fictrospective (and all around retrospective)
Well! It's 2017. Somehow it feels like a relief. Let's see what we can make of this new year! :D
But first, a quick look back, in things fic and non-fic.
We all know the depressing things. So, exciting things that happened in 2016!
1. Had my first New Year's in Japan! Went to a shrine at midnight, stayed up all night in Kamakura and saw the sunrise on the beach with Mt. Fuji behind me. And then had delicious pancakes :D
2. Went to the SMAP shop (a second time)
3. Went to Hakone and didn't see the volcano or Mt. Fuji, but did get an awesome cute Mt. Fuji pressed wood keychain.
4. Got to visit Fuji TV and see a bit behind the scenes.
5. Visited a detective-themed cafe, run by actual detectives.
6. Visited Kansai! Kyoto, Osaka, Mt. Koya, and Arima onsen. Highlights included seeing Kiyomizudera at sunrise, delicious tofu cuisine in Arashiyama, eating twice at the okonomiyaki place SMAP went to, and getting to take pictures in the room SMAP sang karaoke in!
7. Saw sakura season for the first time! I visited Megurogawa about three times :D
8. Visited the Harry Potter theme parks in Florida! Oh and attended a conference or something whatever
9. Visited the Final Fantasy cafe in Akihabara.
10. Participated in a Kurofune parade in a little town in the Izu penisula. In kimono and wig!
11. Wrote my final poem in shodo. It's originally Chinese, but here's a translation of it, along with the kanji I used. Although I only wrote the first half, I chose the poem because it describes a bright dawn after a dark rain, and implies that the rain is necessary to bring new growth. ...It already felt like a dark year, what I can say :P
12. Visited several lovely cat cafes.
13. And a hedgehog cafe!
14. Made wishes for Tanabata for the first time! They didn't come true, but still!
15. Went to the goldfish art installation Shingo helped with on Ojamap.
16. Went to TV Asahi's Summer Station festival! Highlights included delicious salted caramel shave ice, dancing with a 3D Tamori, and standing on the roof where Shingo does for SmaStation.
17. Climbed Tokyo Tower by stairs! I recommend listening to Ganbarimashou and Yozora no mukou on the way :D Also, I got the Doryoku and Konjou keychains mentioned in Ganbarimashou.
18. Went to Fuji TV's summer festival! Saw a gorgeous teamLab art installation, a short Boys and Men concert, and got my picture taken for like the billionth time at the Bistro SMAP setup in Fuji TV.
19. Ate Kit-kats frozen with liquid nitrogen.
20. Saw a Star Trek exhibition! (Not in Japan.)
21. Visited friends and their new baby :D
22. Celebrated my birthday with my host family<3
23. Celebrated Halloween at Tokyo Disneyland!
24. Saw the Kuroshitsuji musical and Miura Ryosuke's fanclub live.
25. Went to Design Festa.
26. Planted a tulip bulb someone was passing out in the street.
27. Went to a GENERATIONS concert!
28. Went on a day bus trip to pick tangerines, sample sake, and see the Christmas illuminations at Doitsumura.
29. Went to Mori Bijutsukan, saw another cool teamLab work, ate pasta with wine and cake (it was Goro's birthday :D)
30. Went to the Persona 20th anniversary exhibition. They didn't really...do much?
31. SMAP KARAOKE :DDDDD
32. Saw looooots more Christmas illuminations and also ate a lot of cake.
33. Celebrated Christmas with family!
34. Bought the 25 years album and sobbed at the end of SMAPxSMAP. Made peace.
35. Went to Meiji Shrine for the New Year! My fortune was, essentially, "Don't dwell on things too much." Good advice.
And also graduated from my language program, started actual paid translation work, and finished translating the SMAP albums and singles! Now to focus on my dissertation and Okiraku2 this year :)
And now for 2016 in fic!
Fics written (or at least properly posted) this year: 26, all of them in December. To be honest, most of them were old pieces I got off my ass and finished, pieces of old works I was never going to finish, or drabbles. But fic is fic :D
Pairings written: 10 fics featuring Nakai/Tsuyoshi in some form or another, 5 featuring Nakai/Kimura, 4 fics with Kimura/Goro, 3 with Shingo/Goro, and a little bit of everything else.
Total fics: 149.
Pairing most written: Nakai/Tsuyoshi. (Like that's a surprise.) But also a lot more Nakai/Kimura, which I couldn't have predicted a couple years ago. Also, more threesomes in general :3
Longest fic: Well this should be obvious now-- we become light, clocking in at 61,994 words. o.o I promised myself I'd finish it, and by golly I did, probably at the expense of decent writing and a satisfying ending. Consider it version alpha, I guess XD
Ten thirteen fics that I am particularly proud of/reread a lot/linger in my brain for one reason or another:
shigusa - One of my few outright unhappy endings, which means I of course followed it with a happy PWP. Anyway, this still holds place of pride in terms of atmosphere and metaphor and unsaid things, despite how long ago I wrote it, and nothing else has quite come close to matching it.
a walk in the snow - The quiet, dreamlike sensation of the world muffled in newfallen snow, plus Kimura/Goro just dancing the line between sweet and sexy.
forbidden - I wrote this in my last fictrospective, and it still holds true: this is everything I want in the Kimura/Tsuyoshi pairing. Hotness, power difference, and, ultimately, equality.
in which nakai turns into a cat - And here we get into 'fic that I probably reread once a month.' It's Nakai! As a cat! There is nothing that quite makes me feel better than picturing Nakai-the-grumpy-cat, tended to by his bandmates.
saturation point - I remember a conversation with another fic writer way back when, in which we observed how often people end up writing something intensely deep and psychological about Nakai. He's Nakai, he hides all that from us, and that's why we want it all the more. So, this is my intensely deep and psychological thing about Nakai, with a large helping of bandmate love and a hint of supernatural.
the words between I and you - Where Nakai/Kimura started to really take hold. I wanted to find the warmth in 2tops, not fighting or angsting or PWPing (because it seems inevitable when it comes to 2tops), but trying to reach out over years of history and silence and communicate.
the inevitable take five au 1 | 2 - Back to fics I reread constantly. This is pretty comfort food in fic form-- action, romance, and humor with a happy ending, and nobody gets left out. Plus I got to write my favorite threesome, which will probably not be the last AU featuring said threesome :3
love loser 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 - See what I wrote for forbidden, only a billion times longer and crammed full of fire and star metaphors XD This is also the only piece that I consciously wrote in chapters-- all the two-parters and we become light were written scene-by-scene and divided to fit lj's limits, and it probably shows :P
stay - I really don't know why I was inspired to write this, I usually avoid fics like this myself, and it's hard to warn people when it's necessary to assume the world is the way Shingo sees it at first. But, in a way, this may also be one of the warmest fics I've written.
the ghost in room 304 1 | 2 - And back to more comfort fic! With ghosts. I'm especially fond of the made-up exorcism stuff, the Nakai/Goro romance, and the hints of a whole Kimura/Tsuyoshi Boku no Ikiru Michi story in the background XD
welcome to studio map 1 | 2 - Even more comfort fic! With, uh, a lot of porn. Mostly started as an excuse to write Kimura/Nakai/Tsuyoshi, but Shintsuyo being best friends and Goro being a BDSM diva were irresistable, and of course yakuza subplots are always good action. Also a bit of an experiment to see what kind of not-vanilla sex I could manage. (Not much XD)
radio silence - A little slice of Nakai+Kimura getting along, in their quiet awkward way. I like this for Nakai's oh-god-what-do-I-do perspective on the situation XD
first, second, third, last - A bit of sexy, a bit of fluff, a bit of exploration of Nakai/Goro as a pairing (which I do rarely but always find hides interesting dimensions), and a bit of this-is-me-dealing-with-the-breakup feels. If there's anything this year has given me, it's the drive to find the positive in any situation, and I suppose this is my way of trying to convey that<3
And now for the WIPS!
I had 18 WIPs listed the last time I did a fictrospective; I finished 8 of them since then. Productive! Let's see how many I have now XD
shintaku they-don't-join-johnny's au
the straggling beginnings of a samurai au
nakai/kimura/tsuyoshi near-future au involving time travel
still haven't written anything else on this kagami spin-off
2tops harry potter au threatening to span all seven years
two-thirds of a kimutsu pwp
two-thirds of a kimutsu pwp, with tsu sort of topping
something called long vacation that wouldn't work now, might redo the concept though
nakatsu in chocolate sauce that isn't quite sure if it wants to be a pwp
nakatsu bits and pieces that either need a framework or to become drabbles
time-traveling kimura/nakai trying to prevent a breakup (will sit on this for now)
nakai/kimura really really wanting tsuyoshi during his break
take five au prequel in which the team is formed
nakai/kimura au in which nakai is a successful songwriter who doesn't talk
an omegaverse au, whether you want it or not
...which makes a total of 15. Looks like it might just be another busy year! :3
But first, a quick look back, in things fic and non-fic.
We all know the depressing things. So, exciting things that happened in 2016!
1. Had my first New Year's in Japan! Went to a shrine at midnight, stayed up all night in Kamakura and saw the sunrise on the beach with Mt. Fuji behind me. And then had delicious pancakes :D
2. Went to the SMAP shop (a second time)
3. Went to Hakone and didn't see the volcano or Mt. Fuji, but did get an awesome cute Mt. Fuji pressed wood keychain.
4. Got to visit Fuji TV and see a bit behind the scenes.
5. Visited a detective-themed cafe, run by actual detectives.
6. Visited Kansai! Kyoto, Osaka, Mt. Koya, and Arima onsen. Highlights included seeing Kiyomizudera at sunrise, delicious tofu cuisine in Arashiyama, eating twice at the okonomiyaki place SMAP went to, and getting to take pictures in the room SMAP sang karaoke in!
7. Saw sakura season for the first time! I visited Megurogawa about three times :D
8. Visited the Harry Potter theme parks in Florida! Oh and attended a conference or something whatever
9. Visited the Final Fantasy cafe in Akihabara.
10. Participated in a Kurofune parade in a little town in the Izu penisula. In kimono and wig!
11. Wrote my final poem in shodo. It's originally Chinese, but here's a translation of it, along with the kanji I used. Although I only wrote the first half, I chose the poem because it describes a bright dawn after a dark rain, and implies that the rain is necessary to bring new growth. ...It already felt like a dark year, what I can say :P
12. Visited several lovely cat cafes.
13. And a hedgehog cafe!
14. Made wishes for Tanabata for the first time! They didn't come true, but still!
15. Went to the goldfish art installation Shingo helped with on Ojamap.
16. Went to TV Asahi's Summer Station festival! Highlights included delicious salted caramel shave ice, dancing with a 3D Tamori, and standing on the roof where Shingo does for SmaStation.
17. Climbed Tokyo Tower by stairs! I recommend listening to Ganbarimashou and Yozora no mukou on the way :D Also, I got the Doryoku and Konjou keychains mentioned in Ganbarimashou.
18. Went to Fuji TV's summer festival! Saw a gorgeous teamLab art installation, a short Boys and Men concert, and got my picture taken for like the billionth time at the Bistro SMAP setup in Fuji TV.
19. Ate Kit-kats frozen with liquid nitrogen.
20. Saw a Star Trek exhibition! (Not in Japan.)
21. Visited friends and their new baby :D
22. Celebrated my birthday with my host family<3
23. Celebrated Halloween at Tokyo Disneyland!
24. Saw the Kuroshitsuji musical and Miura Ryosuke's fanclub live.
25. Went to Design Festa.
26. Planted a tulip bulb someone was passing out in the street.
27. Went to a GENERATIONS concert!
28. Went on a day bus trip to pick tangerines, sample sake, and see the Christmas illuminations at Doitsumura.
29. Went to Mori Bijutsukan, saw another cool teamLab work, ate pasta with wine and cake (it was Goro's birthday :D)
30. Went to the Persona 20th anniversary exhibition. They didn't really...do much?
31. SMAP KARAOKE :DDDDD
32. Saw looooots more Christmas illuminations and also ate a lot of cake.
33. Celebrated Christmas with family!
34. Bought the 25 years album and sobbed at the end of SMAPxSMAP. Made peace.
35. Went to Meiji Shrine for the New Year! My fortune was, essentially, "Don't dwell on things too much." Good advice.
And also graduated from my language program, started actual paid translation work, and finished translating the SMAP albums and singles! Now to focus on my dissertation and Okiraku2 this year :)
And now for 2016 in fic!
Fics written (or at least properly posted) this year: 26, all of them in December. To be honest, most of them were old pieces I got off my ass and finished, pieces of old works I was never going to finish, or drabbles. But fic is fic :D
Pairings written: 10 fics featuring Nakai/Tsuyoshi in some form or another, 5 featuring Nakai/Kimura, 4 fics with Kimura/Goro, 3 with Shingo/Goro, and a little bit of everything else.
Total fics: 149.
Pairing most written: Nakai/Tsuyoshi. (Like that's a surprise.) But also a lot more Nakai/Kimura, which I couldn't have predicted a couple years ago. Also, more threesomes in general :3
Longest fic: Well this should be obvious now-- we become light, clocking in at 61,994 words. o.o I promised myself I'd finish it, and by golly I did, probably at the expense of decent writing and a satisfying ending. Consider it version alpha, I guess XD
Ten thirteen fics that I am particularly proud of/reread a lot/linger in my brain for one reason or another:
shigusa - One of my few outright unhappy endings, which means I of course followed it with a happy PWP. Anyway, this still holds place of pride in terms of atmosphere and metaphor and unsaid things, despite how long ago I wrote it, and nothing else has quite come close to matching it.
a walk in the snow - The quiet, dreamlike sensation of the world muffled in newfallen snow, plus Kimura/Goro just dancing the line between sweet and sexy.
forbidden - I wrote this in my last fictrospective, and it still holds true: this is everything I want in the Kimura/Tsuyoshi pairing. Hotness, power difference, and, ultimately, equality.
in which nakai turns into a cat - And here we get into 'fic that I probably reread once a month.' It's Nakai! As a cat! There is nothing that quite makes me feel better than picturing Nakai-the-grumpy-cat, tended to by his bandmates.
saturation point - I remember a conversation with another fic writer way back when, in which we observed how often people end up writing something intensely deep and psychological about Nakai. He's Nakai, he hides all that from us, and that's why we want it all the more. So, this is my intensely deep and psychological thing about Nakai, with a large helping of bandmate love and a hint of supernatural.
the words between I and you - Where Nakai/Kimura started to really take hold. I wanted to find the warmth in 2tops, not fighting or angsting or PWPing (because it seems inevitable when it comes to 2tops), but trying to reach out over years of history and silence and communicate.
the inevitable take five au 1 | 2 - Back to fics I reread constantly. This is pretty comfort food in fic form-- action, romance, and humor with a happy ending, and nobody gets left out. Plus I got to write my favorite threesome, which will probably not be the last AU featuring said threesome :3
love loser 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 - See what I wrote for forbidden, only a billion times longer and crammed full of fire and star metaphors XD This is also the only piece that I consciously wrote in chapters-- all the two-parters and we become light were written scene-by-scene and divided to fit lj's limits, and it probably shows :P
stay - I really don't know why I was inspired to write this, I usually avoid fics like this myself, and it's hard to warn people when it's necessary to assume the world is the way Shingo sees it at first. But, in a way, this may also be one of the warmest fics I've written.
the ghost in room 304 1 | 2 - And back to more comfort fic! With ghosts. I'm especially fond of the made-up exorcism stuff, the Nakai/Goro romance, and the hints of a whole Kimura/Tsuyoshi Boku no Ikiru Michi story in the background XD
welcome to studio map 1 | 2 - Even more comfort fic! With, uh, a lot of porn. Mostly started as an excuse to write Kimura/Nakai/Tsuyoshi, but Shintsuyo being best friends and Goro being a BDSM diva were irresistable, and of course yakuza subplots are always good action. Also a bit of an experiment to see what kind of not-vanilla sex I could manage. (Not much XD)
radio silence - A little slice of Nakai+Kimura getting along, in their quiet awkward way. I like this for Nakai's oh-god-what-do-I-do perspective on the situation XD
first, second, third, last - A bit of sexy, a bit of fluff, a bit of exploration of Nakai/Goro as a pairing (which I do rarely but always find hides interesting dimensions), and a bit of this-is-me-dealing-with-the-breakup feels. If there's anything this year has given me, it's the drive to find the positive in any situation, and I suppose this is my way of trying to convey that<3
And now for the WIPS!
I had 18 WIPs listed the last time I did a fictrospective; I finished 8 of them since then. Productive! Let's see how many I have now XD
shintaku they-don't-join-johnny's au
the straggling beginnings of a samurai au
nakai/kimura/tsuyoshi near-future au involving time travel
still haven't written anything else on this kagami spin-off
2tops harry potter au threatening to span all seven years
two-thirds of a kimutsu pwp
two-thirds of a kimutsu pwp, with tsu sort of topping
something called long vacation that wouldn't work now, might redo the concept though
nakatsu in chocolate sauce that isn't quite sure if it wants to be a pwp
nakatsu bits and pieces that either need a framework or to become drabbles
time-traveling kimura/nakai trying to prevent a breakup (will sit on this for now)
nakai/kimura really really wanting tsuyoshi during his break
take five au prequel in which the team is formed
nakai/kimura au in which nakai is a successful songwriter who doesn't talk
an omegaverse au, whether you want it or not
...which makes a total of 15. Looks like it might just be another busy year! :3