Once a Stranger

Read a handful of Yuletide fics. Especially enjoyed those three:

An Autumn Dire (The Last Unicorn)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/52333504/chapters/132390526

And so the unicorn left her forest for the second time.

The writing is beautiful and it feels like it really addresses the themes from the book.

Some Things That No One Teaches You (The Left Hand of Darkness)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/52498021

When I woke that morning, it was with the bone deep surety that kemmer was upon me.

A skillful might-have-been with very delicate writing.

In the Wet Dark (Tokyo Babylon)

https://archiveofourown.org/collections/yuletide2023/works/52255429

Subaru is comforted by Seishirou after a difficult case, and an unexpected kiss becomes more.

A well written piece of smut with very interesting PoV work on Seishirou.

1. Failed to go to epitanime this week end after all. Woke up too late I guess. x_x Only now am I suddenly regretting it a little bit. Oh well, not like I had any money to spend.

2. Watched Thor on friday (finally was showing on 2D at my nearby theater). Liked it overall. You know, there's still no Thor-related recs on my list of comics to be read. Just saying :3

3. Posted the ficlets in answer to everyone who prompted:

Title: Taunting
Fandom: Tokyo Babylon / X
Characters/Pairings: Seishirou/Subaru, Fuuma
Length: 328 words

Title: Rebel girl
Fandom: Revolutionary Girl Utena
Characters/Pairings: Juri
Length: 370 words

Title: Learn from the feet of the master
Fandom: Black Lagoon
Characters/Pairings: Balalaika/Revy
Length: 496 words

They're not great, but they're wri~ting, first since 2008, yay! Wouldn't mind getting more prompts, really :3

4. comicstore_news is missing an editor in case you have too much free time and feels like doing something selfless for fandom (it's good for finding good fanart on tumblr, if i say so).

What do you think of the Subaru/Kamui ship?
Much as I'm a die hard Seishirou/Subaru shipper, I'm actually rather fond of Subaru/Kamui, when it's well characterised. (Multishipping FTW). I even wrote a K/S fic once :) and enjoyed a great many well written ones (back in the days when I read a lot of fic for the X fandom). There were some fics I liked a great deal less, but that's because I don't think it's a pairing you can write well by dismissing Seishriou and Fuuma (and Kotori)'s importance to Subaru and Kamui. These people will always be more important to them than each others. But they do have a sweet and very interesting relationship in canon, and there's a great deal of interesting things you can do with that.
To be honest, back in the days, it's one of the rare pairing war I got involved in the slightest bit, and I regret that fact. I hadn't realised at the time the kind of self righteous patronising that went with it :-(

What is your opinion on Chobits?
I read it quite a few years ago and was very much uninmpressed. To this day probably my least favourite CLAMP. I love the fetishist clothing that Freya's got and there were two minor characters whose name and roles I forgot which I was fond of. Otherwise I disliked it a great deal. It was a bit of a creepy manga.

If you've read Tsubasa, what are you expecting out Subaru and Seishirou?
Every little bits make me happy, but I would dearly hope for some sort of conclusion of the hints we were given so far (that seems unlikely at this point, but still :() At the same time, I don't really care that much. To me, the real Subaru and Seishirou, the ones I care about, are in X and Tokyo Babylon.

Why Sansa/Sandor? Hey, that doesn't mean you have to rationalize it, but if you thought of something, well...
It's a kink? Hell, I don't know, I love Sansa and I love Sandor, and I love their interraction, it's got chemistry. It's the classic Beauty & the Beast pairing, innocent girl with tough guy. It's very, very archetypal and it's been done many, many times badly, but GRRM actually knows how to do these things without being problematic, by being more realistic and more aware of the potential squickiness; so it's refreshing.
I always love that kind of pairing when it's well done, really ^_^

THOUGHTS ON TSUBASA!
I don't take Tsubasa seriously. I see it as crackful intercontinuity multicrossover clamp fanfic, ya know? And I like it because I'm a CLAMP fangirl, and I get the references and it's always nice to see the characters I loved in another manga being explored in another way. I also love Kurogane and Fye, and I love their slahsy relationship. Also I adore Yuuko. (And I love XXXHolic much more than I do TRC)
I admit I don't like Syaoran and Sakura much, or care about their own drama. Especially Syaoran, because I really adore CCS!Syaoran, but not so much in TRC; while I find that Sakura still manages to bring out some good stuff in TRC (when she's not in a coma) and I wasn't that crazy about her in CCS.
Another way I like TRC is the "So, that's how Sidereals fight using fate magic", but only Exalted players will get that ^_^ (my head, it is hurting!)

So I rambled some of those TB/X analyses things over at megganbmoore's and I guess I might as well post it there too - it's about the mirror motif.

( Read more... )

One of the funny thing with HP7 release date's annuncement is how everyone is making angsty posts at their journal telling about their fear about the death of a favourite character (Snape, Remus, Lucius, Draco, Harry, what have you...)

( musings cut for teh spoilerz )

So what do I fear for Book7? Mostly I fear silly characterization about my favourite characters that won't be easily fixed. Specific canon facts that will contradict future fics I won't have time to finish before June. And Severus/Lily *shudders*

Then again, last time the only thing I was fearing was JKR messing up with my idea of Regulus and then she did, but I loved it XD

I just hope I won't be disapointed.

But she can kill anyone she wants as far as I'm concerned.

Especially if the death is cool

*waves Bring on the Angst flag*

Well, all my plans for this week end were eventually cancelled in bac synchronisation, but no big deal, i could just read all those nifty new books.
Finished Thomas the Rhymer by Kushner, which, without surprise, was a gorgeous and wonderful book. Have to lend it to Aurel, I'm sure he'll find it inspiring for mastering more DA: Fae ;)
Also begun The Wildling... and i like the beginning, but will tell more when I finish it.

Did I mention Aurel gave me the Tokyo Babylon Photographs Art Book ? 'cause he did ! Isn't it grand ? All those nice, shiny, gorgeous pictures are all mine, mine, mine *danses* and they're even prettier in real than on scans.
From what he told me Aurel was into Clamp things when he was 15 and was still looking for his sexuality *lol* cue jokes about who would actually find their sexuality in Clamp works, cuz God knows Clamp characters have a very weird notion of love and relationships ;) Apparently now, he flees them Clamp works because he's scared of the pointy chins. Well, whatever, thanks to it, I'm now the owner of the Art Book in exchange for paying a restaurant meal, i'm rather happy of the deal.

On other news, my dad is trying to install a wifi conneciton between my computer and our modem so we won't have a cable hanging around the hall anymore. Sadly, my father is doing a messy job of it, and it's not working very well. And many blue screens have visited us. And I'm worried my computer is getting into a sulky mood. Where's Satsuki when you need her ?! So, my presence on the web is getting random, am afraid.

I'm starting to make even more X/TB icons than I can use. What can I say, I'm bored...
And now, after Calderon and Issa, I'm quoting the Poetic Edda. I'm really a geek ^_^





I do blame it on my fascination and identification with the twelveth card of the tarot. I do.
It's usually the card I associate with freedom, which is paradoxical, because it's the card of freedom from within, by opposition with the fifteenth card, which is outer freedom (ability to do whatever you want and no give a damn of consequences) but slavery to your own pulsion. The Hanged Man is the sacrified god, it's a very strange arcane... it's the card of the medium, the intermediary, caught between heavens and earth, it's the card of reversal, paradoxes. How can you be trapped and yet free, bound and yet powerful, helpless and yet serene ? It's something about the inner dignity of man. About that fundamental part of yourself that noone can touch unless you let them. And at the same time, it's a card of sacrifice, selflessness, abnegation... but it's not so much about giving in to others as it is about giving to yourself. Myself to myself, that's the key. A perfect balance of self, neither passivity nor action, neither acceptance nor refusal, something between, freedom as a state of being by giving all of yourself, accepting all of yourself. And then what binds the hanged man isn't a chain anymore, because ties bind both way, and it is being linked to the Axis Mundi, therefore to the whole world. And there's power here, power rooted in what binds people together.