Plastered Paradox

Chapter 14

The next morning saw Jaune pacing around the room in thought while the others sat there, watching him mumble to himself.

"Let's see…" he began. "We still need to find Rachel, kill her, and take the Maiden powers for ourselves. What else do we need to do? That sounds almost too straightforward…"

"Because it is," Qrow pointed out. "We've got a psycho scorpion Faunus-"

"Former scorpion Faunus," Raven reminded him. "Jaune solved that little problem real quick."

"Whatever. We've got a psycho guy running around Mistral, doing Gods only know what. We've got Salem making moves in the background. We still don't know where the Spring Maiden is hiding out, and I doubt we have a way of finding that out for ourselves. So, what do we do now?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out," Jaune emphasized. "Unfortunately, I can't come up with anything helpful."

"Well, that's great," Cinder said. "Are you telling me that we're stuck just waiting for Salem to make a move?"

"It would seem that way," Jaune told her. "Now, that's not all bad – back in my original timeline, she didn't start making serious moves for about ten more years. Now, I have no idea if she's planning to wait that long or not, but at least we know that she doesn't do anything in haste."

"How is that reassuring?" Qrow asked. "Because from where I'm standing, it just means that she's biding her time and waiting for the right moment to strike."

"Oh, she absolutely is, you're right about that. It's just that her plans also tend to be pretty stupid. I think that dip in the ol' Pool of Destruction might have short-circuited her brain a bit, if you catch my drift."

"You're one to talk," Cinder retorted.

Jaune rolled his eyes. "Nice snappy comeback, Cinder. Didn't see that one coming."

"You also didn't see Rachel's initial betrayal coming, either."

"Damn, you're getting roasted," Raven said. "What's happened to you? Usually you're nowhere near this off-kilter, Jaune."

"I think fucking you might have mellowed me out a bit."

He turned to Qrow expectantly, only to be met with silence. Jaune coughed, and Qrow's eyebrows furrowed. "Yes?"

"That was your cue to give me the fuck-my-sister-again-and-I'll-kill-you speech," Jaune pointed out.

"Why would I care about who she fucks?" Qrow asked. "What am I, her tard wrangler or something? I don't give a shit who she sleeps with. As far as I'm concerned, you're the idiot dumb enough to climb into bed with her."

"Thanks," Raven deadpanned. "Thanks for that."

"We're losing focus, here," Cinder said, impatient. "What should our next move be, and when should we make it? Because I don't like the idea of waiting for Salem to go first, and us having to react to her."

"The smart thing to do would be to hunt down Rachel, kill her, and have the Maiden powers go to either you or Raven," Jaune said.

Cinder and Raven exchanged a quick glance. "Dibs," Cinder called.

"Fuck!" Raven exclaimed. "Come on, I was like a half-second away from saying it!"

Jaune sighed tiredly. "We are not deciding who gets the Maiden powers based on dibs, alright? That's just dumb."

"It's no dumber than how the Maiden powers are ordinarily decided," Qrow said. "I mean, I love Oz like the father figure I never had and all, but seriously, his method of passing those things on was just retarded."

"We're getting a lot of mileage out of the word 'retard' today," Cinder noted. "Someone should really look up a synonym so we can stop repeating ourselves."

"Qrow's not wrong," Jaune said. "Do we know what the age cutoff is for the Maiden powers?"

Raven's eyes narrowed. "Are you trying to make a statement?"

"That depends. What would you say if I told you that I'm actually super into older women?"

"I'd say that now, I'm gonna break your hips twice as hard."

Cinder made a retching noise. "Eugh… I did not need to hear that."

"Hear it?" Jaune asked. "You're sitting on the bed where we did it while you were in the shower."

Instantly, Cinder jumped to her feet. "Come on! Are you for fucking real?! Jaune!"

He shrugged. "Hey, you brought it up."

"We didn't actually fuck again," Raven pointed out. "He's just messing with you."

"You know, you three really are already like a family," Qrow pointed out. "A very dysfunctional family, but a family nonetheless."

"Yeah, I'm the man of the house, Raven's my trophy wife who used to be hot but is now past her prime, and Cinder is the frustrated and underachieving teenage daughter we had when we were both still young and stupid high-schoolers," Jaune said.

Cinder threw a pillow at his face. Jaune was unperturbed. "Anyway, finding Rachel. Where do we begin?"

"Do you think Lionheart would know?" Qrow wondered. "I mean, he's the headmaster of Haven. He had to have been keeping an eye on the Maiden for some time now."

"Why didn't you bring that up earlier?" Jaune said with a groan. "That could have saved us a trip to the Spiders, and a fucked-up pregnancy."

"Oh, I'm sorry, you're the one who kept insisting we couldn't trust him," Qrow said, crossing his arms. "Now suddenly you want us to go and ask him about the Maiden."

"Whatever." Jaune shook his head. "Let's go talk to Lionheart, I guess."

They exited the room and began marching through the halls of Haven Academy. All the students gave them a wide berth as they walked, presumably because Raven had on her usual resting bitch face that drove away basically everybody. Jaune didn't care, though – if anything, he appreciated it, because it meant there were no snot-nosed brats trying to get in his way.

Finally, they reached Lionheart's office and entered without knocking. Lionheart immediately jumped out of his seat by about fifteen feet, then scurried under his desk to hide.

"Relax, man," Jaune deadpanned. "It's just us."

Lionheart peeked out from under his desk. "That's almost as bad as the scorpion Faunus!" he hissed. "You people are just as certifiable as he was!"

"Now, that's just being rude. We're not the ones running around killing people… not for lack of trying, mind you, but still. There's a difference between us and him."

"What, that he actually succeeds when he tries to kill people?" Cinder asked.

"Clearly not, because he couldn't even kill Lionheart," Jaune pointed out. "No, the difference is that he works for the ultimate evil and we don't. Now, I know Raven can get pretty close sometimes, but the two of them aren't quite the same." Jaune looked back to Lionheart's desk, and noticed that Lionheart had retreated even further underneath it. "Come on out, man. We're not gonna try and kill you."

"You expect me to believe that now?!" Lionheart said.

"Yes, because otherwise I'm going to send Raven in there after you. She won't kill you, but she'll make you wish you were dead, I'm sure."

Lionheart finally obliged, crawling out from under his desk. Jaune couldn't help but notice that there were large bags under his eyes and he was looking around rapidly like a paranoid animal.

"You alright, man?" he asked.

"No, I am not alright!" Lionheart proclaimed. "I've finally realized my position in the pecking order of the world! I know where I rank now – below even the most common of Huntsmen! How did this happen? Did becoming headmaster of this academy truly make me that fat and lazy? I used to be a defender of humanity, and now look at me!"

"My heart aches for you," Raven deadpanned. "Anyway, we're here for information. Odds are you don't actually know anything about it, because we don't exactly expect you to suddenly start being competent or anything, but still, we figured we might as well ask before we go off on another wild goose chase."

"Very well," Lionheart said, taking a seat in his chair. "At this point, I'll tell you people anything if it gets you out of my office that much faster. What do you want to know?"

"We want to know about the Spring Maiden," Jaune said. "I mean, odds are you don't know anything about her, because Ozpin certainly didn't and I doubt you've started hiding that kind of information from him just yet, but we might as well check, right?"

"I suppose so," Lionheart agreed. "Unfortunately, like you said, I don't know anything about the Spring Maiden – not who she is, or where she is currently. I have no idea how to find out about her whereabouts, either."

"Well, we know who she is, at least," Qrow offered. "We don't need that from you, only where you think she might be right now."

Lionheart was taken aback. "Truly?"

"Yeah, we tracked her down with information from the Spiders. Turns out it's some broad named Rachel Indigo-"

Lionheart choked. "W-wait, the Spring Maiden is Rachel?!"

They all exchanged a glance with each other before looking back to him. "Uh, yeah," Jaune ventured. "I confirmed that myself when she fired a bolt of lightning at me, and generally did a bunch of other Maiden things I won't get into now. Why? Do you know her?"

"Know her? She was one of my top students! How could she have possibly fallen to the forces of evil?!"

"I mean, Oz doesn't exactly make a compelling argument," Raven offered. "The man doesn't really inspire confidence in himself. There's a reason I ran away, and it's not just because I didn't want to be a mom at the time."

"What do you mean, at the time?" Qrow asked.

Raven side-eyed him, but didn't give him a response. "Point is, however it happened, Rachel is now the enemy, and we need to deal with her before she starts really causing problems even more than she already has."

"Alright, alright," Lionheart breathed. He brought a hand up to massage his temples. "Gods… what is this world coming to when the best and brightest among us feel compelled to throw in with the forces of darkness?" He shook his head and sighed tiredly. "If you're looking for Rachel, I would start at her hometown."

"If you tell us her hometown is a coastal town near the ocean, I'm going to lose my shit, because we were just there," Jaune said.

Lionheart shook his head again. "No, it's up at the base of the mountains. Small town, too – pretty isolated, from what I remember. It's really no wonder she left, but that's beside the point. If you're looking for her, I would start there."

Jaune's brow furrowed, and he looked back to his three companions. "Anyone have a better plan? No? Then I guess we know where we're headed."

"You know, I've been thinking about something," Jaune said as they trekked through the wilderness.

"That's always dangerous," Cinder commented. "Did you hurt yourself when you started thinking, by any chance?"

"Fuck off, child," Jaune retorted. "Anyway, I've just been thinking… what would our team name be?"

"Really?" Raven asked. "You're wondering this now?"

"Well, what else are we gonna talk about? The Grimm are basically no threat to three trained Huntsmen and also Cinder."

"Thanks," Cinder deadpanned.

"I know you like to feel included. But like I was saying, we've got nothing better to do while we march through the jungles of Mistral and get eaten alive by mosquitoes."

"Well, what letters do we have to work with?" Qrow asked.

"Don't tell me you're going along with this sheer idiocy," Raven said.

Qrow shrugged. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but we've got J, A, Q, B, R, C, and F to work with. What does that arrange into?"

"A total clusterfuck, especially when you consider that I'm the leader," Raven said.

"Who decided on that?" Jaune asked.

"You did, when you let me dom you earlier."

"Well, maybe I'm the leader and I just like it when girls tell me what to do."

"Then you should love it when I tell you that I'm making myself leader."

"She's got you there," Cinder pointed out. "Even if she's not technically right because I don't think she's ever really done anything a leader would do. She's certainly not very encouraging to the rest of us."

"I'll encourage you right into a shallow grave," Raven threatened.

"See what I mean?"

"Well," Jaune began, "the way I see it-"

At that exact moment, they emerged out of the treeline, and Jaune's breath was taken away. Rachel's village stood in front of them… or rather, what was left of it did. Instantly, the four of them drew their weapons, then began to cautiously creep forwards.

"Eyes peeled, and stick close to me," Jaune reminded Cinder.

"What is this…?" Cinder asked as they drew closer to the village. "Did Grimm do this…?"

"Looks like it."

Something crunched underneath his feet, and Jaune looked down to see that he had just stepped on the remnants of a half-buried human skeleton. His brow furrowed. "This must have happened awhile back."

"Lionheart made it sound like this village was still standing," Cinder pointed out.

"Lionheart doesn't know shit, that much should be clear. This had to have happened at least a few months ago; I'd wager that's when Rachel officially threw her lot in with Salem's little goon platoon. Doesn't really take a genius to figure out what happened here – Salem attacked Rachel's hometown, killed everyone else, and then made Rachel an offer she couldn't refuse."

Cinder shivered. "Just how powerful is Salem, anyway?"

"Pray you never find out," Jaune said to her.

He stepped into the town square and looked around, but there was nothing but empty buildings and scattered skeletal remains. Still, he didn't drop his guard – at this point, he was just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

And drop it did, in the form of hooves galloping across the ground. Instantly, Jaune's eyes widened.

"Cinder, with me!" he called.

Cinder moved at just the right time to avoid being trampled by the incoming Grimm. Jaune went to help her up, but the Nuckelavee lashed out at him with its outstretched arms, forcing him back. Jaune slashed at the arms as he backpedaled, but the Grimm didn't seem to care at all.

Cinder picked herself up and followed after Jaune, standing next to him with her sword in-hand. The Nuckelavee stared at them for a moment before letting out an ear-piercing screech that made her wince; Jaune, on the other hand, stood there and bore it.

"What do we do?" Cinder asked.

"You stay here," Jaune commanded. "This one's too much for you to handle." Off in the distance, he heard a series of faraway roars, and his gaze narrowed.

"Think you can handle a horde of Grimm by yourself?"

"Wha-"

"Too late. If you need me, just call."

With that, he launched himself towards the Nuckelavee as Cinder shouted his name in protest. Jaune paid her no mind, instead closing in with the Grimm, deftly avoiding all its attacks in order to draw nearer to it.

"You're not as tough as you were last time," he surmised as he drew his sword back to lop off the rider's head.

At the last second, something stopped his blade. He looked back and found it locked in someone's giant hand, and only had a brief moment to let out a tired sigh.

"Oh, fuck me sideways…"

The incoming fist sent him rocketing backwards and tore a deep chunk out of his Aura. He went flying past Qrow and Raven who stopped and looked at him as he picked himself up off the ground.

"Jaune?!" Qrow asked. "What's going on?"

"Hazel's here," Jaune surmised as he picked himself up off the ground.

"Who the fuck is-"

A loud shout punctuated Qrow's statement. They all turned to find Hazel rushing them down, his body already glowing from the Dust crystals he'd injected himself with. The Nuckelavee ran with him, both of them aiming for their group of three.

"That's Hazel," Jaune answered.

"What the fuck is that thing?" Raven asked.

"I just told you, that's Hazel."

"No, not him! The other thing!"

"Oh, that thing. That's the Nuckelavee. Believe it or not, it's the lesser of the two threats."

The Nuckelavee seemed to take umbrage with that statement, as it suddenly stretched its arms out to try and attack them all. Qrow and Raven quickly batted away the incoming attack with their swords, but Hazel pushed in and immediately engaged with Qrow in a flurry of limbs. Qrow was quickly overwhelmed and brought to his knees by a Lightning Dust-enhanced punch; Hazel prepared to crush his skull with an overhead strike, but Raven managed to beat him back with a few well-placed slashes.

"Can you handle the big fucker?" Jaune asked as Qrow picked himself up off the ground.

"Which one…?" Qrow wheezed.

"Hazel."

"I was afraid… you'd say that…"

"Chin up, man. At least he's not hitting you in the dick."

"Ass...hole…"

Jaune didn't dignify that with a response, instead rushing into the fray towards the Nuckelavee as it closed in on Raven. The Grimm heard him coming, and at the last second, the imp rider rounded on him, lashing out with its arms; Jaune's shield saved him, and he kept running for it. As he drew close, he cut one of the horse's legs out from underneath it, bringing the Grimm down to the ground. He jumped up, intending to drive his sword through the rider, but Hazel was there in an instant, and caught the blade, then slammed him into the ground.

"One of you isn't doing your job!" Jaune shouted as he rolled out of the way of Hazel's incoming strike.

"Uh, excuse you, that Grimm was wide open," Raven said from off to the side.

"Uh, excuse you, fucking Hazel was there! What, do I have eyes in the back of my head or something?!"

"How do you know so much about us?" Hazel demanded with a growl. "I thought Tyrian was exaggerating with the things he said, but apparently not. Who are you?"

"I'm the guy who's gonna beat your ass, that's who," Jaune announced. "Swiggity swooty, I'm coming for that booty."

Hazel's eyes narrowed, and he pulled out a fresh Fire Dust crystal and injected himself with it.

"I think you pissed him off with that comment," Qrow announced as Hazel let out a roar and charged them again.

"You two keep him busy, I'll handle the Grimm!" Jaune shouted as he split off from the group.

The Nuckelavee intercepted him as he ran, raking him with its claws and drawing a deep gouge in his Aura, but Juane simply kept charing at it. The Grimm let out another scream to try and stun him, and Jaune winced as he felt his eardrums come close to bursting even through his Aura, but it wasn't enough to stop him. He closed in, sword at the ready, and lopped off one of the Grimm's hind legs. The Nuckelavee let out a pain-filled screech, but Jaune didn't give it time to recover; instead, he leaped up and drove his sword through the imp rider's chest.

That should have been the end of it, but the Nuckelavee still had some fight left in it. The Grimm rapidly twisted and turned, and managed to shake Jaune off. He lost his grip on Crocea Mors, leaving the sword embedded in the imp's torso. The Nuckelavee, sensing it was outmatched, turned and began to run away. Jaune watched it go, surprised.

"Hey," he said, "that son of a bitch is running off with my sword! Cinder, are you there?!"

"Little busy!" Cinder called as she decapitated a Beowolf.

"Too bad, I need you! Sword me!"

"Wha-"

"Sword me!"

Without missing a beat, Cinder superheated some sand using her Semblance, creating a small short sword for him. She threw the sword at Jaune, and he caught it, then took aim at the fleeing Grimm. He lined up his shot, and then threw the blade. The sword flew through the air, tumbling end-over-end, before finally making impact. It cut through the Nuckelavee's head in go, decapitating it. Instantly, the Grimm stopped dead in its tracks, then fell to the ground and began to dissipate. Jaune rushed over and retrieved his sword.

"Good job, Cinder," he said as he ran past her. "That looked cool as fuck."

"Wait!" Cinder called, her blade locked in an Ursa's jaws. "Where are you going?! I could use some help!"

"You're fine," Jaune said dismissively. It would have been cruel of him if Cinder hadn't hit the Grimm with a superheated palm strike, then wrenched her sword from between its jaws and stuck it blade-first through the roof of its mouth and into its brain, killing it instantly. Jaune watched the whole thing out of the corner of his eye, a smirk crossing his face when he saw it.

Of course, his smirk faded when he looked back across the town square and saw Hazel pummeling Raven into the dirt. Jaune's face contorted with rage, and he rushed into the fray with a shout.

Hazel heard him coming, of course, but that was exactly what Jaune wanted – anything to get him away from Raven. Hazel caught his incoming sword, but Jaune simply released his grip on it and closed in with his shield, driving the pointed edge into Hazel's stomach; Hazel recoiled from the sheer force of the sudden surprise blow, and Jaune came back around for another, this time bashing him in the head.

Qrow joined in at that moment, opening up on Hazel from behind with his weapon's shotgun. Buckshot peppered Hazel in the back, and his Aura flickered. His eyes widened in surprise, and he hurriedly injected himself with yet another Dust crystal, this one made of Lightning Dust. Electricity coursed through his body, and he lunged for Jaune, who barely managed to escape being grabbed by the skin of his teeth.

And then Raven was there, having pulled herself out of the crater she was in. Her sword came within centimeters of Hazel's throat, only narrowly missing because he backpedaled at the right time. Hazel took a step back as the three of them closed in on him, weapons at the ready.

"It's over, big man," Jaune stated. "You gonna come quietly, or are we going to have to put the hurt on you first?"

Hazel grit his teeth. "I don't know who you are, where you came from, or why you're allied with Ozpin, but you have to know that this is all futile. You can't stop Salem."

"That's where you're wrong. I'd tell you how I know, but you wouldn't believe me if I did, so I won't."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means you're dead," Raven spat, her hand tightening around her sword's hilt.

Before she could pull it, however, there was a series of bestial roars from the forest, followed by a scream from Cinder. Jaune's eyes widened in surprise, and he looked back at Hazel, his eyes narrowing dangerously.

"Give the queen my regards," he growled.

And then he left, taking off towards Cinder's position. Idly, he was aware of Hazel breaking through Qrow and Raven and making his escape into the forest, but he didn't care – Cinder needed his help.

When he arrived at Cinder's position, he found it overrun by Grimm, but there was no Cinder. Rather, there was the tail end of a King Taijitu, disappearing into the forest. Jaune put two and two together in an instant, and let out a roar of his own as he took off after the giant snake, carving through every other Grimm in his path with ease.

"Fuck you!" he screamed as he cleaved through an Ursa Major's head in a single blow without even breaking stride. "I already stole that teenager, you don't get to steal her from me!"

Jaune raced after the King Taijitu, the other Grimm serving as mere bumps in the road on the way to his final objective. Finally, after a few minutes of running, he caught up to the giant snake. Jaune let out a fierce yell, then jumped into the air, aiming for the snake's neck. The Grimm had just enough time to round on him, and for a moment, Jaune thought he could see horror in its eyes, but it didn't last, because Crocea Mors came down, and then the Grimm was no more.

The King Taijitu's head and its body landed in two separate spots. Jaune didn't waste any time, and instantly raced over to the body and began to cut it open. After a few cuts, a hand reached out from within the Grimm's gullet, and Jaune grabbed it and pulled. Cinder came popping out, gasping for breath and covered in saliva. She looked down at herself and dry-heaved.

"Gods…" she managed to get out. "That was… eugh… that was horrible."

Jaune didn't care about the Grimm saliva covering her, though – he quickly pulled her into a hug, which made her pause.

"What are you doing?" Cinder asked.

"Oh, come on, you know what a hug is," Jaune said.

"I do, but why are you giving me one?"

"I'm just glad you're okay, alright? Sure, you're an annoying little pain in my ass at times, but I do still care, you know."

Cinder rolled her eyes. "Thanks, you're really father-of-the-year material, yourself."

"Oh, lighten up, would you? I killed the Grimm that ate you, that's gotta be worth something."

"You left me behind to fight them all off! It's a wonder I didn't get myself killed!"

"I only did that because someone had to handle Hazel and the Nuckelavee. And besides, you held your own just fine until Yawn here showed up," Jaune said. He kicked a part of the snake's body for emphasis. "Seriously, you did good, kid. You ought to be proud."

"Hmph." Cinder crossed her arms. "I suppose so."

Raven and Qrow came rushing over, their eyes wide with surprise as they surveyed the carnage around them.

"Whoa…" Qrow breathed. "Did you kill all these dudes by yourself?"

"You're damn right," Jaune replied. "Nobody eats Cinder and gets away with it."

"Good to know you care," Cinder deadpanned.

"Well, we lost Hazel," Raven reminded him. "What now?"

"Now, we-"

He was cut off by his scroll ringing. He paused for a moment, confused, but then answered the call.

"You've reached Cinder's Barbecue," he said. "Where we exclusively serve well-done steak. What cut of beef can we ruin for you today?"

"Oh, thank the Gods!" Lionheart proclaimed from the other side of the call.

Jaune blinked. "...Lionheart? The hell are you calling me for? I didn't even know you had this number."

"Never mind that! You have to come back, now! It's… Gods, it's horrible! There's so many of-"

With that, the line went dead. Jaune stared at his scroll, and was dismayed to see that there was no signal.

"Well," he announced, "at least we know where to go next."

He motioned for the others to follow him, but was cut off by some nearby bushes rustling. Jaune paused, then signaled for the others to fall in with him as they all dropped into a combat stance. It proved unnecessary, however, because it wasn't more Grimm – rather, it was a pair of familiar faces.

"Where's the Grimm?" Ren asked, his hand tightening around the hilt of a small dagger. "Did you already kill it?"

"You bet your ass," Raven said.

"Ignore her," Jaune told him. "Yes, we killed it. Why? Were you after it?"

Ren nodded. Next to him, Nora looked around, confused. "What happened here?" she asked.

"Good Gods, these two are fucking adorable…" Jaune muttered under his breath. "Well, ah, to put it simply, a bunch of Grimm came to this village awhile ago. We happened to show up today to put the hurt on them. And now, there's no more Grimm here."

"So our trip was for nothing…" Ren lamented. He sighed tiredly. "At least it's dead. Come on, Nora. Let's go."

With that, the two of them went to move back into the forest. Jaune's eyes widened in surprise.

"Hey, wait!" he called. "Where are you two going?"

"Back to town," Ren answered.

"Do you even have a place to stay?"

"There's this really nice pile of boxes in an alleyway-" Nora began.

"Uh-uh," Jaune insisted, shaking his head. "You guys need a place to stay? I know a guy who can help with that."

"How do we know you're not just trying to kidnap us?" Ren asked.

"Because I've already got one child, I don't need two more," Jaune said, motioning toward Cinder. She glared at him, but he ignored it. "Besides, it would only be temporary until we can set you up with someone who can actually take care of you. Kids shouldn't be wandering the countryside or homeless."

"He's going to be mad if you keep doing this," Raven explained, but Jaune ignored her, instead looking back to Ren and Nora.

"So," he said. "What do you think? That sound good?"

Ren and Nora exchanged a glance with each other, then both shrugged. "Well, it can't be worse than the boxes," Nora offered.

Raven sighed tiredly. "I suppose you'll be needing a portal to Oz, then? You owe me for these, Jaune. I mean it. I'm going to start keeping a tally."

Jaune was too busy celebrating to care.

And here's the next one. Not too much to say about the story itself, so I won't bore you all with the details of that.

As for the other updates - Darkbloom and Black Sun are being worked on actively. That other story I mentioned in some of my other ANs for other stories is also still being worked on, but it's probably a few weeks out, IDK. I've got a Resident Evil shitpost story out there now that might interest a few of you.

Aside from that, I've been playing with the idea of uploading some originals to Royal Road. Currently I'm publishing my first few on Amazon for the experience, but after that initial batch is out, I'm thinking I might upload whatever comes next to Royal Road instead. Visibility on RR seems to be a bit better than on Amazon, so I figure it's worth a shot. I'm steadily realizing that writing might be what I want to do with my life. It'd certainly beat my current office job, which is saying a lot because my current office job isn't even bad, I just really enjoy writing and would love it if I could earn enough money at it to make it a viable career choice, or at least a decently-lucrative side gig to my actual career.

But yeah, that's about where I'm at. I'm definitely growing a lot more interested in writing original stories over fan fiction at the moment. Not to say I dislike fan fiction or anything, it's just that originals really have my attention right now. I'm not going anywhere any time soon - I want to get this first batch of originals out on Amazon before doing anything on RR, which is going to take around a year or so, if not a bit more - so I'll still be here for awhile yet, working on the stories I'm currently updating since I do enjoy writing them quite a bit. I'm just about ready to start exploring worlds of my own, and maybe possibly getting paid for it.

That's just where my head is at right now. I figure I'll keep trying the Amazon route and if it's not doing much for me after a year and four books or so, then it might be time to try something else, such as Royal Road. If RR doesn't work out then I guess I'll have to start pitching to trad publishers. Hopefully it doesn't come to that, because I greatly enjoy the autonomy of being indie, but I'm getting older and my bills are getting more expensive every year, and I'd really like to start seeing some actual return on investment for the time I'm putting into writing.

Anyway, consider that a very long, very rambly statement about my plans for the distant future. I'm gonna be on FFN for some time still, because I've still got stories here to finish up and because I'm nowhere near ready to start publishing on RR, so don't worry about that. Consider this more of an advertisement than anything.

Enjoy my work and want to help me out a bit? You can support me, as well as read more of my writing, over on Amazon. My first original story is available for purchase now, you can find it by going on Amazon and searching for 'I Accidentally Summoned the Demon Queen' by John Haruspex. The story is available now for three bucks in ebook format (or free with Kindle Unlimited) or twelve bucks in paperback format, if you prefer physical media.

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