-1Author's Note:
Yeah…I'm writing an author's note for a fanfic. Bite me. I have several things I'd like to convey to readers, and I didn't really want to break the continuity of the story by putting them at the top of each chapter. Again, bite me. These are just various comments on the story I thought it would be nice to say to readers, so unless you feel like reading them, you can stop reading now. In general, it's all the stuff you'd find at the top of each chapter, all condensed into their own chapter.
Chapter 1:
First, I have to say that there was no particular reason the other characters besides Vincent and Shelke in this chapter were the two most popularly paired with Vincent (Yuffie and Cid). They're mostly in this chapter because Yuffie seemed most likely to play matchmaker with Vincent, and because Cid is a blast to write. I also thought it would be interesting to write the beginning of the story not from Vincent or Shelke's point of view, but rather from an uninterested third party. That ended up being Cid.
And for those who have played Dirge of Cerberus (I sincerely hope that's most of this fic's readers), I know a mess hall is nowhere to be found in the WRO headquarters. I generally strive for accuracy in fan fiction I write, but I also go for realism, and logically, there has to be a place for the people working at the headquarters to eat. I just assume that you never visit it in the game. Besides, the mashed potatoes and beer bit was too much fun to write out…
Chapter 2:
Um…I know the chapter's really short. I also am not surprised if you, the reader, decide that it's the worst of the four chapters (five if you count the epilogue). Why? Because I'd have to agree…
Chapter 3:
In case you didn't know, Eros is the son of Aphrodite in Greek mythology. His Roman equivalent is Cupid. The title make more sense now?
Um…yeah. I tried to alternate between Shelke and Vincent's points of view on a fairly regular basis, in this case by chapter, then in the next chapter pretty much every few paragraphs. I know I ended up using Vincent's POV more, but Shelke's thought process tends to be a lot more wordy, so it balances out, I guess. Well…no, not really, considering the only Shelke-only chapter was the shortest, and that the epilogue was almost entirely from Vincent's POV, but… again, bite me.
Chapter 4:
Originally, this was intended to be two chapters. That's why it's so long. Vincent and Shelke were originally going to walk out of the play halfway through after they both realized they weren't paying attention and take a walk, with a second chapter devoted to the walk. As things turned out of course, Shelke ended up falling asleep, and I realized that it made more sense for Vincent to bear through the play as opposed to waking her up. That and I thought the new ending would be cuter. And I know Shelke almost never smiles. However, I don't think it's OOC for her, because I, at least, believe that she has emotions. It's just that she rarely shows them. It would make sense for them to show from time to time…
Oh yes, I'll say it here. There was absolutely no reason for the interlude of Barret and Cid after the airship sequence of events other than the fact that I'd been doing nothing but cute and romantic for several pages and felt the need for something utterly zany. That and to miss the chance to have characters like Barret and Cid interacting when I'd set it up earlier would make me cry…
Epilogue:
I know, I know…the epilogue rivals the longest (and last) chapter in length. I know epilogues generally tend to be short but…
Hey, combat takes a lot of space, and I had fun writing it…I hope it was fun to read at least. I'd just gotten tired of writing so much cuteness with Vincent, a character who is very clearly a complete bad-ass, and I felt the story needed just a little bit more closure than Chapter 4 offered. Thus, the epilogue. Also, I wanted to bring in my theory that Shelke (as well as Vincent) does not age, so… This ended up being reduced to a single sentence (the comment about how Shelke, even five years later, was still only four and a half feet tall). Where did I get five? I assumed that the two of them dated for two years before getting married. Yeah, the numbers were just arbitrarily chosen, yet somewhat believable numbers. Originally the epilogue was going to be set a couple HUNDRED years after the rest of the story, and would possibly have involved the cute puppies that Red XIII has in Advent Children's intro, but I couldn't think of anything for that. THEN I pulled it back to about twenty years after the rest of the story, thinking about it centering around a dinner party in the Nibelheim Mansion, and I wrote that for a while, but the more I wrote, the more I realized that the epilogue would grow into the size of its own fic and become more and more centered around Yuffie antics than Shelke and Vincent fluff, so I scrapped that. If enough people tell me they like the idea anyway I might finish it as its own fic but until then…
So finally, my training as a fight choreographer, and the urge to write something that wasn't entirely romance gave me the brilliant idea to write the current epilogue. And yeah…I assumed that Vincent and Shelke would become slightly less antisocial and cold after a few years. People grow and change after all…maybe you disagree, but that's my view anyway…
Yeah…so that's the author's note. sigh it's STILL longer than chapter 2... Well, whatever. Oh yes, I don't own Final Fantasy VII, Advent Children, or Dirge of Cerberus, Square Enix does. Okay. Now I'm done. I hope you had as much fun reading this yarn as I did writing it. Okay, now I'm REALLY done.