Series: Yu-Gi-Oh
Genre: Post-apocalyptic, dark, horror
Pairings: Bakura/Kaiba (eventually)
Word Count: 343
Notes: This is a teaser to a post-apocalyptic story that has been bothering me for a week, when I should be working on Verdant. There is a possibility this could be expanded into a full story/series as time permits.
Comments/Critique: Welcome

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The city burned.

On more days than he cared to count, one part or another of Domino City remained alight. The flames touched the sky, lighting it brighter than the streetlights once had. Some people even said they could probably be seen from space, but of course, space was the least of everyone’s concern. Why worry about something so trivial when the reality was so much more immediate - and terrible?

It had been one year, one month, and ten days since hell descended onto Earth, making its landing somewhere in the arts area of Domino City, though reports were still a bit confused on the exact location of Ground Zero, so to speak. Very few people who were near the epicenter of the event survived. Of those who did, very few were accounted for. Of those, even fewer were willing to talk about what they had seen.

And for once, he couldn't find it in him to blame them. He was counted among the survivors, though to this day, he was still less than fond of that designation. After all, in his short life to date, so many labels had been applied to him: son, brother, orphan, boy genius, World's Champion, billionaire inventor... Survivor was just another one, albeit one he was less enthused about.

After all, everyone in the world wanted to know what had happened to bring a monster like Zork into the world. Was it an accident? Had someone caused it? Was there a way to reverse it? Were they now forever stuck with an Evil Overlord the likes of which the world had never before seen?

How could he tell them what he had seen? To this day, he still wasn't completely certain. There had been a mass hallucination of Ancient Egypt which may or may not have been a game between the so-called Pharaoh and some sort of Ancient Evil, presumably Zork, and apparently the Pharaoh had lost. There was no eleventh hour rescue this time, and the entire world was plunged into darkness.

Except for the fire.

In my last off-topic update, I mentioned that I was working on things that can be published.

*deep breath*

Tonight, I sent off my first novel to a publisher. I don't know when I'll hear back on it, but I'm hoping soon.

In the meantime, keep an eye out (in a few months) for the first volume of the series I've been working on translating: Dance in the Vampire Bund. It should be out in May from Seven Seas Manga.

And in the meantime, please keep your fingers crossed for me with my novel.

(And on a completely random note, this song always makes me think of the character Rhiannon from Maggie Shayne's Wings in the Night series. Totally random, I know.)

This is just a really quick note to let the people who only follow me here know that I haven't abandoned the community.

The truth is that I've been working on stories that I can publish. I even have a couple of publishers earmarked as potentials. I've got the first three chapters prepped to be sent as soon as I hear anything more from my pre-readers than "this will be brutal". ¬.¬

Once I get to a place where I can slow down on editing Amaranth and writing Verdant, I'll be back over here. I need to finish my 24hour_themes series, "Amnesty", since I only have 4 stories left to go, two of which will probably be difficult.

Other than that, I have tentative plans still to finish Endless Loop and maybe write the A New Age Dawns sequel, tentatively titled "What Rough Beast".

But of course, this all depends on me catching up on Verdant, where I'm currently falling a bit behind.

Series: Torchwood
Genre: NaNoWriMo-ish, science-fiction, horror
Word Count: 4047 (51,297 out of 50,000 - 102% to goal)
Summary: Set immediately following End of Days but prior to the beginning of Series Two, Torchwood Three's leader is gone. What will happen in the meantime?

---

( From the end of her bed, her computer beeped again. In large red letters over the Archangel logo, the screen read, 'Saxon Broadcast All Channels'. )

Series: Torchwood
Genre: NaNoWriMo-ish, science-fiction, horror
Word Count: 3430 (47,270 out of 50,000 - 95% to goal)
Summary: Set immediately following End of Days but prior to the beginning of Series Two, Torchwood Three's leader is gone. What will happen in the meantime?

---

( Still, this was a bit like a holiday. Actually, no, in fact, it was a lot like a holiday, and strange besides that. After all, they had been here for a very long night and part of a day, checking out the area as best they could, given that their equipment tended not to work too well in the cold beyond their hotel rooms, and yet they had still managed not to see any sign of the aliens they had come here after. )

Series: Torchwood
Genre: NaNoWriMo-ish, science-fiction, horror
Word Count: 3903 (43,892 out of 50,000 - 88% to goal)
Summary: Set immediately following End of Days but prior to the beginning of Series Two, Torchwood Three's leader is gone. What will happen in the meantime?

---

( It shouldn't have surprised her to see Owen and Gwen leave together and come back together. They were thicker than thieves sometimes, back when they were sleeping together and again now that they weren't. )

Series: Torchwood
Genre: NaNoWriMo-ish, science-fiction, horror
Word Count: 3464 (39,989 out of 50,000 - 80% to goal)
Summary: Set immediately following End of Days but prior to the beginning of Series Two, Torchwood Three's leader is gone. What will happen in the meantime?

---

( The Himalayas... Well, Toshiko had always said that she wanted to see them at some point in her life. She'd never thought that she'd actually get to go, much less go on someone else's ticket with someone else paying her entire way. )

Series: Torchwood
Genre: NaNoWriMo-ish, science-fiction, horror
Word Count: 3819 (36,550 out of 50,000 - 73% to goal)
Summary: Set immediately following End of Days but prior to the beginning of Series Two, Torchwood Three's leader is gone. What will happen in the meantime?

---

( The Prime Minister is sending someone to Torchwood? )

Series: Torchwood
Genre: NaNoWriMo-ish, science-fiction, horror
Word Count: 4192 (32,731 out of 50,000 - 65% to goal)
Summary: Set immediately following End of Days but prior to the beginning of Series Two, Torchwood Three's leader is gone. What will happen in the meantime?

---

( She opened her eyes cautiously, not quite sure when she'd squeezed them tightly closed. It was strange to be so surprised to still be alive. )

Series: Torchwood
Genre: NaNoWriMo-ish, science-fiction, horror
Word Count: 4215 (28,538 out of 50,000 - 57% to goal)
Summary: Set immediately following End of Days but prior to the beginning of Series Two, Torchwood Three's leader is gone. What will happen in the meantime?

---

( All he could really say for the lizard thing was, well, it was ugly. The first thing that came to mind was a very rough comparison to an iguana of some kind, if an iguana ever got up to about two and a half metres tall, grew gigantically long claws, and some rather nasty teeth, not to mention learned to walk in a vaguely bipedal fashion. )