I'm not sure how this happened, exactly.

Title: A Covenant with a Star
Fandom: Kingdom Hearts+Howl's Moving Castle, Miyazaki flavored.  It's distributed by Disney, so that, like, counts, right?
Rating: R for language, violence, implied threesome shenigans.
Spoilers: Mega. Although if you're reading fic for it and STILL haven't beaten KHII, there is no hope for you.  Familiarity with Howl's Moving Castle canon not required.  It intersects at critical points with the plot of the movie.
Word Count: building up to 67,000 or so
Summary: Ansem wasn't the only wizard to have dabbled in the magic of the heart. Set about three years post KHII. 

Riku has: gotten a lot of therapy and grown himself a spine again, and is back to being a sarcastic jerkass except with more emotional maturity.
Kairi has: gotten her own damn Keyblade and learned how to use it. 
Sora has: stayed pretty much exactly the same, only he has to shave now. 

To the Pit of Voles!

Unbeta'ed, in all likelyhood riddled with typos.  Sorry.

Title: On a Path I Cannot Follow
Fandom: FFXII
Rating: PG-13 for language, sexually suggestive situations, and character death.
Spoilers: Mega. You should finish the game before reading.
Word Count: ~9000
Summary: Penelo's life after the fall of the Bahamut, as told by her own pen. Larsa x Penelo.

One Ivalice timeline, as promised to various parties: http://forums.ffonline.com/showthread.php?t=44366 . It's from 2006 and does not include Revenant Wings.

A really fantastic day spent with mariagoner, lindensphinx, newredshoes, and astrangerenters have convinced me to flee Avatar and KH fandom for the time being. Avatar has gone downhill in the last season, and KH started at the bottom of that hill and hasn't rolled anywhere else. They're both basically children's media properties, and I know I shouldn't resent kids who flood the fandom with crap and shipping wars because they're KIDS and I was hardly better at thirteen, but the sentiment remains. I like being around smart people. It's a weakness of mine. FFXII fandom is full of 'em. Hi guys.

Took on two ffxii_arcana challenges, both Balthier (it's lonely, go join). In my headcanon he wasn't NEARLY as cool in his late teens/early twenties as he is in present gametime, and I only enjoy writing him in this not-yet-cool state. Otherwise he is simply too suave to be interesting on anything but a purely visual level.

More Diary. The continuity still needs checking, but I'm happy with how it's coming so far. It will end up spanning just under twenty years. I wanted to convey the maturation of Penelo's voice as she ages...I think I may be making her sound too educated in these, because that's naturally how I talk. :/ And no formatting for you. I has lazy.

( Diary p.2 )

There appears to be plot bunny nibbling insistently on my ear. It may concern a KH/Ghibli crossover. This is not good news.

There's still one FFXII fic that's been on the back burner so long I fear the bottom of the pot is black but I promised myself not to start anything new until it was done. :( So I FINISH YES?

The framing mechanism may be a little hokey, but shoot me. I like it.

Postgame Larsa x Penelo, (brief mentions of Balthier x Fran & Balthier x Ashe). Rated T for suggestive language, mature themes, and vague academic pretensions. Ignores Revenant Wings canon because I’m too poor to buy a Ninteno DS.

( The Fictions )

3.10 and 3.11 made me happy in the pants. Although it stretches credulity that a country crafty enough to basically take over the world lacked the foresight not to build their capital city in the CALDERA OF AN ACTIVE VOLCANO, because that is very much not smart.

Anyway, on with it.

Title: Marzipan
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Rating: G.
Spoilers: None.
Word Count: <1000
Summary: Azula started out that way. It was only a matter of influence.

Title: The First Virtue
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Rating: G.
Spoilers: None
Word Count: <1000
Summary: Featuring six-year-old Zuko. No more need be said.

Title: The Perfect Prince
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Rating: PG.
Spoilers: None
Word Count: <1000
Summary: This may be classified as Maiko. God I hate Avatar shipping.

Title: Spoken to the Night
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Rating: PG-13.
Spoilers: Serious spoilers up to 3.11 (The Eclipse).
Word Count: <1000
Summary: Before sunrise a life must be taken, and Princess Ursa is left with no choice.


I like my furry lap warmer. Pprrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

( ...so here's a picture of Azula beating the shit out of somebody. )

I'll color it eventually, and fix her bangs, which are totally going the wrong direction for her angle of motion.

Interesting fact: When I was still taking karate, I used to be able to roundhouse-kick people in the neck.

Also, ficshuns.

Title: It All Started With...
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Rating: PG.
Spoilers: Up to 2.15 (Tales of Ba Sing Se)
Summary: Zuko & Iroh drabble 3.

Title: To Know True Fear
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Rating: PG.
Spoilers: Up to 3.2 (The Headband)
Summary: Zuko & Iroh drabble 4.

I was going through Fleeting Fancies for some ffxii fic to kickstart my broken brain so I can actually finish Brief Holiday, and I FOUND MYSELF IN IT WTFBBQ XD XD XD

Topic: race in fantasy. Or: I pretend I know what the hell I am talking about.

One of the protagonists is white. One of them is black. The rest of the cast mostly comes in various shades of darker-than-a-latte, because sweet bejebus am I tired of Eurocentric fantasy.

But. But, BUT…I’m afraid of appropriating and exoticizing, having been raised by people who are Not Cool with That Shit, but really, what’s the line? I have a genuine respect for the contributions the Islamic empires, because their art / astronomy / mathematics / medicine were INCREDIBLE and god damn the Alhambra is one place I want to see before I die (and thanx for passing the '0' our way, guys).

The fact remains the main character defaulted to white. BAD SOCIALLY CONSCIOUS WRITER. BAD.

On the flipside, fantasy fiction is absolutely rank with racist tripe. The Drow are still around, for chrissake. Around and popular, and no amount of revision to the game books will change how fucked up the concept is. They’re dark-skinned and violent and whipped by their women and live in the ghetto Underdark. You could not get any more blatant unless you dressed them up in cheetah skins and had them yelling ooga-booga while murdering all them white wood elf women.

My story lacks the white colonialist element that so pisses me off about most other stories that rely on this trope, since the pseudo-northern European culture is very primitive compared Middle Eastern/North African people to the south, but still. There’s so much pesky emotional investment in the character I don’t want to change her. Sigh. Any first work will be flawed, I suppose.

I'm quitin' fandom for forever/a while/until next Tuesday to work on finding another JOB. I will try to finish up Brief Holiday, because there's only 500 words or so left.

Enjoy the archives of trash I left for you.

I got my girlfriend totally addicted to Avatar, and started rewatching it with her. Then these happened. I love Iroh. He's my favorite character. He's also fat, balding, and over fifty. I think the Legion of Irate Zuzu Fangirls is coming to arrest me for the previous sentence.

Big job just came in after I finished these. Brief Holiday is on a (hopefully short) hiatus until I'm done.

Title: The Price
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Rating: PG-13, for the realities of war.
Spoilers: Up to 2.14 (City of Walls and Secrets)
Summary: Zuko & Iroh drabble 1.

( The First. )

Title: Every Gift Should be Cherished
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Rating: PG.
Spoilers: Up to 2.7 (Zuko Alone)
Summary: Zuko & Iroh drabble 2.

( The Second )

There are fighter planes buzzing my apartment. It is somewhat discomfiting.

I had previously held very little interest in the LJ Kiddie Porn Conflagration '07, because I don't read it, and have never posted anything even remotely questionable to LJs servers. I'm more of a "Save the Whales" type than a "Save the Snarry Pr0n" type, but

OHGOD LIVEJOURNAL WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU.

Title: A Brief Holiday
Fandom: FFXII
Rating: PG.
Spoilers: set post-game by two years, so lots.
Summary: This afternoon, Archadia is just going to have to make do without an emperor.

This way to the Pit.

August in Chicago. My least favorite time of year. But at least I'm a scant two blocks from the beach now, instead of an hour train ride. I also get the delightful experience of Having to Pay Rent While Being Rather Underemployed. This is okay with me so far, because I was raised by cheapskates. The secret to it is to know that yes, you can buy nice things, if and only if someone else has bought them first.

*Sips from the delightful Hokusai print tea mug she bought this afternoon for slightly more than a dollar.*

Thrift stores my be my favorite kind of commercial establishment, followed closely by farmer's markets and tiny restaurants in heavily immigrant neighborhoods. That reminds me. DEVON AVENUE TASTES LIKE DELICIOUS.

Larsa says:
Archadia did not explode today. I done. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.

I can't draw for shit anymore. This is, like, :( :( :( to the tenth power.

The first part of a fic I started a while ago, some awkward teenage Larsa x Penelo crushing, eventually. Probably full of typos and not-sensemaking. I'm...really tired. The POV is splattered all over the place and I have no effing clue how to write Basch. Perhaps in the future I should leave that to mithrigil. :\

( “For the next six hours,” said Vaan, “Archadia is just gonna have to make do without an emperor.” )

You know why I like the FFXII fandom? Why I consider my a (albeit unproductive) part of it? The polysyllabic nature of the dialogue scared most of the stupid fangirls away. All the ITIT* Judgey monologuing was good for something. Like serious, you should all have shut up five minutes ago EXCEPT DRACE, who is basically the female counterpart of movie!Saruman in that I could listen to them both recite the phonebook, and gladly.

*I think I'm Tolkein!



I was going to spend some quality time with my homies from Clan Centurio, but then I discovered the PS2 to be CRUELLY STOLEN from its berth by a ruffian in Abercrombie & Fitch, who will likely abuse it as badly as he did last time. IF you bounce a game system around in your backpack and dislodge the laser like an idiot and need your sister to crack open the case to fix it, that is -100 macho teenage boy points again. Bringing you to a total of -534, for also being afraid of garden insects and sucking hard at opening spaghetti sauce jars.

I'm back, now with shiny new BFA in Useless Stuff!




( Larsa's done too checkit. )

Okay, changed my mind. Now I'm not regretting my conless summer at all.

ACEN HAD BEEN DELUGED WITH TORRENTIAL AMOUNTS OF JIZZ . CASUALTY REPORTS STILL COMING IN.

I'm starting to regret not registering for ACEN this year because all the COOL PEOPLE are going.

I made a good chunk of change in the Artist's Alley last time, enough to cover reg fee, food, and hotel room w/two other dorks. It's the week after graduation, which would have been perfect timing. I feel like an idiot now, but it's too late to get all the fffffffnarts together, and that's the only thing people buy. :( :( :(