Kurama

Yu Yu Hakusho

the humble "like" is oft mocked despite what it does for us. "like, three people" is a vastly different statement from "three people". "and i was like 'what the fuck'" is vastly different from "and i said 'what the fuck'". i love you "like" and anyone who says you make people sound stupid will be killed on sight

abstract and modern art haters are sooo snobby like klein literally Created an entirely new pigment and then painted a canvas in a way where the brush strokes wouldn't be visible. the insinuation that people with no skill could reproduce that is so annoying because unless you are skilled at color mixing and painting you definitely couldn’t lmao

howd u come up with hiruko's character design :)

Most of the design was inspired by the mythological figure I based him on. I just tailored elements of his real-world history so they fit into the larger tapestry of LC and its themes.

Hiruko (AKA Ebisu) is one of the Seven Gods of Fortune. As a consequence of originating in Japan, he is the only one who doesn't have any Buddhist/Taoist influence. I gave him pink hair as a nod to Japanese cherry blossoms and his purely Japanese origin. The symbolic meaning of cherry blossoms in Japan ties into Hiruko's history and motivations nicely.

One of his many names is "the laughing god," which is why I nearly always depict him smiling and laughing.

I dressed him in traditional Japanese fashion because of his connection to ancient Japanese history.

Because he's known as the god of fishermen, I gave him a fishing hook earring hanging from a thread of fishing line. Given his connection to the Fates and their weaving within the context of LC, I liked the inclusion of thread in his character design. It was a way to marry his design with the item(s) he stole from the Fates. Webs/weaving/thread/tapestry are a big part of his role in LC, and it's one of the motifs I lean on when writing about him.

Since he is both the god of fisherman AND luck, I dressed him in red, which is known as an auspicious or lucky color in many East Asian cultures. It's also a color very commonly found in Shinto temples and is said to scare away evil spirits, so I thought he'd wear that color to try and signal to whoever saw him that he's a "good guy" and not a villain.

But that's also why I gave him blue eyes. In kabuki theater, blue is the color of villainous characters as well as the supernatural world, so they're a clue about his role in the story. Ocean blue eyes also connect back to the "god of fishermen" origin. Blue denoting the supernatural has some plot relevance as well.

Aaaand I guess the last notable trait I gave him was initial appearance of a child. This was partially inspired by Koenma, of course, who can change between a childish and adult appearance at will. A huge part of the Ebisu legend involves him being abandoned as a child, and I wanted a direct callout to that history from his first appearance. (I also think he took that form so people would underestimate him.)

That's the bulk of it, I think. Basically all of the most important bits come right out of Japanese culture and Hiruko/Ebisu's history.

Thanks for asking!

patience is such a compelling dynamic in relationships sorryyy it’s the peak of romance to me

Since you've read the dungeon meshi manga I want to ask what do you think falin x marcille ship?

I've said this a few times lately, but I truly don't ship anyone, and that applies to that fandom, too.

hallo :DD if the fanfic writer ask is still open, B, M, O, and Y?

(it's been awesome to see you here especially since i first got into fandom because of your work, especially lucky child heheh)

B:  What was the first fandom you read fic in? Which was the first you wrote fic for?

Yu-Gi-Oh! for both! But I gave up my first story after... one chapter? The first fandom I really wrote for with any earnestness was Devil May Cry.

M: What’s the weirdest AU scenario you’ve ever come up with?  Did it turn into a story?

Probably Lucky Child! I did some crack-fic crossovers a while back that were weird, but I'm not sure if they count. LC's core concept takes YYH and gives it an AU spin, in a sense, and that one goes such weird places I feel like it has to count. EDIT: Scooby-Doo, Where are Yu-Yu? is my favorite weird crossover I've written. If that counts as an AU, then that's probably my weirdest one!

O: What are your thoughts on people writing fanfic of your fanfic?

Totally fine. Just credit/tag me so I can read it! ... I finished answering the other questions, gave this an editing pass, and paused at this answer. The definition of "fanfic of a fanfic" feels oddly nebulous. If someone writes a fanfic about NQK and others within the LC-verse, that's totally fine. I feel less happy about someone, say, trying to write the ending of LC while I'm on hiatus and calling it a fanfic of my fanfic. Does that count as fanfic-fanfic? I hope not... I guess I'm not sure where the line is! But writing about NQK and the LC-verse is totally OK and I like seeing people's different takes on the universe I've written so long as they aren't, you know... pulling my SI out of NQK and swapping themselves in or something. That feels less cool to me, though I'm having trouble articulating why.

Y: What are your thoughts on your personal satisfaction with something you’ve written vs. the popularity of your stories? Do you tend to be most satisfied with your most popular stories?  

One of my favorite stories is Queen of This Backwater Moon, a Cowboy Bebop fanfic, which isn't popular at all. I really love that one and feel happy with the chapters I've written. In contrast, there are large parts of LC I'm dissatisfied with, and that's my most popular work by a wide, wide margin. So I guess I'd say my personal satisfaction isn't tied to popularity.

FANFICTION ASK MEME

Will you write any fanfictions for One Piece?

(Feeling deja vu. Have we talked about this? I feel like we have, but I can't find the post!)

Short answer: Probably not.

Long answer: I have zero degrees of professional separation from that series' producer/studio/licensor. Writing fanwork for the series could put me in a professionally hairy situation, especially if they perceive significant personal gain on my part resulting from my participation in the fandom. It's a paranoid worry, but it's one I can't quite shake. (This is the reason why I stopped streaming my live reactions to the new anime episodes, for the record.)

I hate to say this, but once I finish Lucky Child, I probably won't publish anything new under this name. I tend to gravitate toward anime fanfic, but in the event anime licensors start taking issue with Western fanfic, I don't want to be caught in that crossfire. Reputation is extremely important in this field, and I never want to step on anyone's toes. Plus, LC hangs around my neck like an albatross (see what I did there?), and it would be nice to start fresh in a new fandom without that reputation following me/my work.

I really have come to love One Piece, though, and I'm enjoying reading the stories you've sent me in recent weeks. Thanks for the ask and have a great day!

During butterfly migratory season, my father would stop along the highway and scoop the corpses of butterflies hit by cars into grocery bags, by the armful. Imagine snowdrifts of colorful wings heaping up along the interstate. Thousands of slain butterflies, but just a portion of the massive kaleidoscope that had passed through days prior. He'd take them home and pick out the least broken bodies for his bug collection, admiring them throughout the year, and explaining to anyone who saw his collection the significance of their migratory patterns.

Today I had to explain to a child the existence of butterfly migratory season, because this phenomenon has stopped occurring in my region.

it's kind of crazy climate change has occurred at such a remarkable pace that I and everyone else around my age can remember a completely different climate in our childhoods. I truly watched winter gradually disappear in my life.

During butterfly migratory season, my father would stop along the highway and scoop the corpses of butterflies hit by cars into grocery bags, by the armful. Imagine snowdrifts of colorful wings heaping up along the interstate. Thousands of slain butterflies, but just a portion of the massive kaleidoscope that had passed through days prior. He'd take them home and pick out the least broken bodies for his bug collection, admiring them throughout the year, and explaining to anyone who saw his collection the significance of their migratory patterns.

Today I had to explain to a child the existence of butterfly migratory season, because this phenomenon has stopped occurring in my region.

it's kind of crazy climate change has occurred at such a remarkable pace that I and everyone else around my age can remember a completely different climate in our childhoods. I truly watched winter gradually disappear in my life.

OP turned off reblogs so this is my post now. Behold, the "Objective quality vs. degree of ferality" scale

Here are a few of my own personal datapoints:

twitter

you’re cool as fuck + your meat is huge

I often forget how time-blind I am. Had no idea it's been two years since I updated LC (yes, really) until I did a double-take at my AO3 page today. Still feels like I updated last week... O_O

Going to start structuring time daily to work on it. That's the only way I'll get back to it and finish the thing.

(Stray Thought: I wish I had a Discord where I could host writing sessions and be kept accountable by anyone willing to glare at me sternly; that's a project for another day, though.)

Re your comment about the YOI movie: Okay, hilariously enough, after seeing your post about it my Instagram dash, which had previously been completely free of YOI mentions, suddenly became flooded with people outraged it had been cancelled. I feel as if you've cursed my feed now /j

I absolutely cursed you, specifically! haha