Hi there,
I decided to seperate the Epilogue and the post-credits scene, because I noticed that people missed it. It's in the next 'chapter'.
Epilogue
Hi there,
You've reached the end of the story, congratulations! That means you at least found it interesting enough to read it until the end.
I had a blast writing this story. And as you may know, this was my first FanFiction ever, and, to be completely honest, this was the first (non-academic) piece I've ever written that contains more than one sheet of paper. Due to my Dyslexia I never had the courage and energy to commit myself to writing - certainly not in a foreign language - but I'm glad that I finally did so. I've learned a lot and I can say that my writing skills and my English have increased a lot.
The reason I started to write this story wasn't necessarily because I wanted to increase the above mentioned skills, but rather that I couldn't think about something else. This story clouded my mind for almost a year and I hoped that - by writing it down - I could get it out of my head once and for all. And it worked! So, I've gained some peace and space again to think about other things :P .
I had decided to upload it on FanFiction (and later to AO3), because I wanted to commit myself in finishing the story, which I did. But I have to say, I really underestimated how many people would actually read the story. I thought maybe 20 people would read it, 25 if I was lucky… and that I may get 1 or 2 reviews max. So, you can imagine I was kind of flabbergasted… maybe even intimidated, but most importantly it stimulated me to continue writing all the way to the end. And for that, I want to thank you!
I loved reading your reviews, and thanks again for taking the time to write them. They were appreciated! Both your compliments, but also your criticisms, as they kept me sharp. The most important thing I learned (the hard way) was not to mess with main characters and that last minute [sleep deprived] decisions weren't the best (e.g. Yamcha's kiss and Vegeta threatening Gohan to kill him; the last one was originally only to be a simple 'threat' towards Videl). It has cost me some readers, which made me sad, but I understood.
Anyways, I accepted my flaws and decided to incorporate them in the story. I had the storyline very clear in my mind, and I wrote it in a straight line from the beginning to the end as I imagined it. I decided to see this process as my own project, and that you guys were guests to the story, causing me to write it as I imagined it without changing it for 'fan service'.
The only problem I had was estimating how big the chapters (and thus the story) became, because while writing, the conversations of the characters & surrounding descriptions weren't included in my head XD. And that was kind of a big piece of the story itself. Reading it back, it's really a joke that I thought it would only take me 10 chapters to write the whole story.
Even though I had planned every step in this story in advance, I did make some changes though:
* I really liked the reporter Kate when she came into the story, and decided to pair her with Yamcha. In my original idea, Yamcha would have multiple flirts (this would almost be his only part in the story, next to covering up for the absence of Saiyaman), which in turn flirted with Saiyaman (Gohan) in the end. This would cause Videl to get jealous and decide to fight alongside him as Saiyawoman.
* At the prison, Videl would use a fake (clean) dart to poke the crook who poisoned Gohan, causing him to think he was poisoned as well. In a panic he would tell her what the content was and begged her to give him an antidote. This was how she originally learned about the dart's content and the Haikus weren't a thing. But I went creative and I liked this Haiku-element much better. Besides, I thought faking poisoning the crook was a bit too aggressive in my opinion, and also illegal, which would be a step too far for our crime fighter.
* The Baseball game was kind of a filler chapter, and it would have been a nice day out to the arcade, but since Yamcha was becoming more a main character to the story, I chose to go with the baseball game instead.
* The fight with Vegeta would have happened off screen. Instead we would have followed Videl in her search for answers (including breaking into Gohan's apartment… again crossing legal boundaries), all the way to Capsule Corp. Gohan would appear badly wounded after a month of absence, which would shock her. But because a reader/reviewer said he/she couldn't wait for the fight, I decided I maybe could challenge myself in writing a fight scene instead. This is kinda the only time I chose to go for fan service, mainly because I would gain writing experience out of it. I added the scribbles in the book at the party to compensate for the 'missing' chapter (Videl's p.o.v. )
I do have one favor to ask you: Would you like to write me an honest review? I never asked for a review before (only thanked those who did), and now the story is finished, I think it is time to do so. This experience was a learning process for me and without feedback, it would only be a bit of an empty shell in that regard. I know some of you already have written me a review (thnx again!), but I've noticed there are a lot of silent readers out there as well, and I also am curious for their opinion.
I can take (constructive) criticism, so please be honest. If you didn't like things, feel free to let me know as well, I'm not here to get sugar coated.
If you don't have an account, you can review as a guest. I even think you can change your account to guest if you prefer to review it anonymously (at least on FF it does). Also, if you don't feel comfortable writing in English, no problem, just do it in your own language! I have Google translate on my side ;) . I really don't mind. And if you don't know what to write in your review, you can answer these questions (though, you can freestyle if you want):
* What did you like about the story?
* What did you not like about the story (probably Yamcha and/or Vegeta XD - sorry about that!)?
* Would you change things?
* What did you expect when you started to read the story and did it meet your expectations?
* Was the story diverse enough? I tried at least to have different aspects in the story.
* Did you find any Easter eggs? If so, which one? I included a handful.
* What is your overall opinion about the story?
Again, thank you for your time to read my story! For now, I'll take a break from writing, but I do have 1 or 2 Han/Vi one-shots in mind, so if you are interested in those, I believe you can put me on your author alert list or something, or just let fate decide if you come across it when I publish them at that point in time ;).
Lots of love, Kipke
PS: To thank you for reading this epilogue, I have written a post-credits scene. So please check that out! It's in the next 'chapter'.
PPS: I might make a sequal to this story, which would continue directly after this one... I already have a story-line written out, so you never know :)