Lame.

Hey! Gah, sorry for taking so long on this... *sigh* One day I'll become punctual with reviews.

Thank you for writing this! It's a lovely present, and a wonderful snapshot.

The style and the distinct phrasing is really interesting. It's very Barret - he's always had that fantastic (if slightly stereotyped) speech pattern, and seeing it translated into a (slightly) more feminine style is quite interesting. Of course, it's fascinating enough to see the ultra-masculine Barret shoved in a more curvy body.

I admittedly was curious what you were going to do with Myrna - I half expected to see girl!Barret paired up with Dyne, like most authors - those terrified of femslash - would do. I'm glad you didn't, really - it works much better this way.

Genderswitch is always an exercise in nature vs. nurture, I think - which parts of the character are inherently them, and which parts are shaped by their circumstances. I think this hits the right balance, at least for me - it's still Barret, still the person we know, but shifted just slightly into something new that makes us think.

I love the ending! She could fight for the dead, a motivation that only goes so far, or she could fight for the ones still alive - and in the end, she tosses her lot in with life. (In a way, that's part of the message of the game - a battle of life verses death.) The last line also makes me sniffle like whoa, too. It's a sort of crazy determination that always gets to me, so...

Wonderful, wonderful story. I almost want to play with the dynamics of AVALANCHE - the relationships would be all changed. (I'm not sure Cid would know what to do with her.) But that's an AU for another day, I think.

Thank you again!

S