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Dances With Vampires

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Some "Five Things" answers [Jul. 9th, 2009|11:06 pm]
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[mood | sleepy]

I've been scattered and nonproductive all week. It's frustrating, but at least I've got tomorrow off and a few days to refresh myself. Tonight I am mostly resting and catching up on some overdue post answers.

From [info]nomadicwriter: Five Conversations Jack and Arvin Had About Laura

answers )

From [info]amilyn: Five Times Brennan Had to Take a Break From the Case to Avoid Crying on the Job

answers )

From [info]kangeiko: Five Languages Uhura Learned in Less-Than-Ideal Circumstances

answers )

Must tidy up before bed. Definitely have to get more sleep tonight, that's for sure -- I've been up late the past couple of evenings, and I'm feeling it.
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I really need a cooking icon [Jul. 5th, 2009|02:10 am]
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[mood | sleepy]

Though, at this hour, the Calvin and Hobbes icon works too.

So, I have been writing ALL DAY (my first 5K day in way too long), but tomorrow I will need to take a couple of breaks in order to prepare food for the week to come. Among these dishes will be a sweet potato and lentil recipe I'm trying for the first time. In fact, this is one of the first times I will have cooked with sweet potatoes, period. Which is why I have this important question: Do you have to peel sweet potatoes? The recipe says to peel them, but OTOH, most recipes say to peel regular potatoes, and I never do, first of all because I like the taste of the peel and second because I can't be bothered. (And as a result, I have not built my potato-peeling skills.) Is sweet-potato-peel removal also optional?

My cooking experiment for today was chicken soft tacos in the crockpot; simplest recipe in the world and they came out great, but OMG, so much chicken. I'll be eating that for lunch and dinner tomorrow.

Wish me similar writing mojo tomorrow!
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Two "Five Ways" answers, plus awesome pastiche fic I will never write [Jul. 2nd, 2009|03:20 pm]
[mood | excited]

So, this morning, while looking at a bit of "North by Northwest" during breakfast, I realized the single greatest pastiche fic I will never write: "North by Northwest"/"Mad Men." Both Don Draper and Roger Thornhill are ad execs in NYC during the same era. But take Don Draper and put him in that situation, and you end up with a story that's about a thousand times more fascinating -- because I think when Don is mistaken for "George Kaplan," he simply says, "Yes, and you are?" And goes on to totally assume the role of a superspy and probably turns out to be pretty kick-ass at it. Maybe calls Peggy for help at some critical moment. Tell me that would not rock.

OK, I asked everybody for five things prompts on Friday; I meant to do them Friday, but work was busy, so I figured I would catch up during quiet moments of the weekend. Then there were no quiet moments this weekend. So I'll catch up bit by bit:

[info]amilyn asked for Five Times Booth Let Brennan Drive.

herein lie the results )

And [info]delordra wanted Five Prophecies Rambaldi Wrote About Derevko Women:

read prophecy here )

We get to leave early! Woot!
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ST:AOS Fic: "Of Two Worlds" (2/2) [Jul. 1st, 2009|11:44 am]
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[mood | good]

And here is the rest! Summary, beta thanks, etc. all found at Part One


Of Two Worlds, Part Two )

I am recuperating from my weekend, slowly but surely, and planning a very quiet Fourth.
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ST:AOS Fic: "Of Two Worlds" (1/2) [Jul. 1st, 2009|11:37 am]
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[mood | good]

There be fic here! This is part one of two; you can read part two here. Thanks muchly to betas [info]taraljc and [info]rheanna27 for their help. The story is set a few months after STXI, and this is plotty fic with a side of S/U. There is an element at work that's taken from the Trek universe at large; though even casual Trek viewers will catch the reference, I have included a Memory Alpha hyperlink for those who just arrived at the party.

Summary: Spock has the opportunity to choose between the Prime universe and his own.


Of Two Worlds, Part One )
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Five Things Meme [Jun. 26th, 2009|12:36 pm]
[mood | weird]
[music |"Don't Stop Til You Get Enough," Michael Jackson]

You post a "Top Five" topic, list, category, whatever, in my comments section. (examples: "5 Ways Hodgins Could Get Angela Back", or "5 Times Eric Weiss Accidentally Saved the World"). Then, in comments, I'll post the answers to all your Top 5 ideas, according to me. Serious or fun! Then you post this offer in your own journal.

Or, you know, don't post it in your own journal; I always hate the obligatory viral spread language in memes.

Headed down to DC tonight on the train, and planning to use a NYC-fu method a coworker taught me to get seated before most others. We'll see how that works. I am going to be spending a lot of time with very good friends (including the magnificent [info]jessejholl, which should be restorative to the soul.

Last night I dreamed that I woke up and had a dog. I was not nearly as surprised by this as you might think, just kind of like, "Huh, awesome!" But the dog (a black pug, natch) kept sort of whining, and I was like, gosh, what can I feed him, does he need water, and then I went, "Oh, right, first thing in the morning, you have to take the dog out!" Upon this burst of revelation I awoke. Not nearly as fine an offering from the id as the bizarre dream I had over the weekend, in which I was debating having an affair with 80-year-old Leonard Nimoy, who I thought was (a) way old but (b) a really interesting person because -- no, not due to being Mr. Spock, nor even to "Fringe" -- he was a photographer. Okay, then.
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Trek ficlet, warnings discussion [Jun. 25th, 2009|12:17 pm]
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[mood | good]
[music |"LoveGame," Lady Gaga]

Fandom is having quite the debate over warnings. Though I am definitely on the fringes of this, it's been a real eye-opener for me in a lot of ways; I'd generally thought of myself as anti-warning, but reading the posts and discussions has made me realize that I was coming at this from a very limited perspective. Basically, I don't tend to write the stuff that is highly triggery, so the only time I heard from people who wanted warnings, it was people who were upset about stuff like warning for pairings. As a result I think I trivialized the whole idea of warnings without realizing the much bigger picture that's out there.

So, what with the debate and there being some new folks around these parts, it seems like a good time to explain what I do and don't warn for. Taking a cue from the careful [info]selenak, here we go --

Spoilers: Generally I warn for this or at least say when in canon the story is set, in which case I think most readers would understand that spoilers up to that point were implied. The longer the fandom has existed or the canon has been dead, the less specific I get, though -- not intentionally, but the assumption that people are familiar with stuff becomes easier to make.

Character deaths: I generally don't warn for this. (The one time I did was "Irenicon," because I think I killed more than half of the regular and recurring characters that had ever been on the show, which I figured people needed to know going in.) When I kill a character, I want it to have impact. I don't do it that often; however, if I advertise something as "post-apocalyptic," be aware that I generally do not have the apocalypse conveniently avoiding everybody we know from canon.

Slash or Het: I list pairings when the pairing is either the main focus of the story or one of the main focuses of the story. Presumably those who know canon will then be able to determine if the story's slash or het. I also use MPAA ratings to let people know how graphic the sexual content is going to be (and usually break this down by chapter as well), and I do not consider either slash or het to require a significantly higher "warning level" than the other. I don't list pairings that are not a main focus of the story, whether canon or non-canon, slash or non-slash. If for some reason a main pairing was meant to be a surprise, I'd probably indicate that a surprise was coming through the summary.

Violence and traumatic non-sexual events: Essentially, if the violence and trauma in the story exceeds what you would find in the source, I would probably warn for that. I wouldn't warn for violence or trauma in keeping with the tone of the source material. So I'd warn for violence way earlier on, say, an "Ugly Betty" fic than I would for an "Alias" story. I tend to write to the tone of the source material, though.

Rape: I think I've only written this once, and I warned for it. There's really only a couple of dub-con scenes that I've written, and I think I warned for them too. Would warn in any hypothetical future scenarios, but it's not likely that I'm going to write this much.

Underage sex: I never write sex scenes about kids under the age of consent, which usually kicks in mid- to late teens, depending on your jurisdiction. Were this for some unfathomable reason to change, I would certainly warn.

Incest: Again, don't write it, would warn if this were to change, but it won't.

**

I will add a link to this entry in my profile. I am not suggesting that my guidelines should be everyone's guidelines, but this is what I work with and I hope that this is helpful.

**

Now let us have a Trek ficlet, which requires no warnings at all. Prompt from the delovely [info]slow_waking: Spock, new in town )

ETA: Everybody needs to check out the latest ST drabble challenge, "Where No Woman Has Drabbled Before"! Mostly AOS-centric at this point, but the [info]where_no_woman comm may start doing this on a regular basic. Basically, prompts about awesome female characters, great ficlets already there to browse through and more good things sure to come.
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three memes for the price of one! [Jun. 23rd, 2009|01:29 pm]
[mood | hungry]

First, from the insightful [info]eumelia: Every now and then the police arrest somebody suspected of some terrible, violent crime, and as a piece of public relations they'll announce all of the horrible books, movies and/or CDs they found in the suspect's house, as if to prove that the suspect is obviously guilty and horrible and monstrous.

So here is my challenge to you. You can either do this from memory or take a moment to look through your book and music collections, and then answer this question:

Name ten books, CDs and/or movies that you own that the police would cite as evidence against you at their press conference.


1) Psycho
2) Rosemary's Baby
3) Biohazard: The Chilling True Story of The Largest Covert Biological Weapons Program in the World -- Told From the Inside by the Man Who Ran It
4) The Hellfire Conspiracy
5) Living Dead Girl
6) Life of Paracelsus
7) KGB Alpha Team Training Manual
8) Caligula: Corruption of Power
9) The Journalist and the Murderer
10) The Ax

After looking through my Amazon purchasing history, though (I always blank out on what I actually have with memes like this), I think the police would absolve me. "She seems to collect -- Star Trek paperbacks and Fiestaware. And a book about a pug that time-travels to Ancient Rome. Maybe not a serial killer." I had to go back to 2003 to find 10 incriminating things, and even now this list assumes that they would find alchemy incriminating. (I do, but that's the Alias fan in me talking.)

And now another neme, from the perceptive [info]musesfool:

List 10 platonic male/female relationships in fiction that you enjoy. Rules:

1. They interact in canon, preferably in a significant (apply your own interpretation of such) way.
2. They are not related. They can, however, view each other as surrogate family.
3. Neither has confessed or implied romantic love for the other in canon.
4. They have not dated, been married, had sex, or made out in canon, on purpose, and of their own free will.
5. A popular fanon ship is ok (though preferably not your ship) but a canon pairing you wish were just friends is out.
6. Try to avoid using the same character or series twice.


Gen meme ahoy! )

That was very hard to do, not only because media gives short shrift to truly platonic m/f relationships that are nonetheless meaningful, but also because of the "no fandom more than once" rule -- the shows that do this well do it often ("Alias," "Doctor Who," "Ugly Betty" and "Bones" could each have offered two or more examples), and the ones who don't generally don't do it at all. (ETA: There are also some really great platonic relationships I couldn't name because I 'ship them too hard -- like Jack and Nadia from "Alias," Liz and Jack from "30 Rock" or Betty and Daniel from "Ugly Betty" -- though I value them on their canonical terms as well.)

Now, our final meme! From the questing [info]nomelon: Name a fandom, and I'll give you the scoop on at least three of my unpopular opinions related to that fandom. Any fandom you like. If I don't know it, I'll make something up.

More ficlets coming soon.
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and now for something completely different -- Name That Vulcan! [Jun. 22nd, 2009|11:30 pm]
[mood | amused]
[music |the sound of the FUTURE]

Link from the intrepid [info]oeilade:



Now -- NAME THAT VULCAN!

My nomination: "S'ehllout."
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as a wise woman once said, "See, this is why we can't have nice things." [Jun. 22nd, 2009|05:49 pm]
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[mood | cranky]

I at first giggled and "voted" in the "Head Bitch in Charge" contest, then had a moment of, "Wait a second, is this seriously a contest to vote on which awesome female character gets to be called a bitch?" Thereafter I ignored it, until today, when some folks started pointing out who's winning: a man that nobody had ever heard of before about January. The one man in the competition -- by fandom's lights, better to vote for than ANY of a couple dozen kick-ass female characters in several fandoms, some of which are decades old. As much as I'd like to think that this is people rising up against calling kick-ass women "bitches," I doubt it. The sheer witless refusal BY WOMEN to give women any credit/interest/time whatsoever if there's a man around -- it tires me, people.

(I should point out that none of the above is meant as criticism of Adam Lambert. I don't watch AI but am sure he's wonderful and awesome, but, while based on our non-acquaintance I can't be positive, I'm pretty sure he doesn't have a vagina.)

In the happier column, I quite liked [info]emiime's "Hello, Brother, I Love You," which is lovely, lovely Sulu/Chekov that (a) acknowledges the difficulties of a straight guy actually falling for another man, (b) despite this emotional grit, is funny and sweet and moving by turns, and (c) has nice supporting roles for other cast members, including Uhura.

My concentration at work is just piss-poor these days. I am ready to quit, ready to move, and the fact that I just have to hold my horses until September does not seem to be throwing my brain into high gear. Must somehow find a way to focus.
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Trek ficlet, a mariana sauce recipe [Jun. 20th, 2009|01:32 am]
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[mood | okay]

First, for a prompt from the lovely [info]mardia, with a first line from the creative [info]cadhla:

Bones and Uhura, bonding over alcohol )

Thanks to everyone for all the great pasta sauce recipes! I share my favorite marinara recipe, with is very spicy/peppery without being diavolo.

2 tbsp olive oil
1 yellow bell pepper, diced
1 orange bell pepper, diced
2 cloves minced garlic
1 tsp. basil
1 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper
salt and pepper to taste
dash of balsamic vinegar
42 oz. tomato sauce

Saute the peppers and garlic in the oil for three minutes, then add the rest of the ingredients and simmer another 5 to 7 minutes. This is crazy good stuff.

I came home from a ROTTEN day at work with a raging headache. I thought, "I shall lie down for a second," and woke up at 10:30 pm. Hmmmph. It's nearly two, and I am only now beginning to think I could go back to sleep --
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Alias ficlet, spaghetti sauce [Jun. 18th, 2009|06:10 pm]
[mood | good]

Another ficlet from the prompts, this one from [info]nomadicwriter: Alias, Jack and Sydney, cats )

Right now I seem to be running an informal experiement. Theory: That I can eat spaghetti every single day without ever, ever tiring of it. Test conditions: homemade sauce, mixture of whole wheat and white pasta. Results: So far no negative data. (Do not mock me, actual scientists of flist, for this parameters!)

Which calls upon me to ask you guys: Do you have a favorite recipe for pasta sauce? Sweet, spicy, savory -- all tomato-based sauces are good. I am open to cream-based stuff, pesto too, but as guys know, no cheese. I sometimes make sauce with meat but prefer meatless as a rule. Stuff that goes in the crockpot a plus.

I shall share my own recipes tomorrow! Watch this space.
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ficlet from prompt, Iran, energy, dehydration and green soup [Jun. 17th, 2009|04:38 pm]
[Tags|]
[mood | productive]

Let it not be said that my subject headers are not informative.

First up, from the merry [info]redbrunja, a ficlet from the prompt "Uhura and dancing":

Prasad's Planet )

I have been trying to read and see what I can about the Iran elections, though I am so ignorant of conditions there that I can do little more than marvel at the sheer courage of the people out there and hope fervently for their safety and the changes they seek. I saw a photo on Monday that took my breath away: A male protester was being beaten, and four women were surging forward to get between him and the police. (ETA: Thanks to [info]wondygal for the link.) I kept going back to the face of the woman in front -- plain with glasses, neither old nor young, and mad as hell -- and thinking that this is what Hollywood/stories/popular media never tells us a hero looks like. If anybody knows of steps to take or places to post that could be useful (beyond becoming a Tehran twitterer, which is done on one account and will be done on the other shortly), let me know.

Although I remain snuffly, I must have rounded some corner with the illness because it's like somebody flipped a switch and turned the power back on; I finally have energy again and can properly focus. Just yesterday, I felt so behind at work that I seriously thought, I might never catch up, and now I think I will be caught up before 6 pm today. SCORE. However, I am really dehydrated despite constant liquid consumption, which can't be good. Last night with dinner, I drank TWO LITERS of water; you'd think that would help, right? I am about to venture out briefly in search of some more.

Last night, I decided to make some soup for lunches this week; instead of following a recipe, I just went with what I had in my fridge and cabinet. This resulted in chicken brother, lots of celery, some carrots and some creamed corn, along with various spices, heavy on the pepper. The result is wonderfully tasty -- however, it is also decidedly green. Like, more green that split pea soup. Anybody have any ideas why? It's just sort of unnerving.
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I need ficlet prompts [Jun. 16th, 2009|11:24 am]
[mood | restless]

I keep coming up with Great Big Plotty Trekfic ideas, and I do not have time to just throw myself into Great Big Plotty fic right now. Although I continue to work on these things bit by bit, when everything else is done, this is not satisfying my fic jones.

So -- ficlets! Prompt me. Replies will be under 1000 words. ST:AOS or "Alias" prompts welcome.

**

In other news, I seem to have a sinus infection. Rapture. It's not too bad, though, so I am hoping my body will shake it off in another couple of days.

Currently reading The Lost City of Z, which is highly interesting stuff. The incredible courage and even greater folly of the age of the "gentleman explorer" has always intrigued me. The main explorer in question in this book, Percy Fawcett, appears to embody both the best and worst qualities of that breed. It's also enjoyable to watch the author slowly getting drawn in to the point where he, too, is going to make the Very Stupid Move of plunging into the Amazon ill-prepared.

The cultural numbness/overt prejudice of many "gentleman explorers" reminds me of this cool documentary I saw a while back, "The Linguists." more about this documentary, which I actually taped before I even got interested in Uhura, go figure )

I am restive and unfocused. I think this is largely due to illness and illness-generated boredom. See why I need prompts?

ETA: Vintage TOS trading cards, with episode summaries written by people who had never, ever seen the show. Hilarious! Link courtesy of the delightful [info]stoplookingup.
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behold and despair! [Jun. 12th, 2009|07:09 pm]
[mood | bouncy]
[music |"Spice Up Your Life," Spice Girls]

Look upon my birthday present, "Lunch and Other Obscenities," written by the masterful [info]rheanna27, and despair, for never shall you have a birthday fic of comparable glory! Uhura-Gaila friendship! Spock/Uhura flirtation! Humor! A Nichelle Nichols cameo! The greatest Vulcan restaurant joke ever! And it is mine, all mine! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

Oh, wait, you guys can read it too.

Well, it's AWESOME, isn't it?

I think the cold medicine is kind of messing with my head today (as the first paragraph might indicate), but otherwise my birthday is lovely. I got up, went to see STIX again first thing in the morning, had lunch with my editor (who went on for about ten minutes about how she has loved everything JJ Abrams has ever touched, and on the inside I was like, FATE HAS BROUGHT US HERE) and came home for nappage and cold medicine. Tonight I shall commit acts of fic!

Thanks to everyone for the good wishes and awesome ficlets (Spock vs. Jack Bristow at chess = MUY FANTASTICO, in the hands of the talented [info]nomadicwriter) and virtual gifts; this is a very quiet birthday but a very good one, too.
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let the revels begin! (cough, cough, wheeze) [Jun. 11th, 2009|10:46 pm]
[mood | sick]

Tomorrow is my birthday! And right now, I seem likely to spend the majority of it at home, under a quilt, with the humidifier going full-blast and some Halls Menthol drops at hand. Yeah, that helps a lot with the "getting older" thing. But such is the way of life, and of summer colds. At least I don't have to be at work, right?

Many of you have sent good wishes, for which I am much grateful! The fabulous [info]slow_waking has kicked it up a notch with a gift for all the Trek drabble lovers: Delicious LInks for the first drabble challenge! How awesome is that?

For my birthday, I want more responses to the Star Trek Reboot Drabble Challenge #3, or maybe [info]alias500 ficlets. Pretty please?

And now, to put water in the humidifier. Oh, wild party days.
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Star Trek Reboot Drabble Challenge #3! [Jun. 9th, 2009|11:59 am]
[mood | sick]

Because too much is not enough -- it's time for the Star Trek Reboot Drabble Challenge #3!

WHERE NO DRABBLE HAS GONE BEFORE


100 more prompts, and the rules, behind the cut )

Very much under the weather, and very much unable to take the day or evening off. Ugh.
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another drabble challenge? plus, trip thoughts and say hi, new folks [Jun. 8th, 2009|11:56 am]
[mood | drained]
[music |"Here Comes the Hotstepper," Ini Kamoze]

My West Coast sojourn went well -- travel was smooth and trouble-free, unless you count the constant, toxic farting from a guy in the row in front of me on the airplane over. My nose started running, which at the time I attributed to methane exposure, but today I seem to be nursing a bit of a cold, so I absolve you, Unfortunately Ill Man. The hotel in Portland was superswanky, and I loved the town itself; briefly I was able to wave at the adventurous [info]hhw. In Seattle, the hotel was less swanky, but I was treated to a whole afternoon and evening of sightseeing and Trek/Alias chat with the kind [info]joylee56 and her hubby. (She wickedly suggested the crossover fic idea of Spock and Jack Bristow playing chess, which would be awesome, except that neither of them would say a word and would find the other's total silence refreshing.)

I was just sure I was going to walk into Big Trouble here at GG&K, but no. They must be very, very sure of my intention to quit, because things have been surreally low-key around here of late.

My birthday is Friday. I'm not doing any sort of group thing, because I have another event tomorrow night, plus this cold, and at this point, the big treat for me will be sleeping in, going to see "Star Trek" again and then going home to spend quality time doing NOTHING. (Maybe drinks early next week? I don't know.) Right now, the issue is what to ask my parents for -- at this point, honestly, I feel a bit silly getting anything more than a token gift, but they want to send something big, and if I don't specify within a few hours, I'm getting another big load of barbecue packed in dry ice. Don't get me wrong -- I like the barbecue -- but today, with the cold in residence, I just can't get psyched about food. What do I want? Tell me. Yes, I'm that tired; I am trying to outsource my wishes and desires.

I might do another set of ST drabble prompts tomorrow, if you guys are game.

Also, I think there are some newbies at the LJ. If you have friended or just started dropping by frequently lately, and we have not chatted, please take a second to say hi!
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On the road again [Jun. 4th, 2009|01:43 pm]
[mood | rushed]

So, tonight I leave work an hour early to catch a plane to Portland, OR -- after which I get a day in Seattle, and home again in a jif for Sunday night. I'm going to be WIPED, but OTOH, they put us up in super-nice hotels this time, and I even scheduled a massage for tomorrow afternoon. Oh, sweet bliss. I'm particularly looking forward to getting a nice look around Seattle Saturday afternoon/evening; when I was there in October, it was literally airport-hotel-store-hotel-airport. Never even glimpsed the Space Needle. This time, I'll be staying within walking distance! So Saturday night will be the latest challenge to my ongoing fear of heights.

I packed in a carry-on, though a tote rather than a roller, and my shoulders are already questioning the wisdom of this.

Anyway, see everybody on the other side of the weekend!
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FIC: "Break" (ST:AOS, S/U, rated R) part 3/3 [Jun. 3rd, 2009|02:23 pm]
[mood | working]

At last we come to the end! Great thanks to [info]taraljc, [info]marinarusalka and [info]rheanna27 for their beta help and support.

Part One

Part Two



Break, the conclusion )
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