Final Call for Ask the Star Ocean Character - Meracle Chamlotte/Cosplay by Kojika, Part 1/More!!

[star_ocean_fan]

This is the final call for Ask the Star Ocean Character - Meracle Chamlotte. You have until midnight Wednesday, April 18, 2012, to submit your inquiries. There's a limit of THREE questions per person. You can submit questions via reply or PM. As I've said before, if you wish to remain "anonymous" or have a specific name you'd like for me to use, please let me know, and I will accommodate you.

Again, final call for Ask the Star Ocean Character - Meracle Chamlotte. After this, Ask the Star Ocean Character is postponed so I can sort out the order and get a few more games played. I'd like to be able to cover all of the games, saving my favorite characters for the absolute last.

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Cosplay by Kojika, Part One

If you've ever attended a convention, one of the things you'll see is people dressing up as favorite, beloved characters. The less specific the convention is - like Otakon or Comic-Con - the larger in variety of cosplay (short for costume play) will be. For example, you will see the Joker, Inuyasha, Cloud Strife, and a Storm Trooper in the same room or at least in a 12-hour span, depending on the convention. (Last year, for Otakon, two of my friends dressed up as Dark Helmet and Col. Sanders from Spaceballs.) The more specific the convention, such as BotCon, the more you'll see people dressed as characters from that particular show. (One of the Cybercon and BotCon shows I attended, two people were dressed up as Optimus Prime and Megatron - full metal costumes!)

The Star Ocean fandom is no stranger to seeing cosplay. Just typing "Star Ocean" into deviantArt's search engine will bring up many different pictures of people in their cosplay. Some are good. Some are not so good. A lot of that, as my friend Kojika would tell anyone interested in cosplaying, is dependent upon the materials used. The right kind of wig can make all of the difference for a handmade costume.

Kojika and I haven't known each other for very long. In fact, we started talking last summer after I found some of her Faize cosplays on dA, browsed through her gallery, and saw that she'd been to a previous NMACon, which is a local anime convention for people in Northern Michigan (where I live).

I believe Kojika is a very amazing, talented woman. She draws, she writes, and she can sew her own cosplay together (with the exception of wigs). She's also graciously (and excitedly) given me permission to display her Star Ocean cosplay for this journal. If you wish to see more of her cosplays you can find her at s-kojika.com/DSOD/index.html and kojika.deviantart.com/

And if you have a question about creating cosplay, she is one person I recommend asking. She's been at this for five years at least, perhaps even longer.

Here is a sampling of pictures of her Star Ocean cosplay. Today, it's Ilia of First Departure. I was only going to do this in three parts, but there are many pictures of her dressed as Claude, Albel, and Faize, and my intention is to give of her costumes its own display. So tomorrow, instead of it being Albel, it will be Claude and (hopefully) Rena.


Ilia at this year's ShutoCon. Debut for Ilia. Kojika plans for her to appear at ACen as well.

More Ilia.

I don't know if there are pictures of Kojika creating her Ilia costume. I know from browsing her dA cosplay gallery, she takes pictures of the accessories she makes but the actual sewing, if applicable (because, let's face it, sometimes cosplay is as easy as shopping for the right shirt) is one thing as of this moment I'm unsure of if she snags pictures.

And thus is the end for Ilia . . . at least for display purposes. :) If you wish to see more of Ilia, please head to Kojika's website, find the convention photos button, click on it, and then click on ShutoCon 2012.

Photos belong to Kojika. Used with permission.

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Merchandise Update

A big thank you to missnox who's PMed her list of Official Merchandise for all four Star Ocean games. I do have an older picture of hers that shows everything she owns, including doujinshi, but I'm quite sure she's added onto this list since she took the photo. :) I know I PMed her back, thanking her, but I wanted to take this moment (as it just hit me) to thank her again, this time publicly.

Your efforts, missnox, are apprciated. :)

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A Thought

A few years ago, I posted to a community, the lutherxfayt community, a few things that I'd like to do with Till the End of Time. (In fact, as I work on this, I'm at the community right now to find the entire list of everything I wanted to do that's Till the End of Time related.) I do remember that I wanted to create an Elicoorian calendar. Here's the original post:

What is this something new and unusual, you might ask?  It's simple, really.

The community, as a whole, is going to create a calendar for Elicoor II.  More specifically, the Aquarian/Glyphian calendar.  I'm figuring since they're such close neighbours, they will ultimately have similar, if not the same, days of the week and months.

This is what the calendar project needs to determine:

the number of months in one year and the names of those months
number of hours in a day
number of days in a week and the names of the days
number of moons that surround Elicoor II, the names of those moons, and how many phases are there*

While Elicoor II is close to that of medieval Earth, we must remember it is NOT Earth.  I'd have to get the information off of one of my games I have going for SO3, but Elicoor II has a different axis and rotation as compared to Earth.  The number of hours in a day may be more, it may be less.  Please do not worry about holidays as of this moment.  Those will come once we have established a calendar everyone is satisfied with.

So?  Who's game for this?

Only one person bit on that particular subject but then the lutherxfayt community is relatively small and quiet. The pairing itself is rather obscure (almost like the Luther x Maria and Luther x Sophia stories . . . I've seen at least one LuRia . . . /shudders/) so creating something like an Elicoorian calendar would actually require a much larger group.

If anyone is game on this, please let me know. I'd be interested in thinking outside of what our current calendar is.

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What the Future Might Hold

In the years that I've been writing Star Ocean fanfiction, specifically for the unusual Luther x Fayt pairing, I've taken to writing holiday-themed stories as well as alternate universe, general continuity, and some crossovers between Till the End of Time. I've written a couple of one-shots for Valentine's Day, Christmas (which will be posted in December of this year), and for Halloween (also will be posted in October of this year) with plans to write chaptered pieces for the holidays in the future. It isn't unusual for a fanfic writer such as myself to do that, but I'd also not be surprised if no one considered such a thing, either.
 

You see, when I mentioned the Elicoorian calendar project once more, I wondered something. While the calendar has remained the same - evident in The Last Hope; look at the strategy guide for the birthdays of Edge and his crew, and, if you're lucky, you can trigger the PA where Reimi gives him a birthday gift - the holidays themselves may not have remaind the same. In fact, I'm not even sure many of the religious observances that we have now, such as Christmas and Easter, would even be the same. Here's why.

The world itself has changed. It's been ravaged by a third and powerfully devastating world war, worse than what I and II could ever have dreamed of being. This we know from the opening scenes for The Last Hope. What we don't see is the reaction of the general populace to the destruction, how long the war actually lasted (face it - war is a long and tedious project even today with our weapons of mass destruction), and the reactions of the zealots. You know the ones. They're the people who will stand outside movie theaters, harassing the ones walking into to watch movies like Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings. They're the ones who'll stand on the street corners with sandwich boards, shouting "Repent for the end is near!", pointing to every disaster created by man and not some divine party such as God, and they're the ones who would sabotage mankind's chances of having a better future (think to the movie Contact starring Jodi Foster and Tom Skerrit). Basically, they're the ones who give Islam, Christianity, and, perhaps to some extent, Judaism bad names, and most Christians, Muslims, and Jews want nothing to do with because of their extremist attitudes.

I point this out for Star Ocean because there's a sense of realism to the game. While the possibility of a World War III is slim, it doesn't mean it won't ever happen, so long as the human race has its differences and refuses to communicate with those whom the differences divide them. And, in the event of such a tragic and devastating war, one worse than World Wars I and II combined, I can see people on those street corners, wearing the sandwich boards, and shouting, "Repent for the end is near!" to all who pass by them. Scare tactics are not above some people. (Think to the "prophecies" of 2011 by that guy whose name I can't recall at this moment - God's Second Coming is at Hand.)

Going back to the events of The Last Hope, the weapons of mass destruction are unleashed, millions upon millions of people die, and the zealouts (unseen, never spoken of) are shouting at the tops of their lungs for all of mankind to repent. That the end is undoubtedly near and only the righteous will attain their rightful places in heaven. In such events, especially in places like North and South America, and Europe, where Christianity is the dominant religion, I believe a mass conversion would be taking place. Some who are aetheists might actually start to believe, agnostics will finally choose which is their higher power that they believe in, and those who've been slacking as Christians will no longer be slacking, meaning they'll be attending church services as often as possible, maybe even more than the scheduled services, holding prayer groups, and pretty much doing their best to survive while being scared out of their minds at the same time. Being a couple of generations removed from World War II, I can only imagine how frightened the people in Europe were when those battles were raging, and nuclear weapons were used with great reservation. (I'm only recalling the bomb drops on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I'd have to look to see if there were more, but Hiroshima is the one that really sticks out.) I can't imagine just how devastating something like World War III, where nuclear weapons are being used without reservation as well as who knows what, would be to the general populace. I can see people being scared into converting to a religion because of those devastating and nightmarish events and believing that it's the end of all humanity. It's over. Humankind has failed.

And then something wonderful happens. A ceasefire has been called, peace has been reached, and humanity has come out to see a new day, a new dawn, but not without great consequences. Those who have converted to Christianity or even to Islam out of fear, well, they may not be as appreciative of that choice as those who have always believed in the faith, in that kinder, gentler God, and I can imagine that there'd be a very great outcry against organized religion. Those zealots and extremists, who've always given the relgions such bad names, will have tarnished that even further. In such events, it's possible to always see a religion dying out and rapidly so.

I realize that this sounds like religion-bashing on my part, that I feel no good has ever come of religion. Please note that, while my words on organized relgion are harsh, they're not meant to bash anyone's religion. A religion lives or dies on its ability or inability to adapt to the current societal needs and structure.

And it also isn't to say that religions like Christianity, Islam, and Judaism would die after the events of World War III in The Last Hope game. Far from it, really. I'm really only trying to convey a fictional sense of disappointment and outrage from survivors who were scared into believing that they were going to die and scared into converting. The religions could very well survive, but they may find themselves lacking in supporters and believers. I think it could be a 50/50 shot of religions like Christianity and Islam dwindling in numbers or gaining numbers . . . until the first alien race arrives to Earth and then who knows what will really happen.

Given this fictional scenario (one we don't see since the game is essentially Japanese and most Japanese are either Buddhists or Shinto when it comes to religion) and wanting to create an Elicoorian calendar, I can't help but wonder if religious holidays like Christmas and Easter as we know them right now in our current times, would survive such a nuclear holocaust. If they do survive (which I really do believe is likely), would they still hold the same significance in such horrid times as they do now? Or would there be this mass melding of cultures and religious practices? It's already clear we lose a lot in the future as depicted by the Star Ocean games - Hershey's Kisses, history texts, the ability for some future cultural understanding (think to the PA with Welch after obtaining Bacchus but before the alternate Earth fiasco if you've already gotten beyond that part. If not, pay close attention, my friends), art, entertainment, to name a few. Would mankind lose his faith in religion entirely, or would he adapt it to something that's more suitable for the times?

What do my fellow Star Ocean fans think? Again, I will reiterate that this is a FICTIONAL scenario. While the possibility of a World War III exists and it potentially possessing severe, holocaustic capabilities, the chances of the outbreak are slim. Too many people do fear that possibility, and I believe that our current governments want to avoid it as well. I will also ask that, while you don't have to like what I'm saying about a fictional futuristic life, you at least keep an open mind about the possibilities for the truth is: we don't know what the future will hold.

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Fanfic: A Blessing of Spring
World: Till the End of Time
Characters: Albel Nox, Luther Lansfeld with mentions of Fayt Leingod, Ryoko Leingod, Nel Zelpher, and Sophia Esteed
Rating: PG13-ish
Warnings: Well, it is from Albel's point of view . . . everyone seems to be in agreement he doesn't like Sophia . . . so be warned. Albel doesn't like Sophia.
Disclaimer: I do not own Till the End of Time or the characters of Luther Lansfeld, Fayt Leingod, Ryoko Leingod, Albel Nox, Sophia Esteed, and Nel Zelpher. Those rights belong to Square Enix and Tri-Ace respectively. This was written for fun. I do not profit financially from writing this story.
Summary: It's almost time for her arrival yet again, and Albel is not happy. Until a brief encounter changes his mind otherwise.

 

There were just some things Albel Nox would never understand. For instance, there were some people who were happy when the sun shone. There were some who were happy when it rained. And there was the constant appearance of that Esteed wench every time spring started to bloom in Aquaria. Ever since she graduated from that place she called “high school” (another thing he did not understand, what elevated the building so it would be high?), she visited his planet when the Maidens of Irisa were in bloom. She often claimed she was looking for that maggot Fayt Leingod, and she often asked him or Nel (or sometimes both at the same time) as to whether or not they had seen him. Since the Creator's defeat some six or seven years prior, no one had heard from the blue-haired man or his mother. It was cause for worry, in her mind.

Not that Albel cared what worried her. What Leingod did was his own business, not Albel’s and certainly not the Esteed wench's. Why she thought that weak fool would return to Elicoor baffled him as much as it annoyed him, and he kicked at a stray rock, sending anyone nearby hurrying along.

Except for three people, he noted. One happened to be a woman, an older woman, someone who could be his mother. Her blue hair hung to her waist, and she looked worn out. The other two were men, one a blond and the other blue-haired as well. All three were garbed in the current fashions, and the woman had one or two blooms woven into her hair. Albel scowled at them, but they paid him no heed as they walked by him.

At least, so he thought. They had walked a few paces beyond him when one of the men said, “A blessing of Spring for you, Sir Albel. May the Creator smile in good fortune upon you.”

The moment he heard that voice, Albel froze, his hackles rising. He knew that voice. It was one he would never forget, not with its icy tones and quiet yet strong declarations of death for any who stood against him.

He whirled around to say something, anything, really but when he looked, there was no one there.
 

“Dammit,” he growled. He knew he heard Luther's voice. He heard it as sure of the gauntlet covering his arm, but where the former Creator had disappeared to, Albel could not say. Perhaps it was time for him to talk to that Esteed wench after all.