Wow. It has been well over 2 years since I last worked on KMB. Any mere apology I were to post at this point would be grossly insufficient. I let this story fall by the wayside, and I am deeply sorry.
I'm posting this as a chapter and not as anything else for a few reasons:
-- everyone who has favorited this story and is therefore interested in more will get this in their email.
-- anyone who reads this between now and whenever I update next will read this as though it were a chapter.
-- the way ff-dot-net (why did it take that out when i uploaded?) is constructed has /always/ confused me, and unless they've changed for the better in the past 2 years, I'll be lucky just to get this silly little text file uploaded in something pretending to be the right place ANYWAY.
I used to hand-code HTML for /fun/ (akin to saying you /liked/ walking uphill in the snow both ways). My lack of comprehension of internal structure is insulting. But that's neither here nor there.
I've had a lot of thoughts about KMB over the two years since I first worked on it. First and foremost, I'd like to address the Japanese I used. I watched both FMA and Bleach in Japanese long before I saw any of either in English. As a serious student of Japanese, it was a fight to dissociate "Japanese language" out of "FMA." (At least Bleach is intentionally set in Japan.) As I'll be editing my back-files once over before re-posting them for public consumption here, rest assured that I intend to take out at least the vast majority of Japanese. (Urahara does what he damn well pleases, I should warn you.) Also, I recall Rukia getting increasingly out-of-character, the longer I wrote her. I'll probably spend some time diving back into the manga and reading her, getting back in her head, so hopefully I can fix/stem the tide of OOCing I was doing.
As for the rest of the kind comments you all left, you all are so sweet to read my story and leave comments, even when it hasn't been updated in so long. I can't promise when the next chapter of KMB will show up (first, i'm fixing the back chapters, and that will take a little bit of time anyway, and secondly, there's a whole crapton of complete and utter crap going on in life right now), but I haven't forgotten. I'll work on it.
Thank you so much.
And now for my soapbox.
My husband's younger 23-year-old sister died about a week ago (early Oct 2007), of a brain tumor. She was admitted to the hospital Wednesday night and was brain-dead by noon on Thursday. She left behind a 4-year-old daughter and a 4-month-old son who are being raised by the husband she left three months prior when he bought a plane ticket for a mistress instead of food for his family (you know, the one with the INFANT SON).
Make sure that at all points in your life that if you died tomorrow, you know what would happen to everything around you. If you don't want your jack-ass of a should-be-ex husband raising your children, make sure the courts know that. If your parents could be better helped by having the money that's in your bank account (so they can, you know/bury you/), make sure they, not your idiot druggie spouse, are the "payable-on-death" people.
Anyway. I know this might sound mean, or harsh, or doomsday-like. But someday, preferably soon, you really should think about it. No one our age plans on dying. No one plans on a high-on-drugs speeder slamming into your driver's side door at 3:27 on a bright, sunny day. No one plans on a surprise brain tumor. Even if you don't /expect/ the unexpected, at least plan for it. Because those you leave behind will be much less stressed because of it.
And tell everyone you love, every time you see them, how much you love them. Because when you can't tell them anymore, at least they'll remember how often you said it when you could.
-- Sanna Oct 2007