Unfinished fanfic is a terrible thing. Anyone who has spent any amount of time in the genre knows this. What few of us fail to appreciate, however, is that we limbo'd readers are by no means the worst off. I ask you to consider...

What happens to the characters?

MUSE QUEST

Prologue

Lady Coralie hadn't written.

That might not be a major concern for the populace at large, but for the poor souls addicted to Coralie's gripping -- and long-abandoned -- piece of fanfiction, it was very, very much a concern.

Dilly raised her face from the keyboard and stared dismally at her monitor, utterly unconcerned by the type imprinted on her forehead and even more unconcerned with the rows of "lclclclclclclclc" that filled her screen.

This was all Cebu's fault. There ought to be a death penalty for people who recommend fanfics that never got completed. And considering what Dilly had been put through, it should be a very long and nasty death penalty, involving spiders, maniacal laughter, and long stretches spent dangling over lava pits.

What could make a fanfic author write again? Letters? A petition? Bribery?

Dilly tugged restlessly on her long dark braid. Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt.

Threats?

Dilly's expression turned distant. No one had tried threatening Lady Coralie before…

…For the very good reason, said her more practical half (all right, her practical 9/10ths: Dilly was not given to impracticality), that no one had anything to threaten her with. She lived in Australia; Dilly and her friends couldn't exactly fly down there and hold her pet chihuaha or whatever for ransom.

Which meant they were never going to see another chapter of An Aussie in King Aragorn's Court.

Cebu so deserved that lava-dangling thing.

Dilly glared at the photo next to her computer. It showed her best friend Eredolyn on one side and a beaming, poofy-haired Cebu on the other. Cebu had a paper clutched in one hand – probably her latest letter from Coralie. The two of them were thick as thieves... or had been, until the author dropped off the face of the planet.

-- An important point should be made here. Cebu did not and indeed does not look anything like a chihuahua. Nor did she resemble a recently-stepped-upon bug, which is the next closest creature to a chihuahua as far as looks go. In fact, Cebu may be considered completely opposite to a chihuhua in appearance, because she was actually attractive. So there is absolutely no explaination, logical or otherwise, for Dilly's mind making the leap it did.

Dilly leaned back in her chair, eyes narrowed thoughtfully, the unresolved cliffhanger at the end of Aussie throwing a baleful glow over her face.

Lady Coralie hadn't written.

And it was time to do something about it.

lclclclclclclclcl

Reviews will cause me to perform embarassing attempts at backflips! ...Okay, I know, that's not much of a bribe. But I asks nicely, I does. And if that's not enough, I begs.