Man, I’m really glad I added that ‘sort of’ in the beginning of the previous post, because clearly I wasn’t actually back.
Sorry. Again. And then again for this next part.
So, here I sit on January 11th, 2026, a full blown twenty two years after I first uploaded my first real fan fiction to FFNet, and I…am not where I thought I’d be. I’m where I’d hoped I would be, for sure, but I didn’t have much hope. Although this isn’t what I’m here to talk about, more just appreciating what I’ve got.
Obviously, I didn’t get much done in 2025, in terms of fan fiction. I at least had an excuse! If you missed it, please refer to this blog post to learn the truth. In short: I had a mental breakdown in January and February due to…a number of reasons. Then I discovered I have ADHD in March and got medicated for it. And I pretty much spent the rest of the year trying to relearn how to live life properly medicated.
Um…it’s not going as well as I’d like. The medication is fantastic. It makes sleeping easier, makes focus a LOT FUCKING EASIER. It calms down my anxiety and depression. It’s frankly INSANE how much of a difference I noticed in my memory. It also suppressed appetite, which is a good thing for me. Unfortunately, it’s kind of struggling against like three solid decades’ worth of bad habits and a brain formed wrong under the shadow of ADHD, depression, and anxiety.
Old habits die hard, as they say, and while I initially saw a MASSIVE boost in productivity and focus across the board, it eventually petered out and where I’ve been left is, yes, farther up the ladder than I was originally, but still not really where I’d like to be. I’m still trying to figure out how to be a normal person.
So that’s a big part of what is causing me to be so shit at turning in new fan fiction chapters. And that’s still kind of happening. We’re closer to figuring it out, but things are clearly still in motion. The other big reason is because…I’m still fucking busy. Big surprise. I hate making that excuse, because I never really want to get into it for privacy reasons.
The best I can explain it is: my job is now writing stuff under contract work, and I can’t talk about it, which is why I don’t like even referencing it, because naturally there are some people who are curious, but I can’t talk about it. NDAs and all that stupid stuff. But it lets me pay my bills and that’s the way the world goes round. I have a tendency of taking on too much responsibility, sure that I can handle it, and then burying myself under work for months and months at a time.
That’s where I am right now, and was through 2025. (It feels like I’ve always been here, sometimes.)
It’s still going to take a while to get the table clear, partially because when I start getting close, I’m forced to take on yet another new project for one compelling reason or another. The good news is that I am finally in a position to simply put my foot down and take on nothing new until everything currently in production is cleared. The bad news is that that very well could take up most of 2026, because of how much there is to do and how much got backlogged.
So…yeah. That’s where we are. This is why I can’t make any kind of promise on a timeline, and why when I do (like in the previous post) I basically always regret it.
All that aside, let’s discuss want I hope to do in 2026. Or, at the very least, what I’d like to do.
STARCRAFT - SURVIVAL: Still in my heart! I actually had a sort of coalescing moment while watching Lord of the Rings (in theaters again!) a few months ago that abruptly showed me the broader shape of this narrative. Part of the issue was that I had no idea how long this story was going to go on. I had ideas for bigger events down the timeline and I knew the general shape of the story, but it was all very unclear. And then it all snapped together. Well, not ALL of it, but a significant amount. Anyway, I definitely intend to keep writing this sporadically throughout the year. I SERIOUSLY want to get more written for this.
THE DOOM CHRONICLES - EPISODE FOUR: I almost started this one, and I’m glad I didn’t, because I would’ve just had to set it aside again. The good news is that ideas have been generating for how I want this episode to go and so far, they’re pretty cool. Still not sure when I’m actually going to kick this off. I’m admittedly kinda hoping to get something wrapped up (the only thing I could really wrap up though is The Callisto Protocol). So…it’s happening, I feel good about it, not sure when.
THE CALLISTO PROTOCOL: Still going! This one has the highest chance of significant progress, simply due to its nature. (But I’m pretty sure I’ve said that before.) Not much else to say, beyond a small complaint. I’m kind of sad about this one because I’m going to get it written and then immediately have to turn to DOOM - Episode Four, even though I’m honestly more interested in writing the sequel to The Callisto Protocol, but I can’t start that because I just finished a Callisto Protocol fanfic, lol.
Those are the only three things I’m going to even approach the outskirts of promising. How I see it going is: I’m going to try to train myself to start writing at least one The Callisto Protocol chapter a week. I honestly just need to get back into the habit. I’ll work on StarCraft - Survival when inspiration strikes, and ideally when it doesn’t, and try to get a chapter out for that one at least once or twice a month. Eventually, if I’m lucky, this will bring me to getting TCP finished this year. And then I can finally get Episode Four started. Now, I’ll talk a bit about the other ideas that are still kicking around.
HALO: Had a big sorta lightbulb moment with this recently, actually! For so long, I’ve had not just massive, grandiose ideas and plans and plots for an interconnected Halo universe that always felt too big to approach. I think what happened is that I just shoved it all back into my brain, came and poked at it occasionally over the course of the last six or so years, and then suddenly it was just like an oven timer dinging. Like, I guess it’s done settling? Because I know what to do now. Or, well, at the very least, I know where to start and the broader shape it needs to take. I’ll talk about it, and the other loose ends, below.
KANE: From where I’m standing right now, there are now two sequels I want to do, instead of three. The third one is instead going to still happen, but be from someone else’s perspective. Kane will still be there, though. I think it’d just be cool to see main characters from other main character’s perspectives, like in Adrift.
GREG/IZZY: I haven’t changed my mind from the last time I talked about them. I still think they’re cool, honestly, so they aren’t just abandoned, but I’m going to roll them into both future Kane stories and my other series. Which is…
ALEX STEELE: Yeah, my original character from 2004. So, it’s actually been like a really long time since I’ve played Halo. Like, with the exception of playing literally two levels a few months ago with my oldest friend on a whim, I don’t think I’ve actually gone through a Halo campaign since, at the very least, pre-Covid. I know I played some of Halo: CE in 2019 when I was writing that version of Nerves of Steele. But now there’s all this talk of the remake, Campaign Evolved, and people say Infinite was a lot better than 5 (I still haven’t played either, though I at least intend to play Infinite, it did look cool), and so I started checking out Halo stuff again and, I don’t know, it was like that was the final piece, maybe? Like, I just snapped together this idea that essentially just sheered off tons of extra stories I was going to have to write to get what, in my mind, was ‘the proper, full experience’ of what I wanted to get across, in terms of how I feel about Halo. Because Halo…is very foundational to me, personally. But I can honestly look at it and say, there’s no need to torture myself writing hundreds of thousands of words about stuff that I don’t really care about anymore. No, I want a very specific feeling when it comes to Halo, and that is: Action/Horror. I want that vibe, you know the one. The vibe that comes from Quake 4, Doom 3, Wolfenstein 2009, F.E.A.R., some parts of Gears of War (since it was originally a horror game). The blood and guts, shit’s hitting the fan, military-versus-monsters vibe. I love that vibe. It’s my absolute favorite. So, I’ve got an idea of how I want this to start, and where I want it to lead. It’s still super epic, but it’s a lot more focused, and I think people are going to like it. It’s not revolutionary or anything, but I do think it’s just a fun, kickass idea. When will I get to this? No idea. I AT LEAST would like to finish TCP, Survival, and Episode Four.
KOTOR III: Still going to do this.
GAMES I STILL THINK ARE COOL ENOUGH THAT I WANT TO WRITE ABOUT THEM
Far Cry: Primal
StarFox 64
Red Faction 1 & 3
GAMES I MIGHT, MAYBE, POSSIBLY SOMEDAY WRITE ABOUT BECAUSE I STILL THINK ABOUT THAT ONE FAN FICTION FROM TIME TO TIME EVEN NOW, OVER A DECADE OR TWO LATER
The 5th Element: Not a game, I’ll admit. I had this idea for a dark, Event Horizon-esque sequel to The 5th Element where the son of General Staedert (that guy on the spaceship near the beginning played by Baron Munchausen ((I had no idea that was him until kinda recently!!))) is tasked with leading a military and scientific investigation to the Dark Planet, as it is now in orbit around Earth.
The Suffering: I still fantasize about novelizing these two games and then capping it off with a third one.
Dead Space: I mean, it’s fucking Dead Space. But these days, what I sometimes want to do that probably sounds nuts is: I want to create an adaptation of the concept of Slender Space. (Short game about being trapped on an Ishimura-like ship with Slenderman). I honestly think that’s a cool concept and would love to see what happens when I just run with it.
GAMES I’VE NEVER QUITE HAD AN IDEA FOR BUT STILL THINK I’D LIKE TO TAKE AT LEAST ONE SHOT AT WRITING ABOUT
Army Men: I know, weird, right? Although I guess not that weird, considering my interests. These games were so cool back in the day, and even now they’re…I dunno, interesting, but also still weird? I was playing through one of them again a few years ago and I noticed this vague sense of creeping dread and nebulous terror hung over everything. I dunno, something there, I think. If I had to guess right now, I would say that my subconscious brain has picked up on the fact that a society built like how the society must be built in the Army Man game holds some horrifying implications.
Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: Also not a game. Although I think there was a game, I was inspired by the cartoon. I’ve mentioned it a handful of times but in 2007 I actually began writing a sort of gritty war story following a new cadet Space Ranger thrown into an abrupt and shockingly savage war as the bad guys try something a little more productive. I still think about this, sometimes. And when I do, I think…yeah, someday. Maybe when I’m like in my 50s or something and finally have time.
Spyro the Dragon: One of the very first fan fictions I ever actually wrote was about Spyro the Dragon. Specifically, it was about the Gnorcs and a crystal mining operation for the war effort they established on an island they really shouldn’t have. I was 15 when I wrote it. As far as I know, no trace of it exists except within my own memories. I never even posted it, as this was pre-FFN, and also pre-’the concept of uploading stories to the internet’ for me personally. I still think there’s a lot of potential for a cool survival/horror story or even series.
Terminator: I still think about writing a story with the feel and vibe of the early 2000s-era Xbox Terminator games. You know the ones: Dawn of Fate, T3: The Redemption, and T3: Rise of the Machines. Surprisingly, it was T3: Rise of the Machines that I most want to model my story around. Specifically the first part of the game, where you are the Terminator but still in the future, because it so perfectly nailed the vibe of what I felt like the Future War era of Terminator should look like. And then, of course, Terminator: Resistance came out and nailed it even harder in 2019. And now there’s another Terminator game, a survival one called Survivors, coming up. It sounds to be by far the most ambitious Terminator game. I still want to write a ‘people surviving in the wastelands while trying to fix up an old outpost’ story. I still might.
And that’s about it these days. There’s always other stuff occasionally bubbling to the surface in there, but mostly it all slips back down again before too long and then I’ve forgotten I’d ever thought of it until it happens again some four months later.
Here’s to a better 2026.
-Obsidian