PoT: Mirror Writing: In the Forest of the Night

[branchandroot]

Fic post from my archive.

In the Forest of the Night

Takes place in Current Tenipuri Year. Ohtori reflects on the pair he's found himself a part of. Drama With Romance, I-3

Choutarou had been raised to show courtesy; Otou-sama always said it was one of the best ways to disarm an opponent. So he was polite to his peers and his seniors, both, and lent a hand wherever one seemed needed, and devoted every bit of his strength to working his way up the ranks.

Comments

[written-in-blue.livejournal.com]

[hand on chin] I wonder if it's at all possible for me *not* to like Shishido...

[squeals quietly to self, fangirling]

[branchandroot]

Nope! He's just the sweetest, scrappiest little thing, at least post-comeback.

Oh, hey, and I got WHR (ma-ra-thon, ma-ra-thon, ma-ra-thon).

[written-in-blue.livejournal.com]

You already got it? I just posted it *Saturday*.

Geez.

O_o;

[naanima.livejournal.com]

CHOUTAROU!

SHISHIDO!

*SQUEAL*

The line about being polite to disarm your opponent. OMG! CHOUTAROU! That is HIM! Otori is NOT an innocent, there's no fecking way for a person to be on the Hyotei team without having a manipulative bone(s) in their body. Just because he's nice doesn't mean he's not determined, extemely motivated, or very, very, very manipulative.

But OHHHHH! The way he realised how determined Shihido is, the way he began to fall for Shishido (without fully realising it yet). HAPPINESS!

And you have to idea how the comment about Atobe's need to win, and his ego (the size of Jupiter) made me snicker. Though I have to admit Shishido's snark about Hiyoshi's attempt to take over the world made me laugh.

*jumps up and down* Happiness! I have decided, write what you will. I will READ ^__^

(Though backstory is always appreciated ^_^)

LOVE YOU!!!! *dumps truck after truck of truffles at your feet*

[branchandroot]

*happily buried in truffles* Mmmm, yum.

Glad you liked it, darling! Though I dearly love ShishiTori the way, say, Monnie does it, my own take on Ohtori is that he's a nice guy, but not an innocent one, and not especially merciful, either. Certain of the extra info seems to point in that direction, talking about how he uses the psychological shock of his serve as a major weapon when he plays.

They're so cute in their as-yet-cluelessness. *pets characters* Clues are on the way, though. *wicked grin*

[naanima.livejournal.com]

Well, you know Monnie's fics are like my first encounter to ShishiTori, and I will always worship her for that. And while I think she's got her Shishido down to a pat, I prefer your Ohtori better. It is the way I see him in my head.


Yay for clues! The question is who will notice first.

*snickers*

Mirror Writing Series

[lady-readwolf.livejournal.com]

Saaa... I'm not sure if I've stopped to tell you how much I simply adore this series, but I do. ^.^

Which means, you *must* write more so I can have a constant fix, ne? ^.^

{toddles off to find more fics to read}

Re: Mirror Writing Series

[branchandroot]

^____^

*eyes thronging bunnies* I don't think they're going to let me go any time soon.

Re: Mirror Writing Series

[lady-readwolf.livejournal.com]

{nods sympathetically} I understand... and while I can certainly empathize, forgive me for not pitying you. ^.^

Now, what lovely piece will we get next?

Re: Mirror Writing Series

[branchandroot]

Buggered if I know, actually. I'm almost finished with the *end* of the ShishiTori backstories, but I'm not entirely sure how many will come in the middle. Two, I think. Guess I'll know when I get there. Some kind of ShishiTori, anyway.

[exwaiz.livejournal.com]

ToriShishi! Waaah! *glomps* ^_^

You write a great Ohtori and your Shishido...*melts* Can't stop fangirling over this! The image of Hiyoshi trying to take over the world is going to be stuck in my head for a while. XD

[branchandroot]

*is glomped* Thank you! They're a bunch of fun to write; just too cute for words.

[chzbrgr-of-doom.livejournal.com]

I think Hiyoshi really will take over the world, and then we will all be sorry.
...anyway, I love the fic. 'twas so cute!

[branchandroot]

Certainly he will! And then we'll all be happy for him! I think the next ensemble fic will have to include Hiyo-chan.

[sharona1x2.livejournal.com]

Hi. I know this is a really late reply, but I've been saving up your ToriShishi fic to read for when I knew I could read all the parts in one sitting. I'm treating myself to a whole morning of your work.

I read a lot of fic about Ohtori and Shishido. I like a lot of it, but I rarely find an author who writes Ohtori exactly the way I see him from the series. Judging by this first story, I think you might be one of those rare writers. I really like the way you portrayed him in this.

I also commend you for the way you described the whole business of Ohtori offering up his spot for Shishido. Yes, I like the romantic meaning that usually gets assigned to that scene, but it's a treat to find someone who writes it more a gen thing. You really got to the heart of Ohtori's motivations here.

This is beautiful work, and I'm looking forward to reading the next parts. Your characterization is so close to canon. I'm looking forward to seeing the relationship between Ohtori and Shishido develop gradually.

I own an archive devoted to Ohtori, Shishido and Hiyoshi. It's called Brand New Days (http://torishishi.com). I'm trying to archive as much work about those three characters as possible. Would you please consider letting me archive this story (and the others in this arc)? It would be a great pleasure to archive your work. Thanks, for your consideration, and for your work. I can't wait to read the next part.

[branchandroot]

*stares at mountain of feedback* Wow! Thank you so much, I'm delighted you enjoyed it! One of my priorities is always to keep the characters as close to their roots as possible, and when a fan of the characters in question thinks I've succeeded, that means a lot to me.

*nods* I've visited that archive, looking for Hiyo-chan stories. If you'd like to archive my ShishiTori, that would be entirely cool with me. I haven't done final revisions on any of my PoT fic (when I finally get around to it I'll be adding a new area to my own fic page), but they're done enough to be posted. Shall I email you the html files? (I write in Dreamweaver, nice clean code.) *thinks* Do you want "Confluence"? It has a bunch of different pairs, but the Shishido and Ohtori section is sort of part of their arc (the music store referred to in "Innocence and Experience").

[sharona1x2.livejournal.com]

Apologies for not writing back sooner. RL and my site kept me a bit busy the past few days.

You were looking for Hiyo-centric stories? If I could recommend one author to you, it would be ruebert, both for his Hiyoshi stories and his one ShishiTori story. Rue is both my favorite author in the fandom, and my very good friend. Like you, I think he works very hard to keep his characters as canon-based as possible. He's the reason why I added Hiyoshi to the site in the first place, and why I love ToriHiyo as much as ToriShishi. ^__^

You don't need to send me anything to get your stories into my archive. I've picked them up right from your LJ posts. You can find your listing on the ToriShishi fic page (http://torishishi.com/tsficindexA-K.html#Emily%20Ravenwood), if you'd like to check that I've got everything right. Archiving part of a longer arc was a bit of a challenge. Hopefully, you'll agree with the way I did it. If you see anything you want changed, don't hesitate to tell me, even if it's something minor. I want you to be happy with it.

I did add Confluence, but I did it more as a link rather than a separate entry. The story isn't really centered around Ohtori and Shishido, therefore, it doesn't really match the criteria for being listed at BND. I would have just linked to it in your LJ, but I worry about LJs getting deleted and such. Since you said I could archive it, I hoped that would be okay.

The only question I have for you is if you want me to list an email addy for you, in case anyone reads and wants to send you feedback. If so, just let me know and I'll add it. I really hope you do write these guys again. I loved these stories so much that I recommended them in my LJ to my friends.

Thanks again!

[branchandroot]

Looks great! For email, ravenwood@alltrees.org is my main addy.

I expect I will write more ShishiTori sooner or later; they're great fun. Feel free to grab any others I post, for the archive.

*enthusiastic* Rue's work is great! He's the one who first interested me in writing from Hiyoshi's pov (poor, neglected boy).

[sharona1x2.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I added your email addy last night. Everything should be finished now.

Thank you, too, for giving me blanket permission to archive more. I really appreciate that. I'll be looking forward to it.

I'm glad you like Rue's writing. I don't think he'd mind me saying that he'll probably be posting some more Hiyo works in the near future. I'm spoiled because I usually get to see them before they get posted. It's funny how he's made me love a character I really didn't even notice in the series.

[fromastudio]

This is a belated, belated comment, but I'm just leaving a note to say how much I love your Ootori and how true he rings here, much more than any other fanon incarnation I've read of him. (which is a frequent occurrence with characters when I read your fics, really) I think you strike the perfect balance here, between the Ootori who has the grit and the psychological sharpness that he needs to survive in Hyoutei, and the idealism and courtesy and niceness.

Also, Shishido's comments on Hiyoshi taking over the world, and Atobe's Jupiter-sized ego are just brilliant. <<<3333

[branchandroot]

*hearts you* Thank you, dear.

And yes. Choutarou is a sweetheart, but he's sweet the way Yukimura is gentle. Not on the court, and not all the time. I'm more and more convinced that too many fans totally ignore the tennis matches and only really pay attention to how the characters behave off the court. Which rather misses the point. *loves on the tennis boys*