#rdnotes

[rakuyokoyo]

APWTCB: I hope BNHA goes to America!

Hello! Quick updates, some Koyo Predicts with some APWTCB notes, and RD chapter 14 snippets!

—

Romance Dawn (a One Piece Story) chapter 14 is finally in the editing phase. It’s the last chapter of the arc and the future of RD seems very unclear, hence the long writing time. I plotted 130 chapters back in 2016, but now it looks like there needs to be another revamp as my standards have changed. Sigh.

I’m not rewriting anything, but I think some of the story for future arcs post-Amare needs serious attention. What I decide to do next will change the ending of chapter 14, so I’m sorry for the long wait!

APWTCB (a BNHA story) are the acronyms for TBE’s new title! There were three major reasons as to why I never published APWTCB: (1), there are twelve OC families, but I wasn’t sure how to write eleven of them (lol), (2) I’ve become increasingly anal about chapter titles, and of course, chapter 1′s title was the hardest to choose, and (3), I wasn’t happy with the original name for this story because it didn’t hit hard enough for all the love and labour I’d put in.

Surprisingly, I was able to solve these issues last week! I still don’t think chapter 1 will be out anytime soon, but the chapter title has changed from TBE to APWTCB. Yes it’s long, yes it’s ugly, but I think it suits the story much better. TBE Notes and #tbenotes will both be altered to APWTCB Notes/#APWTCBnotes from now on.

—

Koyo Predicts/APWTCB Notes:

So, the end of an arc. Chapter 253 and the start of the Paranormal Liberation War Arc began on December 9th, 2019, and is (likely) on its last legs, over a year later.

I wrote a few predictions (here) last year and they went pretty well, with the big wringer being able to guess Bakugo’s hero name. I don’t make predictions to gloat or even start a conversation, but fanfiction writing requires you to assume certain things will happen, especially if you’re writing an OC.

I’d call these less predictions, and more of ‘this is what I’m assuming is going to happen, so I’ll write accordingly’.

The way that this arc ends doesn’t exactly matter—Twitter seems to think Deku will have his own mini-arc with the vestiges. Sure.

There may be a 1-A or 1-B student who dies or leaves (after being revealed to  be the traitor), and Shinso Hitoshi will fill the seat.

I also think BNHA might end—at least the Hero Academia side of it. They might focus more on pt. 2 with Movie 3 and the ‘WHA’ badges the Origin Trio had on their arms and go global. (World Hero Association?) Maybe a timeskip as well.

I’d personally love it if the cast goes abroad. This is a bit of spoilers, but Kana was raised in France/United States (California), so it’d be nice to not have to bring everyone to Japan. From the twelve families that I mentioned earlier, many of them still live in L.A and have hero names that are created from compounded words: Warmachine, Foxnine, Stormchaser, Braveheart, Heartmender, Oathkeeper, Lovelace, and Overdrive are the major ones for now.

The direction of BNHA has been... odd with the start of Season 4/Shie Hassaikai arc, and APWTCB has been especially hard to write because I’m never sure how dark BNHA will turn, or what Horikoshi’s end goal is. Regardless, Kana’s story continues to be written and Scrivener tells me I’ve hit 200k words yesterday! It’s looking to be extremely dark which was the opposite of what I wanted, but it’s also a story about hope, and I want to do it justice.

—

Romance Dawn chapter 14 snippet: sorry for the wait!

She tried over and over again.

Most of her nights on Root Island had been dreamless and uneventful—no memories of the past and certainly no predictions of the future. Always dark, dark, and alone, helping her rest well for the next uneventful day.

But now there was someone she specifically wanted to meet, and yet she was never there.

What do I have to do? She found herself asking daily. How can I see you again, Amare?

The answers were disappointing.

One thing that’d changed from her time on Root Island, however, was that she did dream—quite frequently, in fact. Instead of the vast expanse of familiar darkness, she found herself time to time on a cliffside that poked out from a seemingly infinite forest. Next to her was a massive waterfall, the waves crashing down onto a pretty pond below her. Connecting the cliff to the other side, however, was a red, arched bridge with a pale, wooden flooring. The other side didn’t look too interesting—just another forest—but something inside of her always hesitated when she thought about crossing. The shide streamers tied onto the side of the traditional bridge swayed gently with the soft tickle of wind, tugging on her hazel hair.

Something about the scenery made her heart hurt. A weight that made her uncomfortable, but not painful enough to cry out. On some of the rougher nights she felt that the weight was replaced with a hole—as if someone had carved out a part of her heart and was forcing her to live like a fish on dry land.

She also knew that the days on the Moby Dick had gone by disturbingly fast, to the point where everything became blurry and melded into a giant mush of colours. The funeral proceedings for Carlos’ platoon and Amare had gone by without a hitch but she could barely recall any of the details. There were no more tears left to cry. No more strength left to fight.

“What’s the point of a funeral with an empty casket?” She’d asked her captain when they stopped by a nearby island. “That little girl is out there somewhere, so far away from home. Can’t you at least bring her body back with your influence?”

The captain gave her a careful glance. “I’ve contacted Sengoku, but…”

“But what?”

Falco shook her head quickly. Many of her crewmates had come to her, offering condolences and words of hope and strength in an attempt to lessen her grief, and Falco realized for the first time how many people truly seemed to care for her. Florence always made sure to pop between her rounds, checking up on her before scurrying away to tend to another injury. Thatch and Marco treated her like nothing happened, trying to lift her spirits with their usual jokes and antics. People she’d never even talked to asked if she was all right, if she needed anything or if there was anything they could to ease the burden a bit. She appreciated the help, honestly, but there actually wasn’t much in her head. There’d been no tears after they’d returned. No pain.

Nothing.

One thing she had noticed though was the dormant memory problem—like her brain was lacking storage and the only thing that it could do was to either throw out the oldest memories or the most painful ones. Root Island was all but a distant past now, and the only thing she could remember was the very first time she’d met her two best friends—a man brighter than the sun and a little girl who always seemed to know her better than she did herself.

Although Falco knew she couldn’t exactly control who she wanted to remember and what she wanted to let go, the possibility that she could forget everything that hurt her one day felt comforting, in a way.

Amare.

Fingers curled up to a tight fist as her heart felt the resolve that she so desperately needed.

I have to leave, she told herself, feeling the tears roll down her cheeks. Leave, and never look back. Think of this as a happy dream with a tragic ending.

But to forget hurt would mean forgetting Love. And yet, remembering Amare would mean reliving that nightmare over and over again. The sound of Ace’s heart shattering into a million pieces. Her screams and cries that refused to bring a little girl back to life. The desperate shouting of everyone around her, trying to get her to wake up. A flatline.

The rose pendant felt heavy around her neck.

[rakuyokoyo]

Romance Dawn Notes: Chapter 13 - Love & Prayer

You can read Romance Dawn I: Bearer of the Silver Flames, Chapter 13 - Love & Prayer here.

—

Where do I even begin with this chapter?

I guess I should start by saying that I was tempted to omit an author’s note altogether (even on Tumblr) to just let the mood sink in. But then I thought that some of you might wander here to find an explanation, so I’m writing this just in case.

To be clear, I’m not fully removing A/N’s on published chapters. It’ll be more or less like Chapter 12, where there’s a short note in the beginning/end, with Tumblr only meant to give a lengthier explanation for those who want more details. I just didn’t want to ruin the mood for Chapter 13.

I actually had to write several drafts for this note alone because it was so emotionally exhausting to write about Amare, and to make sure that I wasn’t spoiling anything major.

God, I miss her already.

There are actually two notes for this chapter. This is just explaining and clearing up what happened (which I don’t usually need to do, but this one’s an exception), and the next one will just be me, ranting about the usual.

—

So, Love & Prayer.

If you haven’t seen Amare’s death being foreshadowed from miles away, I don’t even know what to tell you. It’s probably not the way that you expected her to die, but I’ve built this up from the very start. I don’t normally spoil my own stories by leaving such obvious clues, but I did it for Amare because I really wanted everyone to know that she’s not a character who’s meant to be here for long.

Unfortunately, I can’t say much about who she is or what her intentions were because that will spoil everything, but I’ll talk a bit about how I created her in the second Romance Dawn Notes if anyone’s curious.

—

A quick recap of the chapter, in case you missed anything:

Falco wonders who Amare is, and I think we all have the same question as her. She’s definitely strange (even for me), but she has a weird attachment to Ace and Falco, from the day that the latter joined the crew.

I do apologize if the rescue mission wasn’t as good or as exciting as you expected it to be, especially to those who have been waiting since 2017 (or maybe even earlier). I’m not sure who came first between Carlos and Amare, but she was always destined to die during the rescue.

If the mission was confusing, it was basically supposed to be an infiltration (not a fight). Because Carlos is a relatively new member who became a vice-commander quite quickly, he doesn’t have a tattoo yet. If the Marines knew that he was part of the crew, that’d be grounds for execution (like what happens to Ace). Based on Jozu and Moire’s information, Ace betted that the Marines didn’t know Carlos was actually part of the crew and opted to just sneak in and fight their way out.

Unfortunately, we see that the Marines were several steps ahead. Despite being unknown pirates, the base executed five out of the six from Carlos’ platoon, using torture to extort information and finding out that they were indeed part of the Whitebeard Pirates.

Akainu then sets up a trap not just to defeat the Whitebeard Pirates, but to essentially cage Falco. Instead of heading to Enies Lobby or Marineford to launch a large-scaled battle, he betted that several important figures from the Whitebeard Pirates would come to Base 113, and they would be able to surround them there, where they’d obviously have the upper hand. They waited for the day that the Whitebeard Pirates would come, noticed Jozu and Moire’s infiltration, made it look like the base wasn’t well-guarded (so that the two wouldn’t get suspicious), then made sure that Carlos was kept in a jail with only one exit in order to trap the rescue team.

But Carlos knows this which is why he dreaded seeing Falco’s group and yelled at her to leave. Ace’s plan would’ve worked if it wasn’t for the fact that Akainu was literally ten steps ahead.

Basically, everyone underestimated how cruel the Marines could be.

Ace trusted that Carlos’ platoon would not get tortured or killed because there’s no evidence showing that they’re part of the Whitebeard Pirates. Think about it—why would they go out of their way to execute a small group of (seemingly) rookie pirates?

But what he didn’t consider was the fact that Base 113 is under Akainu’s jurisdiction, and Akainu’s sense of Absolute Justice is to execute the unlawful as fast as possible. By torturing the five, the Marines eventually learn that they’re part of the Whitebeard Pirates, and the trap was set.

—

The infiltration itself isn’t anything interesting. Both pairs run into a young petty officer, who’s actually a spy to check how many pirates are present. I did this because I realized that there are probably no CCTV cameras in the One Piece world, so they’d have no idea as to who’s infiltrated unless someone could check. He reports his findings to the higher-up, and Amare is the first to realize that this is actually a trap once she sees the six battleships head their way.

As for the skirmish, I had to incapacitate Ace/Thatch/Carlos to make sure that they couldn’t fight. Marco and Falco got plot armour, sure, but give me a break QAQ they have to get out somehow, right?

And then shit really hits the fan once Amare shows up.

After realizing that this was all a trap, she makes her way to the viewing room to help the platoon escape. The room is small and cramped so the Marines can’t freely shoot, and she takes the opportunity to open the gates.

Doing this is obviously extremely risky. She knew she would die by doing this, but her love for Ace and Falco didn’t even make her hesitate.

In the moment of chaos, Amare is fatally shot.

I wasn’t sure how graphic I wanted her death to be considering she’s very young, but I didn’t want how she died to be what’s important. The action moves very, very quickly starting from when she gets shot to the end of the chapter, so it won’t be easy to take in and remember every detail. There were only two things I wanted to make sure I could portray:

1. Amare has died for sure (none of this ‘a Marine took her and helped her recover’ bullshit). 2. How much she loved Ace and Falco until the bitter end.

To be honest, there was a brief moment when I considered keeping Amare alive (without Ace and Falco’s knowledge), but that’s such a cop-out and I hate it when that happens in other books or shows. But at the same time, I didn’t want her death to simply be a plot device to make readers sad. Her death is something much more symbolic for Romance Dawn. You can say that this chapter is the ‘true’ beginning of the story.

The last thing Amare sees is Falco’s outstretched hand as Marco sacks her over his shoulder and runs to escape. He makes this decision because he knows that if they don’t get out, her death would have been for naught. 

In her last breaths, she thinks of the two vice-commanders who were her roommates, friends, siblings, and parents. A verse from an old lullaby flashes through her mind:

I pray that our love will never waver Even as I fly towards the dark I won’t know what lies ahead But even now, you are my light.

—

The final section is an absolute disaster, so let me try to organize it.

Falco hears four main things: all these voices from both the outside world and her memories, a flatline, some awful screaming, and something that continuously gets shattered. She’s trying to figure out where they’re coming from, but it’s extremely disorienting and she’s in a lot of pain.

The flatline isn’t the sound of Amare’s death, but rather her own heart stopping from being broken.

The awful screaming is coming from her (which she initially doesn’t realize).

The shattering noise is weird because to the readers, it’s supposed to symbolize Amare’s death (as it was foreshadowed last chapter and the start of this one), but Falco believes that it’s her heart. Once she wakes up though, she thinks it’s actually Ace’s after seeing how utterly broken the man is.

The reason why Falco was in this semi-comatose state where she couldn’t wake up was because she let her Devil Fruit ability loose from the shock of Amare dying. Previously, it was just her wings and a few scales that made her look like a dragon. Now she has fangs, larger wings, and hands/legs with talons. That’s why her teeth (and body) were hurting so much.

How they actually escaped will come up next chapter, as well as the series of events that led to her going berserk.

For Falco and Amare who loved the stars, the sky is cloudy by the time they head home. The Marines don’t pursue them further.

—

Writing this note was honestly so emotionally draining. I can’t even begin to describe how much I loved Amare. It’s weird because from the many, many OC’s I’ve created, the most minor little girl that I created solely to die was the one I ended up loving the most.

Her death won’t be in vain though.

Thank you so much for reading the chapter and the note. Thanks for loving the story and most of all, for giving so much attention to Amare. She would’ve relished in the attention, I’m sure.

I will likely be returning in January with a new chapter! Going to spend some time with TBE, fixing inconsistencies in Romance Dawn, sketching, hanging out with family, and travel a bit.

B U T, I did say you guys can request prompts if you want to! There’s a lot of slice-of-life stuff with Ace/Falco/Amare that I didn’t get to show, so if there’s a specific scenario you’d like for me to write, just send it in my ask box and I’ll do it! You guys will probably come up with things better than me anyways. :D

-Koyo

[rakuyokoyo]

Romance Dawn Notes: Chapter 12 - Be My Guiding Light

Read Romance Dawn I: Bearer of the Silver Flames here.

—

‘lo.

This is actually my forty-third note that I’ve written (holy crap), but the first to be published so... welcome? I’ve realized that between slow updates and shitty writing, I haven’t been able to explain everything that I’ve wanted to in the chapters, but long A/N’s looked cramped and uncomfortable, so I’ve shifted everything to here. Once again, feel free to ask questions, request prompts, send memes/drawings/ideas, and have fun! :3

—

The original title of this chapter was supposed to be Children of the Sea, but I changed it to Be My Guiding Light at the last second because I cut out the monologue that was relevant to the phrase. It’s why the little quote at the beginning sounds a little off considering what the chapter is really about, but I kept it because I thought it contrasted Ace well (as in, it doesn’t matter who your father is because we’re all children of the sea—something that Whitebeard tells him right before he becomes a commander).

I haven’t talked about Maria much in the story because it’s so poorly paced, but there was definitely a love triangle between her and Mihawk, Marco, and Thatch, and we learn that she chose Mihawk over her crewmates for reasons unknown at the moment. There’s a bitterness as well as anger that was unintentionally directed at Falco simply for the fact that she’s Mihawk’s child. One of the reasons why Ace hesitates to tell Falco is because he can see his two closest friends—Marco and Thatch—admit that they didn’t search for Falco because they were mad at Maria for choosing Mihawk and leaving the crew instead of their family. It’s certainly not Falco’s fault, but she was the one who paid for it in the end.

I’ve tried to show this throughout the story, but Thatch loves Falco like his own daughter. He tries to be a good figure in front of her because he regrets letting his bitterness stop him from rescuing her years ago. On the other hand, Marco still hasn’t moved on from Maria and sees Falco as a clone. It’s why he doesn’t interact with her that much—because he can’t. And yet you know that once Thatch, Whitebeard, and Ace die, he’ll have to start talking to her, and treat her as someone who is distinctly different from Maria. He’ll have much more relevance post-Marineford, so this current arc is really for Ace, Falco, Amare, and Thatch.

You have Ace, so tied down by his past that he can’t move on. You have Falco, who doesn’t have a past so she’s forced to only look at the future. Then there’s Thatch, who’s hurt by his past but tries to move on, and Marco, who is forced to move on though he’s still very much living in the past. And then there’s Amare, someone who seemingly has no beginning and no ending.

—

Amare’s a pretty weird character and I certainly didn’t expect her to be so popular! That makes me really happy to know because I’ve grown fond of her, even though she was made without much thought. I wasn’t plan on making any major OC’s aside from Falco in this story, but Amare’s actually become the central focus, in a way. I feel bad though because her story won’t be relevant until post-Marineford, and all the information relevant to her is spread pretty broadly throughout both Romance Dawn I and the (planned) Romance Dawn II.

The end of the chapter with Ace, Falco, and Amare is sort of weird and feels out of place, but it’s meant to be that way. I wrote this first arc wanting to develop Ace and Falco’s relationship in preparation for Marineford, but it’s become just as important for Amare—especially the first half of this arc.

—

It was a fairly short (6500 words), dialogue-heavy, fast-paced chapter, but hopefully chapter thirteen will be a bit more interesting as it’s the rescue mission that I’ve been teasing for like... two years now (I can’t believe RD was first published in 2017...). You’ll definitely want to be around for it as it essentially kicks off the ‘real’ story of Romance Dawn.

Thanks for reading uwu

-Koyo

—

Up Next: Chapter 13 - Love