[Fic] Mars: Skin Shallow, Bone Deep
Jan. 1st, 2008 02:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
springgreenSpoilers: For the entire series
Disclaimer: Not mine!
Summary: These were the memories he didn't have of Sei: growing up, growing different, growing apart.
Notes: Written for Tou-chan for Yuletide 2007. Includes work-safe image done by the wonderful![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
vom_marlowe!
Read Skin Shallow, Bone Deep
Series information
Mars is by Soryo Fuyumi (author of Eternal Sabbath), published by TokyoPop. It's about shy artist good girl Kira and destructive motorcycle-racing bad boy Sei, and it's also about two damaged people trying to heal themselves. Well, that, a lot of of Gothic plot twists involving twins, psychotic mass murderers, parentage, and who knows what else!
It was one of the first shoujo manga series I ever read, and I devoured it in the space of a few days. Later on, it was one of the first shoujo manga series brought over to the States; I found out it had been translated when I spotted a young girl reading a volume of it on the subway in New York, just like a schoolgirl in Tokyo or Taipei.
I don't think the story will make much sense without knowledge of the canon, since a lot of what I was trying to do was to change the characters in canon, to age them plausibly, to turn a Gothic high-school romance to a romance that could work in the real world. Also, I totally spoil almost all the plot twists of the manga.
Some commentary (series spoilers)
I got the prompt and basically panicked, wondering why in the world I had listed this as something I would write. Given that I have listed about 40 fandoms each Yuletide, this is pretty much par for the course. You'd think I'd learn. But the panic is part of the Yuletide experience!
I knew I wanted to do something post-series, if only because I couldn't think of anything I could write within the timeline of the series. And with that, I knew I wanted to do Kira and Rei, many years down the line, married and grown up and doing things like paying bills, going to work, worrying about rent or mortgages, and all that seeming boring grown up stuff. Part of it is my fascination with the "after" of "happily ever after;" part of it is my reaction to all the manga series about teenagers and high school.
A lot of what ended up informing the story was my anger at how Rei's story overtakes Kira's; I was surprised by that when I first read the series, but having read much more shoujo, I am grumpy by how many stories with female protagonists end up All About the Men anyway. I was also mad that Rei gets to live out his dream motorcycle racing, and I wanted to know how that would end up playing out, given that it is probably not a career that makes that much money.
When I reread the manga, I could see a horribly dystopic future with the two, Kira unhappy and silent and bearing it up as she always does, Rei not noticing. But I didn't want to write that (also, I seriously doubt my recipient wanted to read it!). So I tried to see what would make it work. I also wanted to portray a couple that has been together and married for quite some time, just because you never see that. I wanted the sense that they knew each other in and out, that they were comfortable with each other, but also that they had their own lives outside of the marriage.
It was hard to do that when the entire thing was from Rei's POV, but I tried to slip in notes about Kira being the one to hold down the day job, about her art and how important it was to her. I'm just sad I couldn't get in a Kira-Harumi friendship scene, because in my mind, Kira twelve years post-series has grown braver and more sure, she has friends at work and from art school. I, um, broke up Harumi and Tatsumi just because how many high school relationships do you usually see working out long term?
I also stole a ton of thoughts about art fromtelophase and vom_marlowe's posts, as it's been fascinating to watch how both of them are working on improving and creating from an outside point of view. I, like many, always thought of art as inspiration and talent and all that fluffy stuff; they made me look at the work and the craft, the realities of prioritizing and setting time aside, of practicing and trying to expand your horizons.
This was incredibly difficult for me to write. The Sei bits were easy; the hard part was making the present-day sections alive and real and not boring. Many thanks to Rachel for her help in brainstorming and beta-ing and listening to me whine a lot, and many thanks to Vom Marlowe for her constant encouragement and her gorgeous art.
And finally: I wrote sex! And people thought it was hot, whoo!
Disclaimer: Not mine!
Summary: These were the memories he didn't have of Sei: growing up, growing different, growing apart.
Notes: Written for Tou-chan for Yuletide 2007. Includes work-safe image done by the wonderful
vom_marlowe!Read Skin Shallow, Bone Deep
Series information
Mars is by Soryo Fuyumi (author of Eternal Sabbath), published by TokyoPop. It's about shy artist good girl Kira and destructive motorcycle-racing bad boy Sei, and it's also about two damaged people trying to heal themselves. Well, that, a lot of of Gothic plot twists involving twins, psychotic mass murderers, parentage, and who knows what else!
It was one of the first shoujo manga series I ever read, and I devoured it in the space of a few days. Later on, it was one of the first shoujo manga series brought over to the States; I found out it had been translated when I spotted a young girl reading a volume of it on the subway in New York, just like a schoolgirl in Tokyo or Taipei.
I don't think the story will make much sense without knowledge of the canon, since a lot of what I was trying to do was to change the characters in canon, to age them plausibly, to turn a Gothic high-school romance to a romance that could work in the real world. Also, I totally spoil almost all the plot twists of the manga.
Some commentary (series spoilers)
I got the prompt and basically panicked, wondering why in the world I had listed this as something I would write. Given that I have listed about 40 fandoms each Yuletide, this is pretty much par for the course. You'd think I'd learn. But the panic is part of the Yuletide experience!
I knew I wanted to do something post-series, if only because I couldn't think of anything I could write within the timeline of the series. And with that, I knew I wanted to do Kira and Rei, many years down the line, married and grown up and doing things like paying bills, going to work, worrying about rent or mortgages, and all that seeming boring grown up stuff. Part of it is my fascination with the "after" of "happily ever after;" part of it is my reaction to all the manga series about teenagers and high school.
A lot of what ended up informing the story was my anger at how Rei's story overtakes Kira's; I was surprised by that when I first read the series, but having read much more shoujo, I am grumpy by how many stories with female protagonists end up All About the Men anyway. I was also mad that Rei gets to live out his dream motorcycle racing, and I wanted to know how that would end up playing out, given that it is probably not a career that makes that much money.
When I reread the manga, I could see a horribly dystopic future with the two, Kira unhappy and silent and bearing it up as she always does, Rei not noticing. But I didn't want to write that (also, I seriously doubt my recipient wanted to read it!). So I tried to see what would make it work. I also wanted to portray a couple that has been together and married for quite some time, just because you never see that. I wanted the sense that they knew each other in and out, that they were comfortable with each other, but also that they had their own lives outside of the marriage.
It was hard to do that when the entire thing was from Rei's POV, but I tried to slip in notes about Kira being the one to hold down the day job, about her art and how important it was to her. I'm just sad I couldn't get in a Kira-Harumi friendship scene, because in my mind, Kira twelve years post-series has grown braver and more sure, she has friends at work and from art school. I, um, broke up Harumi and Tatsumi just because how many high school relationships do you usually see working out long term?
I also stole a ton of thoughts about art from
telophase and vom_marlowe's posts, as it's been fascinating to watch how both of them are working on improving and creating from an outside point of view. I, like many, always thought of art as inspiration and talent and all that fluffy stuff; they made me look at the work and the craft, the realities of prioritizing and setting time aside, of practicing and trying to expand your horizons.This was incredibly difficult for me to write. The Sei bits were easy; the hard part was making the present-day sections alive and real and not boring. Many thanks to Rachel for her help in brainstorming and beta-ing and listening to me whine a lot, and many thanks to Vom Marlowe for her constant encouragement and her gorgeous art.
And finally: I wrote sex! And people thought it was hot, whoo!