So, what the hell are these things?
I started writing the rambles in May of 2000, when I started my Final Fantasy website, Final Fantasy Freaks. The website started out on freeservers, went to tripod and then 2 original domains before landing at Buy-Shinra.com. In the spring of 2011, I decided to shut down a majority of Buy-Shinra.com and just move the rambles here to WordPress. I figured it was the only part of the site people might care about, and it was the only part I really cared about.
These rambles started out as just parodies that really weren’t that funny, but they kind of turned into a sitcom/soap opera/opus that just kept going on and on and on. Characters came and went, story lines went from hilarious to serious, and I kept getting older and yet I still kept going. I was writing about these characters for so long that even though they weren’t mine for the most part, they felt like mine, and, most importantly, I had a lot of fun writing about them.
You’ll notice each ramble has an intro, as it’s been many years since I wrote these and it was about time I went back over them and gave some thoughts. Some of the stuff is outdated or downright embarrassing. But it’s way too late to change it now!
I spent a lot of years of my life planning the adventures of the ramble gang, so if you’re still sticking around and reading about them, I hope you’re enjoying it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
The Rambles Live! 
Not sure where else I can post anything or send an email or whatever but… I was introduced to these rambles a looong time ago, I dont even remember when! Must’ve been 6 years ago I think! Man, these were such a riot to read… For a while after, I looked for them again, only having thr keywords Buy-Shinra and Rambles, but I never found them! UNTIL NOW! You have no idea how glad I am I did find them again. So many memories lol
I’m glad you found them again, and I’m glad you enjoy them! Thanks for the comment!
I remember really enjoying the rambles when I was younger, so I’m glad you decided to keep them around! Good luck with your current sites and projects!
Thanks so much for keeping the rambles around. 😀 I remember when I first found these – it’s strange to read through them as I must’ve only been around 11 or 12 years old when I read them, and I’m 18 now. Nostalgia, it really is.
I started to read these back in 2001, it was a really dark point in my youth and I remember laughing so much reading them.
I just wanted to say thank you for doing them, I’m really glad to have tracked them back down.
Thank you so much! Glad you found them too. If you like the rambles, you should check out my new website: failingtogether.com – I’ve been writing some new comedy stuff.
I remember I devoured your rambles…how long ago?…15 years! The first thing I did after coming back from school was run to the computer and read them…ah, good times! Your site introduced me to fanfiction, btw. I’m 29 now but I ain’t killing the child in me. Still write fanfics. Still love the final fantasy games. Now that Final Fantasy15 is coming out, it would have been interesting to see Noctis, Gladio, Ignis, and Prompto included in rambles. How would Sephiroth react? Lol. I think Noctis is now the most interesting final fantasy protagonist. And super cute! How would HE get along with the other characters? Ah, well.
Pity you don’t write them anymore. I still visit the old site, as well. Especially to read the letters. Couldn’t find a link here. I remember there was a page where we wrote to the villains also. I had written two letters to them. First one to Hojo, I think. About if he ever molested Sephiroth when he was a kid, cause he looks like such a creep (shudders). And the second one I forgot. I don’t think it was answered because you stopped updating for a while at the time.
Anyway, I had so much fun with your site back then, and continue to do so from time to time. I reread the rambles, and the letters, several years ago with my youngest sister. We cracked up together. She loves your Reno and Irvine.
Honestly, I don’t think there is anything to be embarrassed about. As a writer, I understand the feeling when looking back at your old work, but as a reader, on the “other end” of your thoughts 🙂 I think the rambles are perfect. Clever, funny, and engaging. It would be sad if you changed anything. Even Sephiroth’s OOC moments.
Anyway, I’m am SUPER happy that you kept everything up. Don’t ever take them down! There are always new generations. I have a couple of niece’s now I am going to brainwash, hehe!
Thanks for the great memories!
DS
Thank you so much! I really appreciate it! If you like the rambles, you should check out my new website: failingtogether.com – I’ve been writing some new comedy stuff.
Hi there, Lark! So an interesting thing happened the other day, I suddenly remembered that I briefly endeavored to create my own Final Fantasy website similar to Final Fantasy Freaks back in my early teens, when I first discovered your work. I hope it doesn’t make you feel too old for me to tell you that I’m 25, and I discovered the Rambles when I was 13. I devoured them all over the course of about a year, but then got to the end, and that’s when I learned that FFF had moved.
I remember there being a domain called Pyroclastic-Insanity, then a couple of other moves before the final buy-shinra move. To this day I’ve actually never finished the series, but probably read about, say, 3/5 of the total number of Rambles. I honestly can’t tell you how many GENUINE laughs I had reading these, especially when I was thirteen years old. It inspired me to create my own Ramble universe, and the other day I found some of my old writing from eleven years ago. It was so funny to read myself clearly parodying your work, but I find that I always get incredibly nostalgic about the Rambles.
This sounds so corny and cliche, but for thirteen year old, introverted gay boy in North Carolina, who had no friends and no creative outlets, the Ramble gang became my family. Your characters made me feel safe. I used to stay up all night, eating ice cream and reading the Rambles until five in the morning, and then waking up half an hour later to get ready for school. I actually wanted to try and print out all of the Rambles and bind them together in a book that I could take with me so I could read them anywhere (the concept of a smartphone, tablet or e-reader did not, at the time, exist). When my family couldn’t afford internet, I would actually take… wait for it.. a FLOPPY DISC (*gasp*) over to friends’ houses, copy and paste Rambles into Microsoft Works documents, then bring them home and go through and color them myself, and then read through them.
Suffice to say, fourteen-year-old me loved the Rambles so much that I have never, EVER forgotten about them. Even though I’m an aspiring writer now and I have a lot of people I can site as influences, I honestly think that outside of video games, YOU are the very first writer to ever have a profound impact on me. The Rambles are as precious to me as they are to you. I’ve actually left you a similar (if more brief) comment like this somewhere around here, but I couldn’t find it, so I thought I would gush a little.
Lark, you and your dysfunctional gang have held a special place in my heart for a very long time, and I was forever changed by your work as a writer. Thank you.