Okay, after all this time, I have bad news. I have come to a realization when it comes to Seraph, and that is this: I never had a story here. I had a cool concept, with some cool ideas for cool scenes, cool character development, a cool theme, and so on, but I never had a story to tell that tied it all together. Even more than a year and a half after my last update, I still don't. Not for lack of effort, but due to slowly waning interest and just me not having any idea how to handle what on Earth the Simurgh would come up with to fix the whole Scion problem. At least, not without basically retreading a fair amount of canon with a fresh coat of paint, which would be both really boring and very pathetic compared to what she should be able to come up with having these new options available. Which is made even more difficult considering the wrinkles Taylor would inevitably put in that plan, and Ziz's developing semi-humanity. So, it turns out that one reviewer I chewed out was right after all, I won't ever finish Seraph. As a result, I suppose it's time I use a final note to put this thread to permanent rest, so people are no longer waiting around for an update that'll never come, and move on to something else.
So, something else is indeed coming. Three something else's, in fact. Three somethings where I actually have a story to tell, as well as all those other things. Though the titles are not set in stone, and it'll probably still be a few weeks before I start uploading one of them (or more than one), here are some quick summaries as teasers to help give you something to look forward to on FanFiction.net, Spacebattles, and Sufficient Velocity!
Skittering Roses:
Knowing that the Silver Eyes are passed down through bloodlines, Salem tries to hunt down any descendants of Summer's after killing her. In the aftermath of an attack on Patch by Salem's agents, Ozpin gets Tai's permission to take Ruby somewhere safe from Salem. Ozpin uses a combination of Relics and magic to send Ruby away… far away. Now, she grows up with only a few memories of her true family, with only a goodbye letter, some photographs, and some aura textbooks to remind her of them and her homeworld.
Oh, and Taylor Hebert suddenly gains a new adoptive sister.
Skittering Roses is pretty well planned out, and I've had a pretty consistent level of inspiration for wanting to work on it for years now, so as long as I can discipline myself to actually begin writing consistently, this should be about to come out fairly quickly.
A Tale of Vermin and Woodlanders:
I'll admit, this has less of a direct summary, simply because there's too much to summarize. This was my first really huge fanfiction project idea, and I spent several years fleshing it out in my mind, before more or less giving up on it. Except that, I then realized my problem with Seraph was that I didn't have an actual story for it, and for this, I most certainly did. So my passion for this long forgotten project was reignited, because I realized it was one of the few stories I had come up with that was actually a story, rather than just a collection of cool ideas messily thrown together without any glue to make them stick.
If you're familiar with the "Redwall" series by Brian Jacques, it's basically my conception of the events that unfold that bring the world of Redwall from one Age or Era of that world, the one described in the books, to the next. In some ways, it's similar to the grand epic another fanfiction writer, Highwing, created in his "The Crimson Badger" saga, which is an excellent read on its own merits, probably whether you're familiar with the original books or not.
This story is probably the most well planned of all of them in this list, the one thing I'm having a bit of trouble with is coming up with the best way to relate the events that happen. The issue is, while there is certainly a main character and a main plotline and such, the main character's story only really begins at the culmination, the climax, of the transition from one Age of the world to the next, on a historical scale. There are major events worthy of stories in and of themselves that happen anywhere from one to many generations earlier, which lay the groundwork and foundation for what happens in the main thrust of the Saga. I'm not really sure how to handle that, so while my interest in doing this story has been reignited, I'm not sure exactly when I'll be able to start posting a draft I'm happy with being seen in public.
Shalom:
Compared to the other two stories I've teased, which have been in the planning stages for about two years and about ten years respectively, Shalom is barely even in its infancy. Just a couple days ago, I saw a comment in the hilarious "THUS SAITH THE LORD (Biblical Plagues Altpower)" thread on Spacebattles, saying (in part) "I need more Bible crossovers." I read that comment, thought nothing of it, and moved on.
Then, several hours later, it struck me: "Wait a minute, this reader wants more crossovers between Worm and the Bible? …I can provide that. …I can definitely provide that!"
Since then, ideas for such a story have been flooding into my head. So, I'm going to write it.
Now, quick disclaimer, I already know I'm going to be making changes to Worm to make it fit with the Bible, and vice-versa, and what those changes generally are, so be prepared for that. I also am going to be playing it straight, rather than as a crack-fic. In addition, given that one of the things being crossed over is perhaps the world's most famous religious text, there's inevitably going to be a lot of religious connotations and implications going on in this story. I'll handle it as tastefully and… non-preachy as I possibly can, given how the story will unfold, but it will be there. If you're not okay with that, then this story isn't for you, and there's nothing I can do about that.
In any case, perhaps it's just the freshness of a new idea, but Shalom is the story that I'm actually the most excited about at the moment, so it's probably the first one that will be posted, with Skittering Roses joining it in the rotation relatively soon, and A Tale of Vermin and Woodlanders showing up at… some point… probably. I'd say certainly, but we in this thread know how I've been at keeping promises about "Yes X will certainly come out and around Y time!" Not very good. All I can say is what I just described is my plan at the moment, and I fully intend to stick to it, but obviously, life happens, and I can't guarantee that my plan won't change.
I will be leaving up Seraph on all platforms so that other writers and readers can continue to enjoy and be inspired by what little of it exists. Have a wonderful day everyone!
