To eriesalia-sama and ChiisaiLammy, thanks so much for the sympathy. It means a lot to this unworthy one. T.T

(PWP means "Plot? What Plot?" and is usually used in referring to lemon and lime fics where there's generally no time wasted on such frivolities as plot development in order to cut straight to the good stuff. Oh, and if anyone asks, that didn't come from me. *sweatdrop*)

Damn, weasel-wrestling is HARD. I spent most of today on it and have so far come up with a grand total of four drafts (all variants of just one central idea that I still refuse to give up on)--not one of which is really satisfactory.

Argh. @.@

Okay, maybe this should serve as a word of caution to future Aoshi/Megumi writers: You'll have to go through the weasel first...

On CL's recommendation, I went back and reread the Misao bits in "Another Chance". Many thanks to CL for reminding me of that excellent portrayal of Misao--but I'm afraid eriesalia makes her out to be very mature already, not least because of Aoshi's earlier rejection of her (left without details). Now maybe I'm just being a little bit too hard on the weasel girl, but what I'm trying (and so far, failing... sigh...) to capture is one particular aspect of Misao's progression from child to woman, from immature and clingy to mature and self-possessed. In a sense, how to get Misao-chan from Jinchuu to "Another Chance."

And boy, it ain't no picnic...

Without preamble:

The reason for the two-week delay (just thinking about it makes me cringe) in the next MnM installment, boys and girls, is...

...Misao.

Man, I don't know what weird sickness I have (though I did also come down with a 24-hour fever/colds thing yesterday...), but I find it so hard to write her.

I was never much fascinated by the weasel girl--come on, she's not exactly a characterization with depths to plumb. Sure, she's cute and funny and her relationship with Aoshi-sama is always fertile ground for all kinds of speculation. *dodges fan-thrown kunai* But for some reason, I find myself grinding to the most horrible kind of halt whenever I try to write something for her.

A bone to throw to my kind readers: Since I did a Misao POV (sort of) a while back in that Kamiya Dojo chapter--and found it really, really, really hard, which is why that chapter still feels terribly ungainly to me--I intend now to try an Aoshi POV on her. Which makes everything a little bit more complicated, in a slightly different way...

As "research" I've been reading Misao fics... but I have yet to see them really improve my Misao-writing skills. Oh, and have you noticed that maybe 70% of Aoshi/Misao fics have one of them suddenly seducing the other in an almost PWP way? @.@

And while we're digressing--what is up with all these "RK characters as punk rockers" stories? Are the seiyuus into bands or something? Or is there something else I just don't know about? Hmm.

Believe me, I wish I could also write one of those "Their eyes met across the dark hall. Cerulean and ice. Bing-bang-boom Aoshi (Aoshi!) rushes to Misao and plants a big sloppy wet one on her pouty-perfect lips" fics... if only to have done with all this long-winded dialogue and angst and, well, other stuff that makes multipart fics so--multiparted.

Sorry guys. I think I'm just a teensy bit still iffy from yesterday's fever.

But anyway, rest assured that I'll be working as intently as ever on that next update. I'll grabe the weasel girl by the tail if I have to, to make her stay put.

(Do weasels have grabbable tails?)

Hope everyone else is fine on this new day.

I have no clear idea if it was Plato who said that idleness begets thinking.  Or something to that effect.  But it's one of those Seemingly Universal Truths that annoy you because they're so accurate--whoever said it.

And it's in contemplation of this Truth that I am <b>rejoicing!</b> that my summer job is at last, at last over.  YAAAAAYYYYY!!!!!!!!  ^.^

Now I can just degenerate into a blob of slush at home for another two weeks, congealing only to tap some physically solid body parts on a keyboard.  Ahh, what joy!

You can bet I'll be savoring every idle moment I've left in college, before I finally am demanded to make something of myself.

Of course, I owe everyone groveling apologies for my two-week no-update time for MnM.  ^.^;  Rest assured I will be pounding myself on your behalf (behalves? behalfs?) to cough up some decent installment soon.

For now, just relishing the fact that I don't have to wake up earlier than, say, 10 AM for the next couple of weeks.  That's the doozy really--waking up to an alarm. @.@

Now, before you working, sensible people start sticking pins in Keishiko dolls, I'll end this entry.

But thank you all so much for your patience with this unworthy authoress.

mental audio Hearts and Bones, Paul Simon

Because i'm currently procrastinating about MnM *dodges 120-kph rotten tomatoes* the idea popped into my head to scribble about my writing influences.

After the typical children's books I grew up with, I moved on rather late (around first grade) to Nancy Drew. Oddly enough, this relatively long (maybe five years, but definitely it lingers well till today) phase did absolutely nothing for my ability to write plot (read: nonexistent). About the only discernible lasting benefit it has on me in terms of writing is that I now know about a hundred different synonyms for "said". (Chorused, sighed, laughed, chortled, called out, wailed, groaned, grumbled, answered...) Forget those dinky "A Bigger Vocabulary in 20 Minutes!" books, just read Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys!

Then I went into a DragonLance phase that lasted about, hm, six years. Mind you, though, just the Tracy Hickman/Margaret Weis books--I'm sorry, but Jean Rabe and the other authors just don't quite cut it for me. From them I learned most of what I know now: lush descriptions, the timing and phrasing of dramatic moments, the sensations and emotions that go with those most interesting experiences of human life: love, heartbreak, and everything in between and afterward. Probably not advisable reading for a prepubescent *ahem*, but well, too late now. (Better DL than any of that romance paperback crap, I always say!) My own experiences that followed only enriched and substantiated what I first experienced vicariously through the unforgettable characters of Weis and Hickman.

Sometime during these years, I devoured Louisa May Alcott's four-book series that begins with Little Women. From her I learned mostly how sentences and narratives can flow. Later on, I had to work on exorcising some ugly habits I'd picked up from her late-1800s style of writing, which tends to be long-winded, unwieldy, and cumbersome in the 21st century, and full of literary allusions not for the faint of heart. (I'm still working on the long-winded bit...)

After DL and Alcott I didn't really have any other major influences. I've picked up mostly only general writing tips 'n' tricks along the way, like "Omit needless words" (gotta love Strunk!) and "Show, don't tell." Probably the greatest single influence I've had of late are all the excellent fanfiction I've read over the past several years: first X-Files, then RK. Let's not underestimate your average nom-de-plumed Netizen.

audio The Very Best of Relaxing Classics: Albinoni, Adagio in G minor

Eek. Haven't made a new entry in entirely too long. Sorry sorry. ^.^;

For what it's worth, I've incidentally been suffering a very rare, long stretch of "journal dryness" over the past four or five months. I say "very rare" because I've kept a journal faithfully for thirteen-odd years, with the longest dry spell lasting only about a couple of weeks. Personally i find it odd--it's not as if I've gotten any less neurotic. (Nope, definitely not.) The idea that maybe my innate sloth has reached such unprecedented heights (or depths?) as to keep me from chronicling my introversion frightens me truly.

People have been so kind, waiting for my weekly "Mune no Monogatari" updates. Thanks so much, everyone. ^.^ But oh Joy! oh Rapture!! My practicum ends at looooong last next Friday, 28 May. Sweet freedom! *.*

I fully intend now to squander the last few weeks between end-of-work and start-of-school lolling about at home, sleeping late and waking later, drinking entirely too much English Breakfast tea with milk (the only way I get any calcium), and feverishly working on my little stories.

Ahh, what bliss.

I do hope I get to finish MnM soon...around July? (Which is my birth month by the way. *winkwink*) I have vague (vague), big plans for senior year, so I shan't want the quality of either my schoolwork or my beloved little fics deteriorating because they're competing with each other.

And after MnM... I hope I get inspired to write another Sano/Megumi fic. Ha ha. Old habits die very, very hard indeed with me. ^.~ It was Cherie Dee and g3ozLizh who did it--mentioning my old toriatama/kitsune-onna fanfiction in their stories. Teehee. Nothing so long as to be exhausting... maybe just a bunch of shorties.

And/or some Aoshi/Megumi goodies as well, also short but sweet. (1) I'm a sucker for mushy RK love things, which is kind of weird, because normally I can't stand 'em in "real life." and (2) Writing multiparts is just a bit too, hm, demanding. Like I said, I'm lazy. ^.^

Well, in the meantime, there's Misao to wrestle with, and definitely I have slyly smoldering little quiet plans for Fire and Ice. Which reminds me... I gotta get to writing. Else my kind and gentle readers will be pounding me for my weekly post.

Nothing like a little pressure, and a lot of megalomania, to get your ass moving.

My sincerest apologies to all those who got Author Alerts on me yesterday.  I uploaded a 2-page chapter... then a few hours later regained enough sanity to take it back down.  It was writing so half-baked it would make the most self-respecting reader throw up.  I'm really very sorry. @.@

In the process I sorta broke my promise about posting installments every week (the least I can do when my brain is rendered comatose for five straight days by practicum...), but then I remembered--If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all...  ^.^

...until acted upon by a body in motion.

tee-hee. thanks for that comment, eriesalia-sama. i must admit you really did have me sweatdropping. ^.^;

well, i'm procrastinating. as the title says... i should really get my writer's rear into gear over MnM. i've always been leery of plot development, but it's no excuse to waffle on updates.

so. that's it for this entry. just needed to acknowledge, i guess. ^.^ and now i'm getting back to work--the fun kind, i mean. even if it also the rack-your-brain, twist-up-your-heart, wring-out-your-imagination, deprive-yourself-of-life-giving-sleep-and-wake-up-with-a-new-batch-of-horrific-zits kind of work. @.@ ah well--no pain, no gain.

so as not to make this entry entirely worthless, all those of you who haven't yet heard of the RKDreams site, better get your Kenshin-lovin' asses over there. and join the forum. endless hours of fun and entertainment, i promise you. the "weirdest couples in rk" thread alone.... right e-alia-sama? ^.^

and when you sign up, tell 'em s-girl sent you. she's gunning for the unique award of recruiting the most people into the forum, so give her a little helping nudge, okay?

house making funny noises. i'm alone and this fairly old house does tend to make a lot of funny noises, so it's always sort of a toss-up between creepy ghosts and infinitely more dangerous real live human beings breaking in. what fun! @.@

and no, i'm not s-girl. but you should check out her scrumptious fanart on Haku Baikou's website anyway. and when you're done drooling over Aoshi-sama, wear out your eyes reading HB's fanfic. it's a worthy sacrifice.

audio Tanaka Rie, I Hear You Everywhere

I do have to wonder--how do full-time working people like Gem manage to continue writing such great mutipart fics? @.@

I'm sensing a really scary downturn in the quality of MnM approaching... Last chapter, eriesalia-sama reviewed asking me (humorously...?) what the heck Aoshi-sama was smoking to have said such audacious things to Megumi. That comment sort of got me into a panic. ^.^;

I thought about rewriting the whole installment, but then I'm too lazy (sorry! ^.^;) and have insufficient time besides... and anyway I do want to get on to the next little thing called plot development. So Aoshi will have to stay so dangerously teetering on the brink of OOCness for good. Now I'm scrambling to rationalize it in the next chapter. ^.^;

What have I to say for myself, for handling our beloved Okashira so ruthlessly as to make him, er, flirt blatantly with Megumi? ^.^;; Only that I gave in to an altogether irresponsible impulse to make that uber-handsome Tsurara-san a little... sexier. Ahh, too many Bond movies I'm afraid.

Rest assured I will be writing like crazy come the weekend. So, till then... I'll just be at the good ol' office, manning the phones and pretending to be someone else entirely. ^.^

*whispers*

started practicum this past wednesday, so this is only my third day of work so far. and yes, i'm taking advantage of the fact that my superiors are still out for their lunch break to blog. ^.~

hearty apologies to all and sundry for not updating MnM yet. i haven't had time or energy to write, i'm afraid... by now i'm really missing those "unproductive" days when i could just laze around at home dreaming up new ways to torture Aoshi and Co. @.@ it's a one-and-a-half-hour commute from work to my house after 6 pm, and when i get home, it's only a precious three or four brain-fogged hours till total, irresistible system shutdown by 11 or 11:30. not advisable for someone who hits peak production to the sound of roosters crowing.

and so i'm very much looking forward to the weekend... @.@

thanks to eriesalia-sama who kindly provided me with the URL of Tea with the White Dragon! and i finally, finally bought the OST (resulting in no more "go out and have fun" money for the weekend, alas!) to Spirited Away. wai! wai!

Googling for downloadable Spirited Away tracks, i happened across this forum that was hotly debating who were the truly great composers for Japanese animation. while i was very pleased to find Iwasaki Taku (Tsuioku Hen, Seisouhen) on many members' lists, it was a bit disappointing to find Joe Hisaishi considered as rather inferior. :(

listening to the OST now, i must agree that he does seem to have some Disneyish trends in his music; it tends to deliberately take the back seat to the action, as opposed to sort of riding on alongside it, sweeping it up in its own power. Hisaishi also seems to me to like adhering too much to a particular recurring melody and certain modern instruments, bringing them in even at times when they hinder instead of enhance the appropriate effect.

admittedly Hayao Miyazaki's unique works require a certain tone and subtlety to the music; and i must say that i'm mostly basing this evaluation on Iwasaki-sama's beautiful compositions. ^.^; personally, i regret having (accidentally) read those reviews of the OST before i ever heard it in full. now i can't help its tainting my judgments. >_< something to be said for spoiler alerts, after all.

and now for my second cup of tea for the day. anything to keep my brain from shutting down while at this moronically repetitious job. @.@

i shall await my salvation for the weekend, of writing again. though my writing often seems purely mediocre, it nevertheless does give my life a little more meaning. ^.^

audio Itsu mo, Nando Demo (Closing Theme, Spirited Away)

Googling for Japanese MP3s is always such a pain in the ass. I've been looking for Joe Hisaishi's Spirited Away OST for the past couple of hours to almost no avail. Serves me right for being totally ignorant and suspicious of Kazaa. (If it's anything like that horrendous BitTorrent where you can only download when other people are downloading too, then I'd rather do without. But then I don't really understand how Kazaa works either. ^.^;)

Luckily enough, though, I was able to get a copy of the above song. I remember that when I first heard it off the movie, the fine hairs all over my body stood on end. They still do now when I play it.

God, this sweet, haunting, lyrical, lilting track (when you find something that hits all the old clichés, you know it's something special) will be the death of me...

You poor bereft fools who have yet to hear it, Google it up now, or better yet buy the CD. (I will, as soon as I get the money!) This is the kind of song I easily cry to--tears of joy, mind you. It's just so sweet and comforting and all that heavenly shite that just makes me want to break down for the unutterable solace of it all...

...hm, come to think of it, maybe I'll have it play, "somewhere ages and ages hence," at my funeral.

Here's a translation of the lyrics. I'll try to memorize the Japanese lines so that maybe if I can sing them properly I'll make some poor tortured person a little bit happier. It's that kind of song--the kind that either gets you crying or, if you're already crying, just shuts you up...


Always, Again and Again

You're calling, somewhere deep in my heart
I want to keep dreaming things that make my heart dance

My sorrows are too many to count, but
Somewhere beyond them, I'm sure I'll be able to meet you

When they keep repeating their mistakes, people
Know only the blueness of the blue sky
I can try to continue down this endless road, but
These two hands of mine can embrace the light

When we said goodbye, my heart went still
With my body turned to zero, I'm able to listen

The mystery of living, the mystery of dying
They're the same for the flowers, the winds, the cities, all of us

You're calling, somewhere deep in my heart
Let's keep dreaming dreams, always, again and again

Instead of counting out every last one of our sorrows
Let's sing softly with the same lips

Amid my closing memories, I still hear
That whisper I never want to forget
Even in the pieces of a shattered mirror
A new landscape is reflected

On this morning of beginning, my window is silent
Body turned to zero, be filled to the brim

I won't keep looking beyond the sea
Because I found that the shining thing I sought
Has always been here within me


...shite, isn't it beautiful???

Got the above off of a beautiful website entitled "Tea with the White Dragon." I don't remember the URL (go figure...) but you can easily find it. (Google should pay me, the way I advertise it so often!)

That's all. Just wanted to share this lovely song. If you're ever down and want to hear a soothing little tune that sounds straight from the heart of God (my words simply cannot do this song justice. I beg forgiveness), play it, lose yourself in it, and find yourself in it.

If everybody listened to music like this a little more often, this world would probably a much more peaceful place.