I was summoned by a super villainess to another universe

When I was a kid, my grandfather would watch me while my parents were busy. Most of the time I wound up doing chores, but occasionally, he'd get really melancholy. It was usually when someone he knew died. He'd talk about it like it was some sort of family curse. The men live forever while all the women in our lives die.

You'll linger. He said. You'll linger long past when everyone you care about has died. You'll outlive them all, just like me.

Heavy shit to lay on a nine-year-old.

Except I get it now. There was another funeral last week and it has just... taken everything out of me. I'm lingering. I'm fifty. I shouldn't be putting so many friends in the ground. Why the fuck is someone dropping dead from heart problems at thirty-five?

I guess I know why. We're not allowed to talk about it, unfortunately.

I'm posting this because I need a break. I can't think happy thoughts anymore. Everything is dark and depressing and I need to regroup. I've been writing for 15 months straight now, clocked in at just about 600k words in 15 months now. that works out to about 10k words a week. Not bad, not bad.

Thing is, I know If I stop writing, inertia will set in, so I can't stop writing. what I need is to stop posting. Keep writing and build up a nice buffer again. However, I need to write it out ahead of time because I just threw out a week's worth of writing because I knew it was shit. I can't focus.

I'm lingering.

So I'm not stopping the writing, but I am stopping the posting. I need...

I need the world to be unfair in my favor. I need some unearned good luck. I need to have faith rewarded. I need to find some hope because I don't have any right now.

So, posting this on all three books. I will not abandon this, but I need to... Find something. I don't have ... this thing right now. I've been lingering like this for far too long and I need to refocus.

I want someone, somewhere, to feel very bad about how the world is being run. This isn't how it's supposed to be. The young die while the old linger on, with eyes of sorrow staring into the twilight. The old man is supposed to help the young hero...

Not bury him.

So. I dunno. A month, maybe two. I'll post something occasionally at irregular intervals to prove I haven't given up. I need to rest. This wound is deep and it isn't healing.

-T.E.G.

PS. When I return in earnest, I will delete this chapter.