This is a week of hopelessness. At least in the two serials I'm posting. I didn't intend it, but it ended up that way. I'm also pretty comfortable with it.

Actually, I like grinding my main characters down. There are some who like stories that are someone being awesome one place and then going over to be awesome in another. Pretty much like Exalted which is a pretty fun storyteller game. Then you have series like the The Dresden Files where poor Harry is beaten on. I like the beating. I like when things get at their lowest and then find a new low.

The biggest difference is that I like stories to end on a higher note then they started. Yeah, the main character may die, or being injured and maimed, but their life is better for it.

Those are the type of stories.

But to get there, you have to grind them down.

Sand and Ash 20: Waking Up Alone

Chapter Twenty follows Rutejìmo's life into the next morning. He had been turned away to die in the desert and forced to suffer his worst fear. But, like before, he is given a choice: turn back or charge forward.

Sometimes, life is about making that hard choice, to go into the unknown. It can be scary and terrifying, but it is the only way to move forward. I like this chapter because of that, because he made a “good” choice despite what he was going through.

Flight of the Scions 2: The Water Screw

The second chapter is actually the opposite. It ends filled with hope. In the years since the last chapter, Kanéko had refused to give up trying to earn her father's respect and finds a way of working around her inability to use magic.

It also shows the beginning of one of her personality traits: obsession. As people have noticed, I'm a pretty focused individual. The idea of working until three on the morning to do something isn't that far off from what I do now. It is that drive that keep me moving and I think I show it in this story.

But, since it is the beginning of the chapter, it heads toward pretty quickly. Which is good because there needs to be a struggle. Otherwise, why would she ever leave home.

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