I'd say it's been a little bit, but that'd be a vast understatement.

To be blunt, I fell into a rut with this. I read criticism from viewers and friends alike, and spun my wheels trying to figure out what exactly I wanted to do with this story. What direction I wanted to take it in. I certainly had what I thought was a good plot in my head but translating this onto paper and maintaining that quality is a much different story.

And just like that, I simply forgot to log on one day and didn't look back. Life scooped me up and kept me busy. I thought back to it every once-in-awhile but rereading these three chapters simply makes me cringe.

I was essentially retreading ground other fanfiction writers had with similar crossovers such as these. It was boring, unoriginal and stale. Formulaic, even.

Recently, me and my girlfriend were discussing shit we used to do that made us cringe, and I offhandedly mentioned writing this, as well as some terrible works on Deviantart that shall remain hidden, forever. It made me curious, so I went back, reread it and caught up on some stories I never finished. It was surprisingly nostalgic.

Looking back on it, one of my major problems with writing fanfiction, both with this one and others I've done in the past, is the fact I tried to rush out chapters to fast. I had no real concept of patience at the time; I needed that dopamine rush of publishing a new part and watching the reactions, as sparse as they may be. This burnt me out rather quickly, as it felt like less of a passion and more like a chore.

With this story in particular, there were simply a number of minor errors and lore inconsistencies that contributed to an overall awkward and uncharacteristic experience. The concept of Harbinger Squad was a half-baked one that stretches the lore a considerable amount, and the characters themselves are simply uninteresting and uninspired. Marius feels like a Mary Sue the more I read it, with the members of SF oohing and awing at how exotic and superior he is. Writing Spartans in a way that properly portrays their power and traits in an accurate, interesting and respectful is, admittedly, a challenge.

Now armed with over three years of variation, maturation and improvement, as well as a copious amount of free time as I prepare to head off to college, I think I may try to redo this story, or simply rewrite the concept altogether and explore the crossover from a different perspective or do something different entirely. If anyone would be interested in such a thing and/or has an idea they'd like to pitch, feel free to leave a review or send me a PM.

See you lads around, maybe, possibly.