Awright, then. I guess it's time for an update on this profile.
Me: I'm 20 years old, born and bred in England (one fourth Indian ;) ), and living in the USA. I've got two fics posted at the moment, 'Chimera' and 'Incubus', and I've been working on various other projects, too. I started writing because I got tired of reading the same thing over and over again, and decided that it'd be more worthwhile to write something original myself, rather than wait for people to do it for me. And so, that's how Chimera started, and Incubus followed soon after.
I'll give you a general outline of what I go for in HP fics, 'cause those are the only ones I read:
Pairings I read, and why:
Harry/Tonks -- Remus/Tonks is a blight on romance in general. Terrible ship, and a terrible fate for a fun, happy-go-lucky girl. Dunno what JKR was thinking, putting the most exciting, vibrant character in her books together with the most boring, insipidly tasteless old fart in her books. Honks is the way to go, people, t'is a religion.
Harry/Fleur -- Where Fleur is NOT the vapid, dumbass Veela chick, and for a change, isn't a trainee in the Hogwarts Hospital Wing.
Harry/Cho -- Where Cho isn't a weeping, snivelling idiot, and has a character worth caring about.
Harry/Fem!Blaise -- So what if JKR said that Blaise is male? I mean, seriously...the number of people who flame authors like Thor Nairda about this is ridiculous. Blaise is a female-sounding name, and by all rights, an author is allowed to make a character female if he wants to. If you've got such a big bloody problem with it, go annoy the people who turn Harry into a girl.
Harry/Bellatrix -- Where she actually IS insane, a murderer, etc. Not when she's crying and bitching about how her Imperius curse-carrying Magical Contract forced her to make many boo-boos. Insane!Bellatrix is deliciously fun to read and write, repentant!Bellatrix is just a chore to wade through.
Harry/Narcissa -- Where Narcissa, like Bellatrix should be, is a Witch who knows the Dark Arts, and isn't afraid to use them. I mean...seriously, she's from the Black family, the part that didn't renounce the Dark Arts. Give her some credit.
Harry/Original Character or Harry/Ignored Character ... I mean like Katie Bell or Pansy Parkinson. Although, Harry/Susan Bones and Harry/Hannah Abbot are pairings that I really don't like. Don't even know why, but I just don't care for them. I don't hate them, though.
Pairings I hate, and why:
Harry/Ginny -- When I first entered the fandom, almost two years ago, this was my favorite pairing, with Harry/Hermione being a close second. Now, its turned into a joke. Until book 6, Ginny is a minor character. She's brash (taking advice from the diary), muted (blushing and running away, butter dish + elbow, etc), and generally an insipid character who's just present to show that other characters exist. While I still like the ship when written well, I never find a Harry/Ginny fic worth reading. Authors seem to love turning Ginny into some vivacious woman of Harry's dreams, making her flirty and randomly beautiful. She's a tomboy, not a supermodel. She prefers flying a broom to wearing makeup and going to dances. Plus, authors love to make her character bossy and commanding, and inevitably, Harry bows down to her, despite being Dark!Independant!Political!Awesome!Super!Duper!Harry. I cannot STAND it when Harry is a servile dweeb. If you characterize him as such in your fic, then I don't like your fic. Plain and simple.
Harry/Hermione -- I used to like this pairing to some extent until I started liking Independant Harry. I'm sorry, but Independant!Harry cannot coexist with Hermione. She is bossy and controlling by nature, and she is just as stuck up as any Pureblood you can imagine. Harry would end up thinking that he is the one in charge when she's actually pushing him around to do things. I think it's sufficient to say that I dislike her character, and that I cannot fathom how Harry could ever live his life with the Mudblood running it for him.
Edit: Someone thought that I was being hypocritical, since I have a H/Hr fic in my favorites. The point, really, is that that fic is good. The author writes well, and the story is interesting despite the hurt/comfort themes. Regardless, the point is that I will never even consider writing a H/Hr fic, and as a general rule of thumb , with some exceptions, I dislike the pairing immensely.
Ron/Hermione -- All dislikes aside, Hermione is not an idiot. I spurn all those who believe in 'opposites attract' to write this ship...she is frankly too smart to be taken by a bumbling imbecile like Ron. JK really put very little thought to this.
Remus/Tonks -- It doesn't seem right to me, although I am biased because I love Harry/Tonks stories. As I understand it, Tonks is supposed to be about 20 years old, considering that she said that she became a full-fledged Auror the year before she met Harry. Counting the two years of training, that would put her at 20 when he is 15. Remus is supposed to be the same age as James and Lily, which makes him about 35 when Harry is 15. The 15 year age-gap is a lot more insurmountable than 5 years. Plus, as I mentioned above, Tonks is the most vibrant, entertaining character in the books, while Remus is the most dull, boring and irritating character in the books. The pairing just doesn't work.
Harry/Luna -- Hate. Hate. I hate this pairing. I despise it, even. Luna exists in the books for nothing except to make Harry seem normal by comparison. She's a nutcase, a weirdo...just someone who's not all together. Think of your own life. Would you even think of dating a girl like Luna yourself? I most certainly wouldn't. We call them 'insane', and we put them in asylums for a reason. As for Harry being with her, the last thing he needs is a girlfriend who says and thinks stupid stuff, wanders about aimlessly and talks complete garbage, considering that he's got a bit of a bloody job on his hands.
Slash --I am a straight male, 19 years of age. In my time at College, I have seen a lot of things that do not appeal to me at all, and homosexuality is one of them. I don't mean to say that I am homophobic (hating gay people, for those of you who don't know the word); I mean to say that it is not my cup of tea. This, of course, is made worse for me due to the fact that people love to pair Harry with Draco or Snape, which I just cannot understand. There have been a few slash stories that I really liked in which I was able to ignore the relationship and focus on the story, such as the one where Harry comes back through time to educate his past self...I think the character's name was Devon Potter. Unfortunately, in the later chapters, the sex seemed to get incredibly graphic, which is why I wonder why the FFNet admins haven't done a thing to it. Not to point fingers or anything, but it is extremely graphic, and (in my opinion), far better and less graphic stories have been axed. For exactly that reason, I'm cutting out the lemon parts in my fic, as mildly graphic Hetero!Harry stories seem to mysteriously disappear on this site.
Characters:
Dumbledore: I love him. He is an incredible character, but too many authors make the mistake of turning him into an idiot. He is manipulative and coercive, and I hope that Chapter 3 of my story will outline it nicely for you people. It is simply stupid to think that he has set up so much, only to be easily outwitted by a teenager who has just figured it all out. After fooling the whole world for over a century, one would think that he's gotten good at it.
Snape: He is petty, small-minded and arrogant, for all the bullshit he spouts off about Harry being arrogant. His entry speech in PS was pretentious as hell, all about cheating death and brewing glory. To take pleasure out of belittling someone twenty years younger just because his dad made fun of you in school is frankly disgusting. I certainly will write his death quite graphically.
Ron: He is an imbecile, no kidding. He always seems to be right there to distract Harry from actually working. When Hermione says "let's go to the library", he says "let's play quidditch/let's play chess". Sure, his jealousy was only evident once, but it is easy to tell that he has the potential to do it again. He apparently wants to be Head Boy and Quidditch Captain, but he puts no effort towards realizing his goals. He is a bad student, and a lucky quidditch player, and he makes no attempts at being better. I can't stand stories in which Harry VOLUNTARILY rejects the offer of becoming Quidditch Captain, and gives it to Ron instead. What the hell? JKR spent most of Book 5 detailing how terrible Ron was at Quidditch, and how only luck managed to save him in the end.
HBP: Of course, like every other Harry Potter book, HBP was interesting and an exciting read. But still, this is my least liked of all the books. Terrible, in my opinion.
While the Horcruxes were a nice idea, they ruined the series. Harry made no effort to get stronger, he did not study at all. He cheats in class, and doesn't even press Dumbledore for extra help with his task. He doesn't seem to grieve very much for Sirius at all (which I actually liked...before HBP came out, there were SO many bloody stories that spent chapter upon chapter detailing how bad Harry's dreams were). Then, to make things worse, he gets beaten around by Snape and Malfoy, getting fooled all the bloody time. Then, JK really let the shit hit the fan:
Right, we know that Harry has not gotten stronger at all. He has nothing on Voldemort, except empty promises about the 'power of love', something that Dumbledore doesn't even explain. Dumbledore just smiles calmly and twinkles, not telling Harry what sort of spell or anything he should/could use to eventually destroy Voldemort. Right, so Harry is bascally impotent. THEN, JK comes in with the Horcruxes, and makes Voldemort exponentially stronger. Why do it? Why would you throw even more on Voldemort's side without giving at least a little to Harry? Now, not only does he have no clue how to duel (scene with Snape at the end), has no clue how to find and destroy the Horcruxes, but he also has to face the daunting problem of: VOLDEMORT CAN KILL ME SO MUCH EASIER THAN I CAN KILL HIM!
ReadCon: I have recently become a part of a new forum called The Reading Consortium, and the Admins, who you may know as Le Rob and Cervus (both authors here on FFNet), were kind enough to give me my own 'section'. I hope people who come by this profile take a look at the forum and join in, its a nice (currently small) community of people.
In my 'section' there, which is a forum of its own called 'Apocalypso', the chapters to both my stories are available, as well as a thread for each fic where reviewers can question me directly, inquire about the story, criticize, praise and just generally evaluate the story in any way they want. I will also be posting my challenges, and I've already got some stuff up about the other projects that I'm taking on, etc. Most importantly, though, I will post my chapters there first. I will post them on FFNet and Ficwad a few days later.So, if you want a peek at the chapter before it gets 'officially' posted, that's where you go ;)
Link: ReadCon
My Section: Apocalypso
I hope all of you who read this decide to join, you are all most certainly welcome.
My first fic posted is now up, titled The Chimera: More Snake than Lion. NOTE: THIS STORY IS CURRENTLY ON HIATUS. LOOK AT THE A/N AT THE END OF Ch 3 OF DEATH, IN GLORY.
It's an Independant, Political Harry Potter that I'm trying to portray. He knows what is required of him, and he knows what he needs to do to achieve those ends. The pairing is Harry/Tonks/Cho. Salazar Slytherin is Harry's ancestor in the fic, though he is not Harry's ancestor through Lily Potter (that's been done enough). That's all I'll say here, the rest you'll have to glean from reading the story ;)
Discuss this fic at ReadCon: The Chimera: More Snake than Lion
Note: This fic has NC-17 parts that are omitted from the version posted on this site. To access these scenes, you will have to read the version posted on FicWad. I have posted a link to it below:
NC-17 Version: FicWad Link
Chapter 8 now up!
This story was, until the fourth chapter or so, beta'd by Zero from . Zero's had some internet problems, and I'm not sure whether he's still active, but until I hear otherwise, he'll keep getting the chapter drafts by email :P After that, I've been lucky enough to have many people help me with the fic. Special thanks goes out to Thalarian and Cervus, both of whom were instrumental in helping me get past my writer's block with chapter 8.
Thanks also goes to IP82, as he's been the one person to kick me in the nuts when I've written something stupid. I think I deleted a massive part of the last chapter after he pointed out just how moronic some of the scenes were. With Chimera and my other projects, IP82 and the lads and ladies over at AFC have been invaluable in helping me. Thanks, all of you.
Special thanks to CJ_Cold and Element, both of whom have helped me with Chimera and Incubus multiple times, and have been kind enough to pull no punches, and tell me where I've messed up. Recently, Taure has also helped considerably, so thanks to him, too.
In this latest chapter, we saw Harry's War Blades being introduced. To see what I mean, here are a few pictures of the blades, as I tried to describe them:
My second fic is now up, titled Fury of the Hellspawn: The Tale of an Incubus
It is far too graphic for FFNet, so I posted it on FicWad, under the username 'Apocalypso'.
Link: FicWad Link
Discuss this fic on ReadCon: Fury of the Hellspawn: The Tale of an Incubus
See, the thing is that in my first fic, I really wanted to write some really dark parts. However, I decided to abandon this idea entirely, and focus on Independant!Harry being the centerpoint. I don't want to drive away the readers that have been very appreciative by posting something that will turn their stomachs. Instead, I decided to vent the urge to write such material into another story.
It features Demon!Harry...a rather skewed one, at best. I am not a fan, or particularly interested in Demonology, so I will not use authentic (as far as that can go) representations of demons. I'm just throwing in shit as it comes, although I will avoid handing Harry new powers at random times.
I read The Secret of the Male Veela, and I followed it quite avidly while Mrriddler was still writing. The idea of a Dark!Harry with a Harem certainly appealed to me, but I found that the story wasn't Dark!Harry in the truly perverse sense of the word. I wanted to read something that was just sick, with blood, guts and sex all over the place. So, I decided to do the same as I mentioned in the first few lines of my profile, and write one myself. Lust of a Dark Soul by Vash the Unholy is an example of a fic like this one, although i will not portray Harry as taking over as the next Dark Lord for quite some time. I realize that some-or many- of the ideas are not original. In fact, I was going to (with credit) borrow the definition of the Incubus from Mriddler's story, after asking for permission. However, after a while, you will notice that this fic will devolve into simple graphic trash for those that go for it, and I'm really not concerned with originality in this fic. My other one will have a lot of original features in it.
One plus (to some): Bella in this fic will be INSANE. She will be the mass murderer that she was incarcerated for being. The only times she will act demure is when she's with Harry, and that too, rarely.
Note: This will be a PWP (Porn Without Plot) to some extent...many of the chapters will just be lemon and violence before anything truly remarkable on the war front actually happens. Harry will seduce Voldemort's female supporters away. Obviously, Voldemort doesn't have that many females in his forces, so Harry's little army will be made up of women from every corner of Wizarding Society.
Again, thanks goes out to CJ_Cold and Element, both have helped a lot. I had said before that because I viewed this fic a simple, puerile, graphic trash, I wasn't going to have it beta'd. Element and CJ were kind enough to help despite all that is wrong about this fic, and it's all the better because of them.
Update 7/16/2007: I'm putting this on extended hiatus. Honestly... I've just not got the urge to write smutty rubbish anymore, I'm going to focus on my other projects instead. If anyone is interested in continuing this story, please contact me through the Reading Consortium. Please be aware, however, that any potential author will have to have a good enough command over the English language. After the effort I've put into this story, I don't want to see it continued by someone who confuses 'your' and 'you're'. My apologies to any reader who is disappointed by this announcement, I just don't have it in me anymore.
Other Projects:
SplinterCell!Harry: Plot Idea, Discussion Thread
This is basically an Unspeakable!Harry story, an AU to canon. Harry was raised by the Unspeakables, and trained by them. At the start of his Sixth Year, the Hogwarts Express is attacked, and Harry is the only person available to help. He has to face off against 40 Death Eaters by himself, and keep the students alive and well at the same time. Will be Harry/Tonks, and first person POV. I've written the first chapter, and outlined the next three or four chapters.
Death, In Glory:
A crossover with 300, the movie. For now, this is all I'm willing to part with, but I certainly hope it comes out the way I envision it to be: exciting, engaging and action-packed. Should be Harry/Tonks/Fleur, if I can finagle it somehow ;)
I've posted a near-final draft of the Prologue/First chapter on the Reading Consortium, so just go to my section, and have a read. Post any comments that you'd like to, as well.
Reviews and PMs:
I, like most athors, love to get reviews. I'm writing for you, the readers, primarily, and for my own enjoyment. So the last thing I want is some brat swearing his head off at me because my story wasn't what he/she wanted. CanonCop, if you're reading this, bugger off. If Canon is what you want, stop reading fanfiction, and stop prancing about with an underserved sense of accomplishment. Until you've written something of worth yourself, its rather stupid of you to criticize and flame authors who do write.
To everyone who has reviewed/Private Messaged me: Thank you, all of you. I sincerely appreciate every single (real) review that I've recieved from you. I'm sorry if I haven't replied to your PM's, but I've been bogged down by a lot of garbage lately that I've unfortunately had to deal with. If, however, you post on RoboCerv (hint, hint :P), I will definitely reply. It's just easier that way...I don't log in to FFNet unless I'm reviewing a story or I'm updating a story or something. I hope you understand.
: I've recieved more than a few messages and emails asking why I left DLP and requested to have my account banned. I'll be brief about this, and I hope I don't recieve too many questions: A difference of opinion, pretty much. That's all I have to say about that, to be honest. I can be contacted through reviews/PM's and on ReadCon. While on the topic, True Story: The least you could do is spell the word 'ass' right when attempting to insult me. Good god, lad, you butcher the English language more than anyone I've ever had the misfortune to encounter.
If you want to ask questions about the fic, etc, it's probably best to post on ReadCon, as I won't reply (can't, banned :P) on DLP. People who I cared for on DLP: You should know who you are. Best of luck, ladies and gents.
Thanks for your time, and happy reading.