Embrace Saiki having been so stressed out hiding his powers and being privy to the dark thoughts of humanity that he just wants to experience what joy he can take, so that in an environment where he grows up with a very supportive friend close to his age who knows his pain and joys, he can be more loving and expressive as he pleases
Talking about his relationship with Ritsu in my crossover au on the latter but it still stands. Like you know, what if Saiki and Akechi stayed friends? What if Kusuke wasn’t full of hubris and left Saiki by himself? Maybe all Saiki needed was to just grow up with someone who understands him?
I felt a little bothered over a particular discourse of aroace Saiki; how he can’t be interested in Teruhashi and that aroaces can’t be in relationships… I’ve always known that existed in the Saiki K fandom and have avoided it until that one time. It’s fine to look for representation in fictional characters, but sexual identity is a journey of self-discovery. Boxing people into one experience is damaging to the concept of the diversity we queer people stand for. It isn’t “Saiki is straight or aroace” but “Saiki is aroace or maybe he’s gay in varying ways” - at the very least, that was what I was trying to say in the context of the discourse. I get we’re starved of representation, but it’s very weird that people become obsessed over the sexual identities of fictional characters... In anime, no less. The worst place to expect any representation.
But what bothers me the most was how, for all their claim of aroace erasure in the show, is how they themselves are doing it by believing there is only one type of aroace exp. Being aroace doesn’t necessarily mean you hate romance or/and sex. There are those that don’t want partners. There are those that do. There are those willing to do things for their partner if it makes them happy, and there are those that don’t. They’re all valid. Aro/ace folks have different preferences as well.
And they said no one comes close to Saiki as an aroace icon and I’m like....there’s Mera? She’s the true aroace icon!
This is why I never talked about pairings in RoH. For a coming-of-age story, I want the characters to grow and learn about themselves. I sort of have vague ideas for them but I’m mostly leaving it up to air and seeing where it goes. So far, there have been mentions of boys liking girls - Ritsu’s claim that he prefers energetic girls, swapped!Saiki having a puppy crush on Tsubomi back when they were kids, Momozou being obviously into Hitomi - but in case it isn’t clear, the setting has a very heteronormative culture. Having pink hair has already made things tricky for the Kageyama brothers. I avoid using “X is Y identity” to advertise this fic but LGBTQ+ themes are definitely a big part of what can be expected.
Well, I guess I can say there are definitely more gays than straights haha. Everyone being a lil gay is more believable, honestly.
Maybe it’s because the fanarts of this fic got a tiny bit of traction, but while the rest of the story has no resemblance to mine, and I simply asked them to change the summary instead, this really makes me want to cry. I spent a lot of passion and love for this fic with little engagement. A lot of events have affected my writing over 6 months, including persistent issues with my ADHD, but I am still doing my best. To have this be reduced to blatant snipping off my summary and to not even have my existence be worthy enough to be remembered, I really wish I can cry. But I just feel...so hollow.
I don’t care whether there is or isn’t malicious intent behind this. There is nothing wrong with being inspired by the premise of another fic. But you don’t have to drive the knife in like this...
It's been a unique experience writing a Canon Diverge AU with an on-going series. I've done it before but not with the same pace I've been going with AKOT. And now, the series itself will unveil every information it has left and end in a few months.
I wanted to commentate on the BB characters and the direction I write them in AKOT based on the anime. Minor spoilers for AKOT under the cut.
Tenma Asuka: If I wait, I could probably comment more on this because his arc is what's coming next, but eh. I wrote Asuka based on what I think would come from his circumstances + his relationship with Kyo. Canonically, I wholly believe he's a kind, sunshine kid who would do nothing wrong. The type I love! Which is why I upped his flaws and trauma. It's just too good with his circumstances! I love the GD kids, but if we're being serious, Asuka and Kyo are also not that old. Asuka, especially, has the parentified teen effect, and because it's HIS character I want to expand on like he's an actual MC in the anime, I looked into the events from his lens and imagine the interactions from there.
Tenma Tomoro: Tomoro is clearly written to parallel Kyo, and I think that's fine and all. But this fic was an opportunity for me to do an alternate take on that. While I agree with the anime parallels, I thought it was a bit unfair to make Tomoro seem as horrible as, I don't know, a former Five Star who deleted Digimon (and even humans, as we find out). Tomoro lost everything he knew and no one helped him through that grief when he suddenly found himself with a Digimon - the one behind Hitomi's and Asuka's Cold Heart. And from what I've seen of him before and even after, Tomoro is quite naive and softhearted despite how he looks. Partly because of Asuka's influence, but I also just think it's the artist in him. So it was one of the revelations to make Kyo realize, who did kind of project onto Tomoro that Tomoro wasn't quite the same angry, angsty teen that he was.
Sakuya Reina: Reina probably had the biggest transformation/change in the fic, though that's probably not evident until Part 3. But from the beginning, I based Reina on the very first part of the anime, where she was the de facto leader, the realistic between her and Tomoro, the foil. I do picture her as the "lone wolf" of the Digimon group (esp given her past) YET she is also clearly more the "courage kid" compared to Tomoro (though you can probably give that to Makoto too, haha.) So she became a mix bag of the two, and I think it's pretty cool! I gave Reina a more complicated backstory than BB would ever, and I'm not ashamed of it. Too many of her male peers get to sin and be haunted by the past. She deserves it as well.
Kuonji Makoto: Makoto hadn't had that much characterization yet (he and Reina would in the current and upcoming parts) but I did want to display his maturity out there, similar to Jenrya from Tamers, I suppose. And for me, this was from how he accepted Tsukasa despite his apparent betrayal. Makoto is very understanding, sympathetic, brave and strong-willed. It's actually pretty crazy how impressive his traits are; he's like a main character for the future...and that is kind of where I'm going for. There's still his relationship with his family to make an appearance and I will say, it'd be a lot deeper and fleshed out than the anime. Not that I have complaints about the anime, but family drama? A narcissistic parental figure? A sibling who went through abuse with you? I'm going to write about that in length!
Sawashiro Kyo: When I ended up deciding the fic to be Asuka/Haruomi and Kyo got the "you're aroace now and a cat dad" that...actually summed up the direction I gave him. His canon backstory at this point is moot because I've literally been building on his version for the the fic for 10+ chapters. It's a lot more focused on Kyo's desperation for a home and family, and a lot more tied with Asuka, who, at that point in time, was going through something similar. So it was less about the details of Kyo's past, and more like, of who he was. And I like that he talked about believing in change in the present times, so I emphasized that in Kyo (esp in comparison with Asuka.) He's someone who's learned to have the courage to move forward and accept that he is far from perfect. Don't worry though; this doesn't mean he's not going to have conflicts or development in the future.
Sone Haruomi: Haruomi's character direction is heavily centered on Commandramon, this violence-hating, gun-wielding Digimon who was meant to fight. I think that really speaks volumes of who Haruomi is, AND I do like that we never see Haruomi himself get as stressed over this lifestyle as Commandramon. He's clearly conflicted over it, but he hides it so well (like Commandramon's camouflage haha) and that's where AKOT Haruomi is at. He's still struggling despite how he seems, and he knows this. He wants to just keep his head low, but Haruomi's too kind to actually do that. He's really grateful to the Glowing Dawn, so despite my meddling, Haruomi's going to get himself involved with them regardless to repay the debt.
Rose Woodville: Anime Rose doesn't really have that much of a personality, but I did read (and correctly) that she is loyal to Wong and trusted by him. So I focused on that -- but also at her theme and love for "beauty." It's sort of something I have a lengthy and proud history of writing with characters (Wallace from Pokemon, my goat!). I love playing with the concept of such a character who, at the same time, is performing not-so-beautiful-things to pursue their vision. Rose has a more benign attitude but...we'll see. I also wrote her as "my lady" like a female ruler, haha. It has some influence from writing an A Song of Ice and Fire fic (I sort of picture her as a strong Sansa Stark.)
Brilliant Thorn: There's only been one chapter that heavily featured both Kanon and Meto. Kanon had this interesting blurb about her staying true to her noble goals (that the anime is still isn't showing?) so that's her character. Like Rose, BT is a lot more benign, showing that the World Union is not black and white, and BT in particular will be around as a foil to Tomoro and Kyo's ideals. They are very much on the human side while the other two are on the Digimon side. This is upped even further as the BT were Reina's former teammates. Between Kanon and Meto, Kanon is definitely the "main protagonist" I''m giving the vibe of to even though she's sticking around to support Meto. Basically, compared to the anime, I'm making them actual characters. They have such great designs and Digimon...
Part 1 of Promise — is complete at 9 chapters and 16k words. It was my first time writing for both fandom (though I have extensively RPed Pokemon) and definitely the rough part at the start was remembering what my writing style was, which tends to… change depending on the fic and vibe. I was largely motivated by the adventures in the Drama CD of Saiyuki, so I wanted to write something that was light and focused on dialogues… I don’t think I succeeded in that, but I am way more comfortable with the style I picked up by the end of the story.
If there’s something I regret is that I didn’t get to write much on Sharak as she was meant to play a more central pov. This was before I decided to splice the fic into multiple titles in a series though. If I had known I would only have one arc for this, I would have focused on her more. Instead, since it was originally structured as a single title, the chapters were split with the Sanzo Party.
She will definitely come back though. And she will so with this one important tidbit that got introduced early but just never mentioned again. It wasn’t ignored on purpose. It was meant to come into play again. She and that may or may not appear in the second part, but they would definitely be mentioned.
This part is partially as an intro as it served to cut away from where Reload Blast ended. And as it did, it brought back plot points from before that are now tying up with the world of Pokemon.
In a certain chapter, there was a massive last-minute change involved that would have had the Sanzo Party fight Daigo and his Pokemon. It would be the usual send-off for an arc in Saiyuki with some action, but I decided there wasn’t enough tension to warrant that escalation. Sanzo was in a much better mood lmao.
I am kind of disappointed there was no big fight that happened besides the rehash from Reload Blast, but I suppose that is for the best, since writing that would have been quite difficult and tiresome.
Writing a large cast is usually something that came easy for me (I have done a good job with that in my Arc V fics!) but not for this story. I think it was just the flow of the story. Now that I am free from the shackles of where Reload Blast left off, the presentation may come more naturally to me.
I may have written a lot about Luvdisc. Is it obvious that I love Luvdisc? That I have a Luvdisc agenda?
Just taking my time to work things out! That and I just got immensely busier and don’t even spend my time on the PC as often anymore. Definitely going to have it done by March though.
ROH2 pushed back to February because I decided to rewrite half of it! I want to make sure I’m happy with the chapters. Quality over speed this time around!
My dearest dog whom I failed, and love and miss to this day.
I wrote Room of Hyacinth and What It Means, Means Nothing to cope with the grief. One year later, despite the writing struggles, I am still maintaining my pacing for RoH and have recently decided to publish and work on the aide WIMMN.
Prior to his illness, I have been researching and drafting an original novel. I’m set on finishing this series first no matter how long it takes.
