Noted

flglg;hfgkjb!

2009-11-06T20:32:08Z

Look what I just got in the mail!!!

You can't tell from the photo, but the cover has foil parts, so the background is shiny. It's beautiful!

Thank you Matcha!! ♥♥♥

I have swept the very bravest off their feet.

2009-11-01T19:25:42Z

I love Halloween!

More kids came by this year. As I recall, the weather last year was kind of sucky somehow (it rained until seven o'clock or something like that), but this year it was great. I watched a few Halloween movies on TV and tended the door. /o/

During my time watching Halloween specials, I discovered there are actually some very good (and thankfully very tame) children's movies for the occasion. I particularly liked The Halloween Tree.

I kind of destroyed my leg at Tae Kwon Do on Thursday, though, so having to sit down and get up so frequently friggin' hurt. Ow ow. We didn't finish the class properly because the grandmasters from the US Chungdo Kwan were here, and... yeah. Ow. Those muscles seem to be mostly okay today, but now different ones hurt just from having to walk a little differently to accommodate the injury. We had 86 trick-or-treaters this year.

Anyway, I wore my Norma cosplay all day and felt like a huge dork. It was pretty cool. I went downtown to do a couple of things (with my cape!) and I was easily the most noticeable thing for several blocks because of the yellow. Once I got down to the mall, I was no longer conspicuous, since they have trick-or-treating there and tons of kids went. There was even a kid dressed as Micheal Jackson.

Though I got a couple of compliments on my costume while I was manning the door in the evening, none of the kids actually knew what I was supposed to be. Later, I went out to a Halloween party with some friends. I had some full-size chocolate bars in my purse for anyone who openly recognized my outfit, but no one did, so I got to keep them, haha. I tried.

I'd really like to do a group thing for Halloween next year and have thought about convincing my friend and his wife to do a Batman-Robin-Batgirl trio with me. I'd get stuck being Robin, but I'll cope. Someone told me they've seen people dress up as The Penguin, and I had no idea anyone ever did that! That's so cool! There was this guy wearing clothes made of bubble wrap, and one of the people I was there with told me what the movie reference was, but I forget. Something about nerds and communicating with aliens. There was also a trio of Rainbow Brite characters. They were so colorful!

Long story short, Halloween was great and people make awesome costumes. I hope everyone had a good one!

Nerdnerdnerd.

2009-10-21T04:06:56Z

I'm really excited for Halloween! \o/

But onto this post.

My friend, who is really, really amazing at coloring with markers, was drawing with me today and she offered to color the first lineart I managed to finish while I was there. I was pretty happy about that. I was going to have her color on this one, since I finished it first, but I'm a derp and didn't draw it on the right kind of paper. :'DDD

This is Ryan, one of my original characters. He's a mage, wears a lot of green, and is also kind of a fruit loop. He loves music ~~and maybe Adel if you squint~~. The pose was for the lulz.

Despite my tendency to wimp out of drawing full-body images, this actually is a full-body drawing. I cropped off the bottom because it was blah.

Under the next cut, I'm going to draw some obvious parallels, which means vague Star Ocean 4 spoilers. To be honest, these are barely spoilers at all because I was so purposefully vague. Should be safe.

Okay. The guy in Star Ocean 4 goes to a particular planet. While there, one thing leads to another, and basically he's directly responsible for the planet going poof, mostly because he's the hero and he's generically prone to making decisions without thinking. Understandably he's upset, but this mistake rocks his character so hard that he goes into extreme emo mode. He cries about it for awhile, can't make decisions, and basically avoids discussion. All he can think about is how he's responsible and how he should never have interfered, and how all those people would be alive if it wasn't for him. It reminded me a lot of Luke. 8| He then needs his BFF characters to beat some sense into him before he stops, pretty much.

Faize yelling at anyone is kind of hilarious, though. Way to go, Edge. You were beaten into submission by this guy.

Wow.

The person who really kicked him back in the right direction was this fortune teller lady. (I'm not going to talk about her, what she says, or her plot relevance, in case you haven't gotten there yet and still want to read this.) Her fortune-reading is disturbingly Score-like, right down to the glowing. She even collapses afterward in a dead faint. I'm starting to wonder if predicting the future in that manner just happens to be a cliche I was unaware of or something.

A-and my predictions (which involved Faize, by the way) didn't come true. I'm going to consider this a good sign.

Wait a second.

2009-10-17T01:26:11Z

Remember how I said Star Ocean 4 was two discs long? Well, I was wrong.

It's three.

Wut.

brb fangirl mode

2009-10-07T19:55:12Z

I would have just told you all this in a letter back, but that takes like a week, so have some preliminary fangirling instead.

Eeeee, I got the best letter ever today!! Thank you, Azzy! It has Shinigami, brotherliness, Rhys, Angry Rita killing Karol, Estelle being pretty, Anise and Ion and a chainsaw, andandand just... just...

SQUEE.

How did you knowwwww.

~~Because it's not like Sage is not one of the most predictable people on earth or anything.~~

ANYWAY, EVERYONE CAN NOW CONFUSEDLY SHARE IN MY UNBRIDLED ENTHUSIASM. \o/

Slurrrrrs.

2009-10-04T02:18:27Z

I moved up a tier in violin! \o/

I'm holding the bow the proper way now, and not the learner's way. It definitely feels different. The distribution of balance feels weird because now there is a long thin piece of wood between my fingers rather than the huge block of wood that is the frog. It seems lighter this way, though, which is probably a good thing. I think you get better control holding it like this.

Anyway, I said I got Star Ocean 4 (The Last Hope) for my birthday, right? Well, now I'm going to nerd about it. There's minimal talk of the plot, so I'm spoiling absolutely nothing that can't be found in the instruction manual.

Before I even played this game, I knew the wondrous name of its protagonist:

Edge Maverick.

Say it a couple of times, preferably with unneeded emphasis and dramatic flair. It's 2009 and they're still making RPGs with heroes named Edge Maverick. I am so, so amused. But silly name aside, I'm only like 15 hours into this game and it really feels like I'm barely anywhere in it, especially since the game is two discs long. Two discs on a next-gen console is kind of shocking, I think. I mean, maybe they just split it into two discs to match Star Ocean 2 or something, but that doesn't seem likely since Star Ocean 3 was only one.

Plot-wise, the characters are planet-hopping, looking for a new planet to live on, since it's in the future and Earth has been made unlivable by World War III. Basically, I'd say one planet equates a new town in a normal RPG. As far as I've encountered, a planet usually consists of a "town" or two and a dungeon area--possibly two of those, too.

It feels really... Tales of.

The battle system handles similarly, except you attack with A, jump with B, activate Rush Mode (=Overlimit) with X, and do specials with the triggers. I kept mashing B like an idiot early on because of that. Oops. I really hope no one who's super OCD tries to play this game. There's so much stuff to horde that it's silly.

You can do quests, complete a weapons data book, complete a spaceship data book, get battle trophies, invent recipes for the characters to make via a synthesis system, get all the skills, and max out the strength of those skills. Oh god. It does make level grinding more interesting, though, since instead of sitting there hitting A for thirty seconds, you can try to collect stuff you need. I switch characters all the time, just to see if I can get battle trophies just for doing totally inane things.

So far, I only have four of what is obviously going to be eight characters. Really. They even have the eight slots ready on the menu. Edge is the sword-wielding attacker; Reimi, the heroine, is an archer, and shockingly enough, she isn't a healer. Wtf. She can't even get any symbology (=magic). Points to the developers for thwarting a major cliche. I also have Faize, who's the wimpy physical attacks + magic user, and Lymie, who's the full-blown mage/summoner character.

Faize is awesome, by the way. Aside from the painful clash that is his green hair and purple eyes (ow), he's frilly, polite, and he fences. I pegged him as my favorite the second I laid eyes on him. He's also an ay-lee-in, onoes. It's kind of hilarious how Edge and Reimi (the only two you have when Faize first joins you) are like, "Holy snap, an alien!" when he doesn't really look that different from them. He's basically the prerequisite elf character, since he has pointy ears, animu coloring, and magic. The doubly hilarious part is that this is a Star Ocean game.

Star Ocean, guys. Everyone's an alien. It's a fact of life.

Oh my god, and the item creation lady is amazing. Her name is Welch, which sadly makes me think about said brand of grape juice, and is also fitting because her outfit is purple. Well... I lied. The dress is purple. The tights are orange. I think maybe the person in charge of color schemes was kind of blind, but Welch is so awesome that color fail cannot dampen her fun factor.

I know I've heard her voice somewhere before, but IMDB fails to inform me of who she is, and that might drive me crazy because I know I've heard her somewhere before. (If you know, tell me. I mean it. D:) Reimi, by the way, is Laura Bailey, and she's fabulous. The voicing in the game is all-around very good, though, and I'm really pleased games in general seem to be putting more effort into that recently.

You know, I'm kind of tempted to say Welch is Laura Bailey, too, just because of some of the noises she makes, but that seems too easy...

A-anyway, the game is good so far, except that I'm stuck in a really dumb spot because I can't figure out what to do. I'll get out of it eventually when I know what to do about the stupid door. Aaaaah. Puzzles. Your vagueness is maddening. Oh, oh, and speaking of the dungeons, Motoi Sakuraba composed for this game, and oh, can you tell. I swear he lifted some pieces straight out of Vesperia's soundtrack and pushed them into this game. The music in the Citadel on Lemuria sounds so much like a piece from Vesperia's colloseum that it's actually kind of sad.

I do like Sakuraba's prominent use of piano, and the fact that he gives solos to stringed instruments, though. :>

I'll prattle on about Lymie and her astonishing inability to look or sound remotely her age once I'm further in the game. Lastly, I heard the game was really predictable, so I make predictions about the plot whenever I can. So far, one has been right, and the other two haven't come up yet.

If I'm right on all counts, I'll definitely do a spoiler-marked thing to talk about it, because my predictions are pretty lame. I have basically no experience with sci-fi plots, either, so if I can guess what's going to happen, even without that knowledge, that's probably not so good for the writers. :'D

B-but it's really a fun game! Go play it!

I'm going to stop there because ow, I have a headache. OTL

And Many More

2009-09-27T18:07:32Z

My internet and/or browser is being silly, so this took forever to load.

Happy birthday, Azzy!

Final Fantasy X - Part Four

2009-09-25T19:21:06Z

This one is really long since I covered a lot of significant stuff since the last post.

Ahaha, wow. A lot has happened in-game since I last made one of these. I'm now right near the end of Mt. Gagazet, about to have Tidus's face smashed into the ground by Seymour. And I mean that quite literally, since apparently this battle is notorious. Hooray.

But let's recap! Seymour died a horrible death and the party, now branded as traitors, fled. Did I mention I did that really awful dungeon with the butterflies? You have a time limit to grab twelve or something. Anyway, I was really pathetically bad at that and actually never managed to do it. I'm lame.

I also said the plot was moving into a more Rikku-centric part. Everyone gets separated in the desert, and after you pick up everyone sans Yuna, the group makes their way to the Al Bhed Home. Tidus ia apparently really terrible at putting two and two together, and worse still at reading people's emotions, so he finally realizes that at the end of her journey, Yuna will die. Then he is sad. I admit I'm curious to know what he thought would happen.

Gameplay happens. I run around and horde some Al Bhed primers, fight some baddies, and finish making Kimarhi my new white mage. Yuna'll be gone for awhile and I'm not getting stuck fighting something awful without white magic. Everyone hops on board Cid's airship, deciding that, hey, Yuna's pretty bright! She's probably headed to Bevelle to get the next aeon. Unfortunately, nothing is ever that easy after the first double-digit hours in an RPG, and they arrive to see...

Holy toledo, Seymour is trying to marry Yuna! Not cool. What's worse, he's also wearing quite possibly the worst formal wedding garb I have ever seen. That jacket must have shoulder pads, because he looks pretty hunchy. The cone hat really doesn't suit him, either, especially since his weird antennae are sticking out of it. Since this was probably a shotgun wedding, though, we'll have to cut him some slack.

At least Yuna looks nice.

Unfortunately, we can't get down to Bevelle because a horrible dragon thing called Evrae is trying to eat our faces. Not good. Even though it's really just doing its job to protect the city from flying intruders, the party goes and whacks it from the deck of the airship. This also happens to be a notorious fight, since you keep getting poisoned. Poison, in this game, wipes out like a quarter of your max HP ever time you take a turn, and the stupid boss itself is immune to it. Woe. I have to try twice before I manage to win, then I go down to interrupt the wedding and... and I get knocked off by a goon.

Furious, I reload my game, kill the stupid dragon again, and flatten said goons. I want my damn save point.

Seymour doesn't want to fight, though. He wants to kill Tidus and his motley crew, then marry Yuna so he can continue to be a creepy undead weirdo. Although he doesn't look like it, he's dead and he wasn't sent, so technically we are dealing with zombie Seymour. Ick.

Anyway, Yuna apparently would rather fall to her untimely death than marry cone hat-wearing zombie moles, so she jumps off the balcony. She lands on Gonsnash, though, so everything's okay. The part takes its cue and goes down to the Bevelle temple after her, knowing it would be her destination. The Bevelle temple has a save point, but it also has the worst cloister of trials ever, and I spend twenty minutes wandering aimlessly through what sort of looks like the world from Tron before I get anything significant done. I find my extra prize when I finish, only to realize I made a really dumb minor mistake and can't have it. Oops.

Reload. Redo. Get a new weapon for Kimarhi. At least the second time it only takes me fifteen minutes. I get Bahamut, which I name normally. Regrettably, though, more of Seymour's goons are waiting to take everyone into custody once they leave the Chamber of the Fayth. I saved, so I'm not particularly displeased. Everyone is tried for killing Seymour the Nutbar before getting thrown off to their punishment--a maze. Tidus, Wakka and Rikku end up swimming through some underwater thing. Convenient that only the ones who could swim ended up in there. What's worse, my pal the poison dragon is back, except this time it's undead! I have no trouble this time, though, which just goes to show you being dead makes your attack power suck.

Oh, unless you're Seymour. Then apparently being dead makes you stronger.

Next, I get to play as Yuna. She's running around by herself, which would be more troubling than it is if I had to use items. She can heal, though, so I'm fine until I find Auron. I'm not interested in wandering in the maze for all eternity because I'm lazy, so I look for Lulu for a little while and give up. She'll come back anyway. The music here, which I believe is called Via Purifico, is really pretty, so I relish it for awhile before moving on.

Boss battle. I fight this other summoner guy I've run into a few times. He sounds like Iruka from the Naruto dub. I don't really want to fight him, but fortunately he doesn't die. The party finally reforms and moves on. There's a nice long strip of walkway, which ends with a fight with Seymour. I'm not worried, since leveling up on that walkway is so easy it's frightening. I up my party by ten sphere levels each (which probably took less than an hour) and have no trouble whatsoever with the fight. Seymour now has the ability to merge with some freaky thing, too, so at least I'm not just fighting his regular moley self again. He talks about becoming Sin and he still wants Yuna to be his bride.

He loses. Everyone moves on.

I can't say I was very fond of the next part. There's some emo out in the woods, and then Yuna goes off to hang out by a nice pool of moonlit water with Kimarhi close by. Tidus goes there, and, much to my chagrin, they hook up.

:C

The CGI cutscene is nicely done. The two of them have happy lame times together and play in the water, then have a long underwater kiss. What I find really weird is that Kimarhi doesn't seem bothered by this whatsoever. If I was Kimarhi, and Tidus and Yuna suddenly fell underwater amidst a bunch of violent splashing, I would think they were drowning. He should have plunged in there, saved Yuna, and skipped Tidus out to sea like a rock. Tidus is a good swimmer, but no one ever said he was bright. You never know.

Next is the Calm Lands. I walk forever and ever, have another Pokemon battle with summoner lady again, train some chocobos, and horde some monsters for that colosseum guy. Then I fight a golem. Seymour just doesn't give up. I wonder if he's realized yet that if he kills Yuna, they could just use that other summoner to send her. No undead brides for you.

The next aeon is in a cave, since some guy stole it ages ago and horded it there in the hopes that summoners wouldn't be able to finish their pilgrimages and die. There's no cloister of trials, but there are monsters, and Lulu tells everyone that a summoner she once guarded died at this location. Lucky for them, there are no characters as lame as me, because you wouldn't even be able to get me into that cave if I knew someone died in it. Oh god.

The party ends up fighting said deceased summoner, whose soul wasn't sent when she died. Yuna does the honors. Lulu remarks that it wasn't as sad as she'd thought it would be, to which Wakka offers that maybe she's gotten stronger. Lulu's life is, thus far, the worst in the game. Her boyfriend died, she's failed at pilgrimages, and someone she was supposed to protect got killed while under her care.

There's no cloister of trials, as I said, but there is an incredibly cheap aeon. And by cheap I mean literally cheap. "No," he says, "I won't help your noble cause until you pay me off. Start offering." I fail like five times because I'm really cheap, too, but finally get him. Out of mercy, I keep his actual name--Yojimbo--rather than naming him Ganjazz. I'm saving that name for a special occasion. :)

Finally, my summary reaches the point of the game I'm on! Mt. Gagazet is where the Ronso live, so Kimarhi is basically home. Well... except not really, since those two guys who picked fights with him earlier in the game live there. Furthermore, their leader guy is also a maester, and tells her that Gagazet is a holy mountain, which is no place for a disgraced summoner. Yuna tells them exactly how she feels--about how the truth about Yevon destroyed everything she'd ever thought about it, about how the religion has turned its back on her, and about how she wants to go on anyway, not for praise, but for the people. She wants to bring the Calm for the people, not for Yevon.

I like Yuna for pretty much all the same reasons I like Ion. She's really a nice person. The maester is profoundly moved by her courage and her willingness to sacrifice herself for the good of the world, and proclaims to the mountain that Yuna's strength is every bit as great as its. She is allowed to pass.

Kimarhi's "friends" are cool with this, too, as long as the hornless loser Ronso doesn't get to come, so he fights them to prove he's worthy. Their stats are based on Kimarhi's, so they can't really outlevel you, and I already moved his sphere grid in the direction of white magic, so I'm set. I fight them and win after mooching all their powers. \o/

The guys are actually glad Kimarhi won, and they tell him he's made up for the disgrace of losing a fight with them and losing his horn all those years ago. At least something seems to be going right for a change. The Ronso sing the Hymn of the Fayth for Yuna and tell her that they'll make a statue for her when she brings the calm, even if no one else will. They'll even give her a great horn, like a Ronso, for being so strong.

I'm lamely pleased with Squeenix for referencing the old games.

There's some wandering and random battles. The party visits the graves of summoners who failed on the mountain and keeps going. That O'aka dude's brother also comes to meet us and sell us items! Jubilation! I hand over pretty much all my money for items and equipment, almost die right next to the save point, fix my settings and go to the next obvious place for a boss battle.

It's Seymour, of course. He paved a road of death by coming after Yuna, killing all the Ronso in his way. So much for things going well. He has a crazy speech about becoming Sin to save/kill Spira, which basically just tells us he's lost it. That's not really news, though. He wants Yuna to join him by dying and becoming Sin with him to "save" Spira. This is the notorious fight I mentioned at the beginning, and so he kills me pretty fast because of his zombie status + Full Life combo. I'm too lazy to try again right now, though, so I'll probably level grind a little, change my tactics and fight him later.

Next time, I'm going to talk about Star Ocean 4 because I got it for my birthday and I'm really enjoying it.

\o/ !

2009-09-21T21:21:42Z

Guess who's nineteen?

My birthday was on Saturday, which also means I was nineteen on the nineteenth. That's legal drinking age in Canada, so I got to go out to a pub for my birthday party. It was nice! My parents got me a really pretty dress as a pre-birthday present, so I wore it when we went out. It has the best sleeves ever. They're bell sleeves! I lovelovelove them. I even got a free shot at the pub because it was my birthday, except I had to drink it without the use of my hands.

Yeah.

Also, I did not get hammered. I had three drinks and could still walk in a straight line, so it's all good. I had a nice time and my awesome friend took some really good photos for me. One of my sisters who lives out of town also happened to be in town for the weekend, and I think that's the first time (that I can remember) she's been here on my birthday. :>

Anyone who's been to my house when it's someone's birthday can tell you that we always get a really big cake, but because of all the people that came over afterwards, we went through it a lot faster. We also gave some to my friend to bring home to her boyfriend, since he won't be 19 until December and wasn't able to come out with us. It was a 1/2 sheet cake and now there's like an eighth of it left.

Oh! And thank you guys for the various "Happy Birthday!"s I found dispersed throughout my f-list when I went through it today! You're awesome! A couple of people sent me virtual gifts, too, which was nice of them. Thanks, guys!

COERCION, PART 2

2009-09-10T03:36:44Z

HEY. HEY AZZY. THIS INANE LJ POST IS JUST FOR YOU.

Through my absolutely terrible indoor photography, it's difficult to see why this chainsaw is awesome. The display case it's on top of is about six feet high. The chainsaw is almost as long as the height of the display case. Maybe I'm just stupid and don't know how big chainsaws are normally, but this one is like more than five feet long.

Sadly, I lacked another person to use as height comparison, but you get the idea.

Now in Technicolor

2009-09-08T02:50:20Z

Suddenly August gave way to September and it's been pouring rain. I like rain, though, so it's okay! :>

I decided to do that image meme thing that's been popping up on my f-list. Minor page stretch.

01. A picture with flowers.

I actually had trouble finding one that was fandomy. 8|a

02. A picture in which the color blue dominates

Isn't this beautiful?

03. A picture with a smiling face

Does "confidently grinning" count? I just wanted an excuse for everyone to see Pinako with eye lazers.

04. A "we're a team!" picture

05. A picture with seven or more colors

06. An angsty picture

There are so many angsty, yet brotherly, pictures of the Elric brothers. So many. I picked a lesser angsty one because c'mon guys! Don't worry! Be happy!

07. A picture you think of when you hear the word "sweet"

My Rhys is always sweet! And he's so cute in his hood! *fangirl fangirl*

08. A "best friends" picture

I love pictures of the girls from an RPG party all hanging out together as friends. It's just really cute.

09. A picture that will make us go "oh my!"

Jade. Jade. Look at Jade! What the helllll.

10. An "awwww" picture

That middle panel is really "awww". C:

11. A rainy day picture

For the record, that bird person is a guy, as much as he tends to not look like one.

12. A "cling!" picture

She's clinging to his arm. It totally counts.

13. A group picture

14. A cuddly picture

I don't care if it's common. It's so perfect!

15. An action picture

Nothing says 'action scene' like a speeding chair.

16. A kissing picture

Is it sad that this was the best I could do? And yeah, I did write that on there.

17. A picture you think of when you hear the word "ouch!"

THEIR HANDS ARE ON FIRRRRRE. I dunno. My birthday is this month, so I didn't want any needless emo. Have this instead!

18. A picture with someone sleeping in it

Rita and Estelle are so sweet together. Awwww.

19. A picture that will make us laugh

Maybe it's only funny if you've played Vesperia, but if you haven't, it's Karol in his Lunch Lady costume + the swirly glasses.

404

2009-09-05T04:09:59Z

This is the internet, so somebody's got to sympathize with this.

You know when you decide not to buy something/save a file/whatever because you're convinced you can just do it later and it will still be there? And then it isn't? I did that! Aaaaaaargh. There was, like, this one piece of fanart I loveloveloved to pieces and I checked it out a couple of times over on DA, but now it's not there. That, or my 5+ searches were just incredibly frivolous, which is seeming less and less likely.

Whyyyyyyy.

That's happened a few times with pictures I liked. A-at least my bad luck in that regard hasn't yet extended to purchasing things, since I tend to be really "OH GOD BUY ON SIGHT THEY MIGHT NOT HAVE IT LATER" if I know I need it.

YOU GUYS!!!

2009-08-27T16:47:59Z

You guys, you guys!!

Okay, so, as you know, Final Fantasy Dissidia is out in English now. That means Zidane has a voice! Vivi got one in Kingdom Hearts 2, but that doesn't suffice for my extreme FFIX prejudice. A-anyway, for anyone who doesn't want it/isn't going to/can't get the game, go listen. Zidane sounds... well, a lot like Tidus, actually, but considering the voice wasn't all that made me hate the wanker, I really don't mind! Kuja takes a little more getting used to, though. I expected him to sound a little more airy, but as long as he laughs stupidly during the fight (and he does), I can put up with that, too.

On top of all that, they kept all the old tracks and stuff and it makes me so happy. Hearing the FFIV boss theme during Cecil's opening with Golbez, and the IX boss theme when Zidane fights Kuja is just icing on the cake. Icing, I tell you.

/o/

2009-08-20T05:30:31Z

So, the other day, there was a little get-together at my friend's house. We set up his Xbox 360 outside so we could play under the gazebo thing, and we were discussing what games we should bring out.

ME: Do you have Street Fighter 4? Because I really want to play that.
FRIEND: Nope.
*other friend shows up a while later*
FRIEND 2: Hey, why didn't you tell me we were going to play Xbox? I would've brought Street Fighter 4!
ME: 8[

Anyway,

it's exactly a month until my birthday (on the 19th)! I'll be 19, which is legal drinking age in my province.

\o/

Also, in my ponderings, I came to discover that herons will actually land and nest in trees. That's kind of a freaky thought. They're like four feet tall. I'm not sure how I'd feel if I was walking along and looked up to see a four foot fall bird in the tree above me. I think my reaction might involve screaming and running. They're pretty, but I'm not sure how I'd feel about being that close to one (especially within dive-bombing range). There's one down at the waterfront sometimes; he just chills out on a log and fixes his feathers. I never have my camera on me when he's there, though. I want to take a picture of him. :C

Here's a picture of another great blue heron if you're interested. Obviously it's not my photo, but it's a nice shot. :>

Final Fantasy X - Part Three

2009-08-13T01:09:19Z

Um, firstly, I'd like to apologize to anyone who likes Tidus, because I kind of bash him a lot in these things. Nothing against you, though! Think of it as being playful teasing. You have to admit he's kind of a dork. I still think I'd like him a lot more if the game had no voice acting. Anyway, onward!

A lot of things happened in-game since the last time I made one of these posts. Something else really crazy happened, too. Somewhere between eight and sixteen hours of gameplay...

...

...it stopped being horribly painful!

I mean, I still have to cope with Tidus the incredible loser, but beyond that, the game itself is actually a lot like the old 2D games in some ways, and I like that.

Gameplay-wise, I passed thee part where Seymour starts being a little more active in the plot. The Crusaders attacked Sin, met with a grim fate, everyone ran through a few locales, and Tidus baww'd some more about daddy being Sin. All that good stuff. The cutscenes are so much more impacting than the "Tales of" ones seem to be, too, and I really appreciate it. After pathetically scrambling through the Thunder Plains, I also got Ixion, who I didn't name anything silly. Sorry. :C

In Guado Salom, Seymour decided Yuna was to be his delicious bride. She finds out through a recording on a sphere that he's bad news and killed his dad, so she decides to marry him in the hopes he'll agree to atone for it. I kind of suspected that would be the case, since he is kind of flamboyant and he's obviously doing something seedy. Roleplay game villains tend to be over-the-top in at least one regard. Of course, the other characters weren't too happy about Yuna putting herself in the line of fire, rushed off to save their beloved damsel and got into a nice brawl with Seymour.

Speaking of which, I really friggin' hate Anima.

Remember before how I said I wanted to know what kind of horrible, tortured soul spawned that? I take it back. I don't want to know. (Actually, I guess sort of already know because I know half the key plot points, but that's not what I mean.) Its Overlimit attack is really creepy and also shows you that the bottom half of Anima has a freaky "face" and some arms to pound you with. In other words, it appears to be double-sided. D:

I will forever be amused that the Guado, bishie-fail Seymour included, have giant mole hands. It's hilarious and part of me thinks maybe they dug Guado Salom themselves long ago. That would be so awesome. If that were true, they'd be my new favorite characters. :'DDDD

What really creeps me out about Seymour is that, as you're pounding him, he still finds time to compliment Yuna, even after you floor his creepy aeon and punch him in the face with some Overlimits. It's like, "Oh Yuna, you're beating the crap out of me and that makes me want you even more."

What's really weird is that, after I was done, I decided to go scope out DeviantArt for some Yuna/Seymour shipping just for the lulz and there was none besides some standard wedding scene stuff that wasn't really in support either way. I was pretty sure someone out there would ship that. I bet the fangirls probably decided it would be hotter to ship him with Tidus. Fine by me, really; I don't like Tidus anyway. |:

As much as FF pairings tend to be hilarious, though, I think I'll stay away from that pool of the internet. Who knows what terrors await me. Though the cosplays for RPGs tend to be quite good, I won't trust it after my trip into the FFIV fanart. Oh Rydia, why...

The battle, of course, ends with Seymour's... very quick death, which is more or less proof in and of itself that he comes back in some shape or form later. Bad guys never die without a monologue. Sorry, Seymour. Final Fantasy (and RPG) cliches have ruined your shock factor. I am given proper titling rights to Shiva, whom I name "Glace" because I'm lame but also French. Next one will be Ganjazz unless it's pretty, and I really don't remember what elemental figures FFX gets.

I have to say I've grown attached to the sphere puzzles because they're interesting without being too difficult, too easy or too ridiculous. (The bonus stuff is nice, too!) So far, the ice one is my favorite.

Lastly, I got to the scene in which Tidus hums in a flashback. The dialogue leading up to it alarmed me immensely because I was really scared my horrific "Hakuna Matata" prediction would come to fruition and I would have to cry forever. It didn't, though, and there was little suffering involved. Earlier, the characters also find a sphere left by Jecht, containing a recording directed at Tidus. Jecht... really doesn't seem that horrible to me. Obviously he's still a big jerk and he wasn't always very nice to his son, but he wasn't really as bad as Tidus makes it seem. Sadly, I already know a reconciliation is not possible, which makes me a little more interested in punching Tidus than I already was.

I didn't pass any other particularly notable scenes, but now I'm around 20 hours into the game, so I'm getting there! :>

I'm into a more Rikku-centric part, too, from the looks of it. Wakka will have to man up to his Al-Bhed phobia.

Fly Up, Fly Far, Far Away!

2009-08-10T01:43:11Z

I was out of town for a couple of days and I still find it surprising that a place four hours from where I live can be so much warmer. It seems cool here by comparison now. Wtf, Okanagan. Anyway as for the fandom-relevant parts, while I was there, I got to go to two places of awesome nerding.

Comic book store! \o/

EB Games! \o/

There are neither of those things in the town I live in, so suffice to say, hanging out in them makes me feel really dorky and happy. In the comic book store, I acquired for myself a Crisis Core figure of Aerith and an FFX figure of Auron. (Apparently there aren't figures of Kimarhi and Lulu in that set, which I find kind of weird.) It's the first time I've ever really seen figures like that of characters I recognize. When I went to a con, I saw tons of Gundam and generic anime girl figures, but this store had, like, Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy, which is more in my league. Anyway, the figures are really detailed and cool and I'm really pleased with them!

At EB Games, I managed to hook myself a copy of Persona 3! It's the extended one (the FES version or something?) and I got it brand-new for a good price. Everyone and their dog has seriously been bludgeoning me into playing Persona 3. I looked for P4, too, but they didn't have that. The icing on the cake was the fact that the store clerk who found the game for me even told me it was really good and that I should buy it. I plan to start it once I finish either FFX or Grandia III. :>

I had a good time while I was gone and I really got to enjoy the sun and everything. Getting to hang out at a hotel's outdoor pool just makes it really feel like August. |D

Drabble Gifts!

2009-08-03T06:14:34Z

I love you guys! Comments enabled this time only because Yuki punched me into it. I mean it. I keep meaning to write drabbles about other Abyss characters, but I love Ion so much and he's so horribly misrepresented in fanfiction that I always feel compelled to do something about it. Anyway, I bypassed by horrible bias for the sake of this drabble and plan to write at least one more Jade+Dist thing sometime. \o/

...it's so hot in here. Aaaaaah. *dies a little*

I'll probably find a whole bunch of hideous grammatical mistakes and typos in these when I read them over coherently. Derp. I know they're in there. Pretend they aren't!

Title: The Divide
Author: sagesoren
Series: Tales of the Abyss
Characters: Jade & Dist (?!)
Rating: G
Warnings: Jade is in it. 8|
Also, spoilers for Jade's backstory.
Summary: For yukidragon!
You were always weak.

(This was experimental and does not count as our trade unless you're in the mood for a mini drabble war.)

There was always something about Saphir that Jade found maddening--not that he could be bothered to put forward the effort to make this clear. It was childish; silly; he had better things to do than waste his time pondering the 'why's and 'how's of their friendship-that-wasn't, and maybe something about that made it just a little more difficult to tolerate.

Saphir was a pathetic boy, nothing more than a sniveling child who could do nothing but hide behind the adults and cry when something went wrong. He couldn't fight back. He didn't use artes. He was hardly the genius they said he was; said he would be.

He was weak.

Jade had no time for him and his clinging or his tripping or his dripping nose. He had books to devour and information to glean and if he had to read every last book on the face of the earth in order to be able to use the seventh fonon, he would do it. Saphir wasn't going to help. Saphir was in the way. Obstructive. Annoying. Useless. Weak.

And thus, when the professor was gone and the building ablaze, it was not really Saphir he wanted to turn to, but somehow, there was no one else left.

"Help me," he said, face blank. He was not afraid of Death. "We will bring Professor Nebilim back to life."

Years later, thinking back on that very moment, Jade couldn't help but wonder why he had made that choice at all. It was ironic, in truth. If he had ignored the boy that one final time--not asked for help, not accepted assistance--maybe fomicry would never had been born. Maybe no one else would have helped him with his crazy idea. Maybe no one else could have. And in the end, maybe he had realized that, even then.

You were always weak.

Title: The Sound of Waves
Author: sagesoren
Series: Soul Eater
Characters: Maka & Chrona
Rating: G
Warnings: Again, only if you know nothing about Chrona. Still using "he" for a pronoun, but feel free to read it as "she" if you so desire.
Summary: For my LJ BFF azkun, to ease the searing pain of that badfic. D:
She was his ocean. Maka/Chrona.

Um, this came out a lot lamer than I intended it to. Oh, and there's some tense flopping because I felt experimental. 8|a

She was special.

He knew from the very first time her soul had touched his. He knew from the way her soul was gentle when they came into contact. The way her soul could bring water to his endless desert; hope to his expanse of repressed loneliness and fading desire to defend his own character. She was his first friend; the first person to ever try to fight through that barrier and break it down, just to find out what was on the other side.

She was special.

On the off chance that Maka managed to brave his stammered protests and pathetic attempts at escape, Chrona would find that when she was close to him, he felt... more at ease. Of course, there was still the pounded-in urge to tear himself from her and flail off to the nearest wall, but beyond that, there was an eerily perfect sense of calm, as though it rippled from her into him.

Like the ocean.

He wants to work up the courage to maybe someday kiss her forehead or touch her hair, but for now, that's too much. Too scary. Too far beyond his weak boundaries. But she understands.

"Chrona," she says, smiling, "is it okay if I hold your hand?"

He gives it to her, still shaking a little if only from habit. Her hand is warm and soft. His is probably cold and quivering. Maybe she won't notice.

"Chrona," she says again, and he is inwardly very happy that anyone would bother to say that name fondly. "Let me kiss you."

Chrona is scared for a moment because a kiss is really a big deal and he doesn't know how to deal with it yet. He also doesn't know how long it will be until he does know. On top of that, she didn't ask. She said. And Maka is too nice to say no to.

"O-o-okay..." comes the mumbled response. The frightened response.

And Maka kisses her fingers and presses them gently to his cheek. He can deal with that. After all, she brought him the ocean.

Final Fantasy X - Part Two

2009-07-31T16:20:48Z

The "You Should Write..." Meme!
Sage's Thread

===

My playing has been kind of sporadic because I have family in town and our visiting schedule is all over the place. Mostly I just run around and level grind a bit when I have a little time because I have become a little too attached to playing with the sphere grid.

Everyone gets to Luca, where the sports announcer booms over the city that Wakka's team is a bunch of dorks who no one likes. I feel bad for them. I don't watch sports, so I have no idea if real announcers are allowed to be that mean. Tidus then decides to be cool and go stand on top of a box so he can shout the opposite. No one believes him. I wonder why. 8|

Seymour shows up here, too. I forgot how stupid his hair was, and so I am amused.

Yuna also gets kidnapped around this part, cementing her status as sweet innocent maiden, but she is quickly saved.

Wakka's team goes over to the stadium to prepare for their game. So far, I don't know anyone who can actually win at blitzball and I really have no idea what that says about it. The rules really don't sound all that bad, but when you put them into play, they're... oh my god. Every time I tried to score a goal, no less than four members of the opposing team would swarm and destroy me. D:

Naturally, I lose every time I play. I hope I don't have to play for plot reasons again any time soon because I feel sort of bad for crushing Wakka's dreams. Woe. Next, a bunch of fiends go and swim in the ~~fishtank?~~ blitzball arena and I have to fight with Wakka and Tidus, followed by a bigger fight using Wakka, Tidus and Auron. Hurray!

Everyone is getting pounded, so Seymour calls up this huge ugly thing to destroy the fiends. I have a hard time believing it's an aeon since it looks like a mummified monster being strangled by some fishing hooks. What kind of tormented soul was used to make that thing? Everyone is happy to be alive, though, so I guess they're not really going to complain about the means.

Auron informs Tidus that Daddy is now Sin, and Tidus spirals into despair or denial or something similar before they all move onward to Djose where they can laugh at the ocean. I was kind of dreading that cutscene. I am now in familiar territory, though, as this is part of the game I played myself once. Tidus has proclaimed that random screams no longer do it for him and so Yuna makes him laugh loudly at the ocean for five minutes while everyone else looks very disturbed. I can't say I blame them.

By now, I think I know why Tidus's voice makes me cringe. He reminds me of Nathan Lane somehow, and at any moment, I think I'm inwardly expecting him to burst out singing Hakuna Matata. I'm not sure how I would feel about it if it actually happened, but in principle, it's slightly amusing. Please don't sing, Tidus.

On the road again, a bunch of helpful people give me free things and I fight another summoner. It's kind of like Pokemon, now that I think about it. They both bring out some elemental beast and then sick 'em on each other. As I only have two and she's using Ifrit, I am forced to take out my dear Gonsnash.

Gonsnash uses Overdrive!
Ifrit has fainted!
It's not very effective...
Gonsnash receives no AP.

I don't know how I was talked into naming her Gonsnash. I may just need a Ganjazz to balance this out, but not until I get another aeon under more acceptable circumstances.

I hit a few minor cut scenes in which I become increasingly fond of Yuna. She's really nice. I just wish people didn't flap their arms around when they talked. Games have gotten a lot better at matching mouth movements to dialogue since FFX, so it still kind of weirds me out when they do the Godzilla thing and move their mouth before or after speaking. I'm thinking this game might be better without voice acting in most places. I guess I got used to the old Final Fantasy games (or their remakes, which have minimal voice acting anyway.) The laughing at the ocean thing would actually be kind of sweet in an awkward way if not for Tidus's failboat powers.

I flee from some bombs like a coward because they almost kill me once and I realize I don't know how bombs work in FFX. Thankfully, the next save point area offers me the little info ball (which I run into by accident somehow), and I can do a useful tutorial telling me that bombs explode after three hits. Thank you!

I am now about eight hours into the game! I'm not sure how much more of it I'll blog; maybe just stuff I think I can write something interesting for, because I'm really not very funny. We'll see.

Final Fantasy X - Part One

2009-07-29T02:38:59Z

As I've mentioned before, I've been trying to kick myself through Final Fantasy X. I played a little bit of it before, years ago, and I know what happens in the course of the plot, but this is my first time really playing it. However, I hate Tidus like burning and whined to my friend that it's too hard to play it when I don't have someone around to do "audio commentary" to. It takes my mind off the fail parts.

So my friend suggested I blog it instead! Anyway, I was already around three and a half hours in, so this is pretty much going from there. I won't blog all my playtime from here on out because that's cumbersome, but some here and there could be fun, so here goes.

Basically only read if you've played the game or don't mind potential spoilers, I guess. :>

I had to be somewhere at 5pm, so I didn't get to play for very long this time, but I started off from the Great Hall in Kilika. Yuna gets chewed out by another lady summoner wearing what looks like a stripper's get-up with a laced-up piece of tarp overtop. By this point, I have to say I'm getting kind of attached to Yuna. She seems pretty reasonable and level-headed.

The lack of expressions still kind of bothers me in these graphics for some reason, though.

Anyway, a few things happen and Tidus gets punted after Yuna and co., landing me in a nice little puzzle room. Thankfully, Tidus doesn't talk during these parts, and I find the music nice. The puzzle is pretty methodical and short, so I get through it quickly only to be thwarted by my TV screen. I couldn't see the staircase I was meant to go down, so I ran around aimlessly for a few minutes, wondering what I missed. Woe.

Tidus catches up with the other three, and Yuna rejoins them after an explanation of where aeons come from. I'm given Ifrit, and a naming screen comes up. Although I am very tempted to name him Fo' Sizzle, out of nerdy FF respect, I call him Ifrit and we're on our way. Unfortunately for Valefor, I didn't decide on the same course of action last time around, so she's stuck with the name Gonsnash. Don't ask.

Leaving the Great Hall, Tidus has a narrative about missing Zanarkand and says it feels like he could just scream. He then actually screams and I smash my face into the couch cushion. God.

I level-grind in the woods a little to fix a mistake I made on my sphere grid, and, that done, I headed back to the port and horde some items. From there, the characters get into the boat to head to Luca. The other blitzball team "lol"s over Tidus a little, and I "lol" at them and their stupid outfits. I also discover there's a guy on Wakka's team named Jassu, which I sadly misread as Jesus. :C

Eventually Tidus goes and finds a blitzball on the deck, which compels him to remember some emo tiems with daddy. I'm a terrible person or something, because every time this happens, I can't help but be amused by how ridiculous and over-done his dad is. ("HURRR WHAT'S THAT, SON? YOU CAN'T DO THIS BLITZBALL MOVE? THAT'S OKAY. DADDY WILL SHOW OFF AND THEN LAUGH AT YOUR ABYSMAL FAILURE!") I also can't help but notice that Jecht and NonKiddy!Tidus both have the ridiculous thing going on with their pant legs not being the name length. What a strange thing to inherit from the father you hate.

I'm forced into a contrived mini-game to vent Tidus's emo, and then I run off to save. I'm warming up to the game a little more. I've plowed through most of the other Final Fantasies, and I'm beginning to find X's separate charm, but god, Tidus is a huge loser. :C

I... I was super pep-talked by the end of Eternal Sonata. I will be open-minded. 8Db

Conformist 8Db

2009-07-25T04:34:40Z

Mooched from karthur. I find stuff like this really interesting for some reason.

Anonymous commenting enabled and IP logging disabled, just in case anyone wants to ask something but is embarrassed. Go for it! :>

So I want you to ask me something you think you should know about me, something that should be obvious, but you have no idea about, or something you've always been curious about but have never asked, or something completely silly that you'd like me to answer for kicks. No limits on the range of questions, either: ask me anything you want to know about, whether it's a fannish opinion or a question about a fic of mine or trivia about my real life or my thoughts on events in the offline world.

Ask away. Then post this in your LJ and find out what people don't know about you!

TL;DR :)

2009-07-20T02:29:45Z

My computer has sound again after three years! It's awesome. I had a mute computer for so long, though, that I forgot about most of the sounds it makes, so when I have Outlook Express open and I get mail, it actually dings me. That's actually pretty useful. 8Db

I'm playing Eternal Sonata (again, sort of), and I am still shocked at how hideous Baroque is. I mean, obviously someone thought its design was a good idea in principle, since it's a snowy wonderland with a big magical rainbow castle, but somewhere along the line, it didn't really work. Often the colors I notice most prominently in the buildings are green and orange, which isn't very pretty. Oh, and the locale/dungeon area next to Baroque is called the Sharp Mountains, which was a good pun but unfortunately makes a really horrible adjective. (There's also a Blues Sea and a Mt. Rock.) I think maybe the puns were probably a little more subtle in Japan. xD

Oh, Eternal Sonata, I love you so much. Incidentally, though, I also love sharing, so here's a scanlated Soul Eater doujin and two Abyss badfics! \o/

Title: Strawberries & Mint (Doujinshi)
Author/Artist: KISS
Series: Soul Eater
Characters: Soul & Maka
Rating: G
Warnings: None!
Summary: Soul is sick and asks Maka for a shortcake, which incidentally turns into a metaphor. Soul/Maka.
DL Link: 4Shared
Translated by d_angel, scanned by mikk1o5, and scanlated by me. :)

===

Title: Emo Badfic Tiems
Author: sagesoren
Series: Tales of the Abyss
Characters: Anise & Tear (?!)
Rating: G
Warnings: Spoilers for after Mt. Zaleho, the second time, or Episode 19. Also, emo everywhere. You've been warned!
Summary: Some Anise+Tear bonding time over a whole bunch of boring emo. Glaring Anise/Ion undertone, because you all know how weak I am. :C

I'll force myself to like Tear eventually. She's probably horrifically OOC here.

===

Mohs. Her parents. Life before working in the church. Luke. Akzeriuth. Anise dreams about nearly everything that has happened to her; good and bad, it stays in the back of her mind and works itself into her own personal dreamspaces, and try as she might, she cannot not stop herself from dreaming about him.

His blood on her hands.

The way he smiled anyway.

"Anise."

She didn't deserve it. She didn't deserve the kindness and the forgiveness. She didn't deserve him and she doesn't deserve the way Luke hasn't given up on her, even though she dropped him in a heartbeat.

"Anise!"

But all she wants is to tell him she's sorry. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

"Anise!!"

"Ion!" she gasps, waking with a start to realize those are Tear's hands on her shoulders, shaking her awake. She sighs, becoming aware of the sweat on her face. Anise takes a moment to compose herself, then looks into the face of her worried companion.

"You were having a nightmare," the young woman explains softly, letting go with a hint of reluctance. "Are you going to be okay?"

Anise nods almost feverishly. She wants to admit wryly how she feels like she'll never be alright again, but it's not worth the trouble. "Y-yeah. I'm fine. Did I wake you up?"

"I was already up." Tear is trying to keep stoic, like usual, but even as her face straightens, Anise can still see the worry in her eyes. "I've been thinking a lot about what happened..."

The younger girl leans forward into her knees and wraps her arms around them, murmuring in agreement. The last little while has seemed like nothing but an unending nightmare. "Me, too. I keep thinking that if I--"

"It wasn't your fault," Tear says almost sternly. "It's like the colonel said. It's possible he chose to--"

"I know, I know." Somehow it feels better thinking it's all her fault; that it was preventable. It tortures her to do it, but thinking only one piece of the puzzle needed to be changed to fix things seems a lot better than two or even three. The specifics don't even matter to her anymore. She just wants him back where she can see him and where she can deny his forgiveness. Where she can hear him forgive her in the first place. Anise rakes a hand back through her damp bangs and sighs. "But I don't even know what to think anymore. It doesn't matter. We just need to keep moving forward and... and doing what I know he would have wanted us to do."

"Blame me, too."

The request comes so suddenly that Anise has no time to form a proper reaction. "What?"

"Blame me, too." The soldier breaks eye contact for a moment, only to turn back with an almost determined look on her face. "When I knew Van's plan would move further along because I didn't kill him, I blamed myself. I blamed myself for not being strong enough, and it was hard. Luke... Luke taught me I don't need to feel things alone. And you don't either. It's partly my fault that the Fon Master..."

Anise doesn't even think she's ready to hear his name yet without crying, and she definitely cannot afford to cry. "Thanks, Tear, but you now I don't want to blame anyone." Lies. She blames herself and she knows it. They all know it.

"Then," Tear says, and she sounds gentle in a way Anise has never heard her sound, "we'll suffer in silence together." And she reaches out and hugs her.

===

And here's some counter-measure for the emofic! \o/

Title: My Sky
Author: sagesoren
Series: Tales of the Abyss
Characters: Anise & Ion mainly, but everyone else gets at least a mention.
Rating: G
Warnings: A tiny, tiny bit post-Absorption Gate with some spoilers relating to what happens there.
Summary: I'm not sure who I'd be without you. Anise/Ion.

Van was stronger than they had expected; stronger, and so, so much faster. It had been hard to keep track of who was doing what amid the blast of artes and the clashing of metal. By the time he was gone and everything was done with not even a body left behind, they made their way back up.

Everyone was quiet. It was a mix of still being dazed from fighting, and the grim feeling that often came with reflection upon the idea of taking a human life. Mostly, though, they were all just mutually grateful to be alive. Anise wondered if she was the only one who felt like they'd just barely made it out. Like it hardly counted as a real victory when all he'd done was slip backward into the core like Sync.

It was decided they would go back to Keterberg for a night so they could pick up Ion and have a chance to calm their nerves before the long trip home. It was a quiet flight. No one seemed to know what to say to Tear, and no one was displeased when the snowy port came into sight. The snow was preferable over the silence anyway.

Nephry and Ion were waiting for them as they exited the Albiore. Everyone trudged off the dock, single-file, still a little grim-faced, but doing their best to mask it behind their gladness to be out. She didn't know about everyone else, but all Anise wanted to do was collapse into some pillows and sleep for a week to forget about everything. She didn't have much time to consider this, however, as she was very suddenly engulfed in a hug.

"I-Ion..." She smiled into his shoulder. It was good to see him again, a plus side to having not died at the hands of the commandant.

"I'm so glad you're all alright," he said, stepping back to hold her at arm's length. There was a look of genuine relief in his eyes. She also noticed that Nephry had kindly thought to drape a blanket around his shoulders in her absence. "Did everything go well?"

Thinking about the distant look in Tear's eyes afterward, Anise couldn't help but feel a surge of guilt. Was it wrong to be glad Van was gone..? She broke eye contact with Ion and sighed. "Yeah. The commandant's gone, so that just leaves the big pile of other problems."

Out of the corner of her eye, she thought she saw him smile sympathetically. Luke called something to her about heading to town, though, so she grabbed for Ion's hand and headed after the others. "We'll talk more when we get back to Keterberg."

===

Being inside a real building again instead of a flying machine or a dark passage full of fonons was a welcome change. Everyone was invited back to Nephry's for tea before they headed back to the hotel for the night. They spent that time trying to unwind from everything that had happened before heading off to get some well-deserved sleep. Once the conversations had tapered off, everyone thanked Nephry for the hospitality and headed for the door.

Anise lingered hesitantly, however, obviously unsure of what to do with herself.

"You coming, Anise?" Guy asked, holding the door open for her. She could feel the chilled breeze play against her clothes, reminding her that it was, in fact, cold out there.

"No," she said decidedly. "I have stuff to do, so I'll see you guys later."

Guy quirked an eyebrow at this, but didn't object. They bid their farewells and the young man jogged off through the snow after everyone else. Closing the door, Anise turned back to Nephry, who had been watching the exchange inconspicuously from her seat.

"Is it okay if I stay here tonight?" she asked the woman.

Nephry looked to Ion, who offered no further explanation, then back to Anise. "Well," she said slowly, "I can't see any reason why I should keep a Fon Master guardian away from her charge, so if you like, please feel free." She smiled, and Anise could imagine for a split second what Jade would look like if he were completely honest, too.

"Thanks." Anise cracked a smile and went to reclaim her spot next to Ion. There was a moment of awkward silence before Nephry stood and began collecting everyone's china, though it really wasn't necessary for her to do it herself.

"...But if you'll excuse me, I have a few things to take care of," she said. "If you need anything, please alert me or one of the maids."

"Thank you," Ion said. Anise fidgeted in her seat until the governor had vanished into the next room. At least she had a good sense of gravity in moments like this, unlike Luke.

"How is Tear?" Ion asked gently, pulling Anise from her thoughts.

"O-oh. She's doing okay." Sigh. "I think Luke's probably a big help, but it's not like she wants to talk about it or anything, so there's not too much we can do." There was a puase, and she jumped as Ion's fingertips suddenly traced across the bare skin of her shoulder. His hands were cold.

"You're hurt," he said, previous topic gone from the spotlight, a frown marring his expression. Anise looked at her shoulder and realized that the heavy bruising was simply the aftermath of having seventh fonists who were too worn out to heal every little nick after the battle with Van.

Anise shrugged. "It'll go away by itself." She hadn't noticed it herself anyway, which went to show how little of a problem it really was. "Besides, you obviously spent all that time worrying about us instead of yourself."

From this close, it was obvious he hadn't slept very well, despite being tired from travel and their trips to the Sephiroth. Even with skin as fair as his, she could tell he was pale. Although his eyes were inquisitive and warm, subtle things in his mannerisms still betrayed his physical condition.

"I'll be alright," he said. "I know you're all strong, but so is--" He sighed and went to correct himself. "--so was Van. I'm sure you can understand my concern."

The girl laughed humorlessly. The thought of dying down there was terrible, especially considering what had been at stake besides just their lives. Everyone's lives had hung in the balance--theirs, the world's... Ion's... "Yeah. We made it out, though. It could have been a lot worse than this." She gestured vaguely to her collection of scrapes and bruises.

"That's certainly a relief." He tilted his head slightly and smiled at her for a moment. "If anyone could do it, it was all of you. I'm very proud of you."

Heat flooded Anise's face and she had to turn away and pretend to cough just to break eye contact. She heard him laugh mildly at her reaction.

"I didn't mean to embarrass you."

That wasn't the problem, she thought.

"A-anyway, the whole reason I stayed was to make sure somebody's taking care of you," Anise announced, hoping the blush had receded at least a little bit. "If we go back to Daath and you keel over on me, I'll get sacked for sure!"

Not entirely true, of course. It wasn't as though her 'generous benefactor' would let her go so easily when she was the easiest link to Ion's day.

"You don't need to worry," assured Ion. "I'll sleep better knowing everyone is safe and sound."

"You'd better."

Ion laughed again and a difference in his voice that had only been faint before they'd left was now much more apparent. He sounded relieved, and, moreover, he sounded happier. Recently, there was something about him that seemed more assured and at ease, and the quality was very distinct now. Was that really just because the foremost of their problems had been dealt with, or was there something else to it?

"Well then," he said, rising from his chair, "I suppose we might as well get an early start."

==

True to his word, Ion fell asleep easily and Anise knew that by morning he would probably look a lot better. She had a hard time getting to sleep herself, though, and spent a long time mulling over what had happened and what the others were probably doing without her. Natalia had informed her prior to docking at the port that she planned to try to take Tear's mind off everything, and she knew Jade would probably go off on his own for awhile.

Children, and all that.

That left Guy and Luke to find something other than swordplay to occupy their minds with. She was pretty sure she wasn't the only one sick of the idea of fighting right now. Finally she managed to settle herself down next to Ion. She had refused a separate room if only because habit was habit, and she knew how good he was at getting into trouble when he was out of her sight.

Anise couldn't stop herself from fretting over him for a little longer, though, pulling the blankets up just a little further and smoothing her hand over the covers. She couldn't help but smile at him, too--at his beautiful, trusting face, so much more innocent than hers would ever be again.

Without him, it would be so difficult to discern what was important. After all, she had always thought it was money, since it had been the root of her problems for as long as she could remember. Now, though, she knew a little better.

Being able to love the world unconditionally the way he did was important. So were her parents, her friends, her own life. His life.

"Goodnight," she said quietly.

I'm not sure who I'd be without you.

Title!

2009-07-12T17:27:58Z

There's a PS2 in my house again! Yeah!

It's actually not the one my cousin said I could have, since he won't be here until the end of the month, but my friend lent me his again (until August, which will definitely suffice). I'm trying to feebly work my way through Final Fantasy X again. I've found it's a lot easier if I just commentate on every dumb thing Tidus says, rather than stewing in how much I want to punch him. xD

My friend and I spent a lot of time walking up hills, playing video games, and saying, "DO IT, LUKE". We're cool. Now I get to spend some time with another friend, watching anime and getting heatstroke (but probably not all at once).

I have this commission I'm supposed to be working on, but I keep getting company! Eek! I'm going to try to get it done by the end of the week.

Ta-Daaaaa!

2009-07-08T00:02:17Z

I finally got a copy of Tales of the Abyss! \o/

I bought it off a friend for less than on the internet, and it's in nice shape, so I'm happy. Also, my cousin said I can have his PS2, so I'm going to subtly try to nudge him into remembering before he comes here at the end of the month. Ahurhur.

The fourplex across the alley from my house caught fire the other day. Oh god. The guy's barbecue blew up. His whole apartment was gutted by fire, but the rest of the building seems to be okay for the exception of some smoke/water damage. It was pretty scary anyway, though. D:

I'm really looking forward to having company this month. (My sister is pretty awesome.) So far, the summer's going well. /o/

UM, EXPECT SOME HORRIBLE FANFICTION FROM ME, BY THE WAY. I'm kind of, like, stockpiling some little drabble-type things I might post as one big glob or something. But there will be cuts to protect you from fangirlism and TL;DR.

Also, I never advertised this before (because I forgot), but if you're into reading Tales of the Abyss doujinshi scanlations, go join Not About Logic. It's Ochazuki's scanlation group. She's really awesome and I proofread for her. She scanlates stuff for a variety of different pairings and might start posting up scanlations for other series soon. Check it out! :>

And if you're one of those super cool people like me who didn't know about this amazing FireFox add-on, go get it right now! It's really good for if you RP and have to switch accounts a lot, since literally all you need to do is click and it's done.

Revelation

2009-06-28T01:26:38Z

So apparently Harold Belserius is a woman. I am never going to get over that.

In my defense, I've never played Tales of Destiny 2 and had no idea what she looked like, so I think it's a pretty fair assumption that someone with a name like that would be a guy. Stop doing this, Namco! Spending the last ten months thinking the character was a guy is so much worse than the two minutes I spent thinking Ion and Yuri were girls.

Anyway, my summer has been going really well so far. I keep going out and bumping into friends and interesting events and the weather has been really good, even though it's still June and it rains like crazy here in June. We just about died because it was so hot out today. Holy snap. Also, my friend and I decided to try out this expensive perfume while we were out. The one she used had a nice sweet smell, but mine was more musky and now, hours later, it kind of smells like dog shampoo. Wtf.

Also, big thank-you to somarium's new Maka player for being way too nice and upgrading my Soul account for me. I really appreciate it and I enjoy playing with you! :>

Go, go, go!

2009-06-20T01:26:25Z

Comment here and I'll reply with a picture of what fictional character I think you're like!

I really want to do this, so comment away! (I'll try to be creative.) So far, I got Ion, but I'm sure that's not very surprising. xD I'm glad someone thinks I'm anywhere near that nice, though.