horcruxes sold here

I've always been partial to the villain in most movies and books that I like. Why?

1. Because most villains are geniuses. If not, they're just really, really smart.
   
   
2. Because a lot of them have money. How else would they finance their dark-lording and lives of crime? If they don't have lots of personal wealth, then they're geniuses when it comes to making rich people part with their personal wealth.
   
   
3. Because they're HOT.
   

Reason Number Three is my favorite. But I can't possibly let you take my word for it. So, to further test my theories, here are:

EXHIBIT #1: Lucius and Draco Malfoy (Harry Potter films)



This father and son tandem is the epitome of blond prettiness. The Malfoy Manor must be burning with their combined hotness. Okay, so they might not be the worst villains ever, so let's move to...

EXHIBIT #2: Lord Voldemort (Harry Potter films)



Played by Ralph Fiennes. Dee-lish. Need I say more? And if you've ever seen The End of the Affair I wouldn't even have to make my point here. The megalomania makes up for half of the appeal. I admit that he does look a bit freaky without the nose when he was brought back to life but that can be fixed by a quick 50,000PHP visit to Dr. Belo's clinic. This is him as a young Tom Riddle (played by Christian Coulson):



Just to compare, here's Harry Potter:



Now, Daniel, we know you have an ultra-fantastic bod because you took off everything in Equus. But I'd still go to jail if I kissed you, and age and experience win every time.

EXHIBIT # 3: Sean Ambrose (Mission Impossible II)



Dougray Scott played Sean Ambrose in Mission Impossible II. This movie was a farce, and I spent most of it laughing every time Tom Cruise flicked his hair. All the scenes were about his hair dagnabbit! And you could even see the manic glow of an overly zealous scientologist (poor Katie Holmes).

At least the bad guy was someone we could actually take seriously.

EXHIBIT # 4: Cal Hockley (Titanic)



The ocean was the real bad guy here, but Cal (played by Billy Zane) came a close second. Look, Rose, I know you and Jack probably had a mind-blowing healthy physical activity in that car (:D) but Cal is rich, gorgeous, he's crazy about you, and he gave you a HUGE diamond necklace. What else can a girl want? Call me shallow but what does Jack have to offer other than his signature puppy dog cuteness?

I can only remember one movie protagonist whom I actually liked. No, scratch that. I love him. I crush him. He loves his mom, he's hardworking, he's a good role model, and he's totally unselfish. And I told my parents that I wanted to marry someone exactly like him.

EXHIBIT # 5:



Yup, it's Jesus Christ.

I fangirl Jim Caviezel. :)

This feels so odd. I haven't posted here in ages.

I haven't been in fandom in years!

Yesterday, one of my closest friends told me that she wanted to read Chasing Harry again but the links didn't work in my site. So I went to FA, checked it out... and started reading fics. After two years!

And because fandom to me was strongly linked to my favorite ship, I visited HxT Lightening to see what was happening. One of the latest messages was an reply by Heath to a question of whether I was still around or not and I just felt the sudden need to explain why. The reason? It was a slow withdrawal from fandom. I uprooted my life and started over in a new place, I got busy, my house didn't have internet at that time, etc. Until RL just took up a lot of my time and I realized I didn't know how to rejoin fandom or if I still wanted to.

But, I still loyally read HP (even if most of book 6 seemed like the European version of Sweet Valley High). Wasn't book 7 fantastic? I thought JKR really redeemed herself there.

I really missed everything. =)

alet: omg. ralph fiennes is playing voldemort.
passo: i know. i'm obsessed, remember?
alet: *blubbers* omg. ralph fiennes. the end of the affair. perfect b---.
passo: *lol* i wonder if harry potter 4 has a nude scene?
alet: yes it does!!! when voldemort is reborn and rises from the cauldron, he'd better be naked or i'm going to sue!
passo: you make the world a brighter place.

My wizard_trauma deadline is looming. Is there anyone interested in beta-reading for an H/D fic about stalking? It's about half-done. It's not going to be more than a rated R. Please reply to this post if you are. :)

I chose that topic because just last year, I had a really bad experience with a stalker, although he was not dangerous. Just weird.

Sometimes, Friendster just gets on my nerves. It takes such a long time to load, especially when one changes photos. I used to not have a friendster account because it was so "in" that I saw it as kitschy. Though, eventually, I caved in to peer pressure. *lol* It's an easy way to keep in touch with RL friends. I wonder whether there's a fandom group in that site?

Sorry I haven't been able to post much. RL has been crazy, and I'm trying to avoid accessing my fandom sites on my work PC. I've been lucky so far, but I don't want IT to get suspicious. :D

michaelmalfoy (Michael Serpent) passed away recently. I'm still in shock.

We sorta lost contact over the past year and a half due to my break from fandom. At first I thought he was taking a hiatus from LJ, like I did. This was the last thing I expected.

I will never forget our early days in fandom when we started writing at about the same time, and we would review each other's work and support our shared interest in H/D. He made a lot of people happy (he still does) by writing GS and other fics. I'm only glad that he chose to leave a part of himself to the fandom through his stories.

He will be missed.

Voldemort/IKEA. These things happen when I skip breakfast. Inspired by a gem at mctabby's Summary Executions XXXI and caretta's artwork.

Voldemort and Ikea start teaming up a lot to accomplish things and they both become stronger than ever.

***

VOLDIKEA

Harry was worried. Voldemort was winning one battle after another and, to make it worse, a number of the Order's most trusted men and women were missing.

The disappearances had not been alarming at first. The occasional missing Auror usually meant death or kidnapping by Death Eaters. But when the numbers started rising and no bodies had yet been found, Harry started to suspect that there was another explanation behind it.

Just as he was wracking his brain for ideas, Ron entered the room.

The redhead looked more serious than usual as he took the seat across Harry. "I need to tell you something before I go," he whispered.

Harry looked up from the papers he was examining and stared at him, confused. "Why? Are you leaving?"

"SShhh! Not too loud!" Ron looked around furtively as he silenced his best friend. Swallowing nervously, he continued, "I'm not supposed to tell anyone. But I couldn't leave you like this, not after everything we've done together."

"Ron, I don't understand." Harry raised a brow. "Does this have something to do with the Order's current problem?"

"You may say it's related." Ron sighed. "I'm sorry, Harry, but I'm leaving the Order. I can't fight with you anymore."

Harry stared at him in shock. "WHAT?! B-but WHY?"

"I suppose you can say that I received an offer I couldn't resist."

***

Somewhere far, far away, Voldemort laughed diabolically, flung his cape over a shoulder, and raised his wineglass to the moon.

"Finally! Victory is almost within reach," he cackled. "All thanks to our combined genius, these pathetic wizards and witches are getting better living rooms while we-"

He stopped short and walked to the wall. A large, bold, and strangely familiar logo graced the space between the portraits of Salazar Slytherin and Grindelwald. He caressed the embossed blue letters as he continued, "We, my friend, are taking over the world."


[The End]

Thanks to everyone who replied to my Fic/Author Reccing post. All those fics look good. :) I'm going to try and go through them one by one, expecially those whose plot points seem interesting.

Last weekend was one of my most exhausting and non-creative days for this year. Once again, RL has managed to squash all my attempts at writing decent fic. Certainly, all that I produced were only good to read if you like dragging plotless blah.

The Archive is open. This new multifandom archive pleases me muchly! Now I have a place to post my better Saiyuki fics. That means I'm not including "Tension" which I have learned to hate over the years; the fluff there could seriously injure someone.

Also, darklord100. My, my... this is such a brilliant idea of a comm that I could dispense with the intelligent talk and just say: OMG! If you love LV, go there. Right. Now. Like. NOW. There's nothing like a creative Voldie-centric drabble to wash the dust of your soul away, and yes, I stole that line from Picasso.

Now that the day's pimpin' work is done, our_innocence posted a rant on Fandom snobbery. I totally understand some writers' (popular or otherwise) preference to only read fics recced to them or fics written by authors they know well. No one wants to get run over by the kind of fics that get featured at McTabby's Summary Executions. And believe me, I've read my share of stuff that could merit a "WTF?o_0" from even the nicest reviewer. Still, giving chance to new people and new fics is what fandom is all about, that's why I agree with her on some points. Cliques are nice and comfortable, but they stunt creative development and variety.

That's why I want to make this post a reccing station for lesser known but wonderful fics. Who knows, we just might discover really good writers we never had the chance to meet before.

Reply to this post and link a fic which you think is wonderful but needs more exposure.

• When I say "lesser known" I don't mean unpopular. The author could be new which could account for the minimal publicity, or maybe he/she is not just a social butterfly and is too lazy to advertise his/her own work. Anyway, if you feel the fic deserves more readers/feedback due to its sheer loveliness, please link it here.
  
  
• Feel free to shower generous praise, that is the whole point of this post.
  
  
• You may plug your own fic. Just make sure it's read-worthy, meaning no spelling liek dis.
  
  
• If you read any of the recs linked here, LEAVE FEEDBACK. All writers deserve it because writing fic is not that easy.
  
  
• Try not to link uber-popular fics that everyone has read. Like Irresistible Poison by Rhysenn, for example. I adore that fic, but practically everyone knows about it so it's not necessary to link it here.
  

Share your treasures with the rest of us. :) [Also, I'd feel really grateful if you announce this reccage to your flist. The more fics/writers discovered, the better for all of us.]

by_starkiller has put up the masterlist of fics for the Battlefields of Slash Quote Challenge. "There was a Boy" is included there (thanks muchly to Starry for doing the changes at the last minute *luv*). After reading fics at The Eros Affair, I'm prepared for even more one-shot goodness.

Now that plug is done, let me get to the main reason for this post which is going to be FRIENDING.

Anyone who has me on their flist probably knows that I friend anyone back indiscriminately. You friend me and as soon as I notice it here on Marnanel, I friend you back.

I assume that people who do add me is primarily after slash because my journal is riddled with it. Friending back also gives me the opportunity to get to know more people by letting me read their posts on my friends page, which I try to check at least twice a week. Also, in spite of what Harry might say about me, I really am a reasonably nice person.

I don't add and I also unfriend the following:

1. Trolls - Journals made to poke fun or insult several members of the fandom. I know I like reading troll journals if they're amusing or funny but since friending them is a pretty useless gesture, I don't.
   
   
2. Dead Journals - If the journal hasn't been used for months and months, I unfriend. I usually just do this to empty journals or abandoned journals (when one of my LJ friends gets a new LJ name). But if you're just on hiatus, I will not unfriend.
   
   
3. Deleted Journals - The permanently deleted ones only, not the ones who intend to come back.
   

If you have friended me and you're not one of the three kinds listed above but I have not added you back yet, please reply to this post and tell me. Because I feel *bad* when I realize that I missed someone. I don't mean to, but it happens when I'm too busy to check. This usually happens when someone changes journals and I miss the post.

As for unfriending, I only do it if someone unfriends me. It's nothing personal, but if I don't know you well and you decide that my journal is tres boring and therefore not worth reading, then I tend to return the favor. :) There are exceptions of course: when I find that I like reading your journal and don't care if you unfriend me, I'll keep you on.

Everything above was written just to make things clear (and because I'm still trying to figure out an original and twisty plot for my the_eros_affair fic).

:D

Title: There was a Boy
Author: passo
Rating: PG
Pairing: Harry/Draco
Category: Romance, light drama
Summary: Harry is far from pleased to find himself required to work with Draco. He doesn't notice the other's silence or his suffering as the weeks pass by. He finds that he's still attached to Ginny's memory, unwilling to let go. Until something happens that makes him change his mind.

Author's Note: For the Battlefields of Slash Quote Challenge (#17). I wanted to get back to my roots here and write an H/D with the feel of the first fics that I wrote. It's quite amazing to think that I've been writing fanfic for three years. For having a majority of fics written during the pre-OotP and pre-HBP period, I must be officially an "old" author. Yikes! *lol*

~*~
An innumerable host,
Many a rational man will swear,
Congregate around the ghost
Of a love no longer there.

Bruce Dawe,
By as Little as a Look
~*~

( If he wasn't so hateful, Harry would have described him as endearing )


A/N: Please review if you read it. It keeps me from languishing in hp-writing purgatory. :) And thanks to Smoo for pointing out some of the errors I missed.

*headdesks repeatedly*

This is going to be one of those weeks when I'd hate work with a passion. I never liked covering for someone else's work while he/she is on vacation. It's like doing two jobs while only being paid for one. *sigh*

And I'm sure something interesting is going to happen in the fandom while I'm stuck doing three presentations. :P

My fic-writing isn't going well, either. I sit down to write a simple one-shot and end up writing an introduction to something that is meant to be a long-winded story that has a convoluted plot and would probably take 30 chapters to finish. *flops* I'm plot-deficient. Thank goodness Starry gave us until September 09.

Happy belated birthday to lazy_daze, crimson_stained, frek, & xandria_ii!!! Sorry I couldn't greet you on your official day, but I was probably knee-deep in paper then. ^^

Just when I was ready to accept Dumbledore's death, my friend and fellow HP-obsessed human, Alet, sent me this link:

http://www.dumbledoreisnotdead.com/dumbledoreclues.html

We have said many times over that it would be foolish to accept Rowling's "obvious text" as the truth when she has proved time and again that there is the truth and things that may seem to be the truth.

The explanations in this site are so convincing--putting together clues from the books that we may have missed into one coherent essay that I suddenly don't know what to think anymore.

(Like non-verbal spells. Everyone heard Snape say Avada Kedavra but was that the spell he cast or were they merely words he said to mislead witnesses?)

I won't even apologize for the spoiler. It's been more than a month since the release. Any self-respecting, true-blue Potter fan would have read HBP by now.

According to George Bernard Shaw, "You will think less of the art, when you know the artist."

I wonder whether this is true with regard to writing and writers, especially fan fiction.

With LiveJournal, the fandom folks get to be close and personal with each other. It's easier to keep in touch and, at the same time, develop friendships that would not have formed without LJ. Also, one gets to know little details about one's LJ friends by reading their journal posts, whether they write about fandom or personal affairs.

For me, knowing the writers behind the fanfiction has been rewarding so far. Aside from the occasional oddball, I found most of the fandom folks very nice, smart, and approachable. It's easy to get intimidated by a writer when one reads a very good fic, especially if the said writer is well known in the fandom. Familiarity somehow takes that intimidating aura away and makes it easier to talk and discuss common interests.

Still, what if the opposite happens? When I read a fic by a writer that I don't know personally I hesitate about contacting him/her through LJ. Somehow, by writing a really good piece of work, he/she automatically occupies a pedestal (you know what I mean) and a part of me doesn't want to get disappointed just in case the person turns out to be a total jerk--which is rare and very unlikely but it might happen.

I tend to read fic by writers I know; that way, I don't get bowled over by themes and writing that I can't stand, unlike the earlier days when I used to surf indiscriminately in FFN. I find that, in this case, knowing a writer becomes an advantage and I always try to review when I like a fic.

Still, I'm curious about my flist's opinions. I'd like to know what other people think about this: Is it better knowing the writer behind the fic? Or would you rather keep him/her as an impersonal name in your mind? Why?

---

( Pick 12 Characters Meme )

( these questions broke my brain at 8am )

I spent yesterday converting fragments of Jane Austen's works to Marauder slash drabbles with siriaeve.

Honestly, Austen's novels have so much slash potential. The repressed emotions, passions, the tendency for scandals to shake the characters... it's all so dramatic. One prime example is the H/D fic "Facade" by Malfoi. The dialogues could imply anything from restrained lust to despair. (I have a secret desire to read repressed-but-lustful!Snape dialogue.)

I was gonna write Senor Draco drabbles but I was waylaid by coding. I coded my edited version of Chasing Harry for K/G and it made me sooooo tired that I just collapsed and slept by 9pm. CH is the longest fic I've ever written but it's short compared to some of the novels out there. How they could stand coding the fics for their websites, I can't imagine. But then again, I did it the hard way: by notepad. *issolowtech*

I really don't mind my coding limitations since I could always learn more later, but browsing through Anukk's webwork could make anyone green with envy [LOOK]. Isn't that layout lovely? I want to take it home and marry it. *pats*

Someone at FA will be seriously pissed off at me because I'm about to change all the chapters of CH sometime in the next couple of weeks. Here's an advance apology for the extra work: Sorry, dear, but I had to change some phrases all over the place because they made me *facepalm*. :D

Sometimes, even the things that make me happy the most could piss me off. *sigh* I shall stop paying too much attention to Photoshop and just work. I have a lot to do anyway. It has distracted me today for too much time than it should have.

*stares pointedly at piled paperwork*

I dislike feeling stupid, and this is one of those times. Especially since I do stupider things because that feeling causes my ego to drop way below negative. I'd rather be plumb ugly than truly idiotic.

Sometimes I wonder what Barbie feels. Her intelligence has never been studied. Did she break up with Ken because of communication problems or because they just ran out of things to say when they realized that the weather in their dollhouse never changed?

On hour of sleep last night (fic coding nearly killed me) should have made this a terrible morning. But then I read this: Summary Executions: Greatest Hits! OMG. *dies* That's just another reason to ♥ mctabby.

Excerpt:
A tragic love story taking place aboard the Titanic. Harry's great-grandma and grandma meet on this ship, only to fall in love and...lose one another.

*spews tea* I didn't know Jack and Rose were both women! HAHAHA! And they're even related! AHAHAHAHA!

And if you're still alive after reading the aforementioned summaries, try visiting starrysummer's fangirling meme. We have to release a few kilowatts of fangirling energy every so often before we explode.

There's another great fic challenge going on: big_bang_hd. I'm really, really interested since my planned WIP is perfect for the theme and other requirements BUT I don't think I'll have it done by January. *woe* Seeing that I joined, uh, around 101 challenges, I have my work cut out until early next year. But, I'll try. Some miracle might happen and I'll suddenly learn to write faster. :D

Once again, I've proved my devotion to LJ sheep-hood. Friends, Romans, fellow earthlings, and LJ-ers: *prods*. Post something on mine first and then DO YOURS. (Then we can all BAA-AA together.) :D

*strokes brow*

I'm coding and I'm tired. I junked the design I did for the new installment of Killing Green and I spent all night trying to make the site I want. I have just a simple layout in mind but considering my limited talents with coding, it took me forever to get it right. :)

Now... *takes a DEEP breath* I need to do the fics and art that have been sent to the group since the mid-2004 which was probably the last time I updated. Considering the load of RL work that will be dumped on to me in the next few weeks, I better get KG done for Cathy to upload before the end of the week.

(*pokes arxfatalis and slyprentice* My laziness took a vacation. Hehe.)

---

EDIT: Breese (s8219) wrote an amazing essay about The Characters of Dumbledore and Voldemort. It is an excellent read for someone who has thought about and is interested with their interactions in HBP.

Happy birthday annephoenix!

... and since tomorrow is Krid's birthday, I may as well say it first:

Happy birthday bleed_sincerely!

♥

---

My new icon is pure ♥. Except that non-HP/LV or non-HP/TR shippers would probably read it as "I want to be your enemy."

Get ship icons from gutterqueen.

I think I might have gotten the ultimate review. Tom Riddle passed by and reviewed my fic--with a poem, too (in lower case of course). Hehe. At least now I know he isn't against slashing him with Harry.



I posted my promised Doku/Gojyo at saiyuki for superkappa. I was gonna write something dramatic and serious but it ended up being rather vague in the beginning with a little smut at the end. I think we all tend to summarize our lives in fics. *lol* Anyway, here's One Summer Night (Doku/Gojyo, Hard R).

It seems that my despair over missing the merry_smutmas sign-ups made me accumulate a lot of fandom work until the next season.

1. Fic for slyprentice's Harry/Draco slash E-Zine
   
   
2. Fic for slyprentice's Harry/Tom slash E-Zine
   
   
3. Fic for session one of wizard_trauma. Challenge #4: A receives unwelcome attention from Character B--stalking (Harry/Draco).
   
   
4. Fic for session three of wizard_trauma. Challenge #VIII: After Voldemort is defeated, the Dark Mark becomes unremittingly painful for all survivors who still wear one, but no one can figure out how to remove it (Voldemort/Harry).
   
   
5. Re-writing my first chapter of Winter Glass which I junked while freaking out last weekend.
   
   
6. Actually putting up Killing/Green--a task I've been delaying forever. I'm the laziest t00b on earth.
   
   
7. Signing up for hpvalensmut on September 25. (And I am going to remember this date!)
   
   
8. I'm not even going to mention anything I might do or write in between because you never know.
   

All that fandom work just made me happy again. Now maybe I should go back to doing some actual work (the one that pays for my bread and butter) before anyone gets suspicious (hee!).