Love Elemental

Hm, to be fair, it could be that since it was a "prototype" curse seal, people could have just assumed that it was temporary/meant to break down over time/her own chakra system burned through it. At this time, there are no sealing masters in Konoha, so who can say for sure, lol.

There's also the fact that Anko's seal seems like a far better kept secret than, say, Naruto's for example. People avoid her because she was Orochimaru's student, not because of the curse seal from him, if that differentiation makes any sense.

Ao3 link.

Previous parts: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty, thirty-one, thirty-two, thirty-three

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Sephiroth feels a little better after an evening of meditation and a full night of sleep. Things look a little better in the light of day, and though the question of what the fuck he'd going to do about the war is still there, it has been put off. In favour of monster hunting!

!!!!! <3<3<3<3 Hello, loveelemental!

Okay, after checking out these songs and their lyrics, I just want to say that none of the following is a value judgement—I do like both of these songs that you’ve brought to me—but the POV/personalities of these songs are VERY… hm…

You’ve brought to me two songs that are in a dialogue with each other and, on the surface, could appear to be in opposition with each other. BUT, I do think they’re both rather… cynical in a sense, so they’re not truly opposite ends of a spectrum.

Because, okay, Can’t Stand the Rain is very cynical, post-relationship, everything is bad and I hate it and why should I do anything to change it? “My blackened heart,” “I’d empty [the pots and pans filling with rainwater] out but why?” even the repeating “Love, no such thing as love,” FEELS very “I just got broken up with and I’m going to wallow in my own sadness” not even necessarily “I miss/still love the person I broke up with” but a very selfish, cynical “the world sucks so now I’m going to be miserable.”

Which is certainly one way to handle a break up.

Another way is in Rain, the difference most embodied by “I don’t mind the rain sometimes.” Emphasis on the SOMETIMES. And while the person in this song is slightly less cynical—in that crying/rain is what makes roses bloom and that “it’s better to have loved and lost…” although it doesn’t include the rest of the saying which IS IMPORTANT “than to never have loved at all.”

This person ALSO is wallowing in their own sadness post-relationship but almost… reveling in it? Very emo. A+ They’re literally “making peace with the rain” and “dancing with the pain,” and turning the break up/end of the relationship into a learning opportunity of sorts? It’s not AS cynical but it IS as selfish… or maybe self-centered…

I think what I’m trying to articulate is that both of these songs represent people who are HURT by a break up/end of a relationship, but not necessarily HEARTBROKEN if that clarifies anything at all… Because there’s no YEARNING either for their former partners or even for the relationship itself. It’s just… here is the new normal, how do I react to it.

Now to step away from song analysis, into potential fic writing.

Immediately I can think of two ways to go with this:

The two POVs of the songs are the two people in the relationship that ended and this is how each of them deal with it. Or,

This is the same person after some time has passed.

I’ll be honest, both of them are kind of funny.

Because with (1) it just really shows how, probably, it was the best for the relationship to end considering how selfish the lyrics are on both sides. Rain is slightly more romantic in the sense that it’s “because of this break up I can grow as a person” but it’s still pretty selfish, lol. Like… both of them are stewing in their own misery and meanwhile their respective friend groups (if they have them) are just like, “Oh thank god, they’ve broken up.”

With (2) the less time passing, the funnier it gets. Going from Can’t Stand the Rain into Rain after a week is funny, but after a day? That’s hilarious… I guess you can go in the other direction and it would also be funny—Rain into Can’t Stand the Rain, that is—but regardless the shorter the time jump the better.

I suppose there is option 3) in which these are two people who were in two different relationships and then the fic could be about them learning to be less selfish in love with each other? Or maybe being in love with someone who is as selfish as you and being okay with it? I don’t know.

… I’m trying to think if there’s a pairing for (1) or a character for (2) that would work but I don’t really do comedy, much less this anti-romantic comedy, so the I don’t know if my go to characters really match the genre. Although there is something to be said about how my reluctance to cast anyone into these roles speaks more about me wanting my characters to not be this kind of selfish/self-centered which isn’t accurate to real life. I should probably have more selfish/self-centered character to play around with. Or, rather, I should realize that some of the characters I write DO have the capacity to be this way, I have just been softening/glorifying them without exploring their full personalities.

Then again, I also don’t really write relationships as the main focus? Like, even my shipping fic is more of a method to explore various AUs or themes that aren’t necessarily romance based. Even Dreaming of S(omething,) my ShikakoxGaara series, and which I consider to have some of my most romantic writing in it, is more about how home can change from one place to another, or to a person. How a different environment can reveal as much about yourself as it does the new place you’re in. Even Dreaming of S(elfishness) doesn’t even have them being that selfish and has less to do with jealousy over an engagement and more about, like, establishing clearly what you want rather than just letting something passively come to you and passively watch it go.

Although… while I don’t write much in the (anti-) romantic genre that often, I do LOVE reading about, hm, estranged exes reuniting and having to hash out the mistakes from their past and bittersweetly getting closure before maybe giving the relationship another chance or starting a new relationship knowing the follies of their younger selves. But these songs feel freshly out of the relationship, whereas my preference for estranged exes reuniting usually has the benefit of years (if not decades, I do love when it’s like… ex high school sweethearts meeting up as full grown adults) in between the break up and the reunion.

If these songs are the initial response to the break up and part of the aforementioned youthful follies, then… okay. So I’m still kind of in Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint headspace, and while I MOST love Yoo Joonghyuk x Kim Dokja estranged high school exes reuniting, the dichotomy of these two songs FEELS more like what Han Sooyoung and Yoo Sangah would throw at each other in a fight.

Like, Can’t Stand the Rain feels like Han Sooyoung’s response to the break up—an almost destructive, heedless misery—whereas Rain would represent Yoo Sangah’s external perfection versus her internal flaws. Like the argument would contain:

YSA: At least I didn’t go around making my misery everyone else’s problem. HSY: Oh, as if you’re any better Miss Every Experience Is A Learning Opportunity, bullshit!

Like, I don’t know the whole argument, but that’s the vibe I’m feeling…

Surely there’s another couple that embodies this dynamic in my usual fandoms, but I am STRUGGLING to think of them for now…

And then, unfortunately, as I was writing this, I realized (2) was pretty much just 500 Days of Summer so… ¯_(ツ)_/¯

This is going to sound weird, but even thought it is DoS canon, my brain struggles to hold that pairing in my mind. Like. I KNOW it's DoS canon and it's a pretty strong undercurrent during the Sealing Arc and it DOES make sense, but brain just does not hold.

It's also maybe because ShikamaruxTemari is so prevalent in my heart of hearts? Practically formative. Embarrassingly, there were AMVs involved.

ANYWAY!!!

I definitely see the Tenten as Rain in the sense that SO much of her character is, sadly enough, about rolling with the punches life throws at her (orphan, no clan, poor chakra control, can't become a medic like Tsunade, etc) and just hard pivoting into her strengths. But also, part of me wonders if the song is a little too... emo sad girl? Tenten seems a little too practical for this kind of reveling in the breakup?

If anything, the most extreme flawed version of post-breakup Tenten would be a sort of... Elizabeth Bennet style "what did I expect from the heir to a big clan?" with her blaming their disparate statuses. Never mind the fact that Shikaku and Yoshino basically did the same thing a generation earlier and the Nara clan have been so scandalized by whatever Shikako does every other week that no one really cares about who Shikamaru dates (... I mean, until he starts dating a Sand nin, lol)

As for Shikamaru... I definitely see what you mean about wallowing vs growing and of the two he is more Can't Stand the Rain than Tenten for sure... it seems like it'd be a very short window of time post break up when he'd be in the Can't Stand the Rain mode. After that he'd shift into a... not denial, but an almost excessive "out of sight out of mind" type thing.

My brain did several jumps just now and I'm fully tangent-ing for sure, but do you think there are some Yamanaka who have tried--whether successfully or not--to do an Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind type of business? Like, on the one hand, that seems EXTREMELY DANGEROUS both for the "clients" and the Yamanaka "technician." But on the other hand... I dunno... it could be a lucrative business.

Viridescent: Or, Tetsuki Follows Her Dreams

!!!!! <3<3<3<3 Hello, loveelemental!

Okay, after checking out these songs and their lyrics, I just want to say that none of the following is a value judgement—I do like both of these songs that you’ve brought to me—but the POV/personalities of these songs are VERY… hm…

You’ve brought to me two songs that are in a dialogue with each other and, on the surface, could appear to be in opposition with each other. BUT, I do think they’re both rather… cynical in a sense, so they’re not truly opposite ends of a spectrum.

Because, okay, Can’t Stand the Rain is very cynical, post-relationship, everything is bad and I hate it and why should I do anything to change it? “My blackened heart,” “I’d empty [the pots and pans filling with rainwater] out but why?” even the repeating “Love, no such thing as love,” FEELS very “I just got broken up with and I’m going to wallow in my own sadness” not even necessarily “I miss/still love the person I broke up with” but a very selfish, cynical “the world sucks so now I’m going to be miserable.”

Which is certainly one way to handle a break up.

Another way is in Rain, the difference most embodied by “I don’t mind the rain sometimes.” Emphasis on the SOMETIMES. And while the person in this song is slightly less cynical—in that crying/rain is what makes roses bloom and that “it’s better to have loved and lost…” although it doesn’t include the rest of the saying which IS IMPORTANT “than to never have loved at all.”

This person ALSO is wallowing in their own sadness post-relationship but almost… reveling in it? Very emo. A+ They’re literally “making peace with the rain” and “dancing with the pain,” and turning the break up/end of the relationship into a learning opportunity of sorts? It’s not AS cynical but it IS as selfish… or maybe self-centered…

I think what I’m trying to articulate is that both of these songs represent people who are HURT by a break up/end of a relationship, but not necessarily HEARTBROKEN if that clarifies anything at all… Because there’s no YEARNING either for their former partners or even for the relationship itself. It’s just… here is the new normal, how do I react to it.

Now to step away from song analysis, into potential fic writing.

Immediately I can think of two ways to go with this:

The two POVs of the songs are the two people in the relationship that ended and this is how each of them deal with it. Or,

This is the same person after some time has passed.

I’ll be honest, both of them are kind of funny.

Because with (1) it just really shows how, probably, it was the best for the relationship to end considering how selfish the lyrics are on both sides. Rain is slightly more romantic in the sense that it’s “because of this break up I can grow as a person” but it’s still pretty selfish, lol. Like… both of them are stewing in their own misery and meanwhile their respective friend groups (if they have them) are just like, “Oh thank god, they’ve broken up.”

With (2) the less time passing, the funnier it gets. Going from Can’t Stand the Rain into Rain after a week is funny, but after a day? That’s hilarious… I guess you can go in the other direction and it would also be funny—Rain into Can’t Stand the Rain, that is—but regardless the shorter the time jump the better.

I suppose there is option 3) in which these are two people who were in two different relationships and then the fic could be about them learning to be less selfish in love with each other? Or maybe being in love with someone who is as selfish as you and being okay with it? I don’t know.

… I’m trying to think if there’s a pairing for (1) or a character for (2) that would work but I don’t really do comedy, much less this anti-romantic comedy, so the I don’t know if my go to characters really match the genre. Although there is something to be said about how my reluctance to cast anyone into these roles speaks more about me wanting my characters to not be this kind of selfish/self-centered which isn’t accurate to real life. I should probably have more selfish/self-centered character to play around with. Or, rather, I should realize that some of the characters I write DO have the capacity to be this way, I have just been softening/glorifying them without exploring their full personalities.

Then again, I also don’t really write relationships as the main focus? Like, even my shipping fic is more of a method to explore various AUs or themes that aren’t necessarily romance based. Even Dreaming of S(omething,) my ShikakoxGaara series, and which I consider to have some of my most romantic writing in it, is more about how home can change from one place to another, or to a person. How a different environment can reveal as much about yourself as it does the new place you’re in. Even Dreaming of S(elfishness) doesn’t even have them being that selfish and has less to do with jealousy over an engagement and more about, like, establishing clearly what you want rather than just letting something passively come to you and passively watch it go.

Although… while I don’t write much in the (anti-) romantic genre that often, I do LOVE reading about, hm, estranged exes reuniting and having to hash out the mistakes from their past and bittersweetly getting closure before maybe giving the relationship another chance or starting a new relationship knowing the follies of their younger selves. But these songs feel freshly out of the relationship, whereas my preference for estranged exes reuniting usually has the benefit of years (if not decades, I do love when it’s like… ex high school sweethearts meeting up as full grown adults) in between the break up and the reunion.

If these songs are the initial response to the break up and part of the aforementioned youthful follies, then… okay. So I’m still kind of in Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint headspace, and while I MOST love Yoo Joonghyuk x Kim Dokja estranged high school exes reuniting, the dichotomy of these two songs FEELS more like what Han Sooyoung and Yoo Sangah would throw at each other in a fight.

Like, Can’t Stand the Rain feels like Han Sooyoung’s response to the break up—an almost destructive, heedless misery—whereas Rain would represent Yoo Sangah’s external perfection versus her internal flaws. Like the argument would contain:

YSA: At least I didn’t go around making my misery everyone else’s problem. HSY: Oh, as if you’re any better Miss Every Experience Is A Learning Opportunity, bullshit!

Like, I don’t know the whole argument, but that’s the vibe I’m feeling…

Surely there’s another couple that embodies this dynamic in my usual fandoms, but I am STRUGGLING to think of them for now…

And then, unfortunately, as I was writing this, I realized (2) was pretty much just 500 Days of Summer so… ¯_(ツ)_/¯

So unfortunately I can’t find that post because I also need the page number as well as the post number in order to get to a specific post, but I do remember reading that ficlet–or, at least, I definitely remember the “Naruto is a Secret/Bastard Yamanaka” part but I don’t really remember the “Uchiha are Vampires” bit…

I don’t know if Danzo is so well connected that he hears childish rumors/tales and I don’t know if he… hm… part of what makes him such a terrible person is that he barely acknowledges things/people who he considers below him so unlike Orochimaru who can find use in even Mizuki, I doubt Danzo would find use in that. Like. The dude barely considers healing a necessary skill when, considering his whole organization is supposed to be a secret, would greatly prolong the lifespans of his soldiers so he wouldn’t have to risk as many recruitments and waste so much time training new recruits, etc. etc.

That being said, the closest thing to canonical vampires/a vampire-like ability is, I’m pretty sure, Hidan’s jutsu that allows him to reflect injuries onto someone whose blood he’s consumed. Given Jashin’s monks during the Land of Hot Springs arc were going incognito until their big plan, I think Hidan’s probably the only big… evangelist?… of Jashin.

BUT, if people DO still remember Jashin and how terribad his followers were, I can see Danzo insinuating that–in a similar vein–the Uchiha worship gods of destruction and their part in the Kyuubi Attack was a similar offering to bring about the apocalypse?

On the second day of Christmas my corgi gave to me...

Two chiming bells,

So first off, based on the trailer Miss Hokusai looks super dope. I know of shanastoryteller–or, at least, an author by that name on ao3 (I am fond of their Teen Wolf fic)–but i don’t see the fic you mentioned there?

Over all this has such powerful ART!!!! vibes–

–that there is no way not to think of it as a Sai centric/focused concept. And what with fuinjutsu and Shikako being about (will)power manifesting in ink strokes she’s not too far behind.

And I’m not saying that Ino’s brand of Beauty and Truth don’t apply to this, but it’s not as clear a match or, at least, not in such a way that her side of the trio has the same weight looking through the lens of what little I understood Miss Hokusai to be about from the trailer.

One place where I really think Sai works for exploring what comes through in Miss Hokusai is that a lot of her problems come from (in the film) a lack of certain experiences, and with Sai the trouble with finding that experience becomes obvious.

I think in canon!Naruto or in DoS, the story might revolve around how finding that experience so that his skills improve and he becomes more versatile cleaves him away from Danzo–who, really, relies on his agents not interacting with anything, given how fragile his conditioning is.

in the florist/tattoos AU, I suppose that might be one of the big reasons he went travelling with Shikako?

Although, I don’t know much about floristry, so it’s harder to loop Ino in, I suppose my only thought here is that I’ve heard a couple things about a “bouquet of hate”, where you make a beautiful floral arrangement out of flowers that convey very dangerous sentiments.

One story specifically, and I’m sorry I don’t remember where I read it, had Darth Vader sending “Padme is dead and this Empire is built on treachery” bouquets to Palpatine’s Empire Day celebrations, using flower language from Naboo (and letting anyone who can read them realize that Palpatine doesn’t know his own planet’s culture).

I’m not sure how to use that to loop her into such a story/concept, but it’s attractive to me.

Undertale - Hot Dog French Fries (Extended Version)

Hard to believe it’s been a year already… I guess you all asked for this

Up on Youtube for better quality https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BwygBWGhRQ

I haven’t seen Hadestown (which I assume you’re referencing when you say play), so I can’t really answer on that basis, but I am a big mythology buff so I’ll talk about that.

Before I can get to the Star Wars, though, I gotta talk about the mythology.

So, I basically have two distinct versions of the Hades and Persephone story in my head. Mythology is fluid and alive so I’m not about saying that there’s an “original” version of any myth, but it is true that the ancient and the modern interpretations of the story are very different.

I apologize if my voice sounds bad i hate using the mic oh my god

Franchise: “The Adventure Zone” - The McElroy Family Music: “The Ancient Magus Bride Main Theme” - Junichi Matsumoto Poem: “Do Not Stand at my Grave and Weep” - Mary Elizabeth Frye

And Big Mega inspiration from this beautiful comic by @kaylabarart

First they must catch you by Eran Fowler