Fan Fiction ❯ Burning Bridges ❯ Author's Notes ( Chapter 17 )

Uhm... wow. I don't really have a lot of notes to make here, because for once I think the story is exactly as complete as it wants to be. Not as complete as I want it, necessarily; I never intended it to be longer than maybe eight chapters, when I started out. Then ten chapters, then twelve...

I don't even think I was a particularly big Hardin fan when I started it, to be honest. I just thought he was an interesting character who deserved more attention than he got, and I hoped that maybe I could show other people how I saw him, turn them on to the possibilities in his character. But spending all this time with him - well over a year now - has left him feeling like a very close friend. I could tell you all his mannerisms, his daily habits, the nuances of his voice, and so many things that I may never actually write about - but he and Sydney have done enough interesting things that I certainly will be writing a few more stories with them. But shorter.

And I'm babbling a bit, because I don't want this to be over. At any rate, as I'd always planned, collecting the more interesting among the notes that I'd put at the end of various chapters while the fic was in progress.

Chapter Three: I am a big dork for rationality, and so I thought for quite some time about what they might do with the horse and cart, considering they can't take them in through the Wine Cellar. I wandered around in the game for awhile trying to find a good place to which a portal (just like those you see in the Keep's "time trial" doors in the game - behind which are actually the rooms the brethren stay in, by the way, just at this point the doors aren't locked with sigils and enchanted to zap people elsewhere in Leá Monde) could send them. If anyone actually cares about the details, the horses are being kept in The Treaty Room in Abandoned Mines B2, from which Padric and Hardin went up into Rue Morgue in Town Centre South, and entered the Keep from Forcas Rise.

Chapter Four: Yes, Müllenkamp has the Rood, not the Rood Inverse, which startled me when I first looked closely at the pictures of her. But that's a whole other fanfic to be written...

Chapter Nine: This chapter was originally intended to be flat-out yaoi... but Sydney was too darned insightful, and knew it wouldn't do Hardin any good. And then just when I thought I'd have to scrap this chapter, he went about getting the spiritual part of the plot taken care of. *sigh* He's one heck of a religious leader, all right.

Chapter Eleven: I couldn't resist the choice for Sydney's reading material, considering they mentioned "The Zodiac Brave Story" in the game itself. Of course, it also meant I started getting crossover/tie-in ideas, but those will have to wait...

Chapter Twelve: We never hear about the duke's wife in the game... though I read somewhere once that in the Japanese script, the duke's servant, upon being told to burn the manor early in the game, said something to the effect of "But your wife...? Your servants...?" And as we know, the duke gave the order anyhow, so I figure he was not particularly fond of her. And now can you blame him?

Chapter Fourteen: I found a way to work rabbits into a battle scene! ...I swear I didn't plan that, despite the fact that anyone who knows me knows about my obsession with cute little bunnies.

That pretty much wraps up any notes I really need to make... I could tell you who Kermiak is, and who Kirrienne is, and who Branla is... and all about Duncan, though then you may feel guilty as I do now anytime I play through the VS intro. And then there's Domenic, who I came to like an awful lot despite giving him only a handful of lines in the whole story... But then, all that's just self-indulgence. I will note that I am in here somewhere...

Finally, well, there's plenty of people I could thank for support and a few for specific inspiration. In a way, my mother, although if she ever read this, she'd probably have a nervous breakdown. But there's Wind, who was Sydney to my Hardin in a few ways; and Tami, who is often Hardin to my Sydney in probably even more ways. (And Syl as well, which reminds me that I should also mention Fritz, as he unwittingly helped me to figure out who Kirrienne was.)

Hey, and just for kicks - the Bridges-related April Fools Day joke I posted in my Livejournal:
http://www.livejournal.com/talkread.bml?journal=mullenkamp &itemid=250280
...I still feel dirty.

So... I guess that's it. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it. I've had quite the time writing it.

-Andrea