark content, and then resulting in me having nothing to read. Of course the writers are free to produce whatever content they want. It's for their audience who love those tropes and ideas, but I just happen to not be one of them.

So, it just ends up with me not having that many things to read eventually, and somehow I just re-read old stuff that I really enjoy.

3. I have no time.

I mean... like okay yes it's an obvious answer, but I really don't have the time? Shift work (12hrs and above) is a pain in my ass, and I have to study too, and fulfill my duties as a daughter and as a girlfriend. WHERE TO FIND THE TIME???? I don't even have a lot of time to sleep lmao, don't talk about reading fanfics haha.

Bringing back to point 1, I can read like short fics but when it comes to anything 5k words and above I'm like "Okay let's kiv this first I'll read it again next time" and therefore, I have too many fics tagged under my 'save for later' tag T.T

I don't know if I answered your ask or not anon I'm so sorry if I didn't, and I made you read through paragraphs of crap.

And also disclaimer: I'm not spilling the tea on anyone, and these are just my own thoughts and opinions. Please also remember that I am actually very pessimistic and inferior, and I really tend to always think of the bad stuff first before the good lol, which may make me sound really cynical and negative here.

And if you've read until here, thank you for standing by my verbal diarrhoea <3