Chapter 2 Insight

First off, let’s be honest. If there was anyone who can get away with pulling bullshit maneuvers at the drop of a hat, it’s Merlin. I just didn’t let him get away with it for free because then that would have really been bullshit. That said, if there’s a small side-tagline I could give to this supplement, it’d be about how much planning time was set aside just to figure out who could get away with what and how to stop that from happening. I’d say I did a fairly decent amount to give myself the leeway to allow some things to thread the needle.

There’s been a lot of curious speculation from some of you as to what exactly happened last chapter, but this should definitely clear things up. I haven’t changed anything from the last chapter except removed the author’s note, so some may probably perceive a different picture based on my purposefully tricky writing. I did try to do a good job of pointing your beliefs in the right direction though, and by the reviews and comments, it definitely worked.

Some FoC OC’s have finally made a showing, but at this point you should already know my track record for OCs and supplement stories. I didn’t quite put them in nice situations, nor have I swatted down any death flags (but rather raised them). We’ll see what happens, and while I believe some of you will be surprised, you really shouldn’t be if you’ve followed what I’ve written for a while (year plus).

While I still am using large swathes of canon dialogue, I’m still adapting it as I go. Some of them don’t fit quite as well as they do considering what’s developed in my series’ depiction of the timeline. It’s still pretty much accurate to what it is, but obvious developments (like Gudao and Mashu being in a relationship) would shift a few things.

All said and done, I hope this chapter depicted the feeling of helplessness the characters are surrounded by… then the glimmer of hope at the end that you want to reach out and grab too. Hopefully that’s the case.

Here’s something to set the mood for the sad tension at the beginning. It could work for the desperate action scenes too, but in an artistic way.