#I know it might be weird for Ichigo cause he met her in kid form but like

[kingofanemptyworld]

the other thing I really love about grimmichi as a ship is that you cannot separate Grimmjow from Ichigo no matter who you actually like him with romantically (if anyone). it’d be one thing if he came back in TYBW and either snubbed Ichigo or had moved on but no he is very much still gunning for a rematch. it’s been like 2 years. maybe not a lot of time for a hollow but I mean. c’mon. I’ll never be over Grimmjow trying to butt into the call with Urahara because he heard Ichigo’s voice on the other end. man was desperate for attention you can’t convince me otherwise

[darisu-chan]

The Setting Sun

Prompt: Angst Daily Themes: Rain, Ghost, Breathe

Summary: After many years, Rukia goes to Karakura Town to visit Ichigo one last time.

You can also read it here.

They are close. So close that he can hear her breathing gently, he can feel the warmth radiating from her, and her reiatsu enveloping him in a soft cocoon, his own responding in recognition. It is familiar. It is like being at home. And her fingers are also close to his, but he doesn’t dare cross the line and touch them. He knows they are soft and calloused at the same time, as well as cold as ice. Still, he doesn’t dare. He can’t.

“Rukia?” He calls to her. She turns her dove eyes to him.

“Yes?”

“Do you remember when you told me that when I was ready to talk, that I could come to you and tell you everything?” He sees the memories flashing across her indigo eyes, just as they are flashing in his own mind. A graveyard, trees, imminent danger, a fifteen year old boy, a Shinigami in a gigai, and a promise. It feels like it happened a lifetime away. In some ways, it has been a lifetime since then.

“Yes, I remember, Ichigo.” She answers simply, trying to recover from the daze she was trapped in thanks to the memories.

“I’m ready now.” The man says softly.

Rukia’s lips part as if she were to say something, and then she shakes her head. “I’m here. I’m listening.”

“My mother she was… well, there’s only one way to put it: she was like the sun, and my whole family ─dad, Yuzu, Karin, and me─ revolved around her. I loved her more than anything in this world. Whenever I cried or felt bad, I just had to look at her to feel happy again. I think it was the same for my sisters.” He pauses to take a breath, and Rukia scoots closer, to hear him better.

“Go on.” She says smiling.

“When I was a kid, my parents told me the meaning of my name, ‘he who protects’, and since then I decided I wanted to protect people, my sisters, when they were born, my dad, and my mom. I wanted to show my mom I could protect her, that I could be her strength.” He laughs at his childhood memories. There were of a time when he had been carefree and truly happy. He cherishes them now, almost with reverence.

“But… things didn’t stay the same.” He sobers up instantly. “When I was eight, I was walking home with my mother on a rainy day. At that time, I couldn’t really distinguish humans from spirits, so I fell for Grand Fisher’s lure, which I’m sure you know about.”

Rukia nods. “Yes, I heard he used a lure to attract spirits and humans.”

“The lure took the form of a girl, jumping into the river. I thought it was a real person, and I hurried to rescue her. My mom shouted at me, telling me to come back, but I didn’t listen. Then, something hit me and I lost consciousness. When I woke up, I was resting on the grass… and my mother was on top of me… I called to her, but she didn’t answer… she was gone.”

“Ichigo.” Rukia whispers, and raises her hand to reach his own. But she stops midway, and brings her hand to rest on her lap. Ichigo wishes she had put it on top of his hand instead.

“For the longest time I thought her death had been my fault. I felt extremely guilty that, because of my actions, I had ripped my family apart. My dad was left without his precious wife. Yuzu and Karin were left without a mother to raise them. If only I hadn’t run, if I had listened to my mother, then she would be alive. Other times, I thought it’d be best if I had been the one who had died. Don’t get me wrong, my family never made me feel as if it had been my fault, and they would surely be angry if they heard me say something like this. But, deep down, I had that seed of self-hatred inside of me. Hating myself for being powerless and defenseless when I should’ve saved my mother. And then I got involved with the Shinigami world, and found out that a Hollow had killed my mother. Grand Fisher. It hadn’t been an accident.

“Do you remember when you pointed out I might have attracted the Hollow with my high reiatsu?” He asks, and Rukia shakes her head.

“Don’t remind me. I was tactless. I was a fool. I shouldn’t have implied that you caused her death. It was awful of me.”

Then, Ichigo shakes his own head. “You didn’t mean to. You tried to make sense of a situation in a way any Shinigami would. You were trying to help me. And then I thought that if a Hollow had been after me from the beginning, my mother, a simple human, wouldn’t have been able to protect herself anyway. One of us would’ve died that day.” He takes a deep breath before continuing. “That day at the cemetery, my dad told me that my mother had died protecting me. But as it turns out, it was much more complicated than I had thought, for she in fact fought Grand Fisher to save me.”

This surprises Rukia. “What?”

“Maybe you’ve heard already… maybe not. But I might was well tell you this now too. My mother was a Quincy.”

Rukia blinks. “I… I heard something along those lines.” She admits. “I was surprised at first, but then… not so much.”

Ichigo laughs. “I was just as surprised when my father told me. Who would’ve thought that a Shinigami and a Quincy would fall in love and get married? But it happened. As it turns out, when dad was still a captain, which I know you know, he came here to investigate a weird Hollow, which happened to be an experiment by Aizen, like most everything that has happened in Soul Society.” He says ironically, and Rukia chuckles. “Anyway, he came here, found the Hollow, and fought it. My dumb father was getting bested during the fight, and almost lost, when a girl appeared out of nowhere, and fought the Hollow. That girl was my mother, a teenager back then. She was of a pure blood line of Quincies, and was living with Ishida’s family, no less. The Hollow hurt her, though, and my mom fell ill. Urahara-san came to the rescue and said that the only way to save her was for my father to tether his life to hers, becoming a human, the opposite of a Hollow. That’s how I got my Hollow powers… from my mom, I mean.”

Rukia listens and doesn’t say anything, just getting closer to him, for Ichigo’s voice started getting softer. “She died because of Ywach.” He says suddenly.

The Shinigami gasps. “What?”

“He stole her powers, and she couldn’t protect herself. That’s why she died fighting against Grand Fisher.” Then, he starts coughing.

Rukia reaches him and rubs his back. “Maybe we should stop this conversation. It’s making you ill.”

Ichigo shakes his head. “No, I need to tell you… If I don’t tell you now, I might never be able to.”

Rukia sighs at his stubbornness. He hasn’t changed. In some ways, he is still the same fifteen year old boy she met many years ago. “Then, proceed.”

“I guess that what I mean to say is ever since her death, I felt powerless, as if I couldn’t do anything. And then, you came along and showed me this new world, and gave me the power to protect. So, thank you, Rukia.”

She shakes her head. “No, there’s no need to thank me. You always had power within you, you just didn’t know it then. All I did was release it.”

“I don’t think so. Without you, I might have never developed them.”

“It might have been better.” Rukia says bitterly. “You wouldn’t have had to be in so many battles. You wouldn’t have lost your powers.”

Ichigo breathes shakily. He cannot imagine a world where he never met her. The thought is unbearable. With shaky hands, he takes hers into his, feeling the smooth skin under his thumbs. “Never say that again, Rukia!” He says passionately. “My life got better when I met you. I wasn’t powerless anymore, and I found someone who could understand…” He decides to keep going and spill his heart. It’s his last chance. “Those seventeen months without seeing you or hearing from you were hell. You have no idea how happy you made me when you came back.”

Rukia starts tearing up. “Oh, Ichigo.” She squeezes his hands, giving him strength.

“And then… and then we both got separated again, right?” He says, remembering the end of the war, Ywach, the Quincies, and the Soul Society in ruins. “We made some tough decisions.”

The Shinigami bites her lips. “It had to be done.”

“Duty won against the heart. But it’s always like that, isn’t it?” He says, not bitterly nor remorseful, just stating a fact.

“That’s the life of a Shinigami.” Rukia agrees, and starts pulling her hands away when Ichigo grabs her more fiercely this time.

“I’ve missed you, you know. I’ve missed fighting Hollows with you, going to school with you, bickering with you, even your ugly drawings…”

“Hey! My drawings aren’t ugly!” Rukia bites back immediately, falling back into their old dynamic.

“That’s what I mean.” Ichigo smiles. “You gave meaning to my life in ways I can’t describe. But I had to let you go, and let you live your life. And I’ve lived mine. I can’t say there haven’t been regrets, or that I have been happy the entire time. I can’t say I stopped missing you or thinking about you every day these past decades. But I’ve tried, because I knew you wouldn’t want be to be sad.”

“No, not at all.”

Ichigo entwines their fingers. “Do you regret it?”

“There are things I’d change. Other memories, I’d keep the same.” She states, and Ichigo smiles. He knows what she means.

“I’m glad I could at least see you one last time.” He says. It’s getting hard to breathe. “I had a feeling I’d see you today.”

Rukia smiles, caressing his knuckles. “I too had a feeling today was a good day to visit.”

It starts raining, and the sound lulls Ichigo. He can barely keep his eyes open. All he wants to do is sleep, but fears Rukia will disappear from his sight, leaving behind a specter, like it has happened before.

“I’m tired.” He whispers. The rain starts falling harder outside.

“I know.” Rukia says sadly, still touching his hands.

“Is it alright if I sleep for a bit?” He rasps out, his eyes already closing.

“Yes.” She says, hardly keeping her tears at bay.

Ichigo closes his eyes, the last thing he sees is her face, smiling at him. It doesn’t matter if it’s been already sixty years since the first time they met, she’s still as breathtakingly beautiful as ever. Her skin hasn’t been touched by time, whereas he has lost all of his youth, ending up frail and wrinkly. His hair is gone now, as all of his body muscle. And he’s so damn tired all of the time. Now, more than ever. He closes his eyes, smiling, the image of Rukia on his mind.

The old man in front of her falls asleep, his chest rising and falling with difficulty. He isn’t breathing correctly. Each breath seems to be his last. Rukia cries openly now. There’s something she can’t will herself to ignore anymore. Kurosaki Ichigo is dying. This seems to be his last day on Earth. It hurts to see him in pain. It hurts to see the boy she saved, the one who saved her, in this state. He looks so weak. A far cry from the hero that’s edged on Rukia’s brain. The man who destroyed the Sokyoku to save her.

Rukia continues holding his hands, her thumbs softly moving against his skin. It’s rough and wrinkled, but warm. It’s Ichigo’s. She waits until Ichigo hardly breathes anymore. A machine connected to his heart starts beating. Doctors and nurses surround Ichigo, never once realizing that there’s a Shinigami in the room. They try saving him, they bark orders at each other, but Rukia knows it’s too late. Today is the day, and she came because she couldn’t miss it.

Ichigo’s heart stops, and Rukia’s own seems to stop too, as she waits for the inevitable to happen. The old man in the hospital bed isn’t breathing, but the spirit in front of her is. He is different to the dead man. He is strong, tall, and his aura exudes youth. His hair is orange again, and his warm brown eyes look directly at hers.

“Rukia.” He whispers, and she bursts out crying. Her Ichigo is back.

“Let’s go home.” She says, her hand reaching his. He takes it.

The two Shinigami leave the hospital room together, disappearing from view.

Outside, the rain stops.

[fluffandfiteme-archived]

#JustKeepWriting 1/13/17

Not 15 minutes ago I was planning to go to sleep. Between the ping pong game the medical “professionals” are playing regarding my mother’s well being and my own matters, I have been drained and exhausted. An unrelated note, the death of diets is mothers. I haven’t given up on eating less, but today certainly took a hit.

But no, as I went into my mother’s room to say good night, she read a question of her social media site of choice-Quora, a privately run question and answer site. A single question ignited me, and now I must write on a topic I have before, and likely will again.

“What is a Mary Sue and how do I avoid writing one?”

I sucked in my breath before answering. You see, in my dozen years of dabbling in social circles based on movies, games, and shows I have encountered this term. It has been used to terrify young women who really want to write a character who happens to be extraordinary. Most often it was used to refer to fan created characters who appeared in fan fiction or role play, frequently pairing off with a pre-existing character and potentially changing the course of canon.

I mean not that that it doesn’t make complete sense that a new character of substance could change the course of a history. Because you know what? It really does.

It was usually used as a shaming technique on female writers or writers who created female characters. Often called overpowered, too perfect, too happy, and too tragic and angsty all at the same time.

Over the years, the name calling of Mary Sue has moved to canonical characters, in other words, characters in the main narrative by the same writer as everyone else who do appear in the work. A fresh example was regarding Rey, in Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens. Before that, I remember Xion who appeared in Kingdom Hearts Days. Technically there’s a number in that title, but it was confusing and false advertising so everyone calls it Days. Bella Swan from Twilight and the character that was once literally her in fanfiction, Anastasia Steele from 50 Shades of Grey have both been called it. (Yes, I read it. Will probably continue to for research to further tear it apart and write alternate reality fiction. Who knows, maybe I’ll knock off 50 to expose the dangers and conflict caused by the so called romance).

During the brief questioning regarding Rey, I wrote on my old blog comparing her to Anakin and Luke Skywalker as they appeared in the previous trilogies. Except I did it without identifying any of them until after their scores were in. My scoring methods were simple: did they follow the core components of Wikipedia’s definition, and how high did they score on the Universal Mary Sue Test.

[The mentioned Quiz is found here ]

[The full posts can be found here and here

Shockingly of the three leads, Rey scored the lowest on both counts. She was the most balanced of the characters. Anakin was inching onto the Sue scale. And Luke was no holds barred.

But you know what the funny thing I noticed in my own experiences are?

I have never once heard someone call a male character a Mary Sue. Now, there is a term for it-Gary or Marty Stu. But I have literally never heard it used.

(I mean, there are characters that are just really badly written, but this is about the Mary Sue stigma used to keep female characters demur, weak, and undeveloped.)

Now, the wikipedia intro blurb defines a Mary Sue as:

“An idealized and seemingly perfect fictional character, a young or  low rank person who saves the day through unrealistic abilities. Often this character is recognized as an author insert or wish fulfillment.”

Author insert aside, because fuck you I have two characters that started that way but both of them and I have diverged and developed completely independent and because I write them well, no one could guess, and most enjoy writing against them in role play.

Idealized and seemingly perfection fictional character, often young or low rank who saves the day through unrealistic abilities.

Literally any and all Jedi could be shoved under this category.

Kingdom Hearts is literally full of lead characters and supporting cast fitting this classification-not to speak of Square Enix and Disney, the parent companies.

One could say Bella qualifies, given her unique resistance to vampire abilities, her teenage status, and how all the boys and girls lobe her.

The same cannot actually be said about her fanfiction counterpart, Ana Steele? I refuse to count 21 as young, she doesn’t save the day through unrealistic abilities, and she is not perfect.

But you know what? By that definite, Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, is a Mary Sue. He was a kid from Brooklyn, barely old enough to be drafted, if he had ever qualified. He was poor as dirt, so also of low rank. He has no real character flaws of note, Civil War not withstanding because that’s a separate issue but the narrative still displays him as in the right. And suddenly through the power of science, he becomes a super human and saves the world time and time again.

Or hey kids, how about Batman? Little Bruce Wayne is orphaned, but over the years trains and uses the family fortune profits to run the company, improve Gotham City’s socioeconomic structure, win multiple hearts and minds, and oh yeah, create an arsenal of super advanced and cool tools and weapons with a bat theme, including a car, a super computer, a suit, and a secret lab.

Oh! Aragorn! You know, the Ranger, Strider, Aka, Aragorn, Son of Arathorn, Isulder’s heir from Lord of the Rings? His mother literally died dropping him on the doorstep of the elves in Rivendell. Thus he became a human raised among them, and oh yeah, he’s a Dunedin (not sure how that’s spelled) with super ranger tracking abilities and extra long life expectancy. Not like elf long, but easily topping dwarf or Hobbit. Wins the heart of Arwen, then Eowyn, basically the only two female characters that aren’t Galadirel. Who by the way is Arwen’s aunt so that would be weird. He unites the previously warring peoples of Elves, different nations of man, and even a few hobbits and a dwarf. And I mean like literally the day before he gave King Theodan a pep talk, Rohan was of the mind Gondor could go screw themselves. And the elves had been completely indifferent. Oh, and lets not forget the special chosen prince totally not Excaliber sword he used to summon the army of ghosts that wiped out the entire force attacking Minas Tirith.

Captain Kirk. Even before the reboot, he was mister Captain Perfect Hair. He could do no wrong, and generally had a different lover interest every episode. And oh yeah, he was born in Iowa, pre reboot, a good old country boy.

Lets see, Marvel, DC, Fantasy, Scifi…

I feel like I need anime and video game examples next.

Bleach. An old favorite though some of the final arc decisions-well, let me be honest, the final pairing decisions, left me put off. Anyway. Ichigo Kurosaki is the lead character. Spoilers ahead for anyone not familiar. It turns out he’s a half Shinigami on his father’s side, half Quincy on his mother’s side, and a pinch of Hollow because house Isshin met his mother. Which means all three main races, that DO NOT GET ALONG THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE SERIES, he is part of. Even at the beginning of the show, he’s got the ability to see ghosts and spirits, and seems to be able to take on entire gangs on his own. He is a poor boy whose father runs an urgent care clinic, and is guilt stricken constantly about the death of his mother. Which later becomes a major plot point like twice over to give him angst. Once given Shinigami powers, or once his powers awaken, he is an instant bad ass, having more abundant spirit energy then anyone has ever seen. Literally every time a rule is explained in Bleach, you know its purpose is for Ichigo to break that rule. And oh yeah, with the exception of the lesbian and his sisters, literally every female character of note who encounters Ichigo has a a desire or longing for him of some form. Rangiku might be an exception, but I know Rukia, Orihime, Neliel, and Tatsuki all have a thing for him. And yes, he saves all of existence pretty regularly.

Video games are rife with examples of this blatancy. Cloud Strife comes to mind, a well known character from Final Fantasy VII. Multiple unlockable date scenes, boy from the country, tragic story. Low rank, still saves the world with the power of friendship. (TELL ME I’M WRONG). But I will also cite a much older known character.

Mario. Mario of Super Mario Brothers, Mario Party, and Mario Cart. Among many others. He is a plumber, who accidentally found up in the Mushroom Kingdom through the pipes. There he learns he can crush enemies by jumping on them, double in size if he eats the right mushroom, and develop a number of abilities such as pyrokinesis or growing a tail and being able to fly. And of course, he defeats the dragon and saves the princess. Remember: he is a plumber.

Now here’s my point. All of these characters would fulfill the qualifications of a Mary Sue. But none of them have ever been called one. Why not? I assume because they each have a penis. (Except maybe Cloud. I maintain Cloud is a gender fluid female).

There is literally an anime out about a dude who wins everything in one punch. If it was a chick I guarantee it would not have gotten past an episode.

The point I am making here is: most stories feature a hero that starts at a low point of some form, be it tragedy, rank, or age. They may develop a love interest, and eventually save the world through extraordinary means. This is actually a skeleton that can be applied to almost any movie, book, game, or show.

But that doesn’t mean they can’t be enjoyed. I encourage you to keep loving Batman and Captain America and Aragorn, and everyone else I highlighted. What I also encourage is to compare a female character if she wasn’t female to Batman, Superman, Captain America, or Aragorn. You may find Mary Sue falls apart. I know I have.

I have a friend. A chosen sister. We butt heads for a while because I got so paranoid about making overpowered characters, I didn’t like writing with them-even if they weren’t mine. I’ve now realized that’s not the point. If you write a character well, and let the reader or viewer understand that through the narrative, that’s all that matters. Male, female, power level, rank, and number of love interests just don’t matter.

Mary Sue doesn’t matter.

Perhaps I’ll bring back Mary Sue Monday...