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Welcome dear friends to the best thing I've ever written! This fic was a long-time coming but I'm extremely proud of the result! As you've read the tags, this story is diavalen and is going to be extremely long. You may have also realized that this isn't a normal chapter, but an introduction to the story. Before you begin reading this fic, I wanted to take some time explaining a few things. So, let's begin!
First things first, I'd like to talk about the setting. The story begins in 1990's America, in a rich, conservative suburb in the East Coast, where Funny Valentine lives with his family. Diavolo also moves there and they soon begin a relationship. Now, both boys come from rather strict, Christian families that view homosexual relationships as something extremely bad and in order for me to depict that in the most sincere and respectful way, I used my own experiences as a gay kid growing up in a homophobic Christian environment. In addition to that, Funny's family is also tied to the military, so of course they'd want him to act in a traditional, masculine way.
I'd also like to address the underage thing. The reason why this story isn't tagged as underage is because every explicit sexual scene will be after the characters have turned 18. Diavolo and Funny - as well as other characters - will begin a romantic relationship, you know cute little crushes kids have, at around 14, and of course, there will be no explicit sexual scene because THEY'RE KIDS. At around 16-17, they will start exploring their sexualities more, in the way all teenagers that are in relationships with other teenagers do. Though, even then, there will be nothing explicit and everything sexual will only be implied, rather focusing on their emotions instead. So, the reason why this fic isn't tagged as underage is because there will be no explicit sexual scenes including minors and the characters will be adults for the biggest part of the story.
Speaking of minors, I would like to address the subject of characterization. Now, I can't have a tiny Funny Valentine going around snatching napkins and killing people, or a small Diavolo that wants to kill his kid. As I said, the story will begin with characters at age 13 and will end around the time they're 40, maybe even more. The characters will grow with the story, evolving, becoming better or worse. In order to write them as kids and teens, I used whatever scraps of background Araki threw at us. It's not much, but it's efficient. Also taking into consideration that this a modern AU, literally the same world we all live in, there were some few changes in character, so to make them more believable. It's not dramatic and definitely not ruining the character entirely, just a 'necessary evil' in order for the fic to work.
As you've noticed, there are two ships tagged. Even though the main ship is diavalen, scarlentine will also play a huge part in the story. I've always been interested in Scarlet and I really looked forward to writing a story where she would be more fleshed out and not used just for Funny's character development or just a memory. Their relationship will also grow within the story and you will get to see what really makes them stay together, their struggles as a couple, their problems, the love they have for each other and many more. There are also more ships that aren't as important but still there, like Jonadio and Esikars.
With all of that being said, I think we can move on to the first and very exciting chapter! I will add more notes as the story goes by and please, send me all your questions either here or on my tumblr @mollydewinter! Enjoy the story!