Aurora Derall @ Dreamwidth

Hi there, fellow Yuletider! I'm Aurora (aka Aruru), nice to meet you.

I go by AuroraDerall over on AO3. (Still a total newbie, even having the account for several years now, ahaha! ^^;)

I'm kinda new to writing these letters, so please bear with me. I hope I am not too much trouble for you, and that we make a great match! :D

If any of our canons matched up, I have to say YOU'RE AWESOME AND I ALREADY LOVE YOU FOREVER for remembering some seriously old yet classic JRPG greats, and I am already itching to know what you'll come up with after hearing me out!

I guess I should go with mentioning my reading likes first?

In general, my likes in stories include: romance (with smut highly welcome), strong bonds of friendship, bonds of family that go beyond blood relation (families of choice, if you will), action/adventure, comedy, sexual/romantic tension (Unresolved or resolved -- usually getting to resolving them is one of those things I seek to read! X3), awkward but sincere expressions of camaraderie/friendship/love, happy endings, hopeful endings, bittersweet resolutions leading to new possibilities/hope, hurt/comfort (often of the providing emotional support variety, though nursing someone to health and the like is also fine), among others.

(Since I'm new I'm not sure how it's handled, but even if it has to go through the mods/hippos, it's ok to send me questions!)

I'm generally ok with violence/dark/tragic stuff if it's appropriate to a prompt/character story or it's canonical, but as I said I do prefer that things end with some kind of hopeful note. Holiday fics could work too, if you can come up with something that would intrigue me. 


My do-not-wants generally include: Rape, abuse (physical or psychological), character/coupling bashing, excessive tragedy, any kinks I am not into (See the Yuleporn bit - if in doubt, I'm glad to answer questions!).


Most I've marked as a pairing preference is good and open for porn! 

You can see my Yuleporn comment here approving of such offers. Below is a minor guide in case any Yuleporners are curious about me!

First off, I'm totally ok with vanilla smut! I'm a romantic at heart, so I like a good buildup as much as the porn itself. I'm not usually picky about things like top/bottom matters for most characters either, though I do admit to sometimes having a certain fondness for one side over another, possibly due to rarity (some of my rarepairs are rarer on one end of the slash/x, lol).

As for kinks I like, those generally include: oral, anal, masturbation (solo and mutual), showing off for a partner, teasing/touching, erotic dreams, making out, bondage, blindfolds, biting, fingering, first times (not necessarily meaning someone is a virgin, can simply mean it's the first time finally getting with the particular person in the ship in question), fondling over clothes/underwear, playing with nipples, playing with delaying orgasm, pegging, spanking, etc. (What I can think of offhand right now. If you have questions, ask!)

Kinks I do not want generally include: Rape, humiliation, scat, piss (Basically, if it isn't something like come or sweat then no, please.), non-con, psychological manipulation, coercion, guro, etc. Basically if it's pretty extreme I am not likely to be interested. (Again, please feel free to ask!)



Anyway! As for my fandoms, the series I requested I posted promo links for previously when I nominated them, plus added one more fandom when I discovered it was available. I will feature a link to each promo post (for the 3 I nominated) and mention a bit about the series/characters and things I think would be cool to see.

Ah, there's so much I could say about this series and why it's so dear to me -- suffice to say this is quite possibly the reason I finally caved in and came here to participate in Yuletide! Anyway, again, you can read some of my gushing in my promo post here (It also contains useful links to Let's Plays!).

Out of the characters nominated, I chose to focus on officially requesting Tosh and Shu, because they are both amazing characters on their own plus they do have a beautiful dynamic (both as BFFs and as a potential romance) and I love their ship.


Some prompts of them as individuals (involves heavy spoilers):

For Tosh: I think stories about him and his mentor, Monji, would be amazing stuff. Anyway, we know how strongly Tosh feels about him, but exactly when in his youth did he meet Monji? What sort of father figure was Monji to Tosh during those years. What kind of youth was Tosh both before and after meeting him?

Alternately, I think stories about his feelings regarding the journey with Arc and his other comrades, or his thoughts about the younger crew of new heroes from Arc 3 would also be cool to read.

For Shu: Shu's enigmatic background is another of the coolest things about the game series, because it gives so many options. What kind of young man was Shu before he was forced to become a soldier? What finally got him to quit and how did he get out? How did he wind up a Hunter? How did he pick up Elc (who'd just escaped White House and was still merely a 10-year-old or so), and what was their relationship like at first? What were his feelings when he started realizing that even what happened in his past connects back to what's going on in the story? (By which I mean the conversation you can have in the Sky Castle if you do one of the trials with Shu, in which he is confronted with his past.)

What is/was his outlook on friendships and family both before and after key people in his life like Elc, Tosh, and Shante? How does he feel about being a big brother figure to Elc? What kind of regard does he hold for himself?

Also, like with Tosh, I think it would also be interesting to see stories about his reactions to the journey with Arc and the rest of the group in Arc 2, or the new heroes of Arc 3.


Prompts for Tosh and Shu as a pairing:

Personally, I am not particular over top/bottom dynamics with them (each of them to me clearly has a dominant side and a vulnerable side, if you want to discuss it as seme/uke dynamics), though I admit that I might have a soft spot for Tosh on bottom since he's usually portrayed as the more obviously impulsive of the two.

Anyway, a few prompts for the two:

- Well, if you go with romantic buildup and/or first times, I think their potential to hook up is obvious and really highly likely, but the question is, when? Would they do so right away after the incident in Romalia, before they take on the train? (it was a vulnerable moment for both, after all.) Would they show restraint (or let their feelings grow first) and it happens later, at a casual point or another key point in the storyline (such as when Tosh's past is brought back to him)? The night before the final showdown in Arc 2? Or would it be a really slow burn and not happen until well into Arc 3 when they see each other again? Or even after Arc 3 ends and the bad guys are taken care of?

- Also, what would others close to the two regard the pair and their attraction, such as Elc (one of the other characters on the tag list), who has what seems to me like a brotherly relationship with Shu? Or Shante (also on the tag list), who seems to regard Shu as a trusted friend or confidant? (BTW: Please author, no Shante-bashing, aside from my dislike of character bashing in general, she is super awesome.) Would Elc and Shante be protective of Shu, supportive, or teasing? In what regard do they or other members of the Arc team regard Tosh?

- Speaking of Shante, I also have no objections whatsoever if your idea of a fic for Shu x Tosh happens to involve a Shu/Tosh/Shante threesome or them developing a poly romance instead. The thought of Shu and Shante double-teaming Tosh and showing him a thing or two is quite a delicious mental picture too. :3


Anyway, I hope these are good enough to get your ideas racing here! :D













My promo post regarding this series can be found here. (Again, with helpful links to Let's Plays! :D)

In this nomination and my character choices I'm specifically talking about the very first WA title, which was later remade into Wild ARMs Alter Code: F.

Anyway, I'm requesting any of the characters in the tags: Jack Van Burace, Rudy Roughnight, Zed, and/or Elmina Niet.

Pairings are wholly optional here, I'll go into that in a bit.


Anyway, prompts for individual characters (heavy spoilers):

For Jack: His travels after escaping Artica and his determination to avenge, and later save Elmina (the other character nominated in the tagset), his feelings over making allies, starting with Hanpan, then Rudy and Cecilia, as well as other comrades. His outlook on such a strange/goofy guy from the Metal Demons like Zed is and the acceptance of his offer to help their cause (when Jack has so much legitimate reason to detest the Metal Demons) might also be an interesting read. Also, seeing how it ended, would he attempt to recapture his relationship with the "new" Elmina after the end of the game (And maybe either hope her memory would somehow return, or become appreciative or any unexpected quirks the "new" version of her would have?), or would he let that relationship go, as much as it would hurt?

For Rudy: His inner thoughts at key moments like when he was kicked out of Surf Village, or making new friends in Jack and others like Cecilia, Jane, etc. His pain at discovering he's not human, his forgiveness of Zed and accepting him as another companion, his relationship with his grandfather Zepet, his outlook on the future.

For Zed: His feelings when he started realizing the humans weren't such a bad lot, and that the world could be shared, by protecting the blind girl from the decimated village. His choice to defend the humans along with Rudy, Jack, and the rest of the group. Sharing thoughts with Rudy over being the two non-humans and thus "alien" characters around, maybe?

For Elmina: This is probably an extension of Jack's own prompts but: Was her consciousness still having some hold on her as Lady Harken? If so, what was her mental state at not being able to control her own self? And what of the "new" Elmina after she is brought back?



In regards to pairings:

In this series the pairings I like happen to be Jack x Elmina, Rudy x Jack, and Rudy x Zed. (There's others I like too but these would be pairings involving the tagged characters.)

Again, regarding the latter two, I'm usually not picky over seme/uke things but I have a soft spot for the idea of Rudy being a very gentle and sweet guy, but actually kinda winding up as the dominant/decisive one in a relationship (and position).

Anyway, thoughts on each pair!

For Jack x Elmina: See over on the comments for prompts regarding Jack solo, can be an extension of that. (For example, if Jack were to hook up with Elmina again post-game, how would that come about, and could he reconcile that aside from having no memory, she is possibly a different person in some ways, and not in others.)

For Rudy x Jack: Possibly Rudy in some way trying to repay Jack's kindness to him in the past with comfort? Jack is still hurting a bit over the loss of Elmina, even after succeeding in getting her to return, but finds it impossible to say no to Rudy's companionship, which he has grown used to.

For Rudy x Zed: Maybe an extension of some of what was suggested for Zed solo. Zed possibly having to deal with thoughts of what life had been previously like for him with the Metal Demons while in the service of Mother, and comparing it to interacting with the humans he is coming to know over time. Maybe asking Rudy about it and how he feels being "out of place," and how he deals with that. Again Rudy offering empathy and companionship to someone feeling largely alone. (This is Zed though, so hopefully something humorous and cute can also be worked in. XD)


I hope this is good enough for you to get ideas rolling as well, a lot has been written up in really short notice, sorry! ^^;











I didn't nominate this, so I don't have a hype post for it. Suikoden was pretty popular in its time though, so it's likely extremely easy to find some good Let's Plays of it in order to refresh yourself or get a feel for something about the game, at least in comparison to the other titles! ^_^;

Anyway, there's only two characters I saw in the nominees who I wanted fic for, and if you're getting a certain vibe from this letter thus far then you're correct: I chose Viktor and Flik.

They're badasses, they're hilarious, and they can be really heartfelt too. So amazing, these mercenary bros for life. *_*



Anyway, prompts as individuals:

For Viktor: Obviously, anything involving his past, his family, Daisy, and his home before being destroyed by Neclord. Or his friendship/relationship with Anabelle (the mayor of Muse). Or thoughts regarding the first hero (Bocchan) and the second (Riou), or influential or key characters in his life like Odessa (and how that relates to his friend Flik), etc. Obviously, there needs to be banter with the Star Dragon Sword at some point, and likely friendly back and forth between him and Flik.

For Flik: There's still the matter of dealing with Odessa's loss stinging in his heart, though he has been learning to cope. I can picture him and Viktor having hilarious drunken arguments, usually about ridiculous stuff they did in their mercenary jobs. Also possibly funny scenarios of his dealing with Nina's stalking fangirlism and Viktor possibly Not Helping because It's Funny To Him. Also, maybe Flik having a reflection either before or upon seeing Bocchan again of his past mistakes and his misjudgments of Bocchan's character. Additionally, possibly his feelings regarding how the past has returned for Viktor with the matter of Neclord returning.




In regards to pairings:

Yes, I think they make a good pair. Their exchanges can be a lot of fun, and they do share a ton of common history with each other.

Again not picky, but ohhhh if you bust out having Viktor as bottom you would be an author after my own heart, mmm mmm mmm. ;D


Anyway, as for prompts:

- Stuff pre-Suiko 2 when they were building their mercenary group which you meet at the beginning of the game. Buildup, banter, etc.

- Maybe an extension of what I mentioned over for Flik's prompts regarding his feelings over Viktor being haunted by Neclord again. Also, how Anabelle's death has affected Viktor, and how everything seems to want to crush him in the same/a similar way to how Flik was crushed emotionally during Suiko1. I could picture him feeling pretty protective over Viktor for all the shit he's having to put up with.

- Viktor still worrying over Flik's state of emotional health regarding the loss of Odessa, and now having developed an attraction for his friend, and confusedly wondering how awkward is this going to make continuing to work together.

- Somehow I get the feeling that this is going to wind up ending in maybe drunk arguing and then drunk making out with heart-to-hearts? Possibly with hilarious interference by other characters from Riou's army. Definitely from the Star Dragon Sword, at the very least. XD


And aaaaaaargh I wish I had a better prompt suggestion for this, so much could be done with these two but I'm drawing a blank right now! T_T












Last and not least, Lunar! My promo post is over here. (And more helpful links inside!)

It's honestly such a cute series.

Since there's not that many characters, I picked characters from the two games in the series for my nominations.

Anyway, for this option I've decided to go with the "Any" option. You can write about any of of the four characters I submitted!

I chose Leo, Nash Rumack, Ghaleon, and Nall.



Prompts for the characters:

For Leo: Perhaps a story about how he became so fixated on the idea of becoming a hero, and how he copes when he finally starts realizing the corruption in the Cult of Althena? His feelings on his sister Mauri, his friend Ronfar, and new friends like Hiro, Lucia, Jean, and Lemina? What is he looking towards the future afterwards, once the world is saved and Hiro has been able to reunite with Lucia?

For Nash: Maybe a pre-game story about how he developed his lack of confidence and his starry-eyed admiration of people like Ghaleon, or his crush on Mia. Or post-game, now that he's been finally told he's okay as who he is by Mia, what happens then?

For Ghaleon: Definitely some pre-game shenanigans with Dragonmaster Dyne and their crew when Dyne was young, I think it would be cute and a good break for Ghaleon's overly serious (or overly dramatic) persona, lol. X3

For Nall: Maybe a pre-Lunar 2 story of how he came to take care of all those orphans, or reminiscing while talking to someone (like maybe Ruby?) about his old friends who've passed, and what his new friends have in common with them (aside from saving the world of Lunar).



In this particular set of characters listed I don't really do that much by way of ships between them, so we will be skipping that. (Though if you have an idea and want to run it by me, feel free to ask me about it.)










Anyway, I hope this letter was enjoyable for you and has you already jotting down ideas! And I AM SO SORRY IT'S SO RUSHED, due to a lot of things going on in my personal end I had to write it all up and my ideas really last-minute! T_T

But anyway, hope this is motivational enough, and I hope you get a great story as well from *your* Yuletide author! :D

-Aurora/Aruru

Well, after forever being indecisive and then lazy about it over goodness knows how many years, I finally imported my LJ here. Seems like the procedure was painless.

It's a good question of what I intend to do now with this Dreamwidth account (which I had forever but kept waffling on it). Most of what I've been doing over on the internet nowadays has been on:

1. my Twitter account (mostly RTing and nostalgic squeeing over Slayers, Arc the Lad, and other random stuff), 
2. my Tumblr account, but especially most active on the Arc fanblog I co-run on the service with a friend, and
3. also getting a Discord server for fans of said series up and going. 

....and now I've found myself also trying out Pillowfort and setting up some communities there to see how it goes (again for Slayers and Arc, LOL -- I'm also highly tempted to set up a Wild Arms community). And deciding what to do over here (and Pillowfort) -- I haven't blogged the way I did on LJ since like, 2010-ish, and Tumblr just doesn't have the same feel.

I figure I'll probably use it to at least keep tabs on yuletide_admin, since even though I've never participated in it, I've been contemplating it for a few years now. I'm very shy about it, committing, and doing okay at it... I've at least managed to nominate the fandoms I'd love to see this time, though.

Maybe I should consider crossposting some of my Pillowfort entries (once I have more) along with some of my newer Tumblr posts? Consolidating some of my presence might be reasonable... 🤔

Anyway, for any new people coming across this: Hi, I'm known as either Aurora Derall or (Fujoshi) Aruru! I'll try to make an intro post or an updated interests list ASAP! :D

Pretty much a direct copy of my JournalFen post, but anyway. (Apologies to those who read that site and already saw this.)


I don't know if any of the Shin Megami Tensei fans on my Friends List were already aware of this, but I didn't see any entries pointing this out, so I figured I'd post about it, in case any missed it and might be interested.

Anyway, getting to the point: Aeria Games opened up signups for the SMT: Imagine Online closed beta sometime last week, with the projected start of the beta being around the start of December (at least, I think that's the date I read on the forums).

Signup is easy - you just need to either have/make an Aeria Games account, then go to the Megaten site and answer three questions (if you've played SMT games, if you're new to Aeria, and if you're going to invite friends - nothing spectacular) to sign up.

Before you do that, though, you might want to check the system requirements, of course. (Note: According to the forums, there apparently is at least one mistake in Aeria's translation of the sysreqs. You might want to check the post I linked to, as it has more info, including a link to the Japanese Imagine's site with the original list of requirements - most names of the required hardware are in English, but you still need to know a little Japanese to be fully able to read the thing, of course.)

Anyway, that's the gist of it. If anyone's trying to get in, good luck! :)

So, two Saturdays ago, I went and finally finished watching The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, which I was introduced to thanks to shinkuu (Thanks again for the subs, dude!).

I have to say, while I'm not fangirling it as much as other folks seem to be (maybe because it's over right when you're really starting to get into things), it was indeed pretty good! Brief thoughts:

( Cut for vaguely spoily talk, though not much. )


And... that's pretty much all I can remember to mention off the top of my head. (Uh, I know it wasn't much, but it's been over a week since I finished watching the show, so it's not as fresh as it could've been, and I probably forgot something along the way. ^^;)

Anyway, because he was so kind to introduce me to the series in the first place, and because of the simple fact that I thought it was pretty damn good for his first try at making such a thing and thus I think more people should check it out, I'm gonna pimp shinkuu's Haruhi music video: Kyon Doesn't Look A Thing Like Jesus (@ AMV.org) YouTube version (lower quality)

Enjoy! :D

Finally, for our last review, we have the Persona 3 Fes Original Soundtrack. (buy it here - track listing and lyrics in English here)


As you can tell from the title, this CD is the soundtrack for the Persona 3 Fes game/expansion. There are seventeen tracks total - of these, one track is a remix, one is a "mashup" of sorts (combining some old lyrics with new ones, as well as a new beat), while the rest are - I THINK - all brand-new material (I'm not entirely sure, as I'm new to Persona and the SMT series in general.). okay, I was talking out of my ass, sorry. Apparently most(?) of the rest are remixes from the previous Persona games.

Anyway, while this soundtrack starts out a little average, it does carry over P3's original style and general "feel," and it gets fairly good in the later tracks. Below are my thoughts on the individual tracks, plus some samples.


( Tracklisting, samples, and thoughts. )


Well, I'm done. Honestly, this review was probably the hardest to write, considering I don't have P3: Fes, so I'm not familiar with anything regarding it.




The Final Verdict: This is a decent "expansion" of the original game's soundtrack, as it manages to preserve its feel while still being distinctive making shout-outs to the previous games in the series. A bit short, given it's only an expansion, but not bad at all. The only "warning" I can think of in getting this is that, if Atlus were to decide to bring Fes over to this side of the world, there's a chance they might add a bonus CD again, which - given how small this soundtrack is - would make purchasing this redundant. But, since we don't know about that for sure, you might still want to consider buying the OST.




So, that's it for the reviews! It was fun to do them, but MAN, am I beat. WHEW!

As promised, I am back with a review of each of the Persona 3 soundtracks available, including sample tracks for you guys to download. Since these may be a little lengthy, I've divided the reviews into 3 parts - one per album. Also, because it takes me a lot of time to upload all the samples, I'll be doing only one review every couple of days/each week - depends on how long it takes me to get all the files up. So please be patient.

Anyway, this is the first review, for the Persona 3 Original Soundtrack. (buy it here - track listing and lyrics in English here)


Now, this one will be a little different from the other two album reviews (which will be a little more ruaki-styled), because Atlus USA did something that is both completely amazing and a teensy bit frustrating when they made the bonus CD that came with the game: They included almost every one of the really "good" tracks! This is completely amazing because I've never seen a company that was so generous with their fans.

So why is it a tiny bit frustrating? Because it means that, if you buy the full soundtrack, you'll find that you're not missing out on that much. I guess they didn't consider that some folks would be interested in getting the whole thing.

Anyway, I'm going to assume that the people who're checking this review already own Persona 3 and have the bonus CD, so the sample tracks that are going to be featured here are things that were NOT in that disc. Frankly, while none of these - shall we say, "second tier" tracks - are quite as amazing as the tracks that were selected for the bonus CD, I still think they're pretty nice, and if they motivate people who haven't played this game/heard the soundtrack into buying any of the merchandise, then all the better.


( On to the tracks! )


And... I think I'll leave it at this. There are a few other "second tier" tracks that I liked enough and didn't include, but since I have an unbearingly slow connection, I had to narrow it down to just a couple. Plus, I don't want to give the whole thing away - I AM trying to get you to support Atlus by getting their merchandise, yanno.




The Final Verdict: Due to the fact that the bonus CD Atlus USA bundled with P3 already has most of the best tracks, I can in all honesty only recommend getting this if you're either a diehard completist (Guilty as charged.), or if you bought this game used and thus didn't get the bonus soundtrack. It's still a nice piece of merchandise to own, though.



EXTRA NOTE: The soundtrack I got was NOT a first printing, so I didn't get the two bonus tracks (they're listed in that GameFAQs file I linked with the tracklist) that were on the second disc. If anyone could find them for me and hook me up with a download, that'd be awesome.