APPLICATION FOR ROUTE 29
Player
Name: Ran
Personal Journal: N/A
E-mail: randomprophet (at) gmail (dot) com
AIM: Tungsten Samurai
Timezone: EST
Current Characters in Route: Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi | Fate/Zero |![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
enjoymyatelier
Character
Name: Cynthia
Series: Fire Emblem Awakening
Timeline: Directly prior to arriving in the past in the scenario where Henry is her father
Canon Resource Links: Her entry on the Fire Emblem Wiki
Personality: There are some heroes that go down in history as the stuff of legends. They refuse to back down from any challenge, are always prepared to help the weak, and pursue the forces of evil with all the strength they can muster. There are songs and sagas dedicated to their names, and even their weapons have wide renown. Cynthia, having grown up on tales of her mother and her companions' (occasionally exaggerated) deeds, has a drive and enthusiasm for becoming a hero that's practically unmatched.
...Unfortunately, she's a little less El Cid and a little more Don Quixote. But she tries. Oh my god, does she try.
One of the major factors hampering Cynthia as being seen as one of the more dignified sorts of heroes is the fact that she's... honestly not the brightest bulb in the box. She tends to charge into situations without thinking... well, that wouldn't be entirely correct. She thinks a lot before charging into situations, but it's usually about what cool move she'll execute or what heroic phrase she'll yell when she makes her entrance rather than anything resembling strategy. Also, both as part of taking her primary inspiration from heroic tales and coming from a future where all her enemies are mindless zombies, she's a bit naive about how living, breathing people tend to act in battle. This leaves her open to being easily fooled by dirty tricks, and also makes her fairly gullible. She's not necessarily the sort to go tilting at windmills unprovoked, but if you can accomplish the fairly easy task of convincing her that those windmills are some evildoer's base then by Naga will she try.
...and possibly trip on her way there if she's on foot, because one of the major qualities she inherited from her mother was her klutziness. She doesn't spend quite as much time tripping over her Pegasus Knight boots as her mother did, but it's still hampered a dramatic entrance or two in her time.
All of that may make her sound a bit... difficult to get along with, and to some degree, that's true. Her bullheadedness makes her react poorly to criticism of the whole hero thing, and she can seem a bit egocentric, self-glorifying, and... well... self-absorbed. That's... partially right, though it can't be said that she doesn't actually care about other people. In fact the worst that could be said about her in relation to her intentions towards others is that she has a bit of a mischievous streak and enjoys pulling pranks (but only on the deserving)! Outside of that, she does do her best to live up to the whole fighting for Justice and protecting the weak thing, and when she notices someone having a problem, she'll do her best to help people out with it.
There are two problems with that, unfortunately. The first is that, between her tendency not to spend too much time thinking about things that aren't heroism and just being generally a bit unobservant overall, she can be a bit oblivious to someone's problems if they're not told to her explicitly. She even fails to notice that she's been failing to care properly for her pegasus due to being so wrapped up in her dreams and ambitions, despite the pegasus being both her trusty mount and one of the few mementos she has of her mother, and only really notices it when Sumia advises her to slow down and think about things.
The other problem is that... well... she doesn't always get the idea that her ways of solving problems or approaching things isn't everyone's way of solving problems --- or even just approaching friendships, in more casual circumstances. While her heart's generally in the right place and she doesn't mean to make fun of people, her tendency to cast herself in the role as the protagonist of her own personal story can make her seem a bit callous or like she's making fun of the other party when she's just trying to be friendly. If she casts someone as her mount or the villain in her current LARP storyline, she's not trying to humiliate them, it's just... how she operates. And she doesn't quite understand that she's doing something that might humiliate the other person, because hey, the villain is a great role!
With that said, when she does bother to slow down to think things through, she can prove that she's not totally oblivious to everything that goes on around her. For example, she does seem mildly self-conscious about how other people view the hero thing at some points (though not enough to actually stop it). Even more surprisingly, she's fully aware that she's from a different timeline than the one that Fire Emblem: Awakening's story follows, so her father and mother from that timeline aren't really her parents but the parents of a different version of her. She suggests that she's already accepted this fact even before traveling to the past, and wants to be able to spend as much time with her family as possible before their Cynthia is born.
Her ability to accept this leads to one of her strongest qualities: even in the face of despair, she continues to remain cheerful and optimistic. She is far more resilient than one would think, and her strength of will keeps her going even when most people would lose hope and give up. Even if her heroic adventures ultimately turn out to be goofy misadventures more often than not, her determination, resilience, and perseverance are just about the stuff of legend.
Strengths/Weaknesses:
+ Positive Thinking: It is nearly impossible to get Cynthia down in a serious way, short of someone dying or ending up injured on her behalf. Given the sort of situation she comes from, this is quite an accomplishment. She's extremely genuine about the whole thing, too... she's not faking a cheerful disposition to mask her insecurities or anything like that. People she knows can find this a bit difficult to handle, but she can also be an inspiration to others.
+ Resilience: Tying into the above, but in a different sense: even though she may seem sort of shallow and naive, when she slows down to think things through, she's very capable of accepting harsh truths and difficult situations when she needs to buckle down and get things done, and is genuinely devoted to her ideals.
+ Athletic: While her combat abilities are a bit limited without lances and flying horses, she's strong, fast, and capable of taking a hit or two.
+ Animal Aptitude: Both Cynthia's parents are known for having strong bonds with animals, and Cynthia certainly takes after them both. She's not quite as talented as either of them yet due to her tendency to act before she thinks and get caught up in her flights of fancy, unfortunately, but she's experienced at working with pegasus and horses and dealing with animals in battle.
+/- Determination: As implied before, Cynthia is the sort who will never give up. On the one hand, this makes her fairly dependable in that regard... but, on the other hand, she won't give up even when it might be a better idea to do so.
+/- Guileless: Cynthia wears her heart on her sleeve, and this can make her trustworthy, in a weird way --- she probably wouldn't lie even if she could. However, she's a terrible actor and should not be trusted with anything requiring stealth or trickery.
+/- Takes Failure Hard: Whenever Cynthia realizes that she's done something that could have hurt a lot of other people (or even just gets kind of self-conscious about her own quirks, which she does do once in a blue moon), she can be in a funk in it for days. This may be a bit odd to frame as halfway positive, but these are the times when she's most receptive to good advice --- and because she genuinely does want to improve, she'll do her best to put that advice into action and improve herself.
- Impulsive: Cynthia is the sort to act before she thinks, which very often gets her (and others) into dangerous situations.... or just kind of embarrassing ones. She's also prone to go chasing some wild fancy on a whim, which can make her seem flighty. Part of it comes from what her conception of what a hero is --- she believes that it's way cooler to go charging in alone, but it's something she'll do even when part of a team.
- Naive/Gullible: Cynthia has not actually had to face human opponents before, so she thinks that the world will be divided into comically obvious evildoers and chivalrous opponents who will fight honorably at all times. This makes it extremely easy to pull a fast one on her if she's facing someone who fights dirty... and it also makes it easy for less than scrupulous types to trick her into working for them. Notably, her very first appearance involves her working for bandits who have convinced her that they're the main party.
- Single-Minded: Cynthia's desire to be a cool hero with all the best catchphrases and all the sweetest moves is one of her biggest driving forces, and she can get so wrapped up around it that she fails to realize that she's missing important details or neglecting the needs of others. She also fails to realize that not everyone shares her interests, so her attempts at friendship can come off as a bit offputting or overbearing.
- Childish: Effectively encompasses her naivete and her singlemindedness, but she really is kind of a huge kid... and despite the fact that she does take her ideals and dreams completely seriously, sometimes she can be a bit bad at realizing when she should buckle down and focus. She also is a bit self-absorbed, wanting to be in the spotlight and the hero that saves everyone... but that's not something that is totally immutable, because it's at least partially an unconscious thing.
- Klutz: ...okay, so it might be her boots that she keeps tripping over, but she probably just inherited the ability to trip over thin air from her mother.
- Medieval...???: ...Fire Emblem: Awakening's setting is kind of anachronistic in terms of speech patterns and social mores, but modern conveniences are going to take Cynthia a while to get used to, especially with her... unique approach to things.
Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Team Rocket
Starter: Blitzle as primary, Murkrow as secondary
Password: Caramel Popcorn
Samples
First Person Sample: [Throughout the day, people may have noticed something kind of weird going on with the PokeConnect --- weird, short video posts of nothing in particular, very short voice posts with some incomprehensible parts of words, and occasional keysmashes. Then, it finally seems like the Gear's owner has figured things out, since the face of a white-haired teenage girl comes into frame... though she's looking off to the side, as though some poor sap has explained to her how this whole deal works.]
So, am I doing this right? Can everyone see this?
[The offscreen individual's response is inaudible. However, it was apparently affirmative, because the girl turns back to the screen, a look of wonder on her face.]
Woah...
[Then her face breaks into a huge grin, and she shakily adjusts the Gear so that she, a timid-looking Blitzle, and a mildly flabbergasted looking Murkrow are...
... well, they're kind of in the frame?
They're occasionally in the frame.
Sometimes.]
Greetings, citizens, and beware, evildoers! I hope you can all see me all right, because the Great Hero Cynthia and her faithful companions, Thunderhoof and Sablefeather, have arrived in Johto!
[Her expression falters a bit, and the camera focuses back on her.]
Well, actually, I'm supposed to be off saving some other world... but I ended up here, instead. Does anyone know what's up with that? I've been asking around, and no one seems to know. I mean, if I'm here, then I bet this world does need saving, because psssh, why else would Naga have sent me here?
But, uh, I kind of need to save my past, so...
[...a realization seems to strike her.]
Oooh, wait! This has to be some kind of test run! All right, everyone!
[She... does something that shakes the camera and tries to look really dramatic and inspiring, but right now, she's probably just inspiring motion sickness...]
If you need a hero for anything, then I'm your girl! Just send me a messenger, or --- oh, wait! I guess you don't have to because you can just use this thing! Well, I can tackle anything you need me to!
[She grins.
...the camera lingers a bit.
The Blitzle, apparently named Thunderhoof, attempts to hide behind Sablefeather, who just looks up at her in exasperation.
... Cynthia looks to the side.]
...uh, how do you end this...?
Third Person Sample: Okay, so, this absolutely wasn't the sort of world Cynthia should have ended up in, since it wasn't basically hers except in the past before everything had been overtaken by Risen and gotten kind of awful and her parents had died. But, Cynthia did have to admit that it was a pretty great world! Like, right off the bat, she had been made part of a team that liberated abused Pokemon from bad trainers, and how great was that? That was grade A hero material, right there!
There was no way this could possibly go wrong, or that they were at all shady! Nope, none whatsoever!
She... had to admit, there were some things she definitely missed, though, especially her pegasus. She had been a friend who stuck with Cynthia through thick and thin, a stalwart ally in battle, one of the few mementos she had of her dead mother...
...and, most importantly, they had worked out plenty of cool poses that they could do together in battles! That was clearly the greatest tragedy here.
Things weren't all bad, though, because she did have two animal companions right now! Well, Pokemon companions. ...were Pokemon animals? Did they count...?
Well, whatever! They didn't know cool flourishes for their moves and striking poses... yet. But, that wasn't a problem that Cynthia couldn't fix. After all, even her pegasus hadn't known how to do all kinds of heroic stuff when she first started riding her into battle.
So, she'd just have to take a brief break from the hero role and become the greatest coach Johto had ever seen! She had moved just a little bit into a secluded area out of town, because she knew her Pokemon were a tiny bit self-conscious.
So, now, she stood before Thunderhoof and Sablefeather, hands on her hips. ...honestly, even she kind of had to admit that they didn't look... the most enthusiastic. Thunderhoof just kind of looked like she wanted to run away, while Sablefeather looked like he was going to die of embarrassment any minute now.
...oh well! She just had to get that motivation going, that was all!
"All right, champs, listen up!" she said, planting her feet. "I think you both have the makings of some great sidekicks, but your intros into battles could use a little more... oomph. And you're really going to have to work on the visual aspect, since I don't think neighs and caws are going to strike fear into the hearts of many evildoers! So, we're going to work on some dramatic entrances!"
She punched her fist into her palm for emphasis.
"All right, so, first off --- show me your coolest pose from a standing position! Give me some real derring-do!"
Thunderhoof looked to the left and right for possible avenues of escape.
Sablefeather, on the other hand, merely looked like he was desperately hoping he would melt into the ground.
"...uh, guys? A little enthusiasm here...?"
Well, a hero's journey was always long and difficult, she had to admit. But... it looked like it was going to be even longer than usual...
Name: Ran
Personal Journal: N/A
E-mail: randomprophet (at) gmail (dot) com
AIM: Tungsten Samurai
Timezone: EST
Current Characters in Route: Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi | Fate/Zero |
enjoymyatelierCharacter
Name: Cynthia
Series: Fire Emblem Awakening
Timeline: Directly prior to arriving in the past in the scenario where Henry is her father
Canon Resource Links: Her entry on the Fire Emblem Wiki
Personality: There are some heroes that go down in history as the stuff of legends. They refuse to back down from any challenge, are always prepared to help the weak, and pursue the forces of evil with all the strength they can muster. There are songs and sagas dedicated to their names, and even their weapons have wide renown. Cynthia, having grown up on tales of her mother and her companions' (occasionally exaggerated) deeds, has a drive and enthusiasm for becoming a hero that's practically unmatched.
...Unfortunately, she's a little less El Cid and a little more Don Quixote. But she tries. Oh my god, does she try.
One of the major factors hampering Cynthia as being seen as one of the more dignified sorts of heroes is the fact that she's... honestly not the brightest bulb in the box. She tends to charge into situations without thinking... well, that wouldn't be entirely correct. She thinks a lot before charging into situations, but it's usually about what cool move she'll execute or what heroic phrase she'll yell when she makes her entrance rather than anything resembling strategy. Also, both as part of taking her primary inspiration from heroic tales and coming from a future where all her enemies are mindless zombies, she's a bit naive about how living, breathing people tend to act in battle. This leaves her open to being easily fooled by dirty tricks, and also makes her fairly gullible. She's not necessarily the sort to go tilting at windmills unprovoked, but if you can accomplish the fairly easy task of convincing her that those windmills are some evildoer's base then by Naga will she try.
...and possibly trip on her way there if she's on foot, because one of the major qualities she inherited from her mother was her klutziness. She doesn't spend quite as much time tripping over her Pegasus Knight boots as her mother did, but it's still hampered a dramatic entrance or two in her time.
All of that may make her sound a bit... difficult to get along with, and to some degree, that's true. Her bullheadedness makes her react poorly to criticism of the whole hero thing, and she can seem a bit egocentric, self-glorifying, and... well... self-absorbed. That's... partially right, though it can't be said that she doesn't actually care about other people. In fact the worst that could be said about her in relation to her intentions towards others is that she has a bit of a mischievous streak and enjoys pulling pranks (but only on the deserving)! Outside of that, she does do her best to live up to the whole fighting for Justice and protecting the weak thing, and when she notices someone having a problem, she'll do her best to help people out with it.
There are two problems with that, unfortunately. The first is that, between her tendency not to spend too much time thinking about things that aren't heroism and just being generally a bit unobservant overall, she can be a bit oblivious to someone's problems if they're not told to her explicitly. She even fails to notice that she's been failing to care properly for her pegasus due to being so wrapped up in her dreams and ambitions, despite the pegasus being both her trusty mount and one of the few mementos she has of her mother, and only really notices it when Sumia advises her to slow down and think about things.
The other problem is that... well... she doesn't always get the idea that her ways of solving problems or approaching things isn't everyone's way of solving problems --- or even just approaching friendships, in more casual circumstances. While her heart's generally in the right place and she doesn't mean to make fun of people, her tendency to cast herself in the role as the protagonist of her own personal story can make her seem a bit callous or like she's making fun of the other party when she's just trying to be friendly. If she casts someone as her mount or the villain in her current LARP storyline, she's not trying to humiliate them, it's just... how she operates. And she doesn't quite understand that she's doing something that might humiliate the other person, because hey, the villain is a great role!
With that said, when she does bother to slow down to think things through, she can prove that she's not totally oblivious to everything that goes on around her. For example, she does seem mildly self-conscious about how other people view the hero thing at some points (though not enough to actually stop it). Even more surprisingly, she's fully aware that she's from a different timeline than the one that Fire Emblem: Awakening's story follows, so her father and mother from that timeline aren't really her parents but the parents of a different version of her. She suggests that she's already accepted this fact even before traveling to the past, and wants to be able to spend as much time with her family as possible before their Cynthia is born.
Her ability to accept this leads to one of her strongest qualities: even in the face of despair, she continues to remain cheerful and optimistic. She is far more resilient than one would think, and her strength of will keeps her going even when most people would lose hope and give up. Even if her heroic adventures ultimately turn out to be goofy misadventures more often than not, her determination, resilience, and perseverance are just about the stuff of legend.
Strengths/Weaknesses:
+ Positive Thinking: It is nearly impossible to get Cynthia down in a serious way, short of someone dying or ending up injured on her behalf. Given the sort of situation she comes from, this is quite an accomplishment. She's extremely genuine about the whole thing, too... she's not faking a cheerful disposition to mask her insecurities or anything like that. People she knows can find this a bit difficult to handle, but she can also be an inspiration to others.
+ Resilience: Tying into the above, but in a different sense: even though she may seem sort of shallow and naive, when she slows down to think things through, she's very capable of accepting harsh truths and difficult situations when she needs to buckle down and get things done, and is genuinely devoted to her ideals.
+ Athletic: While her combat abilities are a bit limited without lances and flying horses, she's strong, fast, and capable of taking a hit or two.
+ Animal Aptitude: Both Cynthia's parents are known for having strong bonds with animals, and Cynthia certainly takes after them both. She's not quite as talented as either of them yet due to her tendency to act before she thinks and get caught up in her flights of fancy, unfortunately, but she's experienced at working with pegasus and horses and dealing with animals in battle.
+/- Determination: As implied before, Cynthia is the sort who will never give up. On the one hand, this makes her fairly dependable in that regard... but, on the other hand, she won't give up even when it might be a better idea to do so.
+/- Guileless: Cynthia wears her heart on her sleeve, and this can make her trustworthy, in a weird way --- she probably wouldn't lie even if she could. However, she's a terrible actor and should not be trusted with anything requiring stealth or trickery.
+/- Takes Failure Hard: Whenever Cynthia realizes that she's done something that could have hurt a lot of other people (or even just gets kind of self-conscious about her own quirks, which she does do once in a blue moon), she can be in a funk in it for days. This may be a bit odd to frame as halfway positive, but these are the times when she's most receptive to good advice --- and because she genuinely does want to improve, she'll do her best to put that advice into action and improve herself.
- Impulsive: Cynthia is the sort to act before she thinks, which very often gets her (and others) into dangerous situations.... or just kind of embarrassing ones. She's also prone to go chasing some wild fancy on a whim, which can make her seem flighty. Part of it comes from what her conception of what a hero is --- she believes that it's way cooler to go charging in alone, but it's something she'll do even when part of a team.
- Naive/Gullible: Cynthia has not actually had to face human opponents before, so she thinks that the world will be divided into comically obvious evildoers and chivalrous opponents who will fight honorably at all times. This makes it extremely easy to pull a fast one on her if she's facing someone who fights dirty... and it also makes it easy for less than scrupulous types to trick her into working for them. Notably, her very first appearance involves her working for bandits who have convinced her that they're the main party.
- Single-Minded: Cynthia's desire to be a cool hero with all the best catchphrases and all the sweetest moves is one of her biggest driving forces, and she can get so wrapped up around it that she fails to realize that she's missing important details or neglecting the needs of others. She also fails to realize that not everyone shares her interests, so her attempts at friendship can come off as a bit offputting or overbearing.
- Childish: Effectively encompasses her naivete and her singlemindedness, but she really is kind of a huge kid... and despite the fact that she does take her ideals and dreams completely seriously, sometimes she can be a bit bad at realizing when she should buckle down and focus. She also is a bit self-absorbed, wanting to be in the spotlight and the hero that saves everyone... but that's not something that is totally immutable, because it's at least partially an unconscious thing.
- Klutz: ...okay, so it might be her boots that she keeps tripping over, but she probably just inherited the ability to trip over thin air from her mother.
- Medieval...???: ...Fire Emblem: Awakening's setting is kind of anachronistic in terms of speech patterns and social mores, but modern conveniences are going to take Cynthia a while to get used to, especially with her... unique approach to things.
Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Team Rocket
Starter: Blitzle as primary, Murkrow as secondary
Password: Caramel Popcorn
Samples
First Person Sample: [Throughout the day, people may have noticed something kind of weird going on with the PokeConnect --- weird, short video posts of nothing in particular, very short voice posts with some incomprehensible parts of words, and occasional keysmashes. Then, it finally seems like the Gear's owner has figured things out, since the face of a white-haired teenage girl comes into frame... though she's looking off to the side, as though some poor sap has explained to her how this whole deal works.]
So, am I doing this right? Can everyone see this?
[The offscreen individual's response is inaudible. However, it was apparently affirmative, because the girl turns back to the screen, a look of wonder on her face.]
Woah...
[Then her face breaks into a huge grin, and she shakily adjusts the Gear so that she, a timid-looking Blitzle, and a mildly flabbergasted looking Murkrow are...
... well, they're kind of in the frame?
They're occasionally in the frame.
Sometimes.]
Greetings, citizens, and beware, evildoers! I hope you can all see me all right, because the Great Hero Cynthia and her faithful companions, Thunderhoof and Sablefeather, have arrived in Johto!
[Her expression falters a bit, and the camera focuses back on her.]
Well, actually, I'm supposed to be off saving some other world... but I ended up here, instead. Does anyone know what's up with that? I've been asking around, and no one seems to know. I mean, if I'm here, then I bet this world does need saving, because psssh, why else would Naga have sent me here?
But, uh, I kind of need to save my past, so...
[...a realization seems to strike her.]
Oooh, wait! This has to be some kind of test run! All right, everyone!
[She... does something that shakes the camera and tries to look really dramatic and inspiring, but right now, she's probably just inspiring motion sickness...]
If you need a hero for anything, then I'm your girl! Just send me a messenger, or --- oh, wait! I guess you don't have to because you can just use this thing! Well, I can tackle anything you need me to!
[She grins.
...the camera lingers a bit.
The Blitzle, apparently named Thunderhoof, attempts to hide behind Sablefeather, who just looks up at her in exasperation.
... Cynthia looks to the side.]
...uh, how do you end this...?
Third Person Sample: Okay, so, this absolutely wasn't the sort of world Cynthia should have ended up in, since it wasn't basically hers except in the past before everything had been overtaken by Risen and gotten kind of awful and her parents had died. But, Cynthia did have to admit that it was a pretty great world! Like, right off the bat, she had been made part of a team that liberated abused Pokemon from bad trainers, and how great was that? That was grade A hero material, right there!
There was no way this could possibly go wrong, or that they were at all shady! Nope, none whatsoever!
She... had to admit, there were some things she definitely missed, though, especially her pegasus. She had been a friend who stuck with Cynthia through thick and thin, a stalwart ally in battle, one of the few mementos she had of her dead mother...
...and, most importantly, they had worked out plenty of cool poses that they could do together in battles! That was clearly the greatest tragedy here.
Things weren't all bad, though, because she did have two animal companions right now! Well, Pokemon companions. ...were Pokemon animals? Did they count...?
Well, whatever! They didn't know cool flourishes for their moves and striking poses... yet. But, that wasn't a problem that Cynthia couldn't fix. After all, even her pegasus hadn't known how to do all kinds of heroic stuff when she first started riding her into battle.
So, she'd just have to take a brief break from the hero role and become the greatest coach Johto had ever seen! She had moved just a little bit into a secluded area out of town, because she knew her Pokemon were a tiny bit self-conscious.
So, now, she stood before Thunderhoof and Sablefeather, hands on her hips. ...honestly, even she kind of had to admit that they didn't look... the most enthusiastic. Thunderhoof just kind of looked like she wanted to run away, while Sablefeather looked like he was going to die of embarrassment any minute now.
...oh well! She just had to get that motivation going, that was all!
"All right, champs, listen up!" she said, planting her feet. "I think you both have the makings of some great sidekicks, but your intros into battles could use a little more... oomph. And you're really going to have to work on the visual aspect, since I don't think neighs and caws are going to strike fear into the hearts of many evildoers! So, we're going to work on some dramatic entrances!"
She punched her fist into her palm for emphasis.
"All right, so, first off --- show me your coolest pose from a standing position! Give me some real derring-do!"
Thunderhoof looked to the left and right for possible avenues of escape.
Sablefeather, on the other hand, merely looked like he was desperately hoping he would melt into the ground.
"...uh, guys? A little enthusiasm here...?"
Well, a hero's journey was always long and difficult, she had to admit. But... it looked like it was going to be even longer than usual...