update 79.

september 4th-10th.

this update is going to be ??? because that's really the only way i can describe my state of mind right now. it almost impresses me that my brain can work this way because it's so unconventional, but it does—and who am i to complain? you could say my brain is akin to having multiple tabs open on a browser. i'm a multitasker at heart and find it difficult to stay focused on one task for a long period of time. when it comes to this project, i'll write a scene for one branch and then a couple of sentences for a completely different one, one that often has no correlation. then maybe i'll jump to writing a drabble to put up here or answer an ask or two on tumblr (though, this usually ends with me scrolling through my inbox, being scared of the number and closing it). usually i only have to resort to jumping between scenes in a singular chapter to keep my focus, but this week, i was all over the place.

i'm currently writing three different scenes in chapter ten, one at the very beginning of the chapter and two towards the end. another tab of my brain is yelling about first kiss scenes, a fifth is writing an entirely different wip that has been on the backburner for much longer than i want to admit. a sixth is wondering if i can even pull off fluffy drabbles anymore after that angstfest (as tumblr called it) i went on. i could talk about the seventh, but, well, you get the point.

still, i can't say it's not productive. if i get fed up with one scene i simply toss it aside and move on to another. university has yet to ramp up the workload so i've had a lot of free time to hum and haw about what i'm doing. i'm hoping to finish [A]'s branch soon (famous last words) so i can get to the 'meat' of the chapter, for lack of a better word.

Ciel, as you'll see in the sneak peek below, is the unnamed drug dealer in chapter nine. the very one that many of you found hot which i don't pretend to understand. i would ask someone to explain it to me but then again, i'm not sure i want to know. nothing i wrote about them necessarily screamed 'sexy' to me, but i've long accepted that people will always thirst over non-ros. anyway, the point here is that they make a return in chapter ten and i'm extremely excited to write more interactions between them and the hunter. not that i think the game's been lighthearted recently, but i'm hoping to emphasize an even darker side to things with these scenes. Mirai got us started and, if it works out, Ciel will tie it all together. that being said, i still don't view this as a very heavy game so i don't expect things to take a wild turn. i'm simply going to build on things like the reoccurring nightmares that the hunter has or the mounting anxiety of unknowns happening in this world. slowly but surely, i'm guiding us to the climax of the story and i'm excited to show everyone what's in store when we get there :)

(that entire last paragraph was such a ramble, my god. if you made it this far, congratulations on surviving an update that made absolutely no sense but also one i won't be rewriting because my brain is too scrambled to try)

stats.

451,605 words (+3063)

sneak peek.

Ciel has the nerve to smile when we walk in. Their face is marred with a bruise on their left cheek and a cut splitting their lip, making the expression more threatening than it would be normally.