Working through 'Beginnings' and betaings


Harukami: I've betad the Metatron fic. I'll send it to you in a sec... I have to restart netscape 'cause I'm currently answering a different email of yours and... heck, my email's a complicated thing. You'll get it very shortly.

Hoyden: *claps hands* Very sweet of you.

Harukami: Actually, most of my comments were on crack.

Hoyden: Then it should be amusing.

Harukami: Why did you think you couldn't write Raph? You so can.

Hoyden: Hmm. You're kind. I just want to make this a long pursuit of Mikael, not two pages. I'm kinda stuck for inspiration though.

Harukami: Think. Raphael's first approach must be INTERESTING, or Mikael wouldn't be 'avoiding' him so much on the scenes on earth.

Harukami: And the 'injured body' thing seems to have been a gambit he's used more than once by Mikael's response to it in the clock-tower scene.

Hoyden: It seems as though while Raphael has talked him into bed before, he hasn't heard the words "I love you" or anything of the sort

Harukami: Come on. Raph's as nervous as anyone else that that much will be rejected.

Harukami: *suddenly starts to sob* I just... answered a huge email of yours... and before it could save... Netscape suffered a fatal error and shuts down... I was literally on the last line...

Hoyden: Shit.

Harukami: I /hate/ that! It was answering your betaing for my fic... aw, fuck.

Harukami: I just sent your Metatron fic's betaing, at any rate.

Hoyden: Sorry, lovely.

Hoyden: Checking my mail now. Yahoo had better behave.

Harukami: *nodnods* Didja get it?

Hoyden: yes!

Harukami: Wanna read it now? We can talk comments over. N-stuff.

Hoyden: yeah, I'll read it. back in a few.

Harukami: kay! *dances the happy broken-spine dance*

Harukami: How's it so far?

Hoyden: excellent commentary so far...I really need to watch those damn male pronouns. Two men alone in a scene just gives me headaches.

Harukami: Me too. Like I said.

Hoyden: Encouraging me to write smut. You wicked girl, you.

Harukami: I like smut!

Hoyden: I do too!

Harukami: So, the problem is?

Hoyden: Isn't that fortunate?

Harukami: Yes.

Harukami: ^^

Hoyden: So my hopeless romantic wishes for angst resolution?

Harukami: I just hope for more less-hopeless romance. *giggles* 'snot happening.

Hoyden: Probably not. This is the first angsty thing I've written in quite some time. Normally I'm a great believer in mutual love.

Harukami: I know. *sighhh*

Hoyden: Hence my ambition to get Raphael and Mikael to smooch as often as possible.

Harukami: SMOOCHY ANGELS! SMOOCHY ANGELS! How far into the betaing are you?

Hoyden: I'm done.

Hoyden: And yes, some of your comments WERE on crack. Funny, but definitely on crack.

Harukami: *grins kinda oddly* Helpful? Not?

Hoyden: Simultaneously writer-helpful and ego-helpful.

Harukami: Dude! I'm glad.

Harukami: Yeah. *giggles* Um. Yes. I love the Metatron. He needs a hug.

Hoyden: You know something? I don't want to share my Raphael-sama. Otherwise known as overidentifying with your character.

Hoyden: *laughs* Hence my insecurity with writing Raphael!

Harukami: Because you identify with Mikael TOO well?

Hoyden: *tilts head slightly* Perhaps. I wonder what that says about me. ^^

Harukami: One word, dear... *dramatic pause* DAME!

Hoyden: *blinks, then giggles* Great. I'm an uke-wannabe.

Harukami: *shudders* Bad, bad mind place. "'cause if you wanna be my uke/..."

Hoyden: Yuck. Trashy pop music, no thank you.

Harukami: I don't like it. It just popped into my head, like a mineature radiation leak.

Hoyden: I figured as much. From she who introduced me to October Project (which I feel the extreme need to buy)

Harukami: ^^ I TRY to have taste.

Hoyden: You succeed. ^^

Harukami: OHOHOHOHOH. Thanks.

Hoyden: No problem. Did you want to comment on my beta of your fic?

Harukami: *cries* I did, remember? The whole thing. And then my email failed and deleted it. It'll take me ANOTHER hour to rewrite the whole thing.

Hoyden: It was that long?!!

Harukami: Yeah.

Hoyden: *blinks* I didn't think I said that much that was worth commenting on. You surprise me, dear.

Harukami: I was just... having fun.

Hoyden: I like you having fun.

Hoyden: It results in amusing weirdness.

Harukami: ^^;; thanks. I like /having/ fun. It's a good arrangement.

Hoyden: Indeed.

Harukami: *smiles* ^^;;

Hoyden: *smiles back, rather goofily*

Harukami: *glomps da Hoyden then runs off the other way* TAG!

Hoyden: *chases her down and tackles her, albeit gently and considerately* Tag.

Harukami: :p

Harukami: *climbs Hoyden*

Hoyden: And WHAT was that way above with having a broken spine?

Harukami: *shrugs* I wanted to see if you'd comment?

Hoyden: There's not that much of me to climb, as you well know.

Harukami: *shrugs*

Hoyden: *huggles*

Hoyden: I hope you didn't seriously injure yourself again.

Harukami: Not particularly. No more than usual. ^^

Harukami: *does the Raphael 'pained stumble' and falls into Hoyden's arms* Wait, I meant, yes, terribly.

Hoyden: *holds her and giggles*

Harukami: *frowns comically* Psst. you missed your outraged Mikael cue.

Hoyden: *sputters* You tricked me!

Harukami: Much better.

Harukami: *snuggles*

Hoyden: *attempts to bow during snuggling and fails*

Harukami: *blinks and looks down* Um. I've never had anyone get their head stuck there before. Their eyes, yes, but never their whole head.

Hoyden: I'm talented.

Hoyden: ^^

Harukami: Thank YOU.

Hoyden: I'd say, "anytime" but that would be a trifle over-enthusiastic.

Harukami: *snigger*

Hoyden: Would you mind a few questions?

Harukami: Right on.

Hoyden: Would you think Mikael's ... disapproval, as it were, would be an incentive for Raphael to go after him?

Hoyden: His overall uptightness, you know?

Harukami: The eternal challenge? Maybe in the beginning. But you can see it in his eyes, in his pose, in his dialogue throughout the series. Raphael is SO gone over Mikael, and tries to hide it under jokes. There's a hurt there, a fear, and it's hard to say who started it.

Hoyden: I'd say probably Mikael. Raphael is very open about what he wants. That fear probably stems from a previous refusal, or something Mikael said in anger.

Harukami: Yeah. And Raphael keeps on, because it's something he really wants and he's LIKE that, but he's scared. Scared to push too far, scared to MAKE Mikael reject him.

Hoyden: Yet while Mikael occasionally disapproves of Raphael's methods, he's still very respectful, especially when we first see them in the series.

Harukami: True. Raphael's done something before to help him. And we know Mikael does love him. He just has something he's more focussed on.

Harukami: To quote Griffith...

Harukami: "Every man lives to advance towards his own destiny. If someone gets in the way of that, he will fight that person to the death for his dream."

Harukami: Mikael will. Raphael won't. That's the difference.

Hoyden: Ah-hah. Okay. Let's think pre-Earth, may we?

Harukami: Sure.

Hoyden: Okay. Something I'm mulling over - I don't want Raphael to seem like he's abusing his authority. But this is still definitively a teacher-student relationship - that's a hell of a power imbalance.

Hoyden: I mean, if your teacher came after you, wouldn't you be a bit uncomfortable?

Harukami: Very true. But Mikael doesn't really put up with shit. He seems like he will, then he won't. I can see him starting all, "Dame, dame!" and then standing up, pushing Raphael away, looking him straight in the eye, and saying, "Dame." And then walking out. And Raphael has to readjust.

Hoyden: Hmmm....

Harukami: Can you see him doing that?

Harukami: And he wouldn't mention it the next day and Raphael would slowly begin to approach him again, but this time with a heck of a lot more respect.

Hoyden: Maybe. What I can see better is the "dame, dame" scene and then Raphael realizing that Mikael really does want him to stop.

Hoyden: But your second comment I can see easily.

Harukami: Yeah. There's something about an uke that says 'no' and quite obviously MEANS it that can change a perspective. From a seme's point of view.

Harukami: And Raphael is oddly semeish.

Harukami: In a wannabe-uke way.

Hoyden: He really is seme-ish. Except that he'd bend backward for Mikael.

Harukami: Like I said.

Hoyden: I heard you, lovely. I just like restating your words sometimes. ^^

Harukami: ^^ And I like reiterating 'em. We can have whole conversations on one sentance.

Hoyden: *nods happily*

Harukami: Yeah. ^^ So. Raphael gets a sudden startled respect for the boy he's interested in and... interested in.

Hoyden: Huh?

Harukami: both intellectually (1/3 of a soul?) and physically.

Hoyden: Actually...Mikael must have heard rumors about the fast and easy Raphael, which would make him distrustful, don't you think?

Hoyden: Would also explain his later intolerance of Raphael's past lovers.

Hoyden: as in the "couch, Raphael-sama" comment.

Harukami: Hmm. Yeah. That and that Raphael's pretty much hitting on him from the beginning. Probably in an easy-going way at first, but building to hint more and more at real interest until... yes. And I'm thinking of changing that... Raphael's NOT dumb enough to end a day with an argument.

Hoyden: No, I shouldn't think he would be.

Hoyden: Letting Mikael stew over something is NOT a good idea.

Harukami: Nono. Mikael stewing leads to all sorts of nasty things like burning feathers.

Hoyden: Sorry for the extreme alcohol comments. It led to an entire discussion between me and my more heavily drinking roommate.

Hoyden: drinking-prone, I should say. I wasn't betaing under the influence, I can assure you.

Harukami: ?? You mean the rum thing? I've decided to switch it with brandy after a conversation with mom and pete and Az's personality.

Hoyden: That was the other thing Steph and I talked about. But I'm a sucker for Kahlua.

Harukami: ^^ I'd prefer brandy. Then I can have Uriel drinking brandy not because he's a lush, but because it's a choice between tea, coffee, and brandy (that being brewed/open) so guess what he picks.

Hoyden: That's our Uriel.

Harukami: *patpats the skank*

Hoyden:</FO