Volume Two, Part One, Author's Notes and Final Words: Worldbuilding and Fantasy and Extra Facts

These author's notes are long, please forgive me. For reference I go to college for international government studies and law, so yes, the topics of race, colonization and the effects on nations are very important to me. I could write a book about it.

OH WAIT. LOL. I DID.

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Since I could literally go on for ages about the affects of colonization on nations and how it hurts their development, I only talked about the two major points in my story.

For now, we return to the fantasy and word building aspects of my story. Also, people want to know:

What the fuck is going on?

Yeah. Yeah, every time I write something people have no idea where I'm going with it, I run with it like I stole it, and sometimes I don't know either, but as long as we get the right end result, does it matter how we got there? So yes, that explains all the wierd shit in my writing. Also that one of my goals is how ridiculous I can make a story while keeping a somewhat coherent plot.

My writing style is basically this

Story: Ace goes on a walk. End Result: Comes home with a cake.

In between going to the store he could meet Jesus Christ who is disguised as Gerardo Rivera, a news anchor, who gives him the cake. Either way he gets the end result, lol.

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What is The Rock?

Well first of all, he's a wrestler, LOL.

I had the very stupid idea of The Rock when I remembered my ex-boyfriend played a dumb joke on me. He used quotation air marks every time he said "Dwayne Johnson", and then acted as if his real name was The Rock. He did it so often that I started doing it too, as stupid as it sounds, lol.

So then I had the wonderfully stupid idea to put in, The Rock, a magical creature in disguise, no one is sure what it is, what it does, and the higher sentience of an inanimate object is really fucking wierd and offputting.

But no, The Rock, is not secretly Dwayne Johnson, LOL.

If you want a hint as to what The Rock is, go back to the chapters about how Prima got her powers, and try to figure it out. The similarities between The Rock and Invictus are also huge hints, but it's revealed in Part Two of what The Rock really is. Lush also states that when The Rock comes out of it's shell and goes by Paul, it is a heart.

Gross.

So be patient, soon you will know what Paul is, it will be ready.

Can you smell what the rock is cooking?

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The Eigth Realm, and Magic

Each and every realm(universe), has their own laws of physics and reality that applies differently. Those that are next to each other have more similar rules to reality and physics, therefore you can only travel to the ones closest to. Ace and Friends ™, are from the seventh realm, so it is only possible for them to travel to the sixth or the eigth, then from the eigth, the seventh and the ninth, and so on.

Which is why Nero's ability is fucking amazing, but that's for later in the story.

Magic from the eigth realm was brought over to the seventh thanks to the Empire and their fuckery, thus the creation of the astrals and all the ridiculousness.

So what powers the magic? Well, there is one law of physics that is the same for both the seven and eigth realms, specifically the first:

The First Law, the Law of Conservation: energy can be transformed from one form to another, but can be neither created nor destroyed.

In the eighth realm, the god of magic is also the god of pain. Yeah. You want magic, you need to sacrifice for it. Stronger magic, more pain. It can be physical or emotional, but it becomes weaker the less pain there is, must be a constant source, and after a while you can't keep using the same source unless the pain is extremely traumatic.

The Empire refuses to change their way of living because they have fucking magic. They are totally fine with keeping the institution of slavery because the constant, purposeful creation of pain gives them magic. I'm pretty sure now everyone thought the Empire was fucking nuts, I mean, they are, but no one does things for no reason...unless they're bored I guess.

I highly doubt a giant Empire enslaves people because they're bored, lol.

The entire concept of an Empire enslaving people for magic seems absolutely absurd at the surface level to continue a constant stream and supply of magic, yes? That's so silly, and probably over used... yeah.

Right now, I'm probably wearing clothes made in China. I have no idea if they're made by legally employed people, child slave labor, or by Uighurs in genocidal camps. It doesn't matter where the average citizen buys their items because it's near impossible to buy ethically, to not find a product built off of the pain of others.

Everyday citizens become unwilling partners in the governments decisions to continue slavery in the Empire, and in real life, people all over the world are unwilling participants as well, sometimes willing, to modern slavery. Everyone thinks, "If I was born in (insert horrible and traumatic part of history), I would do the right thing!"

Well guess what? It's happening right now, lol.

The Empire continues its abuse of people because of the compliance of their subjects that aren't enslaved, they get to punch down, and because the upper class ensures that they are so afraid of becoming enslaved, or worse, so that they will champion causes to get slaves from other nation-planets.

When I tell people I don't find this story difficult to write, they think it's because I'm crazy. Well yes, but no. You don't have to look very far to design a fucked up evil empire that has built its immense wealth on slavery. I live in one, it's the USA.

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Questions People Keep Asking Me, And I Don't Know Why

Q: Are you attracted to rocks, because you wrote about a rock with sexual proclivities?

A: No, wtf, lol.

Q: Why is everyone in this story so bad at their jobs? Why is everyone so fucking stupid?

A: Please pick up a newspaper and read a story, any story, and read about the most well-run facilities and countries in the world, nations where people have free education and healthcare and how they sometimes royally fuck up, and majestically their people continue to do incredible acts of stupidity. Please read about the absolutely ridiculous events that are true, that are daily occurrences and sometimes make me feel that I am not even writing fantasy, but non-fiction where rent-a-cops happen to be able to fly.

Examples of Military, Government, and Police Inadequacy and Belligerence

US Military Accidently Invades OLIVE OIL FACTORY LOL

https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/02/politics/us-troops-bulgaria-olive-oil-factory/index.html

Protests about police brutality are met with police brutality, lmfao

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/06/police-violence-protests-us-george-floyd

That One Time Several Times the US Government Almost Nuked Itself

https://youtu.be/dnEhRKm0bLc

I could fill an entire page with this shit.

Examples of Human Stupidity

Invention of Crocs.

Need I say more?

No, but seriously. People are capable of human error, and yeah I do ramp it up to eleven when writing this silly stuff, but is it really that silly?

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The Fish People

Sorry guys, there is literally no hidden meaning behind this one. Yup. None. Sorry. I designed a planet designed off of the basis of my basic knowledge of outer space, and of Earth. If there would to be a planet where we got along with other creatures, I assume their planet would be mostly aquatic like ours. That's really it, lol. I do like to imagine they look like terrifyingly realistic inhabitants of Bikini Bottom though, so there's that, lol.

Alterians

Alterians are based off of racist beliefs of black people.

-Built tougher, feel less pain, are in better physical condition, and are somewhat animalistic.

  Thus, their four arms, impenetrable skin, and their terrifying looks.

-Sexualization of black people, like big butts and mandigo, lol

  Alterians are hermaphroditic/intersex. Yup.

-Criminals and thugs, lol.

  Yeah, Alto and Azara are horrible criminals for this very reason.

Yet with all the warped and comical ridiculousness of old racist ideas I make fun of, Alterians are still generally law abiding citizens. Not all of them are fucking crazy, Alto and Azara are criminals, but that's for the sake of storytelling. Keko is an Alterian and a cop, and he dies protecting the town he loves, which he immigrated to. Even though Alterians are tougher and have thicker skin, they aren't invincible, they have weak points on their body, and are weak to fire. Everyone feels pain. The Alterians have different reproductive organs, but that doesn't mean they're sexually promisucuous.

A lot of the alien races I designed are just based off of stupid racist ideas or making fun of fantasy tropes.

Ionadians are based off of very racist ideas I've heard non-whites say about white people, and then I turned that shit up to one hundred. Ace is a Ionadian, they're all tall, pale, have curved ears, they're basically angry elves or they're dark skinned with large ears sticking out. Basically think of elves with several different flavors: chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, ok I'll stop, lol.

In all fantasy stories there's Elves, Dwarves, Trolls, Gnomes, they all hate each other! Yet for some reason in their own societies they get along fine, which is a hot load of shit. Ionadians are basically multi-colored elves, yet they still fight each other, there is no real difference between them. The different species fighting each other in fantasy is supposed to be a parallel in real life about how races fight each other but its stupid that they all get along in their own circles, which isn't true.

Ionadians in comparisons to the citizens of Earth and Paradis are absolutely terrifying.

Ionadians live longer, a minimum of 120 years. They have a longer time going through puberty, so most of them are taller, bigger, and stronger(stereotypes of Vikings being crazy huge, scary, stupid, and village pillaging, yet somehow defeated Rome).

Ace and Nero, compared to most Ionadians are shorter on average, and also explains why Ace is embarrassed about his height, but no one around him notices because his height is normal for everyone on Earth.

Their language sounds deep and gravely (stereotypes of "mean Germans with deep scary voices"), and almost all of the astrals born on Ionadis flash their eyes pure black whenever they use their abilities. Some have curved ears, others have ears that slightly stick out. Imagine if a 6 or 7ft tall man who sounded like he had rocks inside his throat flashed his eyes at you and then turned pitch black. You would panic, even though he would only be asking for the time.

All abilities are blood based, so many of the Ionadian royalty have blood based abilities, like being able to control it, and in battle they aren't against drinking the blood of their enemies to get a power boost. Seriously. Since abilities are genetic, therefore most royalty would be the ones going into battle.

The blood drinking was based off of the early misconception from Romans that Christians would actually drink blood during Mass when Christianity was during its infancy (or maybe they really did in the early days, who knows at this point?), another horrible and racist stereotype used to make an alien race seem even more terrifying.

Now imagine giant men and women with flashing black eyes, barking voices, that control blood like a fucking water-benders and drink it, riding magical creatures and chopping people's heads off using magical runes, staffs, and swords.

Yeah, some of the fears of the people of Earth and Paradis aren't unfounded.

It was amazingly easy for me to design terrifying monsters and aliens based off of racist ideas and concepts because racism is based on the fear of the other, because imaginary fears that are not real are much more terrifying than reality.

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What's up with the police?

Yeah, Peter Forthright is racist. I want to make it clear its not because he's a cop though, I don't hate cops. His bigotry is from colonialism.

How ironic that Peter Forthright is possibly one of the most morally upstanding characters, LOL.

He and the other cops do care about their town, but the corruption has infiltrated almost every part of the city making them useless. Peter Forthright is fighting an uphill battle and losing spectacularly. The town is a port, connecting to other planets, and the eigth realm. It's a hotspot for human trafficking.

Forthright is fighting a rabid dog with a spork while the government says he should use a gun and supplies him with a metal spoon, saying its an improvement. It's a mixture of the police fighting a loosing battle against problems within their own department when they want to do good, and then there's cops who just don't care because they realize it's a losing battle, so the cops in town aren't trusted.

Poor Peter Forthright. :(

Everyone in the story doesn't take the police seriously because a lot of people with abilities don't become officers, they get much more lucrative careers and think of police officers as "people who were too stupid to do better", which is really sad.

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Previous Edits in Past Drafts and Original Endings

I put this here because this draft had so many different versions

-Nero was supposed to rob a bank in the original version of the story, it was supposed to be called Bankruptcy, it would be the thirteenth chapter, because people declare chapter 13 bankruptcy, and I spend way too much time on jokes lol

-The Triads were a cartel in the original story, but I didn't want to put in an actual gang, and it made zero sense why an Asian gang would be on a different planet. I must have written the first draft when I was high, lol. Originally Fenton's brother who is estranged from their family joined the Triads but I was like," this is some days of our lives nonsense," and took it out.

-Sierra Sena showed up much more often in the original version, and I kind of liked that, but its near impossible to fit everything in without making the story too slow. In the first draft she and Ace were still dating when Volume two starts. She is clearly the emotional support that he needs but Ace is too thick to realize it.

-Sierra Sena and Ace were orginally still supposed to be friends, and in the original version of Volume 3 they would still get along. It was removed because that would make it even harder for Ace to learn his lesson, that would be unrealistic for Sierra to react in such a way as well, but it did play into the wierd habit Ace has of trying to get everyone to kind of like him

- In all but the last draft of the story Ace and Levi weren't talking yet, but they got back together and within the span of a week they uh... yeah...

( ͡~ ͜ʖ ͡°) That was too fast, even for me, so I changed that.

-Up until the third draft Ace and Fenton were still fighting. I took that out because it was too sad, and also it made no sense. They were friends for 12 years, I don't think they'd separate that easily.

-Originally Adonis was supposed to die along with the others. That was too depressing.

-Rosaline was originally going to abandon Amos, but that made zero sense, she put up with so much bs to take care of her son, and after I wrote it I noticed that it was so out of character. In another version Alto was supposed to kill her but that also made less sense because Nero would have hated him forever.

-In one version Nero comes over to Fenton's house while Ace is asleep and they talk and watch TV. In another Nero breaks in, but Ace isn't there and Fenton is disturbed but glad Nero is still alive.

-Up until the last draft Nero and Alto were supposed to have twins. Yup. There was a joke that Alto worried they were disabled because they were Alterians born with two arms instead of four, and Nero said, "Don't worry, they're normal", and then they get into an argument what normal is.

I took it out because A, These people are insane and should not be having children, B, These people are insane and should not be having children. If Nero and Alto were real, they most definitely would be the type to irresponsibly have children before they should, but I really didn't want to write about a complex dynamic of two crazy people and their three children, and it would also make future volumes a lot more dark because Nero would have to literally sacrifice babies to make a decision according to the first draft of the series.

In the original draft, Nero has to choose between leaving his children and Alto or pursuing his revenge plan.

It's pretty obvious which one he chooses based on his actions so far.

Yeah, so I cut that out, it was too dark, even for me.

The biggest change from all the past versions would be Levi and Ace's relationship, and how Nero and Ace meet

-Originally Ace and Nero were supposed to meet each other randomly at the mall, lol. In another version they were supposed to randomly meet each other at a convenience store while Fenton was talking to Nero, mistaking him for Ace, and then being confused when Ace walks into the same store.

-In almost each and every version but the last, Ace covers for Nero's attack on Crest Manor by asking Levi to do a favor for him. He wanted revenge against Almuz for almost tearing off his hand in the original version.

-In the first three drafts Ace was originally kicked out of the Atlaan police department or left because Almuz sliced open his hand while trying to assault him, and then framed him for Nero's crimes. Peter Forthright believed Almuz the entire time in the original draft but also knew he was doing something illegal, but that conflicted, so I had to take that out.

-In all but the last version, Ace and Levi's affair is exposed by Amy, not their own stupidity, LOL. In the original version this is what happened:

Amy is trying to relax in one of the rooms in the yacht because she has a migrane and hears voices in the hallway. She opens the door to see Ace and Levi uh, giving each other extra long handshakes, lol. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) She knows that everyone thinks she is paranoid and has it out for Ace claiming he's having an affair with no proof, but now she does, she takes a video of it.

On her way upstairs to the yacht in the movie room, she trips and cracks her phone screen. When she wants to out them by playing the video on the movie screen she only wants to play the first half without all the uh... moaning...but her cracked phone screen stops working and everyone sees everything.

Levi beats the shit out of John thinking he did it, lol.

I took it out because I was like, "damn this is over dramatic. " It's still juicy though. ( ͡ʘ ͜ʖ ͡ʘ) So now I have several scenes of Levi and Ace getting it on like Donkey Kong written for no reason that I most likely will delete, haha. Also, John left their team, so it also made zero sense in the timeline of the story.

Miscellanious Facts and More Cancelled Stuff

-Fenton and Ace never date (I've totally considered writing that though, haha). A few people have asked, so now I've made it clear, no, they don't sorry, lol. If it makes you feel any better there's alternate realities in my story so I guess there's one where they date...I guess...its not like I showcase alternate universes or anything, lol.

-Tyreceus was supposed to use his sword to create a lake of fire and lava, then like... skate on it. Like ice skating but with Lava and fire but that made no sense on how Unas's powers worked so I had to cut it out :( Also it didn't fit Tyreceus' personality, lol

- In the scene where Nero, Adonis and Almuz are running through a field with blue grass and a green sky with screaming blonde men that are flying, they are on the Planet Namek. When they arrive onto the black sandy beach with black water and sky, it's the land that never was, from Kingdom Hearts. I don't explicitly say what things are, but I like putting in fun stuff like that.

-When Nero is drunk singing at a party, they are singing Can You Feel My Heart, by Bring Me The Horizon. I thought it was a funny song because the lyrics sounds like something to a New Age Christian song but the instruments make it sound so dark and brooding.

- The Chapter, If You Seek Amy, is named after the Brittney Spears song... and if you say it really fast it means something else! ( ͡ʘ ͜ʖ ͡ʘ)

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Can You Choose Who You Are?

It's one of the reoccurring themes in my story, if someone can choose who they are, and in this volume it seems that the characters really think they can't, and it's hard. It's so easy to say be yourself, believe in the me that believes in the you.

Nero thinks he has no choice but to commit evil acts to get what he wants. Ace thinks that he is already bad due to low self-confidence, always thinks he has to prove that he is a good person but believes he can't change it, so why not have an affair?

There are some parts about ourselves that we can't choose. Nero cannot choose the fact that he is so very unwell, that everyone has failed him. Ace and Levi didn't choose their sexualities but they chose to be terrible people when there's no need to be.

The characters continue to make bad choices because they refuse to accept the parts of themselves that they can't change, continue to try and fight their situations, until they have no choice. So the question is, when will they finally accept the things that they can't change, focus on the things they can, and learn the difference?

It's called the Serenity Prayer, and Gabriel mentions it in Vol 1.5

It's the entire plot of Gabriel's journey as well, and in the end, even though all the main characters have different personalities in a very strange and disturbed world, they are all trying to answer the question 'can I choose who I am', and when they finally decide the answer is yes, the story will become, well, 'who am I?'

The closer it gets to the second question the harder it gets, and sometimes the answer to the second question isn't pretty.