* There's an IchiRuki (as in an Ichigo and Rukia romantic pairing) fanart and fanfic contest going over at the IchiRuki FC at Bleach Asylum for Halloween. You can find more details here. This is the contest that is going to break my through my writer's block like a steel ball because I've got my eye set on that fanfic prize--a poster of the phone spread! One of my favorite color spreads by Kubo!

* Oh, and don't forget the Second Annual debbiechan and Ishida's birthdays Contest!  I'll have more details about the rules and neat prizes I've scored for you contestants later. I must clean up after Hurricanes Gustav and Ike (Ike was no biggie--he blew around some lawn chairs and we lost internet for a mere three hours today)and I'll get cooking with promoting that contest. I'm all a-flutter about the RenIshiHime category.

* Today, when the power was out, because my tablet is broken, I drew some more with colored pencils.
Here is a Rukia for Kit's birthday (which was long ago but I couldn't seem to draw anything for it that wasn't cross-eyed---this Rukia is a little better than previous drawings).

( Rukia fanart for Kit )

* Lastly, here are some daily noodles. Maybe not the fortifying kind that come in a bowl with lots of seasoning and calories ... maybe the stray kind you find dried up on your lapel an hour after lunch is over ... but I was visiting the forums again (oh, I can NOT help myself!) after my 10 day diet from them (thanks to Hurricane Gustav--I could never have quit forums on my own) and the one ridiculous statement I kept seeing over and over was "when Kubo writes the words, then (fill in the blank) will be canon."  People demand text. Orihime has declared her love for Ichigo; ipso facto her love is canon.  Byakuya told a touching story about his wife that showed his love for her, but his love for her, by these peoples' definition, is not canon--they require text.

Guys, manga is a visual medium. You can't have the story spoon-fed to you in simple sentences. Sometimes the author has to show, imply, infer meanings. (Warning; slight shipping content)

( Here are some examples. )

It was for hidden_gems ' happy birthday that this was released. You can snatch it up here:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/9nxrly

Scans are out. Check the Bleach Asylum Chapter Thread for the goodies and throw roses at Spacey's feet for bringing us these weekly spoilers and check out the new playground look of the forum.

Bleach is rated #1 this week in WSJ and I can see why.  There's something to squee about on every page.


Dunno why I'm typing so much of the bad grammar. The cleaning fluids from Passover preps have entered my bloodstream. See ya later, after the seder!'

A little New Years angst for you all ^_^

Title: Stay
Fandom: Bleach
Pairing: IchiRuki with a twisted Kaien cameo
Rating: R (language, sexual situations)
Spoilers: None
Summary: Rukia has an identity crisis.
Disclaimer: Bleach belongs to Kubo Tite and his peeps.  I own nothing.
AN: I tried my best to get Kaien's features correct, so excuse any incorrectness on that.  And beware the angst in this lil fic! Un-beta'd. Please to report any errors :)
x-Posted: asterisk_plus

Don't know why it's bold.  Wish I did.

I'm too frazzled and excited to even pretend neutrality. Everyone else has said what I've wanted to say about 270 in LJ essays. So I wrote a weird little story. My love poem to IchiRuki, I guess. Warnings for spoilers beyond 268, the mention of a certain female body part, and real goopy romance stuff.



I know there are all sorts of straightfoward narratives missing from this--at least a half dozen one-shots I could write. But I'm so in love with chpt 270, I just had to get this much out--and I knew I could finish this one.

Chapter 268 was my favorite chapter in Bleach so far. It got me imagining what Rukia's life before she came to the Living World. This story tries to be as canon filler as it can be, given that Kubo-san has not revealed much about Rukia's true past and has only thrown out some details about her life in the thirteenth division.

Oh hope that wasn't TOO sad.

Anyway, next subject-- many of my dear friends are whipping up the Orihime hate lately. Not that I can't understand. Rukia's last thoughts are about Orihime and so far the princess in the tower has only thanked "Kurosaki-kun." Remember--Orihime is love and kindness. She's 16 and sweet. She's (stupidly) in love with Ichigo and she hasn't had her moments of self-realization like Rukia has in 268. She hasn't woken up to the fact that Ishida is there for her.

So please, if you can't be as generous as Rukia was as she fell, bleeding, for Orihime, then try to remember that Orihime's not at all a villain--she's just a girl. And a very flawed girl who doesn't yet know her own strength. She will soon, though. You'll see. She will win your respect one day.

I got it! He's not going to soften one little bit. It's supposed to look that way to readers. What Ulqui is doing is following Aizen's orders and he's going to befriend Hime somehow and let her out and bring her to the Hougyoku--at which point Aizen will pop out and say "surprise!" and tell her that nyah, nyah, nyah, she can''t bring the Hougyoku back to a time when it didn't exist.

andrew_jp 's idea for the fanart. In the last pic Hime was a wilting flower. Now she's taking lessons from Ulqui.

The Professional

Episode 115? It looked so badly drawn again. :( And Dattebayo translated Rukia's line as "that's the man I know you are" instead of "that's the man I keep in my heart." Or did Perriot change the line? Aizen looked... I dunno... less than the hot overlord he is in the manga.

BTW, I'm still dancing on the grave of the reincarnation theory, and isn't KAIEN THE GOOFIEST? I think I love him.

First, an illustration! I was really sick of the (damn sexy but) girly Uryuu of the filler arc ( He's so vuuulnerable) so I drew a picture in which he is the hero of the current. I challenge (beg?) someone to write a fic for this. I need more IshiHime to read (says she who started yet another IchiIshi last night....)

If Only

Now onto my Tanabata shipping crisis. I was up too late last night reading the various versions of the Tanabata myth (I've done this before) and trying to weave (ha ha) the various mythological threads here and there into the Bleach story. There's really no doubt that Kubo Tite (originally at least) intended for the story to mean some sort of connection between Ichigo and Orihime. I mean, really-- Orihime the weaver/handicrafts girl and Ichigo (one of whose kanji representations means ox king or something), the ox-puller, the hikoboshi who travels to heaven (hmmm, it was Rukia that he went to "heaven" to save?) to get his goddess woman in a moon-shaped boat (yep, yep, Ichigo is represented by the moon, no one can deny--it's his symbol in Bleach). There's all the damn rain imagery (when rain falls in the Tanabata story, the lovers can't meet), and there's fricken rain all over Bleach. Rukia in the rain with her arms around either Kaien or Ichigo (she really cares for them both--it's heartbreaking--but if Ichigo turns out to be a "bleached" version of Kaien,I'm screaming IT WAS TOO OBVIOUS, KUBO! I'm hoping that the reincarnation stuff is a red herring--the way Byakuya's picture of Hisana looking exactly like Rukia was supposed to make us guess at an unsavory backstory--did he adopt Rukia bc she looked like his ex-love? Did he want to kill Rukia for that reason?) The rain imagery goes on and on--Ichigo's mother dying in the rain, Orihime with her umbrella pining for Ichigo, Uryuu whose name means "rain dragon." At some point, the mythological parallels break down--there's something there, but the pieces don't all make sense.

The Tanabata myth also seems to fit the essence of the Bleach conflict (earth and sky, humans and Soul Society) for a while there. In another version of the myth, Orihime's lover has to weave 1000 pairs of shoes to reach her in heaven, and well, the lover is a weaver/handicrafts feller too (Uryuuuuu?)

But did Kubo's story run away with him? How can characters which have developed one way be squished to fit a mythological paradigm?