let's stumble towards success and pack some snacks for little breaks

Here is a story. If you have a few minutes to kill, you should go read it, because it's really, really good.

To those of you who have not yet received your Christmas icons- I haven't forgotten you, I'm still working on them. I shall try to get them all up tomorrow.

Also, the bass has a name: Milo. (Me, obsessed with Metanoia? Nooooo...)

*climbs up on a conveniently placed rooftop*

HEY, WORLD! I DO NOT FIND BRAD PITT, MARILYN MANSON OR DOMINIC MONAGHAN ATTRACTIVE IN THE SLIGHTEST!

*climbs back down quickly to avoid flying shoes and rotten tomatoes*

(Note: this does not mean I don't like them. Dom's a great character to write, and Manson kicks ass. I just don't think they're sexy.)

Also:

He reached out with his mind, groping with his empathic sense at the frustrating divide between himself and Kieran, the distance which made them separate. It seemed impossible to breach at first -- then suddenly his mind relaxed into the right shape, and warmth came welling up, concern, love, weary joy at the simple fact of his presence. Feelings enough like his own that they might have been hard to distinguish, but he had learned the flavor of Kieran's emotions now, the particular cornered hopefulness of them. There was a haven of kindness in the world after all. Just a little one. Just Kieran-sized. Not enough light to find his way, perhaps, but enough that he knew he wasn't blind. Not enough to solve any problems, but enough to remind him why he couldn't give up trying.

"I'm done crying now," Ash promised. "I'll be stronger in the morning."

That's from The God Eaters, or Swallowing the Burn by Jesse Hajicek (I'm still not sure why it's called that, but the title doesn't matter). It's an online novel, pointed out to me by macabresinclair. I have no idea why it isn't published- it's definitely good enough and long enough to be- but I recommend it highly. I've spent the majority of today reading it (first on the laptop until Mom took the power cord, then the G5 until Cord took it, but I printed out the next two chapters and read them on my couch in my room with a quilt and a cup of cinnamon hot chocolate, and now I'm on the laptop again). It's set in an alternate universe, around a social/political/religious situation parallel to the Europeans' conquest of the Native Americans. Certain characters have mental abilities called Talents, including the two main characters, Kieran and Ash. It is centered around a homosexual relationship, but there's nothing explicit until chapter seventeen out of twenty-nine. In other words, it's not just smut; there is a plot, and an incredibly well-thought-out one, with fascinating characters that continue to develop throughout the story. I'm not going to try to summarize the plot, because I always either do a bad job or give away something by accident, but the fact that I'm praising it this highly without even having finished it should tell you something. Don't be put off by the prologue- it's rather disjointed, as Abby put it, but things start making sense in the first chapter. After spending at least, oh, six hours today reading it, I'm up to chapter twenty-one, and I'm not sure I'll be able to resist staying up to finish it tonight. It's like not being able to put down a book, only I'm pushing the down arrow frantically instead of turning pages frantically.

*goes back to reading*

EDIT: "Morning hit him between the eyes like a hammer." *dies laughing* Yes, that's from the same novel I'm raving about above.

HEY, LOOK, IT'S ANOTHER EDIT: Ooooooooooh, now there's gods as characters, like in The Iliad. *glued to screen*