iesika

OMG QUICK!

Have we ever seen Kory bleed? I figure we probably have, but I can't think of when or how. Is it red?

I want these answers to be no, but I'll accept a yes. I just need to know.

OHGOD

*freaks out*

THIS WOULD PROBABLY BE GOING BETTER IF I'D GOTTEN SOME SLEEP LAST NIGHT.

I swear, when this fic is done, I am going to print a copy out just so I can tear it up, jump up and down on the pieces, and then set the bits on fire.

ATTENTION WEATHER:

If you are warm enough at dawn for me to leave the house in flip-flops, you should not be SLEETING by the time I get off work.

THIS BEHAVIOR IS UNACCEPTABLE!

You have been warned.

ETA: Why does no one ever listen to me. SNOW! WTF!

There was snow on my windshield, but I still had to turn on the AC because it was hot in my car. WUT. Also, no one here knows how to drive when there's ice on the roads, so I passed two major accients on my way back into town this morning, and was stopped twice by deputies or police who wanted to warn me that there was ice on a bridge I was trying to cross, and actually *rerouted* away from a 100 foot long section of raised road by another cop, even when I tried to tell him "But I live *RIGHT THERE!* I'll drive really slow! I swear my tires are good!" I had to go a mile and a half out of my way, and use *service roads*. I am terrified of service roads.

shiny_glor_chan wrote me a belated birthday fic! It made me so happy! You should go read it and be made happy, too! It has Ghost!Jason.

Of Ghosts and Hazings

Oh, Ghost!Jason... I wish I knew where to find scans of that Batman Black and White story where he moves the tea things and watches Alfred from the curtains! Where to find them quickly, I mean. I'm pretty sure the trade is in my car, but driving to mom's to scan them would be kind of a waste because -

OMG BIG BANG POSTING IN THREEEE DAAAAYS.

I got sick this weekend, presumably having caught something from one of the little cousins. I was chugging along fine until I woke up Monday and couldn't pick my damned head up. I didn't miss any work, but only because my workload is fairly light on weekdays, though I sort of maybe missed a shift at the O's but they didn't ever call to schedule one. T's mom has sent me home way early every day this week, which has been wonderful. For the last three days, that's meant sleeping A LOT. Today, though, it meant library time, because I still have a few thousand words or so left on my Big Bang.

The title (Close to Home) is taking on a whole new meaning to me all of a sudden. SO CLOSE OMG. I can taste you, ending. The climax is done, I'm just writing a bit of wrap up now. Most of it's pretty much fully edited. I need to format it all, though, which is going to be a pain, so I'm planning to dedicate all day Saturday to final edits and formatting, and then Sunday morning when I get off my overnight shift, I'll be posting. Probably I ought to figure out a way not to spam my flist with it, as there will be 13 chapters plus pictures. PICTURES! Because sammage_art is the BEST!

I can't even tell you how much I owe faile_neume and kirax2 at this point, for everything from punctuation help to holding my metaphorical hand through fic induced breakdown. ^_^;

On Thursday, people started showing up. My Granny, two aunts, an uncle, and a little cousin (the little cousins are mostly second cousins, some thirds, and they range in age from 3 to 9. There are a lot of them and they usually run in packs. Last time they were here they managed to rip down a ceiling fan and none of them will tells us exactly *how*). The sibs and their SOs came by. Mom made crawfish au gratin.

On Friday morning, little cousin #1 and I made cookies until her mother and future stepfather showed up with the other two little cousins of that genus (twins), and we all hung out and it was lovely. One of the Aunts got sick and left for most of the day. And then the horde descended. Let's see if I can count them all...

Granny, two uncles, three aunts, six cousins (including SOs), and seven wee cousins, plus me, mom, dad, and two siblings each with their respective SO, and the OFFICIALLY ADOPTEDS, though they didn't bring their daughter or her BFF who usually comes to everything. So 28. We were expecting two more from the Adopteds, and had originally planned for two more cousins and another little cousin, so we made off pretty well, all around. One of the cousins made steaks. My spinach dip MAGICALLY VANISHED in like three minutes. The Adopteds brought TWO Adoption Pies.

Some of them left and went to hotels for the night. Some of them stayed. I WENT HOME.

Saturday was the big event. Everyone went to the LSU/Arkansas game. I have relatives who went to both schools. Things get...heated. Not caring about football, I stayed here with the old folks and tiniest little cousins, and wrote my little heart out. And then there was an aftergame party, and then I wrote my little heart out some more, until about 5am.

Today, I woke up in time to run the hug gauntlet and say goodbye to everyone, helped mom clean up, helped mom get the xmas stuff down from the attic, and then did some editing.

Obviously I was wrong about wrapping this up in 58k. I've run out of room for the overflow, and I can't figure out how to left-align the bar so that I have more room. I dare not make future predictions for fear of proving myself wrong again. But I'm through with the action, and now there's just a bit of wrap-up and sequel-teaser. My posting date is next Sunday. Brace yourselves. I plan to sleep a lot, and then write lots of tiny fic. And yes, Gloria, there will be Jason in some of it.

I'm waiting on food now, so I'm taking a moment to update with holiday type things. I'm at my folk's place, with my immediate family plus Granny, two aunts, an uncle, and a second cousin. The rest of the horde descends tomorrow and Saturday, because the big event in this family isn't on Thursday and doesn't have anything to do with turkey or pilgrims. It's all about the LSU/Arkansas football game on Saturday. ^_^;

Mom made ettouffee for tonight. Tomorrow is steaks and Saturday is jambalaya. I GAVE MOM A TURKEY (work gave me one) and I'm pretty sure she smoked it, but it's not getting to be the center of a meal or anything. Probably it will be sandwiches. There will be 30 people here by Saturday - we will need lots of sandwiches.

Last night/this morning, I made sweet potato butter. It's delicious, and it was soooo easy.



I just dumped it all in the slow cooker on low overnight and blended it up with the mixer, and it's very, very good. It came out dark, though, not orange, so next time I make it I'm going to either cook the apples separately for a while first or use applesauce instead of fresh apples, because to cook the apples into mush took so long that the potatoes went all brown. Also, I'd use raw sugar instead of brown, again for the color rather than for taste.

More food and more recipes tomorrow, I imagine.

ETA: Apparently Mom made crawfish au gratin instead of ettouffee. She told me at 10 that she was making ettouffee, and then changed her mind for some reason. Not that you probably care ^_^; Also, there was Chocolate Pie Delight, which is not a pie, but is delightful. And Mom made pralines, and Aunt B made her signature peanut butter cookie cup things that she makes for every holiday.

So close. So close. Almooooost finiiiished...



Oh look, I ran out of screen.

If everyone was going to stare, anyway, they might as well give them a show. Kon bent Tim back over his arm, making the kiss deep and wet and as filthy as he could make it. He licked across Tim's mouth, showy and sloppy as something out of a porno flick, licked his teeth and his tongue. He pressed their bodies tight and just went for it, kissing Tim like they were fucking right there on the dance floor, open-mouthed and panting. And Tim gave back as good as he got, biting Kon's lips, sucking his tongue, deep and hard - moaning, one hand cupping the curve of Kon's skull, the other sliding down to grip his ass and pull their hips together.

At least I got to the makeouts.

I've been editing in between writing bits, so half of the story is actually already about ready for the web. This knowledge is helping me not freak out quite so much.

All I want for my birthday is to FINISH THIS FIC!

And a laptop.

Urgh I still feel awful, but I slept all day. I'm trying to figure out where the hell to get vegetarian soup that isn't my mom's house.

Also don't want to cook.

I wanted to finish this tonight so badly. Ugh ugh ugh why am I sick all of a sudden. faile_neume thinks it's nerves, because I'm all upset about the fic. I don't know. Don't be the flu, please. I can't afford to miss work. Ugh ugh ugh.




Oh, look at that, it's a NaNo. And then some.

I'm gonna bet 58k including the epilogue. Any takers?

So tempted to just quote the last line of the current document, which just says "Rocks fall, everyone dies."



He wasn't sure what to expect, really. Tim liked making up his little characters, and they tended to be a lot more...outgoing...than Tim himself, as if Tim felt more free in costume than he did out of it. All Kon had given him was 'Tim from Gotham.' That could be anything from a quiet, geeky boy from the suburbs to Mr. Freaking Sarcastic - though Kon was really kind of hoping against the latter.

Oh, God. That's why he'd agreed so readily - why he'd been in such a good mood on the phone. He was going to embarrass the hell out of Kon, wasn't he? People were going to be talking about his wack-job boyfriend for *weeks*. Kon parked down the street from the diner and pulled out his phone again. Tim still wasn't answering, so Kon wiped his sweaty palms on the seat and then climbed out of the truck.

WHY IS THIS DAY TAKING FOREVER?

Not the actual day. The story day.

THE STORY DAY IS TAKING FOREVER!

The best thing I've written over the last few days is too spoilery to share, so you get a short little bite instead. A little bite I expect broad and gleeful agreement with.  But I will tell you that the spoilery passage? Involves tongue.

Close To Home

41542 / 25000

(yes, you're reading that right. GODDAMNIT DAY JUST END!)


Martha snorted. "You're just like Clark, letting that whole bunch run roughshod over you. Alfred needs to take each and every one one of those boys over his knee, the way they've been acting."

I think I can wrap the day up in another 100-200 words but it's time for work, now.

ETA: It took 240 more words. But Wednesday is finished. It's now right behind the previous Wednesday as the two longest days. The moral of this story - never write another fic with two Wednesdays in it.

Uuuurrrgh I feel like a zombie. A zombie who's not keeping her deadlines.

I have something to say about my reliance on caffeine to get this thing finished. When you realize you are spooning instant cappuchino mix into a cup of regular coffee, that's when you know you've got a problem. I'll be going cold turkey for a while when I finish this.

That said, I'm not actually missing much sleep over this. Yet.

Close To Home

38629 / 25000

It's getting a lot harder to find bits of this that don't give anything major away. Here, have some unidentified trauma!

Hey, everybody, look how I spent my Halloween?


God, that's fucking beautiful. I think I may cry!

LOOK LOOK I'M FINALLY TO THE GOOD STUFF!

Twenty minutes later, he was pacing the floor of Alvin Draper's apartment. Tim sat crosslegged on the couch, his elbows resting on his knees and his fingers steepled over his mouth like a supervillain's. "Dude," he said, as he paced, "you can't laugh."

"I'm not sure I can promise that," Tim said, with a strong overtone of amusement.

Kon whirled around and pointed a finger at him, "No, dude! You can't laugh. For real!"

Tim smiled just a little with the corner of his mouth. It was the face he usually made when he thought Kon was being an idiot, but he didn't mind much. Kon couldn't look at him. He turned and stared out the tiny, grimy window at the brick wall of the next building over. "I need you to be my boyfriend," Kon said quickly, and then bit his lip.

THAT'S RIGHT, ALL OF Y'ALL!

I can't really be the only person on the whole internet who drank bagged milk in the school cafeteria, can I?

Not bagged milk like in Canada - bag milk like this:



ETA:  *SIGH* I guess Kon drinks his milk out of a carton then!

kirax2 is amazing and wonderful and awesome! How wonderful and awesome is she? Not only did she send me TWO amazing amazing wonderful omg I'm so happy I can't finish a sentence books (Poems and The Dove with the Bough of Olive, both by Dunstan Thompson), she also wrote me amazing beautiful wonderful fic for this poem, which is my favorite in the world (and by the author of the books above):

THIS TALL HORSEMAN, MY YOUNG MAN OF MARS

This tall horseman, my young man of Mars,
Scatters the gold dust from his hair, and takes
Me to pieces like a gun. The myth forsakes
Him slowly. Almost mortal, he shows the scars
Where medals of honor, cut-steel stars,
Pin death above the heart. But bends, but breaks
In his hand, my love, whose wrecked machinery makes
Time, the inventor, weep through a world of wars.
Guilt like a rust enamels me. I breed
A poison not this murdering youth may dare
In one drop of blood to battle. No delight
Is possible. Only at parting do we need
Each other; together, we are not there
At all. Love, I farewell you out of sight.

 - Dunstan Thompson
   "This Tall Horseman, My Young Man of Mars"
   From Lament for the Sleepwalker

I seriously love this guy's poetry. And now that I have three of his (I think) four books, I'm going to have to look into scan-to-texting at least some of it for public consumption, because it really can't be had online, and that is a damned dirty shame.

kirax2 wrote us all a lovely Halloween present, in the form of trick-or-treating fic! 

Kings in Disguise by kirax2

Go check it out. It's adorable!

 A while ago, I made a sort of study guide for someone, dealing with Mendelian inheritance and Punnet squares. I'm working on one right now for DNA replication, transcription and translation, and it occurred to me to ask if anyone other than the intended recipient would be interested in seeing it? 

I don't want to actually web-publish because this one, in particular, is full of stolen images, and also there are Batman references and such, and I think maybe there was cursing in the first one. But if anyone's struggling with those topics, and would like a go at them, drop me a comment, and I'll make them available on googledocs or something. 

I'm having a distressing amount of fun with this. Watch, I'm going to end up writing an online textbook, and then have to explain to people, no, I never actually graduated college, and I babysit for a living. 

I wonder if there's a market for study guides by smartasses? 

I'm exhausted. I know this installment took a while - that's because it's freakin' huge.

Series Title: Kings Among Runaways
Story Title: Two in the Bush
Summary: The AU where Tim ran away from home at the tender age of mumbledyteen, and Jason got let off with a warning, the night he met Batman.
Warnings: Sexual content including minors, both disturbing and hopefully not.
Note: The series is indexed here.

( Two in the Bush )

I SAW GHOSTS THIS MORNING ! LOTS OF THEM!

Or, okay, they weren't ghosts, but they looked like it. I knew they weren't ghosts, but they freaked me out a little anyway until I figured out what they were.

I woke up at my client's house in a suburb of my town, after very, very little sleep, and had to drive back here (currently at my parents' house) in the dawning hours. It's cold out, this morning - the coldest it's been so far this year, and while it's probably not terribly cold by the standards of other people, I was frickin freezing. Anyway, I was driving too fast (like 60 on a 45) headed this way because it was dawn on Sunday on a country road, and I saw this....thing! 

Keep in mind, I was going sixty, so I only saw it for a second, but I did a double take. There was this weirdly shaped, semi-opaque thing on the side of the road, about the size of a person. A minute later, I saw another one. And another one. By the fourth or fifth I had worked out that there were drainage grates wherever the 'ghosts' were, and they were clouds of biological steam.

I've never seen that before - I mean I've seen steam come up from grates before, once or twice, downtown, but I've never seen it randomly on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere in dim light while barely awake. I wonder if that area has a different kind of sewer than the actual city. I wouldn't be surprised... It's a little backward.

Anyway, that was my strange morning. Now I've got to decide the nap versus fic question. Nap has some very compelling arguments.

I need to know more words for describing heartbeats.

I overestimated my wordcount yesterday. Apparently I don't write as small as I used to, or maybe the lines are wider on this paper or something. I'm usually pretty consistant at an average of 250 words per page, hand-written on college rule.

That said...

The three people with file access on googledocs can now read what happened Monday. For the rest of you, here, have a taste:

Superman was stronger. He was faster and he was more experienced and he had cold-breath and microscopic vision, but Kon wasn't just an imperfect copy. When they'd made him, they'd made him different. There were things he could do that Superman never could.

I think that may clear me to work on Kings Among Runaways this afternoon. Everybody looking forward to watching Dick and Jason try to knock each other out of a tree?