I tend to be scarce with the authors notes, so I just want to say- thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this story that demanded to be written at 1 am on most nights and the world that it created.

I have a habit of ending large projects with fun facts, so here you go!

* The person Grian remembers getting their wings torn off in chapter 8 is Taurtis. I don't explicitly say it, but that's who it's intended to be.

* Had Grian been Unseelie, he would have been part of a deal to ensure peace. One of the Seelie court goes to the Unseelie and vice versa. Over time, he got used to being in a different court and willingly followed Thorn. Mumbo would have been a human who fell into the fae realm and befriended Grian, inviting him back to hermitcraft.

* Most of this fic was not planned! It was originally gonna be a one-shot and then my brain went "but what if it wasn't?"

* Most of the lore I use is from a book series called "13 Treasures."

* I wrote this in the notes app on my phone.

* The version you read is different from the version I have on my phone.

* I foreshadow Mumbo being fae back in chapter 10. To my knowledge, no one caught this.

* "Normal" runes that Scar knows are the galactic alphabet. Fae runes are different, and the rune circle that Scar drew on Grians floor are neither fae nor galactic.

* Initially, Grian was going to be Unseelie. Then I asked the people on AO3 and I'm so glad I did- it took the fic in a much more interesting route.

* Grian replies to Mumbo's "I have a brother?" with a past-tense rather than present tense in chapter 13. The reason he uses this is because technically, Mumbo's family is the fae. As much as Grian acts human, he sees Mumbo as a court faerie rather than having familial ties.

* I don't say it explicitly, but its made very clear that Mumbo is a changeling.

* This fic stole plot points from another fic I had planned. The other fic would have been a Watcher AU called "Trust me, I'm Lying." I still might write it, but it'll be vastly different from what I originally planned.

* This fic has a playlist! You can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLT0gcIDQJ62bXpntvHrsIa4m8vluaT_p8

* Most of the lore is only said once so I'm not repeating myself. It's only repeated if it's an important plot point

* I get really anxious every time I post a chapter because I'm worried that you guys won't like it. Or hate me for suddenly switching who I'm narrating. Or both.

* I have never figured out a way to describe this in the fic, so imma do it here- Grian's wings (and the fae as a whole) do not magically clip through clothes. Think like a halter top? Their shirts are like that. Which is why Grian swapped for his old blue sweater which had the wing accommodation, and his red one had hand-cut slits in it.

* For some unknown reason, I have a Korean keyboard on my phone. Half the time when I'm tying this, I accidentally swap to the Korean one and have to backspace several sentences.

* I do not speak, read or write Korean. sERIOUSLY WHY IS THIS KEYBOARD HERE??

* I typically post updates between 12am and 4am in my time zone. Yes I'm aware I need to sleep. No I will not actually sleep because this fic has taken over my life.

* A LOT of lore is in my replies on comments on AO3. My replies are generally elaborating on things I won't get a chance to explain within the fic itself, so if you want more world building, have fun parsing through the hundreds of comments. I do recommend it tho. You're missing a lot of you don't.

* I tend to write each chapter in one sitting.

* I read my own fic to remember what the hell you lot actually know and what plot points I forgot. I forgot Mumbo has magic and Iskall has Grians sweater until I wrote chapter 33.

* Grian doesn't actually know the names of the Evo members. He just knows their nicknames. I drop their names so that you guys know who I'm on about lmao.

* I pretty much uploaded about 35 chapters almost daily before I had to take a break.

* The murals on Grians door that I listed off were Nettys, PauseUnpause, and SalemsLady. Netty is the bamboo, Pause is the feather and Salem is the cat.

* On chapter 43, I could not for the life of me, decide if I wanted to kill off Grian or not. So I left it as a cliffhanger while I weighed my options.

* For those of you who don't know where "Viva" came from- it's an old name that Mumbo used for himself. Check his earliest videos

* Mumbos mural is the flower of life because "Viva" means life. That's literally it.

* All of the chapters are written in one note on my phone. I did not expect to get into the 50+ chapters and I regret this decision bc now I have to scroll a LONG way down.

* The colour yellow became an accidental symbol. It's for happiness, if you couldn't tell.

* A MUCH more subtle one is the crystals. They are hope.

* Mumbos wings (again) do not magically clip through his shirt. Lemur found him and cut the slits. Why do I not mention it in the fic? Because I'm bad at getting details in while also getting it to flow right.

* I kept debating if I should revive Grian or not. I decided to revive him because I said that this is not a permadeath AU in a comment on AO3, and that this fic would have a positive ending.

* For the hermits, this fic takes about 5 months. For Grian and Mumbo, it was 7 months- 3 months with the hermits, 4 months in the fae realm.

* I was planning to have a battle scene where Mumbo escapes with Grian, but it didn't fit so I cut it and went with what you have now.

* If you're wondering just exactly how Grian is saved, remember the crystal Thorn gave Mumbo? And how Lemur said "energy seeks a place to reside in?" Yeah. The energy from the crystal slowly transferred into Grian.

* Mumbo is neither seelie nor unseelie. As a child, he was partially fae and seen as lower than a full faerie. As an adult, he left too soon to really pick a side.

* If you haven't figured it out, the playlist is sorta a timeline of events. I have to change and remove some songs since I cut the battle idea.

* It was important for me to keep "Fly Away" by TheFatRat at the end of the playlist because it's such an uplifting song and it's exactly what Grian would say to Mumbo.

* I actually changed some sentences and lines between AO3 and here to make it flow better. So my "Before you Start" note is actually lying.

* I keep the last line "It's perfect." ambiguous as to who said it. It doesn't matter who said it in the end, but you get slightly different meanings as to if Mumbo, Grian, or someone entirely different said it.