End Of Part 1 Of Arc 1 Author's Note

Hello there readers! This is my chance to speak to you directly, tell you my thoughts and feelings about my story (as well as maybe some teasers for what’s coming :P)

The first thing to say is this: WOO to Skylar opening up! The last couple of chapters, you’ve finally gotten to see a look into Skylar’s mind, as well as her past, which I’ve been hinting at for a while. I’ll be honest, I cried when I was writing the scene you just read, where she finally opened up to the others. That one line, that small “Please don’t hurt me”, coming from somebody who is normally so no nonsense, really got to me.

I hope it lived up to expectations, it was a bit of a toss up for me as to what I actually wanted to do with it.

Skylar was always supposed to have a difficult past, but the idea to make her have had a brother was something that came up last minute. That said, I personally think it fit in quite well. The purpose of that was to really make it hit hard, and help really hammer home why Skylar and her parents are generally very isolated people. Yes, her parents will probably make an appearance at some point, no guarantees though.

Skylar as a character was created with the idea that she was supposed to be somebody who keeps her cards close to her chest. Quiet, but not because she’s shy. She’s a confident person and takes no shit, but generally much prefers to avoid other people because of her past, which is why she took such a long time to open up fully. I hope I’ve done a good job at conveying all of that through how she speaks and acts.

The part that I didn’t plan was for Ivy and Skylar to play off each other so well, but it felt right when I was writing it. Ivy is Skylar’s kryptonite in a sense: where Skylar keeps her cards close to her chest, Ivy wears her heart on her sleeve. Her innocent sincerity and her genuine kindness and trusting nature is the complete opposite to how Skylar usually operates, and it made sense that interacting with Ivy would floor her a little.

Also, fun tidbit of information: shadow magic users are generally associated with stealth, and I wanted to make Skylar a little different in that regard. The way Skylar uses her magic was heavily inspired by the way Necromancy is used in the Skulduggery Pleasant books, to the point that my notes include excerpts of those books to help with my writing.

Will Skylar join Gemma’s polycule? You’ll have to wait and see for that one :P

This project as a whole is something that I’m extremely passionate about. I think about it most days, brainstorming ideas for what I could write, ideas for character progression, for all sorts of different things. It’s hard to convey just how much I have planned for this story as of this moment, but to give you an idea: at a current posted length of roughly 124,000 words, we’ve still barely scratched the surface of what is to come (assuming I can keep up motivation anyway).

With over 20,000 words of planning, many more characters, story arcs, challenges and reveals planned, I’m very much looking forward to sharing it all with you!

To talk about the other major characters besides our protagonist, Mia and Ivy: I love them both. From the feedback I have received, people really seem to like Ivy. I’ve always had a major crush on the character of Poison Ivy, and bringing her to life with my own spin has been an absolute joy. She’s meant to have a sense of wonder and awe at the world that most of us lose with age. She embodies the idea of “stop and smell the roses”, and despite her relative age, it’s something we can all learn from her.

As an author, sometimes we don’t write the stories and characters, sometimes they write themselves. When you really get into the rhythm of things, it feels less like you’re creating a story, and more like you’re a messenger of sorts; a transcriber for events that have already happened. I’m hoping that no matter the evolution Ivy’s character goes through, that she will always retain that adorable sense of wonder at things.

As for Mia, she’s a pretty straightforward character for the most part. It was a pretty easy decision to make her an aeromancer, along with the rest of her personality. She’s a very positive and upbeat person, but different to Ivy in that she lacks a lot of that naivety. She’s straightforward and to the point, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have doubts sometimes.

There have been a lot of setups for various story and character elements over the course of the story so far. Some of you will probably be able to predict where it’s going. I don’t intend to write a story in the mystery genre with Kingdom, but I hope that I can still pull out a couple of surprises here and there. Gotta keep things interesting after all :P

As for the story itself, it takes heavy inspiration from The Gamer: Chyoa Edition (obviously), but more specifically, three different branches: TheDespaxas’ branch, Funatic’s branch and a smidgen of Dadwood’s branch. If you haven’t read them, I highly recommend it!

The name Kingdom was used because of an element that I’m using from TheDespaxas’ branch. In earlier iterations of this story, Gemma would have gotten access to it at the start of the story. I ended up feeling like it wasn’t right, like she needed to earn access to it.

This is the final iteration of a story I have been trying to conceive of for a few years now. I’ve always wanted to make my own version of The Gamer idea, and I’m not particularly proud of my early attempts at it. They often involved copying event progression from other branches, because I was too afraid to deviate from what I already knew was good quality work.

As you’ve no doubt noticed, I am using several elements taken from the branches of these stories. Skill evolution points and the general layout of Funatic’s character sheets, as well as the Kingdom part of TheDespaxas’ branch. I’m much happier now with how the story has taken shape and taken on a life of it’s own.

Also all previous iterations started with a male protagonist, because they were written before I figured out that I am a trans woman myself. Had to change that part because since transitioning, I find it very difficult to write from the first person perspective of a man.

With regards to the protagonist being a trans girl, there are a few things I have to touch on. I know some of you probably really don’t like politics in your stories. Trans people are real people and I would be doing a massive disservice to myself, my protagonist and the community at large if I didn’t portray this accurately.

That means that although it’s been absent so far, you will see instances of transphobia as the story progresses. This is going to be a fairly rare occurrence because Gemma has it fairly easy in that area. She is “passing”, meaning that she passes for a cis woman and people can’t tell that she’s trans just by looking at her. Non passing trans people usually have it much harder there.

All trans people experience harassment and transphobia at one point or another, and it sucks but it’s a part of life for us. I’m sorry to those of you who would rather not read about it, but I will be putting it in the story at some point or another.

That said, while trans girls are real people and not just a fetish, this is the place to be living out those fetishes. So please don’t be afraid to fetishise or objectify trans women while you’re here and reading this story, just because this is being written by a trans woman: we can all appreciate the fact that trans women are gorgeous and that we have a lot of fantasies about them :P

Just please be respectful about things, especially irl :)

As another aside, that bit about Gemma being autistic? I wrote that in because I myself am autistic. All of the main characters will in some way be neurodivergent (autistic, ADHD, OCD, etc), because I can’t write neurotypical characters. If they think or interact with each other in a way that doesn’t make sense to you, that’s probably why :3

Now onto the shameless plug: I do have a Patreon. Please don’t feel the need to subscribe, this isn’t my job and I’m not writing this story to make money. I’m writing this primarily because I’m passionate about it and I love writing. I will continue my current release schedule whether or not any of you subscribe. The current schedule is mainly in the interest of maintaining long term motivation, some days I could probably release chapters quicker, but I would rather be consistent than be quick.

Subscribing to my Patreon would get you early access to chapters (2 and 5 ahead for the two tiers respectively), along with one of the tiers getting you access to pictures of the main characters, as well as characters who have been teased. I have a model in mind along with reference images for all of these characters, so yeah.

It would also net you my appreciation and thanks :)

I’d put in more tier rewards if I could think of any, so suggestions are always welcome on that front!

https://www.patreon.com/icequeen52

So, a quick recap of all of the events that have happened so far: Gemma was introduced as a character and over the course of a few days, she figured out how her powers work and was introduced to the abyss. She met several abyssals, those being Mia, Skylar and her teacher Olivia, and trained with her new abilities. She had several encounters with gangs, and during one of which, had an encounter with a terrifying woman, simply known as Belle.

Getting closer with Mia, Gemma learnt ice magic and formed a guild, which Skylar then joined. After saving her from an attempted abduction from a gang, Mia realised how much she really cared for Gemma, and the two of them decided to build a romantic relationship together. A few more days of training until we arrive at another gang attack.

This time, Gemma and Skylar were able to defend themselves pretty easily, and in the process, they ruined the life of one of the gang members. A quick POV switch, a plot tease and look into the heads of a gang member later, Gemma had created Ivy, an artificial spirit based on Poison Ivy.

We had a few more days of training, along with another new character Paige getting closer with Mia, some new enemy types, and another POV switch, this time looking into Skylar’s head. She finally decided to open up to the other three and let them in as friends, and here we are.

This has been part 1 of arc 1 (titled First Steps), and it was all about introducing things. You can expect the stakes to be raised in part 2 (titled The Queen's Crown), along with new characters introduced, old characters fleshed out, some setups paid off, and other setups put into place.

The date is the 1st of January 2024 as I write this, and to finish off, here’s a tease for the next part:

“Stay away from her. You have no idea what she’s capable of.”

All the best <3

-Icequeen52