Cold
Callista Miralni
disclaimer: nothingnothingnothing
We've reached Chapter Ten! I never thought it would take me two years to reach this point but here we are~
Just as a final clarification: what everyone refers to as the Shard is the main universe this fic takes place in. The Real World, an AU of the original Naruto world, is something akin to background information. There are indeed two worlds.
ONWARD!
WARNING: ANOTHER SERIES OF FLASHBACKS AND LONG TALES INTERMITTANT
Chapter Ten: The White Knight
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"It started with a dream..."
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-Thirty years ago-
-The Real World-
-Konohagakure no Sato-
The Professor was called such for a reason.
Sarutobi Hiruzen beamed at his assembled team.
"Men, we have a mission," Konoha's top shinobi addressed them. "We are going to create an entirely new form of therapy to deal with the after effects of PTSD, particularly for victims who suffered through torture interrogations."
"We have several specialists with us. I'd like to introduce you to Uchiha Madara and Hyuuga Hiro as our main genjutsu experts. They will be the architects of our dream world."
"Beside them are Rin'negan Pein and Hakushi Konan. They are under the care of one of my former students. Both possess unique ninjutsu abilities."
"You also know Senju Hirashima, the Shodaime, and Jiraiya's student, Namikaze Minato. Minato-kun's here as a special favor to his sensei-"
"-More like I lost a bet with the old pervert," Minato grumbled.
"-and we won't be seeing much of him but I'm sure he'll be a great help when needed," Sarutobi chuckled. "Finally, I'd like to introduce to you Haruno Satome, our civilian medical specialist."
"Excuse me, Sarutobi-sempai," Konan interrupted. "But what exactly are we doing?"
Sarutobi's face crinkled into a reassuring smile.
"We are offering a way for people to dream."
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"Dream?" Sasuke frowned. "Why would Sarutobi want to do something like that?"
Jiraiya cleared his throat. "Do you dream at night, Sasuke?"
Naruto gave the man an incredulous stare. "Doesn't everybody?"
The White King laughed deep from his stomach.
"They don't."
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Patient No. 444 screamed so loudly, Minato felt his very sanity being shaken.
"What..." He asked Madara uneasily. "What happened to him?"
The Uchiha smirked and his eyes spun blood-red.
"This." Madara pointed to his eyes. "He met an end with the Sharingan."
Minato's blood ran cold.
"You're supposed to be helping him, not harming him," the blond shinobi yelled. "What kind of sick bastard-"
"You."
Minato stopped again.
"You're the kind of sick bastard who put him in a state like this," the Uchiha said, nonchalant. "There is no reprieve from the horrors he witnessed at your hands. If I had not used the Sharingan on him, he would be clawing at his own flesh instead of having the horror confined to his mind."
Madara made a note on the clipboard Minato had not previously seen at his side. "Here," he thrust the clipboard into the stunned blond's arms. "Take this to Haruno in Lab 5. He's been waiting for these."
Mutely, Minato nodded and left Patient No. 444 to his nightmares.
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"For five years, their research continued. They made several breakthroughs regarding the care of catatonic patients, most of their work still used in the Real World today. However, their true aim remained out of reach.
On the sixth day, of the sixth month, of the sixth year of the Project, the Flight occurred."
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At one end of the Valley, Senju Hirashima wiped the sweat off his brow. They had been battling for hours and the Shodaime knew he was reaching his limit.
Across the lake, Uchiha Madara struggled to breathe. His side bled heavily but a quick knot later, his cotton shirt stemmed the flow.
"Does the PROJECT mean so little to you? What about your wife, your sons, your clan? Do I mean so little to you—old friend?"
Madara's lips twisted into the famous Uchiha smirk. "We're not friends—we're rivals. And I could care less about the Professor's silly little Wonderland. What I really wanted to know was the mysteries of the human psyche."
Hirashima froze. "You sick bastard! Using that kind of knowledge to torture and interrogate people is disgusting and inhumane-"
"Spare me the theatrical lecture on morality," Madara snapped. "After all, wasn't it you who authorized the use of psychological tactics in interrogations of enemy shinobi?"
"That's different! We're trying to protect-"
"You still broke a man's heart."
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"Soon after Madara defected, the world was plunged into the second Great Shinobi War. Project: WONDERLAND would be needed more than ever to heal traumatized soldiers.
During the War, the Project was left to the care of Haruno Satome, and for the most part, put on hold. Konoha needed every able shinobi to fight in its ranks. After peace treaties were signed, the Project continued with a new sense of desperation.
The people needed hope, the newly elected Sandaime, Sarutobi Hiruzen, declared. The Project was essential.
Finally, after ten years, a breakthrough occurred."
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Giddy, Haruno Satome motioned for Konan to forms the signs. Nearby, Hyuuga Hiro observed Patient No. 672's vitals. Adrenaline spiked before leveling out. The Patient was breathing normally, placed under a peaceful slumber.
"It... actually worked," Hiro gaped.
Konan checked the monitor again before she sighed in resignation. "Wake him up," the woman commanded.
The Hyuuga injected the antidote to the anesthesia but nothing happened. Patient No. 672 remained asleep.
"Where's a damn Uchiha when you need one?" Satome grumbled. "Somebody, get Pein to wake this guy up."
Exasperated, Konan reached out and shut down No. 672's vitals with a green hand.
"We can detach the mind from the body but we can't forge a whole person," she sighed. "Back to the books."
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"Two years after they started Phase II of the Project, Pein defected from Konoha, persuading Konan to leave with him.
Hirashima had passed on a little after that. There were only Hyuuga, Haruno, Minato, and Sarutobi left. The four worked to create a new direction for the Project: instead of sending the mind to an escape, why not send the escape to the mind?
The lab was broken into one night and copies of the lab books were stolen. Thankfully, the week's research were still locked inside Haruno's personal safe. That week, they had successfully formulated the most crucial element to the Project."
Sasuke frowned. "Which was...?"
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Satome grumbled as he sifted through the pile of papers on his desk. The formulas and equations on the papers were still bright with wet ink, smearing as they rubbed against each other.
He finally found the battered copy of the book. Thumbing through it, he found the highlighted passaged and started to read. Minutes later, a soft tug on his shirttail pulled him away from his research.
"'Tou-chan," the two-year-old girl lisped. "I can't sleep."
Lifting his daughter, his only precious child, into his lap, Satome hugged her and kissed the top of her head.
"Why not, Hime-sama?"
"They're scared," the girl whispered fearfully. "Why are they scared? I cry every time they yell."
It took Satome a moment before he understood. His daughter was frightened of the shinobi who lived next door, veteran soldiers suffering from PTSD. His wife hated them too—she hated anything to do with ninjas. Misaki's father was a shinobi who chose his work than the child he produced on a stress-relieving night.
If Misaki knew the true nature of his research, she'd leave him.
"Do you want to hear a story?" He asked instead, reaching for the book. "Will a story help you sleep?"
She nodded vigorously. "Hai!"
Opening the book, Satome got comfortable and read.
"The King and Queen of Hearts..."
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"They formulated the jutsu to send the escape," Kakashi supplied.
Naruto's mouth hung open. "And they got that from reading bedtime stories to a little girl?"
Jiraiya chuckled. "You make it sound so easy! It is true that Haruno Satome's daughter was the initial spark of inspiration but there was more to it than that. The solution was so simple; the team couldn't believe they hadn't thought of it before."
"But it was damn near impossible. The main resource had vanished," Tsunade folded her hands. "To recruit another meant to swear another person to secrecy and the Project was in a delicate state. Sarutobi caught wind of experimentations going on in Ame... experiments that sounded too close to the Project with a sinister twist."
Sasuke growled under his breath. "Get to the point, White Queen."
Leveling a glare in his direction, Tsunade huffed. "The answer was the Mangekyou Sharingan and the Tsukuyomi."
Naruto glanced at his best friend. "Sharingan? As in Uchiha freaky eye color change Sharingan?"
"Of course," Sasuke breathed. "Of course it would be."
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The first problem was finding an Uchiha.
Sarutobi waited in his office. To the rest of the world, he seemed calm, deeply engrossed in the daily stacks of paper work. His thoughts were on a different matter entirely.
If Satome's idea would work, the Project could be finished before the next war broke out. The Kages were already sending reconnaissance teams into other lands and assassinations were taking place at an alarming rate.
But, to think the key lies with the Uchiha clan... that was another issue in itself.
"Hokage-sama, you wanted to see me?" The gruff voice of Uchiha Makihiro disturbed his thoughts.
"Makihiro-kun, take a seat," the Hokage rose to greet him. "There are some matters of grave importance I must speak with you about."
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"Makihiro refused. He claimed that the Mangekyou was the thing of fantasy and nonsense, an urban legend formulated through fear rather than reason. In a way, he had been right; no Uchiha had ever committed the atrocities need to awaken the Mangekyou. They were ruthless, yes, but not inhuman.
Another two years had passed without much success. Without the Mangekyou, they had to find another way to induce a similar state. No genjutsu held long enough to put the therapy ritual into place. The Council threatened to pull funding more than once. It was hopeless.
It was then that the threats started."
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Haruno Misaki opened up the mailbox and shook when she saw the black envelope inside. The third one this week.
Her husband worked as a researcher for the village, yes. Whoever sent these notes wanted his research material. At first, Misaki dismissed them as the underhanded work of some jealous colleague. It wasn't until the sender started revealing facts about her life, details about her father and his death, that she started to think otherwise.
The letters were simple. Recently, they started including drawings of the graphic deeds they would do to her and her family if she did not comply.
Your daughter seems to have made friends with the Uchiha child. They like to run around with Senju Shizune. Misaki-san, I heard she wants to be a shinobi like them. You must be so proud of her courage.
Misaki was anything but proud. She was terrified.
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"The Harunos weren't the only ones receiving notes. Sarutobi, Hyuuga, and Minato also received similar threats. Sometimes, they would get progress reports, scientific notes in Pein's handwriting. Their fears were confirmed—Pein had brought the project to bloody Amegakure with far more sinister purposes."
"What did Ame hope to accomplish?"
"Instead of mental repair, they wanted to tear the mind down completely. Think about it for a second, Naruto; one twist of a word, one hand sign, and the entire jutsu changes. Many capable shinobi would be reduced to withering vegetables with this one jutsu."
Sasuke sneered. "They continued the Project."
Sighing, Tsunaded nodded. "They saw it as the only way to counteract Ame's new developments. Unfortunately..."
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"You've been doing what?" Misaki shouted.
Running his hands through his hair in agitation, Satome tried to calm down his wife. "Misaki, it's not like that-"
"Then what the hell is it like? Explain it to me! There are hundreds of people who can be enslaved with a single jutsu and you're telling me it's possible because of your brilliance! If I had only known what you were working on... who you were working for, I would have divorced you a long time ago."
Satome froze. What about their children? A separated home environment is no place for a child. It leaves scars that will never heal. His daughter could never trust her heart to anyone, not after witnessing her parents' love and marriage fall apart before her eyes. His son... he would grow up without a father.
Misaki regarded him coldly. "You are leaving in the morning. You are to never darken our doorstep, do you understand? You are not allowed to speak or contact my children. The divorce papers will arrive tomorrow afternoon. I'm sure Hokage-sama will be more than accommodating," she said with a sneer.
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"Haruno had a son?"
"Yes. He grew up fatherless and hated shinobi for taking away his father. To Takashi, shinobi were baseless and immoral leeches who knew nothing of familial values and love. Misaki never told him the truth about their divorce until she was on her deathbed during the Second Shinobi War," Tsunade shook her head. "From there, we get an interesting story about a little girl named Haruno Sakura who defied her parents at every turn and ended up being disowned while comatose."
"Wait," Naruto's blue eyes went wide. "Haruno Sakura? As in our Haruno Sakura-chan?"
"The very same," Tsunada replied, grim. "To make a long tragedy short, Haruno Sakura befriended two boys of shinobi heritage, much to her parents' displeasure. On a Golden Week vacation, they were ambushed and she became the first victim of what they now call the Wonderland no Arisu no Jutsu."
Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "You said first victim. She wasn't the first subjected to the jutsu."
"Correct!" Kakashi swelled with pride at his protege's deductive reasoning.
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Rin'negan Pein stood before the mirror naked from the waist up. From Haruno's stolen research notes, he learned the key to the now-named Arisu Jutsu lay with the Sharingan.
Wouldn't his Rin'negan eyes, a far more powerful doujutsu, have the same effect?
Activating the doujutsu, Pein focused on the mirror and began to concentrate. Creating the Second Path had been easy. Deva gave him a curt nod before casting the hand signs.
Tiger.
Rabbit.
The door opened, admitting Konan with a sheaf of papers in hand. "Pein, I really think you should reconsider-"
Snake.
Ram.
"Kagami: WONDERLAND no arisu."
The jutsu rebounded off the mirror enveloping all but Deva standing within the protective circle. Pein and Konan fell to the floor comatose.
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"Four years before Haruno Sakura became cursed, Pein and Konan escaped after a mere eight months. While inside the dream world, Pein realized the possibilities of the jutsu. Entire villages could be conquered without shedding blood and yet they would still be able to feel. It fit with his ideology; Pein sought to bring peace to the world by teaching the people the pain of war in hopes they would always strive for peace.
On the other hand, Konan noted some strange anomalies in the dreamland, coincidences that disturbed her greatly. The Ame research team had not built the world; it was already encoded into the justu when they had robbed Haruno Satome's office. However, their original goal of mental terror wasn't accomplished either. The Ame team had only succeeded in formulating an escape out of the mental prison based on the duo's experience inside, a useless setback in their eyes. Amegakure cut funding for the Project after that and it was abandoned by everyone except for Pein and Konan."
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Konan woke up in another cold sweat. Reaching for her journal, she picked up a pen and scribbled the latest dream with shaky fingers.
The chessboard was dyed red with blood. The black faceless chessman bowed to me, their Queen, while the white pieces kept calling for their missing royalty.
A snake twined itself around the black King. It hissed out one command and a shape-shifting army rose from the moorland led by five terrible monsters. At the sight of the army, the white chessmen began to shift uneasily, their cries for their missing King and Queen escalating.
The wind blew and a rabbit sped by, followed by the strangest company. A hatter, a dormouse, a turtle, a gryphon, a hare, an eaglet, a duchess, a cat, and many other animals I can't even hope to name. "Alyss!" The trees whispered to the flowers as they passed. "Alyss arrives soon!"
Who is Alyss? I have the feeling she will be the first victim in this terrible war.
A week later, a man Konan vaguely remembered from her childhood days with Jiraiya in Konohagakure appeared before them in Ame. Orochimaru whispered promises of military strength for Pein's grand scheme. An entire shinobi village at his disposal—all for the capture of one Uchiha Itachi.
A month later, Pein controlled the entire village.
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"Itachi?"
Tsunade took another sip of alcohol. "He is a genius. The true Uchiha prodigy. Nothing escapes his eyes."
"Around this time," Jiraiya said. "Whispers of rebellion among the Uchiha clan began. Itachi had just graduated from his Chuunin exam and already promised an ANBU position within the year. If they started an uprising, Itachi was their deadliest ace."
Naruto threw his hands up. "Chuunin exam? ANBU? What the hell are those? Aren't the ANBU the elite members of Wonderland tied to LGW?"
"In the real world, the ANBU are also the elite—they are the black ops of the village. A Chuunin exam is a promotion exercise. Can I continue?"
Naruto did a complicated rude gesture with his hands that Jiraiya ignored.
"The messy politics aside, Pein continued to plan."
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Pein smiled at her when she entered the lab.
"The plans are almost complete," he told her elated. "It's flawless."
Konan swallowed the lump in her throat before taking a seat. Immediately, Pein launched into an explanation.
First, he would collect the nine Tailed Beasts as a collateral for any nation who dared to rise against him. To do so, he would invite a select number of shinobi—dangerous nukenin—to work for him. This group—Akatsuki—would be liasoned by Konan herself, the Angel of Death.
While collecting the Beasts, Oto and Ame would invade the great nations, taking over the villages. Their first target would be Konoha, where they would hold the village under siege and slowly place all its residents under the Arisu no Jutsu. Then they would move on and the cycle would repeat.
It was a convoluted plan that held no rhyme or reason. Konan found herself smiling and nodding, but her stomach acid threatened to spill from her throat if she opened her mouth.
That night, she dreamed about falling from the sky and drowning in a salty pool of endless tears.
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"Konan insisted on running more tests, claiming that they only knew what happened inside the jutsu to be successful but unaware of if the Wonderland affected reality. How were they to know if the lessons learned reflected on the outside? Eager, Pein cast the jutsu on himself a second time and went into a month long coma.
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Konan checked his pupils with the penlight. Normal function.
"What is your name?" She asked.
"Nagato."
The coffee cup shattered on the floor. Konan hadn't heard that name in years, not since he died...
"What do you do in your free time?"
"Meditate. And draw occasionally."
Check.
The evaluation continued with Konan asking questions about his life and Pein answering correctly. Finally, Konan set a paper and pencil before him.
"Draw for me Jiraiya-sensei peeping in the hot springs."
Pein had drawn the picture a million times before. If this was truly Pein, he wouldn't forget the dumb, swirly-eyed caricature of their childhood mentor.
Obediently, Pein began to draw the familiar scene, carefully sketching with the pencil. Konan watched him, a red flag waving when she realized her friend spent two hours on the sketch when it usually took him twenty minutes.
She replaced it with a blank sheet.
"Draw me something to hang up on my wall."
Again, Pein picked up the pencil and started to sketch. No matter how many times he started to draw, he stopped halfway through and asked for a clean sheet. Konan obliged him each time, making a note in her notebook with growing alarm.
It's as if all creative thought was robbed from him. Past ideas came easier, albeit recollection time was four times slower. The jutsu stole the imagination—and with it—all feeling and emotion. Pein is like a souless puppet, dancing to the loop designed for him by the gradient exposure therapy.
Shaking, Konan performed the counter-jutsu they discovered from their earlier days with the Ame research team.
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"She arranged for a group of shinobi to sneak into Konoha and make copies of all the Project: WONDERLAND research. Once in her hands, she compiled it all into a computer locked inside the safety of her private quarters.
Around the same time, the Uchiha massacre occurred. Uchiha Itachi joined Pein's Akatsuki and refused Orochimaru."
"Refused him what?"
"We're not sure," Tsunade replied. "We have many theories and no answers. After Itachi's refusal, Orochimaru sought a new target: the last Uchiha, Itachi's little brother Sasuke. It was during a kidnapping attempt by Ame-nin that Haruno Sakura was first cursed, so to speak, with the Arisu no Jutsu and that is where our story ends."
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-The Shard-
-Present time-
The study was quiet.
"Baa-chan..." Naruto let out a shaky breath. "That made no fucking sense at all. We've always known that we are a shard of the universe, the imagination. If Pein and Konan could find a way out of this jutsu while they were inside Wonderland, why haven't we left yet? Why are we still locked in a war thousands of years old while time in the real world is still moving slow?"
"You still haven't answered the most important question: where is Sakura?" Sasuke added.
Tsunade downed the sake again. "I will explain this in a simple terms as possible so Uzumaki can understand it with his thick brain," she snapped. "As it stands, the Shard is a universe heavily influenced by a children's bedtime story because it's safe. In such a safe environment, any dangers a person experiences become like ants, easy to squash. As a patient overcomes his fear of ants, the nightmares take on a new, more dangerous form. This continues until he is able to face the original fear; and after doing so, the patient is released from the jutsu, completely intact. Time moves slow because time flows differently in this world than it does in the real world."
"This is the complication," she made a face. "The jutsu was designed so that the patient is locked in and any therapists or facilitators can freely move in and out. It is a multi-step complex jutsu that requires more than one casting for it to completely work. First, the patient is introduced to the world and "fills it" with his nightmares and safe zones. Then, the head facilitator, "Alyss," enters to guide the patient and monitor progress. If two patients are linked together, say they were on the same mission and have the same nightmares, and they consent to shared treatment, then the second patient is added in after Alyss enters."
"This world was first built when Haruno Sakura entered it at the age of seven. However, during her Chuunin exam, she was introduced into the Shard again as a facilitator. While she was in a coma, Konohagakure no Sato was put under siege by Otogakure. The first teams captured and tortured by Oto-nin comprised of our ANBU members. We all have shared trauma from that experience and the Arisu no Jutsu was cast on us at the same time. We are marked as unique."
"That much we are sure of," Kakashi sighed. "After that, we're not sure. Something happened during the siege—maybe a explosion or something—that amplified the effects of the jutsu. Konoha villagers weren't the only ones without imagination; every one in the enemy camps became swept up in it too. This entire Shard is a conglomerate of these people's worst nightmares and greatest hopes."
"We can only surmise Sakura is in the Real World if she is not in the Shard. As the facilitator, she is able to freely move back and forth between the two. However, as the first patient, she cannot leave the Shard until she triumphs over her nightmares."
A nightmare.
That is what keeps them tied to this world.
"And the shards?"
Tsunade stiffened at the mention of the shadowy glass pieces being carefully assembled in the basement.
"It's a cheat," Jiraiya answered easily. "Whether it forms a backdoor or the image of Sakura-hime's greatest fear, we don't know, but it's important."
Naruto frowned. "O-kay then... explain the whole reincarnation bit."
The adults laughed, long and hard. "Naruto, haven't you ever wanted to be someone else? As children, it's easy for us to play pretend, to assume another personality like wearing a coat. We cannot die—each time we do so in this realm, we start from the beginning. If you could choose to be someone else when you were born again, then why not do so?"
"You didn't have to laugh," he grumbled. "I thought it was a valid question."
Sasuke slammed his hands on the table. "I'm tired of hearing bedtime stories and ancient anecdotes," the Uchiha snarled. "All I want to know is where my princess is and how to get her back."
Silence reigned throughout the room.
"Didn't I already tell you?" Kakashi answered with a faint smirk. "How did the Mad Hatter return to Wonderland?"
Something triggered Sasuke's memory.
There was a door floating in the middle of the Pool.
"The Pool of Tears."
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Author's Note:
And this is where it ends. Chapter-wise, I mean.
I spent thirteen months writing this, struggling with the concepts. It was easy at first, seeing as how I immediately started on this chapter after finishing the previous one but as time went on, I started seeing several flaws. How did the Project fit into the Shard? How do I explain the Tridiuum, Sakura's unreal powers, the shards? Where does time and reincarnation fit it? How do the past and present fit together?
As you can see, I've dug quite a hole for myself. I spent seven of those long months re-reading and double checking my work, making sure every could conceptually work.
Did I accomplish my goal? I have no idea. Your feedback will be invaluable.
Dear reviewers and readers, I want to let you all know that I love your feedback. I used to make a point of replying to each and every single one of your reviews and answer your questions, but as you can see from the past year, doing so has been nearly impossible.
That doesn't mean I won't stop trying.
If I reply, smile; I've probably answered your questions or promised to do so in the future. If I don't reply, don't be insulted; there is a mound of Organic Chemistry that has buried me. D:
But thank you, always, for these past four years. It means so much to me that you have followed me to this point.
Ja ne!
Callista Miralni