The Great SoA Adventure Log (updated 2-21)

"Uh, Vyse?"

The sky pirate turned his head towards his red-headed friend, shuddering as water splashed against her leg.

"What's up, Aika?"

" 'What's up?' 'What's up?!?'" Her face twisted in anger, hands on her hips as she shouted, "We've been in this stupid temple for DAYS now! All I can smell is mold and mildew and monster blood now, and all you're all nonchalant about it!"

Vyse rolled his eyes, scanning around the area for any sign of life. Any sign of life that wasn't a monster, anyway. "Cupil's gotta eat, and there could be another cham here somewhere-"

"We've searched this place from top to bottom, Vyse! I think Cupil's fine. I mean, he can turn into a sword! Swords don't need food, right?"

A loud CRACK startled Aika, the girl hastily taking out her boomerang just in case. She relaxed a bit as she saw Drachma crushing a robot underneath his boot, hardly impressed with all the chit chat. "Quit yer bellyachin'," he said. "If ya got energy to complain, ya got energy to find some chams. The sooner we do it, the sooner we can leave."

That certainly did nothing to help Aika's mood, as the gang spent more than just a minute in this smelly ol' temple. By the time they left, Aika was gladly praising the sun and enjoying all the fresh air. Sure, Vyse had lost all sense of direction after the excursion ("How do I get to sailor's island again?" "...Aren't YOU supposed to be the Sky Pirate, here?" ) and Fina was getting used to having a sword bud ("You know you don't have to get up close if Cupil's gonna fight for you, right?" "But... I want to support him." "...um?" ), but things would work out...

right?

(I'll never be lost again with the power of PASTEBIN and FRIENDSHIP! Welcome to the silly SoA archive. This is a big dumb game and I don't want to lose track of progress again after a stupidly long hiatus. I'm also trying out something silly and using this as an excuse to try to write in-character for these doofuses. You know, in case they do end up in RP in some way :V Either way, hope you guys enjoy! I'll keep it to one pastebin and just separate it with a divider for each session.

With that being said... this one's a short session. I call it "Vyse Gets His Sky Bearings Again".

I remembered the huge wakeup call that was THE EXECUTIONER and a ship battle after that, then remembered IT IS TIME TO CHAM. Fina's horrendously underleveled compared to everyone else, but I am not wasting several hours of my life trying to bring her up to speed. She'll either live, or she'll die. simple as that.

And again, I remember how I didn't fucking know how to get to Sailor's Island all the way in the beginning and spent what felt like an hour trying to get there, before I remembered... wait. i can go under the mountain. Duh.)

"Aaah, home sweet home~"

Sailor's Island wasn't actually her home, but god damn, it felt nice to sleep in an actual bed after several days of Vyse proving he wasn't hot shit after all. Fina took in all the sights, unsure on how to feel about even this small little town and the  bustling crowds it attracted from all over the skies. Drachma was nowhere to be seen, but Aika could take a guess: probably grumping like an old man in the bar about Vyse's bad sailing.

There wasn't much new here: Vyse and her listened to the Guildmaster babble something about some discoveries here and there. She lost track of what he was even saying after a while: who could pay attention when there's no grand reward or treasure to be had? Vyse, on the other hand, was writing down every word in his journal. He took it as a personal challenge to learn more about the skies and the mysteries surrounding it. "No Sky Pirate worth their salt would pass this up," yada yadda.

When the duo finally left the Sailor's Guild, they were met with, "Ah, so you're the talk of the town, aren't you... Vyse the Respected?"

Every bone in her body screamed at her as Aika turned to face a lanky man, with a smug look befitting of someone full of hot air. If you asked Aika to put a picture by "prick" in the dictionary, she wouldn't think twice about slapping his face right in there.

Vyse didn't even look at him. "Yeah, so?"

"No need to be so cold! After all, we're both sailors, aren't we?" It took every ounce of restraint not to just clock this dude in his face as he pranced up to Vyse, sizing him up from head to toe. "We're both out to discover all there is! Not that you're trying too hard there." Moons above, could his smug look get any smugger? "Only one? Come on, that's hardly worth any respect."

"And?"

There was an awkward silence between the two, Vyse staring at him blankly, hardly moved, while Domingo's smug look wavered just a tiny bit as he tried to process what it all meant.

Too bad it took 0.1 ms for that smug look to come back with a laugh that made Aika want to strangle him. "Here I was, thinking I found a rival... but nope, looks like my job's going to be easier than I thought! Guess I'll be on my merry way! Keep an ear out for those tales of 'Domingo the Discoverer' the next time you hit the pub, won't ya?"

He laughed himself out of the city, Aika glancing over at Vyse as she asked, "You're just gonna let him blow all that hot air on you, Vyse?"

"He'd probably be a blowhard no matter what I said, so better ignore him."

"Yeah, but you could have said SOMETHING to shut his piehole up!"

A smirk creeped on Vyse's face. "Why say something when I can just beat him at his own game? Can't be that hard to discover everything, can it?"

Little did he know...

(SMUGGERY THE SMUGGENING LOCATED. I'm pretty sure I am going to DIE if I try for 100% completion, but I do want to hush Domingo up. After getting lost and needing a map several times to get back to Sailor's Island, though... my hopes of discovering things before him are kind of low :V

Finally made my way to *OBLIGATORY DESERT TOWN* aka para bailar Maramba, but not before encountering Doc and turning in some moonfish. Enough for Maria to be like "thank" and get some deep lore. Damn, thats a lot for a young gal to go through, losing her parents in a ship accident.

Aika: I've only known her for like a day, but if anything happened to her, I would kill everyone here, including myself.

That's basically my feel on that :V

also the stark differences between that maria backstory art and aika's wild imagination of VYSE'S HAIR CATCHING FIRE art is astounding. how is this even the same. wut

protip vyse: don't fucking look at the sun. you'll fry your other eye and then you'd really need an eyepatch

also drachma ditched us because THAT DAMN WHALE LJKGSLGJLSJKGLGJ AIN'T GOT NO TIME TO BABYSIT so we're stuck in desert hell i guess.

Least i got a cham, a moonfish, and discovered their camels.

Admitedly, I didn't do much else: by the time I wanted to, food had arrived and my bro was there, and he wanted to unlock more things on Mario Party.

disregard the fact that he could just take the switch anywhere else to play but hey, he could get motion sick from switch sheenanigans on that small screen so *shrug*

NEXT TIME: We cross the desert! We find someone to take us to the temple! I probably WILL die a horrible death in a ship fight because DAMN IT I DIDN'T GET INTO A RANDO SHIP FIGHT

I'M DOOMED

Also, Vyse takes a swig out of his trusty pirate island canteen. )

--------------------------------------------

Butts. Oh god, the butts.

Vyse was mesmerized at first sight, watching her dance. Every shake of the hips made him break into a sweat and lean in, like a dog expecting a treat. How many stories had been told about the desert beauty who stole everyone's hearts with her dance, with the way she moved? With the way her red hair cascaded over her shoulder, bobbing and swaying along with every move?

He leaned in closer, closer, eyes widening as he dared to see what was beyond the veil, to be lost in her eyes forever...

Eyes, he quickly found out, was covered by her hair. A shiver went down his spine as he felt her glare right at him. And her hands, grabbing him by the waist as she lifted him up with hardly any effort.

"Oi, take yer gawkin shit elsewhere, ya creep!"

"W-wait, you don't understand, I was just-"

He yelped and sat up in his bed, breaking into a cold sweat. A hot sweat? Damn, this desert was way too fucking hot. Aika and Fina were sound asleep... which was strange, considering how much Aika complained about sleeping in a dessert town. And of course, she was sawing logs while she was at it. Vyse groaned and flopped back into bed before pulling the sheets over himself, wondering what the heck that dream could have meant...

(LAST TIME, we arrived in Maramba. I almost forgot a moonfish at the docks so I grabbed that immediately before heading out to the other side of town, where a strange fortune teller reminded us that OH GOD THE CRYSTALS IN THE TOWER AND WOTNOT. And there was a Well minidungeon fulla puzzles... moonberries, weapons, and some fluidity gem, oh my.

THEN its off to the tavern to meet... B-BELINDA?

...no its Bellema, but I misread it and got hype. Oops.

Aika paru levels are maximum

 "hey handsome"

cougar located

gerudo located

oh god

i'm in a harem anime help

Apparently she's interested because we broke out of VALUA'S FORTRESS and honestly, who wouldn't be impressed by a kid with enough stones to break the fuck out of a place thought inpenetrable

And somewhere else... Drachma's grandpa instincts are trying to kick in, but they are faili- hello valuan ship, i will crush you with the power of friendship

Bellema reveals her TRAGIC BACKSTORY to us and then we get on the ship to get going to McGuffin 2! And bump into a floating lake while we're at it, I GUESS.

And here we are at the temple of pyrynn, where we are reminded that hey, there IS an elemental rock paper scisors thing going on and i'm gonna post it here for easy remembering

blue > red > green (simple)

green > purple AND yellow

Yellow > blue

Purple > blue

red = purple (equally effective against one another.)

silver = yellow

that isn't very easy to remember, but you know what is?

ALPHA STOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORM.

Running this dungeon was basically me trying to remember how in sweet shit everything worked in depth, between the spirit system, MP, items, and everything. It's a bit much, but I think I got enough of a hang of it right now. This is why you don't take long hiatuses from games, guys. I got lucky with a weapon drop for Aika and Fina got Cupil upgraded partway sooo it was more trying to kill enemies before they do a lotta damage.

I had to heal. A lot. Fucking Magma Totems and their "SURPRISE LAVA ATTACK". bastards do like 300+ dmg or something. assholes.

I am very thankful that encounters are off in puzzle rooms, because otherwise I'd die. Puzzles were easy enough once I used more than two brain cells to handle it :U And now... only the boss awaits.

...I forgot to buy a fuckload of healing items.

Because I'm actually smart and willing to lose progress if that means I don't run into a roadblock and lose motivation (as stupid as I am for trying to smash my way through encounters), i made a different save in a different slot so i could go back and restock in town if i had to.

next time... time to turn up the heat.)