Upside Down

~x~

Ahahaha, did I say that I'd have this up the day after the last chapter of Upside Down was posted? Yeah, see, ABOUT THAT…
Yay for being easily distracted!

Alright, time for the background stuff!

The idea itself was actually born long before I started writing it. Why? Well, I love fantasy stories! In fact, I love all things related to magic, and kings and queens and the feudalistic age.

Originally, it was going to be that Haru had been in royalty for his entire life, and Symphonia was in war with a neighboring country (Raregroove). And then, one night, Haru was going to be stolen away from the castle in the dead of night by Raregroovian spies. Obviously, this IS Haru, so he would have escaped, and found a run-down lab in the middle of nowhere, where he finds this girl that's hiding away from the Raregroove government – Elie. Expectantly, Elie wasn't going to have any memories, so Haru agrees to bring her back to Symphonia to try and help her out.

Well, that sort of never got off. So, instead, I took a different angle. Haru WAS a simple island boy in the first volume, thrust into this insane world that he didn't even know existed. Everything just sort of fell into place from there. (:

Unfortunately, there are a few running jokes I had to leave out. Well, at the very least, there was one joke.

In chapter sixteen, when they were all imprisoned, I really, REALLY wanted to throw in the phrase 'ballroom blitz' (kudos goes to whoever tells me where I got this from) here and there. But, it just wasn't fitting in the way I wanted it to, so…it was left out. ):

Alright! A VERY important topic that, surprisingly, was not questioned – the illness. When I first put it in, I honestly had NO idea what it was going to be. The plague was out, simply because NO one survived it, and Haru would have certainly caught it. But, what is there that affects more woman than males, and something the body will NOT become immune to after the first strike?

Well, I finally narrowed it down to a few things, and what I eventually came up with was Typhoid Fever. Now, I'm pretty sure this was not a particularly picky illness, but, it seemed to fit with the story. Contaminated water was, certainly, not odd in the feudalistic age, right? Also, Typhoid will kill a person between three weeks to a month if not treated properly. So, why did Sakura and Cattleya die?

Well, because I wanted Haru as an orphan, for one thing. As cruel as that sounds, I really did. It made much more sense.

Another reason they died because of the fever was because Cattleya and Haru had NO idea how to treat it. Sakura did, which is why Cattleya lived through her first encounter with it. But, once she was sick with it (not because the disease is airborne, but because it can be spread by flying insects and poor hygiene habits), obviously Cattleya did everything possible to try and fix it. Because of this, she rarely bathed and washed up and everything – cough, bad hygiene, cough – and ended up catching it again.

This still raises the question – why did Haru not get sick too?

Well, despite not having the best hygiene after Cattleya got sick, he was the youngest. Young people tend to have better immune systems than older people, AND he was stronger. His body was much more capable of fighting off an infection or ensuring that the infection never had a chance to spread.

Sigh. It pained me to kill them the way I did…but, what must be done, must be done.

You know what else I wanted to put in the story? Haru's father. Somewhere around the seventeenth chapter, I got it in my head that he'd make an appearance, back from the dead!
OK, maybe not back from the dead. Just, very much alive.

So, why didn't I? Well, it just…wasn't fitting right. I took the situation in a lot of different angles, but no matter how much I wanted it to fit, having Gale make an appearance to give Haru the chance to go live happily with Elie in Elie Village just wasn't working.

So, instead, I made it so Sieg took over the throne. Actually, I really wanted to write the scene and have you all see it happen, but I decided instead to take a darker approach to the epilogue.

See, it was planned all along that Haru and Elie would eventually get married and live happily ever after. OF COURSE IT WAS. If you thought otherwise, you don't know very well. Hah. But, of course, I had to think of the age I was setting this up in.

Most marriages did NOT happen because of love. Kings and princes were set up with the most suitable match for the throne. Elie and Haru both knew this, so they stayed apart for a while in an attempt to try and do what was best for their country. However, Elie was smart. She loved Haru, and there was no way in Hell she was bedding with ANYONE just because it gave her kingdom an heir. So, she gave her throne to Sieg Hart, a man much better suited for it than she was.

And, hey, what do you know – Sieg has a son already!

See, I KNOW that I claimed Niebel was adopted, but, really? He wasn't. Oooh, no. Sieg is his actual father, but he hadn't really been around the first couple years of his life. Then, Niebel's mother died (cough, Flicka/Hilde, pick which one you want, cough) and he was shipped off to live with his father. Niebel is also unaware that Sieg is his father. I understand that this was probably a bit of information that should have been written in, but, eh. Sieg was more of a side character anyways, and Elie didn't know about it, so…

Well, there ya' go! A LOT of little bits that were (unfortunately) left out of the main story. :D Trust me, it really did pain me to leave it all out. Sigh. But, sacrifaces must be made!

I hope you're not mad that I took so long to update…and that I'm taking even LONGER to update The Bonds of Three…If it's any consolation at all, I've been writing through my classes, all little bits and excerpts from the story! Hopefully, they'll make appearances. Not that you'd know, but, well. I'd know!

With lots and lots of love,
Lighteclipse21.0~