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Thank you, my Captain! I'll follow your advice!

Yes, it is! Indeed, he is!

Well, it certainly isn't justice and love...

Soo, in other news, I found an interested new free game on Steam. Anyone catch wind of Ascend: Hand of Kul?

Batman? Win? I think you're the one that's confused... Truly, Joker-dom is something to strive for...

Well, the original XBOX360 version is also free and that was released in 2013. So it stands to reason that the steam version will stay free even outside of Beta. I think that if you like Dark Souls, you'll probably like this. It has lots of fodder that fall at your feet, but the tougher classes really mean business. And fighting the Ascended of other players starts out easy-ish, but once you get around lvl 10+, chances are you'll be dying ALOT against them... I just finally got rid of one that I must have died at least 10 times to... Maybe, Dark Souls Lite if that makes sense?

((I feel like I should apologize for dragging this out. My muse is still active. Eli...isn't the kind who lets things go that easily until he feels resolution. =w=;; I mean, until he feels like there's nothing more to respond to on the matter. Fortunately, he's actually calmer now because discussion on this scale is his sort of "fun". He is an old coot.))

Let it be assumed that the parts I omitted or did not directly address, I have nothing more to say about.


Indeed. But comparing experiences has always seemed like an angle that's not all that strong to me, because I'm of the belief that it all burns down to choice. The situation doesn't force us, we choose to respond to situations that way. If we swapped lives but kept our personalities and attitudes intact, things wouldn't play out in exactly the same way. You have your way of reacting to experiences, I have mine.

Of course, it can be said that it's common sense that life-or-death situations appear to force a choice, but the fact remains that there still was choice. Yes, the average person is more inclined toward the choice of self-preservation. But that doesn't change that there are consequences external to the loss or sparing of one's life, counting both the good and bad, the intended and unintended.

Let me present an anecdote. I once had the fortune of having a heart to heart with the mother goddess of my home world. I thought about how I've taken life and how I got to where I am, and became curious. I asked her how things would have turned out if I acted on other decisions I considered taking. And by her graciousness, she allowed me a look at several parallel timelines of my existence. There are two timelines worth noting for this discussion: one where I made decisions and gave into pressure only because it was convenient instead of right, and one where I ended up with a mindset similar to what you're presenting. Looking out only for my own interests, well-being, and advancements, willing to inconvenience people if it had to come to that to secure my goals.

Both paths had most of same pivotal events that happened in my life. When one timeline had events the other didn't, it was only because that version of me made a decision that would prevent a succeeding event from ever happening. In the path where I'd only acted on pressure and convenience, I ended up contributing to the gradual ruin of the world. Wracked with immense guilt, that version of me ended his life early by suicide. The other ended up with what was a fulfilling life only in appearance. It also ended early and with much dissatisfaction to be had. Success and security felt empty, because in alienating people, you learn that it gets lonely at the top. Someday, even if your stance that others you are hardly acquainted with will never matter to you remains adamant, reflecting on all the people you've affected along the way is going to touch you in some way. As for how life ended early for that version of me? Well...karma. You can't tell when, but what you do is going to come back and bite in the end. You can do as much avoiding as possible, but it's inevitable.

To sum it up: parallel timelines with most of the same happenings, with the same person, but with different outcomes because of choice. Experiences can teach, but there is always a choice in how to act on that knowledge.


I still believe you can never be completely certain when the only gauge you have (or only want to use) is your own perception of the terms you'll attempt to give. It is like—alright, I will admit that this metaphor is awfully tangential but it just feels fitting—how you and another person both see the color red, but you'll never know how exactly that same red you're looking at looks to them. That's all I can say.


You're...comparing the act of blackmail to an economical practice where emotional damage as a consequence isn't as active. Still present, yes, but not not the same degree of involvement as it is in blackmail. It is like, as the clichéd saying goes, comparing apples with oranges.

I'm not focusing on the value of material here all that much, but the potential hurt that can come forth as a result.


When you're only counting your own experiences, you are technically wrong in saying it never works. Just because it hasn't worked for you doesn't mean it doesn't work for anybody else.

Also, the scenario you presented as an example...doesn't quite fit. Again, apples and oranges. The butcher worked to garner meats to sell—he might have raised the animals or obtained them from a livestock farmer, for which he must surely foot the expenses on his own. Of course it is only just that he can request payment for it. You...just grabbed an opportunity to keep material that is upsetting to more than just her in order to use it to coerce her into getting you anything you want. You can hardly liken one scenario to the other.

Nothing in life is free...? Well. Who started charging for the the processes in nature that are vital to us? The air we breathe? The natural light that allows us to see our environment? The rains that cool us from the heat and send down waters for our plantlife to flourish? It is more accurate to say, nothing in life that we choose to place value on is free.


Not that I'm saying this is an actual offer, because you will obviously want more than this, and well, I have no idea what to offer. I'm not even trying to make you stop your shenanigans—that was never my intent because I understand that while I can lecture all that I want, it ultimately lies in the choices the one being spoken to wishes to take. All we want is for any material regarding Azriel and relating to the intent to blackmail her to be eliminated.


You...generally wanted to stir up amusement that, while you say you intend to generate fun for others, mostly fits your preferences. (As you'd go on to mention, your fun was ruined.) Said preferences consequentially involve, intended or not, the threatening of their emotional security. True, modern medicine is not without similar consequences, but it at least has the more noble intent of trying to benefit mankind. Cure diseases, make things less painful for people. It is much different from a cause that is, as you young-hearted folk may put it, "for the lulz."

But yes, after that, that is all I have to say on the Easter issue. Actually, the above was more a remark toward these viewpoints I find questionable than the issue itself.

Hey guys,
Does anyone have a link to a translated version of a Tales of Innocence R walkthrough? It would be a great help to me. So far, I've been watching a ToI let's play, but I would like to see what they've changed around in the PS Vita version.

Thank you, Queen. However, I was referring to a video walkthrough of ToIR that has English translations for the Japanese. It's to understand the similarities to the two stories.