#if this is your only exposure to the character? this IS just a weird guy who lives in a basement

[bonesandpoemsandflowers]

finally sat down and actually watched the 25th anniversary and, no surprise, mostly hated it. came out of it reluctantly team raoul, which is...the first time i've ever said that, actually.

gonna have to go watch a jeremy stolle boot or the infamous eiji akutagawa performance as a palate cleanser. big sigh.

#i'm not gonna use the tags because I don't want to be mauled #but he STANDS wrong and he can't growl and I feel like I could murder 25th anniversary phantom with a hammer in like 5 mins #anyway suddenly i understand the circular arguments i've been having on reddit #if this is your only exposure to the character? this IS just a weird guy who lives in a basement #so anyway yeah sure. if you think he's just a weirdo who lives in a basement. fine. #but i do NOT think that because per book canon and implicit in MOST performances #he's got a DECADES long career as a successful stage magician and spy and political assassin #literally though this phantom's post PONR unmasking growl sounds like bowen yang doing the SNL skit with the effete video game noises #why did i write this in the tags #anyway it's fine. it's not for me. it's fiiiiine.

[hearvex]

can i ask for this Juan guy lore :v i saw his tweet when it had like 3k and thought it cant be good but i dont know anything about him. its upsetting to see 12k likes tho like why are people fighting against human fights tho

oh this is a long one, who's Juan Guarnizo, the streamer who has recently tweeted against the french union in regards of the qsmp.

juan guarnizo is a colombian streamer (who now lives in mexico with his wife). he's participated in Tortillaland, a roleplaying minecraft series, as a wizard of sorts. He then decided to create a "spin-off" series (more cinematic/pre-planned) called "El Dios de Todo" (The God of Everything, his character's catchphrase). So he partnered with Euphonia, a popular Minecraft Studio that has created games such as SquidCraft, Dedsafio, SawMinecraftGames, and more.

He announced he was looking for several roleplayers for this project, and people started complaining on twitter because some of the requirements were pretty much insane.

Some include, full availability for 6 hours a day everyday for an entire month, good quality microphone, not being able to livestream the content, just record it to be used after the proyect was released, knowing how to rhyme/rap/sing/imitate voices and animals/general voice acting talent and being able to improv. All of that for the price of 0$. The payment? The enriching experience of being part of this unpayed proyect with your favorite content creator.

Well turns out people still didn't like this idea, justifiably so, and continued to call him out on twitter. His initial response was as follows:

(Hello, I understand that you know little about the project so I'll explain it to you: The God of Everything is a series based on a story that we will tell in the most cinematic way possible, therefore it is only possible to have one pov and not 40. Participants will be able to take advantage of the series on different social media platforms but not live. How much benefit they decide to get out of it is up to each person. The 6 hours a day thing is insurance, because there will most likely be days where your participation is half an hour and that's it. Also making it clear that professionals such as voice actors who will also be in the series will be paid for their work. We are creating an experience never seen before for me, the roleplayers and the audience, whoever wants and can experience it will enjoy it very much. It is something that we are putting all our heart and desire into for those who want to see the story. Communities that are not going to see it at all, at least don't fill it with your toxicity or bad vibes.)

Basically excusing himself by "I'm doing good by allowing you to join, please don't let toxicity ruin this". Which was still off, because professional voice actors would be getting payed but somehow the rest wouldn't, weird overall. Several POVs would be recorded but only one would be able to broadcast it, Juan. "we'll pay you with exposure" ahh deal

I haven't followed him since this happened, some claim he then did pay the actors, but even if that were the case, that would've never happened if it weren't for people calling out his exploitative bs. Which is exactly what's happened with the qsmp, only this time it's not a cancellation on twitter dot com, but a whole entire french union.

What I think their fans don't understand is that this is not a mob campaign against their faves, it's about protecting the working class from the privileged who refuse to pay them correctly or sometimes never at all, granting them rights to defend themselves when cases like these arise. This goes for people who claim Juan learned from his mistake, he clearly didn't if his immediate reaction to the union was:

(It's good that they formed a union, so they all hold hands together and fuck off)

So either he's forgotten his "lesson", or he only payed them (if that even happened) because he got caught and wanted to prevent a future cancelation).

#h ache #ask h #long ass explanation #hope this adds context!

[hazard-symbols-that-fuck-hard]

I need you to know that your post about fnaf motifs genuinely has fed my brain more than like. Anything has in months. It’s so interesting. There’s something so specifically horrific about Chica’s filth to me, and the idea of seeing a dirty, oily pan with some blood in it is just…terrifying? I’m not sure. Really, it’s kept me up. And your ideas about Bonnie too…a cleaning/chemical motif is SO INTERESTING!! Aghhh I can just imagine the chemical burns on his suit and potentially just corrosion on an older Bonnie animatronic due to so much chemical exposure from cleaning…the cleanliness/filth opposition is just. Ugh. So good.

I was wondering if you had any other ideas for the other animatronics? When you mentioned you knew Chica was coming when you saw the cockroaches, it made me wonder for the potential of some of the other characters. It’s personally very inspiring to read as a video game writer/artist. I’m not sure why your post was so horrific to me, I can’t place why the specific kind of filth you described is so scary.

Of course!

Now, I really wanted to focus on the core four, because half of the fun of FNaF (at least for me) is seeing the same guys over and over again in new, weird ways.

So naturally, the different versions should focus on different aspects of those motifs, right?

Have one Chica be really focused on oil specifically. One focused on rotted food.

I can see a version of nightmare Chica that takes on some cockroach-like aspects of her design.

(I also want to point out Post Shift 2’s rendition of Chica, because it’s just *chef’s kiss*)

(hell. a hazmat suit motif would work for a cleanliness-focused Bonnie, too.)

Other than the core four, though, I feel that the rest of the animatronics have either appeared too few times, or they’re too story-heavy to really stick anything on. But there are definitely some motifs in the series as a whole.

Namely, people getting stuffed into robots, and robots getting stuffed into people.

In FNaF 1 and 2, the main threat is the night guard getting stuffed inside an electronic-filled suit. In 3, you face off against a guy trapped inside a robot. And Sister Location dares to ask “what if the robots got stuffed into you?” with plenty of kids getting traditionally stuffed for good measure.

The “Fazbear Frights” books go completely off the walls with this, coming up with more and more ways for people to get trapped in the insides (and outsides) of automatons. Sometimes, they forgo animatronics completely in favor pure, raw machinery, but you can tell it’s still FNaF because some poor kid is still being jammed full of servos.

Another one of FNaF’s motifs is fire as a cleansing force— it’s a bit of a running joke that Freddy’s just has a predisposition to burning down. And I really do believe that this is a reflection of Scott’s faith.

Fire can be seen as a symbol of God’s presence— what better thing to wipe away such hellish abominations?

Now, if only we could get a flood after the fire… Imagine some charred, submerged automatons coming out to get you, barely holding on to their own lives!

And back to Chica and Bonnie— think about how much water speeds up decay. Think about how many chemicals shouldn’t be mixed with water.

So yeah. There’s some more FNaF brainrot for ya.

[alatismeni-theitsa]

I'm not Greek or anything, but following this blog and studying Greek culture has opened my eyes. I really do enjoy learning about other cultures. I guess when it comes to Greek retellings by American authors, I get talking about what women went through, but like... Do we... HAVE to make every single guy a bad guy and every single woman a victim? That sounds even MORE sexist if you ask me based on what's being written. Idk. I guess I'd like to see something different after studying Greek culture and getting REAL tired of Western portrayal of it.

Heyy! Welcome and thank you for the support! 💙It only takes some exposure before you start suffering/rolling your eyes like Greeks do 😂 (I'd do a Matrix reference but there are weird connotations attached there 😅 Is the term "Greekpilled" okay for this situation?? who knows)

These stories come from a culture with huge history and Greeks have studied them again and again forever. Like... we KNOW what's going on in these texts. We are aware of the dynamics and the context and how deep (or not, looking at you Circe) each character can be. We, and the whole world. And yet half the western - mainly Anglo - internet pretends they have been enlightened and can suddenly see things that people before them hadn't considered. Woooow what profound and innovative thinking!! You're so better than the rest of us, guys! I am sure absolutely nobody ever thought about the circumstances of these characters and the difficult situations they were forced into!!

And since we're at it: Lately some posts have come to my attention where people exalt Clytemnestra and all her murders, just because she suffered and lived in a patriarchal society. At the same time, they target people who focus on the complex character of Agamemnon, and label them as misogynists and enemies of Clytemnestra. 14-year-old Greeks in Gymnasio speak with more nuance about Clytemnestra and Agamemnon but I guess these grown-ass westerners think their thoughts are unique.

I, of course, don't mind when someone is sympathetic to Clytemnestra and condemns Agamemnon's actions. There is base for that. But people forget how to be chill and reasonable about their analysis. It's come to a point where if you so much as LIST Clytemnestra's bad actions, or Agamemnon's good qualities, there's always someone being condescending about it, as if they're saying "we are modern, we never accuse women now, catch up! Agamemnon is the real villain of it all". Bonus: the phrase "I support women's wrongs" (while the song "let's generalize about men" plays unironically in the background). I'd like to say to them: touch grass and read a book ΤΟΥΒΛΟ, ξύλο απελέκητο, ντενεκέ ξεγάνωτε

As for the retellings, yes they manage to be even more sexist can you imagine that! The most glaring example is Medusa's story! They have things so backward and yet the rest of us have to sit back and listen to their misinformed, juvenile takes

#answered #greek mythology #clytemnestra #agamemnon #medusa

[wyrdle]

Ikutsuki Backstory ideas and other character thoughts

Jotting this down for my own reference for a hopeful future comic about this pun man as well as for anyone interested in the babygirl lmao. Also I can't believe so little exists to help flesh him out more

Persona 3 spoilers under the cut

Ok so I haven't finished the game, but I've sped run reading wikis and watching movies and clips, pardon me if I get any details wrong. I also don't know the other games, but am semi-aware of some of the links between Ikutsuki and them.

Anyway:

Ikutsuki rambling about The Fall and a Prince out of the blue is painfully one of the worst twists I've ever seen 😂 You don't lore drop your way into justifying your motives lmao. I'd have liked some hints about his past, and then a final explanation for it. Whilst I understand it's meant to be a sudden twist, it just turns out anti-climatic and even annoying narratively haha.

So, to fill out how Ikutsuki's backstory, I was thinking it'd be rad if we saw his actual research days with Kirijo's CEO / Mitsuru's gramps. I'd likely scrap that they were actively looking to invoke The Fall, and have them primarily focused on the time-bending abilities of Shadows, all being scientists dedicated to helping humanity genuinely.

I dislike the idea of such a large group of scientists being omnicidal maniacs/Nyx worshippers, so I think simplifying the Kirijo family's guilt to simply accidentally fucking up their experiments and causing such catastrophic change to the world to be a better go at it.

Enter Ikutsuki, who is a part of this research team like every other hopeful/morally decent scientist. The experiment goes awry, Shadows are released en masse, Professoer Shuji Ikutsuki is swathed, bathed, consumed by this writhing dark mass that tells him about The Fall and whispers about the Prince who will be grandly rewarded for it.

In his canon pre-suicide speech, Ikutsuki talks as if he believes the current world has lots of wrong in it, going to the extremes of wanting to cleanse and rebuild it. I think it'd be fitting for him to start off as this hopeful scientist, cheery and dorky, only for him to go through the trauma of direct exposure to Shadows + being the lone survivor amidst the wreckage and dead bodies of his colleagues.

It's a combo of real-life horror and supernatural Persona weirdness that motivates him into being the manipulator/cold scientist he is. Idk if my timeline of events is right, but post-Tartarus formation, ikutsuki kicks off figuring out plans for The Fall in earnest. Prompting his secret research on children for inducing Personas etc. (I think Strega and Ikutsuki weren't involved with each other, so for this I'd say yeah, he'd be the one responsible for that instead of Kirijo group in general.)

Other fun things for him is that surviving the sort of possession by Nyx's fragments during the formation of Tartarus gives him 'the Potential'. AKA he discovers he can exist in the darkest hour, and is eventually the one who researches himself to enable others to do so as well. It's just more reason for Kirijo group to not suspect him, and even owe him for his work.

I'm likely getting plenty of canon timeline of events off, but I think it'd be really cool for the Chairman himself to be similarly affected by the Kirijo group's experiment alongside the SEES members. Albeit, in a way that fucks him up into becoming the antagonist. Not to say he has no free will/is being actively coerced by Nyx, but that singular moment of interacting with the Shadows changed him and his outlook on life quite drastically.

Lastly, I'm pained that he doesn't really fit into the group. I think there's so much potential there for him to actually be a part of the SEES gang, holding some genuine affection that's a remnant of his pre-Shadow affected self, even going as far as having hesitation/second thoughts. Idk lol, canon Ikutsuki's death is waved off with little impact beyond how he killed Mitsuru's dad, when this guy the SEES team trusts/looks for direction kills himself in front of them. There's no emotional pay-off or pain, his death/twist reveal is just an event that happens lmao. I'd have liked to see Ikutsuki genuinely be an adult figure all the kids needed, and for them to feel the sting of his betrayal on a more personal level than what we got.

Anyway, TLDR, I feel like this helps make Ikutsuki a better villain lol. His fingers are in all the pies already!!! Use him!

So normal about this long haired, bespectacled, goofy middle aged man. He has such dad energy, and I love the angsty narrative of being corrupted lol

pls yell about him to me tq very much

#shuji ikutsuki #persona 3 #the whole child experimentation thing could also be an interesting aspect #like instead of senseless cruelty #having ikutsuki be a bit more grey and actually hold fatherly affection for them yet still abuse them #is so painfully sad #bro's braincells fried when the lab went kablooey #i am haunted by the imagery of a man struggling with his devotion to this all powerful incomprehensible world ending thing #that's so much more fun lol #IMAGINE #persona 3 spoilers

[somany-fandoms-solittle-time]

ya know what..... Kalim is one of those sunshine characters that naturally interacts and "befriends" so many characters. It's always the sunshine characters that I'm drawn to put in a giant poly-hole where basically everyone is in love with them. It just makes sense.

Kalim x Silver: He's always waking Silver up in class and tries to help is drowsy spells. They're also just one of the few genuinely sweet guys on campus so it's pure fluff. A bonus advantage is that since Silver is a Trained Knight (or on the road to be) he can protect Kalim from assassination attempts.

Kalim x Ruggie: Eat The Rich w/ a twist. My precious hyena boy DESERVES to get married to a sincere Sugar Daddy (or as my gf and I like to say, Sugar Bestie™). He's worked hard enough and Kalim is one of the few upper class individuals that would NEVER use his money or status to control, manipulate or abuse another. He just wants to help out and the endless positivity would not only bring Rugs outta his comfort zone but would also impact those in his hometown A LOT.

Riddle x Kalim: Not a favorite, but I get it. Two kids from wealthy families (one more wealthy than the other) who were kinda isolated from the "regular" world and gotta figure shit out for themselves away from their former caretakers. Obvi, very different contexts and personality but that's what helps them depend on one another. Even when they can't relate, they can Listen and Grow together.

Floyd x Kalim: ARE YOU KIDDING THEY'RE ADHD BUDDIES?!?!? Not only can they relate with similar neurological issues, but their common interests can be a safe zone for them to bond. On top of that, even with their reckless personalities and their overall lack of forethought, Floyd is STRONG and could protect Kalim from any pushback or consequences. They're also both raised by Extreme Capitalist (even thou we don't exactly know what the Tweels parents DO) so the business sense and exposure to the darker side of things probably wouldn't be too much of an adjustment for either side.

Obvi Jamil x Kalim: I know not everyone likes this ship (and considering the dynamic and difference in power/status I TOTALLY get it). Even if the relationship is seen through platonic soulmates, brother-like, or just a 'we-were-stuck-together-for-years-and-now-we-don't-know-how-to-live-apart' sitcom kinda vibe they'll ALWAYS be linked together. Besides, an angsty, complicated childhood friends to lovers story with repressed mutual pinning is a guilty pleasure of mine lol!

Whoever he gets paired with, regardless of if it's a ship that has an anchor in canon interactions or PURELY fueled by fanon crack, there's a billion tropes to work with before even having to dip into AU or Crossover. Kalim is a COMPLEX CHARACTER with so many random lore drops and info that has so much potential. Even when people are writing or creating fan-produces with a more 2d version of his character, he's still lovable!! He's one of the few reoccurring characters in a cast full of obnoxious, weird, arrogant, awful, annoying, egotistical, pigheaded teenage boys with the power of NUKES.... And isn't completely terrible.

Lemme reiterate, that I LOVE so many characters in Twisted Wonderland but boy do these kids get on my nerves. They're all little assholes in some way or another, but there's a range between "okay, pretty standard high schooler" to "IDC IF YOURE TRAUMATIZED NO AMOUNT OF BACKSTORY CAN EXCUSE YOUR ATTITUDE AND BEHAVIOR!!!!! YOU'RE A FUCKING INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL WTF" and Kalim is a lot chiller. He's irrational sometimes and often does things without thinking it through.... But he's also a kid who's allowed to make mistakes and grow now that he's away from the bubble he grew up in. He can interact with people of all walks of life and get that perspective.

And depending on who he's paired with, romantic or otherwise, it's fascinating and heart wrenching and awe inspiring to watch him grow through the lens and experiences of the other person(s).

.........thank you for coming to my Ted talk 😌

#twisted wonderland #disney twst #twst kalim #kalim twisted wonderland #kalim al asim #kalim has a harem #in my mind #everyone loves kalim #at least I do okay #hes so FASCINATING #i could write a whole ass analysis paper on the Scarabia boys #and who/how/why the interact with (others) #idk why #literal brain rot #im obsessed #its such a strong hyperfixation and confort and I have so many thoughts and feelings #i must know everything about them #...... Aladdin used to be my favorite movie #so that might be why lol #just a weird fascination and interest with the Middle East lately and idk why #disney twisted wonderland #writing #unfiltered thoughts #kalim x ruggie #kalim/ruggie #kalim x silver #kalim/silver #kalim x riddle #kalim/riddle #kalim x jamil

[ridiasfangirlings]

Hey so I was the one who gave this ask but erm I actually meant Non-binary Yata & Asexual Yata, like yata not having a gender and not liking sex when I said 'Sarumi AU' I didn't mean Non-binary Fushimi, I just said Sarumi au because I know you also get Misaru asks and I'm not a huge fan of that dynamic so I put Sarumi AU, but never meant it as Non-binary Fushimi & Asexual Yata. (I'm hoping this didn't sound rude or anything)

Aaaaahhh sorry anon, that one was my fault ;; I have no idea how but my brain thought that ask read ‘non-binary Fushimi and asexual Yata’ and I don’t know why, I had to go double check after I got this one and was like ‘how did I even miss that?’. So! Since this one was my fault I’m gonna answer this one out of order so you still get your place in the queue properly. Non-binary Yata is interesting, I feel like Yata is a fun character to explore with different identities because canon indicates he’s not really good with computers or online a lot and I think especially as a kid he would have less exposure to different identities so I see him struggling a lot with a thing he knows but can’t vocalize (also again, just using ‘he’ for convenience sake. I could see Yata going for more of a ‘he/them’ pronouns, though on that end it’s much easier to use non-gendered language in Japanese so he might not even really need to ‘pick’ a pronoun, everyone just uses neutral language for him).  In this case I could see that actually being part of why he has all these masculinity issues, because he’s increasingly aware that he doesn’t really feel like a guy and he’s desperately trying to hide it, overcompensating by trying his hardest to be aggressively manly so no one thinks he’s weird. I could see his only exposure to trans people being like unfortunate comedic stereotypes on TV so any idea that he could be a girl also doesn’t work for him (and then at the same time even without those stereotypes he doesn’t feel like a girl either, he just thinks that if he’s not a guy then girl is the only option and he rebels aggressively against the idea).

It’s in meeting Fushimi that Yata really starts to realize who he is, imagine Fushimi not only being supportive of Yata but also the one who kinda realizes what’s going on. Fushimi can be perceptive when he wants to be (and especially in situations where he himself isn’t directly involved) so I could see some time shortly after they’ve become friends when Yata’s putting on a show of masculinity and Fushimi clicks his tongue and calls Yata annoying. Yata’s a little hurt by that and Fushimi says it’s annoying, when Yata keeps putting on this fake show that Yata himself doesn’t even believe, how bothersome. Yata realizes that Fushimi’s seen through the whole thing and imagine him kindly nervously admitting it, that he doesn’t feel like a man. He quickly adds that he’s not a girl though and Fushimi scoffs: ‘why do you have to choose one or the other? Idiot.’ Up until this moment Yata’s never even thought about that, that he doesn’t have to make a binary choice, and this is really one of the big moments where I could see him just falling for Fushimi all over again because Saruhiko is that amazing, finding the answer to the question Yata’s been struggling with for most of his life.

So then post-ROK Yata has a whole new crisis with realizing that it’s not just that he’s a virgin, or nervous about sex, it’s that he’s simply…not interested in it. I could see this bringing back his old worries from before he realized that he was non-binary, like maybe this is another thing that’s weird or wrong about him and he doesn’t like this because he thought he was finally comfortable with himself. Imagine he tries to force himself to ignore these feelings though, because he does love Saruhiko and he doesn’t want Fushimi to think Yata isn’t attracted to him or anything. But then when things start getting hot and heavy Fushimi suddenly pulls away from Yata with a tongue click. Yata asks what’s wrong and Fushimi coldly says if Yata was going to fake it he should just say so. Yata tries to argue but Fushimi’s already getting dressed and leaving.

Afterward Yata’s really upset, feeling like this is his fault for being weird (and also aware that Fushimi absolutely thinks that Yata’s issues were because there’s something about him, not that Yata doesn’t care for sex in general). This would probably turn into one of those ‘Kusanagi/Homra alphabet teach Yata what asexuality is’ moments, and Yata is again amazed because there are all these things about himself that other people have felt too and it’s kinda cool, realizing that there’s a word for what you feel. I also think it would help him a lot to learn that asexual people can still have and even enjoy sex, it’s just that it’s not something he actively desires. I like the idea that someone tips Fushimi off about this conversation too so when Yata gets back to his apartment later Fushimi is there being all awkward and trying to avoid apologizing but looking like he wants to. Yata feels this rush of relief that Saruhiko still came back after all and they get to sit and have this talk, imagine Fushimi being like didn’t I already have this with you when we were in middle school. Yata’s like yeah but that one was different, smiling as he says even if he isn’t interested in sex himself that doesn’t mean he hates it or anything, maybe just take it slow, and that Fushimi’s gonna need to learn to be honest if that’s what he wants from Yata because Yata doesn’t want Fushimi to think that Yata doesn’t care just because Yata’s way of expressing love is different.

#sarumi #Talking K #sorry sorry I have no idea how my brain misread that ;; #since this was my fault and not the ask wording being vague I'm answering it now #anyway non-binary Yata is interesting in the context of his masculinity issues #like very much overcompensating I think #also I think asexual Yata in a Sarumi relationship is intriguing bc I always read Fushimi as demisexual

[fire-fira]

20 Questions for Writers

I was tagged by @linzerj for this, so without further ado:

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

On Ao3 I currently have 70 (though that number is going to increase soon), and on ffn (all my oldest stuff) I have 34. (Dear lord I need to eventually move my older stuff to Ao3. Maybe under a secondary pseud at some point... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

201,448

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Looooots of DC stuff, some TMNT, and with my older stuff I also wrote for Sonic, DBZ, Legend of Zelda, FMA, Gargoyles, Peter Pan, and Megaman. (I also have some early-stages fic and plans for Planet of the Apes fics, but I haven't posted any of that yet.)

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

Head Trauma - One of my earliest Bluepulse OT3 fics. YJA-based; Jaime gets knocked out on a mission and the team gets their first exposure to Khaji Da directly.

Loving an Alien Shouldn't be this Complex - Another Bluepulse OT3. YJA-based; Bart's part in what's intended to be a trilogy of fics about the same circumstances/events. Crushing on Jaime is one thing, but realizing he's crushing on Khaji Da is a whole different ballpark.

If You Think My Truth Is A Lie, You Can Get Bent - Bluepulse OT3 yet again, though background in this case rather than front and center. Mostly YJA-based; Bart is trans, in college, and entirely fed up with an obnoxious classmate who was perfectly fine with him and the fact that he's a guy up until she found out he's trans.

The Weirdness That You Know - Pre-Bluepulse OT3, pre-finding-out-Khaji-Da's-name. YJA-based; During some downtime on base after the events of season 2, Jaime winds up finding out that Bart and Khaji Da are very similar in terms of their sense of humor. The two of them getting along should probably be concerning.

Familia: Not Simple, but Needed - Bluepulse OT3. Mostly YJA-based; What happens when you have a sleep-deprived scarab who stubbornly has stayed awake for about three weeks? Nothing good and nothing the three of them would have ever expected if Khaji Da was coherent enough to think through the consequences of their actions before doing something.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I try to. Sometimes I wind up replying waaaaaayyyyyy later (when my emotional energy tanks it takes a lot for me to drag myself into talking to people in general, but I try to reply when I'm in a better spot), but if I have my way then I'll eventually reply to everything (unless there's literally nothing else to say).

6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

That would honestly have to be either my Bluepulse OT3 poem I Am Your Loss or my La'gaan-centric fic I Tried To Warn You. I Am Your Loss is focused on Khaji Da outliving Jaime and Bart and all the feelings involved with that, and I Tried To Warn You is an examination of La'gaan's emotionally abusive relationship with M'gann and him coming to terms with the fact that he was manipulated and abused. So yeah. Heavy.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

That's a tough one. The Name That Calls You Home is one contender, along with Fatherhood Isn't Easy, and Trusting Again Can Be The Hardest Thing. Two of those are focused on family and finding home (TNTCYH and FIE), and two are La'gaan-centric (FIE and TACBTHT). So yay for one of my TMNT AUs and two of my La'gaan fics meeting the mark? (Though all three have some painful circumstances that make the good that much more pronounced. Yeah, that was unintentional.)

8. Do you get hate on your fic?

The only time I've ever gotten any 'hate' was someone trying to be pissy about an old poem series I wrote back in highschool because they didn't feel it was a 'serious poetic work' and was 'amateurish'.

That. On character-based poetry. For freaking Sonic characters. Seriously just-

9. Do you write smut?

Almost never. (I can't say never because I did publish one fic on Ao3, but by a lot of people's standards it's really tame.)

10. Do you write crossovers?

I'm not opposed to crossovers, but I very rarely do. Usually I find my mind playing with multiverse iterations of characters meeting each other, but it's very rare my mind goes to wildly different stories getting a crossover-- in no small part because it usually tends to devolve into a case of 'Wouldn't it be cool if these characters met? Look how cool this character is!' in my head with no real decent plot. (That said, thanks to some old RPs with a friend of mine I am fond of Mass Effect's femshep and Voltron's Allura as a ship. It was a chaotic RP. lol)

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

As far as I know, NOPE. If I'm fortunate it'll never happen.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes actually! Both I Tried To Warn You and Unstoppable Until I Break that I know of. (Unfortunately I can't read Chinese, so finding them on the site they're hosted on is difficult for me, but I do know they're there somewhere.) La'gaan keeps winning. lol

13. Have you ever co-written a fic?

Only one, and it's Devilfish. Beneath the Surface was a fun collaboration between me and onyxdragonx back before tumblr's purge in 2018. I have no idea if he left tumblr entirely, but I'm glad we wrote it.

14. What‘s your all-time favourite ship?

Ngl, it varies by series/franchise and how I'm feeling. I used to be pretty solid in single ships for characters for a long time, but as time has gone by I've drifted more into multi-shipper territory. At the moment though, the one that's eating at my brain the most is Devilfish-- La'gaan/Eddie-- because hell yes for my crack ship.

15. What’s the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Maybe it's over-optimistic of me, but I don't look at any of my WIPs as 'abandoned' or as something I'll 'never' complete. Back when I was posting my writing only to ffn I used to joke about my trademarked 'delays of doom'. It's always a case of I will get to said stories eventually and I do work on old things from time to time, but due to shifting interests/life junk/life-junk-that-causes-a-low-creative-battery/etc. it can take me a long time to get back to something.

If I was going to narrow it down to the one that I'm not sure when precisely I'll get back to and is the most likely to take me a while to get back to (more than anything else), then it'd probably have to be an Elfquest fic with Leeta/Cutter/Rayek as endgame. Either that or the Planet of the Apes series kicking around in my head that I haven't quite figured out how to frame yet.

16. What’s your writing strengths?

FEELINGS. Emotions, getting into characters' heads and hitting that emotional gut-punch that makes people feel things.

17. What’s your writing weaknesses?

Aside from my delays-of-doom™️, I can get SO damned wordy. And cerebral. Which isn't always a bad thing if I want my readers to know what's going on in a character's head, but it's a royal pain in the ass if I want to give a decent description of the space characters are in or have actual conversation and events happening while a character is getting lost in their head.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

YES. I WANT. GIVE.

lol Seriously though, while it might be rare for me to write full-blown conversations in a different language, if a character is multilingual then I personally prefer including indications of that with their word choices. Usually that results in an offhand word or several here or there in places where it flows naturally, but unless I'm confident in how things flow with that other language (whatever it is) then I'm unlikely to go for a full on conversation. If I am confident in the translation of what I'm writing and the switch into that other language makes sense for the characters in context then it's highly likely I'll go for it-- albeit with including the hover-over translation thing that Ao3 offers so readers don't have to bounce back-and-forth between where they're at in the story and the translation at the end of the chapter/fic. (Though I don't mind when other authors take that tactic.)

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Sonic, and though I didn't put any online until 2003, I wrote a whole convoluted series back in middle school and on up into early high school I think (I suspect most of it's lost because it was all on an OLD computer), and even before that I remember a script-styled Sonic fic that I never finished that I was writing back when I was like... 5? ...7? Somewhere in there. Point is my first fandom is from a LONG time ago.

20. Favourite fic you’ve ever written?

Yeeeeeet another hard one. If I don't cop out with Unstoppable Until I Break and I pull in my older stuff, then I guess it'd have to be Two Sides. It's a Legend of Zelda fic playing with the concept of Zelda and Sheik as simultaneously being and not being the same person, and while I'd probably write it differently now (dear gods I published it back in 2008) I still love the concept and think it's intriguing as hell. Just the very idea of Zelda and Sheik having once been the same person and remembering it in subsequent lives is just... There is a TON of potential there.

Will I ever revisit the idea? Maybe one day. For now, it is what it is.

As for who I'm tagging: @sounddrive, @brightlotusmoon, @radioactive-earthshine, and whoever else would like to do this. n.n

#my fiction #my life #ask game

[toffyrats]

toff makes newsies content alert alert 🚨

hi guys ok context for this story (?) basically i was reading abt the donner party like a month ago and then i wanted to do a little character study ish thing w modern au newsies, but then like a quarter of it ended up being abt the donner party so. atleast i have something to feed my newsies followers with. yeah? yeah.

so tw for like. kinda weird mentions including death, cannibalism and so on n so forth. it’s not yk awful YOU KNOW WHAT i’m making this seem a lot more about the donner party than it actually is let’s just move on.

there’s some redfinch, ralbert (but its one sided ofc) and kinda implied javid? ? also kath n sarah hate eachother (for now). again its a character study but all of them so no single pov but cmon its me so its kinda albert centric. ok this is getting long lets begin

     “the donner party is sooo boring,” race groaned from where he was sitting with crutchie on a beanbag. “who cares about a whole bunch’a dead guys in a wagon?”

     “i find it interesting,” crutchie put in. “really emphasizes the human instinct to survive.”

     albert shook his head in disgust. “i would never eat another human. sounds gross.”

     “if you went that long without food, you would,” crutchie replied matter-of-factly. 

     “what was the point of all that, then?” race grumbled. “pretty much all of ‘em starved anyway. they coulda gotten off easier without eatin’ eachother.” he practically threw his book across the room into albert’s hands. “i’d rather starve than eat another person.”

     “they weren’t right in the head,” jack explained, not looking up from his book. “they were so hungry, they probably became demented.”

     “humans are animals,” crutchie added.

     albert snorted. “great job, crutch. want a medal?” 

     “no, i mean- no matter what, driven by hunger, thirst or exposure, we’re gonna try to live. even if that means eating our friends.”

     “ehh, i dunno.” jack tapped a finger on the top of his book. “i think i might be with william hook on this one. rather die from eatin’ too much than eatin’ too little.”

     albert leaned back in his chair, the front legs lifting up off the floor. “i don’t even think eatin’ people was the problem,” he mumbled. “if the reed guy didn’t take the stupid shortcut, they all woulda survived.”

     “man, if only,” race cut him off. “then they wouldn’t be in the history books at all and we wouldn’t hafta be crammin’ for the test right now.”

     “yeah, ‘we’ as in ‘not you’, race.” albert waved his friend’s book above his head. “i still have your book. we’s the only people studyin’.” 

     race opened his mouth to say something back when the door to the room opened and katherine walked in.

     “oh!” she seemed taken aback. “hi, guys! didn’t know you were in here.” she took a few steps in their general direction and stopped. “wait, are you supposed to be in here?”

     the four boys glanced around at eachother and shrugged almost in unison.

     “sorta,” albert said finally. “we’s technically supposed ta be in gym, but coach said we could study since we got a test tomorrow.”

     katherine gave an exasperated sigh and turned her course to the filing cabinet in the corner of the room. “nobody ever uses this room. you couldn’t have just stayed in the gym?”

     “gym’s awful.” crutchie shook his head. “well, i mean- for me, anyways.”

     katherine nodded in understanding, opening a cabinet starting to go through it. “you guys meet the new kid yet?”

     race immediately perked up. “there’s a new kid? no wa-“ 

     “you wouldn’t like him,” katherine deadpanned.

     “oh.” race’s face fell. 

     “well, what’s he like?” jack asked curiously, finally putting his book down.

     “quiet, reserved… uh, he’s kinda preppy looking-“

     “ew, yeah, okay, cut it right there.” race made a face and waved his hand infront of his face, making a ‘stop’ gesture. 

     “he sounds almost as boring as the donner party,” albert groaned.

     katherine shrugged, turning back to the file cabinet. “i like him.”

     “of course you do.” jack smiled and shook his head. “he seems like your typa guy.”

     “and of course you’re the only one that cares,” race smirked.

     katherine pinched the bridge of her nose with a long sigh. “race, please.”

     race threw his hands up in mock innocence. “hey, hey! i’m just sayin’!”

     crutchie closed his book and held his head in his hands, rubbing his forehead. “race, have you forgotten the only reason they broke up in the first place?” 

     “yeessss, crutchie, i know,” race forced out. “does this kid have a sister or somethin’?”

     katherine hesitated. “yes, he does.” her voice was curt, and she sounded like she didn’t want to further the discussion. 

     unfortunately, race was never good at picking up on other’s emotions. “what’s her name?”

      jack glared at him, but katherine spoke before race could figure out a way to deflect the blame somehow. “sarah. sarah jacobs.” 

     “jacobs, huh? what’s th’ guy’s name?” jack asked, diverting the subject.

     “david,” katherine sighed out, relieved. “you should talk to him, when you can. maybe not al and race, but-“

     “yeah, definitely not al and race,” albert said quickly, and race nodded in silent agreement. 

     jack suddenly got up and cracked his back, then his neck, then every single knuckle before finally saying, “alrighty then, me an’ crutch’ll go find ‘im. he should jus’ be in gym, yeah?”

     race stared at him with a blank expression. “how is even getting up out of a chair an entire process for you?” he asked finally, and albert snickered. 

     jack shot yet another glare in race’s general direction as he turned to help crutchie up. “you sure you don’t wanna come?” he asked when the shorter boy was successfully up on his feet. 

     “positive,” albert hummed. katherine gave a triumphant shout and pulled out a single paper from the cabinet. 

     “what’s that?” race pressed, curious as ever. 

     “oh, just a little list- it’s for the school newspaper.” she shrugged and glanced quickly between the four boys. ”i have to give it tooo…” she scanned the paper quickly for a name. “…finch cortes. i don’t assume any of you know what class he has right n-“

     “physics, room 203,” albert answered immediately, before katherine could even fully finish. “i mean- i think. how would i know?” the front legs of his chair hit the ground with a loud bang as he looked down at his lap, his face heating up. “it’s on the second floor,” he added quietly, fast enough that it almost sounded like one word.

      crutchie smiled and ruffled albert’s hair playfully. “don’t worry, you can trust red on his finch factopedia,” he assured katherine, and albert swatted his hand off of his head with a sharp scowl. 

     “ooohhkay then,” katherine nodded slowly, her eyes narrowing like she didn’t quite get what was going on. “well, i’ll go find him, then. thanks, albert, i’ll tell him you said hi.” 

     “wait- no!” albert desperately tried to stop her, but she was already out the door. 

     nobody could really understand how katherine’s brain worked. it was as if she were a machine, and anything you tell her to do, she will or won’t without any wavering decision- and she was notoriously bad at reading between the lines.

     “welp, we’d better get goin’,” jack said quickly, and crutchie agreed. 

     “no, wait! no, please! don’t leave me with him!” albert pleaded as he watched jack saunter out the door, eager as ever to meet a possible new acquaintance. crutchie pivoted and shot a sympathetic glance in albert’s direction. “sorry, al. you’re stuck wit’ him.”

     “to most, being stuck with me is a good thing!” race reassured albert mockingly, draping his arms around his friend’s shoulders. 

     and then it was just race and albert. and for some odd reason, it was a lot more awkward than usual, and the air cracked with an unusual tension.

     “so… you an’ finch, huh?” race asked after a moment, a crooked grin creeping onto his face. 

     albert shook his head quickly and wrung his hands nervously. “no, no,- it’s- not like i got a crush on ‘im or anythin’, i… it’s this brain of mine, the adhd, it, uh, chooses to fixate on the dumbest people at the most inconvenient times…” his voice trailed off, his unfocused eyes coming to rest on race. 

     his mind began to wander, his thoughts turning to static before they could even front. he shrugged it off- something he had gotten used to by now-and looked away. “you get what i mean.” 

     “i mean… i guess.” just the tone in race’s response let albert know he didn’t at all get what he meant. 

     just then, the bell rang, loud and steady, startling both boys out of the uncomfortable silence they had fallen into. 

     “saved by the bell,” race chuckled, stuffing his books into his backpack. he pointed at albert forcefully as he turned to leave. “don’t think ya got off easy, though. i still wanna know all about this fling wit’ you an’ birdie.”

     albert groaned loudly in response and flung his backpack over his shoulder lazily, hearing race talking to himself about albert cortes, finch dasilva, and a few other things in italian that albert couldn’t understand a word of.

     albert knew he wasn’t off the hook, he didn’t need race of all people telling him that. but he also knew that finch was in his last class, and maybe-for once- he wouldn’t be all sweaty and gross after gym and too self-conscious to even try to sit near him.

     no, he did not have a crush on him.

     he loved race, and no matter how much he wished for it to, it was never going to change. but maybe finch would take his mind off of it.

     no, albert is not thinking about that right now!

TEEHEE HOPE YOU ENJOYED please speak to me in the tags tell me what you liked and didn’t and whatever also yes ik crutchie would use a wheelchair in a modern setting but i dont even know how those work so yeah not touching thag until i do more research

#YIPPEE #newsies #livesies #92sies #albert dasilva #racetrack higgins #jack kelly #crutchie morris #katherine pulitzer #sarah jacobs #david jacobs #red’s tag #redfinch #ralbert #javid #wow that was a lot of tags #toff writes stuff

[teaveetamer]

I knowwww not to rain on anyone's parade and I 100% think people in different corners of the fandom should leave each other alone but god. Your recent post about the politics of 3H made me remember how some of the stuff portrayed as obvious in the fandom just makes me so. Hgggggghhh. Like "hey guys a war started by the literal regent of a disgraced empire is exactly the same as a revolution of the proletariat, right?" Tbf I completely blame the actual game for that considering it has a fucking child's understanding of politics. Doesn't it also literally use the word revolution at some point or did that get ingrained into my head from too much fandom exposure?

Like "AM is the centrism route" seems to be their favorite argument but that's just the entire game!! The whole game is so insistent on having every ending be totally good, please ignore all the weird implications in some of the paired endings everything is fine aha :) Just fucking centrism central. And half the time it can't seem to remember itself what the characters' political aims actually are, like I swear every ending card for CF implies something completely different from each other.

But idk I guess if you only play one of the routes and even then only once and then completely work off of headcanons forever then sure you can pretend the writers are totally 100% in agreement with you I guess. And AM isn't even my favorite route!!! My fave house is just the one that gets perpetually ignored and at this point I am 100% okay with that. This must be even more annoying to you folks. Sorry for the rant but reading your post made something click in my head

Oh I 100% agree that people can like what they want and we should all get to have our own little fandom corners, but yeah some of the pervasive sentiments in the fandom about 3H are honestly baffling. Also thank you for the ask, I love rants :)

At the end of the day, I just don’t understand where people are pulling this “deep political storytelling” from. It’s a mass market product designed to be understood by 12 year olds (it’s CERO B aka 12+, and ESRB T aka 13+) It is going to try to be as bland and inoffensive as it can be to maximize reach and profit, and it’s not going to contain anything too dark or complex for a preteen to process.

12 year olds are not stupid, and you can absolutely have some more mature things packaged in an age appropriate way (e.g. ATLA tackles genocide in a product aimed at an even younger target demo) but? A game aimed at 12 year olds is not going to have complex political theory. It’s just not. It’s never going to be as deep as you want it to be, and some members of the fandom need to just let it go. There are hundreds of pieces of media aimed at adults that tackle more complex topics of politics and morality if that’s what you want. You don’t have to try and force 3H into that box.

[thiefbird]

H j t for the ask game :)

H: How would you describe your writing style?

Hm... I'm going to answer both ways this question can be read, I think!

So in terms of how I tackle writing, I'd say I'm both incredibly straight forwards, and incredibly chaotic. For the most part, when I'm writing fanfic or original works(and even to some extent non-creative writing like analytical/argumentative essays or research papers), I come up with the basic idea of What Will Happen, and then I start at the beginning and write each chapter, from beginning to end, without planning it. This is widely considered to be A Bad Idea, for good reasons. I'm currently trying to teach myself to at least plan out the scene by writing it as a weird first draft of a screen play, with general action cues and dialogue but no description, and it is going relatively well, so far, but we shall see if it sticks! [I also write all my fanfic by hand and then either use my reMarkable to convert it into text, or copy it over by hand because I am Not A Reasonable Person]

In terms of how my writing, like, sounds, on the other hand, I am told I have a really good skill at aping other authors' styles, so I think perhaps my writing style is Chameleon? I am a heavily masking sort of person, entirely subconsciously, and said mask adapts very quickly to what I'm around to the point that it only takes about half an hour, these days, of exposure to have an undetectably false British or Irish accent - not always even the accent I'm surrounded by, but a slightly posh central English accent, and a blend of a Dublin and Galways Irish accent, because Oxford&Coventry and Galway&Dublin are the places I've spent the most time - and this happens in my writing! Whatever I'm absorbing the most of at that time will reflect itself in my word choices, and the cadence and rhythm of my sentences.

J: What’s your favorite fanfic trope? Have you written it?

I think my favourite when it's done well is soulmate AUs, because there are so many concepts to play with in them: how does it effect the culture of the world you're writing in? What happens if you fall in love with someone who isn't your soulmate? What if you have multiple soulmates? What if you just straight up don't have a soulmate?

I haven't written soulmate AU yet, but I have an idea for one both for the Aubreyad, and a DA:Awakening into DA2 idea that I may explore at some point - the DA one next time my brain circles back to Thedas in terms of special interest du jour; the Aubreyad idea is sitting on the back burner until I either run out of ideas for So long lives this, or need to take a break from it.

Also, honorable shout-out to HMD/daemon AUs. Love those things so much. I love giving characters A Little Guy and thinking about how they as a person would sublimate part of their soul out of their body, what animal it would be, and how they would interact with it. I have a very slightly started Hannigram HMD AU(a True HDM AU taking place in Lyra's World, even, though in North America not Oxford ofc), and a partially thought out Aubreyad daemon AU(I don't know enough about the history of Lyra's world to write historical fiction within it).

T: Any fanfic tropes you can’t stand?

Hmm... I wouldn't say I can't stand it, but the thing I'm least likely to read is probably modern/coffeeshop/highschool/uni AUs, unless there is a compelling plot point mentioned in the summary, or I am familiar with the author. I don't always enjoy when the main themes of the original are gone unless there is an equally present driving force. They definitely can be done well, and I've certainly read ones that I was doubtful of at first that I really enjoyed, but for the most part that would be what I'm most wary of.

However, I do like AUs like this where they keep the driving force and change the circumstances. Modern Thedas with magic? Amazing, 10/10, I want to know how Isabela would text so bad. Hannigram AU where Will did something not at all FBI related, but he and Hannibal meet anyways and Hannibal is still a cannibal? Divine - they always will meet because they are entangled like atoms; Hannibal will always be Hannibal, and he will always be drawn to Will.

I think this is harder to do when there are less fantastical elements to the story; I have a harder time imagining a coffeeshop AU I would enjoy for the Aubreyad, for example, just because there are no longer tall ships or Napoleon to beat - and there are, in fact, not many modern AUs for the Aubreyad; there are a good deal more for Temeraire, because there are fantastical elements to Temeraire (dragons) that can be transferred over.

Thank you for the questions, @papercranesong and I hope you enjoyed my essay xD

#thiefbird speaks #this is what happens when i no longer have depression. i write essays in response to tag games

[afatlotofchance]

Commission-story 1: Rikishi Footballer

It is so strange to go look back at stories you wrote years ago and haven't re-read in such a long time... Sometimes you cringe as you find typos you overlooked, or stuff clearly written by a young and naive man. Other times you are amazed at what you could pull out of your mind and feel like someone else wrote it in your place.

This story isn't a "kink" story in the usual sense of the word. It depicts fat characters, fatness is talked about a lot, and there's some weight gain - but it isn't a story about fatness or weight gain. It is all background element, side-details and little kink-sparkles. It is primarily an awkward teenage story, a start of a romance, a slice of life and growing-up story. It is a soft tale about a Japanese sumo teenager being sent to America, and trying to find a place there - and finally finding some hopes upon encountering an American football team.

Note that I actually know NOTHING about American football, and all written below comes from quick pre-writing research, indirect media exposure, personal deductions, and a whole lot of bluff. I hope it still remains convincing enough. Enjoy!

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

Daichi looked in the mirror one last time.

His school uniform was without a speck. His hair was well-brushed. His bang perfectly split in the middle. Clean face. Nothing in his teeth. He stood upright and smiled before sighing.

“Don’t be so stressed Daichi… No reason to stress.”

Of course, he had plenty of reasons to be stressed. A new school, a new country, a new language – if he wasn’t stressed, it would have been really worrisome.

While checking his bag, his thoughts drifted towards sumo. It was probably the harshest part of his new life: no sumo. He had been practicing sumo for five years now and suddenly, in a matter of days, nothing. It was all gone. He had searched if there was any sumo club out there but, to no one’s surprise, California wasn’t big on eastern wrestling sports. His new high school had western wrestling teams – which Daichi considered joining. But a lot of them consisted of really muscular guys, young body-builders. A rikishi like him would have looked out of place among them, if not outright ridiculous.

As he got down the stairs, delicious smells tickled his nose. Steamed rice… grilled fish… soy beans… miso soup…

“Daichi! You’re up early!” his mom saluted him.

“The smell woke me up.” he joked.

“Yes. I thought I would make one last typical Japanese breakfast. Before switching to an all-American diet.”

Daichi quickly gulped it all down. The portions were smaller than usual – but for Daichi, usual portions meant the double of what people usually ate. He had always been a big boy with a big appetite, and his sumo training had only helped them both become bigger. Fortunately, the Mori family was wealthy enough to afford their son’s extra-sized meals.

“Well, here I go!”

“Take care of yourself, Daichi. And don’t forget: you don’t change shoes in American schools!”

“Yes, Mom.”

“Have fun!”

“I will, Mom!”

XXX

He did not.

XXX

“Class, we have a new student here. He comes from Japan, his name is Daichi Mori. Please, I want you all to make him feel welcomed here. Daichi, could you come here and present yourself to the rest of the class?”

Daichi got up and stood in front of the other sophomores.

“So that’s why this guy was dressed like at a funeral…” someone whispered.

“That’s a Japanese school uniform? Why doesn’t he wear normal clothes, like everyone else?”

“I hope he can speak English good enough. Japanese accent is really painful.”

Daichi felt his face become pink. It always happened to him whenever he had to express himself in front of a big crowd. His face went pink and started to feel hot. It was so weird to see all those students casually dressed, in jeans and baskets, like if they had just gotten out of the street and were ready to leave at any moment.

“Hello. I’m Mori Daichi… I mean, Daichi Mori. I’m from Japan. Namba, in the Osaka prefecture. I hope we can be good friends this year, and I give myself into your hands.”

Some kids snickered.

“He really has a strong accent…” a girl whispered.

Daichi, overhearing that, thought he had to apologize:

“I’m sorry if my English is a bit bad at the moment, but I hope you will help me speak it more fluently.”

It was just a general apology for everyone, he never intended to single out the girl. But she gave him a surprised, then offended, look, and glared at him for the rest of his presentation.

“I moved here because my father had his work changed recentry. Recently. Sorry.”

The boys at the back were sneering.

Daichi, feeling his presentation wasn’t going as well as planned, tried to impress them. If there was one thing Americans knew outside of anime and manga, it was that. Instinctively, he touched his belt and said:

“I’m… well, I used to be a sumo wrestler. I was in my school’s sumo team. I won the local…”

The boys at the back started laughing like hyenas. Other people were smiling and whispering between them.

The teacher asked for silence. One of the boys muttered, between two laughing fits “He’s such a cliché… Of course, we get a Japanese and… he’s a sumo… one big fatty baby!”

Daichi was confused. Why were they laughing? What was funny about being a sumo? He was proud of being a young rikishi – it was an honor. His family was proud of him, his friends admired him, he even had one or two fangirls back in his old school.

Why was he suddenly feeling so ashamed of it?

XXX

The school cafeteria was a wonderful experience. All those new foods, all these strange aromas, all these unusual colors… Just looking at it made saliva drip from his chin.

He took a bit of everything on his tray, hoping he could get a second serving later, and tried to find a spot at a table. Nobody was really paying attention to him. Recognizing some people from his class, he took an empty chair near them. They weren’t the boys at the back of the class – he had a bad feeling about them – these were people from the front ranks.

“Hi! Daichi, is it?” one of the boys greeted him.

“Yes, it is. And you are?”

“Horace. This is Jasmine, and there it’s Peter.”

Daichi saluted all of them.

“Wow! You’re going to eat all that?” Peter asked.

“Well, yes…”

“Of course, he has to eat a lot! He told us he is a sumo wrestler! The whole point is to pig out so you can grow fat!” Horace intervened.

“Well… Not really. I mean, yes, it’s a lot of sleeping and eating but…”

Horace wasn’t really listening to Daichi.

“Gosh… a sport where you just have to stuff your face and grow fat. Sounds like a dream!”

“I don’t understand it.”

It was Jasmine.

“I mean, I don’t understand how someone could let himself grow fat like that. You’re not bothered about your health?”

“Well, I’m healthy enough.” Daichi answered. “I do frequent exercises, I was regularly checked on by a doctor…”

“But your appearance? And what about the girls? They’re okay with you being that big?”

Daichi was really embarrassed. He wasn’t used to talk about these things with his friends, and even less with perfect strangers.

“Well… there were some fangirls at the tournaments…”

“I saw a sumo tournament once! On TV!” Peter shouted. “It was so funny! And so weird! It was just two obese men punching each other. And they were wearing diapers! I was watching it with my brother and we laughed our asses off for days after! It was like looking at two giant babies fighting.”

“Or you and your brother fight for a pizza slice…” Horace muttered.

“Hey! I heard that!”

Horace turned his head towards Daichi.

“Man, I can’t imagine what it is when you throw yourself after a pizza slice. You must be like a human cannon ball!”

“I… I’m afraid I don’t understand. I never tasted pizza.”

“Never?”

“Never.”

“You have to try a pizza! Everybody in this world eats pizzas! It’s the USA's national dish! Our own invention!”

“Wasn’t it the Italians that…”

Peter interrupted their conversation.

“Shit, look at the clock! If you want to copy Edgar’s dissertation, you better get moving!”

Horace looked at his half-eaten tray and then at Daichi.

“You can finish that for me? I don’t have time to eat, and they scold you if you leave anything. I know, it’s a pleasure, no need to thank me. See you later, big guy!”

And thus, Horace, Peter and Jasmine went away, leaving Daichi alone with his one and half tray of food.

This conversation went quite smoothly, better than what Daichi expected – but it was a weird one, and it had left the boy with a sour taste in his mouth. Not sour enough to prevent him from eating all of the food on the table – but still, sour enough to make him fear for his future in this school.

XXX

The rest of the day went without any incident. The only thing that annoyed Daichi was that everybody kept calling him “sumo-boy”. Considering that he wasn’t ready to have his first name used by all these new, not very sympathetic people, it was better than nothing.

He was still angry and ashamed at how they laughed about his sumo training.

“Don’t think about it too much… Just try to enjoy the good side. If you start seeing only the bad stuff the first day, you’re begging for bad things to happen.”

When he went home, he had the delightful surprise to see his mom had tried herself at American cuisine. Avocado romaine salad, fish tacos, grilled cauliflower wedges, Caribbean pot roast and lemon pound cake.

“I hope it will be good… It’s the first time I try these recipes.”

“It will be good. It’s always good. You can only cook good things. Else, Daichi and I wouldn’t have ended up that big!”

“How was your day, Daichi?”

He told them it was good. Nothing special happened. They nodded and started to talk about their new town.

Daichi ate in silence.

XXX

“Hey! You’re Buddhist, right?”

“Yes.” Daichi answered.

“I told you he was Buddhist!” the first boy shouted.

“No, you never told me that. You told me he looked like Buddha. With hair.” the other boy replied.

“Well, being Buddhist means looking like Buddha, right?”

“No, you dumbass.”

“But all those Buddhist monks, they are bald, smiling and fat, no?”

“Just shut up.”

XXX

“Hey, can you read that for me?”

Daichi looked at the piece of paper.

“Jelly’s… Jerry’s… jelly bellies… berries… taste leally… really… rale… rare.”

“Thanks!”

The girl took the paper and snickered at her friend:

“Told you they couldn’t distinguish between R and L.”

XXX

As Daichi was walking to his table, he overheard people talking about him.

“You noticed how heavy the new boy walks?”

“The sumo-boy?”

“Yep. He walks so heavily! You can hear his every step. Just listen.”

Embarrassment flooded Daichi, to the point where he could have drowned in it. He wanted to stop walking, but he couldn’t just stand frozen like that in the middle of the room. It took him a lot of strength to go to his seat.

“It’s true!” the other boy whispered. “He doesn’t walk, he stomps!”

“Well, it’s normal with the size of his legs. You’ve seen his thighs? They’re enormous! Bigger than hams! And I know what I’m talking about, my mother keeps cooking those damn hams for every big occasion. His calves are the size of hams. But his thighs… wow!”

“It’s true that his legs are really swollen! They’re touching each other! They must be rubbing all day…”

“I wonder if his pants will split open. Or crack on the seams. The fabric is clearly stretched to the max.”

“Me too, I wonder if he keeps wearing the sumo-diaper under his pants.”

“We’ll have to wait for his pants to explode to find out.”

XXX

“Hey! Daichi, right?”

“Yes?”

“My friends and I, we were wondering under what sign you were born?”

“Sign?”

“Astrological sign?”

Daichi thought for a bit.

“I think for you it’s… Taurus.”

“No, we meant… the Asiatic zodiac.”

“The goat.”

“Really? Not the pig?” asked another boy.

His friends looked at him weirdly.

“No, why?”

“Because you…”

His friends put their hands on his mouth.

“Nothing, we were just wondering.”

The group went away, but they spoke so loudly Daichi could distinctly hear them fighting.

“What were you thinking? You can’t just tell him that!”

“Well, it’s true he looks a bit like a pig! I mean, the pointy ears, the round face, the tiny eyes… His nose is even triangular! Just look when he raises his head. It really looks like a pig snout!”

XXX

One week had passed. Daichi’s first week in an American school.

It wasn’t the most pleasant experience. And Americans certainly weren’t the most pleasant people.

USA teachings and classes were easier than Japanese ones, so homework and tests were really a piece of cake. It’s the people that were hard to swallow. Between those who snickered when he made a mistake in English, the teachers who kept asking him to repeat because of his accent, and the constant jokes, not even made in front of him, but behind his back… It made him stutter, it made him unsure of words, it made him both anxious and tired.

He had bought new clothes to replace his uniform. Plain old clothes – white, black, blue. Pants, shirts, jackets. It apparently wasn’t enough.

People kept mocking him for his size and fatness. He thought America was the land of obesity and junk-food, and yet he was only surrounded by thin, good-looking kids.

And everybody spoke so loudly… he feared he would end up deaf by the end of the year.

XXX

He tasted the Californian pizza.

It was tough, over-cooked and reminded him of plastic.

XXX

It was official. He disliked American people.

Today, one of the boys at the back of the class made a joke. Directed towards him. A frontal attack. And a cruel one. The others did not laugh, and he got hours of detention for this joke. But the words were still said.

“Hey, remember when we sent Fat Man and Little Boy to Japan? Well, they sent us Fat Boy in exchange! New and improved version! Beware, he has reached critical mass! He is ready to explode! All take cover!”

Daichi missed his sumo club. He missed his school. He missed his friends. He missed his town. He missed Japan.

He hated America.

XXX

“Honey, I’m worried about Daichi…”

Daichi’s mother raised her head.

“What? Daichi? What’s wrong with him?”

“Well… he doesn’t smile anymore. He used to smile all the time.”

“He must be busy, that’s all. He is starting a new course, in a new school. He has to make new friends, learn a new language… It’s a lot of work for him. He doesn’t have time to fool around anymore.”

“Yes but… he also lost his appetite.”

“He still eats like a normal boy.”

“Yes, but before he used to eat much more than a normal boy!”

Daichi’s dad kept twisting his hands in worry.

“Should I remind you he stopped his sumo wrestling training? He doesn’t need to over-eat anymore.”

“But he liked to over-eat!”

“And he got that from you, you glutton! It’s good that he starts to eat normally. This trip to the US cost us quite a bit of money, and if he kept eating like three people at each meal, we would soon be unable to afford anything!”

“But he slimmed down! You noticed that? His face used to be so cute and round… it’s not anymore!”

Daichi’s mother sighed and sat next to her husband.

“Don’t worry, alright? Daichi is a grown-up boy. He is sixteen. If he was troubled about something, he would have told us. You know how open-hearted he is. If there’s something serious, he would tell us. And if it’s something he can deal with by himself, then it’s good. We shouldn’t be over-protecting him like that. One day he will have to confront the world and see how hard it is. And he will have to learn to survive in this harshness. It’s just how things work.”

XXX

As Daichi opened his locker, he scanned his surroundings. He was there again. The guy. The tall guy.

He had been following Daichi since this morning.

When Daichi got out of his class, he was there, looking at him with his peering eyes. Down the hallway, he was there, his thick arms crossed on his wide chest. At the cafeteria, he was there, not eating, just staring at him. Daichi thought that what he feared for some time now was going to come true: his first real bullying. The guy looked like a bully. Tall, with big muscles, furry brows and a short goatee. He certainly didn’t look like a sophomore, but rather like a tiger preparing itself to feast on a clueless prey.

Daichi looked back at the guy and froze upon seeing he was walking towards him.

Daichi had to get out of there, and fast.

He closed the door of his locker, took his bag, started to walk, preparing his body for an eventual run… Too late.

The guy’s big hand was around Daichi’s wrist. Daichi turned back, ready to face the beating, or whatever this guy had prepared for him, with dignity. But he apparently wasn’t interested in him rather than in… his arm. He was touching it, and kneading its flesh like if it was dough.

“Huh… What are you doing?”

No answer. The guy was now patting Daichi’s belly. It reminded him of someone checking if a fruit was ripe. The young man tried to take a step back, but the weird goatee-man maintained him by the shoulder, so he wouldn’t get away.

Was it some sort of joke? No, apparently not. The guy looked deadly serious.

He crouched down and started to squeeze Daichi’s thighs. The boy was mortified, filled with so much fear and shame he couldn’t move even a muscle.

Finally, the weird, invasive, fetishistic bully said something. One word.

“Wow.”

He quickly got up and looked Daichi in the eyes. He had dark (beautiful), coal-like eyes.

The guy took Daichi by the arm once more and dragged him down the hallway.

“Hey! Let me go!”

But his grip was too strong, and Daichi was too terrified to fight back. This guy looked like a mountain of muscle! His shoulders bulged so much it looked like he had no neck!

Daichi got dragged out of the school building, and down onto the football field. His mysterious attacker finally stopped in front of a bunch of equally tall and muscular guys.

“Team! I have our missing lineman!” he shouted.

XXX

“Is this a joke?”

The goatee-guy turned towards Daichi.

“What?”

“Listen… I don’t know you, guys. I don’t want any trouble. I’ll leave.”

Mickey blocked him.

“No, wait, don’t go! I need you – our team needs you! You’re our savior! You’ll be our new lineman! I can assure you, this is a serious offer!”

“I don’t know what a lineman is, and I don’t know who your team is, and I don’t know who you are!”

“I’m Mickey! Mickey Andrews! And this is my team! Football team! My football team! Well, the school’s football team! I would like to be the head of the team but…”

“But you’re not!” shouted another boy.

“Yeah! Don’t offer him the post yet!”

“Don’t just pick any random overweight boy just because we lack one team member!”

“Who named you the chief here?”

“Guys, guys, calm down! I know what I’m doing” Mickey appeased them. “This is Daichi. Daichi Mori. Daichi, this is the team.”

“Sup?” one of them said, waving his hand.

“And Daichi here is… a sumo wrestler! And isn’t a lineman just a sumo wrestler with a helmet?”

Daichi got ready for laughs and mockeries. Instead, to his great surprise, he received exclamations of admiration.

“A sumo wrestler?”

“Really? I thought you had to be an adult to be a sumo wrestler! There are actually juniors?”

“He’s a real one? He’s not just making this up?”

“He doesn’t really look like a sumo fighter… he’s not fat enough. Aren’t they supposed to be really big?”

“I heard about him! Hadn’t he stopped training before coming to the US? Who says he isn’t rusty?”

“Or maybe he stopped because he was bad at it. We don’t need a bad sumo wrestler.”

“I think he can be good. He looks like a good wrestler.”

Daichi was surprised. These guys weren’t actually laughing at him because he was a sumo wrestler. They rather doubted how good he was as a sumo wrestler.

And apparently, it irritated Mickey.

“What do you mean, he doesn’t look like a good sumo wrestler?”

“I said he did look like one!”

“I’m not talking about you, Terry! I’m talking about all these other treacherous, arrogant, snobbish skeptics! Tell me if these aren’t the legs of a powerful wrestler?”

As he was speaking, Mickey raised (not without a bit of difficulty) one of the legs of Daichi’s pants, and slapped his thigh. All the other boys crouched to look at Daichi’s leg with admiration.

“Wow!”

“I’ve never seen one so big before…”

“It’s all muscle and fat!”

“Gosh, he must be able to block anything with that!”

“I wouldn’t like to get kicked by him!”

Mickey beamed with pride while Daichi died with shame.

“Well, if he’s so good, let’s put him to the test, shall we?” said a deep voice.

It was the tallest boy of the team. Even taller than Mickey. He must have been three heads taller than Daichi, a true giant!

“He will try to block me.”

“Good idea! Let’s see if he can block Jack!” the others approved.

“He accepts the challenge!” said Mickey.

“What? I haven’t accepted anything! I wasn’t even asked to be here in the first place!” Daichi complained.

Mickey pulled Daichi towards him as Jack was warming up.

“Don’t worry,” Mickey said, putting a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “You can do this. He is frightening, but good-hearted. He will probably be soft on you. Or crush you without mercy, it depends on if he likes your face or not.”

“What?”

“Don’t worry! Trust me, it will be easy. You just need to prove to them that you are a good sumo wrestler. That’s all ! You are a good sumo wrestler, right?”

“Yes!”

“I knew it. I felt it in your guts.”

“But he is a giant!”

“And you will do just like in sumo! I thought a champion like you wouldn’t be terrified by a small weight like Jack!”

“Small weight? He’s all muscle and nasty-looking and…”

“Just do like in sumo, okay? Go!”

And Mickey pushed Daichi in front of Jack. The tall, menacing, creepy Jack. The giant handed Daichi a helmet.

“Put that on. I don’t want to bump your pretty little head too hard.”

Daichi gulped down and put the helmet on.

“Don’t worry… Do just like in sumo. It will be okay. At best, you’ll have a broken bone. It will heal. Just do like in sumo.” Daichi thought to himself.

Daichi prepared his body, crouched, got ready. Jack charged. He looked like a mad rhino. Daichi raised himself up a bit, and…

XXX

… it was easier than what he expected.

Right now, Daichi was blocking Jack. For more than a whole minute now. The giant tried to push, move, get out of Daichi’s grip in any way he could. But the little sumo was not ready to let go.

“Is that enough?” Mickey asked, with a cocky smile on his face.

Jack pushed a bit more, and then gave up.

“Alright… I guess it’s enough. Could you tell him to let me go?”

Daichi opened his arms and stepped out of the way. Jack, who was still trying to push, ended up falling on the ground. The boys around applauded.

“Wow! So you are a real sumo wrestler!”

“And a good one!”

“They really are like linemen, aren’t they?”

“The team is saved!”

“He could block Jack! He is so strong!”

“And look, he barely sweats!”

“Good job, Mickey! Great finding!”

Mickey waved his hand towards the team, with a false look of modesty on his face.

“Well, you know, I just did what I had to do. I’m a treasure hunter, after all.”

XXX

With the team, Daichi managed to feel proud of his sumo – and of himself – once more.

They were all pressing him with questions about his training, about what it took to be a sumo, what he ate, what routine he did, about the tournaments he lost and won. Some asked him to block them, just to test his strength – and Daichi actually managed to send some of them flying. It did not upset them, it just made them laugh. They weren’t laughing at him – they were laughing with him.

It felt really nice.

XXX

The first week was hell. The second was a blessing.

Daichi joined the football team. Mickey had explained to him in lengths the job of a lineman, and it sounded so similar to sumo, he just couldn’t resist. The other team members were treating him with a comradeship, a friendship and a respect he thought he wouldn’t be able to experience again. They were all so kind, explaining to him the rules of the game, helping with the training and exercises. In return, Daichi taught them one or two things he learned while doing sumo training.

Mickey was the kindest of them all. He was actually a sumo fan, with more knowledge about the sport than normal people had. He frequently watched big tournaments on TV, and it was a real pleasure for Daichi to talk with someone with whom he shared such a passion. Both boys also talked a lot about their own cultures – about the differences between a Japanese high school and an American one, about the different flavors of ice cream, about the weird habits of their parents, or the kind of shitty neighbors they could get. Daichi learned a lot from talking with him – especially given that Mickey kept correcting the little mistakes he kept making. Not in an annoying, preachy or irritated way. It was just friendly remarks, with well-meaning intentions. And Daichi accepted them with gratitude.

He was sure only good things could come up from his relationship with Mickey.

XXX

And only good things came out of it.

XXX

“First, you must put the padding. I know a sumo wrestler is used to being slapped directly in the flesh, on the skin, but trust me, on a football field, you’ll need something to protect yourself, some pads to absorb the blow. Because even your fat-armor won’t protect you from some nasty injuries.”

“I noticed football is much more violent than sumo… I mean, you wear helmets.”

“Alright. So, these ones go around your thighs… Shit, they’re too small. Josh, do we have some bigger thigh pads?”

“What bigger thigh pads?” Josh asked.

“They can’t fit around Daichi’s legs!”

“Truly? Well, I’ll see if I have some extra-large somewhere.”

Daichi was really embarrassed by all the fuss the team (well, mostly Mickey) made about his legs.

“Well, since it’s just to show you, we can go without the thigh pads for now. Now, put these pads on your knees… That’s it. Now, put the pants.”

Daichi snuck in the clothes.

“They are… kind of tight…”

“They’re not supposed to be baggy. But don’t worry, you’ll get used to it. They’ll stretch a bit. Now, the shoulder pads.”

“These things?” Daichi shrieked with bulging eyes.

“Yes, these things.”

“But they’re so big! How can you play with that? They must be… I mean… they’re not good for your balance, no?”

“I heard once that the whole point of sumo was to learn how to push and move heavy things, aka other wrestlers, while being able to support and carry as much weight as possible, aka your own body. Is it true?”

“Yes, kind of…”

“It’s the same for football and the uniform. Learn how to move with all the stuff on you. No pain, no gain. Now put these on.”

“Alright, alright…”

“Okay… Now, the jersey… And finally, the helmet. Don’t forget the chin strap. And that’s it! You’re all dressed in a good-looking, shiny, beautiful football uniform!”

Daichi looked at himself in the mirror.

“It’s quite… not uncomfortable but… weird. I mean… I’m used to wearing only a mawashi… nothing more. Not all this stuff.”

“Well, I’m sure a lot of people would like to see you run on the field nearly completely naked – I would, personally – but rules are rules.”

Daichi, still looking at his reflection, turned around.

“But… I kind of like it. I feel like I’m wearing some samurai armor. A very American samurai armor.”

Mickey smiled.

“And now, the most difficult part of all… Learning how to take off all this stuff!”

XXX

Daichi noticed that his entrance in the football team changed the way his classmates perceived him.

Most of the mean comments and bad jokes stopped altogether. People talked to him more casually. He guessed it’s because now he fitted – he was part of something “American”, showing his contribution to the school. Or maybe it was just because he had a bunch of tall, muscular, mean-looking guys as friends, and people weren’t willing to get on their bad side.

XXX

Mickey insisted on treating Daichi a pizza.

That’s a simple sentence for a longer story.

It all started when Daichi asked Mickey for some fashion advice. He just wanted to know what was trendy in the US. Mickey, in his usual style, immediately dragged him to a shopping mall to buy new clothes for him. After speaking of some heroic-fantasy anime, Mickey mentioned pizzas. Daichi mentioned he didn’t like pizzas. Mickey asked him how much pizzas he ate. Daichi answered only one. And Mickey started a rant about how you couldn’t hate something just based on one bad try, before pushing Daichi into a nearby pizzeria.

“You must like some pizzas! There are a ton of them out there! I will force you to eat each and every one of them until you find one you like!”

“Hey! You can’t do that!”

“Try to stop me!”

“But I just ate!”

“Sumo wrestlers have big stomachs!”

There was no sense in reasoning Mickey. Daichi just sighed and took off his belt.

“If you’re such a picky eater, no wonder you lost so much weight.”

“What?”

“Yeah. You lost weight since your arrival in the US. I remember clearly your face, before, upon the day of your arrival. Your face was rounder. You even had a little double-chin.”

“Well, isn’t that… good? That I lost weight?”

“You must be bigger to be strong! A good lineman is a big lineman!”

“Yes, but… I mean, the sumo physique isn’t… really attractive here. Isn’t it?”

“Here’s your pizza!” the waiter interrupted them.

Mickey looked thoughtful.

“Well… it’s true you’re not the perfect guy from some underwear advertisement. But a lot of girls like buff and bulky men. Football players usually have up to three girlfriends during their high school years. Quarterbacks are hugely popular, of course, but look at our linemen – half of them are in couple. Well, some won’t last long, but that’s not due to their physique… Plus, I know a lot of people who like chubby people. Boys with a bit of meat on them.”

“Yeah, but they’re rare… and even them wouldn’t find a sumo wrestler cute.”

“Well, I found you cute, with your tiny double chin.”

Daichi, feeling his face get hot again, dug into the pizza, hoping to hide his embarrassment by pretending it was the dish that was heating his face.

“Hey! It’s delicious!”

“I told you it was!” Mickey gleefully answered. “Pizzas are the best!”

Daichi took a second slice. Then a third.

“I’m glad you like it… Hey, you have a bit of cheese here.”

“Where?”

Mickey leaned over the table, and passed his thumb on the corner of Daichi’s mouth.

“Right here.”

Daichi must have been as red as the tomato sauce. He quickly gulped down what was left of the pizza, muttering a small “thank you…”

“Oh, don’t thank me now! Thank me once you tasted the other pizzas!”

“The other pizzas?”

“I told you, no? I will make you try each pizza on the menu! I just wasn’t expecting you to like it so quickly…”

Daichi moaned upon seeing the waiter come back with three… four… five… seven more pizzas.

“Don’t worry, big guy. I’ll help you finish. After all, I’m the one paying, I should get a bite or two.”

XXX

“Mickey is sixteen?”

“What? You’re surprised?”

“But… but… I… I thought he was much older!”

“Nope. He is a sophomore, just like you.”

Daichi looked at Mickey, on the other side of the field. A tall, big, beefy body. A lot of muscles, a bit of flab. Biceps so big his sleeves threatened to rip. A wide and thick torso like the trunk of a tree. A square, strong face, softened and rounded on the edges.

“But… I mean, he has a beard!”

“No. He tries to have a beard. He can’t get to grow hair on his cheeks, only on the chin and near the ears. But don’t mention it to him, he’s a bit sensitive.”

Daichi looked longer at who he dared to consider his best friend.

People kept mentioning Mickey and him looked a lot alike. They both had dark hair and dark eyes. One had a bit of muscle, with a lot of fat; the other a lot of muscle, with just a bit of lard. While Daichi’s neck softened in the front, under the chin, Mickey had a fold of doughy flesh at the back of his nearly non-existent neck, over his shoulders. Yes, it was true. Mickey kind of looked like an older, taller, more muscular version of Daichi.

“And handsomer…” Daichi thought.

Mickey was beautiful, indeed. Not in the typical, effeminate, bishounen way. In a rough, powerful, masculine way.

The young rikishi remembered a representation of Susanoo he saw some years ago. Mickey looked just like this painting of the god – only a bit buffer.

XXX

“You wanted to see me, coach?”

“Yes. I wanted to talk to you about Daichi.”

“He is a good find, isn’t he?” Mickey answered with a smile.

“Yes. His background as a sumo wrestler certainly was a good preparation for his lineman post. But it’s also a big flaw in his play.”

Mickey lost his smile.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean: he can become a good lineman, but he needs a more… specific training.”

“What kind of specific training are you talking about? This guy already got everything he needs! He is big, he is strong, he has the size, he has the power. Have you seen him slap someone in the chest? It’s impressive! Nobody can manage to move him, and he can block anyone! He is like a rock! And you’ve seen him crash into other guys! He sends them flying as if they were dead leaves! And you’ve seen his legs? That’s some fine lineman legs!”

“Yes, we’ve all seen Daichi’s legs, thanks to you, Mickey.” the coach answered. “And yes, on paper, our little sumo wrestler works. A big guy, with the perfect balance of fat and muscle. And a literally perfect balance. He can carry weight around and push anyone out of his way… But he is too used to sumo fighting. Football is brand-new to him. And it shows.”

“In what ways?”

“You said he is immovable. Like a rock. Which is a quality, but also a flaw. He lacks mobility. Sumo relies on blocking your opponent and throwing him out a small circle. In football, you have to run through an entire field. Have you seen Daichi run?”

“I did.”

“Then you know he is not used to run, at all. He is quick in attack, but he is not a fast player. He has strong legs, and a strong upper body, but he doesn’t know how to use them to move swiftly. He only knows how to use them to stay where he is.”

“If it’s just that…”

“It’s not just that, Mickey.”

The coach sighed and sat.

“You remember what I said about grace and finesse in football?”

“Yes, I remember the dance lessons you forced us to take.”

“Well, Daichi lacks this finesse. He still thinks he is in a sumo fight. His strength is brutal, he throws everything at the beginning, he focuses on short term goals. As a result, he ends up exhausted at the end of a match. He must understand we’re not doing a one-minute sumo match. We are talking about a sixty-minutes minimum effort here. He must learn temperance, finesse and endurance.”

Mickey shivered at the idea of Daichi taking dance lessons.

“And finally, outside of the troubles of speed and endurance, I noticed he has a hard time moving sideways. Laterally. He is all in frontal attacks and straight lines. An inheritance from his sumo training I presume.”

“Alright, but he can still learn! He is still young! He just started! Please, don’t kick him out of the team!”

The coach looked offended.

“I never said I would kick him out of the team! You said it yourself, he has a lot of talents our own players lack. He is a precious element for the team – but his potential needs to be cultivated. For now, his capacities are good, but limited. He would make a perfect nose tackle, for example. But we can’t allow our players to be so over-specialized, can we? If Daichi really wants to be a lineman, he will need to be both offensive and defensive.”

“I understand, coach. And I accept your quest!”

“What quest?”

“The quest to make Daichi a perfect lineman! I’m the one who dug up this treasure, he is now under my responsibility! I promise I will train him every day and every night, well maybe except on holidays, in order to make his flaws disappear!”

“If you want, Mickey… Don’t forget, lots of running and aerobics.”

“Yes, sir!”

As Mickey was about to leave, the coach called him:

“Mickey!”

“Yes, sir?”

“I understood that Daichi taught the team members some… tricks from when he was training as a sumo?”

“Yes.”

“Things like how to gain weight more easily, right?”

“I guess so… why?”

“It’s just I’ve noticed the waistline of many of the boys started to balloon recently… Could you please remind them that they are not sumo wrestlers, but football players? Thanks.”

XXX

Mickey and Daichi were on the old playground near Mickey’s house. That’s where they met each Saturday and Sunday, to train for the football game. Mickey insisted on giving Daichi a personal training – to help him work on some stuff he lacked. Daichi was extremely thankful – Mickey was taking much of his personal time, just to help him master the subtleties of the game and become a better player.

Mickey could have easily just told Daichi what to do and let him work out on his own – but he actually took time to accompany him and practice with him, when he could have been working on his own. After all, he was the running back of the team, and from what Daichi understood, it was the most difficult post of any football team. When a running back was on the field, he had no time for himself, he had to check and monitor everything – his teammates, the rival team, the clock, the size of the field, the opposition’s attacks, defenses and plays… He had to constantly adapt himself, and always throw himself in battle, to know every hole number, every pass route, every trick in the book. It was an enormous amount of personal work, both in and outside of the field. Daichi admired Mickey for being able to do all of that. He couldn’t have done such a tough job.

XXX

As Mickey helped Daichi put on his uniform, he noticed:

“You’re back to your old size, I see!”

“Yes. I even got back the double chin.”

“I noticed. The cute little double chin. I also noticed you eat a lot of pizzas lately. Your breath smells like pizza.”

“They’re really good!”

“I know. But, a little piece of advice, try to limit it a bit. They’re good, but they have a toll on the waist. And it’s getting a bit harder to get you in these pants lately. We don’t want you to burst out of the uniform, do we?”

Daichi, feeling a bit bold, answered:

“You were the one who said you wouldn’t mind me running half naked on the field, right?”

“Yep, that’s right. But if the coach ever finds out you’re too big for your uniform, he’ll tie you up and lock you in a locker without any food until you slim down.”

XXX

Daichi’s team quickly found out a nickname for him. The Taurus. Given that he acted like one on the field, and that it was his astrological sign.

The rival teams rather used the nickname The Boar. Partly because of his nose. Partly because they feared he would just split them open or trample them to death.

XXX

“Mickey, I’m really not sure about this…”

“Well, I’m sure of it. Should be enough for both of us. Don’t you trust me?”

“I do, but… No, really, Mickey, I’m not… no…”

“Come on, get your big legs moving!”

Mickey had to push Daichi in the hairdresser’s shop. It was Mickey’s idea: according to him, Daichi had to get a new haircut.

“You’ve been stuck with the same old boring one since your arrival. You should change it! Let your hair express your true personality! You need to live up to your fearsome Taurus reputation!”

“How can hair express one’s self? That’s just hair!”

“With this mentality, you will never go far… Hairdresser? He needs something shorter, wilder, freer!”

“No, really, I’m fine with this cut. I’ve had it for years and…”

“More reason to change it! Trust me, you’ll feel lighter, both physically and mentally.”

Daichi gulped down as a young lady started to wash his hair.

XXX

“So? What do you think?”

Daichi looked at his reflection.

It was short. Spiky. Unruly.

It wasn’t bad. It was different. It was weird. It was kind of good.

“I guess… I like it?”

XXX

The other boys of the team loved it.

XXX

And, after numerous matches and numerous adventures…

XXX

It was already the last game of the season.

Daichi couldn’t believe how quick the last months went by. It was like a blurry, weird and exciting dream.

“Ready?”

It was Mickey, all-dressed up, a shoulder against a locker.

“Yeah… I’m ready.”

“You know… if you want to slow down a bit for this match, don’t hesitate. I mean, we won all the previous ones, and you put so much of yourself in them… I just don’t want to see you strain yourself. I wouldn’t like it if you were hurt.”

“Me neither. I mean, I wouldn’t like to see you hurt. Not me. Well, I wouldn’t like to be hurt either but… you get what I mean.”

Mickey smiled.

“Well, it will be harder for me to avoid getting hurt. After all, if we go all the way up, it will only get harder and harder, and more intensive, more exhausting, and…”

“I’ll be here to protect you! To clear the way for you!”

Daichi had blurted that out, quickly, without thinking. Realizing how weird it sounded, he corrected:

“I mean… Don’t worry, you can count on me to have your back!”

“Yeah, but you have to protect everybody on the team, right?”

“I’ll protect you more! I mean… I’m really grateful for all you’ve done for me. You helped me fit in this new school, you introduced me to a wonderful sport, you…”

“I haven’t done much, you know. I just introduced you to the team and gave you some fashion advice. And a haircut. And made you love pizza.”

“You did much more than that! You… you know, you really changed my world!”

“I don’t think so. I just allowed you to do the things you would naturally do. I’m not the one who is blocking people for you, I’m not the one who taught the team how to train with tires – hell, I’m not even the one who gave you your nickname! All of that comes from you. You impressed the team, you frightened our rivals, you helped us won the games – all of that, on your own. Plus, don’t think I’m a saint. Half of the things I did for you was in fact for the sake of the team. I’m a treasure hunter – so when I see one, I have to take it back to my crew. That’s all.”

“And the other half?”

“It was just so you would correspond to my personal tastes.”

“What?”

Mickey had a smug smile on his face.

“Well, I told you already, no? I know a lot of people who are into cute chubby guys.”

He winked. Daichi felt his face burning.

“Now, let’s go out there and kick some asses, shall we?”

Daichi got up. He was confused by exactly what Mickey’s last words meant, unsure of whether he should take it lightly or seriously, if he should be disappointed or happy… But the cries of the spectators, out there, and the voices of the rest of the team, quickly snapped him out of it. He had one last match to fight, he couldn’t allow himself to weaken now. His body was ready to fight. One last effort – and he could take care of the rest later.

“Alright. Let’s kick those asses! And after, we’ll get a pizza!”

The two boys slipped their helmets on their heads and got out on the field.

XXX

And they kicked a lot of asses.

FIN

#fat story #kink story #kink commission #weight gain story #my writings

[jack-kellys]

hi!! for the fic title ask game how about "don't take much to be a dreamer (all you do is close your eyes)" ??

(yes this is just a newsies lyric but i also think its a pretty title😭)

hello there >:) i am very self aware i still have some of these in my inbox!! thank you for asking.

while i’m not taking these anymore you can ask me about a fandom/ship/character or my aus!

sorry in advance for being an insane person but this would be a very fun lyric to totally modernize/throw into a future context. as in like. an alternate reality au. a little bit matrix and a little bit like…. ooh peter pan but not

further in the future when the world is doing worse than it already is, AR has become rly huge for escapism and getting to “pursue” what a lot of ppl will never get the chance to in reality. the AR is this island of adventure basically, right, very fantastical and customizable. it was made by pulitzer’s company though sooo it may or may not be stealing users’ information and brain patterns!!!!!!

basically the newsies have been online friends for years and they all got their little personas on the island- i think the only IRLs are jack and crutchie. they all have their own reasons for why they're online etc, backstories...yeah. but then weird shit starts appearing in the game, sort of like glitches- strange staticky shapes like rips are forming online.

jokingly, albert steps into one, and his character disappears. and then he isn't online for a few days, which becomes two weeks, and he isn't answering when his friends call. and then the game glitches become much, much more dangerous as they start to ask questions.

but like yeah for pulitzer to fully understand, trick, and control the brain, he's gonna need test subjects guys. like c'mon how else do you take over what remains of the world. jeez

so basically! there is both in-"game" and out of game investigation of what the actual fuck is going on, so there's lots of IRL first time meetings, ppl don't always look like what they do in AR, it's fun. and they get to expose all this wild shit pulitzer is doing, and it turns out they've been hanging out w pulitzer's fucking daughter in AR this whole time bc very avatar is obv.. doesnt look like her (theyd know what she looks like pultizers are like famous), different name, etc. also i love me an exposure of corruption au with newsies bc like. its still the same concept while being absolutely batshit insane!!!

sorry this took me ages to answer- i wanted to give the canon lyric title something very out of the box, so i hope this concept is interesting to you!!

#the character designs for this would be off the charts #newsies #newsies aus #fizz answers #YES I HAVE TEN MILLION MORE ASKS TO GO I KNOW !!!!! #newsies fic #albert dasilva #typical. typical.. #jack kelly #crutchie morris #katherine pulitzer #the whole gangs in this fr but. yeah

[katyspersonal]

Brador 1, 2, 25, 7 <3

(Asks from this ( x ) meme)

1. Why do you like or dislike this character?

I like Brador a lot!! I love his design, for starters: both the very concept of a normal dude in normal suit putting a cleric beast scalp over himself and just his face underneath! Also a really mysterious character. A kind of misanthropic, likely nihilist philosopher that has a lot to say on life, human nature and society! I am a huge sucker for such characters.. even if within Soulsborne, this kind of deep insight (HA) on the world is usually misery and despair. What always draws me in is "a character worth talking to"!

He feels for me like someone that defends the (morally questionable) fundament of the Healing Church because he is blackpilled on how exposing the truth and changing the system will be just another pointless turn of the vicious cycle. Like... bro, you telling me you don't realize that Church's ways are doomed after witnessing Laurence (or another cleric) become a beast too? You might be a dumb bitch but you are not stupid! It strikes me more as him wanting the institution to run its natural course into dying, without extra panic or god forbid, a more corrupt person taking the mantle after Laurence's authority is crashed. But interpretation of him just being a very devout, lovestruck madman that stands with his (not yet) cancelled boss is fun and is good too! He is very depressing yet engaging character in either way!

2. Favorite canon thing about this character?

Weird, but I love how he secluded himself in the cell and haven't had anyone visit it in... decades, maybe? His real body is old! And only attacked via astral projection. I get this is just more efficient and safe seeing how the bells and curses work in Bloodborne setting, but why not ring the bell from the comfort of his bedroom or something? He either didn't even trust himself to keep his mouth shut, or it was the price he was willing to pay to never part with the beast hyde of the person he valued (because someone might connect the dots for all you know), or both!

25. What was your first impression of this character? How about now?

I feel deja vu, I swear I said that somewhere already.. My first exposure to him was a portrait of him and some other hunters on a shared canvas, and he was depicted without the beast scalp! Seeing his (very flattering xd) portrait and title 'Brador the Church assassin' gave me an impression of a very serious, collected, handsome guy that'd just stalk the enemies and quietly kill them...

Well, turned out that he was a bit more feral than them, not to mention using not a poisoned dagger but an ass huge mace with the spikes made out of his own blood! 🤣 Not that I started to perceive him as, how kids call it, "skrungly scrimblo", but apparently some passion and madness got added to my initial much chill impression x) I like both the reality and the first impression, though! Guess you can't go wrong with the concept of an assassin in any way.

7. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you like?

Wait, fandom does things for this character?? WHERE????? /lh

Okay, I jest, Brador is just unfairly underrated xd But I fucking love the theory about him killing Laurence, it makes sense and it is the most heartbreaking one! ...until someone writes a very engaging and deep story between him and a cleric OC friend, I guess... I also enjoy when him and Maria interact! They are functionally doing the same thing, and share this "Fools do not become smart when they are given knowledge, they just become more dangerous fools" attitude.

Thank you for the ask! <:3

#bloodborne #ask replies #brador church assassin #yay it is brador loving hours! :D #but yeah I am fucking WEAK for 'deranged philosopher' characters #I mean.. I am the guy that thinks Dung Eater would be hella interesting to talk with if you manage to avoid being killed lol #Brador is quite a doomer that doesn't believe in changing shit but you can't tell me the man isn't a deep person

[qqueenofhades]

Slightly weird question ahead. Obviously the slave trade involvement is very important to Hob's character for a number of reasons. However, do you think in a different situation, say, if hitting rock bottom 1689 hadn't happened, would he pass on that opportunity?

I'm trying to think out the repercussions of an alternate universe where it's public knowledge that the Endless are a thing and for whatever reason they decided Hob isn't going to die therefore no witch drowning, losing everything plot. But would that necessarily mean he would decide not to get involved in the slave trade? And if I go that way, is it just trying to sanitize 'the blorbo', so to speak?

Thanks for any time to you take to answer that one. I've come to see you as the Hob expert, aside from Neil Gaiman.

Aha, thank you, but I hasten to stress that I am in no way an expert. I have read many Gaiman books and watched other entries in the NGCU (Lucifer, Good Omens, etc) but my first exposure to Sandman came when I watched the show about two months ago. All my comics knowledge that could be described as remotely detailed comes either from my Sandman-loving friend, the Sandman wiki, or what I pick up on Tumblr by osmosis. So while I have a lot of thoughts on Hob due to the type of character he is and the type of person I am (i.e. a historian), that doesn't make me some stand-in Voice of God and my opinions are, of course, just my opinions. However, I'm flattered that you trust my interpretations and want to hear more of them.

My view is thus: it's not an absolute necessity that Hob participates in the slave trade, and AUs where his life goes differently after the 1689 meeting/before the 1789 meeting, and therefore makes different choices, are entirely valid. However, because this is canonically something that he regrets up until the present day, and which is a huge driver of his transition from a cheerful and optimistic but often selfish and shallow guy, to someone who is really cognizant of the costs of his immortality and how the choices he makes affect other people and the privilege which he experiences by virtue of his gender and background (i.e. a white or white-adjacent Englishman). That comes to mean different things as the centuries go on, and while AUs/canon reworkings are always valid territory for fanworks, I would ask if your only motive in doing so is to absolve Hob of participation in the slave trade because it makes him more morally "good" as a character, or because it's a way to personally "redeem" him or not have to deal with that aspect as much. In which case, I would gently suggest that you think a little more about why, and come up with a rationale that still incorporates some of those character beats/major mistakes/moral reckonings.

In other words: it's totally fine to write Hob's life proceeding differently from 1689, but because this is such a huge part of who he is and how he as a character represents both humanity's strengths and flaws, it still needs to be treated appropriately and thoughtfully, and not just conveniently removed to make it more morally sanitized or the character less implicated in terms of what that participation means and what he has to reckon with. So yeah, if you want to write an AU where he doesn't participate in the slave trade, that's fine, but also be careful of how you're writing it and whether you're just erasing it because it seems "easier" in some way. That, at least, is my thought.

#anonymous #ask #hob gadling

[snufkinsnogger]

Sharing with other IRL People is fine, it's great. Let's gush like a couple of teenagers on our see-through house phones. But the Snufmin ship makes me queasy and exhausted and frustrated. Even if it's not the Snuf I selfship with. IDK. It's like... Imagine you're dating a person and everywhere you turn there are people talking about your partner and that time they were with an EX that everybody liked. That's the best way I can think of to explain it. Even though every Snuf is a different Snuf from like, a different universe. Even every canon Snuf isn' even the same Snuf. I hate that this is making it hard to be in the fandom and enjoy it to its full potential. I just hate going into any Moomin space and being bombarded with Snufmin. It's impossible not to be. You simply cannot ask people not to post it. You can't block it because not every place supports blocking keywords (I'm looking at you, Pinterest) I know how the Sasuke and Edward or Jacob and the Harry selfshippers feel. You can't escape it and you can't even use the tools at your disposal to protect yourself. And the most popular artists in the fandom love it and draw it and it adds kindling to the fire. Moominvalley also is throwing some kindling into the fire too. I can't just stop selfshipping though. I can't just turn off this part of me. I can't just not be in the fandom either. I have a small group of friends and even still that feels a bit lonely so cutting myself off entirely just is a bad idea. I'm always trying to get past it. I try a form of Exposure Therapy so that maybe I get desensitized to it. But now and again a super great piece of art comes my way and I just fall back into that hopeless feeling. There are fans who are simps for some of the characters, but I feel sure that I'm the only fan (aside from a friend of mine, also a Snuf selfshipper) who feels this way about it. Everyone I talk to just has fun with it. They're Big Fans but like, casual big fans, you know, Normal Regular People who like a thing. I'm the weird one :T So I can't even really talk about it. I can't make them change how they experience fandom just to suit my sensitive ass. But I'm spending less and less time with them because even in my friend group, I can't escape it. There really isn't a group of people in the fandom who don't care about Snufmin. There's not really a group of people who think that, hey, maybe two guys can be really close and not want to fuck. If there are, IDK who or where they are but I ant to find them. Not because I'm against Snufmin, because I'm not. I'm just...more into the other potentials. It's like I don't hate vanilla, I just like chocolate more.. I don't want people to stop enjoying Vanilla. I just want somewhere I can go where I can talk about Chocolate, or Sherbert, or Mint Chocolate Chip etc. There's just nowhere I can go where Vanilla isn't constantly brought up. Where if I say "Chocolate tastes so good on a waffle cone" somebody won't say "Actually, Vanilla" Like I said, I don't want people to stop enjoying Vanilla, I just want to be able to talk about chocolate and not be talked over or 'corrected', or ignored.

#selfshipping vent #self shipping vent #selfship vent #selfshipvent