tozette. (archiveofourown.org/users/Tozette)
I post bits of fics and about whatever I'm doing, and I have really loud opinions.
they/them. regrettably, an adult.
(I no longer have any idea if I'm older or younger than various of my followers and at this point I'm scared to find out. please don't follow this blog if you're under 18. I block people who promote harassment or self harm. I report all fundraiser asks for spam. ✌️)
When Emily died, she got to meet some kind of great cosmic power, and everything felt right with the world and she was at peace — for, like, five seconds.
Then something else knocked on the door.
"Hiiii. Sorry," said a bright-eyed lady in a pink skirt suit, knocking the door of metaphor open with one rounded hip, "d'you kind if I just scooch on in and grab this one?" If the great cosmic power answered at all, Emily didn't hear it. "Great! Thanks so much!"
She hauled Emily out by her arm, tucking it into her side.
"Was I in an office?" Emily wondered. Her memories of the great cosmic power were already misaligning itself.
"Sort of? More like the foyer. I didn't let him get you to the elevators. I'm Kitty, by the way. Sorry to steal you away from your afterlife, but I really need you for something else."
She was outside now, on a featureless city street with planters full of cigarette butts, where the rain fell on everything except her. Kitty invited her to perch on the edge of a planter next to her.
"Oh my god," said Emily, blinking rapidly. "Did I get hit by that train?"
"Yeah. Dropped your earbud on the tracks and tried to pry it out. Those level crossings are dangerous, huh?"
"They were new! Goddammit. I'm dead? Like, dead?"
"Ugh, yeah," said Kitty, "I know I'm being flippant but it really sucks. It does. I was a psychpomp for almost a century before I got this gig, and it doesn't stop sucking for the people who're going through. Especially if you pull them out of the processing. Processing is comforting. Raw-dogging this shit is always a big shock." She gestured here to a big gold-edged revolving door into the office building. "Reincarnation, you know."
"Reincarnation is... a revolving door outside an office building?"
"This is all kind of a metaphor?" Kitty admitted. "You're reinterpreting it. It really says something that you think of them as bureaucrats in an office building, though. We've really moved on from agricultural metaphors... I guess jeans and a combine harvester lacks the romance of the scythe."
"What?" said Emily, bewildered.
Kitty sighed and patted her shoulder. The shape of her hand did not match the size of the icy limb Emily felt. "Don't worry about it. So, listen, I know this is a really big, bad time for you, and you're probably distracted what with dying and all, but the powers that be think we've got a serious problem in the world next door and they want you to fix it."
"Fix it? Me? The world... next door?"
"Yeah, just one over. Well, three over, I guess — from your perspective. It's an anime."
"The problem's an anime?"
"The world is an anime. Look, I'm not saying you're perfectly suited to doing it — you're not. Emily, girl, you died to a train. Its path could not have been more clearly telegraphed. You do not have 'battle shonen character' written on your forehead, you know?"
Emily knew this about herself, technically, but she'd never actually had to think about it before. No, she wasn't shonen protagonist material. Who was? And yet, she still felt as though she was being insulted somehow. "Um, sure? Why — why me, then?"
"There are certain qualities a soul needs to be compatible with each universe. Most of them are perfectly and specifically suited to their own, which is great until you need to inject a new soul into an established timeline. That's when you have to start looking for souls that are a bit more..." She paused. "Generic."
Emily flinched.
Kitty gave her a sympathetic smile. "It's not a bad thing, you know, being a bit featureless. It lets you blend in."
"I feel like you just told me my soul is boring."
"Well..."
"My soul is not boring," declared Emily. "Maybe you're just a bitch?"
"Nnno, I really..." Kitty paused. She cleared her throat. "Well, don't worry about it. It's not saying you're boring. It's like having a boring face. Nothing's wrong with it, and you can still make as many expressions as you want and wear fun makeup. Except better, because, like, nobody can really see the soul stuff your soul is made of. Don't worry about it! Anyway, I really hate to rush you, but our window of slotting you into the new world is really passing us by! Are you ready for the rules?"
"Um, okay."
"Okay. One: you don't tell anyone there about this — " she waved her hand around " — whole experience. We won't let you say it anyway, but the psychopomps are very active and they do it differently over there because... uh, they created a very weird system and won't let it fail, basically. So if you drop too many hints they might get, um, fiesty. Two: do not romance the main character."
"What?"
"Yeah, uh, that's the big problem in that universe. In the regular course of the universe, the main character marries a girl he met in highschool and then they have a baby — except, listen, he's an artificially created hybrid creature, and she has the power to reject reality as we know it, and their kid was —"
"Not that," said Emily, scowling furiously. "Are you trying to tell me that not only am I dead and you think I'm boring — "
"Your soul, not — "
" — I'm not even the main character?"
"...Well, um, everyone is the main character of their own story, obviously," hedged Kitty. "Anyway," she added, transparently trying to change the subject. "We were going to," she waved her notepad, although Emily couldn't read it, "just prevent one or both of them from being born, right? Or kill them? But then actually they're both needed to prevent this one guy taking over the whole psychopomp business over there.
"So we decided to just," another hand wave, "send someone different in with a different soul and a message in her heart! So all you have to do is avoid any kind of — you know, anything procreative! — with the main character. We'll offer some guidance and assistance to you along the way, of course. It's still a battle shonen series and you're not optimally equipped to live in it, so we're prepared to give you some support in exchange for good behaviour. But you should be fine."
Emily frowned. "All you want me to do is not talk about you, not fuck the main character, and survive?"
"Well, there are a few teeny tiny other things you might need to do — there's a reason we have to replace this girl rather than kill her! — but, mostly, yeah. Just that. Easy, right?"
Emily still took a dim view of the offer. "What if I refuse?"
"Ohhhh," said Kitty. "No, no, sorry, I didn't mean to give you the wrong impression — I'm not making an offer. I'm telling you what will happen. And our time here is winding down, so it's going to happen in about five."
"What the fuck? Five — five minutes?" Her heart wasn't ready!
"Four," Kitty smiled, mysterious and satisfied. "Three."
"What? No!"
"Two..."
"Wait!"
"One!" Kitty wiggled her manicured fingers in a cutesy wave. "Bye-bye!"
Sometimes you have to stare at your everyday boots and decide if it's really worth resoling them, or if so much of them is trashed that it's going to be a Boots of Theseus situation.
TYBW arc fight scenes are truly chef's kiss - it's nice that they expanded some of them for the anime as well since the manga was a bit of a rush job. Also Shinji & his haircut definitely does not disappoint in TBTP arc!Can't wait to hear your thoughts :))
Thanks! I'm still moving slowly through the arrancar arc. My last treadmill workout featured the Cirucci v Ishida fight, so I have a bit yet to go — this is episode 157 and the TBTP arc in the anime starts around 205, I believe. (Although there's like a 21-episode filler arc between the two that I will probably skip entirely.)
I know this is ages out of date, but despite reading a ton of your fics over the years, I only recently read The Soulmate Phenomenon one and I'm obsessed! Usually I don't particularly care for soulmate stuff, but the idea that it only happens once a person is set in their ways/following major life events is compelling! Also just love Sakura in general there. Anyway, just wanted to throw some good vibes and admiration your way!
Thank you.
I also liked thinking about the idea that the characters' personalities are too malleable until they've had more experiences and only enough xp will give them a soul mark. Kind of like a nature-and-nurture theory of soul development.
Karin Week 2026 has concluded and we've passed the deadline for late entries! This year we got 24 entries! Here are some quick links to our tagging system to help you explore:
All works are tagged as #karinweek2026 work
Fics: we got 6 fics, all tagged #karinweek2026 fic (y por la primera vez, recibimos un fic en español!)
Art: we have 12 art entries, tagged #karinweek2026 art
This year, we also got to make two new tags!
Gif sets: we received 4 gif sets, tagged #karinweek2026 gif
Mood boards: we also got 2 mood boards, tagged #karinweek2026 moodboard
For reference, in case you are stumbling upon this blog well after the event has passed, our prompts for 2026 are here.
Thank you so much to all our super talented participants, and to everyone liking and reblogging and just spreading love for Karin. Mods will still check this blog every once in a while if you have any feedback for us, or anything you want to see in the future.
What you search: 2 nights, 2 adults, 2 bedrooms, please!
What accommodation aggregators return: 2 nights, 2 adults, 1 queen bed! I found you a bargain!
I usually don't have the energy to be mad about amatonormativity among (handwaves) all the other things, but when I'm travelling with a buddy I find myself willing to make an exception.
What you search: 2 nights, 2 adults, 2 bedrooms, please!
What accommodation aggregators return: 2 nights, 2 adults, 1 queen bed! I found you a bargain!
I usually don't have the energy to be mad about amatonormativity among (handwaves) all the other things, but when I'm travelling with a buddy I find myself willing to make an exception.
I watched a few reaction videos on YouTube this evening. They were about foreigners encountering AFL football (i.e., australian rules) for the first time.
It was very educational for me, not because I'm unfamiliar with AFL, but because it's very familiar and it has therefore never occurred to me that it's a particularly unique sport, or that I should question it in any way.
Commentary includes such thoughts as, 'No way that's legal? No?' and 'WHY would you bounce a ball that shape?' and 'Why is the FIELD so big?' and 'You PUNCH the ball? The ball? You PUNCH it?' and 'I don't remember from the rules, can you, can you throw people?' and 'Do they just keep playing even though that guy's knocked out?'
I had answers to all of these questions but it had never occurred to me to ask any of them.
'Sports that ask players to dribble an oval shaped ball' and 'sports that let players use other players as step ladders, as a treat,' seem like they're thin on the ground outside Australia, is what I'm noticing?
After consuming a baked potato with grated cheese, tomato, baby spinach, carrot, corn, peas, pickled jalapenos, hummus and a pile of spring onions, I do in fact feel less like murdering an office worker.
The role of food in emotional regulation is underrated. Unfortunately.
I saw an anachronistic comedy musical Pride and Prejudice reboot recently. Despite all those descriptors, it has left me with a weird, lingering desire to write Charlotte/Lizzy.
But, like, after Charlotte gets married? While Elizabeth is visiting, and they're politely pretending they're not avoiding Mr Collins at the parsonage in Hunsford.
sometimes i wish i could pull a natural habitat AU zetsu and just put noisy people to sleep by drugging them — but then i remember everything wrong with that
Hahaha. Goodness, yes.
In real life, all ethics aside... unless you've really done your research, you're one allergy/invisible illness/drug interaction away from a voluntary manslaughter conviction. RIP.
I guess you might be in the USA. I understand they have some kind of holiday around this time. My condolences.
Personally I feel I'd like to be a heart eating monster like Kakuzu.
Re: favourite secret histories lore, I am generally a Thunderskin enthusiast (and I will not stop) but I also really love the 'On Matthias and the Amethyst Imago' series of texts. This one's from Loss:
'The laws of the House forbade Matthias to love. The customs of the Wood forbade the Imago to remain. So he conjured her a final time, when she had uncovered the Shears of Alakapura; and she suffered him to cut the wings from her back, so that she might remain; and he suffered her to cut the parts which hold man's seed, to keep them from the Detestable Act. This was love in all its blood and joy. We have cast out Matthias from the House.
'The Rite of the Map's Edge was given to us by the Vagabond. It is the rite that Matthias used to summon the Amethyst Imago, but like many summoning rites, it could be used to conjure almost any entity - given the appropriate tool, and the appropriate influence. Use it gently, in memory of the Name and the Long who suffered these agonies that they might be joined.'
I thought at the time and still maintain that Victor's actions make perfect sense if you take the premise that he's just coming off an extended major depressive episode. this is EXACTLY the kind of behavior you would expect to see from someone who has categorically realized "I can't live like this any more" and has just been presented with an alternative that doesn't involve suicide
