baby, be my mafia boss, I'll be your right-hand man

A very early Happy Halloween post, everybody (look, Livejournal's already switched the viewing in anticipation), as the next four days are quite literally going to be hell for me, and I don't expect to be able to be on very much, if at all:

Last night, lacewood, cynic_in_charge and I celebrated Halloween by venturing into the Night Safari for the special Halloween event (so scary, people wrote in to the national newspapers to complain). Jack-o-lanterns and skeletons greeted us at the entrance, and the Forest Giants trail had been decorated in suitably macabre fashion with dismembered limbs, bloodstained ghouls, and all manner of the dead and departed. We were not greeted with the more extreme and interactive forms of terror worthy of writing in to the newspapers for, but I will freely admit I am very easily terrified and did actually consider the Malayan jungle horror walk unnerving on some level. However, I was not afraid, as I was with lacewood, who was concerned that she would accidentally punch anyone leaping out of the bushes to scare her, and cynic_in_charge, who rightly paid more attention to the flying squirrels and absent giraffes than the forest freakshow.

( ... and that's how you know I really *can* link everything to Reborn. )

ANYWAY! ON TO THE REAL SHOW:


download ( note )
Darren Shan Manga Volume 8 preview scans
(13 pages (Happy Halloween!), 5.37 MB, 200 dpi)
[ps! manga + extras = 188 pages, this is just but what I bought it for a little of it.]

The most important thing you need to know
about Volume 8 of the Darren Shan manga is:
WARNING: EXTENSIVE IMAGE-INTENSIVE PREVIEWS
( STEVE'S BAAAAACK (and so DAMN pretty) )

( And Darren doesn't look half-bad either. )

( well, you know what's coming. )

( HIGHLY dubious bonus )
Other Amazing Things About Darren Shan

☠ Did you know that we're getting a Darren Shan Movie in 2009? Here's the IMDB cast list! VERY NOTABLE MENTIONS:
★ Ken Watanabe as MR. TALL
★ WILLEM DAFOE as Gavner Purl
(The Green Goblin in Spider-man, the voice of Gil in Finding Nemo, I COULD GO ON AND ON)
★John C. Reilly as Mr Crepsley (WHAT THE HELL WERE THEY THINKING)
★ Selma Hayek as Madame Truska
I'm kinda blinking a lot in shock here, guys. Excuse the incoherency. This really is official, you can see it on the Darren Shan website.

☠ The Darren Shan manga has been licensed, and is to be released by Yen Press, in 2009, in time for the movie's release. The author himself was proofreading the US adaptation of the manga as of September 2008.

☠ You can still read the first five chapters of the Darren Shan manga scanlated on onemanga right here, though. (omg. reading this while reading Volume 8 is a real headtrip)

☠ Check out the (fanart) by the scanlators of Darren as Spider-man and Steve as Venom. ♥ (must re-read Volume 1, I swear I have seen it before)

... oh god I haven't posted in forever. Have been literally eaten by life: on the highly dubious upside I finally got the Millefiore/Spanner case I always wanted, in early August -

And it has, true to form, kept me chained and handcuffed in the basement for the past two and a half months. And looks set to keep me there for more! I took 70 megabytes of documents home to work with over the weekend, am trying very hard not to think about them now (and obviously, failing equally hard). (Had to turn down morning with adorable dogs today because I am genuinely exhausted and need to conserve energy T___T)

That said! tinted_glass linked this hilarious It's Always Sunny video, and it made me laugh so hard because it contains a great deal of hysteria about not reading contracts before you sign them. *still laughing*

( TRUE COLOURS )

( obviously I am Mieu. )

mangy_mongrel is travelling Europe and is very sweet and sending postcards from all over (much love!) ♥ - also this is probably a measure of how used my family is to me; my Dad was going through the mail, found a postcard from Italy addressed to 'Gokudera Hayato', and without blinking passed it to me with an unconcerned, "This is yours".

maiki! The Rolo doujinshi arrived! ♥ IT MADE ME SO SO SO HAPPY. ♥ Thank you for the gorgeous and lovely Rolo stickers! They are making me smile in a most disturbing manner! ♥ It is so clear which your art is (I want to take your Rolo home and love him forever)! milk_of_lime's artwork is also incredibly distinctive and also makes me smile like anything. Thank you so much for putting the book together, every single page and word and line of it is made of pure love. ♥

Had an immensely fun time yesterday with hemera_oneiroi (BEST SHIFU EVER), julineci (♥!!!), snowykiss (thank you so much for everything, and I really hope your feet feel better~), kateriya (pretty lady! ♥ *is shot*), chiiyo (omg why are you so cute when you look so sad), haruko_o (AMAZING PHOTOGRAPHER), and aslah (THANK YOU SO MUCH for MAGICALLY FINDING THE book! ♥)

Amazing Things of Note
☆ TALES OF THE ABYSS ANIME: I really need to make a separate post for this BUT WHERE IS THE TIME? D: Suffice to say it is amazing and lovely and is gradually giving me the culmulative WANT to replay the game (oh god no, I gave up 100 hours of my life to this game and I don't want it back; but I ALSO do not wish to give up any more)
☆ TALES OF THE ABYSS MANGA VOLUME 5: why so cute and so excruciatingly adorable GUY/LUKE LOVE UP 100%.
☆ DARREN SHAN MANGA: FINALLY! FINALLY! ADULT!STEVE AND DARREN MEET AGAIN in the September '08 release of Darren Shan! ♥ I have only been waiting since December 2006 for this (... wow. In comparison I have only been waiting for Gokudera and Tsuna to reunite since February this year). Adult!Steve looks AMAZING. ♥

UNIVERSITY IS EATING SO MUCH MORE OF MY LIFE THAN I EXPECTED IT TO. I am behind on about EIGHT BILLION LJ POSTS, MY GOD. I will attempt to cure this with what time I DO get on the computer these days. I have been meaning to do an abyss doujin post for forever, but then I get sidetracked by writing 600+ word entries on the lyrics on Mooche doujin. THE LYRICS ALONE. OH WELL LET ME DEMONSTRATE. Next post is the 5% of the entire abyss doujin post I have written so far.

THE DARREN SHAN MANGA IS TOTAL LOVE. I COMPLETELY need to scan it. The second installment is out (heard this by way of maiki, thank you!) and just as I said I shouldn't I ran right off to Kino AND THEY HAD IT! I thought I was resigned to waiting two weeks or forever, but NO IT IS HERE. And it seems like the Orchard Kino only ever gets two copies - either that, or I MOVE SLOW, which is untrue, but anyyyyyyway. The first installment was 72 pages, which is also how I discovered I can read Cirque Du Freak, Steve, and Darren, all through Tales of the Abyss character names. Reading it at first was honestly a little odd to me (much like the first time I heard KH2 with all the Disney characters speaking in Japanese, YES I AM SLOW), because I'd imagined everyone in English for so long, and none of them looked anything like the way I imagined them, but I got used to it. Got to quite like it, even, it's like a whole new series from the series I remember now.

ANYWAY VOLUME TWO. There isn't the Steve and Darren bedroom scene I REALLY REALLY REALLY wanted to see (basically, I meant the 'WHY ARE YOU AVOIDING ME, Darren?' scene) there is HALF of that scene left but they do it on a STREET and not in Darren's house BUT BUT BUT, IT HAD DARREN HOLDING UNCONSCIOUS!STEVE'S hand, and Mr. Crepsley is about 8,000 times MORE HOT THAN I HAD IMAGINED HIM, although that may have to do with the fact that A, who was translating for me, switched from her youthful/noisy Darren voice STRAIGHT into ONE HELL OF AN INCREDIBLE CREPSLEY VOICE that sent shivers down my spine and had me go 'HOW DID YOU KNOW HOW TO USE THAT VOICE?!' at which she just laughed. ALSO, MR. CREPSLEY GOES 'NYA'. NYA I TELL YOU. NYA. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA MY BRAIN IS BROKEN.

Remind me to talk about voices when translating doujin when I make an abyss doujin post, because some of you guys are DAMNED GOOD at voices. I AM SO SORRY MY FRIENDS FOR UNLEASHING ABYSS AND MORE ABYSS AND EVEN MORE ABYSS ON ALL OF YOU, you know who you are, feel free to demand recompense. ♥

But there is the whole 'DARREN YOU'RE MY ONLY FRIEND WHAT WOULD I DO IF I LOST YOU' and the way Darren reacts to Steve being bitten by the spider is REALLY DARN GOOD.

The best Darren Shan fanfiction I have ever read was... Crepsley/Darren. Set to either Savage Garden or Evanescence. IF YOU MUST ASK ONE CAN GET VERY DESPERATE WHEN ATTEMPTING TO FIND FANFICTION FOR SERIES without many writers, which also explains how I know where to find IonXSink fic in Chinese, on a site you have to REGISTER an account for to read, and I can link it to you if you want it. Anyway, Darren Shan, I found ONE HINTED STEVE/DARREN. ISH. fic, which was Steve POV and kinda dark and good, but really really short.

OH IT IS ACTUALLY SO INCREDIBLE TO SEE THIS SERIES IN JAPANESE because hearing Steve yell "YOU LIE!" in Japanese is somehow 7,0000 times funnier than hearing it in English. Also to hear Steve go, "Ano this, Ano that" IS DAMN FUNNY to me because I JUST NEVER ASSOCIATE STEVE WITH 'ANO' anything.

To tell the absolute truth I am now sifting through the 840+ comments on afrai's journal to see if I can find any mention of Dragon Tiger Gate slash.

And staying up to talk to Niisan, of course. Oh darn I don't remember if she's having a firm dinner tonight. NEVER MIND I'LL WAIT.

OH I NEED TO MENTION that there is this guy in my university WHO REMINDS ME COMPLETELY OF SUZUKI CHIHIRO WITH AN ACCEPTABLE HAIRSTYLE, and it did not help that the first time I saw him he was in pink and he has dyed hair which is the Suzuki shade and I was all "........ /////////////////// ^____________________^" ... obviously, I am far from coherent.

Also I wanted to reassure Eve and Pei Yi and 'frai that I do not always write about old men, so how about I post this one abyss drabble thing I wrote, and let's all imagine the word Luke is Tiger, and the name Asch is Dragon.

OH IN MY UNIVERSITY THIS WEEK THERE WERE TWO PEOPLE FALLING INTO CEMENT PITS. CEMENT PITS I ASK YOU. And EVERY SINGLE ONE OF OUR LECTURERS who mentioned this to us said, "I said that the students don't need to use their skills so fast! What are we doing, bringing negligence actions in our own backyard?"