Prayers For Rain

Noel

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 22:47:00 GMT

May the despotic robot overlords take pity upon you this joyous holiday season

FIC: Love Letters

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 07:44:22 GMT

Title: Love Letters

Pairings: Kenren/Goujun

Rating: PG-13

Warnings: Sheer fluffitude.

Summary: Kenren needs to have his memo pad taken away.

Disclaimer: Standard disclaimer thingee. Not mine, hers.

Notes:

Gift fic number two for this Christmas, this one to my other Tenpou- or should I say Tempest- puddingcat (yes, Jun here has more than one Tenpou. Feel for him). Months ago puddingcat (with whom I rp on occasion) suggested I choose a Gaiden prompt at one of the smut communities. There were reasons why, which I won’t go into, and I forget which comm it was- but it really doesn’t matter since I never did sign up. Still, part of one of the prompts mentioned “love letters” which got the inner bunnies hopping enough for me to jot down a few notes. Then life got in the way, and the whole thing disappeared for a bit.

But voila! Here’s the rabbit back out of the hat- far too late for its original purpose, but hopefully still able to make my Tempest and everybody else smile this holiday season. Bitty-fic number two, steaming hot with a marshmallow on top!
Warning: this fic is even more mindless than the one I just posted for macavitykitsune . It might tickle your nose, it’s so fluffy.

Love Letters

General,

It having been brought to my attention that you were the primary culprit in the unfortunate incident involving Sergeant Chen and the automatic pitching machine this Thursday last, you will have the honor of leading his morning calisthenics classes until he is able to return to active duty. Please see the attached schedule for the exercise regimens. Classes are daily on the south grinder. I will be expecting promptness and a full curriculum, so alter your schedule accordingly.

Do not expect compensation for the added hours; simply be grateful you will not be replacing the machine out of your own pocket. Consider picking up the baseballs an added bonus.

Goujun, Commander of the Armies of the Western Heavens

Inter-office communicative no. 122409

Commander,

Your wish is but my command. A morning filled with grunting, sweaty men it is. All balls are present and accounted for; if you wish any more bending over or ball searches on my part, just whistle.

Kenren, General XO

P.S. You know how to whistle, don’t you? You put your lips together, and blow.

Inter-office communicative no. 122510

General,

It has been reported that you have been directing the morning calisthenics class from a lawn chair while drinking what has been euphemistically described as a ‘liquid breakfast.’ I need not remind you that if you are again caught violating regulation 14.643.1834.8 Subsection a: Prohibition of the Ingestion of Intoxicating Substances While on Active Duty, you will be duly reprimanded.

I fully expect you to follow through with the intention of the original directive by employing a personal demonstration of technique for each exercise. Please correct these matters immediately.

Goujun, Commander of the Armies of the Western Heavens

Inter-office communicative no. 123105

Commander,

I must state for the record I was merely following your most excellent example of valiantly commanding while sitting in a chair.

Kenren, General XO

Inter-office communicative no. 100210

General,

It is requested that you stay in the designated area for the morning calisthenics class. Simply moving the class to the north parade grounds in order to hide your continued resistance to class participation shows a decided lack of imagination on your part.

My eyes are everywhere.

Goujun, Commander of the Armies of the Western Heavens

Inter-office communicative no. 10109

Oh Commanderly One,

I will from tomorrow onward remove my shirt during class, so that your eyes can more easily view the flex and pull of every muscle as I lead the morning calisthenics class. In this way, you will be sure of my complete participation. Though I respectfully suggest that the next time you try looking through your left window, as it will offer a better view of my backside during the squat thrusts. Last time, the flag pole was in the way of the best parts, if I do say so myself. Unless that shadow in your office wasn’t you.

Kenren, General XOXOXOXOXOXO

Inter-office communicative no. 125510

Commander,

Your lack of a response to inter-office communicative number 105510 was rather disappointing. Don’t you love me anymore? I can still see you up there.

Inter-office communicative no. 125551

General,

Please refrain from using company stationary for your personal correspondences.

Goujun, Commander of the Armies of the Western Heavens

Inter-office communicative no. 130362

Commander Mine,

Did you want personal correspondences? I’m more than happy to oblige. Name the place.

K is for Kisses

Inter-office communicative no. 131428

General,

As of this coming Tuesday you are to be relieved from the position of morning calisthenics instructor. Make an appointment with Sergeant Chen for debriefing before returning to your regular routine.

No puns.

Goujun, Commander of the Armies of the Western Heavens

Inter-office communicative no. 143727

Commander,

Sergeant Chen tells me you haven’t been watching him lead the morning calisthenics class on the south grinder. Strangely enough, I find my mornings free now as well. Maybe we can get together for coffee? It’ll seem like old times.

Kxxx

Inter-office communicative no. 154826

General,

I seem to have been sent a copy of a book called Mythical Beasts of the Far East. Though the book plate claims that it belongs to Marshal Tenpou, the return address on the mailing envelope is listed as your living quarters. Care to explain?

Goujun, Commander of the Armies of the Western Heavens

Inter-office communicative no. 163827

Commander,

If you open to the bookmark on page 354 of said book, you will note that the author makes the claim that the Chinese dragon is “the embodiment of the male principle,” quote unquote. Not wanting vicious and untrue rumors spread about my illustrious commander, I feel I must investigate this allegation quite thoroughly. I was hoping for an evening audience with his immensely well-principled majesty to check it out. I’ll bring the sake.

Inter-office communicative no.135764

General,

Be careful of what you wish for, General, as you may quickly come to regret rousing such an animal from its lair. Believe me, there is nothing about said beast that is mythical. I doubt you have the mettle to be a dragon slayer.

Goujun, Commander of the Armies of the Western Heavens

Inter-office communicative no.142001

Commander,

Try me.

Inter-office communicative no. 142856

General,

Your insubordination will no longer be tolerated. Report to my office tomorrow at 21:41.

Goujun, Commander of the Armies of the Western Heavens

Inter-office communicative no. 143295

Commander,

I stand corrected.

P.S. After last evening’s dressing down, I find I’m missing my belt. Don’t suppose you’ve seen it.

Inter-office communicative no. 143652

General,

There is a potential match to the item in your recent query. Please report to my office Wednesday evening around 19:00 to claim it. Use the back door.

Goujun, Commander of the Armies of the Western Heavens

Inter-office communicative no. 144207

Commander,

Marshal Tenpou has requested he be allowed to accompany me to your office tomorrow evening at 19:00. He claims he’s missing a book, and has been led to believe you might have it.

Plus he doesn’t believe me about the tongue.

Inter-office communicative no. 144763

FIC: Writer's Block

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 05:52:14 GMT

Title: Writer’s Block

Pairings: Tenpou/Goujun

Rating: PG-13

Warnings: Snark warning: A Tenpou in a foul mood is a Tenpou to be feared.

Summary: It’s the eternal question: when courting another man, What Would Confucius Do?

Disclaimer: Standard disclaimer thingee. Not mine, hers.

Notes:

Hoping it would help me get over some writer’s block of my own, here is a small wayward crack bunny belonging to macavitykitsune that she repeatedly put in my lap, refusing to leave me alone until I promised I’d turn it into something. Well, here is… something. (My message to her: Be careful of what you wish for!) Her original concept was the aftermath of a huge crack/angst 10Gou fight over Goujun’s insistence that as king and commander, he had to be the top in bed, and Tenpou’s overreaction to it. A “crangst fic,” I think we called it.

Well, more fluff now than crangst- but I promised to get it out before Christmas, so here it is. A bit of total fluff with a cracked crust, out of the oven just in time for the holidays. Have a Happy Christmas, everyone!

Writer’s Block

“Come on in.”

As usual Tenpou had barely bothered to look up after the knock; though in the end it was rather a good thing he had, as he was technically on duty for at least another hour and some recognition of rank was probably considered necessary. He carefully schooled his face into a Business Mode Neutral before formally nodding his respects to Goujun.

“Ah, yes- you will have to excuse my rudeness, Commander, but my lap is filled with a rather large stack of books and papers at the moment. What can I do for you this afternoon?”

He chose to ignore the rather large bottle of sake tucked underneath the dragon’s arm. The last time Goujun had shown up with a similar bottle, the night had not gone well. Not well, indeed. Amend that; the night had actually gone quite swimmingly until its abrupt and rather nasty ending, when he had booted his half-naked commander out the door, then slammed and bolted said door behind him in case his point had not been sufficiently made. One could only pray that this bottle’s appearance wasn’t some sort of alcoholic omen, warning of a repeat performance of that particular debacle. Goujun hesitated just outside of the threshold, shifting his weight from side to side as if he were making a decision of momentous import (all in all, Tenpou was too charitable to call it waffling as of yet, but give it time), before he gathered sufficient courage to step in across the room’s invisible safety barrier, which apparently only dragons could sense. Tenpou continued to watch without verbal comment as the man slowly picked his way around the various piles of debris towards the guest chair- although it seemed the look in his eyes was comment enough for Goujun, who, if looks did not deceive, was near to jumping out of his skin under the scrutiny. Finally arriving at his destination the dragon carefully set the sake down on a comparatively open spot next to the ashtray. As he busied himself in cleaning the books off of his seat Tenpou’s gaze slid over to the stormy petrel in a bottle, looming ominously on the corner of his desk. The edges of his mouth followed his eyes in their general downward trend as he read what little he could of the label, skewed as it was in Goujun’s direction; it looked to be of a brand even more expensive than the last had been. Beads of moisture welling up on its surface suggested it had been recently chilled, meant for immediate consumption. The decorative ribbon tied around the neck made it look suspiciously like a peace offering.

“Tenpou-san. May I?”

Tenpou slowly turned the scowl from the bottle back to the dragon. His head moved a fraction of an inch in response to the request, letting the man decide for himself whether it was an affirmation or not. Warily eyeing the scowl Goujun sat on the edge of the chair, flight response at ready- so it seemed that his animal instincts were still working, even if the rest of his sense of self-preservation was not. Tenpou’s eyes narrowed into tiny slits as he studied the pale bundle of nerves, trying his best not to make any sudden movements or to otherwise show fear. Interesting… while the sake might have been déjà vu all over again, the notebook tucked under the commander’s arm was something entirely new. As the dragon king was not in the habit of carrying about his own papers (after all, that was what a personal secretary was for), it made one rather curious as to its intended function. Obviously not as fashion accessory… well, assuming the sake sibyl was telling the truth, it could very well be that an eloquent and compelling speech had been prepared for the impending joy of Dragon’s Night Out, Take Two. A sufficient amount of time had passed since his first attempt that Goujun might have had the foresight to actually lay out an argument in advance this time around, at least one with a better proposition than the previous because I outrank you, so there. Perhaps he even went as far as to pen a clever rebuttal or two for a few of the more obvious objections that would likely be raised over the dragon’s Blindingly Obtuse Logic. Indeed, if Goujun was truly about to reattempt the bedding of his subordinate, he would definitely need to do something to prepare himself, because when faced with a miffed and snippy Tenpou, one needed a bit more defense than a bottle of pricey sake and one’s ability to quote verbatim from The Rules and Regulations Regarding Conduct in the Heavenly Military, 105^th Edition. At the very least he should have taken the time to reacquaint himself with The Art of War, because the bugger was definitely going to need it once some of the more explosive epithets started flying.

After an uncomfortable silence in which the dragon opened his mouth not once but three times without significant issue other than hot air, Goujun finally managed to clear his throat to speak.

“I… I had thought that we might talk, Tenpou-san. About our previous discuss-”

Tenpou’s scowl deepened, effectively disemboweling the end of the dragon’s speech. Alas, it seemed there was to be no bombastic, yet entertaining speech for this evening’s playbill; it was to be an emotional and understanding ‘talk’ instead. Not nearly as fun, and on the whole much more painful to deal with. Not to mention more difficult to ridicule without seeming a cruel and insensitive prick. All in all, he’d have to give the commander kudos for a fairly solid opening gambit. Still, said ‘Previous Discussion’ was on the very bottom of an immensely long list of things Tenpou had no interest in ‘talking’ about with anyone, ever, let alone with Goujun, now. His eyes flicked over to the sake bottle in order to make that very point, before sliding their accusatory way back over to the nervous dragon. Goujun shifted in his seat, a picture of complete (though still managing to appear quite regal) misery. Tenpou tried not to be affected by the pitiable sight, tried, but alas, sad dragon eyes were as potent a weapon as those of a lost puppy. Heart infinitesimally softened Tenpou sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, dreading what was to come next; for as attractive as a potential stonewalling was, redirection would only postpone the inevitable, not eliminate it. And despite the potential entertainment value to be found in mentally torturing a dragon, this meeting was otherwise likely to be as painful for him as for Goujun. With that in mind, there really was no reason to drag out his own suffering for any longer than was absolutely necessary, was there? No, there certainly was not. Deep, cleansing breath, then. Time to get it over with. He pushed his glasses up his nose to catch the light.

“And what exactly did you wish to discuss, Commander? I do believe you’ve already made your position with me- or should I say on me- quite clear.”

It was obvious that if the dragon’s cheeks could color, they would. Instead, Goujun seemed to be working on regaining his recently deflated courage by staring holes into his lap, as if the cover of the notebook had an illustration of his own personal cheerleading squad, urging him onward and upward to bigger and better things. Gambatte, Goujun-san! Go, Jun, Go! Tell that upstart where to go! …hm, well. Needed tweaking, but then, he’d never actually written a cheer before. Having found a new shiny to play with Tenpou’s brain wandered away for a bit, searching his inner dictionary for a few relevant rhyme sets to work with. Good hard fuck/ out of luck; he’s the king/ so take his thing; he bought the sake/ so now he’s your jockey… ooh, that last one was rather clever, if he did say so himself. Left to his own devices Tenpou could have spent an immensely entertaining afternoon dreaming up the perfect rhyme (with accompanying dance and tumble, of course), but it seemed the pep team on the notebook had finally finished their routine, as Goujun was opening his mouth to speak again. Oh, well… boo. And the deafening silence had been going so very well between them.

“Yes, well. I have thought long and hard about our earlier… misunderstanding, Tenpou-san. I realize that my words could have been quite easily misconstrued into something with a negative connotation. But please, rest assured it was not my intention to belittle you in any way; it was simply a fault of my upbringing. My therapist tells me that class differences are often the source of unintentional tensions during times of intimacy, and in many cases-”

“Wait, wait, wait- stop. Hold it right there. Therapist? You actually went to see the regimental shrink about this?”

“Oh, no, no. I have my own psychotherapist. Dr. Po.”

Goujun nodded sagely, as if by simply speaking the man’s name everything was suddenly made clear as crystal. The thought of Goujun having a personal therapist at all was enough to make Tenpou’s head swim, let alone the mental image of the Dragon King of the Western Seas, Commander of the Army of the Western Heavens laying on his back on a couch in some office somewhere babbling away about his love life. Assuming the shrink wasn’t spending his fifty-minute hour listening to monologues about troop strengths and the difficulties in importing quality caviar for the royal canapés, this Dr. Po was getting an earful about what, exactly? About Goujun not having had an affair with another man?

“And you told him what happened that night?”

Goujun blinked at him as if he were immensely stupid, or four years old, or both.

“It is called ‘The Talking Cure,’ Tenpou-san. In order to gain benefit from it, some amount of verbal confession is necessary.”

“You told him about us?”

“Well, yes… but you needn’t worry about a scandal. He is quite aware of the penalty should he break the patient confidentiality rule. After all, one must keep one’s head to be a ‘head shrinker,’ as they are so colorfully described.”

That image certainly killed the conversation. Tenpou sat in silence with the specter of Po’s disembodied head staring up at him as it lay bleeding all over the papers in his lap. Goujun waited more or less patiently, eyes intently studying a point just to the right of Tenpou’s head, as if he were divining his I Ching reading from the pattern of the sakura petals as they slowly fell past the window. At regular intervals the dragon’s eyes flicked over to peek at Tenpou’s face; each time, he looked embarrassed at having been caught doing so. Tenpou kept his peripheral vision on alert for the next round of Dragon Peek-a-boo as he tried to imagine what a conversation with Dr. Po might sound like, though each subsequent attempt became more bizarre as the silence dragged on. ‘I say a word; you tell me the first thing that comes into your head. Head?’ ‘Chopping block.’ ‘Alright... Mother?’ ‘Lady Snowblood.’ Did Goujun take off his cape during his sessions, or just lay on top of it? Maybe he used it as a security blanket, as he seemed to be doing now… just as Figment of Imagination Goujun was about to execute the Rorschach test scribes for their clumsiness with ink wells, Flesh and Blood Goujun cleared his throat again, and the whole scene snapped shut in Tenpou’s mind like a book. Ink spattered the insides of his skull, creating a rather attractive butterfly pattern. Though to be honest, ink blots always seemed to look like butterflies to him- which probably indicated some sort of personality disorder, though he never bothered to ask about it because he didn’t really care what anyone (let alone the regimental shrink) thought about his perception of ink blots. He did his best to quickly clean up the mental mess while the dragon spoke slowly and purposefully to the cherry blossoms.

“I admit, my choice of words was extremely poor that night. As Dr. Po pointed out, ‘subordinate in status does not mean subordinate in all circumstances. One should never assume such, much less demand it.’ I fully agree with his assessment.”

“Quite interesting change of heart, Commander- for if I do recall correctly, what you said that night was quite the opposite. I believe it was something more along the lines of ‘Pants down and legs up, kiss the ground and praise the heavens for the gift of royal dick of which you are about to receive.’”

It came out slightly crasser than intended- not to mention bitter. Tenpou frowned at his misstep; an overly emotional response this early on in the verbal spar was a tactical mistake he was sure to regret, as it all but proved how deeply he had been wounded. Goujun had treated him like a dime-a-dozen scullery maid that night, and no matter how much he tried to pretend it didn’t matter, it cut deeply- and here he was, admitting it to the dragon before he even admitted it to himself. Still, Goujun hadn’t seemed to have noticed the gaffe- or perhaps he simply chose to be the gentleman and ignore it, and continued to act as if it were he who was still on the defensive, answering the accusation with an indignant glare, clearly offended by Tenpou’s peevishness.

“I am trying my best, Tenpou-san. But there is hardly a template for me to work from in these circumstances. Nothing in the Analects addresses the proper rituals surrounding intimacy with one’s male subordinate. I am bound to make a few errors of judgment in courtship techniques until the proper course is found.”

“It’s not rocket science, Commander. Sex is sex. You don’t follow Confucian ritual when with your wives, now do…”

Tenpou trailed off, stunned; the look on Goujun’s face spoke volumes. There obviously was some sort of prescribed li for the royal bedroom, in all likelihood followed quite religiously by His Majesty and the Royal Bedmate du Soir. Something akin to a ‘knit one, purl two” how-to sequence that would be about as sexually stimulating as the knitting itself. Not a particular problem if you were into that sort of thing, but he seriously doubted Goujun was; the very fact that the man was aggressively courting a male subordinate pointed to a probable lack of interest in the normal activities of the royal bedchamber. It made Tenpou wonder if sex had ever had an emotional element for Goujun, or if it was something that was simply done, part of the job description. If that were the case, following the official li probably helped in such circumstances, but would hardly work in cases outside the dutiful production of royal heirs.

Of course, the saddest piece of that whole domino chain of sad assumptions was that it strongly implied that Goujun had committed an act of singular bravery that night when he had brought that original bottle of sake to Tenpou’s office, and things had taken their natural course, for it seemed possible that ‘natural’ was something new that Goujun had never dared to try before. The thought certainly answered a whole slew of questions that had been plaguing Tenpou ever since. Goujun had seemed so different that night, so… happy. Nothing at all like the staid, impersonal military man he had always known and respected, if not particularly liked. But all sorts of interesting things had come to light that evening over their shared bottle- a previously hidden wealth of wit, charm, and genuine warmth that seemed to bloom right in front of Tenpou’s eyes. At some point smile met smile, then lips met lips, and things had simply just… happened. At the time Tenpou had assumed it was the liquor working its magic, especially considering the rather messy aftermath. But now...

Had it truly been Goujun’s first bona fide date? And to have it blow up in his face like that. This must be quite a conundrum for the Poor Little Rich Boy; he knew he had done something wrong that night- he just wasn’t quite sure what it was. Tenpou had to assume that Goujun was absolutely correct in that there was no template for him to follow; he imagined the dragon had been scouring the heavenly libraries ever since, searching for that ever illusive copy of The Neo-Confucian Guide to Inter-Species, Inter-Rank, Inter-Social Status Dragon Yang Relations, because when boiled down to his essentials Goujun couldn’t move his little finger without knowing whether or not its new placement was up to the standards of proper court etiquette. He so wanted to do what was Right; the problem was, Right wasn’t something Goujun had ever had to decide for himself before. The king wasn’t used to not knowing how to behave, because, to be brutally honest, before that night his entire life had followed a predetermined script.

“Goujun-sama, why are you here?”

This whole line of thinking was making Tenpou increasingly uncomfortable. He really didn’t want to understand Goujun’s point of view, not yet; he wanted to look down his nose at his boorish, would-be suitor from what was becoming an increasingly imperiled moral high ground. Time to fast-forward to the spot where Goujun could painstakingly explain why Tenpou as a Lesser Being should feel honored to lay on his back and Think of Tenkai for his commander, to which Tenpou would counter (in a much less painstaking fashion) with his sincere hope that his commander’s penis was as long as his tongue, as the only hole it would be getting anywhere near anytime soon was his own. Then they could both throw a few things about the room, shout a bit in righteous indignation, Goujun could storm out in disgust, and Tenpou could sigh in a melodramatic manner, shake his head in resignation, and finally return to his reading. Heaven would reset to its dull, normal monotony, and all would be right with the world again, if not particularly emotionally fulfilling. The real pity in the whole rotten mess was that Tenpou wouldn’t even mind being the bottom, at least not on occasion; in fact, he had been planning on doing that very thing before Goujun had to go and open his mouth to ruin the moment. It was the idiotic assumption that as a social inferior he had to be the bottom that had so gotten his hackles up; in fact, he still couldn’t believe Goujun had the damned gall to pull the rank card in the middle of a sex scene. Well, an almost sex scene. A very nearly, but never-quite-got-there sex scene. Instead of a sex scene, one of them had ended up in the street, the other ended up with an extra pair of epaulettes, and they had both ended up with a case of blue balls and a dandy of a hangover. Of all the things they had gotten that night, he was as sure as hell a sex scene wasn’t one of them. No matter what Dr. Po might have been told to the contrary.

Goujun was back to looking at his lap. He turned the notebook over in his hands.

“As I said, I am here as I had hoped we might talk. And… and because I have homework… to do.”

“You have what?” Tenpou’s heart sank; hopefully this wasn’t some painful apology scheme that the doctor had cooked up. A begrudging, insincere apology was worse than none at all.

“A ‘homework assignment,’ Dr. Po called it. I am to write an etiquette book on the art of courtship with a male subordinate.”

Goujun sheepishly sat staring at his notebook, declining further clarification. Tenpou blinked at him a few times, processing. Well, that was certainly an unexpected answer.

“Why not simply ask Confucius to write it? Isn’t he staying at the Palace of the Jasper Pool nowadays?”

Goujun snorted, as close as a dragon ever got to sarcasm. “That is Not the Point, Tenpou-san. The exercise is meant to be therapeutic, not to generate an expansion of the Five Classics. Confucius has no real-life experiences from which to draw; therefore, he has no way of understanding the special intricacies that arise in such tender situations. No, I am to create it with my own hand, and therefore gain a deeper understanding of myself through the course of the exercise.”

It all came out so quickly and so perfectly that the whole thing sounded suspiciously like a quote; in fact, Tenpou swore that if he listened carefully he could hear both the quotation marks and which words had been capitalized for emphasis. So, if those weren’t Goujun’s words, they were likely those of Dr. Po again, whom Tenpou was starting to like despite himself. A small, gratified grin graced Tenpou’s lips; if the good doctor had already been lecturing the dragon about such things, he’d bet good money that Goujun had asked Confucius, or at least seriously considered doing so before the whole idea had been shot down in the name of psychotherapy. Tenpou sighed and shook his head; well, it may seem as if they were stuck in a bizarre parallel universe, but at least some of the dragon’s actions could still be accurately predicted, which meant this likely wasn’t a dream, after all. And if that was the case, he probably shouldn’t beat his head against the desk to wake himself up. The repeated concussions would likely do little more than to knock the bottle of sake onto the floor.

“I see. And as interesting as that bit of information is, I ask you once again; Goujun-sama, why are you here?”

“I was hoping that you might help with its production.”

Tenpou’s grin wilted. Of course, why hadn’t he thought of that himself? It seemed so obvious, now that it was out and in the open; if Confucius wouldn’t write the thing for him, turn to the other class geek. “So, you want me to write it for you instead.”

“No, no, Tenpou-san. I do not shirk my responsibilities once given. I was hoping for it to be a collaborative effort between us, as I readily admit that I cannot see the matter beyond my own viewpoint- which, if I am not mistaken, is what brought on our difficulties to begin with. To write this correctly, it will need your input as well.”

“Is that what the doctor suggested?”
”No- but I do not think he will mind, as long as the resulting work is in my hand. I do not believe it will be considered cheating in any way.”

“No, I don’t believe it will.”

“No. And it seemed to my thinking… well, as I say, it seemed to me that a collaboration would be a logical expansion to the homework as assigned. For as I pondered on the complexities of writing such a book, it occurred to me that a courtship might be defined as a collaborative effort of sorts. And if it is such, then one would assume the voices of both parties should be heard in somewhat equal measures within its pages for such a guide to be at all useful to the reader. Though I admit Dr. Po might disagree with my assessment. He often raises questions with my manner of thinking.”

Tenpou grinned. “Oh, in this case, I don’t think he will. Have you written any of it yet?”

Goujun shifted uncomfortably again. This wasn’t easy for him, that was obvious; but then, Tenpou didn’t want it to be easy. Apparently neither did Dr. Po. Vindictive, therapeutic, who cared? Motivations might be a tad different, but the outcome was exactly the same; a rather entertainingly squirmy little dragon king. He was beginning to think Dr. Po was a bona fide genius.

“Well, I have only a few notes- some chapter headings, and ideas for subject matters to address. And I have written about the previous… incident. The possible faux pas to be found within my actions, and proposed corrections.”

“Read a bit to me. Please.”

Goujun blinked at him in utter embarrassment; Tenpou grinned even wider as the dragon shook his head and muttered to himself, perusing the pages for a suitable passage.

“Well, as I said, this is only a beginning, and therefore very raw… here; ‘In a case where both parties are of the same gender, a conflict occurs in defining the proper course of intimacy, as there are no clearly delineated roles for the participants to follow. Though one might assume that when gender cannot dictate assignment social status would take precedence, but in truth such thinking is in error. For as a female of superior status might without transgression play yang to a male of lower status while in the bed chamber, social status has but a limited role in deciding the proper course in intimacy. The Heavenly Mandates regarding status and gender render each other void in such situations; therefore, the roles to be taken will be dependant upon the communal wishes of the parties involved. Either participant may be the one to bite the bitter peel without error. This is in full accordance with the proper li of the situation.’”

Goujun looked up at Tenpou ever so hopefully. Tenpou smiled warmly back at him, trying his best not to snicker; trust Goujun to be so uncomfortable with the subject matter that he’d turn the thing into an army training manual. Goujun’s mouth turned up in echo of his own, happy that he had made Tenpou happy. Well, Goujun might not believe half of what he’d written, but he was trying to believe it; he was trying harder than Tenpou had seen anyone try anything. All rather flattering, considering his reasons- and quite sweet. But to be honest, if anyone was in error with the li of the situation, it was certainly not the dragon. While Goujun had done the emotional grunt work, trying to right whatever wrong had been committed, he’d spent his own time in a self-righteous snit instead of trying to be remotely understanding. Behavior he wasn’t particularly proud of in the current light, but what was done was done. It was best to forgive, forget, and move forward- and it seemed that Goujun had already left him in the dust on all three. Tenpou had a fair amount of catching up to do.

“That’s a very lovely start, Goujun-sama. Though I do suggest switching to a more informal tone, as it might make the work more… accessible… to your readership. But we can work on revising the tone of the manuscript later. To answer your question, I’d be quite happy to help you in such an important endeavor. I think we’ll both enjoy the research a great deal, don’t you?”

Goujun beamed, as ecstatic as Tenpou had ever seen him- though trying so very hard not to show it. Tenpou hoped he’d be changing that soon enough; he had to imagine there were all sorts of interesting expressions that dragons made at different times, and the lot of them would need to be explored and cataloged in great detail. Not to mention a chapter devoted to touch; which parts of a dragon elicited moans, which parts giggles, and just how often a dragon could bite the bitter peel in a single evening before passing out from the effort. All for the sake of both posterity and propriety, of course; guide books were important things, and ought to be done right or not at all. It certainly looked as if they had their work cut out for them, though for some reason, Tenpou didn’t mind that thought one little bit. It didn’t look as if Goujun minded it very much, either.

“Yes, yes… I do believe so as well. It should prove quite… rewarding. And as Dr. Po suggested, informative.”

All in all, the afternoon hadn’t been nearly as painful as it had originally promised to be. He had to commend Dr. Po for coming up with this baby-step in self-determination for a dragon king obsessed with the proper rules; if Goujun needed an official mandate that badly, then have him quite literally write the thing himself. If Goujun wasn’t going to mention the supreme lunacy of the situation, well then, he certainly wouldn’t be the one to point it out. Mischievous lavender eyes slid back to the bottle at the corner of the desk.

“So, you brought more sake with you?”

“Oh- yes! Consider it a… royalty payment, Tenpou-san. A literary advance, to help in furthering our research.”

“Then, shall I open it?”

“Please do. It should still be at a decent temperature. Would you say then, that sake is considered a proper gift in male courtship?”

“Quite definitely yes. You can write that in the book. Price commensurate with income and all of that. I’ll get the cups.”

Tenpou began to remove the pile of books from his lap while Goujun scribbled away in the notebook. Oh, this little game was going to be loads of fun; he could already sense the endless possibilities their ‘writing collaboration’ promised. Oh, if he had any say in this at all- and he was quite certain now that he did- this was going to be one of the most thoroughly researched books in history.

Food For Foxes

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 03:54:13 GMT

Walk home in moonlight;
Grateful for a warm box of
Oden from a fox. -xxxholic haiku by ebi

Oden for 09!!!

Yes, winter's upon us, and I have just finished addicting my husband to the xxxholic anime series in my diabolical plan to get him to buy me the boxed set for Xmas. It also gave me a real hankerin' for oden, which for anyone who's read/seen xxxholic will tell you, is best when made by spirit foxes. Having no spirit fox oden carts in my neighborhood (of which I am aware, though there are foxes, so who can say) I had to do with my own meager efforts and my crock pot.

And here it is! I am rather proud, if I do say so myself. As I'm vegetarian it's a kelp-shiitake stock. In honor of the spirit foxes I used "Bride of the Fox" for the sake in the broth. The veggies mostly come from a frozen bag of Japanese veggies I got awhile back (including burdock, lotus root, bamboo shoot, shiitake and the like), and I added sweet potato, daikon, and leftover potatoes from yesterday's Xmas party offering of bhel puri... then I threw in a few freeze-dried tofu cubes, and because I was feeling ambitious I made a few of the fun things oden can have; kinchaku (age pouches), cabbage rolls, and shinoda-maki (age and cabbage rolls, which is also related to foxes, as there's a myth about).
All tied up pretty with kampyo. Didn't have any konnyaku, but can't have everything. It'll sit overnight to truly develop the flavors- then this it's mine! Mine, I tell you!

A big thanks to 7veilsphaedra and helliongoddess for the snowflakes! Big virtual hugs back atcha!

Ebi's Christmas Wish Holy Grail Item of Doom

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 20:32:39 GMT

Oh.
My.
God.

Why did I have to find out this exists?

More Anime Haiku!

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 05:20:55 GMT

Alrighty, since macavitykitsune was so sweet to point out what a scary person I am haiku-wise, here it is; my response set of manga or anime inspired haikus.

Any guesses out there as to what they're about? There's still a few open! Current winners listed below!

1.

Found a cat today,

It looks like he'll be trouble.

Felt heavy, that cat. -Wild Adapter, macavitykitsune

Big gun says it all.

What’s the price on my head? No,

tell me in donuts.-Trigun, theskywasblue

Eve of destruction.

So short-sighted, she can’t see

she’s hunting herself. -Witch Hunter Robin, yasashii_kawa

Which one’s scarier,

The vampire or the blonde dyke?

Tough choice, police girl… -Hellsing, macavitykitsune

“Vast and infinite,”

They meld and then disappear

Into cyberspace. -Ghost in the Shell

Rebirth by a kiss,

And if you remind him of that

He’ll Rei-gun your ass. -Yu Yu Hakusho, macavitykitsune

The dog’s the smartest,

Then comes the Tomato; Spike’s

Waaay down on the list. -Cowboy Bebop, macavitykitsune

Absolute power

Corrupts absolutely; Light

Swallowed by darkness. -Death Note,

macavitykitsune

“We’ve been here before.”

Their forms change and flow, only

Earth remains constant. -Saiyuki Series, macavitykitsune

BOOK REC

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 03:57:35 GMT

Marriage, moral rightness, and the undead
Ah, rarely will I feel the need to recommend a book here on my lj, as I find the f-list an incredibly well-read lot, but this book is indeed an exception to such a rule, especially in such case as it might have slipped the notice of one amongst us. My husband presented it to me last night, a gift from his recent travels in the Dark Lands of Microsoftdom (along with a lovely Totoro shopping bag; thanks, honey!). "I saw it on the shelves at the local Barnes and Noble," he beamed. "And I thought of you." I opened the book to page one, and literally grinned ear to ear as I read aloud the first paragraph;

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains. Never was this truth more plain than during the recent attacks at Netherfield Park, in which a household of eighteen was slaughtered and consumed by a horde of the living dead.
"My dear Mr. Bennet," said his lady to him one day, "have you heard that Netherfield Park is occupied again?"

Thus begins Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith, the book that dares us all to wonder "If Mr. Darcy became infected, would Elizabeth have the fortitude to behead him in time?" By the time I got to the line "My dear girl," said her ladyship. "I suggest you take this contest seriously. My ninjas will show you no mercy" I was in love.
I have to say it's even better than The Pirates! in an Adventure With Scientists, which is fair praise indeed for any tome of our time. I'm seriously thinking of getting its sequel, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. But first, I have to find out if Elizabeth's Shaolin training can save her from the uncouth attacks of Lady Catherine's katana-wielding minions.

Book Meme thingee

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 02:04:30 GMT

Hey ho- been long time in posting, so I thought I'd gank this book meme thingee from athena8 who obviously got it from somebody else, etc etc ad infinitum. Now that my evening university qigong class is over I will hopefully have more time to devote for writing. In the mean time, it's meme-time!
OK, I admit one of them is a short story, but it's part of a compilation book, ok? As compensation, quite a few are dead giveaways. And no one said no picture books.

All of them already guessed in a massive sweep by bibliophile extraordinaire 7veilsphaedra , with jedishampoo picking up the spare with #9!

1. Pick 10 of your favorite books or series.
2. Post the first sentence of each book. (If one sentence seems too short, post two or three!)
3. Let everyone try to guess the titles and authors of your books.

A green hunting cap squeezed the top of a fleshy head. The green earflaps, full of large ears and uncut hair and the fine bristles that grew in the ears themselves, stuck out on either side like turn signals indicating two directions at once. -A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole
As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. (greatest first line, ever)- The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Through the fence, between the curling flower spaces, I could see them hitting.- The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin. -Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne
Midway in life’s journey, I went astray and woke to find myself alone in a dark wood.- The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
Call me Ishmael. (YES, I like that book. So sue me.) -Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Brother Francis Gerard of Utah might never have discovered the blessed documents, had it not been for the pilgrim with girded loins who appeared during that young novice’s Lenten fast in the desert. -A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
Mr. Jones, of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen-houses for the night, but was too drunk to remember to shut the pop-holes. -Animal Farm by George Orwell
A is for Amy, who fell down the stairs.- The Gashlycrumb Tinies by Edward Gorey
No one would have believed that in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinized and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinize the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.- The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells

Want to try something new? How about an rp?

Sun, 02 Aug 2009 06:31:13 GMT

Now that I’m a co-mod at ever_west I do many modly things, like pimp the game!
A few characters had to be sadly given up for adoption, so now we’re looking for new blood to liven things up there. Even if you’ve never been in an rp before, you might want to give it a try. As the new co-mod I’m there to help anyone who’s interested in a part learn the ropes and get their rp legs in shape, and the co-players are usually more than happy to help as well- so it’s really a nice, friendly, and semi-private way to polish your writing skills. Some of the characters that are currently in need of a good home are: Kougaiji, Nii, Nataku, Yaone, and Hazel. If the major characters seem too daunting for you, some of the lesser-knowns like Zenon and Jiroshin are open, and those can really be interesting to rp since there’s less canon to deal with when writing them, so you’d have a great opportunity to really flesh them out and make them your own.

I’ve been having fun there, and I think you would too! If you’re at all interested, let me know and I’ll tell you more about it, no pressure or strings attached.

Happy dog days, all!

FIC: Body of Knowledge

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:50:49 GMT

Title: Body of Knowledge

Pairings: Tenpou/Goujun (Tenpou/Goujun/Kenren implied)

Rating: NC-17

Warnings: Yaoi. Blatant misinterpretation of scriptural meaning on the part of a kami.

Summary: What Tenpou sees in Goujun is more than anyone could guess.

Series: Part 11 of Dream of the Butterfly.

Disclaimer: Hers, not mine. Quotes from the Chandogya Upanishad and the Prabhavananda/Isherwood translation of the Bhagavad-Gita not mine either.

Notes: Squeaking in (at least on this side of the globe) on the last day of the recently moved Goujun Appreciation Month, I give you the next installment of Dream of the Butterfly. A small piece that manages to answer the question many readers asked, “What does Tenpou see in Goujun, anyway?”

Turns out you had no clue, and neither did anyone else, including Goujun.

My apologies to Hindus everywhere for Tenpou’s blatant misrepresentation of scriptural meaning. If it makes you feel any better, he’s an equal opportunity blasphemer and would have been quite happy to have done the same thing to the Bible, Koran, Dianetics, or the Dhammapada, but he just wasn’t all that into them.

In any case, here you go; one long Goujun Appreciation. Hope you enjoy!

Body of Knowledge

Tenpou smoked quietly as he watched Goujun sleep. The dragon had taken to sleeping on his stomach as of late so the view wasn’t nearly as voyeuristic as it sounded, but as he’d also taken to kicking off the bedclothes, the view was at least unmarred by the admittedly beautiful embroidered silk sheet that Tenpou knew was literally worth more than his entire wardrobe. Shifting the mattress as little as possible he slowly leaned over the edge of the bed and tapped his cigarette into his wine glass. Beyond the perfumed breeze stirring the bed curtains and the occasional crackle from the burning end of a cigarette, Goujun’s soft breathing remained the only sound in the room. Good… a smile crept across Tenpou’s lips as he just as slowly and quietly returned to his position.

It was one of his favorite activities, watching the dragon. Soaking him in through the eyes, quietly witnessing his back as it rose and fell with a deep, even breath, marking the passage of time as steadily as a ticking clock. Goujun slept heavily, and as long as he was careful Tenpou could take in the sight for quite some time. He leaned his head onto his outstretched arm to give himself a clearer view of the sleeping face; still so young by a dragon’s standards, but they had been together long enough now that Tenpou could clearly see the mark of the centuries as they mapped themselves across the mortal body. Horns had become longer, eyes clearer, mouth thinner and more aristocratic. It was as though he were watching a diamond as it was slowly cut and formed, refined and faceted. Reaching out with an invisible caress, he let his fingers trace along the course of those years as they flowed lightly across the peaceful features. I am become Time… Yes, he had to say Goujun was even more beautiful now than he had been when they had first met, and on nights like this Tenpou would often stare at him for hours, absorbed in long meditations on the meaning of perfection and the definitions of beauty in the world.

Kenren had been allowed into this ritual of his a few times, though initially not by choice; Tenpou had been caught in his voyeuristic meditations one night, too preoccupied to notice when the man had awakened. But noticed he had been, so before Kenren could speak Tenpou had touched a finger to his lips, quieting him with a soft hush before simply and silently showing him, letting the sleeping form take their attentions where it would. Sharing the dragon with Kenren that night had been like meeting Goujun’s body again for the very first time, and just as breathtaking. Delighting in the rediscovery of the pearlescent reflection off the tiniest of scales, here; admiring the odd, sinewy stretch of a muscle group kami simply didn’t have, there. Exploring textures as they merged and shifted across the skin, drawing one’s eye ever upwards over the houndish belly, towards the distinctive rhythm of the heartbeat pulsing in the soft area of the throat. His fingers glided a hair’s breadth above the dragon’s body, unveiling its secrets to Kenren’s warm and attentive eyes with nothing more than the simplest suggestion. After awhile Kenren joined in with him, letting his own hands hover over the planes and contours of the pale iridescent flesh, a touch that wasn’t touching yet it seemed to Tenpou that the quiet moment shared between them had felt more profound and more moving than had they been locked together in the deepest kiss. He’d since noticed that Kenren now sometimes stroked Goujun in the same manner during their foreplay, barely touching, taking time to delight in the form beneath his fingertips, admiring the sheer beauty of the dragon’s body before it all became too intimate and the comfortable routine of sex took its place. Tenpou liked to think it was he who introduced the true dragon to Kenren, even if he wasn’t exactly sure what Kenren saw when he looked at that truth. It didn’t matter, really. What was most important in it all was the witnessing.

He stretched out again, quietly disposing of the butt before propping his head back up ever so carefully, disturbing the bed as little as possible as he returned to his evening vigil. Appreciative eyes followed the long, sinewy line of the back down to the soft curve of the buttocks. A faint scar followed the ridge of the hip there, a landmark of time that always caused Tenpou’s heart to skip a beat whenever he looked at it. By now the old war wound had faded to near nothingness, but the memory of the battle that had created it had not faded in the least, at least not for Tenpou, and as he closed his eyes he let the memory of it take him in once again; the deep heartbeat of the war drums thrumming their victory song through the evening camp, the winds whipping up the bonfires, the flames growing ever higher as if they were reaching out to scorch the gathering clouds of the heavens. Goujun, standing alone on the hillside above it all, unmoving, staring out into the blood red of a setting sun. That day had been the only time Tenpou had ever seen Goujun as a true dragon and their victory that day had been his, not the army’s; they had merely stood by impotently as it raged in the sky high above them, and he still had dreams of Goujun grappling with that enormous beast, all teeth and talons and tail and as Tenpou watched him afterward standing on top of that hillside, still larger than life and stuffed into a tiny kami frame that was not truly his, he had felt almost ill from the intensity of it.

The rest of the troops had seemed almost frightened of the dragon that night, but Tenpou was not afraid. No, he wanted to touch that incredible destructive power, become one with it. He had never wanted anything so much in his entire life, and the longing it had awakened in him had been so visceral, so alive, as if for once he had been a part of time, and not merely a witness to it, so that as the night began to fall on camp he had found himself drawn further and further up that hill, pulled by an invisible hand towards the source of all that power, until the dragon no longer stood alone. When he reached the top he found that immense energy still raging violently about them, unleashed in a dragon’s rain, but he had walked right on through the lashing winds because he had to. He had to touch the taboo of death as it stood right in front of him, touch the blood still smeared across Goujun’s face and mouth. The dragon had killed, killed and devoured the thing right there in front of them all, had done the undoable, and without a word Tenpou had simply walked up and reached out to join with it. I am become Death… Goujun had stared at him in shock, almost as surprised as Tenpou had been that he had dared such a thing. Glassy wild eyes had narrowed as the dragon growled deep, his voice so gravelly that Tenpou had barely understood him over the howl of the wind.

“Stay away.”

Tenpou had been quite aware of what the dragon was warning him of, the menace of a bloodlust hardly contained, still so close to the surface it could easily swallow him whole.

But at that moment, it hadn’t mattered- in fact, he had been reveling in it.

“I cannot.”

Goujun’s nostrils had flared at the admission; the long slits of pupils widened as the dragon growled at him again, harsher and louder than before. Tenpou, caught in that deadly glare, had suddenly become aware of a new, terrible need clawing at him in the pit of his stomach. When the dragon stalked away, Tenpou had followed- he had been following ever since. So long ago now that Goujun could not remember that night; he had been asleep in that bloodlust, only half there to begin with. But Tenpou still remembered it all, for Tenpou had been Awake. At the time he was sure it had been the first time he had been truly awake in all of eternity.

A long ear twitched, bringing Tenpou’s attention back to the quiet face in front of him. He smiled indulgently as sleepy hands joined in, following whatever phantom prey the dragon had cornered in his sleep. So many contradictions in that deceptively tiny frame. Tenpou was well acquainted with deception; lies and half-truths flowed as freely as a river from his mouth- but Goujun seemed the embodiment of it. Goujun as he truly was, the dragon… the dragon was not this body, now asleep beside him. The creature he had seen that day had been enormous, a force of nature, the oceans brought together and made flesh- and yet, this tiny kami body dreaming its little butterfly dreams was hardly a mask. Tenpou could touch it, and it reacted to his touch, it breathed and bled, felt pain and pleasure, if not the same than similar to his more serpentine body. The scars that the dragon had received that day so long ago marred this body as well. Goujun lived within his kami body, truly lived in it as much as Tenpou lived within his own, and he first began watching the dragon because of this paradox, trying to unravel the puzzle of Goujun’s forms. Which part of him was the truth, which the lie. But after years of trying to pry off the mask, break it, or at least peek underneath, night after night of watching and staring at him just like this, Tenpou had found he had nothing to show for it. Taoists often spoke of the duality of all nature but it was in Goujun that Tenpou had first seen it clearly, how a thing also held the seed of its opposite within it, for it was quite evident Goujun was not simply one, and not the other. Nor was he a gestalt of two, for neither beast nor kami could truly be said to hold the totality of him. The truth held in the dragon’s forms transcended both distinctions. But if neither form was Goujun, then Goujun himself was nowhere to be found- which made no sense whatsoever because if that was the case, then somewhere in all of that searching he had lost the object of his inquiry entirely, left him buried somewhere underneath a mountain of logic. In the end, after all of that hunting Tenpou had literally come up more empty-handed than he had begun.

That Goujun was literally a living paradox was an answer of sorts, but such an intangible one that Tenpou’s analytical brain simply would not accept it. Having abandoned that thoroughly unsatisfactory answer he next turned his inner eye to his original question and contemplated that instead, hoping there might be some key, some obvious error in his logic he had thus far overlooked. And so it began all over again; night after night, year after year of chasing his own intellectual tail, looking everywhere and anywhere for a someone that it seemed did not exist, yet was clearly lying asleep right next to him. Centuries of his mind spinning round and round in increasingly tighter circles of logic, spiraling further and further inward looking for any straw at all he might grasp onto that would tell him Who is he? What is he?, until thoroughly frustrated and totally befuddled over it all Tenpou had finally admitted defeat, and exhausted, his overtaxed mind at long last ground to a halt. A feat in and of itself, for it had probably been the first time it had ever stopped in its constant hum of rumination in all eternity, and would probably be the last- but that night Tenpou wasn’t looking for any silver cloud to line his shortcomings. It had been a monumental effort on his part, true; but all the same, one that had failed quite miserably, and he would have been quite happy to wallow in that misery for awhile, take some well-earned time off to kick himself in his mental heinie for his decided lack of intellectual brilliance, but despite all protests to the contrary Fate decided he needed a lesson in intellectual humility and rolled out that unwelcome little cloud of happiness anyway. So, as he lay there that night with an exhausted cranium that had finally and at long last (to borrow a Kenrenism) shut the fuck up, in that sudden silence of mental inhalation a small voice that had previously been drowned out by the constant grind of intellectual machinery could finally be heard whispering within him, and Fate told him that he damned well better listen to it. Tat tvam asi, it said; “Thou are that.”

Suddenly, he knew; it did not matter what form Goujun took, for form was meaningless. Self changes its form from lifetime to lifetime across time and space, a cosmic actor changing its costume as each new role began- and in Goujun, one could watch that play of time compacted into a singularity. He had finally found his answer. The dragon- his dragon- was the embodiment of Time itself.

He who sees his Lord deathlessly dwelling amidst the mortal, that man sees truly. Tenpou quietly snorted; such a heresy, that. Most would consider his beliefs more than a little sacrilegious, but he had always found inspiration and faith in rather odd places. Usually in science, true enough. Though in this instance he was surprised to admit science had failed him quite spectacularly, its near-tyrannical hegemony over his mental terrain was finally supplanted… and by metaphysics, of all things. But Tenpou had to admit, the realization of Goujun’s true nature had been as close to a religious experience as he had ever come, a satori of sorts, perhaps, if one believed in such a thing. In any case, as close to a spiritual awakening as Tenpou would ever get. Now whenever he watched the dragon sleep, Tenpou saw the dance of eternity as it played out before him, form and void, creation and destruction, the ceaseless eternal cycle as the great Self or God or whatever you wanted to call it tried on the mask of the dragon then that of the man and back again, and God as Tenpou watched as God played, awed by the sight of his own creation. The thought was breathtakingly beautiful, the infinity of time acted out in front of him in microcosm; tat tvam asi all wrapped up in the body of a sleeping dragon. Tenpou still watched as Goujun slept, oh yes, but he was no longer looking for an answer as to what it was he was watching, for he now saw it clearly, unmistakably, as if before him the cosmic stage curtain had been finally lifted on the eternal play already in progress. Instead, after his Great Awakening his meditations began to shift their emphasis, slowly, subtly, until Goujun was no longer a mystery to be unraveled but a manifestation of the Great Mystery itself, and he found himself using Goujun’s body as a meditative tool, letting his contemplations take him where they would across the vast internal landscape of thought and meaning. If God chose to become a sleeping dragon king in the here and now, then who better to bring his meditations to, than to God?

I let loose the rain, and withhold it.

I am the cosmos revealed, and its germ that lies hidden.

Ah, heresy upon heresy. It was fitting that his copy of the Mahabharata had been a gift from Goujun; Tenpou couldn’t help but think of the dragon each time he read it now, although he knew he was taking huge liberties with the meaning of the text while doing so. But after all, the entire point of the largely generative act of reading was to combine the thoughts and experiences of the reader with the author’s words in order to create a whole new world upon the printed page; that his world was a bit farther from the original intent of the author or authors hardly mattered to him. It was what it was, and what his was was a radiant internal universe of pure mind, with Goujun asleep at the heart of it. Beside the silent dragon Tenpou prostrated himself and became Arjuna, the seeker, begging the truth from his all-seeing lord, Krishna. Each night he would bring his questions to their bed, and each night Tenpou would smoke as he watched the even rise and fall of a dragon’s back that showed him perfect wisdom through the eternal dance of God. He had been doing this for centuries now, and for centuries the sleeping form had taught him well. Unhurriedly, openly, effortlessly wu-wei, not with words for words hid the truth. Allowing Tenpou to uncover truth for himself, divine with his own eyes the course of the Tao as it flowed across time and space in its endless cycle of becoming, eddying about them as it was caught briefly on the tiny white scales glowing in the moonlight in front of him.

Tvat tvam asi. Thou art that. Thou art God.

God and Time, all spread out so tantalizingly in front of him on top of a very expensive silk sheet. To be brutally honest, one of the reasons for the cigarettes; he’d become a chain smoker not on the battlefield but here in bed, for once his hands had nothing to do they invariably ended up wandering their wicked way across the warm naked body of Time and Space. Many a night of pleasant internal metaphysical discourse had been completely derailed by a sudden urge for plain old external physical intercourse, as his evenings of deep thinking seemed eternally destined to lead to hard fucking. But then, Krishna always seemed to stoke the fires in his harem of lusty little cow girls, so it was hardly surprising Tenpou’s God brought out the same glow in him as well. Lust was Truth, after all, as great a Truth as any he had ever known. Especially true when one was lying buck naked with a raging hard on next to the amazingly attractive physical manifestation of one’s conceptualization of God, who so freely gave of himself, who granted communion each and every time his lowly seeker asked for it. Well, not so much seeker now as devotee, one who longed to be joined with and consumed by that divine fire, to be burned away and rebuilt anew within the flames of perfect dissolution. Tenpou had been burnt by that flame time and again, and yet he never got his fill of it. Then again, he had always been the type to play with fire.

This is my form of fire, world-wide, primeval… alone of all men,

Arjuna, I showed to you because I love you.

Tenpou shifted closer, seeker changing to supplicant as he began to touch, tracing the same contours his eyes had followed moments before. Ever so slowly gliding up the thigh with the back of his hands, twisting his fingers around to cup the buttock, slowly sliding back down between the legs. Traced the scar, the tether that so long ago tied them together. Leaned over and lovingly kissed it, licking up its length and then moved closer to kiss the end of the tailbone, slowly, reverently, taking time to lick and suckle the point where the dragon’s tail hid itself from sight within the kami body. A sensitive, erotic spot, arching into his mouth even in sleep. He shifted again, pressing himself up against the length of the dragon’s legs as his hands wandered even farther in their search for meaning, sliding up along the backbone, lingering along the shoulder blades. His fingers splayed out, each finding its own path to the Truth, hands slowly tracing the vertebrae back down to again cup and knead the flesh at the bottom. Suppliant lips kissed one cheek, then the other, carefully tasting each before licking his way back up to the tail bone, sucking harder, kissing, stroking, intimately painting his portrait of Eternity with fingertips and tongue across the perfect skin beneath them.

Eternity shifted beneath his mouth, at long last waking up. Tenpou let his tongue strike out again, now bolder as he drew the cleft apart and dropped his nose down between, pushing the tip of his tongue in as a light moan vibrated beneath him. A sleepy voice rumbled out of it.

“What are you doing?”

As if it wasn’t obvious. Tenpou continued pushing and licking deeper, wetting and stretching the pucker. He felt the muscle relax, an invitation that he gratefully accepted, pulsing his tongue further inside until the rhythm of the hips beneath his hands began to match that of his tongue and he finally withdrew and again kissed and nipped a cheek. Smiling up from his task as the dragon’s hips shifted again, tilting upward, searching for more. Tenpou’s finger carefully sank in to continue the work his tongue had begun, slowly pushing in and out and in again, drawing out a long, appreciative moan from the Embodiment of Time before he finally bothered to answer the question. Using that low, playful voice for which he knew the dragon had a soft spot.

“Why, your majesty. I am ascending into heaven, riding on the back of the dragon.”

A soundless chuckle beneath him, and Tenpou’s smile broadened as the legs widened further. He rewarded the movement with more attention to the tailbone. A breathless groan from his lover as the one finger was joined by another, a slow and even rhythm and then when Goujun’s back arched ever so slightly higher to meet his movements he himself had to moan in appreciation at the sight of it. Oh yes, this is how he marked time in heaven; not by the ticking of a clock, but the supple movements of a dragon’s willing body. Long, sinuous. Perfect.

Pausing to retrieve the bottle, he lifted himself up to move in between the long, muscular legs, pushing them further apart. Let the slick spiciness trickle down into that welcoming heat and as he pushed his slippery fingers in again he was rewarded with another moan, slightly louder as pale hands grabbed at the sheets, looking for leverage to push back against him. Goujun’s body swallowed him up to the knuckle, so hungry, so ready for more. Tenpou sat himself up, kneeling briefly before his sacrilegious altar before carefully pulling out and laying himself across the dragon’s back. Their bodies moved in unison, rubbing softly against each other as Tenpou buried his face into Goujun’s back, tenderly kissing the spot between the shoulder blades. The scales on the dragon’s backside caught along his belly as the long body arched and slid against him, pushing itself up with a serpentine roll against his hardness. Welcoming the devotee, promising bliss in dissolution.

Be absorbed in me, lodge your mind in me…

Tenpou felt the muscle give, the tight heat all at once surrounding him, so good, so perfect- his heart pounding nearly out of his chest he had to stop, paused just over the threshold. He was the only one who had ever opened this door, he knew; he alone had been given the keys to this paradise, and the thought that he was given such an immense trust was sometimes nearly overwhelming. He took in a few shaky breaths and sank in a bit further, still trembling as he fought for control. Goujun laughed breathlessly beneath him; his voice teasing, rumbling through his chest so that Tenpou felt it as much as heard it.

“So, Immortal One. On the dragon’s back, yet you pause to enter the gates of paradise?”

Tenpou laughed with him, relaxing into the game. Ah, so sublime; even now God played on, the kami now become the Immortal, riding the back of the celestial dragon into heaven. Smiling, Tenpou lifted up his face from his task, stretched himself as far up as he could to whisper his prayer into the long, pointed ear. It twitched under his breath.

“Open your gates to me, oh king. I wish… to become one with perfection.”

Another deep rumble beneath him, and he began to move at last, the dragon moving with him. Light scrubbing of scales against flesh, the warmth of paradise surrounding and pulling him in deeper, hot and beautiful and perfect. The ride to heaven was never long enough, he always reached its euphoria far too soon as his body sped up, rushing headlong into that flawless moment, buried deep within the Truth found in that tight body. He cried out in shock from the intensity of that blinding moment of release, kept right on crying in triumph as he rode the back of the dragon into heaven, the dragon writhing underneath, flying ever upwards with him.

Slowly, so slowly coming back down into time and space, again separating the Self from the eternal, destruction making way for creation as he rebuilt Form, put on the mask of the kami to once again become the plaything of God. They lay connected together, still one body as he drifted back from his latest bid for nirvana, not as noble a return from the brink as a Bodhisattva, perhaps- though, he liked to think that if a Bodhisattva had ever stepped their toe over the threshold as he had, they would have never thought twice about it and none of them would have ever come back to help anybody. He had seen the other side, seen the perfection waiting there, and had hungered for it ever since. Waited at its door, watched as it slept. The celestial dragon dropped back off into sleep, his breath becoming slower and deeper. Pressing his face between Goujun’s shoulder blades Tenpou let his own breath mirror it, a single breath shared between them, until he too began to drop off, cut adrift together on the endless eddies of time.

Goodbye to "Bill"

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 04:14:35 GMT

David Carradine behind the wheel: "We like it violent, violent, violent!"

As I do my taichi training at a shaolin kung fu school, I cannot help but have a special place in my heart for David Carradine, the star of the old tv series Kung Fu and the infamous Bill of both Kill Bill movies. In honor of his passing from an apparent sex scene done badly (that's the latest word on the subject, anyhoo, upgraded from suicide) tonight we watched my all-time favorite David Carradine movie; Roger Corman's 1975 Death Race 2000, the infamous "cross country car race where you pick up points by running over people" cult film extraordinaire. David played the racer Frankenstein (here's a pic of his car, the Beast); the film is also notable for the scene where he dukes it out with fellow racer Sylvester Stallone. You realize what that means; Rocky vs. Kwai Chang Kane! (Spoiler: the winner is the one with the hand grenade). Ah, yes. David was truly one of a kind.

We'll miss you, oh grasshopper!

Saiyuki-inspired Birthday Haiku!

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:09:31 GMT

Happy birthday, theskywasblue !

Orange paper plane;
perfect birthday gift for one
called 'theskywasblue.'

GAM, MARK TWO!

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 17:54:34 GMT

Today is the fifth of June, which, as any Saiyuki fan worth their manga collection knows, is pronounced "GO-JUN."

So today we officially kick off our freshly moved Goujun Appreciation Month, changed to June in deference to jibii and other Sanzo Appreciation Month afficionados who believe March too small a month to celebrate two pretty boys in the same thirty-one day span.

So, all of you who started something but never quite got it finished for GAM Mark One, you have another chance to Appreciate the Great White and Scaly One!

Remember to bop on over to haku_ryuu when you get a chance. tj_dragonblade is doing an outstanding job setting it up. Kudos!

Movie Meme: 1950's Sci Fi Edition!!!

Fri, 29 May 2009 16:37:28 GMT

This is what happens when macavitykitsune says "Why oh why did you do the Godzilla Edition?" and I answer "Would you rather have had a 50's Scifi Edition?" and she says "Yes!" without truly thinking through the repercussions of such a rash statement.

1. Name a movie that you have seen more than 10 times. The Crawling Eye (1956) radioactive giant eyeballs with tentacles hiding out in the cloud cover of a Swiss mountain range? What’s not to love?

2. Name a movie that you’ve seen multiple times in the theatre. It Came From Outer Space (1953) in 3-D. The only way to watch a movie starring the icky Xenomorph monster is with a pair of red/blue glasses stuck to your face.

3. Name an actor that would make you more inclined to see a movie. Whit Bissell (the best of the ‘emotionally detached scientist with a pipe’ actors!)

4. Name an actor that would make you less likely to see a movie. John Agar, “Mr. Shirley Temple.” Wooden actor supreme- a pine 2x4 has more of an emotional range than John- so he’s only ok when being turned into an emotionless zombie by giant disembodied brains (see #20). Otherwise… hoo, yeah. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

5. Name a movie that you can do quotes from. Robot Monster (1953) “I must kill you, yet I cannot! I must, yet I cannot. Where do must and cannot connect? I know it is not in The Plan, but I love you, A-lice!!”
6. Name a movie musical that you know all of the lyrics to all of the songs. Strangely enough, there is a decided dearth of giant radioactive bug musicals from the 50s…

7. Name a movie that you have been known to sing along with. The Blob (1958) “Beware of the blob! It creeps, and leaps, and slides and glides across the floor, right through the door and all along the walls, a splotch, a blotch, be careful of the blob!”

8. Name a movie that you would recommend everyone to see. The Monolith Monsters (1957) B grade wonder about space rocks that multiply and grow into towers of collapsing horror whenever it rains! No, really- it’s surprisingly good.

9. Name a movie that you own. This Island Earth (1955) is my latest acquisition

10. Name an actor that launched his/her entertainment career in another medium but who has surprised you with his/her acting chops. Robert Cornthwaite; radio dj who made a very convincing mad scientist in The Thing From Another World (1951)

11. Name a movie that you keep meaning to see but just haven’t yet gotten around to it. The Angry Red Planet (1959) Oh, I’ve seen it… hell, I own a copy. But it’s been awhile, since I’ve been on a Harryhausen kick as of late. Still, the rat-bat-spider needs some lovin’ too, though… maybe tonight?
12. Ever walked out of a movie? I always go to the bathroom during the kissy face scene with Altaira in Forbidden Planet (1956)… that’s about as close as it gets.

13. Name a movie that made you cry in the theater. The Tingler (1959)… my husband was luckily at a conference in San Fran just before it played, and he literally flew me out with him, drove me down to Glendale, and got me tickets to the show, just so I could experience the film as it was meant to be; with electric shocks wired to the seats for the “Miracle of Percepto” to buzz your ass when the ‘tingler’ gets “loose in the theater…” the first time my seat went off, I was in tears of happiness. Is there a greater love than my husband’s, I ask you?

14. What’s the last movie you saw in the theatre? Ooh… hm. I think it was Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954). In 3-D, of course…
15. What’s your favorite/preferred genre of movie? I prefer the Flying Saucers genre over Giant Radioactive Monsters That Aren’t Godzilla, but it’s only by a small margin
16. What’s the first movie you remember seeing in the theatre? Them! (1954) Giant radioactive ants in the sewers of Los Angeles? Yessss! Paydirt!

17. What movie do you wish you had never seen? Mesa of Lost Women (1953) Uncle Fester turning spiders into clumsy tarantella dancers. Fester, how could you?

18. What is the weirdest movie you enjoyed? Robot Monster (1953) The movie that dares to ask the question, “Is it only a child’s dream, or is a pudgy gorilla suit with a diving helmet for a head really trying to destroy mankind with his Calcinator Death Ray and arbitrary use of fighting lizard footage?”
19. What is the scariest movie you’ve seen? Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) the original pod people. Still creepy as all get out. And it’s got Whit Bissell and Carolyn Jones (Morticia Addams). And for the older and American among us, Mrs. Olson from the Folger coffee ads!

20. What is the funniest movie you’ve seen? The Brain From Planet Arous (1957) A large talking disembodied brain with glowing eyes controls John Agar’s every move! Thank god George the german shepherd can see what’s really going on, or the world would be the plaything of a giant papier-mâché brain that shouts “Mwhahahahaha” at every opportunity!

21. One movie you loved when you were a child: The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1953) Ray Harryhausen and his pal Ray Bradbury together for one roller coaster-chomping dinosaur picture! Oh, that poor policeman…

22. One movie you’ve seen more than once: War of the Worlds (1953) I actually saw some of the original Martian machines at the Ackermansion… coolest thing ever.

23. One movie you loved, but were embarrassed to admit it: Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957) Well, ‘loved’ may be too strong of a word…

24. One movie you hated: Red Planet Mars (1952) Ham-handed anti-communist propaganda tripe. Even Peter Graves couldn’t save this thing.
25. One movie that bored you: The Wasp Woman (1959) Roger Corman’s femme fatale wet dream, maybe. It’s sure as hell ain’t mine.

26. One movie that made you happy: Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956) Watching Washington DC blown to bits by alien death rays, one monument at a time… <3

27. One movie that made you miserable: Bride of the Gorilla (1951) … nuff said there.
28. One movie you weren’t brave enough to see: Hah. This woman traveled 3K miles to have her ass buzzed by the Miracle of Percepto (see #13). She’s made of stronger stuff.
29. One movie character you’ve fallen in love with: The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) Klaatu! He’s so dreamy… or wait… maybe Gort… he’s all shiny, can melt plastic casing, and has that laser death eye…

30. The next movie you hope to see: I hope to see Rodan (1956) finally released in the original on DVD. There’s never been the Japanese subtitled available here, ever.

Movie Meme: The Godzilla Edition

Fri, 29 May 2009 04:37:31 GMT

So, since macavitykitsune grumped at me this morning that she was worried I was filling my movie meme with Godzilla, I felt compelled to do this. It's your fault, girl. All Kaiju, all the time. Betcha thought I couldn't do it.

1. Name a movie that you have seen more than 10 times. It’s easier to name the ones I haven’t; Gorath, Son of Godzilla, and Battle in Outer Space

2. Name a movie that you’ve seen multiple times in the theatre. Godzilla, King of the Monsters

3. Name an actor that would make you more inclined to see a movie. Hiroshi Koizumi- he always played a doctor. Or Akira Kubo!
4. Name an actor that would make you less likely to see a movie. Baby Godzilla… does he count as an actor?
5. Name a movie that you can do quotes from. Destroy All Monsters. “Listen to the monsters in their cries of horror and sudden death!” “You let all the monsters loose when the chief was gone!”
6. Name a movie musical that you know all of the lyrics to all of the songs. Mothra. “Mosura ya! Mosura! Dongan katta kuyam indomu!” (all Mothra songs are allegedly in Indonesian, you see)

7. Name a movie that you have been known to sing along with. Gamera vs. Guiron MST3K wrote a “translation” of the Gamera theme for this film, and I swear you can’t watch it and not sing “Gamera is really neat/ he is filled with turtle meat/ we all love you Gamera!”
8. Name a movie that you would recommend everyone to see. Gojira (1954) Unmarred by westernization or added Raymond Burr footage. Original, uncut, and surprisingly good.

9. Name a movie that you own. All of the Showa series. Half of the Heisei series. ¾ of the Showa Gamera. 2 of the Heisei Gamera… assorted knock offs like the Korean Yongarry, Monster From the Deep.
10. Name an actor that launched his/her entertainment career in another medium but who has surprised you with his/her acting chops. Yumi and Emi Ito, aka “The Peanuts” singing duo, aka the Twin Fairies of Infant Island
11. Name a movie that you keep meaning to see but just haven’t yet gotten around to it. Nope. Seen ‘em all.
12. Ever walked out of a movie? I can’t watch Son of Godzilla. That’s almost like walking out.
13. Name a movie that made you cry in the theater. Ah, well, when I went to see Terror of Mechagodzilla at a matinee the kids were so rowdy they stopped the movie. I was close to tears…
14. What’s the last movie you saw in the theatre? Godzilla: Final Wars
15. What’s your favorite/preferred genre of movie? Kaiju eiga
16.What’s the first movie you remember seeing in the theatre? Terror of Mechagodzilla

17.What movie do you wish you had never seen? Son of Godzilla

18. What is the weirdest movie you enjoyed? Bambi vs. Godzilla
19. What is the scariest movie you’ve seen? Matango, the Fungus of Terror giggling mushroom people? *shudders*

20. What is the funniest movie you’ve seen? Gamera vs. Guiron or Gamera vs. Zigra- how does one choose between magnitude 18 earth quakes, sparkly space women with glowing eyes who do the bidding of goblin-shark spaceships… and giant knife monsters with brain-eating alien hotties who feed you donuts? I ask you, how?

21. One movie you loved when you were a child: Godzilla vs. Mothra the giant insect with the mostest, baby.
22. One movie you’ve seen more than once: Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster

23. One movie you loved, but were embarrassed to admit it: The X From Outer Space Giant Space Chicken rampages across the Mt. Fuji area. I kid you not.

24. One movie you hated: Godzilla (1988) that thing with Matthew Broderick… ouch.
25. One movie that bored you: Atragon, the Flying Super Sub Absolute snoozeville until Manda the dragon gets his screen time.
26. One movie that made you happy: The South Park episode where Mecha Striesand is battled by a giant moth/ The Cure Frontman Robert Smith and giant tortoise Sidney Poitier (oh, and how could I forget mecha robot Leonard Maltin?) I obviously am not the only one in the world who loves both the Cure and Godzilla movies, as well as hates Babs. I was enthralled.

27. One movie that made you miserable: King Kong vs. Godzilla. Just this side of Son of Godzilla in sheer leg-chewing horroribleness
28. One movie you weren’t brave enough to see: any of the Kaiju Big Battle series
29. One movie character you’ve fallen in love with: Ah, of all of them, I’d have to say Mothra is my favorite. Winged version, of course. You go, girl!

30. The next movie you hope to see: Godzilla 3-D (set for a 2011 release date)

Meme: Movies

Thu, 28 May 2009 18:39:13 GMT

macavitykitsune knows I am a big movie ~~snob~~ fan, so she asked me to do this movie meme. It should be mentioned that I worked for 10 years at an art-house cinema, and I have three years of film school under my belt- and a childhood of sitting in the car while my parents worked concessions and security at a drive-in theater. All that is bound to skew my answers at least somewhat.
So here goes!

1. Name a movie that you have seen more than 10 times. Godzilla, King of the Monsters (1954) …though you could easily add a zero to that number.

2. Name a movie that you’ve seen multiple times in the theatre. Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954)- and in 3-D to boot!!!

3. Name an actor that would make you more inclined to see a movie. Vincent Price
4. Name an actor that would make you less likely to see a movie. John Wayne
5. Name a movie that you can do quotes from. Addams Family Values (1993) “These Addams men, where do you find them?” “It has to be damp.”
6. Name a movie musical that you know all of the lyrics to all of the songs. South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut (1999) Blame Canada!!!

7. Name a movie that you have been known to sing along with. Top Hat (1935) “…and I seem to find the happiness I seek when we’re out together dancing cheek to cheek!”- I also dance to it. A bit. *cough*
8. Name a movie that you would recommend everyone to see. The Secret of Roan Inish (1994)
9. Name a movie that you own. Every one of the films I’ve mentioned so far, actually… as well as such lovely obscurities such as Bride With White Hair II (1993)
10. Name an actor that launched his/her entertainment career in another medium but who has surprised you with his/her acting chops. Buster Keaton
11. Name a movie that you keep meaning to see but just haven’t yet gotten around to it. Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams (1990). I’ve seen pretty much everything else released overseas, so might as well…
12. Ever walked out of a movie? Many. The last one was Mr. Hulot’s Holiday (1953)
13. Name a movie that made you cry in the theater. Bambi (1942)
14. What’s the last movie you saw in the theatre? X-Men: Origins (2009)
15. What’s your favorite/preferred genre of movie? SciFi- the cheesier, the better
16.What’s the first movie you remember seeing in the theatre? 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)… I was six years old at the time, and my folks obviously hadn’t found a baby-sitter for the evening. I kept asking about the monkeys. “Shhh, they’re space monkeys, now be quiet” my mom told me…
17.What movie do you wish you had never seen? Last Year at Marienbad (1961) run far, far from this boring bit of pretentious twaddle. I’ve warned you.
18. What is the weirdest movie you enjoyed? Dr. Caligari (1989) Not the silent film Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, note. Not a remake, either. It’s… trust me, it’s even weirder than Un Chien Andalou (1929), and that’s saying something.
19. What is the scariest movie you’ve seen? An Inconvenient Truth (2006) I’m still haunted by the polar bears…
20. What is the funniest movie you’ve seen? Ooh, that’s a tie between Inframan (1975) and Horror of the Blood Monsters (1970) alternate title; Vampire Men of the Lost Planet. The former a Shaw Brothers rip-off of Ultraman, the other, well… imagine, if you will, a shoddily constructed repackaging of a Filipino caveman vampire flick, where the American release somehow puts it all on a distant planet filled with Filipino vampire cavemen, and in an attempt to cover up the fact the original, not US-made footage is B&W, they give it various color washes and wave it off as “Chromatic Radiations” showering the planet with bouts of being red, green, yellow, blue… you get the picture. John Carradine is involved, so you know it’s good
21. One movie you loved when you were a child: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)
22. One movie you’ve seen more than once: Quatermass and the Pit (1967) Hammer Horror at its best!
23. One movie you loved, but were embarrassed to admit it: Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers (1988) Chainsaw wielding prostitutes carving people up for the blood sacrifice in their Egyptian cult? Gotta love it.
24. One movie you hated: Blonde Cobra (1963) Oh, film school sounds like fun, sure, but you need to suffer through experimental shit like this all the time. This one left scars.
25. One movie that bored you: La Jetée (1962) Experimental isn’t always bad, and I was so looking forward to this one. Talk about disappointing…
26. One movie that made you happy: Tonari no Totoro (1988)
27. One movie that made you miserable: All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
28. One movie you weren’t brave enough to see: Horton Hears a Who (2008) What next to be desecrated? One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish?
29. One movie character you’ve fallen in love with: La Bête in La Belle et la Bête (1946). You can see a lot of Goujun in him, now that I think about it…

30. The next movie you hope to see: Red Cliff, part II (2008) Just watched part one. Takeshi Kaneshiro as Zhuge Liang? Made of win!!!

FIC: Goldberg Variations

Mon, 25 May 2009 23:19:30 GMT

Second place in minuswave Fluffy Flash Fiction challenge!!! YAY!!

Surprised me, since: a) I thought myself incapable of drabble (and so far I am; it's 788 words long so fully into short fic category); and b) I thought myself incapable of writing fluff. But it's not too very fluffy, just a sort of a goofy little awwww, so if you are as allergic to saccharine as I am, don't worry! It ain't like that.

For those few who might scratch their heads and go "wtf?" on the title- Tenpou tells you half of it, but the other half is a set of pieces by J.S. Bach called "The Goldberg Variations" which if I am not mistaken were written for this guy who had insomnia, and someone would play them at night to put him to sleep. Remember the scene in Silence of the Lambs where Hannibal Lecter had just done terrible things to his guards, and he pauses a moment to listen to this lovely piano music before he finishes them off with a "Ready when you are, Officer Pembry?" Well, he was listening to "The Goldberg Variations." And now you know.

The other "wtf;" Billina is a talking orange chicken in the Wizard of Oz books. No shit.

Oh, and a note to helliongoddess ; this is the fic with a logical error in it. Well, some would say it's one big logic error, but one is rather nasty and shows Tenpou's basic misunderstanding of the mechanism. See if you can find it. ^__~

Title: Goldberg Variations

Pairing: Kenren/Tenpou

Rating: PG

Summary: Love is a chain reaction… which sometimes involves a chicken.

Disclaimer: Standard disclaimer thingee. Not mine, hers.

Goldberg Variations

“What did you say this thing’s called?”

“It’s a Rube Goldberg Device. I’ve actually designed a few of these, with minor modifications between each- but I have to say this particular plan is my personal favorite. I call it ‘Billina’s Ballista.’ Though technically incorrect, it’s nicely alliterative, don’t you think?”

“Hn.”

Like any of that told him anything. Kenren stretched over the desk, squinting at the huge page of undecipherable lines partly hidden under Tenpou’s butt. He had to admit that the squinting didn’t help much, either. Tenpou let out a slow puff of smoke as he leaned in and pointed out an arbitrary blob on the blueprint. OK, not so arbitrary; now that he bothered to look he could see it was labeled ‘No.1: Start Here.’

“To start, you place two slices of toast in the toaster, here. When the toast is finished, the jarring motion of the handle popping up pulls the string attached to it, moving this hinged metal arm with the lit Bunsen burner glued to the end into position underneath the rope.”

Kenren frowned and leaned back into the chair. What the… a toaster? Ignoring the puzzled expression, Tenpou’s finger quickly swept along to the next spot.

“It will take approximately 1 minute 30 seconds for the flame to burn through the rope, at which point the hammer tied to the end drops and breaks the bell jar, allowing the captured moths to escape… that’s right there.”

At the tip of Tenpou’s finger, Kenren could definitely see a bell-shaped whatzit, complete with a ‘No. 3: Hungry Moths’ scribbled next to it, so he was at least able to follow along visually. Mentally? Not so much.

“Suuuure. Moths. Makes perfect sense. And then what?”

“Ah, well, as you can see, the moths will immediately gravitate to the wool underwear hanging… there, and as they eat away at the cloth, the weight of it will lessen, which due to the counterbalance raises the boot hanging beneath the moth-eaten garment, kicking closed the switch and completing the electrical current which heats the electric iron conveniently set to ‘linen’ so that it burns a hole through the rayon shirt on the ironing board. The resulting smoke will set off the fire alarm, frightening the overfed chicken and causing her to flee her nest, which is…. there. Since obese chickens can’t fly any great distances, she will instead plummet into the hanging basket.”

Kenren looked up at Tenpou. Then looked back down at the finger pointing out ‘Plummeting Poultry’ on the blueprint. “A fat chicken.”

“A fat hen, specifically. Orange one, preferably. Talking one if possible but the point is that her weight will send the basket sinking to the floor, at which point the fox in the oversized hamster wheel will see the potential basket lunch and begin running towards it. The turning of the wheel will wind this spring, swinging the ladle holding the golf ball up to the waiting Habitrail. The ball will then enter the Habitrail, roll down and drop into the neck of the tea kettle, effectively sealing it and allowing for a build up of steam, which will upon detonation of the lid knock the catch on the preset trebuchet, where, as you can plainly see, I am waiting in the sling. It’s a perfectly simple mechanism.”

Kenren stared down dumbly at the stick figure of Tenpou, lovingly rendered with stick glasses and a stick bad haircut. There was a tiny trajectory of dotted lines arcing away from it, along with directional arrows to a big red heart that had ‘No. 13: Perfection Achieved’ written beside it. He looked back up at Tenpou, and waited. Gave him the and then? gesture a few times, which got him nothing but an amused smile and a few more puffs of smoke. He finally gave up and asked.

“Ok, smartass. And what does the trebuchet do?”

“Well. It catapults me into your arms, of course.”

It took a second, but it had the intended result. Kenren started laughing. Hard. After a minute he settled down to a point where he could speak again. Still wiping away his tears, he nodded a ‘come hither’ and slapped his thigh in an invitation to his favorite Mad Scientist of Tenkai. Had to love the guy for trying, but the man was absolutely certifiable.

“Well, why don’t you just come on over and fling your pretty little lab-coated ass down on my lap right now, instead of waiting for some pudgy, moth-eaten talking chicken to do it for you?”

Tenpou took another puff and smiled wider. His butt slid off the end of the desk as he reached over to put out his cigarette.

“I thought you’d never ask.”

Springtime Kaiju Haiku

Fri, 01 May 2009 04:12:35 GMT

So, ages ago now I was explaining to theskywasblue that I have a thing for writing bad haiku. Specifically what I call Kaiju Haiku, kaiju being Japanese for "strange beast," of the type huge and rubbery and made famous by Toho Pictures. Poems like this one, which is my own personal favorite:

Tokyo underfoot
Godzilla's backscales brighten.
Toy tanks no defense.

*bows* thank you, thank you. Brilliant, I know...

Anyway- somehow, somewhere in that conversation there was the idea set forth that I should try writing a seasonal haiku-kaiju haiku hybrid, using the traditional springtime flower-viewing opening line of "Cherry blossoms fall" and merge it with some thing that likes to destroy huge metropolitan areas on a whim. I felt the calling, and it percolated away in my noggin for awhile (frightening prospect, I admit) and here they are; a selection of brand-spankin' new Springtime Kaiju Haiku. Thanks to theskywasblue for putting the idea in my head in the first place!

Anyone else who wants to post a Kaiju Haiku here as a response, I heartily encourage you to do so. Hell, I'd even enjoy kaiju couplets, kaiju limericks or even the odd Elizabethan Kaiju sonnet (looks pointedly at macavitykitsune for that last one).
A new genre of poetry is born!

Cherry blossoms fall,
scattering in the vortex
behind Mothra's wings.

Cherry blossoms fall,
the tree flattened beneath the
foot of Godzilla.

Cherry blossoms fall
unnoticed; Rodan has passed
the Sound Barrier.

Drabble: Heart Sutra

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 21:22:15 GMT

MY FIRST DRABBLE!!!

I know, sounds like a Fisher-Price sippy cup or something. But it's not! It's a ficlet actually under 500 words, written by of all people, verbose me! Really, it was written for aeneus' minuswave challenge- but when I finished it I realized it didn't qualify, since the only "fluff" found in this piece is between bunny's ears. So, nothing for the challenge this time around (I think), but I can at least post this here, and sneak something into April at the last possible minute.
Enjoy!

Title: Heart Sutra

Characters: Nii, Bunny, Kougaiji

Ratings: PG

Warnings: Nii. ‘Nuff said.

Summary: Say anything else about the man, but Nii always speaks the truth. He just hides it under a pile of asshole so that you hardly notice.

Disclaimer: Hers, not mine. Blah blah blah.

Heart Sutra

“Bunny says he’s got something he knows you’ll like. It’s long, and round, and hard, and it’s just what you’re looking for.”

Two beady little eyes in an oversized head peered up from where the… thing… lay nestled between the doctor’s splayed legs. Nii grinned crookedly, bending the toy’s arm in a childish mimicry of a “come hither” wave as Kougaiji’s eyes narrowed to tiny slits. He simply lacked any sort of patience for Nii’s games today. Which was true of virtually every other day. And, like every other day, he told the man so.

“Just give me the print out, Nii. I don’t have time for your idiocy.”

With an unhappy moan Nii’s mouth turned down in mock disappointment. Following the general downward trend, the rabbit sagged noticeably as well. Little fake paws melodramatically wrapped about the stuffed head to wipe away equally fake rabbit tears.

“Now look what you’ve done. You’ve hurt poor Bunny’s feelings.” He patted the doll’s head. “There, there, Bunni-woogums. Don’t you worry now. If the mean nasty princey-poo doesn’t want what you hold in your heart, well, that’s just his loss, now isn’t it? I still love you for it, no matter what he says. Believe me, some day he’ll be sorry he didn’t take you up on that. In the mean time, you still have me.”

Nii’s eyes slowly slid back up to Kougaiji’s face. He grinned again, and winked… and just sat there. Not moving an inch, just sitting there, with that infuriating shit-eating grin and that stupid rabbit between his stupid legs, baiting him to do… something, anything to wipe that grin off that idiotic face. Calculatingly, brazenly pushing it, right up to the second before the impending explosion and not a moment earlier, and then before Kougaiji could fully close his fist Nii’s hand shot up, holding the printout inches from his livid face. Waved it up and down a few times so that he had to work at snatching it from the man’s hand. Kougaiji turned and stalked off towards the exit to the sound of Nii’s sniggering. As he opened the door the cretin offered up one last dig.

“Well, if you’re not into bestiality, my prince, then maybe you’d like what I have hidden between my legs instead? It’s long, and round, and-“

Kougaiji slammed the door hard, shaking his head as the muffled cackles echoed behind him, the grating sound pushing him down the corridor and away from the insanity. This was the last time he’d be an errand boy for that witch. There were certain things- certain someones- he just wasn’t willing to suffer through anymore, not for her, not for anybody. Plus there was something seriously wrong with that man.

Goujun Appreciation Month Ends: Check out the comm!

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 03:51:32 GMT

Thanks to all who made Goujun Appreciation Month the love fest that it was. Since it was kindly pointed out that March is really Sanzo month, we'll be moving GAM to June the next time, which means... we get to share the love again in three months! In the mean time, tj_dragonblade is busy setting up the new community devoted to our beloved white dragons of Saiyuki, Haku_ryuu. It's still being set up, so there may be a broken link or two- but she's done a fantastic job, and I for one shower her with appreciation for all her hard work.

Thanks, everyone, for sharing the dragon lovin'! See you in June!

Goujun Appreciation Month: Vote in the Poll!

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 02:28:19 GMT

For anyone who hasn't already noticed, tj_dragonblade has put up a poll for the Goujun and Hakuryuu Comm. She's been working hard on getting at least part of it up and running before the end of the month, and she'd like your help in deciding on a name.

So, please, go and vote! The commander has spoken!

This way to the poll

Pimpin' for the Dragon

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 22:26:39 GMT

Yes, we're happy to be pimpin' a lovely new fic, written in honor of Goujun Appreciation Month!

Check out purpleicicles Distraction, pt 1 for shameless dragon lovin'!

And remember to bring many, many napkins. Drooling on your computer might short the thing out, and you'd never get to see part 2 or 3 when they come out!

FIC: Tea and Sympathy

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 15:04:49 GMT

Name: Tea and Sympathy

Pairings: Goujun/Tenpou implied

Rating: PG (for implying 10Gou in the first place)

Summary: Kanzeon is looking for a new shogi partner. Unfortunately, she’s read Goujun’s character profile.

Disclaimer: Hers, not mine. Blah blah blah and all that.

Written in honor of Goujun Appreciation Month! A little bit of humor with a trace of fluff poking out of its ears. I’ve had this plot bunny sitting around even before Minekura told us Goujun plays shogi, so I figured it was time to grow it into a March Hare. Hope you enjoy.

Tea and Sympathy

Buddhist legend tells of a miraculous ambrosia which rains from the Bodhisattva’s fingertips, pouring her boundless compassion down into a needy world. It reaches ever outward, spreading even into the lands of Lord Yama and the deepest pits of Hell, bringing its hope of deliverance to all who are in need. Goujun often felt that this Trickle Down Theory of the Mercy of Kanzeon was the only thing that explained his personal experience of the goddess herself. Having poured everything out onto far away places Down Below, none of that famous charity and compassion remained Up Above for the poor needy souls who were unfortunate enough to actually live with her. It made more sense than any other theory he’d been able to come up with.

A very dry, obviously ambrosia-free manicured finger pushed a chariot across the board towards his line of foot soldiers. Kanzeon sat back, smiling in satisfaction over the rather obvious move as if she had done something rather clever. It was a look that tended to make anyone who had more than a passing acquaintanceship with her immensely nervous.

“This is so very lovely, isn’t it, your majesty? I’d like to thank you again for taking time out of your busy, busy day to play a few rounds with me. Jiroshin is a dear- but really, he’s hardly a challenge when it comes to something as complex as shogi.”

“Merciful goddess-“
”Shush, Jiroshin. You know it’s true, so you can stop denying it right now. Go on; get the Commander some more tea. He’s been playing for hours now on a single pot. I’m sure he’s absolutely parched.” An irritated flock of red fingertips waved him away. “Off with you now. Shoo.”

“As I had said previously, Bosatsu, the honor is entirely mine. There are so few who truly know how to play the game well.”

With an angry clink of dirtied porcelains Jiroshin stalked off in a huff. Goujun felt the empty wake churning behind the retreating back, acutely aware that as of that moment The Embodiment of Selfless Compassion had no other target on which to level her undivided attention besides a long-suffering dragon seated immediately across from her. He stared bore holes through the game board and tried not to panic over his suddenly exposed position, praying the tea wasn’t an oolong with a six-minute steep time. They had managed to run through the usual pleasantries in the first half hour of play, leaving the field of conversation wide open- and to his horror, wide open it had been. Without Jiroshin around to make the occasional mortified gasp, things would only get worse.

Of course Kanzeon didn’t know how to play shogi any better than Jiroshin allegedly did- but considering her position in Tenkai, the true game that was being played out next to the lotus pond that afternoon was something entirely different. In that game, his winning move was to sip his tea and pretend he simply hadn’t noticed when she bent the rules a tiny bit. Unfortunately, by mid-afternoon most of the rules were already displaying a kink of a good thirty degrees. Occasionally she went as far as to completely snap a rule in two; when that happened, he imagined himself picking the poor shattered bits off the spot on the ground where she had thoughtlessly tossed them, and carefully placing said bits in his pocket with all the other rules she had already mangled. He had a sizeable collection started; there was the distant hope that he could cash them in at some time in the future for positive points against his karmic burden. There had to be some reason why he was being made to so suffer. In his peripheral vision he could see her closely watching his deliberations while she sipped on something garish and fruity through a brightly colored straw. Replenishing the depleted ambrosia stores. Apparently the secret recipe for Boundless Compassion included a healthy jigger of blue Curaçao.

He tried again to simply concentrate on the game. Another sweep of his eyes across the layout of the board made no more sense than the previous ones had; her strategy seemed almost nonsensical, the type of game one might be presented with in a dream. If Kanzeon ever won at shogi, it was only because she so confounded the opponent with her absurd moves that she reduced her competition to a state of total confusion not unlike a game-induced kensho, as if she were attempting some sort of shogi koan. If not that, he imagined quite a few would pointedly throw her the game, in the same manner an animal in a snap-trap might gnaw off their leg in order to escape an impending death.

He finally gave up on any attempt at a serious long-term strategy and took a captured lancer and dropped it in behind her lines. Kanzeon leaned over to inspect his move, then leaned back again and wiggled down into her chair, a crooked leer creeping across her face. She crossed her arms, not so much across her bosom as underneath, the better to shove them up and out to be all that much more ignored. As the tip of a pink tongue circled around her lips in a manner suggesting a vulture that had found fresh carrion, he wondered if the time hadn’t come to start nibbling on his own ankle.

“Oh my- how absolutely delicious. It’s been awhile since I’ve been poked from behind like that. A lancer. You’re so very good to me, Commander.”

Goujun’s eyes quickly snapped back down to the board. Within her innuendo he could hear the echo of those very same words hissed into his ear the night before; the catch in Tenpou’s voice, a breathless moan and then a low laugh of ohhh, you’re so very good to me, Commander. The strong, coltish legs wrapping themselves around his torso, pulling him deeper into the abyss. The vivid, visceral memory of it set his groin into a tingling rush of excitement. He worked to recompose himself as she hummed at him in an altogether inappropriate way. It was not the first time that afternoon he was glad he could not blush.

“I guess I’ll just have to return the favor, now won’t I?”

She paused for another delicate sip of sugared liquor, then set the glass down carefully on the side table before leaning her bosom over the board again. Sharp red nails slowly and pointedly picked up her gold general and quietly stacked it on top of his dragon king. She leaned back, eyebrow raised, waiting for his response. He stared at the stacked pair for a long sickening moment. It took another few breaths before he could finally find a voice to speak. He didn’t bother to point out it had been an illegal move.

“Are you planning to take the piece off the board, Bosatsu?”

She picked up her drink again and carefully wrapped her lips around the straw. Not the best at keeping a straight face, she barely managed a single ‘slurp’ before she lost her battle with the predatory grin she tried so gamely to deny. He began to gnaw away at his leg in earnest.

“But they’re having such fun together; it would be a pity to stop them now, don’t you think? You wouldn’t believe some of the things the two of them are capable of. They certainly managed to surprise me.”

His heart dropped into his shoes. She sucked a bit more blue into her mouth to allow herself a sufficiently dramatic pause before she went in for the kill.

“You see, your majesty- well, I’m sure you’re quite aware of the meaning of my name; She Who Hears the Cries of the World. It might interest you to know that I can also hear the world’s sighs. Plus its breathless whispers, lusty moans, and its occasional wails of complete and utter ecstasy. Really, I have to say it’s what makes the job worth while.”

Goujun could feel the color he didn’t have draining from his face. He had known in his heart that indulging in such a relationship with a male subordinate was bound to end in disaster, but he had been so desperately lonely here in heaven- and Tenpou had been the one bright spot in an otherwise monotonous existence. Until this moment it seemed a gamble he was willing to take. A gamble he had now seemingly lost- to the maven of court gossip, of all people.

He hadn’t realized that he had been staring at the two tiny game pieces for entirely too long until a touch of Kanzeon’s hand upon his made him start out of his reverie. Her fingers dug into his palm to carefully open his clenched fist, then laid it flat across the table and pressed hers down on top of it, squeezing it lightly in a comforting gesture. He felt his hackles rise at the mockingly tender action. A sarcasm that rarely found its way to the surface bubbled up and spewed out of him in a barely controlled hiss of steam.

“Enlighten me, Merciful Goddess… just where does the act of voyeurism fall within the Eightfold Path? Is it an expression of Right Action, or Right View?”

He was half expecting some sort of rude comment about just how right the view had been, but Kanzeon seemed uninterested in taking the bait. Instead, she leaned in a bit closer, resting her free elbow along with her ample cleavage across the game board. He felt more than saw her leaning her head on her hand as she made empathetic little clucking noise at him. He managed to tear his eyes from the pieces in order to level a caustic glare, but it lost its edge quickly, so surprised he was at the face that met it. He hardly recognized her; for the first time in his life he could see a hint of that compassion for which she was so celebrated, twinkling warmly at him from the back of her eyes. The perpetual air of ennui had fallen away to expose the face she kept hidden beneath, glowing with that timeless embodiment of dharma he had always heard existed within her, but had never before seen. She squeezed his hand again, and gave him a sympathetic smile.

“My dear, dear dragon king. No matter what the poets may tell us, the quality of mercy does not, as they say, ‘droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven.’ It’s a pretty enough little metaphor, but hardly workable in the day to day realities of existence.” She flourished her fingers against the side of her head as if to reinforce once again their lack of dripping ambrosia, making him wonder just how much of his thoughts she could actually read. She patted his hand again in a manner that felt strangely intimate.

“No, the truth is, mercy is passed along horizontally- between each other, not doled out in miserly little parcels from some sanctimonious idiot from Up Above.” She squeezed his hand once more before releasing it and leaning back into her chair. He sat there dumbly, transfixed by the transcendent glow still sparkling deep within her eyes. Glowing ever so warmly, not so much at him as with him. She laughed lightly and shook her head. Her voice carried barely the ghosting of the irony that was usually so heavily laced within it; the sound was soft and honeyed, almost musical.

“That wondrous gift of dissolution into each other; whether that takes the form of passion… or of compassion… that hardly matters, now does it? It all touches the Divine.” She gave him a wink. “And let’s face it, your majesty. No matter which one you choose, if it isn’t fun, it’s hardly worth doing. It’s the variations that make life worth living.”

She picked up her drink again, reduced to little more than stained ice by this point. Sucking on the straw produced nothing more than loud gurgling sound; frowning slightly, she gave up the attempt to retrieve any more liquid from the glass and fished out a bluish cube, placing it delicately into her mouth. Her end of her finger stayed with it. She smiled at him around the wet digit.

“And you two know more variations than I even knew existed. Such fun. It can be so boring around here otherwise.” She looked up over his shoulder, her smile listing lopsidedly to the side. “Ah, Jiroshin, there you are. I was wondering what was taking you so long. I didn’t ask you to grow the bush, you know.” A tea service was placed next to him in a loud clatter; Goujun absently thanked the man as he poured, but made no further effort to drink. Kanzeon pointedly held out her empty glass at arm’s length and shook it to rattle the ice about. There was a frustrated snort before Jiroshin snatched the glass and disappeared once again. She watched him leave for a moment, then gave Goujun a conspiratorial little smile. He let his frown lessen to a neutrality.

“I want to thank you again, your majesty, for being so very good to me. As you know, compassion is always an even exchange.” A slow understanding began to dawn in him with those words; it was true that the scriptures said compassion was an even exchange between the gods and man. Perhaps then, it was the same even between gods and gods. Goujun looked deeply into her eyes again, and saw the truth that they held; he had been blessed by the Boundless Mercy of Kanzeon, and had never even recognized it for what it was. Indeed, who would have ever thought that Mercy would smoke like a chimney? Compassion that was given one to the other, shared equally, so that one was no longer lonely, the other was no longer bored, and all were dissolved together into the oneness of bliss. His lips turned up further into an almost smile. He was still more than a trifle taken aback at the thought of an audience, but at least he now understood her Gift for the precious thing that it was. He felt so moved that in return he gave her the one gift he could think to give her at the moment, to address her using the formal court language known as asobase kotoba, the Language of Play. In his own way acknowledging her immense expertise in that Greatest of Games in which they all were a part. He bowed slightly and gave her a rare smile.

"As it is said, Bosatsu, ’let my playing be my learning, and my learning be my playing.’ I would quite agree; these two are far from finished with each other. Shall we let them have their fun then, and play at calling the game a draw? I would be honored if you would play at starting another round.”

Jiroshin returned to find the two of them still sitting there, smiling away at each other. After the briefest hesitation, he set the cocktail down carefully on its filigree coaster and quietly resumed his position behind her chair. They were still grinning away like banshees while they started setting up a new game. Jiroshin began to slowly and unobtrusively edge his way backwards towards the exit. He wasn’t sure what game was afoot between the two of them next to the lotus pond that afternoon, but he was quite sure that whatever it was, he for one did not wish to be caught in the middle of it. He’d already had enough of Kanzeon’s Boundless Mercy to last him for the rest of eternity.

Call for RP, AMV, DJ Rec requests for Goujun Appreciation Month

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 16:11:46 GMT

tj_dragonblade has been working hard on the Big Dragon Master List, and is asking for your recs on the following items:

RPs: we are aware of two rp sites with Goujun as a character; past_imperfect and ever_west. If you know of another one, please please please let us know!

AMVs: There's lots of video sites out there, and not enough hours in the day to go through them all. If you're aware of an amv with Goujun in it, send us the link asap so we can put it in the list.

DJs: If you have or know of a doujinshi that's Goujun-centric, tell us about it, please! We'd love to get it mentioned or linked on the list.

Thanks to all in advance to everyone!

Happy Birthdays All Around!

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 05:05:50 GMT

A happy birthday to ao_jun , a.k.a. Goujun, Dragon King of the Western Seas, Commander of the Armies of the Western Heavens! (at least my ever_west rp version of him)

And a happy birthday to moshesque , who plays Qin, Jun's brother at the ever_west rp! And me- may I be the first to wish me a happy birthday.

As a birthday gift to all and in honor of Goujun Appreciation Month, I present you with a page from the Ao Family Album. Sorry, people. Don't own any fancy-schmancy programs to make pretty pics with, which is why this one looks suspiciously like colored pencil on paper. >.>

*pats the down on little Jun-kun's head* He's so fuzzy!

Jun and Qin at Their Shichi Go San