Zulu didn't even struggle as Baz tossed her over his shoulder and strode out of the tent. He didn't put her down until they were home; she felt a little sorry for making him carry her up all six flights of stairs, but a little exercise never hurt anyone.

"D'you wanna explain what the hell happened back there?" He was trying very hard not to yell at her. She appreciated that.

Zulu examined her gore-spattered arm and found the place on her hand where she'd bitten herself. The wound had already scarred over, a jagged strip of shiny, bluish skin. Baz made an angry noise and disappeared for a moment, returning with a wet towel.

"Give me your arm. You nearly gave me a heartattack back there- what were you thinkin', shoving your arm down a bloody dragon's throat like that?" He knelt beside her and began scrubbing furiously at the bloody mess.

"Baz...I think I'm in love." Her scales rippled and her wingbones rattled; the draconic version of a blush.

The demi-human scowled at her. "Dozy female. You would fall fer somethin' that tried to bite your arm off."
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Wow, China Mieville, that was entirely your fault. I've got anthro characters in my head, and a city that's starting to resemble New Crobuzon. Zulu's something of a wannabe self-insertion, only she's developing her own character now...and Baz is just your run of the mill sensible person to counterbalance the crackhead that is Zulu. Don't ask where the names came from. It makes sense in my head.

Reading Perdido Street Station, and it reminds me quite a bit of Rats and Gargoyles and the Golden Compass series, what with the anthro creatures and all. Should probably re-read Rats and Gargoyles, since steampunk seems to be my new favorite thing...though I don't think that was entirely steampunk- maybe slightly pre-steampunk, now that I think of it...

The only problem with Perdido is that it feels a little predictable beneath all the grit and delectable scenery- it really feels like it's borrowed a lot from Rats and Gargoyles which is probably quite incorrect, and it'll turn out that I'm drawing parallels that aren't really there. I mean, hey, rat-people, bug-people, it's all the same, right? Conspiracies to unmake the universe, that sort of thing. Dunno. Have to read more- didn't get all that far.

I love the writing style, even if I'm not entirely thrilled with the characters. I mean, I like Lin and Isaac, and I love all the minor characters (yeah, Derkham!) but they don't click, precisely. I love 'em while I'm reading, but in retrospect I could take 'em or leave 'em. I think I'm still just not thinking straight, is all.

Loving the book, though. Will probably have nightmares about caterpillars, but that's okay. ("Bring me...winged things.")

Also read Fake vol. 3...completely adore Diana Spacey. Huzzah for kickass female characters! And...whoa, with the het. I'm used to the het being reserved completely for the Bicky/Cal chapters of the manga, so it's a little bit unsettling to be seeing it in the Dee/Ryo chapters. (Doesn't bother me *that* much...Sanami Maitoh does adults much better than she does kids, in my opinion, so I really wouldn't mind seeing more of Diana and her random molestation of the boys. It's all quite pretty, either way.)

Also, the evil that is Berkley Rose sends me into spasms of joy. He's not really evil, mind you, he's just- gah. With the glasses, and the hair, and the manipulation- wonderful. Never mind that he keeps trying to mac it to Ryo and we all know how completely wrong that is, since Ryo quite decidedly belongs with Dee, I still think his character is insanely cool. Insanely evil but cool.

What can I say, I'm a sucker for the soft-hearted villain and the utterly ruthless good guy.

Volume 3 is the shortest volume yet, I think- only three chapters, and one of them was really short. Less gay than usual, too- blaming that on the shortness and the presence of Diana. It might not be that there's less gay, but simply that there's more het to balance it out.

All in all, huzzah.