Butterfly Effect: Author's Notes: Chapter 39

[bard_linn]

Bard Linn: Welcome back, everyone. Not too much to say this time - this chapter very much speaks for itself.

Kiraya: Yeah.

Kiraya: It may sound a bit morbid, but I loved doing the remembrance ceremony here.

Bard Linn: I hope everyone enjoys Red XIII's appearance too. Kiraya did a great job with him. Because of how BE is, sometimes characters go on and off screen and we don't see them for a long time....

Kiraya: We like to remind people they're still around every so often, though.

Bard Linn: Oh - and since we got some comments about it last time, the thing with Cloud's body showing up in bad condition in Costa de Sol:

Bard Linn: a) we have no actual current data, so we are making up rip tides. Hope you'll forgive us.

Bard Linn: b) we figured that there would be a lot of damage to it as it got pulled along by said riptides.

Kiraya: ...meteorology for this world would be a lot of fun to really get nitty-gritty with, if I knew anything about that science.

Bard Linn: No.

Bard Linn: We are trying to finish the story, not get sidetracked again.

Kiraya: Yes.

Kiraya: I know.

Kiraya: I have other things I should be working on.

Bard Linn: Hopefully we'll have the next chapter before the end of my winter break. *crosses fingers*

Kiraya: I think we can manage that.

Bard Linn: Well in that case, I think we'll close this up. I have to get back to work. >.>

Kiraya: Ah, the perils of adulthood.

Kiraya: I wish we were back in college...

Bard Linn: Ah, the perils of needing money to get a house.

Bard Linn: Blah. And I need to go to grad school. >.<

Kiraya: But grad school is fun.

Kiraya: ...Except for the part where you have to work your real job while doing it.

Kiraya: Or two.

Bard Linn: Grad school is not fun.

Bard Linn: Apply for grad school is LESS fun.

Kiraya: Yeah, the application process did kind of suck.

Bard Linn: Meh. Let's not talk about that. It depresses me.

Kiraya: Then, a subject change: Next chapter! Or 47, which we're currently writing!

Kiraya: (Or perhaps Mentorverse instead?)

Kiraya: --ahem. A bit too far off track there, perhaps.

Bard Linn: .....Mentorverse isn't even FFVII. It's Code Geass.

Kiraya: But we were talking about it earlier and it was /fun/.

Bard Linn: We must finish BE before we begin any more crazy AUs!

Kiraya: Hai!

Bard Linn: *cracks whip*

Kiraya: *runs off to get to work*




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Comments

[musicshoes.livejournal.com]

YES!!! UPDATE!!!!! Okay, will go back to paper now.

[bard-linn.livejournal.com]

Kill that paper!

[musicshoes.livejournal.com]

YES DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously, though, this chapter was great. Depressing but great. You really captured the character's emotions well and ALMOST made me cry. Which really says something.

[tocasia.livejournal.com]

Brilliant. I've never been so moved by a fictional funeral before.

[bard-linn.livejournal.com]

We're glad - we worked really hard on this chapter, and we think it's one of our strongest ones yet.

[(Anonymous)]

This chapter made me snivel quietly into a hankie. Not, in point of fact, because of the subject matter (though that was sad enough) but because of the handling of the subject matter. The writing style remained fluid and elegant, the sparsity of portions of the prose complemented by the descriptive passages in between. The simple elegance of the language served extremely well to characterise the very different emotional responses of each of the individuals, whilst allowing for empathy for everyone. Given how very different the various personalities are, that took great skill.

Your writing style also allowed me, as a reader, to make my own emotional response, rather than forcing one on me by using some sort of baroque melodrama (which would have been an easy thing to slip into, given the subject matter). That restraint is highly laudable, and the sensitivity shown in writing it is tremendous.

While I still hold out hope that Hojo has a living Cloud in his clutches (and I can't believe I just typed that!), this chapter does complement the rest of the fic's showcase of your writing virtuosity; from comedy to action, suspense and romance to, now, tragedy. And all handled with a deft skill, and attention to creative detail. The contrast between Shinra's production-line memorial service (an impersonal nod acknowledging that, yes, it's-a-dangerous-job-and-people-die) to the wake-like mountain tradition, where the hardy, pragmatic Nibelheimers still acknowledge the happier portions of life with warmth and joy.

Many thanks for the read, and I look forward to more.

N.