#Completely in the face of anything Doumeki might want to hear

[completeoveranalysis]

[11]

Yuuko debrief time! 

I love how we have in-text examples of exactly what Yuuko is talking about over in Tsubasa. As she says, if someone actually has a void then it won’t actually elicit any emotional response, because they feel nothing about it - just like when Syaoran’s soul went missing and he really was just emotionless all the way down. He couldn’t feel anything because there was nothing to feel with. And Yuuko uses that concept as a way to show Watanuki that even though it seemed to end badly he was actually completely correct and did actually offer her something valuable, but it was her choice not to take it.

OH OH OH I LOVE THIS SENTIMENT EVEN MORE. 

Watanuki, the sunshine child, worries that she didn’t want to hear what he had to say. But Yuuko puts aside whatever the customer might or might not want and puts Watanuki’s own feelings on the same level of importance. 

If Watanuki WANTED to express that sentiment then his feelings are valid and he has every right to have said it. His feelings and opinions are every much as important as anyone else's and deserve to be expressed. He is allowed to take up space in the world and be a full person, not only when it is conveniently what the other person wants to hear. 

Which is a sentiment Watanuki might not fully grasp just yet BUT ONE DAY. 

[witharthurkirkland]

Hitsuzen

Here is another preview of fics to vote for.

Summary: Yuri Plisetsky has always seen strange things and odd spirits often follow him around. One day he stumbles into an odd shop that grants wishes run by a strange man named Victor Nikiforov. Will Victor grant his wish and what will be the price?

Pairings: Yuri/Otabek, Yuuri/Victor, with Yuri crushing on Yuuri

...Yes this is an xxxHolic AU where Yuri P is Watanuki, Victor is Yuuko, Yuuri K is Himawari and Otabek is Doumeki (yes, you read that right now go think about that; if you haven’t read the manga then it’s okay, don’t worry. Everything will be fine. Probably)

Edit: you can now vote for this to be the next fic I write here!

The world is a large place full of wonderful and terrifying things. Humans walk proudly through it, arrogantly thinking they know all of its secrets when they haven’t even scratched the surface. Because even those who know some of Fate’s secrets know that they can’t change their own fate.

But most importantly, they know that there are no such things as coincidences. There is only Hitsuzen.

 It was a gloomy morning and it was made even worse by that thing. That thing, which, for some reason, no one could see but him. It followed him down the street, floating a few meters off the ground.

It probably had a name, but thing was all it was going to get from him.

Describing it required a good look and that probably meant going mad as well. And he wasn’t going to go mad. He was already really angry. Going mad would only make everything worse. So he could only describe it (if anyone ever forced him to) as a big disgusting, foul thing, as something unnatural in all meanings of the word.

And Yuri Plisetsky was well acquainted with the unnatural. Unfortunately, he was much better acquainted with it than he would have liked.

No one else could see it. Why couldn’t anyone else see it? Why was he the only one cursed to see it? Why couldn’t he also be oblivious to it? Seeing it didn’t exactly give him any special abilities.

“Aargh!” he screamed, the sound of his voice filling the street. “Why do you have to follow me?”

But shouting didn’t help either. He stumbled down the street, feeling his knees give out under him. He caught the gatepost of a house just as he thought he would pass out.

And the foul thing vanished.

He looked up and stared in amazement at the house before him.

Yuri was in a normal street, or, at least, up until that moment he thought he was in a normal street. Now he wasn’t so sure. There were regular-looking houses all down the street, mostly identical to each other. Nothing about any of them was exceptionally memorable.

Except this house.

It was an odd house and that was the biggest understatement imaginable. It was made of dark wood. There was a crescent moon on its roof. The gates, which were made from the same wood as the house, somehow contrived to look more solid and menacing than the stone gates of the other houses.

Whatever, he thought, I don’t care. I just want –

And even though he could’ve sworn he told his legs to go away, they marched on, completely without any input from him whatsoever down the path that led right to the front door of the house.

He tried to stop. He tried to fight this sudden impulse of walking into odd places, but all with no luck.

They carried him onwards to the house.

“Stop it!” he shouted at his legs (and knew deep inside that it was a sure sign of impending madness). “It’s rude to walk into people’s houses without their permission!”

It was a stupid thing to shout, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was that it didn’t work.

His legs took him right up to the front door where three identical-looking girls stepped out to greet him.

“Welcome to the shop!” they exclaimed in unison with serious looks on their faces.

And then the serious looks vanished and they burst out into an excited chorus of “A customer! A customer!” They were almost tripping over themselves and each other in excitement.

They grabbed Yuri by the arms and, before he’d even had time to realize what they were doing, before he could turn and run from this mad place, they dragged him inside.

The inside of the house was just as odd as the outside, but the three girls didn’t give him a lot of time to study his surroundings, or even think about the recurring image of the crescent moon: they dragged him into one of the rooms, where his attention was captured fully by someone else.

There was a man in this room. He’d draped himself lazily (and way too dramatically, in Yuri’s opinion) over a red couch, a smile on his face and a pipe in his hand. He was in a red and yellow kimono that only added to how dramatic his pose was. His icy blue eyes regarded Yuri with disinterest, as if to say “oh, there you are at last; isn’t that nice?”

Yuri, who’d been close to his breaking point for the past ten minutes, snapped. “What the hell is this weird place?”

“It’s a shop!” the triplets exclaimed. “Yeah! A shop!”

The lazy figure on the couch watched him without a word.

The triplets went quiet and a complete silence settled over the room and its inhabitants. There was no ticking of a clock and no sounds came from the street.

The man got up and reached Yuri in several long strides. He tower over him. “This is a shop that grants wishes,” he said, taking Yuri’s chin in his hand. “If you’re here, it means you have a wish.”

Yuri pushed him away. “Don’t touch me! What the hell is the problem with you? Do you just lure people in here to sell them your crap?”

“No. I just told you: this shop grants wishes. You’re not a very clever young man, are you?”

“So anyone can march in here, demand anything and get it?” Yuri asked. As if I will believe that!

The strange man chuckled. “For a price. This is a shop, after all. For the right price, any wish can be granted.”

“Any wish?” Yuri repeated incredulously.

He nodded. “Yes, but some wishes come at a very high price and would cost you your soul.”

“Soul?” he backed away.

“Yes.” The strange man circled Yuri. “Your coming here was no coincidence, no accident. It was Hitsuzen!”

Yuri swallowed nervously, feeling a bead of sweat trickle down the side of his face. “Hitsuzen?” he repeated.

“Hitsuzen - a naturally foreordained event. A state in which other outcomes are impossible. A result which can only be obtained by a single causality, and all other causalities would necessarily create different results. So reads the Kodansha Japanese desk dictionary, second edition.” The strange man paused with a smile.

Yuri stared at him with his mouth slightly open. “What the hell?” he demanded as the meaning of the last sentence sank in.

The man chuckled, no doubt pleased by this terrible joke.

“What is your name?” he asked, draping himself over the couch again.

“Yuri Plisetsky,” he answered.

“And your birthday?”

“M-March 1st,” Yuri answered.

The strange man burst out laughing. “What sort of person tells a stranger their real name and birthday?”

“What?” Yuri demanded, his fists clenching.

“My name is Victor Nikiforov,” the strange man said, wrapping his arms around the triplets as they circled him. “It’s a fake name, of course.” He kissed the forehead of one of the triplets. “And these are my assistants in the shop: Axel, Lutz and Loop. Aren’t they the cutest names you ever heard?”

“No! What the hell is the matter with you?” What’s the deal with him? And what do I say to that? I need to get the hell out of here! He turned to go, but Victor was there right in front of him.

“Like I said, you being here means that you have a wish and that I must grant it,” he said, taking Yuri’s chin in his hand again.

“Let go of me, you pervert!” Yuri exclaimed, pushing him away.

Victor stepped back. “Do you have a watch?”

“Hm? What?” He searched around in his pocket and pulled out an old watch. “It’s a family heirloom,” he said, handing it over to Victor. “My grandfather handed it down to me from his father.”

“Yuri Plisetsky,” Victor whispered and threw down a little circle that expanded in size. Yuri wasn’t sure where it came from. It looked like Victor had pulled it out of his sleeve. Victor stared into it as if hypnotized. “Yuri Plisetsky… birthday March first. You lost your parents when you were small. You live with your grandfather now. Your future is very uncertain, but you are hard-working and independent, which might help you deal with anything that comes your way. Or it might only make things worse. You have a big trouble, caused by your blood.”

Yuri stepped back. He hadn’t been prepared to hear his fortune read out like this.

Victor went on, as if in a trance. “Your blood lets you see creatures that few humans can see. Unfortunately, this means that they’re all attracted to you.”

The circle was gone and Victor pocketed Yuri’s watch. “I’ll grant your wish,” he said.

“Give me back my watch, you idiot!” Yuri demanded.

“It’s not your watch anymore,” Victor told him. “I’ve taken it as payment for reading your fortune.” He put an arm around Yuri’s shoulders. “You live only with your grandfather, which means…” He leaned in close to Yuri’s ear, as if about to whisper some great secret, “…that you’re very good at housework, right?”

“Yes,” Yuri agreed, confused at the speed at which they jumped from wishes and his fortune to housework.

“Excellent!” Victor exclaimed, stepping away and giving Yuri a big grin with a clap of his hands. “That will be your payment: from now on you will do all of the housework around here.”

“What?”

“You will work in this shop until I say it’s enough and then I will grant your wish!” Victor announced.

When the hell did I agree to this? Yuri demanded as the triplets danced happily around him, singing the word “housework” over and over again.

At some point during the evening he’d walked into hell itself and now he wondered if there was a way back to the land of the normal and the sane.

 He wondered the same thing the next afternoon as he stuffed his things into his school bag. It was the end of yet another uneventful school day. He only wished the afternoon could be equally uneventful.

“That man is insane,” he muttered to himself, “and that store of his is as mad as he is. How much junk can one person keep? And how long will I have to deal with this crap? Ughh! And now I have to go back there!”

“Go back where?” another voice asked.

“To that stupid store of his, of course!” he answered without thinking.

He froze, realizing that not only was he complaining aloud, but that there was another person joining in. He raised his head and met the eyes of the most perfect being in existence.

Yuuri Katsuki.

He felt his heart melt and all thoughts of creepy men in strange shops went out the window.

Yuuri Katsuki – the best person in all the world, his classmate and his crush. He was tall, dark-haired and handsome. He was the best at everything. He was kind and just being in his presence was enough to make the day better.

“Did you get a job in a shop?” Yuuri asked, giving him a smile brighter than the sun.

Yuri pulled himself together. He did what he always did and fell back on his hostile attitude. “Yeah and what’s it to you?” he asked.

“Y-you’re right,” Yuuri said. “It’s none of my business. It was wrong of me to listen in.” He turned away, looking as if someone had hit him.

Why do you have to be such a pushover? Yuri wondered. If anyone else had done it, it would’ve pissed him off to no end and it would’ve been enough for Yuri to consider them a loser and hate them for all eternity.

But this was Yuuri Katsuki. And everything he did was perfect.

“I… I just meant,” he racked his brains for a good excuse, “it’s awkward that I have to work in a shop.” What a lame excuse!

Yuuri turned around with a smile. “There’s nothing wrong with that! What kind of a shop is it? Maybe I can visit it sometime?”

He had a terrible image then of innocent Yuuri in the clutches of that strange Victor who would try to steal his soul in exchange for the promise of granting him some wish.

“No! It’s a horrible shop!” Yuri protested. “You won’t like it at all!”

And then he wondered if Yuuri had a wish. Not a small, silly wish, but a big wish that only Victor could grant.

[greyliliy]

YOU LIKE CLAMP ??? Ilu bye

Ha ha. I do like a great deal of CLAMP titles. XD I haven’t seen/read all of it, but I have read quite a chunk (I was at a book fair once, and they had a TON of overstock TokyoPop titles & I cleaned house on like 6 Clamp series that day. xD). *pulls up their body of work list*

Man of Many Faces - Read the manga. It was very cute if I remember right.

Tokyo Babylon - I had to go pick up my manga to refresh myself what this was even about. XD I remember liking it enough the first time I read it to pick up the OVA for it, but I’m blanking on plot. Might have to reread this.

Clamp School Detectives & Duklyon: Clamp School Defenders - I have both these titles and they were fun times. It was great seeing the protagonists from Man of Man Faces all grown up and running around. Shenanigans. There were shenanigans and it was great. (I’m listing them together because it was the same school & universe.)

X/1999 - I think I saw that first movie of this, but not much else. I couldn’t seem to force myself to get interested, though I keep hearing it’s good. XD

Cardcapter Sakura - I watched the edited dub of this on TV, but that was it. Never read the comic or looked up the uncut version. I liked it enough to get that toy replica of her book & set of cards, but overall the thing I most appreciated about it was Sakura changed outfits every episode & there was no stock animations for her attacks. Plot wise I hated Syaoran, so that killed a lot of interest in the series for me. A friend of mine LOVED the series though, so I saw a lot of it via proxy. (When I say I hate Syaoran, I mean I hate him. It’s irrational and I have no reason but every time he’s on screen I want to throw the television across the room.)

WISH - Favorite CLAMP title. Hands down. I love it. These four volumes make me so happy and Kohaku is precious (and the original definition of “Too good, too pure for this world.”), and her romance with Shuichirou is so wonderful. They get a lot in four volumes and ug, I love it. I was so happy to see these two cameo over in Kobato, because I’m continually upset this didn’t get a proper OVA after we were spoiled with a fake series opening. XD

Angelic Layer - I have the anime for this on DVD & really loved it. I sort of loved how the little dolls are completely non-sentient, but the series still gives this sort of hint that they are, based on how their owners like them (like when a kid believes their toys are alive). It was a neat dynamic. I never got my hands on the manga for it, but I do remember looking up differences in story. It was a good show.

Suki: A Like Story -  I have the manga for this & I remember liking it a lot. It’s a lot more slice-of-life, toned down story for CLAMP. It threw me a little because it’s so down to earth. A very sweet love story, though. Another I need to re-read.

Legal Drug - I have the first couple of manga volumes of this, and I barely remember anything about it outside of the fact it ended on a cliffhanger. I know they picked it up later with a sort-of sequel, but I didn’t remember/care enough about it enough to look it up. XD

Chobits - I ADORED the anime of this. Loved it. Back in the days when DVD volumes had 3 episodes & cost $40 a piece, I GLADLY paid it every time one came out. I loved it so much. I have really good memories of watching it in college with a friend in my dorm room. Everything about Chobits I adored. So it’s only natural I went out and hunted down the Manga & Loved that just as much. Both versions are great and I love both and Chii & Hideki are so precious. *slams hand on table* I loved Chobits.

xxxHolic - I like the anime & the first part of the manga for this (up until Himawari’s reveal, or at least around there). The movie’s also very good. Actually, I liked xxxHolic a lot, considering it’s the only CLAMP title I’ve written fanfiction for, and boy did I love the main trio of Watanuki, Doumeki, and Himawari (My ships: Doumeki x Watanuki, Watanuki x Himawari & Himawari x Watanuki. xd).  And then I read ahead and figured out how it crossed over with Tsubasa and if you paid attention to my Cardcaptor Sakura rant toward the end, you probably know why I dropped this series and pretend it stops earlier than it does. That and I started losing interest in the plot the more Watanuki got involved with Yuuko & the shop. I have mixed feelings, but not too many, because I stopped reading. XD

Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle - My brother liked this one. So I saw some of it over his shoulder when he was reading & I think I watched the movie that came bundled with the xxxHolic movie, but otherwise I didn’t watch this one (*points at Syaoran with an angry face*).

Kobato - I only caught the anime of this one. I remember binging it in two settings & liking it quite a bit. It’s not my favorite CLAMP title, but it’s a good one. There’s also a WISH cameo though, which is WIN.

And that’s it. My entire CLAMP experience. I’m aware of other titles (like Magic Knight Rayearth) but never watched/caught them. xD