Really lovely story you have written here. Wonderfully absorbing tale of these two young adults coming to terms with themselves and the world that they are made to occupy, whether they feel they belong is another question. But their bond while being realistic is also at the same time simply adorable.

I really do think that you are a respectable writer, you do spin a tale as good as any published author, and I do believe that this was a good read, whether you choose to continue with this story or not. I would definitely love it if you do though. ; )

Saul and Vaan just steal the show, and their chemistry is just perfect. And now every time I walk pass sprinklers I think of this scene and that just makes my day. I hope you continue with this story.

Whoa, I thought I totally wrote a review for this.

This story.

It is the best I have read in quite a while. And I know how people pick things up and put them down and forget about them but I hope this review shows up in your inbox and you get it and remember.

Because I want to read more. Vaan and Saul and everything that's gone on in your head about them. I used to have a habit of picking up stories people had left behind and writing my own new chapters for them, but I can't with this; it's too perfect. I want to know what happens with them, on their own, in your mind.

Picked up this story a few months ago. Didn't realize until today just how long ago the last chapter came out, and as a reader, as a fan, I'm on my knees begging for a new one.

Thank you for writing.

-Arty Sayres.

[P.S.: Would it be odd to ask for you to shoot me an email about it at ? I dunno, I just like meeting authors I admire.]

love this story

are you going to write more? because i'm totally in love with them

Wow... Even though you haven't updated this in, like, a year I'm still gonna say that I would love to see more of this. Your characters are both totally epic and you've conveyed an amazing sense of quirky realism that just toally rocks. Great story.

gah! CANNOT WAIT FOR YUR UPDATE.

Saul and Vaan have such vibrant personalities.

XD I love how Vaan is the walking contradiction.

*squints* is that an eddie izzard reference i see there? i thought you were awesome before and then you just had to go throw that in and now you are super awesome.

anyway, back to reading everything you have posted on here (you may have noticed me flooding your inbox with favs and alerts and such). you have an amazing talent and i look forward to everything that you post.

OMG there's so much CHEMISTRY between them it's ridiculous and I can't believe they're so BLIND to it all, especially Saul, he /totally/ has the hotts for Vaan

I really can't wait for the next chapter, whenever it's updated...all of your work is amazing you are seriously my favorite author!

~.

Okay, awesome story!

I just started reading this and it's great! I love Vaan's personality, he's great and I love his bluntness xD

When I first read "POV switch" I was like o.O cuz I haven't read many good stories with POV switch's so I was a bit reluctant to read but you do it wonderfully and I love peeking into both Saul AND Vaan's heads!

Well I'm gonna go on and read the last updated chapter, hope you continue this after the L&S series is over and not abandon it!

.~

I love Nosferatu. And by this I mean the psychologist…I forget his real name and so he is now, officially, Nosferatu. As much as I love the adorableness that makes up Vaan’s interactions with Saul, it is so funny to see him with other people. It’s always entertaining to realize that most people don’t see Vaan as the funny, quirky guy that Saul does, most people see scary, angsty, punk dude.

“I do not cross dress,” I said. “I do not wear women’s clothing. I sometimes wear make-up. That’s a whole different thing.”

“Would you like to talk about that?”

“No, I would not like to talk about that.”

Lol. As in laugh out loud. I love that he’s the guy who hangs out with Goths but is freaked out by freaky old vampire men. Real vampires don’t glitter. But seriously, that whole scene was hilarious.

So it sounds like Vaan’s really loaded, like really loaded. That’s kind of interesting. He seems so down-to-earth with it as well which is kind of nice. Very Vaan too, like he doesn’t have airs or anything, but he also doesn’t sound too self-conscious about it either or like he resents it aside from the whole being shunned for being himself thing. I like that, like he doesn’t seem like he’s rebelling against it, he’s just being himself and can’t see why they have a problem with that. If that makes any sense. Having said all that, I would love to meet Vaan’s mother, seriously. She sounds hilarious. Like glamourous and proper I suppose, seeing as they’re obviously some kind of upper class, but seriously neurotic. God. “I was cutting vegetables! The knife fucking slipped!” I would have loved to have seen that scene. Somehow, from the few times she’s been mentioned, I get the impression that Vaan’s mother is really quite as bizarre as her son…but like, in the opposite direction or something.

I like Todd a lot too. Actually come to think of it, there really are no characters in this story that I dislike at all. They’re all really nice. Wow. Weird. But also refreshing. Usually there’s a least someone who gets on your nerves at least a little bit. Todd is cool, and he’ll probably come in handy a little later on what with the whole being gay thing and all…then again, there’s Sloane for that too…and is it totally weird that I’m writing these reviews when I know what’s happening in the future? Psychic!reviewer. But, I don’t know…maybe it’s got it’s advantages, to a certain degree at least.

Heh, and the laundry scene, or Vaan’s half of it at least. I like it. Again it really demonstrates how good you are at portraying realistic interaction. Like it was light hearted and funny, but managed to drop into more serious territory while still keeping that overall light tone, and without it seeming like you were pushing an agenda. Obviously when you write a conversation there are certain points that you want to be addressed, things you want to be said, but it’s often difficult to have it all come out naturally, especially seeing as most of the conversation here was of a highly personal nature, as well as being between two people who are essentially strangers. But it all just flowed nicely. Oh, and I like your use of italics…gives a nice shape to the dialogue. Inflection!

Favourite line: Argh, so many good ones. So, so many. I think the winner is probably: “You’re all carbon-copies of each other, and none of you were born blonde. I was, and I got the fuck rid of it.” Hah, I hate it when I realise that half the people I think are blonde really aren’t. Ugh, it’s lies! All lies! But, “Uh…you can stop waiting now,” he said. I blinked,” comes in at a very close second.

Also, it was so much fun re-reading this and looking for the little revisions, like looking for Easter eggs.

Meh, I need to assignment now, but I’ll review the other chapters later.

Chapter 2! So to begin with. Aw. I love Saul. He is The Cute. Seriously. Vaan is The Funny, Saul is The Cute. I know that kind of comes across as condescending, but I don’t mean little starry-eyed pink plush bunny cute. More…I don’t know…

He has this resigned air about him in the introductory paragraphs, and you just want to wrap him up in your arms and protect him except you know that you can’t. He doesn’t want to be coddled, even though he kind of needs it a little, he doesn’t need to be smothered. Vaan’s whole approach and reaction to Saul is so…real and in keeping with his character. He’s awkward about it, not really accustomed to it and really, he’s getting as much from the relationship as Saul is and I like seeing that. This is mostly coming from what’s in chapter 6 now that I think about it, but it begins here with Vaan’s bluntness. Another note, Vaan is blunt. Did you know that? Because I didn’t, I really didn’t until, “But it’s not like I can pretend you’re not, right? And I want to know.” Blunt. I was a little shocked. But I like it, it’s a different sort of dynamic, and like he’s said himself, he’s not actually a bad guy, just honest.

Also, Vaan’s hair. I don’t know if I addressed that last chapter but…lol. I love it, I love that it could be ironic, but that with Vaan being Vaan, it isn’t. It’s just purple hair. It could define him, it could come across as try-hard fail. It doesn’t. This makes you awesome. I can totally imagine him with blonde stubble and purple hair, lol. This here, is just a tiny detail that makes me indescribably happy.

And of course, to end. My favourite subject. South African accents. They are sexy. Fact. I think some poll showed that foreigners liked New Zealand accents the best, which is…hilarious because I am Australian and it is therefore mandated as a part of my citizenship that I hold this opinion. But yeah…I think my point was South African accents. They’re sexy.

Favourite line: “Good luck, soldier!” I don’t know. It was cute, it made me smile.

You know what. It just occurred to me. There are very few stories with individuals as individual as these two are. What impresses me the most though is that they really do come across as real. Normal in the sense of not being made up. Because no one’s really normal. Hm. Okay that made less sense than it should have. I think you get told this a lot, but your dialogue is incredibly naturalistic and I think this is where a lot of your realism and the reader’s acceptance of these characters comes from.

Also from the first time I read this chapter I’ve been imagining the meet-the-parents scene. Like whether or not the whole gay thing goes down well it’s still like, “I know you think I’m emotionally scarred and physically vulnerable but meet my pierced, tattooed, older boyfriend!” Finished now.

So, hi. Basically I’ve been following this story for a while. Like ages actually, and while I’m pretty certain I’ve left reviews before, they were probably along the lines of, “awesome, update soon!” and you know, pretty unsatisfactory in general, so I thought I’d have a shot a writing a somewhat better review, I mean, it’s still probably going to revolve around your general awesomeness, but at least I’ll try to be substantial about it because hey, you deserve it!

So, first line, you know this was something that confused me for ages, until I realised that you’re probably American and therefore, pronounce “Vaughn” differently. I’m Australian so “Vaughn” here rhymes with…ugh, okay difficult to explain ‘cause you’d probably pronounce that differently too, but basically “Vaan” has a different sound to “Vaughn” in Australian English, just instinctively, but with an American accent they sound the same, actually that might explain why that final fantasy character is called “Vaan”. Damn. Which is then confusing when you're reading it in Saul's accent, because I think he'd say "Vaughn" the way I do...but I don't know how he'd say "Vaan"...

Anyway, moving on. You know what really makes this story stand out is that it’s actually funny. Like really. So many people try it, humour that is. No dice. There are a million and five over-the-top-type-guys that run around on sugar highs and people seem to think that that’s hilarious and I just don’t get it. There is nothing more entertaining than intelligent humour. Vaan, just the way he thinks about things, his internal social commentary is just really witty. Everything from Ms. Eyebrowless to Maurice-the-salad-guy. It’s almost like a stand-up routine, but more natural I guess because he’s just doing it for himself. It adds to his character rather than reducing him to some one dimensional anime spin-off. (I actually like anime, but I hate the humour. It’s just so cheesy and repetitive, you’re sitting there like, “Make a joke damn you!” and all they do is make stupid faces and fall over, which, yeah, funny…but no).

On the topic of Vaan’s “repressed anger” I don’t know. He actually does seem to have repressed anger in this chapter that kind of melts away a bit in later chapters (because he met Saul?). Or just doesn’t come on as strong. I don’t know. Maybe it’s just because so much of this chapter is monologue, observation, nothing’s really going on. I guess when things are actually happening there’s less opportunity for sarcastic observation and more for light hearted banter, which is why this chapter seems a little more like he’s in denial of having repressed anger as opposed to later where he comes across as more carefree. Long sentence. He’s also probably in a bad mood because of Eyebrowless and the up coming counselling session anyway in this chapter, so I guess he would sound more angry.

Actually screw, that, I think he is repressed, a bit. It comes across in chapter five or whatever when he’s thinking about how nice it would be to have a really close friend. He may not think so, but going 20 years without someone to really vent to, especially when you’re as smart and opinionated as Vaan seems to be, definitely means that all that bottling up is going to start putting pressure on the system.

Oh, long review. (At least it looks long here). So to finish, favourite line: “yo, Maurice, where’s the mixed salad greens at?” because I’m reminded of it every time I get lost in the fresh produce aisle (this actually happens with disturbing frequency, it’s not my fault, all green vegetables look the bloody same to me!). Photo finish though, there were a lot of good ones. Oh and I totally watched Gattaca because you mentioned it as inspiration, and I actually really liked it, so thanks for that inadvertent rec.

Well I liked the story and I can emphasise with Vaan. I'm just seem to be goofing around the hole time and than poof I'm somehow serious.

The story reminds me of th time when I hadn't started university and I was anxious to know how different it would. I'm still amazed that I really that FF could give me the answer. Well maybe I wasn't in university before but when I read your story I just thought yeah it's like that.

I don't like psychologist, I'm just glad I did not have to deal with it for a long time.

I'm glad that there is one progress it would be interesting to know how Vaan felt about all this.

Well thanks for the story and see you next time.

I only know 2 ff which aren't based on manga and have one protagonist paralysed.

One story is in German I don't know how good you are, however since you watch 'Verbotene Liebe' I thought maybe I should try. I know that watching doesn't necessarily means understanding. Well we will see.

/s/2312083/1/Technicoloured_Something

animexx./fanfiction/autor/11725/83524/

If you want to read them have fun maybe you already know them. Well I liked them a lot.