the bathroom window

Cole sat and waited and watched and hated each of the uniform-clad students that dripped off the buses and slithered in long lines into the school. He only had one cigarette left from the pack he'd nicked from X and it dangled from his lips, getting increasingly damp and bent as the morning aged into afternoon. If it wasn't smoked soon, it'd be the wasted spoils of a particularly daring bit of burglary, but Cole's lighter stayed in his back pocket and the soggy cigarette drooped toward his chin.

Wheeee! Time for another round of PORN BATTLE! I submitted some 3:10 to Yuma prompts - I've been on a cowboy-high over the past week. I uploaded my Yuma prawns to AO3 the other day, and that inspired me to re-read those and then all the stories posted on threetentrain.

Regarding my own crap, I think 2007 was actually the peak of my writing ability. I haven't written much since then, certainly no real porn. I've been working on it, though; I drabble bits and pieces of stuff in my journal, but I haven't written anything that other people can read. So! Stoked for a new porn battle!

Title: All Work and No Play
Characters/Pairings: Yuffie
Team: Avalanche
Rating: G
Word Count: 100
Series: FFVII: Original Game
Author's Notes: Part one!

( All Work and No Play )

Title: Makes Yuffie a Dull Ninja
Characters/Pairings: Yuffie
Team: Avalanche
Rating: G
Word Count: 100
Series: FFVII: Original Game
Author's Notes: And part two!

( Makes Yuffie a Dull Ninja )

Been distracting myself with the naming system in my magic!school!story. I want the last names to be derived from both parents, instead of the typical patrilineal surname practice. Two main reasons for this: Women are more powerful and influential in this world and tracing lineage through one's mother is as important, if not more important, than doing so through one's father; character J is a bastard, and I want everyone to know this immediately. People need to see him as half a person, as castrated, even. Also, this is a British setting, and I like the connotations that the hyphenated last name has.

Yay! Love working on things like this.

I'm trying read more fantasy, especially ones not set in the typical Europeanesque worlds. The Drowning City takes place in an Asian-inspired setting, lush and flush with rain and spirits. The main character is a necromancer from a foreign empire, sent to nudge the civil unrest into full rebellion.

It has its flaws, to be sure. There are multiple characters and multiple POVs, and the plot gets convoluted quickly. At one point, the characters fight off an assassin and when the identity is revealed, it's a huge shock. Or at least I imagine it was supposed to be shocking; I couldn't remember who the character was. The inclusions of so many minor characters gets ridiculous, the plot is drowning in them. This is Downing's first published novel; I'm sure she'll improve and iron out the wrinkles as she progresses.

So the prose is meh. The magic, however, is fascinating. The necromancer Isyllt has a specific method of magic that functions in a completely different manner than the magic that Zhirin uses. Downing does an excellent job at making the characters and their abilities distinct.

The interesting setting and the variety of strong, competent female characters made it a good read. This is book one of a trilogy and I'll definitely be getting the second part when it's released.

Title: Winter
Fandom: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Characters: Malon, Ganondorf
Prompt: Winter
Word Count: 400
Rating: PG
Summary: A cold day in Hyrule field
Author's Notes: Can't believe I haven't written any Zelda stories since March! Here are my fanfic100 table and website.

( Ganondorf was an easy target: a black spear in the snow-covered meadow. )

When she turned away from the closed door, P was already at the windows. The light filtering in made a pretty silhouette of him and he stood still enough for a few minutes that he was almost a statue carved delicately out of marble. T scrunched her hands into fists and hated him even more.

"So," she said, and he turned around. "How long has it been going on?"

"T," he began beseechingly, "just-"

"Answer me!"

He pressed his lips flat and shrugged. "Ask J."

"I'm asking you!"

"Look, what do you want me to say? Sorry?"

"How - I mean - how could you, with J -"

His shoulders moved again. For a moment he looked just like J had, closed and distant, sneering down at the intruder. He knew why she had come to him after J had locked the door and his wards flared red in her face. And so, an instant later, he softened and dragged his hands through his hair.

"Sorry," he said to the ceiling. "It wasn't supposed to happen."

She had cried all night and into the sink by the window in the first floor bathroom. She scrubbed at her swollen eyes as more tears squeezed themselves out and wiggled through the powder she had packed over her crimson cheeks. She turned away from P to spare him from her wet emotions.

I've never been a big watcher of TV. Back in the days of yore, I watched X-Files every week, but since that show ended, I haven't really followed a show regularly. House I tried to watch weekly, and I think I managed to get through one season of tuning in for each new episode. And me and The Boy used to watch Law & Order in college, but that was mostly because there would be marathons of it and if we didn't turn the TV off in time, we got sucked into watching the following episode. And with Avatar: The Last Airbender, we weren't usually in the apartment while it was on. Even Digimon, one of my first fandoms, I missed probably about half of both season 01 and 02 during their airings.

I'm really lazy, that's definitely part of it. Half the time I can't be arsed to remember a show's schedule, let alone plan my schedule so that I have that night free to watch it. And commercials are a HUGE turn off. I think those two things combine to form my love of DVDs: not only do I get to set the schedule to my liking, but there are no commercials for me to suffer through. I guess having TiVo would likewise solve those two complaints. Anime series appeal to me for that reason, too. I mean, obviously I like anime for more reasons than this, but being able to download an entire series in one fell swoop is appealing to me.

Meh.

But then again, I've never been a big watcher of TV. Maybe it's the format. A movie, it seems to me, is cleaner in that everything has to be wrapped up at the end of two hours. In TV, actors can leave, writers can leave; whole plot lines can be abandoned for one reason or another; the network can cancel a show in the middle of a season. Because shows can go on and on without end in sight, nothing ever needs to be resolved.

I would like to get into a TV fandom. Supernatural, Merlin, Doctor Who, House - These fandoms are evvvvvvvvvverywhere. It'd be cool to be in a big, active fandom again. ...They just need to start making shows I'd actually be willing to sit down and watch, commercials and all.

Let me preface this by saying that The Beatles are my favorite band. Ever. They are the best band. Ever. I could on for ages, complete with jumping up and down and waving my arms wildly and probably convulsing on the floor, about how phenomenal they are, how they invented modern music, how important they are not just to rock and roll, but to the entire musical industry. HELL THE ENTIRE WORLD.

John Lennon.

Paul McCartney.

Are awesome.

Their relationship. Christ, I don't even know how to articulate the beautiful complexity of Lennon/McCartney.

Lifting Latches by thinkpink20
Pairing: John Lennon/Paul McCartney
Rating: NC-17 for sex
HOLY SHIT JESUS CHRIST THIS IS THE BEST STORY EVER WRITTEN. When Beatles Rock Band came out, I started joining Beatles communities on LJ. I worked my way through them all and eventually ended up reading RPS of the lads. It was mostly for the lol factor; I'd never been a fan - or even really interested by the concept - of RPS. For shits and giggles I started reading fics, though and I found "Lifting Latches."

So, this is a review coming from someone who has a thorough knowledge of and love for the Beatles; and while is a slasher and is interested in homosexuality, bisexuality, and sexuality in general, was never a John/Paul fan (am now, of course; partially converted by this fic). SERIOUSLY, READ IT. Paul's shyness and desperation to impress the older John; John's need to maintain his influence over Paul coupled with his own insecurities... AWESOME. The natural fluctuation of teenage desire during a conservative time period, and the fears of social rejection for an "unnatural" interest... AWESOME. The bond between John and Paul and their need to strengthen and explore it... SO AWESOME.

Besides that, this story is incredibly well written. thinkpink20 walks the delicate line between action and exposition. Her Paul is thoughtful and observant, but the story never slows under too much emotional analysis. At the same time, her action scenes are perfectly paced.

And the sex scene is HOT. A lot of slash - hell, a lot of romance - falls into one of two categories: 1) too impersonal, insert-tab-a-into-tab-b sex, and 2) overwrought, over-fraught purple prose sex. Then there's the weird clinicalness that some sex scenes take on, where I feel like I'm reading the minutes from a physical exam, and it's counterpart the author-is-actually-a-virgin stuff where manroots pulsate into love canals. In short, writing convincing sex is hard. But thinkpink20 MASTERS it. Paul and John's scene together is smoking hot. Paul's desire underlines the whole story, and by the time they get into bed, the passion practically palpitating through the lines.

Also, Paul is PERFECT. Fictional!Paul often suffers from acute weepy uke syndrome. This Paul is shy and uncertain, but he's often wiser than John, and while he's not as forward as John, Paul still knows what he wants and when they meet, they do so as equals.

And what's best about this fic?

IT HAS AN EVEN HOTTER SEQUEL: Sending Postcards.

This. Story. Is. The. Fucking hottest thing. Ever.

All the amazing things about the first story carry over to the second: great characterization, awesome Britishisms, flawless pacing. While the sex scene in "Lifting Latches" is incredibly satisfying, it can be (as Paul himself in the story reflects) interpreted as "just getting off." He - and the audience - worry that he/we read too much into it.

But wow, the climax (hurrrrr) of this story blows (durrrrr) everything away.

Again, the sex is perfect. Steamy and sensitive, it's both sexually arousing and emotionally satisfying. The first, second, and third times I read that part, I actually blushed. I won't spoil it, but John has a line that sets off Paul (and the reader, by extension) and it's so bloody perfect I want to tattoo it on my forehead. thinkpink20 deftly twists everything with that one little line - it's so perfectly John-like. The words aren't really profane, but the choice to use one term in particular is so effective: it's dirty and personal and raw and wow.

I was explaining it all to Pete last night - or at least trying to; this rec is evidence that I'm barely lucid: Part of the reason I'm interested in slash is there's the conflict of man vs self, man vs man, and man vs society. Will man choose to put into danger his place in his world for love? Is his love strong enough to be tested by the illegality of his relationship with his lover? Slash stories don't always explore that; a lot of the time, I find that the whole social consequences of sodomy stuff is ignored. Which is fine, not every story needs to try to dismantle (or even acknowledge) the heteronormative establishment. And sometimes slash stories get too involved with it, so that I'm not reading romance as much as I am a dissertation. But once again, thinkpink20 does it perfectly. Toward the end of "Postcards," Paul stops himself from fantasizing a certain something because of how "queer" it could be. (And then, because thinkpink20 is a genius), he immediately worries about John.

THIS SHOULD BE REQUIRED READING FOR EVERYONE.

NaNo is over!



This pleases the Beatles.