Ah! Here's a little tidbit for all of you guys :D If any of you were interested in how Visions Of A Son came about, this is a snippet of the songfic challenge my friend set me on. There's a little more to the fic, but I can't post it since it's got spoilers for Visions

Warning: Unedited, language, and a really angry Aoshi (Very OOC)

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I can't stand to fly
I'm not that naive
I'm just out to find
The better part of me

He could feel the curious glances people threw his way as he slipped out of the alleyway. What would have turned into expressions of hostility and abhorrence instead became acceptance as they took in the confidence in his bearing and the well-tailored clothes he wore.

He even felt the self-assuring nods they gave themselves. Their thoughts; he’s one of us.

Bitterness rose in him then, but as usual he kept his emotions in check. There was no change in the handsome coldness of his visage, nothing whatsoever as he made his way down the crowded street. But still the anger raged.

Who were they to judge him so?

The thought was an old one. He knew he was not one of them. It was so obvious. His movements were those of a hunter; quiet, stealthy, power and elegance in motion. All around him in the typically thick Tokyo crowd people were bumping into each other, jostling amongst one another trying to make their way through their lives with as little interruption as possible. He, on the other hand, glided through the masses as though they were nothing but insubstantial fog in the midst of this winter morning.

Or perhaps it was he who was the specter.

The mystery surrounding him made people nervous, and yet they craved to include him into their circles. Perhaps there was something mesmerizing about watching the predator amongst the prey, watching him watch them. Perhaps something in them craved to see him as one of them, to sate their thirst – their belief! – to become someone like him. That they are like him.

The fools.

That thought was without anger. Why do they bother? He was different. They didn’t want to be someone like him. They shouldn’t want to be someone like him. They were happy, living their happy little lives in their happy little realities. Mindless joy encapsulated in bright bubbles of freakin’ joy. Happy fucking days.

He bit down on the figuratively bitter tongue, his strides lengthening. He had to get out of here. These people, they reminded him too much of things he’d rather let lie. They reminded him of a time when he had lived as they had, a time not too long ago. Reminded him of what it was like to be happy. To be normal. To live the Perfect Dream.

Underneath the soles of his leather shoes, remnants of autumn leaves crunched with a finality that was most satisfactory. Damn, but he knew he had been lucky. Too lucky and happy for it to have continued on, now that he thought about it. Now that he had a more realistic, down to earth, and outright cynical grasp of how fate worked. Oh yes. Fate was a smirking bitch with all the winning cards in her hand whilst the rest of the players fumbled in the dark wondering what the rules of the game were.

His steps were almost as though they were automated, finding the path with no intervention of conscious thought, his mind was free to explore the ravaged path of memory lane.

As a child, he had always achieved high grades seemingly without effort. Always the top of the class. Top of the school, even. And yet there was a pattern in his success. It was even more evident when he was offered an overseas scholarship by Harvard - he once again saw the sparkle in his mother’s eyes as she announced the good news - , where he proceeded to take up a dual degree course of Information Technology and Philosophy. And since he was passing with flying colours, his mother had put him up to the challenge of attempting a third degree at the same time.

Alright, he admitted to himself, perhaps it wasn’t so perfect. Sociology had been his downfall. What was it with his mother encouraging him to take up social activities? A mental image of her floated past his thoughts then, all gentleness, support and love in her eyes. For her, he had tried his best. However, his grades in sociology had not been due to a lack of grasp on theory; it was because his fellow students found it uncomfortable working with him. They could not keep up with his level of dedication towards their studies, and with their departure went the compulsory group work. To placate his mother though, he managed to float his sociology grades to a high credit, and took up Kendo in one of the university’s sport clubs.

She had been happy. His father, normally cold and reserved, had been supportive. Whenever he could afford the time anyway.

Then his world had shattered.

Yes... I've been struck by another plot... and I've decided to go ahead and work on it.

I'm not going to work on 4 fics at a time *grins* I'm not that good! So yes, one will be put on the backburner for a while, while I go and plan out this new one.

It's an A/Meg, as usual, and the only thing I'll be saying about it is that it's futuristic. Just something different to my usual fics, which seem to thrive on modern and not-so-modern eras. It should be a challenge, I hope...

In the meantime, Dance the Death will be put on hold. I'll put out one chapter first, cause I've got it on my laptop and it just needs some tweaking (actually, a LOT of tweaking), but after that my priorities will go to Always Then, Always Forever and Visions Of A Son, as well as this upcoming third one.

Hope you guys don't mind!

Yes, it's done! Chapter 1 is up!

And let it be known that the most tedious thing about writing is not the writing itself, nor the editing. No... it's the FORMATTING! It's evil! Fanfiction formatting is very evil...

Well, at least I managed that hurdle. With each passing one, writing gets easier and easier. :)

Thanks for your kind words, everyone!

*goes off to continue ATAF*

Well, the next chapter of Visions Of A Son has been finished, and has been sent to Mij for her excellent beta-checking. Hopefully she's free to do it; it has been a long time since I've sent her any chapters.

Mij, if you're reading this, hats off to ya.

And seriously saying... thanks to everyone who sent me emails and left me reviews encouraging me to continue, despite the huge time gap since I've updated. Thanks for your patience, everyone. Seriously, without you guys, I would probably still be stuck in that awful block.

Yup, I've found myself a new home for my fic-blog. *grins* With my writer's block starting to die (stab stab!) it should start filling up in now time. ::fingers crossed::

In the meantime, I'm also working a few things around in this blog, tweaking the layout and what not because YES I am a nerd. :D

Here's to more chapters!

Letsee... planned things:

Pictures. Oh yes.
Random quote thingie with quotes from different fanfics because they're just *so* good!
Links. That's very important.
A counter, because I'm shameful like that.

Can't think of any other things. If I've missed something, bop me on the head, will ya? Either that or use the tag board :D

Till the next post!