IF YOU HAVE NOT YET READ THE FINAL CHAPTER, GO BACK NOW! MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!
* Peeks out from hiding place *
* Sees angry mob *
* Laughs nervously *
Oh...hey, guys. So, um...now that I've been in hiding for a few days, I figured I'd give you guys some final notes. Jokes aside, you all actually took the ending of the story better than I expected...or at least those of you that I've heard from so far. I was betting on at least one "I hate you!"...but who knows, maybe one of you lurkers feels that way haha.
Speaking of which, I'm gonna do some quick review replies before we get into the notes. Any reviews that I get from here on out will be answered via private message.
DyingofFeels: Yeah, um...third time's the charm? I teased killing her off twice before it actually happened, now that I think about it. I greatly apologize for the damages done to your heart. Please don't sue.
Hcbnc: Haha your reaction was so blasé. It made me laugh out loud for real.
xOneSkyx: So sorry for wreaking such havoc on your poor heart! I'm glad you feel I did my job well, though.
Enamis09: Well, I will say that it is very rare for someone in KH to die and remain that way. However, I also want to clear up that no, her body was not actually freezing. Remember how when they were in Meli's heart, she said that the cords of darkness were icy cold? So the "freezing" that she felt was just how I imagined the darkness to feel when spreading through her body. Most of the rest of your questions will be answered in the notes below!
Nevquariel: Well, tbh, I almost cried while writing that final scene, and I NEVER cry while writing/reading. I'll be talking a little about what's coming next in the notes. Yes, a Riku pov of that will be happening...just maybe not in the way that you're thinking. ;) Thanks so much for the encouragement!
To everyone who has reviewed: Thank you so much! Getting feedback from you guys means so much to me, and I look forward to reading them every time I post! Thank you to those of you who have faithfully stuck with me since Sorrow's Promise (or even earlier than that!), and to those who joined in later and promptly began leaving reviews. To those of you who haven't reviewed...I love you guys, too, thanks for reading, and following, and favoriting! But yeah, total honesty, it's the reviews that keep me going, I definitely would not keep posting new content if I wasn't hearing that people were enjoying it.
A special thank you again to those of you who encouraged and gave advice when I was kinda freaking out in the middle there. I think every artist, no matter their medium, has spurts of doubting themselves, and since you guys are pretty much my only source of writing support, I greatly appreciate it.
To the notes!
CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE
~All Disney and Kingdom Hearts characters and storyline belong to Disney and Square Enix. I do not profit monetarily from writing these stories.
~Mario Kart, Doctor Who, Star Wars, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, The Chronicles of Narnia, High School Musical, and Indiana Jones, all of which were referenced or quoted, do not belong to me, either.
~Meli, Zephyr, Kaj, Annaisha, Nara, Cho, Dai, Kenta, Hamrish, Aiden, Chander, Lirit, and Damini all belong to me, so please ask my permission before using them.
~Special thanks to my husband who, even though he knows very little about KH, came up with the name "Inferno's Edge"...and also has spent a lot of time listening to me talk about my stories and followers and reviews and other things he has no real knowledge of. He will never read this thank you, but hey, he deserves the credit.
FUN FACTS
~Today is Meli's birthday! January 29th, the day that KH3 was released. I read that Sora's birthday was the day the first game was released in Japan, and some people decided that meant that Riku's birthday was the release date of CoM. So I figured I would kinda continue that tradition, and chose KH3 because it worked into my timeline and because we were all looking forward to that date at the time that I was writing it. So, um...happy birthday, Meli...sorry I killed you?
~There are 6 references to "Sanctuary" throughout the story. Did you notice all of them? They can be found in -
Chapter 6 - "my safe place" (which is basically the same thing as a sanctuary)
Chapter 8 - "the fears and memories of past hurts and lies melted away"
Chapter 10 - "All that's left of me now is this...mess that I've become"
Chapter 29 - "Your heart is a battleground."
Chapter 46 - "Thank you for always being my safe place."
Chapter 46 - "You showed me that...maybe I wasn't whole...but I wasn't completely broken...either."
~Also, in addition to the name meanings that I mentioned last time, this time we added:
Annaisha: "Helpful guide to others" (Japanese) Seemed fitting for a therapist
Nara: "Is beautiful" (Japanese) In case you forgot, this is the chick who was flirting with Riku
Cho: "Butterfly" (Japanese) Nara's flighty friend
Dai: "Big, large" (Japanese) One of the twins that bullied Meli
Kenta: "Thick, big" (Japanese) The other twin
Hamrish: "Helpful" (Hindi) The cafe owner in Twilight Town
Lirit: "Musical" (Hebrew) Demyx's doppelganger
Damini: "Lightning" (Hindi) Larxene's doppelganger
PTSD
I will admit, I didn't know very much at all about PTSD or panic attacks when I went into this story. It was never even my intention to write a story about mental illness to begin with, I just knew I wanted a sequel so we could see Meli having some happy moments with her new family and have some more Meliku fluff. Then Meli came and knocked on the door of my brain and said, "Hey, remember all that crap you put me through in the last story? Yeah, I have PTSD now." I said, "Really?" Started researching causes, and said, "Yeah, you know what, you probably do."
Point is, I did a lot of research for this story, and I hope that I've been able to portray these things decently well. Everyone's experience is different, of course. But if you, like me, are unfamiliar with PTSD (the real, clinical PTSD, not the vague kind that you see in a lot of fanfics), here are some of the symptoms, many of which you should recognize from Meli:
Increased Anxiety and Emotional Arousal
Hypervigilance (on constant 'red alert')
Intense physical reactions
Irritability or outbursts of anger
Irrational and intense fear
Difficulty concentrating
Panic attacks/anxiety/depression/mood swings
Feeling jumpy and easily startled
Difficulty falling or staying asleep
Tense muscles
Avoidance and Numbing
Inability to remember important aspects of the trauma
Loss of interest in activities and life in general
Feeling numb and empty
Avoidance of people and places
Feeling isolated
Re-experiencing the Traumatic Event
Flashbacks
Nightmares
Feelings of intense distress when reminded of the trauma
Other Common Symptoms
Feeling suicidal
Self-harm and self-destructive tendencies
Feeling distrustful and suspicious/blaming others
Guilt, shame, embarrassment, or self-blame
Misuse of alcohol/drugs/gambling/food
Seeking out high-risk/dangerous pursuits
Physical aches and pains
(This information comes from ptsduk . org)
Here are links to a couple more graphics with lots of information on them...as always, replace (dotcom) or (dotedu) or (dotjpg) with the real thing and remove all spaces:
PTSD stats: carrington (dotedu)/ wp-content/ uploads/2014/05/PTSD-Infographic-Final (dotjpg)
Understanding someone with PTSD: i. pinimg (dotcom)/ 564x/0a/86/f9/0a86f9529f8a8c7863fe65d3bcff8f52 (dotjpg)
WHAT'S NEXT?
So I've already told you guys that there is a third book (hopefully none of you missed that memo). The good news is...it's in the works? The bad news is...it currently only has like 19 chapters and I'm stuck. I'm NOT giving up on it, it WILL get finished and posted, so don't worry. It just...might take a little while. Turns out, writing a story that makes sense with the convoluted canon that is KH without actually having a canon to guide you is really really hard. I'm trying to put various clues and theories together and make it all make sense, but...yeah. And the fact that I have no one around to bounce ideas off of doesn't help (my sisters play KH but are terrible at discussing theories, my husband is great at plotting but doesn't know anything about KH).
So, having said all that, I will go ahead and warn you that you can expect the third book to deviate even further from...we'll call it "potential canon", since there isn't yet an actual canon. Some of you may have already assumed this because of Kairi still being around, but the secret ending will be ignored, and therefore the story will be much different from what likely is actually next in the games.
The epilogue, however, will be a big focus, as most of you have probably already figured out, especially if you read the oneshot series. That's where I'm stuck, trying to figure out...not exactly what will happen in the games, but at least some decent, interesting answers to all of the questions that Nomura has left us with. I decided that since we don't actually have a canon to follow, this was my chance to really make the story my own, tie up loose ends, and have fun with the AU that I've created. So, even though I know very little about what all of that is going to look like still, I know that you can expect a combination of popular theories, my own headcanons, and plot that is strictly related to Meli and this AU. For instance, the whole parallel universe idea will be coming back into play in a big way.
Speaking of tying up loose ends! I'm not giving you guys an entire quiz like I did last time, lol. However, now is your chance to let me know what you want to see in the next book. Is there a loose end that needs resolving? A plot hole that needs filling? Is there a conversation between characters that needs to be had? Is there some other kind of moment that you're dying to see? This is it, folks, the final story, so I want to try my best to make sure we all leave satisfied. I'm definitely taking into account the feedback I've already gotten on this story, but if there's more specific things you want to see, then please let me know!
In the meantime, while we're waiting for the third book...I'm going to be changing the title of the oneshot series to "Daughter of Darkness Oneshots" so that I can add on new ones for this story and, eventually, the next. I've been working on some of the requests that I hadn't gotten to yet (Enamis09 and Nevquariel, you should keep an eye out!), and I have a few ideas for Inferno's Edge oneshots, though not nearly as many as I did for Sorrow's Promise. So go ahead and start brainstorming, and get those requests in! I'm gonna start posting next Wednesday, and go back to the once a week schedule I had before.
If you made it this far, thanks for sticking with me through these super long final notes, and thank you again so much for joining me on this journey! I will see you again soon...may your hearts be your guiding key!