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mira--mira · 3 years

Note

Madara and Hashirama for the ask meme 👀

Hashirama

What I love about them:

I really love Hashirama's stubborn optimism. I say "stubborn" here bc I think after a certain point of pain in misery in someone's everyday life, in some way it is a choice to remain optimistic despite that suffering. I don't characterize Hashirama as constantly happy and he can recognize the more realistic/pessimistic possibilities, he just refuses to accept them. I have it in my notes for OoT but haven't worked it in verbatim but Madara would call him "ruthlessly optimistic " and while that's tinged with Madara's own bias, I think it fits quite well.

What I hate about them:

Hashirama is stubbornly optimistic LOL. It's a double-edged sword and I think by the time he reached adulthood in a canon setting, Hashirama was so desperate for there to be peace he maintained his "everything will work out" attitude when he otherwise shouldn't have. There were the concerns with Madara and the Uchiha, his own brothers views that he certainly should have recognized could become a problem, and, after depending on when Tobirama took on students/how old they were, the possibility of biases being passed down and a Danzo like figure coming to power. However this was not Hashirama's responsibility alone to fix. I don't think, despite his love, Hashirama alone could have kept Madara in a village that hated him and a clan that distrusted him. Tobirama was an adult and let his own bias pass under a veil of "logic" and passed that, either intentionally or unintentionally down to his students. None of this is Hashirama's fault, but I think part of the canon story being a tragedy was he was blinded by a bright, hopeful future that he failed to see the early signs right in front of him.

Favorite Moment/Quote:

"To me, Madara was like a gift from the divine."

Even thinking about it makes me melt. It's so sweet and really emphasizes how much Madara means to him. 🥺

What I would like to see more focus on:

In fics? Hashirama's mental health and how his childhood affected him. Most of the long fics I've read focus on Madara. Which I understand, Madara has an arc into becoming a villain while Hashirama is just kinda "there" and it's easy for him to fulfill a support role to helping Madara in canon Au fics. A sort of unshakeable, always optimistic stone for Madara to depend on and stop his downward spiral into villainy. But, what makes hashimada so great for me is that Madara and Hashirama are equals. There will be times one falters and needs to depend on the other, and they're capable of giving each other that support. It'd also be great to see Hashirama struggle yet continue to choose optimism and compassion time after time because that feels more weighty and important than an eternally optimistic characterization that never wavers.

Headcanon wise...this isn't something I've found but desperately want to see (and will come up in all of my own aus) is the connection between the god tree and the god of shinobi who's famed ninjutsu is wood release and who's cells can be used for everything under the sun and are specifically needed to control the gedo statue / ten-tails. 👀 Look when I got back into Naruto and only vaguely knew about the war arc plot I thought Kishimoto was Doing Something with that. He was not. I am.

What I would like to see less focus on:

This is pretty much mentioned above but Hashirama as mainly a support for Madara rather than getting his own (non romantic) arcs in long canon Au fics. Headcanon wise, this is such a small nitpick, but Hashirama constantly being the one described as warm whereas Madara is cold. The big tree can *retain* heat, but he pales in comparison to Madara's ability to *generate* heat.

Favorite pairing with:

Hashimada (Hashirama x Madara)

No one should be surprised. I can wax prose about this for days but it's about ultimately finding someone else in a terrible world that *understands* you that you can grow with and support. I'm a sucker for friends to lovers and battle couples so guess what's right up my alley?

Favorite friendship:

Canon/BoaF- Hashirama & Mito

I know Madara & Mito is more popular, and I do love their dynamic but christ Hashirama needs friends outside Madara and Tobirama and I think they'd be good friends. Canon!Mito would provide a good level-headed perspective and wouldn't have the messy, complicated history like the three founders have together and it'd be good for Hashirama to get a break from that. BoaF!Mito and Hashirama are cousins their relationship eventually progresses to a sibling-like bond. They’re quite protective of each other and gossip endlessly together. Mito’s not as good as gardening, but they do it together and incorporate Uzumaki sealing techniques for certain houseplant decorations. Mito also might know about Madara 👀

OoT-Hashirama & Sakura or Hashirama & Sai

His and Sakura's relationship is p similar to how I would characterize his and Mito's but with the added hilarity of Sakura being his "student" yet having 0 deference for him once they actually get to the "teaching" part (surprise: Hashirama's most uttered lines are "you do the thing, you know the thing, you know you just...do it. The thing. Madara "translates" a lot of their sessions.) Hashirama and Sai antagonize each other constantly and he *will* tease Sai into oblivion as any older brother would. Tobirama never reacted to Hashirama's mischief in ~fun~ ways and he felt bad about messing with Itama, who was even more emotional than he was and Kawarama, who hero-worshipped him. Sai is the perfect "if anyone messes with you I will personally make them regret being born yet *I* will tease you mercilessly to my hearts content" kind of little brother.

NOTP:

Hashitobi (Hashirama x Tobirama)

I don't do incest. At all. Even "non-incest" aus where they aren't technically related squick me out.

Favorite headcanon:

Hashirama can Speak to the trees.

Either humorously or seriously, I love this kinda, sorta, maybe not quite human power.

Madara

What I love about them:

Madara is kind and does his best to do what he thinks is right. The “kind” point is a lot of Hashirama talking/flashbacks and the “good” intention behind the Infinite Tsukuyomi. Making everyone a “winner” in the dreamworld, while absolutely insane and full of holes, is odd for a villain’s motivation. His role in the war arc is mostly focused on watching him wreck absolutely everyone he comes into contact with but I love Hashirama’s flashbacks and the glimpses of kid!Madara we get. Madara believed in his philosophy from a lifetime of pain that ended in him losing everything and being manipulated but he was still seeking a way to “help” the most people he could. He’s such a rich character that makes it easy to want to imagine other what-if scenarios where things turned out just a bit differently.

What I hate about them:

Madara takes all responsibility onto himself. This is more speculation because we don’t get Madara’s POV of his childhood or any significant scenes with the clan. However, I think this is one of the primary roots of most of Madara’s problems. If he blamed himself for mistakes that weren’t technically his, he could get into a cycle where he only blames himself and doesn’t seek help/support when he should have and purposefully reduces his support circle because he becomes paranoid that he won’t be able to protect them. A smaller issue that is both about Madara and not is he didn’t fall victim to the Talk no Jutsu, but was Madara aware of what was happening when he was possessed(?) by Kaguya? I forgot but if he wasn’t...I don’t think he’d agree Hashirama’s way was the right way at the end, merely his way was wrong. Because, in Madara’s point of view, the village may have been “better” (used very loosely) than becoming food/power for an alien goddess but it wasn’t good. It wasn’t the solution. Hashirama saying they were both wrong in some way saved the scene but Madara still jumped back to Hashirama’s dream being the right one too quickly imo.

Favorite Moment/Quote:

“What are you going to do about the second [meteor] Onoki?”

I’m sorry, that was just hilarious. We see this man slaughter an entire division and drop a meteor from the sky...two kages desperately try to stop it and it looks like they managed to succeed and he just...cool. What about the second? Really cemented Madara is Here and he is Dramatic. A close second fav is him flying across the battlefield to confront Hashirama only for the “I’ll deal with you later” line.

What I would like to see more focus on:

I really love it when fics fill in the blanks of Madara’s childhood/his time with the Uchiha so that’s always a plus for me. The other thing is Hashirama calls Madara a “fundamentally kind man” and according to Tobirama the Uchiha feel love “too deeply” so I like fics that do focus on these aspects of Madara’s personality while staying true to his prickly demeanor. For headcanons I love, love, love exploring kekkei genkai/ninjutsu/genjutsu and how they individually affect people/clans. Digging deeper so that “fire affinity” means constantly running hot/pushing into possibly having fire resistance/unable to distinguish “too hot” / or even affinity acting like a secondary blood type so even if two people had AB blood if one had a water affinity and the other fire their blood would be incompatible. Also the mundane ways powers can be used (I have some Ideas for non-combat genjustu applications that the Uchiha use and those will come up in OoT 👀)

What I would like to see less focus on:

This again kinda ties into the Hashirama segments, but Madara completely depending on Hashirama and Hashirama alone for happiness. Especially in long AUs where he’s still in Konoha but has a poor relationship with the Uchiha. That’s fine starting out! But if the fic ends or doesn’t seriously work on improving that relationship it just sits a bit weird with me bc I don’t think Madara could be truly happy in that situation. (NSFW start) The other thing I see commonly is Madara is extremely passive/submissive in bed with Hashirama which is...weird to me? There’s also a reoccurring thing where he doesn’t have a lot of experience but Hashirama does and this leads to embarrassment and the aforementioned passive/submissiveness. I understand lack of experience can be embarrassing and I do believe Madara could be embarrassed, but instead of withdrawing into himself I think he’d push through it with something close to bravado and his usual single-minded intensity, for better or worse. I do think Madara usually bottoms in his and Hashirama’s relationship but both of them are as enthusiastic about sex as they are fighting and neither is especially submissive or dominant. (NSFW end)

Favorite pairing with:

Hashimada (Hashirama x Madara)

See absolutely everything else 😂

Favorite friendship:

Canon/BoaF- Madara & Naori or Madara & Hikkaku

I really like focusing on the Uchiha clan and exploring the dynamics within it. We get nothing about Madara’s early life outside of Hashirama so this is almost completely speculation. For the angst of canon, I like Madara being close to his clan only to lose them after his friendship with Hashirama is revealed bc he awakened his sharingan over Hashirama and that can’t be easily hidden. For BoaF, a large part of it is exploring the clans’ cultures before they made the village so this necessitates actually fleshing out said clans. Naori and Izuna are v similar in personality and both live to prank Madara and annoy him, but they hardly ever team up bc they start squabbling amongst themselves. Hikakku is stoic and calm in contrast to Naori’s mania and Madara’s intensity but he keeps track of every little favor and Madara dreads the day he’ll act on them because he knows it’ll result in something embarrassing for him. But like all BoaF!Uchiha, they’re fiercely protective of one another and you really don’t want to insult the wrong person.

OoT - Madara & Naruto or Madara & Sai

I really Madara and Naruto’s dynamic, it’s very entertaining and fun for me to write and they’re both positive influences on each other. Madara gets more people to smother with his brand of affection and Naruto gets early recognition and training. Their weird non-training shenanigans (coupon collecting, gaming, etc.) also is p amusing. Madara and Sai have a similar relationship but I really like writing theirs from Sai’s POV bc he insists that he doesn’t feel close/like when Madara treats him like a little brother when he really does.

NOTP:

Madatobi (Madara x Tobirama)

Logically, I know why this pairing is popular. Fanfic is saturated with the enemies to lovers trope yet emotionally I Do Not Understand it. Personally, I don’t enjoy toxic relationships, to read or write. And, to me, that’s what a close canon Madara and Tobirama pairing would be. Tobirama tried to convince Hashirama to kill him, he killed Izuna, even if it was in war, and I don’t think Madara could or would get over that. If Tobirama has similar attitudes about the Uchiha it makes it worse. AUs exist to rewrite this, of course, but I still don’t enjoy their romantic chemistry. At best, I like Tobirama and Madara as reluctant frenemies who insult each other and try to one-up each other.

Favorite headcanon:

Madara is fire proof.

I have a whole rant about this in OoT’s author notes 😂 Sasuke’s Amaterasu should have been a serious threat when it hit him. Instead the man just lets his clothes fall off then kicks their asses. He’s fire proof.

In response to the ask game:

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silentauroriamthereal · 3 years

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2020 fic year in review

I was tagged by my lovely @khorazir! Thanks, you!

Total number of completed stories: Three, but two of them were fairly long? I wrote:

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: John/Sherlock, 50,689 words, explicit, John POV. Set in New York, because I was itching to go there and couldn’t, and setting a fic somewhere is the next best thing. Probably my most political fic to date, this one was a deliberate reversal of the fake-couple-for-a-case trope, aka I wanted to create a setting wherein John and Sherlock become a couple during a case but need to keep it a secret for the sake of the case. So I set it at a massive, anti-gay conference in the US. Naturally. :P

Sine Nomine: John/Sherlock, 45,626 words, explicit, mostly John POV with sections of Mycroft and Sherlock POV as well. In fact, though the sections aren’t equal in length, it’s symmetrical: it goes Mycroft POV/John POV/Sherlock POV/John POV/Mycroft POV. This story has a dark premise and a particularly dark setting for one section. It’s based on the concept of Mycroft rewatching the footage of John beating Sherlock in the morgue for the hundredth time or so and revisiting the question of whether John had been the making of his brother, or made him worse than ever. He’s definitely come to the latter conclusion, but decides to give John one final chance in the form of a test. John, for his own reasons, makes what Mycroft deems the incorrect choice, and Mycroft basically sends him into a death trap. The setting of this place is officially set in Serbia with indirect hints at events similar to the Srebrenica Genocide in Bosnia, but the actual setting is Syria, which I’ve just spent the past year studying intensely. Putting a slice of that into the dark core of this story, albeit disguised as another place, was strangely cathartic for me. The title, which is Latin for “no name”, is a double reference to the village here, which Sherlock and Mycroft never name, ominously referring to it only as “the village”, both to each other and to John, as well as John’s never-named or owned feelings for Sherlock. This one is close to my heart for a lot of reasons, but most of all because of Syria. Also, the vast majority of the time in my writing, I choose a singular POV and stick to it very closely for the entire story. Choosing to rotate between these three men essentially allowed me to show how they’re all justified in their own decisions here, and to examine the relationships between all three of them. It’s a story about reckonings and eventual, hard-won reconciliations.

The Secret of Hazel Grange. Sherlock/John, 18,181 words, explicit, Sherlock POV. I’m going to claim that the reason I only managed to swing three fics this entire year is partly that I put another project on hold in order to write this one, lol. This is the third Christmas fic I’ve written and I’m happy with how it came out. It’s also the only story I’ve written that’s explicitly set during this pandemic, and during the second London lockdown, which is eerily similar to the code red lockdown my own city is in, so it just felt right. It’s been a somewhat miserable holiday season for me (so many reasons, including unhappiness at work and an illegally high rent increase that my apartment building is putting through, on top of the pandemic and all of that isolation and all of those cancellations), so writing some happy endings for someone else was pure escapism for me. Hopeful for others, too!

Total word count: 114,496 words of posted fic. 130,796 if we’re counting my work-in-progress that got interrupted for the Christmas fic. :)

Fandoms written in: BBC Sherlock.

Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d expected? I wrote about what I thought I expected to be able to write. Right now, I have a full-time job, a part-time job, and then freelance work, all to attempt to make ends meet, so I have very little spare time to write in, unfortunately. So getting over 100k words in is actually somewhat miraculous to me. It feels like not very much when it’s just three stories, but I guess it still amounts to a fair number of words?

What’s your own favourite story of the year? Picking favourites is always tough, but for the Syria connection, I’d have to go with Sine Nomine.

Did you take any writing risks this year? I suppose that going so hard on the whole Republican anti-gay groups thing could be considered “risky” in some circles, but not really hereabouts! LGBTQ+ rights is one of my areas of advocacy (in fact, I’m a founding member of the Rainbow Equity Council at my workplace and spent a crap ton of time this month drafting governance documentation for it), but genocides are the issue that are really closer to my heart, so the Syria connection, even if it wasn’t named outright, could also be seen as a “dangerously” political stance, I suppose. But compared to other writing choices (like Scars, which features actual rape, or any of my Freebatch stuff, or any of the stories where Mary is an overt terrorist (rather than “just” a freelance assassin, lol)), I don’t really think I was terribly risky this year.

Do you have any fanfic or profic goals for the new year? The first item on the agenda is to get back to work on Nocturne, my WIP. After that, we’ll see. That said, I STILL would like to get back to searching for an agent for my novel, which is strongly based on Against the Rest of the World. I would also like to write that Johnlock cookbook I keep vaguely promising (it would feature recipes from my fics), and in a quirky “other” sort of project, I also wrote a heap of haikus about Republicans this fall that I’d like to see about getting published. Want a taste? Sure you do. I give you:

Brett Kavanaugh

Brett has a face like

a snarly little hedgehog.

He likes beer, okay?!

Mitch McConnell

Moscow Mitch is a

corrupt turtle who keeps his

balls in his neck pouch

Most popular story of the year? Well, the longer a story is posted, the more time it has to collect hits, kudos, bookmarks, and comments, obviously, so that makes The Four Horsemen the clear winner here.

Story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion: From this year or in general? :P I often find that my plottiest, most detailed, most researched stories that I personally think contain some of my most thoughtful writing are the ones that get the least attention. For instance, after series 3 aired, I wrote three back-to-back intensely-detailed series 3 fix-it fics (which all, to their credit, do get plenty of attention, though none so much as Vena Cava, the third of the three). Then I wrote a light-hearted, almost-crack porn fic, more as mental relaxation than any sort of literary genius, and that fic - Best of Three - remains my most wildly-popular story of anything I’ve ever written. It used to frustrate me, but now I’m just grateful to have anyone read anything of mine. But along that theme, yeah: the most complex of this year’s stories (Sine Nomine) is probably the one I feel is the least appreciated, but that’s also fine. No complaints here - I’m very lucky to have the readership I have!!

Most fun story to write: Sine Nomine, for all the reasons I talked about above, though I’d also call this the most emotionally-invested story of mine from this past year. That said, setting any story in Manhattan is always going to be fun, and I loved researching approximately 500 holiday rental properties in various parts of England in order to finally just create my own, aka Hazel Grange, lol.

Most unintentionally telling story: Ha, well, if you weren’t sure about my stance on gay rights, marriage equality, or Republicans in general, The Four Horsemen should clear that up pretty distinctly, lol!

Biggest disappointment: Just that I haven’t had more time to write.

Biggest surprise: Possibly that I felt so able to represent all three POVs in Sine Nomine as equally as I did. By that, I don’t mean being able to write in their perspectives, but rather in presenting their arguments with (I hope) equal persuasion: Mycroft thinks that John’s entire presence in Sherlock’s life has spelled nothing but disaster for Sherlock. He’s arguably not wrong. He decides that John is out of chances, and that he’s justified in being the one to make that call. Sherlock disagrees, hard, and he’s not wrong. John makes the choice he makes for his daughter, not for the choice Mycroft gives him between choosing either Mary or Sherlock once and for all, and he’s not wrong to have done that, or unjustified in wanting to go and demand some answers from Mary, who isn’t dead after all, here. But then I think that their various reasons for reconciliation are all equally justified, too. I hope! Usually when you stick to one perspective, the story naturally gears itself to persuade the reader to identify with that one character and to take their side. Here, I hope I manage to juggle the balance fairly equally.

I don’t know who’s been tagged in this already, but I’ll tag: @totallysilvergirl, @blogstandbygo, @nade2308, @weneedtotalkaboutsherlock, @hubblegleeflower, and anyone else who writes.

#2020 fic year in review #writer stuff #sherlock #johnlock #silentauror

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lopithecusfanfiction · 3 years

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The Light He Brings

Author: Lopithecus Pairing: Hatake Kakashi/Maito Gai | Might Guy Rating: General Audiences Word Count: 1174 Alternate: AO3 Summary: After Pain's attack on Konoha, Kakashi and Gai go and check on Gai's old house to see if it's still standing. They talk. Warnings: N/A Author's Note: For day 2 of KakaGai Week 2020 ( @kkgweek ). This takes place right after Gai and Kakashi’s race through the village and Gai gives Kakashi the flowers at the end. This is like, my third fic (the other two are in different fandoms) with the main theme of flowers. Apparently, I like flowers in fics. The other two were based on flower meanings. I wanted this to be different so I guess there is that. I still have a lot of thoughts about Gai and his father dying, can you tell? I hope you enjoy this! Prompt: Day 2 - Flowers

Kakashi stares at the flowers that Gai had given him after their race and smiles fondly. It’s not the first time Gai has given him such a thing. The first time was when Kakashi had made it to Chunin. The next day, Gai had presented him with a single flower that he had gone out of his way to pick from the flower garden by his and his father’s house. The next time, was when Kakashi made Jonin and then after that when Kakashi got his first Genin team. So getting flowers from Gai isn’t unheard of by any means.

This time, however, felt different. Gai had been shier about it, not looking Kakashi in the eye and instead, looking off to the side, which was unusual for Gai nowadays. Kakashi hadn’t seen a timid and unsure of himself Gai since they were kids, before Gai built himself up to be who he is today. It was strange.

With one final sniff at the flowers, Kakashi grabs a bucket and fills it with water, placing the flowers into it after cutting the bottoms off with a kunai. Ideally, he would put them into a proper vase but his apartment is no longer a standing building, so this will have to do. He carries the bucket to where he has set up camp until there are more living quarters built and places the flowers inside the tent.

With one last look at them, he sets off in search of Gai. The last time he had seen him, was when they went out and had their sushi eating contest. That was hours ago and now the rambunctious, overactive man is nowhere to be seen. Kakashi sighs. Of course, when Kakashi wants to interact with him he’s not around. When he doesn’t want to interact with Gai, he’s always there.

Not that Kakashi ever actually doesn’t like Gai’s company or doesn’t want it. He’s come to look forward to those times in the days when Gai would randomly show up to issue a challenge to not only better themselves as shinobi but also to have an excuse to hang out together. He enjoys it probably almost as much as Gai does. Not that Kakashi would ever admit that out loud to Gai or to anyone else for that matter.

After wandering around the destroyed village for a couple of hours, Kakashi finally manages to find his rival helping out an older lady carry some of her belongings to the shelter they set up for the civilians. Kakashi joins them, offering to carry some of the things in Gai’s hands but Gai refuses, claiming that it’s good training. Kakashi doesn’t argue with him and walks beside them quietly as Gai chats with the older woman.

Once the woman is settled in the shelter and Gai has said his long-winded goodbye, Kakashi turns to him. “Gai, walk with me.”

Gai nods and follows along with Kakashi, chatting idly while Kakashi just listens. It isn’t until Gai realizes where they are headed that his speech tapers off, descending into silence. When the building appears in front of them, he halts. “Why have we come here?”

Kakashi shrugs. “I wanted to see if it survived.”

Gai shoots him an amused look, smile playing at his lips. “You could have just asked.”

“You checked already?”

“It is my Papa’s house, Kakashi.” He walks past Kakashi towards the back of the house. Kakashi follows and watches as Gai kneels in front of a gravestone and bows to it. He stays there for a few seconds, praying, before he gets up, turning back to Kakashi. “Have you been to yours?”

Kakashi doesn’t answer Gai right away, shuffling past him to kneel and bow at the gravestone himself. He sends a prayer to Dai, making sure to tell him that his own father is fine, and then stands. He doesn’t have to have Gai clarify what house he’s talking about. Kakashi hasn’t been back there in years. “No.”

“You’re not worried? Or even just curious?” Gai asks.

“I don’t really care,” Kakashi says as he walks away from the grave. It’s still well taken care of, proof that Gai comes here often. Kakashi’s own father’s grave wouldn’t look as good. He’s not even sure if the stone would be visible. He’s sure there are a lot of weeds that have grown around it. Maybe he should change that. “I saw my father.”

“What do you mean?” Gai asks as he follows Kakashi around to the other side of the house, where the rose bushes and hydrangeas are located. They’re overgrown now, unkempt and messy. Gai must only come by to take care of the grave and that’s all. It’s understandable. He doubts Gai would want to spend much time here just like Kakashi has never wanted to return to his childhood home either.

“When I died,” Gai visibly flinches at that, and Kakashi notes to not dwell on that subject for too long, “I met him.”

“Is that… a good thing?” It’s no secret to Gai what Kakashi has thought about his father over the years. Kakashi certainly took his anger out on Gai enough times for him to figure it out.

“It was, actually. We got to talk.” He plays with one of the roses, it’s vibrant red stark against his pale fingers. “Clear the air, I guess.” Gai nods, seeming like he’s not entirely sure what to say to that. “I kind of wish I could have met Dai instead though. He was always better than my father.”

Gai chuckles and steps closer, plucking a rose off of the bush. He twirls it around in between his fingers, easily avoiding the thorns as if he’s done that very act a hundred times before. “That would have made him sad because you would have missed out on the opportunity to fix your relationship with your own dad.”

“Maybe.”

Gai looks up from where he has been eyeing the rose, peering at Kakashi through his lashes. He’s only standing about a foot away and Kakashi can feel his comforting presence easily. “Kakashi…”

“I know,” Kakashi says, interrupting. He lets his hand fall away from the flower he had been playing with and grabs for the one in Gai’s hand. He reaches up and tucks the thing behind Gai’s ear, careful to not poke him on the thorns. “Perfect.”

Gai is smiling at him, cheeks a rosy pink, and it’s the most beautiful thing Kakashi has ever seen. Dying has given him a new perspective on life and he’s ready to take it by the reigns and not let things pass him by this time around. So, he lets his hand linger on Gai’s face and smiles back, chest filling with happiness and joy and so much love for the man in front of him.

And from this day forward, he promises to himself and to Gai, to cherish every second he gets with Gai and to always show him just how much Kakashi loves him.

—————————————————————————————————

A/N: Thanks for reading!

#kakagai week #KakaGai #GaiKaka #Hatake Kakashi #Maito Gai #Might Guy #Kakashi Hatake #Gai Maito #Guy Might #Naruto #Naruto Shippuden #The Light He Brings #My Fanfiction #KakaGai Week 2020 #Day 2 #Flowers

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kinetic-elaboration · 4 years

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April 25: Thoughts on The 100 2x10

Twenty years later, I return with Ep. 2x10: Survival of the Fittest.

This commentary is NOT pro-Grounder or pro-Lxa.

I last watched in January and I have literally no idea what’s happening lol. I mean, I do because I’ve seen the whole thing enough times but still. Like specifically.

One of Netflix’s warnings for this show is “fear.” I CANNOT.

The idea of Arkers and Grounders perhaps meeting in certain ways pre-canon is interesting (the suicide by earth idea) but then the story just becomes one of yet more Mindless Grounder Brutality and I get bored. Like I’m sorry this is truly the most boring civilization ever imagined and I cannot believe we’ve been asked to care more and more about them with each passing season.

The lost possibilities of Bellamy & Lincoln. Also of Lincoln, in general? Someone who tried so hard to be something other than what he was taught to be.

Also, his story is basically confirmation that he became obsessed with Octavia because he was illegally spying on the cool Sky People and then ran into a Pretty Girl and that was just that on that.

The underworld. They’re not subtle.

Mmm-mmm my favorite set. Indra looking badass as per usual, giving her warriors a pep talk. And Kane with friendship heart eyes like “I’ve found my new BFF!!” (This is truly how I read the expression on his face.)

“Only our Guards are armed here.” Lol okay but does anyone really believe Indra travels with ONLY two knives on her person?

I’m generally a Jaha apologist but I cannot stand him in S2, primarily because his whole thing is based around him caring about “the Grounders’ land” in this realllllly awkward native peoples parallel, as if this was supposed to make him sympathetic when (1) there is literally no evidence at all that the Sky People occupied Grounder land in s1 or are occupying it in s2 and (2) he is advocating abandoning the main characters to death, the main characters are a bunch of teens, and literally no one calls him out on how disgusting that is. The only thing he’s right about is that the Grounders are terrible and Kane’s boner for them is ridiculous, but still.

Is there a Grounder named Michael? Lol.

“My shock baton’s got your back” probably isn’t intended as wildly inappropriate adult man hits on teen girl flirting but........ I dunno how else to read it.

Murphy > Grounder I said what I said.

That woman in the background of the fight with her eyes wide like ‘oh heavens! oh my!’

Kane’s here trying to be like stern dad keeps his kids in line for the sake of peace and Indra and the rest of the Grounders are like... fucking crickets. So ridiculous. So immature. Keep your own bitches in line Indra.

I completely forgot that Mountain had multiple airlocks and thus just, you know, opening the doors wouldn’t do anything. Makes sense, I’m just dumb.

Clarke > All Grounders and seeing her show respect to Lxa or anyone, even if it makes sense in context, just irritates me.

Clarke: *gives several very good reasons why sending large numbers of Grounder warriors into the Mountain will do literally nothing but lead to more casualties.* Grounders: *raaaaa I hate being told no, let’s just attack!!! ATTACK!*

“He shouldn’t have attacked my ship.” Honestly I think part of why S2 Clarke is my favorite is because I really identify with her, surrounded by idiots, just doing her best to get fucking anything done and done right.

“You’re very brave under the Commander’s protection, aren’t you?” DUDE. DUDE. You literally just reminded everyone that this five foot tall blonde teenage girl roasted your brother and several hundred others alive and you think the commander’s protection is why she’s brave? She’s brave because she’s smarter and tougher than you, duh.

And after all this Lxa’s like “Quint’s right.” Um he’s truly not though??? Ugh, the stupidity irritates me.

“Hook up” for “alliance” I am DYING.

Kane is absolutely the worst faux-father figure. Encouraging Octavia to get her ass kicked by idiots who are training for no reason...

And then this bitch (Quint) tries to kill Clarke as if that were even remotely a good idea... what if you were successful? What then? Lxa would torture you for like 100 days and then kill you start thinking things through.

I miss Byrne in that she was annoying but at least had, like, a perspective and purpose, BUT that was a cool death scene. A good sort of shock.

“Work detail” is such an odd phrase, like... one would think....everyone works?? It seems to be code for “mop some floors.”

I’m gonna be honest, the search for the CoL was the clear weak point of S2 for me but Murphy & Jaha are an interesting pair to share screen time.

Murphy: hesitates to accompany Jaha to Wells’s grave until he sees the possibility of getting a firearm of his own, then falls in love. You had me at ‘can hold a gun!’

They really are wasting bullets. Those are...kinda a finite resource? Also you’d think that these literal members of the Guard (based on their jackets) already know how guns work.

Kane really is devoted to this I’m Your Daddy thing, huh? “Look at me, shooting this gun, I’m so cool--don’t you want to be cool like me? I can teach you.” (And O in the back sharpening her sword like she knows what she’s doing.)

I don’t get how Mount Weather could influence Grounder legend given that they’ve known about Grounders for less than a generation, and they tend to destroy anyone they capture, not, like, release them back into their villages? Cool idea though!

Octavia, the secret weapon, exploitable by both sides because she knows both sides, is an interesting path SOMEone at SOME point should have gone down, or should go down, like in fic. Just putting that out there.

See, literally, what did I say? Quint does not even succeed in killing Clarke and he’s sentenced to death in 0.5 seconds. You gotta think ahead man!!

Lol I’ve seen this how many times and only now am I hearing that the word “Pauna” (which I’ve also been mispronouncing) is in fact in the episode. I always thought that was extra-canonical.

Pretty hilarious that Clarke, attempting to run away from the Irradiated Gorilla, leads everyone right to...the home of the Irradiated Gorilla. AKA the National Zoo.

Look the only thing I really have to say about this entire story line is that it’s pretty clearly only here to make sure Clarke, the main character, has something to do in an episode that isn’t really about her, like it’s straight up Filler just like the Bellamy Scales a Cliff episode, and it’s dorky and laughable and awful CGI and I get that--but I still maintain that the concept of “animals from the zoo survived and are still out there in mutated form” is cool and we should do more with that, as a fandom.

Also....moose? How’d that get there??

“Leave me” Lexa says, as if it weren’t incredibly easy for Clarke to save her. Like...why do you give up so easy all the time??? Grounders are weak. The slightest thing happens and it’s either “Time to kill you” or “Time to die.”

Murphy, unimpressed by the beauty of Earth.

Completely forgot that elder Murphy’s name was Alex. Put that one in my back pocket.

This Jaha and Murphy scene at Wells’s grave is the best of a fairly lackluster episode. “Clarke sugar-coated it for you, didn’t she?” “Good can come out of even the darkest acts, John.” “Camp You is that way.”

(Also...when did Clarke get a chance to talk to him? Was this over video in S1? I guess it must have been since she’s been busy in S2.)

When Kane lets Octavia fight the Grounder he is 100% doing it for himself and the alliance. He’s using her.

And somehow this is the ONLY time Octavia lost a fight. I wish the show had acknowledged more, as it does here, that tenacity is a great virtue but it’s not the only virtue. Also the Grounders truly are canonically terrible at what they do.

My favorite O characterization is when she’s just a blank slate for people to write on because she never was able to create a personality for herself. Because I think it’s the most true to her backstory, which seems only intermittently relevant imho. “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” “I would like to be stronger,” hence “I shall get beaten up.”

*Sings* Lxa is a terrible leaaaaaader!!! Getting all up in Clarke’s head trying to tell her that caring about not constantly killing people is..............somehow.....................bad??? Lol.

This scene here where Lxa provides the groundwork for the Ai-in-Commanders thing, is probably where the show began its downhill slide. Don’t get me wrong, I love S2 as a whole--most of this nonsense didn’t really come up until S3--and S3 itself has good ideas, including the AI thing, but they were just realized so badly...... Makes me sad. We could have had so much more!

“Don’t be afraid, death is not the end,” is like......the least helpful thing to say. Yet again, Clarke uses her brain and figures out an actual plan, as opposed to “die heroically” which is really all the supposedly genius Lxa ever has. “Die heroically” or “Save own ass at others’ expense I said what I said.

I’m so salty.... I can’t even believe myself.

I enjoy the Indra and Octavia relationship.

So I’m going to say that I always assumed, and still basically assume, that the reason Indra chose Octavia for a second is that she really did think there was something special in her when she saw her fight. Like that’s all. Just like she would with a Grounder kid who wanted to be a warrior. But I think it would be interesting if she’s thinking just as Kane is: that Octavia is a useful bridge between the two peoples, that perhaps, she could get something from her. (Counter spy?)

“No one gives anything without expecting something in return.” Early John Murphy philosophy synthesized.

What the fuck is Jaha eating? Little...food pellets.

It’s true that he’s being cynical but it’s ALSO true that Jaha is withholding important truth from him and ultimately, arguably, using him.

“You didn’t give a damn about us. You still don’t, that’s why you’re not fighting for this kids in Mount Weather.” SOMEONE FINALLY SAID IT. THANK YOU MURPHY. MVP of this ep.

“I was pardoned, slate wiped clean, I’m still treated like dirt.” The treatise of the Ark AU thanks.

More patented Murphy nose rubbing.

Murphy and Raven, both pulled in, to some degree, by cultists.

Murphy and Octavia, both manipulated by more powerful adults for their own ends.

Jaha is so... he has all these peace and love, everyone is accepted, nice ideas and beliefs and faith, but he also does not care at all about sacrificing a few here and there. He may remember Alex Murphy but he doesn’t really care, he’s not really haunted. Remembering is like a courtesy. He may miss his son but he still ultimately believes, even hearing how utterly stupid Wells’s death was, that it was worth it for some unknown greater good. And he’s willing to give up on people who aren’t even dead yet, just write them off as an acceptable loss, even though they’re his people and a subset of his people to whom he owes a particular debt, and still consider this sacrifice, not even yet made, to be worth it for this bigger plan. There are a lot of things I respect about Jaha as a leader, and surely in a universe of terrible leaders he is not the worst, but this is his fatal flaw, what keeps him from being good. Real leaders do accept that losses will happen, as Lxa says, but they don’t seek out losses and they don’t merely catalogue them and then move on. They feel them, and accept responsibility for them, and carry them forward.

No I am not talking about Clarke, although within this universe, she comes closer to the ideal.

The story line with Lincoln, Bellamy, and the Reapers is like nightmare fuel if I think about it too much.

Indra, with the tiniest slice of meat possible on a huge plate: “Eat! Get strong!”

Kane, trying to be sexy and seduce a new friend: “Thank you.”

Kane and Octavia are talking and Indra is just in the background, sitting on a tree stump, brooding in the most photogenic way possible, very ‘google earth, always taking pictures’ of her.

I’m sorry but I can’t stop seeing Kane’s whole demeanor in literally every scene of this episode as like “Attempted Daddy.” Not in the paternal sense.

“You’re asking me to be a spy?” / “I’m asking you.......... yes, to be a spy, that’s exactly it.”

Objectively ridiculous for Octavia to think the Grounders are her people but, I get it, she’s desperate for people of some sort.

“There’s a million ways to die out there” should have been the title of the series. More accurate than “The 100.”

“If it’s not your time than nothing can kill you” IS everything infuriating about Jaha in one line. Saying ‘it’s just what was meant to be’ is a pretty easy way to avoid responsibility for anything, ever, and it’s extra sketchy from someone who, as a leader, knows or should know that his actions have consequences for other people, sometimes life or death ones. I mean...everyone but he and Murphy did die searching for the CoL.

We REALLY need more fic that utilizes Jaha as a weird guru type.

“You wanna stop being treated like a criminal then you have to stop thinking that that’s all you are.”

Here, Clarke comes up with yet another smart idea. How many is that in one episode? She’s too smart, guys, just too smart.

That said, the first time I watched this ep with my mom (the second time in general for me, the first time for her), when Clarke explained her ‘release the Grounder prisoners’ plan, she was like “...Duh? I thought that was already the plan? Isn’t that what Bellamy was going in there to do?” Basically most people on the show < Clarke < my mom.

The tragedy of Lincoln’s addiction story line really does get to me.

I’m a little insulted on Bellamy’s behalf that he was marked Harvest lol.

I just watched the episode and I heard them explain their plan... but I still don’t really see how it was going to work. Like just... cause chaos and let Bellamy run inside? Kind of feel like someone would have caught him at some point, and also--doesn’t that run a significant chance of getting Lincoln killed? Oh well. It all works out eventually. Mostly.

Anyway, not the greatest episode, but it had its moments. The Jaha and Murphy story line was good, and I actually enjoyed the Octavia, Kane, and Indra stuff more than I thought or remembered. But it’s always kind of a bummer when one or both mains get lackluster filler plots--and in this case it really was both--I mean, Bellamy’s was important, but it wasn’t very long. And none of my faves: no Mount Weather, no Jasper and Monty, no Raven.

It still fucks me up that Liz Phair wrote music for this show.

#the year 2020 #2020: fandom thoughts #2020: the 100 s2

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advernia · 4 years

Text

push me off a bridge (to catch me as i fall)

a separate post for my ramblings for this fic!! it’s actually the longest thing i’ve written in a while, so i have a lot to ramble about haha;;

prelude

oh man... this started when two of my friends decided to go through edgar’s route at the same time AND also decided to go reacting to every single part of the route through burst texting AT THE SAME TIME, effectively flooding my inbox.... they were fully aware that i was at a seminar and unable to reply... now my inbox is filled with so much edgar screaming i cannot... (゜▽゜;)

screaming aside they were also very willing to read whatever drafts of edgar/mc i had available and this was their favorite!! thanks to them, i decided to finish this omfg... i’m actually so proud that i got this done but tbh it was getting so long that i had half a mind to let go of it already halfway through scene three haha... (;*△*;)

this has uh... some fighting scenes and tbh the first draft had absolutely none of it... this is my first time actually writing long(?) scenes and while i found thinking about them to be fun, putting them into words was some struggle??? like... i've been told that it looks okay but idk it feels clunky to me. oh well ＼| ￣ヘ￣|／

general stuff + war phase, baby!

initially this was only meant to be 3 parts + primarily focused on edgar/mc + with an unnamed mc as usual! but then since it’s an au of kyle’s route, i found myself wanting to flesh out the relationship of edgar & mc when set in a different angle + circumstances rather than just automatically implying attraction...

plus their relationship canonically starts off on the wrong foot in that route & edgar’s fully aware that mc isn’t exactly comfortable around him, so it really doesn’t sit well if i just... put them together, lol. so thus we have five scenes of them getting(?) closer!(???)

in short its a hella slow burn and not gonna lie, when i was writing their scenes i was like f i n a l l y... bless... ಠ ּ͜೦

one of the reasons i like kyle’s route is bc i actually got some feel of an actual war??? idk i think there’s so much plot that u can fill in with it, so i decided going for alternating scenes of the battlefield + med tent. while there's glimpses of the action going on, there’s also the sort of complimenting(???) or offsetting more emotional perspective of what goes on with the medics.

tbh i stared long and hard at the cradle map when formulating some tactics and i gotta say i had a hard time calming myself down bc...

in kyle’s route, the red army has the advantage and have pushed the black army as far back as to their bridge, which means that more or less they’ve occupied central quarter... but what dawned on me was... where the hell did the red army position their encampment from there???

was an encampment even necessary given that they’re like, in a really convenient area????? they probably could’ve settled themselves in some houses but tbh okay maybe it isn’t so noble of the reds to do (imposing themselves n’ stuff) + they have larger numbers so accommodating all of them is a problem but still... where’d they set up camp??? u see, when kyle + mc step out of the med tent it shows the forest bg, so... where??? on the edges of the central quarter area are where u can see them trees??? on the civic center roof?!?!

well... a decent answer is that they could’ve set up several encampments around the area to ensure their hold on the central quarter... it still raises some questions but honestly it makes a lot more sense... but if not and they really decided to camp out like one big happy family all together, then don’t even get me started on the possibility that the camp was stationed somewhere around here:

because doing that doesn’t have a single lick of sense omfg especially tactics-wise haha... that’s like... why would you do that... you’re wasting all your advantages... o h b o y... so you bet when i remembered that mc + loki had to pass by a forest to get back to the encampment + encountered ray & some disciples i was like... u m m... why???? if technically the reds took hold of the whole central quarter area then it actually isn’t necessary to skulk around in the forest?????? yes yes i know safety precautions + avoiding detection but... dood... it’s safer to walk in claimed territory rather than the unstable one ahaha...

plus the thing about the black bridge... uh... it's just said in the route that lancelot handles it through magic and that's all. but when i thought back on it oh my god... what did he do??????? how is he still standing??? how much of his lifespan did he shave off just to salvage that situation??????????? how is the poor boi alive?????????? the whole fucking bridge literally falls apart and that's a whole lot of chaos and people and AHHHHH!?!?!¿¿¿¿ if ur gonna make the bridge collapse (good thing they didn't think of disintegrate) it probably cost the magic tower a hefty amount but get rekt lancelot still saves the fucking day, what a king - he's practically got one foot in the grave already... this dood, seriously ಥ_ಥ

there were other things i noticed in the process of writing this based on the route events but i was like fuck it, let’s think on that another day and leave it as it is (┛ಠДಠ)┛彡┻━┻ ily kyle but oh no my brain started reprocessing the other details of ur route

thinking about all that also made me think of other more stuff, like cradle economy + livelihood haha;; it’s stated in edgar’s route (well... it’s actually pretty obvious in other routes too) that the reds are richer than the blacks, so i went ahead and assumed that the former engages in something more lucrative like mining -> jewerly / raw material / mineral trade, while for the latter something more wholesome like agriculture. idk, it works. even moreso that the reds give off the whole nobility vibe while the blacks are simple and casual. even the bg screens of the red & black streets are polarizing.

then i also went over the rest of the chosen thirteen... while the reds show no obvious weapon variety (see: swords), i’d like to believe that they’re taught to be versatile enough no matter what the situation. plus, since they have the funding, i'd like to think they're skilled in magic manipulation, too. meanwhile the black army shows weapon variety, and i’d like to think that it’s because most of their recruits aren’t soldiers in the first place: they’re farmhands / hunters / village people turned soldiers, and it’s actually easier to let them go with what they know first before encouraging them or asking them to learn something new. thus axes and spears and possible unconventional stuff like caltrops.

crimson glory

one of the things i realized was in kyle’s route, mc isn’t exactly so buddy-buddy with the red crew in comparison to other routes. she gets minimal interactions with the four, and zero aside her relationships with the top three are rather... tense.

zero was the other red officer i was initially going to add aside from edgar & kyle, but i added all of them anyway. while they don't appear all together, all of them have scenes together with edgar.

the first edgar & jonah scene shows an obvious contrast - while he's being incredibly critical about it, jonah shows actual concern for the living situations in black army territory. on the other hand, edgar chooses to tease him about it, his joking more or less implying that he isn't that concerned / bothered about it at all. the game touches up on this sometimes, often with edgar commenting on how noble jonah is while jonah shows obvious distaste for edgar's callousness.

still, they work well together. personally i'm amused with a hc of mine that looking at how edgar fights / acts only spurs jonah to act more honorably while for edgar, being exposed to jonah's noble-ness more or less makes him curious to try being honorable from time to time lol. that still doesn't stop anyone from calling him the gentle demon tho ( ⚆ _ ⚆ )

tbh since edgar is obviously sneaky on other routes i wouldn't put it past him to casually pressure lancelot to tell him wtf's going on with this war when he gets the inkling that something's wrong. edgar goes about this subtly not-so-subtly and in the most polite manner possible. lancelot knows him far too well to take bait tho - he makes sure to speak carefully since he's probably knows that edgar's going to pick apart at his words for meanings + implications, so it more or less leaves edgar a bit frustrated since it's clear that lancelot won't tell him much. still, edgar knows when not to cross the line - even he's not so keen on getting on lancelot's bad side.

that aside, i'd like to think that edgar respects lancelot a lot as a person + commander enough that he'd truly risk his life for him on instinct like a true soldier would. while i think i could've done more on writing the gravity of the collapsing bridge scene, i liked the last bit where edgar + zero immediately worried for lancelot.

let's be honest here tho in some way or another all of the reds chosen worry about their king bc bruh... let us in bruh...

the scenes of zero & edgar in the end are also my favorite! it isn’t much, but enjoyed writing their relationship briefly. tbh i think edgar is one of those people under the sleep = most vulnerable = death thinking (no thanks to claudius), so the fact that he allows himself to drift to sleep twice in zero's company is a definite sign of trust. then again, he's injured but still ( ᐛ )و

edgar, idike, kyle

y’know even if this is an edgar/mc thing, i found fleshing out the kyle/mc relationship equally important which i presented in scene three. personally speaking, i’d like to think that if ever kyle didn’t fall in love with mc (on his own route???) he’d still be watching over her anyway since her struggle in the medical field + war reminds him a bit of his younger self after his brother's death.

which is why he doesn't intervene with that one soldier scene - he doesn't coddle her either when she goes into a brief shock. perhaps it's bc he knows so well what she's going through, he decides to let her handle it on her own. this was her experience, not his. and to be fair, she asked to go to the front lines determined but wholly unprepared emotionally. he tried warning her, she wouldn’t listen. now she faces the consequences - how would she go about it?

i decided to slap a name into mc this time to highlight the trust plot: idk if i got it clearly across in the fic, but in times of war + for someone who’s been trained to be suspicious / cautious of everyone like edgar; secrets are a surefire way to catch attention + breed distrust.

tbh he's hella aware that the secret around her name is most likely personal and nothing dangerous, but it's better safe than sorry - by making sure she understands that keeping secrets wouldn't be of any good to her + situation, he gets reassurance that she really is harmless. how bad + seriously she takes it honestly surprises him tho, but then again she's been going through other stuff too so it all piled up.

idike isn’t my in-game name, but it’s the given name i spoke of in this ask, haha! initially scene five has her saying her full name (with surname), but i thought it would be more fitting if i didn’t lol ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

i tried to incorporate a mix of the personalities of edgar’s!mc + kyle’s!mc onto idike, tho at first i was only shooting for the latter - i think it kinda works??? while somewhat composed and determined (kyle’s), she still shows some naivete in her (edgar’s), especially concerning the ways of war + how secrecy & trust work in times of war.

i found emphasizing on her emotional struggle important, since it should be a big blow for her who’s never known the terror of war. the game touches upon on it a bit (tho it's post-med tent scenes) and i wanted to expand on it further since there are so many possible angles to go about it.

the i can’t heal you if you’re dead line sounds like something like shiro emiya might say but lol no i just remembered this p3 manga panel (pg 24) - its been years since i read it and i still love that line and i integrated it here... i was trying to expand that one scene for a while but then i just left it as it is.

in the catharsis scene where idike airs out everything, the fact that edgar fails to empathize with her + focuses more on her emotional state rather than offering actual help (advice maybe, but i honestly doubt he’d do that) reflects that he's still looking at her as an interesting creature and not her as a person. part 5 hints that this may be slowly changing, seeing as he called for her all of a sudden.

... idike probably keeps edgar’s glove as a token of friendship or smth haha ooPSSS i forgot to bring that back ahahaha..... ヘ（。□°）ヘ

ooofff i guess that’s all i have??? a big thank you to whoever read both hot messes™ and by that the fic + commentary itself!!! do feel free to hit the inbox for any comments + questions + more brainstorming + general screaming haha! ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ

#rundown.txt #the last long fic i wrote was a 6k+ fe:if thing #that was 3 years ago whoooaaaa #apparently i went the extra mile for this one omfg

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shibashiharuka-blog · 6 years

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Branch’s Perspective - Ch 1

Branch's Perspective

Description: The Trolls story based on Branch's Perspective with a few added scenes into the mix, not traditionally written in 1st person. It's my first time writing in a long time, and my first attempt at a Trolls fic, I just fell in love (I'm completely obsessed) with the movie and came up with a few story ideas. I already have an idea of how I want this to go and probably won't be taking any suggestions, that being said once this one is finished if you'd like me to write a similar story, except from Poppy's perspective I'd be happy to with enough requests!

Disclaimer: I do not own Trolls or the plot, it belongs to Dreamworks Productions.

Constructive criticism is welcome flaming is not.

Chapter One

"I don't think King Peppy made it…" announced a troubled purple troll who had injured his leg while escaping through the root tunnels.

"When I say no troll left behind…" echoed a familiar voice from within the tunnels as their King began to emerge, no longer clothed.

"I mean no troll left behind!" he cheered. The surrounding area erupted into loud cheers from the Trolls who had all successfully escaped from Bergen Town. All cheered, except one lone grey troll, he was only a child, about six years in age. He sat alone, separate from the rest of the group, unable to find himself happy about the successful escape.

"King Peppy!" Chimed in another young troll of light blue coloring.

"Where's Princess Poppy?" She worried.

"Don't worry, she's safe." He reassured the crowd as he reached into his hair to grab his daughter whom was hidden within.

"No troll left behind!" The young troll princess cheered, barely a year in age. Her actions earned a resounding 'aww' from the crowd.

"But we'll be a lot safer the further we get from Bergen Town." King Peppy urged, bringing everyone back to focus on the trouble at hand.

"Go, go! Hurry!" The Trolls heeded his warnings and made way to start on their long journey to find a new home and live a new life, free of fear from the Bergen's. King Peppy stopped in his tracks as he noticed the young grey troll who would not follow the others, and remained hurdled against the wall of root tunnels. The young one seemed unwilling to leave the tree, the only home he ever knew behind, and King Peppy knew why.

"Branch?" King Peppy called as he slowly approached the heartbroken troll, still holding his daughter. Branch jumped a bit as he heard the King address him, a little surprised that the King of the Trolls knew him by name.

"Are you alright? Were you hurt?" asked the concerned King. Branch glanced up at the King and Princess Poppy, and in that moment he felt his heart leap in his chest. Branch had never paid much attention to the Princess prior to this moment as she had been born around the same time he suffered a great loss. But he couldn't ignore her now and he found himself thinking about how cute she was, he also could not ignore the sudden pull he felt toward her. Realizing he still had not answered the King he quickly averted his eyes away, flushing lightly with embarrassment. King Peppy did not miss that interaction.

"N-No… I'm… okay…" Branch replied bashfully.

"I just… can't leave…" He added vaguely.

"Grandma Rosiepuff… right?" King Peppy asked kindly. They grey troll whipped his head back up to look at the King, shocked that he had known his reason for being unwilling to leave his home, and ultimately, his reason for turning grey. He was the King, so it made sense for him to know everything that occurred within his Village, but no other troll in Troll Village seemed to care about him anymore. Sure, they were all concerned and tried to help him at first, but after all their attempts at trying to cheer him up failed, one by one, they'd all eventually given up… many had even forgotten why he was this way. Except King Peppy, he still… remembered, still cared… about him.

"Branch, Grandma Rosiepuff sacrificed her life so you could live… she would want you to be safe, the same way she always cared for and protected all of the young trolls in Troll Village and kept them safe." King Peppy spoke, attempting to reason with the young troll. Grandma had been a close friend to the King, almost like a mother not only to him, but all the trolls in troll village; her sacrifice didn't only affect her grandson, it had affected all of them.

"She would want you to come with us and continue living… and hopefully one day… find a way to bring your true colors back." Branch looked down again as the King spoke. He knew King Peppy was right and was trying to encourage him, but with his grandmother gone he doubted he would ever be able to find his true colors again. How could that be possible when being a troll, who loved to sing, dance and be happy was the very reason he'd lost everyone he loved… He had no one left…

"Their memory will always be with you." The King continued, as if he'd read Branch's mind.

"No matter where you are." Branch found his gaze landing on the King's daughter again. He felt his heart begin to race as she smiled at him and he couldn't understand what this feeling was. The King was right, and even if he knew it was impossible for him to gain back his true colors, he knew one thing was for sure, the Bergen's would still be a threat to them, no matter how far they ran. He found himself feeling as if he didn't want anything to ever happen to the King or Princess Poppy if the Bergen's ever did end up finding them again.

"You can always rely on me Branch." King Peppy assured the young Branch and he held his hand out to him.

"Always rely on me, Branch!" Princess Poppy repeated after her father. This earned a small smile from the grey troll, a smile that had not emerged since the loss of his grandmother. Placing his hand in the King's outstretched hand he allowed the King to pull him to his feet. King Peppy continued to hold Branch's hand as he led him and his daughter in the direction the rest of the trolls had gone. It was then Branch vowed to do everything in his power to ensure King Peppy and Princess Poppy's safety. This meant keeping all of Troll Village safe, even if most had forgotten about him. He couldn't allow the King or his daughter to ever suffer the sadness he felt and now lived with, he may be young and still naïve but with this one small vow, he knew he could continue to fight and live in a way he hoped would make his grandmother proud.

20 YEARS LATER

"Everybody! Move your hair and feel united, ooh!" His ears twitched as a loud singing voice could be heard through out the forest. He sighed and rolled his eyes, this troll really made his job difficult.

"Not again…" He groaned. He tried to tune out the dance number that he could hear commence, refocusing his thoughts on his task at hand. But try as he may, he couldn't deny that in truth he was very fond of the troll Princess' singing voice, it seemed to sooth him. Shaking his head from those thoughts he scowled as he gathered more wood for his bunker. He enjoyed hearing her sing but did she need to be that loud? He had done everything he could to ensure the village's safety from the Bergen's for twenty years, but if she insisted on getting louder and louder, one day he wouldn't be able to protect them anymore. He could keep them hidden, but he couldn't keep them silent. Their lack of silence would eventually reveal their hiding place. No matter how angelic Branch may have found her voice to be, he simply could not accept the danger that she was unknowingly putting everyone in.

As he made he was back to his bunker, it suddenly sounded like the princess was much closer to his location then she had been before. Branch turned around and peered through the cluster of bushes in front of him to see Poppy and her closest friends finishing their most recent, choreographed dance number. He approached them and leaned against the stem of a mushroom not far from them, he allowed them to catch their breath for a moment before he set down his bundle of wood and began a slow clap, making his presence known.

"Unbelievable guys really, really great job. I can hear you from a mile away!" he scoffed as he picked up his bundle of wood again and made his way to approach the troll princess. Poppy dismounted from her position on Cooper's head as he did so, still smiling and seemingly not affected by his scolding.

"Good I was worried we weren't projecting enough." The pink troll responded nonchalantly and still slightly out of breath. This only served to irritate the grey troll even more. Was she really thatnaïve!

"Poppy." He spoke in a voice that grabbed her full attention.

"If I can hear you… so can the bergens!" he whispered the last part, hoping to add more emphasis to his statement.

"Oh boy." Commented an amused Guy Diamond.

"Here we go again." Cooper added.

"Aww Branch." Biggie groaned.

"You always ruin everything." Satin continued.

"Warning us about the bergens." Chenille finished. Branch watched as all her friends retorted his proclamation with exasperated looks.

"No I don't." he denied feeling slightly embarrassed, he began to recall some of the moments he had warned the trolls about a Bergen attack in the past and had to admit that they were right. Poppy's voice soon interrupted him.

"Come on! We haven't seen a bergen in twenty years! They're not gonna find us." Poppy argued, attempting to remain positive but he could see she was exasperated with him as well. Her statement only added fuel to his fire, she had no idea what occurred in the world around the troll village, what he had been protecting them from all of this time.

"No, they're not going to find me, because I'll be hiding in my highly camouflaged, heavily fortified, bergen proof, survival bunker." He barked. Only Poppy could get him fired up like this, no other troll could get him this worked up, and he couldn't entirely understand why.

"You mean you're not coming to the party tonight?" She asked concerned. And there it was, that look on her face, the one that told him the she cared about him, that she wanted to include him, that she truly felt that he deserved to be happy. But her comment again, was naïve, and it was as if she hadn't even heard anything he just said.

"But it's gonna be the biggest…"

"…the loudest…"

"…the craziest party ever!"

"Yeah!" Were his ears deceiving him? Or was the entire Snack Pack actually trying to convince him to come to the party? He brushed the thought off assuming they were just acting on Poppy's behalf and grew irritated again.

"Big? Loud? Crazy?! You're just gonna lead the bergens right to us!" Why couldn't they understand? Why wouldn't they listen to him and heed his warnings? He knew Poppy was too young to remember much from their old home, but she knew, she knew her mother had sacrificed her life to the Bergen's dreaded tradition so that she and her father could live. Why didn't the fact that the bergens were still out there terrify her? Was putting everyone in danger, by hosting a loud and crazy celebration really the right way to honor her mothers' sacrifice?

"The same could be said about all of her friends, they all lost someone back then. Most of them were the same age as Poppy, too little to remember what happened, their only memories being the stories told to them by the other trolls. But Biggie and Cooper were old enough to remember loosing their loved ones. Their actions perplexed him the most, they still had a family member with them so they hadn't gone grey as he had, but he knew they still remembered. Why weren't they terrified? Why wouldn't they stop her?

"Are you sure you want to invite this party pooper to poop on your party?" An annoyed Cooper whispered to the princess, but he wasn't quiet enough, Branch could hear every word and he could only roll his eyes. Poppy responded with a warm, genuine smile.

"Yes, I think everyone deserves to be happy." She answered, casting her glance back toward the survivalist troll.

"I don't do happy." He retorted.

"Branch, I know you have happiness inside you… You just need our help, to find it." Poppy responded back while pulling out another one of her handmade invitations from the back of her hair. He watched her, still appearing un-amused and disinterested as the invitation popped open in front of him.

"Celebrate freedom from the bergens!" The invitation sang before is sprayed glitter out from the mini-Branch's eyes and all over his face. Branch held a straight face, but could not ignore the warmth he felt in his heart as he secretly admired the well-made invitation Poppy held in her hands. The pink troll always included him; she always made him an invitation even when it was against everyone else's wishes. He knew he was a 'party pooper' as Cooper so kindly put, but Poppy always overlooked his harsh reactions and denials and still continued to go out of her way to try and make him feel like he actually mattered to her, like she cared about him.

"What do you say Branch?" Part of him really wanted to accept the invitation, wanted to truly believe that she actually cared about him and wanted to celebrate alongside him, but that small voice in the back of his mind rang loud again.

'There's no way she wants you there! You'd ruin the whole party! Plus, you know it would be dangerous to be in a place that could clearly attract a bergen! It's foolish to attend!' With his mind made up, he reached out to take the invitation from Poppy with a smile that didn't reach his eyes. Ignoring the small glimmer of hope that shimmered in the troll princess' eyes he immediately threw the invitation onto the ground and stomped on it. Sending a clear message that he was denying her invitation, once again. He watched everyone's reactions, slightly confused as the Snack Pack all gasped in shock.

"Oh my God." Smidge remarked. Why did this still surprise them? He always reacted this way.

"I wouldn't be caught dead at your party, but you will be." Branch spat has he wiped the unwanted glitter from his face.

"Caught and dead." He finished, ignoring the pull he always felt in his heart when he reacted this way toward Poppy. He could see a look of frustration and hurt cross the princess' features, and for a moment, that look caused him to regret his harsh actions. He knew Poppy had mostly likely put a lot of work and effort into that invitation, just as she had with every invitation she handed out, and he just crushed it right in front of her.

"Woah, woah, woah, easy Branch, easy."

'Oh great not him.' Branch inwardly groaned. Any feeling of regret he had harbored toward his actions was gone in an instant as the purple troll glided in. Branch rolled his eyes in annoyance as the lightening bug carrying the peaceful minded troll, dropped him right in between him and Poppy. Creek turned to acknowledge the bug before it departed.

"Thank you for providing safe passage brother. Namaste." He released the bug and turned to face the grumpy troll.

"Okay, first of all mate. Thanks for sharing your unique perspective on things." Branch backed himself away from Creek, bringing his bundle of wood in front of him defensively as Creek had the nerve to touch Branch as he addressed him.

"Again." Branch didn't miss what Creek had intended with that statement as he listened to Biggie and Copper snicker in the background. Creek knew Branch had felt something toward the Princess and used that to tease him relentlessly. He always made him seem more foolish to the others then he already was, and never failed to rub the fact that Poppy had a crush on Creek in his face. There had always been a bad vibe between the two.

"Just for now, why don't you try on some positivity eh? A little positivity might go with that vest." Another backhanded remark, this time directed at Branch's choice of attire.

"Okay fine." Branch decided to play along.

"I'm positive you all are going to get eaten." Branch responded hiding behind his mask of sarcasm once again. Their conversation was soon interrupted when everyone's wrists began to chime, signaling a moment in which Branch dreaded most.

"Hug time!"

"It is hug time."

"HUG TIME!" Before Branch could react appropriately, he found himself being dragged into their group hug, Creek continuing to tease the grey troll even further by acting on what he knew the troll hated most, pulled him into a hug.

"Awww."

"Our hearts are synchronizing."

"I could squeeeezzee you forever." Branch only continued to grow more annoyed and irritated with the Snack Pack as they ignored his discomfort with the action. Guy Diamond eventually squeezed Branch so tightly, he found himself being thrown from the group. He wasn't sure if that was his intention to help free him, knowing he was uncomfortable or if he was teasing him as well, but regardless he was happy to have escaped.

"Aahh!" He shouted as he landed flat on his back, before getting right back up onto his feet again unfazed. He gathered up his wood that had been dropped, before getting as far away from the group as he could, unwilling to join in their group hug again. He had not noticed how Poppy tried to pry herself away from her friends, worried about him.

"Someday, when the Bergen's find us, and the survival of every troll is in your hands…" he snapped turning around to glare at Princess Poppy.

"I sure hope the answer is singing, dancing and hugging, 'cause that's all you know how to do!" He finished with vigor.

"That's not true! Poppy also knows how to scrapbook!" Biggie defended, but both Branch and Poppy knew that was a hopeless statement. Branch glared at the princess again and continued to scold her.

"I can't believe you're going to be Queen one day." Branch stomped away with that last statement. He knew what he had just said was very harsh, and without seeing Poppy's face he knew that very statement had hurt her. It was said out of frustration and anger and should've never been said, but Branch could never bring himself to apologize to her, even though he could always admit to himself that he was wrong.

Maybe he was hard on her because he couldn't bring himself to see Poppy as great as her father was and still is, especially on that day he single-handedly rescued the entire Troll Village from the bergens. To him, her concern should be with the safety of her kingdom, not on celebrations, dancing and singing. Branch himself though, was no king, nor was he as great as her father, King Peppy either. He had no control over the decisions she made and could only continue to voice his opinions to her as he secretly did everything he could to keep the Troll Village safe while in the shadows. Hoping that one day, she would finally heed his warnings.

Later that evening, Branch emerged from his bunker again and the sounds of cheers, music and celebration could be heard coming from Poppy's party. Sighing he shook his head in disappointment and headed in the direction of the area where he had met up with Poppy and her friends earlier that day. He made sure to be productive along the way as well, gathering more wood as he had done earlier.

As he approached the clearing, he cautiously looked around and listened. Making sure no one was around, so he wouldn't be seen. Once he was sure there was no one in the surrounding area, he walked into the clearing and immediately spotted what he came here for. Gingerly he bent down to pick up the flattened and forgotten invitation Poppy had given to him earlier. The sight of the invitation made his heart feel heavy again and he signed sadly. Carefully he folded the invitation back up as best as he could before safely tucking it away within his hair.

"Sorry… Poppy…" He murmured the words he could never bring himself to say in her presence. Quietly, without another word, he turned back around to make his way back to his bunker to retire for the night. Along the way he found himself approaching an overlook where he could see the entire troll village enjoying Princess Poppy's celebration. He paused and watched her for a moment, enjoying the happiness written all over her face. He quickly regained his composure though, realizing that he could be placing himself in danger here.

"Pfff." He shook his head at the lot of them as he walked away, silently hoping they would luck out once again and this party would not lead a Bergen right to their location.

(AN: Finally starting to post my stories here. I’m still figuring out the site so eventually I’ll create separate tabs for my fan fictions. Meanwhile I hope you all enjoy and let me know what you think!)

#fanfiction #broppy fanfiction #broppy #branch #poppy #tolls #dreamworks #Branch's Perspective

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sagemoderocklee · 6 years

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Hi two questions! If you’ll take them. Question 1. On your blog it says Boruto free-zone, but do you like Gaaras son? Idk his name, I don’t watch the show but I would like to get on opinion on him. Question 2. I’m writing a LeeGaa fanfic and was wondering if you had any tips about writing them. I’m a little worried about making them OOC, like I am all fics honestly but I really want to get this right before posting. And tips? Thanks, love your blog!

Hi, anon! Sorry for not getting to this sooner. It’s been a long week to say the least. I hope I can give satisfactory answers to your questions because I’m still exhausted and a lil bit sick from my move this past weekend.

As far as Gaara’s son, Shinki: I think he’s a good kid, but it’s very unoriginal writing in terms of his origins and his personality. He’s Gaara 2.0. I have nothing against him and I think he’s an adorable lil goth child, but as with all the Boruto kids they’re just different versions of their parents with slightly different backstories and in a lot of cases a lot less trauma. I don’t really think there’s anything compelling about the series–the stakes seem pretty low compared to Naruto, the writing is just not good, and I was always more invested in the original Naruto characters. Boruto is a cash cow–it’s piggy-backing off of Naruto’s success to keep making money off people emotionally invested in the series.

Now, the big question: Since I don’t know what you’re writing, all my advice is going to be pretty generic, but obviously you’re welcome to ask more questions and even send me private messages to chat.

So I think it can be really dependent on the fic in question–like if you’re writing a modern AU, you really have to figure out what makes the characters who they are and what is the inherent draw between the two of them, then divorce them from all Naruto context. They aren’t child soldiers, they don’t have ninja magic, there’s no tailed beasts, etc. Any AU is going to be a little more complicated because you have to think about how you’re approaching the characters more creatively.

If you’re writing in canon, then it’s a little easier because you don’t have to take them out of Naruto-world and put them elsewhere while still maintaining the characters.

I have recently answered a similar ask about this sort of thing, though it was specific to the characters, which is of course important, but if you haven’t looked at this post, it’s a good place to start in terms of who Gaara and Lee are, because ultimately if you’re not writing the characters correctly, the relationship will also suffer in terms of the writing. This is also a good post in terms of general writing advice, and you can also go through my gaara, lee, or gaalee tags to see any other asks I’ve answered about these two and this ship to get some of my perspective on the characters and their relationship.

Here’s a good breakdown on what I think a good GaaLee fic, canon or AU, needs to have to be successful, which I’ll extrapolate on under a cut:

A Solid Foundation

Individuals

The Law of Attraction

Balance

Avoid Contrivance

Be Creative

The Journey

So now that we got the main points presented, let’s break this down.

1. A Solid Foundation

The biggest road block to a successful GaaLee story is laying a foundation. We don’t get a lot of their friendship in the actual series because of the pacing of the series, so we need more of a foundation for a believable, compelling romance.

For me, I’ve always personally preferred slow burns, but with certain ships, slow burns feel more necessary–I need to know why these two are close enough to form a romantic relationship. I need to know what groundwork the story I’m about to read is laying for them. A solid foundation can be anything, but it needs to be there. I need to know that they’ve had more than a handful of interactions. While the Gaara vs Lee fight, and Gaara rescuing Lee from Kimimaro are both very good pieces of their shared history, I still want to see more than just that and I think that ultimately it strengthens a story and strengthens the relationship you’re presenting when we have a good foundation.

Gaara especially needs a good foundation to develop a romance with someone and rushing right through the building blocks makes it harder to see him forming those feelings and pursuing that relationship, so it’s vital when approaching a GaaLee fic to keep in mind the way this character can and will fall in love. Lee is more prone to developing crushes on people at first sight, and while that crush can develop into a deeper love, Lee doesn’t only need to have insta-crushes on someone to fall in love with someone. With Lee, there’s a lot of options for how you approach romance, whereas Gaara is more limited.

When building a foundation for these two ask yourself what the starting point is–set aside the Gaara vs Lee fight, set aside the Kimimaro fight; we already know about those fights. What is the start of the foundation for your story? What’s the spark? What’s the thread that ties them together? Figure out what the building blocks are for your story, and don’t rush through building that foundation. Don’t limit and weaken the romance by forgetting to build it on top of a good foundation; don’t forget that a solid romance is built on a foundation of friendship and trust.

2. Individuals

An important and often forgotten aspect to writing ship fics in general, is the fact that you’re writing a story about two different people coming together. They are two separate, individual people with their own desires, ambitions, beliefs, motivations, etc. They do not cease being themselves once they enter into a relationship, but often times, much like with the lack of a foundation, people forget to allow these characters to maintain an identity outside of the person they are in a relationship with.

Lee’s whole world shouldn’t revolve around Gaara, and Gaara’s whole world shouldn’t revolve around Lee. Give them depth, give them a life outside of the relationship they have. Don’t lose who they are as individuals, because then you lose who they are as a couple as well. They share their stories with one another, but their stories shouldn’t only be about one another.

And, along these lines, if you don’t have a grasp of who these characters are as individuals, then you’re not going to have a grasp of who they are as a couple. Always ask yourself simple questions when approaching road blocks in your story: who is this person? what do they want? why do they want it? how will they get it? That tells you a lot about a character either in the moment or as a whole. Who is Rock Lee? What does he want? Why does he want it? How will he get it? You can also ask yourself the opposite: who isn’t this character? what do they not want? why don’t they want it? how will they avoid this? Who isn’t Gaara?–meaning what sort of person is he not, (ie callous and cold) What does he not want? How does he avoid this outcome? Also knowing how far a character is willing to go to either get or avoid what they want can really help.

An example scenario: Gaara loves Lee, but the only way he and Lee can be together is if he gives up being the Kazekage. Gaara cannot and will not give up being the Kazekage. Being the Kazekage is a part of who he is. As much as he loves Lee, he cannot give up his village and he will give up Lee over his village.

So, building around that gives you a lot of options to talk about who they are and what struggles they face as individuals and as a couple. What they value and how it can cause tension, etc.

Again, one of the most important things, in my opinion, is having a story outside of these two; giving them motivations outside of each other, giving them relationships outside of each other, etc.

3. The Law of Attraction

With writing romance, there are a couple of things to consider in terms of why two people might be attracted to one another–from physical to emotional, the choices you make in building the romance itself need to be grounded. What do they see in each other? What attracts them to one another? And is it compelling enough to build a story around?

Everyone has something they find attractive in someone else from looks to personality. Did Lee feel a spark the first time Gaara smiled at him? Was it the green of Gaara’s eyes that first made Lee stop and stare? Was Lee’s kindness and determination what first made Gaara’s heart skip a beat?

Find those moments that draw them to one another–it’s like gravity, and it should keep pulling them closer to one another until their orbits are so tightly connected that interference with that orbit would be devastating. The stakes don’t necessarily need to be high from the outside world, you can have your modern AUs and still have an intense emotional connection between the two, but it has to come from somewhere; the attraction needs flow naturally. Often times, the best and most natural expression of attraction in stories is done subtly. Sometimes, we’re not really aware that we’re drawn to someone until we’re already caught up in their orbit–and I think that’s a good way to present Gaara and Lee. Both kind of oblivious until it’s glaring them in the face.

So find the gravity between them and let it grow.

4. Balance

One thing that I personally love about GaaLee is that they are such polar opposites that they balance each other out. Not too long ago, I answered this ask about Gaara and Lee and the symbolism of the tiger and dragon from their fight–it’s pretty apt though to think of the way they impact each other as yin and yang. It’s a balance. They become better for having each other in their lives.

In general, when talking about a healthy romance, it should be enriching; it should feel like it compliments both people. Gaara and Lee compliment one another, and I think that should come through in the story itself, even before the romance is explicit. Gaara calms Lee; Lee excites Gaara. Where Lee goes left, Gaara goes right, and together they make a perfect circle.

Finding where they differ, will help you find where they create balance within each other.

5. Avoid Contrivance

One of the things that always sticks out to me with GaaLee fics is that it feels like people don’t know how to get them together. How do we get Lee to Suna? How do we get them to fall in love? etc. There’s always this like confusion, this sort of floundering to think up new ways to make it happen because I think everyone’s stuck on the idea that Lee has to be in Suna for them to fall in love. Obviously, in more recent years, there’s been an upswing of Gaara visiting Konoha as a premise, but even with that context it feels like grasping at straws for the how and that leads to contrivance, and most importantly to falling back on that one fic from ten+ years ago as a building block for a GaaLee fic.

Let’s face it, if you don’t want them to do long distance, yes Lee will inevitably end up in Suna. But he doesn’t have to always be in Suna for them to start a relationship, and if you’re gonna have him be in Suna, it probably shouldn’t be because he’s a diplomatic envoy. Lee isn’t a diplomat. He is so far from being suited for politics and diplomacy it’s honestly hilarious. I’ve done it. We’ve all done it. But he’s not gonna be an envoy for diplomatic liaisons between villages, and that needs to be acknowledged. Lee is a man of action, not words, and definitely not the sort of games that politicians play.

So when you inevitably decide that Lee’s gonna go to Suna, be creative. And outside of that, think of ways to get them out of Suna and Konoha! There are endless possibilities! Don’t limit yourself!

There are other contrivances in fanfics, but that’s always the one that gets me because it often feels like people are placing Lee in Suna because they just don’t know what else to do. I have Lee in Suna a lot for the fics I write, but there is always a good reason for it. Make sure to have a good reason that fits in line with who Lee is and why he might be there. And tbh Gaara and Lee are friends! It’s totally okay for him to decide to make a stop in Suna on the way home from a mission to see his friend!

Aside from that, I feel that the other biggest contrivance is that Gaara is always… immediately into Lee and it’s just… not realistic. Allow them to take time with their relationship, don’t just shove them together. Gaara taking one look at Lee and being like “yes, that one” is just… it’s not who Gaara is. Like it’s not always applicable if we’re talking about like AUs, but people all too quickly forget that Gaara underestimated Lee. He took one look at Lee, thought he was a weird, weak kid and dismissed him. Then promptly got his ass handed to him by Lee. Gaara did not take Lee seriously at first in canon, and it is heavily contrived when his first glimpse of Lee in an AU is a love at first sight kind of thing.

Another note, a big thing that frustrates me is Gaara not having like any concept of things like sex, romance, etc. Like he’s not some shut in who’s never heard the word sex, and I’m deeply tired of seeing his “sexual awakening” because it’s always like really gross and lowkey homophobic because there’s always this sense that people want to make him asexual but they make him sex repulsed (as if that’s the only way to be ace) and don’t know how to do it without being like “eww sex with another man!?!?!” Like there are ways to write asexual characters without being gross, but you wouldn’t know it the way fandom writes so just be careful with that sort of thing.

In general, sexual awakenings often feel contrived, but that’s just my onion.

6. Be Creative

I know I said this already in number five, but it bears repeating. Be. Creative. I wish like… any of my fics were finished so I could like point to them as examples of the many and varied ways you can tell a GaaLee story, but trust me, I have like 20+ WIPs/fic ideas and each one of them is different from how they meet to how they fall in love so I know it’s possible. I think a lot of people get sort of bogged down by the lack of fic content and by the fact that everyone and their mother won’t shut up about that one fic from 10+ years ago. But I promise you can be original, creative, and groundbreaking. This fandom doesn’t exactly have a lot of ground to break, but you can still do it! Think outside the box! Don’t limit yourself to Lee going to Suna! Don’t limit yourself by making it love at first! Don’t sell yourself short by forgetting to take your time developing them, their story, their relationship!

Think of something completely out of left field and then just fucking run with it! Figure out how to make it work for these characters, within this world! But go for it! Don’t be afraid to make mistakes! I promise you I have GaaLee fics that I wrote from 8 years ago that SUCKED. But it helped me learn how to write them! It helps me grow as a writer! So take a chance and be creative!

7. The Journey

One final note, the other thing that I have found that trips people up with writing–and this is honestly general advice, but I’ve noticed it a lot with GaaLee fics which is why I bring it up: The pacing.

People are so in a hurry to write a GaaLee fic to give this fandom that’s so desperate for fic content something that they just… rush right through the story. Like I’m gonna be real with you, I don’t care that Gaara and Lee end up living happily ever after. I wanna know HOW they get there. I wanna know how they even get to that first kiss. I want the journey. The journey is the payoff, and I know I’ve pretty much been saying this the entire time but it’s just so important. The amount of times I’ll see a fic that’s like 12 chapters in but only has like 20k words… I’m like ???? what’s even happened? what’s even drawing me in? what’s compelling me to keep reading if you’re 12 chapters in but only have 20k words.

And don’t misunderstand, you can say a lot with a small number of words, but if you’re telling me a story and you’ve got 12 chapters and only 20k written, then you’re pacing is off. Pacing is vital to executing a story well, and if you’re pacing is off then you’re either rushing through the journey or, quite simply, the journey isn’t there to begin with. Like it’s painfully obvious to me when a writer wants to skip all the messy in between bits and just get right to the shipping. And sure it’ll get you views and comments, but you’re missing out on the best part.

If the journey isn’t the pay off, then you’re not telling a story; and while this is general writing advice, it is so important to the integrity of this ship. They need a story. They need epics. They deserve epics. So stop thinking about that final kiss, and start thinking about what happens in the moments before that kiss. Think about the space between the kiss, not the kiss itself, because that is where the story is. The kiss is just ‘the end’.

Anyways, I’m gonna wrap this up because it’s taken me… like three days to write this and I’m tired from work and moving and just everything lol I know this isn’t like super specific, but like I said, if you have specific questions feel free to ask on anon or message me privately!

#gaalee #leegaa #naruto #shippuden #gaara #rock lee #long post #otp: the ultimate otp #naruto meta #fanfic meta #Anonymous

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tenroseforeverandever · 6 years

Text

Dear Father Christmas… Chapter 14: December 24, 2029

MASTERPOST

Characters: Tentoo; Rose Tyler; Jackie Tyler; Pete Tyler; Tony Tyler; OC Hope Tyler-Noble; OC Charlotte Tyler-Noble; OC Wilfred Tyler-Noble

Rated: Teen

Tags: Family!Fic; Kid!Fic; Pete’s World; Letters to Santa; Christmas Fic; Family; Fluff; Hurt/Comfort; Angst; Romance; Love; gun violence; violence resulting in death; life-threatening injury; life threatening situations

Summary: When Rose Tyler was little, she always wrote a Christmas wish list to Father Christmas. As she grew older, the wish list became more of a letter to someone she could confide in once a year, but she fell out of the habit somewhere along the way. Now, as a new mum, celebrating her daughter’s first Christmas, Rose takes up writing her Christmas letter to Father Christmas once again.

Rose’s Christmas letters are excerpts from her life with her beloved Tentoo and their children in Pete’s World, written once a year, for each of 31 years.

Chapter Summary: Sometimes trouble finds you, no matter how well you plan, no matter how careful you are, no matter how many times you check the coordinates, but we just have to move on because life without a bit of wonder and adventure isn’t really much of a life at all.

Notes: Thank-you always, my darling betas, @rose–nebula and mrsbertucci ! I love working with you ladies. You make me a better writer!

Trigger warning for scenes of violence and warfare and grave injury.

Thanks to @doctorroseprompts for their 31 Days of Ficmas prompts. The prompt I used today was Peace.