linear notes for ray, a drop of golden sun
let me preface this linear notes by first saying I've never completed any fic as fast as i did this one
a good ⅔ of the fic was written over the course of a single weekend, while the remaining ⅓ + epilogue was written in one sitting over another weekend, then edits were slowly done throughout the fic up until the day of final submissions
unfortunately, i think it shows…this fic was packed with a lot of ideas that weren't properly fleshed out, yet there's enough content to stop it from being a meta…im still not quite sure what i’d consider it to be, but I hope this oddly structured thing of love still managed to be enjoyable on some level (haha)
i really would have loved to write out more of the fic, and properly discuss some of the more vital components of this fic (more Ryusui-Ukyo human-mermaid moments…), but was unable to given the constraints of irl work + personal life
but i had a lot of fun writing this, especially considering how my initial draft for this fic was A Lot more morbid and depressing aha! it was refreshing to pivot completely to something much more fairy tale-esque that i very obviously enjoy creating a lot more
(for those curious, the original draft was about auctioneer Ryusui and the cursed mermaid Ukyo he bought. its hurt/comfort centered on the hurt. ill finish it someday. i hope.)
back to this fic: this is very much a love-at-first-sight romance for ryukyo…which works only because of how young Ryusui is in this AU (20-21 years old) and how inexperienced with human emotions Ukyo is. if they were given more time to mature, i think they’d have grown into more wary individuals, and their relationship would have taken longer to build…which was what i nearly went with, but due to time constraints i stuck to my comfort zone and wrote a dreamy, lovey-dovey piece haha!
since their relationship was so smooth sailing, the only wrench in their love story ended up being the Nanami family, with the exceptions of Sai and Francois
Francois got a small scene in the fic encouraging Ryusui, but they actually played a much bigger role than shown! during the mornings Ryusui was away, Francois was the one covering for Ryusui’s absences, and also the one who delivered the forged letters to Senku + Ruri. they did a lot of work behind the scenes! im sorry i never properly acknowledged it in the fic (m_ _m)
Sai did a lot too!! it wasn't particularly highlighted in the fic either, but he was Ryusui’s shield in the family. in a throwaway line about Sai having extra lessons, it was meant to imply that Sai took those lessons in order to shift some focus onto him and take some heat off Ryusui’s back. adding on to his extreme decision to break Ryusui’s engagement off himself via forged letters…he really tried his best. Sai can be unusually brave at times. I love that about him.
actually, i wanted to write more about pre-fic Sai and Ryusui too..how they reconciled and such! but then it never came up as a focal point because another character stole the show entirely..
aka Ryusui’s father! i had a lot of fun writing him. i think the favouritism showed (haha!) im sorry!! but i adore exploring the hidden characters who’ve had an immense influence on the lives of our established characters, so i really loved imagining and writing about him.
this Nanami father is one of many iterations ive imagined for Ryusui and Sai's dad, but i think he’s my favorite. i envision him as a man who is an incredible businessman and respected head of the family, but a terrible father.
like Ryusui, because he loves people, he’s capable of seeing everyone’s value and assesses them for it. in contrasting consequence, his instinct is to view people as assets - including his own children. he loves them, but it's a twisted sort of love no child deserves to be burdened by.
in the end, it's also due to that love that he sets them free. in the patriarch's eyes, anyone who cannot be controlled by loyalty or fear is not worth keeping in the family, as they will surely do more harm than good in the long run. but he’s still willing to invest in their potential to someday grow into assets separate from the family that may end up aiding the Nanamis in the future, hence he lets them go.
(i do headcanon Ryusui goes into a business deal with his father in the distant future, and reconnects with him as an equal as business magnates. Sai, however, never gets back in contact with their father and is determined to stay that way.)
(fun fact: in my head, this version of the Nanami father looks like Ryoh Grantz from Mashle. which is quite unfair to Ryoh because he’s a very dedicated and loving father. i just like the extroverted crazy type i guess lmao)
Ryusui is weak against his father. i'm sorry to anyone who didn't like seeing such a pained Ryusui…
in my opinion, Ryusui’s bravado only works in situations where he can see himself coming on top, or when he can create leverage for himself. against his father, Ryusui can never see himself winning. at least, at this point in time of the AU, he can’t. so he shrinks into himself a little. but despite it all, he never gives up. That's what i love about Ryusui.
i hope that bit of perseverance in Ryusui came through even a bit, in spite of that moment of weakness.
speaking of family, Senku and Ukyo’s friendship was another side plot i wanted to get into but never had a chance to without deviating from the plot, so here’s some side lore:
Senku was raised by Ukyo. but as they got older (Senku is odd 1000+ years by now i would think, Ukyo is 2000++) and continued on, they started to treat each other as equals. It's the same with Tsukasa and Hyoga who were also partially raised by Ukyo. Ukyo is very old…)
as mentioned, Senku is Ukyo’s oldest friend. due to Ukyo’s position in the underwater kingdom (and above ground), many hold him at a distance. only Senku was brash enough to not care about all those formalities and continue interacting with Ukyo as per normal, especially when Senku gets his reputation as the sea witch too
i had a lot of scenes i wrote of the two that ended up being cut (because they brought up issues that needed a sequel beyond this oneshot to be properly fleshed out, were too complex/depressing, went nowhere, interrupted the flow of the fic etc etc).
quite a few of those cut scenes involved Senku and Ukyo talking about Ryusui and his relationship with Ukyo. that’s why Senku so readily helped Ukyo make the potion, because he understands the gravity of Ukyo’s choice
its also why Senku knew about Ryusui and could plot with Sai to bring them together too. ill expand on this point later!
Senku lives in a boathouse on the sea, which has a cut out on the lowest floor for seafolk to visit. Ukyo is his number one visitor. Senku and Ukyo have tea time very frequently together. it’s very very cute.
Someday i hope to explore Senku and Ukyo’s dynamics more in a future sengensen fic in this same AU..!
the ballroom confrontation scene…sure is a scene. i’ve never written anything like it. in fact, i usually avoid writing such big scenes because im not very good at it…i don’t particularly enjoy writing confrontation scenes unless it’s between the two main leads (or side leads), so it was a very new experience writing it and having to juggle so many characters as well as lore, exposition, emotional weight...but i put my best foot forward! i hope it didn’t come across too awkwardly haha…
speaking of, i wanted Chrome to do more in the scene!! there was an initial draft where he speaks up for Ruri, but that elongated the scene unnecessarily and kinda went nowhere so i scrapped it…also because i do headcanon Chrome in formal settings to be like Yuzuki’s ‘competition ready’ mode from gekkan shoujo nozaki kun (chapter 57) haha!
i wish i wrote more about Chrome in the fic. im a little sad every general got their moment in the fic but him. i think he’ll get his chance to shine in the sengensen sequel, so i really want to write it…
how the Ishigami family works will remain a mystery for now. i have the general outline for Ruri’s lineage and the Ishigami clan’s ties to Senku (and Ukyo) settled, but im hoping to explore it in a sengensen sequel fic, so please look forward to it!
more on the ballroom scene: there might be some confusion about how Sai, Senku and Gen’s plot worked. i apologise for that.
it takes a bit of (forced) inference to understand that Senku, after receiving Sai's letter pretending to be his father, realises that Nanami Ryusui is the very same Ryusui that Ukyo has told him about in previous (implied) conversations. Gen, who would obviously realise quite quickly that the letters are forgeries, would then plot with Senku and Sai to replace Ruri’s engagement with Ukyo to aid the pair in finding their happy ending.
it’s a bit of a stretch and takes a lot of imagination, but that's how it worked out! please ignore all inconsistencies and chalk it up to a miracle. because i would like to think that miracles take the side of the good, as well as writers stuck on a tight deadline.
the second half of the ballroom scene + epilogue was surprisingly the hardest to nail for me. i knew how i wanted it to flow and what would happen, but finding the words and scenarios to get there took a while. out of the whole fic, i think i rewrote those parts the most.
Ukyo is generally a character who wants but doesn't take. Ryusui understands, which is why he doesn't get angry. but there's still an inner frustration for the situation, especially when it results in Ukyo hurting himself. initially, i forced a confrontation between them but it didn’t work out. in the end, i let Ryusui do as he wanted. it turned out for the best i think!
the initial epilogue was LONG. like “could have been the introduction to another fic” long. it went into extra detail of what happened to every character after the brothers’ departure from the Nanami household, and how their lives were turning out. I summarised most of it for the eventual epilogue!
Sai as a teacher in the original series really stuck with me. i think he’d really enjoy it in small doses, which is why i wrote him as an adjunct professor
Ryusui as a cartographer is my secret headcanon for him!! i love imagining him trying to connect with the ocean in every way he can, and using the Nanami family and their stellar connections/tutors to achieve it.
by the way, this is another implied fact but Ryusui and Sai are actually very well-to-do thanks to years of Ryusui’s investments and squirreling away their funds + hidden properties. they’re working for fun now! it’s a very good time for them.
as for Ukyo…I don’t want to go into too much detail here because I might write more about what he does in the sengensen sequel, but generally he continues acting as a mediator between the seafolk, but now with the addition of being a go-between for sea and land. he’s working hard when Ryusui is at work too!
Francois continues being an impeccable butler as always, but now has the extra pleasure of dusting off the new Saionji family portrait every day!
i always knew i wanted a happy ending for this fic (of course), but i was never quite sure what sort.
i played around with a lot of different endings (meal time, walk by the sea, deep discussion into their future), but ultimately settled on a proposal. ryukyo suit the classics, i feel.
i rewrote the proposal a few times. i think this one is the best version i wrote. the rest were too sappy or too sad. Ryusui and Ukyo are the kind of couple that can discuss tragedy with levity even in their happiest of moments, so i made sure to try hard to keep the final scene on a high note! i hope it came through aha//
a dream is a wish your heart makes. that was part of the inspiration for the fic. Ukyo is Ryusui’s wish and dream come true, as Ryusui is Ukyo’s. i wonder if that was expressed properly by the end of the fic…
more general notes about the fic:
i was sick a lot of times writing it…my health took a drastic downturn when i was nearing the end of the fic, and it got worse throughout nov as i was editing it…back to back flu viruses are no joke
i could never quite settle on a direction for the fic for the first month of writing it…i think this fic had about five drafts, not counting the alternate auction version of it
it likely didn't help that this was my first proper fic in about..a year and a half. i should have chosen to write something simpler as an introduction back into the craft and yet. hubris! (haha)
irl had its own other cocktail of problems which included but was not limited to: workplace harassment, friendships souring, writer's/artist block. at one point i was bawling alone in a train station lol
im ok now! but looking back, it does make me wonder how i completed this fic at all aha..
this fic is a culmination of a lot of struggles and pain and love. i would have preferred to have written it in a mindset more lighthearted and fun, but im also happy i managed to complete it despite everything, and was able to reignite my desire to write more after this
i hope you had a good time reading the fic! that would make me happy enough.
thank you for reading the fic and this stupidly long afterword, and thank you for your support.
i hope to see you again in another fic!
- rue
