broken-nosed gods

From alexseanchai: what I love about Sailor Moon.

This is easy!

Full cast of ladies. You know how in a lot of stories it is literally a man's world, with maybe two or three girls—and this happens even in things where a girl is the main character? Sailor Moon is ALL GIRLS ALL THE TIME. Not just Usagi and the other senshi—most of their villains and even most of the minor bit-part characters are ladies. It is just so unbelievably refreshing to see something that's just as all-ladies-always as the stuff I write myself.

Queer characters. It's been twenty years and you still can't find stuff as queer as this manga. Bisexual characters, lesbians, canonical genderqueer character, at least one asexual character. Reading Sailor Moon is absolutely living the representational dream, for me.

Tsukino Usagi, lazy crybaby bisexual dream girl.

Chiba Mamoru, Usagi's #1 partner, best dude, badly-dressed professional kidnappee.

Tenou Haruka, juggling sailor senshi duties with being Michiru's full-time girlfriend AND Japan's most famous racecar driver. Queerest of queers.

Aino Minako, love-and-beauty pop-star team leader, who always falls in love but will never, ever let romance come between her and her duty.

Setsuna and Michiru and Haruka all shacking up together to raise baby Hotaru.

Takeuchi Naoko's drawing style, which is a bit limited in some ways—Usagi's supposed to be chubby, but you can't tell at all—while also being one of my favorite things ever. It conveys emotion really, really well, and it's cute and funny and beautiful. So many little details.

That one time evil!Mamoru brainwashed Motoki into thinking he was his best friend because evil!Mamoru needed information, and they've been friends ever since.

Neo Queen Serenity: you can FEEL how kind and loving and strong she is, and you can tell at once that Usagi will grow to be that person, not too far in the future.

How destiny is intermingled with choice; Ace might have told Minako that it was her fate to never have love, only her duty, but the truth is this: Minako decided to hold her duty to the princess above all things. She decides every day. For all of the sailor senshi, their destiny isn't something forced upon them; it's the end result of their own choices. Given the chance, not a single one of them would turn away.


Still a lot of open spots in the meme, give me more things to talk about please!

So I've been kind of ... not here for a while, which (for those of you new to this blog/me) is generally a Bad Sign that i'm isolating myself and not doing well. However! I have returned.

( December 1: gender thingies )


Most of my December posting meme is still open! Give me things to talk about!

So here is a meme. Give me one or several or a bunch of letters, and I'll answer. Possibly even right away!

A. Describe your comfort zone—a typical you-fic.
B. Is there a trope you've yet to try your hand at, but really want to?
C. Is there a trope you wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole?
D. How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Care to share one of them?
E. Share one of your strengths.
F. Share one of your weaknesses.
G. Share a snippet from one of your favorite pieces of prose you've written and explain why you're proud of it.
H. Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you've written and explain why you're proud of it.
I. Which fic has been the hardest to write?
J. Which fic has been the easiest to write?
K. Is writing your passion or just a fun hobby?
L. Is there an episode or section of canon above all others that inspires you just a little bit more?
M. What's the best writing advice you've ever come across?
N. What's the worst writing advice you've ever come across?
O. If you could choose one of your fics to be filmed, which would you choose?
P. If you only could write one pairing for the rest of your life, which pairing would it be?
Q. Do you write your story from start to finish, or do you write the scenes out of order?
R. Do you use any tools, like worksheets or outlines?
S. Stephen King once said that his muse is a man who lives in the basement. Do you have a muse?
T. Describe your perfect writing conditions.
U. How many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting?
V. Choose a passage from one of your earlier fics and edit it into your current writing style. (Person asking the question is free to make suggestions).
W. If you were to revise one of your older fics from start to finish, which would it be and why?
X. Have you ever deleted one of your published fics?
Y. What do you look for in a beta?
Z. Do you beta yourself? If so, what kind of beta are you?
AA. How do you feel about collaborations?
AB. Share three of your favorite fic writers and why you like them so much.
AC. If you could write the sequel (or prequel) to any fic out there not written by yourself, which would you choose?
AD. Do you accept prompts?
AE. Do you take liberties with canon or are you very strict about your fic being canon compliant?
AF. How do you feel about smut?
AG. How do you feel about crack?
AH. What are your thoughts on non-con and dub-con?
AI. Would you ever kill off a canon character?
AJ. Which is your favorite site to post fic?
AK. Talk about your current wips.
AL. Talk about a review that made your day.
AM. Do you ever get rude reviews and how do you deal with them?
AN. Write an alternative ending to a fic you've written (specify by title, link or general description)

I really wanted to join the December memeage, but early December was all HSK! FINALS! YOU ARE GOING TO DIE so I didn't. However, since skygiants told me Delayed December Post Meme was A Thing, I'm going to go ahead and do it!

Topics: fandom stuff, music, fashion, food, language stuff, knitting, basically anything you like. If you pick something I don't want to talk about, I'll let you know, so you can substitute something else if you'd like.

December 13 -
December 14 -
December 15 -
December 16 - reading in Chinese/Japanese: have I developed any habits different from reading in English? What's fun/frustrating? (maat_seshat)
December 17 -
December 18 -
December 19 -
December 20 - how I came to know myself as aromantic (talkswithwind)
December 21 - fannish history (qem_chibati)
December 22 -
December 23 -
December 24 -
December 25 -
December 26 -
December 27 -
December 28 -
December 29 -
December 30 -
December 31 -
January 1 - Wedges, yea or nay? (yifu)
January 2 -
January 3 - something I've experienced in two languages, and the differences between the two (skygiants)
January 4 -
January 5 -
January 6 -
January 7 -
January 8 - reconciling genderqueerness & femmeness (littlebutfierce)
January 9 -
January 10 -
January 11 -
January 12 -
January 13 -

Ask me things! All the things!

Due to the fact that I'm (still) living in Shanghai, I usually don't get to see everyone's Wednesday reading posts until Thursday or sometimes Friday, so that + me watching as much or more than I'm reading, I've been thinking of doing Media Consumption Friday instead. But today I read a thing, so I'm gonna follow everyone else for now.

What I'm currently reading:
Murakami Haruki's 羊をめくる冒険 (Wild Sheep Chase is the English title, I believe). It's slow going, because my Japanese was never that amazing to begin with and I've forgotten a lot while I've been focusing on Chinese this year, but it's still easier to read than any of the (supposedly young-adult) chinese novels I've been attempting. I think it's just as I suspected; my familiarity with grammar in Japanese makes up for my lack of vocabulary, at least in this particular writing style, while Chinese's grammatical similarities with English are actually a giant pain in the ass because, being a native english speaker, I have no idea how the fuck english actually works. Not far enough into the novel to have a real opinion on it yet.

Recently finished reading:
All the translated chapters of the Legend of the Sun Knight series, which culminated in me actually buying all the novels in Chinese, though my low level of Chinese fluency has made them really slow going. Also I did the thing where I tripped and fell into White Dudes Fandoms, though I must say the Supernatural/X-Men crossover was pretty great for its genre.

(The only good thing about falling into White Dude Fandoms -- not kidding, I really do fall into them, I have never watched an episode of Supernatural or the Sentinal or almost any of those shows in my life and I do not intend to -- is that I eventually get so fed up with them that I storm off in a fury to either write anti-establishment femslash or study, thus making myself a slightly less worse person.)

Reading next: more Shingeki no Kyojin, more japanese novels, re-reading more of 07-Ghost, and more boring-ass white dude slash to make myself angry enough to write some proper femslash and maybe study for finals.

So, I haven't been around much lately! This is because school has started and I have no energy. You know what gives me energy? WRITING MEMES.

Snagged from newredshoes: Give me an AU (or crossover!) prompt in the comments and I will plot out for you the fic it evokes in my mind.

Applicable fandoms: Utena, Harry Potter, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Creamy Mami, xxxHOLiC, Fullmetal Alchemist, Natsume Yuujinchou, Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, Princess Tutu, Detective Conan/Magic Kaito, Loveless, and anything else you know I'm familiar with!

Now that I (technically) have time again, I am doing what I said I would and borrowing makeste's super-excellent meme!

1. My favorite character.
2. ANOTHER favorite character!!
3. My favorite character relationship, and by "relationship" I don't necessarily mean pairing and certainly not OTP, but on the other hand, depending on the fandom MAYBE I DO!
4. The moment/character/THING/WHATEVER that first hooked me on the fandom.
5. One of my favorite moments.
6. A song or track that reminds me of this fandom.
7. One miscellaneous awesome thing about the fandom.
8. One completely random thought I have regarding this fandom.
9. One fic/essay rec, fanart, or fanvid that depending on the fandom I either had lovingly bookmarked or saved onto my hard drive, or only just now found during a two-minute Google search.

thingswithwings and terajk asked me about these icons! So here I am talking about them.



A-ko and B-ko from Utena! There are so many things I love about that show that it's ridiculous to call any one of them a favourite, but the Shadow Girls would certainly be one. They're so deliciously meta, with their Greek Chorus plays about the duels. And their fabulous hairstyles don't hurt either. ;) Most of my standard 'talking and listening' icons are of them, because that's pretty much all they do, and they do it with style. (UFO style.) This one is by (I think) sorceresses, as are at least half of all my Utena icons. You should go have a look, if you decide you need some yourself. ;)



This is probably (and sadly) the Azula icon I have that gets the least use, because it's not brightly colored. >D However, I think it's the first one of her I ever had, and I do still like it. It looks like she's about to firebend at my face! I almost wish I'd taken the Mai one right next to it instead, though. Because I still don't have any icons of just Mai.



This is the first Samurai Champloo icon I ever used! I love how bright Mugen's clothes look, because I'm pretty sure it was never anything like that hue in the show. And how all three of them look like the cameraman told them "Okay, look badass!" about three seconds before the shutter clicked.

I think, at the time, I went looking for good Samurai Champloo icons specifically so I could use one of them when I talked about the terrible, terrible plotbunny I had at the time for a Samurai Champloo/My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic crossover. I still kind of have that plotbunny, actually.



This has become my standard 'asexuality' icon. I don't know, there's just something about a wooden sign on a brick wall saying "NO SEX PLEASE". :D



Even though it doesn't look like it, this is actually another Samurai Champloo icon! I don't remember when these appear in the show, but it might have been while Mugen was underwater. I really like the pinkish-red colors, even though I can never quite remember what this kind of flower is called. I do know it's the one flower, out of all my icons with flowers in them, that isn't a rose.


And now on to terajk's!



This is Chrome Dokuro! She a teenage girl who walks around missing a bunch of her internal organs, and is way cooler than you. In addition, her substitute internal organs are made out of FIRE. (Mist fire. She's just that cool, okay.) I've never figured out—or possibly just don't remember—if she's actually missing that eye, if it looks like Mukuro's, or if she just wears the patch for dramatic effect.

Katekyo Hitman Reborn! is, sadly, not the greatest with regards to ladies, so Chrome doesn't get to be the hero very often. However, this may not exactly be an unbiased opinion, because she is my favorite character in the whole manga, and possibly my favorite character in Shounen Jump manga period. <3



This icon encapsulates a major, major reason why I love Gokusen—actually, a lot of my favorite things—so much. On the right we have the math teacher Yamaguchi Kumiko, who genuinely cares about her delinquent students and wants to interest them in her subject. She also enjoys hanging out with her family—who just happen to be the most powerful yakuza group in town—stacking the bruised and groaning bodies of her opponents in large heaps, and helping people. With violence.

Meanwhile, on the left, we have Sawada Shin, her cool good-looking delinquent student and (eventually) unofficial lieutenant. He takes care of all the manly man stuff, like getting kidnapped.

. . . As I'm sure you can tell, THIS IS A REALLY GREAT MANGA. And bookelfe's post on it is pretty fantastic too.

Excuse me, I need to go read it again. (I actually brought the first volume with me to school today for Japanese practice. Oops?)



This is kind of my default Azula icon. And my default 'lady character looking cool' icon. It was also my actual default Dreamwidth icon for a while, but then I decided I should maybe cut back a bit. Save the looking-down-on-the-world smirk for when you need it, all that. (user name=sharp-pastels site=livejournal.com> actually has a ton of fantastic A:TLA icons other than this one, just pointing that out.)

I love it to pieces, because it's just so Azula.



I kind of have a thing for phantom thieves, and Kaitou Kid is no exception. Even though I'm only sort of in Detective Conan/Magic Kaito fandom (*is still only 23 volumes into main canon*) I positively adore this character. Tragic past, secret identity, friendly rivals, deadly opposition, enjoys his work . . . the only thing that makes me at all sad is the fact that he is not a girl. Because the world does not have enough girl phantom thieves. But this does not make him not fantastic!

This is also my standard ":D!" icon. The full keywords are actually ":D no snipers this heist!" which may actually be kind of revealing about my perception of Kaito as a character.



I really like all the scenes where Utena plays sports, right from the basketball scene in the first episode. It's just really fun to see her run around and do stuff that's not related to the duels, having a good time. I also like the bright-but-sort-of-washed-out colours in this particular icon, and the way she's winking at the camera. Actually, I didn't even notice the baseball in her hand when I first started using it.


Comment on this entry with the secret keyword 'yankumi', and I will ask you about five of your icons (whenever I remember to).

Via littlebutfierce and various others:

If I made Cinderella, the audience would immediately be looking for a body in the coach.
— Alfred Hitchcock

So, if I wrote a story what would you be looking for in it?


My own answer: UNIVERSITY/COLLEGE. For almost every set of pre-college-age-characters I've written so far, I think. (Next up, the Utena cast!)

7. Have you ever had a fic change your opinion of a character?

Oh yes, all the time. I actually find it very difficult to write a character unless I've read lots of fic about them, preferably by different people, because my first understanding of a character is always nowhere near the one I end up with.

8. Do you write OCs? And, if so, what do you do to make certain they're not Mary Sues? If not, explain your thoughts on OCs.

Yes!—although, strangely, not all that often. I love reading about original characters, but I'm not so good at creating them yet. Takes quite a bit of time & effort. Making sure they're not Mary Sues . . . eh. My general guiding principle is to not write stuff I wouldn't want to read, so it's just the same as for canon characters.

9. For each of the fandoms from day two, what are your three favorite pairings to write? ( I wish people wouldn't ask me these questions. GENFIC: YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG. )

10. Have you ever gone outside your comfort zone and written a pairing you liked, but found you couldn't write? Or a pairing you didn't like, and found you could?

Two words: Gen. Fic.

Combinations of characters that I like but can't write interacting, oh yes. Lots. Usually it's because I don't have a proper grip on one of the characters in question, or because I'm not good at writing scenes in which people decide that their best course of action is, indeed, punching this smug jerk right here in the face.

Characters' interactions that I don't like but can write, not at all. If I don't like something (unlikely) then I just won't try write it, except as an exercise in getting myself to enjoy something new.

11. Do you prefer certain genres of fic when you're writing? What kind do you tend to write most?

In-universe works are my favourite, I think. Letters! Essays! History books! Research papers! Critical reviews! Poetry! Excerpts of classical novels! Popular fiction!

I don't actually write those very often, but I want to.

Other genres: domesticity, close friendship & created-family, big famous heroes deciding/attempting to live a quiet life, music, characters being fannish, slice-of-life, culture smash, cities/towns/buildings/schools as characters, genderfuck, loneliness/solitary-ness, youkai (or equivalent local spirits), crossovers.

12. Have you ever attempted an 'adaptation' fic of a favourite book or movie but set in a different fandom?

I don't think I quite understand what they're getting at here. Do they mean fusion-fic?

If so, not really. Thought about it a few times, but I tend to do crossovers instead. It's easier.

13. Do you prefer canon or fanon when you write? Has writing fanfic for a fandom changed the way you see some or even all of the original source material?

It depends! Fanfiction is, by its nature, generally based on canon. When there's a certain fanon thing I really like, though, I'll jump on it and completely ignore canon if I need to. (For instance: To me, Hermione will always be the girl who said 'Oh, for God's sake. They're tampons. They're made of cotton wool. They absorb blood. They obey the laws of physics. They don't need to be fucking magical,' no matter how assimilationist she ended up being in canon.) And sometimes I'll change things that don't make a difference to the overall story, just because I want to—is it really bad writing to make KHR full of girls instead of bishounen, just because I can?

So basically I write what I like, whether it's based completely on canon or not.

As to the second question: oh goodness yes. Almost always, and even when it hasn't it makes me look harder at what I'm already thinking. Reading changes my opinions more than writing does, just because I do more of it, but writing makes me think things out all the way to the end. Which, I suppose, is why it takes so long.