QUESTIONS MEME

[pit_peach]

I can never resist these. QUESTIONING ME PLEASE.

Just Fallout/Excel for now. Ah, I need to do a SOTU too...

Comments

[labelledamesansmerci]

Excel is probably Allen's favorite person in the whole game, DID YOU KNOW THAT

[pit_peach]

D'awwwww~

Excel herself has fallen into head-over-heels codependence. She was already pretty clingy with the first one, and it makes her feel SO VERY SUPER AWESOME to be able to help Allen out now. She just wants to follow him around and protect him forever, which is a pretty big step for how much she's still kind of a weenie otherwise.

But go on, tell me more. 8U

[performing]

Well, it is like--I chose Allen's starter memory to give him a fairly strong (if kind of incorrect) sense of self to distance him from the first Allen, and Excel was the first in that initial thread to concede calling him "Red" instead of "Winter," which was like IMMEDIATE BONUS POINTS! SOMEONE IS ACTUALLY LISTENING TO ME YESSSSSSSSSSsssssssssss. And she's continued kind of inadvertently topping him in ways that really work with his whole tsun "I don't trust any of you bastards 8|" current worldview, because she's not trying to tell him ~everything is great and wonderful~ but just being helpful and nice and sticking up for him when he had his little freakout. And she's his ALLY against Sion being stupid, and all of it has sort of combo'd into Allen ... not quite being at a point where he's ready or willing to fully open his heart, but sort of reaching a stage where he's willing to admit that he likes her and wants her around, which is a BIG STEP.

So basically Sion's influence is softening him up and Excel's is what's making sure it actually sticks.

ALSO I am totally canonblind for yours except for like three episodes of the anime, WHAT HAVE I BEEN MISSING.

[pit_peach]

The anime doesn't help you, either. The very base premise of "crazy girls trying to conquer world for crazy guy who lives in the sewer" is correct, but it's only very loosely based on the first five volumes of a 27-volume-long series where the plot doesn't quite start until book 12. And Excel herself is a lot smarter and has about a thousand more feelings and is... I hesitate to say capable, but having that Team Rocket competence, where one is good at almost everything but a) succeeding at one's job, b) having money and c) not getting blown up.

It starts out very episodic and silly, with Excel mostly just derping around a lot and failing missions, but the longer it goes the more her self-esteem and good cheer go straight down the crapper. She gets angrier and angrier, and starts wigging out all the time and having stress hallucinations. Eventually she gets abandoned by Il Palazzo and almost killed by a super crazy priest (SMALL JOYS TO LOOK FORWARD TO: EXCEL REMEMBERING HOW MUCH CHRISTIANITY SCARES THE SHIT OUT OF HER). Between the psychotic breakdown and head trauma, she goes into a srs business amnesiac fugue. And stays that way. For almost a fifth of the entire manga.

She gets adopted by this family of perverted but roughly well-meaning mad scientists, where she starts a whole new life of being this timid, reclusive thing that just sits around reading books and doing chores all day. That's where her "Teriha" name comes from, and also most of the memories in her registry, because I thought it was pretty much hilarious to give her the most confusing and misleading set of memories possible.

ANYWAY, she would have stayed as Teriha forever if she hadn't had such a boner for Il Palazzo. But of course she does, so she goes back to being Excel, represses her weenie personality as hard as she can, and spends the rest of the time in the manga (which is currently about a third of the way into the very last volume) obsessively trying to even just see him again, all while ignoring the plot as hard as she possibly can.

And the plot is like... one of those things where it drops cryptic hints from the beginning and desperately hopes they'll make sense in the end. I am not sure I can actually explain the plot because it's about ancient civilizations and robot body-swapping and alien possession and a guy who pretends to be his own dead wife for shits and giggles. But it's also sort of brilliant because even though Rikudou doesn't figure out what pacing is until more than halfway through, he's clearly planned all of the actual plot from the beginning. There are things where like, Excel will pick up superpowers, but then if you look back you'll realize she had them all along, and the only reason they weren't noticeable is because they were played as though they were the natural aspect of a cracky comedy universe. Like how you wouldn't bat an eye at how Excel recovers from all of her many attained injuries between chapters, but after awhile the other characters start actually noticing how weird it is that she'll do things like heal from entire-body-burning, whereas normal people in the series will be hospitalized for weeks or have a broken bone over multiple chapters or even get cancer and die.

... holy balls that got long. Sorry about that. IT'S MY FOREVER MANGA!!!1




What are some things you are looking forward to with Allen and his stupid face?

[labelledamesansmerci]

CRY, A LITTLE BIT OF EVERYTHING! I'd really like to see how his development is changed based on the order of his memories--the only thing I'm going to be putting off for now are the MOST recent things, because DGM is still ongoing and who knows what Hoshino will do next month, lololol. But since Allen is the main character, we've got a pretty good picture of his development in canon, where he went from "Red Arm" to "Allen Walker" and the things that influenced and changed him. And I am super interested in seeing if he ends up paralleling that, or whether he swings into some different direction. (I don't think he'd go too far into like, HATE THE WORLD AND DESTROY IT! territory, but I guess that would depend on how and where he gets the memories back.)

Also, I am interested to see if the CR he has who also knew the previous Allen will start seeing the stronger connection between "Red" and "Winter" as he gets more of himself back. He'd also be more amenable to the suggestion that he is Winter as he starts remembering more and realizes the kind of stupid self-sacrificing hero he can be, but I am curious to see whether he'll be called on it, or whether it'll just be something that slots into DAILY LIFE! as time goes on.

D'you have any goals or thoughts for things you want Excel to do here, versus the other places you've played her, or is it just TAKE IT AS IT COMES \o/?

[pit_peach]

In Sabra she ended up just about as much of a crazy harpy as is possible, so here I'm shooting to see how long I can keep her sane and rational. Though I'm ONLY doing it via memory registry pruning, and she's a very unpredictable character to play in that she's naturally overreactive and kinda volatile. So really, I got no damn clue what I'm gonna do with her before I do it. \o/

Anybody you super want to see apped?

[doesnothappen]

What does Excel think of Mau ANYWAY?

[pit_peach]

She thinks of him a bit like a little brother, even though functionally he's more like an older brother. She's very fond of him, and a little guilty that she doesn't know how to comfort him over that whole wave thing. She's also more welcoming of physical affection than she is with... anyone, really. She feels a little sorry for him having to have lived out in the middle of nowhere (as it hasn't really occurred to her that he might be from somewhere completely different).

Reverse?

[doesnothappen]

Mau really likes Excel and is very protective of her. She doesn't shun him for physical affection, which is a big thing! Mau isn't super touchy-feely, but he doesn't have any hang-ups about it either, and is pretty physical in general, so he feels more comfortable around people who are okay with that. When I say he's protective of her -- well, he's protective of everybody on Sapphire to some degree, but the most so of Excel because he feels like he can actually do stuff for her. He has already decided that if he's ever in a kill game, she's the one he'd meat-shield. Also, she has the ability to talk him out of doing stupid reckless things sometimes.

What's Excel the most afraid of in Aather?

[pit_peach]

The Personae. They're too powerful and have too clearly shown their MO to be dicking around with everyone. She certainly doesn't believe the whole "hero" thing, nor that the memory loss is an accident, which in Excel's makes them even more dangerous, because they're also lying about how dangerous they are. She won't interact with them at all if she can help it - my excuse for always being too lazy to toss her into mingles is that she's off to the side somewhere trying to look inconspicuous, haha.

What are some memories you're looking forward to?

[doesnothappen]

Well, I definitely have a top three! I'm looking forward to the one where he saves the shipwrecked white girl from drowning because after that he'll have his "Does not happen!" catchphrase, and also he will have talked to his god of death (who happens to talk in the same font as Lucifer does in Aather, FUN TIMES). He'll be more confident after that.

Then I want the one where he's dragging the corpses of EVERYONE HE KNOWS who wasn't washed out to sea into the deep water after the wave. There is no reason for this other than that I am a sadistic douche to all my characters. Also because he's all unprepared for trauma now that he's remembered the wave itself, because what could be worse than that, right? ...okay no that's still just me being a sadistic douche. ANYWAY.

And the third one is when Daphne drags him out of the land of the dead. Because then he will have a memory of an Important Person, although he doesn't really have an obsessive scale important person, just... normal human levels of importance. But he'll be less lost.

What about you?

[pit_peach]

The one where she's hunting for bombs - basically she's running around a building with a girl she doesn't remember (but can only barely resist the urge to beat the crap out of), a sentai (whose head is on backwards), and her robot doppelganger (who "kills" the aforementioned sentai and ends up blowing herself up). This one will mostly just confuse Fallout, but I want it because it will punch her current conception of, "I was a pretty normal person :|a" right in the face.

I'd also like the one where she begs Umi to give her a weapon, which is mostly just her feeling too weak and pathetic to protect anyone. That one will punch her currently growing self-esteem right in the face.

Aaaand... wrasslin' a gator. Which also involves shanking the gator. Because it will make her want to punch monsters right in the face.

Any plans with Mau, either immediate or longterm?

[doesnothappen]

...wrasslin' a gator /o/

I'm pretty bad with plans! My only plans are to have him O_o at Luficer a lot once he gets his memories of talking to his god of Death. Because they sound very similar. Nobody else talks like that.

I am still trying to figure out how he's going to develop differently in Aather from in canon, though! There are Significant Things I have to think about. Or write down. Then I will be able to make better plans.

Tell me about Excel's feelings for Sion!

[pit_peach]

She is a smitten kitten. He's SO VERY PRETTY and SO VERY NICE, and she genuinely looks up to him. He's also extremely talented at making her happy and confident in general. I mean, he even offered to take her home with him (YOU CAN SEE WHY SHE IS GETTING THE WRONG IDEA).

Also she thinks she's hiding just how bad she's crushing, but she is not. Like. While she hasn't actually ADMITTED it to anyone (except for Glass, kiiiinda, and not with any specificity), she gets all .///. and starts following him around like a duckling whenever he's nearby. Subtle like a brick to the head.

Which leads me to ask. Has Sand noticed?

[doesnothappen]

I think he has probably noticed! He's an observant guy and tries to keep an eye on Fallout and he's not emotionally inept. He's also a thirteen or fourteen year old dude, though, so he's noticed in a "Oh look Fallout likes that guy. Guess I'll go fishing," kind of way? He's aware of it, but he's not interested in it so he hasn't really put a lot of thought into it one way or the other. If Sion came by and Fallout wasn't there he'd probably say something like "That guy you like came looking for you," or something, though! And then depending on her reaction there might be mild teasing. But unless she gets sad about it or something he... doesn't really care.

Are there any team shenanigans you'd like to see happen for Sapphire?