Author Note: I don't own anything from Fire Emblem… unless the games themselves count, in which case I own those, but I don't own the rights to them, those belong to some truly awesome Japanese folks. Here's to Fire Emblem Wii, may it fix Path of Radiance's lackluster ending. ((Toasts Root Beer)) Oh, and while I'm making requests, how about another game with Hector and Florina in it- ((gets shot)).
Okay, well, turns out I'm leaving more towards the middle of the week than the beginning. This creates the possibility of a further update before I go, but I refuse to make a promise on that, because it will undoubtedly not work out that way if I do.
Now, about the fic… once again, I find myself more uncertain than I usually am if it's any good. Usually I can find a bit more to laugh about in something I myself wrote, but maybe that's just the nature of this, or maybe I'm just overdoing it with FE stuff in too short a period of time. Either way, I don't exactly think it's –bad- just maybe not among my best work. For comedy.
Which brings me to my next point. Florina and Hector remain more serious, and –that- I am enjoying quite a bit. I've actually got more planned out for them than I do for anyone else, which is basically just saying that I've put some thought into the dialogue exchanges rather than just what's going to happen to them. I originally wrote that right after Nino's bit, but then said to myself "I can't go back to being funny after this," and so it got pushed to the end…A formula I may end up sticking with.
And…at about half as long as my last chapter, this is my shortest chapter in… forever. Since "Light's Shadow, Shadow's Light," anyway. Interestingly enough, I tend to write longer chapters for comedy than I do when I'm writing something serious. Go figure. Anyway, so, yeah, an abnormally short chapter. Will this be a trend, increasing the chances of me updating again before I have to leave? No clue whatsoever until I end up writing the ideas I've got. So, until next time, be it in two days or two weeks, enjoy.
As a random side note, I'm not sure if anyone else has access to this information, but this fic actually already has more hits than… anything but "This Path of Radiance Seems Awfully Familiar." (only barely more than "Of Prewedding Jitters and the House of Frob," but still more) I'm wondering if it has to do with the timing of me posting it (I know "Of Prewedding Jitters" stayed on the first page a while, and it's still on the first page of its C2 communities), the name, or what…Or maybe since the summary didn't give away any of the pairings, people took one look at my favorite couples and clicked the back button. It can't have been the summary, it wasn't that good… um… anyway… just something odd I noticed. And, though I'm not review obsessed, I'm always happy to get –a- comment… maybe slightly less so if someone tells me that I suck, but I don't recall that happening yet, so… yeah… I've probably brought this on myself by never once having reviewed anything, but I'd appreciate some feedback if you've got the time.
10 Simple Rules for Dating Outside of Your Character Class
Rule 2: On Preparing Speeches
Our second dating rule takes a look at the process of preparing what you plan to say to your date in advance. Now, this can be both a great practice and a disastrous one, so allow us to provide you with some tips as to how to guarantee the former and avoid the latter scenario.
First, it is usually a good idea to have some concept of what you want to say to your date in mind. Even if you choose not to write it down or plan out an entire speech or anything, if you're the type who gets nervous on dates, being spontaneous can backfire. If nothing else, put some thought into the sort of things you'd like to say, and go from there.
This may actually be a wiser approach, as writing an entire speech is more likely to backfire. For starters, if your memory isn't up to the task of recalling the entire thing, it will cause problems for all of the obvious reasons. Secondly, if, in an attempt to bolster your memory, you write the speech down somewhere, make sure it's easily readable, somewhere you can access easily and discreetly, that you'll be using these lines in a well-lit area, and, above all, that you don't sound like you're reading off of a note card.
However, probably the most important rule to keep in mind when making extensive preparations for what you want to say is this: Remain flexible. Do not try to assume what your date's reaction will be and base the rest of what you want to say on those assumptions, and do not remove your own ability to alter what you want to say based on your date's reactions.
Our camera crew is very proud to present the following, an example of someone who unfortunately made the above mistakes. This is a crowning achievement for them, because they actually managed to do so without sustaining any injuries, for once. Well, one of them fell laughing out of a tree where he was keeping watch and hasn't been heard from since, but… no one liked that guy anyway. He was kind of an ass.
The following takes place during the quest that Eliwood and co went on to defeat Nergal, during a brief reprieve the group received in the midst of a battle, where both sides momentarily retreated due to rain. Names have been changed to protect the innocent. Japanese culture references have been removed to protect the children! Oh, wait, that's a different gig I announce for, sorry…
The following has been paid for by:
Coca Cola. You can't always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, you might find that you get what you need. Yeah, I don't get that ad campaign either.
Bandai: We don't need no stinking writers. We've got the MAGIC… of nepotism!
4Kids Entertainment: All your Anime R belongs to us. Kahn will bury you!
Master Card: There are some things money can't buy. For everything else, there's manipula- uh… Master Card. Now with 10 times more Zeta Gundam than our competitors (there honestly was a Zeta Gundam Master Card in Japan to coincide with the "A New Translation," movies and the series' 20th anniversary)!
McDonalds: We love to see you SMILE! We definitely weren't bought out by the Joker from Batman who's disguised himself as Ronald McDonald, those are just rumors.
Burger King: Wake up with the King. WE DEFINITLEY DON'T SPIKE OUR FOOD!
And viewers like you! Okay, no, you're not any help at all. We all hate you. Go away. But up our ratings first.
Oh, and remember, kids, YOU are your anti-drug!
Will: Hey… What are you so mad about? Did I do something?
Lebecca: …..
Will: I don't get it…
Lebecca: You're right… sorry I kind of randomly freaked out, it's just, when you and Dan never came back…
Will: You can't let it go, can you? That stuff from when we were little…
Lebecca: Eh? That's a strange thing to say…
Will: What does that mean?
Lebecca: That you're… acting crazy?
Will: Dan hasn't come back yet?
Lebecca: No… Why?
Will: Well, Dan and I left together to make our fortunes, to help our families. Of course, things didn't go so well… But when we parted at Badon, that was only a few months after leaving the village!
Lebecca: Well, it's okay, cause everyone thinks that he's really that amnesiac pirate guy Datre.
Will: … I'm sorry, Lebecca. I thought Dan had returned to Pherae long ago.
Lebecca: Will… are you even listening to me?
Will: Lebecca… I'm sorry I left… It must have been… hard.
Lebecca: Will! Will! ((Waving her hand in front of his face))
Will: I won't leave you again… I'll always stay near… and protect you…
Lebecca: ((Walks away, Will remains where he is for a few minutes before noticing and chasing after her))
So you see, preplanning what you're going to say without leaving yourself room to maneuver based on changing circumstances is usually a very bad idea. You just can't predict what your date will say with that much accuracy. Particularly if you're working from an advance copy of the script which we later altered. Mwahahah! Mwhahahahah! Ahem. Poor Will. Don't let it happen to you. Stay in school. Don't do drugs. Always eat your broccoli. Um… dammit, they don't pay me enough to make random jokes, just read the story.
Nino skipped happily through the cluster of tents that made up much of the group's campsite, having just delivered her death threat to the unfortunate three who she had gotten to agree to helping her. She wasn't really paying much attention to where she was going, her own tent still a little ways away, so it wasn't particularly surprising when she skipped directly into a passerby.
However, she hadn't at all expected to wake up several minutes later, flat on her back, staring into the familiar, kindly face of Canas, the group's sole Druid and master of ancient, frequently called "Dark," arts. He'd be the first to deny the accuracy of the latter adjective, but having had that conversation with Lucius on several occasions, and the fact that he still twitched sometimes during thunderstorms as an aftereffect, he wasn't one to bring it up.
"Sorry about that…" he said, smiling. "I guess I was carrying a few too many giant tomes with me…"
"… Exactly how many is 'a few too many,' Uncle Canas?" the girl asked, rubbing the rather large bump on her head, which felt something like when Florina had been so busy staring at… something, that she had landed Huey almost on top of the green haired mage. Almost in this case meaning that she had only gotten clipped by the horse's hoof, so it didn't end up on top of her after she collapsed to the ground. She could probably thank the Afa Drops Eliwood gave her for that one…
"Only three," he answered, drawing a look of absolute surprise from the young girl. Three was the bare minimum number of books Canas ever had on him, and that was in addition to the spell casting tomes he used. "And you know, we're not really sure if I'm actually your uncle…"
"What three books?" She climbed to her feet unsteadily, taking a hand offered by Canas.
"Oh, Encyclopedia of the Magic Arts, The Traveler's Non-Travel-Friendly Guide to Traveling, and the Encyclopedia Eturia Centurion Edition," he listed them off enthusiastically.
"Aren't those normally ten volume sets, if not more?" Nino asked, understanding beginning to dawn on her.
"Yes, well, I thought 'Who wants to carry around ten books just to have a complete encyclopedia handy?' and got the single volume compilation."
"Isn't that just as bad as carrying around ten books, only made worse by the fact that they're all one giant book which is very difficult to carry, open, and read?" she asked with a cocked eyebrow.
"Hence you being knocked unconscious," he replied with a shrug that said 'Hugely oversized and awkward tomes, what're you gonna do?'
"Oh! Was I out for long, Uncle Canas?" she asked, suddenly anxious.
"Just a few minutes, why?" he replied, adjusting his monocle. One day someone would question the wisdom of such lopsided eye aiding devices, but he had the feeling that day was several millennia, or at least, hundreds of years, away.
"Oh, I'm trying to set up a romantic dinner for Jaffar and myself, and I was just going to get ready, and-,"
"Oh, about that," he interrupted. "Don't you think you're getting a bit carried away? Raven just, ah… commandeered my tent. Something about not having an appropriate place to brood…"
"I guess…" she admitted. "It's just… I really wanted to do something like this for a long time… you know, have a sort of normal date that didn't involve one or both of us about to collapse from injuries or exhaustion…"
"You're a 14-year old Sage who looks even younger dating a 16-year old assassin with a permanently fixed death glare… normal somehow isn't the mental image I get," he remarked. "But that's not what I wanted to say… Excalibur, Nino?" and he cocked an eyebrow at the young girl. Unfortunately, it was precisely the wrong eyebrow, and he lost his monocle again. After carefully replacing it on his nose, the purple-haired man went on, "He's a 'Hero,' not a Pegasus Knight."
"Not a coal miner," Nino added.
"What?"
"I don't get it either," she admitted.
"It's dead, Duo," a figure approached the omnipotent author, cloaked in his mysterious cloak of not telling people things about what he actually looks like.
"What is?" the teen replied.
"This joke. And the rest of the ones in the fic. If you want to skip ahead to Florina and Hector so badly maybe you just should!"
"Yeah, well you're just a convenient plot device, so shut up!" he replied. The figure couldn't think of a response to that, and so vanished back into the stock of author tricks from whence it came.
"Ever get the feeling like the universe at large is ignoring you?" Canas asked suddenly.
"All the time," Nino answered.
"Anyway, I know you're really excited, Nino, but don't get into threatening people too much. It tends to waste spells, and besides, most of us would probably help you if you just ask."
"Okay," Nino consented, and Canas ruffled her hair in a… come to think of it, he wasn't entirely sure if his role was closer to being paternal or co-conspiratorial. Anyway, he was 90 certain it was the sort of thing one did after giving a lecture to a child, his own son hadn't had enough hair to bother before Canas had left on his continuing quest for knowledge.
"Aw, I still have to comb that…" she sighed and pulled away. She then shot the young man a smile, and was on her way.
Canas smiled, and, not for the first time that night, he thought of his wife. Only then did he realize that he appeared to have forgotten her name. He stood there, lost in thought for a moment, and when this didn't solve anything for him, he opened one of the journals he usually carried in a pouch on his belt and flipped through the early entries, only to find his wife's name blotted out with dark ink on every page where she was mentioned.
"C-clearly…" he said aloud, blinking in amazement, "this is the result of some sort of space-time warping conspiracy, and not at all my fault…" And with that, he gathered his books, each thick enough that they could be measured in arm lengths, and, staggering under their weight, made his way back toward his own tent. Suddenly it seemed that the cool spring night had turned remarkably chilly. Also, for some reason it smelled rather like his mother, a smell that had some… less than pleasant associations for him.
Eliwood slumped forward in defeat. He had combed the entire camp twice, and he still had found no sign of Ninian. How was it possible to misplace a girl with green hair and red eyes? Well, then again, he admitted, odd hair and eye colors didn't exactly make one stand out in this group…
So, he at last settled upon the obvious conclusion, that Ninian was somewhere other than the camp. That no one had seen her leave was odd. He wondered if it meant that she wanted to be left alone. If that was the case, he should probably go along with her wish… after cursing his own choice for a night to take off, anyway. Even if Hector had more to do with it than he did.
Thinking this, Eliwood reluctantly decided to go find somewhere quiet to just sit and think for a bit. Suddenly, hanging around with everyone at the camp sounded rather unappealing to him.
"So, this line is supposed to be, "Your eyes are like radiant pools I could swim in forever?" Kent asked skeptically, facing his green counterpart within his own, purely by coincidence, orange tent.
"Look you asked for my help," Sain reminded him.
"Lady Lyndis' eyes are green," the red knight pointed out.
"Yes, well, there are greenish pools," Sain answered.
"Given how frequently the female members of our group tend to completely ignore you, or actually react negatively, I'm not so certain that asking you for help was one of my better ideas…" Kent admitted.
"Yes, but you can't beat me for experience with talking to women," Sain told his friend and partner.
"Partner? I'm your superior!" Kent exclaimed.
"Kent, stop reading the descriptions, we've already broken the fourth wall in this chapter," Sain said with a sigh.
"Right, right… anyway. I really don't know if Lady Lyndis would like this sort of thing…" Kent said slowly.
"You could have someone pretend to kidnap her and then ride in to save the day," Sain suggested.
"Someone she couldn't escape from by the time I got there?"
"Good point."
"Glad you think so, now could you offer some actually useful advice?"
"I'm trying…" Sain said with a note of complaint in his voice.
"Maybe I'm better off just being myself and approaching her like I normally would…" Kent mused.
"Ah, I've got it!" the green knight exclaimed. "Great advice, this. Whatever you do, don't be your usual, stuffy, duty-obsessed, rule-bound, honorable, stern, and rather unromantic self."
"You're about as helpful as a rock."
"Well, if you think our lady is in to that sort of thing…" Sain said with a shrug.
"That's it, I'm leaving," the red night turned to walk out of… "That's it, you're leaving," he amended, and began pushing Sain towards the tent's closed flaps.
"Wait, wait, wait," Sain protested, digging his feet into the ground rather ineffectively. "I don't have a place to sleep! Nino commandeered my tent." The orange-haired knight shot him a questioning glance, and Sain merely shrugged and asked "Can you say 'no,' to Nino?"
"Oh, I'm sure for the master of women, finding a place to sleep is no trouble at all," Kent shot the other knight a devious grin as he pushed him.
"You really have a cruel streak, don't you?" the other asked. When this failed to produce a response, he at last said, "All right, all right! A trade! Let me sleep in here tonight, and I'll get you some nice clothes to impress Lady Lyndis!"
"What's wrong with-," Kent began, then looked down at himself. His armor showed plenty of use, never having been really dressy to begin with, and in fact, quite uncomfortable to wear regularly. Thinking for a moment, he stopped pushing, and Sain took this opportunity to break free and put several paces between him and the other knight. "It won't be green, will it?" he finally asked.
"Kent, my friend, step into my office."
"I thought you said that this was your office."
"This is more like our outlet location," the green knight corrected. "Our main office is elsewhere, now come on."
Eliwood eventually, after a bit of wandering, found himself in a small clearing in the woods, which, he thought, was perhaps even more picturesque than where he had set up the dinner he had wanted to invite Ninian to. He should really go clean that up now, he thought, when suddenly he heard singing. It was no language he had ever heard before, which more or less meant that it wasn't the common tongue, or a magic spell, language barriers being nonexistent in Elibe.
He followed the pleasant but eerie sound. Somehow, despite being quite sure that he had never heard this song before, it seemed familiar to him, and as he drew nearer to where it appeared to be coming from, this feeling of familiarity grew greater still. The voice, a woman's, he could now tell, was sad and happy at once, if that made sense. He scarcely could understand himself, but something about the music struck a chord in him, and he felt drawn toward it, without even considering what he might find, or who or what might be singing in a language he had never heard.
At last, he got his answer. Suddenly another small clearing, there seemed an inexplicably convenient number of them in this forest, came into view, and he saw Ninian, moving in a sort of graceful dance, the kind he had seen her perform countless times on and off the battlefield, fulfilling every purpose from lifting spirits to inspiring great feats of strength in warriors. She moved slowly, repeating her own steps as if to make sure that she had them properly memorized. Suddenly, she looked up, and her eyes locked on Eliwood's own, having been too entranced to think of doing anything but standing there and watching for the few moments the dance continued.
"L-l-lord Eliwood!" she exclaimed in surprise.
"Oh! I'm sorry, Ninian… I didn't mean to…" he began awkwardly.
"No… that's okay…" she answered. "I was just… a bit startled. Would you like to watch? It's… the dance I promised I would show you."
"Of course," the Pheraen noble agreed. "I love watching your dances."
Ninian smiled, and the dance began. This time, the feeling that Eliwood had merely glimpsed before overwhelmed him, watching her weave gracefully back and forth, accompanied by a voice unlike any other in the world, which is only just barely an exaggeration, considering that she is a dragon. The dance, and the song as well, were both sad and happy at once, sadness within happiness, and happiness within sadness. It was a song of bittersweet victory, of painful triumph, and of defeat that left hope alive. It spoke of joy torn away by sacrifice and sacrifice that left behind it greater joy. A song of suffering for the sake of happiness, and happiness that must end in suffering.
"Ninian…" the lord said slowly, a strange and unreadable expression that seemed to be a mix of every emotion between despair and elation on his face. "Is that song…?"
"Yes," she answered. "It's a dance for my brother. And… it's a dance for us as well."
"You know," he began, "There was something that I wanted to tell you… but now I've completely forgotten what it was," he chuckled at himself.
"We could stay here until you remember what it is," Ninian suggested with a smile.
"I won't be in any hurry, in that case," Eliwood replied, and Ninian laughed.
Kindly hold your boos and hisses for me ripping off Shakespeare until the end of the performance.
Hector sighed, and paused a moment, propping himself up against the wall of the ravine with an arm. Okay, so taking off running shortly after waking up, having just been pounded on by a Pegasus and then falling 70 feet, being saved most of the impact by the same Pegasus but then being thrown off of its back and slamming into the rock wasn't exactly a great idea. Duly noted.
He had been walking already for some time, how long he had no idea, and he had found neither a climbable section of the sheer walls nor an end to the ravine. He supposed that was what he got for not looking up and down the thing longer than it took to find a way across.
The blue haired lord sighed again. "Idiot," he berated himself. This whole thing had turned out so much worse than he had thought… He was just supposed to get Florina to the lake, let her out, and then confess what was on his mind. If he had just tried to talk to her a little harder, maybe things wouldn't have ended up like this…
"Idiot," he said again, muttering under his breath. "You were supposed to apologize for threatening her Pegasus to get her to talk to you, not nearly kill the damn thing…" The expression on his face, almost unreadable in the dim light, was filled with sadness. Could Huey even survive until morning, when someone would surely think to come and find them? Florina had looked so sad as she checked over his injuries… he couldn't even think what would happen to her if the Pegasus died.
'I'll find us a way out,' what a load of crap that was. What did he expect to find, a staircase carved into the side of a ravine where there had been sheer rock walls before? Was he going to suddenly master healing magic and return Huey to normal? What could he do except fight, anyway? Strength, stamina, what good were they, if his own stupidity landed him in this sort of situation?
For once in his life, Hector honestly felt like giving up, like just stopping and begging someone else to fix things for him. Instead, he started walking again, along the narrow path that was the only thing before him and the only thing behind.
When he returned to the spot where Florina and Huey were waiting, Hector found that the purple-haired knight had employed the sack she had been carried in to bind up the Pegasus' broken legs, though she didn't know if it would do any good. She had also fashioned bandages for the few open wounds that the winged horse had sustained, but mostly she found that there wasn't a lot she could do except sit next to him, whispering softly that he had done a really good job saving them, and apologizing for not being able to do the same for him.
"Lord Hector?" her face was still wet with tears, though he could barely tell with what little light made its way down into the ravine.
"There's nothing that way," he said simply, gesturing in the direction he had come from. "The ravine just ends, there's nowhere we can climb, certainly not all the way to the top, at any rate."
The look that came into her face was filled with such despair that Hector hated himself more for his own inability to get them out of the ravine. He hated that he had to pass on this grim intelligence, hated that it was, in the end, his fault that they were there in the first place.
"I'll check… over there in a minute," the words were strangely hard to say, like his muscles were suddenly struggling to even do something as minor as talking. Had it been quite that dark a minute ago? Suddenly he slumped forward, catching himself, just barely, before he lost all control, and managed to angle himself so that he collided with the wall next to him instead of the ground. Forcing his weight against the wall, he managed to retain a semi-upright position, but it was like his entire body was weighted down beyond what even his strength could lift.
"Lord Hector!" she exclaimed, and dashed over. "Are you okay?" At the same time Hector was almost glad to see her turn the same expression on him as she had on Huey when she saw the condition the horse was in, he couldn't bear the fact that he had given her something else to worry about.
"Yeah… I'm fine…" he answered slowly. He was. He just needed a moment to…
Suddenly, the precarious balance he had maintained was lost, and Hector, his armored shoulder pad grating against the wall, slipped backwards, eyes unfocused. Florina, something between a gasp and a shout escaping her lips, tried to grab the lord by the shoulders before he hit the ground, but the armored man proved heavier than she had guessed, and she only succeeded in being dragged down with him.
The two slammed into the ground with a clattering of armor, and Florina, momentum not quite arrested, rolled off of the blue haired lord and onto the ground next to him.
Readers will, hopefully, forgive me this horrendously overused anime convention (Ahah. Hah. See, it's a play on words.), and note that the fact that it did not turn into a bad joke or end with either party embarrassed out of their wits only further illustrates the gravity of the situation. Or something like that… Unless this violates the former… cause it's definitely bad…
"Lord Hector?" Florina said questioning, pulling herself back into a sitting position and leaning over the fallen lord's body. When he didn't respond, she wasted no time in undoing the straps that held on the armor he was wearing, quite battered with use, and that night's events leaving their own scars atop those already accumulated.
Carefully, she lifted free the chest plate, detaching the lord's cape and shoulder pads in the process. Beneath his armor, the lord wore a blue shirt, fastened with a row of buttons down the center, which Florina immediately began undoing. She didn't know a whole lot about giving first aid to humans; a Pegasus Knight's training focused, first and foremost, on the Pegasus, but due to their nature as fast, airborne units, a bit of human first aid was included.
Hector's chest bore several scars, testament to when his armor hadn't been strong enough or his arm fast enough, but remarkably few for someone who fought so frequently. His entire chest was bruised, possibly with some more serious internal bleeding in a few spots, but nothing severe. Most of the blows themselves had been absorbed by the armor, but the shock had carried through, and it looked as though a couple of his ribs might be cracked a little. 'Blows from what?' she wondered. Had all of this really been caused by the fall into the ravine. And, if that was so, why was she still comparatively okay?
A groan drew her attention up to Hector's face as he slowly opened his eyes, looking up at her. "Are you… okay, Hector? –Sama," she hastily added, though under the circumstances it probably didn't matter.
"Fine," he grunted, and tried to push himself into a sitting position.
"Don't!" she cried. "Um… I mean… you collapsed because of your injuries, so you should rest…"
"No… time…" he said between panting breaths as he fought his way upward, sweat breaking out on his brow, only to suddenly fall back, gasping with pain. "I… have to…" he tried to force his way up again, but only succeeded in making it a few inches off of the ground before he fell back.
"Please don't…" she said meekly. "I mean… I want Huey to be okay, but… I don't want you to get hurt or die, either…"
Him, die? That was only fair, wasn't it? After all, if anyone should be hurt, it should be him, not Huey, who was just trying to help his rider, and then saved him, even though he had put her in danger… For a moment all he could do was breathe, great gulps of air taken through teeth clenched against pain.
"Please… could you… stay here? For just a moment…" she said, now pleading. "I know you have to go but… for now… could you stay with me?"
That… that he could do. And for a moment, Hector didn't care what exactly she had meant by her words. He didn't care whether she had spoken only to stop him from running off and hurting himself worse. And so, he stayed.
Next time, Hector and Florina get absolutely no screen time. Or maybe they will… who knows? I certainly don't… It's really a question of how obsessed I am with the pairing at the time. But, when Nino finally asks Jaffar out, what horrors will he discover when he opens his closet (or equivalent thereof)? Jikai, 10 Simple Rules for Dating Outside of Your Character Class: "Jaffar's Plight." Go on a crazy adventure to find some nice clothes, teenage assassin guy with really scary red eyes! Okay, so "Gundam," has much more of a ring to it, but I couldn't very well use it here...
Ending note: Okay, just two quick things, I think.
-Sama: This is a Japanese honorific, which are attached as suffixes to a person's name, or at least (i.e., Florina should have said 'Hector-sama,' but forgot and added it as an afterthought), that's the case for all the ones I've come across (and remember, anyway). The basic equivalent of it is "Lord," or the like, something very respectful and frequently used for like, the leader of an organization or an emperor or something, I believe. Anyway, I'm assuming that this is what most of the characters in Rekka no Ken use to refer to the lords, since "Lord," is the translation of it. However, I can't really use "lord" in this case, because it'd be awkward for Florina to add a prefix after the fact, besides being more likely to forget a suffix than a prefix to his name. So this once, I went with the fanboy Japanese solution, and yes it does feel very out of place, but…what are you gonna do?.
"Not a coal miner/It's dead, Duo,": These are parodies of the famous lines "I'm a doctor, not a ," on one occasion filled in with the words 'coal miner,' and "He's dead, Jim," said by Leonard McCoy, a doctor of Star Trek fame.
Oh, one last thing…If either of the Fire Emblem C2s that currently have "Of Prewedding Jitters and the House of Frob," in them (the only fic I've written in a C2 so far) are at all interested in picking up this…Florina has a bigger role than in that one, anyway, or will, and it's at least as fluffy, so just a thought. Does the person in charge just add fics or can an author submit them? Oh, but for the Florina: Winged Knight C2 I guess the director is computer impaired at the moment…Anyway, just thinking it'd be cool to have more of my fics in C2 communities, and it's good for the communities to have more fics, as long as they fit and are any good, right? (Okay, so that last one is up for debate…)
And so, once again, I can only assume you've been a wonderful audience. If you've been making faces at me through the screen the whole time I seriously suggest you get a life, and add to that sentiment, the exclamation "Nyeh!" And thus, I bid you adieu.
