[EXO] [PD6] On the Road (Where You Don't Look Back) 3/3

[notaverse]

Title: On the Road (Where You Don't Look Back) 3/3
Fandom: EXO (sort of fused with Final Fantasy VII)
Series: Phoenix Down (#6)
Rating: PG-13
Genre: AU, crossover (sort of)
Word count: 27,046
Disclaimer: Not mine, damnit.
Warnings: There are a lot of corpses in this fic. However, none of them are characters.

Part 2

Comments

[hipployta]

Holding space so I can comment after work

[notaverse]

<3<3<3

[hipployta]

So I copied the entire AOA page and emailed it to myself to read since everything is blocked at work

I had no idea all the Lukai was to build to starting the story from here

I said this on Twitter but... ERMAGERD KRIS FOCUS... JOY OH JOY

I love that you used their actual mannerisms within the story. I loved the references to Jongin's cringing in shame and shyness and Kris' sleeptalking

I enjoyed the progress of Kris trying to maintain his distance to willingly hugging Yixing and Jongin and calling them family

Sassy Jongdae is sassy and the dreams turned his life upside down but showed him something where he was willing to immediately follow Kris...awesome

Jongin and their teasing about him and Luhan's nightmare activities

Suho and Chanyeol...hey! Is Sehun whipping a shrukien since Tao is a summon?

[notaverse]

Now *that's* dedication! I know the feeling; my workplace blocks everything fun too

[metrekone]

ahh I'm sorry I never got back on commenting from your last update.... (real life problems..>_Maybe one of the things I love the most about your updates is that fact that they're so long....you give us atleast 10k+ of meaty fanfic to chew on and I just feel so happy having a Phoenix Down reading session (yes...a session... because your fics take me an hour or two to finish on most days). And I appreciate the fact that all these chapters are so fulfilling... I come out knowing a little bit more about each character everytime because you are just THAT good at character development

[notaverse]

No worries! Life gets the better of us all - which is why this fic is so late. I was doing so well at getting out one a month... *sigh*

Hmm, I am not sure I can get 10k out of a lukai Gold Saucer date fic, which is what's coming up next, but I'll see what I can do! I'm glad you're enjoying the updates, anyway, because it's been such fun crafting this world!

I had to have Kris singing something in English, and 'Two Moons' seemed appropriately horrifying for poor Ace. ;-)

Yep, correct! Chanyeol is of course the Phoenix. Sehun matches up to Yuffie, in terms of weapons, so yes, he's the undead shuriken guy. He will appear eventually. But the chase is still in progress...

Aww, thank you! <3<3<3

[taehae]

OKAY IT TOOK ME HOURS TO GET BACK AND COMMENT OTL (lol i forgot to turn off the capslock too lazy to retype sorry lmfao

[notaverse]

Thank you! I'm very flattered by the lovely comments, and yes, it is certainly possible to propose to a fic - as long as you're not expecting much of a wedding! ;-)

Junmyeon dresses much better these days, but at the time I started writing this...let's just say the lab coat should've stayed on.

Yep, Sehun has Yuffie's shuriken! Which he may finally get to use one day. And of course Chanyeol is the phoenix. ^_^

Lu Han/Jongin are my EXO OTP, so even though this one was from Kris's POV, I wanted to sneak in as much as I could!

I am very fond of working in canon references in AUs - the amount of comedy material generated by EXO's real lives is staggering. And especially Jongin's embarrassment, which is very precious to me.

Everyone else is trying to save the world. Baekhyun's just trying to get laid. (But nobody will let him.)

Jongdae's loosely based on Joe from FFVII (although he has Cid's weapons). But Joe certainly didn't have that much personality, and I definitely wanted Kris to have a race with someone!

Aww... <3<3<3 Where

[smile_as_a_noun]

I have been meaning to comment on this series for well over a month now, but well, I fail. Really though, this is everything I have ever wanted in a fic ever. I can't even begin to say how much I've enjoyed it so far... you've taken some of my most favorite boys and put them in my favorite universe and done it so incredibly well. This has actually inspired me to go back and play the game (because admittedly, it's been quite a few years since the last time I played), and it's been so much fun because there were a lot of little references in the fic that I had forgotten about. As I play through, I keep finding things, like "oh, that's what that part was based on!" I finally started with breeding/racing chocobos today and when I had my first run in with Joe, all I could think was adgjaldkgjdkgdjgd JONGDAE MAKES SO MUCH SENSE NOW, lol. And the correlations between the FFVII cast and EXO's weapons, and the summons. The more of those connections that I make the more I'm just ridiculously amazed by what you've written.

[notaverse]

Wow, thank you! I love it when people who actually know the game read it - I think it's more fun when you get the references, and I love including things like that. (Even if I did cheat a bit by effectively giving Kris Cloud's weapons but Vincent's Limit Break...) It's been a while since I last played too, but luckily the game's so memorable that finding ways to cross it with the MAMA MV is not so difficult!

Hah, yes, that would be Jongdae, ace chocobo jockey. ^_^ I desperately wanted Kris to have a race at the Gold Saucer, and he seemed like the perfect candidate! I guess I'll have to break from FFVII mechanics now, though, or I can only have three of them in a fight at any one time...

Anyway, thank you so much for commenting! I'm very glad you're enjoying the series. <3

[smile_as_a_noun]

Oh, I totally didn't even catch that! Vincent's transformations... that's genius XD And kind of sad that I didn't realize, since I've been using him in my party lol.

As for game mechanics, I've actually really enjoyed how you've adapted things to be more realistic (like the summons being able to stay out longer over time, rather than leveling with AP, and restore healing wounds and creating potions and such) because obviously people don't actually have hit points or limit gauges (OH... like, "charging" it with more hp damage... Kris getting shot... yeah, I really should have picked up on that sooner, haha). But anyway, they wouldn't actually just send one person off running or whatever if they had four, so I think it's okay to break game mechanics there.

[notaverse]

Yep! And it's convenient that Vincent's transformations don't leave him with damaged clothes, so Kris doesn't wind up naked after becoming a dragon! ^_^

As much as I would love to have them talking about how they're running out of HP, and competing to see who gets the most EXP etc., that would be a somewhat different kind of fic, I think. So I'm finding more realistic equivalents where I can, and conveniently ignoring things (like the existence of Phoenix Downs and Revive materia) where they'd get in the way of my plot. And yeah, I suspect it would be a bit weird if one of them always had to stay in the van every time they had an encounter! (Play rock-paper-scissors to see who gets stuck behind, looking after the chocobos?)