Flutterings

* Coming across Spanish scanlations of the extras from the Japanese reissues of FAKE. Now if I could only find a reputable North American source for the licensed Spanish editions. (I'm steering clear of alibris.)

* Ryotaro Iwanaga's Pumpkin Scissors: Imperial Army State Section III. The manga is up to nine or ten volumes in Japan, with four volumes translated into English so far; I borrowed the first three from my local library and devoured them this afternoon. I am impressed by Del Rey/Ballantine/Kodansha's efforts: the first volume includes a good guide about Japanese honorifics, and each volume includes some translation notes at the end, where Ikoi Hiroe notes several spots where different choices could have been made, or provides additional cultural context.

Also, it has several kickass female characters - the field commander of the unit is 2nd Lt. Alice Malkin - and there's a doggie, and some cats... (am softie. Don't tell! *g*).

* We're currently stove-less, so we've been exploring various "just add hot water" and/or microwavable products. Today's was Shirakiku brand "Fresh Japanese Style Sanukiya Udon." I admit to picking it up partly because I just liked the cartoon of two country dudes with their noodles (whoa, that came out way more filthy than I intended), and this review pretty much nails the experience (including the spongy veggie bits I didn't care for either; I can't comment on the openability of the packets, though, since I approached the bowl with scissors in hand). In a nutshell: good noodles, and the water doesn't actually have to be hot before you add it.

Title: Not a Floating Spar
Author: bronze_ribbons
Fandom: FAKE
Characters: Diana and Carol
Timeline: After Like, Like, Love
Words: 130
Rating: G
Note: One last post for halfamoon 2009. Title from Edna St. Vincent Millay.

( Read more... )

Title: When Damsels Grow up
Fandom: FAKE
Character: Carol
Rating: PG (references to violence)
Timeline: After Like, Like, Love.
Words: 100. Written for day 8 of halfamoon 2009.


( Read more... )

Title: Any Direction in High Heels
Fandom: FAKE
Character: Diana Spacey
Rating: G
Spoilers: takes place after Like, Like, Love
Words: 218
Note: Written for day 3 of halfamoon 2009, a multi-fandom fest celebrating female characters (no minimum length or posting requirements; recs, icons, and other forms of fan participation welcome; info/rules here).

( Diana hasn't forgotten how Ryo said he'd be 'rooting for her'... )

Happy 2009, all y'all! My year so far has included some hardcore polka (not an euphemism - I was at a dance gathering), five hours of driving, and a worsening head cold, so I'm feeling more achy and addled than usual, which means it will take me even longer than usual to be less behind on reading your posts and responding to your comments. But I do hope to get to most of them sooner rather than later -- there are so many new stories that look so very delectable, and the encouragement is always, always much appreciated, even when I don't quite get around to saying so right away.

It has been a good day regardless - the Irish set (= the ten-odd rounds of polkas) was humongous fun, I spent the later part of the afternoon with friends, I have a bowl of soft tofu and seaweed next to me...

...and, Yuletide reveals are up! veracious and paperiuni gave me great joy with the FAKE fics they created for me, and so did the lovely commenters and rec'cers for the pieces I posted.

I wrote one assigned fic, three Treats, and a last-minute stocking stuffer. (I'll separate my gabblings about processes/influences into a different post to spare those of you who wish to avoid extended spoilers, don't wanna know how the bunnies got into their hats, and/or don't want to hear about what didn't get written.) They are listed here in the order I completed them. (It is likely not coincidental how the wordcounts and ratings progressively went down as the days marched toward and then past the deadline, though I'm amused that the pattern is so marked in this set.)

Other Work for Us to Do for Bebe. [The Dark is Rising, 3645 words, R] ( summary )

Beta'd by aunty_marion.

Room for edenbound. [FAKE / The Dark is Rising crossover, 2187 words, PG] ( summary )

Beta'd by geri_chan.

Witches Can Be Right, Giants Can Be Good for Aja. [Rahm Emanuel RPF / Harry Potter crossover, 1689 words, PG] ( summary )

Beta'd by marginaliana (of Snape/Miss Piggy fame).

Ten Hats and a Gallon for Cendri. [FAKE, 1665 words, G] ( summary )

Filling for glass_icarus. [Embracing Love / Haru wo Daiteita, 427 words, G] ( summary )

[What I wrote for past Yuletides: A Donne Deal (Wimseys + Arbuthnots), Unspeakable Beauty (Angels in America), and Bringing His Lordship Around (Lord Peter/Bunter; not actually in the archive, because I missed the posting window that year by a week or two, but it was written in response to a NYR prompt).]

Title: Not As Dumb, part 2 of 6 (see part 1 for full header info)
Author: bronze_ribbons
Word count for part 2: a bit over 6800 words

Part 1

Part 2

( The second pair of handcuffs arrived two days later, in an envelope identical to the one used for the previous mailing. )

[continued from this entry]

So what does this mean in terms of my fascination with Ryo Maclean and Dee Laytner?

( spoilers for FAKE beneath the cut )

(And, on yet another tangent, it's probably no accident that I'm attracted to Ryo and Dee because of how they stand out apart from the herd: when you get right down to it, my basic Snape/Lupin dynamic could be summarized as "two guys who never truly had a prayer of fitting in with the rest of society eventually realize that their soulmate is someone likewise deeply damaged and similarly ruthless when circumstances and/or love compels him to be."

*rereads last tangent* And I wonder why my PWPs invariably spiral out of control? Jeez, Ribbons, talk about self-honesty...)

(And all of this said, I'm not sure I'll be doing any justice to the theme within the current fic -- it's not where the plot sprang from, and it's not the kind of story I've previously spent much time trying to write -- but it is giving some shape to part 3 that hadn't materialized before last night, which is good, because I really do want to finish this sucker sometime before Valentine's Day...)

[still with me? the squid'll be up in a minute, in the next post]

All work-safe unless marked otherwise.

Not As Dumb (WIP - 6 parts planned): Part 1 (2000 words). Part 2 (6800 words). Part 3 (4200 words). Ryo/Dee and others.

Professionals. Second half of a drabble pair. Dee.

Some Glimpses of More Than Anything. 50 sentences, some light R. Dee/Ryo.

Not a Floating Spar. 130 words. Diana and Carol.

Developing. 100 words. Ryo (about Aunt Elena).

When Damsels Grow Up. 100 words. Carol.

Emiry Nightingale. 100 words. Emiry.

Any Direction in High Heels. 218 words. Diana.

Ten Hats and a Gallon. 1665 words. Ryo-centric.

Room. 2187 words. Crossover with The Dark Is Rising. Bikky and Bran, gen.

When the Night Falls on You. 2000+ words. Ryo/Dee and others.

Forward. Seven linked drabbles about Bikky.

A Little Bit of Sugar. 265 words. Severus Snape/Rikka Kaito.

Lolita 1, Love 0. Two-minute comment-fic challenge. Ryo and Dee.

Because I Love You More Than I Can Say. 2850 words. R. Ryo/Dee and Iwaki/Katou (Harudaki). Sequel to "Fair to See."

Harried. Severus Snape/Dee Laytner. Not a nice drabble.

Fair to See - drabble. Ryo/Dee and Iwaki/Katou (Harudaki).

---

The Randy "Ryo" Maclean fanlisting The Dee Laytner fanlisting

I am having no luck getting past the first paragraph of any of the fics I've attempted to start the past couple of days, so I indulged in some surfing instead:

I saw on eBay that there was a copy of v2 in Spanish for sale for 8 Euros. Unfortunately, shipping to the US would run 35 Euros...

Here's a page with some panels from the French edition. The very last one is an example of why I've become keen on collecting different translations: in the English edition (Tokyopop), Ryo says "Bad kitty!" as he thumps Bikky on the head. In the French edition (Tonkam), it's "Take that!" I caught sight of a German edition on this side of the pond just now (Carlsen), so I'm looking forward to seeing how it lines up (or not) with the other two. Not to mention that it's funny seeing how different languages translate stuff like moans and shrieks and sneezes...

(Which reminds me, I had NO IDEA that "sneezefic" was a genre large enough to have a name, let alone a sizable archive. Fandom, you will never run out of ways to give me gigglefits.)

Sadly, it's looking like I was really lucky to find my copies of v1-3 in French when I did (from a Montreal bookstore (Bidonlivre) via AbeBooks, at reasonable prices). I've tried ordering v4-7 elsewhere only to receive out-of-stock notices a few days later, and last week there were a couple vendors listing those volumes at exorbitant prices (I may be obsessed, but I ain't that keen...) I don't see them on amazon.ca this week, though, so I'm wondering whether they gave up or got swept out.

There are French scanlations of "Like, Live, Love" and Dee's backstory!!! *flails happily* (It's the same group working through Haru wo Daiteita, so that's another Nitta-Matoh connection.)

A lead character in Matoh's Access bears a strong resemblance to Dee, and his co-star evokes a younger Ryo.

Nineveh-uk has posted another bit of Sayers-inspired brilliance, this time featuring Bunter and tissue-paper. Work-safe.

---

Marginalina linked to the Yuletide brainstorming post; I clicked. That crashing sound you hear in the background is my resolve to stay out of fests this year colliding with the possibility of prompting some good FAKE fic. More on that in a sec.

My original shortlist + runners-up is on page 7 of the comments therein, but I had a three-hour drive earlier today, which meant I had time to ponder what I really want. So the fandoms I currently plan to nominate are looking more like this:

1. FAKE - Sanami Matoh
2. Haru wo Daiteita - Youka Nitta
3. Copenhagen - Michael Frayn
4. Muppets
5. Chicago Manual of Style
6. Vicky Bliss - Elizabeth Peters

Some thoughts (in reverse order) on fic I'd like to see, whether via Yuletide or some other panfandom challenge or me-writing-it-myself-during-some-future-bout-of-insomnia (and yes, this is partly so I don't forget all this when it's time to write my "Dear Yuletide Santa" letter -- although it'll definitely need trimming so as not to scare whomever's assigned to me out of her or his gourd). I guess I should cut for spoilers for some of these...

( 6. Vicky Bliss )

5. CMOS - oh, the possibilities. CMOS/MLA bondage or hatesex, CMOS/APA, two CMOS rules together, one single CMOS rule... mwahahahahaha. I really am not kidding when I say that 17.169 would lend itself nicely to an extended exploration of UST.

4. Muppets. Heh. Coming up with potential guest-stars (which may or may not violate the "no crossovers" guideline - I'm just brainstorming here) was a welcome mental break. Possibilities, in rough order of preference:

anyone from Tenth Doctor Who or Torchwood (actor or character)

Cthulhu or Hastur from User-Friendly (and dudes, current storyline involves the Large Hadron Collider. Whee!)

anyone from Haru wo Daiteita

anyone from Neil Gaiman's Sandman series

Lord Peter Wimsey. Bonus for scenes showing Bunter dealing with the insanity

Irene Adler

Jonathan Papelbon

3. Copenhagen. More discussion and/or flashbacks among those involved.

2. Haru wo Daiteita: Yoshizumi or Shimizu gen; Iwaki/Katou PWP...

1. FAKE - some possibilities:

Ryo/Dee hurt/comfort

Dee and Jim Campbell friendship fic

Ryo's early twenties - answering questions from Dee, Carol, and/or Bikky about his time in the Army (if that's what he did), or Dee mulling over how Ryo's Army habits/skills show up in his current habits, or how Ryo met his bomb-making friend (if it wasn't via the Army)

Ryo and Dee discuss and compare their knowledge of bombs

Kai and/or Louise (second season) - what are their stories?

The 27th precinct heads to Bikky and Carol's wedding. Craziness and crises meet them there.

( second season spoiler )

( And now for the mini-manifesto... my personal preferences re: FAKE fic )
Ok, that's more than I meant to say... and I'm not done yet. Some other day. The to-post list also includes a delightful German translation of "Those I Can Save" (courtesy of LJ:incapability87), a couple of audiofics (once I stop coughing long enough to record them), some recs of FAKE fics (especially ones not in the usual archives), and the ever-floating raft of to-writes (once they're written, heh). But for now it's back to the comma mines. *hugs to all who wants 'em*