Next on Fox: When Muses Attack!

[puss_nd_boots]

So over the past couple of days, I had one of the biggest muses-shocked-the-hell-out-of-me incidents I'd ever had. I was starting to write a short friendship fic in the Camera Eye series, about Byou and his group of friends-with-benefits (the other members of SCREW save Kazuki). It was really just a setup for the next fic in the series. The original intention was going to be the initial scene when Byou's friends meet Ruki, then some cute late-night dialogue between Jin and Byou, then some fooling around, then Manabu coming by and getting invited to join in the fun.

Instead, all of a sudden Jin was acting all jealous of Ruki, and Byou was telling him he was in his heart, and I was writing a romantic pairing I hadn't even considered before. Double-yoo-tee-eff. Granted, I was happy with it when I was done, but when I realized what I was writing, I was like, "What? WHAT? Where is this coming from?" I hadn't even thought much about a permanent primary love interest for Byou in the Camera Eye series. (The most obvious romantic pairing for Byou is always, of course, Mao from Sadie, but I didn't want to bring any non-PSC-at-the-time-I-started-writing-The-Camera-Eye bands into the series - it's set at PSC Productions, after all). And I also know that ByouxJin is most definitely not without basis - at one point, the fandom was apparently shipping them heavily (they're one of the few pairings to get their own tag in the apparently-years-without-active-mods screw_yaoi). And in addition, Jin is the band member whose stock went up the most for me as a result of seeing the band live - at the last show, I was going to get his scrunchie and add it to my wrist behind Byou's and Kazuki's, but we didn't have time to hit the merch table before the show.

But still . . . this was a big, fat "WTF?" Although it does make my plans for the next installment of the series a bit more interesting.

Meanwhile, I'm back in normal life after Japan (and kind of hoping one of my favorite bands plays in Europe next year so I'll both be able to see them and able to go on another trip. I've already started budgeting for that just in case). And all I'm going to say about the latest Gazewank is thank God it seems to be over. (Just when it looked like it was going to end, someone else would upload another manifesto and it would start all over again  . . .)

Comments

[random-x13.livejournal.com]

omggggggggg it's creepy yet wonderfully amazing when muses take the fuck over and write their own shit!!!
I'll def have to agree with this ByouxJin. Ok 'Definitely' was absolutely a couples' photo shoot and idc no one can convince me otherwise. XD
Looking forward to more of this series because I LOVE IT SO MUCH OMFG

<//3

[puss-nd-boots.livejournal.com]

Ha, it does look like a couples photoshoot, doesn't it? Especially the picture where Jin seems to be feeding Byou something.

I've had muses take over the story and push it in another direction before, but this was the first time a PAIRING came out of nowhere. It was pretty scary, all right - it was like the two muses said, "We're going to be together and that's that!" Who am I to argue with them? ~_^

[ldybastet.livejournal.com]

Hahaha! The muses knew the fic better than you did! ;) I sometimes get that with RKA. And I am so glad that you ran with it, instead of trying to make them conform to the idea you had outlined instead. :) I'll admit that I kind of thought that Byou and Ruki would get closer, even though Ruki already has his special one... but Jin was an excellent choice! Good work, Byou! I approve! ;) I've always like Jin, from all the interviews and the backstage vids and everything...

Isn't it sad how so many once vibrant and active comms are now dead? It's a damn ghost town! Where are all the writers and shippers now? On Tumblr? But... no one seems to be writing there, and it's a nightmare for fic... Did they all stop writing? Moved on the other hobbies, and no new ones showed up? Really? I don't get it.

The Gazewank was horrible and frustrating, and so so US and EU centric. And again, just when I thought it was over, a very widely read person posted another explanation/rant about it. :( Then again, if it makes the people who already hate Ruki for anything and everything he does finally go away and leave Gazefandom, then it might be a blessing in disguise?

[puss-nd-boots.livejournal.com]

The beauty of the format of this series is that Byou and Ruki could still get closer while maintaining their primary relationships - just about everyone in The Camera Eye is a hundred percent polyamorous. (This is most evidenced by Shou, who has one primary boyfriend and about three secondary ones, all of whom are in their own primary relationships as well). It's like your RKA series, where Ruki and Uruha are with each other, and yet their relationship is also very much open.

The thing with Jin is I had never paid much attention to him until I saw them live - and that's when the fact that he's just bursting with personality really came across. During this current tour, they've been doing a "role reversal" in the middle of S=R&B where Kazuki plays the drums (very well), Byou plays guitar (not well at all) and Jin takes over as frontman/emcee. (Meanwhile, Rui runs out in the audience and stirs up trouble, pushing people in the back toward the front and dumping water over people's heads). Jin makes a terrific frontman - he would get the crowd riled up and joke around with the others. Plus, that song is the one time you're allowed to run up to the stage and stay there rather than standing in your neat little lines, and I got to see this from pretty close up (especially at Matsuyama, the second show). Jin is actually MORE attractive in person than he is in photos. Plus, he was sweet when I met them at the post-show handshake events, making an effort to speak English to me - after the second show, when I told him I'd be going to the Osaka live in two days, he said, very cutely, "I'll be waiting!"

It's really depressing how many communities are dead. I actually think I've figured out where all the people are going (other than K-pop, which has claimed far too many former visual kei writers). There's been an abundance of RP blogs showing up in the GazettE tag as of late, where people solicit partners to play out scenarios - usually over IM, though some roleplaying takes place in Tumblr itself. And that's what's stealing a lot of writers - the same thing that stole tons of animanga writers. People are roleplaying instead of WRITING. I went that route at one point - I was a regular in the D. Gray-Man Dressing Room RP community and I belonged to a couple of LJ/Dreamwidth panfandom RPs - but I gave it up. You have nothing permanent to show for it after all that writing, you're at the mercy of how your partners want to play their characters (and if they go missing for long periods of time, you're out of luck) and you're only in control of one character at a time. Plus, if it's an organized game, you're restricted by the mods' rules and the setting. Yeah, I'd rather write fic and be in control of everyone and everything. ~_^

The Gazewank was, really, quite ridiculous. Especially, as several people pointed out, a lot of other bands had flat-out dressed as Nazis in the past and nobody said anything (indeed, SCREW has a Nazi uniform photoshoot as part of their current series of cheki, and it caused only the tiniest of ripples). And I just shook my head when the rant you mentioned came out, because the whole thing was FINALLY starting to look like it was going to die down - and she just fanned the flames again. (And, yes, getting rid of the Ruki-can-do-nothing-right wankers would be a HUGE blessing in disguise!)

[ldybastet.livejournal.com]

It's a fun format, right? :D I'll have to try to get some more of mine written soon...

Aww, poor Jin! At least you've noticed him now! :D That is so cute that he tried to talk to you! I have a feeling some of these VK guys are actually rather nice people... (While others might not be, but this is really true about any crowd of people. You get good ones and bad ones.) It sounds pretty chaotic at their lives though! LOL

Aha!!!! That explains it! I've had my time in RP comms too, way back, in a different fandom... and if it's many people involved, it always ends in wank. :( One on one RP usually works better, but like you said, you're always at the mercy of how the other person RPs their character. I've had some really bad experiences with that too, when anything my guy did was taken the wrong way, and I ended up afraid to even write a reply. Urgh. Ah well... I think the RP thing comes and goes, in waves. Maybe at least some of them will long for fic writing again, eventually. It's so true that one is left with nothing of substance, after hours and hours and 100 000 words of RP...

Gah yes! *sigh* Why? Why post something again? I have been wondering during all of it, whay A9 fandom (for instance) said about Shou dressing in a nazi-inspired uniform for Halloween, wasn't it? And now I know that Screw fandom didn't start a huge fight over theirs... Way back before Yellow Fried Chickenz, when Gackt dressed up as a nazi for a tour, that fandom was like "not smart, but whatever". Why is it always Gaze fandom???

[puss-nd-boots.livejournal.com]

The lives were pretty much a good chaotic (fun craziness) rather than a bad chaotic (scary). Well, except for Osaka, which DID get kind of scary because of all the people crowd-surfing and kicking other people (read: me) in the head.The best one was in Matsuyama, where they interrupted Byou's fail guitar playing to try to get him to play Rui's bass (even more fail) and then Byou decided to try throwing picks into the audience (maximum fail).

All of SCREW were very nice when I met them (well, Manabu seemed pretty awkward, but I've heard he's pretty awkward, period.) They all tried to speak at least some English to me (when Byou realized he'd screwed up and I couldn't understand him, he laughed his adorable laugh and said, "I'm sorry.") I imagine that you do get your divas and prima donnas, though, like with any group - especially entertainers.

I'm really hoping these RPers get tired of putting all that work in and having nothing to show for it and come back to fanficcing! I really miss the days when the GazettE communities were filled with fic, and some of it was actually not Aoiha and Reituki! (And as bad as the fic situation is for Gaze, it's worse for other bands - Alice Nine has slowed down to a trickle, and I sometimes wonder if I'm the only person currently writing about SCREW).

The reaction of the Alice Nine fandom to Shou's Nazi costume (which he wore for last year's Halloween live) was a tiny fraction of the reaction that Gaze got. There was some anger expressed, but it was mainly low-key. Same thing with the reaction to the SCREW cheki - I heard about one person who wanted nothing more to do with the band since they wore the Nazi uniforms, but that definitely seems to be the exception rather than the norm. In fact, the reaction seemed to be pretty much like the reaction to Gackt - "Ill-advised, but hey." (My rationale for the pictures was that they're promoting an album called Psycho Monsters, and they probably thought Nazis were a good way to illustrate that concept. Manabu is wearing red contacts for the shoot, so it seems he was trying to look demonic).

As to why it's always the Gaze fandom that has these wanks - unfortunately, it may be because GazettE is an "entry level" fandom for visual kei, and "entry level" fandoms tend to get a lot of young people who aren't used to fandoms and don't know how to act in them. Hence, you have people wanking, acting like jerks, etc. And the sad thing is it's just a small portion of the fandom, and most people here are lovely. It's just that the small portion is very loud.