hihi if u know my main then u know ^_^ if you don't then i probably have you blocked. anyway this is in a sense kind of a follow-up to one of my posts there so i guess this is kind of like. an extended version of that. director's cut or smth. anywayyyy

MAYBLADE 2023 DAY 4: SCI-FI

AKA: WHY THE FUCK IS V-FORCE LIKE THAT

bakuten shoot beyblade 2002, or beyblade v-force as i will be referring to it for the rest of this post, despite being mostly filler (in the sense that most of what happens in it isn't in the manga at all), is not a season that fucks around, except it also does that a lot. but what i'm getting at here is that even if you don't realize it, it becomes VERY clear what kind of season this is very quickly.

season 1 of bakuten shoot beyblade is a little bit absurd sometimes. that kind of comes with the territory (unless you're most of burst), but that does not make the existence of a US government-funded beyblade research facility aswell as beyblade child soldiers (unrelated to the first thing, making that two instances of beyblade war crimes) and beyblade rasputin any less ridiculous. v-force, however, takes this further.

in season 1 of bakuten shoot beyblade, the us government-funded beyblade research facility is introduced in episode 19 and isn't really important in the long term. the beyblade child soldiers are introduced in episode 40 and are very important to the plot, and beyblade rasputin is casually dropped in episode 42 and never mentioned again.

beyblade v-force drops a beyblading robot (not to be confused with the character who is a beyblader and also a robot, who we will get to later) on you in episode 4. this is the kind of season you will be watching for the next 47 episodes! have fun!

i don't know what exactly to say about this moment. when it comes down to it i think it just speaks for itself really. and for most of beyblade v-force, this vibe is still very present. even when it's not ridiculous in this way, psykick and their no-name goons have a sort of saturday morning cartoon vibe, or atleast that's the best way i can describe it. this feeling is also present with zagart for a good chunk of the latter half, atleast until episode 41 comes around and things finally start to kick into gear on that end.

however, there is a very particular point where the weird sci-fi bullshit is able to work in harmony with actual good drama, and if you know my main you undoubtedly know where i'm going with this.

but first! consider the following concept: artificial divinity. man-made recreations of gods, created to be not just equal to but more powerful than their original counterparts. and these beings, both by nature and their sheer power, take over the minds of those who wield them, with the user dying in the worst case scenario.

what i have just described is the digital sacred beasts. the execution isn't perfect- mostly because psykick is fucking lame, but other than that it's... actually really fucking good. this, in no small part, is due to episode 16. remember that kid from like 11 episodes ago? the one who was pretty fuckin gay for kai? well. um.

this is genuinely such an excellent introduction to the plotline, and i know it's technically not the introduction but also it may aswell be because for a good while i genuinely FORGOT about the actual introduction. i could actually go on about this plotline for a good while but also this is a really really long post already so. onto the last thing!

yeah the kid's been a robot the whole time! fuck you! i don't even know what to say anymore i've been writing this post for atleast an hour now. v-force is so fucking stupid but that just adds to the experience i think. everyone say thank you to v-force right now.

2019 Writer’s Year in Review

Tagged by @amistrio! Thank you so much, because this was a lot of fun to tackle, and apologies to everyone for the wordy set of paragraphs ahead! And for my rambling.

Word count:

It’s been a weird year. Because nothing really took off until late June, and I’ve really been trying to make up for lost time every since.

I was able to get in a little over 100K down in total, and I’m honestly grateful for every second of it, because I wanted so badly to start writing again, but wasn’t sure what would do it. Guess this silly game’s it!

Number of smut scenes:

Uh, well...four total, I want to say? (there’s more in my wips, but we’ll leave those alone for now)

And considering the fact that I was majorly rusty writing anything to begin with, I didn’t think I’d be writing any smut at all this year, so whoops. Goes to show what I know. XD

New things I tried this year:

Hopefully this isn’t a cop out, but jumped into a new fandom for one. :D It’s been quite the trip ever since, and I’m incredibly lucky to have met the people I have so far. It would’ve been a completely different experience otherwise, and I’m glad I was able to. And I’d like to give @sharky-broshaw a special shout out here, because without her encouragement to even pick up FC5, this wouldn’t have been possible at all. (and also, she’s one of those awesome people mentioned above, as well as you, so <3)

Tried the Comic Sans font trick for my wips, switching to writing with it in the hopes it’d keep me writing consistently. It’s honestly been the thing I’ve used consistently ever since switching from Calibri to it back in October, and I think it’s safe to say it works? Or its become easy enough on the eyes to not bother me much while using it, but I’m not about switch back now.

Took part in a gift exchange for the first time after waffling for two weeks on joining up. Simply put, I was terrified of what I’d be able to make for it, and that my gift was going to fall apart or fall short, but it turned out to be a hell of a lot of fun all around.

Jotted down notes, dialogue, and scenes on my phone, first suggested by @statichvm! I would’ve lost so many stories, exchanges, and moments to my forgetfulness otherwise, so this is totally a habit I’m going to keep up with for the long haul. (and Macy, you’re also one excellent person to have met here, and I hope you don’t mind me sending you some <3 this way too)

Favorite thing I wrote this year:

I really want to say the Exchange fic / I won’t ask for much (but just this once, I’d like you)

I spent a good day or so wondering what on earth I’d want to tackle for a Sharky/John fic only for the silliest idea to hit: what would a romantic comedy be like with these two? One with 100% more blackmail and arson? The outline practically wrote itself after that, with a few more tweaks later on for some added development.

After that every day from November onward I’d jot something down for it. Then I’d write a little more, and while it was a story that came together pretty easily, it was long. Absurdly so, considering the time constraints I was working with, but I seriously don’t think this idea would’ve come to me at all or have been written without this, so I’m glad for the push (and the person that inspired it!) and that it was given the chance to exist.

I also had free reign to indulge in a lot of my favorite tropes, write two characters that I love, throw more than a few curveballs at Sharky, and have John discover a whole new set of expressions to make at Sharky in general. ...All while including lots of banter and teasing and pining.

So this was definitely something I was heavily invested in finishing, as well as being able to share it with @finefeatheredfarcryplayer. It would’ve crushed me to abandon it otherwise.

Favorite fic I read this year:

Shoot, I’ve mentioned a few here, here, and here, but here’s a few more, and all from FC5, because I’m still digging that game a bunch.

This fic by @outranks which is an old favorite of mine, because I’m absolutely weak for Sharky/Dep/John in any form or fashion. The intimacy and ease with with they all play off of each other here’s fantastic, and I love how this is is a small peek into how well they could compliment each other.

The Deputy and John meet pre-game by @seedsplease. I may have gone through nearly every fic available in her masterlist (and will likely do so again, because I love her work that much), but I really couldn’t get over the tension here, and how it really did seem like a snapshot of a moment that could’ve happened before the game started.

Why Can’t We Be Friends? by @finefeatheredfarcryplayer. I was checking in on this series back during the summer offering up an alternate means of resolving FC5′s events peacefully, and it’s been fascinating to see the story’s journey from that point onward. There’s a lot of moments that I love in this series, and I can’t wait to see where it’ll lead to at the very end.

Lyrical Alternatives by @narcis-the-monk. I fell in love with this series months back, and really could just keep on reading story after story in this AU for as long as it could go. Not the least of which is due to how the relationship between Sharky and John plays out here, and it’s equal parts heartwarming and heartbreaking as it progresses. Mostly the first, but when the second hits, oof.

Writing goals for 2020:

Actually attempt NaNoWriMo this year, or failing that at least get more down in an outline for either of the original stories I want to tackle. I’ve put this off writing anything for either for too long now, and I really should start getting some those ideas down.

Write a little (or edit) every day

Possibly keep a short record of what I tackle from month to month

Read more. I know this is a little weird here on a writing goals list, but reading really does get the old idea center going

Tagging: @twistedsinews @guileandgall @marymay-fairgrave @sneaky-apostate @jenchwuq and anyone else that might be interested! 

Interview with d Marie Licea

Recently, I had a chance to talk with d Marie Licea, developer of Us Lovely Corpses, about the creative process behind this fascinating “surreal-horror-romance” visual novel. Us Lovely Corpses is a VN I considered reviewing for this blog when I read it, but I struggled to write a review that would be interesting and accessible—explaining the parts that most impressed and resonated with me would mean spoiling it completely. But I encourage anyone who can handle some disturbing content in service of a great story and heartfelt message to try it out. This interview will start with some more general questions, and it includes a warning farther down before any spoilers for Us Lovely Corpses appear.

Question: Did you always plan for the story of Us Lovely Corpses to be a visual novel, or did you consider other mediums as well?

Answer: In its earliest stages, Us Lovely Corpses was actually planned as a comic! I came up with the original idea somewhere around 2014-2015—it was going to be about 10 pages, and would just cover the scene that ended up being the game's finale. Alex and Marisol (who weren't named yet) were very different—they were much younger, Alex wasn't really "a witch," and Marisol was originally a boy!

I sat on the idea a while, and the longer I did so the more I wanted to explore the history of these characters, which made for a longer and more unwieldy comic. Then in 2015, when I started learning about visual novels, it hit me that the concept could work really well in that format, especially when the "exploration" element came in.

Q: Were there any particular visual novels that influenced you?

A: Yes! The reason why I started getting into visual novels specifically in 2015 was that because that was the year We Know The Devil came out!

We Know The Devil totally shifted my viewpoint as to what a visual novel could be—no diss to dating sims, but before WKTD, I, like most people, just saw VNs as dating sims and occasionally something like the When They Cry series.

WKTD totally changed that for me—a short, incredibly contained story that also managed to be about so, so much, in a surreal, horror-inspired atmosphere . . . it really blew me away! Not only was it the game that got me into visual novels, but you can definitely see a lot of its influence on Us Lovely Corpses.

Besides WKTD, there was also Her Tears Were My Light, a fairly minimalist love story that used the "rewind" function in Ren’Py as part of the story. Utilizing mechanics as part of the narrative was a really cool idea to me that also ended up in ULC. (side note: I met and hired Alex Huang to do the music for Us Lovely Corpses because I loved the soundtrack for HTWML so much!)

Finally, I was really into the original Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney) trilogy when I was younger, and the evidence gathering segments were a big part of those games. I originally envisioned the "rose clipping" segments of ULC like those parts, where you'd have to select each rose before cutting it, but sadly that was a little too complex for me at the time, and I eventually decided to go for something more simple in order to complete the game. But that initial idea was a big part of what made me try Us Lovely Corpses as a game, so it ended up still being a big influence in the end!

Q: Besides technical things like those mechanics and the exploration element, do you find that you have a different style of writing in visual novels as opposed to the stories you've done in other formats, like twine and comics?

A: I'm not sure if this is always the case for visual novels, but I find I have to format my writing differently when writing for VNs—specifically, in length of sentences and paragraphs. I've found my writing worked a lot better in Us Lovely Corpses the more I broke everything up into smaller fragments—larger ones or paragraphs didn't work as well, which can be a problem for me because my writing can tend to get a bit wordy!

This has to do a lot with the pacing of visual novels and how the player/reader is a big part of that. Control over pacing is a big part of why visual novels appeal to me, but you also have to think differently to get the best result.

Technical stuff aside, I found that, at least for ULC, my actual writing style remained pretty much the same. I think this has the benefit of making the writing in Us Lovely Corpses seem unique, but has the disadvantage of posing a problem for a certain something I didn't see coming at all: Let’s Players!

A few people have made videos of their playthroughs of Us Lovely Corpses, which is incredibly exciting, but when I watch them, I can't help but feel bad for them because they always read everything out loud . . . which means, with my somewhat wordy style, they have to do a LOT of talking!

I haven't actually gotten complaints about this or anything, but I still hope people who make videos of their playthroughs of ULC keep some water nearby!

Note: the next part of the interview contains spoilers for Us Lovely Corpses, as well as discussion of mental illness.

Q: As the story progresses, it becomes explicitly clear that the “monster” is Marisol’s bipolar disorder. Did you ever think about leaving the metaphor more ambiguous, and if so, what made you decide to be so direct instead?

A: I'd say if the "monster" was one specific thing, it would her Ocular Rosaceae, as it's the one specific thing that gives a physical form to Marisol's thoughts and unhealthy behaviors. But even that, in a way, is not taking into account her bipolar disorder and depression, her jealousy towards Alex, her self-loathing and introversion . . . "the monster" is all of those things, because at its core, the monster is mental illness. And mental illness is never just one thing, but many things and factors interacting at once to create something much bigger than a single diagnosis.

All that said, it's not incorrect to say that Marisol's bipolar disorder is the monster; it's just more accurate to say it’s part of Marisol's monster. Back when ULC was still a comic, I wasn't going to talk about specific diagnoses, but as the story grew I realized I wanted to talk more explicitly about mental illness. I don't exactly remember where the idea came about, but early on in the writing process I got that idea in my head of Alex finding that fake corpse and finding that doctor's diagnosis. In retrospect, it was a really, really weird scene, especially as it comes right off the heels of realizing what you thought was a dead body was just a weird joke, but I do like what it represents—in the middle of this surreal trip into a house filled with talking flowers, the story suddenly halts as you soak in this very blunt reminder that, magic aside, this is a world that is representative of the real world. Marisol may have a magical disease and be best friends with a witch, but she's a very real girl, so to speak.

So that harsh reminder is part of why I wanted to be so direct. I guess the other part would be that I just wanted to make no bones about it. Some things you want to leave up to interpretation, and some things you don't. From the very, very beginning the story was always about mental illness, so it just felt right to me to be upfront about it.

Q: One thing I noticed that I thought showed a lot of attention to detail in ULC was that in one of the rooms you explore there are two famous paintings that both have connections to suicide (Millais’s Ophelia and van Gogh’s Wheatfield with Crows). Are there any other little symbolic details like that you added to the story that some readers might have missed?

A: Ah, I'm glad you caught that! If I had stuck with the more Ace Attorney style of gameplay I would have liked to put more small details like that in. As it stands, the big example is probably pretty obvious—Alex's notes about each rose are fairly close to the standard "flower language" of different rose colors in real life. The fact that yellow roses can mean "jealousy" or "friendship" depending on what source you use actually ended up working very well with the story.

The last names of Alex and Marisol are probably pretty obvious: de Rosa ("of the Rose") and Flores ("Flowers"). Something that's probably less apparent is Marisol, a name that originally comes from a contraction of "Maria de La Soledad" ("Our Lady Of Solitude"), one of the titles given to the Virgin Mary.

Q: Was the flower language the reason you used roses rather than any other flower, or were there other inspirations for that as well?

A: There were a number of reasons! One being that Revolutionary Girl Utena was a big influence on my style and particularly on several parts of the game. There's also the whole dichotomy with roses/thorns. And there's also the simple fact that I have fun drawing roses!

Q: For my last question, are you working on any other visual novels right now?

A: I am as a matter of fact! I'm working on a visual novel set in Japan about some high school kids who explore a strange house. It's still in fairly early stages, but I think if I give it my all I will actually have a demo ready in time for Halloween, which would be great!

I’m definitely looking forward to seeing that demo—even more so after learning about all of the serious thought d Marie Licea puts into the details and themes of her work. If you’re as excited as I am about updates on her upcoming projects, you can follow her on itch.io or twitter, and considering supporting her patreon. Thanks for reading!

I had sent the sketches forward to the careers team almost a month ago, and was still waiting for a reply. I thought it was weird how they were taking so long to write back, but as I was travelling myself at that time, and it was summer, I thought it could be that they were not in the office. I had been checking my gmail account daily, and knew there were no messages there, but I decided to log into my university account to see, if I could find some answers there. And to my horror I did find them... Our university had changed the email platform in July, and for some reason the new Outlook account wasn’t working for me and I had missed all the notifications and emails from the careers team. First, I panicked. I felt my pulse rising and cold sweat crept on my forehead. Then I immediately called M and asked him if he had known about the swap; he said he hadn’t. I asked him if he could pop into our campus to talk and explain the situation to the tech personnel and ask them to have a look at my account, since I wasn’t in Cardiff myself. After the phone call I almost wanted to start crying... I felt horrible and I was so disappointed in myself; how could I let this kind of thing happen? Why didn’t I notice the swap and why wasn’t my account working? I thought what kind of a professional I must have looked to the careers team... But I also tried to console myself by telling myself that these things do happen, and there’s next to nothing that I could have done to prevent my new account from being somehow corrupted. The next feeling was confusion and slight anger: if the university decides to swap the email platform they could have at least sent all students emails about the swap, and ask them to check if their new email is working. Then these kinds of situations could be avoided easily. After being angry, sad and panicked for a while, I collected myself and lifted my head up. Nothing could be done anymore, so the best thing now was to focus on making up for the lost time. The project was at the back of my mind all the time, so I had been polishing the ideas in my mind and thinking, how I want to take them forward. I sent the careers team an email where I explained the situation, and apologised a thousand times. Then I started drawing. I thought that it would be better to start finalising them as I see fit, and make changes when I would get a reply from the careers team. And already on the next day, while sitting in a hostel lobby drinking my morning coffee, I heard that bing from my phone... I grabbed it with haste, and opened my email to see a reply from the careers team, with the feedback attached (see image 1)! They were extremely understanding about the situation, and told me not to hurry, and that if we work and communicate efficiently, we could still meet the deadline.  Another thing that brought a smile to my face was that the feedback they gave me for the work was fantastic! They loved my ideas, and that made me feel relieved and confident, that despite the drawback, I could finish this placement with honour! They wrote, that they liked the comic idea and the “game” idea the most, and suggested that me and M work on some of the ideas together, as we had some similarities. They also said the same thing as M about the comic: it was too wordy. They asked me to cut down the text, and maybe try combining that and the snapshot idea into one, as they might work together better than on their own. Encouraged by the feedback, I got back to work immediately, fuelled by the positive feedback and new suggestions on how to proceed. The work I had done the previous day also worked as a good stepping stone, and it was easy to continue from it.

After six days, I was done sketching the new ideas. I was quite pleased with the result, and I messaged M about his progress. He told me that he was also developed his work with the help of the feedback, and was about ready to send them forward again. We had also been working together on the idea we started together, and I was extremely excited about that one too. We had divided the work, and M was doing the text and the background while I was working on the gifs. Now that we had everything collected together and you could get the idea of what the final product would look like, we sent them forward (images 2-4). 

Like last time, they got back to us quickly with feedback on the development work (see image 8). M had sent our common idea, so they gave him the feedback on that. About that I want to say, that I was very happy to see good feedback given to the gif. I never thought that I’m great at making gifs, but it is something that I want to get better at and practise, so hearing good feedback on it made me feel good about the hard work I put into it.  I was elated to read that they wanted to use my combined comic+snapshot idea as the main image for the project. I had really put a lot of thought into making it and seeing it make it to the main image really made me feel butterflies in my belly. 

I was feeling peaceful and excited about the fact that this would be the final step of the placement: we had done everything the careers team wanted, and worked hard to create imagery that they like, and now we were making the final changes and alterations to the illustrations. Then me and M could dust our hands and consider out work placement to be done! Before that however, there were still the final fixes to be done. They also asked to have some stand-alone character designs, so I still needed to draw those before the deadline. So there was still quite a bit of work to be completed! 

Thank you for reading! The next post will be the final chapter of this placement, after which I will move on to tell you about my experience with another big, interesting organisation...

Have you all recovered from 7X12 and all the love Andy showed Richonne and Michonne in the past week? I don’t think we want to recover from it here at richonnefics!  Well lovelies, we’re at another month and we have another superb Richonne fanfiction wrtier to share their story with you all.  Please take some time out to learn more about @then-i-defyyou!

Richonnefics (RF): Hi thenidefy you! Thanks so much for this privilege to interview you.  Are you currently reading any fanfics? If so, which ones?

then-i-defyyou (TIDY): I haven’t read too much lately because life is currently wild for me, but I did recently read Lemonade by cakebythepound for a second time!

RF: What have you learned about yourself since you’ve been writing?

TIDY: I have some pretty long lulls in between my spurts of creativity. I can go months without working on something (as anyone who has read Same Tight Rope can attest...sorry guys but I promise I’m gonna finish it!) I also learned I write better using a pen and paper than on the computer. I’m a hipster, I guess! In general I’ve learned that I’m a lot better at writing and weaving together a story than I thought.

RF: Those little self discoveries are so nice and really aide us on the writing journey.  What is something memorable you have heard from your readers?

TIDY: I’ve gotten a lot of compliments on how I write dialogue. That means a lot because that’s the thing that I’m most self conscious about. I try to really get into the heads of the characters and imagine how they would react and speak in different situations. For example, if they’re in a high stress situation words are probably going to get truncated and sentences are going to be as short as possible. In a calm, relaxed environment they’re going to be a bit more wordy and able to pause and gather their thoughts more. I’ll sometimes spend longer on dialogue than the actual plot!

RF: I love dialogue and really think it’s one of the more important components of the overall story.  Do you remember the first Richonne story you ever read and how it impacted you?

TIDY: I can’t find it now, but there was a Daryl/Michonne/Rick fic that I found forever ago when I was still a Daryl/Michonne shipper. Serpentine or something like that? Maybe someone will know what I’m talking about? But anyway, that one for whatever reason broke me. It was some next level smut and I was there. For. It.

RF: What do your readers mean to you?

TIDY: E V E R Y T H I N G. It’s because of them that I kept writing and am currently working on an original sci-fi novel. I had little to no self confidence when I posted the first chapter (then, a one-shot) for Same Tight Rope and the encouragement and support I received gave me motivation to write more as a hobby and to improve my skills.

RF: Is being a writer a gift or a curse?

TIDY: Definitely a gift. It’s so cathartic and when you’re able to pull people into a world you’ve created and have them enjoy it and experience a range of emotions it’s extremely rewarding. I think the only downside is having a really good idea come to mind when you aren’t able to note it anywhere and then forgetting it. When that happens I’m kicking myself for at least 12 hours.

RF: I keep a notebook on me at all times for that reason! Do you do your own editing or do you use a beta?

TIDY: I edit it myself, usually. Sometimes my fiancé will read through my works, too, which I particularly appreciate because of his tough but fair critiques. I also have a friend who is a Dedicated Smut Expert™ who reviews all that for me because I struggle at smut and probably always will.

RF: What do you think most characterizes your writing?

TIDY: I’d say my dialogue. The more I read over past chapters and works the more proud I am. Full disclosure: when trying to get Rick’s voice and speech mannerisms down I either a) drink a lot or b) call my parents so my Southern accent comes out full force and record myself reading it aloud, then I edit it based on how I sound. It works and I love my parents and bourbon so ayyyyyy!

RF: That’s an interesting and probably quite effective tactic! LOL! How do you find or make time to write?

TIDY: It’s pretty easy for me to make time. I work at a chemical emergency hotline so if the phone isn’t ringing or I’m not doing research, I’m writing. I also have more time off due to the stressful nature of this job, and that helps too. Once I no longer have to worry about my upcoming wedding I’ll have even more time!

RF: Now for the fun, semi related question.  If a ZA were to occur, what would be your weapon of choice that has not been used on the show or comic?

TIDY: This is easily the hardest question. Maybe a folding chair so I can live out my secret WWE dreams!

RF: Haha! That’s great! Well, thenidefyyou, thank you again for taking your time to answer a few questions about your writing habits. Your readers and richonnefics appreciate it so very much.  You all can check out @then-i-defyyou’s works on fanfiction.net HERE!