Had a request for this forum...This is a thread for all authors to discuss their writing with each other, for tips, and plot smoothing, and such.

Spoilers are unavoidable for stories that will eventually be posted here on FF, but I think it's worth it to help a fellow author out.

This is not restricted to fanfiction, either. However, please keep in mind that due to certain copyright laws, once you've posted something completely original on a public internet space, it can't be published and sold for money. It becomes public property. I'm not sure how extensive that law is, so I'm going to say that general plots and character development would be okay, but please don't post any part of the original work for us to read. If someone requests it, PM it to them. Just for the protection of your story, because God knows, who doesn't dream of getting published one day? I'd love to see an author appear who got their start on FF or something similar.

So remember, be careful with your work. Reserve original ideas for Emails and PMs.

That being said, I'm counting on Crimson Decade to jumpstart this thread, since it was her idea. Go you, Crimson.

Have fun!

Lol. I think you got Crimson and me mixed up.

And since you'd like me to start, here's something that's been on my mind for quite some time, whenever I'm thinking about the DN/HP oneshot I'm planning. This is mostly aimed to those who have read Another Note.

Everyone in fandom describes B's eyes as being red, but was it ever reported as such in the novel? When I read it, I remember trying to find a mention of the fact but it simply wasn't there.

That his eyes are red in fanfiction might be because he has shinigami eyes and that's what most authors would see red as the appropriate colour, but couldn't they be yellow? Or maybe they simply aren't described at all or are black as the author [spoiler here] tries to confuse us about Ryuzaki's identity. [end of spoiler]

So yeah. Any confirmation or anything anyone?

I've always assumed that it was because in the art at the beginning of the novel there are quite a few red eyes. One has a B in it too.

I could be wrong, but that's the conclusion I came up with. ^^;

I only thought that because of the art that I'd seen in DeviantArt, which, if it's not his real eye color (because I'm pretty sure they don't specify in DN;AN) then it's just used to differenciate between L and B. :shrug: That's all I can say about it though.

Nilah

Ah. So nothing concrete. That means I can pretty much play with it if need be. Anyway, thanks. Will keep it in mind when I finally start on that.

-- N.O.

I'm thinking they could be any colour. He tries to be like L, but he isn't, so he could have blue eyes for all we know. I think people pick red because that's what most people ahve associated with shinigami eyes, but if you look at the episodes with Misa, I don't think they're red unless they are showing her looking at life spans. I'll go double check after my piano class.

Hm, I think when Kani's referring to this she may be referring to my VERY first comment on the forum, or she got me and Neverending mixed up... xD Either way it is every fixable.

On B's eyes, I really think you can take an artistic license with them. Though from what I've noticed of shinigami eyes they mainly consist of reds and yellows, which I have no doubt would have an effect on how B's eyes look.

Also, I know this may or may not be the right place to mention this but would anybody be willing to beta the story for me? I mean, I have no one else who's really writer-ish to look at it and point out my mistakes or say "You know you could use some better wording here.." or even to point out some of my atrocious grammar mistakes. (Which I suppose are really my habit of run on sentences and such.) Basically I need a second pair of eyes, and I'm wondering who's up to the job?

It's a short kind of introspective piece on Light...and well...volcanoes.xD

I would love to... But I take a LONG time to beta, especially if I go through my "seven step process"... elmelo can tell you that. I've had her chapter for... 4 days? and I'm still going thorugh "step two".

I'll read and review though when you upload it.

Oh snap, DIBS!

Ahem. I mean, uh...I'll beta for you, if you'd like.

Seriously, I have several beta-jobs lined up, but only two that are moving at the moment. The other author hasn't begun sending me her stuff yet. I have free time, and I read quickly. Which leaves me time to go back and reread, because I sometimes miss things if I get into the story....I catch them the second time, though.

And B's eyes...he was born with them, neh? Personally, I thought of them as normal looking, but with a red tint at the edges of his vision. I don't think it could be too disruptive to his looks or behavior, especially if he's dealing with people like L and Watari. They'd notice something like that, I think, and question it.

Should I send it to you then using the Docx thingy mabobber? Erm and its rather rough, I got a really bad headache near the end that completely screwed me up...

Omg, how I did I miss this last post?! Crimson I'm so sorry...if you still have it, DocX works for me. I'll add you. I, geez, I feel really bad. I must have missed this post in my inbox...

Aw, I'm a sad Kani now. (kicks self)

Um...okay, moving on to why I came back to this thread (and I'm glad I did). Slight spoilers, warning you now.

I just wanted to run theory by the rest of you Deathnote fans on the Shinigami eyes. We all know that the deal is half your lifespan for the ability to see a person's name and their remaining lifespan, as long as you have a clear view of their face. Now, maybe I'm just a little strange to think so deeply into this, but bear with me.

I've always wondered just how exactly that deal is accomplished. What thread of fate changes when this deal is in action, that is so significant to your life that it literally, cuts it in half?

The theory I came up with is that our lives must be mapped out to a certain extent. This has to be possible for the Shinigami to even exist, because we must have a set lifespan, one that they can take from us. Looking through DeathNote 13: How to Read, it gives us a detailed description of various Shinigami and the Shinigami King, himself. It offers no description, and only tells us that he is pretty much omnipotent. His intelligence and power is stated to be incomprehensible to the human mind.

So...being the nosy bastards that we are, let's try to comprehend that.

Omnipotent...if our lifespans are mapped out to the last second of our existence upon earth, then who's to say that the Shinigami king isn't the one that controls that data? I would not put it past him to be our figurative puppet master. He has the ability to torture and punish the Shinigami that he rules over, a feat that no one aside from the Shinigami themselves can even throw a stick at. Shinigami can commit a form of suicide, true, by extending the lifespan of a human being...

...So, if that's punishable by death, perhaps it's safe to assume that it warrants such a high penalty because they're directly interfering with the Shinigami's Kings wishes.

If he, an omnipotent being, decrees that a human is to die....they better die. Or someone goes to dust.

With me so far? I hope so.

Now, a deal can be made between a human and a shinigami...shinigami eyes for half their remaining lifespan. That's a high price to pay. Perhaps it comes from the fact that this omnipotent being, the Shinigami King, must exchange a part of his power for this deal. I believe that for it to work, the Shinigami King must be involved in some way, because he controls our lifespans.

The Shinigami just take it. They were designed to kill us.

In order for our lifespan to be so drastically changed, I think the God in control of it must the be one who is actually making the deal, through his creations, the Shinigami, because they are obviously not allowed to tamper with it themselves.

Now, the interesting part.

If you think about it, our lives are made up of minute instances of danger. Tiny things, being cognizant of a vehicle passing by before we step into the road, carefully measuring out our medications, investing in protection for our loved ones...and that's before we even get to the adamant trust we place in ourselves as engineers and mechanics. The mere act of driving over a bridge for instance...

We trust that the bridge is capable of supporting us at any given moment in time, but say the maintenance has been slack the last few years? And what about our brakes, have we checked them lately? Changed the oil in our car when scheduled?

Are we even wearing our seatbelt?

The deal is half our remaining lifespan.

That means from the second we say we agree to the deal, our lives must change, drastically, somewhere in the future. The very fabric of our existence must be re-woven so that the fated death does not occur, and we instead die much sooner than expected. The shinigami king must alter everything, every twitch we make from that instant forward, to suit the terms of his deal. It could be something as complicated as timing a war between two nations, or as simple as shifting a rainstorm a few miles in our direction, so that we wreck our vehicles and die. I think that, in order for this deal to occur, our lives must be re-written so that at the given point in time, the axis of our entire existence shifts. We go from A to B, yes, but B is suddenly a hell of a lot closer than it was three seconds ago.

The truth is...it's very easy to die.

And as an omnipotent being, it must be very easy to kill.

The deal drew my attention when I first read the manga, and has stuck with me for a long time. The idea of our lives hinging on a single moment in time isn't a new one, and I'll not claim it original. But the thought of this deal, of suddenly having control over your life in such a complete, irreversible manner...is fascinating, regardless of the control those terms offer. It's similar to being presented with a loaded gun...a bullet with no interest until such and such time. It's an extended form of suicide.

...

And then along comes a spider, my mind whispers.

B. Beyond Birthday, the boy born with Shinigami eyes through no action nor fault of his own. We can see his arrogance plainly stated in his exposition, the grand story of how he sought to drag L to the ground.

Could you imagine what sort of person he'd have been if no one had interfered? When he originally discovers what his gift is, can you even for a second conceive of how it would affect his mentality as he matured, had L not stepped in? We see him as L built him, an obsessive man restrained for a time by L's notion of justice, driven by his arrogance and need for power, but aside from that, what do we have? A man who obviously thinks himself far above and away from the rest of society, merely because a set of digits over our heads dictates our death, and he can read them.

It says he never told anyone of their death-date, but why? Would he flaunt it about society, as some higher power, a greater calling...would he name himself prophet and take power that way? Why not? Was he inable, perhaps, to disclose such information, because the Shinigami King forbade it? I don't know.

But I think, one of the most chilling questions one can ask about Beyond Birthday is not why he did what he did to L...but what he would have done had he never met the greatest detective in the world?

What if Beyond Birthday had decided to murder, not people that were slated to die anyway, but people that he merely didn't like? Innocent people that he had no more to do with than the murders he used them for? Would he have decided to kill simply for the pleasure of it, and not for his revenge upon his idol?

I want to say yes.

Perhaps that's the author in me asking for another story to write, and perhaps it's merely the part of my mind that can't help but ask 'why?', but yes, I believe Beyond Birthday would turn to murder as a form of amusement if his dangerous mind hadn't been given a focus in the way of L, the greatest detective in the world. I think that in truth, he would have been unable to resist, given his arrogance and obvious distaste for the rest of us.

This isn't really a spoiler... it's in the first passage in DeathNote: Another Note. Basically, Beyond attempted an experiment with his third murder victim. He wanted to know if it was possible to cause a person to die of internal hemorrhaging without damaging any vital organs. So he drugged his victim, and then took a bat and beat his victim's arm, to prove it true or false. They didn't die, but he must have done this methodically, because he never broke the skin. That kind of patience in the face of such extreme violence leads me to believe that he would never have any problem with murder. Ever. Violence of that nature is traumatic to its creator just as much as its target. No man could walk away from that unscathed unless he was already very, very broken.

I didn't mean for this to turn into an essay, but I've written quite a bit here, haven't I? Thoughts?

(head-desk) I'm such an author.

"And then along comes a spider, my mind whispers."

I mean c'mon, who SAYS that in normal conversation? Aiyah.

I thought it was cool...^^;

On to srs bsns now...

That idea is wicked cool ^-^. What I've always wondered is how B stated that the people that he killed were going to die anyway. I mean, it would be pretty freaking hard to find people in a sorta small area with certain initials running out of numbers (life) in a certain time-frame. So was the plan for them to die that way, or would they have died a different way if B had felt like not killing them?

So if B had never met L would those people die anyways, or would destiny change for them? O_o

So does that mean if B wanted to kill someone because he didn't like them, would their lifespan change or would it already be at the appropriate amount?

And if everything's a plan, could people cheat? (Omg, I'm totally thinking of Final Destination XD. If it were like FD couldn't somebody smack Light with a copy and go "ASDFGHJKL! You coulds be IMMORTAL with this!!!111one!!1)

Though writing somebody's name down in the DN doesn't effect the whole lifespan thing, as it's needed for the Shinigami to live and stuff ^^;

So many questions XD. Though it is a pretty interesting topic, and I do love theories :D

(I think my post is coherent, but it is pretty late where I'm at. So if I confuse any of you tell me ^^;;;;;. Sorry!)

Partially because I have a rabid interest in picking people's minds apart and dissecting their behavior patterns, I love taking B apart in fanfiction because he is so ill-explained and incompletely developed. I feel that there is so much room for readers to come up with their own interpretations of him. As such, obviously, my discussion of his character below is almost entirely my own opinion developed through several fanfics and numerous plot bunnies. Parts of it are probably wrong (can you prove it?), but I love to discuss him. Not sure if this was what you were looking for, Mikanis, but I really didn't put that much thought into the eye trade and the King's role, though I do like your theories.

B is a psychopath, not a "psycho" or a crazy person. The only thing that matters to him is him alone. He doesn't even like/cherish/adore L; he simply obsesses over him the same way an addict might obsess over drugs. Addicts might hate and despise them and wish that they didn't need them but they cannot function without them. As such, he possesses the capability to be violently and disgustingly cruel simply because he doesn't care in the slightest about the effects of his methods on people.

B is not a shinigami; he merely has the eyes. That manifests in my stories as him having an inability to have an effect on people's lifespans. In the book, he only kills people on their deathday; it even says so. The only person he tries to kill without knowing their deathday is himself, and he fails. I use that as evidence that he cannot affect life in the same way that a shinigami or the owner of a Death Note can by shortening or even deciding their destined lifespan. He cannot kill anyone on anything other than their deathday. In my stories, even B wonders if people were foreordained to die because he was going to kill them that day, or they were going to die anyway and he just decided how. B does not have the power to shorten lifespans, therefore I made it almost like a compulsion, something he has no control over, that he cannot kill people on anything other than their deathday, no matter how much he might want to.

I think people would die on their deathdays in whatever manner, but almost like in Final Destination, if one way was thwarted, another would present itself.

Ack, I ran out of witty discussion, so I think I'm done talking for tonight. I'd love to see some more opinions, though. B is my favorite character to write about, after all.

That's actually one of my favorite questions about B, is whether or not his decision to murder someone was the deciding factor in whether or not they would die. I'm rather torn on the subject, because I want to believe that it is set in stone to a degree, and that his participation is merely a matter of location and availability, but at the same time...I'm a fan of chance and circumstance. For instance, in the story that I'm betaing for Nilah, Captivation, he has an indirect affect on L's lifespan merely because he decided to kill him. Granted, he doesn't know how it's going to happen, but the second he made up his mind to murder the detective, L's lifespan shortened considerably. I suppose it's the author in me, because that just screams opportunities for storytelling.

But again, it's a difficult law to nail down. Just how much of the human lifespan is predetermined, and how could a human affect it, if at all?

I broached this subject with a friend, and she remarked that perhaps the person would merely die of a heart attack instead of their life altering itself to suit the new timeline. Maybe the Shinigami King really would just point and say 'Stop.', and that would be the end of it.

I like to think that circumstance has some influence on the death...For instance, Soichiro. In the manga, he makes the eye deal minutes before the raid on Mello's lair, cutting his lifespan in half. He dies maybe two days later from the injuries he received during the raid.

My question is...what could have happened four days after the raid that would have killed him? I mean... if he cut his lifespan in half and died a matter of hours afterwards, what exactly was so pivotal that it would have killed him later?

Hey! Such an interesting discussion came out but I won't have much time to discuss much about it here as I am currently on vacation going around Europe. So yeah. Not much time to talk and not much opportunity to get access to the Net.

One thing I would like to point out is that, if I remember correctly, in DN 13, it said that the appearance of the Death Note changes the lifespan of everyone. That it is no longer set in stone or something. (must check later when I get ahold of the book but still something to keep in mind. So that kinda relates back to the Shinigami King discussion. If every lives hinge on that one moment, just the appearance of the Death Note changes everything. In my mind, the Death Note just makes lives easier to manipulate and it is as though the threads of fate are no longer solid but can be weaven instead. Or you can see it as water: everything is suddenly so much more supple and flexible.

So, that could be why making the deal for the shinigami eyes, although it halves one's lifespan, doesn't completely remap the world. After all, all lifespans are affected and changed just by the appearance of the DN.

As for B, he is definitely a character to explore. I don't think I'll rreally elaborate on my own thoughts about him because I still haven't exactly pinpointed him down yet, but ideas are certainly whirling in my mind, especially with the DNxHP crossover I want to write about him.

Okay. Gotta go. Someone's waiting for the Net.

I have another slightly less important issue to address about B. Can anyone hazard a guess how old he is? I got a question about it and replied with the following, but I want to know what anyone else thinks.

"My only guess as to his age is that he would probably be a few years younger than L since at Wammy House he was being groomed to be L's successor, which I think would have happened when he was fairly young since the minds of children are more malleable. I'm guessing if L became famous at 14, and Wammy tried to produce another L shortly afterward, he would have tried with someone younger to get them to that level before reaching age 14. That would put him a few years behind L, and I say only a few because in 2002, which is 2 years before the Death Note story starts, B is put into prison for his crimes, which wouldn't happen in America if he was under 18. If all of that reasoning is sound, B is between 20 and 23 years old when the Death Note manga starts in 2004, which assumes that he was 18 when jailed (at the youngest) and 2 years younger than L when he started being groomed to be his successor (which I figured was the smallest amount of time Wammy would leave to create another "L" in time)."

Theories? Questions? Other comments about everyone's favorite demented serial killer?

Hey,

I'm new to the forums but I was floating around on my favorites list, and saw your query about ages. I came up with an 'age list' for the DN characters, and B was on that list. This was also tweaked with the help of a friend. I don't remember quite what our baseline was for the exact ages, but it hinged on L being 15 years old at the time, and I believe we figured out that BB would have been about 11-12 (I recall Mello's age being a deciding factor for this.) I think when all was said and done we decided that BB would be 12, at the time L was 15, so that makes him about three years younger. I've seen some fics where he was 4-5 years younger, but after some discussion and number crunching, my friend and I found the age gap a little large for events to flow smoothly. I wish I could find our calculation sheet, because this was logical in some capacity, I'm just sleep deprived from writing all night and can't remember why.

I agree with Artista...I've always imagined him being the midpoint between L and Light in age, so perhaps 3-4 years.

Writing from an Internet cafe in Italy. Fun times.

Anyway, I am pretty amazed with how you deducted his age. I must agree with it but I don't really have much of a choice in the matter. Lol.

Because in my case (well, for the crossover I'm planning to write), he must be born July 31st 1980. :P

Sadly, only about a year younger than L... which is a bit tight. *sigh*

Bua ha ha ha!

I found some of the sheets I used. There was some consideration here for L and his Junior British Championship, since I tagged his winning around him his 14th year of age. Now, BB was in the picture by then, but he wouldn't have been able to follow L, since L would have been working under an assumed name and another identity, and I'm sure that pissed off BB to no end. I get the impression, Bloodshot Eyes, that L was famous way before then. I really pegged L to be solving cases at around ten. And wasn't there mention in Another Note that BB and L knew each other as 'children'? I got the impression that they were familiar with each other long before L became the famous detective, perhaps even friends (side note: It's been mentioned in literature that everything L says is a lie, or a quantitative one, for instance, the percentages he utters mean entirely different things, you can look that up, I think it's in the wiki or 13 or something, therefore when L says that Light is his first friend, I assumed he's outright lying.) What started out as friendly, but aggressive competition, might have turned into something sinister. Namely, because BB was mentally disturbed in the first place, and L doesn't strike me as the type to have a load of sensitivity for someone like that. I sort of interpreted their early life as L going off and doing incredible things on his own, and BB tagging along obsessively like some really annoying little brother, who would of course, eventually turn violent when his desperate needs for attention weren't met. By the time BB was 12 and L was fifteen, I believe BB would have had his full blown psychosis manifest.

As a complete aside, what does BB actually look like? Does anyone write him fundamentally different than L without his makeup on? I rather envision him as seriously resembling L as a small child, and then branching out a bit as he got older, and thusly requiring the use of makeup and hair gel to maintain his likeness. For instance, BB might have straight hair instead of wild, a slightly flatter nose, wider eyes, something like that. The kind of differences that make you squint a little, but aren't overly alarming. Anyone else?

These forums always go from one topic to an entirely different one XD Um, right, so I need some opinions on a plotline for a new story I'm working on. It's a sequel to one of my others in which Light gets raped, etc. You know the deal. It ends with L forcing Light to work with him because Light has no memories of being Kira. With the sequel I'm writing, the two are going to start working on a rape/murder case. B is my chosen psychopath this time and he's working with Mikami. Basically, Light gets abducted by B and Mikami. B will believe that Light is with L, and y'know how he's all possessive about L, so I figure he'll have a vengeance. He'll torture Light and lay out the clues to where he is kept hidden for L to find. I can't drag out B torturing Light forever, so eventually he's going to have to be rescued, because I don't particularly want to kill him off. I have an idea in mind which could definitely make things a little more dramatic. While watching Light, B will figure out that he'd been raped. B's intelligent, so it wouldn't be too hard for him, surely. So then, B would rape him again. Just for fun XD Yeah...sadistic. So then when Light is finally rescued, he'd be super freaked out because B looked just like L, therefore living with L would be really challenging for him. In my first one, L was pretty much Light's protector/comforter, and I think it would be interesting to write Light in that situation.

But, the question is, is it too OTT? I'm not sure. It seems like having him raped in both the original story and the sequel might be a little too much? A little too soap-opera-ish? It's just that, I thought of that plotline and it appeals to me, but I'm still not 100% sure. So I'll turn to you awesome authors/readers for your opinions! XD

Well... Perhaps you could back off the full rape and just have B mess with his head. Rape isn't something that just goes away, and I think that Beyond could put him through enough hell without having to go through the entire act. Perhaps inappropriate touching, and let the mind ****ery do the rest.

That coming from me though. Oo

I tend to overdo these things. Especially with Beyond.

That is an excellent idea. Why don't I think of these things? *sigh*

Violent Artista, I believe it was mentioned in "Another Note" that L became internationally famous at 14, or at least broke onto the international scene with his deductive genius at that age. I'm sure he was working as a detective before then, just on more localized or "behind the scenes" work. It was in "How to Read DN 13" that Ohba said that L's percentages were a lie. She/he said that L "probably said nasty things about Light behind his back" and wasn't a friend at all to him, something surprisingly dismissive like that. HTRDN13 was a big slap in the face to me, so I was rather disheartened upon reading it. I also like having B a few years younger than L and a little older than Light just to have some middle ground, but that's strictly personal preference. I applaud your own deduction of his age. Analysis is such fun.

SekushiAi, I'm with Mikanis in the mindfuckery boat. It's so much more interesting than another fic where the characters inexplicably rape each other, like some sort of twisted male harem anime. Once is believable, but twice? Mmm, not so much.

Ah, and another thing. I too imagine B looking similar to L as a child, but wanting to increase the similarity as he grew older. I tend to imagine him as slightly darker skinned (from going outside more) and with gelled/spiked hair whereas I imagine L's is only so messy because he washes it but doesn't bother to comb it because he doesn't care. His eye color is also different, but I can see him wearing contacts to have L's dark eyes. I also write B as a psychopath rather than someone suffering from psychosis, since I like to think all of his madness is deliberate and planned for effect.

I love public computers. It's the only thing keeping me from sleeping all the time here.

Just have a little faith in the torture. So much can be done with a little patience and some basic psychology...It kind of bothers me when the first thing people jump to are the big things, murder, loss of loved ones, rape. Or rather, being the nerd/psyche-buff that I am, it bothers me when people regard them as events and not the life-altering experiences that they are. Everything, even the way a person thinks, is indirectly affected by watching another person die, especially in a violent manner. It's literally damaging to a person's psyche, even if they don't know the person intimately. Being faced with one's own mortality for the first time is not something that can be shrugged off or taken in stride.

And Rape...well, rape is something monstrous. By including that in your story, you've given yourself a wealth of psychological depth to draw from, not just in terms of the injury. Rape is not a single-victim crime. In your story, L takes on the role of a protector, forcing himself to open up and allow Light something more solid than his persona to trust. Beyond, as he is, sees it as an opportunity to hurt not only Light, but L as well.

And then there's Light, at the heart of it, so full of poison he's not even himself anymore.

...I'm babbling again. I get introspective when faced with good bunnies...s'why I don't claim them.

Long story/suggestion/rant short, guys, have a little faith in your fuse before throwing a torch at your fireworks. I'm really...really glad you're considering this option because with your talent, Sekushi, I think it will make a damn good story. ^ ^ I'll be watching for it.

I agree with you. I hate reading stories where Light gets raped, and then L kisses him or some ridiculous crap and like a in a fairytale it all goes back to normal, Pre-Rape Light. That is so annoying.

My talent? Haha, more like lack there of. But I will try XD Thank you for your idea, Mikanis. I have such a one-track mind sometimes, I can miss something when it's staring me in the face. Hopefully I'll have this story up and running soon. It'll be called Stolen. I think.

Bloodshot Eyes: I don't have a copy of the book in the flesh, so you see my problem keeping origins of facts straight. Go team me! haw. And yeah, I sort of assume there's a huge discrepincy between when someone is actually doing something, and when they become 'the name'. L must have been doing detective work pretty early on; genius or not, one doesn't just magically wake up a superb detective, there's a learning curve.

Speaking of which, I have a hard time seeing BB as a textbook psychopath, because I'm not entirely convinced they exist on the Hollywood terms we're given. Another Note sort of annoyed me in that way, BB is a cackling top hat with a monocle, he wasn't very human, but he could have been. Some of the most atrocious serial killers in history were all the more terrifying because they were human, and it's that aspect that frightens people, not so much that we're fighting evil beasts hiding among men or what have you. But then, I guess the specific background was limited because Mello was telling the narrative (for whatever reason, that was pretty strange in and of itself, blah, I had issues with Another Note as much as I liked BB, it was very predictable and some of the storytelling was really cheesy/lame.)

It's funny you mentioned how 13 irked you, because it really irked a friend of mine too. It actually made me go 'HAW I knew it!' because when L uttered the fandom beloved phrase about how Light was his only friend, my knee jerk reaction was 'man, this guy is so full of it'. So I was really pleased to see my suspicions confirmed. It makes the L/Light dynamic that much more complex and fascinating, and much, much harder to reach in a believable way. ...although, it does cause a lot of weird idiosyncrasies in the overall storyline of the manga, so I can see why people loathe it, aside from shattering chances of canon boy romance (but hey, that doesn't stop the possibility of canon boy pr0n!)

Boy, it's been a while since anyone spoke. *pokes forum with a stick, like the dead squirrels on her running routes*

Violent Artista, I didn't have a copy of the book either. My mind just latches onto weird things. If you mean by "textbook psychopath" versus "Hollywood psycho" that B was a human being and not some deranged clown like the one in It, I was hoping my portrayal of him leaned more toward textbook. His "madness" is an act, even though I don't think I've ever said that. He does things to get a reaction, and he's quite capable of blending into society. I don't think Wammy House would have kept him long at all if he'd been mentally diseased in an obvious manner.

As far as the writing of Another Note, I've never read another "light novel" before, but perhaps the unimpressive language is typical of those if the companies are pumping them out in order to sell more items in a particular franchise. I don't buy Mello telling the story. Is he writing this from the afterlife? He mentions dying, so he must be, but how does he know B well enough to envision this, or how did he see it in the first place? I can imagine something was lost in the translation as well, for I know a friend of mine complained about the Vampire Hunter D novels being dry as hell, and I do translation work and it's hard/challenging to keep the original feel intact.

I do believe absolutely nothing could stop yaoi fangirls from creating pr0n other than finding out that one of their beloved characters is in fact a girl.

Fruits Basket SPOILER ALERT I mean, WTF, Akito is a girl?! This cannot be!! END SPOILER

*crawls out of the dead squirrel like some hideous afterbirth* Hi!

It's sad, the 'Another Note' book is incredibly well bound and super gorgeous, but the writing made me gag. :/ I don't think much was lost in the translation from what I hear, the writer was young and inexperienced, and wrote for a younger inexperienced audience I think, and it kinda showed. There were huge plot holes, HUGE. But yes, enough ranting...I did enjoy the tidbits given to us and gnawed on them like L gnaws on a delicious sugar cookie. But other than that, I wasn't too impressed.

(As an aside, Another Note was amazingly translated compared to Vampire Hunter D, that was just GODAWFUL. Seriously, translators should HAVE to have some kind of writing experience if they're going to translate something other than straight fact, otherwise it's truly horrid. Why can't everyone be Robert Fitzgerald?!...I kid. Mostly.)

That's the thing, I don't know if his madness would be an act, although I did LIKE your take on B and I believe it's sincere and well thought out. I guess from my experience working with genuinely crazy people in my old job, I got to see a lot of sad along with the 'wtf' and I prefer viewing B as somewhat of a tragic figure, who maybe could have been okay, but was certainly encouraged to be very much not okay by various factors in his life. I like exploring AU's where B becomes a little bit more than a murderer, but also, still has that part of him that's clearly unhinged. The balancing act between insanity and genius is my favorite part about the DN characters. BB can embody that, if given the right circumstances. He can also be a fun psycho to play with straight up, like a gin on the rocks.

(There's a sadistic little part of me that revels in L maybe even feeling guilt over BB and what he's become, even though L might not have done anything direct. We've all done shitty things to people we've cared about, in life it's inevitable. But generally, most of the people we do shitty things to don't become serial killers solely bent on getting our attention. I also think it would be a bit tragic if BB went from seeing L as a friend, to 'L' as an ideal or an objective to live up to...and L not really being capable of dealing with that situation. It's really quite heartbreaking from that angle...and symptomatic of some real mental illnesses.)

HA HA HA that spoiler made me laugh. Hard. But I know I'd just use it as an excuse to make some horrible filthy threesome fic or something. I'm cool with het, yaoi, yuri etc. don't ask me what etc is (hermaphrodites? Maybe? I dunno...) and I'm deranged enough to want more weird/twisted mpreg in the Death Note fandom. Darn, I should make some mpreg challenges for DN... (and a thousand fangirls cry out NO!! WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?! into the night...)

So, I have a question about the shinigami eyes.

Obviously with the eyes you can see a person's life span, but you can't see your own, and no one can see the life span of an owner of a Death Note. But what about in the case of BB? Say someone had the shinigami eyes also, and looked at BB - would they see his name and life span?

I'm hoping the answer is yes. Or else my plotline is going to fall apart when I am half-way through the story and somebody's going to have to call an ambulance to save the dear, dead thing. DX

I'm pretty sure that someone with shinigami eyes could see be B's life span. B doesn't own a Death Note so, unless his shinigami eyes somehow affect this, someone else with shinigami eyes could see his life span. B of course couldn't see his own, I don't think, and any Death Note owner would lack a life span.

I don't think the strange anomaly of B's eyes would affect how others see his life span, it actually might even have an affect on his life span. That could also mean though that another person with the eyes couldn't see it just because of the strange connection.

Really its all theoretical and rather questionable, the origin of B's eyes are left a mystery no? (If not, holy crap I missed something!) I think you really have a creative liscence with this one.

Mikanis: Oh and sorry Mikanis life got hectic and I've kind of lost my Death Note muse for the moment, should I ever get it back I'll pick up on the beta offer (if its still there.) -shrugs- What can I say, things change.Dx

uhm. Hi.

I probably haven't posted this question the right place or the right way, but I'm a total noob, so please forgive me.

Anyway, I squealed in joy when I found this forum, and I have some bunnies myself, but the thing is.. I think they're a little.. weird. Odd. Pure evil and I should just kill the characters and get it over with. Would it be okay to post such obscene bunnies (with rabies) here?

Hi everyone! I just discovered this forum recently (last week I think) and I'm really happy to have found it. Just a general shoutout then. Is anyone interested in beta-ing my fics? I need at least one beta for my fanfics Light Generation, Nine Months Due and Right Hand Man, and I haven't had any luck finding one. You can go read the first few chapters on the links to my profile page, btw. And it's okay for me if you just want to beta a particular fic, or if you'll take time in beta-ing I'm not in such a hurry, anyway. I'll still love you for that. Anyway, if anyone's interested, or if you want additional information, just PM me. I'll try to reply right away.

And yeah, just a general idea I've already planned out what would happen for Lightgen and NMD, (but I have yet to write it, though...busy times) so feel free to ask if interested. I plan to write my chapters by the end of May or June, so you can take your time.

And...please excuse me if this post is not appropriate in this forums. I just had to ask this and I don't know where to....sorry.

I need help with this story I'm writing. It has some potential, but it needs another plot. It's a Doctor Who fic with Donna's granddaughter, and a family story that has been passed from Grandad to daughter to daughter. It takes place on a human satellite colony in 2062, which has it's own hazards.

What I need is a situation that would require the Doctor's brain-power, attention, and curiosity. Preferably with a ticking-clock (no pocket watch)

please, I need all the help I can get

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