"So you're the tart who led my Petey astray, hmm?" Peg said, bracing her hands firmly on her amble hips.

Maleficent looked down at the petite, feline woman glaring up at her and smiled ever so slightly.

"You seem to misunderstand the nature of mine and your husband's arrangement, madam," Maleficent said with affected pleasantry, "He is the one who sought me out to prove himself, not the other way around."

Peg continued to eye her doubtfully before letting out a gusty sigh.

"Pete did become downright unmanageable after that mid-life crisis," she said, "Had to re-live his glory days by trying to take over the world. Well, I've got news for him that fun time is over." She patted the side of her head, smoothing her up-swept orange hair and favored Maleficent with a smile as sharp edged as her nails. "In other words, sweetcakes, I'll be taking back my husband now if you don't mind."

( you know this is only funny if you're like me and spent the 90s glued to Disney cartoon shows and even then it's questionable )

Title: Holding Up the River
Part: 5
Pairings: Riku/Sora/Kairi, eventually and in theory. Background implications of Roxas/Namine and past Roxas/Axel. Sora and Kairi acting like bestest girlfriends forever because they are.
Warning: Boys Love, het, threesome.
Summary: On the shores of Destiny Islands, Sora ends his quest and finally comes home. But even as he struggles with being a normal kid again and certain budding feelings for his friends, Sora may find another journey has already begun.
Notes: Begins directly after the end of Kingdom Hearts II, sans the epilogue at the end of the credits.

Part One ♥ Part Two ♥ Part Three ♥ Part Four

( In which dreams are confusing and feelings are a hassle. )

This was sparked by a discussion thefacelessevil got into regarding Kanan of Saiyuki, but it's something I've had a thorn up my ass about for ages.

Lets talk about Kanan. (bear with me if I'm covering old ground for people familiar with the series) Before the main story of Saiyuki begins, Kanan was captured by youkai and impregnated by them. Her lover/twin brother, Hakkai, fought his way to her rescue, at the risk of his humanity, just in time for her, shattered by her experience, to commit suicide in front of him.

In yaoi/BL fanfics of the series, there's the frequent theme of Hakkai holding back from being with Gojyo, his friend and roommate, because of Kanan, usually in the form of not wanting to betray her. So she gets bashed for both leaving a big wound on Hakkai's emotional state and for being an in absentia love rival. A dual stance which makes me want to spit acid for it's lack of compassion and utterly unrepentant sexism.

Lets talk about why.

( For the sake of warning, there is a blunt discussion of rape and it's after effects in here. Also a lot of caps and screaming. Just saying )

Now that's out of the way, lets address the issue of Kanan as a love rival.

Mini Side Rant:
I should note first that one of the things in fandom that disgusts me the most is the preference for Boys Love/yaoi being used as an excuse to dislike female characters. Especially because I'm a raging yaoi fan and especially when it has to with fanon pairings that wouldn't exist even if the female character suddenly vanished off the face of the series. "I like Naruto/Sasuke, so it changes how I feel about Sakura." HOW DOES THIS EVEN WORK? Look seriously, you're sexist. It has nothing to do with your pairing preference, you're just sexist. Get that looked into, thanks.

( Now getting back to Saiyuki stuff. )

Last night I organized and refreshed my icon collection, because apparently I have nothing better to do with myself. Even so, I'm still only using half of my allotted space.

It's odd to think that I'm now living in a world without Michael Jackson in it. He had a hard, troubled life and I only hope he'd found some peace, maybe even happiness, before his unexpected death. Thanks for the music, MJ.

Dan Choi's military trial is on Tues. Help him fight "Don't Ask Don't Tell" by signing a letter of support. Reading anything this man writes about honesty and integrity brings me to tears each time. Go, support him, and get him back serving the country where he belongs.

DON'T DIE LITTLE EGG:

It is a sad defeat for the Boulder.

The Boulder = darkkenjie/DJ. Everyone else just showed up.

( ARE YOU READY FOR EARTH RUMBLE...oh wait. )

AKA: why Sadie shouldn't be allowed to write at all.

I refuse to take responsibility for this. One-shot.

Warning: Mentions of sex and one short sex bit, nothing super detailed. Rated "R" for... uh, "rhubarb".

( He wasn't in a threesome. He was in some weird, twisted fivesome. )

Zuko = jibii, Mai = shadow_wolfwind.

Huge pic spam under the cut. Those with slower load should visit the Cosplay.com Gallery.

( Ungodly amount of big pictures under here. Consider yourself warned. )

THE ANONYMOUS WRITING FEEDBACK MEME

And while that's brewing, I'm off to Fanime!

Title: Holding Up the River
Part: 4
Pairings: Riku/Sora/Kairi, eventually and in theory. Background implications of Roxas/Namine and past Roxas/Axel. Sora and Kairi acting like bestest girlfriends forever because they are.
Warning: Boys Love, het, threesome.
Summary: On the shores of Destiny Islands, Sora ends his quest and finally comes home. But even as he struggles with being a normal kid again and certain budding feelings for his friends, Sora may find another journey has already begun.
Notes: Begins directly after the end of Kingdom Hearts II, sans the epilogue at the end of the credits.

I feel like this part was going to kill me and it's less "part 4" and more "part 3.2", but it's done now and it's got some significant plot stuff tangled in layers of conversation, so it's important.

Part One ♥ Part Two ♥ Part Three

( In which Sora gets awkward tingles over a guy and Tidus is very straight to make up for it. )

Ladies and gentlemen!

Show me your favorite comic/manga arts!!

I'm growing tired of seeing "How to Draw the Animes" type Western books, where they literally tell you to slap two giant eyes above a tiny mouth and you're done. Because didn't you know that all manga/anime styles look like the unhealthy love-child of Sailor Moon and Pokemon?

I'm equally tired of seeing non-East Asian comic art that's made of up SPANDEX, BULGING MUSCLES, and stiff facial expressions.

So here's what I want -- comment (or post in your journal, whichever) with examples of your favorite comic/manga/cartoon/anime art that fits into neither of the above stereotypes. Stuff that's vibrant and living and unconventional. I wanna see the depth of emotion caught in a few sketchy lines, the movement and energy apparent even if the anatomy may not be perfect.

It doesn't have to be from anything high brow (I live off BL manga, remember), but is has to be something you love.

Come on, SHOW IT OFF, you know you want to.

Haha, I've been neglecting my dragons, oh god don't die.
They grew up, wooo!

New Eggs:
| |


Nothing to do with Dragons: New chapter of Yume Musubi, Koi Musubi is UP!

I've been randomly writing short, Vassalord fics in my Twitter, because well...it's Vassalord and it's really hot. Also, this series is so batshit random, that it's much easier to do small imagery bits than something cohesive.

But ultimately, I blame halcyonjazz.

For the sake of organization, I'm putting all of these together in one easy to read post. I'll probably add any future ficlets to this post as well.

Title: Collected Mini-Fics
Fandom: Vassalord
Warning: BL, Girl's Love, naughtiness, hinted loli, some minor gore
Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me.

( Under here you will find suggestively gay vampires, purple prose, cyborgs, Catholics, and Barry. )

Kairi and Sora, a decision and conflict. Riku is there, too.

( Years later and as the adventure continues, Kairi finds herself still left behind. )

Sorry for the posting spam, guys. This is something I've been thinking about for a while and I'm genuinely curious about it.

All comments are screened and poll results are viewable to me only. So please, be honest and don't worry about potentially offending anyone!

Poll #1366790 Representation of homosexual characters in children's media
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: None

Are you comfortable with the idea of homosexual characters, or mentions of same-sex love in children books/movies/TV shows?

If you picked any "yes" above, do you have an age limit for how old children should be before they're exposed to the existance of homosexual love?

Do you have an age limit for how old children should be before they are exposed to images of homsexual love -- specifically; hand-holding, kissing, embracing, other non-sexual contact?

Please explain your answers for question 2 and 3 (or post in comments):

Are you comfortable with depictions of children in age-approbriate homosexual relationships? (that is, comparable in behavoir to an opposite-sex couple of the same age)

I don't have anything new to add about this debate, though I encourage those who haven't read up on it to do so.

What I do want to share, because it's strongly relevant to me as a writer, is this post by deepad.

When People of Color talk about the racism or racist implications in Fantasy/Scifi media and fandom, it's tough for a liberal minded, equality obsessed, but uneducated, privileged white chick (read: me) to not squirm uncomfortably, get defensive, and feel like I'm being made responsible to fix the failures of my entire race, but I can't try because I may get it wrong. This? Entirely my deal. Because it's not and never was about me.

I knew as much in an intuitive way, but deepad's post articulated it so that I could understand it intellectually. Head off the misplaced emotions at the pass! Anyway, I encourage anyone who's had those pesky "white man's burden" type feelings popping up unwarranted or just doesn't "get it" to read her post.

Especially relevant part to me as a writer:

"Statement: I very much do not want to offend, and yet I feel that writing only white characters is a cop-out. Is it better, as a serious question, for me to only write white characters, or to try to write a diverse world, knowing that I will not get everything right?

Response: It's definitely not a binary question. It's sort of like a man asking, well, should I be polite to women and get up for them on the bus, or treat them as equals and risk offending them, when really the issue is that if he actually wants to be an actively feminist ally, he's going to have to take the trouble to assess each (young/old/ill/pregnant/White/Latina) woman individually and make a decision, knowing in advance he's going to screw up sometimes, but caring about the cause enough to persist second-guessing himself consistently despite the hassle. And also recognising that feminism is a larger issue than a seat on the bus, and that being an ally in more powerful ways will positively affect the smaller habits you have as well.
And also, there is a huge difference in degree between being polite and being an active ally, and I sense that a lot of writers want to be considered the latter when they are merely expending enough effort for the former. There's no moral obligation on any writer to aid a social agenda in their work, but I think it is fair for POC to point out when someone is merely attempting to be polite, as opposed to the active ally they might think they are."

Title: Holding Up the River
Part: 3
Pairings: Riku/Sora/Kairi, eventually and in theory. Background implications of Roxas/Namine and past Roxas/Axel. Sora and Kairi acting like bestest girlfriends forever because they are.
Warning: Boys Love, het, threesome.
Summary: On the shores of Destiny Islands, Sora ends his quest and finally comes home. But even as he struggles with being a normal kid again and certain budding feelings for his friends, Sora may find another journey has already begun.
Notes: Begins directly after the end of Kingdom Hearts II, sans the epilogue at the end of the credits.
Thanks to thefacelessevil for advice and commentary!

Part One ♥ Part Two

( In which there is the Conversation From Hell and Wakka's arms are manly. )

A collection of links and information on Attachment Therapy.

Attachment Therapy, also known as Holding Therapy or Rage Reduction, is the act of taking a child -- anywhere from the ages of 18 months to 14 years -- completely immobilizing them and then insulting, hurting, and terrifying them in order to "release their rage". Imagine three adults pinning down a ten year old and screaming at her that she has to struggle free in order to take responsibility for herself. This is promoted as healing. The primary victims of this "therapy"? Adoptive and foster children, many of whom are already victims of abuse, who have difficulty fitting in with their new families.

It's horrifying, all the more so because it is not widely publized, legal in several states, and many professionals are unaware of it's existence.

Other places to visit and learn more:
Advocates for Children in Therapy -- A extensive information site on AT. I strongly recommend reading comments made by the proponents and practitioners of Attachment Therapy to really understand how sick these people are.
A Search for Survivors -- run by a survivor of AT and looking to build a support network for other survivors. Please be aware that this site graphically describes the abuse they have been subject to. waywardradish is the LJ version of the blog.

Lastly: What you can do to help.