#sotj

One hundred of you fuckers saw "Home Alone: A Brawl Stars Story" and thought, yeah, this is peak. Or maybe @illumanarti's fire fuckin cover art reeled you in (which is still so good, thatd prob be the thing to hook *me* if i was a random reader stumbling across sotj)

When I first started this as a baby writer, I was on a trip to the Philippines for a month, bored out of my damn mind having nothing to do but sit around and play brawl stars, grinding trophies with my cousins for like hours. That's when i randomly had the crack idea of writing a fic about Berry (fav brawler at the time, still my main) doing karaoke with Mandy and Chester.

And then I thought, "that was fun, let's do another," so I outlined another fic that, sadly, never made the light of day. It would've been about Emz and Poco going on a date, with a bunch of different brawlers having their own things going on, that eventually ends with the date (comedically) going to shit and the Swamp of Love burning down. Here's the notes app outline:

And here you can see the start of my addiction of writing Larry and Lawrie into everything!

(And that last sentiment was saved for SOTJ)

Maybe I'll pick it up again, but probably not. My characterization and style has changed a bit since then (and i hate how dirty I did Edgar in this initially lol)

Anyways, XoXo never happened, and I started being motivated to write this other random idea I had, about Sandy! I do have another notes app outline from way back then for it, but it's way longer and has spoilers for the whole plot so I won't post it. Just know it was there, and it was next.

Checking my notes app again, apparently I was initially considering the name "Snoozing for a Bruising" which… no. Why?

(Also, fun fact, interestingly Gene was supposed to stick around. He was always gonna fuck off eventually and not really do much working w/Sandy, but I don't think he was initially gonna leave in the fourth paragraph.)

Another fun fact I like sharing, SOTJ was initially gonna be a oneshot, like the berry fic. Yeah. It was gonna be a quick, funny story, where Sandy does stuff and fucks up, and at the end Tara walks into the bazaar like this:

But then, I had the urge to vent a little. Be a lil *angsty*, a lil *emo* if you will.

I wrote 5:24 A.M. — Knock Yourself Out. I think if I hadn't, I wouldn't have kept writing. But I did, and figured at the time it was a little cringe and out of the blue, but in hindsight it might be the most important scene in the fic. Going from the wacky blabber-talk to the gut-punch of Sandy's mental state is the hook that sets the fic’s funny-yet-bitter tone until the end. I think it's why you all kept reading, too. Because it wasn’t just Sandy's problems anymore.

>But he can’t help it. He’s tried medication, energy drinks, fucking hypnotism— but nothing works. It’s always back to his usual routine, sleeping longer than most people should. Byron said it might not even be a health condition, instead some sort of state of mind he can break out of by playing a few games of Brawlball with friends to get the blood pumping. But he knows that doesn’t work either.

>It’s almost certain to him that one day, he’ll let everyone down so hard that they'll all ditch him at the grassfield.

[editor's note: oh my god. pasting this i just realized there's been a typo in this second section this whole time. I wrote "they won't just ditch him at the grassfield" instead of... what the fuck!!]

When I finished and posted the first chapters, I figured a safe goal would be like 20 kudos by the end. Because, really, who the fuck reads Brawl Stars fanfic. And if I hit that, 40 by the end would be nice. Hell, maybe even 80?

But I also had like a super, super stretch goal of 100 kudos. Like, if stars aligned I *could* hit it I guess. Also appearing on one of the first pages when you sorted by kudos, I figured that'd be cool. But that felt way too wishful.

And then I did it?

SOTJ hit 100, and appears on the fourth page for the entire BS fandom. For Sandy specifically, it's one of the first! Though I think for Sandy-centric, it's the top. Actually, I don't think I've even seen another sandy-centric gen fic (Where are they, cmon…)

I’m not sure it'll hit 200 tbh, or ever appear on that first kudos page, as a non-romance fic of a brawler that’s not super popular. I suppose I could reel more people in labelling it as Sandy/Leon, which wouldn’t be entirely wrong, but also just feels like… cheating? Because it’s not really a Sandy/Leon story, I didn’t write it that way. It’s just a Sandy story that Leon is important in (with undertones that mayhaps some crushes could be involved).

Starting with rounding up the old stuff:

Sleeping On The Job - So I'm about halfway done with the next chapter but I've worked on a fair bit of the ones after too (i do this a lot, which kind of is why it takes a while). Also, this new chapter's a really weird case, because I basically re-did it by adding a completely new mini-story/plotline from when I first drafted it, so Sandy and Leon could get some time actually doing stuff together b4 shit hits the fan.

Also a while ago I fixed a mistake i made with the workskin around when I was adding the new cover, so no more tiny text! Now shit’s actually readable!

Ok, that's update stuff done. So this technically started in 2024 (wow.) but 5/6 of its current chapters were completed in 2025. Honestly, when I think of the word count (about 17,000 now) and compare it to other "main fics" of writers, I get kind of discouraged by how others can churn out like 10x that count in half the time lol. But im just human, I have a pretty busy life outside writing, and when I post I always want it to be the best. So lots of editing/sitting on my ass waiting for the perfect ideas to do shit (which isn't good writing practice at ALL, and i do need to work on that)

But enough about that, holy shit, Sotj was wayy more popular than I thought itd be. What the fuck guys how are like 78 people so into this. And 1.5k hits???? I know that isnt much in the grand Ao3 scheme of things but JEEZ if i was in a room with 1,500 people and i found out all of them liked some teen angst story I wrote about some sleepy guy id freak the fuck out (in a good way).

Anyways, thank you for all this unbelievable support. Sotj is weirdly therapeutic to write and its nice knowing people out there actually appreciate it. Cheers to another (hopefully final) year of Sandy!

(wow i could have phrased that better. hes not dying yall im just aiming to wrap this story up soon)

[honorable mention to @illumanarti this year with the art!! holy shitttt its still so good!!]

The Perfect Pair - Technicallyyyy it was posted in 2024... but the second sorta epilogue part with R-T and Larry I added on a couple months later in 2025. So here it is! I think I said this before but liked writing this fic a LOT, especially the first half with the bros. The second part, ehhh, I think I could've refined R-T's personality a bit and made him more interesting, but I think its alright.

Also. The rarepair. Lawrie x Nani—Im gonna be honest and tell yall don't know if im crazy for shipping these two anymore lmao, but a part of me still does cuz its cute and a bit nostalgic for me.

[And another shoutout to @pb-s-corner for this art too! this one was so special to me being the first I ever got out of the blue from something i wrote!! made my day when I saw it and probably my year]

Locked In - Ahaha I bet you forgot about this gift shop trio one i wrote. You thought I forgot about this gift shop one I wrote? (i mean i kind of did but...)

Being honest, writing this one's been on the backburner of my mind for a bit while I've been working on a lot of other projects, but there's like a couple really cool scenes I just wanna get to one day that keeps me from dropping this entirely. So I'm assuring you now that if you care, it's NOT abandoned dw!!

Love Love Love - The latest one! (not counting the tropes collection, which I won't talk about here). Anyways I had a lot more to say about this but ill keep it sorta brief.

This one was a huge departure from what I usually write. My usual mindset when I write, whether I’m conscious of it or not, is “if I’m not smiling or laughing, it’s not good.” I always wanna slip at least some levity or comedic absurdity in whatever I make, because that just makes me happy, yknow. And when I’m giggling at a line I wrote that probably means at least one other reader out there would find it funny too. So when I write depressing shit, I’m kind of at a loss of how to gauge its quality. I can’t tell if someone finds it too edgy or not edgy at all, or melodramatic or lazy writing or whatever. Maybe that’s just insecurity talking, but whatever's the case I just have a hard time writing non-comedy. So I always wanna slip just a little bit of it into whatever I’m doing.

Lovex3 straight up has nothing funny tho. There’s like one or two jokes and that’s it. It's one of the most emotional, grounded things I've written for this wack ass mobile game, hell, possibly one of the most emotional things I've written, period. And it was hard getting it rolling.

But once I did, I kid you not, I finished the entirety of it in two days. (Editing and posting took a little longer, but shit was like the blitz compared to other times I wrote)

Wow ok that wasn't brief at all lol. Anyways heres:

The part where i briefly mention new stuff ill post soon(ish)

But I'll make it quick cuz this post is getting long

Danganbrawlpa - Yeahhh, remember that post I made about me thinking of it?

Here's a treat if you actually made it through lol. It’s super unfinished and not all scenes are done, but itll give a good idea of what to expect i think. I'll make a dedicated post about soon but here's a sneak peek.

Bail Day/Larry's Inferno - Bunching these two together cuz they're both abt the security twins (Primarily Lawrie and primarily Larry respectively). I wanted to get these out by 2025 but oh well, life got other plans. These will be out sometime (i hope).

stuff that isnt bs at all - uh, if the words "interactive fiction" and the acronym “COG” rings a bell for any of you like a sleeper agent, first of all—I love you—and second of all that means you might know the non-bs thing im starting to write a bit for. dm me if u do!! (i need betas pls)