Long time member of , but I've let this account sit idle for years until December '09, when the urge to start writing again struck. I've since removed my few remaining old works and replaced them with The Winter War: Anrak's Tale, Espada's Masquerade, and Long Halloween.

I've learned a lot from my experience writing The Winter War, and looking back now I can see a lot of mistakes I made. Regardless of those mistakes, I'm proud of this particular piece; it's only the second story I've ever actually completed. That counts for something, even if it's not some great literary masterpiece. Espada's Masquerade is better written (still has plenty of mistakes, though) and better thought-out, and I believe it to be a good reflection of the things I learned from Winter War.

My latest piece is entitled The Long Halloween and is basically the Hell Verse movie as I envision it. It's completely different from the film in every regard, though, because I didn't actually like the Hell movie; even by anime standards the plot was thin and made no sense. Their grand plan to escape Hell was to escape Hell, kidnap Yuzu, return to Hell, wait for Ichigo to come rescue her, drive him into hollowfying completely so he could destroy their chains and the gates of Hell, and then finally, escape Hell (for real this time!). Sorry, but I just wish it had been handled differently, perhaps in a way that made slightly more sense.

Media Stuff!

Anrak Ushii and Kage Shitsukoi from The Winter War, courtesy of Mercy from the Star Wars Artists Guild: http:///art/Anrak-and-Kage-Shitsukoi-193778376 Really love how Kagi looks here; Mercy took a couple of liberties with her clothing and the end result is better than what I originally envisioned for her!

Tyn Tethis from Espada's Masquerade, pre-exile, courtesy of Mercy once again! http:///art/Tyn-Tethis-204036285 Mask isn't quite right, but otherwise I absolutely love the pic!

I'd really like to see more art if anyone out there is so inclined! If you have an art piece, please send me a link and let me see it! I'd love to see Anrak and Nel together as both Captain and Lieutenant/husband and wife, or Tyn and Tia bickering, or Yoruichi tormenting Grimmjow, or Haname being her creepy/insane self!

There's so much I'd love to be able to draw myself, so many scenes I'd love to be able to illustrate but alas, I can't even draw a proper stick figure. Help in this department would be greatly appreciated!

Getting away from the subject of art, I've decided to use Fanfiction.net's forum feature to create a place to discuss my Bleach stories and ask questions; I didn't originally intend to bother with this, but I've gotten several questions tucked inside reviews and a few in PMs and I think this might be a better way to communicate with readers since it allows my answers to be directly viewable by all interested parties rather than by an individual in a PM. The link is http://forum.fanfiction.ws/forum/Pagos_Universe/100908/

In regards to using my characters...

I've actually gotten several PMs from people asking permission to use my characters in their stories (though none of them seem to have actually carried through yet), and while I find these requests to be very humbling, I thought I'd put my typical response here for all to see.

For Anrak and Kagi, yes, go ahead; my only condition is that you keep them true to who they are in terms of personality and background.

I hate crap where characters are re-imagined as high school students or knights in a far-off kingdom or vampires or things like that. Don't do that, please; Anrak is a shinigami and Kage Shitsukoi, Kagi, is his zanpaktou. It's just that simple.

Anrak was a timid commoner from West 54 who wanted to be a Soul Reaper because he thought it was the right thing to do. Kagi, of course, has been manipulating him the entire way and now he's a stronger, more confident individual. That's essentially what I find important; you can adapt him to be in any squad you need, you can nix his bond with Yoruichi if you want, and you can pair him with someone different than Nel if it suits you (please note that while yaoi pairings seem to be very popular among the authors here, I would ask that you not do it with Anrak).

Takk, Satsu, and Haname Shiba are all pretty much the same way in that I want the spirit of the characters to remain intact, although since I haven't explored their pasts, there's a lot more to work with. Haname is going to be getting a lot more backstory in the next story, though, so there is that.

Tyn is a character I'm much more protective over and I'm highly reluctant to give permission to anyone to use him; while it is true that I have modified him from what I originally envisioned, I don't see any other ways he could be handled that I would like. You can ask, but be fully prepared to be denied.

And please, if you are going to use my characters or wish to set your story in the little AU I've inadvertently created, speak to me first and let me know. If nothing else, let me know so I can keep an eye on your work just to ensure my characters are being handled in an appropriate fashion.

If any of this is unclear or you have questions on specifics, feel free to PM me!