Never was there a story of more Woe than that of Tsuna and his Mukuro

[octavius_x]

SPECIAL THANKS TO MYRAFUR FOR GOADING, ENCOURAGEMENT, AND HELP IN DARK TIMES. ILLUSTRATED and TAGGED BY ULTRA-TALENTED BELLICOSUS.

Comments

[questofdreams]

OMG YAY I STILL GET FIRST COMMENT I DON'T KNOW WHY I DIDN'T RESERVE THIS LAST NIGHT BUT MY COMMENT AT 2:30 AM WOULD HAVE CONSISTED OF ;ALKSJFIESKSE RABU RABU SEXY MUKURO NNNFFFF DON'T DIEEEEEEEEEE TT___________TT

>_>;;;

;ALKSDJFSE OKAY WHERE TO BEGIN:

Loved the beginning scene, Mukuro slipping past death yet again <3 And god, woman, your imagery!! alksdfjsieesk *___*

Hayato Gokudera and Takeshi Yamamoto strong at his back like the guard dogs they are, ramrods in the well oiled gun barrel of the mafia

What a wonderful image, I love how consistent those two are for Tsuna ;_;

Oh had the world gotten darker while he'd been away

OH MUKURO TT____________TT

He wishes for the last days of high school.

That line and the entire paragraph was so utterly, perfectly, PAINFULLY evocative. And when he says he'd wished for that second life, where they could live that beautiful illusion ;____; HERE, HAVE MY HEART, JUST TAKE IT!!

Who lays the crumbs of food that tempt you toward desire? Were they laid Hansel and Gretel style towards a house

[octavius_x]

You...don't know how happy this makes me. I just--NO WORDS T___T

Also...I sort of left out a scene, stupid html tags cut it off. It's one of my favorites, above the highschool paragraph Tsuna's first betrayal and kiss.

T______T <3

[questofdreams]

kdjfsie iselj I WAS KING OF WONDERING WHAT THAT WAS BUT I FIGURED IT WAS JUST MUKURO BEING TYPICALLY STRANGE AND ENIGMATIC LOLOL The scene was awesome *_* Not in a casket LOL (owwie) and Gokudera and OH MUKURO T___T and Tsuna's NOT FIRST KISS ZOMG *hurts all over again*

luffluffluff <3

[kokanshu]

This was beautiful. In some ways I think the grammar and tense errors added to it, gave it a feeling of being disjointed, a tangle of events and feelings that have to be unravelled to fully understand, yet are unwieldy in the moment of their conception. Or something like that. Your Mukuro was perfect, and his perception of Tsuna was spot on (imo). Loved it ♥

[octavius_x]

Oh god, while writing the London scene I was all like, "Should I put the slang in? Yes slang, no slang? What if kokanshu calls me out on it. Oh she'll never read it." AND YET HERE YOU ARE.

Thanks though, it really means a lot to me that you got through this. Esp. looking at all the errors in it now in the light of day. I was aiming for something disjointed, I had the classic asterisk dividers in beforehand but stopped doing them half-way through because it was so cut and dried. And it must be disorienting for Mukuro to just be dragged up months later and have only a vague impression of what's going on. Thank you <3

Also the html cut off a small portion about a 3rd of the way through, its just Mukuro pushing Tsuna against a juice machine and Gokudera being himself.

[kokanshu]

Are you kidding? I love Mukuro/Tsuna, and I love your writing, so of course I was gonna read it! There was slang? I mean, I saw the accent but no real slang D:

I have reread the bit that was missing and it just makes it better - oddly, it worked without it, but having an actual description of what happened at the juice machine (and not the vague recollections) does make it more tangible.

[octavius_x]

Ahahaha I didn't mean so much English slang, as deciding to try and add some accent in. I watched Lock Stock while angsting over the fight scene and just ran with it.

I was just sad it was left out. I wanted to put more scenes of Japan in, but bellicosus and I spent a ridiculous hour at a bus stop in japan next to a beat up juice machine--I thought it deserved some action. It's entirely against Mukuro's sauve charm, and the italian mansion 4 poster bed sex scene, because it's childish and benign. Anyway thanks again for reading, it really made me happy! (Because you're so cool, I get a bit fangirly thinking about it)

Also, adding the music was entirely your influence. I'm just not talented enough to make playists and things :>

[ronsard]

I am just. It's really hard for me to articulate how I feel about this without resorting to cliched praises like "Beautiful!" and "Spectacular!" and "You! Me! Vegas wedding!" but these are all honestly appropriate responses. The moment I read the first section I knew I'd be in for a good ride; the fable-like quality of it just reeled me in right away, here and there anchored with the fingers of historical matter-of-factness. And I love how the detail of the sunken relic bookends the story, as though Mukuro's journey were coming full circle, right where the manga left off (bring Mukuro back, manga!)

The paragraph that starts with They seal him back into deep water... is especially rending. I've always had the notion that for some people, losses and forgetting are like being submerged in water, a light-fingered kind of cruelty, the slow calcification of that part of your brain that houses memories. Anyway, this is why I can't write (but love reading) in this continuity, because I can't accept for one second that it could be final and

[octavius_x]

bellicosus had a long talk about Mukuro before I really got into piecing this together. Basically there was a lot of angsting and hair pulling--on my part--due to Amano's spotty characterization. We couldn't decide if Mukuro was born before and reincarnated, or if he was sent through hell, or just the eye was by his family (since he has stitches around it in some panels), also wtf is his ethnicity. So I just ran with the fact that he's been around the block a couple of times and around the globe, and kind of...tried to mash all that historical knowledge in to give him a wide expansive sort of feel. Water, a big theme yes. The prison uses drowning as its first defense for escape, and it has such birth and death implication.

You say it much better than I do: a light-fingered kind of cruelty, the slow calcification of that part of your brain that houses memories T__T I complain to belli, that I need to expand my writing vocab this is a clear example of why

[ronsard]

Oh shit. Just the other day I was brain-farting to myself, and kept trying to use descriptions of the Buddha (lifted from the Vimalakirti Sutra) for Mukuro, for which I slapped myself muchly. But now you've revitalized the idea, what with these notions of constant rebirth and suffering. I can feel a headache coming on.

[cityatsea]

*WHIMPER* this is so, so hard to read; painful twinges in my chest and all, but fjlskdjf SO WORTH IT. ;;___;; ♥!

[octavius_x]

Ohhhh thank you! Would like a tissue? I was all T___T while writing it.

Thanks for bearing with all my grammatical errors and such, I'm considering doing an extended version cause there are scenes here I'd like to flesh out. Probably more than you want to know. Thanks again! :D

[cityatsea]

I think I already killed a tree or two with my tissue use. XD

If you do an extended version, let me know! I would love to read it. :) ♥

[audreytiphaine]

OMG IS THAT AN EMILY DICKINSON QUOTE YOU SPLICED IN THERE AT THE END??? i love that poem.
oh yes! i LOVED your fic. LOVED it. but SO heartbreaking!
maaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnn!!!!! i really enjoyed seeing flashes of life through Mukuro's eyes. it was wicked, and jarring. so wonderful. beautifully written.

[octavius_x]

Thank you! Haha you're dead on, that is an emily dickinson quote there at the end--I found she fit very well into the whole story.

I'm sorry there are some long winded parts here and the scenes have a weird pacing to them, but I'm so glad you enjoyed it. I worked pretty hard on trying to get Mukuro right, he's a hard one to pin down. Thanks again for such a nice review :D

If you liked the whole TYL dynamic and are okay with 1880 then I highly recommend erisabesu's Tabula Rasa, which in my opinion is a really excellent fic.

[audreytiphaine]

ok, first of all... i ENJOYED these so-called long-winded parts... just... it was SO depressing. but soooooooooo gooooooooooooooooooooood. and you got Mukuro JUST right, from what i can tell, as i've only read up to book 16. still. i was basking in the awesomeness at the time, so if my review isn't really precise enough... blame it on that. in any case, THANKS SO MUCH for reccing! i know of erisabesu, i've already read her stuff, but it was so long ago... like, 3 or 4 years maybe? LONG time. in any case, i'll go check it out! thanks so much!