hello! discovered you over at AO3 from your Hakuoki fics, and just wanted to let you know i really enjoyed your OkiChi fic, Δ. i thought their characterizations were great and the tension between them was really well written! all of it honestly left me wanting more. do you have any plans to finish it? i realize it hasn't been updated since 2018, but figured i'd ask anyway!
Hello there! Just FYI, I post my Hakuōki stuff on @shenanigumi, so I’ll be reblogging it there and probably deleting this original post within a few days.
Anyway, after yet another prolonged and unannounced absence (I’ve taken to just… not even trying to predict when I come and go since I can never seem to stay for long enough), I finally return to answer a question!
I don’t know if you’ve seen it, but I did unfortunately have to move Δ to my ‘abandoned works’ series on AO3. The problem with taking inspiration from real life is that if the real-life events that inspired the story stop happening, it’s not like I can continue it the same way it started…
Sorry for taking so long to answer, and that it’s likely not the answer you hoped for, but thanks so much for the compliments!! I hope to contribute more to the Hakuōki archive sooner or later.
Tagged by @impracticaldemon, sort of! (I’m assuming this is talking about writing and not reading. My reading preferences are different in some cases.)
slowburn or love at first sight
fake dating or secretly dating
enemies to lovers or best friends to lovers
“oh no, there’s only one bed,” or long distance correspondence
hurt/comfort or amnesia
fantasy au or modern au
mutual pining or domestic bliss
smut or fluff
canon-compliant/missing scenes or fix-it
alternate universe or future fic
oneshot or multichapter
kid fic or road trip fic
reincarnation or character death
arranged marriage or accidental marriage
high-school romance or middle-aged romance
time travel or isolated together
neighbors or roommates
sci-fi au or magic au
bodyswap or genderbend
angst or crack
apocalyptic or mundane
I’m seriously out-of-touch with this community at this point, so I don’t really know who my fellow writers even are at this point… but if you are one of them, please do it and say I tagged you! I want to know!
Hey Author!! Could I have a HC on how would the guys react if they tripped and fell in front of their s/o in public? Who would be very nonplussed, chill, embarrassed or angry about it? Oh my, I feel so bad
Hahahah, no need to feel bad! As an author, or at least a writer, I’m a sadomasochist.
Chill: Sanan, Iba. Oh dear, they must have tripped on something. How uncharacteristically clumsy of them. At least they’re fine and you’re worried about them, right? They consider it an honor to bask in your concern and attention. (Sanan in particular might have done it on purpose just to gauge your reaction.)
Laughs it off: Harada, Nagakura, Sakamoto. Sure, they’re a bit embarrassed and all, but they’ve survived way worse than this. They’ll just feign injury to get you to care for them, but they’ll do it in such an obviously exaggerated way that you can’t help but laugh. Then the spirits will be lifted and they’re back in business, baby.
Pretends nothing happened… but they’re blushing: Hijikata, Okita, Saito, Souma. They just pick themselves up as soon as you ask if they’re okay and keep moving to avoid public scrutiny. If you try to talk to them about it, they’ll just avoid eye contact and insist they’re fine. You’ll pick up on the “don’t mention that” vibe pretty quick.
Would like to die: Heisuke, Yamazaki. They’re absolutely mortified and their confidence will be materially damaged for the rest of the day. You’d better give them some TLC and try not to mention it so they can forget all about it and move on with their lives. Maybe an evening spent relaxing with some alcohol is in order?
Tell anyone about this and I’m breaking up with you: Kazama. Nothing happened, do you understand? You saw nothing. Kazama has never tripped and fallen in his life. You must have been seeing things. Are you sure you didn’t fall and hit your head?
Shenanigumi will you ever write a modern!au KazaSen? 🥺
Believe me, I’d love to!! But as you may have noticed, I’ve been a bit short on the inspiration lately, to the point that I can’t even update my existing post-canon KazaSen story. So we’ll see what happens, although please know it’s not because I don’t want to that I haven’t yet.
Hey Alley! Referring to your previous HC about fangirling, I have another HC request: it’s the other way round. How would those hakuouki boys react to their s/o being celebrities and being surrounded by crazy fanboys/girls? Who will be the most insecure about it? Who will be the more understanding type that it’s their jobscope or who will literally become super possessive?
Oh man, interesting! Dating a celebrity, hmm…
Either quit your job or take me with you everywhere: Okita, Sanan, Iba, Kazama. Even if they understand why you can’t spend more time with them, they don’t understand why you’re trying to juggle them with your career. Either they should come first, or you should just leave them and focus on your dreams, since trying to do both at once leaves them feeling neglected and jealous and generally resentful.
I don’t like this very much but it’s your life: Hijikata, Saito, Harada, Nagakura, Yamazaki. These are the guys who want to travel with you as much for their peace of mind as your own, and who, if they can’t, like daily video calls to hear how you’re doing. They do get protective on occasion and don’t fully understand your drive to withstand the insanity that is your job, but they do love you more than they hate the fact that they don’t get to see you as often as they like. For you, they can even handle the occasional puff of hate wafting their way from crazy fans.
This is kind of inconvenient but I support you: Heisuke, Souma, Sakamoto. They travel with you when possible and, in some cases, go to your events as fans to cheer you on. Of course they wish they could spend more time with you, but they don’t hold it against you since that’s just the way your job is. They’ve adapted their lives to yours as best they can, and are willing to do what they can to support you, even if that’s just trying to be a stabilizing influence in a hectic world.
Can you please, please talk about my one and only, Zelos??? Spill your magical mind tea, Alley. I love every sip.
Oh God, well,,, I wasn’t going to talk about him on this blog, but… if you insist. (Wow, I’m a pushover.) Tales of Symphonia spoilers ahoy, and warning for length and complete irrelevance to anything otome. This is also probably going to be a persuasive essay–style spiel, but don’t worry, I know you already agree.
Now, you all know that I like complex characters, and often characters with complexes, and Zelos is no exception, though not everyone might understand why. When people who know Symphonia think of Zelos, most of them think of the quintessential ladies’ man. Shallow, conceited, and not to be trusted, Zelos enjoys a life of luxury thanks to his status as the Chosen, a divinely ordained hereditary role second only to nobility. Using his good looks and his position of power to his advantage, he is a habitual skirt-chaser who prioritizes himself at all times and cracks jokes at inopportune moments (or, alternatively, ends up the butt of them). On top of all that, he’s a triple agent for the party as well as not one, but two different organizations opposing them. He appears unsympathetic to the plights of all those whom he considers beneath him, including some party members.
Basically, some players like Zelos because he’s a ladies’ man with a goofy side and they have a weakness for that. Some players hate Zelos for the same reasons. On both sides of the argument, not as many really take the time to consider his whole story, because believe me, that’s not even the half of it. See, Tales of Symphonia is one of those early 2000s JRPGs, a very long game where there’s a lot more story than the main plot actually explores, and where implications are more frequent than statements. As a result, most characters are much deeper than people might assume based on what they see from the main plot, and not everyone might choose to explore the specific events that lead to more exposition on each individual backstory. Hell, some people might not even know there is more backstory to explore. The anime goes into some of it, but not all, whereas the sequel… oh, God, what that abomination did to my precious characters is a rant for another time.
What not everyone accounts for is that, like all characters, Zelos’s past shaped who he is, and Zelos’s past qualifies as tragic. In order to groom the Tethe’allan Chosen lineage to produce a Chosen with the right genes for their purposes, the angelic organization Cruxis forced the Chosen at the time to marry another woman rather than his lover at the time. Thus, Zelos was born to be the future Chosen. As a result, from the beginning, he has been treated like a burden, his mother in particular telling him at every opportunity that he never should have been born. In fact, these were her last words to him when he was twelve and his father’s half-elven lover tried to kill him and dealt her a mortal wound instead. The lover was put to death, her daughter [Zelos’s younger half-sister] Seles was also blamed despite her youth and locked up in an abbey, and Zelos developed a prejudice against half-elves as a result. At some point after this, his father killed himself, and Zelos officially became the Chosen.
What a beginning, right? Zelos was quite literally born to assume a title, which he never asked for and consequently hates more than anything else, with the possible exception of himself. His parents loved neither one another nor their son, so he was perpetually undervalued, never given a sense of his own worth beyond the title he would assume someday. Thus, he grew up believing himself useless apart from his future role, longing for some kind of freedom and wishing people would like him for who he was rather than what he was.
So what did he do after he became the Chosen? No one cared enough to befriend him for his own sake, so he used his title, wealth, and looks to his advantage, occupying his time the way most any handsome young man with too much money to spare would. He took to hiding his self-loathing and cynicism behind a cheerfully flirtatious mask, indulging himself and some of his many admirers to distract himself from his perpetual dissatisfaction with his life as a whole. In the meantime, he also cheated his way through university since his female peers were willing to do his homework for him (even though it’s worth noting that Zelos is so sharp he’s actually better at math than Genis Sage, the resident prodigy).
Because of all this, Zelos learned to fight for nothing and no one except himself, because nobody else has ever fought for him as a person. With the exception of Sheena, whom he met and befriended sometime before the events of the game under undisclosed circumstances, he hasn’t grown emotionally close to anyone and is prepared to stay that way. He’ll make just about any deal as long as it means he can escape unscathed. The Renegades approach him and ask him to keep tabs on Cruxis? Sure, he can do that. Cruxis approaches him and asks him to keep tabs on the party? Sure, he can do that. As long as he has some guarantee of his own personal safety, anything goes, up to and including throwing his companions under the first applicable bus.
Or at least, that’s how it starts out. Things start changing for Zelos once he joins the party, even though he shoehorns his way into it based on that deal he made with Cruxis to report on their movements. The others aren’t exactly happy about this turn of events, since he acts incredibly full of himself and he won’t stop flirting with the female members, but they still treat him like a human being rather than just the Chosen. They’re the first people to openly trust Zelos and consider him a part of their group in spite of his quirks, which in turn gradually makes him endeavor to deserve that trust.
Except during the Kratos ending—or as I like to call it, the bad ending—where Lloyd, and by extension everyone else, asks the fatal question: Can I trust you? There’s a turning point where Zelos is responsible for handing the Sylvaranti Chosen, Colette, over to Cruxis. In the normal ending, this is a ploy to gain their trust so he can betray them at the last minute and throw the situation in the party’s favor. In the bad ending, this is not a ruse, and he stays behind to fight the rest of the party himself, forcing them to kill him. And this is after he already made a deal with Cruxis that, in exchange for Colette, they would release him from his fate as Chosen and give his title to Seles instead. Zelos chooses to die at the hands of his so-called friends despite already having a guarantee that the burden of his title as Chosen will be lifted. That’s how badly he hates himself.
Fortunately, that kind of extreme behavior is relegated to the bad ending. In the normal ending, he’s perfectly content to leave Cruxis once and for all and state his position as belonging firmly to the party, because they believed in him and gave him hope that he could change his situation for the better. After this point, kindly ignore everything the anime and sequel tell you, because Zelos is much less obnoxious than usual for the rest of the game, and with every indication of staying that way. This proves that his womanizing is less a fundamental part of his personality and more a learned behavior in response to the above set of reasons.
To conclude: I know Zelos can come across as annoying at times, and you’re still well within your rights to dislike his behavior, but really. Does all that sound like a shallow, self-obsessed philanderer to you?
I decided to put them in approximate order, so these really are my top five that I can think of. But to spare myself a considerable amount of agony, I made them all from different fandoms to reduce the sheer number of choices.
1. Kazama Chikage [Hakuouki]
Everyone on this blog should already know this, but in case anyone needs a refresher on why, let me just redirect you to my existing, long-established essay. For the sake of this post, the TL;DR version is that, despite being morally ambiguous at best, he’s a fascinating, multifaceted character with his own strong set of beliefs based on his own internal compass, and I appreciate that. Even if those beliefs are that humans are worthless compared to demons.
2. Zelos Wilder [Tales of Symphonia]
Zelos. Oh man, Zelos. I’d love to give my entire spiel about him, but I’m afraid my style of character analysis is as long and spoiler-ridden in other fandoms as this one, so I’ll keep it brief. The gist of it is that while most people who hate him dislike his skirt-chasing tendencies, his narcissistic, flirtatious persona is actually a mask rooted in cynicism and self-loathing. Unfortunately, the anime doesn’t make the depth of his character clear, and the sequel to the game makes it worse by flanderizing his playboy aspects, so not enough people understand that he’s not half as shallow as he seems.
3. Jade Curtiss [Tales of the Abyss]
I love him. I just… love him. I hear that during the development of the game, the designers wanted to make him an antagonist, but they ended up liking him so much they had to include him in the party. That plus the gif should tell you all you need to know about him already: there’s no getting the better of this snarky sociopathic badass, and he knows it. (Plus, I like to think of him as much-needed aroace representation.)
4. Ardyn Izunia [Final Fantasy XV]
Just look at him! He may be twice as evil as Kazama and with a scheme a hundred times as grand, but as you can see, he’s got some kind of style. He’s a magnificent bastard and a marvelously terrible person and I adore him. Not in a way that means I actually sympathize all that much, and I would honestly have preferred him to remain irredeemable since there are more holes in his DLC story than in a fine Swiss cheese, but I adore him nonetheless.
5. Zack Fair [Final Fantasy VII]
This one is a bit of a departure from the first four in terms of archetype, but I have to say, I love this sunshiny sweetheart too much not to include him on the list. Seeing him grow from a naïve puppy with big dreams to the hero he always wanted to be, and realizing that the life he’s wandered into is too dangerous and corrupt for him to keep living it, is just… great storytelling. And he’s such a good protagonist for the job. Gets me right in the feels every single time. (Sidenote: the FFVII remake will come out in just a couple more weeks, and I can’t wait for my heart to break all over again!!)
From the tokuten disk for buying all 6 Reimeiroku BDs/DVDs. I subbed this because its not likely for any sub group to do it. :D Heres srt file for viewing sub offline. Depending on your player, you might need to change the file name to the same name as the video for the sub to show. BTW I…
Posting this here in response to an anon inquiry @shenanigumi received about the bonus Hakuouki Reimeiroku (anime) episode “Illness in Summer”.
Well worth watching! The translation can be found at the same link.
~ Imp
[Update: @soujthings added links to youtube videos for other bonus videos to her reblog which you may also find helpful :) Just one small word of warning - remember to treat youtube with caution, since people don’t always credit the translator appropriately (or at all), and it’s better to support official releases as much as possible]
im the bonus episode anon. thank you for answering!! i just thought i kept seeing bonus episodes that i never saw when i watched the 2 seasons, the prequel and the ova with 6 eps. theres this episode with the cat, then the illness in summer, those... anyways thank you still!!!
Huh, to my memory, I’ve never actually seen any of those… the closest I can think of is translations for a couple drama CDs I’ve heard here and there (but I’m not the best resource on those, sorry). Best of luck finding what you’re looking for!!
do you watch the anime? If so do you know where to watchh the bonus episodes?? i keep seeing a lot of extra episodes and im just obSsessed with canon interaction and i cant even play the games T_T
I’m not sure which bonus episodes you mean (like, Sekkaroku? Otogisoushi?), but I think I might be able to help. I’m not totally sure whether these links still work, but I’d still like to direct you to this masterlist of sorts, complete with minor guilt trip. If nothing else, you’ll at least know the specific names of the series so you can look them up properly.
Where do you play this game? Can it be played on phone? Do you have to pay?
Hey there! Let me just take this opportunity real quick to reassure everyone that yes, I’m still alive and healthy, though you wouldn’t know it from this blog given how little I’ve posted. I’m once again trying to pick up my own pieces and keep going, but I’m sure we all know that kind of thing has been difficult lately.
Anyway, I’m assuming by “this game” you mean Hakuōki, since that’s most of what this blog is about, but the answer is more complicated than you’d expect. (Short answer: yes to both your latter questions.) There are many different versions of the core game called Hakuōki, with different features depending on the platform. Unfortunately, yes, you do need to pay for each of them. The English localized versions I know off the top of my head—apart from the actual original sans any bonus content, which I don’t think is even available on a current system anymore—are as follows:
Stories of the Shinsengumi (PS3): my favorite and the best value imo. Includes a number of side stories and DLC, some of which is free.
Memories of the Shinsengumi (3DS): contains the core game and some extras that are redundant if you have SotS, so I’d only suggest getting this if you specifically have a 3DS and not a PS3.
Hakuōki (mobile, spelled “Hakuoki” in the app store): I’m not 100% sure about Androids, but I know this is an app on iOS. It’s an extremely expensive app, but it’s better value if you buy the whole thing up-front and not route by route later, and you get the entire core game plus six bits of bonus content you can’t play anywhere else.
Warriors of the Shinsengumi (PSP, available on PS Vita): a cheap, little-known knockoff of Samurai Warriors that ultimately has nothing to do with Hakuōki and is a crowd-fighting game rather than a visual novel, but it’s got an amazing soundtrack and some of the snappiest banter I’ve seen in official translations.
Kyoto Winds + Edo Blossoms (PS Vita; Steam): a revamp of the original game featuring some new characters and six more routes than the original, but the tradeoffs include being split into two games you have to buy and shoddy translation work. I’d honestly advise getting into the series before you buy these ones.
Hope that helped! Let me know if you do end up getting into it, because it’s honestly an underrated game and fandom.
I was tagged by @impracticaldemon!! Thank you!! (Yeah, I’ve done this one before, but who knows how things have changed lately?) I’m throwing it under a cut because I tend to be pretty… uh… verbose sometimes. Looking at you, pairing-related question.
Favorite color: Purple! Any shade will do, but I prefer the bluer ones.
TOP THREE SHIPS:
1. Vmin (BTS). Because these two are real people, as in living breathing human beings with hearts and souls of which I know nothing personally, I’d like to add a disclaimer that I’m completely uninvested in the nature of their relationship, just fiercely supportive of their self-proclaimed status as soulmates. Their personal life, both individual and mutual, is absolutely none of my business. I just think their dynamic, whatever it may be, is demonstrative of the most beautiful, strongest, and purest possible love.
Like, I could honestly make an essay-length post about how much I love the two of them and why, but this isn’t my K-pop blog, so I won’t.
2. Sheelos (Tales of Symphonia). Every time I think I’m not as into them as I used to be, since I’ve hardly written anything for them at all and don’t exactly spend all my time playing ToS, I look at them again, and… yup. They’re perfect. Still my [fictional] OTP.
3. KazaSen (Hakuōki). Enough said.
Lipstick or Chapstick: Chapstick for sure. My lips get horribly dry without it.
Last song: “Friends” aka the Vmin anthem by BTS, but you should really listen to their whole album. (I’d name my favorites, but I can’t decide; they’re all so damn good. My only complaint is that they kept “Make It Right” instead of “Mikrokosmos” from Map of the Soul: Persona.)
Last movie: I can’t remember, honestly. I don’t watch a lot of movies. Unless the BTS Summer and Winter Packages, and their 2020 Season’s Greetings, count as movies…?
Currently reading: Nothing these days, really. I do need to read more…
How do you take your coffee? I don’t drink coffee, but I take my [English breakfast] tea with one spoonful of sugar and one splash of cream/half-and-half/milk.
What’s the most unusual place you’ve fallen asleep? Sitting up watching a thunderstorm in Illinois when I was seven. I was in bed, so that’s not a super unusual place, but I think it’s the only time I’ve ever conked out with my glasses still on. So, still notable.
Random fact: With the help of my mom, I’m going to be teaching one of my old professors’ classes tomorrow, since he’s out sick. The course is called “Music, Healing, and Revolution”. Based on this post, I’ll give you three guesses what the topic will be.
Thanks again for asking!! I’m not tagging anyone as per usual, since I hardly know anyone anymore, but you should absolutely do it and tag me if you do, I want to know your answers.
Day 3 [February 18] : So, It’s Your Birthday… (Celebration) | Tonight We Drink (Saké for Sorrows)
Other ideas:
A place where he could belong (“the best of times”)
Dirty deeds done dirt cheap (Saito the enforcer)
Cold eyes, warm heart (in Hakuouki, Saito is quiet, stoic, and ruthless; but whether in his own route or others’, his behaviour is surprisingly caring and compassionate)
[Images: some via Imp; some borrowed from @kondo-hijikata (waves)]
One week to go reblog! Help us celebrate the Third Division Captain’s birthday!
Ideas (any pairing, or no pairing; Saito-centric):
~ drabbles
~ sketches
~ humour
~ fic recommendations
~ older fanart that you love and want to highlight (your own, or a reblog of the artist’s own tumblr post)
~ playlists
~ amv’s (your own or recommendations)
~ Saito gifs!
… be creative, or share creativity ♥ please be careful not to use somebody else’s fanart or other fanwork without explicit permission (reblogs from source always okay!)
