One is my name....

I always feel like a jerk when I comment on another person's story, and they use the English version "Yosuke" while I use the Japanese "Yousuke." I'm sorry, but I can't un-train myself to spell it that way. Right now, I had to go back three times and write it without the first "u".

As it states in the first chapter, and on every author's page/story intro page I've created for sharing "1 More Chance!", my story is taken from the Japanese version of the game. In that version, his name is spelled Hanamura Yousuke: 花村陽介. Even Kuma (Teddie) calls him Yo-suke ヨースケ, with a long "o" sound. If you play the Japanese version of the game, whenever Kuma calls him by name (which is a lot, especially when he's complaining about something), you will see "ヨースケ！" Or, sometimes, "ヨースケエエエエエエ！" when Kuma is being whiny. (I tried to hearken back to those moments a little bit in Chapter 54 ("In the Shadow of Destiny"), when Kuma calls to Yousuke for help.)

I know that Atlus USA translated his name as Yosuke. That's fine. To the average person's ear (and to the English-speaking person's ear especially), you don't really hear a difference. But Yosuke is not the same as Yousuke:
Write them out one at a time, and you get this:
Yosuke - よすけ　becomes 世介。
Yousuke - ようすけ　becomes 陽介。

On the series Star Trek: The Next Generation, the character of Data pronounced his name as "DAY-tuh". Doctor Pulaski attempts to call him "Deh-tuh", the other pronunciation of the word, data. When Data corrects her on the pronunciation, she asks him what difference it makes. Data the android replies, "One is my name, the other is not."

Okay, I know I'm starting to sound like a pompous ass about this, so let me be clear: I don't care that most people write his name as Yosuke; Atlus USA chose to translate his name that way, for whatever reason. That doesn't bother me. But I am not wrong when I write it as Yousuke.

So. Can't we just both be right in this case?

Reasonable delays

I know there's been a significant delay between Chapters 59 and 60 (the coming chapter), but for those of you following on Twitter, deviantArt, LiveJournal, or Fanfiction.Net, you'll notice that I have not been completely slacking off with my writing.

I recently took part in the deviantArt Persona-pairings week, to which I submitted two short vignettes: "Firebrand" focusing on Yukiko and Souji, and "I Can't" focusing on Kanji and Rise. Both of these stories - like "1000 Words" - have links to the main "1 More Chance!" story. For those readers with particularly sharp eyes, you'll notice a very significant link between the events in "Firebrand" and Chapter 21 ("Just Like Magic"). And while "I Can't" does not have any direct correlation to events presented in "1 More Chance!", it does paint a pretty close picture of how I imagine Kanji and Rise to have come together as more than just friends.

That said, I had to take a bit of a breather with Chapter 60 (tentatively titled "Futures Imperfect"), to do some more in-depth research into Shinto than I had anticipated. Luckily, I have personal experience on which to draw, but it's still taken me some time to get a few of the (admittedly minor) details incorporated into the story for realistic flow of events. This chapter in particular I feel should read relatively true to life, and it's taking me time to push through that. (Yes, I've taken some gross liberties already, notably with Chie's and Yousuke's roles, but I also wanted to open up the traditional ceremony so that the A Team - and the reader - can see and experience the wedding for themselves. Naoto gets a bit of an upgrade, too, but I figured her situation was warranted by her precise personality and love of order.)

I did already cut quite a bit from the chapter (the gleeful drunk scene; the Rise/Kuma explanation; a minor sex scene recap), but I want to present this day as faithfully as I can, given the circumstances of it being these particular characters getting married. There's already a lot of talking and a lot of set-up, but I feel like it's worth it to present the story that I want to tell. If you're not a fan of that slow-moving denouement, I apologize that you'll be bored (potentially), but I don't apologize for writing the story the way that I want to do it.

I still hope to have Chapter 60 ready for reading before the full 2-month mark since Chapter 59 went up (8/18/2010), but I do hope you understand the issues involved with the delay.

Thanks!