inquiry and bloodlust

If you have any interest whatsoever in wingfic, you should cart yourself over here to A Crash Course in Falling. It's no secret that I'm a big fan of carolinecrane's stuff, and man, is this no exception. It's sweet and somehow realistic. And it deserves fanart. ( Cut for large images and story spoilers. )

Holy crap, you guys. I made a Kane/Toews rec list. And it is HUGE.

Speaking of pairings I'm way too invested in, I encountered a Skyrim glitch the other day that actually worked in my favor. Many of the NPCs you meet in Skyrim you can marry if you're wearing the proper amulet and they're friends with you. For most of them, building a friendship is as easy as completing a quest related to them. The one character I had my eye on for a hubby, Quintus Navale, has two quests connected to him. I don't know why, but at some point I decided he was absolutely the one and only true love of my character. So when the game appeared to have glitched me out of obtaining his second quest (and thus removing my chance of marrying him), I was heartbroken.

I kept playing, though, and I bought a level-up perk that lets you invest in shops. Since Quintus is a shopkeeper, I figured I could at the very least show my platonic support of him. After I handed over 500 gold, though, a funny thing happened. I'd been wearing my Amulet of Mara for a while, just to see which characters were interested in me, and suddenly Quintus was one of them. Without ever getting his second quest. I don't know what flag got flipped incorrectly in the game or how, but investing in the shop turned him into a marriage prospect.

So I said I liked him. And we got married. And he's living in my house in Riften.

Seriously, I can't count the number of times I've had to reset because I sank into a mountain or a key item was knocked irretrievably behind a table or a quest item got stuck in my inventory... actually, that one's usually not fixable with resetting. I'm stuck with Finn's Lute and Pantea's Flute forever, it seems. Anyway, the point is, I'd never encountered a glitch I liked. Finally, the game's bugginess worked in my favor.

And yes, this means Nurelion's death never happened. He's still "asleep and dying" in The White Phial, while Quintus is baking me apple pies in Honeyside. Love it.

... I actually came close to crying with joy when I got to marry Quintus. I mean, I've sunk over 200 hours into my main character, and I'd been hoping to marry him for at least 150 of those. So. Happy.

Because I've been meaning to do this (and because I need to convert carolinecrane to the awesomeness), here's a few recent Kane/Toews fics I've loved, summarized in three words:

Tied If We Stay - TWITTER RUINS EVERYTHING
Your Daddy's Aim is True - MAGIC CUP BABY
Promise I'm Worthy (To Hold In Your Arms) - TEENAGE HOCKEY RIVALS
Tour de Force - SECRET NOVELIST KANER... okay, this is more than three words, but if you only read one fic, make it this. It's somehow insanely IC while also being awesome and adorable and hot. It's so good.

Okay, so. Crossroad Blues. You all need to read it. It's hockey RPF, but you really don't need any background information. It's also amazingly entertaining and well written and it involves demons, you guys. DEMONS. And it's AWESOME. It's not stupid or melodramatic, it's just epic. Seriously, go read it. Go. Go read, and then come back and flail with me. I love.

Because carolinecrane is good with compliments and jengeorge is good with stories, I ended up drawing this. ( No naughty bits visible, but still probably NSFW. )

BONUS: Akihiko/Minako during the hot springs event. ( Again, no naughty bits visible, but yeah... NSFW! )

I've never drawn stuff like this before, stuff this... exposed. Anatomy, yikes!

Has anyone else been following the Counterclockwise series? Never seen Supernatural, but I'm still pretty in love with it. I may have a weakness for supernatural (the adjective, not the series title) AU's.