Questions!

[maidmalapert]

I want to do a question meme and Jill hit 10,000 somewhere in the plot and things have been happening! So I am doing one. Also feel free to give me AU's to make up >.>

Ask me anything about Jill, Mau or Eliza's Brother or Chance if you want.

Comments

[glorious]

Selenia was truly expecting things to GO TERRIBLY. Many of the people who stepped up to take command were not people with military experience, and also the timing of the announcement was just...terribly, terribly off. Face-exploding parasites are just terrible for morale in general really, and low morale can very easily result in certain defeat. And he pretty much just fought, not because he believed they had a chance of winning (without seriously heavy causalities if they're lucky), but it was because it was that or die without fighting so may as well pretend I have some pride while everyone dies horribly. And that was his attitude pretty much through all the lead-up.

AND THEN THAT DIDN'T HAPPEN. AT ALL. In fact, not a single person died even a little! Even after it was a 1000-to-1 fight, which all sense and logic means that they weren't getting out at least a little killed but they...they pulled through. So that was a moment where 'defy the odds' actually worked out exceedingly well and he's still reeling a little from it...Aather: 1; Van's Pessimism: 0.

He's also still kind of uncertain about how he should feel now that the Darkness looks like it's capable of fear, and also uncertain about the fact that he hasn't heard anyone else bring it up. Or accused him of being a murderer for it yet. But the hope seed he planted became a flower and that made him feel...slightly better about that.

I got no good questions now. Relationship for Mau and Selenia?

[maidmalapert]

Mau loves Selenia. He said so, because he wanted Selenia to know! He's proud of him, he's proud of how he's trying to figure out what's right and becoming more self-aware. For Mau, their relationship has stabilized a lot... he feels like he can present new and difficult ideas and Selenia will listen and not automatically get defensive. He still also really wants to try and listen to Selenia, but things between them feel more equal and less like Mau trying to avoid power struggles constantly than ever before. It makes him happy.

Reverse?

[glorious]

Haha, MAU SAYING HE LOVED HIM RIGHT BEFORE THE BATTLE GAVE SELENIA A HEART-ATTACK. Because they were words he didn't hear in a while and hearing them right then carried an air of "What if this is our last chance to say them?" and then he went "oh god Mau expects us to die, we're doomed." But he is really glad Mau voiced it when he did, because it was a good reminder for why they were fighting in the first place.

BUT ASIDE FROM THAT. He does love Mau and while he has had issues his 'Sapphire identity' in the past, Mau is one of the biggest reasons he's glad to be on Sapphire instead of any other team. Mau listens and even though he doesn't always understand, Selenia is aware that the attempt is there and better appreciates it now. He trusts Mau and feels he could go to him and speak honestly abut whatever's on his mind; but he also recognizes that Mau is busy doing leader things whenever something's happening in Aather (which is always) and making him his mom therapist was probably part of what caused the strain in their relationship the first place so he tries to refrain from overloading him. (Especially if it's about Hod, since "island home destruction" probably is a sad topic to make Mau listen to when he had to make the choice to wait on going back home so he could finish the fight here.)

...He's also still kind of absurdly happy (in a sense) that he got to talk to grumpy crab Mau, because Mau being openly grumpy in his general direction means that he no longer feels the need to step around and be careful around Selenia. And that felt like a sign that they were on more equal footing than they had been in a very long time. PROGRESS.

Of all the AND NOW YOU'RE RANDOMLY AN ANIMAL/DEAGED/WHATEVER events Mau's gone through, what has been his favorite and least favorite? (And for Jill too if she applies.)

[maidmalapert]

LEAST FAVORITE was when Mal turned him into a rabbit, because nobody likes being turned into a rabbit mid-conversation as punishment for trying to find things out through conversation! It was very annoying. Even more annoying than being a hermit crab, which also sucked.

Favorite was far and away being a tiger. He got to hunt a haunch with his face. Eeeeeven if he deeply regretted that decision the next morning when he turned human again sob.

Jill has only been a pigeon! She enjoyed it. Because flying, but also because reasons.

Do you have plans for either of your characters for the deage game coming up?

[glorious]

This will be Estelle's first deage so I just plan to toss her in at around 9~10ish and see what happens, though I imagine she will probably be doing fun bitty things with Jr. for the event. For Selenia, I plan to take off another decade this time and make him 6~ish, and Jiora and I plan to have Brill attempt being THE BEST BIG SISTER at him for cute role-reversals. Beyond that, it's pretty much "UNLEASH TINIES UPON AATHER" and let them tiny away!

Jill's favorite game so far!

[maidmalapert]

Um, um... probably the titles game! IT WAS SUPER FUN and she got to define herself how she wanted and Amethyst won for helping others and yes. It was just a game where she came in pretty unhappy and walked away feeling good about herself and the world.

She also really liked Risk because she and Obsidian WON ENGLAND!!!1! and she got to team up with Obsidian and watch Tim at work being strategical and it was great.

How is Estelle doing with Team/Knight relations?

[glorious]

MUCH BETTER NOW! There was a Gerda game where she was paired with Peridot and the issue of 'believing' in someone came up in the survey. She had issues with Kaoru before due to a trauma game and was expecting to be more or less told to sit down...and instead he did his best with the compliment task (and as a host club member, his best was damn good) and apologized for how he behaved then. And she's also had a lot of other team members come up and apologize for making her feel dismissed and also it feels like teams are working a bit harder to make her feel like she's being listened to and that her contributions were worth recognizing.

So while EVERY KNIGHT DIED BY PARASITES AND IT WAS AWFUL is still...a thing she remembers and is aware of, it feels like all the problems she had with teams before are being recognized and slowly dealt with, so things have been steadily improving. She's still worries that it won't last and the next bad game will be terrible for knights all over again, she at least has some faith people will...try not to bus them too hard again.

How do your team characters feel about the Team/Knight dichotomy?

[maidmalapert]

Jill isn't really aware of their being a division between the Teams and Knights. Partly... I think this is just because she's friends with Edmund and Mithos and Lloyd... and partly it's just because she doesn't even really process there being a division between teams in murdergames. She just has this permanent and unexamined "we're all in this together" view, and when people act outside of that paradigm in her presence she's shocked and dismayed every single time.

She does think the knights get kind of a sad deal in terms of not having other people around to support them as closely as teams do, and not getting food perks anymore... she knows she wouldn't want to be a knight! But she would be pretty stoked to have her own room. JILL OPINIONS sob.

Mau is aware of various people's views on the Team/Knight dichotomy, but he p. much thinks the real difference is down to persona magic and individual experience. He really disapproves of ganging up on knights/not taking their opinions into account or considering their feelings/etc in games, because that kind of behavior qualifies as not treating knights as real people, and that's anathema to him. But he also doesn't think there is any real reason for it to happen ever... nobody is forced to behave that way.

So basically he sees the dichotomy as necessary in terms of ~magic roles~ but really dumb and totally unnecessary jackassery and did I mention dumb in terms of people reinforcing it with their behavior and life choices.

If you had unlimited time and energy, who else would you play in Aather?

[glorious]

I still really want to play Cross Marian but I am refraining because I'm pretty sure I'll have to start looking at who to drop where when school starts up, and I have a feeling he could get more involved than I'd have energy for since Estelle and Van are both high-involvement types in Aather.

I ALSO kind of sort of maybe a little want to play Saga from A Little Snow Fairy Sugar sob sob. Think a younger version of Apple who works at a coffee shop and wants to be a pianist and is awesome and helps people out and never stops moving ever. But she fits the toppy Sapphire lady mold so well in my mind that I can't really see her on another team (though I'm sure she could do well on most of them). So she's a 'maybe if I ever drop Selenia which is unlikely so nothing but tears' app thought.

I also thought about sending in an email when the mods were looking for Little Red Riding Hood since I had some ideas for her domain (primarily involving trust) and story, but I also highly doubt I'd have the energy for a plot-important Personae. And also everytime I think about apping a Personae I go "But then I wouldn't be able to play with them" and that makes me sad. (The fact that I can develop and play out all sorts of CR with NPCs is like, my favorite thing about Aather.)

This is a good question. Who else would you play in Aather if you had a time-turner device and a lifetime supply of Red Bull?