Just a little extra section that talks about some behind the scenes stuff, plus answering some questions you all might have. If your question is not answer, feel free to post it in the comments, and I will answer them.
Behind the Scenes
The behind the scenes here will be short, because I'm not filming a damn movie. All there is to say about the stuff happening behind the scenes is that I got an idea and I asked Sunny if I can get permission to write this. Sunny said yes, I wrote it, and now here we are.
FAQ
And now let's get to the stuff that actually matters! Here I will (or at least try) to answer some common questions you the reader may have on the fic. If I miss any, leave them in the comments. If I get enough I'll make an entire chapter dedicated to FAQ. Now let's get down to it.
Alright! First things first. You guys, the readers, will be represented by this image of Gloria here.
Say hi, Gloria!
Gloria: Aye.
Not the very talkative type is she? Now, because she's got a Scottish accent, her English will likely be very difficult to read for the lot of ya, so I will provide translations.
Gloria: Whit did ye say aboot mah accent, ye pumpin' prick?
Nothing! Alright, without further ado, let's do this.
Gloria: Whit inspired ye tae write this fic? (What inspired you to write this fic?)
I've always wanted to write a fic that includes a yandere. While I don't wholeheartedly support Serena being a yandere, it is funny to joke about from time to time. I originally started reading Admire to Kill when I found it in the Hot section for the amourshipping tag. Originally, I was reluctant to read a possibly violent book, but Sunny's talented writing and Yuu's equally amazing artwork is an addicting mix, and I was hooked in. I also read Valor Fennekin's Perfect Boyfriend (Please come back homie I miss you!) and I wanted to jump on the Yandere bus while it's still going strong. It took me a while since I'm still relatively new to writing, and that I'm not sure how to "start" a yandere fic, you know what I mean? I prefer writing one shots, I always have. All but 1 of my stories that I actually put effort into were originally meant to be one shots, and I only added chapters when I got a good idea for them. I got the original idea of "Ash seeing a companion die and had a moment of doubt" when I saw the teaser for Season 3 featuring May. I originally planned to have May take Dawn's place, minus the sibling theory, though I feel Sunny will have other plans for May, so I decided on Dawn instead.
Gloria: Whit pairt o' th' story wur th' easiest tae write? (What part of the story were the easiest to write?)
The easiest part of the story to write would be Ash. Or his character, to be specific. To me, Admire to Kill's Ash is a poor guy stuck in a very unfavorable situation. He loves Serena (that love being either genuine or out of fear) and so he wishes to protect her. However, that would mean standing aside and let her kill people, and in some cases abandoning his friends. Ash clearly still cares for his friends, and is now in this situation where he is forced to choose: his girlfriend, or his companions. I wanted to illustrate that, and therefore this entire chapter is meant to show that. Seeing Dawn get killed by Serena in cold blood was a real wake up call for Ash, and he started questioning their relationship for the first time since Kalos. Now, as for why its the easiest, that's because of how I write Ash in my own work. If you read any of my other stories, poor Ash tends to be the guy that can't catch a break. Doing work he don't like, getting depression, attacked by enemies, Ash keeps dealing with stuff he didn't sign up to do when he started his journey. My Ash is always what I imagine what he'd become by Journeys: a traumatized and damaged individual, hardened by years of adventure and hardship, which he hides under a cover of a carefree and happy individual. I believe Sunny's Ash suffers in a similar way, hiding his stress and fears from everyone, even himself and Serena. So when I sat down to try and replicate that, I felt right in my environment.
Gloria: Whit pairt o' th' story wur th' hardest tae write? (Which part of the story were the hardest to write?)
Surprisingly, Serena's character. In Admire to Kill, she's a mentally unwell, lovesick murderer who sadly does not realize the damage she's causing to everyone. That is quite contrary to how I write Serena. In most of my fics Serena is much like her anime counterpart. Kind, humble, shy, reserved, capable of bad-assery should the moment call for it, and absolutely cannot maintain composure within 6 feet of Ash. It wasn't so hard to write Yandere Serena as it was uncomfortable. Telling me to write Yandere Serena is like telling Sunny to have Serena suddenly apologize to Goh and suck him off, it's a sudden change that can be awkward for the writer. Nonetheless, I enjoy doing it, and it's a nice change of pace from my usual characterization of Serena. Of course I still hold out hope AtK Serena can change her ways. Honorable mention goes to writing Dawn's death. Poor girl didn't deserve it at all. She's in heaven with the others now. ('Cept Calem. That fucker's burning in hell.)
Gloria: Whit gave ye th' idea fur Dawn bein' Ash's half-sister?
Now this is a question I expect a lot of you to have. I saw this theory for the first time in a Firstfriendshipping fic (don't ask) and I thought it was pretty interesting. I shared it with Penumbra2147(check out their stuff, they only have one story right now but damn is it good) on reddit and they liked it, and eventually, both of us decided to use it in our (possibly future) work. Me on the AtK fan chapter, and Penumbra on their future Pokemon Redux series. The theory presented here is a simplified version that's cuts out the more complicated stuff. I will state the full theory here. If you don't want to read it, just scroll until the words are no longer bold.
Theory: Ash's father was originally a Pokemon trainer who travelled through Kanto. (No he isn't Red) He met Delia and the two travelled together and eventually fell in love. They got married and moved to Delia's hometown, Pallet, and 9 months later, Ash was born Ashton "Ash" Satoshi Ketchum. At first, things went great. The couple were happy, and Ash was a healthy baby. But before Ash turned 1, his father left for another region and never came back. Not a single letter, phone call, or email from him. The piece of shit left his wife and son behind to satisfy his own selfish need for adventure. Ash's father travelled to Sinnoh and fell in love with Johanna, who was then in the prime of her contest career. Eventually, he impregnated her, and she gave birth to Dawn, making her Ash's half sister. But of course, the scumbag left Johanna as well, forcing her to retire from her contest career to raise Dawn. Meanwhile, back in Kanto, Delia held on to the hope that her husband would return, and would tell stories of him to a young Ash. For a while, and for the first few legs of his journey, Ash believed it. But later (right around Sinnoh) Ash came to accept the fact that his father left and will never be back, and started to resent him. The more Ash travelled and the more times he came home to find his mother alone with only Mimey for company, the more angry and bitter he grew. By Journeys, a 19 year old Ash made it his own personal side quest to hunt down his father, not to drag him back to his family, but to kill him. Those desires grew stronger when Dawn came to Ash with news of their relationship. Ash was confused at first, but was quick to accept Dawn as his sister, and started calling her "sis" from time to time. Dawn on the other hand, was a bit different. She never held as much resentment towards her father as Ash did, and simply wanted to know why he left. She found out about her and Ash's relationship through a DNA test. The funny (or disgusting, depending on your humor) was that until that point, Dawn actually had slight ROMANTIC feelings for Ash. When she found out she was romantically interested in her own brother, she felt disgusted with herself, and that guilt was why it took her longer to fully accept Ash as her brother. There's actually even more to this, which I left out for sake of space.
Gloria: Whit does "the voice" represent? (What does "the voice" represent?)
The voice is meant to represent Ash's morality and basically everything that's left of his old self, before entering a relationship with Serena. The Voice is essentially Ash trapped within himself, and struggles with the current Ash for control, hence why we have moments where Ash hesitates to perform certain acts (such as killing Goh) or moments where he does such acts without hesitation (killing Officer Jenny). It's the two Ash's struggling for control of his body. My theory (which I posted in Sunny's conversations) is that the current Ash was born back in Season 1, when Ash broke up with Serena, as The Voice saw how dangerous being in a relationship with her really is and tried to end it, but we all know how it went. Now it's trapped in its own head, being force to do actions it regrets. Upon being separated from Serena for a while, the voice managed to regain control of Ash, hence why Ash befriended Goh and Chloe, they were able to catch a glimpse at what Ash used to be like, before the current Ash took over when Serena came back. In this fan chapter, Ash's shock from seeing Dawn's corpse allowed The Voice to manifest itself to try and reason with Ash, to get him to change. If he can't end his relationship with Serena, maybe he can try and help end the killing spree.
Gloria: Yer story sooks 'n' ah hate it! (Your story sucks and I hate it!)
Gloria is that you talking or them talking?
Gloria: Thaim, o' fookin' coorse.
Okay, first of all, please ask a question, in the form of a question. Second of all, if you hate my story for its dark theme, I do understand, dark themes aren't for everyone. HOWEVER, I literally had a warning for violence at the very beginning. If you fail to heed it, that's on you. Actually, if you dislike darkness and violence, why the fuck are you reading this and Admire to Kill then? They are literally stories about a lovesick murderer! (Besides, dark stories are kinda my thing) Now, for those that hate my story just to hate, please remember, and this applies to all other stories on this site, if you want to hate a story for no good reason, remember: If you cannot write a story on the same subject/genre and do it better than the story you are hating on, then you have no fucking right to hate on it. That's like giving a guy shit for not being able to perfectly solve quantum physics while you yourself can't even pass Algebra 1.
Gloria: How come didnae ye murdurr goh? (Why didn't you kill Goh?)
Now this question is one that may be on the mind of certain readers (you know who you are). My simple answer is this: I don't see the point. The timeline of this fan chapter is meant to be sometime after chapter 20, and before season 3. Since Goh is very much alive as of the recent season 3 chapter, killing him here would violate the cannon, and while this story is stated to be non-cannon, I still want to stay as faithful to the original as I can. And also, this story is about Dawn, not Goh. Killing him wouldn't really add too much to the story, and besides. I think Goh's a great character with undeserved hate. If it weren't for Serena being a serial killer, I think everyone would have remained great friends. (Also because I hate to break poor Cheruyuu's heart, especially after all the Chloe references I made in that chapter.)
Gloria: How come didnae ye git Cheruyuu tae illustrate fur this chapter? She illustrates fur th' oringinal AtK efter a'. (Why didn't you get Cheruyuu to illustrate for this chapter? She illustrates for the original AtK after all.)
Of course I would love to have Cheruyuu illustrate for another one of my fics, but she did say that she stopped taking requests, and I want to respect her wish. Not to mention, having Yuu illustrate for my chapter would just delay the actual AtK even more, and I don't want that. After all, this is only meant to distract us while we wait for the next chapter, not to delay the next chapter. However, if Yuu does wish to provide an illustration, I'll be more than happy to update the book to accommodate it.
Gloria: Howfur wid this fit intae th' cannon o' Admire to Kill? (How would this fit into the cannon of Admire to Kill?)
So a fellow writer in the comments expressed concern on how this would fit into the cannon of AtK should it ever, as they pointed out that Ash seemed untroubled up until meaning Shamus. Well my answer to that is this is the beauty of a fan chapter. If Sunny ever decides to adopt this chapter into AtK for Season 3, he really just needs to adjust some events and whatnot, such as location, and boom! It's now part of AtK.
Gloria: Wur thare ony scraps or ither stuff that didnae mak' it intae th' story? (Were there any scraps or other stuff that didn't make it into the story?)
Yes, actually! There was many ideas, drafts, and other stuff that didn't make it into the final version. I'll include only the ones that I believe is worth sharing.
1: Piplup was included in the first draft. What would've happened is that after being wounded, Dawn releases Piplup and tells him to warn Ash. Piplup leads Ash to Dawn, where he finds the body.
2. When Ash headed to the ranch to bury Dawn, he gets spotted by Pikachu. Pikachu realizes what's going on, and begs Ash to leave Serena for his own sake. Ash refuses, but expresses regret on leaving Pikachu behind
3. When the Voice appeared, I originally intended to have it recite the definition of insanity speech from Far Cry 3. I ended up shortening it, and instead had The Voice say it near the end of it's rant, as opposed to the beginning.
(And for those of you that haven't seen the insanity speech, here it is)
4. Ash was suppose to be much more angry about Dawn's death, to the point where he yells at Serena, and even slapping her. However, that would be out of character for him, so it was scrapped.
5. I actually had a plan for a sequel chapter. It's basically something like this: Dawn's body gets discovered at the ranch, and Goh finds out about it. He then confronts Ash on the matter.
6. I thought about a "afterlife" scene, where Dawn ends up after dying, and meets pretty much everyone that Serena had killed. Clemont, Bonnie, Misty, Chloe (just realized, in AtK Dawn and Chloe never met), etc
7. I wanted to have The Voice be more, well, a dick more. The original version of The Voice is taunting and sadistic, taunting Ash for his failure to protect his friends, and laughing at his despair. Then, I feel like if the Voice was more sympathetic and understanding, Ash would take its advice into consideration more.
Gloria: Howfur lang did writing th' chapter tak'? (How long did writing the chapter take?)
In reality, not that long. The actual writing part, as in the total time I spent typing, probably was between 2-3 hours. It really wasn't that long. What did take long however, was the planning. I spent about 2 days planning out the plot of the story and how it will go. Had I not plan and storyboard it before hand, I would've struggled to even get out the first few paragraphs. So what's the lesson? PLAN EVERYTHING!
And that is it for the FAQ for now. Like I said, if there is anything I missed please feel free to ask away in the comments, I will happily answer them all (unlike your teachers I actually am happy to answer questions). Hell, I'm desperate enough to answer questions not related to this story. (Please note that I as the author and a human being hold the right to refuse to answer questions that I do not like) If I get enough questions, I will make another FAQ chapter specifically for it. (I can't believe this has half as many words as the last chapter) (I am working on a sequel as you read this, be on the look out for it!)