Look! There I Am - Dying!

[rionaleonhart]

Stolen oh-so-sneakily from a number of people:

1. Comment with any pairing (or character, or threesome, or platonic relationship, or theory, or whatever. Multiple suggestions are also fine) from a fandom (or fandoms, crossovers are fine) that you know I like, or at least have some knowledge about.
2. I will ramble for about 100 words (I may [read: probably will] go over a bit) about the aforementioned relationship/character/theory. This may be incoherent gushing or exclamations of disgust, depending on what it is. If the theory/relationship is sufficiently intriguing or ridiculous, you may also get random snippets of fic as I try to work it out.
3. Put this on your LJ, if you are so inclined.

I keep wanting to put things on the Setengald wiki. I want to make Iro quotes that show him to be a xenophobe who thinks that the Dirge is more a blessing than a curse. I want to create some kind of weird incorporeal demon race, the individuals of which will inhabit a human, thereby getting a body which they can control to some extent in exchange for allowing the human to use magic, just so that I'd be able to write about some guy and the incorporeal demonic being in his head snarking at each other. But I don't think it would be a very good idea.

Comments

[kadrin.livejournal.com]

I think it is a brilliant idea, and I strongly encourage you to go about it.

Also, I'm going to have to say the Ninth Doctor and Captain Jack and Rose, with or without subtext.

[rionaleonhart]

I unfortunately cannot find any way to phrase the incorporeal demon idea that doesn't sound really stupid, so (alas) I may not put it up there.

As you may have guessed, I absolutely love the relationships between those three (thank you, iTunes, for choosing this moment to play 'My Best Friends' from Pokémon, which has the slightly unfortunate qualities of being a) so apt for the topic that I have to mention it, and b) so incredibly cheesy that revealing the fact that I own it is somewhat embarrassing).

I started watching the series when the fourth episode aired, I think, and became ridiculously obsessed with it on the eighth, because if a programme can make me cry that much it's either incredibly good or incredibly bad, and they certainly weren't tears of frustration.

At some point along the line, I came to regard the Doctor/Rose as being pretty much my OTP. I tried writing a few fics, but they very rarely went beyond subtext (when I tried having them kiss the fic ended up somehow being Rose/Mickey. I adore Mickey, but it still seems a little odd. Similarly, the most sexual Doctor/Rose relationship I've ever written - the sexual aspect definitely being Doctor/Rose - actually had the sex being between the Doctor and Jack. I mean, what the hell?). I think that it was because the relationship they had in the show wasn't overtly romantic that it appealed to me: if there had been ridiculously soppy dialogue and skipping around through fields of lavender bunny rabbits and sparkly hearts, I'd have backed away from it pretty quickly. This may have been because lavender bunny rabbits are kind of scary, but also I preferred any relationship beyond friendship to remain subtextual.

And then Jack entered, and suddenly everything was ten times better. As you know, I took a few episodes to warm to Jack, but when I did I saw that he was a) awesome, b) somehow capable of making relationships more overt without bothering me, and c) able to balance out the Doctor/Rose relationship, in a way, because the Doctor was getting a little bit scary and possessive. Jack was more familiar with machinery, time travel et cetera than Rose was, and so he was able to provide the Doctor with more intellectual companionship, and he was less serious than the Doctor - he was closer to Rose in his personality, really. She couldn't understand the Doctor all the time - Jack was easier for her. He's kind of a bridge between them. An awesome bridge. And calling him a 'bridge between them' is very bad phrasing, because it makes it sound like he's only there for the Doctor/Rose relationship to work, when in fact he's just as much a part of the relationship in the TARDIS as either of them are.

Anyway, moving away from that utterly incoherent paragraph, the Doctor/Rose/Jack definitely became...

...well, I can't say they became my OT3, because that has the implication that I can't see any of them with other people, and I can see Rose/Mickey and Jack/pretty much anyone. Even if OT3 only means that you can't see any of them in another three-way relationship, there's, er, Jack.

Anyway! The Doctor and Jack and Rose... I love friendships between them. I love romantic relationships between them in any combination or as a trio. Although I was already interested in the Doctor/Rose, and I came around pretty quickly to Jack/Doctor (although I had some uneasiness about interfering in the Doctor/Rose relationship at first, it occurred to me that if people in the fifty-first century weren't concerned with romantic loyalty to one person, the Doctor was unlikely to be. Even if I hadn't realised this, Jack would probably have charmed his way into the pairing anyway), I didn't develop an interest in Jack/Rose for some time. This may have been because I thought Rose would probably have had some reservations about getting involved with a person who wasn't the Doctor, because she finds the idea of polyamory harder to deal with than Jack or the Doctor do. I hope that's the reason, because if I had actually been subconsciously thinking 'ew! het!' it doesn't reflect very well on me.

Er, ran over a tad there, and also probably made very little sense. OH WELL.

[kadrin.livejournal.com]

You know, apart from a few things (largely that I warmed to Jack and Jack/Rose pretty much immediately), this sums up my exact thoughts. Especially the bits about Mickey. I really do like Mickey. I felt very sorry for him in Boom Town.

About incorporeal demons, I've seriously started to warm to the idea, and if you want to co-work on it, I would be totally amenable. Also the wiki format makes it totally easy. (If you don't, I'll probably write it up myself, with your permission. ...Unless you don't give your permission in which case I won't.) I also support you working on Iro! ...We don't have nearly enough about him and he's all big and historical and important.

[sashwizzled.livejournal.com]

Seifer and Squall of FFVIII.

I have no idea what Setengald is, so I have to just smile and nod at everything else. XD

[rionaleonhart]

I really like the relationship between Seifer and Squall: they're rivals, yeah, but I don't think there's any kind of hatred between them. Squall doesn't really seem to be capable of hatred. Irritation, certainly, but I can't see him hating anyone.

I think that Seifer probably resents Squall for succeeding where he had failed in the SeeD exam, but I also think that he respects him as the closest thing he has to an equal and wants to see how powerful he can become (this being idle curiosity from his mental position above him, naturally - I don't think that the thought would occur to Seifer that Squall might have actually equalled or surpassed him). They are very close to each other in terms of ability, at least at the beginning of the game, and they use the same weapon. Therefore they are rivals, because each is the only person who can really test the other. There doesn't seem to be any real hostility between them.

I don't see any romance there, though. I can see mutual respect. I can see some degree of feeling betrayed on Squall's part when Seifer begins fighting for the Sorceress. I can see Seifer being necessary in Squall's life as a person who is, in a way, close to him - I think I read an essay on the Internet at some point that said that Squall isolates himself from the people he cares about, because he fears on some level that if he cares too much about them they will vanish as Ellone did. Seifer provides the only real human contact he has, because Squall does not regard him as a person who is hugely important to him, and so he does not need to push him away. Seifer can only be important to Squall because Squall doesn't think of him as being important to him, if that makes any sense whatsoever. Which it probably doesn't. I'm just rambling at this point.

But no, no romantic or sexual relationship that I can see.

[eva-kasumi.livejournal.com]

Word.

[draegonhawke.livejournal.com]

In light of your post, I'm gonna have to ask about Iro/Dirge.

[draegonhawke.livejournal.com]

Though, really, now I want to ask about Jack Harkness/Jack Sparrow....

[rionaleonhart]

Hmmm. I imagine that they would meet, say hi, Sparrow would introduce himself as Captain Jack Sparrow, Harkness would say 'Well, there's an interesting coincidence...' and then they would go off and shag.

...I'm not sure why I'm so absolutely convinced that that would be the course of events. You'd normally expect some sort of... I don't know, conversation or rum-drinking or something between the introduction and the shagging. I mean, it took approximately forever to get anywhere with Jack Harkness and James Sunderland (although there you've got the whole weird insanity thing to get through). But that just doesn't fit here.

So, yeah. I know that Jack Harkness/Jack Sparrow would work as a purely sex-based thing, but I cannot for the life of me work out why.

[rionaleonhart]

Iro and the Dirge? Tch. People only pair them up because they look pretty together.

Also because he would sometimes deliberately soak up small amounts of Dirge in order to increase his endurance, and then get people to tie him to things so that he wouldn't run into the sea. And there were all those weird quotes about how the Dirge enters the body of a man, and his desire to seek it out again. Also those songs he used to serenade it with when he was old and crazy. But there's really nothing there.

[fireholly.livejournal.com]

OK. Cloud Strife/Capt. Jack Harkness!! Gimme your opinions, please.

[rionaleonhart]

...I should probably admit right now that I've never seen Advent Children or this Last Order thing, and that I've never even finished playing FFVII, and found it all a little confusing.

SHAME ON ME.

Right. I should probably mention That Crossover Fic That We Don't Talk About, but I'm not allowed to. So I'll just say that when I completely came around to this pairing, it totally wasn't because of a crossover that I made anyone write or anything. Because of course I never did that. And as the crossover doesn't exist, it can't possibly have had Jack making certain Comments on Cloud's Buster Sword, as he completely would if they ever met.

Basically, they would meet, Jack would be very forward and suggestive, Cloud would be slightly bewildered at first (probably completely miss all of the innuendo). After getting a little more used to Jack's behaviour he'd try to be all stoic and professional, possibly just try to ignore him, and then eventually he'd crack and they'd ride off on chocobos into the sunset.

[fireholly.livejournal.com]

Wonderful. I am now adding that to my To Draw List - Cloud and Jack riding off on chocobos into a red sunset.

[eva-kasumi.livejournal.com]

Sig/absolutely anyone. Go on, you know you want to. THE BIG BOY NEEDS LOVE.

[rionaleonhart]

Based On A True Story.

Sig: We'll meet at the Pumping Station. Listen, cherries, don't you leave me dangling in the wind out there!
Riona's Slash Sensor: *suddenly OFF THE SCALES*
Riona: What the hell? What - why?
Riona's Slash Sensor: I HAVE MY REASONS.
Riona: What, were you thinking of the possible double entendres?
Riona's Slash Sensor: They'd never even occurred to me.
Riona: ...okay then, why?
RSS: Sig was saying words. Therefore, everything is slashy.
Riona: What the - that doesn't even make sense!
RSS: IT DOES TO ME.
Riona: ...okay, which of them are you saying he should be paired with? Jak? Daxter? ...Krew?
RSS: It honestly doesn't matter. Sig suddenly and inexplicably has huge amounts of chemistry with everything ever.
Riona: I don't think I'll ever understand you.
RSS: It'll make sense to you eventually.
Riona: ...I guess... I hope so.
RSS: Now go and write Torn/Pecker.
Riona: Wait, what?

Okay then!
I do have a certain sekrit fondness for Sig/Jak, what with the inexplicable slashiness of the sentence above, and the little 'You did good, rookie', and the 'OH NO SIG' reaction to that unfortunate incident with the bridge and the giant boulderish Metal Head. Unfortunately, the number of fics that pair Sig up with anyone were pretty much zero the last time I checked, so if you know of any Sig/Jak fics I'd like to see them.

[eva-kasumi.livejournal.com]

*snerk* I love you. <333 I admit - when I first played Jak II, I didn't even HAVE a Slash Sensor (no, say it ain't so!). But if I had... I bet it woulda gone off too. XD

I love Sig. I had a muchos ficcu planned for him once. Still do, actually. And it's a purely gen fic, but it's true that Sig doesn't get lovin' from ANYONE. Poor baby.

...But you know, I might just have to write a Sig/Jak fic for you now. :O

[thebaconfat.livejournal.com]

You find all the best memes. Or maybe just all the memes seem cooler when you do them. I don't know!

I am curious what you think of Seifer and Zell. I would also love to hear you ramble about James/Mary vs. James/Maria!

[rionaleonhart]

Seifer and Zell is a pairing that never actually occurred to me before I read VIGIL, and that fic made me absolutely love it. Because dude! Seifer and Zell! Bantering! In-character! Also with fights and suspense and a plot and the Fire Cavern and OMG EDEN and RAGE and INSANE SUICIDE MISSION THAT TERRIFIES ZELL TO TINY LITTLE SPIKY-HAIRED PIECES and T-REXAUR ATTACK ARGH and omg suddenly kiss and RAGE and ACTING AS IF NOTHING HAS HAPPENED EXCEPT FOR WHEN THEY GET ALL EMOTIONALLY CONFUSED AND STUFF and KIDNAPPINGS and TIAMAT and CUNNING AVOIDANCE OF THE WORD 'LOVE' which is something that really annoys me when it crops up in romance fics I KNOW NOT WHY.

And then you took it down, and I was very sad. But I had cunningly printed it out first. Which is good.

Well, this seems to have instead become incoherent randomly-capitalised rambling about VIGIL. Huh.

The problem is that so many fics mutilate the characters. Y'know...

ZELL: Oh woe! I am sekritly totally in love with Seifer, but cannot tell him for he would hate and bully me. Not that he antagonises me already or anything.
SEIFER: Oh woe! I am sekritly totally in love with Zell, but cannot tell him for... for... y'know, I'm going to tell him anyway.
ZELL: Hello, Seifer! I say this with false cheer. Never mind the fact that I would be highly unlikely to fake cheerfulness in front of Seifer so he won't figure out something's wrong. If I'm acting cheerful upon meeting him, you'd think that he'd definitely figure out something's wrong, wouldn't you?
SEIFER: I am curiously oblivious to this, possibly because I am eaten up by my own love that is like a fluffy bunny piercéd through my heart.
ZELL: However shall I confess my love that is true and beautiful and not even slightly confusing and screwed up?
SEIFER: I love you forever, my beloved love.
ZELL: Well, that solves that.

If there were some more fanfics that were able to portray Seifer/Zell well (LIKE YOU), then I would be very happy P.S. WRITE SEIFER/ZELL PLZ.

I'll talk about the James pairings later. Be prepared for lots of BLAAAAAAAAARGH.

[squeemu.livejournal.com]

I feel so unoriginal now, asking about James/Mary vs. James/Maria.

Um. What do you think about the whole, "OMG SNAPE IS FOR SURE EVIL NOW" theory?

What about Phineas Nigellus paired with anyone?

[rionaleonhart]

Well, I'll answer the James/Mary versus James/Maria here, because I FEEL LIKE IT and also if Baco doesn't see it I can tell her when I figure out something to say about James/James.

Of course, here be spoilers! Hurrah!

James/Mary is totally my OTP.

I am completely serious. I absolutely adore them. Their relationship makes me want to cry. James' persistance in looking for her, and the letter (especially if you believe, as I do, that he imagined the letter due to a subconscious desire to punish himself. Er, that kind of assumes that he had a subconscious knowledge of what would happen in Silent Hill. To explain this, I say LOOK OVER THERE), and the videotape, and the hallway conversation oh god...

Anyway, I think there's a lot of love there, and also hatred and frustration and insanity and guilt and complexity and assless freaks and general twisted scariness, and I love them to bits. I've tried a couple of times to write something reasonably happy for them in the fanfic100 challenge, but James went 'NO I CANNOT BE HAPPY BLAAAAAARGH' and merrily twisted them into weirdness.

I think that Maria was created to test James, find out whether he was interested in Mary purely for sexual reasons or whether his love was more than that. Because of this, she has Mary's looks but not her personality. If James shows too much interest in her, then his punishment has been insufficient and so he gets an unnerving ending with Ominous Coughing.

I personally think that James did love Mary, and so I don't believe in James/Maria.

This is totally why I've written about James and Maria having sex, and a whole lot of James and Mary yelling at each other and getting distressed and James freaking out.

I will ramble about the others at some point!

[rionaleonhart]

Um. What do you think about the whole, "OMG SNAPE IS FOR SURE EVIL NOW" theory?

Snape is not evil. I am in absolutely no doubt about this.

If I recall correctly, there is a Probably Significant Conversation between Snape and Dumbledore in the Goblet of Fire (the book, not the actual goblet. Well, they might have been in the goblet. My memory's a bit hazy):

"Severus," said Dumbledore, turning to Snape, "you know what I must ask you to do. If you are ready... if you are prepared..."

"I am," said Snape. He looked slightly paler than usual, and his cold, black eyes glittered strangely.

HMMM I WONDER WHAT IT COULD BE.

(Now, of course, it'll turn out that Dumbledore just wanted Snape to go shopping for him and needed to make sure that he had the shopping list.)

But yeah, if Snape's evil then that'll ruin the books for me. The main reason here is that the evilification of Slytherins in general always bugged me, because seriously, a House composed entirely of jerks? Are you seriously telling me that there's a House solely for evil gits? Or are you saying that there's a House for ambitious people, and that ambition makes one an evil git?

Snape, though, was a Slytherin and a git, but he was a good git. If it turns out that OH DEAR THE WHOLE OF SLYTHERIN ACTUALLY IS EVIL AFTER ALL, I will immediately THROW DOWN BOOK SEVEN AND NEVER READ THE HARRY POTTER BOOKS AGAIN EVER until I crack five minutes later and finish reading it.

[rionaleonhart]

What about Phineas Nigellus paired with anyone?

I think Phineas is too independent and proud to be paired up with people, really. Also too, y'know, dead and portrait-y. When I made a failed attempt at writing Phineas-fic post-Half-Blood Prince, though, it kept sounding steadily more Phineas/Dumbledoreish.

Which was weird.

[thebaconfat.livejournal.com]

Oh! What do you think of the Rebirth ending?

[rionaleonhart]

As I said, I haven't seen Rebirth, although I've read the script for it. I have also read a fanfic set after it that made me feel physically ill. Basically, I can't think about the Rebirth ending without remembering the fic, and I can't remember the fic without crawling away and hiding under something and then wanting to write happy James/Mary to make it all better and being thwarted once again.

So yeah, the thought of Rebirth makes my skin crawl. Possibly I'll feel differently if I actually see it. As this is Silent Hill, though, which seems very against making me feel less creeped out about anything...

(You may wonder why I don't link to the fic in question. It's just in case you like the ending and don't want it, you know, arghified.)

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[(Anonymous)]

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