domintation | [Three of Three Game Writeup]

- So Blaze is pretty ruthless! But having no memories seems to have made her several levels less selfish and self-centered than in canon. She has no memories of getting everything she ever wanted for years and years and thus doesn't actively demand that from people. In Aather she walks a wobbly line between liking it when people do things for her, and wanting to learn to do all the things herself. She's headed down the path to be a different person from 'Mint'; she hasn't even told many people her real name because it doesn't quite feel as comfy as the one she picked for herself.

- She's adopted people, and when Blaze adopts you she counts you as 100% hers. It's not just Team Citrine! There's Wrath, Valiant, Aleph, Despair, Fetch, Spark. Maybe Feather if they talk more. Maybe--hell, probably--others. In her head and her heart these people are her people. In games she always wants to win win WIN and that makes for a strong PUT MY OWN TEAM FIRST mentality, but outside games she doesn't give a crap about team segregation. She visits people's cabins and bugs anyone she sees around and looks out for newcomers every time she passes the Ring.

- Liking people didn't make her less ruthless in the Three of Three game, though. She was okay with targeting the teams of people she liked (which is good because, er, that's every team.) She has an absolute self-confidence that she applied to all these folks she cares about! She is a shounen dumbass and she believes that her people are as tough as she is and that they will play just as hard as she does.

- Then Three of Three's game knocked that viewpoint askew! It punched a certain part of her naivete in the kidneys. Mint is from a fairly lighthearted, PG-rated game and her run through the story involves lots of monsters dead, sure! But not people. In Threads of Fate people are beat up/knocked out/comically abused at Mint's hands all the time, but she never actually kills anyone. None of her memories will be as traumatic as this game was. It's not that she got hurt; Citrine acquired most of their damage just from fighting each other, not from being attacked. It's what happened after--they had no clue that the other teams were badly hurt and walked out and whoa death and gore everywhere. It was sobering and in the end she felt angry, not guilty. Getting killed by the Personae's antics is STUPID! Who the hell said anyone but Blaze could kill these people who are her people! Fuck you, Personae.

- She still kind of thinks she's invincible. I don't think she will ever stop thinking it even if she gets killed, because she's crazy that way. But she has learned that whoops, other people are not. She still believes the people she likes can take the damage she deals out, but she's learned that after a certain degree people will get maimed and die, confidence or no confidence, and that's not acceptable. So she may start pulling her punches in games like this one. She hatessss the rigged damage setup. Beating people up in a fight is clean and honest; anonymously skewering them on someone else's system is not.

- Aather is turning Mint into--relatively--a better person?! UNEXPECTED. What is this.