verloren1983 | Blind_Go Aftermath- The "What the Hell Was I Thinking" Post

(This is totally fandom related. For those of you who are not interested, I'd suggest you skip this one. :D)

I haven't done one of these in quite a while, but I thought that this last round of

blind_go was the perfect round to do it again. Because... yeah, I feel like I have the distinct need to explain myself. <_<

As you guys know, now that reveals are up, I was onigokko and I ended up writing two fics this time. (Somehow it seems like I almost always end up around the middle of the pack. Funny how that works out.) While I actually didn't hate either of them (shock!), I was nervous about posting both for entirely different reasons.

Home
This was actually the bunny I got first, but wrote last- about 12 hours before deadline, as a matter of fact. I hadn't wanted to write it... you guys know, I spent a good month or two whining about how I had a bunny but didn't want to write it. It was actually a bunch of songs that gave me ideas for several of the scenes. For the curious, they were Wonderful by Everclear, Walk a Little Straighter by Billy Currington, Father of Mine by Everclear, and Fucking Perfect by P!nk. It's only a little obvious which songs go with which sections. XD It's kind of become my head canon for Kaga now. It really does explain quite a bit about Kaga and it fills in some of the blanks of his past. I mean. Think about it this way:

1) We know his father is an asshole- at the very least, emotionally abusive. So who's to say there's not more backstory there?
2) Kaga is WAY too ripped at 14 for a guy that spends most of his free time sitting at a shougi board. Just saying.
3) Despite what they make you think at first, Kaga isn't a bad guy. Kind of a jackass at times, sure. Arrogant, hell yes. Bad? No. I feel like a lot of the bluster is mostly for show. Like he purposely tries to keep people from getting too close emotionally- though Hikaru and Tsutsui kind of sneak in underneath all that wind.
4) People who bully often have problems at home. Also, they tend to have been bullied themselves. Since Kaga doesn't seem like the type to take shit from someone close to his own age, it stands to reason that it would've been an adult.

So that's what I was mulling over when I was trying to figure out whether to write this or not and whether it had any plausibility. I think it does. I will say, though, that once I decided that I would try to write it for

blind_go , it just... kind of poured out. I don't write fast at all, most of you know that. But this? Over 1600 words in 12 hours. Less than, even, because I'm easily distracted by shiny things and I had to take breaks to flail every once in a while. I could totally write more in this universe, I think, but the bulk of the story is done.

I did kind of strong-arm Pye into putting a warning on it for

blind_go , even though they usually only warn for NC-17, which I feel slightly bad about. But only slightly. Triggering is not something I take lightly, and fic like this can trigger some people. I felt very strongly at the time that it should have a warning for that. I still do.

And yes, I know it got a little overly sappy at the end. I apologize. That's part of the reason I was worried about this one. The other reason was that I was afraid people would react badly. This is... not generally the kind of fic that shows up in Hikago fandom. :/ Still, in retrospect, the Kaga/Tsutsui was probably a dead giveaway for me. There's not too many people that write it.

Also I've gotten way too used to writing in past tense and the decision to write it in the present was a BITCH. I still missed a few tense changes. >_<

Hikaru, Waya, and the Old Man- A Somewhat Fractured Fairytale
What is it with my fascination with long titles? My favorite titles of mine tend to be long ones (See: "Clubbing 101, Or How to Avoid A Stubborn Korean" and "Kaga's Famous Story Cures for the Ill (Or Maybe Not)") Clearly I thought I was being clever.

This one took a few days. I'm not sure where the bunny came from- it was one of those that just kind of sneak-attacked me from out of freaking nowhere. Obviously, it's a reworking of Hansel and Gretel. I had toyed with the idea of making Ogata the antagonist, but decided against it, which actually worked out rather nicely in the end, much to my surprise. (Also I thought I made it more obvious that it was Ogata... upon re-reading, I found it wasn't. For anyone that was wondering, that's Ogata at the end, and hence why Hikaru went all "..." FAIL, VER. I'll have to fix that when I archive it.

It was totally NOT planned that Hikaru and Waya talked through the whole freaking thing. I was originally just going to write the story... but then the muses would not shut the hell up when I started writing, almost from the getgo. I ignored it for a while, but then I thought it might be amusing and worked their stuff in. THAT was actually my big concern with this one. Writing comedy stuff is always nervewracking for me because I tend to have a warped sense of humor. Just because -I- think it's funny, that doesn't mean anyone else will. I was more than a little afraid that it would sound like I was trying too hard to be clever or funny and it would fall flat on its face. Kind of like with Home, though, the dialogue in this probably gave me away. Meh. (Also, Chrome, dialogue is spelled correctly. Stop red underlining it.)

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Alright, that's enough about MY fic. As far as other people's fic... I'll be honest here and say that there were a few that I skimmed. The closer to the end of the list you were, the more likely it was that I partly read, partly skimmed through. I put off reading the bulk of stuff until the last minute because I'm an idiot, and I wanted to read everything to guess before deadline. ^_^;;;; I managed to comment on everything, too. So there's a few that I need to read again. That being said, quality this round was quite good and I can honestly say that I liked everything save for one. You guys can probably figure out which one that was. That's really all I care to say about that. "If you can't say nothin' nice, don't say nothin' at all."

I need to go to bed- I have to at least make an attempt at doing laundry when I get up, since I've failed to do it now. Whoops. I should probably respond to comments tomorrow too before I forget like I usually do. XD

~~Edit: RARGH. Cutting is finally working again, but the whole thing has a white background that I most definitely did not add. WHY DO YOU HATE ME, DW? WHYYYYYYYY?~~

Edit 2: Fixed. *stabs at DW* STOP FUCKING WITH MY HTML, GOD DAMN IT.