Deep Connection

Illness + Boredom + Photoshop

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 13:33:01 GMT

Well, I shouldn't open Photoshop when I'm not feeling well. It only leads to my perfectionist self wanting to play Colouring Book with my manga images.

But, I'm rather pleased with how my efforts turned out and thought I'd share the results.

...I dunno. I liked the reds and browns and rolled with it. I'm likely going to just keep it on my desktop to stare at blankly whenever I get stumped on a chapter of Threads</b>.

Oh, yeah, I thought I'd share some icons, too. They're located here in my graphics journal katsukoarts

xxxHolic dojinshi!

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 13:31:05 GMT

Well it's been a while since I've posted but I'm pretty much caught up on stuff and am ready to try to put up a few more RAW doujinshi scans. This weekend I got 6 more xxxHolic doujinshi in the mail so I'm posting the covers here to let you see what my haul was. I'm not sure which I'll do first - I still haven't sorted out all the doujinshi I bought back from Tokyo yet so I'm getting in a muddle.

Well here is what I got new to my collection:-

104 Life by Shimarisu	Domekikissu by Hazuki Ryou	En Wa I na Mono Aji na Mono by Kazino This will probably be one of the first I scan and maybe make as a wall paper.
Katsubou by Hazuki Ryo This is another contender for scan/wallpaper	Utsushiyo by Kazino	Yakyoku Seranade by BIBI

Well I'm going to try to arrange my doujinshi and my manga for now and will then try to scan one for posting this evening.

thanks!

Threads (in spite of feeling bleagh)

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 02:27:17 GMT

Well, after polishing off Éternal I had planned to get a new bit of Threads written yesterday. So what happens? I get sick.

Nothing serious, just what appears to be a lingering summer cold wrought with stuffy head and cough. But, I did manage to finally get a new chapter typed out. It only took me twelve hours....

Title: Threads (24/30?)
Warnings: AU, slash
Summary: The path of the future is not always clear. Sometimes a visit to a professional is in the cards.

Threads Chapter Twenty-Four

Drabble collection (the meme)

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 00:52:30 GMT

I didn't do this the first time round because... I suck at drabbles. But I've done it now so on my own head be it.

Drabble Meme
Titles: My Only Wish This Year, Miss Popular, Screwed, Everybody Wants Something More, Picture Perfect, What My Heart Wants To Say, Ultimate, The Pulse, I'll Remember You, Coin Operated Boy
Rating: Mostly PG, one high rated T (labelled) and chobits references I guess.

Kudakitsunes--one more time!

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 22:55:24 GMT

Hey guys! About a month ago I made a post about making and selling Kudakitsunes (pipefoxes). I’m just throwing up the link to them one more time, just incase anyone missed it. I originally made one for a Doumeki!cosplay, and the thought was that others might like one of these adorable little guys to play around with as well!

So if you like, you can click on the picture to go to my journal entry with all the info!

Fic Search For The Recovering

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 21:05:50 GMT

So, I'm basically meh right now.

Just got my wisdom teeth out and even though I have plenty of fiction of my own to work on, I'm exhausted.

So... I'm asking for any fic recommendations. Since my laptop doesn't actually get net at my dad's, all my bookmarks aren't available to me. If there are any wonderful, gotta read 104 fics, please rec them for me! >_< haha. It would be greatly appreciated.

I don't have any real specifics, just I don't want them dying.... that's basically all.

Thanks everyone.

Entwining Fates: Concealing Mists

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 20:04:19 GMT

Title: Entwining Fates: Concealing Mists
Pairing: Doumeki/Watanuki
Rating: PG
Length: Long Oneshot (1/5-5/5)
Comments: AU (lord & prince). Set after Mocking Bird.
Summary: An investigation into a disappearance leads to something much more sinister.

Onward! :D

The Seer, chapter 10

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 18:44:30 GMT

Change of Chances

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 03:35:40 GMT

Title: Timepiece
Author: smokexscribbles
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Blood, but I mean you're used to it, right?
Disclaimer: I am not CLAMP.
Summary: Meh sort of a shitty place to end the chapter but I promised I'd post. (p7) (p6) (p5) (p4) (p3) (p2) (p1)

The witch gives them – all the people from the ball, that is - a place to stay, a hotel that’s stuck between two dimensions and somehow in neither. It’s attended by what look like wind-up toys, giant bunny rabbits in fancy suits. They don’t really bother anyone, and only speak when spoken to.

Doumeki asks the rabbit that comes to change his sheets and put new soap in the shower what it thinks about loss.

“We protected someone once,” it tells him. “She died. Killed herself. To save everyone.”

“Me too,” Doumeki says. “Do you think-“

“I’m a rabbit,” the rabbit says. “I’m just a wind-up doll. I’m here to change the sheets; can’t you just let me do that?”

“Don’t bother,” Doumeki says. “I haven’t slept much.”

Actually, he hasn’t slept at all. It’s been three days, give or take, but it feels like time is frozen all over again. He’s not tired, hungry, or thirsty, and every time he closes his eyes, Watanuki dies one more time…

It’s on that third day that the witch comes up to his room, Himawari bobbing nervously in her wake, and stands in his doorway. She looks an odd mix of angry and sympathetic and is holding a steaming mug of tea. “You’ve got to stop this,” she tells him gently. “He wouldn’t have wanted you to die, too.”

“You don’t understand,” Doumeki begins, and Yuuko pushes the cup of tea into his hands, sits down on the edge of the bed, and pats the spot next to her.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Whether or not he wanted to talk about it is irrelevant, because approximately three seconds after he sips the tea he is falling asleep. “Bitch,” he says in tones of no surprise. Yuuko smiles and takes the tea-cup out of his hands.

“Doumeki-kun wouldn’t go to sleep on his own, so I had to help him. Sorry.”

Yuuko closes the door behind her and sighs. She’s done the best she can. It won’t be dreamless sleep – Taking remembering away from him would be cruel. And it won’t be happy. But these things must happen.

Doumeki dreams true things, things he didn’t remember up until now. Not all of them are happy, but not all of them are sad. Things are better, even when they are worse…

He’s out riding, and he meets Watanuki. He doesn’t, at this point in the dream, know the other man very well. He’s the owner of that mansion, another noble in a long procession of titles, lords, and ladies that Doumeki is somehow expected to remember. But they get to talking, and courtesy dictates that one should invite the other back to their home for tea or lunch or refreshment, so that is what happens.

Watanuki stumbles as he gets off his horse. Doumeki catches him and there is a moment where both of them are frozen, breath caught in respective throats.

“Thank you,” Watanuki says, somewhat stiffly, and Doumeki nods and lets go of his arm. The next day they meet up again – purely by chance, both of them insist. Watanuki stumbles, and if it happens just a second after he gets off his horse, Doumeki doesn’t mention it. Breaths caught. Then – Thank you. Nod. The next day, by chance, of course, they meet up a third time, but things are different. As they talk, their horses begin to get nervous, skittish. Watanuki looks up at the empty field and suggests that they move a little faster. No reason or anything like that. Just… How about we go that way?

A little faster is not quite fast enough, and Doumeki watches in befuddled horror as a bloody rip opens itself along Watanuki’s back. A set of monster-size toothmarks bloom on his shoulder, bruising where they don’t break the skin. He watches as his new friend screams in pain, still urging his horse onwards, new cuts opening courtesy of some invisible assailant that he, infuriatingly, cannot fight.

Watanuki falls. Doumeki grabs him and yanks him up into the saddle, wraps an arm around his waist (To keep him balanced) and gets ready to flee.

“It- It’s gone.” Watanuki says, lifting his head and looking around the field in amazement. “How’d you – “

“What the hell was that?” Doumeki asks.

“There are… things,” Watanuki attempts to explain. “They follow people. Sometimes they make them sick or unlucky. Sometimes they help them. This one wanted to kill me. I’m the only one who sees them – Well, that I know of. They always chase me.”

“Why did it leave?”

“I don’t know.”

Watanuki is surprised that Doumeki is so ready to believe him, but on the other hand, he has the evidence of his own eyes. They ride back in relative silence, Watanuki still on Doumeki’s horse, because if he faints he’ll have someone to keep him on (At least, that’s the logic.)

“I can walk,” Watanuki says when they get to Doumeki’s stables, and Doumeki allows him to get down from the horse by himself. He does so, walks a few steps, and realizes he really can’t walk at the moment. Doumeki knows enough about this man to know he would resent being carried, so he lets Watanuki lean on him and pretends not to see the blood soaking into his carpet.

“Thank you,” Watanuki says later. He seems almost ashamed of it all, the trouble and the monsters and the horse and the blood on the carpet.

“Don’t worry about it,” Doumeki says.

They ride together quite often, meeting by chance each and every day. Watanuki provides most of the conversation. They argue a lot, mostly because they both secretly love the debate.

One day, they meet a girl.

Two DouWata Fanarts

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 23:55:36 GMT

yeah eva has some fanarts she wants to share XD!
douwata for the win yay!

Name: You'll get cold bastard!
Pairing: DouWata
Rating: Worsafe
Spoilers: None
Warnings: cuteness XD
Declaimer: Not mine. Clamp's.

You'll get cold bastard -104 by ~EvaAngel on deviant ART

Name: Watuni is BUSY >3
Pairing: DouWata
Rating: Not Worksafe no no!
Spoilers: None
Warnings: ummm... drool? XD oh and nudity ^^'
Declaimer: Not mine. Clamp's.

Watanuki is Busy... by ~EvaAngel on deviant ART

[Fic] His Promise

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:13:16 GMT

Title: His Promise
Fandom: XXXHolic
Pairing: Watanuki/Doumeki
Warnings: Spoilers up to Chapter 161
Rating: PG
Summary: Doumeki remembers the promise he made to Kohane-chan.
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters. CLAMP does!

The End of Éternal

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:22:20 GMT

Yep, the tetralogy/quadrilogy/four-shot is finished. I honestly considered throwing in smut, but I couldn't get it to work somehow. Maybe a future one-shot in this universe is in order, but for now, tomorrow starts me back to work on Threads.

Title: Toujours Moi, Toujours Toi
Warnings: post-series speculation, slash
Summary: When love is inevitable, it will be stopped neither by time nor distance.

Toujours Moi, Toujours Toi

Testing Reality

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:09:44 GMT

Birthday fic for

popkin16

Title: Testing Reality
Pairing: Watanuki/Doumeki
Rating: PG
Length: Short Oneshot
Comment: Canon (spoilers chapter 161)
Summary: Watanuki tests another truth of his reality XD

whispers

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 00:04:53 GMT

xxxholic kei episodes 12 and 13 have finally been subbed

http://www.animecrazy.net/2008/06/27/xxxholic-kei-episode-12/
http://www.animecrazy.net/2008/06/27/xxxholic-kei-episode-13/

*waves a douwata flag*
And that's Kei drawn to a complete close. No more anime for a while.

Part Three of the Tetralogy

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 17:55:54 GMT

Yeah, that non-Threads story? Couldn't condense it into three parts so it's definitely a tetralogy/quadrilogy now. If only because I have a lot to explain in part four!

Title: Tu M'as Manqué
Warnings: post-series speculation, slash implications
Summary: Sometimes, you realize that what you've been trying to find has been right there all the while.

Tu M'as Manqué

horitsuba cosplay; ikasu '08

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 05:35:31 GMT

some pics of my holic group cosplaying the horitsuba!verse costumes! i thought i would pimp them out- these costumes were a bitch and a half to make :o

click the teaser for pictures (warning: image heavy with hints of ~~mild~~ ghey)

xposted to xxx_holic

Achilles and Patroclus, Part Deux

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 20:59:35 GMT

So I went on Vacation to Europe, and now I'm back with the second installment of Achilles and Patroclus! Let me know that you think :)

Title: Act 2, Scene 2
Words: IDK
Rating: PG-15ish, may go up

Act 2: Scene 2

Watanuki-as-Patroclus opened his eyes sleepily as the curtains rose, and wiggled against the luxurious sheets the pavilion’s invisible stage hands had procured from somewhere that was nowhere-to-be-found. The bed, he supposed, must have come from hither-and-yon on its own accord. Its massive brass fittings looked intimidating and too heavy for slight spirit beings to have carried it from anywhere.

He sat up, rubbing the effects of a stage-induced sleep from his eyes, and glanced towards the audience, then towards the amazingly realistic window where a living, breathing bird fluttered.

He stood, blushing as he came to realize his state of undress. He managed to expose only the barest bit of buttocks to the audience, before snatching the white sheet and letting it fall about him loosely as he wandered into the nearby courtyard.

There, pretty as any picture, Doumeki-as-Achilles’ fine, toned back muscles rippled as he sparred with a model shaped somewhat like a human-being and at the same time a potato sack. Watanuki allowed himself to admire the fine physique of his fellow actor before his flush reappeared, full-force.

He coughed lightly, and was surprised by the intense, animalistic look that Doumeki shot his way. His golden eyes were like a liquid inferno, and Watanuki squirmed beneath their gaze.

“Tomorrow we go to war, Patroclus,” he stated, matter-of-factly. Watanuki suddenly found himself face to face with the now sweating, golden warrior.

“We do?” he squeaked, his voice even more unnaturally high pitched, the audience letting out a peal of laughter that made him jump, almost dropping his sheet.

He tried not to notice the second, scandalous look that Doumeki sent his way as he tried to cover himself again with the thin, diaphanous fabric.

“Of course, Patroclus,” Doumeki said, “Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped.”

“Helen of Sparta?” Watanuki said, scrambling in his head for lines, “The most beautiful being in the world?”

“No, only the most beautiful woman,” Doumeki said, purring. “You, I believe, are the most beautiful being.”

Watanuki squirmed and darted backwards as Doumeki-as-Achilles attempted to steal a kiss, and their degenerate spirit audience dissolved into apparent chaos. Clinging to a rounded column and constantly backing away from Doumeki in a tantalizing game of cat-and-mouse, Watanuki managed to stammer a vastly off-topic reply.

“So, when do we leave?”

“As soon as I catch you, cousin.” Doumeki-Achilles said with a playful growl.

Watanuki soon managed to climb to the tippy-toppiest point of the fountain’s statue’s head, from where he looked out blankly at the audience, gulping at the fiery-red gaze Yuko shot him from the very last row.

It seemed his life depended on playing Patroclus a little more realistically.

Sighing, he slipped as Doumeki’s hand tugged powerfully on his ankle, and the two of them sprawled down into one seemingly unromantic, spluttering heap of sodden costume-sheets in the fountain pool below.

Coughing and make-up running, Watanuki pushed himself up onto his elbows so that his torso and head managed to stay out from beneath the cascading waves. Golden eyes stared straight into his, making him gulp. Before he could stammer anything from between his chattering teeth, Doumeki’s arms were tight around his shoulders and under his knees.

“Wait, wha…ACHILLES PUT ME DOWN!” he yelped. This however, seemed to produce the opposite effect, as he was merely flung across Doumeki’s shoulder like his schoolbag.

“I said, put…me…down!” he hissed, the audience silenced as Achilles merely walked through the doorway of the courtyard and deposited the now dripping Watanuki on the large, fluffy bed he had reclined on previously.

Watanuki-as-Patroclus then promptly had his flailing arms pinned by one of Doumeki-as-Achilles’ large hands as the latter straddled him.

“Now, now, Patroclus.” Achilles said, “You must save your strength and speed for the battlefield.”

“But what if I don’t want to?” Watanuki managed to whimper, far more seductively and convincingly than he had ever meant to. He squirmed beneath Doumeki-as-Achilles’ golden gaze, attempting to find some avenue for escape.

“I’m sure that I can find some sort of outlet for your energy.” Doumeki rumbled, and Watanuki’s eyes went into glazed over panic mode as Doumeki leaned down and kissed the skin right next to the corner of his mouth.

The audience however, merely saw Doumeki going in for the kill and cheered as loud as possible while Watanuki wallowed in utter humiliation and embarrassment.

“What do you mean?” he stammered, glancing at the edge of the bed, which was closer than he had first anticipated. His heart was beating so loud he thought that everyone watching could hear.

“Well, make love, not war.” Doumeki smirked, then let his other hand slide from Watanuki’s shoulder down onto his bare chest, his fingertips lighting touching the pale-as-snow skin.

It was then that Watanuki-as-Patroclus, now seeing no way out and the possibly degeneration of his life as a normal high school student into that of a spirit-world-porn star, promptly fainted.

It's no longer a one-shot....

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 19:49:37 GMT

Remember that not-"Threads" story I posted yesterday? Well, it became part of what will be either a trilogy or tetralogy; I'll know for sure which it will be once I get Part Three written and see if I can wrap it up then.

Title: Héritier de la Sorcière
Warnings: post-series speculation, slash implications
Summary: A trial by fire can be difficult, but it's not always the pain which hurts most.

Héritier de la Sorcière

Searching for a fic! FOUND!

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 17:37:34 GMT

I don't really remember everything beside the fact Doumeki had gone on a vacation and was really letters to Watanuki and this one answered back. Does it rings any bells?
Thank you!

Not a "Threads" Update

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 02:50:12 GMT

No, my muse is still on her coffee break apparently. Luckily, my weird-ass mind decided to step up with something completely different.

Title: Toujours Jeunes
Warnings: post-series speculation (because right now, any future fic is speculation), slash hints
Summary: Five years wasn't a long time in the grand scheme of things, but just long enough to notice....

Toujours Jeunes

The Seer, chapter 9

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 23:40:20 GMT

Into the Dark

Threads 23

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 02:19:16 GMT

This one... is fairly short. I got to a certain point and the muse pretty much decided she was taking a coffee break whether I liked it or not. I hate it when that happens so much. *sigh* Maybe she'll be with me tomorrow or Sunday.

Title: Threads (23/30?)
Warnings: AU, slash, crossover
Summary: Once things are in perspective, the time for planning arises. All factors must be taken into consideration.

Threads Chapter Twenty-Three

Threads 22

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 01:42:51 GMT

This one took a bit of writing. Mostly because I tried to blend a little of the manga with a good chunk of stuff from the twisted corners of my mind. Hopefully, it'll make a measure of sense ^^;

Title: Threads (22/30?)
Warnings: AU, slash, crossover
Summary: No decision should be made lightly; sometimes discussing it with someone not involved helps make the solution much more clear.

Threads Chapter Twenty-two

Drabble

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 23:05:17 GMT

Title: Smile
Author: AstroKender
Fandom: xxx-Holic
Pairing: slight Watanuki/Domeki
Word count: 147
Notes: Watching episode 11 of Holic Kei and going all gaga over Haruka-san's smile, I suddenly wondered if Watanuki did as well. So births a drabble.

link to the fic

Thirty Butterflies (5/30)

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 03:43:25 GMT

Chapte Title: Mine
Author: Eeri-chan (eerisedda)
Fandom/Pairing: XXXHolic/ DoumekixWatanuki
Rating: PG-13
Length: 4,282
Warnings: None I can think of.
Disclaimer: I do not own. CLAMP does.
A/N: This is for 30_kisses, prompt #26 If only I could make you mine. Thanks to my lovely beta, the great Betanuki, newmwriter for getting this done so quickly. ^_^

Chapter Five: Mine