*coughs* Kanda Ei, at your service.
Hello world. By this time you are aware that I was the one who made no sense in mixing Hikaru no Go with kaitou and visual kei. Now I am here to explain what came over me and why didn't I just stop halfway though the massacre of the genres.
(I'm going to link to some songs later for future reference and crack.)
Walkin' on the Spiral
I was all up to doing a gender-switched shoujo romance fic when Nightmare's Ruru~Lulu played on my mp3 player. The vision of Hikaru as the lead of a jrock/vk band could not be resisted, but I've already planned out two AUs (I'm not telling the other one, I'm saving it for later) I planned to do, so I made a quick emergency call to Ariri-nee to consult which one I should drop and to sound out the likelihood someone else will write it. Ariri-nee told me to go for it, so now I had to plan out the story as to what will happen next. Akira as the pianist was pretty solid, but all the other ideas were vague at this point. I think there was a plot point where Hikaru leaves his old band (composed of the Haze people) to join the insei group, but I had no time to put in the emo. I may add it for later though.
Erlkönig as the name of Sai's band was a matter of providence. Many years ago, a male friend had a habit of calling me and telling me all about his recent readings like Brian Lumley and co. He mentioned a retelling of the Erlkönig written by John Connolly, which was based off a poem by Goethe, and the idea of a supernatural creature ensnaring a young boy was a close (if twisted) view of the relationship between Sai and Hikaru, and it just fits. As for the music that suited them, I have to say suddenly finding the latest albums of Dir En Grey (especially Marrow of the Bone) led to earsplitting but glorious moments of drunken musical delight. Though Nameshiki ansoku, tamadoi ni hohoemi was the song that made me realize I'm crazy to have ignore them, it was Conceived Sorrow that seemed to embody how Erlkönig was, completely. Also that special character (the o with the umlaut) drove me mad. Thank God for copy-paste.
As for Virgil, the band name comes from Dante's Inferno, my favorite book in the Divine Comedy, and he served as a guide through hell. Maybe I was also thinking of Saint Seiya while I was writing it. I have two or three tracks to represent how I think they sound, one being A morning ray is cold from Megamasso, which is like their mellow, normal playing style that reveals a bit of their non-experience. Rinne Tenshou from No God is more of how they sound like when they are doing Erlkönig, which is sad and not perfect, but good listening overall. In the end though, it was mentioned that they also played fast music, and Acid's Now was the best representative I could find. Why the different bands and styles? I thought that Virgil was still learning what they were good at, and listening to these songs made the differences obvious to me while I wrote.
What else, what else? The sole obvious pairing for it was probably Ogata/Isumi, though only because people seem to like the idea? I'm sitting the fence on who I like with my megane-man, as so far he's been quite the ho he likes to pick and choose. I did try to incorporate some of the "I'm gonna chase after you" feel of Akira and Hikaru, but I didn't get it quite down, which means a rewrite is in order. I'd actually love to have a serious overhaul of it, since I didn't really run the fic through any beta (as always D:) so the thread of the plot was rather thin at times.
Ai did mention this earlier as being the one that gave me away, but halfway through the fic I realized I was not gonna make the word count, so I snuck in 400 words or so of a ficlet I never finished based on Ai's opening line about coffee. The truth was it was meant for a writer!Ogata Au with maid!Isumi, but that's another story. That kinda solidified the Ogata/Isumi part of the story.
Lyrics: Made them up (except the quote from Dante) and please don't kill me for the badness of it all. D: The Erlkönig song that keeps being mentioned was originally written for an original jrock fic that remains unfinished somewhere, and is incomplete up to this point:
In the depths of my heart is a hidden world
a secret for you and me.
Whenever I wake up the scent of you lingers
more than the taste of lips meeting to speak
in the old ways lovers always discover as new.
The sunlight doesn't seem so harsh,
but I hate it for stealing you away.
As I walk down the street I see you in every passing stranger.
And if I close my eyes tightly and believe
I can return to you and share this hidden world.
The butterfly steals light and we are in darkness
But this cocoon of warmth is the haven I want.
I really thought my commas and straggly descriptions gave me away, people. I MUST WORK HARDER ON THOSE STRAGGLY LINES.
P.S. Walkin' on the Spiral => from the Pillows' Good Dreams album. :D
Thief vs Detective~the Stealing Heaven Mix
Kaitou story that got compared to Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne, DNA Angel, Thief and Detective. Shows you how generic the genre can be, nee? I think the kaitou story also came from a brainstorming session with Ariri-nee, though I have to admit, none of those mentioned above was the direct inspiration. It was Kaitou Kid and Hakuba from a few episodes in Detective Conan that got me in the mood for some thief vs detective action.
That and I can't resist people in white suits. *coughs* Moving on. I read more about the kaitou genre, revisiting the series mentioned above, and recalling what usually made a kaitou story a kaitou story. 1. thief is stealing not to be rich. 2. a young detective is almost always after him/her/it(!). 3. Kaitou always manages a daring escape after sending a notice. 4. Romance ensues. The last bit was wishful thinking on my part.
I had trouble assigning who will be the thief and who will be the detective between Touya and Shindou. There was a brief time where I considered having someone like Kishimoto and Kaga play the roles, but discarded the idea immediately. At first Touya was going to play detective, being straight-laced and all go for capturing the thief, but then I remembered that most of the time, detectives in kaitou stories (with the exception of Satoshi?) are almost annoyingly earnest people (like Shindou). When I finally decided Shindou was going to be my thief, I had only five hours left to the deadline. (No seriously. I wrote this one on the day of the deadline. It explains the overall rushed quality of the story.)
Touya's method of getting Shindou to reveal where the treasure is hidden was based on Sherlock Holmes' trick from A Scandal in Bohemia. It kept me going enough to finish the story. When I got to the last scene I almost assigned Touya Mitani's role in the school paper, except the photographer was supposed to be a character who would needle Shindou for losing the game, and I decided Akira was too well-bred for that. (Or Akira's voice is hard to catch when he's being stuffy. I was already rather confused by then and I wanted to finish it.) The idea of Sai's artwork is an interlocking mystery with each sculpture containing one piece. You may also notice that the pieces were named after go terms or go formations. I was then feeling lame at that point.
The easiest point of the story was coming up with the title. The Stealing Heaven mix is a play on what the thief was doing: getting all the pieces together to achieve the equivalent of the Hand of God.
Okay, I'm done rambling. Sleep time for me!
Edits: Added music links. Added a sample of how the original outline looked as well as doodles for Sai and Virgil. Akira's the long-lost Vongola. D:
(I'm going to link to some songs later for future reference and crack.)
Walkin' on the Spiral
I was all up to doing a gender-switched shoujo romance fic when Nightmare's Ruru~Lulu played on my mp3 player. The vision of Hikaru as the lead of a jrock/vk band could not be resisted, but I've already planned out two AUs (I'm not telling the other one, I'm saving it for later) I planned to do, so I made a quick emergency call to Ariri-nee to consult which one I should drop and to sound out the likelihood someone else will write it. Ariri-nee told me to go for it, so now I had to plan out the story as to what will happen next. Akira as the pianist was pretty solid, but all the other ideas were vague at this point. I think there was a plot point where Hikaru leaves his old band (composed of the Haze people) to join the insei group, but I had no time to put in the emo. I may add it for later though.
Erlkönig as the name of Sai's band was a matter of providence. Many years ago, a male friend had a habit of calling me and telling me all about his recent readings like Brian Lumley and co. He mentioned a retelling of the Erlkönig written by John Connolly, which was based off a poem by Goethe, and the idea of a supernatural creature ensnaring a young boy was a close (if twisted) view of the relationship between Sai and Hikaru, and it just fits. As for the music that suited them, I have to say suddenly finding the latest albums of Dir En Grey (especially Marrow of the Bone) led to earsplitting but glorious moments of drunken musical delight. Though Nameshiki ansoku, tamadoi ni hohoemi was the song that made me realize I'm crazy to have ignore them, it was Conceived Sorrow that seemed to embody how Erlkönig was, completely. Also that special character (the o with the umlaut) drove me mad. Thank God for copy-paste.
As for Virgil, the band name comes from Dante's Inferno, my favorite book in the Divine Comedy, and he served as a guide through hell. Maybe I was also thinking of Saint Seiya while I was writing it. I have two or three tracks to represent how I think they sound, one being A morning ray is cold from Megamasso, which is like their mellow, normal playing style that reveals a bit of their non-experience. Rinne Tenshou from No God is more of how they sound like when they are doing Erlkönig, which is sad and not perfect, but good listening overall. In the end though, it was mentioned that they also played fast music, and Acid's Now was the best representative I could find. Why the different bands and styles? I thought that Virgil was still learning what they were good at, and listening to these songs made the differences obvious to me while I wrote.
What else, what else? The sole obvious pairing for it was probably Ogata/Isumi, though only because people seem to like the idea? I'm sitting the fence on who I like with my megane-man, as so far he's been quite the ho he likes to pick and choose. I did try to incorporate some of the "I'm gonna chase after you" feel of Akira and Hikaru, but I didn't get it quite down, which means a rewrite is in order. I'd actually love to have a serious overhaul of it, since I didn't really run the fic through any beta (as always D:) so the thread of the plot was rather thin at times.
Ai did mention this earlier as being the one that gave me away, but halfway through the fic I realized I was not gonna make the word count, so I snuck in 400 words or so of a ficlet I never finished based on Ai's opening line about coffee. The truth was it was meant for a writer!Ogata Au with maid!Isumi, but that's another story. That kinda solidified the Ogata/Isumi part of the story.
Lyrics: Made them up (except the quote from Dante) and please don't kill me for the badness of it all. D: The Erlkönig song that keeps being mentioned was originally written for an original jrock fic that remains unfinished somewhere, and is incomplete up to this point:
In the depths of my heart is a hidden world
a secret for you and me.
Whenever I wake up the scent of you lingers
more than the taste of lips meeting to speak
in the old ways lovers always discover as new.
The sunlight doesn't seem so harsh,
but I hate it for stealing you away.
As I walk down the street I see you in every passing stranger.
And if I close my eyes tightly and believe
I can return to you and share this hidden world.
The butterfly steals light and we are in darkness
But this cocoon of warmth is the haven I want.
I really thought my commas and straggly descriptions gave me away, people. I MUST WORK HARDER ON THOSE STRAGGLY LINES.
P.S. Walkin' on the Spiral => from the Pillows' Good Dreams album. :D
Thief vs Detective~the Stealing Heaven Mix
Kaitou story that got compared to Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne, DNA Angel, Thief and Detective. Shows you how generic the genre can be, nee? I think the kaitou story also came from a brainstorming session with Ariri-nee, though I have to admit, none of those mentioned above was the direct inspiration. It was Kaitou Kid and Hakuba from a few episodes in Detective Conan that got me in the mood for some thief vs detective action.
That and I can't resist people in white suits. *coughs* Moving on. I read more about the kaitou genre, revisiting the series mentioned above, and recalling what usually made a kaitou story a kaitou story. 1. thief is stealing not to be rich. 2. a young detective is almost always after him/her/it(!). 3. Kaitou always manages a daring escape after sending a notice. 4. Romance ensues. The last bit was wishful thinking on my part.
I had trouble assigning who will be the thief and who will be the detective between Touya and Shindou. There was a brief time where I considered having someone like Kishimoto and Kaga play the roles, but discarded the idea immediately. At first Touya was going to play detective, being straight-laced and all go for capturing the thief, but then I remembered that most of the time, detectives in kaitou stories (with the exception of Satoshi?) are almost annoyingly earnest people (like Shindou). When I finally decided Shindou was going to be my thief, I had only five hours left to the deadline. (No seriously. I wrote this one on the day of the deadline. It explains the overall rushed quality of the story.)
Touya's method of getting Shindou to reveal where the treasure is hidden was based on Sherlock Holmes' trick from A Scandal in Bohemia. It kept me going enough to finish the story. When I got to the last scene I almost assigned Touya Mitani's role in the school paper, except the photographer was supposed to be a character who would needle Shindou for losing the game, and I decided Akira was too well-bred for that. (Or Akira's voice is hard to catch when he's being stuffy. I was already rather confused by then and I wanted to finish it.) The idea of Sai's artwork is an interlocking mystery with each sculpture containing one piece. You may also notice that the pieces were named after go terms or go formations. I was then feeling lame at that point.
The easiest point of the story was coming up with the title. The Stealing Heaven mix is a play on what the thief was doing: getting all the pieces together to achieve the equivalent of the Hand of God.
Okay, I'm done rambling. Sleep time for me!
Edits: Added music links. Added a sample of how the original outline looked as well as doodles for Sai and Virgil. Akira's the long-lost Vongola. D:
