(no subject)

[timepiececlock]

Random snippet writing for potential Fruits Basket romantic comedy with Shigure in it, which is, for the moment, being known temporarily as Potential Fruits Basket Romantic Comedy With Shigure In It.

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[Hatori just witnesses Shigure torturing Mit-chan with yet another elaborate practical joke to get out of meeting his deadline.]

"Don't you think you're a little old for this sort of behavior?" Hatori asked as they both sat down for one of Tohru's pre-prepared lunches. Shigure waved his chop sticks in the air dismissively.

"You heard the decibel levels of that last shriek-- no one is too old to appreciate this."

"She's only your editor, not your boss. Why don't you stop the playground flirting and just ask her out?"

Shigure choked on a pickle, then spent a few seconds hacking violently while his lifelong best friend and accomplished doctor waited to see if he would choke to death or answer the question.

"Wait," he gasped, trying to regain his composure. "You don't mean my editor, do you? You mean some other editor."

"I believe the woman who ran out of here slamming doors hard enough to break them and threatening to sue you for breach of contract is your editor."

"Hatori, she wears suits. Daily."

"Your point?" Shigure looked at his friend like he was wondering why he'd ever secretly thought the man was smarter than him. Then he looked down at his robes.

"I wear a [yukata].* We are inherently incompatable people. It's the mindset."

"Stupid."

"I'm serious. I've read about this stuff. I've written about it."

"You don't expect me to believe that you actually believe everything you've written."

"Of course I do, Ha'ri! Truth is a writer's medium. That's why stories write themselves, as they say-- the truth is there, it just needs someone like me to bring it out. A real writer speaks from his soul, and the soul cannot lie! In fact--"

"Your soul is as untrustworthy as a prostitute's hair color."

"--the idea that you would question my own faith in my work hurts me, old friend! My books are more stastically valid than a newspaper. I write about worldly truths, and life lessons, and great moral dilemmas. Every word I type is backed by years of experie--"

"When was the last time you went on a real date? And I'm not talking about one-night-stands with impressionable young fans."

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*see this post

Comments

[zauberer-sirin.livejournal.com]

"I'm serious. I've read about this stuff. I've written about it."

"You don't expect me to believe that you actually believe everything you've written."

You are bordering on meta-fiction, which is a very good thing to be bordering on, IMHO, and I wish more fic writers would turn to this genre, because the true nature of fanfic is met-linguistic. I have always had a soft spot for writers within fiction (not to mention my soft spot for any kind of Hatori/shigure interaction) and I´m glad to read you´ve approached that here.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

The funny thing is that I didn't intend that to be deliberately meta at all-- that line was more a comment on Hatori calling Shigure on his tendency to bullshit. But you're right, it is-- and there's probably gonna be more meta stuff later, because if I do keep expanding on this then Shigure's writing is going to come up frequently, given that the love interest is his editor. I'm kind of jazzed by the whole idea of this pairing though, because it could be so cute. I think it will always be teetering the line of meta-ness, though, and not really crossing that line because I don't my own voice to get too confused with Shigure's character voice-- he's Shigure, not my self-insertion.

The two best meta moments, you might say, that I've had in popular fiction come from a book and a tv show. If you've ever read the Dark Tower series by Stephen King (which you should, everyone should!) you'd love the meta in that. Stephen King tends to write meta fiction anyway, but that series has some particularly meta-ish moments that are just fascinating to read.

The other is Farscape, the tv show. There's this one episode where the whole ep is design as something like "Unsolved Mysteries" show with interviews and stuff, and we're watching it as if we were the audience of that "universe" watching the people [characters] on television. Then the next episode, we the audience are watching John Crichton (the main character) watching himself on tv viewing the same episode of the show-within-the-show that *we* watched last episode of Farscape. It was about the most meta thing I'd ever seen, and I loved it.

[flutingfrenzy.livejournal.com]

Did somebody say META??? *restrains self from flailing fangirlishness*

Anyway, I really liked the excerpt (although decibel is spelled decibel). Shigure going on and on while everybody else has stopped listening is extremely in character. And now I have to go to class.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

(although decibel is spelled decibel).

You know, I thought about that word being wrong, but I couldn't think of the right way.

Shigure going on and on while everybody else has stopped listening is extremely in character.

I know; one of the reasons I love him. Especially in Hatori's case-- Shigure or Ayame can be talking to him on the phone and he's totally not even listening, or pretending not to. But I wanted to be careful not to make Shigure too extravagant like Ayame... I have a feeling that Shigure's normally only a mildly outrageous person but his outrageousness just increases exponentially to flamboyancy when he's around Ayame.