A couple more half-assed recaps. Sorry it took so long to get more out, but, uh, I've been a little busy.

( The Visitor )

( The Encounter )

So in a fit of nostalgia, I've begun re-reading my Animorphs collection. For the last couple years, I've mostly cracked them open for scene-specific fic research, but I haven't gone through the whole series in ages. (As a wee thing, I used to re-read the entire series, in order, once every few months. Because I am a huge nerd.)

Inspired by poisonivory's BSC reviews, I've decided to comment the books as I read them. These won't be super in-depth, and, disclaimer, I'm not even going to attempt to make this a regular thing. My goal is to have a new entry every week or so, but I'm pretty busy right now, so it'll happen when it happens. :)

Oh, PS, my commentary is going to include spoilers through the whole series. I'd apologize, but the series has been complete for seven years, now.

( And it all begins with The Invasion... )

My dad got promoted! He's now the chief of police at his department, which is wicked cool. He's been doing the work for the last few months, but now he's actually getting paid for it (which is awesome) and they also gave him a car and will pay for his transportation costs (which is VERY awesome, as his commute has been costing about 200$ a week). Yay!

Also, my truly bad writer's block seems to have lifted, at least for the time being, and I've written quite a bit of a BSC fic (Byron/Jeff, of course), and part of an Animorphs fic (Gafinilan/Mertil, with a side order of Marco/Ax). The Animorphs fic is giving me trouble, though, because a) I was struck with inspiration for the middle/end of the fic, and I'm working backwards, which is hard for me, and b) writing two (gay) Andalites, when we have NO idea what Andalite sex/courtship is like, is driving me up a wall!

So even though I still hate chemistry, life is good. :)

I wanted to write a silly humor fic, so here it is.

Title: Respite
Rating: PG13
Pairings: Jake/Cassie, Rachel/Tobias, Marco/Ax, with a little Marco/Cassie, Cassie/Rachel and Jake/Tobias thrown in for fun.
Spoilers/Timeline: Everything to be safe. Post #49.
Summary: The Animorphs need a break.

Disclaimer: Everything Animorphs belongs to K.A. Applegate and Scholastic. I’m borrowing without permission.

( Click to read... )

I AM GOING ON VACATION!

Okay, it's only for a couple days. I'm tagging along with my dad to his 30th High School reunion, and so I'll spend the weekend in a hotel in Anaheim. However, that is THREE DAYS away from Grandma and responsibility, and TWO NIGHTS that I fully intend to catch up on much needed sleep.

My parents are so funny. My dad hasn't surfed in 15 years, but carries around the 70's surfer image to this day, and peppers his conversation with: "dude", "bitchin'", and, of course, "RIGHTEOUS!". He also really likes the Beach Boys. The closer he gets to southern California, the more it comes back. Sigh. My mother, on the other hand, tries to forget that she was ever a beach bunny, even though her skin shows the effects of covering herself in baby oil and laying in the sun for hours on end, surrounded by tin foil. My parents are like the poster children for Why Sunscreen Is A Good Idea.

So I wrote this kind of political Animorphs fic, but it's so blatantly for my own amusement that I'm not going to post it. Maybe I'll clean it up one of these days, but right now it's philosophically a half-step away from a Mary Sue self-insert. :)

Well this just made my day!

I really want to write some Ax/Marco, now. And yet, no ideas. Sigh. My Ax/Tobias is eating my brain.

I was thinking, there really should be an Animorphs anon meme. I mean, this fandom is too nice. Even the "I hate Tobias, he's a whiny emo boy" post didn't generate any fights. Which is so weird, because back in the hay-day (what, 2000ish?), we had brutal ship wars and character bashing up the wazoo. Gets me thinking, if fandom_wank had been big back then, would we have been Harry Potter?

I'm rambling, I know.

Maybe the reason we don't have the big fights anymore is because the fans have grown up. Or, maybe it's just because K.A. dashed all of our hopes in the last books. We're all united in hatred against 54. :)

Just kinda boring, is all I'm saying.

Easter break starts tomorrow! I'm going to stay with a friend's family, so it should be cool. I won't have internet access, though, so don't do anything fun while I'm gone. ;)

I'm going to have quite a lot of quiet time, so I hope to get some fic written. You're probably not interested, but here's what I'm working on in order of priority:

1) [BSC] Kristy/Mary Anne for comeoneileen.

2) [BSC] End of my Kristy/Dawn trilogy.

3) [Animorphs] Tobias/Ax epic. It keeps growing in scope, and Ax keeps pulling shit that he really shouldn't, while Tobias keeps sinking further into boring Emo-world. ::pout::

4) Southpark/Harry Potter crossover. No pairings. Just something I play with when I get bored. Will be posted to ff.net and updated whenever I feel like it.

I was working on my Ax/Tobias behemoth, and realized that I tend to write Ax as a combination of Anya from Buffy and Data from Star Trek. I have the whole fic outlined and I'm 1/8 of the way through, but it's slow going. Ax keeps tripping me up. Also, Tobias is very different, by necessity, and I'm afraid it's past growth and into OOC. I wish we had more pre-bird Tobias.

Also, I'm working on a Kristy/Mary Anne for comeoneeileen that's somewhat hindered by the fact that Mary Anne gets on my nerves. :) The third part of my Kristy/Dawn trilogy is begging to be written, but I've got that on the backburner until the K/MA is finished.

And, um, schoolwork. Wow. I'm quickly reaching the point where I hate the English language.

IT'S FINISHED!!!

felinephoenix, teremala, THANK YOU so much! I couldn't have done it without your help. Also, while I didn't use all of the suggestions I was given, it doesn't mean I didn't like them, just that I wasn't a good enough writer to work them all in. :)

The essay, for those interested, can be found here at ship_manifesto.

So I wrote an email to mom and dad, telling them how irritated/discouraged I was with some of the stuff on campus. Mom gave me a really polite "I told you so," but Dad sent me a great email that made me cry. So, because my dad is so wonderful, I thought I'd post it here.

( Cut for length and for people who probably don't care. )

And switching topics completely, I have a question: what do y'all think about pairing warnings? Because I've started typing up the Ax/Tobias fic (most of it is on paper right now), and I noticed that if I give away the pairing in the beginning as per usual, it really spoils certain elements of the story. So...would you rather be spoiled and know the pairing, or not? I know I tend to skip fics without a defined pairing because I'm busy (and immature), but I really do think it takes away from the story to put that info right up front. Thoughts?

In related news, the more I write Ax/Tobias, the more I'm starting to like the pairing...which seriously gives me the creeps, but I knew it was going to happen. After all, once upon a time I thought Ax/Marco was creepy and gross, and now look where I am. :) Also, Cassie has gone from being an inconvenient extra in my romance fics to being the star player...which is weird, because I still think of myself as a "slash" writer. Also, I keep getting pregnant!Cassie bunnies, even though I know she's smart enough to use BC. *eyeroll*

Why am I starting to get het crackfic ideas? I have this weird Marco/Cassie thing I'm half working on, and a Cassie/Jake/Tobias plotbunny that will not leave me alone no matter how much I beg (it was supposed to be Jake/Tobias and Cassie took over, the whore). Not to mention the seriously twisted Ax/Tobias fic that I'm writing despite the fact that I hate Ax/Tobias, and the fact that it's so dark I know no one will want to read it. Hell, I don't even want to write it. ::whimper:: Animorphs is a cute kid's series, it has no buisness inspiring this level of wrong, for serious. I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS.

*gasp*

In other news, someone set off the fire alarm in my dorm at 12ish last night. Stood out in the freezing cold until they could ascertain that it was just moron and not fire. Jeez, how hard is it to MICROWAVE POPCORN?!? Getting along better with roommate, though she's still really sloppy. As I told Mom, when I'm the clean one, it's time to worry.

Oh, and Jesse? Are you out there? I tried emailing you but got it back. Please don't disappear again, babe. ::huggles::

So.

I spent several hours playing DDR today. Very cool. I especially liked the looks on the girl's faces when I didn't suck. Yes, Virginia, fat people can kick ass at DDR. Heh. (And no, visitor_2_earth, I didn't just play "Butterfly" the whole time).

I did some reading beyond Animorphs. I read Drawing Blood for the third time. It's such a trashy book, but I love it. I also read Female Chauvinist Pigs, and thought it was a surprisingly good book. ( Cut for long, rather rambly thoughts on the book. )

Am now hooked on Project Runway. I don't know why. I just love it. It makes me miss Jesse, though. :(

On the Ax/Marco front...I have mostly everything that I'm going to use for the article (though I do want to read your insights, felinephoenix, if you have them available). I'm now frantically hunting for Ax/Marco fanfiction. I have found two that I feel comfortable reccing...so if you have ANY recs, PLEASE let me know! Right now I have Adventures in Clubbing and Boys Will Be Boys, both by Doctor Strangelove. I would love to link to yours, felinephoenix, but your website is down? Do you have alternate links? Thanks so much!!

So I know I'm supposed to be reading the books for my Ax/Marco essay, but I can't help feeling that #40 was basically the big love story of Gafinilan and Mertil. They didn't come right out and say it, I know, but come on. So gay. Gafinilan denying all of his cultural upbringing to care for Mertil? That was K.A.'s way of slipping the gay love into Animorphs; she didn't even bother to hide the metaphor that well. In my mind, "shorm" now means "gay lover" -- creepy Tobias/Ax associations aside.

And can I say that Ax is just an asshole? I know, I know, social conditioning, yadda yadda yadda. He still needed to get slapped repeatedly preferably by Marco.

So I'm still baby-sitting, just grabbed a computer for a few minutes. I might get on later tomorrow...if not, I'll be back Monday. I spent the last four hours playing Karaoke with three girls who, let's say, are musically challenged. I swear, if I hear "I Will Always Love You" one more time...which is sad because I used to love that song. I wanted to shake the little girl who kept singing it. You weren't able to hit the note the last twelve times you tried, why do you think it's going to happen now? Grr, argh. Also, I will die a happy woman if someone just kills Jesse McCartney (don't know if I'm spelling that right). How do these people get record deals? The girls keep asking me if I think he's hot...well, if I was a straight twelve year old, maybe. But I nodded and smiled and the girls kept playing the same. damn. song. Over and over and over.

All right. Breathe. The parents will be home by midnight on Sunday.

Ax/Marco is CANON! 35 books in and I have discovered irrefutable proof of gay alien lurve.

Book 35 (The Proposal), page 106:

"May we join you?"

It was a table full of old people in suits or dresses, depending. One of them may have been our mayor. I'm not sure.

"There's only one chair."

"It's okay, we're very good friends." I sat down and yanked Ax down onto my lap.


So there you have it! Dude, Cassie never sat in Jake's lap. Obviously, Ax&Marco have a true, pure love greater than both Rachel&Tobias and Jake&Cassie. Ha-HAH!

Yeah, being up really late always makes me slightly manic. So sorry. :)

EDIT TO ASK: Okay, is #35 the first book that Jake tells Cassie he loves her? (Page 139, for those interested.) I can't remember the big L-word before then (though lots of "I like Cassie. As in like" stuff that irritated me even when I was 9). Ooooh, and it also has the line about Tobias and Rachel watching "Felicity" together. Truly a shipperific book.

I'm quickly reading all the Marco and Ax books, and finished #25 this morning. I'd almost forgotten about it. Decent book, fun plot, great dialog. I did find a super cool Cassie quote that reminded me why I was such a Cassie fan back in the day. :)

( Cut for a Cassie quote that totally captures her character, and makes me luff her. )

And, a quick Cassie/Marco fic (*gasp* het!):

Title: Morality of Everything
Rating: PG13
Pairing: Cassie/Marco
Spoilers/Timeline: Everything, takes place mid-54
Word Count: 1,138
Summary: "I brought cookies, and hoped that Cassie hadn't gone vegan."

Disclaimer; Animorphs belongs to K.A. Applegate.

( *insert clever cut tag comment here* )

PS: I'm going to be gone for the next few days on a baby-sitting job. So, like, don't do anything fun while I'm gone. :)

So I was doing research for my Ax/Marco essay at ship_manifesto. Research meaning, in this case, going over Animorphs #10 (The Android) with little post-it notes marking all the relevant parts. Partway through the process, I had to use the little girl's room, and I thoughtlessly set the book aside. I returned, approximately five minutes later, to find that my dog (you remember--the book eater) had grabbed my poor, innocent book and ripped it to shreds.

Excuse me. I need a moment to compose myself.

...

Okay. So I know it's not as bad as the last book; at least I can replace it. But...with the exception of Animorphs #29 and The Bath Incident of 1999, I've kept the original books that I faithfully bought once a month. Plus, this book had the special stickers, untouched after all these years. Scarlett (the dog) is currently terrified of me...I lit into her something fierce, and now when she sees me coming, she ducks around the corner and peers at me with fear and (I hope) shame.

( Now with visual aids! A couple photos of the book eater (and my family). Or, more honestly, an excuse to try out Photobucket. )

PS: Like everyone else, LJ has been horrible about sending me comment notification. I'm not ignoring you, promise. :)

While looking over the fanfic saved on my hard drive, I quickly realized that I have a lot of fic saved that, if looking at it from my normal way of critiquing fanfic, really sucks. I mean, some of my favorite fics are desperately out of character, badly written, horribly cliche, etc.

But I still love them.

So, for your reading pleasure, I present some of my favorite fics that really shouldn't be. These fics all have something seriously wrong with them, but have still managed to hold a special place in my heart. Enjoy.

( Weiss Kreuz )

( Harry Potter )

( Animorphs )

Yes, I should be working on my NaNoWriMo story, but I'm procrastinating. I cleaned up the fanfiction section in my memories to make it easier to navigate, and tagged most of my entries. Ah, the lengths one will go to in order to keep from actually doing something productive.

I'm sure felinephoenix and teremala are tired of discussing this. Sorry in advance as this probably won't be interesting to anyone else. I had a couple thoughts, though, and wanted to combine them instead of replying to like five different comments. Also, at least in the thread on my journal, we're about to the point where we have two words per line. :) I'm pulling from roughly here and here in case anyone's interested.

( Cut for discussion of Andalite gender, sex, and fluffy tree-babies. )