Woah! So this was… a story I made during the early days of quarantine. Hello, everyone! It's been… a while. Fortunately, I have crawled out from my hole in the ground and plan to continue this story beyond literally three prologue chapters with this short update!

For starters… HERE IS THE OFFICIAL CAST LIST FOR "THE MONSTERS WITHIN US"!

Males:

Daisuke Serizawa - Ultimate Serial Novelist (mine)

Matsudo Kiyoshi - Ultimate Unlucky Student (oddlyillregular)

Matthew Axton - Ultimate Strategist (recklesz)

Kotaro Watanabe - Ultimate Manga Artist (JessJess1818)

Wayne Kitsch - Ultimate Hockey Pro (NSPunny)

Soma Koji - Ultimate Freerunner (OtherSenpai)

Shirou Akiyama - Ultimate Chemist (Osiris1695)

Ayoishi Sugimoto - Ultimate Chocolatier (Partyboy426)

Charles Gallagher - Ultimate Bailiff (Prince PokePersona)

Females:

Adélie M.M. Tomizuka - Ultimate Glaciologist (TheRoseShadow21)

Tomoko Miyaguchi - Ultimate Heiress (Jaylenavy)

Tenaya Nicoletti - Ultimate Choreographer (Professor Boo.k)

Pyrrha Cyrene - Ultimate Archer (Semp1tern1ty)

Clara Lila Wilkins - Ultimate Clockworker (LDOLDAL)

Ashanti "Sarita" Cruz - Ultimate Narratologist (CandleFire45)

Teruko Ouna - Ultimate Chocolatier (Rayy12)

Audrey Eden Jr. - Ultimate Gardener (Barbacar)

Elizabeth Sharpe-Doolittle - Ultimate Custodian (irwegwert)

Obviously, this is no surprise to the creators already in the story but I hope my revival is still relieving for some of you. This list is something that I figured out a while ago but I wanted to actually write a chapter or two to incorporate the remaining cast members naturally (but we all know how that turned out). It was insanely hard to choose who was accepted because all of the OCs people sent in were amazing! Seriously, some of you went above and beyond my expectations!

Now, there is an issue some of you may be noticing. Why two Chocolatiers? Is it a typing error? An unseen hacker? A ghost in the machine?

Well, my dear reader, you will have to find out. But, as a heads up, this is definitely not favoritism in any way. I have plans for all of the cast, including them, so this is not just an attempt to pick people I know better. This was essentially an odd occurrence that started turning gears in my head and I hope both creators are not only happy they were accepted but also intrigued.

Some of you who are following along with Party's "Game of Four" SYOC may also notice the distinct name similarity between one of his protagonists and his OC. So yes, due to some miscommunication between both of us, his Chocolatier got accepted while still being in another story. Hopefully this mishap will not hinder anyone's experience reading. It's a shame that it happened, but like I said, ideas were already churning in my brain so Ayoishi will simply have to be the creator of a multiverse or something.

Now for my explanation as to why I took such a big hiatus. Honestly, I was mainly due to my forgetfulness and procrastination. Shortly after the previous chapter, everyone knows that things got weird fast. 2020 definitely gave a big middle finger to humanity and, unfortunately, some personal things happened during that time which hindered my writing schedule. Nothing Covid-19 related, fortunately, but I was prioritizing other things in my life besides this story.

Even now, this trend still continues. If you didn't know, I am in the phase of my adolescence where college applications exist. Because of this, the actual chapter release will still be prolonged for a while since I still need to finalize things and make the biggest decision of my life.

The wait will DEFINITELY not as long as this shorter update, but that does mean the chapter is not anytime soon. I am planning to write when I can and finalize the chapter ASAP, but that process may take longer than expected depending on what the future has in store.

Shortly after this upload, I will be deleting the submission list and will fill in the official cast list to save some space. If you were not accepted, please do not hesitate to submit to other stories if the author permits it. Like I said, it was a challenge to pick the remaining seven since all of them were so good, so I hope your future SYOC endeavors result in a ton of acceptances!

Thank you to all who have motivated me to keep writing and continue this story and I can't wait to see where this story takes us!