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Chapter 6  We catch up with our heroes in jail. They had been beaten, insulted, and shamed but that's not gonna stop Stahn from getting a good nights sleep.  And it sure won't stop him from whining about it the moment he wakes up.  "Yeah! why do I have to put up with any of this?!!"  "What did you say?! First of all, Stahn, this is YOUR fault. You're the one who fought will all those soldiers!"  "Hah! Look who's talking! Okay, then tell me who got us into this mess in the first place!!!" "Oh, stop your whining. Whatever the case, it's all your fault, so why don't you be a real man and take responsibility?!" Stahn's a whiny little useless moper. He'll never take responsibility. It's very strange to see a game where the main character has the weakest presence and personality of all. "Hey, who made you the judge, jury and executioner?!" "Mary, say something."  "Why don't you two love birds stop fighting? You two sound like a married couple." If you readers are sick of it by now just imagine how poor Mary feels. "Why you traitor!"   "Where are you taking us?"  "You're going to see His Majesty." "What's going on?" "You have no right to ask me that question." "Oooooh! You're useless." "Take them."  "Yes, sir!"  It's a real shame that these kind of scenes don't happen more often in the game. There's a nice touch on how you're always led like a criminal. From the beginning where those crewmen take you to the captain, to being escorted out of the town by Leon's goons.     Yeah, I got no idea who they are either.  "What does the king want from us?"  "Now, take a moment to reflect upon you heinous deeds." "What did I do? I haven't a clue. Right, Stahn?" "What? Err..." "Who do you think you're fooling, you imbeciles!! You wreaked havoc in a temple under the protection of my kingdom and terrorized citizens with acts of senseless violence! Now, you shall pay for your transgressions!" You really kind of have to wonder how badly you must gently caress up in order to have the king himself sentence you. Don't they got judges or a court system? Does every little trespassing or vandalism case have to go before the king? "But, but..."   "One moment, your majesty. "Hugo, what is it now?" "Do you know what a Swordian is, sire?" "That's a strange question, Hugo. What is your point? I love that the King didn't even answer the question. The truth is that he doesn't know but he's not about to admit that in front of his subjects. Right now all he knows is "Swordian? Really? What a lame word." "These criminals before you are Swordian masters." "What? Are you sure of that?" "Yes, sire. According to Leon, although they are immature, they may be of some use to us." "Hey, what do you mean by immature...? Really, the only one who could be called immature is Stahn. Immature, naive, un-educated, foolish, hick, inbred, redneck, slack-jawed; Really a whole bunch of words could be used to describe Stahn. "If I may be so bold as to make this proposal sire, what do you think about the idea of sending them to Straylize Temple?" Are you hoping they'll find religion and reform their criminal ways? What a strange and out of the blue suggestion. "Although you're my trusted vassal, I think this proposal of yours does not make any sense. These wretched miscreants are criminals. We cannot afford to have them on the loose." "But sire, I have a solution for that. I have no intentions whatsoever of allowing them to run free. As long as we attach these restraining devices made for prisoners on them, they will be unable to escape. Guard! Hold this one!" "Yes, sir!"   "You can untie the rope now. Sire, this device is capable of generating a severe electric shock via remote control. Now, a simple demonstration of the device."  I really think this would be good for the rest of the game. Whenever Stahn acts stupid, just shock him.   "The test shock just given to the subject wasn't much, but any attempt to remove the device will generate a lethal shock." "Ah. I see. So, if they try to run away, we can control them with the device." "Exactly sire. I believe that these criminals can be easily controlled by assigning a single escort to watch over them." "Yes, but..." "What is troubling you, sire? Please tell me, I can't read your mind." Stahn instantly become relieved at this news. But who in this room can? Who?! "What I'm about to say does not leave this room. So let's just go ahead and talk about it in front of criminals who have no loyalty to the country. Hugo, you've heard of the Eye of Atamoni, have you not?" "I believe that was the doomsday weapon from the time of the ancient Aeth'er Wars." "Yes, you are correct. And it is kept underground beneath Straylize Temple." "What?!"   Oh come on, the thing has been down there for over a thousand years. I'm sure a few more hours of plot dumping won't hurt. Besides, it's not like you've actually given us a reason to worry. "No, Ashley! If even one of the Seven Generals of Darilsheid investigates this matter, the public may panic. This must be kept a state secret." He says as he spouts out state secrets in front of criminals he has no reason to trust. "In that case, I believe using them would be the most expeditious way to handle this matter..." What matter? What's the problem here exactly? "But Hugo, can we trust them with the task?" What task?! Is there even an issue here? You have a weapon, good for you! You haven't told us anything else. If there's suppose to be some sense of urgency here I am not feeling it. "We'll send Leon along with them. He'll be able to handle them easily." "Hmmm, Leon, eh? All right, make it so." "Attach the device on these two and untie their ropes." "Yes, sir."  "Where do you think you're touching me! Let go of me, you pervert!!" "Wow, this is a great fashion accessory." Mary's not worried because she knows that she could kill every one in this room with out breaking a sweat. "You're such an airhead..." "Hmmmm..." Maybe we should get Stahn some medical attention or somethi - no? Oh okay "Hey there, mister. I don't know if it's the Eye of Atamoni or the Evil Eye or whatever, but you're going to compensate us for our work, right? Otherwise, this is totally ridiculous!" While Mary is still my favorite character, Rutee is pretty high up there as well.   "You brazen hussy! Who told you to speak?!!"  "What?!" "Why, isn't she just a lovely lady? I guess having her life spared isn't a good enough reward... Rutee...was that your name? I can't promise you anything right now, but how about a reward upon completing the mission? Of course, the mission must be completed successfully. This is a very important task.A very important task of going to the temple and doing... something? "I realize that you are simple people who need some kind of motivation to get things done. Would this be all right, your majesty?" "Yes." "Come to my mansion later. I have something to give you. My mansion is the largest building in Darilsheid. You can't miss it. I love how he just casually drops that in. "Yeah, it's no big deal." "Oh, and..." "What?" "My name is Hugo Gilchrist, the president of Oberon Corporation. Remember my name." "The...president of Oberon Corporation... You mean THE Oberon Corporation?!" If they could have done it, I'm sure they would have made Rutee's eyes get filled with dollar signs here. This dude, the king's right hand man, is the president of the largest corporation in the world. That's the company we sell all those lens to. "Yes, the one and only. Well, if you'll excuse me..."  "Okay, so what are we supposed to do?!" "I shall give you two tasks. One is to inspect the temple. Contact Archbishop Marton and ask for an update. Something may have happened to him." Not like we have a reason to suspect so but eh, couldn't hurt to check up on him. "If Marton is not there, ask anyone who's available." "And then what's the other task?" "If something is going on, put a stop to it, whatever it may be. I don't care HOW you do it- just get it done." Just, you know, if by chance you come across a world threatening disaster that we don't know about or something. "What could that something be?" For once Stahn's confusion is justified. "You have to find out for yourself. Just follow Leon's instructions." "But he's just a little kid! Are you sure it's all right?" "Hey!" "Leon's skills are easily on par with the Seven Generals. Not to worry." "How lovely! I feel sooooo much better now!" "Just stay out of my way." A brooding dark loner child who's a master swordsman? Really filling up on our anime quota here. "The temple is located deep in the mountains northeast of Darilsheid. Prepare for the trip at Hugo's mansion and head for the temple. Do you understand?" "Yes." "All right. You are all dismissed." So now that we're freeish people. Let's go loot the castle and put our freedom at risk.  There's not really anything too spectacular to steal. Oh wait, what's this?  Ewww. Well I guess we're not always gonna have access to a toilet but still...   "Long ago, a comet came crashing down on these lands. Nearly half of our population was lost due to this cosmic calamity. The dust clouds that resulted from this collision spread over our planet's skies for years. This caused an unnatural winter that seemed to have lasted forever. Our world was plunged into what was effectively an ice age. Our race of people split off into two groups during this ice age - an age of darkness. They were the chosen and the outcasts. The chosen escaped from the winter on the surface and lived their lives in an utopian world in the sky. The chosen ones ruled the outcasts on the surface with lighting bolts they threw down at them. The outcasts on the surface rebelled against the tyranny of the chosen ones and thus began a war between heaven and earth. This is what became known as the Aeth'er wars - A War Without Victory. The eventual victors of the Aeth'er Wars were the outcasts - The people on the surface. Or were there really victors of this war? No, our entire race lost." Like I said before, the flavor text in this game is really kind of lame and stupid. On occasion though you can find a few hidden gems.   And with that we can head on out of the castle.  And over to Hugo's house.   Marian!! Are you here?"  I was always way impressed with that picture on the wall because it looks like someone actually loaded up a real photograph and just stuck it in the game.  "Leon, my boy. It's so good to see you." "I told you not to call me that." "Master Hugo in his office, my boy." "Hee, hee. He called you a boy!!"   Little trails of smoke follow her down. There's a lot of neat details like that throughout this game. "Silence!" "Why you little (grumble, grumble)..." "What did you just say?" "No, nothing, I swear (mumble...mumble)." "That's what I thought. Now, shut up." "By the way...who are they?" "Don't mind them. I'm traveling with them out of convenience." "Hey, I thought we were working together..." As in the way a slave works with his master, Stahn. "Was I talking to you?" "Well, you don't have to treat us like a bunch of lepers or something." "Kind strangers, please don't fret over what the boy says."  "Hah!! Speak for yourself!" "Leon tends to keep people at a distance on purpose." "Nonsense!" & "........." "Well, any guests of the young master Leon are welcome here. "Sorry, but we don't have time for that right now." "That's a pity..." "Hugo is in the office, right?" "Yes, that's right." "Fine. Well, let's go." "Oh, whatever!" "You're hopeless."   "You're here earlier than I thought. Well, let's go to the hall and talk."  "Marian, bring them here."   "Excuse me." "Let me introduce all of you to Marian. She's our housemaid." "Hello, how do you do?" "Marian, give them the Swordians." "Yes sir." "Dymlos!"  "Atwight!"   "History books say that 6 Swordians saved our world in the ancient Aeth'er Wars."  "That's correct." He can't hear you, Dymlos! You're just in Stahn's head. "And now, half of them are assembled here. I expect you to be successful. Successful in what? I don't even see a problem for us to solve. Why are you sending us to a temple? "And take this too. This will help you find your way around the world. Now go ahead with your mission." Hugo hands us the customary world map and we are out of here!  drat it, Leon! Haven't we plot dumped enough yet? "Wh,what?" "I remembered something. Wait here for a while." "Where are you going?" "It's none of your business. Remember, there's no use trying to escape. I'll hunt you down in the end." "I, I know."   "Leon, what's wrong?" "Don't call me that. No one can hear us here." Maybe he just wants to be called Big Poppa Pimp. "...I'm sorry. But I thought you went off to some place." "I don't think I'll be able to see you for a while, so I just wanted to talk to you before I left." "You came back just for that?" "I'll miss you." "Oh, poor thing. Master Hugo wouldn't like it if he knew about this."  "Emilio...you shouldn't say such things." Dissociative Identity Disorder: Check. "............ I'm sorry, Marian...I was wrong." "It's fine as long as you understand." "Then, I'm off." "Emilio...please be careful." "Yeah, don't worry, I'll be fine."  "Marian... Sorry, it's nothing." "I just wanted to pose dramatically one more time." "........"  "He said he had to take care of business. I wonder what he meant by that?" "I don't know! Don't ask me!" "I wasn't asking you!"  "You never know!" "You fools! those tiaras on your heads work as homing beacons. How does that even work in a setting like this? "We know exactly where you are, wherever you go. Don't even try to get smart on me, do you hear?" "Anyway, where were you?" "It's none of your business. I don't have to answer any of your inane questions! Let's get going!" Current Status:    
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| ← # ? Mar 30, 2013 20:59 |
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