warning: this is mostly going to be incoherent because there's a lot I want to say and idk how.

background:

i put a lot into this fic. i started planning it out two years ago and wrote it for last year's nanowrimo. and then after i finished, my laptop broke and i lost everything. so i started over and this version is much better (but the plot still isn't really developed), but i still shed tears for this fic haha

it's one of the few fics that i actually planned out too~

 (i changed a lot of stuff for optimal angst)

(dead????)

kyungsoo/minseok will be referred to as ksoo for simplicity

characters (their name changes and reincarnations and all that good stuff):

(in no particular order)

jiaheng (in his village) --> kris (killer under ksoo) --> yifan (captured by suho)

this is a fanfic, so i assumed everyone would know about all his names, but even if you didn't, i had some hints. tao, when talking about jiaheng, mentioned that he got a new name (kris) when he became part of ksoo's group. yixing, when talking about yifan, mentioned that he had another name before (jiaheng) but he didn't remember. then, lay was reminded of kris's disappearance when he was standing next to the river and thinking about sehun (who went into the siren empire)

yixing --> lay

are they the same person? are they not? it's up to you, which depends on if you think yixing died or not, which depends on how much of an you want luhan to be (did he fake yixing's death or did he actually kill yixing?). more on this later

suho --> reincarnated as junmyeon & zhongda --> reincarnated as jongdae 

zhongda was the human who gave suho his heart, allowing him to become emperor. suho's last words were "zhongda, i'm coming." they both reincarnated into the same world and they knew each other but it was still a sad ending and they didn't get to be together.

they were truly in love in the siren world though 

jongin (the "teenager") --> kai (the killer) --> junmyeon (the alias)

same person, same period, different identities. 

the real junmyeon died because he fell for a girl and the girl killed him. jongin decided to use junmyeon as his alis for revenge. he would get people to fall in love with him and then he would kill them. this is what he thought he was doing to ksoo, but it was actually what ksoo was doing to him. (and also what luhan did to xiumin)

kai didn't really appear that much, because jongin only uses that name while he's killing someone. he only killed two people in this fic and didn't use it for himchan, because it wasn't needed. 

minseok (human) --> xiumin (captured by suho) --> reincarnated as minseok again --> kyungsoo (alias)

hints as to why they're the same person: ksoo's rant about how love makes you delusional, "love can come from hate," fear of large bodies of water, he sang "black pearl" when he was drunk, "why do ppl always come to him, crying etc etc" after jongdae died, dreaming about weird mermaids, his weird nightmares, auality 

why i did this: i wanted a really big plot twist. at first i was going to use a member i haven't really included yet (baek or yeol), but then i realized that xiusoo are like the same person [x], and it would bring the two plots together. also, i saw this post on xiukai [x] (so cute asdkfjaksasd)

ualities

i feel like this is important for representation, but it'll only include the mafia au because idk... is siren x human like or something? 

jongin: biual

sehun: panual

tao: gay

jongdae: gay

junmyeon: biromantic heteroual

ksoo: gray-aromantic aual (let me just mention that auality is not only the result of past trauma ok. and it's also not how worms reproduce. two ppl asked me that and it's two times more than i need)

luhan:

everyone wants to know more about him, but really there isn't much to know. he is the only character in this entire fic who is heartless and doesn't give a about anything other than his power. he has a tragic backstory (suho letting his mother get executed etc) but it's hard to sympathize with him.

when yixing complained to him about having to play with xiumin's feelings, luhan realized he would have the opportunity to get a human heart. and he's a good actor, combined with the fact that xiumin was desperate for any nice person and lu's ability to influence thoughts (mild mind control) ... xiumin had no chance. which was why when xiumin was by himself, he was always doubting things. and then, when luhan was there, he would get "sudden thoughts" and the things he said would surprise himself.

umm... i didn't like luhan in this fic and i didn't really want to write about him haha

suho's game:

why did he do this? idk...

it could be because he thought he was too powerful, had too much time on his hands and wanted something to play with. or maybe he wanted to test yixing and see if he would fall for a human again (danger to suho's position,) but of course it was luhan who did that, in the end.

siren magic:

chanyeol explained pretty much everything in the prologue.

the magic/power comes from human tears shed in misery. only a siren with two hearts (the emperor) can take the power because it's so strong, but the emperor can choose to give power in moderate amounts to other people. they also have a halo around them that reflects their mood and energy (ex: flickering if sad or tired)

luhan has more powers (mind control) because he's mixed

their fighting was inspired mostly by wuxia. it's a lot of qi (internal energy) that they can use to push people around and stuff. usually in wuxia dramas, it's shown by streaks of light. it's really cool~

jongdae's death:

after jongin killed himchan, jongdae mentioned there were some "kids" looking at their car. when jongdae died, jongin first thought those kids were BAP, remembered jongdae and then killed him for revenge. which was kind of true, but not really.

what really happened: yongguk asked ksoo to find out who killed his bae because he had no clue and was pissed (poor gukkie. banghim5ever). ksoo found out jongin was the killer, but he wanted to be the one to kill jongin. so he let yongguk take the one "closest to the killer." ksoo had asked before who jongin loved, and he had answered jongdae, so that's that.

yixing's "death":

like what i said before, it really depends on what you want, but suho definitely did not kill him

what i think happened: luhan told yixing that he was going to fake his death, frame suho, get xiumin to really want to help and then afterwards, rescue yixing. but he lied and yixing was actually killed. he ended up in yonghen, the heaven/hell for Sirens. but luhan wasn't that much of an . he freed yixing's soul, allowing him to be reincarnated as lay

but why did suho go find yixing? for some father-and-son talk? for the talk? idk, use your imagination~

taohun:

okay, they were supposed to be a side otp, but then something happened and they became one of the main otps. idkkkk.... but here is their story:

after jiaheng "disappeared," tao became depressed. ksoo, in order to make tao want to kill, told him that the Oh's were the ones who killed jiaheng and tao needed to take revenge. so he went. everyone (sehun) thought that it was some weird elaborate yakuza/police thing that killed the family, but nope, it was ksoo's people (including tao).

but how did sehun survive? during their confrontation/confession, tao told him "you were hiding in the cupboards under the sink" (or something like that). basically, tao found sehun and didn't kill him, thus protecting him and letting this tragic love story happen

(they then met accidentally and ksoo encouraged tao to get close to sehun, because he was friends with jongin. and then they fell in love......)

what i think will happen next (for those who wanted more)

luhan enjoys having everyone bow down to him, but the excitement over that fades quickly. and then sehun showed up. being around luhan changes you, and sehun is already desperate for revenge, so he starts asking luhan about, you know, killing and capturing some more humans

ksoo becomes even more withdrawn and emotionless. he wants to stop what he's doing, but he can't. he's kind of like the old jongin now, killing people who did the same thing he did to teach them a lesson. and he kinda wants to die, but he's also scared, so it . bii takes more and more power and he enjoys his power a little too much, but there's no one to stop him.

who is bii? he's my ultimate bias who always wants to act as a killer, so i decided to help him fulfill his wish. and also, luhan looks like him. hmmm...

gdi he's so cute

lay takes care of candy (naming her taozi) and he somehow is able to leave the life without getting killed. yay! happy ending!

actually, i kind of want everyone to end up in the Siren empire and die, but of course, that's just me =D

finally: 

the only main character who is alive the whole time (doesn't die and reincarnate or jump into the water) is luhan

everyone who died (in order, i think): junmyeon, yifan, himchan, jongdae, yixing, suho, xiumin, jongin, tao, sehun

wow, that's a lot less than i thought

s/o to my beta Isabella1400 for saying that my fic is too angsty and then giving me ideas to make it worse. 

also to kkaebsong365 for suspecting ksoo since the beginning and freaking me out haha (i'm never going to get over it)

and CrownClownCole, simplymia, 5dogs1cat, ArisuRal, xm_exofan and everyone else who commented, upvoted and read this fic

thank you all for your support. I know everyone says this and i've said this like five times, but it means a lot to me. 

find me on tumblr (main, kpop, writing, bii, fashion)

and now i'm finally done~~~

thank you!! ^_^