dream about a life

Officer, there's a man in a butterfly suit shooting my robot with a laser beam.

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 21:06:48 GMT

ASdfjIOFJADUFIHAOFUAWR90w YES, PLZ. I NEED MORE. But I suppose I can live with a release date. That's better than nothing, right? dfjasjfjfdo trailer trailer trailer trailer trailer~

I want to go home and EAT but my mosaic is still interpolating and my Post-BCD data is still queued for staging. (In English: computers are slow and they need to hurry up!) Plus I might try to go running tonight; it's not like I have to be anywhere until 11pm. XD And I got rained on yesterday so I didn't do quite the full five miles. Hopefully I will not get rained on today. (BTW, Florida, please have nice weather tomorrow. The space shuttle needs to launch! This is what, their fifth try? D:)

Also, uh. This looked neat, so let's give this a try?

☢ THE SELF-INSERT MEME

And finally! Drabble Meme 10/10!

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 04:23:36 GMT

Last, but certainly not least!

For kashewmoo:

Fandom: Prince of Tennis
Prompt: Momo/Ryoma, popsicles on a warm day
Notes: 250 words; it somehow didn't want to be longer. I tried!
Title:

Cherry-Flavored

“Momo-sempai.”

Momo ignores the sullen sound of Echizen’s voice, instead turning his face to the sunny sky above them. They’re sitting on a park bench under what Momo has (hopefully correctly) identified as the shadiest tree in the park. Momo is balanced only somewhat precariously on the back of the bench while Echizen, boring soul that he is, is sitting like a normal person. Bah. Normal.

“Momo-sempai.”

Momo sighs. “Whaaaat?”

“You’re dripping.”

“Eh?”

Momo blinks down, and realizes that a large, cherry-colored glob has fallen off his popsicle and landed on Echizen’s nose. Quite a feat, if he does say so himself, because Echizen is still wearing his hat.

Momo can’t help but laugh as the boy looks crosseyed at his own nose. “And?”

Ryoma sighs, wiping at his nose with the back of one bare forearm. “What d’you mean, ‘and’? And I don’t want your gross popsicle on my face.” He pouts and takes a lick of his own (grape-flavored) popsicle. It’s entirely too cute, but then, Ryoma is often entirely too cute – mostly, Momo thinks, when he doesn’t mean to be.

“Echizen.” Momo leans down, and just as the boy looks up at him (probably with some stupid, snarky comment on his lips), he swipes his tongue across the first-year’s nose.

“Eew!” Ryoma jumps back, arms flailing. His popsicle almost goes flying. Momo laughs so hard he almost falls off the back of the bench. “What the hell!”

Momo can only snicker, and say, “You missed a spot.”

--

I was going to post pictures of my almost-finished Gwen, but none of them came out well. ::dies:: Alas; I'll just wait until it's completely done. All I have left to do are take in the skirt a bit and hem it, and find something for the tie closure on the red thing~ The lace on the font actually came out pretty well, at least! (Okay, you can have a picture of that.)

And speaking of pictures, I'd meant to post this forever ago. But I just wanted to share the particularly entertaining scene that greeted me on my desk when I got home from Europe last month:

The culprit knows who she is. ;D

Oh no, where's the one-way button?

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 19:35:43 GMT

Firstly, a very happy birthday to lavenderlilly! :D

I kept having dreams about astronauts last night. XD All I can really remember every time I woke up was all the radio chitchat and guys wearing spacesuits on the moon and I think this is entirely due to a certain HBO miniseries that I'm over halfway through with by now. (Aw, but last night was Apollo 11 and 12! All I could think was, "Man, Apollo 12 was a party! Al Bean is adorable!") Eesh, I remember learning all this stuff from books in junior high, but this is so much better than books. ~~Sometimes I think I must be living my life backwards, fangirling astronauts in junior high and the Jonas Brothers in grad school...~~

Costume-wise, Gwen is almost done! Hoping to finish her tonight so I can start working on Ahsoka in earnest (Wonderflex ordered, $50 later...), and I still need to find fabric for the Trek!Reboot uniform. Plus I need to see if I really will be able to convince people to do Venture Bros cosplay or if this will just be a bust, because I can't walk around by myself as Dean Venture. That will not work. XD (Maybe I could be Triana? With a Dean plushie? XD) And someone needs to tell me that making Penny for AFO is probably a bad idea... even though I think I might do it. >>; NTS: take a look at her stuff tonight to see if this is even possible.

Okay, back to alternately watching MOPEX chug along and trying to get these flux maps made. Cutting the images down to just the area viewed by the ACS makes it much faster!

Drabble Meme, second to last! (9/10)

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 06:57:12 GMT

Firstly, a happy birthday to pergamond! :D Because we're still on the same day~

Next, one more drabble down, one to go! I probably could've waited until they were both done, but that would've made too much sense, clearly. I swear I haven't forgotten the last one! I might even give it a go tomorrow. :D;

For asphodel:

Fandom: The Last Herald-Mage
Prompt: Vanyel/Stefen/Lendel
Notes: Somehow, if I had to make an FST for TLHM, "I Believe in You" by Evanescence would top the list. This is kind of based on that? Only short. :D; (Seriously, I could wax eloquent on it for chapters, if I dared.) 301 words.
Title:

Taking Over Me

Sometimes Stefen wakes in the middle of the night, and he could swear he’s someone else. He will lay atop the sheets, arms and legs exactly as they were when he woke, and stare up at the ceiling and wonder where he is. His mind will swirl with the half-remembered murmurs in a dream he has woken from too quickly, and for a moment he wonders where the fiction stops and where his own life begins.

He will usually slide from the bed, from beneath the curve of Vanyel’s arm, and pad over to the windows, their surface gilded silver in the moonlight. He will look into the glass, half-seeing the ghost of his reflection superimposed upon the landscape beyond, and he will look into eyes laid upon the sleeping trees of the forest and wonder if they can tell him who he is.

He will stand like that for minutes, or hours – he cannot tell – but eventually the feeling will fade. The dream will slip back into what isn’t and his mind will slip back into what is. The eyes he sees looking back at him are hazel, and the hair auburn, no matter how much they might look brown and blonde when his vision is clouded from sleep. His fingers belong to a bard, and his past to the streets, and he is ashamed of none of these things.

And so Stefen will creep back into Vanyel’s bed, beside the man he’s come to love more than his own heartbeat. He will draw the blankets around them both, and Vanyel will shift closer in his sleep. And Stefen will close his eyes and drift back into dreams, knowing that his soul belongs to the man beside him and that’s the way it should be and has always been, forevermore.

--

In other words, I realized that I might actually have a life if I didn't spend so much stupid time re-writing the entirety of PJO, starring Percy and Nico. XD Dear God, make it stooooooop. (Actually, don't, as I seem to be perfectly happy in my insanity. ::dies::)

And look, now there's a great big orange zigzag right through my valence electrons, what the hell.

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:36:16 GMT

Brazil tourist visa, get! :D (Which is why I got to work at 11:15 - stupid downtown, being under construction and making me go the long way around to the already weirdly inconvenient post office. D:) But yep, there it was, taking up a whole page of my passport. Whew, one more thing to check off the list! (And to find the receipt for. I want reimbursement!)

Anyway, I think today is going to be a work until 6 o'clock day, but that's not unreasonable since I got in late (due to aforementioned picking up of passports at the post office). At least since it's summer, I can totally stay 'till six and have no problem with daylight for running afterwards. But! My advisor got an email from someone whose papers I have totally been using, so that's kind of exciting. Now I get to fangirl him in a totally non-fangirly way and tell him just how useful and awesome his work is!

Sooo I was browsing Amazon yesterday, and I realized that From the Earth to the Moon is $12. That's right - twelve dollars. For the whole thing - twelve or thirteen or whatever one-hour episodes of astronaut-y goodness~ So I might have bought that. I might also have bought the first season of Venture Bros because I needed to add something else to get the free shipping. I should perhaps not have bought these things, but this documentary is really quite amazing (and TWELVE DOLLARS!) and, well. Venture Bros. (They had the yard sale one on last night. XD I love the yard sale one~) This weekend I'm eBaying for Ahsoka's boots, and I have to order that Wonderflex for her headtails (why must it be expensive? D:) I'm going to check Center Stage for the makeup before I go about ordering and paying to ship it, though. I really wonder if I can't get this done for an AFO test run... That might be nice!

Also, Up? Was fantastic. I realize everyone knows this already, but. XD; Figured I'd add my two cents' worth of redundancy on that one~

Anyway, I... think that's all I have to report. This weekend will be made of writing PJO epic-ness, hopefully writing some original stuff to make some monies, and even more hopefully finishing the clothing aspects of Gwen and Ahsoka. We shall see~

Oh, but also? I discovered that they moved The Secret Saturdays to... well, Saturday. ~~Secretly.~~ Gee, Cartoon Network, thanks for NOT TELLING ME. D: Now I'm two or three episodes behind, and there are no torrents. Grar. This isn't a show in which I can miss episodes! Each one pretty much follows the last, by this point.

Okay, time to tape Exia to the plug again. I really need to look into fixing this. XD

EDIT: I just saw the headline "Canadian tornado kills 2 Oklahomans" on weather.com. Wait... what? XD; Well, okay, people dying sucks. But still.

Fine, but when Marrakesh is overrun by mutant lizard people, don't come crying to me.

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:25:31 GMT

In what is quite possibly the worst idea of the century, I have had to resort to taping Exia's AC adaptor to the extension cord into which I am plugging it. ::dies:: I think it's time to look into getting a new adaptor... I hope they're not too expensive. I mean, I still have the second three-pronged one, but the little one is so much more transportable...

But anyway~ I continue with my X-ray flux map-making, as I have finally figured it out but in order to make the images the size I want, it takes forever. (I was binning them before and that was just no good; I need the resolution of unbinned images.) BUT I have also just downloaded and installed MOPEX, which claims it will help me reduce Spitzer data. I hope this is not a lie. XD We shall see~ I have a tutuorial and sample data, so we'll give that a go while I finish downloading and organizing the real data. Here's hoping!

Writing-wise, I got a good chunk of the setup for the giant battle in my PJO fic done, but there's still a bit more to go. Now that I think I know how I'm going to end it, I'm worried I may be dragging it out by trying to get another giant fic out of it, but, uh. Trilogies are good, right? :D; (I just hope I can get everyone out of this alive. I hate killing people.) In the meantime, one of the prompts over at the fic battle has inspired me again and I'm probably going to write a really horribly wrong fic later. (It's not that I don't love Nico and Bianca, but... I don't really ship them. And yet I can totally see how this fic is going to work.) ~~In other news, I need more PJO icons. XD And I'm working on an FST. People need to read these books. ;_;~~

Aaaaand I should probably be eating lunch. Extragalactic-ph in an hour. :O

Drabble Meme Part 3! 2 drabbles (up to 8/10!)

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 04:25:00 GMT

For cecilegrey:

Fandom: Merlin
Prompt: Merlin/Will, fire
Notes: This was actually my second idea, but the first idea didn't actually involve Will being present and I figured you might like something like this more. :D;; I think it might still feel a bit awkward, but. Here it is! 714 words.
Title:

Amazing To Me

"... Whoa."

Merlin froze, standing stock still, his skin a whiter shade of pale than usual. His shock of black hair and wide blue eyes seemed to contrast even more with his pallor, lending him an almost otherworldly quality. The way the sunlight was filtering through the clouds skittering overhead only added to the effect, sunlight and shadow passing one after the other over Merlin's shocked face.

Will emerged from the heart of the woods, stepping into the clearing where his best friend was standing - where his best friend had just incinerated a tree stump in a flash of orange-hot flame with the wave of one hand. Will felt like laughing with joy or amazement - anything to fill up the too-still silence that had fallen. He hadn't meant to startle Merlin, but suddenly he was afraid he'd done much more than that.

"... Merlin?" Will's heart clenched; his friend wasn't laughing or joking or even acting the fool, like he usually did. No, he was still staring at Will like the latter was an angry wolf about to devour him; which was most certainly not the case - no, far from it. Will took another step closer, putting out one hand carefully, like he would when the livestock was spooked."Merlin," he said gently, "what's wrong?"

Finally Merlin moved - he blinked, staring at Will, and his mouth opened slowly. "What's... Will - you just..."

Will cocked a half-grin. "Saw you do something amazing? I'd say."

Merlin still seemed completely and utterly blindsided. "A-amazing?" He slowly turned fully toward Will, his face finally beginning to show some emotion, though it was a mixture between fear and confusion. "You mean, you're not frightened?"

Will barely kept himself from snorting. "What? Frightened? Of you?" He shook his head, taking another step toward his friend. "Never, Merlin." He paused, studying the other's face. Camelot had changed his friend; Will had thought mostly for the better, but now he could see that there was a fear there, in Merlin's eyes, that hadn't been there before.

Will knew as well as anyone else that magic of any sort was not allowed under the king's law. But out here, the king was nothing more than a name and a man sent for taxes; at least, he hadn't been before yesterday. Then the king had become the father of the fair-haired, muscle-and-sinew prince that had accompanied Merlin to Ealdor. Now the king might become their salvation - or, Will thought, Merlin's undoing.

There had always been something different - special - about Merlin. Now Will finally realized what it was. And how deadly that knowledge could be, to the both of them.

He stepped closer once more, finally closing the distance between them so that he could reach out and touch Merlin if he tried. "Merlin, you know I would never..." He trailed off, watching as the storm in Merlin's eyes began to clear. Will breathed a sigh of relief - there was his Merlin, not worried and frightened but open, sincere. Magical.

"I know, Will," Merlin said softly, and it was he who took the final step to bring them face to face. "I... I know." He smiled up at Will, who returned the gesture tenfold with a grin.

"Show me?" Will asked, nothing in his voice but pure and simple curiosity, wonder.

Merlin was silent for a moment, but then he nodded. He turned, and focused on a small sapling; he raised his hand and there was a wave of heat and suddenly the tree had burst into flames, burning itself out in a matter of minutes. The fire did not spread, simply consumed its target and then dissipated.

Will should have been watching the tree, but his gaze was instead glued to Merlin's face, where the boy's eyes had flashed gold in the moment of magic. That, Will thought, had perhaps been more magical than any trick Merlin could perform.

Beside him, Merlin glanced over and cast him a slightly nervous grin. "So... am I amazing?"

Will shook his head. "Merlin," he said, putting his arm around the other's shoulders, "you're already amazing - you've always been amazing, to me."

The smile he received in return was warmer than any flame a wizard could conjure.

--

For hikariblue:

Fandom: Star Trek: Enterprise
Prompt: A malicious (or just tricksy) alien entity tampers with all the pie on Archer's Enterprise. Hilarity ensues~
Notes: I have no idea. XD But I hope you like it~ 500 words (check that out!).
Title:

Sweet Spot

"Is something wrong, Commander? I wasn't aware the shelves were malfunctioning."

"Ow!" Trip rubbed the top of his head, which he'd just banged on the food dispensation shelves. He turned to T'Pol, his expression sour. "Hell yes, there's something wrong. It's Tuesday."

"... And? Has Tuesday somehow offended you?"

"No. But Tuesday's pie day."

"...Ah." T'Pol said, as though the statement had cleared everything up, when really it had done nothing of the sort.

Trip glanced at her and sighed. "There's no pie," he said.

Leaning around him to glance at the shelves, the vulcan nodded once. "It would appear not."

Trip wrinkled his nose. "Well, there's supposed t'be pie on Tuesday."

"Perhaps it has already been eaten," the science officer suggested, but Trip just shook his head.

"It's only lunch," he pointed out. "Chef's gotta be playin' a joke or something." And he turned and strode off in search of the ship's cook, leaving T'Pol to her own (pie-less) devices.

Half an hour later, however, it was clear that it was not a joke - at least, not on Chef's behalf. And so it was that Captain Archer found himself with one very disgruntled (and hungry) chief engineer in his ready room. A chief engineer who, it seemed, would simply not be consoled.

Archer pinched the bridge of his nose, closing his eyes for a moment. "Look, Trip... I'm sure T'Pol is right. You probably just missed the lunch rush. I'm sorry, but unless you want to try and get Chef to -"

He was interrupted by a chirp. "... Captain?" It sounded like Mayweather's voice through the comm, and Archer flipped the switch to reply.

"Yes?"

"There's... maybe something you should see."

Archer frowned. "What is it, Ensign?"

"Is Commander Tucker with you?"

Archer glanced at Trip. "Yes. What's wrong?"

"I'm between the artificial gravity generator and the bow plate. I think maybe you and Commander Tucker had just better get down here."

The two officers exchanged looks for only a moment before taking off for the turbolift. When they arrived at the correct deck, Archer followed Trip down to one of the service junctions, from which they took a ladder up, until they saw...

Travis Mayweather, sitting upside-down on the ceiling with a number of pies spread beside him.

The ensign glanced overhead at the two officers approaching him. "Captain; Commander. I just found these here. I thought you'd want to know right away."

Trip and Archer exchanged glances - there simply was no rational explanation, short of some kind of practical joke. Maybe Trip had been right. Or maybe it had been something else. Regardless...

In the end, Trip was forced to chuckle before he grabbed a conduit and swung his legs around to float feet-first to the ceiling with Travis. "Well, I guess as long as I get my pie..."

Archer could only shake his head as Travis grinned and observed, "... I guess there's more than one reason they call it the sweet spot."

Some swallows don't return.

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 03:17:04 GMT

I've (finally) started watching From the Earth to the Moon; Scott lent it to me ages ago, but it's sat on my table for quite some time. I actually started it on Saturday, but then I realized episode 2 was about Apollo 1 and it took me a couple days to work myself up to watching people die horribly in a fire. D: But now I am past that! It was sad, though. I mean, I really liked the way the episode dealt with it - from the contractor's point of view, which was really unique and interesting. It also just solidified my love for Frank Borman, but I already thought he was pretty damn cool before all of this. XD (Also? I don't think I knew that SOMEBODY LEFT A WRENCH LODGED IN THE SPACECRAFT SIDE. OOPS, GUYS. DON'T DO THAT. D:) Anyway, Scott says their take on Apollo 13 is really interesting too, so I'm looking forward to waching more of this as the week progresses. Probably not tomorrow, though; provided he's up for it, Jesse and I are going to see Up because I am horribly lame and haven't seen it yet.

But I did head home today right around 5, which is earlier than it's been the past few workdays, so I got to go running and eat dinner at a semi-reasonable hour while I watched TV (as mentioned above). It was rather nice. Note to self, though - Venture Bros appears to be on daily at 1AM on CN. WATCH IT. Because you can never, ever have too much Venture Bros. Next time I have forty bucks free I am so buying those DVDs.

I also put most of Gwen's under-dress together, so at least I was kind of productive? And I did lots of research for the next bit of PJO fic, so it will actually be accurate and whatnot. It may or may not involve zombies. Not zombie zombies, of course. But, well. When you've got the son of Hades, you need to make him use his awesome death powers. I'm sorry, that's just how it goes. XD Percy got to show off last, now it's so Nico's turn~ >D Regardless, I love Google Maps. :D

And speaking of writing, I have two more meme drabbles almost done. Maybe I'll finish them in a bit!

... Okay, you know, Transformers 2 might have been a terrible movie, but it sure does have a good soundtrack and score.

Drabble Meme Continued: 3 more! (Total: 6/10)

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 20:48:37 GMT

I bring you three more drabble-ish things in the struggle to complete ten prompts. XD

For torasetsuna:

Fandom: Firefly
Prompt: Mal/Wash, the Cowboy Bebop episode Toys in the Attic
Notes: Watch me fail at Whedon-esque witty banter! Jayne saves the day~ 426 words.
Title:

It

"... What was that?"

"What was what?"

"What do you mean, 'what was what'? That! What was that?"

"... There are a surprising number of definitions for the word 'what', Mal."

"There it was again! That!"

Mal physically grabbed Wash's head between two hands and turned it to the side, trying to will the ship's pilot to hear what its captain was hearing. There was, after all, a horrible scratching sound coming from somewhere in the ship. And if there was one thing Mal did not like, it was scratching sounds coming from the bowels of his boat.

"Kaylee's not about, is she?"

Wash shook his head. "She's dead asleep. In her bunk, too." Suddenly he straightened. "You mean that?"

Mal's eyes darted to the steps. "What? Did you hear it?"

"Assuming it's the same 'it' you heard..." Wash flipped the switches to disengage the pilot's stick and slowly unbuckled himself from the seat. He cocked his head towards the door... sure to let Mal go first.

The pair crept through the sleeping ship, down the hall and past the engine room (which was, as noted, deserted of its mechanic and any other life). The galley door stood open, and Mal and Wash turned their attention to the room beyond.

Suddenly Wash screamed. It was a most unmanly scream. Mal shouted (somewhat more manly) and drew his gun, but stopped himself from blowing a hole in the side of the galley only by sheer force of will.

There it was, on the counter. It was horrible. It was grey, and clumpy, and it was moving.

"What is it?"

"I don't know, but it don't rightly belong on my boat."

"Well, I knew that - how do we get rid of it? I don't wanna touch it -"

Juse then, Jayne appeared from the vicinity of the cargo bay. He looked the pair up and down - Wash was much too close to Mal, cowering with both hands clutching at the captain's elbow. "Huh," he huffed, blinking. "Your wife know about this?"

"Jayne - !"

"Ooh, look. Dinner." Jayne snatched up the wriggling mass with no regard for its horrible... horribleness and popped the entire thing into his mouth. He wrinkled his nose as he chewed. "What the cho yade was in that protein? You know, if we don't get paid well on our next job..." And he stomped out of the kitchen.

Mal and Wash shared a look. "Well. I guess that takes care of that," Wash said carefully.

Mal raised an eyebrow. "I guess it surely does."

--

For pergamond:

Fandom: Prince of Tennis
Prompt: Atobe/Eiji, a romantic date sorting through Atobe's wardrobe
Notes: Totally not as awesome as your not-a-drabble, but I hope it amuses! 439 words.
Title:

Lilac and Lace

"Mou... this is boring."

Atobe turned, raising one eyebrow. "Boring? Kikumaru, how can you possibly be bored?" They were currently engaged in possibly the least boring activity Atobe could think of - organizing his wardrobe, of course. Well, to be specific, they were organizing the smallest of his wardrobes. This was only the three-roomed walk-in of Atobe's guest room at the family's summer home. He hadn't wanted to scare Kikumaru off, after all. It was only the beginning of summer break.

Behind him, seated in the doorway of the closet, Eiji crossed his arms and pouted (rather cutely, Atobe noted absently). "But you're just cataloging things! Making marks on a clipboard!" He motioned to the offending item in Atobe's left hand. "That's no fun!"

"... And what do you propose would make it 'more fun'?" Atobe asked. He sighed, already feeling the beginnings of a headache coming on. He would have to ring the maid momentarily and ask for some aspirin. And perhaps some tea.

He had to admit, ever since he'd begun to date Seigaku's famous acrobatic player, Atobe had developed a profound respect for the redhead's doubles partner. Oishi, that was his name. Yes. The boy possessed the patience of a saint; of that, Atobe was sure.

"Hm." Eiji stuck out his bottom lip. He pushed himself off the floor, bounding past Atobe and further into the closet. Hyoutei's captain immediately abandoned the clipboard and followed his boyfriend into the bowels of his closet, vaguely afraid of what mischief he might get himself into if not caught in time. Atobe pushed aside racks of hanging clothing, looking left and right for the telltale flip of red hair.

He found it, finally - or, rather, he found Eiji's wiggling backside partly hidden among what appeared to be a large number of ladies' fine dresses -

"... How on earth did...?" Atobe sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. His mother must have run out of room in her own closets again. She was always hiding things in the backs of Atobe's closets, thinking he'd never notice.

Unfortunately, this time he hadn't. Not until now, at least - and now Eiji had pulled something off the rack and turned, his eyes bright and his smile wide as he thrust the lacy, frilly, lilac-colored sundress in Atobe's direction. He thought he might recognize it from one of his mother's book club meetings last year.

Atobe raised one eyebrow, afraid to ask for fear that he already knew the the answer.

And, unfortunately he did; Eiji bounced up and down on the balls of his feet and commanded, brightly, "Try it on!"

--

For link621:

Fandom: Prince of Tennis
Prompt: Pillar Pair/Ryoma fail
Notes: I think this is everyone fail, but that includes Ryoma, right? 676 words.
Title:

Just Passing By

"Will you get that, boy?" Nanjiroh called from the living room. "I'm busy!"

"Yeah, busy watching porn or something," Ryoma grumbled, ambling over to the front door, where someone had rung the bell. Pulling the door open, he glanced up from beneath unkempt bangs; "Ye- Buchou?" Ryoma blinked up somewhat dumbly at the tall figure standing on his doorstep.

"Ah... Echizen," Tezuka said. "I was... just passing by. I thought I would pay you a visit." He glanced past Ryoma's shoulder, probably hearing the television on in the other room. "Is this a bad time?"

Ryoma shook his head; despite the fact that Buchou had never been "just passing by" before, he guessed it wasn't a bad time. He'd just been reading some book for literature class. The break would be pretty welcome, even if he wasn't sure exactly... how to hang out with Kunimitsu Tezuka.

"It's fine. Um... do you want to come in?" Ryoma stepped aside and Tezuka nodded, stepping into the foyer and removing his shoes.

"Thank you."

Shoes removed, Tezuka stood in the Echizen's foyer. Ryoma stood beside him.

A loud moan issued from the living room television.

Tezuka made no outward sign that he'd heard it. Ryoma turned red.

"Uh... d'you want anything to drink?" Ryoma asked. That was what hosts did, right? Momo usually just demanded a drink and Eiji-sempai whined until he got something. Ryoma had never entertained anyone else in his home.

"One of your... Ponta, is it? Yes, a Ponta would be fine," Tezuka said, smiling slightly.

Ryoma had admit, he'd never, ever seen Buchou drink Ponta - or any other type of soft drink, for that matter. He'd never seen Tezuka drink something that wasn't water or tea, except for the few unfortunate times he'd been forced to consume Inui Juice. Ryoma shuddered. He was still trying to forget the last time.

Nonetheless, he retreated into the kitchen and came back with two cans. Handing one to Tezuka, he pointed up the stairs. "C'mon. My room's this way."

The two of them climbed the stairs to Ryoma's room. Tezuka looked around the room, as though he was taking it in - not that there was much to take in, Ryoma figured. It was really pretty plain. Suddenly he felt slightly embarrassed by the laundry spilling out of his closet door and the tennis magazines strewn across the desk.

Finally Tezuka nodded to himself, and retreated to the desk chair. He glanced at Ryoma before sitting, and Ryoma nodded to let him know it was all right. Tezuka sat, straight-backed, and sipped his Ponta. Ryoma sat awkwardly on the bed, shoving his book aside.

Silence reigned.

Then, suddenly and without warning, something cream and black shot out from beneath the bed and launched itself onto Tezuka's lap. Seigaku's captain issued forth a somewhat undignified squeak, just as Ryoma's mouth dropped open and he started to scramble off the bed. Thankfully, Tezuka managed to keep the Ponta in his hand from spilling everywhere. Ryoma stopped dead as he realized what had happened.

"Um... Buchou - I'm sorry, that's - "

On Tezuka's lap, the mass was pawing around, sniffing his stomach and his legs before it meowed loudly. "A cat?" Tezuka, asked, pushing his glasses up his nose and pretending he hadn't just made any sort of noise. Perhaps Echizen would just forget. Yes.

"... Yeah. Her name's Karupin."

"Ah."

On Tezuka's lap, Karupin seemed to satisfy herself of whatever she'd been seeking and promptly curled up, wrapping her tail over her nose. Tezuka's following tentative attempt to pet her resulted in a halfhearted swat.

Ryoma tried not to laugh. "That means she wants t'sleep," he said, glancing up at Tezuka's face; his eyes were opaque through his glasses. Ryoma couldn't help but smile and he tried to hide it behind one hand. "I think she likes you, Buchou."

Tezuka eyed the mass of happily purring fur now firmly lodged in his lap. "Yes. It would appear so." Perhaps he would be staying longer at Echizen's than he had initially planned.

Aaaaaaalmost... time to leave! Please do not thunderstorm on me when I want to run! (Actually, it looks sunny out there now. Win!)

Witty banter commencing, sir... stand by.

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:44:28 GMT

So I was all set to go to bed yesterday at a reasonable hour (2am is totally reasonable) but then I got suddenly inspired for the scene I was working on in my PJO fic and then it was 3:30. Oops. D: (This is what happens when you get Percy and Nico alone on the bottom of a river, I suppose... XD;) Ah well; it was actually okay since I'd been going to bed at 4 or so ever since Friday, and then since I managed to drag myself up reasonably on time this morning, I will hopefully be tired tonight. We'll see. I still wish it didn't take so absolutely little to throw off my sleep schedule. Anyway, I think I actually know (for real) how this story is going to end, and it still leaves room for a third (this is perhaps not a good thing, but XD). And it looks like the current thing at pjo_fic_battle is going to continue through the end of the month, so I will attempt to pick up more prompts there, as well. Oh, and there was a new Merlin prompt community I wanted to take a look at...

Speaking of, I was totally excited - one of my short little Gwen fics I wrote for the Gwen Winter Battle thing got nominated at excalibur_award! :D Whee~ Well, I mean, voting hasn't even started yet, but I was excited nonetheless. :D;

Anyway, I cut out the fabric for Gwen's under-dress (while watching Merlin, thank you NBC XD). I think I got fabric that was a little too off-white for it, but the white was just so see-through and I didn't want to double it. So, uh. Too bad. No one will care, I'm sure. I plan to at least cut out Ahsoka today. I also hope that the headpiece I'm using as a base will arrive in the mail today, otherwise I'll probably just call and pick it up at the UPS place tomorrow, even if it is alllll the way across town. :x

Anyway, other than that, it's just trying to finish up those exposure maps today so I can actually start some Spitzer analysis before Vicki talks to me next. Woo, mosaicking, here I come!

...Ahaha. If you pick the ninja theme in Gmail, there are little shuriken instead of stars! That is fantastic. XD

Clearly, this production could not have been made if they actually had a script.

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 05:09:20 GMT

Okay, for serious, brain. I am not still in high school. And I definitely don't (nor did I ever) go to school with the Jonas Brothers. And yet you keep making me dream about this. It makes me feel kind of weird every time. XD In fact, it's almost weird to watch Jonas now because I have had so many dreams involving the Jonas Brothers that I feel like I actually know them when this is not at all the case. I fear I may have a problem. D: (Even weirder: in the dream, Nick burned all of TOS for me, and was totally nerding about Star Trek with me. XD Trippy. ~~At least I appear to have moved from dream!dating Joe to dream!dating Kevin, which I consider an improvement.~~)

Anyway. Yesterday Scott, Nathan, and I went down to the Tampa Pitcher Show for dinner and Transformers 2, which was... well, maybe not great, but at the very least it was vaguely entertaining and spawned many interesting conversations in the car on the way back, some of which I probably should never ever repeat. XD (This seems to happen a lot, I've noticed. ::dies::) Today we met for a few episodes of TNG and then went to Sticky Fingers in Jacksonville for dinner (barbecue, yum!) before driving down to the riverfront and hiking over to plop into some lawn chairs for the fireworks. We did something right, because they shot them off right in front of us and it was a really nice show~ Then we drove home and had more interesting conversations involving South Park and why astronomers are crazy, which is a practically inexhaustible subject, let me tell you.

I am so seriously trying to convince them they want to do Venture Bros cosplay for Dragon*Con. I don't care if I don't have time. Nathan could be Brock and Scott could be Rusty and we'd build him a H.E.L.P.eR. and connect them at the kidneys. XD It would be fabulous, I tell you. Fabulous. And I'd so be Dean! It could happen, I tell you! It could! (Of course, Ahsoka will not happen unless I start sewing, so I swear I am going to cut out fabric and sew it together tomorow. I AM. D:)

Why do you smell like smoke?

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 05:11:16 GMT

Yeah, that was a good ending. :D

Whew! None of the horrible terrible stuff I envisioned happened. I can breathe again. XD ~~Of course, this means I have at least two ideas for a horribly sad alternate ending fanfiction now? XD~~ I mean, I seriously could have envisioned this ending so much worse than it did. Honestly? I was really, really happy with it. Now to mentally convince Riordan to write more books about Nico. ;D (Seriously, Nico, way to totally help save the day. ::hearts~:: You really will be totally hot and badass when you become legal. <3)

Alas, I was really starting to support Percy/Rachel. Though once Rachel was out of the way, Annabeth stopped being so bitchy so I was okay with it in the end. XD

Seriously, guys. I want to take all of my friends who haven't read these books and just... shove the story into their heads. XD You should all go out and read Percy Jackson!

And it's just about bedtime; we actually did have NGN tonight (yay, seventh season! It's almost like watching new episodes; I've only seen most of these once except for the one I have never seen yay I finally get to see it!) and there was a spontaneous decision to go to the Tampa Pitcher Show on Friday for Transformers 2 (apparently it's okay that I haven't seen the first XD) and there will be barbecue and Star Trek on the 4th. Sounds good to me! Which means tomorrow is getting my car title transferred for reals and actually sewing something.

Woo. :D

HAWAII OWNS YOUR FACES

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:06:13 GMT

You know, I think the more mortal peril Percy is in, the funnier he is. XD Just saying. I'm, like, terrified to keep turning pages, but every time I do I just keep cracking up out loud. XD Well, I mean, it's sad too, because people are dying. But Percy is still pretty hilarious. I also heard the Lightning Thief trailer might be showing before the Half-Blood Prince? That would be made of WIN. :DDD Though then I read that they might be scrapping one of my favorite scenes... I hope not, that would make me sad!

Brazil visa mailed, yay. $160 later, ugh. D: (Plus the $7 for the passport photos in which I look rather tired and unhappy because you are not allowed to smile.) Man, I wish I could get reimbursed before the conference. I didn't get my title transferred yet, but in my defense that's because I didn't fall asleep until at least 5:30 this morning. That was sad. I kept watching Adult Swim hoping Venture Bros would be on, but alas, no. Maybe it's only on on the weekends. In any case, I was tired but just couldn't sleep, so naturally I was not willing to get up at 7 this morning and opted for 9:40 instead. I'll aim for title-transferring tomorrow.

In the meantime, today is X-ray flux map day. :D And no NGN, so there will be running and writing and possibly Ahsoka-starting. I need to get working on costumes! I also need to go fabric-shopping, but I feel poor after dumping $1400 into Brazil that I won't get back until probably after D*C. Ah well.

Everyone says trick or treat. I want to take my character in a completely different direction.

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 22:28:26 GMT

I woke up a bit late this morning (well, let me rephrase: I woke up at 6:45 because there was Very Loud Thunder, and made the mistake of going back to sleep and assuming I'd wake up when the alarm went off at 8:30). But it was okay, because it was storming outside pretty much the whole morning so I decided getting some work done from home was the way to go. Plus, I had a couple of things to take care of - I need to get the title of the new car transferred, but when I went to the tax collector's it was really crowded so I decided I'd just come back at 8 tomorrow (incentive to get up early!). At least I got my passport photo taken at CVS, since I need to send one in with my travel visa. The goal is to get that out tomorrow! (Along with the notification about the AAS grant, I forgot to do that today, oops.)

Really, though, I need to figure out what's going on. Every other day or so it's just impossible for me to get up. I assumed it was connected with running, but I really don't think that extra quarter mile translates into two more hours of sleep required. XD Maybe I just need to change alarm clocks. The Stitch one seems to work fairly well.

In the meantime, Zazzle is offering free shipping and I really want a Camp Half-Blood shirt, but I don't know which house to put on the back. XD I was thinking either Poseidon or Hades, but I could always just get the one without a house name on the back. I don't really identify with any of the greek gods. D: Not even really Athena. ::fail:: Ah well, I've been trying to make this decision forever; even if I don't decide by tonight, I should actually get a shirt one of these days. They're cool!

Um... really, that's about it. Back to looking at Spitzer stuff, and then I'm going to try to get that PJO fic battle thing started. I... think I know what's going to happen. Maybe. >>; Plus I owe people drabbles, and I just did a meme that means I ought to post up that I will do more drabbles. XD Aha~

I didn't know you could growl in French.

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 02:11:54 GMT

Wow, I didn't know that was Chris Pine in The Princess Diaries 2. Or Callum Blue. I sporfled~ XD

I'm not playing Jar Jar. Ben said I could play Guitar Hero.

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 05:42:21 GMT

There are not enough hours in the day. D:

So right now I want to be writing something like three fics simultaneously: my dark!Ahsoka fic, my PJO older!Nico fic, and now there's a PJO fic battle going on that I just got the world's most random idea for that. It will require some research and may fail because I have not ever actually been to the event about which I would like to base it. Though I suppose that's what research is for? I'm sure I can find a firsthand article on what I'm looking for. Besides, doing research for stories is fun. I totally spent a lot of last night staring at schematics of Star Wars shuttles in order to get things as "accurate" as possible. XD I am so laaaaame. Man, I wish real research was this much fun. XD Downloading Spitzer data is not nearly as exciting as looking up Republic shuttle schematics.

Oh, and if I add in my original PJO fic battle idea, that makes four fics. ::faaaaail:: Thankfully I have until the 4th to write anything for the battle, and I'm hoping to have the book finished by the end of the weekend, maybe. Though I can write the fics now anyway, because both would take place before this book. I'm trying to finish the book before I actually check the prompts for real, but I glanced at them and they seemed pretty general, anyway. So I think I can work my fic ideas in and if not, hey, more random PJO fic for the world. Never a bad thing, right?

Speaking of the book, it's... kind of like a weird parody of what I thought should happen (well, if my recent fic is any indication XD), so that's kind of cool. XD Except for the part that I just read. That was kind of not cool, as in bordering on rather scary. :x Do not do this to me, Riordan! I'm 150 pages or so in... I think I'm somewhere approaching halfway. I am still experiencing trepidation, but I think that's probably because I just hate finishing things for good.

Anyway. I digress. (Haha, I never get to say that!)

The SW fic finally has a coherent plot (thanks muchly to meta-ing with noctaval~), and I have some supposedly brilliant ideas for some visions I want to torture Ahsoka with. I'm thinking Ventress is going to have to drug her, since all the torture mask will do is cut her off from the Force. So if she does that, and pumps in some drugs to see her weaknessess... yeah. I wonder if there's a Sith mind-reader device. There might be. Or maybe I could make one up... I mean, there are lots of shady Sith artifacts, right? XD;; Hm. (This is the problem with SW fic - there is SO MUCH CANON that it's hard to just make crap up. XD)

I also want to get those meme drabbles done soon, too. And I noticed something while I was working on the drabbles the other day - I totally have a different writing style based on what I'm writing. As in, I try to write, say, Percy Jackson to make it sound like Rick Riordan wrote it. When I write Star Wars fic, it's much closer to (but maybe not exactly?) my own personal style when I'm writing original fic. Merlin!fic always comes out sounding... not British, but that's probably somewhere in the back of my head. More proper or flowery or something, maybe. In any case, Merlin!fic is different from PJO!fic is different from SW!fic is different from everything else. I suppose this isn't really that exciting a realization, but it was kind of interesting to notice. And at least it means that if I get fed up with my "real" writing style, I can easily start incorporating aspects that I like from other authors into it, right? (It kind of comes down to that "sketches" excercise we did in Lightman's class, actually.) Because I looooove words, but then things end up sounding too wordy and ridiculous and I must say, writing PJO has really helped me shorten up my sentences (which is a good thing!). My mom always laughed at me and my paragraph-long sentences, after all. XD

Wow. I think that's all I wanted to say about writing. I hope. :D;

akdjlafd, where did the day go? No wonder I'm tired. D: I had issues falling asleep last night (probably prompted by getting up late yesterday.) I really had better try to get to bed soon, though.

Other things I need to do include actually starting my slew of Dragon*Con costumes (Ahsoka! NTS: Try out Model Magic for the outer part of the headtails? And look into makeup!). I also need to finish cleaning my house (it's half-clean? :D;) and finish getting ready for the teacher workshop on Monday that I'm kind of running-ish. (Well, Vicki and Anthony are usually in charge but they're both out of town, and while it really doesn't require much organization, I think I'm it.) At least I've got most of the stuff for it done today, though. I plopped myself down in the student center with a venti iced green tea and my laptop for about two hours and got the links list and talk done.

I also need to get my Brazil ticket so I can apply for my travel visa. I think I'm going to have to take an overnight flight, whee. -_-; I hope the AAS is okay with me flying out of Orlando rather than Gainesville, though I suppose I should probably look into the latter even if I hate taking small planes. :x I don't think I'm really going to stay more than a day or two at most after the conference, though; I think I'd be paying out of pocket for that, and I honestly don't really know of a whole lot I want to do in Rio. If anyone knows of anything I should do while I'm there, though...?

Aaand maybe if I hadn't been writing this, I could've gotten more fic written. Alas. I think it's almost bedtime.

The dragon looked at me as if to ask, Why did you just cut off my toe?

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:22:37 GMT

Yes, I'm sure you're all sick of my many entries already. :D; I shall conveniently cut this because it's mostly just thoughts on The Last Olympian, as I am now up to page 100-ish after my lunch break.

Nico, why do I get the feeling that this idea of yours is a really, really bad one. D: PLEASE DO NOT KILL PERCY ~~any more than this prophecy is supposed to already~~. I am thrilled you guys appear to be all buddy-buddy, but... you kind of freak me out, a little.

I think May and/or Rachel may be part of the reason the Oracle is a mummy now. I'm not sure how, but I feel like it's connected, especially if Rachel can see the past and the future. >>; I guess we'll see.

Also? Percy, you're going to have to pick a girl eventually. XD Seriously. I feel like you may end up in St. Thomas yet, whether you mean to or not. Either that or Rachel will somehow refuse to go. I think she's gotta be around for this last battle.

At least reading TLO has given me a slew of ideas I can use for my fic. XD I mean, if 12 year-old Nico can reconstruct dead field mice... well, there are a lot of dead mice floating around bio labs, right? ;D I'm totally imagining an army of mice-ghosts helping them escape. That, and shadow travel. I am totally using that! Clearly I should've read this book sooner. XD

Muahaha. I think I have just convinced Peter to get The Lightning Thief for his son. :D

Drabble Meme: 3/10

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 03:01:43 GMT

So I finally got off my butt (or, rather, on it XD) and started getting those drabbles done from that drabble meme I advertised way back when. I'm really sorry it's taken me this long. D: And of course I think I'm going to do this in chunks, so here are the first three (not exactly in the order I was given prompts) out of ten that I was given.

As a note, these generally fail as drabbles in the strictest sense - I really seem incapable of writing anything incredibly short, so they're all a couple hundred words at least. No novels though, I promise!

For noctaval (whose format for posting these I have also stolen :D;):

Fandom: Star Wars
Prompt: Obi/Ani, unresolved sexual tension
Notes: I think I may have failed at this, in both making it short and in making it actually UST-y... Buuut I suppose I could always just write you more and try again. XD 391 words.
Title:

Midnight

“What are you looking at?” Obi-Wan asked, approaching the dark figure seated at the tactical console. It was the night shift and the ship’s lights were dimmed appropriately; the Twilight’s bridge was deserted but for a few officers dutifully manning their posts. While the ship was in hyperspace there wasn’t much reason to keep a full crew on duty. Those who were on shift paid the Jedi no mind, and it was almost easy to imagine they were alone on the bridge.

“Troop deployments,” Anakin replied, pointing to the screen. On it was displayed their destination and the location of the current Republic forces, as well as the last known intelligence on the Separatists. “If this is accurate – and you know how likely that is,” he added wryly, “if we insert here,” he pointed to an area on the map, “we should have the best chance.

Obi-wan braced one arm on the console so he could look over Anakin’s shoulder, his beard almost tickling the other’s ear. “Hm. Yes, I think you’re right. That does look like it will give us the greatest tactical advantage.”

“Mm,” Anakin agreed, leaning back a little until his shoulders almost touched the fabric of Obi-Wan’s tunic.

“How long have you been at this?” Obi-Wan asked, using his former padawan’s shoulder to lever himself back up into a standing position. He left his hand, however, as Anakin twisted to look up at him.

The shoulder beneath his fingers moved in a half-hearted shrug. “A while.”

Obi-Wan considered the young knight’s face – his features were pale and drawn. It had been a while since either of them had gotten a good night’s sleep. “Where’s your Padawan?”

“Sleeping,” Anakin replied, with a bit of a rueful smile. He glanced back and up at his former master, lips still quirked and eyes dark.

“Ah. She may be the wisest of us all,” Obi-Wan chuckled, gaze sliding from the screen to his comrade’s face, his eyes reflecting the light from the display. “Perhaps we should follow her example.”

His hand slid from Anakin’s shoulder as the taller man stood, the space between them inches at most. “I guess you’re right. See you in the morning?” And Anakin began making his way off the bridge, headed towards his quarters.

“In the morning,” Obi-Wan murmured thoughtfully, and followed his comrade’s retreating back.

--

For auroraprimavera:

Fandom: Merlin
Prompt: Merin/Arthur
Notes: Not very shippy, I suppose, but it’s oh-so-heavily implied. :D; 363 words.
Title:

Ticklish

“Merlin, come here!” Arthur sounded exasperated and tired – then again, these were the usual emotions to hear in his voice whenever he was referring to Merlin, who realized he was quite possibly the worst manservant in the history of shoddy manservants. But Arthur could try to be a bit more patient, couldn’t he?

The answer was, of course, that no, he couldn’t. The prince of Camelot waited for nothing, and his manservant was certainly not exempt from that rule. Merlin hurried over to where the prince stood beside the open window, hair mussed and sweaty and arms outstretched, ready for Merlin to remove his armor after a long day training in the sun.

Arthur smelled of musk and sunshine, with a bit of crushed grass mixed in, Merlin thought, as his fingers found the first of the armor’s straps and he began to undo them.

“Really, I can’t wait to be out of this stuff – I think weather hotter than hell ought to be banned from Camelot,” Arthur grumbled, as Merlin ducked his head and went about his duty with a small, somewhat-concealed smile.

That is, until Merlin’s fingers found the first speck of tunic between the plates of armor, and a moment later Arthur was shrieking in a very un-princelike manner.

“Merlin! Merlin – oh God, stop that, Merlin!” the prince cried, but Merlin was of no mind to surrender the advantage, as he continued to tickle the prince’s armpit mercilessly.

“Say ‘Merlin is a brilliant young man’!” he commanded.

“What? No! Now – Merlin, stop, stop!” Arthur begged, nearly doubled over. But Merlin would not relent.

“Say it!” he teased.

“Merlin! You bastard – fine, fine! Just stop!”

“Say it~”

“Merlin is a brilliant young man. Now – please – stop!”

Reluctantly, Merlin’s fingers stilled. The prince gasped, his sides heaving beneath the remainder of his armor. “Really, Merlin,” Arthur choked out, “there are better ways to get me to compliment you.”

“Hm?” Merlin asked, going back to his task of searching out leather straps and unbuckling them. “There are?”

“Oh, yes,” Arthur said, his breathing finally returning to something resembling normal. “You could just be as brilliant in bed again as you were last night.”

--

For alibi2014:

Fandom: Percy Jackson & the Olympians
Prompt: Percy/Annabeth
Notes: ... I don't know. XD This was supposed to be totally different, but then this happened. ::fail:: 611 words.
Title:

The Simple Solution

“Hey, Seaweed Brain. What’re you doing?”

“Shh!” I put my finger to my lips, trying to get Annabeth to keep her voice down. Seriously, wasn’t she supposed to be observant or something?

“...Uh?” Annabeth crept over to my side, thankfully not making too much noise as she squatted down in the dirt beside me. “What are you doing?” she asked again, but at least she asked it more quietly this time.

“What does it look like I’m doing?” I hissed, waving at her to make sure she kept her voice down. Just through the bushes, I could see Chloe Mayweather, one of the Athena cabin girls, frown and put her hands on her hips.

“Honestly? I don’t think you want to hear the answer to that,” she said.

I rolled my eyes. “I’m hiding,” I said, chucking a finger at the leaves inches from my face. “From her.”

“From...?” Annabeth peered between the leaves. “Oh.” She frowned slightly, then looked back at me. “Why are you hiding from Chloe? Did you dump out her favorite nailpolish by accident or something?”

I wished it had been that simple. “No,” I whispered, as Chloe turned in a circle, surveying the clearing. “She... she wanted to... you know...”

“... I don’t know.” Annabeth cocked an eyebrow, and it made her look like Mr. Spock. I tried not to snicker because that would just give us away.

At the same time, I could feel my face begin to flush. Was I really going to have to spell it out for her? “She wanted to... ask me out. To the bonfire.” As I spoke, I could feel my face getting hotter and hotter. I was probably the color of a tomato by now.

Annabeth stared for a minute, and then she started to snicker. She slapped one hand to her mouth as Chloe whirled around, looking for the source of the noise. I added my hand to hers, praying to my dad and any other god who might be listening that Chloe wouldn’t find us. It had taken me almost five minutes to get far enough ahead of her to hide. I didn’t want to have to go through that again, thanks to Annabeth.

Finally Annabeth quieted, and it seemed like Chloe had had enough. “Ugh. I’ll find you, Percy Jackson! You can’t just run away like that!” Chloe fumed, and finally she stalked away into the woods, heading back in the direction of camp.

I breathed a sigh of relief, and it was only then that I realized my hand was still clamped on top of Annabeth’s over her mouth. I pulled back and she took a deep breath, eyeing me and my probably still tomato-colored face.

“You know...” she said slowly, and I glanced up at her, wrinkling my nose and ready to make some comeback if she was going to tell me how red I looked, “I think I have the answer to your problem.”

I blinked. “Huh?”

Annabeth rolled her eyes. “It’s pretty simple really.”

“Oh yeah? And what is it, Wise Girl?” I asked. “What’s this simple answer of yours?”

Annabeth grinned and pushed herself off the ground. “I’ll go with you. Then you’re already taken.” She flipped her blonde ponytail over her shoulder and took off in the same direction as Chloe before I even really had a chance to process what she’d said.

When I finally did, I pushed myself up off the ground, wondering if I should be grateful or confused or embarrassed or angry or what. But ahead of me, Annabeth only waved a hand and called over her shoulder, “Nine PM, Seaweed Brain. Don’t be late!”

More to come later this week!

Peter Pan and Wendy turned out fine.

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 20:49:11 GMT

First off, a very Happy Birthday to link621! :D I am sure it will be awesome~

Second I would like to highlight the awesome photoshopping skillz of noctaval, who edited some lighsabers into one of our pictures from last weekend. XD

Woo! :D ~~I totally need to start on Ahsoka. Eek.~~

Welcome to the first day of summer, which is hot enough to melt just about anything out there. ._.;; Oh, and also, watch Merlin tonight! NBC, 8pm Eastern~ YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO.

I doubt you can get a decent Neapolitan margherita pizza on Tatooine.

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 18:09:11 GMT

Yesterday's trip to Borders was slightly made of fail: I found the book I wanted, but then I realized I'd totally left my gift card at home. But I'd already gone all the way there, so I bought it anyway. XD Geez, though - when did books get so expensive? I mean, there was no book I looked at there that was under $12. That is ridiculous. D: The hardcover I was looking at was, like, two dollars more than the paperback books! Ugh. (My mom says it's my own fault for buying books instead of going to the library, but I just... I like owning books! I like having them around to pull out whenever I want and I know I'm going to read them two or three times anyway, so buying them is worth it in my mind. I think she'll never get it.)

But then, to top it all off, I went to check out, right? So I go to the end of the registers to wait because there's one girl checking people out. And then not one, but two separate people walk right in front of me and cut me off and check out before I can even get to the register either time, even though I was clearly waiting (ready with my book and coupon and wallet out and everything!). Seriously, who does that? D: Ugh.

So I've been catching up on the Secret Saturdays, which I taped while I was gone on my trip and stuff. I think Doyle is winning me over. I mean, sure, I know he's supposed to be the cute, off-the-wall, bad-guy-good-guy mercenary uncle, and I usually like that, but I guess I just wasn't impressed with him at first (or, at least, not the way Zak was). Buuuut I think he's growing on me. Though I suppose he's even growing on Doc, so that's kind of a major accomplishment in the first place. XD My God, this show needs more viewers! (Seriously... no one else here watches it, do you? D:) I wonder if there's a LJ comm...

I almost don't know what to do with myself today. I mean, I want to be lazy. XD (Though I was up by 11:20, go me!) But I suppose even that still involves doing something, like watching more Secret Saturdays or reading or writing or something~ Actually, I think my plan is to finish The Demigod Files before I need to head out to watch Scott's cat, and then on the way home I'll stop into Starbucks and use my free mocha coupon and start The Last Olympian. So maybe I should start reading... I also have some icons I want to switch out (haha, that's nothing new XD) and I want to get some writing done because I owe pergamond some tags and I really want to get cracking on those meme drabbles, too. (I think my brain just doesn't think in drabble format, so I keep thinking I have to write a lot, when really I don't.)

Rumors of my assimilation have been greatly exaggerated.

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:55:57 GMT

Well, I am getting closer to creating an X-ray exposure map. I'm not there yet - somehow I stalled out on the last step because I'm still missing keywords in my input files, but the awesome girl at the Chandra helpdesk who is so nicely walking me through this is out of the office today, so I guess it's back to inputting redshifts for today. And I thought being an astronomer didn't require secretarial levels of data entry; good thing I spent so much time working for my dad way back when (who, incidentally, is totally paying my sister a better hourly rate this summer than I get doing this, lucky girl~).

I actually worked on my PJO story yesterday (woo!) and I even finished reading my geekiest book of all the geeky books ever so I can now finish The Demigod Files and probably actually start reading The Last Olympian this weekend. I think I keep putting it off because I don't want the series to be over. I have this problem with many things. It's why I still haven't finished Enterprise. D:

I also wrote almost 1,000 words for my Star Wars fic, but the thing seems to be in a constant state of flux. I keep flipping between wanting to make it just AU (as in, take everything up to mid-Clone Wars as canon and then veer off in my own direction) and trying to make things fit up through Revenge of the Sith. I still don't know what I want to do with it. I have all these ideas. There are too many of them! XD Ah, Star Wars. Why must you be difficult?

Speaking of, I think I'm going to treat myself to a trip to the bookstore tonight, because my $50 Borders rewards card came in so I can buy a book without actually paying for it! And there's a new Clone Wars book out by Karen Traviss, and it involves Ahsoka (actually, all the Rex/Ahsoka shippers will probably be happy with this one, reading the description...). Therefore I totally must own it. (Though clearly she needs to stop writing Clone Wars and get cracking on that next Omega Squad book! I NEED THAT THING. :O)

Merlin starts this weekend on NBC. Everyone should watch it~ :D

I think maybe it's time for an early lunch.

Oh, but first!

:D WE ARE STRONG WITH THE FORCE! The box says so!

It's like putting all your eggs in one extrasolar basket.

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:00:49 GMT

pergamond is evil because SHE KILLED RYOMA. D: I am seriously saddened, here. Seriously!

In other news, I think I finally know how to get X-ray fluxes, thanks to the Helpdesk. I must say, I really appreciate the people at the Chandra Helpdesk being so willing to explain things to me, because I think I am X-ray-regime-retarded or something. D: Ah well, that's for tomorrow morning - gotta head out to make it to dinner at five! Star Trek movies await!

If I'm Obi-Wan, does that make you Obi-Two?

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 17:17:16 GMT

Welcome to Monday! (Or something. D:)

I went down to Orlando on Friday to hang out with noctaval and a few of her (awesome!) friends, and then we went to Star Wars Weekends on Saturday. It was VERY HOT but we still had a good time, though I think they should seriously reconsider moving the event to the wintertime. XD (Also, it was the last weekend of the event, which we thought would've been pretty busy with events and costumes, but it was a little less than we'd expected.) We met up with Diana and Kevin about halfway through the day, who had utterly amazing costumes and all the kids wanted pictures with them because they're just so cool. XD We hung out for most of the afternoon together before our two parties split up to go different places for dinner. We ended up going to Epcot (where it had suddenly turned VERY WINDY D: but thankfully did not rain) and rode ~~the golf ball~~ Spaceship Earth before wandering through a few of the countries and eating a yummy dinner in Morocco. England had Aero bars (:DDDD) so I totally picked up a few, and we also shopped through Japan a bit~ We headed back as the fireworks/show was going off, since we had to get back to Hollywood Studios where the cars were parked and then drive back to Helen's house, where we were staying.

We spent the rest of the night talking Star Wars (and the new Old Republic MMORPG), then slept in a bit the next morning, talked more Star Wars, ate delicious pancakes that Helen made, went to Target in search of lightsabers, and played the Clone Wars Lightsaber Duels Wii game, which is quite entertaining as the characters have some of the best banter ever. XD You can pit characters against themselves and they say some of the most hilarious (and in-character) things! Anakin and Ahsoka didn't get along with themselves at all ("This feels like a dream I had once after too much blue milk," and "Don't get any ideas about Padme!"), but Obi-Wan seemed to do just fine~ ;D ("The beard is a good look for you.")

I headed out around maybe two or three on Sunday, and called a bunch of people on the way home (except valeriebean, I still owe you a call sometime this week because I haven't talked to you in forever!) and then spent the rest of the evening doing nothing very constructive, which included watching some Secret Saturdays, reading Star Wars fanfic, and generally trying to catch up on LJ and stuff. I'm still a bit behind in RP, but I'm really hoping to get back on the ball by mid-week with that. Thankfully I will actually be around until August, which then involves AFO, the Demi Lovato concert (yay, I'm going!), Brazil, and then the Jonas Brothers concert. (Speaking of, I totally had another Jonas Brothers dream last night. THEY ARE STALKING ME. D: Or maybe I'm stalking them. I'm not sure.)

I also need to catch up on writing, because I need to get another PJO chapter out (ahaha, I still need to read the last book!), I know I still owe those drabbles to people from the meme I put up what feels like a million years ago, and I've also actually started my dark!Ahsoka fic (well, all of a page or two of it). The problem with Star Wars fic is that I feel like I want to get all the details right, which means I either have to rewatch or Wikipedia a bunch of stuff, including Revenge of the Sith. (I think a rewatching might be in order for that, but maybe I can just Wiki it first to get myself going.) In any case, I think I have the beginnings of a plot, so that's all I can ever ask for! Now to just figure out the murky parts of it...

Okay, off to read the paper I'm presenting on Wednesday and maybe even get some work done on identifying galaxies with redshifts. Redshifts, yay! (Gee, I wish I had my own...) Tonight is more NextGen and Wednesday is Star Trek movies! (And I still need to see UP before I completely forget it's out.)

I hate adventures, unless there are pirates.

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 06:24:08 GMT

I know this icon is a bit angry, but pretend it isn't. I already used the icon I wanted to use this time in the last post. :D;;

Anyway, I figured since I've been slaving from approximately five until just now (with a bit of time out for running and dinner) on this, I should post my pictures of the fastest-constructed Jedi costume ever!

Random notes:

I wonder if there are any documented cases of Jedi dying from heatstroke. >>; Buuuut if I get too hot, I can always take the shoulder things off (BUT THEY'RE SO COOL!). Also, it's not really two layers like it should be, I cheated. XD

Amazingly enough, I walked right into Michael's, found the shinies I needed for the belt, and was out of there within five minutes. First. Time. Ever.

Unfortunately, though my lighsaber is awesome and spring-loaded, it is also heavy and I might stop to pick up a lighter one on my way out of town tomorrow. >>; I wanted Anakin's Clone Wars one anyway...

Also, I have finished Venture Bros Season 3. How long do I have to wait for more? D:

BEDTIME!

Wow, how's that for afterpercussions?

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:44:43 GMT

Okay, brain. Seriously.

Well, all the Jonas Brothers, really. This is at least the third one. XD I remember something about hanging out with them in their rockstar apartment (which, for the record, looked nothing like their rockstar apartment on Jonas) and something about a fourth brother named Kevin (but not actual Kevin Jonas, he was still there, but with a British accent?) who I think was supposed to be my cousin Kevin. Only this second brother/my cousin Kevin had died a while back (of some disease, he died in the hospital) and they were still really raw about it and all felt like their publicity had affected his last few months. So I somehow found these three symbols in old pictures (which looked a lot like Stargate chevron-things) and dialed this... phone-thing we had (Stargate-phone? XD) and realized that the room in which Kevin had died was still in a hospital (uh... duh). And then the brothers decided they wanted to go there (I have no idea why), except first Joe started dragging me to the kitchen or something - I didn't know where we were going, and neither did his security people.

And then Maintenance knocked on my door and it was 8:40 in the morning and I was tired. D: Somehow my dumb Jonas Brothers dreams always get interrupted. Coincidence? Perhaps not. XD I think I may need a Jonas Brothers icon. HELP. Well, have a Stargate one instead.

At least after the maintenance guys took a look at my re-plastered bathroom ceiling (it sprung a leak while I was gone, thanks upstairs neighbors) they said they'd come back in an hour (gee, thanks). It's probably a good thing I was so groggy, or I might've said something about how when the guy came in yesterday to re-plaster it he left plaster and gross wet ceiling pieces all over my bathroom and now I have to replace my toothbrush and wash the heck out of my towels and vacuum every horizontal surface and then some. And possibly sand down my shower curtain bar because there's plaster caked on it and I can't actually pull the shower curtain across. Boo. It's probably too much to hope that the guy painting it today might actually clean up after himself, too. Ugh, if he gets paint on things I really will talk to someone. Plaster I can vacuum up. Paint, not so much. Which is why I hung my towels in the bedroom. (And, funnily enough, Sashi was apparently not ready to get up today because even after I got out of bed she stayed there and went back to sleep instead of following me around like normal. XD Cute~)

... Yeah, that's really it for now. Been working on my Jedi costume (it will get done, bootcovers and all!) and went to NGN last night as well, which was fabulous and involved the most wrong jokes about Riker yet. I don't think I can even repeat them. XD I did miss about eight episodes while I was gone, but I'll just steal those on Monday after we finish out season 6 before marathoning the TNG movies Wednesday before Tiffany leaves. D: (I am going to miss her!)

And now that I have wasted all of the extra time that I had for getting in so early this morning writing an entry, I shall endeavour to get to work and finish reading this paper that I've been reading for... a couple weeks, now. XD