Broken Souls

Author's Note

Has this story ever been an undertaking. 

For a story that's rarely if ever been my 'main' or 'serious' project, it's had profound impact on my writing and my online persona. (Doubtless many of you have realized by now that the username "ChronaLilly" comes from an amalgam of Chrona and Lilly, two of the characters within this series). 

The story has always been a lighter and more experimental one, which has lead to many strange decisions, but it's also lead to a lot of interesting avenues I wouldn't have gone down otherwise. Whether these decisions were huge successes or confusing, disorienting mistakes depends on the choice I made, but it's definitely kept things fresh. Keep in mind this story started, as can be seen in the "first draft" available at the beginning of Hearts of Gold, more or less a traditional Nuzlocke. What spiralled out of this project, however, has been a 350K word journey unlike anything else I've ever written. 

Of course, I didn't get here alone, so here are some quick thanks: 

-To the original Nuzlocke comic and the many, many fan-made comics that have since sprung from it. Some of my major inspirations including YTWC's Nuzlocke, Notepad's (this is why I thought you could only have six Pokemon in Hearts of Gold), Goddamn Critical Hits, Pi and Pea's, Ken's Kick-Ass Nuzlocke, Of All Things, Burning Bridges, Oh Gosh, ky-nim's Nuzlocke, Alterity, A Petty Nuzlocke, and who knows how many others. I made this book first because I was inspired so much by all these absolutely brilliant people... and couldn't draw for the life of me. 

-To several fandoms. You can guess exactly what was the inspiration for who, and while reference characters are the WORST part of the series and the one thing I wish I could absolutely SCRATCH OUT OF EXISTENCE, I have to admit Dill and Ten turned out pretty well. This is probably because I've never watched Supernatural or Doctor Who. Special thanks to a few close friends of mine for badgering me into making these characters with no background knowledge whatsoever. 

-Finally, and most importantly, to the fans of this series, who have shaped it into something far greater than I ever planned. You guys have been my guiding light during the entire process, my motivation to finish this monster of a project, and a lot of fan influence has gone into the series over the years. I could list every person who's been a personal inspiration, but I would ALWAYS be forgetting someone, so let me just say... you know exactly who you are. In fact, you're probably in the comments right now. Whether you came in late, have been here from the start (or close to it), thank you. Whether you comment on every page, have made fanart (Thank you SO MUCH!), have PMed me extensively, left that one really long rant comment on the page where your fave died, or just read/vote, thank you. Your support means the world to me.

As for the future of this series, I don't plan to take it anywhere else. Despite how tempting it is to go back to these characters, there will not be a new arc or epilogue series with the team's adventures with the Kalos rift (and whatever that might imply ;)). What happens next is entirely up to your own imagination. I have played through several other nuzlockes whose stories may someday become stories, but even if I used the same canon, they would be entirely separate universes and their paths would never cross with the Johto gang. I might rewrite the first chapters of Hearts of Gold, but these would be un-flashy edits to fix the clumsy prose and awkward dialogue of the beginning chapters. After all, it's hard to tell someone, "Hey, you should pick up this trilogy- it gets really good about three-quarters of the way through." Outside of that, though, this is where it ends for the team, and I couldn't be prouder to have shared this journey with all of you.

For all of us with hearts of gold. 

-ChronaLilly