A/N: Hello! Welcome back to Emerald Shades, the Update Chapter. Don't worry there's a bit of progression here. A bit. Basically What I'm mostly here to say is that I'm alive and that I've got some explaining to do. What with Seamus (SSoHPKC) releasing his second update after more than a year of absence I figure now's as good a time as any. So, to start off with the basics, what happened to me? The answers a bit simple and a bit complicated. Simply put: I burnt myself out. To elaborate, I started doing weekly chapters for 3 different stories back in mid-to-late 2014-ish, those being Absent Serpent, Emerald Shades, and The Brothers Greymon. Soon I took a break from doing TBG and focused on AS and ES and things moved so much faster. I was enjoying it and I went headlong into writing. However, as time went on, the quality of my writing was going the same direction as my attitude towards writing in general. By the time this past July came 'round and I went to go visit my girlfriend, I was making myself write and it shows. Chapters were shorter despite my promises of longer ones, the quality was heading down, and I just didn't want to write. So I stopped. University was kind of a blessing in that regard. I meant I could take maybe a month off and come back as good as gold. However once a month passed, I still didn't want to write. Time kept going and honestly I just wanted to play games and watch anime since I've got a lot to catch up on. A couple times I thought about coming back but I just forgot since that was easier. 'course the reviews saying that I should get off my ass and write didn't help. Not that there were many but you all have seen them. Anyway, to add on to that school in November, when I thought I would finally come back, came at me. That perfect storm arose and I didn't have a ton of time outside of school work and what time I did have I wanted for myself. Especially once The Old Hunters came out for Bloodborne, I've sunk time into that DLC. It's great by the way, Laurence can go fuck off though. Anyway, the best relation I can give is Pokemon games themselves. I threw myself into competitive breeding and shit with Y and then Omega Ruby came out. I'm still at Norman. I lost a couple times due to under levelling and I just stopped. Haven't really touched it. Which sucks since I want a fucking Mega Beedrill, that thing is baller. Anyway, what I want to say is that I will be coming back sparsely. Depends on how this term goes for workload. However I will say this: not everything I do will be ES or AS. Part of the issue was I stuck with them and very little else and I took maybe two real breaks. So what I plan to do is maybe release some oneshots after this chapter, like one or two, and then continue on for a bit. Gotta vary things up and break more often. I bit off what I knew I could chew, I just chewed it wrong. Okay that's a bit gross but you get my meaning. Things are gonna change otherwise I'm just gonna burn out again and I don't want that. I wanna be an author and fanfic writing is enjoyable and helps me practice. Might even fill me with DETERMINATION. Yes I played Undertale, and the True Pacifist Run made me cry. So I just hope you all can be patient for just a bit longer and I can get back into things. If you want a hint as to what I'll be writing to, just have a listen the the tracks from The Old Hunters and Undertale, especially Hellkite Drake's remixes on some of the songs. Anyway, enjoy this short chapter.
The great thing about being a Pokemon trainer is you get to meet and greet so many different people and see their way of doing things with Pokemon and how they explore the region. People like Mark who are older and well versed on how the world works, or Laurence with Iron, or even how the grunts on either side of the Aqua and Magma conflict behave with their Pokemon. It's always interesting to see which Pokemon they choose and why, how they train it, and what their goals are. It's something not many sit around to appreciate often.
This all sounds good and well, I'm sure. Me waxing all poetic and shit. Truth is I'm up late at night writing this because someone, and I'm not naming names, has a bad habit of snoring loudly right now for some stupid reason. It's a small tent and there's not much you can't hear. My bloody hands are sore and I'm tired as all get out. You'd think that typing on a PokeNav would be easy but nah, thing's so damned small. That all and I've got nothing better to do since it's really raining hard outside and I'm not gonna deal with that. Instead I might as well take a break for my hands and then continue on with something, I dunno.
I set the PokeNav down and clenched and unclenched my hands, hoping to get them out of their pained cramps. It might be a few minutes. To add onto the whole situation right now, PokeNav service is down due to the rain, at least here in this area. It's really coming down hard, I had to reinforce the tent more outside earlier. I thought about going to a story I've been reading online for the past while, few years I think, but he hasn't updated in forever. I dunno if he's done or what but whatever. Just a story on the internet.
Still, though, I wonder what Anne is doing at this point. Of course thoughts of her generally lead to secondary tents being pitched and this was no exception. Girl had a way with me somehow. How she did it I have no clue but i all just felt great when we did it. I looked over to Thalia, who was snoring away. She was sprawled out and thankfully I'm skinny and this is a decent sized tent. She never revealed much about herself, but I wonder what her history is sexually. Sort of. Not really gonna go prying into her private life much. She's just a travel companion at present. Who knows, she might just be my greatest enemy in disguise and I don't know it one bit.
"Tch" I chuckled a bit. Honestly if she had malicious intent, she would've done something by now. We've been on the road together for quite a while now and she's even interacted with May. So maybe she's just a grunt and doesn't know what all the leadership has in store for her. Who knows, maybe she'll drop that ridiculous group. Ah, I'm just getting hopeful now. Next thing Victoria will show up and she'll want to have me all to herself. I snorted aloud at that thought. Arceus no, please. I don't want that. I yawned and suddenly felt a bit tired. I looked down and thought about going to sleep, but I wanted to write in my journal more. It's a nice thing to have by you. I picked up my PokeNav and got back at it.
A/N: Like I said, not much. I won't have anymore 5-6 month long gaps between ES and AS chapters but expect some breaks and not guaranteed weekly stuff from both anymore. I think it's better for me to slow down now. But I think I might be getting back into things. Anyway, hope this was at least a decent update and reassurance that this isn't dead. Enjoy.