Hello everyone, I'm a liar.

That side story about the date of the next chapter?

Lies.

I tricked you all.

And the equation about the luminosity of a black hole?

I got that problem wrong, and didn't double check after I had written it.

That one is probably a lie too. Albeit inadvertent.

So, there's a bit of a story to this one.

Firstly, I was very excited because I was buying a brand new laptop to replace the old one that took anywhere between two to fifteen minutes to boot up and run even the most basic application. When it arrived, I was ecstatic. It ran smoothly. My days of running off less than one gig of free RAM were over. Word ran smoothly and quickly, and I could have more than one tab of chrome open at a time without flames shooting from every port. It was lighter, and I could use excel as a calculator as I seamlessly switched between homework and my scratch work.

Then, at the beginning of November, a hinge broke, and the entire back of the laptop began to snap off.

I managed to carefully open the thing at my desk, where it became the world's most depressing desktop.

I went to a local computer repair place on campus that had good reviews, only for them to tell me that I might have to pay - get this - TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS FOR A QUALITY COMPUTER THAT I HAD BOUGHT MAYBE A MONTH BEFORE.

I wasn't mad at them; I was just mad at the whole situation.

In my own naivety, I assumed that the warranty on the, you know, BRAND NEW computer would apply.

Nope.

I get a reply that basically tells me that a computer that spontaneously snapped it's own hinge was my problem, regardless of it not being my fault. Oh, did I not mention that? IT JUST SPONTANEOUSLY BROKE. I WAS SUPER CAREFUL ALL THE TIME. IT BROKE FROM ME USING IT LIKE A NORMAL COMPUTER. PROBABLY MORE GENTLY THAN MOST PEOPLE TREAT THEIRS.

I'm fine. I'm not angry. I'm not an entitled or easily aggravated person. I think. I just want something that I paid for to have the quality that was assured by both reviews and the company that sold it to me.

So, I used the laptop as a depressing desktop for a while, trying to think of how I could just fix the situation. I was kind of depressed at the thought of spending yet more money on a computer that I only had for about a month and a half at this point. All of this also coincided with my uni exams being only two weeks away.

Then, lo and behold, an email arrives.

This beautiful bastard sent me an email detailing how the warranty would cover my laptop! The joy my wallet and I felt was immense.

As I went home for thanksgiving, I used it for a few more days until I shipped it back.

My electronic Icarus, its body broken and bloody from flying me too close to the sun! Alas, the tragedy!

(Kinda reached for that joke)

And then I returned to the old laptop to finish my way through finals.

I had become far too accustomed to the ease of the other computer. Zoom calls could take anywhere from thirty seconds to ten minutes to load, at times forcing me to completely reboot the computer entirely before I could run it. That, and this laptop had also become a desktop, as the battery was broken and no way in hell am I buying a new battery for that thing. I can't complain too much though, it got me through finals.

Finally, I come back home for the holidays, finished with finals, and it no longer turns on.

Well, it goes to the password screen, I input my password, then immediately goes into hibernation. There may be something I'm supposed to do, but frankly at this point it had done its duty and I was more than happy to let it enjoy retirement.

With everything finished, I relaxed and was ready to enjoy a rare few days with my extended family. That being said, during this whole series of events, I was unable to focus on or make much progress on the third chapter. In the time that this was happening, I only wrote about six thousand to eight thousand words. Normally I would cover that in a good week or two just by writing in the late evenings of the holidays. It gave me some time to read and reread what progress I had made beforehand, noticing any flaws and anything I thought could be made clearer throughout.

Now, whatever workers were supposed to fix my laptop, at the shop where it was made, couldn't find the part that needed to be replaced.

Yeah.

So, they decided it would be easier to just ship me an even newer laptop.

…. yay?

It arrived around four days ago, and came with even higher specs than the last one. Sixteen gigs of RAM. No way in hell do I need that much, but it runs Persona 4 Golden. That's all I really need. Even though I accidentally spoiled some of the story of this PS2 era game for myself.

Anyway, I'm sorry to say that the chapter will be very delayed, as I'm only around twenty-six thousand words in right now (only a little over half of what I normally aim for). Although I am still enjoying writing this chapter. This might be the first mostly slice-of-life chapter in my "slice-of-life" fanfic. I swear it was supposed to be calming and wholesome. I don't know how that last chapter ended up that way. It just kind of happened.

If you want, you could read my other fanfic while you wait, although it's a short read as it's only about nine-thousand words and not as quality (note: self-aggrandizing) as this one. Try reading Homebound and Return of the Jian; they're the ones that convinced me to write my own and are probably my two favorite fanfics.

I've rambled and made excuses for long enough, so I'll just apologize for the delay and tell you guys that I love you all, and hope that you all had nice holidays, as well as a nice winter.