When We Collide: Finals Thoughts or Something Sappy Like That

Well hello there.

Firstly, thank you for reading and for caring enough to come here! Clocking in at almost 200k words, 69 chapters, almost 500 comments, over 1000 readers... I still can't believe it.

Second of all, I'm just gonna make a few comments on the [possible] big edit of this story I'll make and post to AO3 which includes commenting on the big changes in the last few chapters.

Basically, I have two files in my computer for WWC: the first being Mikey dies and Patricia lives and the second being Patricia dies and Mikey lives. The original idea was that Patricia ended up dying and Mikey survived Ray's attacks but barely, leaving him so incapacitated that he couldn't even be prosecuted (did some extensive research for that and I never used it). In this version, Ray would have gotten away with Mikey's attempted murder. But Patricia would be dead.

What ended up happening was that as I wrote that chapter of them in the community garden I realized Ray wouldn't let Mikey live. I wanted that to be it and it was what Ray wanted: to torture him to the point of death and then leave him basically a vegetable. This is why Gerard thinks he notices something in Mikey in the garden. He wasn't going to die, originally. Patricia dead and Ray gone, Mikey would've been completely dependent on Gerard. The details aren't entirely fleshed out since I ended up not going in that direction but he would have been nearly paralyzed and almost unable to communicate. He would have had his memories in tact, at the very least implicitly. Basically, he'd have been suffering. And Gerard would have suffered watching him suffer.

But with Ray very surely killing him, I realized none of that could go down. Obviously. And I think it ended up being a little better, after all, since the suffering isn't as strong now. Bob would've died either way and Gerard would have not been alone, with Mikey to look after, but Frank would've still rejected him at least once. He'd have been miserable with nothing to look forward to. I couldn't kill off Patricia, too, in the alternate; it just didn't feel right. (Which is why I added that second to last chapter.) Ironically, she ended up giving Gerard a lifeline and something else to care about. He could only ever get away from Mikey with his death the same way Mikey could only stop suffering dead. He's going straight to hell, haha, and for those that don't believe in that, maybe he should have suffered. But there you go. Gerard needed to get away from Mikey.

Little tidbits: Bob was always going to die and Frank was always going to live. For anyone that was worried. Also, Gerard and Frank were never going to end up together in the end, not really. Although, I like to believe they will eventually. But that's not the story I was meant to write.

I don't know, I guess I wanted you guys to know that. If you have any thoughts on those alternate endings, I'd really appreciate hearing them. Big changes for a possible edit were fleshing out Mikey and Patricia's relationship, since I don't think I concentrated on it enough, as well as on Patricia's background. Also on how they met Ray. (Got an interesting idea behind that; remember that one chapter where they found a hottie at a party to have a threesome with?) Just a lot more detail in places where it's needed (less vague/more concise/some changes about the Ways' family life, Frank's relationship to his parents and how that developed later on, etc.)

So yeah. Anyway, this is me signing out from Mibba for the last time. I'll check in for comments (on the story and on this entry) but I won't be posting anymore. I can't be sure when/if the edit will really be made. It'd be a lot of work that I don't know I'm entirely willing to do. I'd also need a beta or two (anyone interested?). But we'll see.

Leave comments on your final thoughts and on your thoughts about anything regrading this story or what I wrote here!

Bye, friends.

<3