#ask florence

[ask-aph-gunma-and-florence]

Question for Gunma (Florence can answer too!):

Do you like Hatsune Miku? Or maybe other vocaloids?

as for Florence...

(P.S. these are actually based on mine & my girlfriends favourite vocaloids!)

[florence-is-gay]

el wiwi

[florencetheflowerfairy]

Thoughts on the Taichi, Sora, and Koushiro OT3? What do you like, dislike? What do you think could be done to make it better?

Sorry for the delay, Anon! Youasked about one of my favorite things during a busy time, and I wanted to devotemy full attention to it!

Some general thoughts on the Taichi-Sora-Koushiro trio

I love the Taichi-Sora-Koushirodynamic so much. It’s the trioclosest to my heart, and this is coming from someone who adores the Taichi-Sora-Yamato trio.

In my extremely biased opinion, Ilike to imagine that Taichi, Yamato, Sora and Koushiro were the first fourcharacters created for Adventure. Thestaff decided that they needed 1) a protagonist, 2) a rival, 3) a heroine, and4) a brain. (They were never going to make the heroine 1, 2, or 4.) After that,I like to imagine that the other four characters were created in response tothem. The rival got a younger brother to show his motherly personality andbetter parallel the motherly heroine; the introvert heroine got a complementaryextrovert girl; the brain got a complementary nerd boy who valued disciplinemore than curiosity; and the protagonist got to develop his relationship with hisyounger sister to better parallel the rival and his brother.

I mention these ideas just to showhow strongly I feel that the Taichi-Sora-Yamato trio and theTaichi-Sora-Koushiro trio are both centralto the plot of Adventure, andeverything else sort of revolves around them. The way the staff decided to makethese central characters work is that Taichi, Sora, and Koushiro are the onlythree characters who start out as friends. And Yamato is the outsider who workshis way into Taichi and Sora’s hearts. So even though Yamato is the important foilcharacter destined to receive the most developed relationship with theprotagonist, Adventure still workswell as an ensemble cast because Sora and Koushiro’s relationships with theprotagonist are unique and special. They are his heart and his head.

What I like

Firstly, I like Taichi, Sora, andKoushiro because they are such unexpected friends, right from the beginning. Ithink that the unexpected nature of this trio makes them more complexcharacters; it makes Taichi softer, and it makes Sora and Koushiro tougher. Evenwithout knowing the official backstory that these three were in the soccer clubtogether, I realized from their interactions in episode 1 that they alreadyknew and trusted each other. And honestly, that’s all I need! I love how the writerswere able to show without telling. However, I love knowing the backstory,because it’s easy to imagine that Sora and Koushiro were two oddballs on the boys’soccer team. And yet Taichi still befriended them! And constantly seeks theiradvice! That speaks well of Taichi’s character, that he’s the type to want tomake everyone feel included. That makes it easy to understand why these twolonely redheads like him so much!

Additionally, I appreciate how thistrio allows Taichi to stand on his own without his foil, Yamato, even as Yamatogradually becomes closer friends to Taichi and Sora. Because as important asYamato is, Sora and Koushiro will always be Taichi’s left and right hands. Tome, showing the Taichi-Sora-Koushiro trio—without Yamato—is important, becausewe see that Taichi and Yamato don’t just revolve around each other. They’remore interesting than that. (This is also why I love the Yamato-Sora-Jou trioso much; Yamato has interesting relationships without Taichi, too.) It’s smartwriting that helps give Adventure such agreat ensemble cast.

Naturally, I also love the threerelationships in the OT3 individually! Taichi & Sora and Taichi &Koushiro are the two best developed friendships behind Taichi & Yamato. Theyare dynamic friendships that grow deeper as the show progresses, all the way tothe Dark Masters arc. Sora & Koushiro’s friendship is also sweet, if moresubtle.

Finally, what I love most aboutthis trio is how incredibly loyal they are to each other. It’s beautiful towatch. Taichi was willing to risk his life to save Sora from Nanomon. He alsoput himself in danger to protect Koushiro from Piemon, treating Koushiro likeHikari, his family. Meanwhile, Sora and Koushiro were willing to travel to theends of the earth to search for Taichi after he disappeared, refusing to giveup on him. And Sora and Koushiro were the only two older children who stayed byTaichi’s side during the Dark Master’s arc. Through it all, Taichi, Sora, andKoushiro remain flawed children who struggle with expressing their feelings,but their love for each other clearly shines.

What I dislike

What I dislike most about this triois the same as what I dislike most about the Adventure series in general, which is that the girls always get theshort stick. In this case, Sora is not treated equally to Taichi and Koushiro.That doesn’t mean that the writing for her is bad—it’s actually quite good inseason 1! It’s easy for me to forgive issues in season 1. But that makes Sora’sdiminished role in season 2 and the movies all the more disappointing. Season 2and the movies give greater importance to the Taichi-Koushiro-Yamato trio—a triothat I actually dislike because of how blatantly exclusionary it is.

The other thing that I dislikeabout the writing for this trio is that the Tri staff does not care about it asmuch as I do. I remember that Taichi, Sora, and Koushiro do interact in Tri,but it’s difficult for me to remember scenes when they help each other grow aspeople. Because of this, I feel like Taichi and Yamato revolve too much aroundeach other in Tri. At least, it’s too much for me.

Some hypothetical fixes

I wish that Sora had a moreprominent, interesting role in 02 andthe movies, to put her on more equal standing with Taichi and Koushiro. I thinkthat one cool solution would be to bring Sora with the boys on the camping tripin 02, even though this means thatthey probably would have had to write different romance jokes than the old ‘Junis stalking Yamato’ shtick.

In Tri, I wish that Sora and Koushiro were shown to console Taichiduring his long, sad arc where he is afraid of hurting people, because it feelsto me like Yamato is Taichi’s only friend who has taken his Tri issues seriously. I also wish thatTaichi had gotten a scene where he comforted Koushiro in Confession, and I wish that he and Sora had a moment ofunderstanding in Loss that wasseparate from her relationship to Yamato. (I wish the same thing for Sora’srelationship with Yamato in Tri.)Basically, I wish that Taichi, Sora, and Koushiro had been more importantfigures in each other’s character development in Tri. Someone else might be able to fix that more creatively.

But you know, theTaichi-Sora-Koushiro trio isn’t perfect in my favorite season Adventure either. If I could make onechange, it’s that I wish we had more insight into Sora and Koushiro’s feelingswhen they left the group in the Picodevimon arc. We got a lot of insight intoYamato’s feelings when he left the group in the Dark Masters’ arc, so it doesn’tfeel fair. (Especially for Sora, who is supposed to parallel her canon loveinterest when she is the first person to leave the group.) While Yamato leftthe group because he needed space from Taichi, Sora and Koushiro left to try tofind him, and because they refused to believe he was dead. I think that wouldbe fascinating to explore!

Conclusion

The Taichi, Sora, and Koushiro OT3is the best. It makes me happy thatyou thought to ask me about them! Thank you.

[ask-aph-gunma-and-florence]

Welcome to my ask blog!

This ask blog is dedicated to mine and my girlfriends hetalia ocs, Florence and Gunma! This post will act as an introductory post and contain everything to know about Florence and Gunma. Enjoy!

Florence (Lorenzo Vargas)

(the chibi has the correct skin tone, I'm too lazy to edit the full body)

- He is the personification of Florence, Italy & (in a way) the entirety of Tuscany. He is mostly based on the Republic of Florence, which then became the Duchy of Florence and then Duchy of Tuscany until the italian unification.

- His human name is Lorenzo Ciel Vargas.

- He is the younger brother of North Italy and South Italy, being born in 1115. He presents as a 18-19 year old boy with features similar to his grandpa Rome. This is further emphasised by the fact he has 2 curls, rather than one, similar to his grandpa.

- He has 2 cousins, one being Seborga and the other being Liguria, Seborgas older sibling. He's pretty close with them, as they're neighbouring regions.

- As Florence, Italy is the birth place of the renaissance, Florence himself is an artist who delves into many different forms of art, mostly painting and sculpting. He still loves every form of art, afterall he is a patron of the arts!

- Gunma is Florence's best friend. They only met during ww2 but they've been there for eachother for decades now. Some people confuse them as a couple, but nothings official. He often travels over to her house for prolonged periods of time as Gunmas rather asocial. He enjoys her company a lot, often writing her letters whenever he's away.

Gunma (Ayame Honda)

- She is the personification of the Japanese prefecture, Gunma, which is in central Japan.

- Her human name is Ayame Honda (本田菖蒲)

- She is Japan's little sister, often staying by his side for majority of her life. She presents as a 17-18 year old girl and has no other blood relatives apart from Japan, however she considers England and Japan to be like fathers to her.

- She considers North Italy and Germany as her uncles, since often times she spends time at their houses whenever Japan is busy with errands.

- She dresses in lolita fashion and has a lot of vkei influences in her design. This is inspired by the fact that the vkei band Buck-Tick originate from Gunma, Japan.

- Her best friend is Florence. Whenever she is out the house, she's often seen with Florence. Even though sometimes she looks uncomfortable or uneasy around Florence, she enjoys his company a lot (She just gets overwhelmed easily). She keeps all the letters he sends him in a cabinet, going through them occasionally.

& that is all for now! thank you for reading. divider at top belongs to @suupersonic! Check out more of my stuff on my rentry! ^_^

[ask-aph-gunma-and-florence]

When are they getting their money back?

Short answer: Soon

Long answer: a) Once Lorenzo actually realises he practically controls the banks and gives Liguria back their money(jk), or b) Gives the money back via a bunch of gifts and hopes Liguria doesn't beat his ass O_o

[florencetheflowerfairy]

1, 14, 19 <3

Aww, thanks Hidden! <3

1. If you’re an author, how many WIPs do you currently have? (Be honest!)

Oh gosh. I think it’s…nine? Oh dear. XD 

14. (For authors) Post a line of dialogue from one of your WIPs without context.

“Sometimes when we go to the Digital World, we get brand new outfits!” 

19. What’s your favorite character headcanon?

Since we both love Koushiro, here’s some of my favorite headcanons for him! 

–After the events of Adventure, I think that Koushiro doesn’t worry so much about getting straight A’s, since he’s sure that his parents will still love him even if he isn’t “perfect.” So he focuses more on the subjects that interest him.

–I like to imagine that Koushiro gets into some pretty prestigious far-away universities, like M.I.T. or Cal Tech, but in the end he sticks with a local college because he’d rather be close to his family. (But maybe it’s a really good local college! He is Koushiro after all.)

–I love to imagine that Koushiro adopts his daughter! That’s definitely my favorite headcanon for him.

–I really like chubby Koushiro! I think that literally all of my favorite fic writers describe Koushiro as being “skinny,” “scrawny,” or having “pale, delicate limbs.” I understand why that’s popular (and that everyone is thin in canon), but when I try to imagine different body types for the characters, I think chubby Koushiro would be really cool! 

Thanks again for the ask!

[florencetheflowerfairy]

Sorry to bother you but I thought you might be the person to ask... surprisingly I couldn't find anything on Google.... In the Japanese version, why does Tentomon refer to Koushiro as Koushiro-han? What does it mean? I feel like I googled it a long time ago and got an answer but I don't remember. Now I am writing a fic and was curious about what the meaning was. I see definitions for every other suffix you can think of, but not that. Sorry if you don't know!

Hi Takatofan! It’s no bother at all!

Tentomon calls Koushiro “Koushiro-han” because he speaks with a Kansai dialect. This is from the Wikipedia page: 

In traditional Kansai dialect, the honorific suffix -san is sometimes pronounced -han when -san follows a, e and o; for example, okaasan (“mother”) becomes okaahan, and Satō-san(“Mr. Satō”) becomes Satō-han. 

And this is from the “history” section of the Wikipedia page:

As the Tokyo dialect was adopted with the advent of a national education/media standard in Japan, some features and intraregional differences of Kansai dialect have diminished and changed. However, Kansai is the second most populated urban region in Japan after Kantō, with a population of about 20 million, so Kansai dialect is still the most widely spoken, known and influential non-standard Japanese dialect. Kansai dialect’s idioms are sometimes introduced into other dialects and even standard Japanese. Many Kansai people are attached to their own speech and have strong regional rivalry against Tokyo.

Since the Taishō period, the manzai form of Japanese comedy has been developed in Osaka, and a large number of Osaka-based comedians have appeared in Japanese media with Osaka dialect (See also Yoshimoto Kogyo). Because of such associations, Kansai speakers are often viewed as being more funny or talkative than typical speakers of other dialects. Tokyo people even occasionally imitate Kansai dialect to provoke laughter or inject humor.

So I would imagine that the reason Tentomon speaks with a Kansai dialect is because the writers and the actor wanted him to sound like a funny character. 

Tentomon’s accent is something that the characters comment on in-universe for humorous moments, which a person would miss if they haven’t seen the original Japanese show. Basically, humans question why Tentomon speaks with a Kansai dialect when none of the other Digimon do, and Tentomon doesn’t have an answer. It’s just one more peculiar thing about the peculiar magical Digital World.

I don’t know any Japanese, and if anyone reading this does, I’d love to hear your view on this topic. This is why I generally avoid using honorifics in my fanfiction; I don’t understand the nuances in the original language, so I just try to write stories that would sound like a “good English dub.” If characters are polite or rude in their original speech, I try to convey that by describing their body language instead.

Hope that’s helpful!

[florencetheflowerfairy]

@renchan7 asked for 3 and 10. Thanks Ren!

3. Do you prefer canonverse or AUs?

Oh, definitely canonverse! I like changing little things, but I generally prefer to read stories with the original setting.

10. Mutual pining or enemies to friends to lovers?

Mutual pining is good for a shorter story. Enemies to friends to lovers is good for a longer story!

Outside of Digimon, one of my all time favorite OTPs is Emma x Regina from OUAT, and they definitely fall in the latter category. :)