CV Free Talk Parts 4-6 ~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Murasakisuishou's Free Talk #2 Why I wrote Ran the way I did. I am not a fan of those WK fics where Ran is portrayed as frigid--or always angry, cold, uncaring. He is a boy struggling to be dead to all pleasure and pain, as his sister is; he thinks he doesn't have the right to be happy, when the one he so loves can't live her life. But he isn't always successful in playing dead. In the anime, he worries about his teammates, he cracks jokes on occasion, even smiles--albeit faintly. He is kind in his way to the girls they come in contact with, and he is very protective of Omi. How he got such a reputation for being utterly cruel and unfeeling, I'll never know. So, I decided to be radical, and portray Ran as being human. He cries, he hurts, he doubts himself and Ken. He longs desperately for Ken, as he has loved him for a long time. And yet, he knows he still doesn't really have him. Ken is too tied to his memories to fully give himself to Ran. And so, Ran has come to believe that if he can get Ken to have sex with him, it would mean that he really loves him. Question is: Will Ken ever really love Ran? ~*~*~*~*~*~*~ The Queen of Blueberry Toast, Free Talk #2 v. Musics So now the question you've all been waiting to ask me... why the bloody hell does Schuldich like Stevie Nicks? Well, I could just say, "No reason" but there's a reason behind every single piece of music mentioned in this fic. For instance, in the very first chapter, when Ken and Aya are driving through the rain, Ken is singing along with "Jupiter Crash" by The Cure... why not something better known like... "Just Like Heaven" if I'm going to go that way and decide Ken's the sort who likes The Cure? Because everyone knows that song! And besides, I came across the words while looking for the lyrics to something else entirely, and was just in AWE of them at the time I wrote the post (though I hadn't actually heard the song, although, now that I have, I'm not sorry I chose it). Besides, saying Ken likes The Cure is like saying he he's alive. Lots of different people are such fanciers. Makes him seem more human that he does. Saffie's singing "Stockton Gala Days" isn't random either. It actually has to do with the side story "Schu-baby", because while I was tearing up my CD collection to find something different to listen to while I was working on it, and the 10,000 Maniacs CD was just kinda... there. So I put it on and got one of the main visuals from the second half of "Schu-baby" from it (which I'm sorry, at the moment, 8:05 PM July 27, 2002 after a great, big dish of chocolate pudding with whipped cream, I still haven't started). Besides, it's easy to sing, and sounds really cute the first time you hear it. But the more you listen! Oh! The more evil it becomes. Part of the refrain is "You'll never know" and I'm sure that's what she and her brother are thinking about the secret of their relationship now verses the rest of the world. So, about this Stevie Nicks thing... the idea actually came from two completely different places and incidents. The first has nothing to do with this fic at all. A few weeks before we even started, I asked Murasaki for some advice regarding one of my IRL stories: should the main character have a thing for Stevie Nicks of the Beatles? She was very emphatic that he should fancy the Beatles, and I took this as a sign perhaps she didn't care too much for Ms. Nicks. Fast forward to the scene where Schu is prancing around the hotel room in just his pants... what was he going to put on the radio? Well, ideally, it should be something that annoyed Brad, if only because it's fun to watch someone in a room with a person they like and music they don't. But what could it possibly be? Well, the answer to 99.9% of Schu fans is Nine Inch Nails. I have a pretty good idea where this came from, but this still doesn't mean I understand it, and before anyone out there says I'm speaking out of prejudice... know this. My sister is a hard core Gothic Nailhead. I KNOW what this stuff sounds like. I even, for the sake of being fair, tried one Schu fan's suggestion that one can gain great knowledge of Schu's character by listening to "Closer" repeatedly. Well, I did that, and all I got was a terrible headache. The next morning I also came to the conclusion 99.9% of Nailheads are deaf. Honesty moment though, I do rather like "The Becoming" but only because it makes me think of Cloud Strife from FF7. I didn't say it has any musical merit. So, what is not Nine Inch Nails, that would get on Brad's nerves? All of a sudden, it came to me. Stevie Nicks! Not only that, but being convinced at this point Murasaki didn't care for her, having Schuldich listen to one of her albums would conjure quite genuine ire. Or so I thought- turns out she actually LIKES Stevie Nicks (but not as well as The Beatles), just isn't fond of Fleetwood Mac. However, this doesn't change her exasperated Brad and how wonderful he is :P. The idea of it, the taste... well, it just kinda stuck. Schuldich just seems like a classic rock kinda guy to me with the empty road and blue skies kinda feeling I get from him and the music, and I've always liked little tidbits about gay chaps fascinated by divas, though I've yet to see another Stevie Nicks fancier among such anecdotes. It is different, and the same. Trust me, I'll rant about his characterization some time in another Free Talk. In the mean time, lets just end this little faerie tale with the fact I decided to keep his little fetish after South Park aired the episode where everyone mistakes a goat for Ms. Nicks. Signs and all that. So, the next question would be, "What sort of music does Kwobt like?". Well, to be honest, I'll listen to just about anything, but my favorites would put off Brad, and Schu, and every Nailhead within listening distance. I'm a technophile. I like a german New Wave band called Xymox and anything of Brian Transeau, better known as Bt. My favorite song in the whole wide world is "Satellite". Oddly enough, it was a gay fellow my sister used to know got me hooked on *that*... vi. Fiona Sad but true, I don't read as much as I used to. I still adore books, I just don't have the time to spend with them that I once did ;_;. This isn't entirely because I now spend more time working on CV than I do sleeping (I sleep a good two hours more per day, thank you!) but I'm in college now and it's harder to read in class. Mind you, I would if I could. One thing I did read right before starting CV though was Revelation by Carol Berg You may remember her from such files as the first Free Talk for this fic. Murasaki suggested her to me on the basis the books were quite slashy, which... oh geeze, they certainly are! (Worth mentioning, the first one is actually Transformation, but none of the bookstores here have it). The stories are basically about demons, and the adventures of a sometimes slave named Seyonne and his young master, Aleksander, prince of ominous desert empire :P. The thing is, they both have wives, and the wives are bitches. They spend time oogling each other, say they love each other... no action. Not even kisses. The author says she doesn't know where fans are getting these perverted ideas. I say she needs to deal with her homophobia, it's manifesting in a most unorthodox manner. She's worse than Mercedes Lackey (Don't know? Probably don't want to!) As Murasaki said... "It's like she's teasing. A man lies naked on a couch while people bathe and shave him, in the presence of a man who isn't gelded..." Err, yeah, they do geld people in these books- there's also a lot of vomit and other waste products of humans... anyway, I think of it more like this. Carol Berg: Have some candy, unsuspecting readers! Readers: YAY! Candy! *snatch* Carol Berg: No candy for you! *evil grin* *vanishes in a puff of smoke like a Sailor Moon Villain* So, what, if anything, does this have to do with Fiona? Well, Fiona is the name of Seyonne's rather unwilling, but nonetheless dogged, juvenile guardian who follows him around for all of Revelation. Small, opinionated, strong-willed, obstinate girl. Fiona first appears in part one as Saffie's escort since she's on her first mission as a Herald. Originally, it was a name reference and no more. That herald could have been June, or Arabella, or Molly for all it mattered. In part three though, in an effort to convey much bitchiness in a short amount of time, I named one of the mages Ysanne- Seyonne's wife in Revelation. Who Fiona had taken the place of for several rites. So I rather thought, after having stranded Ran in the hallway crying following his encounter with Schu, that he ought to have someone to talk to, any maybe it shouldn't be Ken (Ken can't be everywhere at once, after all.) Well, where there's a Ysanne, there's usually a Fiona, and hey, I'd already mentioned she existed. Enter Fiona on her beat up little feet. I had no intention of keeping her whatsoever. She was just there to explain a few things to Ran and then pop off into trivia questions about fanfiction. Except the way she and Ran interacted was... it's hard to put into words. They had this almost funny, almost sad sort of childish glee between them once Fiona in CV really turned into Fiona from Revelation in a different place. They were just plain fun to have in the same room. So, I asked Murasaki if she'd mind my keeping her. She said she'd like that and a little after that the scene with her and the masked mage appeared in our files, followed shortly by Fiona in her red Barbie outfit- that's actually what it is. I used to have a picture of one such doll in that costume. Fiona in Revelation though, is more than she appears and has her share of dark secrets. Fiona in CV didn't have any to start out with, but then something occurred to me that would really tie the plot together. The question is this: why is she so intent on following Ran around...? vii. Virgo As you've doubtless figured out from reading these Free Talks, and my LJ if you're intrepid and went poking around on SYWM, I have a sister. I don't like my sister. I don't feel obligated to like her. She kicks me in the shins on a regular basis. Calls me names (usually "fat" and "stupid"). Has sex with her fetid boyfriend on the upstairs couch. Hogs the computer when she breaks her Xbox. Plays assorted a-musical industrial bands very loudly at all hours of the night. I tolerate her. Kinda like the way you tolerate a neighbor you'd prefer not to have. Anyway, one day whilst Murasaki and I were talking, it occurred to me that the one year anniversary of CV would be coming up soon, and that we ought to have a celebration of some sort. So, I logged into the original yahoogroups file and checked it out... The Group, founded officially on August 21, 2001, did not contain any posts until a day in September. My reaction was as follows. Kwobt: And the first post is on... umm... O___O. The first post is on MY SISTER'S BIRTHDAY!? I couldn't believe it. I didn't even remember that had been the day so many happy months before when we had begun! Kwobt: Well, that makes it easy to remember. Murasaki: It does Murasaki: I wonder then, if that would be classified as an auspicious day Kwobtchan: Well, it makes it a Virgo... Murasaki: So it is fussy and a workaholic and a neatfreak? Or obsessive in odd ways? Well, I don't know when exactly this Free Talk is going to be posted, but it's going to be close to the one year anniversary. So, just for the hell of it, let's compare! How much of a Virgo is CV? I originally estimated the pages written by each of us per day to be, on average, two. The actual number is closer to 2.5 but has many non- repeating but infinite digits. Maybe the fic isn't a workaholic, but at the very least, we are when it comes to the fic :P. Sometimes, we re-write whole parts too, for no reason than we aren't happy with them. Murasaki is meticulous with her grammar... umm... I'm not, but there's not much in a story to 'clean up' besides expletives and well, this wouldn't be much of a fic without them. Imagine Omi saying- "Boink me, Youji! Oh Youji! Boink me!" See? Just doesn't have the same impact. Fussy, lots of the characters are fussy! Brad especially. Carly. Fiona (though that's fussy as in fussing a lot about things out of her control). Various Valdemar-ians (who haven't show up just yet but will). Nene Yaten. Ken even has his fussy moments regarding Ran and the joys of Terran Manners. And how many of the characters have kinks, phobias, or other varied neurosis that could fall under obsessions? Murasaki: Let's see... all of them? Certainly too many to list @_@.