Case 1
A story of a simple homicidal maniac – the murderer who succumbed to his urges
This is a short story from the Satsuriku no Tenshi Fanbook.
Written by Makoto Sanada, translated by me.
Keep reading
Volume 1 (finished)
Prologue
B7
B6
B5
B4 (Part 1 / Part 2)
B3 (Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4)
Zack’s Memory
Also available on Bakatsuki, on Google Drive, and as a PDF.
Volume 2 (in progress)
Prologue
Chapter 1 - Sweet Guilt
Chapter 2 - Tragedy in Her Daydream
Chapter 3 - Zack’s Knife
Chapter 4 - The Witch Trial
Eddie’s Memory
Her Memory of Cathy
@marsupials-of-mars submitted:
I was planning to do maybe a fic and more doodles of this but now I'm busy with school so I might as well show what I did do!
Based on how the goldilocks fic seems to posit that Bill at his best is a silly professor who loves to teach his own way
Introducing Professor Locke!
Things about this idea:
-post redemption, however that will go. I'm calling it an AU because I imagine it is not your plan for what happens after lol, but currently canon-compliant.
-Bill is at first not very on board with the idea of working in the higher education system. It's a scam and it's dumb that they tell adult people how to think.
-He's eventually convinced to bless Backupsmore with his tutelage, on the grounds that they're less stuck up there, they seem to care about giving their students opportunities despite their backgrounds, and the kids there care about learning rather than going to college just because their parents said they should.
-Ford uses his academic connections to vouch for Bill even though he is very mysterious and has no academic records. This is another reason why they picked Backupsmore: i's a little more lax when presented with a shockingly smart mystery professor. Bill gets an interview and charms the pants off the university president.
-He teaches "astrophysics" in theory (that's the job description) but he ends up teaching a little bit of everything.
-He's one of those professors you either adore or despise. He's very loud, often outright mean, and if you're too shy to speak up in class he does not give a SHIT about you. You gotta want it!
-However, his class is notoriously easy. He thinks homework and tests are facist, but he's required to have a curriculum, so his "quizzes" are like a few true or false questions and then a short answer where he asks something he thinks would be funny or wants to hear about, like "what's the dumbest thing another student has said in class since the last test and why was it dumb" or "fashion advice: what's the coolest thing I wore this last week? Extra credit: draw something cooler I SHOULD wear."
-as a result, students who have completely unrelated majors will take his class. If they end up being interested, he deems them worthy. If they're just there to be lazy, he will bully them into dropping out.
-Mabel buys him stickers to put on people's tests when they pass, or to just hand out when they something he likes. He gets along most with the college kids who know how to appreciate a classic gold star.
-He really wanted a big pretty lecture hall, where his voice would echo and he could point at a big chalkboard. But all Backupsmore could provide was a cinderblock and linoleum basement classroom. The lights buzz very loudly and it smells musty. They have stools and folding tables. Bill finds he enjoys the more intimate environment where he can walk between the tables and also sneak up on people.
-He's broken multiple folding tables by trying to do the cool professor thing where you hop up onto your desk and cross your legs and talk all casual. He is able to do this on his own desk thankfully. It's aluminum.
-Ford gets a bit nervous if he did the right thing when bill tells his school stories at the dinner table, so he finds an excuse to accompany Bill to a campus event where he can meet some of his students.
-His fears are quickly assuaged when he sees how beloved Bill is and how well he gets along with the kids. When he eventually joins in on one of these conversations, one of the students asks if he's Sixer. The students are excited by this. Bill tries to shut them up, to partial success.
OK I guess I just ended up writing the fic more or less so enjoy I guess lol.
Aww, this is adorable! Thank you! (And the fact that you're imagining a future for Bill makes me so happy.) He's absolutely be the weirdest professor in the school and he'd ADORE having a crowd full of trusting impressional minds whose parents are paying him to change the way they think. Talk about playing to his strengths.
Your idea is so wholesome, meanwhile the moment I saw "Professor Bill" I went,
Just gonna go on a tangent about this for a second, because like
Part 1: Why they don't work and never have
The number one piece of advice people get about writing is to give their characters flaws. Your characters can't be too perfect. Flaws will make them interesting, dynamic, compelling, more real! Flawed characters make for a perfect story! But then someone will ask how to give their characters flaws, and the response is almost invariably something along the lines of
"Just don't make them perfect. Give them a scar or a disability or something."
This is some of the worst writing advice I've ever heard, right up there with "NEVER use adjectives ever" and "Nahh, you don't need to make backups of your work, it'll totally be fine and nothing bad will happen." It's also the single most common piece of writing advice I've come across. This is bad advice.
Because like… Scars aren't a personality flaw. Disabilities especially are not a personality flaw. Both these things have their uses in writing characters, but they aren't flaws. Honestly it's a little shocking that people think it's okay to outright say they think a disability is a character flaw to begin with, because like. Excuse me?
The next problem with this is that, even if these were somehow character flaws, most people don't want to make literally all their characters scarred and disabled. That's like saying that good characters are required to have blonde hair and bushy eyebrows. A character or two with those traits isn't an issue, but telling someone all their characters need one or both of these two traits? That's incredibly limiting.
Lastly, it encourages people to think up a character and then tack on the 'flaws' after. It's why we ended up with an era of perfectly smart perfectly beautiful perfectly skilled characters that had a disproportionate amount of angst about some tiny barely noticeable scar on their back. It's how we get characters that are 'clumsy' (in no way that actually matters to the story), or who have the sole flaw of being too perfect.
People made characters they liked, and they liked them exactly that way. Then afterwards, they had to tack on some 'flaw' they didn't actually want to be part of the character. So they of course make that 'flaw' as small and unimportant as possible. To go back to the "all characters must be blonde with bushy eyebrows" comparison, it's the writer trying to work around this unwanted restriction by giving everyone rainbow hair dye and eyebrow trimmers.
So, how do we fix that?
Part 2: How to fix that
… Or one way, anyway. There are infinite ways to solve this problem, most of which start by completely throwing out the standard scar/disability advice. Everyone has their own way to write characters. But just saying "idk, everyone is different, there are lots of ways" is ridiculously unhelpful. So, here's one way to do it that I really like to use personally. You can use it too, if you want.
instead of a flaw, I like to give my characters an Unshakeable Trait.
What is an unshakeable trait? It's the term I like to use for something that will always be true about a character. Something core to them, something that will never leave them for as long as they live. It is, most importantly, not a flaw.
Let's come up with a quick character as an example. Meet Alaric, who always keeps his word. Anything Alaric says he will do, he will do it.
This is Alaric's greatest strength.
Alaric says he will save all the orphans from the burning orphanage. People doubt him, but he does it. He said he was going to do it, so there was nothing that could stop him from doing it.
Alaric says he will catch the thieves hiding in the mountains. Many have tried and failed to do this, but Alaric says he can do it. And thus, Alaric does it.
Alaric says he will move a mountain? He wouldn't say it unless he could and would make it true. We've seen him do amazing things before. We don't know how yet, but we know that mountain is about to move.
One day, Alaric says he will slay the dragon. We know, for certain, that nothing will stop him from slaying that dragon.
… Not even if it turns out the dragon wasn't really bothering anyone.
… Not even if something goes wrong and Alaric ends up without the important tools he'd prepared for this task.
… Not even if the battle is likely to kill his entire party. Not even if killing the dragon will only make way for more dangerous monsters to move in. Not even if his friends beg and plead with him, Alaric you must stop, this is a death sentence to us all!
Alaric said he would do this, and he will.
Because this isn't just Alaric's greatest strength. It's also his greatest weakness.
The hearts of the readers are heavy as they realize what is about to unfold, but they are not surprised. By now they know Alaric and they know who he is. They know the dragon will die, no matter the consequences.
In the battle, the entire town and all the people who once lived in it is burned to the ground. Every last one of Alaric's friends die in battle. When the dragon falls, only Alaric is left alive.
… And that makes for a really interesting story! Gosh darn! That's way more fun than a story where some cool guy just always solves everyone's problems all the time! And now that we've seen the terrible consequences of Alaric's actions, we can take it even further! How exactly does Alaric react to what he's done?
Is he unable to cope with his terrible mistake, and twists himself into something awful trying to justify his actions?
Does he plead with the ashes, begging the charred town for forgiveness he cannot have?
Does he vow to take back what he's done? Drive himself to madness in pursuit of an unobtainable goal, every action an even greater mistake than the last?
Does he grow, and change his ways? Because he absolutely can do that. An unshakeable trait is always there deep down inside a character, but it is possible for them to learn to overcome it. It will be a battle they'll fight every day for the rest of their lives, and it is a battle they will not always win, but it is possible. Filled with regret, there may be a day where Alaric says he will do something… and then consciously makes an incredible effort to avoid doing it, because he realized it would be a mistake. Today, he was able to overcome his weakness. That trait isn't going anywhere though, and tomorrow is still unsure.
That is my favorite way to write a flawed character.
The most fun part is, this unshakeable trait can be anything. It can be that they always finish things very quickly. It can be that they love their friends more than anything else in the universe. It can be that they're always multitasking. It can be their child-like wonder, or their scientific mind, or even something as silly as their love of sweet potatoes. When made central to their character and taken to extremes, absolutely anything can function as this dual greatest strength and greatest weakness.
That being said, this is again just one way to do it. To say this is the only way to write a flawed character brings us back to "but they must all be blonde and have bushy eyebrows." And sometimes? Sometimes you don't even want to write a flawed character. Sometimes you want an invincible Superman, and if that's what you want then go for it!
This is one place you could start if you're feeling lost or unsure, but at the end of the day it's just a tool in your pocket. It's up to you to choose your favorite tools for the job.
Writing should be fun! Write what you love. Write what interests you, most of all.
Imagine an Angels of Death and a Forest of Drizzling rain crossover- I think there's like one(?) official comic about that actually, but THAT ISN'T NEARLY ENOUGH.
Just like- Suga and Zack would totally hate each other guts. I can imagine some hilarious moments where Zack just yells at Suga for shoving memos in his face- and Suga has to resort to charades or something.
Shiori and Ray would literally be such a wholesome duo as well. Ray would also get along pretty nicely with Sakuma I think.
Ray would be an absolute pro at fishing because she just is, and Zack would just scare them all off.
Help why did I immediately think Ray when I saw this-
(The full cover slapped tho)
Chapter Masterlist
Written by: Hinata Shou (ひなたしょう)
Translated by: Corredor1230 – Juan Pablo Corredor
Chapter 1: Try to guess the ESP cards!
Saiki Kusuo’s Interlude No. 1
Chapter 2: Get them back! The Lost Memories
Saiki Kusuo’s Interlude No. 2
Chapter 3: All you can eat! Hinoki Ramen
Saiki Kusuo’s Interlude No. 3
Chapter 4: Tell us! The Black Wings
Saiki Kusuo’s Interlude No. 4
Chapter 5: Avoid it! The Worst Ending
Chapter 1: The Disaster of Toritsuka Reita (This chapter was translated by @uten4!)
Intermission Guest Chapter 1: That person right now
Chapter 2: The Disastrous Life of Teruhashi Kokomi
Intermission Guest Chapter 2: The Detective’s Melancholy
Chapter 3: The Disastrous Life of Saiki Kusuko
Intermission Guest Chapter 3: The Disastrous Life of Saiki Kusuo — The Regular Person
Chapter 4: The Disastrous Life of Saiki Kusuo
A lil sad Ray
I tried to play around a bit with shading and stuff on this one- the opacity bar is actually so amazing
sometimes it's not even enemies to lovers. sometimes you get handed the leash of a snarling, barking dog against your will and realize with dawning horror that you are now responsible for teaching it not to bite
Current fixations: Noel the Mortal Fate, Angels of Death(My AoD obsession will never die)
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