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mego42 · 4 years

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author meme

Tagged by - @sothischickshe

Tagging - @foxmagpie @pynkhues @missmaxime @hereliesbethboland @septiembur

ao3 name: ms_scarlet

fandoms: on ao3, the 100 and good girls

number of fics: 16

fic I spent the most time on: hahahahahaha oh my god song is going on 6 months what the fUC K

fic I spent the least amount of time on: probs a tie between as the world turns, the blunt burns and any of the prompt chapters. with the prompts i specifically challenge myself to do them in under 2 hours (i’d say this is why i’ve only filled 3 but really i’m just mercurial which, in this instance at least, is a fancy way of saying flaky).

most hits: an old alternative s4 the 100 fic but a song inside the halls of the dark is gaining on it

most kudos: there’s blood in my body (another t100 fic, my one and only AU), for gg, also song

most comments: song, which makes sense as it has, you know, chapters

most bookmarks: there’s blood in my body again, song for gg

highest total word count: ahahahahaha song by a mile

favourite fic I wrote: i don’t know how to answer this tbh, shamelessly stealing @sothischickshe’s answer of i’m partial to all of them for different reasons! i guess i’m currently particularly proud of the don’t close your eyes ‘verse (currently consisting of both hands and listening, i’m not saying there’s going to be a third part but i’m not not saying that). writing in so many (hopefully) distinct voices with unique and (again, hopefully) fully fleshed out feeling points of view has been a neat challenge and i’m p proud of how it’s come out. i am also absurdly into the way the timelines of both (and eventually maybe all three) pieces weave together even though i have to use a cheat sheet to keep it straight

fic I want to rewrite/expand on: i don’t hate myself enough to open the door to rewriting anything because if i started realistically i would never stop. i went back and started rereading the beginning of song to make sure i was looping everything into the ending right and had a solid three days of oh fuck i would redo, like, all of this. not necessarily because i think it’s bad or anything (though i am on a constant and never satisfied quest for perfection but that’s a personal problem we don’t need to get into) but because the way i thought about the fic evolved significantly over the course of me writing it and there’s def some thematic stuff i’d go back and build up more.

share a bit of a wip or story idea you’re working on: mmm well lets see, i’m most of the way through the draft of the last chapter of listening, so that’s neat. have had to spend an obnoxious amount of time in dean’s head which makes me feel dirty but whatever. i’ve also v v v loosely outlined a third part to round the ‘verse out into a trilogy. it’d be a beth POV 5+1 that would start around the beginning of listening (which is pre-both hands), fill in some missing scenes from both and probably end either concurrently with listening or not long after.

other than that, obvs working on the last two chapters of song which are p thoroughly outlined, just waiting to be drafted. i’ve also outlined and started drafting what was supposed to be a fairly contained sex pollen PWP but is already upwards of a ridiculous number of words and has mostly been plot so far so that, you know, went off the rails.

i’ve also been thinking a lot about the pacific rim au again. it stalled out because i could not for the life of me figure out how to address everyone’s canon kid situations in satisfactory ways and couldn’t bring myself to leave the concept of kids out entirely (i know plenty of people have written wonderful and in character examples of the characters without kids but my brain is stuck in a box and i can’t get there for myself, it’s extremely annoying tbh), but i thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiink i maybe cracked it so we’ll see if that actually ends up happening

at my current rate of production this should take me all the way through to the show coming back, maybe beyond so i think that’s probably enough. *kicks snippets, prompts and ideas folder under the bed* one day i’m gonna write a buffyverse au, though, it’s only a matter of time.

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mixelation · 3 years

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Random question: How much planning do you do for your full fics? How much editing?

GREAT QUESTION.

Planning: varies a lot! I don’t usually make much progress on stories if I don’t have an ending (and a vague plan to get there) in mind, but also if I outline a story too thoroughly then I don’t usually feel very compelled to write it, because I already have all my ideas done on paper, you know? So what ends up posted is usually stuff that had a middling amount of planning. Most of my multi-part fics have a list of story beats but no specific chapter outlines (Plasticity and Semi-Charmed Kind of Life both have old-ass chapter-by-chapter outlines from years ago which are now hilariously different from what I ended up writing). For one-shots and individual chapters, if I hit a writing block then I’ll list what scenes are to happen (and what details need to go in for plot reasons) and then hope I can force myself to fill in the details (and if I walk away for months and months then I can remember what was supposed to happen).

Editing: Largely minimal, tbh. I’m actually not a very good editor, so if i decide something isn’t working, I’ll just rewrite entire scenes rather than working from what I already have. Sometimes I can get it together enough to properly tweak/edit things that aren’t working, but not often. I also have the bad habit of doing semi-obsessive mini-edits when I’m proofreading, like switching up sentence structures or word choice when I’m just trying to check for typos. So if you ever see a really bizarre typo, it’s probably because I decided to rearrange the sentence last minute and fucked it up, lol. Also: since it’s fanfiction and a hobby, sometimes when I get frustrated with something I just go FUCK IT and post stuff that’s not my best lmao. I think this is actually a pretty healthy approach to writing!

I also have a bad habit of trying to make things clearer by just adding more words to explain it, instead of trying to come up with a more succinct way to express it. I think this is alright for fanfiction, since most fic readers seem to prefer longer things, even if they get sort of rambling and meandering? But if I were to give general writing advice: don’t be like me. Less is more.

Further comment on both planning and editing: I do think the best way (for me) to write something to to write it in its entirety, figure out what the core concept and themes and message while I’m writing it, and then go back and edit. Unfortunately I don’t have a lot of experience doing this on the scale of a multichapter story, and Plasticity is really an experiment in trying to make myself write something long. In hindsight I do kind of want to go back and retro-actively edit a lot of things, but i’m practicing..... letting it go. Just write the words.

#YES the silly akatsukitty fic has an outline #leave me alone i can't write if there's no plot #ask meme answers #yumantimatter

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seyaryminamoto · 7 years

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How far do you plan ahead when writing Gladiator?

Well, it’s been a wild, non-linear ride with Gladiator. Other things have been much easier to plan, but plotting Gladiator is a process that never seems to end.

The first thing I planned, solidly, was the conclusion of Part 2 (I split the story in three parts in my head: Part 1 ends at chapter 101, Part 2 is where we are now, Part 3 will be… the utterly insane resolution of everything). It must have been on the third day of pondering ideas for the fic that I came up with that, and while a lot of my plotting has changed, that particular idea for Part 2 hasn’t. I had no clue what the lead-up would be, or what would happen later, I hadn’t worked out all the details, but I’ve always known we’re headed towards that major peak in the story, and the process has mostly been about building my way towards it.

Part 1′s conclusion was also something I planned relatively early, at the behest of my beta asking when would Sokka and Azula seal the deal and how xD I was unsure at first, but eventually I realized what was the right way to make it happen. I needed it to happen at a culminant moment, something big, and the idea of it happening as the aftermath of a fight with Toph also was what led me to realize Toph was the perfect rival gladiator for Sokka, and thus, I started planning Toph’s involvement in the story, partnership with Iroh, and so on.

So, one thing led to another, slowly I started drawing out ideas on what I needed to do. The people close to the development process asked me questions about certain points of the story, or character developments, or even suggested plot ideas in case I was stuck someplace, and that helped me get the whole story into shape.

I think it took… well, I don’t know, months or even a whole year before I knew where the story was headed for real. One big plan I had for a while was for Ozai to take Sokka as his own gladiator eventually, choosing to take him away from Azula as to punish her (for the obvious, yes…). Then I concocted that Azula could end up sponsoring Katara as the two of them fought to get Sokka back, while Aang and Zuko worked to defeat/kill Ozai…

… I say all this freely now because practically every bit of this idea has been discarded in favor of something that makes waaaay more sense than that xD

I pondered so many things, opened doors and closed them, took steps in a direction and then backed down. I confess I even considered the Zutara route at the start, very briefly, as Aang would have been a 12-year-old while everyone else was older. That would have made a Kataang outcome kind-of extremely awkward so I pondered the obvious alternate possibility.

But when a certain Zuki whisperer offered me a few ideas on how to make Zuki happen in the story, I chose a completely different direction for Zuko’s development, and honest to gods I’m thrilled I did. Without my awareness, Zuko’s story ended up serving as a major subplot that will eventually play a great part in the main plot, once his story collides with that of our main characters again. And when I think about it, I couldn’t have done this if I had chosen a different direction.

In all seriousness, I think it must have taken me about a year to finally make up my mind about where we were headed for good, in regards of Part 3. I had to really ponder it, and not take it lightly. I couldn’t just go with whatever felt right, because in the end this story isn’t quite a melodrama (which is what that outline with Ozai sponsoring Sokka would have been, major melodrama, this ain’t a soap opera!). The more I built it, the more loose ends I would have to tie. I opened a ton of possibilities from the get-go, and I plotted things without much connection at the very start, knowing that whatever couldn’t get tied in would have to be discarded. But this wasn’t just a capture story, star-crossed lovers, all we know and love. Gladiator was shaping up into an epic, and it didn’t deserve to be plotted as anything other than that.

So, my crazy aspirations and subconscious decisions brought me to make this story more than just the ship tale I originally had been thinking of. Because why lie? I came to this fandom to gush about my ship, first and foremost. Back when I was still writing The Reason I saw the big stories on FF.net, the crazy chapter counts, the length, the review counts, and thought to myself “That’s a lot of dedication, I wish I had it in me to come up with a story like that”, I honestly never believed I’d end up joining those stories, AT ALL.

But Gladiator has become something much bigger than me and than anything I could have anticipated. I certainly didn’t think I’d get the huge response I got, because it was way bigger than what I got for any of my other fics, even at its earliest stages. The Reason had felt huge for me, but it took around 16-17 chapters for it to get to 100 reviews, whereas Gladiator hit that mark at chapter 10. I had considered it could get more popular than my other stories, I knew it was on a different league from everything I’d ever written, but I never expected the response to be quite as overwhelming as it was.

Still, I did know Gladiator was going to be ridiculously long and much more ambitious than anything else I’d ever written. I got the suggestion for this story from Chaosconetic, but for about a month I didn’t really make up my mind about writing it. I thought it was okay, a possible story if I got tired of my main storyline at the time (The Reason), but I didn’t give it much thought until one night I went to bed and the thought of that gladiator story came back into my head. The next thing I knew, I was lying wide awake as I was overwhelmed by the possibilities of writing a story so big that I’d have a chance to basically feature everything I ever wanted to see from my OTP. Eventually, the possibilities widened further: I could also develop a lot of things that the original show didn’t explore thoroughly, and even rewrite a few things into what I would have liked to see from the show instead of what we got.

I went to my beta, to my closest friends at the time (of whom there’s still a few around, to this day), and I told them about this story. My beta’s response in particular was what pushed me forward because as soon as I was done giving her the concept she as good as shouted “WRITE THIS!” and I simply couldn’t even consider saying no xD I was daunted… but I wanted to give it a shot anyways, and see how it would go.

So yes, the massive story is almost five years old and, believe it or not, still under construction, plot-wise. As I said, the plotting process is absolutely not linear, and even to this day I’ve been pondering certain story arcs, listening to suggestions and possibilities for the future of the story. The general concepts usually remain more or less in place, but sometimes I find myself tweaking ideas and changing directions, but while always making sure I can get to where I’m going.

So, how far ahead do I plot? As far as my mind will allow it. I pretty much know what the conclusive scene will be, while also knowing what I’ll have in the epilogue. But I can’t say I know every single scene that will lead us there, despite having outlined most of what will happen in the future. Some story arcs are more obscure than others, some major events are still too tricky to figure out completely, some I go back and forth with (I was about to discard an upcoming story arc before realizing it would work really well if I changed a single factor in it…), some developments occur to me exactly as I’m writing them. It’s a complicated process in general, one I try to keep track of on a document where I have tried to organize my ideas properly, but even then it’s impossible to anticipate to the twists the story could take on its own.

In any case, I’m always plotting, pretty much. It really feels like a never-ending process and tbh, I think I’m going to feel terribly lonely when I finish the story and no longer have something of this magnitude to work with. It’s been such a massive part of me for so long, and every part of the writing process has been essential for Gladiator to be what it is. Plotting it has turned into a pleasure that never gets old, really. Every new idea worth writing feels like finding money in my pockets that I’d forgotten was there.

Anyways, that got long xD But I hope you understand my plotting process a little better now, at least.

#itsreapers-arts #gladiator

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the-wavesinger · 6 years

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Okay, so I watched TLJ last night, and I need to write my thoughts down ASAP. (Yuletide comments are coming, dearest authors, I just need to get this out first :D.)

(The Last Jedi spoilers under the cut)

Okay, so I really, really loved this. I was kind of worried based on the spoilers I read (I spoiled myself very very thoroughly before watching the film) but I loved it. I actually spent the entire time after the intermission either sobbing or holding back tears.

That being said, the story felt very...condensed? It felt like there were three different movies in there, honestly, and I would’ve liked it if there was more time and space given for the characters to grow. Even just like ‘and then time passed’ time, because the entire Poe + Finn + Rose storyline happened in, what, less than two days? The timelines felt way compressed.

First: Luke. LUKE. I cried so much I literally blurred up my glasses and couldn’t see the screen at his death (and I'd spoiled myself like crazy and was expecting it too). And I cried at almost everything Leia did, because Carrie Fisher ):. (And I was such a mess at Leia’s line--no-one is truly gone or something like that. I know she meant Kylo, but then the Luke thing happened and he’s probably going to be a Yoda-style Force ghost and I couldn’t stop thinking about Carrie help I’m crying again.) Luke Skywalker is dead and I just...I can’t even imagine. And I’m 99% sure Leia is going to die in the next film and it is going to break my heart. And just...Luke. Oh Luke.

Also, has anyone made a ‘Wait For It’ vid for Leia yet? Because if that song ever fit a person it would fit her. 'I've lost too much', 'I can't take another loss'. BREAK MY HEART WHY DON'T YOU.

Speaking of which, Leia/Holdo. God I ship Leia/Holdo, and honestly their last scene together is just heartbreaking and wonderful and all the shipfuel. I want a lot of words on their relationship and backstory and the two of them working together for the Rebellion, please.

And Luke and Leia! I love the two of them sensing each other from across the galaxy (and in Leia’s case when she’s in a coma), and their reunion is everything, with Leia finally losing hope and giving up and Luke making a choice to stop giving up and appearing just as Leia needs him. Aaargh, that reunion was so beautiful and I’m glad they got their time together. And tbh I ship Luke/Leia even more now. (Forehead kisses! Sensing each other and each others’ deaths in the Force!)

I love Luke and I love his storyline, and as much as it breaks my heart to see how he falls and breaks and makes mistakes, I love his bitterness and his guilt and self-recrimination, and I love that he’s tied to the idea of the Jedi even if it’s the idea that Jedi fail, and he has to let go of that so that he can help Rey.

Also, Han/Luke ship has fuel added to the fire, because yeah. Yeah. Break my heart why don’t you Rian Johnson, with Luke’s grief for Han being so obvious.

Finn! Okay, I loved Finn a ridiculous amount in this and it was my favourite of the character arcs. I love how he goes from staying with the Resistance for the people he loves to being completely, utterly dedicated to the Resistance, to the point that he’s willing to die for it, and I love that he has to see more of the galaxy and see more of what is truly wrong with the First Order to commit so firmly to the Resistance.

Phasma is...ehh. I like her cool armour, but she’s wasted potential. I’m sad the movie didn’t do more with her (less Hux more Phasma please, because I was completely and utterly bored to death by Hux, he's such a non-entity).

I love the role Rose plays in Finn’s growth and I love how Finn believes in Rose and gives her room to do her thing, and I love that they just both somehow...find each other (and Finn being stunned by Rose is pure love). They’re both people who, like Rey, come from nothing, but they’re still important because they’re the lifeblood of the Resistance, and because they’re people, and I lovelovelove that message. Their kiss at the end was very very sweet and I love Rose crashing into Finn to stop his suicide mission. I want to know all the things about Rose now, about them working their way out of the casino planet, about her childhood and making her way into the Resistance. I am a sucker for angsty backstory and the new trilogy is delivering very well so far.

(Also, I ship Rose/her sister. Just saying. That pendant...)

And speaking of Finn, I didn’t expect to like Finn/Rose, but I do. It’s so so adorable, and I love it. I like it as shippyness and I like it as friendship and I just love the two of them ridiculously. Please no Rose/Finn/Rey love triangle, though, that would ruin a lot of things for me. I love Finn/Rey, I love Finn/Rose, but I don’t love a love triangle.

And I love that Finn and Rey care for each other so much, and I love their reunion, which was ridiculously sweet and adorable and I love the two of them so so much okay.

Poe! Yeah, I’m getting definite Hamilton and Washington vibes from Poe and Leia, and I love it. History Has Its Eyes On You and Right-Hand Man for the two of them, Y/Y?

Anyway, I ship it. I didn’t before but I do now. I love that he’s reckless and young and impatient and that he’s wrong. And I love that he’s wrong and he learns, and he learns because Leia gives him the chance to learn. (I’d like to think that Leia sees something of herself in him :D.) I basically love everything about their relationship, how there’s clear affection between them but Leia isn’t afraid to dress Poe down if necessary. Gen or ship, I am here with bells on.

Poe/Finn: I swear Oscar Isaac doesn’t play this guy as heterosexual. They have crazy chemistry (Finn, naked? Oh, Poe), and they didn’t really interact much onscreen but Poe was basically eyefucking Finn whenever they did, and I love how much trust they have in each other.

Also, yes I loved Poe meeting Rey and now I ship Poe/Finn/Rey.

Holdo! Okay, I loved her character, and I love her look, and I wish she wasn’t dead. (Her dedication to the Light, her willingness to sacrifice herself. Gah.) I also love that the Rebellion’s top command is made up of three women in this movie, and older women too!

Some of her choices were...baffling. Like, the entire crew of the ship was discontent and close to mutiny, why didn’t she give them at least the outlines of a plan? But also Poe was wrong and wrong in a bigger way than her (I love you Poe but boy you fucked up), and I am very firmly Team Nobody on this wank. (Or rather, Team Poe/Holdo, because I came out of this film with lots of shipping needs.)

I saved Rey for last because, well, I love how Daisy Ridley plays her and I love her Rey very very much, but I found her plot to be the weakest of the film. Maybe that’s because I want an entire film of Rey learning and training, but I would’ve loved more of her storyline, more room for her to grow, and I’m disappointed she didn’t get it.

That being said, I do like how she’s earnest and determined and feels the call of the Dark, and I love that she says no. Even when it’s tempting, even when she’s being offered everything she says no.

And I love her idealism and her belief that Kylo can be saved (pet peeve: I’m annoyed that the movies canonized Ben SOLO it’s Ben Organa dammit) despite everything, even despite the fact that he’s killed Han. Kylo himself is one big blob of blah to me (whiny manchildren with temper issues aren’t my favourite thing), but I love Rey’s compassion for him despite him killing Han.

Also, I love the subversion of the ‘heroine saves bad boy’ trope. It would have hit a lot of nopes for me if Rey had actually managed to save him, . I do think he’s going to be redeemed in the next film (he didn’t, couldn’t, shoot Leia! I love that despite how he was able to kill Han face-to-face he wasn’t able to kill Leia from afar, and I’m very interested in seeing more of that relationship! And also the gold dice), but I also think that’s going to be from him than because Rey’s doing the emotional work for him, and I will be here for that very, very much.

(And I get why people saw Reylo in this film. For me, Rey’s rejection of him was too utterly, completely final for me to ship it, but boy do I get why people saw this, and I’m v. sad I’m not into Kylo, because if I wasn’t so blah on him this would have the makings of My Kind Of Ship. Although if there’s Force pregnancy for Rey in the next film I will actually kill someone.)

(Also, the criticisms that Rey is overpowered are stupid. The fight scene after Kylo kills Snoke, for examples, shows how much raw power she has but how much finesse she lacks compared to Kylo. They’ve actually done a really good job of making her power as realistic as it can be in the SW verse.)

And I love alllll the OT throwbacks, and more than that, I love how they used them to turn the narrative on its head. Seriously, I want to watch the film again just to catch the multiple times they’ve used OT callbacks to change the narrative (like, the entire capture/throne room scene which doesn’t lead to Kylo’s redemption? The shots of Poe clearly staged like the first Death Star shots with Luke but not leading to Poe being a big damn hero but to him being stupid? The attack on the mineral planet which is basically Hoth 2.0 minus snow, but it doesn’t end the way Hoth ends at all, but in a much worse shape? Luke and Yoda and everything about that, and how Luke was actually better than Yoda at teaching and it was his fear of failure that made him suck?

And I love the message of the film, that your blood isn’t important, that it doesn’t matter if you come from nowhere, you’re still someone. And that it’s people who matter, not winning the day (and I love that it’s Leia who’s ultimately the main carrier of this message). And I also love how what looks like a fruitless mission--Finn’s and Rose’s--is implied to cause the best hope they have for the future. And I love that it looks like we’re coming a full circle right back to the beginning again.

Also, for once, someone has done their research. I love Star Wars, but in the PT especially the Jedi were frankly offensive stereotypes. Someone’s done their research to make this less of a fuck-you to Buddhism, and I appreciate that very much. I adore that they went down the ‘Jedi cling too much to tradition instead of people’ route rather than the ‘BURN THE JEDI DOWN’ route. (And honestly are my exact opinions on the current state of Theravada Buddhism.)

Overall, I liked this film. It’s not perfect filmmaking, but it hit all the notes I love and I am here with bells on for the characterization and stories of this film. Tbh, I liked this better than TFA and I’m sad Rian Johnson isn’t directing Episode IX. (Also, I ship basically everything now. Help.)

#tlj #star wars #religion for ts #buddhism for ts #holy shit this got long #rey #finn #poe dameron #rose #vice admiral holdo #princess leia #Luke Skywalker

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inktae · 7 years

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ok, so I watched The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and i was thoroughly impressed by the movie. I loved the concept of leaping through time and the ending-- gauh, i wish Chiaki kissed Makoto, but it was a good ending. Definitely enjoyed the comedic scenes (who the fuck spins a boy and throws him at a girl i was wheezing oml). // [!] DO NOT READ IF U HAVENT WATCHED 5 CM PER SECOND [!] \\ ok so i had a high expectation, i guess, for this movie. tbh, i probably didn't understand the movie as (1/?)

much as others did. The ending was sad and i was coming close to tears, but i didn't cry. it did give the slap of reality and how love isn't always going to be there forever between two people, which i did like because a lot of movies like that give this **illusion that love isn't as magical as it's fantasized. i definitely LOVED the animation and art style they chose to go with it. it had a glossy finish to it and a magical touch to it. it's kinda sad to say, but i think i liked the art (2/?)

a bit more than the story. but if i were to give 5cm per second a rating, it would be like 7.5-8/10 but everyone's different, so :) // [!] OK YOURE GOOD [!] \\ so, i was looking for an empty notebook or something that's 99% empty and i found this "outlining" (very, very crappy) that i do nOT KNOW WHY I DIDN'T GO THROUGH WITH IT. i wrote it like a year ago i think, anyway it was a story that this girl was an aspiring manga (webtoons?) artist/writer who had recently got their work rejected. (3/?)

jungkook was a secret agent for the Bang-Man (im wheezing at that name lmfao i wish bang-pdnim was actually called Bang-Man). And so the girl needed inspiration and motivation to write whole new story bc her original one was rejected. she accidentally bumped into jungkook who was about to kill a couple goons (GOONS! GOONS! IM SCREAMING IM JUST WRITING WHAT I SEE ON THE PAPER OMF). Some way, she gets caught up in jungkook's mission and has to help him kill his targets. and guess what... (4/?)

his targets is the girl's fatHER AND OLDER BROTHER WHO LEFT HER & HER MOTHER WHEN SHE WAS 5. WHAT WAS I THINKING LMFAO BUT THE THING IS THAT THE STORY PLOT WASN'T REALLY THAT BAD. so now im like "wow maybe i should write this ʅฺ(・ω・。)ʃฺ？？" anyway, that's all i have to say rn. omg i just remembered that my history teacher told us this week we're having a test. fucckkkkkk - (5/5) tatertot anon

ehhh I wanted to reply after watching 5 centimeters per second, but I keep putting it off bc of lack of time so I figured I’d just skip the spoilers you sent me lol

and that sounds like it could be a really cracky, fun story lmao :D and it lowkey reminds me of bakuman with the whole mangaka thing. you should watch that anime if you havent yet, it’s one of my ultimate favorites hehe. also good luck with your history test, I’m sure you’ll do fine! *sending you my best vibes*

#messages #Anonymous

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