Between the good and bad, that's where you'll find me, Reaching for Heaven

There's an upside to LJ being scothery: it keeps the anonymous comment spammers away. Just got this in my inbox:

"backlink services"

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The kicker?? This was posted to a YnM fanfic I'd crossposted to a fan community. I'm scratching my head as to what the hell it has to do with YnM.

I've been on a bit of a hiatus from this journal, mostly because I've been busy, partly because I've been trying to let the dust settle after a kerfuffle earlier this week.

One thing that's kept me scurrying around doing errands, even when it was hot out: I needed a new pair of sandals badly, since the pair I was wearing simply were falling apart at the heels. But try finding a pair of *SENSIBLE SANDALS* these days when women seem to be wearing those flippy, frippy, strippy-strappy things that look like they're designed for tooling around the mall or showing off to ones galpals, and not necessarily walking a mile in. I don't/can't drive due to my sensory overload issues (trust me: I am all but a nervous wreck behind the wheel, plus cars are expensive to maintain), thus I buy shoes for their durability and comfort. Unfortunately I had to search through about five or six stores before I found a sensible style, similar to the pair I have. I did, however, get myself a few consolation prizes along the way, including: a Hello Kitty throw pillow with a black and white polka dot hairbow on one ear, and a black and white Hello Kitty throw blanket for the coming cold months, and... a bottle of TruBlood. Really! I have yet to drink it, and right now, it's sitting on my bookshelf, next to (I kid you not) a small crucifix!

Also, have been watching the 2009 version of "The Prisoner", featuring Jim Caviezel and Sir Ian McKellen (otherwise known to the carpe_ho_ras gang as "11-12's canon"). Cue yours truly making jokes about "Jesus and Gandalf in the same TV series". I'm rather glad I'm only passingly familiar with the Patrick McGoohan version from the 1960s, as this helped me approach it with a blank slate, though there again, I tend to be open-hearted towards most adaptations, unless it's hopelessly wonky (viz. the 2001 version of "The Time Machine" and the Ralph Bakshi animated versions of "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings"). I enjoyed it immensely and am planning to rewatch it very soon: the visuals and the acting is utterly incredible. Still trying to figure a few things out, but that's what rewatches are for. Also, their use of some Beach Boys songs made me laugh (sort of a riff on the Patrick McGoohan version and its use of Beatles songs). I also found it rather interesting that 6 in both versions is played by a Catholic actor who's been known to turn down or request adjustments in roles which don't sit right with their comfort levels and their consciences; Patrick McGoohan rather famously turned down the role of James Bond because he wasn't comfortable with the character's more or less loose moral code, and Jim Caviezel has been known to gently insist that love scenes be toned down. (Note: this is by no means a judgment on love scenes in movies/TV; everyone has different comfort levels and consciences of varying sensitivities. I'm not always comfortable with certain things, so I just Look Away on certain bits. But I applaud actors who respect themselves by being true to their consciences, and I applaud directors who are willing to make adjustments in their creation in order to respect their actors.).

Also watching "Gankutsuou [The Count of Monte Cristo]", which I am thoroughly enjoying, even if the color scheme can make my eyes ache at times. The Count makes me think somewhat of a cross between a kinder, gentler Alucard and one of the elves from "Those Who Hunt Elves", while I'm having fun doing "Hey It's That Voice": the girl who voices Orihime in "Bleach" as Peppo, the guy who voiced Jet Black as one of the Count's manservants, Wendee Lee in several roles, the voice actress for the bitchy actress in the King of Swords arc of YnM in several other roles, Liam O'Brien aka. Hisoka from ditto as Albert's rival, Aramaki's VA as a random old man, and I think I might have heard Michael Ross (End of Evangelion!Fuyutsuki) in some random supporting part. To say nothing of increasingly ubiquitous Jonny Yong Bosch as Albert.

Of course this, coupled with re-rewatching the last two episodes of "Gormenghast" over the weekend, preparatory to intro'ing Titus Groan at the Mansion, has caused one headspace dweller to warn me that he's close to having an aneurysm over the sheer number of attractive young men that are in these series, particularly ones he's met at the Mansion.

As promised for the carpe_ho_ras crowd and anyone else who's amused with my blitherings about fictitious people who use my brain cells as hitching posts. I'd watched the first two hours of the mini-series version of 'Gormenghast' Sunday night, with some of the headspace dwellers -- specifically Muraki and Tsuzuki, whom I have been RPing, with a guest appearance by our latest new guest, Titus Groan. What follows is a sampling of some of the crazy comments that were exchanged.

WARNING: Contains copious spoilers and random craziness, also slashy cross-fandom UST (canonic per the hijinks at the Mansion). Consider yourself warned

Also, this is by no means complete, as some of the shtick has begun to fade from memory, thus I may rewatch it and refresh said memories. I did the major highlights...

( In which there is much geekery, ogling and cracky comments )

The thought crossed my mind: what does one call a group of death gods? I used the phrase "bevy of shinigami" in an earlier entry, and it started to bug me what the proper term would be? (Yes, I obsess over things like this: it's more interesting than obsessing over bills or my alleged lack of a "love life", which I actually have, it's just not a romantic one). The phrase "a scything of reapers" came to mind, but this would likely apply best to western pyschopomps (even though the Japanese pop-culture image of the shinigami is actually borrowed from the western notion of "the Grim Reaper": the word "shinigami" apparently wasn't coined until sometime in the Meiji period). I'm still stuck as to what to call a bunch of their eastern cousins.

Another thing occurred to me, something that has popped up in a couple series featuring pyschopomps: someone mind-controlling a psychopomp. It happened in an episode of Supernatural, where Tessa the Reaper was briefly possessed, and it happens in an episode of Bleach, when one of the Bounts mind-controls one little Soul Reaper. This bugs me to no end: if something is the personification of that cosmic dynamic which indicates the cessation of life or at least a dramatic and unalterable change in how one's existence is experienced, doesn't that mean they're considerably more powerful and thus outside of being controlled by something lesser? I can go with a pyschopomp being physically restrained (the Aleister Crowley-wannabe in the first volume of the Sandman Comics tries to pull this off, and it happens a few times in Yami no Matsuei), but someone hijacking the volition of a psychopomp is likely worse than having a terrorist get their hands on a nuclear missile silo. I mean, think about that for a moment: you have a creature that can end life (however one defines that ending); I would think there is some cosmic law that prevents this from happening, in case someone goes completely Omnicidal. If you think of life in the eastern sense, ie. that everything has a spark of life in it, from humans down to the tiniest stones, can you imagine the devastation that could be caused? We're not just talking about end of the world as we know it, it could be the heat death of the universe if you had someone angry enough and destructive enough controlling said psychopomp(s). It also defines God-Moding. Which we know I despise. I guess what I'm saying is, my Willing Suspension of Disbelief stops at the idea of a mind-controlled psychopomp, since there's some major teleological High Octane Nightmare Fuel involved.

Also managed to scribble down the last of the centi_50 fics, though none of those will go live until after I've finished the 12 Fanfic Roses challenge. So expect a torrent of those once I finish showering you with roses (though if I don't get cracking with those, you're likely to see me dump the basket upside down over your heads, which may not be good for the Friends list).

Hm. Now I'm curious: there's two YnM crossovers which I wonder if they've been done. One with The Sandman Comics specifically the Death comics (since Death would probably glom on Hisoka and/or Tsuzuki big time: there's a creepy one featuring the Corinthian and his possible involvement with Muraki's glass eye) and one with "Dead Like Me" (though if George and Hisoka got together, they'd likely annoy the crap out of each other, since they're both snarky and a bit diffident; I imagine Mason and Tsuzuki would be the best of buddies, but I wonder how Rube and Tatsumi would get along since they're both rather meticulous). Off to go a-searching!!

For the cracked-out, multi-fandom nonsense involving characters who live in a rambling Queen Anne mansion in my creativity centers that will never make it into a fanfic, because it's all too weird:

( Cut for weirdness )

But first, another "Hey, It's That Voice" moment: "Whoa... am I hearing this right or am I just that tired? Rukia's captain sure sounds like a Certain Shinigami Named Kurosaki, if his voice had changed a little more..." (Liam O'Brien, who voiced Hisoka in Yami no Matsuei, only this time his voice is a bit deeper, no doubt because he's not trying to sound like an Unfunny sixteen year old).

Also, I'd like to borrow one of Tsuzuki's twelve shikigami, specifically Touda, the fiery black serpent, to burn the captain of Squad 12 to cinders and beyond, since said shikigami is capable of burning even a death god to the final death and one would think the same would apply to Soul Reapers (Yeah, I yelled "Die in a fire!" at the screen a few times, corrected myself, then realized there was a cross-universe possibility...). I called this guy "The Even More Not So Good Doctor", and I wasn't kidding: he makes Muraki look like a nice guy by comparison. But then again, the YnM manga strongly hints that the Evil Albino may be a case of Love Makes You Evil; Dr. Noh is just plain ghastly and devoid of anything remotely or vaguely resembling humanity. I hope that's the last I see of him in this series; there's hating a villain because he's a bad guy, and then there's hating a villain because the character annoys you and seems two-dimensional and Dr. Noh is the latter case.

But on to the speculations. First: Abel Nightroad's sweet tooth. I somehow came up with the crazy theory that a certain daffy priest's sweet tooth might have a somewhat practical application. Might have something to do with calories being burned like mad when the nanomachines are shifting him from normal mode to Crusnik mode (conservation of mass and of energy and all that). But thirteen sugars in one cup of tea?! Someday I'm going to try and see what happens if you actually put thirteen sugars in a cup of tea (ie. do you really wind up with a cup full of soggy tea-colored sugar cubes as it's drawn in the anime?). I know Crusniks are basically test-tube-grown humans with nanomachines implanted into them, but I'm really curious about their physiology and genetics now.

Speculation the second: Muraki's glass eye. There's quite a bit of Wild Mass Guessing in the fandom. The most conservative guess is that it's a plain old glass eye (or a removable acrylic insert over a permanently implanted core made out of coral, which is how most real-world "glass" eyes are made). The wildest guess is that it could be a cybernetic implant (turns out there was a research team in Japan who really were testing out cybernetic eyes on human volunteers; it failed horribly and they shut down the project); I've even toyed with the notion that if it is cybernetic, it might be equipped with night vision (all the better to stalk his tender prey with...). In a moment of Occam's Razor, it occurred to me that it could might not even be an artificial eye, but a cloned eye, since his mentor and former professor is involved in cloning organs. What's never made clear is how he lost the eye, but I know a Sandman crossover featuring The Corinthian, which was so awesomely written that I've adopted it into my personal fan-mythos.

Speculation the third: zanpaktou vs. wacky female energy vampire armed with an assault rifle retrofitted with a crossbow on top. ( Cut for length )

I had planned to go out today and make my at-most-twice-a-month trip to the Burlington Barnes & Noble, but considering the extreme wind chills today and the fact that I was up till the wee hours last night typing one fanfiction, writing another and watching anime (not necessarily in that order or all at once, either), I decided to stay home today. So I've been curled up under the covers of my bed writing and reading. I won't say I'm mildly stuck on the 12 Days of Fanfic challenge, but I think I need a mini-break from it, though that means I may need to double up some days or let the challenge run over the time limit, which I hope people will understand.

Also, my mind seems to be cranking out stuff for anything but the 12 Days fics today, including a passage for a decidedly dark Yami no Matsuei fic that's presented itself to me. ( Lj cut for teal deers )

Aaaand my request to join An Archive of Our Own has been accepted: http://archiveofourown.org/users/matrixrefugee. So far all I have on there are the two YnM fics, but I'm working on importing more of the ff.n fics.

Just brought a bag of Beanie Babies (and some "wannabeanies", ie. beanbag stuffed animals that aren't Beanie Babies but wish they were...) to the Toys for Tots bin at work, and also got my hours for the week: I have ten hours! Yahoo! I guess I got a chance to play St. Nicholas today.

I'm tempted to ask someone to put a Santa hat on my Muraki icon, but I guess if I'm going to stick any Santa hats on any White-Haired Pretty Boys of fandom, it would be safer to stay with the Santa-hatted Flood icon. The least that would happen is he'd get really pissy about it and possibly scream about his hair getting messed-up, but he wouldn't pull anything too nasty (unless the culprit was one of the Merv's operatives, in which case, he'd send them on a suicide mission...). If anyone put a Santa hat on the guy I've begun referring to as "the killer snowflake who eats speshul snowflakes" (well, anyone but his ladyfriend who's only seen in the manga), I'm sure he'd find an especially creative and painful blend of magic and science to kill them.

I've also been beating away ideas for a Dresden Files/YnM crossover. Granted, it could work, but I don't have the time or creative energy to plot another fanfic right now. Meifu likely exists somewhere in the Never-Never, and I don't doubt Muraki is a White Court vampire: I keep hearing Thomas referring to him as "my crazy cousin Kazutaka". Plus, it would be funny to watch Harry and Molly trying to deal with Tsuzuki and Hisoka: I can see Molly crushing a bit on Hisoka, though the snarky young shinigami is unlikely to reciprocate; she might have better luck with Tsuzuki, though I have a feeling the bouncy one with the sweet tooth would be on the bad side with Harry for running up the food bill.

--Never listen to the commentary on End of Evangelion at three in the morning, when everything is *funny*. Granted, you'll be better able to tune into the hijinks (and you can tell that a lot of the chatter was Jason Lee and Amanda Winn-Lee releasing pent-up silliness that they'd been keeping to themselves during production on the damn thing; you have to find some moments of sick humor to have worked as closely with the material as they did), but that absurd little "Whale-Heads" ditty which Amanda Winn-Lee mischievously chants during the MP-Eva attack scene, will become stuuuuuck in your head. (Which doesn't make mapping out a fanfic based on that scene, from my Grigori-gal's POV any easier. Though I suspect Sabia has a tendency to go into "reflexive silly" mode when she's scared out of her wits. Probably a defense mechanism intended to avoid accidental AT Field activations....)

--No, you may *NOT* include your mischievous "subtitles" for the Angel attacks in your completed fic. Omake, yes. Actual chapters? No. Though I have Sachiel speaking the Enochian equivalent of LOLspeak or pidgin English, because he seems like the bemused klutz of the Angels. And Sandalphon, as the hatchling, speaks in baby talk. I just had to resist having Gaghiel saying "Arr'rrh!! I be Moby Dick!!!" Though I'm seeing Sabia coming up with subtitles to that effect, which induces this conversation between the two commanders of NERV:

Gendo: "*THIS* is the translator that SEELE sent us?"
Fuyutsuki: "You were the one who authorized her transfer from the Cambridge, Massachusetts branch..." Internal/VO: She clearly enjoys her work, but maybe she enjoys it a little too much... :: Hides a small smirk of amusement::

--Had to get some fanservice in: watch for a fic featuring the generally sensibly dressed Sabia Valiant in a "wet tee shirt" moment...

--I also had to knuckle down and cut/revise the chapter where Misato tries to put the moves on Shinji, to the annoyance of the couple trying to cuddle in the next room. Watch for a director's cut version featuring an annoyed Pen-Pen and a slightly freaked-out Shinji barging into said couple's room, looking for cover... I'm also having too much fun jotting down ways that the warm-water penguin gets underfoot, or annoys the wintry one, or succeeds in accomplishing both in one fell swoop.