Author's mad ramblings:

This is just to let all of you know that I will be continuing this fiction in a separate title 'FFCOD: PART II'... I am making it a three-part series...(I have my reasons...)

So that means, this part is complete...

Hopefully...I shall have the next part up by the first of August. (Sorry... need to spend the whole of July for my exams)

Well I invested the whole of last night, sitting up and reading my first- ever fic, all the way from chapter 1 to 45 and I must say... thought I twitched and ached a bit over my amateurish-writing style, I felt pretty nice with the way all the characters have turned out...

However, a majority of readers have skipped this piece of fiction, afraid its just another one of the Mary-Sues that unfortunately, haunt all realms of the FF8 fandom on FF.net. The moment they see 'Sifan' or 'Phillona' in the summary, they jump to the conclusion that it's another fan boy fantasy with self-insertion, etc... That way, its pretty disappointing since none of my characters are self-inserted entities... They have their own character, imperfections, good/bad points, etc... and well, don't mean to boast but a lot of people have told me that I have the best set of second generation characters in an FF fic...

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I ve become really attached to all my characters and feel like they're always in my head (A lot of writers should know this feeling) and strangely, it's funny how a lot readers actually like my characters... (Especially Sifan and Avatar...)

Just going to rant on my most important characters a little...

Sifan Leonhart: Well... to be honest, Seef turned out to be a lot like his father. He is pretty Squallish and bit more extreme when it came to anti- social antics. More than I wanted him to be. His anti-social characteristics seemed to have annoyed a lot of readers but at the same time, made them fall in love with him, which I never expected. I thought people would hate Seef, but it turned out quite the opposite. A lot of people asked me how I came up with the name 'Sifan'.. I had a whole bunch of names actually...(which are too funny to be discussed here...) but only one of them went along perfectly with Leonhart and well... I decided to use it...

I guess a bigger part of his character depends on how he is in the second part... A lot of people feel Sifan's being too passive, too weak, etc... I am not spilling any beans but the second part should hopefully fix that...trust me, it will... :)

Phillona Strife: I can't say anything here... expect that she'll play a huge part in the second part... and she should be more in the limelight without Sifan hogging up all of it...

More of her character should be revealed in the next part... her detailed past including Cloud and company...

As far as the Phillona/Sifan thing goes... should be having a lot of that coming in Part II.... where the two of them define a real relationship...amongst all the bad craziness going on.... (So fluff fans... Rejoice!!)

Avatar Fenis: The whole Sifan-Avatar twist along with his past and everything is probably the climax of part I... though it wasn't that much of a surprise to many readers, it did do the plot a whole lot of good...

As far as his character goes... let's just say... At this point, Avatar's character is at crossroads... Just like Sifan's... I am not giving away how he'll be in part II... not all nice and sugary again... that's for sure...

Relafen Almasy: Yes I haven't been fair to him... yes sir... not fair at all... That should hopefully change in the next part...that's all I am telling here...

Ok that's it for my babbling about my characters...

Now,

Sephiroth: Ah yes... good ol' Sephy...sometimes I wonder who I like more... Sifan or Sephy... oh well... both I guess... as far as he goes... I'll say this much... you WILL have Sephiroth in part II... not telling how he's gonna be...But you will have him in a way... you wont quite expect....

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Ok... now for the biggest question everyone wants to know:

Will Squall Leonhart crossover?

I can leave you in suspense but I wont... sorry people... but No... No Squall Leonhart or any of the FF8 characters crossing over... The whole father and son fighting evil together idea gives me a clichéd feeling I don't like too well. Also, having Squall here would go against everything I have spun in part I... the whole Aeris-Cervantus thing... so I ll tell you straight...Squall Leonhart will not cross over...

I believe all my readers like this fic for their own reasons but I don't think any of them like it because they're hoping that at some point, the FF8 characters would jump in and everyone will have a bash (I shudder at the thought)...

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Well... It's been a long ride and I've enjoyed every minute of it... I am grateful that my first fic has turned out to be an above-average one...(My writing, however, leaves a lot to be improved and I shall keep that in mind while writing the second part...)

I know and I apologize for that fact that towards the end, updates became very rare (like once in two months though I promise one in a couple of days...)

Just been very busy. Real life sucks :-( but I've decided to allot separate time for this...Sometimes I feel no one's reading/has read/will ever read this fiction but I guess a lot of people have read it. Just that only a few of them pop out to review. I am grateful for those reviewers and readers. Thanks a bunch, you guys.

I have noticed a few, very minor plot holes in my fic. I should get about fixing them soon enough. For the majority of it, it's been alright, I guess.

Any comments on this part of FFCOD are welcome... I ll be happy to hear about your experience with my fic (Good/Bad/Anything....)

I need all the feedback possible...that's the only way I can make the second part better than this...

Anyways, time of sign off....

Thank you for your support...

Cheerio,

Johan Erickson N.