straightforwardly

So, firstly, I would say that cywscross is the populariser of the 'Time/Dimension Travel Ichigo Living In Seireitei,' genre of Bleach works, so I recommend their works on that basis.

cywscross's Bleach works are here.

Mixelation writes Ulquiorra/Orihime fics on occasion and those are always fluffy and cute. They can be found here

Onto some more specific ones:

freedom above all things by hellbeast is a fic series I have recommended before and I will continue to recommend it because 1. I cannot be controlled and 2. I love OC/SI fics that are heavy on worldbuilding and fuck with canon. Weird and fun.

I rediscovered Grimmjow's (*muffled sounds of my repressed cute aggression*) little toe beans recently, so the following includes a staggering amount of Grimmjow, even though if you asked me which pairings I liked best, they probably wouldn't be Grimmjow pairings. I contain multitudes and I'm weak to kitty claws.

Many of murderlight's short Bleach fics are good fun. I love

- On the Menu🍣, a light Grimmjow/Orihime fic

- Something Fishy 🐠 which is a fun and absurd Grimmjow/Ichigo fic about Ichigo's brief but dramatic mermaid transformation, and

- Landmines 💥 is a less comedic but pleasantly iddy short Grimmjow/Ichigo fic about getting a bit paralysed in the empty world.

Asuka Kureru has written several fun Grimmjow/Ichigo fics, including:

- Candy for Cannibals, which is basically a Bleach take on the old Canadian Shack trope

- Yield, a short Ichigo/Grimmjow fic that's noncon but in which Ichigo is really very sweet for a rapacious out-of-control cannibal monster, and

- Superhero Love Triangle, which is a superhero AU that blends the Bleach hollow worldbuilding with the expected superhero stuff.

voxofthevoid has written several really fun Grimmjow/Ichigo fics also:

- the hunter and the night (of some other story) is a dimensional/time travel ship fic with a powerful vasto lorde Ichigo, given from Grimmjow's baffled perspective,

- cannibalism, the modern religion, which is an alternative canon fic where Ichigo doesn't get involved with the shinigami but he still meets Grimmjow, and

-bury all your secrets in my skin , which is canon-universe oviposition tentacle porn and it's very very cute.

Individual fic recs:

Forever Never Sounded So Stupid by junko is a fun Ichigo/Aizen fic. I personally never especially liked Aizen as a character? But I liked this fic anyway, so if you are an Aizen fan you may particularly enjoy it.

Falsetto Tormental by balimaria is a very cool exploration of Ichigo getting stuck as a hollow and what that might be like, which I love.

Rōnin by glacis is a Bleach/Ouran Highschool Host Club crossover that's fast paced and fun.

Ulterior Motives by triste was my very favourite Ichigo/Ishida fic from LiveJournal Ago and I'm pleased to see it's on AO3 now.

tozette

A Silent Dog And Still Water by Misfit_McCoward (naruto)

A fic concerning a chronically ill ninja OC, and how she maintains herself after defecting from her village. I like the sense of well-paced rising tension and the drama of the ending. If you haven't yet read it, give it a shot! It's 14000-odd words, so enough to get invested in but not so long you lose focus.

And I Alone Have Escaped To Tell You by astolat (transformers cartoon generation one)

A time travel fix it. Includes sparring with added sexual tension, complicated crushes on your boss, a biased narrator who doesn't know he's biased, and intense crying on the moon. It's a very rare pair. I think you don't need to know canon to understand this fic—the fic itself covers the premise well and canon is pretty light on, like... sense. Pretty popular, so it may already have reached its entire intended audience.

There May Be Some Collateral Damage by metisket (bleach/harry potter)

This is an excellent "this was always the same world" crossover. The two settings are well blended and the pacing is good. I think this fic has a good handle Ichigo's character. You would probably need at least some understanding of Bleach canon to enjoy this one.

Company by esama (final fantasy 7)

This fic's characterisation more leans on canon than embodies it (which works just fine with a video game) but it is very charming. Fully commits to the one premise—an indulgent power fantasy about not fearing death and managerial conquest—and really runs with it.

Cleaning Out The Rooms by bitochondria (disco elysium)

This fic is a good, well paced comedy but it's also absurdly earnest and full of feelings. The voices/skills are really well done and the comedic pacing of those is particularly great. I think you will need to have some knowledge of canon for this one, or else you will be lost, as it picks up immediately after a fairly complex canon leaves off.

tozette

This was initially prompted by an ask requesting fic recommendations from my tumblr blog in 2024. Several of these fics have since been updated!

Naruto:

Morpheme by infraredphaeton features a poisoner OC/SI who saves Sakumo. It's archive locked so you need to log in to AO3 to read it.
Fallow Fields by zarinthel is about Kakashi's sister who becomes disabled during the war.

Bleach:

freedom above all things by hellbeast is a worldbuilding heavy, Grimmjow-centric SI/OC fic I enjoyed.

Fullmetal Alchemist:

A Pocket Full of Posies by lulu_lisbon is a SI/OC fic about a person who invents an alchemical array... and then gets conscripted to fight in Ishval. It's finished at 28k words and it's one of the shortest on this list.

X-men:

I don't read a lot of X-men fics, but Pound the Table by An_October_Daye is really fun! This SI/OC is a mutant attorney.

MCU:

If you like iddy fanfics, you might try rip to him but im different by victortor. It's a self insert as Loki, but it's kind of about the relationship between Loki and himself too.

Harry Potter:

The Company of Another by sleipnirismybaby is a Petunia Dursley SI/OC which I find conceptually interesting.

MDZS/Untamed/Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation:

江山如有待 | It Seems the Hills and Rivers Have Been Waiting by ScarlettStorm is less a SI and more an OC fic. This one IS romantic, so keep that in mind for if that's really a hard nope — it's a lengthy Jiang Cheng × OC romance about a buff wuxia girl in a xianxia world. It's a fairly traditional romance plot.
by foot it's a slow climbby vroomian is more of a traditional SI/OC story. Good fun! Very iddy. It's archive locked so you need to log in to AO3 to read it.

tozette

10,000 Things According To Will by Lepak. It's about, hmm, Kim and cultural alienation.

The Shape of the Sand by AstroGirl. Basically if Martinaise wasn't the last time Harry suffered sudden complete amnesia.

Cleaning Out the Rooms by bitochondria. A very "Harry navigating the game's aftermath" fic, which is also a content concept I like.

Main and Perdition by satelliteaccident. Similar premise: picks up pretty close to where the game leaves off.

THE HAUNTING OF PRECINCT 41 by confusedTraveler. Some time after the events of the game, Harry is in an accident and all his skills and internal voices emerge from his comatose form to hang out in the precinct. Shenanigans ensue.

Scour (orphaned). In which Harry remembers he has a landlord and Kim and Jean help him clean up his disaster apartment.

Lastly: The Terrible Temptations of the Trouser Tentacle by Morgue_XiiV

It's very not safe for work and it's also very very funny.

Current Mood: (⁠≧⁠▽⁠≦⁠)

tozette

Not to get toooo sexy on main but

I actually played an intensely cerebral Harry Du Bois in Disco Elysium, but there's repeated comments about his physicality—girthy biceps, 60kg lifts, the apparent cardiovascular endurance of an ultrarunner—that kind of make me think thinky thoughts about this other, implied kind of Harry.

There's this dynamic of Harry having no episodic and patchy semantic memories, poor impulse control, poor judgment and serious mood instability, while Kim is 98% of the critical thinking as well as, variously, both an enabler and the brakes on Harry's... less prosocial impulses.

I would like... horny disco elysium fic in which Harry really relaxes into being a thoughts-free semi-feral attack dog for Kim. Kim—a man who thinks it's ideal that the mechanics of his gun mean he has to think about every single bullet he loads—has complicated, sexy feelings about being in this much control of someone who is very, very dangerous under the right circumstances. And Harry gets to look upon him with blind trust and feel powerful and impressive and useful and like a good boy. Can't make decisions for himself without them going to shit, anyway. Isn't it nice to be on the leash?

(Also I hope Jean gets him back and has a complete meltdown about it because that would be funny to me, thank you.)

But I also think it is unreasonably sexy that your Harry can roll certain very physical skills, dig a bullet out of a week-old corpse's soft palate, and then give it to Kim like a carefully-wrapped, hard-won trophy. That's good work, Kim says, and some quiet voice in Harry's head goes: oh, he's really pleased.

Yeah he is.

I was just thinking about this yesterday and I think it would be fun to do a whole horrible case like this.

I've never really tried writing with the skills before so it's interesting to see how much character information you can leverage into a short scene. There's probably stuff I'd do differently if I was putting this in a longer form story but it sure is interesting

——

DERELICT SEASIDE WAREHOUSE—It is dim, draughty and cold. Sand and grit gather in the corners of this abandoned warehouse. It looks, and smells, as though it hasn't seen daylight in years. Not until you broke down the door today.

The light is still bad.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: pleased

china_shop

Article 48 [Restriction on Acceptance of Engagement] (7647 words) by china_shop [Teen and Up]
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 당신이 잠든 사이에 | While You Were Sleeping (TV)
Relationships: Han Woo Tak/Jung Jae Chan/Nam Hong Joo
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Threesome - F/M/M, Getting Together, Prophetic Dreams, Found Family
Summary:
“Woo Tak, you haven’t left home yet, right?” Hong Joo’s voice comes down the line with the familiar confidence of long-standing friendship. “Don’t drive. You’ll get stuck in traffic, and you’ll miss your test.”
Woo Tak momentarily forgets his place in her life. His crush is usually manageable, but this morning, taken off-guard, he can’t suppress a kindling warmth, nor the smile that accompanies it. “Nam Hong Joo, have you been dreaming about me from all the way over in Australia?”

This request came up for pinch hit around the time I defaulted on Yuletide, and I thought, well, if I can't manage my assignment, I'll at least do a treat. Especially since I'd nominated While You Were Sleeping (one of my long-standing tiny Kdrama fandoms). But in the end, this foundered too. Turns out partners having operations is not great for my writing productivity.

So since mid-February (I think?!), I've been finishing the draft, re-writing, and re-re-writing. I came up against successive problems, and I want to document them here, because I know these issues are cropping up in my writing generally, of late.

Internal/external consistency: one of the big problems with my first few drafts was: Character A decides to do X and continues to believe they're doing X while actually doing Y. In other words, the external dialogue and actions contradict the internal monologue in a way that is not deliberate and just comes across as confusing and nonsensical. ("I've decided not to tell them how I feel... except that I keep hinting without acknowledging that.") I'm sure there are deliberate ways to do this that can be very effective. This was not that.

Solution: step outside the POV and look at what the character is actually doing. Then signpost reversals and the reasons for them.

Cue words/flow: one of Matt Bell's newsletters a while back quoted Robert McKee talking about cue words:
[E]very reaction[...] needs an action to prompt it.

Therefore, ideally, the last word or phrase of each speech is the core word that seals meaning and cues a reaction from the other side of the scene. [...] A miscue happens when a core word is placed too early in Character A’s line and prompts a reaction from Character B, but because Character A has more words to recite, Actor B must swallow her response and wait while Actor A finishes performing his speech.

In prose, this isn't just about external reaction, but internal reaction too. If the POV character's internal monologue isn't reacting to the last thing that happened/was said, then the reader is left scrambling to make connections with something that might have happened lines or paragraphs back, or which might not be there at all. I find I'm particularly prone to this when I have a lot of meta thoughts I'm trying to include in the POV's internal monologue.

Solution: restructure so that the reactions directly follow on from the thing that caused them, and make sure that meta thoughts flow naturally, each one prompted by the last, in a way that fits the overall arc/direction of the scene (keeping in mind that it's perfectly fine to have reversals).

Location of conversation/theory of mind: I've been finding lately that my POV characters often conduct a huge amount of the story just inside their heads, even when there's someone else there. They have all these thoughts and feelings to process! It's a lot! And then occasionally the other person says something, setting off a new cascade of thoughts and feelings. But most people have theories about what the people they're talking with are thinking, how they're feeling, what they're trying to achieve. Conversations, especially romantic ones, usually work better when the focus is shared between the POV character's internal thoughts, and their assessment of what is happening externally.

Solution: make the other party to the conversation more active. And make the POV character react to them, as well as their own internal stuff.

Direction/progress of scenes: I touched on this above, but it deserves its own point. Because I discovery write, I find it easy to take a very meandery path from the start of the scene to where I want to end up. In fanfic, this isn't fatal because we all enjoy spending time with our characters. But it can undercut tension and test readers' comprehension. It's something I want to work on.

Solution: structure scenes so that there's a sense of progress, with only one or two reversals, not flip-flopping every few paragraphs.

Anyway, things to think about. Things to work on. I'm super grateful to

teaotter for multiple beta rounds, helping me figure some of this stuff out. And I'm looking forward to applying these lessons to my current WIP, which oh dear, really needs it. ;-)

shadaras

today I have been a lump due to WEATHER but since I haven't gotten to responding to comments on my last post about work bullshit, have an update re: work bullshit!

Tuesday they say "hey, we're going on short weeks!" and are like "I guess you can take a layoff if you don't wanna do that" and people are mostly just like "UH!!!"

Wednesday I am informed that I'll be going with one of the journeymen to another job starting probably next Wednesday. (Also one of the journeymen is like "yeah, I called [company I worked for before this] and they said they'd take me back") (Also we learn that a select few people would be staying on full weeks anyway!)

Today we are all informed, not even by the bosses, that they will not be doing short weeks after all. So. You know. Super cool of them, definitely didn't shoot themselves in the feet re crew morale and general good-will.

It's all very, "you're doing a shit job of communicating and are gonna lose people because of this", because I don't think the journeyman I'll be going to that job with wants to come back. I don't blame him; we're at the stage of the job where a lot of the work is "figure out what got missed/didn't happen because we didn't have the necessary pieces at the time", which means a lot of working around shit that's now in our way, etc etc. Plus this whole debacle about work hours.

china_shop

Previous poll review
In the Favourites poll, 63% of respondents have a favourite colour, 23.9% said sort of, and 8.7% said no. In ticky-boxes, rainbows came second to hugs, 68.8% to 87.5%. Raccoon chefs came third with 43.8%. Thank you for your votes! ♥

Reading
Still listening to The Hymn to Dionysus by Natasha Pulley, read by Sid Sagar. At this stage, I'm enjoying the worldbuilding most of all. (Why is ancient xenophobia, eg, Thebians hating on Athenians, amusing, when its modern counterpart is the worst?)

Still dipping into Refuse to Be Done: How to Write and Rewrite a Novel in Three Drafts by Matt Bell. I'm still in the drafting part, which has lots of strategies and good things to think about, but doesn't seem like it will get you a clean first draft. Like, that is not at all his goal.

Kdramas
I've nearly finished my immediate rewatch of One Spring Night. Will I manage not to go straight back to the beginning, or will it be like that time I had Maroon Five's Songs About Jane in my car tape deck for maybe three years straight? (Note to self: potential Yuletide fandom; I would love future fic about teenage Eun-u and his relationship with his new mother (and cousin(s) and possible younger siblings), and also his sort-of-outsider POV on his parents' relationship.)

Finished Undercover Miss Hong, which was sweet and fun. Not a favourite for me, but enjoyable, and I'm glad I watched.

I'm in the market for something new. I started Phantom Lawyer (about a fledging lawyer who sees ghosts and takes them on as clients; yes, it's a shaky business model), but Andrew's watching it with me, so that's an evening thing. I need something else to lure me onto my exercise machine.

I tried episode 1 of The Practical Guide to Love, for Han Ji-Min, but am not convinced. (Is anyone else watching it? Does it pick up?) Also, a little more of While You Were Sleeping, but either VIKI or I have forgotten where I'm up to. No Love Scout this week or last, due to illness.

Other TV
The Pitt. Ahhhh, my favourite weekly stressbomb.

A few more episodes of The Madison, which continues to be pretty; continues to push the message that cities are trash, versus country living, which is wholesome and full of community, and inspires personal growth. Somehow, the appearance of a love interest has turned me off the whole thing, and I don't even know why. Genre shift? Also, (can I be spoilery? does anyone care?)

not even really spoilers

there are all these flashbacks to Conversations from a Marriage between Michelle Pfeiffer and Kurt Russell, and every single one of these takes place in New York while Michelle Pfeiffer is in the bath. After a while, I concluded that actually these conversations had happened all over the place (at brunch, in the street, in Central Park, in bed), but Michelle Pfeiffer's character's bereavement/grief means she can only conceptualise them as bath conversations. And then Andrew said that soon there'd be flashbacks of her friends in the bath with her, too, and now I can't take them seriously at all. (Also, she must have been so pruney after shooting all those bath scenes!)

Rooster, Cheers, and Scrubs season 1. A little bit of SurrealEstate. Paper Girls with Ed. Fringe and Bluey with my sister.

Online life
520 Day Guardian Reverse Exchange modding behind the scenes, yay! Part 2 of sign-ups closes tomorrow, then it's matching, and then things will quieten down for a bit. | A lot of beta. :-) | My computer went into a crashing spiral a couple of days ago, and I started worrying (DNW to upgrade from Windows 11 to a subscription model!), but the culprit appears to have been a faulty flashdrive. Now I've removed that, things have calmed down. *knocks on wood, makes a backup*

Writing/making things
I finished a fic in March (by the skin of my teeth)! Hooray! So happy about that. I'll post about it separately.

I'm still having thoughts about my other started-for-Yuletide WIP, but I've fallen into the "I'll just ~quickly~ get this done before switching to my exchange assignment" trap before, and that way lies desperate last-minute scrambles up against the deadline, especially when I'm going so slowly. So I'm putting WIP #2 on hold until I at least have a 520 Day draft... which is why I'm writing this update, rather than racing to finish a fic that simply cannot be completed in two busy days.

Life/health/mental state things
Things are good. A bit hamster-wheel-esque, but at least my arms are hanging in there. | I'm looking forward to next week when Writers' Hour goes to 8am NZ time, and I can find a new rhythm for my day that somehow includes exercise. (Summers are great because I exercise first thing and then it's done.) | It's a long weekend, with a bunch of family stuff going on. My other-city-based brother (not to be confused with my US-based brother) is coming to dinner tonight for the first time in roughly a decade.

Cat
Halle really likes burrowing; I think she may be part mole. Sometimes I go into the bedroom, and a lump in the bedclothes starts letting out little warning "don't sit on me" meeps.

Car
I stopped driving on about 6 March because, you know, petrol prices. Which meant of course that when I tried to drive to lunch on Wednesday, my battery was completely flat, and I had to call NZAA and go for a long drive to recharge my battery. This seems like a terrible, inefficient system. Why can't my car just sit there, primed, until I (rarely) want it? Bah! I've considered getting rid of it entirely, but we're heading into winter, so idk.

Good things
So many hot cross buns, srsly! I finished a fic, after many many rewrites, yay!!!!! Family stuff will probably be good and will definitely come with delicious food!

Poll #34439 The whooshing sound as they go past

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 23

View Respondents

Deadlines, generally speaking

View Answers

yay! motivating!
8 (34.8%)

meep! *hides*
7 (30.4%)

manageable in moderation / under specific circumstances
14 (60.9%)

depends on the time of year
3 (13.0%)

other
2 (8.7%)

ticky-box full of pirate treasure, and the pirates are labradors and border collies
12 (52.2%)

ticky-box of finding a rhythm
8 (34.8%)

ticky-box of sunbeams dancing brightly on leaves in the breeze
16 (69.6%)

ticky-box of lemur vs sloth poetry slam
9 (39.1%)

ticky-box full of hugs
21 (91.3%)

lassarina

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

tinkaton

This looks monetarily irresponsible right on the heels of the previous post lol but two of my major preorders from last year came in earlier this week and they're sooo nice!! Adorable Jayvik plushies and a gorgeous Jayvik zine/fanbook with merch behind the cut!

( Read more... )

Life in general has been very boring and not worth writing any posts about lmao which is why I've not made any life updates recently... I guess no news is good news? It's just been the usual cycle of bouncing between work and reading/gaming/etc in my free time. I did sign up for my very first Reverse Big Bang, which is scary sjdhfksjdhf. It's the Jayvik RBB (yeah I know lmao) and I've got the fic outlined and have started to write it, but I never write longfic so I'm like ahhhhh. Wish me luck I guess?

tozette

"The Grand Duke Ravengard could be inside there!" yelled one of the Flaming Fist soldiers, face contorted with desperation. "Don't just stand there! Push!" A tremendous clattering of armour briefly interrupted the roar of the fire from deeper in the burning inn as the soldiers responded to her cry.

( Read more... )

shadaras

Hello, I exist, life's been busy and I've been tired.

1.
I read all of Witch Hat Atelier (up through ch94, for future!me's reference if I ever think to check), which means I have more than hit the point where it's like "oh! there's the part where this story is about trauma metaphors!". But also all the bits that make me cry are the bits about the kids talking about how much they've learned from their friends and how they can stay true to themselves and their dreams and how magic is for bringing joy and life to the world, so. The part of the Angsty White-Haired Man's life that's about him going "teaching is the most rewarding thing I ever could've done" is the part that interests me, not the "oh THAT'S how we're making visible the childhood trauma that defines you" part, y'know?

2.
Some more MOUSE (this fic does have a title, and eventually I will finish it)

[Rhei stands] next to Mouse, gazing at the city they’re moving away from. Its buildings are beautiful, it rises gracefully from the water, and it stands so proudly against the sky. Many of the rich and powerful of the city might have made ugly choices, and continue to make them, but the majority of its people are just that: people, doing their best in less than ideal circumstances.

And they look at Mouse, who made the bravest choice they could make, and who doesn’t seem to quite realise the enormity of what they have chosen and how rare it is to be able to do.

It is nothing like anything Rhei has ever done, a kind of choice Rhei doesn’t think they’ll ever need to make, and Mouse was willing to sacrifice their whole life for not a promise but a chance at something better.

Rhei can’t help but admire that.

3.
The weather is SO WEIRD this week? It's in the high 60s F every day EXCEPT Thursday, where it drops back down to MAYBE 40F at the highest, which is lower than the lows the rest of the week. It is also closer to NORMAL NEW ENGLAND EARLY SPRING than the high 60s F.

Today, at least, I have not had any headache from pressure changes! Which is nice, since yesterday I was grumbly about it and I have ever expectation that I'll be like "ughhhh" about it the rest of the week.

4.
Work is doing Bullshit, but when they tell us only the broad strokes of their plans for Bullshit and it mostly makes everyone go WTF, I will await further specifications about how exactly it'll manifest. (They want to go to short weeks. This is... them playing a game with what they're contracted for and how many hours they have available. I am very curious how many people are going to go "fine, lay me off then" instead.)

5.
I think it's very funny that I'm like "right, I should post, say hi, etc" on Trans Day of Visibility, a day that I keep forgetting that it is.

anyway hi I'm trans when I think it's useful to use that term, guess I'm visible today or something?

unfitforsociety

Vids

Leverage

in the middle by

brionysea
Fun Leverage OT3 fanvid

*

Star Wars

Let's Get It Started by

bessyboo
Excellently edited and really fun Star Wars vid!

✭

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: Blue Dahlia - Gaslight Anthem

unfitforsociety

Batfamily

proper rites by

hollowmen
Being a cat for three weeks has repercussions, it turns out.

Jason snacks his way through one of them. Damian reads books. Both of them drink a lot of tea. It's nice, mostly, which Jason finds highly suspicious. OH MY HEART!!!!

✭

Current Mood: sick
Current Music: Control - Halsey

unfitforsociety

The Pitt

Apply Kleenex as Needed by

Siria
Maybe if Cassie cried, she'd feel better. Really nice look at McKay in s2 episode 12.

teeth in tender flesh by

silverlullabies
Brendon Park is a patient man. That's the worst thing about him. Park the Shark is a predator, and he's just scented Emma as prey. Holy shit, y'all. Mind the tags.

✭

Current Mood: sick
Current Music: I Wanna Get Better - Bleachers

unfitforsociety

Heated Rivalry

By Halves by

tmp93
Yuna and David meet Ilya Rozanov at the hospital after Shane's injury. Lovely AU from Yuna's POV.

Closer to the heart by

norgbelulah
She says, almost without thought, "He can stay with us, if he wants. While you're gone."

Yuna Hollander does want to open her heart to her son's boyfriend, even if he is Ilya Rozanov. The first step is opening her home. <333 #i'm not crying it's just raining on my face

far across the deep blue ocean by

scarlettroses
4 times ilya rozanov found something like family in america + 1 time he built himself one in Canada. 😍😍😍😍😍

Geiger Counter by

littlesystems
Kip Grady meets Ilya Rozanov at a gay bar while watching the Admirals game. Somehow, that's not even the strangest part of his evening. I enjoyed this!

Influential by

409_conflict
The problem is, no one knows how to market Ilya Rozanov's (in his own words) sexy Euro masculinity to an audience of white straight men.

He needs the best. And if it happens to be his secret lover's mother who despises his very existence, so be it. The Ilya-Yuna text-fic I never knew I needed! <333

the lies are all behind you now by

throughadoor
In a hotel room their first year playing together for Ottawa, Shane and Ilya talk about gay rookies and bad threesomes and how to not sound like you're trying to hook up with Shane's mom. This is very sweet and also hilarious at points. <3

Lily and Jane's Reddit Adventures by

SpoonDeficiency
Ilya and Shane get Reddit's advice under the aliases Lily and Jane. Things spiral from there... This series is so much fun!

Lovers, or, English is a damn funny language by

Basingstoke
Ilya asked Shane's father while Shane and his mother were talking outside: "Is boyfriends correct? Lovers is incorrect, but I am not sure what is correct."

"Well," Mr. Hollander said. "'Lovers' is usually used for, hm, a mistress or an affair. Something kind of sordid. Though--you would say Romeo and Juliet is a play about two lovers," he said. He paused his knife on the chopping board. "Somehow that's right and using it for real people isn't right. English is a damn funny language, Ilya."

"Yes," Ilya said from the bottom of his heart. I'm sure everyone has already read this, but if you haven't you really should! It's long and lovely with a fantastic Ilya POV.

sunshine and shovel talk by

femmenerd
A little "what if?" scenario for S01E05 "I'll Believe in Anything" in which Svetlana actually says something to Ilya about him being a lovesick weirdo, and he convinces her to go with him to All-Star weekend–against her better judgement–because he thinks Shane will bring Rose. *happy sigh* Svetlana is the best, no lie.

To only ever know the cold by

IbecomewhatIbelieve
Svetlana knows about Jane. It's frankly insulting for Ilyusha to think otherwise.

She just never expected to have to call him for help. During the Olympics. In Russia. In the dead of night. This is a lovely AU where they get together a little earlier than in canon.

✭

Current Mood: sick
Current Music: Landslide - Fleetwood Mac

tozette

My takeaways are as follows:

Kakuzu is way more stable than we as a fandom give him credit for being. He listens to Hidan. He stays out as requested. He steps in when necessary. He is impatient, cranky, and done with Hidan's shit, but he mostly treats him with the attitude of a 15 year old cat faced with a yowling kitten. Honestly I have become more confident in my maddieverse!Kakuzu characterisation, even though I was worried it was too even-tempered and friendly. Kakuzu actually isn't that volatile in canon. I think a lot of his characterisation is inferred from things we don't actually see on-screen, and so his murderous rages are mostly an informed character trait — he really only gets blindly angry, on screen, at Naruto, who has the main character vibes that make everyone act weird anyway.

CONVERSELY. Deidara is way LESS stable than we as a fandom give him credit for being. We looked at him being cute, blond, young, and relatably annoyed with Tobi and decided that meant he was relatively emotionally normal, for a mass murderer. He is not. (I may be a bad Deidara writer. I've been doing him so wrong.) When we write Deidara we need to write him eating clay and trembling like a chihuahua.

HE thinks he's normal though. Like very clearly. And he's judging everyone around him. He's the normal one in his own mind.

Still Deidara: he dodged Gai AND Lee AND Neji. At the same time. With no arms. With a knife in his mouth. (Tenten was there too but in true Naruto tradition she did very little.) Food for thought?? Might need to revise my "Hidan could probably beat Deidara under specific circumstances in close quarters," assessment. If Gai can't catch him, Hidan can't catch him! RIP Hidan I love you but you might be smithereens.

Hidan IS ten pounds of crazy in a five pound bag, though. We are RIGHT about Hidan. We as a fandom might need a reminder to write more of the mid-combat whooping and giddy laughter though. Also he is super athletic. I think we are all so focused on his weird sadomasochistic murder technique (he does roll his eyes back in his head and sigh about how good it feels to get 6 inches through his chest cavity, yes, that's still Hidan) that we've forgotten that, actually, absurd acrobatics are like 45% of his taijutsu style. He is so, so athletic. No, more than that. No, more.

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A prompt from Mixelation on tumblr, for Dirt and Ashes Hidan and Sakura meeting a cat.

( Read more... )

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Many moons ago, an anonymous tumblr user asked me: What are the keys to (reasonably) happy kakuhida? like they can be disasters but they're disasters who function well together (i just really like terrible people in a good relationship).

I answered as follows:

( Read more... )

Current Mood: romantic (⁠人⁠ ⁠•͈⁠ᴗ⁠•͈⁠)

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Kakuzu is violent, but I don't think he's actually using violence as an end in itself.

He uses it for work, that's a given. But outside of that, I guess the term for what's going on here is that he has a dismissive avoidant attachment style and he uses violence to enforce what he sees as his totally normal boundaries. (They are not totally normal boundaries.)

So I guess the reason why Hidan is Kakuzu's closest companion is that Kakuzu is so violent. Incredibly violent. But Hidan simply cannot be stopped and he doesn't believe in other people's boundaries. So there.

No, but, like, the important thing is: Kakuzu doesn't actually care about the violence. He's not a panting berserker who can't handle the temptation of murder, okay?

It's just his best skill. He is the proverbial man with the hammer to whom all obstacles appear as nails. He is good at violence, it's his job, and it solves 98% of problems he encounters.

This isn't villainous blood lust. Kakuzu is 100% violence-agnostic.

He's just annoyed.

Current Mood: artistic

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Reading

A non-exhaustive list of Bleach fanfic recommendations

Five fic recs for five different fandoms—

Self Insert/OC Insert Fic Recommendations [Multifandom]

Disco Elysium Fanfic Recs

Disco Elysium thinky thoughts & fic concept

While You Were Sleeping fic, and writing meta

(no subject)

Me-and-media update

What Are You Playing Wednesday

115 ☆ jayvik posting for the 2 other fans on my timeline

I think the scene at waukeen's rest goes like this—

it's nice to have the windows open

I can't imagine that kind of sympathy

I'm meaner than my demons

So I put a bullet where I should've put a helmet

oh, mirror in the sky, what is love?

I've been looking at cuts of various Akatsuki related episodes for characterisation notes —

In Which Sakura & Hidan Encounter A Cat

"Reasonably Happy"?

Kakuzu character meta — on violence

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