AesK

And on a different note, I cannot describe how much I enjoy seeing pictures of Ogata as a MODERN DAY sniper.

because......

Lead residue from bullet fused into bone.

In movies and comics and stories, when someone survives being shot, they just remove the bullet and that's all.

In real life situations, as the bullet leaves the barrel of the gun and travels through the air, the metal gets extremely hot.

When it comes into contact with a hard surface like bone, it's like dragging a piece of chalk across the pavement. It leaves a metal residue that gets fused to the bone itself.

The gray part on the photo is the lead residue from a bullet. It only grazed the bone here, but still left behind residue.

Over a period of years the lead can slowly start to leach out from the bone causing lead poisoning.

Long-term lead poisoning is something that's not often talked about with gunshot wounds, but this is how it happens. Even if you remove the bullet fragments, its not enough, because you can't remove the residue.

You can't remove the lead residue but you can give medications to lessen the impact of lead on the body.

I almost never see this mentioned in stories except for medical dramas. But honestly it would be great to see this touched on more.

He's clearly uncomfortable and stroking his hair. Trying to not make eye contact and keep his eyes forward. It's okay because Hijikata did it too... he tells himself.....out loud.

He's not even hurrying. Just taking this time, walking through.

I'm disappointed that the original panels were changed in this case, because originally they had a much greater range of emotion.

Look how excited and anticipatory he is in the first panel and the immediate downer in the second panel.

We were robbed of THIS expression and it's such a shame.

https://www.pixiv.net/artworks/97690374

I also love how the main picture is him looking stressed and uncomfortable at his birthday being celebrated,....because of course he would.

He has no idea what to do with all this...love, so he just stress grooms.

If you only read fanfiction, you will not be able to write original stories well.

Reading books does not have to be expensive. It can be completely free. Project Gutenberg exists. So does the Internet Archive's lending library.

If you want to write a novel, you are kept to a pretty strict word range--generally 70-120k words, though that varies a bit up or down depending on the genre. Some genres have fairly strict structural and plot expectations, as well.

A romance novel is a specific thing. A mystery novel is a specific thing. Being able to write a shippy fanfic, even one of the correct length to count as a romance novel, does not necessarily mean that you know how to write a romance novel--because there are different expectations between them.

Fanfiction is often in conversation with other fanfiction, and published fiction is often to varying degrees in conversation with other published fiction--but despite what a lot of people seem to think, published fiction is often not actually in conversation with fanfiction, even if fanfiction is in conversation with published fiction.

One thing that you tend to see with people writing original fiction for publication who don't really read much published fiction in that genre is that they will sometimes approach it with the attitude that they are writing something that nobody has ever thought of before. It is a new, different, groundbreaking approach, with new, different, groundbreaking ideas that nobody else has done and nothing can compare to--

And that simply is not usually the case. Finding comps can be hard, it's one of the worst parts about querying, etc., etc., but in many genres, you are not inventing something totally new. You are not the first person to think, what if this romance novel doesn't need to have a happy ending (spoiler alert: it's not a romance novel). You are not the first person to write queer polyamorous urban fantasy. You are not the first person to write a book with queer characters or disabled characters or non-white characters or non-Christian characters. Your groundbreaking new idea for a sci fi thing that you repurposed from a fanfic, that just feels dated and derivative, because it is, and anyone who knows the genre would know that.

That arrogance and that dismissal of existing publishing history and norms shows in people's writing.

think of it as adding genetic diversity to a population. Someone who has only read a specific genre only has what is already in the genre to draw from. This often results in very trope heavy and stock standard genre pieces, which isn't bad per se, but when the vast majority of the genre also has those same tropes, it's hard to distinguish it from the hoard of similar books

a friend of mine calls it "creative inbreeding" which is a whole discussion to have a couple drinks into a conversation

a bit on my read outside

of your genre stance

2. they're going to favor their sighted side, obviously, but it doesn't always manifest in the way you think. when I walk down a hall I walk much closer to the wall on my sighted side than on my blind side. which is the opposite of how it might seem logical to do that bc it means the world at large is on your bad side, but the reason is I can't fucking See the wall if it's right next to me in the blind side and I end up knocking into it.

3. door frames and poles are my enemy. If your character is smart this will not be a problem but for me it is. I am King of walking into shit I could absolutely see but couldn't tell how far away from me it was. on this note, their blind side hand is getting bashed into every jutting out thing in a 5 mile radius.

4. having 0 depth perception is less of a big deal than you'd think it is. Especially with driving. I've become a Much safer and more wary driver because I can't tell how far the other cars are from me. however I fucking suck at parking now. because I can't tell how far the lines are from me either.

5. you know how people who lose limbs get phantom pains? that happens with eyes too but like. phantom sights. for me it's like. a lot of bugs. like every so often my brain will just put something suddenly skittering beside me there. hate that.

6. it is completely possible to "get stuck" somewhere because your ability to tell how wide a space is is just Gone. shopping isles especially where bumping something or Someone is matter of embarrassment or potentially breaking something. it can be legitimately paralyzing and also irritate everyone around you because they can tell there is Plenty of space for you to get your cart through even if you can't.

But he writes it in Katakana for Vasiliys benefit. "オガタニゲタ"

Katakana is used to express foreign words, and the Vasily is foreign so we gotta to do this so he'll understand it.

But Katakana is still japanese. It's sort of like writing English in an Asian looking font. It's still english and not understandable to someone who doesn't speak that language.

To Vasily, these symbols on the edge of the paper might as well be decorative patterns or something.