Akasha The Kitty's Domain

We're in Berlin.

Idk if anyone remembers but Maz's parents own an apartment in Berlin that we can freely use. We are currently using it until the 28th. I was going to write more about that plus maybe post pics of the place etc except I am much too depressed to do so.

The trip to get here was hellish, but I guess travelling with a baby often is.

And now my laptop is broken. It must have taken a hit on the trip and it won't boot. Maz took it to a shop and they poked a bit at it and said it would be 200 euro to fix.

200 euro to fix a 2½ year old laptop (which was a free upgrade from a one year old laptop that kept giving us problems) is too much. It's simply not worth it.

So that leaves me with no laptop.

Which leaves me with no gaming computer.

Which leaves me with no stress relief.

And to anyone who is a selfish bugger: No, I did not write on the laptop anymore. I write on my netbook. While I did lose some documents, it wasn't too much, mostly references that can be gathered fairly easily again, I suppose. And maybe I lost the original Silencio docs but who cares, right?

No, what I mostly lost was personal stuff, my games, and my fucking COMPUTER. The one I had 95% of my fun on.

Can't afford a new one. A good gaming laptop is at least 3 times as expensive as a normal gaming computer (last time I shopped for it it was 2000+ euro) and don't have room for another desktop at home. Not that we even can afford a desktop what with living on a single grant for at least six months.

And certainly won't go into (more) debt for this. I'm not a moron.

Way to kick off a holiday.

My rant yesterday was WAY overdue. Today I finally had an epiphany about what to do about a future scene that was difficult for me to fit in. I don't get why I hadn't thought of this before, it's the ONLY thing that MAKES SENSE!!!

But, in any case, today is a good day. I let off steam and have been feeling the love both in comments, chats and shinies.

Dramione Awards' Best of 2008 round just concluded and there were shinies in it for me!

( Shiny talk )

And congratulations to floorcoaster for getting first place in Best Draco. From what I've read of your stuff, I don't mind losing that one to you. ;)

I would also like to congratulate somandalicious, bunney, ilkee and nikkilicious377 (in no particular order) with their wins. Great going, ladies. :D somandalicious revealed to me she had never won first before, but considering that she got THREE this time, she's certainly making up for lost time. :)

As for another kind of shinies, little_dollface is forever in my debt because I am the spawn of Satan and she is addicted to me and thus I can call upon her to be my slave whenever I feel like it.

In other words, she's making me story banners.

( The other kind of shinies )

Now I just need banners for Master, You Change My Mind, In The Darkness, The Nymph Hunt and After The End...

*smirks* Good thing I own her soul for all of eternity.

( And now, Kupo! )

And, YES, he is always laughing like that at people. ;)

All right, I'm done.

See, not always angry.

Reader rant ahoy. I have to warn you, though. It's that time of the month.

Been a while since my last Bracelet update and there's a perfectly good explanation for that.

I. Am. Turned. OFF!!

By no means by the story but by the readers. Some of them, in any case. Not all of you, obviously.

Here's why:

( GTFO if you're just going to get butthurt! )

TL;DR: Two weeks is NOT a long wait for a chapter. Pissing the author off will not lessen the wait but may actually lengthen it indefinitely. Why the fuck do you want updates anyway if you hate the story enough to dictate how it rather should go?

Title: The Bracelet
Author: AkashaTheKitty
Characters: Blaise Zabini, Draco Malfoy, Ginny Weasley, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Pansy Parkinson, Ron Weasley, Theodore Nott (whew)
Genres: Drama, Friendship, Hogwarts Years, Humor, Romance
Warnings: HBP Spoilers, although slightly incompatible.
Overall Rating: R
Summary: When Hermione Granger loses a bet she was sure she'd win to Draco Malfoy, it's the beginning of her own personal hell. And his.

Go here if you didn't read previous chapters.

( The Bracelet, Chapter 82 )

 

I felt like posting something. Let's see if I think of something to say.

If I can't, I'll just spam. Yay? ;D

When I promised to post that drabble to my comm I totally lied. I'll get around to it eventually. But tbh, I ended up not liking it post submitting it. XD I'll get over it sometime.

Been sort of sick. And tired. And then sick again. I don't think it's over, but at least I've been able to do a little the past few days (who am I kidding? I have been AWESOME SUPER MOM! And I'm modest about it too!). Although posting Bracelet updates is beginning to not be worth it, LEMME TELL YA! No, people are not mean to me. I'm beginning to believe I'm immune to that particular thing by now. No, it's the sheer FIGHT to get the time to make it work and then the FIGHT to make Word / FFnet / LJ / Life / Baby / Whatever cooperate with me long enough to MAKE IT HAPPEN! Seriously, last time took me two days straight AFTER I began doing final edits to get it out.

No, really, it is SO not nice when I'm one look-through and three clicks away from posting (after I WAS ready the day before but ffnet's doc manager went DOWN and there was no back-clicking so I had to do the A/N and preview over) that the baby decides to poop all over the place. A warning to all you childless people: Anyone who claims that a baby wearing clothes and a diaper could not possibly shit himself up to his neck is either lying or hopelessly naïve!

So, suddenly, I have to abort the mission in order to undress him, preferably without smearing stuff everywhere and, strangely enough, I feel a sudden urge to give Kupo a bath and start a load of laundry.

Posting really is exhausting (yes, all that happened PURELY because I was posting! I'm sure of it!)

( New gadget! And sales people annoyances. )

( Kupo and daycare ramblings. Fact stuffing ahoy! XD )

Before you ask: No, I don't think I have any new pics of Kupo right now. Well, maybe I do technically, but I prefer to post pictures that I JUST took and I didn't take any recently. Maybe Maz did but he's asleep. Next time. Maybe. ;P

And now you're all bored. :D

We're going to Germany next month. Berlin. 9th through 28th. We even have the tickets. It still hasn't really registered in my brain. No, we're not rich. Maz's parents have an apartment there (third floor--fourth floor to you Americans--no elevator. Oh, joy XD), so we'll live there for free as the spoiled brats we are and apparently common groceries are cheaper in Berlin than where we live, so the only real expense we'll have is the trip and whatever we want to do. We're boring, so we probably want to go to museums and stuff. :D

Any Berliners wanting to show us anything fun? XD

Oh, and there's internet and stuff. No worries. Not that you'd really notice me being gone with all the gone I've been lately. XD

Have to get Kupo a passport before we leave, though. How stupid is that? In the Old Days babies and young children were written into their parents' passports. Now he needs his own. At 8 months. With a real passport pic. And it'll be valid for 2 years. Yeah, cuz, you know, he won't change at ALL in 2 years. O.o

Oh, and I ♥ little_dollface. It just had to be said. She's making me some very shiny stuff and I can't WAIT for her to be done so I can show it off and then do my "MINE! MINE! AAAALLLL MINE! MWAHAHAHA!" thing.

Ficcing-wise: don't worry. I haven't had that much time to write where I have had the energy to actually go over it and correct the worst mistakes, but the well isn't running dry just yet. Not at all. I'm not that easily gotten rid off. I'm like a cockroach. Nuke me and I'll still be writing. You might as well get used to it.

I'm sure there's stuff I ought to have mentioned that I didn't. But, seriously, enough is enough. XD

Until next time.

Hey, at least I didn't mention every single baby thing I bought since last I did a post...

Sorry if my cuts aren't enough and you still have to scroll.

Title: The Bracelet
Author: AkashaTheKitty
Characters: Blaise Zabini, Draco Malfoy, Ginny Weasley, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Pansy Parkinson, Ron Weasley, Theodore Nott (whew)
Genres: Drama, Friendship, Hogwarts Years, Humor, Romance
Warnings: HBP Spoilers, although slightly incompatible.
Overall Rating: R
Summary: When Hermione Granger loses a bet she was sure she'd win to Draco Malfoy, it's the beginning of her own personal hell. And his.

Go here if you didn't read previous chapters.

 

( The Bracelet, Chapter 81 )

 

This be a bragging post. Be warned.

First... ART! Unsolicited art is awesome, y/y? According to the artist (don't know her handle, actually, but she signed off as Lara...) this is inspired by chapters 49/50 of Bracelet "if they hadn't ended in disaster" XD



I love this! :D It's rare I get good art, considering that I am very adamantly against commissioning it. Not in the mood for a discussion of right or wrong. You get to pay monies for fan stuff and I get to play my extended trials of various games I refuse to support for one reason or another. AND I get to get awesome art like this made for free! XD

And then there's THIS shiny:



Uh-huh. Some poor deluded suckers nominated me again. ^_^ I actually think voting should be up today? Huh. I thought it was tomorrow. I keep forgetting it's Monday because it's a Danish holiday today. XD Anyway, yeah, voting will be up at dramione_awards -- don't be sheep, vote for the deserving ones, not your BFFs.

Anyhoo, In The Darkness was nominated for Best Smut and Most Creative. The second one threw me a bit. Creative? XD I don't think I should count on placing there. As for the Smut category, I think some people must be seeing red when it comes to In The Darkness being eligible for that for the third time (even if this IS a "Best Of..." round). Idk, this will be interesting?

The Nymph Hunt was nominated (yeah, this in itself threw me) for Best Short Story and Best Draco. I know I have to get over people actually liking this cutesy little fairy tale rip-off. XD Don't get me wrong, I like it, I like everything I put out there on some level or it wouldn't leave my hard drive, but I don't think I love it. Even though I did my best, I think it lacks in intensity. Cute and intense are hard to juggle in the same fic. XD In any case, now it got a shiny nominee banner which is WAY more than I thought it would. :D

In other news, I signed up for this week at nextgen_drabble because little_dollface was a meanie and made it Rose/Scorpius. I'll link the drabble in here once it's all over if I remember. In any case, I'll post it on kittyfics, so if you're curious, check that in a week's time.

I'll post a Bracelet chapter soonish but not today. I hung onto it for too long so my betas are only just looking at it now (which is silly, considering that I'm currently about to start writing chapter 85...)

And now I'm off cuz I promised mazvn I'd play Carcassonne with him. Yes, I lead an exciting life, you may envy me now.

Heh. I decided I needed an extra night to sleep on the edits for this chapter, and then, for no reason at all, my body decided that it was tired but not sleepy for a whooping 36 hours total. O.o After that I slept 13 hours and THEN I could get to work. So, yeah, this is the unlikely yet true explanation for the extra extra delay this time. XD

Title: The Bracelet
Author: AkashaTheKitty
Characters: Blaise Zabini, Draco Malfoy, Ginny Weasley, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Pansy Parkinson, Ron Weasley, Theodore Nott (whew)
Genres: Drama, Friendship, Hogwarts Years, Humor, Romance
Warnings: HBP Spoilers, although slightly incompatible.
Overall Rating: R
Summary: When Hermione Granger loses a bet she was sure she'd win to Draco Malfoy, it's the beginning of her own personal hell. And his.

Go here if you didn't read previous chapters.

 

( The Bracelet, Chapter 80 )

NOTE: Pinned to the top of my journal. Scroll down for regular updates.

Disclaimer: These are sincere recs given by people who would recommend these fics above others -- or alternately the author herself. They are the opinions of individuals not usually me. Both pros and cons should be taken with a grain of salt and you should always make up your own mind. We don't need any white knights protesting the criticisms.

I will often reword if I think the same can be said more efficiently. Yell at me in a comment if you think I twisted your meaning or cut out a VITAL part or something.

Comment below to get pros/cons added. It's screened. Anon comments accepted.

Comment below to have any mention of your fics removed (all or nothing). Need reasonable proof of who you are if you have no LJ account.

This is a work in progress for as long as people bother to leave recs on this post.

It's sorted by pairing and alphabetically by author. It's a lot of html, here's hoping I don't mess it up too badly.

EDIT: All uses of "fantastic", "amazing" etc have been switched for "good" or "nice". I know, I'm so mean.


Trio Generation

( General )

( Draco/Hermione )

( Harry/Hermione )

( Draco/Harry )

( Threesomes )


Cross-Generation

( Tom Riddle Jr/Hermione )

( Lucius/Hermione )

( Snape/Hermione )


Marauder Generation

( Severus/Lily )


Next Generation

( Rose/Scorpius )

Hey, remember me? That's quite a posting gap I have here. Hmm. Well, ya know, I find I suddenly have time to do other stuff. Now to see if there is a balance to be found somewhere in between.

Ambitious, I know.

Let's see... what's happened in the last two weeks... Well, today is my mother's birthday. She turns 45. It's funny cuz I know some of my f-list is older than that. Anyway, happy birthday to her. She was here last Sunday and we went to the zoo. It was fun. Kupo was very alert as always.

I've been sick. This is partly why Bracelet hasn't been updated yet. First I was sick for a bit, then lethargic and then sick again. It wasn't fun, one day poor Maz had to get up, get Kupo fed and ready on his own, run him to daycare, and get to a school himself to be a substitute teacher. All in like 45 minutes.

Kupo has been and is sick. It's just a common cold, but if his cough and snottiness (heeh) isn't gone by Monday, I'm going to keep him home until further notice. Nobody will benefit from him smearing snot on other people and making them sick as well. I need to remember to take my vitamins.

Daycare is going well. For a while Kupo was fussy and didn't want to be there, but one day we went to this arrangement for daycares ("daycare" around here = one woman taking care of max 4 kids in her own home -- the institutionalized bigger thing that others may know as "daycare", we call a "nursery") and parents and Kupo realized that the woman was not evil and we liked her and since the very next day there was no problem at all. He's such an odd kid. But very observant, I must say.

He is also teething for real. You can see his two first bottom front teeth peeking out now. We try to already brush them as they say you should but, um, sometimes we forget and sometimes it's just not happening -- if he's too tired, for instance. We'll get there.

Kupo almost 2 weeks ago (on the 10th):



More pics of the Kupo.

His motor skills are a little bit ahead of the curve, but I'm thinking it's because the bugger never bloody relaxes. He has to be in the centre of everything, see/feel/hear it all, and nothing frustrates him more than when he is not allowed to examine something. As long as stuff is happening, he's a very happy baby -- to the point of him not bothering to tell us that he's hungry or in need of a nappy change. O.o

Ficcing-wise, I haven't gotten as much written on Bracelet as I'd like due to illness etc (bah) but I have been promised a baby free day tomorrow where I will at least update at some point. I do have 4+ chapters, so it's not that much of an issue, just haven't had the time to sit down and do it.

I know I didn't give an update on the last drabbles I wrote, but they were Plan B (Draco/Ginny -- not my best work by a longshot. It surprised me how difficult Ginny was to write) and Expectations (Al/Scorpius -- won second place). Didn't do any since then.

I probably left out tons of stuff, but this is as good as it gets, considering that I'm tired and have a headache. We just got back from spending three days with Maz's family. The journey always sort of sucks, even if the visit was really nice.

So, how have you been? :)

I got a shiny for a drabble! XD



For this one:

Title: Not Quite Family
Disclaimer: JKR owns anything that is obviously hers. I own the rest.
Characters: Teddy Lupin, Victoire Weasley
Genres: Romance
Warnings: None
Overall Rating: PG
Summary: Victoire has had it with Teddy's antics. Written for nextgen_drabble Week 1. Prompt: The Burrow.
Length: Drabble, 350 words.

Not Quite Family


This week little_dollface was a total meanie and put up TWO pairings (she's modding at both nextgen_drabble and sortinghatdrabs) that she KNEW I was interested in. How dare she? She knows the world revolves around me!! Anyway, so, I had to sign up for both. >_>

I need some competition cuz you know something is wrong when I get the shiny (and, by the way, THANK YOU to everyone who voted in the Teddy/Victoire week! There were NINETEEN votes. Way to have a first week at nextgen_drabble !! :D)

But, anyway, if you have some time this weekend and some inspiration, you could sign up to write one (or both) of these:

Albus Severus Potter & Scorpius Malfoy -- Prompt: Girls. Word count: 385. It's at nextgen_drabble

Draco Malfoy & Ginny Weasley (I heard that collective gasp!! Heehee) -- Prompt: Quidditch (Harry must be at least mentioned). Word count: 435. It's at sortinghatdrabs

If you don't want to sign up, you can read and vote Tuesday and Wednesday. If you don't want to do that, winners are posted Thursday and I'll repost mine shortly after. And if the entire concept of one or both just squick you... well, I won't think less of you if you won't think less of me. ;)

You know, you'd think doing these drabbles was distracting me from doing other writing but in some strange way, it's as if it keeps my creativity flowing... :D

Title: The Bracelet
Author: AkashaTheKitty
Characters: Blaise Zabini, Draco Malfoy, Ginny Weasley, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Pansy Parkinson, Ron Weasley, Theodore Nott (whew)
Genres: Drama, Friendship, Hogwarts Years, Humor, Romance
Warnings: HBP Spoilers, although slightly incompatible.
Overall Rating: R
Summary: When Hermione Granger loses a bet she was sure she'd win to Draco Malfoy, it's the beginning of her own personal hell. And his.

Go here if you didn't read previous chapters.

 

( The Bracelet, Chapter 79 )

 

I posted and it deleted ALL content of my post!! Wtf??

Ok, short version:

1) Had minor surgery today. Very minor. A cut and a couple of stitches. I think the local anaesthetics are to blame for me sleeping 16 hours when I got home.

2) Kupo has started daycare. Sort of. We're doing it slowly, taking him home again whenever he misses us so he learns it'll be all right. I do not believe in Tough Love, Baby Edition.

3) I will prep a chapter of Bracelet once I'm done re-posting the essentials of my original post here, but if you're bored/curious, please go read and vote at nextgen_drabble. There are only five 350 word drabbles and they are Teddy/Victoire. One of them is mine, of course.

4) Also, dramione_awards could really need some more Best of 2008 nominations. I know most of you read a lot, so go check if your favourites are on their eligibles list. :) I can spare you some time and tell you that Bracelet won't be. I started that in December 2007. ;)

5) I haven't been around LJ much lately by design. It steals hours and hours and hours of my life to constantly be up to date on everything. Needed a break so I could do something else for a change (like fic). I don't know when I'll begin attempting keeping up again, but I'll occasionally stalk some of you as I see you around.

6) LJ sucks ass for deleting my original post's content.

Title: The Bracelet
Author: AkashaTheKitty
Characters: Blaise Zabini, Draco Malfoy, Ginny Weasley, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Pansy Parkinson, Ron Weasley, Theodore Nott (whew)
Genres: Drama, Friendship, Hogwarts Years, Humor, Romance
Warnings: HBP Spoilers, although slightly incompatible.
Overall Rating: R
Summary: When Hermione Granger loses a bet she was sure she'd win to Draco Malfoy, it's the beginning of her own personal hell. And his.

Go here if you didn't read previous chapters.

 

( The Bracelet, Chapter 78 )

 

My last drabble sucked. Trying to squish a too big bunny into too few words = auto-fail. Let that be a lesson, kids! I really do need to work on my brevity, though, which is part of why I'm occasionally doing this. :)

Anyhoo, in case you missed the fail-boat:

Title: Mudblood
Disclaimer: JKR owns anything that is obviously hers. I own the rest.
Characters: Draco Malfoy, Hermione Granger
Genres: Hogwarts Years, Romance
Warnings: Mild swearing. Icky, sticky ending.
Overall Rating: PG
Summary: Draco's brain and mouth lack a connection. Written for sortinghatdrabs Week 9. Prompt: A flaw.
Length: Drabble, 300 words.

Mudblood


It's the sign-ups for the very first week over at nextgen_drabble.

Teddy Lupin & Victoire Weasley - Prompt: The Burrow.

Go sign up and make little_dollface very happy.

I'm bribing with a Bracelet chapter? Ok, maybe I'm posting anyway but...

nextgen_drabble
nextgen_drabble
nextgen_drabble

I don't want to spend a lot of time on this post as I am, as I said, prepping a chapter right now, but go here if you want recent Kupo Cuteness: http://twitpic.com/photos/AkashaTheKitty (can be clicked bigger).

Title: The Bracelet
Author: AkashaTheKitty
Characters: Blaise Zabini, Draco Malfoy, Ginny Weasley, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Pansy Parkinson, Ron Weasley, Theodore Nott (whew)
Genres: Drama, Friendship, Hogwarts Years, Humor, Romance
Warnings: HBP Spoilers, although slightly incompatible.
Overall Rating: R
Summary: When Hermione Granger loses a bet she was sure she'd win to Draco Malfoy, it's the beginning of her own personal hell. And his.

Go here if you didn't read previous chapters.

 

( The Bracelet, Chapter 77 )

 

Maz recorded this this morning... thought I'd share. :)



I SPAWN CUTENESS!!!

I think I have some sort of deficiency. I had written the ONLY sad drabble for sortinghatdrabs, I think. XD

BUT IT'S NOT THAT SAD! SHEESH! I WILL TRY TO THINK HAPPIER THOUGHTS!

Anyway, if you're curious:

Title: What Matters
Disclaimer: JKR owns anything that is obviously hers. I own the rest.
Characters: Rose Weasley, Scorpius Malfoy
Genres: Hogwarts Years, Romance
Warnings: None
Overall Rating: PG
Summary: The Astronomy Tower is a good place to think. Sometimes it's easy to miss what matters, though.
Length: Drabble, 350 words.

What Matters

And little_dollface had a really great idea! A next-gen drabble comm! Now, I know that most of you don't like the thought of your OTPs getting it on with anyone else, but... NEW OTPS! COME ON!

nextgen_drabble
nextgen_drabble
nextgen_drabble

Join, darnit. She's all anxious that nobody will. O.o She's still fine-tuning the rules, though, so bear with that.

First round will start next Friday so you have a) a week to sign up and b) a chance to be a pioneer! (well, sort of XD)

As with sortinghatdrabs you can sign up on a weekly basis, so there's no pressure or anything. Just... fun times, yes?

I'm off to fic a bit on Bracelet. Happy fun times work so much better as a muse than, you know, stress and nagging.

I owe 1 DKK in taxes.

1 DKK.

That's, like, 0.15 USD or 0.1 GBP.

That's the weirdest letter I ever got. At least I think it is. Well, no, I remember that time where 3 would send me monthly reminders that I owed them nothing...

Anyhoo, I decided to NOT take advantage of the offer of saving 7% by making immediate payment. Making a money transfer is 2 DKK. They can come get their own 1 DKK.

See, this is where bureaucracy becomes ridiculous. XD

I usually do everything right and still end up owing them a lot more than this, so I guess this is improvement. I suppose it's because I had Kupo. Or maybe it just worked out. I don't know. Maz owes taxes for once, though. But that's because he suddenly a larger income by deciding to get his paternity grant on top of his normal grant instead of going on leave. No mystery there.

GO VOTE!!!

I entered a Rose/Scorpius drabble at this week's drabble contest at sortinghatdrabs and you know me -- if I'm going to lose, I want it to be by a lot of votes, so...

GO VOTE!!!

The prompt was "Astronomy Tower" and they're all (there are 13) exactly 350 words, so you know it's going to be good and not too long!

GO VOTE!!!

(In case you didn't realize yet, I really want you to go vote)

Here's a little bribe for ya:

( KUPO! )

( About that stroller... )

I signed up for this week's prompt at sortinghatdrabs. It's Scorpius/Rose in 350 words (with the prompt "Astronomy Tower"). I'm no drabbler, but hey! Couldn't leave little_dollface hanging after she made such an awesome choice! :D Also, it'll be fun. You should go sign up too, there's no limit on participants and you only sign up to do ONE drabble.

Now to battle the fact that OpenOffice counts words differently than MSWord... Guess this calls for manual counting. -_-

Got a new shiny! For doing...absolutely nothing! Bracelet was featured at dramionequiz (with a quote that I had myself forgotten, I might add, I SO HAVE TO REREAD!) and.... voilá! Shiny!



It's been a rather long day today. We're in Copenhagen now. Kupo has been so stimulated the last three days that by the end of the day, he gets a sort of sensory overload and becomes very unhappy. And tomorrow we're going to Sweden (well, honestly, I'm not sure I want to, but Maz wants me to. I think it'll be hell with the baby...).

I managed to empty our digital camera of pictures (something I asked Maz to do for, oh, weeks...) today so might be able to take some more pics of Kupo soonish. He's beginning to figure out that laughing is fun. If he's in the mood, absolutely anything will set him off. Like, he'll laugh if you say a word (and you can do it ten times and he'll laugh loudly every time) or if you kiss his cheek or if you change his diaper. We suspect him of being ticklish and having my sense of humor.

Anyhoo, tired. I thought I might write a bit today, but not going to. Going to go to bed now, methinks.