Fanfic Writers' Meme

State of mind: hungry

Happy anniversary, Mom and Dad. While you go out for dinner tonight, I shall stay home, eat chow fun and ramble about Ultraman to other fans! Good times.

And by the way, Sakon, noooo I don't hate you for this meme. So I'm ganking it. ♥ ^_^

How about a brief introduction?
Call me Ishmael. Oh, you mean ME. Hi. Call me M. I write stuff.

Fabulous! And what got you into fanfiction to begin with?
Powerpuff Girls and Ultraman. Not necessarily in that order. I used to write all these kiut kiut stories about what the six brothers did when they were younglings, and after that went on to writing OC Ultras...

I see. So what kind of fanfiction do you like to write?
Gen with some romance/action thrown in, and themes of mystery, sacrifice and acceptance. One day I WILL write that long, sprawling epic about the Emperan Occupation (it had to be an occupation, says the back of my brain, or Zoffy could never have fought in it) and or Zoffy and that sword-of-light, but eh.

Do you find writing easy? Hard? What are the aspects of writing you struggle most with?
I write a beginning, and sometimes I write the end...and the middle dangles tantalisingly out of reach. In place of that I get snips of conversation and descriptions that are beautiful, but perhaps don't quite fit the context.

Write a few sentences or so of your favorite pairing or character.

He is beautiful, in a way very few things are beautiful. Light made flesh, so different from our flesh made light; he is the midnight sky and the silvered moon and quiet, deep water all together. His awe at our lands is tempered with caution and backed with curiosity. He desires to know us. Perhaps he is the one, the 'hero descending from the heavens'. But we shall see.

Bonus points if you know who the narrator is and who's being referred to. XD

Are there any fanfiction clichés or trends you're sick of or just can't stand?
Feminine Ukes and Super Virile Sekuhara Semes. Let's not get any more specific, shall we?

Are you guilty of any fanfiction clichés you hate? Or any other ones?
Forgive me, authors, for I have sinned. I once wrote Mary-Sues, self-inserts and character bashing all in one fiction. I'd like to think my favourite OC has mellowed out of her uber-specialness, though.

What was the first fandom you wrote for, and do you still like/participate in it?
In two words, Ultraman. Yes. Whee!

Name your OTPs or most frequently written pairings/characters and explain what it is about them that you love to write.
Saiyuki; Gojyo/Houran, because I pray they will find their understanding. Yes yes, I know Houran is jailbait at the time of the movie. >_>;;; 585 because it's so easy to see the two ease into a dependable relationship.

Ultraman: Tiga/Dyna/Tiga, the brothers-in-arms. See them fighting in perfect tandem in the TD movie, and tell me they're perfect strangers. I'd like to think they once worked together, on the superancient Earth. Hikari/Mebius/Hikari, again for the brothers-in-arms thing and the progression of a stout friendship to a partnership on fairly equal footing. Noa/Zagi/Noa just to see them play off each other, yin and yang, light and dark. Only Zagi can destroy Noa can destroy Zagi. Anything else in the way would probably get smacked out of commision. XD

What would you call your writing style?
Long and descriptive. Evocative. XD

Do you read other people’s fanfic? If so, what do you find yourself reading the most?
Yes. I find myself looking for fics that break the extreme uke/seme dynamic.

Name one thing you'd LOVE to write, but have been too afraid or shy to do.
Full on sex scene.

Do you have trouble taking criticism? Or worse yet, do you have the dreaded bloated ego?
I think I do, sometimes, but it's part of the process of posting stuff online.

When you write, is there anything that helps? Music? Quiet room?
Music sometimes. And talking through it out loud.

What inspires you?
Writing, reading other people's stuff, random imagery that pops into your mind on a lunch break.

Lastly, how would you sum up your fanfiction experiences and yourself as a writer?
Sometimes it's fun. Sometimes it's painful. Sometimes it's desperately cathartic.

Tag some friends because they'll hate you for it.
Well, I'm not forcing them at gunpoint to do it! But anyway, it's free for the taking so spread the love/hate! [+/-] Fanfic writers' meme

Get out of my dreams and into my, uh, laptop?

State of mind: drowsy
Current soundtrack: Ultraman Mebius - Ashita e no Hishou (Sahashi Toshihiko)

Tagged by Labucchi! Sort of...

List 10 fictional characters you wouldn't kick out of bed(in no particular order) and tag five people to do the same.

1. Hikari - excuse please, but who do you think one attempts to dream of on Fridays?
2. Mebius - far from kicking him out of bed, I would grab him and tickle him and hug him and wuv him...*flees enraged Mebifans*
3. Dyna-shihan - although I might spend the rest of the night cowering at one corner of the bed in utter stupefaction.
4. Tiga - who would be glomped tight and never let go. EVAR. *laughter from pits of hell*
5. Sha Gojyo - yes, I would spend the rest of the night telling him to stop propositioning me, but I wouldn't kick him out of bed. I think. I'm pretty sure...
6. Cho Hakkai - I...would not be able to resist. D:
7. Kikuchiyo - he'd be like a hot-water bottle. A big, weird, metal hot-water bottle...
8. Black Jack - mind you, he would probably get out of his own volition. And I don't want to ever be so sick such a situation is warranted...
9. Katsushirou - see the entry pertaining to Mebius.
10. Hikari - Again, it is FRIDAY. *sigh*

[+/-](Not *quite* SFW)
I'm tagging you, you, you, you, and oh yeah, you.

In other news, I turned 21 last week, I am full of misanthropic tendencies and someone shanghaied me into a ParaPara Paradise dance-off on Thursday. I would like to say I whipped that young snapper properly, but really, the best I could do was beat him by a few thousand points. *shrug*

Sanity springs a leek!

State of mind: incredibly amused
Current soundtrack: Ieva's Polka - Loituma
Go crazy with me, hapless readers, and ask me not what I've been doing up since half-past-one. :D

I dream of...sessha?

State of mind: giggly
Current soundtrack: Playlist name - series - song title (artist)

This is the post that finally convinced me to get up offa my tail and find out how to make an, um, LJ cut, if you will. If you weren't convinced I was crazy before, you probably will be at the end of this post. So, if you'd like to keep your impressions of me as a merely SEMI-crazy cynical-cum-romantic fangirl of weird things (phew, quite the mouthful), it might help to stop reading riiiight here. You've been warned.

OK, now that THAT's over with...you know, most women will have their mancrushes. Some people like THIS type and some people like THIS type and some people even go for THIS type. (Personally, I like this one.) Where was I getting to? Oh yeah. So, women. Mancrushes. Some have multiple. One of mine happens to be a noble-hearted martial arts master who's upright in nature and pretty good with children. He pulled himself up out of poverty (...somewhat?) and is sometimes a little silly. But most of the time, he's a deep and serious teacher who cares very much about all his students/disciples.

VERY unfortunately, if you haven't caught on yet, he also happens to be a) 2-dimensional and c) not exactly human.

This is Dyna-shihan (first and one of the last appearances in Ultra Ninja Manual)

YES, I likes me a piece of Dyna-shihan, and it is partly THIS man's fault.

Who, sessha?

Yeah, you. You, Himura Kenshin, with your bleedin' split personality. They think you're all sessha and obliviousness and sweettalk—next thing you know, shit goes down and out comes the ore, Hitokiri Battousai who plays nice no more. Stupid rockin' sexy Rurouni Kenshin. *grumbles half-heartedly*

Thing is, once I got the concepts of sessha and ore down pat, it was pretty hot. I liked the idea of a sweet, kind soul who would turn deadly and prove his true mettle if someone important to him was threatened. The torture and the angst and the bittersweetness preceding that, I didn't enjoy so much, but still. Granted, I didn't watch a lot of said torture and angst; I got that much from a senior of mine, and she'll clout me about the head if I mess this explanation up somehow. XD

And then, around the time I was 15, along comes this nice piece of work called Ultra Ninja Manual: Kotobuki.

Actually this is from UNM Ultra, but you have to admit, those are some mighty hot arms. :3

Ultraman luff: check.
Pre-existing Dyna fannage: check.
Martial arts fannage: check.
Feudal Japan fannage: check.
Mysterious angsty past overcome: check.
Kicks butt with style: check.
Supremely honourable: check.
Soft spot for children: check. (Strange, seeing how I generally don't like kids much.)
Oh my lookit them *arms*: CHECK.
Dual sessha-ore pronoun user: CHECK CHECK CHECKITY *CHECKERENA*. I was sold.

For a few years this went on, with relatively silent squeeage, because I couldn't explain why I adored shihan the way I did. Maybe it was Kenshin-nostalgia. Maybe I wanted a protector. Maybe I just liked the guy. It was kind of hard to explain the delicacies of the sessha-ore archetype because OF COURSE I delve into the definition of this and the connotations of that, and it sputters to a graceless finish. The comparison to Kenshin is not very clear beyond that. RK is like a fine willow tree reaching the peak of its maturity. Shihan is like a great crabbed oak—although, mind you, one places him at being in his late 20s/mid-30s. I just went on fanning shihan and taking inordinate glee in documenting Japanese pronouns, converting a grand total of one person to that club. And then, today, two kindred spirits discovered each other.

Digression time again. There's a fansite out there, Japanese in nature, which does the most fantastic UM art. The webmaster keeps a blog, on which s/he expressed happiness in winkling out the pronouns Ultras ostensibly use (There's an SMS service in Japan that sends off monthly messages and OH GODS, DO WANT.). Anonymously, through webclap, I gush that 'omg, I love shihan and his ore-sessha duality' etc etc etc.

Lo and behold. Today the webmaster's blog was headed by a familiar-looking character. Clicking on the thumbnail with great anticipation, I let out a great whoop of joy when I saw shihan standing tall within the drawing, and a little squeefit on how adorable the character was. Oh help. Oh mercy. He has other fans. He lives. It is a truly great moment, to realise that you're not the only one who loves this silly old crabbed oak, that someone else is watering it with the same fervour that you do. (And again, I said as much through webclap.)

Hi/r shihan happens to be very easy on the eye, too. Mmhm. :D

Himura Kenshin's a sessha. Dyna's a sessha. Hell, SD Gundam 3 Kingdoms' Guan Yu is a sessha. These are all good and upright men, so what's not to like? Keep your ores and bokus, if only for now. In my heart, I will always hope that one day, a good sessha will appear in my little circle.

One can always hope. :) [+/-] Of archaic pronouns, hot aliens and unusual metaphors

Black Jack and Pinoko, sitting in the tree *scalpelled!*

State of mind: ...pink.
Current soundtrack: Dance Dance Mweeblution - EVERYBODY NEEDS MUSIC (HOME MADE Kazoku)

Blast you Black Jack, for you are two-dimensional , scarred, dark smex appeal on legs. *huffs* Particularly after 'Pinoko's Birth' which aired over Animax yesterday. I find it quite appealing that he only seems to become marginally more squishy around her. Ii na~

Classes were good today. I think I'll leave it at that.

---

The tree in front of my house is dying.

I've lived at my current address pretty much since I was born, and the wild cinnamon tree planted outside my house (illegally *cough*) has been there too, its canopy visible through the upstairs window. Its leaves shifted from pink to red to green to brown before the still, sharply veined forms dropped into the garden over the hedge, the dark green glossy hedge with the small tough leaves that bred the big white butterflies I never could catch. Our garbage can was attached to its trunk.

It was a good tree. Butterflies pupated in it. Birds nested in it and perched in it, and I learnt their names from a birdwatching friend in school. The words were like a new kind of poetry: mynah, magpie robin, koel, yellow-vented bulbul. Those were the days I turned over bricks in the garden to find slugs and millipedes, and caught the little purple butterflies off the little purple flowers that turned to miniature dandelions and would continue to do so even when plucked, rootless, and arranged in vases of tapwater.

It was even better when it stormed. The wind would moan ominously through the branches, and when the tempest started, the branches would wave in the howling wind, the canopy tossed here and there. It was strangely exciting to watch, wondering if something would happen but somehow safe in the universal truth that The Tree Would Not Fall.

Last year, my father trimmed the tree for some reason. Denuded it would be a better word. All that's left is a Y-shaped dark hunk of trunk and a sparse scraggly wisp of dead leaves on top. The only green is the langsuir fern in the low fork of the branches. Nothing perches or nests or pupates in it any more, and the tightly-woven hedge was uprooted and replaced with a bunch of standalone bushes, the light green of their leaves almost juvenile.

Now I'm sure my tree is dying, just as I had felt I was some moons ago. The rains make me fear for my tree, and the days where I turned bricks over in the garden are long gone.



(ETA 17/12/07 - Rest in peace, tree. We had to have it cut down because red ants were infesting it. :( )