thuvia ptarth

It wasn't for Yuletide, but springgreen very kindly wrote me Red As (Saiyuki, Hakkai/Gojyo), which is both quietly happy and quietly sad. It's hard now to think that he's spent thousands and thousands of seconds not touching Gojyo before this, and that he had been all right.

Fandoms I know
The Ballad of Lenny and Carl (Simpsons) Surreal and sweet. "Daddy, the tree's skin is biting me," says Ralph.

The Ballad of Mark and Roger (Rent) Friendship and attraction and what keeps them together through it all. But Maureen asked him to come and -- dirty implications notwithstanding -- when Maureen asks him to come, Mark usually does.

Of Valor (Tortall) This has a lot of the sensible hopefulness and dedication I value in the source material.

And the Rockets' Red Glare (Assassins) The hellish aftermath. It's so obvious, in retrospect.

can nature change the seasons of the years (Rome) Octavia and Octavian, why they love each other, and how he adores her. He didn't mean to lie then, not like all the times to come, and he'll never know why he didn't tell her about the bird and the blood and the lack of any feeling except confusion.

Fandoms I don't know
Slave Bear of Care-A-Lot (Care Bears) Sick and wrong and very, very funny. He threw the window open again, like a small blue and deeply angry Juliet.

Been Put Back the Right Way Around (One Tree Hill) Charming, funny, and sharp. "I've decided, P. Sawyer. No boy is good enough for me. At least for a while, anyway. I'm washing my hands of it. I'm hot, I'm great, I'm Brooke, I'm right about this. I may be right about everything."

Change of Phase (Wild Half) A boy and his dog. Or a boy and his were-dog: They fight crime! Long, meaty, and sexy. Enough background that I could follow the mystery and most of the characters, too. The prose isn't as polished as I prefer, but the characters are so solidly likable it drew me in anyway.

Cross-posted to 100_roadtrips

Distant water is bitter

There once was a boy born from a peach that had floated down the river; his foster mother charmed it to her hands with a nursery rhyme. Koumyu sang the rhyme over the baby's cradle and told the story to the toddler too fretful to sleep. Baby, toddler, and boy had the same cranky, combative look, as if hunger, sleep, and adults were expected and unworthy enemies. He never asked the obvious question, so Koumyu found other ways to tease. Bitter as a peach-pit, that boy; but pits are seeds. One day he'd find a sun to grow him sweet.



The near water is sweet

There once was a boy born not from a peach but from the earth itself. You could say he had a mother, but one whose gifts hardly included fairy tales or nursery rhymes. Sanzo's inclinations didn't run that way, either; the only person who ever explained things was Hakkai.

Goku turned the peach over in his hands, puzzled. "So it grows from the earth. Like I did."

Gojyo stole it and tossed it up in the air. "Gimme another, I'll juggle -- hey, does that mean when Goku eats fruit, it's cannibalism?"

"It is not!"

Sanzo's first bullet hit the peach.


( Notes )

For various ghost/Halloween challenges, cross-posted from 100_roadtrips, fuda_100, and x_100 respectively. 100 words each.

( Unhaunted (Saiyuki) )

( Memorial Service, 1997 (Yami no Matsuei, GenSouKai spoilers) )

( August 6, 1945 (X) )

Apparently, some people find the fact that Hakkai doesn't fight with a rake in Saiyuki an unacceptable departure from his namesake's behavior in Journey to the West. Me, if I were inclined to be upset about the differences, I would have picked something else -- like maybe the fact they're all driving a Jeep across Ancient China, that the gods have a golden Mastercard, that the pious priest becomes a bad-tempered chain-smoking bastard with purple eyes and the greatest Trickster figure in Asian mythology becomes a teenager who never stops eating -- but for some people, I guess it's the rake.

And for some people, apparently, it's people who can't deal with the rake. I'm not complaining.