(Disclaimer: Most of the below was written at like, 1 AM, and it got a bit rambly.)

I like writing stories. I dunno if you've noticed, but it's true. I also tend to be busy with school. I dunno if you've noticed, but that's also true. It seems appropriate to blog about the two, since they've been eating up most of my life lately. So that's what I'm doing. Blogging. About stories. And also school. Yeah.

In all seriousness, though - I've got stories to tell. Well, eventually. I've got stories percolating, I guess. One's in the oven right now, another's in the crock-pot, there's one in the freezer that I've got to get around to pulling out and actually baking one of these days, there's one with the ingredients mostly lined up and one that's just a scribbled note on the fridge, to bring this tortured food metaphor to a close. So here they are.

Journey: I've mentioned this on-and-off in my blog. It's over on the sidebar there, with a working title and a question mark by the date. It wound up being my NaNo this year, y'see. 50,000 words in three weeks, and still a war to go. It's been fun to write, I've got to say. With all due respect to GregF, there was so much more just waiting to be done with that alternate-universe-light-Teridax. "Villain except good" is boring. "Villain born of wholly different circumstances, whose personality is still rooted in the same faults and strengths of the original, put face-to-face with the destruction he's capable of" is fun. I wrote him in The Shadow and the Sea and was wholly unsurprised when he pulled a sequel hook into the ending. Never mind the half-mad once-Chronicler who winds up as the Makuta's partner. Or charge. Or enemy. It gets a bit blurry at times. And then there's the world said Makuta came from. What kind of Great Beings make the Makuta and then has them act as bodyguards and big shiny lightbulbs? (Ones that are quite fun to write and explore, for what it's worth, even if they aren't major players in the story.)

Incidentally, the story's an absolute wreck right now. There's still two major chunks of plot to go, for one thing. Trying very hard to figure out who to kill and why. Re-reading sections and going "oh god there's so much talk of darkness and light you'd think this was a bad Kingdom Hearts fanfic rather than a hopefully decent Bionicle one." But wrecks are fun. You get to go back with a chainsaw and chop off all the messy bits, then dig straight into the heart of the thing and pull it out to the surface. If you haven't gone Mola Ram on your story, it's not done yet.

(Also, "Journey" is still, technically, a working title. The trouble with working titles, though, is that you get used to them.)

"Shadows' Gravesides": Now this one's an interesting case. To go back to the horrible metaphor, this is the one in the freezer. It's mostly written - I'd say about three-fourths. But somewhere along the line bits of it wound up spilling into Journey, and now it's sort of sitting there staring at me puppy-eyed. I may have to go back and finish it at some point before (or while? or after?) I start posting Journey. Bits and pieces aside, it might be fun to use it to do some thematic mirroring.

Komae: Granted, he's not a story, he's a character. (Personally I'm not sure there's much difference.) The BZRPG's one of those things I've enjoyed my time in, even if said time is limited. I've got ideas, you see, and it's always fun to fling them out the window and go do something completely different.

(There's also two other BZRPG ideas waiting in the wings. One's got a name, a species, a trait, and little else; the other's got a species, a job idea, and still needs a name. When will they show up? Heck if I know. Probably not in the next three weeks, for reasons to be detailed below.)

Time Travelers: This is the one that's ingredients and little else. It's strange; this was the one I first went, "oh, I'll write this epic!" for, and now it's by far the least likely to ever get written. That hasn't stopped me from sowing a few seeds in Journey (on the contrary, it's quite fun building up these little connections), but make the question mark in "2014?" bolded in your mind. But maybe someday. (You may also recall I've mentioned an obscure adventure game by the name of Time Travelers; that was indeed the spark of inspiration, and if I ever do write this I'll leave a few homages in. Title'll probably change, though.)

...And then there's stories that have nothing to do with BZP at all, of course. Like the one I'm hoping to write next summer - the one with corporations that make kappas and the HR recruiter who's sick and tired of all these demons that keep talking down to her. That one's going to be fun too, I think.

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Only problem is: there was something else in the title of this post, wasn't there. School, right. College, uni- whatever you want to call it. The thing that eats up time.

It's weird to think I'm nearly done with my education (for now, at least). I'm in my penultimate semester, and between class and research my days are more than busy enough. (Things are going to be really packed from next week until two or so weeks later, so if I'm MIA from the 2nd to the 16th, there's your reason why.)

I'll probably sit down and reflect on this whole 'education' thing more once I've actually graduated, but - it's been interesting. School's been a titanic part of my life, and especially these last two years, I've devoted tons of time to it. All those stories above still come second to making sure I get my papers done or my presentations ready to go. It's been rewarding, both personally and practically, but I'm getting ready to move on, I think. I know my limits, and I'm not anywhere close to burning out, but I've been tired this semester. It says a lot that I'm able to churn out 50,000 words of Toa and Makuta in three weeks, but the thought of writing an intersectional cultural autobiography of myself and the role the educational institutions I've attended played in my social development - a topic which is actually really interesting - that's likely to be a tenth that length just feels heavy at this point, for lack of a better term.

I'm sure that in a year I'll be looking back on the whole thing fondly, but for now - I've come this far. I'm pretty ready to be done.

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...Sorry, things got a little heavier than expected at the end there. Point is - stories. I don't know when they'll get done, exactly (the hope for Journey is to start posting it in January, but you never know), but they're coming along, for the most part.

BZP's always been a place for stories in my mind. Back when I first joined, I remember seeing so many stories. GaliGee, or T-Hybrid (was that his name? I'm pretty sure it was, but that was a decade (geez) ago), or plenty of others - they told stories, and they helped give this community life.

Things are quieter now, but I like to think BZP's still got that spark of creativity. I guess it's just part of our DNA - I mean, this is a Lego forum. Building is what it's all about, in the end. At the end of the day, we create, and we enjoy what our fellow members do. The RPGs are all big ol' melting pots of people flinging stories at each other and seeing what sticks; we still get plenty of MOCs, our fair share of artworks and crafts, even a Matoran Dictionary or two - it brings a smile to my face.

Basically: you're all right, BZP. You make stuff - good stuff. And I'm proud to be part of that.

(Disclaimer, addendum: Told you it got rambly. Hopefully I'll have slightly saner entries in a few weeks.)