jacksgreysonLeave a comment

byebyebriar:

Okay, about that rockstar!au. Gaara and Shikako would be on the low key wouldn’t they? Of course they would. Those two are very private people and not big on PDA. Nobody but close friends would know that the two are dating. Even the Sand Trio’s backstage team wouldn’t know. Because Shikako doesn’t look like a girlfriend. She’s not holding onto Gaara or trying to but into recording sessions or calling all the time. In fact, everyone assumes that Shikako is a stage hand. 

This is mostly her fault. Shikako became friends with Gaara before he got famous. The Sand Siblings didn’t become overnight sensations so there was a lot of shows done in bars or night clubs. It wasn’t Shikako’s scene but she went to support her friends. Doing nothing while the band got ready wasn’t Shikako’s cup of tea so she helped out. At first it was getting the sound right and doing some minor lighting adjustments. Then when they moved to bigger venues it was running around and putting that theater elective to the test. 

(Shikako maintains that she wasn’t responsible for the near fire that happened on the night the talent scout was in the audience. She will take credit for making it look like some badass pyrotechnics instead of a near disaster.

There’s a whole verse in Always You dedicated to this incident. Nobody believes Kankuro when he says that it is literal.) 

Now, the Sand Trio are pretty friendly towards their crew. Gaara knows everyone’s name, Temari is nice when you aren’t being an idiot, and Kankuro has everyone’s phone number. The ones that work with them frequently are less bodies and more vague friends. Shikako fits right in. Everyone assumes that she is one of those traveling stage hands that is going to school in between work. (Shikako travels around too. Research conferences aren’t all in the same place and she likes keeping up with the latest news.)

Now, the big reveal happens when Gaara shows up to one of her events. 

It rolls out like this:

Moegi moves through the crowd of doctors, researchers, and the lucky students trying to rub elbows with those that will get them into graduate schools. It’s the night to do it. Shikako Nara has just accepted an aware for pioneering the latest in prothetic engineering. As soon as the right steps are through, Nara Inc. is going to be the god of the medical world. 

Moegi wouldn’t be hear but Konohamaru had begged for her to cover this story. Their little start up newspaper needed some buzz after a bland week. Konohamaru had scored a press pass but wasn’t able to go and Udon cold was likely to send people running away from him. So, here she was. Pretending that she understood the jargon that everyone kept spouting. It was a good thing she had her recorder on her-was that Gaara Sabaku?

She doubled back and confirmed. The lead man for the Sand Trio was leaning against the back wall. He looked unimpressed about the party. Then again, he always looked unimpressed. Even during interviews, Gaara had on a cool mask and let his siblings do the talking. Moegi knew this irritated interviewers because everyone knew that Gaara was the driving force behind Sand Trio. She should ask why he’s here. Definitely. It’s not like she’s going to have a chance to talk with Shikako Nara. The woman is surrounded by doctors at the moment. So, Moegi detours and puts on her friendliest face.

“Hello! I’m Moegi from Konoha Press!” Her cheeriness seems to surprise Gaara. Or at least he blinks. “What brings you here tonight?” 

Gaara stares at her but Moegi holds her ground. She really does want just a few words. And his autograph. But she’s a journalist, a real one! She can do with out the autograph. 

“I’m here to congratulate Shikako on her achievement.” Gaara answers. 

“Oh, do you have an interest in prosthetics Gaara-san?”  He didn’t seem the science type but honestly, that made him hotter in Moegi’s opinion. 

“Not overly. It is an important field but I prefer my profession.” Ah a charity celebrity then. Moegi goes to ask another question when she is cut off by a voice.

“I was wondering where you went to.” Shikako Nara drifts over to them. The medal still around her neck. 

“Congratulations.” Gaara tells her. 

“Yes! Congratulations Nara-san.” Moegi adds. Shikako blinks at her. “Oh, I’m Moegi from Konoha Press.”

“Ah, right. Konohamaru said that he’d be sending someone tonight.” So, that’s where he got the press pass. 

“Nara-san, do you mind giving me a few words?” The woman shook her head. “Um, can I record this? Just to make sure that I get everything right?” 

“I don’t see why not.” 

Moegi hits record on her device and launches into the usual questions about Shikako’s work and it’s results. Eventually she asks how she knows Gaara and that’s when things get interesting. 

“We met in a bar back when I was doing graduate work.” 

“That must have been exciting.” Moegi gushes. 

“I doubt that.” Gaara says. “We were not famous yet and Shikako was too sleep deprive to notice anything that was not a foot from her.” 

“Hey, that’s….only a little bit true. I was stressed.” 

“Of course.” Moegi agrees. “Do you have any interest in music Nara-san?”

“Not outside of listening to it.” 

“Shikako’s singing leaves something to be desired.” Is…is Gaara teasing her? It look like Gaara is teasing Shikako. Considering the way Shikako scowled at him like Moegi scowls at her boyfriend. “She does help us out with our shows on occasion and with the music creation process.” 

Moegi dearly wants to jump on that but someone else comes over and she is forced to shut off her recorder and say goodbye. She goes back home and types up her article.

“I’m a professional journalist.” She tells herself. “A real professional journalist. I don’t do gossip columns. I’m a real journalist.” 

She keeps the article professional all the way until the last five lines where she can’t resist sneaking in “Muse for the Sand Trio.” to Shikako’s list of accomplishments. She hits send and it’s in the paper that morning. 

Moegi’s phone doesn’t stop ringing for the next two days. Every gossip column. Every tabloid wants to confirm that one line that has nothing to do with science. Moegi insists that it’s true but refuses to give out anything else. Not even for some startling amount of money.

Now, since the spot light has been shined on Shikako, people start noticing that she’s been with the Sand Trio’s on a lot of their gigs. A lot. Nobody really knows how she’s connected to the Sand Trio. Eventually, a reporter corners the three and asks what songs Shikako has inspired. 

“All of them.” Gaara answers. The reporter blinks. 

“Excuse?” 

“Shikako has inspired all of my songs. Good day.” The Sand Trio stride away before another question can be asked. 

Things EXPLODE. 

(ROCKSTAR!AU RECURSIVE FIC 😀 IT’S BEAUTIFUL!!!)

ooohhh your dragon rider!team 7 au sounds so fascinating?? what sorts of dragons would they ride? what would they even do as dragon riders??

jacksgreysonLeave a comment

Ooh, okay, okay. So there’s some differences between the Temeraire style versus the How To Train Your Dragon style of dragon riding, and I feel like in order to best translate the Naruto world, I’d have to pull bits and pieces from each.

So in HTTYD, the dragons are more like pets–cats/dogs/birds–with roughly the same level of intelligence. Maybe the bigger ones (the Queen and the Alphas/Bewilderbeasts) are a little more intelligent but, over all, they’re animals. Amazing, magical animals yes, but animals all the same.

In Temeraire, the dragons are sentient (if not sapient–because they are a different species and would have different way of thinking/prioritizing) and they’re massive. The majority of the dragons in HTTYD would be in the courier or light combat classification, and Temeraire has an additional two larger classes of middleweight and heavyweight.

Maybe the Queen and Alphas/Bewilderbeasts are middleweights? But the heavyweights are like ships–they have captains and flight crews of up to forty people as well as a ground crew and they can straight up carry smaller dragons easily. The larger the dragon, the longer the lifespan and dragon’s captaincies tend to be passed down in a family for multiple generations.

And while Temeraire style dragons don’t quite have a telepathic bond with their captains there’s a little bit of a… imprinting process? Like, if newly hatched dragons don’t imprint on a person, they go feral and won’t ever take a captain. And while captaincies can and will eventually be transferred it’s not as good as the original imprinted captain. (I think? It’s been a while since I read any Temeraire stuff)

Probably, the bijuu are the only heavyweights that exist in this dragon rider AU. The problem is, though, that I’m pretty sure the Uchiha clan would at least have had some light combat dragons that Sasuke would have inherited–if not middleweight–and those also require crews (but probably smaller, about ten people). Unless Itachi killed them all? But how would that even… hrm…

Okay so if we want Team Seven to have similar relationships in this AU as what they have in canon, then they either need to be part of the same dragon’s flight crew OR they are each captains of different dragons who are part of the same flight formation. On the one hand, Naruto really ought to be captain of Kyuubi and Sasuke ought to be captain of at least one if not multiple Uchiha clan dragons, but it would be weird for Shikako (from a “clan of ground walkers”) to be captain of her own dragon as well.

So maybe… maybe the Uchiha only had the one middleweight–for the clan head’s line–and a bunch of light combat/couriers. So Itachi could have killed his father, inherited the family dragon, and killed all the light combat/couriers leaving Sasuke without a dragon to captain. Then the Kyuubi, who had not liked Kushina and won’t even give Naruto the time of day, is hibernating away. The threat of his existence is enough to deter the other countries from invading, but it’s true that they can’t utilize his full potential until Naruto can convince him to fight on Konoha’s behalf.

So Team Seven is the crew of Pakkun, the Hatake clan’s middleweight (and maybe the other dog summons are Pakkun’s ground crew?). The other members of Pakkun’s flight formation are Ningame carrying Team Gai, Enma (who Asuma has a strained relationship with) carryin Team Ten, and… Akamaru carrying Team Eight?

Yeah, so, Enma is the oldest dragon and has loudly stated that he prefers Hiruzen–his first captain–to Asuma so there’s that drama. Pakkun and Ningame are about the same age and imprinted on their respective captains at about the same time. Akamaru is the youngest and only recently imprinted on Kiba–so while they have enough potential to be combat ready, and Kiba is technically Akamaru’s captain, Kurenai is captain of the crew. Hinata might or might not inherit her father’s dragon–or, like in canon, it might end up with Hanabi.

Erm, well, most likely because battle styles are different, flight formations aren’t used very frequently so the different Teams are independent of each other.

In Temeraire, this is during the Regency Era so Britain is at war–hence flight formations and flight crews. While I’m reluctant to say there’s full-blown war going on in the Elemental Nations, it’s very likely that the Air Force is meant to maintain the territories/borders. Akatsuki is probably trying to instigate full blown war in order to capture the bijuu (as per canon) although this time they’re actually doing it to take over the world not to do a giant genjutsu or summon an alien princess monster.

So they’re starting a world war as a distraction for some heists and murders to take over the world? … yeah. That sounds about right. And, hey, this actually makes Nagato’s Uzumaki heritage important rather than just some bullshit throwaway thing that wasn’t explored at all! 😀

So Shukaku is near feral. Technically Gaara is his captain, but only technically–Karura was his captain before and, as per canon, died in childbirth, and Shukaku is so pissed off and bitter and basically Shukaku and Gaara have a worse relationship than Enma and Asuma, not even bringing up how Shukaku is at least twice as big and powerful as Enma.

The Nibi and Hachibi are, again, as per canon, pretty well behaved and captained by Yugito and Killer B. Professional, if not intimate. Sanbi has already been stolen and is captained by Kisame. Akatsuki’s threat is due to that they probably have a way to rewrite dragon imprinting/brainwash them like Drago and the Bewilderbeast in HTTYD2. Etc. etc.

I like the idea that Waterfall has Nanabi–the sole heavyweight not owned by the Big Five–and no middleweights whatsoever. Only couriers and light combat class. So there’s just this massive sparkly dragon surrounded by tiny dragons.

I feel like the jinchuuriki who are missing nin wouldn’t translate all that well because how do you lose track of a 50 ton dragon? And their forty person crew. It’s not like being a single jinchuuriki where it’s just like I, an individual, will leave the village in the middle of the night and hide from hunter nin. A bijuu leaving would be like a battleship just sailing away and no one being able to find it–not only would the entire crew have to agree, the captain and bijuu would have to as well and continuously hide?

… Actually… I guess that’s not too out there if they focus more on threats than subtlety. “I am leaving now, if you try to make me and my captain stay I will attack you and I am the most powerful dragon in your military” instead of “Lalala, I’m a massive dragon disappearing in the night, no one can find meeeeee.”

And a lot of the adventure is Team Seven flying around, stumbling across the Akatsuki conspiracy, and trying to convince the other countries to listen/trying to convince the missing captains to join the efforts to stop Akatsuki/trying to convince Kyuubi to accept Naruto as his captain.

Ultimate big bad in this AU would be Pein aka Nagato, I think, because I don’t know how an Obito-Madara storyline would work, much less the Zetsu-Kaguya and Indra-Ashura nonsense. LET THE UZUMAKI NAME BE RELEVANT!

For the rockstar!Shikaara I really love the fact that Shikako has a “What did you do this time?” song. Now imagine since Shikako and Gaara met before the Sand Trio hit it big and started touring then the press probably doesn’t know about her. Because Gaara is a private person, Temari too. Kankuro can pretend he’s not but those who really know him are few. So it’s a huge shock when this unknown girl slips into the band area just before a big show in their home town and isn’t thrown out. (1/2)

jacksgreysonLeave a comment

jacksgreysays:

I don’t know if that’d be the title, necessarily, because despite all appearances the Sand Trio are actually a kid friendly band. They have a surprisingly big pre-teen and teen following…

But that’s probably what it amounts to, yes. 🙂 

It probably is a very “no means no” and “anti-stalking” and “consent is not only beautiful but mandatory” kind of song without being a straight PSA. Which is a breath of fresh air in comparison to all the skeevy rape-y songs going around.

“Brothers, Sisters, Brutality” is a Temari song! I pulled it from the conversation the Nara twins had with her post Sasuke Retrieval. Good eye, anon! 😀

So is “Quality of Mercy” because, arguably, that decision to let the Sand Siblings go was a conversation between Temari and Shikako.

I haven’t really thought of lyrics for the songs, but I do have a general idea of what they might sound like. “Spark Boom Pow” is Kankurou’s and terribly catchy, I guess it’s a little bit like:

jacksgreysays:

image

“Always You” is hilariously misleading and romantic sounding if it were metaphors, but since Kankurou means it absolutely literally it really is a “Shikako what have you done?” song. Probably something like:

When the ground breaks,
and the sky opens up,
amongst all the noise,
it’s always you.

Then the earth shakes,
and the stars come to life,
sword through the chest,
it’s always you.

Doesn’t it sound like a really beautiful way to explain falling in love? But y’all know what I’m talking about here. 😀

Yep, Shikako and Gaara’s relationship really comes out of nowhere for the media. Like, first of all, tabloids mostly were keeping their eyes on the other two members of the Sand Trio–they never even suspected Gaara of dating someone. Second of all, Shikako is an unknown. She’s not a celebrity at all–outside of academia, that is–so it’s just like… whaaa?

I do think, though that’s they’d be a pretty careful about that sort of thing? Like, they’re not really a PDA kind of couple, and they always make sure Shikako has backstage passes and such, so on the surface reporters just think she’s a particularly devoted fan.

I more like the idea that it’s not the tabloids that out it but a fan who accidentally does so? Or it’s, like the relationship, out of nowhere. Like they’re getting interviewed and the interviewer asks about inspirations for their songs and their answers kind of accumulate into the idea that it’s the same individual for each of them.

And maybe some enterprising and devoted fan–not maliciously–pieces together from the different songs that, oh, the person they’re singing about would be this this and this characteristics. And another fan goes like, hey I’m looking through my pictures of the concert and I mostly focused on the foreground which was a selfie with Kankurou but now that I examine the background I notice that there’s this woman sitting rather close to Gaara.

And then it just starts pouring in–other fans are like, oh hey she’s in here, too! And then someone, probably an undergrad student in one of the classes she TAs for, is like. Hey, I think I know who this is–it’s Shikako Nara, etc. etc.

And THAT’S when the tabloids swoop in. And obviously they play on the whole “WHICH OF THE SAND TRIO IS SHE DATING? IS SHE DATING ALL OF THEM?” Because tabloids are awful.

And then people show up to her university. Non-students are trying to sit in on her lectures/discussion sections/labs and campus security has to basically assign her a bodyguard (her classes end up having perfect attendance without the threat of pop quizzes, though, so that’s nice. It’s less nice that most of the questions she’s fielding are about the Sand Trio and not, you know, curricula related).

Her friends are pretty good at helping her dodge paparazzi–swapping outfits with her or just getting in the way or giving her an escape route. At one point, Naruto takes all of his clothes off as a distraction. Sasuke just breaks their cameras. Kakashi, being somehow more and less subtle, just slouches around her strategically so any shot of her is obscured by his lanky body. Seriously, every shot he’s just there… somehow.

Shikamaru really does not appreciate these hordes of paparazzi harassing his sister while she does something simple like take a breather from all the research and rumors and get a fucking cup of coffee with him. He punches a paparazzo in the face.

The Yamanaka clan–along with being very PR savvy and already spreading word to stop stories about Shikako–has many members that are lawyers. Which is good for keeping one Nara twin out of jail and protecting the other with an entire MOUNTAIN of restraining orders. The Akimichi, consummate businesspeople, begin smothering the life out of the more venomous/less classy tabloids by getting advertisers to retract their deals and messing with their finances.

The Nara take care of their own, of course, and while I’m pretty sure they’re more into pharmaceuticals than private security, no doubt they have a decent amount of pull in certain areas, too.

And despite being musicians, the Sand Trio are very highly connected. They don’t like the way some of the tabloids have been talking about their muse.

Spark Boom Pow!
And the world goes crazy,
head turns hazy.
Spark Boom Pow!
Give a little push,
flip the ambush.
Spark Boom Pow!

And then a huge drum solo, which is why the club remix is very popular. His songs are mostly hook lines and repetitive beats, and it translates over to hiphop easiest.

Temari’s songs are a little more Bastille-y. Like, there’s definitely a story being told here and it’s in the format of a conversation and it just happens to in the medium of rock music. “BSB” plays a lot with the siblings harmonizing–even Kankurou who doesn’t so much sing as he does shout rhythmically–and each of them have different lyrics during the chorus. “QoM” is almost entirely Temari’s vocals–there’s one verse where Gaara joins in–and it has a vibe like this cover of Florence + The Machine’s Heartlines except swap Mike and Aleka’s roles around.

I feel like Sand Trio probably isn’t the name they chose, but that’s what their early fans called them and then it kind of just stuck when they became famous. It was probably something long and grandiose like “Scions of the Desert in Triplicate” so it’s just easier to refer to them as the Sand Trio. 😛

So, in Pokéani lore (not sure about the games), there’s Aura, and apparently that is what makes Pokémon moves work? Would Shikako be able to sense it, the way she can sense Natural Chakra (there’s a feeling that it’s there; she’s good at spotting trainers ahead of time, because of the refined nature of their teams’ aura, and she’s trying to figure out how it works basically without a teacher)?

jacksgreysonLeave a comment

jacksgreysays:

jacksgreysays:

image

Ooh, yeah. Aura powers! I know Lucario is the Aura Pokemon and that humans can have it too? (Or, at the very least, Ash has some) and it’s game canon that some people have psychic abilities which might be based on aura…

I like your idea, anon! From now on, the equivalent of natural chakra is aura! 😀

So obviously, Orochimaru is someone trying to experiment on people/Pokemon for aura. Which–and, I might be wrong on this, but is Ash supposedly the reincarnation of mythical aura user of the past?–kind of works with his original reason of wanting immortality to meet his parents’ reincarnations? Like, aura is linked with reincarnation somehow?

I don’t think Akatsuki have many natural chakra users, but the whole Kaguya/Zetsu thing definitely did. Ooh, maybe aura abilities was more common in the past but something sealed it away. Psychics now are kind of like the mutated version of aura that managed to sneak out of the seal–so Akatsuki is trying to break the seal but so as to keep all of the aura to themselves??

Shikako probably has the closest thing to real aura powers of any human alive now, whereas Naruto and Sasuke’s abilities are both activated because of Kyuubi or whatever Orochimaru’s Curse Seal equivalent is in this world.

Obviously, Team Seven is like the Ash of this world. Just split up that boy’s luck three ways. And, hey, you know what? A lot of Legendaries come in sets of three.

I was considering linking the Nara clan to Xerneas somehow, but that seems almost too grand for them? I mean maybe a looooooooooooong time ago to the point where it’s just a “oh, probably it was just a particularly powerful Sawsbuck and the story has been exaggerated over time” (lol, nope).

So maybe Shikako gets to meet or temporarily partner up with Xerneas, but no way does she actually ever catch it. And probably same thing with Sasuke and Yveltal. OR, maybe there’s a bit of a switch around where somehow Shikako ends up with Yveltal, Sasuke ends up with Zygarde, and Naruto ends up with Xerneas? Temporarily, of course.

I feel like that’s the way with a lot of Legendaries, anon, but I get what you’re saying. Of the XYZ Legendaries, I think Xerneas is the most elusive/skittish of people. Given that Yveltal’s whole schtick is, when it wakes up, it absorbs the life force of everyone around it, it would have to seek out said life forces to absorb. With Xerneas I figure it’d be cool to just make another forest uninterrupted and then go back to sleep. And then there’s Zygarde which is some kind of walking science experiment, so…

Maybe the forest that the Nara live in/cultivate was the one that Xerneas made millennia ago. There might be one tree in particular that is more special than the others, but the Nara have been protecting the entire forest so there’s no real way to figure out which one it is. And the Nara teach their children about how their forest is a gift from a might deer legendary (which, given it hasn’t been seen in literal millennia) might very well have been assumed to be an exaggeratedly powerful Sawsbuck.

With this in mind, I’m actually really fond of the swap-around version. Because if Zygarde is being experimented on by Orochimaru (and maybe the Curse Seal is having Zygarde cells injected into you?) then there’s Sasuke’s connection there. And Shikako probably was first on sight to Yveltal’s awakening–and because she does have aura and affinity for Dark Pokemon, maybe Yveltal kinda just: hey, a little meat puppet, cool.

And even though Naruto wants to fight and rescue her, Kakashi knows when they are in over their heads and rushes back to Konoha League to warn them/inform the Nara that Shikako’s been taken?

And Yoshino is crying and Shikamaru is raging and Shikaku just sits there stony faced, calmly listening. At the end of it, the boys of Team Seven carved out at the idea that they’ve left one of their own behind, Shikaku stands up and tells them to follow him.

They go to Sembei-obaasan, the oldest living member of the Nara clan who has all the oral history and tells them about the Life Pokemon that wakes up every millennium and can defeat the Destruction Pokemon. It’s a long shot, but Naruto will take it–he goes into the forest and searches for the Xerneas tree.

And it’s probably one of those Philosopher’s Stone type deals where you can’t get the power if you want it for yourself, but if you want it for a pure selfless reason you can have it? And Naruto just wants to save his friends. HE IS WORTHY.

Something like that, I think.

Yeah, that sounds about right. I guess I’m not really sure just how Legendaries are viewed in the Pokemon world. Like, which ones are religious versus which ones are cryptozoology. And given that it’s literally been a thousand years since Xerneas and Yveltal have been awake I kind of feel like that’s a lot of time for people to forget or “rationalize” Xerneas.

Like, the Nara clan has a lot of clan myths, one of which includes Xerneas, but as science rises a lot of it’s been written off as overblown exaggerations and such. They do have a shrine, yeah, and there’s a statue of a Xerneas, but it’s ambiguous enough that it also just looks like a particularly majestic Sawsbuck. And, well, given Xerneas is a Legendary deer that turns into a tree and Sawbuck are Grass-type deer whose antlers are tree like, the conflation can be explained away.

If there were any similar Uchiha clan myths of Yveltal, they were lost before Sasuke could hear them as more than a bedtime story better left forgotten. Although I do think the Uchiha clan patron Legendary might be the Lunar duo Cresselia and Darkrai–given the whole moon/dream theme with the Sharingan? Hrm, I dunno…

I do think not all Legendaries are universally known. Certain Legendaries are only known by certain Leagues, some by certain clans, etc. Xerneas is definitely only known by the Nara, I think.

(Thanks, anon!)

So, in Pokéani lore (not sure about the games), there’s Aura, and apparently that is what makes Pokémon moves work? Would Shikako be able to sense it, the way she can sense Natural Chakra (there’s a feeling that it’s there; she’s good at spotting trainers ahead of time, because of the refined nature of their teams’ aura, and she’s trying to figure out how it works basically without a teacher)?

jacksgreysonLeave a comment

jacksgreysays:

image

Ooh, yeah. Aura powers! I know Lucario is the Aura Pokemon and that humans can have it too? (Or, at the very least, Ash has some) and it’s game canon that some people have psychic abilities which might be based on aura…

I like your idea, anon! From now on, the equivalent of natural chakra is aura! 😀

So obviously, Orochimaru is someone trying to experiment on people/Pokemon for aura. Which–and, I might be wrong on this, but is Ash supposedly the reincarnation of mythical aura user of the past?–kind of works with his original reason of wanting immortality to meet his parents’ reincarnations? Like, aura is linked with reincarnation somehow?

I don’t think Akatsuki have many natural chakra users, but the whole Kaguya/Zetsu thing definitely did. Ooh, maybe aura abilities was more common in the past but something sealed it away. Psychics now are kind of like the mutated version of aura that managed to sneak out of the seal–so Akatsuki is trying to break the seal but so as to keep all of the aura to themselves??

Shikako probably has the closest thing to real aura powers of any human alive now, whereas Naruto and Sasuke’s abilities are both activated because of Kyuubi or whatever Orochimaru’s Curse Seal equivalent is in this world.

Obviously, Team Seven is like the Ash of this world. Just split up that boy’s luck three ways. And, hey, you know what? A lot of Legendaries come in sets of three.

I was considering linking the Nara clan to Xerneas somehow, but that seems almost too grand for them? I mean maybe a looooooooooooong time ago to the point where it’s just a “oh, probably it was just a particularly powerful Sawsbuck and the story has been exaggerated over time” (lol, nope).

So maybe Shikako gets to meet or temporarily partner up with Xerneas, but no way does she actually ever catch it. And probably same thing with Sasuke and Yveltal. OR, maybe there’s a bit of a switch around where somehow Shikako ends up with Yveltal, Sasuke ends up with Zygarde, and Naruto ends up with Xerneas? Temporarily, of course.

I feel like that’s the way with a lot of Legendaries, anon, but I get what you’re saying. Of the XYZ Legendaries, I think Xerneas is the most elusive/skittish of people. Given that Yveltal’s whole schtick is, when it wakes up, it absorbs the life force of everyone around it, it would have to seek out said life forces to absorb. With Xerneas I figure it’d be cool to just make another forest uninterrupted and then go back to sleep. And then there’s Zygarde which is some kind of walking science experiment, so…

Maybe the forest that the Nara live in/cultivate was the one that Xerneas made millennia ago. There might be one tree in particular that is more special than the others, but the Nara have been protecting the entire forest so there’s no real way to figure out which one it is. And the Nara teach their children about how their forest is a gift from a might deer legendary (which, given it hasn’t been seen in literal millennia) might very well have been assumed to be an exaggeratedly powerful Sawsbuck.

With this in mind, I’m actually really fond of the swap-around version. Because if Zygarde is being experimented on by Orochimaru (and maybe the Curse Seal is having Zygarde cells injected into you?) then there’s Sasuke’s connection there. And Shikako probably was first on sight to Yveltal’s awakening–and because she does have aura and affinity for Dark Pokemon, maybe Yveltal kinda just: hey, a little meat puppet, cool.

And even though Naruto wants to fight and rescue her, Kakashi knows when they are in over their heads and rushes back to Konoha League to warn them/inform the Nara that Shikako’s been taken?

And Yoshino is crying and Shikamaru is raging and Shikaku just sits there stony faced, calmly listening. At the end of it, the boys of Team Seven carved out at the idea that they’ve left one of their own behind, Shikaku stands up and tells them to follow him.

They go to Sembei-obaasan, the oldest living member of the Nara clan who has all the oral history and tells them about the Life Pokemon that wakes up every millennium and can defeat the Destruction Pokemon. It’s a long shot, but Naruto will take it–he goes into the forest and searches for the Xerneas tree.

And it’s probably one of those Philosopher’s Stone type deals where you can’t get the power if you want it for yourself, but if you want it for a pure selfless reason you can have it? And Naruto just wants to save his friends. HE IS WORTHY.

Something like that, I think.

For the rockstar!Shikaara I really love the fact that Shikako has a “What did you do this time?” song. Now imagine since Shikako and Gaara met before the Sand Trio hit it big and started touring then the press probably doesn’t know about her. Because Gaara is a private person, Temari too. Kankuro can pretend he’s not but those who really know him are few. So it’s a huge shock when this unknown girl slips into the band area just before a big show in their home town and isn’t thrown out. (1/2)

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jacksgreysays:

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“Always You” is hilariously misleading and romantic sounding if it were metaphors, but since Kankurou means it absolutely literally it really is a “Shikako what have you done?” song. Probably something like:

When the ground breaks,
and the sky opens up,
amongst all the noise,
it’s always you.

Then the earth shakes,
and the stars come to life,
sword through the chest,
it’s always you.

Doesn’t it sound like a really beautiful way to explain falling in love? But y’all know what I’m talking about here. 😀

Yep, Shikako and Gaara’s relationship really comes out of nowhere for the media. Like, first of all, tabloids mostly were keeping their eyes on the other two members of the Sand Trio–they never even suspected Gaara of dating someone. Second of all, Shikako is an unknown. She’s not a celebrity at all–outside of academia, that is–so it’s just like… whaaa?

I do think, though that’s they’d be a pretty careful about that sort of thing? Like, they’re not really a PDA kind of couple, and they always make sure Shikako has backstage passes and such, so on the surface reporters just think she’s a particularly devoted fan.

I more like the idea that it’s not the tabloids that out it but a fan who accidentally does so? Or it’s, like the relationship, out of nowhere. Like they’re getting interviewed and the interviewer asks about inspirations for their songs and their answers kind of accumulate into the idea that it’s the same individual for each of them.

And maybe some enterprising and devoted fan–not maliciously–pieces together from the different songs that, oh, the person they’re singing about would be this this and this characteristics. And another fan goes like, hey I’m looking through my pictures of the concert and I mostly focused on the foreground which was a selfie with Kankurou but now that I examine the background I notice that there’s this woman sitting rather close to Gaara.

And then it just starts pouring in–other fans are like, oh hey she’s in here, too! And then someone, probably an undergrad student in one of the classes she TAs for, is like. Hey, I think I know who this is–it’s Shikako Nara, etc. etc.

And THAT’S when the tabloids swoop in. And obviously they play on the whole “WHICH OF THE SAND TRIO IS SHE DATING? IS SHE DATING ALL OF THEM?” Because tabloids are awful.

And then people show up to her university. Non-students are trying to sit in on her lectures/discussion sections/labs and campus security has to basically assign her a bodyguard (her classes end up having perfect attendance without the threat of pop quizzes, though, so that’s nice. It’s less nice that most of the questions she’s fielding are about the Sand Trio and not, you know, curricula related).

Her friends are pretty good at helping her dodge paparazzi–swapping outfits with her or just getting in the way or giving her an escape route. At one point, Naruto takes all of his clothes off as a distraction. Sasuke just breaks their cameras. Kakashi, being somehow more and less subtle, just slouches around her strategically so any shot of her is obscured by his lanky body. Seriously, every shot he’s just there… somehow.

Shikamaru really does not appreciate these hordes of paparazzi harassing his sister while she does something simple like take a breather from all the research and rumors and get a fucking cup of coffee with him. He punches a paparazzo in the face.

The Yamanaka clan–along with being very PR savvy and already spreading word to stop stories about Shikako–has many members that are lawyers. Which is good for keeping one Nara twin out of jail and protecting the other with an entire MOUNTAIN of restraining orders. The Akimichi, consummate businesspeople, begin smothering the life out of the more venomous/less classy tabloids by getting advertisers to retract their deals and messing with their finances.

The Nara take care of their own, of course, and while I’m pretty sure they’re more into pharmaceuticals than private security, no doubt they have a decent amount of pull in certain areas, too.

And despite being musicians, the Sand Trio are very highly connected. They don’t like the way some of the tabloids have been talking about their muse.

I don’t know if that’d be the title, necessarily, because despite all appearances the Sand Trio are actually a kid friendly band. They have a surprisingly big pre-teen and teen following…

But that’s probably what it amounts to, yes. 🙂 

It probably is a very “no means no” and “anti-stalking” and “consent is not only beautiful but mandatory” kind of song without being a straight PSA. Which is a breath of fresh air in comparison to all the skeevy rape-y songs going around.

For the rockstar!Shikaara I really love the fact that Shikako has a “What did you do this time?” song. Now imagine since Shikako and Gaara met before the Sand Trio hit it big and started touring then the press probably doesn’t know about her. Because Gaara is a private person, Temari too. Kankuro can pretend he’s not but those who really know him are few. So it’s a huge shock when this unknown girl slips into the band area just before a big show in their home town and isn’t thrown out. (1/2)

jacksgreysonLeave a comment
image

“Always You” is hilariously misleading and romantic sounding if it were metaphors, but since Kankurou means it absolutely literally it really is a “Shikako what have you done?” song. Probably something like:

When the ground breaks,
and the sky opens up,
amongst all the noise,
it’s always you.

Then the earth shakes,
and the stars come to life,
sword through the chest,
it’s always you.

Doesn’t it sound like a really beautiful way to explain falling in love? But y’all know what I’m talking about here. 😀

Yep, Shikako and Gaara’s relationship really comes out of nowhere for the media. Like, first of all, tabloids mostly were keeping their eyes on the other two members of the Sand Trio–they never even suspected Gaara of dating someone. Second of all, Shikako is an unknown. She’s not a celebrity at all–outside of academia, that is–so it’s just like… whaaa?

I do think, though that’s they’d be a pretty careful about that sort of thing? Like, they’re not really a PDA kind of couple, and they always make sure Shikako has backstage passes and such, so on the surface reporters just think she’s a particularly devoted fan.

I more like the idea that it’s not the tabloids that out it but a fan who accidentally does so? Or it’s, like the relationship, out of nowhere. Like they’re getting interviewed and the interviewer asks about inspirations for their songs and their answers kind of accumulate into the idea that it’s the same individual for each of them.

And maybe some enterprising and devoted fan–not maliciously–pieces together from the different songs that, oh, the person they’re singing about would be this this and this characteristics. And another fan goes like, hey I’m looking through my pictures of the concert and I mostly focused on the foreground which was a selfie with Kankurou but now that I examine the background I notice that there’s this woman sitting rather close to Gaara.

And then it just starts pouring in–other fans are like, oh hey she’s in here, too! And then someone, probably an undergrad student in one of the classes she TAs for, is like. Hey, I think I know who this is–it’s Shikako Nara, etc. etc.

And THAT’S when the tabloids swoop in. And obviously they play on the whole “WHICH OF THE SAND TRIO IS SHE DATING? IS SHE DATING ALL OF THEM?” Because tabloids are awful.

And then people show up to her university. Non-students are trying to sit in on her lectures/discussion sections/labs and campus security has to basically assign her a bodyguard (her classes end up having perfect attendance without the threat of pop quizzes, though, so that’s nice. It’s less nice that most of the questions she’s fielding are about the Sand Trio and not, you know, curricula related).

Her friends are pretty good at helping her dodge paparazzi–swapping outfits with her or just getting in the way or giving her an escape route. At one point, Naruto takes all of his clothes off as a distraction. Sasuke just breaks their cameras. Kakashi, being somehow more and less subtle, just slouches around her strategically so any shot of her is obscured by his lanky body. Seriously, every shot he’s just there… somehow.

Shikamaru really does not appreciate these hordes of paparazzi harassing his sister while she does something simple like take a breather from all the research and rumors and get a fucking cup of coffee with him. He punches a paparazzo in the face.

The Yamanaka clan–along with being very PR savvy and already spreading word to stop stories about Shikako–has many members that are lawyers. Which is good for keeping one Nara twin out of jail and protecting the other with an entire MOUNTAIN of restraining orders. The Akimichi, consummate businesspeople, begin smothering the life out of the more venomous/less classy tabloids by getting advertisers to retract their deals and messing with their finances.

The Nara take care of their own, of course, and while I’m pretty sure they’re more into pharmaceuticals than private security, no doubt they have a decent amount of pull in certain areas, too.

And despite being musicians, the Sand Trio are very highly connected. They don’t like the way some of the tabloids have been talking about their muse.

I’ve been on a pride and prejudice kick, so can I ask for DOS!regency au? Or an expansion on the rock star/muse thing from the three sentences

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Let’s see…  Regency!AU… hm…

The problem, anon, is that although I do also love Pride and Prejudice I’m really bad at imagining things in the Regency setting? Like… I love historical fiction, and I’m all for when authors write time periods accurately, but I myself cannot do it. I’m more of an “ambiguously olden times” or “non-specific modern times” or, as I’m about to go into “historical influenced by magic.”

I once read–and to this day, even if it’s quite short, it’s my favorite–a Pride and Prejudice fic that was an AU fusion with the Temeraire series. And it’s so brilliant because it is set during Regency period but it also has DRAGONS. It still has the flavor of historical fiction, but the existence of dragons means some details can be hand waved away, some deliberate changes are grounded in magical world-building, and you can play around with how characters might translate differently. For example, in that fic, Elizabeth is part of the Air Force (because, get this, dragons prefer women as their riders so a majority of the Air Force are women but this is kept a secret from the general public) and it’s fantastic because it fits her so perfectly.

Because, okay, the human relationships and romantic dramedy that is Pride and Prejudice is still one of my favorites without magic, but I don’t think I’d ever be able to do a fic entirely around human relationship and romantic dramedy without itching to throw in some action or magic/scifi. Also, I’m not sure what the Regency era (or the equivalent thereof… mid/late Tokugawa Period?) was like in Japan. Also also, it’d be easier to translate the Naruto universe into a universe that has magic as well? Actually, I think I did a three sentence fic of Team Seven as dragon riders here, but I didn’t specify it was a Temeraire!AU.

Hm… the thing is, even if I were to lean into the Regency-like aspect, the respective clans would have to come into play. They’d haaaaaaave to. Shikako is the only daughter of the head of the Nara clan, yeah, but the Nara clan are subordinate to the Noble Akimichi clan so she’s not really that high up. 

Compare to Sasuke who is the only living/legitimate member of the Noble Uchiha clan which makes him THE most eligible bachelor. And then there’s Naruto who is also the last of his (most likely Noble as well) clan but the Uzumaki clan has long since been devastated which means he has no wealth to his name. On top of that his parents were probably not married or they eloped or–and is this fanon or headcanon or actual canon–even though Minato was well-liked he was still civilian stock orphan, so Naruto’s existence is no doubt scandalous not even including whatever the equivalent of the Kyuubi is in this world.

How would they even meet each other? Their class levels are all over the place. Their lifestyles are all over the place. Unless there’s dragons as the great equalizer. Yeah? 😀

—

Now as for an expansion of the rockstar and muse!AU… 

Honestly? I didn’t really think of that universe beyond the most basic to fill the three sentence fic prompt. But now that I consider it, how did they even meet? How did they fall in love? How does their relationship work? DO THEY OWN ANY PETS? (The answer to this one, unfortunately, is probably no. Gaara is on the road too often, and Shikako sometimes doesn’t come home for days if she’s in the middle of a project.)

Let’s see… how did they meet? I know for sure this is before the Sand Trio made it big–because in order for Shikako to be Gaara’s muse, she has to be the one to inspire him–so that means they were probably doing small gigs, like at bars and stuff, or maaaybe a Battle of the Bands type situation, but I like imaging the Sand Trio doing small time gigs in bars. The kinds of bars that graduate students might frequent because it’s one in the morning and nowhere else is serving food. And sure it’s bar food, but at least it’s not ramen or an entire bag of chips or the iffy three day old take out that’s in the fridge of the shared kitchen.

So, probably, their very first meeting, Shikako is at the bar run/owned by… Anko? Who she knows because the kunoichi group is still something that exists–maybe as a sorority or some other club–and also Anko works in the psych department during the day? So she has an entire corner of the bar to herself just absolutely covered in research notes and she is mainlining bar food and coffee unlike, probably, everyone else in the bar who is there to, you know, drink. Maybe dance, there are some live bands playing, after all.

And the thing is, Gaara is in the band for the music. He doesn’t (and will never, really) be in it for the audience or the scene–Kankurou and Temari are performers, Gaara not so much–so when he’s not on stage with a guitar in his hand he kind of just wallflowers it up. And Shikako’s corner has been strategically chosen for it’s lighting/minimal noise/proximity to air conditioning, etc. So he wanders over and sits and is like… this woman beside me has been consuming nothing but coffee and chicken wings and he is absolutely baffled. And a little concerned?

Because Shikako’s starting to approach that weird point of maximum caffeine intake/sleep deprivation and she’s about ready to vibrate out of her skin, I swear to god, if this formula does not make sense in the next three seconds I will set everything on fire! And Gaara’s just like–do you need help? And then they talk, Shikako starts off ranting about her current project and how she’s been brought up to the ethics board because one of her friends talked about it in front of the wrong person and it’s not that she’s mad at Sakura, really, but it’s still frustrating and now she needs to jump through all sorts of hoops and redundancies in order to keep her thesis on track and then it turns into a proper conversation about, I dunno, those late night thoughts about how you ended up where you are now and about the people in your life and how you do what you can to keep the people you love because loneliness is worse than frustration or anger and Gaara goes home and writes a song called “Wound of the Heart.”

It’s not the Sand Trio’s most popular song, but years from now music historians will consider this the beginning of the Sand Trio’s rise.

How did they fall in love? Well, probably much the same as how they’d fall in love in canon. With Shikako being absolutely oblivious until the last second and Gaara patiently seeking her out and spending time with her and being absolutely inspired by her. At one point someone–probably Ino–has to point out to Shikako that literally all of Sand Trio’s songs are, in some way shape or form, about her.

Temari’s a little sick of all the blatant emotions, and while she can’t completely understand the songs she can get them enough to perform them. Kankurou, frankly, has never seen his baby brother pining after someone before and while he’s never been in love he does like how the fans think he’s a huge romantic.

They both write a few songs, too–not nearly as prolific as their little brother, though–and somehow those are still also about Shikako: “Quality of Mercy,” “Brothers, Sisters, Brutality,” “Spark Boom Pow,” and “Always You.” (That last one, oddly enough, is not a love song. It was written by Kankurou and mostly referenced how, every time something really bizarre happened at one of their performances Shikako was always nearby if not the direct cause of it).

As to how their relationship works. The same way a lot of relationships work: negotiation and effort and knowing that–no matter how different they may be, no matter how infrequently they may see each other–they still love each other and want to make it work.

So, in Pokéani lore (not sure about the games), there’s Aura, and apparently that is what makes Pokémon moves work? Would Shikako be able to sense it, the way she can sense Natural Chakra (there’s a feeling that it’s there; she’s good at spotting trainers ahead of time, because of the refined nature of their teams’ aura, and she’s trying to figure out how it works basically without a teacher)?

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Ooh, yeah. Aura powers! I know Lucario is the Aura Pokemon and that humans can have it too? (Or, at the very least, Ash has some) and it’s game canon that some people have psychic abilities which might be based on aura…

I like your idea, anon! From now on, the equivalent of natural chakra is aura! 😀

So obviously, Orochimaru is someone trying to experiment on people/Pokemon for aura. Which–and, I might be wrong on this, but is Ash supposedly the reincarnation of mythical aura user of the past?–kind of works with his original reason of wanting immortality to meet his parents’ reincarnations? Like, aura is linked with reincarnation somehow?

I don’t think Akatsuki have many natural chakra users, but the whole Kaguya/Zetsu thing definitely did. Ooh, maybe aura abilities was more common in the past but something sealed it away. Psychics now are kind of like the mutated version of aura that managed to sneak out of the seal–so Akatsuki is trying to break the seal but so as to keep all of the aura to themselves??

Shikako probably has the closest thing to real aura powers of any human alive now, whereas Naruto and Sasuke’s abilities are both activated because of Kyuubi or whatever Orochimaru’s Curse Seal equivalent is in this world.

Obviously, Team Seven is like the Ash of this world. Just split up that boy’s luck three ways. And, hey, you know what? A lot of Legendaries come in sets of three.

I was considering linking the Nara clan to Xerneas somehow, but that seems almost too grand for them? I mean maybe a looooooooooooong time ago to the point where it’s just a “oh, probably it was just a particularly powerful Sawsbuck and the story has been exaggerated over time” (lol, nope).

So maybe Shikako gets to meet or temporarily partner up with Xerneas, but no way does she actually ever catch it. And probably same thing with Sasuke and Yveltal. OR, maybe there’s a bit of a switch around where somehow Shikako ends up with Yveltal, Sasuke ends up with Zygarde, and Naruto ends up with Xerneas? Temporarily, of course.

Language in YOI

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depressedfangirl93:

jacksgreysays:

I’M STILL RIDING THE EMOTIONAL HIGH OF YURI!!! ON ICE EPISODE TEN, AND I’M TECHNICALLY ONLY FANDOM ADJACENT (I prefer watching things in one long binge session, but I still love watching the fandom’s reactions to episodes as they come out. Spoilers are not really a concern for me).

I am also absolutely in love with all of the analyses of the series post ep 10 plot twist (especially @tumblngkori‘s analyses of the series from Victor’s POV) now that we know the full story. I’m not sure if someone’s already brought this up but and this is just me being a dork who can’t find the right post, but…

I was wondering if anyone had perhaps analyzed the series with the matter of language during everything? Like, obviously, most everything is said in Japanese because that’s who the target audience is, but I wonder how much would be in what language if it were IRL. English is probably used most during the group scenes, but what do Yuuri and Victor use between them? Japanese? Russian? Some amalgamation of the three?

Especially consider Yuuri’s drunken state at the banquet? Maybe the only part Victor literally understood was “Be my coach, Victor” at the end in English and the rest of it was in drunkenly slurred Japanese.

Thoughts?

The creators have confirmed that Yuuri and Victor speak mostly english with each other. Many fans speculate that Victor is learning japanese (he say “gambai” in episode 8 and his phone screen in ep 10 is in hiragana), and that Yuuri is learning russin (he say “davai” and “vkusno” in ep 10), some also speculate that Yuuri knows a bit of thai (and that Phichit knows a bit of japanese). For the ther characters I think Minako, Yuuko, and Mari all know english very well, Celestino cleary knows italian (look at how much moves his hands while talking! He his 100% italian XD). In general any graituitus english/russian/italian/ecc or used of dialect is used as a sign that the character are speaking in that language or slipping to their mother tongue (Victor saying “vkusno” or Yuuri slipping back to his dialect while drunk).
I hope you find my blabbing interesting and you find something useful ^^’ There are more knowledgeable people in the fandom, if you are interested I can give you some names. 🙂

😀 Thanks!

Given the ep 10 plot twist which completely upheaves a lot of fans’ perspective on events (especially Victor’s POV and the extent of Yuuri as an unreliable narrator), I was curious how much information is meant to be secret to which characters.

Like–early on Yurio probably talks to Victor in Russian, even when Yuuri is around, unless it’s to specifically complain about Yuuri or insult him. In which case they all use English. So I guess mostly I was just wondering which conversations were comprehensible to which characters at any given point in time, you know? And that would influence reliability of characters as narrators since they may very well not know what is being said around them.

God, I would love to do a “linguistically accurate” edit of YOI using different dubs. Not even just watch it? I would be all over that project in a dream world where time/equipment/content is available to me. Just shut me in a tiny room with Adobe Premier Pro and HOURS OF FOOTAGE (♥o♥)/ (GIVE IT TO MEEEEEEEE)