Name: Yeah, not telling.

Age: Old enough to write my story, do you really need to know more?

Gender: Most certainly male.

Well, I'm putting this up so that my profile isn't nearly so bare, and so that I can use this space for extended author's notes about my stories, since I've heard that overlong author's notes are a good way to get your story pulled. I'll try and keep these as spoiler-free as possible, but you never know.

Ichika's Trust: I started on this one with the basic idea, 'what if Ichika wasn't an idiot?' I admit that it really started out as a fix fic in my mind, more than anything else, because I was tired of Ichika being an idiot. And then I remembered the kidnapping, and Ichika's lack of parents, and I realized that he was a good bit too well-adjusted for having been kidnapped with no signs of therapy or adult influence outside of Chifuyu, who had to leave for an extended period of time afterwards. So, the Ichika in Ichika's Trust ended up being somebody whom I thought was what he could become, if he were smarter and actually reacted to his kidnapping and parental issues in a more realistic way.

Of course, sometime around Chapter 5, I realized that I was probably either exaggerating or undertoning his behavior, but it's a story and I haven't ever studied psychology.

I honestly never expected Ichika's Trust to take the form that it has. I was following the anime closely, often watching it, pausing to write a scene, then watching it more, in the first 3-5 chapters, which made them take much, much longer to write than the ones in Part 2. Most of the drama in Part 1, up until Chapter 7, was spur-of-the-moment. And then I took a two-month break, and came back with three chapters prewritten, and I discovered the joy of having chapters written out in advanced. I actually didn't plan Houki's arc to take the form that it did until I was doing my second draft for chapter 7, but it's now the single most important event in the story, and probably the one that sets me apart from the other IS fics on this site.

One thing that I most enjoyed was planning out how a more perceptive Ichika would change the cast members that knew him before IS Academy, while still keeping them in character. In my fic, though I didn't really show it much, Houki built up an idealized perception of Ichika based on how he acted as a young child, before she moved away- anyone who could hold on to a crush like that for as long as she did without hearing anything about them for a period of time most certainly would, and I'd be willing to bet that HoukiIdeal!Ichika is very close to Canon!Ichika in terms of personality and mannerisms.

Mostly because Canon!Ichika and EightYearOld!Ichika seem very similar in personality, which means that he probably hasn't actually matured much.

That would certainly explain how dense Canon!Ichika is, because boys that young just don't think like that.

Anyway, that's Houki. Rin is actually more mature, and despite how she sometimes acts, I actually think that she's one of the more level-headed members of the cast, because she's already been turned down, and now just wants to be a decent friend and hope that he finds something or someone that makes him happy, because she knows that he needs it.

Tabane feels guilty, due to her past and how it intertwines with Ichika's, which is why she's given him what she has.

Chifuyu feels guilty for a similar reason, so she's noticeably less cold than in canon- because, in her mind, Ichika's been through enough.

Dan is slightly more mature, but from what little he shows in canon, he was pretty level-headed, anyway, so the biggest difference is that he doesn't wonder why Ichika doesn't like it at the 'paradise' that is IS Academy.

Ichika is much, much more intelligent, extremely perceptive, more than a little arrogant, and much more efficient. He's very creative in battle, which was what I wanted, and he doesn't really overwhelm his opponents so much as trick them- because when you have a sword that grants an instant win, you don't really need to whiddle them down so much as work to get your single hit in as efficiently as possible. However, his losses in Part 1 all stem from a single, consistent factor- he always assumes that he's more creative and clever than his opponents. He does have a reckless streak, like in canon, he just hides it better. See his fight with the VT system as a good example of it. It was a controlled environment, so he felt a bit more safe to do what he needed to do. At the same time, he feels bound his lack of trust in others and does want to believe in human decency- he just can't bring himself to, because his cynicism is deeply rooted in his personality. His panic attacks are fun to write, too.

Anyway, Ichika's Trust is great fun to write, and I do still read all the reviews. I most likely won't write anything else until I, at the very least, have the entire thing written if not published, though I do know that sometimes, plot bunnies just go running off ahead of you. I'm not sure what, if anything, I'll write next.