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resbangmod · 3 years

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Resbang 2020 Promo, the Fifth

The Magic of Balance

presented by author: jgartist 916 [AO3]

and artist: @sami-guinea-arts

Pairings: Death the Kid x OC

Rating: PG-13

Warnings: strong language, violence, explicit gore, character death, fear, emotional abuse, partial/suggested nudity, mental illness

Summary:

Yin and Yang. Order and Chaos. Good and Evil. Opposites living in harmony. Perfect symmetry. It sounds so easy. So why then, does balance skew so drastically when the heart gets in the way? The lines that separate black and white blur behind barriers. Secrets that are meant to keep us safe actually keep us from those we love. Yin and Yang. Order and Love. Shinigami and Witch. Will these two hearts find balance or death?

Please enjoy the story preview below the cut!

“I’m sorry. I was just saying hi. I didn’t mean to scare him. I didn’t even think I could be so scary!” Her fingers pushed into her piercings through the fabric of her dress. She knew that kind of fear, felt that kind of fear, and memory of it clawed at her insides.

“I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Crona has always been shy and nervous. Especially around new people.” He gave Eve another look over, golden eyes taking in every detail of her. Perfectly symmetrical. “That is one excellent costume. I almost believed you were the real thing myself.”

“Really?” a short nervous laughter caught in her throat. She rubbed her neck. “Thanks. I’ve- er- had it for a while.” Stupid. Why did I add that? Quickly trying to find something to change the topic she deflected to his costume. He wore black boot-cut slacks that allowed the spurs on his boots to show. An expertly tailored, crisp, white linen shirt bare sleeve garters with small skulls in the center. His thumbs were hooked into his belt where two empty leather holsters hung at his hips. “You’re quite the convincing … old west bandit?”

“Sheriff, actually.” He corrected with a smile, tipping the brim of his black hat to her.

“Oh. I’m sorry.” She looked again at the left breast of his pinstripe vest. “Where’s your badge?”

He seemed to grimace and Eve briefly wondered if she said something wrong before he spoke. “I couldn’t make it symmetrical.” The fight to make it rest perfectly in the center of his chest had taken up a majority of his day before the party. Nothing he tried worked. The buttons on his shirt made the badge tilt off center. The metal was too heavy to rest at his collar like his skull brooch. The fabric of his vest was too thick to let the pin of the badge close properly. He very nearly marched out to get a second badge. He’d wear both to preserve his symmetry, one on his left breast, the other on his right. He even made his best effort to explain this to Patty and Liz. They didn’t find his argument compelling. Liz even dragged him downstairs to give his opening speech to his guests. He gave it promptly at 8PM, and he had timed it to be precisely eight minutes long; thanking everyone for coming, wishing they had a wonderful time, and telling them all where the kitchen and bathrooms were. It would have been perfect if BlackStar hadn't interrupted him. He should have expected BlackStar to do that. Should have planned for that inevitability but didn’t because of the badge.

“Do you still have it?” Eve asked blissfully unaware of the slowly building turmoil within Kid’s head.

He surrendered the badge to her. Of course he still had it. Nothing was going right, and nothing would until he found some way to make it right. He had been distracted tending to his guests, welcoming each personally and thanking them for coming, since his speech had been ruined. Now his mind returned to the cursed pin that taunted him. He had been bested; bested by a small, six pointed piece of metal. Worthless! Garbage! I should be kicked to the curb and left to be collected on garbage day. Kid’s mind spiraled. He was so caught up with how pathetically inferior he was, he didn’t notice Eve puck the hat off him. His hand instinctively reached up and began scratching at his head. The left side of his head where three white lines forever stood as a stain against his symmetry. Asymmetrical reaper scum! No- I didn’t deserve to be called a reaper. I didn’t deserve to inherit my father’s great legacy; continue his mission to preserve peace and maintain balance. How can I when I can’t even maintain my own balance?

“There!” Eve toned, presenting the hat back to Kid. The star rested perfectly in the center of the hat. She had pinned it to the band at the base, which was thin enough to accept the needle. The sturdy brim of the hat keeping the metal propped upwards. She offered it back to him, “Now it’s symmetrical.”

Now it was perfect. He thought, his mind calming. It was so simple. He thought with a smile. It wasn’t the polite host smile he wore, but a genuine smile. One he was now able to relax into. One that mirrored the charming curve that smoothed on Eve’s features as well. The answer he was searching for was staring him in the face.

#resbang #resbang 2020 #resbang promos

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resbang-bookclub · 5 years

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AMA Transcript: Wild Hunt

Next up is @addude to talk about her Resbang, Wild Hunt! Here’s some of what went down:

Q: Asking how you came up with the plot seems like a good place to start. What was your process?

ADdude: Well, I tried to do something with the theme of out of the woods. I tried to think of something that might be scary and comes out of the woods. So, I thought okay werewolf but then remembered that Free was the last one and that got me sad. So I decide let's do a wedding and a fairy king coming to ruin things and he came out of the forest. That was literally my train of thought. I don't know why, but I always imagine weddings going wrong. I've been to several weddings, none go as planned.

Q: I love the running joke about the pool whether Spirit would interfere with the wedding or not. Plot-wise, it felt like the fun times, the calm before the storm lol, but it also felt so in-character. How did you manage to keep everyone in character?

ADdude: I did love that joke. At one point I worried I was overdoing it, but I figured at that point, go through it. I think in the end Spirit did the right thing, so it worked out. Keeping everyone in character was a little hard. I mean this story took place a number of years after the end of the manga and people have changed in that time. Kid is Lord Death and he and Liz are married and have kids. Black Star and Tsubaki are raising Angela and... Black Star is Black Star, he doesn't change that much. I think the key is to having a good idea of who the character is at their cores and building on that.

Q: I love how you balanced not only a large cast of characters, but your OC’s on top of that. How did you manage juggling everyone and their backstories? Did you ever get frustrated or confused or have to backtrack?

ADdude: I start with the main characters and spin from that. Kami and Nene are getting married so they take a lot of focus. They are going through a lot of course, so yeah. Maka is getting a new stepmom so I touched on that, she knows they love each other so she's okay. Her biggest worry is that she doesn't have the right gift. Everyone else is their reactions, like with Spirit having to accept his Ex is getting married and everyone’s reactions to everything. As for keeping track, I made a short outline to keep track of everything important and I fill in the gaps as I go, then try to touch on the side characters. Though yeah, I had to check back every once in a while to make sure I wasn’t getting something wrong. Since I'm doing the story from last Resbang, I had to reread the past stories to make sure everything was in line.

Q: Was writing this sequel easier than writing your last Resbang?

ADdude: Maybe harder, cause yeah I had to go back and make sure I kept everything in the same canon. At the start of this story is talking to Nene about how she meet Kami. I had an idea of how it went but went back and noticed I changed some things when retelling the story. I honestly forgot that Nene actually punched Kami. Makes more sense in context. They were in the middle of a battlefield and Nene thought she was an enemy.

Q: Speaking of Nene, I just love her lol. She's so cute and strong and loves Kami so much. Where do you draw inspiration for your Soul Eater OC’s? They all have such detailed backstories and each has their own distinct personality.

ADdude: Actually Nene came from another series, she was a minor character in another anime called Is this a zombie. I built a lot on that character, she was very minor so there wasn't much there to start with. But I saw a lot of potential. And Kami came from a joke I made with Soul Dwelling on tumblr, about how Kami was the opposite of Spirit. He was super protective about Maka and Kami was just waiting for grandkids. Both Kami and Nene are an example of just no one stopping me. I got an idea and it just started growing and eventually I had to fully fledged characters. Like yeah, I got a whole story of how they met in battle and how fell in love. Kami's history got even more crazy cause yeah the idea has been around a lot longer for me.

Q: Where did you get the inspiration to make Eu write everything down instead of verbally communicating? That’s so unique and makes her intriguing.

ADdude: Eu is another character from Is this a zombie. Again, that came out from a joke. Eu can fight with a scythe like Maka and I joked that because of that Kami adopted her. Then I actually wrote it, finding a way for it to be canon in both series. The notepad thing is her thing, she has a lot of magic that she can't control. It’s so strong that if she speak it will make her words come into reality so writing it down is the only way for her to communicate. Oddly enough, her armor was to keep her powers in check and was made by Nene in canon. When I found that out I started to connect things and that’s where I eventually got the idea for Kami and Nene to meet and fall in love.

Q: I know a lot of Soul Eater fans have their own ideas of how Maka's mom acts or is, just because she wasn't seen at all in canon. How did you go about characterizing her?

ADdude: I started an RP blog for Kami years back. It started with that joke. There were a bunch of RPers back then who shipped Soma and I thought of a joke of Kami showing up and asking when she was gonna get grandchildren. At some point the joke kept going and had to get serious and slowly I developed a long and strange back story about her life. I just did my best not to contradict canon. Just little by little, she grew as a character.

Q: Where did you get the idea to make Excalibur related to Maka and Kami? I busted out laughing when I read that, poor Maka!

ADdude: It started with Kami being one of the few people who could deal with him. Then I noticed Maka had a soul with wings and how Excalibur gave wings to his user. I eventually connected the things. In one my previous stories I touched more on the relationship with Kami and Excalibur. And I thought, yeah okay he's her ancestor, let’s give him family. And yeah. Maka is a pretty accepting person but... yeah she does everything she can to not think [about] how he could have kids with a person. Just like, try not to think of how that would work. And yeah, in canon Excalibur did hook up with a woman. That HAPPENED!

Q: With so much backstory and characters to balance, what’s your editing process? Did any plot points or scenes not make the final cut?

ADdude: Yeah, some things. I mean, I did want to touch on other people. Like what you brought up about Patty now calling herself the duchess of death, it didn't add to the overall story but I want to touch on the others. Marie had a kid and she's retired. She wants to help Kami but everyone insists she stay behind because she's earned her retirement and they trust her to watch the children. There was a lot of other stuff I wanted to add in about others but [it got] cut out. Like Anya from Soul Eater was actually inspired to go to DWMA because she met Kami and I was going to have her at the wedding but cut her out cause it slowed down the story. I also had a whole other plot that the fairy king was actually working for someone else but cut that off since it would have doubled the story.

Q: It would've doubled the word count??! Dang that sounds interesting, can you give us a summary of what that would've been like, or are you planning to save it for writing later in the future?

ADdude: In the last resbang story I had it that Kami had a history with Arthurian mythology along with Excalibur himself. Kami sorta dated the witch Morgan le Fey. Didn't end well. In fact, due to weird circumstances Morgan was actually the witch that Kami and Spirit killed to make him a death scythe. But a witch of such power and legendary status had tricks. Like Voldemort before her she split her soul, but she survived until Asura woke up the remains of her soul. Then Kami and Co killed her for good. The thing is that Morgan had a fairy teacher and that one would have been behind The Fairy King in this story, coming for revenge for her student. The Fairy King leads an army of shadow monsters, but this person would have been a whole lot scarier and worse. I think I might save them for next year’s Resbang though.

Q: How did you handle the deadlines for check-ins and posting?

ADdude: I tried to pace myself. I tend to write a lot naturally so it helps just to work little by little working my way up to the word count. Luckily for me I was sometimes sick in bed so I got ahead of one of the deadlines and just kept at it. I tend to get sick in winter so that bought some time to work with.

Q: What was your favorite scene to write? And least favorite?

ADdude: I honestly had a lot of fun with Maka and her new family. Just her and Eu and Excalibur trying to figure what gift to get. Soul finally getting fed up and telling her to get anything because her mom would always love it. The end scene with everyone together as a family moment was just nice to give them a nice moment like that. My least favorite would have to be the thing right before the wedding. I do love this character and I hated writing Kami breaking down, knowing she wouldn't get the wedding with the woman she loved.

Q: Congrats on finishing your Resbang! How are you feeling about it overall?

ADdude: Overall I'm happy with what I wrote and that I gave my character a happy ending. What can I say, I love happy endings.

Q: I don't know anything about the "Is this a zombie?" series but i loveeeeeee how you're exercising your artistic freedom and doing a crossover no one else has or would ever consider. I do want to hear more about what exactly inspired you to put these two series together -- was it something as simple as both Maka and Eu having scythes as weapons?

ADdude: So, yeah, it started simply I was watching Is this a zombie and made a dumb joke that Kami was going to adopt Eu because she had a scythe. A lot of stuff I do is just because no one stops me, not even me. But there were connections in both series that pushed that along. Like, how both series deal with death and evil. And both have an arrogant loud mouth that is pretty short. Yes, I’m talking about Black Star and Haruna. Then of course there were the weapons. Meisters had their own weapon and the magical garment girls had weapons too, and they didn’t transform but also seemed to be alive. I thought up the idea that the magical garment girl weapons were somehow based on the demon weapons in soul eater.

Q: Also, why the pairing of Nene and Maka's mom as opposed to another pairing?

ADdude: Yeah, again another joke that took on a life of its own. The joke was that Kami had a thing for red heads and big boobs. Because Spirit was a red head and he himself was a big boob. Then I went past the joke and it kinda made sense. From what we got in canon, Nene had been the strongest warrior and a glimpse to the pass showed her being devoted and serious to her duty. Now she was far more relaxed and didn’t seem to have any real desire to fight anymore. That reminded me of Kami, how she was one the best meisters but seemed to quit to travel around. I started putting a history for them together, they were fighting together standing alone in their fights, so [there was] a lot of mirroring. Until it clicked that maybe they could have something more than just a friendship. And it worked, they were two warriors who’d been through a lot and developed feelings. It worked, so I kept at it.

Q: It sounds like you really like character development and writing characters with a lot of "potential" (that is, not a lot is mentioned about them in canon and much is left up to the audience to speculate). I know you had a fave scene to write but did you have a fave CHARACTER that you enjoyed writing as well, such as a quirk or fact or backstory that you thought up and gave them?

ADdude: Isn’t that what fanfiction is for? Like to fill in gaps the author never got around to… filling. We didn’t know a lot of Nene so I started to put in stuff for the gaps. As a writer my favorite thing is when characters develop, I literally scream when characters regress for no reason or just do stupid stuff for plot. Maka and family were fun to write because none of them have a lot of family normally. I got to explore a little what they would do in a family setting. It always felt weird when I made Excalibur serious and trying to keep in character. But, yeah, he was angry, so I had an excuse. Spirit was fun. He’s usually so goofy and here he had some serious moments dealing with letting go. I tried to stay in character and yeah, he would be upset and a bit hurt but would try to let the person he loved move on. I liked adding some growth to him. Hell, I’m pretty sure everyone had some growth in this story. Crona is calmer now off the moon from my last story. Maka and Soul are comfy as a couple and pretty much family. Kami pushing through her issues that she got from her nasty break up with Spirit. Liz is a responsible mom and helping everyone out. Black Star is being a dad, sort of. But yeah, development for all.

Q: I'm kind of curious as to where in canon it says that Excalibur hooked up with a woman LMAO... or maybe I saw it myself and just erased it from memory...

ADdude: Okay, that might have been a bit of a stretch. We saw him in bed with a woman in one of his stories. So, you have to take that with a grain of salt. Then again, it’s canon that the Arthur stuff was true and he was different back then. So who’s to say what’s true. But yeah, I’m taking that as true.

Q: What do you think you'll write about next?

ADdude: I’m still trying to edit my own book, so progress is slow. I’ve somehow got like four Star Vs the Forces of Evil stories going along with other fanfics of various fandoms. And I am working on a Soul Eater Abridged series as its writer and several voices and editor. Working on episode two. And I’m writing Thanos snap fics, like what it would happen if the snap affected other worlds and yeah the Soul Eater world is on the chopping block list. I do have some idea for how I want to continue this Resbang story, maybe for next year. I don’t have everything ready, but maybe Maka has her own family in the near future.

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Thanks to addude for stopping in! Stay tuned for one final transcript tomorrow!

#wild hunt #ama transcripts #addude

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