not to pigeonhole myself or anything...
...but as it turns out, I apparently do all my best au work in the genre of "everyone is some kinda bird monster thing." Does that sound weirdly specific to you? Same here! How did we end up at this juncture? BEATS ME BUT I HAVE A FEELING IT IS SOMEHOW HAYAO MIYAZAKI'S FAULT
Anyway. It is simply TOO EASY to cast Murasaki as the divine fenghuang, Empress of Birds, who withdrew from humanity after the passing of her human consort, one Robertus Lecter. Not only because Murasaki is ~great~ and ~cool~ and ~the classiest~, but also because all that strange and lowkey highkey Orientalist shit in Hannibal Rising makes slightly more sense if she's actually a thousand-year-old magical being. (Seriously - Genji is great and all, but I suspect that by the 1940s/50s morning-after poems with appropriate seasonal references and plant associations had gone out of style, even in the ~mystic Orient~).
And I guess what I'm chilling on right now is the image of Chiyoh, a young crane spirit (everyone is birds! EVERYONE IS BIRDS!!!!) taking Will to meet Murasaki and get some leads on Hannibal at her secluded mountain villa, which is only reachable by flight. Will, of course, is about as comfortable with magic as he is having an extended formal dinner with Freddie Lounds, so when they arrive at a Heian-era mansion that abruptly transforms into a European-style hunting lodge ("My guests often find a space like this more comfortable," Murasaki explains), Will jumps and squawks and is all "HOLY FUCK WHAT HAPPENED TO THE HOUSE"
Chiyoh closes her eyes and takes a long slow calming breath and murmurs "My Lady, please excuse this ignorant bumpkin - if he's offended you I'd be happy to peck out his eyes."
(...Man, it's kinda nice to have a space to post all my shitty indulgent au ideas where I don't have to worry about lookin' good for all the randos.)
Anyway. It is simply TOO EASY to cast Murasaki as the divine fenghuang, Empress of Birds, who withdrew from humanity after the passing of her human consort, one Robertus Lecter. Not only because Murasaki is ~great~ and ~cool~ and ~the classiest~, but also because all that strange and lowkey highkey Orientalist shit in Hannibal Rising makes slightly more sense if she's actually a thousand-year-old magical being. (Seriously - Genji is great and all, but I suspect that by the 1940s/50s morning-after poems with appropriate seasonal references and plant associations had gone out of style, even in the ~mystic Orient~).
And I guess what I'm chilling on right now is the image of Chiyoh, a young crane spirit (everyone is birds! EVERYONE IS BIRDS!!!!) taking Will to meet Murasaki and get some leads on Hannibal at her secluded mountain villa, which is only reachable by flight. Will, of course, is about as comfortable with magic as he is having an extended formal dinner with Freddie Lounds, so when they arrive at a Heian-era mansion that abruptly transforms into a European-style hunting lodge ("My guests often find a space like this more comfortable," Murasaki explains), Will jumps and squawks and is all "HOLY FUCK WHAT HAPPENED TO THE HOUSE"
Chiyoh closes her eyes and takes a long slow calming breath and murmurs "My Lady, please excuse this ignorant bumpkin - if he's offended you I'd be happy to peck out his eyes."
(...Man, it's kinda nice to have a space to post all my shitty indulgent au ideas where I don't have to worry about lookin' good for all the randos.)