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[ memories = imeeji = act ii ]
(Ordered chronologically, numbered in order received)
NOTE: For fun and some ease-of-use, name censoring goes: ████ for Yuri himself, ▓▓▓▓ for Flynn and Repede, ▒▒▒▒ for the rest of the party, and ░░░░ for everyone else.
Dahngrest, Visit III
- Ragou's Arrest
- Estelle's Choice
- Justice?
- Ragou's Fate
- Insipid Poison / Estelle's Decision
- The Lower Quarter's Blastia Core / Starting a Guild (+ Skit: The Monster that Attacked Dahngrest)
- Brave Vesperia (+ Skit: The Monster Spoke)
- Phaeroh (+ Skit: Starting a Guild / Heracles is Amazing)
Heliord, Visit II
- Distract the Guard Event
- SKIT: It's So Not You
Capua Torim, Visit II
The Ghost Ship Atherum
Nordopolica
Weasand of Cados
Mantaic
Sands of Kogorh
Yormgen
Mantaic, Visit II
Weasand of Cados, Visit II
Nordopolica, Visit II
- Shipwrecked?
Dahngrest
- The Don's Resolve
Mt. Temza
- Confronting Phaeroh
Egothor Forest
Myorzo
- Betrayal
Shrine of Baction
The Heracles
- The Plea (Memory #3) [Act II spoilers, CW: assisted suicide request]
Capua Nor
The Blade Drifts of Zopheir
Halure
- Refugee Crisis
- What to Do About Estelle (Memory #9)
Quoi Woods
- En Route
- Wake Up Call
Deidon Hold
- Looking for Flynn
Zaphias
- Entry
- Through the Castle
- Confronting Alexei
- The Morning Star and the Child of the Full Moon
- The Night Before the Final Battle
The Enduring Shrine of Zaude
- Arrival
- Exploring
- Yeager
- Confronting Alexei, Pt 2
- Aftermath
NOTE: For fun and some ease-of-use, name censoring goes: ████ for Yuri himself, ▓▓▓▓ for Flynn and Repede, ▒▒▒▒ for the rest of the party, and ░░░░ for everyone else.
Memory #3 [cw: assisted suicide request]
The wind is so intense it hurts where it buffets your skin, but you push through it, race across the deck of the ship to climb the figurehead at its nose, briefly grateful for how steady ▒▒▒▒ is managing to hold it beneath his bulk even now.
(You're on a ship but not on the ocean, flying through the sky with his aid.)
The sky around you is dim now with unnatural dusk, but as the ship gets closer and closer to the spire's peak, you can see her: suspended, encircled by that bastard's spell.
You call out to her and she screams in pain. Behind you, ▒▒▒▒ calls her name, too, but you're more focused on the man you know is responsible for her anguish.
"Damn it, stop it, ░░░░░░!"
The older man only smiles. You've seen this kind of cruelty before, but some part of you is still surprised to see it on his face.
Close enough now, you can see past the glow of the spell to realize the girl within it is sobbing: thick tears streaming down her face. She clutches at herself. "No! I'm losing control of myself! I'm scared!"
And you know that that despair is more dangerous than the spell itself, no matter what ░░░░░░ forces her to do. You call out to her, urge her to fight it, not to give up just yet — but words don't feel like enough, so then you throw yourself forward, off the figurehead, reaching for her.
The girl's eyes widen and she extends her hand, hopeful for a few precious seconds.
You're going to make it, you're going to reach her, you think—
—nothing, the world explodes in burning light and you're thrown back. Somewhere in the distance, you hear someone from the ship cry your name, maybe ▒▒▒▒▒, but you're fine: you catch one of the ropes securing the ship to your friend above, and the impact jolts through you but you aren't torn free.
▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ covers her mouth with her hand. You know the bastard used his spell to force her power to flare, that she's technically the one who sent you flying, and you wish you had the breath to tell her it's not her fault.
But you don't get the chance. Over the wind, you hear her broken plea:
"Please, I beg of you... before I cause anyone anymore pain... Please, ████."
Your name. She's asking you, because she knows—
"Kill me now."
You feel sick, but not as sick as you know you should.
Behind her, ░░░░░░ smirks, twisting his spell one more time, and she shrieks, pain and fear and pain, as her power turns into a blinding light that throws ▒▒▒▒▒ himself and the ship tethered to him veering wildly off course.
The ground comes rushing up at all of you, and with it darkness.
Memory #9
Memory #16 [cw: assisted suicide]
Memory #17
Memory #18
Memory #25
The path ahead is blocked by wave after wave of whirring, mechanical creatures, stretching out as far as the eye can see. You and ▓▓▓▓ rush to the rest of the party, and Boy greets you with alarm: "We're in big trouble!"
Beside you, ▓▓▓▓'s dismayed. "How could they have been hiding so many of their forces?"
Krityan Woman smiles placidly. "Goodness, breaking through that might mean breaking a few bones."
"A few?" Sketchy Guy grouses. "Oh, no, that's gonna be brutal. By the time we get to the capital, we'll already be half-dead."
"It's not like we have to face those things head-on," you remind him. "▒▒▒▒▒, do you see any way around them?"
Pirate Girl hums, pointing her binoculars this way and that. "There's nothing but enemies wherever I look. It might not be possible."
"But we're so close to the capital...!" Girl in Red protests.
The machines keep advancing. The assembled Imperial Knights at your back — three different brigades, to judge by their uniforms — are very audibly starting to panic. They want to withdraw, or maybe just to flee. You don't know why you ever expected better.
"Captain..."
The pleading note in her voice catches your attention, but you look over just in time to see ▓▓▓▓ turning his back on the cat-eyed young woman you know is his second-in-command — and approaching you instead.
"████," he murmurs. "Are you going to the capital to stop ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒... and to save Her Highness?"
There's an odd weight to the word save, and the look on his face—
You tell him you are.
"Then..." His eyes move over your face, deliberate. Intent. "No matter how this ends, I believe that what you decide will be the best possible outcome."
You blink rapidly. "▓▓▓▓—"
But he cuts you off. "You should go."
Then he rounds on the anxious crowd, his voice ringing out: "Knights of the Realm!"
And just like that, they go silent, all eyes on him. You struggle not to roll your own. Maybe the honorific is laying it on a little thick, but you have to admit it works, and oh wow is this really happening, is ▓▓▓▓ really climbing aback a literal white steed in literal shining armor right now—
—but somehow, because it's ▓▓▓▓, it works. You watch him draw his sword, smooth and certain.
"An enemy battalion stands before us, and ░░░░░░ lies in wait behind them! I won't tell you this will be easy, and I'll understand if you want to flee." The sword comes down with a flourish, pointed at his fellow knights. "But I want you to remember. What it is we must do! What it is that we're protecting!"
The blade swings in a slow arc, his steely gaze following it, and you can see individual knights in the crowd straightening a little as his attention turns to them.
"We are Knights. With our swords, we protect the people. I will not force any of you to fight. But if you share the same spirit I do, then let us fight this battle together!"
▓▓▓▓ punctuates his final sentence by lifting his sword high above his head, and after only a second or two of hesitation, every knight before him follows suit with a cry. Even in the moment, you know what you're seeing: a scattered group of demoralized people becoming his forces.
"▓▓▓▓ really is amazing," Boy's voice says from somewhere far away and to your left.
You feel the ghost of an old impulse to undermine that, make a joke out of it, but honestly you're not sure you could if you tried. You can't help it. You've never been so—...
Proud of him? It doesn't feel like quite the right word, but you can't think of any others.
Silhouetted by a stupid perfect blue sky on his stupid perfect steed, making your stupid chest tight—
"Imperial Knights, charge!"
His sword comes down, his knights move as one to rush the same wall of enemies they were so intimidated by before, and you can breathe again.
"...Come on," you tell the others. "Let's get to the capital."