The main reason I wanted to write this author's note is to maybe explain something that was going on in the story: Kylie/Kyle's gender. At the time of writing this, I was a wee, innocent babe who knew nothing of genderqueer or the LGBTQ+ community, but still wrote K as such. Maybe I was projecting onto this character. Maybe I just wanted to write a character who was a little different. I don't quite remember what past me was thinking.
The point is, I never meant to offend anyone or make anyone uncomfortable with my characters. If my character makes people uncomfortable, then I will remove this if that is what's necessary. But I believe that this is a momento of my past writing, and it's nice to look back onto it sometimes and see what young me was thinking. It's why I haven't hardly removed the author notes.
I also realize I wrote an ADHD character in this. Turns out, I was diagnosed as ADHD years after posting this and was just projecting onto characters without even knowing.
Now, about the status of the story:
Well then. This story has been discontinued. In my head, it has been for a while (sorry to those who hoped otherwise), but life goes on, people grow up, and I no longer can read this without cringing so hard I practically send myself through the back of my chair.
I don't want to delete this story, though. Although I may have grown as a person and a writer, I still like to have the humbling reminder that I started where everyone else did at one point: with stories that I wrote on a whim with a smile on my face, despite how much I dislike them now.
If you are thinking of writing and care enough about some random person on the internet's opinion, then here's my advice: go for it. Write the cringy fics. Write the OC and self-inserts. Write the overused tropes and common plotlines and silly author notes. We all have to start somewhere. You'll grow and learn as time goes on, trust me.
Good luck, and thank you for listening
Also, if you were wondering what I originally had planned for the story, the outline went something like this:
-They find out through some strange lights one night that there's a facility at the edge of town that has been fiddling with some magic stuff, which is part of the reason why the characters got sent to Earth. The magic of the facility interfered with the magic of the cards (why is Kurapika here? Idk because I liked him)
-They sneak into the facility and find out more about what's going on, I don't quite remember what "super secret evil people" stuff I had planned but the workers there are absolutely sus
-They manage to steal some more cards to teleport the characters back home, but the magic fails again and instead sends them to the facility
-Big Bad Guy reveal, I think?
-Fight between the MCs and the Big Baddies, I'm not 100% sure if I was going to give K and Alex nen, but *shrugs*
-Actually I think I was going to give them nen because I was going to have it so that their nen made it so that the teleport cards actually work
-Tearful goodbyes, the boys head home :)