rionaleonhart | Entries tagged with exit/corners

Over the past few years, I've noticed a pattern where I go into a spiral of writer's insecurity after posting certain types of fic. These are usually little ficlets, or fics made up of thematically connected scenes.

Basically, the fics that set off my insecurity are fics that don't have a story; they're little pieces of character introspection or interaction that don't really go anywhere. I worry that I'm wasting people's time with them.

This is extremely silly for a number of reasons, among which are:

- I don't judge other people for writing similar things at all! Why would I? If it's something I'm not interested in, I don't have to read it; if it's something I am interested in, I'll be delighted that it exists.
- Fics made up of thematically connected scenes are extremely common! The '5+1 Things' format is an entire fanfiction genre devoted to it, and there are 32,000 works with that tag on AO3.
- My fanfiction is not taking up vast tracts of space on the Internet that could otherwise be used for more 'worthwhile' writing. AO3 isn't going to run out of space to host someone's novel-length masterpiece because I posted something frivolous.

Anyway, in an effort to be less silly about this, I thought I'd attempt some low-pressure frivolous writing. Therefore: am I actually going to post a fic request meme? I haven't done this in over a decade!

Tell me a fic concept you'd like to see me write, and I'll attempt to write a few lines of it.

If you're not sure which fandoms I'm familiar with, the fandom list on my AO3 account is probably a good place to start. If you have multiple ideas, feel free to make multiple requests and I'll pick which one(s) to write.

There are a handful of things I'd personally prefer not to write, e.g. suicide, sexual content involving characters under fifteen, Teddie from Persona 4. If you're not sure where my boundaries lie, though, you're welcome to suggest your idea anyway; I can always just opt not to write it.

Also, if someone else in the comments posts a concept that appeals to you, feel free to write it yourself!

At the end of 2021, I wrote up all the fic ideas I’d been scribbling down in my diaries over the years. I’m about to switch diaries again, so I found myself thinking about how to continue to archive these concepts in the future.

Therefore, here’s the start of a potential annual tradition! When I finish a diary, I’m going to write up the fic ideas at the back. If I’ve written the fic, I’ll include a link to it. If I’ve started the fic, I’ll share a snippet (or everything I’ve written, if I’ve barely started). If I haven’t started it, I’ll write at least a hundred words on the spot.

Let’s see how this goes!

I’ll start with the ones I’ve written in full. Fandoms: Life Is Strange: True Colors, Deltarune, Uncharted, Horizon Zero Dawn, Doctor Who, Persona 5. There may be spoilers for these canons below the cut.

( Written fics from my 2021-22 diary. )

Next, let’s look at the works in progress (or at least the works that were started; I’m not sure they’re actively progressing). Fandoms: Bravely Default II, Life Is Strange: True Colors, Exit/Corners, Persona 5. There may be spoilers for these canons below the cut.

( In-progress fics from my 2021-22 diary. )

And now we reach the scariest category: the fic ideas I haven’t touched and now have to write something for. Fandoms: Undertale, Life Is Strange: True Colors, Until Dawn, Danganronpa 2, Doctor Who, The Great Ace Attorney, Zanki Zero: Last Beginning. There may be spoilers for these canons below the cut.

( 2021-22 fics I hadn't started... until now. )

And that’s everything! I hope I keep this up in future years; it’s a nice little exercise. Maybe some of these fics will actually get finished? Time will tell.

pict demanded to know all my ambitious fic ideas, which reminded me of something I've been thinking about doing for a while: archiving the fic ideas I've been scribbling down in my diaries.

Every year, I buy the same style of diary, which has a couple of blank pages at the back. I've been using these blank pages to note down fic concepts since 2013. Some of these get written! Many of them don't.

If I type up the unwritten concepts, maybe one of them will inspire me? (Or indeed inspire someone else? Feel free to let me know if you're interested in writing any of these!) At the very least, they'll no longer be languishing in old diaries I rarely look back at.

These are sorted in alphabetical order by fandom; the notes under any particular fandom may contain spoilers for the canon. Some ideas are extremely vague; some are very specific. Crossovers are filed haphazardly under whichever fandom feels right in the moment. The tags on this entry should give you an idea of which fandoms are represented, if you're wondering whether anything you know is in here!

( A huge pile of unwritten fanfiction ideas. )

I'm not sure this exercise has actually sparked any inspiration, but it's good to have all these ideas in one place. If any of these would particularly interest you, let me know!

Crossposts: https://rionaleonhart.livejournal.com/572937.html

Here are a few scattered notes on media!

I've been watching Tem play Tangle Tower, which is a delightful murder mystery game. The characters have so much personality in their art, their animations, their writing! Detective Grimoire and his sidekick Sally have a great rapport, and I enjoy the fact that Grimoire seems to be a bit of a disaster.

I didn't know anything about Tangle Tower when we went into it - I'd never heard of the Detective Grimoire series at all - and it's been an extremely pleasant surprise. Worth a look for Ace Attorney fans!

I mean, we haven't finished it, so for all I know the mystery could completely fall apart, but the journey is a thoroughly enjoyable one.

We've been watching some more recent series of the Pokémon anime, and I'm really enjoying Pokémon Journeys!

The Sun & Moon anime series was cute, and I enjoyed all the friendships, but it never entirely clicked with me. In particular, Team Rocket were wasted. They weren't even doing anything evil! They were just running a small business and getting dragged into a disturbing relationship with a Bewear!

Pokémon Journeys, meanwhile, is great fun. Team Rocket are entertaining again! Goh is endearing, and I enjoy the fact that he clearly has a massive, massive crush on Ash.

It's sort of hilarious that Goh operates by Pokémon Go rules and can therefore catch anything just by throwing a Pokéball at it. Ash must be so confused.

I'm bewildered by the episode in which Goh's giant Magikarp jumps too high and goes into orbit, thereby being disqualified from the Magikarp Jump competition, which requires that contestants come back down.

In early October, I embarked on an overambitious project: a screenshot Let's Play of Exit/Corners. I started out and went 'oh, my God, this is so much more work than I anticipated' and then 'IT'S TOO LATE, I'M INVESTED IN THIS PROJECT NOW, I'M COMMITTED TO IT.'

If you're wondering why I've slowed down on everything else, it's because this project has been taking up a lot of my free time for the past two months! I apologise to everyone who's been waiting for fic comments from me.

If you're not familiar with Exit/Corners (and most people aren't, which is why I wanted to introduce more people to it through this Let's Play), it's a free 'death game' visual novel in the vein of Zero Escape and Your Turn to Die. A group of people are abducted and put through dangerous trials for unclear reasons, and the story follows their struggle to survive and work out why this is happening to them. The characters are interesting, and it's clear that a lot of effort has gone into the writing and assets; it's a shame it's not more widely known!

I'm about a third of the way into the Let's Play. If anyone's interested in experiencing Exit/Corners in screenshot form, you can take a look over here!

(The Let's Play is on the Something Awful forums, so I should probably mention that there's a slightly odd profanity filter. When you're not logged in, 'shit' is changed to 'poo poo', 'fuck' is changed to 'gently caress' and 'fucking' is changed to 'loving'. I promise the characters aren't actually saying 'poo poo' at tense moments.)

I've just realised this entry spans the full spectrum of my fictional interests: something light and fun (Pokémon), something weird and dark about murder (Exit/Corners), and, falling neatly in the middle, Tangle Tower, which is a light, fun game about murder.

Crossposts: https://rionaleonhart.livejournal.com/572610.html

I invited people on Tumblr to ask me questions about videogames; here are my answers!

As these answers were originally written for an audience that didn't necessarily read my Dreamwidth, I may repeat some sentiments I've already expressed here.

Questions from

th_esaurus:

Hardest game you’ve played?

Probably Celeste! It was worth the struggle. I crawled through the main storyline, inch by inch, with ferocious determination, and then I replayed it three times afterwards because I was so delighted to see how much I'd improved.

( And lots more rambling about videogames. )

Finally (we're still on

keltena's questions):

If you could immerse yourself in any game for one day, which game would it be? What would you do?

A lot of my favourite games would be too dangerous to visit personally, I think! Or I love them on the basis of their characters, and I'd never actually manage to have a conversation with those characters if I spent a day there. Final Fantasy VIII? Good luck talking to Squall Leonhart. Final Fantasy X? Yuna would absolutely talk to me if I approached her, but she's a very private person, so it'd never get beyond surface-level polite conversation about the weather.

Fortunately, I have the perfect answer to this question! I would go to the Pokémon world and admire all the Pokémon and maybe cuddle a Bulbasaur if I'm lucky.

If you have any videogame-related questions of your own, feel free to ask in the comments! It may surprise you to learn this, but I like to talk about videogames.

Crossposts: https://rionaleonhart.livejournal.com/565578.html

Oh, look, weird dark murder videogame fanfiction where the protagonist can't keep track of reality, WHO COULD HAVE PREDICTED THIS.

Title: No Direction Home
Fandom: Exit/Corners
Rating: PG-13
Wordcount: 2,600
Summary: Beyond the door, it's hard to tell what's real.

( No Direction Home )

Crossposts: https://rionaleonhart.livejournal.com/540183.html

The first step to beating Exit/Corners is to prove that the mastermind isn't among us... using spelling and grammar.

I heard of Exit/Corners about a fortnight ago and went, 'Oh, I should play that,' and then timydamonkey recommended it to me a week later. The world evidently wanted me to play Exit/Corners, and I was happy to oblige.

Exit/Corners is a game in my favourite strangely specific genre, 'a bunch of people are abducted and put through traumatic, murder-filled trials for mysterious reasons'. Like Your Turn to Die, it is free and so high-quality I sort of feel like I've mugged the developer. Exit/Corners is also unusual against murder visual novels in that it was originally written in English, rather than translated.

Unfortunately, Exit/Corners is only available to play in-browser; there's no console or download version. This was slightly inconvenient, particularly as my save data was lost at one point (I was able to skip quickly through everything I'd already done using the catch-up tool), but the game interested me enough to keep me pressing on.

I really like Ink as a character. I enjoy his slightly dry sense of humour. He's a great protagonist, I think: not too exaggerated a character, so he can interact realistically with the people around him, but there's enough there to make him feel distinct.

( Full spoilers for Exit/Corners. )

On an entirely unrelated note: there's an episode of Phineas and Ferb where a mind-controlled Perry the Platypus shaves Dr Doofenshmirtz's legs, and I just have a lot of questions.

Crossposts: https://rionaleonhart.livejournal.com/540141.html

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Riona

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Trabia Garden

Entries tagged with exit/corners

It's Enough.

Fic Concept Roundup 2022.

I Do A Lot Of Writing Down Fic Ideas Instead Of Actually Writing Fanfiction.

You Ever Fuck A Book?

We Will Go Where Our Dreams Come True.

Fanfiction: No Direction Home (Exit/Corners)

If Life Gives You Lemons, Make Out With A Lemon.

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