#ayatane

[pyllymursu]

i don't usually do crossovers, but when I do, there's usually a damn good reason for it 

i mEAN

[laryna6]

Songs of Innocence

Title: Songs of Innocence

Author: Laryna6

Parts: 46/46, Complete

Rating: M

Genre: Romance/Psychological Horror

Warnings: Full game spoilers for Ar Tonelico 1&2. Discussion of Reyvateil abuse - consider this a trigger warning, the M rating is not just for slash.

Pairings: Ayatane/Lyner

Disclaimer: Don't own AT, Gust and such do. Title and link text are William Blake's.

Summary: Long ago, humans created reyvateils. Now Mir has created a sentient virus. Ayatane won't betray her, but that doesn't mean he wants to kill innocent people. Lyner isn't the only one trying to take a third option.

Notes: Game experience and canon-based AU. Addresses a lot of the setting's fridge horror (third generation reyvateils live how long even with diquility?). What kind of people would create a slave race like the one-gender reyvateils? The other main inspiration of this fic was playing through AT1 a few times and noticing that Lyner's various OOC/'what the heck were you thinking' moments made very disturbing sense when looked at together.

Dost thou know who made thee?

[laryna6]

Ar Tonelico 4

Day 21) What was your most disturbing cosmosphere event? (something you were shocked to see or hear)

Does Infelsphere count for this? I really can't narrow it down. At all. I'm just.. Jacqli's. And Luca's. If you don't want the player to think that dive therapy is bad, then don't have the example of dive therapy the player experiences being self-inflicted mind-rape level of wrong, writing staff. It kind of undermines the message. Seriously, what happened to you after AT1?

Day 22) What is your favorite ending hymn? (Phantasmorgia, Metafalica, Ec Tisia)

Ec Tisia, especially since it calls back to the other games.

Day 23) What has Ar Tonelico taught you?

Working to understand others and to be understood is of course the most important message, and one the world needs a lot more of. You can't make assumptions about others. You can't put things in black and white, or else you create a lot more conflict and pain.

Day 24) Which is your favorite dungeon?

...I don't think I really have one. Ar Tonelico 1's flaw is that the gameplay is too easy, and I'm not fond of the AT 2 battle system. While I remember some dungeons fondly, it's never because of the actual dungeon itself, it's because of plot or because I can put Ayatane in his boyfriend's overlarge t-shirt.

Day 25) What is your favorite Will of the Planet?

Don't like them. They went over the moral event horizon in the backstory, too. Again, maybe playing would allow them to demonstrate some likeable traits or repentance, but genocide should be regarded as a big freaking deal no matter who does it. Even/especially gods or the planet.

Day 26) Who is your least favorite couple? (canon and non)

Lyner and Aurica, because after all that character development they shove her back in the kitchen to make music boxes instead of achieving her dream and becoming pope. WTH, Gust? Making both the reyvateils popes in the second game may have been an apology for the sexism, but that ending really cemented the idea that having Lyner stay with Aurica will cripple Aurica.

Day 27) What is your favorite Infelsphere moment?

Don't have one. People liked the Infelsphere?

Day 28) Most memorable fight?

Gameplay-wise, this time I tackled an IPD that was almost too tough for me in AT2. Experience-wise, the final boss of AT1 (despite the too easy problem), because of the story and Harmonius.

Day 29) Who is your favorite hymn singer?

Misha. She does not have a single hymn that isn't fantastic.

Day 30) Anything you want to add.

Really want to play Cross Edge, since it has more Lyner and Ayatane. Pity about the Mana Khemia 2 characters.

[laryna6]

Ar Tonelico 3

Day 11) Which hymn is your least favorite? Why?

Method_Hymme_Granzero=Spear

The thing is, I understand why they did it. Cocona is primarily a warrior, and a good one. Of course she's going to be nowhere near as good a singer as people who have dedicated their entire lives to song. As much as I can respect the writers getting someone with a bad singing voice, it still hurts my ears.

Day 12) Who is your favorite mind guardian?

You know, we don't meet any real mind guardians in AT2? Except for a bit of Luca's, when it gets freed, but that's not enough time for it to compete with the first game's.

I have to say Don Leon, especially for the cosmosphere where he's worried about Aurica coming to rely on him instead of on herself. It relates to how Aurica can't be allowed to use Lyner as a replacement crutch, either. Even though Hama has a cute backstory, Don Leon contributes the most to a reyvateil's growth.

Day 13) What is your favorite quote?

I put it in earlier, but:

Ayatane: Lyner... you're a sadistic human being. If only you acted like a soldier, I wouldn't have to suffer like this.

Yes, Lyner! Why do you have to remain loyal to your friends and care about other people instead of just killing everything that moves/isn't human? Why must you disprove racism by being a good person and end a centuries-old vendetta with hugs? You're making it really hard to believe that Humans Are Bastards here!

Day 14) Who do you consider a canon couple?

Lyner/Ayatane is sadly not canon: I do hate that Ayatane replaces Mir's mind guardian. Therefore, Croix/Jacqli. And Frelia/Dr. Enju.

Day 15) Who is the worst villian? (In terms of cruelty.)

First reaction is Nenesha, but I think I'm going to have to go with whoever in AT3 sent that bastard to make things even worse on Metafalss. That is really just dispicable kicking people when they're down. The place did not need the help.

Day 16) Who do you think needs more development as a character?

Do you mean who deserves it the most or who suffers most for the lack of it? I'm going to have to say Frelia. We see hints that she's quite bright when most of her brainpower is not tied up keeping the floating continent in the air.

Day 17) Who is your favorite origin?

From what we see, Shurelia. On screen, Frelia acts pathetic by comparison, but we're told that she's doing a lot of awesome stuff, has great willpower, there are signs she has smarts... I think that if we saw the Frelia Dr. Enju knew, she might win this one.

Day 18) Who is your favorite will persona? (AT3)

I've read their profiles and such, but judging from that I don't like any of them. Possibly playing the game would reveal sides that aren't mysogynistic cliches.

Day 19) Who is your favorite persona?

Seraph Aurica, who averts the stereotype by not being self-righteous. In fact, she favors expediency rather than good per se. This is the Aurica that gets shit done.

Day 20) What is your favorite famous item? (Funbun, Nyamo, Guergo, etc)

Funbun, because you can stick Ayatane in a large Funbun t-shirt (like the one his mother gets in her cosmosphere in the next game...) and because Misha doesn't like them. Because of the reason Misha doesn't like them.

[laryna6]

Ar Tonelico 2

Day 7) What is your favorite couple?

Lyner and Ayatane. The bond between them is such a key component to, well, everything. The other Wing of Horus was saved solely because Ayatane's body moved on its own in order to save him.

Second, of course, is Croix and Jacqli, because it completes the story arc and also because it points out that it's not going to be easy. That it might not work out. I like actual realism, and I love that Croix learned hymnos to prove to her that he was willing to put the work in, and that he doesn't think he can wave a magic wand and create a guaranteed happily-ever-after.

Day 8) What is your favorite Cosmosphere?

Aurica's.

The focus is on her, and her relationship with power, and her growth as a person. It's by far the best example what a cosmosphere should be. Mir's is well-written, to be sure, but first it's fake and then things get even more messed up. Appropriate, yes, but it's an example of how you don't have to like something for it to be good.

Day 9) What was your most memorable Cosmosphere moment? (Can include Infelsphere.)

Does it count if the other half of the conversation occurred kind of outside the Cosmosphere?

Lyner deciding he can't accept that ending to Shurelia's story. Even though it's not a real Cosmosphere, and leaving it that way won't leave her suicidal tendencies unresolved (seriously, someone who wants to 'just sleep forever' has a problem), he's still treating it like one. Still treating Shurelia like a 'real' reyvateil, like someone he cares about and wants to help.

It's why Mir has a grudge against him in the second game, but I want to write Lyner calling her out on writing fiction that victimizes reyvateils.

Day 10) Who is your least favorite reyvateil? Why?

When I bite the bullet and play AT3, it's possible she might get replaced, but Nenesha. Just Nenesha. Doing that to Frelia's tree, sabotaging people's efforts to make Metafalss a better place, and brainwashing Infel.

I have no respect for Luca and how she constantly resorts to Misery Poker (which is like Godwin's Law, in that anyone who invokes it should automatically lose), but Luca only makes the world a worse place in a small, localized fashion. Nenesha hurts all of Metafalss.

[laryna6]

Ar Tonelico

Why does this have so little love? And why is most of it for the worst game?

Day 1) How did you find Ar Tonelico?

It's been years: I was probably at Gamestop looking for turn-based RPGs. It's very possible AT1 was the first Gust game I played, although I'd have to go way back in my gameplay logs on lj to find out. AT1, Mana Khemia 1, and then I hunted down the Atelier Irises and waited for more games to come out.

Day 2) Who is your favorite Reyvateil?

Mir. Unlike most evil overlords, she was genre savvy enough to install a kill switch into her greatest creation. And then she doesn't use it. And said greatest creation? He's convinced that she will use it, that he probably has seconds to live, and he wants to use this time to help her, find a way to save her. There's real love there on both sides, even though he was created as a tool, and this is what proves she's not evil. This and her arc in AT1 would make her my favorite even without the second game.

Day 3) Who is your favorite Hero?

Lyner Barsett. I don't know what people are on when they say he has no character development. At first, he starts off mostly unconcerned about the people around him because he's in such a rush to get back to Platina where his mother figure (his father's relationship with him consists mostly of Leard using his power to sabotage Lyner - seriously, there's a scene where you find out that he had exam results rigged trying to keep Lyner out of the knights) is under attack by invincible viruses and his best friend is probably dead. He has very few feels to spare, although he's never Misery Poker about it.

By the end of the game, he has enough trust in others to go 'Guys, it's Krusche: she definitely has a plan,' and just chill. Then there's the discussion with Ayatane before his boss battle, and what he says to Tastiella about the true cause of conflict. You rarely see a video game character whose wisdom is not an Informed Attribute, or someone who wants to solve conflicts instead of just killing people without them being dismissed as some degree of pansy.

His desire to help and understand people even affects gameplay from the beginning, instead of The Messiah being an informed attribute. A lot of silent protagonists (cough P3 cough) get that label slapped on them, but Lyneractually talks the talk and walks the walk. Showing, not telling.

Day 4) Who is your favorite (non-reyvateil) character?

Aside from the above? Ayatane. Yes, yes, I know he's the Kaworu expy, and he and Lyner are established best friends and comrades and it's the healthiest relationship option in the game. Putting all the fangirl/romance stuff aside, there's his boss battle encounter and the encounter with him a ways before it.

Ayatane: Lyner, you're a sadistic human being. If only you acted like a soldier, I wouldn't have to suffer like this.

Because he and Lyner do understand each other, and Ayatane is caught between his love of his mother and her belief that humans are evil and his desire to protect her from them, and the reality of his friendship with Lyner, who is proof that even humans and viruses can get along.

Then there's the Child of Light, when Ayatane's body basically moves on its own to save Lyner and the others, and he's left to stand there and try to deal with what the f did he just do, besides signing his own death warrant because he thinks his mother will kill him now. Because even though he doesn't want to betray her, he basically just did. Yet instead of trying to find some way to save his own life, the person he thinks of, that he wants Lyner to help, is her.

The hymn Mir sings when redeemed is about putting aside old hatred and such so the children can be happy, after a song that was about her trying to get through to her (monstrously abusive) parents. It's Lyner and Ayatane's friendship that lets them find out about Harmonious, and it's Mir and Ayatane's love for each other that is pretty clearly the reason it works.

Day 5) What is your favorite land?

Sol Ciel. Despite being set after a genocidal war, it's nowhere near as racist as Sol Cluster or as downtrodden as Metafalss. As Lyner discovers it's far from an utopia, but despite being the clear historical winner of any game of Misery Poker... it just really has the best people. Like that story about two tables where people's hands are chained so they can't feed themselves, and one is hell because they bicker and starve and one is heaven because they feed each other.

Day 6) What is your favorite hymn? Why?

...Since I cannot answer that from a quality standpoint, I'm going to have to answer it from a story standpoint: Exec_Harmonious. Mir and Ayatane and Misha singing it instead of Chronicle Key and a great power of love and redemption.

Exec_with_Method/Metafalica is undermined by being a Magic Feather. They have done so much to get that song sung, and the thing is, they don't really need it. Never did, and if there's anything the game shows it's that the hymn hurt Metafalss far more than it ever helped. Not just the IPDs, but people using it as an excuse for all sorts of things, mostly things that kept them from turning Metafalss into Metafalica. The reason Metafalss was unpleasant was Metafalss (Sol Cluster's agent wasn't helping either). What ruined Metafalss can ruin Metafalica: what could make Metafalica a promised land could have made Metafalss a good place to live from the start. However, the fact they got to the point where they can sing the hymn means there's hope that they won't ruin Metafalss.

[ateliernya-blog]

[soujii]