How can you possibly resist? (Not that I find myself nearly interesting enough to fill this out, but there's no ignoring a perfectly good opportunity to spread the love that is Modest Mouse.)

Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions. This is harder than you think. (<--- Not really, but I kind of not quite cheated. I think.)

( fulfilling all your MM needs since 12:35 AM )

The subject line pretty much sums it all up, but for the sake of completeness: my (repeatedly repeated) request to ff.net to please, please, please add a separate Clover category finally went through yesterday!

So: if you have any fics posted on the empire fanfiction.net, now would be the time to switch them over to their shiny new home~~~♥♥

( proof behind the cut )

crossposted from fairy_park

A note to CLAMP lovers!

Roughly two minutes ago, whilst surfing communities that I am too chickenshit paranoid self-conscious nervous to ever join, I tripped and fell face-first over a post in the lovely fairy_park (one of the few Clover bastions on the web) which contains some of the most divine Clover icons I've ever seen!

This lovely post can be found here in the artist, nefadol's, LJ. Go take a look! I recommend these icons not only for their deliciously subtle coloring and melt-worthy textures, but because I want to thank the artist as publicly as possible for making them available to the public. I took away seven jaw-dropping icons from this post (including the one I'm using right now), and I really can't thank her enough. Rock on, Nefadol! :)

I have GOT to play with those textures at some point. o.o

Rec three, ready and waiting to eat up more of your precious brain space. LOVE IT.

~

Rec in Question: Inertia
Series: Hikaru no Go
Author: rageprufrock (rageprufrock)
Rating, Genre: NC-17 (according to the author--I'd give it an R), Gen/Psychological/Drama/Semi-Angst/Slice-of-Life/Romance
Pairing(s): Hikaru/Akira, Akira/OFC, Hikaru/OMC
Spoilers: ...most of the series, I think. I mean, it's post-series, but the spoilers are mentioned in passing most of the time, so there's a good chance they'll slip right over your head if you are Very Much American and Shamefully Incapable of Reading Japanese and As Such Are Limited By Our Frickin' Dumbass Publishing Companies and Their Ridiculous, Embarrassing Slowness in Translating GOOD MANGA (like me!).
WARNINGS: None (unless you somehow find the idea of canon characters being paired with original characters in some way horrifying, I guess. Do you?).
Extra Links: None.

Notes: There's a certain delicacy about this fic's writing that is somewhat difficult to explain. I mean, there's an ease to it (similar, in a way, to the work of Sleeps With Coyotes) that I find extremely enviable, and extremely admirable. There are a few superficial errors (omiai, for example, is misspelled in the beginning), but nothing that a quick beta once-over couldn't fix. And mostly it's only nitpicky assholes like me who really care about that crap anyway. :)

One really incredible thing about it is the flawless way rageprufrock mixes her OCs with the canon characters, particularly in the case of Natsumi, who is terrifying and remarkable and successfully managed to make my skin crawl within two scenes. This isn't an easy thing to achieve (the OC thing, not the skin-crawl--though that's not easy either, now that I think about it), something I've actually only seen really work in one other fic (The Last Warrior by Nora Jemison--a DBZ fic, back in the days of lore where I actually read DBZ fic. And het fic. Ahaha).

Another really fantastic thing about this fic is rageprufrock's amazing characterization of Touya. I find it interesting that the author has taken her name from T.S. Eliot (I assume; The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is one of his more famous pieces, and I've never heard the name used outside of that), because truly, his work is really what hers reminds me of. They both have that wonderful, detached quality of the modernist movement in their writing.

If you were to peel back the meat of this story to look at the bones, you might think the plot kind of simple at first glance: Akira gets married, Hikaru dates other people, various life-changing events occur, and in the end the eternal rivals Find One Another. What's so rockin' awesome about this piece is how it becomes so much MORE than just that; sure, it's about Akira getting married, and yes, it's about Akira's interactions with Hikaru--but it's more psychology than action, more visual than physical. It's not a feel-good fic, but neither does it drip with angst. It is, instead, truly a slice-of-life piece, and one that resolves peacefully and appropriately, not by slapping you on the back and sending you on your merry way. It is, in a word, subtle, and there is little I appreciate more in fics than subtlety.

So, all in all? THIS FIC KICKS ROCKS. Enjoy it. :)


"Though he's young, Touya Akira has always been a quiet, mature child, so his parents do not hesitate to arrange an omai with an old family friend on his twenty-second birthday. The girl--her name is Natsumi--is polite and pretty and inoffensive, has a passing interest in Go, and most importantly, a sort of awe-inspiring stillness which fascinates Akira, who has always felt a storm raging in his head."

Right! Time for another rec, chaps. Standard thanks to the amazing Aishuu apply (see last rec for details). :)

~

Rec in Question: Deal
Series: Detective Conan (a.k.a Case Closed)
Author: JoIsBishMyoga (joisbishmyoga)
Rating, Genre: R, Gen/Psychological/Introspective/Romance
Pairing(s): Edogawa Conan (Kudo Shinichi)/Kaitou Kid (Kuroba Kaito)
Spoilers: This sort of transcends spoilers. Suffice it to say you're going to want to watch/read/research as much as possible before starting this (and even then you might still not yet be ready for the force of nature that is Jo's brain)
WARNINGS: This is a shota fic. If you don't know what shota is, don't read it. I'm not even kidding. Those who aren't familiar with DC...uh, probably shouldn't be reading this in the first place, but foregoing that, are more than likely not going to get the situation. Those that are familiar with DC/the fact that Conan is only a kid in body probably won't be disturbed, but...well, it's worth mentioning. I know shota is just too creepy for most people to get around, even in this special case.
Extra Links: All seventeen chapters (plus epilogues, interludes and omake)

Notes: Though one of the finest Yu Yu Hakusho authors in existence (if you haven't actually read her Best Defense/Good Offense arc yet...well, I weep for you and your incomplete life. GET OFF YOUR ASS AND DO IT. Trust me; the fics are both tasty and satisfying!), JoIsBishMyoga is truly a fantastic character author. Few, in my experience, have displayed an equal talent for producing truly unprecedented POV fic--you know, the kind that really makes you feel for the character in question; not just like you understand them, but like you are them. It's a gift, to be sure.

That said, Deal was never something I meant to read. I honestly can't remember why. It's a shame I put it off for so long (I started around the release of pt. 6 or 7, I believe), because as far as 'fics with simple premises spawning massive quantities of goodness' go, this piece is first class. In this case, Jo takes (and runs with) the very logical question 'how would Conan, being stuck as he is in the uncomfortable position of having a twenty-one-year-old mind in an eleven-year-old body, deal with the ever-touchy subject of sex when faced with the inevitability of having to grow up all over again'?

Told you it was good. ;)


"Thank you," Conan murmured, letting his head drop back into one hand. He used the other to slide his glasses off and stuff them in a pocket. "I never get to hear my name anymore."

Okay. Short and simple, here comes a FIC REC.

A NOTE: this rec would not have been made in this form had it not been for Aishuu's rec_a_day journal, which is where I first saw someone using an excerpt of the fic in question as part of its rec. You're a genius, Aishuu. :)

~

Rec in Question: Code
Series: Full Metal Alchemist
Author: Sleeps With Coyotes (ciceqi)
Rating, Genre: PG, Gen/Drama/Romance
Pairing(s): Implied future Ed/Roy
Spoilers: Up through Scar and the Ishbal (Ishvar, whatever) massacre; I read this after only seeing fifteen or sixteen episodes and was perfectly happy.
WARNINGS: Nada.
Extra Links: None.

Notes: This is quite possibly my favorite piece of fanfiction of all time (and if not that, then at the very least my favorite piece of work by Sleeps With Coyotes, who is a genius and a wizard and an amazing author made of extreme love, and one who has done more for fanfiction than I could ever hope to sum up in something as paltry as this review). My only sorrow is that there isn't a sequel.

Built on a very simple premise (following Coyo's version of events after Ed and Al hare off into the desert on Scar's trail), this fic is, to sum it up in one word, amazing. Pacing, character voice, dialogue--everything is perfect. It's a little dark, a little melancholy, and real in ways that are extremely difficult for most people to recognize in their own actions from day to day--Ed's nervous habits, the quality and flavor of his dreams, the different sounds and textures of rain, the mythical quality a stressed mind can lend to one's memories of what once seemed to be an unremarkable place. As much in the vein of Laura Esquivel's Like Water for Chocolate (minus the magic and match-eating) as in that of the show, this is gen fic at its very best. My hat is off to you, Coyo; you've written a masterpiece.


"Seeing mirages across the dunes was nothing. He dreamed of rain after only a few weeks, of some half-remembered afternoon at home when he still had all his limbs, when Al still had a mother's lap to crawl into as she sat by the window and read to them by fading summer light."