Heartstrings AU: Every time someone falls for you, you get a string of their heart on your wrist. The size, the color and the placement depends on the love.
Kurosawa has countless pink strings covering both his wrists that appear as easily as they disappear. It’s been like that most of his life.
Adachi has one red one that appeared suddenly and kept growing thicker over the years. It’s been a source of both comfort and anxiety for him.
every once in a while on the internet we have another round of “is it good or bad for writers to want kudos” and i’m reminded that one time i answered this question for someone in way more depth than anyone wanted, and perhaps “after a months-long tumblr hiatus” is the best time to amnesty this into the void, who knows
——
Q:
I think because of social media, the Internet, the masses (or their
reaction rather) become so easily available, their power is also
amplified. Maintaining diversity can become a real problem (or is it the
contrary?). What are your thoughts and response to this? for people who
are just starting to write, kudos and comments could be addictive. When should one follow or change?.. or you should stick to what you believe in?
Okay, so this is an issue I think about a lot, and I should probably
preface this by saying that all of what I’m gonna say can be really
difficult to do, and, depending on the reasons you are in fandom, it
might not be the “right” approach for someone to take anyway.
I
said earlier that fanfiction feels to me like a fairly homogeneous
genre, and I think this is at least in part because of the existence of
very popular, very widely known fics that many people read, and then,
either consciously or unconsciously, go on to imitate in their own
works. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing for individual writers – I also said that a lot of my first attempts at writing were imitative, it’s a process everyone will go through in the path to becoming better writers
– but collectively, it contributes to this communal pool of works that
ends up having the same sort of… textual flavor, if you will.
This
is a phenomenon that troubles me because I firmly believe that
diversity of works and ideas in a fandom are a good thing. Fandom, to
me, works best when anything seems possible, when many different ideas
can be examined without constraint. I won’t always like some of
the avenues that are explored – there are tropes and ideas that I
dislike, and I might pass a fic by without clicking if I see it contains
those things – but the proliferation of ideas means that there’s much
more of a chance that fandom will kick up an idea I love but might never
have thought of otherwise.
The thing is,
fandom – the audience that’s reading, leaving kudos or comments,
bookmarking and reccing – does not always reward the efforts of writers
who are trying to experiment with different things, and I think when
you run into that situation you have to take a step back and think about
what it is that you want to achieve by participating in fandom via fic writing.
The projects that I end up doing, that I want to be involved with in any way, have always been projects that will be impactful, for the most part, to my people — to black people. To see black people in ways which you have not seen them before. So Black Panther was on my radar, and in my dreams.
Mr. Lewis, the civil rights leader who died on July 17, wrote this essay shortly before his death, to be published upon the day of his funeral.
While my time here has now come to an end, I want you to know that in the last days and hours of my life you inspired me. You filled me with hope about the next chapter of the great American story when you used your power to make a difference in our society. Millions of people motivated simply by human compassion laid down the burdens of division. Around the country and the world you set aside race, class, age, language and nationality to demand respect for human dignity.
That is why I had to visit Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, though I was admitted to the hospital the following day. I just had to see and feel it for myself that, after many years of silent witness, the truth is still marching on.
Emmett Till was my George Floyd. He was my Rayshard Brooks, Sandra Bland and Breonna Taylor. He was 14 when he was killed, and I was only 15 years old at the time. I will never ever forget the moment when it became so clear that he could easily have been me. In those days, fear constrained us like an imaginary prison, and troubling thoughts of potential brutality committed for no understandable reason were the bars.
Though I was surrounded by two loving parents, plenty of brothers, sisters and cousins, their love could not protect me from the unholy oppression waiting just outside that family circle. Unchecked, unrestrained violence and government-sanctioned terror had the power to turn a simple stroll to the store for some Skittles or an innocent morning jog down a lonesome country road into a nightmare. If we are to survive as one unified nation, we must discover what so readily takes root in our hearts that could rob Mother Emanuel Church in South Carolina of her brightest and best, shoot unwitting concertgoers in Las Vegas and choke to death the hopes and dreams of a gifted violinist like Elijah McClain.
Like so many young people today, I was searching for a way out, or some might say a way in, and then I heard the voice of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on an old radio. He was talking about the philosophy and discipline of nonviolence. He said we are all complicit when we tolerate injustice. He said it is not enough to say it will get better by and by. He said each of us has a moral obligation to stand up, speak up and speak out. When you see something that is not right, you must say something. You must do something. Democracy is not a state. It is an act, and each generation must do its part to help build what we called the Beloved Community, a nation and world society at peace with itself.
Ordinary people with extraordinary vision can redeem the soul of America by getting in what I call good trouble, necessary trouble. Voting and participating in the democratic process are key. The vote is the most powerful nonviolent change agent you have in a democratic society. You must use it because it is not guaranteed. You can lose it.
You must also study and learn the lessons of history because humanity has been involved in this soul-wrenching, existential struggle for a very long time. People on every continent have stood in your shoes, through decades and centuries before you. The truth does not change, and that is why the answers worked out long ago can help you find solutions to the challenges of our time. Continue to build union between movements stretching across the globe because we must put away our willingness to profit from the exploitation of others.
Though I may not be here with you, I urge you to answer the highest calling of your heart and stand up for what you truly believe. In my life I have done all I can to demonstrate that the way of peace, the way of love and nonviolence is the more excellent way. Now it is your turn to let freedom ring.
When historians pick up their pens to write the story of the 21st century, let them say that it was your generation who laid down the heavy burdens of hate at last and that peace finally triumphed over violence, aggression and war. So I say to you, walk with the wind, brothers and sisters, and let the spirit of peace and the power of everlasting love be your guide.
