the stars like dust

Inception story. Not sure if there'll be a sequel, but I would like to do one if it comes.
( Eames and Arthur have a history. )

I love manga unashamedly, for many, many reasons. Then again, so much manga hits my MAJOR SQUICK RUN buttons that I go through periods of adoring it and running far, far away. Currently, I am in a flood season of manga once again. All sorts, but today is a yaoi kind of day.

Things I Learned in Yaoi Manga This Week,
a short list but full of wonders
by stungunbilly

• Cuteness in a man is a strong indication of gayness! If you're in a yaoi manga, that is Too bad there are no such clear markers in the real world!
• For a number of mangaka, the distinction between "adorable like an infant bunny" and "hot as burning" seems not to exist. This... freaks me out traumatically.
• Yakuza are dangerous, but not as much as they are sexy.
• High Schools are chock full of empty rooms that can be locked for assignations (at least in Japan).
• The Japanese school system only hires good-looking men under the age of 25.
• Aliens always come to Earth looking for sex. Yeah, I already knew that.*g*
• "No" may mean "no", but "ie" doesn't mean that at all...
• Regardless of how they treat women, handsome men are always surrounded by hordes of fanatical women dying to sacrifice themselves.
• ...But don't worry, they are almost certainly gay and in love with some big-eyed uke who is completely oblivious. Women saved!
• There are a huge number of princes roaming around, destined to inherit the thrones of extremely obscure kingdoms.
• Pirates are secretly very caring, hard-working individuals.
• Transfiguration into an animal will leave you with cat ears nine times out of ten.
• Glasses are not merely symbols of studious intelligence; they are also a good way to recognize a man who likes to wield the whip.
• Fine, so he likes to make you cry. Don't judge! He probably only messes with you out of lust love! All is forgiven with orgasms, right?
• Almost every well-mocked cliche of hurt/comfort slash is one of the mainstays of yaoi manga. Cultures vary, but people are people.

And finally:

• All that stuff about how women don't like visual porn is totally ludicrous as a generalization.

Hello!

I'm stungunbilly, here as on livejournal, as on insanejournal. I've seemingly imported the lion's share of my entries, though unfortunately not the memories which I use to organize the bits and bobs of writing I do. Hopefully that will change soon.

My current primary fandom is Merlin, and my subfandom is the absorption of massive quantities of what yaoi manga I can find that is 1)completely translated 2)starring adults and 3)entertaining.

I'm also waiting v.v. impatiently for the discs of the second half of season two of Torchwood. Jack!

So, that's me; tell me what you're into. Pimp, if you wish; I love when folks get excited and also? I'm kind of easy.

I love new things, shiny things, and fandom. This whole dw thing makes me really happy.

I think the following comes to approximately 2000 words. It amuses me to think about, but it isn't an actual story. More a concept natter.
( Guinevere is my tv girlfriend. )

One of the reasons I love Merlin fandom so much is that it's made me want to write.

( Here at the end of all things. )

Things I Learned on the Internet Today: Version Merlin RPF (with links)
by stungunbilly

• Bradley James is the unholy, time-travelling British lovechild of Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki. Or, okay, he's just big-eyed and pretty-faced and charming and bouncy. And exudes friendly homoeroticism. Is a ridiculous goofball.
• He's also King, no, Prince Arthur. I may heart him madly. No, seriously, I want to feed him steak  and make him wear eyeliner.
• Bradley is very oppressed.
• When fan fiction writers depict Merlin or his actor, Colin Morgan, as emotional, well. It's accurate characterization. Upon notice he'd been selected for the role of Merlin, Colin says   "I ran around my house screaming". He also tells us that he was selected for the role based largely on a personality that matches Merlin's, so there you have it.
• Angel Coulby, who plays Gwen, is older than the boys and obviously not trained to kill with ninja-like stealth. Otherwise, I suspect there'd be no more Merlin.
• She's truly breathtaking.
• Colin Morgan was in an Almodovar play, and is a Pratchett fan. Way to combine gay cred with hot geekdom, Colin.
• Both Angel and Colin guest-spotted on Doctor Who. Which leads to:
• RTD is like an English Joss Whedon, and obv. knows how to set up hot RPS connections for the fans. And he has Whedon on the floor and begging when it comes to hot-glbt-on-screen.
• Colin's kind of amazingly gorgeous in a geeky way.
• Anthony Head, while handsome and talented and rather ridiculously beloved by the entire World Fandom, allows himself to be led astray by foolish children (note final thirty seconds of film).
• Morgana le Fay is portrayed by Katie McGrath, who would like to see action figures of Merlin, Gwen, Morgana and Arthur. You speak to my heart, Katie. I too want tiny dolls to force into compromising positions.
• Katie was allowed to use her natural Irish inflection because Colin can do an English accent so well. This is clearly a sign from above that Merlin/Morgana is destined to boom. Or that I think Northern Irish accents are hot, one of those.
• Apparently (according to my research assistant, Monsieur Google) Katie McGrath and Angel Coulby live in different universes except when on screen together. This is wrong, very wrong. Will write drabbles for vids of them chatting and/or exchanging bodily contacts.

ETA: Apparently, there is such a thing as an "Arthur-Merlin Protocol".
"A problem is considered to be decidable if whenever the answer is "yes", Merlin has some series of responses which will cause Arthur to accept at least 2/3 of the time, and if whenever the answer is "no", Arthur will never accept more than 1/3 of the time."

This needs to be a modern au, I think. Most likely cyberpunk.

Hey Everybody,

Long time no post at all, longer time since any really active posting.  I'm going to keep my first post of the new year brief. Got a couple of things to say, so here goes.

First, 2008; painful year for me, I tell you truly. I disappeared for the most part, and have been fairly incommunicado for a lot of it. My job and the SO and the cat are holding out fine. Other things have happened that make me too sad to talk about on livejournal yet. But I'm starting to come out of the fuzzy grief fogs, and I'm looking forward to 2009 being pretty awesome.

I'm especially happy about Obama taking over the White House, of course, but this isn't really the kind of blog for political commentary, so...

On to the fun and fandom part of this post, brought to you by the Beeb.

Merlin!

What's not to love? We have the matchmaking slashdragon, Tony Head as Teh King, a prattish prince who frequently needs rescuing, a lady and a maid who are interesting,slashable and endearing, and we have a young man with a BIG SECRET WHICH MIGHT TURN HIS FRIENDS AGAINST HIM. Oh noes!

There are already a number of worthwhile stories to read, and more being produced all the time. I'm even feeling some temptation to write in this one. How about the AU where Merlin and Arthur are homeless guys in London? Merlin has the power to summon cats (by taking off his shoes) and Arthur is the Prince of the Parking Lot (after the worker drones have gone home, naturally.)

So with a new President on the horizon, and a lot of professional challenges, and some awesome new fandom content to enjoy, I'm eager to begin 2009.

Enjoy your bubbly, people. You make the bad bearable and the good better.

Stories I Long to Read, Or: What Does the ACLU Say about Enslaving Fiction Writers?

SPN RPS:

• The one where Jensen Ackles loses his looks.  Not a horrible accident or anything, just age and thinning hair and plumpness and dry lips and a bad case of skin problems, and of course he thinks his career will tank and nobody will ever love him again. He's had two wives and three children, and now he's divorced and trying to keep himself together, drinking a little too much and feeling washed up. But he runs into Jared, who is doing blockbusters, and finds out that Jared used to be in love with him. He tries to hide his stomach and wears makeup and a toupee, thinking he can fool Jared into seeing him as the same guy, but of course Jared sees right through it. And it turns out that Jared's still pretty crazy about him, and it never had anything to do with his looks at all. And he starts getting parts he wouldn't have gotten before, and realizes that his pretty face was only the icing on the cake.
• That story, you know the one, with Jared and Jensen's housewarming party? Where they wake up half-drunk and obviously well-laid, but neither of them can remember who they slept with? Needless to say, someone else at the party must know, so they begin a campaign to find out. And the ending really writes itself, doesn't it?
• Misha Collins falls in love with Jeffrey Dean, and Jared and Jensen aren't gay at all, and still have to try and help the two meet up. Then they spend so much time rationalizing the whole thing that they start questioning each other's orientation. It's a game of finding evidence that the other one is attracted to men, with every likelihood of causing serious trouble. Meanwhile, Jeffrey and MIsha have a short, intense affair that leads to drama and lengthy articles about Jeffrey's penchant for infidelity. The J's try to quit the game, but find that it has lingering consequences.

Bandom:

• FOB is making a new album. Too bad Pete's deal with the forces of darkness is coming due. Patrick's going to be really pissed.
• Pete's a cab driver who wanted to be a rock star. Patrick's a rock star who hates the business. Three hours in traffic can change your life.
• The last time Frank Iero saw Gerard Way, they both had bruised faces and blood on their knuckles. Wife-swapping didn't work so well for them. When Ray Toro talks them both into a reunion tour, they both have to confront their history.

Kids in the Hall RPS:

• If Bruce McCullough weren't such a scheming slut, Kevin McDonald would still have the love of Dave Foley. Scott Thompson and Mark McKinney have 24 hours to seduce Bruce into dumping Dave, or Kevin is going to leave the Kids and the whole show may fall apart. But what Mark doesn't know is that Scott has loved him for years. Can Scott stay, if Bruce, that little tramp, steals Mark's heart?

The following list is partial, and should be taken with a heaping spoonful of salt.

• Jensen Ackles is pretty the way elves are magical; you don't have to see it for yourself, you just need to see the pixie dust swirling in the air where he's been.
• Jeff Morgan's personality is primarily defined by his gruff voice and ownership of a small dog.
• There is no place that Eric Kripke won't go when it comes to making his show a metaphorical bouncy castle for the fans.
• Nobody wants to actually be THAT FAN, but fandom lights up like the Vegas skyline whenever Jensen and Jared demonstrate that they are heterosexual life partners.
• Reports fail to show if anyone has actually climbed Jared Padalecki like a tree, but the potential is obvious to everyone.
• Chad Michael Murray's popularity is not adversely affected by his being considered a douche by most of North America and parts of Europe.
• Co-dependence is hot when it's on television.
• Jared knows what we like to hear and gives it to us, bless his giant heart.

Like a fish with a purple elephant head, I've been feeling a little at odds with myself.

Let me make a nice list on the subject. I've been:

1. Consuming more published works than fan works; and more weirdly, almost as much visual media or audio books as written works.
   
2. Getting a bit ambitious in my work. Still working on a plan for school.
   
3. Biking around the neighborhood of an evening for fun alone.
4. Taking up interest in houseplants, especially orchids. My work desk is a little paradise, now!
   
5. Actually spending more online time playing Kingdom of Loathing (www.kingdomofloathing.com) than reading anything.
   

But the balance has been restored. I read a really enjoyable Clark/Lex story by bagheera_san, and fell for Clark and Lex again for maybe the fifth time. "Inseparable" was written for a contest by PL Nunn, and whisks the boys to a mythical land where they are, naturally, handcuffed together with special cuffs, which thankfully prevent Clark from ruining the plotline with his powers. Faced with pretty boys bathing in rivers and the forced proximity of passionate enemies, the convincing balance of hostility and repressed desire, and Pam's pretty pictures, can anyone blame me for  my deep appreciation of the Lemurian leadership?

Oh! And I also have just this moment watched up through episode 9 of 11 of Zettai Kareshi. Which I really love, in the most sincere and non-cynical way. I was probably warped by reading I, Robot at a very young age.

Zettai Kareshi includes:

1. A love robot, utterly handsome and devoted. Perhaps a little overenthusiastic.
2. A lonely young woman, sincere and sweet, yet downtrodden. She can make delicious pastries when not angsting over her failures in romance.
3. A young heir to a fortune he has no interest in, with a strong emotional attachment to really good cream puffs.
4, A mad scientist with a genuine fondness for his creation.
5. A kindly, wise bar owner, who hires anyone who is at loose ends in the plot.
6. Random unkind yet potentially salvageable people, including:
       a. A false friend, who enjoys dating only those who belong to others.
       b. A cranky brother, given to eating cake with an extremely constipated expression.
       c. A desperate housewife  landlady, who really ought to get her own lovebot, since she's funnier than the heroine.
       d. Evil corporate "chiefs", ready to throw aside the creation of worthwhile goods in favor of profits.

And more!

It's adorable.

Now I crave Japanese television. Arigato gozaimashita, zany Japanese tv execs.