The Twelve Realms (A Zodiac Story)

Untitled Part 96

it's been so long since i actually opened this story

i just want to start with

the twelve realms still holds a special place in my heart. it's where i learned to write, learned about character development, how to write a good romance (almost kill the love interest) and how to write a dynamic cast of characters with their own distinct personalities and values.

i am so sorry for leaving this gem of mine to crust with the dirt and grime of time.

i am sorry for leaving so abruptly, for promising and never responding.

this is an apology a year and two thirds two late, but i hope all the readers that i looked forward to pleasing take it to heart. a friend of mine updated her abandoned story, and i guess it spurred me to finally give an ending to this one.

thank you all so much for reading my tale. i know it's about the physical personifications of zodiacs, and that it's a bit silly and has bits of bad writing and inconsistent characters and horrible pacing sprinkled in like pepper on pasta, but it's something that forever changed me and helped me get the skills i now have today.

i've moved on to a new part of my life, and although this piece of my imagination will never be complete, i'm so grateful to everyone who deigned to read a story with 4 views, written by a girl who was a bit too obsessed with the zodiac archetypes, and even more thankful for the ones that actually liked the crap writing and weird plot i used to sew this whole thing together.

and so, for old times' sake i decided to gift all the readers that read until the end a true ending 

(of sorts)

for old times' sake.

*time skip*

For a few moments, silence reigned supreme.

Virgo's shoulders curved inwards. "This . . . is difficult," she mumbled.

"A whole lot more people read about us when we were gone," Sagittarius joked.

"You mean when The Great Creator lost interest," Aries snapped. "We didn't leave. We were taken from our tropes and molded into new characters."

"The--" Virgo's brows rose. "The Great Creator."

"I wouldn't want to say our Lord and Savior because that already has to do with religion, and I would offend a lot of people by calling her a dick. Which she is."

"Okay. Um." Pisces tilted the screen towards her. "It's complicated, but I'll just let anyone who's still reading that our author didn't really know how to . . . swear properly. So there were just . . ."

"Fuck, shit, motherfucker, asshole, thrown around with no rhyme or reason," Scorpio noted from behind her. He tugged on a lock of black hair, a frown creasing his mouth, and twisted to stare at someone beyond the frame. "Wasn't I . . . ?"

The screen swiveled to display Taurus, a look of disgust clearly etched across his face. "I'm just realizing how weird I was," he said, burrowing his hands into his hair. The floor squeaked under his sneakers as he slid down and pressed his forehead to his thighs. His muffled voice groaned, "I want my library back."

He raised his head. The screen whirled to show Cancer, his hands probing his cheeks, disbelief in his eyes. It turned back to Taurus, whose eye started to twitch.

"I definitely want my library back."

"These people should just go home," Aries snarled, surging to grip the edges of the screen. "It's over. The entire purpose was to give me a love story with Capricorn and maybe a storyline with our favorite TaurTaur and Cancer, and now that the most important one is done it's ending. It's all gone. The Twelve Realms will never update after this."

The screen shook, then blurred to Capricorn's face. "She doesn't mean all of it."

"Baby, stop mansplaining--"

"Do you mean all of it?" A pained, humorless smile flickered across his face. "You'll find it in your heart to forgive her because she's had a lot of anger and the stereotype for Aries is . . ." He blinked, his eyes narrowing, looked at someone beyond the frame and muttered, "Was I really the only POC person in here?"

"I'm supposed to be Asian," Virgo's voice could be heard. "Apparently."

"Sucks to suck, guys." Leo snatched the screen and flashed a grin. "The point of this is to tell you, the audience, that the Twelve Realms is officially over. The author was young and inexperienced when she wrote it, and though it did help her in her writing journey there won't be any more updates. But everyone is too busy realizing how shit their characters were to their new and improved selves to actually form any coherent thoughts about this."

Off-camera, Aries growled, "And you know this why?"

"I'm her favorite," Leo shot back.

"No, for some reason that was me--"

The screen trembled wildly, racing past a blur of color before focusing on a panting Aquarius. "This additional chapter was meant to say sorry to everyone for disappearing, but now everybody wants to kill each other. I'm sorry for that but not for this."

She yeeted (yote? yeeted?) the frame of vision over the heads of several angry Zodiacs before landing on Gemini, who gave a bittersweet smile. "I remember how hard it was for the author to include all twelve of us in a chapter when we were all canonically there. I miss those times, but they won't come again. A goodbye is in order for this great, 95-chapter"--she checked her phone--"95-part-85-and-a-third chapter of this era."

Sagittarius's fiery red hair poked at the edge of the frame as he gently pried it from Gemini's hands.

"Let--go--"

He wrenched it from her with sad eyes. "This is an apology long overdue. But I hope that you, the reader, will still find the joy that you did from this as all of us did."

"We're sorry," Libra said. She lowered the screen, revealing eyes gleaming with tears. "We really did care about this story. But i think it's time for all of us to move on."

The view lengthened, displaying the entire chamber.

"For the better," Aries said softly, her eyes unfocused. She straightened from her slouch and gave a sad grin. "For the better of us, the audience, everyone and everything that took joy from this story."

"For the better," Cancer echoed, appearing at her shoulder.

"For the better," the Zodiacs repeated, before the screen shuttered with darkness and shut down.