gabrielsknife

Thank you! I guess it's because I've been writing in the Stars universe; I never noticed about the showing concepts thing lol! This is probably the...third or fourth story that I've written that details some part of Maa'rish culture/life. Hell, I was doing dishes one afternoon when the idea hit me about the whole Maa'rish justice system. This was going to be a Gladiator story! Lol!

Thank you for reading it! I'm so happy you liked it. My other stories are mostly based in this same universe. They take place on other planets, but yeah, they're kinda similar . I hope you enjoy them as much as you enjoyed this one. Thanks again for reading .

Wow lol! Thanks! Really needed that laugh !

According to the rules I was taught, numbers one through ten you write out. Anything greater then ten, you're free to just input the symbol (i.e. 12 for twelve). There's also Roman numerals, but no body seems to use those anymore (Ligua Roma est mortus ;_; ) The only thing that was really stressed was consistency. If you decide to use symbols for your numbers, then don't just randomly write out twenty-four in the middle of a sentence. Other then that, go nuts with your bad, number writing self lol!

No problem! Always happy to help.

...smell like mayonnaise?" He had no recourse but to point to the half open jar, sitting on the counter top next to his box. "Maybe because you left the mayo out again! How many times - " And for that, he received the damp punishment of a water-balloon to the face. Claire flounced her way back outside, to the cheerful sounds of children screaming and balloons splashing. Jake scooted towards the papertowel rack, over the sink, when the phone suddenly rang.

Interesting to say the least! It was a bit difficult to digest in the beginning. I'm still not quite sure what Iswirl looks like, but the note at the bottom really helped piece everything together. I'm not sure if I'm going in the right direction with this, but I'm somewhat reminded of Species 8(whatever the rest of the number was lol) from Star Trek Voyager. The ending was unexpected and rather quaint; I've pulled the same thing once before with a fantasy story. At the same time, it was a little jarring and left me a little dazed. One thing I would recommend would be to go easy on the techno-jargon. It was a little disorienting, trying to piece Iswirl's description from such phrases as "three smaller manipulative arms at the top of his body to lift a piece of biological material to his olfactory organ, and then to his consumption orifice." Now, while this is so increadibly in character for Iswirl, getting sentences like this was like getting a jab to the face. "Boom! Process this, useless carbon-based humanoid!" You defiantly require a re-read to process all the information. And you did catch my attention at the beginning. When you mentioned the "aural bond", I kinda had a feeling of where the story was going. But that's okay, because the result of the bond and the ending make up for that. This obviously isn't your first story, but is this your first exploration into sci-fi? If so, what was your inspiration for Iswirl's race? Did you mean to make him as alien (I don't want to compare him Vulcans but the mind-set is kinda there) as you could? (Sorry, I'm always curious on how other people make their alien races ).

Hi there everyone! Thank you all for taking your time to read this little glimpse into my Stars universe . I can't tell you how much it means to me. I'd like to take the time to personally thank Tarin for not only prompting me to send this in, but handling all the HTML. And to Graeme for accepting it at the *very* last minute. Without them, this story would have probably stayed locked on my hard drive. If you'd like to learn a little more about the Maa'rish people or were confused by any of their language, here's a page of notes devoted to them. Notes located here. There are also more stories involving them on my lj. As soon as I figure out how, I'll be uploading several onto the GA e-fic...thing. You can also find some of my works on Shousetu Bang*Bang, under the pseudonym "Aoime Kouchou." I'll also be submitting another Stars/Maa'rish story to SSBB's up-coming issue. (*ends shameless self-promoting* lol) Anyway, thank you everyone for reading. I hope you enjoyed it and please feel free to tell me, either here or on my profile or in chat what you liked or didn't like about the story. I love input of any kind -- Gabe

Wow! Thank you so much for liking this! I was so nervous about sending it in . Thank you!

Oh heavens, I can die a happy man. Thank you so much for liking this. I was terrified it wouldn't be well received b/c of all the violence. I even cut some stuff out b/c I wanted to try and keep it a little tame. (You get a cookie if you can tell where I did some trimming.) At the moment, all of my stories are on my LJ. You can also find a few on Shousetsu Bang*Bang (under the pseudonym "Aoimei Kouchou"). This setting has to be my favorite because of the characters and their interactions. I hope to upload a few of my stories into the GA archives soon (I'm just a little confused on how, as it seems to be a little more in-depth then uploading on lj.) Thank you for liking this story!

Forgiveness is a major issue, both in the Japanese religion(s) and in their personal philosophies. I haven't done a very though examination of the topic, but from what I can gather through my own observations is that it's centralized around the Japanese code of honor. Not attaining forgiveness is a slight against the other person's (the villain's) honor. Not attaining forgiveness for a misdeed would be in direct conflict with several tenets of Bushidou, including but not limited to: honor, benevolence, and courtesy. Another way of thinking of it would be "I will remember the wrong you've done unto me". This sort of vendetta-like thinking follows through families and can (if one believes such things) possibly risk one's entrance into Heaven. Depending on the era, it could also involve a vassal's lord into the issue, for the one who is slighted would have full right to seek reparations from (the villain's lord). Wars have been fought over the issue of forgiveness (among other things, of course.) I hope that helps somewhat.

Now, I've not read the Fountainhead, but I have read Anthem. I was rather young when I read it too (middle school); when I finished it, my home-room teacher began reading "The Giver" (a tame, children's book that ended up freaking me out *because* of the similar theme it shared with "Anthem".) I had a copy of Atlas Shrugged, but I was too lazy to read it. Ayn Rand is a bit of a handful, in terms of...well, everything! Theme, rationale, etc. Anthem blew my young mind up, scattered the pieces on the floor, then put a blindfold around my eyes and said "pick up the pieces". I haven't read another Rand book since. Now, that's not to say she's a bad writer. I think many people should read her works! If nothing else, to gain the glimpse of another person's perspective. But my frontal lobe seizes up when I come near one of her books. Good writer, deep thinker, I'm just still trying to digest the first book ten years later. (I believe there was a Simpson's spoof of the Fountainhead. This is just about all I personally know about Fountainhead: uniformity is bad, but we're going to take all the creative people away to show how much worse the world can get. Or, am I confusing this for Atlas Shrugged?)

In my humble opinion, if the artist/writer doesn't feel any emotion when writing, how can he expect a reader to feel anything? It shows that there's real emotion in a piece, you know? Not just the sniffles, but everything; the humor, the anger, the sex (if that's what you're writing ^_-). I've gotten a little teary-eyed while writing a real touching scene. When I write my fighting scenes, I'm either so into the action or I'm...just a tiny bit pissed off. Just like everything, I try to work myself into the *mood* of what the characters are producing. Usually, I can help this process with music. I think it's the sign of a good piece and a good writer to get emotional over what you're writing.

Wow, what a loaded question. Everyone has their own opinion in regards to sex in writing. How much is too much? When does a "sex scene" overload the story? Is it really necessary to have one at all? I've written quite a few sex scenes in my writing career. I started off with "curtain drops", then gradually made my way to full blown erotic scenes. It all depended with what I was comfortable with at the time. When I started, I wasn't comfortable with sex. Curious and interested about it, sure, but not brave enough or knowledgeable to describe the...ahem, ins-and-outs of the act. When I became comfortable with what I was writing, I became brave enough to explore the hidden aspect of the sex scene. I think, once you're comfortable with it as a person, then you could begin to explore it as a writer if that's what you want. There's nothing worse then trying to force yourself to write what you don't want to write. It reflects back on you and could tarnish what you have worked so hard on. That said, not all stories need sex. Sure, it's a pretty/fun/attention-getting icing, but you don't need it to top everything. The sex could get in the way of the main plotline and make your cake-story loose its flavor. The sex-icing could overwhelm the natural flavors of the story and make it more sexually driven then you meant it to be. Or, the sex-icing could be just what you need to make your story-cake go from ordinarily to eye-catching and brilliant. In the end, it's you as the writer who needs to make this choice. If you didn't like writing sex in the past, then those lingering feelings might tarnish what you wish to right now. If you're not confident or if you just plain don't like it, don't do it! Curtain-drop, and let your reader imagine everything . No shame in making your readers stretch their brains lol. Don't force yourself and don't think that all good stories require sex to make them good or whatever. You just listen to your characters; they're who really matter, imho .

Creepy? I dunno. I have kinda a hard time with facial expressions. Like, I have to concentrate to make them. Most of the time, when I'm just sitting around and thinking, I have this hard/angry expression on my face. Once, when a professor was looking over my shoulder at something I was doodling, he said I glared at him when I thought I was giving a shocked expression. My pops will often say 'you look like you lost your best friend' when I'm just real deep in thought. I also have eczema, so I have to scratch my skin a lot. Back, chest, arms and head; makes me fidget if I don't ;_;. Sucks, but there's not much I can do about it.