Let's play the Masochism Tango...

Hey, Sissy.


Look whom I've acquired for a sparring partner:





I will spoil nothing, but Nabaat is absolutely everything you could ask for. She will beat the pulp out of you with a sneer and a smile.


It's so good to hear that Evil Lulu voice once again, purring while she's playing with her food. Paula Tiso is a scary, scary woman. She has lots of fun battle quotes.


Apparently, like you, I have a masochistic streak. I don't normally enjoy getting my party decimated every few seconds in a long grinding boss battle. I feel proud that I kept them hanging on for a good twenty minutes before I gave up -- for now -- since she was healing faster than I could put a dent in her. I must study strategy ... there must be SOME way to get past her
defenses. Even if I never manage to beat her, it's fun dueling with her.


Also, I can use her to help me get back into Lulu's headspace for writing LHAD. I depend so much on character voices.


(speaking of voices, I noticed Elma/Drace/Yunalesca is voicing a couple minor npcs, including the Mystic in Serendipity, Shelinda has been reincarnated as one of those scary choco-call-girls in the casino, handing out prizes; and I'm 99% sure that Yeul is Shelke. Maroda pops up a few times as various npcs on guard duty. No sign of O'aka/Maechen/Old Dalan/Lt. Broccoli/Dwight Schultz, though. )

Edit *peers at IMdB* Good heavens. I went to grad school with Choco - loco - lina. I see Lucil/Dona, Axel/Reno/Isaaru, and most of the FFX voice crew listed as additional voices, and yes, Dwight Schultz IS there somewhere, phew. As is Gideon Emery (Balthier). Also... Caius is the VA for Red XIII in Advent Children. Snerk.

Well, this ought to motivate me...

Anonymous Review of Love Her and Despair, currently jammed at the "Houses of Healing" phase of the story arc...

"I'm glad this story is over,"

I wonder if the comma is commentary.

I will try and be an optimist and assume they meant, "Good story," but I couldn't help interpreting it at first glance as, "I'm glad you've stopped posting this; I was tired of seeing it show up on the front page of the archive." I have received some hostility to the main pairing, since fandom consensus is, for reasons I will never fathom, dead set on Aurikku as the OTP for Mr. Grouchypants. (Why not Auron/Braska? With all the m/m shipping out there, I am surprised that isn't the favored fandom OTP.)

To Anon: LHAD is not over, dangit. It's stuck. Every time I go to write the link between the Fields of Pelennor and the last leg, my writing is flat, flat, flat.

(Obviously, not really Pelennor, but I'm using that story structure. Final Fantasy games tend to have a Final Boss Battle sequence that turns out NOT to be the finale, because the final confrontation the game's been building towards almost always turns out to be Not the End. So then there's a Really Truly Final Boss. I am finding it surprisingly difficult to transition from the Not the End climax to the Last Battle.)

Very frustrating. And I know at this point, I had better write ALL the final chapters before posting so I can release them weeks apart, making them easier to follow. And this linking chapter has to double as an introduction, or rather a reintroduction, as it's been so long that readers will have forgotten the story.