#not quite keiko

[luckystarchild]

Though my photoshop skills are meager at best, I tried my hand at swapping the colors of OG!Keiko's uniform to the colors of NQK's Meiou uniform (obviously it's not the right style but it's close!), and I edited her hair into an approximation of her Lucky Child style (just cut out the bottom fringe part, really).

Not skilled enough to do much else, but it's really cool to see NQK in the style of Yu Yu Hakusho. May do this to more screenshots eventually because it really makes it feel like she's part of canon!

[luckychild]

Do you have plans with writting NQK as non-binary in the future?

Short answer: No. Not the way most people seem to want, anyway.

Long answer: Not explicitly, and definitely not using Western terms.

There are many Doylist Reasons for this.

Since the fic is set in 1990s era Japan, the term "non-binary" isn't in use in Lucky Child's setting. The word just wasn't in use in that place or time. The modern Japanese term is "x-gender," but that won't be in use for a while yet in NQK's world (like the early 2000s).

Pronouns work differently in Japanese than they do in English, so requesting they/them pronouns or the term "non-binary" doesn't make sense for NQK.

I didn't come out as non-binary until the story was like 75% completed. Inserting a "coming-out narrative" into the story would take up time and space in a narrative that was not constructed to support one. I would have to completely shoe-horn it into the story, changing my intentions for the very important, carefully crafted final act. It would bloat an already crowded narrative with something the narrative doesn't need to deliver on all the promises it set up in previous chapters. Inserting a coming-out story so late in the game would not make for good storytelling.

There are also Watsonian Reasons.

There are hints of NQK's dissatisfaction with gender throughout the story. From challenging Minato's treatment of them to Botan's observations of NQK's wardrobe, it's easy to pinpoint moments where evidence of their shirking of gender norms shines through. (The signs of my eventual coming-out are very obvious to me in retrospect.)

But while the signs are there, NQK is a very busy person who has a lot on their plate. Preventing the end of the world, being embroiled in a plot involving gods and goddesses, maintaining canon... they have a lot on their mind. And honestly? Their gender is the last thing on it. They are too freakin' busy to pay it any mind right now. In a few years, maybe. But right now, they're too distracted to care much.

Frankly, if anyone asked Keiko what their gender was at this point the story, they would look at them and awkwardly laugh, perplexed. They would feel uncomfortable, and they would begrudgingly likely say they were a girl, and then they would try not to think about it because the answer made them anxious for reasons they couldn't quite articulate. But that's as far as things would go right now, and they would make no declarations of import. Not right now, anyway.

Circling back to a Doylist perspective, NQK's continued "pursuit of self" can be read as an allegory for a gender coming-out story. They are constantly trying to find and assert their independent identity apart from the one assigned to them at birth (the identity of "Yukimura Keiko"). It's very easy to find this allegory within the text considering my own gender, and it's one I suspect I subconsciously inserted prior to coming out.

Compounding all of that, I started writing this story before I came out. The version of me who exists in the story is based on the version of me who existed before I came out. My real self and my fictional avatar have grown in different ways and in different directions. To quote Robert Frost, "two roads diverged in a yellow wood," and NQK and I can each only take one of those roads at a time. I set her path at the start of her story, and I don't intend to pull her down a different one so late in the narrative.

I took one road. NQK took another. Perhaps down the line we will travel the same path again, and perhaps that path will bear the name "non-binary," but for now, we explore different avenues of the gender world.

So, to sum up?

NQK's pronouns right now are she/they, and while I consider them non-binary, they are not quite there yet in terms of their own thinking.

My pronouns, meanwhile, are firmly they/them, and my label is likewise firmly "non-binary."

[snupy]

Tom and NQK's pastself with their doggo nori 🫡

then another look at tom with his dazzling blues out and about, ngl tom was the hardest to draw (facial hair is not easy to draw 😭😭) i think i liked post-it note tom the best

the sketch looked better than the end result <\3 but yk what im pretty pleased with how it came out >:)

close ups:

[britneyc2012]

Doing my reread of #Luckychild …I don’t even remember when I last read it.. I do remember them being at the dark tournament.. 🤣

Starting from the beginning 

[fauvester]

can you imagine cardassians being introduced to kotatsus.. keiko invites garak over to use it and he refuses to leave. that's HIS cozybox now

[wordsmithwhumpsandfluff]

Amberlynn gives herself and Keiko food poisoning

Anyone else living off of 2 hours of sleep?. . . No? Just me?

TW: emeto

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“Stop ag caint chomh tapaidh, Pápa,” Amberlynn groaned as she paced in Keiko’s kitchen, talking on the phone. “Just téacs chugam, ceart go leor? Okay, Pápa, thanks. Slán.”

She hung up, and Keiko walked into the kitchen just then. “How’re your dads?”

Amberlynn sighed, going over to Keiko to wrap her arms around his waist and rest her head on his chest. “Talkative,” she stated, making Keiko chuckle.

“What were you talking to Finn about?” he then asked. When Amberlynn talked in Irish, Keiko knew she was talking to Finnegan since Jackson preferred to talk in English.

“His cranberry scone recipe,” she said, pulling away enough to look at her phone screen. “I just started craving them. And Pápa’s recipe is the best, so, yeah.”

Keiko nodded. “Want any help? Do you have everything you need.”

Amberlynn rolled her eyes but smiled. “You can help, yeah. I won’t know what the hell I do or don’t have until Pápa sends me his recipe.” She went back to staring at the phone, waiting, and Keiko went to the living room and sat down with his book.

He’d been re-reading “The Outsiders”, which was his favorite book. He even had a keychain that said ‘Stay gold, Ponyboy.’

After a while, Keiko hear the clattering of some pans in his kitchen and he set down his book and went back over there. In the kitchen, he found Amberlynn struggling to reach the bag of flour on his top shelf.

Grinning, he went over and stood so close behind her that her back was pressed against him as he reached up and grabbed the flour for her.

Cutely, she tilted her head all the way back and smiled at him. “Hi,” she said.

“Hey,” he said back, leaning down to kiss her in the weird position. “So, you got the recipe?”

She nodded, and Keiko moved out of the was so she could continue getting the rest of the ingredients, so excited that she was almost moving in a blur. “And I have everything but cranberries.”

“Want me to run and get some?” he offered, and Amberlynn nodded while grabbing the cinnamon.

“Alright, I’ll be right back.”

The grocery store wasn’t far from where Keiko lived. He found a bag of cranberries and went straight back. By the time he got there, Amberlynn’s hands were in a bowl, kneading some dough.

She looked at him and smiled when he held up the bag of berries.

“Perfect,” she said. “Can you wash them and just dumb them in here?”

Following her directions, he did just that.

Amberlynn was impatient, almost jumping with excitement as she mixed the cranberries into the dough. She shaped the finished dough into a circle and laid it on a baking sheet before cutting it into six triangles, and then she laid them on the parchment-covered baking tray.

Keiko was smiling at her as she put the tray in the oven, set her phone’s timer, and then pumped her fist, saying, “Yes!” victoriously.

“That has to be a world record for the fastest scone recipe in all of history,” Keiko chuckled while Amberlynn washed her hands.

She couldn’t stop smiling. “Pápa always used to always make it fast. I spent years watching him make it, and it always came out amazing.”

The two of them went to the couch and Amberlynn put on Hamilton. Keiko laid down with his head on her lap, reading while his girlfriend watched the musical and played with his hair.

— — —

Keiko had finished his book and was also watching the tv when Amberlynn’s timer suddenly went off. He sat up and Amberlynn, excitedly, jumped up from the couch and all but skipped over to the kitchen. The apartment smelled sweet, but also a little strange.

Keiko followed to the kitchen and saw Amberlynn smiling at the perfect-looking scones. “They look like Pápa’s!” she said, turning off the oven and grabbing her phone to take a picture of them.

The scones looked really amazing, like professional ones at a bakery. He could tell Amberlynn was just itching to eat one, but he knew they had to probably cool off first.

He managed to convince Amberlynn to wait in the living room for just a few minutes, and she half-reluctantly agreed. She’s so exited, Keiko thought to himself when he saw her leg bouncing while they were sitting on the couch.

After about five minutes, Amberlynn stood back up again to go to the kitchen. When she came back, all of the scones were on a plate and she set that plate down on the coffee table. Keiko grabbed one, and so did Amberlynn. Keiko took a bite and couldn’t help but smile. It tasted freaking amazing!

“Holy shit,” Keiko chuckled while chewing before looking at his girlfriend. Instantly, his face fell when he saw her frown.

She’d also taken a bite, but was frowning. She swallowed and said, “It doesn’t taste like Pápa’s.” She looked so disappointed.

Keiko scooted closer to her and kissed her cheek. “Maybe not, but it still tastes good. Really good.” She looked at him, pouting, and he kissed the pout and said, “These are the best scones I’ve ever had, Am. And even if they don’t taste like your dad’s, they taste good. This is your version.”

At his words, Amberlynn smiled. “Thanks,” she said. Then she took another bite and swallowed. “And you’re right, these are great. They almost have a vanilla ice cream flavor.”

“Right?!”

They finished most of the warm, rich scones. Keiko ate two and Amberlynn ate three. Both of them were stuffed afterwords and both of them laid down on the couch to cuddle.

Amberlynn was on top of Keiko, her head on his chest, and eventually he could hear her snoring and he smiled. The scones were so heavy in his stomach that he felt sleepy, too. Warm, full, and content, he closed his eyes and fell asleep.

— — —

………

Something was wrong.

When Keiko opened his eyes, he had the feeling that it was late and he wondered what time it was.

He felt strange. He felt like something was off.

What was it? What was wrong?

His stomach.

Keiko sat up, one hand clamped to his mouth and the other on his stomach. He felt sick. He also realized that Amberlynn was gone.

He wondered where she was as he stood up and made his way to his bedroom, and then his bathroom. That’s where he found his girlfriend.

She was hunched over the toilet, panting, vomit dripping from her chin. The sight of puke and the smell only made Keiko more nauseous, but concern was overriding whatever queasiness he was feeling at the moment and he crouched beside Amberlynn, bunching up her curls. She looked up at him, looking miserable. “I’m done,” she said. “I’m empty. I stopped puking, like, ten minutes ago.”

Keiko nodded and grabbed some toilet paper, wiping off her chin before tossing it into the toilet and flushing. With a sigh, Amberlynn scooted away and leaned back against the wall. Then she jumped in surprise when Keiko gagged and took his turn vomiting into the toilet.

Not knowing what else to do, Amberlynn started to rub his back as her mind scrambled for explanations of what the hell was wrong. Her mind kept coming back to one thing: the scones.

It took Keiko about twenty minutes to stop retching and puking, and by the time he was done and he’d flushed the toilet, he was sweating through his shirt and panting.

Both he and Amberlynn felt like shit. Suddenly, Amberlynn mumbled, “I think it was the scones.”

Keiko frowned, but said nothing.

Amberlynn continued. “I don’t know what went wrong. I washed my hands, I measured properly, and I stuck to the recipe. It’s not even a long recipe. Eggs, butter, heavy cream, flour, corn starch, and—”

“Wait, heavy cream?”

Amberlynn stopped at Keiko’s question. Then looked at him with confusion. “Yeah, heavy cream. Pápa said it’s better than regular milk.”

But Keiko still looked befuddled. “I don’t have heavy cream, Amberlynn. I’ve never had heavy cream in my fridge.”

Now Amber looked absolutely dumbstruck. “Then. . . Hold on, I found a carton of heavy cream in your fridge. It was near the back, but—”

As realization dawned on him, Keiko’s stomach churned and he suddenly found himself gagging fruitlessly over the toilet again.

Amberlynn was still feeling nauseous as well, and felt vomit creeping up her throat when Keiko managed to bring up a pathetic amount of puke. When he pulled away, she puked as well. Only she brought up a bigger, stronger stream that had tears running down her cheeks.

When she spat in the toilet and pulled back, Keiko sighed and said, “The only carton in my fridge is a carton of old eggnog I forgot to throw out. It’s expired, Am.”

Amberlynn froze. Suddenly, she recalled that she’d simply seen the carton and was moving too fast—too excited—to even read what it was. Suddenly, the guilt had her feeling like she was about to cry. “Well, that explains the vanilla ice cream taste,” she mumbled, wishing she didn’t sound so teary.

This is all my fault, she was thinking. Why was I moving so fast? Why didn’t I read that fucking label?!

Seeing her distraught, Keiko sighed and moved so his back was against the same wall hers was. He wrapped an arm around her and hugged her to his side. “It’s fine, Am. It was an accident.”

She scoffed. “I put expired eggnog in my scones, thinking it was heavy cream. That was stupidity, not an accident.”

But she shook his head. “Accident,” he stated, planting a kiss on top of her head. “An unfortunate, nauseating accident.”

Amber sighed, but didn’t say anything else. Eventually, when they both were sure they were wrung dry, Amberlynn brushed her and washed her face while Keiko showered to rinse the sweat off, and then they switched places.

Keiko put on some boxers and Amberlynn put on pajamas. Then while Keiko all but collapsed onto the bed, Amberlynn went out to the living room and grabbed the last two scones, taking them to the kitchen and trashing them before grabbing some Pepto and going back to the bedroom.

Much to her amusement, Keiko was already asleep.

She cuddled up behind him, big spooning despite the fact that she was much smaller.

“Amberlynn?” he whispered sleepily.

“Hmm?”

“I’ll buy some heavy cream and more cranberries tomorrow,” he said.

But Amberlynn shook her head, sighed, and said, “Nah. I’ll just ask Pápa to send us some.”

Keiko shifted tuning onto hi bac to look at her better. “You sure?”

She smiled, kissed him, and said, “Definitely sure. I thing I’ve given myself self-inflicted pastry PTSD or something.”

[primdaisy]

💌 simblr asks: let’s get to know your sims! what are their coffee orders? ☕️🍵🧋

faith would catch a 12 hour flight to komorebi for their matcha with no hesitation

keiko drinks whatevers trendy right now, and thats the large iced sugar-free non-fat strawberry matcha latte bubble tea at 20 degrees with oat milk, 3 pumps of vanilla, 1 pump of hazelnut syrup, caramel drizzle and extra whip! oh and 2% foam

[jirai-kei-freak]

Do you mind me asking this? Can you tell us about ur oc Oh Aera? <3

I don’t mind!

I’m like… 20-22 chapters in KS (I stopped reading it last night bcuz my head was hurting :P) So I’m not going to give you a direct backstory until I finished the whole story to figure out how Aera’s childhood would work, but I well tell u one thing:

She’s like a perfect mix between Sangwoo and Yoonbum. IK I said that with my OC Akiko but now that I think of it she’s more like a female Jaibo cosplaying Zera with a *few* traits of Zera, but this time it’s genuine!

A psychotic incestuous abusive serial killer mixed with an obsessive stalker who probably has a severe case of BPD is bound to make a… very interesting child. Also she’s traumatized as shit and very kawaii lol.

[youngpettyqueen]

de-aging isnt a trope ive watched a lot of and its not one I particularly seek out in fic where I know its more popular (ive read a few for TMA when I was fixated on that) but TNG's 'Rascals' episode is a fascinating exploration of the concept

[lipstickontheglass1985]

star trek tng s5e5 disaster would be such a beautiful name for a babygirl btw

[keikakudori]

honestly, despite what people think, aizen is actually quite good with children. he doesn't talk down to them the way a lot of adults will; he treats them with respect and as people because they are people. he will ask their opinions and listen to them and he does enjoy the company of kids quite a bit. he's a teacher in many ways at heart and he actually is very fond of encouraging children to grow in their knowledge of the world and everything.

[luckystarchild]

I randomly got the chance to buy a cosplay of the Meiou High School girl's uniform. AKA the one NQK wears in Lucky Child.

It just so happened to be in my size (more or less).

I...may be a little obnoxious with the selfies for a day or two after it gets here. Just some forewarning.

[airyairyaucontraire]

Not a fresh observation but I do enjoy how the greying of Alan Alda's hair over the course of eleven years enhances the impression of the war being so much longer than it is in its calendar dates. He goes from black to nearly silver; you get the sense that Hawkeye went round the time loop many more times than a lot of the people who were in it with him.

I'm up to Goodbye, Farewell and Amen, which is so strange-looking and I think it's because they're using familiar sets but shooting from somewhat different camera angles than usual. Like this:

You don't typically see that much of the ceiling of OR. It's subtly disorientating and to me feels almost dreamlike or unreal.

[snupy]

have some kei for good luck 🫡 @luckystarchild

[kunekos]

tie.  for your muse to adjust an article of clothing on my muse.

           ❛   What ?   What's wrong ?   ❜     Tetsurō turns when he looks down & realizes that Kira's directing her hands to his necktie. didn't he tie it right ?   no, that can't be —   he's never messed up the tying of a single tie ever since he learnt it for good on the morning of first day of work at the JVA !   honestly ...     the job didn't necessarily demand him to wear formal clothing regularly ...   but ever since that day that he's taken up the challenge of collecting the widest, most fashionable collection of suits & formalwear pieces.     //     a small note he's made that fateful morning, upon arraging his tie faultlessly, was to wish for the blessing of all people who appreciated getting dressed fashionably on a daily basis & used this as video - worth content for social media.     (   actually :   he may or may not have thanked for this endorsement during that New Years. that is, however, something only he will ever know.   )

          but then it hits him :   he hasn’t done anything wrong with his tie. rather ... someone else has.  & it turns out that the one tie he's been wearing has one hell of a nasty stain. damn it !   the sports' promoter groans ;   a headache coming in hot. when he looks down at the discarded article, Tetsurō grumbles, clearly upset that he didn't even notice that tiny, small, little spot right in front of his chest. —  God knows how much mocking he'd be target of had he waltzed into a meeting with a tie containing remains of orange - turn - beige baby food. how could you, Keiko - chan ? !

          ❛   Thanks.   ❜     he says with a sigh once Kira’s done replacing the dirty tie with a new one, his palm gently cupping his beloved wife's jaw & pulling her face closer to his so he can place a quick peck at her lips.     (   without doubt, Kira just might be today's savior. how kind she is !   their son, however ...   )     ❛   My hero !   ❜     he grins, pulling away from her just enough to kiss her forehead & then move to grab his backpack from the kitchen table & set motion to the start of his day.

VIA THE SYSTEM OF TOUCH ;     accepting      //     @violevin

[croc-odette]

ways for strange new worlds to explain why certain characters don’t show up in TOS

death :(

falling in love with a superhuman entity who is kind of rude and arrogant but also possibly offers them immortality so they’re like ‘peace, everyone, i’m becoming a god’

promoted to captain rank on their own ship

turned into a alien creature such as a cloud of gas or a wavelength or a lizard (the lizard thing has happened TWICE but i’m saying don’t reverse it this time!)

shot into a distant future or past. but this might be overdone and is as predictable as the death option

just straight up quits starfleet. i’m good guys i had fun i’m going back to grad school for botany or urban planning or something

is locked in dimensional combat with a cosmic force that they must wrestle for a futile eternity. again this happened in TOS but i think it would work as an homage