*yawnie*

( city of villains )

Also watched the end of Full Metal Alchemist. I was really glad they didn't end up pulling some big god out of nowhere to wrap up the series, like anime tend to do when they write themselves into a corner. The way they had the good guys not-exactly-win was nice, too. I was a bit disappointed in the true nature of the philosopher's stone... although I'm sure all the characters in the story were too. }:)

Also, at another place in a story I'm writing (and not generally sharing with people, because I discovered last time that posting chapters before I'm finished doesn't actually motivate me to finish -- it just frustrates anyone who reads the first bit when I eventually and nigh-inevitably quit) where I'm not sure what to do next... I really really need to end the 'trapped in an evil school' segment because I'm even boring myself now with it -- it's turned into some unholy hybrid of yugioh and pokemon and MMORPG PVP.

So, the main character, a ~18yrold conjurer, is trapped in an evil school being taught how to fight in an environment where death is painful and tedious to recover from, but not permanently harmful. Also, dealt out by students to each other on a daily basis, in 'impromptu practice sessions' that anywhere else would be considered 'bullying' or, you know, 'murder'. You only graduate from the school when you prove your ability to kill everyone else in a big monthly tournament, which said character is unlikely to ever do because her style of magic is not especially good for fighting with.

The ideas I've had for moving on are:

• Divine intervention, since she had some contact with a god in chapter 1, and so divine intervention will have to come into the story in some form eventaully.
• A natural disaster destroys the school and allows her to escape. Similarly, a natural disaster will have to happen somewhere sometime, because it's been extensively foreshadowed.
• Jump several years into the future, and have her graduate or flunk out.
• Rescue by the legitimate authorities, as the school is not actually the government funded prison she thinks it is.
• Rescue and/or enslavement by a graduating senior she's had contact with, getting her out of the school and on to something else.
• 'Suicide' in the sense of throwing herself into a one-way gate into 'the void', which she has reason to believe could support life (although the conventional wisdom is that it's a recipe for permanent death).

Or, of course, some combination of those... sigh.