WTB reliable Rufus RPer. I know posting here won't get me one, I just feel like whining XD

What is with all the crappy FF7 werewolf AUs. I have seen at least three (by different people!). I blame Twilight for this one.

For my Dystopian Lit term paper - elements of transhumanism and definitions of humanity in dystopian literature (focusing on Neuromancer and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep), or antiheroes, sociopaths, and their role in dystopian societies (focusing on Neuromancer, Watchmen, and A Clockwork Orange)? Am actually somewhat curious for others' thoughts on this, although I have a month to pick still

Related to the above, get to write a paper on parallels between A Handmaid's Tale and Children of Men, which means rewatching the latter this weekend and probably throwing popcorn at the tv.

Still have a cold ugh.

I have done so much writing this week, pretty much all of it incredibly self-indulgent. And you know what? I don't care. I am having an awesome time RPing and having Tseng discuss cats with Vash and get into fights with Reno and be fluffy with Sheska and Aeris, and writing Rufus genderswap, and Braska having break-downs, and all that jazz. It just feels good to be doing something fun and creative again.

Also, fall is finally actually here, which means I got to break out my favorite coat ever (yes, it is leather, no, I still can't believe I bought it for $75 either) for the cool weather. Unfortunately aforementioned weather has also brought with it the first cold of the season, which is annoying but bearable for the moment. Hopefully it will not morph into ZOMGdeath flu!!1! or something.

Which I realize I talk about a lot, but nobody cares about twenty-page-long microarray overview papers giving me headaches (mostly because the authors assume more of a data analysis background than I have). So, in no particular order-

-I am a huge nerd and contemplating trying to plot out functional mechanics for magic/mako and Geostigma ('science' and 'Final Fantasy' = two things that should probably not be in the same sentence)
-I bought a Crisis Core wallscroll today! This art, no idea where I'm going to hang it as I have CLAMP and FFX posters that still need hanging too
-Fangirl Freudian slip of the evening - substituting 'Wall Market' for 'Night Market'. I actually caught myself after the first word but was in a car of other fanpersons who called me on it. In my defense, the Night Market is like the Wall Market, only with more Chinese bootlegs and less places to sit.

In non-FF7 news, the marshmallows were (and are) absolutely delicious, I went into T&T to buy dried mushrooms and BBQ sauce and came out with two bags of groceries and eight kilos of rice, and I am seriously contemplating Kanji. Nevermind that I do not have a crazy widow's peak and have lots of cosplay projects already. But he's so full of win, and I've made that style of uniform before (teen!Seishirou, which never got worn and is now too small). Bonus points would be convincing Rosie to dress as Naoto, because she's got the right build and looks for it, and would be all over getting to wear a boy's uniform and a kickass hat.

I hate it when I come across amazing WIP fics that haven't been updated for a year and a half :< I also hate it when I decide to wear my white pants out one day and of course they end up with some weird huge stain on one leg. Yes, they're my Rufus pants. Yes, I will actually cry if I can't get it out.

On the plus side - I have tea, techno, Alton Brown, and a successfully finished Population Genetics assignment, so it's not all bad.

EDIT: Ahaha wonders of using white cotton twill for this suit = the magic stain removing power of chloride bleach! The worst of the mess (looked like pen ink of some sort - very dark blue) is gone, and I'm going to let the last little dark bits soak overnight.

Because I really need to start keeping track of them for the lulz posterity, and each dinner meeting of the cosplay group seems to generate new ones. Tonight's Bad Reno Idea: Reno + stripper cake + 'Happy Birthday Mr. President'. Bonus lulz for President Shinra Senior.

Previous Bad Reno Ideas:
-Fan dance!
-Slap Reno, 5 gil
-Reno + Napoleon Dynamite + 'Vote for Rufus' in body paint

So getting drunk on Bailey's last night and then staying up 'til three am reading FF7 fanfic was apparently not a great idea, because I feel crappy today. Not even really hungover-crappy, just...out of it and in a funk. Thus why I am sitting here morosely sipping at my tea and playing Flash minigames on MSN Gaming Zone.

I dunno, I just have this looming sense that I've horribly overcommitted myself again. Four classes this term, which are all interesting but fairly intense (one of them is actually a graduate-level class hahaha), Tuesday night gaming - I'm starting a campaign of my own up again, a comission for Mara-cookie I'm kind of tearing my hair out over, waiting to hear back from another job...I'd like to take a martial arts class but am terrified of looking like a total tool (and weeabo, out here - they don't joke about 'UBC' standing for 'University of a Billion Chinese' for nothing), and it would cut 'nights I can raid' down from like...two or three to none. I enjoy WoW, but...I think even with getting home before 7:30pm every night I still totally don't have the time for it.

QQ, fml, etc. I did get a little more writing down before the ennui and angst kicked in, so fic just needs some bits and pieces to connect the middle to the ending properly and some heavy editing. It is the longest piece of fiction I think I've written ever.

First, a neat little Shinra-centric AMV - I'm not actually a huge AMV fan, as I think many of you know already (attention span of a goldfish, here), but this one is well-put-together.

Second, a combination of introspection and food for though for some of the Rufus-writers on my flist. I've been reading through the BC scripts a little more thoroughly than I did when I apped Tseng for City of Mako many years ago, now (I also think that at the time, like...only the first five or six were translated), and I've come to the realization that BC!Rufus is a huge dick to the Turks. First he gets Veld reassigned, then he orders Avalanche to kill the Turks when they're standing right in front of him, and then basically throws Veld under the bus to save his own ass. Now, as I am a huge Rufus/Turks shipper in general, I realized I need to find a compelling reason for the Turks to stay loyal to him. Because honestly? Given the way Tseng is characterized in BC and CC, I can't see why he'd stick around after Weapon to take care of Rufus's sorry ass.The two possibilities Jon and I came up with is either Rufus doing something totally altruistic in secret and the Turks finding out about it, or putting himself on the line to save one of them. Any other brilliant ideas?

Also, two fun Turks facts for writers - they apparently have company housing within the main Shinra tower, and there is a hidden room inside the Turks offices where Rufus is held temporarily following his secret arrest. Yeah, that second one sounded like a set-up for porn to me, too.

Fall is here, with stormy weather, cool days, and school. I have worked what is, with any luck, my last day ever at my awful grocery store job, and...am actually looking forward to school starting again. Ahh, the differences between being in high school and being in college. This is also possibly my last summer vacation ever - I should be graduating this year, and I'm not actually looking at pursuing a higher level degree any more, so. I feel like maybe have made more of it, but ah well. I managed to get back into some creative pursuits, which is good.

I also reactivated my WoW account, because Blizzard owns my soul. So much badge farming to do, QQ. But my baby pally has gained five and a half levels since last week. Soon she'll be a big pally!

-The approximately three people reading this who understand the reference will find this hilarious: Ally the Turk. She is this team's Reno. I give her roughly ten minutes before the Fearless Leader attempts to strangle her in frustration.
-New Rufus boots = surprisingly comfortable! The downside is that they were made with someone with larger ankles than me, so the heels rub a little without insoles
-Fifteen yards of wool-blend suiting = ~20 pounds. Now I understand why they wanted $45 to ship it to Canada
-Looks great, though - a little higher color saturation than the stuff I originally used for Jon's first suit, which I think will actually work nicely
-My Elena got a job, and thus is actually coming with us omg omg omg. Seriously she will be adorable.

This pile of awesome makes up for the fact that I am going to hate myself tomorrow (initial chiropractic exam, ie, lots of prodding, plus walking around campus lots, plus staying up past my bedtime)

You know you're playing an Atlus game when you hit the difficulty wall three bosses in (in this case, Shadow Yukiko). Unfortunately I am fail at planning and waited until the last day to do Yukiko's dungeon, which means that while I desperately need to grind like another two levels on each character, I don't actually have basically any recovery items. I've gotten her down to like 10% at least three times now, but when she gets low she casts AoE attacks like every round and owns me. Anyway, general non-spoilery thoughts on gameplay and such:

-Combat system is fun, although I really wish there were turn icons like Nocturne and DDS have. But I like the special pile-on attack that triggers when all the enemies are knocked down.
-Going in, I wasn't sure if I'd like the S.Link/life sim bits of it, but...they're actually surprisingly fun.
-Chie is so awesome XD And Teddie is hilarious but also creepy.
-Jon pointed out the ironic inversion that right now, out of my three person party, the girl is the only one who can't heal.
-Oh god why can't I skip the super-long scene before Shadow Yukiko I've seen it like seven times now whyyyy

And kind of related - I'm starting to really hope Tseng gets kidnapped for the Desai Midnight Channel plot, because playing Shadow Tseng would be creepy and interesting and awesome. Basically, my Tseng hides two things about himself. The first is that he's sort of a borderline sociopath - not only does he not really feel guilty about the fact that he kills people for a living (the exception being Sector 7, and there it's more 'that was not right' and regret at having made the wrong decision), a part of him enjoys the violence. And he hides a lot of that, and hides his fear that the inner Beast is most of what he is.

The other thing he hides is his fear and shame about his sexuality (my Tseng being pretty much 100% gay) - he was raised in an extremely conservative family in a rather conservative culture, and while he moved to Midgar as a teenager, being gay in Midgar is not so much welcomed as it is tolerated. I think this goes for a lot of cyberpunk cities - it's less 'it's okay to be gay!' and more that people just don't give a shit who you're fucking. But I personally see a lot of the Midgar upper-class, as well as the upper echelons of the company, being very much 'wife and two kids', and that there aren't a whole lot positive depictions of same-sex relationships in the media. He hides his sexuality, but if confronted about it wouldn't deny it - he would deny the feelings of shame, that he's unnatural, that his love is ultimately damaging, because he has a certain amount of pride and self-confidence.

So yeah, Shadow Tseng would be kind of a super-creepy over-the-top sociopath with that slightly feral gleam in his eyes, possibly combined with elements of the good old Predatory Gay stereotype.