Introduction

Hello. I'm hawk, and it's a pleasure to meet you. I did not voluntary enter the world of FF, nor choose my own name, but once I gave it a try I never looked back. It's almost a metaphor for life, if you squint your eyes well enough and are willing to forgive bad extended clinches. I'm not completely happy with my own works here, but what I am truly grateful for are the friends that I've made - cheesy as that might be - from practically geographical neighbours to those in a timezone fourteen hours away.

I'm based in sunny Singapore, which coincidentally enough is not a quaint antique shop down the road. It's a island country roughly the size of a major city, south of China, almost exactly halfway across the world from the United States, placed as close to the Equator as we can get, and it's the death penalty if you do enough drugs.

Many great friends here have helped me and encouraged me - a shout out to Shadow Blues, lupyne, Souldin, Foxpilot and NinjaSheik, among others, who've really been a great source of encouragement and support. Every comment, fave or alert is very much appreciated. Constructive criticism is always welcome, as well as any comments or areas for improvement.

EDIT (22 Mar 2020) Hello everybody.

hawk

Recommendations

I firmly believe FF is a good place to seek out new authors, great fiction, and giant mutant zombie squirrels. In keeping with that belief, here are some stories which I find particularly awesome, and are therefore favourited for a reason. In the limited constraints of time presently, I can only provide you a short list, but rest assured it is a pretty good list and it will not bite you. Now get to them, before the zombie squirrels get to you.

1. I Am Lucario by lupyne. The world as seen through the eyes of a wild Lucario, making friendships, finding adventures, and running against the wind. The genre-spanning fic balances emotion, action and characterisation, and the character within are very endearing. As Lucario grows up in the fic, he encounters various humans and Pokemon who inevitably shape his life to come. Long chapters, but they are brilliant ones.

2. Forever More by Kay dOuble-O Zii. A funny, insane, and touching fic, all at the same time. Lucario, Aurora and Mandite travel across the land, expriencing the whole range of emotions available - from friendship, to anger, to romance, to despair. Brilliantly written, you'll feel Lucario's pain as their journey together moves towards its inevitable end. Completed, but still worth reading through all over again.

3. League of Legends Vols. 1 and 2 by the Balladeer. A real novel with an inventive take on the Brawl characters, pitting the LOL against a rather dystopian world. Expect the expected as well as the completely unexpected, complete with humour, emotion, some fourth-wall breaking and very clever writing. Altogether an underappreciated gem - do your part by reading it and spreading it to the rest of the community. A definite must-read.

4. Alphabet by sakuragawa. Ranging from the funny, to the bitter, to the darkly humourous, there's something for everyone. Life as experienced by the minor characters, these short oneshots infuse life and colour into otherwise little-seen unknowns. Somberly touching, a great read which Death Note fans should not miss out on.

5. Seperated Kingdoms by BoltFraction. A inventive and dark take on the Smash Universe, this fic explains some of its deepest mysteries. It's a brilliant tale, balancing action, deep emotion, and characterisation; don't give this fic a miss. The only complaint is that it is not on FF, but that should be no excuse for anyone wanting to read this brilliant piece of work. It can be found at boltfraction.deviantart (dot) com/gallery/#/d1yjz88

6. Identity Crisis by Magee. Surprise, surprise, an incredibly innovative Team Fortress 2 fic. A twisted take on the game, touching on game mechanics we take for granted, and being excellently mysterious. Characterisation of all the nine classes are simply beautiful, bringing the characters you know and love to life. In short: read it, and read it now. It can be found at magee.deviantart (dot) com or themagee (dot) com.

More detailed recommendations - and more recommendations - coming soon. Please be patient while we connect your call. *disk scratch*
*insert short music loop of choice here*

Projects

ONE. The Machine that Won the War. (Team Fortress 2)

Years after the dust settles, the mercenaries are persuaded to share the intensely personal stories behind the war.

This is me trying out something quite different, and hopefully a more mature writing style. Much of it is actually old work, but I hope you enjoy it.

Status: Chapter One: Ambassador
Next Chapter: Chapter Two: L'Etranger (soon)

TWO. Smile. (Pokemon)

When a murder occurs in sleepy Snowpoint, it quickly becomes the talk of the town. And for the six Pokemon affected by their Trainer's death, it quickly becomes completely life-changing. While waiting to be returned home, strange occurances begin to dominate the Pokemon's lives. A Riolu on the team decides to explore the city in the meantime - just when the first snow begins to fall.

A collaboration with an incredible author and friend lupyne. It's been a great honour and pleasure working with him; and any fans of lupyne should not want to pass up this story. Especially the parts written by him. There's not enough of my work there to dilute his. So, Smile. Read it already; you won't be disappointed. Pokemon knowledge not a prerequisite; SSBB fans more than welcome. Lupyne can also be found on DeviantART via this link.

Status: Chapter Five: Hidden Waltz. (by hawktakesflight)
Next chapter: Chapter Six (by lupyne and hawktakesflight) soon.

THREE. The Authors' Assault and Other Stories. (Super Smash Brothers)

A collection of random SSB oneshots and experiments, some funny, some try to be funny. Sanity optional. Now used as a punching bag in between writing for Smile, so expect more craziness and a lot more loosely-structured, wildly fluctuation genre-mood-swings.

I tire of putting disclaimers in all the fics, so I will just put it here - I don't claim to own any of the characters in my stories. While everyone probably already knows this, I often wonder what will happen if this sentence is missing, and usually envision scenes including scary lawyers abseiling down buildings to attack me unawares; and thus prefer to err on the side of caution.