If the book we are reading does not wake us, as with a fist hammering on the skull, then why do we read it? Such books as make us happy we could write ourselves. But what we must have are those books which come upon us like ill-fortune, and distress us deeply, like the death of one we love better than ourselves, like suicide. A book must be like an ice-axe to break the frozen sea inside us. (Kafka)

Awkward much? I'm not sure how to write a summary of myself, which is to say the least ironic. However, my name is Herongale, and welcome to ground zero of my ff.net fiction collection.

The Kafka quote above might seem to bode ill for the kind of stories I like to write, and read. That "distress us deeply" bit seems alarming enough, and then the eyes scan "death of one we love better than ourselves" and "suicide," and it might occur to you to think I need anti-depressants, not anime and cartoon fanfiction. Still, I find the quote appropriate. The kind of writing I like, be it sexy or very sad, is the kind that opens my eyes and causes me to feel alive. As a reader, I like things that remind me that life is precious, that love is important, and that fun is not a four letter word (seriously, its not. Count!).

Although Kafka means it as a sneer, it's true that the kind of stories that make us happy are things we can write ourselves. Anyone can write a story. I think everyone should write stories, the stories that make them happy, and not worry too much about how others might take them, because fandom is for fun and writing fanfic should be too.

But another quality that I think is equally important, especially in the case of fiction, in a love full of personal bias. Put most radically, I would say that is all you need. (Haruki Murakami)

I have many many fandoms, only few of which I have ever written for. Here you will find stories for Digimon and Fullmetal Alchemist, and now for Transformers. Kafka is probably strangulating in his grave to be mentioned in the same introduction as them, but that's his problem. I welcome all criticism and constructive commentary. I will tolerate flames but honestly, I've been around way too long to take that kind of thing at all seriously. Anyone who wants to get a rise out of me is best advised to write extremely delicious Scar/Ed, Skeith/Haseo, or Daisuke/Ken. Beating me at my own game is the best revenge, and I'm always on the lookout for writers who can bring me to my knees. :)

For now, I am in the process of reposting old stories. I took my fanfiction offline sometime after ff.net started creating restrictive rules for what sorts of stories are allowed. Most of my stories were appropriate for this website, and the ones I will repost comply with the rules as they stand. But at the time, that didn't matter; I took them down in solidarity and sympathy for other writers whose writing journals were deleted. It took me a while to decide to reverse my decision; my morals haven't changed, but my strict absolutism has, and I feel a lot more tolerant towards complex interpretations of what is right or wrong. So ff.net is now acceptable to me again.

Nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight... you've got to kick at the darkness until it bleeds daylight... (Bruce Cockburn)

If you knew me before, thank you for the support and appreciation you have extended to me in the past. I hope you can be patient with me now; my real life is very busy (all of my post graduate work and internships and residencies are all done; I am finally a working professional). It will take time to get the old things back online, particularly since I am determined to revise the older things to bring them up to my current editorial standards.

If you are new to my journal and my writing, welcome. I hope you find something you can enjoy here. I write for myself, and so you'll never find me pestering readers to leave reviews. Nor can I be offended by any well intentioned review. If you want me to write more, by all means cajole and threaten me to do so; it's not going to make me write any faster, sadly, but I can appreciate the sentiment. If you just want to say "awesome" or "this sucks" that works too; honest opinions are preferred here (just like walking slowly and wearing your hair properly are preferred at the Maria Sama academy for sapphic wannabes).

I consider "Flooding Dark" to be my best story. Most of it will be too steamy to post here; I'm only going to put up the first few chapters just to advertise. If you like it, the entire thing can be found here. It is a complete story.

And this is it for now. Thank you for taking the time to read my profile.