#luckyasks

[luckystarchild]

How hot: Yukina

It depends on how she’s depicted (sometimes she’s portrayed in cartoony ways that make her just “cute”) but when she looks like this…

GORGEOUS.

I mean. Just look at her. ♥

[luckystarchild]

I'm sorry but when you had Hiei say "nothing that cold deserves to taste that good" or however you worded it, it killed me. Just killed me. I can't stop thinking about it. Ouch all over my feels.

That’s basically the quote, yes!

“I don’t care for ice cream, anyway. Nothing that cold has the right to taste good,” Hiei says to Keiko, slouching quite slouchily in his cloak when she offers him the frozen treat—and with that, we finally get the chance to explore a head-canon of mine I’ve been kicking around for a good long while. Now that I’ve finally released chapter 69 of Lucky Child (heh heh heh… 69, amiright?) I can talk about it! (Yes, this is one of those Asks that I run away with; sorry, Anon!)

My head-canon is… I think Hiei would dislike ice cream.

… random, I know. Let me explain why I even have this head-canon in the first place.

I was first introduced to YYH when I was 11, during the show’s initial run on Toonami, and to the broader YYH fandom not long after. We were in the grip of Hiei and “sweet snow” at the time. The trope has calmed down a bit since then, but back then it was in its heyday. I have no idea where it first came from; all I know is that it was utterly ubiquitous and unavoidable at the time, appearing in basically all Hiei fics, and you still see it in the fandom to this day.

For those not in the know, most fics used to have a “sweet snow” scene in them that followed a pretty specific format. I myself probably wrote about five versions of it, so I’m not coming after anyone in particular when I describe it. It went like this:

The hour is late. Hiei walks into a kitchen, typically the kitchen at Genkai’s temple while the gang is staying there during a Spirit World mission. Someone (a canon character or, perhaps, a female OC) is eating ice cream in their pajamas. (Bonus: This person is usually Hiei’s love interest.) Hiei has never seen ice cream before. He has never heard of it. He scoffs when he is offered a bite, but upon taking a taste, his eyes widen. His guard drops. “It’s… it’s sweet snow!” he exclaims, because he doesn’t have other words to describe it, and his hard exterior melts like a pint of Ben & Jerry’s in July. He hoards the ice cream while his love interest giggles at his naiveté, tickled at how this hardened warrior could be so sweet and innocent beneath his gruff exterior.

I have no idea where this scene came from or who started it, but it’s a trope now, and you see it reproduced in various ways over and over again in this fandom. And I understand the purpose and utility of it. It shows a gruff, sometimes rude character being vulnerable and sweet and cute, providing a shortcut to character development (sort of) or at least a peek into what might lie beneath his layers of tsundere armor and forced detachment. It shows his lack of knowledge of Human World concepts and his ability to be something other than a hardened warrior.

The thing is… I don’t know if I buy it.

In fact, I don’t buy it, even though I used to write it constantly.

Canon established that Hiei’s memories began before he was even born, while in utero. He remembers vividly the world of ice, of being hated and discarded by creatures born of that cold substance. It’s unlikely he has any positive associations with chill, in that case, even if he cares for his ice-born sister, Yukina. I don’t think she alone could undo his negative feelings about ice and cold (especially considering she’s later revealed to share these feelings about the Koorime). Hiei would likely associate ice with metaphorical bitterness—so when confronted with something that is cold and literally sweet, I don’t think he’d take kindly to it. I think he’d be resentful of ice cream, of its flagrant defiance of his expectations, and turn up his nose whenever it’s offered.

Nothing that cold has the right to taste that good.

If he does internally think ice cream tastes nice, he’ll never admit it aloud. And if he ever eats it, it’ll be while he’s alone, out of view of others, and he’ll probably hate himself just a little for being weak enough to indulge (which is a heartbreaking one-shot idea in its own right; we’ll see if I ever write it).

Thus, “sweet snow” and Hiei… I just don’t see it, I’m sorry to say. And that breaks my little fandom heart because “sweet snow” is a fandom trope I’ve been writing since I was 12, but I don’t think I can do it anymore. ಥ_ಥ

Thanks for letting me run away with your Ask, Anon, and apologies for your bruised feels! Sorry if this made it worse. -_-;

[luckystarchild]

Hi, hello, yes, i just wanted to say that the fact that you give so much of your time for something that you share with all of us is so beautiful and appreciated and if you are taking time for yourself or your friends or literally anything that you want to take time for then you should do it and never have to apologize. ❤

Awwww, you’re so sweet. ♥

I get antsy when I don’t post exactly on Saturday and always want to warn y’all when I face a delay, since I’ve been told some wait for the chapters on Saturdays with cursors over their “refresh” buttons in hopes the chapter drops. Apologizing probably isn’t how I should go about warning y’all, but inevitably an “I’m sorry” slips out whenever I explain that a delay is on the horizon. XD Will try to be better about that. Thanks for putting up with me!! You da best.

Thanks, Anon! ★

[luckystarchild]

More Ask Meme Stuff Because I Goofed

I dun goofed and accidentally deleted the “65 Questions You Aren’t Used To” Ask Meme Ask that wanted to hear 18, 30, 38 and 64. Here they are. Sorry I messed that up! And now I can't recall who sent the Ask. ARGH.

18. Who would you really like to just punch in the face?

See my answer to question #17 in my previous Ask reply. #PunchANazi

30. Your house is on fire, holy shit! You have just enough time to run in there and grab ONE inanimate object. Don’t worry, your loved ones and pets have already made it out safely. So what’s the one thing you’re going to save from that blazing inferno?

Fuck, this is hard. But it’s not as hard as it COULD BE because last year during Hurricane Harvey I had to pack a “Most Cherished Possessions Bag” when we thought we were going to have to evacuate. I packed the following: A note written to/about me by an author I admire that complimented my writing, photos of my grandparents, a photo of a dear friend of mine who died when we were teenagers, and… my YYH plushies. I AM PATHETIC. I REALIZE THIS. But having cuddly versions of My Boys nearby was one of the few things I thought might bring me comfort would I were to be displaced by a raging storm.

38. What is the color of your socks?

Black! But they’re mismatched, though they’re the same brand. One is black with blue stripes and the other is black with pink stripes.

64. What do you think about babies?

GROSS AS HELL. I am squeamish as hell around the types of bodily fluids babied most often produce (SHUDDER) and think of them as wailing, screaming, disgusting little germ factories. Reason #672 I do not intend to become a parent. I have held precisely two babies in my life time, and not by choice, and that’s my limit. I will leave having kids to people who truly want and cherish them, happily assuming the role of Cool Auntie to all of my friends’ children instead. ♥