Warning: Gratuitous Author's Notes. This is why I didn't include many throughout the story. Once you get me started, I won't stop talking. Feel free to ignore.

Holy crap. Done. Done, done donedonedone! I hope that last chapter gave all of you cavities and diabetes. But it's now done and over with!

I've been describing Waiting for the End as the project that got away from me. I didn't know I could write this much. I mean, I've been trying to write originals at this volume for years. Oh well. The length was inspired by a couple fan fiction authors I have deeply enjoyed reading across a couple fandoms. Two notable ones are wittyy_name (Homestuck on AO3) and Marsh of Sleep (Soul Eater on FF). Their stories are huge and so well written. I also pushed myself to write this length because I wanted to see if I could for my originals. The average published book nowadays is around a 100K word count. I am extremely happy with WftE's length in that light.

In general I've used WftE to push my writing skills. Dave is probably the closest mind set to myself so coming up with his actions were fairly easy, but his speech... I don't do very well with the rambling metaphorical bullshit that Hussie has perfected for Dave in Homestuck. But hey, I tried? Using Homestuck as a character bank where I have to push myself to make them feel correct really helped me as a writer. I tend to make my own original characters too perfect, not flawed enough. Hussie creates his characters to where we love them for their flaws. I need to create with that in mind.

Just as a side note, I've written myself into this story a lot. Like I really should be ashamed but I'm not. I think I am awesome (not really). For those interested, I modeled Prynne's body type after myself (but I swear I am not as obnoxious or evil as her) and split my kinks between Dave and John. I really shouldn't be inserting this paragraph in here...

I also used Hussie's brilliant retroactive foreshadowing trick to try to enhance my writing. I can't ever achieve his level but I feel like I've done a lot here. I don't know if it was too much (read: please let me know if I am overdoing it) but I really enjoy using repetitive elements and the idea that I wrote something in there for a specific reason. That reason could be to enhance the mood, to draw the reader in, to guide the reader into a certain correct or red herring thought pattern, or to be used later to tie events together. I think using elements of the past to shape the current point in the story makes it stronger. (Again, if you disagree PLEASE give me your argument, I'd love to hear what you have to say.) To me, this allows me to build up to a bigger event without disregarding the previous events and without making it to serial. It's as if I had the ending already in mind! (Trust me, I didn't.) I also loved throwing in little bits of canon memes in there. I probably overused Dave's/Sweet Bro's/Hella Jeff's "We're doing this, we're making this happen" but hey, it's a meme, it's supposed to be overused.

I understand I have a strange sense of humor but I hope you guys enjoy the little stuff I put in there. It amuses me to write them. I'm usually grinning like an idiot when I write or read them. (Not really a good thing as I end up writing a lot of this at work...)

I might have used too much of the namesake song in chapter 44 but honestly I named the work before even having a connection between the song and the story, and when I finally listened with purpose to the song, it worked perfectly there. (As a side note, I personally refer to the story as Big Fluffy Bluh, or BFB for short. (Helps keep my friends from looking it up.))

Writing a relationship based story was also a new thing for me. I am a huge fan of epic stories usually in the fantasy or science fiction realms with action. The more action the better. I love B-rated movies and hate chick flicks. So doing a relationship story was different for me. I tried to avoid a lot of what drives me nuts in chick flicks (at least on Dave's end, I ended up using some of them for John's actions, the asshole). Also as much as I enjoy the smut stories that I read all over the place, it always irks me slightly when the pairing goes from meeting for the first time or a completely platonic relationship to sex within five minutes. (Please ignore Journada Del Muerto. It does exactly this. Shit.) I really enjoy actual relationship building or smut in pre-established relationships. I feel that it is much stronger that way. *Shrugs* Personal opinion there. (As I ignore my blatant hypocritical Halloween story.)

As always, thank you for the support I've gotten in writing this. It took me about 5 months to write this out. It took 9 weeks to post it. And it probably takes a couple hours to read it. Thanks for those who joined on at the beginning and didn't drop it. Thanks for those who joined in the middle and kept up my momentum. Thanks for those who joined near the end for helping me push through those last chapters. Thanks for to anyone who is joining me now in the aftermath. Congratulations to all for reading this far. I love you all. Platonically for the most part.

Full Kudo List: amayaXakeru, olive letter, sakura-chan369, ForgottenOlive, MadnessAndCoffee, Kie Quinn, Kaary, intoxicatedinsanity, Classy2Shoes, ThatsJustGr8, GrimmLoki, Eating Rash, telltaleFirefight, kitsuke-chan, Gallifreyan Annihilator, VriskaSerketRules, FullMetalShortyLover, Magic126, xXx-ILickStrawberriez-xXx, rapidepicgoose, soulfire26, Elesion, Magma Fyre, Bro im awesome, Chiri19, franfran5643, fluffymagentajellyfish, JoshuaAshita, TrueHeroOfTime, StarTheDemonWolf, MssBiPolar, Hikaruhia, xXxFearxItxXx, Mack Cat, epuffs, Un Amore Belle, nibijinchurriki, Discofreak1029, otakudrawsalot ft. KanaNoHana, timdGoddess, lyyrai (lyyra?), ScapelSlut (SS?), Maiden of the Silver Fires, and Courtney. (Wow, some of those names... just wow.) If anyone else wants on a kudos list, go read one of my active stories and favorite it, follow it, or review it and you get a kudos. It's that easy.

Special kudos to my best friend who helped me out with outfits for the characters and other little details. I hope you never ever read this. If you do... I'm sorry?

As always, I'll take any criticism that you guys want to throw my way. I probably won't go back and apply it to WftE (unless it's a typo or something, feel free to send me notices of typos, I swear I read each chapter like twenty times and I always find something) but I'll be writing a lot more and I'll try to keep it in mind for future works. Speaking of future works (start of shameless plug) I am planning to do a sequel to When they come for me... eventually. I have a document started but no inspiration yet. Don't worry it will happen. In the meantime, I want to do a collection of short one shots of other couples in the WftE-verse. Please send me pairing suggestions (with specified type of relationship) and/or scene/kink suggestions. I'll try mix and matching if you only give me one. I won't be able to do all because of my writing limitations, 'verse limitations, or personal preference but I will try! This is a continued writing experiment so try is the key word here. I'll start posting probably after Thanksgiving under the title In Between. Follow me if interested. Also, follow me on Tumblr (aeacustero) for other updates and for my original stories. Or for just shits and giggles. As always, I am open for conversation and would love to talk to people.

(Good lord, how much did I just write for an Author's Notes. Jegus. And yes I say that in real life now too...)