#and the whole time she's talking Asbel's in the back like 'guys I think my spleen ruptured'

[windor-truffle]

random doodle dump vaguely inspired by my current graces playthrough and a vesperia stream i've been listening to while cleaning the apartment

[atopearth]

Tales of Crestoria Part 3 - Growing from Mistakes (Ch 3-5)

Anyway, about time Kanata and Misella got captured by Aegis and Leon? Haha. As for Aegis' close relationship with Queen Rebecca? Nope, that's just spelling disaster man. Aegis is probably as naive as Kanata if he thinks that this is okay, because even if he knows so, people don't, and it doesn't help that the Queen personally visits him a lot. He's pretty silly and innocent to think that him being her confidant is okay when she's supposed to have the king and many other people to rely on. It definitely doesn't help that she does all this so publicly. Btw, since we haven't seen Leon much, and this was probably the first time I heard him talk so much, I finally confirmed that his VA is definitely Midorikawa Hikaru! Tamahome (Fushigi Yuugi) brings back all my memories! I also loved him as Yoshino Yuusuke (Clannad), yes, he is one of my favourite VAs too, so I'm glad I have his SSR! Anyway, I'm not sure why he's so adamant on capturing Vicious since it doesn't seem like a justice thing like it is for Aegis but I do appreciate how kind Leon is to be concerned over Aegis and want to watch out for him.

 LMAO at the prisoners feeling like they're being disrespected because Kanata and Misella kept talking and ignoring them, and then when they do talk to them, Kanata says nice to meet you like they're at a party or something hahahah. Nice to see that Rebecca isn't just a damsel in distress and actually has been actively finding a way to escape from the kingdom. Not surprised though, she's young, kind and beautiful, whereas the king is so old and definitely evil lol. I feel sorry for her that she got dragged into becoming queen just because the king loved her beauty. Like dang though, she was a rural farm girl and he was able to find her? That would suck. Or I wonder if he goes around looking for beautiful women lol. Okay, he does lol, he even finds beautiful men, eugh. It's nice to know that Rebecca was once pretty naive though and thought that everything would be like a dream come true since the king proposed to her, and it was only after she married him that she realised how crappy her life could become. To be fair though, at least she's still in his good favours as a queen and didn't get demoted into servant or something after he finished playing with her. I guess her maintaining her beauty helped lol. I feel sorry for Rebecca, I really wanted her to live even if she was kinda delusional and hopeful that Aegis loved her. Kinda silly how the king could appear so suddenly in the sewers though, like how did he catch up to them so fast and how did they not notice lol. Anyway, I feel sorry for Aegis the most. He didn't even kill anyone but he's been framed for trying to elope with Rebecca and then killing her when she became a liability. At least for Kanata, he really did kill his father. In this case, Aegis is completely innocent. He's such a kind and righteous soul that wanted the best for his kingdom too. It's so saddening. Leon to the rescue! I'm happy that Leon prioritises Aegis over disgust at having to ally with Vicious since he seems to hold a grudge against him or something. It seems like Leon is really strong! Ooh, Yuna saves the day with her boat? Good to know she's the informant that Vicious frequently deals with. Her manner of speaking is interesting yet annoying though lol. Anyway, kinda cool that this Ivis person was able to create the Nation of Sin whilst forming a barrier that protects it from the outside world, and even preventing people without the Stain of Guilt from being able to enter the place or even see it. It seems like they really wanted to create a safe haven for all these people. It's funny that Vicious calls it a boring place, but I guess it's understandable lol, in any case though, I'm not surprised it's a boring and peaceful place. With all the chaos that comes with being a transgressor, what makes Vicious think they'd be crazy here? Lol. I mean, if they were, I'm sure they'd get kicked out lol.

Lmao, even though Aegis is getting kinda annoying with the transgressor this and transgressor that (his situation is understandable though, so I don't really blame him), I love how Kanata just drags him along, and Vicious just wants Aegis to remember that he is a transgressor now too lol. It was heartbreaking when Aegis finally kinda opened up and talked about how his parents were poor but did their best to fulfill his dream of becoming a knight, so in order to repay them, he worked hard to become a righteous knight, yet that all backfired on him when he lost everything and he's even being helped by the people he stubbornly believed to be the worst and has even become one of them, it's just pretty depressing. It was nice to see that the warmth of the transgressors' stew really got to Aegis. I'm happy to see Aegis fight for these defenceless transgressors that are getting massacred by the little girl (who is the culmination of the thoughts of condemnation etc) and her army of enforcers. I'm kinda surprised all the transgressors died though, like, did no one think it was possible that they might get attacked one day and prepared for that? I doubt not having a blood sin is an excuse too, since Aegis fended at least some of them off without it. Oh well, at least the little furry creature survived hahaha. Maybe we'll get an SSR version of the furry thing one day if it evolves into something strong🤣 I guess it's good that they've resolved themselves to fight against the world and the vision orbs instead of just hiding away now though. Lmao at Misella naming the little creature after meat, I guess Meakyu is a kindaaaa cute name.

Omggg it's Luke!! I love him. He's so spoiled and whiny, but it's hilarious. Lmaooo when Luke said Misella should sell her dress so that they would have money to hire a carriage and Kanata said if they sell it, she'd be naked and that would be awesome LOL. Priorities, Kanata. Omgg, I didn't expect them to have Luke once again make an irrevocable mistake that would cause innocent people and their town to be destroyed... But, like Vicious said, the biggest problem lies with the Senegal guy who knew what kind of guy Luke was and lied to him that the "monster" needed to be defeated when it was actually keeping the mountain intact and safe with its' mana. Wow, Senegal is so ruthlessly cruel... I can't believe he even killed the Southvein people who were able to evacuate from the landslide and survive. Not too surprising since they interfered with his mining but still crazy. Even more crazy that his fabricated lie is that he had no choice but to decimate the town because he sent Luke as a peace envoy and Luke ended up killing one of the residents in self defence (due to their hatred of Northmine people), like excuse you?? Is no one going to investigate the landslide and other stuff? Or are they so powerful that they can block people from going there? Btw, so nice to see Jade!! I guess the reason why Misella has been thinking that Kanata isn't really "Kanata-like" is because instead of advocating for his sort of belief in justice, he is now instead taking things into his own hands to punish others that he thinks "deserves" it. Not saying he's wrong since people like Senegal probably do deserve it, but in a sense, it just kinda becomes the idea that instead of the vision orbs doing the condemnations, now Kanata is doing them, and really, is this how justice is supposed to be, and really, can they save the world like this? Since really, because of their belief in their own views, they ended up killing the guardian spirit of the mountain to save Luke, like yeah, they had "no choice", but was it really like that, or did they just not think of other methods to prevent stuff like this from happening? Have they kinda become used to the idea that they should just solve everything with the violence and condemnation that they were dealt with?

I'm kinda happy to see that everyone is helping out Luke in wanting him to find his own path after the sins he committed, causing so many deaths even if he didn't intend it. Aegis is right, Luke's higher position makes him even more responsible for his lack of knowledge and his naivety, so it would be nice for him to face his sins and grow as a person. Well, I guess rather than it being something nice, he really needs to grow up and understand that his decisions can really change lives. But, I think that with Jade and Asbel there to guide him, he'll be good as long as he tries. Lmao at their great idea of earning money, I'm not sure if Kanata, Misella and Aegis could win prize money as a theatre troupe lol. It's funny how Misella thought Aegis wanted her spot as the heroine when they haven't even decided on what to do lol. Penelope must be dying from how bad Kanata and them are loll, although she does seem to be literally dying too. Anyway, nice to see that Yuna vows to not use her vision orb and instead tries her best to uncover all the facts and the whole story (as the journalist she is) with all the evidence she can gather to piece everything together rather than relying on a vision orb to do things when it only shows one side of things. 

On the other hand, it's nice to see that Kanata and them have realised the existence of the crazy researcher Malcolm experimenting placing human souls in monsters and the other way around. It seems that he was the one who made Emil share his body with Ratatosk now. I guess Kanata will definitely meet up with Cress again one day then (since Cress is adventuring with Mint, Emil/Ratatosk and Marta to prevent people like Cress' master and Emil's situation from happening again). Forgot to mention, but it was really cool seeing Lloyd and Colette! Well, it was kinda obvious that Penelope was dying, but it was nice to know that the reason Yuna is deterred from using her vision orb is kinda similar to Farah. Yuna used it on Penelope's mother to show her physically abusing Penelope as a child when she made mistakes in training to be the best actress, and although it's definitely terrible to allow something like that to go on, it's also true that Yuna hurt Penelope a lot by using the vision orb on her mother and having her condemned to death. As she said, there were definitely other ways to handle the situation, but because everyone from the moment they are born have been ingrained with the idea of the vision orb, everyone decides to solve their problems by using it instead of thinking about other ways. They probably think it's a hassle to deal with problems any other way when you can so easily record it and have other people help make the judgement on what to do instead of thinking for yourself on what other things you can do to rectify the situation. But yeah, I'm sure Penelope doesn't really blame Yuna, since really, her mum was abusive and Yuna wanted to protect her.

Omgg their pirate costumes are so cuteee! Especially Misella's! Love it! Meakyu's is pretty hilarious lolll. It was a pretty cool idea to pretend the pirate raid was actually their stage play that was a part of the festival. It wouldn't have been cool if the pirates were actually stronger than them though hahaha, but all's well ends well. It's pretty silly but funny how Vicious was the one who lured them all here to chase some made up treasure just because he wanted to steal a ship from the pirates lolll. He's so drastic, I love it. Awww, Patty and Chat are so cute~ I love how the townspeople dragged them away to treat them to food for their "good show" against the pirates haha. Honestly, I know Yuna meant well and everything by telling people that Penelope's performance sucked and that they should look forward to her next one instead because she knew how dissatisfied Penelope was with it and how much she would want to stand up again to rectify how bad this one was, but really, Yuna (and the party) are the only ones that know Penelope's true feelings. So really, it's hard for people to not dislike her for saying such "disrespectful" things about Penelope's "last performance" especially as a close friend. As for the condemnation towards her, really, it's just a bunch of petty people everywhere that don't like her journalist articles lol, but it is rather interesting that you can be condemned for something like this. It really shows how the importance doesn't lie in the gravity of the crime, the vision orb is just a depraved way of wish fulfillment for those who abuse it to get rid of people they don't like. I like how Vicious helped Yuna come to terms that what she said wasn't wrong, because she knew that praising her crappy performance was the biggest insult to Penelope, and really, these people have no right to condemn her for what she thinks just because they think that Penelope is dying so no one should say such things. They didn't even bother listening to why she said it and I'm sure they knew what she said was right anyway but were just too spiteful and self absorbed to care since it was their best "legitimate" opportunity to get rid of her. The only good thing out of all this is that for once, there were actually other people next to these crazy people that were trying to tell them that it was unreasonable and possibly a misunderstanding and that they shouldn't be too hasty to condemn Yuna like that, which is a first that I very welcomed. I mean, it honestly felt like these people used their brains for once compared to the villagers in the previous chapters. Maybe you could warrant it as the difference between countryside villages and city towns, but whatever it is, it's nice to see that the story is at least veering a bit away from "every person aside from the Tales characters are either dumb, crazy or evil". 

Anyway, nice end to the chapter as Kanata further resolves himself to change the world and Yuna will accompany them as their "pen" since "swords" can't resolve everything. The only sad part is that I used my gleamstones to draw but still couldn't get SSR Yuna, but at least I got an SSR Aegis loll. Overall, I do look forward to the next chapters and characters. I mean, Eizen (the guy who got annoyed at Vicious for using Aifread's name to lure the crappy pirates here) looked pretty cool and I would totally draw for him if he got an SSR. He'd probably fit in well with my team of beautiful boys LOL. He seemed like a best boy for some people, so I guess I'll look forward to if he'll have more appearances soon! Otherwise, I would like to see Tear, Natalia and Guy (outside of the recent event)!

[artpharos]

3, 16, 18 and 26!

3.  How has the WIP changed between starting it and where it is now?

HMMMMM. Honestly my current WIPs aren’t exactly in a state that’s all that different from where they started given that I haven’t exactly invested a lot of time in them yet. BUUUT if we were to talk about my newly completed fic Lady of Moonstone Scales then uh. It changed quite a fair bit. Mostly because I realized I actually wanted to get back to the WIPs that were less C-drama and more... fleshed out and fulfilling, I guess? So I cut out a lot of plot and stray ideas that I originally did want to start off with and kept it trimmed... and even then I think it’s my biggest multichapter to date ever since Just A Lonely Walk RIP 

I suspect that for the longer WIP, Antumbra, something like that might happen as well. But the Soda courtship fic is probably not gonna run past 8 chapters so it should be clear and concise. *touch wood before it suddenly balloons to a 20 chapter monstrosity* 

16.  Give a spoiler for your WIP.

Antumbra?? Antumbra. UHhhhhhhh I know someone commented that they hope Lusamine got a better story development in Antumbra so... spoilers: no, she doesn’t; she’s not even a major character oops. 

18.  Give a brief character description of your main characters.

Already did Antumbra here. For The Courtship of Lady Sophie Lhant and That Guy Lambda:

Lambda - After 30 years of living in Lhant, he’s mellowed out a fair bit and is just chilling. I mean sure he has a reputation of being really mean and snarky, but mostly everyone in Lhant is kinda ???? about him since he just kinda. Appeared out of nowhere when Asbel returned from the Amarcian Enclave one time and was like ‘HEY THIS KID IS STAYING IN LHANT NOW’. He does help out around Lhant whenever Lady Kerri or Asbel ask him to, and because he’s utterly cowed by Sophie whenever she’s angry the servants aren’t as terrified of him as they were at the start. In fact, the ‘mysterious broody’ thing he has going on (which is utterly shattered the moment Sophie starts scolding him for some reason or another) is part of the reason why they’re more than happy to ship him with Sophie. 

Sophie - Eldest daughter to Lord Asbel, Sophie’s enjoying her life to the fullest. She’s kind and helpful and endearing, even if she’s pretty oblivious about some common-sense things. Nobody blames her or gets angry for it though; she’s always willing to learn and she’s a good fit in Lhant. She’s friendly to the common folk, but she does tend to be so straightforward and trusting that Lambda (and her family, including the servants) are always trying their best to watch out for her. She and Lambda have kind of gotten over the whole ‘my programming says I should kill you’ thing and are now pretty close; maybe because of their shared experiences and/or maybe they’re the only two eternal beings living in Lhant under the same roof. 

26.  What is the worst writing advice in your opinion?

Unsure, haven’t seen one yet. My personal belief is that advice should be taken with context and understanding of what the person is trying to say, and what they’re trying to advise against. 

Like you can tell someone that YES THE BEST THING IS TO KEEP WRITING SO YOU IMPROVE *cough* but also, if you don’t seek to improve your writing, you don’t try to be better, you already think you know all that needs to be known... all that experience of writing a lot of fics is going to be kinda pointless because you’re just gonna be doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. 

I guess what I’m trying to say is that you have to want to grow. You have to keep an eye out on how you can grow, how to improve... ask for help if you need to. And to that end, I will accept any advice, and try to understand where it is coming from. I often feel like I learn a lot that way.

[tumblunni]

OKAY WOW I just started reading a lets play of Tales of Graces and HOLY SHIT I love Sophia! I think I was amoung the majority of people who got umm.. Really Put Off by her character design prior to actually learning more about the game. Cos seriously, prelease stuff was like a fuckin minefield of ‘loli’ trope red flags, it looked like she was gonna somehow be pushed into a romance route with the protagonist despite being 14. And her design is just kinda boring and doesnt really say anything about her ACTUAL plot role and personality which were HOLY SHIT so unexpected and amazing and life affirming and jesus christ she is already my favourite tales character in all of history and I’m barely two hours into the damn game!! seriously I had to go look up spoils just to be ABSOLUTELY SURE I wasnt gonna be surprised with creepy fanservice of a young child, like in some of the older goddamn games in this series, and instead i found FUCKING AMAZING EVERYTHING FOREVER and like.. ACTIVE SUBVERSION OF LOLI TROPES but lol i cant really talk about it without kinda spoilering?? So UMM YEAH rest of my thoughts under the cut:

okay seriously its LITERALLY THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT WE ALL EXPECTED, HOLY FUCK nobody had ANY CLUE before the game came out that she’d be introduced as the twice-your-age figure to the protagonist instead of the other way around! getting to play a flashback prologue of everyone as kids was a really unique awesome feature that I wish we could get in other tales games its SO COOL to see the design and personality changes for everyone between their flashback selves and the ones you actually play as later on plus its a playable flashback! very short section of getting to see the kiddos actually have unique battle animations even! also it is REALLY EMOTIONALLY DESTRUCTIVE HOLY SHIT it explains everything about everyone’s personality forever why did these poor children have to suffer AAAAA

so umm yeah ANYWAY BACK ON TOPIC Sophie is introduced as this mysterious older teen while everyone is tiny babies, and takes on a kind of simultaneous big sis lil sis role cos of her amnesia and unfamiliarity with the world and like THANK YOU we dont get any weird fetishization of that as a concept! (look up the ‘born sexy yesterday’ trope for how this kind of plot tends to go down... yikes...) And like, even tho she’s comically oblivious about basic emotion concepts and stuff, she’s also A MASSIVE BADASS who’d have thought that such a cliche pinky pretty loli design would have a stoic badass superweapon personality??? THANK YOU. I feel so bad for assuming things, but seriously THANK YOU for being like THE ONE GAME where that kind of character appearance isnt given just One Same Plot Again And Again And It Is Gross and seriously man I WILL NOT STOP BEING HAPPY THAT THERE IS NO LOLICON HERE HOLY FUCKIN SHIT (well.. except some of her dlc costumes seem to be the actual lolicon characters from earlier games, which is Annoying.) but yeah seriously she’s fuckin like CONSTANTLY PUNCHING DOWN DOORS AND SHIT and I’M LOVE HER and like her earliest establishing moment is her oblivious of human culture norms actually leading to her being like.. the wise one in the conversation her cutting off asbel’s ‘wah but I should be the one protecting you cos I’m a boy, even though you’re like eight years older than me and i can barely lift my sword’ and her making this declaration of protection to him is the moment that shapes her entire character and becomes like the emotional core of the whole plot and she gets THE MOST BADASS scene of (seemingly) sacrificing herself to save his life, ending this cute kiddie flashback on a super somber note and then Asbel dedicates his goddamn life to becoming a knight in her memory after she fuckin SUPLEXED A GODDAMN DRAGON WOLF THING WITH ITS CLAW STABBED THROUGH HER STOMACH and just... I REALLY LOVE SOPHIE!!! seriously kid asbel literally said ‘i’m embarassed to be protected by you cos you’re a girl’, like HOLY SHIT DUDE and this is ACTUALLY SHOWN AS WRONG and he CHARACTER DEVELOPS OUT OF IT and HER PROTECTING HIM IS LIKE THE WHOLE FUCKIN GAME and just THANK YOU seriously tales of beseria had a bunch of weird sexism issues despite being the most recent game, its so annoying how the series has such inconsistant quality on this stuff, so im just REALLLLLLL FUCKIN GLAD to see this, thankz

oh and like... they even do... LITERALLY the ‘but she’s really 700 years old’ excuse for ‘loli’ characters BUT NOT AS AN EXCUSE FOR LOLI CHARACTERS she’s a thousands of years old magic soldier homunculus thing that will forever look like a young girl, but NOBODY USES THAT AS AN EXCUSE TO FUCK A YOUNG GIRL THANK YOU GEEZUS CHRIST cos like.. goddd... being super immortal and eternally a child is A COOL PLOT that has SO MANY OTHER DIRECTIONS it could be developed in, instead of just fuckin pervy lazyness and this game ACTUALLY DOES THOSE DEVELOPMENTS aaaaaUUUUAUAAAUUUUA god its SUCH A RELIEF we start the game off with the intriguing wonder of how everyone changed post time skip yet she still looks the same age (plus of course ‘how on earth did she survive that apparant death’) And it just keeps having even more cool meta discussion of being so ageless?? and really sad philosophicalness about outliving all your friends?? and all the plots these dumb loli excuse things always ignore and just SERIOUSLY THANK YOU

hell she doesnt even ever really have any romantic plot with anyone ever, except kinda Pascal? tho that’s just a weird ‘lol gay as joke’ thing where its supposed to be funny that Pascal doesnt take no for an answer and like.. seriously why is Sophie even instantly repulsed by Pascal anyway? ‘hey i have no concept of any human social norms except heterosexuality apparantly’. It Is Weird. So yeah lol the game isnt absolutely flawless but I mean geez AT LEAST THEY DIDNT SHIP THE FUCKIN KID WITH ADULTS seriously she has NO ROMANCE PLOT and protagonist man ends up with someone completely different and its just NEVER EVEN DISCUSSED AS AN OPTION like fuckin CHRIST thank yooooou god, just, HOW TERRIFYING it was to see her listed as ‘the heroine’ of this game next to a guy way older than her usually whichever female character has the biggest plot role is automatically the love interest I cant believe i fuckin DIDNT PLAY THE GAME FOR ALL THIS TIME because of that!!!

oh and OH AND the endgame!! the endgame final relationship of her and protagonist? DAD. He not only doesn’t romance her, he ends up adopting her as his daughter by the end of the story its so surreal and interesting tho, cos she was like an older sister to him when he was younger, and now they’ve met again they ended up having such a vastly different relationship and like... well, they’re still like family, just in a different way! i’m so happy seriously DEAR GOD for once a ‘immortal child’ plot actually ended well and no grossness ever and ALSO SHE IS A REALLY ENDEARING BADASS HOMUNCULUS WARRIOR PERSON and aaaa

ok this has been bunni’s rambling post ok back to watchin lets play im SO HAPPY i got spoiled for that thing of the ending like seriously HOW RARE is that???