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sohotthateveryonedied · 3 years

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Hiii!! I really love your tumblr posts and I'm pretty new to the Batfam (meaning I have only read fics and textposts about them, no comics) and I wanted to ask about the year Bruce/Batman gets "lost in time". I know general things of what the kids have been doing–Dick became batman and fired Tim from robin, giving it to Damian, everyone thinking Tim was crazy for believing Bruce was alive, (don't really know what Jason was up to though, was he still murderous towards Tim? Does the pit still affect him? Also I have no idea about Cass and Duke, were they introduced at this point??) Anyways, my real question was why was Bruce lost in time, what villain put him there? And how did he get out? And how long was he "dead"? Was Bruce in another reality or like just asleep the whole time? Oh! And how soon did this happen after Damian got introduced to the family–a couple months?

I'm so sorry this is so long, but I hope you answer and thank you!!

(I’m going to try and cover all my bases here by going into how exactly Bruce “died,” what went down during the Battle For the Cowl, what the Batkids did while Bruce was gone, and how Bruce came back. Hopefully it all makes sense?? We’ll see how it goes lmao.)

Part 1 - What Happened to Bruce:

So there was this event called Final Crisis (which I won’t go completely into since it would make this post a million times longer than it already is), but the bottom line is that Darkseid wants to overthrow reality and release his Anti-Life Equation, which would overthrow the whole planet and turn everyone into slaves. (If you’re interested in knowing more about the storyline, here’s a Reddit thread that explains it WAY better than I could.)

What I CAN tell you is that during his final confrontation with Darkseid, Bruce is hit by an Omega Beam and turned into a burnt chicken nugget killed. Poor guy.

Final Crisis #6

Clark and Diana bring the body back to the Batcave and break the news to the Batfamily. Batman #687 covers a good portion of the aftermath such as Bruce’s funeral, the Batfamily grieving, and Dick coming to terms with his new responsibility of becoming Batman.

Batman #687

Part 2 - Battle For the Cowl:

Musical chairs time, fellas! After word gets out that Batman is gone, Gotham erupts into chaos. Dick doesn’t want to take over the mantle, Tim needs Dick to take over the mantle, and Jason says “fuck it” and takes over the mantle himself because somebody around here has to. He becomes this murderous psychopathic Batman and starts taking out criminals with deadly force because someone’s gotta do the job, so it might as well be him.

Batman: Battle For the Cowl #1

(Okay honestly, this series had some pretty bad characterization overall, which sucks since it’s such an important storyline. Jason is portrayed as this violent psychopath, which...okay, he was kind of insane after the Pit and all, but not to this degree. Personally, I choose to owe the bad characterization to Bruce’s death because as much as Jason resents Bruce for all he’s done, he does still love him and losing him would be devastating, which would exacerbate his already fragile mental health. As for Damian, this happens roughly three years after his first appearance, so we can assume it’s been a few months since he first joined the family. He’s still relatively new at this point, so nobody knows how to write him yet. He ends up being depicted as if his main two personality traits are Bratty and Assassin-Child and that’s it. It’s all just a mess.)

Anyway, Tim tells Dick to become Batman and stop Jason’s reign of terror. Dick says no, so Tim follows Jason’s lead by saying “fuck it” and putting on the cowl himself. He goes to confront Jason, which ends in Jason beating the crap out of him (again) and leaving him for dead after Tim declines his offer to become Jason’s Robin. Dick goes to save Tim and ends up fighting Jason.

Battle For the Cowl #3

Dick wins, Jason disappears, Tim is fine, and Dick finally gets his head out of his ass and becomes Batman.

Part 3 - What Happens to Each Batkid While Bruce is “Dead”?:

Dick:

As I said, Dick becomes the new Batman a month after Bruce’s death. He’s got big shoes to fill, and it takes some time for him to get used to his new role. He and Damian end up flipping around the classic Batman and Robin dynamic, with Batman now as the fun counterpart to Robin’s edginess. Dick, Damian, and Alfred relocate to the penthouse above the Wayne Foundation building, operating out of a secret Bat-Bunker in the basement.

Batman #688

Jason:

After Battle For the Cowl, Jason is still batshit insane and determined to make Dick’s already stressful life even harder by becoming a supervillain with an ugly costume and an even uglier hairstyle. (I know it’s just because the artist sucked, but still. Jason is horrifying to look at during this time.) He mostly just gets on Dick’s nerves by running around Gotham with his new sidekick Scarlet and killing criminals as Batman and Robin wannabes. Eventually, Dick has Jason committed to Arkham Asylum and he hangs out there until Bruce returns.

Batman and Robin (2009) #5

Tim:

Tim...doesn’t do great after Bruce’s death, mentally. Dick makes Damian Robin, his reasoning being that Robin is more of a sidekick and he sees Tim as his equal. By making Damian Robin, Dick hopes that it will give him the stability he needs to keep him from straying back toward the “bad” side. (It’s the right move ultimately, although his execution was pretty messed up since he didn’t discuss it with Tim beforehand, but he’s allowed to make mistakes. Dick’s father just died and now he’s in charge of picking up the pieces of their broken family. It’s a lot to handle.)

Long story short, Tim has a breakdown, realizes that Bruce is alive, dons the Red Robin identity, and cuts ties with his family to travel the world in search of proof. It’s a rough time.

Red Robin #1

Damian:

Our little guy becomes Robin! So proud of him! As I explained earlier, Dick makes Damian his Robin with the assumption that it will keep him out of trouble, and he’s right on that account. He mentors Damian, teaching him how to channel his violent instincts into something productive, and it works! Slowly but surely, Damian makes the transition from bratty assassin to actual hero!

Batman and Robin (2009) #22

Cass:

Duke sadly was not introduced at this point in time, so he missed out on all the pandemonium. Cass, however, has been Batgirl for years by now, but she got kind of pushed aside by the writers after Bruce’s death. Bruce disappears shortly after adopting Cass, but once he was “dead,” the writers sort of moved Cass around for a while, not quite knowing what to do with her. First she was with the Outsiders. Then they got disbanded and Cass tried forming a new network of heroes to take over for Batman if needed. Then she helped out in said network during Battle for the Cowl, taking care of a newly ravaged Gotham. Then Cass gave the Batgirl mantle to Stephanie Brown after she became disillusioned with the role, thanks to the loss of her father and mentor. Then Cass picked up and moved to Hong Kong to “follow Bruce’s plans” by continuing whatever work he had set up for her there. It was all very vague and confusing, and Cass more or less got swept under the rug during this time. Thanks, writers.

Batgirl (2009) #1

Part 4 - How Bruce Came Back:

When the Blackest Night storyline happens, the Justice League realizes that the corpse buried under Bruce’s grave is apparently not the real one and that he’s actually alive out there somewhere! How wild is that! This is further proven by Dick after he places Bruce’s body in a Lazarus Pit to revive, which has the same result because it’s very clearly Not Bruce and they should have listened to Tim from the start.

Batman and Robin (2009) #9

Anyway, what actually happened is that the Omega Beams that Darkseid shot at Bruce didn’t kill him, but rather blasted him back through time to the prehistoric era with his memories wiped. The Omega Energy inside of Bruce ends up catapulting him through various time periods, which is all part of Darkseid’s plan. With each time-hop, Bruce builds up more Omega Energy in his body which, when he gets back to his original time period, will be unleashed and destroy everything.

Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #5

It’s been a little under two years since Final Crisis, though in-universe it’s uncertain exactly how long Bruce has been “dead.” We can assume it’s been a year, give or take. The way he comes back is too scientific and complicated for me to understand, so uhhhh the bottom line is that Tim and a few Leaguers save Bruce at the Vanishing Point and the day is saved! Hooray!

Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #6

(If you want to read about how it actually goes down, then I seriously recommend reading Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne. It’s only six issues, so it’s a quick read and it explains the situation far better than I ever could.)

Bruce eventually reunites with his family after spying on them for a period of time as Insider to see what has changed in his absence:

Bruce Wayne: The Road Home

After that, things quickly settle back into their new normal. Dick and Damian stay on as Batman and Robin. Bruce goes back to being Batman as well, with him handling Batman Incorporated business and Dick continuing as Gotham’s defender. Tim keeps the Red Robin outfit, Steph stays on as Batgirl, and Cass becomes Black Bat. Jason stays in Arkham for a while before filing an appeal to be moved to a regular prison. He kills 82 inmates in less than a week and gets transferred back to Arkham, which he promptly escapes from. It’s a ride, I tell ya.

Aaaaand that’s about it! I hope this answered all of your questions!

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ghosthan · 3 years

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what would you say are the differences between 616 Tony and MCU Tony? 🤔

Hi anon! Many people have talked about this and I'm certainly not the authority on the topic, but I’ll try my best to explain some of the major differences that I have noticed! Thank you for asking and I’m sorry it took me so long to answer you.

Important to note: neither version of Tony has had a totally consistent characterization. Depending on who you ask and which comics/movies they've consumed, they might give you a different answer here and not be wrong.

616 Tony is even harder to put into one box because his character has been around since Tales of Suspense in the 1950s. That’s a long time. Things have changed over time, under different writers, changing political atmospheres, and outside pop culture influence (including influence from the MCU, unfortunately, in recent years.) You get the picture. So I’ll be making some generalizations and try to be clear about which eras I’m speaking when I make these comparisons, but ultimately, if someone wanted to be contrarian, you could probably refute a lot of what I say here if you cherry pick canon. Which is fair enough! That’s sort of the fun of comics, there’s so much to choose from and something for everyone.

So here are some observations from me, under the ‘read more’.

1. Physical Appearance

This is sort of an easy one, but worth mentioning!

MCU Tony does not look like 616 Tony. RDJ is great, but he would not be most 616 fans’ casting choice on looks alone. MCU Tony is tan, a Malibu man, with brown hair and brown eyes, and RDJ has sort of round facial features (a funny sloped nose, big, round eyes, round forehead, not a particularly sharp or classically “superhero masculine” face.) As you may know, this lends well to certain fanworks and tropes, such as Tony having Bambi eyes.

Or Tiny Tony. He is not actually canonically small, but he's smaller in the MCU than in 616 and from what I can tell, a portion of fandom has latched onto that. He’s a grown man, but RDJ is pretty short, and of slighter build than 616 Tony. RDJ is 5′9, but they make him act in heels, and I believe his canon MCU height is 5′11. Another popular trope I’ve seen is shrinking Tony in fanfic/fanart for a dramatized height difference with Steve, making him weak or fragile; this is fine because everyone has their own taste, but for the official record, he’s a capable, strong guy! Especially in earlier stages of the MCU, in which he’s a bit younger. Tony isn’t just a brain; he carries out his plans with his own two hands! He builds his armor, he remodels his lab, he survives hand to hand combat when he doesn’t have the armor. Muscles!

616 Tony is 6′1 without armor and 6′6 in armor (making him taller than his 616 Steve counterpart in armor and very close to the same height out of armor!) 616 Tony is generally paler with black hair (sometimes the classic blue-black I love so much) and blue eyes, and it obviously depends on the artist, but he has a pretty typically ‘masculine’ face and build. Generally he is drawn with a squared jaw and a high bridged nose (such as in the Extremis storyline, or drawn by Marquez), but again, this varies from artist to artist! Here's some examples of 616 Tonys.

Wait, you might be saying, but I have seen comic panels where Tony has brown hair/brown eyes!

Yep. Due to a combination of forgetfulness, inconsistency, and the MCU bleeding into the general consciousness of the comics, sometimes Tony is randomly depicted in the image of RDJ, or if not in his image, at least visually inspired by the MCU-- hair color and style, eye color, dialogue, etc.

616 fans don’t typically love this; he’s very handsome when drawn this way, of course, (look at him!) But it isn’t really the same character.

Also, MCU Tony has (at least for some of his movies) a reactor built into his chest. While 616 Tony has, at times, been more or less physically connected/dependent to his tech, he doesn’t have the built in reactor (most generally speaking, there are times in comics when he temporarily has the tech built in, but this isn’t really the status quo.)

2. Relationship with parents/ family history

While it is definitely implied in the MCU that Howard was not a good father to Tony, (such as in Iron Man 2 when Tony says “You're talking about a man whose happiest day of his life was shipping me off to boarding school” and “He was cold, calculating, never told me he loved me, never even told me he liked me”), Tony has a different sort of attitude toward Howard in MCU than in 616. It’s kind of weird, and hard to discuss. To me, it seems implied that MCU Howard was emotionally abusive to Tony based on what Tony does say about his childhood, and yet, the films kind of randomly give Howard weird moments of “Well, he tried his best and deep down he loved me the whole time!” forgiveness. MCU has a Howard kink and I'm very cringe-face emoji about it.

For example, Iron Man 2 shows that old film reel of Howard talking about how Tony is the greatest thing he ever created, and in Endgame, when Tony goes back in time, he meets Howard and has a very weird interaction with him in which Howard declares he would do anything for his son, (to his deeply damaged son who is a new father himself.) Yet, for all his talk, it's his actions that speak, and his actions left Tony damaged, traumatized, and emotionally inept at forming healthy relationships. So.

Sorry. I’m a little bitter. I'm just uncomfortable with how they sort of set up an abuse history but then treated it kind of lightly and Howard gets off the hook as "well, he tried his best" without really acknowledging the hurt he caused.

Avengers: Endgame 2019

I won't go super in depth into the abuse stuff because it's a little touchy and could take up a lot of this post. But.

I’m not against any reconciliation and I do appreciate the fact that a lot of times, victims of abuse feel a desire to forgive and reconnect with their abuser-- my issue with the MCU depiction of Tony and Howard is that Tony never really gets the vindication of his abuse being recognized for what it was before he forgives Howard. To me, that’s not forgiveness as kind of... gaslighting himself that it wasn't as bad as he remembered his own experience being, because of a sense of nostalgia and grief. It’s not the same, and I have issues with it.

However, a lot of my opinion is based on subtext and it is just my opinion; with depictions of abuse, different people are going to react differently, and other people may have found these scenes touching and gotten something positive out of them, and that's totally fine too!

It’s also a bit difficult to talk about Tony’s relationship with Howard in 616, for a few reasons: shifting timelines, lots of canon that I have not read all of, and the fact that it really is difficult to sum up such a complicated relationship.

Right off the bat, I’ll address the basics. I used the same scene in another ask, and I think it's frequently cited in any meta regarding Howard, but in Iron Man Vol. 1, we see more into Tony’s childhood and see Howard verbally abusing his family, drunk, at the dinner table.

Iron Man Vol. 1 #285

We get this scene with adult Tony’s retrospective commentary on how his own issues that he blamed himself for were actually a cycle starting with his father, the insecurity and abuse and alcohol, and that he realizes how much this has influenced him. Both MCU Tony and 616 Tony have some form of “stop the cycle of shame” arcs, but I don’t really see how this works narratively in the MCU because Tony makes excuses for Howard and continues to blame himself for a lot of his own personal struggles, whereas I think there’s just a bit more nuance in 616.

But uh. This isn’t totally true, and in recent years, things got real weird. I choose to ignore this chapter of canon, but in the Dan Slott run, Tony Stark: Iron Man, Tony’s whole backstory gets imploded. For one thing, the little of Tony’s childhood it shows in a flashback is uh. Uh. Well, it’s certainly out of character compared with previous 616 material, depicting Tony as an overly confident poor sport.

Basically, Tony is adopted. Tony has an evil brother. Tony’s biological parents make an appearance, as do his ‘classic’ parents, Howard and Maria. It’s just weird. It’s kind of out there. I’m honestly not a huge fan of this and ignore a lot of it, but it is certainly a difference between MCU and 616.

3. Personality

I’m going to be very general. Both Tony’s have an outer self which they present to the public and an inner self, but they’re a bit different. Both Tony’s have struggled with self loathing, but I think MCU Tony’s actual self worth is a bit higher, even just at some points in time. Even if his ego is part of his facade, I think he does believe some amount of the “I’m awesome”, even if just when it applies to his own work/inventions/saving people. Not to say that these moments of fluctuating self esteem make him egotistical, but this combined with his egotistical act and snarky, non-stop sassy dialogue, he’s quite different in general personality from 616 Tony, who is much more reserved.

Some more recent iterations of 616 Tony have been adapted to reflect the snark of the MCU, but he’s not so snarky and he tends to approach things more seriously. This is not a dis on MCU Tony; I think MCU Tony uses false ego and excessive sassy jokes as a means to deflect and control, which I think is very interesting and it’s nice to see this explored more in depth in fic where you get to see the thought process behind the bravado. MCU Tony is a partier, a good times guy, especially during Iron Man 2, in which he really does disregard consequences to have fun (driving his race car, partying drunk in his suit, letting pretty girls play with the armor, shooting off repulsor blasts for fun in a crowded room); I’m not bashing MCU Tony-- I think he had psychologically understandable reasons for behaving this way, the man was dying-- but 616 Tony really doesn’t act this way generally, and I think it’s a personality difference more than a difference of one being “better.”

616 Tony handles his stress differently, and they just have different psychological patterns, I think. I’m coming up kind of blank trying to think of a good comparable 616 arc, (sorry, I’m brain dead) but a less-than-perfect example might be Tony’s brain delete arc; he’s “dying”, like in Iron Man 2 he knows his expiration date, (circumstances are quite a bit different), but he throws himself more into work, into a cause, and as he really fall apart, we see him spiral into self doubt, remorse, fear, and insecurity, sort of falling into himself with lots of manly tears and calling himself pathetic.

(Some things happen in this arc that a lot of people find Gross. I also find these events gross. But. I don’t count the sex in “World’s Most Wanted” as partying to cope with personal mortality, because I think both character involved are in “end of the world” mode, and it’s more seeking intimacy for comfort than partying to numb the hurt. Does this distinction make sense? No? Perfect, moving on.) 616 Tony is generally much more humble.

Whereas MCU Tony, I think, tries to outrun those feelings via parties or making dozens of new suits, or seeking comfort by comforting others! Gifting things to people, building things for people, highly personalized individual living quarters, teaching Nebula games and trying to show her a fun time when they were in peril together.

They have some traits in common, for sure! But canon being inconsistent both in the MCU and in 616, my observations aren’t the rule, because I’m kind of cherry picking and going based on limited memory. But off the top of my head, they’re both extravagant gift givers! Recall Tony gifting Pepper the giant bunny in Iron Man 3, and compare this with Tony carrying a mile high pile of Christmas gifts after shopping with Rumiko in Iron Man Vol. #3.

I would say that while both Tony Starks are considered humanitarians, this is much more fleshed out and supported by canon in 616. Some examples of his philanthropy in the MCU: Tony makes charitable donations of art and money, Tony has an organization which provides disaster relief/cleanup which is referenced in Spider-Man Homecoming, Tony has an MIT grant for students and staff members. But to be honest, a lot of his MCU philanthropy is only mentioned in passing, or is largely handled by other people on his behalf and on his dollar.

In 616, we see Tony using charity almost as a means of therapy: it’s something he does very privately, not in the public eye (at least, not always), and it’s something deeply personal to him. One example that immediately comes to mind is Tony’s home for disadvantaged girls in Iron Man Vol. 3, and we see scenes of Tony basically driving the streets at night, picking up underage prostitutes, feeding them and listening to their stories before bringing them to a home he’s established where he knows all the residents, and provides educational opportunities and protection.

Another more recent example in canon that the Tony fandom loves is that Tony canonically holds babies at an orphanage. Sorry I don’t have panels for all of this, this section got long and I have been working on answering this ask in a very scattered way for a very long time.

Both Tony’s are romantics, I literally could write a whole other post about their canon love life similarities and differences, but I will briefly say that while MCU Tony does the long on and off, and eventual ultimate commitment, to Pepper Potts, 616 Tony is a serial monogamist; he is always falling in love, and he’s definitely not a playboy, but the hero-ing, self loathing, and lifestyle make it very hard for him to keep anyone in his life, and most of his partners fuck his life up and betray him. Needless to say, 616 Tony is not married, and certainly not to Pepper Potts.

Oh, and I guess this is so obvious I almost forgot to include it, but a huge similarity between both iterations of Tony is that they both constantly use their own life as a bargaining chip, and will pretty much die for anything. Or be the bad guy for a good reason (at least, in his own mind... see Civil War, or Hickmanvengers; 616 Tony, especially, does not shy away from making the hard decisions, and this leads to a lot of guilt and tension in his relationships-- often with Steve because 616 Steve/Tony angst fans are well fed, I guess)

Remember that time Tony had Steve’s mind wiped because Tony felt that Steve’s inflexible morality might hinder the Illuminati’s ability to save the world? And it eats Tony up inside and erupts into a homicidal fight when Steve finally gets his memory back? Me too.

Tony Stark as a character is defined by sacrifice, both of his own life but also of his own happiness and reputation and conscience, I think, in a lot of ways, and we see this in many universes. I could go on about Tony’s propensity for sacrifice in the less obvious ways, because I think in terms of heroic sacrifice, Tony has done a lot that other heroes wouldn’t be able to do because of moral inflexibility and conflicting philosophical schools of thought; Tony really is the “whatever it takes” type, and often believes the ends justify the means if he deems a threat worse than the potential wrong that could be done in preventing the threat. We see this a little bit in the MCU in the creation of Ultron, and in Civil War with the Accords. But there’s a whole lot more going on there I don’t want to get into.

4. Alcohol

MCU Tony’s alcoholism is never really explicitly explored. He is shown drinking in Iron Man 1, and in Iron Man 2 he drinks a lot and makes a fool of himself publicly, but MCU Tony doesn’t get any specific narrative arc focused on his drinking, and if I recall correctly, I don’t think he ever refers to his drinking as alcoholism in the movies? Also, while his binge drinking and embarrassing behaviors ostensibly stop after the events of Iron Man 2, he is shown drinking on screen at least one other time after that which I can remember, and it wasn’t a “falling off the wagon” moment, and an alcoholic in recovery such as 616 Tony would not take a drink casually. This article sheds a little light on some decisions made about Tony and alcohol in the MCU.

Alcoholism is a huge part of 616 Tony’s personality, which I went a bit more into depth about in this post, so I won’t repeat myself too much.

5. Their relationships with the Iron Man armor

A few points here: MCU Tony is famous for the “I am Iron Man” line being repeated throughout the franchise after he blows his own secret in the end of the first movie. MCU Tony sees himself as one with Iron Man, and the suit is the tech that enables him to be this version of himself. He sees Tony Stark and Iron Man as inextricable: you cannot separate them, and his identity is public. He, as Tony Stark, is an Avenger.

You may remember MCU Tony’s induction into the Avengers; in Iron Man 2, Nick Fury is forming the Avengers and tasks the Black Widow with going undercover to assess Tony to be a part of a hypothetical initiative. “Iron Man yes, Tony Stark no” and the comments about Tony as a narcissist may be funny, but the fact is, the snark and erratic personality of MCU Tony at the time of the formation of the Avengers in the movies is not at all like the Tony of the comics, at the time of the Avengers being formed.

In 616, things are quite a bit different! Tony invents the Iron man armor to save himself (like in the MCU) and uses it for hero-ing, but in secret. He works very hard to protect his identity as Iron Man, and for a long time, as far as the world is concerned, Iron man is a mystery man piloting armor built by Tony, hired as Tony’s personal body guard, (hence the 616 Steve/Tony fandom’s proclivity for identity porn as a trope!) When the Avengers form, Iron Man is the Avenger, close friends with the Avengers, (particularly Steve!) and Tony Stark is just the benefactor of the Avengers, providing them with a place to live and finances with which to operate.

In the very early days, Tony did not have the “reactor” like in the MCU, but his chest plate did keep him alive, leading to some very dramatic shots of Tony charging up using a wall socket, lamenting the plight of a secret hero.

616 Tony, generally, and especially in some of these earlier comics, was quite reserved, rather serious, and very angsty, (in private of course.) He may be wealthy, but speaking generally, he’s much less ostentatious than MCU Tony, less of a show off, less into flashy things and grand gestures. Of course, this isn’t always true in the comics, and some iterations of Tony are more like this than others, but MCU Tony is showier, sillier, and more of a fun-times guy. Any MCU fan would find those panels quite contrary to the Tony Stark you know:

Iron Man 1

Iron Man 2

I think I would say that while MCU Tony sees himself and the Iron Man identity and the armor as all being inextricably connected, we see a bit more compartmentalization with 616 Tony, who pretends that the armor is a whole separate person for years when his identity was private, and we see instances in older and newer comics, in which Tony is uncomfortable with some aspect of himself as Iron Man (for instance, during the second drinking arc, Tony temporarily swears off being Iron Man entirely, or for another example, when Tony is in a comma and Tony AI exists during Secret Empire, Tony “lives” in the Iron Man suit, and I think this could be interpreted as a meta parallel to Steve during this arc; Steve has had some core aspect of his character inverted, Captain America becoming Captain Hydra, so Tony experiences a similar inversion-- Tony Stark and Iron Man are forcibly merged, in a way that Tony seems deeply uncomfortable with, if his digital drinking relapse is any indication. But I digress; sorry for the tangent.)

Okay this post is inexcusable long, and very, very tangential, and I don’t feel like I’ve really covered everything I wanted to. But it has been sitting in my inbox for too long and if I don’t post it now I never will, so I hope this long, rambling thing has been a little bit helpful to you! Thank you so much for asking, I had a lot of fun rambling about this.

If you want to read a similar post, but well written and organized, with other insights, this post by Sineala answers a similar question!

#Anonymous #han reads comics #han meta #meta #iron man #tony stark #616 tony stark #616 #mcu #long post #han speaks #ask #sorry this definitely gets more incomprehensible as it goes on but i have been writing and rewriting and editing and fretting about this #for so long that if i dont just post it i probably never will and i sunk too many hours into it #to throw it away now 😅#abuse tw #abuse #alcoholism tw #alcoholism

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lord-squiggletits · 2 years

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question regarding idw op’s characterization if you dont mind me asking! i’m trying to do research on op’s pre-war mindset for a fic but he’s definitely a Complicated op and im not familiar with all his flaws and virtues and how that changes throughout the war and how many times he’s called out for his questionable decisions, etc. do you have any recs for like, required reading on him?

It's literally 4 AM here but uhhhh let me not some things down for you really quickly. Quick note I'm giving you these recommendations in loose publication order and not chronological because READING COMICS IN TIMELINE CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER IS A BAD IDEA IT'LL CONFUSE YOU SO MUCH. I have to reread a couple of these series myself because I was an idiot who decided to read chronologically so I barely had a clue what was happening. Though by the same token, if I hadn't read the Metzen trilogy first I wouldn't have fallen for IDW OP the way he is, sooooo

ANYWAYS

-The Transformers (2011) issues 22-23: this is when JRO first wrote in IDW OP being a cop and it also describes how he and Megatron met. Even if you're not a MegOP writer, this is still important because Megatron is one of the first people that Orion comes to admire so much that he basically speaks highly of him every time he comes up in conversation. And at this point OP is still rather idealistic because it shows in him "not agreeing with everything" Megatron wrote to full on blasting the Senate on public TV. Really showcases how this guy is an action man driven by his feelings first and foremost. Oh, and in the present day his conversations with Megatron (who knows him better than anyone else) has Megatron basically saying soul-cutting things about how OP has to try so hard to be a flawless paragon and how that must destroy him. As well as just them being pretty gay in general jajdakfnns this is an IDW MegOP blog it's in the header shhh

-The Death of Optimus Prime: A one-shot that happens right after the previously mentioned series. It features the neutral Cybertronians and how they hate OP a lot, there's a guy named Metalhawk that instantly is like "yo fuck you" as soon as he sees OP (although the reason for this isn't explained). I think the very beginning and very end, when OP has his internal monologue, show him after war best. There's a one-off line where OP describes feeling sadness when he realizes he's still alive, which is literally just said and gone as soon as it happens but holy SHIT does it say a lot about how fucking depressed this guy is. And then the ending (where he voluntarily exiles himself from Cybertron) has him feeling basically relief/happiness at the fact that he's now no one's leader and only responsible for himself. This is a guy who basically never wanted to be a leader, or at least not in the way he became during the war. Sure, OP is very confident and led by his conditions, but I think he kind of preferred a life where he could physically do something to stop problems rather than an endless war that dragged out.

-More Than Meets the Eye *10-12, can't remember which: also called Shadowplay, I really love this issue because in addition to showing OP being the action hero himbo I adore, it also showcases how IDW OP is actually very intelligent (which is something the fandom refuses to acknowledge even across continuities because for some reason people think a bumbling himbo with no opinions of his own could be someone as strong and charismatic as OP), since he was able to cleanly predict how and why the Senate would stage a bombing for political reasons. It also features interactions between OP and Roller, Ratchet, Shockwave, and ZETA (a guy almost no one considers but BOY is he important to IDW OP). Good to have if you want to get a vibe for his personality.

-More Than Meets the Eye *36: A time-travel issue where some of the LL crew goes back and helps OP post-Shadowplay when he's on the run. Again showcases action hero OP who as the whole is still quite idealistic and believes system reform is the way, despite everything. The conversation he and Megatron have (you've probably seen screencaps of this already because it's a very emotional/poignant scene from Megatron's perspective) is emblematic of this.

But that's the end of idealistic OP, because then you have the entirety of OP's career serving as Zeta's enforcer after Sentinel is killed and Zeta becomes Prime. A time period where there's ostensibly reform (a new Senate, formal anti-functionist laws) but shit's still bad on Cybertron because spoilers, Zeta is actually evil.

-There's a few flashback scenes in the Optimus Prime and I think ex-RID series that @quetzalpapalotl could give specific examples and screenshots from, but this is where a fuckload of examples of OP's regret and/or him being called out (by other characters or implied in the narrative come from). But also because no one in this fandom reads anything outside of MTMTE/LL, no one actually knows this lore about him so :/ yeah. Anyways, at this point Orion Pax is working for Zeta, his friend and mentor* (*stated elsewhere), and fighting the Decepticons who are fully militarized and basically already scoping planets for conquest. At this point OP is a guy with basically zero idealism whatsoever. His friend Zeta seems worse and worse by the day, but Megatron is turning into a violent conqueror and isn't the person Orion came to admire. OP is basically aware that his side is shit too but he's really sticking to Zeta out of some desperate desire to believe things can be okay, which is...basically one of the things the narrative calls him out on.

That goes into the Metzen trilogies, aka

-Autoracy, Monstrosity, Primacy: Orion Pax is just SO FUCKING SALTY AT THIS POINT he's full of repressed anger and when Megatron shows him footage of the corrupt Senate Orion is basically like "yeah the Senate is corrupt, water is wet." I haven't read these series in two years so I can't tell you much, but basically a ton of people either dislike OP or barely agree to work with him. There's a panel of Dai Atlas calling him out that's literally the exact moment I fell in love with IDW OP because I was like, "holy shit this is a guy that's an Actual Controversial Figure and he doesn't just get everyone to like him because he's The Good Guy and everything he does is assumed to be good." Definitely a MUST-READ for anyone wanting to understand IDW OP because it covers a lot of early war lore and OP is more or less the central protagonist so it focuses a lot on him.

I've probably missed a fuckload of stuff, but this post is tagged with #idw op love and if you look through my blog there's posts by me and others with really good analysis of him as a character. Hope this early morning ramble helps.

#squiggle answers #idw op love #long post #also i might be posting a quick list after this that should also make some things about OP clear

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butwhatifidothis · 3 years

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I try to be an understanding person.

I’m okay with people making the weirdest fics. Slightly ooc bad grammar, whatever. I may not read them but I’d encourage people to write them.

But.. Captain’s fic. Even as a concept is basically looking to be a mostly canon compliant rewrite. So I can’t even give it points for creativity. And as said before I don’t mind things being a little ooc character in small ways, maybe just to get a plot moving or whatever but ,This Fic is impressive in how ooc it is and how much of it is that way. Dimitri and Rhea bad. With even the Claude is very literal when he says “he wants to cut open a mountain.” I’m honestly expecting Linhardt to get excited for a battle soon.

Yet, the most disappointing character is this clean sad good guy Edelgard who just shows that Captain wants Edelgard to be the sad little baby that Byleth saves. Why can’t we have a cutthroat edelgard doing anything to achieve her goals. An edelgard who is so blinded by lies she believes the church is a terrible regime that only she can free Fodlan of. An edelgard who pours sweet nothings into those she fights with whether she knows it or not. But no we need sanded off Edelgard with not an edge in sight.

But. But. That is not what I dislike the most. I dislike most of all is how Captain’s fic is treated as canon and is seen as something so great. And how it is the breeding grounds for pointless 3 houses arguments that only stem from headcanons present in this fic.

It’s like, by chapter 20 there’s a little creativity shown but by then it’s just kinda off-putting, and not like it’ll make up for the god-awful characterizations of everyone, the weird misandry, the not-even-lowkey fetishization of scars and lesbians and lesbians with scars, the shotgun blasts to the lore. Like, no joke, in terms of pure characterization and keeping to canon, this is among one of the worst fics I’ve ever read.

And it ultimately gets back to what you said in the end; this fic is largely responsible for pushing so many wrong and awful takes on the characters that twist them into things they just aren’t. It’s the starting point to so many arguments, much as it sucks to lay the blame down on a fic that happened to get popular.

Like. I mentioned before in the Bleach fandom, there’s this (in)famous meta post known as the Lust Arc = Fail Essay, and it kickstarted and popularized so many bad faith takes on the characters just to prop up the ship they liked, and the Bleach fandom never really got over it? You still see people spout the same tired takes that have long been debunked, and a good few of them originate from that meta post. It’s similar here, except extended to 300k words

#ask #anon #exqueuese me princess #like it SOUNDS silly to pin the blame on a fic but I've seen less greatly affect a fandom before #and man is this one just SO bad #i try to be understanding too nonnie but at some point ya gotta call a spade a spade

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andsmile · 3 years

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I'd love to know more about your writing process for the GG/Riverdale au. How do you decide which episodes to adapt and how to adapt them for Riverdale? Were there any iconic Gossip Girl scenes you knew you wanted to adapt before you even started writing? Did you come up with your emotional arc first and then adapt it to the Gossip Gieo world? Any relationships between the two you knew you wanted to parallel?

Hi sweetie! I’ve conjured a really big answer so I’m gonna cut it under a read more thing!

Basically, I had the idea a long time ago when I saw a GG/Riverdale gifset that featured Cheronica with a Chair line, and the idea couldn’t get out of me. Other than that, I always had a problem with all the GG/Riverdale comparisons that I’ve seen before, as I was deep in both fandoms, I never liked how they were always reduced to the hair color or tropes.

One day I brought my idea to @monicaposh because I know she’s a big GG fan as well (especially of the books!) and we started brainstorming about how we could write Varchie as Serenate (which is my favorite couple! but Em’s favorite one is Nair haha) and also I remembered that Cheronica/Chair gifset and sent it to her, and we started brainstorming about how we could adapt things and...when we realized, we had an entire idea formed and decided to write it together (best decision ever! love you Ems).

The problem was that I think at first we were very stuck to the idea of Varchie/Serenate, Barchie/Nair, and the first version that we wrote wasn’t it, because Veronica isn’t Blair or Serena, Betty definitely isn’t either, and as much as it’s easier to typecast the boys (Jughead fits as Dan and Archie fits as Nate) we couldn’t do the same with the girls.

So we decided to start writing it again and trying to stay truer to the version of the Riverdale characters, instead of the Gossip Girl plots. If you look at it, Veronica is a mix of Blair and Serena in both the books and the show and Veronica in the show and the comics, Betty is a mix of Blair and Serena and Jenny and Betty, Cheryl is a mix of Blair and Chuck and Georgina and Cheryl, Archie is a mix of Nate, a little bit of Dan and Archie, Jughead is a mix of Dan in the show and Dan in the books and Jughead, Reggie is a mix of Chuck in the show and Chuck in the books and Carter and Reggie, and so it goes.

And when we got that characterization right, the whole plot just wrote itself. We use Gossip Girl episodes as guidelines but we can also deviate from that, because it’s about those characters’ journeys and we use the setting that GG gives us sometimes, but there are 3 completely original chapters happening there.

We knew we wanted to play with some of Betty’s mental health issues and link them to her relationships and how she was coping with losing everything, we knew we wanted to have Veronica’s parental issues and struggles coming back home after what happened, Archie being from Brooklyn but raised in the UES and that playing a part in his natural confusion (music vs football is overrated lol), and Jug as the outsider writer that ends up falling for someone who he sees differently from everyone else, Reggie and Cheryl as some drama catalysts and a bit more. We knew we wanted Jug and Archie to be friends and make both worlds collide (just like it happens in Riverdale with the Southside and Northside!)

We also knew we’d have Cheronica happening halfway as Chair’s hot affair but that, just like CB themselves, they’d be too much to keep it up. We knew BA would fall apart like Nair did in the show. And! We always knew we wanted Hermione and FP to be our own Rufus and Lily, and we ADORE their story a lot.

Overall, writing this AU has been a delight and we are reaching our final run but there are definitely some surprises coming for everyone who’s reading! The Varchies have been very patient, the Bugheads are going through something right now, it’s a lot of fun to play with Beggie, Cheronica, Veggie, other Archie ships... and who knew they’d get so much support! It was hard for Emily to adapt to the multishipper life (LOL babykins cried the entire time!) but I don’t think either of us would have it any other way. I mean, it’s Gossip Girl, so the drama and surprise is the key element to it!

OOOH, I cannot forget that we have A BLAST writing the Blue and Gold tweets and knowing who they/she/he/it are/is is the best haha. We hope you guys have as much fun as we do with this fic, even though it can be a little anxiety inducing haha.

And the big support we get in this fic is amazing. We love to write it and to see other parts of the fandom interacting with us.

Thank you ❤️️

#re: wdyhgm #go-ldy #reply #xoxo 💋

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myheartissetinmotion · 3 years

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hello, internet

I’m really about to expose myself here huh

anyway, this post is the brainchild of my quarantine. Beginning somewhere around April (what even is time) and ongoing to this day, I’ve written screenplays and fics, made pinterest boards and spotify playlists, dreamed up choreography, and plotted storylines, all as a product of both escapism from this insane world and yearning to be part of my favorite tv show in any capacity.

guys, gals, and nonbinary pals, buckle your seatbelts and allow me to introduce you to “Zoey’s Extraordinary Cousin”, Victoria Evelyn Clarke.

(most of this was written before s2 premiered, and I won’t always be changing her whole story as it would be required on this post, but I’ll continue to add fics which modify stuff to fit s2 canon)

general stuff

name: Victoria Evelyn Clarke (named after a song-first-and a friend-middle)

nickname: Tori

age: 23

height: 5′9″ (plenty of opportunity for the brogrammers to joke about how short Zoey is when compared to her younger cousin)

hair: auburn, medium length, wavy

eyes: hazel, she wears glasses

family: her father is Mitch’s brother, so Maggie and Mitch are her aunt and uncle, making Zoey and David her cousins

occupation: just graduated from a BFA musical theatre program; hired to play piano in the SPRQpoint lobby, stays there for most of the time that her story is shown and eventually books a role in the LA area, which causes her departure from the show (if she’s just a recurring character)

a few of her functions as a character

disclaimer: I’m fully aware that a lot of concepts I’ve come up with for her couldn’t actually happen on the show (especially if I played her, which of course is the ultimate dream), but I just wanted to put all of my ideas into one place

because she ends up working at SPRQpoint, Victoria serves as a bridge between Zoey’s work life and family life, making the story more cohesive

due to the blood relation and her empathetic nature, she can tell when people are singing to her. Zoey tells her about the power right away, and she provides insight, taking on a similar role to Mo but with the added bonus of already knowing her family and getting to know her coworkers better. A complication in the powers is always interesting, and it opens the door for many more possibilities

she’ll bring more musical theatre songs to the table and diversify the music genres discussed on the show; it would also be really interesting to have a character that plays an instrument and see how that might factor into heartsongs

she’d strengthen the theme of music bringing empathy through storytelling; through her insight and empathetic nature, she sees qualities in some characters that Zoey and the audience haven’t seen yet

she’s been the “therapist friend” all her life, and a big part of her arc is learning how to take care of herself and realizing that her own emotions are just as valid as those of the people she helps; this gives a contrast to Zoey’s initial awkwardness when it comes to emotions and helping people, and they help each other through everything

the fact that she quickly falls for Leif sends Zoey into a bit of a tailspin; she feels that she has to tell her what else he’s sung, which results in a question about the ethics of the power and privacy. This’ll give more depth to Leif (who we’ve barely heard from emotionally since mid-ep-11; there’s a lot behind “things change, people change” that I’m curious about) along with bringing out a protective side to Zoey and deepening the Clarke family dynamic

personality and characterization tidbits

hufflepuff through and through

sees the best in people

loves music and is really knowledgeable about it (see Zoey and Mo in the relationship section down below for the impact of this) and has escaped into it her whole life; this makes her almost a foil to Zoey as they balance each other out

just as awkward as Zoey; one can absolutely tell that they’re related if only by their speech patterns and appearance

has a playlist for every imaginable human emotion

bi and hopeless romantic, but has never really felt wanted

unashamed theatre kid

quick-thinking and witty, intelligent but idealistic, and sometimes comes across as naïve

passionate about activism and working for change

feels and cares very deeply

see pinterest board and spotify playlist below in the references section for more

relationships with other characters

Zoey Clarke: her cousin. After graduation, Victoria visits her family to be there for them after the funeral, and this begins her storyline. The extended Clarke family is tight-knit, and she and Zoey have been really close friends throughout their entire lives. They can read each other well, and the established relationship is really clear in their dialogue and the way that each is one of the few people that the other feels genuinely comfortable around. Partly because Zoey never had a younger sibling, she was always very protective of her younger cousin. This comes into play in a huge way during Victoria’s storyline, beginning with her second heartsong. One of Zoey’s internal conflicts throughout this situation is the decision of how much to share with Tori of what she knows due to earlier heartsongs; she feels it would be an invasion of privacy to tell too much, but she also feels at the start that Tori is being naïve and a bit too trusting and doesn’t want her to get hurt. This struggle deals with both Zoey’s personal relationships and the ethics of the power.

Leif Donnelly: the reason for the aforementioned internal conflict. Victoria falls hard and fast for him during her first tour of the fourth floor, leading to her second heartsong. When confronted by a dumbfounded Zoey about it, she denies it as nothing more than infatuation at first sight, but this gets harder to believe as time goes on and Zoey has to watch her cousin and sworn rival genuinely becoming friends. After a few weeks, she learns and has to accept that Victoria’s feelings are genuine. Reciprocation, though, is a whole different matter; they find this out by way of another heartsong, which is also how Victoria learns of her own addition to the power. Witnessing that song pushes Zoey over the edge, and similarly to s1e5, she eventually blurts out the truth about Leif’s previous heartsongs and relationship with Joan, which leads to Victoria’s very conflicted heartsong rendition of “Toxic” (because if no one sings it to him at some point in the series, that’s a seriously missed opportunity). We see their later conversation: Victoria isn’t sure how to bring it up, but she doesn’t have to, because the events of the end of s1 obviously did take a big toll on Leif and he wants to be honest with her about it (see chapter 7 of singin’ from a streetlight). It would be interesting if she had something to do with the way he eventually found out about the power; Victoria lives very much by her moral compass, and she would feel awful about knowing things that he doesn’t know that she knows. If I had to sum up the relationship in terms of how it serves the show, Victoria sees the parts of Leif that Zoey and the audience (for most of the season) don’t, and he’s one of the first people who’s ever made her feel wanted.

Mo Montgomery: these two get along splendidly. So splendidly, in fact, that Zoey sometimes even regrets introducing them, especially when she can’t sleep due to their late-night, belt-to-the-rafters karaoke sessions that can be heard through the apartment walls. Mo finally has someone in the building (Victoria is staying with Zoey through the duration of her arc on the show) who properly appreciates music, and the three of them (plus Max and whoever else learns about the power-Simon absolutely has to in season 2, come on) become a sort of ragtag let’s-figure-out-this-crazy-power group of friends.

David Clarke: I’ve always thought that the backstory revealed in ep 5 of David being a former theatre kid was really interesting. He and Victoria have bonded over this for a long time, and she feels betrayed when he leaves it behind due to the toxic masculinity explored in ep 5. I’d love an ep called “Zoey’s Extraordinary Brother” or something that goes deeper into that; Victoria definitely has a hand in helping David embrace that part of himself, and she’s almost as close with him as she is with Zoey.

Max Richman: she’s actually known him for quite a while, having done a bit of community theatre with him before he even met Zoey (because you cannot tell me that this man, who can canonically sing and dance and genuinely enjoys it, wasn’t one of the only boys in his high school theatre program and didn’t ever play Georg Novak at some point). He seemed to have gone through some Good Old Fashioned Character Development in ep 12, what with the “focus on yourself right now” and everything, but there’s still quite a lot to unpack that was revealed between 7 and 11. Honestly, I just want to see someone Talk Some Freakin Sense Into Him, and an old friend who’s been removed from the situation but knows both him and Zoey very well is a pretty good bet.

Simon Haynes: Victoria, along with Mo, acts as Zoey’s confidant for the central love triangle. She’s a bit put off by the idea of Simon’s cheating, but sympathizes with both him and Jessica after learning the whole story; upon meeting him, she thinks he’s wonderful. (he honestly gets some of my favorite dialogue on the show...who else can pull off all of those deep conversations along with “this is a classy affair, of course there’ll be pigs in a blanket”? in this house we appreciate JCS)

Tobin Batra: the first person she meets on her first tour of SPRQpoint, much to Zoey’s dismay. As the audience learns more about him (which I’m so freakin excited for, by the way), he and Victoria share quite a bit of banter while the season goes on. Tobin also thoroughly enjoys trying to push Leif and Victoria together, and there are a lot of fun scenes in which he has a blast acting as a wingman for his oldest and newest friends.

Mitch and Maggie Clarke: they mean absolutely everything to her. Victoria’s parents are usually supportive, but they often consider her career as an entity separate from her as a person and discuss it as if the decisions are up to them; she was always able to come to her aunt and uncle when she needed to, and she’ll always be grateful to them for it. As previously mentioned, the extended Clarkes are really close, and Victoria deeply regrets not being able to make it to Mitch’s funeral. At the start of her arc, she believes that she doesn’t have as much right to grieve and that she has to “stay strong” for her family. Over the course of her storyline, she realizes that there are people that are there for her just as much as she’s there for them. This includes Leif, Zoey, and Mo; Maggie is one of the most important of these for her. Family is at the core of this show, and at the core of Victoria’s being.

Emily Kang: first of all, I’m still hoping she gets “Everything Changes” from Waitress in season 2. Victoria admires her wit and they enjoy each other’s company; when needed, she loves babysitting her second cousin.

Abigail: give her a last name gosh darnit. I hope she comes back as an intern in season 2; she and Tori would be SUCH good friends, and it might be neat if they had a duet of sorts, so that she’d be signing with the strings carrying on her part as Tori sang.

Aiden: okay, I knew from the beginning they’d be best friends oh my god. She’s closer in age to him than she is to Zoey; she was often babysat by her cousins when she was little, and that’s how she got to know the kid next door, the kid who air-guitared along to the radio and made plans with her to travel the world when they got older. Naturally, she had the biggest crush on him, which Zoey thought was hilarious. They still support each other’s music and keep in touch to this day.

I’m not sure what’s going to happen in season 2 with new characters, etc, and whether characters such as Joan, Autumn, Howie, Eddie, Deb, Ava, Jessica, etc are coming back. My ideas for this character and her relationships will obviously change as the show progresses (I say as if anything will happen-it’s one of the only things I have left to hope for, okay, voice in my head, shut up) and I’m looking forward to seeing how the story continues to unfold.

some potential heartsongs

“Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again” from The Phantom of the Opera: the first that the audience sees of her. After an episode of Zoey Going Through Some Stuff, she needs to talk to her dad, and realizes once she reaches the cemetery that she’s not the only one. It’s raining, much as it was when they tried to choose his plot. It’s just the beginning of the song; on “all that you dreamed I could”, Victoria’s voice cracks-she’s crying as she’s singing-and she trails off, then the instrumental continues while they talk. I mean, we’ve already had a song from an ALW musical...IT COULD WORK.

“Absolutely Smitten” by Dodie: after her first tour of the fourth floor, to an oblivious Leif. I’ve always wondered why they haven’t used the swings in the choreography yet, so I just decided to do it because Why Not. The vibes of this song would be perfect for the vibes of SPRQpoint, and it works for the scene as well; it’s vulnerable enough to be the beginning of real feelings, but cutesy enough for her to deny it to Zoey as nothing more than infatuation. If we can put the railing on the staircase back in from the pilot, it fits pretty well as a sliding-down-the-railing song, if that makes sense.

“Human” by Christina Perri: a visit to her parents. enough said. It serves as a major release for Victoria as well as the reveal that she’s far from the put-together person that she tries to be; I also feel like this kind of song would fit well into the show, and it’s more recognizable to the mainstream than most of the other songs on this list. This is also a wake-up call to Zoey that her cousin really is hurting, and the “help” that prevents the song from haunting her comes from the fact that she’s the first person to really understand Victoria’s relationship with her parents and be there for her.

“Strawberry Blond” by Mitski: the epitome of Yearning™. A few weeks have passed since “Absolutely Smitten”, and as much as Zoey would like to stay in denial about her cousin’s feelings, the universe isn’t going to let her; “I love everybody because I love you” is pretty difficult to twist out of context. This one is short and sweet, starting at the second verse and skipping to the repeated chorus. The choreo epitomizes the paradox of combined awkwardness and grace that lies at the heart of Tori’s character. She floats and spins, propelling herself around the office as if lifted from within by the music, never taking her eyes away from Leif. This is when Zoey realizes that she actually has to deal with it, prompting the swear guitar title card; this song and the next two are all part of the same episode.

“Victoria” by Jukebox the Ghost: this song is Leif’s; she accompanies it. Zoey comes downstairs to the lobby a few hours after the workday ends and hears the piano, but there’s no one playing it. It would be really interesting to see the way that instrumentals happen in heartsongs if there are actually instruments in the room; just something fun to play with in regards to the power. (yes, I named her after this song specifically for the purpose of this song, and I’m aware that if the full song is taken into its own context it doesn’t portray a particularly healthy relationship but the piano part is cool and the song just has this electric energy okay?!?!?!) The choreography is very La-La-Land-esque; it’s sweeping and explosive as they make their way across the lobby. At the second verse, she starts actually playing the piano; this cut of the song goes to the last chorus after the second verse. This is also another example of Tori’s being able to tell when she’s being sung to (the way that she finds this out is explained in jumpstarted (see below), but that wouldn’t work in this universe, so this song is how she finds out if she were actually a character). She’s in utterly joyful disbelief, going in between trading incredulous glances with Zoey and allowing herself to fall into the choreography. This song is the turning point for Zoey when it comes to the relationship she’s witnessing; while they’re on the piano bench, Leif smiles at Victoria in a similar way to the end of episode 7, and this sends Zoey’s protective-older-cousin-mode into overdrive. Feelings are one thing, but reciprocation is quite another, and this is when Zoey realizes that she has no choice but to tell Victoria the truth.

“In Case You Don’t Live Forever” by Ben Platt: let’s say that at the beginning of this episode, there was a dream that Zoey had about an old memory with Mitch in which she watches her younger self heartsing this to him, and she’s attempted for all of that time in between to remember the melody. A few days after “Victoria” takes place, Zoey is struggling to figure out how to bring up the needed conversation, and she tries to preface it by explaining how much Victoria means to her. She doesn’t get very far in her speech before she hears the music she heard in her dream; this song is Tori revealing how much she’s always looked up to Zoey, which brings her to tears and causes her to blurt out the last line of the episode: “I need to tell you something.”

“Toxic” by Britney Spears: tbh, this song once came on the radio and I thought “...wait a minute”. It’ll also be more recognizable compared to this list of showtunes and indie pop. This song takes place on the fourth floor during the next episode; Mo has come to pick up the cousins for their weekly lunch, and he and Tori are once again trying to give Zoey a crash course on musical pop culture. Today’s lesson is pop of the early 2000s, and Tori tries to give a demonstration by singing the first verse, almost unable to due to how hard the three of them are laughing. They walk past the conference room where a meeting is taking place, Leif sitting at the head of the table, and Zoey barely notices the instrumentals that have been building in the background until Tori stops short and the all-too-familiar riff (yknow, the daaaaada dadada) comes operatically from her throat rather than the invisible synth. Mo can tell by Zoey’s expression that the demonstration, which has stopped in the real world, has turned into a heartsong. As she sings, she makes her way into and around the conference room, spinning chairs and overdramatically throwing herself against walls, as if magnetically drawn to the subject of the song but trying to pull herself away. It’ll show how conflicted she is, but it’ll also be freakin’ hilarious.

“Unusual Way” from Nine: After the aforementioned much-needed conversation in the episode which “Toxic” appears in, Leiftoria (is that an unintentionally awesome ship name or what) is official. I’m not sure how long her story on the show would last, but this song marks the end of it; she books a role at a fantastic dinner theater in the Los Angeles area. In the scene of her last heartsong, Tori, Zoey, and Leif are sitting in an airport lobby. The ticket machines are down, and dozens of impatient passengers are waiting with them, listening to the drone of announcements and tinny pop music played over the loudspeakers that slowly morph into a melancholy arpeggio. If anyone reading this hasn’t listened to this piece, I highly recommend it, by the way-it’s utterly haunting and you’re definitely gonna cry. The cut starts at the second verse and skips the solo third verse to go right into the duet. There’s nothing extravagant about it; as in the musical itself, this song is carried by the sweeping, raw emotion behind it.

references or something-what do I call this one

spotify playlist: a living document (chronologically) of potential heartsongs, songs that fit her situations, and songs that just have her Vibes.

pinterest board: an ever-growing, ever-changing representation of her character. I’ve pinned everything twice so that there can be sections without disturbing the full aesthetic; each section is named after a lyric from a musical that represents that aspect of her character.

tiktoks: there are a few I’ve made about her, some actually in one or both of the universes I’ve written about (see below) and some just for The Vibes or other potential story ideas. @can.you.hear.it.echoing

jumpstarted: the first fic for anything that I’d written in years; it started out in my mind as three scenes and came out to 29 pages. This is an au in which she works at the karaoke bar; she couldn’t actually be on the show this way, but I just think it would be neat-it would only be canon compliant through the middle of s1e11 (there are a few time shifts), so here we are. (seriously though please read this one I’m very proud of it.) This story does share aspects with what she’d actually be able to become as a character, and these are further explored in my second fic.

singin’ from a streetlight: a collection of oneshots that goes through most of the potential heartsongs listed above, from Zoey’s pov. chapter 7 is an interlude, back in Tori’s pov, because Zoey doesn’t see her and Leif’s much-needed conversation on the evening of “Toxic”.

but i’ve never been quite alright: I thought of “Human” as a potential song for her after the entirety of “singin’ from a streetlight” had been published, so this is a seperate fic to explain that scene; it fits in both of the above universes.

scaffolding and christmas lights: cheesy fluffy office party holiday fic because why not. It’s fun to consider how other glitches in the power might manifest; in this one, anyone that Zoey makes eye contact with sings their heartsong to the world. this doesn’t really go with the timeline of either universe, but it’s an interesting idea that might be worked into either

with a little motivation, i’ll go far: she experiences her first heartsong, “California” by Ricky Montgomery, at the airport as she comes into San Francisco. I just this song fits her well at the beginning of her story-this was a really fun one.

it’s the terror of knowing what this world is about: taking the little bit of David’s canon backstory and RUNNING with it. he and Tori would have bonded so much over musical theatre when they were younger, and she must have felt so betrayed when he tried to abandon that part of himself; this fic explores that

‘cause i see every part of you, and i can tell you see me too: Leif shows Tori his sketchbook and Feelings Ensue. (I want to see more of him as an artist, it’s such a fascinating aspect of his character, please Austin please)

don't look too deep: I watched mamma mia 2 and this is the result. #laurengrahamfortanya2k21

have you been too much on your own: this came out of thinking about les mis too much for the thousandth time; it’s an au of chapter 2 of “singin’ from a streetlight” just because I thought it would be kind of hilarious

suddenly we all got young: the brolympics strike again. this came out a bit angstier than expected but it was so much fun to write; I’m really loving what I get to do with her in s2

just keep losing my beat: written during the midseason hiatus; finally found a way to fit her properly into s2 canon. quite proud of this one

perfection is so quick to bore: I fell so in love with the song “I Hear a Symphony” that I had to write something around it, so here this is. it’s very projection-y and rather cheesy but I tried to capture the emotion

screenplays: there are a few that I’m working on and this post will be updated as I finish and revise them

if you’ve read this far, thank you. I just wanted to get her out in the world before season 2 started so I could be as canon compliant as possible (and it happens to be Dec 21, both my birthday and the day that Planets Are Being Cool on the solstice so it’s a great day for manifesting). I would give anything to be part of this show in literally any capacity; from the beginning I loved the concept and by now, as cheesy as it sounds, it feels as if it’s almost knit to my soul. the entire cast, crew, and creative team are such wonderful people (at least from my limited view, but they seem to be very genuine) that I’d love to work with, and this idea has been a sort of a coping mechanism through everything going on in the world and in my life. This post will probably be updated as I come up with more content and the show develops during s2 and beyond. even if nothing comes of this, I love my Tori dearly, and I hope anyone reading this enjoyed learning about her as much as I’m enjoying creating her story.

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withthekeyisking-writer · 4 years

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What's your fav fic that you wrote yourself?

This is such a challenging question! Like asking which of my children is my favorite 😂 I could definitely tell you a few of my least favorite though lol, no prob. Some of my older stuff—oof.

Alright, so since I really can’t pick a singular fav (I currently have 101 posted works, that’s just not gonna happen) how about I give a top 10? Not exactly what you asked, but eh life is like that 😁

So, in no particular order, my top ten fav fics that I’ve written:

1. Starting with the one that’s a large presence in my mind, (No) Places of Safety. This fic is my baby right now, shaping up to be one of the biggest things I’ve ever written (already at 69k and not even close to done) which is super amazing, because I usually have a problem with sticking to things after a while. I really love the way I’ve handled Dick’s deteriorating mental state, and I love the fact that I know exactly where it’s going, and have from the very beginning (again, rare for me. Usually things come together as I’m writing, and while that’s still happening, it’s been awesome having an actual solid plan and destination). I love the universe I’ve set up here, and am so excited with every chapter to show you guys what comes next. Hell I love this universe so much that I already have the whole next fic planned out 😋

2. Next I’ll say Three Little Birds Sat On My Window. I loved writing a reverse batfam, and am so proud of the way this fic turned out. I really spent a lot of time trying to get everyone’s voices right, how different they would be considering how different their life experiences would be. Tim and Jason especially were important to get right, with Tim being the one who died instead. I always hated in reverse batfam fics when people just make Tim’s version of Red Hood exactly the same as what Jason was like, because they’re different people and would have different ways of approaching things. So even in just the little glimpses I wrote, I’m really proud of their characterizations, along with that of Damian and Dick! I’m just overall very proud of this fic, and definitely wan to write more of this AU at some point in the future.

3. Third we’ll go with An Active Imagination (and, with it, the sequel Rules of Architecture). Thinking about these fics and working on them ways makes me excited as a writer. Like I don’t really have a lot to say about these, just that I really love the way I handled Dick’s shifting mental state, going back and forth between the brainwashing and having him be not at all aware of what’s going on. I also love how super creepy Slade is lol, how unabashedly awful. Plus writing a BAMF Dick is always a blast, and the Dick in these two fics is especially badass.

4. Next up is Take My Hand Through the Flames, because writing dark!Dick was so fucking fun, and something I need to do again very soon. Dick is so messed up here, so blood-thirsty and masochistic and crazy, which is something that I’ve never been able to truly do when I mainly write Dick. So that plus building an Earth 3 universe (pulling in Joey and Rose and what Dick’s dynamic with Thomas is like) was a blast to do.

5. Hmmm then let’s go with If Night Falls in Your Heart (and am just now realizing how often I use song lyrics and quotes for my titles). Exploring the trauma of what Catalina and Mirage did to Dick was something necessary for me to write, and it helped me work through some of my own shit I was struggling with. (Writing is the best coping mechanism!) Dick desperately needs people to help him and tell him none of that was his fault, and since canon certainly isn’t going to do it, I took it upon myself lol. Plus I’ve become strangely fond Dave the Unimportant Villain 😂

6. Sixth on the list is How Arbitrary Fate Is, an AU I am extremely fond of and seriously need to come back to. Teen Titans (cartoon) ‘verse is always something I enjoy writing, and extending the apprentice arc, playing with Stockholm Syndrome, blending Dick’s loyalty to his friends with his growing loyalty to Slade, how he reaches acceptance that this is his life now—I am so proud of the way this fic turned out. I have an entire sequel planned out in my head, other things have simply taken precedent. I will come back to it, though. Lol I want to scream from the rooftops to get everyone to love this fic as much as I do 😁

7. Now I’ll say A Current of Fate, which is something I go back and forth on loving but it always draws my attention back to it. I hate that I’ve set it aside for so long, I think there’s so much fucking potential in this world I’ve set up, and I really want everyone to see the way it’s playing out in my head!! But for that I’d actually have to keep writing it lol, the horror. Sometime soon (when I have less active projects on my hands) I’ll go back to this fic and edit it a little, update it to how much more confident I’ve become in my writing, especially of DC characters. Also Chapter 4 has been half written for literally a year now and it has Black Mask in it; since beginning that chapter I’ve become far more familiar with Roman (and written a lot of him lol) so reworking that chapter in the main priority, and then I think I can really move forward with this fic. I know exactly what happens, I just have to get there!! (Coincidentally, today is the year anniversary of the last time I updated this.)

8. Leaving the DC fandom, next we’re going with The Source of Grief. My Harry Potter fics have been touch and go, I can admit that, but I’m very proud of this one. I really loved doing the outside POV, everyone observing the actions of Harry and not really knowing who he is or what his motives are. I also got to address all my feelings about Severus Snape, which was awesome. Just, fixing problems and making things better was wonderful to write, and I got to put in some subtle Wolfstar lol, and talk about how Regulus Black doesn’t get enough credit. Idk, I’m kind of rambling, but I’m proud of this fic.

9. Ninth is One of the Legion Lost (plus its sequel Want the Strange and New). They’re both my Fuck You to Infinity War lol (which I liked a lot more than I know most people do, but still it needed some help). Loki is one of my favs, and bringing him into the plot of the movie and adjusting things from there is the kind of thing I love to do—what are the repercussions if just one thing is different? Also I enjoyed exploring the magic of the infinity stones! There was so much that could be done with them, with their level of sentience that was never really expanded upon, so I liked doing that.

10. Now we have People Who Move the World. A James Bond & Sherlock crossover, where Q and Jim are brothers. I got super far in this fic! 15 chapters and 94k, it’s a real beast. I love how I wrote Q, his relationship with Jim and Bond and Sherlock, and the odd little Q/Mycroft ship that I’ve become strangely fond of considering how strange the ship is lol. Just writing a bunch of absolute geniuses BAMFs ruling the world and making things go the way they want to them. Like, Q and Jim make such an awesome team and I know it’s such a niche fic but I’m really proud of it. Sucks that a majority of the ideas dried up lol, because I’m very pleased with what I created.

+1: Honorable mention! Breathe with Confidence. First time I ever wrote anything in the Star Wars universe, and it’s absolutely something I’m gonna have to come back to. The AU has a lot of potential, and I know exactly how I’d address the future of Dick’s story. Plus some side fics of the family’s reactions to what happened, the confusion over Dick’s disappearance. And in this fic itself I liked writing Slade’s manipulations, Dick’s desires, the small amounts of background I included. Idk, I just think this world is super cool.

Well, I hope you enjoyed reading this long drawn out thing! Probably more info than you were looking for 😁😅

#anon ask #ask #fanfic question #fanfic

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grandmasterreigen · 5 years

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Heyyy do u know any more fics about Reigen and Teruki?

blasts into the room because recs are my JAM

I do!!! there are some really really good ones in the Teruki & Reigen tag on ao3, and I’m sure I’m forgetting a few, but these are the ones I remember reading and enjoying.

Butterfly Effect by Frecklefrog (T / 69k words / completed)

super super good!! it’s an AU where mob and reigen meet teru way earlier than canon. there aren’t any pairings that I can remember so if you prefer gen fics, this is a great one. it focuses mostly on teru’s pov if I remember correctly, with some from mob’s too. the setting is pre-canon so it’s spoiler free. it’s one of my all-time favorites!

Shifting Perspectives by mustdang100 (T / 42k words / wip)

all the former members of claw (and reigen’s esper kids, of course!) banding together to rescue reigen after he’s kidnapped is amazing. i’m a big fan of the reigen/serizawa pairing so this was right up my alley, on top of being really well-written with a solid plot! it’s definitely more plot-heavy than fluffy or angsty, and focuses on a much wider cast of characters than just reigen and teru. it has manga spoilers right from the first paragraph though so keep that in mind

You’re Not Alone This Time by rayray19 (T / 57k words / completed)

so this one is more of a teru/mob fic with the primary focus being on them, but there’s a pretty prominent sideplot of reigen basically adopting teru. it’s got a good mix of both fluff and angst. the setting is post-manga so heavy spoiler alert here too

ah, young love! by dreamsdark (G / 1k words / completed)

a short oneshot focusing on how reigen helps teru with his crush on mob. so cute!! really fluffy and I felt all warm and happy after reading it

I Could Even Learn How To Love (Like You) by fireflysummers_ao3 (T / 8k words) / wip)

I don’t think this fic will ever be finished, but there’s so much good hurt/comfort here! it’s pre-teru/mob (since it’s unfinished), but there’s several scenes where teru looks to reigen for advice and I love it

Home Video by reiqenarataka (G / 1k words / completed)

it’s! so! cute! i love the concept of reigen and teru bonding over vhs tapes of old, campy movies. it’s really short but super fluffy and got such happy vibes. it made me smile

Responsible by piperita (T / 2k words / completed)

teru goes with reigen on an exorcism job that goes wrong. it’s got those great dad!reigen vibes that i’m such a huge fan of and it’s really well-written! I love teru’s pov and the conflicts with his pride and desire to impress reigen. my only wish is that it was longer!

Vintage by officialgreaseman (T / 3k words / completed)

another fic where reigen and teru bond over an ultra campy movie (with the ensemble cast this time)! reigen’s such a great guy and I love how kind and thoughtful he was towards teru. he’s such a dad and it’s great. some serizawa/reigen, too, if you like that!

There When You Call by Hino (G / 2k words / completed)

this fic made my heart hurt in a really good way! I love reigen’s solutions to help teru through his panic attack and how teru actually opened up to him about some of his trauma

On Revelations and Renovations by mustdang100 (G / 7k words / wip)

this is very fresh content if you haven’t been stalking the mp100 feed (like me), with only one chapter so far out but I’m already in love and I can’t wait for the future chapters!! it’s a 5+1 fic of times reigen was called a dad and one time he calls himself one, where teru calls reigen after returning to his destroyed apartment in s2ep13

Parental Supervision by piperita (G / 7k words / wip)

also really new and being updated daily! featuring accidental dad!reigen and a story that’s shaping up to be really good. the characterization is on-point and I love how reigen is really in-tune to teru’s needs

make sure to give kudos/comments to any that you read and like!! hopefully some of them tickle your fancy!

#mp100 #mob psycho 100 #reigen #reigen arataka #hanazawa teruki #teru #fic rec #fanfic #dad!reigen #fic rec list #asks #reigensfootfetish #dad reigen

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heartbreaknow · 4 years

Text

Thank you for the meme asks, @aohatsu! Sorry it took me three weeks to finish answering them!

Vampires

Just thinking about adding vampires(!) to the MCU makes me cackle. This really ought to be another case of gilding the lily—one too many crazy elements in a story that doesn’t need any more crazy elements than it already has.

But what can I say, vampires are my weakness. I’m always down for some erotic creature-feature blood-thirst and neck chomping.

Also, I wrote an imagine for this trope and it got profoundly out of control, so I’m going to post it separately. Or not at all. But probably separately.

@learned-foot, thank you for the asks! Sorry it took me a year and a half to answer them. 😅 Also, this is long, I’m sorry, I don’t expect you to read the whole thing.

I answered Arranged Marriage over here.

Hate Sex

For Starker, I think it would be very difficult to make this trope work for me. You’d have to change the entire nature of their relationship, and a big chunk of the characterization for at least one of them. At which point I probably wouldn’t be super interested anyway, because for me, it wouldn’t feel like Starker anymore.

I did really enjoy the hatesex trope when I shipped Spuffy as a teenager (the scene where they bring the house down—unnnnf). But they’re the only antagonism-based ship I’ve had, and thus the only ship I’ve had that I associate with this trope.

I do have a huge weakness for fighting-to-fucking, and I could see that trope working for Starker (or just about any ship, really). But fighting-to-fucking and hatesex aren’t really the same thing. (@learned-foot, one of the first Starker fics you ever wrote had a delicious bit of fighting-to-fucking in it, and that makes so much sense to me now that I know you have a lot of antagonism-based ships, since fighting-to-fucking is basically hatesex for people who love each other.👌)

Mpreg

Wow, the complicated feelings I have about mpreg. SO. MANY. FEELINGS.

The appeal of mpreg for me is NOT domesticity, parenthood, and nesting. It’s kinking on the loss of body control. Also, breeding kink.

And to think, I’m usually so vanilla. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The problem is, I’m not very interested in my OTPs actually having kids. Plus I get ragey when abortion is treated like a bad option. So basically, I love mpreg occasionally—if the way the trope is written actually plays to my kinks and also dodges all my squicks. But that’s a pretty huge if.

I really should have saved my deeply iddy ABO mpreg idea and posted it here. It’s basically the only mpreg idea I have.

Road Trips, Fake Dating, and Sexting under the cut...

Sexting

The problem with sexting, to me, is that I just don’t find the idea of splitting one’s focus between texting and masturbating all that hot. To me, it seems like the most annoying kind of multitasking.

(RTC anon manages to make sexting hot in Revelations, but it’s RTC anon, so go figure.)

One Way I’d Do It:

I think the way I’d do a sexting fic would be to have Peter get unexpectedly wasted and end up sending Tony a flood of sexy texts. Like, he just goes completely off the rails. All inhibition vanishes and an absolute torrent of awkward, pining sexiness pours out. He’s not even trying to sext Tony, per se, he just starts compulsively telling Tony the truth about what’s in his head.

The way I imagine it, Peter accidentally butt-dials Tony while he’s at a party, and Tony hears party noise in the background when he picks up. So then Tony texts Peter to ask how the party is.

They text back and forth a bit, until Dum-E wreaks havoc in the lab, and Tony has to leave to deal with it. But unwittingly (or subconsciously), his final text to Peter is exactly the sort of thing to get Peter all hot and bothered. The words “good boy” may be involved. Those simple words, right there on Peter’s text screen where he can look at them, and read them over and over, and become increasingly fixated as he gets drunker.

An hour or two later, Tony checks his phone and discovers like thirty new texts, all from Peter. At the sight of all those unread texts, there’s suddenly an off feeling in the pit of Tony’s stomach, like missing a stair. He has a bad (hot, sick, anticipatory) feeling about this. He opens the text screen.

Sure enough, after Tony left, Peter’s texts slowly morphed from innocent volleys into—well—into unnervingly guileless declarations of sexual thirst and devotion.

Cut to the aftermath. Peter is crushingly mortified, and assumes Mr Stark won’t want to spend time with him anymore. Meanwhile, Tony tries to kid himself that he’s not hopelessly obsessed with Peter’s texts, even though he can’t bring himself to delete them, and has started thinking about them pretty much every time he jerks off.

Eventually, Peter accidentally discovers that Mr Stark hasn’t deleted a single one of the mortifying texts he sent him, which cues Peter to confront him about it. Which leads to actual sex.

(I might also have it turn out that Peter wasn’t actually just drunk; he was slipped something by someone at the party. But because of his abilities, he had an unexpected reaction to the drug, which is what led to his sexting spree. Tony is starring at Peter’s texts—warring with himself over whether to read the rest of them or blast his phone to dust with a phaser—when suddenly his phone starts ringing. It’s Peter, who slurs down the line, “I don’t feel so good, Mr Stark,” before Tony hears the awful thunk of Peter’s phone dropping from his hand.

So Tony traces Peter’s location and Mach 4s his way over to the party, where Peter has webbed himself in the bathroom before succumbing to whatever he’s been drugged with and passing out. Tony flies him back to the Tower, has him checked out by medical, and then cut to the aftermath.

The idea that Peter is not just drunk but also drugged is more complicated, which is bad, but it’s also whumpier, which is good—and it helps explain Peter’s total loss of inhibition, for anyone who thinks pure drunkenness wouldn’t be enough.)

Also, hah! I’ve finally conceived of a fic concept that wouldn’t necessitate a minimum 50K+ to fill it out! I could actually write this! 🤯

Fake Dating

I’ve been a big fan of fake dating for all my past OTPs, but my love of the trope is somewhat dampened for Starker. The problem, as I see it, is that it’s just kind of difficult to find scenarios where it makes sense to have Tony and Peter fake date.

The old standby of “get my family off my back about my love-life” doesn’t work for Starker. The other old standby of “make me look cool in front of my ex” doesn’t work at all for Tony, and doesn’t really jive with how I see Peter. The third old standby of “doing it for a case” is a lot harder to finesse for P/T, because it begs the question: Why Peter and Tony? Why not literally anyone but Peter? Or, if Peter is the linchpin of the entire operation, then why not pair him with literally anyone else besides his 50-year-old mentor?

If Peter and Tony are fake dating for a mission, that mission probably has something to do with a bad guy who abuses young boys or something. And I just find it difficult to enjoy the tropey “omg they have to MAKE OUT now” hotness when they’re neck-deep in sex traffickers or whatever.

Who was it who wrote the fic where they pretended to be dating in order to protect Peter’s secret identity? That was a really smart way of doing it! But it’s such a specific premise that repeating it might feel kind of like just copying someone else’s work.

So yeah, I like this trope a lot, but I’m not wild about the amount of fiddling it takes to make the trope work for Peter and Tony.

Road Trips

I’m into this trope, but I haven’t read much of it, so I don’t have a strong template for it in my mind.

There was a lot of road travel when I shipped Mulder/Scully, but they didn’t really road trip, they just drove to neighboring states for cases. Plus, they always stayed in separate rooms (unless it was a One Bed fic), whereas I’d like to think if Peter and Tony went on a road trip they’d share a room. Separate beds, but one room.

I feel like with Starker, there’s two basic modes for a road trip fic. There’s angsty on-the-lam fic, and there’s impromptu-vacation fic. I’m not really sure what could lead Peter and Tony to taking a road trip together for fun. But then again, I’m also not really sure what could lead to them going on the lam, either.

I suppose the answer could literally be as simple as: Tony wants to give Peter a fancy graduation gift, and suggests a trip for him and a friend. Tony is thinking something far-flung and expensive. Peter tries to be like, “Really, Mr Stark, it’s fine, you don’t have to do that,” but Tony insists. “C’mon kid, there’s got to be somewhere you’ve always wanted to go.”

Tony sees Peter’s eyes light up with an idea, and Tony is like, “That, right there. What you just thought of, just now. Whatever it is, the answer is yes.”

Peter says it’s nothing, really, he wasn’t thinking of anything, but Tony pries, stressing that he’s not going to say no, that Peter can have anything he wants. Until finally Peter says, with a poorly concealed edge of vulnerability, that he just thinks it would be really cool if they could, like, go on a road trip together. He totally gets that Mr Stark isn’t going to just drop everything and go on some lame road trip with Peter. Peter doesn’t expect him to. It just…seems like it would be really fun.

(And Tony, for all that he is baffled by Peter’s choice, can see that Peter is sincere. This is the one thing Peter really wants. And Tony can’t bring himself to say no—can’t bear to make Peter feel like he’s not worth Tony’s time, only his money. Even though he absolutely should say no, because the thought of that much time spent alone with Peter seems like a bad idea, for reasons he’s trying hard not to think about.)

So Tony looks at Peter, at his open, accepting face, and says, “You really love road trips that much?”

At which Peter blushes, and stutters as he says, “Yeah, yeah I really love road trips a-a lot.”

#ask meme #starker #starker imagines #starker headcanons #peter x tony #fanfic tropes

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karma-was-taken · 4 years

Text

creator tag game

Tagged by @onlymorelove. Thanks Only <3

Rules: It’s time to love yourselves! Choose your 5 favorite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought into the world in 2019. Tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works!

I honestly kind of hate everything I’ve ever written, but I want to learn to be more positive and self-loving so I’ll try my best to focus on what I do like!

1. a tale of love and lies (Earth-3490, fairy tale AU, SteveTony)

To start things off with a bang, this is without doubt my favorite thing I’ve ever written and one of the only stories I genuinely, wholeheartedly love... which is ironic, because it’s also one of my least popular works. It’s a fairy tale retelling that follows the adventures of Antonia, a princess who left her kingdom in search of honor and disguised herself as a knight along the way.

Writing this story was a challenge in the most wonderful ways. It is easily the most “serious” fic I’ve ever written: I tried to write it in the style of the original fairy tale (which dates back to the 1550s lmao I like to suffer) and while I don’t know if I managed it perfectly I was really proud of the results I got! I love the concept, the characters, the plot, the style... idk, I’m just really happy with this fic. I don’t really know why it didn’t do as well as I was expecting, but it makes me kind of sad whenever I think about it, so if you feel like reading it and you end up liking it please let me know! It would make me really really happy :)

2. Coming Back and Coming Out: Richie Tozier’s 2019 (IT movies, Reddie)

On a completely different note, I LOVED writing this fic just because it allowed me to be as funny as I wanted without giving a single shit about the plot, and to be honest I love comedy more than I love anything else in life. This is number 2 on the list because I had a blast while writing it, and because I genuinely think it turned out pretty good! I love comedy, I love outsider POVs, I love interview fics, and guess what? This fic has it all! I just wrote whatever I wanted without a single care in the world -- there’s a comedy special bit in there, a bunch of tweets, Bickering As A Love Language, two grown men acting like teenagers in l o v e, sO many bad jokes...

This fic is a mess, but it’s a funny mess, and I feel like that’s a very me thing to write.

3. A Mermaid’s Kiss (AU, Stuckony)

This one was written for a remix event, and boy oh boy did I struggle to write it, but I’m not too unhappy with how it turned out. It’s got the classic ‘mermaid falling in love with pirates’ trope that I adore, and I always enjoy an excuse to let myself work on a bit of world-building. I loved the challenge of figuring out all the little things Tony could do to communicate without being able to use his words, especially since most of the fic is just a conversation between a merman and two humans. Plus, I mean, Steve and Bucky as pirates... that’s a big hell yeah from me chief.

So yeah, this story is just 9k of Tony going from “these two humans are idiots that’s so fascinating” to “oh god oh god whY are they so HOT and NICE what the FUCK” which is honestly a mood and completely understandable.

4. Redemption (MCU, Winteriron)

This one is basically a big “canon? no thanks!” fic that starts at the beginning of AoU and tries to fix all the problems I had with Civil War. I tend to only write AUs, so writing a canon-divergent fic was interesting but kind of difficult for me.

Bucky and the Soldier are two separate personalities, which is a concept I find really interesting and I had a lot of fun in getting to explore it. I also love the structure of the fic (the POV switches and the time jumps) and I’m super happy with Winter’s characterization, but I struggled a lot with the ending and I don’t really like how it turned out. Still, I think it’s a good story with a fun narrative structure, and it was fueled by pure spite so the catharsis it gave me... unparalleled.

5. Unposted WIP (MCU, RhodeyTony)

I know I’m breaking the rules but shhhhh!! I’m putting this last because it’s not technically a work I created in 2019 (since it’s still unfinished lol) but oh my god this one is my baby. It’s a rhodeytony fic told from the POV of Peggy Carter and Roberta Rhodes. I honestly started writing it because I adore the trope of Peggy being Tony’s godmother, but then I fell in love with the idea of exploring Peggy and Roberta’s reactions to their two boys falling in love... and I couldn’t resist writing it. Knowing myself, I’ll probably end up unhappy with it once i do get around to posting it, but right now I’m really proud of how it’s turning out. It’s the most character-heavy fic I’ve ever written (I teared up a couple of times while writing it because it’s so emotional for me) and I really hope I’ll get to share it in the future.

That’s it! Thank you Only for tagging me <3 I don’t know if you guys have already done this but imma tag my babes @tinyfuriouscloud @duckmoles @ionicirelia and @starxxreactor. No pressure of course!

#tag game #we're loving ourselves in 2020 gays mark my words #long post

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blatherkatt · 5 years

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i just started reading your blumenthal kids reunionfic and i LOVE IT! Its so good and so full of potential and angst and I LOVE IT!!!💞💞💞 The way you write Eodwulf is soooo good hes such a mess and so gay help him. and Astrid Omg... I cant wait for more of her i checked out some of your posts on here and shes just great??? You've clearly put a lot of thought into them with the child designs and stuff, did you have any major inspo for the two of them like songs or other characters and stuff???

hey tumblr dont…delete part of my answer what the heck

anyway!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH,,, ed ( @tactfulgrimalkin ) is the one doing the actual writing but we plan everything together and i edit and do artwork so he deserves lots of love for the great writing…i dont remember what else i had here before tumblr deleted it so i hope thats the gist of it

eodwulf is a gay disaster of a bastard man and astrid is SO fun and im SO GLAD UR EXCITED TOO BECAUSE WE SURE ARE

anyway you just opened pandora’s box and i’m very sorry for the length of the rest of this answer but here we go prepare for some cursed content necessary to answer that question ( | ) w ( | ) it was a Wild Ride getting these two characters to where they are boy howdy

so the thing is in order to explain how we created these characters i actually have to get into the origins of the fic on the whole because the two are inextricably linked, and also, the origins of this fic are incredibly cursed and you can send all ur hatemail right here go on blast us we’re ready

but we were talking about caleb and how we’re both excited for whenever astrid and eodwulf turn up, and the thought came up for basically the rough skeleton of that scene in chapter 2:

“hey how messed up would it be if instead of them both hunting him down like we’re expecting…one of them comes in with a huge savior complex and sincerely thinks he’s delusional and should still be in the asylum, how MESSED UP would that be”

…and then shortly after that, this happened

thats the cursed part dont say i didnt warn u but listen you know we’re right

also that pic of caduceus didnt exist back then i went back and got this screenshot just to share the curse with you all

ANYWAY

in classic us format we got carried away and eodwulf got slotted into the role of that scene in chapter two and his character was largely developed around that scene, like, what kind of person would still be clinging to caleb after all this time to that degree to make that happen? and what was come up with was an extremely avoidant person clinging to a fantasy version of things wherein they don’t have to fight

(eodwulf was developed into a Person before astrid, i should note at this point, and ed did most of that developing; i took point on astrid later on)

but around this time i went “screw it im gonna do some concept art we’re both in too deep now” so here’s some of that for u guys

started with them all as teens and did a couple sketches as well as one of baby (well. teen. so baby) caleb/bren/we were calling him felix at the time as some of u probably already know

first draft had astrid with longer hair than eodwulf lmao check this out

flipped the hair length on those two which was for the best because at the time we were imagining eodwulf as a bit more mischevious which is another thing that got reversed over time now astrids the prankster and eodwulfs the overworked mom friend because bren takes astrid’s ideas and makes them SO MUCH WORSE but he still looks better with longer hair and then i played around w/ colors for a while and wound up w/ this

voila, the initial kid concepts, to which subtle yet vital changes were made after time. if any of you are curious about if im frustrated that that’s still the best i’ve ever drawn eodwulf’s nose the answer is yes. yes i am.

astrid’s hair is not messy enough, theres not enough freckles, and she does not look ready to fight the entire world for a dare. 0/10.

anyway then i did adult versions which look WAY OFF NOW LMAO

eodwulf with way too much beard, looking far too messy when he ought to look very clean so that he can hide how much of a disaster he actually is, and also a glimpse into the very boring Ice Queen/Heartless Bitch we vaguely had astrid as to start with. even more out of character tho is the earring, astrid as she is today would absolutely never tolerate an earring unless she absolutely had to, girl’s got sensory issues but she didn’t back then. ALSO STILL NOT ENOUGH FRECKLE

anyWHO a while after this it was decided that eodwulf has ADHD, something both the authors have a whole lot of lmao, and that was the point where ed REALLY took off and developing eodwulf went out of control and we both went Well I Guess We’re Gonna Have To Write This At Some Point Now

and with that happening is when developing astrid took more priority i think, because man, at that point in the game she came way too close to that really annoying trope that shows up in fanfic a lot wherein The Girl is A Bitch who is Getting In The Way Of ~*The Yaois*~ and thats like, thats bad. we knew from the outset we were absolutely not setting this up as a love triangle because we both hate those but even w/ her having no romantic relationship to either of the two, like…she was kind of just There and the one who was most loyal to trent (the only thing of her original characterization that really stuck, honestly) and sooo boring????

so like, and i say this honestly, i managed to COMPLETELY FORGET that “reverse sasuke” cursed comment from the beginning of all this and STILL go “well what if we made her more like caleb’s rival that’d be fun”

and that’s how astrid sorta wound up accidentally morphing into the Scrappy Underdog of this anime trio and calling her a naruto analogue is extremely cursed but also not inaccurate tbh

started out with the concept of her popping into bren’s window because she heard they were doing magic and wanted to learn it too and evolved from there; we decided that she was gonna be neurodivergent too but, hilariously, initially that she was “the best at pretending to be neurotypical” (WE COMPLETELY REVERSED THAT AND IT IS FOR THE BETTER. SHE’S SO MUCH MORE FUN NOW) and made her also autistic because it one meant she could be like SAME HAT at bren really hard which’d make her feel more like part of the group instead of just the odd one out, and two because it fits with the whole rivals thing

branching off of that we made her just. INCREDIBLY direct. like. astrid’s thought process is “how can i accomplish what i want accomplished with the smallest number of steps? what are the consequences of doing it this way? do i give a shit? no? im gonna do that.”

(which is why she climbed a tree to get into bren’s attic instead of using the door because that way she just completely skipped having to convince his mom to let her in)

i cant get into it much here because so many spoilers and we’re gonna explore it all, but like, astrid’s backstory turned into this exploration of the intersection of sexism and ableism especially as applied to a medieval-esque society in which the word “autism” doesn’t even EXIST and in which a convenient double standard exists Right There in the form of bren and like,, its gonna be good guys im excited for it

as far as characters tho she does also have just a touch of Vimes from discworld to her, albeit like, she’s lawful evil to his lawful good, but she’s got the same tendency to stick REALLY FIERCELY to the rules that she thinks are important, even when they inconvenience her, even if it’d be so much easier to bend them just this once

and for songs i cannot link like any astrid songs because they all might accidentally give away so much BUT I CAN LINK AN EODWULF SONG

youtube

this one was HUGE for him

uhhhh i think that’s everything i can think of that we can say right now unfortunately so i’ll end this with a comparison to the current teen designs we have now that are being used in the actual fic, even tho im not fond of how bren came out in this picture, but like, for the sake of comparison

lets see how far we’ve come

I N C R E A S E F R E C K L E

#longpost #SORRY TO PEOPLE ON MOBILE #zemnianghosts #i also got a lot better at drawing them all over time #just like. so much

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icypantherwrites · 6 years

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I've never written fanfiction (except one years ago that sucked) and I want to start getting into it. You are one of the best fanfiction authors I have read in a long time, or ever. Especially with your characterization, and writing platonic love/relationships. Seriously you are queen at those. Can you tell me how you go about understanding a character? Or just some tips? Also anything you have to say about writing platonic relationships? Random advice for new fic writers? I would be so thankful

Hey love, so first off, I’m so sorry for the lateness of this response. Life. Blegh. I wanted to give you a thorough response so bear with the short novel below xD

Thank you so so much for such a lovely compliment. Gosh! ♥ You’re making me blush. Now I want one of those sashes to wear and it says “queen” on it. And a crown. Oh yes, a crown absolutely! ;p

I think when it comes to understanding characters we always tend to gravitate to one we most associate with because it’s always easiest to write what we know. On the flip, we also gravitate sometimes to characters we really admire or want to be more like or just really, really like in canon and thus want to see them engaged in more adventures, but I do think we tend to like those characters for the above two reasons.

I’ve gotten pretty lucky with the VLD cast in that they’ve all, after a time, really just clicked in for me. Lance is obviously my favorite but I’m particularly fond of Hunk and also, surprisingly, writing Allura. Her dialogue and speech patterns tickle me pink. But in terms of trying to understand a character for writing purposes my best advice is to play 20 questions with them. Haha, bear with me.

When you’re getting to know someone the best way to do so is to ask them about themselves. It’s not just the answers though; imagine the way they would talk, gesture, their tone of voice (I’m a huge body language/non-verbal fanatic), etc. Then look at their answer. Start with basics and build a head canon or expound upon canon from there. Explain *why* to yourself that character particularly likes yellow (*cough Keith and sunrises with his dad cough*) and build a story. Then, when you’re writing go back to that palette you made and using it ask “what would ___ do in this situation?” The right answer isn’t always the first one. If you’re stuck, draft out a few ways to go about it and then compare. See which one “feels” right to you. And you have to remember, characters can change based on their situation. For example, Lance in Color is a very different Lance then you’ll find in Sin or Razzle Dazzle and definitely different then the one in A Name by Any Other because of what has happened in that story, but I think we’d all agree it’s still an in-character Lance (at least that’s the feedback I get from you guys~ ;p) The biggest thing is to find the “core” of a character and keep true to that. You can’t go wrong.

As for writing platonic relationships, I think it’s the same approach as any type of relationship. There has to be a connection between the characters and it doesn’t always have to be “good.” (i.e., siblings fighting, rivalries, etc.) but at the core they do have to care. It can be more of a surface caring – that’s a teammate – to start but what really makes a relationship something special is when there’s a deeper feeling behind it. And with a platonic relationship as compared to a romantic you aren’t necessarily so much as falling “in” love with that person but falling “with” love for them. If that makes sense? xD It’s not about appearances or superficial things like that. It’s about seeing them for the person they are beneath that and loving that person with all your heart because of those “core” attributes mentioned above.

With the VLD gang it comes so naturally to me for them to have these relationships and they sort of just fall in. I do disagree with the “space dad” moniker for Shiro and I think he would as well. He doesn’t want to be a dad; he’s got enough responsibility being team leader. He definitely fits more of the really responsible older sibling to me while Coran fills in the role of dad for me more, but more so for some than others depending on how they view one another.

If you’re starting out and want to write a good platonic relationship, I recommend starting with just a pair. Believe me, when you start throwing in three, four (cough, seven) characters it gets a little crazy to find a good balance. Pick two that you really think click and go for it. It doesn’t have to be a big complicated plot either to be an enjoyable fic. So long as the characters have *character* to them. That was my big problem with season four in that we had all this crazy awesome plot but almost no character development. Focus on that first and then tackle the plots and red herrings and twists and turns.

Um, any other random advice?

Write what *you* want to because that’s where you’re going to be most passionate.

On that note, write for *you*. That’s something I’m still trying to be better at. Write because you enjoy it; not because you want so many comment/kudos/etc. from others. That said, readers, please do comment if you like someone’s fic. It truly means the world ♥

If you get stuck on a scene try swapping the perspective; you can either keep it if you like it or it might offer you a fresh idea to go back to it. Or skip it for now and come back later; no harm in that either :)

Don’t be afraid to delete. I’ve blasted away whole pages when I go off on a different tangent (I write with almost no outline; a true pantser xD) and I know it’s hard to imagine all that time spent writing only to toss it, but sometimes you have to based on where your plot went. You can always save it in a spare word doc though if you did like it because maybe you can use it elsewhere in that fic or another one :)

I listen to music all the time and tend to make “soundtracks” for different fics. Highly recommend some good epic soundtrack battle music for any type of fight scene to keep those juices flowing!

Figurative language is your friend. While you don’t want to come off sounding like a sixth grader learning what a simile is, adding in good pieces when the situation calls for it really spices up a piece. With feeling!

This is for the reader/journalist/editor in me; please use paragraphs. Please please please. When starting new dialogue, paragraph. After 1-3 sentences depending on length, paragraph. Your readers and eyeballs will thank you.

Um, I hope some of that helps? Thank you again for the lovely comment and do hope to see you on site somewhere. Give a shout out~ ♥

#icyanswers #Fanfiction Advice #Writing #Fanfiction #Platonic relationships #gen fic #writing advice #am I qualified to be giving advice?#I feel too much like an adult #Oh. I am an adult #Oh dear #hope this helps!

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audriel · 7 years

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Audriel’s FF Ouvre

As this tumblr is intended to be focused on writing, I think it’ll be fitting to list my favorites of all I’ve written so far and the reasons why they are my favorites.

Title: Ayame (FFnet) Fandom: Naruto Pairing: Gen, OCs feat. Uchiha Itachi Summary: Ayame, a beautiful flower that means happiness for those who believe. Hikari Ayame was supposed to be an ordinary girl until a fateful event took her to Konoha where her fate entwined with unexpected people that will affect the future of Konoha. Thoughts: My first published fanfic. Like every first in our lives, they have a special place in our hearts. When I published this fic, I’ve just truly started writing fanfic for a year or so, the kind of fic that is not just bits of pieces of dialogues or descriptions. Naruto was the most popular fandom back then, at least for anime/manga (was it Harry Potter? I feel old...) with a huge cast that is not dissimilar of Haikyuu!! so naturally it’s a perfect place to stretch writing muscles. Even back then I was content in exploring in the current universe/world, picking at the blanks and filling them up with my own ideas without straying far from canon, and those ideas are often my own characters.

Hikari Ayame is my OC, who was the daughter of the Yondaime (who was still a mystery back then) and teammate of Uchiha Itachi. Through Ayame I explored the world of Naruto, from its jutsu to its history. Looking back, I’m pretty surprised that I hit the nail in the head on Itachi being the good guy all along. It doesn’t have many reviews, but I had a blast writing it. Unfortunately, I didn’t end up completing the fic. By then I’ve figured out I’m muse-based writer, if my muse is shot, then there’s nothing, which holds true until now. Plus I was rather (if not very) faithful to canon, so once my ideas didn’t fit, I didn’t force them to fit, or take AU route.

Title: Promises (FFnet) Fandom: Final Fantasy VII Pairing: Cloud x Tifa, CloTi Summary: Tifa's thoughts about a certain man... a certain ring... and a certain promise.... [Advent Children Spoilers] Thoughts: I wrote this after watching FFVII: Advent Children. Without prior knowledge of the games (I am and was not a gamer), I was intrigued by the ambiguous relationship between Cloud and Tifa. I remember pretty obsessed with the Advent Children, scouring the internet for screencaps, and backstory, then ofc, fanfics. Tifa’s ring was one of the things that caught my interest, particularly how it bore resemblance to Fenrir, Cloud’s Fenrir. So there went my muse and the result was my first one-shot and my first experience in having more than five reviews for my story. I remember how happy I was when I had such positive feedback, and back then FFnet did not have reply feature, so I just basked in them (or I PMed them? I’m not sure, but I did remember always trying to respond to the kind words).

Title: What Are We? (FFnet) Fandom: Naruto Pairing: Sasuke x Hinata, SasuHina Summary: What happens when two of the most unlikely people are united in the holy matrimony? Especially when there is no love between them to start with. [Sasuke x Hinata] Thoughts: My most popular fanfic in FFnet with 13 chapters, 465 reviews, 323 favorites and 278 followers. I’m pretty sure it’s my highest achievement in terms of popularity. Even back in my Naruto days, I have strong preference towards rare pairings, and SasuHina was the rarepair, back then, not unlike KuroDai, the writers and the readers are often the same people and formed a close and tight-knit community. However, if I am to compare it with current pairing, SasuHina is more like OiKuro, neither have truly interacted in canon, but their personalities made them an interesting match to explore. (I like OiKuro, btw) And as I was wont to do, I have fun in exploring their potential. I used the common trope of arranged marriage because considering their families, it had the highest possibility for them and I was inspired by another SasuHina fic and author who used the same premise. I wanted to do my own spin on it, even though my only experience in relationships is through books and literature XDD

This story suffers the same fate with Ayame. The muse is shot, thanks to canon. Sasuke gets on my nerves. Until the very end, (honesty I cannot believe I managed to get myself finish Naruto, I gave up on Bleach at the same time) he is insufferable. He’s not worthy of Hinata. And don’t start me on Hinata and her characterization. Kishimoto sucks at making strong female characters. Hinata and Sakura are reduced to a love interest and damsel in distress, despite their potential. I was and am still mad at the injustice that I don’t even bother correcting them in fanfic. So unfortunately, this fic is discontinued. I’m not even sure whether I want to continue even if I still remember what I intend to do with the story. There’s still a possibility, if only to give the story a proper ending. Who knows?

Title: Shades of Grey (FFnet) Fandom: Vampire Knight Pairing: Zero x OC Summary: A series of what ifs leads to a series of questions. This is the story that explores the question: What would be left for Zero if he let Yuuki go? A character study of Zero and an exploration of Vampire Knight world. Thoughts: My longest running fanfiction, with 20 chapters and 159K words and my first M-rated fic. The least popular of my fics but my personal favorite. I consider this story my pride and joy, because this story showcases my strength and growth best as a writer. By now I’m more flexible with canon, willing to play with canon divergence and alternate universe. So when I’m dissatisfied with canon/current storyline, I goes to fanfic to correct it. I really, really hate love triangle problems in shoujo/romance stories, because it often feels like it’s just thrown in there just to make relationship problems between main pairing and the third person usually ends up underdeveloped as a character, and there are times when the main character has more chemistry/potential with the third person than the person he/she’s meant to be with, which is what happens in Vampire Knight. Yuuki is meant to be with Kaname, but I just cannot like Kaname, or see him with Yuuki. And poor Zero gets the short end of the stick. It doesn’t help that Yuuki keeps him hanging. So frustrated I was that I stopped reading the manga and threw myself into writing my own version and gives Zero a love interest.

So it can be said that this is the most selfish work of mine. What I like most from OCs is that through them I can push the boundaries of canon without stepping outside of them. I use the opportunity to develop Zero as a character alongside with mine and explore the world of VK, which is not delved deeply in canon. While VK seems to take place in a distant world unlike ours, I make it as though it is our world’s alternate universe where we have vampires in our midst. So compared to my previous works, with the exception of Ayame, this story requires and demands the most research for the world building, which naturally pushes me out of my comfort zone of thinking and writing only of the characters and their relationships. I also delve into darker and more mature themes whereas before I did more gen or PG pieces. It ends up pretty angsty, it looks like I like to have my characters suffer ^^; Poor Zero and Misaki (my OC).

The story is currently on hiatus, due to writer’s block. Unlike Ayame and What Are We?, I actually have a rough draft of the whole story and even have the ending written. It’s only the problem of getting there.

Title: The Gentle Princess (AO3) Fandom: Princess (manhwa) Pairing: Yapha of Skarde x Theodora of Anatoria Summary: What if Theodora was married sooner to Yapha and became his third wife, right after Haisha? How would this change the fate of the three kingdoms of ASR? Thoughts: This is my first taste of joining a Big Bang Challenge, to be precise Het Big/Little Challenge 2011 by het_bigbang in LJ (ooh, the LJ days, I’m lookin’ pretty ancient, aren’t I?). Wait, wasn’t it stated 2012 in AO3? Well, I didn’t manage to meet the deadline, so I submitted the completed work for next year’s challenge. This story has the most impressive word count (71,126 words), and I am damned proud of it, especially because it’s completed. OMG, it makes me really happy that I have completed multi-chapter work.

The only downside is the fanfic from a relatively unknown fandom and characters, which leaves not many readers and reviewers, but I’m still happy and proud of this work of mine, because now I can read this and pretend that this is how it goes in canon for this favorite, but minor pairing in Princess. (I’m pretty sure my fanfic is the only one in the fandom in AO3 XDD) Princess is a Korean manga, known as manhwa, which story revolves around the princesses of three kingdoms (and three generations, I think) of ASR. So it’s a epic story, which naturally makes the fic, an epic fanfic. However, unlike VK I have easier time in worldbuilding since the manhwa is quite thorough, the problem is in the political undertones and intrigue throughout the story. I am guilty of using the non con sex and unexpected pregnancy as plot device again in this story as in Shades of Grey. While I like how it affects the plot and development, I hope I do not offend or worse trigger anyone :( Otherwise, I love the development in Yapha and Theodora, and between them as they grow from strangers to friends and to potential lovers.

Title: Perspective (AO3) Fandom: Daiya no Ace, Diamond no Ace Pairing: Gen, Kuramochi Youichi, Shirasu Kenjirou, Miyuki Kazuya Summary: An unfortunate circumstance puts things into perspective. Alternatively, Kuramochi and Miyuki from Shirasu's perspective. Thoughts: My return to fanfiction scene after a year without publishing anything that is not a incoherent mess of ideas, of disjointed dialogues and descriptions. As I look back, I’ve come to realize that my muse works best when I start with a premise, then build on it. The premise is simple: what if Kuramochi gets sick? Injury does have the most potential, but I've got enough of that in Act I and now we have another in Act II, sighs. Then I explored the 5W+1H based on what I know (and hope) about Kuramochi and the others around him. And voila, 16K fic! Shirasu provides an interesting perspective, he does not have the all-knowing eyes like we did as readers, but I feel like he knows more than most of Seidou (esp he gets help from Miyuki-specialist, Kuramochi). The fic ends up into a pretty interesting character study, and most importantly relationship study between Kuramochi and Miyuki.

I was afraid that I was getting rusty but the response is surprisingly positive with 7 comments and 33 kudos, considering it is a rare gen fic among mostly slash fics in the fandom. Admittedly it can be considered as pre-slash, with my KuraMiyu goggles, they look like one :D I hope I’ll come around to write a proper KuraMiyu one day. Regardless I’m very happy and satisfied with this piece, because not only it’s completed, but it also achieved what I want to achieve, a further look into KuraMiyu and Kuramochi being treated as precious friend/teammate/brother as he should be.

Title: Until Next Time (AO3) Fandom: Haikyuu!! Pairing: Kuroo x Daichi, KuroDai Summary: Kurodai Week 2017 Day 1: First Meeting / Next Time Pacific Rim AU. Thoughts: Not exactly my first dip into Haikyuu, but it’s my first non-gen fic after my long break from writing and my first try in portraying my fave pair (and rarepair), Kurodai. I have a lot of reservation in writing in Haikyuu fandom. Despite having followed the anime and manga closely, I am not certain in my grasp of the wonderful characters, more so in my favorite characters and pairing. However, I’ve read the whole fics with Kurodai tag, to the front and back, and front and back again. Then, thanks to @spring-emerald who reblogged kurodaiweek, putting the prompts front and center in my dashboard, I was stoked to join, especially when I was sort-of successful with hqbrofest (though satisfied it’s another matter, neither fics from the challenge are listed).

It is also a mean to challenge myself, because for once, the theme is already decided and it’s up to me to make something out of it. Somehow it’s gotten to my head that I want all the fics for the kurodaiweek to be AUs. I have no idea why I wanted to do that, when my grasp on the characters were weak and tenuous at best, and now I had to put them in different situation/universe while keeping them in character. WTF BRAIN??????

My initial take of the theme/prompt is hello and goodbye and my mind goes to dark and depressing Hunger Games AU where KuroDai are from different districts who both in their own ways try to defy the Capitol and end up teaming up together to protect Hinata, the youngest and most innocent tribute. Despite death looming over them, they build a pocket of peace and happiness between the three of them where they become a makeshift family and KuroDai quietly falls for one another even they know it is not meant to be, but it strengthens their resolve to get Hinata home, and they do. In their final moments, they promise to meet each other in the next life and build a life together that they are robbed of in this life.

asd;akjfadkjfslkldkjdfladksl, I’m only writing the idea and I’m crying. Not a very good way to start Kurodai Week isn’t it? So I scrapped the idea and look for other possible AU I can do (I have a list of AUs, believe it or not), and I end up choosing Pacific Rim AU. Unlike the HG AU, I have no clear idea in mind, except using the iconic Kurodai phrase of until next time. I spent half of the time researching and fitting all the characters into PacRim universe, and before I knew it, I’ve got 10K story. While I feel like the story is solid, I have my doubts whether it’s good enough, and it seems so with how few and sparse the hits and comments at the beginning, but then slowly it gains readers and reviews...and up until now I’m still flabbergasted at the reception. Right now it’s my highest rated and reviewed fic in AO3. I’m just glad that I finally write my own KuroDai, my first and hopefully not my last. Cheers!

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