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Update:   Friday, August 29, 2003

Sakusha, a new author at this website, has a wonderful multi-part story called Absolution posted. It's a fic about Seta Soujirou that takes place long after the Kyoto arc. Well written with a wonderfully intimate first-person narrative, Sakusha's characterizations are understated, yet emotionally engaging. And her Soujirou has a quiet maturity that seems very appropriate after years of attempting self-discovery. Thanks so much to Sakusha for allowing me to post this story. Please check it out, everyone! My sincere thanks to shinken, an artist new to this site, for allowing me to post several of her gorgeous pictures of Kenshin. I really love shinken's style. It has a delicate, almost ethereal feel to it. I don't know how shinken does it, but her figures seem to have a sense of mystery to them. Hints and impressions as backgrounds and beautiful colors. Four lovely pictures in the fan art section and one great wallpaper based on one of her fan art images. Truly beautiful stuff. Do have a look, folks! Posted by hakubaikou, 4:59:00 AM EST. on today's updates.

Update:   Thursday, August 28, 2003

Tani-chan has 3 great new walls to add to her gallery. The first is a picture of Tomoe with a crystalline snowflake-like background that I really like. The other two feature pictures of Kaoru and Tomoe. Great stuff! And tani-chan's personal style becomes very evident after seeing more of her work. Thanks for the artwork, tani-chan. Please take a look, folks! Sachi, a new artist at this website, has a wonderful picture of Kenshin and Saitou in her fan art gallery. This one has a split-screen image that I think is very cool, especially the inverted/mirror image background. And Kenshin and Saitou are both looking pretty mean and tough. Great work. Thanks so much to Sachi for the contribution. Check it out, everyone! Posted by hakubaikou, 2:57:00 AM EST. on today's updates.

Update:   Wednesday, August 27, 2003

Plenty of pretty things to look at today. For starters, Eri Gaudiamo has an absolutely amazing new picture update in the fan art gallery. This one's an image of Kenshin fighting Shishio. Gorgeous colors and shading. A great sense of movement makes the scene packed with action. Thanks so much to Eri Gaudiamo for this newest creation. It's simply wonderful people, so please take a look! A new artist in the wallpaper gallery, tani-chan, has a great wallpaper of Tomoe posted. This one's a grayscale image of Tomoe from the manga. In my opinion, the lack of color and the patterned background make this quite an elegant image. And it's always nice to see wallpapers with Tomoe-san in them. Thanks so much to tani-chan for the lovely art. Check it out, folks. Another new wallpaper artist, wicqed, has 3 wallpapers posted in the gallery. The first two are of Enishi, and both are done in widely contrasting styles. The third is a very dark and brooding image of Aoshi. I really like the clean layouts on these. And the second one of Enishi (the golden colored one) has a gorgeous background and text that works very well with the images. Thanks so much for allowing me to post these wallpapers, wicqed! Please visit wicqed's gallery, everyone! Posted by hakubaikou, 12:44:00 AM EST. on today's updates.

Update:   Tuesday, August 26, 2003

Chapter 8 of Fitz's Moments in Time has been posted. For those of you who aren't familiar with Fitz's work, Moments in Time is a side story to her larger story, My Life. If you haven't read My Life, I highly recommend it. It's one of the few AU stories that had me riveted while I was reading. Some of the people are a bit OOC, but the story is so engaging, you probably won't care. Fitz has a way of making the reader really care about all the characters. Their emotions and desires become very real, and it's hard not to get caught up in the story. Do take a look at both those stories, folks! And that's the last of the updates from while I was away. If you sent me something in August and I haven't posted it, then please e-mail me and let me know! Your submission either didn't make it into my mailbox or I accidentally deleted it along with the hundreds of spam mails that managed to accumulate in my inbox while I was gone. Please don't hesitate to contact me! Posted by hakubaikou, 2:49:00 AM EST. on today's updates.

Update:   Monday, August 25, 2003

Today's updates are rather, well, violent. But they're both excellent. Majinthing has a new picture added to her art gallery. It's an image of Hitokiri Battousai in a fairly horrific setting of blood and fire. It's quite different from her two previously archived works in both tone and style. Very interesting; very cool. Thanks for allowing me to post the new pic, majinthing! Please take a look, folks. Linay, a very well-known author who is new to this site, has a fan fic that I'm sure many of you have heard of. Broken Pieces, her epic dark AU fic is thought by many to be one of the best AU RK fics out there. And I would have to agree. If you've never read it before, you're in for a treat. It's dark and violent and contains some rather adult situations. It's rated PG-13 and R depending on the chapter, although I think even the PG-13 chapters are often a bit on the adult side. But if you don't mind a bit of grit and violence, you're in for a heck of a read. Thanks for allowing me to post your excellent story, Linay! Posted by hakubaikou, 12:14:00 AM EST. on today's updates.

Update:   Sunday, August 24, 2003

Thanks so much to Moonsilver, a new author at this site, for contributing her story, Changing Sides to the archive. This fic is actually a continuation of my one-shot, Soul of a Hitokiri. Moonsilver first mentioned her idea for a sequel in a review of my story. Her premise for a second scene between Battousai and Ikumatsu was so interesting that I asked her if she'd mind expanding it into a story. I was so pleased when she graciously agreed to do so. And the result was wonderful! A continuation story that expands on and surpasses what I'd originally written, it's a beautifully told tale with an emotionally satisfying ending. Please take a look, everyone! And thanks again, Moonsilver! Posted by hakubaikou, 3:55:00 AM EST. on today's updates.

Update:   Saturday, August 23, 2003

Tokio Saitou has a new picture posted in her fan art gallery. This one's a very cool black and white drawing of Battousai and Enishi. Thanks for the pic, Tokio Saitou! Oh, and please note that the spelling of her name has been changed. I'd had it misspelled as Saito instead of Saitou. I think I may also have had the e-mail address misspelled as well, but it ought to work now. Sorry about that, Tokio Saitou! Thanks so much to Ayanami Girl, a new artist at this site, who has 5 images posted in her new fan art gallery. I like her bold and clean style. The line art is smooth and confident, and the shading is very nice too. Please check it out, folks. It's lovely work. Again, please note the gradual transitioning of this site to stylesheets. (See yesterday's update note.) Feedback would be most welcome. Thanks! Posted by hakubaikou, 4:02:00 AM EST. on today's updates.

Update:   Friday, August 22, 2003

I've been fiddling around, trying to learn CSS lately in an effort to streamline this site and make life a little easier for myself. As the site grows, I find my original HTML script to be more and more of a pain in the behind to update. Stylesheets will allow me to conserve storage space (always a good thing!) and simplify matters immensely when I make changes to the site layout. So please excuse the mess while I slowly convert this site over to stylesheets. I'm going to do a little bit at a time, starting with fan fiction stories. There is one problem with stylesheets, however. Those of you using older browsers (especially Netscape 4) will no longer be able to view the site. I thought about this problem long and hard before making my decision, and I'm terribly sorry, but the many advantages from switching unfortunately outweigh the disadvantages. I'm sorry if I lose any site visitors because of this, but I did check my visitor stats, and this will most likely only affect about 1-2 percent of you. Again, I'm terribly sorry to do this, but I hope you understand why I'm implementing the change. That said, I've been a busy little bee today. First, there are two updates in the fan fic section, and these updated stories are the first of this site to have the new CSS content. They may look a little weird at first, but I think they're much easier to read and navigate, plus there's much more information on each story page. I'd really appreciate feedback on the new stylesheets! If a lot of people absolutely hate them, then I'll consider keeping the old HTML code, but really, I hope folks like this, because it makes things so much more convenient for me. And the more convenient it is for me, the more updates I'll be able to do. Two authors, mvdiva and starshifter, both have updates in their multi-part stories. First Moments, mvdiva's poignant story about Kaoru helping Kenshin deal with his past demons, comes to a wonderful conclusion in chapter 5. It's a beautiful ending to a beautiful story. Well worth the wait. Sagara: Rebel in Willow Falls is starshifter's very cool 1940's AU fic featuring everyone's favorite ex-streetfighter. Plenty of new characters are introduced in Act 4, and more of Sano's past is revealed. And as usual, starshifter makes great use of oldie song lyrics interspersed with the narrative. Great stuff. Please check out both stories, everyone! Artist Saito Midako has 3 new images (of Misao, Kenshin, and Sano) up in her fan art gallery. As always, her pictures are vibrant and full of life. She's particularly good at making characters look really happy. Heehee. Sincere thanks for the pics, Saito Midako! Check it out, folks! And last but not least, Misao Mei Mei is a new artist to this site. She's contributed 2 lovely fan art pics and 2 gorgeous wallpapers. The fan art images are of Misao and Kaoru. I like the way she pencilled in text along with the images. Gives it a little something extra that makes these images stand apart from others. And the wallpapers are fantastic. I particularly love the Saitou pic. And the backgrounds on both are very cool. Thanks so much for the artwork submissions, Misao Mei Mei! Please take a look, everyone. I'm exhausted. And I'm going to bed. I have a meeting tomorrow morning for grad school orientation. I'm a little nervous about it, but I'm excited too. As for more updates, yes, there are still more. I'm working on them. I'm sorry I can't go any faster. But if you're worried about anything you submitted, please feel free to e-mail me. Posted by hakubaikou, 3:09:00 AM EST. on today's updates.

Update:   Thursday, August 21, 2003

A lot of updates since I've been gone. I'll upload a few each day, so if you've submitted something and it's not up today, don't worry. I'll get to it soon. Before I get to the updates, Sherlgirl of shrine of ice and fire has informed me of a fanwork contest at her site. Entries will be accepted from August 15 - November 16. There are several categories including fan fiction, art, and wallpapers. Please visit shrine of ice and fire for more information on rules and prizes. Yahiko fics are always a rare find, and My Confession is a little gem of a fic featuring a grown-up Yahiko and Tsubame. Written by link no miko, a new author at this site, this one-shot has just the right balance of sweetness and romantic insecurity that makes it a wonderful read. Thanks so much to link no miko for allowing me to post this story! Do check it out, folks. Spade, a new artist at this site, has 4 very cool fan art pictures posted. In particular, I love the picture of Battousai standing amid a horrific flame-ridden backdrop. Great use of shading and fantastic detail on that one. Plus the scene is just riveting. Thanks, Spade! Please take a look, everyone. It's good stuff. Two updates in the wallpaper section. First, Black Fireball has a great new Kaoru wallpaper with a subtle rippling effect in the central image edges. And second, mvdiva has two new wallpapers. The first is an image with Kenshin and Kaoru and a rather soothing background. The sky in the background is quite beautiful. The second of mvdiva's wallpapers, which has a cool and unusual layout, is of the Kenshingumi. As always, do take a look people. Well worth your time! Posted by hakubaikou, 12:12:00 AM EST. on today's updates.

Update:   Wednesday, August 20, 2003

I'm back! Well, sort of. I've got some computer problems that might have been because of the move, but I'm not sure. Didn't find these problems out until today although I got my computer set up yesterday evening. Anyway, I'll try to update as I can. (And if I don't, then my computer probably crashed. Gah! Keep your fingers crossed.) I got a lot of submissions while I was gone. It's going to take a while to get them all posted. So if you've contributed something, please be patient. I'm going as fast as I can. Thanks for your understanding! If you don't see your work up within a week, please e-mail me to make sure I got it. Thanks to everyone who asked about the move. Everything went very well (other than the possible computer problems, that is) and I'm starting to get settled in my new apartment. I'm going back to school again for the first time in years, and I'm a bit nervous about it. I'm also a little nervous about being out here on the West Coast by myself. I don't know anyone out here yet, but I'll be starting classes on Monday. I look forward to meeting some new people. In the meantime, though, getting back online has felt like a homecoming of sorts. It's nice to see some familiar faces, er, aliases here, even if I've never met you folks in the real world. What else? Oh yes. Thanks so much to Mir for featuring my site at at TFME! What a pleasant surprise I had when I visited her site! I'm very thrilled. Thanks again, Mir! I'll be adding tonight's updates at midnight as usual. Only difference now is that I'm on PST rather than EST. I'm keeping the Blogger timestamp on EST though, so updates won't occur until 3AM EST/website time. Does that make sense? Heh. Anyway, as always, please feel free to e-mail me with any questions, comments, artwork submissions, etc. I look forward to chatting with you. Posted by hakubaikou, 9:03:00 PM EST. on today's updates.

Update:   Saturday, August 02, 2003

I'm moving cross-country to the West Coast this month. I won't have computer access for quite some time, so this is it. No updates until probably mid to late August. How sad.... To keep you folks occupied in the meantime, may I remind you all that Mir is hosting a Fall 2003 fan fiction contest at her TFME site. Also, voting is in progress for the 2002 RKRC Awards, so be sure to head on over and vote for your favorite fan fics. Several of the authors archived at this site have been nominated. Finally, for those of you familiar with Calger459's stories and artwork, Calger-san is currently beginning a year of teaching in Japan. She's got a journal up at Live Journal where she'll be recording her adventures. The link is in her author's page. For those of you who wish to send in art submissions, please feel free to do so while I'm gone. I'll update as soon as I can when I'm settled at my new apartment. Fan fic authors who have in-progress stories in the archive, please e-mail me to let me know that you've updated your story. And finally, for any of the contributors on this site, if you want to write a small bio of yourself and send that in, please do so. You can include information about yourself, your fan works, your websites, or anything else that strikes your fancy. Really, tell us about yourselves. There's no need to remain so mysterious! Well, I'm off. Wish me luck. (I may need it.) Hope I don't go into RK withdrawl. Heh. See you folks in a couple of weeks! Posted by hakubaikou, 12:06:00 AM EST. on today's updates.

Update:   Friday, August 01, 2003

Dear Tomoe, by author Ayashi, is a short yet poignant story written in honor of Kenshin and Tomoe's marriage anniversary. In this concise one-shot, Ayashi manages to instill a great deal of feeling and emotion, more so than many farther lengthier works. Thanks so much to Ayashi, a new author at this site, for allowing me to post this wonderful fic. Check it out, everyone! Also, my own story, Oiran has been updated. In chapter four, Yumi and Shishio finally meet face to face. It's about time, eh? Heh heh. As many of you know, I will be moving in early August and won't have computer access for quite some time. So if you've been thinking about submitting artwork, please send it in today (or at the very latest tomorrow) or it won't get posted until late August! Posted by hakubaikou, 12:02:00 AM EST. on today's updates.