If you haven't already read Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan books, and you like space opera with a charismatic and slightly mad main character, run to the nearest library or bookstore and check them out.

If you have read them, and happen to like the characters, well, there's a smallish but quite fun fandom for her books. Here are some of the things I've read and liked:


Stories that, as far as I'm concerned, might as well be canon:

A Maze of Twisty Passages, All Alike
Ivan gets kidnapped. Well, first Gregor gets kidnapped, then Ivan, looking for him. And then hijinks ensue.

--

My Heart and My Honor: Part 1: Aral.
My Heart and My Honor: Part 2: Cordelia.
Set during the closing part of The Vor Game. Gregor dealing with power, what his father was, and growing up.

--

Paved With Good Intentions
Ivan and Gregor talk about Miles. Set at the end of Warrior's Apprentice.

--

Winterfair
Young Miles, Elena and Ivan go looking for presents in the secret basements, the walls and the kitchen of the Imperial Palace. During a state dinner at which Gregor (fourteen) is very bored. You do the math.

--

Stories with Ivan and Miles:
A Family Affair
"Hey, Ivan, it's over! No more Wedding Campaign under General Aunt Alys. We have an Empress!"
"Hooray." Ivan considered. "Miles, do you think of your entire life in military metaphors?"

--

Intimations of Maturity
This one really focuses more on Ivan, as he tries to find a second guy to fill out his double-date, and ends up with Miles, whose first impression on young Barrayaran women is, well, not quite what they might wish.

--

Stories about the grown-ups: Aral, Cordelia, etc.
Shopping
Cordelia goes shopping, just after arriving on Barrayar. I love the little details in this, like the earrings. You'll see.

--

Green Silk Rooms
What exactly goes on in the back rooms of government on Beta, when Captain Cordelia Naismith comes back not quite as they expected?

--

Ingenium et Fides
Cordelia and Alys talk about her family; Cordelia and Aral watch Miles and Ivan and Elena play, and decide not to have another child.

--

What if? stories
Fic: Five Things Gregor Vorbarra Didn't Do at Twenty
We see a little, through Miles' eyes, what being Emperor costs. What can't you do, when your planet sits on your shoulders?

--

Five ways that Ekaterin never met Miles at twenty.
This gives us five different snapshots of how they might have run into each other: on a double-date with Ivan, by chance at a restaurant, at the Professora's house. Each has a different tone, from the mildly hopeful to the truly painful.

--

Three Men Who Never Left Barrayar
What if? Kind of heartbreaking, though I think maybe Gregor could find a way to be happy. Maybe.

--

Crack!fic & Crossovers
Creeping Ambition by Mara.
"Uh-huh." Ivan shrugged. "You don't know my cousin. He accidentally acquired command of an entire mercenary fleet once. And that was *before* he got any training or experience."

Ivan's escape pod gets picked up by Serenity. Vorkosigan/Firefly. It made me giggle with glee. It goes a little astray, but there are some really fun moments of spot-on character voices. And, come on, don't you want to see how long it takes Miles to find him, even in an alternate universe?

--

Two To Make Peace
Doctor Who/Vorkosigan. No, really.
--

If you want more, there are several communities here on LJ (bujold_fic and lmb_challenge come to mind first), and therck has a recs page here. And there are a bunch more over at Yuletide. :)

First episode, first impressions:
--They got Ed and Al's voice actors back. That's nice. Everyone else sounds okay.
--There were too many gag jokes (Oh My God, the little brother is Taller? Oh My God, Ed is so Small!).
--The animation quality was nice and clean, but sometimes the flatness of the characters stood out to me against the more detailed backgrounds.

Little bits of squee:
--Armstrong shoots out little sculpted cannonballs that look like his head. WTF, dude, you are so strange. :)
--Hughes + family = cute.
--Shiny animation. If they can smooth out the flat-moving bits/detailed-background issue, it'll be even better.

Little bits of nitpicks:
--The Ice Alchemist vs. the Flame Alchemist? Plz.
--Yes, Ed's arm is automail. If you wanted that to be a dramatic reveal, the way it worked before was way better. Surviving a hand-touch (even if it can turn your blood to steam, eeek) is way less impressive than having a lion-chimera hanging from your arm, gnawing away.
--Hughes didn't know which of them was the Fullmetal Alchemist? No way, man. He's much, much better at intel than that.
--Didn't like the resurrection-redo-scene. Liked it better in the first anime. Or in the manga.
--Hughes + family = you are so going to try to make me cry later, aren't you?

( Here there be spoilers for both the first anime and the manga, up to ch. 93 )

I'll probably keep watching, but I may wait until a couple of episodes are out, because this one did not do a good job as a pilot episode: it just didn't really grab me. I think they're probably relying on its existing popularity to ensure watchers -- I'm not sure what's gonna happen next, but you know? I'm okay waiting to find out.

From Eroica with Love
Tired of that courtly fashion by liviapenn
Author's summary: Sometimes it's hard to be an international man of mystery.
Iron Klaus and Agent Lawrence of Her Majesty's SIS take a briefcase on a plane.

Gokusen:
Everyone knows, by Adali
Everyone knows what Shin's ideal girl will be like.
Except him, apparently. [Shin --> Yankumi] (Link goes to FF.net)

Harry Potter
The Amazing Bust of Nymphadora Tonks by thistlerose
The author's summary is: Tonks has always had control over her body. Then, suddenly, she doesn't.
An interesting look at a side of Tonks that is all too often just used as comic relief in the books.

One Piece:
Labyrinthine Interlude by maldoror_gw
"No, you don't have to explain that bit any further," said Nami, rolling her eyes. "I got it. Luffy, challenge, really big maze, treasure if he wins, death if he loses; of course that bonehead said yes before you even stopped talking. But what I want to know is, what does that have to do with me - and all the others - chained to these pillars?"
maldoror_gw has written a lot of One Piece fic, and she excels at writing the whole crew, which is something I adore. She's also written a bunch of CP-9 centric fic, which is well worth checking out if you liked the Enies Lobby arc.

Ouran High School Host Club
The framework of the universe by bravecows
When the party was safely under swing, Kyouya took up position at a vantage-point overlooking the hall and took count.
Kyouya/Haruhi, future-fic.

Want a really hilariously out-of-context glimpse at what I'm watching nowadays?

Have some HanaKimi, a short clip of one of the main characters being, um, ideosyncratic*:



And some Nodame Cantabile -- Rhapsody in Blue played on a pianola by a mongoose:


Before you ask. Yes, these shows are full of CRACK. Also, they are full of AWESOME. Ridiculously fun. And since I'm watching these two shows with French subs, I'm actually improving my French at the same time!

*What he is singing translates roughly to: "I like girls, I'm not gay, I'm not gay!" The fact that he's doing so with pink frilly underpants on his head might cause some confusion about the issue, but I guess that's why he's singing so emphatically, eh?

First of all, I liked it better than OotF or HBP. But since those two books effectively made me leave HP fandom (because, my god, woman, get an editor!) that's not saying too terribly much. I did enjoy it, though.

( General Spoilers and reactions )


( Deathly Hallows. )


( Some questions. )

I am really, really excited -- Sanami Matoh has a new manga coming out right now: Fake Second Season. Because, see, I loved FAKE, and more of it looks like loads of fun. :D

It's being run in Hug, a monthly (I think?) magazine. The fansite LIKE, LIKE LOVE has a couple of scans.

A friend of mine just got back from Japan and brought Hug magazine back with him, so I was able to snag a look when evan_malfoy brought it over this afternoon. My first impression? Matoh's art style has changed significantly in the past few years: the characters are softer-looking, and seem a bit younger, but they're all very recognizably themselves, even the minor characters like Drake and the other detectives.

But there's not only the new "season" of Fake, there was a re-release of the previous seven volumes, not only with new covers, but also new content!

I found information on the re-release of FAKE on Supersab, a French blog. (The entry is on the 24th of May, and focuses on the re-release.

So, friends who are more in touch with stuff that's coming out than I am, had you heard about this? Do you have any more information than this?


(x-posted in slightly different form on sanami_matoh)

Also, this is just to state that Enies Lobby is just about the best thing ever.

The moment when Lucci calmly tells Spandam that he hadn't been ordered to tell that someone was following just about made my bust my ribs laughing. 'Cause, my god, if that man were my boss...well, yeah. Empathy for the crazy man, here.

( Spoilers for Season Finale. You have been warned. )

---

In other news, I do not see myself joining Heroes fandom any time soon.

Looking at icons for fifteen minutes shows incest of at least three different kinds, and a hell of a lot of WTF-OMG-EWW.

Where's the geek+cheerleader love, people? Come on, they're awesome!

You know, people have been telling me this show is awesome for a very long time.

But it was on at a time that just didn't fit my schedule At All, and so I hadn't ever seen any of it until about two days ago, when, in a fit of cold-medicine-induced-insomnia, I watched episodes 1-5 on the NBC website. And then watched 6-10 the next night, when I couldn't sleep again.

And then, today, the Science Fiction channel had a Heroes marathon all day long. And when did I happen to start watching? Just in the middle of episode 10.

So I'm all caught up.

Damn. I kind of hope the marathon is still going tomorrow so I can keep it on in the background while I read. This show breaks my heart in all the best ways, and I absolutely cannot wait for the season finale, on Monday.

What I want to know now is this: Having not known about this show until, what, less than 72 hours ago, why am I so damn certain that I am going to miss it all summer long while it's not on? ARGH!


( Cut for incoherent spoilersquee. )


Okay. Done squeeing for now. Bedtime.

Firefly fic.

Post-Serenity, but no major spoilers.

( Family Books )

PS: Request-a-ficlet still open!

It's finals, and I need a focused, written-word based distraction.

So! Give me a fandom, a character (or a pairing) and a word and I will write you a self-contained 300-word or less drabble.

( Fandoms in which I'll write, because my LJ interests are maybe a bit misleading. )

Consider this an invitation to de-lurk. If you've never commented before, do so -- request your favorite pairing/theme/whatever! I'm friendly! Just say hi.

...

The opening of Honey and Clover is kind of terrifyingly ON CRACK.

The kind that makes you want to run and hide and also makes you want to laugh loudly in a way that would scare your roommates.

I'm not sure I can take it at all seriously when it opens with a montage that includes a breaded hand writing "Help" a shrimp-monster, a cookie-skeleton and a whole bunch of other random stuff...

I've just been playing Final Fantasy XII and Chrono Trigger, and something odd struck me.

In both games, the guns are weaker than the swords. Not only in terms of maximum power achieved (I'm speaking here mostly of FF XII, since I've only just started Chrono Trigger) but in terms of damage dealt per level/attack/whatever.

And they're not the only things: in Blood: The Last Vampire, guns can't kill the monsters, only swords (or shovels, presumably -- slicing weapons.) Again, in this show, guns aren't as deadly as swords.

What is up with this?

I think we can all agree that guns are distinctly more deadly than swords, at least in this day and age, and that even if the sword is in the hands of a skilled professional, the range increment of a gun will let even a reasonably competent schmuck kill a swordfighter before he or she can get anywhere near the gunner.

So, really, folks. What gives?

Context? One of the mods at capslock_op had a birthday. There was a general request for fic/art/whatever featuring Zoro and blood. 'Cause, you know, those two are so hard to put together.

And of course I couldn't take it seriously. So, here, have a silly fic.

( Blood Stains )

Have just gotten a formerly non-anime-watching friend completely addicted to Death Note. Am showing Escaflowne to her and another formerly-non-anime-watching friend. My roommate and I are watching One Piece. (What do you mean I don't have time for this? I totally don't.)

I love my friends.

But Death Note isn't subbed in English past episode 12. This makes me sad.

Flew to New Orleans this morning.

It was raining when we took off. Once we were in the air I looked out the plane window and saw nothing but cloud, solid and white, to all horizons. It was amazing: there were no breaks in the cover at all, nothing to suggest that there was land underneath.

And my first thought was "White Sea!"

(My second was "Damn, maybe I have been watching too much One Piece lately...)

I was tagged by evan_malfoy, and I'm bored. So here goes.

List ten fictional figures you would have sex with (in no particular order) and tag 5 people to do the same.

( Which ten? )


And now, for an interesting twist, five characters you'd have sex with, except for that one thing...

( Sorry, I have a headache. And I have to wash my hair. )

If you want it, consider yourself tagged. If you don't, hey, look, you're free to go.

Recent chapters of Saiyuki have made it pretty clear that the really awesome, sexy vines Hakkai has all over him aren't just for show -- they can be sent out from his body to do all kinds of oddball things.

So, how does that work, exactly? Are they embodiments of his chi, given a structure and a form when he's not wearing limiters? Is this something that only he can do, being a human who was turned? Or is this something run-of-the-mill, that all the youkai he killed could do?

If they're cut off, does he bleed? Does he feel what they feel?

I'm gradually moving old fic over here, to get it all in one place. This will be interesting for me, as I read things I have not seen for, in some cases, literally, years.

Here, have a Harry Potter ficlet -- short, but not a drabble. Set just after the 5th book, and the big "OH NO!" death. Remus-centric.

This was originally posted on 07/16/2003.

( Sleep to Dream )


Comments are appreciated--criticism too, so long as it's constructive.

Where do the One Piece movies fit relative to the anime storyline?
Are they canon? Are they AU?

Do they take place between certain episodes or arcs, or do they happen off in magical movie-land, where time doesn't really exist and nothing you do affects reality (aka the plot)?