gabihime_ff

Blarg. I still feel unmitigatedly like poop. Thanks health. For nothin'

Anyway, since I've been kind of silent lately I thought I'd drop a short line to comment on the fact that I have rather obviously begun the next part of the Shape chronology: What Becomes of Saturn and Venus. People who used to hang on Pyreflyes or DBF back in the halcyon days when these places were still frequented will already suspect the seed of the hep plot of this story (and if you're snoopy, you can just go back and ready old DBF posts to find me wax poetic on the plot XD), but I have fleshed out the basic idea considerably since then.

I am just finishing a replay of FFX International Japanese Voice so I can make sure my ducks are in a row. I just have Calabolg to finish, and the spheregrid to max, but I've pretty much finished everything else, including the butterfly hunting. Like hunting mystic goo in KH, I turned out to be remarkably good at it XDD.

Saturn and Venus is actually only the second part of a three part series -- I'll only call the damn thing a trilogy if it ever gets done XD. S + V will certainly end up being longer than Shape, and have a couple of side stories attached to it as well -- focusing on the characters in FFX who are not named "Auron" or "Rikku."

I know some people are mildly worried it'll take another four years for me to finish this one, but so long as I stay focused, I can bang out chapters for a story that's been well planned every week or so. I write dense prose very quickly. My biggest problem is that I inevitably get distracted working on one of the million and one other things that I'm doing at any given time. Like Jibreel and Melekel. It's kind of hard not to get distracted by them, as they are ridiculously hot. I cannot possibly be biased.

Right now I hope to keep advancing Saturn + Venus and ViaV both at a respectable pace. Writing for fandom can be both enjoyable and challenging, and both of these stories are, in their own ways. I am currently demanding a greater level of technical excellence from S + V than I ever tried to beat out of Shape, but that's also because I started writing Shape as a bet, and now it's a project that I'm wholly committed to XD. ViaV is challenging because it's such a focused narrative. In the next chapter Kaname and Zero actually have a conversation. They exchange more than two words at a stretch, when Yuki isn't even in the room. It is an astonishing improvement for them, I think, as thus far they have really put one another on ignore XD.

I also posted a short Snape story from ages past. I still love it, despite its shortness. Writing Snape is great and cathartic. If anyone is curious, this is what they look like together. Ahhh. Addie is so cute XD. It'd hit that! Forreal. Sadly, Snape is the character I self-identify with, and Addie is the girl I really wish would like me, as opposed to vice-versa XDD. Sometimes I just can't help but feel like a wretched, ugly, self-important, misunderstood genius bundle of needles like Severus Snape.

They have an immensely long story, all taking place during Snape's school tenure, which I plotted out but never actually wrote, mainly because I realized no one really cared about the story of Snape and Adelaide but me XDDD.

The title of Snape and Adelaide's story is actually Days of Wands and Roses, which is a reference to the Dowson poem, and not the film XD.

"They are not long, the weeping and the laughter,
Love and desire and hate:
I think they have no portion in us after
We pass the gate.
They are not long, the days of wine and roses:
Out of a misty dream
Our path emerges for awhile, then closes
Within a dream."

My stalkers will realize I have a fondness for this poem because of the film based on Vera Caspary's novel, Laura, which stars Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, and Clifton Webb and won the Academy Award in 1944.

In any case, Snape and Adelaide's story as it was originally written (or not written) ended in her untimely death at the hands of his lunatic aunt, the day after the paperwork for their civil marriage was completed. Poor Snape got no sex and he didn't even succeed in kissing her once over the course of seven years, because he is ultimately that level of fail at social interactions. I think I'd probably revise my stance on the physical aspects of their relationship if I reworked the plot these days. Perhaps I am not so naive any longer. XDD

At this point, since I don't really care for anything past HP 5: Order of the Phoenix, if I ever go back and write anything else, I may well give them a fractured, but happy (happier) ending. I mean, my idea of a happy ending for them is one where she doesn't end up dead XDDD Poor Addie, I killed you off for canon, and then ended up not caring for the canon that followed. Maybe I could just horribly injure you, or psychologically scar you or something. Something for Snape to feel awfully guilty about. If I can get rid of you until after Harry's fifth year, then I can resolve your story and give you a better ending XDDD


I still want Harry to find the picture you painted of your four imaginary children under that dustcloth in storage in Snape's room at Hogwarts. That's one of the best scenes ever.

"Oh, father never looks at us. We're used to it."

I started writing ViaV six this morning. I apologize for my lack of observable activity for the past couple of days but that's because I've been pretty sick. Alas I am a very sickly creature, so I'm afraid blackouts like this may end up being pretty common.

Anyway, I am totally going to scan more pages from Noble Vampire once I feel a little better, and the Wedge has agreed to apply himself to translating it. I will be somewhat ineffectively helping him translate. He has said he is excited to do it, and that also makes me happy :D

I finally posted ViaV five um, yesterday? I've been sleeping so much I can't really tell you when exactly, without checking the upload date. As I said before, this chapter is epistolary, and ended up being much more challenging to write than I had previously suspected. Chairman Cross's letters were by far the most fun to write, although I also liked writing about Yori's theories concerning Ruka.

Maria's letter was a chance for me to begin seriously exploring some of the political intrigue that is brewing in the shadows of this story. It is, as you might expect, by no means what I think as the writer, and I wrote it specifically to be believable and convincing, although deeply, deeply flawed. I think of Maria as an intelligent and yet inexperienced individual, who has never had personal interaction with the world of vampires (it's stated that she's never appeared at a soiree due to her health). She is also very young. All of this together adds up into someone who finds it easy to believe what it is the council is selling.

This makes her a very interesting character to offer a lens of the world.

As to what I think concerning all of this, you'll have to read ViaV to discover such mysteries <3.

Secret excerpt from chapter six:


"Why is it only the two of us? I think Kuran ought to have to do it too," he observed frankly.

Yuki's brows knit faintly, and she frowned. "I don't think you should talk about it like it's something unpleasant, like taking cough medicine."

I secured Noble Vampire from Mandarake last week (on spot sale. score.) and when I got it I determined I would scan it, since the art is really lovely and there are many lols to be had inside. In this troubled time, we need all the lols we can get, amirite?

Anyway this doujin just came out at winter comiket. If you're interested in getting it, it shows up at both Mandarake and Jpqueen pretty regularly, or you could get it from a scalper on ebay. It's a general audiences doujin with a focus on Kaname, Yuki, and Zero, although Aido also gets some lollerskates screen time.

So far I have scanned and posted the first eleven pages. I'll try to do the next eleven or twelve in the next day or so. I'd like to pace it out like this to give my doujin some recovery time, and also to allow myself to do other things XD.

I've put the scans up in two flavors: high res and low res. If you just want to look at the images, go for low res. High res is really intended for people who want to make wallpapers and such. In the high res gallery a couple of the images look broken. They're there, just click on the thumbnail to see the image. Sometimes the gallery software doesn't like to autogen thumbnails for the very large images.

I would like to try and translate the story pages in this one, but bear with me, as I am a very slow translator, so I can't promise when this will be done. Also, please don't direct link images XD You will kill my bandwidth. Link here if you like <3.



(Anyway! On to the scans!)

When you are finished loving on the scans, why not try some reading?

Since this is my general fandom blog, I thought I'd go ahead and put together a wishlist for a part of fandom I've been collecting for about ten years now: doujinshi.

Alas, there generally aren't all that many doujin for whatever it is I'm interested in collecting, I suppose just because my tastes are a bit strange unpopular, even for Japan.

So in the hopes of keeping my information straight and organized, I've decided to make a little wishlist here. Hurrah for me. Maybe I will miraculously encounter someone who is selling some of the older or rarer books I'm still looking for. Here's hopin'

General Interests
Any Vampire Knight doujin. There are what, three? Doujin for Spiral: Suri no Kizuna, Narumi Ayumu x Hiyono. I don't even believe these exist. Princess Tutu - Ahiru x Fakir. Final Fantasy X Aurikku, Auron x Rikku (that one was hard to figure, amirite). Odin Sphere, Gwendolyn x Oswald. Gundam Seed/Destiny, Athrun x Lacus x Kira. Shoujo Kakumei Utena, Black Rose centric. Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon, SuperS focused, no Yuri.

Specific Doujinshi

Vampire Knight


Title: Secret Garden - シークレット・ガーデン
Circle: Apple Tea - りんご紅茶
Focus: Zero x Yuki H, set in Kuruizaki-hime arc.
Size: 28P, partially text.
Status: Wanted, High Priority.



Title: Secret Garden
Circle: Love/EMU
Focus: Kaname x Neko-Zero, Ichiru x Zero
Size: 32P, partially text.
Status: Wanted, High Priority.

List to be updated with extreme prejudice, once I can pare down the wants for the other sections, and find suitable information and images for them. I will also post a short catalogue of the doujin that I own currently sometime in the near future. It's pretty easy to figure out my interests once you look at them XDD.

As I've been working through the letters in ViaV 5, I've been thinking about other things that I have been sort of vaguely considering for a while.

Naturally, there's a new chapter related to my Final Fantasy X stuff that I really need to get down on paper so I can share it with you all. It's a really awesome story. Additionally, I still want to write that Magic City Zanarkand story about Auron and Rikku that I mentioned over at aurikku last year. But I'll write the first chapter of S + V first.

Other than that, I've really been enjoying rereading my Vampire Knight manga. The story is a very good story, and I'll definitely want to write something concerning once what is happening is a bit more concrete. That's why I chose to write ViaV about the anime in the first place. The anime is finished, so I can formulate some things to say about it.

And as you may know I've been following Gundam 00 from week to week. With only two episodes to go, I am desperate to see how things are tied together. I've been thinking about writing something deeply stupid and Desu x Nerde, set between S1 and S2, since Tieria is my favorite character in 00, although I also enjoy Jihad-kun. I think this has the potential for comedy gold, but I'll have to think on it. It would be something short, probably after the fashion of my Spiral fanfiction.

Speaking of, I am also following that as the manga is released domestically. Once it's a bit more done I'll probably write something else AyuHiyo. I love my Narumi-san, and Hiyo-Hiyo is the kind of heroine I'm always jonesing for.

I've also been thinking about releasing a tenth anniversary special Rurouni Kenshin Soujiro specific multichaptered extravaganza in honor of Tears and Rain hitting the big 1-0 birthday. I really shouldn't have fanfiction that's ten years old. That says embarrassing things about me. But some people still love T&R, which really got me started as a serious fanfiction writer, and was the first of my pieces that ever really had widespread popularity and garnered acclaim.

What I'd be writing is likely a revamp of Alternatives, which tells the story of Soujiro and Kuri during the canonical Kyoto storyline, as opposed to afterward. It has a lot of juppongatana goodness. I still love RuroKen, and I have to admit that the antics of T&R still have a strong serial manga/doujin feel.

Anyway, I am also considering writing something about Rachel and Jibreel, who are star players in my original fiction. I need to set up my fiction blog.

So that's the haul, sportsfans.

The current chapter of ViaV is epistolary, and I hope to complete it this evening, as it will be a relatively short chapter. It concerns the letters delivered to both Yuki Cross and Kaname Kuran by Zero Kiryu. After that, the action will resume in normal fashion.

I have to say this. While working on ViaV my husband Wedge has been immensely insightful. While I have struggled to represent Kaname and Zero both accurately, he has helped troubleshoot sections of the overriding plot that were threatening to dissolve into reciprocal violence. He also helps me by always being forward about the masculine perspective on the situation. I want to capture the uncertainty and the aggressive-adversarial-intensity of Kaname and Zero.

In some ways I feel bad for the K x Z fans out there reading ViaV, because I keep doing the song and dance that K x Z is coming, and then post a new chapter about -- well, most recently, Kaname and Yuki breaking the virginity barrier, while Zero is so left out in the cold he doesn't even get to ride in the taxi. But it is coming, and it's coming slowly, but surely. ViaV is pretty rigorously plotted out in the short term, so only very small details are subject to change. I really can't wait to begin writing the K x Z scenes, but I have to get to them first.

I really want to buy VK: DS before it goes out of print. That and PM4 are currently topping my DS wishlist. I really don't have the money right now.

 So ViaV 4 is finished and posted over at the f to the f dot n.

Strangely, I wrote the Goose-girl section for this chapter last, as I did for the first chapter.  For chapters two and three I began with the goose girl excerpt.

Anyway, I am deliberating seriously on writing a short oneshot about Kaname and Yuki that will actually retell the pee pee incident, as I think it is both hilarious and adorable, although it is sailor-suit level embarrassing to discuss this with someone you've just confessed you want to have sex with.

Someone I know, who beta reads for me, actually has a big pee pee hangup (as in is embarrassed by even thinking about someone going to the bathroom), and this person rebelled seriously against me when I was considering writing about it.  

Urine doesn't bother me at all, nor does seeing people go to the bathroom, so I don't find the subject of this possible story alarming at all.  

But then I'm also all for casual nudity and have to try to actively remember not to take my clothes off when I'm hot while company is over, so I don't know if I'm any kind of judge for normalcy.

Anyway, still debating this to myself.  Please enjoy this chapter.  There is sex in it.

 Oh snap.  This is a fanfiction journal.

You can find me here.  I am the only Gabihime on the internet.