Evil Plan
Not nearly so nefarious as my name signifies
- Location
- Eastern United States
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Wait, it doesn't basically just mean "questioner"? *looks it up* Holy shit! Learn something new every day, huh?
A Little Vice (Trans Magical Girl fic)
- Thread starter Shadell
- Start date
- Original Users' Choice!
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
- Location
- Earth
- Pronouns
- He/Him
No, no, the honey badger has to be for Acedia.
Because honey badger don't care.
That's another problem with "interlocutor". It doesn't matter that a word's definition is perfect for your needs if people think it means something just different enough to ruin what you're trying to say.
Saints and Blossoms! A Fan's Guide
- Location
- SV's Only Complete Persona Quest
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Saints and Blossoms! A Fan's Guide
"Shining Virtue what?" Koyomi Arisugawa was left muttering.
"Shining Virtue Angelic Heart! Kirakira Bitoku Tenshi no Kokoro!" Miyako Nozawa said, for some reason feeling the need to say its title in both English and Japanese, despite her 'unique' pronunciation of the former language. "You don't know it? C'mon, it's one of the classic 00s Magical Girl anime, and you're the real deal! How could you not have to heard of it?"
Miyako and Koyomi were an odd sight on first glance, given Koyomi was twice as old as the college age Miyako. And with Miyako being a bespectacled, befreckled dirty blonde in a dainty dress and Koyomi a messy auburn brunette in a tattered coat, you'd correctly assume they had no family relation. But how could Miyako not hang around Koyomi, an actual Magical Girl? Well, Woman. 'Hanazakari' to use the correct term.
"I'm a war veteran! You think I'd seek out fiction that reminded me of everything I went through?" Koyomi asked, slumping down on a chair in exasperation. An appropriately musty old chair for her musty old house too. "The one exception was that book about being a Hanazakari my first publisher made me write, which I'd do anything to forget."
"Oh yeah, that. Would still be cool if you'd at least show me that book," Miyako muttered, then said, "But don't worry, this was in that time just after the Frost Decade when anime was trying not to be too close to actual magical girl experiences."
"So it's sugarcoated then? Meddling from RUNE's propaganda arm no doubt," Koyomi said, crossing her arms.
Miyako groaned, I know she's a war veteran, but does she really have to always be like this? Not everything lighthearted is propaganda, y'know. Trying to keep positive, she then asked, "Well, didn't you watch older Magical Girl shows back when you were a kid, pre-Frost Fair? Maybe think of it like that."
"I did, yes," Koyomi had to admit, then reached back into the fog of memory, "Would've been the era of Minky Momo and Creamy Mami, think I got those titles right. I remember the Sally and Akko revivals a little better, even if my kid self didn't know they were revivals back then."
"Hah, see! You were into Magical Girl shows at one point weren't you, Arisugawa-sama?" Miyako smirked and pointed like she'd achieved some great victory. "Besides, you're an author. Shouldn't you be taking in all sorts of stories for inspiration, hmm?"
"...Miyako, one of my best-known novels is about an addicted WW2 pilot on the run, I doubt Angelic Shining Heart Virtue will be quite in my wheelhouse," Koyomi said, before she sighed, "Alright, one or two episodes. Let's get this over with."
Barely able to stop herself from squealing with delight, Miyako opened up Koyomi's laptop and asked, "Awesome. So, what's your password for streaming services? The show's on a few of them, well, last I checked it was."
"Do you just ask anyone that?" Koyomi frowned at her. "And I only to subscribe to two, one for classic movies and one for foreign. Afraid you may be fresh out of luck."
Those words made Miyako twitch, but she took a breath and said, "Okay, totally not a problem. Just have to, ahem, improvise is all." She then searched YouTube and found, "Alright, so they've taken down the original KiraKokoro. But we've got the English dub still up... which yeah I failed all my classes in. Again, it's cool, I remember more than enough about the show to fill you in on it anyway!" As for whether watching on YouTube was a grey area, well given Koyomi's bad blood with RUNE, Miyako doubted that'd concern her much.
"I'd like to think I have a decent grasp of the language," Koyomi said, "Wanted to know what translators were doing to my books."
Once Miyako hit play, Koyomi quickly tensed up at the intro. "...I take it our Japanese original didn't have a hip-hop opening number," she said.
"Er, you kinda know you sound like an old lady when you say that?" Miyako asked her. Once the intro ended, she then paused the episode and went, "Okay, so these are the Angelic Saints, Castitas Shirushi Aimi, Diligentia Oyama Katsumi, and Temperentia Shimizu Sei. Or Inessa, Ida, and Temperance as the English dub calls them."
"What, was America worried about getting Japanese cooties?" Koyomi said at the names.
"Well, y'know, that's just how English dubs were like back then," Miyako said while biting her lower lip. "Anyway, don't think the fandom cares for Castitas much, 'cause she's the leader so people think that makes her boring. Bleh. Definitely agree though that Temperentia's the best Saint."
"As an actual Magical Girl, believe me that I've had some rough experiences with so-called 'leaders'. This Castitas seems fine to me though," Koyomi said, but then had to remark, "'Temperentia' though? What, did this show have an episode warning against underage drinking?"
"...Can't we just watch the episode?" Miyako had to ask.
The episode moved forward to show the girls' regular school lives, at which Koyomi said, "Take it this is set pre-Masquerade Break then? Else there would've been a Frost Fair drill or PSA about how anyone could be one of them by now if this was a real school, or whoever the show uses instead of the Frost Fair."
"The bad guys are the Abyssal Forest, we're gonna get to them," Miyako told her, before she paused when Michael opposed her head out of Inessa's backpack, "Okay, that's the Archangel Michael, she gave the Saints their powers, kinda like the Dandelionhearts. And those are Lupin and Noir, they're the bad guys I was talking about. Avaritia Wolf and Superbia Dragon."
"Weren't you the one that said, 'Can't we just watch'?" Koyomi had to bring up, then got to musing. "All these Sin and Virtue names are getting too Christian for me. Were I in change, first thing I'd do is get everything back to Judaism instead. Name everyone after the Sephiroth and Qliphoth or something." Koyomi had a Jewish maternal grandmother, having been in Imperial Japan's Shanghai Ghetto. "Okay, if they had to Americanise anything, did they at least make one of the characters Jewish? Like her, she looks Jewish."
Miyako got confused for a second by the name 'Sephiroth', but then said. "Well, I guess you could always headcanon one of the characters as Jewish. Like I'm trans, so I used to headcanon heaps of characters as trans." Including a certain someone about to show up.
"I have no idea what a 'headcanon' is. Sound painful if anything," Koyomi said, but softened her tone with, "I think I get what you mean. Interpreting characters to be like you when the media won't give you them. You're already learning Death of the Author."
"Er, but aren't you alive?" Miyako asked, not understanding that term in return, leaving Koyomi to groan.
Avaritia then took a chalkboard and infused it with Sin, the newly created board monster and its chalk minions ganging up one of the girls' classmates. "Okay, so that's a Resinner, they're the monsters of each episode. And that's C, who the Angelic Saints always have to rescue," Miyako said.
"Huh, just like me with Asahi," Koyomi observed, spoiling the mood with, "which just left her traumatized and resentful. And this Avaritia just sends out a monster to attack? Doesn't this Forest try to create a new game console or restaurant or concert hall to suck up everyone's emotions first? That's how the Frost Fair did it."
"Wait, I thought you didn't want to be reminded of the Frost Fair?" Miyako asked with narrowed eyes. "And here they steal away people's virtues, not emotions. Though I guess they're kinda related." And er, funny you say that about your old friend Higashi-sama, what with C.
With the Saints fighting back, Koyomi saw their powers of fire, earth, and water and went, "So, no darkness then? Wait, don't tell me, that's what the villains get, isn't it?" Darkness of course happened to be Koyomi's own Hanazakari power.
'I'm sure they, er, meant no offence," Miyako feebly offered.
The Angelic Saints defeating the Resinner and returning to their ordinary lives for now, Koyomi said about the episode, "Well, I can only hope the Saints' own Masquerade doesn't break, that's when things went from bad to worse. And alright, you've at least convinced me to check out our Japanese original when I can," even if her tone suggested that'd be out of spite.
Miyako tried to smile, since that still went better than she expected. Though I bet Arisugawa-sama would've found an excuse to complain no matter what, she thought.
"Of course, if you really want the full experience, you have to get involved with the fandom. Here, I'll bring up Tumblr," she then said, only for Koyomi to immediately glare at her.
"Absolutely not. I make a point of never interacting with fanbases when I can," Koyomi said.
Given what a MG fangirl she was, Miyako really, really hoped that wasn't directed at her. "Well, don't you at least wanna see the OCs I made?" she asked.
"What, do they have 'omegaverse dynamics' too?" Koyomi said as she rolled her eyes. "I've read your 'real person fanfic' My Chemical Valentine, I am already well aware how you characterise."
"Oh, that's okay," Miyako said. Fine, be like that, she thought. It was then however a thought came her way, "Hey Arisugawa-sama, is there a Hanazakari who can teleport people into fiction?"
"What are you planning?" Koyomi instantly asked. "None I know of, but given what's within the scope of a Hanazakari's powers, going in and out of dreams for one infamous example, someone somewhere could be capable of that."
"I just thought, well, maybe you'd like to experience a world where Magical Girls have it better beyond just watching them. Well, relatively better. Since you've been through it all, you could even give the Saints some pointers," Miyako said.
"You're hoping Michael will make you a Magical Girl, aren't you?" Koyomi asked, Miyako blushing too much to given answer.
"Okay, first thing is I am not one for babysitting teenagers, even fictional ones. Second is," she then said, "you do realise escapist fictional worlds are only escapist because we don't actually live in them?"
"Yeah well, people would've thought the Frost Fair invasion fictional till it actually happened. So maybe we're already living in one and just don't realise it, hmm?"
"Oh, and I suppose the Angelic Saints are the ones watching shows about us, are they?" Koyomi said, while she couldn't help smiling a little.
My second omake submission, and another crossover. Inspired by all the talk of how people would react to Shining Virtue Angelic Heart being a show, with characters from my own MG story Fool Bloom giving their reactions to it.
I incorporated my musings about SVAH originally being a Japanese show into here. Aimi Shirushi ('love', 'beauty', 'mark'), Katsumi Oyama ('overcoming', 'big mountain') and Sei Shimizu (from Sessei 'temperance', 'pure water') were my attempts at Japanifying the Saints' names while trying to keep their meanings.
Also, Koyomi's comments on the show most certainly don't reflect mine on A Little Vice, given her usual jadedness, so I hope she didn't come off too harsh.
I incorporated my musings about SVAH originally being a Japanese show into here. Aimi Shirushi ('love', 'beauty', 'mark'), Katsumi Oyama ('overcoming', 'big mountain') and Sei Shimizu (from Sessei 'temperance', 'pure water') were my attempts at Japanifying the Saints' names while trying to keep their meanings.
Also, Koyomi's comments on the show most certainly don't reflect mine on A Little Vice, given her usual jadedness, so I hope she didn't come off too harsh.
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Icipall
Don't worry, we can fanfix that!
- Location
- Cold snow fields of Finland
Anime loving asks no age!
Magical girls being actual thing would put a spin on magical girl media.
Their horribly obvious names being an English dub change that we used to see in anime? That's genius.
Ugh, it's like watching Bae and Nerissa having a stream.
- Location
- Earth
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Wait, which thread am I in again?
That's not how I'd describe SVAH. Though maybe it's different from Inessa's perspective.
Hope springs eternal.
4Kids strikes again.
Which one?
Of course Miyako is on Tumblr. And of course the SVAH anime is popular there.
- Pronouns
- She/They
It's notable that as far as elemental powers go, we've only seen the four Classical Greek elements (which in turn correspond to the Saints+C's humor-based personality quartet). And I guess also sound but that seems like a bat thing not an element thing. Light and Darkness are a theme in an obvious way, but I don't think we've seen either used as a power set, have we? Avaritia seems all physical and we haven't seen Superbia or Michael fight, though.
Oh also, something I've been meaning to bring up and I hope carries through in the imaginary Japanese fandom:
Japanese lacks a phoneme for "see". When transliteration English to Japanese, s followed by a long e becomes the kana "shi", or "shii", which is of course, pronounced like the English "she".
So Charley's preferred special nickname, C, transliterated to Japanese, has been "she" this whole time. A small little thing that I'm not even positive was intended but I'm very fond of it.
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- Location
- Earth
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Well...no, but between the wings, sound being air waves, and the fact that Ida's element is actually Earth and not strength, it's not hard to guess what her element would be.
I suspect that C's nickname in the original Japanese is just the first mora of their name. Which might be し, but we don't know one way or another.
- Pronouns
- She/They
Yeah like no C is definitely Air/Wind associated, it's constant in Invidia's internal monologue as a "monster", wind powers are what she uses when she's not copying, and the traditional Japanese color association with wind is even green for reasons I forget right now, which ties in nicely to the more overt color symbolism of green-eyed envy that Invidia has going.
- Location
- Somewhere!
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Also Shi has a pretty different connotation in japanese, and all that?
It would lead to some dark memes I'd guess.
It would lead to some dark memes I'd guess.
- Location
- SV's Only Complete Persona Quest
- Pronouns
- She/Her
'Shi' can also mean 'Four', which may be even more telling... and also 'Death' (which is why you see people sometimes just use 'Yon' for four).
As for Air/Wind being green, TVTropes says it might be due to the Heart Chakra in Hinduism being linked with both air and the colour green, as well as the connections between Wind and Wood in Taoism. Or nowadays where windpower's part of green energy
As for Air/Wind being green, TVTropes says it might be due to the Heart Chakra in Hinduism being linked with both air and the colour green, as well as the connections between Wind and Wood in Taoism. Or nowadays where windpower's part of green energy
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- Pronouns
- She/They
A single phoneme can mean a lot of things in Japanese. Admittedly, shi=four=death is a pretty common trope, but the same thing gets parlayed into shin=death (conjugated differently)=new=god often in anime as well.
- Location
- SV's Only Complete Persona Quest
- Pronouns
- She/Her
About Japanese names, was thinking Shi meaning death was the 'untranslated' form of what became the Charleton/Charlatan pun. For gender-neutral Japanese beginning with 'Shi', I know Shion, Shiori (which both have connotations with Sound), and Shinobu, though none have the same meaning of 'freedom' that Charlie has.
Of course, I do realise I'm probably putting way more thought into this than many anime localisers did way back then (though the Sailor Moon DiC dub did at least try to have the names match the meaning).
I'm also quite thankful for the positive reception my new omake's gotten, since I was worried about it looking a bit harsh
Of course, I do realise I'm probably putting way more thought into this than many anime localisers did way back then (though the Sailor Moon DiC dub did at least try to have the names match the meaning).
I'm also quite thankful for the positive reception my new omake's gotten, since I was worried about it looking a bit harsh
- Pronouns
- She/Her
So, insofar as there are elemental associations for the villains, they're a bit more abstracted as the beasts tend to being fleshier vs the more magical saints.
That said, it's been noted that there's a bit of a metal association with Avaritia, and Superbia has had some connections to light.
Obviously nothing for Wrath or patience yet.
It's very cute!!!
That said, it's been noted that there's a bit of a metal association with Avaritia, and Superbia has had some connections to light.
Obviously nothing for Wrath or patience yet.
It's very cute!!!
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Wait, *what?*
I'm too sleepy to look back now, and I'll avoid the worst Superbia sections anyway. But damn, this is going to be interesting if I find the signs.
- Location
- Earth
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Yes, but if C stays a Beast for the rest of the story, I will eat my little digital hat.
Love Train
stack of bats
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Oh huh, I was off for Superbia then. I was guessing the full set of Greek Classical combined with Wuxing, making Avaritia metal. Of the remaining two (wood and aether), my guess for Superbia was wood, due to the incense, as well as the possibility of wood being uniquely strong from being closest to the First Tree.
Though I guess the fact that he doesn't deserve to join team good in a million years leaves at least one extra slot open regardless
- Location
- SV's Only Complete Persona Quest
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Actually, if extinct animals are allowed, what about Wrath T. Rex? A dinosaur as a Beast would be kinda funny too, with how it'd contrast the Eden theming
Iris-Iven-Ibis
Interested-Idiot-Immortal
- Location
- You know
[/QUOTE]
I would personally prefer something more contradictionary like wrath butterfly or wrath may fly
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- Earth
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Are extinct animals allowed? Wolves, sharks, bats, and bears are all alive, and dragons are straight-up mythological.
- Location
- The Great Beyond
- Pronouns
- He/She/They
that's just what they want you to think
- Location
- SV's Only Complete Persona Quest
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I mean, there are Komodo Dragons.
Hestia&theCourt
Turns out we're plural too.
- Location
- In transition
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Consider: Ira Hummingbird. Given that hummingbirds look unassuming and harmless but actually have a warrior's spirit and no sense of chill, it'd be pretty fitting.
- Location
- SV's Only Complete Persona Quest
- Pronouns
- She/Her