Tag: anonymous

A pair of titles, if that’s okay? I Am a Rock (I am an Island), and I am a Rock (On Top of the Sand). They’re both references to songs, Simon and Garfunkel’s “I am a Rock” and Mother Mother’s “Wrecking Ball”, respectively. But I was thinking that they’d make a good set of titles for a comparison between Naruto and Gaara, and dealing with themes of isolation and building on unsteady foundations (except that sand is not unsteady for Gaara)?

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…

I probably should have responded to this earlier, anon, but I think this is one of those cases where there’s not much for me to do in response to this prompt seeing as how you already have an idea for what you want for these fic titles.

Sorry, anon.

Don’t get me wrong, I love these titles and the way you’ve set them up as companion character studies between Naruto and Gaara. But I don’t think I can do anything with them.

It looks like you’ve got the beginning of a fantastic series of fics and I for one would love to read it if you go on and write them, anon. You have a pretty clear idea and you’ve put a lot of thought into it. I don’t think I’m needed at all here.

(If you like, you can try sending in another prompt even though the event is closed, and hopefully I can answer that one.)

“all you have to do is stay” – dos shikako-centric team 7 please?

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… mrgh…

I can’t just do a wanderlust!Team Seven, or a wanderlust!Shikako with the rest of Team Seven kind of waiting patiently for her, because I already wrote those and it’s a little too on the nose, isn’t it? So a more abstract interpretation of the title…

I’ve also already done time travel (to different eras, and for different characters and AUs)…

You know for some reason this title reminds me of Watches ‘verse by bendingsignpost. (It’s a BBC Sherlock fic in which John Watson revolves through four different realities whenever he falls asleep. It makes more sense in the fic, and because it was written/finished before season 3 it’s great)

Because what’s better than Shikako stressed out by the oncoming dangerous future? Shikako stressed out by FOUR oncoming dangerous futures. 😀 (My heart’s beginning to beat faster just thinking of it because I’m so horrified by the thought but also, perversely, delighted).

So I guess I’d borrow a little from Reshuffle the Deck for alternative realities mostly because the only thing I can think of that would be Shikako’s most immediate/visible difference would be her genin team.

So one is canon DoS, in which Shikako is on Team Seven with Naruto and Sasuke. One is probably Team Medic!AU!AU, where she is on Team One with Youbirin Nohara and Jiro Watanabe (because this would be a good outsider/baseline/boring reality, I think).

One would probably be the “I’m going to interfere in everything early on” reality–the Cloud v Hyuuga issue, Danzo and the Uchiha massacre, going full on prodigy–to various degrees of success and would thus lead to the most nerve-wracking reality of being on a team with Kabuto.

And the last one would… well, in Watches ‘verse, John has two “calm” realities to offset the more exciting ones and one of them he doesn’t join the army, so I guess I can mirror that in which she doesn’t become a shinobi. Whether that means she goes to the civilian school or the Fire Temple is kind of up in the air. Hm… probably civilian school because that way she’d stay in Konoha? Then again, having the monks of the Fire Temple basically act as her therapists in an alternate reality (and also a surprisingly strong ally against Akatsuki with the heads up) is very satisfying, too. Danzo can’t touch her here. She’s safe.

So on top of being reincarnated from a different world, Shikako’s got another secret of rotating through different realities. On the one hand, quadruple the amount of things to keep track of, but on the other hand she can use the different realities to plan ahead. Ironically, I now realize that one of the repeated phrases in Watches ‘verse is that John “no longer dreams” and DoS is titled… well… Dreaming of Sunshine… so… O_O

Anyway, here’s the summary:

All You Have To Do (Is Stay)

She wakes up in a different reality, in a different body, in a different life. She goes to sleep thinking she is dreaming–or tries to, anyway.

She wakes up, and wakes up, and wakes up, and realizes she will never dream again.

“Hanabi loses some dignity,” lol. I feel like Hanabi has dignity coming out of her ears, losing a little basically doesn’t hurt her at all. Like, she hates it, desperately, and mourns every little shred of dignity that is cruelly torn from her grasp, but usually gains something a little more useful to her than a little extra dignity in a child who could shame the pope with regards to how dignified she is.

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Oh, yeah, her losing some dignity is actually a good thing in this case. She has, if possible, too much dignity. Has this child ever laughed out loud? No, she’s too dignified, too much pressure from the Hyuuga clan. But you know what? That’s not the way of Konoha.

Also, I kinda like the idea of Hanabi ending up like covered in paint or something and everyone stares at her worried she’s going to explode in anger, but she just starts laughing.

fake fic title – the homework. may it involve iruka somehow.

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I know I’ve already referenced The Hangover over in this fake fic title brainstorm but just the title alone for this one feels more Hangover-esque.

So I’m thinking pre-graduation for Team Ebisu (Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon) and Team Hana (Hanabi, Chiyako, and Ranmaru) on a field trip / survival training / group project of sorts with Iruka-sensei as the bewildered chaperone.

And while they’re not on par with Team Seven, these six are a heady mixture ready to blow. So maybe it’s something like six soon to be genin are sent on a D-rank mission–considering rising tensions and potential war on the horizon, official genin are being used on more critical missions and students are being transitioned into proper mission etiquette, etc. etc.

Anyway, temporary Team Iruka shenanigans. On the one hand, Iruka is very responsible so he shouldn’t lose track of his team (like a certain elite jounin who will not be named), but on the other hand the six students he has on his temporary team are very… strong-willed. And powerful.

Poor Iruka. He probably thought he was done with the chaos when Konoha Twelve graduated. -_-

I’m not sure what D-rank is… I mean catching Tora the cat seems like the obvious choice, but with a Hyuuga and an Aburame and four other to-be-genin, it would be overkill wouldn’t it? Then again, that’s the only D-rank mission iconic enough to be shenanigans-filled so…

Yeah. I mean, its the Inuzuka that really make catching Tora a cakewalk, and since this is without Hana as jounin sensei, it would be enough of a challenge. It’s not as if the Hyuuga train to specifically tell different cats apart, and I feel like Chiyako’s hives are a little more combat specialized than tracking specialized. I mean, still some tracking because kikaichu, but not as good as Shino.

So catching Tora. This damn cat has gotten especially wily over the years and its not like Konoha bystanders are going to help temporary Team Iruka with it (its a right of passage, and no one else wants to touch that hell cat) no matter how fond of Iruka-sensei everyone is.

I don’t know what else specifically I want from this story. So here’s a summary to finish things off:

The Homework

Team Iruka receive the mission to find Tora the cat with the biggest stakes on the line:

No, not impressing the Fire Lady, passing the class!

(Or, Konohamaru accidentally spends a day with his uncle, Moegi fights her fears, Udon learns more about himself, Ranmaru makes a new friend, Hanabi loses some dignity, Chiyako takes a chance, and Iruka-sensei can’t catch a break.)

Ahh! Your last post was so sad! Is Haru watching over them? Was she able to move on?

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Thanks! Sad is what I was going for (sad seems to be what I go for a lot…) 😀

I think Haru was very careful to make sure she wouldn’t end up a ghost–there’s a reason why she was so surprisingly successful/got away with so much in life, and that’s because she was one of the most (if not, the most) powerful medium in Japan. Hikaru’s ability, while stronger than her grandfather’s hazy sight, was still passive and so there’s no guarantee that someone would be there to help her move on if she died.

She might have done a final ghostly goodbye, but she didn’t linger on for too long. Also, seeing as how she dies because of Kira, she wouldn’t want to stay around a shinigami (as human she didn’t like it, much less as a ghost.)

shikaara, “call on your angels”

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Anon, this was one of the more difficult yet compelling prompts I have received during this event. It’s such a seemingly simple phrase and yet evokes such specific imagery that I could not figure out what to do for a good three days. Like a nice mental puzzle I could ponder on while things got slow at work.

Angels, anon. Angels! Unless you meant the Charlie’s Angels franchise, then there’s only really one other reference that could be. And it’s not all that compatible with the culture of the Naruto world, so I know the fake fic has to be either an AU of some sort and/or a metaphorical “angels.”

And the Shikaara aspect! I will be the first to admit I am a Shikaara shipper, anon, but it’s a surprisingly tangling part of this prompt. In order to stay… not in character, but accurately relative to each other… Shikako and Gaara have to be from different places. Whether that be countries as in canon or in various AUs–schools, teams, departments, etc–and in my head I’m just like:

Are they enemies that can summon and battle each other with angels? Is one of them the guardian angel of the other and gets frequently summoned to do battle on their behalf? Why am I thinking about battling angels? I mean, actual legit angels are frightening flaming wheels of millions of eyes so that might be cool and horrifying to watch do battle. Wait. What?

Then I thought, hm, what about that reverse/remix of Stories of Ancient Gods–aka, instead of Final Fantasy VII being the distant past of DoS, DoS is the distant past of FFVII. Shikako’s Gelel stone means she can be summoned in the future to help stop Sephiroth/Jenova, whereas the bijuu are the WEAPONs and the jinchuuriki their humanoid avatars. But then that kind of got away from me and it just didn’t sit right.

And then I considered something like the Inuyasha-esque fusion–fully aware of the irony–but with Gelel instead? Like canon!Suna people are in the Gelel Empire and Shikako travels back in time to that era while researching the Dead Wastes and it’s Shikako displaced in time. Which led me to a slightly tweaked version that became Atlantis: The Lost Empire featuring Milo!Shikako and Kida!Gaara–and the rest of Konoha Twelve as the crew of misfits.

So… yeah. An AtlantisxDoS fusion… Never mind that I’m pretty sure Uzushio is the Naruto world equivalent of Atlantis… anyway.

Call On Your Angels

Shikako and her crew of destructive but lovable misfits brave the Dead Wastes in search of the Lost Empire of Gelel.

Action! Adventure! Romance! Betrayal?

I think, instead of Shikako being conscripted onto the crew and being caught off guard when their mercenary ways are revealed, there’s a bit of Ocean’s Eleven mixed into it? Or Inception.

Like, Haido (Orochimaru?) drops major funds on Shikako’s research and she goes and recruits her friends because THIS IS A ONCE IN A LIFETIME OPPORTUNITY, GUYS, COME ON. And, well, even if it turns out to be looking at a bunch of rocks that is a lot of money and they could use  a distraction etc. etc.

Except, you know, instead of rocks it’s an entire slowly dying nation because the secret behind the Gelel stones have been forgotten.

Like in Atlantis, Haido/Orochimaru does also hire an entire division of soldiers (nameless thugs with either Temujin or Kabuto as second in command) who do the whole “seize the power crystals/princess and auction the livelihood of the nation off to the highest bidder” thing. But I mean. A bunch of nameless thugs versus Konoha Twelve? Come on.

Sorry anon, I know it doesn’t really match the title, but I just really love that movie and this fusion was the only thing that even vaguely satisfied the constant poking and prodding at your prompt.

apart from shikako and tetsuki, who do you think would be in qprs in the dos verse (or any of your aus) i also agree with the qpp you chose for shikako and i think it would work in an au not decorated with daily death or alive situations. maybe shikako would be in a qpr with both ino and sasuke but ino and sasuke themselves are just friends (or at least until they get to know each other better) if she considered it. (my second choices for shikako’s qpp was essentially naruto/gaara because (1/2)

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maybe not necessarily in dos canon, but in your aus focusing on their relationships, it is easy to interpret their relationship as “more than friendship, but not less than romantic, just something different” (and there i would talk about alterous attraction but i haven’t really explored that term myself a lot more) (2/2)

Oh! I did not know about the term alterous, but I think that’s how I interpret Shikaara–as an ambiguous mix between platonic and romantic. Of course, not in canon but in a canon adjacent AU such as Dreaming of S(omething).

I think Naruto and Shikako are very platonic. Even in my post-series Waking Up Starstruck (which is my attempt to do a Narukako ship) it’s still not all that romantic. And not even because of my interpretation of Shikako as aro/demi, but because I cannot for the life of me understand Naruto’s character. He and I just are not simpatico. :/ I love him but I do not understand him. I don’t know if they would even have a QPR or maintain their less intense friendship.

Naruto and Sasuke’s relationship is too steeped in canon for me to disentangle (SasuNaru was one of my “Baby’s First Ships”) so I don’t know if they would have a QPR or a romantic relationship… But I do think Naruto and Haku would have a fantastic QPR in a canon adjacent AU, so at least I know him that much, right?

Let’s see, who else…

As Ino’s co-spouses, Sakura and Sai are not romantic with each other, but they do develop a sweet QPR which is very nice for their triad marriage.

I imagine Team Gai are not romantically interested in each other, but they are the closest thing they all have to family which would easily translate to QPRs. Especially when they’re older and their personalities have matured.

Actually, yeah, if I’m not restricting myself to canon. Then in a canon adjacent AU, that Kiba+Shikako QPR would definitely exist.

Oh, in the Team Medic!AU (Team One with Sakura, Youbirin, and Jiro passed with a combat medic jounin sensei)–or, at least, the How To Adult Properly series based on it–Team One definitely have QPR because they have no boundaries with each other.

I don’t know who else, this is a big question. There are so many characters that’s like an infinite number of combinations so…

But I do appreciate your question, so thanks for asking, anon 🙂

!!! im also aromantic and in the ace-spectrum and when SQ said that romance was not a thing that’s going to happen in DOS smh i got really happy, i’ve gotten so attached to shikako that i actually headcanon her as aromantic as well and would rather see her in queerplatonic relationships rather than romantic ones (though i can see why the shipping thread in the forums is lively) who do you think would shikako be QPRs with?

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I actually quite appreciate that there isn’t any romance in DoS. Which might sound off considering a lot of my DoS fanfic does revolve around various ships, but I’m relieved that canon DoS doesn’t.

My interpretation of Shikako in canon is also aromantic–though for shipping/fic writing purposes I tend to extend that to demi-romantic. Then again, considering how mild my writing expression of romance is, all of my shipping fic could be interpreted as queerplatonic? But I understand what you’re saying (my Trailblazer character Tetsuki is qpp with Ryohei Sasagawa) so let’s see…

I think Shikako and Ino are one step away from a canonical QPR… but it’s one of those “in a kinder world” sort of situation. Even without the oncoming war, both of them (or, at least, Ino does) have clan responsibilities, and I do think Ino is a romantic at heart. She would want a romantic relationship (not necessarily with Shikako, per se) and while I know QPRs aren’t incompatible with romantic relationships, that’s a lot of people to juggle since I do really quite like the triad of Sakura/Ino/Sai (which is at least 2/3 canonical for Naruto and could very well be completely canonical in DoS?) 

Alternatively the only other character who I think Shikako is closest to a canonical QPR with is Sasuke. But the problem with that is I cannot help but headcanon that Sasuke is in love with Shikako most likely romantically. So while it’s platonic on Shikako’s end, it’s probably romantic on Sasuke’s, and I don’t think she’d be comfortable with deepening their friendship into a QPR for fear of breaking Sasuke’s heart by not being able to reciprocate his romantic feelings.

Who else… I don’t know. I would have considered Kiba before but not particularly recently and not more than Ino and Sasuke… Yeah. Those are the most canonical potential QPRs.

this is weird but i enjoy reading any dos au by you, even if i don’t ship the ship (if it’s about a ship thing) but enjoy the general stuff too!! my favorite au so far is the friendship is a mutual con verse!!

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It’s not weird at all–or if it is, then I must be weird for being flattered! It’s one of those “how much do writers write for themselves or because of their readers” matters: A lot of my readers are here because of my DoS stuff, so they prompt more DoS stuff so I generate more and its a very cyclical, sustained process. If there were less prompts for DoS then I’d probably stray into other fandoms more often or work on some of my original fic–not because I enjoy those more than DoS stuff, but because I have a problem focusing and committing to any one thing at a time unless prompted. 

Anyway.

Thanks, anon! I’m glad you like my brainstorms 🙂 When it comes to ships I think I enjoy them more as the character equivalent of crossovers/fusions than as actual romantic relationships. So more of a “how do these two characters get along” than a “I want these two characters to smooch.” Whether that’s because I’m aro-ace or because I love world-building and “ship-building” is a step away from that, I’m not sure…

Friendship is a (Mutual) Con ‘verse is heavily based on the show Leverage which I cannot recommend more (it’s on both Netflix and Hulu) 

Fake Fic: Bridge Over Troubled Water – Stars Also Dream

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Hm… this has to be an alternate!POV of Stars Also Dream or a prequel of it. Outside!POV of young Jedi!Yoshino, probably back and forth between Bant and Obi-Wan.

I think maybe Bant’s reluctance/pickiness about her padawan has always been a point of contention between her and Obi-Wan. Especially since he almost aged out of padawan-hood, but also because he stepped up and took on Anakin even though he had only just recently become a knight himself.

There are other canonical points of contention in their friendship beside that (Obi-Wan possibly being indirectly responsible for her first master’s death) but I wonder how much Bant knew about the future that was coming.

Did she know that Anakin would lead to the downfall of the Jedi? Did she know that Obi-Wan would be indirectly responsible for an even greater tragedy than just Master Tahl? Did she know that, one day, far in the future Obi-Wan and Yoshino would be two of the last few Jedi in existence? That Obi-Wan would get to see her padawan as an adult, as a knight, as someone who had grown beyond Bant’s own reach while Bant herself only gets Yoshino for a few scant years. How unfair that Obi-Wan and Anakin get over a decade and ruin it for everyone else.

Alternatively, maybe Obi-Wan has visions about Yoshino. And because he can’t comprehend the context–of a Yoshino crash landed on a hidden planet post Order 66 and rise of Darth Vader–all he sees is Bant’s little, sweet faced padawan as an adult covered in blood and without a lightsaber.

Are both Bant and Obi-Wan suspicious of the others’ padawan?

And while Yoshino was starstruck by The Hero With No Fear, I wonder if Anakin might have also gotten Force feelings from Yoshino during their one meeting. She’s not going to be his downfall, but he can’t destroy her.

Which he shrugs off because, first of all, why would he even try to destroy this tiny padawan (ahahaha… haha… goddamnit Anakin), second of all, how could said tiny padawan possibly withstand the full power/ability of Anakin?

Basically, a bunch of criss-crossing suspicions in the not-really-but-kinda Jedi family of Bant and Obi-Wan as siblings and Yoshino and Anakin as cousins.

Bridge Over Troubled Water

Bant stands on the edge of loss, looking down. Anakin takes, uncaring. Obi-Wan suspects the wrong people. And Yoshino doesn’t know yet that she can lose everything.

I don’t know how the timing of Ahsoka as Anakin’s padawan would match up in all this. Then again, she and Yoshino might have been initiates at the same time so…