Yanked from jbmcdragon, because doing something useful with my time would just be silly.

SCATTERGORIES: Copy the text below, erase my answers, then use the first letter of your name to answer each of the following. They have to be real places, names, things... nothing made up! Try to use different answers if the person in front of you had the same first initial. You CAN'T use your name for the boy/girl name question.

WHAT IS YOUR NAME? Dark.
4 LETTER WORD: Dyke.
BOY NAME: Danny.
GIRL NAME: Delilah.
OCCUPATION: Deadbeat.
A COLOUR: ...dirt!
SOMETHING YOU WEAR: Doc Martins.
BEVERAGE: Dr Pepper.
FOOD: Doritos.
SOMETHING FOUND IN A BATHROOM: Dove soap.
PLACE: Dance floor.
REASON FOR BEING LATE: Deeply inconvenient hole.
SOMETHING YOU SHOUT: Dagnabbit!

Good news: The phone bill has been paid and we now have a new account!

Bad news: The line doesn't connect for another ten days.

Good news: We're getting a new internet provider!

Bad news: The internet won't kick in until after the phone line does. And then it takes seven to ten days.

The news: I'll be back online. Just not for another twenty days.

Argh argh argh argh...

Y'know, I need minions. If only to have something to unleash.

So, remember the flatmate of evil? The one that forgot to pay the phone bill before she left and got us cut off? The one who K-O'd our internet? Yeah. IT GETS BETTER.

That bill wasn't paid for THREE MONTHS.

And here's where it gets really special. That bill? That bill was in my name. So the flatmate of evil just TANKED my credit rating. And better yet? She had to steal the warning letters to do it, because this is the first I've heard about it.

Hey, ex-flatmate, if you're still reading my journal? Brace yourself.

Anyone remember the llama song? I need to listen to that again.

So, in a nutshell, here's the current internet situation. We still have yet to get the phoneline hooked up because BT is being... well, BT. Without the phoneline, we have no internet. Flatmate #1 of awesome is attempting to deal with BT and not lose her mind--we salute you!--and flatmate #2 of awesome is looking into new internet companies that'll cut us a better deal for a better service.

But this is all going to take about a week.

I miss you guys. None of you better be dead.

Stolen from ainasiriel

( Meme! )

So, because Helen failed to pay the phone bill before she left, we got cut off. And because we got cut off, the internet has now died.

I need to reconnect the phone line, then I need to wait Five Damn Days before the modem'll come back to life. Currently I'm at the library.

If anyone feels a minor tremble in the Earth's crust tonight, it's just me breaking things.

jbmcdragon called for anti-emo posts. So here's mine!

Soph just moved in. Helen is gone--and incidentally didn't pay the phone bill before she left, so now I have to track her down and kill her--but the household is now a much better place to be. The kitchen is no longer off-limits, and I have company while I wander around and babble about whatever.

And dude, Soph doesn't care if I spend hours talking about ninja.

I love my house. Mwaha.

I need to update more. It should not be harder to write from my own perspective than from my characters, it really shouldn't.

So people have been talking about cliques lately. Being in them, wanting to be in them, being excluded by them. I've heard a couple arguments for and against, and some damn good reasons why Stuff Just Is.

So here's the thing, there's really no solution. You can't buy your way into a group, you can't barter your way in, you can't whine yourself there, and you can't beg for a shot. It doesn't work that way. Cliques aren't formed with the express purpose of Keeping You Out. They're formed because the people in them have things in common. Because, for whatever reason, that little group hangs on a linchpin of shared interest.

Hell, there can even be cliques within cliques. They aren't fixed things. The dynamics are always fluid, the people everchanging. And it's a good thing--as long as you're in them. From the outside, it looks like a whole lot of suck. I know, I've been there. Every person on the planet has. It doesn't mean you're rejected--well, sometimes it does, but that's a different issue--it just means you're not involved. Sometimes it's as simple as timing--if You Weren't There when that Big Thing happened, then you Weren't There. You didn't celebrate, you didn't work for it, you didn't mourn, you didn't hurt, and you Won't Get It.

Which sucks. But hell, that's life.

Other times it's because people just click. That's what we do, it's a people thing. We don't sit around glorifying in how awesome we are--or, at least, none of the groups I've been in have--most of the time we're too caught up in our own hurricane to notice people getting left on the fringes. Again, that sucks. Again, that's life.

So my point here is...

My point is that this happens. Groups form. People come together. Stuff Happens. And sometimes you get hurt. But for the love of everything, complaining about it doesn't make me want to reach out and say "Welcome! Come destabilize the dynamic we care so much about!" It makes me want to toss you off a bridge. Possibly onto a spike. And colourful language aside, it definitely doesn't make me sorry you're not involved.

Here's the secret: If you get left out of something, make your own thing.

So that's it, and if I just hurt feelings... that sucks. It's life. And you missed the point.

I always have the urge to start these updates with 'so' for some reason.

So...

New things. Old things. Hmm. There's not actually a whole lot going on in my life at the moment. I'm money-saving, time-killing, and mostly going with the flow.

There IS some epic writing going on over at Fallen Leaves at the moment. Something of a byproduct of my trips to the States.

Ye gods. That's like the beginning of a really bad joke: "What happens when you put four writers in a room together?"

But yes! New stuff.

So far Words and Deeds has been finished. Which is Kakashi and Ginta's third thread together. Like everything that involves Kakashi and Ginta, it's a bit hilarious, a bit heartbreaking, vastly surreal, and there's an undercurrent of dog.

jbmcdragon's character Tsume wrote a report on the recent mission involving herself, Raidou and Genma, which is honestly worth reading just for the spelling.

In the spirit of collaboration threads, Get Your Story Straight involves kilerkki's always delightful Ryouma deciding to check out what the hell happened to Genma and Raidou after Three's a Crowd. And really, if you found two knackered looking ninja in the same bed, what conclusions would you draw?

Continuing with Ryouma, kilerkki and I also started a thread with the guy and Kakashi. As with Ginta and Kakashi threads, there's a lot of humour, a lot of heartbreak, and an undercurrent of... well, in this case, fights. Also coffee. It's not finished, but it's ticking along nicely AND led us to start writing a backstory piece involving first loves and teachers with both boys--set to a backdrop of war.

(I swear, only in Fallen Leaves do people stop writing a thread in order to go back seven years and start writing a different one. Still, Minato and kickass Hyuuga sensei are not to be missed.)

Then there's another thread I've started working on with Sna's character Haruichi, set up to follow up the slightly disastrous mission between his fine self and Kakashi. Katana training for the unwilling--also not to be missed! Plus, Pakkun gets capes.

Moving back to jbmcdragon's Tsume, there's a new DEMON thread up and running between her and Raidou. Very long thread, lots of gory details, and not one boring bit in the whole thing. How's that for fanservice? Plus, semi-nekkid!Raidou! Not to mention drunk!Tsume and a touch of wholesale slaughter.

Which brings me to both Ryouma and Tsume--our one completely awesome, totally groovy, ever so delighted to rip your heart out and STOMP on it, het couple. kilerkki and jbmcdragon have got a thread in the works that would make me practically dissolve with jealousy, if I didn't think it was so damn awesome. Absolutely guaranteed to make you cry. So watch out for that one in the next few weeks. *is complete tease, mwaha*

And on the subject of couples, we can skip back to either Ginta and Kakashi, or Genma and Raidou. The awesome nezumiko and I have things planned for all four boys, mwahaha. We'll have to see if we can give Tsume and Ryouma a run for their money.

--

So when I say I don't have a lot going on in my life...

*grins*

The scene: The kitchen.

The time: Non-important.

The phone: *ringing*

The Dark: *picks it up* Y'ello?

The Father: Right, you dipstick--

The Dark's thoughts: People still say dipstick?

The conversation: *continues with much humour*


Sometimes life grants you surrelities. And the opportunities to make up words.