Meme of five questions
Hey look, a meme!
1. Leave me a comment saying that you want me to ask you 5 questions. (Or, hell, ask me questions or whatever - I feel like I’m on an answering roll right now)
2. I respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better. If I already know you well, expect the questions may be a little more intimate.
3. You will update your LJ with the answers to the questions. (Or just answer in a reply comment and skip the last couple of steps, I don’t really care either way)
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the post.
5. When others comment asking to be asked, you will ask them five questions.
Questions from ficcentricity:
1. How did you get into fandom, and why did you stay?
2. What is your favorite pairing in any fandom and why do you like it?
3. Your favorite childhood memory?
4. Do you like Doumeki or Watanuki better?
5. What's your favorite landmark where you live?
1. How did you get into fandom, and why did you stay?
Ahah, well, what I often like to say is that I was pretty much *born* in fandom. No, really - I’ve loved sci-fi and fantasy of all kinds for as long as I can remember. I even have photographic evidence that I was addicted to Astroboy as young as the age of three. But the big event I list as the defining moment which got me into fandom in a serious way was when I was 14 and one of my friends showed me my first ever episodes of Dragonball. She had four of the movies and three episodes on tapes which must have been second or third generation recordings at least, all in Japanese except one which was in Chinese, and only two of them had any English subtitles, but by the end of that afternoon I had already fallen deeply and madly in love with the show. I quickly got my sister and some other friends hooked and we spent a fun couple of years hunting through Chinese newsagencies in Northbridge for trading cards and more low quality videos. Later, we discovered a local anime club and gradually started going to cons, getting to know more other fans and discovering the exciting world out there on the net.
As for why I stayed - dude, it’s a collective of interesting people who like all the same stuff I like, what’s not to love? For all our ongoing stupidities and dramas and the arguments that will never end, there are so many awesome people out there who I’d never have met otherwise. And while I’ve branched all over the place into just about every other media form on the fannish radar at one time or another, anime fandoms still account for a lot of my favourites. I’ve never quite fallen out of love with Dragonball either. =3
2. What is your favorite pairing in any fandom and why do you like it?
Don’t know that I’ve ever had a single favourite. I’m such an utter fandom butterfly that I don’t often even have a favourite series very long before something new and shiny has caught my attention, let alone a favourite pairing. Sol/Ky from Guilty Gear would probably be my current favourite, but the pairing that has gotten me most involved for the longest (and made me turn out fic faster than I ever had any idea I was even capable of writing ^_____^) would have to be Doumeki/Watanuki, hands down. In general, for a pairing to attract me it has to be a case where I really like both characters in their own right, and the on-screen relationship between them is interesting. Going by recent obsessions, I’d have to say that if there’s a bit of conflict mixed in there (say, they argue constantly and/or are willing to beat the living crap out of each other while still being madly in love) that may be a bit of a bonus too.
It’s pretty unusual for me to stray too far from canon for a ship. In Kingdom Hearts fandom I was pretty much just shipping the same ships everyone else was in love with (Sora/Riku or Sora/Riku/Kairi and Axel/Roxas), and back in Naruto fandom I’d happily ship just about anything with any half-decent canonical basis. Some other big ones over the years have been Vash/Meryl from Trigun (why are there not more heroines as un-annoying as Meryl?), Sana/Hayama from Kodomo no Omocha (WHY ARE THERE NOT MORE CENTRAL COUPLES AS AWESOME AS THEM?!) and Touya/Yukito from CCS (beautifully subtle and utterly adorable together <3). I also have a tendency to pick up attachments to couples which are only possible in past tense, like Inu Yashu/Kikyo, Tsunade/Dan, Kenshin/Tomoe etc.
But to get me involved enough to write/read fic for it, the best stuff is nearly always the ones which are just on the edge of canon without ever quite crossing the line. It’s those ones that leave us the most space left to explore in fic, and try out so many different interpretations of how it could have happened. I sometimes feel like I may be the only one out there in this part of the fandom who’s not actually sure whether she’d even want to see Doumeki and Watanuki get it together. I like the relationship a little too much just as it is.
3. Your favorite childhood memory?
Hee, there’s got to be a few contenders for this one, but I think I’m going to go with the day when I was twelve years old when I beat Chris T. at arm wrestling.
Okay, context: and there’s quite a bit of this needed. When I said I was just about born in fandom up above I meant it - I’ve been a geek for just about forever. Back in primary school I was always the smart, quiet, nerdish kid who’s shy and lousy at sport and who gets picked on a lot and who hardly anyone likes much. You know the kind. But the other thing you need to know is that from when I was seven to when I was fourteen I used to do gymnastics. I was never flexible enough to be any good at most of it, though there was one area where I always stood out, and that was in strength work. Bars was far and away my favourite apparatus, and a big part of the reason why was that even way back when I was a scrawny little primary school kid I could pull myself clean over the high bar from a vertical hang without even straining. I was *strong* for my age back in those days. The few good friends I had knew it, but most of the class would never have imagined. Did I mention the part where I was lousy at most school sports?
Anyway, the scene starts during one of our sports afternoons. The class had been split into three groups to play volleyball - two playing at a time while the other had a break. During the last break of the day for my team a few of the other kids started arm wrestling to pass the time. Looked like fun, so I managed to join in. I played and won a match or two, don’t remember who against, before I wound up against Chris T. (so called to distinguish him from Chris P. and Chris M. - we had a lot of Chris’s in our class that year). He wasn’t huge, but he was one of basketball playing boys and probably our single biggest class troublemaker. But maybe the best bit was the timing, since this happened right at the end of the day. So it was just as the other two teams had finished their last game and came over to gather around to see what we were doing that I slammed his arm down against the table.
And the whole class cheered so loudly they just about deafened me.
Everyone - even a lot of people who wouldn’t have spoken to me other than to sneer most of the time cheered. I was a school celebrity for an hour or two before it wore off and everything went back to normal, but it was a good hour or two.
It’s not just a good memory because the class outcast put one over the class troublemaker. It’s also a good memory because it’s one of the biggest reminders I’ve ever had that even though life might suck a lot of the time, sometimes even the people you’d expect it from the least surprise you in a good way. Maybe all they need is the right chance.
It didn’t make up for everything else I ever went though in primary school, but it sure went a long way. ^_^
4. Do you like Doumeki or Watanuki better?
I really, really love the both of them, but I’d still definitely have to say Watanuki. It took me a good while to really get into holic (for a long time I was only really reading for the Tsubasa connections) and I didn’t think much of him initially, but oh, did he ever start growing on my once the series got going. He’s up there with characters like Vash and Sora in my lists of those I’ve completely and utterly fallen for, there’s so much to love about him. He’s a complete and utter spaz and he’s the sweetest boy imaginable piled into one - it’s all just down to who he’s interacting with at the time. He has a completely warped sense of personal responsibility, he’s willing to give so much up to help people who matter that it verges on insanity, and for all that he complains so long and loudly about what Yuuko and Doumeki and all those spirits put him through, deep down inside he always means so well.
But the best thing about him is how far he’s come, that he’s up to the stage now where he can say thankyou to Doumeki and tell Kohane he’s glad he met Yuuko and deal with so many terrible revelations about Himawari with so much maturity and yet without ever loving her any less for any of it. The climax of the spider’s eye arc when he’s finally faced with the fact that he’s hurting the people who care about him by not caring enough about himself is far and away my favourite part of the series to date. It’s so perfectly true to him, and yet I can’t think of anywhere else I’ve ever seen a series with a moral like that before. You can see all his faults and why he has them without ever thinking less of him for it. And he never stops being a lovable loudmouthed spaz in the process.
I could rant on about how much I love Doumeki too, but that’s a whole other question.
5. What's your favorite landmark where you live?
I live in bleeding Perth, have we got any landmarks? There are parts of King’s Park which are nice, I guess, but I’m not exactly there enough to have gotten that attached to them. And there are a few places down by the beach where we go to watch the sunset on new year’s eve sometimes which have some sentimental value, but they wouldn’t be especially landmarky to most people. Same goes for parts of UWA, some places we visited with our grandparents when we were younger and such. Nothing that really stands out though.
1. Leave me a comment saying that you want me to ask you 5 questions. (Or, hell, ask me questions or whatever - I feel like I’m on an answering roll right now)
2. I respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better. If I already know you well, expect the questions may be a little more intimate.
3. You will update your LJ with the answers to the questions. (Or just answer in a reply comment and skip the last couple of steps, I don’t really care either way)
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the post.
5. When others comment asking to be asked, you will ask them five questions.
Questions from ficcentricity:
1. How did you get into fandom, and why did you stay?
2. What is your favorite pairing in any fandom and why do you like it?
3. Your favorite childhood memory?
4. Do you like Doumeki or Watanuki better?
5. What's your favorite landmark where you live?
1. How did you get into fandom, and why did you stay?
Ahah, well, what I often like to say is that I was pretty much *born* in fandom. No, really - I’ve loved sci-fi and fantasy of all kinds for as long as I can remember. I even have photographic evidence that I was addicted to Astroboy as young as the age of three. But the big event I list as the defining moment which got me into fandom in a serious way was when I was 14 and one of my friends showed me my first ever episodes of Dragonball. She had four of the movies and three episodes on tapes which must have been second or third generation recordings at least, all in Japanese except one which was in Chinese, and only two of them had any English subtitles, but by the end of that afternoon I had already fallen deeply and madly in love with the show. I quickly got my sister and some other friends hooked and we spent a fun couple of years hunting through Chinese newsagencies in Northbridge for trading cards and more low quality videos. Later, we discovered a local anime club and gradually started going to cons, getting to know more other fans and discovering the exciting world out there on the net.
As for why I stayed - dude, it’s a collective of interesting people who like all the same stuff I like, what’s not to love? For all our ongoing stupidities and dramas and the arguments that will never end, there are so many awesome people out there who I’d never have met otherwise. And while I’ve branched all over the place into just about every other media form on the fannish radar at one time or another, anime fandoms still account for a lot of my favourites. I’ve never quite fallen out of love with Dragonball either. =3
2. What is your favorite pairing in any fandom and why do you like it?
Don’t know that I’ve ever had a single favourite. I’m such an utter fandom butterfly that I don’t often even have a favourite series very long before something new and shiny has caught my attention, let alone a favourite pairing. Sol/Ky from Guilty Gear would probably be my current favourite, but the pairing that has gotten me most involved for the longest (and made me turn out fic faster than I ever had any idea I was even capable of writing ^_____^) would have to be Doumeki/Watanuki, hands down. In general, for a pairing to attract me it has to be a case where I really like both characters in their own right, and the on-screen relationship between them is interesting. Going by recent obsessions, I’d have to say that if there’s a bit of conflict mixed in there (say, they argue constantly and/or are willing to beat the living crap out of each other while still being madly in love) that may be a bit of a bonus too.
It’s pretty unusual for me to stray too far from canon for a ship. In Kingdom Hearts fandom I was pretty much just shipping the same ships everyone else was in love with (Sora/Riku or Sora/Riku/Kairi and Axel/Roxas), and back in Naruto fandom I’d happily ship just about anything with any half-decent canonical basis. Some other big ones over the years have been Vash/Meryl from Trigun (why are there not more heroines as un-annoying as Meryl?), Sana/Hayama from Kodomo no Omocha (WHY ARE THERE NOT MORE CENTRAL COUPLES AS AWESOME AS THEM?!) and Touya/Yukito from CCS (beautifully subtle and utterly adorable together <3). I also have a tendency to pick up attachments to couples which are only possible in past tense, like Inu Yashu/Kikyo, Tsunade/Dan, Kenshin/Tomoe etc.
But to get me involved enough to write/read fic for it, the best stuff is nearly always the ones which are just on the edge of canon without ever quite crossing the line. It’s those ones that leave us the most space left to explore in fic, and try out so many different interpretations of how it could have happened. I sometimes feel like I may be the only one out there in this part of the fandom who’s not actually sure whether she’d even want to see Doumeki and Watanuki get it together. I like the relationship a little too much just as it is.
3. Your favorite childhood memory?
Hee, there’s got to be a few contenders for this one, but I think I’m going to go with the day when I was twelve years old when I beat Chris T. at arm wrestling.
Okay, context: and there’s quite a bit of this needed. When I said I was just about born in fandom up above I meant it - I’ve been a geek for just about forever. Back in primary school I was always the smart, quiet, nerdish kid who’s shy and lousy at sport and who gets picked on a lot and who hardly anyone likes much. You know the kind. But the other thing you need to know is that from when I was seven to when I was fourteen I used to do gymnastics. I was never flexible enough to be any good at most of it, though there was one area where I always stood out, and that was in strength work. Bars was far and away my favourite apparatus, and a big part of the reason why was that even way back when I was a scrawny little primary school kid I could pull myself clean over the high bar from a vertical hang without even straining. I was *strong* for my age back in those days. The few good friends I had knew it, but most of the class would never have imagined. Did I mention the part where I was lousy at most school sports?
Anyway, the scene starts during one of our sports afternoons. The class had been split into three groups to play volleyball - two playing at a time while the other had a break. During the last break of the day for my team a few of the other kids started arm wrestling to pass the time. Looked like fun, so I managed to join in. I played and won a match or two, don’t remember who against, before I wound up against Chris T. (so called to distinguish him from Chris P. and Chris M. - we had a lot of Chris’s in our class that year). He wasn’t huge, but he was one of basketball playing boys and probably our single biggest class troublemaker. But maybe the best bit was the timing, since this happened right at the end of the day. So it was just as the other two teams had finished their last game and came over to gather around to see what we were doing that I slammed his arm down against the table.
And the whole class cheered so loudly they just about deafened me.
Everyone - even a lot of people who wouldn’t have spoken to me other than to sneer most of the time cheered. I was a school celebrity for an hour or two before it wore off and everything went back to normal, but it was a good hour or two.
It’s not just a good memory because the class outcast put one over the class troublemaker. It’s also a good memory because it’s one of the biggest reminders I’ve ever had that even though life might suck a lot of the time, sometimes even the people you’d expect it from the least surprise you in a good way. Maybe all they need is the right chance.
It didn’t make up for everything else I ever went though in primary school, but it sure went a long way. ^_^
4. Do you like Doumeki or Watanuki better?
I really, really love the both of them, but I’d still definitely have to say Watanuki. It took me a good while to really get into holic (for a long time I was only really reading for the Tsubasa connections) and I didn’t think much of him initially, but oh, did he ever start growing on my once the series got going. He’s up there with characters like Vash and Sora in my lists of those I’ve completely and utterly fallen for, there’s so much to love about him. He’s a complete and utter spaz and he’s the sweetest boy imaginable piled into one - it’s all just down to who he’s interacting with at the time. He has a completely warped sense of personal responsibility, he’s willing to give so much up to help people who matter that it verges on insanity, and for all that he complains so long and loudly about what Yuuko and Doumeki and all those spirits put him through, deep down inside he always means so well.
But the best thing about him is how far he’s come, that he’s up to the stage now where he can say thankyou to Doumeki and tell Kohane he’s glad he met Yuuko and deal with so many terrible revelations about Himawari with so much maturity and yet without ever loving her any less for any of it. The climax of the spider’s eye arc when he’s finally faced with the fact that he’s hurting the people who care about him by not caring enough about himself is far and away my favourite part of the series to date. It’s so perfectly true to him, and yet I can’t think of anywhere else I’ve ever seen a series with a moral like that before. You can see all his faults and why he has them without ever thinking less of him for it. And he never stops being a lovable loudmouthed spaz in the process.
I could rant on about how much I love Doumeki too, but that’s a whole other question.
5. What's your favorite landmark where you live?
I live in bleeding Perth, have we got any landmarks? There are parts of King’s Park which are nice, I guess, but I’m not exactly there enough to have gotten that attached to them. And there are a few places down by the beach where we go to watch the sunset on new year’s eve sometimes which have some sentimental value, but they wouldn’t be especially landmarky to most people. Same goes for parts of UWA, some places we visited with our grandparents when we were younger and such. Nothing that really stands out though.