#might edit it later since I didn’t reread as I wrote | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

saiilorstars · 1 year

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Ch.9: The Girl Who is Neither Nor

Story Masterlist ◦ Anais’ Masterlist ◦

Also on: Fanfic • Ao3

Pairing: Winn Schott x OFC

Taglist: @ocappreciationtag @arrthurpendragon @anotherunreadblog @maaaaarveeeeel @stareyedplanet @foxesandmagic

If you’d like to be a part of this OC’s work/edits, let me know!

Anais sat on the edge of Winn's desk holding the latest issue of CatCo. in her arms. She had been comfortable in her spot for way too long and yet it wasn't Winn who pointed out her curious affection of using his desk as a seat.

"Solar!" J'onn's voice that morning had an extra boom in it. Even Alex winced from where she stood. "Shouldn't you be out there with Supergirl and Superman today?"

Anais didn't bother looking up from her magazine when she answered. "And risk getting sandwiched between the Girl and Man of Steel? As if."

"Don't you have superspeed?" Alex stopped by Winn's desk and poked the side of Anais' head.

"Yeah. Besides, it's some family time for those two. I'm okay where I am. Did you see Cat wrote about me?"

"Yeah, we all read it," Winn mumbled from his seat. Anais had practically forced everyone to read the latest article Cat Grant had written about Solar, finally introducing her to the public. Anais was excited, to say the least.

"Again, you have super speed," Alex said, "So shouldn't you have been done reading that magazine ages ago?"

Anais lowered the magazine, revealing a furrowed brow. "And what if I wanted to reread it?"

"Again?" Winn pointed out.

Anais looked down at him. "Whose side are you on?"

"Solar," J'onn called again, drawing the trio's attention, "You wanted to work for the DEO. You should be out there! You and Supergirl! You and Supergirl!"

Anais' brows raised. He might as well have said 'Only you and Supergirl'. It was easy to tell that J'onn had a disdain for Superman and vice versa. "I can go out the next time," she said simply.

"You promised Kara that you'd be nicer when her cousin was around," Alex told J'onn.

"I said I would try," J'onn reminded his particular word choice.

"'Do or do not'," Winn recited, "'There is no try.'"

J'onn was neither amused nor interested in the quote. "Exactly how bad did you want this job, Mr. Schott?"

Winn ducked his head at the call. He heard Anais' quiet snicker.

"He'll be leaving town soon, I'm sure," Alex said, getting back to the point and hopefully dissuading J'onn from any potential firings. "So until then…"

"We continue reading!" Anais picked up her magazine again and happily went back to her favorite page, ignoring J'onn's disapproving look. Eventually, Alex took him away.

"Seriously, how many times can you read the same article?" Winn looked at her curiously. "I mean, as a speedster, don't you also get bored quicker than the rest of us?"

"Not really, no," Anais shook her head. "You think it would be self-absorbed if I framed this?"

"Sure, but I'm the dork around here."

"That's what Alex says."

Winn deadpanned her. "Off my desk." He made the motion for Anais to slide off already.

"Sheesh, alright!" Anais hopped off his desk and closed her magazine altogether. "Fault a girl for being excited about something." She tossed the magazine to Winn, laughing at how he scrambled to catch it and even when he was so close to her, he still managed to drop it. "I'll see you later."

"Where are you going now?" Winn asked once he finally had the magazine in his hands.

"Seeing Arun again," Anais said, and Winn noted the way she lost some of her cheeriness.

"Is he still not being nice to you?" He frowned. If there was one thing that he had come to like about Anais it was her unusual talent at being cheerful and positive all the time. How could someone be mean to someone like her? It made no sense.

Anais shook her head. "We've been discussing things and he's definitely apologized for coming off the wrong way. I think…I think it's just the age differences and the time periods. He lived on Solaria and I didn't. For him, it's been a very long time since he's gotten this close to home."

"I don't care — is he being nice?" Winn asked and sternly waited for a proper answer.

Anais playfully rolled her eyes. "Yes," she said clearly. "He's taking me out for ice cream. Can you believe he's never had ice cream before?"

"Oh, I can think of a few words," Winn said, sounding a tad sour, yet still smiling to be convincing. It was true what they said: first impressions were everything. Ever since Anais shared her troubled first meeting with Arun, Winn couldn't see Arun the right way anymore.

"I'll let you know how it goes," Anais said, "Keep my magazine safe?"

"Of course," Winn nodded, bringing a hand on the magazine on the desk.

Anais grinned. "I'll bring you an ice cream. What's your favorite flavor?"

"Chocolate mint!"

Anais pretended to gag. "Winn, that's disgusting!"

"What?" Winn said incredulously.

"I am not bringing you chocolate mint ice cream. You're going to have to do better."

"I cannot believe what my ears are hearing right now!" Winn turned in his chair, raising a hand at Anais, absolutely offended. "Go now. You've completely destroyed this friendship."

Anais laughed and sped away.

~ 0 ~

It was true that Arun was trying to do better by Anais. He was not a fan of the ice cream emporium she had talked about. It was too crowded and quite loud — and sticky. Anais loved it!

She had brought them two glass bowls of ice cream — strawberry shortcake for her and coffee for him. She sat down opposite of him and encouraged him to try it.

"You said you liked coffee," she reminded him, "And this is coffee ice cream. Starbucks, to be exact."

Arun picked up his spoon and dug into the ice cream. He took just a small bit into his mouth. Anais watched him like a hawk, super excited to see his reaction.

"Well," he swallowed what was left of it in his mouth, "Not bad."

"Yes!" Anais cheered with a fist in the air. "I knew you'd love it!"

"I didn't say I 'loved' it—"

"But you didn't say you didn't love it!"

Arun rolled his eyes. "Do you have to be cheery about everything all the time?"

Anais was already eating her ice cream and merely shrugged at the question. "I don't know."

"I've never met anyone who seems to be so positive about everything all the time."

"Sorry," Anais reached for a napkin from the dispenser, "After everything that's happened to me, I just try to be happy about what I have. And lately, things seem to be going well for me. Did I mention that Winn's adding a few things to my suit?"

"No, but I'm sure I'll be hearing about it for the next month," Arun said, noting the strange smile that spread across Anais' face. "What?"

"So, we'll be seeing each other for the whole month?"

Arun felt a laugh coming up and he couldn't control it. One thing he noted about Anais Mjorkland is that he ended up doing things he hardly did on his own. Laughing was one of them. "What?"

"I just have to be sure that you'll keep agreeing to see me!" Anais shrugged again. "You're kind of a grump, you know?"

"A grump?" Arun frowned. "Well, now that's mean."

"But not untrue."

"How about we discuss our future together?"

"Wh-at!?" Anais almost choked on her ice cream, and she didn't even know that was possible!

Arun lifted an eyebrow at her. "I mean as in how we should start training you and teaching you about Solaria."

"Oh," Anais brought a hand to her chest. She was a speedster with a natural racing heartbeat but this time, it truly felt like she could've had a heart attack. "Y-yeah! Right!"

"I was thinking the best place to train you would be at the DEO," Arun went on, idly eating from his ice cream. "They have proper rooms and open fields and proper tools in case something happens."

"Yeah, that sounds about right," Anais said. "I'll talk to J'onn about it. Things are still kind of hectic."

"Are you guys still dealing with that man from the pod?"

Anais nodded. "Mhm. He's been unconscious ever since we found him. Kara's convinced that he's another Kryptonian but I'm not so sure. I mean, Kara and I look the same but we're not from the same place."

"It's the pod that's making her think that, right?"

"It is pretty similar to the ones she and Superman were put into," Anais admitted. "But technology can be deceiving as well. The fact remains that we won't know who nor what he is until he wakes up. And until then, J'onn prefers to have him in a room."

"Is he rounding the poor guy?" Arun asked with a laugh, speaking directly from experience. "Your director is pretty mistrusting. I respect him for it but, you know, I don't like being locked away."

"Well, for your information, J'onn might actually dislike Superman more than he disliked you. And since Superman is still around…"

"Yeah, the news won't stop covering it," Arun nodded.

Anais chuckled. "Have you ever met him? Like, properly?"

"God no," Arun said quickly. "I have made it my life's mission to stay out of the media. By the way, I don't appreciate you mentioning me in that article that Cat Grant woman wrote."

Anais chuckled. "I didn't say anything about you except that you weren't a threat."

"Still, for future references, let's just keep my name out of that place."

"Hard to do when you're sort of popular amongst the higher class," Anais remarked, surprising Arun with that knowledge. "I do use the internet, Arun. Your artwork is pretty well known. And they're good pieces."

"Thank you," Arun said, genuinely smiling at her. "Most humans don't really understand the concept of my artwork."

"It's Solaria, isn't it?" Anais' presumption brought an even wider smile from Arun.

"How'd you know?"

"The stories my mother told me," Anais said, sighing, "The landscapes — golden fields and beautiful golden-orange suns? That's Solaria. Home. You paint home."

"I do," Arun said, "And like I told you before, I'd be more than happy to show you what it really looked like."

"I don't have telepathic powers, though," Anais reminded him.

"But I can still show you from my side," Arun said. "Not having telepathic abilities just means you can show me nor respond to what I show you. But you can still see what I show you. And trust me, you would love it."

"I would," Anais knew it too. "I really would." She felt her phone buzz in her back pocket and quickly pulled it out. It was an S.O.S. from Alex urging her to come back to the DEO. "Uh oh, gotta go! Emergency at the DEO."

Arun nodded at her to leave. "Call me later, okay? We really need to start training."

"Yea, yeah!" Anais said, picking up her bowl of ice cream. "I learned early on it's not a good idea to super speed eat ice cream! Mega brain freeze." She took off towards the entrance doors only to quickly go to the counter. "Can I get a to-go box?" She asked the young cashier. "Oh! And I can order three more scoops of strawberry shortcake please?"

"Do you want them in the same box?" The cashier asked.

"No, it's for someone else. I'm trying to prove a point."

~ 0 ~

When Anais got to the DEO, she dumped her ice cream in the nearest fridge and got into her suit. She met Alex and was quickly informed of the situation. Them, along with their DEO team, headed back to the control room to get going.

It was there that they crashed into Supergirl and Superman.

"Woah, hey!" Kara was taken aback by all the agents.

Alex let out a frustrated breath. "We haven't heard from you! We were just leaving to catch the Kigori!"

"Oh, we just dropped that little guy in containment," Superman said with an apologetic smile at the group.

"Oh, well," Anais crossed her arms. "Thanks for the heads up!"

Alex was nothing short of annoyed as well. "Stand down, guys," she ordered the team and dispersed them.

"I'm sorry," Kara chuckled. "Team Krypton was just having #toomuchfun. I mean, I've always loved being Supergirl. But today…"

"Next time it would be nice if you followed protocol and alerted us that an alien combative was no longer an active threat," J'onn said as he walked over to the group. "Your cousin may not work for the DEO, but you still do."

Kara nodded dutifully. "Sorry. We were... We were just having…"

"# toomuchfun. Yeah, we know," J'onn muttered.

Anais zipped in and out of the control room, returning with her civilian clothes on. "I was having the best ice cream ever," she spat at the Kryptonians. "Thanks for that."

"Sorry," Kara said again.

Suddenly, the power around them cut out. Winn quickly grabbed his tablet off his desk and rushed to the group. "Uh, energy drain coming from the holding area!"

Everyone knew exactly where to go. Their unconscious man from another world was still in bed with nodes attached to his bare chest.

"It happened last night too," Winn informed them when they reached the room, "All energy resources at the DEO suddenly diverted to him."

Superman didn't get any closer to the room. "You're exposing him to kryptonite?" He looked directly at J'onn. "He's a survivor, not a prisoner."

"It's a precaution," J'onn clarified. "We don't know anything about him."

The lights flickered back on and Winn reported they were back at 100% capacity. Alex moved to his side and took a look at the readings on his tablet.

"His vitals have jumped again. It's at the same rate as the power drain."

"He's repairing himself at a cellular level?" Superman said, soundign surprised.

"It's like photosynthesis," Alex remarked. "His cells are absorbing the electrical energy and converting them to chemical energy."

"You should test his levels again," Superman said to J'omn, "Now that he's—"

"We've got this, Superman," J'onn cut him off, his voice hard.

Superman smiled bitterly. "Sure you do."

The others felt the air grow even more terse as Superman left them.

Kara then turned towards J'onn, resting her hands on her hips. "I know you two aren't the best of friends but you promised you'd be nice to him while he's here."

"Yeah, actually he said he would try…" Winn chimed in, although Anais promptly shushed him.

"How...how is it hard to be nice to Superman?" Kara said incredulously. "He's Superman!"

"If it means so much to you, we will get along," J'onn muttered and walked away, leaving his word in jeopardy.

"We still on for sister night?" Alex gently brought Kara to her side. "Veep and Chinese?"

As upset as she was, Kara ended up smiling at her sister. "Yeah. Of course. Do you know it's Clark's favorite show, too?"

Alex's expression changed subtly even when she tried to hold onto her playfulness. "Is Clark is coming to sister night?"

"Yeah. I mean, he's in town…"

Anais made a face with Winn. What were the odds that the two Danvers sisters would notice if they backed away quietly? They tested the theory out by silently backtracking.

"You're not going to that sister night?" Winn asked once they were safely away.

Anais snorted. "God no! Did you see Alex's face? I am not getting in between that! No, I'll probably stick around here for the night. Gotta work on some of my pictures. Hey, you know what I bought for you?"

"What?"

"Strawberry shortcake ice cream."

Immediately, Winn's face scrunched. "I'm sorry — what? What the hell is strawberry shortcake ice cream? Isn't that a cartoon?"

Anais groaned and picked up her pace down the hallway, taking the lead. "You're so ignorant!"

"Ignorant?" Winn went after her. "You're misinformed!"

"How am I misinformed!?"

"Because you think chocolate mint is horrible!"

"It is!"

~0~

Later in the evening, the DEO had lost a few of its employees, leaving a quieter control room. Anais had brought up a chair beside Winn's desk and the ice cream she had bought earlier in the day. Both bowls were empty but the grudges were still there.

Winn had tried her flavor and while it was not the most horrible thing he thought it would be, it still didn't compare to chocolate mint ice cream. Anais ended up eating both bowls.

After that quarrel, they each went to work on their individual tasks. Anais had several pictures to look over because she did have a due date with James.

"Hey, check it out," Winn said suddenly, turning his computer screen towards Anais. There was a live newscast showing a potential jumper on the bridge.

"Oh God," Anais frowned. She looked over at Winn. "You think they'll handle it?"

"If it's sister night and a movie? I don't think so."

Anais agreed and zipped out the control room. When she returned in her suit, she stopped by the desk again and looked down at it. "I don't see these new notifications you're supposed to be adding."

"It's a work in progress!" Winn said.

"Hey!" J'onn strode over in a hurry. "We have a problem!"

"Yeah, a jumper, I know. I'm on it." Anais was about to leave when J'onn stopped her.

"It's Corben!"

"What?" Both Anais and Winn frowned.

"No, no, he's dead," Anais said, then looked back at the computer. She leaned closer and saw the jumper had turned out to be Corben, the man who was supposed to be dead.

"Oh, crap!" Anais exclaimed and took off without another moment to waste.

When she reached the bridge, there was already quite a sight. Corben seemed different, starting with the great big green stone lodged in the middle of his bare chest.

"Ah, and there she is," Corben said, spotting Anais across the bridge. "Come to see the Kryptonians final battle?"

Anais' eyes shifted between Supergirl and Superman on each side of the bridge, looking worse for wear. She noted the green lines running down their bodies.

"Is that — is that Kryptonite?" She brought her hand up to her ear comm. She hoped to receive an answer from the DEO. When no one answered her, she locked eyes with Corben. "Where the hell did you get Kryptonite?"

Corben laughed maliciously. "From the place that wants humans to prevail. You'll learn about it soon. They sent a message for the Golden Girl."

"Oh," Anais scoffed. "Color me surprised. Who's sending this message?"

Corben smiled at her. "'For the girl who's only half of each, don't you wish that there could be more of you?'"

Anais raised an eyebrow at him. "What—?"

"End of message," Corben said. "Now if you'll excuse me." He turned towards Kara.

Anais shook her head. He had to be kidding. She drew in a breath and charged straight for him. He had been about to shoot Kara with more Kryptonite when Anais rammed her body into his. He tumbled down the bridge.

Anais then spun around and saw Superman getting up, albeit wobbly. They exchanged glances and silently agreed on what to do next.

Anais looked back at Corben getting up. She started running towards him again, at the same time Superman rushed over to Kara and picked her up. Once Anais delivered a few punches to Corben, keeping him down, she flew into the air as well and headed back to the DEO.

~0~

"I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm just a little dizzy," Kara said as Superman helped her land in the DEO. There was still a significant wobble in her feet, not to mention the fact that Anais still had to help her stay on her feet when Superman let her go.

"You told me that only the DEO had access to kryptonite," Superman had gone directly up to J'onn. "So how would you like to explain what just happened out there? A kryptonite-charged cyborg almost killed Kara. Almost killed me. Start talking, J'onn!"

With the silence that fell in the room, J'onn had no choice but to respond. "A shipment went missing four months ago. We've done all we can to find it."

"Four months ago?" Kara had to gawk at the amount of time that'd passed by.

""Went missing"?" Superman repeated, not quite sounding convinced.

"Stolen," J'onn clarified. "We thought it was an inside job but everyone in the transport came up clean."

"So you have a mole," Superman said.

"We don't know that."

"If you'd gotten rid of it when I told you to—"

"We would have been helpless when Non and Astra launched Myriad! Or have you forgotten that there was a force even the Man of Steel couldn't defeat?"

"Superman and Martian Manhunter are gonna fight…" Winn couldn't help the words that tumbled out of his mouth when the tension grew even more. "This is terrible — this is awesome?" He wasn't sure but he needed to stop talking now.

"We have given our lives protecting the people of Earth," Superman argued. "If you cared about Kara at all—"

"Watch what you say!" J'onn snapped.

"Or what?"

A static noise cut through the argument. The screens around the control room — and everywhere else in the city — had gone out and produced an AI head that addressed the watchers.

'People of National City. The Earth has been stolen from us. And the enemy has come in the guise of heroes. They say they come in peace, to protect us from ourselves. But how long will it be before these gods decide to rule instead of serve? We are the antidote to their poison. We are the scientists who will show them what humans are capable of. Those who have sided with the invaders will not be spared. You cannot stop us. We are everywhere. We are Cadmus.'

In its trail, 'Cadmus' had shown pictures of Supergirl and Superman in their various fights. With that announcement, it shut down the screens and allowed everything to return to normal.

"Cadmus," Alex swallowed hard. "Announcing themselves to the world."

"Declaring open war," J'onn saw right away. "They want to kill us. All of us."

"Cadmus has my father…" Alex said quietly, "If they turned John Corben into Metallo, what do you think they've done with him?"

"We'll find him," Kara said determinedly, finally able to stand on her own. Anais still watched her carefully just in case. "And stop them."

"How?" Superman was stumped, a total first for the team. "Metallo isn't just flesh and blood anymore. Cadmus has given him a metal endoskeleton. Traces of the alloy had to end up on my hands when I hit him. I can analyze it at the Fortress of Solitude."

"Agent Schott, get Non and Astra's anti-kryptonite technology out of storage," J'onn directed, "See if you can improve upon it for our two friends here."

Winn was frozen for a few moments while the orders settled in his head. "I-I get to make Superman's new suit?"

"No pressure," Superman flashed him a smile.

There was certainly a considerable amount of pressure that Winn felt, but he didn't let it stop him. He rushed to get started on the job.

~0~

While the others got to work on their respective tasks, Anais received a text message from James who directed her to come to CatCo. Anais rushed into the busy bullpen, figuring the mess was to do with Cadmus' recent announcement. She saw Cat striding from one desk to another, although clearly upheaved from the mess she looked primp as always.

She went straight into James' office. " Hey James, you wanted to see me?" She stepped inside and closed the door, only noticing after how there were several boxes lying around the room. "Woah, what's going on? Re-decorating?" She sounded hopeful when she asked.

James chuckled and sat down at his desk. "Moving." Anais' eyes widened. "Don't worry. I'm just moving offices."

"Oh," Anais brought a hand on her chest. "Next time, lead with that!" She walked over to the desk and sat down.

"Sorry, I'm still trying to write my head around it too," James admitted. "But it is happening so I have to make sure all my affairs are in order and that is why I called you."

"Because I can move at the speed of light?" Anais said questionably.

"Listen, you're gonna find out about it soon because Cat will be making the announcement. She is taking a leave of absence from CatCo.—"

"What!?"

"—and so she's named me as the temporary acting director of CatCo."

"Woah!" Anais' eyes couldn't be any wider at this point. But James was still not done.

"As such, that means I have to now find a replacement for the position of the Art Director. Your name is on my list of possibilities."

Anais let out a breath, actually feeling like she was going to stop breathing at any moment. "James. Are you…are you serious? Are you serious right now?"

James shrugged lightly. "You have talent and I think you might make a good fit here."

"I am inexperienced," Anais corrected, "I mean…I've only been working here for a few months. Doesn't seniority come into play here?"

"Listen, Anais, the fact of the matter is i'm thinking of you as a replacement because of your perspectives." James leaned forward on the desk. "I know the whole ordeal with Lena Luthor and how it went down. You don't let yourself be influenced by what everyone thinks. I mean, even Kara got it wrong. The whole DEO got it wrong. You didn't. Your perspective on things gives the public a new light on our articles, our stories. I think with that mindset, you would nit-pick everything until you found the right pictures to tell the right stories."

Anais was baffled and speechless. No amount of time would let her come up with a decent response to everything that James had said.

James understood her completely. "You can definitely take some time to think about it."

"O-okay," Anais nodded slowly. "Can I…can I talk to Cat? A-about her leaving?"

"Yeah," nodded James, "just be discreet about it, okay?"

"Mhm," Anais promised and got up from her seat. She walked slowly to the door and stopped there for a moment. Her mind was racing. She eventually opened the door and walked out.

In her slow pace into the bullpen, she didn't see Kara fuming as she followed Cat herself into her office. It was only when she had already stepped inside the office that she noticed Kara's prescence.

"What is it now?" Cat looked at Anais expectantly. "And why does it look like your head full of air right now?"

Anais blinked a couple times in an attempt to get herself out of her thoughts. "Sorry, I, uh…" She looked back at the bullpen, "I just finished talking with James and—"

"Ah," Cat rested a hand on her hip, "You know as well."

Anais' eyes flickered to Kara who seemed quite distraught sitting on the couch, practically clutching a cushion. She knows too.

With that in mind, Anais went straight to the point. "Why are you leaving?"

Cat smiled dryly. "I should put myself on recording if everyone is going to ask the same question. As I explained to Kara already, I need to venture out into a new world. I've done everything I can for CatCo. and now I want to see what else I can do. It's only temporary."

"But…I mean…you want to leave!"

"Yes, I said that," Cat nodded, "And I plan on following through so make sure you play nice in your new position."

"New position?" Kara found her voice then and looked at Anais curiously. "What is she talking about?"

Anais drew in a breath, meeting Cat's eyes. "I don't know about it. Art director is a big leap from photojournalist. I don't have experience."

"Neither does Kara," Cat remarked, gesturing towards the woman, "But I'm going to let both of you in on a secret. Experience is great, yes, but talent is better. And another secret? Talent is not made by experience. You either have it or you don't. Now Allen," she snapped her fingers at Anais, "I've seen your work. I know talent when I see it. James does too. Don't be scaredy-cat and say no to something you'd excel at."

"Uh…thanks…" Anais felt like she would throw up under all the compliments from one Cat Grant.

"And as for you Kara," Cat's eyes shifted on Kara, "You need to go back to Carr and show him what you're made of. Now."

It was an order and no one would dare to defy Cat Grant's orders, not even Supergirl.

~0~

Anais admitted that she felt slightly more confident thinking about the offer that James made to her. She went home that evening with the intention of having a calmed night in her room to really think about things. She did not expect to overhear an argument between Kara and Alex, one that did strike her heart from both sides. When Alex stormed out of the apartment, Anais felt it safe to come out and see Kara.

Kara stood with her back to Anais, her hands pressed on the kitchen aisle.

"You want to move to Metropolis?" Anais was cautious as she approached Kara.

Kara wouldn't even pretend like she was surprised that Anais had overheard everything. She turned around instead, sighing heavily. "Doesn't it just make sense?"

"Permission to be honest?"

Kara nodded, motioning Anais to go ahead.

"It feels like you're running away," Anais said in one go. Ripping the bandaid, one would say. "You're afraid of Carr, you're afraid of being alone again. Don't get me wrong, I understand you have good intentions but I just don't think it's the right decision."

"Cadmus—"

"Would find a target regardless of your presence in the city," Anais said, "Just because they haven't mentioned me doesn't mean they won't. And I'm not going anywhere. I like this place."

Kara sighed and dragged a hand through her hair. "It's just that when I'm with Clark, I feel like I'm connected to somebody who actually understands what it's like to be me."

"I get that," Anais nodded. "I feel like that when I'm with Arun. But don't get me wrong, I also notice there's a couple discrepancies too. There are some things that nobody will ever understand about yourself. Like I said, I'll support you but…just really think about things first."

All Kara could do was nod and agree to the terms. With that, Anais bid her Goodnight and returned to her room.

~0~

Early in the morning, Anais and Kara got word that Corben was out again. He was near a freeway in the city's industrial district.

Superman reached the site first and found Metallo loading things into the back of a truck. "It's over, Metallo," he said as Supergirl and Solar arrived on the scene.

Metallo didn't seem threatened at all. "I am happy to give myself up for my cause. But it's not over. Not by any means."

"You make a move, we'll incinerate you," Supergirl warned him.

"Go ahead. But you'll still be here with me. And if you're here with me, then you're not in Metropolis with him."

Superman felt a dread in his stomach, figuring out the trap in a heartbeat. "It's a setup. We have to get to Metropolis."

"Go," Solar said without missing a beat. "Both of you. You don't have the anti-kryptonite gear anyways. Go."

Supergirl exchanged glances with her cousin then flew up with him.

Solar then took their position against Metallo, narrowing her eyes on him. "What is the point in all this? They're not the ones causing destruction. That's you — Cadmus."

"Don't be fooled by them," Metallo said, "You should open your eyes before you follow in their footsteps."

"What?" Anais frowned.

"The girl who is neither nor — Cadmus understands your condition and they see the future in you."

"Cadmus is a volatile project that should have never seen the light of day," Anais spat. "If it was twisted before, I can't imagine how it looks now."

"You misunderstand our mission," Metallo said, making slow rounds on her. "You yourself have been prodded with the intention of helping them. The aliens. But you're not like them. Cadmus sees that, knows it. Cadmus seeks out to recruit the gifted and what better recruit than the Solar hybrid?"

"Solar hybrid?" Anais actually hated it more than 'Golden Girl'. "I would never join you or Cadmus."

"Never say never. Cadmus always gets what they want, whether or not you like it."

Solar didn't want to listen anymore. She started vibrating in her spot, slowing time down around her. When she struck with a punch, the force was more than usual and threw Metallo across the place.

"I am never joining Cadmus!" She exclaimed, dashing towards Metallo.

The man got up in time and struck her with kryptonite from his chest. She flew back into the truck, crashing into the crates.

"Cadmus only wants to help!" Metallo said. "Rid our world of the infestation of aliens."

"I am an alien!" Solar flew straight for him. They entered into a combat fight where for a moment Anais gained an upper hand.

But he struck her with Kryptonite again, throwing her across the ground. She hit her head multiple times and with the grogginess, it slowed her down. Metallo reached her before she could stand and grabbed her by the neck. "Take this as a warning and a moment to think. Cadmus would like to welcome you whole but they are not against taking you in pieces. Your value is inside. We don't need you alive to study your insides." He dropped her on the ground and walked away.

~0~

Anais sat on a medical bed as a couple nurses helped clean her up from her battle. She was not concerned with herself nor her state, not when there were plenty of other things to be thinking about.

The city of Metropolis suffered a significant blow from a second Metallo. Superman and Sueprgirl were too late to stop the destruction.

Anais couldn't stop thinking about the conversation she had with Metallo either. Nothing made sense, not him, not his words nor his actions.

"Anais? Anais!" She heard the familiar voice but didn't quite match it until Arun rushed inside the room. "Oh my God, what happened to you!?" There were several cuts and bruises on her face and those were the ones he could see.

"Arun, how'd you find out?" Anais asked him, confused.

"Supergirl called me. What the hell happened?"

"The usual. Some psycho wants to get rid of aliens."

"It's that Cadmus thing, isn't it? The ones who ran the announcement yesterday?"

Anais nodded, and in doing so she felt an ache on the back of her head. "I'm fine."

"Mild concussion," one of the nurses informed the two. "You'll have to stay clear of the field until you're cleared. Even with your healing rate, it'll be a couple of hours."

"What?" Anais frowned at the news. "No, I have to go help Supergirl and—"

"You heard the nurse," Arun said sharply. "The Kryptonians can handle it."

"No, they literally can't." Anais hopped off the bed. "This guy's got Kryptonite as a power. It can kill them."

"They're going to have to figure it out because you're not going out there. Now more than ever, we need to continue training you."

Anais couldn't argue with that. She did have to train because she'd gotten her ass kicked so easily. That couldn't happen in the future, not if she was fighting Cadmus.

~0~

"I should be out there," Anais said, standing in-between Arun and Winn, overseeing the fight between Metallos and their team. Superman and Supergirl had backup in Alex and J'onn.

"No, you shouldn't be," both Winn and Arun said at the same time. At that, the two looked at each other curiously then back at the screens.

Anais was none the wiser. "I could help them."

"Not with a concussion, you can't" Arun said. "I've spoken to J'onn myself and he agreed to let us use the DEO as our training base. I'll be coordinating a schedule for us so it won't interfere with your duties here."

"Great, thanks." Anais couldn't find joy in anything right now. She was pretty bitter that she was benched and even more upset that Cadmus had won her this time.

What she did find peace in was watching their team defeat both Metallos. She was aware, however, that it didn't mean the Cadmus threat was over. That would just be ignorant thinking.

~0~

In the evening, after some coordination with Kara, Solar stopped by to bid goodbye to Cat Grant. She had to thank Cat for the wonderful article written about her. She may or may not have also promised to always refer to CatCo. for any future exclusives. She wouldn't be Cat Grant if she didn't ask.

Afterwards, Anais stopped by James' office — the old one — to talk about the offer. James was in the middle of packing when she knocked.

"Are you busy?" Anais slowly walked in.

"Nah, what's going on?" James motioned her to come over.

"I've been thinking about the offer," Anais said, and James immediately perked up. "I'll take it."

"Great! You'll see, you'll be fantastic!"

Anaís nodded. "I still want you to help me, though. I-I know you'll have like a gazillion other things to do but…but I could really use a mentor."

James chuckled. "No problem. I don't think you'll need a mentor for long."

Anais wanted to believe in his faith for her. She supposed it wouldn't hurt to try.

#ocappreciation #arrowverseocs #fd: supergirl #winn schott #supergirl fics #winn schott fics #winn schott imagines #winn schott x oc #supergirl imagines #supergirl ocs #oc: Anais Mjorkland #fic: sweet ambitions

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golden-holland · 1 year

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turning 21

I decided to reread the one I did when I turned 20 and apparently I also wrote it on the 31... I guess that some things just don't change? I had an exam on the 22 (which I passed! yey!) and then my brother arrived the next day and then christmas and... life. so. that's why im writing this 16 days later.

for my birthday I went to an Italian restaurant with my friends and I had a great time. they all wrote me letters which I read today (yeah, very late, I know.) and then I passed my final exam which was a very important milestone for me. but now, today, New Years, my father is in the hospital.

This year has been so hard. I guess that i finally digested the conclusion that its either a father with cancer or no father. it was so hard. I really spiraled when I finally realized that. I always thought about cancer as a thing of “right now” that we just have to deal with and then it will be over. but it won't. or it won't until my dad's death. Its been so hard feeling like you have to be strong for your family but wanting to cry all day.

I made a lot of friends at uni! finally! I went to classes, like, to the university, and it was great. at the begging I was very nervous but then I got more and more comfortable. I now have a group of four including me and friends from other grades as well. its ben nice. I like uni. I also made friends at my French classes. I've met people from other countries in my French classes and I loved that. I also started taking Croatian classes with my mom this year and that's been great. I think I would like to visit Croatia to study the language.

this year I started watching the owl house which became one of my favorite shows and I rewatched avatar the last Airbender (im still on season three though!). I watched many movies this year. more than ever I think. I love movies. I think I would like to make one. apparently I've watched 138 movies this year... wow. My favorite movie is still Before Sunrise. it also HAD to be the last one I watched this year. I love it. so. much. it was the movie that really got me into movies.

im still doing therapy and my therapist suggested medication for depression. I didn't take it. mainly because I don't want my mom to know that im not doing as well. she has to go through so much, and I think I can still manage. if things don't get better I might take the offer next year I think, but for now im doing what I can.

I've been recording my year, though not as much as I recorded when I was at school. when my dad got sick I stopped recording a lot (and I also started spending less time with my friends as well). i think I would like to edit my videos. I think I would like a videocamera, but they are so expensive.

my phrase this whole year was “im tired” and I hope that that changes next year, especially taking into account that I will be taking more classes and such. I also hope my father's illness will go into recession. I hope he doesn't have to be hospitalized more times and I want him to be happy. today I visited him in the hospital (because they won't let you have more than one visitor at a time) and he looked so... weak. I wish I could share with him my strength, make him feel better. but I can't. his birthday is in a few days but I don't know if he will be out by then. My parents said we could celebrate New Years after he gets discharged, since every day in 2023 will still be 2023 and we are the ones who decide when and how we celebrate. today im celebrating with my brother and my godmother (bless her.)

I knew my father had to get the nasogastric tube, but for some reason I didn't imagine that I was going to spend New Years without him. I don't know how many I've got left, and I really wanted this one. but I couldn't say that, so I said it was okay for us to celebrate on another day. He has to remain in the hospital to make sure he's fine, and apparently his chemo isn't working so he has to try another scheme, with another drug that might make him lose his hair. and im not worried about the hair, but about how he sees himself. it makes him so sad when people dont recognize him.

even with all this depression I would in a heartbeat volunteer to absorb his sadness if I could.

I have realized that when people my age say “I don't understand your situation...” instead of making me jealous or angry, it now only makes me happy. Like, im so happy you don't know what its like to have a parent with cancer. im so happy you don't have to go through everything that comes with this illness. I guess, as time goes by, I get more and more used to this illness and its impact. I don't know that ill ever be okay with it, but. I want inner peace.

I really do.

20 year old me, you had a tough year and you did what you could. and im so fucking proud of you.

#turning 21 #Sagittarius #21

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onyxheartbeat · 3 years

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Dear HIM/Ville Valo fans,

this is a long post but I must discuss this.

________

I came across this interview of Kat Von D from a few days ago. Before I get into my thoughts, below is a passage from her old book “Go Big or Go Home” which you may or may not have read. She wrote about Ville:

________

“I only knew his music, and I loved it on first listen. It was dark and it was beautiful. It was metal and it was poetry. It was love loaded into a gun, and I wondered about the man behind the songs. Two years later, our paths crossed, and like the majority of the connections I’ve made in life, tattooing brought us together. Through our first tattoo sessions, we began to get to know each other. For the next few years, I just thought of him as my friend from overseas, and that was all. Then, after knowing him for six years, something changed. It could have been the wine, the music, or the moon. Most likely it was just perfect timing. Just one kiss, and he changed my world. We were both sad back then, and lost. I was depressed, having finally ended a marriage that had been doomed from the beginning. I was also dealing with the pressures of filming a television show, which was totally new to me - and drinking my way blindly through it all. His story mirrored mine, and he had been feeling just as low. We had been waiting for something to happen, for someone or something to come along and save us from ourselves. And when it suddenly seemed that that someone was each other, it took us both by surprise. We shared darkness, and doing that bought light back into our somber worlds: for once, we didn’t feel alone.He’s the reason why I wanted to write music to begin with - and learn to sing. I remember the exact moment I made up my mind about making music. It was something I felt I needed to do, not for any reason other than a way to respond to him. It didn’t matter if the songs I’d write never saw the light of day, as long as he was able to listen to my music, my message to him. He had told me to look for a package at my door step, prefacing the delivery of the contents, his new album, saying, “These are all of the things that are easier sung than said.”I knew what he meant, but never imagined that each song would be filled with direct messages to me. I put the album on, and the music rushed out of the speakers and filled my house. His voice rang all around, making it’s way to the core of my heart with every word he sang. As cryptic as those lyrics may have been for anyone else, I knew exactly what each word meant and recognized every event and place he referred to. The songs were so beautiful, I just wished so badly that he could have said everything out loud just once to me. How should I respond to something like this? Where do I even start?The first time I saw him after I got sober, he was in town working on music. We sat in my office at the shop until the late hours of the night, talking and catching up about everything - music, home, art and work. Did we talk about love? No. We constantly danced around our past instead. What happened to us? I couldn’t find the courage to ask because I was scared of the answer I already knew. We decided to draw, with pencils and paper in front of us, we sat at opposite ends of the table. He pulled my three-minute timer from one of the nearby shelves, and placed it at the center of the table. He suggested we draw each other, and I was game. With a flip of the hourglass, the grains of sand moved from one vessel to the other, and we began.Sketching these timed portraits forced us to stare at each other, making it practically impossible to focus on the drawing itself. I had almost forgotten how beautiful his face was. He has a combination of eyes, lips, and a darkness to his looks that makes him look almost otherworldly. With him, I felt like I was at the center of an orderly, tranquil, magnificent universe. For those short three minutes, there were no questions about life or purpose. It was as if we never needed any more from each other than this.Like all people, I’ve suffered from love sickness and tasted the pain of love. The theatrical director of my mind, the one who staged all these versions of him and my life with him, seemed to be unaffected by reason. I was finding myself constantly day dreaming of the past.His eyes, his hands, his crooked smile - I’d ruminate over his features. Things he said. Things he did. Things he wrote. Things he drew. Things he sang. Over and over again, I’d sift through these images and memories as if they somehow contained the answer to my prayers. But I was living with a long-age memory of him; living so far away from the present moment.If we had spoken about what we were or what we thought we were, back when we got sober, I wouldn’t have been so confused, wandering what if, and writing the rest of our story in my mind. What did I expect? For him to magically not hear about me being in a relationship? And to not be bothered by it? If only he would have asked….. I would have….. If we could have only talked….. then things would be….. if we allowed ourselves to transform our fears of being open, vulnerable, then, I’d convince myself, we would be together. I realized that none of that mattered now. If I wanted to be free of this unrequited longing, I would have to make peace with the past and finally let it go. There was no way around it. But did I want to be free of it? - and him?I listened to one of his songs the other day. Out of all the songs he wrote on that album, this one was the most direct. He sings my name in the chorus. By the time the song is over, I’ve felt a range of emotions - I’m sad but happy, frustrated but calm. He sings about how I alone bring him to a place of stillness and peace within when we are together. What a victorious feeling - to enter into a place with him where no one else has been. To be able to bring goodness to and draw it out of someone. Those sweet thoughts were interrupted by an e-mail from him. Impeccable timing as always. It’s just a short note, letting me now he’s somewhere out there, thinking of me. He ends the message by calling me “Star Face” - his pet name for me from long ago that no one else uses. At that moment, I loathe him for it. I loathe him because I love him. Sometimes it feels like it would be so much easier to walk away from this if he’d just tell me that he hates me, that he wants nothing to do with me. But instead he calls me “Star Face.” There is no way he doesn’t know what he’s doing. He’s not letting go, either.‘Ultimately, it is the desire, not the desired, that we love.’The silver plane hurtled over Newfoundland, over the Labrador sea. Someone told me I might see the northern lights as I fly east and north, but I wouldn’t have noticed as I was deep in writing the letter that I had already mentally composed long before I decided to make this trip to see him over New Year’s Day. I didn’t have to edit myself this time, I knew exactly what the letter would say.I reread the note to myself before sealing the envelope. Then I drew out the first letter of his name in pencil on the front. What a beautiful letter it was, probably my favorite out of the entire alphabet. A letter I was so used to writing myself. With ease the swirls and curves of each arch seemed to flow from my heart, my mind’s eye, drawn in and through my arms to my hands, releasing themselves onto the pale ivory paper envelope. My plane landed soon after.I had missed this country, I had missed him, too. I wondered how time had treated him ,for it had been a few years since I had last seen him. I wondered if I still had the ability to quiet his heart when he was feeling manic. He always said I had a way of doing that when I was near. And I wondered if he even needed me in that way anymore.When we met up, he looked just as beautiful as the day we saw each other for the first time, almost ten years before. And as if no time had passed, we started right where we left off - hours flew by in the comfort of each other’s presence. Talking. Catching up.He asked if I was getting sleepy, and my attempt at concealing the tiredness was transparent. I looked at the clock; maybe it was the jet lag or the clock hands pointing to midnight, but I knew it was time to say good-bye. Reluctantly, we both stood up and tried our best to part ways. As good as it felt to be near him again, I gave him the letter I had written letting him know that I was letting the nation of us go. He took the sealed envelope, and then I watched him walk away for what I assumed would be the last time.My heart didn’t belong locked up in a tower across the ocean from my home. It belonged in my chest, beating, living, feeling, sometimes hurting, but always loving. I deserved to be free, and understanding and needing that more than a dream, I was finally able to let him go.”

_________

Now, let me start by saying, I’ve never understood this and I still don’t. I’ve had that passage saved in my drafts for years because I keep almost anything pertaining to Ville.

I’ve been a HIM fan since I was about 15 years old, and have followed Ville’s life and work closely. The friendship between them was always apparent to HIM fans in those days, because we saw her in photos with the band often. I used to watch Miami Ink and LA Ink as regularly as pretty much anyone in those days, and I remember when this particular passage of her book was brought to light, the HIM fan base read it and we all had our thoughts. We were all aware of Screamworks being written about Kat (it’s obvious in the lyrics of the album) even though Ville never specifically said Kat’s name when asked about it in interviews.

I remember being baffled back when we as HIM fans discovered this passage from the book. I couldn’t imagine not making that relationship work if it was true love. I’m a bit biased because I adore Ville and he’s like a dream to me, but I just couldn’t understand it. It seemed like she took the relationship for granted or she didn’t love him enough to make it work; but I digress. I get it; love and relationships are complex.

Still, flash forward to this recent interview (the screenshot), she says it was unrequited love, and I’m still not understanding it. Why release all the songs now? Why didn’t she make it work if it was true love? Who is she trying to say was the one not reciprocating (as the word “unrequited” suggests) in the relationship? I don’t understand any of it. More than anything, I’ve had so many questions that I wish I could ask Ville about it all because he only spoke briefly about it all, and it was always rather cryptic.

I’m only writing this as a HIM fan, and because I love Ville and his lyrics on Screamworks so, so much (it’s an extremely underrated album in the HIM discography, in my opinion) so I’m letting any fellow HIM lovers know she wrote an album in response to it, in case you’re interested. I haven’t followed Kat or her work in many years, so I don’t know what to make of all this, but it’s always been extremely apparent to me when listening to Screamworks that a lot of heart went into it and even pain, not that his lyrics on other albums aren’t like that too, but I felt it more on Screamworks. I feel that Ville was the one who was truly heartbroken.

You all probably know from following my blog that I’m obsessed with love and unrequited love. Any romantic stories, bittersweet letters, heartbreak, longing etc. is just my favorite thing in the world so please excuse the long post, haha.

#ville valo #him #h.i.m.#h.i.m #him band #screamworks #his infernal majesty

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aloeboba · 3 years

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SO, brain said todoroki working the night shift at a cvs during the summer or something and I think this has already been done, actually (but i don’t remember it so i’m not plagiarizing).

But the absolute chaos that could string from this whole thing. He’s probably a cashier.

First off, he would be so done with this thing.

Like the weirdos who come into gas stations at 3 am are the people he has to deal with

So we have one sleep deprived todo and like 30 sketchy customers with issues

“no ma’am, the coupon isn’t valid. in fact it’s been expired since 2008″

“no sir, i can only scan one coupon per purchase, per customer”

He probably has so many of those interactions that he does, in fact, take multiple coupons at once and expired extra bucks.

Although, when its much to late for our icyhot boy, he probably messes with people on purpose just because he’s bored and too delusional to act like a sane person.

*scans card* “it won’t go through” “oh well try again” “*scans card and it goes through* it won’t go through”

*scanning a pill bottle* “you know, I heard the yakuza was using this as a front for their quirk enhancers, didn’t end well though. Turned people into giant mosquitoes. You should have seen it. Couldn’t eave my house for a month.”

Someone: *grabbing a container of ice cream*

Todo: i heard there was a lawsuit against them. something about smuggling drugs through that exact flavor. Hid it in the caramel chunks.”

If he has to suffer so do they

He also gossips with the older women.

Todoroki is the kind of guy to probably actively flirt with the manager or boss or something to get on their good side or just to get a 50 cent raise

Upgrade: he cannot flirt that well. it’s probably confusing with mixed in Spanish words (?) but the manager finds his efforts cute and somehow flattering.

He definetly bumps into a poorly disguised dabi at some point at 4 am buying cheap hair dye

Todoroki: *eye contact*

Dabi: *nervous eye contact*

Todoroki: ...

Dabi: ...

Todoroki: that’ll be 10 dollars

Dabi: but it says 6

Todoroki: its 10 dollars

*staring continues*

Dabi, who doesn’t want to make a scene: FiNe *digging around in his pocket*

The manager doesn’t tell him that they hired a new night shift shelve stalker so when he hears rustling and footsteps, he just assumes its a big rat or smth

No not a big rat

A human??

Oh uraraka

At first its kind of awkward (especially because todo got so tired of the noise he came at her with a broom and lysol; it did not end well) so they just kind of acknowledge the fact that they know each by staring at each other for minutes at a time, even when he’s checking someone out

They finally decide to talk to each other and its only chaos from there.

They race each other in baskets through the isles and replace labels on shampoo bottles

They probably sniff the perfume behind the counter and rate the smells (once todoroki stole a sample), doing bad french accents and huffing them like they were wine (that didn’t end well though because they both needed sinus medicine afterwards)

Todoroki, doing a bad french accent: ah yes, stronk, woodsy, cheap...

Uraraka: mm-hm, airy and floral, just like the fabreeze I keep in my room

Todo: this one is, yes, yes... balsomic... vinegar that is. what is this?

Uraraka: mm, bubbly and familiar. ah right, like non-toxic scented glue.

Todo: this one is-- *coughing* the worst. I do not recommend this scent, Uraraka.

They were once caught by a someone and todo gave him a dollar to keep his mouth shut

Uraraka and todoroki end up bonding or whatever in the form of pranks and chaos and end up growing closer than they thought they would

They look forward to seeing each other

What i’m trying to say here is this is romance

Todochako fam

Like right now they’re in between dating and best friends (whatever you wanna call that. Will and Grace, maybe?)

Mitsuki goes on a late night run one night and probably recognizes him as katsuki’s classmate and surprised to see him working as cashier like “dont your daddy got money??”

“yes ma’am but i despise him”

She probably goes on a rant abt katsuki and work and he just nods along and throws in a few comments about his job or whatever

“you know, you seem like a nice boy, todoroki-kun. I wouldn’t mind if you dated my son”.

“no offense, mrs. bakugou, but i would punch him.”

They become fast friends

She invites him over sometimes, at some point meets uraraka and loves her also

unfortunatly i have no more to write because i can’t think of anything else but this was fun actually :D I think this is a really fun idea so i might (or if someone else wants to) write a fic about this but idk bc i’m what the kids call “unmotivated most days” so use what you want with these.

(also, i’ve never worked at a cvs before so idk if this is accurate)

edit: i was lowkey brain dead from working on a computer all day when i wrote most of this so honestly i have no clue whats going rereading it so i apologize for the literal weirdness and parts that make no sense so i make edit it later :\

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popculturebuffet · 3 years

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Scottrospective: Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together! or Days of Summer

Hello all you happy scottaholics! Welcome back to those of you who’ve read the rest of this retrospective and welcome to those of you just joining us. This is the Scottrospective, my look at all 6 volumes of Scott Pilgrim, the game and the movie. It’s all the video game refrenes, slice of life story telling and boob punches you can handle!

It’s been three months since I left off with “The Infinite Sadness” , and while I intended to cover this one for Valentine’s Day, my schedule got away from me and with March being full up, this ended taking till April

I”m not too put off by it though as the hiatus between these two reviews is fitting for this one both in story and out. In story there’s a couple month time skip between books, while out.. this book got delayed a few times.

This is notable to me at least because this was the first volume of the series I bought when it came out. As i’ve brought up before I came into the series via the Free Comic Book Day Issue and the second and third volumes, picking one up later. I still have my original copies despite no longer really needing them thanks to having the color editions in general. Always will provided something dosne’t happen to them. So this was my first instalment that I got to read fresh and got to wait for and be hyped about and i’d saved enough money that I was able to pre-order it. So the experince of waiting and waiting for the book only to keep seeing it slide back is vivid in my mind as is the frustration I felt having the one thing I COULD NOT WAIT FOR, keep going further and further back.

So with this long wait and the fact I bought this one when it came out, as I would for the next two which didn’t get delayed thank god, this volume naturally means a lot for me. When I wrote Scott Pilgrim fanfiction, this volume’s status quo is what I based it on. It was the coolest to me and the one I loved to reread the most. It has the most contained story, the most character growth at the time, and the best art due to Bryan’s style having finally hit it’s stride. Not that the art for volumes 1-3 is bad mind you, but it’s very clear his style was changing and shaping into what it is now with each one and while it’d change a bit more, this volume is where the style and quality everyone thinks of when they think of this series and the kind you see on various art done from it comes from.

So as you can tell i’m excited for this one. Before we get started there WERE two shorter comics released between this one both for Free Comic Book day, the first of which, Free Scott Pilgrim, is the reason I got into the series and the second, the Wonderful World of Kim Pine .. was both delightful and sets up Kim moving in with Hollie for this volume. Originally I intended to cover these in this review.. but I realized they wouldn’t of helped the pacing and this review is going to be way longer than my standard as is.

So instead I came up with the compromise. I did review them.. but as bonus reviews on my patreon. For just one buck a month you can read them and help me reach my stretch goals which now include reviews of Lost at Sea, Seconds and SnotGirl, aka Bryan’s OTHER comics. You can find my patreon THROUGH THIS LINK HERE if your intrested in the exclusives or helping me reach my reviews. I also intend to do an exclusive of Monica Beetle, a short comic Bryan did starring Scott’s dad in the 70s at some point so keep your eyes peeled for that, as well as the three strips he did of Style, the comic that gave us the prototypes for Lisa and Kim.

I will talk about their connections and setups for this volume briefly: FSP sets up the next ex as a ninja, with Roxy having a bunch of posters come to live and pummel our boy, while Wonderful World has Hollie tell Kim she can move in with her. It’s not much, hence why i made these exclusives but they are good stories, so check them out. And with that JOIN ME UNDER THE CUT, as we enter Scott’s world once more as he grapples with the past, employment, and saying the L-Word... which might be Lesbians. I don’t know. Find out bellow!

So we open Two Months after Volume 3 with a beach birthday party! Complete with Kim in a swim suit!

But it’s for Julie who lobs a volley ball at Scott’s head when he and Ramona try to make out.

I also dont’ know if “Manfiesting out of all the world’s collectives sorrows” counts as a “birth” necessarily but whatever. I love a good beach story. It’s just a fun setitng for swimming, romance and battling a giant crab with the help of the bird what lives in your backpack.

So after the beach our heroes get dinner and Ramona sweetly calls Scott the nicest guy she’s ever dated. He responds with “That’s sad”. Blunt, but entirely accruate. Julie calls it pathetic and tries to counter Ramona RIGHTFULLY saying “who the hell asked you?” something that really should come after EVERYTHING Julie said with “Back off bitch i’ts my birthday”

So later that night Sex Bomb-Omb has a beach sing along, and I can’t help but notice Neil’s hairy legs.

I mean yes it does make since for a 19 year old to have leg hair, but of all the characters besides Stephen, the ONLY other character we’ve seen it with to give it to, why the character you specifically single out as “Young” it’s just a weird choice I never noticed before.

But anyways Julie has to whine about it because she’s Julie, she can’t stand other people being happy and complains the song...

One of my faviorite moments of the series. Knives puts a nicer spin on it, she’s here too and not over with Neil because, as we’ll find out later they broke up, but she just asks if Knives should be drinking. She shouldn’t but for fucks sake lady she was just trying to talk. I also do like that despite Julie trying to control Ramona’s love life, you know the thing the VILLIANS are doing, Ramona cannot stand her now.. and honestly probably never did.

But Julie, SOMEHOW turns out to be right for once as Kim and Knives have disappeared later that night, and Scott elects to go look for them. Also Ramona says she wants to marry kim while drunk after Julie asks if she does. The throuple is strong with these three... serioulsy that’s my one true pairing for all three now. I mean it ballances out their collective flaws, it’s cute and Ramona is just as into her boyfriends ex as she is her actual boyfriend even when she’s not hamered. Why the fuck not?

Scott instead finds the two making out. I will confess I shipped these two when I was younger.. but I don’t. Not because their gay or anything or because I found another ship for them but because the age gap is still just as wide as it was for Scott. The game did not get this memo and made them a couple which is... ehhhhhhhhh. I mean I wouldn’t mind either being bi, but it just brings up the same problems even if their both hammered. I also question why this scene exists. No really outside of one face punchingly dickish comment from Scott later, this never comes up again and it doesn’t effect Kim’s or Knives character any. Why have this? it’s clearly not fanservice, it’s just a thing that happened. And while Scott Pilgrim as a series does have some of those, as does life and that’s fine.. this is a bit too major, i.e. Kim and Knives, two of the main cast, making out, drunkenly or not, to just.. gloss over you know? I feel Kim would feel majorly guilty for this, as she has the most active moral compass of the main group, and Knives would be massively confused but it’s just.. forgotten because I dunno. In a story that’s otherwise pretty stellar this stands out as an utter waste of potential. I’m not saying have them hook up, gay or not it’s still not better than what Scott did, but have them at least talk about it and have both grow or something from it. Sheesh.

So we cut to.. another day. Maybe the next day I dunno but it’s August. Point is Scott and Wallace are grocery shopping and Wallace notes they can’t get fancy mayo as their barely in budget. I would’ve glossed over this scene... but @panur pointed out back around the Infinite Sadness review that this scene reveals something very intrestng: Scott.. is kind of a fincial burdern to Wallace. Before this while Scott mooched off him it wasn’t all that clear that Wallace was struggling.

But here we notice that outside of some Havarti, it’s just the simplest stuff imaginable: turkey, bread, boxed mac and cheese ramen noodles... it’s nto BAD stuff, I have all of that in my house and it’s good stuff... but it’s not the kind of thing that you need to carefully budget for. Now granted part of this probably is Wallace as he likely spends a LOT on drinks, condoms and two 2 liters of diet soda a day.. but while he really needs to adress his alcohol issues, the rest is fair. He should be allowed to have as much sex and diet coke as he wants it’s his money. Same with the havarti. He earned it if he wants some really delcious cheese with herbs, seriously Havarati is the best, then that’s his bidness. But the rest of the time he’s barely managing to get a basketfull of cheap food.. because he has to provide for Scott. It’s clearly something Scott dosen’t get and something I can relate to not getting. It took me a while to get how hard it is to budget for a full family, let alone two people on one income like Wallace has to. But Wallace is working on a nice job... but still a call center or something. He can’t pay for everything and the finccial stress is about to give as their landlord wants to meet with them. And as we’re about to learn things were even worse than we thought.

Our heroes head home where we get a truly iconic conversation when, over margeritas (again proving my point that while Scott certainly isn’t HELPIGN wallace’s finacials, it’s not all on him)

This will be imporant later.. both the Lesbians part and Scott’s struggle saying it. he tried earlier on the beach but couldn’t get it out and Ramona clearly didn’t want to hear it as she kapt sshhhhing him.. playfully of course but still.

So some time later it’s moving day! Kim is moving into Hollie and Josephs, and Scott, Stephen and Jason are helping. You might be wondeirng who the hell Jason is. He’s Kim’s boyfriend. I do not likes him. Not because he’s kim’s boyfriend, getting upset because a fictional character you fancy is dating is just patently stupid. I’ts like getting upset a celebrity crush is in a relationship: you had no chance anyway why. I wasn’t even bothered as a kid. I don’t really like him.. because he has no real personaliy and no real baring on the plot and I struggle to think why Bryan included him other than for a really annoying plot twist next time, which does not help my liking him knowing what’s coming.

But while our heroes help our heroine move in, and Scott is suprised Hollie is there despite Kim having told him a minute ago she was moving in with her, something I can relate to sadly, we get something vitally plot important; Stephen passes Joseph’s room.. and notices he has a small recording setup in his room. Stephen quickly begs him to record the band’s album and Joseph agrees if only because he finds Stephen hot. Eh i’ve seen better relationships start on less, fair enough. And yes I said relationship more on that in a bit.

So after a brief scene of Scott and Ramona having lunch where Scott fails to know her age and when Ramona says he could just ask.. hea sks and she dosen’t tell, not a bad scene character wise just not very plot important and probably should’ve bene swapped in order with the previous scene, we get to the next day. There’s a heat wave so Wallace orders Scott to go to the mall maybe find a job. He emphasises that.

Instead Scott just sorta bums around thirst but nto having any money.. until an old face shows up.

For those who forgot like Scott has, it’s Lisa Miller from the Volume 2 flashback, the girl who had a crush on Scott and was close friends with him and Kim. After a tackle hug and some panic Scott eventually remembers.... if in a curiously unique and self serving way

At the time this was just hilarous. Now it’s very clear foreshadowing for the big twist in Volume 6. The two catch up while Scott is very clearly attracted to her but very clearly dosen’t want to be, with Lisa wondering where kim is, finding about Ramona, etc, before offering Scott lunch as the two catch up and Scott is very conflicted about how he feels. It’s nice visual stuff as he’s blushing, something more clear in the color version and trying to desperatley sort things out. As for why Lisa’s here she’s moving to the states soon, but is staying with her sister for now.

So after an incdental scene with Wallace we catch up with Knives, who has broken up with Neil. And after some talk about Clash at the Demonhead, Tamra notes Knives apparently put a big x on her shrine of Scott... which baffles Knifves as she sure as hell didn’t do it and is still, sadly, obessed with Scott as ever. Granted Tamra isn’t at all helpful here claiming she did it even when she says she didn’t, is clearly confused and while yes we don’t know who else would care Tams, that just makes it all the more creepy. Stop gaslighting your bestie, she’s already got enoguh issues. She dosen’t need thinking she might have a split personality on top of the stalking, obession over a guy who has no intrest in loving her back, and attempted stabbings. Knives dosesn’t get a ton of focus in this one sadly. She kind of takes a back seat, and while sh’es not GONE from the volumle and someone close to her does impact it, she dosen’t really have any personal progression, negative or positive, like she does in every other volume, a shame since her personal jouney is one of the most intresting of the main cast.

Anyways that night Scott hangs out with Lisa, having not gotten around to telling Ramona she exists yet and plays a game of find the Kim Pine. She goes to Neil’ and Stephen’s place for practice, but finds no one there and Neil being a dick... get used to that it’s going to get about 80 times worse soon enough. Though we do get this classic panel i’ve gotten some use out of

He goes to Kim’s place, but she , Hollie and Satan’s Misterss have all left to Sneaky Dee’s, the local mexican place, for something to eat and Stephen is either high or doing.. something with Joseph.

Yeah i’m not hiding that Stephen turns out to be gay in the final volume or cheating on Bitch and a Half with Joseph. And even if I hate Julie with the power of a frozen sun, I still dont’ think cheating on her is kosher. He could’ve just broken up with her and while part of it was likely confusion, and he could also be bi and not decided which one he wanted to be with, it’s still a dick move.. and later makes him a hypocrite but that’s a rant for next volume.

So our heroes FINALLY find Kim, along with Hollie and Mouthface. And a nice thing I like is that Kim and Lisa are just.. increidbly close, happily catching up and making plans to hang before Lisa leaves, that despite Lisa having feelings for Scott the two ended up as close and She and Scott did and i’ts sweet to see. it’s also just.. rare to see Kim GENUINELY happy. I mean look at her

It’s not like she HASN’T smiled across the series but normally she’s just so miserable, likely because her best friends are a grumbly asshole who forces them to hang out with a raging typhoon of bitchiness, and an insenitive asshat who she never got closure with. This is the first decent human being whose not Ramona or Hollie, and that last one’s not going to last, in a while. It’s genuinely sweet to just see her.. enjoy the moment for once, honestly engaged with someone. Ramona shows up and finally meets Lisa, who apparently was on Degrassi.. I mean she says candaian show no one ever watched, and I watched that plenty but i’d like to think she was on there for a season or two. I liked Degrassi.. I honeslty miss it and think it could use some form of revivial and think porting it to netflix was a smart decision.. what wasn’t so smart was not having the other seasons leading into it on there. Need to watch more of it.

So the next day Ramona stumbles into Scott’s dreams and both are annoyed, with Ramona suggesting he get a job. This finally gets him to try. He asks about Wallace’s work but understandably, he dosen’t really want scott there and asks if he even knows. So Scott sets out to ask his other friends for jobs, while Knives shows up saying she’s “totally not stalking him” but someone is following HER, a mysterious spiky haired dude in a black leather jacket, shades and with a sword on his back. Whu-oh.

He tries Second Cup, with Julie annoyed that Stephen’s recording.. it’s hard to tell if she’s annoyed because she’s a bitch or because Stephen is both gneuinely annoying right now and clearly screwing around behind her back. My take?

But Scott realizes maybe getting a job at his Sister’s place of work who also works with his arch enemy might be stupid and backs out. He next tries Kim’s, but backs out of that too, admitting to kim it’d be stupid and Kim lists off all the reasons (His lack of resume, the fact them working together would be stresful and his ountain of late fees) why that’d be stupid, but in a jovial way. For once i’ts clear that while she’s still taking the piss out of them she isn’t mad at Scott.

In fact she genuinely helps him get a job, taking him to Stephen’s work since hers is dead right now anyway, a vegan place. While Scott naturally compares things to a job system as he’d start as dishwasher while Stephen taught him prep, Scott agrees to genuinely take this seriously and Stephen’s boss decides “eh why not” when he asks her to employ him. Scott is gainfully employed baby! God I miss that. Seriously i’m not pimping my patreon for shits and giggles.

But as he celebrates and Kim wishes she could punch his life in the face, they run into some trouble on the way home: Katana man who slices a motherfucking bus in half and chases them, with Scott reluctnat to fight because he has a sword and Scott does not, which is valid. He does escape though using subspace. He and Kim part awkardly and he returns home to Wallace throwing a party with two intresting charcters, a woman and a man of color, one of the few in the entire work, who are never seen again.

The next night is practice.. or rather recording, and we start to see Neil get edged out, with him unable to come due to exams and clearly not happy about it, and Stephen just kind of ignoring anything he cares about like the dickhead he is. It dosen’t get any better as “recording” ends up just being Scott, Ramona, and Ratfaced Knacker watching bored with Joseph and Stephen work. Eventaully Scott and Ramona decide to get out of there as things are getting tensed between thing one and thing bitch, and leave.. and take Julie with them for some reason.

So the three have dinner with Lisa, Kim, and Jason before The Mummies Curse thankfully leaves. Jason thought they were friends.

We also get this exchange.

I mean.. she is the better option. She his THE option. But before we can get the obvious answer of

Stephen comes in with Knives. He smuggled her in. This leads to problems when Scott returns from the bathroom to find Queen Bitch throwing a bitch fit about him having brought her and screechs at her when she dares to talk to him “How do you even know my name?” Well Ted Cruz, you see when someone is an actually thoughtful and likes other people, they keep track of things about them and don’t constnatly tear them down or assume their partneer is automatically bonking a 17 year old instead of you know, actually forming something of a friendship and not shutting her out sensing she needs this friend group. Some people are not vacous piles of vitriol who care about nothing but themself and seem to go off at the slightest thing.

Scott takes Ramona home but finds a drunken barely awake wallace so no sexy times. Not that he could anyway as the next day is the meeting with Peter their landlord.

Peter reveals they’ll have to clear out by the 27th as their lease was for one year and their paid up.. as in only the first and last month. The two part melacholy knowing this sucks and isn’t a great situation. Then it’s time for Scott to work work, angelica, work work, eliza and peggy. After grueling day, can relate, he runs into a wisp on teh wend and steels himself for a fight.. okay he bitches about it being too hot but it’s Scott. so it’s expected. He does get a hit in on his mysterious persuer.. and that’s when we meet Roxy.

Via boob punch, something Scott’s not proud of but in his defense, as Roxy keeps complaning about it, he was blindly struggling for a hit and din’t know the next Ex, or any of them, were female.. not that Ramona didn’t suggest it loudly enough by empahsising “exes” but scott’s a bit of a fuckwit. She mentions “everyone allways remmebers you”.. which is kind of ominus and tells me she tried to hook back up with ramona despite her having a boyfriend and she rejected her. Still on good terms though. But this confusing encounter ends with Roxy vowing she’ll get him next time gadget, next time.

So we get some assorted slice of life scenes with the band, lisa and what have you as Scott tries to get in touch with Ramona but she keeps avoiding him. THat’s not worrysome at all. And Lisa brings up high school while drunk and clearly hits on Scott. He sidesteps it with her drunkness.. but this clearly isn’t over or going to stop being a problem.

Speaking of problems Wallace makes Scott confront the truth: He either needs to find a new place to live or commit to staying, though Wallace is trying to nudge him toward asking Ramona to move into her place. Scott starts thinking it over, it being very hard especially since, as Stephen points out this was his very first place of his own.. but Stephen also points out these things are temoporary.. right before Scott ducks from katana guy.

At work Scott wonders who it could be, though it turns out Stephen’s met him before, as he’s brought his family in here. So he’s PROBABLY not one of the exes.. but it leaves the question why he wants to cut Scott in half like Dewey Cox’s brother. But it turns out he’s nto the only enemy Scott’s casually running into as Roxy is there too.. with Ramona.

The two talk, clearly about Scott and Lisa with Roxy trying to convince her he’s cheating and Ramona rightfully trusting Scott: while he IS attracted to her, he’s been fighting it every step of the way. Scott storms over to find out what’s going on and while Ramona is more distracted by his new job, she eventually realizes Roxy did attack him and he simply dscribed her poorly when he mentioned the incident over the phone. Scott is confused as he dosen’t get it. Is she with one of the exes what? After some hiinting from both parties, and Roxy rightfully mocking him for not getting the obvious... he finallyg ets it in the grandest way possible.

So Roxy gets ready to fight and Scott can’t because sword, and gets fired in the background as he hides in Ramona’s bag and Ramona prepares to step in. Roxy screams at her for trusting him and defending him when Ramona.. just dosen’t her boyfriend to be bisected by her ex. A fight insues and a damn cool one at that. I honestly wish the movie had taken more from this, but simply didn’t have time leading it to instead be more like the envy fight with a bit of the Winfried Hailey fight from Free Scott Pilgrim.

Roxy chases her and Ramona rightly points out Scott can’t run forever but takes him into Subspace.. where Roxy heads them off, having “taught you everything you know bitch” leading to a cool fight in the wintery version of subspace. Again why THIS wasn’t used instead I have no real idea. We also find out she’s a half ninja but she eventually leaves afer Ramona presses that button.. but Rammy is actually apologetic about it and Roxy’s “I hope you and your 24 children are happy together comment” is telling.

Upon this readthrough of the volume.. I realized Roxy is the most layered and intresting of the exes next to Gideon himself. None of them are out and out terrible, but most of them have pretty simple motives: to kill Scott, ???, profit. Or in Todd’s case to kill scott, bang around and be a dick. But Roxy.. genuinely wants Ramona back. She’s the ONLY one who does: Gideon kinda does, but only in the sense that he wants her for his collection. But Roxy geninely still loves her, admitting so during this fight. And it’s not like she has no chance: out of the 7 exes she’s the ONLY one who parted with Ramona on anything resembling good terms. While intrestingly we don’t find out WHY they broke up, Ramona didn’t cheat on her like she did everyone else she was with. The two have coffee and hang out and Ramona geninely dosen’t even consider until Roxy tries to attack Scott that she’d really try killing him and tries her best to talk her out of it. But what holds Roxy back is her anger: She’s so bitter about the fact Ramona is bi or pan, so dedicated to viewing Ramona’s very orintation as a betryal (though Ramona calling it a phase dosen’t help and the movie RIGHTLY has Roxie comment on it and fly into a rage over it), and so driven to make sure the woman she loves dosen’t get hurt again that it blinds her to the fact Ramona dosen’t love her the same way anymore, and that while Scott is objectively a dick, and a cheater, and a greasy buttcrack pooflap, he is not a terrible person. A meh one sure, but he’s got good to him. She’s so biophobic she simply can’t see he’s a harmless moron.. well harmless to Ramona even with the cheating. He’s killed two people at this point and will kill again. Also she apparently has issues with only being a half ninja but this is never adressed. Point is Roxy’s really grown on me and is now probably my faviorite ex.

Scott and Ramona talk it over on their way to Sneaky Dees and Scott finally asks to move in and gets a yes. His response is downright adorable.

So at Sneaky Dee’s Young Neil is just a bit absolutely irate with Scott.. which isn’t fair as them not playing things is entirely on the blocky face asshole. Yell at him.. which he does, pointing out that they haven’t played shows in forever, and that the lady who owns Sneaky Dees not only runs shows, in the upstairs space, but has been asking them to play. Kim is rightly curious about this and to both Stephen just keeps saying “We’re recording right now.” And some of you may of wondered why I hate him. Well while he’s not exctly stellar in the first half in the second Stephen becomes goddman insufferable, slowly destroying the band for his affair and not giving one iota of a shit what anyone else wants. He’s a selfish, egomanical cheating prick. And yes I get it their recording an album.. but doing live shows would give them extra practice, MONEY, even if likely not a lot and exposure for said album. I get professoinal bands stop touring for a bit to do an album but you are not a professional band, and said bands still often iron out the album on the road. God you suck.

But while Scott sidesteps this argument he walks into another where Ramona confronts him about lisa about liking her.. and he rightly says if there was anything, which there was not it’s in the past. And while yes he is a cheater, she does not know this yet. This plot honestly would’ve worked better if she learned about the knives thing sooner, but instead she just comes off as paranoid for listening to Roxy about something that isn’t happening. Yes Scott’s been shown to be attracted to her.. but he’s been ashamed of it, fighting it and in denial about it, and is clealry all in with Ramona. Being attracted to someone else on a phsyical level does NOT mean your relationship is doomed.

Things get worse as he goes home to ruminate.. and instead sees a man’s Penis. And Wallace..is at his second most unsymapthetic, not letting Scott get a shirt or a bus pass or something like a decent human being for no goddamn reason. Usually when Wallace is a dick to Scott, Scott’s earned it and badly needs a slap in the face. Here he’s just being a prick because.. the plot needs him to? I dunno it dosen’t work for me. It’s in character, I just don’t have to like it.

So with no other options.. Scott ends up at Lisa’s. And so we get the last temptation of Scott. Lisa admits, embarassed that she’s been wearing sexy dresses and what not specifically to attract him, with Scott also mentioning how things are rough, Lisa tries to fight it herself pointing out he’s with ramona.. and when Scott points out they didn’t do anything in the past Lisa points out they should’ve.. and maybe they should now.

We fade to black as Scott ends up in a dream and finds Roxy, who naturally has the same skill and tries to Freddy Kruger him before he wakes. He finds Lisa but they didn’t do anything: Scott pushed her away and babbled about how much he loved Ramona instead. As i’ve said.... his heart was never with LIsa... and even when he was so close to giving in he couldn’t. It’s a tangible sign of growth: He screwed around on Knives with Ramona, and given how bad things were getting with Ramona, it would be oh so easy to once again ditch a relationship the minute he found something else and oh so understandable. But... he dosen’t. He loves Ramona even if he hasn’t said it, he wants to make this work, and he’s changed. She’s changed him. He’s not quite a good man yet.. bu he’s getting to be good enough. Love turned him from a skeezy dumbass into a far more loveable dumbass. Ramona’s gotten him to stop dating a teenager (even if again he cheated), face his past with envy to finally move on and now get a job. He’s realized just hwo much she means to his life and world and so he goes to tell her.

Riggghtttt after going to get his job back and works a shift, with steven wanting to punch his life in the balls. Stephen shut the fuck up. Just because Scott is lucky and your stuck dating satan’s scrotum does not mean you get to punch his life int he balls. Kim does, because he’s put her through more shit but not you.

He goes to second cup to talk to Stacey.. only to end up at the wrong one where Knives also now has a job... and we finally get an answer to who the mystery katana guy is...

Yup turns out wielding giant weapons in vengance runs in the family. As for how he knows about Scott her aunt mentioned her boyfriend, everyone freaked out and obviously while her mom was mentioned as knowing in volume 1, they did not tell her dad whose brain turned into an engine of vengance and defaced the shrine. While part of it is apparnetly racisim for Scott being white the fact is he clearly saw Scott’s photograph. The guy is 5 years older. I get him being protective. Still dosen’t justify cutting off his head. His balls maybe but not his head.

And then Scott ran, once agian finding a subspace entracne.. and this time we see inside ramona’s head and well...

Yeah.. that’s.. kind of fucked, and Ramona isn’t happy scott saw that, though she backs down once Scott explains..a nd then gets upset over him staying at Lisa’s but before SCott can tell her he loves her it turns out Roxy stayed over. So yeah, Ramona might of cheated, she tells him to alk it off and he runs around in a psycadelic haze of emtoinal confusion. And meets.. someone new...

Scott snaps out of his funk and ignores his doppleganger heading back for Ramona... whose fighting Mr. Chau. Scott left the door to Ramona’s head open and he followed him through Subspace. Scott lures him into the house and away from her only to run into Roxy. This leads to both of his attackers fighting and her wondering if Gideons ent him “Why does no one ever belivie in me?!”

She soon realize no i’ts just unrelated and calls Scotto ut on hiding behind not having a sword and behind her being a woman, caling it a flimsy excuse. I mean she’s tring to kil lhim. It’s okay to hit an enemy combatant. Scott realizes he has to stop running... and get real with ramona leading to a truly epic, romantic and heartfelt speech and given how far he’s come and just how heartfelt it is it’s a real sign of how deep he feels. Sure we’ve seen genuine chemstiry between the two.. but htis moment is a shit.. from a simple relationship.. into true love.

I may of only had a few but Relationships are not easy, They take work, they take time, they take patience and theyt ake love.. but if your willing to work with someone, look past some flaws and help them with the rest.. then it’s worth it. And Scott has finally realized it and for the first time in a while is running TOWARDS something difficult, actually working on this relationship and talking with his partner instead of running finding someone else or wallowing. He’s truly grown up. While he still has miles to go.. he’s taken about 50 steps forward with this. And as such given the kind of unvierse we’re in, as Ramona is genuinely touched by it he levels up a glowing sword with a heart shaped hilt coming out of his chest.. and realizing what’s happening he pulls it out....

So Scott faces off with roxy and in an awesomly short battle, their sords clash.. and he bisects her.

Scott then honestly talks down Mr Chau who leaves after a nod, and Ramona tells Scott she loves him two. The two make out and all is well.

One make out fades into another, as we cut to Scott moving in with Kim and Blockhead’s help. Well kinda they only had one box but they owed him one. He and wallace comiserate over the end of their time as roomies. They’ll always be friend but it’s truly the end of an era. Also Wallace gets off another bit of dickery as he’’s very glad it all worked out for scott...

Now there’s the Wallace I know and love. Dickish but just the right loveable kind of douchebag with that swagger.

Back at Knives house she’s apparenlty into somebody though who I have no idea, Mr Chau give sher his blessing and she.. apparenlty doesen’t know chinese. I dunno. As I said her subplot this go round was her weakest overall.

And so we end with the whole gang gathered to see Lisa off. It’s a REALLY nice shot, and one of the only times Wallace is seen with the Sex Bomb omb side of the group. Oh sure he goes to their shows and what not, but generally their never in the same vincinity so while there’s no interaction I still find this neat. Seriously the whole main cast is there, it’s a really lovely shot

Also Jason and Hollie.. who are getting awfully chummy. Whu Oh. And of course Craphole and Mouth Face are as likeable as ever.

So we jsut get a genuinely nice sene. Except Stephen and Julie reconciling. Fuck that. Please move on. And as everyone fondly wishes Lisa adeu and wish she stuck arond the res tof the series we end on Scott and Ramona snuggling, Scott asking her her birthday and finding out she’s 24, and they both will be come september. Scott wishes this moment could last.

They probperly snuggle as the volume ends on a high.

Final Thoughts:

Yeah.. Gets it Together is, on rexamination, DEFINTELY my faviorite of the 6. Besides personal value i’ts hte best contained story, contaning lots of character development, great character moments, jokes, and EASILY the best art so far, with goregouness and creativty abounding.

There is a problem here or there: Stephen and Julie’s subplot feels underbaked, and not just because I hates them, and there are several scenes that don’t further plot or character stuff. Ther’es also stuff that could’ve been expanded on.. but given this is still a pretty meaty graphic novel, it’s understandable why it wasn’t.. though it is why I’d love a streaming series since while the movie is excellent, a full series could expand on stuff from the books more Brian simply didn’t have time for. Knives also didn’t get a lot to do.

But their drowned out by tons of great decisions: Lisa was a wonderful additoin to the cast and I genuinely wish she’d stuck around, adding in some energy, blending well with the Sex Bomb Omb crowd, and having great dynamics with everyone and her arc with Scott is heartbreaking,knowing she can’t have him but wanting him anyway having never gottne proper closure on the man she’s always wanted. She’s a heartbreaking character and its nice to see her end in a decent place and on good terms with Scott, having let him go for both thier sakes.

And while Lisa is a highlight everyone is on their a game here for the most part apart from knives, girl hitler, and captain dumbass: Scott grows signfigantly but is funny as hell, Wallace has an intresting arc trying to nudge Scott out without being overt about it, scared to really confront him, Kim is in a happy and serene place for once and it shows. The villians are also intresting: While Mr Chau is a tad underbaked, he’s sitll a cool imposing presence. I do think he shoudl’ve had more to do with the plot.. but is still just so freaking cool it papers over that and him just.. disappearing after this like poor Lisa.

Roxy is far more intresting, having clearly more going on than we see and while I wish we’d got her backstory, she’s easily the most engaging of the exes, being the only one to actively compete with Scott (All her and ramona end up doing is making out a little it turned out), and have bigger stakes than just “The glasses wearing douche asked me to beat up my exes boyfriend and I was like alright.

All in all Gets it Together is really magical, the series high point, and just damn fun and it was a pleasure to go through

Next Month on Scott Pilgrim: It all falls down as we take a look into what once was my least faviorite Album, vs the unvierse. Two perfect assholes try and murder scott with Robutts, his relationship and band crumble and things get sad so very very sad.

Next on this blog: More LIlo and Stitch! The Proud Family come to Kauai and get into a fight with our heroes. Also wizard kelly... who if nothing else is now far more tolerable now i’ve had to spend another volume with the wicked bitch of the west. Touche universe touche. See you at the next rainbow.

#scott pilgrim #ramona flowers #wallace wells #roxanne richter #knives chau #stephen stills #julie power #mr chau #stacey pilgrim #neil nordgraf #young neil #comics #oni press #scotrospective #lisa miller #kim pine #jospeh

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kineticallyanywhere · 3 years

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got tagged by @writingondaisies!

How many works do you have on AO3?

14 (there’s one I should move from ff.net soon, but it’s not there now)

What’s your total AO3 word count?

270,817

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

In order of recencey... Dungeons & Daddies, RWBY, Red vs Blue, The Flash/Arrowverse, Danny Phantom, Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja, (back into ff.net days, Kim Possible, American Dragon: Jake Long, a Percy Jackson one-shot... another thing... Warriors)

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Mind over Matter (Red vs Blue)

Fourteen, and four thousand, years old (RWBY)

Flying, falling, stand your ground (RWBY)

The Way Out (Red vs Blue)

Washin’Boose (Red vs Blue)

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I try to for long-running fics and for especially long or intense comments, but I’m usually just so nervous ;<; they all warm my heart tho, there is not one that I haven’t read more than once

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

I’m typically allergic to straight tragedy, but... I think probably Put your Stampler in a box (D&Dads), since the whole thing is a hypothetical lead-up to a magic teenager going on a rampage. Mind over Matter has a really emotional ending, but I like to think it’s more bittersweet than straight angst. Fourteen, and four thousand, years old swerves into angst, but nobody’s dying or anything so... yeah!

Do you write crossovers? If so what’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Heroes Under Drinking Age is the incomplete MASSIVE thing which is supposed to ultimately crossover Danny Phantom, RC9GN, American Dragon, and Kim Possible. I hit a hard writing wall on the ADJL and KP side and just never got over it :( I still dream of finishing it

Oh I guess there’s also a TMA-D&Dads crossover I’ve put some thought into, where after s5 Jon and Martin land in Faerun to replace The Library, and they get to decompress in this strange world, meet the Likelys, and hear about the eldritch-adjacent beings from other worlds.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Nope! (knocks on all the wood) at least not if you’re not counting someone pointing out spelling stuff unsolicited or stuff like that.

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

n o p e

when I did Demons not sold separately (D&Dads) they kiss like two times and talk about the prospect of doing more, but it doesn’t go anywhere cause there’s kids nearby. I tagged it as “ace writing allos” just in case, cause boy howdy do I not know what I’m doing in that department ^u^’

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not that I know of? I wouldn’t know where to start checking for that and if it’s happened, no one’s told me about it

Have you ever had a fic translated?

only in my dreams

Washin’Boose got a pod-fic tho!!

What’s your all time favorite ship?

I don’t ship too much and I slide around a lot when I do, but Clark KentxLois Lane 4ever

Whats a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Heroes Under Drinking Age, my beloved...

I’ve also got a number of AUs for DnDads, some with enough written that I may as well post some of the stuff as one-shots to maybe expand on later. One is a high school au where Hen (14) comes to Earth early, another is an exploration of what it might be like to be a sort of demi-god descendant of a chaos entity with the Doodler Cult coming back (called Puberty, ????, and You). Idk if Done Sons and Dragons counts, cause that’d be a whole comic. I’d love to publish something of at least one of these

And then there’s a half-baked idea for Yet Another Oscar Time Travel AU for RWBY, that would take place starting after v8 and would feature Oscar and Emerald traveling back to the series start (on purpose.)

What are your writing strengths?

I’ve gotten quite a few compliments on my prose and scene pacing! I like writing prose like it’s the thought process of the character I’m following, and I often find myself getting a bit poetic about it. I’m a big fan of parallelisms and using repetition for impact.

I also put a lot into trying to match the original tone of the content I’m writing fic for, and have gotten quite a few compliments on my character dialogue. I just get their voices in my brain and they don’t leave. On only one occasion have they paid rent. The freeloaders.

What are your writing weaknesses?

I bite off more than I can chew and never finish

I worry a lot over making sure emotional beats connect, and that it doesn’t feel like I’m jumping from point A to point C, and I’m afraid that makes me over-explain point B. Like I was rereading HUDA: Alpha after I posted it to ao3, and I have a lot of grace for my high school self, but some parts of that fic could have been smoothed out quite a bit. Parts of Mind over Matter are a bit wordier than they needed to be, too.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I feel like it’s best done by people who are fluent in a language. Language isn’t just changing words from A to B, it comes with cultural connotations and altered meanings and layers that are only going to come across perfectly when it comes from someone who knows exactly what they’re talking about. so like if I were ever to use more than a few words or a common phrase in another language in a fic, I’d find someone who actually speaks it to help me out.

as for how to format it... if the meaning needs to be understood by the reader, you may as just put it in the fic’s main language and alter the formatting (like with itallics) or dialogue tag to denote that they’re speaking another language. If it’s small bits, I don’t super mind footnotes at the bottom or just leaving it untranslated, like a special bit for people who speak the language or are willing to look it up.

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

warrior cats! me, my best friend, and my older sister all had OCs and were part of RainClan, our OC clan. Their camp was made in the trunk and branches of a big willow tree that made a kind of sheltered dome. I didn’t even know what fanfiction was back then

What’s your favorite fic that you’ve written?

Mind over Matter. Hands down. For one, it’s actually done. That would put it in contest with The Way Out, which is also multi-chapter and complete, but MoM is WAY longer and took SO much more work but was SO worth it. It started as just scratching an itch and then grew into something that helped me prove to myself that I can do a long-term project, including themes and foreshadowing and narrative hootenanny and character arcs and character relationship arcs. the html coding. It was a great time, I’m so proud of it, editing it helped build one of my best friendships, and there is nothing I would trade that experience for.

tagging @aryashi, @cinaed, @hedgiwithapen, and @glowstickia

#sorry i missed this for a few days!#takes me a while to check my mentions #tag games #about me #my writing #me talking

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queenestarcheron · 3 years

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acomaf review

so i recently reread acomaf and i made a post about everything that i liked/didn’t like (more of the latter). i also started another one so some of that is repeated in here. i have referenced page numbers but they are all from the uk paperback edition so i don’t think they will be the same for everyone. it’s all chronological. there will probably be typos since i wrote this on a whim pls ignore them. this is quite anti rhys so if that bothers you just ignore this and pls don’t attack me for my opinions.

(pg. 24) feyre says "I don't know if I can handle them calling me High Lady." implying that she doesn't even want to be in a position of power in prythian. is that the trauma talking? tamlin also says that there is no such thing as high lady which makes no sense bc high lord power is hereditary so it should be able to go to women too. also this makes rhys making feyre high lady make no sense.

(pg. 29) poor lucien i cannot believe his brothers did that to his girlfriend

(pg. 48-49) feyre threw a shoe at rhysand and all im saying is that, if nesta threw a shoe at cassian, they would try and flay her alive

(pg. 73) rhys says there can be high ladies... but there never was one?? how does he know they can exist? it doesn't add up. again, if a person could just be given the high lord power, then what is the point of having the high lord bloodline

the 90 pages in between are just feyre getting upset and rhys saving her from the spring court

(pg. 163) i am diSGOSTED "You know I'm always happy to tangle in the sheets with you Amren ... I know how much you enjoy Illyrian-" seriously?? i don't think this is a normal friendship dynamic. also we hear about how dangerous amren is but cassian literally just made this comment and she did nothing. and we dont see her do anything to others at all. the only thing to suggest that she's a powerful being was the end of acowar

(pg. 169) amren calling the illyrians "barbarians" does not sit right with me

(pg. 209) "They might not be happy about it, but I'll make Nesta and Elain do it" you'll make your sisters risk their lives and status? to help the fae? the race that enslaved humans for centuries? okay feyre. everyone's right, youre a great sister

(pg. 215) rhys offers feyre sex with cassian? how are the nesta stans the ones that don't gaf about cassian when his own friend (who he considers a brother) says this about him? i don't think after 500 years of knowing him and liking him nesta would say any of this

(pg. 229) cassian gets mad at rhys for endangering feyre's life for no reason and then rhys says "you would do the same" like nO SIR NO HE WOULDN'T

(pg. 246) feyre says nesta looks older in her eyes. she's obviously been affected by her sister running away with the fae and her and elain even thought she was dead. don't try and tell me that she doesn't care bye

(pg. 255) cassian's dinner table speech about how feyre died for the fae and nesta should stop being a bitch. um, sir your people enslaved hers for CENTURIES? and you want to play the fucking victim? okayyy sure. have fun with that

(pg. 280) rhys doesn't make his people play the tithe but he lets them live in tents in snowy mountains? while he lives in comfort? and im supposed to support this guy? hard pass for me

(pg. 288) rhys stalks about keeping velaris a secret and says "My people do not seem to be suffering much from it." basically ignoring the people in the hewn city and illyria as his people? tehy are all hated by the rest of the courts and apparently rhys is just cool with that bc velaris is fine.

(pg. 326) all i want to say is that cresseida deserves so much better

(pg. 361) okay lol jurian was "obsessive" in his pursuit to free his people. why couldn't he just be chill about it? his people could wait you know. he didn't hav eto go batshit crazy. it's not like they were servants their whole lives and were being treated like they weren't people.

(pg. 377) okay so this is when cassian comes back from giving nesta the letter (wings and ember) and he says something about how the family is full of "bossy, know-it-all females" my mans you invaded HER PERSONAL SPACE and asked her intrusive and inappropriate questions. she literally did what any other woman would have done.

(pg. 386) rhys fully says "neither side is innocent" when talking to the mortal queens BOI THE FAE KEPT THEM AS SLAVES WHAT DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND STOP TRYING TO SOUND OPPRESSED OMG

(pg. 393) they are talking about how miryam and drakon fell in love when she was still with jurian and apparently it's jurian's fault bc he was too obsessed with liberating the humans? you can say what you want about them fighting for the humans but it's clear they really don't give a shit

(pg. 398) feyre hears mor's story and says that she understands why rhys can't forgive nesta. she actually just compared what mor's family did (trying to marry off mor and nailing a note to her body and leaving her at the autumn court) to what nesta did (was mean to feyre when their family was in poverty and didn't stop feyre from hunting). chilee wut

(pg. 415) the court of nightmares scene and all i want to say is DID ANYONE IN THE HEWN CITY CONSENT TO SEE THAT. also their high lord using women like objects isn't exactly sending his people the best message, especially the youthful ones. like if their ruler is doing it, then why shouldn't they? rhys is kind of making it worse for women ( at the very least he isn't helping AT ALL)

(pg. 443) mor says that she hates the illyrian mountains and says that they should be "burned to the ground", completely forgetting about all of the people there, the culture and the fact that she has 2 and half illyrian friends

(all of chapter 54) rhys tells us his sad backstory and a bunch of excuses but never apologises for his actions utm. am i supposed to excuse sexual assault because he was emotionally distraught? bc im not going to do that

(pg. 548-553) nesta stands up A LOT for the humans and tries to convince the queens to give them the book. we see a lot of her humanity in this scene. don't tell me she's just a cold bitch please read with your eyes and see for yourself. ALSO THE NESSIAN BIT ON PAGE 553 LETS GOOOO

(pg. 559) feyre talks about how nesta feels everything too much and i just want to ask where this feyre was in acofas when her sister was off in the deep end with her ptsd

(pg. 589) jurian is called a monster for literally no fucking reason omg give my guy a break

(pg. 606) lucien helps elain when she is fae and on the ground soaking wet. this is all before he finds out that she is his mate. this is why we stan <3

please feel free to comment on/challenge anything ive said. you can try and come for my favs if you want but it probably won’t change my mind. i might do acofas later.

#acomaf #pro nesta archeron #pro nesta #nesta archeron #cassian #anti rhysand #a court of mist and fury #anti ic

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puffins-incorporated · 4 years

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All For One is the Father of Nana’s Son and Grandfather to Shigaraki

Before I get into the nitty gritty, I’d like to thank all the people who’s inboxes (and in one case dorm) I burst into to yell about this as I wrote it, and the people who proofread it (often overlapping). Your support has been greatly appreciated. This has been a theory I’ve been thinking about since chapter 235, and I’m happy to finally write it up. Based on dialogue, Star Wars, and similar physical features between the characters, I’ve come to believe that it is highly likely that All For One is the Father of Nana’s Son and Grandfather to Shigaraki.

Edit: it didn’t show up in the tags at first because of an external link for a source but that’s been fixed

Edit2: Added Part about AFO giving Shigaraki his surname!

Dialogue

The more I reread All Might’s final battle with All For One, the more one thing nags at me. Why (and how) does All For One know Nana’s full name (and also that cute smiling pose? Where did he learn about it?)? He doesn’t know the civilian name of All Might, despite saying directly to his face how much he loathes him. He also doesn’t know Gran Torino’s civilian name even though his surname is in his hero name, and Nana outright says his first name in All Might Rising.

Hell, he only barely recognizes him as “Shimura’s Friend..?”, despite him pretty much being the guy who grabbed All Might and got out of the fight. Why remember Nana Shimura’s full name and not the others?

Star Wars and Koseki/Family Records

It’s no secret that Horikoshi is a huge Star Wars fanboy. There are so many Star Wars references ranging from obscure to blatant to “the official sub and dub had to change it for copyright reasons”. Perhaps the most prominent reference to Star Wars is All For One. His life support mask and revealing of Shigaraki’s relationship to Nana is quite reminiscent of Darth Vader, no? When a Darth Vader reference appears, it is often in tandem with him. In the original trilogy, Obi-wan Kenobi tells Luke Skywalker that his father was killed by Darth Vader. We all know that’s a lie, though one could interpret it as true to a degree. With the rise of Darth Vader, Anakin Skywalker could be said to have “died”. Through Gran Torino, we learned that Nana’s husband was killed. That’s it. That’s all we know. It’s possible that Nana lied about her husband dying literally. For all we know, her husband died the day she found out he was All For One. Adding on more Star Wars references, when talking over the outline for this with my friend, they noted how Nana and All For One as a couple could potentially mirror Padme and Anakin. In both examples, the latter (on the “dark side” or moving there pretty swiftly) killed the former. In any case, how could Nana cover up her husband’s death? Same way she hid her connection to her son. In the most recent chapter (281 at the time of this writing), we learned that Nana tinkered with the family records, known as Koseki. I had a difficult time getting information on these, but from my understanding, while they were relatively easy to get access to at one point, these days only family members are able to. Good thing, because according to this site (linked through tumblr) they contain “an individual’s full name; gender; birthdate and birthplace; parental relations (names of parents, relations to them, etc.); spousal relations (name of spouse, date of marriage, date of divorce, etc.); data related to the death of an individual (date, time, place of death); name of legal custodian or legal guardian; and data related to inheritance, such as the disinheritance of a presumed heir.” The same site also says “The information recorded in each family register is based on formal declarations made by citizens to their local government (municipality) at the time of a child’s birth, marriage, etc,” and that the information given to the municipalities is “submitted on a pro forma basis -there are cases in which an individual intentionally or negligently makes a false declaration’ that is subsequently incorporated as an entry in a family register,” lining up with Nana’s comment about tinkering with the family register.

Physical Similarities Between All For One, Kotaro, Shigaraki, and the First User of One For All

This is the part that got me started on this line of thinking. Over a year ago when chapter 235 was released, I realized that this shot of Kotaro looked… startlingly familiar.

(The anime version’s a little brighter than the scan)

Their angular features and rather defined noses were very similar, an oddity for a series with such a distinct cast of characters. In fact, the only characters with very similar features are usually related to one another (Mom genes are a joke for a reason). The BNHA discord I’m in agreed with me. Around a month later, I considered the possibility that the fact I’ve been drinking Nana/AFO juice practically since I joined the fandom may have influenced my judgement. So I sent two separate panels of Kotaro and AFO to a friend of mine. She’s not interested in BNHA, and the only context I gave to the panels was that they were BNHA panels I wanted her to look over. That was it. The conversation we had is screencapped below.

If people interested in BNHA and someone uninterested in BNHA could see it, then I was onto something. Recently, I remembered her response to the panels and that launched me into full theorist mode. Exceedingly late on August 25, I spent at least thirty minutes scouring the manga for panels of Kotaro and pre-injury All For One. looking for more physical similarities. And boy, did that search deliver.

Similar Profiles

Similarly Defined Noses

A friend even pointed out how, though it’s difficult to see with Kotaro due to a limited range of expressions, that All For One and Kotaro share a crinkle around the mouth. They’re correct.

You could even make a case that they look similarly broad shouldered as well.

This extends to Shigaraki as well, as in at least one panel in Volume 11, he’s drawn with a similarly defined nose.

All For One isn’t the only Shigaraki that Tomura Shigaraki bears resemblance too. It’s been said before that Shigaraki bears quite the resemblance to the first user of One for All, and it’s easy to see why.

Their hair is drawn in an eerily similar way. Their eyes too. Looking closely, I’m starting to think their noses look pretty similar too.

They also kind of look similar to All For One’s eyes (what’s visible of them) and nose too. While I can’t be certain, I’m willing to bet that if Horikoshi suddenly decided to draw All For One with longer hair (and show more of his face), he’d look quite similar to Shigaraki (and his younger brother) as well. People have speculated that Shigaraki is related to the first One For All user, and I agree. I believe that he’s his grand uncle, and I believe All For One is his paternal grandfather.

August 29 2020 Addition

I didn’t think to add this to the theory until after I posted so here’s the addition (which I’ll add to the main theory post later). Why did All For One give Shigaraki his surname? It could be argued that it’s a power play or something by replacing Nana’s surname with his own, but wouldn’t All For One take that opportunity to rub it in All Might’s face? Wouldn’t hearing “Oh yeah I also gave your master’s grandson a part of my name” after you found out he was her grandson from your enemy hurt like hell? You could write it off as a private middle finger but that doesn’t make much sense to me. All For One has the subtlety of a freight train when being petty. He could easily say it’s his name to anyone because he’s A) a minimum of a century old and B) known to have been born/raised during the time period when quirks were first sweeping the globe. Any records on him could have been lost/destroyed in the passing years or during the chaos. Hell, he could have destroyed them himself. It’s safe to say that there is no one alive but All For One and Shigaraki who knows the significance of the name “Shigaraki”. When the UA staff was researching Shigaraki Tomura and Kurogiri after the attack on the USJ, they concluded that both were using aliases.

While all we’re told outright is that they checked the quirk registry for the two, I’m inclined to believe that’s not all they did. Villains, for what seems to be the first time in history or awhile, attacked U.A. Highschool with murderous intent towards a teacher and his students. Said teacher also just so happens to be one of the greatest, if not the greatest hero of all time. There’s no way they’re just going to do a sweep through the quirk registry and call it a day. Yet they don’t find anything on the name “Shigaraki”. No one knows about this name, and he doesn’t say anything about it. All For One could have given any name to Shigaraki. So why his own? I don’t think it’s for one last middle finger to Nana - he’d make a huge show out of doing that to All Might. To me, I think it’s because they’re grandfather and grandson. Perhaps it was some twisted form of sentimentality? A twisted way of acknowledging a family member? It’s the only thing that makes sense.

#boku no hero academia #all for one #nana shimura #tomura shiragaki #kotaro shimura #tenko shimura #One For All #My Hero Academia #toshinori yagi #gran torino #bnha #theories #bnha theory #all might #torino sorahiko #bnha theories

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sugarcomatosed · 3 years

Note

i love your stories so much!! and was wondering if you can give some writing tips perhaps? 🥺👉🏻👈🏻

Breaking this up into sections for you + putting it under a cut cause I went overboard. 😅

General Writing Tips

These work for both academic and creative writing.

Make an outline.

It doesn't have to be a formal one, but having at least a general idea of the scenes you want to include is helpful. If I know my fic is going to be a longer one (like Don't Hesitate was and my current WIP is), I break down the larger story beats i want to hit on a piece of paper or my iPad.

It's good to know what you're planning to do, in a any piece I usually have a single specific scene I want to do and depending on what it is, I might either just do the scene I want to or turn into something longer.

Draft, draft, draft.

I cannot stress the importance of going through and reviewing your work. This is a big part of any sort of writing.

Your first idea isn't always your best idea. As you work on a piece you might find your original idea is holding you back, focus shifts! Don't be afraid to let your work change as you go. It's not always easy to let go of your original idea but if you find it's not working, you have to let it change. Sections will need to be rewritten, things have to be readjusted to fit with later sections. Reread for clarity while you're drafting and look to see if this makes sense to you, or reads well to you. If you can't follow it and you wrote it, chances are your reader can't either. Did you use the same phrase again and again? Find and search it on your doc to double check.

Sometimes you have to cut things you really like because they just don't contribute to the fic anymore. Save those bits and use them somewhere else!In a lot of my longer pieces I will write a paragraph, realize that's not where it should go and cut/paste it into another part of the doc because the pacing/scene doesn't make sense where I had it originally, but it works somewhere else.

If you're stuck, skip around, come back and then stitch the bits you have written together.

Don't Focus on a Word Count

This might be controversial, but I'm of the opinion just because something is longer does not make it better. Some works are short, and that's okay! I very rarely try to aim for a specific count of words unless it's for a prompt exchange or a personal challenge. I write till I feel the piece is done. Some stories require more words, some require less.

Don't Hesitate is a great example of this again, because all I wanted to do was a bittersweet first kiss fic, but jumping write into the kiss wouldn't get the full effect I wanted. Meanwhile, with Old Habits all I wanted to do was write dumb comedic kisses, we didn't need a 2k preamble.

Get Someone You Trust to Edit

My go to editor for the past six years or so is one of my good friends. She has edited everything from college papers to my fics for me before I post them to read for clarity, find any funky phrases or misspelled words I missed, and I do the same for her when she asks! A fresh set of eyes makes a world of a difference. Find someone to trade fics with or ask a friend! They might have good suggestions you never thought of, or be able to tell what you were going for when you don't even know yourself.

I also rely on my friends a lot to brainstorm and talk my ideas out before I start because it helps me think and figure out what I need. It's super common for me to text someone and say "im gonna spitball at you, that okay?" and then spend twenty minutes chatting through my ideas.

Have Reference Material

For my 13sar fics, I regularly go back and review/screenshot videos of the dialogue to make sure I am staying consistent with story events, character nuance and small details. You don't have to go crazy, but it is really helpful to have your source material to go back to and check yourself against. In non creative writing I always had a pile of papers highlighted with my own notes on the margins.

Take Breaks/Pace Yourself

Know your own limits, and if you are working and working on something and it's not coming out leave it alone and come back to it. I'm really bad at this personally because when I get an idea in my head I want to see it through but sometimes you gotta step back! It's not healthy to keep working on things and overwork yourself. Stretch, get up go for a walk.

Write What You Want to Write

Don't focus on what people want to read. Focus on what you like. Find a topic, a scene, anything that you are passionate about and the rest will follow. The only time I write fic for other people is when I am writing for a friend. Even prompt requests I only take open ended ones, if I am not interested in writing it it's not gonna happen. I know it's super hard and I get really anxious sometimes about letting people down now, or worrying people won't like something but then I step back and remind myself this is a hobby and I'm doing it for fun.

Play to Your Strengths

You shouldn't try to write like me, you should try to write like yourself. Find what skills you have and use them to your advantage!

I can't give you a step by step list to write like me, because nobody in the world has my background! We're all unique. Everything I've listed so far I know because I'm not a beginner anymore! I'm in my twenties and have come from a strong academic writing background.

I took on an intensive course load in high school, and then went onto college for a sociology degree. I very rarely had test based finals and at the end of each semester would have five 10-15 page papers to submit. Straight up some of my skills come from having read and studied the works of anthropologist Clifford Geertz. I am not saying you should read anthropology/sociology texts. Unless you like that sort of thing lol

I also have 6+ years of theater experience (acting & directing), I use this all the time for my writing. When I think about a scene, I think about how I would work through it as an actor, how the character would move, and how would things read to an audience. The GOTE ("Goal, Obstacle, Tactics, and Expectation") method of acting by Robert Cohen is really useful hear if you want a more technical breakdown of what I mean by that.

This leads to a lot of what we called "business" in acting, doing small tiny things while you talk or move around on stage to give the sense you're a real human. I don't have to think or try on these sort of things because they're in my skill set already!

Things I do Personally

As in, these are not transferable skills this is just the stuff I do while working on projects.

Find a Vibe™️

I come into any fic with usually a goal I want to hit, a line of dialogue or something I want to capture. Just like, the general idea of a feeling a song even if the lyrics don't match up. Make a mood-board, a playlist, just find something you wanna do. It's less about the actual words on the page and what you're aiming to do.

Look to things that inspire you

Don't Hesitate got written because I wanted to write a fic that captured the same vibe as a scene in Macross Frontier, where two characters have a bittersweet kiss before the final battle and that scene still has me fucked up six years after watching it.

My current WIP is doing the same thing but with the song All I've Ever Known from Hadestown. Two characters working through loneliness, the sudden feeling of falling in love and the frustration that feeling can bring on sometime.

I don't plagiarize them word for word, but these are scenes that inspire me! I also patchwork quilt ideas together. Using Don't Hesitate again, I also ended up pulling from a bunch of shoujo anime, Toradora, Sailor Moon, Yona of the Dawn, Princess Tutu...specific scenes I enjoy to blend and create something new.

Goof Off While You Write

I name my documents stupid things, I write dumb placeholder dialogue or vague sentiments like "insert better word here", I make memes when I'm struggling and roast myself and my predictable tastes.

I spent twenty minutes texting a friend Juro's name with different letters spelt out and then the "fuck your chickenstrips" vine saying it was Juro during destruction. Just have fun with it!

Listen to J-POP On Loop for Hours at a Time

i am not kidding I do this all the time. Perfume, AKB48, anime idol osts, Sailor Moon's OPs/ED, vocaloid songs. I like technopop and Japanese is good because it usually doesn't distract my brain since I only know random phrases, but still know what the meaning og the song is.

I love music, it helps me vibe out.

Thank you so much for enjoying my work ;o;

I hope this is useful to you in some way! I'm so sorry it's so long winded but I am overly thorough and love to teach people ;w;

#sugar speaks #sugar writes #okay to reblog

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writer-aspirantus · 3 years

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A rant about inspiration, writers block and damning them both

So often have I stared at a blank page and thought, I don't know what to write, words have left me, and my muse is somewhere far away. And while I have had moments where I genuinely did not know what to write, more often than not, I was lying to myself.

Because I did know what to write. But if I have ideas, why can't I write?

I had entire stories, worlds and novel series planned out that will never see the light of day because of this. And there is one (simple) reason for this, which, up until a few years ago, I didn't even realize.

And yes, in my career as a writer, spanning a little more than a decade now, I have heard the phrase: 'You can edit a bad book, but not a blank page', thrown around more than I care to count, but nine out of ten times, it still didn't really help me write. And then, a few years ago, it hit me. As soon as the reason became clear to me, I really wondered how I never saw it before because it seemed so damn obvious.

I had been sitting around with my friends, laughing, and telling stories and stuff when one of them just finished explaining a detail of their story and ended with: 'if that makes sense?' And without even knowing it, they really opened up a world of explanations for me. For all those writer's blocks, slumps, and my inability to put a word to paper when I was practically bursting with ideas.

I always want to make sense. Always.

It doesn't matter if it is just a cute short story or a fully fleshed out novel I am trying to write, I need to make sense. And I realized this is also why the saying 'you can edit a bad book, but not a blank page' did not do it for me at times. Because my ideas weren't bad! Some of them might have been able to become a damn summer block buster if I could just put the pen to paper. But I couldn't.

Because when I tried to put it down, it made no sense.

The seemingly unbreakable wall I had been facing for years when it came to writing suddenly showed its first crack. And this realization caused me to come up with a new motivator.

'You can't make any sense if there is nothing to be made sense of.'

Though I will admit I am probably making this sound easier than it is. Ever since I picked up on this concept, I have been trying to put it to use, but sometimes you really can't avoid a writer’s block or writing slump. And that is okay.

They may seem long and unending, but they are temporary. About three years ago I hit the longest block I have had to face in my life so far and it took the wind out of me. For six long months I couldn't put a word to paper and the frustration was practically eating me alive, but it ended. Maybe because I kept returning to that frustratingly empty document that was supposed to be something of a story right now, or because of something else, but it ended.

But there is another thing I want to tell you.

Not every piece of writing needs to make sense. Sometimes it is best to let any feeling of sense and logics go and put the words to paper, regardless of how messy the end result might become.

Sometimes I think it would be a good idea if we followed the principles of a painting toddler. Does an outside audience know what the painting means without explanation? I bet you good money they don't. Do they make sense to the toddler? Good chance it doesn't. Is the end result a mess and is the toddler indistinguishable their canvas? They are and they're having the time of their little life.

My goal with writing is to be like that toddler I just described. Do the words I wrote make sense to anyone but me? Maybe, maybe not. Does it make sense to me, the writer? Good chance it will unless I wrote it on a drunken, sleep deprived stupor and I reread it later. Do I find joy in telling stories that are sometimes the most ridiculous, 'has more holes than Swiss cheese' stories ever? Hell yes.

Trying to make sense of something whilst also having fun has simply proven impossible to me. It sucks the joy of writing right out. I simply can't do both on a conscious level.

So, to me sense is just for editing, the rest is about having fun.

#Aspirantus Writes #AspiRant #Mod Rants #writing #writing and editing #storytelling #writers on tumblr #writeblr

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skitter-kitter · 2 years

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Hi hiii !

For the ask game, 3 and 13 for Trust Fall please? I love listening to music to set the tone

I can’t believe you got me to reread Trust Fall today. It holds up surprisingly well, though I might go through it later and edit it

What’s your favorite line of narration?

This moment was one of my favorites for the big buildup!! I really loved writing it and this was my first time ever writing desert duo so I like this change from my usual characterization of them :)

In this final moment, Scar had a choice. He could go through with his friend's plan or convince him to run. He could tell him they were on their way, or he could tell Grian the truth. He could finally tell Grian how much he wanted to stay alive with him. How much he cared—

But now… wasn’t the time.

What music did you listen to, if any, to get in the mood for writing this story? Or if you didn’t listen to anything, what do you think readers should listen to to accompany us while reading?

Considering it’s been five months since I wrote it, I’m not sure what I listened to. Since i can’t give you that I will give you one (1) song I like for them and the notes I have for the fic.

It’s Called: Freefall by Rainbow Kitten Surprise is a really good song and probably influenced the fic knowing me kabskabsjab

After Grian and Scar have put all the tnt down around their home. Scar understands Grian is giving his first life for him— for his bloodlust. When the time comes to press the button, Scar hesitates. He doesn’t want to lose Grian. So, he waits. He watches as Grian gets near the edge of the blast radius, but so do their enemies. He hits the button. Grian won’t die, and yet he still does. He waits for the moment his friends leaves him. He wonders if he killed Grian, if he would stay.

This is very bare-bones, but it’s literally all the notes for Trust Fall. Feel free to send an ask for the notes of any other fics!!

(Send me asks and I shall ramble so so much about a fic of your choosing)

#skitty asks #starlit-sunsets #navsnsvsjabja I was not expecting trust fall to be mentioned

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waywardfangirl · 3 years

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Both @captain-aralias and @palimpsessed did really nice posts to share their fics from this year as well as their thoughts on what they wrote, and I enjoyed reading their posts (and their fics!) so much that I thought I would take them up on their open invitation to do one too! I’m a big believer in keeping lists of your accomplishments to look at on days when self-doubt creeps in, so I encourage anyone else who might be interested to do this too! (All the questions are copied from @captain-aralias)

List of Completed Fics this year:

I wrote ten fics this year, as well as starting a ton of WIPs, which is amazing to me, considering I have only written fic once before in my life!

Slow - General, 3k

We’re Not in Genovia Anymore - Teen, 28k

Promises - General, 3k

A Privilege to Love You - Teen, 7k

Early Riser - General, >1k

Write This Down - General, 3k

As You Wish - Teen, 13k

The View from the Veranda - General, 4k

Down By The Sea - General, 2k

Just Want You to Know Who I Am - General, 1k (written in 2020, posted in 2021)

Total: 10 fics, 67k words, 100% Snowbaz

Pretty good for what is truly the first year that I have been an active participant in fandom!

Questions answered below the cut.

Best/worst title?

A Privilege to Love You is my favorite title, because I think the line is just so sweet, and it makes my heart melt.

We’re Not in Genovia Anymore is definitely my worst title, because that was just the placeholder name I gave the WIP, but then I got so used to it I forgot to change it to something better before posting. I still cringe a bit at that one.

Best/worst summary?

l am horrifically indecisive, so I have a few summaries that I like. Just Want You To Know Who I Am is short and sweet, and I think it conveys exactly what I want it to:

Baz is fine. He's fine. Everything is fine. (It just isn't.)

~A fic about being loved in all the little ways~

But I also really liked the quotes I pulled for The View from the Veranda, As You Wish, and A Privilege to Love You.

Early Riser also has a summary that I let break my heart:

Baz wakes up early now, even though Simon doesn’t.

I does very little to convey what the fic is about, but after reading the fic it hurts like I wanted it to, sooo.....

I think that Promises has the worst summary though:

Inspired by the song "Promises" from the musical Hadestown.

Simon and Baz have spent the last three years working on themselves and on their relationship. Now it's time for their next step together.

Best/worst first line?

Baz says it best to open The View from the Veranda:

I am not a man accustomed to enduring want.

However, Simon deserves an honorable mention for starting us off right in As You Wish:

Baz is such a prick.

As for worst opening lines, I don’t really think I have any. I have some that stand better as an opening paragraph than an opening line, but I place a lot of importance on the first line of a story, so I like to make sure all mine are strong.

Best/worst last line?

I am not going to spoil any last lines for anyone (I cover up the last page of books when I read to reveal it slowly, word by word, so I take last lines seriously!), but I will say that As You Wish has an adorably predictable last line that I love.

For worst last line, I have to say Slow. I liked the line itself when I wrote it, but then I learned later that people were interpreting it in a more steamy way than what I had intended, and because I feel like Slow is such an innocent fic and really highlights how important it is for Simon to not be rushed into every decision he makes, I don’t like that it sounds like he and Baz rushed into something else. (I just meant that they talked and maybe kissed a bit! That’s it!)

Looking back, did you write more fics than you thought you would this year, less than you thought, or about what you predicted?

On December 31st, 2019, I was pet sitting when I came across a prompt for a Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement Snowbaz AU. I impulsively started to write, even though I had only written one other fic in my life (Check, Please!), and I had never written Snowbaz before. I kind of thought that maybe I would write one fic and that would be all, and that maybe one fic is all I would ever write, but I am so happy to have been wrong about that! I wrote way more than I could have predicted, and I even did NaNoWriMo! (I failed NaNoWriMo too, and I’m okay with that, because I want writing to be something I do for fun, not something that stresses me out.)

As a fun side note, Carry On is a fandom that I have returned to many times in my life, and it seems to have a special place on New Year’s Eve/New Year’s Day for me. I was given Fangirl as a Christmas present, and started reading it on New Year’s Eve, only to finish it and realize that the new year had arrived while I was engrossed in the book. I have spent multiple New Year’s Eves since engrossed in a reread of the book, or reading fic, and so it feels really fitting that I got into properly writing fic for Carry On as the year turned over.

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted last year?

Literally all of this was unexpected, as I never planned on writing any more fic, but I think I am most surprised to have written multiple songfics. I never read many songfics, and didn’t often care for them, but I wrote Promises off of the song from Hadestown, Write This Down off of George Strait’s song, and then Just Want You to Know Who I Am because Caity got the Goo Goo Dolls stuck in my head.

What’s your favourite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest.

My favorite might actually be my most popular, so I’ll go with my close second favorites (it’s a tie)

A Privilege to Love You is a soulmate au, and those are my favorite things ever. I also received some of the best feedback on this one, and I feel like I did a lot of things that worked really well in this fic.

The View from the Veranda is just so wonderful for me though, it combines my love of history with absolute silliness for a friend (I love you Liz!!!), @krisrix did some INCREDIBLE art for it, and I just had so much fun writing it.

Okay, NOW your most popular story.

As You Wish was the most popular, hands down, with more hits, kudos, comments, and bookmarks than any other fic I wrote. It’s also the fic of mine that I reread the most, because it makes me so happy and I love all the silly moments.

Story most underappreciated by the universe?

We’re Not in Genovia Anymore is probably the answer here. This isn’t entirely backed up by metrics, since it does have more hits and kudos than some of my other fics, but for how long it is and the work that went into it, I think it only got a portion of the attention I was hoping it would. That’s mostly my fault though! It was the first fic I wrote for this fandom, and so I have definitely grown as a write since! Additionally, while I feel like it has a lot of great moments and fantastic lines, I have some lackluster bits too, and it really suffered from not having a beta (I was too shy to ask anyone back then). It’s also an AU of a movie that isn’t as widely viewed as I previously thought, so that didn’t help either, and as I already said, this fic could have a much better title.

All that aside though, the people who have read and talked to me about this fic have really seemed to like it, so I’m glad that I did right by my fellow Princess Diaries 2 fans! (and all of the wonderful people who read it and commented nice things having never seen the movie, y’all rock!)

Story that could have been better?

Everything I wrote before asking someone to beta. I just talked about what I would improve in We’re Not In Genovia Anymore, but Promises could use some work too. Having a few wonderful friends help me edit my fics has really improved what I post!

Sexiest story?

Oh gosh, I am not someone who writes sexy things.

Having said that, The View from the Veranda was written in the style of a bodice ripper, so I think that makes it the sexiest story by default. Kris’s art also enhances its sex appeal by at least 200% (I laughed out loud when I was making the list at the start of this post, because I had entirely forgotten that fic is rated G - honestly, that tells you everything you need to know about me, my romance novel fic can be read by children haha) (I might give it a T rating at some point, just because I feel like it should have that)

**I just remembered the bonus chapter for As You Wish.... that might be the sexiest thing I’ve written haha 🤣

Saddest story?

Early Riser - I am a big believer in giving everyone who deserves it a happy ending, but this one is just an interlude of sadness and depression without any resolution in sight.

(If you read it though, please know that in my head they do get therapy and things do get better! Snowbaz always has a happy ending in my fics, even if I don’t write it out fully)

Most fun?

As You Wish - this one to me feels like the happy chaos of running and sliding around a big house in stocking feet, and I don’t have a better way to describe it than that. There’s a tiny bit of angst from Baz, and a little bit of panic from Simon, but I was smiling and having so much fun while writing this fic, and I really think it comes across.

Story with single sweetest moment?

A Privilege to Love You - I’ll let you decide which of the many sweet moments is actually the sweetest ❤

Hardest story to write?

Promises, no question about it. I had written two fics by that point, and people had been so nice, and some of you lovely folks had even started tagging me in WIP Wednesday posts and in Six Sentence Sunday posts, but I felt like I had no inspiration left and I kept worrying that I wouldn’t be able to write again. So, I forced myself to write something, and it felt like pulling teeth (and it honestly wasn’t very good), but I gifted it to the person who had been my biggest cheerleader and who had tagged me a million times, and that’s how @foolofabookwyrm and I became friends. Writing the fic sucked, but her friendship is worth it, a million times over 💜💜💜

Easiest/most fun story to write?

The View from the Veranda. I’m a historian, and I work a lot with primary sources and spend time speaking with others in 18th century language, so once I got into my “work mindset” the words just flowed. This was also a silly, happy story for me, because I included a lot of jokes for Liz, and there are a ton of details that are just hilarious if you work at the same place I do (sorry that none of you do, but let me just tell you, the descriptions of Simon are all based off of my most attractive colleague, and at least 15% of this fic is silly quotes from work). I think this was only supposed to be about a thousand words long, and I messaged Kris multiple times while writing just to tell him that it was getting out of control and I couldn’t stop writing 😂

Did any stories shift your perceptions of the characters?

Writing for Agatha in We’re Not in Genovia Anymore really made realize how much some of her (canon) story resounded with me, and I liked the deeper character study I ended up doing for her. I’m still always going to be the most in love with Baz, but I have a deeper connection to Agatha now too.

Most overdue story?

It’s still overdue. I have so many WIPs, at least seven of which are soulmate AUs, and I just keep starting more. In terms of actual planned release date though? I started writing a The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue AU for NaNoWriMo, with the intention of publishing it in January. It’s already the longest fic I’ve ever written, and I don’t think I’m even a quarter of the way done with it. I wasn’t happy writing for NaNo, because I don’t do well with creativity on a deadline, and I chose to pause work on that fic so I can actually enjoy writing it and end up with something I like once I finally return to it. Apologies to those who are anxiously awaiting the fic, I do hope to finish it this year, and I won’t post until it’s all done, so you’ll get a very rapid update schedule when it does come out!

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?

I signed up for my first fandom event! I participated in the Secret Snowflake event, and wrote Down By The Sea for the wonderful @fight-surrender (and ended up with ideas for some other new fics too)! Even though I was actively failing NaNoWriMo when I signed up, I did manage to complete my fic on time, and I learned that it wasn’t quite as daunting as I was expecting it to be. (My biggest problem was my laptop breaking and having to do almost everything on my phone - I also learned once again just how amazing Liz is, as she helped me format and post to ao3, since I couldn’t do that properly without a computer)

I struggle with being creative on a deadline, but wanting to write a little over 1k in a month was much more achievable than feeling stressed about writing 50k in a month!

This year’s theme and the story that demonstrates it most:

I like the idea of the inevitability of love. I adore soulmate AUs, because I love the idea of a universe where not only does someone have a perfectly matched other person, but that there is a surefire way to find them. Even though I only published one soulmate AU this year, I feel like every time I write Snowbaz I am writing about a couple where love will, inevitably, win. In my mind they are always going to have a happy ending somewhere down the line where they are just purely in love. Even though love doesn’t magically fix everything, it’s still incredibly powerful, and I only want to create stories where Simon and Baz truly love each other.

Of course, with that as the theme, A Privilege to Love You has to be the fic that best demonstrates the idea of inevitable love - it’s a soulmate AU and a universe where Simon exercises his free will.

What are your fic writing goals for next year this year?

Finish and publish my Gentleman’s Guide AU

Finish and publish more soulmate AUs (I have so many WIPs you guys)

Plan more before writing

Work on improving dynamic scenes and the overall flow of my fics - I sometimes feel like I have too many lulls, and I want to write in a more engaging way

Promote my own work more! I am partially doing this post because there are multiple fics that I never shared on here! I plan to make banners for all of the fics I write this year, and to post them on tumblr at the same time I upload them to ao3.

The last few years have been a time of tremendous personal growth for me, and I really feel like I’m starting to understand who I am as a person, settle into myself, and like who I am. I’m thrilled to discover that fandom is still part of who I am and what I enjoy, and that I have more creative outlets in my life now than I ever expected to. My biggest goal is just to keep building on all of that, to use fic to explore who I am, to reflect what I like, make myself happy with my writing, and to hopefully make at least a few of you happy with my stories too!

#2020 fics #my writing #about me #year in review #fic masterpost #fanfic year in review #my fic #snowbaz #carry on

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bluesylveon2 · 3 years

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hi ate jess!!! for the fanfic writer ask - 22, 40, and 7 :D love you!!!!

Hi @chili-aux!!! Also, mahal din kita! 😁

22) Do you have a story that you look back on and cringe when you reread it?

I actually do but it's not levihan lol. It's the first Aruani fic, Mission (Not)impossible that I wrote in honor of my bday (which is funny cause most people might think "why didn't she write levihan for it instead?" 😅) The whole story is supposed to be a side story set before the Mamma mia fic and a modern take on that one scene where Armin falls down the stairs and breaks both of his legs with Annie there. I remember seeing a comment where they called it underrated and I was shocked. Like that is the biggest dumpster fire (I call my fics this btw) I ever published and people loved it?!?! I was shook lol but I might go back and edit it later.

40) Do people know you write fanfiction?

Yep! 3 of my irl friends do and 200+ from 2 discord servers know too lmao. But fr tho. I told one of my friends I read/write fanfics because she talked about smut in books and I'm here like "do I tell her I know that I know what she's talking about or nah? 😀"

I told the other 2 a few days ago 😅. We were in our hotel talking about smut (idk why this happened twice lol) in fanfics and the Y/N life. So I told them about it and they were surprised. One of them even wanted to know how well I write but I said to not read it lol.

Those 2 know I write for aot. The other one knows I write it in general.

7) When is your preferred time to write?

Typically night time since that's when I unwind and write paragraphs for my fics. I do write whenever I have free time though. Sometimes, I even write small sentences during random times of the day if I ever get an idea so I don't forget. For example, I have this pokkopikku frozen au in mind and one day I figured out how to bring them close. I opened Google docs and immediately started typing lol.

Want to learn more about my writing? Click here!

#ask game #get to know the writer #thank you again!!!

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snowwhite-andtheknight · 3 years

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(This is mostly edited. It includes the original smaller list, added on to. Also, I’m a bit worried that I might have explained the Canon Divergent fic poorly. I’m sorry. I don’t mean anything bad by it.) (It’s better edited than my first submission for it, that had a bunch of typos, but since this is long, I may not have proofread and fixed up everything worded funny or spelled wrong.)

I’m going to preface this off with the fact that I’m a multishipper, and ship quite a variety of pairings, so this list might go all over the place. (Also, I’ve never written a fic rec before, though I have recommended fics and gushed about several often enough.) First of all, Above and Below Surface by Whitehorse102 immediately comes to mind. It’s probably my favorite AU fic that I’ve ever read for ZenYuki and possibly, my favorite I’ve ever read in general. It’s a Mer!AU; a type of AU that I’m always reading, but Whitehorse102 writes it so differently than any other Mer!AU, I’ve seen. The world building is insanely good, and the story reads a lot more like a published novel than a multichapter fanfic; there’s world building that even takes in parts of canon and plays around with them a bit. The ZenYuki is built up slowly. It’s a work in progress of the writer’s, and such a lovely read, that you absolutely would not regret reading it or rereading it. https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12201172/1/Above-and-Below-Surface Apparently, the first fic I read was Of Assassins and Apples by Realm-Leaper, though since I sometimes accidentally refavorite stuff, changing the date that I favorited it or may have read stuff I didn’t favorite, I might not be accurate with this. It’s an Obi-centric oneshot collection with two oneshots, that I vaguely remember reading. (Eventually, I’ll share stuff that aren’t on Fanfiction.net, because I read all over the place.) I started rereading it, and it has almost all the amazing Obi headcanons that I also have. The first oneshot is an Obi and Zen friendship piece, and honestly, maybe this is where most of my Obi headcanons came from as far as backstory. This oneshot collection of two oneshots is well worth your time! I’d wondered if the Mukaze and Obi scene was canon, had convinced myself that the talk they had was canon and took place during the Tanbarun Arc, but it was this fanfic, the second oneshot has an absolutely incredible and in character scene where Obi and Mukaze talk a few things out. (Honestly, it’s on my mind whenever I read a story where the two of them talk or interact in any way, and it a hundred percent affects the way I remember canon.) So do check it out! It’s a lovely two oneshot collection centering on Obi. https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12933248/1/Of-Assassins-and-Apples My favorite ANS OC right now is Setsuko/Vixen/fox, from Nostalgic Family by your1ocalpotato. I decided to read some of Potato’s work on a whim a few months back, once I realized that Potato wrote stories, and I absolutely adore Setsuko, especially within Nostalgic Family; I just love that universe, the added backstory for Obi, the found family dynamics, the way that Setsuko may be rough around the edges from the life she lived, but she cares deeply for her family, especially Obi. Just the sibling bond that Setsuko and Obi have in it is absolutely incredible, and in that particular universe, Setsuko has barely met Izana, so there’s a chance that that slow burn will eventually pick up, and Izana/Setsuko is such a lovely pair; they contrast very beautifully together, and it’s got to be my favorite Izana/OC pairing. Honestly, Potato’s stories are really good and more people need to read them. https://archiveofourown.org/works/22926751/chapters/54800950 (The Den Series is the name of the particular series I’m talking about, though there is a different story with Setsuko, where she has a different backstory, and it’s pretty much all slowburn Izana/Setsuko. Both are worth a read, though I haven’t finished the longer, slow burn fic yet.) As for An AU I Took A Chance On (And Now Love), it would be the Quarantine AU, that Muselover1901 wrote: Here With(out) You. I figured I’d read a Quarantine AU, and that one was really beautifully written. It’s one of my favorites by Muse. (I may throw in a few other stories that I recommend by Muse, because she’s a super talented ZenYuki writer.) I usually avoid writing any Quarantine AUs or Pandemic AUs unless I really feel like I need to. The same usually goes with reading them; I’ve found at least one good Quarantine AU in about four or so fandoms now. (I usually only read one per fandom, if it seems interesting.) Honestly, this is probably my favorite Quarantine AU ever. It’s longer, and the world is pretty well established. (And it’s a really lovely domestic ZenYuki oneshot.) https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13668279/1/Here-With-out-You I’m going to cheat a little on the next two, because I actually reviewed them (and reviewed them around the same time). First, I want to mention a fic that Made Me Laugh Out Loud; the first one that comes to mind is A Snowy Surprise by MuseLover1901. It’s the first one that pops into my head, though I know that I’ve laughed out loud at probably plenty of other stories. I actually was unsure before I read it whether it was a romantic story or not, and had been a bit nervous about jumping in and reading it, but once I started to read it, it was love at first sight. There’s a snowball fight in it, and I’ll have to say one particular hit made me laugh out loud. The story is mostly a friendship story. (The kind of story that I always long for more of in any fandom, because I love friendship stories as much as I love romance stories, and I also love family stories just as much.) But it’s lighthearted and doesn’t contain too many manga spoilers for me, since I’m terribly behind in the manga right now. (I haven’t read all of Muse’s work yet, because some of them have more manga spoilers than I’m ready to read. I’m biding my time for the day that I can just binge read them obsessively. It will happen.) https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13668260/1/A-Snowy-Surprise So, here’s the story, I’m cheating by mentioning instead of the above one. (I reviewed them around the same time, so it works, I think.) For A Fic That Made Me Friends With The Author, I’d have to say A Quick Library Visit; it’s a short, sweet read, and if you want quick ZenYuki fluff, it’s a go to. I read it around the same time as the above two Muse fics, and for some reason, some of Muse’s newest stories didn’t have reviews, so I figured I’d review. Shortly after, I reviewed A Quick Library Visit and A Snowy Surprise, Muse messaged me to thank me. (She’s really cool by the way.) And then, a little while later, I joined the old ZenYuki Week Server, and Muse invited me over to a ZenYuki Writing Collab Server, and we became fast friends after that. (She remembered me based off of the two reviews I’d left on her stories, which was pretty cool and definitely humbling.) (Also, heads up, I’ll post the fanfiction links to Muse’s stories, but she also posts them on AO3, so they’re there as well.) (I wish there was a reverse for this panel, because through the ZenYuki Writing Server; I met phenomenal writers and began reading their work as well!) https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13668268/1/A-Quick-Library-Visit As for A Fic That Got Me Involved In The Fandom, I may be cheating by mentioning this too, since I starting writing fanfics for ANS practically right after I finished watching Season Two. The Mistress, the Plan, and the Secret by MisusedEllipses really made me long to write for Prince Raji/Shirayuki, and really kicked me off in that little rarepair haven, that Season Two won me over towards. This is an incredible fanfic, has absolutely amazing characterization throughout, and is incomplete on Fanfiction. (I’m hoping that somewhere online, it sits pretty and finished, waiting for me to rediscover it. I may be overly hopeful.) Okay, it ties in onesided!ObiYuki feelings, onesided!PrinceRajiYuki feelings, and wonderful characterization and sibling banter between Eugena and Rona! Honestly, Raji is written so well that it practically reads like canon: a very hard feat indeed for any writer to accomplish. Just, wow! I don’t know who to root for: Raji, Zen, or Obi! It diverges from canon right before the kidnapping, so Shirayuki never gets kidnapped, and eventually a rather interesting Raji and Obi friendship forms, though that’s right where the last current chapter is. It hasn’t been updated in four or five, I guess now or soon, years, but it’s well worth a read. I will recommend this to anyone if given a chance, regardless of whether the person is a multishipper or not. I love the friendship, the romance, the family, and humor that comes along with Raji’s siblings’ banter. It’s just a phenomenal canon divergent fic, and it’s what really made me realize there was a need for more Raji X Shirayuki fanfics, and it left me crazy about filling that gap. https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12156186/1/The-Mistress-the-Plan-and-the-Secret I’m going to make a rather honest claim here, even though I’m not sure how often this writer will come up in what I gush about here, but this writer should: geneee is one of my favorite writers in the fandom. (I’m not sure if geneee is still active.) When I eventually thought of a fic with A Favorite Minor Character of mine, this particular story came up. history doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes is an absolutely amazing precanon story where it focuses entirely on Ryuu, gives him some backstory! (It’s an amazing read, and it follows his journey to becoming a Court Herbalist.) Honestly, the fandom needs a lot more Ryuu fics. (On a side note, a fic by a different writer also came to mind with this, but since that’s more romantic than this gen fic, I figured I’d stick with this one. The other one that comes to mind is the only fic where I could find Kai as a main character. It’s by a different writer, but if I can stick it into this recommendation, I will tell you more about it.) Geneee writes really good fics. I know geneee has a fanfiction account, but I think geneee might have an AO3 as well. https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12687531/1/history-doesn-t-repeat-itself-but-it-often-rhymes For Pre-Canon, I want to mention a lovely story by an incredible (mostly?) MitsuKiki writer that may not actually be active anymore. (Unless the writer uses a different site now.) (This story is actually not a MitsuKiki fanfic, though it is still one of my all time favorite stories by fiesa.) Roses, Violets by fiesa. It’s a beautiful story that focuses on Zen, Mitsuhide, and Kiki during the years since Kiki came there. Zen develops a crush on an OC, who doesn’t like him like that, who actually likes Mitsuhide, interestingly enough. It’s not really a romance story, as it focuses on the way time passes and uses summer and flowers to express that. The perspectives shift, so some parts may need to be reread to understand who is feeling that way, but it’s all written so beautifully. You get to see Zen develop a crush and get heartbroken, Mitsuhide trying to be really nice, knowing Zen likes the woman and sort of trying to let something happen between Zen and the OC. Though, Zen feels that that’s hopeless, since she likes Mitsuhide. It’s more a story of the friendship between Zen, Mitsuhide, and Kiki, and what growing up entails. It’s Zen before Shirayuki, and it makes for a rather lovely read. (It’s a multichapter, though it’s not a super lengthy one as far as chapter count goes. It’s well worth a read though.) (fiesa and geneee I discovered around the same time, and I love what both of them write so much.) (So, if you like it, it’s always worth checking out the rest of fiesa’s work.) https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12864975/1/Roses-Violets I was just thinking over how to mention an incredible writer, that wrote two ZenYuki oneshot that I’ve read and fell in love with. (Spotted the oneshot section. If I have to refill part of the Bingo Board later, so be it.) The Art Of Watching Stars Fall by Zen Wisteria on Tumblr. The metaphors and images are just so pretty and beautiful and with gorgeous meanings. (The writer feels a bit like a poet, and since I love poetry, that’s a definite plus in my book.) It’s really fluffy and sweet and contains pretty much all of the wonderful reasons to ship ZenYuki. It’s a delight to read and to reread. It’s highly recommended by me. https://zen-wistaria.tumblr.com/post/117283326416/it-feels-like-years-since-shes-seen-his-face AU That Made Me Find The Source Material: Lyrias Station by Eclectic80. I’m cheating here too. Shh… I’ve been slowly getting into Star Trek over the years very deliberately, and I just loved this fic so much! I found it first on the ObiYuki Community, going through a lot older fics, and then fell in love with just the way that Eclectic80 wrote it! It’s an absolutely incredible Star Trek AU, and a lovely ObiYuki story. (I think I did start with reading Historical Fiction, and it surprised me by being a Star Trek AU.) (On the note of really great AUs, there’s a Star Wars AU for ObiYuki that’s incredible, that I’ll have to refind at some point, and an incredible Harry Potter AU. I actually asked a lot of questions to people who know Star Wars lore far better than I do, in order to work through how much of the Star Wars AU for ObiYuki could plausibly happen in canon. (I think it was all of it. It was a great and engaging read too!) The Harry Potter AU left me obsessed with it, and the accidental soul bonding spell, whoops. But, since I don’t remember their titles or who wrote them, I’ll have to recommend them some other day. (I think they are also far back on the community page. I haven’t finished exploring it, since I took a break a while ago.) Back to Lyrias Station, it’s an absolutely incredible read whether you know very little about Star Trek, nothing at all, or a lot. I fall somewhere in the middle, and honestly, it’s a fantastic read, whenever you want to dig in and explore. (I may have reread certain oneshots in it way too much for my own good, practically back to back. It’s a really wonderful reread as well.) https://archiveofourown.org/works/14414148/chapters/34487988 For A Fic That Gave Me A New OTP, though my OTP is hard to define, so I’m technically cheating here, but Let Me Be Bold by Kaedix. It’s an IzanaYuki story, and that is a pairing that I was curious about, but hadn’t really shipped until I read this oneshot collection. I absolutely need to read the third oneshot; it’s new, and bound to be incredible. But, the first oneshot had me sort of falling in love with Izana right alongside Shirayuki, and the second oneshot had me cheering for Shirayuki, and all in all, it’s an incredible read that is well worth your time, whether just to read something new or different or whether you are on the fence about this fabulous rarepair. (Since it did win me over to the ship, I’m including it here.) It’s incredible! Go read it! https://archiveofourown.org/works/20982494/chapters/49894448 I was trying to figure out a fic that I loved that was under a thousand words, and since I haven’t paid a huge amount of attention to the word count, I couldn’t think of one at first. So, I was going through one of the writers that I really like the writing of, and stumbled upon one that I immediately remembered. Importance by bountifulnuggets. I remembered it strictly as the wedding story where Zen and Shirayuki hugged Obi, who desperately needed a hug. I’ve never read anything like it before, and it’s saturated with friendship. (Nugget is a phenomenal writer, so basically anything by her is really good, so if you haven’t heard of her, go check out her writing. You won’t be disappointed.) (I got temporarily sidetracked before going through Nugget’s stories, by a story I hadn’t read by Eclectic80, a ZenYuki(!) story, that if for some reason, I extend and do more than a Bingo Board (or find another way to include), I’ll tell you the title of. Either way, the story by Nugget is a lovely hurt/comfort fic that is more comfort than hurt, and it’s definitely a beautiful read. https://archiveofourown.org/works/26433481 Finally, found it! Okay, the Missing Scene fic that is my favorite is Do something with this guy by Codango. It explores how Obi went from shooting at Shirayuki to being Zen’s retainer, and it does a lovely job of it! I absolutely adore this story, and the writing of it is beautiful. I took the time to reread it, and Obi’s perspective is spot on in it, and it gives amazing behind the scenes looks at what is happening, mostly over how he came to work for Zen. But, it also includes the scene where Obi catches Shirayuki for the first time, all told through Obi’s perspective, and his thought process is absolutely perfect. His thoughts read very much like the canon ones, that we are sometimes shown, and it feels like it really does contain the missing scene from canon. It’s an amazing read, and definitely worth your time. https://archiveofourown.org/works/4386368 I’m going to cheat again here. (Who knows? These times I feel like I’m cheating, may actually be fair.) But, I don’t know what tropes, I like or whether I’ve read Trope Reversals, but I was going back through ObiYukiFiteNite and ObiYukiMadness on the community, and stumbled upon a story that I read ages ago, that fits kind of well with my Mukaze headcanons, and is goofy enough that I could see him acting that way. It does turn a trope over on its head, too. For Favorite Trope Reversal, I’m going to mention Mukaze’s Gift (Only One Bed) by HideTheRemote. The debate over whether Mukaze supports ObiYuki in it is rather amusing, and the gift, itself, is rather funny as a wedding gift to his daughter and son-in-law. It’s a delightful read that certainly surprised me. (I’d also never seen the One Bed Trope with a married couple before, so that was an added bonus.) I imagine that when he has grandkids one day; he’ll realize that his gift wasn’t used as intended. (Poor delivery guy, who had to know what kind of bed he was delivering, based off of the sheer awkwardness of the situation.) https://hidetheremote.tumblr.com/post/172338198868/mukazes-gift-only-one-bed For Gen Fic, I’m going to go with Shirayuki’s Laugh by otomiya-tickles. This is a multichapter story, and not every chapter is actually gen. (There’s onesided ObiYuki and established ZenYuki at parts.) It’s literally a story where Shirayuki’s friends find out she’s ticklish slowly, and each one gets to tickle her. It takes place within various parts of canon, and is a really fun read. I’m pretty sure that I laughed every time she did. (Even though I probably shouldn’t admit that, since I wasn’t being tickled.) It’s a blast from start to finish, and I ended up reading all of the chapters in one go. Most of it’s just friendship. (Ooh, my favorite chapter is probably the Raji one. Shh…) Also, it gives a reason as to why Shirayuki chose not to ride on Mitsuhide’s horse, after her first time riding on a horse with him. (It’s just an absolute treat, and I never knew tickle fics could be this fun!) I highly recommend it. https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11861915/1/Shirayuki-s-Laugh I’ve included so many stories already with some of my favorite headcanons and ones that feel canon, but I realized I still had a story to share with that category. So the story That Contains My Favorite Headcanon is Bittersweet Heart by DemonHeart42. It’s actually a new fic, and a onesided ObiYuki story. (Like canon, there’s established ZenYuki.) It’s sort of post canon, as it shows Obi and Shirayuki’s friendship after Shirayuki and Zen are married. It flows like canon, and the writing is beautiful. The headcanon bit that strikes me is earlier in the one shot, Obi’s reasons for never calling Shirayuki by her name are addressed, and it hits I’m pretty sure all of my Obi headcanons for that, but not only that, but there’s thought behind how long Obi’s loved her, which he can not trace back to a particular moment, since he feels that he’s always loved her, though he certainly knows he didn’t fall for her the first time he saw her. (It matches my headcanons for Obi’s feelings to a T, pretty much.) It’s a lovely read, and the only Akagami No Shirayuki-Hime story that DemonHeart42 has written. (It does make me long to read more stories by DemonHeart42, and I undoubtedly will, if another Akagami No Shirayuki-Hime fanfic gets posted online by this writer.) I’m just really happy that I found a spot to include this story; it’s one of the few new ObiYuki related fanfics on fanfiction, so I don’t think many people have read it. And it’s one of the best that I’ve read for them. https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13687412/1/Bittersweet-Heart Since I am a major ZenYuki shipper as well as ObiYuki shipper, I don’t know if I should include this as the canon divergent fic, but I absolutely love so many scenes in it. Fragments by happybubbles is what I initially put for Canon Divergence, so most of the description will express that, but I’m going to say that it’s a story that that made me Weep Real Tears. As a quick explanation, I don’t care for ZenYuki breakup fics for the most part, but I love this one. (And I read way too many of them to complain too much, I guess. I still read them, because I love ObiYuki about as much as I love ZenYuki, and the breakup fics obviously can be incredible, like the part in Fragments where the breakup happens.) (I really hope that I explained this right, because I know obviously this type of canon divergence is popular and really well loved, so I know that those AUs are good in a lot of ways. I’ve read many of them, with varying levels of interest, and I don’t know how to explain it, because I’m not trying to knock an AU.) This is where shipping ZenYuki makes it hard sometimes to ship ObiYuki, plus my love of Zen often gets in the way, and it pains me pretty bad to read breakups for Zen and Shirayuki. So, this particular story is the breakup scene, I remember, where Shirayuki broke up with Zen, and she’s still dealing with the emotional fallout of it. She’s not numb, and though she feels correct in breaking up with Zen, it hurts like she wouldn’t believe. And seeing Shirayuki in so much pain, while dealing with a ZenYuki breakup to boot, really hurts me. I cried alongside her, and Obi takes the time to comfort her and spend time with her. Everyone else that day gives Obi the turnaround and won’t explain what happened to Shirayuki, because Obi hasn’t seen her. Just, this scene hurts me so much. (I love the ObiYuki developed in the story, and Zen was written pretty well from what I remember, so it’s definitely worth a read.) Also, I’m in the camp with people that only ship ZenYuki, as in I think if canon broke up ZenYuki, I’d be broken, even if it established ObiYuki or RajiYuki or something else I ship or am partial too. This is the only clarification that I have that makes me wonder if ZenYuki is my true OTP. I have a tendency of reading a ton of ObiYuki fanfics, because that’s my go to for ObiYuki, especially AUs. I love AUs a ton, regardless, but ObiYuki AUs hold an extra special place in my heart. (My favorite ObiYuki AU, is the Obi meets Shirayuki first ones; they are all so different and so, so good!) (Also, if anyone knows the name or author of the ObiYuki story, where Obi consumes poison and almost dies, that one made me cry as well and is also really good!) I remember so many of the scenes and often forget that they are all in the same story. (I loved the parents day chapter, where Ryuu cooked for Obi and Shirayuki. I adore the first chapter of the fic, where Obi’s caught napping.) (It diverges from canon through ZenYuki breaking up, by the way.) There are probably other scenes within it as well that I absolutely adore. I’ve either read all of the chapters or most of them, even though it goes way further through canon than I’m currently at. I just love the story, and all the beautiful scenes that Bubbles writes, that I couldn’t just not read more. https://archiveofourown.org/works/8031781/chapters/18392416 For Favorite Trope, even though it’s probably not my favorite trope, just a trope led fanfic that is really, really good, it’s the Harry Potter AU, I talked about up above! I finally found it, and realized I could stick it here! Welcome to Hogwarts, the School of Social Anxiety and Crushing Expectations (and also Highly Illegal Soul Bond Spells) by Hymn. I’ve never been a fan of Harry Potter, but somehow this story sucked me in from the get go, and I really love the kind of slow burn ObiYuki in it, the longing for the other that they are pretty sure is either from the spell or unrequited, despite being requited, and all of the trying to balance school life with being accidentally soul bonded together, and just even the background references to ZenYuki are really good. The scenes within the story are absolutely adorable to a bit awkward for Obi and Shirayuki, and I think I read this oneshot at least five times so far. Mostly from the original Tumblr post, before I discovered that it was on AO3. Since then, I’ve read it on AO3. I have no idea how this story has gripped me so much, but it has. It is a hundred percent worth your time. You really should read it. (It’s inspired off of the Accidental Soul Bond Trope, which led to the amazing Star Wars AU by someone else, a lovely Soul Bond focused AU that is also really good, and I can’t remember what else. Maybe I do have a soft spot for this particular trope that I never really knew about before discovering the older event that they were written for.) https://archiveofourown.org/works/18772360/chapters/44535142 I know this is technically not a fight scene, but for Action-Packed Fight Scene, I’m going to choose the car chase scene in At Her Not-So-Secret Service by infinitelystrangemachine_old. I don’t read a lot of action packed stories in general, but I definitely don’t read many action packed stories for ANS. (And I’m pretty sure if I named any myriad of Chuck fanfics, that wouldn’t count. Shh…) So, I’m sticking with this story, because it came to mind when I remember action packed scenes, and the writing here is brilliant. (I obviously love the car chase scene and the aftermath of that, where Obi’s sitting in the car with her.) There’s a touch of humor every now and again, and the writing style, itself, is very beautiful. I really, really hope that this story gets updated some time in the future. There’s something about a Modern AU, Bodyguard AU, for ObiYuki that is so good! (Or any Modern AU Bodyguard fics in general, because there’s one for Chuck that is so, so good. I know I should just talk about ANS here, but oh, my gosh, I seem to really like Bodyguard AUs lately. Shh…) So, even though there’s no fight scene here, and there’s no attack or even portrayal of her kidnapping prior, At Her Not-So-Secret Service is really, really good. (I really like how easily Obi seems to get along with everyone Shirayuki knows, the description in chapter one of the difference between Zen and Izana talking to Obi, the balister scene, which should sort of count as an action scene too. Either way, the writing here is really good and the scenes are very memorable.) (I think about the car chase the most, followed by the balister scene the second most.) (I had to look up this story just to find it again for this. It’s so good!) It’s a lovely story to read, with a lot of action-y tension, some complicated feelings, and a great mixture of emotion. Also, the humor is pretty great too! So, it’s well worth a read. https://archiveofourown.org/works/9837023/chapters/22080446 For my new Canon Divergent fic, I’m going to include Yours, Truly by Eclectic80. It’s canon divergent also due to a ZenYuki breakup, as well as a pen pal correspondence. I love the pen pal basis of it, Shirayuki and Obi not knowing who they are writing to, the whole slowly falling in love and coming to understand each other better through it. The picnic date thing, just the whole premise of the fic is so good. It’s an outstanding ObiYuki fic, and I’m absolutely in love with the idea of pen pals in fanfics, which this is the first that I’ve seen of pen pals within fanfics, I think, but it’s so good. The comfortable anonymity, that draws them closer, the hint of budding feelings, the advice Obi gives, or ideas he shares. The fact that they both know that the other is similar to someone they know, but are pretty positive that it can’t be the other. It’s a blast to read and so, so much fun! I highly recommend it. https://archiveofourown.org/works/21943480/chapters/52370371 Oh, my gosh! I found the poison story! It’s also the story with the kiss scene that comes to mind for me and so many others. Okay, for Steamiest Kiss, I’m going to go with And That’s The Reason We Need Lips So Much by Sabraeal. Okay, this story is absolutely amazing on so many levels. The almost death scene for Obi is so painful to read, and I cried pretty much from the very beginning of this fic, despite not knowing who several of the characters are, whoops. I’m still terribly behind in the manga, but the plot was so good, the writing was beautiful, and I loved it. Also, I loved the teasing and playfulness that goes on when Obi retells the story of Shirayuki saving his life, and of course, the way that Shirayuki gets him back for that. I love the silliness of the first time that he tells the story, where Zen, Mitsuhide, and Kiki are his main audience. It’s silly, and sounds so fairy tale-esque and romantic, that Obi’s surprised me, and it fits so well! Then, there’s the way Kiki joins in the banter. (She’s great in general!) The way Mitsuhide reacts and of course Zen’s silence. Then, there’s the later on, Shirayuki getting Obi back, Obi being unable to handle the teasing, and the loss of his good reputation, the way she gives in and finally asks him to kiss her. The way the whole kiss goes. Ryuu showing up, after having dealt with two other people refusing to work. (That decided kissing was better than work, much to Ryuu’s disappointment.) Ryuu’s support of Obi and Shirayuki; I feel so bad for Ryuu here, and yet, I’m pretty sure that when I finally get far enough in the manga to meet the other two characters caught kissing, I think I’ll ship them, though I’m not positive yet. The way they restore Obi’s reputation and the applause that they’re met with. It’s funny, full of banter, great characterization, and so much more! I just love this story, and I’m so glad that I managed to refind it. (I’d forgotten that all of these amazing moments were in one fic. Sabraeal wrote this absolutely amazingly!) Please do go read it! I’m positive that it’s one of my favorite oneshots. https://archiveofourown.org/works/8705884 I don’t know if MitsuKiki counts as enough of a rarepair, but there are not a lot of fics out there for them, so I’m including this here. For Rare Pair, The Five Stages Of Partnership by geneee. It was the first MitsuKiki story to come to mind for me by the way, and I love this side pairing so much. And this story does a very lovely job of expressing Kiki’s feelings and going through the years, starting with when she first met Mitsuhide and carrying on throughout all of the time getting to know him. (Aww, I could have counted it in Canon Compliant as well, but oh well.) https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12365055/1/The-Five-Stages-of-Partnership I probably should flip this and the Rare Pair slot, but I’m not going to. This one is a gem of a story as well; it’s a beautiful MitsuKiki story told from Mitsuhide’s perspective. (I was going to include a different MitsuKiki story by this same author, but I seen the summary for this one and remembered being blown away by it, so I took the time to reread it just now.) Silver by fiesa is the story I picked for Canon Compliant. It can take place in a few different spots in canon, but it really doesn’t sway the story into canon divergence. It’s a beautiful, very poetic MitsuKiki story, that captures Mitsuhide’s feelings beautifully, both towards Kiki and swordfighting in general. It’s an absolutely gorgeous fic. (It’s also just seven words over one thousand.) You really should read this story by fiesa; it’s one of my favorites by this particular writer and one of my favorite MitsuKiki stories. Also, check out more by fiesa; fiesa’s an absolutely incredible MitsuKiki writer! (Writes mostly MitsuKiki, but there are stories that fiesa’s written that aren’t MitsuKiki as well.) https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7801925/1/Silver Okay, I mentioned this story once before, but didn’t give you the title. (Also, on a quick side note, I will probably be posting a short fic rec right after this, with a few other fics, that I sort of teased by not listing the names of before up above and one additional one.) (Also, any writer I mentioned is worth reading as much of their work as you can, because they’re all so good!) Okay, so here is that Star Wars AU, I mentioned being absolutely in love with. Starlines by infinitelystrangemachine_old. So, this Star Wars AU absolutely blew me away, the first time that I stumbled upon it. It’s beautiful, and it ties back into the accidental soul bond trope, and I actually did ask people who know Star Wars way better than me, if this was possible within Star Wars, and yes, yes, it is! Shirayuki and Obi end up soul bonded and see each other randomly in places where technically the other one isn’t. Like a personalized hologram, I guess, since only they see each other. The first time they see each other is awkward for them both, and they don’t initially know what’s going on. (It’s great! Plus, they are on different sides of the war.) So, slowly they become friends and fall in love. It’s a premise I hadn’t seen before, and had me asking various Star Wars inspired questions, since it is so good! This I’m using for the Free Space on the board, the Apple. It’s an absolute delight to read. https://archiveofourown.org/works/14404602/chapters/33266145

#ansficbingo #fic rec #sctwilightvampwolfgal #submission

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popculturebuffet · 3 years

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Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life Review

Happy Birthday To Me, as I continue my birthday celebration by taking a look at comics that have a personal connection to me.. And for our main feature, i’m taking a look at the first volume of a series that was vitally important to a teenage me, Scott Pilgrim.

Scott Pilgrim is the brainchild of Brian Lee’O’Malley. O’Malley came up with the concept from a number of things. Being a fan of the band Plumtree, O’Malley was curious about the name of their song “Scott Pilgrim” and wondered who this Scott Pilgrim guy was. So over the years he slowly built the guy up in the back of his mind using bits of his life and what not. As for why he ends up fighting 7 evil exes, that came from a discussion with his then girlfriend, later wife and currently ex-wife Hope Larson, where he threw off the joke that her exes should form some kind of League. After finishing his first solo work Lost at Sea, O’Malley decided Scotty would be his next project and the rest is history. To date while O’Malley has written two works since, Seconds which is delightful and Snotgirl which didn’t grab me but I intend to try again, Scott remains his most popular work, in large part due to it’s SUBLIME video game and movie adaptations, the former of which is finally getting a rerelease next month.

The series charm is in it’s style: A manga styled comic that combines two desperate kinds of story: Shonen Fight Manga and Slice of Life Indie Comics. The story shifts from Scott going through normal life stuff while trying to make his new relationship work and get his shit together and Scott getting into big bombastic fights with his new sweetie’s exes for the right to keep dating her and to you know, stay alive. The series effortlesly blends a video game like world with real grounded characters and is wonderful for it. As for where I came in, one Free Comic Book day I found a little comic named Free Scott Pilgrim, which I genuinely loved and was instantly charmed by it’s humor and well done art. So I picked up the second and third volumes of the series proper and the first once I could find it and the rest ,as they say, is history. For my high school life, this was one of hte most important things in it and I wrote fanfiction, which I thankfully never put online and in general enjoyed the hell out of the series. Then I just kind of.. let it sit on my shelf for a while. It wasn’t BAD, I just never got back to it and as the franchise went dormant I just sorta slept on it and the movie and that part of me...

Cut to a few weeks ago, when Comixology did a massive sale for black friday that marked a ton of Graphic Novels down to just 1 buck each, and the color editions of Scott Pilgrim happened to be part of this, though only volume 1 was that cheap. But thanks to my best friend micheal and an early christmas/birthday present I got the rest and got to revisit the series as a whole, with me rethinking my previous thoughts of volume 1 and thus.. wanting to review it and share both why this series is so damn special and what’s good, and what’s not so good about it. I’ll also be covering the game, once i’ts re-released, and the movie once i’m finsihed with the comics so look out for that. And get ready to take a trip to the glorious land of canada...

As a heads up and as you can tell i’ll be using the color version as while I could get scans of the black and white, I prefer the color version. While the black and white was fine and always will be, I think the impressive coloring job really adds to thing and makes the already great fight scenes pop more, as well as making certain background elements stand out a bit. While it does negate the black and white gags, the tradeoff is more than worth it. That being said either version is fine so if you can get the black and white cheaper that’s fine and i’ve kept my original copies, with volumes 4 -6 having been picked up as they came out.

So as our story starts we meet our hero: Scott Pilgrim Age 23, a charming but jobless and kind of sketchy possible college graduate whose really been adrift in his life since a breakup about a year ago. And when our story opens he’s taken a turn for a worse and decided to date sweet but naive and inexperinced Knives Chau, a 17 year old girl. And why yes the power dynamics there are messed up and why yes Scott is pretty damn sketchy in this moment in time, and while yes I am aware the age of consent in canada is 16, it dosen’t make this any less greasy and the story knows that. And how it knows that MOST of his friends aren’t on board. The only ones who seems to is Stephen Stiles, leader of Sex Bomb-Omb, the band scott’s in with one of the best names ever and even then it’s hard to tell if he’s being sarcastic or just a total douche. The other, Young Neil Nordgraf, Stephen’s roomate, is well 19 or 20 and kind of a dipshit so we just ignore him. I used to use him as kind of a projection, to put myself in the adventure when I was younger as Neil kind of lacks personality in the comics but in the comics.. he’s not hte best or most complex character. He is great in the movie though and Edgar Wright did an amazing job fleshing him out. The rest of his circle are .. not so permissive. His best friend, roomate and king of all gays for all time Wallace Wells very much does not want to come with Scott to school to pick her up because every part of that sentence after hurt to type. Granted Scott gets him to come with him with promises of boys, but frankly knowing wallace he was probably just playing along/wants to protect this poor child. His ex and fellow bandmate Kim is clearly bothered by it and is flat out worried Scott is taking advantage of her. Kim and Wallace are easily my faviorites both for personality and because I have a massive crush on both. With Wallace it just didn’t manifest till the reread. Finally Scott’s kid sister Stacey chews him out over it before genuinely wondering if he’s gone insane or he’s actually happy. For my two cents: he’s not. He WANTS to be, but he dosen’t know how. And as someone whose both neurotypical, which given Scott’s troubles with empathy and relating to people like yours truly I strongly suggest he is, and has struggled with depression I can relate to that. He wants to move on but he just.. can’t, he just wants to get past the haze he’s been in since Envy dumped him.. but he dosen’t know how. So instead of doing someting constructive or finding a job or anything .. he just took the first and easiest way out of his depression he could. I’ve done that with video games and stuff. Scott did that by entering a relationship that’s really easy, requires only so much effort, and is with someone who utterly adores, looks up to him and will never expect better. Being with Knives makes him feel better.. but it dosen’t MAKE him a better person. As i’ve made clear dating someone just for a boost makes him actively worse and had fate not intervened, I shudder to think what Scott might have become. That being said his actoins are still creepy and since Scott has a habit of landing ass backwards into being an asshole here’s a counter to track that. That’s 2 for doing this overall, one for tleling her to be good, and 1 for trying to ply wallace with underage boys.

Your the Scum of the Earth Scott Counter: 1

Thankfully fate does and Scott’s dreams, ones of him crawling through a desert alone, are interupted by a mysterious pink haired girl on skates. The next day he’s just sort of in a daze, kind of confused, and even more so when he sees her IN REAL LIFE, while at the library with Knives. He’s understandably frazzled but ends up finding out he’s not hallucinating when talking to MIcheal Cormeau. Micheal is a minor character and another artist and friend of o malley’s who represents that one guy in social circles who knows everybody. And indeed he knows the mystery girl, Ramona Flowers and that she’s there. Scott TRIES talking her up but just creeps her out, so Scott goes with plan b and decides to ask around about her. Enter Sandra and Monique, two college aquantinces of Scott, who just sorta show up at major events and aren’t that developed or intresting. They turn him to Julie who forbids him to date her. To which I say.

Naturually we’ll aslo be needing a counter for this.

Shut Up Julie Counter: 1

Scott however did find out she’s a delivery girl for Amazon Canada, and thus orders some CD’s on Wallace’s Credit card to hopefully see her. And while his behavior IS obessive.. it’s understandable. I’d be weirdly obessed with finding someone too if they showed up in my dreams every day and were apparently a real person. I’d probably play it cooler but still i’ts kind of understandable. So after a day with knives in which he’s clearly checked out she kisses him, he freaks out and it’s very clear that while Scott’s good at attracting women he’s just.. not good with his emotions and has finally woken up to how messed up this is, but has no idea how to get out now he’s intrested in someone he actually has a future with maybe. Speaking of Scott’s package and Ramona finally arrive. Scott’s move is to.. ask her out abrubtly but after he mentions her Dreams, Ramona finally puts two and two together and explains things: She’s been using Subspace, a seris of highways connected by the subconcious and apparently more common in america, though it’s later revealed she was taught this but being the first book with a lot of the lore and what not ironed out this is fine. Point is she was just using his dreams as transit and didn’t mean to get him obessed. Scott continues to try his schtick and eventually gets her to agree to hang out with him. Why she does I generally do not know, as SCott basically fell ass backwards over himself conversationally, but whatever. If he didn’t succeed we wouldn’t have a plot.

That being said things pick up a bit with the date though. The scene is really good and simply just the two.. talking. Having plesant conversations getting to know one another. That good stuff. it’s just really nice to read and it’s hard to explain why. Highlights include Scott’s x-men patch, Ramona not wanting to talk about her last job and Scott admitting he hasn’t been obessed in a long time.. and it comes off sweet rather htan creepy like that sounds. It just means he hasn’t fell this head over heels felt like this. As I said Knives was easy.. but this is hard.. and this.. feels right. So as things Snow Ramona yanks scott through subspace to escape the blizzard.

So we end up back at Ramona’s place and she offers some tea which leads to one of the best gags of the volume as she lists them off:

So Ramona goes to get Scott a blanket, Scott ends up following finds her changing, and she decides to warm him up another way.. by embracing him... cue.. the inevitible really.

It feels organic though: The two are clearly attracted to each other and while Scott came on as strong as freaking colossus, he still rebounded well once they hung out and he could relax a bit and show the scott underneath the lairs of dumbass. The two end up cuddling in bed and Scott seems..genuiley happy saying he needed this... awwwwwww. They part the next morning with him asking her to his band’s performance.

So Scott finds Wallace at home who says what Scott needs to hear “You need to break up with your fake highschool girlfriend scott’ Granted the entire first 40 pages could’ve been titled that but now he’s actively cheating. He’s also got a letter.

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It’s a death threat Scott barely grazes through, just like an email earlier.

But scott’s more concerned with his emotional distress.. i.e. the consequences of his throughly shitty actions finally hitting him in the face.

Scott heads to practice for his gig and can’t bring himself to break up with knives, but does find out about the opposition: Crash and the Boys, based on an NES game title because of course it is. Crash, their leader, Joel their baseplayer who scott hates because he hates all other baseplayers (”I don’t hate myself kim) and Trasha, an 8 year old progedy they found playing Drum Mania. Don’t ask me what that is, i’m not going to get every refrence.

So at the show Scott runs into Stacey and her new boyfriend Jimmy with Stacey being supportive. And then Knives shows up and then RAMONA SHOWS UP. Oh no scott’s cheating might be discovered!

So Scott books it while we’re introduced to Crash and the Boys. Wallace heckles them, to the band’s annoyance, until they eventually get fed up and we easly get the best gag of the volume. I was wrong this clearly tops the tea thing.

So Crash and The Boys continue to play their set, including a song that supposdely kills the audience but really knocks them out.. which of course bothers kim because they play next. Meanwhile Ramona and Stacey meet and the two really get along.. and come back to find the audience ko’d and Wallace Making out with Stacey’s boyfriend. Oh no! Which is a dick move, no question. But Stacey’s next move is questionable even for a 19 year old: She says “You won’t steel another guy from me and tells wallace to sit over there”. Okay Stacey even if he is bi, and this series has trouble with the concept of bisexuals we’ll get into that later trust me, he made out with someone else entirely while on a date with you. Wallace is still an asshole, it’s part of his charm.. but it dosen’t change the fact your date kissed someone else seconds after you were gone and has been eyballing him all night, as seen even above. He’s not into you as you thought, just accept it, move on, and kick Jimmy in the balls and then wallace like a proper lady. So Scott prepares to play and this happens

And it’s here, at the very end of the comic the series main premise finally kicks in and the world takes it’s true shape. It’s a world where an indie comedy about a mess of a being putting his life together after finding his dream girl.. also has said mess being forced to get into fist fights with wizards, movie stars, vegans, half-ninjas, twin roboticists and a katana wielding douchenozzle record exec in order to continue to have the right to date his girlfriend.

It’s where the series charm comes from and really what made it a huge sucess so it’s no suprise this volume perks up immensley for the climax. I’ll get more into it’s pacing problem at the end. For now it’s fight time and as we find out in a hilarious and awesome turn.. Scott is the best fighter in toronto.. which just makes me REALLLY want a Scott Pilgrim version of letterkenny. I mean who wouldn’t want to see wayne fight some guy who can turn his hands into dragons or see Squireely Dan do E.Honda’s hand slap move from streetfighter or see the skids all fuse into one mega emo. It’s just.. the possiblities are as endless as they are wonderous and I want this now.

But yeah as Patel is both the first boss and Scott’s first real opponent Scott.. handles him really easily. This was by design as O’Malley wanted a shonen progression to the fights.. and honestly it’s a great way to do things. Since the fights are styled after shonen and video games, and both have power based progression in bad guys and threats, it just made sense. Patel.. is just pathetic even with his magic powers, and his habit of sending letters and emails just pounds it in. Though he is right to be a bit pissed Scott didn’t read a letter he hand delivered in a snowstorm. That’s just a tad rude.

Mid-Fight, Scott, now he knows the whole evil ex boyfriend thing, wonders what Matt and Ramona’s past is and while Matthew refuses to tell.. Ramona spills easily. It was midddle school, all the jocks wanted her for whatever reason, likely because from experince in high school, guys really like indie girls. Matthew was the only non-white non jock, so they teamed up and with her strength and his mystic powers they beat them.. but since his use had dried up, she flipped him off and left. Matthew dosen’t take this well and summons demon hipster chicks to fight while Scott and co, minus ramona, fight back with a finger gun routine and block his fire balls before propelling Scott into matthew somehow, and landing the KO Evil Exes Left: 6 Matthew bursts into coins though fun fact, O’Malley says the Exes all respawned back at home afterwords and learned their lesson. With Pattel I genuinely don’t think he did... but clearly given his penchant for formality what with the letters and emails, he probably felt it’d break protocol to attack before the rest were done. He probably jsut formed a hipster emo band and found more sucess using his magic for that instead and just forgot about the whole thing. Could be wrong but that’s what i’m going with. So Scott asks Ramona to go out with him then make out with him, both of which she says yes to. Nice one scotty boy. Ramona then explains the whole evil exes thing: He’ll have to defeat each one as they come after him, and while Scott wonders if they’ll come one at a time Ramona’s not sure. As time will bear out, Scott is MOSTLY correct as most exes take him one on one, with the exception of the twins. But since as I said earlier the twins are basically one person, and as we’ll find out by choice, so it’s an exception. Plus their the last step before the final boss, so by that token it’s a bit fairer to have the penultimate boss get an unfair advantage. Scott is fine with that, he and Ramona share another moment and a kiss.. but Scott makes the mistake of asking if gideon is one and Ramona’s head starts glowing with her dodging the subject, though still going out with SCott and him worried.. it just feels.. off. not a bad ending but the only one of the series three cliffhanger endings that just dosen’t work for me, especailly since it is a bit before the Gideon mystery really picks up steam again. But with that we close this chapter

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Precious Little Life is a decent start to the story. While Scott is loathsome at first, he’s still a compelling character and does get more likeable as things go, the humor when it is there shines and is one of the series best assets and while the fight is short and only at the end, it is oh so glorious especailly in cover with the impacts taking cues from the movie. It’s a good intro to Scott’s world and ther’es a reason the movie adapts this book the closest as it sets up the cast and premise well, with only Stephen Stiles feeling a bit off and ONLY for the first few chapters. The volume is only really held back by it’s pacing, as before Scott runs into ramona in his dream the story feels a bit sluggish as we’re just watching some douche date a high school kid. While it is necessary to set up the world, it just dosen’t have the snappy pacing the series would be known for and that makes the rest of the series more charming. it’s nto BAD.. but it’s not FANTASTIC like the series would become. What keeps it from being bad is simple: These aren’t general badness signs but more just O’Malley coming into his owna nd getitng better and better as the book goes, to the point that by the next book the pacing is much better and by book 3 onwards he has it down pat. Overall not a BAD volume but certaionly the weakest of the bunch.. which given it’s still really good says something about the ride we’re in for. I’ll be back sometime in the future, likely january. Yup i’m taking on YET ANOTHER PROJECT. but since this one, while clearly exausting and time consuimg, is much shorter in overall length, and i’m still proritizing the three I have running over this, I think i’ll be just fine. Until next time, have a happy holiday.

#scott pilgrim #scott pilgrims precious little life #ramona flowers #wallace wells #kim pine #stephen styles #knives chau #neil nordgraf #julie powers #matthew pattel #gideon #crash and the boys #reviews #comics #oni press #micheal comereau #stacey pilgrim

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