Welcome to the Frightening World of My Imagination

Meme

2008-06-28T02:35:25Z

Stolen from andersenmom

1. My username is ______ because ______.

skyangel2009 because I'm not sure. 2009 is when I graduate college and I've always like angels and I want to be able to fly without the aid of anything else so it just worked.

2. My name is _____ because ______.

Natalie because it was the only name out of dozens that my parents could agree on.

3. My journal is titled ____ because ____.

"Welcome to the Frightening World of my Imagination" because this journal started out just for my fanfiction and my imagination is a scary place to be.

4. My journal subtitle is ____ because ____.

"My Mind is Soaked in Words" which is a lyric from a song, but I can't remember which one... anyway, it describes me pretty well because I'm always thinking. My brain doesn't really shut down. It just doesn't always think about what I need it to think about.

5. My friends page is called ____ because ____.

"Insane Asylum" because my friends are insane.

6. My default userpic is ____ because ____.

Kikumaru Eiji from Prince of Tennis. I picked it because I have a lot of those "Ooh look, shiny!" moments in my life because I'm rather easily distracted.

BOOKS!

2008-06-27T00:27:09Z

The Big Read thinks that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed.

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicise those you intend to read
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've read 6 and force books upon them ;-)

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling - I've read up to half way through 5... maybe I'll get through the rest some day...
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley *shudders at the thought of it*
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte's Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Gangster!Oishi Series: Safe

2008-06-19T01:29:34Z

Gangster!Oishi Series: Shameless

2008-06-19T01:25:14Z

Fail

2008-06-18T00:34:22Z

... *dies laughing*

-20

As a 1930s wife, I am
Very Poor (Failure)

Take the test!

Meme

2008-06-16T00:10:17Z

Rule: Go to Google and search the phrase. Tag 3 friends. Please be mature and use you REAL 1st name.
Use the first thing that comes up that makes sense.

Q: Type in "[your name] needs" in the Google search:
A: Natalie needs a nightie. (I do?)

Q: Type in "[your name] looks like" in Google search:
A: Natalie looks like a terrorist. (.....?)

Q: Type in "[your name] says" in Google search:
A: Natalie says farwell.

Q: Type in "[your name] wants" in Google search:
A: Natalie wants a family.

Q: Type in "[your name] does" in Google search:
A: Natalie does the Strip Tease for the Boys (bullshit)

Q: Type in "[your name] hates" in Google search:
A: Natalie hates the paps (I swear the majority of these are about Natalie Portman)

Q: Type in "[your name] asks" in Google search:
A: Natalie asks Adam if he wants to play hide and seek.

Q: Type in "[your name] goes" in Google search:
A: Natalie goes to Japan. (Why, yes, I am planning on doing that)

Q: Type in "[your name] likes " in Google search:
A: Natalie likes to keep everybody company and often builds her own creations while Ethan and Kevin work on their projects. (????)

Q: Type in "[your name] eats " in Google search:
A: Natalie eats only tic tac! (No wonder I'm skinny...)

Q: Type in "[your name] wears " in Google search:
A: Natalie wears unitard. (right... like hell I do)

Q: Type in "[your name] was arrested for" in Google Search:
A: Natalie was arrested for break of peace.

I tag whoever wants to do this and hasn't already.

Random me is Random

2008-06-11T23:38:22Z

I thought about getting online tonight, but then I realized that I have to be awake at 4:35 tomorrow morning in order to get to work on time. Shoot me?

Gangster!Oishi Series: Sharp-Tongued

2008-06-10T00:02:59Z

This is completely and utterly AU. Oishi has never even been to Japan, having been raised in Korea. He usually goes by the name "Shin." At the age of 12 he moves to America with his family. That's where this series picks up.

Installment One
Installment Two
Installment Three
Installment Four
Installment Five and Six
Installment Seven
Installment Eight
Installment Nine
Installment Ten
Installment Eleven
Installment Twelve

Title: Sharp-Tongued
Characters: Oishi "Shin" Shuichiro
Rating: R
Summary: Oishi gets into a fight with his parents and gets rescued by ChinMae.

Oishi sat on his bed at home absolutely fuming. He'd never been so angry with his parents before, had never really been angry with them before. All he wanted was a trip back to Seoul that summer that he could pay for. They were under the impression he had a part time job so there was no reason why he couldn't pay for his own ticket. There was no reason for them to tell him no. It wasn't like he was going to run away and stay in Seoul. He knew better than that.

The door to his bedroom opened and Oishi couldn't keep the shock off his face when ChinMae was the one who walked through and not one of his parents. "What do you want?" he snapped.

"Checking up on you. Had to make sure you weren't dead," he replied. He sat down on the bed. "Wanna tell me what's got you so damned pissed off?"

"They won't let me go to Seoul for a week or two this summer even though I can afford the plane ticket by myself. It's completely unfair and I hate them."

ChinMae got to his feet, grabbed Oishi's hand and pulled him to his feet. "Come on, Shin. We're getting out of here for a little while."

They left, ChinMae making their excuses so that Oishi wouldn't turn that sharp tongue of his on his parents. Oishi let ChinMae pull him out onto the streets and away from his house. He was loathe to call the place home and even though his parents insisted this was their new home he just couldn't accept that as truth. ChinMae was silent as they walked down to his place and up to his bedroom. Oishi didn't sit on the bed like he usually did, standing almost awkwardly in the middle of the room, anger dissipating. ChinMae leaned against his desk and waited for Oishi to speak first.

Oishi started to say something, anything to break the awkwardness of the moment when he'd finally calmed down all the way, but there was nothing to say. He'd been acting like a child who couldn't have his favorite toy and if there was one thing he prided himself on it was being more mature than your average 16-year-old. He looked over at ChinMae who was obstinately waiting for Oishi to say something. He didn't have anything to say, but there was something he wanted to do and he couldn't keep himself from acting on the impulse any longer. He crossed the room and pressed their lips together roughly, unskillfully and demandingly.

ChinMae pulled him closer, taking the kiss over and guiding Oishi over to the bed. Oishi sat down, pulling ChinMae with him when his legs hit the edge of the bed. There would be no regrets on Oishi's part and for once he didn't really care if ChinMae would regret getting involved with someone 5 years younger who used to date his half-sister. All that matter was the way ChinMae was responding to Oishi's actions and that he wasn't quite as lonely in that moment as he always felt.

Oishi gasped when ChinMae's lips left his in favor of his neck. He tilted his head back as his back arched into the hands on his stomach. The fact that he didn't have a clue of what he was supposed to do was unimportant in that moment. He had every intention of just going with what ChinMae did, letting the older man guide him in this as he had guided him in so many things since Oishi's arrival. The desire to feel those rough lips on his own smooth ones was too great to ignore, though, and he tugged insistently at ChinMae's collar until he could kiss him. He barely noticed his clothes falling to the ground, discarded and forgotten along with ChinMae's. It wasn't worth noticing over the feel of skin on skin and the heat building between their bodies.

Oishi curled into ChinMae's side early in the morning, sore and sticky, but not willing to get up and do anything about it. ChinMae's arm wrapped around his shoulders and pulled him closer yet, settling some of Oishi's fears that this would be seen as one huge mistake in the eyes of the other. Oishi slowly traced patterns on ChinMae's stomach, some that didn't exist and some that followed the lines of his tattoos. He tilted his head back when ChinMae's fingers tangled in his hair, massaging his scalp.

"Hurting?" ChinMae asked. Oishi nodded a little. There was no point in pretending that he wasn't when it hurt to move. ChinMae carefully slid out of bed with only disturbing Oishi with the initial movement. He returned with water and pain killers that Oishi took without hesitation. He waited as ChinMae resettled himself on the bed and once again draped himself over his guardian's upper body. Before when ChinMae had been waiting for him to say something, anything at all, Oishi had found himself without words. Now, his sharp-tongued words gone he found something.

"Thank you."

"Not what I'm used to hearing, but you're welcome."

Oishi chuckled a little even if the mention of ChinMae's past lovers hurt just a little. "No, not that. Thank you for taking care of me." ChinMae hummed softly and rubbed Oishi's back, urging him to sleep off the pain.

Gangster!Oishi Series: Sophisticated

2008-06-08T01:50:17Z

skyangel2009 @ 2008-06-06T19:56:00

2008-06-06T23:58:21Z

This is completely and utterly AU. Oishi has never even been to Japan, having been raised in Korea. He usually goes by the name "Shin." At the age of 12 he moves to America with his family. That's where this series picks up.

Installment One
Installment Two
Installment Three
Installment Four
Installment Five and Six
Installment Seven
Installment Eight
Installment Nine
Installment Ten

Title: STD
Characters: Oishi "Shin" Shuichiro
Rating: PG
Summary: Oishi finds out some bad news about his ex

Oishi rubbed at his shoulders as he stared in the mirror. He was feeling miserable and with his parents out of town for the weekend to celebrate their anniversary he'd headed over to his friend's place so he wouldn't be alone. If there was one thing joining the gang had taught him it was that being alone was dangerous and scary in this world. Back in Seoul he would have rejoiced at the opportunity. He pinched his sore shoulder when he caught himself thinking about Seoul again. It had been three years since he'd moved to San Francisco and his parents were seemingly happy where they were.

ChinMae leaned against the doorway of the bathroom Oishi was sitting in. "EunKyung just called. Her test came back positive." Oishi nodded and kept massaging his shoulders, trying to work out the knots. ChinMae walked over to stand behind him, knocking Oishi's hands away and taking over the massage. "Did you sleep with her?" Oishi sighed and bowed his head. Listening to ChinMae talk was always relaxing. Something about his accent reminding Oishi of home and his friends.

"No. I didn't trust her enough to take that step," Oishi finally said. The tension started to fade from his shoulders. "She got screened before we started dating and she was negative."

ChinMae's fingers were alternating between firm and gentle as knot after knot in Oishi's shoulders released. "Do you know who she caught it from?"

"I don't want to know."

"I do. If it's someone in the gang then there's hell to pay."

Oishi turned around to face ChinMae. "Don't. It's not worth it. She was fun, but she wasn't that fun and I certainly never loved her."

ChinMae took Oishi's elbow in his hand and guided him out of the bathroom and down to the spare bedroom where Oishi was staying. "Shin, it's not about her cheating on you. It's about her showing a complete lack of loyalty to someone she'd promised fidelity to. If she's going to betray you then why wouldn't she betray the gang?"

Oishi rolled his eyes and collapsed on the bed, stretching out his lean frame and knowing he wasn't this skinny in Seoul. He considered saying something back, but he knew when ChinMae made up his mind to do something there was little chance of changing it. None of his friends back home had been this complicated.

"You're doing it again." Oishi propped himself up as ChinMae sat down on the edge of the bed. "You're thinking about Seoul. You tune out when you start thinking of your life there and it's annoying as hell."

"It's annoying?" Oishi frowned, pushing his lips to one side as he did so.

"Though, that's cute," ChinMae said. He rapped Oishi over the head with his knuckles making the younger boy flinch. "You've got a family here, Shin. What do you need Seoul for?"

Oishi sighed and sat up, rubbing tiredly at his eyes. "I had a better life there. No violence, no illegal activity, a good home, a nationally ranked school, friends that had known me my entire life," he listed. He looked up and smile weakly. "It's not that I don't like you and some of the others, ChinMae. It's that I miss my home. My real home because no matter how long I'm here I don't see this as home."

ChinMae nodded, gave Oishi a gentle push and got to his feet. "Go to bed."

"No job tonight?"

"No, not tonight. We're keeping things quiet and staying in with the Cambodians on the prowl for any blood that isn't their own after their leader's girl got killed yesterday. Get some sleep and I'll walk you to school in the morning."

Oishi nodded and slipped beneath the covers, curling up on his side and closing his eyes. "You're too protective, ChinMae."

"No such thing in this life, Shin. Get some sleep." The lights were flicked off and the door closed.

Gangster!Oishi Series: Sex

2008-06-01T00:13:47Z

Gangster!Oishi Series: S&M

2008-06-01T00:09:14Z

This is completely and utterly AU. Oishi has never even been to Japan, having been raised in Korea. He usually goes by the name "Shin." At the age of 12 he moves to America with his family. That's where this series picks up.

Installment One
Installment Two
Installment Three
Installment Four
Installment Five and Six
Installment Seven
Installment Eight

Title: S&M
Characters: Oishi "Shin" Shuichiro
Rating: PG-15
Summary: Oishi's out playing basketball with some of the other gang members when something unexpected - but not out of the ordinary - happens
Notes: Lyrics used come from Metallica's "No Leaf Clover"

Oishi wiped sweat from his eyes as they took a break in their game of basketball. The hoops didn't have nets, but the courts weren't broken and could be dribbled on so they were usable. He felt someone slap him on the back with a laugh.

"You suck at basketball, you know that, Shin?" Oishi sent an annoyed look at the other teen. He'd just met the guy today and couldn't be bothered to learn his name.

"I'm better with soccer," he replied. He took another swig of water. "We didn't play basketball except for in school and even then we mostly played soccer." He flipped through the collection of CDs that had been brought along to provide background music for their games. To say he was unimpressed with the selection was an understatement, but then one of the CDs caught his eye. He pulled it out of the sleeve to take a better look at it and switched it out. The last CD had stopped playing shortly before their break and was, in fact, the reason for their break.

He wasn't really paying all that much attention to the conversations around him since he hardly needed to be involved in them. They all knew he was quiet and even the guys he'd just met were figuring out that it was pointless to try and draw him into a conversation. The music started playing and he nodded, satisfied with his choice and wandered over to where ChinMae was talking to EunKyung through the fence. She smiled at him in that coy way he'd seen girls smile at other members of the gang in the last 2 and a half years.

"Hello, EunKyung. What're you doing here?" he greeted.

She leaned a little closer to the fence and didn't seem to notice the way ChinMae rolled his eyes at her behavior. "I came to see you," she said.

"Me?" he asked.

"Yes, you. I wanted to see you play, but ChinMae is sending me home so I'll see you later." She waved and trotted off.

Oishi turned to ChinMae, brow furrowed in thought as he looked to his friend for answers. "Don't think so hard about it," was the advice he got. "Did you pick the CD?"

"Huh? Yeah. No one else was so I flipped through until I found something that sounded interesting and wouldn't kill my eardrums," he said.

ChinMae chuckled. "If you like S&M I'll have to let you borrow Metallica's early stuff. Unless you like it for the orchestra."

Oishi shrugged. "The rock part of it's pretty good. We could always listen to them when I come over later," he suggested.

ChinMae nodded and pulled him back over to where the game was getting ready to start again. Oishi looked out of the corner of his eye and saw the car driving slowly past, windows rolled down and a bunch of Japanese teens in the seats. He grabbed the back of ChinMae's shirt, pulling him up short. Gun fire echoed through the courts as Oishi was tugged to the ground by ChinMae and other members scrambled to get their own shots off before the car drove off. Oishi swallowed thickly as the lyrics sank into his head. Then it comes to be that the soothing light At the end of your tunnel Was just a freight train comin your way. The words echoed in his head as he turned to look at the blood pooling around the kid who had teased him about his basketball skills. He hadn't been much older than Oishi, maybe a month or two.

The fear that had gripped him the first day he was told about the gangs constricted around his heart, making it harder and harder to breathe. ChinMae was dragging him to his feet and away from the courts. They ran back to ChinMae's house. Oishi curled up on the couch and didn't say anything for a few hours. He heard ChinMae calling his parents and explaining the situation. There was an agreement that Oishi would stay with ChinMae for the night, that it was safer to stay in one place than walk the two blocks back to his place.

"ChinMae," he started. He hesitated, then shook his head and curled back in on himself. He didn't say anything for the rest of the night, but the lyrics repeated over and over again in his head. Then it comes to be that the soothing light At the end of your tunnel Was just a freight train comin your way.

Gangster!Oishi Series: Serendipity

2008-05-28T23:39:46Z

Writing Meme

2008-05-27T20:12:17Z

Rules: Answer the questions
Tag seven other authors
Authors who got tagged twice don't have to do this meme again

1. Your fav fandom?
Umm, it's a tie between Prince of Tennis and Super Junior

2. Your fave pairing(s)? why?
*snorts* Me? A fav pairing? Never.

3. Pairing(s) you hate the most? why?
Anything that's really over done. TezuFuji, IchiIshi, KangTeuk, JaeHo (PoT, Bleach, Super Junior and DBSK respectively)

4. first fic ever?
Um... *consults ff.net* Apparently the first one that I actually wrote down was Love Is an Addiction which is a really horrid chapter fic for the Beyblade fandom.

5. Genre(s) suits you the most?
Fluff! and Romance, but mostly fluff. Unless it's Oishi. Then he angsts... a lot.

6. Numbers of your fics when you do this meme?
I have no idea. I don't feel like counting, either.

7. Your fav authors? why?
Fanfic authors? wiccanlilly and andersenmom because they're amazingly wonderful and fun to read
Novel authors? Tamora Pierce because I love the two worlds she created.

8. Ever thought your fics are good?
A couple of times. Usually I'm iffy, but I liked Breaking until I couldn't figure out how to write it anymore.

9. Ever received critics for your fics? did that effect you?
Yeah, but none that have really bothered me. Usually I take it with a grain of salt, but this one girl commented on a fic I wrote when I was first starting to write almost 2 years after I posted it to tell me it sucked and didn't sign in so I couldn't respond. That made me go "WTF???"

10. Are you famous among the other authors?
Not that I know of.

I tag... no one!

Boredom = New Wallpaper

2008-05-26T02:06:35Z

So, I got bored and didn't feel like writing so I taught myself to make a wallpaper. Jill says it's good so I'll share with my flist though I'm not sure how many will be interested in a wallpaper of Super Junior's Donghae.

Letter: Story Telling

2008-05-24T18:25:47Z

Title: Story Telling
Rating: G
Fandom: Prince of Tennis
Character: Kisarazu Atsushi, to Kisarazu Ryou, Table 10g, 009 Writer's Choice
Author's Notes: Response to this letter by andersenmom Main Table can be found here

Ryou,

Don't worry about it, Ryou. I'm just glad you'll be coming down. It'd have been nice if you could have come down Friday night, but I can be there Saturday morning so stop fussing. I'll pick you up when you're due in. You're my twin, I miss you, I want to see you. End of story.

Feel free to give her my address. I'll exchange letters with her. It'll be nice to write to someone else in Japanese. I was not pouting!

I'm the only Japanese student somehow. Apparently there was one around last semester, but this semester it's just me. Or if there's another one, I haven't found him or her yet and with it getting so close to the end of the semester I probably won't.

Yes, someone tried it. It was… insane. He thought that if he was good to me you'd want him and then I decked him so that's that. Though, you'll want the story so here it is.

He went to school with you at Rokkaku and decided he really wanted you, but you didn't notice him so he decided he would settle for me. I didn't know at the time that he was really in love with you so I dated him for a couple weeks. Then he said your name after we'd been making out. I demanded an explanation, he gave one and I punched him. I was furious, but I didn't want you to know because I knew you'd feel guilty even though there's nothing to feel guilty about.

Just because I don't like the competition means you need to question if you do. You shine on the courts. It's so obvious that you love it. Don't let my thought process become yours when it's not.

Yes, the beach. I will take you to the beach because we have real beaches here and I know you're going through withdrawal without one to be a bum on.

You mean there's a time when you're not distracted? Tennis court doesn't count.

Congrats on the grades! I have no idea what's with your teacher, but maybe he just doesn't like his expectations to be defied since you didn't do well on that first test. I got my grades back and they were all good. I'm not really worried at this point.

Another week and you'll be here. I can't wait for that. You can meet Lupo.

Atsushi

Meme

2008-05-24T15:52:20Z

wiccanlilly didn't tag me, but I'm stealing because I'm bored.

01. Would you fart inside an elevator?
Not if I could avoid it.

02. What will you do if the person you like doesn't like you back?
Move on. If they don't like me back they're not supposed to be mine so time to try and find who is.

03. Miss Piggy + Kermit the Frog = OTP???
Kermit deserves better. *totally agrees with Liz on this one*

04. Are you confused as to what lies ahead of you?
Yeah, pretty much. I know what I want to do, I think, but I've said that before and regretted it

5. What's your ideal lover like?
Someone who will treasure me for who I am and not want me to change. Plus I'd have to be able to do the same for them.

06. Which is more blessed, loving someone or being loved by someone else?
Loving. It's nice to be loved, but there's not much to life if you can't love.

07. If the person you like does not accept you, would you continue to wait for them to change their feelings?
No. If they don't accept me they don't deserve me.

08. If the person you secretly like is already attached, what would you do?
Oh well, too bad, time to find someone who can be with me.

09. Is there anything that has made you unhappy recently?
Yeah, everything that makes me think of Emily and how she's not here anymore.

10. What do you want most in life?
To be happy.

11. Is being tagged fun?
Depends on what it's for.

12. If you find out that your best friend is going out with your boyfriend/girlfriend, how would you react?
The best friend gets a second chance, the guy gets dropped real fast.

13. Who is currently the most important person to you?
Um, um, um, um... unfair question!

14. What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is?
I think she's a wonderful, amazing, loving, intelligent, creative person.

15. Would you rather be single and rich or married and poor?
Currently, single and rich because I don't want to be married any time soon.

16. Would you rather be a bum or be a busy person?
Busy, but with days to bum around, too. I like a nice balance.

17. Would you give your all in a relationship?
I have and I will again when I decide I want another relationship.

18. Define LOVE
I don't think that's possible. There's too many kinds of love, too many ways it is expressed to really define what it is.

19. Milk chocolate, white chocolate or dark chocolate?
Milk, white, dark.

20. If you played a prank on someone, and he/she fell for the trick, what would you do?
Point and laugh.

I tag no one. Feel free to steal.

Meme

2008-05-18T20:55:18Z

Stolen from wiccanlilly

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME (first pet, current car): Jessie Grand Am

2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME (fave ice cream flavor, favorite type of shoe): Chocolate Sketchers

3. YOUR NATIVE AMERICAN NAME (favorite color, favorite animal): Red Cat

4. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME (middle name, city where you were born): Grace Lakeland

5. YOUR STAR WARS NAME (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 of your first name): Berna (which is also the first 5 letters of my last name...)

6. SUPERHERO NAME (2nd favorite color, favorite drink): Orange Milk

7. NASCAR NAME (the first names of your grandfathers): Alfred Richard

8. STRIPPER NAME (the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy): Warm Vanilla Sugar Nutrageous

9. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME (your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter): Vinecourt Vancouver

10. SPY NAME: (your favorite season/holiday, flower): Summer Orchid

11. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now): Watermelon Capris

12. HIPPIE NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree): Donut Maple

13. NEW LJ ID: (One word from your street name, a nickname of a family member): BallantineDizzy

My favorite new alternate name(s): Chocolate Sketchers and Summer Orchid

That was amusing. Now if only they'd go back to showing the Men of Ninja Warrior - the very very good looking men - instead of the women I'd be happy.

Gangster!Oishi Series: Solemn

2008-05-12T23:01:18Z

This is completely and utterly AU. Oishi has never even been to Japan, having been raised in Korea. He usually goes by the name "Shin." At the age of 12 he moves to America with his family. That's where this series picks up.

Installment One
Installment Two
Installment Three
Installment Four
Installment Five and Six

Title: Somnambulism (aka sleepwalking)
Characters: Oishi "Shin" Shuichiro
Rating: G
Summary: ChinMae watches Shin remember his life in Seoul

ChinMae watched as Shin curled up on his bed, staring at the ceiling and looking like he'd just been told his dog was dead. Granted, he'd known Shin for 2 years now and there were random times where the younger teen just went quiet and didn't say much. He'd never seen a point in pressing Shin for any kind of answers, just let the young teen come over and curl up on his bed. The one time ChinMae had asked about it Shin had merely told him that his parents didn't leave him alone when he was feeling down.

"ChinMae," Shin started. The elder looked up from where he was counting the latest take the gang had brought in. "Don't you ever wonder about why I come here?"

"Sure, but you'll tell me when you trust me enough." That was the thing with Shin. Trust was not proportional to the amount of time he spent with you. Just because he spent most of his free time with ChinMae didn't mean he trusted ChinMae any more than he did the other gang members. He just preferred the fact that ChinMae was more laid back and a hell of a lot less angry than most of the other guys.

"It's DongSun's birthday today. It sucks because I can't be there with him and he was my best friend my entire life before my parents moved here."

"What was he like?"

Shin seemed to consider the question seriously, sitting up and pulling at his bottom lip like he always did when turning something over in his mind. Usually it was something ChinMae saw when Shin was trying to figure out how to translate something for the group, but he'd caught glimpses of it the handful of times that Shin brought his homework over to work on.

***
"Shin! Shin! Shin!"

Shin turned around and smiled at his best friend, desperately trying to catch up to where Shin was standing and having a hard time of it thanks to the crowds between them. He stayed where he was the first time DongSun had called out to him. "What's going on Sun?" he asked. He laughed a little when his friend grabbed onto his sleeve and doubled over, breathing heavily even though DongSun was in better shape than Shin.

"You'll never guess what I just saw! It was great. These two guys were fighting over this girl and then her boyfriend showed up," DongSun said.

Shin raised an eyebrow. "What's so great about that?"

DongSun shook his head vigorously. "No, it's what happened after the boyfriend showed up that makes it so funny," he protested. Shin waited patiently, but pulled DongSun out of the way of traffic anyway. "He looked at the two guys and asked why they were fighting over his boyfriend."

Shin chuckled a little as he leaned up against the building they were standing next to. "The girl was a boy?"

DongSun nodded. "The thing is that as soon as he said it I realized that he really was a he and not a she! I thought she was just flat chested, and I guess he is, but you know what I mean," he exclaimed.

Shin laughed and tugged DongSun back into the busy street. "Come on. The others are going to be pissed if we're late to the soccer match." DongSun nodded and raced off, fully expecting Shin to just follow.
***

"Sounds like a hyper kid," ChinMae commented when Shin laid back down.

"Hyper doesn't begin to cover it. We never let him have any sugar or caffeine because he just really didn't need it. Though I think it was more that he just really loved life and found amusement in nearly everything that made him that way."

Shin shifted onto his side and smiled at ChinMae, the first real smile ChinMae had ever seen from the teen in the two years they'd known each other. "You're more like my friend HyukJae, though. Calm and stable, but insanely protective."

ChinMae chuckled and put the money away in his safe. "You're an odd kid, Shin."

"I grew up surrounded by odd kids. It was bound to wear off on me." Again, that flash of a smile that actually reached his eyes and ChinMae couldn't help but smile back, mostly because solemn didn’t fit Shin as well as that smile did.

"Come on. We have work tonight." Shin groaned and rolled off the bed, landing on all fours before getting to his feet.

Gangster!Oishi Series: Somnambulism (aka sleepwalking) and Star-Crossed

2008-05-04T22:55:45Z

The first one is really short so there's two in this post.

This is completely and utterly AU. Oishi has never even been to Japan, having been raised in Korea. He usually goes by the name "Shin." At the age of 12 he moves to America with his family. That's where this series picks up.

Installment One
Installment Two
Installment Three
Installment Four

Title: Somnambulism (aka sleepwalking)
Characters: Oishi "Shin" Shuichiro
Rating: G
Summary: Oishi wonders if he's going to start sleepwalking while leading his double life

Oishi was pretty sure he was going to develop a case of somnambulism after getting used to living two lives for two years. He'd learned how to run on as little as one hour of sleep and still perform in his classes. He wasn't sure it was something to be proud of and was pretty sure his mother would have a fit if she found out about it. He was lucky that his parents trusted him as much as they did because there was no way they would have let him out of the house without a strict curfew if they didn't and that would have gotten him into more trouble than he wanted to think about. It wasn't like Oishi wanted to be living this life and it wasn't like he wouldn't leave it behind in a heartbeat if he could, but so long as he was in this neighborhood there was no way he was going to be able to abandon the gang.

It was three in the morning when Oishi poured himself into bed and tried to remember what he had been doing all night, but couldn't remember. Maybe he had developed somnambulism after all and this was all just a really weird dream. That would be nice. He could wake up in the nice house they had in Seoul, go to school and tell his friends all about the freaky dream he'd had.

That was the real dream, though, and even as Oishi fell asleep with only an hour before his alarm was set to go off he knew that fact. There was no going back to Seoul.

Title: Star-Crossed
Characters: Oishi "Shin" Shuichiro
Rating: PG
Summary: Oishi just wants to get over to ChinMae's rather than be stuck reading Romeo and Juliet

Oishi flipped through the text book he was supposed to be reading. He knew the story, but who didn't know the story of the most famous star-crossed lovers to ever exist in reality or on paper? What he wanted to know was why they were reading such a clichéd and overdone piece of Shakespeare. There were other plays that they could read that the entire school didn't know the plot of and considering some of the idiots he went to school with that was saying something. He'd been told that if he wanted to go out - and he did because home was not where he wanted to be these days - that he would have to get his reading done. So, instead of actually reading he'd figured out how much time he would have spent reading it and just waited for it to pass. He'd started making a home at ChinMae's place and that's where he spent his nights more often than not. Even if they didn't have anything for him to do.

Finally his alarm went off signaling that he could believably tell his parents that he was done and going out for the night. They'd stopped trying to make him stay in a month after he'd joined the gang, not that he'd ever told him he was in a gang. He was almost afraid to ask what they thought he was doing every night because then he might have to give them a real answer.

Oishi's feet hit the street and he headed down to his friend's house two blocks away. He wasn't sure why ChinMae was okay with hanging out with a 14-year-old when he was already 19, but as long as ChinMae didn't object he'd keep going over. It was better than where he was. Oishi looked around the street as he took his time getting to his destination, slow steps and long strides. Some of the people sitting out were in his gang, others paid protection and the few remaining were fresh to the neighborhood. Soon they'd be one or the other. He let himself into ChinMae's house and locked the front door behind him, heading to the living room where he could hear the TV going.

ChinMae wasn't alone, his younger half-sister was sitting in one of the chairs and Oishi flashed a smile at her before collapsing near his friend. "Do you think my parents know I'm in the gang?" he asked by way of greeting.

His sister raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything. ChinMae shrugged. "They'd be pretty stupid not to. Every other family in the neighborhood pays with either a member or money."

"Yeah, but my parents don't talk to anyone in the neighborhood. They work downtown and don't leave the house when they're home."

ChinMae ruffled his hair and switched the channel to sports much to his sister's chagrin. "You'll only know if you ask them."

"Like hell I'm doing that," Oishi muttered. He drew his knees to his chest, resting his chin on them and watched the game with little interest. "Do we work tonight?"

"Nope. Boss man's got minimal forces on the street tonight." Oishi nodded at the code that ChinMae's sister probably didn't understand. If their were minimal forces on the streets it meant that another gang might come around looking for revenge for some slight - perceived or real - and it was too dangerous for them to be out if they didn't have to be.

Gangster!Oishi Series: Significant

2008-05-02T19:55:59Z

Gangster!Oishi Series: Sightseeing

2008-04-30T20:54:33Z

This is completely and utterly AU. Oishi has never even been to Japan, having been raised in Korea. He usually goes by the name "Shin." At the age of 12 he moves to America with his family. That's where this series picks up.

Installment One
Installment Two

Title: Shy
Characters: Oishi "Shin" Shuichiro
Rating: PG
Summary: Oishi thinks on his way to meeting his new gang

Somehow it had become the excuse to get out of the house and away from his parents. He was always sightseeing or getting familiar with the area or learning the language by listening to it. It was always one of the three and his parents never questioned it. Just once Oishi wished they would so he could tell them everything that he'd been dragged into by moving to America. He'd never had this kind of trouble in Seoul and he would give anything to go back there where the world made sense and people weren't killing each other for no reason other than they had a different group of friends.

Oishi headed down the backstreets to where he was supposed to meet his elders for his latest job and he found himself looking for ways to make the walk longer than necessary. There were half a dozen side streets he could get "lost" on, but that excuse had stopped working over a month ago. He was expected to be prompt and when he wasn't he was reminded of the commitment he chose to make to the Korean gang. Oishi didn't see it as much of a choice, more as a lesser of two evils because the Koreans controlled the neighborhood he lived in. He hated this life and wanted out, but he'd managed to form friendships and he was still alive.

His elder, Cho ChinMae, was waiting for him outside the rundown house they kept for meetings. Oishi had to wonder how no one ever thought to raid the place. It looked like something out of a gangster movie he'd watched back in Seoul with his friends and laughed at how ridiculously obvious their hideout was. Though, it wouldn't surprise him to find out that the gang was paying off the police's gang squad to keep it from being raided.

"Get trouble about leaving the house?" Cho asked.

Oishi nodded. "Mom wants my homework done before I go out." It was a pretty lame explanation, but at least it had the benefit of being the truth. Oishi hated lying and had yet to figure out how to be really good at it.

"I think you're the only person in this gang that's trying to stay in school, Shin," Cho said even though Oishi knew Cho himself was working to graduate from high school.

Oishi shrugged. "I'm going back to Seoul as soon as I can move out on my own so I'm going to have to be able to work when I get there." Cho didn't say anything back, just led the way into the house where Oishi would be getting his assignment. He would rather be sightseeing.

Gangster!Oishi Series: Shy

2008-04-29T13:03:43Z

This is completely and utterly AU. Oishi has never even been to Japan, having been raised in Korea. He usually goes by the name "Shin." At the age of 12 he moves to America with his family. That's where this series picks up.

Installment 1

Title: Shy
Characters: Oishi "Shin" Shuichiro
Rating: PG
Summary: Oishi meets a couple of guys from the Japanese gang

"Who's the shy kid?" Oishi looked up, assuming that he's the one being talked about as he was the only one in that part of the rundown park the last time he looked around. Though, how they would know if he was shy or not was beyond him. There were two young Japanese men walking toward him.

"He's not from the neighborhood, that's for sure. Would have noticed him before." It was a different voice and Oishi had to grasp for the meaning behind those incredibly accented words. The accent was Japanese, there was no mistaking it, but he couldn't figure out why they were speaking in English when it would probably be easier for them to speak Japanese.

One of the two walked over and kicked his foot to get his attention even though they already had it. Oishi pulled his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around his shins. "What?" he asked in Japanese.

"Where's your gang?" the first one asked in Japanese.

"I don't have one," Oishi replied.

They looked at each other and Oishi wondered if that was the wrong thing to say. "What part of Japan are you from?"

"I'm not."

They seemed to be quickly annoyed, but Oishi wasn't just going to offer information to these random people.

"You're clearly Japanese so just tell us where you're from," the second one said.

Oishi got to his feet, intent on going home. "I'm from Korea." He wasn't sure why they laughed at that statement, but it didn't really matter. He started for the exit closest to the bus station so that he could go home.

"Hey, kid! You'll want to think about joining up with us. We'll keep you safe from those crazy Koreans," the first one called out to him.

Oishi didn't say anything, just kept walking. He'd never once been shy in his entire life and he didn't consider this being shy, either. He was just scared of what those two would do with him if he stayed around any longer, but that applied to everyone he met these days.

Meme

2008-04-25T19:30:11Z

Let's see how far this goes. List your favourite five running gags from any series of any medium. Then tag five people to do the same thing. Everyone loves a running gag, what's yours?

Five? Okay, I have to steal Liz's first one because I adore it, really.

1) Prince of Tennis: Bane kicking Davide
2) Gravitation: Ryuichi's costumes
3) Get Backers: Chibi!Ginji complete with Japan fans
4) L&O SVU: Munch's conspiracy theories
5) Fruits Basket: The cats that show up every time Kyo storms off to be alone

I tag... whoever wants to do it

Meme

2008-04-24T16:36:36Z

This amuses me greatly. It really fits with my "Oh look shiny" distractions.

<td align="center"> skyangel2009's lame-ass excuse to break up:

"I sense an impending doom between us - oh and by the way I want to break up"

'What is your lame-ass excuse to break up?' at QuizGalaxy.com</td>