[Fic] In the Dragon's Lair

Title: In the Dragon's lair, fragments 5-7
Fandom: Viewfinder
Pairing: None
Rating: PG (not quite sure though)
Warning: Some language in fragment 6 and the inevitable "post NT5"
Beta: kawaiigato

Again big thanks to 07091987. And to alice_montrose for those lovely bishies she sent me this morning (that long haired Row Takakura one was to eat!)

Everything that follows has been lurking about my HD for over three days. What with the editing and my undecisiveness. I'm only posting them now. And only here. Because until tomorrow I may have changed some things. Maybe.

( Fragment 5. Longing )

( Fragment 6. Restless )

( Fragment 7. Rain )

And some links to the previous fragments, since this seems to be dragging on:
Fragment 1. Tao. Sort of like a prologue.
Fragment 2. Takaba
Fragment 3. Fei Long
Fragment 4. Innocence

(no subject)

Book meme
Tagged by dmnutv_archer and kawaiigato

EDITED May 27, 2005; 09:46

1. Total number of books owned?
Ugh, tough. Last time I made a record of the books we have in the house, I counted over 4000 (yes that's thousand). This was 5 years ago and they tend to multiply like rabbits. Of these, the number I would consider mine (either nought specifically by me or appropriated) should somewhere between 1/6 to 1/4 of the total (but my calculations may be off). Haven't read all of them of course (therefore always awestruck at mother who has read most of them).

2. Last book I bought?
Volumes 2 and 10 of Petshop of Horrors

3. The last book I read?
Currently reading "The Concubine's Tatoo" by Laura Joh Rowland, a crime novel set in Japan during the Tokugawa era.

4. Five books that mean a lot to me?

a) The phantom of the opera
I've been obsessing about it and with it since I was 12 years old. Brought about my first "adult" RPG and first "adult" plot (one that will never be fully written as it has been evolving in my brain since highschool and has grown together with my world).

b) The 154 published and many unpublished poems of Constantine Kavafy.
Each poem is a world in itself. Hauntingly simple and tragically beautiful. A tremendously clear look at a nation and a single person, looking out and looking in at the same time.

c) Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott (he won over Tsirkas' "Drifting Cities" after all)
The first unabbridged English book I read. Confirmed my adoration of the epic, even though at the time I was too young to understand the beauty and difficulty of lengthy descriptions and had been tempted to skip the beginning. I still value my old crushed Penguin edition (note: I am really obsessive with keeping my books as perfect as possible; there must be no crushed pages, no fingermarks on dark covers etc. But this particular volume met my sister's head repeatedly one spring afternoon. She claimed it didn't hurt and I wanted to prove her right; so I kept banging her and she started crying. What can I say, she was seven and I was eleven...)

d) Eric Hopsbawm's "Ages"
The four books that cover the history of the Western (mainly) world between the French Revolution to the Fall of the Eastern Block have defined my love for history as well as a lot of my ideas and thought processes relating to history.

e) Hugo Pratt's Corto Maltese graphic novels. And Higuri's Seimaden
The first series was my first real contact with the world of comics as a form of literature and art. Besides I was totally fangirling over the half Maltese gypsy half English sea captain/pirate who was friends with Rasputin and Shanghai Lil and upon a mid-winter eve met Oberon and Titania in Ireland of 1916.
The second started my manga obsession. It is also the first manga I ever owned and read complete in book form (thank God for the German publishers)

NOTE: I know I have already cheated horribly, but if I could add a sixth and 7th that would be the Potter books (not only am I obsessed, but this is the first time I started writing something and actually showed it to someone; fanfic, granted, but there was a lot of me in it) and Viewfinder (yes, my obsession with this manga surpasses all other things at the moment; however it also signifies my opening up to people in the sense that I first published my writings and that I have learned how to share my opinions and my passions with people I've never met)

5) Tag five people and have them fill this out on their LJs
dianeera
07091987
lil_pyxie
fuyugurei
serena_daragon

That's basically everyone on my friends list except for the two people who tagged me and alice_montrose who was already tagged :P

Star Wars

Did anyone else enjoy episode III as much as I did? Ever since Friday I've been ranting about it with everyone in my acquaintance. And all of us who have seen it agree on one thing. This was one hell of a movie! Complete! The perfect balance of elements combined with perfectly paced changes.

And Hayden Christensen, who definitely hadn't impressed me in the boring (me) to death Episode II, was absolutely amazing. His anguish, his inner fight between the Dark and the Light, Need and Autarchy, his gradual change... Not to mention the fact that he's grown into an absolute Babe! I mean YUMMY!

All in all, George Lucas has finally brought balance to the Force! A true Master.

Don Giovanni

I think it was Ruggiero Raimondi who once said that Don Giovanni is a hollow. We can project on him our own perceptions and ideas because we never get to know his own.
There is no big defining aria, we never know what really makes the man tick. Neither "Fin ch'an dal vino" (a calling for the feast's preparation) nor "Deh! vieni alla finestra" (the most gorgeous love serenade ever written), not even the duets and ensembles can cover this void.
Each character - and with them each member of the audience - has a completely different view of the man, as well as a completely different experience with him. So in the end it is he who defines everyone else's actions and desires.

I've often felt this way about Asami. He is the one character in Viewfinder we know so little of. A man with seemingly no past and no interest other than his own interest and his passion for conquest. And even that last part is a "hobby".
And yet look at how he affects the lives of everyone he "touches".

Emotional detachment, the intoxication of victory, the passion of the hunt, the loss of interest once the game is complete. True, Asami hasn't lost interest in Takaba. But isn't this because he hasn't been able to tame him? Takaba, despite always coming back, still eludes him in some fundamental way.

Don Giovanni died young, being swallowed by the flames of Hell for his "crimes". But there is still hope for Asami. To me it is clear that the man is changing, opening up, allowing himself to feel, to need someone. Maybe because Takaba is not an easy prey.