Under construction

MYLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR

2009-12-11T03:29:07Z

Title:: Holiday Surprise
Author: tiptoe39
Rating: NC-17 for woo hoo SURPRISE!
Pairing: Mohinder/Sylar
Summary: AU. Mohinder gets a new lab assistant who turns out to be his boyhood rival.
Author's Notes: Part 1 of an as-yet-unnamed series written for the mylar_fic holiday prompt table - MYLARY CHRISTMAS y'all! Betad by the irreplaceable ladywilde80, whose enthusiasm and support sustains us all through those Sylarless nights.

There were few seasons Mohinder Suresh despised more than Christmas.

mylar_fic

Candy Cane	White Christmas	Spiked Eggnog	Festive	Under the Christmas Tree
Silent Night	New Years Day	Holiday Surprise	'Tis the Season	Mistletoe
1/10

Saturday morning icon dump: Variations on a theme edition

2009-12-05T15:57:11Z

This morning I was inspired by this amazing picspam of Dean and Castiel in the last episode of Season 4. As well, there are some variations on pictures my husband asked me to icon a while ago. Enjoy!

The roster:

Supernatural x 13
Doctor Who x 5 (Daleks, SontaranS)
Penny Arcade x 4
Pokemon (Snorlax) x 3

The rules: Please feel free to take and use without credit, but comments are much appreciated!!

Teasers:

It's the heartwarming story of a boy and his guardian angel. Kind of.

[fanfic] Human Need (Dean/Castiel, NC-17)

2009-12-03T22:17:12Z

OK, can't wait any longer ^___^

Title: Human Need
Author: tiptoe39
Fandom: Supernatural
Pairing: Dean/Castiel (My first writing of this pairing, yay!)
Summary: Castiel is more connected to his human body now. And it's affecting him.
Rating: NC-17 for things that will take you to heaven... or hell... depending on your POV.
Spoilers: Through 5x02, which is as far as I've seen as of this writing -- please don't spoil me further! :-)
Author's notes: Thanks go out to ladywilde80, who absolutely rocked my world with her amazing beta work. I'm so, so grateful.

He'd set his compass by him, and to lose that direction would leave him stranded at sea.

Goddamn obsessive personality that I am.

2009-12-02T23:06:02Z

new OTPs are fun to have. But as

a) my big fic needs betaing (no pressure, dearest beta!)
b) my lady parts are now permanently atingle

I want prompts. Dean/Sam prompts, Dean/Cas prompts, even a Dean/Cas/Sam prompt would be fun. I shall write beta-free drabbles. Please specify adult or not adult.

I have only seen through 5x02. While I catch up, please forgive my anachronicity. ^_^

EDIT: Goddamn, the paper's huge tonight. Will try and do these on the way home if I don't get to it before then.

Heroes_meta for The Fifth Stage

2009-12-01T14:23:15Z

I find myself really liking this episode despite my better judgment. It was well-written and the characterization was compelling. For once the show worked at a regular pace. It didn't rush everything. The realizations and plot moves felt precipitated.

Peter/Nathan/Sylar: So heartbreaking and the final scene on the rooftop! Nnnguh! AWWW and Sylar fell into the grasp of the Petrellihug so we could have one last three-hanky moment. Dear GOD! I'm dead! My tears they flow like waterfalls!

Claire/Samuel/Gretchen: Nice to see Gretchen showing more sense than Claire for once. Then again, what doesn't show more sense than Claire? (Who is now going to be called Kermit the Freak in my book.) And I really liked her little "you can't hurt us" bit. That was a decisive moment I could believe in. The problem is, what would Claire do in the carnival that wouldn't attract hordes of perverts who want to hurt barely-legal blondes?

I kind of wanted Claire to kiss Gretchen at the end... but that would probably have been more annoying if it happened.

Samuel/Claire dubcon? Hrm?

Also kind of like the idea that Samuel might be angling to raise the earth out of the ocean in the event of global warming, but he needs loads of people to be that powerful. But now it looks like he's just trying to make himself a Lex Luthor continent. Booo-ring.

And he did that breathy thing on the hhhome again.

P.S. Wasn't it daytime when Claire and Gretchen pulled up to the carnival? Or did I imagine that?

Noah/Lauren: I have so much more respect for Lauren now. She handled Noah nicely. "Who said anything about sex?" Sort of a smackdown to the fears that they were just trying to create a sexy bit for marketing. And that she was immediately suspicious that Noah was just trying again now that he's single. I do wonder though if she can actually look up people in a CIA database without that stuff getting logged. What if the CIA has flags planted on any search for a Special, a relic from the Danko days? Heh :D

Sorry so short. Y'all can have at it now.

Also:
THE FANFICTION LOVE MEME
Gimme some sugar, babies. :D

tiptoe39 @ 2009-11-26T11:28:00

2009-11-26T16:28:37Z

heroes_meta for Thanksgiving

2009-11-24T02:32:10Z

FORTY-SIX entries to make up for lack of meta last week. :D

1) All I can think about with that name is "What do you call a man with no arms and no legs in a hole in the ground? Doug."

2) Noah's living in Dupont Circle just like last season. Have I mentioned yet what Dupont Circle is known for? *stares at the pretty boys having relationship talks over pancakes at 3 a.m. at Diner*

3) Noah's being a slutty asshole. And yet somehow he's more attractive as a slutty asshole.

4) Shouldn't Synathan be able to tell the difference between truth and lies? Or does he think some things just give him an unpleasant head-buzz?

5) Eww. Nathan has the face-wrinklies. He needs some Botox. Hey, would a really strong Botox injection fix his facial features in place? It could be the cure for shapeshiftery.

6) I'm already rooting for Lauren and Doug to hit it off and go have mad sex in the other room -- maybe in the same bathroom where Peter TP'd in. It's not like this show can get any more incestuous, right?

7) MR. MUGGLES CAME TO DINNER! THAT'S THE BEST THING THAT'S HAPPENED SO FAR THIS SEASON!!

8) He said Enchanté specifically to make you hate him.

9) Tracy could learn some lessons in ice from Sandra, let me tell you.

10) I think Lydia's dress may just be a tattoo as well.

11) First she's flirting with Nathan!Sylar - then she's flirting with Hiro - I really do think Samuel is just whoring her out at this point.

12) Dear Hiro, plz put ur eyes bak in ur hed. Kthxbai.

13) I THINK YOU ARE TRYING TO SEDUCE ME! AND MY LITTLE WARRIOR IS EAGER FOR ACTION!

14) "Where are your manners?" "I put them in storage space! NEXT TO THE BODY OF MY BROTHER!!!!"

15) I love how blase Peter and Nathan are about it at this point. Just like, "Puh-leeeze, Mom. You can't possibly put anything over on us anymore. We've seen it."

16) Is Nathan drinking wine? Wasn't he, like, an alcoholic before or something?

17) I think dref22's getting to me. I'm starting to think Noah is hot.

18) SANDY!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!

19) LOL @ "that other thing." Sandra is made of awesome.

20) "I'm thankful I have the self-control not to kick you in the nads right now, Mr. Rogers!"

21) OK, that little declaration of Claire's? Pretty much just like Thanksgivings at my house when one or more of us was in college. Lawl.

22) So how on earth did the circus folk create a compass? Do they have some sort of alchemical Micah clone stashed away near the ring toss?

23) Didn't Samuel hear the ~~TARDIS noise~~ pop that happens whenever Hiro teleports?

24) Your child mentioning backpacking through Europe = instant migraine.

25) Lauren is trying to out-Sandra Sandra.

26) "What is going on between Noah and Claire?" ASK dref22 SHE KNOWS. AND IS GETTING MENTIONED MORE AND MORE OFTEN IN MY METAS. WTF.

27) I really want Claire's lipstick. And possibly her eyeliner. And turtleneck.

28) "Sorry, Gretchen, I'm glad you came for Thanksgiving and all that, but... I've discovered I'm into older blondes."

29) I think Dark Nathan is creepier than Sylar, personally.

30) OH NOES! THE ELECTRIC SYBROWS ARE TAKING OVER! THERE IS NO MORE NATHAN, ONLY ZOUL!

31) Sylar tucking in his napkin? Possibly the creepiest thing ever. Why do I find myself rooting for him? And why is he hot? I do not find ZQ hot. I do not find Spock hot. I find SYLAR hot. God DAMN it.

32) "We've had a hand in each other's lives." Yes, and we have a ham in our lives, too.

33) I find it hard to believe that Lydia, as close as she's been to Samuel, has not seen evidence of his aggression before. Perhaps she's a tempering force on him. But... yeah. I'm surprised she's taking it so hard.

34) "A Hero Must Run Away." "I'm not a hero, I'm Darth Maul, you bitch."

35) I WANT TO BE THAT STUFFING. And I should NOT be enjoying this as much as Sylar is.

36) EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! ALMOST INCEST! YOU THOUGHT SHE WAS YOUR MOTHER FOR WEEKS!!!!

37) jaune_chat's ficbunny challenge of the week: When Peter catches up with Sylar, he comes up with an innovative (read: sexual) way to draw Nathan's personality back to the forefront. "HERE STICK YOUR DICK HERE AND SAY YOU REMEMBER US!!!! *EPIC SADFAIS*"

38) Somewhere in that hybrid face morph thing there was a really cute guy...

39) Did anyone else see the window Nathansylar flew out of and immediately remember that great scene with Claude? Oh it made me miss Claude so.

40) It's better if Gretchen doesn't move back in. Sex between roommates never ends well.

41) LAUREN rhymes with SCORIN', which is what she wants to be doing. :D

42) Noah and Sandra have more chemistry in their two-second goodbye kiss than... well... anything.

43) Worst. GPS. Ever.

44) I am not seeing Samuel/Hiro dubcon, I'm not seeing Samuel/Hiro dubcon, I'm NOT-- AWWWW OWWWWWWW... I'm not seeing Samuel/Hiro/Dreadsguy dubcon, I'm not seeing.....

45) So Peter is now buying into the I Can Fool Myself thing? Seriously!?

46) RE: THE PREVIEW: WOW. That's kinkier than the tuning fork.... aww, who'm I kidding? NOTHING'S kinkier than the tuning fork.

HAVE AT IT, PEONS!

FICMEMEBREAKTIEMNAO

2009-11-23T16:44:43Z

I know I took a sabbatical from fanfic, but I was gonna post and complain how much I wanted to to write Dean/Cas fic now that I've finished Season four and 15 words or less barely counts. Right???

1. Write down the names of 10 characters.
2. Write a fic of fifteen words or less for every prompt, using the characters determined by the numbers. Do NOT read the prompts before you do step 1.

In alphabetical order.

1. Arthur
2. Castiel
3. Ianto Jones
4. Matt Parkman
5. Mohinder Suresh
6. Olivia Dunham
7. Rose Tyler
8. Sam Winchester
9. Sophie Deveraux
10. Walter Bishop

First Time, 4 and 6 (Matt Parkman and Olivia Dunham)
She was the opposite of Audrey, though they shared the same pale, soft skin.

Angst, 7 (Rose Tyler)
She'd live out her days with him, always knowing it wasn't really him.

AU, 1 and 8 (Arthur and Sam Winchester)
This sheriff was as dour and headstrong as Sam's late brother. Sam liked him.

Threesome, 3, 6 and 9 (Ianto Jones, Olivia Dunham, Sophie Deveraux)
"He's just delicious," Sophie said, straddling Ianto. "Don't you think so, Agent Dunham?"

Hurt/Comfort, 5 and 10 (Mohinder Suresh, Walter Bishop)
"I know," Walter said. "To know the impossible is possible - that is a lonely thing."

Crack fic, 1 (Arthur)
"What do you mean I'm related to Morgana? Haven't you read the damn mythology?"

Horror, 10 (Walter Bishop)
See any episode of Fringe. :P

Baby fic, 5 and 9 (Mohinder and Sophie)
"He'll have your beautiful skin." Sophie cradled her belly. "And the sharpest tongue ever known."

Dark, 2 and 8 (Sam/Castiel, win!)
Who was the bigger monster? The angel who'd defied Heaven, or a demon's unwitting victim?

Death fic, 2 and 3 (Castiel, Ianto Jones)
An angel was whispering to him. "Know this and be at peace. Jack loved you."

OH GOD AFTER A MONTH WITHOUT FIC I NEEDED THAT. <3

heroes_meta for Shadowboxing

2009-11-10T12:54:40Z

Heroism: the Anti-Drug.

1) How does Emma stand working in the hospital if she is all misty whenever there's an accident? I don't think it's sounds she sees... I think it's angst.

2) "The Italian Eagle Scout" :D

3) Guh, Snarky Matt rocks. OH GOD. Oh. Matt. OH GOD. DO ME.

4) Meanwhile, in the Bed We All wanna Be In... it remains as such even after the shapeshifting.

5) Why does Claire have a T-bar on her boobs?

6) Can Peter cure Emma's deafness? Would that ruin her power? Should I not be thinking of such things? Will Emma get Internal affairs all over her ass for trying to do stitches? And can we keep the babe?

7) OH FUCK. (ETA I don't even remember why I wrote this, but it's pretty universally applicable.)

8) Gorgeous creepy man in the sorority house and none of the girls are all over him? Sorority girl's FATHER in the house and nobody's all over HIM? SERIOUS BADASS in the house and nobody's all over HIM? Noah should be in the middle of Sorority Girls Gone Wild XVII right now. Or at least watching it through a sniper rifle.

9) OH FUCK ME BAD!MATT, PLEASE DO ME NOW.

10) I'm having flashbacks to the Batman "A Death in the Family" graphic novel.

11) "That's actually a really good plan." LOL

12) RENE?!?!?!

13) "The world is my hostage." WIN.

14) FUCK. I WANT THEM TO KISS. REALLY FUCKING BADLY. EVEN THO MATT'S A HALLUCINATION.

15) Think Claire is gonna wipe Gretchen's memory to keep her around?

16) Does this dorm have any security protocols? (ETA: ah, I see the visitor badge. Did Noah have one?)

17) CLAUDE reference FTW.

18) Matt, come on, think of something clever. You were so clever before. Just cause he killed a dude doesn't mean you can stop being clever.

19) D'oh, "you can move the earth" = explains the Lost Island carnival's universal location. "It's everywhere you want to be."

20) Becky is creepy fail.

21) Is the sorority house in the same building as Claire's dorm? Noah got there awfully fast.

22) Danko killed Joseph = couldn't we have known this earlier? They keep referring earlier seasons in throwaway lines. Oh well, at least it's continuity.

23) "Mama Petrelli." hee.

24) OH FUCK MATT DO ME BEFORE YOU GO PLEASE :D Talk about heroic <3

25) There's been a lot of gun-pulling this episode. Maybe it should have been named "Shadowshooting." Or "Bulletboxing." Or "The Episode With Lots of Guns."

26) OK, I find myself rooting for Peter and Emma to kiss now. THANK YOU SHOW FOR DOIN IT RIGHT FOR ONCE. When they're understated and don't push it, it's nice.

27) And Emma has a last name.

28) YAY BROYAY!

Have at it.

heroes_meta for the heroes_meta tastic heroes people

2009-11-03T02:23:10Z

4x08 "Once Upon a Time in Texas"

1) This is the second time Hiro's had to take clothes off a clothesline laterly.

2) "The brain man?" LOL. By that measure Peter is Emobang Man and Claire is Vapidgirl.

3) HELLO FIRST SEASON SYLAR. Hiro has seen him before, hasn't he? Does he recognize him?

4) I'm predicting Charlie/Sylar dubcon now. NOT HELPFUL, tippy. Actually.... really, really disgusting. Cue derisive comments about the sexualization of fandom here.

5) What's Lydia's stake in this? Is it just that she loves Samuel? This is the first time I've seen him this upset. Much more so than when he went all avalanche.

6) "Sylar Field Edition." There is certainly something funny to be said about this, but I can't think of it.

7) Sylar chatting up Charlie = way to be creepy there.

8) Now we have Butterfly Man. This is a problem. I'm guessing Matt will become Baby Man and Mohinder will become Pretty Man. No, Scaly Man. No, Invisible Man. *sigh*

9) Ahahah, I see Ando/Hiro stunt doubles in the background.

10) WHERE WAS THE HAITIAN? Who is this chickie!?? Noah! OK, what part of married does this girl not understand? I might have to kill her.

11) He mentioned Eden! YAY! This really is the season of first-season shout-outs.

12) Oh, I see, they watched the episode a thousand times and they wanted to prove it to us. They assume we've all done the same. YAWNS, show. YAWNS.

13) Mothra. Ahahaah.

14) Hiro is really getting to be a master with those dollies. So, will Stan Lee be driving the bus? (Yes, I know it's not that episode, I'm making a funny. So sue me.)

15) Mecha-mecha ikiteru. <3 Oh, Hiro, you are so cute.

16) HIRO YOU ARE OVERTHINKING THINGS.

17) THE MARLE TO MY CRONO!??!?! ARE YOU SHITTING ME!?? This show has truly given up on everyone but the hardcore geeks. I had to ask hedgehog39 about the reference.

18) Halloo, old footage. Dear show, we asked you to recapture the essence of the first season. WHY DID YOU TAKE US LITERALLY?!?

19) AND NOAH WAS NOT KISSING SOME GIRL THE DAY BEFORE HOMECOMING. You know what this is, don't you? Heroes learned that it can't introduce brand-new characters and get successful romantic relationships going. So it's tightening the wrong screw here by trying to get around the "new" bit and saying "this character's not new, you just haven't seen her before. See? Isn't the chemistry grand?" Answer: No, it isn't.

This show is doing the storytelling equivalent of Hiro going back in time again and again to save Butt Copier Boy. They're not actually breaking the bad habits, they're trying to find a cheap way around them. It's absolutely infuriating.

20) He knows about the aneurysm! She told him at the end of the Six Months Ago episode! How could he have forgotten about this? (Remembers Yaeko) OH YEAH BECAUSE HIS MIND'S A SIEVE. SRY. NEVER MIND.

21) Most. Deserved. TK. Ever.

22) AHAHAHH. Wild West showdown.

23) Hiro is just being a bit of an asshat now, isn't he? Selfish asshat. And Charlie's using personal particles that are very rare in non-native speakers. And she wouldn't hear them from his speech. Maybe he is showing her shoujo anime in between orders of pancakes. OH LEAVE ME ALONE AND LET ME HAVE MY OBLIGATORY JAPANESE SNOB MOMENT.

24) What's with all the poetry? Is this Glee or something? I like that he quoted Midsummer, though. Although Hamlet might be awesome too. Ahahhaa, Noah as Hamlet. Or Macbeth. :D

25) "You're a drama geek." TRUEST. STATEMENT. EVER.

26) "Don't blame it on the job." Blame it on the freaking WEDDING RING. For fuck's sake, Noah. Who is this woman to tell him he's not happy? At least he's sticking to his guns.

27) RIGHTEOUS SMACKDOWN FROM THE CHARLIE. Seriously, when you think about it, if she was so ready to die, what does she do now with this unplanned, empty stretch of life she hasn't planned for or saved for or anything? It's kind of sad.

28) NOAH'S JAPANESE IS BETTER THAN IT WAS LAST SEASON. AGAIN.

29) Charlie's Japanese is better, too. YAY FOR KISSES.

30) I like this new uber-badass Hiro. There's a little bit of Future!Ninja!Hiro in there. (Oh, and Samuel's pronunciation is pretty good.)

31) "Evil Butterfly Man." AHAHAH. You think Hiro will survive his new indentured servitude?

32)WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT.

Fandom Roundup, October Edition

2009-11-01T02:21:20Z

Fandom Roundup, October Edition

I have a new fic index! And it's all shiny and sorted and stuff! And, and, you should go and find something you missed! Yeah! Hee!

Fanfic and drabbles

Heroes
Dance (various pairings, R)
Matt/Mohinder/Sylar confession scene

Fringe
Just Company (Olivia/Sam, PG-13)

Supernatural
Dean/Sam - I want more from you than I ever knew to ask

Buffy
A confession of love. Buffy/Angel.

Audio
Podfic of Officer Park-That-Ass-Right-Here by speccygeekgrrl

Graphics
Fringe Sims
Heroes and Torchwood Sims
Heroes and Merlin Sims
Doctor Who, Penny Arcade and Pokemon icons

Meta
Heroes 4x04: Acceptance
Heroes 4x05
Heroes 4x06: Tabula Rasa
Heroes 4x07

Memes

Participated in
The Truth or Dare Meme
The Mirror-Me Meme
The Superpower Meme
The Virtual {HUG} Meme
The ADJECTIVE meme

Other
Translation of a Heroes doujinshi

Drabble dump, October edition

2009-11-01T02:18:26Z

Only three...

Dean looks at Sam across the two beds and the nightstand that separate them. There's nothing different about tonight, nothing different about this hunt or this motel or this moment, but right now he can't look away. Sam's standing there, looking at their dad's notebook, no doubt trying to decipher some mystical incantation or interpret the clues hastily scratched down in thick black pen. His brow is furrowed, and his lip twitches. Something about him grabs Dean and wrenches him out of shape. He wants. He doesn't know what, but he wants.

He sits on the bed and faces the blank wall, breathing shallow, eyes open and dark.

"Dean? Is something wrong?" The voice that floats across the beds to him is honey-rich, gold and gleaming. Dean feels like he could pluck it out of the air and taste it.

"Nothing," he forces out. "I'm fine, Sammy."

Somewhere in his mind he knows it isn't Sammy he's talking to. Sammy is his brother, but Sam is this man, this big, commanding, intense man whose eyes take him to faraway places. Maybe if he keeps calling him that, maybe he'll return to just being his brother again.

And maybe Poison will make a triumphant return after twenty years, he thinks with a sardonic laugh.

Sam's misunderstanding. "What is it now?" he says, an edge of frustration in his voice. "C'mon, Dean, what did I do wrong this time?" Dean hears the leather slap of the notebook against the table, hears the footsteps. Feels the shadow fall over him. "What do you want from me, Dean?"

He's right there. Dean can't not look up.

"I don't know," he says. Though Sam's face is shadowed, Dean's squinting like he's looking at the sun. "Don't know what I want from you. Whatever it is, I'm not getting it." The truth slithers from his mouth and dies in the air between them.

He's cornered between bed and wall and Sam, but he stands as though to retreat. Sam closes in on him, and they're face to face against the wall in the corner of the room.

And there, with Sam's breath on him, Dean realizes exactly what he wants. And it's more than he ever knew to ask.

--

"I've fallen in love with you," Mohinder said. His clothes were dusty from hours of long research and longer travel, and Matt stared at him, shocked as much by his appearance as by the words. But Mohinder had a glint of fire in his eyes, and as much as Matt wanted to move or speak, those eyes steeled him in place as sure as any mind control.

"I know it's not fair," Mohinder said. "Just when you've gotten your family back. But I was out there, I was alone for so long and I realized it was you I wanted to talk to, you I kept thinking about. It took me twelve hours to drive here, please, Matt, stop looking at me like that and say something."

Matt tried. He tried to open his jaw, he tried to step forward. He tried to do anything. He couldn't.

Alone, in the dark, frightened and helpless, he watched his own body step forward. Felt his lips brush Mohinder's, heard his voice say, "I've always loved you, Mohinder."

And could do nothing.

--

"I've fallen in love with you," Buffy said. Her voice was loud, and it echoed in the empty alley.

Angel turned. The shadows in his stare were fathoms deep.

"I know," Buffy went on, "you're, like, a kajillion years older than I am, and probably if you dated a grandma she wouldn't be mature enough for you, but I can't help how I feel. No," she added, with a fierce little shake of her head, "I don't want to help it. I should-- but I don't."

His hands moved slightly at his waist, then stopped. "What do you want me to do, Buffy?" he asked. He was wavering on the edge of movement, half his body eager to plunge toward her, half paralyzed with fear.

So she moved for him, advancing swiftly -- too swiftly -- and wrapping her arms around his waist, leaning her head on the broad chest and nuzzling the hollow of his neck. "Let me in," she whispered. "Just give me a chance."

One hand found her hair, stroked its blonde sheen down toward her back and found purchase across its warmth. "I don't know if I can," he whispered.

What he was thinking, though, was, I don't know if I can't.

[fanfic] Dance (Heroes, ensemble; R)

2009-10-31T22:28:33Z

Title: Dance
Author: tiptoe39
Rating: R
Pairings: Too many to name.
Summary: Halloween at the Carnival.
Author's note: My last fanfic until after Nanowrimo ends. Enjoy. Thank you to senor_coconut_1 for the beta.

Halloween at the Carnival.

Lydia is a belly dancer in veils, Mata Hari. She slinks through the crowd, for once her skin not only Samuel’s to touch. Samuel has put his seal of approval on it by spinning her into the arms of Edgar as the dance started. Those who weren’t at the carnival this time last Halloween let out a gasp. Others simply smile. They remember last year, at the height of the revelry, Samuel and Joseph feasting on her like twin beasts. She was not the only one. And she won’t be the only one tonight.

Nathan wanders through the mess and feels more lost than ever. But when Lydia’s waist slides enticingly over his, when she bends her head to gaze at him alluringly, he forgets that there’s a gap between who he is and who he’s supposed to be. Tonight it doesn’t matter. She tells him as much, with her lips as much as with her words. His arms folded around her, he leads her into the whirling dance.

On All Hallows Eve the ghosts return, and so it is with the carnival that lies just outside of time. Anyone whose lives have been touched by the carnival return to it, as if in a dream, and let their souls dance free.

Tracy arrives, and, shimmering with water at the edges of her skin, she flows through the crowd. When she looks around she thinks she sees the child Jeremy breathing life into each carefully etched pumpkin, at home at last. She smiles. The pumpkins laugh with crooked teeth.

Peter’s lost and powerless at the edge of the tent, but when he steps inside he feels the echoes of old powers at his fingertips. Lightning crackles through the night at the twitch of his fingers; he thinks he might be floating just a little above the ground. The suspicion turns to certainty when Samuel applauds and walks toward him, looking up at him the whole way.

Rebecca slides her arms around Jeremy, and he looks down to see nothing embracing him. If he can’t see her, she says, his body won’t recognize there’s someone there he could hurt. Flimsy logic at best, but this is Halloween, and just because everyone knows it’s a mask doesn’t mean you can’t hide behind it. His fingers wander over bottom and breasts, the teenage temptations that have been more forbidden to him than to most, and it’s an easy choice to leave behind the pumpkins to dance with air. His only worry now is that without her hips to hide it, his eagerness is all too visible. It’s lucky nobody’s looking.

Hiro feels healthy and reinvigorated. He holds Charlie’s hand and leads her into the dance. They’ll face death together tomorrow. Tonight, they live.

Noah’s glasses are skewed and his suit is rumpled as he walks beneath the big top. His eyes dart back and forth, restless with suspicion. It takes Tracy holding out her hand to him, the rushing water beneath her fingers subtly caressing his wrist, to get him to lower his guard. He melts into her arms as though he were the one made of water. Certainly he sweats like a block of ice, and then they flow seamlessly together.

The clock ticks closer to midnight, and spurred by the sound, Nathan twirls Lydia faster. She spins and laughs, and when Edgar’s hands meet Nathan’s on her hips, it’s only more exciting, more feverish. Her lips sear them both with fire, and the veils begin to fall away.

Peter vaguely recalls feeling this way once before, intrigued and frightened. He remembers another man who came out of nowhere and changed his life. Now Samuel is running a hand over his chest beneath his shirt, and another hand beneath his belt, and Peter’s thinking of Claude, rain and remembrance and the feeling of falling.

Charlie’s eyes open wide, and she wants to ask Hiro where he’s brought her. This place is frightening, she says. Hiro nods. He closes his eyes, ready to wink them out of this place, but then Charlie kisses him and he forgets to teleport. She tells him she wants to stay. There’s a wild danger in her voice, and he knows how she’s feeling. It might be their last night alive.

Faster now, faster still, and Noah has long since discarded the glasses. His sight trampled somewhere in the sawdust, he sees Tracy only as a blur of pink above him, now around him. He shuts out sight altogether and just feels the things they’re doing, the fierce liquid heat of her body and the lava at his own core. He’s with her. He’s not lonely. He’s not missing his wife, or his job, or anything he’s left behind. He’s been chasing this, and here it is -- a now that’s worth living for.

Near midnight, and Jeremy is learning through Rebecca’s skilled and unseen hand that le petit mort is a far better death to give than the permanent kind. Edgar’s hips stab sure as any knife. Lydia wails. And Samuel watches his delightful carnival all around him, man-beasts and sirens and contortionists all providing every manner of earthly delight. They always perform for him, but tonight he is not just their leader but their customer.

A minute left, and Peter has found a familiar face in the crowd.

“You’re Sylar,” he whispers.

“So they tell me.” Nathan touches the smooth skin of his face and knows it. Peter knows the touch too.

“But you’re Nathan,” he murmurs, puzzled, brow furrowing as he turns to kiss that palm.

“Yes,” Nathan says, “I think I am.”

As all distance between them melts away, midnight strikes, a bell clear and tolling in the far distance.

Peter wakes up in New York and wonders what it means to dream his brother is a killer. After a while he sits down to read a book and consigns it to the strangeness of Halloween. But it will haunt him for a while yet.

Tracy wonders if she should call Noah, but then decides not to. For his part, Noah wonders if this means he’s getting over Sandra. He hopes not.

Inside the circus tent, Rebecca sighs and stretches. What a shame, she thinks to herself, what a loss, that some have to die and others can’t. The world is all wrong.

A few years ago, Hiro’s ashamed of himself for having a wet dream about beautiful Charlie.

Samuel just watches the world turn around him.

Heroes 4x07 heroes_meta

2009-10-27T01:17:43Z

I actually got to watch my show live tonight!

1) I feel it necessary to note that I wrote Sylar/Janice once.

2) At the beginning of the episode I was happy to see Jeremy again - so pleased he wasn't a day player. By mid-episode I was already writing the fanfic where Luke comes to the carnival after Jeremy is already there and they help each other understand their relative killing-machineness, complete with boykissing. By the end of the episode my fanfic was DOA. So sad.

3) Boy, did Noah and Tracy take it up the ass this episode. Dry and dusty in the Georgia heat. They did everything right, and everything went wrong. Nevertheless, these two have for me become the essence of what Heroes used to be - the intense, complex, real relationship between people and the world around them that's made so much more complex by the situation. Where there aren't answers to be found, and sometimes your only comfort -- that others are going through the same thing -- is the opposite of comfort -- when you realize they can't solve your problems either. I just really, really find them intriguing and mature. They're not pushing a plot at us, or a romance, or anything else. They're just human beings trying to relate and fucking it up, and that works dramatically for me.

4) Meanwhile, in Zombie Lesbian Sorority Killers, Claire isn't sure how she feels. And she sticks to that, avoiding the fanfic cliche of "I kind of liked it... but I'm not ready... but oh, these burgeoning feelings." (Yes, this is a cliche I am horribly guilty of in nearly every fic I write.) As much as Gretchen's stalkeriness creeps me, Claire is regaining her likability in my book. Because she is staying with the "I don't know," and not going one place or the other with it. I hope this relationship moves slowly.

5) This ep had some good lines. When Sylar said "That is the second Parkman I've made scream today," I shouted at my TV. Sylar, you unholy bitch. This was another story that had me guessing. I was sure... damn sure that they were going to go in an addiction storyline direction with this. Which they kind of are and kind of aren't, I suppose. Everyone else is going to THINK it's an addiction storyline - and only Sylar!Matt will know the truth. Mmmm, Sylar!Matt. :rubs hands together evilly.: I should not love this idea. But... but... I do! THE OT3 of MattMylar is alive and well! Plus, Grunny acting evil... <3

5.5) Jessica called. She wants her storyline back.

6) OH DID I FORGET TO MENTION MATT CALLED MOHINDER RIGHT AFTER THE COMMERCIAL BREAK IN WHICH I WAS SCREAMING AT THE TV FOR HIM TO CALL MOHINDER OVER ALL THE CAR COMMERCIALS HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. Also, Sylar's Momo impression was delicious. Yahahahaha. And Sylar said Mohinder's name again. Which is always cause for T3h H0t.

7) Every time Samuel says HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHome, he has to take a big breath and raise up his arms. ***breath** "HHHHHHHHHHHHHHome."

8) Wait, Gretchen has had six or seven *more* boyfriends than girlfriends by age 18? LOLWTFSLUT??????

9) "SLOW BURN" should be called "SLOW PRODUCT PLACEMENT." No, it should be called "SLOW, TORTUROUS PRODUCT PLACEMENT." Lydia's photo was geotagged. Despite the fact that the Cirque du HoYay is on the LOST island. So even though they're everywhere and nowhere, apparently that's Everywhere and Nowhere, Nebraska. Right.

10) Let me be the first to declare that next episode will start with Claire saying, "I guess we have to tell them the truth. OK, I admit it, it was a prank, Rebecca and Gretchen and I were trying to scare you both. Ha, ha, ha!" Cue eyerolling and spontaneous rationalization of what they've just seen on the part of Paris and Nicole. (Yes, I realize that's not their real names. Yes, I'm going to call them that anyway.)

OK, slightly different format tonight so only 10 items... also, I'm depressed my Jeremy/Luke fic died before it began. SIGH.

Heroes Doujinshi Translation!

2009-10-26T19:36:43Z

I was given a terrific set of doujinshi scans by selphiealmasy8 to translate and I finally finished them! They are a set of 4-column comics.

You can download the scans here, courtesy of the fabulous selphiealmasy8, and read on for the translations!

Translations by tiptoe39. Please feel free to use or reproduce, but credit would be appreciated. Also, any corrections or clarifications you can make would be greeted with great appreciation. Thank you for reading!

Page 1

Nice to meet you. My name is Harry.
This is a mix of some 4-panel comics and commissions I've published on my site.
It's a jumble of material from Seasons One through Three.
I have no idea how I should sort them out, so
I lined them up by subject.
The art changes around quite a bit
because I have been writing them over a half-year.
There are all kinds of problems with them,
but I think now that they're all together
it came out well.

Page 2

A brother's love is blind

Peter: By the way, Nathan, which me do you like?
(small words) My old haircut or the big head I've got now?
Nathan: Either one.
Peter: Huh?

Nathan: Long hair or shaven head or skinhead or if you have boils all over your whole body or a pompadour or a punk cut or if you're a girl or if you have cat ears or if you're dressed up like a maid...
Nathan: If you're yourself, I don't care what you look like, Peter.

Peter: "Oh... I see..."
(small words) Thank you...
Narration: His brother's love is so deep, it's really causing Peter problems.

Bottom of page: I stuck this 4-panel comic here at the last minute after I messed up my plan for the page.

Page 3

FLYING MAN!!	Hiro's hearing level
Hiro: "Ahh! It's the brothers who are in love!" text: gasp	Hiro: "What's your name?" (small text) "Whoosh!" Nathan: "Nathan Petrelli."
Nathan: "Shh!" Hiro: "Ah, I see, that's right!"	Hiro: Nathan... (white text) gulp Hiro: ...Pedo.... Loli..? [translator's note, meaning, of course, pedophile + lolita.]
Hiro: "It's a secret, right. " Hiro: "IN-CEST!"	Nathan: "No--! Not Pedo Loli, I am Petrelli!" (small text) So that's why you were naked!! Hiro: "You are bad person! Pervert! Pervert!"
Hiro: "IN-CEST!" Hiro: [a sound effect - DOBYU - one can assume it's the sound of his demonstration] (small text) hee hee Hiro: "'Ah... Oh, no, don't, big brother!'" [pretending to be Peter] Nathan: "Hey--" Nathan: "I'm asking you, please! Cut it out...!"

Page 4

(untitled)	Save the [blank] !
Small text: "I'm kind of scared, but..." Hiro: "I'm pretty cool five years from now. I turn out like that..."	Hiro: "You're Peter Petrelli, right?"
Peter: "He's like that because your friend there dies!"	Hiro: "I've come to give you an important message." Hiro: "....."
Hiro: "Because Ando-kun dies..." Hiro: "I become a terrorist...!"	Hiro: "...huh? What was it, the thing that waves the pom-poms..." Hiro: "I'm blanking. Ando-kuuun!"
Hiro: "......"	Peter: "Cheerleader?" Hiro: "That's it! Save the cheerleader!"
Hiro "Ando-kun, sorry about this... But swallow your tears and die right now!" (small text) "I like the cool me better!" (small text above Hiro's head) bambambam Ando: "Whaa? That's so mean, Hiro!"

Page 5

Tubular Bells	Razor Burn
Mohinder: Why don't you admit it? (small text) ding [sound of tuning fork] Mohinder: Tell me your name!	Hiro: "Good morning, Ando-kun!" (small text) torn up Ando: "Hiro! What happened to your cheeks?"
Sylar: S... Sylar... (small text) Auugh! Sylar: It's Sylar!!	Hiro: "I tried to shave and I got razor burn." (small text) "It hurts" Ando: "It's because you have soft skin." (small text) "Pain, pain, go away..."
(small text) [panting noise - hah, hah, hah]	(outside the panel) The current version (grin) (small text): "Same time, New York, Petrelli Bros." [translator's note: yes, it says it in both languages] Nathan (offscreen): "Ow!" Peter: "Nathan, what's wrong?
(small text at top) [I think this is the sound of the bells clattering - Chakkoko, ranniniran] (small text at bottom) clatter clatter Sylar: Auuuugh!! (outside the panel) He's proud of his musical talent.	Nathan: "Looks like razor burn." (small text): torn up Peter: "I've told, you, Nathan, if you don't use five blades..."

Page 6

No more butt chins! [translator's note, literally it's butt chins - refers to a cleft in your chin]	Ando-kun, not there!
Nathan: "Sorry, but I'm behind in the polls. I won't make it into Congress." Nathan: "Much less the White House."	Hiro: "Augh, my shoulders got stiff..."
Linderman: "You think I say this with no foundation?" (sound effect) clatter (kanji on face) big brother	Hiro: "Ah! Ando-ku--n!" Hiro: "Could you give me a little massage?" (small text) OK!
(sound effect) tremble Nathan "... That can't be!"	(small text) squeeze Hiro: "!" Hiro: "Not there!"
Nathan: "I don't have a butt chin!" (small text) "here!" Nathan: "Is it there?" [translator's note: I don't get the last line either.]	(small text) partition Ando: "Then, here?" Hiro: "A-a-a-n!"

Page 7

To people who like Mohinder: sorry about this!	For the safety of the children
Narration: "Mohinder in the morning" (small text near his hair) glitter glitter (small text near razor) "A five-blade razor"	Niki: "Okay, Micah? If you meet a strange person use this tool to get rid of him."
Narration: "Mohinder at noon." (small text) click click	Claire: "It's a stun gun, right? Okay, Papa." HRG: "Be careful with that, Claire!" (small text) panting
Narration: "Mohinder in the evening." (small text near the window) caw, caw (small text below) click click	Nathan: "If anything happens to you I'll come flying in to save you!" Peter: "Nobody can fly, Nathan!" [Translator's note, he actually says "big brother," but that's a Japanese convention - you don't refer to your big brother by your name. More likely in English to say "Nathan" than big brother.] (small text) their childhood years
Narration: "Mohinder at night." Narration: "I get the feeling genetics research is more important that thinning out your beard."	Bob: "Elle, when you go outside, to take care of yourself..." (small text) crackle Bob . o O {My kid doesn't need one.}

Page 8

Honesty, about at Level 1 [translator's note, it could also be read as Honestly, he's about at Level 1, but not sure how to read this title]	Various Peters
Narration: "Peter has gotten Jesse's power." Peter: "I LOVE NATHAN!" (sound effect): WHAM!	Narration: "4 Years in the Future Peter" Narration: "Today's Peter"
Peter: "Ahh.. Nathan..."	Future!Peter: "Nathan, you like me better, right?" Present!Peter: "That me is dangerous! You'll get killed!"
Peter: "Ah... nn..." Peter (at left): "I can't..." Peter (lower right): "No..."	Future!Peter: "I can also turn into the old me!" (sound effect): suuu [like a shimmering noise, i think] Present!Peter: "!"
Peter: "AAAA----! <3 I'm coming!" (sound effect) WHAM! (text near Peter's naughty bits) [too small for me to read, something about a circle.. probably indicating the censored part] (Small text at left): <- Nathan	Present!Peter: "Nathan, doooon't! He's already killed you once!" (small text in bottom right) ha ha ha (small text near nathan) hmmm (small text in top left) which means he could also become peter as a boy? Present!Peter: "I'll learn how to transform myself eventually, too!"

Page 9

If Nathan hadn't showed up to save him	Waffle Hiro
Future!Claire: "It's your fault that 200,000 people in Costa Verde were sacrificed."	Hiro: "Waffle~" (small text) grin Ando: "Hiro?"
Future!Claire: "For the first person..." (sound effect) tsutsu [the sound of the knife against Peter's skin] Peter: "Owowowowow, Ouch, Ouch!!"	Hiro: "Waffle? Waffle waffle." Ando: "Hiro... don't tell me..."
Future!Claire:" "For the second person... for the third person..." (small text top right) "Ahh!" (small text middle right) cut (small text bottom right) "No!" (small text top left) "Ouch!!" (small text middle left) "Wait--" (small text bottom left) cut Future!Claire (bottom left) "For the fourth person..." (small text on Haitian's face) Haitian Future!Claire (top left) "For the fifth person..."	(sound effect) shocked Ando: "...you can't say anything but Waffle anymore?" (small text) "just kidding! grin"
Future!Claire: "For the 40th person!" (small text) "Ahahahaha!" (text on Peter's body) I Have a Brother Complex! Future!Claire: "That's what you get, Peter!"	(sound effect) Waaa! Hiro: "Wa, wawa, waffle~~~! Waffle~~!" Ando: "Wait... are you serious? Is this a new ability, or what?"

Page 10

"Elle" Is for Love [a play on Elle/ the letter L]	Uru*** Yatsura [This comic is a play off Urusei Yatsura, a classic comic by Rumiko Takahashi about an alien girl named Lum who could shoot lightning at people and was pretty much the pinup girl for a whole generation of dorky Japanese teenagers.]
Narration: I'm Elle. Narration: To win Peter's heart, I'm trying a homemade food attack. I wonder if he'll enjoy it today, too?	Narration: I'm Elle! Narration: I can manipulate electricity at will. If only I could do the same to the heart of the man I love...
(small text in Peter's thought bubble) blechh Elle: "Is it good? I challenged myself with a new flavor today."	Hiro: "That's it! You're Lum-chan!" (small text) Otaku [anime nerd] Hiro: "You're the real Lum-chan! YATTA!!" [Yess!]
Peter: "Ah... Thank you, Elle." (small text) gefu... [I guess it's the sound of him wiping his face.] Peter: "I'm really glad. You're always making me eat different things. Thanks."	[Note: she's wearing Lum's costume] Elle: "This will really get Peter to look my way?" Hiro: "Of course!" Hiro: "Lum-chan is every guy's dream! There's no guy who won't fall for this!"
Elle: "Did you just misspeak? Or did you mean to say that?" (small text) crackle Peter: "No! My mistake! It's delicious! Strange and delicious!"	Narration: "The result..." Peter: "Nathan, what's that?" Nathan: "Shh. Don't stare at it!" [translator's note: LOLOLOLOLOL!!!!]

Page 11

The Peach Pie of Memories	Elle (L) is for LIP!
Elle: "Peter, you seem down." Elle: "Is there anything you'd like to eat?" (small text) I'll try to make it for you.	Narration: "I'm Elle!" Narration: Today, I'm putting all my recipe books together and cooking from them!"
Peter: "Let's see. Maybe something sweet." (small text) for no reason Peter: "Like a peach pie..."	Peter: "!" (small text) chew Elle: "Is it good? Today I tried a recipe from a book!"
(sound effect) rattle, rattle (sound of an electric shock) Peter: "Gyahh!"	Peter: "It's good!" Peter: "It's really good, Elle! The best so far!"
Elle: "I'm sorry..." Elle: "I can't make you a peach pie... it brings back memories..."	Elle: "That's what I thought. You've been forcing yourself to eat it." (small text) crackle Peter: "No! My mistake! It's delicious! Every time, every day, it's delicious!"

Page 12

The love that has gone too far 2	The love that has gone too far
Narration: "My little brother" by Nathan Petrelli (small text) Waaa, waaaa Narration: I was an only child, but my little brother was born. He's seven years younger than me.	Narration: "My little brother" by Nathan Petrelli (small text) Waaa, waaaa Narration: I was an only child, but my little brother was born. He's seven years younger than me.
Angela: "Nathan, do you love your little brother?" Nathan: "Yeah. I really adore him." (small text) glug, glug [sound of Peter swallowing]	Peter: "Nathan, Nathan." (small text) his first words Narration: I've always wanted a little brother, so I'm so happy and I adore him so much I can't stand it.
*Angela (off screen):* "How much do you love him?" (small text) burp Nathan: Let's see. I love him so much I want to eat him up!	Narration: So this brother of mine can have a happy, decent life... (small text lower right) Hang on tight! (small text upper right) Yay, yay! (small text upper left) Nathan, piggyback! Narration: I plan to always be watching over him out of the corner of my eye. [literally "i plan to be double-faced to watch over him"]
Narration: 1X years later... (small text top right) Ah! Nathan, don't! (small text top left) Peter, forgive me... I can't hold back any longer. Narration: In another manner of speaking, he did eat him up.	Peter: "...You call this a decent life?" (small text) Sex with my brother... Nathan: "You left out the 'happy' part, you know!"

Page 13

A brother's deep love, Part 2	ET
Nathan: "You're telling me this is Peter?"	Narration: Nathan takes Peter to kindergarten. (small text lower right) shaa [whoosh] (small text upper left) Go, Go, Nathan mobile, Go, Go! [This is a pun - "go" is how you refer to ships and other vehicles, so he says 'Go, go, Nathan-go, Go, go!]
Simone: "Mr. Petrelli?" (sound effect) basha [sound of paint splashing]	Peter: "Nathan, go faster!" Nathan: "Huh? It's dangerous, Peter!"
(small text) su [sound of painting]	Nathan (thoughts) "I hope we don't have an accident...!" (sound effect) byuu [sound of accelerating bike] Peter: "Wow! Nathan, you're cool! Cooool!"
(sound effect) whap Nathan: "Peter looks like this!"	Nathan: "WHAAAAT!" Narration: The moment he discovered his powers.

Page 14

Signpost leading to big brother

Caitlin(?): Look closely at the contents of this box. They'll help you get your memories back.

Peter: "What's this?"
(small text) What about the photo with the shot of two people?

Peter: "....."

Peter: "Aah. NATHAN!"
Peter: "That's right. I had a big brother!"
Narration: Cruel.

Left-hand illustration:

(small text right) "Hey..."
(small text center) munya munya [sound of murmuring in sleep]
(small text left) Big brother... <3

Page 15

Text to right: Araki-style Peter. [translator's note: Araki Hirohiko is the manga-ka of Jo Jo's Bizarre Adventure.]
(Sound effect) boom boom boom boom
Peter: B-- big brother?

Page 16

Heroes life theater [I think it's more like human drama -translator]
Petrellin edition
2009-09-27
Petrellin/Harry Presents
Bound print pack format
Text by your neighborhood Lawson [translator's note - 'kinjo no Lawson' or 'your neighborhood Lawson' is a convenience store in japan - I have no idea what this is about!]
Heroes S1~S3 All character book
http://grind-house.sakura.ne.jp/petlelin

*Please don't put this on Yahoo Auctions or any place where people who don't know doujinshi can see it.*

[fanfic] Just Company (Fringe, Olivia/Sam, PG-13)

2009-10-21T18:31:51Z

probably dooming this to the obscurity pile by posting it midafternoon, but...

Title: Just Company
Author: tiptoe39
Fandom: Fringe
Pairing: Olivia Dunham/Sam Weiss
Words about 2900
Rating: PG-13 for implied sexual activity
Summary: Olivia and Sam spend some time in each other's company.
Author's note: Thank you to speccygeekgrrl for the beta! I'm still an Olivia/Peter fangirl, of course, but this pairing has possibilities. They basically took me for this ride, so apologies if it's kind of pointless.

On a rainy morning, Olivia woke up despondent. She padded out of bed, tiptoed past Ella's room -- it had used to be the living room -- and found a seat near a window in the kitchen. Shivering in her nightgown, she gazed out the window and saw autumn draping the city in fog. The sharp oranges of trees were muted in the mist, and the Boston skyline was obscured entirely, like it was a figment of her imagination all along and had never actually been there. She leaned her chin on one palm and closed her eyes to shut out the ugliness, the inevitable decline of summer.

She'd called Charlie's wife last night to see how she was holding up, and it hadn't been a nice conversation. She's sensed the sort of hidden hostility, the forced politeness in her tone that said I don't know how, but I know you had something to do with this. Beestung by the attitude, Olivia had quickly excused herself and gone to work out, burning the frustration and sadness with each curl of the dumbbell. At least her arms were still a hundred percent.

She had a slight limp, and her legs wobbled occasionally, but she was starting to exercise them, too. She'd managed to jog for the first time since the accident the other day, and it had just felt good and invigorating. Finally, a wall that she'd punched through. She supposed she had Sam Weiss to thank for that, even though his methods were unorthodox, at least.

He was frustrating, too, but there wasn't the malice behind it that Charlie's wife burned into each word. Instead of that heat, there was warmth -- and a sort of mysterious coolness, too, a sense of I know more about how your brain works than you do. She wondered, idly, whether he had a background in a far more prestigious profession than proprietor of a bowling alley. She wouldn't be at all surprised.

And the jumble challenge, such as it was, had remained a mystery to her until several hours after she received its cryptic message. It had something to do with subconsciously choosing the letters of the words she wanted to hear, but how he had known to call right at that moment, when she had enough of them to complete the message -- it spoke to a sixth sense that she was only now beginning to believe in.

It was so strange that he should have such insight and at the same time seem so utterly human. There was nothing mysterious about his manner. His words were those of a sphinx, but his face was that of an old friend. Olivia found herself wishing she could talk to him.

The phone rang, and she jumped. Once the jangling had finished coursing through her nerves, a sense of peace filled her. It was Sam. That was easy enough to tell before she even answered the phone.

"Hi," she breathed into the receiver, feeling at once jittery and relieved.

"It's a lousy morning. How are you holding up?"

"I--" She paused. "I'm doing OK." It was the truth. The fog outside her window had transformed from a pall erasing the town to a blanket enveloping it. The muted oranges of the trees in the rain seemed now the color of ripe pumpkins, and at once she could smell the scent of pumpkin pie, spicy and rich, just by gazing at them.

"I thought you might need my help," Sam said, some regret in his voice. "But you sound fine."

"And you sound disappointed," she said, a smile darting across her face and lighting her tone.

"Yeah, well... sometimes my intuition is off. I just hate getting caught."

"I have a feeling," she said, leaning back, "that you don't like to be wrong."

"And I'm the only one in this conversation who feels that way," he countered, and Olivia bit her lip to keep from laughing aloud.

"If it'd make you feel better," she said, "I could come by anyway. Maybe bowl a frame."

This brought a chuckle from him, and the sound curled through her bones and warmed her from the inside out. "I wouldn't want you to strain yourself," he said.

She paused. "You know," she said carefully, "if you're looking for company..."

"I don't know." His voice dragged with regret. "You're my..."

"...patient?" She cut him off. "You're not exactly a doctor. I don't think we need to stand on ceremony."

"Olivia." It was the first time he'd used her first name. It sounded almost provocative. "We can't be friends."

"I didn't say we had to be friends," she said. "I just said I could be company."

"And you're very good at drawing lines."

Olivia thought about John. She thought about Charlie, and she thought about Peter. "Yeah," she said, a quiet lie. "I'm very good at it."

The Brookline coffee shop where they met was teeming with teenagers. "Maybe I should have found a quieter place," she said as she sauntered up to his table. There was a steaming cup of brown liquid parked in front of the empty chair, indicating he'd chosen a drink for her. Smug son of a bitch.

"It'll be quiet again," he said. "Give it fifteen minutes."

She sat and studied him. Grizzled whiskers, flying every which way. He always looked so rumpled, as though he'd just rolled out of bed. It was a delightfully intimate thing just to look at him.

"I used to be one of them," he went on, nodding at the teenagers, who were falling all over one another trying to get a coffee and donut before those mysterious fifteen minutes were up. "They're coming from the Beth Shalom Hebrew school. It's still run by the same lady as when I was a kid. 11 a.m. is break time. By 11:15, they need to be back in their seats, conjugating verbs and dying of boredom."

She nodded. "Sunday school was a lot like that, too."

"And that's where the similarities end," he said, his eyes twinkling. "Trust me on this."

"Might as well." She sniffed the mug. "Chai."

"Do you like it? Because I can order another--" The second-guessing was rare for him.

"Sure," she said. She lifted the mug to her lips, taking a deeper inhalation of the spices, sipping, and swallowing. The warmth burned in her belly and spread outward.

"I like chai," he said. "It's invigorating and it's soothing. A paradox drink, a puzzle in a cup."

"You like puzzles." A simple observation, and he let it slide by. She watched him sip his coffee, saw the silver gleamings of foamed milk hang from his mustache briefly before he wiped it away. "I suppose," she went on, "that's because you are a puzzle yourself."

"No less than you are, Agent Dunham," he said, his eyebrows lifting.

"I don't think so." She smiled briefly. "You seem able to read me pretty well. Infuriatingly well."

"That doesn't make you any less mysterious," he said. "Just because you have the same general mind-set as most of the population doesn't make you entirely predictable."

"Is that how you do what you do?" she asked from behind her mug of chai. "Work from what you know of the general mind-set of most of the population?"

"Isn't that clear?" he said, smiling. "There's nothing mysterious about what I do, Agent Dunham. It may seem cryptic, but in the end, it's pretty straightforward, don't you think?"

She stared him down. "Asking me to collect business cards."

"It could have been anything. I could have told you to pick up a copy of the newspaper and circle one letter on every front-page article. You would have given yourself the same message. All I do is give you the canvas. You're the one who writes on it."

"Did you do this for Nina Sharp, too?" she asked. "Did you tell her to go around collecting business cards?"

He shrugged. "I'm sure I did something similar. I tend to improvise."

A grin broke across Olivia's face all of a sudden, and he frowned, confused. "What?"

"I'm just thinking," she said, her voice musical, "of Nina sitting there in your bowling alley keeping score. Or you fitting her for shoes." The image -- Nina, not the woman she was today but still a shade of herself, sour-faced and angry at the world that had cost her her arm, dealing with the influx of pint-size bowlers and their incessant questions and shouts -- got funnier the longer she held it, and at last a titter escaped her mouth.

He smiled. "You have a nice laugh," he said.

Olivia found herself blushing. "Thank you."

He rose from the table. "Come on," he said, "let me take you around my old neighborhood."

The neighborhood he showed her included not only the synagogue, with its constant in-and-out flow of pre-teens sporting designer clothes and brightly colored binders, but a local comic shop, several Mideast-style eateries, and the cheapest, brightest zoo of a grocery store she'd ever seen. They dodged shopping carts fitted with tall poles as he picked up pastries, tightly wrapped in plastic, from one of the shelves.

"Smell these," he said. She obeyed. The scent of raspberry tickled her nostrils.

"These smell like my grandparents' house to me," he said. "Rugelach on the table every Sunday after Hebrew school. And the smell of my grandfather's walker, with the tennis balls on the bottom. As a kid I thought they were the greatest thing ever. I wished I could push one around just so I could have tennis balls in front of me everywhere I went."

"And now you spend your time teaching people to walk without assistance," Olivia said with a sage nod.

"What we want most as children is very seldom what we want as adults. Very often, it's just the opposite."

"Be careful what you wish for?" Her eyebrow and the corner of her mouth both rose.

"I'm not sure I'd go that far." He paid for the pastry and wore the blue plastic bag around his wrist like a bright bracelet as they left the store.

They ate them across the street, in a small park just outside what looked to be a community center. The benches were low and ill-kept, and the grass was uneven, but the small green patch had the look of being well-used. Olivia closed her eyes as she tasted the cookies, letting walnut and raspberry melt on her tongue along with the flaky, buttery crust. After the chai's smoky spice, the pastry's sweetness bit at the sides of her mouth.

"I suppose you'll want to wrap this up soon," she said.

He looked at her with some surprise. "I was going to say the same about you."

"Not... necessarily," she said. "I can wait for you to make your point."

"Point?" Sam blinked.

"You know." Olivia laughed. "You've always got some point you're trying to make. Part of your... therapeutic technique. Right?" She counted on her fingers. "You have me go somewhere, or do something, and I don't know what you're up to, and then you give me the final cryptic clue, and then it all makes sense."

And beneath the black brush of whiskers, his face went pink. "Actually," he said, in a mumble almost too low to be heard, "I just wanted some company."

She hesitated. "Oh."

"Now you sound disappointed."

"Maybe I am," she teased. "You've always got something planned."

"Everyone's got to take a day off," he said. "Even you, I'm assuming."

"And do you usually take days off with your patients?"

"You're the one who said I'm not exactly a doctor."

"This is true." Her grin was full and hearty by now. "Then I suppose I'm not a patient."

"Not exactly."

"Just... company."

"Something like that."

"Then," she said, leaning back, "I suppose I can be company a little while longer."

She was company through much of the afternoon, through a vigorous walk down Harvard Street and a side detour halfway to Washington Square and back. Sam was much more human than she'd suspected, and what he told her of his background was almost distressingly pedestrian -- a normal childhood in a Brookline brownstone, school and highschool and an assortment of extremely odd girlfriends. Any prodding about his life thereafter had him evading and redirecting like a pro, though, and eventually she gave up. This understated idyll was too enjoyable to puncture with too pointed a question.

Still, she couldn't help but ask, "Did you walk around all day with Nina Sharp, too?"

"You're very concerned with what I did or didn't do with Nina," he observed.

"Not concerned. Just interested."

"Nina's a good friend," he said.

Olivia caught her breath. "So you could be friends with her."

"I can now."

"But not when she was your patient?"

He stopped, turned around to face her on the pavement. The fall wind had picked up, and she was shivering in her sweater as broadly as she had in her nightgown that morning. His face, severe in its coating of bristles, showed no sympathy.

"Why do you keep comparing yourself to her?" he said.

"I don't know." She looked away. "I suppose I'm just curious how much of this is part of your act."

"I told you, Olivia." Again, her first name. "What I do is pretty straightforward. I've never lied to you about anything. I told you I just wanted some company and that's what I meant. Why is that so hard to believe?"

She stammered. "I don't know. I'm sorry." Then, suddenly and sharply: "Why can't you be friends with me?"

"There are a lot of reasons," he murmured.

"Give me one."

His eyes darkened. "All right." And he stepped forward to brush his lips against hers, the sandpaper slide of hair gone almost before it had begun.

She raised a hand to touch her lips. "Really?" she said.

"Really." His voice was muted and firm.

"And that's why we can't be friends."

Sam grinned. "Friendships get kind of awkward after things like that."

She shook her head, looked down at the pavement, then lifted her face to meet the wind. It had its own kisses, and they stung her cheeks. A laugh escaped her.

The ride out to his place was one long, tense stretch of time, unmarked by speech or surprises. From time to time he glanced at her, and she bit her lip and looked away. Whatever they were, friends or not, it was awkward enough.

Her voice as she walked through his door quavered. "I guess I should call you Sam," she said. "It's funny, but your name is Sam-weiss, all one word, in my head."

"Olivia," he said, and she would have objected, would have told him it was unfair that he'd acclimated to her first name so easily, but by then he was kissing her again.

The grizzle of his whiskers tickled her face. "So we're still not friends," she teased, even as chapped lips and warm wetness pulled kisses from her mouth. "Even if we're on a first-name basis."

"Not friends," he echoed. "Just company." He dipped his head to her neck. She keened and arched her back.

The sting of beard paused at her shoulder. "I never did this with Nina, you know."

She pushed him backward, grabbed him by the hem of his shirt. "Let's not talk about Nina," she said just before she lifted it over his head.

In the morning, she put a pillow over her face to keep out the sunlight and then threw it forward when she felt hands snaking up her thighs. "Letch," she declared. "When I'm sleeping."

"You're not sleeping." He grabbed the pillow and tossed it away, and her vision was full of scraggly hairs and a face silhouetted by sunbeams. She smiled up at it.

Later, awake enough to be sitting up in bed, she leaned on his arm as he threaded his fingers through hers, their skin tones bleached by morning sunlight into one shade. "Are you still going to help me?" she asked.

"If you're admitting you still need help," he said. "Why, is this going to be a problem for you?"

"Let me tell you a secret," she said. "I'm FBI. I've cozied up to people who are now in maximum security. As far as uncomfortable prior knowledge goes, this is hardly the worst I've ever had."

He laughed and kissed the soft pink line just above her breast.

"Is this going to be a problem for you?" she asked, looking down at him and running her fingers through his mop of hair.

"Not a problem. You already told me you're good at drawing lines."

"Oh, yes. About that." She leaned coyly into his embrace. "I may have been bending the truth just a little."

"I'm shocked."

Olivia nudged his shoulder, shoving him sideways. "I know, and after you told me you never lied to me." She leaned forward, and the smile slid from her face. "This is going to be complicated," she said mournfully.

"Not necessarily." She was about to protest, but Sam tilted her jaw up, and the face he gave her was warm and sympathetic.

"Sam," she said, and the sound of his name in her voice was clear and round, like a bell. He smiled, and it was the smile of a good companion. Maybe, even, that of a friend.

She could believe in that for a while, at least.

THE END

Noontime icon dump: For my hubby edition

2009-10-21T15:43:12Z

Some random icons I made for my husband. You're welcome to take any of them you like.

HEROES-META time!

2009-10-20T04:33:12Z

1) That bastard Samuel. First he steals the Momologue, and now he's stealing my Previouslies? Stop taking over my show parts!

2) You know your show has jumped the shark when it starts ripping off Buffy episode titles. When the title an episode "The One Where Ross and Rachel Have Sex," I'm outta here.

3) I really kind of like the Peter/Hiro friendship. And it's nice to see Peter returning to his hospice roots. Although I would have preferred if he'd actually done than instead of turned into I MUST SAVE YOU boy. Oh well. There's a lot of Lip Service to Season One going around in this episode.

4) Wait, why did Emma ask Peter about having the cello sent to her apartment? She didn't seem at all surprised to see it in the last episode. If I found a musical instrument suddenly in my apartment, I'd call the cops first and play the concerto second!

5) I think I like Samuel much better when he's unsure. Certainly better than when he's being a blowhard.

6) HOLY FUCK SYLATHAN LOOKS GOOD TODAY.

7) "What shall we call you? Gabriel or Sylar?" "Call me Nathan." "LOLWTF." With all the poking Samuel had been doing into our Heroes' lives, though, he doesn't know about Nathan Petrelli? I would have thought that'd be a no-brainer, considering Nathan was the govvie behind last season's all out anti-Special policy. (Or did they escape that entirely, living as they do on the LOST island outside of space and time?)

8) Claire is spending too much time with her dad for a girl who just got to college. She needs to get herself a boyfriend, stat. Yes, I said boyfriend.

9) Nice fanwank to get over the Claire's-Blood-Should-Work thing. But very obviously fanwank.

10) Clueless Sylar is pretty africkindorable. But a little Edgar up in his face and he is back to his old self pretty quick.

11) The House of Mirrors? SERIOUSLY? That's a little theatrical, don't you think? I mean, give me a break. Then again, the Omnimax Memory Theatre was pretty cool. ("And it was nice to see Charlie again," I wrote in my notebook, having no idea what was coming.)

12) I suggest Peter go back in time and get Linderman. Or Hiro's mommeleh.

13) The stopped-time-oh-too-late bit was pretty cool. I thought he'd expend his last bit to warp his ass to Claire, who *could* fix that kind of wound. (Yes, I forgot entirely about the healer in the scene itself.)

14) If I had Noah Bennet breathing down my neck to do something in that kind of scary, panicked way of his, I wouldn't trust myself to heal and not to kill. No way. However, Happy!Noah was really cute.

15) OK, as cheesy and adorable as Hiro is, if I were Emma I would still say to him, what about my cracked plaster!?

16) I've figured out exactly what the problem with Heroes is, and it's encapsulated in Samuel's brief discussion with Sylar. It's the HARD SELL. It's all through this episode.

-Samuel convinces Sylar to stay within a minute. Within another minute he's got him chasing after Ghostbuster Man.
-Hiro shows Emma a trick. She immediately decides to accept her power.
-Noah gives Jeremy a pep talk. Immediately he's able to control his power.

The show needs to move slower and let people have consistency of opinion. Have them not be convinced by the charismatic characters quite so simply. Basically, everything that this show wants to do, it needs to do at one-third the pace. But instead of gradual turnaround, building over time, we get the quick, dirty, hard sell, and that's where it loses its appeal. It takes us longer than a minute to be sold on an idea. They need to take the time to convince us before the characters get convinced.

Ahem. Serious meta over with. Going back to silly meta now.

17) OK WHO'S SHIPPING JEREMY/LUKE/LYLE NOW!?!? PEDOVAN STOPS HERE! BEEP BEEP!!!

18) Line of the episode: "Don't just stand there. Get a mop." Strangely enough, the president said the same thing recently last week. Coincidence? ^_@

19) Hiro hears the "Go back" but not the "to bed" part. GREAT. Peter's gonna be wandering around with this useless-ass healing power waiting for him to get back. Pain in the ass. If only Peter had Molly's number in India...

20) And now, let us give a warm welcome to our newly baptized Brother Sylar the Carnie!

21) OMG, Samuel is pimping Lydia out! Did you see that? *Go on, fuck him.* No wonder Edgar's pissed.

22) HAS ANYONE SEEN IF THEY'VE GOTTEN JAYMA MAYS BACK!? BECAUSE RECASTING = WEAK, AND WE DIDN'T SEE HER FACE YET. OMGCHARLIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!

Your turn. Have at it.

HEROES_METAAA

2009-10-13T01:44:21Z

1) "Previously" voiceover is Noah, and then he doesn't appear in the episode. By that standard, Momo should still be doing voiceovers.

2) Hey, wait, I saw this episode opening before. Gee, Dean, you look like you've been through hell... oh, wait, wrong show.

3) Now we get to watch Zach playing Adrian instead of Adrian playing Zach.

4) WAFFLES! It's just fan service at this point, though. An overused piece of imagery does not a happy fandom make, show. Especially if you keep letting Samuel steal Momo's job and do long overblown speeches. His accent is just not as pretty. Seriously, does this guy ever stop talking? What a blowhard. If I had to listen to this crap in the morning, screw the waffles, I'd go to the nearest Starbucks.

5) Claire? Not a sorority girl? LOOK at her! She's ALREADY Stepford Claire! And wait, Sandra has friends she keeps in touch with? Even though they had to move across the country and change their name and basically go into hiding? Sorry, Sandra, but continuity's a bitch...

6) And again Gretchen thinks she can control this girl's life. Creepy, creepy. And why is she balking at visiting a sorority? She seems OK with mixers. And mixers are... quite usually sorority-type events. Same social structure. Same problems for weirdo goth girls. I know this from experience. Except for the goth part.

7) Actually, Claire's been Stepford since the second season. Ever since West.

8) Oh, look, a competent, professional woman of color! She'll be dead by the end of the episode.

9) "My name is.... i-dunno!"

10) Did they mispronounce Milo's name? Or have we been doing it all along?

11) Hm. She's showing trust in him, he doesn't know his own strength... yeah, she's gonna be dead by the end of the episode.

12) What is with this Petrelli family? They used to not be able to stop touching each other, now they can't remember each other's existence. I would like to beat Angela over the head with a spatula.

13) And this has been another installment of Not So Subtle Backstory Exposition: Hospital Edition. I appreciate Emma's mother, though. She looks... normal.

14) Win a date with Claire Bennet! Oh, a thousand high school boys are playing this section over and over and pausing it to have themselves little fantasy conversations (and probably fapping).

15) Waiting for dawn to break on Marblehead over there, that Creepy Gretchen is, in fact, creepy.

16) There is such a thing as overdoing the blue lighting, even if the whole point is the contrast with the red light. I feel like I'm watching through an aquarium.

17) Special comment on the dumb short video: MILO LOOKS NIIIIIIIICE with his open jacket. Rrrowr. And the Masi? So cute. The problem with the video, of course, is that after it's over, when Masi calls her, she's going to say "WHO THE HELL IS THIS?" and hang up on him.

18) OH! Peter's lost confidence in himself and therefore lost his power! It's like... it's like KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE! ...OK, maybe it's not so much like Kiki's Delivery Service. But that would have been cool. By the way, Peter, you do know what this means, right? You need to go visit Momo and have the ~~sex~~ power transference.

19) The lighting on the scene with Samuel and Lydia is really beautiful. I love the carnival in the background.

20) Samuel has lots of cousins! JUST LIKE THE PRINCE OF ALL COSMOS!! And he wants to go roll them all up!! Na na...na na na na na na...

21) This is what happens when you hit "open all in tabs," kids!

22) What do you see when you close your eyes? "Nothing. It's just black." With curly hair. And really nice skin. And a sculpted jawline...

23) Dude, Sylar's been hanging out with Olivia Dunham in another universe, so he got his superhearing back! Someone write me that fic. After all, a close encounter with one Spock deserves another.

24) Children's Choir Sings Appropriate Inspirational Song!

25) Milo is really looking good in these episodes. THANK YOU WENDY!!!!

26) This is actually a kind of cute little touchy-feely story, since he's had nothing but angst lately. OK, I can get behind this. Not to mention piano playing as foreplay is awesome. But really, it's nice to have things just be pretty for a chance, instead of super-angsty.

27) And... Peter does something remarkably stupid as usual. It's good to know some things never change.

28) Oh, it looks like Emma designed Claire's party dress with her powers. But it's quite cute.

29) The ex-cheerleader looks about 30.

30) I find myself rooting for Sylar. Why? Everyone knows he sucks when he's good. I should be either rooting for him to be a badass or just being disgusted with his overexposure. There's no room in the fandom for someone to want him to find some sort of redemption.

31) WOO-HOO! Stay tuned for next week's Heroes: "LESBIAN SORORITY GIRLS GONE WILD!" Why no, we're not trolling for ratings. Not at ALL!

32) Anyone who thinks Gretchen's just crushing on Claire.... is totally stupid. If the writers think this is acceptable behavior, we will need to have a Stalking Is Not Love intervention. Regardless of whether Gretchen did anything really heinous, the behavior she exhibits in plain sight is absolutely unacceptable.

33) Lydia gets with the beatdown on Samuel. I might get to like her after all.

34) ...OK, so Rebecca was there, which begs the question, why didn't Gretchen say.... .... ... Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Oh, that's why.

35) So I guess the Jump, Push, Fall test's not so accurate after all.

36) Claude's going to have to come smack some bitches up a bit. (to Samuel) "You! You stole my enigmatic-fellow-with-the-weird-accent macking-on-Peter bit! GTFO!" (to Rebecca) "You! You stole my cynical invisible bitch bit! GTFO!"

37) When they wouldn't tell us whom Samuel had seen in the ink, I had a brief hope that it would be Mohinder. After all, the Coyote Sands could have been the dust that settled. That would have been awesome.

38) He is acting very Nathan-like, I'll give him that. Now let's see him fly away. Oh, wait, that's the one power he doesn't have. (Seriously, wouldn't that be the kicker? If he ever tried to fly? OK, I can see how they'd be able to get around it using 3rd season plotfucks, but... it's a thought.)

39) What's going on, here!? She's a competent, professional woman of color! She was supposed to be dead ten minutes ago! SHOW! Stop getting my hopes up!

40) Wait a second. Did Emma actually steal this guy's cello? Oh, no, wait. It's CHRISTOPHER's cello, whoever he was. That explains how she was able to just pick up a guy's cello and start to play. What's this? My show is giving a plausible, logical explanation for a seemingly impossible plot point? Seriously, show, you keep getting my hopes up, you're worse than the Red Sox!

41) SURPRISE HIRO OMGLOLOLOLOLOLOL

42) And.... beautiful happy touchy-feely story is suddenly not so beautiful, happy, or touchy-feely. Oh well. I knew it could never last.

43) Sylar: "God DAMN, it would have been nice to get Daphne's power before this season!"

44) IT'S THE CIRQUE DU HOYAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh, come on. That was fucking BRILLIANT!!!!

45) hedgehog39 comes in at the last minute and points out the Ghostbusters cameo that I missed through the whole episode. I fail.

46) Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the Sullivan Bros. Circus! Located just around the corner from the LOST island, and across the street from the Gokuraku video shop!

Saturday morning Sims update: Coots in Love edition!

2009-10-10T17:25:37Z

I swear, this game is the crossover crack fic from heaven. <3
Today I took Angela and Uther to the mall, and got... yeah, you guessed it, CRACK.

Let's start with a little Petrelli cheesecake, just because we can.

Mmm, backrub.

I admit, at first I didn't see the thumb and thought he was making a slightly more obscene gesture.

Peter prefers it without too much lube.

Random Nathan cheesecake.

Now for the main event. Angela's been making friends with Uther lately and I've had the wicked idea to couple them up. So today Angela invited her friend out to the mall, where, oddly enough, Uther's own son was there hanging out with young Lyle Bennet. Yeah, that's enough to make me start thinking bad things.

For a while it's all fun and games.

Arthur: "You old people make me sick!"

Mushy old coots are mushy.

Lyle: "Yeah, yeah, that's all well and good, but I have a zit on my forehead!"

Uther: "Oh, those durn whippersnappers!"

Which thought would Uther be more horrified by? Angela wanting to shanghai him into marriage, or Arthur thinking about a teenage boy?

I kind of like the idea of a Matt/Arthur bromance.

Apparently It's All About Lyle.

"Dude, Arthur gets with GWEN? Are you fer srs? Rly?"

And this, my friends, is where the madness begins.

Uther falls for her hardcore...

Angela: "Second base is out of reach for you, buddy!"

AND THEN THEY START MAKING OUT.

IN FRONT OF THE WHOLE MALL.

FOR HOURS. D: D: D: D: D:

So why is Uther thinking about Lyle, then?

Oh, right... because it's All About Lyle. >.>

Who apparently is collecting himself quite a harem.

OH GOD. MENTAL IMAGE I DID NOT NEED. D: D: D: D:

Arthur: "OH GOD. I DID NOT JUST HEAR MY FATHER SAYING THAT."
Lyle: "Why aren't you paying attention to me??"

Heroes 4x04 "Acceptance" meta (heroes_meta)

2009-10-06T04:31:42Z

1) DVR service: $39/month.
Notebook in which to write meta: $2.99.
Seeing Bryan Fuller's name in the credits? PRICELESS.

2) Oh, confident Ali Larter. I'm always stunned at how happy I am to watch you on screen.

3) I wanna go to Ando and Kimiko's wedding.

4) Seriously? The butt-xeroxing firing offense that shames the family? Seriously?! How stereotypical Japanese bullshit can you get? Honestly.

5) Chibi Nathan ftmfw. Oh my god, the de-aged nathans are almost as pretty as the regular one. I want a boxful of Nathans for my birthday.

6) The Noaire moments were MAGICAL. As were the Nathan/Peter bromance moments.

7) Lines of the episode: "The Swiss Army Knife of powers." "You should write Mother's Day cards." "We'll take turns."

8) It seems to me that Hiro can only change the future successfully when he doesn't have an outcome in mind. He didn't want to get Kimiko and Ando together, he just wanted to stop a particular incident from happening. Maybe he can't do it unless he doesn't know what he's doing. Which is a pretty perfect description of Hiro's whole role, I guess.

9) SWOOZIE KURTZ IS A MURDERESS. Also? The moral of Heroes is quite obvious: NEVER TRUST THE MIDDLE-AGED WOMENFOLK. THEY'RE ALL AMORAL BITCHQUEENS.

10) Is it just me or was there a horrible continuity gaffe in the Angela/Nathan scene? During Company Man, they had just discovered the Haitian, right? And that was after Claire was born. So how could the Haitian have been around when Natan was a teenager?

11) Oh, look at that. Nathan has lost some brain cells along with his memories. And he's doing the I Know Better thing that is usually Peter's province.

12) I really like the direction they're going with Hiro, Kimiko and Ando. I'm a sucker for the big dramatic reveal of secret identity/existence of superpowers/yer-a-wizard-Harry, that sort of thing... and this was done in a really awesome, authentic way. Especially with Hiro's confession still lingering. I'm also a sucker for the bad-news-delivered-out-of-earshot trope (is there an actual tvtropes.org trope for that? There should be) so I loved that, too.

13) Another thing I loved: Tracy and Noah. Because they're not building to anything. They're just two characters interacting, no promises, no intent, just people relating. Which Heroes, at its best, does so well.

14) OH SHIT.

My sims are sluts!!!

2009-10-05T01:20:43Z

Ladies and gentlemen, I just had the funniest set of simsness EVAR. Please follow me to the gallery I am calling... The Sims' Day of Sluttiness....

Now, never mind that my Peter is a married man, his aspiration is apparently to WooHoo with 3 different sims. So I set out today to help him achieve that goal.

I had him invite Matt over. Now, what follows isn't exactly a routine seduction.

They bond over breaking into other people's bank safes...

And Matt apparently talks about appearing on Solid Gold.

I have never seen more anti-peace people than in this game. It's insane.

"C'mon baby, I'll take you to the mile-high club on Petrelli Air."

Giggling fools.

Air Guitar by Peter Petrelli.

"Oh man, you look like such a loser..."

"Yeah, well, you're a yawner, pal."

Still, Matt seems to be attracted to him.

He awkwardly brings up the subject while lingering perilously close to the dartboard...

...but ends up sitting alone while Peter panics and asks Mom for advice.

Meanwhile, at the Hub...

Gwen's dancing around in her negligee. How can I NOT have Owen flirt with her?

But no sooner have the first sparks of crushiness been ignited then in comes Tosh...

...and all hell breaks loose.

Owen and Gwen have quite the love-hate relationship for the rest of the day.

She sobs... he backrubs... she melts...

Ianto is nonplussed by the whole situation... she sobs some more.

As Gwen turns to drown her sorrows, I decide it's time for Owen to butter her up a little.

Well, she's having NONE of it...

and now it's Owen who turns to the drink. That's it, these two just need to duke it out.

NOW everything will be fine, won't it???

...OK, maybe not.

"It's Jack, isn't it? You're cheating on me with Jack!"

Most women put up walls. With Gwen, it's a chair. And it's STILL too much for Owen to deal with.

DANCE BREAK!!

And now, things get slashy.

Gwen has a look at this new incredibly awkward pairing...

...and decides to shake her can in their face.

Speaking of cans, Ianto knows he'd better make his move quick, while Owen's ON the can.

What's this? What's this!?!?!?!?

SQUEEEE!!!!
(Please note the hearts only on Ianto's side.... this is, sadly, significant.)

I take the two of them to bed, and they are suitably adorable...

"Why Jack, where are you grabbing me!?"

But when Ianto tries to woo-hoo him???

COCK BLOCKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Apparently Jack needs to be romanced a little more. (LOLWTF.) But as I'm making sure they don't hate each other, I hear the little bells chiming from elsewhere in the house and...

..guess who's fallen in love right under my nose!!

Ianto finds refuge in his meaningless tasks...

...but getting engaged to Jack is now one of his Fears, and I have this weird sense this is all horribly out of character.

Oh well, at least someone has a happy ending, for now.

Poor Ianto!!

podfic time! (poddrabble? Podble? Drapod?)

2009-10-04T21:25:45Z

As requested in the Truth or Dare Meme ...

Officer Park-That-Ass-Right-Here
A Heroes drabble by speccygeekgrrl
read by tiptoe39

Download it here! Laugh at my girly!Mohinder! Be unable to understand half the things I say because my audio program sucks eggs!

As for the other dare I received, don't you worry, honey, it is coming, and in epic form! Notice how that Third Date drabble I wrote for you wasn't in my fandom roundup this month? That's cause it will not be a drabble when you next see it. :D

Fringe Sims - the horror, the horror!

2009-10-03T23:31:12Z

OK, I went and created my Fringe Sims.

They did NOT have an auspicious first day.

Things started innocently enough...

Foreplay or FBI training? You tell me...

Walter feels a little boxed in by the womenfolk.

OTP much? :D

"Um, Walter... don't leave your bowl there. Come on."

At which point I realize I have forgotten to give them a kitchen sink. So I give them a kitchen sink.

"Where TF did this kitchen sink come from!??"

Possibly investigating the Rift activity that seems to surround Olivia, several members of the Torchwood family stop by.

There is sure to be a very, VERY good reason why Walter and Ianto are discussing high-heeled shoes. I just can't think of it at the moment.

Astrid & Gwen have a bitch-plz-fais-off.

FIRE FIRE FIRE FIRE!! (That's Hardison outside watching, btw.)

Olivia springs into action (mostly because I pushed her)...

"Peter, you're NOT being helpful."

For a bunch of action heroes, they seem to be pretty devastated by this all.

Astrid can't stand the mess.

Meanwhile, Olivia's actually lost her mind...

...so much so that the Hallucination Therapist shows up. This is a sign your Sim has flipped its wig.

And when WALTER thinks you're crazy... yeah. Time for the funny farm.

Meanwhile, Walter is fascinated by the Torchwood crew's stories. "A Rift, you say? In time and space? Do tell!"

Owen has finally found a woman he doesn't want to bed.

Ianto bitchfais.

Walter and Ianto don't get along.

Peter is not so good at cooking.

Peter is not so good at not eating what he has cooked badly.

I like this expression but can't think of a funny caption.

Oh, for fuck's sake! AGAIN!??!

hedgehog39 pointed out that in the above picture, it rather looks like Walter's doing something unseemly with the fireman.

Afterward, Astrid hogs the bathroom.

Oh, yeah, this is an attractive household for sure.

Fandom Roundup, September Edition

2009-10-02T17:18:24Z

A VERY busy month for me and fandom...

Fandom Roundup: September Edition

Fanfics and Drabbles
Heroes
The Paradise Academy, Chapter 3 (NC-17) - Prince Mohinder spars with Sylar, pursues Claire, and bonds with Matt.
Blue Skies (NC-17) - Claude has a horny and shameless Peter on his hands.
Happy Birthday (PG) - On the morning of Peter's 20th birthday, Nathan kissed him.
Drabble: Claire is disappointed in her drinking buddies.
Drabble: Mohinder's pulled over by a cop, but not the one he expects.
Drabble: Hiro comes across some fanfic with him and Ando.
Drabble: Mohinder and Peter are friends, but sometimes...
Drabble: AU. Food critic!Mohinder wrote a scathing review of Matt's Grill, but something else is cooking.
Drabble: AU. Paradise Academy!verse. Prince Mohinder is enchanted by the herald Daphne.
Drabble: (adult) Adam and Elle get fighting and get naked and get... some.
Drabble: (adult) Nathan teases Peter with a zeppole, and Peter's sweet tooth takes over.
Drabble: (adult) Nathan walks in on Peter and Elle, and his disgust doesn't last.
Drabble: (adult) Matt uses his mind control powers, but that doesn't mean Nathan's not willing.
Drabble: (adult) Adam and Monica do a little roleplaying, but Monica doesn't like her role.
Drabble: (adult) Daphne leads Peter and Sylar on a merry chase to get what she wants.

Fringe
Drabble: Astrid likes it when Walter flails.
Drabble: Astrid's crush on Olivia is getting bad.

Torchwood
Unrequited (PG) - Jack finds out Owen's been sleeping with Gwen. He's pissed. Owen's... something else.
Drabble: Everyone at Torchwood suddenly stops censoring their thoughts.
Drabble: Jack has little regard for the social norms of the 1920s.

Supernatural
Olympian (PG) - Nine short stories based in Greek myth
Drabble: Dean and Sam are under a curse and can only speak in limericks.

Utena
Drabble: (adult) Anthy gives Utena the royal treatment.

Psych
Drabble: (adult) Gus thinks this is a bad time for Shawn to laugh.

Merlin
Drabble: (adult) Merlin has Arthur in chains and at his mercy.

Sailor Moon
Drabble: (adult) Mamoru has boyhood memories of Fiore.

Mononoke Hime
Drabble: (adult) Ashitaka and San meet under the full moon.

Crossover
The Prime Directive (R) - Jim Kirk and Peter Petrelli come face to face for a second time.
Drabble: (adult) Mohinder likes Toshiko in glasses.
Drabble: (adult) Adam Monroe drowns his sorrows with (and in) a certain vampire named Spike.

Graphics
Screencaps from the Sims 2:

Icons
America's Next Top Model, Fringe, and Heroes icons

Screencaps
Heroes 4x01-02 and Fringe 2x01

Meta
America's Next Top Model 13x1-2
Fringe 2x01
Heroes 4x01-02
Heroes 4x03

Memes
Hosted
The Multifandom Sex Tropes Meme

Participated
You know you're Tiptoe39 when...
The uncanon meme
The Fall Fandom Free-for-All
My anime stereotype

Filk
I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major Heroes Fan

To people who like Mohinder: sorry about this!	For the safety of the children
Narration: "Mohinder in the morning" (small text near his hair) glitter glitter (small text near razor) "A five-blade razor"	Niki: "Okay, Micah? If you meet a strange person use this tool to get rid of him."
Narration: "Mohinder at noon." (small text) click click	Claire: "It's a stun gun, right? Okay, Papa." HRG: "Be careful with that, Claire!" (small text) panting
Narration: "Mohinder in the evening." (small text near the window) caw, caw (small text below) click click	Nathan: "If anything happens to you I'll come flying in to save you!" Peter: "Nobody can fly, Nathan!" [Translator's note, he actually says "big brother," but that's a Japanese convention - you don't refer to your big brother by your name. More likely in English to say "Nathan" than big brother.] (small text) their childhood years
Narration: "Mohinder at night." Narration: "I get the feeling genetics research is more important that thinning out your beard."	Bob: "Elle, when you go outside, to take care of yourself..." (small text) crackle Bob . o O {My kid doesn't need one.}