I'm not happy with the writing in the recent FF games, so I've begun writing my own little story. Here is what I've come up with so far. Felt like I've made enough to share it and get some opinions/feedback.



Final Fantasy: A Fairy Tale

Themes
1. Sin: Each character is committing a deadly sin holding him or her back from happiness. Some of the characters overcome their sin, while some do not and it costs them their lives.
2. Family: The characters all have problems with a family member. The main four eventually come together as a family.

The World
� The four crystals exist. They are feared by the creatures of the world and civilizations are built as far away from the crystals as possible. The crystals shed leaving fragments. These fragments have powerful magic, but it is very difficult to control. Living too close to the crystals locations or trying to use the crystals makes them angry, and they will destroy that which troubles them. Despite this, people continue to mess with them.
� The most unique feature is the ice that surrounds the world. No one has ever gone beyond it and returned. Most who venture out die. Some have returned and tell of incredible strong creatures. They also talk of confusing events that happen.
� There is a forest that connects directly to the ice. It�s one of the only two places that does this, every other area has part of the ocean separating the land from the ice. It is called Frear Forest.
� There is a desert. It was once a mountainous area where the dwarves lived. After tampering with the crystal of Fire the land was leveled and the dwarves are now extinct.

The Elves
Name: Sair
Age: 300?
Height: 6ft
Hair: Purple
Eyes: Purple
Clothing: Purple
Class: Monk
Weapon of Choice: Poison Claws
Deadly Sin: Pride
Sair once ran a monk temple when she was younger. She expanded the order and turned it into a school. Her mission was to teach the path to happiness and how to live life the correct way. Her ambitions grew and she now aims to take control of the world and forcing everyone and everything to live by her rules. She argues that under her rule the world will be a paradise.
She has an enormous ego. Sair considers herself to be a goddess somehow brought down to the mortal world. She is a strictly physical fighter having studied martial arts for centuries. Cool, calm and collected from constant meditation, she punishes those who give her even the slightest amount of disrespect.
She runs under certain philosophies. �No excuses.� �Everyone has their place.�

Name: Flare
Age: 284?
Height: 6ft
Hair: Purple
Eyes: Purple
Clothing: Red
Class: Black Mage
Weapon of Choice: Sai
Deadly Sin: Wrath
Flare looks like an identical twin to Sair. Despite this they could not be more different. Flare is opposing his fellow elf by building a resistance towards her empire. Publicly he claims that the world is better in a free state. His true motivations are strictly personal. He is known as the Fire Elf as he wears red and mostly uses fire magic.
Flare�s sin is his wrath. All of his time, effort and energy for last sixteen years have been put into the single goal of destroying Sair. He doesn�t care how many other have to suffer. Killing her would be too simple and easy. He must take down her empire, humiliate her as much as possible, and prove without a doubt that he is better than her. Flare is loud, laidback, and a thrill seeker. While he does have some monk training like Sair, his main focus of attack is his powerful black magic.
They both share one philosophy on life. Everything eventually dies and is forgotten, therefore nothing has any meaning in the grand scheme of life. They are the only two exceptions because they do not age and can potentially live forever.

The Four Protagonists
The focus of the story is on Flare�s four agents. Each one is suffering in life due to a major sin.

Name: Niki
Age: Unknown
Height: 5�6
Race: TBD
Hair: Pink
Eyes: Red
Clothing:
Class: None
Weapon of Choice: N/A
Deadly Sin: Lust
Niki is the leader of the four. Instead of having a tradition class she can use dragon powers she got from eating parts of a dead dragon when she was younger. It comes through by morphing her body giving her the use of wings, claws, scales, etc.
Niki is the only character from another world. She met Flare in Hell and the two escaped. They are very close, and Niki is the only person allowed in Frear forest. Being part dragon she has hoarding tendencies and eats valuable treasure. She is aware of Flare�s horrible treatment of others but tries to ignore it.



Name: Tap
Age: 270?
Height: 3ft (varies)
Race: Goblin
Hair: None
Eyes: Green
Clothing: None
Class: Time Mage
Weapon of Choice: N/A
Deadly Sin: Sloth
Tap was a Goblin until he obtained Time Magic from the water crystal while investigating it with the elves long ago. It turned him into a shadowy shape shifting creature. He typically stays in a form similar to a goblin. He knew the elves a few centuries ago when they were much young though he almost never talks about the past.
Tap is lazy. He spends most of his time relaxing in the shadows and only comes out when something interesting is happening. He often works with Niki and the two call themselves the Nightmare duo.

Name: Bat
Age: 20
Height: 5�2
Race: Human
Hair: None
Eyes:
Clothing: Blue
Class: Blue Mage
Weapon of Choice: Sword and Shield
Deadly Sin: Jealousy
Bat was taken from her home when she was very young by Flare to be made into his personal soldier. She was picked specifically for having extremely low potential. Information on Blue Magic is scarce, so Flare has put her through years of exposure to monster attacks. Her body is extremely damaged. She keeps herself covered as much as possible, usually only her eyes are visible.
She�s become a celebrity. Her story of beating destiny is very popular and stirs rebellious thoughts in Sair�s empire. This was Flare�s intent with her.
Flare treats her horribly and often inflicts physical abuse on her. She stays in his service because she is afraid of being alone.


Name: Ash
Age: 17
Height: 5�8
Race:
Hair:
Eyes:
Clothing: Dark Armor
Class: Dark Knight
Weapon of Choice: 2-handed Dark Sword
Deadly Sin: Gluttony
The newest member of the agents hired near the beginning of the story. Ash spent most of her life living in Sair�s empire. A few of those years were spent in rebellion giving her firsthand knowledge and experience on how the guardians operate. After leaving she spent some time as a gladiator before being recruited into Flare�s agents. She�s excited to be one of his elite soldiers.
Ash drinks constantly. She has three conditions; drunk, buzzed or hung-over. Naturally she has trouble accurately hitting her opponents. She claims she drinks because using dark armor and weapons is physically painful to use.
Ash�s main role is going through the hero�s journey.
Flare shows interest in her because she has no fear. Ash was killed a few years prior but was revived by the legendary phoenix. She gave herself her new name and feels that she was reborn into a new person.
When drunk she gets confused about what she should be doing. Often times she thinks they need to do a strange, unnecessary task to complete their goal. (In the spirit of an RPG game)

Sair�s Special Forces
Sair�s plan to deal with Flare involves the ancient machines once used by the now extinct dwarves. She�s put together a team dedicated to studying the machines in hopes of using them.
Death Claw Brothers
Three talented Death Claws. The Death Claw race has a history or being very violent and being feared assassins. The race has been dwindling and they are put through heavy subjugation. Sair changed this when she began to take over the world. The Death Claws love her for giving them equality.


Name: The oldest brother
Age: 25
Height: 6�5
Race: Death Claw
Hair: ?
Eyes: Yellow
Clothing: Yellow
Class: Chemist
Weapon: Potions and items
Deadly Sin: Greed
The oldest brother (by a minute.) Studies alchemy and crystal magic. Views his brothers as idiots.
Secretly a hopeless romantic.
Reads the books that Niki and Tap writes, but has no idea they are the authors.


Name: The second brother
Age: 25
Height: 5�8
Race: Death Claw
Hair: ?
Eyes: Yellow
Clothing: Dark
Class: Ninja
Weapon: shrunken
Deadly Sin: Mixture of wrath and pride
The middle brother. Arrogant and Cocky. Enjoys insulting Cid in ways that the boy can�t understand.
Develops a rivalry with Ash. Often toys with her in fights and tries to convince her to accept Sair�s new order. Plays the role of temptation in Ash�s journey.
Middle child Syndrome. Parents wanted the three to have strong minds, because the Death Claw race is looked down upon. Didn�t fit into this like his brothers. Trained his mind in a different way, the way of battle. Still never got any respect from his family so he resents them.


Name: Cid
Age: 15
Height: 5�2
Race: Death Claw
Hair: ?
Eyes: Yellow
Clothing:
Class: None
Weapon: None
Deadly Sin: (Later on) Wrath
The youngest brother. Has a mental problem that is never specified. Low Intelligence but able to put together and activate ancient dwarven machinery.
Blissfully happy and unaware of what�s around him.
Later Flare uses crystal magic to fix his intelligence, but gives him partial insanity.
The change in his intelligence is gradual. Still follows orders but starts to ask odd and insightful questions over time.
Talks less and less. Only when it�s truly necessary. Short and powerful statements.
He never smiles again after the intelligence increase.
Flare shows him that Sair is planning to kill him once the war is over. Cid activates numerous machines and kills her, along with his brothers.

The Phantom
The last member of Sair�s team. Wear�s a hood and carries a scythe. No one knows what he looks like or who he is exactly. Has been serving Sair almost ten years.
Most of his encounters are with Ash. He appears to her when she is alone. He offers her advice.


Other Characters

The Tonberry
An old tonberry who lives in the mountains. He has the largest treasure hoard in the known world. Niki regularly tries to steal from him. She is never able to get any of the treasure before he chases her away.

Bassam
A man who claims he is Bat�s brother. Studies Necromancy and Summon Creatures. Wants to take down Sair�s empire and put the world in a wild state where the strongest survive and rule. Has been trying to get Bat to join him for many years. He�s very happy that Bat is a survivor like him.
Bassam is very different from Bat. He wears revealing clothing and is very loud and sociable. He loves jokes and makes lecherous comments towards nearly everyone he talks to.


Subversions

1. The crystals will be taking on an antagonistic role. The crystals are dangerous objects. No one knows where they came from or why they exist. The crystals are capable of incredible power. In the past civilizations have tried to use them for power, but the crystals don�t like being used. They have some form of sentience. All attempts the control their power have resulted in death. Because of this civilization is built as far away from the crystals as possible.
2. Bat has been designed so she can�t be sexualized. It�s all too common for females, and the badass character, to be made very attractive.
3. The common make up of a four team ensemble is three males and one female. Flare�s Agents are the opposite, three females and one male.
4. A lot of games begin with the hero oversleeping and being woken up by his mother. The first thing that happens in the story is that the villain, Flare, is woken up by Bat who is being pursued by assassins. Flare promptly beats and berates Bat for interrupting his nap.
5. There is no single main character, similar to FF6.
6. Legends and myths almost always turn out to be 100% true. In this story The Agents will come across many that are not, or have various details that are different.
7. There are no prophecies. Sair makes one up claiming that she is destined to be the true ruler of the world.
8. Sair is trying to take over the world, but Flare has no interest in doing so and berates her for attempting it.
9. The heroes will not be using the crystals to take down the villain. The crystals themselves will end up trying to kill the heroes in the end.
10. Bassam tries to get an old airship up and running. They have no idea how to control it and end up crashing it.
11. Dragons are not chumps in this story. They are rare and extremely powerful creatures.
12. Flare and Niki will both attempt to use swords at certain points. They will both fail miserably due to having no training.
13. Flare takes on a demon form at the end of the story rather than an angelic form.
14. Flare and Niki go through a falling out. Rather than develop a relationship, they start with a strong one that gradually falls apart.
15. Flare is the main antagonist but has a good relationship with the protagonists and does not want to fight or hurt them.


Lampshading

1. Flare mentions to Sair that the main reason he�s winning the war is because he has good publicity. People will flock to the cooler and more attractive person.
2. When Tap finds a treasure chest he jokes that it contains proof that Niki, Bat and Ash are all long lost princesses.
3. Flare learned to wield sai because so many people use swords.
4. Sair and Flare�s birth names are Destiny and Fate. They gave each other nicknames because they thought their names were really stupid.
5. On one episode Tap and Bat are trying to guess what�s inside a cave. Tap suggests a giant spider, a cloaked spirit, and an imp that talks in the third person. Three commonly used elements from Lord of the Rings.
6. The two older Death Claw brothers have a joke where they ask people which one of them will kill the other, as brothers tend to do this in many stories. Double�s as foreshadowing as Cid will kill both of them.
7. Ash mentions that the managers at the coliseum were always trying to make her wear what she calls �hooker armor.�
8. One time Ash drunkenly wonders what Bat looks like under her mask. Ash suggest that maybe Bat has that thing where she isn�t deformed, but just thinks she�s deformed and she�s actually beautiful
9. At one point the agents need to gather a large group of people into one place. Ash drunkenly suggests they have a concert, a la FFX-2


Major Story Points


The Beginning
� A war is going on between two elves. Sair has been building up an empire in order to put the world under her control. Flare is trying to stop her. The two had a fight to the death about 20 years ago. Flare was beaten and sent to Hell. Somehow he came back. Sair has a team working on reactivating machines from the extinct dwarf race hoping to use the old weapons against him.

� Flare has a group of four agents who run special missions for him. The missions typically are either fighting back Sair�s army or looking for powerful, hidden items. Flare has a big interest in the four crystals. The crystals are capable of great power but no one knows how to use them without getting killed. It is believed that the crystals were used in the past and certain magical items were crafted from their power.


� The world is surrounded by a strange land of ice. No one has ever explored or gone past this ice because of the powerful creatures that dwell there. Flare wants to go beyond it, but is afraid that he is not strong enough to face the creatures. After dealing with Sair he plans to leave the world and explore the ice land.


Flare and Sair�s Past

Sair was found as a baby near the icy wastelands by a hermit named Frear who lived in the area. He brought the baby to the leader of the fair folk, who proclaimed that they had been blessed with a legendary creature, an elf. Sair was given the name Destiny and raised to be their champion. The fair folk and dwarves were in war with each other and Sair would be their ultimate weapon.
As Sair got older she rejected being a weapon and left. She took shelter in an old monk temple and began studying the path to enlightenment. The fair folk leader later tried to use the water crystal to clone her, which resulted in Flare. The dwarves and fair folk continue to mess with the crystals and are wiped out by them.
The two elves lived and worked together in the temple. They would often help anyone who sought their aid. Flare did not adhere to the temple�s rules, but was allowed to stay. He spent his time studying black magic rather than martial arts. The two often butted heads with a dragoon in red armor who used a flame lance. The dragoon was a Robin Hood figure, stealing from rich and giving to poor. Flare was jealous because Sair highly respected the dragoon and even considered him her one and only equal. Flare later began copying the dragoon by wearing red robes and using lots of fire magic.
Originally the two elves were only about three feet tall. They were approached by Tap, a goblin, who suggested they try using a crystal to increase their height. They mess around with the water crystal, which doubles the elves height and turns Tap into a shape shifting time mage.
Eventually Sair took over as leader of the temple. After the dragoon died of old age she became more reserved and began changing the temple�s ancient rules. Flare is annoyed by this but leaves her alone. One day Flare finds out that Sair has a secret possession. An old fairy tale book, and she had drawn pictures in it pretending that she was friends with the characters. Flare throws a fit over this and can�t understand why she always pushes him away. They have a confrontation which ends in Flare leaving. Over the next few centuries Sair expanded the order. She opened schools teaching the monk lifestyle. Then she decided that everyone should be forced to go to the schools.
Sair begins her crusade for world conquest. Flare openingly insults her for it and continuously attacks her armies. He later lures her into Frear Forest where they can have a final showdown. Sair finds herself on the losing end, and tricks Flare by pleading for forgiveness, but then drives her claw through his eye. She gives him a public execution by using crystal magic to open a portal to hell and dropping him in it. Flare swears that he�ll get vengeance on her.
Niki lived in another world. She by chance found a dead dragon in the mountains. She had heard stories telling of people who had eaten parts of a dragon and gained powers. She eats some of it and does in fact gain powers. Unfortunately her family and society are appalled by this. They drive her away. Niki spends years living by herself. She grows to hate people and has no problem killing them in order to get their valuables. Later a religious order hunts her down, and banishes her down a similar hellhole.
Niki and Flare meet in Hell as they were both thrown down there at the same time. They are not able to communicate due to language barrier, but find nonverbal ways. They crawl around Hell together encountering demons. They search together for crystal shards. They finally find some. Niki is taken down by demons, but Flare goes back to get her. In the process he gets bitten multiple times. Once he rescues her Flare opens a portal and they escape back to Flare�s world.


Flare�s Grand Plan

Throughout the story Flare is setting up a large gambit. He has been secretly working for Sair as The Phantom. He encourages her to hire the three death claw brothers and his intent is to manipulate Cid into killing Sair. A string of humiliations. First the reveal that he has been under her nose for so long, and that this child she believes is worthless will take her down.
The reveal that Flare is Phantom won�t happen till the end of the story. It will be strongly hinted that one of Flare�s agents is actually Phantom. As the story progresses the possibilities are narrowed down one by one. In the beginning Flare has an encounter with Sair�s team, making the viewers not suspect that Flare is The Phantom. They will suspect that it is either Niki, Bat, or Tap. One by one these possibilities will be eliminated.


Bat Gets Recruited

When Bat was younger she lived alone in a small village selling herbs. Flare burned it down and took her away with him. Flare gathered a group of kids handpicked because they had very low potential. He used the wind crystal to give them the ability to use blue magic and threw them into a cave of vampire bats. Bat herself had the most trouble learning the vampire spell so she was chosen to be his new soldier. Flare advertises her as proof that Sair�s system is wrong.


Cid

In the middle of the story Cid is secretly abducted by Flare. Flare uses crystal shards to fix Cid�s broken mind. Throughout the second half of the story we witness Cid gradually change. He becomes more reserved and quiet, and occasionally exhibits odd behavior. He also becomes more focused on fixing old dwarven machinery. He also starts to wear belts all over his body, which his brothers find very odd. This is a stab at Nomura�s character design, and also symbolic of how Cid is trying to keep himself from falling apart.
Flare reveals to Cid that he is The Phantom. He shows Cid proof that Sair is planning to have him killed once she has finished her world conquest, and that his brothers will allow it to happen. At the climax Cid activates an army of robots and attacks Sair and his brothers.


The Final

� Cid kills his brothers and leaves Sair nearly dead. She pleads with Flare to let her live. She admits that she always felt threatened by him because he was stronger than she was. She cries and apologizes for every horrible thing she ever did to him. Flare watches her sadly, but then calls her a liar and allows Cid to land the final blow.

� Flare leaves for the ice lands. Bat follows wanting to try and kill him. Niki goes with Bat, trying to stop her. Bat has a breakdown and tells Niki how important she is to her. Niki has always treated her well, and the only reason she�s survived for this long is because Niki was there helping her. Niki also breaks down and tells Bat that she feels horrible for letting Flare be so horrible to her and everyone else for so long. Niki�s shadow begins to move. They wonder if it is Tap, but it turns out to be the conscience of the dragon that Niki ate. It tries to take over Niki�s body but Bat helps her fight it off. Bat tells Niki she�s not upset at her for supporting Flare all these years because they would not have been able to do anything to stop him.

� Ash witnessed Cid�s rampage. She tried to help stop him but couldn�t focus properly due to her drinking. After Flare leaves she has a small breakdown over not being able to save the middle brother who she had grown close to. She attacks Cid. Cid�s machines are too much for her, but Tap comes and helps. He fights the machines back and takes Cid down. Ash stops Tap from killing Cid. She talks about how she�s seen far too much death in her life. Cid retorts that he agrees with the elves about everything being pointless. Ash refuses to believe that philosophy. Cid leaves. Bonding for Tap and Ash. Ash tells Tap that he is her guardian angel.

� Flare will encounter very odd things in the ice. Niki and Bat catch up with him and also experience it. The whole thing is similar to games going through strange glitches.

� The four meet up. Flare has been hurt badly and has retreated to his forest. They discuss what to do. Niki and Ash argue that letting Flare go out is too risky because he may cause something to happen to the world. This is also their only chance to attack him as he is badly hurt and can�t use his magic.

� Flare berates them for trying to kill him, as he�s already won. They will gain nothing, it�s pointless. He is annoyed because he does not want to have to fight them. Flare has many of his demon features showing as he can�t keep them down. They attack Flare. He has trouble and calls dinosaurs to help. They aren�t enough. The crystals appear. Flare is possessed by them. He splits into four beings. One is his regular self, one is The Phantom, one is his younger self, and one is his demon self. The crystals talk through him and say they have further need of the elf. The agents are not strong enough to fight the four Flares. Once the Agents are down, the Flares start to argue. Two of them want to kill, but two of them don�t. It causes a mental breakdown. The crystals lose their control and Flare reverts back to his regular self.


Ending

Flare is leaving. The agents are too hurt to fight anymore. Niki tells him to wait. She walks over to him. Once she gets to him, she dumps an elixir on him. Flare slowly starts to die. He laughs quietly and holds her hand as he melts away. Niki is torn up and wonders if she did the right thing. Ash tells her she followed her heart, and whether right or wrong it was the best thing to do.
They have a funeral in the safe town. Everyone gives a eulogy. Bat talks about how if it had not been for Flare she would not have met the three of them, so at least he gave her that. Cid is also present and talks about how the five of them are Flare�s spawn. Ash gives a more positive version of Cid�s speech, saying that they are a family now.



Ash�s Hero Journey
1. The call to adventure � Ash is chosen by Flare to be his new agent.
2. Refusing the Call � Even though she�s excited, Ash has some reservations. She will have to leave her life in the coliseum behind as well as her friends.
3. Supernatural Aid � Gets this from Phantom
4. Crossing the First Threshold � Going on the first mission, in an area she�s never been in before
5. Road of Trials � Ash and the other agents go on many missions for Flare.
6. Meeting with the Goddess �
7. The Temptress � The second brother plays this role. He tries a few times to convince Ash that Sair�s empire is the right way to go.
8. Atonement with the Father � Ash confronts two figures, first her new �brother� cid, who has killed off Sair and her crew. She tries to kill Cid, but fails, and is rescued by Tap. After meeting up with the other agents, she convinces them that they need to confront their �father,� Flare, and put an end to him for the good of their world.
9. Apotheosis of the Hero � All four each undergo a development where they decide who they want to be. Niki denounces Flare, and promises to always be there for Bat, who reconciles with Niki and wants to start leading a happier life. Tap helps Ash get through her depression and vows to help her and the others out when they need it. Ash destroys her stash of alcohol vowing to never drink again.
10. The Ultimate Boon � Flare is defeated, and the four have become a family.

Elves 5 Stages of Grief

1. Denial: When they are younger, Flare and Sair stay away from the war. They both claim that they are happy being at the temple.
2. Anger: After a few centuries, the two drift apart. They get in a big fight.
3. Bargaining: Flare designates the safe zone, and every month he tries to convince Sair to give up and stay.
4. Depression: The two elves are miserable with their lives, and both take it out on the world around them.
5. Acceptance: During her final moments, Sair understands that there is nothing she can do to make amends with Flare, and lets him kill her. Flare has accepted that he will eventually lose his mind, so he must leave for the ice lands.

Protagonists� 5 Stages of Grief

1. Denial: Niki tries to ignore how cruel and crazy Flare is. Bat is convinced that she won�t find anything outside of the group. Ash drinks so she will forget her past. Tap doesn�t think that he can really do anything to help the others.
2. Anger:
3. Bargaining: Niki tries to get Bat to behave herself so she won�t be abused by Flare. Ash tries to get the Death Claw brothers and Sair to give up on the war. Tap visits the elves in the safe zone and tries to mend their relationship.
4. Depression: Bat reveals how depressed she is, and Niki feels terrible for being a factor in it. Ash is depressed over the death of the Death Claw brothers. Tap is sad for being too late to prevent it.
5. Acceptance: The four help each other out of their depression. They accept that Flare is too dangerous to leave alive, and set off to kill him.


Story Notes

� Sair had only one material possession, a fairy tale book. She later reveals that she loves the book because she would pretend the girl in the book was real and friends with her. When Flare finds out about this, he can�t understand why Sair would choose an imaginary friend over him, this is the straw that breaks the camel�s back causing him to leave.
� There are small hints in the story that Flare is a weak to white magic. He refuses to hire anyone who uses white magic. He never taught Bat any spells that heal despite knowing about a few. He only carries around eithers, no potions. He refuses to hire Ash�s friend who�s a white mage, despite him being stronger than Ash.
� The Dragoon runs a community in the desert. It�s like a family so it goes with the theme. Sair can�t grasp this, first sign of her problem. We see a couple of Deathclaw�s in the community, these are the ancestors of the brothers.
� Flare and Sair have a safe zone. A small removed village they used to visit when they were younger. When they are in this village they don�t attack one another. Sair visits it every month in order to take a break. We see her visits, and Flare knows about them and goes as well. He sits by her and tries to convince her to give up and just stay in the village. Tap attends their final meeting hoping he can try and mend their relationship. He is too late.
The characters are various monsters and species from the series. Bat and Bassam are the only humans.


Random Notes
� Niki is shown to have the common dragon trait of hoarding. It�s never addressed directly. Instead we see it as background events. We see her living space a few times, and it�s packed with all kinds of random items. Occasionally she can be seen rummaging through piles of stuff and putting things into her bag.
� Phantom follows Ash around playing different instruments. It�s the only hint that Phantom is Flare. Only he would have enough time to learn how to play all of those instruments. And if clever fans note this, it still leaves Tap open as a possible candidate. Important! No one should ever be shown playing an instrument; it would ruin the mystery. Also a joke on the background music.
� Ash got her name from having a run in with the legendary phoenix. She would have died, but it brought her back to life. This experience pushed her to the point of having no fear of death.
� Niki and Tap spend their free time writing adventure books anonymously. The older death claw brother is a big fan of the series. They get letters from him criticizing many of their works.
� Tap, Bat and Ash all consider Niki to be their best friend. Niki considers Tap her best friend.
� Sair�s situation is very meta. Her problems start because she feels inadequate thanks to �father� putting her down. Then she watches as Flare grows stronger and stronger. She gets into the habit of escaping into fantasy worlds by reading stories. This is a fantasy story that we�re reading in order to escape life.
� Sair and Flare need to be voiced by the same person.
� When Flare fights an opponent he likes to not use his magic for as long as possible. Otherwise he wins too quickly.
� Flare never mentions about how Sair changed the temple�s rules or sent him to Hell. He seems to only really be upset at her for pushing him away.

Art Stuff
� Sair and Flare need to be seen standing next to very large objects, reflecting how small they really are in the world.
� Niki, Tap, Bat, and Ash all have red somewhere on their persons. At the end, they have all gotten rid of the red. Except for Niki, who has red eyes, because she cannot ever get rid of the major impact Flare had on her life.