Links for your perusal

First of all, a very happy birthday to trixie_chick!

Second, pinkdormouse wrote some very interesting remarks on things one must consider in writing sex and relationships. And not the usual anatomical advice, but things like whether it's plausible for someone in the eighties to be wearing silk boxer shorts. Check it out!

Third, I've been lax in my pimping of fyrie's Carpe Noctem series. If you've forgotten or are just now joining us, this is a delightful romantic soap opera that manages to combine Buffy, Tanz der Vampire (or the two main vampires thereof - no knowledge of Tanz necessary), and excellent writing. She also breaks my brain at least every other chapter. The last I recced was the delightfully brain-breaking Contact, which is followed now by Vampires on a Plane!, in which Herbert descends to new lows. Reason for said lows is explained in the new prequel, Over Troubled Waters.

Today will be spammy, since I'm leaving tomorrow for two weeks at the lakes. In case you're interested, I did finish the thesis and celebrated by attending a bonfire/picnic type thing, at which I ran into a friend of hotbeast's and other people In The Know. Four slashers stumbling around a pitch-dark forest at 1AM and using a cell phone with a Harry/Draco wallpaper as a torch is an interesting sight.

Dancing vampire picspam

Over a week later, but I finally got to it :) All of these were taken at the June 21st promo event for the Polish Tanz der Vampire cast album, which one can acquire internationally here or here.

The light was great and natural, which let me take flash-less photos, though the crowd and inopportunely placed speakers made it a bit more difficult. All in all I took 175 photos - here are 40 of the best ones :) I'm especially proud of the sequence of von Krolock enfolding Sarah in his cloak (pictures 18 to 21).

Warning: 40 large pictures (500x666) under the cuts.

( 27 potraits of von Krolock )

( Herbert times 5 - this guy just doesn't photograph nearly as well )

( Sarah, Ewigkeit dancers, Alfred, Magda, finale dancers - 8 pictures in total )

Conclusion: vampires are pretty :D

Drabbles: Coldfire (PG-13, slash)

From the requests I took a few days ago:

For trobadora: Ocean waves

( Strange Aeons )

For alice_montrose: Gerald's sword

( Up to Par )

For mariem_1: the coronet of Merentha

( Legacy )

For fuumasfrog: bathtub

( Heat )

Not leaving after all

Due to thesis formalities, I won't be leaving until at least Tuesday afternoon, most probably Wednesday morning. I'm also rather shaken, though it all came together well. If I have to stay in town throughout my birthday to defend this bloody thing, I shall be rather upset, though. I was looking forward to relaxing and forgetting about the last three years' worth of stress, because yes, that's how long it's been since I had a proper vacation.

Also a very happy birthday to tehta :)