It turned Richard’s stomach that he had resorted to contacting the Marlfoxes for help. Not even a Terrestrial organization, all rumors said they were stationed on Mars. But their advice was good, and he hadn’t gotten this far by disregarding good advice.
It was still somewhat odd that the Marlfoxes had apparently ‘helped’ by arranging for a Lylatian mercenary team to be his bodyguards. He hadn’t been expecting a giant banner reading ‘Marlfox Bodyguards,’ or anything, but still! But he had assurances more was being done behind the scenes, and that the team assigned to him was fiercely loyal to their clients. To the duration of their contract, at least.
Where one’s normal retinue would generally ignore any attempts by Richard to make small talk, opting for constant hyper-vigilance, Richard found that this O'Donnell was a very pleasant conversationalist. It might have worried him, had Star Wolf not already stopped three attempts on his person. Had MI8 not confirmed each of them led right back to John. Had his Marlfox contact not told him exactly the same, just ahead of his own intelligence reports.
In private, in the halls to his apartments in the Palace, Richard found himself increasingly free to vent his anger at his brother to O’Donnel. It was the only time since this whole mess started that Richard was able to speak plainly and openly, without worrying about wording things diplomatically.
O'Donnell moved in on the momentary gap in the armor immediately.
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I think this picture had some of the most potential that wasn’t being met in the original. I think I was trying to avoid improbable buffness, but I ended up making them look emaciated and ragdoll-ish.
The dialogue didn’t quite work, either. It just didn’t sound like Wolf. Not the Wolf I prefer, anyway- his voice in Star Fox Assault and Super Smash Bros Brawl is the ideal as far as I’m concerned, and of course he’d use contractions. I also didn’t really make any verbal clues for Wolf, even when he’s got his own memetic line.