FIC: of things past and present (Gintama, 1/1)

[juneaddams]

Title: of things past and present (1/1)
Fandom: Gintama
Words: 5,838
Summary When a pair of jaded, financially strapped assassins returned to their drab little town a decade after the war, they hardly expected to find anything or anyone worth their interest. Little did they know- (or: I wanted to write a Yorozuya Takasugi-chan AU and raised myself

Comments

[juneaddams]

Gin-san lives happily ever after in the land above the clouds where the parfait never stops flowing and the cakes are always
50% off the retail price~

Yeah, the idea of this Yorozuya going through similar events and meeting the same people, but never quite in the same way, is the fun part of it. Like, Takasugi and Kagura's meeting in Benizakura was interrupted by Matako, but if it hadn't, we would probably have gotten a duel, so, things like that.

Glad you mentioned the good/evil fine line, since it was something I tried to get right, not making him too nice or cuddly or un-creepy. Takasugi is a little cackling crazy teddy bear so that has got to remain, even if he's on the side of good here. Mostly.

also uwu your review is so pretty to read. ;;

[fs_playground]

Argh, I wish I had the skills to write a proper review.

I love the well-balanced contrasts between humour and angst in the fic. Just like any other June-fic, it was extremely well-written (June never disappoints :D) and pulls me into its universe right from the first paragraph. I also love how you depicted the world in which they were forced to tread a thin line between corruption and innocence to survive. Memorable and insightful sentences are sometimes immediately followed by humorous remarks which cracked me up. Also, I enjoyed your detailed characterization of everyone, the little details which are totally in-character with their respective quirks in canon.

By the way, your style has become more condensed and pithy than before. I already loved your old fics but I think I like this new style of yours even more.

[juneaddams]

one of my goals for this one was to have the sad and funny bones in equal measure so I'm happy when you mentioned your reaction. <333 (ps this is more than a proper review and definitely more than I deserve.)

the comment about the style is so generous;; it is still pretty much a work in progress, I think. I guess the difference between now and my early writing is the awareness of reader experience / limit of patience. Which means putting more effort into keeping my indulgence for details in check to avoid disrupting the flow of the story or lose readers' attention. Basically learning from you and sn~ You are my sempai.

[raineyz]

Such a delicious AU ;w; I love Takasugi's characterization in this! It's like Gin-san with a copious sprinkling of extra crazy, which is not a bad thing at all. Bansai and Matako are excellent in this too, such a wonderful unlikely family they make ahahaha

[juneaddams]

aw ty;; ♥

like I was telling ritz above, he's the cackling evil teddy bear version of Gin-san, basically.

[anonymous]

Ah, this was beautiful! I loved everything about it, especially since this was written before we knew the Kiheitai's relationship as we know it now (and you got it all right)

The way you treated Gintoki's absence, the whole time I was reading it I was smiling but there was also that uneasy feeling of 'this is not how things should be, this is not right' and it added so much to the story.

I loved it so much, you did such a great job with all the characters. Thank you so much for writing!

[juneaddams]

Thank you for reading and for your kind words! I think I owe 'getting it right' to zopai's Aak Takasugi blog and rette's Ask Bansai blog on Tumblr. They gave so much richness and endearing dynamics to two characters that, at the time I wrote this, had very little canon backstory to use as reference.

[sunstral]

This is such an incredible fic! I loved it so much and you're writing is so incredible too!! Wonderful job!