Yuku free message boards

Hello Captain, you probably don't remember me but I'm that foreign boy who liked (and still likes) a lot you previous story. I have things to tell you about it (mostly good^^) but that'll wait cause I'm gonna talk about your new brilliant work.

First of all, I can't tell you how excited I was when I read your announcement of a sequel to 72 hours back in April on your myspace page but I was in a dark period of my life back then (preparation for the exams brr) and I hadn't any time left to read it in may. Now that these dark hours are long forgotten, I just can say that your brilliant work exceeded my wildest expectations.

I have to admit I was a bit sceptical reading the Bloody Memorial prologue, because, although the part on Ralph Fogal was well written, both in story and style, and although the whole chapter in itself was great, I just felt it gave too much focus on contestant that didn't deserve it yet. Fortunately, and as always, you prove me wrong by offing four of them in the orientation video, still over-ze-top, but fun nevertheless.

The true brilliance was just a chapter away though, with the behind the scenes parts, you cannot imagine how hysterical that was for me and how thrilled I was.
All those references to, I guess, Survivor and Big Brother made me laugh my as off. The mactors swarming the shows while being completely oblivious to the game in itself in Florida, the crappy ninth season of Big Brother (May we all forget it soon...) when the big wigs decided they could do two seasons in a year^^ I like the fact that you truly made it into a real TV programme from a corrupted society as it explains lots of things. The explanations given by Takami were too vague to be really interesting.
I'm still neutral to the whole Shylock and the Raptors thing, I'll just wait to see it developed. But I loved the motivational speech and the descriptions of previous seasons, both in this chapter and in Hour 0.

One thing that I didn't love was effing Sgt Charon. I hated him back in the days, but seeing that he was still lurking around and that Ashley didn't manage to kill him makes me furious. And when we learn that he likes to rape female contestants, that everyone knows about it and laugh of his "clever" pun...Pure. And. Eternal. Hatred. I can't wait to see him die. On the other hand, I found PFC Dietrich to be somewhat nice and funny, though I think our mutual hatred towards Chmoron is what brought us closer.

I like Alyssa. Seriously, you had me when you said she always wore black and that was almost a scientific fact. The goth chick (I know Alyssa says she isn't) didn't last very long in 72 Hours. Poor Tamyra...
I also somehow like the last name of Christina Montressor^^.

On the other hand, I'm not quite fond of Isaac. As of now, I find him smug and self-sufficient, as opposed to Anna and the original SABRE members, but I hope you'll prove me wrong^^
I also happen to hate Nick K. but as I think this is the intended purpose, congrats to you.

Congratulations also to, in one short paragraph, actually make me care for Zora and make me sad when she dies. I still find a bit too much that Nick had that in him like 15 minutes after the beginning of the game, but it's still in character so...I guess I'll have to hope to see more of her in the flashbacks of other charachters like Kendal or Amanda (Mandy, what a cheerleader name^^).

I also find the description given by Rene of Chad to be intriguing, yet cool.

And of course, being French speaking Belgian, I can only like the French cursing Rene (didn't you mean Renée? Cause René is the male counterpart and I have no idea were Rene comes from^^) though I can't understand what is it with you Americans with this name: Renee Montoya in Batman, Renée rienne in Alias... I mean, I understand that it must have a French sound to your ears, but I swear I have never known, seen or heard about a single girl wearing that name, except maybe a 90ish old lady living in some remote rural village. It's really old-fashioned for a man (My late grandfather wore that name) and quasi inexistent for the girls^^ I'm still extremely excited about a fierce French-Canadian cheerleader up and kicking in the game^^ Please, don't make her die too soon (have I just signed her death sentence? Crap, I hope not^^)

Finally, I'm not quite sure I like the whole concept of volunteers…One thing I like about Battle Royale is that everyone can be a killer if given impunity and motivation, that was something Takami missed (remove the killings done by the uncanny Kiriyama and Soma, and Kawada, who has already been involved in the game, the deaths by accident (Oka) and the suicides, and you have very little left…that's why I always found The Lighthouse Bloodbath to be the best part of the story but whatever) and that you achieved really well in your own story, with lots of killers: even when you had only 11 people left, you still had 4 cold blooded killers and the SABRE members were really fierce fighters too. Just throwing two random (or are they? I can see one previous winner coming back, or one of those Raptors guys) serial killers in the joint doesn't just seem to fit, but then again, I'm sure you'll prove me wrong^^

On another note, I really like the change of setting. I love winter, and your descriptions of said season and climate are really well done. The whole description of the abandoned town was brilliant too (and I had no idea what you were talking about at first^^ gosh am I silly^^). I don't know if you mentioned it or if I should know it but where is Amberlaine located? Michigan too? Great to see less Hispano-Americans (more present in California and Southern USA I think) and more Eastern European (Natalya and Iago I guess) and Mid Eastern folks (like Aziz and Basim). I just hope, but it is strictly for personal reasons, to see a male gay couple, or at least a gay boy whose past is more developed than Michael( who I loved for other reasons, namely being the other view against Anna's, Carter's or Doug's, the explosion and the chapter with Jenny but who was cruelly lacking flashback).

I also find that your style has vastly improved since the beginning of 72 hours. The change of point of view between Alyssa, Christina, Isaac, the soldier, Rich, Nick K., Amanda and Rene with the video inbetween was super smooth, and I have to say that Hour 0 was my fav part of your rewriting in 72 Hours too, mostly thanks to the focus on Maxine and Francisco. You seem to change between contestants more fluidly and more often than before, and it can only be called great.

Some question now: in Hour 70 of 72 Hours you mention some boy named Eli Kaplan, and I can't help but think he appeared somewhere else in the story without being able to remember where it was. Can you help me?

I also would like to know, what the AJ in AJ Takagaki stands for but only if you don't have to kill me after having told me^^

Also, Could you update the list on your myspace page of all the songs you employed? And your reflexions about the characters, though I know with your new story you probably haven't got enough time for that one. Bummer it ends just when you were going to talk about the Brat Pack^^

Wow…I didn't think I would write that much…and I've just read up to Hour 0…I apologise for my grammar and vocabulary who might be a little off considering English is not my mother tongue^^

And Congratulations. Again, I love your story, your characters and your way of writing, so keep up with the good works^^