I never signed up for this

The story I've been working on for wipbigbang was supposed to be a simple sequel to "Face the Music" but it's become increasingly clear that this series needs to be a trilogy. The sequel already 11k words (the original was 12k), I've hit one of the two most important open emotional beats left from the first story, and I have quite a ways to go before I can reasonably reach the second.

This is not what I wanted; I'd really hoped to be done with this. And the last story that turned itself into a trilogy was Wardens of Ivalice, part three of which has been unfinished for several years (I posted part 1 in 2011 and part 2 in 2017), and I'd really rather this not suffer the same fate.

But, there's nothing for it. I don't like dragging a story out past its natural end, and I suspect there is more than enough material for a full-blown Part 3. So it goes.