catsbythegreat | Entries tagged with fic meta

I need a title for this thing, but anyway...ever since last year, I've been planning on writing a multi-chaptered Psycho-Pass au for Bungo Stray Dogs. I made an outline and then left it for a variety of reasons, the most pressing being that I had two multi-chapter fics going on at the same time. I still do, but I want to finish one by March and the new Psycho-Pass material is coming out later this month, so it would be nice to post the first chapter of the fic at that point.

I ended up writing a one-shot in October that was meant to be a prequel for this fic, but without really looking at the outline. In the outline, I hadn't put Dazai and Chuuya's backstories, so this fic was basically that. What I didn't know is that the fic completely threw off the original outline.

I went to check it today to start writing and just realized that, and have had to redo the outline. I'm actually happier with this outline, because in the first one there were things happening that I don't really understand, like making the Port Mafia the main antagonist when I didn't really want to. I think it's because the outline was written before Dead Apple/Fifteen, so while I used inspiration from those two in the prequel fic, I hadn't used it in the outline. Now that I know more about a lot of things, I can use those things in the new outline.

Both versions start with Odasaku's death though!

I think the second outline can actually ask more interesting questions with Chuuya's background being what it now is, so that'll be fun. And now that I know more about Fyodor, I can write him. I recently rewatched s1 of Psycho-Pass and Fyodor and Makishima are pretty similar, though their objectives would be different. Shibusawa is useful in his own way, too. I can use the theme of him collecting things.

I'm really excited to write the fic! It's a challenge for me since it's more plot/world building focused even if I'm using someone else's world. I still have to mould it into a way that fits the BSD characters, and I have to actually make the plot work, which is hard. Plot is not my thing, but fanfic is good for developing skills and this is a fun way to do it. I can only hope it's satisfying to people who like both BSD and Psycho-Pass!

Thinking about my figure skating fics: I’ve never paid attention to nationals before (aside from US nationals in 2014 and 2018) so I didn’t realize that Japanese Nationals had 29 men competing…which is a lot…that’s like 5 groups of people (Russia had 3 if I’m doing my math right.) That means the whole thing is 4+ hours long, and I never thought about where Chuuya would’ve been injured during that whole time.

In a lot of competitions the skaters who have the best results from previous competitions are in the final group, but for this one it’s a completely random draw. So in theory Chuuya could’ve been the first skater or the last one, but I had him skating right after Dazai. Which actually, luckily for my fic, isn’t impossible because in this year’s nationals, Shoma Uno, Keiji Tanaka, and Daisuke Takahashi all drew the same group (Group 4) and they are 3 of the 5/6 skaters from Japan who people have been watching internationally all season. A few people are also predicting that those three might make up the podium (or at least, Daisuke and Shoma will.)

This doesn’t change anything about the fic other than me thinking about where in a four hour competition would Chuuya injure himself. The only big injury I saw this season happened to the last skaters. If I had to pick, Chuuya probably would’ve fallen in the second half of the four hour time period, but not in the last group.

This also makes me think about what position Chuuya prefers to skate in. On the one hand, if you skate at the beginning of your group, you don’t have to go in after someone who had an amazing skate that throws you off. But then you have to wait to see if anyone manages to beat your score. If you go at the end, you know where you stand right away.

He probably prefers to skate later, but not directly after someone really good. So he would want to skate after Dazai but he wouldn’t want to be the next skater after Dazai. He wouldn’t mind being last as long as the person before him wasn’t amazing.

So I was going to post about my BSD figure skating au here and in looking for my post from last year about that AU I found a whole post about a figure skating winter Olympics AU for Haikyuu from four years ago. I completely forgot up until this moment that I ever did anything with figure skating for Haikyuu, and then Ama asked if there was anything I would change looking back, so I decided to take a look at this and see if I would. I haven't written for Haikyuu in a long time but who knows? I've gone back to some old fandoms occasionally and it isn't like I'm not still a fan of Haikyuu. I'm just bad at writing for more than one fandom at a time. The original post in its entirety is here.

So first off, I didn't make everyone figure skaters. Only three of them are, and they're all setters. The first one is Kageyama:

Kageyama is the new genius on the block. All his routines are pretty much technically flawless, though his artistry lacks a bit. But he’s one of the few men’s figure skaters who can make a quad look effortless, and he’s always always always doing the hardest routine out of anyone competing. He’s the favorite for gold, he’s won the last two national championships and the last world championship. But he’s easily angered and sometimes he can overdo it, which leads to more artistic mistakes in his program, like getting ahead or behind the music, or ignoring the music completely and just doing the moves. Think Yuzuru Hanyu (who won Sochi gold and broke several points records.)

I would not change this. One thing I would say is that Yuzuru Hanyu is (obviously) a lot more artistically inclined, but in terms of determination and ambition Kageyama would be like Yuzuru, considering Yuzuru is the most driven and ambitious skater I can think of to the point of trying to skate past injury. He's gotten better about it (Yuzuru), but it's taken him years to get to a place where he can do that. Kageyama would also take years to calm the fuck down. That being said Yuzuru isn't without mistakes, particularly when he's decided to skate with an injury or when unwell, which I think is something Kageyama would do.

Next was Suga:

Sugawara has been in this slightly longer than Kageyama. They actually train together, and while Suga provides calming support for Kageyama, what Kageyama doesn’t know is that Suga almost quit after Kageyama started training with him. It was a combination of figure skating being an isolating sport (and Suga needs people) and seeing how good Kageyama was and getting scared that he’d never surpass him. He’d come in third during the last two nationals and didn’t even place above fifth at worlds. But he has Daichi to encourage him, and now he’s more determined than ever to do his best. Because he didn’t spend all those years training to just give up. Suga seems to know everyone who’s ever set foot on an ice rink in Japan, and he’s pretty much friends with all of them. Or polite to all of them. Some of them are his competition, even though they’re on the same team, and that’s a lot to wrap his mind around. Suga’s skating style is not perfect technically–he struggles with quads and other jumps when he gets flustered–but his artistry wins over crowds and judges alike. Think Jason Brown (this year’s US Champion!)

I agree with this fully. I think Suga would skate like Jason Brown, and I think the way figure skating is him and Kageyama's relationship to each other would make sense. There is so much focus on technical content with regards to jumps that people like Jason Brown have struggled in the past few years, with others surpassing them with those quads in terms of points. But this year's change in rules has highlighted how valuable it is to execute your elements well so that people like Jason shine over people with quads who make a lot of mistakes or sacrifice some artistry in their programs because of those quads. Anyway, Suga would be that person, and like Jason he has a really positive personality!

And then there was Oikawa, the last figure skater in this AU:

Oikawa is a born and bred champion, or so he tells himself. He acts like it, though, and he has the talent to back it up. He’s intense, spends long hours practicing, and takes Kageyama’s genius as a personal challenge. He resents coming in second in the last two national championships to Kageyama, and third in the last world championships to Kageyama’s first. They also have a deep seated rivalry from when Oikawa beat Kageyama at Junior Worlds years ago, and they both put too much importance on that one event. His skill level is somewhere between Kageyama and Sugawara. Oikawa is really good at getting inside the heads of his opponents. His favorite way to piss off Kageyama is by going up to him and saying, “But we’re on the same team Tobio-chan. Be nice to meee!” He’s also really good at charming the judges, and he excels at navigating the politics of the sport. Think Evan Lysacek (2010 Olympic Gold)

I haven't watched Evan Lysacek anything since then I don't think, so if I had to compare him to someone more recent it would probably be Nathan Chen. Oikawa is the guy who would go to a top university AND try to skate at the elite level AND still win gold at the major competitions. In terms of being like both, Oikawa would value being a technical expert over the more artistic aspects of the sport. His personality wouldn't be like either one of them aside from his drive and charm.

Hinata was a speed skater. I don't know anything about speed skating but here is what I wrote:

Hinata, who’s a speed-skater. He’s really really fast but he has an issue with balance and falling and crashing into walls. But if he can control that, he can probably get gold. Hinata has a weird rivalry with Kageyama because they train in the same ice skating complex and challenged each other to a race once. Hinata accidentally crashed into Kageyama at high speed and nearly caused both of them season-ending injuries. He insists that he would’ve won that race, but Kageyama insists that Hinata is useless at his sport if he can’t even beat a figure skating at speed skating. Hinata has vowed to win a gold Olympic medal before Kageyama.

I'm down with that I think. I'm sure there are figure skaters Hinata would be like and honestly he'd probably be a really great jumper but I like him as a speed skater because I like the idea that he and Kageyama are in completely different disciplines and yet are still rivals.

Everyone else was hockey players because despite not knowing a thing about hockey I decided that they should be. I guess I didn't want to lose the team aspect of Haikyuu because that's part of what makes it so good. Daichi is still the team captain and he's a goalie. Nishinoya plays defense if that's even a position -- whether or not it is, it's what he's good at. Asahi scores the most goals, but more gently than you'd think was possible. I have no idea which ship I was going for with this but given what I was writing at the time, it was probably a Suga ship and probably either daisuga and oisuga.

It's funny to think that I was already thinking of figure skating au's four years ago, back when I first got into figure skating, and then completely forgot that I had done that. It's interesting to see what I was thinking back then, and it's also nice that two of those three skaters are still really active and successful.

Dog Run is one of my few Soukoku fics that can be categorized as fluff. In the fic, Chuuya is a dog walker who takes Akutagawa's dog, Rashomon, to a dog park every day because Rashomon needs to be walked for an hour. While he's there one day hanging out in the Big Dog section (because Rashomon hates the little dog section) he meets a dog named Tiger and his owner, Dazai. Rashomon and Tiger strike up a friendship but Chuuya is less than thrilled to have to spend time with Tiger's annoying owner.

This was a Valentine's Day fic and I figured fluff would be best. Also, at that point in time I was working as a dog walker in New York City. A lot of this fic is inspired by that, since that was pretty much all I was doing (besides office work) for the few months before that.

Dog walking (and pet sitting) is actually a really interesting business. In a place like NYC, which is saturated with dog walking businesses, there's quite a bit of competition. A good portion of the people you see walking dogs are probably not the owners. And the dogs are EVERYWHERE. I was walking dogs in the last place I expected to be walking them: the Wall Street area. These were some rich dogs.

Most of the dogs weren't allowed in dog parks for safety reasons. The owners had to sign a special waiver because off leash activity is always risky. But occasionally, some dogs were allowed in the dog parks and for some, it was actually the better option. Especially dogs who had hour long walks.

The standard walk time for the dogs I walked was 20-30 minutes. An hour is usually for a really, really active dog, and even them lots of people would just have two half hour or twenty minute walks per day.

One dog that I ran backup for had a thirty minute walk in the morning and an hour walk in the afternoon. For the hour walk, we would go to the nearby dog park and I'd sit and watch him play in the small dog section. This dog is who Rashomon is based off of. He was a small, scraggly dog with an underbite. He looked nothing like most of the pure bread dogs, and he had an interesting personality. When I entered the apartment, he'd be standing on the couch to be at eye level with me. He barked at skateboards and he had to stop and sniff (and pee) on everything. He would also follow other dogs around but not really engage directly with them. And if another dog came over to me, this dog would also come over and ask for attention.

Basically, he was adorable in a quirky way. That's kind of how I pictured a dog that Akutagawa would own. Rashomon is a black terrier type of dog who likes attention but doesn't like to admit it, and wants to play with the big boys but doesn't know how to socialize.

After spending a few afternoons with my personal Rashomon at the dog park, I realized that people actually met each other there and were friends. There were a few regulars I noticed, and they seemed to have a little community going on. I thought it would make for a nice meet-cute setting, since dogs are cute and most people at the dog park are nice.

Chuuya's reluctance to walk around with Rashomon for an hour is a very real reluctance of mine. Dog walking is TIRING and if you're walking more than one per day, walking to the different apartment buildings and stuff like that, it takes a lot out of you. Being able to go to a dog park instead of walking for a straight hour is a blessing because you can sit and let the dog have all the fun he or she wants. I don't think I've ever actually done a full hour walk with a dog without a dog park nearby.

Chuuya doing the job to make money despite it not being what he really wants is a bit of projecting on my part. Some people genuinely want to be dog walkers as their career. It's a fun job and you get to be active. But at the same time, you don't make a lot of money and in certain cities it's not enough to live on. You can't really apply those skills to any other job. And it's time consuming and unpredictable.

Still, DOGS! I wanted the dogs in this fic to be characters in their own right because all the dogs I've walked have had very distinct and prominent personalities. I knew that before, but I really didn't know how true it was until I started working with a bunch of different dogs on a daily basis.

There were a lot of problems with my job, but I really enjoyed writing this fic and making it fluffy and talking about some of the nice parts of dog walking.

I guess I'll also use this blog to write about the process of fic writing for some fics. At least, the ones that have more interesting backstories.

So my most recent SKK fic, Do No Harm is a pandemic AU. I say where I got the idea in the notes, but even further than that, this kind of topic of contagious diseases and pandemics is a huge interest to me. Pathology is actually also a huge interest to me. I'm not good at science and I don't know a lot of the science behind a lot of diseases, but I still find it really fascinating.

The disease in "Do No Harm" is a hemorrhagic fever (rather than the Spanish flu as originally suggested to me.) Hemorrhagic fevers are scary because of the bleeding they cause both inside and out. The most recent outbreak of hemorrhagic fever was Ebola in several countries in Africa, and I'd say that Ebola is the most well-known hemorrhagic fever that crops up.

There's an excellent book called The Hot Zone by Richard Preston that details incidents of outbreaks involving hemorrhagic fevers. I read this a few years ago (probably around 2012) and it became relevant around the time of the Ebola outbreaks. It provides a good look at what hemorrhagic fevers are and why their outbreaks are so devastating.

That said, a few liberties were taken for this fic. I based the virus in this fic off Marburg virus (which is very similar to Ebola, but had a major outbreak in Germany). Hemorrhagic fevers are extremely contagious, but they aren't actually easy to spread. These viruses spread through direct contact with bodily fluids, meaning that the bodily fluids of a sick person have to get into your bodily fluids for the virus to take. However, if you do happen to have end up with infected fluids inside of you, chances are you are going to get sick.

That method of transfer is different from, say, the flu, which is a lot more easy to transfer. Viruses like the flu can be transferred through the air, by coughing and sneezing and by inhaling particles of the virus. That means that being in the same room as someone with the flu can get you sick. Something like the flu is easier to spread, so a flu outbreak could more easily lead to a pandemic than something like Ebola could.

The flu also lasts longer. Severe hemorrhagic fevers tend to kill off their victims faster, which gives the virus less of a window to spread. People with those viruses are also less mobile once the severe symptoms kick in, which further hinders the virus' movement.

Hemorrhagic fever viruses can't be spread through air or aerosol (droplets in the air), but for the purposes of this fic I made it so that the virus can be spread via aerosol. Viruses that spread in this way can't travel on the air, and survive for short periods of time in droplets released into the air. It isn't as bad as the flu, but it's easier to spread than a standard hemorrhagic fever. Because the setting is Japan, which has high quality healthcare and medical facilities, I wanted the virus to be easier to spread. Even though I think something like a hemorrhagic fever would be able to spread a bit in Japan simply because they've never seen it before, which could result in delays of treatment and improper handling, I still thought the virus would have to have an easier method of spreading in order for it to have the impact on major urban areas that it did in the fic.

The title, "Do No Harm," has to do with the promise doctors make upon becoming doctors. It's also a reference to a memoir by Henry Marsh, a British neurosurgeon, which details the complex feelings and decisions and situations that come with being a doctor. I thought that sort of sentiment was relevant to the decisions Dazai and Yosano have to make in the fic. It's surprising how often there isn't a clear-cut right or wrong answer in medicine.

Resources for those interested in more:

The Hot Zone by Richard Preston
Do No Harm by Henry Marsh
The World Is Not Ready for the Next Pandemic (Time Magazine Article)
The Fight Against Ebola (Vice Documentary)

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[bsd] fic: psycho-pass au
[fic meta - revival series] figure skating order
Haikyuu Figure Skating AU
Behind the Fic: Dog Run
Behind the Fic: Do No Harm

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Entries tagged with fic meta

[bsd] fic: psycho-pass au

[fic meta - revival series] figure skating order

Haikyuu Figure Skating AU

Behind the Fic: Dog Run

Behind the Fic: Do No Harm