So that's it.

Oh my golly gosh.

Physically I'm lying in my bed at 11:20pm doing absolutely nothing and looking like one of those Easter Island statues, but mentally I'm like *unintelligible screaming!!!!*

To be completely and brutally honest, I started this fic to get some clout.

I'd just watched Arcane after seeing a shit ton of stuff about it on Tiktok (and some ~edits~ aha), so naturally hopped on Wattpad (because ao3 scares me) for some high-quality low-quality fanfic and - loe and behold - there were, like, three.

So naturally, I decided to churn out a quick lil chapter on the day that I was moving house. Naturally. I searched, quote unquote, 'dark academia aesthetic' on Pinterest, found a cover pic - which I still use to this day lol - and bam! Ink and Ashes was born. I had no plot, no planning; just a desire for a smidge of Wattpad clout hell yeah!

Before writing this my only other experience fanficcing had been a *cough* dsmp oc-insert fic I wrote when I was 13 during quarantine ** which, to this day, only ever amassed about 10k reads. So when this fic started actually doing good I was like omg????????????

I still can't get my head round numbers like that. Like????????? What???????? You can check the where what countries what percentage of readers are from, and save for Antarctica, someone from every other continent has read this book. Like????????? That's so so crazy.

This fic - in a completely and entirely not-weird and not-sad way - has been a kinda big part of my life. What with moving and school and life in general, it's been one of the few constant, regular things that I can use to just disconnect from everything for a bit. It's pretty cool.

I wanna thank you all - especially if you've bothered to read this far - for reading my silly little project thing. (Special shout-out to those who started reading wayyy back in December/January/Feburary - y'all deserve veteran discounts.)

My favourite part has honestly been the comments - I try to read every single one of them, and honestly there been some that've made me do that little nose-exhale-laugh thing. Some of y'all are a teeny tiny bit deranged, but y'know what? I vibe with that.

So yeah. That's it, pretty much. I'm not sure what I'm gonna do next. I've got a few original story things that I'm writing at the mo' (or at least, planning, dreaming obsessively about for a week, then scrapping), although I don't think I'll ever publish them on here. I might pop up again if I ever get wrapped up in some other fandom badly enough to resort to writing fanfiction, or if I'm still somewhat mentally sane by the time season two of Arcane's released in 2025 or whatever.

So. Yeah.

I'm feeling kinda sad about this ending, to be honest, but again, to be honest, I frankly couldn't have been arsed to continue this fic any longer. I'm happy where it ended.

So. Anyway.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Stay well, drink some water, and keep being a simp for scrawny, dying Victorian-orphan men.

See ya! :)))))