Fma-naruto crossover chapter twelve.. Continued

Ed awoke feeling rather heavy but well hours ago, and to his great annoyance, back in the hospital. At first he stared over at the white -- ok, yellowish, the freaks have yellow hospital -- walls, pretending hard that the old man sitting in the corner didn't exist.

He has never been very good at pretending.

A glimpse of that fellow and he judges the guy is as creepy as Gold Tooth, head Alchemist of the inner circle of guys running the bloody plot beneath Central. The old man in the corner has a face with too many wrinkles to count, and a shiny bald head. The only bit of hair comes from drooping white brows that are so long they brush the man's cheeks. In no way would Ed ever trust that toothless grin, however friendly it might appear.

The old man tries several phases of gibberish, but Ed's eyes are too busy studying the cracks in the walls. In time the old man huffs and shambles out.

Ed yells his complaints about his slooshing bladder towards the woman who enters next. She ignores him, even when he leaks.

To his amazement, the bed does not get soaked from his "accident", and trails the yellow fluid-- or rather the long tube filled with yellow fluid-- emerging from that area and into an awaiting clear bag hanging in easy view. His cheeks heat up and he shouts in embarrassment. How was he to know these freaky people had an weird ass upgrade from a bedpan?

So much for the famous Elric bathroom escape plan. He slumps back into the pillow and stares at the ceiling. He tugs on the chains and grumbles that he can't even sulk right while in here. Fortunately, he comes up with plan "B" as a too long nail scratches the dry skin on his upper left thigh.

The woman flows about the room, and places a delicious smelling bowl on a table by his head. His mouth waters and he tugs on the chains as he squirms for a closer look. Something is off in the scent, and he wrinkles his nose as he figits to face away.

Chains rattle with his every twitch. He has never had much patience, and the fact the he's strapped down with chains in a HOSPITAL bed of all things certainly doesn't help.

He hates hospitals nearly as much as that wretched white juice secreted by a cow. He certainly doesn't need to be IN one for a little thing like a broken nose, either.

He remembers everything with crystal clarity. The battle with the black thing, a homoculous known as Father. His trip to the Gate afterwards to stop his sorry excuse for a father, Hohemheim, from being an idiot and sacrificing anything. Such a thing was his duty alone to bear-- he was the one that wanted to see mom again. He was the one that chose to study Alchemy. He was the one that developed the theory and the circle to perform the forbidden act of human transmutation.

He knew it was Father's swiping hand that gripped his neck and yanked him away from the white. It was his fault entirely, that. He wasn't expecting the homoculous to still be there in the void of white at all. He doesn't quite remember the awful doors slamming shut behind him, but his hard landing on his face, sprawled in dirt before someone's booted feet was certainly memorable.

He is sure of the booted feet, even though most of the feet he's seen since have been sandaled. That's right. He was sold. Slavers. He's a slave now, just like his sorry excuse for a father. So what.

He doesn't want to dwell too long his swirling recollections, and squirms some more. Al needs him. Al NEEDS him, and who knows how long his precious brother has been waiting. How long someone can stay alive in that white void is anyone's guess, even with a tiny trickle of nutrients supplied through a maybe bond to foolish brother's body.

It takes forever, done blind, but the equation is easy enough to carve on dry skin with a fingernail.

The woman hovers by the door, and says something, waving vaguely at the bowl.

He shifts to look. If he stretches his right, his knows he can reach the sticks. It would be very awkward to eat that way, barely reaching his mouth, and the off smell of the bowl's contents further demotivates him. He curls his upper lip back, and, in spite of the demanding rumble echoing in his belly, shakes his head in a firm gesture he hopes is universal for, "no".

Sent via a stray supercharged nano particle of unobtainium....

Fma-naruto twelve

War...

--ooo--

The three walk into the conference room as one.

Gaara stands slightly before the hooded Kankuro and proud Temari stands behind the pair with folded arms.

Village Advisers sit at the great table, faces ashen and grave. Baki's single eye is steady as he speaks and gestures vaguely towards the video screen flickering on the far wall.

As though hovering from above, Gaara sees a shadow draped, but clear view of a simple hospital bed. The slight pale figure stirring beneath white sheets sports a long mess of blond hair.

Gaara's face is impassive as he watches the sickly blond boy dressed in hospital garments stumble back into a wall as a door opens, then soundlessly slap his hands together. Surprisingly bright blue lightening flashes wildly within the frame, then a click later, suddenly freezes all motion.

"As you can see, Kazekage, barely a week ago." Baki announces as he rises to his feet. "He is secured now, but the boy in question attempted his escape on the day you left the village for the Kage summit."

Gaara narrows his eyes at the date and time scrawled in the lower left corner, noting the passage of time but says nothing.

"As you know, this is not the first time he has tried." Baki says, and pushes a button on his chair arm. "This feed is live."

The image flickers, then settles on a somewhat cheery hospital room. The tile of floor is a slight shade darker than the golden sandstone walls, and crisp white sheets drape on a pale thin blond boy lying in the sturdy frame of the bed. As he watches, a female med-nin walks in carrying a bowl, and, as she turns to set her burden down on the nearby table, the boy's right hand, within some sort of dark colored-- gauntlet?-- fists and jerks against the chains. The boy mouth moves grandly, and as the med-nin turns, she eyes the robust arm movements with some alarm.

But that is not what catches Gaara's narrowed eyes. He watches a faint curling of fingers beneath the sheets, hidden nearly under the boy's outer left thigh.

What the boy was really doing with such a tiny movement, he couldn't guess. Gaara's cheek muscle ticks beneath his sand mask with that contradictory thought. No, that isn't it entirely; given what he knew of the boy, he could well guess what the boy was really up to.

Likely escape.

Gaara slides his eyes to his brother, well aware of the many admiring konoichis, med-nins all, Kankuro had managed to collect while recovering in the hospital from his struggle with the missing nin known as Sasori. The man had crafted his deadly poisons well, and they had ravaged his brother's body barely a season ago. Kankuro had always enjoyed applying the thick makeup as a part of his membership to the elite puppeteer corps, but now the bright bold colors gracing his face serves to hide ugly and discolored splotches of skin.

"Yeah.. He's a royal pain to the med nins." Kankuro says steadily as he lifts his dark eyes to the blond boy chained on the bed. "They all complain about his shouting."

"Yes about that.." A councilor begins. "Has anyone managed to get him to drop that ridiculous act..?"

Act..? Gaara feels his non-existant brows twitch upwards.

"It's getting tiresome." Another gripes. "Constantly babbling nonsense and all."

Ah yes. Now he recalls.

Most in the room held firm to the theory that their rescued guest laying in that hospital room was an actor of some sort. Considering how sickly the boy was, to continue such a flawless act was quite remarkable. He had to be, at best, a spy of the highest order, or, at worst, the harbinger of a terrible, future invasion force.

Either option meant Sand was doomed.

Again.

The councilors did realise how little time they for such suspicions.

"This is a small matter of security that I will deal with shortly." Gaara pauses and takes in a breath. "We bear news of the Summit. As of now, we are in the midst of the Fourth Ninja War."

Sent via a stray supercharged nano particle of unobtainium....

Fma-naruto, chapter twelve..

A/n: may actually be an omake, but, bwh-ha-ha!! Couldn't resist.

---ooo--

Ed jerks his head away from the cloying stench of aneseptic whiteness, and finds most of his weight is on his back. He hisses at the throbbing complaint in the middle of his face, and the faint crunch of bone against bone as he scowls tells him of his broken nose.


He swallows back cotton, and shifts his neck on the flat pillow. He tries to turn onto right, but the pulling rattle of chains on all his limbs prevent that luxury. The mattress creaks beneath him, and feels flat and stiff, more like a board than a fluffy cloud. His right hand in particular feels uncomfortably hot and clammy within something he vaguely recalls making, but its hardly important. He lets out a breath that sounds much like a contented sigh.


He hears muttering of nonsensical sounds and a shuffling somewhere on his left, rather like soft leather against plush carpet. He has yet to crack open his eyes, and, although it feels like he been asleep for days, drowsy fingers seek to drag him back down to a fuzzy warmth where half remembered dreams dwell.


It's pure instinct, but the sudden stink of an old man's breath snap his eyes open for him.


"Oh hi oh!!" The (mostly) fuzzy shape says too loudly as he draws his head back away from the (nearly) toothless, highly wrinkled grin.


Sent via a stray supercharged nano particle of unobtainium....

Fma_naruto crossover--chapter eleven continued

Ed's teeth chatter as he breaths in. Shikamaru hears a hiss of a fragment, a perfectly understandable phrase that in moments twists into something that sounds like a ramen recipe before the door swings utterly shut. Shika frowns and resists the urge to glance through the tiny glass window of the icebath room, knowing well he wouldn't see much of the feverish boy.

Hospitals are such a drag. Shikamaru finds the waiting is the worst drag of all.

There are simply too many bodies pressed in the tiny room. Seven med nins to be precise, and every one grips a squirming body part. His job is simple enough: make sure the boy does not completely squirm out of the room and by extention the hospital.

Again.

It's a complete drag of a guard duty assignment, and Shikamaru folds his arms across his chest.

"...Delirious at this time..." Shika hears, and slides his eyes towards the source down the hall. Baki strolls along beside an old man with white brows so long, they drape over his wrinkled cheeks like a set of bangs. "As such, it's not wise for me to have him questioned just yet."

"So it is confirmed that he has a bare minimum of chakra, but completely no chakra flow?" The old man replies.

"As far as the sensor nins can tell, that is correct."

"Unusual. And so sloppy of them not to notice such a thing until now." The old man remarks. "Will you explain what happened to those nasty infected wounds he had? Those resisted any kind of treatment like they were filled with some kind of poison."

"No. The chest is completely healed now. The fever remains a problem, however."

"It will come down soon enough."
The old man glances through the window with narrowed eyes and snorts. "I cannot say I agree with this primitive sort of treatment." The old man slides his shadowed eyes his way. "Where is the boy from?"

Shikamaru raises his brows. Was the old man's eyes so aged that he couldn't see his forehead protector in plain view?

"Pardon? Mr. Nara here is from Leaf, honored sib..."

"I can see that." He hears the old man snaps. The bald head shakes slowly as knobby hands tuck into long sleeves. "Leaf nins here in Sand? In my day the whole notion would be deplorable. The boy we are treating. What village is he from?"

"That.. Has yet to be determined."

"Thought so. Hmph. We have here a potential weapon from an unknown location, and no way to recover the costs of treatments. With these high of risks to the security of the village, Leaf nin should not be here."

"The original mission that brought us to this point was a joint mission performed for the goodwill between our villages. As such, Mr. Nara must stay."

What a drag, he thinks, Almost got to leave. Shikamaru slouches against the wall and looks for a passing cloud as he chews the inside of his cheek. He feels the old man's glare as surely as any cloud of killing intent he has ever sensed.

It takes a drag of an age for the shadowed eyes to slide back to the small window. Shika frowns and closes his eyes, shutting out the world to think through the options.

--oo--

It's inky dark when Shika quietly enters marketplace, seeking Ichiban's wagon at the far end just past a mess of shattered wood. He keeps his hands in his pockets as he steps near the rotund man strapping down a bundle.
"I see you're packed."

"Business. Sand's about all dried up. Reckon I'll be heading home for a spell by morning."

Shika nods and turns.

"I think an extra body to keep an eye out on your journey through the desert would be a real good idea. Never learned much of the slavers. - hear that they like attacking trade caravans in this part of Wind..."
A/N: this is a chapter that didn't want to be written. Tried several versions before settling for this. Not perfect, I know.
Sent via a stray supercharged nano particle of unobtainium....

Slugging along..

I haven't forgotten about this here blog. No, not at all. I'm just hip deep in editing for the next ebook. Stay tuned.
Sent via a stray supercharged nano particle of unobtainium....

Fma-naruto crossover chapter eleven..rehash

A/n: a better arrangement of the dame material. Leaving the former version up so that readers may compare.

--oo--

Baki takes a firm hold of Ed's sweat drenched bangs and yanks up, forcing the boy to look at his stony face. Shika shudders at the thunderous rolls of killing intent billowing off the more experienced ninja as Baki glares deeply into Ed's golden orbs.

"You. Will be answering all my questions." Baki growls.

Shikamaru watches the stiffening muscles at Baki's shoulders, and makes a drag of a decision.

He spreads his fingers as he raises his hands on either side of his head, and carefully eyes the response of the boy trapped in the shadow bond. The movement immediately repeats, and the bothersome boy-- named "Ed" apparently-- makes a muffled noise like a undignified squawk as his arms raise in the exact manner. Immediately, furious golden eyes snap towards him.

"My shadow sewing technique doesn't seem much affected by his lack of cha.."

Shika sees the boy's eyes roll and narrows his eyes.

"...kra."

Baki chuckles as he paws the boy's offending spittle off his face, and turns his head. Shika sees his one visible eye dancing with amusement, and lets out a breath in relief.

For a moment there, he was sure the acting Kazekage would strike down the target in fit of rage. Maybe make a bothersome attempt to regain his spoiled honor, and by extension of his high position in Suna.. Sand's honor as well.

At length, Baki shoves the boy along in the general direction of the hospital entrance. Ed trips low, and Shikamaru grimaces as he scrambles up enough chakra to catch the boy's balance through the shadow bond.

The drag is he's too slow.

He sees Ed's face stir up dust as the boy solidly hits the ground in a breathless heap. Many in the surrounding crowd chuckle, but Shika frowns at flaccid pale shoulders.

He immediately separates his hands and rushes to Ed's side, carefully shifting the limp body over. Dribbling red over the boy's mouth and chin, and the misshapen shape of flesh it all came from tells him the boy's nose is broken. Unfocused golden eyes drift his way, and a breath later, the fever tinted lids drift down.

"Take him back to the secure block of the hospital wing."

Baki says as he turns away.

"You have your orders, Nara." Three states behind him. He turns his head just in time to see the masked woman leaping off.

What a drag. Shikamaru thinks.

Sent via a stray supercharged nano particle of unobtainium....

Fma-naruto crossover chapter 11

Shikamaru watches the stiffening muscles at Baki's shoulders, and makes a drag of a decision.

Shikamaru spreads his fingers as he raises his hands on either side of his head, and carefully eyes the response of the boy trapped in the shadow bond. The movement immediately repeats, and the bothersome boy-- named "Ed" apparently-- makes a muffled noise like a undignified squawk as his arms raise in the exact manner. Immediately, furious golden eyes snap towards him.

"My shadow sewing technique doesn't seem much affected by his lack of cha.."

Shika sees the boy's eyes roll and narrows his eyes.

"...kra."
Baki chuckles as he paws the boy's offending spittle off his face, and turns his head.
"Take him back to the secure block of the hospital wing."

Shika sees his one visible eye dancing with amusement, and lets out a breath in relief. For a moment there, he was sure the acting Kazekage would strike down the target in fit of rage. Maybe make a bothersome attempt to regain his spoiled honor, and by extension of his high position in Suna.. Sand's honor as well.

Baki turns back, takes a firm hold of Ed's sweat drenched bangs and yanks up, forcing the boy to look at his stony face. Shika shudders at the thunderous rolls of killing intent billowing off the more experienced ninja as Baki glares deeply into Ed's golden orbs.

"You. Will answer all my questions." Baki growls.

At length, he shoves the boy along in the general direction of the hospital entrance. Ed trips low, and Shikamaru grimaces as he scrambles up enough chakra to catch the boy's balance through the shadow bond.

What a drag. He finds himself too slow.

He sees Ed's face stir up dust as the boy solidly hits the ground in a breathless heap. Many in the surrounding crowd chuckle, but
Shika frowns at flaccid pale shoulders. A breath later, fever tinted lids drift down.

Baki turns away and ignores the fallen figure.

"You have your orders, Nara." The acting Kazekage states.

What a drag. Shikamaru thinks.
--ooo--
A/n-- this chappy will be continued..!
Sent via a stray supercharged nano particle of unobtainium....

Today's post

I awoke this morning the wispy cheeping sound that was as much like a tired wheeze as it was a buzzer. The faint chirping continued steadily, and I scrubbed my mind through the swirling chaos of waking. The annoyance niggled me enough that I had to sit up on my elbows, and as I peered at the shadow draped corners of my room, I could not place the source.


I mean, all the outlets in my immediate view were free of electrical plugs, and, excluding the overzealous dust spider overtaking the window, I was alone. I was wondering if the cat managed to pounce a bird in its impatience to be fed, but that explanation just didn't fit the sound quite that well.


I narrowed my eyes, and with a start that shook the bed frame, scrambled to my feet. It took me precious moments to sweep down the hall, but I plopped myself before this computer screen, and the green flickering plane spilled forth a mess of gibberish.


You see, the noise was from today's post. Near as I can figure, millions of tiny gremlins got a hold of it and were screeching as they drowned in a sea of data.


Sigh.
Sent via a stray supercharged nano particle of unobtainium....

Fma-naruto chapter ten continued..

Shikamaru hears Three giggle over the radio in his ear, and one corner of his mouth lifts. The dust is clearing, but he sees a vague shape of a log where the masked woman should have been.

The target stands, frozen in place with golden eyes wide and staring.

"Been at a desk a while Baki." The demon masked woman remarks, voice somewhere above Shikamaru. He doesn't dare look for her, not for a second. This target is too bothersome and unpredictable to chance taking his eyes away. "Thought for sure you forgot your best moves."

Shikamaru keeps his face stony as the acting Kazekage drops down right next to him. From the corner of his eyes, he see the tall man fold his arms, but the turban like head piece the Suna-nin favors hides any facial expression. Shika notes that the man's hands are held in seals.

"That was a genjutsu." Shikamaru states, and jerks his chin to the target, eyeing the steams of tears silently dribbling down pale sunken cheeks.

"Basic academy genjutsu. Demonic Illusion: Hell viewing technique." Baki says.

Shikamaru swallows thickly. He knows the spell forces the boy to see the worst nightmare within his heart. What a drag. Not exactly a good way to do what we really need to. Doesn't Suna get that we have to win his trust?

Shika sighs, finding the distasteful move an effective one.

"You sure you want him alive?" Three says over the radio, coldly reminding Shika that the woman was Suna's version of ANBU, a special operative that likely specialized in silent killing.

"Get on with it, position Three."

With a breath of relief, Shikamaru concentrates on gathering his chakra. He glimpses the green masked woman leaping down, and the blur of her arm.

At the same time, impossibly, target jerks back, muttering what sounds like nonsense. Shikamaru narrows his eyes as he hears a fragmented phrase that he hasn't heard since childhood, and bring his hands together. The target smoothly ducks Three's strike, but crouched low, suddenly stops moving once more.

Finallly. Shikamaru thinks.

Three completes her tumble and lands in a crouch as well. If she is surprised, it doesn't show: her face unreadable due the demonic mask.

A heartbeat passes, and Shikamaru grimaces as raging, incomprehensible words tangle the target's tongue. They ring out too loudly, echoing throughout the courtyard.

"What a drag. Shadow sewing technique: successful." Shikamaru says, and cautiously extends the technique to the mouth.

Don't want to suffocate the bothersome guy.

Though muffled considerably, the target continues on with a wordless tirade that Shikamaru finds no better to hear.

Three rises from her crouch, and adjusts her grip on the narcotic needle.

"Pity the genjustsu didn't last that long." She says over the noise in a flat tone, and walks up to the target. "Losing your touch, I think, Baki."

"There isn't any charka flowing in him for a genjustsu to work properly." Shikamaru yells in exasperation.

As Three grasps the target's right arm, needle at the ready, Baki holds up his hand. Three raises her head, and though expressionless, there is a clear question hanging in the air.

The target narrows fever glazed eyes as Baki removes his glove and lays a hand on the sweat drenched, too pale fore head. The touch is followed with a knuckle on the right cheek, then the left.

"He's burning up."

"Which is why he's going back to get treatment." Three says. "Let me.."

"No. Without chakra, the seditive will
kill him."

"Tragic. I weep."

"How long can you hold him, Nara?"

What a bother.

"Depends. Sun's setting." Shikamaru says.

"Ed" Baki begins, then takes in a startled gasp as the boy defiantly spits with deadly aim. The harmless mess lands wetly on the acting Kazekage's cheek, and with a scowl, Baki slowly wipes the slight off his skin.

Shikamaru spares a glance, and stifles a bothersome chuckle as the man glares his way.

"Technique doesn't extend to the tongue." Shikamaru shrugs with an even voice.

Sent via a stray supercharged nano particle of unobtainium....

Fma-naruto crossover chapter ten...

A/n: Technical difficulties with my cell and I'm out of time. This chapter is unfinished and will indeed be continued tomorrow, or as I have the time.

---ooo--

"If I'm right. His chakra is sealed beyond use. He shouldn't be breathing, much less..." Shikamaru says, pausing as he sees the target makes a face, squeeze his golden eyes closed, and mutter in a language that Shikamaru has never heard.

"Yeah. Got it." Three lunges forward, pressing the advantage. Shikamaru let his eyes drift to the swirl of sand blowing about, spinning lazily around the stumbling figure of the target.

A heartbeat passes beyond three's single step forward. The golden eyes snap open and focus with great intensity, but Shikamaru gasps as the two kunai launch from Three's outstretched hands.

We're supposed to take him in alive!!

If it were himself, Shika is sure he would be ducking low and tightly hugging himself. Couldn't the target see the kunai in the woman hands? Did he WANT to be impaled and bloody?

One kunai flies achingly close to the boy's skull, blade kissing the sweaty mop of golden hair before it thunks solidly to the hilt into the wagon yards beyond the boy. The target darts his right, striking the other kunai wide and away from his chest with the dark gauntlet. Where it flies, Shika isn't sure, for his eyes follow the blur that is Three as she closes in. She spins: heels high in an unavoidable strike for the target's spine. Shika startles as the target, a breath away from a broken neck, suddenly moves about, arms a smooth blur of a sweeping arc. Somehow, legs and arms meet, for the boy tosses the masked woman with maddening ease high over his head.

A great cloud of dust obscures her landing, but Shika hears the loud bang! as Three crashes into the very wagon where her lost kunai struck.

Shikamaru hurries his hands through the necessary hand signs, and slides his eyes back to the target. He frowns at the boy standing as still and steady as piece of steel.

Molten gold irises lock him in a stare that felt as though they would burn a hole straight through him. K-killing intent..? Without chakra, would a look like that be "killing intent"? Shika thinks as he shivers, and swallows his bile.

---oo--

A massive armor shell looms in the dust where he just tossed the green masked woman, and Ed widens his eyes. Metal plates grate against themselves then fall away to clang into the rubble. The last piece, the breast plate, drops with a bang, revealing the glow of a broken, precious, barely elegant design scrawled one desperate night with blood.

He remembers.

Ed remembers why he has a right arm of living flesh, and he shivers as the corners of his eyes leak down his cheeks.

"Al..!"

Al sacrificed himself to give me a fighting chance against Father, but I'm not worth...!

The dust clears and he sees the five kunai arranged about the remaining torso, and the form of the tiny girl he hazily remembers. She tossed the knives but hunches over close, crying into her petite hands for the loss of the empty hunk of steel.

"Al.phonse" Ed breathes brokenly. Think. Keep thinking. There has to be a way. He gasps a breath past the choking lump in his throat.

As he watches, more figures gather about the broken heap, and, one by one, turn their empty gazes his way. He vaguely remembers their faces, too, but their names are beyond his immediate grasp.

He rushes to the metal heap and reaches out a shaking hand, narrowing his eyes as he touches formerly living steel. He notices something off right away, but wrinkles his nose at the niggly cold impulse, the cool logic of the inner scientist always demanding answers. The battle is pathetically brief. He tells himself that he has to know, has to be absolutely certain that Al's soul is awaiting for payment at the Gate before he does anything.

Fingers twitching, he reluctantly looks deeper within the familiar structure which housed the faint fragment of his only family for so long.

Easing himself into the welcoming thrum of Alchemy, he hears all the world sing in his mind; a roar of elemental compositions awaiting his touch. He focuses, listening for the flow of life beneath the cacophony of atoms and spinning electrons. Once found he orients himself as it wraps about, flowing strangely sluggish through his body and tumbling onward beneath his mismatched feet.

Nearby figures, which do not in any way mesh up with what he sees with his eyes, wander about in clumps and groups. The bottom of his stomach drops as he realizes that instead of human beings, he is perceiving naked equations and pure data.

He squeezes his eyes shut then reopens them to the awful truth, and pieces of gate knowledge leach into his conscious mind as he feels his mouth move. His brows meet. There is no mass of iron here, much less the unique soul bonded steel of missing his brother.

--ooo--

Shikamaru hears Three giggle over the radio in his ear, and one corner of his mouth lifts. The dust is clearing, but he sees a vague shape of a log where the masked woman should have been.

Sent via a stray supercharged nano particle of unobtainium....

A word from the author

My new year's resolution, to write something for an hour everyday, is now six months along. I was honestly not expecting to keep it. (It is a new years resolution, after all.) I did, though, all thanks to the encouragement of Plotroach, a fine writer in her own right. I can now claim this as true: I am not flaky.

For the next week or so, for everything except a certain unfinished fanfiction piece, I will cease writing. I need the rest. These past months I have written more than I ever have, and. Alas.. My brain has gone all mushy and its creative juices seem to have evaporated.

These things just.. happen.

But all is not lost. Now. I begin the most terrible task of editing. The next installment of my ebook will be released sometime in July.
Sent via a stray supercharged nano particle of unobtainium....