blackjackrocket, posts by tag: turquoise - LiveJournal

Dum de dum de doo...

Hmm, it's been a while since I updated my journal, hasn't it? Probably been a couple of--ALMOST A MONTH? WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?

Seriously, I see it every day as I pass by to go to my friends list and for some reason it never dawned on me to update. So I basically fail at that.

And this entry will kick the kink meme off the front page of my journal, so here's a link to remind you all. And another one.


Anyway! So of course I made more icons!

This is one of my favorite icons I've ever made in my life. It was for a contest and of course didn't win anything. Oh well.
( More under hereCollapse )

I also wrote more stories.
You know how there's that theory about how Cyrus wasn't the original Galactic leader? (If you're not familiar with the theory, I talk about it in the post) Well, I wrote something about what happened to the previous one. It's called Devious and wait, can that link be right? Yes it can! It's actually for rocket100!

Not to be outdone, xalifesochanged and I wrote something for warewacollector. But it's...really depressing. Seriously depressing. Nothing I've ever written has ever taken it out of me like this fic has. We did it about a week or so ago, and it was sitting on our drives until a few hours ago when we decided basically screw it, we'll post it as-is because editing it up makes us too damn sad.
And this is our idea of a happy ending for the poor bastard too. Logically this is about the best he can get. And that's just heartbreaking.
Although it introduces a character that we both agree has to appear in more stuff because he's that awesome--Pitney. He's a freakin' jerk and is epic win. And I basically made him up off the cuff--the fic is about Jiri being on trial, so we needed a Shamouti counsel to judge him, so we needed people, so we each made someone up. Her character was a former Festival Maiden and so has a musical name; Aria. I needed a name with some meaning as well, so I picked up my trusty name book from which I get nearly every name I've ever used and found a name that means "island of the strong-willed man". So basically his entire personality is built around that. I get the feeling he's going to be to me and xalifesochanged what Dutton is to me and ket_makura, by which I mean awesome.
Anyway! Now that I've completely taken you away from my INITIAL notice I'll remind you yet again that this fic is depressing as all hell. It's also BIG as all hell and had to be cut into two parts.
What We May Be--Part One and Part Two
...and dammit you guys, I started getting weepy just getting the links for you all so you'd BETTER appreciate it!
Although I guess this answers the question once and for all. I guess Blackjack *can* write a fic so depressing even she can't stand it.


Anyway! To cheer you all up! Remember how waaaaay back last entry I showed you those dolls I made? Or dolls I dressed up anyway. Well, here's my presentation if you want to see the third. Sadly I didn't win (yes, I waited so long to post anything here that I forgot to advertise that it had gone to voting!), but I *did* get seven votes, so that was cool.
(also, that shot of Rayquaza being yanked away was SO FREAKIN HARD because I had to pull it away AND hold the camera AND take the picture at the same time!)
I made a bonus shot. See if you can guess who everyone is.
( Don't think too hardCollapse )


I've started making my holiday list, and I'd like to see yours as well. You never know what may turn up on your doorsteps. Even if you don't celebrate anything this time of year, I might as well take advantage of the fact that things are on sale. Also I got a ton of postcards *and* found a ton apparently left over from last year, so my correspondence will be hefty.
Also I'm going to making a sales post again. I'd have made it already except I took the pictures and then realized that I forgot a bunch of stuff so I have to take replacement pictures, but that's really no problem with a digital camera. And I photographed some snacks but then traded them to someone for something so now I have to go get more but I'm going to that store soon anyway to get things for my Halloween party that I'm having with Rhi this Friday.

Yeah, Rhi's still here, although send her good vibes! She may have found an apartment!
On the one hand it's kinda nice having a roomate, but on the other hand I'm having a rough go of it lately and it's been hard on her, and also she's wanted her own place back ever since she came here (she was meant to be here for a few weeks, and that was back in April or something).

So on the first is Kumoricon Lite--don't forget!

Hmm, but the following weekend...Both days are the Dragonite giveaway and I'd like to get one of those and do some shopping, but if I go Saturday I miss Keep Portland Weird and if I go Sunday I miss a Kcon meeting. I'm leaning towards skipping the meeting since the board doesn't list anything in particular going on at it.

However, I *do* need your help deciding something--on a name. See, in Turquoise (remember, my original story?), there's a character with a name I know how to *pronounce*, but not how to *spell*. I've alternated it for ages, but now I figure it's high time to bite the bullet and settle on one.
( J/Y?Collapse )


And speaking of Turquoise, I wrote some more. It's awesome. And of course, since I want to publish it, I can't show y'all any of it. Which blows.

Anyway, soon I'll be starting on Ob19. I only have a vague idea as to what I want to have happen in it, but I got an idea watching two fansubs and the English version earlier (basically just the part where Jiri introduces himself). It's odd, the English version pretty much rewrote the entire thing but you get so much more of an impression of his character from it. That part where he says "And soon, my collection itself will be legendary..." That speaks volumes about him, and it's awesome. And I can't believe I never noticed that it wasn't in Japanese before (instead it's the part where he tells them that they can look at his collection "but don't touch, that's just proper etiquitte". Which also tells us about him, but not nearly as much). And it's funny...I notice most fans of his tend to go with both versions as not so much a mix but an expansion, like "he said one thing here and one thing here, but he would have said both in both if he'd had the time". Because honestly, the way he runs at the mouth there's not a thing in either (In good translations, not crappy ones) that wouldn't have occured to either version of him to say, he just picked one. And even the part at the end where he *doesn't* talk in Japanese...it's entirely in character for him to *think* that line.

Anyway, this entry is getting needlessly long so I'm going to fill out a meme and that'll be it. Gotten from vsyoravno, who got it from who knows where, my Pokémon fandom meme!
( gratutious villians, bad guys, assorted evildoers, and perhaps the occasional twerp?Collapse )

According to the time above, this post took me THREE HOURS to type so you'd better read EVERY WORD.
Also kink meme.

Oh! And if you like my fics, Serebii is having some voting. If you want to see the fics I've posted recently on there, they're listed here.
So far, Obsession is up for Best Canon Character-centric and Best Human Main Character, and Drop is up for Best Pokémon One-Shot.
But please, only vote if you usually read fics on Serebii. I don't want to be accused of stuffing the ballot box or anything. I just know how sticky threads can be overlooked.

So last weekend was made of win and awesome. ketsuban and genechildmewtwo came over and we spent all day Saturday geeking out and then we went out. First we went to Uwajimaya and we cleared the Pokémon toys off the shelves. I was very surprised to find a Kadabra Kids figure, given, you know, but hey. And then we went to dinner and that was fun. GCM had squid, Ketsuban had noodles, and I had that sizzling rice dish only not sizzling. But it was still awesome.

And then it was time for KARAOKE, which was right next door. It's the kind where you get a private room and the words are on the screen. I'd planned to do a lot of anime songs since they were in the catalogue, but after Ketsuban did one it became obvious that the lyrics wouldn't come up in Roman letters. So that bit that idea in the bud. So I instead did a host of '80s standards. And damn near blew my throat out on "Welcome to the Jungle" (side note--I wish to see a music video made of that song--all versions of the Digital World converging on Jeri Kato, sung by Beezelbumon).

Lest you think that was merely an aside and nothing more, I must tell you about the videos that accompanied these songs. Rather than having half-assed images that vaguely had something remotely to do with the song, as had been my previous experience with video-prompted karaoke (singing "Somewhere Out There" at a fair), these were WHAT THE HELL. They appeared to be mostly vacation clips; people at the beach, people on water skiis, people racing cars, people in quaint European towns...ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH ANYTHING WHATSOEVER. So it was absolutely fucking hilarious watching GCM and Ketsuban singing "In The End" with the lyrics superimposed on the images of people having fun at the beach (although watching them try to sing it was pretty damn funny in and of itself).

By the time we were ready to go, my voice was damn near shot. I was singing something well within my range and I couldn't hit notes just a few away from my speaking tone. So it was very good it ended when it did.

After that we went out for bubble tea, which is always awesome. While we were waiting for our teas to get made (it was a very packed place with a party of about ten coming in after us, and only one guy making the teas), someone came in with the same shirt GCM had on. Which doesn't sound *too* bizarre until you consider it's bright blue and has a Pikachu on it. And GCM and this guy are both in their 20s.

So that was last weekend. The *previous* weekend was full of movie spoilers, so I'll cut it. Contains Dark Knight *and* the discovery that I'm not ready for Pokémon to have someone like me on the staff. My Dark Knight comments segue into a *really* long rant about Turquoise, so be warned.


( Hint=BTAS(greater than)TDKCollapse )

OK, spoilers over! Yaaaaaaaay!!!

Now onto the good stuff--Misc Fanworks! First some icons, including two I made a while ago but never posted for some reason


Now the obligatory push for the Kink Meme.

And my latest fic, Blue Vengeance, cowritten with xalifesochanged. Be warned, this fic is *really* twisted. And if *I'M* telling you it's twisted, it must be downright SICK. Because Eusine is a deranged fanatical prick in this and there's noncon. So yeah.

But if you want to read some stuff of mine about Jiri where he's *not* getting drugged to enact divine wrath, you'll all be pleased to know I'm working on Obsession 18! That's right, after letting it sit still since November, I'm hard at work on the next part! Expect foreshadowing, delusion, a cameo by a canon character, and some fucking creepyness.

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR OBSESSION 18:
xalifesochanged: They're all screwed up. You're writing a story about crazies

ketsuban: That is kind of disturbing

lugia_no_seika: [S]cience and art are so often thought of in almost a dichotomy. How do we reconcile one character's interest in both? You found the way.

Hoshit no srus quote? But it's about the part I quote below!

YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST FOLKS!

Also, I DO RESEARCH I r serious writer.

A teaser you want? Then a teaser you shall have!
( Frightening Scientific Knowledge, aka SCIENCE!!!!Collapse )


Yes, he's a science nerd, but that's apparently canon. BUT IT MAKES SENSE IN SO MANY WAYS.

To wrap this up, a conversation I had with lugia_no_seika. See, she hasn't been on messenger in literally YEARS, so to see her pop on suddenly at two thirty am was quite bizarre.

( This was before I goaded the quote out of herCollapse )


And now for something completely different

I had a mostly nice weekend. Mom and dad went to Olympia so I had ketsuban over on Friday. We hung out and did geek stuff and made burritos. Then Saturday we went downtown and hung out with Rhiannon, and then all three of us went back to my place, by which time my parents were back. It was HOT out on Saturday. And then Sunday we went to Tanasbourne (a shopping plaza nearby) and hung out there. And then both of them had to go home.

...but then things kinda fell apart. ( eeeehCollapse )


...so I've been upset for the past few hours. You guys always do a good job of cheering me up, so go for it.


In other news, I put up a new sales post with some FF goods this time. I swear those go for more at cons.

And I joined 30_kisses and claimed Bashou and Buson, and managed to do a fic for it! It's called Good Night (yeah, my prompt fics, if you haven't noticed, all have the prompt as their title), and it's...um...fluff. Their first night in their higher-rank quarters. They're already an item, obviously, so that's why they get a shared bed (someone was confused about that on Bulbagarden).

I shouldn't be distracted. I should focus on two things--Obsession and Turquoise--and that should be it. But I've only got the scantest of ideas for the next Obsession chapter, and FAR TOO MANY ideas for Turquoise that I don't know where to start!

It's been 5 months since I last worked on Obsession, and 3 since I worked on Turquoise, at least since I've gotten any words down on either. And I feel totally worthless when I think about all those words, all those characters I'm not working with.

I want to inspire. I want Turquoise to be a work for the ages, or at least a cult classic. I love it, I really do, and I want others to love it too. But I'm scared. I'm scared that I won't be able to do it justice. I'm scared I'll fuck things up. I'm scared that, instead of a work of beauty and power, people will make fun of it, or worse yet me for never finishing it.

Does anyone want to help me with this? I need someone to bounce ideas off of, someone to get in-depth with me. Since even after 20 years of planning, coming up with things, scrapping them, coming up with new ideas, etc, it's still not nearly planned out. Especially near the end. There's several months worth of blah that I need to tighten up, and right now it's almost a liquid.

And with Obsession...well, vague ideas are nothing. I have an ending. I have almost the entire last chapter planned out. But it's getting to that point that's the issue. I need to study what goes into becoming an art collector, especially on a top-level scale like him.

I always identified with Jiri. My first impression of him--the real Jiri, not the rumored villian with goals of destruction--was looking at a guide to the movie and seeing him in the ending, standing forlorn looking out over the ocean. And I felt so sorry for him (even though yes, it was entirely his fault), but I didn't expect to identify with him. But he's single-minded, he's delusional, he cuts himself off and lives in a world he literally made, he's driven by his posessions and his love of created art (his is visual while mine's written), and he never learns from his mistakes. He doesn't even realize that he's making mistakes even when things are falling down around him, and I'm not entirely convinced that he ever *did* realize that what he did was wrong, at least not for any moral reason (and even then, the moral issue would be more of keeping them on display as opposed to anything else).

...and people dismiss him as an evil pretty boy.

On the upside, he's currently leading in the Serebii poll for Fave Movie Villian. But the poll's slanted; Molly's not on it (an oversight that most of the comments are about). Second place is Mewtwo, who I thought would be first by a wide margin, and third is the Marauder. Which is strange because the Marauder is horribly unpopular, and downright hated by most Team Rocket fans. And I never understood that, given that there's so much that could be done with a traitor Elite. But Jiri's #1, and that gives me the warm fuzzies even though it probably shouldn't.

...I should post this on warewacollector. I should post more on there and on rocket100...only that would lead to what I said earlier, that sense of failure that I'm not working on what I need to work on.

I suppose this entry has gone on long enough.

So I was hoping to wait until I finished the 1sentence prompts before updating, but eh. It's taking longer than I expected. I've been sidetracked both with RPing, this (which needs more requests filled, by the way), and a new fic, which is, oddly enough, also Sacredshippy. And, as to be expected from me, is a tragedy. I need someone to look it over if anyone wants to help.

Someone drew me some art! angellover89 drew me Pierre and Paeterson from Turquoise!! Although I think Pierre's a bit too handsome in it (he's supposed to be rather plain), and Paeterson doesn't have his bangs, but those're minor quibbles. And it's great to see Paeterson in a more modern uniform WITH a sword.

And remember the dance I went to a few months ago? Kcon finally got their pictures up, so here's me and ketsuban! Although the image is HUGE. I don't know why they made it that big. And yes, I'm aware that my shirt doesn't quite fit, but hey.

I'm going to try to go to Otafest. It's in May, and it's in Calgary, which means it'll be the longest I'll have ever traveled for a con. But it means saving like crazy since I'd need a plane ticket and probably a ride to Seattle since Portland doesn't offer direct flights there. But wow, it should be awesome.

And this past Sunday, my cousin was born! I still don't know her name though.

So I can't really think of anything more to say. Oh well!

For Shame. Shaaaaaame...

What? It's my latest fic? By gum, I loves me my psycho Rockets.

So why the Obsession icon? Well...

I have no ideas for it. I have no ideas for anything. I'm not quitting, don't worry. But it's dry.

Let me rephrase. I have *tons* of ideas (except, it seems, for Obsession), but when I go to write them down, nothing.

It's especially bad with Turquoise. Those scant paragraphs I told you about last entry? Nothing since. Well, I act stuff out in bed, but nothing else has gotten on paper.

I'm scared, really. I'm scared that when I *do* write it down, it won't be nearly as beautiful as it is in my head. It's an epic, and I write shortfics. Am I really cut out to write an epic?

I'd love to sit down with someone and tell them every last detail and have them do the writing, but then I'd have to oversee every word they put down.

I've been working on Turquoise, in various forms, since I was younger than ten. That's almost twenty years (dammit, I don't want to be thirty! I don't want to be twenty seven even! I want to be eighteen!). Twenty years of weaving the story over and over again, from humble beginnings of pretending to be an empress (or rather, pretending to be *THE* Empress. You know the one I mean) and coming up with a story around her, to the brilliant thing that exists in my head. And I want to get it out, to share it with other people!

The part I wrote last time that I was so proud of...it's more a symbol than anything. Just to read the excerpt, it sounds cliched. But it's at the beginning of the story, when Pierre and Isobel are still on the island. It's a more idyllic time for both of them.

I want to go back to Mackinac Island. It's what I'm basing the island on, and all I can find are pictures of the town. I want the rest, the beauty of nature, but no one photographs that.

I want to do so much with these characters, with these settings, but no words come out.

Someone help me.

And I'm not even *in* the fandom! But all this kerfluffle about Dumbledore being gay has got me to thinking about my own series, Turquoise, and how fans will react to the varying sexualities therein. For you see, in Turquoise,( MASSIVE spoilers for a series I haven't written yetCollapse )


SPOILERS OVER

Anyway, to continue, people are getting on Rowling for not saying so in the books. But you know, she's writing a whole compendium of things she came up with but didn't fit in the books. It's not like this is the only thing she left out. If it was, that'd be different, but she has a whole book's worth of things.

In other news, all of you Boingoloids/Elfmaniacs on my list, go here right now. Danny was on NPR talking about his favorite film scores. AWESOME. And it reminds me that Nightmare 3D is in town. I need to see that, expenses be damned.

In Pearl news, I'm training a team to take on the E4. Yes, over 260 hours into it, I'm finally going to make a run to beat the game. There's only one pokemon I need to see to finish my Sinnoh Dex, and it's Infernape, and one of the E4 has one. Which will be awesome. I'll let you all know how it goes.

Bowling league starts tonight. That should be interesting.

Oh yeah, if you have cable and you're not watching Digimon Data Squad--WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU? It rocks. I don't remember Savers rocking so hard when I watched it with fansubs...

Back from Kcon! And boy, was that an interesting few days.

Eh, I don't feel like making a loot list this time. Sorry.

Anyway, I got tons of pictures (no, there is no picture #126. I screwed up renaming them), and got to do some awesome stuff. Such as...well...

( I'll let the picture speak for itselfCollapse )
That's me doing a read under Kirk Thornton's direction. He was doing a panel about getting into voice acting, so at one point he had us write up stuff about a character. I used Soosan from Turquoise, since if I actually get around to making that show, she's the one I want to voice. And so then he called people up (only three! I was lucky to be picked!) and had us read a line off his computer (I'm pretty sure they were all from Bleach, since he directed parts of it). So after we said the line once, the audience had to say what they thought the character was like. Apparently I really summed up Soosan in it, since they got pretty much every point I wrote down about her. So then Thornton suggested I read it as though the character was "disrupted in a library". Which was hard, but he told me I did a great job at it.

(one tiny problem, though--people mistook her speech impediment for a Japanese accent. I hope I didn't offend anyone!)

Anyway, during the panel (which his wife and mother were also at!), he was talking about how to position yourself when you record, and how it's rare for a VA to be seated during a session (apparently Mark Hamill does it, though), and he did an impression of another VA, and I knew who he was doing before he said it. He said there's "another VA" who poses dramatically when he records, and with the voice he used, I totally called it as Jamieson Price.

And oh yeah--in other con notes, I won two fanfic prizes! Best Backstory for Dreams in Digital, and Best Fanon for Strike the Spark.

Here, since you won't find the backstories anywhere else, and I did this last year when I got the same prize for Obsession, I'll share with you here. For those of you who just friended me and don't know Digimon that much, this has massive spoilers for season two. And if you have no interest in Digimon, you can stop reading now since this'll be the end of the entry (no clever wrapup lines for me today, I'm too sleepy)

( Except this--do you think I should start an Oikawa comm?Collapse )

Domino says:
so how are there normal fish in the Digital World?
Sato says:
They came on a submarine Trailmon? XD
Domino says:
lol
Domino says:
Son of a Submarimon!


So anyway, today we went to the museum. There was an exhibit on ancient Egypt, but it just didn't speak to me. I took a notebook in case any inspiration for Obsession came to me, but nothing. I even saw a book in the gift shop about collectors and collections, and it was called Obsessions, but even looking through that and finding a guy named Lawrence didn't inspire anything in me. Heck, I don't even remember what he collected. Nothing Jiri-like, though. Someone in the book collected Japanese toys, though, which was fun.

I haven't even *thought* about writing more of Obsession lately, what with hammering out plot holes in Turquoise and playing more FFVI (would you believe I'm still on the World of Balance?). Heck, I haven't even written any Turquoise, just been working on the characters. And there's still a ton of stuff near the end where I'll don't know what'll happen or how. I know what'll happen to everyone ultimately, but I'm not sure how to get it there.

I've been considering writing it all as a series of short stories, in my traditional fanfiction vein. Maybe I should do 1Sentence again and make some OC claims, get my juices flowing.

Speaking of fanfiction, what should I submit to Sakura Con? I can't resubmit old fics unless they've been reworked, and I can't submit anything that's won at Kumori either.

Bah. I'm too sick to worry. Unfortunately, I'm also too sick to sleep. I've been coughing my lungs out for the past few days, and it's really annoying. Now I'm coughing so hard my *head* hurts.

Someone want to entertain me?

Edit--Aww crap, now I can't see my mood theme. What's wrong?

So I had my midterm today and it went fine. Or so I think thus far. I also broke 100 in bowling.

I've been thinking more about Turquoise, and I realize that there's several things I have yet to figure out. Like what the hell Nyckia's story is, for one. He wields godlike powers, and is considered the brother to the Empress, but I don't know WHY yet. He also has some connection to Magic spots (basically, gateways to other worlds. No, this isn't elaborated on. I'm not sure why for that either), but I haven't thought of what yet.

*sigh* Part of me wants to see what sort of explainations the fan writers will come up with, but part of me wants to cover all holes. I guess being a Poké-fan will do that to a person.

Blah. Also no headway on Obsession at all. I know what I want to have happen in the next chapter, but I can't think of an opening line, which is what I need to start. Plus I haven't been in the right mood. Come to think of it, I haven't written much of anything lately. Even my essays for class were super short.

You know, I want to be able to use this journal to vent, but it seems that every time I do, people are all "OMG you don't like me any more!" I need to be able to get things out without people being all paranoid, all right? (ultimatezerox, how do you manage it?)

On that note, any of you who've wanted to join The Network, now's a great time to do so.

So I got the results on my knee back. Apparently I have chronic tendonitis. Well, at least it's not my kneecap, which is what the doctor thought. I go in for physical therapy on Friday.

I've been watching CyberSix episodes on Youtube, and I'm waiting for the last one to be uploaded. Jax, I figure you'll at least be interested.

I got Mew yesterday, but I promised TIP I'd put this under a cut. ( WhateverCollapse )

Of course, I was just happy because the little booklet they gave out had summaries of the movies, and their picture for the second one was a face shot of Jiri. Mmmm, Jiri.

Speaking of whom, I've been planning out more of the next Ob chapter. Have to live up to the prize given, right?

I've also been planning out more of Turquoise. I figured out how Catherine and Nyckia would meet, something that evaded me for a long time. Not that any of you care. I'll really have to write up summaries and hire someone to write them all out, because I sure can't do it. How do you go about pitching a show, anyway? Especially an animated show?

Although I have an Amano trading card that has a picture of a dress that Monica would look great in. I wonder if I'd have to get rights to that...probably...

Hmm. It occurs to me that I haven't taken genechildmewtwo up on his birthday present yet, which was a free fic. I was thinking of asking for something shippy, but what ship(s)?

I've had the house to myself today. Mom's at work and dad went to Seattle for his brother's birthday. So basically I watched TV with Athena and we played a bit. But then she started biting me again, so I had to put her back. And that's when I came upstairs and decided to update my journal.

One of these days, I have to learn the whole Japanese Pokérap and sing it at anime karaoke at one of the cons. Although I'd have to find a Raymond and Kobayashi to go with my Imikuni?, since they all sing in it.