hi hayden can you tell us about the throwkyo guys 👀
okay, picture this. the world just ended.
not really, right? it's one of those blaseball things. lots of people have lives outside of blaseball; the world is bigger than splorts. but there's a vibrancy to tokyo that's decidedly a little dimmer now. hundreds of people vanished off the face of the earth, and a lot of them were hometown heroes. the people grieve, and move on.
the legscraper grieves, and moves on, by staying open. the tokyo fitness center might've been a passion project of the lift, but at its core it's a community center, and it's more important to a lot of people than it was to a blaseball team. they help people who need it, they offer art classes, they are a useful institution, and there are people who keep it going.
it's a massive, endless skyscraper with a lot of room. one of those rooms is a pottery studio, and there are four people who lay claim to it. this is about those four people.
the people are as follows:
katy hermoso (she/they), the youngest of the group. a kiln tech, a butch goth, decidedly the most capable and also the most empathetic.
gumdrop che amran (ne/nem), the eldest (in their 60s), a malaysian native who moved to japan to work as a language tutor and history teacher. kind and grandparently, and is here because they want to learn something new.
özlem suttner (they/them), a bike courier who is competitive, loud, and contemplative. they're here because they're horrific at making pottery, and they want to get better.
aya chartreuse (she/her), a tokyo native whose parents kicked her out in her late teens. she came to the fitness center because she had nowhere else to go, and she stayed here. she's been here for a long, long time.
they're here because of loose friendships, because of studio availability. because tokyo likes them and the legscraper sees promise in them, and so they get nudged together, ever so slightly.
they spend time together. not always in big groups but sometimes it's the four of them. sometimes it's pairs. sometimes it's özlem and aya teaching kids to swear. sometimes it's gumdrop helping katy learn to teach pottery classes. sometimes it's birthday parties. sometimes it's working in silence together.
a blaseball player falls from the sky. another one does, and another.
they all know. it's one of those magical innate things, something they can't explain. it takes a while for them to broach the topic as a group, and when they do it's hesitant. they all remember blaseball but gumdrop remembers it most clearly, can tell stories about ruby tuesday and the first consumer attacks and the rumors about before. not to scare everyone off: just so they know.
and they talk, and talk, and they decide: yes. they will do it, because they want to. because the team needs people who want to be there, instead of the handful who have been thrown into an unfamiliar continent and country and are scared and traumatized and tired. because they hope that this will be a kinder time.
in some ways it is kinder. gumdrop is blessed in the first season. aya and rush valenzuela become close, even though they have no common spoken language. katy works with vernon, a lift shadow and longtime maintenance worker.
and in other ways it's less kind. özlem leaves from a curse (more thoughts in this post) and breaks everyone's hearts in the process. people die: maybe not teammates, not yet, but maybe it will be.
but the four of them, they're going to stick together as long as they can. they went in with eyes open. they went in with hope. and they will not let that go.
(they're called throwkyo bc you throw pottery and you throw blaseballs)
🧠 Pick a character, and I'll tell you my favorite headcanon for them.
well you didn’t give me a character, so i’ll go with keith bc that’s my guy: he is clingy as fuck. i make this no secret in my writing but listen. listen. dude has abandonment issues. pushes people away before they can leave him because he doesn’t want to go through that heartbreak again. once he begins healing and lets people lance in again? once he learns to trust again? dude is all over people. but ONLY the people he trusts. and that pool is so so so small (first it’s shiro and adam. then lance. and eventually the rest of team voltron but that’s it. but he LOVES IT he just has a very hard time admitting it)
😈 Has there been a point in a story where you did something just to be playfully mean to your readers?
[stares at SGD] define playfully,
anyway there were many instances specifically in the deceit so natural trilogy where i was mean on purpose. every little “nothing is going to happen to us” / “i’m not letting us get separated again” / any variant of that sort of reassurance was all heavy-handed foreshadowing and also being a bitch. a mean little bitch.
also keith and lance were supposed to reunite in chapter 15 of stars go down but in a move equal measures me having adhd, me being a pantser, and me being a little bitch, i decided to prolong the separation another 16 chapters instead.
🛒 What are some common things you incorporate in your fics? Themes, feels, scenes, imagery, etc.
so first of all. as far as themes go: trust and betrayal. huge ones. mostly from my own unresolved trauma bc by god do i need a therapist, but trust and betrayal are huge.
this one is more so my original writing than my fics (but my fics, too. this happened in squad up and deceit so natural), but exes who are The Worst who are out to ruin your life. because, again: i need a therapist
always love some good space imagery, but also fire and water come up frequently bc of keith and lance. [jack voice] IT’S FUCKING KLANCE AGAIN.
and also i started doing this thing that comes up a lot where if lance and keith specifically are having a heart-to-heart conversation, lance literally holds keith’s hand to his heart. i don’t know when, why, or how this started, but it’s just a thing now
✨ Give you and your writing a compliment. Go on now. You know you deserve it. 😉
all right u bitch i see what ur doing (i love you)
anyway my writing is so so sexy and my brain is huge. i am so good at foreshadowing and writing fun dialogue and also on occasion i’m really good at fucking around with doublespeak
"heartache to heartache, we stand" for sebderrick!
Derrick’s breathing slows gradually, chest rising and falling in longer and longer intervals until he can’t possibly be anything but asleep. Seb shifts in his perch on the bed, finally, moving just far back enough to rest his shoulders against the wall. He’s lost track of time. It’s hard to know exactly how long he’s been sitting here, combing his fingers through Derrick’s hair while Derrick tries to sleep. Maybe hours; maybe fifteen minutes. Time in the Trench is funny like that.
Seb’s hand is still on Derrick’s head, fingers tangled in hair that’s inches longer now than it was at the beginning of siesta. Seb starts to move his arm, to at least stretch his wrist, and nearly gasps when Derrick reaches up to stop him, fingers brushing Seb’s to keep them in place. Something like a static shock passes between them, radio to telephone.
“And when all this gets old, will it still feel the same,” Derrick says under his breath, mostly to himself. Seb’s not even sure if Derrick knows he’s doing it out loud. Sometimes the radio slips out things that other people aren’t really meant to hear.
Don’t do that, Seb chimes, and gently cards his fingers through Derrick’s hair again, ignoring the pressure of Derrick’s hand on his wrist.
“It would help me to know,” Derrick says, with a sigh that expels the crackle-pop of white noise from his throat, “do I stand in your way, or am I the best thing you’ve had?”
Seb bites the inside of his cheek. He never knows quite what to say when Derrick is moody like this - or if he’s actually supposed to say anything at all, because nothing he says is really going to fix whatever Derrick’s got going on in his brain. He does recognize the song, though. That’s something.
Heartache to heartache, we stand, he manages, though it doesn’t sound nearly as good spelled out letter by letter in Morse. No promises, no demands.
Derrick huffs out a laugh and rolls over, tucks his face against Sebastian’s leg and kisses it, softly.
“Always I’m surprised how well you cut my feelings to the bone,” he says, muffled.
Hey - cheating, Seb says, shrill and amused. That’s not the same song.
Derrick laughs again and drags Seb’s hand back to his hair, gentle and insistent. “Love is a ring, the telephone.”
Do the whole percussion section for the instrument ask! :D
Xylophone - Do you like classical music?YES
Marimba - What’s your ringtone?Already answered, but 99
Glockenspiel - Are you talkative?Too much
Bongos - Can you jumpstart a car?Nope
Wood Block - Describe your dream houseHonestly something with a nice view and a good place to read/write/etc and enough kitchen space to let me stress bake in peace is ideal
Snare Drum - Favourite colour?Purple
Bass Drum - Would you want to be able to read minds?Definitely
Timpani - Do you enjoy meeting new people?Usually
Gong - Are you a loud or soft person?I want to be soft but I can’t stop talking lmao
Triangle - Could you imagine being the President/Prime Minister?NOPE
gonna be sappy and send “I just wanted to let you know that I think you’re beautiful.” for fighoney :'D
fighoney primer here, tldr is kit honey is a character played by julie (an extremely dedicated method actress) and when she gets thrown into the lift shadows she meets the one person who is most likely to adore an extremely dedicated method actress: dunlap figueroa
Date night in the black hole is… strange. It’s less weird being here now than it used to be, but Julie thinks it’ll always be a little weird. Her normal date night routine back when she lived in Tokyo involved a couple group chats and no small amount of cyberstalking her date, both of which are no longer available to her as options.
So a lot of the getting-ready takes place in person. Lizzy from the Fridays shadows comes over and does her hair, and Jasmine from the Dale tells some back-in-the-day stories and helps pick an outfit, and next thing Julie knows she’s all prepped and pretty and ready.
“This is terrifying,” she says, and Lizzy laughs in her face and sends her on her way.
The horizon is wreckage, mostly: remainders of rules and modifications that have been nullified, things that don’t work and things that work wrong. Julie’s the first one to the train station, and it’s a bad day for the hype train: it rushes past her three, no, four times, each one whipping her hair a little more into a frenzy despite Lizzy’s aggressive styling. She’s starting to consider going back for more hairspray when she hears from behind her, “Good heavens.”
Julie turns, smile already creeping across her face. “The train’s fast today.”
Dunlap waves a hand dismissively. Ve’s well-dressed today, a suit the color of pomegranate seeds, matching eyeliner, hair perfectly coiffed. It’s not terribly different from how they normally dress, but Julie still feels her heart skip a silly beat at the idea that Dunlap went out of eir way for her. “Not that.”
“What, then?”
“You simply must know.” He takes a couple quick, measured steps forward and takes both of Julie’s hands in vis, and xir lips quirk up. “Haven’t you seen a mirror?”
Julie laughs before she can help it, and Dunlap flings a hand to faer chest, mouth open in shock. “Are you laughing at me?”
“Never,” Julie says, still laughing. “I just— that’s a ridiculous line, Dun.”
“I simply wanted to tell you that I think you’re beautiful,” Dunlap says petulantly, and Julie’s breath catches mid-laugh, and her smile widens. “Had I known it would make me the subject of— of mockery, I would have just as soon kept that to myself.”
“You look lovely,” Julie says, and considers if it’s bad first-date behavior to go in for a kiss, even a kiss on the cheek. Maybe that should happen at the end, not now. “Hello.”
“Hello,” Dunlap answers, in Japanese, which is enough that Julie ends up beaming at her. The accent needs a little work, but Dunlap has been picking it up quick. “Where would you like to go?”
The train rushes by, but this time Julie lifts a hand and it screeches to a halt, the whole train seeming to pop into existence next to them. “I hear All You Can Eat is nice this time of year.”
“I haven’t been.”
“Would you like to?”
“Darling,” Dunlap says, “I’d like to go just about anywhere you’d take me.”
Julie laughs again, bright and loud, and feels warm all over. “I’m hungry, so that’s my vote.”
“You laugh easily,” Dunlap says, like sie hasn’t noticed before. Maybe ze hasn’t; Kit Honey wasn’t prone to fits of laughter, and so Julie was used to stifling her laughter. Not in an unkind way nor in a way she regrets, of course. But it’s different being Julie Kusuda again, even in the shadows. It’s different getting to laugh.
“You make me laugh,” Julie answers, and Dunlap flashes a brilliant smile at her. She tugs at their joined hands. “Let’s get on the train, quick, before it leaves again. I don’t want to have to hail another one.”
“You are a force of nature,” Dunlap tells her, “and you could stop any train.”
It’s something about the way ae says it: Julie believes that, quick and certain.
“Maybe,” she says, “but I’d rather not find out,” and with that she tugs Dunlap aboard the train, passenger door sliding shut behind them.
10, 19 (only if you want!), 28, and 36 for the "yet another writing ask"!
10: answered!
19. share a snippet from a wip without any context
i don't have any actual wips right now but i do have an outline i'm trying to poke into shape and one bullet point in it is "UGHHHHHHHHHHH COP AMBUSH" so there you go
28. any writing advice that works for you and you feel like sharing?
advice about writing: don't force it! it sucks to write. (it's not even that it'll be bad to read - it's just that you will forever associate it with being annoyed and in a bad mood and that's not fun)
practical advice: i pre-write out all of my tags and author's notes and summaries and things like that. i keep them as a note or comment at the top of my doc. first of all it makes posting WAY easier. second of all it's easier to keep track of things (especially if you want to give credit to other folks this is a good way to remember who to credit).
36. how do you come up with fic titles? what's the one you're most proud of?
a lot of the time i do the good ol' song lyric thing. i don't really have a way to verbalize my process outside of that. i've said before that i'd name fics after instrumental passages if i could, and that is still true. the two that i am proudest of are "the downswing," the blaseball fic about blood and also more blood, and "venus," which is a campaignpod rock band au and i always liked that the title is snappy and a little odd
