Well, I haven't decided yet whether to be ecstatic or fear for the future... I've been at my current job slightly less than two months, and they're already indicating I could get a raise in September. Of course, this would include a few more attendant duties, but nothing I don't think I can handle. (And some of it involves more editing-type duties, yay.)

My last birthday present arrived yesterday. ^_^ Which was nice, because I finished becki's birthday fic yesterday. It turned out to a sterling-silver lotus necklace, which came with a genuine pearl. The gimmick was, you get to pry the pearl out of the hapless mollusc yourself, and make a ROMANTIC wish. *nikoniko* I swear, that's the first time I've ever felt sorry for a mollusc. My pearl is slightly oval-shaped, not like a commercially round pearl, and a golden color.

It's true that real pearls aren't flawless.

At any rate, I love my last best gift, for more reasons than one.

Excuse me. *goes to grab the coffee* Okay. Mmm, coffee. Twice normal strength, sugar-shocked and laced with cream.

Hey, Ka? Is there anything I can do to help the peeji project along? Becki has taken her site down for repairs. I'm capable of putting the fic in the fic template... ^_^ Let me know; I'll probably be on IM tonight for a bit.

I'm starting to get the Yaoicon jitters. This isn't like other cons; there will be people there who know who I am, or at least, what my penname is. O.o I hope no one expects me to be articulate in person. Fortunately I have some people to cling to before I tip over. Hey, Janie, Elysaar! We need to take lots and lots of pictures! Sahari is putting up Evidence of Yaoi in Real Life and I think we should submit some stuff from the genuine Yaoicon event. =^_^=

If anyone reads the transcript...we keep all of our doujinshi/manga/gay erotic etc. right out in plain sight, on the big bookcases in the living room. But if the parents come over, we stick other books in front of the more explicit manga. The parents would not be amused. Anyone else? Do you hide your perversions or flaunt 'em?

And now... "Shrine to the Martyrs" presents... Voices Deathmatch Round 2!

Hakkai is busily mopping up a dark bloody blotch from the floor. He looks upset...but granted, it could be more for the state of the floor than anything else.

Ashley: [dazed expression] I did not think...I did not suppose he would...

Sydney cleans his claws with a towel. The towel is in a considerable state of disrepair.

Tokiya: [claps him on the arm consolingly] It's better than being married, you know...all of the privileges, none of the obligations.

Koganei: Did you say something?

Yohji: [lounging on the couch with a cigarette] Ah, well, such a shame...he'll be licking his wounds for weeks now. I can only hope.

Gojyou: You don't seem very put out.

Yohji: [shrug] He's nailing me in the RP. I'm not exactly eager for other engagements right now.

Hayama: [wanders up with the dinner bell and a bored expression, leopard ears twitching] Who's next?

Hakkai: Hayama-kun, what happened to Souta-kun?

Hayama: He was upset with what happened to that old guy.

Schuldich: [offscreen] *SNEEZE*

Hakkai: Eheheh... Well, that's a good question...who IS next?

Everyone in the room looks at Sydney, who is pacing the floorboards, fixing Ashley with a particularly intense stare.

Ashley: One hundred gold pieces to the next challenger.

Sydney: [irritated snort] Whose side are you on, Riskbreaker?

Ashley: ... ...Mine.

Chance pokes Valirion in the side. "Go fight him."

Val stares at Chance. "Are you crazy? YOU go fight him!"

Eriol: [clearing throat] Ahem.

Sydney: [looks surprised, then smirks] Let's hurry this along, then.

Eriol: *nikoniko* By all means.

Sydney: I see your evil aura is as great as mine.

Eriol: *nikonikoniko* I haven't even opened my eyes yet.

Wednesday, August 8, 2001

If Technomancy makes a "...between oukami no youni and okama no youni" T-shirt, I am going to HAVE to buy that one.

Annd now... Shrine to the Martyrs presents... Voices Deathmatch!

Souta: [holds up a little dinner bell] Round one!

Sydney: [flicks ten blades-for-fingers] Bring it on.

Schuldich: [cracks his knuckles] I've got seniority. And mine's been on the back burner since May.

Sydney: [dryly] My back bleeds for you. I've gotten nothing but ANGST. Death-angst. Now that I've gotten the Riskbreaker to pick up a smut-bunny, I. Will. Not. Be Crossed.

Schuldich: [infuriating grin] I could wipe the floor with you before morning coffee, you GIRL.

Sydney's eyes widen slightly, then narrow.

Souta rings the dinner bell, and scampers for cover.

ashley gave chase for sydney at Wednesday, August 8, 2001 at 02:26 p.m..

Wednesday, August 8, 2001

All right, Pita is working again. *kicks it*

Saw something on the way to work that made me really damned angry. A deputy had a car pulled over, and he was rooting around in the front seat with his wide load stuck up for the road to see. He had another sheriff's vehicle pulled up behind him, 'for backup.' That's probably what made the traffic sluggish for a mile and a half. Now, during this search of highly-likely questionable legality, two miles up the road there was a stalled car and the occupants looked like they were very distressed.

I hate cops. I really do.

And I'm done with "Burn Like the Sun." Last five parts posted to tayfic. My brain is still bleeding. I'm going to put fic away, read Tenshi fic and browse through Nymphomancy, and then put the laptop away for...oh, a week or so. Then I'll go at it with a blowtorch, scissors, and a scalpel. XD XD Er, the fic, not the laptop. As well as relying on my trusty editor to catch the more gross errors and places where it needs poking. Thanks to Zoe and Mistress Triumph for telling me about places where it could use some extra work, too. ^_^

Dunno what my next project will be. I've had suggestions ranging from Morgan Vale to Vagrant Story smut to Anfang to that Yohji/Soujirou smut I started over a year ago. XD

I guess we'll have to see who throws the most tempting bunnies.

...Oh, and you'd think I'd be able to get some kind of normal Squall, y'know, the in-spite-of-himself lovable surly uke who gets himself plonked by Seifer or grapples with Zell or shoots off with Irvine, but oh, NO, I get the one with unashamedly bent notions. And I'm not talking about Rinoa.

Squall: .... You could leave me out of this, you know.

I can't. He's too much fun. I'm going to run around Dollet for THREE HOURS because he and Zell look too damned hot in those uniforms.

*Eriol returns, with ficsnip*

...And where the hell have YOU been!?

Eriol: *nikoniko* England.

*suspiciously* And why do you look so happy?

Eriol: *nikonikoniko* I had to turn someone into a stain. She was cheating on me with Harry Potter.

.....

I can't deal with this right now. And that was a really cryptic ficsnip you gave me, by the way.

Eriol: *halo* But you're GLAD I'm back, right?

ashley gave chase for sydney at Wednesday, August 8, 2001 at 10:14 a.m..

Tuesday, August 7, 2001

Why...that little...INGRATE!! I pet his back and scritch his ears and try to soothe him into not urping on the carpet, and what do I get? No urping, and two deep scratches on the back of my hand.

Cats. Ingratitude, I tell you. And I even gave him a bittle of table food tonight.

Of course, that's probably why he tried to urp.

In other news, I have left my script notes beneath the keyboard at work. >.> So I get a break tonight.

I was productive, instead. XD I played the ending of FF8 again to watch all the FMV.

Just how many glasses of champagne DID Irvine slip you, Squall?

Squall: .... I wasn't counting.

I have a theory about Rinoa, and Squall's sudden Conversion To Her Cause on disc three. But that's for later, when I'm not about to hie to my bed.

And now, some antiseptic for the bleeding wounds. Someone is SO not sleeping with me tonight.

ashley gave chase for sydney at Tuesday, August 7, 2001 at 08:42 p.m..

Tuesday, August 7, 2001

*GULP* Okay. The keyboard is safe now.

Hooray for soulpuppetry!

For the record, at this VERY SECOND....I don't have my hand up anyone's ass. But I can't vouch for later tonight.

ashley gave chase for sydney at Tuesday, August 7, 2001 at 05:30 p.m..

Tuesday, August 7, 2001

Schmooze.

I think that's the word for the day. Everybody scream when you hear it!

My boss is a schmoozy little Russian man. *screams* With a Napoleonic complex bigger than God.

Or so he'd like to think.

ashley gave chase for sydney at Tuesday, August 7, 2001 at 01:14 p.m..

Tuesday, August 7, 2001

Dear gods. When fandom runs ridiculous.

You cannot soulbond a "voice" in your head.

No matter how 'real' a character may seem to someone, in the end they're just a character. And ultimately, your perception of a character is just that -- your perception. Not someone else's, which is guaranteed to be at least a little different. But claiming you have a special, exclusive relationship with a character in your head... Um. Turn off the computer, and spend some time outside. With people. And that's all I'm gonna say on that.

But as far as terminology goes... Gee, soulbonding was first coined as a term in 1996...? Let me run and check the dates on my Mercedes Lackey; I'm sure she threw the term around sometime in her published material during the eighties... At any rate, quibbling over who used what terminology first is just silly. Writers are influenced by other writers all the time, because we're not just writers -- we read. "New" terms pop up frequently, and sometimes original attribution gets lost.

Sobe Green Tea's nugget of wisdom for the day: "I've often thought of becoming a lizard."

Yay, Sobe. Let's hear it for a less complicated way of life.

I'm four or five pages away from finishing a 350K fic. *dies* My brain is broken. I think I'll keep the computer off for a week.

Although, I have to say, some nice smutty PWP is looking good after this 350K.

ashley gave chase for sydney at Tuesday, August 7, 2001 at 08:56 a.m..

Monday, August 6, 2001

Ow.

Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow.

That will be all.

Well, and every single voice in my head goes limp when I have a couple of hours free and I want to get some work out of them. *prods sydney experimentally*

Sydney: Watch your hands. I'm sure you don't want ME to repeat the gesture.

Er. Go play with Ashley.

Please?

Dammit. *stares mournfully at pages of script-notes* The hard way, then.

ashley gave chase for sydney at Monday, August 6, 2001 at 07:15 a.m..

Sunday, August 5, 2001

...and here I am, and here you are, and we haven't a thing to say.

... ... ... ...

Sometimes, a piece of writing arrives on my mental doorstep, gift-wrapped, and all I need to do is scribble or type it out and it's done. Usually those are the more painful or angsty ideas. They HAVE to be written; I can't help it, I'm just the messenger.

And sometimes, I begin at the beginning, slog through the immense difficulty of the middle, and when I get to the end, I stop.

As for editing, I'm good at catching (most) grammar and spelling on my own. Sometimes I have major conceptual problems, which makes me immensely grateful to my beta-readers. Or even those beautifully helpful individuals who offer C&C of their own volition.

As a final word, Squall is not allowed to move into my head. He's not.

He's just....not.

...Or he might already be there. >.>

I want to watch all of Trigun. ;_; I already know I like Vash and Wolfwood, but I only have twelve episodes of crappy fansub.

ashley gave chase for sydney at Sunday, August 5, 2001 at 07:40 p.m..

Sunday, August 5, 2001

Ashley, you're a big, smelly, sweaty, probably very gore-covered man. And you have antenna hair. Why do I like you so damned much?

"........" Ashley replies.

Sydney drapes silver appendages over the man's broad shoulders. "Because he's good in bed?" he leers.

Um. No, I don't think that's in my line of reasoning.

"Because he's a manly man?" Rosencrantz offers from the corner, cleaning out his nails with a deadly little knife.

Hey! What the hell are you doing here? I didn't authorize this. I'd rather have a Hardin.

"I'm here, nonetheless," Rosencrantz shrugs. "Why do people like Sydney, for that matter? He's got nothing."

Sydney swivels with a dangerous expression. "We are never to touch on such topics."

"Sydney, everyone looks there. You've got nothing."

Sydney whispers something into Ashley's ear. The Riskbreaker looks up, faintly surprised. He shrugs, gets up while -- carefully -- disengaging clawed appendages from about his shoulders, and suddenly he is hefting a very large two-handed Damascus sword.

Rosencrantz is abruptly chibi. And flees for his life.

Ah, I see. That's why I keep him around, isn't it?

Sydney lifts a thoughtful finger, taps it against his lips. "That's one of my many reasons, I suppose..."

And a new, very evil-looking bunny, scampers across the carpet.

ashley gave chase for sydney at Sunday, August 5, 2001 at 02:22 p.m..

Sunday, August 5, 2001

And now I've woken with a brain full of schmaltz. How am I supposed to write in these conditions?

I want to know who's responsible for this.

...I was reading through one of my Rurouni Kenshin fics the other day, and damn, did I ever use a lot of extraneous Japanese in it. I feel like apologizing to the general reader public. I know that I was trying to go for the "feel" of the show, but when the list of Japanese words exceeds a single page, it's time to start using English, bigod.

I've come to think that using otaku-Japanese in a fic doesn't help the flow and feel of a fic; it breaks it up. Especially for readers who don't know as much of the vocabulary, and need to run back and forth translating. But just in reading it for the first time in over a year, I know all of these words and it still kind of distracted me.

Mostly I was thinking, "What the hell was I thinking!?"

Now, back to my regularly-scheduled snarling at fic.

ashley gave chase for sydney at Sunday, August 5, 2001 at 07:26 a.m..

Sunday, August 5, 2001

D, glad you're feeling better! It was Laz/Lor, but out of The Number of the Beast.

I do love my Heinlein.

And now it's time to poke Zax and Cloud, snarl a little, and toddle off to bed.

ashley gave chase for sydney at Sunday, August 5, 2001 at 12:43 a.m..

Sunday, August 5, 2001

W2? Will you marry me?

It was the Tseng/Rufus proposal; I'm still snerting. Dear me, my proposals are rusty.

I laughed so hard the cat had to leave the room.

ashley gave chase for sydney at Sunday, August 5, 2001 at 12:07 a.m..

Saturday, August 4, 2001

"Bleed, damn you, bleed!"

The voices cringe. Touma is somewhere far, far away. Preferably getting laid.

"Um..." Kyo falters. "Do we want to know?"

"No," Mai tells him firmly.

"Does it have anything to do with the fic?" Zidane wants to know, looking apprehensive.

Zax blows a raspberry on Cloud's bare belly, then looks up. They are occupying more than their fair share of the large couch. "No," he says with a reassuring grin. "It's doing much better now."

"Then we definitely don't want to know," Chance says, grabbing Kyo by the hand and hauling him off. "Come on, Schuldich got Yohji drunk and he said he was going to start stripping..."

"And there's an orgy scheduled later in the jacuzzi!" Ria pops up, looking excited.

Mai looks thoughtful. "...I certainly hope Tomoyo loaned me enough film."

Tet-chan stalks over and drops the phone in Mai's lap. "It's Tomoyo. For you. She wants to know if anyone CLAMP is involved, and if she can come over, either way."

Mai sparkled. "Tomoyo? I believe Eriol has something evil in the works..."

ashley gave chase for sydney at Saturday, August 4, 2001 at 11:45 p.m..

Saturday, August 4, 2001

*huddles* Damn, I wish I had a normal sleeping schedule. And I actually tried to sleep in.

And lo, Ka-chan said let there be peeji, and it was so. My Gundam Wing page is back up, and now so is the Rurouni Kenshin one. A note, not all of the GW fic is up, obviously, so if you're looking for the rest you can find it at GW Addiction.

As soon as I get my mythical tax return (read: if I do) I'm going to use part of it to set up my own domain host and ISP. =.= I'm sick of Aol and free servers. They suck. They suck rocks. Big, pointy ones. But you get what you pay for, I suppose.

This morning I'm posting four new parts of "Burn Like the Sun" to tayfic. FF7. Zax and Cloud and a creepy Sephiroth. I'm getting close to the end. This makes me very happy. Of course, once I finish it, then I have to deal with proofing an 80+ page fic. >.> Oh, the enthusiasm.

Speaking of proofing, Elysaar? *poke* Can I send you more in one chunk? ......And do you have something you want ME to proof, by the way? *sparklyhopefulshimmer*

And while one thought leads to another, WhiteCat imouto-chan, this is neechan's time to scold you and remind you that picking up glass, even glass that appears to be safe, is a Bad Idea. But you already knew that, right? =^_^=

Right, then. I'm going to go level up my Cecil. Err, and work on more fic. Damn, and I really should answer some mail. I have SO MUCH bad e-mail karma.

I think I wanted to say a few words on writing, as N-chan and D and Leareth have done lately. Maybe tomorrow; it's not much of a bloggy day.

ashley gave chase for sydney at Saturday, August 4, 2001 at 07:27 a.m..

Friday, August 3, 2001

Sydney saunters into the room, wearing nothing but an oversized men's-pyjamas top borrowed from Thea's Ecchi!Sydney. "Is he still at it, then?"

Zidane looks up from the Playstation controller and his FF7 game. "Yeah...yeah, he's still playing That Song." He grimaces in sympathy.

"Damn you, Riskbreaker!" Sydney stalks over, heels making indentations in the carpet, to where Ashley sits mesmerized before the laptop, playing "Ghost" with a Sydney-skinned winamp.

"...of all my demon spirits, I need you the most...
...I'm in love with your ghost, I'm in love with your ghost..."

Sydney waves an impatient metal-tined hand before Ashley's eyes. "You," he grits, "are being an idiot. I'm RIGHT HERE. Half-naked, I might add. Now, I am going to the bedroom."

Ashley blinks and looks up at Sydney's retreating backside as "Innocence" begins to play with a booty-shaking Kamui skin.

"So try to catch me, Ashley Riot..." And he disappears into the nearest convenient bedroom.

"My," Hakkai comments, "that wasn't subtle at all."

Zidane shrugs. "Sydney hasn't gotten laid since they've gotten here."

A white-haired boy storms into the room, shoving back handfuls of braids. "Just what the hell is going on here?"

Gojyou, sprawled across Hakkai's lap, waves his cigarette. "She archived?"

Chance -- for it is he -- puts his hands on his hips. "No, idiot! We're all crammed into this house together! It's even smaller than the Morgan House, but somehow it has more doors!" He pauses. "A lot more doors, with very nice bedrooms....anyhow, that's not the point! What the hell is going on?"

"Ah," Hakkai says. He looks around.

"Reorganization?" Zidane tries. "No more headers." He returns to the Playstation, where he is gleefully breeding chocobos named Sephy and Cloud.

"She's doing inventory. Baka." Hayama speaks up from the corner, glowering. A chibi-Touma is glomped to his leg.

"Inventory?" Chance's voice breaks.

"Didn't someone tell you?" Gojyou waves his cigarette around again. "She's canceling 'Morgan Vale' and turning it into 'The Adventures of Kyo.' Everybody likes Kyo. No one likes you."

"WHAT?" Chance's face turns a mottled color.

"Gojyou," Hakkai says reproachfully.

"Ne, ne, Chance...there's a hot tub in here!" an excited male baritone calls out.

Chance glares at the living room for a moment more. "Excuse me," he says stiffly, then turns and walks very quickly -- but does not run -- to the second door from the right.

Vincent appears in the living room, making a few more checkmarks on the plastic clipboard he is carrying around. His hair is mussed and he has a bright red handprint on one cheek. His expression is wooden.

"What's the count up to?" Zidane asks cheerfully.

Vincent looks at him, and makes another check. "Twenty-five."

"So, whose bedroom did you disturb?" Gojyou drawls.

Vincent makes a few more checks. "Cloud and Zax's."

"Cloud slapped you?" Zidane snickers.

"No, it was Sephiroth," Vincent replies with no change of expression.

"Oh, dear," Hakkai says. "Sephiroth's trying to move in? And no explosions yet from that wing?"

"She took away his materia. And his Masamune. And his canon outfit."

Everyone winces.

Yohji pulls a beer out of the fridge, then slouches his way through the living room to bum a Lucky Strike off of Gojyou. "Is she going to make an entry today?"

"No," Vincent says. "She's trying to finish The Fic that is Breaking Her. That's why she had us move in today."

"Ah." Yohji settles on the couch. "As long as Schuldich's not here, I'm happy."

Vincent lifts one sharp gold finger. "He's in the dojo, proving to Mikagami who's stronger."

"Oh, shit." Yohji gulps down his beer and goes for another. "Maybe if I'm drunk I won't angst as much."

"No, that only makes it worse!" Gojyou says cheerfully. He hooks a thumb at the boy dressed in djinn-style clothing, shaggy hair adorned by curled ram-horns. "Who's the new kid?"

"Tet-chan, apparently," Zidane speaks up, beginning to race his new green chocobo.

"Isn't he purty?" the Touma-ecchibi leers.

"I have one piece of advice for you, Tet-chan," Hayama speaks up, glowering.

Tet-chan glowers back. "And who the hell are YOU to give me advice?"

"Someone who's been there," Hayama retorts. "My advice: run far, run fast, and run now."

"Won't do any good," Tet-chan says, slouching. "D sold me to her. He SOLD me! For Leon, no less!"

ashley gave chase for sydney at Friday, August 3, 2001 at 10:12 a.m..