SO LONG, AND THANKS FOR ALL THE JETFISH

The first draft was substandard, as seen above, and the original plan for The Torrent was very different to what it is today. Being in early tenth grade, I hadn't really developed into a real human (I still haven't). I, through my declining mental health, decided to express my frustrations through the mistreatment of a fugitive Ancient being tossed between two iterators. Those characters were Sands of Time, Trivial Inspections, Observant Pillars, and Frantic Searcher respectively. SOTTI would have been a criminal of OP's city, forced to hide inside FS for protection.

However, in my doodlings in early April I half-assed a couple other iterators, who unbeknownst to me would be far more significant than I could have ever imagined.

Around this time I discovered the Fan Iterator Logs community, a subgroup of the Daszombes community. Yeah, the Rain World YouTuber. There's at least two spinoff servers for fan projects similar to his Iterator Logs series. FIL has been absolutely instrumental to all of this, and I hold it so dearly to my heart. If you're from FIL, I appreciate you following my journey. Extra special shoutouts to Hevy in particular.

Anyway, I scrapped my old idea and began the story you've just read, I assume, with these four as the headliners. However, I still didn't really know what to do, or how to make characters. It would take me a few months to realise I was too autistic to understand social dynamics in a setting where social dynamics are crucial. It was a slow process, but I began to develop my own identity through these characters over the course of months. Now these four aren't just my characters, they're fundamental to who I am. They are me. OP is the carer, FS is the obsesser, FD is the worrier, and SOTH is... the lover? The prisoner? He's something more complex I intend to explore in the future.

It doesn't take a genius to notice that my characters are miserable. That is because I am miserable. To a degree. It's concentrated here. I am less miserable now, so I feel kind of guilty with how I've treated them. They definitely acted as more of a coping mechanism than anything - I could project my pain onto something fake and distance myself from reality. It worked a bit.

The Torrent was founded on misery.

But over the past two years things have changed. I'm not in 10th grade anymore, I'm starting uni for a Masters in mechanical and aerospace engineering. I'm nearing the end of an era and I have a lot more ahead. The Torrent being over now is kind of symbolic of my most personally significant years yet. It started when I began becoming a sentient human (I honestly don't think I had much of a me before 10th grade) and it's ending when I enter a bigger world. 

The Torrent outgrew its foundation of misery and became a story about beauty, love, and purpose just as my life has. I have a better outlook on the world now, with a greater appreciation for the beauty in every minute detail in this cruel hellscape we call Earth.

So here we are, at the end of it. At a staggering 80,000-ish words and 227 (?) individual entries, The Torrent is done.

I cannot express how much I appreciate that you have read this to the end, and I am eternally grateful. You've joined me not just on a story of pain and love and lore, but the journey of my life as I know it today. None of this would have been even slightly possible without the Fan Iterator Logs community, who joined me with their own stories to share. The Daszombes Dumpster community, who reached in from the outside and told me what I'm doing wrong. My beautiful girlfriend, who has become integral to who I am and as such is just as ingrained in this story as I am (and listened to too many late-night ramblings). My friend Will, who has always been here for me and reads over the chapters before I publish them to make sure they're remotely readable. Videocult and Akupara games for making the entire goddamn source material.

And of course, you. For caring enough to withstand my substandard writing.

Thank you for reading. It's been incredible.

I will be back for more.

- H <3