moar, obviously...

[kohikari]

- kohikari 02.15.08 [[this is pt. II of "do this kind of thing a lot"/"catgirls: the golden years"]]
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- [cutcutcut--again, I'm too hot for LJ to handle!]

- I looove the Earl. His design is so epic I don't even know where to start squeeing.

- I'm taking a break from the Naruto manga for a while. 386 was a bit of a stress point for me, and I've got a lot of work to do in order to graduate in June, so I decided to cut an internet responsibility to make room. Although now I have to catch up with both the Naruto and D.Gray-man anime... >.<

- Mother lion! :D ♥

- Yeah, engaging villains/antagonists are always a big draw for me. I've got the habit of rooting for the bad guy half the time (Go Team Rocket! You can do it! I believe in you! *nostalgic tear*), and besides, if there isn't a good villain (a) the conflict loses much of its interest and (b) so does the hero. The hero is most interesting when counterbalanced by their enemy.

- The Kabutorochi name is my own creation, but for Itachicaust I cheerfully blame CAPSLOCK_NARUTO~ (http://capslock-naruto.livejournal.com/)

- For some reason I just don't care very much about the Asian Branch staff, and it's weird. Because normally I'd be all over characters like that. Maybe my intense fangirling for Allen and Bitchyface and Road and the rest has worn me out?

- *takes bandages* Qué?

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- d_t 02.25.08
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OH GOD. THE EARL. He is so incredibly awesome. I mean, his design! Once you pointed out that it was a mockery of cartoonish supervillains... XD

Aw, I hope that the work doesn't pile up too much. ♥ I have been rather lax with the anime recently. The Naruto anime has never been known for a good sense of pacing >_> (ugghh, so many flashbacks!), and D.Gray-man has a few episodes to go until it reaches the Ark arc. (Ark arc. XP)

Rawr. *grins*

I am very amused by the Asian branch staff. :P Also, I can't help but see Bak/Fou prancing around in front of me. XD

(You had a flesh wound, or so you said. :P)

[[I've totally drafted a lengthy response to this involving Victorian history, public response to the Earl, and general sqeeing...somewhere...]]

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d_t 02.13.08 [[continuation of "merry fangirling road"/offering of bandages]]
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Ed-Allen, Al-Timcanpy (makes sense in an interesting kind of way XD), Cross-Hohenheim, Mana-Trisha Elric, and the Fourteenth-Sloth work for me too. :) Hmm, I’d say Komui was Auntie Pinako, and Bak and Fou would be Roy and Hawkeye, respectively. Lulubell as Lust makes sense *nods*, and Jasdebi would just be Envy, imho. Tyki fits Pride more, and Road would be Wrath. Ack, I hope I’m not confusing the manga with the anime—some of the Homunculi in the manga are different, and I’m trying to match up their personalities as best as I can. Oh, I know who the Millenium Earl would be!—but it’s a manga-only character, Father. I guess he’d be Dante in the anime, but Father fits better, I think. (hint hint: read the manga! :D) Miranda --> Scieszka totally! Don’t worry, they give her a slew of different spellings, so I don’t know which one’s right anyway. XP As for Lavi and Kanda—oh oh oh YES, Lavi has got to be Ling Yao! Also a manga-only character, but he fits so well. And Kanda… *thinks* I’d say either Scar or Izumi, although I’m leaning toward Izumi (sorry Kanda! Izumi may be female, but you look enough like a female anyway XP not that I’m basing this on appearances… >_>). This is really fun. :DDD (Read the manga~ :D I like it more, and there’s a lot of cool internal politics going on right now ;))

Oh yes, the politics! I’m so glad Hoshino’s focusing on internal politics as well as the usual fighting you’d see in shounen manga. Hey, have you gone to the site Manga Fox? I know that under D.Gray-man they put up the original pilot Zone. Here it is! and—well, I’ll let you read it first, but I wonder how the background of Robin (the main character) can be applied to Allen, especially with the recent speculation about his relation to the Fourteenth and Noah stuff. ;)

Don’t feel guilty, I like to talk about this too! :D

Timcanpy as Mana/the Fourteenth? Oh, that’d be interesting… wait, Cross got Timcanpy from the Fourteenth, did he? Or am I completely making that up? It’s curious that the Fourteenth (in the Ark) says only Allen and Timcanpy can do anything with the musical score…

I dunno, my impression is that they don’t have ghosts in the D.Gray-man world, just the Akuma. Allen hasn’t said anything about seeing just ordinary ghost yet, I think.

Puzzlebox motif—so far I think Hoshino’s using it because it looks cool. But I think she could easily adapt it into part of the plot, especially with the Fourteenth. Maybe have a puzzle by the Fourteenth (music again :P) or something like that. :D

LOL It’s just some screwed-up pseudo-Victorian-era time, I guess. Those miniskirts XP—although Lenalee hasn’t been wearing them recently, has she?

Bleach: Yep, that Pez-dispenser thing. *nods* Hmm, I guess it’s a good thing that Kubo Tite likes his characters so much that he can’t kill them, but at the same time it’s not as realistic as it could be (tangent: have you read George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series? Very dark, and realistic, and the author isn’t averse to killing off his main characters, and it’s so good—but again, it’s very dark, so it might not suit your tastes, but I think you’d like it. First book’s called A Game of Thrones, if I remember correctly. Political intrigue and complex family relationships galore! :P) I really must get around to reading through all of Bleach, since I stopped around the Pez-dispenser time. XD

Because it’s so easy to ship the boys with each other as well! Just a Freudian slip… ;P Imho, the entire thing’s like equal-opportunity—I can ship Allen/Lenalee and Lavi/Lenalee and Kanda/Lenalee as well as Allen/Kanda, Lavi/Kanda, and Allen/Lavi; and Bak/Fou too! And crack ships like Lavi/Chomesuke, Lavi/Miranda (hey, why not? We know he has a fondness for older women *is shot*), Kanda/Daisya, Road/Allen, Tyki/Lavi, Tiedoll/his drawings and all sorts of wild-way-out-there ships.

*grins* And the commentary keeps rolling… :DDD Not that I'm complaining, this is awesome. :D

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kohikari 02.17.08
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>.< Ack, I forgot about Izumi--dammit, this is why synching canons is so difficult. The different characters don't always blend so easily; sometimes the different parts of a role don't always fit in one character, and others fit in too many characters. I remember last year when I was bored in class and trying to mesh Naruto characters into Inuyasha roles and ended up copypastaing half of everything--among other things, it involved splitting Sango between Tenten and Sasuke, and adding a third antagonist alongside the Sesshoumaru and Naraku spots...if I'm going to get into the FMA-D.Gray synch, it will require a piece of paper, a pencil with an eraser, and more knowledge of the FMA manga canon than I have right now.

...And I'd have to shuffle through my papers to find my notes (because I usually collect the doodles and plotty things and forget the actual work when it comes to what papers get saved and what get trashed after a semester ends) on that IY-Naruto combo, because I'd forgotten how fun it was, and now I have new notes to add to it...like, like, wait no that wouldn't work dammit. Nevermind. >.< Maybe I should go to bed soon. I think I have the flu (on my seventeenth birthday, I got bitten by a squirrel and spent the day researching rabies; for my eighteenth birthday, I got the flu and spent the day sick in bed, wtf, Murphy?), so I've been a little woozy all day.

*reads ZONE* Oh hey, now chapter 37 + etc. makes sense. Remember, how Allen was like out cold and Eliade was advancing all muahaha and the arm started acting on its own and the eye freaked and an (Mana's?) Akuma skull with a script 'D' came out of it and there was the whole vision and then the eye evolved and yeah, now I get where that came from in the creative process that is Hoshino-sensei's bong brain. I have a couple questions, though--like, Julia was definitely female, but Robin is such a gender-neutral name; if Allen's precursor really was an Akuma, then it would be Julia's soul in Robin's body--but then it's back to, was Robin male or female? Dressed like a little boy, but definitely girly-looking, and with long hair and randomly in a maid outfit...? Because before, I'd always heard that Allen's precursor was a girl (first from the tankoubon talk-page and then from sources), but when it comes to Akuma, does the 'gender' refer to the gender of the 'skin', the gender of the dark-matter-creature itself (which seems to be sort of gender-neutral or just really weird), or the gender of the soul trapped inside?

Yup, Timcanpy originally belonged to the Fourteenth. It's a more different golem with sparkly magical abilities, and Allen is the Uber Special Protagonist, raised by Mana (who made up the secret code with him), so they can do deus ex machina shit together. I don't think Allen's a Noah, though; the only person that special who wasn't a blatant Mary Sue was Harry Potter, and even then...so yeah, keep it to the fanfic. ^^ Yay fanfic.

I don't think anyone's said anything in canon, but apparently in one of the omake there was a little bit about a ghost rumor in HQ...

No, Lenalee's actually dropped the miniskirts...for hotpants. HOTPANTS. What. I don't even know when those were invented...but we're talking about the cusp of the 20th century here, they were still getting over the Victorian era when exposing an ankle was indecent. *flail* So much anachronism.

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- d_t 02.25.08
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- Ah, you must read the FMA manga. :) I really do enjoy it. I don't really spend much time in the FMA fandom, but I like to keep up with the manga, because I think the plot's really cool. And I don't think it's quite as crack as Naruto Part II, imho. :P

- :( ... well, my reply is lamentably late, but the flu went away soon after, hopefully? <3

- Oh yeah, that was crazy. I wasn't sure if Robin was male or female. I had the vague impression Robin was male... but honestly, Robin looked ridiculously gender-neutral, so... When it comes to Akuma--Hmm. I doubt it's the gender of the dark-matter-creature--they seem to be more genderless than anything. I am--inclined to say the gender of the soul trapped inside, considering the first few chapters of D.Gray-man with the policewoman's brother (the skin) who contained his wife's soul. So I'd call it "female," I suppose.

- XD All this indecency. And to think, the Black Order's overseen by the Church, too! Well, that doesn't really signify anything. Silly Leverrier. XD

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- kohikari 03.03.08
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- Ack I'm so slowww at catching up with all of these-- XD;; I just now noticed that there are two I missed from the 25th (including this one), and I'm in the middle of a massive draft for the other 25th reply, and the 27th one I had all drafted but then the computer crashed and it's taken me forever to redo it--ah, I fail at the internets. XD;;;;;;

- The FMA manga is definitely on my List! (Alongside Witch Hunter Robin, Hellsing, possibly Yu-Gi-Oh! (just to see if there's anything worth reading in it after all these years), Princess Tutu, and a couple others~ ah, so much to do, so little time ♥)

- I'm pretty much all better now! ♥

- Hm. It's funny, because Eliade had an unknown gender for her soul-power-source, and her skin was female, and she was definitely female herself--and she was an evolved Akuma personality, so. Even her straight-up mechanical form was distinctly feminine. Also, you have to wonder how much of "Robin's" self was Robin Walker, and how much was Julia Walker, and how much was the reprogrammed/freed sentience of the Akuma itself--and it's also back down to what the hell gender Robin Walker was. >.<;;; Ai-ya, too much unknown variables~ but Hoshino-sensei specifically said that "Robin" was female, so! *sigh* Maybe the Akuma itself, once it achieves Level 2, becomes a certain gender--maybe. Although, does the gender continue into Level 3? All the Level Threes look the same, dammit...and wtf is that Level 4, anyway? But we're talking about Levels 1 and 2 now. Chomesuke was a "male" Akuma in a female skin. Eliade was a "female" Akuma in a female skin. We don't know what their soul/power source/sacrifices were. Robin was a "female" Akuma in an unknown skin, with a female soul/power source/sacrifice/etc. Maybe..."Robin" is essentially distinct as a person from Robin and Julia Walker, and knows their story, and uses one for a skin/identity and the other for a soul/whatever, and fights for them and all her fellow Akuma? Since Cross freed/reprogrammed/sealed/whatever'd her, and so cut the Earl's marionette strings? Ah, why am I suddenly reminded of Princess Tutu... XD;; Unless Julia's soul has somehow been leaking into the Akuma's identity...like how Mana was still distinct within that one Akuma, except that that was Mana, who is clearly Special. @_@ Maybe it is the soul after all?...

- Oh look, I lost my train of thought. XD Ah well, my point got across, right?... *goes to finish other replies*

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- d_t 03.03.08
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- Oh no, your computer crashed? D: I hope you didn't lose too much stuff... Oh yes, I have so much on my to-read list as well. o_O I've heard that Princess Tutu is quite good, and also, Gintama is apparently a source of great crack and hilarity. (It seems there's a terrorist's helper who's dressed up in a duck costume and called Elizabeth--and it also makes fun of other manga for kicks. XD)

- :D ♥ I'm glad you're not sick anymore. ^^

- Yes, Eliade was definitely female. Well, I suppose I shouldn't say definitely. XD So we don't know who was sacrificed to create Eliade, but yeah, her skin was female, she acted female ("I wanted to look pretty!"). And then Robin was from a female sacrifice, was "female," had a really gender-neutral look... Chomesuke was Level 2, and "she" was from an unknown sacrifice--can we really call Chomesuke a "male" Akuma? Granted, I don't know what Chomesuke's "Akuma" form's voice sounds like in the anime; but it was never said for certain that Chomesuke was "male," was it? *ponders* Ah well. And then Robin... @_@ Maybe at Level 1 the Akuma hasn't really "formed" enough to distinguish a gender of any sort; then at Level 2 they take on a "gender," and then for Levels 3 and 4 it's almost sort of transcended gender into gender-neutral? Hmm... it was curious how Mana managed to retain his personality (although that could just be because of the Noah aspect, if he was indeed the Musician :P). Maybe Robin/Julia/? was an original combination of Hoshino's Mana and Allen--the exorcist part, and then maybe the part about becoming an Akuma but retaining the soul... agh, I don't even know if I'm making any sense. XD

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- kohikari 03.03.08
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- No worries, all I lost was the reply. ^^ It wasn't much, really. Oooh, Gintama. *makes a note* Princess Tutu is very much an epic anime. (The manga just doesn't cut it in this case, sad to say.) It's like, Ahiru is...!!: A duck! The Swan Princess! The Ugly Duckling! A fairy princess! An "Average Jane" ballet student! A dancing magical girl! ...A duck?... XD And Mythos is Sir Pantsless, who randomly jumps out of windows without any provocation. ("I can fly!" *splat*) And Rue/Kraehe is awesome, of course. ♥ And Fakir is in the ranks of Hidan and Kikyou, as someone who Just Will Not Die. (Stabbed through the vital organs with multiple Spears of Evil? Dropped into a Dark Lake and submerged for like ten minutes? No worries! He'll crawl right out as soon as the ballerinas finish angsting with their imaginary partners...) And then we get to Ahiru's absolutely insane schoolfriends... *loves on crazycrazy anime*

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- kohikari 03.03.08
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- [I just cut everything to do with the Robinmeta this time... x3;;]

- Eliade was...influenced by her skin, I believe, in wanting to be beautiful; but she as an Akuma was also definitely feminine. I wonder if, as the soul is eroded by the parasitic Dark Matter of the Akuma's being, its self also leaks into the Akuma's personality? I definitely remember Chomesuke being somewhat masculine in manner, and being a little put out by people treating him/it as the pretty woman his skin was; maybe the sacrifice itself was male, and his mourning lover or something brought him back and became the skin. ^^;; I dunno, this is all just wild speculation, but it's fun, so. I looove doing stuff like this. 'M such a geek. XD;;; At Level 1, I don't think the Akuma itself is quite sentient, or particularly intelligent and self-aware. It's a machine made of dark matter, feeding off of a chained soul, and hiding in a human skin; higher-evolved Akuma show a lot of contempt for Level Ones, and Eliade especially thought of them as clumsy and stupid and worthless creatures. (Such is my impression, y'know, her attitude toward them in the flashbacks before her death? It's been a while since I read those chapters, so I might be remembering things inaccurately...) Once Akuma hit Level 2, they become more intelligent, crafty, develop their own personality and ability and sense of self, and perhaps--as the deterioration of the soul increases--some of the sacrifices' identity begins to seep into the Akuma's own. By Level 3, they become both arrogant and exponentially deadlier--the power levels of Akuma, in relation to their phase of evolution, are not linear: Level Ones are pathetically easy for your average Exorcist to get rid of; Level Twos present more of a challenge; Level Threes require a whole new upgrade in power to defeat; and Level Four? Appears to have wiped out all five Rinkaisha in one sweep. That's Froi Tiedoll, the three heavy-hitting Generals--Klaud9 (or however you romanise her name), Winters Sokalo (o.h.y.r.h.n.), and Cross Marian--and freaking Allen Walker, man. The fairy doll may have just taken them by surprise, or it may be on level with a Noah--even, perhaps, with an awakened Child like Tyki currently has become.

- I wandered off topic, didn't I? I'm rather too good at that. Back to the Akuma and their evolving sense of self. The Akuma do not appear to evolve more towards being human--at least, not mentally/emotionally/psychologically. The dark matter of the body grows more humanoid in form, but the personality seems to progress from infantile/subhuman to definitely human-ish (if still controlled by blood lust) to an inhuman warrior with a distinct sense of self and a sadistic joy in killing to...what did the Fairy Doll call itself? Lemme check the translations. Binktopia has "A weapon of slaughter...That's what I am, why I exist..." (ch146p9) I remember there was another translation, by FrankyHouse or MangaShare or something, but all I can find right now is Bink. Dammit. Well, the other trans had something about "massacre", and it was cool, but w/e. Like I was saying: the Akuma's personality/identity/whatever seems to evolve directly from the remnants of two humans in an unholy machine towards the Earl's ultimate purpose: a "weapon of slaughter."

- ...Why was I talking about this again?... *goes to reread everything* Oh yeah. Robin. Hoshino-sensei may not have thought of the Levels for Akuma yet in creating ZONE (btw, what font is this? it's pretty ♥), so Robin may be somewhat of the single ZONE level (presumably the precursor of D.Gray-man Level Ones) with many characteristics of the D.Gray-man Level Twos. I.E. a personality, sense of self, much leakage from the skin and soul (the sacrifices allowing her to (a) hide among humans and (b) keep functioning). Robin and Julia Walker probably contributed a lot towards her identity, but Robin is dead and gone and Julia is...I dunno how the ZONE mechanics work, so Julia may be like a Lv. 1 soul or a Lv. 2 soul. Anyway, Robin the Akuma is a being distinct from the Walker siblings, I think, despite being created from their tragedy. *phew* That thesis took a hella long time to pin down. >_<;;;

- (You make perfect sense to me, dear. ^^)

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kohikari 02.17.08 [[continuation of Izumi/anachronism]]
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*I'm/ too sexy for this postlimit/ too sexy for this postlimit/ so sexy-- *shot**

Oh my god, A Song of Ice and Fire has been recommended as a good series so many times--I really need to get around to it. Especially considering that I don't read many hardcopy SFF novels nowadays because I end up so disappointed when they don't stand up to my expectations...I used to be the biggest Anne McCaffrey fan, I have like all the DRoP books and all the Acorna books and all the Rowan-saga books... =_=;; Is it sad that I read practically nothing but fanfic nowadays because I have incredibly low expectations for it (no disappointment there) and the fantards are funny in their fail and the sociological concept/etc. of fandom is fascinating? Man, I used to max out my library card when I was little, getting like 70-something books at a time, and now look at me. *sigh* *hackcough* Oh well, Good Omens was good and Naomi Novik's a genius despite the overly pretentious wording and Sarah Rees Brennan's debut comes out next year, so that's something to look forward to...

Freud was a grade-A nutcase, man. I don't understand why no one shipped him off to the loony bin. I mean, all his theses on Oedipus complexes and bla bla bla? So clearly were based on his own issues with his family and his own sexuality. He superimposed his own problems onto other people, and was called a genius. *sticks out tongue*

TiedollxArt NEW CRACK OTP After a while you get so tired of all the individual combinations of the top four or five characters you start shipping them all together...'tis where the crack threesomes come from. Like NaruSasuSaku, and SakuAnTemaTenInoHina (w/Konan as Official Akatsuki Pimp...or maybe that's just me being stupid XD), and hey why not LaviKandaAllenLenalee with a side of Tyki thrown in for the lulz? ;3

*dies* Man, go to bed sick, wake up sicker. WTF, Murphy?

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d_t 02.25.08
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Oh, you MUST, MUST read it. It's really hardcore, intense, and very dark in places--that's why some people dislike it, really--but I find it really realistic. :DDD

I don't read as much fantasy/science fiction these days either--there seem to be an increase in the number of badly written novels flooding the market nowadays. :( I liked Anne McCaffrey's earlier DRoP novels, but after a while I felt like they were getting repetitive. (Important thing to authors: know when to end your series! I hear Anne Rice, she of the Vampire Chronicles, is writing another vampire novel. As if poor Jesus wasn't enough. XD)

Good Omens is ♥. I haven't heard of Naomi Novik, though. *notes down the name* And Sarah Rees Brennan--she is Maya, right? From the HP fandom? I think I remember reading her fic about Ravenclaw!Draco... I was never too fond of Harry/Draco, but hers was entertaining, even though I thought Draco was wittier than he was canon. But that's just me. :P

I think I've got just tired of 'shipping nowadays. TIEDOLL/HIS ART, YOU KNOW IT'S TRUE. I'm really into cracky stuff right now, cracky ideas in general, or otherwise gen. Pairings--even the ones I usually like--they're rather dull to me right now.

♥ ♥ ♥ I hope you are feeling better now! :)

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kohikari 03.03.08
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Mmmmm~ Sounds fun. I'll check it out next time I'm at a library or bookstore. ^^

How do you feel about Stephanie Meyer? A friend of mine is obsessed with her work, and has multiple copies of all her books, and talked me into reading Twilight and New Moon, and they were funny, and not horribly written, but...

(I had a total readergasm with Good Omens. For some reason Terry Pratchett on his own isn't really my thing, and neither is Neil Gaiman on his own, but together...!! ♥~) Naomi Novik did the Temeraire series. ♥ It's like the Napoleonic Wars, except with dragons. ♥ ♥ ♥ The language can get a bit stumbly at times, as Anne McCaffrey's often did, but like the good old days of DRoP it's very worth it. Yes, Sarah Rees Brennan is Maya~ ♥ (Lots of hearts in this post for some reason... XD;; It must have been too long since I last geeked over good literature!) She's such a brilliant writer, and a hilarious person, and absolutely owns the English language, and oh oh oh what she writes isn't just fic or stories it's prose. *fangirls* Draco's one of her favorite characters, and she's in the "Slytherins Are Underappreciated!" party of the fandom, so of course she tends to expand more into his character than canon did, but oh it's wonderful anyway. I can't wait until 2009. For some reason her debut novel comes out in Germany first, in March, but that's not stopping any of us...!!

ART FTW *SHIP SHIP* Mmm, crack. Mmm, gen. I only have one serious OTP anyway, out of all the fandoms, and it's what clocked me over the head with a cast-iron saucepan somewhere around the Valley of the End and it's not going to change anytime soon. x3;; For everything else, I am the epitome of flexible...!! And crack and gen make the world go 'round.

(One last heart for the road!~) ♥

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d_t 03.03.08
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Do, do! I think you would like it. :D

Stephanie Meyer and her Twilight series--hmm. I read the first book right when it came out, before it turned into this huge phenomenon (at least, that I was aware of), because I happened to see it in my school library and thought, "Cool cover." I... didn't really enjoy it though. I'm probably biased, because I generally dislike the concept of soulmates and such, but--well, I simply didn't like it. Especially how Bella and Edward are in love because they simply are (me: huh? D:), and Edward is attracted to her at first just because she can "keep him out of her mind" or something like that. The rest of this is hearsay, because I never bothered to read the rest of the books >_>, but then I hear that Bella drove off a cliff because Edward left her to go away so he wouldn't hurt her, and my mind is like, "Suicide? Just because he's gone? Honestly!" I'm afraid I generally have no sympathy for soulmate stories. XP I know that the werewolf Jacob and Bella have a much more healthier relationship which doesn't mean they're going to kill themselves if separated, but anyway. Still, I don't think I'll be reading the rest of the series anytime soon--probably skim over the Wiki entries or something. :P (And a pet peeve--all the vampires have amazingly stunning looks and are just wow in appearance, and I was =_=, because I've seen that so many times, and... yes, anyway. It's cliche--granted, cliches are fine so long as they're well-written--but in this case it sort of put me off as well.)

Good Omens is amazing. :DDD I'm picky about which of Pratchett's Discworld books I like, and I haven't read that much Gaiman (I think Coraline, but nothing else, although I'd like to start his Sandman series). I'm going to have to check out the Temeraire series then. :) Dragons + Napoleonic Wars? Awesome! I have to admit I was put off dragons by Paolini's Eragon =_=, but this series sounds cool. :DDD (Geeking over good literature is awesome! I love to talk about books! ♥ ^^)

Crack and gen are just made of so. much. WIN. :DDD Oh, I finally put up ch. 6 for MWtLS XD, so you can take a look at it if you want. :P And crack--crack! crack!--you need to join sasucakes! XDDD It has so far featured cupcake!Sasuke, humanitarian-clown!Orochimaru, fashion-designer!Itachi, Itachi and Orochimaru in a collecting contest, flying unicorns, and Elvis!Mikoto. :DDD I think you'd have great fun with it. XD

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kohikari 03.09.08
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Apparently, the Twilight series was born when Stephanie Meyer had a funny dream about emo glittery prettyboy vampires.

...I'm serious, that's really what happened. And ugh, it's almost disgusting how popular the books have become--when all they are, really, is the ofic equivalent of vaguely annoying fanfic. They're going to make a movie out of it, did you hear? *sigh* And I would be such a fan of vampires and their genre if the popular version today weren't all irritating Sues from the depths of the trashy Harlequin Regency Romance genre. (I grew out of that area of fiction several years ago, and am never going back...!! Give me plot and dynamic, engaging characterization and interaction, not stupid poncing about in fancy outfits and emoing about "true love" and "soul mates"! (It's a perfectly horrible idea that any one person is only capable of deeply loving one other in their entire lifetime.) Give me a deranged sadomasochistic maniac living in a bloodstained hovel (with a dash of hilarity, of course) any day over something out of Anne Rice! *is an Elitist*)

I've read a few of Pratchett, and I read Gaiman's Neverwhere--it was good, but I'm not planning on rereading it, or buying a copy for myself--but I really think that the cooperative effort on Good Omens is perhaps their best work. Maybe neither style individually appeals to me, but when combined and laced with a healthy dose of irreverent crack, it's totally my cup of tea. (Haha, can you tell I have a new favorite phrase ripped off Maya's new fanfic disclaimers?) And you definitely shouldn't base your opinion of dragons in sci-fi and fantasy (not to mention any other genre ♥--dragons beat out snakes for the title of Judy's Second Favorite Creature) on Eragon. Paolini was a novice (still is, probably), and either consciously or unconsciously slapped a bunch of common SFF themes and plots together to write his novels. Books with insanely fantastic (or fantastically insane) public appeal are often not the best in technique or heart; Twilight and Eragon are two excellent examples of this. I have a concrete background in Anne McCaffrey, and spent my RPing years in dragon-fan forums, so I consider myself an expert on why Dragons Are Awesome and totally not done justice by people like Paolini. *sticks Elitist Nose in air; promptly walks into wall*

Books were my first love~ ♥

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d_t 03.11.08
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when Stephanie Meyer had a funny dream about emo glittery prettyboy vampires.
Oh my god, seriously? o__O No wonder I didn't like them. Wow. Yes, I heard about the movie!--there's an influx of Twilight icons in some of the icon comms I watch, for instance. Agh, yes, I agree with you! True love and soulmates my foot. Anne Rice is... =_= And of course Twilight continues to propagate the idea of beautiful vampires and all that. I want to see something where they're awfully ugly, just for kicks. XD

Good Omens is just made of so much win. LOL cup of tea, British-style! :D Of course I wouldn't dare do that, as if Eragon can really be called fantasy. >_> I mean, common SFF themes and plots, sure, why not, but badly-written SFF themes and plots, no thank you. :/ I remember reading Anne McCaffrey's earlier books--those were good, although I didn't really like her later ones. :D I am still secretly surprised at the amount of popular appeal that Twilight and Eragon have. *sigh* But then again, Harry Potter's always been popular, and even though it had a lot of potential it sort of petered out at the end for me. :/

Books! ♥

And sorry I haven't answered your meta on the Akuma; I'm still trying to figure out what I think of it. XDDD

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kohikari 03.15.08
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Truth is often stranger than fiction. x3 A friend of mine recently got me addicted to Buffy the Vampire Slayer; if you're looking for not-so-pretty vampires, that's one option.

In my opinion, Anne McCaffrey is a brilliant writer and everything DRoP after The Skies of Pern, Acorna after Acorna's Rebels, and Petaybee after the original trilogy does not exist. Her earlier stuff is what shaped me as a reader; anything Todd wrote doesn't even count. The annoying spinoffs of the Acorna series and the Powers That Be universe I am firmly ignoring. Long live Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern (my first McCaffrey book ♥), the Harper Hall trilogy, the trio of books surrounding Lessa (The MasterHarper of Pern, Dragonflight, Dragonquest), Dragonsdawn, the Pegasus books, The Rowan, Acorna, the Petaybee trilogy, the Crystal Singer books. They, and several others, were the classics. They are the stories I want to remember when I think of my afternoons spent after school in Borders and Barnes and Noble, sprawled out in the SFF section with my nose deep in a 400-page book. *drifts off into senior-citizen-esque nostalgia about the Good Old Days*

Speaking of massive literary fail and Barnes and Noble, have you ever come across this one book about a magical female pilot of a magical sentient crystal ship who risks her life to stop some sort of intergalactic war or calamity or something and gets thrown through time and winds up in the future where she's been made a goddess and--did I mention her hair is a mix of gold and silver and her eyes are violet and she glows when she's feeling particularly special and people have a habit of falling to their knees around her and I think she can read minds or something? *Googles it* Here it is. http://www.amazon.com/An-Accidental-Goddess/dp/B000FCKKTY/ref=dp_kinw_strp_1 An Accidental Goddess by Linnea Sinclair. It wouldn't be that bad a book if it weren't for the fact that she's a total Sue. XD If you check out the customer reviews, there's a lot of romance-novel fans fawning over it but a couple readers definitely have their snark together.

^^ Take your time--I certainly seem to be doing so. *headdesk* So...far...behind... *claws the air dramatically*

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That's the first one.  There's another.  -_-;;  More tomorrow--I'm out of school, applying for a summer job, have nothing much to do.  My precious darling Hermione (yes, I named my new laptop, and no, it wasn't specifically for the Harry Potter character--awesome as Hermione Jean Granger is, there is precedent of the name in both Shakespeare and Greek history, not to mention the number of possible nicknames referencing the word "mine;" we have technological possession issues in my house) fried right in front of me not three months after buying it off eBay (curse you, eBay! *shakes fist*) and I've been sneaking onto the computer my mother uses when she's looking the other way.  Right now I'm making an effort to catch up on D.Gray-man: rereading ZONE, wtf-ing over chapter 159, going over past notes and compiling new ones.  Still trying to screw my head on straight.  *emo!sigh*

(Dayadhvam_Triad, if you have any problem with the content being displayed in a Google-unsafe zone, just comment and I'll take it off.  Also, I kind of love you.  *glomps* ♥)