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spamgyu · 4 months

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BACKBURNER // PART 4

DESCRIPTION: She had grown tired of being on his back burner, the person that he had kept warm until he gotten the girl he has had his eyes set on for years... And with a little help from her friend, maybe... just maybe she'll finally be the first choice. PAIRING: Seungcheol x Reader | Mingyu x Reader GENRE: Angst & Fluff PART 3 | SERIES MASTERLIST | MASTERLIST

When he had told Jeonghan that his roommate had convinced him to go over to his best friend's house to finally tell her how he felt, he wasn't lying.

It wasn't just for show – to tell a fake story to make their lies believable.

"Seungcheol fumbled, are you going to do the same thing?" Minghao asked him, keeping his eyes trained on the screen while they worked together to complete their game's mission.

For the past few months, they had almost always circled back to one topic.

Y/n.

It was almost as if a switch had turned on in his head the day he realized that she was the one he loved this whole time. Just as has his mother predicted since their high school days, Mingyu had fallen in love for the one constant that was in his life.

"It's complicated, Hao. Shoot shoot– fuck." Mingyu cried, chucking his controller to the side as the screen flashed "MISSION FAILED".

Minghao shrugged. "How complicated could it be?"

"Well for one, it's one sided." He listed. "And then what, I lose her? Rather not have that."

"Just give it a shot. I doubt she'll cut you out anyways. She's stuck around this long, hasn't she?"

He was right.

She had seen the good, the bad, and the ugly and yet, she was still here. She still stuck by his side through it all.

He brought his fingers up to his lips, biting his nails – a bad habit he had developed whenever he allowed his thoughts to consume him.

The worst that could happen was that she could reject him, which he was 99% sure she would.

He just needed to get this damn weight off his shoulder.

Now more than ever.

Sighing, Mingyu stood from his seat. "Alright, I'm going to do it."

He had all the intentions of doing so that Valentine's Day. Showing up to her doorstep with a small bouquet of tulips he had picked up at Trader Joe's along with her favorite sweet treat from their bakery section – the brownie cookie combo that he swore was far too sweet for anyone's taste buds.

But instead, he was greeted by a girl with red eyes – it was clear that she had been crying just minutes before his arrival.

"Are those for me?" She sniffled, pointing to the contents in his hand.

"Yeah, I figured you were going to be upset this Valentine's day." He chuckled, lying through his teeth.

It wasn't the right time.

Mingyu wanted to tell her how he felt.

He wanted to finally feel the weight come off his chest but he knew it wasn't right.

Not when he still plagued her mind.

"Thank you." Y/n smiled, using the sleeves of her sweater to wipe her eyes. "No plans today?"

Mingyu shook his head, plopping down on her couch. "Today is for couples."

・゜゜・．・゜゜・．・゜゜・．・゜゜・．

"Fake dating?" Minghao repeated what his friend had just debriefed him after his arrival. "At your big age, you're going to pretend to fake dat– You know you've had many bad ideas before but this one takes the fucking cake."

Mingyu groaned, putting his head in his hands. "I know okay? I know, I just– She– I don't know. You know I'd do anything for her."

"Including helping her get Cheol back?" He cried.

"I just want her happy."

Minghao sarcastically clapped. "Let's give it up for the stupidest boy alive."

"Leave me alone." He pushed his friend's hands away from his face.

"This is going to be so fucking messy." He shook his head as he headed for his room, leaving his friend in the living room to wallow in his own thoughts.

・゜゜・．・゜゜・．・゜゜・．・゜゜・．

After three days of non-stop activities, she was ready to tap out – groaning in her bed as she flipped laying on one side to the other. She had mistakenly agreed to go hiking with Seokmin, Seungkwan and Hansol the day before and as someone who rarely did any physical activities, she was regretting her decision – feeling her thighs ache under the covers.

"Let's do something." Mingyu suggested from his bed, growing bored of the show he had been watching on the television.

Everyone else had left the hotel early in the morning to go ziplining, and considering her current state and his fear of heights, the duo had opted to sit this one activity out.

Getting the rest they deserve.

"I'm tired." She whined.

"Come on, I wanna go back up north and look around the shops." He pouted dramatically, batting his lashes at her.

They had all been so busy trying to complete the itinerary Eunji had so kindly organized that day that they weren't able to fully enjoy all the small town had to offer – Mingyu making note to pay it another visit during his free time.

Which was now.

She never could resist him.

Letting out a sigh, she sat up in her bed – trudging over to her suitcase. "You better fucking buy me something."

"I'm your boyfriend not your sugar daddy."

Grabbing the nearest article of clothing, Y/n turned around and threw it at him – hitting his face.

"I'm the luckiest man alive." He chuckled, tossing it back at her – making it perfectly into her suitcase.

"You sure are, baby." She winked, heading straight to the bathroom – outfit in hand.

"I thought we won't use baby!" He called out as the door slammed shut – a wide grin on his face.

He didn't care if it was in pure sarcasm. Mingyu felt his heart skip a beat.

Just as it had been the past few days.

Oh he was down bad.

Within an hour, they were back on the same road, blasting the same playlist – the two taking turns singing obnoxiously along to her favorite songs.

"I like it here." She reached over to dial the volume down, turning to point her film camera at him. "Smile– oh my god don't pose– ew!"

After a year of nothing but pure heartache, riding the roller coaster of emotions that Seungcheol had managed to strap her into, this was the first time in a while that the girl had enjoyed her time.

She couldn't help but dread the thought of the trip wrapping up, having to face the music of her reality – going back in to work, coming home to an empty apartment... and be alone with her thoughts.

With no Mingyu to distract her.

In the past few days, she had gained a new appreciation for her friend – noticing the small details of his actions. Especially after voicing this to Seungcheol on the beach, in attempts to defend their lie.

And even more when Mingyu had confirmed this two days ago.

At the time, she was simply saying what was at the top of her head. She had always known that he was there for her, answering all her calls in an instant and showing up with no questions asked.

Even if it was to help her get a bird, that had accidentally flown in and wreaked havoc, out if her apartment.

She remembered how stressed and terrified he was of hurting the poor thing as he used a broom to usher the small creature out – recording the whole thing on her phone for future entertainment purposes.

"Thank you." She glanced over at him, a soft smile on her lips.

"For what?" Mingyu's brows furrowed, confused at the sudden change of tone and air between them.

"Just being a good person." Y/n shrugged.

"Are you going all soft on me, y/n?" He teased.

"Don't make me take it back."

"I'm kidding." He chuckled, reaching over to give her cheek a poke. "I should be thanking you. You bullied me into being a good person."

Aside from his parents and his sister, she had a big influence on who he was and the man he had become today.

Y/n had never once let any of his mistakes go by without a single lecture. He remembered all the times he would sit in silence while she talked his ear off, even if it was something minor as forgetting to clean the lint trap out of his dryer.

Something about starting a house fire.

Before, when he was in his teens and still unappreciative of her nagging, Mingyu would simply roll his eyes – letting her words go in one ear and out another. As time had gone by, he had learned to appreciate it.

Welcoming it even; beating her to the punch to text her of his mistakes and asking for advice on how he could make it right.

"Not enough though. How many girls have cried because of you?"

"Don't make me take it back." He jokingly threatened, using her line.

Laughing, she allowed for the views to distract her once again – snapping a few more pictures.

・゜゜・．・゜゜・．・゜゜・．・゜゜・．

"We should come back here. Make it a tradition." She said, as the treaded through the small tide pools, pointing out the small school of fish that swam along their legs every now and then.

"Holding you to that."

The two had many traditions that they had set in place, one of them being spending a week during their summers camping with both of their families. A tradition that began when he had tagged along during one of her family trips – it wasn't long until his family joined in the following year, their fathers instantly becoming friends during the first day.

This would merely be another trip that they would continue on until they were old and grey.

"Do you think our kids will be friends? Like us?" Y/n asked aloud, stopping him in his tracks.

"I haven't really thought that far."

A lie.

He has.

Though, he would much prefer if their kids were siblings rather than friends.

They say a man knows in an instant whether they want to marry a girl or not.

Mingyu was no different.

He remembered that day so clearly. She had dragged him along to the mall to help her find the perfect dress for Jeonghan's wedding, and with nothing better to do he had agreed.

She had stepped out of the dressing room in a one shoulder satin maxi dress, fitting perfectly on her body. It was a simple dress, no ruffles, no sequins, no lace. Just a plain satin dress; but somehow she made it look like it was worth far more than the tag attached at the seams.

Mingyu remembered his heart skipping a beat that day, the breath in his lungs didn't seem enough as he took in her beauty.

He didn't know what triggered it, maybe it was the constant talks of the wedding, but his brain was instantly flooded with the thought of being the one at the end of the aisle – waiting for her as she made her way down in a white dress.

This soon then spiraled to thoughts of a married life with her; spending the rest of his life with his best friend.

It took him nearly a week to snap out of this day dream, his mind constantly wandering back to that day and the whirlwind of emotions that hit him like a ton of bricks.

"Have you at least thought about what you want for dinner?" She laughed; bringing him back to reality.

"Poke probably." Mingyu muttered.

"Sh.. the fish can hear you." She feigned shock as another school of silver fish swam by her toes.

"Yummy yummy fish." He cooed.

・゜゜・．・゜゜・．・゜゜・．・゜゜・．

Sitting atop of the roof of the car, the two picked at the various small bowls for cubed fresh cut of the day that they had picked up from the local market – humming in content each time they took a bite.

Instead of meeting the rest of the group for dinner, Mingyu and Y/n agreed it would be best to simply pick up the poke he had originally suggested as opposed to racing back to the city.

Watching the sunset while parked by the sand was far better than the chaos, anyways. The two needing a break from all the voices that seemed to always talk over one another.

"Hold still," He picked up his phone and pointed it at her. "This would look good on my story."

While they sat in silence, digesting the dinner they had just finished not too long ago, Mingyu couldn't help but notice how beautiful she looked under the soft orange and yellow hues of the sun that had dipped halfway into the horizon – illuminating her face in a new light.

Both metaphorically and literally.

Without a second thought, the girl listened to him – holding her pose of looking straight into the shoreline, a soft smile on her face. "Lemme see." She held her hand out as he handed her his device. "Send this to me."

Mingyu swallowed as his heart battled with his brain to do the unthinkable.

Maybe it was the fact that they had spent the whole day alone, acting as though they were still around their friends – pretending.

Or the fact that this his trip had given him a glimpse of what his life would be if they were actually together, the flirting, the hand holding, the soft whispers, waking up to her in the morning; the sweet moments he yearned for.

Or maybe, just maybe, it was because he's been wanting this for so long – unable to hold off any longer.

"Bug?" Her head tilted to the side, seeing the gears turn behind his eyes.

There goes that nickname.

The one that they have sworn to use just as part of the act that soon became a part of their daily vocabulary. Even when it was just the two of them.

"Let me just–" His mumbled, leaning down – which wasn't hard as they were already only inches apart, capturing her lips in his.

She didn't pause.

She didn't push him away.

In fact, she kissed him back.

Bringing a hand to cup her face, Mingyu moved his lips against hers slowly. He had been dreaming of this for a while now, and he could have sworn he thought their first kiss would be much rougher – thinking he would be hungry for her lips.

But this moment was delicate. He knew that it could all come crashing down the minute he pulled away, so he proceeded it with caution – his thumb caressing her cheek as his tongue swiped her bottom lip for permission.

She allowed it.

Mingyu's head was spinning at this point, wanting nothing else but to stay in this moment forever.

But he knew he couldn't.

They needed air.

Pulling away, Mingyu swallowed; preparing himself to receive an earful from her.

Instead she sat in silence, blinking at him.

He had fucked up.

"I'm sorry." He croaked.

Mingyu knew that if he wasn't the first one to speak up, she would let the tension swallow them whole – leaving them to drive back to the hotel without uttering a single word to each other.

"I think we should head back." She cleared her throat, scooting towards the moon roof they had slipped through.

"Hey–" He placed a hand on her shoulder.

She turned her head, lips pale. It was clear that she had regretted what had happened, a lump forming in Mingyu's throat as the worst had finally come.

"What?" Y/n asked softly.

"Just wanted to see if you were foaming at the mouth." Mingyu joked. "Since I have rabies and all..."

A small smile formed on her face, a wave of relief washing over him. "You're so fucking stupid." Y/n ducked into the car.

"No rabies?" Mingyu called out.

"Get in the damn car, Mingyu." She called back.

They were going to be alright.

・゜゜・．・゜゜・．・゜゜・．・゜゜・．

For the first time in a while, she was confused.

She should have listened to the voice in her head when it had warned her that pretending to date her best friend was a bad idea.

At her ripe age of twenty six, she should have known this would happen.

Maybe it was the close proximity, or the fact that they had spent the whole day absentmindedly pretending to be a couple despite none of their usual audience being around, or maybe it was that he kissed her.

No.

They made out.

Either way, her mind was in a mess.

It wasn't like she's never had feelings for him before.

But the last time didn't count.

They were in high school — and everyone had a crush on him.

It was tiny crush that she had soon gotten over when she met her first boyfriend.

But this time was different.

There was more on the line.

Their friendship, their whole group's dynamic.... and Seungcheol.

The man who had been the main reason why she was in this predicament in the first place.

A part of her wanted to dismiss the moment atop of their car as a moment of weakness, the sunset and island hypnotizing the both of them.

Besides, it was Mingyu. He had plenty of girls in line, waiting to get a chance with him.

He must have simply been caught up in the moment.

If it was anything genuine, he would have acted differently instead of jumping back into the sense of normality as they drove back to the hotel.

But no, he made a joke out of it all.

It was a mistake to both of them.

But another part of her wanted it to be real – falling into the trap of their own acting.

While he had excused himself to the hotel gym, to work out with Joshua and Soonyoung, y/n was left with her thoughts – wanting nothing more but to silence it all.

She didn't want Mingyu, even if his actions was everything she wished for in a man.

It was– It had to be Seungcheol.

A knock on the door pulled her out of her thoughts.

It was as if the universe read her mind, opening the door to see him standing with a plushie in hand – nervously shifting his weight from one foot to another.

"Hi." He greeted softly, holding the t-rex stuffed toy out. "I uh– it reminded me of you."

If her mind wasn't a mess before, it sure was in pure chaos now.

It reminded him of her.

She recalled back to the one good week they had. No fighting, no tears, no mixed signals.

She had come down with a nasty cold and he had doted on her while she was bed ridden – staying over at her apartment to nurse her back to health.

They had spent that whole week binge watching all the installments of Jurassic Park, cuddling on her bed despite her protests of not wanting to pass whatever virus she had come down to him.

He didn't care for it, showering her with kisses.

"Thank you." Y/n accepted the plush.

She picked up on his nervousness, stepping aside to let him in. "Is everything okay?"

He nodded, bringing his hand to scratch the back of his neck – trying to find the right words to say. "I– I want to say sorry. For all of it. The pain, the confusion..... I– I'm sorry for being a dick."

"It's fi–"

"It's not." Seungcheol shook his head. "I had some senses knocked in me and–"

Y/n watched as he licked his lips, pacing in front of her before he came to a stop.

"It's you." He breathed. "I– I choose you."

Her world came into a halt.

The metaphorical glass shattering.

"What?"

"That night, when you asked me to choose, I– I shouldn't have hesitated. I should have stopped you. I'm sorry." He continued, pain evident in his eyes.

He was being genuine.

Y/n tried to search for any signs of lies on his face, unable to comprehend the words that left his lips.

This was the moment she had finally been waiting for, but why was she so afraid?

"I know an apology can't fix it. But if you'll allow it–" Seungcheol hesitantly took her hand in his, giving it a squeeze. "If you'll take me back, I'll spend however long trying to prove that it's you."

taglist closed

@thepoopdokyeomtouched/ @scuzmunkie / @yunjin0 / @morkswatermelonnnn / @anthropologymajorkpopmultistan / @ohmygodwhyareallusernamestaken / @naturelvrgfstealer / @bettybotterboughtabitofbutter / @musingsofananxiouspotato / @f4iryjjosh / @gatorgirl007 / @girlwithimaginarybiaslist / @daisawa / @ttragiquee / @luchiet / @loveforred /@vannabanana1995 / @uniq-tastic / @porridgesblog / @haolistic / @bbl32 / @calumsfringe / @alsktudy / @chansbaybygirl / @alwaysalmostthere / @listxn / @soupbinlily / @hanniebaby95 / @yonabutnotyuna / @buffhoshi / @kawennote09 / @wwwellacom / @hanniebaby95 / @winterbeartaehyungbestboy

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melodygatesauthor · 10 months

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Weekly Update - 07/09/2023

There's a LOT to cover this week but it's all REALLY important so please read <3 (below the cut) ~

Announcements

~ Cruise ~

I'm going on a cruise from 07/15/2023-07/23/2023! I really shouldn't have, but my family peer pressured me into it and now I can't get my money back if I back out so I'm going anyway lol.

I paid extra to have WiFi in my cabin, however I don't know how good it will be. I refuse to pay the ridiculous amount of money to use the data on my phone out there. That being said, my online time will be limited.

If for any reason I cannot access my internet or have issues getting on Tumblr @whatthefishh will give you all an update letting you know. (She hasn't confirmed this with me yet but I assume she will lol)

I'm going to be trying to get some works written ahead of time and scheduled to post while I'm away so it will be like I never left! (except I won't be able to respond much).

~ Masterlist ~

My masterlist is ALMOST complete. Once I'm done with it this time I will NOT be changing it again (unless my aesthetic changes but that will only be a cosmetic update). I'm happy with the way it's organized right now and I don't think it can get any better than it is personally lol. (I'm very proud of it please praise me)

~ FAQs ~

I'm working on an FAQs list to hopefully mitigate some of the repeat questions I get, or so I can just link them instead of having to respond to each individual question.

~ Thank You ~

The biggest thank you possible to those who sent in tips this week. I can't thank you enough. I added the tip thing without the expectation that people would actually use it so to have so many of you this week blew my mind. I love you, and I appreciate you more than you can know.

Disclaimer - I never know which way the winds of inspiration will blow. Timeframes aren't a promise/guarantee, they're a goal.

Fic Updates Legend:

Blue - should be posted this week

Pink - In progress actively (working on but will not be posted this week)

Red - Backburner Fic (will work on later. See WIP list for status)

Long/Chaptered Fics Updates

A Bit Dodgy - This fic is currently on hiatus. The plan is for it to return 07/31/2023. Things may change and if they do I'll let you all know! Thank you for bearing with me. More detailed explanation here.

Always Yours, Never Mine - Chapter 2 is coming right up! Just a couple scenes to add and it will be good to go. I'm thinking I'll be able to churn out one chapter a week but don't hold your breath please haha, things are getting really busy, but this fic is at the front of my mind right now for sure. - New chapter this week

The Fractured Moon - currently working on These Fractured Knights (TFM Bonus Chapters) 🫣😏 - Hoping to have the next chapter out this week. This has been moved to "longfics" since it will be at over 40k words upon completion. - New chapter this week

Mini-series Updates

Feeling You Can't Fight - New chapter coming out this week.

Not a Doctor - Part 2 coming soon - not for a while though.

Worth the Risk - taking a small step back from this for now. It’s not at the top of my inspiration list so I’m moving it down the line temporarily. - will work on a later date

The Good Doctors - idea by @burnincrown - Dr. Marc Spector - It's going to be a long time in the works, and it will probably replace TFM when that one is done. In development - Work on it a different week

Requests Updates

There are 4 ficlets left for my 1k follower celebration. Finally getting them done (I'm almost at 2k now lmao but won't be doing a celebration until a different milestone).

As a reminder, once these requests are finished, my requests will be closed for good. You can see the post explaining that here. Thank you again for the support and understanding!

Moon Boys X f!Reader by @simpforbritgents

Asking for something like Feeling Flustered where the moon boys are doing guided phone sex.

Marc Spector X f!Reader by @blueflowerhat

Marc shower sex based on AI prompt.

Nathan Bateman X f!Reader by @campingwiththecharmings

This is the prompt that hit me like a Nathan-shaped mac truck! -> “if you don’t like my teasing why are you moaning”

Nathan Bateman X f!Reader by Anon

Cam girl reader x Nathan - Nathan turns to a cam girl, he's been kinda stalking her. (Excited hehe)

That's all for now guys! I love you all and thank you so much for all the support you continue to give no matter what. You're amazing <3

#melody gates updates #moon knight #across the spiderverse #miguel o'hara #marc spector #jake lockley #steven grant #santiago garcia #triple frontier #ex machina #nathan bateman

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davidmann95 · 2 years

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DC 5G - what we know, what we 'know', what's left

NOTE: This has been updated significantly since I initially posted it, with assorted chunks of information parceled out by Dan DiDio in a Word Balloon interview, labeled UPDATE, or a new slate of scoops dug up by - deep sigh - Bleeding Cool (who for all their rumormongering, provably had details on this given how early details of theirs eventually bore out in published comics), labeled UPDATE 2. Most of my fairly glowing opinions accompanying these details are from my original version of this pre-Dark Crisis; I put a very different 'up-to-date' response at the bottom. A bunch of the UPDATE 2 stuff also had titles attached, but they seem...placeholder-ey, so I'll ignore them.

With Dark Crisis approaching and my bitterness rising as it looks more and more like an off-ramp to the idea of a next-gen DCU than anything else - with titles like Son of Kal-El and I Am Batman completely fizzling out in the meantime while Wonder Girl goes under entirely - I've gone back to thinking about the original 5G plan. Those who follow me on Twitter know I've gone over the last couple years from 'hmm, I'm interested in Jon as Superman, but gosh that timeline is dumb' to a hardcore '5G WAS THE TRUTH AND THE WAY, THE MOMENT THE STOPPED CLOCK WAS RIGHT, DC WHAT IN GOD'S NAME HAVE YOU DONE' partisan, even if the timeline's still kinda dumb.

It was always going to alienate the existing fanbase: it's an approach that besides the face-value shakeup itself puts slow-burn soap development on the backburner in favor of moving fast and breaking things, and potentially results in your faves not graduating to the 'right' positions or ending up in the 'right' relationships to boot, plus a new generation of heroes composed in large part of original characters rather than those who 'earned it' via decades of mostly clinging to life in team books or guest appearances. My being way more interested in the potential of the vast revision of the archetypes and a proper injection of mythic sweep and enduring legacy into a shared universe ostensibly built on those is at the end of a day a difference of taste, but as for my arguments beyond that:

I don't think it can be reasonably argued that The Son of Superman and The Next Batman treated with seriousness wouldn't have been far more attention-getting to broader audiences (and a richer template for that sweet sweet IP farming DC publication now explicitly exists in service of) than rebooting the classic bunch for the 5th or 6th time.

The classic folks still would've been in Black Label and the like forever; yes, for the most part their classic-mold ongoing adventures would be over, but being extremely real most Batman stories would work pretty much the same with someone else under the cowl, and if there's something ala Tom King's Batman that's character-driven and demands space to breathe, it's been shown there's space for that outside of continuity with the likes of...sigh. White Knight.

DC having to ride or die by the new names as their headliners would have meant those characters wouldn't have had the opportunity to languish in genuinely crappy books the way they have - they would have had to immediately sell at least their new Justice League on the strength of their immediate quality with little pertinent backlog to lean on and basically no fallback option.

The loglines of characters built for those gigs tend to be a lot more straightforward than the baggage of folks who've been around for decades having been created to fulfill different functions.

Let's again be real, the significant majority of the existing readership would've sighed and still bought everything with the big names on the covers if not been actively hyped.

Anyway, with all that in mind and the likely-forsaken potential of the concept being a frequent topic of discussion with some friends of mine, I felt the urge to once again revive the Tumblr and put together a rough outline of what we know about the '5G' setup. From assorted scoops (mostly from Bleeding Cool, which I won't be linking to but demonstrated they knew at least the broad strokes of what was happening here), interviews, and indicators in comics that actually have been published, I wanted to see the shape of the baby thrown out with DiDio's bathwater. Starting someplace unexpected:

When I was first getting into comics, my dad informed me of a rumor he'd heard about that at the end of the new event comic Final Crisis, the Justice League was going to die and would become the NEW New Gods, with their sidekicks and children stepping up in their place, making it a truly 'final' crisis for the DCU as we knew it. While that didn't play out, apparently there was something to it: according to BC, this was in fact the big idea at one point, reportedly under the banner of 'The Fifth World' paying off some notions from Grant Morrison's JLA that were being revived in Final Crisis. This seems shocking given Dan DiDio's notorious antipathy towards the likes of Dick Grayson and Wally West, but his primary complaints about them - that Dick was forever stuck between his iconic past as Robin and grand future as Batman, he and Wally both breaking the DCU by their very existences in aging while their predecessors remain eternal - would have been solved by this shift. His old declaration that Nightwing could only survive Infinite Crisis if something was done to justify him makes a lot more sense if the gears had immediately started turning to make him Batman.

Along with Dick, and likely Cassie Sandsmark as Wonder Woman since Donna Troy had just filled that spot, with the benefit of hindsight it's clear the stage was being set for a new generation lineup: Bart Allen had become The Flash and even after his death was set up for an immediate resurrection, Kurt Busiek was establishing a new Aquaman, Jason Rusch and Jaime Reyes and Ryan Choi were the new Firestorm and Blue Beetle and Atom, Roy Harper had taken a seat in the JLA as Red Arrow, and Freddie Freeman was the new Captain Marvel, with Hal presumably sticking around as rep for the old guard given Johns had just returned him to glory. And right around the corner was Blackest Night to give the kids a trial by fire in the face of their zombie predecessors, with the get out of jail free card of the white rings to bring all the originals back at the end if this whole experiment immediately flopped.

Conner Kent as Superman was presumably going to be a crown jewel, with Chris Kent perhaps being set up as his Superboy with a background conceptually near-identical to Damian Wayne as the new Robin (scion of a major villain taken in by a Superdad, they're separated, by the time the kid makes it back dad is gone and a big brother has to step up). You've even got a big easy passing-of-the-torch moment at the end of Final Crisis with Clark giving up everything he has to activate the Miracle Machine - an odd non-sequitur with no consequences in the story as-is - and a final declaration 'look up in the sky' at an army of approaching Supermen Conner could well have been leading as his grand debut.

And there's a VERY interesting context if you consider what ultimately happened in place of The Fifth World in the form of the New 52 - a younger, cockier Superman who ends up dating a Wonder Woman who's now Zeus's kid. It seems some of the big ideas were still carried over, especially considering under Grant Morrison that new Superman in a t-shirt and jeans fights Luthor who considers him a lab specimen (alongside Brainiac, as Conner would in Johns and Manapul's brief Adventure Comics run in place of all this, and who Morrison reconceptualizes as a preservationist dedicated to holding a newly-changed world in amber), and then new equivalents and 'successors' to the likes of Mxyzptlk, the classic Phantom Zoners, Terra-Man, and the Kryptonite Man, culminating in a battle with a combination of Bizarro - the ultimate Superman clone - and Doomsday - the franchise-killer whose existence roundabout birthed Conner - for the right to the Superman brand. Was Morrison going to do Conner as Superman alongside Batman and Robin, and they repurposed those 'Superman 2' ideas along with that one All-Star spinoff to create their Action Comics run? Did they just hear that was the plan and kick around some ideas of how they'd handle it that were reused later? Or do those pieces mostly just fit because 'new era' ideas can make near-equal sense whether applied a reboot or a new guy in the cape?

(Perhaps a strike against coincidence: All-Star Superman ends with the conception of a test-tube child of Superman via what was once Cadmus, essentially Conner's origin. Morrison's gone on the record that Batman R.I.P. ends the way it does to provide an iconic 'death' for Bruce setting up Dick as the new guy for those who weren't reading Final Crisis; it seems at least a little bit possible that All-Star at the same time had a similar idea at the back of its mind if it wasn't outright geared to serve that purpose.)

UPDATE: DiDio confirmed Final Crisis was originally meant to lead into a next-gen relaunch, and also mentioned there were plans to pair this with an 'Ultimate'-style line still starring Clark, Bruce, and Diana, and that All-Star and Earth One lines were also both failed attempts at an Ultimate DC. Given the timing, it may be fair to assume that Earth One was initially intended to be paired with Fifth World, and why it was so quickly supplanted by the New 52 when its initial purpose was nullified; if nothing else, it'd explain why that ostensibly mass-market initiative had a nerd-ass name like Earth One.

An interesting bunch of notions, but let's go from the Fifth World to the Fifth Generation: between all the stuff I mentioned earlier there's actually a pretty clear picture of how 5G would've looked, at least concerning the big names.

Kal-El lands on Earth in 1938 as the kickoff to this world's history, though Wonder Woman emerges in 1939 as the first public superhero (shown by Snyder and Hitch in Wonder Woman #750); she leads the Justice Society of America until leaving man's world after the atomic bomb's dropped. Clark operates quietly in Smallville as Superboy, but he stops when the JSA disbands in 1955 in protest of HUAC wanting them to disclose their identities (though according to the solicit for the cancelled Generation One: Age of Mysteries there was a secret 'real' reason they disassembled; apparently a Golden Age hero would also become a great villain, and a secret deal of some sort would be struck to "keep the Wayne family dynasty alive" after Thomas and Martha's murders).

Clark is operating in secret as Superman by 1963 and meets JFK who encourages him to gather other heroes in service of a finer world (as seen in the opening of Superman and The Authority; as published after 5G was scrapped this was recontextualized as a time-travel adventure), with him and Batman both publicly debuting in 1965 and the Justice League of America forming soon after with a returned Wonder Woman. The events of 1965-1985 were meant to be depicted one year per issue in a 21-part series by Mark Russell which would later be heavily reimagined as Superman: Space Age.

Crisis on Infinite Earths occurs in 1985, and everything from then to Death Metal is largely the same, just over an elongated expanse of time and with a few irreconcilable continuity-specific bits like Superman/Wonder Woman excised. Apparently the assorted Crisis events cause years to be 'skipped', allowing key characters to retain some relative youth.

(The Other History of the DC Universe while not a 1:1 appears to have been constructed to roughly fit with this given John Ridley was ultimately a 5G architect, with the JLA emerging in the 70s or possibly 60s if you fudge the narration a bit and still going strong in 2010.)

By the present day, the bulk of the JLA have passed, retired, or otherwise stepped back; the Titans now fill the traditional 'old guard' slot.

The initial prompt offered by DiDio to creators was notoriously for an aged Clark to pursue a totalitarian path and assemble a new version of The Authority as his vanguard. Apparently that wasn't a hard-and-fast direction, as it was radically reconfigured by Grant Morrison into Superman and The Authority, which in the original 5G version would have ended with the revelation that Clark had somehow secretly been split into 'Red' and 'Blue' versions increasingly representing his dueling conservative and revolutionary instincts, with leftie Blue forming the team we currently see, and rightwing Red reforming the classic lineup swapping out Midnighter and Apollo with a likely unwitting Damian Wayne and Jon Kent.

When the dust settled and presumably a reconstituted Clark pursued his own adventures (UPDATE: DiDio noted Clark would continue losing his powers as his capacity as a 'solar battery' dimmed, grooming The Authority to take over for him completely), a 23 year old Jonathan would become the new main Superman, likely written by Matt Fraction according to a Word Balloon podcast, reportedly dating Jenny Sparks and Smallville acting as his 'Fortress' with the citizens working to maintain his privacy when visiting. Between being duped into following Red and under unknown circumstances bottling Metropolis he would likely be starting on the backfoot and needing to prove himself to the world as a worthy inheritor.

UPDATE 2: Along with losing his powers, part of the impetus behind Superman's retirement per DiDio's original plan would be that after revealing his identity to the world, Clark would begin pressuring other members of the Justice League to engage in similar transparency, ultimately forming a divide that would lead to the end of the team (with Jon spending much of his time in the 31st century with the Legion to avoid the whole affair). He passes the mantle to Jon and retires with Lois to Africa (this was also a plot point in Future's End; I guess Dan had it in the back pocket for awhile for some reason?), but ends up performing covert superheroics that lead to The Authority's formation.

UPDATE 2: Jon's solo title would proceed as described, with his own 'neverending battle' to avert the destruction of the original Earth seen in the Legion's timeline. I also suspect Morrison's Red-and-Blue division was also an attempt at having a figure to take the blame for some actions covered further below.

As originally pitched by Tynion when his run was meant to lead into 5G, at the climax of Joker War the Clown Prince of Crime is shot and left in a permanent comatose state by Selina Kyle, ending her relationship with Bruce. Left with no resources, no Alfred, no Gordon, no arch-nemesis, and a Gotham being radically rebuilt in a new image, Bruce concludes the time of Batman is over and that he should find other ways to help the world with his remaining years, leaving Gotham (presumably this period was pitched for by Tom Taylor and later became The Detective with Andy Kubert) and asking his allies not to pick up his mantle. Damian would take his place at the throne of Leviathan in his own move to remake the world and become the 'Magneto' to Jon's 'Professor X', still cordial in respect to their past friendship but at the end of the day enemies. Jace - in early rumors (UPDATE: and according to DiDio) Luke, but John Ridley has said it was Jace for as long as he was onboard - becomes the next Batman, disdained by Damian for taking up the Batman mantle and on awkward terms with the new Superman. Tynion also had an idea for a 5G Joker title about a teenager radicalized by Joker's legacy that instead became Punchline.

UPDATE: DiDio confirmed that by the time everything fell through, the plan was instead for Joker to survive and kill Bane before revealing Batman's identity to the world after their final battle; Bruce is imprisoned because he's held partially culpable for Bane's death (he 'freezes' when Joker says he plans to do this, giving Joker a chance to escape, and he fears that since Bane killed Alfred he subconsciously allowed him to do it). Clark later breaks him out, eventually setting up a generational war between Clark and Bruce against Jon/Damian/Luke as the culmination of the initial 5 year roadmap for 5G.

UPDATE 2: Apparently the original plan was for Batman to straight-up agree to let Joker kill Bane, good lord. Guess the 'freezing' thing was a wiggle room compromise ala how Morrison handled Authority, though with...less panache. Anyway, Bruce makes amends with his family and closes up shop before retiring to England (a pitch for which was indeed the original kernel for the aforementioned Taylor/Kubert book).

UPDATE 2: Batman - definitely Luke Fox in the original plan, with concept art by Mikel Janin pictured above, meaning Ridley definitively wasn't there at inception - would have as noted fought Damian Wayne, and Tamara Fox would have discovered his identity and become Robin against his protests. After fighting a returned Joker Bruce's culpability in Bane's death would be discovered, and Bruce would have willingly turned himself in.

Regarding several of the other books: Green Lantern was to be written by Jeff Lemire, spearheading a 'horror line' for 5G and presumably starring Jo Mullein (UPDATE 2: it would have actually starred a 'main DCU' take on the necromancer Tangent Green Lantern, with Jo as the Lantern of the team Justice Alliance). Tim Sheridan would write a Nightwing/Oracle title and the new Flash book; the latter was reportedly the child of Captain Boomerang, so his ideas there were likely recycled into Bolt for his Titans Academy, the daughter of Australian criminals. Brian Bendis would be writing spy books and the Green Arrow ongoing according to a Word Balloon interview of his own. Phillip Kennedy Johnson was doing something for a 'space line'. UPDATE 2: Ram V and Mike Perkins' Swamp Thing was additionally part of 5G, and apparently Yara Flor was originally imagined as Wonder Woman.

Matt Fraction, Warren Ellis, and Chip Zdarsky were collectively working on a project involving the new Superman and Batman that ultimately fell through, whether as soon as Warren Ellis's involvement in any of DC's affairs was taken off the table, or if it would have proceeded without him but collapsed with the line. Presumably Zdarsky's end of it morphed in some fashion into Justice League: Last Ride, showing the sundowning days of the now-disbanded League.

(Pure personal speculation: the roughly contemporaneous The Batman's Grave when Ellis was part of the 5G braintrust may have been intended to provide a non-continuity perennial 'ending' to Bruce which would still leave him alive in accordance with his upcoming setup, same as All-Star would've provided a clean continuity-free transition point from Clark to Conner.)

UPDATE: This likely morphed into a weekly series described by DiDio by Fraction, Greg Rucka, Bendis, and Kelly Sue DeConnick charting the path of how the old guard stepped down (while still remaining alive and on the table) while the new generation emerged; his recollection was that this was titled something to the effect of Last Call, further suggesting Last Ride was a mutation of this book.

UPDATE 2: Alternatively, it may have been Changing of the Guard, an event parallel Last Call which would have shown the rise of the new generation of heroes, focusing on the new Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman.

UPDATE: DiDio noted that the G's were divided by central superhero team - Justice Society of America, Justice League of America, Justice League International, Justice League, and then the "new Justice series", suggesting the era's big superhero team would have a new title rather than being a new League.

UPDATE 2: The new team would have been known as the Justice Alliance, assembled by Superman and Batman in a World's Finest miniseries (I suppose another candidate for the Ellis/Fraction/Zdarsky project, though this seems to have been a little late in the game to have had a team assigned so early on) composed of Jon, Luke, Yara, Jo, and the aforementioned new Flash. Tim Sheridan would have either written this miniseries or Justice Alliance itself; the wording of the report is unclear.

UPDATE 2: Clark breaking Bruce out of jail - which apparently was just for the sake of breaking him out of jail? - would have noted led to a generational civil war triggering the endgame of the 5G plan roundabouts 2024. To help win Clark would undergo a process to restore his former powers, but this overload of his powers would place the entire Earth at risk as foretold in the Legion's history. With Bruce somehow sacrificing himself to save the world and both men dying, the future is changed, and Jon and Luke definitively the new Superman and Batman...unless it was decided in 2025 that the initiative wasn't working, with a 'back door' planted into this chain of events to instead reboot to a clean slate with Clark and Bruce and company back in their primes.

So your mileage will vary tremendously here, because even aside from the seismic nature of the shift everybody would find themselves pissed off by something or another in here, myself included ('everything counts' except Golden Age Superman? At least Clark’d be doing that kind of stuff in the present, but. Plus that's kind of a shame of a fate for Damian pending his inevitable face turn, though I haven’t liked much else with him since he was brought back and this could still at least be interesting. And, again, an exact timeline's pretty dopey and fruitlessly doomed to near-immediate expiration) - that's the nature of a big swing. But there's also stuff for everybody here: Superman gets a huge thematic tip of the hat to his nature as the first superhero while Wonder Woman is the public first to line up with the movies, the JSA have their role to make those fans happy, the Titans fulfill their promise as the inheritors, and again between the likes of that proto-Space Age book and Black Label miniseries there were still regularly going to be titles about the classic heroes at their peaks alongside their new adventures as elder statesmen. You have that deep history for the longtime fans, and a completely clean slate jumping-on point for anyone curious about headlines of NEW SUPERMAN NEW BATMAN THIS IS PROBABLY WHAT THE MOVIES ARE GONNA BE IN 10 YEARS, with easy-in loglines like "Just as the crown is passed the legacy of Superman is perhaps irreparably tarnished, can Lois and Clark's son Jon Kent overcome his initial stumbles and prove himself worthy of the greatest mantle of all?", "Even Bruce Wayne has given up on Batman...but one man hasn’t, and his ultimate rival is the seemingly destined Blood Heir", "The new Green Lantern found her footing patrolling a single world, but now she's thrown headlong into the most terrifying depths of the cosmos", "Can the ultimate Legacy Hero Dynasty be lived up to by the 'legacy' of one of its oldest enemies?" etc.

All-in-all: of course stuff was still gonna suck, his ultimate (good) brainstorm or not I’m sure DiDio was micromanaging it to hell and I imagine a lot of creators weren’t wild about the pitch “in a blitz of creative fervor unseen since the Silver Age create all our new headliners, who as directly derivative characters you won’t even collect royalties for”. But just in terms of what wound up on the stands each month I can't imagine it wouldn't have been so, so much better than Infinite Frontier's weightless lack of commitment in either direction where we have a new Superman, Batman, Wonder (Girl), Aquaman, and Green Lantern, but they're mostly in kind of subsidiary incidental roles while the classics still handle the big jobs until DC can decide for certain where it's going - the closest to full headliner status being Jon, who's basically holding down the fort while his dad's out of town, doing Regular Superman Stuff and fighting A Lex-Type Guy. I'm really, really hoping against hope that Dark Crisis is actually about letting the kids take center stage in a big way with a big push behind them and the old Justice League still sticking around but yielding at least a little bit of narrative authority, because the current neither fish nor fowl state of things can't continue, and snuffing this out altogether would be such a shame given I truly believe 5G was for all its flaws evident and inevitable DC's most interesting idea in years.

UPDATE: Final note, learned from that Bendis Word Balloon that the cancellation of 5G wasn't an editorial matter but due to shifting corporate priorities above everyone's heads.

UPDATE 2: Well, with a lot of this information, this whole thing pretty quickly goes from 'dammit why'd they have to screw the pooch here' to 'oh there's an excellent chance this would have exploded, huh'. After getting over the initial "JEEEEEEEESUS" reaction to, well, everything with Bruce and Clark, I still don't think it was necessarily 100% doomed, as there were clearly a whole lot of extremely talented creators involved to like with Authority reinterpret those marching orders - I can even imagine a way of doing that dopey Death of The World's Finest with some poetry and grace - but. Y'know. If the success of the plan requires a lot of brilliant people to turn it into something very different: not a great plan. Still would have been something compared to the proud nothing of the broad Infinite Frontier/Dawn of DC slate, and introduced exciting new ideas to be explored here and elsewhere over the longterm in many of the ways I suggested initially, but I can at least feel the relief of knowing that this wasn't some unprecedented moment of defeat being madly snatched unbidden from the jaws of victory.

Except for you, Matt Fraction Jon Kent Superman book. For you, I mourn to the end of time.

#DC 5G #DC: Future State #Final Crisis #Superman #Batman #Green Lantern #Flash #Conner Kent #Jon Kent #Jace Fox #Jo Mullein #Infinite Frontier #Dark Crisis #Luke Fox #DC Earth One #All Star DC #DC Comics #Opinion

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kichimiangra · 11 months

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You mentioned that you might hypothetically write a story for Digimon Ghost Game. What would be the plot of that potential fanfic?

I mean, I probably won't actually write it because me and writing don't always get along.... it's why I have more art than text for Nannersverse at this point. I'm just trying to force myself to write more for the sake of being able to shit out scripts for comics quicker. Nannersverse would have totally ended up a comic if I didn't stop myself! Then it would take so long that it would eventually get set on the backburner as another unfinished comic :<

BUT!

If I did do a Ghost Game fic it would probably be an attempt at a fictional "Season 2" where I collect all the loose ends or things I personally would want to see expanded on, so the main main plot would be a whole "Gulus can't count, the endbringer is coming and it's only been 2 years" but opening with a few episodic chapters that feel like episodes to establish how the world is now that Digimon are kinda an open thing and not a secret, how people reac to their existance. and what the GG Gangs normal lives have been since then. Maybe Jellymon and Angoramon have hit that point in their development by now that they no longer default to Rookie form, but are permanently Champions to show that even if it's only been 2 years the relationship to their humans have had a substantial effect on their growth? But more importantly because I'm bias as fuck, the early chapter highlights would be on specifically how Hiro and Gammamon's lives are effected by the constant existence of Big brother Gulus popping up unannounced for almost anything, going from who was originally a background character in their lives to a constant element needing getting used to, such as watching Gammamon seemingly hold a two way conversation with himself with only the black eyes being an indicator he isn't going full Gollum. Plus the fun that they are trying to get Gulus to be good but he is VERY resistant to behaving good.

"The Plot" would eventually show up and the episodic chapters would end to focus instead on a serialized narrative of trying to put an end to the end bringer, maybe it kills or captures Quantumon? It wouldn't be a fast arrival, Maybe the Gulus Virus that had been going around the digital world was technically caused by the end bringer (So like, back on Krypton Gulus was just a normal Gammamon before he himself got infected, but instead of 'infection' he 'devoured' the virus, writing it into his own digital code thus birthing his permanent evolution into Gulusgammamon) and with the virus spreading around the digimon in both the digital and human worlds all eyes are on Hiro, Gamma, and Gulus as nobody really trusts Gulus to not be the active cause of this spreading virus, with the only one believing in him being Hiro and Gamma? This way later there can be like... the narrative buddy fight, so to speak. (Though I don't think Hiro would buddy fight :/ He's so passive...)

I'd have to chew on it a bit more to think of what I would do for "The Plot-Plot" but I do know I would want a Huge amount of focus to be on Hiro and his two Gamma's, as what Ghost Game did well was it's smaller personal character moments and also I'm bias as fuck.

-------------------

About a week after your original ask of "If I wrote a digimon fic what would it be?" and my answer was GG but only if I found there was a story that I wanted to tell with the characters, I remembered that there actually WAS a digimon fic I had considered writing but it was also in a "still chewing on it" point of existence, but I had already answered the ask so cuz psuedo on topic I'll add it here!

A while Back KarnEX did a video discussing the early concept for Digimon Frontier I found myself biting my lip because I liked the original idea, so I had started ideating the vague idea of a digimon fic using the concept. (Although once again my brain is like "But what if.... comic...?")

A report is seen on the tv about 'more' children/teens/whatevs going missing, establishing an ongoing crisis. The Protag is going somewhere or something or whatever maybe a travelling circus or music show or SOMETHING to get a moderate group of kids in a single place and a group of Digimon appear and kidnap protag and the other kids; isekai'ing them to the digital world (though the kids don't know they're not in kansas anymore yet.) end of setup.

Here in the digital world for the first act, it follows a Ratchet and Clank: Deadlocked plot: They have been kidnapped by the Digimon who work for a gladitory arena and are being forced to compete for the entertainment and profit of the arena owners (Captialism is the true villain lol). The Arena has Digimon competetors but the arena has found that the more interesting fights come from capturing humans and making them Fuse/Biomerge evolve with a digimon competitor, many of which have ALSO been forced into the arena against their will. From there protag ends up meeting their partner and it becomse kinda like a tournament fighter shounen manga as protag meets other competetors and their own issues trying to survive the arena (characters and storylines like "The Pacifist won't fight but has to learn it's okay sometimes" or the "Dog eat dog competitor" or "The Competitor who is a cinnamon role paired up with a bad or abusive human/digimon partner" etc.) Eventually after the first arena tournament round ends and the second begins; round two requires team fighting and protag manages to create a team of merry misfits and their digimon partners that he befriended/ gained the respect of during round one. They start realizing that they think they can escape the arena via a very specific escape route and try to get back to civilization and call the police on this child-monster-battle-thing. Most of their group get's out, accidentally leaving one of their own behind, maybe there's a forced "Dark Biomerge Digivolution" forced upon the kid or maybe there's a "They left you behind like bad friends!" or maybe there's a "He stayed behind for a reason!" I dunno this character is probably the Ken/Matt/Rika/that one friend who has baggage that digimon likes to have. It's a good character trait I love it.

Now that (most) of the main group has escaped the arena the second act begins where they are effectively let loose out in the digital world, realize that they infact got isekai'd, maybe they have to collect some kind of Macguffins? Maybe the arena is actually run by Satanists summoning the Digital Devil? either way the arena was bad but it was all a front for something worse and the kids need to find a way to stop it, save the other competetors in the arena and go home without the world being destroyed all while some drama plot is being set up with the left behind character. I don't have all the bugs worked out with the second act, I just know it's the big adventure act where they get to explore the whole open digital world while realizing just how close they were to something very very bad happenning to them back at the arena, but also how once you get out of the corruption of the arena this world is beautiful and worth saving.

Act three would be finishing up anything that needs to be done in the overworld, maybe a classic "I have the chance to abandon my friends and go home alone" plot of temptation the the protag gives up and then return to the arena for a final showdown and liberation of the other humans and digimon. Just finishing stuff up y'know.

It's an Idea that could be told with completely original characters but could also be fun to make all the missing kids into known characters from the franchises Anime/Manga/Games/ etc., not in like.... a Xros wars "All the protags are visiting the episode from their own worlds" way but in a "This universe's version of the character" way. Y'know full AU. Also I could put Jerri there and then NOT kill her Leomon.....

Also I had an idea for a mysterious Arena Champion who is a baddass but you learn that they're not in sync in the fusion, the Digimon is repressing their human and steering the whole fusion themselves because they aren't gonna let their human, who is too nice, to get themselves killed so they do what they have to do, repressing the human part of the biomerge in order to take all the hardship themselves. Was gonna consider Koichi from Frontier but I don't think I can do much more than Frontier already did with him and make it interesting. Was gonna consider Ken and Wormmon, having Wormmon repress Ken in the fusion in order to protect him and do the bad stuff himself or vise versa. But then I watched Ghost Game and ngl Hiro with Gamma and Gulus as the champion where Gulus convinced Gamma to help repress and placate Hiro in the fusion so Gulus can fly the plane because he thinks the other two are so soft it'll get them all killed sounds fun and I am biased as fuck.

#kc answers stuff #Digimon #Alternate Frontier universe thing

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entamewitchlulu · 1 year

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hi there, coming from ao3 (user featheryDragons if I ever end up commenting - I'd leave this all as a comment but this is about your works as a whole) - I recently got back into yugioh after a long absence from it (not because I disliked it or anything I just easily get obsessed with new fandoms out of the blue and put old ones on the backburner until I stumble ass backwards into an old one again. like in the case of yugioh), specifically gx but to a much greater extent arc v, and as part of my search for Content I've been reading a lot of the 'classics' which includes slowly binging through your arc v (and gx) works! Which leads me to here and what I wanted to say, which is that I'm really enjoying your stuff - I love the way characters are written, how they interact, the fun worldbuilding (in the case of AUs), the prose in general, everything about them (sidenote: thanks for having stuff where Zarc isn't a complete jackass lmao). honestly, it's just a big comfort to read through your stuff, because I was really into arc v and the fandom when it was still airing (and I was in high school, christ), so it's a little saddening bc I remember when the fandom was a lot more active (though I'm still thankful that even if there's less clicks, there's still content being made on tumblr and ao3. and twitter far as I can tell, though I don't go there), but going through your works is a huge comfort by letting me revisit the characters and world of arc v, and in the case of some of the fics, a bit nostalgic in a way since I'm rereading the stuff I read from another era of my life.

lmao this got a lot more rambly than I thought it would, sorry for the giant paragraph. I guess what I'm saying is - thank you for all of your yugioh writing! Regardless of whether you've stopped writing (for yugioh or in general), or if you're just taking a break, or if you're still writing (which in that case godspeed but remember to take a break!), I wanted you to know that your works did and currently are getting me through some lonely times and have made me really happy! I'm currently working through some of the shorter works, and I really look forward to rereading some stuff and starting on fics I never read (the hippodrum and dispersion fics come to mind - how did I never see those?), and if you don't mind comments on years old fic, I guess you can expect to see some comments? (assuming another fandom doesn't completely take control of my brain in the intervening time. sonic and pokemon unfortunately released new games) thanks again, and I hope 2023 goes well for you!

oh geez, this was an extremely lovely surprise to find in my inbox ;w; i'm so glad you've been enjoying my backlog, and welcome back to the yugioh corner! (i get ya on the fandom switching haha, i have been there myself lol) (and holy sheez....has it been that long since arc v aired?? that hurts lol)

I'm so happy to hear that my works can still give you some of that arc v dosage; i feel the same about how the fandom has definitely quieted down over the years, but we're still here puttering away - and at least it's not so loud on the ppl complaining front now, haha.

i know it's been like...oh my god has it been so long since i've updated anything?? T-T but i'm definitely not abandoning anything! I want to finish all the stuff I have up right now, and I have plenty of other ideas and things, I've just needed I guess a much longer break than I thought. getting messages like this really does help refill that motivation fuel gauge though, so thank you so much for taking the time to share!

I definitely never mind comments on fic no matter how old it is; i truly hope ao3 lasts a while and that the things i write can help make ppl happy for a long time to come and it's always gonna make my day to see a comment. thank you so much again for sending such a sweet message and i really hope you have an absolutely excellent 2023 too! <333

#submission #happy tag

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singingrainbows · 11 days

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Informally tagged by @saberwriter

Last song: Lille Du by Kim Larsen/Gasolin (Listened to on a CD on my old cd/kassette tape player combo "boom box"/"ghettoblaster", while doing the dishes. That machine is now over 20yrs old.)

Favourite colour: Pastel pink and pastel blue. They always tie, though on some days one slightly edges out the other lol.

Currently watching: various currently airing anime, plus a variety of older and newer anime on and off. Titles include Synduality Noir 2, Tsuki ga Michibiku Isekai Douchuu 2, Galactic Heroes, Gundam Victory, Shangri-La (old show I watched back in the day and am now rewatching), Free, and Chainsaw Man, just to name a few. As for live action: Constellation, plus various others on and off.

(Recently finished a Polish show called The Woods, and my god the second hand just ruined everything and the ending was the final nail. Wish I never watched it, but I suppose it did have some good performances and I ended up with some new Polish songs to check out.)

I'm also reading a webcomic called Your Eternal Lies which is really good so far.

Sweet, savoury, or spicy: Sweet or savory. Don't care much for overly spicy things.

Relationship status: perpetually single and currently fine with being so; but the dream of being in one, in the future, lies on the backburner to be picked up when the time is right. Short answer, maybe someday.

(The fact I've never been in a romantic relationship means I'm only vaguely aware of what I'm missing. Being single has its benefits anyhow. I have my cat and for now that's enough. :3 )

Last thing I googled: whether you can cook radishes (you can!), also braising, and the weather (which I do daily).

Current obsession: I don't really get obsessions like I used to, I mostly just hang around reading fic for the same old fandoms Naruto, Harry Potter, Digimon, Sailor Moon and Pokemon (I'll ocasionally read for other fandoms, but usually not bc I actively sought them out.) My interrests come and go. But yeah I don't hyperfocus on any one thing or fandom like I used to. In some ways it's kinda freeing, but sometimes I do miss the passion, lol.

I tag whoever wants to do this. :3

#tagged #personal

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thatlittledandere · 3 years

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Do I still have followers left from my first Naruto phase and if so how does it feel to be one

#one of my favorite anime back when i joined tumblr in 2013 shgdhj #then at some point everyone i followed slowly stopped posting naruto and so #so did i #it was always on the backburner but now I'm back being active #and found some naruto blogs to follow yeee #and all is finally as it was always supposed to be #but the fact is that for five-ish years i only reblogged the occasional rock lee or sasuke meme #people who came in during that period must have no idea I've been a naruto fan all this time #a sleeper agent if you will #and now my cover has been blown #venlapost

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vermillioncrown · 3 years

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May I have some zyx!lwj?

(Also when i was typing autocorrect made zyx into zucchini, I just wanted you to know)

a zhu-cchini, if you will

(i'm not a picky eater, but zucchinis are at the bottom of my 'delightful vegetables' list)

z!lwj has been answered in brief before. there's a lot of hangups to be had here, depending on when they transmigrate in.

as a kid - weird fucking kid. so weird. lwj is already quite different from others in canon, zyx's special flavor of zyx-ness ramps that up to Weird™

feels sad about mme lan, but not in a direct sense. not like a child with attachment to their mother. the lan elders praise z!lwj as the perfect cultivator: unattached, rational, calm, judicious.

those with actual eyes and actual experience with real children (lqr, having dealt w lxc as an absolute angelic child that was still a child) think that z!lwj is Not Right.

right before the start of the novel:

you know, liking someone is both physical and mental. some component of lwj's attraction towards wwx is raw and physical, horny on main.

any weird behavior on z!lwj's part can be excused as a newfound crush on one of the visiting disciples. (lxc is the consummate supportive gege to his didi's distress, but definitely kicks back and chuckles heartily to nmj)

(a lxc chuckle is basically hysterical laughter for a regular person)

for z!lwj? it itches like a peeling sunburn. it peeves them like a pebble in their shoe. vexes like the off-rhythm click of an unwinding grandfather clock.

being horny is fucking awful. you want out of your skin. you want that skin torn and soothed. you want human heat, human scent, a look, a touch, a taste - nearly enough to go stir-crazy and really bite the next person that lets you in close enough.

people call it hunger in passing, the most scant description they can get away with.

rabid, is what z!lwj would call it. this body feels it so intently, how it doesn't instantly incinerate their golden core into ashes and start a qi deviation or a super-critical nuclear meltdown is a new cultivation phenomenon. the fucking hormones (hahaha, they desperately laugh, and then sob. fucking) are just a nightmare. and unfortunately, this body has a new horny indicator that is quite inconvenient.

never mind the horniness.

let's dial back to the first day.

they were assigned to patrol on the first night of receiving guests, and not wanting to be immediately seized and forced through exorcisms, z!lwj complied and tried to figure out their new lot in life. grief? new life after death? backburner for now.

the implications aren't apparent until they do their job, catching guests and herding them back to the dorms, and spots a figure on the roof.

'do your job, figure things out later -'

and they forget that lwj, mdzs... they both mean wwx. wwx is here.

and zyx, this hapless, ordinary adult that already lived a life and gambled it away, she - they -

wwx's fate and heart now rests in their unworthy hands.

"please leave the wine outside, or finish it before entering the cloud recesses," luckily, lwj's voice is never made to mumble. always resonant, deep, clear. a male lead in every way.

how can zyx match up? this world feels so real. if it was merely a dream, as they were prone to experiencing, every sentiment is as strong as, even stronger than reality. the guilt of being the obstacle to a long-lasting love is bitter and sour, threatens to cause them to vomit right here and now.

if wwx cannot have the love of his life, and if lwj's soul is no longer here - the least z!lwj can do is be kind. keep their distance, but be kind.

it doesn't work. this new body is more like a stubborn, uncalibrated tool - it sleeps and wakes without leeway, it tolerates no changes to routine in sustenance or activity, and it yearns like an entire high school student body crammed into a single entity.

(they learn to hit that airplane real quick, flights taking off often enough to compete with megacity international airports if you catch my drift)

(they can't even go bump it with other people; this body starves and only wants to eat wwx. a room full of food, and this mouth wants to taste none of it but one dish. fucking impossible.)

but thank fuck the facial expressions are so wooden, the muscles practically atrophied, because wwx does not leave them alone. what the fuck? z!lwj didn't behave as lwj did - why is wwx still bothering them?

("the perfect second jade of lan", everyone and anyone couldn't stop gossiping on their way to the audits. "he tolerates no imperfection. no deviation."

"i don't know, ji-xiong doesn't seem so bad," wwx says through a mouthful of his food during his first breakfast at the cloud recesses.

every guest disciple around him gives an incredulous look. as rumored, the head disciple of yunmeng jiang is on a different level than that of his peers.)

(answering his uncle in lecture, lwj solemnly answered "with no further details, it is safest to follow 'liberate, suppress, exterminate'."

'with no further details'. given such details... what would the second jade of lan think?

the steady blink, glance away, then solemn nod that wwx receieved for his exuberant greeting seemed to indicate that the other young man would not oppose a fruitful discussion...)

#zyx au's #mdzyx #z!lan wangji #i always believe that love is right place right time #+ effort #so wwx will eventually fall for z!lwj #esp since they treat him so differently from everyone else in his life #not indulgent and not with targeted vitriol #but with a measured fairness and without an ostensibly preconceived expectation that translates as just and compassionate #this is someone that has always been there for him #when wwx gets into trouble he doesn't hesitate to talk to z!lwj #(it's the weird 'confessional priest' vibe that is part of zyx-incarnation's personality)#most of the drama is happening within z!lwj's brain #they can't help what the dick wants #but they can deny their brain any real desire for wwx in an emotional way #blah blah something something wwx ends up making the first move #(he's not the most oblivious one in this au bc z!lwj is via personal choice)#and then spooks z!lwj and something that would be a private and interpersonal misunderstanding becomes a spectacle #since both wwx and z!lwj are persons of interest in the cultivation realm #and we all know that these fucking jianghu people are nosy as fuck #tldr it will still resolve before 13 yrs of desolation #only if wwx can convince z!lwj it's okay to want him even if he'll never understand z!lwj's weird hangup over it #and z!lwj will never explain so wwx will also have to be okay w that too

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