Untitled (2017-04-22)

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It is easy to become the king’s Favored, for kings are whimsical and easily pleased. But it is far less easy being the king’s Favored.

Nobody talks about the after.

After you’ve completed the impossible task. After you’ve slain the giant or rescued the princess or guessed the fairy’s name and brought glory to the kingdom. After the wedding and the treasure and the happily ever after.

Nobody talks about it, but is not the being more important than the becoming? The existing more difficult than the creation?

Once you were a common peasant, plucked from your charming, simple life and thrust into a daring adventure. Now you are the king’s Favored, and your life is hell.

—

Did you love me at all?
Fingertips pressing bruises into my skin,
the scent of your shampoo on my pillow,
traces of you in my life,
footsteps in the sand.

I will excise you from my heart,
scalpel sharp and swift,
triple bypass for a flatlined love.

Word Prompts (S69): Sparkle

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It doesn’t take much, just a glimmer in the corner of your eye, something that makes you pause. Makes you turn. Makes you consider: what if?

You are already an adult when this first happens to you.

When most children your age were off playing make believe, pretending to be superheroes or magicians or spies, you were content with staying inside. You learned how to read from the out of date magazines on the table of you mother’s nail salon, colors for you had letters and numbers. You grew up knowing better than to ask for the latest toy in the market, not when you were so keenly aware of how much (or how little) the salon made every month.

As you get older, you try your best. You help out where you can, sweep up hair and crunch the numbers and–when technology allows for it–boost the online presence of the salon, small though it may be. You run the accounts, try to give it an overhaul, but still the salon struggles.

You graduate and think: you don’t want it.

Ungrateful as it may seem, you don’t want the salon. It’s not your dream–hell, you’re not even sure if it was your mother’s dream, either–but it’s not something you want to take over. It’s your home, yes, and part of you will always love it, will always be nostalgic for tiles and walls and soothing nature sounds on loop, but you don’t want your future to be tied down to this. You don’t want to live and die here, chained to this anchor of a business that has always grounded you.

You are an adult and for the first time in your life you want to be something–someone–else.

You are an adult when, out of the corner of your eye, like a coin sparkling in the sun, you see a different path for yourself.

I loved the detail about Shikako hearing some sort of mystical music/singing when she comes near Gelel (at the start of the arc). I wish SQ would take more creative liberties so we learn more about Gelel. I love magical singing/songs being incorporated into some supernatural powers. Could you do a brainstorm on this, if you’re interested?

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Hm… see the the thing is, anon, I don’t think Gelel is actually music so much as it’s just Shikako’s way of interpreting it. I’ve previously ranted about Shikako’s chakra sensor abilities here, and how, because of her “hypersensitivity” diagnosis she’s able to sense and differently interpret a larger spectrum of chakra/energy.

Unfortunately, I did also liken Shikako’s chakra sense more with touch and “normal” sensing abilities with hearing, which is incompatible with the why she interacts with the Gelel energy, but I think it sort of applies. Like. Literally no one else in the group could perceive Gelel–and I know, in comparison, that Shikamaru isn’t a sensor and Naruto (and probably Gaara as a fellow jinchuuriki) has issues with chakra perception mostly because he himself is such a large source of chakra it’d be like trying to listen for another car’s music when you yourself are an ambulance blasting sirens–but what about Temari and Kankurou? I’d actually think that Kankurou has some sensing abilities (maybe not on par with a Yamanaka) but close enough. And yet, nothing.

So Gelel’s energy is probably closer to natural energy on the spectrum that is… energy. Like. Chakra is a combination of physical and spiritual energies, then there’s natural energy, then there’s life force/souls/etc. So all chakra sensors (and even most non-sensors) can sense chakra. They can also sense physical energy (which is what a lot of Lee and Gai’s techniques are based on) and spiritual energy (which probably contributes to things like killing intent and such). Most chakra sensors cannot sense natural energy. It’s “outside of their frequency” so to speak, though people can become sages and be trained in sensing and using natural energy.

Life force is something else, not even Shikako can sense it (as we’ve seen in the Land of Hot Springs arc). She knows something is missing and something is being drained from her but she can’t feel it, where it comes from, where it’s going. All she knows is that it’s been taken and it’s going to take a long time before it’s fully restored.

Probably Gelel is somewhere between natural energy and life force. So Shikako can’t feel it the way she can with regular chakra or even natural energy (she can feel it in the air, drowning her lungs, pressing down on her skin like humidity, etc. etc.) but she can still perceive it to some extent. And I probably shouldn’t keep extending the analogy of Shikako’s sensing ability = touch vs. normal sensing ability = hearing, because that’s only to liken chakra sensing (which is obviously not something we have in this world) to senses that we can relate to, but Gelel is, again, something outside of normal sensors’ range of frequency. But still something that Shikako can perceive/interpret.

You know how there’s certain notes where humans can’t actively hear it, but they still subconsciously notice it or get affected by it? Like the fear frequency or cats purring, etc. etc. Gelel is probably like that. Or, well… maybe its more like. It’d be as if she’s “feeling” the vibrations in the air, but not actually touching it. It’s… agh, this is hard. Pattern recognition for a sense that doesn’t actually exist for a person who is atypical in that sense anyway?

That being said, while it wasn’t as important as the song of Gelel, in the Land of Hot Springs arc Jashin’s presence had a very distorted “sound” in comparison. SQ’s writing style for that chapter hAD a lOT oF thIS gOiNG on and the way Jashin communicated with Shikako directly was very much so “whispered / echoed / transmitted”. Even at the Fire Temple, I imagine the energy there was sort of humming or chanting–the monks harmonizing with the Temple.

Maybe that’s just how she interprets gods? If most people/things are a feeling to her, then maybe gods are a sound?

Sorry, I know this isn’t really about magical singing/songs, but this is just how I interpret the song of Gelel…

Untitled (2017-04-18)

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“These are beautiful,” he says, carefully teasing the stack of photographs apart. Spread out, they’re more tasteful, almost artistic, but the truth is–

“These are blackmail,” she chides him, straightening them once more, tapping the edges for that added neatness. She hands him a camera–a little beaten up, scuffed and scratched in places, but still perfectly serviceable–and gives him a nod towards the door.

“Off you go now,” she says, “time to earn our bread and butter.”

—

The envelopes are grey: light enough to blend in amongst all the mail being sorted at the post office, but dark enough to stand out to their recipients.

And they match her name, of course.

“Grey Investigations, how can I help you?” answers Jack to the phone cradled between his shoulder and his ear as he types away on his work laptop.

The office is only a small fraction of the property she rents, the rest a warehouse fit to bursting with filing cabinets and opaque plastic bins built into formidable columns. Only some of them are evidence, the rest are red herrings and the overflow from next door’s cash and carry.

They’ve been broken into three times in as many months–the property managers are getting irritated with her–but nothing of importance has gone missing.

Still, it wouldn’t do for her only employee to be mugged or some such in retaliation. He has mace and a taser and height if not breadth, but perhaps its time for her to complete his training.

Zelia surveys her small kingdom and smiles.

—

When she was young, magic was young–bright and eager and constantly at her fingertips, ready to make her imagination into reality, to turn her will into truth.

Now, magic is sluggish, hibernating, waiting for the future where it will awaken lively once more. Her oldest friend even more powerful for the hiatus.

It will be beautiful, truly.

She will live for a long time, but not long enough to see that.

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Reflections of another self,
skin still brown, but scaly.
Teeth become fangs,
nails become claws,
vestigial wings
jutting from my back.
Monstrous, miraculous,
I was born of dragons.

My mother, pale blue,
descended from healers and marines.
Ethereal, but powerful,
indomitable.
She called me her lucky penny.
I didn’t understand then.

My father, rich red orange.
Gleaming, vivacious, self-assured,
the sun in the sky,
the core of the earth.
I learned early on
not to meet his eyes.

My older sister, deep purple;
the color of royalty,
of poisonous flowers.
Everyone bowed to her whim,
and her talent unparalleled, too.
I stumbled in her footsteps.

My younger sister, yellow,
as bright as her personality.
Buttercups and bumblebees,
growth and spring and cheer.
I tried to clear a path,
then looked up to see her fly.

World on the cusp of war,
friction and tensions rising high,
words and talents slung around.
The weight of magic,
the sound of drums,
consequences hovering, waiting to fall.

Resistance, justice, freedom,
held fragile between fangs and claws.
Long forgotten disasters,
hidden traces of the ancestors.
In the mouth of the cave
waits the leader, made of tin.

I am not a brown dragon.

jacksgreyson, Copper (2017-04-16)

So just to clarify, are you planning on writing that story about Aoba being Shikako’s archangel or whatever? Because if you are not, I am very interested in trying to give it a shot, that’s such an amazing concept. I’m just not sure if it was an idea or the beginning of something you are planning on fleshing out. I would absolutely give you credit for the idea and everything, I just really like it and would love to read a story about that. Any way I can.

jacksgreysonLeave a comment

Hey captain, thanks! Glad you like the concept 🙂

I’m going to be honest: while I would like very much to write the Archangel Aoba fic, I don’t think I will do much more than, maybe, three parts at most before getting distracted away from it–and this concept does deserve better than that.

Unfortunately I have some ideas for a few scenes, certain points that I would want this fic to touch on, etc. etc. that makes me reluctant to hand it off entirely to someone else even though I know that’s horribly selfish given what I said earlier.

That being said, is there any way you would be amenable to further discussion about this potential fic-to-be or collaborate brainstorming/world building similar to what I did with the Team Medic!AU with kuipernebula?

Obviously, I would not want to railroad you into following my imagining of this fic, but I hope I can kind of pass along certain aspects that are important to me that you would also enjoy and adopt for your own or maybe we can come up with modifications together…

Untitled Archangel Aoba Brainstorm (2017-04-15)

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A/N: Because posting time/ability is scarce for these few days, but I didn’t want to have a third missed post in a row, so please enjoy whatever this is…

Okay, so, given how much speculation there is about Shikako’s godhood and the repercussions of having fended off the Jashinist ritual my brain’s been percolating this idea and it’s like… I suppose it’s somewhat me trying to salvage the Hail To The Queen, “she who has divine right” without actually going that route.

So the basic premise is that in the pantheon of Naruto gods (of which we canonically have “met” three–the Shinigami, Gelel, and Jashin–with the implication that there are many more possibly including the Fire Temple? and other places and spirits and people that have ascended into godhood) Shikako is not only the youngest, but also the one with the fastest ascension and it’s a matter of contention amongst the gods. About whether or not she should be struck down while she’s still mortal or if they should sort of begin training her because at the rate she’s going she’ll be too powerful for most other gods to control or something, and it’s basically divine politics regarding Shikako’s future which she has no idea about because, you know, she’s still in the mortal world.

Like, I have this idea that the two sides of the argument are Gelel–who Shikako had freed from millennia of imprisonment–and Jashin–who Shikako had fended off from entering the material plane and drowning the world in pain and hatred–meanwhile the Shinigami has some mysterious stake in her ascension but nobody really knows what (was her being reincarnated into this world an accident or a plan implemented? is her ability to survive multiple near death experiences an irritation or a sign?), and whenever (or if ever) other gods come into play then they’d have cameos and such, but the main thing I want with this idea is…

… it’s all from Aoba’s POV.

Because, okay, so Aoba is the first person that Shikako was close to that died on her watch and he was at ground zero when she fended off Jashin (and some might even construe that his death instigated her defiance against the Jashin ritual) and pretty much I have the strange notion that when Shikako does ascend into godhood fully that Aoba will be her first… not disciple or servant but like… the first member of her celestial retinue? Basically, one of her archangels. (Kisuke Maboroshi might be her second one once Aoba figures out that, hey, there’s a ghost acting as an active shinobi who can go between the spiritual world and the material world and act as messenger between him and Shikako maybe? And also, Shikako did save him from an eternity of the purgatory that is being sealed to a rock so…)

So Aoba’s afterlife is as vanguard for Shikako’s impending godhood, trying to figure out which gods are on her side, which ones aren’t, which ones are neutral and can be swayed, and what the hell the Shinigami wants with her. So pretty much “cryptography” on a divine level… Aoba as her celestial ambassador/champion?

I mean, obviously, there would be parts that focus on him coming to terms with being dead. And then with realizing that Shikako is a god to be–and that he’s her representative. And occasional popping into check on her life and just worrying about this overstressed teenager who has no idea what kind of bureaucracy she’s going to have to deal with in the afterlife.

I don’t know. Aoba feels and godhood feels melding together, I guess.