Yo! I'm Ashari, and thank you for visiting my Fanfiction account!

Some stuff about me, for the curious:

~I love anime and manga, particularly: Fullmetal Alchemist, Trigun, Dragonball Z, Chrono Crusade, Naruto, Hellsing, Outlaw Star, Gundam Wing, Cowboy Beebop, Trinity Blood, Wolf's Rain, Inuyasha, Yu-Gi-Oh! (more recently)
And others...

~I love games, including: Legend of Dragoon, Final Fantasy VII, Devil May Cry, World of Warcraft, Yi-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game, Magic: The Gathering, King of Fighters, Dungeons and Dragons
And others...

~I love books, especially: The Lord of the Rings, the Wheel of Time series, the His Dark Materials trilogy, The Chronicles of Narnia
And others...

~And I love writing, not excluding: Original Prose, Poetry, Roleplaying, and Fanfiction.

As you can see, I only have a few pieces (er, stories) up here, and most of them are unfinished...unfortunately I have a habit of not finishing what I start. (Which is why I'm so well-suited for oneshots, lulz.) I DO, however, have the intent to continue several of these pieces, and that intent comes from the fact that I actually have IDEAS for them. Yes, I WILL someday post new chapters for Soldiers of Fate and The End in particular, since those are the only two real ongoing fics I have. But feel free to continue to review and/or send messages bugging me; really, I don't mind! It would let me know that you not only have read my work, but it gives me an assurance that the next chapter will have readers as well, which makes me SO uncontrollably happy inside!

I always, ALWAYS, love love LOVE reviews, mostly because I get so few. I love constructive criticism almost more than I love undying worship (though you can give that too, wink). I don't respond well to flames, however. If all you have to say about me or my work is "OMFG YOU SUXORZ BITE HTE BIG ONE GO AWAY!11," then I have no reason to value your opinion on ANYTHING whenever I happen to see you on this entire site. Flames only make the flamer look like a fool. N00b-ish-ness aside, I also dislike criticism that isn't constructive. If all you have to say about my fic is bashing it, even if you're eloquent with your harshness, then you're better off not reviewing at all. I love suggestions for improvement--I live off of them--but if all you have to say is bashing, then I don't want to hear it. As thick a skin as I have normally, I'm actually quite sensitive to criticism of my literary work (if it can be bestowed with such a lofty term). Writing is my art. I pour my heart and soul into whatever I write. If you don't have any helpful ideas and are only interested in ripping out chunks of my soul, then I have nothing but animosity towards you.

Wow, late nights make for great rambles, huh?

Synopses and Statuses on Posted Fanfiction:

Mercury: Ignore it. Seriously. I wrote that drabble literally THREE days after I first watched FMA premier on Adult Swim several years ago. It was a random spurt of inspiration. I DID have grand plans for a whole chapter-fic with this as the prologue...it was going to evolve into a piece criticizing vengeance in the name of love and the hopeless sort of obsession that gets passed off as devotion. The main OC was anything BUT a Mary-Sue; I guarantee you she has almost NO redeeming qualities to her. Plus, she was later adapted for a different story, so my inspiration for writing her in an FMA setting sort of ran out…despite the fact that Arydra is just FUN to write, being a totally psychopathic, split-personalitied little freak. XD But yeah, this is never getting finished. I leave it up here for nostalgia's sake.

In the Dark: Trigun oneshot, pairing-based. I have a predilection for canon pairings, yus, and I think Vash x Meryl is one of the cutest things ever conceived. I don’t know why, but I guess I’m a sucker for pairings with the tension of unspoken feelings, as well as the comfort of silent understanding…Anyway, I’m very, very proud of this piece, and every time I go back to read it, I feel like it’s too good for ME to be its author.

Soldiers of Fate: Now THIS sucker has been swimming around in my head for YEARS, since LONG before I ever joined any fanfiction or roleplaying site. I have a whole cast of characters, several drabbles, a lot of detailed scenes and character interaction/tension planned, and a few sketchy plotlines in my head for this. Which is my problem: the plotline is just so sketchy. But never fear, it’ll be updated ONE day. It’s got to be, with so much material for it floating around inside my head and hard drive. XD

Vash Meets John Lennon: My very first crack oneshot. I was, and still am, a ravenously rabid Beatles fangirl, and what Beatles fan doesn’t notice a pair of round glasses and think of John Lennon every single time?

Confronting Envy: It wasn’t until re-reading this several years after I wrote it that I realized how many other writers out there use these same concepts in their stories: interactions of writer DIRECTLY with character, and how camp and Mary-Sue that sounds. However, in my defense, this fic is more a contemplative piece than anything. The truth of the matter is that I have a very…erm…interesting relationship with my characters, often to the point where any sane person would question whether or not I have some kind of multiple-personality disorder…until I realize that almost every other fanfic writer that I’ve spoken with—or any kind of writer, for that matter—shares a similar relationship with at least one character. We talk to them. Sometimes the only way to really get it right is to confer with the character directly. And that’s what I did in this piece. However, like any good fanfic writer or fan-roleplayer should, I recognize the true nature of the character I’m dealing with. I don’t try to water him down or make light of him. Envy is a terrifyingly sadistic monster, almost completely irredeemable save through pity alone. And I gotta tell ya: it’s hard as hell for a sheltered little optimist like me to get inside the head of a creature like that…and similarly, terrifying once the realization occurs that the creature is really inside my head. Hence, this piece.

The Death of Envy: A one-shot meant to support the extensive forum roleplay I’ve done using Fullmetal Alchemists’s Envy. I LOVE the use of flashbacks to create angst and conflict, as well as to open a post, and since Envy has a sadly small amount of canon past, it’s up to writer to fill in the holes and create things he can flashback to. This explanation of the death of Envy’s predecessor is heavily inspired by FelisDeityus’s Dark Humor, in which it was Dante’s negligence in caring for her sick, mercury-poisoned son, not the mercury itself, that ultimately killed him. I gave this version of his death my own little twist, of course, incorporating the dogmatic “punishment in Hell” for committing the Sin of Envy: drowning in freezing water. Which also is a nod to the manga canon, in which Homunculi can ONLY be Sealed by having the Punishment for their particular Sin inflicted upon them. I.e., Greed was Sealed by being boiled in oil.

Chick Fight: This is one that started as a oneshot, which I then started grand plans to finish, which I then abandoned, leaving it as a oneshot. XD; The basic premise is that the anime!Edward and Alphonse somehow returned to the world of Amestris following the events in Conqueror of Shambala, and that new Homunculi wearing the old titles are emerging one by one and going on killing sprees. A continuing fic would, of course, contain the original anime!Envy and not a new one, cause if I haven’t established by now that I’m a ravenous Envy fan that shouldn’t be surprising. And yes, I already have a detailed canon-supported explanation planned out as to how Envy survived being material for a Gate-opening transmutation. However, there’s a big problem with this…the premise for it treads dangerously close to falling into the same traps and wannabe plotlines of several camp, cliché, and overused post-series ideas I’ve seen in FMA fanfiction. That, and the plot currently has no goal, no grand plan or theme…which is the reason why I've decided to leave it as is...a oneshot. Have fun. XD;

Rocket in the Sky: Soothing music. Two-thirty in the morning. Too much anime watching. Nostalgia. This is a oneshot close to my heart, disappointingly short as it is. I grew up with DBZ, never knowing as I watched it on Toonami day after day that there was a version out there where the characters spoke Japanese, and never knowing how much purist hate the fans have for the dubbed version. The DBZ dub will always be special for me: it was my first anime. And when you get use to the gravelly sound of everyone’s voices—or just optimistically ignore it—the acting really does not suck.

The End: Wow. Just…wow. I put up THREE chapters for this fic and got the whole thing up to over 13,000 words in just a little over a week. I cannot even TELL you how many personal records that breaks for me. I don’t know if you’ve noticed by now, but I have a little problem when it comes to FINISHING what I start, or heck, even continuing it past the prologue. But with this…it just CAME, and it’s still coming! The readiness of the words to pour from my fingers for this piece is probably due to my newness to the Yu-Gi-Oh! fandom. I started watching the Japanese subbed versions online about a month or two before I first began writing this. I think that my lack of blockage isn’t really due to a godlike amount of inspiration or really good ideas, but actually, from the fact that I DON’T have very many ideas. Unlike my relationship with FMA, the plotline potential for Yu-Gi-Oh! stories floating inside my head is pretty much limited to just one line of action and a few random side-drabbles. With FMA, there’s SO MUCH I want to write that nothing can come out in a cohesively straight line. It’s the same with Legend of Dragoon. Too many tangents, too much potential. When the story and characters are still fresh and pulsing with the canon familiarity in my head, rather than having been hashed and re-hashed and picking up my own particular creative spin, I can pour out one single plotline with a startling and delightful ease.
4/02/08: I currently have about 7 pages of Chapter 5. Right now I'm taking the time to stop and just THINK about the plot-sequence a bit. I've been doing a LOT of fanfic reading lately in the Yu-Gi-Oh! department and I've concluded that in order for me to continue to write this effectively, I need to further my research, and that means filling in some of the holes in my canon-education. In short, I need to watch more eps and make my OWN observations before delving in too deeply again. I've got a pretty good idea of what I want Chapter 5 to accomplish, but I feel I need to do more research on Atem's Shadow Magic first...I already know exactly what happened with the magic that has been done TO him so far in the fic; the explanations are all written out, sitting on my desk. There's no way this villain is going to get around my obsession with technicalities, and that's what'll end up saving our heroes. XD
9/28/09: I had a chapter sitting on my hard drive since 2008 that I had been intending to finish, but FINALLY decided that it was high time to just say PAH and post it. So I did. Following chapters will include more stuffs. Still toying with what else to talk about in the next chapter besides the mechanics of magic...wondering if I should try to squeeze the Kaiba brothers back in.

The Red Tincture: IT'S FINALLY HEEE~EERE! After sitting in my school folder since 2006, I give you, my very first ACTUAL CROSSOVER FIC, featuring, you guessed it, Fullmetal Alchemist...and what else, Justice League? Oh my goodness, I added a new fandom! Yes, it is ongoing; no, I don't know when I'll update next! XD Enjoy! :3

That is all for now! Thanks for reading my stuff! It makes me uncontrollably fuzzy inside. Grin!

~Ashari