Okay, I kind of wanna gush about paint my body gold because it’s the last thing I wrote and I’m still very happy with it! 

I’ve never written jerejean before so it was a total discovery, and pinning down the exact way I wanted to write a soulmate au was a challenge because I’m never totally comfortable with that trope. So I got the idea to subvert the usual succession of events--my main problem with soulmates au is the automatic assumption that soulmates are going to fall in love with each other after they meet, which really bugs me. But spinning the trope on its head made me way more comfortable with this AU so that’s what I went with.

I really liked the idea of Jean and Jeremy meeting in ways that were not pre-written for them. Writing an AU gave me that opportunity that canon doesn’t, because it’s compulsory that Jean will have to work under Jeremy’s captaincy at the Trojans, and I’ve always had a little reserve about that. Considering Jean’s life at the Nest and his relationship with Riko, canon fics where Jean’s recovery starts and ends with Jeremy have never sat well with me. I don’t think going from one all-encompassing negative example to an all-encompassing positive one is the way to handle this situation, to be honest.

So I was happy to have a reason to write Jean as already down the path of recovery when he meets Jeremy! Jeremy is an addition, a definitely positive addition, to his life, but even if he were to disappear or they’d never met, Jean would have kept living. On the other hand, much like Neil, I feel like Jean has a very empty life, because he’s not used to being anything, you know? That’s what I wanted to show with the scene where his power/water cuts off, and he just sleeps through the cold anyway, or all the frequent mentions that he walks to and back from work, even if it’s far and snowing. 

(this fic is not set in L.A. by the way)

I made Riko part of the main Moriyama mob family because I kind of wanted to give the fic a more... sordidly realistic? feel that “murder college sport” that canon has. I think it has to do with Jean’s voice, which in my opinion is very dry and down-to-earth. He’s not one for sugar-coating or avoiding the obstacles thrown in his way, and he’s intent on living his life in a way that Neil, for example, isn’t, because he’s always running. Jean’s just like... a tree taking root and growing against the wind, where Neil is a reed who has learned to bend with it. 

Anyway. This fic was originally supposed to be set in a semi-fantasy 30s AU because I just had this vision of Jean in a felt-hat and particularly Renee dressed in a white undershirt and men pants beating up Andrew in a semi-illegal betting ring-type backroom, with Allison dressed in a long skirt and being all glamorous and shit, but it made the fic go really dark, so I cut it out. Their importance in the fic dwindled when I did, so I boosted Laila and Alvarez’s as a result, and I’m pretty happy about it!

(outfits for Renee / Allison, if you’re curious. I didn’t make a whole pinterest board but these are roughly what I was picturing)

which is why their relationship works even though mafuyu still loves yuuki (which in no way makes their relationship better, but it does help to show that ue/mafuyu will work, if they put in the effort). i hope that makes sense? anyways that's basically all based on the anime, so i can't really say much more than that. i'm bad at reading mangas, though i think i may try given if i find the time. thank you for the answer!!

yeah no i totally get what you were trying to say!!

honestly, sometimes the concept of one (1) true love for life is just so overrated..... i feel like the point of given (or one of the points) is to show that you can move on and love again, and let go in the end? i read some great meta today, it basically said that mafuyu works better with ue than with yuuki bc ue understands what he needs better (the "let's do this together" attitude rather than "i'll do this for you"), and i agree with that,

oh wow, this got Long. sorry, i got really excited lmao. wbu tho if i may ask? what did you like most about it?

i feel you though. like, i agree about the girls too, but i appreciate how they aren’t treated badly, you know? like, the female classmate (forgot her name) - even though she said some pretty mean things she immediately apologized right after. and yayoi is shown to care more than just akihiko (please take care of ritsuka?? hello?? i lvoe that she quietly cares about her brother)

but yea i love the whole theme of grieving and healing too. i once read someone saying that they just don’t see how uecchi and mafuyu can work out bc of the love mafuyu had/still has for yuuki and i’m like bruv..... they’re 17.... they’re not supposed to be miserable for the rest of their lives.... you’re reading/watching a completely different story if you think that mafuyu cannot be happy or learn how to forgive himself and yuuki....

I'm glad you watched it!! How did you like it though? Ljke, what did you like most or didn't like about it? :D

hi! thanks for sending this :)

since you didn’t specify which fic you wanted a commentary on, i’m just gonna do one on ‘run away like mercury’, which is the sequel to ‘wind me tighter than a wire’. this whole au stems from the info broker/show boy au by requiemofkings - and i had been given the great honor of being able to write fics based on it! i had a lot of fun writing the first fic even though it was sort of intimidating, because i had never written an au that was sort of...gritty, i guess? it’s not exactly soft in a meet-cute sort of way, is what i’m trying to say.

i hadn’t really planned on writing anything after ‘wind me tighter than a wire’ but ‘run away like mercury’ happened because i kept thinking about how great and sweet and sort of sexy it would be for andrew to give neil a pair of stilettos in his attempt at courting him....... and people wanted to see more of the au, so i was like welp guess i’m doing this. funny thing though, i kept thinking about how terrible my writing was as i was writing it. ideas for other scenes poured into my brain and i kept writing but i still felt pretty meh about the whole thing. i ended up sort of tolerating it because i personally think that jean and neil’s friendship in it is cute, especially that whole trust fall bit and the bit at the beginning where jean tells neil to “be careful.” i was trying to hint at the fact that jean can tell that neil is drifting towards dangerous waters because he’s spending a lot of time with andrew, a cop, and developing feelingsfor him. 

i also think that the scene where andrew saves neil from falling is pretty neat   ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

the last scene - the one where they’re being all domestic and lovey-dovey - almost didn’t make the cut. i had wanted to save it for a different fic, but then i realized that i didn’t know when i was ever going to write for this verse again, so decided to just include it.