catgirl, fangirl, just vibing~

>ask a vendor if their crafts are real or slop

>she doesnt understand

>pull out illustrated diagram explaing what is real and what is slop

>she laughs and says “its good crafts maam"

>look at the stall

I have spent a significant portion of my life sick in bed. This means I have read... a lot of fanfiction. I do not want to run the numbers (for my own sanity) but there is a nonzero chance that I have read a greater volume of fanfiction than most of you will in a lifetime (yes, even in a tumblr crowd, where I have some real competition 😆).

For a number of years I was really embarrassed by this because for most of my life, I've fit best with the 'socially elitist nerd' set. You know - the ones who don't care if you make a little less eye contact, as long as your performance of intelligence can make them feel intelligent too. I "passed" there. So more than a decade of constant fluff and rom-com "junk" really felt like something I should be ashamed of.

But I've realized recently what fanfiction (or any free web fiction) really is. It's the author's hopes. It's the author's fears. It's all the things you wouldn't write to publish because they feel too sad, or sinful, or sacred.

Without really thinking about it, I've been drinking from the well of human desire - from fear, and love, and lust. I've been reading your precious wishes for family, or protection, or connection. I've been learning how you dream life could be.

Thank you to every writer whose work I have read or will read someday. Thank you for sharing the most precious parts of your heart, even when you didn't realize what you were doing. To every writer out there - every middle schooler with dreams, every suburban mom wishing her life could be something more. You reached out into the oblivion with the piece of yourself you probably don't even share with those closest. And somewhere in this world, a person noticed. Your dreams and hopes and wishes became a piece of me too.

I am such a staunch believer that Hau and Hop are seriously nothing alike but how fans treat them has always made me so fascinated in putting them next to each other. I think my biggest takeaway is I adore any potential dynamic between them because of how different they are. I already made a whole post about this, but one thing I really like is how Hau's character arc is about stepping up and taking his first steps toward becoming stronger and battling at his best (citing looking up towards the protag amd pretty notable with his grandpa being a kahuna) while Hop essentially does the opposite, taking a step back to figure out what he really wants to do for himself instead of chasing after his brother and the protag. If we're comparing them to any characters I think Hop is a lot more like Bianca or Kieran honestly. Hau really feels like such a unique rival to me in the sense that I can't think of any other character who purposefully holds themself back because they're scared they'll go all out and still fail (closest I can think of is Nemona, but she holds back because the protag is a newbie and she wants to be your friend. She's pretty unique for a rival, too, but that's another post).

I seriously have so much to say about these two and honestly I really like the idea of these two, despite the rep they've gained as the nice rivals (and I'll stand by foreverrrr that Hau can be so much more petty than people give him credit for and Hop is like nice to the protag because they're childhood friends and the instant you take a step back and look at his interactions with other characters he's really not that overbearingly friendly. Not any more than Hugh or Barry and I never hear them getting shit for being nice), not getting along very well. Maybe because of that misconception about them, actually.

And in the context of this idea about them, where they're both young adults and Hop is about to age out of being a trial captain (10-19 years I believe is the exact age for who's allowed to be a trial captain for anybody who didn't know??) and having some anxieties again about the next steps he wants to take while hop is set on his path of being a professor, and as much as he loves it, it was still his second option, because ultimately he didn't feel like he was good enough to be champion. It was the best and healthiest option he could have taken, but it still stings. I've mentioned this before too but I really do feel like Hau is a lot like the person Hop wanted to become and still on some level might want to be despite himself, at least on the surface level. And Hau's excitement is easy to get caught up in and Hop is in the beautiful Alola region where the name of the game is unwinding and falling in love with the nature and beauty of it all!!!! While Hau may not be totally aware that his shitty coping mechanisms can actually hurt people in a way he isn't used to as the nice rival, as opposed to when Lillie got kidnapped. And yeah you're totally right it seriously does take Hop having his dreams completely crushed on live television and then getting beaten by one of those fuckass sword/shield brothers to be like okay maybe this isn't for me. Really just the kind of guy who needs to hit his lowest before he makes that swerve.