lunabee34

The Catalog Description

A profound and entrancing potion. Deep, wispy, and unfathomably dark: vetiver, dark woods, crumbling and burnt black sandalwood and a drop of lemon rind.

The Forum Reviews

The forums seem to have three reactions to this perfume:

1. This is a really masculine scent, like aftershave or men's cologne. Let me smear this on a man's collarbone and bury my face in his neck.

2. This is a light, springtime scent--very fresh.

3. Vetiver and woods, dark and complex.

I also learned that Bath and Body works did a vetiver scent in the early 2000s and that the forums voted Incantation as the BPAL fragrance most likely to be the signature scent of Severus Snape.

Our Reactions

Emma, my eleven year old daughter, is testing all the perfumes with me and having a lot of fun with it. Remember that she is eleven when reading her reactions. LOL

Emma: Smells like wet sand and wood. No scent of lemon

Me: Smells like wood and vetiver; a bit smoky; no lemon

Josh: Although Emma and I thought it smelled the same on each other, Josh detected a hint of licorice on Emma's wrist that he didn't on mine. He also detected a hint of floral on my wrist. I smelled neither of those things.

I can see where the forums get masculine from this scent although I don't read it as an exclusively masculine scent. I also boggle at the people who described this perfume as light or springy. I think this scent is deep and pleasantly green, like a forest or a handful of herbs stored in a cedar box that's a bit burnt around the edges.

This scent stayed essentially the same from application until it faded. It didn't have a lot of throw and it faded within a few hours. I liked it, as did Josh (Emma not so much; it's definitely a grown-up scent), and I'll definitely use the imp but it's not going on my list of scents to purchase in a big bottle.

The Fic

( 1000 words of Tara-centric BtVS gen; warnings: child abuse and the canonical death of her mother )




AO3 already has a Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab tag, but I'm going to create a perfume fandom tag for people who write fic based on other perfume lines. ETA: the fandom tag I created is Perfumes.

For bethynyc who wanted Graham/Riley h/c after a bad mission

( Riley avoids Graham for days, and that’s just fine with him. Graham reports a version of what happened that won’t send Riley packing stateside; he’s got Riley’s back in that, if nothing else. While he waits, Graham writes a letter to his Gran and beats Jefferson at poker three times and field strips his P-90 until his fingers ache. Sure enough, before the week is out, Riley comes slinking into his bunk with a bottle of some local hooch. He still won’t look Graham in the eye. )

So, I've been uploading my fic to AO3, and it struck me that it's been almost five years since I wrote a Spander fic, and I wondered what sort of Spander I would write if I tried now.

Apparently, this kind.

Title: This is not a love story
Pairing: Spike/Xander
Rating: Adult
Word count: ~ 2500
Warnings: non-consensual sex, partner betrayal (of Anya)

With the exception of the first vignette, where I have slightly tweaked canon dialogue and events, this should be canonically compatible.

( Well, real life’s not like that. Everybody dies. Everybody leaves. And you keep hanging on for whoever’s still here. )

I wrote

The Last Seduction (the multiplicity remix), a remix of married_n_mich's "The Last Seduction."

You guys will also remember that I screwed up and wrote a fic that could not be submitted to the ficathon because it is coauthored. Here's that remix.

Title: The Buffybot and Mr. Gordo Save the World (Ozymandias Remix)
Pairing: gen
Rating: PG-13
Original story: The Buffybot and Mr. Gordo Save the World by married_n_mich and shinodabear

( When the store has closed for the day, when the lip of The Crater is frosted over with starlight, when Sunnydale sleeps, Buffybot wanders the aisles. She runs her fingers over rows of Mr. Gordos and Puppet Angels, plastic Urns of Osiris, cloth bags of Vamp Dust that she remembers was dull and grey and choking—not this fine iridescence that works its way down into the grout of the tile floor, into the corners of the shelves. Buffybot looks through all the bins of resin stakes, searching for one whose heft feels right, whose surface is not too slick in her palm. She never finds it. )

( Untitled Buffy/Angel Drabble; Adult )

I got in the mood to write some B/A after reading the following two exquisite stories. If you wanna read how this pairing is really done:

Older and Far Away by chrisleeoctaves This fic is so achingly beautiful. Angel looks down at the floor before meeting her eyes. “I don’t need you to blame me for it to hurt.” “I’m responsible, too,” she says. It’s a peace offering he will not accept. “I’m not sixteen anymore.” She doesn’t know why she says that, only that it’s true. He shakes his head, backing away from the light streaming through the window towards a shadowy corner. For some reason, this is the thing that makes her cry. And suddenly, where she has been stoic and composed, she is adrift and inconsolable.

All Ways by kita0610 This story is brilliant. It has such a lovely, dual-edged title and the narrative structure is wonderfully dreamy and reminiscent of a fairy tale. It also hurts you in the gut to read. In a good way. It was impossible that they had only done this once. Impossible that the amount of times she had killed him and made love to him were exactly the same.

You guys have done such a good job of cheering me up. In fact, I feel so much better that I wrote really, really silly fic. It's not beta'd cause it's so ridiculous, I don't want Kitty to disown me. *g*

( Just shy of 300 words, Buffy/Anya, utter silliness )

Here it is; the Buffy/Faith piece that has taken over my life for the past weeks. This is for thelastgoodname. Merry Christmas.

Thanks very much to the flist for helping me dig up canonical info on Faith, and thanks to kitty_poker1 for the beta. As always, you are invaluable to me. :)

This takes place in season four and is rated a hard R, I think.

( Something Elemental )

Now that I’m done with Shadowlands I wanted to write a little something about what went into creating it. I started this fic in February, and it’s now September. SL has consumed a significant portion of my life; it’s possibly the lengthiest project I’ve ever worked on. It’s certainly one of which I’m very proud.

( Possibly the wankiest thing I've ever done on lj )

Title: Shadowlands Part 14
Email: lunabee34@yahoo.com
Rating: NC-17 (overall)
Pairing: Spike/Xander
Disclaimers: The Buffyverse and all its characters belong to Joss Whedon & co. The story is mine.
Summary: Set immediately after the Ats ep "Damage." Xander finds out Spike is alive and comes to L. A. to see for himself.
Beta: kitty_poker1 You RAWK!!!!! Hard. LOL


Previous Parts flirt shamelessly with each other HERE.

( Shadowlands Part 14 )

Title: Shadowlands Part 13
Email: lunabee34@yahoo.com
Rating: NC-17 (overall)
Pairing: Spike/Xander
Disclaimers: The Buffyverse and all its characters belong to Joss Whedon & co. The story is mine.
Summary: Set immediately after the Ats ep "Damage." Xander finds out Spike is alive and comes to L. A. to see for himself.
Beta: kitty_poker1 Thank you especially for all the encouragement you gave me in this part. You are such a lovely person, and I value our friendship deeply.

Previous Parts go to the Faulkner conference and reenact the "branch scene" HERE

I know this has been slow going guys; I started out with a bang, and now the parts are coming more and more slowly. But we are nearing the end, and I promise to try to update in a more timely fashion.

( Shadowlands Part 13 )