Author's Notice (Spoilery, don't read before Ch. 177) (Patreon)

Hello, everyone! 

This post, as you may imagine, is going to be a collection of my (loose) plans going forward, and a general post for my own thoughts. None of it is set in stone, but I want to make certain that everyone knows what my intent is herein. Before any of that, though, thank you all for time and interest you've shown in the story, I do appreciate it and you, and hope that I'll see you all around for my next major venture!

With the release of Chapter 177 the Earth Arc of the story has officially ended, pending some Epilogue releases. I hope it was a satisfying ending to the arc, and I wanted to thank everyone for being along for the ride for so long. Originally when I'd started this story, it was an experiment in both first person writing and an overall test of many other elements that I normally don't work with too much. I love the story and have had a wonderful time writing it to now, but all things come to an end. 

Well, I'd say an ending, but really it's just a closing of a chapter. There is more to the story, but I can't promise when I'll be free to work on the rest. This is a good place to stop, and with the Epilogues I hope to bring some soft closure to the story and insight into the world going forward.

I'm not exactly a fan of stories that just keep going and going without any point of real "I can stop here and have a complete meal" kind of thing. That said, TRL has much marching to do to reach some of the eventual conclusions. The kind of questions that haven't been answered yet like "What really are biotics?" and "What kind of overwhelming beings exist in the universe?" and finally "What fresh hell did that thing cra-" Well, you get the idea! But, Earth represents a HUGE milestone in the story, and I want to put a stop to TRL for now here.

I need a break from TRL, to put it frankly, and it's been a wild experience to write this one story for 177 chapters. There are other stories that I'd like to give attention to, and I hope that everyone would give them a chance to see how they like them in the future! I understand if they're not your cup of tea, but, hey, I appreciate it nonetheless!

Let's see, what else?... Ah, yes! I plan on releasing the rest of these chapters to Royal Road over time, but it won't be complete in the interim. I'll also release more Epilogue's here in case you guys want to read them, though they'll also make their way to RR. They'll have, admittedly, some story elements that may help open up another arc to the story later, but they'll be around in any case. 

Anyone who is a patron now will eventually be migrated into a new system on a new story release. This has been a passion project first and foremost, but eventually I hope to have enough people enjoying it along with me that I can also just straight up live off of it, which of course is every author's goal, I'd imagine. If you don't want to keep being billed, hey, I get you, and it's totally fine. If you want to keep supporting me in the interim, hey, also great (you da best!)! I plan on releasing teasers for my next story soon, but I also intend on having a huge lump sum of them complete before I begin posting any of the major chapters.

My next story will feature larger chapters in general, as I personally prefer working on singularly large chapters rather than shorter ones that can be consumed quickly. I can't promise anything about the release schedule, but my goal may end up being every other day since they'll be beefier chapters. If it goes well, I'll probably expand upon that, but I'll avoid trying to promise something that I can't abide. 

Anywho, thanks everyone again! Much love! If you've got any questions or comments, feel free to drop them below! I'm notoriously bad at responding to them, but I'll read them! :D