rinnia | What real life?

Current Mood: bored

What real life?

First off, happy birthday to my baby brother, Erik! Stop growing; you're making me feel old. Now, on to the meme:

Stolen from

mysticnocturne, whose version of this I still haven't read. I will, though!

Choose one of my fandoms and pick five pairings from that fandom. They don't have to be canon, and they don't have to be slash - m/m, m/f and f/f pairings can be asked about. Once asked about five pairings, I'll reply with my thoughts on each one.

I don't care if all five are from the same fandom, though. Pick and choose as you like, and you can bring in stuff from other fandoms if you think I'm familiar with it.

Some fandoms that seem shippable:
Final Fantasy VIII
Death Note
Fullmetal Alchemist
Bleach
FFVI
FFXII
Gundam Wing
Kingdom Hearts
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Ouran High School Host Club
Persona 3 (No spoilers past October, please!)
Phoenix Wright
Zombie Powder

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

psht, you feel old? try having your little bro turn 21 on you. :-P

tell erik I say happy birthday! how old is he now? 15?

and i'm not even going to touch the fandom thing. I only really know the one, and you know my feelings on that. :-P

how are you?

Persona 3
Akihiko/Mitsuru
Junpei/Akihiko
Minato/Kenji

Death Note:
L/Misa, and finally...
Mello/Matt. 8D And this is your LJ, after all, so feel free to speak your mind! I always wanted to have an excuse to rant about this, but I'll settle for the next best thing~

Yeah, but at least your brother's close in age to you. I remember when Erik was born. D: He is indeed 15 now, and has a girlfriend to boot. And plays guitar, and is a star actor at his high school, and blah blah blah. As far as I can tell, he's really blossoming, or whatever manly equivalent guys do.

I'm pretty good, though dissatisfied by my career options. I swear, I'm going to open a store. I don't care if I'll be in debt; at least I'll be my own boss. And how are you?

mmm, i suppose you have a point. but still. just wait until he starts telling you about his sex life (believe me, not something i EVER wanted to hear from george. you remember that, no?)

and congrats to him. sounds like he's having a good time.

Store? what kind of store? and agreed, on the be your own boss thing. I say go for it!

I'm doing well... really busy, but classes end next week so that'll help. Are you going back to NV for the holidays?

Alright, hopefully LJ won't eat my comment this time around.

Akihiko/Mitsuru
These two work very well together for me as friends, but not in a romance. They're both fairly serious, and together they have someone to snark at/with who gets where they're coming from, even if they don't completely understand each other. In particular, I enjoyed Mitsuru's tough love towards Akihiko when he was injured in the beginning, and it was sweet how much he worried over how to help her during early November. Still, though, I don't see a romantic relationship at all - they seem more like siblings or best friends to me. The chemistry just isn't there. Of course, it's not just because I think Akihiko's gay, but that is a part of it. And he is quite gay.

Junpei/Akihiko
This pairing honestly didn't occur to me as being a real possibility until the love hotel and talking with

mysticnocturne about it. After that, it seemed so obvious I wasn't sure how I'd missed it. There are lots of specific things in game I can point to as being interesting - Akihiko finds Junpei crying during the Dark Hour and somehow from there persuades him to move into the dorm with them; when everyone goes to visit Akihiko at the hospital, it's because Junpei tells them Akihiko asked him to bring the 2-E roster (and asked him alone, I might add. It's also interesting because up until then he'd trusted Minato with pretty much everything); and of course, the whole of Operation Babe Hunt, through which Akihiko seems uncomfortable and like he's only going along with it to either appease Junpei or show him up.

In a more broad sense, their personalities really click for me. Junpei is canonically straight, given his behavior towards girls in general and Chidori specifically, or at the most bi (which I think he may be but isn't aware of). However, I could see his hero worship for Akihiko leading to stronger, more personal feelings, especially if Akihiko put the idea of them together as a couple in his head. For Akihiko's part, he's oddly friendly towards Junpei and tolerant of his more annoying traits. There's some affection there, and though he's so hung up on Shinjiro for a long time that I doubt anyone else enters his head as a possibility, there's certainly a timeframe during which he could fall for Junpei.

I could see them behaving towards each other mostly like they do in canon - friendly bantering and buddy-buddy stuff, but with the added quirk of having more material to tease each other with and being secure in their fondness for one another. Plus, the physical relationship seems well-matched and like it would be a lot of fun for them both. I <3 this pairing.

Minato/Kenji
Hee, another pairing that I love quite a bit. I'm a big fan of Kenji. He just cracks me up. When his loud-mouthed energy is paired with Minato's quiet thoughtfulness, it balances perfectly. There's a lot to be said for helping someone through a crisis like the whole Emiri thing, too. They've obviously become very close over the span of it, and I find it particularly interesting that Kenji is open about such a taboo romance with Minato. Of course, up until the social link max it can be argued that they're just very good friends, and I'd have no problem with that interpretation, but their final day out really cements things. Between the giving of a handmade choker, which screams "courtship", and the flirtatious things you can say to him, it's pretty clear that Minato/Kenji is as much of an option as Minato/Yuko, or Chihiro, or whoever else you choose. That's not to say all social links are like that. Take for example the Kendo link with Kaz. He and Minato become very close friends as well, but there's none of the are-they-aren't-they? tension that exists between Minato and Kenji. When it comes to pairing Minato with someone, Kenji and Yuko are definitely my top choices.

L/Misa
I have an interesting relationship with the pairing. In theory, I shouldn't like it, as I don't see L devoting enough attention to Misa (or anyone besides Light, really, and same with Misa towards L) to make it possible. But in reality, I kinda like it if it's in character. The scene with L grabbing Misa's butt to get her cellphone always makes me giggle. It's a cute gesture, even if he does have a Kira-related motive, and his over the top reaction is priceless. Really, I don't see it working with canon, definitely not if Light's in the picture, but it's a pretty good guilty pleasure. Better than Mello/Matt, anyway, and hey! THERE'S MORE IN CANON TO SUPPORT L/MISA THAN THERE IS MELLO/MATT.

Mello/Matt
Ahahahaha! I'm so going to write a fic with only Matt and Mello in it that's more Mello/Near than anything else. Just watch me!

Anyway, this pairing makes no sense to me whatsoever beyond the very shallow "They're both hot." appeal. They barely interact, and Matt's barely more of a character than Near's popgun. Hell, Demegawa gets infinitely more characterization than Matt, and yet everyone ignores him. Nobody cares about Mikami, and he has a whole flashback chapter of development! The singular reason Matt is as popular as he is is because of his looks. The hair, the goggles, the cigarette, the video games. He's so tailormade for fangirling that it makes me sick.

But this rant isn't just about Matt - it's about Mello/Matt, the most ridiculous pairing since Voldemort/Pikachu. Allow me to open my manga and read through all of Matt's appearances, one by one.

Volume 10, Page 70: They're sitting in a car together. Exciting!
Page 75: Mello tells Matt to stay where Mogi is while he tails Aizawa. Matt says, "Okay." Spoken with true love, I'm sure.
Pages 78-79: Matt spots Misa out with Mogi and calls Mello with the information. He says Misa is "awfully cute". Clearly an attempt to make Mello jealous. Mello rages in jealousy, "Are you serious, Matt?" He's referring to the cuteness thing, of course, not that the second Kira is out in the open. Trouble in buttsecks paradise!
Pages 108-109: Mello calls Matt to see if there's been any movement. Matt plays his video games while talking (most likely a dating sim he selected just because the main girl looks like Mello, AMIRITE?!) and whines that it's boring and at least Mello gets to "eavesdrop on a cute girl." He really can't help digging that in, can he? Mello's SO going to spank him for this. >:3
Page 135: In an attempt to make amends for his comments about Misa, Matt updates Mello on Mogi and Aizawa. OMG, SEE? HE LIEKS GAIZ, YOU GAIZ!
Pages 154-155: Mello gets snippy at Matt for failing at the one thing he was assigned to do. ~~He knows that Near wouldn't have fucked up that bad.~~ It's clear he's only keeping Matt around for the sexings. For his part, Matt has a rational explanation for why he messed up. Mello rewards his for his honesty by inviting him to a gay romp in Japan. Matt's verklempt.
Volume 11, Pages 205-209: They take a break from their raunchy, chocolatey antics to kidnap Takada. Matt's the distraction - cuz his ASS is one hell of a distraction, LOL! - and Mello whisks away Takada on his motorcycle because Matt's afraid of touching girls and Mello wants to be the only rumbling machine ever between his legs. ~~Oh god, this is so painful to write, even as a joke.~~
Volume 12, Pages 7-9: OMGNOES, MAAAAAATT!!1!1!!1!!!! YOU WERE THE BEST CHARACTER EVAR!!1!1!1!! If only he hadn't loved Mello so much. He was such a loyal dog to him. Urk. *vomits*
Page 15: Mello's so distraught over the news of his sexpup being killed that he devotes an entire panel to saying "Forgive me." Oh, the paaaaaain! Shortly thereafter, he forces himself to have a heart attack so he can be with his beloved forever and always.

If any of that didn't sound insane to you (sans the strike-throughed parts, of course), your brain is hereby revoked. Please send me your home address and I'll be there shortly to repossess it.

For the love of all that's holy, I have to split this into two comments. D:

Mello/Matt continued
Seriously, there's nothing there. There's no proof they've even talked before this ordeal, and there's nothing to say that Mello sought out Matt. It's worthy of note that Mello goes to visit Near after the explosion, long before Matt ever shows up. If Matt was such a close tie, why not send him to deal with Near, or at least bring him along as backup? I'm pretty sure that at that point in the manga, Mello hasn't seen Matt at least since his Wammy's house days, possibly ever. People claim Matt's loyal to Mello, but you know what I see? I see a guy who's bored. I see someone who's obviously intelligent and a fan of video games and who takes on dangerous missions that Mello assigns him because he's bored to a fault and it sounds like fun. THAT'S my interpretation of Matt.

The ONLY thing in canon that could be interpreted as even vaguely affectionate is the fact that Mello says "Forgive me." Allow me to remove that last lingering tie to Mello/Matt for you - break open Volume 9 and refer to page 69. Mello says, and I quote, "I'm sorry." to Soichiro. You see, Mello's not a bad guy. He doesn't want to kill people who don't deserve it. That's why he tries to deal with Soichiro repeatedly and apologizes to him before he finally presses the trigger. That's also why he asks Matt to forgive him for getting him killed when he never thought it would go that far.

tl;dr: Mello's actually a good guy at his core, Matt's actually completely unremarkable at his, and there's nothing between them. Not even friendship. Not even familiarity, necessarily. Stop pretending they're canon, please.

Iiiiiiick, sex life. Do not want. I think/hope/pray Erik's too shy to discuss such things with his family members.

Why, a video game store, of course. It's my current dream that I might actually pursue if I can figure out all the paperwork and loan-getting.

Glad you're doing well! I'm with Jaime in Florida right now and sticking around here for the holidays. We're still both attempting to find jobs (though that may be superceded by pursuit of said store) and generally get settled. It kinda sucks right now, but I know it'll get better. Has to. :/

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

What real life?

no subject

I don't care if we've covered most of these before. 8|||

no subject

no subject

Re: I don't care if we've covered most of these before. 8|||

Re: I don't care if we've covered most of these before. 8|||

Re: I don't care if we've covered most of these before. 8|||

Re: I don't care if we've covered most of these before. 8|||

no subject