i'll have a dream where you and i
go to the place that we've been hoping to go

intro...

ODILE YU HAD never met anyone quite like Damian Wayne. From the first time they met when she was eleven, she'd been entranced by the boy with a brilliant mind and wisdom far beyond his years. He felt so out of place in her world of martial arts and cherry blossom woods, like a boy-god sent from the heavens to show her there was so much more out there she didn't know about.

And thus, a near decade long, secret, one-sided infatuation as they meet again and again, as they both grow into adulthood. He's the son of Batman, heir to the League of Assassins. She's the last remaining member of the Eyu Sect, destined for a greatness that was robbed from her, the spectre of revenge looming over her shoulders. He was going to be everything, she was fated to be nothing more than a chaser of ghosts.

Odile Yu was destined to admire Damian Wayne from afar, knowing she would never be enough for him. Knowing there would never be the space for her to fit into his bright, glowing future. He might fight in the shadows, but she would always be the one truly stuck in it.

When her mentor Remiel Shan decides to move to Gotham City to finally reunite with her lover, Odile decides she would go too. If she could never have him, at least let her be close by. At least let her watch him flourish and bloom, even if she could never show her silent love, even if she was fated to disguise her heart and pretend she didn't care.

At least in her head, she could dream of her own fairytale ending.

featuring...

hu jiaxin as odile yu lan
[ cygnet ]

lu yuxiao as remiel shan ran (ruimin)
[ phantasma / mei ]

maddie phillips as cecily lange
[ delphi ]

zeng li as seraphina al ghul

playlist...

once upon a peach blossom forest
by nyxie

"from the first time i saw you."

"until the end of time."

disclaimer...

strong language, hints at suggestive content, normal dc level of violence

author's note...

hello & welcome to SWAN SONG! this is the second book in the "seraphim" series, named bc 1) both books in the duology are named after le sserafim songs 2) one character who plays a major role in both odile & remiel's stories is seraphina al ghul 3) there's a general theme of wings & angels sort of going through both stories. i just sort of felt like explaining that. however, you do not need to have read NO CELESTIAL to understand this book. it'll help you understand the character of remiel and bits of odile's past, but it's still perfectly comprehensible as its own standalone story.

SWAN SONG does not have an overarching villain or antagonist in the conventional sense. there's a main storyline, mostly romance-centred, set seven years after the ending of NO CELESTIAL, but the story is intertwined with lots of flashbacks, which are sort of higher staked, conventional comic book "solving a mystery/stopping crime" kind of story. just to avoid confusion, there's going to be three "time periods" in odile & damian's past there'll be constant flashbacks to. all flashbacks will be started with a "xxx years ago" at the front. the three flashbacks are going to be:

1) 8 years ago. odile is 11, damian is 13. this happens alongside/immediately at the end of the events of NO CELESTIAL. for bits of this flashback, odile will be referred to by her chinese name of yu lan rather than odile. just wanted to make that clear to avoid confusion.

2) 5 years ago. odile is 14, damian is 16.

3) 3 years ago. odile is 16, damian is 18.

this book has a p heavy xianxia/wuxia influence. odile's powers are xianxia influenced, as well as her backstory. i've also taken p heavy creative liberties w/ the character of damian. i think he'd have grown a lot by the time he was 20, and there's honestly not that much official content depicting him as an adult. i'm not going to make him completely ooc, but he'll have matured a lot. i'm also headcanoning him as 1/2 white, 1/4 chinese & 1/4 arabic. make of that what you will.

to avoid further confusion, i'll also put in the ages of most of the main cast of this fic. dick 32, damian 21, jason 29, tim 26, stephanie 27, cassandra 20, bruce 51, barbara 33, remiel 31, odile 19, cecily 26.

for those of you who've been reading my work for a long time: you might notice that there's a lot of similarities between odile and iolanthe from ravaged hearts, as well as some similarities to salome from these years between us  (with all the pining & whatnot)! it's esp obvious with iolanthe, both with the swan theme and the flashbacks. but i promise there'll be some differences, and odile's personality is pretty different from both other girls as well. she's much more of a romantic, a dreamer, compared to my usual uber-realistic girls.

i'm really!!! excited to get started with this book! i've really embraced my inner pink with this one, and i think it'll be really interesting to mix in chinese fantastical elements with the gritty world of dc's gotham!

(p.s. hi. very random but i sort of forgot that damian was meant to be vegetarian while writing this book so there's a few scenes of him eating meat. if this annoys/offends you in any way i'm SO sorry about that and i'll edit those scenes whenever i decide to edit this book (basically i can't remember where all the scenes of him eating are) but otherwise feel free to imagine it was like vegan meat alternative instead. very sorry about that.)

begin: 27/07/2024
end: 28/10/2024