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birbleafs · 6 years

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[fic] augury of sins

Series: Tales of Zestiria Rating: T Genre: Character study, Game-canon ending/post-epilogues Characters: Symonne, Sorey, Rose, Mikleo, Alisha Diphda, Lunarre, Phoenix Warnings: Canon-typical violence, Minor character death... pretentious prose?? IDK Summary: Truth be told, she never was all that fond of morality plays. Or, five times Symonne struggled with meaning and one time she found contentment in simply being.

Fic can also be read on AO3

i. “Why do you still keep smiling, even when I tear open your wounds?” she hissed, vehemence laced in every word.

(Many moons later, she would find herself asking the same question, to yet another who smiled just as he did even through the anguish and pain.

How could they… How dare they? It didn’t make any sense, it couldn’t—)

Her brows creased in anger, Symonne forced herself back up to her feet even as her limbs ached and trembled from the growing exhaustion of battle. Being delicate in stature had its drawbacks; she would tire easily from direct combat. As such, she had perfected the use of her seraphic artes, weaving illusions and doppelgangers born from human hearts, an augury of one’s deepest fears and desires. She had not asked for this accursed blessing, had never wished for any of it.

But it was all she’d ever known, all she’d carried with her through centuries of misery and growing apathy.

It was (she was) enough for this, for her Lord—she reminded herself again as she struggled to stand upright, pointing her baton at the two humans before her. It was enough that she could serve her Master. She won’t stop here… no, she couldn’t stop, she must not fail—

“That’s enough, Symonne.”

The Shepherd’s voice was gentle and kind, and Symonne felt frustration flaring from deep within. She lifted her head, staring up at his disgusting concern, at the pity in those evergreen eyes.

“Why do you keep fighting back? How can you smile like it doesn’t hurt?!” she cried, hurling all of her anger and confusion outward, streaks of magic dancing in violent crackles around them. She wanted to smite them down; wanted to rip that infuriatingly radiant smile off his face, to gouge the kindness out of those eyes with sharp nails—

“When all that awaits us in the end is inevitable doom, a hollow death? Is it not natural to welcome that?!” Symonne snarled. She raised her baton once more, threading wisps of magic through the thick violet miasma around them, even though she was already worn from their earlier battle and from the crushing weight of Heldalf’s domain bearing down upon her.

The illusions danced briefly around them—shadows of the bandit children laughing alongside the Cardinal, crimson blossoming against the pristine-white of her robes; of the old Explorer, his hefty leather book strapped to his back; of the blind wind seraph who gnashed his teeth, lips curled in derision at the Shepherd and his Squire.

Both humans faltered at the sight, sword and daggers wavering in their hold, their expressions clouded with grief. This would throw them off, surely, and turn them to despair, it must—

But the Shepherd only closed his eyes, steeling himself, before he slashed forward with his burning blade. The shadows screamed and flickered weakly, fading along with the remainder of her strength and Symonne was left curled against the cold, hard ground.

“Don’t you wish they could have at least survived? I can make it a reality, so why do you keep fighting back, why?!” she spat, feeling a last spike of defiance as she struggled to her hands and knees.

“If Forton, Mayvin, Dezel, and even those children were brave enough to have endured the pain that comes with reality…” Sorey began, his sword still bright with the silver flame. “Then we as the Shepherd and Squire—we surely have to do just as much, maybe even more so.”

“And that’s why we’ll keep pushing onward,” Mikleo said. “We could never cast away the memory of these people by accepting your illusions, no matter how perfect they are.”

Rose nodded, a rueful look in her eyes. “Doing so would be a disservice to all the pain and hardships they’ve had to suffer.”

Symonne set her jaw, fingers clenched so tightly around her baton that her knuckles turned bone-white.

How could they not see, not understand the futility of it all? If she could not do this one thing for her Lord, if she failed him—no, she cannot allow it—then there would be no reason… She would have no meaning…

“The more you fight, the more you suffer… What use is there to struggle?! So why must you resist Lord Heldalf vision’s? He will rid the world of perpetual agony and restraint!”

There was the sound of approaching steps then. She froze, shoulders taut, agitation a churning knot deep in her belly.

Sorey knelt before her, smiling gently—that abhorrent smile, bright and untouched like the sun, she hated it so—and reached out for her, only to pause and thought better of it, pulling his arm back to rest at his side instead.

“It may be true—the more we struggle, the more we’ll suffer. But it doesn’t always have to be like this. It’s what I’ve come to realise and learn from my friends. From those I’ve brushed paths with throughout this journey.”

His countenance grew softer, his voice low, almost as if the words spoken were for himself as much as it was for her. “We’re more than the suffering and burdens we bear, Symonne. You are so much more than the pain you carry with you—and you don’t have to keep thinking of yourself as evil, of deserving of all resentment.”

“W-What?” she echoed, feeling her throat constrict and her eyes growing moist.

“Ah…” Sorey faltered then, struggling to articulate the words right. He offered her an apologetic smile, seemingly self-conscious at how he abruptly had her full attention now as she waited for his answer.

“W-Well, what I mean is… It’s all right if you are as you are. You exist just like the rest of us, in the here and now—that’s what really matters. Everything will work out somehow because I’ll keep searching for a way, for all of us.”

Symonne lowered her head, unable to hold his gaze any longer.

As the party left, making their way through the labyrinth and into Artorius’ Throne, Symonne felt his words lingering, striking a chord deep within.

She wailed then, and despite her angry, bitter tears, felt a euphoric sense of relief, of affirmation taking root within her chest.

How truly selfish of you, Shepherd.

ii.

Many moons later, she found herself—yet again—asking the same question, to another who smiled just like he did even through the anguish and pain.

(How could they… how dare they? She had pondered over it then, seething, infuriated at the young man whose heart would not be corrupted. Who had refused to fall, even when his family’s blood had stained his hands crimson.

This time though, the ire driving her question had dimmed into waning embers; all she was left with was genuine bewilderment.)

“Thank you,” Alisha said, bowing graciously. Symonne did not miss the grief and sorrow lining the corners of her eyes, but what puzzled her most was the Princess’ smile. It was a tiny smile, tugging at the corners of her lips, but one filled with immense gratitude nonetheless. “Because of you, I was finally able to see Lady Maltran off with a proper farewell.”

There it was again, the look upon Alisha’s face. The same look of pity and understanding that Symonne had so much contempt for. She had scorned the Princess’ gaze then, turning instead to face the Squire—Ah, no, not a Squire anymore; our darling comedian has taken up the Shepherd’s mantle now, hasn’t she? —only to find she detested Rose’s cheeky grin and unflinching sureness nearly as much. Symonne hated how the woman’s blue eyes were still as sharp as the blades she twirled languidly in her palms.

“Selfish and as pitiful as ever, I see,” she muttered, almost thoughtfully, before the air around her rippled and she disappeared into velvet shadows once more.

iii. Humans were obnoxiously stubborn beings. Even when they had shed all trivialities, mortal customs, and ingrained social graces; when they allowed the darkness in their hearts to fester, allowed the ferocity of their desires to run amok and then consume them, transforming them into hellions.

Symonne twisted her lips ever-so-slightly at the thought. Even from her vantage point high up the Shrine walls, she could see the battle below was drawing to a close, the two opponents seemingly at a stalemate. It was clear as day who the true victor was though and she wasn’t the least bit surprised. With a hum, she calculated the distance to the square below and took a graceful leap off the ledge.

The sphere of illusions disintegrated just as her feet touched the cobble-stoned streets: the ghostly silhouettes of a tawny-haired boy and red-haired girl shattered into fractals, the children’s laughter dissipating into a sheet of crystalline dust that settled over the two opponents—the fox hellion and the darling comedian Shepherd.

“Traitorous wench!” Lunarre spat viciously at her approach, fangs bared. “This was all your doing? I should’ve known.”

“Traitorous? Always the dullard spouting inane commentary, aren’t you?” Symonne countered sweetly. “My master is long dead ; there is none left to betray. And I serve no one now, least of all the likes of you.” She tilted her head, turning a coy smile towards the Shepherd Rose. “In your bid to carve each other up, you’ve all unknowingly waltzed into my domain—surely it isn’t necessary for me to remind you how my blessing works?”

“I won’t play your games, wench,” Lunarre growled, amber eyes feral and burning with blood lust. “If you get in my way, I’ll kill you too, after I gorge on little Lambkin Rose and her friends.” He threw back his head in a fit of maniacal laughter, tongue lolling over cruel and yellowed fangs.

Symonne only scowled at the sudden surge of malevolence, at the growing pressure settling against her shoulders as she continued to hold her ground, unyielding.

“And after that, maybe I’ll even sniff out everyone’s precious sleeping Shepherd.” Lunarre hissed, voice dripping venom. “Wrench his limbs apart and split him open, flesh and bone, just so I can rip into that delicious still-beating heart, drain his blood dry and—A-AARGGH!!”

There was a flash of movement, a whirlwind of red, green and white.

Lunarre tried to scream but could only choke on blood, crimson stains blooming from his chest where Rose’s daggers had found their mark.

“May these weary bones find peaceful rest,” Rose murmured through clenched teeth, driving the blades deeper as she listened to his dying gasps. “Good-bye, Lunarre. I’ll always remember our better days together.”

The fox hellion shuddered, his form dissipating into a miasma of black and violet tendrils.

The emblem over her glove was still ablaze with silver flames as Rose purified the last of the malevolence. With the malevolence cleared and the illusions wavering there was no reason to linger around—Symonne could hear the approaching steps of Rose’s seraphim as they broke through the dying hellion’s crumbling domain to reach her side.

“What display of audaciousness. Seems like you’ve come a long way and we’ve just only reached the interlude of this brand-new play. But alas, the curtain must be drawn for now.” Symonne paused, sparing a glance at Rose—she was still crouched low to the ground, staring silently at the bloodstained path. “Oh, has our darling comedian Shepherd finally broken? Did the fox really get to you that much?”

Rose let out a tired laugh before she straightened up. She wiped the grime from her face, eyes bright with unshed tears.

“He’s kind of right though, you know. I’d be a really cheap imitation of Sorey. Not that I want to be known as a maniac who goes nuts over mouldy architecture and dead people’s possessions, mind you—we still have Mikleo for that. But sometimes…” Rose’s voice grew soft as she touched the blue scarf around her neck. “This whole Shepherd business is just…”

Symonne hummed, almost amused now. “No need to flatter yourself, dear girl. You humans are the same wherever you go, whatever you do. Stubborn, supercilious, and always with the self-serving monologues.”

“Aren’t we all?” Rose gave Symonne a crooked smile, before turning to nod at Mikleo. “Like you’re pretty stubborn yourself too, so not all that different from the rest of us. And Shepherd or not, I’m always gonna be getting stuff done the Rose way. Gotta live up to that true name I was bestowed so graciously with, after all.”

Mikleo quirked an incredulous eyebrow at that, even though he couldn’t quite hide the amusement creeping over his features. “Huh. I thought someone once lamented how Wilkis Wilk was a lazy sort of name.”

“It is still a lazy sort of name. But guess I just grew into it!” Rose cracked another easy grin, hands upon her hips.

“Presuppositions again. Such is your lot.” Symonne sighed. Dawn was fast approaching, the first slivers of sunlight visible over the edge of the cityscape—and her cue to take her leave.

“Hey, wait!” Rose called after her retreating form. “Why... why did you help us, Symonne?”

“That wasn’t assistance,” Symonne murmured quietly, her form elusive as she faded away with the mist.

It wasn’t assistance, but…

Was it mercy, hope?

Salvation?

She had grown weary of pondering this act.

(Truth be told, she never was all that fond of morality plays.)

iv. If she was honest with herself, she could not say she remembered in detail the events of that particular day, decades ago. Human lives burn so brightly throughout the march of time, and yet the fire of their souls was merely flickering candlelight, winking out, one by one, in endless cycles.

Even so, she remembered those smiles, the sound of their laughter.

She remembered the littlest things, the crinkle in the sides of their listless eyes, their face contorted in fear and pain. Their voices pleading for release from the bitter harshness of reality— —the world is too cruel, please just let us dream, let us sleep forever— —no! this wasn’t what I… forgive me...! — —you brought this upon us, your gift, youyouyOUYOU...! — The ringing silence that came thereafter.

She had expected the malevolence here to have festered long enough to overwhelm her, perhaps even driven her to draconian madness. But as she picked her way carefully through the debris and remnants of the small village—of a place she had almost called home once, a lifetime ago—all she sensed now was tranquillity, a calm relief.

There, before her and basking in a patch of sun, was a small plant. A fir wood sapling, its bright green vines curled around a stick, tiny leaves already sprouting from the ends.

Symonne knelt beside the sapling, brushing a finger gingerly over the leaves, running her hand through the loose soil. There was no longer any trace of malevolence, not in the air or beneath the earth. Only the buzzing of insects, of life once again slowly taking root.

There were no echoes of the past (no desolate screams of the dying villagers) whispering from haunted shadows into her ears.

“Our darling comedian Shepherd, so hard at work these days.”

Symonne sat beside the sapling a little longer, exhaling slowly as she savoured the warmth of the sun upon her back.

The water seraph was a frequent visitor of the cliff edge grave.

Others came by as well, to present flowers and offerings of traditional curry buns, to pay their respects—the humans, during the Vernal Equinox every late autumn; the seraphim at every turn of a decade, sometimes a century. But it was the silhouette of a smallish creature perched over Mikleo’s shoulder that, for one reason or another, she remembered most.

Symonne did not care for normin in general. They were a contemptible lot, simpletons easily beguiled by fleeting contentment. And she especially did not care for a pompous one with too zealous an attitude, and who seemed overly keen with pointless nattering. “I see you’ve made the annual pilgrimage as well, little one.” Phoenix nodded in approval, chest puffed out importantly. “And I see you still possess the proclivity for presumptions.” She scoffed in return by way of greeting.

With narrowed eyes, she studied the way Mikleo’s hair now skimmed over his shoulders in loose, silver-white strands. A single lock braided with a bright yellow-orange feather was tucked neatly over his left ear. Then, with almost a resigned reluctance, she moved forward to sit as close to the cliff’s edge as she could manage, peering down at the ruinous landscape below. After a moment, she asked, her voice barely a whisper over the rising gust: “How are you not a dragon, loving and being around humans as much as you always have? Yearning so much for his return and yet… never truly certain if he…”

She fell silent, unable to finish the question. Mikleo did not reply, did not look her way. He seemed to have curled in around himself, arms wrapped his torso as he sat beside the grave—whether he was trying to keep the questions out or perhaps just protecting his most treasured memories, Symonne could not say.

“I can’t say for sure, honestly. But I guess I’ve learned not to dwell too long in the past,” Mikleo began, a pensive look in his violet eyes. “I don’t think I’ll ever stop missing them, my human friends. And yet at the same time, I don’t think I can ever not see what’s before and around me still.” He paused, raising his hand to the weathered headstone, tracing a finger over the engraved name Numin. “Maybe… maybe this is what it really means to be a seraph?” “So that is your answer then?” Symonne asked, unconvinced. “Finally casting aside your shackles?” “Shackles?” Mikleo shook his head. “The time I shared with Sorey, with Rose and Alisha—and all the humans I’ve ever met? They’re the foundation to who I am now, who I’ll continue to grow to be. And my answer is simple: I believe in Sorey, in our dream. I can’t reach that dream if I’m always going to keep looking back over my shoulder in despair, can I?”

Symonne only sighed, dangling her legs over the cliff side. Still such a simple fool then, she thought.

“And what about you? You’re no dragon either even after serving a Lord of Calamity for as long as you did, and then lurking among humans nearly as often as I have.”

His question caught her unawares. She tilted her head towards him, brows furrowed, pondering for a moment.

“Spite, I suppose. And sheer obstinacy.”

The brief silence that followed was awkward, but easily broken by Mikleo’s soft laugh.

“So, not that different from humans and the rest of us then,” he said, violet eyes bright with mirth as he looked ahead to the pillar of light glimmering from the ruins below.

“No,” Symonne said, smiling wryly. “I suppose not.”

vi. “You really saved my skin back there! Thanks!”

The young seraph wasn’t anyone she’d ever chanced upon over the years, Symonne was certain of this. His messy oak-brown hair was pulled back into a short pony-tail, the tips of each strand now a bright, radiant gold; his travel cloak casual and unadorned.

But it was in the curve of his smile, the tentative sincerity of his expressions and little mannerisms.

And those evergreen eyes—she had recognised that childlike wonderment, that boundless zest within them all too well.

“I’m Sorey, a wandering seraph,” he introduced himself readily, once the dust had settled around them.

Symonne studied the broken stone monument in the tall grass before them, listening intently for any tell-tale creaks or shifts in the stonework to suggest yet another collapse in the structure.

“Symonne,” she replied simply, once she had ascertained there was no imminent danger. “I was merely passing through. You… don’t remember anything, do you?”

“Well, I did kind of bumped my head a little,” Sorey said, brushing at his nape sheepishly. “So yeah, I’m a bit fuzzy about the details. The last thing I remember is the prickleboar rushing at us, and then... uh, falling off from that stone wedge there in the structure, all while trying to dodge it...”

The familiar angle of his head-tilt only lifted the corners of her lips into a knowing smile.

(He was not yet aware of it himself during his fall from the crumbling structure, but Symonne hadn’t missed the brief glimpse into his thoughts, his memories: the way her illusions had reacted—fractured pieces of emotion weaving through the wind—to the indiscernible fears he had kept folded behind that bright smile, buried deep within the eaves of his heart.) “I managed to scare it off with the illusions, so it’s highly unlikely to return,” she said instead, already moving ahead. “You’ll still need to tread with more caution through these woods. Prickleboars aren’t the only creatures that are territorial.”

“Right,” Sorey nodded, reaching down to collect the book he’d dropped earlier. He dusted the covers before slipping it back into the small leather pack he wore at his hip. “And thank you again, Symonne. I really owe you one. I’m going to look for Phoenix—ah, he’s a friend… a normin I sort of picked up?—we got separated just before I found this monument and the prickleboar attacked. Maybe you’d like to go with me, if we’re heading the same way?”

Symonne had almost, almost considered taking up his suggestion, if only for curiosity’s sake. “My path leads elsewhere for now,” she said, declining the offer with a slight shake of her head. “We may however chance upon each other again another day. And while I’m not fond of platitudes, but... Some advice for what you seek, your heart’s desire.”

She held his curious gaze, unwavering, her thoughts drifting to the words that had stayed with her, that she’d held on to at every turn of the century.

It’s all right if you are as you are. You exist just like the rest of us, in the here and now—that’s what really matters.

“You’re more than your lost memories, more than the burden of a selfish Shepherd’s legacy.”

There it was again, the tiniest hint of emotion, flickering over his features. Sorey blinked—and it was gone again—head angled in confusion. “I don’t think I quite understand…”

Symonne only smiled, retreating once more to the comfort of shadows before he could question further.

“Good journeying, seraph Sorey,” she said, her voice the soft rustling of leaves in the canopy above. “May you find luck dancing, wherever your heart leads you.”

Sorey was still deep in pensive thought when Phoenix finally found him, watching the way the leaves bobbed over the spot where Symonne had last stood.

—End—

Notes: - I wanted to re-write some of the scenes with Symonne during the battle before the game ending. Somehow it turned out longer and ended up being a character study of sorts. Not sure how I feel about this but l o l [/I-tried.jpeg].

- The fourth scene is inspired by Symonne’s character notes found in the Zestiria World Guidance Book translations. Before working under Heldalf, she was a seraph who actually loved humans and had tried to live among them, only for her blessing to bring disastrous results to a village.

- The last scene where she meets seraph Sorey takes place a little after Chapter 1 and before Chapter 2 of my post-epilogue fic, Chasing Dreams.

Thank you for reading! Comments and critique are welcomed for my fics—I'd like to hear what you think, if you've enjoyed this so far.

#tales of zestiria #symonne #sorey #mikleo #rose #fanfic #i've been re-writing this too many times #so time to just release it into the void and be content with whatever... this is #/wHEEZES at character studies...

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applegelstore · 7 years

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Orchestra AU thoughts in three charming parts

A few people voiced their interest, so I figured I could explain what’s actually behind the orchestra AU idea, since this one isn’t exactly a crossover with some other franchise, and therefore you can’t guess any context from what you know about the other part of the crossover :,D Feel free to skip, it’s just text, but if you wanna talk orchestra AU with me, please go ahead! Warning, way too long post ahead (why did I spend an entire afternoon on this?):

PART 1 (basics)

The AU as such is the one where nothing hurts and everything is musical jokes (or musical sex jokes in Zaveid’s case) and shameless geeking. And it’s actually supposed to be a cross-Tales thing. With Rollo probably following Ludger wherever he goes like a dog, and nobody ever minds. And Phi probably following Velvet around, and nobody minds that, either.

So far I’ve deduced the ensemble from official material as follows:

Jr. Conductor: Cress

Jr. Jr. Conductor: Phi (in training, probably. THEN AGAIN CRESS SHOULD STILL BE IN TRAINING, TOO, HE’S 17, LIKE 90% OF ALL JRPG PROTAGONISTS EVER)

Solo Soprano: Tear, Lailah (not official, but try to fight me on these ladies)

Solo Bass: Zaveid (come on, he’s bass)

Solo Piano: Mikleo (this isn’t official either, but you can try to pry the “Mikleo plays piano” headcanon from my cold, dead hands)

Violin: Mint, Ludger, Sorey

 Viola: Alisha (I guess it’s supposed to be another violin, BUT IT LOOKS SO BIG)

Cello: Velvet

Double bass: Richard

Flute: Milla, Mikleo

Clarinet: Rose (and probably abusing it to stab people)

Trumpet: Jude, Elize, Dezel

Trombone: Eleanor

Percussion: Rokurou, Luke, Edna

As you can see, we don’t have a FULL orchestra yet, but we also have a fuckton of games left.

PART 2  (what most of you are here for. The Sormik spinoff)

…Everything was plot- and painless, until my unhelpful brain decided that we need some Sormik spinoff, some sort of plot, and also some fantasy/dark fairytale shit because I always fall for that. Also there’s the thing that we never learn in the game who the heck Mikleo’s father is, so there was room to fill with AU material. So, some of you may know that I’m a huuuuuge Seventh Wonder fan. If you didn’t, now you know. Seventh Wonder are super duper fucking amazing, and Tommy Karevik is a god. …Ah pretty ripped hipster teddybear god. Okay, back to topic. So there’s this song, King of Whitewater, which is about a water spirit luring in children (…and their relatives) with beautiful violin melodies. From this general theme, my unhelpful brain deduced the following, dark fairytale-ish concept:

When she’s still young and naive, Muse meets the very lonely water spirit. Eventually, she feels pity for him and falls in love with him. But sooner or later she misses a normal human’s life in a normal human town, and when he doesn’t let her get away and turns violent, she runs away, highly pregnant. She refuses to tell anyone who’s the father; the only one he trusts is Michael, who agrees to help her raise the child, too. They hope everything will be well. Yeah, you all know who that child is. Anyway, the water spirit is pretty heartbroken, and that makes him even more violent, and also feel betrayed for that yet unborn child. And from that day on, starts luring in little children who never see the light of day again.

Muse doesn’t know about this. And leads a normal life, believing she escaped.

All is fine until someday during a scouting trip in the woods between Camlann and Elysia, little Sorey and Mikleo get lost in the woods and accidentally find a mysterious (TM) lake. It’s surrounded by mist so thick they can hardly see anything, but all the time, soothing, beautiful violin music plays. Because that’s how the spirit lures in children. Because he wants his child back.

To which little Sorey of course violently disagrees, but it’s not like two little children had much of a chance to escape, so Mikleo talks the spirit into a compromise: stealing children isn’t okay, no matter the circumstances. At least wait til I’m of age. And please stop killing other children in the meantime. The spirit agrees and lets them go. Sorey is of course a crying mess. Somehow through his tears and apologies he manages to promise Mikleo that the spirit won’t get him. And Mikleo trusts him. Problem is that the spirit isn’t exactly stupid either, so he enchants the children so they forget everything that happened instead of like, running for help. Oh, except the song (which is the violin solo in King of Whitewater btw). They never forget the song. They just forget how and where they learned it, and ever since that scout trip it’s their personal thing that they often play for fun, believing it to be some kind of nursery rhyme. And nobody ever suspects a thing.

Everything is perfect. Everything is beautiful. They grow up to be smart kids and with wonderful grades in school. They become marvelous musicians. They meet wonderful friends in high school. Of course they eventually start dating.

But then Mikleo’s 18th birthday draws near and for a couple of weeks, things get weird. He gets nightmares in which he drowns or gets lost in the mist, nightmares in which Sorey dies or simply gets missing, nightmares that he can’t make sense of. He hears the song all the time in his head, failing to remember where he’d learned it. The morning after his 18th birthday party, he wakes up in Sorey’s arms and everything ought to be great and perfect, but somehow it isn’t. He asks Sorey whether he remembers the song they learned as kids. Or how they learned it. What’s it called, even. He doesn’t know, but he remembers the song and plays it for Mikleo. And suddenly, bit by bit, Mikleo remembers. So does Sorey, but much slower.

Sorey leaves for college and Muse and Michael are already gone for work, but Mikleo stays in bed because he’s tired. Sorey has a bad feeling about this (TM) but leaves him be. Mistake. When he gets back home, Mikleo is nowhere to be found.

AND HERE’S THE PROBLEM. I’m stuck here. I have not the slightest idea how to fix this and stop Mikleo from getting lost in a lake in the woods for the rest of his life. Sure, okay, Muse and Sorey violently disagree, BUT WHAT ARE THEY SUPPOSED TO DO ABOUT IT. Violent violin battles are some of the less ridiculous “solutions” that have come to my mind so far.

If anybody knows how to give this thing a happy ending that doesn’t involve any deus ex machina moves from any end, I’d be grateful.

The worst thing about this is that experience tells me that I’d have zero trouble to actually leave Mikleo lost in the forest for the rest of his life if this was one of my original stories. Most of them are made of pain and suffering, seasoned with cute animals and super-natural shit for balance.

PART 3 (random Sormik related tidbits)

-Camlann is a tiny, mountaineous town which they love very dearly -they have to travel quite a bit each morning for high school and college (the former where they meet the rest of the squad) and later on to study some music or history related, they still visit their families often because they like it so much -I kinda want Selene to retain her maiden’s name and make it Shepherd for the sole purpose that Zaveid can then continue calling Sorey Sheps -also I came up with this bit about their living situation -shortly before Sorey and Mikleo start dating, they borrow the keys to a concert rehearsal room at some point, so they can practice their grand piano/violin duet a bit (Mikleo only has a piano at home, not a grand piano). It’s gonna be part of a huge concert thing, so it’s only one part of the show with an entire orchestra and occasionally other solos or duets -a hurricane cuts off all public transport for the evening and the entire night, and it’s also goddamn dangerous not to have a roof over your head for the time being -so they’re trapped in the rehearsal room until morning when the storm has subsided and public transport is also working again -once they’re too tired to actually practice once the evening gets late (like. very late. more like middle of the night/morning), they abide their time watching the storm through the rehearsal room’s hugeass windows -at some point, sleepy hormone rushes favor the confession and kissing bit -they have fond memories of thunderstorms afterwards -when she eventually hears about the thing, Rose is hollering with laughter because she probably had bets going that it would take them getting locked up in a room to finally confess and make out after years of mutual oblivious pining. She wasn’t entirely wrong, and probably made lots of bucks with her bet -anyway, when they finally perform their duet weeks later, the entire audience agrees that their duet was one of the evening’s highlights, and Sorey probably spends all evening smiling like an idiot and happily holding Mikleo’s hand -considering that the whole thing could be shamelessly crossover-y, I might get flutist!Milla giving flutist!Mikleo kindly big sister advise feelings (no, not relationship advise, because she’s the worst at that. Hey, not everything has to be Sormik-related) -not sure whether she’s still a vessel for Maxwell, but if lake spirits are a thing, why shouldn’t Maxwell be a thing -fun fact: I hate suits.

#orchestra AU #feat the official Sormik spinoff #no actually it’s not official sorry for trolling you

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obliviondtd · 7 years

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Day 4: Pendrago [Loss | Protection]

This entry is brought to you by me still sobbing over Dezel excuse me while I cry my heart out in a corner.

So you know how like half the party doesn’t properly mourn Dezel and then Zaveid replaces him 2 seconds later? Yeah....no. We’re not doing that. Also I NEED HURT/COMFORT SO THIS IS WHAT YOU GET!

Read on AO3

"There you are, Sorey. Everyone's been looking for you."

Said brunette was currently hidden away in an empty corner of the city. His eyes looked a bit red, and he was rapidly rubbing his eyes with his forearm. "O-Oh, sorry about that. I guess I just needed a moment to myself."

"Yeah, I think everyone's having a rough time right now, even if they're not necessarily showing it." He spared a quick sympathetic glance towards his friend who was once again rubbing furiously at his eyes. He didn't want anyone to see his moment of weakness.

After a few moments of silence, Mikleo decided to break the ice. "Do you want to talk about it?" His voice was gentle, as though speaking to a startled animal, and he moved closely to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Sorey...

...Who was still insisting nothing was wrong. "...No, I'm fine. Don't worry about it."

'Liar' , Mikleo thought, but instead said, "Transparent as always." He leaned back against the wall behind him, glancing at his companion from the corner of his eye. "I won't judge you for being upset. Actually, I'd be a bit more worried if you were perfectly fine after what happened."

Sorey sighed in defeat. It seemed he was finally going to be honest about his emotions. As he should. They both knew it would be bad for all of them if Sorey's suppressed emotions developed into a Malevolent force. "Alright...but this is just between us."

"I promise." He mimed crossing his heart with his finger for emphasis.

"I know it's not like me to be so sad, but if I couldn't even protect Dezel and Rose, how can I protect anyone." Sorey slid down the wall to sit on the ground, the stone road feeling like cold death. "Maybe I really wasn't up to the responsibility. I'm sure another Shepherd would have been able to save them both."

Mikleo, once again, joined Sorey at his level, leaning some of his own weight against him in a comforting gesture. "So that's what's bothering you..."

Mikleo had a feeling his companion was going to blame himself again, as he was wont to do. He shook his head, nudging the brunette's shoulder lightly, "You're too hard on yourself, Sorey. None of this is your fault. Surely you must realize that. It would have been exactly the same for anyone else in your position."

Sorey's eyes remained downcast. This was affecting him deeply, more so than anything he'd seen yet on this journey. Rather than trying again and again unsuccessfully to convince the stubborn brunette, the young seraph chose a different approach.

"Hey," Mikleo began, nudging a bit more forcefully this time, "You keep forgetting something important.” He shrugged, “Oh well, I guess I'll just have to remind you again, then."

He adopted a gentle teasing smile in an attempt to lighten the atmosphere. "You don't have to shoulder all that responsibility alone. Part of being a team is caring for each other. It's okay to have trouble or ask for help. We help each other out. We protect each other."

Finally, Sorey smiled back. It was a bit more subdued than his usual, dorky smile, but it was progress. "Thanks, Mikleo. You're right–"

"–As usual."

"Hey!" The interruption had its intended effect, though, and the two shared a laugh. "Well anyway, I guess we should head back before someone decides to tear through the entire city to find us."

"Yeah, we really don't need to deal with the consequences of making those girls worry..." They both shuddered at the thought, quickly getting to their feet. "You’re okay now?"

"Yeah." He nodded, and the two walked together towards the inn where they were sure their companions were waiting.

......

"Hey, Mikleo?"

"Hmm?"

"Let's all make it out of this together. And when it's over, we'll work to find a way for humans and seraphim to coexist."

"Well, duh. That kind of goes without saying."

'Don't worry, Sorey. I'll be here to protect you, too.' Is what he didn't say.

#sormikweek2017 #day 4 #these two need to comfort each other #because let's be real #there's no way in hell these two are just okay with what happens #I mean #THEY GRIEVE OVER EVERYONE ELSE WHO DIES #but just kinda #ehhhhhhh.....#with dezel #and i'm like #there is #NO WAY YALLRE OKAY WITH THIS

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karereiko · 7 years

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Pointless Zestiria X post (you can skip it) Talk about sormik, other canons and silly dreams

You know I had dream tonight about last episode of anime. It's coming close so idea of going through sea of salt once more (after almost month of curing my wounded soul) started to stress out my brain once more. Not mention reading yesterday post about salty comment about possible Sorali ending.

I don't think that it's a case. It would be like Namco shooting themselves into heads. They already posted article in „Romance” newspaper in japan featuring Sorey and Mikleo. They probably see that posts saying about sormik on unfotable tweeter have more like 600+ favs when normal Zestiria X and Alisha things have like 50-/+. They wouldn't bring the wave of hate on themselves if they are sane.

Yet, I'm not looking forward to read about last episode of anime.

So, back to my dream. I dream story for last episode of anime where Ufotable made Heldalf disappear in first seconds of episode like Smaug dies in first 10 minutes of 3rd Hobbit. So after that Sorey is possessed by new bad guy jumping from nowhere. Team fights him and after beating Sorey to the ground team doesn't know how to return Sorey back to normal. Then Mikleo leaned down to kiss him. Camera doesn't show it clearly but you know Mikleo is kissing Sorey (as to not cross line to showing their lips together in anime, airing in japan since they aren't open to things like that).

Sorey is returned to normal. There is skip after all that to inn room where Sorey and Mikleo is talking about last battle and what to do next. Mikleo is still shaken by last battle and fact someone possessed Sorey. They sitting around 15 centimeters away from each other but Sorey rises his arm above Mikleo's shoulder and says sorry for worrying him and giving him his support ( whole anime didn't do even single scene like this, when Sorey is grateful for Mikleo's feelings, like he was in game and seeing this made me really happy in my dream). Anyway Mikleo is moved and he falls with his head on Sorey's lap and cries.

There is where my dream ended and I was sad that it wasn't real. It was damn stupid, it was cliche, it was cheesy, it was silly for Mikleo to act like this. And yet I can feel that real last episode of anime is going to be worst than this. Worst than silly dream just like rest of episodes were.

I'm not saying that Sorey and Mikleo romance was perfect in game. If you watch scenes and skits clearly you can see how much they take care of each other. We have famous Sauna skit. But they aren't labeled as romance and that's Sormik main problem. Namco made them always stood beside each other but always with some space between them. Many scenes just scream that this is the right moment for them to hold hands or just put hand on other's shoulder. I'm not talking about kissing, none tales story had it, but since one putting of Mikleo's hand on Sorey's shoulder we didn't get anything like this later. I read somewhere that while making game they have „toned down” their relationship, yet I don’t know if that's true/real. I didn't saw note talking about it myself. The other question if it's real is what they „toned down”? Did Sorey and Mikleo hugged? Did they held hands on some point? We will never know.

We have words of „One and only” but that all we got and it would never let some people stop screaming that Sormik isn't canon. We have „unfinished” confession from Mikleo. Because I think it's main problem that made anime look like this. That made sormik fandom die faster than you can say Xenosaga.

There is no clear announcement that Sormik was suppose to be canon. Not in game. Not in anime. The words of „one and only” aren't enough for some people. No amount of explain behind Alisha leaving party, Mikleo being Sorey's one and only, that Sorey and any girl would work out going to change people minds.

I don't think fans who support Sormik need any more prof of them being canon. It would be nice but not necessary. We want it so others could stop hurt Mikleo, so both Sorey and Mikleo could be happy and other characters could be themselves.

When I thought about romances in tales games, and yes I played them for 10 years right now, many romances weren't greatly done. But since it's boyxgirl it's easier to find simple looking in eyes with affection, grab hands or supporting each other as romance affection.

Sormik as it is now it's hard to clearly label as romantic for everyone. Some may think it more or less or just simply brothers relationship.

Let's look at other Tales games. At beginning I want to say that I support those couples too just like Sormik.

I think most unclear romance is YurixEstelle. After watching gameplay I asked myself question, was that love? Or simply friendship? Really, compare to those two Sormik is already romance. Someone can say but Yuri tried save Estelle so many times! They had alone talk with each other before final battle.

Sorey and Mikleo had moments alike this a lot with other ones and I don't think Yuri even once said Estelle looks sexy after sauna. If YurixEstelle are canon then Sormik too in Tales of games style.

LloydxCollete was nice done, we clearly see Lloyd care for Collette and it's not only because she's his childhood friend. Symphonia anime, also made by Ufotable was heaven compare to Zestiria. It followed main plot, didn't change characters personalities and the most important thing, it cherished LloydxCollette canon. So don't get me wrong over hating Zestiria X. I wanted simply repeat from Symphonia, to see Zestiria story/moments as anime and I got something that trashed plot and characters.

Xillia, as much as it's clear that canon pair is JudexMilla they doesn't touch or kiss to feel that they are canon. They only hold hands at the end before... they simply parting ways. I remember loving those two, Jude's love for Milla was so sweet and ending broke me. I never played Xillia 2 because I was afraid it would ruin my beloved canon. Did someone said that Milla didn't start to romantically care for Jude, or Jude for Milla? No. Even the reality when he was human (ehem Sorey) and she spirit (ehem Mikleo) didn't make canon less possible. Milla may over live Jude, but that's another story.

From all clearly romance canon couples from Tales games I can say are: ShingxKohaku (he clearly says in game at least twice that he loves Kohaku), KylexReala (this whole game goes around their romance and later when Reala's going to disappear Kyle don't want for that to happen. They hug a lot too.

Tales of games have a lot cuples that comes from childhood friends: ReidxFarah, VeiguexClaire, LloydxCollette, AsbelxCheria, SenelxShirley (if in the end they are canon... Well, their relationship is complicated too, first Senel loves Shirley's sister, but she died, then some people ship him hard with Chloe (ehem... she tried to kill him)) and SoreyxMikleo are just as another one of those couples.

So, to end this post, anime isn't going to help Sormik matter, it made it only worse. I don't think we ever get side story in any crossover game that would say „Sormik are romantic canon.” There is no way, even other canon couples rarely get their relationship on romance level in those games (usually they are at beginning level when they just know each other for some time example: LukexTear, LloydxCollette are mostly childhood friends usualy). We won't be able to hear anything beyond „Sorey wants to spend rest of his life with his CHILDHOOD friend Mikleo” (Asteria's radio audition) or Sorey knew Mikleo's true name but oh well they are boys, it doesn't mean Mikleo told it as romantic confession (Berseria, Berseria guide that says it's different when boy telling another boy his true name). Even Zelos joking about Sorey and Mikleo being on date (Asteria) isn’t going to help everyone view Sormik as canon or let tell sormik supporters that we have nothing to worry about and just enjoy canonical Sormik.

First episodes of anime gave hope about Sormik being something even more big than in game, but it was quickly destroyed. It was treated even worse from episode to episode. What comes from Ufotable sketch of Sorey and Mikleo sleeping on eachother shoulder, close and happy if it wasn’t in anime?

As for myself I'm sad about anime waste as whole Zestiria, not only Sormik. I don't care how Zestiria X looks like, I don't need to watch it. But each time I think that we never going to get because of Zestiria X a GOOD adaptation of game like Abyss or Symphonia had (gosh, even eternia was better, at least characters wasn't so ooc even if it plot was awful, graphic too, but it was in the end only filler to main story. No one tried to change main plot). Chances for reboot of anime is 0%. That's it. We never see tickle fight, fake marriage scene, Sorey losing his resonance, Rose hitting him, Dezel death (no, no kamikaze kill without real reason), fight with Tiamat, night at Lastonbell, EVERYONE seeing Sorey and Mikleo's past, the ending of story... The only nice scene from game we got was Sorey holding his breath to let Alisha communicate with Lailah. That's all.

I love Zestiria OVA. It has perfect pacing and it was close as possible to game. I just simply wish we got something like this instead of Zestiria X.

#Tales of Zestiria #Zestiria #sormik #3 pages of writing because sormik dream #and last ep of anime is coming #I'm afraid what they make #sorey #mikleo

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talesofsymphoniac · 7 years

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I never said Maltran and Dezel betrayals weren't bad things, or "as bad" in certain circumstances, nor did I tried to excuses their comportment, I merely said the game explain the characters choices. Yes lot of things are awkwardly executed in toz but I personally find the reasons behind the characters choices to always be clear. I understand and respect your viewpoint though. 1/4

Never said anything about excuses and “But it made her stronger!” either? I said Rose think she became this strong by herself and suddenly learning it wasn't true could, possibly, have break her confidence. It did not but at this point the characters couldn't know. I did agree the characters choices were mistake, but I personally find their choices believable. 2/4

As for Mikleo while he always give his opinion he never forces Sorey to accept it (well exept maybe for the breakup/makeup part) See with the bridge, if you choose to do it in front of people, Mikleo says he's against it but won't stop Sorey if he still choose to do it. Plus there's a few skits were Mikleo worries about Alisha pushing herself and never allowing herself a break, so yeah I personally think him not telling her is true to his character. 3/4

Actually he agrees to it and the party has a whole conversation about telling or not telling her. See Maltran's True Identity and Let Sleeping Dogs Lie skits. Now I may have express myself badly, english is not my first language and I certainly did not intend to be rude, so I apoplogize if it sound like it. 4/4

Yeah, I understood that you were just talking about the characters’ reasonings, not excusing the choices yourself, I don’t think you’re rude, don’t worry! And sorry if I came off rude myself, I just get very passionate talking about this game because I do love it a lot.

And yeah, I was just saying the game tries to make Dezel’s actions look better by pointing out how it strengthened Rose’s resonance, which is something that irks me. Not that that was something you yourself said.

ANYWAY, I understand the logic given in-game, it's just... bad logic? Like, Sorey and the party knew full well that they wouldn’t be able to keep those secrets from Alisha and Rose forever. They had to real reason to believe that either of them were “safe” other than “Maltran and Dezel don’t seem to want to hurt them right now.” So even though the game gives reasoning, it’s just really illogical and shortsighted reasoning, to the point that it doesn’t feel believable coming from the characters.

And no, Mikleo never forces his opinion and reasonings on Sorey (except for the makeup/breakup) but he still expresses his thoughts. And the fact that his thoughts are just “It might break Alisha to hear about this” is so??? Again, it’s just a very short-sighted argument and based on Maltran’s word that she doesn’t intend to harm Alisha yet. I guess in-game, that logic ended up being pretty much sound, but it’s just. So. Weird. To. Me.

I guess with Maltran, it’s one of those “this logic works in-universe, just don’t think about it” lazy writing things that you can kinda shrug off. Whereas with Dezel the whole thing does much more of a disservice to Rose and Dezel’s arcs, because it doesn’t give Dezel’s actions the gravity they probably deserved or Rose the agency she deserves.

Haha, rewatching “Maltran’s True Identity” is funny because Lailah’s the only one who mentions that it might be worse for Alisha not to find out about her and then everyone else clamors on with reasons they shouldn’t tell her and she doesn’t say anything else, which is actually pretty in-line with Lailah’s MO, fair enough. :P

#meta #tales of zestiria #rose #alisha diphda #dezel #mine #i don't know if i'm even making sense #Anonymous

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carnelianwings · 7 years

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@ochirinu replied to your post “only good thing that might come out of the anime: gramps survives”

Not mentioning Sorey and Mikleo's past. Like, Let's show Dezel's past, Rose's past but who needs main character's story? I mean, where they supposed to find out now?

Yeah, I mean, what past? Since when has the main character(s)’s past been relevant to the story in a Tales game? Oh wait . . . (Tucking the rest behind a cut for some of my newer followers who might actually want to play the game for themselves and don’t want it spoiled. This is like, the mid game plot “twist” for Zestiria - even though it’s a pretty mild one by Tales mid-game plot twist standards - so don’t read if you actually want to keep the surprise or you haven’t gotten to The Iris Gem Event in Lohgrin. Plus a spoiler for Berseria as well.)

It doesn’t matter that had both been born in the months before (in Mikleo’s case) or during (in Sorey’s case) the attack at Camlann. (I mean, I say attack, but the scenes in the game make it seem more like a massacre and razing of the village.)

Or that Mikleo’s uncle is none other than the previous Shepherd Michael, who founded Camlann, and moved Maotelus from his shrine in Pendrago to a new shrine near Camlann, which we discover in Berseria was originally a shrine built by Artorius to Innominat (the Seraph Lord Empyrean of Void), and by Zestiria’s time has become Artorius’s Throne.

Or that Michael fell to malevolence as he helplessly watched said village he helped found get massacred and burned to the ground, because Heldalf (a Rolance army general who had fallen out of favor) chose to retreat instead of defending the village from an invading Hyland army.

Or that in his final moments of said despair, Michael sacrificed a badly burned (and possibly dying) infant (human) Mikleo on the altar of said shrine to cast a curse of loneliness on Heldalf, forever linking Maotelus to Heldalf and corrupting Maotelus as a result. (Oh wait, where else do we see a human get sacrificed by another, creating a Lord of Calamity as a result . . . )

Or that Mikleo was then reincarnated as a baby Seraph, and that Muse (his mother) gives him to Zenrus to raise, offering her life in exchange to become the seal over Camlann to keep Maotelus’s malevolence sealed within and away from the rest of the continent, and that as she hands baby Seraph Mikleo to Zenrus, she gives him the circlet she wears. (Yes, Mikleo’s pretty circlet that we all love so much is actually a Tragic Keepsake from his mother.)

Or that a prematurely born Sorey was found nearby, still in his dead mother’s (Selene) arms, and that the manga had heavily hinted that Heldalf is in fact his (biological) father, which would make Sorey Heldalf’s illegitimate son. (Heldalf is shown having a family in a few other scenes.)

Oh wait, oops. Maybe that

was

important. Maybe even plot critical, for both stories.

I mean, it’s not like Maotelus isn’t a playable party member in Berseria under a different name . . . *coughs*

Well too late now! Maybe we can have Heldalf monologue all of this for no good reason in the final 2 episodes. I mean, it’s not like Mayvin went to Northgand with them so he won’t be there to die to reveal this to the party.

#ochirinu #soymilkheaven answers a reply #tales of zestiria spoiler #tales of berseria spoiler #yet another reason why the anime frustrates me so much

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mirons-jrpg-hell · 7 years

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I think you've trapped yourself in an unending cycle of salt and seeing more SorAli than there actually is in the anime? They just look like normal companions to me and I feel like Alisha always talks respectful but distant to him. Meanwhile she readily jumps into the bath with Rose whom she's known for a couple weeks at most and tried to shank her twice? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Maybe I'm more positive than average? I don't think they are removing Sormik, they're just not giving them enough screentime.

Yes, I am aware that, as you said, I trapped myself in a circle.But I am really sensitive about this topic - queerbaiting is a thingthat I absolutely hate. (And, frankly, I am still not over Sherlockand The Cursed Child.) From what we have seen up to this point, I am,sadly, convinced that we absolutely won’t get SorMik ending, unlessthe writers were trolling us the entire time.

What we got up to this point is “fanboy’s wish fulfilment”,being:

Alisha being in the party nearly the whole time

Less Mikleo

Dezel not dying

Sorey being able to purify dragons

Sorey being able to save Eizen

Not much moral dilemma

More Berseria

Alisha being present in the final battle

Sorey probably not going to sleep

Oh, and what was the thing that fans also were complaining about?Alisha not being a heroine. Alisha not being Sorey’s One andOnly.

So, I am sorry if I am salty. If I’m ruining your mood, Iapologize. But I’m so scared that Zestiria will become the nextbiggest queerbait in the history of queerbaiting, the least I can dois to share my thoughts with you.

And, honestly - SorAli is hinted as romantic. It really is. Thewhole ending of Season 1, the majority of Season 2 - it IS here. It’snot super strong, but it IS here as much as SorMik is - and we allknow which one of these casual viewer will pick up.

#tozx #tales of zestiria the x #ask #answer #toz #tales of zestiria #salt saaaalt

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eleore · 7 years

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Tales of Zestiria P.3: A lot happens (and doushi still cannot do whatever they want)

In which we save a town, fight a puppy (or two), and get dragged into the whole mess because politics. Well, this game doesn’t pull any punches, huh.

By the way, these notes actually belong to 2 different sessions, so again, it’s going to be long.

A quick note on terminology: I’m playing the game in English with the Japanese track, so I tend to mix the EN and JP terms a lot. In general, you will that I refer to Sorey as the doushi (not shepherd), and the seraphim as tenzoku. My apologies for any inconvenience this may cause!

Picking up from where I left the game before my week off, the party finally gets to Marlind. The Akzeriuth vibes are everywhere, down to the miasma going around. Last time this happened the MC made a horrible mistake, we couldn’t save the place, and everything got worse, so I’m a little concerned... especially since this game is way harsher in its truths than any of the Tales games I have played before.

How can I say this... it’s not like the other games were all light and fluffy, but Zestiria has been quite brutal since the very beginning. Everything you do has consequences, and the tenzoku made it extremely clear that normal people won’t react so calmly to the weird power Sorey has - which is the most reasonable response, but not the one we usually see in fiction.

Anyways, soon enough we get to see the hellion that’s causing most of the issues, and... OH MY GOD IT’S A DRAGON PUPPY!! I loved Alisha’s reaction here - I feel like I have spent half my playtime saying ALISHA NO ahaha. Still, Mikleo’s reactions as the sole straight man in this act continue being my favourite.

After running around a bit, it turned out we needed to enter the creepiest place in this town. But of course... . Why did it have to be scary things ;^;. Let’s just say, here are my unedited notes for this part:

Oh. Ghosts. No. WHY.

OH MY GOD I TRIED TO EXIT THE ROOM AND A PAINTING FELL AND IT WAS HIDING OMINOUS WRITING IN BLOOD.

WHY THE CREEPY LAUGH.

Nope. Nope. NOPE.

I actually jumped at the creepy laugh, it was completely unexpected. I hate these parts, and the fact that the camera continues to be absolutely terrible didn’t help at all. There are battles that take way longer than they should because I’m stuck trying to see wherever I am. In a way, I feel that these are harder than in Graces and Xillia. That said, I have become used to switching tenzoku to adapt to enemy weaknesses, so that’s been going much smoothly.

Anyways, boss time! And luckily it has nothing to do with that creepy painting (speaking of which, it was way too detailed to not be important later). I actually had some trouble at first (first battle since the “assassin” one I sort of struggle), but I managed to win quite quickly without any items. And... oh dear, HE IS SO CUTE AND FLUFFY AND SPEAKS IN KANSAI BEN.

I felt really sorry for Attak, though... he was genuinely sad at everything that happened, so seeing Edna of all people cheer him up was really nice (what happened between the Normin, Lailah and Edna anyway?).

The fights with the puppy and that huge plant didn’t really have any highlights for me, aside from finally making it clear that Alisha’s squire pact was literally breaking Sorey’s body. The moment we went back to the inn and she started being all doubtful, I immediately saved and took all her equipment off... which turned out to be a good call, as she left the party soon afterwards. Given that she being around is killing Sorey, I’m assuming Sorey undid her pact and thus she will only come back after either she or him become way stronger, or she won’t come back at all. Or maybe, I wonder if she will turn out to be like Richard and come back only after the end? There seems to be a DLC about her, too.

The main issue, however, is that without a second human I’m stuck with only 2 people for my active battle party...

... which of course becomes an issue immediately, as these politicians finally made a “smart” move and are using her as a way to get Sorey to do their biding. I didn’t expect to get dragged into the war so early, but I suppose it couldn’t be helped, though this means the part will have issues travelling within the Empire now, and this showcase of Sorey’s powers won’t be forgotten so easily.

Poor Sorey... his expressions during the whole battlefield segment were perfect (and oh wow, the animated cutscenes are of such high quality! Best I have seen in a long time), clearly showing how upset and sad he really was, yet still trying to keep a smile on his face... . Seeing Lucas’s reaction was awful, but can I really blame him?

After a taste of the final boss, who was suspiciously kind in letting Sorey go, getting saved by Rose (happy that extremely obvious cat is out of the bag), and meeting a fellow explorer (I like this old man already), we get to explore ruins again. Woohoo!

By the way, it bothered me that Sorey couldn’t see the tenzoku for a while, and just as I was wondering about that, they came back ahaha.

The last highlight of the session was that we got Rose and Dezel to join the party. Given that they appeared in the OP, this was to be expected, but I can’t help feeling a little uneasy... for a number of reasons.

First of all, isn’t it too early to have a full party? 6 people seems to be the standard party size these days, and there weren’t any other “relevant” characters in the OP aside from Alisha and Zaveid. Alisha might come back, but it would be weird to have a second tenzoku of the same element.

Second, it was all so... convenient. A character with the same extremely rare high level of resonance as the main character, who can also armatize, and just when we learned that the previous pact was killing Sorey because the squire had low resonance? I suppose the last part can make sense as Dezel has been controlling her for so long (explaining while she didn’t react to the conversation the party has with him in Marlind), but... .

Finally, the way the whole assassin guild thing was just handwaved, when these are the guys that were hired to kill Alisha, and who were clearly allied with the guy that ATE Mason. How come Sorey or even Mikleo didn’t bring this up at all?! It’s completely unnatural.

This all said, I like Rose and her whimsical nature. I will try switching to her for a while, to see if she controls better than Sorey.

Uff, that was a lot! I might not get to play again until the weekend, but I guess I can’t complain ahahaha. Questions aside, this journey has been fun so far except for the bloody camera. I’m planning to sit down for a while, level up and fuse some equipment before continuing (I’m really behind in that regard),so the next session might be shorter in terms of text.

#ele plays #tales of zestiria #gaming

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pengiesama · 7 years

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SUCH A LUST FOR REVENGE

WHO???

...

have mgs5 memes gone out of style already

the point is that i’m still playing berseria and more notes on it are behind the cut. beware of huge spoilers up to the second visit to the snowy place

more trivia on Ancient Avarost, aka the Ancient Tongue that Sorey and Mikleo are self-taught and speak and read fluently: it's an "impressionist script", and has to be deciphered from within context. meaning, you have to get into the head of the writer and understand their emotions to decipher it. it's described as an emotion-based writing system, entirely different than any modern style of writing.

an NPC talked about the Isle of Lakehaven: it's a mountainous island, that recently sank partially into the sea. it can't be approached by the Abbey or any other ships due to a constant lightning storm. Lakehaven Heights, if you remember from Zestiria, is the area surrounding Elysia. the lightning storm is obviously Zenrus keeping the Abbey away from Elysia, and sinking the mountains may have been the work of Zenrus as well (or the Elysia seraphim in general).

Velvet and Magilou's improv show was a disaster due to Velvet's stage fright, but someday Magilou will achieve her dream of Velvet hurling her into a wall and fucking the shit out of her. Velvet's 100% for the former but isn't yet convinced on the latter.

i'm beginning to like Magilou more, except when i don't. like when she forces Laphi to look up her skirt.

i'm still not especially fond of Eleanor. she stubbornly refuses to de-kool aid herself re: the Abbey and Artorius' actions, despite the massive glut of evidence that he and the Abbey are corrupt. also i find it like...fucking cruel to have Eleanor monopolize Laphi's affections when Velvet's so attached to him, and Eleanor was originally trying to flat-out kill him and then bring him back to the Abbey. tbh just fob Eleanor off on that repulsive little goblin child that we have to put up with.

regarding said repulsive goblin child: shut the fuck up you obnoxious half-naked brat holy shit stop SHRIEKING and sticking your crotch in the camera every god damn time you're on-screen (which is FAR too often)

Laphicet's skit collection on adventuring is too precious, as is his love for dinosaurs. please keep on keeping on until Sorey and Mikleo come around so they can have a beautiful baby boy to raise.

Laphicet can look into earthpulses in order to look out of other earthpulses, and can also sense their location. we're using this to search out therions and various Abbey-related shenanigans.

Laphi gets pissed that Velvet is just treating him as a replacement for her brother and puts a bunch of random costume attachments on himself and gives her the business. the result: a fight against some octopuses and Velvet starts calling him Phi instead. a Laphi by any name remains as moe

every. other. fucking. skit. the characters are accusing each other of having a crush on a random character of the opposite sex if they so much as bring them up in conversation. this shit never fucking happened in Zestiria so why does it have to exist now

an incomplete list of things Eizen has freaked out about: fine art history a cool rock a bug fishing poles fluffy squirrels that let him pet them his clothing being tailored wrong his pasta being cooked wrong archaeology being wrong about archaeology being denied the chance to make a secret underwater system of tunnels a giant pot we fished out of the ocean that had a bunch of dead shit in it us finding out that he's gifting the pot to the mysterious umbrella girl, wrapped in sunflower wrapping paper and accompanied by a flowery letter the chance for him to finally get heads instead of tails on a rigged coin, only for two of the coins to get eaten by birds and the third to straight-up explode in mid-air

Grimorh states and Eizen confirms that earth malakhim are inherently unable to swim; though Eizen thinks he has overcome it and can swim now that he has his secret technique, inflatable floaties attached to his arms. no i am not kidding.

on a related note, Mikleo please resist the urge to taunt Edna while swimming laps in a lake like a beautiful dolphin. it won't end well

we hit up Stonebury, which is proto-Lastonbell; as evidenced by the radishbells and the Giant Stump (which was a discovery point near Lastonbell in Zestiria), as well as the NPC discussion on making a giant belltower as the town expands. the NPCs in town note that there's a cult around the town that worships dragons, based out of the Tintagel Temple; which is where Rose's crew hid out initially.

Eizen is such a nerd and is so easy to rile up on dumb shit. tbh it's clear now why Edna hassles Mikleo; he reminds her of Eizen :(

got an inn skit implying Velvet is masturbating. in fact, she is cleaning. it's preferable to the skit with the Laphi masturbation joke.

more church confessional shenanigans: Eizen's biggest regret is stealing 100 gald from Edna's savings to buy a painting, and Laphi's biggest regret is accidentally killing a slug + an ant hill with sugar/sugar water.

RED FUCKING ALERT I GOT THE TRUE NAMES = CONFESSION OF LOVE SKIT KEKEKEKEKEKKEKEKEKEKE

REAL GOOD!!!!!!!!! REALLY GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GAY THAT CROSSES THE STREAMS OF TIME

FLASHBACK2 "I already know it!" YEAH BOY. YEAH BOY. YEAH_BOY.MP3

anyway now we can fast travel through map areas on geoboards. they were made by and for normin (the normin has to speak their normin name to activate, which is just "Atakk", "Acqua", etc. in Berseria the normin don't go by their normin names but in Zestiria they apparently don't give af about who knows it), and surf along earthpulses.

the party takes a poll on whether they like cats or dogs better. the results: velvet: dogs magilou: cats eleanor: both rokurou: neither eizen: squirrels. after being yelled at, amends to cats bc spoiled cats remind him of Edna laphi: is the tiebreaker, and is too scared to say

Eizen explains to Laphi that malakhim can get more powerful with prayers from humans. prayers aren't just outright worshiping; it's positive thoughts, encouragement, and emotions directed at them. Artorius' plan is to direct humanity's worship toward Innominat alone, instead of individual malakhim or the Empyreans. this targeted worship will give him the most power.

Laphi angsts about who would want to pray to him, and i don't know how the party doesn't see the obvious plan of action here. present Laphi to the populace and stand beside him in a Will Smith pose. his moe is severe, and is far more appealing than some stupid eight-headed dragon that just lives to guzzle down black goo. the people will abandon Innominat and worship their new god, derailing the Abbey's plans.

Eizen, like Dezel, can only bring misfortune with his blessing; this and the Reaper's Curse is why he lives apart from Edna.

EIZEN IN GLASSES FUCK MY BONER HURTS

fact: kamoana is a completely fucking pointless character made to be pedophile fetish bait and the next fucking time she spends the entirety of her screentime EAR-PIERCINGLY SHRIEKING AND CRYING AT THE TOP OF HER LUNGS i am going to drop kick her into the goddamn ocean. the worst part is every character fawns over her """""cuteness"""" (as fucking if) and acts like i should give the least shit about her (lol no).

.......i don't like loud and obnoxious children. perhaps you can tell. if all children were sweet babies like laphicet then it'd be a different story

#i guess this is my personal tales of berseria tag now #i guess this is my personal tales of zestiria tag now

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birbleafs · 7 years

Text

[fic] a series of CATastrophic incidents

Series: Tales of Zestiria Rating: T Genre: Game-Canon, Humour Characters: Dezel, Rose, Sorey, Mikleo, Lailah, Edna, Zaveid, Alisha Diphda, Sergei Strelka, Original Characters Warnings: None, unless you’re violently allergic to cats, bad puns, and unhinged utensils Summary: He shouldn’t have been surprised, honestly. Still, nothing quite prepared him for this; he was more of a dog person, after all. Or: in which the party encounters a witch and the seraphim are turned into cats.

A/N: This started out as a joke fic an excuse to write more cute/silly party shenanigans but kind of spiralled out of hand, lol. So I guess it’s now the equivalent of a side-quest… oops? I may or may not have mixed up some events in the game timeline very slightly for creative liberties, but it’s nothing serious. Takes place in the time after the party’s arrival in Lastonbell and before the incident with Forton in Pendrago.

Fic can also be read on AO3

i. He shouldn’t have been surprised, honestly. Incidents like these—they were a norm and he should really be used to them by now. Being part of the Shepherd’s posse brought both irritability and absurdity. He was aware of this even before Rose had decided to take on the role of Squire; before she had risked her own life to save the brat from certain death after his brush with the Lord of Calamity in Glaivend Basin.

Still, nothing quite prepared him for this; he was more of a dog person, after all.

“But why cats, though?” Rose finally blurted out, incredulous. Hell, Dezel wanted to know too—who would come up with such a sick joke anyway?

“I’m not a cat!”

The small silver creature standing in the grass was scowling up at them with narrowed, violet eyes. His mouth was open, as if he were attempting to speak. But the only sound he managed was a very indignant and kittenish mewl.

“W-What?” The silver kitten crinkled his nose, tail waving back and forth in confusion. He glanced over his shoulder, gazing at a second cat—a female with a silky white coat and a long, red-striped tail. “Why can’t I… Lailah, what’s going on?”

“Huh,” Sorey said from where he was crouched low to the ground. There was a contemplative look about him as he swept his gaze from the silver kitten to the white cat. Skulking beside his right knee was a smaller, calico-patched kitten with sky-blue eyes and a foul temper, her short tail fluffed up. And draped casually over the Shepherd’s shoulder was yet another cat—a sleek, muscular tom, grey-striped and wearing a languid amber stare. Sorey watched the cats surrounding him for a bit longer, before he reached out tentatively to let the silver kitten sniff his fingers.

“Well, at least he didn’t turn you all into frogs,” he added unhelpfully. “Ow!” He yelped when the silver kitten nipped a finger.

“This isn’t funny, Sorey!” the kitten said, ears twitching irritably.

Before Sorey could reply, the grey tom leapt down from his perch to the grass below, splaying his claws as he stretched his long limbs out easily.

“Better a cat than a frog, eh, Mikster? Though I suppose it might have been easier if we had been turned into frogs. A kiss from one with the purest of hearts should do the trick.” The grey tom glanced up at Rose, a mischievous gleam in his eyes now. “No harm trying it out with cats too, right? How about it, Missy? Sheps here would actually be the obvious choice but since Lailah probably won’t risk sullying his purity, I’m sure we also can make do with a kiss from a fine lady such as yourself. Besides, the kid has probably reserved his kiss for that special someone.”

“Um, actually—” Sorey began hesitantly at the same time the calico kitten growled softly in her throat. Bunching up her paws beneath her, she sprang forward and aimed a swift paw-jab to the grey tom’s face that had him yowling in surprise and backing away.

“As lewd as ever even in this form,” the calico hissed as she swished her bottle-brush tail in contempt. “Just because you’re a fuzz ball now doesn’t mean you’re allowed to be gross, Grossveid.”

Rose rubbed at her nape, still confused, as she stared at the gathering of cats. “How are these cats even talking to us? It’s like I’m hearing their voices in my head and that’s creepy, just like how... Whoa, hold on a sec...” She stiffened, eyes widening as she finally caught on. “Is this kitten Edna?” She flicked her gaze back at the grey tom, who beamed and twitched his whiskers proudly up at her. “And Zaveid?!”

Dezel was already internally groaning at Rose’s slow uptake. But Sorey, ever the sunshine of their dysfunctional little band, only let out a chuckle.

“So you can hear them too, huh? And this one here is Mikleo!” He reached for the silver kitten who was still puffed up indignantly, holding up his now fluffy best friend for Rose to take a better look. “Doesn’t he look like the cutest bundle of fur now?” “Ugh, Sorey!” Mikleo the kitten groaned, struggling to bat Sorey over the nose with a paw. This time, it was Rose’s turn to laugh. “More like an overpriced fur stole, really.” “R-Rose!” Before the two could continue with their good-natured teasing, the white cat with the red tail purred, amused. She bounded up to balance herself easily on Sorey’s right shoulder, looking over at Rose and Dezel with bright eyes.

“And I take it this one here must be Lailah then,” Rose said.

“That is correct,” the Prime Lord (Prime... Cat?) nodded. “It seems that what we’ve heard from the villagers aren’t mere rumours, after all. With their apparent skill in transmutation artes, perhaps this person really is a witch.” “Great,” Dezel muttered under his breath. “This just means more work cut out for us.”

ii.

The trouble with old geezers—with old people in general, Rose thought somewhat unkindly—was how they never minded their own business. Things would’ve been simpler if he had ignored them, had left them to their own devices. But no, the old man just had stick his nose in, throwing a wrench into their plans.

(To be fair, she’d considered that perhaps he might’ve been yet another unwilling victim coerced into it. But she had also spent weeks tracking and chasing down their target, dammit. So nope, he didn’t get a free pass, unwilling victim or not!) In any case, even if the man wasn’t completely to blame, Rose felt at times the odds just weren’t in their favour. After all, Sorey—and now Rose, by association—tended to have the odd luck of attracting unwanted attention, from both meddlesome and honest humans alike.

She groaned, placing a hand at her hip while the other pinched the space between her eyes. It had to be the darn Shepherd’s cloak—of course Sorey was going to stick out like a sore thumb everywhere, clad in such conspicuous designs. That and probably that ridiculously boyish but radiant smile, over-bright like the sun. Sorey’s earnestness didn’t always impress unctuous politicians and battle-hardy soldiers like it usually did with civilians. But they’d always assumed the Shepherd to be an ingenuous young man at first, only to realise belatedly how discerning he could actually be.

Unfortunately in this case, the old geezer wasn’t too quick on the pickup. Sorey wasn’t quite ready to dismiss the old man’s pleas of There you are, I’ve searched all over for you!, but he’d realised something didn’t quite add up when he exchanged a brief glance with her.

“Oh,” Sorey said, looking back over at the old man, who was now bowing fervently before them. “Do you both know each other?”

Rose didn’t miss the flicker of uncertainty in those grey eyes, or the way the old man fiddled nervously with the hem of his tunic. She sighed, before meeting Sorey’s gaze once more with the tiniest of smirks.

“A-ah, yes! We do!” the old man stuttered, a little too quickly and too loudly. “Yes, of course we know each other—why would you think otherwise?! I-I mean, he’s my grandson, who’s now the blacksmith’s apprentice! We had a… fight and he went missing and…” He faltered, staring blankly first at Sorey, and then at Rose. As though he’d abruptly lost his train of thought.

Or as though he’d forgotten the rest of his scripted lines.

Rose stifled back a chuckle. She flicked her gaze back at the boy she and Sorey had chased through the streets earlier, down to the corner of this alley. The blacksmith’s apprentice, huh? Now she was sure the old man was lying. She was no stranger to Coram and his forge; the blacksmith traded regularly with the Sparrowfeathers for metal and coal. And being the loquacious sort, he never had any qualms filling her in with the latest village gossip and updates in his life. So she would have heard if Coram had gotten an apprentice. And even she hadn’t, the boy’s hands were too smooth, his nails too polished for one who supposedly laboured for hours with fire and metalwork.

“An apprentice?” she said, eyebrows raised in feign surprise. She made no attempt to move from her spot however, keeping the boy cornered against the brick wall. “Never heard of Coram taking in someone new. But let’s just assume you’re telling us the truth and that you’re able to describe ol’ Smithy and his forge. If you can do that, then I might just buy it and let you go.”

There was a tensed silence and— Rose caught a flash of movement from the corner of her eyes. The old man lunged clumsily forward, hands flailing out in an attempt to grab her, but Rose was already sidestepping away nimbly—only to realise too late that the old man hadn’t been trying to pin her down, and was instead attempting to divert her attention.

Oh, crap, the kid!

She turned and saw Sorey rushing to her side, sword raised.

“Rose, Sorey—get back!” was the last thing she heard before she felt a gush of wind surrounding them. There was a loud rumbling noise and they were both knocked off their feet by a fierce blast of magic.

Rose skidded against the ground, coughing as dirt and dust settled around them. Blinking, she saw Dezel standing tall before her, his arms outstretched to keep the shield he’d raised with his artes intact.

“You all right?” he snapped. “Alive and kicking,” she said, wincing when she felt a twinge from a bruise on her arm. “Where’s Sorey?”

“I’m okay,” Sorey managed, after a fit of coughing. He was struggling back up to his feet, using his sword as a brace. Rose blinked again, rubbing the last of the dust out from her eyes with her hand. She swept her gaze around, before letting out a choice curse.

“ Can't believe they got away so easily. Dammit!”

“That’s not the only problem we have either,” Dezel growled stiffly, ten times more grim-faced than he normally was. Which was really saying something. Just as she was about to ask what he’d meant, she felt something brush past her shins. She jumped, one hand already curled around the hilt of her dagger, only to pause in confusion when she saw a smallish calico-patched bundle dashing away from her.

“What the heck?” she gaped, as the creature (a cat?) hid itself behind Sorey’s ankles and scowled back at her with bright blue eyes. It was then Rose noticed three more cats clustered around Sorey.

When she’d finally cottoned on to what exactly had happened—the boy who was the rumoured “witch” causing trouble all around the village, had struck out them with a cloud of arte, effectively transforming all the seraphim (save Dezel) into cats—all Rose could do was to stare blankly at her companions.

An awkward pause, and then—

“You’ve got to be kitten me, right?” was all she could manage, confounded as she were. To which Dezel only visibly winced, while somewhere from within her mind, Rose heard Lailah chuckling gleefully, “Aw, Rose, you’re getting to be a-meow-zing at these!”

iii.

“And so that’s how it went!” Rose said, almost too cheerfully, hands placed firmly on either side of her hips.

“Oh, I-I see…” Alisha said hesitantly. Her brows were furrowed in concentration, as she tried to make sense of what had just been shared with her. Mikleo couldn’t really blame the Princess Knight for any doubt she might harbour at their story. After all, it wasn’t every day that humans—let alone human-like seraphim—were transformed into talking animals. Mikleo waved his bushy tail, his poise graceful as he balanced himself on Sorey’s left shoulder. He met Alisha’s gaze with sombre eyes. “I know it sounds really out of it, especially when coming from Rose—” “Hey!” Rose scowled.

“—but that’s honestly how we ended up as cats,” Mikleo finished. Alisha only continued to stare wordlessly at him, still frowning slightly. Before Mikleo could speak again, she abruptly reached forward with both hands and lifted him away from Sorey’s shoulder. “H-Huh? Alisha?!” Mikleo yowled, surprised.

“Oh, but aren’t you just the sweetest looking kitten!” Alisha cooed, pulling Mikleo closer into a crushing embrace. “Your coat has such a brilliant shine to it. And your tail! It’s the fluffiest tail I’ve seen, it’s oh so adorable!” She stroked her hand over Mikleo’s soft pelt, marvelling at the silvery sheen.

“Well, I totally did not see that coming,” Rose said, as she nudged Lailah (who was curled around her shoulder) gently. “So I guess Princess Alisha isn’t quite able to hear you guys speak, now that you’re stuck as cats?”

“Well, it probably isn’t simply because we’ve been transformed into cats per se,” Lailah said. “But just as humans with low resonance cannot perceive or speak with seraphim, it seems our voices in cat-form cannot reach them either. For some reason, they are only able to perceive us visually in our altered-forms, hence why to them, we’re perhaps no different than your average alley cat...”

“I’m not an alley cat—mmr-ow-ow!” Mikleo protested heatedly, before dissolving into kittenish squeaks when Alisha delightfully embraced him once more.

“And due to their lower resonance, it’ll only sound like a normal cat meowing when you try speaking to them—is that it?” Sorey asked, his eyes bright with understanding now.

Lailah nodded. “More or less, yes.”

At Sorey’s words, Alisha paused in her fervent cuddling of cute furry things. “Cats trying to speak? What do you mean…?” She echoed, looking over the cats around them. “Are you saying these cats are actually cat seraphim—oh! Is that cat Lady Lailah?” Her eyes widened and her face flushed a bright pink, confusion quickly turning into mortification as she held up the silver kitten before her again for a better look. “And is this kitten Seraph Mikleo?! Oh, I-I’m so, so sorry for my unforgivably rude behaviour!”

Sorey could only offer a weak laugh by way of explanation. “Guess the cat’s out of the bag then. Um.”

Dezel grimaced, his expression twisted into equal parts exasperation and resignation as he folded his arms. “Dammit, not you too.”

(Mikleo could’ve sworn though, that Lailah was bursting with motherly pride for her Shepherd as she said, “Oooh, it wasn’t as punstatic but good try, Sorey—six points for effort!”)

iv. “We appreciate the help, but you don’t have to escort us all the way, Sergei,” Sorey said, offering an apologetic smile to the burly knight walking beside him. “I don’t wish to add to your troubles when you already have so many responsibilities to see to.”

The Captain of the Platinum Knights only shook his head in a dignified manner. “Oh, but I must insist, Shepherd Sorey. After all, I cannot ignore these disturbances that have been repeatedly brought to our attention—it is my duty to see to the source of the people’s worries. Caladan is located in a very rural area bordering the forest and news beyond that of daily trade and domestic grievances from the village seldom reaches the Capital. So it’s a cause for concern when we hear talk of suspicious behaviour outside of the norm, especially when there’s been talk of serial murders in Lastonbell as well.” Rose grinned, beaming at Sergei. “Spoken like a true knight of the people! I can already see you and Princess Alisha getting along well enough.” She nodded at Sorey. “And it might actually do us good to have additional help. This one’s been a pretty slippery case, being a witch and all.”

“A witch?” A contemplative crossed the Captain’s face. He cast a furtive glance over his shoulder and at the herd of cats trailing after them. “I caught brief mentions of it from the aides of a diplomatic party passing through the village this morning, but I had not given it much thought then, thinking it was only fantastical rumours. So, if I understand it right—the, ah, feline cortège that’s accompanying you now? Are they actually your seraphim partners, Milady Rose?”

“Feline cortège?” Zaveid snorted, flicking his tail. “Ol’ Cap here sure is the very model of an upstanding citizen, isn’t he? Guess it’s a good coincidence we ran into him when we did.”

“Like you’re one to talk,” Edna huffed. “What brings you here? A lone seraph wandering in a place teeming with foul humans? Seems too much of a coincidence that you’d happen to be in the same run-of-the-mill village as we did.” “You think I had planned to get turned into a cat with the rest of you? I may be many things but I ain’t that crazy!” Zaveid could hardly stifle back a guffaw, lips curved into an ingratiating smirk. “A man has his reasons, all right? Maybe I’d just wanted to stretch my legs a little. Or maybe I just needed some fresh air and fresh sights, so to speak.”

“Do you ever give a straight answer?” Mikleo sighed, his fur already prickling with irritation. It was hard not to feel vexed, especially when Zaveid seemed all too keen on being as vexing as possible. “Or do you just enjoy speaking in riddles?”

And true to his needling nature, Zaveid only chuckled, his whiskers twitched in utmost amusement. “What’s the matter, Mik-boy? I thought kits like you adored riddles.”

Mikleo bristled and would have retorted back with something rude, but Dezel abruptly moved then. The wind seraph darted past the bickering seraph-cats, growling sharply, “Cut the chatter! We’ve got company!”

There was sudden shift in the atmosphere around them; Mikleo felt his whiskers tingling with danger.

Rose was already falling into a defensive stance beside Sorey, daggers drawn and ready. Sergei swept a narrowed gaze around them, sizing up the surly-looking bandits—all eight of them—who had silently appeared from all sides of the deserted path to surround them in a tight circle.

“What is the meaning of this?” the knight demanded. “As Captain of the Platinum Knights, I command you to put away your weapons now.”

The bandits didn’t flinched, but only raised their axes higher as they stepped closer, their eyes wide and glazed as if mesmerized.

“We have no quarrel with you, Captain,” said the leader, his weathered face a network of jagged scars. “But the lad and the girlie? Cursed by the gods, they are. He said they would come and stir up trouble. Said we needed to stop them, foretold as it were by the gods.”

“This isn’t good. There are traces of an arte imprinted upon these men. Someone has woven illusions or tampered with their minds.” Sorey could hear Lailah’s worry as she spoke. “Already I can sense a strong domain coming from somewhere ahead and I’m almost certain it’s the witch. We need to act quickly.”

“You’re saying that their minds have been somewhat possessed and they were sent here to stall us?” Rose clicked her tongue in annoyance. “Great, just what we needed. First talking seraph-cats and now zombie bandits!” She turned towards one of the bandits—a youngish lout with a patch over one eye—who had crept up from her right flank. She frowned, holding up a dagger so that the serrated blade would be angled right across his face if she’d chosen to strike him then. An effective warning. “Back off, kid, if you still want to be able to see out of that remaining eye. Do you seriously think you guys are a match for a captain of the military and the Shepherd’s posse?”

The one-eyed youth curled his lip into a snarl, revealing rows of crooked teeth. “You don’t scare us with your fancy words and titles. All we see here is an old fogey, a wench who runs her mouth, and a boy playing dressed-up hero!”

“We don’t wish to hurt you,” Sorey said, even as he kept his guard up. “So please, stand down and let us through or we will fight you.”

The man with the scarred face let out a raspy laugh, before he spat at the ground inches away from Sorey and countered derisively, “Says you and what army, laddie?”

“He does not need an army for one as disrespectful as you!” Sergei cut in, heatedly drawing his sword now. “Allow me to fight alongside you, Shepherd Sorey! With your beloved wife and your seraph team!”

“Wife??” echoed the one-eyed youth, flicking his gaze incredulously from Rose to Sorey. “You mean you’re married?”

“Well—” Sorey began, looking as nonplussed as he did.

“Congratulations, then! When’s the baby due?”

“Oh! Um, thank… you?” The Shepherd paused and frowned, head angled in confusion. “Wait, what baby?”

“WHAT team?” Scar-face roared, glowering angrily at the one-eyed youth for derailing the conversation. He stared past the trio, his eyes searching before he spotted four furry creatures glaring up at him from where they stood clustered around Sorey’s heels. He snorted. “What, you mean these wild cats? Seriously?”

“Well, you guys do still have Dezel,” Zaveid murmured to no one in particular, “who fortunately isn’t a cat—”

“We’re wasting time like this,” Dezel snarled, his patience finally snapping. “Sorey, armatize with me!”

“Huh? But we don’t really need to...”

“We’ll go easy on them—don’t look at me like that; I swear, nothing too brutal. Come on! Or are you just going to dawdle and let the witch get away again?”

Sorey considered his options, exchanged a quick glance with Lailah and then nodded at his wind seraph.

“All right, let’s go. Lukeim Yurlin!”

Clad now in a raiment of white, embellished gold and green, Sorey leapt to the sky. With a twist of his body, he conjured up a blast of wind to sweep over the bandits, effectively stunning them and knocking them off their feet.

The sun was already hanging low in the dim orange sky by the time they had put enough distance between themselves and the bandits.

“Is it really all right to leave them as they are?” Sorey asked, his expression set in worry and a touch of guilt. “Those men were only acting viciously because they’d been mesmerized—shouldn’t we try to break the witch’s spell first? They might cause trouble for the other villagers too.”

“It seems they were only mesmerized to fight and stall us specifically. If that were the case, then I doubt they would cause any real harm to anyone else.” Edna yawned languidly, flashing a pink tongue over razor-sharp teeth. Now that she was stuck as a kitten, she (and to an extent, Mikleo, even though he loathed to admit it aloud) had trouble keeping up with the humans’ wider strides. So she’d decided it was easier to hitch a ride instead—with a smug grin at her intended victim and three easy leaps, she had settled herself comfortably on top of Dezel’s hat. The wind seraph had protested vehemently at first, but made no real attempt to remove her.

“Edna’s right,” Lailah said. “And the sooner we get to the witch’s domain, the sooner we can stop him and break his spell, both the ones he’d casted on the bandits and us.”

The party trudged on, guided by Lailah as she scented the air for signs of the witch’s domain she had felt earlier. She couldn’t find any lingering trace however, even after they had scouted around for an hour.

“I apologize, Shepherd Sorey, Milady Rose,” Sergei said at length, bowing deeply to the pair. “But I’m unable to continue any further with you. I’m needed to supervise the patrol at the south eastern borders outside of Caladan tonight. I hope you will not begrudge my leave and I pray your quest still goes well.”

“Hey, it’s no biggie, Captain!” Rose said cheerfully. “Duty calls, after all. Just leave the witch-hunting to us. We’ll take care of it in no time.”

Once Sergei had taken his leave, the party continued their search. The hustle and bustle of the day soon faded; the villagers were slowly retreating into their homes for the night. Sorey pressed forward, however, not ready to give up just yet. They ventured away from the village centre and out to a clearing near the wooded area. The path was barren, with weeds peeking out under a stone slab or two.

And just beyond them was what looked to be a large, abandoned house. Glass shards and broken wood littered the front porch where the windows had been smashed in and there was a gaping hole in the roof.

“Okay, no, no, nope,” Rose declared flatly, digging her heels firmly into the ground. “There is no hecking way am I stepping anywhere near that building.”

Sorey swallowed, dread nestling within his gut. But there was another familiar sensation there as well—an unsettling weight pressed painfully against his chest.

“I can sense malevolence seeping out from within.” He studied the dusty path before them again and pointed. “Look, there are footsteps leading inside; that may be where the witch is hiding out.”

Rose wrapped her arms around herself and visibly shuddered. "Are you kidding me? This is a legit set-up for the worst possible scenario. Dark ominous clouds ahead? Check. Full moon hanging right above us? Check. Bats screeching to the backdrop of eerie canine howling in the distance and my hair standing on end? Check, check, and check."

Lailah bounded up to Rose’s shoulder, brushing against her face gently in reassurance. “It’s likely there are only hellions lurking inside. This domain isn’t immensely strong, which might explain why this atmosphere feels more like the frightening sort that humans would associate with haunted buildings.”

“Or it could, you know, just actually be ghosts too,” Edna added unhelpfully. “S-So ghosts are real?!!”

Mikleo stared reproachfully at the calico kitten. “Stop scaring Rose already; it's not helping at all.” He ignored Edna’s smirk as she stuck a petulant tongue out at him, and turned towards the Squire instead. “Think of it this way, Rose: the sooner we purify the witch hiding inside, the faster we can break the spell and turn things back to normal. And if any… uh, paranormal monster attacks, just... well, just get stabby like you always do. We may be cats now, but you can still count on us to back you and Sorey up—we promise.”

“Okay, fine. Now you're speaking my kind of language!” Rose gave a weak but relieved laugh, even as she kept her daggers within easy reach. “I-I can roll with that, yeah! All right, let's go kick some hellion butts.”

The gloom within the house was far more daunting once they’d entered. Rose paled for a moment but pressed on, jaw set in grim determination. She and Sorey flanked each other, with Mikleo balanced on Sorey’s shoulder and Lailah on Rose’s. Dezel kept close behind them, while Edna and Zaveid took point and led the way as they moved cautiously down the dark hallways and past empty rooms.

It wasn’t long before they encountered the first wave of hellions—dusk bats and dirt leeches—which they easily made short work of. Sorey had purified the last bat when there was a scuffling noise ahead, the sound of scrambling footsteps.

“Over there!” Dezel growled, swinging his pendulums out towards the sound. Lailah conjured up a ball of flame to illuminate the way and they caught sight of a huddled form crouched in the shadows. The figure—the same boy they had cornered earlier that day— glared at them from under his hooded cloak, his eyes the icy-blue of frost and winter gale. He clasped his palms together, murmuring a string of spells.

“Ncewmevb Boks!”

Abruptly, Lailah’s conjured flame flickered and fizzled out, and the party was plunged into complete darkness. There was spine-chilling rush of wind, the disembodied whisper of a voice right beside Rose’s ear and—

"GYEEAAH!!" Rose shrieked, jabbing her fists forward on instinct. She felt her punch connect with something furry at the same time as she elbowed someone else in the gut beside her. “Yeoowwch—!” “—Hyeargh!”

Both Dezel and Zaveid grunted in pain just as Lailah quickly conjured another ball of flame. “Brace yourselves, everyone!” Sorey warned, raising his sword to counter another rush of attack—only to glance down in surprise at what looked to be a demonic porcelain tea set lunging towards him. A tea cup flung itself forward, smashing and breaking pathetically against his chest while he batted his sword at a screeching teapot hell-bent on scalding him with boiling-hot liquid.

"What are these things?" Mikleo hissed, swiping his claws at a particularly stubborn tray with a fanged maw. “Lailah, are these even hellions?!”

Beside him, Edna only let out a resigned sigh, and very casually dodged a set of dinner knives flying her way. "Well, they sure are a pathetic excuse of a hellion, if that’s the case.” “Oh dear,” the Prime Lord mused, seemingly unperturbed by the possessed crockery assailing them now. An oversized cauldron hovered before her, threatening to ooze a sickly purple mess over its brim. “It has just been a series of CAT-astrophic incidents, hasn’t it? And now with KIT-chenware too!”

A collective groan sounded from her companions, but Lailah only giggled, a glimmer in her eyes. “Nothing a little spring-cleaning can’t fix!” She sidestepped the cauldron and released a burst of fiery spheres back at the marauding utensils.

“Ugh, this is even freakier than those floating bison heads!” Rose whined, whirling as she and Zaveid parried blows from a giant, spiked rolling pin trying to flatten them all like dough while Dezel wrangled it down with his pendulums.

“This is getting ridiculous!” Mikleo yowled, avoiding the snapping jaws of a deranged goblet before it crashed into the wall. He was backed into the corner and hadn’t noticed the figure hidden in the shadows...

“Mikleo, look out!” Sorey leapt ahead, pushing the silver kitten to safety just as the witch moved. There was a blinding flash—they dodged swiftly, the force of the witch’s arte only grazing Sorey’s shoulder. The blaze of magic rebounded off a pillar in a wild arc and struck the rafters above them instead. The crumbling wood would have crushed the witch then—who stood rooted in fear as he stared upwards—but Sorey was already lunging forward again, twisting his body to shield the boy from the falling debris, before a number of stray pieces caught him sharply by the back of the head.

He gasped as white-hot pain shot down his spine and crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

vi. His head was still throbbing when Sorey finally came to, the edges of his vision slowly coalescing into focus. Mikleo and Lailah—still bewhiskered and feline—were peering over him anxiously, sparks of healing artes trailing from their stretched paws over him.

“Look, it’s not my fault he got knocked out,” a child’s voice said from a little way off. “What kind of Shepherd is he anyway, keeling over so easily?”

“You dropped practically half a ceiling on him!” Rose countered hotly.

“Two wooden planks and half a brick, actually,” Zaveid corrected, only to falter when Rose shot a dark look his way.

“Is everyone okay? O-ow...” Sorey winced as he sat up, carefully rubbing the sore bump at the back of his head. “What’s going on with Rose and the others?”

“We’re fine,” Mikleo assured him, before heaving a sigh. “Still stuck as cats though, as you can see.”

“And it seems that we have mistaken this source to be malevolence from the witch, but… Perhaps you can explain it better, Almanakh.” Lailah nodded at the small blue normin who had approached them.

“I owe you some thanks, Shepherd,” the normin said as she bowed stiffly, “for protecting Atreides earlier. But all the same, you ought to stop bullying him too. Hmph.”

“Bullying him? Your little witch boy is the one causing havoc around the village!” Dezel growled tersely.

“Atreides might be a handful at times, but he’s still only a child,” Almanakh continued. “One doesn’t have many companions when living on the streets; he was abandoned by the orphanage who’d housed him as a toddler for possessing ‘the Sight’ and was shunned by other street urchins as well. He himself did not understand at first why other humans couldn’t see us, the spiritual beings that periodically crossed paths with them.”

“So he has the resonance to perceive seraphim too,” Sorey mused. “Did you also form a pact with him? That’s why he’s able to cast spells and artes, right?”

“Hey, don’t pick on Almanakh,” Atreides abruptly cut in. Sorey turned, meeting the haughty gaze of the raven-haired boy; he did not sense any trace of malevolence in the child.

Atreides fingered the hem of his cloak nervously, but still jutted his chin out in slight defiance. “Almanakh’s the only one who was willing to teach me things whenever I asked. I’m not so illiterate either that I can’t pick up a thing or two about magic from the books she’d stole—um, shown me.” He paused, his lips curved into the tiniest of smirks as he crouched to pinch at the normin’s cheek. “And you stuck around because you actually like me, don’t you, Almanakh? Can’t blame you—I am rather charming for a street-urchin.”

Almanakh shrugged, swatting her paws at Atreides’ casual prodding. “Nonsense. I just really like meat-pies and you’re great at stealing them. Ours is simply a bond of mutual convenience.”

“Mutual convenience, right.” Rose shook her head, before grinning back at Sorey and the others. “Not so different from your standard friendship then. In all seriousness though, can you please remove the spells you’d put on my friends and on those people you’d mesmerized?”

“Why the bandits though?” Atreides said breezily. “If they’re mesmerized forever trying to fight you all, that’ll keep them from preying on innocents.”

“...And what kind of rationale is that?! Mind-control without permission isn’t any better!”

“Atreides,” Almanakh admonished. “Remember, favours should always be returned for karmic luck.”

The raven-haired boy grimaced, puffing his cheeks out but didn’t protest. He turned to Sorey again, staring owlishly at the Shepherd for a moment, and asked, “Why did you protect me when the arte rebounded? I turned your seraphim into cats, and the villagers have already branded me a witch. I’m one of the ‘bad guys’, after all.”

Sorey brushed the side of his jaw with a finger as he considered his words. “To be honest, I’m not too sure myself. But you had looked terrified when the rafters collapsed. You’re just a kid, like Almanakh said, so I couldn’t just stand by and watch.”

“You could’ve easily stopped me and broken the spell if you had let the debris hit me.”

“Maybe. But even so, I didn’t want to judge you based on rumours alone—I wanted to hear your side of the story too.” Sorey offered the boy a sheepish grin. “And in the end, we still managed to stop you this way too.”

Atreides frowned, ice-blue eyes still narrowed suspiciously. “...You really are a strange person, you know?”

“Er—” Sorey began, but Atreides’ lips were pulled into a wry half-smile now. He held a hand out, helping the injured Shepherd climb shakily back to his feet.

“My skills in transmutation and mind-charming artes are rudimentary at best; the effect usually wears off in a day or two. So your seraphim will return to their usual forms by sundown tomorrow and the bandits back to whatever it is that bandits do during their spare time when they aren’t terrorizing wayward travellers.”

“And the hellions here?” Rose asked, glancing warily around them.

“Merely illusions that I had conjured to fool the senses—the demonic kitchenware, the malevolence. This is just your regular abandoned house with regular ghosts, I suppose.”

“S-so ghosts are real then?!”

“This chit-chat’s been nice and all,” Edna cleared her throat suddenly, her expression flat and signalling extreme boredom. “But what are we going to do about the boy? Do we just let him be as he is? He’s not corrupted by malevolence now, but life on the streets is tough and he has been troubling many of the villagers.”

“Even if you guys don’t do anything, the esteemed Captain of the Platinum Knights might someday be forced to,” Zaveid added.

“A kid’s got to eat,” Atreides said defensively. “And it’s easier to steal using artes.”

Sorey sighed, feeling a sudden twinge of sadness at a fleeting memory of a girl and her dog; at how sometimes resonance could easily be as much a burden of loneliness as a gift of camaraderie. Edna and Zaveid were right of course, but Atreides had a point too. “It’s true we can’t just leave him like this, but Atreides has only been trying to survive living on his own too…”

“Oh, that’s right!” Rose chimed, hitting her fist into her palm, blue eyes bright with an idea. “All right, leave this to me—I know exactly who can help.” She grinned widely at the boy. “You guys like money, don’t you?”

Atreides exchanged a glance with his normin, brows quirked questioningly. “I’d like to feel rich sometimes, yes.”

vii. “I have to say, Rose, you really do come up with some of the best solutions,” Lailah said, seated comfortably around Rose’s shoulders.

They had visited Coram the blacksmith in his forge first thing in the morning. After some convincing and the promise of free batches of the Sparrowfeathers’ mabo curry buns, Coram agreed to take Atreides under his wing as an apprentice.

“He’ll never admit it, but ever since Coram’s lost his Emery to the sickness all those years, he’s been a little lonesome.” Rose explained, slowly making her way up the steps to the inn room they’d booked for the day. “So I thought having Atreides around as his apprentice might help with that. It’s not exactly a get-rich-quick scheme, but Atreides will at least have a place to stay. And if he’s serious about making a change, Coram’s willing help with Atreides’ education too.”

“All in all, a happy ending,” Lailah purred. “Let’s hope things will work out well for both of them.”

“I wonder if Sorey’s feeling better,” Rose said, carefully pushing the door open to peek inside their room.

The soft wooden creak stirred Sorey from his sleep, and he blinked, turning towards the sound. “Is that you, Rose, Lailah? How did everything go?” he said, yawning. His head was wrapped in bandages but it didn’t ache as much as it had before. Dezel was standing by the window, gazing at the scenery outside, but the other seraphim—still in their cat forms—had curled up around their Shepherd, dozing lightly: Mikleo was curled into a ball over Sorey’s chest, his long, silvery tail covering his nose, while Edna had draped herself comfortably on Sorey’s pillow just above his head; Zaveid was all stretched out on his side and snoring noisily over Sorey’s knees.

It was a sight enough to draw soft laughter from Rose. She shook her head when Sorey made to move slightly, as though to offer her the bed instead.

“I’ll be fine here, really,” she said, settling into the couch by the bed. It was a bit dusty, but she’d rested on harder surfaces before while on Scattered Bones missions. “And yup, things are all settled between Coram and Atreides, so we’ll just hope for the best. We’ve done all we could, after all. So don’t worry! You just rest that head of yours and we can be back on our way searching for more of those shiny orb thingamajiggies.”

Sorey laughed, green eyes bright despite the fatigue lining his face. “Thank you, Rose. I honestly don’t know what I’d do without you sometimes. I’m grateful to have all of you with me.” He turned towards the dozing seraph-cats sharing his bed, lifting a hand to brush gentle fingers through Mikleo’s soft fur.

Rose only snorted, rubbing a knuckle playfully against Sorey’s cheek. “Likewise! I’m glad I have you guys around too,” she said, beaming first at Lailah’s bashful smile and then at Dezel, who merely grunted, his back still turned as his resolutely kept his gaze out the window. She yawned then, exhaustion finally catching up to her and stretched back against the couch for some much needed rest.

“The Shepherd taking down a witch and berserk kitchenware with only a Squire and an army of seraph cats,” she murmured with a sleepy grin. “Now that’s a side to the legend you don’t hear about every day.”

—End— ________

- Ncewmevb Boks: “Whirling Gust” in Ancient Tongue, an arte that sends a strong rush of wind in circles. It forms spiralling wind blades that can injure foe, but Atreides being young and untrained, is still unable to control and fully utilize it yet.

- Listen, all the side-quests involving kids in the game left me emotionally compromised, okay. Let me have ONE silly, cracktastic side-quest with a kid who got a happier ending at least aghdjjhsdkg.

- Thanks for reading and #sorey not sorey for the crack/bad puns I GET WEIRD IDEAS IN THE SHOWER.

#tales of zestiria #sorey #rose #dezel #mikleo #fanfic #hi i'm not dead #remember all those snippets i shared for cat fic #yeah i finally kicked myself to finish this

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