sincere | Tales of Graces f: DAY EIGHT

RECAP!

Butts.

Tee hee, butts.

SKIT! Asbel tutors Sophie in politics and systems of government and stuff. God I can't even handle how cute they are. All the famblee forever.

Also there's some angst about Richard.

Strahta has a parliament of elected officials that make policy, and are enacted by an elected president.

The presidential guard takes our letter from Hubert and glides off with it, then returns announcing that the president will see us, and by us I mean only Asbel. So off we go.

I am pretending to be surprised that the president of Strahta is Alexei, whose name is actually Dylan Paradine.

He's all, yeah, I wasn't hiding my identity so much as assuming no one would believe me if I told them who I was, since I was dressed like a tourist and wandering through the desert.

...fair enough.

Garrett Oswell walks in. He is a super pissy-looking man and he is super pissy to learn that Hubert did not come home when beckoned. "Why that impertinent little--"

Edited 2012-03-22 02:57 (UTC)

Asbel explains to everyone that Hubert should stay in Lhant for the following respectable reasons. Everyone in Lhant loves him!

How curious, since Garrett Oswell has been saying the opposite. President Paradine basically calls Hubert's new dad a seditious treasonous jerk while Oswell gapes at him. gtfo Oswell.

We all agree that Hubert is awesome, but his current methods are not satisfying Strahta's original plan, which was plain and simply "Take all yo' cryas." So Hubert will still end up recalled.

So either Windor or Strahta ends up in dire need of more cryas, huh? I sense a Tales-style conflict of limited resources we shouldn't be using in the first place...!

Not that anyone cares enough to ask why both major countries in the world that we know of are facing desperate cryas shortages without Lhant.

Asbel promises to magic up enough cryas for both nations! Somehow. Pascal notices that it's weird that Strahta doesn't have their own cryas to rely on, and that makes the rest of our party go "Oh yeaaaaah."

SMARTS! Richard was the only one in our party who had them, and now he's crazy.

There's a brief cutscene of a few people bumping into us as we leave the president's palace.

Were we just mugged? Maaaan.

Another brief cutscene about two fancy rich people talking about how it feels hotter than usual today. They're going to complain to the government about it.

Why do you all live in the middle of the desert if you demand your entire city be temperature-regulated all the time?

And another one about how the water in the fountains isn't as high as usual. HMMM I WONDER WHAT COULD BE HAPPENING HERE.

MAYBE IF YOU STOPPED WASTING SO MUCH POWER TURNING A DESERT INTO A TEMPERATE CLIMATE PARADISE...

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sincere - 2012-03-22 03:25 (UTC) - Expand

SUBEVENT! Oswell is pissed and he's convening an emergency military council, vowing to make Paradine pay for crossing him!! I see Jadia's dickery runs in the family, huh? No wonder they were looking for outside blood.

My mugger has been caught! He was actually a thug trying to find state secrets. It turns out their cryas is broke and they are trying to pretend otherwise.

Pascal doodles on some paper and comes up with a solution based on hearsay. She's just. That good. I guess.

--so did they explain what the diagram is, or explains?

SKIT! Pascal is pretty good at drawing. And Saint Cheria is good at everything, like healing and the piano and drawing!

Asbel, Asbel, Sophie drew something too! Asbel hangs it on the metaphorical refrigerator, but like all dads, he does not get it.

[dead]

It was a very tasty-looking banana!

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sincere - 2012-03-22 03:35 (UTC) - Expand

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rainfall - 2012-03-22 03:34 (UTC) - Expand

We show Paradine the drawing that Pascal made. Amarcian ruins like the ones at Wallbridge were discovered at the base of the valkines cryas, so they're thinking it might be related. Please go there with your genius moron friend and check it out.

All they have to do is completely solve the energy crisis...!

It seems like such a big job for a small group of people, but luckily our idiot savant can help!

INTO THE DESERT

SKIT! We were about four feet outside the city before people started complaining about how it was too hot to live.

The game's system of activating skits usually around save points or points of interest can be pretty silly sometimes.

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sincere - 2012-03-22 03:55 (UTC) - Expand

At the ruins now.

SKIT! Pascal traveled four steps outside the city and was rendered mute from dehydration, but the ruins is cooler and has more water eleth, so she is, quote, "full of beans again!"

Malik: Pascal may be some obscure variety of fish.

Sophie: Pascal is a fish?

Cheria: ...stop that right now.

Malik: She must have gills somewhere. We should find them.

Cheria: Captain.

Malik teaches our impressionable little Sophie all the ridiculous things.

NPC: The monsters here all avoid the valkines cryas, which makes sense. They're weak against water, after all.

...Then why are they even IN the ruins? Are they too stupid to avoid the area that has water eleth?!

Tiny puzzles.

SKIT! Asbel is worried about Lhant; Sophie recognizes that he's worried about Richard attacking it again. Sophie and Asbel quietly reaffirm that he must be in some sort of trouble, and if Richard needs their help, they'll stand by him.

Cheria: Asbel -- I want you to know that Richard put us through a lot, but --

Pascal: I'll stand by him, too!!

Cheria: (...She stole my line!! DX )

Yeah, and she didn't say it just to win points with Asbel, either.

That last part also struck me. The way she was kind of blushing while she worked up to saying it made me think it immediately: you don't really care about Richard one way or the other, you're just saying this because of your feelings for Asbel.

idk. It just rang hollow for me. Having her trampled by Pascal's genuine enthusiasm was a little bit satisfying. XD

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sincere - 2012-03-22 13:14 (UTC) - Expand

We found Duplemar! It has wavelets surrounding it instead of wings, like Gloandi in Windor does. Pascal observes that the color is off.

SHE WHIPS OUT A DRILL AND A HAMMER!

Man. Pascal. What.

And it works! Because Pascal is a character who just does things.

Suddenly, Richard! Riding on a monster and completely silent, surrounded by darkness. He attacks Asbel when Asbel tries to stop him from -- whatever he's doing, and then Sophie gets between them.

But she falters. She can't fight Richard. Richard is ~~her other best friend~~ ~~her other dad~~... she just can't!

Richard can definitely fight her, though. Looking at her seems to infuriate him. Then his monsters attack!

BOSS! And while we're fighting, Richard is absorbing the valkines cryas. Because he's talented that way.

Now Duplemar is empty.

Also, Richard doesn't like Sophie's face. "As long as you exist, we can never know peace."

Your boots are still fabulous, Richard.

Sophie collapses and starts crying. She can't do it -- Richard is her friend. Everyone will be sad if she...

Are we ready to talk about the plot now?

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sincere - 2012-03-22 04:30 (UTC) - Expand

Pascal is out of deus ex machina with which to fix a completely empty cryas.

Asbel is resigned to telling the president the truth, but he knows that something has happened to Richard... Sophie asks him hopelessly if Richard will stay like this, and Asbel refuses to believe that.

Sophie is a little torn here. She feels deeply that she has to fight Richard. But she also thinks that it doesn't feel like her. What she wants is to not fight Richard.

Obviously Sophie is a shadowy-thing-fighting cyborg struggling against her programming. :(