This was originallly posted on Ao3 as part of the KiHo Bingo that I was co-adminning. This was my second prompt. 

At the time, this story was a birthday present to myself, and I posted the first chapter on my birthday. As a personal goal, I wanted to finish it within a year, but it was barely one month later that my SO of 6 years broke up with me. So as you might’ve guessed, finishing the story didn’t exactly happen. I’ve worked on it since then, but only sparingly. At the time, it held a lot of memories for me, as I drew a lot of the inspiration from a trip I took over the summer with my SO. I’d planned on drawing inspiration from that trip, after after the breakup, it was too hard.

But now I’m back. It’s been almost two years, but I’ve come a long way since that day, and I think I’m ready to continue this. 

The places featured in Facing The Darkness are, to a point, real. The locations the characters visit and see are real, though they may be slightly altered (shops, housing, beach fronts) either because it’s been three years since the trip (and two years since starting this) or because that’s just how writing goes. But for all intents and purposes, all locations and areas mentioned are real and as exact as I can make them. That said, some I’ve only researched, as I was on a schedule/itenerary when I went on the trip, and I only had a limited amount of time in the area. There are some things research can’t tell me; so I apologize in advance for any discrepancies and inaccuracies.

Additionally, since this was started two years ago, all ages reflect those of two years ago.

My soundtrack for the first chapter of Facing The Darkness was Sia’s California Dreamin’ from the San Andreas soundtrack and a couple hour-long kpop piano compilation by YouTube’s SMYang and DooPiano, all of them layered over this ocean-based AmbientMixer.

Story playlist on Spotify can be found here.