I wanted to say thank you to all of you for the support throughout Volume Two. It was a much different experience from writing Volume One. With the first volume, I spent 2.5 years getting the concepts and characters down, having dedicated beta readers, and gathering feedback. I was admittedly nervous with Volume Two and not having a safety net of 40+ chapters to fall back on. It was also marking my transition from writing beefy, less frequent chapters to shorter, more frequent ones. I personally prefer the stories I read to have big, long chapters rather than the short bursts that are the meta on Royalroad. But clearly, from the explosive growth the story has received, I'm wrong. Coming to terms with that was difficult, but I find I don't mind it anymore. Another change besides the schedule was the introduction of Interludes, which I think have been pretty well received. Aside from allowing me to show off other parts of the world besides the city Eryk is in, it also serves as a great way to creatively refresh myself when I run into writer's block. This is going to be a lot less polished than a chapter because this is more of a self-reflection and stream of consciousness. I'm going to break things up into their own parts.

SCOPE: I'll be honest, this volume got away from me at some point, and the scope of it became bigger than I planned. I have the ending of this story mapped out. I've had it since the start of Volume One. I have all the major plot points created in a document, so when I started this volume, I copied and pasted them over, and that's how I decided what would happen in this volume. We did not get to more than half of the listed plot points, and certain plot points that I thought would be small things became much, much bigger ones. I had a midway plot point and an ending for this volume that we never even got close to. What that means is that my original assumption of maybe 4-5 volumes is getting less and less likely. This volume is longer than the first one by 65k words, and somehow we aren't even at CHRISTMAS in the story. Deciding to stop this volume where I did was a choice because if I hadn't and I continued until we got to the original ending, then this volume might be 600,000 words. For Volume Three, I am going to try to be stricter with myself and follow the plan I create. I doubt I'll be able to do that, but I'm going to give it a genuine try.

Cowl Groups: I introduced too many of them in this volume; it was a bit of a mess. Throwing so many names and groups at you guys is a recipe for disaster, and I need to be cognizant of that. The Triad, Olympians, Villains' Syndicate, Lavender Club, and Cavallaro Family represent problems that I didn't consider when creating them. We've met only a few Triad members and the Villains' Syndicate, and that's too many already. The Olympians are introduced/hinted at in volume one, and they don't even show up in volume two. I've set up things for the Cavallaro family, but just too many people showing up at once.

EMMA: Eryk getting into another relationship after Maria was always the plan, but Emma, as a character, was not the one he was supposed to get with. Emma was not a character that was planned. One of the detriments to the way I write this story is the knock-on effects that will affect things later down the line. The mission he went on was meant to be a minor point, but once I started, I couldn't resist following the rabbit hole down. The story has a mind of its own, and sometimes things change from my original vision, and we have to pivot HARD. Because of Emma and how dynamic she is, I've had to change things completely. I've grown to like her as a character, and so have most of you. I don't want to just fridge her for the sake of a plan that I can just rework now. Part of me was worried about how people would feel about the relationship, but to my surprise, the majority of people are fans of the development. Writing a relationship like theirs is tough. The violent nature of their sexual chemistry is a tightrope that I am wary of falling off. Eryk is not a good man, a good partner, or a good person, and for that matter, neither is Emma. I never want to romanticize their relationship or glorify the messiness, but the two of them do work well together. Something that I really want for the "love interests" of this story is that they are nothing alike. I don't want Emma to feel like either Maria or Violet.

Violet: Oh boy. Where do I even begin? Violet isn't just a Supergirl-style stand-in, or some kind of commentary on secretly evil Superman like Omniman or Homelander. She's meant to be a foil to Vivienne. Vivienne is a good person who uses her powers for bad things, and Violet is a bad person who uses her powers for good. She is someone who has never experienced hardship or consequences, and that is not a good thing. Her upbringing is what led to her demeanor and personality, and the same can be said for Vivienne. I know a lot of people wanted Violet x Eryk to happen, but that was never a possibility with what I had in mind for them. One plot point that was left on the cutting room floor for this volume is that the interaction at friendsgiving between the two of them was meant to be a lot worse. The original plan was for Violet to sexually assault Eryk and for it to really affect him going forward. Not to say that what she did end up doing isn't going to have ramifications, but they were going to be much worse.

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Momentous Inc.: Not going to lie to you guys, the gang didn't get as much screen time as I wanted. Balancing the desire to highlight lesser liked characters such as Miles, Kai, and Rorschach led to favorites such as Vivienne and Isaiah getting a lot fewer adventures. It was important to me first and foremost to make sure that people understood Rorschach's utility and what she could bring to the group. I think Isaiah getting to see Eryk's face was a good reward/show of trust, and having Vivienne announce herself the way she did was fun.

Aubrey: Perhaps the person with the second most screentime after Eryk this volume. The poor girl cannot catch a break. When I think about how I originally killed her off during the docks in volume one, to what she has become is an awesome turn of events. Her journey is one that will be interesting to follow. She's grown up believing in the Heroes' Union and the Capes within the organization, and her whole view of them has been shattered into pieces. She isn't a character I'm attached to all that much, but she seems to avoid the noose every time it comes for her neck. Getting into the head of a "good guy" was interesting to say the least, and finding what her voice/inner voice sounded like was difficult at first. I did enjoy getting to show off Union dynamics and their cool base. All in all, I'm happy with her arc for this volume.

Eryk/Nobody: A lot of this volume was spent with Eryk on the back foot or with limited assistance. He's a bad guy, neutral evil, and I made him that way. But there was a lot of stuff in this volume that made me uncomfortable while writing him—particularly the torture and violence toward Emma. It is always odd what parts become uncomfortable to write to me, but they always involve Eryk. His having more than a few emotions now is making it both easier and harder to write his character. Harder because I have to consider them in relation to his actions and his decisions, and easier because I don't have to force my brain to think coldly at all times. He continues to be an alien creature to me. His spiraling bad decisions in this volume kind of showed the effect he has on other people, reflected back at him. Eryk is a cancer, a rot that slowly ruins everyone and everything around him. He's an irredeemable monster and will only get worse as we get further into this story. There are things I've planned out for him to do that will show there is no end to the depths of his depravity. He isn't the hero of this story, and he isn't meant to be liked. I think of him as the killer in a slasher movie; I'm not rooting for him, I'm at the edge of my seat in fear of what he'll do next.

Mother/Zero: Mother is complicated. She is a dark and twisted take on motherhood, the found family, and a religious figure. She was broken before Nobody, and his influence has only further corrupted her. I do like writing the creepy cult leader of a band of psychos and unwell misfits. As someone who personally has had a complicated relationship with religion, this character can be cathartic at times. Her priorities are innocent enough, and if someone else were inside her head talking to her, there's a good chance that she would be a valuable member of society. I've got more plans for Mother and the family for future Interludes, and it'll be interesting to see what everyone thinks.

Six: The big doggo, cute puppers, eldritch horror, and everything in between. Monstrous characters are fun to explore, especially one who wants to be better. Six's journey is almost like a reflection of Nobody's. Nobody looks like a human, but inside is a monster, and Six looks like a monster, but inside is a human. Despite his new form and instincts, he is attempting to be more than just a monster created for destruction, and I'm a sucker for someone who just wants to be good. I didn't get through his Interlude arc this volume, but it will continue in the next one. Something I'm going to make sure I do for future Interludes is have them wrapped up by the time a volume ends.

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