Pocket Universe

I am on the bus sitting behind a man who has just bought a peek-a-boo pole dancing kit "for a friend at home." I know this because he is turning the package round and round (either reading the label or taking in the pictures; it's hard to tell from his grin) and gave the "for a friend" explaination when the woman across from him asked what it was for.

Bussing to the office close to home is totally different than bussing up to where I normally work.

...And now he just answered his cell phone and said he was going home to his sister. There is totally an erotic mind control incest story here. Totally.

:D

...which will shorthanded to TTGL because I will never remember exactly how to spell the series title. Especially since I am filled with such squee.

( Spoilers up to Episode 20 )

The non-spoilery conclusion? Don't let the first 8 episodes fool you (too much). There's a lot more going on here, and most of it appeals to my little power dynamics fascination. And my xenokink.

I am waiting for my torrent of Gurren Lagaan to finish downloading (woe! Even with the faster connection, IT IS DRAGGING. I've got less than a gig to go, but 3.5 KB/s makes me cry...and now it just dropped to 1.7). So. In the meantime, I am playing with Kimberly.

This evolved out of a porn_battle prompt from Round 3 (Kimberly/Roy, mindgames). I never got to the actual porn in the prompt, but I finally got there (though technically, if the first listed is supposed to be the top, it's more accurately Roy/Kimberly, mindgames).

Spoilers for the second Liore arc. Warnings for m/m sex, Roy being Roy, and Kimberly being Kimberly.

( War Games )

...and my bus ride is long.

I have just mainlined all three seasons of Avatar: The Last Airbender and am both sad and glad I didn't watch it as it aired on Nick. Sad because it is an awesome show (worth the hype and wide appeal), and it would have been fun lurking on the edges of fandom and occasionally dipping my toes in as the mood struck. Glad, because I am impatient and appreciate getting to watch the entire series on my schedule.

(Oh, Iroh! I am a fangirl.)

Next up on the queue, Gunslinger Girl. It's one of those series people keep recommending to me and that I keep meaning to watch, so now I am.

And eventually, I'll have to finish up with seasons 1 & 2 of The Closer so I can return the DVDs to my friend.

On the game front, FFXII continues to own my fangirling heart! If only I had more time in the evening. (If only I had an actual evening.)

1. While tasty on their own, potato leek soup and a dark chocolate coconut mocha do not make a good lunch combination, even if the mocha is purchased as desert after eating the soup. Poopsie.

2. While I appreciate the concern about my health, it was a bit of a bummer being ordered to go to lunch since I had planned to work through it so I could leave at my regular time. My bus had troubles this morning, so I was a half hour later than normal. Poopsie.

After much waffling and indecision (do I want an X-Box 360 so I can play Halo 3, a PS3 so I can finally play Final Fantasy XII plus any new cross-platform game that catches my eye, or (something I can't believe I seriously considered for more than three seconds) a 360 for Halo and a PS2 for FFXII?), I finally broke down and got a backwards compatible PS3. It's only taken me what, three to four years to get a replacement gaming system after my ex took the old ones?

(Now that I have a bit of disposable income, and now that we're caught up enough at work that I'm not a zombie when I get home, I actually have the ability and the screen stamina to game a bit. Still, I dragged my feet for a really long time.)

No shiny PS3 titles have caught my attention yet, but I have FFXII, and my local Game Stop had Digital Devil Saga 1 (alas, no 2, but I'll take a harder look later) and Nocturne. That's more than enough to keep me busy for now. *rolls in games, oh yes she does*

If I fall off the interwebs, the games have eated me. That's particularly fitting of DDS.

Edit: *sigh* I seemed to have overcome my indecision at just the right time, since it seems to be best if I fall off certain corners of the interwebs for the time being. D:

This week has flown by. Best of all? Since we're caught up (finally!), overtime is off the table. I had to stay late earlier in the week for a meeting, so I got to leave early today. Woot! Clearly, I am too easy to please sometimes.

The bonus, in addition to flying by, the week has been entertaining. Some conversation snippets taken totally out of context:

Monday
COWORKER 1: I have never bought kale in my life. I'm not going to start now.
COWORKER 2: Actually, kale's pretty good.
1: Yeah, well, you eat eyeballs.
2: Smoked eyeballs.
1: ...
2: ...
2: Not human eyeballs.
MULTIPLE EAVESDROPPERS: We were worried there for a second.

Tuesday
On my morning bus ride, we can see 8 (soon to be 9) construction cranes as we exit the highway.
PASSENGER: Oh, look, it's the official city tree.
ME: But cranes are birds.
1: But these cranes are anchored to the ground, just like trees are anchored by roots.
PASSENGER 2: She's got you beat with that logic, Pen.

Wednesday
FRIEND: Dude, this place is a ghost town this week.
ME: It's the calm before the zombie ac--
FRIEND: Don't even finish that statement.
ME: And once upon a time, you mocked me for reading World War Z.

Thursday
COWORKER 2: Soylent Green? Who wrote this on my whiteboard?
COWORKER 3: Someone who doesn't believe your claim you don't eat human eyeballs.
2: It was 6 inches in diameter!
3: 6 inches? Really?
1: Heh. You are such a brat.

Friday
COWORKER A: What this leaving early thing, Penny? I do not recall authorizing it.
ME: Well, since there's no overtime on the table, it is with deep regret that I must leave early on this incredibly gorgeous day.
A: Yeah, whatever, Ms. Gleeful. Remind me to get you a dictionary so you can say what you mean.
ME: :D
A: You are entirely too happy. Go home already.
ME: D: It'll be a 2-hour bus ride. Still.
A: Let me tune my tiny violin.
ME: Remind me why we're friends? Oh yeah, the sarcasm. And Stephanie Plum.
A: :D

So one of my guilty pleasures is Naruto. Once I got my hand on some subtitled disks so I didn't have to listen to dub!Naruto, I came to appreciate the broken. And thankfully, Naruto's dub VA toned it down a bit around the Chunin exam finals, so it doesn't quite invoke the same shudder as fingernails on a chalkboard. (Either that, or Cartoon Network's gotten me used to the dub...I haven't gone back and watched the early episodes to compare and contrast.)

( cut for potential spoilers...though I am way behind. )

(I really need to poke around for torrents to get current. But I'll get sucked in and never stop.)

Aside from being clingy, the cats handled the fireworks amazingly well. Guess I won this round.

This is a thank you fic for Laylah for organizing no_true_pair. The community's enormous fun, and I'm a bit bummed that I didn't get to finish everything I wanted to (though not too bummed, because writing for the comm. kicked one of my other projects into gear, so double thanks for that). This little thank you is set in the Fullmetal Alchemist crime syndicate AU I used for one of my prompts.

Summary: Kimberly's kind enough to thank Archer in person for getting his conviction overturned.

Warnings: Breathplay, m/m sex handjobs, and Kimberly being Kimberly.

( Appropriate Displays of Gratitude )

Let's blow shit up!

I have wine, kitty Valium, and fire extinguishers.

The neighbors have a metric assload of fireworks.

We'll see who's left standing Sunday night.

For you betting folks, safe money's on the neighbors.

I am stuffed full of insanely good food (seriously, the lamb I had was flake-off-the-bone-melt-in-your-mouth orgasmic) and pleasantly tipsy from delicious wine (one must support local wineries, especially when they make yummy merlots), and all-around entirely too happy. I have also used up all of my social points for the next few weeks, so it's a good thing I have absolutely nothing planned for 4th of July weekend.

Someone needs to talk me out of applying for a potentially awesome job at my company that will sadly require relocating because I can't commute to it on the bus, and the drive from my current residence would be three hours each way. (And if it were commutable by bus, I'm sure the round trip would be longer than six hours.) But still. Potentially awesome. So tempting!

Also tempting is sending tipsy text messages, but I will control myself. (Hmm...I suspect that confession puts me more into the drunk end of the inebriated spectrum.)

So I have this one project that, despite my best efforts, was determined to be an epistolary novel. I say was, because apparently, writing some Kimberly-centric fic for no_true_pair served as enough incentive to get my main character, an itty bitty bitchy mathematician, talking. She has now offered me up an actual plot instead of dancing around one with letters and journal entries, and that's got the other POV characters talking. (Holy crap, they're a chatty bunch now!)

I'm sorting through the threads figuring out how I want things to go. I'm also being vastly entertained by her (dead) husband hunkering down in the back of my mind to talk soldiering with Kimberly. Sweetie, go rescue your husband! Kimberly's charming trouble. Yes, sweetie, I know you think that about your husband, but Kimberly is real trouble.

(The oh-so-wrong part of me is a little too in love with Archer my bitchy mathematician's former guardian. There is a potential plot line where he proposes a marriage of convenience, and I'm so tempted to have her accept. So very tempted.)

Hopefully, this momentum will carry me through an actual draft. The goal for today is to get a (potential) drabble outline worked out. I'm not writing much of anything else right now because I'm afraid if I switch gears, I'll lose my focus. Though I may have to find the time to eke out the ending for my "They fight crime!" piece for no_true_pair because it's Falman and Winry as the main characters in a children's series, and they're running around Central solving crimes, and they're just too damn cute!

I would also like to finish up an entry for Wiseguy's June contest, though the story I have sketched out is, um, kind of dark. And incesty. And probably not the sort of offering he has in mind for a contest titled "here cums the bride." (Apparently, I've already used up my sweet and cute points for the month.)

So instead of working on the things I intended to write today (*cough* a no_true_pair piece, some tasty porn_battle prompts), this piece for 50originals came together. Brain, I hate you sometimes.

This is set in the same universe as the other stories in my 50originals claim (master list here), though the connection is not entirely obvious since I moved out of the Germanic/Celtic mishmash I've been playing in for the other stories. Timewise, it's set around the same time as Shifted.

Thanks to Villainy for spotting my proofreading and poor word choice errors.

Summary: Haytham Seif al-Din negotiates to repay his late father's debts.

Warnings: Hints of brother/sister incest if you're inclined to read that way, but there is no onscreen sex.

( Inheritance )

...just apparently not this week.

No, scratch that. HI SUN! YOU ARE BRIGHT AND WARM! Please stick around.

I have the same bus driver as Monday night. We are crawling along 167 because she won't take the peak time alternate route. I am usually pulling into my neighborhood right now. At least she's not being as rude tonight.

(I'm hungry and exhausted. I'm sure those two facts are making this ride feel longer.)

(Also, getting a phone with a data plan probably wasn't the wisest move if I want to avoid developing a reputation as a whiner. Or a further reputation, anyway. Ah well.)

Edit 6:20 pm
Home! Oh, how I've missed you! Almost as much as I've missed the glorious sun.

I have come to the conclusion that my life would be perfect if I could teach the cats to cook and train them to have dinner ready for me when I get home. Of course, teaching the cats to cook would make them entirely too self-sufficient, and as my Queen Bee cat so politely pointed out, they are my Feline Overlords. I should be bringing treats and toys home for them every day.

I really should invest in a timer for the crock pot. At least I have leftovers waiting for me tonight. As soon as I'm done, the Siamese is going in his harness, and we are taking a walk to enjoy the sun. HI SUN! YOU ARE BRIGHT AND WARM!

And after the walk, there will be the production or consumption of porn? You can stay awake long enough for that, right, self?

So...when I started my shiny new job a year and a half ago, one of my coworkers commented that I wouldn't last two winters before I moved closer to work because the commute is awful. At least on the bus, I can read, write, watch stuff on my computer, and abuse the hell out of my phone's data plan to look at shiny things on the interwebs. Still. I spend 13 hours away from the house for 8 hours of work. You'd think I'd move (as my coworker predicted), but: 1) I like where I live; and 2) I can afford where I live. So instead I bitch. Because if I didn't like where I live so much, I'd be able to find something affordable closer to work with enough effort.

(This whine may or may not have been brought on by having the worst bus driver last night. Not only did she not know the new route or the alternate route along East Valley to avoid the parking lot on 167, but she was consistently rude! I know drivers handle a lot of rude passengers, but when someone asks you if you go to Kent and you can't understand them, there are more polite ways to ask for clarification than to snap, "Spell what you're trying to say. I can't understand you." There are also more polite ways to inform someone he put his bike on the wrong rack than to berate him. "Who put the bike on the inside rack? Shame on you!" was uncalled for.)

(This whine also may or may not have been brought on by 2 hours of sleep. WTF, brain? Body? There is nothing stressful going on. The cats were behaving. There's no reason why I shouldn't be able to sleep when I'm tired.)

Posting started today for the twelve characters challenge at no_true_pair, and I'm so excited! It looks like it's going to be nice, low-key fun, and now that I'm not working regular overtime, I can face sitting down in front of the computer for a bit in the evenings. So I'm likely to participate. Woo!

I'm using characters from Fullmetal Alchemist and Eureka Seven, and it's a lot of fun trying to think of ways to make the prompts work while keeping people in character. Or at least realistically nudging them outside their normal zones.

Prompts for June 1st through 7th:

• Winry Rockbell (FMA) & Ken-Goh (E7) with the title, "Lost and Found."
  
• Mischa (E7)/Maria Ross (FMA), first time
  
• Frank Archer (FMA) and Zolf Kimberly (FMA): "Go on, make yourself comfortable."
-- Good Things Come posted 06/04
  
• The beginning of Talho Yuki (E7) and Maria Schneider's (E7) passionate love affair.

  
• Maria Schneider (E7)/Vato Falman (FMA), captivity scenario (kidnapping, prison guard/inmate, etc)
-- Dangerous Hope posted 06/02
  
• Mischa (E7) and Frank Archer (FMA): the memory cannot keep me warm / but it never leaves me cold
 -- Piecemeal posted 06/01
  
• Riza Hawkeye (FMA) shares something meaningful (a meal? a secret? ...bodily fluids?) with Maria Ross
 (FMA)
  
• Dewey Novak (E7) and Holland Novak (E7) with the title, "Nothing Like the Sun."

 -- Nothing Like the Sun posted 06/07 (not worksafe)
  

Prompts for June 8th through 14th:

• Ken-Goh (E7) and Maria Schneider (E7) play a game or sport together.

  
• Frank Archer (FMA)/Holland Novak (E7), in a threesome with any other character from your list

  
• Vato Falman (FMA) and Riza Hawkeye (FMA) with the title, "Hit the Ground Running."

  
• Mischa (E7) and Talho Yuki (E7): "Things will get better. I promise."

  
• Zolf Kimberly (FMA) needs help that only Winry Rockbell (FMA) can provide.
 -- Foolhardy posted 06/08
  
• Talho Yuki (E7) and Maria Ross (FMA): it's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine

  
• Vato Falman (FMA) and Mischa (E7) with the title, "The Edge of the Map."

  
• Zolf Kimberly (FMA)/Dewey Novak (E7), weapon kink


  

It hit 91 Farenheit today. Normally too hot for me but since the weather only turned nice Thursday and is forecasted to turn icky again midweek, I REFUSE TO COMPLAIN.

(I also refuse to complain about my sunburn from my very long walk today. I will, however whine just a little about my blisters. And then roll my eyes at myself for wearing new shoes instead of my tried and true pair.)

So, in conclusion, sun and heat make me happy. Now I'm off to write (and pamper my poor feet).

I hate this week. And it's only Tuesday.

(surl surl surl)

I...I blame Baccano! for letting gangsters take over my brain. This is not Baccano-fic, but it's somewhat inspired by the anime. The idea had been kicking around in the back of my head for awhile, and watching Baccano! brought it closer to the front.

(This is not quite the story I really want to write. It's more like the backstory to the story I want to write. And that's why I'm using the 50originals savage prompt instead of the gangster prompt.)

Summary: Mullen sal Newton spent so long as a wolf, he's no longer the man he used to be.

Warnings: Minimal blood and violence. No explicit sex, but there's a semi-graphic flashback of m/m sex.

( Shifted )

Oh, man, so many reasons to be happy and smile, but these are the two big things.

It was warm enough that I did not have to wear my coat when I went outside for lunch. And it was sunny. And it's supposed to stay sunny and warm(ish) all weekend. (Please, Mother Nature, tell me this means it's really spring. For reals this time. Please?)

The prompts for no_true_pair make me grin like a loon. They are going to be so much fun.

( My abuse CAPS LOCK shall prove HOW MUCH FUN THIS WILL BE! )