Today, there won’t be a chapter. I wanted to instead take a moment to reflect on everyone that’s responsible for me finally doing this. These people are either inspirations, fellow writers I’ve bounced ideas off of, supportive friends, close family that helped me out of tight spots, and anything else that has lead to this moment, and this project.
Matt F – My brother and my rock during the hardest times of my early adulthood. Thank you for literally saving my life all the time.
Jen F – Matt’s wife, who is Matt’s rock in his entire life. Without her, her wouldn’t be who he is. Thank you for keeping my brother healthy and sane.
Katy H – My sister and one of my closest friends for life. Thank you for being someone I can trust with anything, anytime, regardless of how sensitive the topic is.
Chris H – My brother who pushes me forward in my passions more emotionally. Thank you for supporting me, and making me realize how broad and different the world truly is.
Eric-Ayla R – One of my best friends who I can always have a good music chat with or discuss differing opinions without argument. Thank you for being simultaneously the most understanding and most realistic person to me.
Tanya C – A trusted friend who has helped me bring my words to life visually. Thank you for always being open minded about design ideas, it truly helped me gather my thoughts on character design.
Ruel M – My personal Florida Man and someone I can’t imagine my life without for how grounded you keep me. Thank you for being the “hard-ass” I need but don’t deserve. I’d probably be a lot more reckless without you.
Jordan V – Kindred spirit and surrogate family of mine. Thank you for being supportive of all my wildest decisions and encouraging me to do things regardless of who cares about them or not.
Marco M – One of the people who regularly lets me explode ideas at them without warning and a very good friend. Thank you for your patience with my absolutely insane idea spam. I’ve made so many positive changes to the story thanks to you.
Dominic I – A close friend that I regularly disagree with on a lot of things, giving us both new insights. Thank you for showing me that two people who differ so greatly can still get along. I need your contrary views to mine to keep me humble sometimes.
Eli S – My business partner, and the reason I started plaing tabletop games seriously. Thank you for showing me the world you love so much. You may not believe in yourself, but I believe in you, and you’ve got the potential to change literature forever.
Dylan W – A close friend that shares a lot of my reckless spirit but also a lot of my creative spirit as well. Thank you for becoming the person you’ve always wanted to be. It’s fantastic to see you succeed and it also shows me that so can I.
Aaron P – Thank you for always being host to my stupidity and craziness. You may not realize it because we don’t interact much anymore but you’ve made a huge impact on my ability to logically perceive those around me.
Jon D – Thank you for being such a great coworker at the bingo hall, and also for designing and illustrating the cover of this story. Quite literally directly resonsible for this being possible.
Jeff T – I’m so fortunate to have three dads, with you being one of them. I used to think I was on my own in life because I had to work myself out of bad situations, but you showed me just how much those around me helped me, and I’ve never looked at those in my life the same way again.
Steph T – On the topic of three parental figures, we have my third mother. Thank you for encouraging me to be more outgoing and kicking my edgy phase out of my head. I feel like you were there for so many of my darker moments when I was just being too stubborn to realize I was being an idiot. You kept me from becoming someone terrible.
Brianna G – Thank you for being passionate about my work and thank you for allowing me to encourage you, too. I can’t wait to see what you can do, and I hope you’ll still be around to see what I can do too.
Saki – Thank you for being someone I can rely on for a good vent session and thank you for trusting me to see your work before it’s finished. You may not realize it but your design principles have influenced the way I look at things around me and modify them to fit my setting.
Sumiko – Thank you for keeping me focused. Motivation is hard for me to come by, Our talks, and our mutual distaste in the way certain things happen around us, has been a huge reason why I’ve been able to change my work flow into something more healthy.
Brad H – Thank you for being a somewhat recent yet very potent friend to me. I didn’t realize before how lacking I was in someone to “hype-vent” with, because I’ve already done that to so many other people, but you do it right back which is new. I appreciate that we can both be unfiltered in our excitement.
Cameron W – Thank you for being always on the peripheral but also always engaged with the same things as me. It often gives me a fresh perspetive on things I previously considered myself an expert on.
Ryan M – Thank you for being so passionate and allowing me to see that passion. It’s helped me contextualize what things to be passionate about and what things to save my energy on.
Angel A – Thank you for being such an absolutely sincere person, and thank you for the artwork you’ve done for the story thus far. Whenever I want a fresh set of eyes on my words that I think can visually represent them in the most accurate way to what I envisioned, I think of you.
Michaelangelo M – From being a fellow musically inclined individual to introducing me to new things without realizing it, I can safely say there’s a lot you’ve done to broaden my interests. Thank you.
Christian R – We haven’t spoken much recently but I remember a time when you approached me for writing advice, and all I could do was say how you were already more eloquent than I was. Thank you for being someone who stays humble in ther own expertise. You’d be amazed how much that helped me realize my own potential to improve.
Amos S – Thank you for being one of the most understanding people who I have trouble understanding. Not logically, I mean literally I need to ask you to repeat yourself a lot because my ears don’t fathom your words. But seriously, I appreciate how much you respect and understand those around you, regardless of what they may or may not have done in the past. It’s a skill I wish to have someday.
Silas D – You’ve always been someone with breaking info, and contrarian views. That’s a good thing, please don’t change. Without your input conversations would become echo chambers. Thank you for making me question my own opinions, it’s really amazing how much that can affect a person.
Saria L – I figured you’d appreciate this name. Thank you for being part of my journey since the very beginning. When I started writing, you were there, and now that I’m publishing myself, here you still are. Thank you for being one of the longest chains of support on my passion.
Lo – Transformation is a fun way to say what we’ve both done over the years. I used to think of transformation as something negative that was forced on me by those around me, to conform to a specific way of life. Thank you for showing me that transformation is the most beautiful thing I or you could do for ourselves. We’re both transforming into the best versions of ourselves every day.
Cassie J – I can’t think of many people who grew as attached to my work as you are, nor can I think of anyone who has been more directly involved with breaking me out of my own bad writing habits. Thank you for your passion, your critique, and also sharing your work with me. We’ve made a mutual impact on each other that will last a lifetime.
Cetta – Thank you for reminding me of what I value most. We’ve had many serious discussions over the last few years and they’ve all put into context exactly how much I let small things affect my larger drive. Not anymore, thanks to you.
Redo F – You know, it’s weird to think that we’re so similar and yet we’ve poured our passion into completely different things. Thank you for showing me how to expand my passion, through many different creative outlets.
Kiara M – Thank you for being there during a crucial, life changing decision that has held me back for so long. It’s thanks to how open and accepting you are that I was finally able to break that shell and say ‘this is who I really am.’ and I think without that I wouldnt be here now.
Jayson P – Thank you for reminding me of my roots. Without you telling me the good in things I disliked, I wouldn’t be able to recognize the bad in things I liked, and I’d probably just be one of those obnoxious fans that refuses to concede to flaw.
Ace M – The first person to bring my characters to life on paper. Thank you for your insight on character design and your interest in my work, as well as allowing me to see yours. I will be first in line for your games when they come out, count on it.
Mia Kim – You’re someone I owe a great deal of my humility to. Thank you for teaching me how to control my reactions to appropriate levels.
Jeune – Thank you for being such an early writing partner. That early portion of my creativity was primal and unfiltered and likely would have remained so if we never wrote together.
Maiko – Thank you for being such a great person to bounce any and all topics around with. It’s that kind of consistent diversity that keeps my mind fresh.
Meghan – Thanks for being someone I can share working woes with. Everyone needs a person who knows how their work life goes to complain about it with.
Myrtle – Thank you for teaching me so much without realizing it. I adopted to your writing quality because I wanted to write with you, and that’s helped me be more aware of and consistent with my word choice.
Sarah T – Thank you for supporting me directly and indirectly during basically every stage of us knowing each other. I like to think that you’ve been a big reason as to why I was bold enough to make this site in the first place.
Dennis S – We’re not super close and I think that’s my fault, but every time we talk for longer than a casual group chat I wind up learning something new about you, myself, and the world around us. Thank you for being a constant in my life, whether you realize it, or care, or not.
Adam M – Newest friend to me of all, thank you for being blunt. I need that a lot, and you always have been with me.
Kevin K – Our time spent working at the gas station, and when I was doing SCA stuff, was massively impactful. Without that I wouldn’t have such grounded views on combat, armor, and so on. More importantly though, thank you for being someone who could trade blows with me on all fronts. A passion rival isn;t something I knew existed, but you were definitely one for me and that made me reach new levels.
Mazequinni – contributing art to the story as well as being someone very engaging to talk to. I’ve learned a lot of social skills in the short time we’ve known each other
Jojonium Art – Thank you for creating some of the concept art in this story. Including the first appearance of some characters.
Robusta Art – Thank you for your personal works of art for my own use. As requested, I won’t use those pieces commercially, but just know they are very appreciated.
Hidetaka Miyazaki – You’ll never see this, I’m betting. But thank you for teaching me how to show and not tell. Thank you for teaching me the real meaning behind intricacy. Most of all, thank you for teaching me how it feels to push through adversity.
Steven Brust – You might see this. I hope you do. Thank you for teaching me that it’s okay to be witty in times that require serious touches. Thank you for working through some of your hardest days. Your work has taught me what I love about literature, and subversion of it, and I genuinely would not be writing this post after finishing my first small story arc without first appreciating your work.
Everyone on this list, whether they know it or not, is directly responsible for this website, this story, and the soon to be printed first ten chapters that I’m giving to most of them as gifts. I’m unworthy of all of these wonderful people in my life, but I’m glad they’re here anyway.
Thank you all.
-Lin
Magna Varia 