NO CELESTIAL / dick grayson

a/n & swan song

HELLO AND WELCOME to the end of no celestial!!! remiel and dick's story is over in this book, but it's not the end just yet. both will feature as pretty prominent characters in the spin-off, swan song, featuring yu lan & damian as the main characters.

i started the first draft of no celestial on a complete whim. i'd read a few too many tumblr fics, and i decided that it might be fun to try my hand at another dc fanfiction. i've had numerous attempts previously, a few of which were published on wattpad, but none that went past ten chapters. and i was also really young when i wrote those, and not completely engrossed in the dc mythos.

the first draft was interesting to write, but i eventually ran out of steam. i hadn't a clue how to continue the story, and i was getting a lot of new and different ideas. thus, twenty something chapters in, i decided i was scrapping it and starting again from scratch.

this is, thus, the second draft, a wildly different story from the first, albeit the core ideas are the same: it's about choices. at least, the first half of the story is. the second is more about found family.

i had literally zero planning done when i started writing the book. i hadn't a clue where it would go. i knew at least part of the main plot would be based off the "son of batman", but the choice to have the second half be based off this wuxia sect came completely out of nowhere. it was completely on a whim, just like most other things with this project. "hey... what if i implemented some wuxia stuff into this story?"

but this was really fun. i've been in a major writing slump for all my original fics, so it was a blessing to know i could still do a chapter a day with something else, which is what i've done for the past week. it was really nice getting to post so regularly and see all of your comments, which i do really appreciate. thank you so much for giving this fic a chance.

okay. enough about that. let's talk about the spin-off, SWAN SONG.

first, the summary for swan song, which is now published on my account for you all to check out. updates might take a day or two. i'm planning on doing the thing where i write a few chapters first before i start posting, in case there's any inconsistencies i need to edit.

SUMMARY:

ODILE YU HAD never met anyone quite like Damian Wayne. From the first time they met when she was eleven, she'd been entranced by the boy with a brilliant mind and wisdom far beyond his years. He felt so out of place in her world of martial arts and cherry blossom woods, like a boy-god sent from the heavens to show her there was so much more out there she didn't know about.

And thus, a near decade long, secret, one-sided infatuation as they meet again and again, as they both grow into adulthood. He's the son of Batman, heir to the League of Assassins. She's the last remaining member of the Eyu Sect, destined for a greatness that was robbed from her, the spectre of revenge looming over her shoulders. He was going to be everything, she was fated to be nothing more than a chaser of ghosts.

Odile Yu was destined to admire Damian Wayne from afar, knowing she would never be enough for him. Knowing there would never be the space for her to fit into his bright, glowing future. He might fight in the shadows, but she would always be the one truly stuck in it.

When her mentor Remiel Shan decides to move to Gotham City to finally reunite with her lover, Odile decides she would go too. If she could never have him, at least let her be close by. At least let her watch him flourish and bloom, even if she could never show her silent love, even if she was fated to disguise her heart and pretend she didn't care.

At least in her head, she could dream of her own fairytale ending.

and there you have it! odile is yu lan, by the way. her choice of a name will be explained, but it should be pretty obvious to most people. but i'll just say, there is a deeper layer past the obvious. and it'll be pretty crucial to the plot :)

yu lan is a bit different from remiel, who's a lot more realistic (as most of my characters are), and doesn't really let herself... dream. yu lan isn't like that. she's a romantic. she loves fairytales. she holds out hope for things even though she knows it's not possible. she lets herself imagine it, dream about it. and it just so happens that one of those big things she loves to dream about is damian wayne.

it starts off as puppy love. he drops like an angel from heaven into her world. he's so different from everything he knows. he's like a knight in shining armour, here to whisk her away into a world far away.

it turns into something more. but at the same time, yu lan has her own duties. her own secrets. and they're dangerous too.

swan song will be taking the format i originally expected for no celestial. different stories without an overarching villain, though there's one "main" storyline and the other stories are presented as flashbacks instead. the main plot is about yu lan and remiel moving to gotham, finally, after eight years. remiel and dick get their happily ever after. yu lan is a bit more... hesitant.

i can't wait for you all to read swan song! i am really excited for it, and it's currently my main project for the summer (aka i really want to finish writing this asap, hopefully before i go back to school by the end of aug). so... see you guys then :)