Spring Green

Oops, I meant to post about this after the reveal. Ah well.

Here's my story, if anyone's interested.

This was my first remix; I've written a POV switch of devikun's Senses Working Overtime that ended up playing a little with the themes of the story, but I wouldn't personally count it as a remix.

I was actually a little surprised to read the rules for Remix -- no changing plot? Eh? And then I read the clarification: someone remixing "The Little Mermaid" might think keeping the sea witch and the voice-losing and the need to win the prince's love was the story and disregard the whole dying bit at the end. So I shrugged and decided to do what I generally do when given instructions -- pretend that I actually understand the spirit of them, toss them out the window, and then proceed to make a general muck out of things (see: knitting, cooking, etc.).

( Thinky thoughts )

So, for those of you who write for anime and manga fandoms: do you ever have problems translating the characters in your fic?

I've found that it's much easier for me to get character voice for manga, provided that I've read the manga in translation, but with subtitled anime, I've been having a very painful time. There's always a small mental disconnect in which the characters are speaking Japanese in my head, but English in the fic, whether I'm reading or writing something.

I keep hearing the characters saying things like "Sou ka naaaa..." and I can't figure out how to do that in English. And I don't want to pepper my fic with too much random Japanese, as a) reader accessability is a good thing, b) it furthers the disconnect somewhat (i.e. I as a reader have to flip between Japanese and English even more often), and c) I have had too many bad experiences with fangirl Japanese.

How much Japanese throws you out of a fic (or does it ever)? How much do you personally try to keep in (if any)? Do you try to keep suffixes like -san and -chan, and do you try to keep interjections like "ne"?

And how in the world do you translate things like "Sou ka" and the not-quite-yes "Un" that often goes with a nod and all that stuff?

*wanders off, confused*

And now for something completely different!

I've been endlessly amused watching people I know write themselves as Mary Sues in SPN ficlets, but alas, since I don't watch SPN, I will instead apply this to my currently most active fandom!

( Mary Sue Saiyuki! )

You are all grateful that I never got around to trying to knit the ikkou socks. Stripey, candy-colored socks. Or possibly a gun cozy.

Spoilers: Nothing really
Disclaimer: Not mine!
Notes: For emungere, who requested "Five things Kenren has brought Tenpou from the lower world." I finally gave in and admitted that I was actually writing fic and not lists.

Also, I totally cheat and steal off my own fic. Um, I mean... it's a sequel! Yes!

ETA: fixed formatting


( The first time Kenren visits the lower world, he brings back shunga and Saikaku for Tenpou because it's expected of him. )

edonohana asked for the DVD commentary to Promises Unbroken, so here it is! The original story has spoilers for Gaiden up till ch. 20, and the commentary probably has spoilers for Saiyuki through the Burial arc.

I'm going to be a little biased here -- this is my favorite of all the pieces I've written. It was also one of the hardest, because it didn't spring off a challenge. Also, I think it's the longest thing I've written (uh... yeah, obviously, I haven't written much!).

This is going to be a really, really long commentary, btw, because this story gave me so much trouble!

You may want to skip this if you don't like knowing the behind-the-scenes -- this commentary is probably five times longer than the story itself and includes all the completely random references that I tried to sneak in, along with math, faux Chinese history, and my own personal Gaiden incarnation canon.

( DVD Commentary begins! )

Spoilers: Up till the end of Reload 6
Disclaimer: Everyone and everything belongs to Minekura!
Notes: Written for wordsofastory, who requested what Sanzo thought of Hakkai/Gojyo. I am still working on the requests, fear not! I am just... um.... thinking. A lot. Anyway, this is based on a Chinese folktale.




( When Sanzo looks at the world around him, he sees idiots everywhere, bound by red threads to one another. )

Spoilers: none
Disclaimer: Minekura owns all.
Notes: written for ranalore, who requested something on Sanzo or Konzen with the prompt "silk." I'm not sure how I started from "silk" and got scars, but it made sense in my head at the time...



There is a prince with skin as pale as snow and hair as shining as the sun. He wears silks as silvery-white as the moon, gossamer thin and feather light, unstained by drops of heart's blood. They are barrier enough from scars, for he has no mother to bleed for him, no companions to shield him, no stepmother to flee. He was not born and will not die; he fears not the poisoned comb or sharpened dagger. He has built himself a glass coffin of words, and he lines it with ennui.

He lies there, skin unscarred and untorn, and sorrow and pain pass him by.

There is a monk who doesn't remember being a prince. His hair still shines, but his skin is cut with hurt and pierced with memory. His father bled on him and his companions give him wrinkles; he flees no one but is chased by all. He tries to protect himself with swathes of cloth -- sutra and robes of office, leather and denim. But they only cover up old wounds and scars; they cannot return the untouched body of lives past.

He wishes sometimes for a life without pain, but he has forgotten that his first scar is not a gift of the river. If he could remember, he would say his first scar comes from the time he skinned his knee chasing a monkey around the palace. He stopped that day and wondered at the sting and the red dotting his pristine robes, but not for too long, for fear of losing his imbecile charge.

He should know by now that the first scar was not written on the skin, but carved into the heart with glass that broke the day a golden-eyed animal yanked out his hair.

Spoilers: Spoilers for Gaiden up to ch. 20.
Disclaimer: Everyone belongs to Minekura Kazuya, who is wonderful.
Summary: Sometimes it takes five hundred and one years to keep a promise.
Notes: I read vol. 2 of Gaiden, which broke my heart. Then I read chs. 18-20, which took all the leftover pieces and smashed them to dust, resulting in several extremely incoherent LJ entries. I desperately started hunting for fic with Sakura of Doom and pinky promises. Unfortunately, there seems to be a dearth of Gaiden fic out there, and so, I ended up writing my own.

Thanks to edonohana for the beta and the encouragement, and for letting me steal her soldiers!



( Goku didn't know what 'slaughter' meant when they sentenced him. Now he does. )

Go read edonohana's Autumn Gold, an incarnation that happens soon after Gaiden and is completely heartbreaking in the best sense. I've already reread it three times, and it still kills me.

And while you're there, go read Three, an incarnation that never happened, as well.

Saiyuki continues to eat my brain. I have, in fact, spent about three hours just going through campfuckudie and reading all the Gojyo-Hakkai threads (damn you, rachelmanija, this is all your fault!).

To be honest, from what I've read in the Saiyuki fandom recs space, these recs probably won't be new to anyone, mostly because I stole them from permetaform_rec and cicer's recs. But I don't care, because I need somewhere that links to all my very favorite stories so I don't keep forgetting where they are!

1. I am not observing the usual anime/manga pairing thing in which whoever's first in the pairing is the seme.

2. I've found that I tend to like "day in the life" type fic in this fandom, which is funny, since the manga's about kicking youkai ass and angst and etc. But many of the ones that I love the most have this beautifully simple language and a wicked sense of humor. Also, while I am in no way complaining about the plethora of Hakkai/Gojyo smut out there (I live for Hakkai/Gojyo smut! You have no idea how many hours of my time Hakkai/Gojyo smut has taken up!), I am sad because I can't find that many of the four characters just interacting. I love the pairings. But I love the ikkou too.

3. Speaking of things I like, there should be more Gaiden fic! More! Preferably with references to sakura and pinky promises and the Angst to Come! (yes, Gaiden is still feasting on my brain, why do you ask?)

4. The pairings are either smut or just the two interacting. I generally read the Sanzo/Goku relationship and Hakkai/Gojyo relationship as having extremely slashy subtext at the very least and as out and out on the path to married coupledom at the almost but not really most, because again, obsessed.

Some spoilers for Hakkai's past below.

( Recs )