Throwing in some writing

As always, it's been forever. I don't care. I'm just going to throw in some writing.

“Do you know the most important skill of an amber-cobalt mage?”

                Jayden Iston, mage adept, Sensitive, twin-born and foster son to the Queens Alchemist, chewed his lower lip thoughtfully, brown eyes thoughtful.

“Calling familiars”, he ventured.

                His foster father Sori Asaton shook his head. Wrong. What then?

“Not flooding the apartment”, Jayden’s sister Ella chimed in with a giggle.

                Sori turned on her.

“So eager to get a lecture of your own, mage adept”, he asked.

                She made a comical face, drawing a giggle from her brother.  Sori rubbed his temples.

“:10-yearolds:”, he Mind-spoke to his domestic partner.

“:Need help, ashke:”, Nathan asked, humour in his mind-voice.

                Sori didn’t reply.

“Jayden”, he prompted instead.

“I don’t know”, the 10-yearold whispered, sounding rather ashamed.

“Jayden”, said Sori gently. “Why do you feel shame for not knowing?”

“You asked me. I should know.”

“Have you been told before?”

                Jayden looked uncertain and confused, despite knowing that he had never heard the answer before.

“The most important skill of ANY mage is focus, concentration”, Sori explained. “So perhaps you should listen too, Ella.”

                Ella started out of her reverie at that. She slipped down form the window sill and came to stand beside her twin, looking a bit sheepish. They looked so alike. Sori wondered how long that would last. Another two years? Three? Then Ella would probably start growing into womanhood, and Jayden would soon after that start growing into manhood, and they would no longer be able to be what they were. Always twins, but soon, different.

“Now Listen. Feel. Find the Flows and reach out to them. They are there, for you to use.”

                The Flowing Colours concentrated and glowed in the work room, at Soris will and demand. It was as if the whole room slowly filled with the rainbow. The two feline familiars in the window where Ella hand sat raised their heads, curious.

“You have already been chosen by the elements, your colours”, said Sori. “Now draw on them. Reach out with your thoughts, call on them.”

                Jayden didn’t really understand what he was supposed to do, but he tried anyway. He imagined that the flowing beams of colour were ropes, and his mind had hands. He reached out for the thick blue rope with his minds hands.

“Careful, siha”, Sori said, encouragingly.

                Jayden tried, but it was like trying to grasp and hold on to water and wind at the same time, and it burned with cold. He shirked back, looking shocked.

“Don’t worry”, Sori said calmly. “Take a breath. Try again.”

                He turned his attention to his foster daughter. She wasn’t faring much better, but she was infinitely more stubborn. Rather than Jayden’s rope-and-hands mental image, she was imagining herself as a magnet and tried to attract both her blue and red colour flows at the same time. She did affect both Flows, but not a lot.

“Concentrate on the red, Ella”, Sori said softly, keeping in mind that Jayden was reaching for the blue.

                Ella frowned and concentrated on the red Flow. It bent, slightly but visibly, as if she was pulling on a rubber band.

“Good”, Sori smiled. “Try to keep it just like that, don’t pull any further.”

                Jayden, not wanting to be up-staged by his sister, reached for the blue Flow again.  He tugged at it. It was heavy, too large for his minds hands and it was cold and wet and slippery, like a rope of melting ice. And it refused to budge. Frustrated, he tugged harder.

“Calm down, Jayden”, Sori warned. “Try to part the Flow instead. You can only use the darkest part anyway.”

                But Jayden wasn’t listening. He tugged at the Flow as hard as he could. It didn’t budge, it exploded. The workroom was covered in a sheet of ice, icicles grew from the ceiling and from the perch where Sori’s starling familiar sat. She ruffled her feathers indignantly. Sori hastily let the Flowing Colors dissipate and fade. Jayden looked around, stunned and a little dismayed at what he had done. Ella had slipped as she lost control of the red Flow and sat on the ice, surprised and a little cross at her twin. Sori was about to as them both if they were alright, but at that moment, Ella started to giggle. It bubbled up in her, she was unable to stop it. She Heard and Felt Jayden’s shock and surprise and increduelty and she giggled as if someone was tickling her, and Jayden joined in. He crouched down in the icy floor, hid his face against his knees and laughed harder than he probably had since he came here with his sister 6 years ago. Ella suddenly pushed him so he slipped and ended up on his side on the ice. The two feline familiars, Ella’s white lynx cub Sol and Jayden’s amber tiger cub Mari, jumped down and joined in the game, and the four of them became a slipping, jostling heap of laughter. Sori smiled shook his head and decided that they were done with lessons for today. 

Getting Monday of my chest (open letter to the users and owners of Familjeliv.se)

So, the hacker attack on Familjeliv left me a bit drained. Mostly because of the nonchalance of the people on Familjeliv. Here’s the rundown:

A hacker found a nice little hole in the session cookies at large, parent-targeted Swedish forum Familjeliv.se, and decided to take action. According to the first hacker, he did NOT want to do anything malicious, but as Familjeliv.se didn’t heed his previous warnings about this hole, he decided that drastic action was called for. Adding a little extra code to the session cookies, he could basically hi-jack anyone’s account and surf around pretending he was them. He, and he alone, did this Sunday night, doing nothing but demonstrating what could be done with that hole. As far as I noticed, he stuck to one forum thread that night, only replying to other users that posted in his thread. That thread, however, was shut down late Sunday night. Monday noon, when I first logged in, he was at it again, this time more persistently. He maintained, however, that he meant no harm and only wanted familjeliv.se to take some action. I here suspect that he himself is a member of the forum, and really was only concerned with his own and other forum members safety. Over the course of Monday afternoon, though, things escalated. I cannot say and wish not to speculate in whether or not it was the original hacker that posted the hack on the other largest (way larger and wider) forum targeting a Swedish audience, Flashback.se, but it ended up there somehow. After that, users of famljeliv.se got their accounts hi-jacked left and right, their accounts were used to post things they did not support, some people were “outed” in threads where they wished to be anonymous, and so forth. Fortunately, this seems to have amounted to some more or less harmless inconveniences, and the worst of it seems to have amounted to one user having their password changed. Some people might have to regain some reputation. Personally, I only had a couple of posts written by myself to myself, and a lot of logout forced by… well, someone. Exasperating, to be sure, but harmless.

The worst bit about this hacker attack was not the attack itself, but rather the MASSIVE silence from Familjeliv.se. They deleted some threads the hacker started to show what he had found, but refused to say anything on the subject. I say refused, because today, an internet news site publicized a short article on the subject, where they had also interviewed the boss of familjeliv.se, where she stated that “We were aware of the problem as of 18.00 Monday night and the problem was fixed at 18.19. It took us 20 minutes to come up with a fix. This is no big deal, our users needn’t worry.” Yeah, I call bullshit. As I stated above, the hacker had already been in the night BEFORE and he had had forum threads DELETED the night before. Familjeliv.se were CLEARLY aware of the problem. So, here’s my guess: It was Sunday night, Easter, and they couldn’t be less bothered. It can WAIT. Let it wait till after Easter (which would be today, Tuesday). That’s my guess at their reasoning. However, and I don’t know how much this has anything to do with their more expedient handling of it all, I didn’t want this to get any worse, and decided to take action. Now, I’m just a lowly member of a forum that doesn’t even have a member rep system, but I started a forum thread, calling attention to the problem and stuck to my guns on it. I did not let this “can’t-even-promote-threads-to-sticky-forum” defeat my will to reach as many of the users as possible. Making sure my thread, giving info not only that the hacker attack  had occurred, but also what to do to make sure the hackers didn’t use any certain user’s account, didn't get lost in the shuffle, I forfeited my work, my poker tournament and my dinner for it. Of course, other users soon came in, helping me out, for which I am very, very grateful. You all have huge amounts of my gratitude, and you should have Familjeliv.se’s, as well. And still, Familjeliv.se has barely commented on the attack… They posted ONE lousy, tech-speech-ladled forum thread in which YOU CAN’T EVEN ASK ANYTHING ABOUT THE INCIDENT! It’s locked for comments. Not because it got flooded with questions, it’s empty. The questions land instead, of course, in my forum thread. Hopefully, they get answered (I must here apologize for not being available in the thread, I have had connectivity issues as well as log-on issues….)

So, that became a long rant. I probably had more to say, but if so, it’s gone now. I hereby want to thank all the forum users that made sure my thread about the incident didn't get lost in the shuffle, and give my promise that if this ever happens again, and I notice it, I WILL make sure you know about it and I WILL be badgering the support team about it.

Yours sincerely

Aniiee

Oh, and…. Don’t go too hard on the mods about this. They were just as vulnerable as anyone else, and there are not nearly enough of them to be everywhere all the time. 

Short messages to all kinds of people everywhere

Dear Christians!

Thank you for the Bible. It's totally yaoi-licious.


Dear radical feminist!

Thank you for voicing your opinions. You always make me laugh at your absurdities.


Dear creationist!

READ A FUCKING BOOK! That's NOT the Bible.


Dear Hollywood-people behind the scenes!

Thank you for your hard work. Even if you only work on crap movies.


Dear A-list Actors!

You're not as special as you think you are!


Dear racists!

Who cares? Really?


Dear anti-theorists!

Why are you against the theory of evolution but no the theory of gravity? And also: Please study up on the definition of a scientific theory.


Dear anti-gay people!

Why do you care who others fall in love with? It's not like they fall in love with you....


Dear smokers!

I don't care if you smoke! Unless you blow your smoke in my face. Also, did you know there are more effective and less painful ways to kill yourself?


Dear radical diet X-believers!

People are DIFFERENT. Peoples bodies react different to different things. There is no "one diet fits all".


Dear CIO-moms!

Please read some research on babies and stress hormones, and tell me again why it's a good idea to ignore your kids....


Dear militant vegans!

I kill 1 cow and have meat for 4 months. 1 individual of 1 species. You kill ALL the cows, and thus have killed 401 species of mamal and insects FOR EVER. Who was protecting the animals, again?


Dear telemarketing people!

I don't have a registered phone number. So.... to bad for you.


Dear people of the "normal IQ bracket"!

You're not as smart as you think you are.


Dear "I know best, this is how you should do, it's so easy, you're so stupid" people!

Everyone doesn't have the same knowledge base, experiences or life that you do.


Dear great authors whose books I've read!

Thank you! Just... Thank you!


Dear great authors whose books I haven't yet had time to read!

Sorry I'm so slow, I will come around to that as soon as I have time.


Dear bad authors whose books I've read!

Thank you for getting me to realise just how much I should pick my litterature with care.


Dear bad authors whose books I haven't read!

Please send an angry letter to all the other bad authors whose books I've already read, and totally turned me off your books.


And finally:

Dear Santa!

You never did send me any christmas gifts, so how about a nice, big pile of yaoi for my birthday? And some tickets to Tokyo. That'd be great!


Yours truly

Aniiee, the yaoi fangirl, female otaku

Trailers of the Week: week 1 2014 (Jan 1-5) Also, laying down the... eh... "rules".... yaoi edition

Yeah... I tend to throw myself into strange ventures such as this one. So, I decided to just rate the game trailers that come out, as many as I can, and totally arbitrarily. I'm NOT a movie/trailer critic. But it's kinda fun, so, I'll just go for it. Here are my arbitrary points that I grade:

1: The graphics. What is a game without graphics? Lines of code, that's what. BOOOOORING! Unless you're into that stuff. I kinda am. Did I just call myself boring? *shame*.

2: Music. Again, what is a game without music? Flat graphics. Music is important.

3: Pacing. Now, I don't mean narative pacing, I mean the pacing of the music and what is happening on screen together. Do they "hit the note" or don't they? And how well? Stuff like that.

4: Narrative. With or without VO, you should get some idea of what it's all about. You should "get it" even if not a single word is spoken.

5: Captivation. Is the trailer intresting? Fun to watch?`Boring? Does it make you more or less interested in the game? That sort of things.

6: Interest. This and Captivation kinda goes hand in hand, but I'm trying to consider my intrerest in the game pre-seeing the trailer.

7: Other. This is ust an arbitrary line (and some points) to dole out if there was something else noteworthy in the trailers. Character designs, points for nostalgia, special VO-actor... whatever I find interesting.

Be forewarned, my grading-span tend to run in the 7-10 gambit, rather than 1-10. Which means these are going to be rather high, for now. Hopefully, the more i work with this, the better I become at using all the points. And yes, I am 4 weeks behind. Actually, I'm 13 YEARS behind, But we'll see if i get to those lost years. I will try.

So, without further ado... Let's start at the bottom, shall we? (And remember, I'm rating the TRAILERS, not the GAMES)

Worst Trailer of the Week: Mincraft PS3 Launch Trailer (YouTube link.)

Here's why:

Minecraft PS3 Launch Trailer
	Points	Note
Graphics	4	Retro graphics only actually work in nostalgic games…
Music	7	Kinda liked the music. It was 8-bit-y
Pacing	5	Slow, but short enough not to bore me to pieces.
Narrative	1	If I had NEVER heard about Minecraft before, I wouldn’t have gotten it at all….
Captivation	3	It was pretty… 8-bit-pretty… ehum…
Interest of game	0	I will NEVER play this game. EVER.
Other	7	Just for being so damn popular. And I don’t get it…
Average	3,8

The yaoi perspective: There is none. This is Minecraft. Everyting is 8-bit, and about building stuff. No yaoi here. Nowhere. The yaoi fangirl is sad =( 

Next up. the 3 best trailers of the week, starting with:

3d Best Trailer of the Week: Dr. Luigi (YouTube link)

Here's why:

Dr. Luigi Trailer
	Points	Note
Graphics	6	Wii graphics.
Music	6	Ear-worm-y, peppy, nostalgic but meh.
Pacing	5	Eh…. Don’t know
Narrative	5	Tetris copies don’t really rely on narration
Captivation	6	It is, a little, on the nostalgic level
Interest of game	7	I could play this
Other	10	NOSTALGIA!!!!
Average	6,4

The yaoi perspective: STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM MY CHILDHOOD ICONS! Damn yaoi.....

2nd Best Trailer of the Week: Elsword – Ara Haan Sakra Devanam Trailer (gs link)

Here's why:

Elsword – Ara Haan Sakura Devanam Trailer
	Points	Note
Graphics	6	Ok. Bit grainy and shaky.
Music	7	Dig, not epic
Pacing	10	Oh, heck, it was perfect. Hit every note.
Narrative	7	Ok
Captivation	7	Yeah. Made it.
Interest of game	7	Manga + RPG + MMO = Nice
Other
Total mean	7,3

The yaoi perspective: A little too cutesy for me to gain any sort of yaoi material. Sorry...

And the Best Trailer of Week 1 2014 is.....: Deep down - Prologue Trailer (YouTube link)

Here's why:

Deep Down Prologue Trailer
	Points	Note
Graphics	7	Ingame graphics (?)
Music	6	Nice, not much more (Reminded me of N.U.)
Pacing	8	Hit the right notes, s.t.s, not perfect
Narrative	8	Extra points for having a narrator who spoke “to me”
Captivation	8	Yes, I didn’t get bored, so…
Interest of game	7	Had some interest before, didn’t lesser with this.
Other	9	Dungeon Crawler =)
Total mean	7,5

The yaoi perspective: I now to little about this game, as of yet, but knowing my dungeon crawlers, there will probably be a couple of bishounen and biseinen here to warrant some fanfiction. There always is....

Some Honorary mentions: Check out Europa Universalis - Conquest of paradise trailer for this weeks best music, Mecha Naruto trailer for best graphics and Atelier Escha & Logy for this weeks white-haired pretty boy =). And don't forget to give me a holler/some critique/whatever in the message box, so I know you've been here!

Will be back in a couple of days, playing catch-up with the trailers for week 2. And maybe for January 2000....

Logix

Some Christmas yaoi i never posted.....

Yeah... I update so often, don't I?

Have some yaoi and be happy. It's New Years Day for fuck's sake.....

Most days, Alex liked his apartment. It was tucked into a corner, he had windows in three directions and all rooms. Comfortable and fashionable rooms, fit for a young man of his fame. Only… empty. Empty and lonely. And he hated it for its emptiness. Why, oh why, had he decided to stay home this winter holiday instead of going with his cousin to his aunt and uncle’s home? What stupidity had come over him?

                             Alex had no real desire to do anything. Even going online felt utterly pointless. No. Real, live IRL people. That’s what he needed. Only, the places people go were so far away. It would take him at least 5 minutes to walk down to the bar. Sighing as if the world was about to end, he changed, put on his boots and jacket, grabbed his phone and keys and walked the 250 meter to the local bar.

                             Once there, he was greeted with cheers and smiles. Smiling back, he made his way to the bar, sat down in a tucked-away corner and asked for a glass of whiskey. The bartender smiled a little. Alex was well known here, and the bartender knew that whiskey was the drink of choice when Alex was feeling bad, wanted people around, but didn’t want interaction. Maybe that wasn’t so strange, Alex must have lots of people pestering him for some Q&A every day.

                             The cheerful talking and laughter only underscored Alex’ loneliness. Four hours, three glasses of whiskey and a few scraps of musical ideas later, Alex gave up and left. He felt worse than when he had come, but at least he had jotted down some things for work. It was just past midnight, rather dark and empty, so to gain some time, he cut across the skating rink. He shouldn’t have. He slipped, fell and hit his head and twisted his ankle. Head blazing with pain he gave in.

“Fuck it”, he said out loud. “I’ll just lie here ‘til the others come back in two weeks.”

                             Having said that, though, he felt a little less miserable, so he tried to sit up. His foot throbbed painfully, and his head said no! don’t do that! Every movement made him nauseous and he was seeing double. He closed his eyes to clear his head.

“HEY!”

                             Alex eyes snapped open. A man stood over him.

“You’re awake”, the man said with half a smile. “It’s kinda stupid to sleep on the ice, you know.”

                             Still seeing double, Alex blinked and thought.

“I didn’t mean to”, he muttered.

“No kidding”, said the man. “I know that you lot can be an eccentric bunch, but this… Are you all right?”

                             The man stretched out a hand, expecting Alex to take it.

“One”, Alex said trying to sit up by himself, but his head was still protesting. “What do you mean ‘you lot’ and two, why do I recognize you? All three of you?”

“Double vision, is it”, the man asked, crouching down beside Alex and helping him sit. “Maybe O should call an ambulance after all.”

                             Alex grimaced. He was mortally afraid of anything having to do with hospitals.

“I’m fine. You didn’t answer my questions.”

“You’re not fine. You probably have a concussion. Can you stand?”

                             He helped Alex up. Getting to his feet, Alex felt the pain in his foot again, and faltered. His helper held on to him.

“Your foot”, he asked.

                             Alex nodded.

“Must have twisted it”, he muttered. “Could you answer my questions?”

“If you at least let me help you home and call someone who can sit with you. You shouldn’t sleep if you have a concussion.”

“No one to call, they’re out of town.”

“Then I’ll stay with you. Someone has to.”

“Yeah, thanks, but you have a life of your own. Do yourself a favor and don’t get dragged into mine.”

“Too late. Whereto?”

                             Resigning to the kindness this man obviously harbored, or maybe it was just Alex wanting it to be kindness, he pointed.

“Over there.”

                             They started to walk toward the apartment complex. For Alex, every step was sheer pain, in his foot or in his head. He tried not to use the foot too much. It was slow walk, but soon he felt like he had run a marathon.

“I meant musicians”, the stranger said suddenly.

“What?”

“When I said that you lot could be eccentric. I meant musicians. Alex Gabriels.”

“You know my name. But then, everybody do.”

“Most people know my name, as well. You said you recognize me. I peg your inability to place me down to you being drunk and having a concussion. I’m Kevin Reesi.”

                             Alex grimaced. Of course, he though, Stupid me.

“How drunk were you anyway”, Kevin asked.

“Not nearly as drunk as I wanted to be”, Alex replied bitterly.

“Maybe you’d been more careful if you’d been that drunk”, mused Kevin.

                             Alex fished his keys out from a pocked. He was trembling and sweating from pain now, and could barely unlock the door. The fingerprint and iris scan felt like it took forever. Once inside, he collapsed on the nearest chair in the kitchen.

                             Kevin hung his coat at the rack, took of his winter shoes and looked around. So this is how the richest man in the world under 25 lived. Fashionable, but rather impersonal. Almost like a page in a catalogue. Rather strange, actually. In all interviews Alex seemed like a very personable guy, who made everything his own. Apparently not so with the place he lived. And the rumors seemed like they could be true. Alex didn’t have a girlfriend, there was no such thing as a woman’s touch in this apartment.

                             He went into the kitchen and helped Alex take of his boots and jacket. About time, too, Alex foot was swelling.

“Do you have any kind of medical supplies”, he asked.

“Maybe. In the bathroom.”

                             Kevin walked across the entrance hall to the bathroom.

“I thought you were a teacher”, Alex shot after him.

“And I was under the impression that you were a rather clever guy. Apparently, we don’t know much about each other.”

“You’re not a teacher?”

“No, I’m a professor.”

“Semantics”, muttered Alex as Kevin came back with gauze, tape and scissors.

“Perhaps”, he said pleasantly. “Do you need help taking of your pants?”

                             Alex’ head wasn’t clear enough for him to blush. He just undid the buttons, stood on his other foot and took them of, then he sat down again. Kevin crouched down and took his foot. Alex grimaced.

“I know it hurts”, Kevin said. “And it will keep hurting all night.”

“Too bad”, said Alex lazily. “So, professor. Why are you doing this, exactly?”

                             Kevin concentrated on the job at hand for a moment. Why was he doing this, exactly? Because Alex was famous and he wanted a brush with such fame? Because of the goodness of his heart? No, neither was true. The first absolutely not, and the latter only partly true. The true truth, however, eluded him. For now.

“I’m not sure. Because you needed help and refused hospital care.”

                             Alex smirked.

“A sane person had just called an ambulance. Probably from the path, and then moved on without caring.”

“That last part doesn’t sound very sane.”

“Maybe not. But that’s what human beings do. They don’t care. Especially not about me.”

                             It sounded less bitter and more resigned. Famous he might be, but Alex was not without his scars, Kevin realized. After a long moment’s silence, he asked:

“How’s your head?”

                             Alex shrugged.

“I’ll live”, he muttered. “You don’t have to stay, you know.”

“Don’t start. You’ll just lose the argument.”

“Whatever. Can I put my pants back on?”

“You should put on some pajama pants or something. More comfortable.”

“Yeah, maybe. Can we watch TV?”

“Sure. As long as you don’t fall asleep.”

                             Alex got up on one unsteady foot. Kevin grabbed his arm as he was about to fall.

“That’s why you’re here, right”, said Alex with a genuinely warm smile. That smile brightened his whole being. If I’m not careful, Kevin thought, I’ll fall in love with his guy.

“Exactly”, he said.

“So you’re really going to stay here, with me, all night?”

“Yes. All night. And you will hate me for it in the morning”

                             Kevin didn’t know it then, but that was just the first of very many nights.

Happy 2014....