Binselong

Binselong is a story written by Wasureta Yume. It ran in Issue 58 at http://s2b2.livejournal.com/326757.html, and is mirrored at http://www.shousetsubangbang.com/mirror/binselong/.

Summary

From fairyninjas.wordpress.com: "A tattoo artist in a sci-fi setting gets a very unusual customer with an intriguing request. It has a very bittersweet element to it, but is well worth reading, and since both characters are aliens, the sex is…rather, the genitals are…"

From http://harmless-one.livejournal.com/42989.html: "a sweet story of a couple of unique aliens, some wicked tattoos, and the illusions one can have about ones culture and oneself, really. Happy endings are around, but there's a bit of sadness in there, too."

Author's Notes

From http://sensualcapybara.livejournal.com/599.html

So, my first ever entry in Shousetsu Bang Bang, and to be honest, the first thing I've legitimately finished in quite a while. Honestly, I'm so grateful to the zine and everyone who's a part of it for giving me motivation to get writing again.

Originally this story had much more of an S/M vibe, what with the tattoos and all, but once I started rewrites and the characters began to speak more clearly to me, that element faded out.

I personally identify a lot with Cal in this story, so in a way it ended up being very self-lovey to write a cool, worldly POV character who sees his positive qualities. At least, I think Watch is cool! I hope he gives readers that impression!

On names: in general, when I need a name for something I just pull shamelessly from my second language (Japanese), but the Japanese word for chameleon is "chameleon," so... I had to get a little creative. "Binselong" is a word I made up based on what Google Translate informed me is chameleon in in Chinese. Wakuchin is from Wakuchinman (Vaccine Man), the very first villain in the One Punch Man anime/comic. I think my Wakuchin looks like him, except smaller, covered in tattoos, and with horns instead of antennae. Calumma is a genus of chameleon, and I added an L because it looked better.

Shitagi just means underwear. I hope that doesn't disappoint anybody.

I don't personally have any tattoos, but I've seen one being done up close. It was fascinating! I did have my eyebrow pierced once upon a time, though. Over the course of writing this story I dreamed about getting a tattoo of a capybara. While I do like capybaras very, very much, I don't know if that's a good enough reason to get a tattoo...

Lastly, many thanks to my beta reader, sometimes-cowriter and foreverlove Iceramyst for drastically improving the story, not least by encouraging me to look up reptile penises. (And for taking care of me when I got sick staying up too late writing this.)