Valentine
Disclaimer / Warnings / Author's Notes:

Petshop of Horrors and all of its associated characters are copyright Akino Matsuri. Any and all other characters, anime, bands, etc, referenced in the story are copyright their respective owners.

This is a yuri, which means that it focuses on a female / female relationship. If this bothers you, you have been warned.

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Author’s Notes:

Pronunciation notes:
Chianne: (“shan”, rhymes with “Anne”)
Mae: (“may”, like the month, one syllable)

Well, it was interesting to write about someplace close to home. I live in Southern Arizona, so writing about Southern California was fun. I don’t think I’ve written something that takes place in America in a long time.

Right, to the meat of the notes now. I started writing this on Valentine’s Day, but most of it was a long time in coming. I have been involved in anime fandom for about six years as of now, so I have had a good firsthand grasp of inter-fan relationships and how the lines can get blurred when people get a little too obsessed with their cosplay characters. There is also the inherent drama that manifests itself in ways idiosyncratic to the fan culture, which is at its core driven by universal human nature, but filtered through fantasy, if you will. If you have ever dealt with drama at a cosplay or a convention or something, you know exactly what I mean. The personality type displayed by Chianne is probably well-known to fans, as is her idol and object of worship, Mae. They are not stereotypes, but the nature of their relationship and their relative popularity with their peer fans is a pattern that I have seen repeated time-and-again. There are a million Chiannes out there, and perhaps five-thousand Maes for them to latch on, and another five-thousand Michaels.

Not to say that the characters only apply to the fandom culture. I’ve met my fair share of Chiannes, a few Maes, just as few Michaels, out and about in the world. I could say that this story was not inspired by any drama that has been flitting around my life lately, but anybody who knows me would know that I am lying. I think that quite a few readers have been one of those three characters at some point in their lives and can relate. I have a habit of writing what I know and have seen firsthand, which has stirred up trouble in the past, but that must mean that I am doing something right. I hope. Ideally, everybody who reads this story will take something with them that will stick (in a positive, constructive manner, mind; I’m not in this to tear anybody down) or some realization about the fandom culture. Or life in general. Yeah, that would be sweet.

Regarding D’s black candle: one of my friends used to burn black candles in her house to absorb all of the ‘negative energy’ her family gave off, and claimed that sometimes, if moods were resentful enough, the candle would vaporize in record time. I have always wondered if that would actually work.

Regarding name choice: There is a girl in my AP history class named “Chianne”, who is in no way like the Chianne Miller of the story, but she did have a cool name. I thought it was spelled “Shan” for the longest time until I saw her name on a paper. I never really thought about the source of Mae’s and Michael’s names until I was watching Arrested Development at my friend’s house and made the association with Maeby and George Michael. It must have been a subconscious choice. That show has been my obsession lately.