Notes/Clarifications

Earth to Ashes
Please Subscribe to read the full chapter

I attempted to organize this as much as I could because apparently I have a lot of things to say about this fic but nope, what is organization?

By the way I got first place for the contest I entered! :D I'm still trying to process that in my brain right now so I'm having a bit of a delayed reaction lol but overall I'm really happy and thankful ;u; <3

Without further ado, since the results are out I can now post this. I hope this will clarify some of the confusion this fic might have caused in addition to you'll see the explanations over what my inspirations were.

The Darkness

The whole darkness idea was inspired from the demons from “Seraph of the End” which led to it also being drawn from the way demons travel in “Supernatural” aka a big cloud of black smoke.

However as I was writing this fic, I remembered this poem I wrote two years ago and it influenced me to create my own type of apocalypse.

After all this time, I’m still sort of proud of that poem, maybe because it didn’t rhyme for the sake of rhyming, it made sense you know? Anyways here’s the poem:

Overcome by loathing and hatred
He eyes them with masked disgust
Those fragile and pathetic humans
Theirs lives that would soon turn to dust

His soulless eyes glower at them
Razor sharp teeth bared and ready
To take them in a moment's breath
Those hearts that beat unsteady

His skeleton like body
Hidden under a human guise
His thirst just slowly growing
As he yearns for their pitiful cries

There are many more like him
Hiding and lurking in the dark
Pretending to be a human
Just waiting patiently for the mark

To take away their happiness
Their lives hanging by a thread
To just steal away everything
For all they see is blood red

Because of all the change
The humans were buried in greed
Without even knowing it
They created a whole new breed

Their creation will become their demise
And soon enough the new breed will rise

So I tried to emphasize the main cause of the darkness being Greed which is one of the Seven Sins.

Mainly it draws from the way I see society sometimes tbh, that greed and power are instigators for a lot of things and as a result it’ll become our downfall one day hence apocalyptic doom. //cue evil laughter//

Anyways in the story here, while it’s not explicitly said, the way the darkness infected people were how if they were selfish and had moments in which they cared for only themselves, they would have a higher chance of becoming one of the skeletons.

That brings me to my next point, because the longer someone had the disease, the less human they were and in turn their skin fades and bones are seen through it. I have no idea how else to explain how it looks like but imagine an x-ray scan of someone but 100x scarier.

The Sword

Inspiration: Seraph of the End. Origins: unknown. Powers: unknown.

I’m actually serious when I say that. I don’t even know how I can begin to explain how I came up with it.

But the way I envisioned it, was when Chanyeol first used that sword (with mystical powers at work), he kills Sehun not because he wants to but because he’s forced to. Sehun then becomes somewhat like a spirit and flows into his sword because Chanyeol didn’t want to let him go.

You know that one myth with the thousand souls trapped in a vase? It’s somewhat drawn from that idea.

That’s why when Chanyeol is stabbed with the sword; he hears his brother’s voice among the other voices that invade his mind.

Life and Death

I sort of hate how I made a category for this but I feel the compulsive need to explain why I killed off so many characters. Like no, I’m not totally a sadist guys pffft.

First, let’s start with Sehun, Chanyeol’s baby brother. He is what I call the initiator. His death had to happen because Chanyeol had to witness firsthand what it was like and start his journey as a result. His parents sadly were collateral damage.

Now the Byun family, oh man okay. Writing about Mrs. Byun in particular was hard. But what I really wanted to show here was how an apocalypse could affect people differently.

Baekhyun was frightened, rightly so and his action of killing his dad (who was starting to show some signs) was more of a “please-I-don’t-want-to-die” moment than it being in

Please Subscribe to read the full chapter
Like this story? Give it an Upvote!
Thank you!

Comments

You must be logged in to comment
preciousloey61
44 streak #1
Chapter 4: Thank you authornim for writing and sharing this amazing story..also thank you for explaining and clarifying the story, behind reasons and the hidden secrets and meanings, revelation... it explains a lot but I think I'm still a bit confused... I mean I understand the explanation but I feel like I didn't catch some... woah sure it's a masterpiece and unique... I really wish there was more chapters to read... feeling bad that it's already end... heartbreaking but it still gave and left so many things to learn... one of the best story and chanyeol ff.. I'll definitely highly recommend this story to read everyone...well written everything... really enjoyed reading the whole story..amazing, interesting, catchy, mysterious, exciting, thrilling, suspense altogether in one story...🙌👏🤧💔😞🥹🥺😭😭😍❤️🤗🙂👍🫶🍒🍒🍒🍒😔😪🫰💔🤧😭😭❤️
preciousloey61
44 streak #2
Chapter 3: Omg... I'm totally dumbfounded and speechless... the whole survival journey was so nerve-wracking and thrilling... it really broke my heart and gave me a lot of goosebumps.. but the plot twist was so insane and it actually somehow confused me about the mysterious situation and them.. atleast they tried their very best to the very end not to let those darkness to consume them fully... where survival is tough, rough and hard, they somehow made it together to the end.. glad that they found some ulterior motive, clue, reason and solution to survive in the new world of darkness... I'm still quite shocked and confused.. but actually satisfied with the outcome... what about that mysterious shadow and how even both chanyeol and jinae got that infection.. minsoek was one of them right..ugh.. can't wait to read next chapter...
preciousloey61
44 streak #3
Chapter 2: Omg.. glad that so far they survived 👏 🙌... that was definitely a nerve-wracking situation... chanyeol's decision to go back to them and saved them...was truly appreciated... chanyeol's survival journey truly made me emotional and that was definitely heartbreaking..but really appreciated how he survived all the time and did all shorts of things.. chanyeol, such a thoughtful guy and a great survivor..loved this chapter..but omg.. the last part was so scary and creepy... so worried for them...
preciousloey61
44 streak #4
Chapter 1: Feeling more sad and heartbroken... the situation and incident really gave me goosebumps and thrill while reading this whole chapter... feeling so emotional and sad for chanyeol that he had to go through this alone.. also sehun.. TT TT TT.. omg.. so interested to know about that girl, her brother and their survival story..when surviving is too difficult for people... awww... feeling bad for baekhyun and his family.. just why... TT TT TT TT.... I'm already in love with the story..too catchy and interesting..🥺😞💔🤧🤧
preciousloey61
44 streak #5
Woah.. interesting description and forward.. so excited to read.. walking dead, that's one of my favorite series... but still I can't quite watch it without screaming 😭 😍🙈
exolotl
25 streak #6
Chapter 3: Beautiful story, your writing is amazing! Loved how you used greed and selfishness as reasons for this darkness, it was a very interesting idea and fitted the story just right. It's also quite scary if you think about it, like I would not want this happening to our world, though with how people are nowadays I can definitely see it happening! lol
RinaBelle #7
Chapter 4: This was epic.
Yoshinon #8
Haunting but beautiful...
I can see the inspiration from The Walking Dead and Attack on Titan what with all the horrible stuff Chanyeol had to go through. I feel sad for him really, he lost everything and was alone almost from the start T__T but I'm glad this has a happy ending.
I agree, Chanyeol really does fit the apocalypse/post-apocalypse au, he's the perfect choice
Thank you so much for writing this! <3
bebexol
#9
Chapter 1: I’ve only read the first part and I am amazed, holy cow you are a great author
TamTamlovesChanYeol
#10
Chapter 4: I just wanna say that you're a genius. Period.