astridv

Today, a couple Fullmetal Alchemist vids:

Keep Going [FMA:Brotherhood Trailer]
This is a really well-done fan-made trailer. I've watched one or two of the official trailers; this one does a much better job of presenting the show.
(It focuses mostly on the two main protagonists though, not the ensemble.)

FMA: Supergirls (Riza, Olivier, Izumi)
Tribute video to the kick ass women of Fullmetal Alchemist
Fun vid, great energy.
(... and that's not even all the kick ass women on FMA!)

Beautiful ensemble MMV: Redemption by hayaaateuh

I wanted to add a Roy&Riza vid to round off the post but Youtube's blocking all the other vids in my bookmarks...

I'm so happy with my fandom stocking. I got Angel fic with Kate, Angel and Connor \o/ and more Angel fic with Angel and Connor doing some father-son bonding (boy, do those two deserve it) and a cool Garak/Bashir fanmix, fma icons (of which I just uploaded one for those days you're just like, blah...) and a Sam/Rodney wallpaper, and holiday greetings with kittens.

I only managed to fill one stocking this year, myself. I clicked on dozens, hoping something would trigger my creativity but it has just been the kind of year where the muse went on vacation. But. I finally had an idea for something in the Angel verse I'd really like to do. It's still fragile... I'll pet it and water it and hope it grows into a proper bunny.

Stars by kachink (FMA)
Lin/Lan Fan, worksafe

I was about to describe the art but instead here's a preview picture:

I like the minimalist colors and the stylized shapes.

Birth & Death by Hayaaaateuh (Fullmetal Alchemist AMV)
I think this vid is really mesmerizing in the way it captures the sheer epic scope of Arakawa's story.

vidder's note: So, yes, the theme of death and loss is inherent in FullMetal Alchemist, as it is closely linked to many character's stories. But one of the reasons why this manga touched me so deeply is that Arakawa didn't only drew this side of life, but made her story come full circle by showing that there is always a hope of rebirth - may it be the birth of a family, of a brand new political era, or the rebirth of a culture.

Can't Get a Guy with a Gun by likeadeuce (FMA)
gen; PG-13; Characters: Maes, Rebecca, Riza, Roy; 489 words

"Welcome!" Hughes said to Rebecca. "Sit! Tell us stories about Hawkeye."
"Huuuuughes," Roy warned.
Hughes ignored him. "You two were roomies, right? There must've been some Academy hijinks, even for our formidable lieutenant."

My fannish output this year was way below that of the past few years, I think in parts because I've just done so much fanart for SGA that, while I still have ideas, the itch has been scratched... that must make fanart now!! But mostly I've just been swamped with work until November, and by then I was just exhausted so I spent the last two months drawing very little, reading and reccing fic instead, and playing outside in the snow. (Skiing! I was lucky and found skis to buy two days ago. \o/)

Well, here's what I did draw (the preview pics link to the posts):
January:
a visual prompt for the commentfic exchange at sgahcchallenges (btw, still up for grabs...)
February: nothin'
March: Following a post from sholio I discovered Fullmetal Alchemist. Result: a Roy&Riza sketch
April:
my entry for sticksandsnark
May:
for Cliche Bingo: Roy/Riza, After the Battle
and a quick Roy Mustang color sketch... an attempt to paint fire using watercolors. (needs more practice.)
June:
Dog Days: two FMA inks. Astrid tries manga style.
and a colored version of both.
July, August, September, October: The Project of Doom happened. Also, my vacation to Comic Con and gorgeous Zion National Park.
November:

a colored version of my Teyla&Rodney sketch from January. At first I wanted to leave it as a sketch because I was happy with the way the movement was caught, and that gets easily lost when I ink my pencils. I'm glad I went back and colored it after all; think this is my favorite of this year's bunch (well, or my stickandsnark piece, can't decide). The colored ink I used did interesting things and the result suprised me. (No idea how I got that dusty effect, really.)
my contribution to fma_ladyfest: Mei, Al, and Xiao Mei in Xing

That's it. Not too bad, though I'd hoped I'd fill at least one of my prompts for hc_bingo... hhm. I still have a couple hours... ;)

Lucky Man by penknife ST:AOS (with references to TOS canon)
gen; PG; Characters: Kirk (+ McCoy, Uhura, Pike, and Spock); ~3800 words
Summary: The reporters are looking for a story about Tarsus IV, but Jim doesn't have one he wants to tell.
AOS characters and TOS backstory, seamlessly interwoven. I love how all the characters involved are drawn, and the restrained way in which she portrays Kirk's trauma.

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Here's a neat youtube film by two German magicians/jugglers. No German language skills necessary, there's no dialogue. Just lots of flying objects. I wonder how often they had to retake each scene. A Normal Day

And here's the plot of the original Star Wars trilogy retold in paper animation: Jeremy Messersmith - Tatooine

Military Dogs (FMA)
gen; characters: military
I've never watched the first anime, nor do I plan to. This vid uses 1st anime footage and canon but I find it compelling nonetheless. The song works well with the clips, and the timing is excellent... it manages to convey a downright ominous feeling.

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here's a comm I'd been meaning to pimp for a while: kidpix
This is sortakinda like the Scans Daily of kid's books. People post scans of children's books of every imaginable style from all over the world. The comm is fairly high traffic but not so much that it floods my reading list. It's in Russian but the posts are all about the pics anyway.

An entry to water your appetite: Недетские сказки Японии

or this one: Bill Thomson. Chalk
Normally I'm not all that crazy about photorealism, but I like how the artist plays with it here.

and this is from a series I'm collecting myself :) Jill Barklem, Autumn Story

(there were more posts I wanted to share but I didn't bookmark them. Never gonna find them again.)

Well, many many months ago I submitted a pencil sketch version of this picture as a visual prompt for, I think it was sgahcchallenges and I managed to ink it sometime during the last weeks. Here's finally a colored version. I was trying out my new drawing inks for this one (Rohrer & Klingner inks - actually the same ones as I used for the color sketch of this Fullmetal Alchemist pic, finishing which is next on my to-do list). I like these inks! I'm gonna buy more colors and explore them some more. Coloring this took no time.

Characters: Teyla & Rodney
Rating: PG-13 for guns, arrows and further implied violence

( image behind the cut )

preview:

A Girl Worth Fighting For by bookelfe (FMA)
gen; PG; Characters: Approximately every Armstrong in canon, and some I just made up; ~4,600 words
Summary: An argument among the Armstrong children is resolved with a history lesson. written for fma_ladyfest

I love this fic to bits. Amestrian history, elegantly combined with the sparkly awesomeness that is the Armstrong family. It doesn't get any better. (I feel like I should write this rec in sparkle font.)

A Reasonable Facsimile (Chuck)
Characters: Morgan Grimes, General Beckman, and a boatload of sketchy OC's
Spoilers for 4x01; gen; PG; epidode tag, humor; 2600 words

This is delightful, funny and just the right amount of cracky. And it's perfectly in character, both for Morgan and for the show.

Easy Listening by emungere (Chuck)
gen; PG; Chuck & Casey; spoilers for 1x06; short
Killing Chuck is not an option. Not. An. Option. He has that written on a post-it stuck to his bathroom mirror, so it must be true.

some more Casey:
Knitting by Innie (Chuck)
gen with background Ellie/Devon; short
Summary: Casey gets roped in.

Yeah, so they're civilians, and he's sworn to protect them, but now that he's met them, he isn't so sure that he really would take a bullet for them. They're so wide-eyed and trusting, so full of enthusiasm and high-fives, treating him like he belonged in their weird little family. It's damn unsettling.

For remixduello amaresu submitted The one where Jack and Vala ended up on Fandom Wank, which prompted this remix by beatrice_otter: A Collection of E-mails from the SGC Archives (the Wanky Wormhole Remix) (SG-1)
Vala writes Wormhole X-treme Danning/Levant badfic. Jack thinks it's OOC and says so online. Cam writes up the wank report. Teal'c provides screencaps (and gets one of the funniest lines I've read in fanfic). And the best thing is, it's all canon-compliant, if you want to squint. I love Wormhole X-treme.

Death by Fondue by ameretrifle (SGA)
gen; PG; humor; 1730 words
Summary: With the advantage of hindsight, John realized that he probably should've known something was wrong the first time he'd noticed he hadn't seen Rodney for more than five minutes. But it's a party, he'd thought. He's probably out there having fun, he'd thought. God, he must have been more drunk than he'd thought.

Thankfully this was recced on stargateficrec, because it was posted in 2007 and I somehow missed it until now. This is a really funny planetside fic with a number of great OCs.

x-posted from stargategenrec: untitled Sheppard-Caldwell ficlet by sholio (SGA)
gen; PG; Characters: John Sheppard, Stephen Caldwell, (Torren Emmagan); Spoilers: 5x01
I like how this scene shows the mutual respect and understanding that the two have developed over time.

Attack of the Cookie Monsters by Barb Cummings (rahirah)
Buffy/Spike & kids; PG
There are cookie monsters. They attack.
And the whole thing is illustrated. ♥

I'm sensing a theme here. Maybe I'm getting enough angst from my job and therefore need a lot of lighthearted, cracky fic for balance.
TBC

Okay, I'm about to visit the family today, and on Tuesday I'm leaving for Comic Con, and I still have to color *counts* 14 illustrations which I so wanted to finish before my vacation - but, I got the script too late and it totally screwed up my schedule. I shouldn't really be online at all, but OTOH I know I can't possibly color 14 illos in the time I have left anyway, so... whatever.

I must rec these commentfics by bookelfe!
She's written this happymaking Roy/Riza ficlet: Fullmetal Alchemist: Mustang/Hawkeye shippiness or UST, OH TWIST MY ARM )
Is there anything more adorable than these two repressed people flirting in code? I think not.

Also in the "awww" department: Al woos a Xingian princess: Fullmetal Alchemist: Al/Mei

Also great: Marcoh and Scar on their road trip, Team Mustang and Briggs. There are more multi-fandom ficlets in these posts, check them out!