12 Days of Fanfic: "Yami no Matsuei" -- "Baby, It's Cold Outside" (PG-13, slash)

For me, this fic has been like the big mysterious-looking box that's been tucked under the tree all this time, the one you can't wait to open. I've been poking at it for some time and I'm glad to unveil it.

And with this one, I conclude the first 12 Days of Fanfic. I hope you enjoyed the fics and I'm looking forward to doing this again next year (and be better organized about it). Who knows? I might do something similar for Valentine's Day, if I can find a comm that's offering a similar challenge...

On the Twelfth Day of Christmas, the Matrix Refugee fanficced for ye:

Energy vampires and death gods in a snowstorm,
An Evangelion snowball fight,
Midnight Mass in the Trinity Blood-verse,
Doctor Hobby wracking Joe's brain,
One Meifu Christmas office party,
A drunken Evangelion New Year's party,
Redpills stealing a Christmas tree,
Harry Dresden for the holidays,
Frank Sweitz adopting a David unit,
One Chateau Christmas party,
One Christmas spirit in the American Gods 'verse,
and An A.I. fic with David decorating his first Christmas tree.

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"Baby, It's Cold Outside"

by "Matrix Refugee"

Disclaimer: I do not own Yami no Matsuei, aka Descendants of Darkness, it’s characters, concepts and other indicia, which are the intellectual property of Yoko Matsushita, Hiroko Tokita, Manga Entertainment, Viz Media, Hakusensha, Central Park Media, et al.

Author's Note: The idea for this fic came to me on the morning of December 4th -- the not-so-good doctor's birthday, no less -- when I put the radio on as I was getting dressed and the Dean Martin version of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" came on. I laughed to myself and said, "Has anyone done a male/male version of this song?" So of course I got the delightful -- and shuddery -- image of Muraki putting the moves on Tsuzuki, trying to keep him someplace where it's nice and warm, one blustery winter night...

WARNING: Contains definite slash (Muraki/Tsuzuki), nothing graphic or anything like that, but it's pretty obvious what's going on here...

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( The end of December always seemed to bring a rush of work for the Ministry of Hades )

"Don't Make Me Pull the Grocery Store Car Over..."

Or "Is Civilization as We Know It Going to Collapse Because Someone had More Than 12 Items in the Express Lane?!"

About halfway through my shift, two people approached my boss, arguing over the fact that one of them had had more than 12 items in the express lane. I couldn't hear my boss's side of the exchange, since the two combatants were getting loud (loud enough that almost the entire checkout was staring at them with the sort of look generally reserved for screaming/flailing/tantruming two year olds), but I believe they were asked to stop arguing and leave. Either way, it was all I could do to keep from turning around and telling them "Stop it. Right Now. You sound like a couple of kids bickering. How important is it?" But it wasn't my place to intervene; still, I felt bad for my boss having to try and reason with the unreasonable, irrational wonks with the gimmes. And it wasn't like either of them even had more than two or three bags of stuff altogether, between the two of them, so I suspect this was a case of perfectionistic wankery. If it was someone trying to horn through with a full shopping cart, I could understand a certain amount of displeasure, but even then the amount they were displaying -- between the finger pointing and the name-calling -- was disproportionate to the problem.

I feel like biting something right now. Off to find some cranberry juice...

Better living through cranberry juice and fandom rambling.

Okay, got that off my chest, and now I can focus on other things, like:

--"Deathwish", the fourth of the Cal Leandros novels. Oh my! I'm only on the second chapter, but I'm loving what Rob Thurman is doing, in splitting the POV between Cal and Niko. I like Niko: he's the rational, level-headed one who keeps Cal from spiraling into himself too far. And while I have a complete understanding and acceptance of Cal's outlook on life, it can get a little grating at times (maybe because I work with people who bitch about far less painful stuff than what this guy has gone through, so I have to detox or digest some of this before I can deal with his -- albeit justified -- bitching and moaning).

--Trinity Blood: Rage Against the Moon Book 1. Whoa... the violence is a lot more graphic than in the anime, but there again, I don't mind written gore as much as I get squicked by visual gore (even cel-shaded gore, if it involves humans; "The Animatrix: Second Renaissance" defines High Octane Nightmare Fuel for me and, Matrix fan that I am, that's one part of the series which I am unable to rewatch). I guess this makes me the reverse of Neil Gaiman, it would seem, per the story about how he earned the nickname "Scary Trousers" from Alan Moore.

--Rewatching Blood+, since I needed something going in the background when I finally banged out the last three fanfics early yesterday morning, and had a Hey It's That Voice moment crossed with an Expy: How many voice parts did Crispin Freeman take in this series? Not only did he voice Haji, he also voiced one of the antagonists of the piece, ie. Van Argiano, as well as a few random spear-carriers. Also Van looks eerily like he should be Muraki's long-lost twin (except he's narrower through the shoulders and chest and probably shorter as well), which makes me not feel so awkward that one of my Grigori in "Neon Enoch Evangelion" is also a Muraki Expy.

Writer's Block: Do (political) opposites attract?

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:: Regards the question somewhat suspiciously:: To be honest, I accept people's views as theirs as long as they accept my views as mine. I tend to tune out or just walk away from people who try ranting at me in an effort to convince me otherwise, but then again, the best way to cause me to put my brain into autistic mode (Heh!) is to loudly rant at me about *anything* whether it's religion or fandom or politics or the weather or dog ownership. (Yes, I have been ranted at about the fact that I don't own a dog.) I feel that a real friend will accept you and your views on something, even if you're completely at polar opposites; unless of course that someone subscribe to views that deny basic human rights to certain classes of people. I'm looking at you people who regard women/non-Caucasians/children/GLBT people/the disabled/the elderly as non-humans. That's really the only line I'd draw in the sand. That and politics are something I rarely discuss anyway unless it's something I really care about (such as taking care of the earth or better crime prevention/recognizing new crimes such as cyberbullying).