PoT: Swallow the Moon: Zoology and Mythology

[branchandroot]

Fic post from my archive.

Zoology and Mythology

Some friendly bickering within the Rikkai team. Drama, I-2

They were all getting off the bus, stretching and exchanging dinner plans, when Masaharu heard Yanagi ask Kirihara, softly, "So which are you going to be, Akaya? A tiger cub, or the boy who swallowed a dragon pearl?"

Comments

[written-in-blue.livejournal.com]

*delighted* Well. An otter. *grinning* Of course Akaya would be an otter, at least to start with. *snugs*

[lawnmower-elf.livejournal.com]

...Very pretty. I love how the mythology is just woven into there (and Yanagi's input).

I completely agree with Yanagi being the turtle, although I probably would never have thought of that before. Not so much the tiger and dragon ones; maybe because that's what fandom already attributes to them? (or did you start that, you brilliant writer you) Yukimura I can see, Sanada I might have to disagree on...

I love Kirihara's idea of who/what he is. That was so him right there.

**piles love for the beautiful ficlet**

[branchandroot]

*grinning* It's the whole attention-getting thing. It's so Akaya.

[branchandroot]

Thank you!

*considers* The Yukimura-dragon thing may trace back to me. The tiger, though... *grins* That's another Chinese legendry reference, which made it across to Japan as part of the martial arts traditions--the dragon and the tiger tend to be complementary opposites, and opponents.

The elf actually surprised me, on this one. I hadn't expected him to pick that way. *proud of him*

[forochel.livejournal.com]

*flails at you for the Chinese mythology, because I'm patriotic, yo*

And tiger! Eee! It fits, though, what with Sanada's family background. :)

[branchandroot]

*pleased* Thank you!

These bits of mythology really do fit nicely with what we know of the characters; it was huge fun putting them together. ^_^

[forochel.livejournal.com]

I can imagine. Did you have to do research, or just drew on memory?

[branchandroot]

*thinks back* I believe the dragon's pearl was one of the things I found while looking for something else, and it so resonated with Yukimura and Kirihara, for me, that I had to write about it. I'd already thought Yukimura fit the whole dragon-storm-water mythos, though I did look up the difference between Chinese dragons and Japanese dragons in more detail for this arc, and the dragon/tiger thing I knew from way back. *grins* The most research I had to do for this one was finding out what animals are native to Japan that I could have the team use for each other. That took forever!

[forochel.livejournal.com]

*laughs awkwardly* Thank you for pointing out that you had to research the difference between Chinese and Japanese mythology. I got so caught up in the whole legends thing I completely forgot about the difference in, um, nationalities.

[branchandroot]

*nodnod* I hadn't realized how different it was until I went looking, either. It made sense to me that, since the legends came from China, they would be quite similar. And they are. Just... there's a different emphasis, in character and location.

Admittedly, I was entertained that absolutely everybody insists their dragons were the first dragons. *wry*

[forochel.livejournal.com]

Naturally...OUR DRAGONS ARE THE FIRST DRAGONS!

XDD

Or at least Asian Dragons were before Western Dragons. *sniffs haughtily*

[branchandroot]

*laughing*

[forochel.livejournal.com]

*bows*

I live to amuse.