Whatever shall I do... no spoilers to look forward to this week. I thought about doing a gaiden retrospective and presenting for you close-up panels of all the baby characters presented and calling it BLEACH THE WONDER YEARS but I decided to make a less lame entry and show you some pix you MAY have not seen before.

I recently purchased one of pheleon's unique and amazing plushies for a friend's birthday and pheleon took a pic of Renji and Ichigo saying goodbye to said plushie:




You guys have seen the latest volume cover from Kubo-sensei right? This one is going to sell.



There was an IchiRuki festival in Tokyo recently, the second this year, at which doujinshi groups sold their books and fans met to cosplay.  I always crave doujinshi but there were all these other stuffs I wanted from there too.




Mezzo found another comic based on Kubo's already infamous color spread with the turkey leg and innuendo. A little IshiHime perviness this time. I'm so happy Japan hasn't forgotten my favorite pairing.



Oh, and people always ask me how I survive reading all fanforums I do. Simple mantra: "All people are valuable; all opinions are not valid."
I injured some internal organs laughing this week. It's going to be a fun summer for the fandom. I hope all of you at Comic Con this July 26 will take good pix and good notes because I'll be in a day-long boring training session to be a voting commissioner for my city's next elections. Blow kisses at Kubo-sensei for me.

Cheers!

Fandom tidbits. Lovedrop, a doujinshi group in Japan that does mostly IchiRuki and IshiHime had this cute picture on its site this morning:

( Lovedrop IshiHime pic )
and then mezzo_marinaio  colored it with her fine skills here,
and I dunno, stuffs like that can make my whole fangirl day because my favorite pairing hasn't had any canon interaction in oh, A CENTURY. Speaking of teh cute, I can NOT believe this plushie of Ulquiorra. He has a HOLE and a removable sword and I bow before the craftsmanship: THE Ulquiorra Schiffer by *pheleon on Deviant Art

Oh, and new story from me. It's arguably IchiOri. Yes, I've written IchiOri before. True Love and Swirly Skirts was a canon-based fic about Orihime's love for Ichigo. That one carried an IchiRuki warning, though. This one doesn't so I think it's safe for IchiOri shippers to read without wanting to kill me, but I dunno.

( Twelve Hours, G, Orihime )

Oh, and a quick fic rec. I loved this inside out. Perfect! Four of Cups by empath_eia Rated T, Isshin/Ryuuken.

If fishingforboots isn't on your radar yet, she should be. I want to sing her that Roberta Flack song "I heard he sang a good song, I heard he had a style...." because I wandered into her yaoi on a let-skim day and left with goosebumps, a romantic awed feeling, and thrill bubbles up my spine. I'll never stop loving the boy-loving dark waters of fanfiction if only because there are so many good slash writers out there. Here's a fic by her that's not even smut--just a very emotional, well-constructed story that hits you in the ovaries and then some:

Architect PG13 IchiIshi

The IchiRuki essay contest is hopping over at Bleach Asylum, and it seems that Annie and I have done well by our threats of withholding doujinshi from the masses if they don't write so some great essays are coming through. One I have to admit great prejudice for but I'm only reproducing it here because it's so damn funny as well as logical and I thought it might appeal to Bleach fans in general not just shippers. I hope you enjoy this piece by mezzo_marinaio:



*applauds Mezzo*

*puts on shipper boots*

A fun tidbit someone noticed the other day when discussing shipping was that Ichigo has yet to say "I'm going to save Orihime" in the HM arc the way he said so many times with so much conviction and passion in the SS arc about Rukia. Sure, he mentioned that he was going to bring her back in a list with his other nakama but it wasn't that singular "I will save Orihime." Then someone pointed out that instead, in the infamous much debated When The Sun Turned Around for the Moon Chapter 270, Ichigo actually did the say words again about Rukia.

Yup. He said. "I'm going to save Rukia" in a crucial moment in Orihime's own rescue arc.

I don't know why I still like to keep arguing these points because it's game, set, and match as far as I'm concerned for IchiRuki but we'll see. Someone out there has to think of something humiliating for me to do if Kubo goes IchiOri and I'll promise to do it if he does.

Oh, and finally, I just have to spazz over one thing. Everyone knows my pet (het) pairing is IshiHime. Okay it's my favorite pairing even over Ishida/Ishida or any other yaoi combo. Everyone knows my pairing hasn't had any canon interaction for months and I'm hanging by a thread here just waiting for Kubo-sensei to pick up the stitch from SS and reunite that pair. But dang, people, what's this I hear now from IchiOri fans about Ishida discounting Orihime's powers and Ichigo being the only one who understands her and commends her for her healing power? Wut?

Thank you to vayshti  for the very helpful beta.
I can't stay away from this pair for long. Sweetness and moosh alert. This fic was conceived during Valentine's/White Day but I wasn't able to write for a while so it's a late Spring candy fic.



I'll try to re-upload the doujin that inspired this story soon.

warning: shipping



Carry on. I'm still cleaning for Passover and maybe when the kitchen's turned over, I can read chapter -105. SPOILERS LOOK THRILLING.

Is shipping-talk censoring on forums a feminist issue?


Okay, shift of gears. Have a drabble. This one is by kaeru_chan who used to play a delightful spot-on Orihime in the RPG deathonly early in fandom, and I've missed her Orihime. She wrote this little bit not long ago and gave me permission to post it. It's IshiHime, PG13. It made me smile--I know I have lots of IshiHime fans in this comm so I hope it makes you smile too.

Finally wrote something! These drabbles were kicked off by a r0ck3tsci3ntist  Shinji/Hiyori/old-timey record-player art inspired by recent chapters. I hope she finishes it soon so I can show it off to you guys. 
The characters here are Shinji, Hiyori, Ishida, Orihime, Kenpachi, Renji, Chad.


( Random Bleach Jazz (Drabbles, all ratings up to NC17) ) 

Looky what mezzo_marinaio drew for me for winning the IchiRuki essay contest at BA! IshiHime!

Rainy Day

And it may be to early to call but it looks like our dear mezzo may have won a contest herself (if SJ's preview about an IchiRuki reunion in the next chapter is right--see yesterday's post). Mezzo called chapter 315.

Adam, who pretends to be an ass but is really a sweetie, wrote me an IshiHime, and he's a damn fine writer so you people better leave him reviews because he doesn't ever get many and his stuff kicks the tar out of everything else on ff.net:

Impurification by adam_epp 

and his description: Story flirts a bit between T and M Rating, but I chose T; please let me know if you disagree.
Probably one-sided IshiHime, definitely one-sided IchiOri, and light IchiRuki. IshiChad from neither side but I'm sure there is an unintendedl subtext that yaoi fangirls can use to put words in my mouth. Yeah, that's what people want to read in a note like this or a summary, amirite?

Moving right along..... The magnificent, beneficent, owner of Bleach Asylum requested a Szayel drawing of little ole me and I did this ASAP, even though I think I was a little trippy when doing this but that's okay--trippy is GOOD when you're drawing MR. PINK, who is, by the way, NOT DEAD (I don't know why everyone keeps saying he is). Anyway, one of the things going through my unwell mind when doing this was that Space suffers being too nice to people sometimes and Szayel ... well, Szayel doesn't have that problem at all! But at the moment Szayel is suffering a millennia of torment just now but not to worry--he will RISE AGAIN. Here's my pic:

A Thousand Years is Not Forever

For those of you who may not know, Space is AizenSousuke on Deviant Art and does lovely stuff like this <---an Ulquiorra Valentine by spacexat

Also Space's sister Juunana also does the most amazing emotional fanarts and really neat cosplays like this

SO CHECK OUT THEIR GALLERIES!

Raise your hand if you can't sleep because you're waiting for the Szayel Aporro Bleach Beat Collection to be released today!!!!!!!!!

First, yamikinoko  wrote a sweet IshiHime fic for me over at bleach_flashfic:
Glitterlace (PG, Ishida, Orihime)


Next, for the record, I can't STAND Nnoitra. He's despicable. He cheats, kicks babies, brags--yeah, Kubo did a good job of designing a slimeball all right. Noi's got a tooth-ringed hole in his head and a memory problem. Oh, and he's a misogynist. Or is he?

Poll #1146366 The NelNnoi Poll
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

So, whatcha think?

IshiHime Fans!
capsulekei did a translation of the Ishida and Orihime doujin by ByPass, Staurolite Satellite! The first page goes:

Back on February 14th, Inoue san gave Ishida kun Valentines Chocolates.
All of a sudden Ulquiorra appeared to snatch away that chocolate.
Ishida kun chased Ulquiorra to a void where they plunged in and met with Aizen sama.
And now it's March 14th (White Day).

The rest is here

kitsunenomiko did a summary of the other IshiHime doujin I posted here.
(YES, yes, I know everyone's waiting for the hentai one but blame my hubby with the ADHD).

And lastly, I haven't done this yet but I'm helping spread the word for a fellow nerd:
Take The Fanfiction Survey! There are lots of fandom graduate theses around--this one looks KEWL and lets you show your love for your fanfic authors!

If you're willing to translate, post here, and I'll write a short Bleach fic of your request. *puppy eyes*

I'm not even going to bother to friends-lock this one. Scans get taken and spread around so fast it's not even funny. You don't even have to credit me for the scanning; I only ask that if you get the chance please support this circle of fine artists. They do lovely Ishida and Orihime work and you can see it here. There are other ByPass IshiHime doujinshi; my sweet annie_08  bought these for me while in Japan.

I'm really curious as to what's going on in this one! Lots of Ichigo and Rukia! And TSUBAKI! *_* And--tah-dah!--Ryuuken! The style is adorable, and as with the previous IshiHime doujin I showed you, everything's  family friendly. There's an odd scene of Orihime on Ishida's bed in one panel dressed like a neko but I think that's Kon's imagination. I'm not sure.

Non-hentai. Work-safe. Ishida and Orihime. Some Ichigo and Rukia. Guest appearances by Kon, Tsubaki, Ryuuken.


BYPASS ISHIHIME DOUJIN 2 (Sendspace)

BYPASS ISHIHIME DOUJIN 2 (Megaupload)



And I want to thank everyone who's been so genteel in shipping threads here lately. I really do thank you for indulging my shippy talk. Because the waters were exciting again, I ventured onto animesuki this weekend, and I dunno, maybe it was a busy week and I was tired, but it looked like my man sinta  had been having some fun and I thought I could too---only, ugh, when someone writes that he's disturbed by your joke about being willing to bet your firstborn on IchiRuki, you know it's going to be a dreary battle. I guess I could go back and engage the dude who said to send the kid with a years supply of diapers (he seemed uber-certain of IchiOri because his own love tale was similar--I find that... really fascinating) but I'm... tired? NO! Tired of Bleach shippy talk? I need to go take my temp.

Translators?

the humungo BIG scan of Staurolite Satellite Ishida/Orihime by BYPASS

Ken-chan is awesome, ne? I'm going to marry Ken-chan.


EDIT: SENDSPACE UPLOAD LINK

YES, yes, I know some of you are still waiting for the het doujin to be completely scanned  *glares at hubby who put doujin in booksack and forgot about it* and I SWEAR I'll have it and two other non-hentai IshiHimes available very soon. You must be a member of to access the download link.

YEY!  The presents Annie bought me in Japan came in!  I must share. Some manga spoilers for Szayel battle.

Ishida and Nemu. *laughs evilly*  Oh, and it's a nude of Nemu so it's NOT work safe.

DON'T LOOK

You have to be a member of DA and over 17 to see it at that link I just realized so here:



Now for a fic from a comm I can't pimp enough, bleach_flashfic . There's never a shortage of good fic there.
There's a current sign-up going on for March and you can participate here. Join the fun!

Here's an Ishida and Orihime fic from that community. Beautiful, beautiful writing. Stick with the story until the end:

Nocturne by Empatheia (aka flashslut) , rated T

Yup, I troll around more sites and found this!

Because I am unable to post in the BA -for some unphamtoble reason that is been worked out by the mods- I will post here! 

So while trolling around some various sites and ending up in Love Drop I found this and couldn't resist! 

Completely worksafe by the way.

 

I started a pic at my mom's house on MS paint while trying to avoid relatives on Xmas milling around and I finished it at my house later. IshiHime!

You Keep Me Warm

Attention yaoi fans! The voting has begun at the ishi_ichi  comm. Nine fics with something for everyone!

The Contest Voting Poll is Here!

And is it the end of SZAYELMAS? O.O There wasn't supposed to be JUMP this week so this is NEXT week's pic (that means these dudes work ahead!) Anyway, a Merry Christmas spoiler came!

Looky here! A spoiler pic!

A holiday request for my little long-lost Jewish cousin,  kaeru_chan with all my love.
Happy Hanukah! I miss your Hime!

No warnings. Implied IchiRuki romance.