crappy fic time!
I was going through my old grad school notebooks the other day - I wrote everything, including paper and thesis drafts, on yellow legal pad - and found a bunch of fic snippets interspersed among dutiful notes on Psychoanalysis ("social institutions, historical events, etc. interpreted by analogical or metonymic relations with these models of mental structures and processes").
They're all for One Piece and Darker Than Black, which I guess was what I was reading/watching in 2007 - 2008. I'd like to return to at least some of them, even though it's been so long since I've watched Darker Than Black that I actually cannot recall which parts appear in the canon and which I created and also I haven't even seen the second season.
Anyway, I thought I'd share them for anyone who's interested. They all need further outlining and massive revisions, of course, but I am glad to have these hard copies. If you read on, be prepared for grammatically incorrect sentences and shitty first drafts :P Comments in italics. Underscores denote places where I couldn't read my handwriting >_>
I almost expect her to send the door rattling open and make again the announcement that drew me into that already years-old mystery, whose solution is even now still a secret, at least from me. But that was three years ago, and they tell me she is dead.
This was supposed to be an Ace fic exploring my demented conviction that Ace and Zoro have a Connection. Basic plot: Ace gets arrested by the Marines for the first time. The Marines offer to let him go in exchange for accompanying one of them on a mission, details undisclosed. His new partner's name is Kuina, and the mission, he eventually learns, is to kill a man named Roronoa Zoro.
I was incredibly and selfishly sad that Ace died before I could post even one completed chapter of this fic. I might still write it, but obviously major details will have to change. Also I'd just finished reading "Foucault's Pendulum" by Umberto Eco at the time and was depressed because I will never write like Umberto Eco.
-----
Passing them on the street, one might almost take them for the kind of otherworldly family found in glossy magazines, fashionable and impossibly attractive.
Now she sees him in front of a police station, solemnly handing a note to the guard, who looks thoroughly confused. Misaki slams on the brakes and flies out of the car, barely stopping to unbuckle her seatbelt or even to open the door. She doesn't know why she acts with such urgency.
It is only a minute later that her instincts are validated. July, like small children the world over, tells the story backwards, from the end. "He said to tell you if anything happens," and it is only with patient probing that Misaki gets both the middle and the beginning. Julys not-father disappeared in an explosion. July's not-mother has been critically injured in another. The terms are Misaki's own, involuntarily. July calls them November 11 and April and, at one point, friends.
The blank look on his face might almost be shock; the dead monotone of his voice might almost be loneliness, or fright, and Misaki, kneeling down with her hands gripping his frail shoulders, feels a great wave of pity towards what is for all present intents and purposes a little boy lost; she is thankful that he doesn't possess the emotional capacity to take offense.
So it turns out I did finish and post this fic on ff.net. I personally feel this fic contains some of my strongest writing, but this section could stand another revision.
----
"If you must know," November 11 said, now looking downright aggrieved, "my mother was a victim to second-hand smoke. My father smoked throughout their courtship and well into their marriage, you see, and my earliest memories are of Mama turning her pale, pretty face, trying to cover up her coughs so as not to upset Father, puffing away in the armchair. She died when I was fifteen, and I only thank God that she didn't live to see what I've become." He fell back on the couch, looking sad and noble under the cheap florescent lighting.
"Oh, I'm so sorry," Misaki said automatically, and immediately gave herself a mental kick. It did not help any that she knew exactly what he was going to say next.
"Just kidding."
Misaki glared at the blond man. "If you'll excuse me, Mr. Simon," she said haughtily, "I have some work to finish."
November 11 chuckled and stubbed out his cigarette, then got up from the couch, stretching as he stood.
Obviously I was channeling some Howl for November 11's character while writing. No idea where I was going with this one, except that "Just kidding" (jodan desu) is one of November 11's catchphrases and Misaki successfully uses it back on him at one point. Also not sure if I was writing Misaki/November 11? This set up is kind of intriguing, though. God, I have to watch this series again.
----
The heart's memory is as long as the mind's, or longer. The heart remembers a rooftop, an afternoon at a cafe, a sharply beautiful face peering out the tinted windows of a limousine. The heart remembers love. Besides its capacity as a third ____ of instinct, the heart is a muscle and it flexes itself now
Instinct is most often associated with the gut; hence we speak of gut reactions and knowledge gained by stirrings of the lower intestines. But the mind is also instinctual. It has the advantage of years of history and training, which enables it to send signals to the body with equal speed and force of character. Someone is firing bullets. What does it matter that she is a childhood friend who coaxed Misaki to this party on the pretext of celebrating her birthday? The fact is, here and now, she is shooting. The mind knows what to do in situations such as this: it causes her legs to crouch and spring the body around a corner, out of sight and out of the gun's range.
Again, not sure what I was trying to do. This is set during the episode where Misaki gets invited to her old high school friend's birthday party. Clearly I was playing around with instinct, memory, and rationality, but I think I got things mixed up. Also, I think the order of the paragraphs should be switched. It should be the gut propelling Misaki into action, and the mind's instinct telling her to shoot. I think she doesn't shoot? Because of the whole heart thing? Um and then I think there's a greenhouse full of poisonous plants. Or is that just Batman?
----
Q: Tell me a little about the changes in your crew.
N: Well…we recently got a doctor.
U: And a reindeer.
N: Right. But mostly we use him as a doctor. It's um, it's been a little difficult to adjust but I think it's really been settling down.
Q: Recently you lost a crew member as well.
U: Yeah. That was hard on all of us.
RZ: It couldn't be helped. This way was best for everyone involved.
N: And did find a very nice institution. With very high ceilings.
Q: Did you have any idea beforehand?
N: No. Oh, no. If we'd had any idea things had gotten this bad, we would have intervened long ago. Of course, we all saw him using them, but --
RZ: He was real sneaky about it, though. Like, ok, we all saw him use them during battles, but sometimes he'd just sneak one in when he was feeling down.
U: Yeah. Like, sometimes we'd turn around and he'd be in Defense Point.
RZ: Usually when Nami yelled at him.
N: Oh, shut up! What are you saying, that it's all my fault?
RZ: If the shoe fits…
U: Luckily the Doctors-Reindeers Alliance was taking a tour of Water 7 at the time, so we were able to kidnap --
N: Convince
U: Right, convince one of the doctors to join our crew.
N: And once we got a human doctor, we had to get a reindeer as well.
Q: Why?
RZ: Cause had have to have a reindeer doctor. It's how we roll.
Q: But don't the doctor and the reindeer have two different bodies?
N: Yeah, that's why we tie the reindeer to the doctor's back. and we make them do a Happy Dance whenever we praise them.
U: It's not a perfect situation, but we're all trying to make the best of it.
N: We kept the Rumble Balls, though.
Obviously a crackfic about Chopper getting addicted to Rumbleballs and having to enter rehab. Probably the joke is not in very good taste, but I am so amused by the solution, tying a reindeer and a doctor together in an attempt to recreate crew makeup. Luffy probably thought it was a fantastic idea.
----
Nami isn't the most beautiful girl Sanji has ever seen. Her nose is large rather than delicate, her eyes childishly round. Her broad shoulders are unsuited to the low-cut, sleeveless shirts she favors, and it is not clear if she knows the style of her sandals has not been in fashion for many years. Sanji has seen the wives of Marine officers with their pearls, and he has sent countless bottles of wine to the daughters of rich men with their flirtatious petulance; compared to them Nami is an amateur. Other girls take tie to cultivate their charm, but Nami insists on getting her own way without cajoling, without teasing or taking pleasure in the moment of giving in. In her there is nothing of Captain Hina's thoughtless, seductive aristocracy, nothing of Nico Robin's diplomatic elegance, nothing of Vivi's solemnn, wide-eyed innocence. When visions of Nami swim across Sanji's mind or out of the corner of his eye, the associative words are "brash," "impatient," "domineering," "mannish," "graceless," "crude."
"Let out all sails," Nami calls from the upper deck. "Sanji, take the helm!"
An explosion of activity erupts in response to Nami's commands. Even though the sky is clear and the breeze pleasant, the crew, Sanji included, rushes to perform self-appointed tasks as if already beset by a midday gale. Zoro and Franky are already securing sail riggings as Sanji runs past; Usopp rushes by with an armload of miscellany to take indoors, away from harm's way, and even Luffy is hanging under the gunwale, shouting excited updated on the now fast-approaching clouds. Sanji swings himself onto the bow deck, where Chopper is struggling with the wheel, just as the first buckets of rain empty themselves over the ship and a sharp gust of wind sends Sunny's starboard side careening dangerously close to the turbulent waters.
Chopper, whose stints at the wheel in peaceful weather provide the reindeer-man a chance to daydream, is now on the verge of panic as the wheel threatens to break out of his tenuous, though, gameful hold. Without speaking, Sanji relieves him at the port port with a none-too-gentle shove, and Chopper, squawking a little, clatters down to the main deck, where he may be better to use.
Franky should probably be the one up here, is Sanji's fleeting thought as a wave leaps over Sunny's figurehead and unceremoniously douses him from head to heel. He's so damn proud of it, and anyway, he's the only one who knows what all these buttons do
Maybe later, when all of Sunny's nooks and crannies have been explored, Sanji will tactfully pass on the un____ role of hemlsman, but for now it's an odd sort of comfort to
Sanji can barely hear Nami's shouted instructions above the roar of water. He tosses a glance backward over his shoulder, just to make sure his efforts are staying the ship on its course, and the sight of Nami standing on the opposite deck - hair flying, rain slicking in sheets off her bare arms, her round eyes glowing with excitement and confidence, her body leaning into the wind as if for a a kiss; it occurs to Sanji as the wheel finally stops fighting and Sunny beings moving with the wind to ride out the storm, that Nami is the most beautiful person he knows.
I was going to write this for 30_kisses, but fell off the deadline schedule or something. So in my personal fanon Sanji and Hina had a torrid love affair when Sanji was like 17, and no one will be able to convince me otherwise. NO ONE.
I think I was trying to do two things with this? One, attempt to have Sanji regard Nami in non-worshipful terms, and two, to show the crew testing out their rapport with Sunny. The ending is really rushed. I think I was aiming at contrasting Nami's reaction to the storm with everyone else's. Storms mean danger and most of the crew think of storms in terms of damage and safety, but Nami, I think, really loves them; she is, if you'll pardon the pun, in her element. That sets her apart from every other girl in the world and that's why Sanji, in my Sanji/Nami fics, loves her.
They're all for One Piece and Darker Than Black, which I guess was what I was reading/watching in 2007 - 2008. I'd like to return to at least some of them, even though it's been so long since I've watched Darker Than Black that I actually cannot recall which parts appear in the canon and which I created and also I haven't even seen the second season.
Anyway, I thought I'd share them for anyone who's interested. They all need further outlining and massive revisions, of course, but I am glad to have these hard copies. If you read on, be prepared for grammatically incorrect sentences and shitty first drafts :P Comments in italics. Underscores denote places where I couldn't read my handwriting >_>
I almost expect her to send the door rattling open and make again the announcement that drew me into that already years-old mystery, whose solution is even now still a secret, at least from me. But that was three years ago, and they tell me she is dead.
This was supposed to be an Ace fic exploring my demented conviction that Ace and Zoro have a Connection. Basic plot: Ace gets arrested by the Marines for the first time. The Marines offer to let him go in exchange for accompanying one of them on a mission, details undisclosed. His new partner's name is Kuina, and the mission, he eventually learns, is to kill a man named Roronoa Zoro.
I was incredibly and selfishly sad that Ace died before I could post even one completed chapter of this fic. I might still write it, but obviously major details will have to change. Also I'd just finished reading "Foucault's Pendulum" by Umberto Eco at the time and was depressed because I will never write like Umberto Eco.
-----
Passing them on the street, one might almost take them for the kind of otherworldly family found in glossy magazines, fashionable and impossibly attractive.
Now she sees him in front of a police station, solemnly handing a note to the guard, who looks thoroughly confused. Misaki slams on the brakes and flies out of the car, barely stopping to unbuckle her seatbelt or even to open the door. She doesn't know why she acts with such urgency.
It is only a minute later that her instincts are validated. July, like small children the world over, tells the story backwards, from the end. "He said to tell you if anything happens," and it is only with patient probing that Misaki gets both the middle and the beginning. Julys not-father disappeared in an explosion. July's not-mother has been critically injured in another. The terms are Misaki's own, involuntarily. July calls them November 11 and April and, at one point, friends.
The blank look on his face might almost be shock; the dead monotone of his voice might almost be loneliness, or fright, and Misaki, kneeling down with her hands gripping his frail shoulders, feels a great wave of pity towards what is for all present intents and purposes a little boy lost; she is thankful that he doesn't possess the emotional capacity to take offense.
So it turns out I did finish and post this fic on ff.net. I personally feel this fic contains some of my strongest writing, but this section could stand another revision.
----
"If you must know," November 11 said, now looking downright aggrieved, "my mother was a victim to second-hand smoke. My father smoked throughout their courtship and well into their marriage, you see, and my earliest memories are of Mama turning her pale, pretty face, trying to cover up her coughs so as not to upset Father, puffing away in the armchair. She died when I was fifteen, and I only thank God that she didn't live to see what I've become." He fell back on the couch, looking sad and noble under the cheap florescent lighting.
"Oh, I'm so sorry," Misaki said automatically, and immediately gave herself a mental kick. It did not help any that she knew exactly what he was going to say next.
"Just kidding."
Misaki glared at the blond man. "If you'll excuse me, Mr. Simon," she said haughtily, "I have some work to finish."
November 11 chuckled and stubbed out his cigarette, then got up from the couch, stretching as he stood.
Obviously I was channeling some Howl for November 11's character while writing. No idea where I was going with this one, except that "Just kidding" (jodan desu) is one of November 11's catchphrases and Misaki successfully uses it back on him at one point. Also not sure if I was writing Misaki/November 11? This set up is kind of intriguing, though. God, I have to watch this series again.
----
The heart's memory is as long as the mind's, or longer. The heart remembers a rooftop, an afternoon at a cafe, a sharply beautiful face peering out the tinted windows of a limousine. The heart remembers love. Besides its capacity as a third ____ of instinct, the heart is a muscle and it flexes itself now
Instinct is most often associated with the gut; hence we speak of gut reactions and knowledge gained by stirrings of the lower intestines. But the mind is also instinctual. It has the advantage of years of history and training, which enables it to send signals to the body with equal speed and force of character. Someone is firing bullets. What does it matter that she is a childhood friend who coaxed Misaki to this party on the pretext of celebrating her birthday? The fact is, here and now, she is shooting. The mind knows what to do in situations such as this: it causes her legs to crouch and spring the body around a corner, out of sight and out of the gun's range.
Again, not sure what I was trying to do. This is set during the episode where Misaki gets invited to her old high school friend's birthday party. Clearly I was playing around with instinct, memory, and rationality, but I think I got things mixed up. Also, I think the order of the paragraphs should be switched. It should be the gut propelling Misaki into action, and the mind's instinct telling her to shoot. I think she doesn't shoot? Because of the whole heart thing? Um and then I think there's a greenhouse full of poisonous plants. Or is that just Batman?
----
Q: Tell me a little about the changes in your crew.
N: Well…we recently got a doctor.
U: And a reindeer.
N: Right. But mostly we use him as a doctor. It's um, it's been a little difficult to adjust but I think it's really been settling down.
Q: Recently you lost a crew member as well.
U: Yeah. That was hard on all of us.
RZ: It couldn't be helped. This way was best for everyone involved.
N: And did find a very nice institution. With very high ceilings.
Q: Did you have any idea beforehand?
N: No. Oh, no. If we'd had any idea things had gotten this bad, we would have intervened long ago. Of course, we all saw him using them, but --
RZ: He was real sneaky about it, though. Like, ok, we all saw him use them during battles, but sometimes he'd just sneak one in when he was feeling down.
U: Yeah. Like, sometimes we'd turn around and he'd be in Defense Point.
RZ: Usually when Nami yelled at him.
N: Oh, shut up! What are you saying, that it's all my fault?
RZ: If the shoe fits…
U: Luckily the Doctors-Reindeers Alliance was taking a tour of Water 7 at the time, so we were able to kidnap --
N: Convince
U: Right, convince one of the doctors to join our crew.
N: And once we got a human doctor, we had to get a reindeer as well.
Q: Why?
RZ: Cause had have to have a reindeer doctor. It's how we roll.
Q: But don't the doctor and the reindeer have two different bodies?
N: Yeah, that's why we tie the reindeer to the doctor's back. and we make them do a Happy Dance whenever we praise them.
U: It's not a perfect situation, but we're all trying to make the best of it.
N: We kept the Rumble Balls, though.
Obviously a crackfic about Chopper getting addicted to Rumbleballs and having to enter rehab. Probably the joke is not in very good taste, but I am so amused by the solution, tying a reindeer and a doctor together in an attempt to recreate crew makeup. Luffy probably thought it was a fantastic idea.
----
Nami isn't the most beautiful girl Sanji has ever seen. Her nose is large rather than delicate, her eyes childishly round. Her broad shoulders are unsuited to the low-cut, sleeveless shirts she favors, and it is not clear if she knows the style of her sandals has not been in fashion for many years. Sanji has seen the wives of Marine officers with their pearls, and he has sent countless bottles of wine to the daughters of rich men with their flirtatious petulance; compared to them Nami is an amateur. Other girls take tie to cultivate their charm, but Nami insists on getting her own way without cajoling, without teasing or taking pleasure in the moment of giving in. In her there is nothing of Captain Hina's thoughtless, seductive aristocracy, nothing of Nico Robin's diplomatic elegance, nothing of Vivi's solemnn, wide-eyed innocence. When visions of Nami swim across Sanji's mind or out of the corner of his eye, the associative words are "brash," "impatient," "domineering," "mannish," "graceless," "crude."
"Let out all sails," Nami calls from the upper deck. "Sanji, take the helm!"
An explosion of activity erupts in response to Nami's commands. Even though the sky is clear and the breeze pleasant, the crew, Sanji included, rushes to perform self-appointed tasks as if already beset by a midday gale. Zoro and Franky are already securing sail riggings as Sanji runs past; Usopp rushes by with an armload of miscellany to take indoors, away from harm's way, and even Luffy is hanging under the gunwale, shouting excited updated on the now fast-approaching clouds. Sanji swings himself onto the bow deck, where Chopper is struggling with the wheel, just as the first buckets of rain empty themselves over the ship and a sharp gust of wind sends Sunny's starboard side careening dangerously close to the turbulent waters.
Chopper, whose stints at the wheel in peaceful weather provide the reindeer-man a chance to daydream, is now on the verge of panic as the wheel threatens to break out of his tenuous, though, gameful hold. Without speaking, Sanji relieves him at the port port with a none-too-gentle shove, and Chopper, squawking a little, clatters down to the main deck, where he may be better to use.
Franky should probably be the one up here, is Sanji's fleeting thought as a wave leaps over Sunny's figurehead and unceremoniously douses him from head to heel. He's so damn proud of it, and anyway, he's the only one who knows what all these buttons do
Maybe later, when all of Sunny's nooks and crannies have been explored, Sanji will tactfully pass on the un____ role of hemlsman, but for now it's an odd sort of comfort to
Sanji can barely hear Nami's shouted instructions above the roar of water. He tosses a glance backward over his shoulder, just to make sure his efforts are staying the ship on its course, and the sight of Nami standing on the opposite deck - hair flying, rain slicking in sheets off her bare arms, her round eyes glowing with excitement and confidence, her body leaning into the wind as if for a a kiss; it occurs to Sanji as the wheel finally stops fighting and Sunny beings moving with the wind to ride out the storm, that Nami is the most beautiful person he knows.
I was going to write this for 30_kisses, but fell off the deadline schedule or something. So in my personal fanon Sanji and Hina had a torrid love affair when Sanji was like 17, and no one will be able to convince me otherwise. NO ONE.
I think I was trying to do two things with this? One, attempt to have Sanji regard Nami in non-worshipful terms, and two, to show the crew testing out their rapport with Sunny. The ending is really rushed. I think I was aiming at contrasting Nami's reaction to the storm with everyone else's. Storms mean danger and most of the crew think of storms in terms of damage and safety, but Nami, I think, really loves them; she is, if you'll pardon the pun, in her element. That sets her apart from every other girl in the world and that's why Sanji, in my Sanji/Nami fics, loves her.