Ultraman fic
Jul. 24th, 2010 12:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elabyWe finished watching Ultraman last night! I'm so sad that there isn't any more XD Wouldn't you know it, in the last DVD-and-a-half they really started focusing on the characters and having major developmenty awesomeness. And, like, continuity. They kept going "You remember the time we fought *insert monster name*? Why don't we try that tactic!" They also had a complete parody episode, where they were all extremely silly and adorable and even Ultraman got his share of fun poked at him. This was of course followed up by SUPER SERIOUS episodes of super seriousness. *pets Arashi*
Sooo. I wrote a fic. I don't know why this fandom isn't bigger! It's like--! It could engender Star Trek-level fannishness! Maybe all the fandom works are in Japanese.
Fandom: Ultraman
Characters: Arashi, Ide
Words: 921
Categorization: Friendship, slash-if-you-like, sap
Summary: After the episode "The Snowy Mountain of Illusion," Ide is still troubled. Arashi isn't troubled; he's just trying to get some sleep.
Quick summary of episode for everyone besides![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
caitirin and coastal_spirit (and anyone else who happens to have seen this show): People at a ski resort are frightened of a legendary Yeti-like monster called Wu and call in the Science Patrol to investigate. They encounter an outcast teenage girl, Yukinko, who insists that Wu is harmless. People in the town are very cruel to her because she's different and they think she's the daughter of a yuki-onna, a snow spirit that sometimes leads astray and kills travelers. Wu comes down from the mountain to protect her and rampages, and the Science Patrol is forced to attack it. Ide, who has sympathy for the girl, is not happy about this but follows orders anyway. In the end, Wu vanishes into thin air and the last shot of Yukinko we see is a slow pan-out of her collapsed in the snow. I'm not sure if we're supposed to think she's dead or not, but the Science Patrol wonder if she was ever real in the first place.
--
"I can't sleep," Ide said into the darkness.
On the bunk below him, Arashi had just drifted off - "had" being the operative word. He pressed his face into his pillow. "Try harder," he mumbled.
Ide either didn't hear him or didn't listen. "I just can't stop thinking about her."
"Her?" Arashi repeated automatically, and was immediately sorry to have opened that door. He'd never get any sleep now. He ought to know better after all these years than to encourage conversation with Ide at one in the morning.
"Yukinko."
"Oh, not this again..." Arashi thrashed around in his bed for a minute before succeeding in flopping over onto his back. He'd thought the subject was closed, but all the way back in the VTOL, Ide hadn't shut up about Yukinko. All through debriefing, all through dinner, he kept bringing the topic back to her. Was she really gone? Had she been real in the first place? Could she have been the daughter of a yuki-onna after all? Frankly, Arashi didn't care, and he couldn't understand why his friend apparently did. But then again, Ide got bent out of shape about the weirdest things.
"We should have gone back to look for her," Ide said, and while Arashi found that preferable to his earlier waffling, he was no happier to be discussing it at this time of night.
"What happened to 'she was just an illusion of the mountain'?"
Ide made a musing sound. "That could've been the case. But what if she wasn't? What if she was just a human girl, like the resort owner said? If that's true, we left her all alone."
"She was gone, Ide," Arashi insisted wearily, resisting the urge to cover his head with his pillow. He never had much patience anyway, and he was scraping the bottom of his supply barrel here. "We did a sweep with the VTOL. Nobody could find any trace of her after Wu disappeared. We did all we could, so just forget about it." He was met with a displeased silence. "The townspeople will keep an eye out for her," he continued, somewhat more gently.
"No, they won't," Ide said, and Arashi was surprised by the force behind his words. "They hated her. They tried to run her out of town, remember? It's no wonder she spent all her time up in the mountains."
"You've got to admit she was a little strange," Arashi said. He yawned.
"Maybe she only acted strange because people always treated her like she was strange. Nobody accepted her. Her only friend was Wu." Ide was quiet for a minute. "All because she had no mother."
Oh.
Arashi felt like an idiot.
It wasn't as if they never talked about their childhoods. On boring night-shifts when nary a peep from rampaging monsters could be heard, he and Ide made a game of one-upping each other with stories about their most spectacular exploits and how long they were grounded or made to stand in the school hallway holding buckets of water. Hayata never joined in - Arashi was certain he'd never stepped a toe out of line since birth - and Fuji called them idiots but laughed along with them. Nevertheless, he'd been blindsided by Ide's explanation to the ski resort's owners that he sympathized with Yukinko because he'd lost his mother at a young age too.
"Did you get bullied?" he asked, compelled to fill the silence.
"Some," Ide said. "Not as much as Yukinko. Kids only bullied me for not having a mother when I was really young. Later, it was more because I was a science nerd." Arashi found himself unsurprised. "I just felt like I might've been able to understand her a little," Ide went on. "She seemed so real. If she wasn't an illusion, she's more alone than ever now. She doesn't even have Wu anymore. We drove it away."
"Maybe they both vanished and appeared somewhere else?" Arashi suggested, though he got the impression that he was only digging himself deeper. Ide made a less-than-convinced sound in response.
"I don't think so. I get the feeling they're both gone for good. And real or not, I can't help feeling like Yukinko needed our help and we gave up on her."
Arashi groped for an answer and found none that would placate his friend. He couldn't understand how the decision between stopping a destructive monster and giving into the whims of a delusional girl could be so difficult. "Wu may have been just a legend, but the damage it inflicted was real. We had to protect the people at the ski resort, Ide. That's our job. It couldn't be helped." Ide didn't say anything for so long that Arashi hoped he'd finally fallen asleep. Then he heard the mattress over his head creak.
"I know," Ide said in a small voice. "But I hate it."
Arashi's conscience pricked him, just a little bit. In the murky mostly-darkness of the barracks, he saw Ide drop his hand down over the side of the bed. The fingers clenched once, loosely.
Arashi sighed. Ide could be such a kid sometimes. But he pulled his pillow out from underneath his head anyway, and propped it folded in half under his elbow, and took Ide's hand. He heard an exhalation from the bunk above, and felt him relax.
Hayata would laugh at them if they were still like that when he woke up. Oh well, Arashi thought. The straight-laced goody-goody could use a laugh anyway.
Sooo. I wrote a fic. I don't know why this fandom isn't bigger! It's like--! It could engender Star Trek-level fannishness! Maybe all the fandom works are in Japanese.
Fandom: Ultraman
Characters: Arashi, Ide
Words: 921
Categorization: Friendship, slash-if-you-like, sap
Summary: After the episode "The Snowy Mountain of Illusion," Ide is still troubled. Arashi isn't troubled; he's just trying to get some sleep.
Quick summary of episode for everyone besides
caitirin and coastal_spirit (and anyone else who happens to have seen this show): People at a ski resort are frightened of a legendary Yeti-like monster called Wu and call in the Science Patrol to investigate. They encounter an outcast teenage girl, Yukinko, who insists that Wu is harmless. People in the town are very cruel to her because she's different and they think she's the daughter of a yuki-onna, a snow spirit that sometimes leads astray and kills travelers. Wu comes down from the mountain to protect her and rampages, and the Science Patrol is forced to attack it. Ide, who has sympathy for the girl, is not happy about this but follows orders anyway. In the end, Wu vanishes into thin air and the last shot of Yukinko we see is a slow pan-out of her collapsed in the snow. I'm not sure if we're supposed to think she's dead or not, but the Science Patrol wonder if she was ever real in the first place.--
"I can't sleep," Ide said into the darkness.
On the bunk below him, Arashi had just drifted off - "had" being the operative word. He pressed his face into his pillow. "Try harder," he mumbled.
Ide either didn't hear him or didn't listen. "I just can't stop thinking about her."
"Her?" Arashi repeated automatically, and was immediately sorry to have opened that door. He'd never get any sleep now. He ought to know better after all these years than to encourage conversation with Ide at one in the morning.
"Yukinko."
"Oh, not this again..." Arashi thrashed around in his bed for a minute before succeeding in flopping over onto his back. He'd thought the subject was closed, but all the way back in the VTOL, Ide hadn't shut up about Yukinko. All through debriefing, all through dinner, he kept bringing the topic back to her. Was she really gone? Had she been real in the first place? Could she have been the daughter of a yuki-onna after all? Frankly, Arashi didn't care, and he couldn't understand why his friend apparently did. But then again, Ide got bent out of shape about the weirdest things.
"We should have gone back to look for her," Ide said, and while Arashi found that preferable to his earlier waffling, he was no happier to be discussing it at this time of night.
"What happened to 'she was just an illusion of the mountain'?"
Ide made a musing sound. "That could've been the case. But what if she wasn't? What if she was just a human girl, like the resort owner said? If that's true, we left her all alone."
"She was gone, Ide," Arashi insisted wearily, resisting the urge to cover his head with his pillow. He never had much patience anyway, and he was scraping the bottom of his supply barrel here. "We did a sweep with the VTOL. Nobody could find any trace of her after Wu disappeared. We did all we could, so just forget about it." He was met with a displeased silence. "The townspeople will keep an eye out for her," he continued, somewhat more gently.
"No, they won't," Ide said, and Arashi was surprised by the force behind his words. "They hated her. They tried to run her out of town, remember? It's no wonder she spent all her time up in the mountains."
"You've got to admit she was a little strange," Arashi said. He yawned.
"Maybe she only acted strange because people always treated her like she was strange. Nobody accepted her. Her only friend was Wu." Ide was quiet for a minute. "All because she had no mother."
Oh.
Arashi felt like an idiot.
It wasn't as if they never talked about their childhoods. On boring night-shifts when nary a peep from rampaging monsters could be heard, he and Ide made a game of one-upping each other with stories about their most spectacular exploits and how long they were grounded or made to stand in the school hallway holding buckets of water. Hayata never joined in - Arashi was certain he'd never stepped a toe out of line since birth - and Fuji called them idiots but laughed along with them. Nevertheless, he'd been blindsided by Ide's explanation to the ski resort's owners that he sympathized with Yukinko because he'd lost his mother at a young age too.
"Did you get bullied?" he asked, compelled to fill the silence.
"Some," Ide said. "Not as much as Yukinko. Kids only bullied me for not having a mother when I was really young. Later, it was more because I was a science nerd." Arashi found himself unsurprised. "I just felt like I might've been able to understand her a little," Ide went on. "She seemed so real. If she wasn't an illusion, she's more alone than ever now. She doesn't even have Wu anymore. We drove it away."
"Maybe they both vanished and appeared somewhere else?" Arashi suggested, though he got the impression that he was only digging himself deeper. Ide made a less-than-convinced sound in response.
"I don't think so. I get the feeling they're both gone for good. And real or not, I can't help feeling like Yukinko needed our help and we gave up on her."
Arashi groped for an answer and found none that would placate his friend. He couldn't understand how the decision between stopping a destructive monster and giving into the whims of a delusional girl could be so difficult. "Wu may have been just a legend, but the damage it inflicted was real. We had to protect the people at the ski resort, Ide. That's our job. It couldn't be helped." Ide didn't say anything for so long that Arashi hoped he'd finally fallen asleep. Then he heard the mattress over his head creak.
"I know," Ide said in a small voice. "But I hate it."
Arashi's conscience pricked him, just a little bit. In the murky mostly-darkness of the barracks, he saw Ide drop his hand down over the side of the bed. The fingers clenched once, loosely.
Arashi sighed. Ide could be such a kid sometimes. But he pulled his pillow out from underneath his head anyway, and propped it folded in half under his elbow, and took Ide's hand. He heard an exhalation from the bunk above, and felt him relax.
Hayata would laugh at them if they were still like that when he woke up. Oh well, Arashi thought. The straight-laced goody-goody could use a laugh anyway.
