So, it's been a long time since the last update, and being completely honest, burnout hasn't gone down much at all. Putting it right out to start with, I don't think there'll be more of KoC, at least in a proper story form on FF. Sorry to anyone who was looking forward to more, but i just don't think I'll be able to keep up with it like I did back in 2017.

Aside from this A/N, all future news will be on the discord server. I know I've plugged it a couple times, but this is the last time it'll be mentioned here. /CBpcmAV

Older readers will know that for the last couple of years, my posting schedule has become inconsistent and messy, and often there'd be weeks followed by a hastily written chapter that moved on quickly to some other thing. There were a few I was proud of, but it seems readers didn't agree. The Coronation Arc is honestly what I consider my favorite arc to write in season 2, but it mostly got a lukewarm or annoyed response at best, and that's been a pretty common theme this year.

COVID and other irl things have had an impact, but my writing is mostly online and that's where the greatest issue has been. I'm not a commissioned author, never have been and never plan to be. I don't believe fanfiction should be paid for, and all my original projects have fallen flat before getting far, so for 10 years, 8 years on FF, I've been running purely on my passion for writing and no more. It worked out fine for a while, but in the last couple of years, I guess it's just caught up to me and made it all collapse as soon as cracks started to form.

I've also noticed that, as my writing improved, it actually got less consistently positive responses to it. I may be forgetting, but my earliest stories, ones which had only a few reviews at best, were overwhelmingly excited, but now, it's been most obviously people not content with really anything I've put out. The disaster that was the first handful of chapters of KoC is the biggest example, but it's been many of the recent ones since the Tarbes arc as well. Perhaps it's because I got good enough at writing that people started expecting better of me, perhaps I just never improved like I thought I did (though honestly I don't even personally like how a lot of the season 1 stuff around the climax was written, looking back).

I know there are definitely people who have generally liked the recent stuff I've put out, especially in this story, as shown by how it's still in the top 10 of the FoZ stories for reviews, favorites, and follows...though even that's died down a lot, only a few months ago it was in the top 3 on all categories. It had its heyday, but a combination of a lot of bad chapters and lack of interest made a noticeable drop. I don't mean to sound egotistical or anything, but I was proud of being so high up on the archive.

I've been generally burned out and feeling rushed on almost every chapter since the Valliere Estate arc began, and it hasn't helped that my ideas for future plot points and alterations to the story were shot down or berated by some of the people I told the story's future to. There are definitely a handful who really helped me stay optimistic, you know who you are, but apparently others didn't share the same interest in the ideas I've had to streamline the story and make it better and easier to follow. I make the story more complex, and people lose track of what's going on, and I simplify it, it becomes annoying and boring.

I originally started this story on a stupid whim to make cliches into something interesting and was going to purely follow canon for a hundred chapters or so. I am genuinely proud it lasted this long and grew as quickly as it did, and though many people fell away because it felt like a muddy mess, I personally think it would have died long ago if I didn't build the world to the extent I did. This was my magnum opus, I don't think I'll ever be capable of writing something so large scale and intertwined again, even if the execution didn't go over well.

So, what's next, and what of Snapped? Well, that one I have just four chapters left of, and I intend to finish them. I'm not so cruel that I'll blueball everyone who reads it right at the end, I'll force myself to finish it if I have to. But, I don't think I'll be writing the other things I had planned for this year's anniversary. I had already put it off for two months, and I think it's obvious by now I have zero motivation to put to page the stories I know wouldn't really be cared much about anyway. I'll probably be taking a very long break from writing at all once Snapped is over and done, though I'll still be active in the discord. KoC will continue, but it will be in details added to the world, rather than the continuing narrative of the world. Think something like Sam Fennah's Satellite City, only made by someone who barely understands history.

Losing motivation has also been affecting the rest of my life outside the story as well. It's always in the back of my head that I should be writing, and it's lead to me not really enjoying anything else since I've been constantly telling myself and others that I'll eventually get around to doing more. By this point, KoC will never finish anyway, so leaving it on this long, slow death is worse than just letting it cut now.

I know this will be disappointing for people, and I am willing to talk about the series and answer whatever questions you may have. With KoC being stopped, I have no reason to be vague and mysterious about future events anymore, so feel free to open the floodgates and ask whatever you feel like. Most likely, I'll end up posting summaries of the future arcs, with details on what was going to happen, in later chapters, or maybe I'll just post it in the server instead so as not to clog up what is posted here. I will not delete the story, nor will I pretend it doesn't exist. It was my longest, most complex, and biggest scale story ever, I'm not about to act like nothing happened or that I'm not frustrated to see it go. I just feel that trying to keep it going when my passion is dried up is only going to hurt it even worse than it already has been. Doing it as a side thing, without the stress of needing to constantly put out new chapters, will certainly improve the quality of the world and let it live on in a new form. David's story had so much more to tell, but I don't necessarily mind leaving it behind in favor of that.

This rant is all over the place, but I think that's fitting to the story itself. Feel free to say your thoughts without holding back, and I'll answer as much as I can. Maybe I'll do a Q&A video or something to post to the discord, but I probably won't get enough responses to bother with that. I'm just some random small-time author after all.

It's been fun seeing the world from David's now-pink eyes, and I'm sure I have more to say, but I think that's enough. I'm not lying anymore to all of you or myself, this is the end of KoC. Whether you want to know what would have happened is up to you.