it snows nine months of the year and hails the other three

Right then, my spook_me fic, aside from being a day late is turning into a chapter fic.

Gasp!

I've got to get it done by next Wednesday, so I can devote my life to NaNoWriMo on Thursday, yesplz.

But here it is:

Title: empty as the sky
Fandom:: Rurouni Kenshin
Rating: Let's say...for now, T, for gore-ish stuff, and future language and stuff. I dunno yet, it's still forming in my head.
Summary: Kaoru is on earth to help people let go of the darkness within them. Kenshin is on earth despite the fact that he has come to terms with his own darkness. Together, they discover what it means to really live, and how to let go. [modern AU, KK, zombies and ghosts galore]

( Wait...Undead? )

So my toe looks more like it has a red birthmark on it than a bruise. It still hurts, but it looks normal now. Yay! I'm glad it's healing.

Hm.

I was thinking about this recently, about the different takes of this concept in fanfiction.

So. Volume 28 of RK. Kenshin and Kaoru are at Tomoe's grave, praying. And Kenshin says (this is paraphrased), "I told her sorry, and thank you...and goodbye." And Kaoru is like OMGWTF.

Now, obviously this means--to both us as the readers and to Kaoru--that Kenshin is letting go of Tomoe in a romantic sense, has allowed himself to forgive himself and letting Kaoru into his heart. Not to say that Kenshin doesn't love Tomoe anymore, but...he's allowing himself to openly love Kaoru as well (I still firmly believe that Tomoe is Kenshin's first love, but Kaoru is Kenshin's true love, sappy though that may be).

Now. We know that the first time Kenshin returns to Kyoto after the Bakumatsu is when he goes to fight Shishio, and he visits Tomoe's grave then, and then he also visits it with Kaoru. I wonder, though: does continue to visit Tomoe's grave after he tells her goodbye?

I've seen it portrayed both ways in a fanfiction--that he no longer needs to go to Tomoe's grave anymore, and so he doesn't make specific trips to Kyoto to do so (though he might while he's visitng the Aoiya or something); or that he goes yearly/every two years/twice a year/et cetera in honor of her. But I've never written about it either way, because I'm a bit split. I'm not really sure, because both seem to be plausible character choices.

I dunno. I just think it's an interesting topic. I think I lean towards Kenshin's not visiting Kyoto specifically to visit Tomoe, but really, it's been plausibly done either way.

Flist, what do you think? Any chance of this perhaps provoking a little discussion?

nebulia out.

So I finally moved past my prejudice and got the two RK OVA soundtracks.

Beacause I love ALL the RK music. Though I feel many things about the animated forms of RuroKen, all of them unpleasant, I am exceedingly fond of the music. All of it.

And I have to say the only reason I watched Seisouhen past Kenshin leaving was because the music was so lovely. I really liked Tsuiokuhen's music, too.

Sometimes my unbelievable manga purism scares me. I was hanging out the The Evil Empire's forum for the most tragic manga deaths, and EVERYONE kept mentioning Kenshin. And I couldn't help but grind my teeth. MY Kenshin dies at the ripe old age of 95, surrounded by his many great-great-grandchildren, holding Kaoru's hand and doing the laundry at the same time. Screw realism. If Kenshin can jump four stories in the air and be three feet shorter than Aoshi on all the covers that feature them next to each other, then he can die like I want him to.

Some of the whole manga-is-God thing I think comes from being a book-over-movie purist my entire life. Harry Potter-blech. Eragon-shoot me now. The Chronicles of Narnia was okay but still not good.

There have only been five worthy book-to-movie adaptations ever: Mulan, because it was good, the 1982 Scarlet Pimpernel, because it really captured the essence of the book, the BBC Pride and Prejudice, because it was word-for-word, the 2005 Pride and Prejudice, because I thought it did a really great job of cutting down P&P into 2 hours, and it, too captured the essence of the book, and The Lord of the Rings, because it was WONDERFUL.

That's it. Howl's Moving Castle and Children of Men were both great movies in themselves, but so different from the books that I can't even compare the two, and off the top of my head, that's it as far as decent book-to-movies go.

Manga often end up being the same way. Lovely Complex is good, so is Loki, so is Damurai Deeper Kyo (for music and Kyo's very sexy voice actor if nothing else). Trinity Blood actually follows the books pretty well, but it's part of such a huge deal that it almost seems to be part of the canon itself, since there are books, manga, and anime, all covering, for the most part, different things. Ouran was hysterical but still not good enough, though I did like the way it swung HaruTamaki. Live action dramas tend to be okay, simply because they are always very, very different from the manga simply because of their format, and they're always fun and seem to capture the basic essence of the plot, but never try to stick to closely to it.

My favorite anime are actually the ones not based on manga: Samurai 7, Witch Hunter Robin, etc.

My favorite manga, other than Love*Com, seem to make awful anime. Let's not een talk about Angel Sanctuary, and you see how I feel about RK.

I comfort myself by saying that anime (and even movies for that matter) is really simply a giant work of fanon: fanfiction, fanart, AMV, and some original music, usually very good, all pulled together and with the author's permission. Like Les Mis, only Boublil and Schonberg, gods that they are, didn't get permission from Hugo.

And that's that.

nebulia out

If you happen to be working on some creative writing project, fanfiction or NaNoWriMo or what have you, post one sentence (or more) from each of your current work(s) in progress in your journal. It should probably be your favorite or most intriguing sentence so far, but what you choose is entirely your discretion. Mention the title (and genre) if you like, but don't mention anything else -- this is merely to whet the general appetite for your forthcoming work(s).

This definitely isn't everything, but...it's something.

( Rurouni Kenshin, Gokusen, Original )

Was cast as the part of Justina in the play. I'm pretty happy with it, even though I wanted Elisenda. The only problem I have with it is who is actually playing Elisenda--I'd pick almost ANYONE in drama over her, including several guys. She is SUCH a bitch. *sigh* But I'll deal with it. It's mostly set in stone anyway, so that's that.

nebulia out.

It's up!

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3775957/1/the_art_of_contentment

yeah.

nebulia out.

Last night I had this odd dream, that I really want to write down before I forget the rest of it. It was this interesting, mildly dark RK AU. Here's what happenened:

Kaoru is taken/captured/offered as a hostage replacement/something-or-other by/to a tribe of Native-American-like people. For a while she's their kind-of servant thing, because she keeps trying to escape, but then she becomes kind of a hostage in name only. She gets to take college courses at a local college--it was a little bit like Sitka, Juneau or Ketchikan in Alaska, although it could have been even more secluded. There was a town, and then several tribes around it. Anyway, Kaoru never got to finish college and so she gets to take college courses.

It was around this point that I realized that Kaoru was older. Later, I found out she was 33.

And so it turns out Kaoru's closest to Megumi/Sano/Yahiko/Misao/etc., but they don't get along entirely well. Kaoru's not part of their tribe-thingy, and that bothers them. She eventually befriends one of the elders, Kenshin, and they have a kind of awkward friendship/relationship thing going on. Kenshin kind of wants more, and Kaoru's a little confused, and stuff.

It's about this point that I find out Kenshin's 53. Yeah, random, I know. He didn't look that old, but then, either did Kaoru.

anyway, there was some issues with a couple other tribes--I mean, there was a plot, but I don't remember it--and there was a scene with Kaoru in a college class and another where Kaoru and Kenshin and maybe some others were standing near a big river/fjord with brown/reddish dirt and mulch on the ground and big fir trees all around.

It was an odd dream, but if I remembered the plot, if had a sort of promising plot. I thought it did, at least.

nebulia out.

Here's a little bit of the RK oneshot I've been working on. Any critique would be really nice. I haven't really edited it yet. At all. There's definitely stuff that needs to be fixed. But...yeah. Anything at all to make the general whole better? I know a lot of sentences are awkward and the like; I'm working on that. But overall, does the voice work, how's Kenshin's character, etc.?

As a note, it's purely romance, though I tried not to make it sappy or cliched. It takes place directly (or actually, about a week) after Sano leaves in volume 28, and then on--the fic covers about three seperate moments stretching over the period of roughly a month. There are also some direct manga references in here that I haven't checked, so forgive that as well.

( Progression (working title), pts. 1, 2 and 3 )

that's right, I am on livejournal. at school.

last night I was attacked by a plotbunny that is turning into a rather long KK oneshot. I like it. I had the desire to write something other than a vignette in present tense, so I did. It was going to be switching point of view, Kenshin then Kaoru, but Kenshin decided to take over and I haven't done my homework since. XP

When I get in a writing kick like this I remember how awesome writing is, why I love it so much.

nebulia out.

Out of procrastination, I reread last year's spook_me prompt and was startled.

Usually, when I reread stuff like that, I go, "Oh. My. God. What a load of crap."

And I reread this and I thought..."Hmmm, maybe this has potential."

It needs editing. A lot of editing. But...it actually could be something interesting.

I was rather surprised. I thought it was a load of crap when I finished it and now I'm not sure I do. So...I dunno, maybe it's not as bad as I thought it was.

IT just surprised me. I didn't read it for like a year because I thought it was so awful it would embarrass me, and I really wasn't embarrassed at all.

I just need to buck up and face my work, that's all. It's not like Frankenstein's monster; it's not going to turn on me.

Yet.

XD

nebulia out.

Been thinking about this recently; perhaps due to L. Mouse's fic A Rurouni Goes to College.

I believe, vaguely in my memory somewhere, that the Profiles book published in the US that I skimmed over in Borders stated Kenshin was about 158 cm (approximately, in my estimation, 5'3")--or was it 155? Well, anyway, one of those two and Kaoru was 3 cm shorter than him.

However, I've been scanning the manga and Kaoru is WAY more than three centimeters shorter than him. Because whenever she's in geta/zori (her zori are awfully tall, almost like okobo if you ask me, but then, she's not a maiko (hehe...Avatar pairings), and I can't see them very well), she's still shorter than him. Example, on page 78 of volume one, in the first panel. K&K are on the same level, but Kaoru is definitely shorter than Kenshin. It's not just their hair; Kenshin's eyes, nose and mouth sit above Kaoru's on the page as well. And Kaoru's in geta. Well, zori. At leas tin volume one she's in zori, but she says she's wearing geta when she catches up to Enishi in 27. But then that would make sense, since zori was worn with tabi and kimono and geta with yukata, which were worn a lot more often in the summer.

Of course, on the next page, where they're walking, they're pretty much the same height, but still.

Which makes me say Kenshin's about 5'2" (maaaybe) and Kaoru's hovering around 4'11." Since Kenshin is described as short (well, small) and we are in Japan here.

Or shorter. But, given what I know of proportions and crap, and given the height of Kaoru's shoes and the heights of K&K while Kaoru's in them, I'd put at least two inches between them, if not three. Not three centimeters.

But then, that's just my observing the manga...bah. What do I know? Except about Japanese footwear. XP

And anneliese isn't working again. She won't turn on, just like last time. I'm losing my patience here. A LOT.

nebulia out.