BLEACH obsession

Mason and I finished the Soul Society/Rescue arc of BLEACH. Very awesome (also, for those who were sad that I gave up on FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST, I didn't. I've started watching those again as well.) We're continuing on with BLEACH, though I am very afraid. The storyline seems to be doing to Abarai Renji what George Lucas did to Han Solo. That is to say, they're taking a cool, rough-edged awesome dude and making him the butt of a lot of jokes.

So, like when Lucas sullied Han for me, I am reaching out to try to find prequel bits of uncorrupted Abarai. Unfortunately, in searching for this, in fanfic I stumbled across Byakuya/Renji. This disturbs... and fascinates. (There is some VERY SERIOUSLY sexy fan art out there of this pairing, which I will leave you to discover on your own. It's not particularly hard.) I think one of the reason some of the slash works for me is because Renji and Byakuya come from such completely different worlds, they're a very classic odd couple -- not just in the "couple" sense, but also in the: WTF, how did Renji *ever* get the gig of fukutaichou to Byakuya in the first place? Hey, for you super-fans out there, does anyone know who was Byakuya's fukutaichou before Renji?

Also, what is the story behind Renji's tattoos? They're apparently "new" to Rukia when she's brought back as a prisoner, since she teases him about his eyebrows (as well as his promotion to vice captain.) And is it cannon that he was in the 11th Division/Squad previously?

Mason and I went to the public library because we had some overdue books to return. While there, I picked up some of the manga. I wasn't expecting the story to deviate too much (it doesn't,) but what I was looking for was some images to draw.

This is what I drew:

1. Kisuke Urahara



2. Renji Abarai and Zabimaru


3. Renji Abarai vs. Ichigo Kurasaki


4. Jushiro Ukitake and Sōgyo no Kotowari


Yeah, I really need to get back to work.

Especially since there are a few things that need doing. I was given a great idea on what to work on next by naomikritzer , and I found what I needed to start that. Plus, I have proposals to write. I don't think I can find a publisher interested in Bleach fanfic, alas.