#nic611

[the-ravenclaw-werewolf]

Hello, I caught up reading your fic series The 40 and a question occurred to me (and apologies if this has been asked an answered somewhere else), but once you reach the watching/reacting portion of your series, how will you be handling shows that have radically different backstory details and story divergences compared to the source materials? (Ex: Ouran, Promised Neverland, Royal Tutor, etc.)

For anime that are unfinished, were poorly excuted, and or given a anime only ending, I will be using the manga.

Like Ouran and Blue Exorcist, I will pick up where the story left off and continue on with the manga storyline.

With shows such as the Promised Neverland with anime only endings, that were done poorly, I will be using the manga ending.

Or in any show in general where they change up some parts, and this is only if it was done better in the manga, I will use said manga moments.

However, with a show like the Royal Tutor, where the backstory changed, but it wasn’t a bad change, I actually have something in mind.

Later on, I will post a poll to decide which backstory I will give him.

The reason being is that unlike Fullmetal Alchemist, of where I prefer the manga over the anime (2003) ending (even though I can see the appeal), I actually like both versions. So I rather have my audience speak their mind and we'll see from there.

Hope this helps!

[hawkeyedflame]

I find it interesting that the older and warmer Ch'en's relationship with someone initially was, the more bitter and belligerent it became later.

Swire & Lin: Her most beloved childhood friends now bitter and hateful even though they still care for her.

Hoshiguma & Bagpipe: Her coworker and college dorm mate respectively. Good friendship and high opinion of her.

Tallulah: A pandora's box no one wants to open.

I also find that really interesting. I think in some sense there is bitterness in part because she relates Swire (and Lin, perhaps) to some of her most painful and traumatic memories. It's clear Ch'en had an unbelievably terrible childhood, between her mother dying, a father who made no attempt to conceal his hatred of her, losing her sister, and being then raised by a man who had no emotional intelligence or presence in her life whatsoever. Throw in there the fact that Talulah, before she was kidnapped, was Ch'en's only buffer between childhood innocence and the cruelty of the adults in her life, and there is an incredibly precise moment in Ch'en's childhood where it all snapped, where there was a Before and an After. Swire, who was also very close with and protected by Talulah, felt it too. And when she was gone, all they had left was each other (and Lin, but that doesn't get addressed in nearly as much detail to my recollection so I won't talk about her here). That is a shared trauma that they both have, and sometimes that can permanently damage a relationship, especially if one person is seriously struggling to recover.

I think where it really goes wrong with Ch'en and Swire is that Ch'en's way of coping with her trauma has been historically hurtful to Swire, who has always been a lot more sensitive and emotional (according to both Hoshiguma's commentary and the fact that she was bullied as a child). Ch'en turned into what she felt she had to so that she could survive and move on, but this version of her is not the same person Swire knew. This version of her is colder, more distant, less trusting, and spurns the idea of vulnerability, making her difficult to communicate with. Hardly an appealing person to be around. But she's not all gone, and it doesn't happen overnight anyways. Swire catches glimpses of the Ch'en she knows once in awhile, but she has no idea how to make things go back to how they used to be, because there simply is no going back. Swire struggles to accept this. It's easy to imagine that over the years, as she watches her best friend become more and more of a stranger, this becomes embittering, and could lead someone like Swire, who is hurt and angry but has nobody else who understands what they've been through, to start lashing out. They simply don't know how to talk to each other anymore, and it's easier to get angry than it is to cry in front of someone who has changed so much that you no longer feel that you can trust them with your emotional vulnerability. And Ch'en, for her part, seems loath to even think about her childhood. Swire is a walking reminder of everything that is most painful to her, and what's worse, as their relationship began to really deteriorate, Swire herself became a source of unpleasant interactions. But she can't step away from their friendship so easily, because who else does she have that can even begin to understand? She can't even bring herself to tell Hoshiguma about Talulah, who else can Ch'en ever turn to? That's my theory on why their relationship is so strained, at least. It could be wildly off base and completely different from the next person's interpretation but.. well that's the fun of fiction, I guess.

As for Hoshiguma.. well in my experience it's a lot easier to get along with people who are relentlessly laid back and with whom you share no baggage at all. Certainly, Hoshiguma at the very least has plenty of private baggage, but she's much older and wiser than Ch'en and she has long since learned that coping by shutting everyone and everything out is not coping at all, a lesson she earnestly tries to teach Ch'en. I think her insistence on being a reliable partner to Ch'en, aside from the fact that it's her job, is because she sees right through her, and knows that she needs much more than she would ever let on or ask for. Since she would benefit greatly from having a deep and trusting relationship with the person whose life she is responsible for protecting, she sees it as a worthy endeavor to be a friend to Ch'en. Also, given that she is significantly older than Ch'en (it's never stated directly but implied to be possibly centuries), I think she finds her abrasive demeanor more amusing than anything else.

And Bagpipe I really think is just an extravert who adopted an introvert LOL. I don't know what extraverts' fascination is with adopting us but whenever I see the two of them interact or read Bagpipe talking about Ch'en it really just seems to me that Bagpipe simply pointed at her and said "yep that one's mine" and that was that. And Ch'en has to put up with it because Bagpipe is a literal ray of sunshine and, as jaded as she is, even she couldn't rain on that parade.

And we don't talk about Talulah. I'm very excited for episode 10 to hit global in the fall because the end of episode 9 had me fucked up and I want to know what happens (but I refuse to read CN spoilers).

So yeah. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk. I feel like I've been shouting about Ch'en into a void lately so I have no idea what other people took away from her back story, but I'm certainly curious.

[cooliogirl101]

The "I know a guy from online" almost sounds like something Hisana could do if she ever decided to try and leverage her relationships with all the various people she knows throughout the Soul Society.

Honestly tho, like...you’re not wrong. And it could be a really fun modern AU to consider:

Like you have Kaien as the badass spy dude who Hisana discovers bleeding out in the dumpster behind her apartment or something after getting his cover blown and narrowly escaping some Generic Bad Guys. And Hisana being Hisana is like, welp guess there’s nothing for me to do but take this super sketchy dude who I know absolutely nothing about home and patch him up (to be fair, she’s an elementary school nurse so she’s Seen Some Shit). And in the middle of patching him up, the Generic Bad Guys find them and the next thing Hisana knows, her apartment is on fire, they’re in a stolen car going 120 miles/hour, and the only thought she has going through her head is ‘god, I hope my renter’s insurance covers this.’

But then after Kaien gives his ‘your life is in danger so you’ll have to stay with me for the time being’ spiel, he gets a call from HQ telling him he’s needed in Chicago and he starts going like “okay, first of all we’ll need to get disguises and false identities so we can get through the airport undetected and-- wait, what are you doing?” 

“You did say Chicago, right?” Hisana says, not looking up from her phone. “Alright, this girl I used to bartend with just texted that she’s sending her private jet to pick us up, should be here in about 30 min, give or take a few.” 

“Your former coworker is willing to send you a private jet??”

“Well, we used to date too.” 

Then later they’re in Singapore and Kaien is like “okay, I know a safe house 50 miles from here where we SHOULD be safe,” and Hisana is like “can’t we just stay at my boyfriend’s summer cabin, it’s like a 5 min drive away” and Kaien almost has an aneurysm when they pull up in front of a gated mansion with freaking armed guards. “How did Byakuya and I meet? Used to work at this coffee shop on campus and he would stop by from time to time,” she says as she rifles through her purse, as if dating one of the richest men in the world is no big deal. “Idiot used to make up the most ridiculous, insanely complicated orders as an excuse to talk to me, which is...both really sweet and really stupid. I came super close to strangling him more than a few times. Anyway, we’re trying the long-distance thing which has been hard but all relationships have their challenges, you know how it is--”

No. No, I really don’t, Kaien thinks to himself and resists the urge to pound his head on the dashboard. 

Then later it’s like “wait, you need someone to translate this obscure ancient text written in Sumerian Cuneiform? No problem, used to TA for this professor back in college, awful fashion taste, he has this tacky pink kimono--” “And he can translate it?” “No, but the guy I set him up with can.”

And “okay, I know a guy who might be able to analyze this mysterious chemical” “Let me guess, you used to work in his lab?” “No, where’d you get that idea? We met through Words with Friends. Bit of a weird guy, definitely done some morally questionable shit in his life, but hell if he doesn’t have an impressive vocabulary.” 

And just as Kaien thinks he’s finally managed to get used to her insanely well-connected network of friends, exes, past coworkers, teachers, etc., he comes to her and is like, “Alright, so we think we’ve finally managed to get a lead on who the leader of the organization is. We don’t know his name but we think he’s the boss of a company called Illusion Corporations--”

“Illusion Corps.?” Hisana asks, an odd look on her face. 

“You’ve heard of them then? Yeah, I know they’re one of the most powerful weapons manufacturing companies out there so taking them down isn’t going to be easy. If you want to back out, I completely understand--”

“No, that’s not it. It’s just, I know the vice president there.” Before Kaien can stop her-- or really, do anything except wonder how this is his life-- she takes out her phone and scrolls through her contact list. Kaien just barely catches a glimpse of the words ‘Smiley Asshole’ before she brings the phone up to her ear. 

“Hey, bastard? It’s me. So you know how you’re always complaining about how much you hate your boss?”

[mama-germany]

Even if I'm late, I would like to say happy birthday, may you live a long life and defeat many enemies.

thank you, i am stocking up on swords for that express purpose

[lucky-3833]

I know that in order for the scene to work a certain way in her sessions she needs to be able render it a nonfactor, but what exactly is Lunette and her power that lets her bypass defensive abilities? Or are we going to learn this later?

Essentially, her nails have a sort of...enchantment thingy on them that lets them pierce any defenses, like magical wards or...well, Aura.

[dosbysilverqueen]

What, no fight between Shikako and Zabuza, or is that going to be a Sunshine Sidestory?

I really need to learn my lesson about ending a chapter implying that a fight is going to happen - people get too excited about it even when I only intend it to be a lighthearted break. I think I did this with Lee a few chapter back to pretty much the same reaction. 

I really struggled writing this chapter so there may or may not be any kind of recap but it really was only intended to be a lighthearted playing-around.

-Silver Queen

[sssn-neptune-vasilias]

While going through Suder-the-gold's tumblr I read an ask where while talking about his preferred ships, he in passing mention how he would think it funny if Willow Schnee somehow got re-married to Taiyang, and while that by itself is interesting idea on its own, I am now particularly amused imagining Ruby and Yang being Step-sisters to the Schnee siblings. What do you think of that?

Ruby or Yang with Schnee money seems like a really bad idea tbh, they’re gonna buy the most ridiculous shit until they get acclimated to it.

“Why do we have thirty puppies running around the mansion?”“Oh, they got out of the puppy room”“Why is there a puppy room”“Why did you guys not have a puppy room before now is the real question here”

[cerastes]

Something I find funny is that in contrast to other operators who are listed as having no prior combat experience, Mr. Lee's profile has the notatation (Self Declared) next to his.

Really shows how believable that lie is, especially compared to his 'raised to the point that she's basiclly his daughter' Waai Fu's 14 years of listed combat experience.

I like to think everyone can just fucking lie in their Files, like, what are you gonna do? Background check them? There's been occasions in which this has been done, but it's otherwise an expensive and laborious thing to do in Terra, I'd imagine.

I mean, not a lot of people notice this, but Ptilopsis straight up jokes in her own Files, since she's the one actually writing them:

Note her blood crystal density. 0.43 u/L.

Hell, this is Ifrit:

And this is an actual "Infection level: Mild" patient, Cuora:

She's closer to Ifrit-levels of ravaged than she is to anyone actually mildly Infected. We know Ptilopsis is actually pretty cheeky, so her passing her own Infection as mild and under control with those numbers is probably a bit of gallows' humor.

And we know Platinum straight up lied to the point where she's even called out on it, but they just accept it as is.

You can get away with a lot in the HR interview, apparently. Lee is like "uuuu uuuu uuuu I'm average Lung Men, I eat dim sun and play shitty game Runescape" and everyone's like "haha yeah uncle is so funny and harmless! Put that in his profile" meanwhile Waai Fu goes to HR for her interview and goes on a whole ass Andrew Tate tale about how, after being born, she beat the doctor that slapped her because she ain't ever taken no shit from no one and has 5000000 confirmed kills in street fights and everyone's like "alright man cool" and they just jot it down.

Keep in mind Aak also has "no combat experience", despite honest to god murdering people in the violent criminal underbelly of Lungmen and certifiably having been in scuffles. You can just say what the fuck ever you want. I insist, Talulah will one day roll up to Rhodes Island wearing shitty aviator sunglasses, insist she is not Talulah, her name is Candlelight, and she'll claim to have no combat experience whatsoever, "I'm just a newbie teehee pero :9 please take good care of me :)" and then, on her first deployment, she'll melt the flesh right off the bone of everyone that opposes her with Arts so advanced and refined that they'd make you cry into the arms of a shaman behind a waterfall.

On the OTHER hand, it's funny to me that Lee was the only Just A Guy that thought about lying in the interview, because both Shalem and Mr. Nothing actually just come out and say they have 7 years of combat experience.