LogFAQs > #959469461

12/13

Next chapter is apparently an intermission! I was expecting Act 2 for sure, Intermission this early feels a little odd. In Crossbell it was the beach chapter, right? I don't think that happened that early on, but my memory is hazy. Either way it seems like the tone of the intermission this time around will be a little heavier. Rean and Cayenne get to talking in the bridge of the ship. Cayenne starts off with his obligatory PR speech about how great the nobles are and how Rean absolutely needs to help them win. Rean snaps back with the, I don't think it's that simple, and how joining the noble alliance wouldn't lead to the outcome he wants. Cayenne remarks again that with Valimar on their side, they could end the war much quicker and prevent a lot of devastation that will naturally occur the longer the war draws out. Rufus and Vita then chime in about how the psychological impact of having the soldats outweighs their battle usefulness. I'm noticing some parallels! Rean is clearly the 'Little Boy' in more ways than one in this game. Vita has a cool line here though: "We're only human. As such as are as captivated as we are terrified of giant beings bearing human form." If only the US army had figured that one out we could've had much more interesting WW2 movies than what we got. And Nolan's upcoming Oppenheimer biopic could be a Mecha anime instead. Damn, this reality sucks.

Crow chimes in from the background to say you can't argue with that logic, while Rean stands there silently. I'm going to take that as tacit approval, Rean clearly knows that mechs are the coolest shit around and can't think of any reason to argue against it. Cayenne ups the ante by oh-so-subtly threatening Elise and Alfin if Rean doesn't join them. Rufus is the gentleman of course and reigns him in, and asks Cayenne not to harm them regardless of whatever Rean does. Cayenne responds and says, "Of course, I'm not a monster." That's an interesting reply to me since he could've just swung his dick around and said he'd do what he wants, but he seems to respect Rufus' and the others opinion of him somewhat.

Rean is escorted to his room and takes some time to think everything over. He briefly considers giving into their demands, but dramatically slams his fist against the window and says that things aren't that simple. He tries to come up with a plan but doesn't get very far before an interruption - Crow appears at the door, he wants to talk. He prepared some lunch for us - Fish Burgers! He says that he even made them himself. Food poisoning subplot incoming? Rean gets into it though, he asks about Crow's past, though Crow is hesitant to get into it. He beats around the bush for awhile but eventually gives in. Long story short, he grew up in Jurai, a city-state like Crossbell which ended up being annexed by the Imperial government. He starts his story off 20 years ago, when the principality of North Ambria was turned into salt. Is the salt pale thing from trails 3 finally going to be brought up again? I've been wondering what that has been about for a year now.

Apparently not, they immediately move past it and get into how that event ruined Jurai's economy, since Ambria was an important trading partner for them. Jurai's last mayor was also apparently Crow's grandfather, and since Crow didn't have his parents around, they were very close. He fast forwards 10 years and talks about Erebonia. They built a railroad from Heimdallr to Jurai, which brought in lots of foreign (aka Erebonian) investment to his city. One day, a terrorist attack took out the railroad, and the imperial government blamed Jurai's insufficient national security for the attack, and used this as an excuse to take over the region, 'for their protection'. HMMMM, THIS SOUNDS FAMILIAR! Too bad nobody in Crossbell was well versed in current affairs because Erebonia literally pulling the same playbook to take over two nearby city-states within a 10 year period should have probably gotten more attention from the press then it did!

Much like Elie, Crow's granddad opposed the idea of Erebonian takeover, but the rest of his parliament supported it, knowing that it would grow their economy tremendously. Erebonia used granddad's opposition to the plan to pin the railroad attack on him; even though there was no substance behind the accusation, combined with his rising unpopularity it was enough to get him ousted from politics as Jurai formally joined Erebonia. Shortly after, he passed away, and Crow was left without family, but with a taste for revenge. He left Jurai and happened to meet Duke Cayenne, who gave Crow financial backing to recruit others who hated Chancellor Osborne. I suppose this makes Cayenne the real leader of the Imperial Liberation Front, which isn't too surprising but it's at least new information. Vita and Cayenne were partners at this time already, and she is the one who took young Crow to become an awakener and summon the Azure Knight.

Backstory complete, Crow turns to leave and we're granted the freedom to roam the ship. He says that there's a cute girl who'd be happy to see Rean on the second floor of the ship. I'd guess he means Elise, but it seems a bit careless to leave her here when Rean's on board, so I kind of hope it's not. I'm not really sure who else it could be though, Alfin seems too important to leave here.

Outside your room, you can talk to some of the villains in the surrounding rooms and get some dialogue with them. The first room I enter has Scarlett, the titty terrorist. She talks about how she was raised by wealthy farmers or something, then learned to fight in the holy city of Arteria, the church HQ. She uses a templar sword, so maybe she knows Reis? Rean is amazed that a church sister would be allowed to use a weapon like that - if only you knew, buddy.

Next room has Vulcan, the big guy terrorist. He tells us that the ILF is down to only about 10 members because most people left after the chancellor "died". Besides that he just says he doesn't know what he wants to do with his life after this war ends. Alright buddy.

Bleublanc is outside the rooms just chilling in the foyer. He talks about how him and Olivert are old homies, to clue in those that started with Cold Steel. They mention some of the Liberl stuff, and talk about what Olivert is up to, though neither one really has a clue. He then just does standard Bleublanc stuff for awhile so I leave him alone.

Next room across the hall has main girl Duvalie, awww yeah. She mentions how travelling back and forth between Erebonia and Crossbell is exhausting. Nice of the writers to reference the logistics of her appearing in the Crossbell games as well. Can't you teleport or something though? Anyway, she complains about Rean barging into her room unannounced and then changes into her armor for some reason. That seems like a lot of work since we're only having a conversation here. Maybe she didn't get the memo that Rean is "with them" currently? She goes on and on about how awesome Ahrienhod is. She sounds kinda crazy while doing it tbh, but the voice actress does a banger job portraying it. Rean asks why she's not an enforcer, and she says that the grandmaster only selects those with a "darkness" inside them to be an enforcer. I'm guessing that's different from whatever weird thing Joshua, Wavy and Kevin had going on inside them, but maybe not? I thought it was supposed to be a pretty rare thing, but there are a lot of enforcers. Maybe she just means some more general type of trauma...I suppose we'll have to wait and see on this one.

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