thelovemafia

.intro post
(or, as close to one as you're going to get)

I do think you know everything you need to know about the persona behind this journal via the profile, and, well, even this.

( (Some of the) Music I Like. )

I've always wanted to ask this question since seeing it on makeste's 5 Questions Meme, and I liked it, so:

tell me:
What would your position be in the mafia?

My instantaneous answer?
"Frustrated defence counsel.
Wondering, Why the hell did you get caught?!
And why the hell was I landed with you?!"

So I give you what purports to be an Italian proverb:
A good lawyer makes a bad neighbor.
... I can see where they're coming from, actually.

Pretty much the only cartoon lawyer spoof I've ever liked and not wanted to hurl into the nearest wall was, oddly enough, Harvey Birdman (judge if ye wish, but there is this one episode, about copyright infringement, that involves accurate spoken Japanese, and Peanut announcing, "Every time we conclude a deal, WE BLOW SOMETHING UP." I was doing intellectual property law when I first saw it, and I loved it on sight.

Also, Harvey Birdman? Had mafia lawyers. Check out the opening sequence for The Dabba Don, which parodies the Flintstones, criminal prosection/defense, and the Sopranos.

Basically, Harvey Birdman is a legal-world parody of existing cartoon characters (they put Yogi Bear on trial, there is nothing sacred to them), and the The Dabba Don has Fred Flintstone facing charges for being named a mob boss.

What I liked? The scene where they reworked actual Flintstones cartoon footage as video evidence proving conclusively that Fred Flintstone is totally mafia. And when the prosecution begins the case with the following speech:

"Meet... the Flintstones. They're the mobbish Stone-Age family. From the villa of Bedrock. They're a page right out of Godfather 3!
When we try Fred Flintstone, he's gonna do some time.
Oh yes! A lot of JAA-IIIILLLL Time."

Recently I had a HORRIBLE DREAM: I dreamt I was at a treaty-signing event and FORCED, I TELL YOU FORCED, WHICH MEANS I was under a COMPULSION to confess my (I TELL YOU THEY WERE NONEXISTENT) feelings to my fellow treaty-signing party with EMIL'S DIALOGUE TO/ABOUT RICHTER, starting from, "Actually, I like you a lot" ALL THE WAY DOWN TO "I think you really are perfect". ( (no, really.) )

And every time I tried to stop or to explain myself or to get back to ordinary speech I would JUST KEEP CONFESSING, with extra PAINED pauses that sounded like I was trying to express my DEEPEST TRUE FEELINGS.

It might actually have been funny if I hadn't been Austria and if the other party hadn't been Russia. In my dream.

ANYWAY! Yesterday, in elvaron's words, I dragged five innocent souls back to my den of evil and subjected them all to this. (rei_kurasaki, you don't count as innocent.) All in all a productive day of EVIL AND MORE EVIL, because that afternoon we'd subjected poor Sam to this. MWAHAHAHAHA.

Also as a disturbing result I have come to realise that there is some similarity in this:

Bella, when Jacob is trying to stop her from entering the Cullen residence where he can sense a vampire's presence: "It's all right, Edward won't hurt me!"

Emil, when Sheena+Marta are telling him that Richter is dangerous upon his arrival at the Cape Fortress: "It's all right, if it's me Richter won't attack!"

... lol Emil what the hell, honey.

ALSO, elvaron has written Ratatosk/Richter, which makes me very very happy, also I am going right over there to comment the second I get my (very happily all over the place with happiness) brains back.

( Ratatosk FREE TALK )

ALSO IT IS A TRAVESTY THAT I HAVE NOT LINKED THIS BEFORE, BUT PLEASE SEE raethes EXTREMELY ADORABLE EMIL'S JOURNAL + ART WORK OF GLORY. She describes it as "This is a post in which Emil talks about Richter. And his dokidoki feelings."
( emil + richter: the true story )

hahaha oh this artist. she can draw richter in character, she just chooses not to. THERE ARE A LOT OF JOKEY ARTWORKS ON HER SITE in which MUCH MOCKERY IS MADE OF RICHTER'S EPIC FAIL AT COOKING. My favourite is the one where he uses his mystic arte/hi-ougi quote of "THE PAIN WILL ONLY LAST AN INSTANT" as a precursor to COOKING. HIS cooking, in case you needed to ask.

note: HA I HAVE JUST CAUSED A COMMENT WITH THE SUBJECT LINE "I AM HIDING UNDER YOUR PORCH BECAUSE I LOVE YOU, RICHTER-SAN" TO APPEAR IN TWO INBOXES. I AM FEELING PRODUCTIVE.
eta: theprerogative just one-upped me with: HI MY NAME IS EMIL. I JUST MET YOU AND I LOVE YOU.

LOL OH GOD THAT IS AWESOME. ♥

( WORK, IT IS TENTACLED MONSTER. THAT WANTS YOU. BAD. )
ANYWAY THIS IS MORE IMPORTANT
This Penny Arcade Comic made me laugh so hard, because this is EXACTLY my experience when playing games. So I thought I wanted to do a Tales of Symphonia 2 version, just for my sweet Emil:

I Present Emil Castagnier's Temple of Lightning Twitter Feed:
( What is Emil Castagnier Doing? )

ALSO THIS IS OF EVEN GREATER IMPORTANCE:

( further adventures of MY POWER TRIP )

( pics or it didn't happen. )

Sometimes you gotta love power trips.

The real kind.

You would have got this entry last night, but there was a REAL (and not figurative) power trip, and I lost both power to my PC and the Internet. No power plug in the house would work, but I was very very happy that I'd turned on the water heater earlier and could at least have hot water. ♥ Also it forced me to sleep earlier.

All this time and I have not yet had the time to make a PROPER POST about all the lovely, lovely people I met just last week (I MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH :((( - the Internet is NOT ENOUGH, I WISH WE ALL LIVED NEXT DOOR TO EACH OTHER): kye_kestrel, yukitsu, izkariote and khursten, amandes, MANLING, The Nice Girl Who Is Evil to Chrissie and so forth.

(Oh, oh, the Gintama-liking girl with the SAME GINTAMA HANDPHONE TOY-THING as khursten is rei_kurasaki.)

BUT THIS I MUST SHARE, AS I PROMISED:

The LussuriaxRyohei fic (it's NC-17 I promised yukitsu A.K.A. my other half thelaughmafia. :D

( quick comment & spoilers )

kye_kestrel, yukitsu, izkariote and khursten! THIS IS THE SINGAPORE / MERLION VARIA DOUJIN I WAS TELLING YOU ABOUT:


(click this image to download)
(Doujin is in Chinese, but features a D:-TASTIC IMAGE OF THE MERLION.)

( summary extracts / WARNINGS )



Also, here are some FUN ARTICLES/SITES featuring Singapore in fiction:

In a faraway land called Singapore...: Article on Singapore's appearances in various media: comics/fiction/so on. ( quick observations )

Singapore and Singlish were apparently featured on the Birds of Prey comic, as chronicled by Mr. Brown's gallery here, plus his article where he points out the inconsistencies with the comic (to which I think 'please stop indulging in that time-honoured Singaporean pastime of COMPraining').

Also sadly I feel compelled for completeness's sake to link the insufferable half_sleeping's ONE-LINER Singapore!Hetalia fic:

This features Singapore+China, Singapore v.s. Malaysia, Singapore being a kichiku megane, and America v.s. Singlish.

This features the Singapore/Malaysia split. Singapore and Malaysia have the kind of relationship that I would read copious fanfiction about. Sadly I doubt it will ever exist, simply because there are few who have (a) adequate familiarity with the source material and (b) the willingness to write about it in the Hetalia setting. I am not even adding (c) ability to do it justice to the mix.

And Ghis before you complain I no link ze the other Singapore fic, IT IS LOCKED.

EDITED TO ADD: I AM VERY HAPPY! half_sleeping has ACTUALLY WRITTEN Singapore independence fic! dammit Singapore is so hot in it. ♥__♥

Can't sleep, there's a stranger in my room.

( why are people always unconscious on that couch of MINE? )

This is the expression on my face, really, right now.

PS: Please witness desumethis's pictoral rendering of half_sleeping. IT IS A THING OF BEAUTY AND A JOY FOREVER. PLEASE TELL HER YOU LOVED IT IF YOU DID. I KNOW I DID.

Because yukitsu asked what I was doing up so late: I got back home at around 12.30am (having left the house in the morning some 20 minutes after being roused), so there was no actual time to do this in the Halloween hours in my country - HOWEVER, many of you on the flist are STILL in Halloween, so HAVE AT THIS:

dear nice people on my friends-list:
I have spent hilarious moments of today:

(1) laughing at the horrible things you have made people do for the halloween trick/treat meme;
(some of you are real sadists)
(2) laughing at the horrible things you have had to do for the aforesaid meme;

so I declare you don't have to do anything for THIS:
TAKE IT IT'S YOURS!



( if you REALLY want to make me happy, though: )

(  U N D E R C O V E R  )

I have always meant to link little_ribbon the art from this site, just because:

THIS is hands-down the sweetest and most sugartastic Ratatosk art site I have EVER found. It's VIOLENTLY Emil/Marta, and looking at it continuously will give you (a) diabetes; (b) toothache; (c) TERMINAL W.A.F.F. When I first saw it I thought, "This is the site that could convert me to het" - and then I played the game and decided I wanted on that ship anyway.

( I am the biggest sucker in the entire universe, or, My favourite scenes from Knights of Ratatosk Emil/Marta canon. )



( BEHOLD, THE ART. )

If you go around her site, you will find MORE. She does quite a lot of modern!Emil/Marta (it's really Marta/Emil, eheheh) that I quite like, too.

( I have this theory that she doesn't draw Richter much because she cutes him up. )

( MORE )

Had to go back to office again on the weekend, but the important thing is:

I HAVE STARTED LURING PEOPLE BACK TO MY HOME WITH THE PROMISE OF RICHTER. \O/

One of them is passed out on my couch now. :D :D :D (she is sleepy)

Italian food + Ben & Jerry's ice cream + long dog conversation with friend + my mom + THIS:

Exchange between me & friend
me: ... is there anything in the game you want to see?
her: I don't care what it is you do as long as I get to see more of the redhead.

♥ That's the kind of thing I like to hear.

Also this is more a note for my own remembrance than anything else, but today I finally did the MAN UP thing and FINISHED THE RICHTER SIDEQUEST (oh my aching heart), but on the unexpected upside I now have, as a direct result of all that Richter interaction, the GAYEST TITLE KNOWN TO MAN.

(See, I thought Emil's "Destined Partner" title came from Marta interaction, but NOOOO. And if THAT wasn't gay enough, the flavour text certainly is. COME ON WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO THINK of, "Was it really fated from the beginning? Is it something we can't change?")

because I pretty much NEVER post I am reposting this post:

My Internet is STILL DOWN, so I am posting this from little_ribbon's hostel - she is REFUSING to allow me to watch Merlin until I finish this post. SO I WILL MAKE THIS QUICK. ... for a given value of quick.

SO Last year lacewood, cynic_in_charge and I went to visit the Night Safari's Halloween Horrors, and that was FUN. This year, the both of them having ABANDONED ME this country for CANADA, I went with rei_kurasaki, little_ribbon and Kimberly.

BEFORE the trip they had all been over my house and I had HAPPILY INFECTED THEM WITH MY NEW OBSESSION: TALES OF SYMPHONIA 2: DAWN OF THE NEW WORLD / KNIGHTS OF RATATOSK. I love Emil, and to my great surprise and shock, I really really really like Richter. Richter looks like the love-child of Jade and Asch with Dist's fashion sense, and Richter is my hero ♥ He's smart and really cool and distant and TOTALLY NOT AT ALL THE KIND OF CHARACTER I NORMALLY GO FOR (cough cough Emil: small and blond and cute and with the biggest puppy eyes ever). BUT YES. ( :D )

ANYWAY THAT WAS SUPER FUN, because then we went for dinner and SO MANY THINGS BECAME ALL RATATOSK-ESQUE'D - we were talking about having oyako-don and then Kimberly said, "ARE YOU A DOG OR A MAN", and Sam said, "I DESPISE PEOPLE WHO CAN'T THINK FOR THEMSELVES" and... and then Kimberly pushed up NONEXISTENT glasses and said, "COURAGE IS THE MAGIC THAT TURNS DREAMS INTO REALITY". oh god and then I laughed SO HARD ROFL. Even when we were waiting for the tram, I leaned on a different side of the railings from the others and was, "LOOK I'M DIFFERENT FROM ALL OF YOU" and it turned into YET ANOTHER "WE DESPISE PEOPLE WHO CAN'T THINK FOR THEMSELVES" moment. We were standing at another long-tailed bush rat exhibit and somehow the conversation turned into, "You let your Uncle Alba push you around" and more COURAGE BEING THE MAGIC happiness.

oh but the part that made me laugh so much is that now when we're apologising, we're channelling Emil. And right at the end of the night when we were having Ben & Jerry's, this SUPER CREEPY (but very pretty!) freaky extra-mouthed gothic Lolita girl came up to Kimberly, and STOOD THERE FOR A VERY LONG TIME JUST STARING AT KIMBERLY WITH REALLY HUUUGE EYES (Lin can still see her when she closes her eyes)... and Kimberly hunched over and went, "... I'm sorry..."

... oh god and then Lin and Sam and me burst out laughing.

ANYWAY BACK TO THE ORIGINAL STORY BEFORE IT WAS DERAILED BY RATATOSK: Night Safari's having a Return of the Halloween Horrors, and it is AMAZING. IT IS SCARIER THAN IT LOOKS ON THE VIDEO OKAY, because, it is AT NIGHT, and it is IN THE TROPICAL RAINFOREST. Which ALWAYS makes the Malayan horror aspect REALLY REALLY TERRIFYING. ANYWAY! I thought the Night Safari had been done up really beautifully: they had a giant animatronic horror pumpkin-head tree at the visitors' entrance, which would rise up and roar with unholy laughter, and they had LOADS of costumed horrors wandering around: the Tin Man who'd taken his quest for a heart to the extreme lengths of looking for REAL human hearts, bloody!Cinderella with a very real-looking glass slipper in her forehead, a creepy, creepy dim-sum seller with... REALLY SPECIAL FRESH DIM SUM, a psycho farmland Ronald McDonald, Nightmare Before Christmas-esque gothic horrors... together with the usual suspects: Scream!masked caped mysteries, creepy crones, butcher-knife wielding maniacs, caped vampires (DO WE DAZZLE YOU)... and MORE.

We went for the scary-fied Forest Giants Trail - the suspension bridge had been turned into the Bridge of No Return, complete with freaky people and freakier props. And the rest is cut (in case you want to go and be surprised) for the ( TERRORS OF THE TROPICAL RAINFOREST. )

Also, the ride that's REALLY worth your money? It's the Train of Terror and Gate to Neverland. It's just three dollars extra to get onto that train, and in all our opinions, it was MORE THAN WORTH THREE DOLLARS. On the train of terror, you get taken through the Night Safari with CREEPY COMMENTARY. Such as when the ordinary guide would tell you, "A pelican's beak can hold up to 30 gallons of water", the Terror Train guide would cackle and tell you in a veeeeerrry witchy voice, "A pelican's beak is big enough to hold a human head... or two." There would be SPECIAL EMPHASIS on the bite strengths of various predators and just what would be lurking in the looong grass.

BUT THE REALLY FREAKY PART is the Gate to Neverland. (BAD ENOUGH THAT IT MAKES YOU THINK OF ENTERING MICHAEL JACKSON'S DOMAIN). This year's theme was TWISTED FAIRYTALES.

( CUT FOR SCENES OF EXTREME GORE AND HORROR )

AND NOW I MAY HAVE MY MERLIN.

(edit a million years later: Here is a super detailed Halloween Horrors tour review of it - don't see if you don't wanna be spoiled!

I type this from a public library as the recent Sumatran geological phenomenon has caused a disruption to the Internet services at my home. Because there are things I need to say! Also the library internet service crawls like a crawling thing (and I am paying for this! ... or rather, using an ancient account balance D:)!

Obviously nothing makes me want to post more than NOT being able to post. I was going to make this entry while waiting for our defendants to deliver documents unto us, but they appeared before I could start on it*.

narugami! I GOT YOUR POSTCARD! ♥ Thank you so much, it was the sweetest thing ever! ♥ I saw it when I got home late one night from the office (again), sitting there sweetly with the breakfast things on the table, and I was *________________________* IT'S SO LOVELY :D Especially the adorable doodle of the equally adorable Luke-bocchama on it. ♥ *SQUEALS, AND HUGS YOU, WITH JOY*

ALSO ALSO REBORN FANS SHOULD SEE emmayori's Reborn Macro Post. ... there is this one Yamamoto & His Bat macro that has the UTTERLY BIZARRE AND UNPRECEDENTED effect on me of somehow making me LIKE Yamamoto. IT'S SO CUTE, REALLY, GO LOOK AT IT. ♥ I have memorised(!) the entry under my "THESE PEOPLE ARE AWESOME" category. :D :D :D Because it is! And they are!

Also I am cheerfully playing Knights of Ratatosk, and if I had the Internet this journal would probably be a game blog. EH HEH HEH. BUT IT IS NOT YET. It's so much fun. I want to drag everyone I know to my home so I can show them the game and play it for them.

Also I seem to be pathologically unable to shake off my tendency of somehow managing to follow RP-ers on my friendslist - even if they are anonymous or have dropped the characters and associations, I SOMEHOW STILL MANAGE TO FIND THEM AND THINK THEY ARE WONDERFUL. ♥ AND THEN I DISCOVER THAT THEY ARE ON MY FLIST. OR SOMETHING. There was a CFUD Richter (who has since dropped the character) that pretty much spoiled me for every other Richter ever (including the canon version, probably, ahahaha) - and then I discover that the player's on the (other) flist, and that we met in the Tales of the Abyss fandom.

FUN TIMES. (IN A) Small World.

*Yesterday I was forced to spend Friday night in my delightful office for a document review on documents served on us laaaaate by our equally delightful defendants. However! My very nice friends came down to my office area (from their earlier designated dinner location) so it would be easier for me to meet them. I was very touched. ♥

So I was doing research (Sam will KNOW WHY) and I found THIS JOKE which I feel compelled to share with all of you.

Cut for obnoxious lawyer joke. the punchline is an old one, but THE FUN IS IN THE TELLING.

( how you can be married 10 times, and still be a virgin. )

This post is here because I refuse to correct English for work anymore. For tonight, at least.

Everyone who likes Neil Gaiman should read 20 Neil Gaiman Facts. They are about wildly fascinating things such as Neil Gaiman being able to tweet 175 characters.

Also, as promised to rei_kurasaki: (YOU WOULD NOT BELIEVE THE KIND OF STUFF I HAD TO READ TO GET TO THIS)

Knights of Ratatosk Fic Recs
PLEASE NOTE: ALL FIC LINKS ARE FULL OF SPOILERS
(Note: ALL the best fanfiction is FULL OF SPOILERS. ALL of it.)

1. Post-game: Truce, described as "Ratatosk/Richter, Emil/Richter, implied Aster/Richter".

2. Pre-game: Growing Pains: Aster + Richter.

3. Post-game: Reality Making Magic: Emil + Richter (this was O.K.) and Ratatosk + Richter interaction (this was PRETTY GOOD). The ending describes perfectly how I feel after having to listen to the whole 'Courage is the magic' spiel so. MANY. TIMES. during the FIRST HOUR of gameplay.

... there is more fic out there, but I am Not Sure You Would Like It.

Also, you should read the TV Tropes entry on Knights of Ratatosk.

THIS link is PURELY FOR THE LULZ: Desperado Tango - A Richter/Emil Musical FST.

The Knights of Ratatosk Game Script is FULL OF GAY I mean, fun.

Major picture source here!

( KNIGHTS OF RATATOSK - LONG STORY SHORT, AND LOTS OF PICTURES. )

This is one of the rare weeks in Rebornland when following BOTH the anime and manga is paying MAJOR dividends.

first! the manga:
supermassive raw DL for Chapter 252, PLUS:
spectacular word-for-word translation for Chapter 252.

BASICALLY, IF I AM ALLOWED TO SAY THIS MUCH,
Irie pretty much answers a lot of the questions we've wanted answered since his whole BYAKURAN IS ALL MY FAULT statement.

Also I think that this chapter makes him the most awesome badass normal person in Reborn.

( SPOILERZ FOR 252 )
AND NOW FOR THE MANGA.

So we've gone into the Arcobaleno arc, which is where the manga & anime part ways and where the anime goes skipping happily into Fanservice Land.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Summary of Episode 144
You can watch a small and quick-loading version here @ onepieceofbleach, or a bigger version here @ watchanimenow.

Now, Episode 144 is good for these things:

( Ken's Caught-In-the-Act-of-Dere Tsundere face. )

( Gokudera/Tsuna teamup :D )

THIS IS THE BEST PART

( Tsuna telling Hibari to SUCK IT )

( Tsuna pulling the badass act on Mukuro )

( the big reveal which surprises no one )

Anybody who likes dragons or Star Trek should read pellucere and t_lyrical's Temeraire / Star Trek Reboot crossover. Spock is French and this makes me giggle. Also do try pellucere's Temeraire-verse McCoy vs. Koala Fight. She calls it 'everything i know about koalas i learned from wikipedia', I prefer 'Dammit, Jim, I'm a doctor, not a koala wrangler'. NO I AM NOT SUBTLE.

Also I have a song I wish to share with you, but especially for fapstomusic, as promised:

California Sex Lawyer
Fountains of Wayne
(The song that everybody wishes they put into their Apollo Justice fanmix.
HA HA HA. I LAUGH.)
This post on hitman_reborn yielded:

( official art that made me think steampunk!Reborn )
Just the other night I went for a dinner at which one of the attendees was a sweet little girl learning to play Twilight music on the piano. (No, she hasn't read the books).

I feel compelled to share this with you:
( sparkling vampires are the disease. he is the cure. )

glockdown wrote the roundabout retrieval of yamamoto takeshi, the continuation, companion piece to The Life and Death of Mister Honda.

Looking back, The Life and Death was the first story that did the most to change the way I felt and thought about Yamamoto, just like half_sleeping's Do-over did the most to change the way I felt and thought about Irie Shouichi. I am one of those people for whom influencing thought is best expressed this way: if you want to change my mind, you have to first change my heart; it is easiest to change the way I think if you can first change the way I feel. In fandom terms, this means, Give me more than what canon is giving me, show me a reason to change my mind.

Also you need to read these Irie insights for Do-over and Top Five Reasons for Irie to Hate The Mafia.

AND NOW FOR THE FUN CROSSOVERS

( that fic by that egomaniac )

AND AND AND, ON AN UTTERLY AMAZING 100% CAPSLOCK-WORTHY NOTE, kye_kestrel's REBORN/TEMERAIRE CROSSOVER.

I have always been obsessed with dragons in KHR ever since this artwork and my ensuing Reborn/Eragon crossover dreams, but I never, EVER thought I would actually see a Reborn/Temeraire crossover. I REALLY REALLY WANTED YAMAMOTO TO HAVE A DRAGON (( click and bold for spoilers ), and clearly my want for this is so huge it will overlook Gokudera being that dragon. :D :D :D

khr_undercover is open for a second round of signups, closing on 30 June, guys, so go for it! The present signup list is already making me grin from ear-to-ear with expectation: check out the first round of revealed!entries if you want to know what I'm talking about.

I must admit the only two writers I was able to guess were half_sleeping's Student, Scientist, Soldier (Spy), because nobody writes Irie like she does (she has a very distinctive writing voice), and also because her feelings for Gokudera are so painfully, painfully obvious; and demoerin's My Family and Other Animals (that are on Fire.), because when I read that title I was coming back from a late night at work and was cranky as hell, but one look at that title and I was lit up grinning from ear to ear. I knew who the author was by the time I read through the author notes, but that's probably because we interact. *grin*

The first round kind of scuppered my plans to find the sappiest 5927 fic and name half_sleeping as the writer, but I am holding out hopes for the next one. :D :D :D

Some of my Favourite Stories From Writers signing up for the second round of signups
(that's what happens when you're somebody with a text-based memory, you see: every time I see someone's LJ name I instantly think of all the stories they've written before that make me happy):

☆lysapadin's Supplemental Forms: Yamamoto returns from the TYL!future. It has wonderful Tsuyoshi and Yamamoto interaction, and it's the kind of Yamamoto fic that has the power to make me grin from ear to ear because it's just that beautifully written. ( :D )

★ lysapadin's They Also Serve (Part 1) and Part 2. This was also a khr_undercover entry, ( to say I enjoyed it enormously would probably be a horrific understatement )

☆tongari/desertidal's the average of the average is average. YES I'VE REC'D THIS BEFORE. AND I'M REC'ING IT AGAIN. COME ON IT IS CORPORATE AU REBORN, summarised as "a corporate AU where throwing glasses at people's heads results in lawsuits and might have eventually nurtured xanxus to be a gentler sort of employer." HOW DO YOU EXPECT ME TO NOT ALREADY LOVE THIS STORY.

( Also she wrote the kind of 8059 story that I will read on the strength of fic author + fic title alone. )

★ half_sleeping's Chapter 9 update for Of the Highest Order, a Reborn/Dresden Files crossover. AFTER A NEARLY FOUR MONTH WAIT. If you are not reading this story or the Dresden Files yet WHY NOT, also you can meet such nice fellow OTHO fans over here. It is full of Irie being AWESOME.

WARNING: SPOILERS FOR Reborn Chapter 243

MARRY ME TENTH



(this picture! it has served me so well on so many occasions!)

HOW'S THAT FOR BADASS MAFIA BOSS

this! this is! so so SO much love ♥: ps: yamamoto, he is in EXACTLY THE RIGHT PLACE, I am so happy. (Now if only Tsuna would switch places with Irie, that would be perfect).

You MUST, MUST, MUST see liviapenn's gender-reversed Star Trek 2009 cast picspam. I took ONE LOOK at who they'd chosen for Kirk and I was, "YES!!! YES!!! YES!!! ABSOLUTELY!" (I love that girl! She's in Chuck! I ship her/Chuck SO BAD!) - also omg girl!Bones kind of looks perfect, and girl!Spock is too goddamn pretty. And girl!Chekov EEEEEEEEE. Just EEEEEEE. You'll understand.

Because I love bad hilarious pickup lines, and because fic exists for Spock attempting the art of pickup lines: see It's Cultural. ontd_startrek took it up, and now you

MY FAVOURITES
( If I were assigned to program the universal linguacode matrix I would re-order the vowels 'U' and 'I' to share a closer proximity. )
I know just about everybody and their Tribble is on about the Kirk/Spock, but I really think I'm more about the kirk_mccoy. Or the Spock/McCoy, even. There was literally this moment in which I could have gone either way, Kirk/Spock or Kirk/McCoy - I don't have this for every series, my usual tactic is to go for one thing, and one thing ONLY, right from the get-go. And then I learn to disguise my passionate devotion to that one pairing a little better by branching out into reading others, but really.

I suspect what tipped me that one way was londondrowning's I'm Just A Jealous Guy and The Illustrated Man.

Also, for fun gen, read How to Avoid Kicking Puppies and Other Valuable Lessons in Leadership. I know I read everything with a fascinating title, but this, really! Kirk tries to be an authority figure, and fails somewhat.

I suspect part of the reason I'm into the Kirk/McCoy is to see how many variations of, "Damn it, Jim, I'm a doctor, not a [insert profession of choice]!' writers can come up with. ( keeping score. )

I have been listening to FF9's orchestral version of Vamo alla Flamenco obsessively. It's full of audio happy. Also, branchandroot's Reborn meta, here it is. Naturally I am not always 100% in agreement, but I agree often enough to surprise myself.