I uploaded this back when I was obsessed with Saiyuki. Kanan is not one of my favorite characters but I adore this picture (she'd naked sans her lovers coat). The text is from called "Favourite Sky" which is perfect for her and her arc.
I would change nothing about this icon, I love the coloring, the starbust of light down in the right corner and the way the text perfectly meshes with the picture. I use if for talking about Saiyuki.... and honestly, I should use it more.
Okay, there is a great series of books by Martha Wells that, when I do fantasy casting, I cast Keira Knightly as the heroine (seriously, she'd be perfect for it). There's even one photoshoot she did where she'd dressed in exactly the right period for it. I did a pic-spam with my ideal fantasy casting around the time the iconmakers asked for requests, so I got her to make me an icon with the text I'd used as the characters tagline. I use this a lot for talking about real life - it was my default icon when I was in France and felt like that phrase perfectly summed me up.
Ah, I see! I do recognize Keira Knightley, but I ended up wondering which movie the picture from the icon came from. It's a bit unusual for an originated-from-photoshoot icon to have such substance in the text, so.. yeah.
Just from curiosity, what are the titles of the books? I need some good reading material for my one-week-holiday.
The first novel is The Wizard Hunters, next is the Ships of Air and the finale book is called 'Gate of the Gods'
I would HIGHLY recommend them. Imagine England and France are one country, getting attacked not by the Germans but by a mysterious enemy from a different dimension and while working on a secret weapon to use against them, Our Heroine and a group of her fellows get shifted into another dimension (also being attached by the same enemy), where she meets with two classic 'barbarian warriors' - only their culture is a more tropical location and the most functional and realistic matriarchal so I've read.
I had a prior 'bitch, please' icon with Cordelia, and then when I saw this I had to switch it ou. I love the expression on her face, and the text is just perfect, especially if you know the context of the scene (Cordelia just got dumped in a particularly nasty way, and is returning to school looking hot as hell.)
I use this when I'm being a bit snarky or I'm in a bit of a mood.
Ah, the days in Ba Sing Se when Zuko's hair was the perfect length. I love the black and white coloring, Zuko's surley expression, and his firebending pose. I most often use this icon when I'm talking about Zuko in general.
Bwah, I see *somebody* has been on a serious Black Lagoon icon-snagging kick! XD
(Let me know if you find any good fic...I have been searching and searching and the pickings are just depressingly slim. Also, I ended up starting in on the scanlations despite my good intentions of working through the anime first, and oooh, if you haven't started it already, I think the "Greenback Jane" arc will make you very, very happy on the Dangerous Ladies and badass-female-bonding front. *hearts*)
I might have held out longer if there was more of a fandom out there to tide me over, but Vol. 6 isn't out until June and there's practically no fic worth speaking of out there. (And I've been looking *everywhere* -- only one story in all of the Yuletide archives, and even the Pit of Vole has barely three pages worth of fic, which is *nothing*...) There seem to be only two LJ comms, even, and one of them is just one of those silly rating comms, while the catch-all general one hotel_moscow is way way heavier on icon posts than any other sort of fanworks. (If you wanted color art for iconing, they do at least have a good selection of anime screencaps.)
I've grabbed the box set of the anime's first season, if you ever want to check out a couple of episodes. It's fun stuff, very well-cast seiyuu (even if in my head, Dutch can only have the voice of Avery Brooks), and you gotta love a series that earns a NSFW tag even before the opening sequence is done! But watching stuff I've alredy read and straining my ears to try to figure out just how rude Revy's language just doesn't scratch the same itch as shiny new story arcs... and where oh where is all the juicy Rock/Revy smut? PERVS OF THE INTERNET, I'M VERY DISAPPOINTED IN YOU...
I can't smut them yet - the whole relationship is still much too tenuous. Revy's gonzo when she's fighting but cautious about anything else, and Rock is, well, Rock - you were right as far as it went when you pegged him as Hakkai, but he doesn't have that totally psycho other side.
I have something in mind, but it's a cautious, tentative hurt-comfort thing set just before the end of the current arc, when they have to pick up the pieces and get ready to go back to Thailand.
(And I have something I want to do for this week's saiyuki_time too ... you'd think I could manage to fit in 20 minutes ... .)
And that tiny growling you hear in the distance is the bunnies blesing you out, because I just spent 25 minutes searching for art to use for Black Lagoon icons ... no wonder I never have time to write, I have the attention span of a 4-yr-old these evenings.
I can't smut them yet - the whole relationship is still much too tenuous.
Ugh, I know. I was like 'sexy fun times!' ..oh, wait, these two are going to be a bitch to get in the same bed, aren't they? Even worse than Zuko and Katara.
Oh yeah. I have definite Ideas, based on their personalities and the dynamic between them so far, how things would go once they get in bed...but actually GETTING them there? Oy...
OK, non-shippy generalizations first. I don't think either of them is a virgin: Rock I'd imagine has had at least a few relationships, but maybe nothing long-term enough to get truly serious, and possibly not even much in the way of more short-term casual things since his college days -- when he joins the Lagoon there's no angst about leaving behind a girlfriend or even an unrequited crush, and his talk about the empty routine of his salaryman life makes it sound like he didn't really have a lot of time or energy to be dating much in recent years.
Everything about his old life, trying so hard to play by the rules and do everything the right way, makes me think he was probably doing the same thing in relationships -- dating because everyone else was and you're supposed to find a nice girl and get married eventually, going for all the most conventional romantic gestures on a date or following a mental checklist of what the advice columns say you're supposed to do in bed -- so worried about giving the right impression and doing all the right things that he's never really entirely relaxing and being himself. All the little bits where he seems to want to be more of a hero, even when the story and circumstances all work against it, makes me think he's probably got more than a bit of a romantic streak, too -- he wants to be something bigger and more dramatic than the drab little emotionally empty paint-by-numbers life he was living, and throwing his entire old life away to follow a scary violent gunslinger girl into the underworld or mouthing off about his ideas with a gun trained on his head shows the potential he has for making big, crazy gestures in chasing that more dramatic sort of life.
Revy, with all the hints of her horrible childhood, I'm guessing quite likely was sexually active from a younger age, and quite possibly not under the best circumstances; it wouldn't surprise me if she's had at least some unhappy runins with non-con/dub-con situations, especially before she picked up her gun skills, and we know that she's done sex work; the way she looks, and the places she's lived and worked, encounters with skeezy guys would be inevitable, and judging by how blase she was around Chaka, or the strip-club boss, she's experienced enough of that sort to be pretty blase about dealing with them.
I'm not sure if I can see her involved in actual prostitution rather than just the live BDSM shows that have been mentioned in canon, but her will to survive at any cost is strong enough that I wouldn't totally discount the possibility; if she were in a place where it was her only option, she'd definitely do it. I'm not getting any real sense that she's been in love before: emotional intimacy is I think something she'd be vastly warier of than physical closeness. I don't think she has a lot of body-image issues in general, she clearly has no problem running about in very skimpy gear or even being seen in her underwear; any insecurities there I'm thinking would be most likely to crop up only in the context where she's starting to develop an emotional attachment, and it would be more of an outgrowth of general insecurity about her self-worth and shady background -- like with those hints of jealousy around Yukio, I'd see potential issues there being less that Yukio was younger and conventionally pretty, and more that her lack of physical scars, conventionally feminine appearance and mannerisms, etc., all reflect a sort of good-girl innocence that Revy has never had -- so it'd be less "crap, she's so pretty and I'm not" and more "if this is the sort of sweet-and-innocent milquetoast girl he likes, I don't stand a chance".
Pretty much everything about Revy's appearance, language, behavior, habits, etc. all suggests that she really, really doesn't give a rat's ass if she lives up to any of the good-girl rules, so I'd tend to think that in general she'd be every bit as aggressive and forward if she wanted to get laid -- and in Roanapur in general, with her reputation for violence, I'd imagine that even the guys who might ogle her scantily-clad figure would be wary of getting on the bad side of her guns if she wasn't in a mood to be hit on, so she might have to make all the first moves when she's on the Lagoon's home turf. And I absolutely cannot see her being coy and retiring once she gets them in bed, either -- a pickup who's sexually selfish or incompetent would probably have the error of their ways pointed out very forcefully, with no fear of bruising fragile male egos, if they're lucky...if they're unlucky, guns probably get drawn. But I don't think she'd have much patience for truly submissive guys who want nothing but to be bossed around and told everything to do -- from the way she reacts in those big arguments with Dutch and later Rock, I think she doesn't have a lot of respect for anyone who's too soft around her; notice how things don't thaw between her and Rock until he stands his ground, tells her off bluntly and even gets roughly physical, grabbing her shirt just like Dutch, getting shot at and taking a punch, only to grab the gun and her fist in turn. I don't see her being a snuggler with the casual pickups -- again, a little too much in the way of vulnerability to let that much of her guard down; unless she's too drunk to stay awake, I think it'd be a post-coital cigarette or two and she's on her way back home, or else kicks the guy out of her room so she can sleep alone.
So, going from the generalities to Rock/Revy specifics...while I think in general she'd have no trouble bluntly going after some guy she fancies for a quick tumble, the whole fear-of-emotional intimacy could make her a lot more twitchy and nervous here than she generally is. She already thinks Rock knows her well enough to see through some of her acts, and I think she has him up on a bit of a pedestal as a Nice Guy who's maybe a little too nice for a amoral, soiled guttersnipe like her, all of which might make her a little reluctant to go for her usual "You. Me. Bed. NOW." approach. And Rock in turn I think is still struggling with some of his lingering Nice Guy Who Plays By The Rules programming, which would make it tricky for him to take that final step of openly expressing interest in a friend and coworker. This is the big hurdle I have trouble plotting past in my head, something has to give one or both of them a push; Revy in particular I think could throw all caution to the winds if she just got the right hint of encouragement, and we've seen time and again already how Rock's more bold and impulsive streak comes to the surface when faced with a challenge; it's just a matter of who gets triggered, and how, but once that trigger is set off I think it could be very much sparks on dry tinder; lots of room for second thoughts and emotional insecurities flaring up again later, but instant conflagration for now. And they really seem like a wonderfully volatile pairing IMO because Revy's bluntness and aggression could bring out a more forceful, passionate or even flat-out kinky side that Rock might have been afraid to ever express before, while at the same time he's still enough of a nice guy that he'd also be bringing in a level of tenderness that she's probably not at all accustomed to; not to mention the unaccustomed emotional charge of intimacy and vulnerability in sleeping with someone she actually has feelings for, and who cares for her, even if neither of them has come out and said anything about it. I definitely don't see her being one to have an easy time verbally expressing love rather than lust, and while Rock seems like the one who'd have an easier time talking about his feelings, I can picture her even freaking out a little just from having the big scary unspoken laid out on the table like that...
You're thoughts and mine are pretty damn bang-on with regards to Revy and Rock.
I definitely thing that Rock's love life was rather by-the-book -high school or college sweetheart, one or two relationships afterwards, both of which ended before marriage could really be called into question.
Revy, with all the hints of her horrible childhood, I'm guessing quite likely was sexually active from a younger age, and quite possibly not under the best circumstances; it wouldn't surprise me if she's had at least some unhappy runins with non-con/dub-con situations
So very much word. I think Revy has a had a lot of really ugly relationships/sexual interactions. Part of the reason that I don't think she's done straight up prostitution is that she seem a little... too raw for it. Like, I don't think she'd quite detached enough. She might have done it once or twice when she really, really had to, but I highly doubt it was a regular thing in any way.
any insecurities there I'm thinking would be most likely to crop up only in the context where she's starting to develop an emotional attachment, and it would be more of an outgrowth of general insecurity about her self-worth and shady background -- like with those hints of jealousy around Yukio, I'd see potential issues there being less that Yukio was younger and conventionally pretty, and more that her lack of physical scars, conventionally feminine appearance and mannerisms, etc., all reflect a sort of good-girl innocence that Revy has never had -- so it'd be less "crap, she's so pretty and I'm not" and more "if this is the sort of sweet-and-innocent milquetoast girl he likes, I don't stand a chance".
Agreed. Honestly, body issues is one things I DON'T think Revy would have any trouble with. It would be much more issues with her personality and history and scars (emotional, mental, and physical).
So, going from the generalities to Rock/Revy specifics...while I think in general she'd have no trouble bluntly going after some guy she fancies for a quick tumble, the whole fear-of-emotional intimacy could make her a lot more twitchy and nervous here than she generally is.
Agreed. I can totally see her hanging Anko-esque pick up skills when she's just in the mood for a quick fuck, but I think Rock would throw her for enough of a loop that I can't quite see her be the aggressor.
This is the big hurdle I have trouble plotting past in my head, something has to give one or both of them a push; Revy in particular I think could throw all caution to the winds if she just got the right hint of encouragement, and we've seen time and again already how Rock's more bold and impulsive streak comes to the surface when faced with a challenge; it's just a matter of who gets triggered, and how
*nods* And that's the hardest part of it - figuring how where to push them and with what.
while Rock seems like the one who'd have an easier time talking about his feelings, I can picture her even freaking out a little just from having the big scary unspoken laid out on the table like that...
Oh, certainly. Actually, Revy's freak-out when/if Rock ever said 'I love you' would be pretty damn epic.
I definitely thing that Rock's love life was rather by-the-book -high school or college sweetheart, one or two relationships afterwards, both of which ended before marriage could really be called into question.
Yeah, he seems to have been so alienated and emotionally disconnected from everything else in his past life -- family, schooling, job -- that I tend to imagine his romantic life would be more of the same; things would just sort of fizzle out before they ever got really serious. No huge blowups or infidelities or anything, just more of a vague mutual ennui eventually leading to a "you know, this isn't really working, let's just be friends" deal; ending not with a bang nor a whimper, but more of a resigned shrug.
I think Rock would throw her for enough of a loop that I can't quite see her be the aggressor.
Or at the very least, definitely not in her usual style. I can maybe see her going after him if he gives some initial sign that he's interested, and maybe there's the right mix of circumstances -- drunk off their asses, buzzed on adrenaline and/or endorphins from a particularly close call or injury, whatever, something to lower her inhibitions enough to get past the hurdle of the vulnerability of making a move on someone she actually gives a damn about, and doesn't want to lose as a friend. But just in a more everyday sort of situation and dead-sober, I can't see it. She's already softened up so much around him, even compared to how she acts around the handful of other people she likes and treats as friends, even if she might never use the word herself. And I'd think that closeness and exposure of a vulnerable softer side has got to be scary and unprecedented enough for her that she would be intensely wary of taking things any further and fucking it all up beyond repair.
Actually, Revy's freak-out when/if Rock ever said 'I love you' would be pretty damn epic.
Ooooh yeah, especially since we've seen the one thing he won't tolerate is her being a coward about her feelings...
No huge blowups or infidelities or anything, just more of a vague mutual ennui eventually leading to a "you know, this isn't really working, let's just be friends" deal; ending not with a bang nor a whimper, but more of a resigned shrug.
Yep, yep.
Ooooh yeah, especially since we've seen the one thing he won't tolerate is her being a coward about her feelings...
Bwah, great minds do think alike! XD I just can't decide which image is yummier, Rock doing his usual tie-comes-off-this-means-I'm-SERIOUS thing, or Revy ripping the tie off him or using it as a handle. Not to mention a little light necktie bondage...yum!
you were right as far as it went when you pegged him as Hakkai, but he doesn't have that totally psycho other side.
Yeah, it might almost be fairer to say Rock is closer to Tenpou, perhaps? He has a very twisty brain that can be a big surprise to people who want to write him entirely on the basis of the mild-mannered initial impression, and he has more backbone and recklessness towards his own safety than people expect from him. But Hakkai's beyond subtly twisted, he's flat-out cracked right through the core, and the mending doesn't always hold... Rock may be a little battered around the edges, but he doesn't feel flat-out broken like that.
I have something in mind, but it's a cautious, tentative hurt-comfort thing set just before the end of the current arc, when they have to pick up the pieces and get ready to go back to Thailand.
Yay! And I don't think it spoils anything important to say that you've got space in canon to write something there, because the next arc picks up some unspecified time period after the return to Thailand -- long enough for Revy's leg to have healed, at the very least, but not so long that everyone has caught up on hearing what happened when they were in Japan. (And as you can see from this page (http://www.onemanga.com/Black_Lagoon/38/12/) early on from the "Greenback Jane" arc -- don't worry, it can be read in isolation without spoiling any of the real plot -- it's not just our shippy fangirl imaginations wondering if something is going on between those two. *grins* You can read the page before and after that one as well for more context in that scene without spoiling the main story arc -- I think both you and Red will get a huge kick out of that little conversation, it definitely had me squeeing!)
And of course, you know that I for one have no interest whatsoever in h/c or UST, nope, not me. *whistles tunelessly* Seriously, though, given the sorry state of this fandom on the fic front, ANYTHING you wanted to write, gen or shippy or anywhere in between, would be a Very Good Thing.
(Sorry, bunny-buns! I didn't mean to help distract your human...)
I just love Eda more and more each time we get to see her. And damn, Cho really called it -- she is just such a girl!Gojyo it's almost scary. I could totally see him in a scene just like that, boozing and bantering with a friend, right down to the oh-so-ladylike-NOT! body language.
Only three pages on the Pit? And I assume nothing much worth reading? That is a damn shame. And so wrong! Come on, that is a show rich with possibilities for smexying!
BARELY even three pages -- it's two pages, and then ONE story spilling past their page limit to make it run over to three. And that's not filtering strictly for Rock/Revy -- that's total stories of all types for the entire damn series. Pathetic, eh?
And yeah, I haven't yet read through them all, but the quality is largely meh, especially for the disappointing handful of Rock/Revy smut pieces. There's a few gen fics or fics focusing on other characters or pairings that are decent -- some of the Shenhua-centric stuff is not too bad, and there's a played-for-laughs Rock/Balalaika crackship piece that's quite amusing. But so far the only good Rock/Revy fic I've found was the one lonely thing in the Yuletide archive, and that was pretty much the same tone as the actual canon -- lots of subtext but no action.
I guess it does have a few strikes against it -- it only got licensed, what, last year? And the anime isn't playing on TV anywhere that I know of, so it's not getting any exposure that way... Plus I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of girls never look past the "boobs bullets and more boobs" cover art, and lack of fanservice guys to balance it out (and y'know, while I think all of the regular boys, Rock and Benny and Dutch and even Chang and Ginji, are pretty cute in their own ways, none of them are typical bishonen fangirl-bait), and just assume it's nothing but a brainless violent jigglefest for the fanboys. Which is a damn shame, because behind all that spectacular cleavage are some of the coolest female characters I've found since Avatar.
And while I'm not surprised that it doesn't have a fandom (if only because it's so good without all the other strikes against it), it's still disappointing.
PLEASE tell me this artist has more where those came from! That second one is just hysterical -- the facial expressions absolutely kill me, and damn, how did I get so distracted by the potential for tie!kink that I never even got around to considering the gun!kink potential? I feel like I need to hand in my pervert badge for the oversight or something.
And that first one, oh, it just makes me melt. Rock just looks so perfectly eager yet tentative, all "are you sure, are you really really sure?" -- love the little detail of two of his fingers not even quite touching her shoulder yet, like he's afraid to fully take hold. And Revy has one of those oh-so-rare soft "it's OK, baby, I'm here" expressions like she had in the "I am your gun" scene, or a more subdued and tender version of the happy face in the "were you a good boy?" rescue scene. Perfect and delicious. *happy sighs*
That second one is just hysterical -- the facial expressions absolutely kill me
It is, even if that's TOTALLY not how I imagine they sex lives... well, actually, I could see if after they've been in a relationship for a while.
And that first one, oh, it just makes me melt. Rock just looks so perfectly eager yet tentative, all "are you sure, are you really really sure?" -- love the little detail of two of his fingers not even quite touching her shoulder yet
Word. And I love how Rock's got one eye on the viewer, like he's going, 'shouldn't we shut the door?'
It is, even if that's TOTALLY not how I imagine they sex lives... well, actually, I could see if after they've been in a relationship for a while.
Yeah, I don't see Revy being the sort to basically rape someone at gunpoint, so in my mind that's a scene where they're an established couple and have consensually gone in for a spot of kink, which makes it OK and cute and hot. The gun's there for spice, not to force him to do anything he doesn't already really want to be doing; next time will probably be him tying her up or blindfolding her with one of his ties, and happy naughty good times are had by all.
And I love how Rock's got one eye on the viewer, like he's going, 'shouldn't we shut the door?'
Oh yeah. And all the little subtle touches that make me like it more the more I stare at it -- like the way she's all relaxed smooth lines sort of curving into him, while he's got this stiffness and tension in both his hand and the lines of his neck like he's caught between trying to move forward and pull back at the same time. But note this pulling back is all above the waist -- lower down they're pressed right up against each other, hip to hip. His brain's the last part struggling to hold back while his body is waiting for that spoilsport grey matter to just go along with the program already. ;)
Yeah, I don't see Revy being the sort to basically rape someone at gunpoint, so in my mind that's a scene where they're an established couple and have consensually gone in for a spot of kink, which makes it OK and cute and hot.
That's how it would have to play in my head, too.
His brain's the last part struggling to hold back while his body is waiting for that spoilsport grey matter to just go along with the program already. ;)
Yeah, I can kinda see Rock asking 'are you sure, are you sure,' over and over and over and Revy at a certain point just losing patience with him.
I know! I was really, really lucky - usually it takes WAY longer to find good icons than it did this time.
And I will totally shout if I find good fic, as long as you do the same. And I'll be writing something for spring kink, so.. there will be at least one. ^_^
Oh, absolutely! If I find *anything* good I guarantee I'll be squeeing madly to you and Cho, and anyone else I've sucked into the series by then, as soon as I finish reading it.
(And I am so, so happy that you're both bunnied for this, because I trust both of you to do them justice! If you need a beta or canon/cultural doublechecking or anything for that, feel free to holler!)
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I would change nothing about this icon, I love the coloring, the starbust of light down in the right corner and the way the text perfectly meshes with the picture. I use if for talking about Saiyuki.... and honestly, I should use it more.
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Just from curiosity, what are the titles of the books? I need some good reading material for my one-week-holiday.
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I would HIGHLY recommend them. Imagine England and France are one country, getting attacked not by the Germans but by a mysterious enemy from a different dimension and while working on a secret weapon to use against them, Our Heroine and a group of her fellows get shifted into another dimension (also being attached by the same enemy), where she meets with two classic 'barbarian warriors' - only their culture is a more tropical location and the most functional and realistic matriarchal so I've read.
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Thank you!
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I use this when I'm being a bit snarky or I'm in a bit of a mood.
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(Let me know if you find any good fic...I have been searching and searching and the pickings are just depressingly slim. Also, I ended up starting in on the scanlations despite my good intentions of working through the anime first, and oooh, if you haven't started it already, I think the "Greenback Jane" arc will make you very, very happy on the Dangerous Ladies and badass-female-bonding front. *hearts*)
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Oh crud. And here I was waiting for the books to come out ... .
I haven't found any artwork yet that really screams "icon me!"
:-(
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I've grabbed the box set of the anime's first season, if you ever want to check out a couple of episodes. It's fun stuff, very well-cast seiyuu (even if in my head, Dutch can only have the voice of Avery Brooks), and you gotta love a series that earns a NSFW tag even before the opening sequence is done! But watching stuff I've alredy read and straining my ears to try to figure out just how rude Revy's language just doesn't scratch the same itch as shiny new story arcs...
and where oh where is all the juicy Rock/Revy smut? PERVS OF THE INTERNET, I'M VERY DISAPPOINTED IN YOU...no subject
I can't smut them yet - the whole relationship is still much too tenuous. Revy's gonzo when she's fighting but cautious about anything else, and Rock is, well, Rock - you were right as far as it went when you pegged him as Hakkai, but he doesn't have that totally psycho other side.
I have something in mind, but it's a cautious, tentative hurt-comfort thing set just before the end of the current arc, when they have to pick up the pieces and get ready to go back to Thailand.
(And I have something I want to do for this week's saiyuki_time too ... you'd think I could manage to fit in 20 minutes ... .)
And that tiny growling you hear in the distance is the bunnies blesing you out, because I just spent 25 minutes searching for art to use for Black Lagoon icons ... no wonder I never have time to write, I have the attention span of a 4-yr-old these evenings.
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Ugh, I know. I was like 'sexy fun times!' ..oh, wait, these two are going to be a bitch to get in the same bed, aren't they? Even worse than Zuko and Katara.
Also, I can't wait to read that.
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Can you tell me more about this, please?
Because writing meta for these two is so much easier than plotting porn...
Everything about his old life, trying so hard to play by the rules and do everything the right way, makes me think he was probably doing the same thing in relationships -- dating because everyone else was and you're supposed to find a nice girl and get married eventually, going for all the most conventional romantic gestures on a date or following a mental checklist of what the advice columns say you're supposed to do in bed -- so worried about giving the right impression and doing all the right things that he's never really entirely relaxing and being himself. All the little bits where he seems to want to be more of a hero, even when the story and circumstances all work against it, makes me think he's probably got more than a bit of a romantic streak, too -- he wants to be something bigger and more dramatic than the drab little emotionally empty paint-by-numbers life he was living, and throwing his entire old life away to follow a scary violent gunslinger girl into the underworld or mouthing off about his ideas with a gun trained on his head shows the potential he has for making big, crazy gestures in chasing that more dramatic sort of life.
Revy, with all the hints of her horrible childhood, I'm guessing quite likely was sexually active from a younger age, and quite possibly not under the best circumstances; it wouldn't surprise me if she's had at least some unhappy runins with non-con/dub-con situations, especially before she picked up her gun skills, and we know that she's done sex work; the way she looks, and the places she's lived and worked, encounters with skeezy guys would be inevitable, and judging by how blase she was around Chaka, or the strip-club boss, she's experienced enough of that sort to be pretty blase about dealing with them.
I'm not sure if I can see her involved in actual prostitution rather than just the live BDSM shows that have been mentioned in canon, but her will to survive at any cost is strong enough that I wouldn't totally discount the possibility; if she were in a place where it was her only option, she'd definitely do it. I'm not getting any real sense that she's been in love before: emotional intimacy is I think something she'd be vastly warier of than physical closeness. I don't think she has a lot of body-image issues in general, she clearly has no problem running about in very skimpy gear or even being seen in her underwear; any insecurities there I'm thinking would be most likely to crop up only in the context where she's starting to develop an emotional attachment, and it would be more of an outgrowth of general insecurity about her self-worth and shady background -- like with those hints of jealousy around Yukio, I'd see potential issues there being less that Yukio was younger and conventionally pretty, and more that her lack of physical scars, conventionally feminine appearance and mannerisms, etc., all reflect a sort of good-girl innocence that Revy has never had -- so it'd be less "crap, she's so pretty and I'm not" and more "if this is the sort of sweet-and-innocent milquetoast girl he likes, I don't stand a chance".
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So, going from the generalities to Rock/Revy specifics...while I think in general she'd have no trouble bluntly going after some guy she fancies for a quick tumble, the whole fear-of-emotional intimacy could make her a lot more twitchy and nervous here than she generally is. She already thinks Rock knows her well enough to see through some of her acts, and I think she has him up on a bit of a pedestal as a Nice Guy who's maybe a little too nice for a amoral, soiled guttersnipe like her, all of which might make her a little reluctant to go for her usual "You. Me. Bed. NOW." approach. And Rock in turn I think is still struggling with some of his lingering Nice Guy Who Plays By The Rules programming, which would make it tricky for him to take that final step of openly expressing interest in a friend and coworker. This is the big hurdle I have trouble plotting past in my head, something has to give one or both of them a push; Revy in particular I think could throw all caution to the winds if she just got the right hint of encouragement, and we've seen time and again already how Rock's more bold and impulsive streak comes to the surface when faced with a challenge; it's just a matter of who gets triggered, and how, but once that trigger is set off I think it could be very much sparks on dry tinder; lots of room for second thoughts and emotional insecurities flaring up again later, but instant conflagration for now. And they really seem like a wonderfully volatile pairing IMO because Revy's bluntness and aggression could bring out a more forceful, passionate or even flat-out kinky side that Rock might have been afraid to ever express before, while at the same time he's still enough of a nice guy that he'd also be bringing in a level of tenderness that she's probably not at all accustomed to; not to mention the unaccustomed emotional charge of intimacy and vulnerability in sleeping with someone she actually has feelings for, and who cares for her, even if neither of them has come out and said anything about it. I definitely don't see her being one to have an easy time verbally expressing love rather than lust, and while Rock seems like the one who'd have an easier time talking about his feelings, I can picture her even freaking out a little just from having the big scary unspoken laid out on the table like that...
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I definitely thing that Rock's love life was rather by-the-book -high school or college sweetheart, one or two relationships afterwards, both of which ended before marriage could really be called into question.
Revy, with all the hints of her horrible childhood, I'm guessing quite likely was sexually active from a younger age, and quite possibly not under the best circumstances; it wouldn't surprise me if she's had at least some unhappy runins with non-con/dub-con situations
So very much word. I think Revy has a had a lot of really ugly relationships/sexual interactions. Part of the reason that I don't think she's done straight up prostitution is that she seem a little... too raw for it. Like, I don't think she'd quite detached enough. She might have done it once or twice when she really, really had to, but I highly doubt it was a regular thing in any way.
any insecurities there I'm thinking would be most likely to crop up only in the context where she's starting to develop an emotional attachment, and it would be more of an outgrowth of general insecurity about her self-worth and shady background -- like with those hints of jealousy around Yukio, I'd see potential issues there being less that Yukio was younger and conventionally pretty, and more that her lack of physical scars, conventionally feminine appearance and mannerisms, etc., all reflect a sort of good-girl innocence that Revy has never had -- so it'd be less "crap, she's so pretty and I'm not" and more "if this is the sort of sweet-and-innocent milquetoast girl he likes, I don't stand a chance".
Agreed. Honestly, body issues is one things I DON'T think Revy would have any trouble with. It would be much more issues with her personality and history and scars (emotional, mental, and physical).
So, going from the generalities to Rock/Revy specifics...while I think in general she'd have no trouble bluntly going after some guy she fancies for a quick tumble, the whole fear-of-emotional intimacy could make her a lot more twitchy and nervous here than she generally is.
Agreed. I can totally see her hanging Anko-esque pick up skills when she's just in the mood for a quick fuck, but I think Rock would throw her for enough of a loop that I can't quite see her be the aggressor.
This is the big hurdle I have trouble plotting past in my head, something has to give one or both of them a push; Revy in particular I think could throw all caution to the winds if she just got the right hint of encouragement, and we've seen time and again already how Rock's more bold and impulsive streak comes to the surface when faced with a challenge; it's just a matter of who gets triggered, and how
*nods* And that's the hardest part of it - figuring how where to push them and with what.
while Rock seems like the one who'd have an easier time talking about his feelings, I can picture her even freaking out a little just from having the big scary unspoken laid out on the table like that...
Oh, certainly. Actually, Revy's freak-out when/if Rock ever said 'I love you' would be pretty damn epic.
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Yeah, he seems to have been so alienated and emotionally disconnected from everything else in his past life -- family, schooling, job -- that I tend to imagine his romantic life would be more of the same; things would just sort of fizzle out before they ever got really serious. No huge blowups or infidelities or anything, just more of a vague mutual ennui eventually leading to a "you know, this isn't really working, let's just be friends" deal; ending not with a bang nor a whimper, but more of a resigned shrug.
I think Rock would throw her for enough of a loop that I can't quite see her be the aggressor.
Or at the very least, definitely not in her usual style. I can maybe see her going after him if he gives some initial sign that he's interested, and maybe there's the right mix of circumstances -- drunk off their asses, buzzed on adrenaline and/or endorphins from a particularly close call or injury, whatever, something to lower her inhibitions enough to get past the hurdle of the vulnerability of making a move on someone she actually gives a damn about, and doesn't want to lose as a friend. But just in a more everyday sort of situation and dead-sober, I can't see it. She's already softened up so much around him, even compared to how she acts around the handful of other people she likes and treats as friends, even if she might never use the word herself. And I'd think that closeness and exposure of a vulnerable softer side has got to be scary and unprecedented enough for her that she would be intensely wary of taking things any further and fucking it all up beyond repair.
Actually, Revy's freak-out when/if Rock ever said 'I love you' would be pretty damn epic.
Ooooh yeah, especially since we've seen the one thing he won't tolerate is her being a coward about her feelings...
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Yep, yep.
Ooooh yeah, especially since we've seen the one thing he won't tolerate is her being a coward about her feelings...
There could be tie-loosening. *rarw*
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Bwah, great minds do think alike! XD I just can't decide which image is yummier, Rock doing his usual tie-comes-off-this-means-I'm-SERIOUS thing, or Revy ripping the tie off him or using it as a handle.
Not to mention a little light necktie bondage...yum!no subject
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Yeah, it might almost be fairer to say Rock is closer to Tenpou, perhaps? He has a very twisty brain that can be a big surprise to people who want to write him entirely on the basis of the mild-mannered initial impression, and he has more backbone and recklessness towards his own safety than people expect from him. But Hakkai's beyond subtly twisted, he's flat-out cracked right through the core, and the mending doesn't always hold... Rock may be a little battered around the edges, but he doesn't feel flat-out broken like that.
I have something in mind, but it's a cautious, tentative hurt-comfort thing set just before the end of the current arc, when they have to pick up the pieces and get ready to go back to Thailand.
Yay! And I don't think it spoils anything important to say that you've got space in canon to write something there, because the next arc picks up some unspecified time period after the return to Thailand -- long enough for Revy's leg to have healed, at the very least, but not so long that everyone has caught up on hearing what happened when they were in Japan. (And as you can see from this page (http://www.onemanga.com/Black_Lagoon/38/12/) early on from the "Greenback Jane" arc -- don't worry, it can be read in isolation without spoiling any of the real plot -- it's not just our shippy fangirl imaginations wondering if something is going on between those two. *grins* You can read the page before and after that one as well for more context in that scene without spoiling the main story arc -- I think both you and Red will get a huge kick out of that little conversation, it definitely had me squeeing!)
And of course, you know that I for one have no interest whatsoever in h/c or UST, nope, not me. *whistles tunelessly* Seriously, though, given the sorry state of this fandom on the fic front, ANYTHING you wanted to write, gen or shippy or anywhere in between, would be a Very Good Thing.
(Sorry, bunny-buns! I didn't mean to help distract your human...)
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And yeah, I haven't yet read through them all, but the quality is largely meh, especially for the disappointing handful of Rock/Revy smut pieces. There's a few gen fics or fics focusing on other characters or pairings that are decent -- some of the Shenhua-centric stuff is not too bad, and there's a played-for-laughs Rock/Balalaika crackship piece that's quite amusing. But so far the only good Rock/Revy fic I've found was the one lonely thing in the Yuletide archive, and that was pretty much the same tone as the actual canon -- lots of subtext but no action.
I guess it does have a few strikes against it -- it only got licensed, what, last year? And the anime isn't playing on TV anywhere that I know of, so it's not getting any exposure that way... Plus I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of girls never look past the "boobs bullets and more boobs" cover art, and lack of fanservice guys to balance it out (and y'know, while I think all of the regular boys, Rock and Benny and Dutch and even Chang and Ginji, are pretty cute in their own ways, none of them are typical bishonen fangirl-bait), and just assume it's nothing but a brainless violent jigglefest for the fanboys. Which is a damn shame, because behind all that spectacular cleavage are some of the coolest female characters I've found since Avatar.
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And while I'm not surprised that it doesn't have a fandom (if only because it's so good without all the other strikes against it), it's still disappointing.
Speaking of, Rock/Revy, have you seen these?
The art is by shadowkira. And I think for the comment for that last one, she said, 'it's not going to lick itself....'
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PLEASE tell me this artist has more where those came from! That second one is just hysterical -- the facial expressions absolutely kill me, and damn, how did I get so distracted by the potential for tie!kink that I never even got around to considering the gun!kink potential? I feel like I need to hand in my pervert badge for the oversight or something.
And that first one, oh, it just makes me melt. Rock just looks so perfectly eager yet tentative, all "are you sure, are you really really sure?" -- love the little detail of two of his fingers not even quite touching her shoulder yet, like he's afraid to fully take hold. And Revy has one of those oh-so-rare soft "it's OK, baby, I'm here" expressions like she had in the "I am your gun" scene, or a more subdued and tender version of the happy face in the "were you a good boy?" rescue scene. Perfect and delicious. *happy sighs*
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That second one is just hysterical -- the facial expressions absolutely kill me
It is, even if that's TOTALLY not how I imagine they sex lives... well, actually, I could see if after they've been in a relationship for a while.
And that first one, oh, it just makes me melt. Rock just looks so perfectly eager yet tentative, all "are you sure, are you really really sure?" -- love the little detail of two of his fingers not even quite touching her shoulder yet
Word. And I love how Rock's got one eye on the viewer, like he's going, 'shouldn't we shut the door?'
*wibbles*
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Yeah, I don't see Revy being the sort to basically rape someone at gunpoint, so in my mind that's a scene where they're an established couple and have consensually gone in for a spot of kink, which makes it OK and cute and hot. The gun's there for spice, not to force him to do anything he doesn't already really want to be doing; next time will probably be him tying her up or blindfolding her with one of his ties, and happy naughty good times are had by all.
And I love how Rock's got one eye on the viewer, like he's going, 'shouldn't we shut the door?'
Oh yeah. And all the little subtle touches that make me like it more the more I stare at it -- like the way she's all relaxed smooth lines sort of curving into him, while he's got this stiffness and tension in both his hand and the lines of his neck like he's caught between trying to move forward and pull back at the same time. But note this pulling back is all above the waist -- lower down they're pressed right up against each other, hip to hip. His brain's the last part struggling to hold back while his body is waiting for that spoilsport grey matter to just go along with the program already. ;)
*joins you in happy wibbling*
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That's how it would have to play in my head, too.
His brain's the last part struggling to hold back while his body is waiting for that spoilsport grey matter to just go along with the program already. ;)
Yeah, I can kinda see Rock asking 'are you sure, are you sure,' over and over and over and Revy at a certain point just losing patience with him.
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And I will totally shout if I find good fic, as long as you do the same. And I'll be writing something for spring kink, so.. there will be at least one. ^_^
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(And I am so, so happy that you're both bunnied for this, because I trust both of you to do them justice! If you need a beta or canon/cultural doublechecking or anything for that, feel free to holler!)
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And I'll totally take you up on the beta-ing.