okay, so- wow. i don't know what to say except for that i am really sad that it's over. but i'm also really happy it's over. does that make sense??

i literally owe it all to you guys for sticking around!! i am so, so grateful for each and every vote and comment, just all the support in general. whenever i wasn't super confident about my writing or elisa's story, the comments would always make me feel better. just thank you to the readers who were just . . . so cool. idk y'all are really cool and i'm lowkey jealous.

royal cries went through a lot of stages (shoutout to the people who remember it as crooked crown- you guys are like ogs). it was always going to start in ttc with nico and bianca at westover but elisa was going to be a daughter of hecate (there are a bunch of reasons why i changed her from being a daughter of hecate- mainly because i didn't feel confident enough to write her using magic at the time) but i ultimately wanted to change that. after i decided on changing that, i was at a loss of who her godly parent should be and then i thought 'why not make her a daughter of dionysus.' i like his character in the books and for the most part, he had a role to play in ttc that i thought would be fun to explore.

and then everything just worked out from that point.

and now i'm going to begin by blabbering about my ocs and canon characters.

elisa is first, obviously. she literally started this whole thing. we love her, don't we? sure she has her flaws (and a lot of them), but she is a good person underneath it all. that was the underlying message i wanted to give throughout this whole story. and maybe that's obvious, but i think it's an important message. i was worried (especially in the first act) about her falling into the 'spicy latina' trope because she can be a little . . . catty, and that is just a harmful, dangerous, incorrect stereotype at the end of the day. so i've always tried for her to seem more than that because she is. from the get-go, i gave elisa scenes where she broke that mold because it is a harmful stereotype that should not be played into. (if you understand what i'm trying to say??)

i don't want to say she's my best oc . . . but she's my best oc. she's brave, smart- ahem, catty- and will always protect the people she loves. she may have her doubts (especially about herself and the gods) but she means well. she's not perfect but she was never meant to be perfect. she was always meant to be flawed, doing not-so-perfect things because she's a kid out in a really shitty situation.

anyways, here we are now. elisa mother fucking bardales (fun fact; her middle name is carmela) as we know and love her. she had a fuck-load of character development (some of it unplanned on my part- like with drew tanaka and such). she was a major bitch in the beginning- thanks to a bunch of trauma- but she broke that stereotype and became so much more than that.

callum . . . for a long, long time, he was going to die, but then i started going back and forth between writing his death and not. ultimately, we know what i decided on, but there is a purpose for it that we'll see in book two. i am sad that i didn't get to explore his character more and that i didn't get to explore his and elisa's relationship more because it does go a lot deeper than what i wrote in royal cries. at first his character sort of came from a whim while i was writing the prologue; i needed something that would help elisa survive while she was on the run, something that would keep her motivated and tell/teach her about what the hell was going on. and now we have- well, had- callum belshaw.

nico and bianca di angelo, my babies. and yes, they're canon characters but get over it. i miss their little trio with elisa, like a lot. they were always supposed to be close, that was always in the plans, but their relationship (especially elisa and nico's) went so much deeper than i meant for it to. they love each other like family; they practically are family- and not just in the greek gods way. they would/will do anything to keep each other, especially after bianca's death. elisa and i are both nico apologist so that's just how it is <3 none of them can do anything wrong.

drew tanaka <3333 at first, there was no plan whatsoever of elisa and drew being friends but then it just . . . worked. their friendship just makes sense to me and it just works on paper (screen?). they're very similar and have similar ways of thinking (or at least my fanon!drew because she deserves so much more than what rick gave her). i always planned (and plan for my ongoing pjo fics) to give side characters more character/character development; like silena and beckendorf, the stoll twins, ethan, and drew. but drew even surpassed my own expectations of the new characterization i was going to give her. and i think that scene in the epilogue with elisa and drew shows that a lot.

i could keep going and go on hour-long tangents as to why they all deserve so much better (especially the di angelos and drew), but i'm going to stop. i want to know your final thoughts/opinions on the book. what did you think of elisa? if anything shocked you, what shocked you the most? what are you looking forward to the most for the next books? what scene/scenes from royal cries was your favorite? favorite friendship/relationship from royal cries? do you have any headcanons?

i guess the point is, i want you guys to talk about anything! maybe because i don't want this to be truly over :,)

one last thing,, reply here if you want tags for book two!! it'll be published on april 22nd (which is my birthday because i'm self-centered like that) and is called 'Olden Crown'!!

if no one responds to that i will literally never be heard from again btw 😻

now i present the memes