LogFAQs > #962374131

I never had more than an hour and a half to play yesterday, so that's why I didn't. Tonight, however...

Velvet reviews the plan: We coerce him to give up his weapons and malak by threatening Villain Teresa. We tie him up, grab the therion, and make for the docks. We leave Oscar and Teresa behind to do what they want. Nobody gets hurt. Unless of course Oscar chooses to pick a fight... or this is an elaborate Abbey scheme to trap us.

I see our "white knight" standing in the field ahead, with the therion wallowing in pain at his feet. They are alone... and he's quite surprised to see his sister being held hostage. He tries to get Velvet to let her loose by making an elaborate show of laying down his arm, but Velvet sees through it and deflects the blade as he throws it. Villain Teresa goes to his side... and knocks him out with her staff. She confirms what I already knew that she was receptive to Innominat and proceeds to fuse with the therion to "protect Oscar." She's no longer a powerless human, and I thus have to kill her. She's really weak, even with that cool-looking Mystic Arte that... didn't do anywhere near as much damage as it looked like it would. First time any enemy I've encountered has actually used one.

Oscar wakes up and tells her she's done plenty. He mentions that their parents doted on their older brother because he was the heir and that she was the only one who actually gave a shit about him, the little brother, and he thanks her. So it goes both ways, huh? This would be touching if they both weren't absolutely horrible people, and if I didn't have to kill Oscar next. He uses armatization to fuse with his malak and turn into a daemon - but he'd say "No, this is the opposite of a daemon!" (no it's not) - and... it's not as strong as it was reported to be. He doesn't even have a Mystic Arte! He goes down just as easily as his sister did. Afterward he starts to lose control and turn into a dragon... and Velvet slashes him with her therion arm, killing him. Teresa wakes up and goes on a rant about how he gave her the family heirloom earrings because he cared about her most in the world (not realizing that was marriage proposal stuff) and Velvet immediately recognizes that Trixie is holding the same grudge that she holds against Artorius. "He was a good kid! YOU took him away!" blah blah blah. Thing is, Oscar was gonna die regardless because of this daemon transformation, and that's the fundamental difference: She KNEW this. Velvet didn't know about the 12-year sickness thing. Villain Teresa charges Velvet... and Velvet strikes her down as well, losing complete control and knowing that one of the two of them had to die there. Turns out it was Villain Teresa, who uses the last of her strength to grab Oscar's hands as they perish together. Velvet sucks the malevolence out of them and leaves them there.

This is pretty freakin' crazy. WHAT A DEATH SEQUENCE! Like... when you kill off two assholes at once, you do it like this. Powerful stuff, even though it was two bad guys who got this treatment instead of two good guys. And, with that, the Abbey is suddenly less of a threat. Shigure is gonna die next... probably when we go find our new therion, considering it didn't come back out of Villain Teresa's lifeless body. We couldn't have taken Villain Teresa back with us. No way, no how. That would not have worked out so well.

Velvet has another nightmare where she's beating herself up for being the same as Artorius, killing big sister's little brother right in front of her. Laphi appears and says it's not the same, and Velvet loses control by saying it is... while confirming that it isn't by saying she didn't have a choice.. A woman (likely Celica) and Artorius both say there's nowhere left to run... for either of them.

Eleanor goes back into Karen mode, making excuses about how they were so close and killing them saved nobody and blah blah blah. Can't she see logic? If Oscar didn't die at that moment, he would've turned into a murdering machine. If Teresa didn't die at that moment, Velvet would've died 27 seconds later. Velvet says it was to avenge her brother, taking out two of Artorius's top lieutenants. The game acts like I'm supposed to feel sorry for these two, but I don't because they were both trying to kill Velvet, who I have more emotional investment in. I feel sorry that it had to come to this, sure, but that's because of the Abbey's extremist views and xenophobia. Worth noting, however, that I really enjoyed how they wholly humanized Villain Teresa especially during this last part. It made it very apparent that she was a complex character just as any of the party members are, and they did a damn fine job of making me care somewhat... even though I never really trusted her because she was shady AF.

Eizen says that Velvet HAD to eat Teresa, and that because of this the Abbey has to find a new therion... and that's gonna take time. They have to first sense that Oscar has failed and that Teresa is also dead, because I'm not quite sure how else they'd know unless they had spies run and report something... that somehow went unnoticed by the party. This could be our time to strike, but we gotta give Velvet a little time to recuperate. This is hard on her emotionally because of how she sees herself as no different from the dirtbag she's been chasing the entire time. But Laphi in her dream was right: It's not the same. She did it in self-defense, to prevent Oscar from becoming a dragon that WOULD kill her. Sometimes those we care about most appear in our dreams to tell us those things we really know in our heart. Hey, it happened to me recently, when... wait, that's not important here.

After the very depressing piano music the entire way back, I am greeted by Benwick with a major emergency delivered by sylphjay: A ship full of exorcists set sail from Zeksom to Titania with orders to kill Velvet. Well this ain't good. They'll capture our therion breathren that way. Can't say this isn't a surprise, however. This is clearly building up to a climax. Once Eleanor denies selling them out, the party wonders if this is a trap since a civilian peddler apparently wrote the letter, so Eizen doesn't fully trust its accuracy. But... armatized exorcists are headed our way. They're going to pull out all the stops to kill Velvet on behalf of the true Lord of Calamity. There's a little thing with Bienfu staring at the end and Magilou looking at him... suspiciously. Does this mean that Bienfu was really working for the bad guys the entire time, and he's the villain tied to Magilou? Now that would be a twist you don't see much.

This is a smart party, because they're openly conjecturing what the hell the Abbey is doing. The plan to attack Titania has too many holes, as does springing a trap. They also can't fathom why Orthrus was thrown to the wind despite Melchior being right there. The illusion from Velvet's dream was to make her complacent so they could kill her, right? Or... were they just toying us us? Do they want the therions back? Was this entire thing to buy time and have fun while doing it? (There's a second skit about the Abbey's R&D, but that doesn't really tell me anything of substance.)

Anyway, I am still playing and will be posting another something... later, perhaps. Managing weapons is gonna take a couple hours. It's so obnoxious.