Crystal here!

I'm currently sitting in a rental car driving to the Mount St. Helens observatory and typing this on my iTouch. I've been on a family vacation for the past ten days, which included an Alaskan cruise, which meant I was pretty much disconnected from the rest of the world for about a week. It was great and all, y'know, because of the whole "escape completely" thing...until I got off the cruise, got my wi-fi back and found two updates from Fates, four chapters from a new AP story, and even an update of Double Agent. Oh, and ComicCon excitement. Seriously, I'm gone for a week and the internet bursts to life without me. You people couldn't have waited a few more days?

Haha, okay. I'm totally kidding. But I would like to take the time to formally say...hi! Crystal.elements here! You probably know me as that girl who wrote the story where Sarah loves Glee and Chuck gets PCP'd and says extremely embarrassing things, or the AP fic where Sarah goes to Disneyland and sets a Disney princess on fire via the Fantasmic night show. Or maybe you know me as the fifth member of the Cabal and the only person in that group who seems to stick out like a sore thumb. Yep. That's me. :D And now I formally thank Frea for roping me into Castle Inanity. (Thanks, Frea!) 

So I know that I'm not nearly as well known or popular as my fellow Cabal members, but I figure that there are at least several of you wondering why I seemed to have dropped off the face of the planet after Disneyland and Closet Gleek finished back in May. There are several reasons for this, but one of the main reasons is that I have this reeeeally bad habit of biting off more than I can chew. I thought I'd have more free time this summer, so I took on way more projects and ideas than I could handle. Yeaaaah. Now I basically have a bunch of unfinished or barely started stuff lying around all over the place and less than two months left before school starts up again.

The second main reason happens to clash horribly with the first: I absolutely suck at time management. Also, I seem to have the attention span of a five-year-old. No, seriously. Just ask mxpw or Frea. In fact, Frea likes to play this game during our chats where she changes the subject right after I say that I have to log off, just to see how long l go off on the new tangent before remembering that I have to leave...

Anyway. Before I actually do go off on a tangent and drive you all away (if I haven't already done so), here is a lovely status update of where I'm at with various Chuck-related stuff. Because rest assured, I do have stuff planned and started and halfway done. And if you're patient with me, I promise that you'll eventually see all of this stuff posted online. :) So, in no particular order:

1. Wind & Tide fanart. Here's a little preview!

2. Two new chapters of my forgotten Chuck Me Monday Challenge story. 

3. A new Chuck fanvideo. I already have the song edited; unfortunately, my hard drive with all my Chuck episodes crashed and burned a while back, and I haven't been able to edit since. Once I get a new hard drive and re-convert the episodes for editing we should be on the right track.

4. A comedy oneshot tentatively titled Chuck Versus Analogies. This one is gonna be difficult to write, so it'll probably be a while before you see it published. 

5. A multichapter story titled Kill Bryce. Some of you may have seen the summary of this on my profile. If not, the basic premise is an AU branch-off from the S2 finale; The Ring is never introduced and Bryce successfully uploads the Intersect. It eventually ends up driving him insane, and Bryce starts targeting agents and higher-ups within the NSA and CIA. It's up to Chuck to round up the rest of TeamB, make sure his family is safe, and put an end to the corrupted Agent Larkin once and for all. Probably will be dark, cynical, and action-y. In other words, my attempt at getting away from the "adorable" factor that the rest of the Cabal has coined on me. 

5. An untitled multichapter loosely based off the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and an AU branch-off of the S2 finale. A wounded Bryce successfully uploads the Intersect, but not before Chuck is taken hostage by The Ring and tortured. Despite being saved, he's critically injured, and it's not long before Ellie finds about Operation Bartowski. Wracked with guilt over Chuck's condition and under pressure from both Ellie and the government, Sarah takes her reassignment with Bryce. Her emotions are wreaking havoc on her performance, though, and sooner or later it's going to cost her and Bryce their lives. Unfortunately for Sarah, some memories are impossible to forget. Or are they? Incredibly angsty, but without those pesky PLIs. Well, sort of. This is the biggest project I've ever taken on, so it'll probably be while before anything comes out. I do, however, have the prologue written...keep an eye out, you might see it posted here sometime soon!

6. Another addition to the AP franchise! Because my vacation has given me wonderful material for new ideas. :D I actually made a deal with Frea, so in addition to "Adorable Psycho Versus the Vacation Virus", look forward to her attempt at our homicidal, sex-obsessed CIA agent. ;)

Aaaaand that's all for now, folks. With the Cabal pressuring - er, I mean encouraging - me (especially mx), you can expect something from the list above relatively soon. As for now, though, I'm exhausted. We drove for at least eight hours today give or take, and I've got a flight back home first thing tomorrow morning. 

Until the next update! :)

~Crystal