BIO

(as of August 2009)

Greetings and hello! Welcome to my humble bio. My name is Carmen Takoshi. I am a wannabe author who wishes to make something with my writing someday, but until then I just write for fun, or for shits and giggles, as they say in some parts of the world. XP

I'm nineteen, female and Asian-Canadian. I'm a student at the moment, heading toward a degree in Fine Arts and a future degree in Computation Arts and Design. Writing is really a hobby for me, but a huge hobby nonetheless, and I intend to practice it until the day I die.

I am very obsessed with art, anime, manga, video games and wonderful fiction. Now allow me to shamelessly cry out to the internet that EVERYONE MUST PLAY PHOENIX WRIGHT AND PROFESSOR LAYTON. DO YOU HEAR ME?! EVERYONE. Thanks.

To be completely frank, I'm more of a short story person. I love reading them, and I love writing them. Short bits of writing seem to come easier to me, mainly because I'll start off with a character and a theme, and kind of run with them until I run out of steam. You can imagine the result: I normally don't end up with things that are very long. A couple of these things were written for a certain class of mine. They're quite different from my main novel-in-the-making in that they fall more within the gothic/horror/psychological genres, so please give them a read if you're interested.

My main story is titled Imperfect. It's in the manga section because it was a story that I originally created in manga form. I was going to draw it, but seeing as I have less confidence in my drawing skills than my writing skills when it comes to this story, I decided to write it out, at least for now. It's mostly so I can figure out the plot and lay it out in a coherent fashion before drawing it, and also because I'd like feedback from an objective party (i.e. not me or my anime/manga/shounen-ai fan friends). And yes, it is shounen-ai, ak.a. boy x boy relationships. That's the whole premise of the story, since ever. Believe me, I've tried changing it, but I just don't see it in the same way if I do. So that's that. It's your choice whether to read it or not.

Anyway, if anyone wants more of the stuff I do, you can follow the handy little links right here. The FAC and ff.net accounts have very old stuff. I REPEAT, there is very old work in those two accounts, so venture there at your own risk.

Carmen's Fanart Central account

Carmen's fanfiction.net account featuring her recent Ouran High School Host Club fanfic "Coffee Shop"

Carmen's Deviantart account

Carmen's Livejournal

MEGUMI'S DONATIONS BOX

The very lurvely b suggested in a review that I create a donations box so that fans can feed Megumi, so here it is. =) The drawing is by me, of course. Feel free to review Imperfect or PM me with a donation for the box (don't just put that if you review, of course, a review is still a review). I'll put all of the donation items up here for the world to see how generous you all are. =D So be generous! It's good karma!

There are 5 items in the donations box

-Curry katsu, from b

-Ramen, from MidnightChaoticPhoenix

-Chocolate birthday cake, from b

-Chocolate muffin, from Mari-chan

-Steaming hot shrimp ramen, from b

(lol for my profile being interactive XD)

IMPERFECT - The WHAT, WHO and WHY

This is the section in my profile where I've decided to ramble about my own story. I usually do this is in real life too, this kind of rambling, usually to the same person, but she enjoys my story almost as much as I do, so it's all good. I'm hoping that it's well received here on fictionpress.com, but if not, -shrugs- well, life goes on. Please note that this section may contain mild spoilers.

(25/12/08) I changed the Who section so that it's not spoilerific anymore, but there is still a spoiler alert for the Why section. You have been warned. Again.

What

Set in Tokyo, Japan, year 2006. Megumi Takahata, 21 years old, is living alone in a dingy apartment, struggling desperately to get through university and life on meager funds. Enter Seth and Sean Black, 19 years old, English twins come straight to Tokyo from the UK to study at Toumo University, which has a worldwide reputation. Throw in Hiroyuki Kotobanwa, the alleged "Yuki Yukinojo", a 24-year-old soap actor, and you get Imperfect, the slice-of-life romantic comedy by Carmen Takoshi. (Now that was uber corny... XD)

Like any young man in the world, each of these four have their own goals and aspirations. Each live things that bring them joy and sorrow, hope and despair, and looming in the background is the ever-present threat of sexual oppression, of desires restrained or, on the contrary, let loose with reckless abandon.

Each of these men have regrets, but slowly, as they meet and bonds are tentatively forged, the regrets may transform into something a little brighter. Time passes...relationships are built or broken. What they desire most may not be so easy to obtain, but are they willing to strive and change to obtain it?

/cheese

Who

-Megumi Takahata-

"Takahata Megumi"
DOB: February 21st, 1985.
Blood type: B
Star sign: Pisces
Family: mother = Sakura (deceased), father = Katsuya (deceased), sisters = Yuko (+5), Kisako (+2), Momihiko (-1), Takiko (-4)

A generally cheerful and upbeat young man, who hides some dark feelings and experiences behind his kind, gentle demeanor. Megumi does not speak much about himself, but is more than happy to help others deal with their various problems. He has dreams of becoming a professional dancer, but has discarded this in favour of a more practical career, which he is studying for at Toumo Daigaku.

He does not seem to be very close to anyone, save his childhood friend Kaho, who attends Toumodai as well. He is openly gay, but single. He despises one-night stands and other similar behaviour.

Also, he was originally going to be the only "main" character, but as the other three developed, they demanded more screen time. XDD Thus, Megumi became a fellow protagonist along with Seth, Sean and Yuki. This author refers to him as "Megu-chi". Only the author (and Yuko) may address him as such. XDDDD

-Seth Black-

"Sesu Buraku"
DOB: December 22nd, 1987
Blood type: A
Star sign: Capricorn
Family: mother = Angèle, father = Johnathan, brothers = Ryan (+3), Sean (twin)(+48 min.), sister = Jude (-5)

Seth sees himself as the more serious, responsible half of his twinship with Sean, which is fair enough. His judgements - both towards himself and others - tend to be on the negative side given his critical personality. Simply put, nothing is every good enough for him. Because of this, he is constantly striving for perfection, something that he feels is necessary for him to obtain to absolve him of certain behaviours.

Despite his sometimes cold exterior and biting sarcasm, he cares very deeply for his family, especially for Sean, with whom he shares a particular bond mainly born of their twinship (I have to stop using the word "twinship", I don't even know if it exists XDD). To make his own life easier, he tries to maintain a "cool and collected" attitude towards everyone and everything, but his temper seems to flare through from time to time, betraying a passionate and frustrated inner self.

His full name is Seth Lloyd Black.

-Sean Black-

"Shon Buraku"
DOB: December 21st, 1987
Blood type: B
Star sign: Sagittarius
Family: mother = Angèle, father = Johnathan, brothers = Ryan (+3), Seth (twin)(-48 min.), sister = Jude (-5)

Sean is the reckless, happy-go-lucky, ever-optimistic foil to Seth. Although he may not seem nearly as school-smart as his twin, a little more effort on his part would probably produce excellent grades. However, he is satisfied with attaining an average score if it means he is free to do the things he enjoys. He is a bit of a closet otaku and a not-so-closet lover of cars and motorbikes. He also loves cute things, but is no less a man because of it (or so he claims). He is bisexual, although he has been tending towards men as of late. He describes himself as bit of a hippy, being a promoter of true, free love and other such values.

His full name is Sean-Michael Andrew Black. He despises being called "Sean-Michael". Luckily, there is only one person in the world who does so.

It bothers me to have less of substance to write about Sean than for the others. XDD

-Hiroyuki Kotobanwa-

"Kotobanwa Hiroyuki", "Yukinojo Yuki"
DOB: May 17th, 1982
Blood type: AB
Star sign: Taurus
Family: mother = Miyuki, father = Hiroku, sister = Ayaka (+1)

Hiroyuki has always had a talent for music-making and singing (and that is the last time I will be referring to him as "Hiroyuki" because it just doesn't have the same feel as "Yuki" XD). However, he has been unable to attain this dream and has instead turned to acting in the hopes of reaching his goal by an alternate route. Unfortunately, he seems to have been stranded by the profession of actor, which he happens to hate. Yuki has developed feelings of frustration and anger because of this, but instead of changing himself for the better he has fallen to apathy and self-loathing. He is very aware of his empty existence and pathetic attitude, but fears that taking any further steps will lead to nothing but rejection.

He is unwilling to commit to much because of his low self-esteem, and as such entertains many one-night stands. He seems to be bisexual.

Why

Ah, the Why section. I've decided to write this up in case anyone wants to know, since I myself am usually interested in the things that inspire other authors to write the things they do, whether on this site or elsewhere.

I began to visualize the actual story of Imperfect in the year 2006, but Seth and Sean were characters that I had actually created beforehand. Their sister Jude (herself created for the purpose of a Gundam SEED fanfiction that was never written...LOL Attack of the OC X'D) was going to be the main character of her own story, but when I failed to come up with a suitable plot for that, I began to brood and in the process created Megumi. It started out with me just doodling a cute young guy out of boredom, but I liked the design and named him Megumi, after Megumi Hanajima in Fruits Basket. It was only afterwards that I learned that "Megumi" is mainly a girl's name, but the name stuck, so I couldn't change it even if I wanted to. XDD

After a few days' reflection, I decided that I wanted to make a story about this Megumi, and immediately made it shounen-ai, because I had been meaning to write an original shounen-ai story for some time. Seth and Sean's characters were modified a little to fit in, and I also created Yuki a few months later. He used to be nice. XD Ohmigod, I know.

I played with the story for a bit, changing the roles and personalities around. At some point, Megumi was a mean, jaded supermodel of some sort, but that only lasted a few weeks at best. XD Some really weird things were added in too, so that the story was almost supernatural/fantasy, which was tempting but rejected in the end. I had already decided that I wanted to write a more realistic story, more "slice-of-life", something that would be at once thought-provoking, relatable, and entertaining.

The title "Imperfect" was inspired from an imagined conversation between Seth and Megumi. (Yes, I do imagine conversations between my characters) The gist of it was that Seth was hesitant about asking Megumi for a steady relationship because he did not feel that he was "perfect" enough for him, but Megumi replied that he loved his imperfection, which was obviously something that Seth did not understand until then. And that may or may not be a huge spoiler. XDD

In 2007, the characters's personalities were pretty much set and I began to think more seriously about the plot. These reflections eventually started coming out in writing form, as you can see.

Although I originally intended Imperfect to be a manga, I have decided to at least finish the novel before moving on to drawing. I really enjoy the process of writing out every character's chapter in their point of view, since it helps me flesh out their thoughts and actions better. It also forces me to think of the plot in a more systematic way. XD

So that's it. I hope it was informative and interesting. Any questions or comments can be messaged to me. I'm nice, really. :)

Carmen