264 | update on high rollers: aerois + more musings on karma

[straightforwardly]

Reading: Books-wise, I’m a bit less than halfway through The Burning Stone by Kate Elliot. It is… a project. Oh, and I’m also slowly working through Copper Coins in tandem with the cnovel thread bookclub over at FFA. In terms of manga, I just read the first volume of Lovesick Ellie this morning, which was an absolute delight.
Listening: Still High Rollers: Aerois! I took a break back in December to catch up on Fic Clique, my beloved, but then I went back on the Aerois train, and it’s one of the reasons why I’m making this update now.
Playing: Nothing since my replay of Karma’s route in Cinderella Phenomenon last weekend. Though I did buy a copy of Evermore a couple of days ago, so maybe that soon?
Watching: Mostly just journaling videos on Youtube. I’ve also been slowly, slowly watching Pluto with my brother at the pace of one episode a week and have been enjoying it thoroughly <3
Writing: I think I’ve slowed down on the Three Sentence Ficathon fills, so nothing actively, technically.

I have such a long list of things I want to make entries about (most Snowflake Challenge-related, but not all), which is honestly kind of a delightful problem to have, considering the usual state of affairs! Today, I think I’m going to tackle a general media round-up, starting with that rapidfire version that I sometimes use (seen above), and then talking about all the little media-I’m-consuming-related things that I’ve been wanting to cover.

► It’s been a good long while* since I talked about my progress with High Rollers: Aerois! Like I mentioned above, I’ve reached episode 15, “The Ironwick Mystery”. (as in, I listened to the very first few minutes of part one this morning while doing the dishes).

*I just checked, and apparently the last time I made an update, I was six episodes in. So I’ve literally doubled my episode count since the last time I recorded my ongoing thoughts and reactions!

I’m always down for ghosts and haunted castles, so it’s no surprise that I enjoyed that last arc as much as I did—it’s probably my favorite one so far. Especially once Veselvena entered the scene! I’m so so so grateful for whatever roll the DM did that made it so that she happened to run into the party as they were attempting to flee the castle, because that led to so many of my favorite moments.

Aila and Nova talking her into taking them on as “students”—so many of the conversations and the characters’ frantic desperation to figure out how to get out of the situation alive, without fighting—Nova’s freakout about the potential of getting possessed, but also still being a little tempted, because pursuit of knowledge—and how passionate she was about finding out what happened to that lost city, both with Veselvena and when arguing with the party later—and, of course, Lucius!! The reveal that he actually does look a lot like Swiftsong!!!!!!

holy shit, that got me so excited/intrigued. Like. I was a little :/ at learning that Veselvena was genuinely motivated by love for Swiftsong, if only because that felt more standard/dull, but the Lucius angle makes up for that at least a little bit. I wonder if it’s ever going to be explained? Since the party did pretty literally give up on this sidequest—yes, with a vague intention to come back one day, but who knows if that will happen? But yeah, I love that Lucius makes this offhand comment (‘oh, my nanny used to tell me stories about Veselvena! she told me that I look just like Swiftsong, very handsome <3’)—of the kind he always makes and that the party are usually free to roll their eyes at and ignore—but then! It turns out that it’s actually literally the case!

A line from Aila that I noted down from this arc: “you came here because of me, and if you all died here I’d feel a tiny bit guilty before I moved on with my life” <3

Also, I really enjoyed that moment where Aila shows concern about Nova’s interest in planar magic. As in, concern for Nova’s well-being <3

Moving back to earlier in the campaign, but: the battle with the goliath. I absolutely lost my mind while listening to that one. It just felt like such a campaign-defining moment, at least at the time. Both Quill and Lucius going down! Quill losing an eye! How the goliath deliberately targeted them like that in order to punish Nova for “running away” (read: her trying to gain some distance to do some ranged fighting instead), and her horror and guilt at seeing what he did to Lucius and Quill “because of her”. It just hit right on an emotional level.

Finally, moving back even further in the past, Lucius’ “battle” with the cows made me lose my mind in a different way. I laughed so hard.

As for characters/relationships… Lucius remains my fave, and I don’t think that’s ever going to change. But after that, Nova and Quill are currently my second favorites—both of them bring me so much joy, and the interactions/friendships between that trio (that is: Lucius & Nova & Quill) in particular truly delights me. In terms of ships, I’m still cautiously intrigued by the thought of Nova/Aila, and have been warming up to Lucius/Quill more and more. It definitely started down in the chasm, when he started calling Quill by the nickname “birdie”, but their interactions have only gotten better since then.

► In my last post, I mentioned that there was something I wanted to comment on in regards to Karma’s non-Lucette interpersonal relationships in Cinderella Phenomenon.

I probably would have done more justice to this earlier in the week, when I was still obsessively thinking about it, but basically: after replaying Karma’s route last weekend, it struck me that out of all of the LIs, Karma & Waltz actually seem to have the closet relationship with one another.

To be fair, this isn’t that hard. After all: Fritz may as well be non-existent to the inhabitants of the Märchen, Rod only occasionally comes by for solo visits with Parfait, and Rumpel is a newcomer—one who Karma hates. So that leaves only Waltz there by default as someone he can have even a vaguely positive relationship with.

Don’t get me wrong—I’m not saying this is a friendship for the ages. But it does seem to be a friendship of sorts, or at least a friendly acquaintanceship, with the two of them regularly spending time with each other while running errands for the Märchen. And it does make sense to me that Waltz would get along better with Karma than most, considering Waltz also cares very much about and understands Lucette—another “selfish” royal with hidden depths and vulnerabilities.

(Though, of course, Waltz definitely isn’t the person Karma is closest to in the Märchen—that spot would definitely have to be reserved for Jurien and Garlan, with imo Garlan probably winning out overall.)

► Finally, another update listing my fills for the threesentenceficathon:

• Cinderella Phenomenon, Klaude/Lucette, for the prompt any, any, only bought this dress so you could take it off


• Cinderella Phenomenon, Lucette & Glaceon, for the prompt any non-Pokémon fandom, any, Pokémon trainer AU


• Aladdin, Jafar/Jasmine, for the prompt Aladdin, Jasmine/Jafar, AU where it's mutual

—Which may also be the last one? I’ve definitely slowed down, in any case.