Floating Leaf

So... yeah. I did it. That threesome fic I was talking about. It is finished. There's no explicit het sex in it, but still... quite a departure for me, so I'm a little nervous about posting. I am really surprised at how well I was able to hear Arwen's voice in my head - even though I never gave much thought to her personality before, and I don't suppose I myself could be as magnanimous as I made her here (but then, elves are less insecure/self-centered than humans, aren't they?...;P). Hard to say where the whole thing came from - other than how I'd been thinking about this whole big fandom discussion about how we slash writers tend to ignore/marginalize/vilify female characters. I certainly did not want to conform to that stereotype. Also, it is my own way of responding to all the angsty post-coronation fic wherein Legolas has to go. What if Arwen did NOT want him to go? I have an incurable tendency to always look for a painless solution, however unlikely it may seem. Well... here it is.


Title: Times of Peace
Pairing: Aragorn/Arwen/Legolas
Rating: NC-17 (just to be on the safe side, lol)
Summary: My own version of resolving the Arwen-angst. Highly idealistic and pehaps implausible, but I couldn't resist trying to give everyone a happy ending.
Warnings: A loving, sexual relationship between three people. Implicit het AND explicit slash.;) High sugar level. (I try, honest to the Valar, but I just can't seem to stay away from the sappy - so shoot me.;P)
Disclaimer: I don't know what would scandalize Tolkien more - my regular stuff or this. Let the reader decide.;)
Author's Notes: I might have been inspired by other A/A/L authors - especially surreysmum and ana_lib_elf, whose wonderful, happy fics convinced me that this particular threesome might work.;) Thank you, ladies. <3

( She loves them both. )

Good news at work today. The long-promised raises were finally approved. I got 4% - which is certainly more than I expected, since the typical annual raise at our company tends to be around 1-2% (ridiculous, I know, but they offer good benefits). And, of course, due to the economic crisis we haven't had any since 2008. So it does make a difference. Besides, the boss clearly implied that not everyone on my team got this much (she said she wished that were the case, but it wasn't possible). So it appears I somehow deserved it, despite my less-than-stellar performance on certain projects (*cough* phone calls *cough*). Which is certainly good to know.

Maybe - just maybe - my bank account balance will stop going DOWN now. Right on time, too, since it wasn't that far from hitting bottom... *sigh*

In other random news, Viggo TOTALLY looks like Freud these days. It's damn disturbing, actually. I'm all for actors submerging themselves in their characters etc.... but he is barely recognizable. He's wearing CONTACTS, for Pete's sake! The famous Icy Blue Gaze is gone!... The bohemian messy hair is gone, the scar on the upper lip is gone, he looks all prim and ELDERLY and just... yikes! Where is my Viggo???... *freaks out* ;P

Update on the sunburn: I think I'll live. My shoulders still look ugly, and the red patch of skin at the bottom of my neck feels extremely dry, like old parchment... but the pain is gone. Now there's only itching and white flakes of dead skin coming off all over my arms/shoulders/neck etc., even in places that don't seem burned at all. I wonder how long it will take before I look all pasty-white again (me?... tanned???... that ain't happened yet - or if it did, it was too long ago to remember... LOL).

Update on the summer: still hot. Sunny and breezy and generally glorious most of the time, but HOT. A third-floor apartment without central air-conditioning is a very toasty place to be.:/ I can live with that - but cooking is simply out of the question. So I've been making lots of salads. I have some interesting recipes I've never tried before - but if you know of any cool (literally) meal ideas that don't involve using the stove or oven (steaming veggies in the microwave is doable, since it doesn't increase the air temperature in the kitchen in a noticeable way), please share. I'll be in your debt.

Update on the gay: I watched Brokeback Mountain again last night. For the third or fourth time - not sure which. I have such a soft spot in my heart for this movie, it's kind of ridiculous, actually. ( And it's now available online through Netflix. )

I went to the Gay Pride Parade today. All by myself. ( Read more... )

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, dissonant_dream!!! I know I'm a bit late and you won't see this till tomorrow... but better late than never, they say.;) Massive hugs and a thousand wishes for all your dreams to come true! And here's someone ready to celebrate with you:

Just checking in to say that I finally watched Born of Hope. Yes, I know it's been out there since sometime last year, probably - but when I first heard about the project, it wasn't done yet, and then I sort of forgot about it. Until it popped up in conversation with illuins_lair a while ago. And I realized I am extremely late to the party - as usual.;)

So... anyway. The film is gorgeous. So amazingly well done and so true to the spirit of LOTR, you can hardly believe it wasn't created by Peter Jackson's team. It's a truly wonderful labor of love... or, in other words, one of the greatest pieces of fanart ever made. Because that's what it is, by any definition. And somehow I think Professor Tolkien would be very happy with it, even though he never invented some of those characters/events. In the whole big discussion on the legitimacy of fanfiction/fanart, I think this film is a very strong argument in favor of it. I can't imagine anyone seeing it and then saying it shouldn't have been made. If that actually happened and I am simply unaware of it - please let me know.;)

My favorite character was, of course, Elgarain (I say "of course", because if you've seen the film, and if you know anything about me and my life, you will probably know why ;). Played by Kate Madison, who also directed and produced the movie. That woman is damn AWESOME. I am totally, like, crushing on her right now.;P Christopher Dane, who plays Arathorn, is also great. All the characters are believable and fit in very well into Tolkien's universe. The story is moving, the costumes and other detail beautifully done, the fight sequences convincing, the music... wow. Just... WOW. A fannish experience to be treasured, no doubt about it. <333

But speaking of fanfiction... I has a rec to share. Midsummer Memorial by geale01. Not for the faint of heart - for it is canon A/L, which, as we all know, doesn't include a happy ending. But it is sooo beautifully written it just has to be given proper homage. It made me cry and cry and cry (and I wasn't PMS-ing at the time, just so you know...;P). It is right up there at the top of my 'best A/L angst' list - somewhere close to Leaves of Gold by lady_elina. Which is really saying a lot. Anyway... you can find it here:

http://geale01.livejournal.com/18779.html#cutid1

As you can surely tell, I am in a very LOTR-loving mood at the moment.:D

So what have I been up to this lovely long weekend? Shopping, mostly. Groceries, toiletries, underwear, sleepwear, shoes... basic stuff, really. I just realized I hadn't actually gone clothes-shopping since 2008 (!). I was so freaked out by the gradual, mysterious decline of my bank account balance that I decided to put ALL unnecessary purchases on hold; but then I think I went a bit too far and ended up wearing stuff that had already started to come apart at the seams. Seriously, I was beginning to look like a hobo.:/ My financial situation is not THAT bad, for heaven's sake. I CAN afford a few pieces of clothing every once in a while, or a new pair of shoes to replace those old black loafers I had bought in Poland about 10 years ago. I kid you not - I still wear them, even though they are terribly scuffed, and the soles are cracking in a few places. The thing is, I LOVED those shoes, and I didn't want to part with them until I found a new pair in a similar style. Which I finally did. Today.:) So the old loafers can be eventually put to rest. After so many years of faithful service, I think I should give them a funeral.:D

Oh, and btw, the "excuse" for most of these shopping trips was trying to find a gift for my dad's upcoming birthday. Needless to say, I didn't find anything that he might possibly want or need - but I found a lot of stuff for myself instead.:) Like those pretty frilly nightgowns, or the fancy bar of organic French soap smelling of verbena. *inhales ecstatically* ;) Not a necessity, I suppose (a plainer, cheaper soap would do) - but a woman NEEDS to indulge sometimes, right? No matter how little money she has... RIGHT?

Also, I have seen some amazing movies lately. I don't feel up to writing extensive reviews, but I just need to mention a few titles briefly before I forget to do it. ( Read more... )

So... my laptop gave me a major scare last night. Namely, a blue screen announcing a "System File Failure" and informing me that "physical memory dump" was "complete". Whatever the hell that means. Oh, and telling me to "contact my administrator" for further assistance. Gahhh!... Sounded pretty much like computer death to me. I just kept turning it off, and then back on, for about an hour in persistent denial, hoping for a miracle - before it occurred to me that I could go back to the initial "boot order" screen and try starting Windows in safe mode. And, thank all the gods, it worked. I was able to use "System Restore" and bring it back to previous day's settings. Seems fine now. HOWEVER... I am under no illusions that this will not happen again. This laptop, ladies and gentlemen, is SEVEN YEARS OLD. It's basically just a piece of junk that pretends to be a computer at this point. It has a 519MHz processor, 448MB of RAM and a 37GB hard drive. That's, like, NOTHING by today's standards. All the new ones start at about twice as much. And no matter how good my antivirus software is these days, the system is going to keep crashing every once in a while. It's simple wear & tear, I suppose. One day it will inevitably succumb to the final blue screen of death. *sniff*

So, my point is, I am NOT going to spend a penny on trying to fix it when that happens. I paid $300 for virus cleanup/file rescue last summer - and how much extra time did that buy me?... Another year?... Two, perhaps?... Uh-huh. I'll be getting myself a new one. The thing is, I don't exactly have big bucks to spend. I can't afford all the bells and whistles on a PC, and let's just conveniently forget about a Mac (which everyone keeps recommending to me, like I owned a goldmine or something :/). I want the basics - but I also want to be able to use it for a good few years (maybe not seven or more, lol, but about five would be nice). So it might not be a good idea to pick the cheapest model (I could get a slightly better version of what I have now for about 300-400$, but I'd rather pay another hundred or two for a good one... if you know what I mean). On the other hand, I'm not willing to invest in some fancy extra features I don't really need. I don't do heavy duty stuff like downloading movies or playing 3D video games. I browse the web a lot, and I want to be able to watch DVD's and online videos in good quality - but it doesn't have to be HD, let alone BluRay. And I don't need a terrifying amount of storage - most of the stuff I really care about is backed up on a bunch of CD's already, and right now my 37GB hard drive is good enough for me. So what I'm wondering about is whether I can get what I need for under 500$, or should I fork out more?... Also, which brands are really trustworthy?... I was sort of gravitating towards a Toshiba, but then I read some online reviews that totally trashed it, so I don't know. Any thoughts/advice/recommendations will be welcome.

I am not buying a new computer yet, btw - I'll wait for the old one to breathe its last, lol. But when that happens - presumably in a not-too-distant future - I want to be prepared. So I don't just sit there biting my nails and tearing my hair out (which is pretty much what I did when it crashed last August) - but instead calmly get up, grab my credit card and drive to the nearest computer store, with a pretty good idea in my mind of what I'm looking for. Sounds like a plan, don't you think?...;)

Anyway... I do realize I have some backlog in comment replies and stuff, but I've been sort of preoccupied with the above.:P I will get there soon, I promise. Right now, it's bedtime (geez!!!...already?... how does it always manage to sneak up on me like that???... *sigh*). Talk to you guys later. *yawns*

So, I just finished reading another book by Tanith Lee. White as Snow. Yes, it's a retelling of the famous fairy tale - but forget all about the saccharine Disney version. Forget the Brothers Grimm too, for that matter. This story is NOT for kids. Just like original, folk fairy tales were not - they had much more in common with cruel myths of primitive cultures, rife with blood and vengeance. In fact, this book combines some old, "uncensored" versions of Snow White with the Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone. So the "evil stepmother" is in fact the natural mother - who is not evil at all... just very unhappy. ( Read more... )

I didn't mention it yesterday, since I had planned on posting fic first, but there is quite a bit of commotion going on at my workplace this week. One of my team-mates is retiring - and since they're not planning on hiring anyone new in her place, we're all just gonna be pulling a bigger workload from now on. So, instead of being an "occasional helper" on the stuff she used to do, I will now be one of the major contributors. So there is a lot of "last minute" training going on - for everybody, really, since no one comes close to her level of experience (she's been with the company for THIRTY-EIGHT years; can you even imagine that???... working at the same place for so long?...). And there is overtime. And I haven't even touched my "regular" work in days. And the boss is sort of running around like an energizer bunny, tossing new projects this way and that... lol.

On the fun side, we're doing our best to send her off in style. We had a casual lunch out last week, just for our team; and yesterday was a big party at a fancy Italian restaurant, with the company president, the data operations department head, the HR manager etc. The whole thing took at least three hours, and it was sponsored by the company, so there was basically no limit on what we could order (they pay us next to nothing, but at least we get lavishly fed for free every once in a while... lol). We had appetizers (like shrimp and bruschetta and goat cheese and toasted garlic bread and olives), then we had soups or salads (my spinach salad with nuts and tangerines was so poetic I am going to dream about it), and then we had the main course. I ordered roasted salmon with Sardinian couscous (much bigger than regular couscous, as it turned out, but smaller than orzo), spinach and calamari in a spicy tomato sauce. Mmmmm... (lots of garlic too) And then some people had desserts. I wanted to, but my stomach wasn't willing to cooperate anymore.;) Of course we couldn't have wine, since we were coming back to the office afterwards - but it was a joyful experience anyway.:P Tomorrow is the final "goodbye cake" function for the entire company - with cards and gifts and flowers and speeches and group pictures and all that junk. And then most of us have to come in on Saturday to actually get some WORK done.:P

This is just by way of explanation, in case I get a bit behind on comment replies and stuff. I'm trying to keep track of it all, but the next few weeks might be crazy, and it might so happen that the only thing I feel up to in the evenings/weekends will be skimming flist and reading porn.:P I still feel inspired to write, but I have to watch my sleep schedule (7 hours a night, minimum) or things are going to get ugly.:/ At any rate, I'm always here (LJ-land, that is) in spirit.:D