Fic about the Goujun Dilemma

- Before reading the story -

Maybe he's down on leave - thanks to the merciful goddess, no doubt - or died in battle between then and now?

- After -

Heh, apparently wethink alike. I like how this fic goes. I'd much easier believe this than anything else; nice work.

Thanks. Though the trouble with Goujun consciously becoming Jiip is the fairly clear difference in personality between the two, which is best explained by a memory wipe. Or, well- maybe Goujun finds he enjoys life better when he has no position to maintain.

I would too, especially if I got 'Tenpous' protection from 'Kenren' after I set his butt on fire when he annoyed me. *Giggles at thought*

That was very beautiful and it quite makes sense. I particularly loved the discussion between the Dragon Brothers and how they don't want to tie their fortunes to their fallen brother.

And the Kanzeon, is the Kanzeon.

Kanzeon is probably the easiest character to write in the whole series. Any time I've had hir in a story se basically just writes hirself.

Ooo, melikey. It opens the door to Hakuryu being able to turn into Goujun's form and sex up--- oh. I'm going a bit off there. I'm not sure if I'm set with that theory, but it was well written and a good idea nonetheless. Thank you!

Hakuryu being able to turn into Goujun's form and sex up---

If there hasn't been a fic written on that theme, there's certainly been a doujinshi drawn, or maybe several. I admit it's a pleasant idea.

I greatly enjoyed this fic, though getting caught up in it made me tense from the argument with his brothers, which is very intense. By the middle of the discussion with Kanzeon, I was smiling myself (and even snerking at Kanzeon's comments about hooking up with Tenpou, who is cleaner now), which was also keeping pace with Goujun's reactions in the story. I particularly loved Goujun's reaction to realizing he was smiling especially after cosplaying this past weekend and trying to keep a serious face all day. Very impressive emotional progression, in other words. Great ending, too.

I really like fics that do a good job of not just explaining away plot holes and logic problems of canon, but turning those problems into their own solutions, and this is an excellent example of that. Everything fits and makes the canon itself make more sense, so it goes beyond speculation and it becomes perhaps more difficult to believe that it wouldn't happen this way than to believe it would.

Thank you for sharing this.

Thank *you.* I'm glad you liked it.

I can imagine that smiling in whiteface can have disastrous consequences. Actually, I wonder if scaled skin moves with greater difficulty than smooth.

(And I trust it's clear that the dragon brothers here aren't my own dragon brothers. Closer to the unlikable bunch in the original novel, always jockeying for power.)

Simply *blinking* in whiteface meant there needed to be touch-ups every two hours or so. I used some "Creepy Fake Skin" for scaly patches and they were surprisingly comfortable and flexible enough... except for very slowly sliding down my cheeks a couple centimeters by the end of the very hot day.

As for the actual dragons' skin, though, I suppose it depends on how stiff/armoured it is for protective reasons, or is it for visual display purposes, or is it an area of large "pores" or the equivalent for secretions from marking/pheremone glands of some sort, or.... Um, yeah, I've given it a bit of thought.

And yes, the complete lack of solidarity between the brothers made this clearly not fit with your other stories, and the other Dragon Kings' involvement with their own armies indicated a different working relationship with Heaven even before their decision about how to respond to Litouten's threat.

The part where Goujun wonders if the rift between them is permanent made me wonder how close they were before this incident, which made me wonder if they might have been the same people who changed due to living in a different world, or if they were different people from the start -- the issue of nature vs. nurture, I suppose.

Likewise, Goujun not having a strong knee-jerk reaction against becoming a vehicle and a tiny dragon who could not speak seemed to indicate that issues of pride, honour, humiliation, and identity are based on different cultural standards in this world.

Of course going by the action in the more recent eps Goujun's facial muscles will take a *lot* of exercise. He did a good bit of yelling from 17 onwards.

The Saiyuki novel is a frustrating read for a dragon lover because it's in one Chinese tradition of poking fun at those in authority, including dragons. No one comes out looking well in it as far as I can see. Fortunately there are other folk stories to offset its image of dragons as stuffy, impotent but power-hungry time-servers. But the novel suggests the kind of things that Minekura's Heaven might do to people who live there, so I took my cue from there.

Goujun here is more soldier than king. Action is his element, and once having undertaken a mission he'll pragmatically do what's needed to carry it out. I'm not even sure questions of honour or humiliation come into this Goujun's thinking. I don't feel humiliated givinbg pony rides to my babies; it's part of my work, not to mention fun. Possibly Goujun feels the same way about giving jeep rides to ex-Celestials. What's humiliating about exercising one of his abilities for a bunch of childlike humans?

This seems a very do-able possibility to me. I like the idea of Goujun joining the ikkou voluntarily to help with their journey (and perhaps in the final battle?)

I have to admit, though, that I have a difficult time imagining Goujun turning into a cute little squeaky toy of a dragon. *kyuu?*

Kyuu is indeed a problem. Though however cute it seems to us, we don't know what it sounds like to Hakuryuu. I mean, it *could* mean 'God, you useless fart, get up and get breakfast ready, willya?'