@allpurposepanda sent me this ask game and since I have writing to procrastinate, I figured I'd just go through and answer all the questions I felt like answering
1. What’s something new that you tried in a fic this year? How did it turn out and would you do it again?
I think the most interesting thing I did was write a fic where I tried not to use any figurative language at all in the narration or dialogue from other pov characters. It wasn't as hard as I was expecting (actually, it was harder to determine what counted as figurative and what counted as a word simply having multiple meanings, one more concrete than the other) and I think it turned out pretty okay. I'd do it again if I wrote from this pov again or someone similar, but I don't think I'd seek it out
2. How many fics did you work on this year? (They don’t have to be finished or published!)
About 18 if I counted correctly! 7 have been posted, 1 is in the process of posting, and 10 are unposted. 9 are brand new while 9 are continuations of wips from previous years
3. What’s something you learned about yourself as a writer?
I'm not sure. I guess I've been thinking about the relation between a writer and the audience and feedback and community support a lot (I went from a bigger fandom to a smaller fandom, and the decrease in comments and people to talk to about my fics hit my motivation harder than I was expecting)
4. What piece of media inspired you the most?
I'm not sure, but I think I wrote the most fic for Donbrothers or Kamen Rider
5. What fandom(s) did you write for this year?
8 fandoms: Kamen Rider Blade (6), Kamen Rider W (1), Kamen Rider Drive (1), Changerion (1), Donbrothers (3), Ace Attorney (4), the Watchmaker of Filigree Street (2), and Les Miserables (1)
6. What ship(s) captured your heart?
Nothing new from last year, but Hajime/Kenzaki from Blade and Sonoi/Momoi from Donbrothers
7. What character(s) captured your heart?
Also nothing new, but Haruka from Donbrothers and Wakana from Kamen Rider W
8. Did you write for a new fandom or ship this year?
Donbrothers is new because I was waiting for the show to finish airing before I started writing anything for it. Changerion I only watched this year, so that's also new
9. What fic meant the most to you to write?
I am obsessed with my Blade soul nemesis au and my Ace Attorney Trickster au, and I don't have any fics that like particularly hit close to home for me or anything. However, I do think the winner would have to be Truer than Truth because idk. It was difficult and it feels like one of the best things I've written (definitely the best shorter fic I've written) and just had a lot of thought go into it
10. What fic made you feel the happiest to work on?
Definitely my soul nemesis au. Tbh I have enjoyed working on it so much I started posting it probably like a good 6 months later than I could have so I could work on it more, and it's also taking me forever to upload the chapters despite the fic being finished because I want to keep working on it (that and it has 0 comments, so I feel like no one is too invested other than the people I know personally, so I can take my time with it and get distracted from it)
11. What fic was the most satisfying to finish writing?
To Turn the World Upside Down is maybe the best long fic I've written, and finishing it felt like the end of the journey. However, I'm pretty sure I wrote the ending in 2022 (I just finished the editing in 2023), so I'll also put in Truer than Truth for the reasons answered in the next question
12. What fic was the most difficult to write? Did you finish it?
Definitely Truer than Truth. I mentioned I wrote a fic without figurative language, and this was the first fic in the series where I tried to write a fic with a ton of figurative language. Coming up with symbolism related to classic Japanese Buddhist literature that isn't too heavy handed is hard! Coming up prose with metaphors and pretty descriptions that doesn't sound unbearably flowery is hard! Also mapping out the character of progression of Sonoi, someone who both knows a lot about humans and also doesn't, in a way that makes sense and doesn't make him more ignorant than he is in canon is hard!
13. What fic was the easiest to write?
Trust Fall. I wrote probably about half of it in one day and finished writing+editing it in probably around 2 weeks which is insanely fast for me. It just sort of came out of me, idk man
14. What were your shortest and longest fics this year?
Technically Meetings is the longest fic (90k words), but that was originally meant to be a trilogy that I wrote most of years ago and just polished and posted this year, so I'm counting To Turn the World Upside Down (73k words) instead because it's finished and I like it more.
Shortest is Trust Fall (4k words)
15. Rec a fic you wrote or posted in 2023
This is hard because I do like a lot of the fics I wrote and posted in 2023. However, I've talked a lot (and will continue to talk) about my top 3 fics in this ask game, but one fic that will not be mentioned outside of this that I think is good is Across the River of Stars.
It's an outsider pov Cowherd and Weaver au where I think I did a good job with a sort of melancholic atmosphere
16. What were you go-to writing songs?
I don't listen to music a lot while writing, but when I do it's probably the How To Train Your Dragon soundtrack (movies 1-3), the Witcher 3 soundtrack, or the Black Sails soundtrack
17. What were your go-to writing snacks?
I don't think I have one. I don't particularly snack while writing, and if I do, I'll just eat whatever
18. What was the hardest fic to title?
Afterwards. I needed something short and simple and to the point to contrast the long and more poetic "truer than truth are those beautiful lies", but I still think it's a bit meh and doesn't really do much for the fic
19. Share your favorite opening line
Here is a truth:
Momoi Tarou is like the sky, impossibly vast and unreachable; and Sonoi is like the sea, forever gazing up, reflecting that same blue.
This wasn't initially the beginning line (I switched around a lot of stuffin this fic), and the whole "here is a truth, here is a lie" bit was a totally unexpected unplanned bit that just happened when I started writing it. However, I'm pleased with how it turned out, and also the particular way in which I took a line from the show (Sonoi saying "we are like the sky and the sea") and expanding a bit on it and how the two of them individually relate to that
20. Share your favorite ending line
Okay technically it's 2 lines from Trust Fall, but it's still my favorite:
(All too soon, when the end does come, Kenzaki looks at Hajime and smiles like a blade to the heart and says, “See, I said that you could trust me to keep this hope of yours alive.”
And Hajime does not have the time to tell him that no one has ever lied to him so cruelly before.)
It's good because of the misunderstanding. Kenzaki is sacrificing himself so Hajime can keep living, but of course that also really sucks on Hajime's end. I just think seeing something from the pov of the person/people left behind when someone sacrifices themselves is so juicy. Also Kenzaki's symbol is a blade while Hajime's is a heart, so the smile is from Blade to Heart but also metaphorically like being stabbed hahaha (i think i'm so clever when i do symbolism 101)
21. Share your favorite piece of dialogue
This is hard. Definitely, my favorite piece of dialogue comes from To Turn the World Upside Down because tbh I think that fic has some of the best written dialogue in anything I've ever written, but I'm not sure I could pick out something among it. I just went with the last scene because I am genuinely proud, like I don't normally like writing endings and it's especially hard in a long fic with a lot of build up, but I think I did well on this one. Also it's probably one of the parts I worked most on in 2023 (rather than 2022)
“I think you should do it, daddy,” Trucy says.
Surprised, Phoenix looks up to see his daughter staring at him, her face set firmly. Of all the people who would encourage him to retake the exam, he hadn’t thought it would be her. She has never known him as a lawyer. “What? Why?”
“You never stopped being a lawyer,” she says, as if it’s that simple. “Sure, officially, they took that away from you. But deep down, you’ve always been one.”
“What?” Phoenix scoffs, something small and hopeful curling into a cold and defensive ball deep in his chest. “Prove it.”
Trucy raises her eyebrows at him. “Prove it? Do I need physical evidence for it so that it may be accepted in the court of Phoenix Wright, or is pointing out your contradiction enough?”
Phoenix flushes. “Okay, okay, point taken.”
“She’s right,” Miles says quietly. “It’s your life to live, but please—at least consider it.”
From the moment you asked, there was no question of the answer, Phoenix thinks. I became a lawyer for you once, I would do it a second time, as many times as you needed me to.
“Are you sure about it?” Phoenix asks. “I mean, you know what it was like the first time I was a lawyer. You know the kind of shit that follows me. I was a lawyer for just two and a half years the first time, and look at the kind of mess I left behind me.”
Miles smiles at him, so fond it hurts. “You say that as if that’s not exactly what I want. I want you back in the courthouse, Trickster and all. It all needs a good shaking up, don’t you think?”
It was never meant to be about the suffering, the Trickster had said about their chaos.
There already is suffering stuck in between each clean-cut brick of the legal system, trapped in the very foundation and everything that has grown on top of it. Maybe it’s time to knock things around and see what shakes loose, to see what can be built anew from the rubble.
“Alright,” Phoenix says, and the way Miles and Trucy’s eyes light up already makes it all worth it. “I’ll do it. Let’s go turn turn the legal world upside down.”
22. Share an excerpt from your favorite scene
Tbh I could probably also post a bit from the Trickster au, but just to switch it up here's a sneak peak from my soul nemesis au. I was so excited to write this scene that it's the only one I skipped ahead to write. This scene (earlier parts of it, not what's here) is also the reason why I chose the mechanics for soul nemeses that I did, like I've been hyping up this scene almost since I first had the idea for the fic, and it's still one of my favorites
“Did...” Gou started. “Did he love you too?”
Kenzaki thought about the way Hajime kissed back, the way his whole face softened as he smiled at Kenzaki, the way he looked like his heart was shattering when Kenzaki had last seen him, the way he had written don't go in his letter. “I think—maybe. But it doesn’t matter. I had to leave, so he could live out his life.”
For the whole time that Kenzaki had known him, Gou had been all bright smiles and wild hand gestures. Even as the conversation took a turn for the more serious, his face had been an open book, but now his face turned still and unreadable. “It’s not worth it.”
“What?” demanded Kenzaki.
“I’ve been there,” Gou said, and now he looked angry. “Someone sacrificed himself for me, so I could live my life. And I will never forgive him for that, because if I had the choice, I would choose him over me every time. I may not have met Masaki myself, but I'm sure that he would rather have you in his life no matter what hardships. You can still go back—”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Kenzaki snapped, anger curling defensively around him. He knew that. He knew he was hurting Hajime, that it had destroyed him to be left behind. It had destroyed Kenzaki to leave. But he had chosen to defy fate, and this was their punishment. “It’s impossible.”
"What's impossible? You're both still alive, aren't you?"
"He might as well be dead, for all the difference it makes to me,” Kenzaki snapped. Maybe if Hajime had been dead it would hurt less. “There is no other choice.”
Gou stared back at him, his expression set stubbornly on his face.
He was so young, Kenzaki thought all of a sudden. Kenzaki had been like that too over a decade ago when he was around Gou’s age, so stubbornly set on how things should be, as if he could bend the universe into shape through sheer force of will.
Kenzaki sighed, and let the anger drain from him. He would have had those same thoughts, and it wasn’t like Gou had any idea of the impossible circumstances that kept him and Hajime apart.
“It's too late now. I would go back, if I could. And he would track me down across the world, if he could."
“Right,” Gou said, and Kenzaki wondered if he felt the same envy towards him. Gou hadn’t specified what sacrifice had been made for him, but the implication was clear. At least Hajime was still alive. At least he was out there somewhere that Kenzaki could return to, technically. Gou couldn't know that the potential only made the separation ache more, he couldn't know that the impossible situation that trapped them went far beyond ordinary human concerns.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” Kenzaki said, as much of an acquiescence as he could make.
“Thanks,” Gou said, his mouth twisting. “I... don’t know if he’s gone for good though. That’s actually why I’m here. Trying to do some research to bring him back.”
“Are there good medical facilities here?” Kenzaki asked, confused. Maybe Gou's person was in a coma or something?
Gou shrugged. “Not particularly. I’m here more for the tech stuff.”
“I hope it succeeds,” Kenzaki said, not entirely sure what to say.
“Thank you,” Gou said, sounding tired. “And I hope you find someway around whatever’s keeping you two apart.”
It was impossible, but Kenzaki smiled and nodded anyway.
“If I ever run into him, do you want me to pass on a message?” Gou asked.
What could Kenzaki say that Hajime did not already know, and that would not hurt him more to hear?
“Just that I am well,” Kenzaki said at last. “And that I like his book. And... I still miss him.”
Gou nodded. “I’m going to get my friend back,” he said, with all the confidence and naivety of a twenty year old. “So you better not give up on yours, alright?”
“I never will,” Kenzaki said.
And Gou smiled because he did not yet know that it was the hope that destroyed you.
23. Share the final version of a sentence or paragraph you struggled with. What about it was challenging? Are you happy with how it turned out?
There are definitely many of these, but I'd have to go through my fics again to figure it out and that would take a while so I'm skipping this
24. What's something that surprised you while you were working on a fic? Did it change the story?
I mentioned earlier that there's a bit in Truer than Truth where between each scene it goes like "Here is a truth: [...] Here is a lie: [...]", or in the other order (lie first then truth) that is vaguely related to the themes of that scene, and I absolutely was not expecting.
It ended up changing the story quite a bit. I was originally going to have the story alternate povs, but something like this could only work from Sonoi's pov, and I wasn't sure how to juggle things around to make it work. Because I also wanted to have it alternate between whether it starts with a truth or a lie, I had to add two scenes in order to make the pattern work when I realized that some of the truths and lies would work better flipped around. And I think the story is better off with those added scenes to fill in something that would have been a jump otherwise
Also, it just generally affected the tone, since I had to think about the themes of the scene to write those bits, and they're very heavy in symbolism and metaphor that I could reuse throughout the fic
25. What did you use to write? (e.g. writing programs, paper & pen, etc.)
Mostly google docs and occasionally a notebook and pen. I have occasionally written a bit on my notes app of my phone if i couldn't get to google docs for whatever reason, but i don't think i did this year
26. If you had to choose one, what was THE most satisfying writing moment of your year?
The writing spree during which I wrote the first half of Trust Fall. I was feeling a bit shitty and purposeless at the time, but I had an idea brewing in the back of my head for awhile, and the stars aligned so the idea solidified and I wrote like 2k words in one day. I remember feeling afterwards that I really love writing sometimes and maybe if I go too long without doing it, it makes me worse
27. Did you do anything special to celebrate finishing a fic?
Not really? Maybe tell all my friends about it
28. How did you recharge between fics?
I don't think this question applies to my writing style tbh. I don't have "in between fics" (i am always working on a fic) and I switch between them a lot, so I don't really get worn out by them. I recharge between writing sessions I suppose?? I'm not actually sure how I'm supposed to answer this question
29. If this were an awards show, who would you thank?
I do try to thank the people involved in me writing a fic in any way at the beginning of each fic, but in a general sense, I would thank all the friends and acquaintances who encouraged me to write whenever I was like "maybe this is stupid" and all the people who listened to me go "wait I have the coolest idea for a fic, let me tell you about it" and all the people who helped answer my questions from everything between 'does this sound like semi-realistic attraction or is it just weird' to 'what are traffic-related superhero/supervillain names.' And particularly to @magpiedragon who bears the brunt of all of this
30. What’s something that you want to write in 2024?
I still have that one Kamen Rider Blade post canon idea that crosses over with Star Trek ds9. Also some Kamen Rider Agito ideas I want to get to at some point, but who knows if I ever will
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Brigadoon: marin & μελαν
As a reminder, I am covering this due to its debatable loose connection to GaoGaiGar, albeit set much earlier in the timeline. Let's take a look.
1: Blue-coloured Introduction.
Two Mechanical looking figures, one named Pyon, discuss how they face the Day of Pasca, and if Creis isn't found, Brigadoon will fall.
It's June 9th, 1969, and the papers a certain girl is delivering speak of the upcoming US Moon Rocket launch. She manages to beak the milk delivery to one house, a common occurrence to his immense frustration. With her deliveries done, she prays to grow taller, for her long sightedness to go away, for them to have enough money, and to be friends with Moe forever. She has a long tab of unpaid offerings, which she adds to, before spotting a strange green creature, which mimics her before running off, she chases it around untik it vanishes near the shrine, and sees through it's opening that it contains a strange blue item. After briefly imagining a giant snake eating her, she opts to investigate, but is stopped by an english-speaking Miko, who chases her away for the vandalism.
Our heroine is Asagi Marin, 13 years old. She returns to the Share House for breakfast, encouraging Tadashi to come in, paying her respects to her late grandfather Gen, her grandmother Moto, 68, places rice before him. Also living there is mad inventor Aian Shuta, and his American assistant, Mike White, as well as the candy store owner Momoi triplets, Hitoe, Furae and Mitsue, wood sculptor Onando Shiro, and drunkard Tokita Tadashi, whose wife left due to his drinking. After breakfast, on her way to school, Marin runs into the returning Jun, Tadashi's daughter, and a nurse who works nights.
At assembly, as the Principal delivers his speech Marin tends to her sickly best friend, Kisaragi Moe, not noticing the boys are peeking at her even when called up due to her essay about orphanhood getting a prize, the whole school unfortunately seeing. The laughter is halted by a sudden bright light, and what appears to be structures appear within an Aurora in the sky, Marin briefly imagining aliens appearing and killing Moe.
The same site is visible in New York, St Petersburgh and Kenya, and everyone at the share house reacts in various ways, Shura noting it must be a mirage of sorts as sunlight is coming through. Usuzumi Isshin, who lifted her skitt, mocks her for causing this somehow, Ayanashi Eiko, Ebicha Tamami and Konno Wakana complain she used her orphan status to win, Hanazono Sumi recommends she wear a slip, Kabamoto Tatsuya asks how she changed the sky, and Tanzen Takashi declares it doesn't matter. The teacher, Kurihara Chiasa, comes in to dismiss them for the day.
Back at home, before Marin has a chance to show off her prize, something falls from the mirage down directly into the Asagi rooms. It's first eye identifies Marin, then the second fires laser blasts, destroying her prize. She escapes to where everyone else is, they all get knocked down by the blasts, but it's clear the object is targeting her. She escapes on bike, it pursues, firing missiles from a third eye which destroy the bike at the shrine, as she runs on foot it splits and sp9ns with razor points. She manages to hide at the shrine, and is drawn in and taking the treasure, briefly imagining it electrocution her, it does have some reaction before the daruma chasing her finds her again, shining from the last eye a blinding light that threatens to burn her away in a panic she throws the treasure.
And suddenly there is a blue robotesque warrior, that uses a laser gun to blast the daruma away, before turning to Marin, identifying her by name, and introducing itself as Melan Blue. When the Daruma reappears, Melan grows wire appendages from his torso to hold Marin, and, activating a faceplate, flies into the air with her, dropping her when told, then catching her again, and accidentally destroying the fortunes. Marin complains about not knowing what's going on, then realises the purple blood on her is Melan's and apologises for causing him to be injured, but he assures her he will recover swiftly as a Monomachia, but doesn't feel inclined to explain what that is, content to protect her without explaining, but when asked tells her the daruma is the Murder Monomachia Dollon. They continue escaping Dollon's pursuit, flying through an amusement park, where a boy recognises Monomakia.
Melan deposits Marin in a gondola while he clashes with Dollon, using both his gun arm and his bayonet arm, but Dollon spots Marin and tears through her car, leaving her hanging from a wire. As it approaches her it accidentally socks up some scraps, causing it to fall, allowing Melan to tear open Dollon's head and blast out the inside to destroy it, then catches Marin, asking if she is okay.
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