Hey Guys!

So, not a whole lot of questions on the AMA, but we did get some, so here goes!

Desirea Yardley asks:

How does your Kayla Vance story end does she find her women and get married, serve for her entire career... where does she end up?

I'll admit that right now, I'm not entirely sure how her story ends.

Does she get her woman? Probably/Eventually/There may be more than one.

Does she go to Annapolis? Yes! She'll serve in the Navy and specialize in logistical efficiency. (She'll be the one who makes sure stuff gets where it needs to be, at the right time, in the right place, and using the least amount of other stuff to get it there. Sounds boring, until you're on a ship with 500 gallons of ice cream and no tampons.)

Because the longer term Shardsverse is fuzzier than the nearer term Shardsverse, I'm not entirely sure if she'll serve out her whole career in the Navy.

I do, however, anticipate, that there will be a point, when she's been in for 22ish years, that she'll cross paths with a certain Marine, who will be fresh out of Annapolis, and might, just possibly, need an occasional smack upside the back of the head.

Mother Oracle asks:

What is Tim's reaction to John's death?

You'll forgive me for keeping that story close to my vest. (This is one of the future stories, though it's a ways off.) He will, eventually, after Penny dies, figure it out, and like many things in the Shardsverse, I'm thinking it's safe to say his response will be complicated.

He won't begrudge his Uncles for not telling him/them, though. (Sarah will likely be a different story.)

Are the uncles okay with the extended marriage? Enquiring minds want to know!

Tom McGee has seen basically everything under the sun, and as a result he's extremely difficult to shock or disgust. He's not bothered by it, but he's not enthusiastic about it either.

Mostly, when he looks at the four of them, and, as they spend more time together, their increasingly bad job of keeping the secret when they're "home," he sees a knife.

He's cold enough that he knows that, if he feels like he needs to, he can use this knife to hurt Tim.

He's warm enough to know that someone else could use this knife to hurt Tim, too, and he wants to protect him from that.

Right now, Tim's on Uncle Tom's side of the angels, and as long as that's true, Tom will do what he can to make sure no one else picks up the knife and stabs Tim with it.

If he thinks Tim's straying too far over to the dark side, he'll stab him himself.

To say that Tom feels burned from his previous government employment is not an exaggeration, and these days, the only moral compass he's going by is his own.

Uncle Mike is more conservative in these matters, and honestly, he thinks it's kind of icky. But, he's not about to piss off his mom by ever admitting that. He figures that since he lives 5000 miles away, and sees Tim once or twice a decade, that he can just ignore it.

Pretty much, he can't see any reason to hurt Tim because he's personally squeamish about this.

Levana says:

I'm hoping in that future, one of the girls becomes a Marine.

The military tradition will run strong in the McPalmer family. At least one of the kids will go onto Annapolis, as a Marine.

And said child/ren, will join an extremely select group of officers that their Pop is proud to salute.

I imagine a granddaughter sanding a boat with Pop while in a prom dress because you can't shoot your loser date.

: ) But that won't stop him from suggesting it.

I would love to see Gibbs and Fornell walking their wife down the aisle

I really hope the inspiration fairy hits for that, because I'm looking forward to writing that.

And I guess that's where we're going to end, for now.

For those of you who want to keep track of me, I'm always Keryl Raist. Twitter, Facebook (though I don't update there), and Instagram, I'm Keryl Raist. On Deviant Art, I stretched a little and am KerylR.

The M'Gy Dragons are up and running, and if you google Keryl Raist The M'Gy Dragons, you'll find them.

When I put STAW to bed, I consoled myself by watching The Last Jedi, because, well, I'm an OG StarWars Geek (Seriously, my parents took my six-week-old self to the drive in to see StarWars and I've been in love ever since.) And… Uh… Yeah. Did you guys know Reylo is a thing? I do now. And… um… sixty-five pages later…

(I promise I won't write 3,000,000 words of Reylo.)

But, I've got a new story up, and like any Keryl Raist work, I'm gonna call it porn with philosophy, because that's just the niche I like to inhabit.

Give it a look if you like space wizards wrestling with the nature of good and evil, often while naked. ;)

It's been a blast, and if any of you have more questions, feel free write. I'll 'round 'em up and answer them as they come in.

Love you,

Keryl