i. Dude. Where's my pre-order of "The Sweet Far Thing?" Day late, dear Amazon. It was a pre-order, therefore, it should be here now. I said now, bitches. *kicks Amazon* Usually, these guys treat me fairly well - the amount I've saved on shipping alone is great, but *clenches fists* this is Libba Bray we're talking about. This is the final freaking book in the series. So hello! Ship it to me already goddamnit!

ii. My X-Mas went very well, thank you. All three days worth. The relatives are still here, so I haven't quite had a moment to myself. My father's starting to get a little stir crazy, definable by the fact that he's started talking about museums he'd like to visit and movies he wants to go see with me (I've reserved seeing "The Golden Compass" so I can go with him. My daddy likes fantasy.) My mother, I think, may have developed a complex from the fact that my dad and I really spoiled her this year. She got the biggest gifts from both of us, and every time she mentions her gratitude she gets this guilty tone in her voice and manages to look embarrassed. It's kind of funny. if only for the fact that she doesn't realize how much she holds the house together, or how much she's done for me personally - especially for my education. The hell is a deep fryer compared to several years worth of tuition, you know? Oh, I'm spoiled. I know it. I'm also eternally grateful for being spoiled.

( iii. X-Mas Spoils! )

( iv. Writing )

Warning: The following link contains explicit, adult content of the pr0ny kind. Not suitable for minors... or anyone who hasn't looked at Remy's quarterstaff in that way before. :P

luckystarlet37 wrote me Bo Staff Pr0n!

*throws both hands into the air and runs around shrieking about freedom, Baily's Irish Cream, the frost clinging to the cuffs of your jeans from teh four foot deep snow, good books, Teen Titans, sexy Slytherins, sexier Cajuns, ginger-headed Thieves, rented X-boxes, and the bizarre circumstances of the Mycenean sage involving incest, cannibalism, patricide, matricide, infanticide and freaking hubris... shorn down tea cozies worn as dresses no more! I HAVE A SOCK! DOBBY IS FREE!*

Seeing as how I'm stuck between cramming for my last and final exam (ever), and a bout of writer's self loathing that almost rivals the "last days before Lucia threw in the towel on 'Solidarity'" (if you weren't around back then, be glad. Be very glad. It was ugly: bad online, worse in real life) I am taking a miniature vacation until I get my head screwed on straight.

Rogue!muse is bitchy.
Remy!muse is nonplussed.
Emil!muse feels neglected.
Henri!muse is hearing his death rattle.
Pyro!muse is blissfully unaware.

We are not amused.

See you on the flipside? Maybe?

i. I wrote half my final paper in under two hours today. This is good and bad. Good because, hey! Half a paper! Bad because the other half is the one where I actually have to be critical. Woe.

ii. I'm fighting through my writer's block. Fists swinging. Well, not really, more like staring at the screen of my laptop for two hours until I catch the bare thread of a voice. I started Magneto today. Magneto and Xavier, as a matter of fact. They get one scene between the two of them in three hundred thousand words, woe is freaking me. (Erik is complaining in his gravelly, I-wish-I-had-Ian-McKellan's-accent Evo!voice in my ear.) Then I went back to chapter seventeen, and started ripping things apart because I can. Because its therapeutic. Because Remy kicked Erik out of the mental playground and started making lewd comments about Rogue's backside (P.S. I totally blame vikingprincess's Rogue/Angel sex scene in Hunter/Hunted. That chapter flipped a few switches, let me tell you... and not the dirty kind either. I mean the creative one. Shit like that makes me green with envy that I can't write smut without blushing straight to my damned toes.)

iii. Tomrrow... tomorrow.... I go back to work. I've got a few days to make up because of finals, and becuase Luce is poor at the onset of holiday shopping season, which is altogether pretty bad since I'm buying mom a deep fryer tomorrow with money that I ain't got! Mostly, though, I totally need to restock my tea supply, and get my hands on the following books to cram into my literary crackpipe: New Moon, Eclipse, I Am Legend, The Taste of Night: The Second Sign of the Zodiac. C-R-A-C-K. Lately, I've been going through one novel a night - which is wonderful, it's like food for the muse (but its also expensive and it forces me to go out into the OMGCOLD!)

iv. Sleep now. Early risers tomorrow.

If you are reading "The Ante" (if you intend to keep reading "The Ante") can you do me a big, big favour?

Post your thoughts.

;)

In other news, the paper from hell is done, my mom messed up my Xmas-from-amazon order and I ended up with the confirmation e-mail (so, of course, I know what I'm getting now. Heh.), tomorrow is going to be a very, very long day in which I will spend the better part of the morning and afternoon lurking in Starbucks *titter* writing, and the neem oil mask on my face looks like dried bark. *nods* One paper left. Four days. Shya. (Time to play "back a gazillion" on my flist.)

i. I got an extension on one of my finals, not because of any related panic attacks or pleading, but because class was cancelled last week and my prof neglected to inform the class that the due date got pushed back a week as well. (Joy!)

ii. Watched Ratatouille last night with Vince. ("Remy" and "Emil" are the names of two of the rats in this movie. I know, right! Yes, I fangirled. No, I am not ashamed... a lot.)

iii. wiccamage has informed me that there is a literary discussions thread on her ff.net forums for "The Ante". (I am utterly surprised and a little embarassed.) If anything is asked directly, I'll respond over yonder. Otherwise, you know, just pretend I'm not lurking? Heh.

iv. I smell awesome. There is much mail everywhere right now, and lots of smellies. This keeps me content in the middle of my little shitstorm of evil. My bubble of end-of-term hostility is a perpetual black cloud, fuelled by Starbucks, Taco Bell (dude, we have a Taco Bell in Montreal now. Huh, bye bye healthy eating? FTW) and the knowledge that with two weeks left, I am borderlining on apathy with proper justification.

v. Are you well?

i. New shit up at elixireleven: 01 and 02. Both are image heavy.

ii. Dear Mr. Postman, if you give my two BPAL orders to the neighbor I hate by accident, I will wait for you with my two dogs, and when you show up with the next piece of mail that isn't BPAL-shaped, I am going to yell "Sick him!" Death by shih-tzu. That's what you get for giving my precious to someone else.

iii. I am so tired. So tired, in fact, that I'm rather excited to watch "Stomp the Yard" tonight and I'm not ashamed to say so. (I could follow it up with a movie starring Britney Spears and I'd be even less embarassed to admit it.)

iv. Two weeks. Two weeks. Two weeks. Two weeks.

v. Even if you're not artistically-inclined, hell, especially if you're not artistically-inclined, check this guy out. I saw the exhibit at our Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal about a week and a half ago (and I've spent the time since sort of savouring it): Vik Muniz's Peanut Butter and Jelly Mona Lisa. I howled, snickered and giggled my way through the exhibit. It was incredible - from the spaghetti Caravaggio to the junk yard Goya (of Saturn devouring his children) it was all-around incredible to see what Muniz did with everyday stuff. (The chocolate syrup paintings were especially incredible... Look! Pollock!)

While I technically have a lot to do today (and its already past noon, which is not good for my hourly schedule, let me tell you...) there are a couple of things worth making note of before I go batshit on this paper I've got to write:

i. Fanart Rec: _parttimeninja for the win - Please Roguey, don't hurt 'em.

ii. Real Art Rec: This dude is selling off his Gambit and Gambit/Rogue art collection. There is one sketch that I was interested in, not only because it's Steve Gordon, and X-Men: Evolution, but because it's in a New Orleans setting with the one blaring indicator that they're standing at the corner of Rue Royal - that balcony in the background. I e-mailed for his asking price. He e-mailed me back. I cried, and then I declined. (Well, okay - I didn't cry. Mostly because I know there are a few good artists I could commission who are more than capable of doing something similar - if not better. Gambit still has that bowl-cut after all.) Still... too rich for my blood.

iii. Right. Paper. Journals. Reading. Doing it. *waves it off* I'm having a hellish time trying to concentrate today...

iv. ...Because of this. (I hope I'm not the only one who continuously checks their hit count at the Pit to see how badly their work is sucking when something first goes live. Why, no, I'm only partially compulsive.) :P

v. BPALers: luckystar37 has a circle going for those super-rare Salon blends that you can't get online here. Check it out. I am very excited. Amor y la Muerte! Love and freaking DEATH with oppoponax!

Title: Sandcastles
Author: Lucia de’Medici
Fandom: Marvel 616
Pairing: Gambit/Rogue, Gambit/Mystique
Summary: Define for yourself the limits of your own self-delusion, and then surpass them once you can bear ignoring the line diving right and wrong.
Rating: R
Word Count: 1,512 words
Warnings: Suggestive content.
Notes: For inimicallyours, who requested that the abuse of Milligan in BLT be put to use porntastically. References X-Treme X-Men, the Vargas-shish-ke-mutant incident, and the recovery at Valle Soleada. (Kicking it old school... and slowly but surely catching up on my fic prompts.)

( Sandcastles )

This is due in part to bloody_vir, who kicks ass, and has slaved for your benefit, and due partly to the fact that I hope no one misses this - and for a variety of reasons (not limited to the fact that Sin's one dastardly pretty man... so much so that after the massive amount of oogle this issue inspired, I question just how secure I am in my sexual orientation. Frankly, I can see the guy in a garter and doing the Time Warp.)

Now hold your horses - I know you want to click the cut and see what the fuss is all about - but please read this: The comics industry is in a state of perpetual decline. Please buy the issue. It's well worth it, well worth getting teary-eyed and feeling for yourself that old lump in the throat and crinkling the pages when it gets to be "too much."

(I did all of that.)

This is not the whole of it. There is, as mentioned, a very pretty Sinister, some habitual Emma/Kitty snark, a naked Sam Guthrie and Cyclops showing his mettle. It is wonderfully drawn, and... guh. For the spread alone, I'd need a box of Kleenex. (And you should see the spread as a spread. Dude - Marvel's merchandising people need to make that into a poster.)

Without further ado...

O, give me thy hand,
One writ with me in sour misfortune's book!
I'll bury thee in a triumphant grave;
A grave? O no! a lantern, slaughter'd youth,
For here lies Juliet, and her beauty makes
This vault a feasting presence full of light.
Death, lie thou there, by a dead man interr'd.

Warning: Spoilers, not sial-up safe, huge freaking images, get a pillow to scream into if you think you'll wake up your house with the squee.

( X-Men #204 )

It makes my chest feel funny. *points to heart* Right here. *sniffle*

i. You're goddamn right tomorrow is tomorrow! (I have not been spoiled for anything important. NO SPOILAGE.) It's also lunalelle's birthday (Happy birthday lunalelle!) but (not more importantly... but at least more fannishly) ZOMG ROMY ROMY ROMY ROMY OTP OTP I KNOW I'M OBNOXIOUS TOO DAMNED BAD ROMY ROMY ROMY 204 204 204!!! (And The Umbrella Academy numero dos. Si!

ii. Tomorrow is the climax of hell week: mid-point of midterms - I have two back to back presentations, both are group projects. I intend to bullshit and ad lib my way through the "bad one" because if I think on it too seriously, or try to weigh the consequences of stuttering out of sheer nerves, that's probably what I'll end up doing. On the bright side, if I find myself in fighting form, I can roll the whole presentation... IF I'm well-rested and in a good mood. Given that my first class tomorrow is with the Idiot Teacher, there's no telling how mutinous I'll be come the afternoon. (We also have a fieldtrip first thing in the a.m. during class time. If I had the time to launch a formal complaint, I'd do it.)

iii. Friday is Cemetery Day and my Six Year Anniversary with Vince. (I don't know what we're doing yet, exactly. I hope it involves food. It usually does. The one thing I can say about my guy: he has a very discerning pallette and he picks the best restaurants.)

iv. 204 204 204 204 204!!!

v. I just need to make it to 12:30, then I can run to the comic book guy two blocks from school, grab it, do my presentation, and sneak out of class to read it. (I'm so going to. OMG.)

Sleep now. Sleeeeeeeep. (So excited.) Sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.

WHOOOOOOOOOA-TP! WHOA TEE PEE!

GRINDELDORE FOR TEH WIN!

(Thanks to obeetaybee for the link. Zomg. Lucia - FTWery like whoa.)

i. The FanFiction Directory: Which at present, isn't directing to a whole lot, but to a few places. I've got it bookmarked with the hopes that the comic directories might grow.

ii. The Hype Machine: As talked about this morning on fabulistfeed and officialgaiman. Just leave your browser window open. It'll refresh in a few hours once the count hits 10,000 you've totally forgotten about it.

iii. Have I ever mentioned how much I love ljsecret, fandomsecret and postsecret? No? They're all fabulous.

iv. taphology and deathly_decayed: A duo of mortuary photography communities. (I love me some cemetery photography.)

v. Pimp-tastic: Because ilona_andrews and irysangel are both contributors: leaguera. This is how I'm learning about writing fiction. Reading this feed.

vi. Bebe Porcupinesuses!

vii. Merch on a Monday: mythosmixtures are running contests out the yin yang. The most recent is happening in conjunction with http://www.etailerbuzz.com/

You know, there's a funny inbetween sort of liminality when it comes to being a Rogue/Gambit shipper - a fanatical one, I mean (common. We're talking OTP, maybe a bit obsessive - the type of person who laughs and cries along with the characters and then swears at the writers when they commit any of the canonical comic book sins numbered one through seventy four.)

As I see it, the Gambit fans who dislike Rogue will complain about what kind of atrocious treatment Remy recieves because he was a character designed as a love interest, who just happened to gain fan appeal, and was added to the regular hero roster. The complaint from the Gambit!lovers is that he doesn't get enough believable motivation-action-reaction without Rogue on panel with him.

The Rogue lovers who don't like Remy, I've learned, tend not to complain as loudly. They write Gambit off and ship Rogue with whoever strikes their fancy. (Remember Hermione Granger? The bicycle of Gryffindor? Well, imho, Rogue's the Bicycle of the Xavier Institute whn it comes to fanfiction. Logan? Colossus? Magneto? Mystique? *pauses to savour that last one* Mystiiiique!)

The Rogue/Gambit shippers know that, despite everything, they tend to dominate the fandom, so vocalized complaints coming from either side are usually met with an enigmatic smile and an attitude that says, "The more you complain, the bigger, badder, and more we're going to write this pairing just because we like it."

Granted, I draw the line at trying to "fix" the relationship. That's the ugly mess on the couch cushion of fandom that I have a tendency to turn over so I don't have to look at it. You know it's there, but whether you choose to acknowledge it is something else entirely. (You can't blot the Pit of Voles with baking soda, sadly.)

Anyway, why all the blather? I did have a point, I swear...

#204 previews are up.

( Adjectiveless #204 Spoilers )

P.S. In a totally unrelated Rogue/Gambit thingamabob,nokomis305 has two hundred and sixteen words you need to read. Srsly.

As I was walking out of Religion class today, my earlobes were assaulted by a blend of pop-punk reverberating off the walls of downtown Montreal. Terrible acoustics. Nonetheless, it was a very distinctive sound.

As I turn the corner from the Hall building, I see a stage set up on the middle of MacKay Street, crowds milling, a pitifully small mosh pit, and then I remember...

Suddenly, I feel the weight of my laptop, and the fifty pounds of books on my back like the ball and chain it is.

Jacob announces into the microphone, "Hello Concordia University. We're Hedley."

I want to cry.

I keep walking. They started playing "She's So Sorry" and it took everything to keep going, knowing that I had to leave.

Today, Hedley played a free concert at my school, and I missed it.

*hangs head*

I hate midterms.

It appears as if this semester isn't going to get any better. I'm just going into the thick of it now, and let me assure you, the "thick of it" may well be as bad as last term. (I barely had time to breathe.) That means I may be posting less, writing less, and commenting less - and if that's a problem for you, then by all means, do what you've gotta.

Right now, I've got a stack of school books waiting for me, a proposal to write, two journals to take care of,and notes to revise for (another) exam on Tuesday (I had one Thursday. It actually went very well, save what it did to my skin. Got a tension headache, had a mini freak-out, and a big break-out. Loads of fun). Tomorrow and Monday are reserved for work, and a project that will be presented Wednesday (which I haven't started yet.) I think I might have a group proposal due Wednesday also.... though I'm not 100% on that. :/

In summation: I'm pretty goddamned busy. So if I'm not around to comment, that's why.

This will all be over in December. ALL of it.

Lordy, I can't wait to graduate.

P.S. "The Umbrella Academy" #1 was really, really awesome. Go Gerard! (He's totally redeemed himself from that wonky Free Comic Book Day Preview.) When I tap out tonight, if I have the energy, I'll post some scans. I've also been reading "Voodoo Child" by Mike Carey, which is set in New Orleans post-Katrina, and is really wonderfully drawn. The storyline's a bit muddled, but what can you do - he's carrying three subplots.

P.P.S. I'm two books away from reaching 50 for the year for 50bookchallenge. I don't know what to start on next: it's either LKH, or Charlaine Harris, or Kelley Armstrong - since I have all three "in progress" to some extent. I did pick up "Dates from Hell" and that's looking mighty tempting, let me tell you. (I can always find downtime for fiction.)

A smattering of stuff for you today, because I can - and because I try to be at least somewhat useful here on the internets when all hell has broken loose in real life.

i. Angel fans: Whedon, ever the intrepid writer (although he's late with everything else for some godawful reason), is putting together Angel Season Six a la comic book. The first five pages (spoilers included) are over yonder. (Translation: ZOMGWEEE!)

ii. X-Men: koyoote recently started up a C2 community at the Pit: Pulitzer Worthy that features predominantly ROMY and JONDA in X-Men: Evolution. The archive has been flooding my inbox with fic for the past couple of days, and no joke, 90% of the stuff coming through is of excellent quality. Do check it out, there's a high chance you'll find something in there you haven't read before.

iii. Recs (X-Men): The dahling solitairee has turned Breathe into a multi-chapter. (Rogue/Gambit, X-Men: Evolution, featuring... *titter* EMIL LAPIN, and a suitably dark opening sequence which... you know... drives me wild.)

iv. The Ante: The second wave of edits are done on 13. It'll take a third before I'm happy with it.

v. Merch Monday: Shakespeare buffs, this one's for you. I recommend the Shakespearean Insult Mug, in particular.

i. The three "middle days" of my week are crap, but with Mondays and Fridays off... why, yes I do have four days weekends. Thank you, Concordia University. (P.S. Where's my fucking coursepack? Test in two weeks. Coursepack, bitches. Coursepack! *throws things at bookstore* It's still not in.)

ii. Went to the dentist today, got drilled, got a chipped tooth fixed (that I didn't even know was chipped until they told me), and I was injected with so much novocaine that I was numb all the way up to my right eye until maybe fifteen minutes ago. (That tooth was apparently pretty sensitive. The desntist hit raw nerves twice, letting loose this crazy torrent of cold electrical pain that shot straight to my temporal lobe. Oh. Ehm. Gee. Did that ever hurt.)

iii. I'm trying to level off my play/work fields at the moment. Got a contract deadline coming up, another (smaller) contract to pay some bills in the interim, and homework. I've pretty much been reduced to skimming my flist for the next few days, so if I'm not commenting, my apologies, I'm just trying to get back into the rhythm so the slack can be balanced with the productive stuff. (And in this vein I realize that, "Oh shit, I have portfolio updates to take care of too.") Everything fandom-related has been shunted to the side temporarily to accomodate real life, though I am angling for a couple of hours to read and edit some X-Men stuff tonight. I did write a bit this weekend, the first of two original pieces that are to be submitted to Tears of the Phoenix Anthologies in November (Ferrymen's Union). It's somewhere around the 1,200 mark, but I'm aiming for under 3,000. (In an ideal world, both submissions would be rounded off at 1,500 words, but I'm not known for being to-the-point enough to pull that off.) Ferrymen's Union takes place at St. Louis One, at an inteterminate date (though it's suggested that it's recently after Katrina, as the city's still feeling the immediate devestation.) It's a very simple conversation between two creatures that is intended to remind the reader of the city's immortality. The second story is still in its nebulous stages, though it will be a ghost story, as far as I can tell. I'm just going to go into it blindly and see where I end up.

iv. May I present to you, my darling, Emil Lapin... (The headless pic, for emma2403):

( BPTP White Rabbit Locket )

v. Lastly, because there needs to be mention made of Merch on a Monday: Two things...

One: Super Bad Soap rocks. (I love the black lace packaging. I love the 'bad girls gone wild' theme. I love the colours and the fact that the bars are egg-shaped. I hate that I can't get any of the atomizers because I live in Canada. *frowl* That's fine. They have body powders. *sniffs* "Serpents in the City"? Dude, I mean, come on... I'm such a sucker for that kind of thing... Like you'd even need to ask.)

Two: So much love for Jasmine Backett-Griffith. I'm still ding the "Ohmigosh I want that and that and that and that and that!" I've decided to limit myself to three small prints and one whopping big one. (That's about all I can fit on my wall if I frame them.) The question is... which? ;)

Last spammity post of the night, promise.

One page un-coloured from the "Messiah Complex" oneshot. (Remy fans - dis be f' y'all.) I'm posting this mostly for the benefit of ragincajunette, since she's... uhm... probably the most vocal person when it comes to previews on my flist, but for everyone else who's into Gambit-as-badass as well.

Remy's thighs?

Spoiler: (Highlight to view) >> I'm not too sure what the Knight's Templar is doing hanging around with bazookas. Anyone care to enlighten me? Is there a spoiler I missed somewhere that indicates Cable's back to life and he created a rip in the fabric of time and then "whoops" it's the Middle Ages again but the villains have Very Big Guns (tm) to suit their advantage? *snerks* <<

...

And now, Spider Jerusalem and I have a date until nine ("Year of the Bastard" c/o Warren Ellis), at which point, I am going to revert back to my Liberal Arts upbringing and turn into a Shakespeare fangirl. (The premiere of "As You Like It", adapted by Kenneth Branagh, is showing on the Movie network tonight. I am excited. The previews look absolutely lush.)