Original Ficlets (2016-02-10)

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“Medical says you’ll be out in three weeks,” Jack says with a small, nervous smile. His hand, curled around the hospital bed’s railing, turns pale with pressure.

Ness stays silent, doesn’t even look at him.

Three weeks is too long. And that’s not even including the time it’ll take for her to get back to fighting fit.

She won’t say it–she won’t say anything–but it’s all Jack’s fault. And since it’s his fault, he has to be the one to make it right.

—

Westerly remembers Huaqu, remembers hir home planet fondly. Remembers its people less fondly–the way other geshou would look at hir, a mix of revulsion and scandalized fascination, even decades after hir sprouting.

Zie hasn’t been back in years, and truthfully, zie doesn’t want to go back. But Westerly has been summoned–hir clan’s Elder Tree is dying, and what made hir a pariah before now makes hir a candidate to become the next Elder Tree.

—

“I’ll come back for you,” Leanne promises, hand gripping his as tightly as she can, even as her body begins to fade into nonexistence.

“No you won’t,” Bastian refutes, but he says it kindly. The small, sad smile on his face is the last thing she ever sees of him, the panicked fear in her eyes the last he sees of her.

At least for another century, that is.

Next time he meets her is the first time she meets him, and the lack of recognition would almost feel like betrayal if he weren’t already in the midst of trying to kill her teammates.

~

A/N: Just a few tiny original ficlets I wrote while on a train.

The Many Faces of Rudiger Smoot, 1/? (2016-02-09)

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(“I will never live this down, will I?” Harold asks, brow furrowing in mild displeasure.

“Never, my friend,” answers Nathan, laughter clear in his tone.

Arthur, with a sly smile of his own, adds, “Live it down? Why would you ever want to do that?”)

—

There is a man named Rudiger Smoot.

(There is no man named Rudiger Smoot)

He has a social security number, a house, a job, a bank account. Just like any other average person.

(Except for how he’s not)

But he has a minimal digital footprint, no pictures, and no relatives.

(Because he’s not real)

Whether or not there is a man named Rudiger Smoot doesn’t matter. Whoever or whatever Rudiger Smoot may be, his number has come up.

—

The problem with humans is that they want to anthropomorphize everything. Their brains are wired to see faces where there are none. Since the beginning, fire has been described as eating and dancing and dying. Even intangible ideas–justice, truth, luck–they are spoken in human terms: justice is blind, truth has a voice, Lady Luck.

The very idea of gods is simply a byproduct of that–lightning strikes and mankind said it was God’s wrath, the seasons change and it is the result of disagreements between gods. The world translated into human terms–emotions and thoughts and behaviors–even though it very clearly is not.

The same applies even now–when machines are faulty, they are though to be acting up. As if a machine, built and programmed by humans, were in fact human itself.

The Machine can learn, The Machine protects, The Machine is a young god growing into its own power.

Samaritan is sleeping, Samaritan can decide, Samaritan is a new god, ready to go to war against the old.

Both are just strings of code, data and electricity bouncing back and forth across wires and satellites like signals in the brain traveling through neurons in the human body. Like humans, but not. Gods, only because that has always been the way of humanity–to make sense of the world around them by comparing it to themselves.

—

Rudiger Smoot was a dare, a prank. A trio of boys making something out of nothing. Making a person out of nothing.

Eventually, the boys moved on to other things–business ventures and tricky bits of coding and national security–but still Rudiger Smoot remained.

Rudiger Smoot has always been, if not a man, then a friendship. A secret, hidden tie between the three of them.

The Machine and Samaritan are not human–they are not gods or children–but they are successors to their creators.

Heirs to Rudiger Smoot.

~

A/N: Uh… I guess I’m having MIT trio feelings? Not in a romantic way (because, lets be real, I am a Finch/Reese shipper) but like… a BroT3 kind of way. And also because that makes The Machine and Samaritan (and Will Ingram) cousins, which I find super interesting.

Today’s post is a little late because I was helping my sister make keychains and also it’s her birthday.

edit: now a series, i guess? here’s part two

The Many Faces of Rudiger Smoot, “0″/? (2016-02-08)

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(scenes from a kinder universe)

A young college student, sweaty and breathless, lungs aching with laughter and exertion, turns to his two best friends–equally disheveled and full of mirth–and says to them, “We are brothers now. We are family.”

One of them, Arthur, bursts into another fit of laughter, leaning back on the brick wall of the alleyway to support himself.

The other’s eyes go wide behind his glasses, the only sound he makes are harsh inhales and exhales. Harold has only ever had a small family before; with the state of his father’s memories, it may as well not exist.

But Nathan smiles and speaks and, as always, changes the world.

—

Dianne thinks them raucous and troublesome, the three men reverting to their mischievous adolescent ways whenever they meet up–but she’s fond of them, anyway.

Right now, though, given the state of her garage, her favorite is Harold.

“You did have warning of what you were marrying into,” he responds, which removes him from her favor.

“We’ll get it cleaned up, Dianne, I promise,” Nathan says with a charming smile that fails. At her continued silence, he adds, “And Arthur mentioned how he has so many vacation days saved up, I don’t suppose a trip for two to Hawaii would be amiss?”

Much better.

—

Will doesn’t have any cousins from his mom’s side of the family, but on his dad’s side he has two. Sort of. They’re not genetically related to him because they’re his dad’s friends’ children. Also, they’re not exactly human.

He doesn’t tell anyone, because he’s old enough to understand the consequences if the secret gets out, but he especially doesn’t tell his fellow residents. They are at the hospital for medical training first and friendship only a possible, distant second.

Sameen Shaw is agreed to be the brightest of the residents, but ultimately unlikely to become a doctor. She doesn’t quite grasp the necessity for sociability, the emotional component of healing; but she’s intelligent and learns quickly–and she does want to be a doctor. She just needs help.

Will is not an engineer like his dad and uncles, and he’s only had minimal interaction with his AI cousins, but this heritage is in mind when he asks if she would like to be friends.

—

Harold is, in one way, the most aggressive amongst them at teaching the AI humanity. But while Arthur treats the Samaritan like a child, Harold is very strict with his creation–it is not human, it is a machine, it is an it.

“That seems terribly harsh,” Grace says, blunt with shock–she had taken the true nature of Harold and Nathan’s work fairly quickly, and considered it an honor to be so trusted–her affection and kindness extending to the rest of Harold’s hodgepodge family.

“It’s supposed to be sentient, not sapient,” Harold argues, though his voice remains mild and considering, “The Machine is meant to protect people, not mimic them. It has the ability to see and reason and react for itself; it can go beyond what a single person can do. Treating it like a human would be hampering its development.”

Grace smiles, because that sounds more like the Harold she fell in love with.

Were it able to, The Machine would smile as well–parents and children often have misunderstandings, and sometimes even omniscient programs need help.

—

Strangely enough, it would appear as though birth order can influence AI personalities. At least, Nathan hopes so, because that would be a preferable explanation for Samaritan and its penchant for collecting people.

Not in a malicious way–in fact, Samaritan’s steadily growing circle of friends makes a great pool of potential employees–but it is somewhat bewildering. Where did this behavior even come from?

“Samaritan learned it from you, Nathan,” Arthur answers, laughter threaded in his voice. They watch as two of Samaritan’s chosen, Monica Jacobs and Jason Greenfield, enthusiastically discuss their current project, fingers flying over their keyboards a mile a minute. Elsewhere in the building, Caleb Phipps, uncertain but interested, stands amongst the company’s newest batch of interns as Samantha Groves passionately speaks about IFT improving the world.

Nathan protests, “I didn’t write a single line of Samaritan’s code.”

“You didn’t have to,” Harold responds.

—

Vigilance, Control, Decima?

They don’t stand a chance.

~

A/N: Uh… I’ve been sort or re-watching Person of Interest and just finished episode 3×12, and then I read a thing about how people are not designed to be alone and got this…

Yes, I know, I’m missing a very many important character, but these are just tiny snippets from this AU and I figure those character would involve very extensive plot.

I dunno, this was fun.

edit: I’ve decided to make this “part zero” of the series The Many Faces of Rudiger Smoot which is, apparently, the title for all of my MIT trio feels 

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https://jacksgreysays.tumblr.com/post/138904075194/audio_player_iframe/jacksgreysays/tumblr_o27o4530CO1u7pteb?audio_file=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tumblr.com%2Faudio_file%2Fjacksgreysays%2F138904075194%2Ftumblr_o27o4530CO1u7pteb

Cross Post: Unintended Consequences (Caltrops)

original here. dated 2014-11-29.

A/N: I didn’t want to have a missed post today but I’m just all blargh. And any excuse to practice with my mic and Audacity, you know?

Anyway, here’s a weird completely out of order scene from Unintended Consequences–might not make sense but… enjoy?

~

She loves her hair. The color is a nice deep black, it’s straight and easy to manage. She loves how long it is, and while the texture isn’t as soft and luxurious as she sometimes wishes, she meticulously manages it, trimming the ends when it gets too crunchy and split.

It’s a liability. Especially since she doesn’t like to tie it up, as TenTen does. That is what she created Kaminari no Kami for, but it’s still… she’s not really skilled enough to pull off long hair like some of the more experienced ninja. She’s been considering other techniques to make it less of a liability and more of a tool, but it’s too specific a task to be high priority.

She considered, once, having tiny razor blades in her hair. But considering one of her best moves, Jibasousa, flings metal away from her body she’d probably end up ripping out chunks of her scalp.

She should probably just give in and, at the very least, tie it up in a pony tail if not cut it shorter. But it’s her one vanity–it’s a silly thing, but it’s something that reminds her that she isn’t always a child soldier. She can be a pretty girl and kick ass.

Then, Komadori hands her a box. It’s not terribly big, just barely the size of a set of three scrolls. She’s a little confused, because they haven’t shared paperwork since they both got promoted, and even the occasional collaborative brainstorming of new techniques wouldn’t require scrolls when usually they just plan a shared training day. And why would he still be standing there? Does he want her to read them in front of him?

“Just open the box, Tetsuki. Please.”

She does. Inside are caltrops. At least a dozen gleaming black spikes arranged in the box.

“Happy Birthday.”

Oh, well… it’s nice of him to have remembered but… caltrops aren’t really useful for ninja. Very rarely are enemies riding mounts, and even then ninja hardly keep their feet on the ground. If she throws them, she’d lose them very quickly. And these aren’t exactly buy-in-bulk kunai. She smiles at him anyway, though her doubt must peek through.

“They’re for your hair. I figured obsidian would be better than metal, since your lightning natured techniques tend to… you know. And they… uh. They match your hair better, too.”

They do. They’ll be easier to hide because they already match her hair color. And the star shape is better than a flat razor blade in deterring grabbing hands. They’ll be easier to fix in her hair too.

“Thanks”

That new story about Death Note is really interesting!

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Thanks! It’s actually a continuation of an old story, or at least the idea of a story–you can check out the (En)Closure tag–set more specifically in Hikaru no Go. (I figure that, since both are by the same artist, and they do both kind of deal with the afterlife/death that they’re probably in the same world).

Haru Kuwabara is the granddaughter of Kuwabara-Honinbou (who the manga kind of hints at being able to sense Sai’s presence?). I would recommend checking out the tag for more.

(En)Closure (2016-02-06)

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Haru meets her first shinigami the same time she meets L and the person behind Kira, so needless to say it’s an overwhelming experience and she does not hold her reaction against herself.

Of course, she can never tell Hikaru about it because he does not need any more ammunition in their eternal war to embarrass each other. But still, it was a perfectly reasonable reaction. Mild, relative to other occasions. Understandable, even.

Ultimately, though? A terrible first impression.

Because the last thing a person wants to do their first day on the job is to scream at thin air then puke on their boss.

Mostly she’s surprised L kept her on the task force, more so that he’s sticking to the, frankly, exorbitant consulting fee negotiated in her contract. But apparently he sees something in her–her closing rate, probably–that inspires enough confidence as to erase that disastrous initial meeting.

—

L really thought Haru Kuwabara would turn out to be a fake–he’s disappointed that she isn’t.

It’s not that he was hoping for her to be a charlatan, for all of her supposed solved crimes to be incorrect. Rather, he had wondered if perhaps she was like him–a detective beyond par, enacting justice but using an eccentric cover so as not to have to answer to the tedious ways of the law. That the title of medium was just a tool and not her actual identity.

L had hoped that he would find, if not an equal, then at least another potential heir.

This was not the case. Haru Kuwabara was not like L, using logic to find the truth where everyone else only found mysteries. No, Haru Kuwabara had seen something that no one else did–her pupils had dilated in response to a perceived threat–had reacted to something so thoroughly as to empty her stomach on his person. There was only a 0.3% chance that was premeditated.

No, Haru Kuwabara is the real deal–an actual medium capable of seeing actual ghosts and bringing them closure by solving their murders.

How boring.

—

Ryuku laughs for seven hours straight after the newest member of the Kira task force is introduced, and it is only the fourth most annoying thing about the day.

The third being that Kuwabara was very clearly able to see Ryuku and possibly even hear him–given her reactions to the shinigami’s grating laugh and flippant comments. The second being that, even covered in her vomit, L had decided to keep her. But the most annoying thing of today?

Kuwabara is not named after springtime.

Perhaps out of deference to her famous grandfather or maybe her youth during the cases, her first name is never written in police reports. And while Light knows her name is pronounced Haru, her few public records have it written in katakana–not acceptable to the Death Note as her true name.

Which means that Light either has to bribe Ryuku into giving him her name–unlikely, considering how amusing the shinigami seems to be by this situation. Or he has to charm it out of her–again, unlikely, seeing as how he’s fairly certain she knows he’s Kira because of Ryuku. Or he has to have Misa get it and convince her to kill Kuwabara for him.

The last option is the most likely to succeed, but given it requires him to suffer through the role of being Misa Misa’s boyfriend, it may supersede the rage inducing irritation of the day by itself.

No, Light will leave that option for last. Or at least, until he can devise a way to do it without having to go on a date with Misa.

Truthfully, he’d much rather date Kuwabara instead.

~

A/N: A small (En)Closure drabble smashed out on my phone while cuddling with my sister’s dog because of yesterday’s terribleness.

Don’t worry, this is not romance between Haru and Light (actually, there is no romance in this story at all). I’m just pretty sure that Light is going to manipulate Misa into killing Haru “for free” by making her jealous. Haru may not be a genius, but she’s certainly not dumb enough to date a guy who is creepy and probably a murderer and is the boyfriend of a pop idol who is also creepy and probably a murderer.

Co-creation and the fluidity of text in fan fiction

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fanficisalegitimatefieldofstudy:

fanficisalegitimatefieldofstudy:

fanficisalegitimatefieldofstudy:

fanficisalegitimatefieldofstudy:

Hello, everyone.

I need your help for my MA thesis. Please answer this survey about fan fiction. It won’t take you long, I promise.

Thank you 🙂

*points vaguely upwards*

The survey is still a thing. Please answer it and share it with others.

*coughs*

I know i have some new followers who might not have seen this before. If you read and/or write fanfiction, I would really appreciate it if you took this short survey I created for my eventual thesis. I would also appreciate it if you shared it on with your followers. 

Thank you 🙂

OK, I am legit gonna start on my thesis in February. If you could please answer a few questions on your fanfic habit, that would be amazingly helpful. If you could also share, that would be doubly amazing.

Co-creation and the fluidity of text in fan fiction

Untitled Shadowhunters drabble (2016-02-04)

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A/N: I still don’t know how I feel about Shadowhunters, but this last episode gave me Alec feels (unsurprising) and also I don’t want Alec’s “shame” for his feelings for Jace to be a sexuality thing so here’s… whatever this is.

(I should also probably mention that I have not read the books… like, at all? So literally all I know about this is from the TV series)

~

Clary is going to be her parabatai, Izzy just knows it. Not now, of course, not when they’ve only just met and Clary’s life is all in shambles. But Izzy can see it.

Yes, Clary has been raised as a mundie all her life, and yes, she’s inexperienced in the ways of shadowhunters but that doesn’t stop her from being one. When she stops panicking and trusts her instincts, Clary has the makings of a great shadowhunter. A powerful one at that.

And Izzy wants her as her parabatai.

Already, she can feel the draw between their compatible spirits. Izzy has been uncharacteristically supportive of Clary, watching over her mundie friend, giving her advice, and even lending her clothes–which, as anyone at the Institute can vouch for, Izzy hates doing.

Being parabatai is something intimate–it means sharing power and sharing life. It means being more than just one person, but connected at such a deep level that two people might as well be one.

But it’s not love. Parabatai is being two halves of a whole, matching complementary parts, the left and right sides. But parabatai do not love each other, definitely not romantically, and not even like siblings do–to love your parabatai is akin to narcissism, edging into perversion.

Izzy is old enough, nearly twenty, to know that the attraction she feels for Clary isn’t love. She knows they will be parabatai soon. It’s a little on the young side, yes, but the Lightwoods have always been somewhat precocious when it comes to this matter.

At least it’s not her brother’s literal premature commitment at age eleven.

It’s not that she doesn’t like Jace–they grew up together, and he’s practically another brother to her–but she knows Alec’s decision to become Jace’s parabatai was foolish.

At eleven, Alec couldn’t yet tell the difference between brotherhood or friendship or love, he just knew that he was drawn to Jace. Knew that he wanted to be with Jace forever, and he thought that becoming parabatai was the answer to that.

Foolish. Short-sighted. And, ultimately, saddening.

Because at eleven, Alec may not have been old enough to wisely choose to be Jace’s parabatai, but combined they were definitely skilled and powerful enough to pull it off.

Forever binding her brother to Jace. Forever preventing Alec from acting on his feelings.

She’s old enough not to repeat her brother’s mistakes. Izzy likes Clary, but she doesn’t love her–they’ll be great parabatai.

~

A/N: ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Untitled Naruto/DoSxKHR brainstorm (2016-02-03)

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Because I did this and now I can’t stop thinking about one of the ideas, so I need to purge it before I can do anything else.

Okay, so I’m going with the same organized crime set up that the “mafia” in Katekyo Hitman Reborn has. So the “yakuza” of this world is comprised of eleven clans–there used to be twelve clans but the Uzumaki were almost completely wiped out over a decade ago–though many clans are no longer just one family. For example, the Hatake clan, also on the brink of extinction, only has one actual member of the clan name; but it has other people who are part of the clan. Such as Rock Lee, the protege of Maito Gai who is the Hatake clan’s second in command.

The Uchiha clan is a strange topic because while every clan has a “specialty” of sorts (for example, the Akimichi are “import/export specialists” and the Shimura are “antique weapons dealers”) theirs was being part of law enforcement. It was why they were so powerful amongst the yakuza clans because they literally were able to get the other clans out of jail. For a fee, of course (I mean… I’m thinking the Yamanaka might be lawyers? But they’re pretty well known for being defense lawyers for yakuza members, whereas the Uchiha were double agents).

Until one Uchiha member betrayed their clan and double/triple-crossed them to internal affairs. Now all of the clans have to keep a far lower profile than they used to enjoy. Although, in general, the clans were moving away from actual crimes and into more legitimate ventures.

Except one clan does not like this. The one clan who specializes in the yakuza continuing to be deadly and at odds with each other. That’s right, the Shimura clan [of course, later, it gets out the Danzo was responsible so all sorts of bullshit, like it is in canon (such as the destruction of the Uzumaki, the large-scale imprisonment/seppuku of the Uchiha, etc.)] But for now that’s a secret. All anyone knows is that the yakuza world is being set at odds against each other, and unless they can find a way to unify themselves then they’ll be plummeted into war.

Well, Naruto (obviously a Sky Flame type) is not going to stand for this. He’s going to become Hokage!

In this world, Hokage is less about being a leader over the clans so much as it is being the Champion of a certain cause. So the Sandaime was Hokage in order to sway the yakuza in one way or another during maybe WWII (I’m unsure how it was in Japan, but I remember learning that the mafia in real life were against fascism and actually helped the Allies against Mussolini, so maybe I can say it’s the same in this weird magical KHR world… but I don’t really want to get into that here). Tsunade’s cause during the Godaime was most likely something to do about the medical field. Have no idea what Minato’s cause was, but his tenure as Yondaime was very short and probably only happened so quickly because the matter was very urgent (and regardless, the Uzumaki clan still ended up destroyed, but at least everyone else is fine. I guess)

But I digress.

The clans are beholden to the Hokage, not out of any sense of duty, but out of choice–because in order for someone to become Hokage every single clan has to acknowledge the person as a worthy person to follow. EVERY SINGLE CLAN.

Well, that shouldn’t be too hard, right?

Naruto, as the last Uzumaki, has been fostered with the Sarutobi clan for most of his life, so that’s easy. The Akimichi, Nara, Yamanaka, Aburame, Inuzuka, Hatake, and Senju don’t really take that much convincing either given… well… they don’t want to go to war either. Peace is prosperous for most of the families, and Naruto is a good kid. The Hyuuga have always been the holdouts for Hokage votes, so that’s no surprise there. And obviously there’s going to be some overarching will he won’t he thing with Sasuke committing his clan to a cause that Naruto of all people is leading. But, you know, eventually that happens.

And then that’s when Danzo’s machinations are revealed and there’s no way that the person behind all the war-mongering is going to agree to a Hokage championing peace.

And even if the rest of the clans unify against the Shimura clan, Naruto still can’t be Hokage due to laws put in place by the very first Hokage (which still holds all clans beholden). And even if they won’t fight each other–well Danzo can easily start a war with the Triads in China or, hey, he’s heard whispers that the Italian mafia are making incursions into Japan.

But then: TenTen saves the day!

And I’m not even mostly joking. Because poor orphan TenTen actually is a Shimura–more specifically, Danzo’s granddaughter via his disowned child who tried to start a civilian family but ended up killed (for unrelated reasons?) and TenTen somehow found her way back to the yakuza by being adopted by one of the Sarutobi family? I DUNNO.

So she essentially steals the Shimura clan away from Danzo–or at least the Shimura vote for Hokage, which leads to Naruto becoming Hokage and deciding the best way for peace is to get rid of Danzo which would make TenTen head of the Shimura clan anyway…

And then at the end, the KHR characters make a cameo, meet Hokage Naruto and his twelve guardians, and probably strike up an international alliance. Or something.

Anyway, for clarity, here are the clans:

Aburame – Shino
Akimichi – Chouji
Hatake – Lee (via being Gai’s protege)
Hyuuga – Hinata and Neji
Inuzuka – Kiba
Nara – Shikamaru (and Shikako, if this is a DoS version)
Sarutobi – Naruto (via fostering) and TenTen (via adoption/fostering)
Senju – (Sakura, via subordinate family)
Shimura – TenTen (and Sai, via Danzo is a creeper)
Uchiha – Sasuke
Uzumaki – Naruto
Yamanaka – Ino

Now as for Flame types well… since there are twelve guardians (plus or minus Shikako and Sai depending on if we’re doing DoS version or a canon version) I thought it would be cool if there are two of each Flame type (minus, of course, Naruto’s sky type):

Storm: Kiba and Lee (if DoS version) or Ino (if canon version)
Sun: Sakura and Chouji
Lightning: Shikamaru and Shikako (if DoS version) or Lee (if canon version)
Rain: Hinata and Neji
Mist: Sasuke and Ino (if DoS version) or Sai (if canon version)
Cloud: Shino and TenTen

edit: Ugh, you know what? I’m not too keen on these Flame type assignments… so I’m going to redo them. Given my headcanon that biologically female characters in the KHR universe tend to have a blend of multiple Flame types (which is why there are generally so few female Guardians who are restricted to a specific Flame type) the kunoichi will also have multiple Flame types though will have a predominant one for simplification sake.

Shino – Cloud
Chouji – Sun
Lee – … should he even have Flames? To mirror his canon storyline
Hinata – Lightning, Sun
Neji – Lightning
Kiba – Storm
Shikako – Rain, Storm
Shikamaru – Rain
Sakura – Sun, Storm
TenTen – Cloud, Lightning
Sai – Mist
Sasuke – Mist
Ino – Mist, Rain

Which by type is:
Storm: Kiba, Shikako (secondary), Sakura (secondary)
Sun: Chouji, Sakura (primary), Hinata (secondary)
Lightning: Neji, Hinata (primary), TenTen (secondary)
Rain: Shikamaru, Shikako (primary), Ino (secondary)
Mist: Sasuke, Sai, Ino (primary)
Cloud: Shino, TenTen (primary)

So there’s not too much overlap of types and such and it fits better with personalities/clan abilities rather than I don’t even know what I was going with before…

If anyone wants to adopt this idea I would totally be up for beta and brainstorming, just that I personally don’t think I want to tackle this fic.