Nineteenth session of The Abyss: Tensions in Baticul and a blue unicorn.
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After Guy recovers his memories, the team goes back to Sheridan to see how the scientists are going with the device they need. They find the two teams of scientists bickering with each other, but they made that frequency counter, so Jade goes to get it. They tell them hat the device still needs to be stronger and more durable to be able to cancel the vivrations. The team convinces them to work together, and they go to Tartaroo Valley. There they can find another of those sephiroths. They try to reach it through sea, but some very annoying storms are blocking their path, so they have to make a detour around the other side of the world. They arrive to Tartaroo Valley, and they find that place with the flowers Tear and Luke found themselves in at the beginning of the game. Anise teases them, and both go into deny mode, all while Jade is having fun. The creatures they find there are a mix of level 1 "they fall in one hit" and some blue sprites actually annoying and difficult to kill (getto the ground already, dammit!). Anise finds "a legendary blue gorgonhod swallowtail" (just a blue butterfly), which are pretty valuable. An earthquake happens and Anise finds herself clinging for her life on a cliff. Tear and Guy run into her rescue, and th eam congratulates Guy into having apparently beaten his phobia to women. Yay! They keep going and they hear the sound of a neigh in the distance. They inmediately think it's an unicorn (sorry, an "uniceros", which is the hybrid of an unicorn and a rhinoceros?). The thing appears and it has giant feathers for eyebrows and it's a very pale shade of blue. The unicorn attacks the team, which is strange, because they aparrently are peaceful creatures. By the way, a little detail you may find funny is that, when the battle is about to start, Ion just casually goes away from the camera. Not even a hint of hurry, he just goes and leaves. The fight is long, but not that hard, apparently it has a lot of HP, but not that many attack or defense. Oce it's beaten, Tear heals it, and they discuss why did the unicorn attack them. Mieu talks to the unicorn, and it says it got irradiated with some miasma, and went mad. When the team asks where is the miasma, the unicorn says it's inside Tear's body. She says she doesn't know what is it talking about. Another twist in the making? How can a person have miasma inside its body and not die? Is she inmune to the miasma, or is she MADE of miasma? Whatever it is, I'm sure it will be mentioned later. The unicorn goes away, and the team reaches the sephiroth. Again,. nothing out of the ordinary there, some puzzles with air vents and tuning forks. By the way, there are a couple of chests on trees, and no matter how much I kick them with Mieu, they won't go down. Am I missing something there?
Anyway, they go back to the flower field of the begginning of the game, and they eat cake. Nothing really important, but I like cake, so I'll mention it. They go back to Sheridan, and the scientists tell Jade they are modifying the Tartarus so it can withstand a trip to the core. It will take some time, however, and they decide to rest in the town. Luke suddenly has a thought: because lowering all the lands is so dangerous and it will change the way the world works, Luke says they should tell that to both Kimlaska and Baticul. The team mostly agrees, but Natalia is still traumatized for the events that happened last time in Baticul. During the night, Natalia goes for a walk and Luke follows her from a distance. Suddenly, Asch appears, out of nowhere. He says he's looking for Spinoza, but I'm sure he's just there to check on Natalia. She says to him she's scared, and Asch reminds her of the promise they made to each other as children, all while a beautiful sunset happens in front of them. Awwwwww, so sweet! Luke decides to go back to the inn before they notice him, but Tear appears and catches him going back to the inn. Luke wonders what would Asch and Natalia's lives would have been if he hadn't been born. Tear tells him that those thoughts are pointless and that he should focus on his own existence.
They decide to go back to baticul. There's a constant atmosphere of tension, thinking that, at any moment, the king could launch his troops at the team. They manage to get an audience thanks to Ion's authority, and they go to the king's chambers (by the way, despite the king having renounce of Natalia, he still has a giant portrait of her in his room, a nice bit of foreshadowing). After the king's initial surprise to see them after having tried to capture and kill them, the king and Natalia have a sincere conversation about their time passed as father and daughter. Jade, I assume bored of the emotional debate, intervines and says the king can consider his position after one day thinking about it, then Jade gives a letter to the king explaining everything that is happening. Jade also makes it clear the consequences of attacking the team. The team then decides to go to the inn and rest, but i doubts any of them got any rest that day. Considering they are neer sure of the king's reactions, specially for poor Natalia. They even talk about what they should do if the King respondes by force. Natalia keeps blaming herself for letting his father be seduced by his advisors. poor girl, she can't catch a break.
The next day, they reunite with the king. He says that all of what Jade has told him in the letter must be wrong, because it contradicts the Score, and Luke says the Score is not infallible because it doesn't know about replicas and their actions. Natalia asks the king to sign a peace with Malkuth, causing all of the king's advisors to flip out and call the team traitors (even Ion, and you'd think theywouldn't want to cause a diplomatic fight with Daath). Finally, the king accepts the team's requests, and Natalia breaks down of happiness, and the king and her reunite with a big hug. This is so sweet! And tense too, I was expecting an attack at every moment. I even grinded a bit before going to Baticul because I was expecting a full on attack from the king's part.But it seems it won't happen, which is nice. More game another day.
