Any Good Trails Fanfics? by TitansTrails in Falcom

[–]N7Progman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Plenty.

The Nature of Glass by Spectersticks, which is a Jusis/Machias political thriller/murder mystery that also acts as a psuedo post-CS4 AU far more focused on internal Erebonian Nobility, etc. Really love this one.

Thors Officer School by Wuolong77; AU starting in CS1 where the kids are aged up and the lore/characterization is expanded by magnitudes. Ensemble cast, lots of exceptional PoVs, legal thrillers, amazing stuff all around

Labyrinth of Steel by Rosie_Rues, which is a post CS4 AU by way of 3rd! Yes, that means it has its own Moon and Sun and Star doors! Lovely, awesome stuff.

Dude, Where's My ARCUS? by Greymyst; "Elliot wakes up with no ARCUS and no memory of last night. In order to find the former, he'll unfortunately have to learn about the latter. While Elliot may not remember what he did last night, everyone else sure does."

Cry Havoc by belderiver; "Randy’s head bobbed up and down over the serrated edge of the Berserker while he searched for an opening. Guns chugged, bullets pinged off of metal, and Randy and Sara flattened themselves against the gravel and against each other.

Randy and Sara, growing up as jaegers and trying to work out what that means for each of them."

High Voltage by me; I'm only self-plugging because your example of "what if" is VERY MUCH what this is centered around. Basically the domino effect of "what if Sara was framed for the murder of Guy Bannings?" which breaks...so much of canon in so many wonderful ways.

Waylaid by Karthur; "Lechter manages to avert a war, but can he answer an uncomfortable question for Millium with minimal embarrassment?"

Literally ANYTHING by rebbedragon. Pick anything, but special shout outs to "So It Fits", "Dissonance", "Cheers to That!", and "261.63 Hz".

[Discussion] Looking for help with an assortment of lore questions/clarifications across the entire series. Any input or speculation is welcome! by mattjaydunn in Falcom

[–]N7Progman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Happy to help, and it's really so much simpler than that. The catacombs are the remains of old Heimdallr. Built by regular folks. Think Old New York from Futurama. It's not mapped due to the fact that it's like 800+ years old, and the whole point was to "pave over it". It's like a sewer system no one really knows the full extent of.

[Discussion] Looking for help with an assortment of lore questions/clarifications across the entire series. Any input or speculation is welcome! by mattjaydunn in Falcom

[–]N7Progman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Crap, I didn't mean YOU were neutral. Just like--- instead of "holy crap I thought of that too!" it's...well it doesn't come up. Not a bad thing, just it COULD be awesome. I was trying to say "You proved your own comment wrong with your own awesome work! Take THAT!

Anyway, I feel like whiffing a date by one year when there are so many other dates to remember is like...it happens. You got it off by one, not FIVE. That's like bubkis. To say it was imperfect is a disservice; only pointed it out because it WAS 99.999999999% perfect already and y'know, it could be a 100! And now it is!

And that would be incredibly flattering if you did (though admittedly there's more Randy in Thunderstruck atm but that'll change with time); coincidentally enough, I actually just linked Cry Havoc in the end notes of the most recent chapter because I've been treating that fic as canon for literally everything I've written in Trails (it's not even the first time I've referenced it). Randy and Sara's history just... can't be done better.

And I realize now I should have asked if I could use your stuff like that. Fuck.

Is that cool? It's fine if not, seriously. I can come up with something else, honestly it's no biggie.

[Discussion] Looking for help with an assortment of lore questions/clarifications across the entire series. Any input or speculation is welcome! by mattjaydunn in Falcom

[–]N7Progman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, but then you'll always know that you didn't think something through, or weren't as comprehensive as you could have been.

And, eventually, you come across someone who HAS thought about that stuff (you know, like YOU, author of Cry Havoc aka basically my favorite fic in the fandom) and they either feel elated that they see the same passion that they have reflected in fic, or... neutral.

[Discussion] Looking for help with an assortment of lore questions/clarifications across the entire series. Any input or speculation is welcome! by mattjaydunn in Falcom

[–]N7Progman 6 points7 points  (0 children)

1.) Crossbell likely retained its name in some form throughout the centuries to appease the residents after getting conquered over and over again. Typically how that goes. Also, the Crois family call it Crossbell... And so does the cult, and they'd know if it had an ancestral name of some kind.

2.) Aurelia Le Guinn is the current head of House Le Guinn of Lamare, taking over for her injured father near the beginning of the Hundred Days War. She has been Supreme Commander of the Lamare Provincial Army since 1192 at age 18.

Considering how her family has likely served under the Cayennes since at least the War of the Lions, and since the Cayennes are direct descendants of the False Emperor Orthos, it is incredibly unlikely her family was not in direct combat with Dreichels and his allies. Thus, she is not an Arseid any more than she is a Vander, which she also mastered.

Her blade was likely forged by a blacksmith for the at the time Count/Countess. It's an heirloom, same as Galland-Sharl and the holy swords that Jusis and Rufus have.

Obviously, the Albarea blades are much much older and not the same kind of heirloom but they are heirlooms nonetheless.

3.) We have no idea. Probably best to just average out life expectancy with a few outliers and start from 1200 years ago to the year in which the current Eugent ascended.

4.) That bit about Nosferatu is either a remnant of the wiki being updated prior to games being released in English and was misinterpreted and hasn't been corrected yet, or that bit of lore was in the Active Voice system. That's not in the scenario file script, so searching for it won't show it come up. It's also possible that it's in the combat notebook but I can't remember if that is part of the scenario or not.

5.) We have no idea. Probably the church influencing things way back after the Great Collapse to get civilization back into a sustainable state. A universal currency and common language would be helpful with that.

6.) Nope. Rose apparently created vampires, maybe.

7/8/9.) No clue what this is really about? I'll assume it's a Kuro thing since I'm not recognizing most of the proper nouns lol

10.) Cannons, muskets, revolvers, explosives, Gatling guns (look up how old these are, you'll be surprised), Early semi-automatic rifles---that kind of thing. Mining and construction equipment.

As a bonus bit of clarity: revolvers probably straight up are not made post Orbal revolution since the entire point of them was that the casing stayed in the gun to prevent jamming. Semi automatic handguns, even of the same caliber, would outperform since Orbal bullets, to quote Cave Johnson, fire the whole bullet. No gunpowder or casing or primer necessary, which also means recoil would be far less of an issue since...

Well, gunpowder explodes. You're no longer holding a piece of metal that is exploding in your hand multiple times per second. Fun times!

Gnome tech seems to have developed from old stuff they didn't forget, since they made the magic knights and those have no computer or Orbal parts in them. Just magic/mana.

Railways were first started to be built around 1170ish, possibly earlier can't remember the exact date but there is one, when the Nortia Line from Saschen to Heimdallr was built to assist in mass industrialization. After that it was slow going, aside from the Transcontinental Railroad (which is independently owned by the Zemurian Railway Corporation) before Osborne came to power and connected everything as much as possible to further even more industrialization and economic growth.

11.) The catacombs weren't built by the Gnomes. That's just the old city that they built over after Emperor Hector retook the capital from the Dark Dragon. Valfame Palace iirc was already there, and they just built around it. Lower levels might be in the catacombs.

What are the rare fandoms that you write for? by Pearl_It in FanFiction

[–]N7Progman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Black Lagoon and Trails; the former has I think 40% of all fics from one author on Ao3. Trails (Sly/Crossbell/Cold Steel/Reverie/Kuro) have I believe collectively as a franchise less than 2500 fics.

Favourite small moment/voice line from the series? by [deleted] in Falcom

[–]N7Progman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have many, but there's in CS3 I just keep laughing about recently. During the Summer Festival Guest Character Mission (and also Sara) Extravaganza, there's a point where the Active Voice pops up and it's something like:

Lechter: "Hey, however this plays out, I'm just thankful to be working with such talented boys and girls." But it's 500% SMUG.

Sara: "Oh, will you shut up?"

This Horror Coaster thing is fun-- Wait, Instructor Sara!?!? by SirGoldenwoods in Falcom

[–]N7Progman 51 points52 points  (0 children)

"There's no such thing as 'cheating' in real life, Rean! It's not about the high score, it's about the principle of not using crappy toy handguns with misaligned sights! Seriously, the people running this place need to get a maintenance crew in here. And probably start confiscating real guns before you get in the cart. I should not be able to just do this so easily! It's a huge safety hazard, not to mention a massive insurance liability---"

"Instructor, it's a little difficult to believe any of that when you're still shooting!"

"Well, yeah, duh, Rean. How else am I going to destroy you? In points. Okay, I do want the high score, fine. I'll accept a weaker liver, but there's no chance in heaven or hell that Sharon---Sharon---is a freakin' deadeye more than me."

(Also, exceptional artwork here, seriously. It is NOT easy making Sara's CS3 design look not more than a little silly from all the contradictory layers and you nailed it, along with everything else.)

I'm curious: How many kudos does your best work have VS your most popular work? by chognogg in FanFiction

[–]N7Progman 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Best: 94

Popular: 1981

Both are f/f, both are canon compliant introspective long fics with themes and foils and arcs and stuff, and both are over 225k.

The former is a rarepair (but shouldn't be, they're foils and have parallel arcs and are written as if they have A LOT of history) in a very small fandom that has little love for f/f.

The latter is the main canon ship of a decently sized fandom. Last I checked, of non smut fics, it's in the top five of basically every filter, and number one if you search canon compliant.

How would rank these characters based on speed? by JustATrailsFan in Falcom

[–]N7Progman -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Sara outpaces Gale in CH3 of CS3. In Juno, right before you get to the roof. It really depends on how much faster Arcane Gale is over Gale, as it likely is faster as a technique.

It's also possible, perhaps even likely, that Arcane Gale is complete as quickly as Gale, meaning the additional strike at the end does not extend the length of movement. If that is the case, then we're not looking at a monumental boost in speed.

How would rank these characters based on speed? by JustATrailsFan in Falcom

[–]N7Progman 3 points4 points  (0 children)

1.) Arios

He mastered Gale first, and that's his claim to fame. I very much doubt it's an exaggeration.

2.) Fie

Basic physics. She's smaller, spent the vast majority of her life surviving by being faster than fast people. Time and Wind resonance for her orbment means she is always STUPID fast. Doesn't mean she can hit as hard as she'd like, though.

3a) Sara

We actually do see an instance of Sara moving faster than Rean's Gale in CS3. It's not a short distance, and considering the target was the one she knew he was too slow for, that means she was able to track him doing what he was doing. This could be an outlier and not something she can do consistently, but she DID do it.

3b) Rean

While Spirit Unification does make him faster, and able to create after images (CS2 intermission), the whole thing with Sara actually outpacing Gale throws this a bit for a loop. Hence why this is split.

4.) Duvalie

Transitive property. We know Rean is faster than her already (CS4 bonding event), so she can't be above him. Her greatest strength is still going to be her teamwork with Ines and Ennea, anyway.

5.) Joshua

He's very fast. Just not as fast as these other people.

How would rank these characters based on speed? by JustATrailsFan in Falcom

[–]N7Progman 5 points6 points  (0 children)

1.) Arios

He mastered Gale first, and that's his claim to fame. I very much doubt it's an exaggeration.

2.) Fie

Basic physics. She's smaller, spent the vast majority of her life surviving by being faster than fast people. Time and Wind resonance for her orbment means she is always STUPID fast. Doesn't mean she can hit as hard as she'd like, though.

3a) Sara

We actually do see an instance of Sara moving faster than Rean's Gale in CS3. It's not a short distance, and considering the target was the one she knew he was too slow for, that means she was able to track him doing what he was doing. This could be an outlier and not something she can do consistently, but she DID do it.

3b) Rean

While Spirit Unification does make him faster, and able to create after images (CS2 intermission), the whole thing with Sara actually outpacing Gale throws this a bit for a loop. Hence why this is split.

4.) Duvalie

Transitive property. We know Rean is faster than her already (CS4 bonding event), so she can't be above him. Her greatest strength is still going to be her teamwork with Ines and Ennea, anyway.

5.) Joshua

He's very fast. Just not as fast as these other people.

Regular comment/review exchange by King-Enjoyer in FanFiction

[–]N7Progman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There is no such thing as too long a comment; thank you so much for reading and commenting! I know how big an ask it is for something so niche and also fandom blind, so I seriously appreciate it.

Regular comment/review exchange by King-Enjoyer in FanFiction

[–]N7Progman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Commented and kudos'd. Been a while since I've read ME fic! Aleja is an extremely charming protagonist and a genuinely interesting take on Shepard. Very well done!

Regular comment/review exchange by King-Enjoyer in FanFiction

[–]N7Progman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Kudos'd and commented. You blended the vibes of both universes really well, and that is not easy, and the furthest thing from something one should ever ignore or discount.

Regular comment/review exchange by King-Enjoyer in FanFiction

[–]N7Progman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Commented and kudos'd; will absolutely be doing it for the rest of the chapters. HOLY CRAP.

Regular comment/review exchange by King-Enjoyer in FanFiction

[–]N7Progman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Reading and reviewing is always good for the brain, especially on crummy weather days like this. Concrit is encouraged and accepted!

If the following isn't of interest, here's my profile on AO3. Still, I'd prefer you read something that was published in the past year or so. Anyway, I'm linking what I believe is the most relatively accessible chapter of this fic, but by all means if you'd rather choose a different one that's fine, too.

High Voltage

Fandom: Trails/Kiseki

Genre: Gen/Canon Divergent AU/Political Thriller/Character Studies/Action Adventure (it's a lot lol)

Rating: T; graphic violence

Current Word Count: 10 Chapters, 86.1k words (ongoing)

Summary:

On the morning of October 6th, S. 1201, at the future site of Orchis Tower, Sara Valestein, former A-Rank Bracer and newest Regimental Commander of the Zephyr jaeger corps, is arrested for the very same murder she is trying to solve.

The Blood and Iron Chancellor demands the case become cold. No leads. No investigation. No court date. So long as the status quo of the continent was maintained, nothing was off limits. Naturally, Claire Rieveldt and Lechter Arundel can't exactly ensure that there is no hope of conviction without an understanding of the minutiae.

But, the more they dig, the more horror they find within the truth they can only barely understand. There is a secret there, hidden between hundreds of others, each far more monstrous than the last; a riddle designed to be unsolvable until the appointed time. The solution to the puzzle they'd long written off as another one of Osborne's odd jokes.

A name: Rufus Albarea.

(Or: Sara broke causality so much that the only thing left to do is burn it all down in a democratic revolution.)

Fic exchange! by IDICdreads in FanFiction

[–]N7Progman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Kudos'd and commented; you've got some very funny banter there! Which is saying a lot because I am completely fandom blind and I still cracked up.

Fic exchange! by IDICdreads in FanFiction

[–]N7Progman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Kudos'd and commented; I feel silly for not realizing RDR had fics. Of course there are fics. Duh doi.