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Jiraiya, from Buni-san's fic "Aniki" (which I beta read... that's actually a sneak preview quote from the next chapter SHH DON'T TELL ANYONE)

I felt that that was an appropriate quote, considering the subject of this post. I read this really good fic a few days ago (well, I finished it late last night, as I pretty much spent a huge chunk of two evenings reading this thing), and I felt the need to do a fanfic reccomendation post. I'm going to do this differently than I normally do; I'm not going to focus on one fandom, but I'm going to list what I consider the "best of the best" in some of my favourite fandoms. That way, people can see what I like... and I can push my favourite fics on everyone. ;3

Keep in mind, these are just my personal top favourites. This doesn't mean that I don't love a huge librairy of fanfic other than the ones listed here, too.  If you want to check out more of what I read, go to my delicious, found here: http://delicious.com/Beboots That site is so helpful for organizing my favourites! Best of all, it makes me feel less paranoid, as everything is stored online, and not on my laptop, which is potentially vulnerable to crashing. 

 

Anyway, in no particular order (except the first, which is the fic that I mentioned above), here are the fics that I consider the most in-character, amazing and squee-worthy fics ever... )


Oh, and everyone, feel free to contest my choices by providing links to superior fanfiction! :D

beboots: (Default)

What are you talking about, Hikaru? Women have always played go, even during the Heian era. 
~Fujiwara no Sai, volume two of the French version. 

 

All right! So it's been two days since the final day of Animethon (haha, I just wrote "animethong" by accident... ;) ), and I'm still pumped about it. I mean, much of the organizing was of questionable quality (and sense), but the people who were attended more than made up for that. :3 I kept running into people I knew, and awesome cosplayers that I didn't know before but now know, and it generally an awesomely fun time was had by all.

 Also, I managed to avoid my stalker from the Bellerose con, although I did spot her at a distance several times. Scary stuff.

I wore my Fujiwara no Sai outfit (as seen here: http://beboots.deviantart.com/art/Crooked-hat-91400338 ), although I lost my hair ribbon at the dance Saturday evening, so I was without it all Sunday. Oh, well, I could have lost my hat! There was also another Fujiwara no Sai (I was no longer unique. ;_; ). Her hat was much taller than mine, and she did her belt area much more nicely than me... but I liked my sleeves more. :3 Also, she's an awesome person, really nice. 

I found that I didn't get as many photograph requests, proportionately, here in Canada as I did at the Japan Expo in Paris. I think that it's because the Hikaru no Go manga is really difficult to find, here, and that the anime actually isn't liscenced, so only the true fan knows of the series. You know I'm cool. 

I also didn't find much Hikago merchandise; I did buy two soundtrack CDs, and a really adorable plus Sai doll, but not much else. I actually didn't spend much money - other than that stuff, I bought one Hikago DVD for 24$, several brand new single Inuyasha DVDs for $4 (yes, $4 - awesome deal!), and Sting, Frodo's sword, for $40. It comes with a sheath, and is very badass. :3

Remind me, guys, to choose a costume that doesn't involve five or six layers (plus felt hat) for the cons next summer... Although I actually have my heart set on doing a Sesshoumaru costume (from Inuyasha). I mean, I already know how to do the traditional Japanese clothing from my experience sewing my Sai costume, so the real challenge would be the armour and other assessories (like that fluff). I've been asking cosplayers at the Animethon for tips on how to make the armour, and I got some good suggestions, but if anybody else has any thoughts, please share them! I could use all the help I can possibly yet...

The weapons check people were apparently much more strict this year. My brother, Ian, (who went as Link, from Legend of Zelda) was told to glue his sword (which was delibrately made of soft wood, and very blunted) into his sheathe if he was to come with it next year! Ironically, he's a blackbelt in Karate, and is taking Kobudo, and so he really doesn't need a blunted decorative sword to kill people...  I told my brother that he should really just get a weapon's check sticker for himself; his whole body is a weapon. ;)

I was hanging out with my friend Ashley all weekend (despite the fact that we grated on each other's nerves after a while), and she was dressed in an awesome Seras Victoria (from Hellsing) outfit. She made it by hand, people! She's so much more hardcore than me, who uses a machine... Although, my outfit was mostly huge swathes of hemming, so it would have taken me forever had I not used my awesome 60s sewing machine... 

Highlights of the cosplayers include: Seras Victoria, of course, baby Tuxedo Mask, two epic Dragonball Z characters (Goku and Vegeta, I believe), Master Chief, complete with full suit of Halo armour and glowing gun, Vash the Stampede (he even wore a tie around his head at the dance, as in the scenes were the character is drunk in canon!), the Predator (from Alien versus Predator), complete with fully functioning mouth (very creepy), the Joker's "Why so serious?" speech at the cosplay contest, and Yvonne as Hello Kitty. Yvonne actually had to leave early on Sunday because she was continually harassed by glomping fans.

Here be a video for everyone, with Seras Victoria showing off the accomodations:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOCgQ5LqwfQ I filmed it! :D

...Aaaand I suppose I should go and clean my room for a bit... or answer some of my facebook replies on my photos. To view the photographs, go here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=144162&l=89f7b&id=839240415
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=144588&l=f7916&id=839240415

beboots: (Hikago Sai)
I didn't present everything in my last post, guys. :) This is the bare-bones of a Hikaru no Go fic that I began writing in France. I won't say much on the subject (I just really hope that the background for this alternate universe is clear...), beyond the fact that I had fun playing with reversing Hikaru and Sai's roles... sort of. 

As always, (***) indicates text that still needs to be written. 

Also, I could still use comments/ suggestions! I still need some ideas for this thing, but I really would like to finish it...

***********

“Hikaru… you play.” )
In all honesty, the boy had been nothing before: average-to-poor grades, average skill at sports… His only saving grace was that he was spiritually sensitive (and foolish) enough to allow a possession to take place.
Now, he walked among the best of the best. The spirit of Fujiwara no Sai was – and is, but one has a tendency to use past tense with the deceased, even if they are still among us – considered one of the best go players of both his time and ours (one can also include his time with his last medium, in which he first rose to prominence and took the title of Honinbou, although it was not known to be him at the time).
It was a pity, really, that Shindou Hikaru wasn’t more……
(***)
He was also painfully… visible. Fujiwara was visible too, of course, but in that faded, old-photograph sort of way that ghosts appeared to the world. Ghosts could only be captured on film with great difficulty, and only recently had digital camera technology become advanced enough to record those who had become known as _____.
(***)
Fujiwara was oddly attached to the boy, though. It was a strange business, the sharing of souls. You would think that he would know better than to get attached to someone whose spirit would just get consumed in the end.
(***)
The boy was just baggage, really – a pair of hands and an anchor for a more important spirit.
Fujiwara-sensei was rather famous, after all. To be sure, Fujiwara was far from the first soul to have come back from the land of the dead to wander amongst the living, but he was certainly the oldest. Why, he even remembered a time when spirits could hardly be seen, and were exorcised at the first opportunity!  How strange!
Faced against over a thousand years of experience, very few living people could challenge him at go; only a few of the older – and deader – pros could really put up a decent fight without any handicaps. He was also one of the oldest non-malignant spirits that mediums had come across. Currently, research was being initiated into the possibility of inanimate object possession as a replacement for human mediums to further prolong the “death spans” of the spiritually destined.
(***)
To the delight (and/or horror) of many in the go community, Kuwabara --- dan came back after suffering a heart attack at the tender age of 87, possessing a hapless young shodan by the name of Isumi .
(***)
Fujiwara looked deceptively young. If one ignored the Heian robes that he wore, and conveniently didn’t see his body’s slight translucence, one would think that he could be barely twenty five years of age.
(***)
Another reason that Fujiwara-sensei was so well-liked among the living go community was that he didn’t look… “creepy”. He had drowned himself, and so didn’t have any bloody, gaping holes in his person, nor was he missing… pieces, and so forth. The most obvious indication of the manner of his death was an occasional look of dampness in his robes or hair, and even then it wasn’t striking. Sometimes, it was even possible to forget that he had died.
(***)
((At one point, Sai gets really disappointed/depressed by something. He is quickly brought out of his funk, however, when his medium tries to discretely throw up in the corner of the room. Then, Sai is all smiles and forced cheerfulness, trying to make Hikaru feel better. Those watching don’t understand what all the fuss is about. Akira is the only one who later finds out that the emotions of the spirit strongly effect the constitution of the medium. He hadn’t realized that it was such a difficult “job”.))
(***)
Spirit’s voices were notoriously quiet. Oftentimes, a special recording device had to be used to amplify their words. It was that or have the medium repeat what was being said.
It wasn’t always evident when the great master was speaking. Sometimes, one would look over, and see Fujiwara’s mouth moving silently to form words that only the boy who shared his soul could hear. Although why Fujiwara should feel the need to discuss anything with so lowly a person, especially considering that they already shared thoughts, nobody had any idea.
(When asked by Akira about why they talk to each other aloud, Shindou/Fujiwara replies “It makes us feel like normal friends.”)
(***)
Then, Fujiwara smiled, bringing up his fan to hide his mouth modestly. His eyes remained determined, over the paper and wood.
“Hikaru… you play.”
At first, there was silence. Who was Hikaru…? Then, the medium sat down in a perfect seiza in front of the goban. The child’s eyes were very serious.
Fujiwara expected him to play his medium? Was this a joke? Was he trying to gauge he – Touya Akira’s – pride fullness?
(***)
(Hikaru’s seiza didn’t last)
(***)
While Sai was being interviewed by reporters regarding (***), Akira hesitantly turned towards the medium.
“So you… don’t like being Fujiwara-sensei’s, uh….” Akira stumbled, never having addressed someone of… Shindo’s class before. Sure, they were around, but you never talked to them.
“Spiritual anchor?” Hikaru smiled ruefully. “Well, Sai keeps me sane, really. I wouldn’t be able to stand it if it were anyone else. Sai is the only good thing about this whole business. If it weren’t for him, I’d just be playing soccer. They say that I’m nothing without him.” His gaze hardened. “But not for long.”
(***)
‘spiritual slave’
(***)
Technically, Fujiwara and Shindou shared the same body and soul, and were thus, legally, one person and therefore Shindou was already a pro. However… this situation seemed to be unique. No other medium had displayed such a level of autonomy from its spirit.
(***)
“I want him to be recognized as an individual person.” Fujiwara told the reporters seriously.
 

  

Day 34

Jul. 5th, 2008 08:51 pm
beboots: (Default)
Day 34

Okay, so my luck seems to be flip-flopping all over the place. First of all, I got a really good deal on the train tickets to take Yan and I to Paris from Lille, online, for like half the price of what it is to buy them right there, on the day. And they were first class, not second class. 

...Then, Yan lost hers. And we only found out like fifteen minutes before our train left. D: She bought another one (she couldn't do much else), but I had to leave her to catch the train by myself, because it was a close thing. So there I sat, in the first class, wondering for the entire hour whether or not Yan had made it onto the train and what I would do if she hadn't. 

Luckily, she made it. :3 We had an almost tearful reunion on the platform. Then, we got a little bit lost looking for the place we had booked to stay the night.

First sign that the hostel may not be as conveniently close as you thought it was: when the first taxi driver you approach to take you there refused because it was "trop loin" (too far). D: Well, he actually relented and took us when Yan and I began looking lost and tearful. Also? It's not a good sign when the experienced Parisian taxi driver has to dust off his GPS to find us our hostel. D: 

Still, we made it. A bit late: I had planned to arrive at 10:30 or so, dump our stuff, then head over to the Japan Expo for 11:00 or so. Instead, we didn't arrive at the hostel until past noon, and then getting our train tickets and taking the train down to the Parc Des Expositions took like over an hour as well. D: It was really bad. Apparently, what looks to me (with my inexperienced eye) on the map like a distance of about 10 to 15 minutes (driving) translates into over an hour (and four transfers) of train. We have to do a loop to get there from our hostel, because there isn't a direct train heading in that direction. D: 

Anyway, other than the really stupid location, things are actually rather nice here. This hostel isn't technically a hostel: it's actually an apartment that you can rent out for however long you want. It's quite nice inside the rooms. They even have a mini-kitchen (including a stove, fridge, kettle, toaster, mircowave...), a TV (and DVD player), free wireless internet (hence, this post), etc.,etc. Except that it doesn't have a bed. Well, it has a fold-out couch, which is acceptable for three days. Plus, when I get the deposit back, this place is like 1/5th of what a hotel would cost per night. And there's a really nice chinese restaurant next door. I just ate there. It was delicious. OMNOMNOM.

Now why don't I talk about the Japan Expo? :D I went the first day with Yan (I was alone today because she flew back to Canada this morning), which was uber awesome funtime. Since we were so late (we arrived at nearly 2 o'clock), there were no lines whatsoever to buy our tickets (I got a three day pass). Then, I just had to pop into the vestiary to change into my outfit, and whabam! Instant awesomeness! :D 

The place is massive, by the way. The whole thing is one dealers room, with food stalls and speaker areas all around. This room is probably about fifteen times the size of the dealer's room at the Animethon at Grant MacEwan. No joke. And everything there is so awesome! :D They have a lot more original artists (they have like five artists alleys) than we do in Canada (I took advantage of this and bought some locally-made French doujinshi.)

Also, they have lots of hardcore cosplayers. And a lot of gothic lolitas hanging around. And a lot of lolital clothing stalls. I haven't given into temptation and looked at them in detail yet, because I honestly don't have enough space in my suitcase to fit anything that I buy there. But I still have one day, so I may yet succum to temptation... D:

Also, famous people. Apparently, Miyavi (a j-rocker) is hanging about the lolita stalls, but I haven't been able to get close. I did catch the last half of Takeshi Obata's lecture/ Question & Answer session today, though, but no autographs for me. ;_; (remember, he's the artist who drew Hikaru no Go, from which the character I dress up as comes from) I only caught the second half because it was right at 11 am and the entry crowds are crazy, even for people who already have passes. Seriously. I should have caught on yesterday when I saw all of the fencing arranged in loops in the front... 

But I did catch the lecture that the author of Hellsing gave! (That was for you, Ashley). I also got some good photos of the mangaka, and a video of him sketching a picture of Alucard. Badass.

I've also met many awesome people! Most of them were French, although I did run into a group of German cosplayers who were awesome, and a group of people from Britain (we've exchanged facebooks). :3 I hope to see them again tomorrow. I haven't run into Ashley's Alexandre yet, but it's a big festival, and again, there is tomorrow. 

Also, people like my costume! :D I acquired a fan that actually fits with the character design (before, I was using a bright purple one, not the white one like Sai has in canon). I have a nice pose, which involves the fan, and I have gotten many compliments and people asking me for photographs. On the first day, Yan and I kept count (31 photo requests between when we arrived at 2:15 or so until we left at 6:15). Today, I lost count at 15 or so, but there was at least thrice that ammount. A couple of times, a single person asks to take a photo, then when I pose, everyone in the area takes out their camera as well. D: I'm not swarmed as much as the epic Sakura (with feathers) or that angel guy (with the epic wings) or that blue elf-chick (with the overall epic-ness) (the photographs of these people shall be uploaded next week, probably, for your viewing pleasure), but I still feel awesome. :3 It's interesting to walk around, then hear someone poke their friend and go "hein, t'as vu Sai? Vite, regardes, Sai!" ("hey, did you see Sai? Quick, look, Sai!") One guy thought I was from Onmyouji, which is a believable mistake, since Sai and Abe no Seimei are from the same era and social class, and wear similar outfits. Most people recognize me, though (or, at least, the people who ask for photographs). It helps that there's a lot of Hikago merchandise around because of Takeshi Obata's attendence of the festival. :3 

I've stopped by the go tables (where people are being taught how to play go) a few times, and smiled at people there. (For the uninitiated, my character, Sai, is a ghost that "lives" for go, and is the most awesome go player EVAR). Tomorrow, I'll ask to be taught how to play. :3 I wonder if I shall get many photographs taken of me playing go... 

So I suppose that this post is enough for now! I shall add more details (and pictures) later on. See you guys soon!
beboots: (Bad Day)
As some of you now know, my laptop got a virus. ;_; Essentially, I had to revert my computer to its factory settings (I was directed to do this by the helpful Acer tech support guy - thank you, man!). That means that everything on my C drive is now gone - My Pictures, My Documents, my favourites, anything else I had laying about... everything. I made a backup in January (for some reason, I thought I did one in March, but I think that I was deluding myself because I can't find it anywhere), so I have some CDs, and a few bits and bobs... and strangely enough, last week, on a whim, I put all of my photographs onto the D drive of my laptop (I think my reasoning was that it was taking up too much room on the C drive - ironic, now!), so happily enough I still have all of my photos. :) Also, Rise of the Jinchuuriki is okay! I sent it to myself through e-mail on Tuesday, so I only lost two day's worth of writing (perhaps a paragraph or two, and some editing), nothing I can't live without. I think I would have cried if that fic was deleted. 
Unfortunately, I did lose several other fics, all in-progress: the layout for Rise of the Jinchuuriki (only a page or two long, but I'll have to reconstruct it and that will take several hours), an unnamed series of Hikaru no Go drabbles, the plan for a crossover between Harry Potter and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell,  a page of witty dialogue for a Death Note fic, and six pages of a crossover I've dubbed "Sasori at Hogwarts", among a few others that I can't remember. 
I read over them many times as I worked on them, so I actually rewrote some of them, to the best that I can remember... which isn't good. They were like the epitome of wit the first time around! ;_; 
Anyway, the point of this post (aside from wallowing in self pity) is twofold:
ONE: as a warning to all of you readers out there! If there's anything that you would cry if you lost saved onto your computer, back it up. NOW. I love you guys, and I don't want you to go through the same thing as me.
Two: I shall now follow my own advice and post the fic ideas that I've rewritten. They're fragmentary, un-beta'ed, kind of crappy, and subject to change. But they're my own form of backup. I'll never lose them completely again! Here they are, in all of their glory....

(Remember, these are VERY fragmentary, and aren't to be taken as any indication of my writing ability, or lack thereof. D: )

Random dialogue for an unnamed Death Note fic, a meeting between Yagami Raito and a grown up Kagami Taro (that kid from the pilot chapter, available in volume 13 of the manga - it's awesome, read it!)

This was supposed to be a series of drabbles involving a hospitalized Sai (one who has come back to life after being a ghost, but being interned in the psych ward), and, later on, Shindou Hikaru, who is also hospitalized (but due to a car accident or something). 

Read more... )
I swore to myself that I'd entice more people to read Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell with this fic. Again, it's only in it's point-form idea style, but... I"m proud of it. 
(Why isn't the LJ cut working...?! D: I shall edit later! Give me a moment!)

Here's the remnants of the apple of my eye, my idea for a Naruto X Harry Potter crossover. I think it kind of explains itself... it's very chaotic, though, kind of beginning as a summary of events I want to include, but seguing into actual dialogue and narrative later on, then switching back to planning style... yeah, it's messed up, but there you are... 
(Gah! Why isn't this one working either?! D: Okay, fine, I'll post them down there....)

If anybody has any comments/ideas/suggestions for these fics, please include them! :DD
(On a more bizzare note, I've never yet had the opportunity to use my "I'm having a bad day" avatar yet. Is it sad that I'm kind of happy to finally have the opportunity to use it? So there's that, at least.)

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