i was rereading TAM last night and this morning, and had some more debriefing thoughts on it. i've been pretty critical about that story in the past--if i were to do it again, i'd do a bunch of stuff differently. while the first third is paced really well, i think the rest of it is a little much, and i think my investment into the side characters distracted the focus of the story. general narration focus should've stayed with zack, since it's mostly his story as a crisis core oriented fic, and so on…

but like when i reread it, it's still like? decent writing? it's not bad by any stretch of the imagination. it's a little indulgent but i tried to stay true in spirit in a lot of different ways, and the story has a lot of heart and emotional punches. and i guess if i enjoy reading it and enjoyed writing it (for the most part, i have mixed feelings on the process of the very ending), then that's what matters, right?