Weather here has been upside down ever since that shortish heat-wave in June. It's been overcast mostly, very dark, strangely chilly but still muggy, and in 30 seconds, all daylight can disappear and we have a rainstorm with or without either hail or thunder. O.o

My comment to the weather whenever it does this: Okay! (And I do mean it as in the F_W "Okay!" because, really, what can I say? Fucking bitchy weather that never stop being passive-aggressive. Yes, this weather is passive-aggressive.) It also makes me feel really crummy, because of the air pressure going up and down like a yo-yo. Mostly down, and then down a bit more... Like cats (or most of them, anyway), I can't keep my eyes open before it rains. So, this means there's a lot of "Ugh! *falls into a coma*" here. :(

Ah, and now it rains again.

I've fallen terribly behind on those 50 000 words for July. ( Cut because this got long and rambling about writing, music, food, personal things, and winning )

No, not Merlin. You'll never see me talk about that ever again. Torchwood.

( You know there'll be spoilers here, even a mood has been a spoiler this week )

Title: The Road to Truth, 1/?
Authors: nishi_shinji and ldybastet
Characters/Pairing: Byakuya/Renji
Summary: "The road to truth is long, and lined the entire way with annoying bastards." -Alexander Jablokov
Rating: PG this chapter, NC-17 overall
Disclaimer: Kubo Tite owns the characters and the world of Bleach. We're just trying to put a new spin to it. No people, either real or fictional, were hurt in the writing of this story.
Notes: ~3000 words. Also posted in nishi_shinji's journal.

( The Road to Truth: chapter 1 )

Title: A Day Less Boring
Author: ldybastet
Fandom/Pairing: Kin'iro no Corda (La Corda D'Oro) - Yunoki/Hihara
Rating: R
Summary: Yunoki finds something that gives him an outlet for his frustration at always having to play the kind, gentle and smiling guy that the girls flock admiringly around. If his victim enjoys it or not is a different question.
Content: Dub-con (coercion), genital torture. (It's a really light form of torture though, more like 'pain and definite discomfort'.)
Disclaimer: The characters and setting of Kin'iro no Corda don't belong to me. This is an attempt at transformative work, trying to add a new expression to these characters. No money is earned. No people, either real or fictional, were hurt in the writing of this story.
Notes: 1343 words. Written for my Kink Bingo card; my prompt was genital torture. Beta by the person who lured me into this fandom, misumaru. ♥

( A Day Less Boring )

OMG! I just received a package from nishi_shinji, the one that's been waltzing around the world and got stuck in customs and whatnot, since Christmas. And I am completely stunned.

Among all the wonderful things she sent me - Bleach notebook, necklace, body care kit with beeswax products, lovely incense sticks, letters, manga, books (Pullman: His Dark Materials), and more - she also gave me a very special book. It's especially for me and contains the most important and poignant moments in the lives of Byakuya and Renji, as written and RP'd by the two of us! And it's awesome and gorgeous and lovely, and I am sniffling here, because damn! I'd never imagined, and seen like this, in print, even my words look pretty good! ;) I've read it twice now and it really does tell their love story in those few pages. To me, at least, since I have so many memories attached to this. *happy flail*

Yes, I am so going to show it to my mother. :D

♥ ♥ ♥ Thank you, Nishi!!! *hugs tightly*

Um, so I seem to have committed to writing 50 000 words in July. Ooops. Doing a sort of novel writing thing for this month together with a friend, because November couldn't be more wrong for it, in terms of schedule and scrambling to get things done before xmas month.

If you're interested, we're going to do this every other month... or, well, those months that we can and have time and aren't still ded from previous writing drive. ;) Anyway, we have a shiny comm for it here: nano365.

Now, I'm not going to try my hand at getting stuff done on any original novel idea I have this time. This time, I'm "just" going to really try to get all the fic I've planned for my kink bingo actually written. It might be 50 000 words, it might not. *g* But I hope that I'll, at least, get enough discipline to actually get them done. :)

Speaking of writing, I'm trying to figure out when Renji started to get his tattoos and how quickly they grew... Back when Shuuhei got his facial scars, it looks like Renji has none; when Rukia gets the proposition to join the Kuchiki family, he has started on the freaky eyebrows, but I have no idea how long they've been in the Academy at that point. And I couldn't find a flashback page of early Renji-in-Gotei 13. Hmm. Maybe one of my Renji-obsessed friends can help me out? :D

July is also the month I get another year older, like my mum and my friend reminded me yesterday, pestering me for a list of things I want for my bday. :( I didn't use to dread bdays, but I've since found out they can go horribly wrong... It won't this year, though, because I'm spending it at home, with family. Still, can't help feeling a little flutter of fear, hidden inside. I'll have to get rid of that somehow so I can enjoy my July.

Writing will distract me. :)

So, now it looks like algernon33 only came back to LJ to report me for my dirty habits! ;)

Title: Return to Innocence
Author: ldybastet
Pairing: Severus/Lucius
Rating: NC-17
Summary: Can a lifetime of pure-blood duties and too many years of serving a Dark Lord be set aside as easily as Severus wants? Lucius has no choice...
Content: AU, D/s, shaving
Disclaimer: The Harry Potter universe and characters belong to JK Rowling. I have borrowed them without ill intent and I make no money. No people, neither real nor fictional, were hurt in the writing of this story.
Notes: ~1400 words. 2007 Fantasy Fest fic, written for ishafel who wanted SS/LM; Azkaban; established relationship; Snape is dominant; any kink you like.

( Return to Innocence )

After the weeks of rain and cold we had up to and beyond midsummer, we've now had heat and sunshine. And let me tell you, we are not used to that in this country! The heat is killing me! And houses in this country don't have A/C. If we're lucky, we have windows we can open at opposite ends of our flats/houses, but that's it.

This heat makes me headachy and very tired. I was planning to write, but it's been slow going. Also, after this week's Bleach episode, it's been hard to write too, because ( spoilers )

Speaking of fic... Going through notes and docs and memories on my LJ, I found a fic that I wrote for some kind of challenge on Pornish Pixies, but never posted to LJ or IJ that I can see. I didn't find this one when I went through all my fic posts for reposting in my fic journal, so... I really do think I never posted this outside of PP. I've been debating whether I should just post it to the fic journal or post it here as well...

So, because of this, you might see HP fic within a day or two, but it won't be a newly written one, just never posted here. And that's going to feel weird. I still have a lot of people n my flist who seems to be active in HP, so maybe someone will even read it. *g*

... that has again stirred up wank, which then gave birth to discussion. I've seen other people post their thinky thoughts about it, and here are some of mine:

I warn for content in my fic. I've always seen the warnings as a sort of labelling of content that also works as enticement or advertising when someone who likes those things reads them. So, I list the stuff that's in my fics. I list kinks, I list themes, I list things I know that people might want to avoid, I list things I know people might search for to read.

( Cut because this got long )

I'll just go to bed before I offend more people today. :(

One of these days, maybe I'll learn to phrase my thoughts a bit better and not conflate thoughts about two different but similar things in the same breath.

It's been a long time since I posted these, but real life got very busy there for a while. Anyway, here are more sentences to translate and also the correct answers to the last exercise. If you missed the first exercise I posted, you can find it here, and the second one is here.

Btw, if there's anything in this stuff that seems to not make sense to you, or that you need some explanation of, please let me know and we can try to unravel the mystery together. :) If you need a dictionary to look up some words, try this one: Jisho.org.

( Exercise 3 )
**

( Click for the answers to Exercise 2 )

... a soft and cuddly plushie Byakuya!!! :D

Well, actually he looks really grumpy and unimpressed (like Byakuya tends to do), but I keep squishing him in the hopes that he'll cheer up! LOL

Thank you so much, thepinkrabbit!!! He's adorable! ♥

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by asking you five questions. I warn you now that any questions you get might be incredibly lame, though.
3. You post the answers & questions on your journal.
4. You include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else.
5. Add meme perpetuation line, etc.

misumaru gave me these questions:
1. Which anime/show got you into yaoi?
2. Favourite movie?
3. Favourite anime character?
4. Least favourite food?
5. Itou, Okiayu and Konishi get into a fight for your love - who would win? :P

So... ( These are my answers )

Oooooooh! I just got something in the mail! *beams at misumaru* I has Ukitake cards! Yay! *chews bubble gum* He's so freaking awesome on the one that changes: going from posing in a slightly menacing manner to gorgeous shikai! :) Gods, his zanpakutou is really quite sexy. *fans self* And the little chibi!Ukitake you drew for me! Awwwww, he's so cute! I put him up on the wall next to Byakuya and ByaRen. :) Thank you, honey! *hugs*

A few days ago, I got the Bleach OST CD I'd ordered too. Whee! Still no others available from companies inside the country, but it's okay. I re-listened to the OSTs I have in mp3 format, and there's actually only one track I hate on the first one: Ditty for Daddy. Urgh! While on OST2, there are so many tracks that I can't stand and I keep skipping them. Yeah, it's the one with the Bounto filler music. *skip* *skip* *listens for a few seconds, then skip* *skip* ... LOL

I love and adore the third OST, though. Mmmm, Spanish guitar! (Which reminds me that I am probably going to southern Spain again next year, for another attempt at golf! LOL Damn you, Itou Kentarou for tempting me like that! *shakes fist*)

I had to rearrange my playlists in iTunes the other day. Yes, had to, because I was procrastinating, just like I am now. Well, no. But I noticed that every time I tried to add new tracks to iTunes and dumped them directly into the anime-related music list, it took ages for iTunes to sort them through and tag properly and just do whatever it is iTunes does to the mp3s. So, I began comparing playlists, because that's really the one that I have the most problem with like this. Um, so I found that the anime-related playlist had over 8 GB worth of tracks on it, while the second largest one I have, JRock, only had 5.5 GB. O.o Um, how did that happen???

So, Kin'iro no Corda music now has its own playlist and I left only the songs I listen to the most in the general playlist. And I moved seiyuu singing "real" songs to different playlists too. (JRock and JPop, depending on style.) I mean, Granrodeo got dumped into JRock, while Miyano Mamoru's singles and album were moved to JPop, for instance. *g* And aren't you finding this interesting? LOL Anyway, Kin'iro no Corda ended up with 271 tracks. O.o This includes voice tracks and mini drama as well, of course. I haven't even put everything into iTunes yet! But that's scary. So now the anime-related playlist is down to a tiny 6.75 GB. *sigh*

Tangentially, I think it's a bit unfair to rag on Itou's singing when there are quite a lot of other seiyuu who can't sing their way out of a paper bag. I cringe far more often when Morita is trying to sing, actually. He's doing fairly good in the Kin'iro no Corda character songs, to be fair, but have you heard his Ichigo character songs? Let's pretend that the Kon and Hanatarou songs don't exist, okay? Oh boy. Even hearing Mayuri sing was preferrable! But Morita does look hot. Even my mother thinks so. Or rather, she said he's beautiful. *g* And she found Konishi hot! And Taniyama. My mother, she has taste!

So... what's your fav anime/game character songs? Or fav seiyuu songs? Worst seiyuu singing? Best song? Worst song? *g* Help me procrastinate more!

Or rather, we threw her a party a few days early, because otherwise it would have been far too close to the Midsummer festivities. Everyone are busy then.

We'd planned and planned and looked for places to go, trying to come up with something we knew she would enjoy and that wouldn't be too difficult for people to go to... Our co-worker/friend Elle helped out lots with this. She's a darling these days.

Anyway, she found a castle that none of us had been to that was only about an hour's drive away, so we decided on a picnic. In hindsight, perhaps that wasn't so smart, but we didn't know THEN that it would be raining for three weeks straight! It usually never rains that much for that long before Midsummer! *sigh* Ah well. Ooops. ;) Maybe our planning a picnic with 12 or 14 people is what caused the torrential rains we've had? Usually that's better than any kind of raindance have ever been: plan a picnic, wash the car or the windows, or hang out the laundry to dry outside. Guarantees rain. Not even having brought plenty of umbrellas managed to counter the power of the picnic-magic.

But before we packed everyone into cars, we gathered at my parents' place, toasted her in Champagne and she received a few of her present then (a portrait of one of her dogs, for instance, and a huge patio warmer thingie...). She had no idea where we were going, of course, but she was really happy with the place. Unfortunately, opening presents hadn't been on the schedule before leaving, so we had a late start and missed the only guided tour of the castle for the day. This, of course, means we'll have to go back later this summer. *g*

The closer we got to the castle the more it rained. :( But everyone were in good spirits as we started to unload picnic baskets and things to spread out on the tables and chairs that were provided for crazy people like us next to the café. But one of the staff there felt sorry for us and came out to tell us to get our butts inside and up the stairs where we could sit all of us at one looooong table.

Food was had, and wine for those not driving, and Elle had made a chocolate truffle tarte decorated with strawberries too. Incredibly yummy. I have no idea how she managed all of it, because she was the one making the potato salad and the sliced chicken filets for six people as well. She's been a heroine!

I have to say that I think my mother got everything that she'd put on her gift list. *g* As well as a few other things she could never have imagined. But she's totally worth it!

So... picture time of some stuff I made for her!

( Cut for pictures )

I... um... what?

Here I sat, late morning, thinking a little about what I could do with a section of writing that I have that hasn't really fitted in anywhere. I closed my eyes and began speculating about what kind of background would be needed for this particular scenario to play out. And then I just got this image in my mind, and then Ukitake-taichou peeked in on it too (in my head), and I had the perfect beginning... and Ukitake insisted on more screen-time, and that led perfectly to the discarded scene... and then forward and onward. To an ending.

So, before my mum showed up I started typing away at an outline of what I'd just "seen", and almost finished it by the time she showed up for lunch. The outline is super-long for me: 1200 words! Of outline! Okay, it's scattered with snippets of dialogue too. But still! O.o

Have finished it now. And I guess I'll start writing on it tomorrow. :)

To think that I had planned that the first Kink Bingo fic was going to be the Tattoo one with Hisagi/Renji. Hah! Ah well. I do have a ridiculous 230 words written for that, with about 249 bare words of outline after that. Um. It's slow going for something that seemed to be so natural to write about.

**

I've had a nice lunch of leftovers with mum. *g* Then we took a walk with her dogs, had coffee when we returned, and then she helped me colour the outgrowth of my hair. Apparently she doesn't want to be seen with me all grey and two-coloured (three, counting the grey) at the restaurant tonight. LOL We're going out to eat for the first time in ages. It's silly-expensive to go out here. But we're doing it as part of the celebration of her birthday. On Saturday, we'll have the real "party" for her with presents and stuff.

**

Went to P.O. yesterday to send a package to LA. Hope it doesn't disappear on the way there. *keeps fingers crossed*

Series: Red Pineapple Romance
Title: Punishments and Penalties
Author: ldybastet
Fandom/Pairing: Bleach - Byakuya/Renji
Rating: PG-13
Summary: It's time. Renji won't have to wait any longer to find out what his gigai's mischief is going to cost him.
Disclaimer: The characters and world of Bleach belongs to Kubo Tite. I've borrowed his characters to illustrate a very different scenario from what he'd write. No profit involved.
Notes: ~2280 words. This chapter has been through beta and rewriting and beta and edits. ♥ to nishi_shinji for all the help! This is the sixth part of the series. Previous chapters can be found here.

( Punishments and Penalties )

I'm back with more sentences to translate and the correct answers to the last exercise. If you missed the first exercise I posted, you can find it here.

( Exercise 2 )
**

( Click for the answers to Exercise 1 )

Just ordered books, because I got some extra money from working the weekend. :)

So, I ordered a couple of volumes of Bleach again, and the awesomely gorgeous Japan Style: Architecture Interiors Design, and also Cartographies of Desire: Male-Male Sexuality in Japanese Discourse, 1600-1950, for purposes of research. :)

Note that I didn't actually order them from Amazon. *shudder* Nope. Used my regular in-country company. :) So I get 10 days to pay after receiving the books. And I have a 5% discount with them. Not much, but it's something, at least.

Work this weekend went well. More pleased customers, which is always good. I was drained when I got home last night (after also voting for EU parliament) but I regained energy a lot quicker than I do after the other courses we have. So... I guess that's good.

Have finished the first part of the present for mum's bday. Now I just need to make the second one too. I'll take pictures before they're given away. *g*

I have to admit I'm a bit nervous that mum will be disappointed... Stepdad hasn't managed to get a hold of all the people she'd like to see on her special day. And one of them he didn't bother contacting because they live so far away that he (HE) decided it was too far for them to travel, just to be there on her bday! How can he just decide that for other people? Why not let them make their own decisions? Grrr. Asshole.

Had pizza Friday evening, at my co-worker's. She'd made the dough from spelt, so no regular wheat, but OMG! Ow. I felt very sick and weird and I woke up at 4am when liver said "do not want!" and then couldn't sleep more. Perfect when I had to work all day. :( No more eating of that. Give me my weirdly textured and not as tasty pizza dough made of rice flour, potato starch, and corn starch! My body likes it better and that's what's important. I really shouldn't even try eating grain. Not even once in a while.

Maybe I'll make a pie soon if I have the energy. Either a food-y pie like broccoli and blue cheese, or maybe a strawberry pie. Mmmmm. Not healthy in terms of calories though, but I have managed to start my exercising again.

And rambling on... speaking of exercising, I've noticed that when I do that monotonous act when I can't really do anything else but exercise and listen to my iPod, I manage to circumvent a part of my writer's paralysis! I can plot things out, I can get ideas on dialogue, I can see scenes... :) The stuff that just won't work when my brain freezes every time I try to write. Hah! Another incentive to exercise! As if having gained one size isn't incentive enough! Ick! I feel so uncomfortable.

What else? Hmm... I've watched up to ep 19 of Hetalia Axis Powers. My comment on this series: O.o

It's cute! And incredibly slashy, but... wtf? LOL It makes me laugh, though. And Konishi sounds seriously hot in it! :D

Now reading Kiniro no Corda. Yes, reading. *g* I can't read more than a volume at a time before my eyes go >_< from all the white on the screen, but I like it. Kanazawa says Hihara is Azuma's pet and that he's not trained him properly! It has its slashy moments. :D

Yay for KeyHoleTV! :) I got stuck today watching Japanese baseball! :))))) I haven't been able to watch any damn baseball for years, after cable channels here decided that no one in Europe or Scandinavia watches it and stopped buying airtime for it. So I was very, very happy! Of course, I have no idea what the commentators are saying, but who cares? I don't need them to tell me what's happening on the field. *g* I have no idea who the players are either, but the stats are on the screen. If I could figure out what some of the columns are for. *hugs Nihon TV*

Okay! A post about Japanese that isn't confused rambling only! LOL

So, vayshti said she'd be interested in some practice sentences to translate from an old book I have, so I typed some up to share with all of you. The book has many lessons, and a bunch of sentences to translate attached to each, so they're really silly easy and really stiff at the beginning, and becomes more and more complicated. Of course. Nothing weird about that. I just felt the need to explain why this first exercise is so... lame. *g*

Anyway, if you're interested in a little practice, click the cut. Oh, and no using Google translations or something like that to do this!!! That's cheating. *g* If you need an online dictionary, this one is pretty nifty: Jisho.org.

( Exercise 1 )

So. I'm looking at this kink bingo card of mine, trying to determine what kinks to go for to make an actual line first. And my eyes and my attention keep going back to the "tattoo" square. I feel a desire to write Hisagi/Renji fic for this. :)

The problem (if it can be called a problem) is that the only way I can put this square into a line is by taking a diagonal line of kinks there. This is because the "tattoo" square is blocked on one side by "enemas" and on another by "pegging". I can't and won't write for either of those things. So, I'm stuck with "genital torture", "tattoos", free kink!, "breathplay", and "penance/punishment". *scratches head*

Maybe I should just grab the square that speaks the most to me now, grab a fandom and pairing for it, and just write it? And then take the next that shines the prettiest, and so on? Eventually, I'll probably have a line somewhere. Or not. LOL And who cares?

Wheeeee! I have my Kink Bingo card now! I was the seventh person to sign up, so you see I was rather eager, despite hating on deadlines.

And it's such a good card too! *hugs it close*

( Click to see it! )

Japanese language troubles - I has them

I really have no idea where to start with this topic. *g* So, this will have to be more of a general post about my Japanese learning.

( Cut to save those not so interested in ramblings about the Japanese languages )