Epilogue: Days of Past, Present, and Future
There are many stories that have been told. Many unheard, many unseen.
Words weave an endless tale, a spiral of passion, stretching beyond the nether.
We come from a world where passion is discouraged, and obedience is rewarded. But I won't bore you with that. You came here to escape from all that, right?
You may be weary, but don't be.
I would never lie to you. Nor mislead you. You do not need to stay, in fact, I am appreciative of those who have even stayed this long.
There's still many words to weave, many tales to tell. For making it this far, I shall reveal some truths that would otherwise be obscured.
From the past...
"Hm hm hm hm hm!" Within the cold, classy halls of a sanctum, the empty air was filled by the leisurely hums of a young girl.
A young girl, barely the age of 13, with an appearance that definitely made her stood out among her peers. She had striking pink hair, brighter than the sky at the last moments of sunset. Her long hair tied into youthful twintails that bounced atop her shoulders as she walked.
Her small body was wrapped up in a thin fabric pink robe with a sash of silver sliding off, unkempt at the waist. The robe was adorned with faint, silver flower prints.
She walked with parchment in one hand, and a lead-tipped object in the other. Having filled the parchment with scribbles attempting to be writing, she hoisted the paper in the air with pride and shouted, "There! All done! I hope he comes!"
She lowered the paper underneath her armpit and then reached for a bracelet attached to her wrist. Only for the parchment to be whisked out from under her arm.
"What? Hey!" The girl spun around, a rather intrusive, rotund chest being thrust right into her face.
The girl pulled back with a groan and red all over her face, staring up slightly at a girl with short, teal hair. This girl, dressed in a robe of similar color with tiny pink clouds prints, squinted at the parchment held in her black gloved hand.
"What do we have here...?" The bigger girl taunted with her intrigue. Then, flashing a smirk, she gazed down at the littler girl and shook her head, "How shameful, writing a letter of invitation to one of those...Buzzards."
"He's called the Elemental Overlord!" The little girl started bouncing and flailing her hands towards the parchment, as the bigger girl slowly stretched her arm out of reach.
"Elemental Overlord?" The bigger girl had to keep herself from bursting into haughty laughter, "You have your head in the clouds. He's just a simple, peasant boy from the sky."
"So what, I want to see him!" The little girl stopped bouncing and threw her body against the bigger girl's, stretching her arms over her shoulders and clawing at the parchment.
"Ugh! Curse you and your big dumb chest, hand it over!"
The bigger girl puffed her chest out with pride to throw the little girl off onto her rear, then knelt down and waved the parchment before her face with a luxurious smirk.
"Maybe stop being a savage for once and I might consider it, little sister."
Then, with a flash of a smirk, the little girl suddenly disappeared from the ground and so too did the parchment in the bigger girl's hand.
Coughing up a gasp of disbelief, the bigger girl turned around and saw the littler one holding the parchment before her chest, only for it to vanish, surrounded by a sphere of warping energies, in the blink of an eye.
"Auh...!" Gasped the flustered bigger girl, who threw her fists down and shouted, "Father's going to be so upset when he finds out what you've done!"
The little girl tilted her head back and continued to smirk, "Nah, the only one he'll be mad at is you. You're the big sister, you're supposed to be the responsible one!"
"Mmmmrrr...!" The bigger girl's face started to turn red, then she spun around and threw her hand towards the ground.
The little girl fully turned towards her and leaned out, pressing her fingertips against her chin and snickering, "What are you going to do now, sis?"
"I'm going to have Gabriel escort me to meet this so-called...'Elemental Overlord', and ground his lofty ambitions," The girl began to waltz off, clearly angered, "YOU, are going to stay here."
The girl kept walking and let out a huff.
The little girl closed her eyes and shook her head with a few pitying clicks tucked her hands behind her back and slowly walked ahead.
"She knows I won't do that..." Craning her head back with a beaming smile she remarked, "That's Auris the Stiff for you though. Hehehe!"
From the present...
There are secrets in the shadows. Truths hidden, to be cast into tomorrow by the light.
The dusty venue of the Sanctum of the Ten Sages is quiet, but not abandoned. Not today.
A dark black mist creeps through the halls towards the crevice in the back, slipping through the empty hall, all the way towards the very back.
Its an abandoned one, a soul denied of heaven and hell. Long has it wandered, long has it waited for its opportunity to strike.
And now the path is clear for it to fulfill its desires.
No longer shall it be abandoned.
For I am here for it, as I always have wanted to be.
So the creeping shadow moves, slithering away from the fire-lit altar and into the cracks in the very center of the room. It infuses itself with the coffin hidden below, and with every percent further that it becomes one with it, it begins to regain its voice.
A voice of sorrow. A voice of confusion. A voice of loss. A howl of vengeance.
"All...shall pay...All...shall suffer...I want to ruin...bring ruin...I am ruin...I am destruction...I am...Chaos..."
"Must...pay...must...hurt...All of them...All of them...Every last one of them..."
"Evil...me...must...PERISH...!"
And also...the future.
Imagine, if you would, a nice, steaming hot plate of scrambled eggs.
These eggs have been left in the pan for the perfect amount of time. Their yolks looking like sizzling gold, the whites nice and soft.
Yes. A perfect, hot plate of scrambled eggs, sitting there, steaming, waiting, wanting to be eaten. There has and never shall be a more desirable plate of scrambled eggs in the history of forever.
Keep imagining it. Put it in your memory forever. Cause soon, it'll be gone.
All of them. A plate of six, count them, six, perfectly crafted scrambled eggs, is about to disappear.
Who is the culprit, you may wonder?
What ravenous soul would coldly scarf down so many eggs in record time, without taking in air or water to help digestion?
"Ah!" With a satisfying release the culprit slapped their plate down on the table and licked up any scraps off their lips with one rotation of their tongue.
Any spare grease from the butter was wiped on the back of one their fingerless black gym gloves.
They then swung to the right and threw their hand in their air, shouting with an intense, urgent tone carrying a hint of playful femininity, "LEEEEEEOOOO! Get your butt in gear, last one to school's gonna hafta clean dad's bedroom!"
There was no time to wait, the person turned and sprung right out the front door into the open, crisp morning air.
This hyper-energetic devourer of eggs was a teenage girl on the cusp of her high school years. Her skin had a light caramel tan and her eyes were glistening blue like sapphires, while her long, frizzy hair extended down below her shoulders.
Stretching her hands high to greet the sun she cracked her bones and let out a gasp as a warm-up.
"Yahoo! Good mornin' morning!" She cheered blissfully while waving up at the sun peeking out behind the clouds.
Her clothes weren't the best for this sort of early-Fall weather. She had on a teal sports jacket with the number "1" embroidered onto the back and a pair of brown running shorts that looked like they were struggling to fit around her taut calves.
The girl had a mostly lean and athletic body and the work she put in to maintain was mostly reflected on the fiery look in her eyes and the scuff marks up her bared legs.
She thrust her head down and slanted her brows. She then pulled down the zipper of her jacket to reveal a dark-blue sports bra and her toned abs to the world without a care.
"Alright..." She hyped herself up by punching her fist into her palm, the wind kicked up pushing the halves of her jacket back like a pair of bird wings, "High school sports, I'm coming right for ya!"
She then ran forward and vaulted right over the wooden gate, breaking into a sprint down the crosswalk. In her wake she left behind her home, a two-story house with a rather...familiar homeliness to it, which now sat in the middle of these suburbs surrounded by a bunch of other nice, homely houses.
A book is closed shut before your eyes. You have seen all that I want you to see, for now.
But another opens. For as one chapter ends, another begins.
And I, the Chronicler, shall be the sole ferryman on this journey.
You have the freedom to come and go, but I never said that is the same as the freedom to interfere.
This isn't your world to take part in anymore.
I am the sole ruler of all fiction you've ever seen, heard, or written.
Now, and forevermore...The stories of this universe are mine.
And I shall NEVER let them go...
To be continued...
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Final Thoughts:
So you're still reading yeah? Alright, good.
This marks the end of the Chronicles segment of Clash of the Elements. Its been the longest journey so far, at least as far as a single entry goes (Cause if you add up all the time for Part 4.5 it took nearly two and a half years to do).
And boy...was it TIRING.
I will not hide the fact that I took a ton of breaks during the writing of this part. Some were justified, others were me being lazy.
A lot of it boils down to roadblocks when it came to writing tougher chapters that required a little more patience and thought over how characters should be handled and the development of their relationships.
I DID have an Outline for this story...But the problem with it was that it was written nearly a year and a half before I actually got to writing Chronicles and was never updated along the way.
What does that mean exactly?
Well, a lot of things actually. Starting off...
The existence of the Part 5 and 6 rewrites: A lot of stuff I did during those rewrites actually wound up changing how certain parts of Chronicles went down.
Coming up with new ideas for later: It goes without saying that its physically impossible sometimes for everything in a story to be planned all at once. I came up with some ideas during Chronicles, sometimes WHILE IN THE MIDDLE OF A CHAPTER that wound up having a domino effect on later chapters. The biggest example of that being...
The Lust and Envy Arc: That four chapter story with Neptune and Priscilla fending off Lust and Envy of the Seven Sinful Leviathans was not planned to be in Chronicles until roughly a couple months before I wrote it. Why? Well, I came to realize in my outline that I had Lust and Envy just dropping in to bother Macros and then they never showed up again. That would have been very stupid, and pointless, especially with how much the two characters expressed their revenge. So I worked in something to address that while also furthering Neptune and Priscilla's stories by tying them to Macros' plotline, but I'll get into that more a little later.
However, this wasn't the only last minute addition to Chronicles...
Beerus vs. Thanos: Originally, this wasn't even a full fight. It would have been a cutaway moment at the end of the chapter where Macros discussed what happened to the Dragon Ball universe. Basically, the end of what you read now would've been all you saw. That's not only a disservice to Thanos as a character to just be a throwaway jobber, but it also does a poor job showing why Beerus should be a concern for the heroes soon after. So I made the fight and boy, I'm sort of glad I'm not popular cause I can't imagine how reactions to that fight would've gone had it been more mainstream. I'd like to think I represented bother character's fighting styles and personalities properly, and how they both would converse given their circumstances in this universe. But yeah, this was a last minute addition almost, bet that's surprising to hear eh?
And finally, one other thing...
Improving My Own Writing: I've been at this for almost ten years now. I'm not the best writer still but what I put out now is definitely a far cry from the days of making Luigi say "Damn" or Mario threatening to murder a kid for carrying a knife. Yikes. But this is still a problem as far as the progress of things go. I'm now thinking a lot more about how things are paced, how characters should sound and act, the battles themselves...Well ok, the battles still need work for pace but that's just a hard thing to do in this medium. I'm trying!
But yeah, that added to a lot of delays for chapters where things didn't "click" just right.
Another thing with that is the change in my desired tone for Chronicles. My original outline for the story had a lot more of a jokey feel to it. There's still certainly comedic focused chapters and the story was never fully devoid of levity even during serious times but like...Some of the things I had originally planned for characters to say and do was really tone-deaf to the situations they were involved in. So a lot of stuff was cut out and put on the floor to flounder and die. That whole PTSD episode Samantha had in the double date chapter? Yeah, you really don't want to know how that was going to go before...
There were a few other things that changed too like certain chapters (Saturn confronting her past) being split in two that added to the length but otherwise it was mostly just a matter of choosing to carefully think more about...You know, keeping a cohesive world together.
Now then, I want to talk more about Chronicles itself. Specifically the characters involved but first some talk about the whole general story.
Why Chronicles isn't labeled as a "Part" like the others is for one simple reason. There's really not a unified storyline to the whole shebang. We jump from story to story with different antagonists or perhaps no antagonists at all.
Part 4 and Part 4.5 use a multiple story format but they are both unified by a single storyline (Riku's journey of being an Elemental Overlord and Alex and Shina's quest for the Cosmos Drive).
Chronicles is also just a story meant to be about practically everyone still alive at this point in the tale. Even if its just for one chapter, I tried to give everyone some focus to go around. The first half is more action packed but the second half is more relaxed, slice-of-life affairs which I hadn't really done much of up until this point. I think I did well, all things considered, though not without some problems which I shall get into starting now with the characters.
I'll start with some of the more minor roles in the story then work my way up to the main characters.
Mr. Reality:
The alien with reality bending powers and a remnant from honestly, the weakest Part of the story. He didn't get any development, he just got his powers removed and got to return home to live a happy life again with his wife and kids. Its a pretty basic happy ending but hey, it also removed him as an easy solution to plot problems so win-win, right? I will miss the guy though.
"D.":
A lot was revealed about the parasite in Mew's head. His true form, and the fact that he's an ancient Aurian corrupted by the Realm of Darkness into becoming the parasite we know him as now...Or is that all there is to it? Though "D." is "D."one in the present, there's still a gap in his history to be explored. But for now, Mew can rest easy knowing he won't be taunting him in his sleep.
The Grand Cosmic Aurian Sage:
The Sage's purpose in the story was mostly to be an obstacle tying the history of the Aurians, and Kairi and Shina's plots together, though his existence and history also raised a lot of interesting questions about the background and answered a lot of questions. One of the biggest revelations being the origin of the Drives.
Anyone familiar with the names of the first Sages' Drives will recognize them as the Drive Forms Sora uses in Kingdom Hearts 2. Those are, indeed, the same Drives, just spat out from the Realm of Darkness after the worlds fell in the backstory. So in essence, the Aurians are carrying on the legacy of the Keyblade Wielders of old. Heck, did you ever notice how Aurians summon their weapons the same way a Keyblader does too? Hmmmm.
But there's also another revelation that came to light. The existence of a Goddess of Aura. The Sage comments that he believed the Goddess to be real but suddenly no one else believed him, despite his memories telling him that they lived. So was the Goddess real or not? Who can say. He really was a delusional bug man after all...
"Dracula", "Vyvy", "Amor" and "Aava'ris":
Four of the Seven Sinful Leviathans, introduced and dealt with solely in Chronicles. Of the four Ba'al had the largest presence, getting a full arc and his presence being crucial for furthering Joe Dark's development while also pushing Lunis, Solaris and Saturn's characters along too, along with being the father to one of the main characters, Alura. His released form sets the stage for a great threat looming in the background, and a rather tense final battle to keep the world from being his first meal in eons.
Aava'ris lived and died in one chapter, but I liked writing him and wish there was reason to use him more. As he got punked by Neptune and Priscilla he never got to go into his Leviathan Form, but if you're curious as to what it would've been...Basically, his centipede body would've grown a bit and spread out throughout his realm of gold, turning all his treasure into a giant dragon that'd serve as a mockery of Futanji's appearance, with his body acting as the creature's spine. Giving the amount of wealth he amassed, he would've been considered the biggest Clash of the Elements villain to date, even bigger than Mr. Reality's leviathan form. His title in that state would be "Aava'ris of the Endless Hoard".
Vyvy and Amor are a pair attached to each other whether Amor likes it or not. Though not full main villain status they are the first female main villains not originating from a video game. I uhhh, don't really have any other thoughts specifically regarding them. I am proud of their Leviathan form designs though, moreso Vyvy's.
The Seven Sinful Leviathans are important to the backstory of the entire universe but as individual characters the one with the most importance is Macros/Pride, though he has a section all to himself. But that means five of the seven have been seen. So what of Sloth and Wrath?
Well...forget about ever seeing Wrath in person. They aren't dead or nothing just...their power was so great that even restraining them would've been damaging to the universe. So when he was dropped into the mortal plain, their body was completely obliterated, leaving behind only an ethereal form. Wrath now floats from planet to planet, drawn to those with great rage. It hovers around them but never really feeds off of or feeds into that rage. He's been a presence to the likes of Asura from Asura's Wrath, The Hulk, Jin Kazama from Tekken, and even Alex Whiter for a time.
As for Sloth? Well, no surprise he'd be slow to show up...
Aurians Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and Uranus:
The Planetary Aurians that got the least amount of focus. Mars did have that one chapter regarding his origin and then patching up his rocky relationship with Jupiter but otherwise, neither half of that pairing really went through a major arc. Not to say they didn't go anywhere, but that part is covered more in Saturn's segment.
Mercury, both halves as a matter of fact, along with Uranus are, however, not really focused on much. Michael needed to save his sister, and circumstances allowed him to accomplish that. That's really all there is to it. There's no deeper meaning to be found from his journey, and nowhere else for him to go or develop...At least as far as Chronicles is concerned.
Uranus is in a similar boat. Now she's free to be in control of herself after years of being a puppet to insane dreams. Yep, she can live her life as an immortal child.
...Wait, is that really a GOOD thing?
Aurian Pluto:
Pluto had few chapters worth of appearances but he made some advances during them. He's not someone I'd call a villain perse but rather an antagonist, especially right now. But throughout his limited screentime he's certainly come to gain some begrudging respect for Mew and has shown to actually care a little for Saturn's goals, just not necessarily the methods. But he's still got places to go. Prison is a good place for someone like him to recollect and refocus. Perhaps he'll make something of himself someday...
Gabriel:
Gabriel didn't have an arc. He had that fun chapter where he learned to loosen up a little certainly but its not like that developed him, it just showed him finding new things to do. Still, I really like Gabriel as a character. He's tough but not unfair, wise but still has his faults. He makes a good figure for the other cast to turn to for help and his chemistry with Mew, subtly building up over the course of Part 5 and Chronicles, leading to their confrontation at the end, was, I feel, a good pay-off for both of them. And yes, he absolutely did steal Hakumen's technique. As he said "That's a story for another day".
Neptune and Priscilla:
These two pretty much have to be discussed together because they are joined at the hip all the damn time. But man, I love my smooth-operating little gambler and her lesbian half-dragon wife. All the chapters for them were a treat to write and I had little if any hesitation doing them up.
...That being said it should be stated that Neptune did not really go through an arc because, well, she's already gone through it by the time of this story. Killing Aava'ris and ending that part of her sordid past was the end of it. The whole Lust and Envy thing didn't develop her so much as reinforced her love for her wife and how strongly she'll fight to defend what they share. Well, and also how Neptune is very good at scamming the Sins, given her track record is currently 3 out of 4 of Leviathans scammed. Not to mention her and Priscilla pretty much beat more Sins in a shorter amount of time than Mew and his crew did with ONE Sin. Now you see why these two had nothing to do with the Ba'al. Really when push comes to shove Neptune will help her allies, as shown with helping Michael get his sister back, but she'd rather cuddle with her dragon wife and live lavishly in her casino.
Priscilla's a rough and tough girl and she knows it. She did have something of an arc about worrying over Neptune losing interest in her, but Neptune's determination proved that that is nothing to worry about ever. The Lust and Envy Arc was Priscilla's time to shine at long last, having been mostly kept at bay from partaking in bigger fights. I don't generally tend to bring up power levels for this series despite keeping a consistent tier list in the back of my head of who can beat who, but as far as Priscilla goes she's definitely stronger than Gravitus using his Space Drive while in her Scourge Draconis form. But loyalty to him certainly kept her from ever acting out.
But yeah, these two are some of my favorite characters in the series thus far. A pity their appearances will dwindle for a bit after this. But hey, wonder what'll come of Neptune wanting to make them a child? Hmmm, who knows, knowing her whims.
Samantha Jeremiah:
A character introduced in this part, though her father has been a very important character in the background of the story for a long time. Her parts in the story tackled a few issues like PTSD and coping with loss, but mostly she was a fun loving, rambunctious soul who easily got under our favorite Sun God's skin.
She was never created to be a character who solely existed to be Solaris' squeeze. Though, at one point, she was a much different character. More frail than strong, she actually would've been a victim of Solaris' flames in Part 6, but I felt that making a relationship grow out of that was a lot harder than what it was now. As she exists now she still helped bring out more of Solaris' better side but that's for his section to cover.
She's also the second person to be told about the greater narrative by our heroes. Clearly a decision Solaris will come to regret later. Nah, not really. The one thing Samantha never learned throughout this part is how much of a bastard her father truly was. Or rather, how much of a bastard he came to be.
Another point to Samantha's existence was to show that Prometheus, Judas Jeremiah, was just as human deep down despite his tired existence of recurring life over and over again. It showed that, yes, Prometheus was a bastard, but Judas Jeremiah was a loving and kind father and husband. It doesn't excuse what he did, but it explains how he got to using those desperate measures.
Julius Talbain, Zeke, and Jeff and Stewart:
The other normal humans introduced in this story, though of the four Julius is obviously the most important.
His purpose in the plot is to be a grounded, experienced soul who could nurture Alura into a more normal person comfortable with her feelings while helping Joe Dark readjust to normal life. His wisdom normally had a profound effect on the two and he was a positive influence overall, and shall continue to be even now that we're past Chronicles.
His existence also tidies up a few plot holes regarding Joe Dark's survival at such a young, vulnerable part of his life, but that was just an added bonus. His role as a father figure is more important, of course.
Zeke was there to continue humanizing Prometheus while also explaining some of Samantha's...combative nature. Zeke is half-Japanese though I never really had a point where I could bring that up since he was mostly a passive presence in his few appearances. Still, I like him, wish he could've been used more. Maybe later? We'll see.
Jeff and Stewart are dumbasses, through and through. But deep down they both have their own hearts of gold. Albeit its hard to see Stewart's with all the horniness surrounding it. Though ironically if it wasn't for his...rather interesting experience with women Alura might have never gotten the courage to try and confess to Joe Dark.
Still, its good for Alura to have had a couple friends to interact with so she wasn't fully attached to Joe Dark's hip all the damn time. But that's something to cover more in her section.
Though enough wiggling around with the minor crew, lets get to our main characters, shall we?
Lunis:
Lunis had a lot of appearances throughout the story but not really a chapter focused solely on her. She didn't have a character arc in Chronicles because, well, her first appearance was basically the end of her arc at the time. There's a lot to unpack with her as far as what she got up to in the past but well...We'll get to that someday, not to be subtle at all.
Far as Chronicles goes though if there's one thing to describe what she went through its..."Belief". Whether expressing her curiosity, being tricked into fanservice on the beach or just sitting around reading books Lunis brings positivity to her surroundings and believes in the best in the people around her. Its her belief in that that pushed Riku forward and ultimately how she was able to break Solaris free from the shackles of revenge that tied him down.
She's very strong-willed and not stupid so much as she was ignorant of a lot of things. But when she finally learned more about her new home she settled in very fast, so fast its like she had lived there all along, and she definitely was shown to have the easiest time getting along with humans even if her appearance tended to scare or arouse people.
But now at the end of this story she's going to be a mother to Riku's child. How will that go? Hmmm, something to look forward to, I suppose, eh? Her, as with a lot of character's stories, are not done just because one arc is finished. Though speaking of love interests...
Kairi Aurora:
Alright lets get one thing out of the way here. Yes, Kairi is a tsundere. I tried to avoid falling into the pitfall of having her physically abuse Mew for no reason at least (The one time she did that, he totally deserved it though.)
But that being said, she actually had very few focus chapters compared to the others. Its more due to the circumstances her character was put in during this part. She got to save her sister, and now got to spend time with her again. But ultimately despite being the Neo Drive wielder and thus one of the strongest characters in the story...She's still a high school girl. So once summer was over it was back to the books for her, which kept her from really participating in any antics since she's the only one stuck in school besides Maria.
Still, she got the focus back where it counted by continuing to develop her relationship with Mew and come to confess her feelings in the climax of the whole story. She also showed that she learned from Auris' parenting by being a good mother to Maria...Even if that little gremlin didn't make good use of that advice a lot of the time, but hey, it can't always work out.
So if there's a word to describe Kairi's arc...Its "Tolerance", learning to put up with the antics around her and understanding why her friends and loved ones act the way they do.
Though on the subject of Aurora family members...
Auris Aurora:
Auris' arc can be described in one word "Loss". She was forced to confront the loss of children past, the possibility of losing children now, and the loss of her husband reflecting in Mew appearing to follow a similar path. She's also lost her clairvoyance, and with it, a loss of confidence in what's to come.
But with this added vulnerability came a more open, personable person. She participated willingly in Mew's beach antics and acted more warmly towards her daughters, along with helping Maria and Gabriel trying to adapt to a life without Gravitus.
She comes out of this story having experienced positive growth and feelings for the first time in forever. Though there's still a lingering guilt over her hand in what happened to Sarajin...
Oh and speaking of guilt. No, I won't keep doing this.
Shina Aurora:
Shina's arc word is "Guilt". She blames herself for the death of Alex Whiter and the failure to save Kairi, on top of later feeling like something SHE did doomed her baby's birth.
...That's a tough topic to talk about right now, I got to admit. And I have some guilt of my own to get off my chest.
I feel really, really bad about how I handled Shina's story in Chronicles. For as much as things changed in the outline as far as adding things and changing things go...Something got removed in the process.
There was going to be a chapter focusing on Shina trying to learn how to be a parent and the struggles that come with it, having her learn to bond with Auris through their shared experiences in the subject. But...I got cold feet by the time came to write the chapter.
I'm single, I'm a virgin, I have no real experience with pregnant women or anything like that. I don't know what its like to carry a child inside of you, to witness a child being born before your very eyes after hours of intense, laboring pain.
So I definitely wasn't qualified to write about the experience and I knew it wouldn't reflect well on me to commit to the subject matter without coming across as insensitive. So I cut that chapter out, which had the consequence of leaving Shina without any focus chapters after the pregnancy was announced. Which in turn, made her losing the child either more cruel or less impactful.
Its a complete mistreatment of a character who has already suffered a lot both in terms of the story and my inexperienced writing.
I want to assure you though that Shina will be fine. She'll cry a lot, as she should, but someday she'll be able to walk and smile again. She won't be the same as she was, but that's a big part of growing up, isn't it?
Maria Whiter:
On a more brighter note though lets talk about our little red-headed child. Her arc was more about "Innocence", both regaining and losing it.
She got her body back pretty early on but then became a background element until she accidentally got aged up a couple years fighting one of Ba'al's minions. From there she was giving a more normal environment to live in thanks to Mew and Kairi's kindness, and came to see them as a mother and father...Well, sort of.
See the thing about Maria is that she's an imp. A little shit. She loves to tease and prank others. She does have some sincere admiration for Mew and Kairi but when she goes and calls them "mama" and "papa" she's teasing them to get them flustered, and they totally buy it.
Still, her overall personality is best demonstrated in her biggest focus chapter "Maria vs. the Bully". Bullying is a hard topic to cover for a lot of people. I personally had experienced it when I was younger, so I came into this at least with some experience.
While Maria had the right to get back at Kris for being mistreated for no good reason, the prank war escalated out of control very quick. It showed that Maria still needs to develop a sense of restraint for these things, she's very young and doesn't know self-control.
But also, that she's definitely got a kind heart. If she really hated Kris that much then she would've left the school after walloping her, no questions asked. But she stuck behind and tried to help her and, through some conversation, came to recognize and help Kris with her own problems.
That's not to say all bullies lash out because they have problems at home, hell no. Some kids are just irredeemable shits who'll never grow out of being the big man.
But by taking a page from Mew's book and treating Kris like a person instead of a nemesis, Maria has secured a friend and helped give her a better life to look forward to.
...The three of them are still a trio of little shits though.
Solaris:
Hey remember that time Solaris set fire to most of Canada by accident? Ah, good times...
But on a more serious note, Solaris' arc was all about "Humanity". Ironically, we saw the perspective of human life more through his eyes than any other character. And that's the point. He learned that humans aren't as weak as they appear, even though they can be very violent.
His attitude as a whole didn't really change too much. He started this story as a rash, quick-tempered moron quick to speak his mind...And ended this story as a slightly less rash, quick-tempered moron quick to speak his mind.
But what is important is that he learned to use that lack of hesitation to be more empathetic towards others. When he heard Samantha lost her dad to a fire he was quick to blame himself. The fact that they both had dead fathers helped them bond quickly. He also worried about her when she had that PTSD moment.
Ultimately he's in a better place now. He's suffered enough humiliation to cover his bad temper. The most major thing left unaddressed by Chronicles is how the hell he got to be this way to begin with. Clearly Lunis turned out just fine around Justek, so why was Solaris so different? Hmmm...
Aurian Saturn:
"JUSTICE!" Burning bright in her heart, she is the heroine of the stars! But...what exactly defined her "justice"?
As it turned out, it was a mistake she made long, long ago that killed millions of people, including her family. Ever since she worked hard to ensure those mistakes would never happen again. Her "Justice" is also "Repentance", and as she discovered the hard way, Gravitus exploited her "Justice" to meet his own ends.
The harsh truth of this along with being forced to confront her past on multiple occasions showed the true face behind the mask, so to speak.
But even though she's scared deep down, she'll keep pressing forward towards tomorrow. A heroine's job is never done, and so let us entrust her to keep fighting the good fight.
Alura:
Alura's arc word is "Emotions". She came into this story a completely emotionless mannequin and though now not the most bubbly person around, at least she's able to express things like happiness, anger and love a little more clearly now.
As far as characters go she was probably one of the most fun to write for. Her lack of understanding things led to some funny moments while the conflict of her growing to admire and love Joe Dark, wanting to not be left behind, and struggling to make something of herself, was some powerful stuff.
She had the strongest character growth of everyone in Chronicles, though obviously a lot of that had to do with the fact that she just showed up here and thus had some catching up to do.
But now she's in a good place in life...As long as Jeff and Stewart aren't too much of a negative influence on her development. Then again, there's more people to worry about doing that than them in her circle of friends. Hahahah, hooo boy, poor Joe Dark...
SPEAKING OF THOUGH.
Joe Dark:
"Direction". That's a perfect description for him.
He's spent so much of his life wandering, lost, going from purpose to purpose until suddenly...He found himself without one. His sole reason for living no longer lived, and worse, was the wrong target of his aggressions his whole time.
The story begins with him trying to escape from life to die alone, but through Mew's stubborn heart Joe Dark not only finds himself wanting to have a second chance at life but also embracing Mew as his family...As much as he never wanted to admit that for the longest time.
Ironic, given his pairing with Alura, Joe Dark had very strong character growth of his own. He embraced the power of love to destroy Ba'al, became willing to make sacrifices to save a friend, confronted the ghosts of his past, and became determined to make a better future for everyone.
Along the way he started to become a little less aggressive and snippy all the time, but he's a far cry from the guy who would always scream "WHIIIIITEEEER".
He's found a direction in life. His direction. And he'll do what he can to follow that road. Good luck to the possibly someday future President!
Riku Whiter:
Riku's arc focused on "Doubts". He started this story uncertain of his ability to be of use to his brother, and over time, he grew to realize that he has people who believe in him and want him to succeed. He began to step out of his brother's shadow and grow as a person both physically and mentally.
He's still the straight man to Mew's antics but now he's more willing to be humbled or play along with sillier events. The Riku as we saw him in Part 6 would never have wanted to go have a hamburger with his brother after a battle.
His relationship developing with Lunis was a subtle aspect. You could definitely see the bond growing if you read back and pay close attention to their moments. Its not something meant to be overt like the others were, at least not until they actually had sex on Christmas.
And no, before anyone asks, I have not written any sex scenes. You could ask me to try, but only if you want a good laugh.
Ultimately though Riku's doubts actually resurface near the end but in a different way, as he finds himself in Shina's shoes sort of having become the father of Lunis' child. He finds himself feeling far more helpless and resorts to breaking down and begging Mew for an answer.
Its because he learned to rely on others that he even had the courage to say such things, and his courage was rewarded, even if it wasn't in the way he could've expected.
He's earned the right to rest easy now. His daughter will be born someday as a nice, healthy baby. That, I can spoil ahead on.
Mew Whiter:
Yukari put it best. One of Mew's strongest traits, and the basis of his arc in this whole story is "Determination".
No matter what stood in his way, from the primordial darkness embodied, to the fragments of the Devil's sins, to the God of Destruction, the Phantasm of Gensokyo, and even the creator of this universe, Mew continued to stand on his own two feet and do what he believed was right for the right people.
He never gave up, on anyone, or anything...Until the very end.
See, Mew's arc was both a deconstruction and reconstruction of his determination shown in previous parts. The deconstruction came from showing how his stubbornness and grit in battle, risking his life, affected the people around him, especially Kairi. And it was reconstructed when its shown that despite how much of a risk his determination is to his life, he could find a way to utilize it positively, by being there for other people and invoking change in their views and lives.
His determination changed Joe Dark. His determination ended Solaris' cycle of revenge. His determination inspired Kairi to save Shina. His determination gave Maria a family. His determination broke through Auris' tough exterior. His determination reassured Riku. And finally, his determination helped him avenge Alex, and put an end to two-thousand years of truths kept unspoken regarding the "higher-ups".
So finally, having pushed his determination to the edge of creation, there really was nowhere higher for Mew to go. So for the first time, he willingly gave up a hot-blooded life of seeking battle and adventure and chose to give Kairi the peace of mind he had been robbing from her, and settle down as one happy family alongside her and Maria.
Mew's ultimately the true main character of Clash of the Elements, even if Alex Whiter began this story and has had the most screentime. But if you look at his story from start to finish (Even Part 3), he doesn't really have a big change in his character. We just start unraveling more layers to him as time goes on.
The one thing I want to still comment on regarding him is his stance on bonds.
He's very happy to have others around at home and despite all the people shacking it up there at one point he was enjoying it, deep down. But when people start leaving one by one he's visibly upset by it, but really makes no effort to say so.
He's of course happy for everyone moving on but he definitely has this feeling like he's being left behind again because of it. This feeling could be part of the reason he's so willing to die for them, as maybe a part of him feels like he's that expendable in their lives.
But in truth he's the glue holding his group of friends together. And that's what he realizes by fighting Yukari, giving him access to the Chaos Hope Form...Which shall never appear in the series again.
Yeah that was just a one time thing born of very, very specific circumstances. Mew will never have that form of anything like Chaos Form in his life. But...maybe he can figure something else out. He is clever...for an idiot.
…
And that's about it for the characters. Holy shit that went longer than I expected.
I know I'm missing a few like Macros, Futanji and Akumu, along with cameos from other series such as Beerus, Thanos and Yukari. But I don't feel the need to get into any of them right at this moment, the former especially. Just important to say that all of them still have roles to play going forward...and back.
What do I mean by that? Well...
What's Next?:
A question proposed at the very end of the story. Well, there's a lot to unpack with that.
First off, the length of this story. This was a long one. 82 chapters in total, taking roughly 9 months to write, 8 if you discount all the breaks.
And I'm tired. I admit I pushed through quite a bit on the last stretch just so I can wrap this part up finally. So there won't be ANYMORE new Clash of the Elements content for the remainder of the year.
Though notice I said no "New" content. Throughout the next month or so I plan to reread ALL of my story. Yes, every word, every chapter, every Part 4. And by doing this, I plan on writing up a summary for each and every story up until this point in chronological order.
Parts 1 – 4 are very outdated in terms of writing style and the like and while I'd love to go back and redo them...That's just a lot more work, especially for the Part 4s. Maybe someday but right now its not in the cards.
But the information in them is still relevant to this day, and I'd like to help make it easier for readers new and old keep track of some of the important bits for later.
...There's also another reason for this though.
Next up on the dossier is another big project.
We're going to be going to the past, to the days of Sarajin's era, when the Elemental Tribes lived and breathed on the planet of Genestasia, which we saw briefly at the beginning of Chronicles.
Yes, the next chapter of the story takes us to the past. Part 0...Subtitle to be determined later. Yes, you heard me, this story doesn't even have a subtitle yet.
Or a lot of stuff ready for that matter. I not only have to write a new outline for this story, but I also have to prepare profiles for at least 30 something characters, and documents for the new locations that the story will be centered around.
That's why there's not going to be any more new content for a while. This is going to be a big undertaking. I want this to be a story that not only can stand on its own, but also pay-off a lot of elements brought up in prior stories to those who have managed to stick around all this time.
So I need time. Lots of it. At a minimum I want to say I'll be ready by 2021, but I'll go a little into the year if need be. This is a passion project for me more than any other part, I'll actually be a little upset if I don't do it right.
At my estimate right now though, Part 0 might wind up being as long if not longer than Chronicles.
After that though? Well, we'll see in the future.
Everyone who reads this, I hope you take care of yourselves and stay strong for the rest of this year. Its been tough, but I know we can survive.
This is our story. Don't let someone else write the ending.