Tweets and Twitterings from the Matrix Refugee

• 01:31 Two Bounts down, three to go, and for once "Dr. Noh" made himself useful by pasting something more anNOYing than him #
• 02:43 Typed one of the YnM fics that was in the can: needs to be revised a bit; probably won't get to that till after the 12 roses challenge #
• 02:44 Off to bed, as I've had a very busy day... Good night, sleep tight, don't let the wildlings bite... #
• 10:25 Good morning, all! #
• 18:13 Took some Mucinex earlier to try and clear my sinuses, but the stuff seems to have knocked me out along with the congestion. #<
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• 20:35 Is this working? Tweet-tweet-twit #
• 20:36 There we go: everyone must be tweeting about the S(t)uper Bowl #
• 20:51 Ugh, trying to write while trying to wake up from stupefying sinus medicine is like wading through paper mache #
• 22:49 Finished getting the angel tree down: and my dad surprised us with more angel ornaments to add next year. #
• 00:00 Reading A Game of Thrones: GRRM sure likes giving his characters names with the letter Y somewhere in the middle #
• 00:00 Finally feeling alert -- at almost midnight! :: laughs:: #
• 00:01 Now about to attempt to download as many MegaVideos as I can in 72 mins via JustDubs.Net's new MV-bypass thingie #

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Nihongo no baka

^--Probably a horrible translation of "Japanese for Dummies", the title of one of the books I picked up at the Burlington Barnes & Noble: I decided it was time I stopped fooling around and bought that as well as a Japanese/English dictionary. To my amusement, I've worked out rough possible translation for the name of a certain devious gentleman of taste, and discovered that one meaning of it could be "peaceful hawk", which only half suits him.

Also got yet another bargain journal (with a different cherry blossom print than previous one) and the second book in George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire", since I'm in "Gaaah, can't put this down" mode reading the first one. Despite the fact that GRRM seems to have trouble writing teenaged girls that don't flirt with the edges of Mary Sue territory (but then again... most Mary Sues are the Author Avatars of a lot of teenaged girls); I'm of a mind to reach in and push Sansa into a convenient puddle of mud, though I like Arya's spunk (despite the fact that she sometimes veers toward being the cliche tomboyish princess/young noblewoman).

Also finished another Fanfic Rose, which I hope to get typed later tonight and posted sometime tomorrow, as I've got one ready to go at my usual fic-release time (ie. just after midnight)

Fandom Milestone: 1 year of YnM

It just dawned on me that as of this past weekend, it's been a year since I first watched Yami no Matsuei, though it took me two (three?) weekends to finish it (and I really didn't start considering myself a fan until I started reading/buying the manga in the autumn of last year). I can thank my friend Mark for this, because he gave me access to his NetFlix account, even helping me set up my comp for direct downloads. He's always giving me these lovely lists of "must see" movies (usually of a Christian bend or at least more or less family-friendly), but what was the third or fourth thing I had to go and watch but a semi-shounen-ai anime series featuring a bevy of cute shinigami and a Depraved Bisexual who might be an energy vampire?? I did warn him that if he saw any anime titles pop up on his Recently Viewed list, it was probably something I'd been watching. I just wonder if he actually tried watching any of my leavings. He hasn't politely confronted me about it (as he tends to do when I've watched something he finds wonky), so I doubt that he has. Still... the subversive side of me can't help wondering... :: Adjusts half-rimmed glasses, smirks mysteriously::

I'm not sure what possessed me to watch it, unless it was a vague memory of an "A.I." fan-buddy of mine, one "Sapphire Rose" or "ice_hot" (depending on what journal she was using), waxing rhapsodic about the series (If I remember correctly, she fangirled Hisoka, and she kind of had a similarly snarky disposition). I tend to watch anime series that have been either directly recommended to me, or have themes similar to ones I've seen, or which are talked-about in depth by people I know (either familiarly or in passing) and therefore make me wonder what the fuss is about. I'm still stymied as to why I chose that opportunity at that time, unless I was feeling a bit mischievous. Whatever my reasons, it was a case of "Came for the supernatural themes, stayed for the character dynamics -- and cute guys".

Sure, there's things about the series that make it lopsided: the plotting in the manga is uneven at times (the anime tightens the plot arcs considerably; too bad there's only thirteen episodes: I would have liked to have seen the Bookworld plot arc brought to life, particularly since it fleshes out Tatsumi's personality and his relationship with Tsuzuki). There could be a little more world-building and it could be a smidge more consistent (I tend to borrow a few odds and ends from Bleach to patch things over; don't ask me why I do this, besides the fact that both series feature snarky teenaged shinigami with Kurosaki for a last name). The translation in the dub seems a bit awkward in places (I have yet to watch it subbed), and then there's the issue of Muraki's VA in the dub (I still think Manga Entertainment originally contracted either Crispin Freeman or the guy who voices Aizen in the dub of Bleach and he went AWOL after reading the script, as a result of finding out what a freaky bastard Muraki is), but I must say, despite sounding like he needs a dose of Sudafed, Edward McLeod certainly nailed Muraki's weird personality, giving his performance the right balance of creepiness, cold-blooded nastiness, insanity and deviance, bringing sexy back to Evil is Sexy. One of these days, I may watch it subbed, now that I have the hard-to-find-at-a-reasonable-price boxed set of the DVDs. I'm glad I found it since while I was delighted to find that the dub sites I've been frequenting now carry it, I had to endure the fact that they're hosting the Bowlderized version that the SciFi Channel is/was running (why they had to put it in the 8 pm block is beyond me: if they'd run it at 9 or 10, this would be less of a problem for the Media Watchdogs and thus they wouldn't have made the minor but annoying cuts). Would I want it improved? I don't know: somehow, the wonkiness of it all makes it endearing, like an awkward puppy who's bouncing around so much that he falls over himself (hey, that kind of describes Tsuzuki...). I used to count this series as my main anime guilty pleasure, but now over time the guilt has diminished.

12 Fanfic Roses: "The Matrix" (DegSep universe) -- "One Touch of the Enemy" (Merv/Neo -- soft R)

This is one of the more embarrassing fics to write and post (which is why it took me a few days to finally get it ready to post), but now that I've finished it, I'm no longer embarrassed by it....

A red rose and a white rose tied together with a golden silk ribbon, for Henry and Monica Swinton;
A tiny pink rosebud and a thick thorny stem without any blossoms at all for Kenpachi Zaraki and Yachiru
A rose so dark a red that it is almost maroon, with heavy thorns hidden under its lush green leaves, and a brighter red rose with few thorns, tied together with a delicate silver chain, for the Merovingian and Neo

"One Touch of the Enemy"

by "Matrix Refugee"

Author's Note: Written for crowdog66 and based on the prompt "caresses; every touch you give me steals my breath away"; it's set fairly early on in her exquisite "Degrees of Seperation" universe, during a time when Neo and Smith were separated and Neo sought comfort with the Red King of the Exiles.

Rating: Hard PG-13/soft R (unclothed and intimate touching, relationship dynamics)

Disclaimer: I don't own the "Matrix" series, its characters, concepts or other indicia, which belong to the Wachowski Brothers, Paul Chadwick, Warner Brothers, Village Roadshow Pictures, Joel Silver Productions, Burlyman Entertainment, Monolith, Sony Online Entertainment, etc.

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( By instinct, his hand reached across the silk-covered mattress )