BONUS STUFF

Well, this is a little random, but I didn't want to just leave the story ended without saying something. Not to mention there's a lot of stuff I can put here that wont make it anywhere else. For starters, thanks for the kind reviews everybody. I figured here I can say about what the other story possibilities are, for longer stories, and put things that I never got around to putting, like an old version of the first ever chapter to the FFXI Chronicles 1 where it was supposed to be a comedy, and Olose's real backstory (because there's no way I'll ever be able to tell it, which I'll explain later). I don't know if anybody really wants to read this, but it works for me as a place to outline ideas, which helps me get them out of my head as much as anything, but any opinions you have on them would be good. And after that, you can find out the backstories, character things and the comedy chapter. I'll put titles at least so if you do decide to read this, you can easily flick to whatever bit you want to read.

And yes, I realise it's very egotistical to think anybody wants to read about this stuff. I apologise, but I wanted to get it out, and thought somebody out there might be curious.

STORY IDEAS

Basically because I can't guarantee I'll write these, it's a nice way to see if there are any you guys like, and if you do, I'll try to write them after my exams. The FFXI Chronicles 4, for starters, has a basic plot now. Although I know Phabrizoe says he'd prefer if this wasn't written, but I have some reasons for why I would write it. The plot would handle something a lot bigger than an 'outside' threat of an evil villain, and instead here the four nations would break down into war, battling each other. The irony being that the reason this happens is because Lavos is dead. The manipulator of the races is gone, and without it, they break down. I have two ideas here, either it would be an ironic story that actually the evil monster was all that was controlling them, or it would be a failsafe by Lavos that it had set up for a war in case it did die. Either way, with all four nations plunged into war, and no obvious heroes or villains, the Light Warriors would be very much caught in the middle. The other reason I want to write one is because not everything was finished. Voldos and Emilen for example have no conclusion. Emilen's character in general is incomplete, considering she still hasn't found Aldo (or Oldo as I accidentally spelt it). However, I'd run the risk of making this too samey with the Light Warriors again. This means my solution could be to set the story something like six years after the original, maybe even ten. This would alter the characters considerably. A reason the time gaps are so slim between the original three is because the characters very much hinge on their ages, especially Vivli, so they'd be very different. And the plot could still work as Lavos is a million years old, so what's ten years to him after he's dead anyway? The alternative for a fun introduction is it starts with Zinkata exclaiming "Final Fantasy? What the hell kind of title is that?" and it just carries straight on. Anyway, that's one idea for a story.

Another is the eight month period you missed between the FFXI Chronicles 2 and 3 (which is eight months, not ten, as I thought originally. I forgot what I wrote myself!). This would be fun because it means I can do lots of the Light Warriors adventures which are kind of mentioned in the third one (for example, how Vivli 'kinda' got kidnapped by an ant), and each chapter would be a new short story basically, like a TV series or something. That would be kind of fun, but with no overall plot, probably not very satisfying overall. It could work however just for entertainment value.

What I don't want to do is invent new characters. This is because I simply don't think I could create good new ones. The Light Warriors work together, somehow. I'm not sure how. They're kind of based on real people (I'm not like Vivli, honest!) which may be a reason. So the real Bootus makes insulting jokes, so I exaggerated that, Zinkata is pretty much our leader, but still jokes around, so I exaggerated that, Voldos hits on everything, but I really didn't exaggerate that, and I have a spectacular knack for needing rescuing (in FFXI!) and can be pretty childish in arguments, so that was simply exaggerated to extremes. New characters just wouldn't feel the same because they wouldn't be based on real people, and they'd lack the fun of the Light Warriors. I mean, there's a few ones I could go for, but they'd be too serious and uninteresting, and just wouldn't feel the same. This means I'm very weary about doing a new story with new characters. Illuga was supposed to be a new character, for example, a fifth Light Warrior. It just didn't work. His personality didn't make a good main character. Hell, he barely had a personality!

And then there's the other story idea, which I've had to pretty much scrap, so will outline it here. That's Olose's story.

OLOSE'S BACKSTORY

Olose's story I have in my head, but couldn't do for one reason really. It would be set 600 years in the past, in a Vana'diel that's not our Vana'diel, and so it wouldn't really be proper fan fiction. I'd need to do loads of research to so that I could find out what Vana'diel was like back there in the game, when certain places were built, and so on, and somehow still merge it with the lore of these stories. So instead, I'll say it here.

Olose's past he's always carried with him, and part of what makes him my favourite character is the fact all this happened, and he never mentions it. Which is a problem for you guys reading the story, because you never find out! Olose isn't the type of person who would ever bring up his own feelings about the past or what happened to him, and instead hides everything behind his jokey and heroic kind of acting. This meant I could never tell his story in the actual story itself. I didn't want a "Oh, something's wrong with Olose, let's ask!" "Since you asked nicely, I'll tell you." scene because he's just too enclosed for that.

For starters, Olose was never bitten by a werewolf. He lied to hide having to think about his past. He was born a werewolf, to two cursed parents. The idea was that since werewolves are not evil, but just warped by their curse, they became a society together, and lived in hiding. However, it wasn't long before the Temple Knights (or some other military group) started to hunt them down, armed with silver weapons. They wiped most of the werewolves out, until the last couple of survivors retreated and hid. They were found, but not before Olose's parents sent Olose off to safety with a foster family who didn't know his secret when he was still about four years old. The Temple Knights attacked and wiped out with their silver weapons the last of the werewolves, leaving Olose as the only survivor, and his parents, brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts, friends, teachers, everybody he ever knew, brutally slaughtered. Considering this happened when he was four, you begin to get an idea of the kind of horrible past he had.

So, young Olose was risen by his foster parents. He lives a peaceful life in a small village until one day, when he's fourteen and begins to hit puberty, transformations begin to occur. This is operating on the idea that as a pure werewolf, born as one, his transformations don't begin until puberty. He transforms one full moon into an uncontrollable monster. If the werewolf society was still around, he would have been taught to control it, but they weren't, so as a berserk rampaging monster he kills his foster-parents and foster-sister, wipes out many people in the town and disappears into the wilderness.

Where he stays for years, refusing to go back to any populated town centre in case he harms somebody again. He lives in the wilderness, killing random animals and monsters to survive, homing his combat skills, and still transforming every full moon into a monster, still without control. Years pass, and in his twenties one day he finds a girl being attacked by bandits. He saves her, and she turns out to be a daughter of an incredibly rich family travelling between cities. Except she was travelling on her own, obviously not wise. Having saved her, he instantly feels something for her and swears to protect her to the city. Once there, she asked him to be her bodyguard, and he agreed, so taken with her that he didn't think about the danger.

A little thing I was always going to put in here is that he was wearing rags and what he had made from the wilderness, and realised he had to put something else on if he was heading into town. So, he took one of the bandits clothes, which included a brown jacket which is the same one he still has six hundred years later. He really got his worth out of that!

Being a bodyguard worked, him disappearing for days when it was a full moon, and otherwise protecting her. She spread the word of him as a defender to her parents, and he quickly became a famous mercenary in the cities, taking other jobs for money. Years passed, and it became clearly apparent that he wasn't aging like everybody else. His bodyguard duties died down as the girl stopped travelling, which she only did rarely in the first place anyway. One day, a powerful crime lord kidnapped the girl while Olose was out because it was a full moon. Olose rescued her, crossing the crime lord and angering him greatly. During the battle to rescue her, the crime lord realised he was a werewolf and so afterwards put a bounty on his head with advise to hunt him with silver weapons.

Olose went into hiding, but quickly realised that they would harm the girl (who I really should think of a name for) to lure him out. He decided that he should die. It would be the only way to keep her safe. He wanted to die meaningfully, so attacked a beastman camp. He survived the battle, despite the fact his face was torn off in the battle.

He regenerated with a new face, just as he did in the FFXI Chronicles 3. This meant he had a new identity, and Olose Samspon was considered to be dead. This gave him great deals of anguish, being able to look in a mirror and see a stranger, but he knew the girl was safe now. He could never go back, that he knew, so he retreated to Norg/some similar place where he joined a cargo ship as a crew member. A pirate attack led to him working for the pirates, and eventually he became a captain after he orchestrated a mutiny. In time he became a famous pirate captain.

He became too famous, and the crime lord became aware of somebody named 'Captain Sampson' and guessed it was Olose, and that his death was a fake (as the body was never found). He moved quickly, kidnapping the girl and claiming he'd only let her go when Olose was found dead. Olose had to return to his old life (now a decade gone) and save her once again. This time he confronted the crime lord, and the crime lord revealed he was also a werewolf, the only other survivor, who had used his abilities to became ruler of the crime syndicate as nobody could stand against him. The two immortal beings clashed, and Olose and the crime lord both transformed due to their rage. Olose eventually killed the crime lord, but in his crazed state found himself face to face with the girl. He went to kill her, but his love for her meant he managed to wrestle control of his body back to save her and so he learnt to control his transformations.

He confessed his love for her, and despite the class differences between such a rich girl and a mercenary and pirate she fell in love with him, and the two married. But she grew old and died as Olose was forced to watch, his immortality meaning he lived. He became greatly depressed having seen his wife die from old age, knowing he was forced to live forever without her. He contemplated suicide, but never did it, and tried to get on with his life. After a while he decided to use his strength and power to help people, roaming the land, becoming a hero, and hiding his pain under his newly formed experienced attitude of heroism.

Six hundred and fifteen years after he was born and he ended up working as a smuggler in Norg, his vow to help everybody somewhat obscured by just trying to lead a life. There he met the Light Warriors, and the rest you know.

That's pretty much what I have as Olose's story. Although it's a bit fuzzy between how he goes from being a travelling hero to a smuggler, hundreds of years are between those two stages. Another point about him a friend raised was the question of why he's running from Bikke in the first story if he's immortal. The simple answer is I hadn't decided he was a werewolf yet, but the story answer would be he wanted to protect his crew.

That's a lot longer than I thought. Hopefully you endured it. I really should get around to naming those characters at some point. I could write it sometime, but need to do lots of research first, and even then, it barely classifies as fan fiction. But at least now you know the story!

COMEDY FIRST CHAPTER

Since I first wrote the FFXI Chronicles for a competition, I wanted to make it enjoyable, so tried making it funnier. Here's the first chapter (the only one) when it was a comedy, in which they swear, joke, and generally act even stupider:

PART ONE

The sun beamed down on the city of Bastok like it always did. It was in the desert after all. A large hill overlooked the city, a refuge for monsters and men alike. Neither wanted to be found.

The sound of gold coins in bag rustling was all that disrupted the silence of the hill. Zinkata was hurling the bag around in joy. A fairly young man, in his early twenties. His hair was moderately long, grown from years of being unable to afford to cut it. All that kept it short was his dagger. A blue t-shirt and black trousers were all that protected him, but he had learnt fast that in the career path of a thief, it wasn't armour you needed, it was speed. The ability to run the hell away was invaluable.

He opened the bag to stare in joy at the gold pieces within. He'd lifted them from a young mithran girl he had found in Bastok. The usual tourist type. New and clueless. She didn't even seem to notice he'd taken every last piece of gil she owned. Zinkata wished there were more people in the world like that.

What he certainly didn't wish for was that irritating thundering sound. The sort of sound that really put him off his trail of thought. The sort of sound that almost sounded like a creature thundering towards him in an attack. But he was far to joyous to turn his head and find out.

He found himself curiously flying through the air in huge pain. Apparently some form of sheep had just charged into him. Well, I certainly had no hint that was going to happen he thought as he crashed to the ground. Great, now I'm in pain.

Zinkata skilfully drew his dagger and swung on the offensive. He somehow missed the gigantic creature in front of him. Damn you, law of physics! Fancy not making that creature not exist to the left a bit. The creature, a gigantic sheep with unpleasantly huge horns, began to emit a strange noise. The slumber song of the sheep. He drifted off into sleep, slamming to the ground.

He remembered dreamingly being dragged along the ground. Wearingly. When he opened his eyes again fully, he was in a cave. Groggy. He could make out the sheep. It was eating something off the ground. His eyes hadn't adjusted, so he couldn't make it out. He was actually glad of this fact. The chances were it was the last thief that forgot to pay attention.

Suddenly the sheep looked up. Something was bothering it by the cave entrance. It moved cautiously forwards before a black form rocketed in and onto the sheep's back. There was a gargle and the sheep was dead. Zinkata blinked, and could make it out. A black wolf. Large, angry eyes scanned the cave, picking Zinkata out right away. The bony wolf hurled itself at Zinkata as fast as it could. The thief was defenceless, and so heroically curled into a ball, emitting a loud whimper.

Except the wolf never got to him. It sprang back comically to the ground. Something had hold of its tail. Zinkata made out by the light of the cave entrance a gigantic form. It could only be a galka. Galka were gigantic mountains of muscle, with pale blue skin and thick tails. They were actually genderless, although most referred to them as male. There was an old rule in the world of Vana'diel; 'Never piss off a galka. Ever.'

"Oi! Whore! Pick on somebody your own size!" There was no time to point out that the galka was in fact much much larger than the wolf before it hurtled itself at him. He just caught it by its neck. It thrashed its claws around wildly, ripping into the flesh upon the arm of the huge creature. It was futile. The gigantic form let out a girlish giggle at the creature's pathetic efforts. The galka hurled the wolf into the ground and delivered a firm punch to its face. Its skull was completely crushed.

"I was in complete control!" Zinkata managed to get out as he stood up.

"Looked like it too." Came a response. He could now make out the galka's features. A grizzly black beard and thick black hair on his head. He looked permanently angry.

"That's because I'm so awesomely skilful." Zinkata smirked as he crossed his arms.

"I was being sarcastic." The galka sighed.

"Yeah, I was being sarcmatastic too." There was a pause. "Have a name?" Zinkata offered.

"Bootus." The gigantic form responded. "And it's sarcasm. How can you not know what sarcasm is?"

"I'm Zinkata, thief extraordinaire!" Zinkata's brain completely failed to process that he hadn't understood something, and continued with the conversation as though it had never happened.

"Yes. I can see that. You being asleep in this cave and all." It was now Bootus's turn to smirk. He couldn't even be bothered to try and go back to the previous topic. "And give me back my wallet or you'll end up like that wolf."

"Damn!" Cried Zinkata.

"DIE YOU MIDGET BASTARDS!" Came a loud cry from outside.

"Midgets?" Zinkata responded in confusion.

"Tarutarus! They must be in trouble!" Bootus shot out of the cave. Tarutaru's were small humanoids, usually powerful magic users. Bootus's response was harder to explain.

Zinkata ran out of the cave as well to discover the cry came from a tall elf, wildly swinging a sword around. He had typical gigantic elven ears and short black hair. He saw the midget bastards as well. Not tarutaru's, but goblins. And there were a lot of them. The elven swordsman was doing his best to fight them off, but he was outnumbered. Bootus quickly assessed the situation and ran in, grabbing one of the goblin's and throwing it down the hill. The elf ran to Bootus, and the goblins followed.

"Thanks, but it'll take more than that to get us out of this!" The elf cried.

"Bah, this looks fun!" Yelled Bootus. "It's clobberin' time!"

Bootus ran in and slammed one of the goblins in the face, knocking it out. Another of the little creatures drove a small blade into the back of his leg. The galka let out a roar. The elf cut it down effortlessly.

"Name's Voldos. Pleased to meet you." The elf said casually while cutting apart another goblin.

"Can't say the same. Look what you got me into." Bootus decided to stop trying to punch the small creatures, and instead kicked one. It flew across the hill, and had their lives not been in mortal danger, they probably would have laughed. "What do you reckon that was? Ten metres?"

"Ten?" Voldos cried. "You're dreaming. More like five."

"Let's say seven." Bootus stated. "Now you try to get it further."

"Okay, but I get to use my sword as bat." He continued to follow this plan in an attack.

Zinkata had been watching, wishing he still had his dagger. Two of the goblins turned to face him, and he stumbled back. He was unarmed, and they had short swords. He kept backing away until he reached the edge of the hill. He affirmed his footing. He was preparing to attack, unarmed or not. Just before he could, he spotted a goblin soaring through the air towards him.

"Aw, crap!" He exclaimed as it hit him off the edge and he tumbled down the slope to the desert below.

His eyes blinked open some time later. His head was pounding. This hadn't been his best day ever. At least it can't get much worse he thought.

"Well, well, well." Came a voice. "Irony's a bitch, ain' it?" A head popped into view over him and he cursed. A mithra. A young mithran girl no less. She smiled as she looked down upon him.

"What iron- GAAAARGH!" He screamed as he tried to get up. His leg was twisted backwards and his ribs smashed. His head felt like it had been ripped off as well.

"What a shame you don't have any friends who know white magic, eh?" She moved out of view, and he managed to turn his head to follow her.

"Aw nuts. I see where this is going." Zinkata spluttered.

"Of course, I do. I could heal you right up with magic instantly." She stopped moving. "But why would I?"

"Because you're a really nice person?" Zinkata asked. It was worth a shot.

"Give me my money you ass!" She cried. She didn't sound particularly vicious. More like somebody trying to be vicious.

"Love to. But I lost it." Zinkata groaned.

"Lost it?" She cried. "Aw no." She sat down. "It's not fair! That's all I had!"

"Well, it ain't yours anymore." She had her head in her hands.

"Crap! Double crap!" She kicked the ground, before promptly hopping around clutching her foot. She fell over. "Note to self: Ground hard." Zinkata giggled. "Yeah, keep that up and you'll never get healed."

"Yeah, about that. In pain. Help." Zinkata managed to splutter.

"Dammit! Fine!" Zinkata felt himself be engulfed in a white light and become fully healed.

"Made a friend?" Asked Bootus as he walked over. He looked fairly cut up. His arm was still heavily bleeding, so was his leg. He had a new stab wound on his chest. Voldos limped behind, equally wounded. "Oh no, just a white mage. Dump her and let's move."

"Shut up." Zinkata sighed.

"You two look like you need healing." The mithra pointed out.

"We sure as hell ain't here for the company." Bootus announced.

"Can you pretend he's not saying anything?" Voldos asked. "Because I'd really like a cure spell cast on me, and he's not doing a very good job at getting around to it." With a wave of the mithra's hand, the two warriors were soon back to normal.

"Thanks." Voldos said. Bootus was silent.

"Say, don't suppose you could donate any money for my services?" The mage asked.

"No." Came the single word response from the galka.

"But-" The mithra tried to form words, "This bastard means I'm broke. He stole all my money."

"Well done." Bootus said to Zinkata. The mithra marched up to Bootus. She went to slap him, before pausing in contemplation. She was too short. She tried jumping, but couldn't quite reach.

"Follow me." She commanded. Bootus obeyed with a shrug. She led him to a rock, climbed up it and slapped him. "That's better." Bootus slapped her back and she fell off her ledge.

"OW!" She yelped from the floor. "This isn't fair!"

"What's not fair?" Asked Zinkata with a sigh.

"I'm broke, I'm beaten and I'm surrounded by morons." She replied. "What do I do now?"

"Well, I hear the city guard have a mission lined up for a squad of four adventurers." Voldos pointed out.

"Who cares?" The mage said with a shrug.

"They pay money." Voldos replied. The mage's eyes lit up.

"Money! I need money!" She turned to the others, excited. "I need to pay for an adventurer's licence. Then I get my own house here and everything. But without the money I had because somebody stole I can't afford it."

"Then let's go." Zinkata said.

"Why would I go if this was just to help her?" Bootus asked.

"Money. Killing turtles. Might even run into a tarutaru or two." Zinkata replied.

"I'm in!" Snapped Bootus.

"Well then, let's go." The mage said, and began to walk off. Bootus quickly grabbed her by the tail. "OW! PAIN!" She exclaimed.

"Firstly, what's your name? I don't like partying with unnamed characters." Bootus told her.

"Vivli." Came the blunt response.

"I'll tell you what I tell every adventurer." The guard said, staring at the unusual band in front of him. "It's common knowledge the mines to the north have been overrun with quadav. But, as an army, we aren't allowed to act until the government sees proof. And we can't get proof until we're allowed to act." The guard sighed at the stupidity. "So we need adventurers to go in and bring back proof of the quadav presence there." He stopped again. "We've sent many. None have returned. That is why we're looking for groups of four or above. We need to make sure that the adventurers we send will be safe." He overlooked us. "Hell, I doubt you'll come back. If you do, bring proof of the quadav, armour or something. If you manage, there's a big reward. 2000 gil for each piece." The unlikely group's jaws dropped.

"Let's go!" Cried Zinkata.

The thief led the way, happily jogging out of the city gates. Voldos followed, hand on his sword hilt already. Bootus followed, still seeming irritated at being forced into this group. Vivli took a nervous gulp, and then walked after them.

"There's something I still don't get." Bootus said as they journeyed across the desert. "Why were all those goblins attacked you, Voldos?"

"Not a clue." Came Voldos's response. "They said something about searching for somebody. That she had just arrived in Bastok. I thought I'd better stop them. A group of goblins entering the city would have caused chaos."

"Wonder who they were looking for." Zinkata mumbled to himself.

"Well, don't ask me." Vivli said quickly. "I don't know." They gave her suspicious glances.

THE END

Urm, that's pretty much all I can think of for extra stuff. If I think of anything else, I'll update this to include it. I hope you found something interesting, and apologise for the extremely egotistical 'here's stuff about how I wrote things' because I'm sure you don't actually care, I'm not a big shot author or director or anything, but I had fun writing this. Hopefully you enjoyed Olose's back story, which is pretty much the most interesting bit. Thank you everybody for reading everything. I really appreciate it. Thank you for the kind reviews. You guys rock. Without you, I doubt I'd of ever finished the first story! And thanks for all the good luck wishes everyone, I'm gonna need it!

And just so you know, my exams finish on the 29th June. After that, I'm free to write again! Thanks for reading!