Hello. Felicitations, truly, for successfully reading through "Embscape". I really did not expect myself to even start this project (as I was locked in on a major project at the time) but I'm so glad that I was able to write this. Thank you for reading my novella "Embscape"!

I would like to thank the Lord for pushing me to start writing this. I always feel like You are giving me surprises in my personal self-discovery. Somehow, this ends up heavily influencing the decisions I make, and even how this story came out. I'll always be grateful for Your guidance.

I'd also like to thank my family. One, because they have been excited as well (mostly for the OCs) when I announced that I'd start. And two, because OH MY GOSH. I can't believe we're calling "Netsu Ijou" the "Makii" song now because of you. I guess it works out because now I see that song as "Embscape's-unofficial-official-theme-song" ...That drawing though. mAKaiii mAAKkiii~

I had started this book around April 2024, making this one of the shortest projects to date–actually, most of the story was written in the last months of that year. However, the original idea and brainstorming actually started much earlier (2019) for a "3,000 Word Novel" we had to write for school. We couldn't finish due to COVID, but I knew I wanted to revisit the idea later on and complete it before I dropped it forever. Ironically, I decided to use a lot of dropped ideas for the story because the plot itself was already (supposedly) one. It ended up affecting the process, as I made sure to record whenever an idea didn't work out so I could use it for "Embscape". Jack Danger, for example, was a "deleted OC" that I took off another cast I used to put him in. This is the same with Cory, but I haven't created any design before.

With that being said, I also wanted to explore different horizons and play around. It was like an "evil art style challenge". I wanted to do things I normally don't. To me, I believe a lot of my works (even ones that aren't released yet) are filled with vibrant colors with a fantastical feel...Now I had to walk in the complete opposite direction. So I took a lot of inspiration from film noir movies and even some Gothic styles. They all emphasized blacks and grays. This includes Scarlet Street (1945) and The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981), but just note that most of the inspiration came from the aesthetics that were popular in the 1940s and 1950s–not the neo one.

And this was also the first time I consciously decided on styles and aesthetics for a story...or a cast of OCs, or even the setting. I never really thought about it too much back then, but it really helped me find a new perspective on how I can create my artworks. I hope to apply this with my music and singing too, and with how every cast of OCs relate to the story they have.

Again, thank you so much for reading. I really hope you enjoyed this story as much as I had while working on it.

Wishing you all the best!

-Iyah