OOC: Question meme!

[bodymod]

Hello, hello! I managed to hold out for a month and a different journal, and now I am doing a question meme. Ask me a question, then I'll ask you a question, and we'll trade off until one of us wanders off or runs out of questions.

Alternatively, if you are intimidated by question meme format or do not feel like answering questions, you can just ask. Or just not answer. Whatever! I'd love to hear about your characters because I'm a nosy person, but I'm perfectly content to just babble about mine forever. ♥

Characters
aather
• Lambda/Mint (bodymod)
• Kiriko (starch)
• formerly Rabbit/Ayame/Ginshu (scalesfromeyes), Viola/Hermana Larmo/Vritra (yourmama), Teir/Qamar/Malik Ishtar (doubleminded)

court_rp
• Richter Abend (eternalrecurrence)
• Milla Maxwell (au) (humanspirit)

Comments

[surefire]

I haven't actually had the chance to play her at all yet because I've been on vacation, but she's doing... well. I want to say "okay," but by that I mean okay in Rena terms... She at least doesn't—consciously, anyway—feel guilty or bad about how things were handled.

See, right before the game she got a really tone-setting memory where basically she came to the realization that in the world there are enemies who you can't be nice to if you want to protect your own happiness—and they aren't necessarily bad people who mean to harm you, just people who threaten your happiness by existing. That really colored how she handled the game, because it meant she did not waver in the slightest about Peridot playing as hard as they could to protect themselves being the right thing for them to do. Her belief that you have to be harsh to protect yourself because no one else is going to do it for you was also more or less reinforced by the fact that Peridot got absolutely slammed in the first round.

As a result of that, I'd say that coming out of this game she's more likely to be a little more distant from people on other teams? Not that she blames them for anything, or doesn't like them, or anything like that. But she does have in the back of her mind that these are people she might be pitted against at some point down the road. On the other hand, it was also a really, really good game for strengthening her Peridere.

Tell me about Lambda's relationship with Sophie in canon, because that seems interesting... And do you have any predictions for how it could differ in Aather?

EVEN MORE MASSIVE TALES OF GRACES SPOILERS THAN LAMBDA'S EXISTENCE IN AATHER GIVES

[bodymod]

O M G okay Lambda's relationship with Sophie is basically the best thing and a major reason why I'm so excited that she was apped. A lot of my excitement is over the narrative structure, s-so forgive me, this might get a bit long and over-excited.

Basically, the story starts when Asbel (our protagonist) and co. find Sophie asleep in a field of flowers. She has amnesia! She has battle skills! She is super cute and they name her after a flower and Asbel wants to adopt her. She is super cute, and it's structured a lot like a deconstruction of the ~find mysterious girl~ and protect her narrative (in that Asbel is like I WANT TO PROTECT YOU I'M THE BOY and Sophie goes ???? and basically beats him at everything and is a combat genius).

Lambda comes in as her nemesis: there are documents talking about how Lambda basically destroyed an entire planet and the reveal is that Sophie is a humanoid robot who was created to destroy him and only she can do it! And the conflict is that the only way to destroy him is through a mutual self-destruct function because he's this evil gross alien creature who is impossible to kill otherwise. And remembering that is this huge moment of like… the development is that she's gone beyond her programming and FRANDSHIPS. And also destroying Lambda means destroying his host, who is their childhood friend Richard. Who is clearly being enslaved by this terrible alien creature.

…Only the game starts to sow these seeds of doubt. Sophie's creator, who tells them the most about Sophie and her mission, treats Sophie as a tool and tries to force Lambda to merge with her so that she can steal his powers and be the final boss (Lambda NOPES out of that one by exploding her from the inside, it's pretty rad). There's a sidequest where the main party can singlehandedly destroy Lambda's humanoid body, which he abandoned 1000 years ago and is still so terrified of humans that touching him triggers his self-destruct function. And if you talk to the other humanoids on the planet that Lambda supposedly destroyed… it kind of seems like maybe the humans on the planet did that to themselves.

And then the final dungeon basically has Lambda's heartgame, wherein we learn that, in fact, Lambda did exactly zero to the humans that was not triggered by Sophie or her creator. Her creator was basically SO YANDERE that she created Sophie for the sole purpose of destroying Lambda… because Professor Cornell spent time with him. And Sophie, who has throughout the game been adorable cute amnesia fighting robot, is… well, she's a weapon. She wasn't designed to kill Lambda because he's evil and dangerous, she was designed to kill Lambda because her creator was the worst. The two of them have been locked into a series of battles for 1000 years not because Lambda is evil but because she keeps pursuing him with the sole purpose of destroying him. And she still has that programming!

Cue endgame and the bonus part of the game, where Lambda has been accepted and is now chilling in a head that's less likely to set off his issues by having the same issues. Weird shit starts happening and Lambda starts giving people his powers, and Sophie is basically a giant (UNSURE) face the whole time. Programming is hard as hell to overcome, and while she is struggling with it thanks to FRIENDSHIP (which is basically the entire game right there: FRIENDSHIP), she and Lambda are in this wary circling truce where they don't hurt each other because they have mutual friends but they don't actually trust or like each other ever. Lambda insults her a lot and dismisses her as the robot programming he knows her as, and Sophie does her (UNSURE) thing and there's a whole lot of talk about how EEEEVIL Lambda is (which Lambda contributes to LOOK I'M SO EVIL YOU SHOULDN'T TRUST ME).

And then right towards the close of the game, Sophie comes over to him and initiates a conversation for the first time, not to threaten him, but to say, okay, I have decided to trust you, don't make me regret it. And in turn that allows Lambda to go okay, maybe everyone was right about her, maybe she's not going to kill me, we should be friends. And they make a friendship pact and it's really cute because their whole thing is that they're both immortal so they are literally going to be friends forever even after their human friends die and it is basically the best.

I don't know if Aather will have a different conclusion, but I doubt it. Mostly what I'm hoping for from Aather is more chance to actually develop the evolution of their feelings, because it's super rushed in the game (believable, but rushed). And also probably at some point they'll try to kill each other and it'll be great and hilarious because they both look like tiny children because the society that made their bodies is fucked up as shit. 8D

Relationship me, Lambda!