♥ HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AMBER ♥

There is possibly a package waiting for you at home. I hope. I'm not sure how close you are to Atlanta, but Mei received hers without a hitch so hopefully yours will arrive, as well. The package comes with its own disclaimer, er. BUT KNOW THAT MY ETERNAL LOVE FOR YOU EXCEEDS THE LIMITS OF UCSD'S MAIL CAPABILITIES (and my ability to choose suitable gifts).

Have a royally fabulous day! I hear tell it's midterms week, so hopefully those all go well and are mostly, if not completely, out of the way by today.

For class the other day, I read an article focusing primarily on the berdache, feminism, and critical gender studies as a whole, which made me think of you. :P

Hay guys. I may have just spent eleven straight hours working on Girl Scout crap. Eleven.

Snagged this meme off sinnesspiel, but I tweaked it to suit my fancy. I'm using the present fandom, Naruto.

Mention a scene from a franchise/series fan fiction that:

1. made you laugh (Eye-Freak @ ff.net infinitefirefly)
2. made you cry (crimsoncourt)
3. made you squee (hieronymousb)
4. caused you distress darkestwaters and tothe_slaughter)
5. you didn't foresee (tsuzukinoai)
6. amused you greatly (Luc Court @ ff.net)
7. made you fall in love with a character (llivla)
8. if you have an OTP, reinforced your love for them (anat_astarte)
9. reminded you of yourself (n/a)
10. you love, for whatever reason (redbrunja)

( fandom > canon )

A makeshift fic recs list of sorts. I'll probably do a canon one later on, once I can think of enough scenes.

I was actually trying to avoid this meme! Because I don't like asking people questions! (Rather, I wouldn't mind asking questions, if I could ever muster enough pointed curiosity to ask them. But since I am curious about everything, especially answers to questions I would never have thought to ask in the first place, this is rather difficult.) But I accidentally signed up for questions from the lovely Marysia, so we'll just go with that and...forget this whole Interview part. XP

(Or just ask hieronymousb to ask you questions on my behalf! Since by now she's probably an old hand at this interviewing business, hurrr. XPP)

Questions are as follows:

1. What are your worst and best fandom experiences?
2. So I hear you and hieronymousb are pretty tight! What's the story with you guys?
3. I know you're an Itachi fan, so tell me, how do you like your Itachi? (Feel free to interpret this question in as many ways as you like XD)
4. Do you daydream a lot and if so, what is your most frequent daydream?
5. What is the most ridiculous thing you have ever purchased?

( Responses are behind the cut. )

If there are any questions y'all are dying to ask, ask away. If there is some question you really wish I would ask you, feel free to pretend I asked it. And if you would like to answer any of these five questions for yourself, by all means go ahead and do that, too.

Comment to this post and I will give you 5 subjects/things I associate you with. Then post this in your LJ and elaborate on the subjects given.

If you've already done this meme (a handful of you have), you can still ask for the first five things with which I associate you, and screw the elaboration part. XD

From hieronymousb:

1. Itachi -- You know, I honestly don't know if it comes across in this journal or not, but I'm certain it comes across in real-time conversation. XD I LOVE ITACHI.

Itachi is one of a good many characters I love quite deeply, all for similar reasons. Whether there is a term for this type, beyond simply The Tragic Fall, I don't know. But if there is a literary device that is unparalleled in its power over me, it is that one. Because there is a beautiful fragility to people with that kind of skill, of that intelligence, standing at that precipice. These characters are the kinds of disasters that you can't help but watch--like an avalanche, or the smoking kindling of an impending wildfire.

( It's a perfect day for bananafish. )

2. Ino's Dad -- Ino's Dad is OTP with Epic Win. (For which there is no logical reason.)

( THE FLOWER SHOP INTERROGATOR. HEAR HIM ROAR. )

3. Kakuzu/some girl
...OKAY. I WROTE THAT ONE. YES I DID. XP It seemed like the easiest one to do! Admittedly, I'm not sure if what went down in this even classifies as sex, because Kakuzu didn't uh, stop at her sexual parts. >.>;;

Magically, this is the only piece I've done thus far for the Naruto Kink Meme that I'm not extraordinarily ashamed of. XP Go figure. Kakuzu/some girl -- I'd ship it.

4. Al Joad -- My number one favorite character in literature, and in any work of fiction, ever. Sure, his role in The Grapes of Wrath is miniscule, his primary role manifesting in Chapter 16, in which he and Tom take a detour to the junk yard to fix their crappy truck.

It was well worth the $2 it took me to get that in the school newspaper! <333333
ice_kestrel9 made me my Grapes of Wrath keychain; <3 her creative genius! ^^
Most of the time, my love for Al Joad plays out as incredibly lulzy, but I am sincere in my love and my naming him my favorite fictional character of all time.

( Hell on wheels. )

5. Misplacing fics everywhere and having half-written shit all over the place, then forgetting you wrote it. XD I find it endearing. You and Coleridge would've gotten along swimmingly.

( Cut for :Failtastic Kalliel. )

---

From betterinorange:

1.Robert Frost -- Writer of my favorite poem!

( Free verse is like playing tennis with the net down. )

2. lackaday -- I say it? Rather a lot, if it's been kind of a failure of a week. :P 'Ah, lackaday.' I believe I fist heard the term used by Mogget in The Old Kingdom Trilogy (Garth Nix), but I've seen hieronymousb and raihu use it too, so I'm relatively certain the phrase did not originate in those books.

3. fan fiction -- I've been writing it since I was about seven (Pokemon ftw!) though of course I didn't know it was called fan fiction. Let me tell you, it takes on an entirely different meaning when you add the Internet into the mix. The first fan fiction I ever read was Pokemon Master by Acey. It's pulpy, it's cliche (and looking at it now, the writing itself is kind of ehhh), but it's real, true Pokemon. I really like the way he pulled this off, actually--the cast is much older, and there is a lot more death and a lot more blood and a lot more sex than in the canon (hey, none whatsoever to something is a big jump) but it retains the real spirit of Pokemon at its core. Oh, and Ash is really freaking sexy in this. Misty too. I shipped AAML because of this.


( More on fic...And lol, Inuyasha fandom. )

4. soccer -- Soccer taught me three things: what it feels like to hurt people (pretty damned good, don't let anyone tell you differently); what pain is (the understandable flipside of #1, XD); and that my loyalties forever lie in personalities, not in concepts, nor actions.

( Freedom. )

5. Rhyme or Reason -- I'm not really sure what this means, sadly! D: But I shall make something up, because that's more fun than just leaving it at that. :P Rhyme or reason: You can either dress up what you say, dance around the issue, have this lovely roundabout, poetic explanation or comment on everything, or you can just say it straight and simple.

Elaborate prose often lends itself too well to platitude. Straightforward commentary is often not as photogenic, but it means more, hits harder, delves deeper. BREVITY (AND CLARITY) ARE THE SOUL OF WIT.

Which means that I am done here, so I can go practice being brief and clear, because obviously I have just failed this test. XD Because damn it, now nobody is going to read through all of that.

Pieces of the Sun
Naruto fan fiction

Genre: drabble, character study
Rating: PG-13 (T)
Characters: Akatsuki, (Zetsu and Madara/Tobi share one)
Pairings: Konan/Pein, Deidara/Sasori
Word Count: 500 exactly
Summary: The self-possessed, the outcasted.
Notes: Each character is allotted exactly 50 words (well, Zetsu and M each get 25, as hinted at above). Written for hieronymousb’s birthday. Have a spectacular one, love! :D

( this is where I will stand, she says; till time ends, till the sun sets back into our hands )

EDIT: In other Naruto-related news, konohastars is opening soon! For Naruto fans on my flist, I'd really love it if you went to check it out. The modship is fantastic, and I think if we could get a few more players this could be a really good thing. In particular I'd like to see either an Itachi or a Sasori, to keep Deidara in line, or J-rock-idol!Gaara. >.> It's not a huge time commitment; you're only required to post once a month, if that's what fits into your schedule.

If it turns out it's not your thing, you can always opt out. But I think just trying it out for a bit would be really great. ^_^ My RP journal is deidalus_wings (Deidara); the profile houses a copy of my application, if you'd like to get a better idea of what this is.

Plus, because it is a new RP, virtually any character is still up for grabs. The exceptions to this are as follows: Naruto, Sasuke, Deidara, Ten Ten, Kiba, Konohamaru, and Sakura (status pending). :3

---

These are the answers to one of those memes where you list characters from a series from 1-12, then answer the questions based on the numbers you've assigned each character. (The following link anchors will only work if you are viewing this entry as an individual page, i.e. in reply-mode, not on your f-list. Alas.)

Have you ever read a Six/Eleven fic? Do you want to? (Zetsu/Gaara)
Do you think Four is hot? How hot? (Deidara)
What would happen if Twelve got Eight pregnant? (Orochimaru gets Temari pregnant)
Can you rec any fic(s) about Nine? (Shikamaru)
Would Two and Six make a good couple? (Naruto/Zetsu)

Five/Nine or Five/Ten? Why? (Sasuke/Kiba or Kiba/Sasuke)
What would happen if Seven walked in on Two and Twelve having sex?(Kakashi walks in on Naruto and Orochimaru having sex)
Make up a summary for a Three/Ten fic. (Kisame/Kiba)
Is there any such thing as One/Eight fluff? (Itachi/Temari)
Suggest a summary for a Seven/Twelve hurt/comfort fic. (Kakashi/Orochimaru)

What kind of plot device would you use if you wanted Four to deflower One? (Deidara/Itachi)
Does anyone on your friends list read Seven slash? (Kakashi slash)
Does anyone on your friends list read Three het? (Kisame het)
Does anyone on your friends list write or draw Eleven? (Gaara)
Would anyone on your friends list write Two/Four/Five? (Naruto/Deidara/Sasuke)

If you wrote a One/Six/Twelve fic, what would the warnings be? (Itachi/Zetsu/Orochimaru)
What might be a good pick-up line for Two to use on Ten? (Naruto --> Kiba)
When was the last time you read a fic about Five? (Sasuke)
What is Six's super-sekrit kink? (Zetsu)
Would Eleven shag Nine? Drunk or sober? (Gaara/Shikamaru)

"One (Itachi) and Nine (Shikamaru) are in a happy relationship until Nine (Shikamaru) suddenly runs off with Four (Deidara). One (Itachi), broken-hearted, has a hot one-night stand with Eleven (Gaara) and a brief unhappy affair with Twelve (Orochimaru), then follows the wise advice of Five (Sasuke) and finds true love with Three (Kisame)." What title would you give this fic? Name three people on your friends list who might read it. Name one person who should write it.


( Answers under here! )

Nothing quite like a dumb, yet incredibly amusing meme to brighten up your Wednesday!

betterinorange and okotachi have created a new Naruto AU RP called konohastars! If you want to experiment with role-playing, this is an excellent place to start! Further details can be found on the comm page, but many main characters are still open.

Naruto fandom, for me, has for the most part been about trying new things. Enjoying other people's cosplay, liking humor/crack, and now role-playing--especially in an AU setting--are things I haven't ever done in any of my other fandoms. So it's a fun and refreshing new start. ^^ Even if it doesn't seem like your kind of thing at first, it never hurts to try.

The other new thing I've tried in Naruto fandom is IRC. You know you want to join! The link leads to an information page for hieronymousb's Naruto-themed IRC channel. It's technically supposed to be a Naruto/Gaara channel, but you are welcome even if you don't care about the pairing so long as you don't bash it or mind other people discussing it, obviously. Discussion ranges from lolsome to genuine serious analysis. It is the only place where the finer aspects of Naruto can be found alongside this picture. <--Sasuke Can See You. XD

In that vein, 28 July 2008 is fandom-proclaimed Naruto/Gaara Day. If you're interested in joining the festivities and making an AMV/art/fic, July 28th is the day to do so! As a disclaimer: No, I don't ship Naruto/Gaara. But just as in FMA fandom, I will read anything so long as it's well-written. :D

And here is a Naruto video my sister and I made on Thursday, to celebrate our first full day of summer vacation:

Always Use the Buddy System a.k.a. What Did They Do With Itachi's Body?

Also available is an interesting video I made with my classmates titled 羽毛球ＥＸ, which features some of the most laughably poorly spoken Mandarin ever to grace the planet. But it's all the more humorous for it, so I'm not complaining.

You know, I don't really like posting art, because those of you who draw on ye olde f-list are worlds better than I am. But I figure I can't be ashamed of doodles, right? (And also, apologies for not commenting on anything post in the past two weeks. X_x I promise I read most of them (those concerning RL things, in any case) but I really don't have the time/energy at present to voice my thoughts/responses. <33333 for you all, though!)


Drawn on binder paper; scanning practice. Blue lines edited out. ;)
Because Dante/Envy really isn't complete without a little narcissism.


Drawn on Photoshop 7.0 for hieronymousb and
her infatuation with Envy torture! (Reference pic.)


Discovering the brush tip panel in Photoshop CS2.
An exercise in drawing Envy!hair.

Urahara Kisuke (Bleach) Random doodle.
The Raven (Edgar Allen Poe) More brush tip modifying (see Envy!hair above).

Screw canon! I'll just read canon-esque fan fictions for the rest of my life.
Have you ever realized that you really enjoyed a series and its characters/world, and devoted an entire evening to fangirling it, before realizing that ( you'd never even read the series before? )

And have I mentioned that October is my favorite month?

Happy Birthday

October 2nd: Mrs. Heidi Burgess (♥)
7th (?): hieronymousb!
8th: Alphonse Elric! (Eh heh.)
11th: kuchren!
30th: leftaligned!

Much ♥ for you all.

In honor of Al's birthday (who is the least important person in the above list, but, er) I beseech you all to read The Scarlet Ibis by James Hurst.

"IT WAS IN THE CLOVE OF SEASONS, summer was dead but autumn had not yet been born, that the ibis lit in the bleeding tree. The flower garden was strained with rotting brown magnolia petals and ironweeds grew rank amid the purple phlox. The five o'clocks by the chimney still marked time, but the oriole nest in the elm was untenanted and rocked back and forth like an empty cradle. The last graveyard flowers were blooming, and their smell drifted across the cotton field and through every room of our house, speaking softly the names of our dead..."

Note: The link to "The Scarlet Ibis" is a .PDF, which requires Adobe Acrobat to open. The text includes various typographical errors not present in the original story (of course). Read through them, please. This is my very favorite short story and I desperately want to know what you guys think about it!

Edit: And October 8th is Al's birthday because I said so, not because I have some magical sekrit info. And yes, it has to do with Scarlet Ibis. So read the goddamn story. XDD

Here are the first two sets of questions for the 'Interview' Meme that's been going around. Warning: Very long and rambling. The first five questions are from hieronymousb; the remaining are from kuchren. After this I need to do the ones from leftaligned. O_o

From hieronymousb:

1. After all the badfic discussions, I just have to ask -- what, in your opinion, is the craziest fic you've ever written?
Um, your Envy x Ed, I think (not that I've finished it or anything!). Especially since it was based off of, well, badfic. I am very ashamed of that fic, actually. XD Not because it was particularly bad (though it might be - I wouldn't be able to tell at this point, as the WTF factor has blinded me) but because I know it's pretty much exactly what you didn't want dedicated to you. :3 To atone, I shall finish some pre-series Dante x Envy for you - eventually.

( And then there's all this nonsense )

2. What in the bloody hell is your icon a picture of?
Helly blood! It goes with a drabble I wrote as a birthday present for Fanta (leftaligned) - even though her birthday was in October. It's technically a picture of the two of us eating cookies. Artistically, it's two ogres eating unborn children. This is better explained here.

3. As a person who was formerly in the batshit-insane Inu Yasha fandom, what is the weirdest IY experience you've seen or been in?
( An analysis of IY wank and ficcing hierarchy. )

4. This is spoilery, but what do you predict for the next ASoIaF novel?
This is one question that I can't answer. XD I try only to guess when I know I'm right, because I'm sneaky like that. So when I make predictions, I either don't give a fig (like my predictions for, say, badfic plots or Eragon 'plot twists') or end up with vague, conservative theories.

( My philosophy on reading. )

But! I do predict Ser Loras won't die. ...Damn it.

5. I've actually sort of been wondering this for a long time, so here is a perfect excuse to ask. XD;; What is your ethnicity? I know your real name is Mika and you're studying Japanese...
On my mother's side, I'm 1/4 Japanese, 1/8 Hawaiian, and 1/8 Filipino. On my father's side, I'm not actually sure, but I'm pretty sure it's something like 1/4 Irish and 1/4 some other random European ethnicity. I don't even know. O_o;;

--

Interview with the Vampire, from kuchren:

1. What was your worst thought about me~? Be perfectly honest! [Best?]
( Message for Mei )

2. When you were younger, what did you want to be when you "grew up"? Do you still want to do it? If yes, why? If no, why not?
Before I started school, I wanted to be a mail man. And NO I DO NOT STILL WANT TO DO IT! (Honestly, who dreams about becoming a mail man?) O_o

( More on professions... )

3. If you had 24 hours to do anything you wanted, but the next day you'd be the only one who'd remember those events, how would you spend that time?
My first thought was that I'd spend it with you, and my other friends who I don't get to see IRL. But I think it'd be too painful to have to cherish those memories alone. OT: And this is why I love/hate post-series Elric!bonding so much. ;_;

I would spend it alone.

( Specific locals I would visit... )

4. What, in your opinion, is your biggest achievement?
The values I've established for myself, as well my sense of self. I'm not proud per se, of how I've shaped my outlook; you can't be proud of something like that. But I think that the way in which I've prioritized aspects of my life, and the drive I've worked up to continue living and believing in what I do is the best thing I could have ever done for myself.

5. What do you envision yourself doing in 20 years?
Hm! In 20 years I'll be 35, so... Honestly, I don't think about the far future. But I assume I'll have a family, a job, and some kind of wild obsession with an anime/TV series/book/movie/etc. XD

Reply to this entry with the phrase "interview me!" and I will ask you five questions. Then, you can answer them in your own journal (or in the comments here) and spread the meme plague by having other people ask you for questions! You can also ask me more questions, if you so choose. I rather like filling out these survey-type memes, so long as your questions aren't lame. (None of this 'what did you have for breakfast?' nonsense. O_o)