I know What's Beneath the Snow Fields, a ridiculously long FF7 fic from 1999

[LicoriceAllsorts]

This is excellent.
Did you do the drawings, Odysseus?
I liked the old cover, but this one is much better, more exciting and more likely to make me want to read the fic.
I think it's much better that the rest of the fic looks like a regular book. Much easier on the eyes!
You've done a beautiful job here. I hope one day Zahra finds you and makes contact.

 

[Odysseus]

This is excellent.
Did you do the drawings, Odysseus?
I liked the old cover, but this one is much better, more exciting and more likely to make me want to read the fic.
I think it's much better that the rest of the fic looks like a regular book. Much easier on the eyes!
You've done a beautiful job here. I hope one day Zahra finds you and makes contact.

Thank you! No, all of the art is Zahra's own artwork. Angela had all but two of the images Zahra drew for the story, and I thought it'd be nice to include them. On top of the two on those initial pages, I've been mixing them in with the story itself where appropriate.

Spoiler

I was exceedingly tempted to do something about "exactly similar" by the way.

There's a very limited number of these, and fewer still that really directly correlate to the story, so they're pretty spread out unfortunately.

I'll return to the computer aesthetic for the extra pages but yes I agree that for the main story simple is better.

Getting in contact with Zahra would be great for many reasons, so I can hope it'll happen eventually. I want to know what she thinks of Dirge of Cerberus.

 

[cold_spirit]

I don't need your likes, I need your opinions lol.

I think you made the right call. Definitely go for readability with the main feature. I think it's great to have contrasting styles. This is Final Fantasy VII after all.

Besides, having the Windows aesthetic for the first few pages is reminiscent of a manga having its first few pages in color. I like it!

 

[looneymoon]

I will keep liking your posts out of spite

 

[Odysseus]

Okay fine, you can like my posts if you want lol. I like replies to my stupid ideas though because it helps me feel like I'm not being an obsessive weirdo.

Speaking of, OOC has anyone actually bothered to read the fic? I was being serious about that "adopt a favorite scene" thing I said last page. My brain likes the idea of getting more people involved in a weird thing from 20 years ago.

 

[cold_spirit]

I skipped around a bit to get an idea of the writing style. Would like to read it front to back, but I don't find that comfortable to do on my phone.

I'll definitely give it a shot when it's in PDF format. That way I can transfer it to my Kindle.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

I tried reading it years ago.

 

[Odysseus]

I skipped around a bit to get an idea of the writing style. Would like to read it front to back, but I don't find that comfortable to do on my phone.

I'll definitely give it a shot when it's in PDF format. That way I can transfer it to my Kindle.

There's a PDF on the site in your signature. I've been using it when doing my spelling corrections.

 

[Odysseus]

Though ShinRa was around 28 years old, he looked much older. His short, corpulent figure tended to waddle whenever he moved excitedly about the room. His course, mustard-coloured hair had been forcefully combed back, while a trim moustache outlined his upper lip. Virtually everyone agreed ShinRa's most prominent feature was his nose. Indeed, it was a snub-shaped, stubby nose with wide nostrils. To be blunt, he was hopelessly ugly.

...

Spoiler

What a difference time makes.

EDIT

"Feh! If I had a fraction of your looks, buddy, I'd be making children left and right," ShinRa remarked under his breath

So this is why canon President Shinra fucks so much.

 

[cold_spirit]

I threw the PDF into an editor. 363,305 words. That's twice as long as The Fellowship of the Ring. And you're proofreading that? Godspeed Ody.

 

[Odysseus]

That word count is an underestimation...because...she...writes a lot of......sentences...like...this. all of the words connected by ellipses are counted as one word by the program. That combined with the fact that I've had to add a number of words, or split up words she writes as one when it's actually two, "infront" being the most common, means the real word count for my final draft will be much higher.

I've done 23 chapters so far, and I probably missed plenty of errors along the way lol.

 

[cold_spirit]

Oofta. That's brutal. Well, just view the excessive ellipses as in the spirit of the PS1 translation. It's authentic!

 

[Odysseus]

It is pretty in keeping with how parts of 7 itself are written lol.

The high word count made it pretty clear that this would need to be two books. My goal is to get tho chapter 50 in this one. The book will be about 400 pages long + extras at the current pace.

 

[Odysseus]

Thing the author just forgot about: Shinra believed Jenova was an Ancient at first. They know she's an alien from the start in this story.

Me: aaaaaaaaaa

 

[Odysseus]

There's some impressively on-point stuff in here, even if the context is different:

"I just wanted to hug him, Vincent," she whispered softly, "...to feel his little body in my arms...once would have been enough for me..."

"But Professor Hojo wouldn't let me," she complained, "..Sephiroth..my poor little son... he's for the Project, not me.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Speaking of, OOC has anyone actually bothered to read the fic?

I will once it's in the book format.

 

[Odysseus]

I will once it's in the book format.

On my next day off, I should be able to put the remaining five chapters into the book. Evangelion has distracted me all week lol. After that I just need to do the silly extras, and then you can read half of the story, at just under 400 pages long.

 

[Odysseus]

New and shocking developement: Zahra thought Reno had pink hair for some reason. I can only assume some poor quality image of his official art made it look that way somehow lol. Also, appreciate this ancient artwork.

Spoiler

 

[Odysseus]

Chapters 1-50 all fully edited and in the book. All I have to do is add some stupid nonsense to the back and we'll be good to go.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Chapters 1-50 all fully edited and in the book. All I have to do is add some stupid nonsense to the back and we'll be good to go.

You are an impressive being, Ody.

 

[Odysseus]

Originally I was gonna include the "adopt a scene" thing in this first book, but enough people chose scenes from after chapter 50 that it's probably better saved for book 2. That just sucks because chapters 51-100 are definitely longer than 1-50, and I was also going to include all the fan art in book 2 as well... that book will be stupidly long. Maybe I'll just put some of the fan art in the first book.

 

[Odysseus]

Putting the fan art in the book now. I'm getting kind of depressed about how much of it was lost to time...

 

[Odysseus]

I spent the better part of three hours following a web archive breadcrumb trail to find one of the artists who's work wasn't properly saved. I'm feeling kinda proud of myself right now that I actually managed to find them lol.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

I spent the better part of three hours following a web archive breadcrumb trail to find one of the artists who's work wasn't properly saved. I'm feeling kinda proud of myself right now that I actually managed to find them lol.

Good work, dude. Damn. lol

 

[Odysseus]

Danke. You'd be amazed how many of these people are still active online. I've gotten in touch with a decent few of them at this point. never thought I'd be able to actually get permission to use so much of the art that's in the book lol.