((adding pretty picture for Down XD  -- suz))



Because SUZ MADE ME HAVE FEELINGS ALL OVER TUMBLR and there isn't a thread for him so I might as well start one?

................Admittedly this is a copy-paste of my meme responses. XD BUT WHO CARES HAVE RANDOM ASCOT FEELS it's all Suz's fault for asking me about him anyway add your own! Add a fancy image like the other threads have! Why no I'm not too lazy to copy the format XP Go answer meme questions for other characters! GO HAVE FEELS ABOUT RAYEARTH ACROSS THE INTERNET

    How I feel about this character: I ADORE ASCOT. He?s so - okay, so he has a TERRIBLE backstory there. He?s a child, he has NO family that we see or hear of, and he has these friends who adore him unconditionally - they would die for him, they would do ANYTHING for him, but they look like /nightmares/ and he?s been thrown out of society for them but he doesn?t give them up - he?s just as loyal back, and he must be so /angry/ with people, and so hurt, and it takes SO LITTLE for Zagato to persuade him to murder people for a cause he doesn?t care in. Partially probably because why should he care what happens to anyone? They never seem to have cared about him - but Zagato offered him a place to stay, with his friends, and that was IT. All he needed. Plus - there?s his whole ?getting hurt for other people? That?s just STUPID? thing which - he?s so CONFUSED by Umi having other people as /friends/ that it?s like he?s blocked out the possibility of humans having emotions, being worth anything. But as soon as he gets the slightest hint of understanding and acceptance - that loyalty and that courage to stick up for his friends is just so STRONG, and he?s just - he?s a complete darling, and he has been hurt so badly (and been a terrible, terrible person! because he literally had no reason to think it was worth being otherwise!) and I want to hug him and have the whole world go gently on the poor boy because it?s going to take a lot before he can be certain in himself and his place in the world but he?s there, not complaining, not making excuses, but trying to do his best.
    All the people I ship romantically with this character: ZAZUZAZUZAZU *AHEM* um. ?Sometimes Clef, and possibly Ferio on occasion? SOMETIMES ClefandUmi because with the three of them I can balance out the dynamic BUT MOSTLY ZAZU.
    My non-romantic OTP for this character: CALDINA AND ASCOT FAMILY UNIT FOREVER PLUS ALSO LAFARGA BUT MOSTLY CALDINA AND ASCOT
    My unpopular opinion about this character: eh, that he and Umi wouldn?t work as a romantic couple. (And it wouldn?t be their fault, either of them, but - it just. She?d trample all over him without meaning to and he?d be afraid to stand up for himself and then implode and hate himself for FAILING and it just - he needs someone better at being /kind/, and at paying attention in the right places and not the wrong ones, because Umi?s good at seeing weaknesses but it takes her sleepless nights of regretting what she?s done before she can truly understand someone else?s point of view sometimes - and not someone who?ll argue at every little thing because he?s so frightened of losing his temper, of being angry and hating because LOOK WHAT THAT MADE HIM BECOME BEFORE and he?s not sure he?s not still just an angry evil child inside because his dear close friends - he can?t trust anything they tell him, because they never told him he was wrong to ask them to kill. But they?re the only people he could actually think of asking if he was going off the rails again, because how could he admit he was feeling that angry and lost to the people who have taken him in and given him a place to belong with his friends? And Umi?s anything but tactful, anything but gentle, and she?d TRY, she?d try so hard, but he?s got her on a pedestal and she can?t possibly live up to the shining creature who shouted him into being a better person. Not all the time. And she can?t help losing her temper sometimes and feels AWFUL when he?s hurt and wishes he?d fight back but he WON?T until he does and that?s awful too and-) OOPS THIS IS WHY ASCOT/UMI MAKES ME SAD I DIDN?T MEAN TO RAMBLE I JUST - I WORRY ABOUT HIM FAR TOO MUCH TO WISH UMI ON HIM MUCH THOUGH I LOVE HER??? the character-shapes don?t fit together for me. ^^;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
    One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I wish we?d seen more of him and Caldina. But then HEY I?M WRITING IT APPARENTLY and Caldina?s awesome fun to write XDDD
    my OTP: ZAZU/ASCOT ETERNALLY IN MY HEART because it was meant to be crack, it was SO meant to be crack, they never even MEET but - but Zazu is CHEERFUL and energetic and so EASY about things, so enthusiastic, and /curious/ - I still think he?d be nervous of Ascot?s friends for all of about five minutes before he starts going HEY DO YOU KNOW HOW TO TURN INTO A GIANT ROBOT :DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD at them and - he?s not quite the most NORMALLY socialised of people, because he?s been about adults in garages and advanced classes and on the NSX for so much of his life, and it?s never bothered him - the adults about him tend to adopt him and indulge him, because you can?t not be swept away in Zazu?s enthusiasm for the things he loves. He doesn?t entirely ~get~ people all the time but he has no fear of them, and he?s secure in his place in the world, and all that - all that would be SO GOOD for Ascot. If Zazu can help him relax, can be unafraid of him and his friends, can accept him and be curious about his life and his world while never once judging it - if he can understand loyalty, being just about as loyal to Eagle as Geo is though he never bothers to say - and if he?ll see shadows of Eagle?s darker moods in Ascot?s silences and hesitations, and try to chase them away, well. I think Ascot?s serious side, and maturity, would be good for helping Zazu too - because you can?t always just be enthusiastic at something until it works, especially not with people, and Zazu has NO IDEA how to cope with that, can wear himself out trying.
    my cross over ship: I have never actually thought about crossing him over with anyone? It?s not something I tend to do?
    a headcanon fact: I think that he was in an accident, when he was very very young - that probably his parents were killed, and he was about to die, and TERRIFIED, and that?s when his powers kicked in and he summoned the first of his friends. And it?s why they look so much like nightmares - he was /living one/. And it/they saved him. And he?s been collecting other nightmares ever since, because they?re STRONG. They won?t leave him. They can protect him - and they can protect THEMSELVES.
    (?I do wonder if he came from some backwoods area with very few high-level mages, and no understanding of summoning or magic, and how much Clef wishes desperately that he?d known - and dreads finding anyone else Cephiro has failed as badly as they failed Ascot, because they HAVE. And I don?t think it?s any kind of coincidence that his adopted family starts with Caldina, who has none of the Cephiran prejudice against his friends.)

............Because I need SOMEWHERE to glory about the fact I am slowly infecting the fandom with Ascot/Zazu (THE WORK OF YEARS XD) and the old post a) had ~no yaoi~ on the top which I admittedly blatantly ignored anyway and b) told me off for trying to necro-post, and why NOT start off a new round of flailing at our favourite relationships again? *grins*

Including the crack ones. XD

(I am starting this up without time to actually FLAIL tonight, of course, but hey! I SHALL RETURN. Or something. Heh.)

(Now, who else wants to start doing Umi/Tarta things??? I am aloooooooooone all alooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooone *sad eyes at the world*)

(And I can't even reference it in this ridiculous giant robots thing apparently attempting to consume me in three days or less. Because it's Rayearth One based. There is no Tarta! *SIGH*)

(Non-crack pairings: ALSO WELCOME! Dear newer members, especially! I think there's a small handful since the last time this thread was about? We had the shipping weeks, too, but they were more fanwork-oriented~)

on AO3

Mils's birthday fic, which she DID SEE on her birthday, it's just a very little different now (tiny tiny bit edited?)

But it's a whole new thing to everyone else so it gets its own topic! (and because the other one was terrifying?)

26th work in MKR, with this one officially a third of the works are written by me, HELP

........this is still better than back when over half were mine BUT STILL oooooooooooops

I'm in the process of spamming AO3 with all the things I've been posting to fan-flashworks and to tumblr since, well, beginning of the year, really?

.........Maybe a dozen things altogether but it's taking me a while because I am easily distracted. XD

(except the things which I can't crosspost yet...)

Liquid Diamonds Clef/Umi FLUFF unconnected to anything else I've written. XD

Rushed Umi/Tarta pre-relationship fluff with one kiss because

SO, I seem to have launched myself into writing one-thing-a-day for the 12 days until Richard II's birthday of christmas, and I would very much like prompts if people have anything they want to throw at me? They may not stick, but. ^^

IN PARTICULAR prompts for... things which are NOT Umi and Clef, because a) I wrote them for day one anyway XD and b) diversity is good! And I want to write ALL THE THINGS and this would be a good excuse? Especially Ferio and Fuu, and Caldina and LaFarga, and Hikaru things, and - hee. (Other fandoms also welcome!)

(In fact, I'm always hunting for prompts because I like writing short and can barely ever manage it with the things I come up with myself. So if this is July 2037 or something and people want to leave a prompt, pls do. XD)

Currently these are going on Tumblr, I'll get them on AO3/ffn in a bit. I plan to sit and upload things this weekend, probably.

day 1: Umi/Clef, pg: Frozen.

day 2: Umi and Tarta (and a bit of Tatra) and an elephant statue and books (thanks Mils XD), g: Drowsy.

[fixed day two link -- Mils]

SO! I am, um, looking at the next chapter, and for at least the next scene (which is going to be a pain for both Clef and I) I feel the need for a CHAPTER SPECIFIC PLAYLIST.

This may or may not be because Clef has been vindictively singing Adam Lambert's 'chokehold' at me for more than 24 hours now HELP. I don't REALLY want to spend the next FOREVER listening to three Adam Lambert songs, two Alter Bridge and a couple of Evanescence? I would like a LONGER PLAYLIST. Therefore, I am asking for the most THIS WILL NEVER WORK THE WORLD IS AWFUL NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ARGH songs people can find? Also I'm completely and utterly sticking Total Eclipse of the Heart on this damn thing so. XD THINGS TO TRIAL? Doomy 'Clef cannot let himself love anyone FEELINGS ARE TERRIFYING' and/or 'broken due to Emeraude-related trauma' songs? Please? POWER BALLADS WOULD BE AWESOME :DDDDDDDD

(not that I want to be able to switch between channelling ALL THE EMOTION and laughing at Clef. NOPE. NOT AT ALL. I, uh. I need some way to keep sane? Also I COMPLETELY LOVE power ballads, let's not lie. XDD)

(Plus I figure I might as well have an official Weight of Water thread on here, as I'm poking about trying to find things for tying up Burden and writing All Fall Down. But FIRST THINGS FIRST. XD)

CURRENTLY:
1) Chokehold - Adam Lambert
staring at the ceiling in the dark/ sheets a tangled rock/ my heart is like a rock// pictures flashing by inside my head/ I'm hanging like a thread/ but I'd do it all again

I keep running away, running away, running away from you/ But I can't stand breaking the chains, breaking the chains, breaking the chains/ It's too good, cause I know the second you go/ Wantcha to bring it on back, bring it on back, bring it on back to me

2) Blackbird - Alter Bridge
The fragile cannot endure/ The wrecked and the jaded a place so impure/ The static of this cruel world/ Cause some birds to fly long before they've seen their day/ Long before they've seen their day
(this one's more Clef in season two to me about the knights but what the hell WE'RE GOING TO FLASHBACK MAY AS WELL DO IT IN SONG FORM)

3) Bring Me To Life - Evanscence
How can you see into my eyes like open doors?/ Leading you down into my core where I?ve become so numb/ Without a soul my spirit's sleeping somewhere cold/ until you find it there and lead it back home
(NOT THAT HE IS CONFLICTED AT ALL) (WHATTTTT XD) (be glad I am not ever going to actually finish writing the ENTIRE ALBUM FIC I started at the age of 17 based on this album. EVERYONE WAS DEAD BY THE END OF IT, IT WAS GLORIOUS )

4) Total Eclipse of the Heart - Bonnie Tyler
Turn around, every now and then I get a little bit nervous that the best of all the years have gone by/ Turn around, every now and then I get a little bit terrified and then I see the look in your eyes/ Turn around, bright eyes/ Every now and then I fall apart/ Turn around, bright eyes/ Every now and then I fall apart
(BECAUSE I CAN also if you've ever seen the music video? The building it takes place in? Is twin to the main building of the University I went to in the UK )

5) Alone - Heart
Till now I always got by on my own/ I never really cared until I met you/ And now it chills me to the bone/ How do I get you alone/ How do I get you alone
(COMPLETELY INAPPROPRIATE VERSES I DON'T EVEN CARE :DDDDDDD also can hear it as 'how did I get to alone')

The Chain and I'm So Afraid by Fleetwood Mac are probably going to be there as well?

SO YES

SAVE ME? PLEASE? Or at least amuse me? XD

So there have been QUITE A LOT of Rayearth anime cells up on ebay in the past year, and I have been STAUNCHLY RESISTING

BUT SOMEONE HAS PUT UP ONE FROM THE soihisghrigharsiugh MIDNIGHT APOLOGY SCENE

SEE?

I DON'T NEED A CELL COLLECTION (there's one of OVA Clef looking PRETTY up as well at the moment XD) BUT

THANK YOU SCENE

SOME ONE ELSE BUY IT. It's in the USA! SAVE MEEEEEEEEEEEE

(UGHHHHHHH the one of Caldina with LaFarga's hand on her face is TOO CUTE DDDDDDDDDDDDD:)

I do not need an anime cell collection. I Do Not Need An Anime Cell Collection....

THIS ONE REALLY IS MILS'S FAULT. Lots and lots. (Love you!)

Ante Up

At one particularly loud thump, Ferio huffed a laugh, looking back in the direction of the ruckus. ?This time will definitely end in an explosion or in someone?s bed. I bet bed. Any takers??

(aka CRACK)

(Ferio and Caldina. It is, apparently, ALWAYS Ferio and Caldina. XD)

I wrote a thing and I'm so tempted to blame Mils for it existing but probably this one's my own fault. Also Clef is a sub, Umi is a biter, I wrote sex, and they never manage to get to a bed...

.........uh

Aftershock

(note: sex. Mature. Whatever.)

OKAY SO this has been bouncing about the back of my head since... July, apparently? And I am in need of HELP finding decent tracks for people to sing, so I would like music suggestions? But ESSENTIALLY the premise is this (as I ranted about on my blog in july hoping it would go away IT HASN'T so I might as well try plotting it...)

IT WOULD BE COMPLETELY LEGITIMATE TO HAVE CLEF AS THE LEAD SINGER BECAUSE OF REASONS OF VOICE Y/Y? Y!

Clef and Emeraude and Zagato and Lantis were a group called 'Pillar', years back, Emeraude lead vocals and Clef on guitar and secondary vocals, and then they formed a record company called 'Cephiro' and stopped doing the music thing apart from Lantis who decided to keep doing music rather than being a producer type and so formed this new band in which he ended up the singer (a heavier metal-edged rock-type group) with Caldina (guitar), Ferio (bass), Presea (keyboards and all that~), and LaFarga on the drums (and Ascot is the lighting guy and head roadie and all the other roadies are his monster-friends, but human!) only they've hit it moderately big and they're in the middle of a tour and Lantis up and abandons Ma~Shin to go away somewhere for his sometimes-boyfriend Eagle's group's tour because he doesn't want to be apart from Eagle for that long THEY NEED TO WORK THINGS OUT and stuff, and Clef's currently in charge of this new group coming up rapidly and about to debut, The KNights, who aren't as sweet and fluffy as their promo shoots imply.

only suddenly Emeraude and Zagato descend on him and tell him he has to go fill in for Lantis, THE SHOW MUST GO ON AND ALL THAT, and GREATLY PROTESTING he finds himself singing with Ma~Shin, and the KNights (read, UMI) TEASE HIM HORRIBLY and complain about his abandoning them, then go to one of their gigs (because... Emeraude? or THERE IS A RECORDING STUDIO WE CAN USE IN THIS TOWN oh hey may as well got to the gig and see why Clef's ABANDONED US) and then Umi has to go and buy all the old Pillar albums and - THIS IS SUCH A BAD COLLECTION OF SNICKERING AT MYSELF AND CLICHES XD) There may have to be a moment when he gets forced into playing the, like, second biggest hit Pillar had (one of the rare ones in which he was lead vocal) and Caldina and Presea refuse to go anywhere near Emeraude's lines because HIGH and so Umi has to fill in BECAUSE REASONS live on stage

And they have to explain at every interview that the name Ma~Shin is a bilingual pun. XD

THEREFORE I need things to be sung by: Ma~Shin (metal), Pillar (rock - folk-edged? I have Fleetwood Mac and Led Zeppelin in my head, anyway, heh, OPEN TO SUGGESTION~), The KNights (who play with layered harmony in pop-with-an-edge and head towards, say, Kalafina, but without the vocal range - they're all higher pitched, though Fuu's voice might settle down into an alto I guess?), and Autozam (Eagle lead vocals because MEGUMI OGATA, PEOPLE, MEGUMI OGATAAAA. XDD They're dance/electronica/pop because ZAZU ON KEYBOARDS AND MIXING DESK AND ALL THAT YES XDDD and Geo is bass/occasionally backing vocals)

Because if no one helps me then this will just be a succession of people singing Adam Lambert and Queen XDDDDDDDDDD

(SERIOUSLY THOUGH Eagle singing For Your Entertaiment is a thing I find hilarious to contemplate? :DDDDD I currently have Clef singing Sleepwalker in my head. XD;;; Eagle has most of the range, though, Clef doesn't - Eagle's range is TERRIFYING in the Adam Lambert/Freddie Mercury style, aaaaaaand now I have him singing 'Living on my own' in my head I think my brain has just gone back to the early 90s XD but Clef's is a fairly rich moderate tenor without anything too insane in terms of range?)

I want a few songs to mention that they're covering live to give a sense of the tone/range of each group? XD

Also I SHOULD NEVER LISTEN TO GORAN, TAIYOU DA YO TOO MANY TIMES IN A ROW BECAUSE THIS HAPPENSSSSSSSSSSS

PLEASE HELP MEEEEEEEEEE

(ALL members of all groups are allowed to play with songwriting and/or declaring they are covering a certain song tonight WHO WANTS TO DECLARE WHAT FERIO GETS THEM TO PLAY FOR FUU? Left on my own it'll just be Rhiannon. XDDDDD)

Given that Mils and I, if left to our own devices, will probably translate all the Clef/Umi in the world and forget everything else - see the dojinshi pages on DNT for evidence, oh dear - and I can't remember what else I'm meant to be translating, I am making a TRANSLATIONS REQUEST THREAD. Anyone have anything they wish those of us with some ability in Japanese to translate? Fan comics? Song lyrics? Interviews? I can't promise timely or excellently executed translations, but I can have a stab at most things. I know there are Fuu/Ferio dojinshi lurking about the net, for example...

(this would be good for making me pick up my Japanese and try to push it a bit further, too)

(also does anyone else here know Japanese and want to play at translating things? XD or telling me where I've gone wrong! Pls do!)

THINGS ON THE LIST:

• Translations of the interviews in the back of the season 2 script books for the anime
• The page about fruits in the anime materials collection (ie CHEESE FRUIT)
• (At least) Umi's image songs (because the translations left on the net don't quite fit with what I hear and also PRACTICE~)

Are there any other pages in the materials book we want translations of? *is being lazy and not going to find her copy*

I HOPE YOU ARE PLEASED WITH YOURSELVES. I just lost two hours.

(on the other hand SHORT FIC! PLUS fan-flashworks and cottoncandy bingo response I AM DOING WELL AT MULTITASKING HERE. Just not at making words which make sense...)

Instructions! Or, How LaFarga Became Cephiro's Most Popular Author.

*headdesk*

WHAT JUST HAPPENED. XDD



[Milieva: Sorry, moved this to its own thread as the other topic was looking to veer way off-topic otherwise.]

Yuletide! A massive rare fandoms fanfic exchange for the holidays! Lots of fun! Signups are now open! (they do say you have to be 18 to join in, though D:)

RAYEARTH IS A FANDOM THIS YEAR! (with characters-you-can-specify of Umi, Fuu, Ferio, Eagle, and Caldina. Which means I'm not the only person who nominated it, because you only get to put four characters up each. XD I know it's a bit of a random selection, but I plan on asking for any and offering any too, and that range seemed to give scope?)

I took part last year and got two fics - one Umi/Fuu/Hikaru thing and one Umi-crossed-with-Madoka-Magica as an extra, hee. You request three-four fandoms, 0-4 characters, and offer to write in four or more fandoms offering 2-8 or any of the characters. People are matched, and everyone writes a 1000 word (as a minimum, you can write more. Which is fortunate for me. XD) story in one of the fandoms they offered - and everyone gets at least one 1000 word story. Sometimes people have to drop out, of course, but there's a system of pinch hitters who write for people who still need a story. And when everyone has that story, the prompts go live and people can write extras! You're only guarenteed a story with fandom and characters you requested, but you can also add in optional details about what you like or don't like, ideas you'd love to see explored, etc etc, which usually your writer will do their best to take into account. (You can also write as much as you like, because you can add a link to a blog post or something in the optional details and ramble at length. ^^)

I had a lot of fun last year! The main faq with links to the lj comms and everything is here; maybe think about joining up?

now I am getting down off my soapbox. XDD

(PSST, SUZ, ANIMORPHS IS ALSO A FANDOM THIS YEAR. XDD)

The Archive Of Our Own has precious little Rayearth fic (MOST OF WHICH HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH ME XDD) but it's becoming more prominent each year as the archive of choice, or whatever - plus unlike ffn THERE IS NO RATINGS CAP. You can be as explicit as you like. XD (This would be why there is a thing on my account there which I have not put on ffn - though Mils assures me it should be fine, so probably will be soon, just... not until PY is finished. I AM TOO PARANOID. XD) So, anyone else have an AO3 account?

I'm down AND dragonofwinternights over here(down is my primary account. I have dragonofwinternights as an extra name associated with it - when I EVENTUALLY get about to putting PY up there, I'll make that and the rest of the Weight of Water verse sit under dragon, and everything else can stay under down. XD).

(....if you don't have an account, you could join the Yuletide exchange this year! For which Rayearth is an eligible fandom and about which I am about to post - the mods have accounts to give to people who need them. XD)

(Ignore the funding drive banner, it's not usually there - the funding drive is this month. ^^; )

I've been doing things for the fan-flashworks comm on Dreamwidth (also for cottoncandy-bingo on same) and they're all turning out Rayearth, NO ONE IS SURPRISED, but, heh. So, have links? These'll be tidied up a bit more somepoint for posting elsewhere, but currently there's no set WHEN, so...

Weight of Water fics (ie pre!Protecting You)

~ (un)state(d) secrets: http://fan-flashworks.dreamwidth.org/92287.html#cutid1

Sometime a little after the end of the manga, and Cephiro's beginning to do okay, mostly. So is Clef. (Mostly.) (Clef and Umi) (and Aska?) (and Lantis!)

~ (un)divided loyalties: http://fan-flashworks.dreamwidth.org/97298.html#cutid1

Lantis, at the end of the manga, and the relationships which have been strained on his way there. Lantis/Eagle(/Hikaru), far too much Clef, Eagle's unconcious the whole time. This was meant to be about Lantis and Geo and Eagle, but I am utterly incapable of keeping Clef out of anything.



Completely Random Eagle and Geo (and mention of Lantis):

~ An Artificial Night: http://fan-flashworks.dreamwidth.org/101715.html

Eagle, and Geo, and two different quiet evenings.


(Those top two would be GOOD EXAMPLES of why I SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO TITLE IN A HURRY. XDD;;; whooooooops other suggestions welcome...)

Is anyone else doing Nanowrimo (national novel writing month - going nuts and challenging yourself to write 50,000 words in a month)  or am I the only mad one on the board? XD

I'm procrastinating on getting the last 400 words I promised myself I'd get done today, so thought I'd ask. ^^ Protecting You was hashed out largely as a nano project, so it has SOME connection to rayearth, at least. XDD;;;

So, I was going to write a short drabble because I couldn't sleep and I don't have the brain to study any more until I've slept. ...I ended up with this. ^^; 815 words of insomniac!Clef, post rayearth II, far more thinky and darkish than I meant. (also eight times the length. >.> DAMN YOU, BRAIN.) (title and prompt snagged from the 31_days comm on lj - between the click of the light and the start of the dream. It seemed appropriate? ^^; )


between

He couldn't sleep. Again.

It wasn't as if Clef wasn't tired ? he was exhausted, his head swimming if he tried to sit up, and his hands shaking on his glass of water. But his brain just wouldn't shut OFF. Running in circles over all the paper scattered on his desk, all the forms and the drafts and the bare skeleton of a system of government scribbled down (mostly in the margins). All the things that they had to do, he had to do, before Hikaru could finally sign over the burden on the knights's shoulders and they could stop looking so worn out and thin and pale, translucent skin, blue eyes darker than they should be in contrast even when Umi smiled and -

and he was thinking about Hikaru, dammit, the pillar, not the damned knight of Water.

(even if she was looking thinner and thinner and nearly grey yesterday and the strange potions she wore as a disguise smudging away in the evenings when she leant against his desk and nearly fell asleep on the floor, showing the worn out bruising around her eyes...)

...

Clef rolled over, shoving the bedcovers away in frustration and crushing his pillow to his chest as he curled around it. He was too tired to work ? he could not do any more until he'd had some sleep, because he couldn't SEE straight at the moment, let alone think in a logical line. So why could he not convince his brain that it needed to give in and stop feeling so damn guilty?  The sooner he slept, the sooner he could wake up and get back to work.

...Give it another half an hour. If he was still awake then (and he'd know because the bloody sun would be rising even if his clock wasn't sat mocking him on the bedside table;) then he'd take a sleeping potion. He'd have taken one hours ago if he hadn't had to the day before yesterday... and the last time he'd slept before that... and before that... His body's resistance was building up each time he drank one of the things, and the withdrawal symptoms were getting worse, too ? he couldn't afford to be nursing an addiction on top of everything else!

There was just too much to do, and too few people with authority left in this... interregnum? No, not that ? the post of the pillar still had all the power in the written law, and that was what they were trying to undo. Transition, then. Too few people with power to construct laws in this transitional time, and getting Hikaru to grant people them to help would only undermine their efforts in the end. But until this was sorted, and the people had a system to look to, they and the world were going to keep leaning on Hikaru, on the magic knights as a whole, and drain them more with every second they spent trying to get on with their lives.

Thank god the judiciary still stood, even if he was meant to be the bloody figurehead of it. He was using them as much as he could, throwing their duties in the courts over to LaFarga and the Guards, who could 'keep the peace' without upsetting anyone, but not draw up legislation.

(He'd wanted to murder Lantis a few weeks ago, for abandoning his post under Emeraude and therefore having no official job until there was someone to grant him one. Until the man had come to his study and said ?swear you'll let me go as soon as this is done and you can appoint me your 'personal assistant'?which was working so far. Ferio's position as Prince had only ever been an ceremonial thing, based on his sister's position, and designed to tide the world over until the new Pillar was drawn forth, but he'd been novice with the Guards before she came to power, so they'd promoted him and he was helping out there, at least.)

...and he was doing it again, lying there staring at the wall and dwelling on all the things he couldn't change.

And not sleeping.

Hell.

Clef glared at the tiny potion vial as if it could be held accountable for his failing, but it didn't even flinch. He snatched it off the table, glared at the lightening curtains when he didn't need to switch the light on to find the vial in the first place, and drained it in one gulp.

Tomorrow. He would worry about everything tomorrow.

...And pretend it didn't count as tomorrow until he'd slept, despite the sun rising.

(and the potion tasted faintly of salt and the dreams it smothered him in were deep and clinging things, filled with long straight hair that tangled into gnarled curls around his hands and fell lifeless and still over him when he couldn't stop this thing draining her dry.)

hee, I realised that I have, in fact, doodled all over most of my work and never shown anyone. largely because they're stupid tiny things... SO. In the intrests of procrastination, I present to you photos of last week's work! ^^;;;

Umi and Clef (yes, that's Clef behind her...) prepare to go to war with japanese grammar. Only I forgot how to draw the lightning. And they're tiny. (This is normal for me doodling. >.>)



Then this would be me trying to draw their room from my Protecting You fic... (Down to self: WRITE. NEXT. CHAPTER.)  Clef is hidden entirely under his quilt. Also, I suck at drawing people-in-beds. XD



...and then Umi gets given dragon wings. ...in a cave. Presumably by touching the rock in the background with Selece's symbol on it. O_o; (I think this is from a fic I was writing in about 1999 than never went anywhere, actually. Huh.)



heh. ^^;

I don't have any access to the Tokyopop translations of Rayearth at the moment - either of them ^^; - being in japan, and I try to stick to the official translations for things as much as possible, as long as they're not TOO stupid. (It helps stop readers being confused. I mean, my prose can be confusing enough on its own, it doesn't need random references they don't understand to help it...)

So if someone could check what the flying hover-things in Autozam are called, I'd be grateful!  ^^; It's in the third volume of Rayearth 2 ~ it's just called a hover (...well. 'hobaa', technically. XD) in the japanese, so...

(also, if anyone has any good fic recs for either Zazu stories, or NOT Asmi Ascot-centric stories...? (Well. Unrequited Asmi is fine. I just... I can't read Umi-is-in-love-with-Ascot. ^^;;;;;;;;; ) I feel like doing some, uh, research... XD)

XD Many Happy Returns to the forum! May it have many more birthdays, and keep me in such fine company as you lot  for a long time to come. ^^

Also, happy white day to the forums, too!

(I'd write fic for one or either of these occasions, but it's never a good idea for me to fic when running a temperature. XD;;; Anyone else?)