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Bidding at 

livelongnmarry is now open.

*is giving the ones she's watching a couple days to go for "buy it now" as she can't afford the buy it nows ...one actually had someone bid too early*

anime: Haibane Renmei eps 1-4

A young woman dreams of endlessly falling through the sky. A crow tries to stop her fall by grabbing her dress with its claws but the girl, seeing it only causes the bird strain, tells it to let go, and she continues to fall. When she wakes up, she finds herself in a cocoon. Freeing herself from the cocoon, she finds herself in a storeroom, surrounded by several young women, each with a halo and small, grey wings. They tell the girl that she, like them, is a haibane, and that she will soon grow wings of her own. None of the girls have any memories of their lives from before the cocoon, though they all know they had lives. Each had a dream while in the cocoon, though, and they are named after the dream. Because the girl dreamed of falling, she is named Rakka.

( cut for length )

( personal theory about the haibane )

rachelmanija's spoiler-free review.

Daemons Are Forever by Simon R. Green

After saving his family (which kinda hates his guts) from an evil god, Eddie Drood, aka Shaman Bond, has found himself with the worst job ever: being in charge of the family business, which is basically the world’s biggest network of spies, devoted to policing the supernatural world. Sure, his girlfriend, Molly, will happily turn anyone who disagrees with him into toads, or teleport their clothes to another dimension if they won’t shut up and listen to him, but that only helps the migraine a bit. Then there’s Harry. Eddie may or may not have had to kill Harry’s father during that mess a while back, and Harry may or may not want Eddie’s head on a platter for it. It doesn’t help that Eddie’s new best friend, Roger, is a half-demon who used to date Molly. It was a bad break up. Possibly because Roger tried to sell Molly’s soul to hell.

Then there’s the people he doesn’t live with. The outside world seems to have gotten the idea that the Droods, having recently had a power shift, just might be a touch vulnerable. As half the Droods’ power comes from the fact that most are too scared to try anything, this should be addressed before cities start randomly disappearing into other dimensions. Eddie’s bright idea, then, is to bring in a few friends the family may not quite approve of to whip them into shape, and then go wipe out a few Big Bads. Except the Big Bads they went after ended up just being the real Big Bad’s pinky finger. And then things got messy.’

The second Shaman Bond book isn’t nearly as much of a rip on the James Bond franchise as the first, but the elements are definitely still there. Mostly, it’s your normal Simon R. Green book. Witty, badass people being very witty and badass while Green makes everything imaginable canon. And I do mean everything. I don’t think, however, that anyone really reads Green for the plot, no matter how entertaining the plot may be. No, people read Green for when he does things like 

( spoiler )

Dear New (to me) Author

 That person who told you first person present tense was a good stylistic choice?  That it worked really well for you?

THEY LIED.