#i know the game is old-ish but my wording may have implied i wasn't going to spoil and i totally did

[zincbot]

i gotta say, 13 hours into omori, i don't get why people call it a horror game

#omori #like there's been occasional creepy scenes but they're usually quite short especially compared to the broader tone of the game #it does have a serious story. about like. trauma and failing friendships? that i'm really intrigued by as it slowly uncovers #like maybe it leans further into horror elements as the game goes on but i gotta say the elements that do exist aren't enough for me #to explicitly call it 'horror' #don't get me wrong i love this game and i love the spooky moments they're really fun! #i just went thru the train ride bit which was pretty fun i liked how the shadow at the end says the name of ur real-world character #even though ur playing as omori in the dream world #also no spoilers but it's unclear to me as of now if omori is just haunted by the memory of his sister's death #or if her spirit is Actually haunting him #also i had flowers and i thought maybe i cld put them on her grave but it didn't give me the option #also i loved the moment where kel talks about hero's depression and the way he himself was overlooked by h #their parents #man. i love all these characters so much #god the scene where aubrey fights you in the church and the whole time all the churchgoers are whispering about how terrible she is #i felt so bad for her man #also her design in the real world is cool as hell #also i actually lost to aubrey during the church scene but i didn't get a game over she just let me be and left #omori spoilers #i know the game is old-ish but my wording may have implied i wasn't going to spoil and i totally did #what i meant was don't tell me abt the future story of the game i'm only on 'three days left'

[mannatea]

Luck of the Draw, a Fire Emblem 7 ‘fic

Words: 4,949 words Summary: They all ended up dying anyway. Pairing/Character: Mark, Fargus, Oswin, Hector, Lyn, Kent, Fiora, Farina, Dorcas, Raven, Wil, mention of others. Extra Info: This was originally written and posted sometime around 5/11/2012. This fic is told in reverse chronological order! Rating: T Genre: Gen, character study-ish, bit of friendship.

The title is the link to Ao3. Comments welcome as always. <3

Notes under a cut.

This was one of my least popular Fire Emblem 7 fics, garnering very little attention when it was posted and confusing all four people who were brave enough to read through to the end of the story. This was my own fault; I failed to mention at any point that it was a story told in reverse chronological order. 🙄

Huge shout-out to Sentury from the old days though, who was pretty much the only person who seemed to genuinely like the concept of the story. Re-reading their old review motivated me to do this rewrite the most.

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I will always use the default name of Mark for the FE7 tactician. I'm very attached to it.

I'm certain this story was born in part thanks to a rewatch I did of The Irresponsible Captain Tylor that year + the memory of the 'fic Famed Genius (which, if you haven't read as an FE7 fan, I would highly recommend).

2011 and 2012 were weird FE7 years wherein a good number of people tried to make sense of the tactician's role in the story. Famed Genius is the one I remember best for using the concept of control over time to marry the fourth wall to the other three. How else could there be no casualties? There was something truly genius about explaining the player's constant resetting to prevent any permanent death with the actual story/character of the tactician.

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Luck is what this 'fic tries to explore, or at least the concept of luck as being more than just coincidence.

I wanted to start this story off with the end already solidified: everyone has died but Mark and he wonders what good his luck or careful planning did anyone when they all ended up dying anyway. Sure, they had longer lives this way, but to survive a fight with a dragon only to learn later that many of his old companions died of mundane bullshit feels pretty bad.

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I really trimmed back the Fargus scene from the original because not only was the original dogshit, but it didn't really...go anywhere? This took a long time to rewrite because most of it ended up having to be scrapped.

I like the idea that Fargus believes in luck but not in good or bad luck. He feels luck is a component that factors in but cannot be blamed or held in high esteem. It is what it is.

The Davros was Fargus's ship in-game.

Mark studying strategy in Etruria is just something I made up for this story. I wanted Mark to really feel like he belonged in the world and wasn't just a player insert character.

Farina's dominant hand being her left: this is just an old headcanon. This scene is meant to imply that the loss of her fingers and therefore her ability to fight might have led in some not-insignificant way to her eventual death.

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Since this story goes in reverse chronological order I wanted to cover things from the FE6 canon (loosely), including Hector's imprisonment. While the tactician's ending in FE7 suggests they are never seen or heard from again after the end of the story, I want to reiterate that I like viewing FE endings as "what the history books say (that may not necessarily be the actual truth)."

In this instance, Hector recruits Mark to lead his forces and they lose. Mark (along with Oswin and other higher-ranking survivors) end up being imprisoned here. This is the battle that ultimately claims Hector's life in FE6 (for those who do not know), so we can assume Oswin does eventually die here as well.

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Regarding the deaths of the characters: I didn't want to go over every single person's death just because it felt like it would bog down the story too much; you have to kind of assume that Mark has heard of many deaths not discussed or mentioned in this story.

Serra was married to Oswin and would be the mother of Bors and Wendy (or Gwendolyn, I guess is her localized name now?) in this story. (Don't @ me, tying FE7 to FE6 in the dumbest ways was a tried-and-true tradition of ye olde FE days.)

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That everyone lifts up Mark as this big-brained tactician should make sense from the characters' points of view. Like, it all seems so calculated to them! But to Mark, they were all just lucky/fortunate guesses. He couldn't have known the pillar would break or what side of it to have Rebecca stand on. He couldn't have known Kent wouldn't die in leading that charge against Lord Darin.

Speaking of Darin, I always let Kent lead the charge in that chapter because he asks for it. Here's the actual dialogue in-game for Chapter 19 Dragon's Gate:

“Mark, let me take the point. I will break through, even though it may cost my life. If something happens to me, Mark... Lady Lyndis... Please watch over her.”

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While FE7 has a lot of "leader" characters (Hector, Eliwood, Lyn, Oswin, Marcus, Vaida, Kent) I don't think any of them can come close to understanding the burden placed on Mark to direct them better than Fiora does.

While all of these characters have been in charge of others and have had to make calls that may have lost people their lives, Fiora is the only one who understands what absolute defeat feels like. The original story did not give her a scene so I added one.

I liked the idea of her seeking a purpose in being a survivor (maybe as kind of a parallel/foil to Lyn).

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I wanted to add like 10 more scenes to this story for a bunch of the other characters, but I couldn't find a place to put anything where it wouldn't feel clumsy.

Going from a scene talking about Fiora's experience on Valor all the way back to before the group reached Caelin in the prologue felt like a huge jump but I don't know that an extra scene or two in there would have helped. I'd be interested in people's thoughts on it, though.

#mannafics #fire emblem #fe7 #i honestly don't know wtf to tag this as lmao