Writing: Steampunk -- Ruusan

   My schedule is really erratic these days, isn't it? Life has been hectic and that's really all there is to it. My family will be moving into our new house this coming Wednesday and then we'll be getting settled into our routine.

   The scribbles for today, though, are back in the steampunk setting, but with Ruusan. I didn't think I'd ever get back around to the steampunk, but another facet of Ruusan's character called to me, so I did a small amount of writing.

   They're both pretty self-explanatory. Sarris died a long time ago, having never met Novarr. Novarr has also passed on by this time, possibly from illness or an infected wound; I'm not sure. Ruusan is a nurse and has Vivian, but Cameron is gone by this time as well. 

    On that depressing note, shall we?


   Ruusan settled back in the intricate cast iron chair outside the small café, one hand resting on the matching table set alongside her tea cup. Blue eyes took in the busy street with a certain level of reserve. It's been too long since I've been able to just sit.
   Across the tabletop, her longtime friend and mentor sat with a similar pose, but instead of her brown gaze being on the people and variety of transportations, Ruu could feel Lauren watching her profile, waiting for the reply to her inquiry.
   It took her a few more moments to formulate the rest of her answer, then Ruusan looked back to her fellow nurse, a quiet sigh leaving her. The expelling of breath loosened the corset of her dress for a few seconds, enough that she was allowed a brief respite from its tightness.
   "I can't, Lauren," she said at last. "I just... can't. I work twelve hour days to pay the rent on a home that I hardly see. My daughter spends more time with Mrs. Vhander then she does with me. Both my father and my husband are dead. I can't ask someone to have to-- to-- I don't know, deal with that? Come to terms with the fact that this heart of mine would probably never be truly and completely his, not unless he was someone very special? No man deserves to have to live up to another man's shadow and I would never ask him to. Please tell your cousin that I will have to decline his invitation, Lauren, and to find another woman who can accept and return his affections. Because I cannot."
   There'd been hints of a smile on the older woman's face while Ruusan had been speaking, but now it's truly there as Lauren nodded her understanding. "Don't fret, Ruusan. You didn't need to get up in arms on me. Fred just talks of you a good deal and finally asked if I'd be willing to relay the invitation to you. And I did and you declined."
   Relief filtered through her thoughts and Ruu's answering smile is a bit subdued, but heartfelt all the same. "I'm sorry. I just get tired of offers from parties who don't realize what they're getting into."
   Lauren stood while listening, taking a few coins from the purse looped around her wrist and setting them beside her empty cup and saucer. "And that's perfectly understandable. I'm meeting my mother-in-law for lunch, so I need to hurry home to freshen up now, but I'll see you in a few days, yes?"
   A quiet nod. "Yes. The matron gave me a week off so that I could recover completely. I'll be back on Monday."
   "That's good. The hospital isn't quite the same without you there. Just make good use of your free days, Ruusan. They'll be gone all too soon. Take Vivian out to the gardens in Ironstate, or just go out for the day. Spend time with your daughter." Lauren checked that her hat was still on straight, brows raised to make her point.
   Even though she kept her seat, Ruusan smiled again, chin leaned into her palm. "I'll be sure to do that. Thank you for meeting me today. I'm not used to being out of touch."
   "My pleasure." Warmth colored the raven-haired woman's voice and then she was gone, whisked away by the flow of people until not even a trace of her long brown dress could be seen.
    Alone again, Ruu lifted her tea cup to finish the last of its contents, nose wrinkling when the lukewarm liquid washed across her tongue.

*****

   Ruusan smiled at the woman who came to receive the package of bread, water, and two blankets the medical team was handing out, feeling her chest contract in pain at the other female's wary expression. 
   Her skin was darkened with dirt and her extended hands shook visibly. Settling the wrapped bundle into her awaiting palms, Ruu wished there was more she could do.   
    There was no murmuring of thanks before the ragtag woman disappeared into the gathering crowd. The nurse soon turned her attention to the next person to approach, determined to fulfill her purpose here so she might return home. 
   Return to Vivian. 
   Blue eyes took in all but revealed little as the afternoon wore on towards evening. 
   It was two small faces, peering at the goings-on, that broke through the carefully maintained barrier Ruusan had to erect around her heart. Grabbing the nearest unclaimed package, the curly-haired woman slipped from the safety of her fellow nurses and their police guard.
    Her hard-soled boots skidded on the broken cobblestones as she made her way to where the children had been moments prior. Their hunger-pinched faces had disappeared, but Ruusan was fairly certain they wouldn't he far. The draw of food would be too strong to allow them to stray any great distance. 
   Rounding the corner of the decrepit building they'd set up their operation near, Ruu searched the shadows for the two young ones. 
   "Come out. I'm not going to hurt you," she called, her voice quiet but beckoning. "I have food and water."
    Ruu couldn't see where they might've gone, and when they didn't reappear after a few moments, continued down the passageway, glancing back the way she'd come. 
   She'd give the food to these children, and then they'd go home, back to the hospital and their respective homes.
   Turning her attention back to her path, Ruusan realized somewhat belatedly that a man had appeared now, staggering along towards her with an expression that caused fear to curl through her on his features.
   God in heaven, protect me.

   And that's all I've got for the time being. My siblings and I are currently bunking with our cousins, so with fourteen-some kids in the house, it's kind of crazy.

   But for other news, Penny and I are looking at doing a couple of "blog challenges" over the next couple of months. Keep an eye out for a massive amount of posts from the two of us as we attempt to keep up with these journaling prompts.

   For those who are curious as to what ones we're looking at using, drop me a note and I can get you the Pinterest links.

   Thank you much for reading and feedback is always welcome!

    Ad astra per aspera.

    To the stars, through difficulties.

I Yet Live/Writing: Steampunk Jade and Kensey

   No, really, I do.

   And I think there's still some life in these fingers and some breath to the characters in my head, but between going from one end of Korea to the other, trying to do schoolwork, taking a two-week computer hiatus, and trying to figure out getting moved completely from Korea in the next month, things have been a bit touch-and-go, to say the least.

   So, while I would like to say I'll be able to post something for you all in the near future, I can't promise anything, because the next four weeks are going to hold a lot of craziness, and then there'll be a whole bunch of craziness for two or so weeks after that, and... Yeah. There's a lot going on.

   Granted, there's a chance that the craziness will drive me to write something, if only to escape all that's occurring, but we'll see.

    In the meantime, I found a short scribble I wrote for Steampunk Jade during her four year leave of absence, with a woman named Kensey who was the main reason she was finally able to get her head put on straight. May or may not have mentioned her in the summary I did for the Steampunk. Totally can't remember now...


    “What’s your story then?”
    Jade glanced at Kensey from the corner of her eye, then turned back to cleaning out her gun. “There’s nothing to tell.”
    “I disagree,” Kensey drawled, sloshing the bottle of brandy around, watching its contents with distracted interest.
    The younger woman didn’t reply, intent on her task, and hoping that she would give up her line of interrogation. Jade had no desire to explain why she’d left Sanbourne almost four years ago, and even now, she had to stop in her work to take a breath.
    Four years.
    Shak, Nathan, I’m sorry.
    “And that is exactly why you should have some of this,” the brandy was dropped on the table beside Jade’s elbow. “Then start talking.”
    A quiet exhale. “Ji.”
    Kensey pulled herself up to sit on Jaden’s other side, mouth quirked in humor. “You’re one tough cookie, kid, but no one can keep locked up forever.”
    I’ve lasted this far, haven’t I?
    “Oi, stop ignoring me,” the blond interrupted her thoughts, now sounding cross.
    Jade leaned back in her chair, drumming on the wooden desk with her oil-stained fingers. She fixed the elder woman with an calculating look. “I have nothing to say about myself, Kensey, and I’ve made myself clear on that several times now.”
    “Don’t you get hoity-toity with me, kiddo,” Kensey grumbled, grabbing the brandy to drink straight from the bottle, as she’d been doing off-and-on all evening.
    Jade almost wanted some of the burning alcohol; memories haunted her stronger than usual tonight, and she knew from experience that the liquor could dull that pain.
    “What a pair...” Jade said on a quiet breath, returning her attention to her dismantled weapon. 
    She continued to rub the now-filthy cloth along the inside of the barrel, taking care not to scratch the interior.
    Kensey frowned. “Excuse me?”
    “Nothing, Kensey,” the Gogamian murmured as she pulled the rag free and set about putting her gun back together.
    “You are honestly so very strange,” the woman said, jumping down off the table and taking her brandy with her.
    Jade hummed noncommittally, sliding her gun back into its holster, and then starting to scrub the grime off of her fingers. The oil lamps in the room all flickered as a strong breeze blew through, ruffling Jade’s hair.
    She shook her head to get her bangs from her eyes, noting how they had lengthened recently. Kensey had retreated to one of the armchairs, and was flipping through a log while continuing to nurse her alcohol.
    Jade thought she was preoccupied enough to drop the earlier subject; she wasn’t.
    “Who was he?” the sick woman voiced after a long silence, the abrasiveness she was known for dropped from her tone.
    “My brother,” Jaden almost didn’t get the words out, because her throat tightened as she said them. “But I was the fool.”
    “We’re all fools in love,” Kensey replied.
    “I suppose you could say that,” Jade stood up, pulling on her shoulder holster like a jacket, then putting her trench-coat on as well. The night air was chillier then normal and she was starting to feel cold.
    “Why’d you leave?” the blond prompted behind her.
    She was tempted to ignore the other, to refuse to continue saying it aloud, but Kensey was tenacious; she’d keep coming back until she’d heard all she wanted to.
    “He got married and I couldn’t accept her, so I left.” Jade relented after a few moments of quiet.


    And that's all I've got for the moment. Again, I'll see about working on stuff, but balance is kind of key right now and some things will have to fall lower in my list of priorities then others. So.

    I'm off to clean and vacuum my room. You all have a good day/night/whatever and thanks for being patient with me!

    Ad astra per aspera.
    To the stars, through difficulties.

Writing: Steampunk -- Ruusan and Novarr

    To start off a hopefully lengthy smattering of Original/Deviant/Steampunk Storyline scrawls and bits of writing, this scribble is of Ruusan and Novarr in the Steampunk.

    I can't remember if I mentioned it in my summary, but Sarris and Novarr never found each other in the Steampunk. Actually, Sarris died at some point, with just a random write-off because she wasn't convenient to the storyline any longer.
 
    (I know, writers are cruel and heartless.)

    The repercussions of her sudden death weren't too large, but of the three versions of Novarr I've worked with, the Steampunk is the one that breaks my heart. I don't know if you guys will be able to pick up on it, but it's almost like he knows Sarris isn't out there anymore. It's heart-wrenching, if a bit hard to see.

    At any rate, he still adopted Ruusan and brought her up, and she met Cameron in the hospital where she worked as a nurse, as you will soon read. Also, please note there isn't any set time during which this occurs in relation to the rest of the storyline. I won't keep you any longer.


    The child waits by the window, her blue eyes bright with excitement, because Daddy’s coming home. Her caretaker works in the background, cleaning the sitting room and not missing a speck of dust.
    She hears when the door open, and her socked feet are on the wooden floorboards a moment later as she races to greet him.
    He always looks older when he comes back, so grim and tired and it makes her want to cry because all she wants is for Daddy to be happy.
    And he is; for her.
    Ruu knows this because when she runs to him and he lifts her up in his arms, planting a kiss on her forehead, he smiles both on his mouth and in his eyes.
    That’s all Ruu could’ve asked for as she buries her face in Novarr’s shoulder, saying how much she’d missed him and can you stay a really long time now?
    The hunter tucks her close, wandering down the hall to their room, the hole in his heart filling now that he’s with her again. He assures her that he’ll stay as long as he can, and wishes silently that he could give her more than he does.
    But his time is barely his own. The rent is almost more than he can handle and he pays the establishment’s owner to watch over Ruusan while he’s away. Then she never stops growing it seems, always looking as if she’s gained a few centimeters of height while he’s away working.
    Novarr sits in the chair that’s in their room, playing with Ruu’s curls as she chatters to him about what she did that day. He slowly unwinds as she talks, muscles relaxing for the first time since he left.
    Hunger is present in the back of his mind, but he’s unwilling to move. As Ruu says every time he comes back to her, she misses him. And this is the least he can do for her if he has to be away working all the time.

~~*~~

    “Ah, Daddy, you’re back!”
    Thirteen years old now, and Novarr has to ask himself where the years went as he enters into their small, hole-in-the-wall home.     He is greeted with the smell of something cooking and Ruusan who hurries towards him with a bright smile on her face.
    “You missed Missus Tasha’s visit,” she informs him, arms going around his waist. Her blue eyes have never lost that bright shine they’ve had since she was a baby.
    “Is that so?” Nov murmurs, bending to kiss the top of her head.
    “Yes, and Jade said she has something work-related to talk to you about,” Ruu continues cheerily, pulling him along the short hallway by the hand, her destination the closet of a kitchen.
    He allows himself to be dragged to the alluring smells that have been lingering in the air since he walked in. “Well, they can wait, because I need to spend some time with my gorgeous girl.”
    Ruu laughs, dragging one of the two chairs out. “You always say that when you come home,” she says, wrapping her arms around his neck from behind once he’s seated.
    “Because it’s true,” Novarr insists, reaching back to ruffle her hair.
    She giggles again, then plants a kiss on his cheek and goes to the stove. The hunter watches her, heart aching that she has to be doing these things so young and with no technical mentor to teach her.
    But she’s never complained, not even in her eyes, about the work. And when he asks her about it, she says that it’s her part to do and she enjoys it.
    “I need you to take me out for groceries tomorrow, Daddy,” Ruu says as she sets a bowl of something steaming that smells like heaven before him.
    He nods distractedly, pulling open a nearby drawer to retrieve two spoons. His daughter settles across from him, tugging up the sleeves of her dress to remove them from her way, and the two spend the rest of the evening in quiet, but content, conversation.

~~*~~

    When she’s eighteen, Ruusan tells him she wants to be a nurse someday.
    It takes them years to save enough money to put her through school, but her dream comes true four years later.
    Novarr thinks it was a mistake at first, as he’s suddenly the one taking care of her as she comes home day after day nearly dead on her feet.
    But slowly, she adjusts. She learns how to balance both her work in the hospital and at home. Tasha warns him at one point to make sure she doesn’t burn herself out, and he takes her advice to heart.
    He catches Ruusan before she passes out in bed one evening, and the two work out a schedule for shopping, cooking, and cleaning.
    Novarr sleeps better that night, feeling safer in the knowledge that he’s taking care of his little girl.
    And then comes Cameron and he’s thrown for a loop again. First, because he’s never imagined that he’d have to give Ruu away to someone else. Second, because even if he does put Ruu’s happiness in Cameron’s hands, it will return to his possession soon.
    Cameron is sick.
    It’s himself and the Vance’s at the small wedding two months later, and Novarr tries to push away the feeling that it won’t be long before those tears of joy in her eyes are tears of pain.
    The three of them live in the same small home that Ruu spent much of her childhood in. It’s a tight fit, but no one complains.  
   Ruusan still works at the hospital; Novarr is busy with his hunting. And it all functions much more smoothly then they’d expected.
    Ruu says she’s pregnant after only a few months, and Nov watches as she and Cameron laugh... then cry.
    Cameron passes on and Vivian is small and delicate at two weeks old, but her mother is the fragile one, the one who needs to be held and comforted. And Novarr is there for both of them, rocking the cradle with his foot in the midst of the night while Ruusan cries herself into an exhausted sleep in the circle of his arms.
    His heart feels like it’s breaking, and he can’t imagine the magnitude of pain that his little girl has to be going through right now.
    Novarr asks Tasha to come and watch over his daughter and granddaughter when he has to go work. Ruu doesn’t make a sound as he collects his gear, kisses her forehead, and says he will be back soon.
    Leaving the house that morning was one of the hardest things he’d ever done.


    It's rather short, I know. It looks like more on a Microsoft Word document.

    I'm going to continue poking through my documents involving the Schaefes and Vhanders and see what I come up with. There's been a lot of aimless scribbles over the past couple of years, some better than others, so we'll see how it goes.

    I hope that you all enjoyed this piece of work, even though it is a bit sad at the end there. Alright, a lot sad, but at least it's better than when I killed Jade, yes?

    Please feel free to leave feedback! I adore hearing from you amazing people.

    And one last thing: Thank you so very much to everyone who follows my blog. I woke up this morning to see a new follower and despite the blasted early hour, it made me grin like an idiot, as I have done with every person who has pressed the follow button for my blog. So, this is my huge kamsa-hamnida, aregato, danke-sehn, gracias, thank you, to Penny, Trinity, Hannah, Joy, Charissa, Mercia, and Ashley, who so kindly lit up my morning. I hope you all have an amazing day. <3

    Ad astra per aspera.
    To the stars, through difficulties.

A Summary of Storylines

   This post is going to be entirely dedicated to the explaining of three storylines that myself and my best friend, Penny Kearney, have developed over the past six years of our lives. Well, one of them is six years old; the other two are under one.

   There is the Original Storyline, the Steampunk Storyline, and the most recent Deviant Storyline. I've give brief intros to how they each began before each summary.

   Also, there is a great chance these will be really confusing to you guys and I'm incredibly sorry for it, but there were just a million things that went on during all that time, so please just leave a comment if you need clarification on something and I'll get back to you with something more understandable as soon as possible.

  ...And let me warn you that my "summaries", as you will soon see, might as well be novels. I am no good at summarizing, although, in my defense, I am summarizing 20+ years worth of multiple character's lives. At least for the Original Storyline.

    One more thing to note: both the Original and Deviant storylines take place in the Zephron Galaxy, which includes several planets, among them Sinjaro Kahn, Uhric, Norsha'ac, Gogam, Karon, Tigersoon, Tiloon, and Klowdarr.


   Original Storyline:

   Began: Oh, heavens, years ago. Penny and I started talk-gaming (character developing? What do regular writers call that?) with a taciturn Uhrician Elite Force Warrior and a green-eyed intruder who are about as night and day as Penny and I are. I think Sarris and Tara are kind of a testament to our own friendship, in how highly unlikely it is and yet it still happened.

   General Summary: Sarris Nadir (Gogamian, UEF Warrior) and Tara Benson (Norsha'acite, bounty hunter) met under rather unlikely circumstances and became dysfunctional friends, though Sarris didn't admit to it for years. Literally, years.
    Tara met Nuridarr Vhander during a brief, accidental stint on Gogam, which he helped her get through alive and in one piece and then they both were rescued from the planet by Tara's brother, Luke Benson (bounty hunter as well). Immediately after, Tara, Nuridarr, and Luke took a sudden leave of absence from the galaxy for two years, during which time Sarris an acquaintance through Tara by the name of Novarr Schaefe. (My apologies for similarities between Novarr and Nuridarr's names. Mostly accidental, and you never get them mixed up once you know them.)
    After that, Tara and Luke find three of their younger siblings. Their entire family has been missing for several years, and they do find them somewhere between finding Ron, Andro, and Mara and Luke 'dying'. Except he didn't actually die. (Don't ask me, not my characters, and I can't recall anyways.) Following Luke's death by a couple of months, Tara married Nuridarr. Sarris and Novarr are just... living during this time. Not a lot is going on for them.
    Tara and Nur's first daughter, Raina, was born a handful of months later, followed closely by Sarris and Novarr's adopted, newborn daughter, Ruusan. And Jhidek/Jay (Tara and Nur's son) came along a bit after that. (Don't worry, that was the end of the baby boom for seven years.) Sarris, a Ronin in the Uhrician Elite Force's ranking system, went into "the reserves", in a way, during all this that way she could be at home to look after Ruusan.
     There was another kind of blank seven years, where life just went on and the Vhanders and Schaefe's raised their respective children/child. Jaydn and Merri were adopted/born about the same time. Jaydn was five when Novarr whisked her away from an inevitably bad situation after her parents died/were killed. (The details are still kind of sketchy at that part.) In the following eight years, there were a passel more Vhander children, while the Schaefe household remained safely at two. The two families are far from strangers, to the point where the parents are all "aunties" and "uncles" to each other's offspring.
     Jaydn follows in Novarr's footsteps, taking up bounty hunting and eventually turning into something of a loner, which is her downfall in the end. Ruusan, after being lost for a time, decides to become an Emergency Response Transport Paramedic, which means that she's in the ambulance, at the scene of the crash. She attends medical school and takes up a job as an ERTP on Sinjaro Kahn, where her parents live. It's in the hospital that she meets Cameron Armstrong, a fairly average guy who is dying from a non-contagious, but uncurable, disease. When he asks her to marry him, she does.
    Cameron's death ten months later coincides with the birth of their daughter, Vivian. Two months pass, and Sarris works with Tara and Nuridarr to find an apartment near the Vhander home on Norsha'ac for Ruusan and Vivian. Staying on Kahn is only a constant reminder of Cameron for Ruu, and the vote is unaninmous that she needs some time away.
    Over the course of two years and through a series of author-caused events to cause a little heart-pounding anxiety and to strengthen bonds, Ruusan falls in love with childhood friend and never-before-romantic-interest, Jhidek. And he falls in love with Vivi, and Ruu too. (What? Vivian's an angel. Anybody would fall in love with her first.)
    So they get married, and Ellora, the first Ruu/Jay bundle of adorableness, is born fifteen months later. Jaydn dies from her injuries after her ship is shot down by space pirates, much to the trauma of her family.
    Here, I shall end. (Though there is a lot of unaccounted drama, let me assure you.)


   Steampunk Storyline:

   Began: Sometime in early 2012, Penny and I had been curious as to how Jaydn and Nuridarr would get along, as they've both got the same blood running through their veins and all. We couldn't come up with plausible trouble for them to get into in the original storyline, so we picked them up and moved them to Penny's steampunk world (a city named Sanbourne) which she has with a friend of hers, Katana. It really only served to show Jade's true colors.

    General Summary: Nuridarr, now Nathaniel, and Jaydn, shortened to Jade, meet when she's ten-ish and he's eighteen-ish and she's an orphan and he's thrown himself out of his Gogamian crime....syndicate/gang/tribe/thing. Ten years later, and the two of them have, quite successfully, made their living on bounty hunting. Life is good, Jade is happy, and I kind of want her radio that she's got.
     Insert Natasha Bennet, a rather fiery woman they nab, who ends up biting Nathan ("Shikhan, should you take something for rabies?" "I've had worse.") before they take her to meet the person who hired them to find her. It turns out to be a Gogamian that Nathaniel knew back when he was still with them. Also a man that Nathan isn't going to hand Tasha over to, so he sends Jade and Tasha off while he faces their client and his goons.
    To summarize the rest, because this was an incredibly difficult storyline to write and it's hard to capture everything that happens, Nathaniel falls in love with Tasha, and it doesn't go over well with Jade. She moves out, starts working on her own, and goes to great pains to avoid seeing Tasha.
    A lot of things occur in the next year or two.
   Jade locates Tasha's missing family with the help of her contact, Charles, and an ex-assassin-turned-bounty-hunter named Jase Drouais gets mixed up in everything through a former connection to the kidnapper and the disappearance of his brother, Markham. Unfortunately, Jade gets laid up with an injured leg and is out of commission for the actual rescue.
   Later, there is the appearance of a government official bent on killing all lowlifes. He's sees them as a taint upon the clean-blooded people of higher society in Sanbourne. Jade, Nathan, and his daughter with Tasha, are on the hit-list due to their heritage. After a really close call which Jase, the ex-assassin who she now works with, saves her from, they go to make sure that Nathan, Tasha, and Raina are safe and the three of them end up leaving town. Jade, Jase, and Tasha's brother, Lucas (Luke, originally) work together to try and locate, then bring down, the government official, Horace Scott. It is thought for a time that Nathan, Tasha, and Raina perish in a train wreck, which makes life difficult, to say the least.
    After that, Penny and I never actually finished talk-gaming it. And I know it sounds like Jade's perfectly balanced through all those events, but she really isn't, and after it turns out that Nathan, Tasha, and Raina are alive, she skips town for four years, staying away as long as she needs to so she can screw her head on straight again. A lot happens to her while she's gone, including a couple of near-death experiences, a semi-relationship with a guy named Sato, and a friendship with a woman named Kensey during her last year
who ends up dying from sickness. After that, she goes back to Sanbourne to see if she'll be welcomed back after practically abandoning the people there that cared about her. And while things were far from what they'd been years prior, Nathan and Tara were willing to let her back into their lives to start rebuilding what she'd crumbled.


   Deviant Storyline:

   Began: Back in August or thereabouts of 2012, with Penny's curiosity over what would've happened if Luke had been unable to locate Tara on Gogam and save her, and by extension, Nuridarr, from the planet. Initially, I was a spectator, interested in the idea for itself and the effect it would have on Sarris. I didn't really become involved until the characters got their revenge for Penny and I wondering if Jaydn might've been an antagonist all along that we'd been trying to make into a protagonist. The question came up of how Jade might've turned out different had she been raised up with good, strong morals while still on Gogam. If that hard setting that she was born for was where she needed to be in order to be instilled with a good heart. The idea caught on quickly, and thus it began.

   General Summary:
   Tara's transponder is damaged during her initial days on Gogam, so instead of being rescued by Luke, she and Nuridarr are forced to remain on the planet, living on the run from his tribe who've branded him a traitor. She has gives up hope of ever getting off Gogam quickly and they just survive for a year or so. They're negotiating for supplies with an tribe that's an enemy with Nuridarr's old tribe when the tribe is attacked. In the chaos, Tara rescues a three-year-old baby girl named Jaydn after her motherr is killed. (Please don't feel bad, her parents were a far cry from what parents should be.)
   For a small amount of time, the plan is to drop her off with another tribe, but Tara falls in love pretty quickly and while Nur was initially opposed to the idea of keeping her, he gets attached as well and they adopt Jaydn as their own.
   Over the course of the following six years which are spent constantly moving, fighting to survive against both the planet and other Gogamians, Jade is brought up included in every process, being given her own duties and responsibilities, and she's taught that they all protect each other. Not every man for himself, as the rest of Gogam does.
   While Tara gave up on leaving, Jaydn's addition to their family gave Nuridarr a newfound motivation to get Tara and Jade off of Gogam and to a better life out in the rest of Zephron. And he does, joining a pirate gang in order to get them passage on a ship headed off Gogam.
   Jade is nine years old when the time to leave comes, and they realize that Tara is pregnant either while on the ship, or shortly after they escape into the rest of the galaxy.
   While all this has been happening on Gogam, Sarris has spent the six years searching the galaxy for Tara, not even having a place to start, but refusing to quit until she finds Tara, living or dead. Novarr, only an acquaintance at this point, keeps in touch with her and does some of his own searching, while Luke, unable to get to Tara on Gogam, breaks off his efforts early on to continue looking for their missing family.
   After this point, events get fairly fuzzy, as Penny and I haven't even talk-gamed their leaving. But Raina and Jhidek are both born within a couple of years of their getting of Gogam and Jade settles into her role as Imo's (Daddy's) wing mate and big sister with
ease, much to our relief.
   Merri follows seven years after Jhidek, when Jade is seventeen, Raina eight, and Jay seven.
   In the deviant, their focus as hunters is trained much more on the Gogamians who leave their home planet to terrorize the rest of Zephron and either turning them back or finishing them off. The effect on them as a family is a much more trained, orderly, and possibly an even tighter and closer dynamic than the original. They protect each other and carry out their missions together once Raina and Jhidek get older. (Not sure how they worked the Merri angle when she showed up later.)
   Meanwhile, Sarris and Novarr slowly drifted toward each other, Tara's return to their worlds drawing them back together. He's there to help support Sarris as she deals with the guilt she feels over not finding Tara sooner, but eventually it turns to something more.
   Ruusan does not go forgotten either. Sarris helped rescue her from a hostage situation on Sinjaro Kahn when Ruusan was ten and on her way back to Norsha'ac following a failed adoption attempt. Always a decisive thinker, Sarris decided that she didn't want to let Ruu go back to the orphanage and worked with the social service system on Kahn to legally adopt her. I'm not sure what her relationship status was with Novarr at the time, but they might've been on the edge of getting married when Sarris picked up Ruu and that was the turning point.
    For a few years, the Vhander and Schaefe households would get together, so Ruusan wasn't strangers with Raina, Jhidek, and Merri, but when they got older, the visits dropped off some, possibly because the Vhanders, now with the kids of a safer age to aid in the fight, got busier with missions. Not positive on that account either.
    Ruusan headed to med-school on Sinjaro Kahn from Uhric at eighteen, taking a more intensive course and finishing in four and a half years to return to Uhric where her parents and Jensen lived.
   (Sarris became a Grandmaster while Tara was gone, which equates to a general or some such, and Jensen is a Ronin [equivalent = colonel] who works as her aide and was with her when she helped to rescue Ruusan. He started as a trusted aide and friend and was basically adopted into the family after a couple of years. Ruu sees him as an older brother and close confidante.)
   The unintended silence between the two families came to a rather abrupt end when Jhidek, injured in an explosion while he and Raina were on a mission, dropped in, quite literally, to Ruusan's apartment. Things were touch-and-go, but she saved his life and
things just take off from there. I won't bore you with those details, but suffice it to say, after a couple of spontaneous visits, a close encounter with the bad sort of Gogamian for Ruu, a few months of silence to protect her on Jay's part, a tought fight that ended with a "missing, perhaps dead" news report on the Vhanders, and a conniving Tara, Ruusan and Jhidek worked out what they both wanted. Not without a bit of drama, of course, but they were married just under a month later.
    And the rest of the story, as they say, has yet to be told.


   And that's all of it! For the moment, at least. The only really "finished" storyline is the Steampunk storyline. The other two kind of go through stop-again-go-again expanding. Currently, Penny and I are caught up in the Deviant again, although we're at the tail end,
instead of the beginning.

   To clarify that, we're talk-gaming at two points in the storyline. The first point is with Nuridarr, Tara, and Jaydn on Gogam and Jade is currently seven. The second point is twenty-five-some years down the road, with Ruusan and Jhidek, although I don't think we
truly intended to pick it up as agressively as we have. (It's only mostly my fault; I was curious if Ruu and Jay would work out in the Deviant as they did in the Original.)

    Once again, please feel entirely free to either leave a comment here with questions or on my OYAN profile, where I can be found as PenWielder62. These storylines are ones that Penny and I have invested a lot of time and thought into, and they're actually quite
important to me, so I would greatly enjoy helping you clear up whatever it is that I've confused you with.

   And thank you so much, as always, for reading. Knowing that there are people who actually enjoy what I write means a great deal to me.

   Ad astra per aspera.
   To the stars, through difficulties.