Categories > Games > Star Ocean: The Second Story > Senseless Melodrama
set post-game- just assume a Celine/Ashton "friends" ending. this came about as I was re-playing the game and realized that these two would be the absolute WORST pair to put together, because of their amazing individual potentials for hysterical drama. therefore, they must be best friends. heh.
"Ashton, darling, I think I've found something!"
Ashton sighed. Celine "found something" three times daily in their treasure hunting, and it was almost always junk. Already she'd found an "ancient manuscript" (really a crumpled paper written in Lingan, which Ashton informed her was a sales receipt from the University Co-op), a "ceremonial voodoo doll dating back to a lost civillization" (a useless decoration that someone had drawn a face on and stuck some pins in, perhaps as a homemade voodoo doll), and a "ring that must have belonged to an ancient queen" (a heavy ring with a green beryl glued on- they'd pried the beryl off and tossed the ring aside). He'd thought that Celine had reached her useless junk quota for the day's treasure hunt, but apparently not. She was waving some sort of book at him.
The last time she'd found a book, it was a manuscript of something Rena wrote, that she'd dropped when they passed through the ruins on their adventuring a year previously and apparently never picked up again. That had embarrassed even Celine- a Heraldry Master of the first order she might be, but that didn't mean she wasn't a mediocre treasure hunter. Ashton sighed again, and walked to where Celine was.
"It looks to be an ancient tome of exorcism!" Celine gushed, proferring said book. /Exorcium Mathematica/, the cover said. Inside, the yellowed pages were written in old Lingan (a language Ashton didn't read, though he recognized it), and some of them were water-damaged. Complicated magical diagrams and drawings adorned some of the pages, and appeared to depict the exorcism of a magical beast from a person.
"Celine... I think you've found something," Ashton said in wonder. "In fact, this might be the way to exorcise- OW! Gyoro! No! Don't eat that book!" He tossed the book to the startled Celine as one of the dragons lunged for it. Obviously, the were opposed to the idea of exorcism.
"Well? What did it say, darling?" Celine asked breathlessly, clasping the book to her chest.
"I couldn't really tell," Ashton said apologetically, swatting the red dragon on the nose again. "I don't know much old Lingan. But the drawings really look like a way to safely exorcise the dragons, you know, without, um, hurting them-OW! Ururun, if you do that again...."
"Do you think Bowman's professor friend could decipher it? Keith?" Celine asked, looking more thrilled by the minute. "Oh, darling, it would be just wonderful if you could exorcise the dragons without killing them! Let's go to Linga and see him right away!"
It should be noted that Gyoro and Ururun did not attempt to bite Celine for her comment. Even the dragons knew better than to bite one of the more powerful Heraldry Masters on Expel.
"We don't need him," Ashton said hastily, waving his hands. "Anyone that went to college in Linga would know. I bet Bowman could translate it for us, even. We don't need to bother such a busy man about it... it's not like the ancient writings you found in Cross Cave, or anything."
Celine straightened her cape, book still clasped to her front with one arm, and turned on one heel.
"All right, then! We're going to Linga, to see Bowman!"
"We've got a bit of a problem, Ashton, darling," Celine said, fidgeting a bit. "You see, since we haven't found much lately, we don't really have the money to get a ship to the Lacour continent... and we can't sell the book, that would defeat the entire purpose of going...." She lifted a hand to her brow dramatically- and froze. "I suppose... we both have an awful lot of jewelry, you know... but I hate to sell it...and we need seven hundred fol!"
"Well... we have that beryl from the ring," Ashton reminded her. "It's a pretty good one." He dug around in his pockets until he found it, and held it out. It was a fairly large stone, and a nice, even green color. "What do you think? Maybe three hundred fol?"
"Hm... two hundred and seventy-five, I think. It could be brighter, and there's still a bit of glue on it," Celine said critically. "Though maybe I could whip something up to take care of that... my compounding work has to be good for something besides that aphrodisiac incident, after all- why on Expel are you blushing, dear? It's not as if you were there to be affected by it... though poor darling Rena was." She laughed a little behind a polite hand. "I'm still not sure why the captain was so short with me when I tried to bargain with him. I mean, usually men fall all over themselves to lower prices for me-" she stopped short, and snapped her fingers. "Ashton, darling, you ask him!"
"What?" Ashton asked, not liking where this was going. If he wasn't going to lower the price for Celine-
"He must be gay!" She declared with a sweeping gesture, not realizing that she was using the hand that held her staff. Ashton jumped out of the way to avoid being smacked in the head with the weapon; Celine continued as if nothing had happened. "I mean, he seemed almost offended when I tried to charm him into lowering the rates for us, so he must be! You should go and ask him, darling- if he's gay, he'll definitely lower the price for you. I mean, you are a very attractive man, after all."
Ashton really didn't like where this was going.
"I mean, no offense, darling, but you're very obvious- I mean, you even went on that date with Claude. Rena was so jealous, the darling girl. And when Chisato came across your jewelry box, she thought that some woman had left it at the inn until she saw your name in it. And you have to admit that the fur-collared cape and the thigh-high boots don't help your image any, dear." Celine continued, ticking off the items on her fingers. "And you know what they say about men that talk with their hands... and then there's the overdramatic way you talk sometimes, darling, it's like putting a ray spell over your head that spells out F-E-Y."
Ashton twitched. Violently. Celine, of all people, had no room to accuse him of being overdramatic.
"And it's not as if you have to do anything, just look pretty and try to haggle down the price. Three or four hundred fol should be all right, especially if I can get the glue off this beryl and pretty it up a bit... I think I have enough minerology to make it look higher-grade than it is. I think we might have a fairy glass in my pack somewhere, dab a bit of that on before you go, that'll help even more. I hadn't thought to do that when I went up there, but I suppose it's just as well." Celine dug through her bag (which depsite her words was not a pack; it was more of a fashionable valise) until she came up with the promised fairy glass. "And isn't it ironic that it's called the fairy-"
"/One more word/," Ashton grated out with uncharacteristic irritation. "I dare you to say /one more word/, Celine Jules."
Celine was so shocked that the actually shut up. Ashton grabbed the bottle out of her hand and shook some of the concoction into his hand. It was some compounding mess that Bowman and Celine had come up with, but at least it succeeded in making shop owners more tractable. Some kind of pheremone, maybe- no, he wasn't going to take that train of thought any further, not with the memory of Celine's disastrous attempt at aphrodisiac. Rena had followed her around like a puppy for hours.
"Which ship is it?" Ashton asked, handing her the bottle again. He ran his fingers through his hair and straightened his headband.
notes: I realized after playing through the game again that I made a mistake- the cologne Celine gives Ashton should be the Cinderella Glass (lowers prices in shops), not the Fairy Glass (zero MP consumption). I kept the mistake because it makes a dorky "Ashton is gay!" joke. I'm just surprised no one (on either the Pit or Skyehawke) called me on it. And as for Ashton knowing what old Lingan looks like: the people we know are from Cross (Dias and Celine) and the people we know are from Lacour (Bowman and Precis) both look very different but are colored similarly to each other, I ran with the idea that they were ethnic traits. Ashton is colored like Bowman and Precis, therefore in my universe he's from somewhere on the Lacour continent and thus has seen Lingan before.
"Ashton, darling, I think I've found something!"
Ashton sighed. Celine "found something" three times daily in their treasure hunting, and it was almost always junk. Already she'd found an "ancient manuscript" (really a crumpled paper written in Lingan, which Ashton informed her was a sales receipt from the University Co-op), a "ceremonial voodoo doll dating back to a lost civillization" (a useless decoration that someone had drawn a face on and stuck some pins in, perhaps as a homemade voodoo doll), and a "ring that must have belonged to an ancient queen" (a heavy ring with a green beryl glued on- they'd pried the beryl off and tossed the ring aside). He'd thought that Celine had reached her useless junk quota for the day's treasure hunt, but apparently not. She was waving some sort of book at him.
The last time she'd found a book, it was a manuscript of something Rena wrote, that she'd dropped when they passed through the ruins on their adventuring a year previously and apparently never picked up again. That had embarrassed even Celine- a Heraldry Master of the first order she might be, but that didn't mean she wasn't a mediocre treasure hunter. Ashton sighed again, and walked to where Celine was.
"It looks to be an ancient tome of exorcism!" Celine gushed, proferring said book. /Exorcium Mathematica/, the cover said. Inside, the yellowed pages were written in old Lingan (a language Ashton didn't read, though he recognized it), and some of them were water-damaged. Complicated magical diagrams and drawings adorned some of the pages, and appeared to depict the exorcism of a magical beast from a person.
"Celine... I think you've found something," Ashton said in wonder. "In fact, this might be the way to exorcise- OW! Gyoro! No! Don't eat that book!" He tossed the book to the startled Celine as one of the dragons lunged for it. Obviously, the were opposed to the idea of exorcism.
"Well? What did it say, darling?" Celine asked breathlessly, clasping the book to her chest.
"I couldn't really tell," Ashton said apologetically, swatting the red dragon on the nose again. "I don't know much old Lingan. But the drawings really look like a way to safely exorcise the dragons, you know, without, um, hurting them-OW! Ururun, if you do that again...."
"Do you think Bowman's professor friend could decipher it? Keith?" Celine asked, looking more thrilled by the minute. "Oh, darling, it would be just wonderful if you could exorcise the dragons without killing them! Let's go to Linga and see him right away!"
It should be noted that Gyoro and Ururun did not attempt to bite Celine for her comment. Even the dragons knew better than to bite one of the more powerful Heraldry Masters on Expel.
"We don't need him," Ashton said hastily, waving his hands. "Anyone that went to college in Linga would know. I bet Bowman could translate it for us, even. We don't need to bother such a busy man about it... it's not like the ancient writings you found in Cross Cave, or anything."
Celine straightened her cape, book still clasped to her front with one arm, and turned on one heel.
"All right, then! We're going to Linga, to see Bowman!"
"We've got a bit of a problem, Ashton, darling," Celine said, fidgeting a bit. "You see, since we haven't found much lately, we don't really have the money to get a ship to the Lacour continent... and we can't sell the book, that would defeat the entire purpose of going...." She lifted a hand to her brow dramatically- and froze. "I suppose... we both have an awful lot of jewelry, you know... but I hate to sell it...and we need seven hundred fol!"
"Well... we have that beryl from the ring," Ashton reminded her. "It's a pretty good one." He dug around in his pockets until he found it, and held it out. It was a fairly large stone, and a nice, even green color. "What do you think? Maybe three hundred fol?"
"Hm... two hundred and seventy-five, I think. It could be brighter, and there's still a bit of glue on it," Celine said critically. "Though maybe I could whip something up to take care of that... my compounding work has to be good for something besides that aphrodisiac incident, after all- why on Expel are you blushing, dear? It's not as if you were there to be affected by it... though poor darling Rena was." She laughed a little behind a polite hand. "I'm still not sure why the captain was so short with me when I tried to bargain with him. I mean, usually men fall all over themselves to lower prices for me-" she stopped short, and snapped her fingers. "Ashton, darling, you ask him!"
"What?" Ashton asked, not liking where this was going. If he wasn't going to lower the price for Celine-
"He must be gay!" She declared with a sweeping gesture, not realizing that she was using the hand that held her staff. Ashton jumped out of the way to avoid being smacked in the head with the weapon; Celine continued as if nothing had happened. "I mean, he seemed almost offended when I tried to charm him into lowering the rates for us, so he must be! You should go and ask him, darling- if he's gay, he'll definitely lower the price for you. I mean, you are a very attractive man, after all."
Ashton really didn't like where this was going.
"I mean, no offense, darling, but you're very obvious- I mean, you even went on that date with Claude. Rena was so jealous, the darling girl. And when Chisato came across your jewelry box, she thought that some woman had left it at the inn until she saw your name in it. And you have to admit that the fur-collared cape and the thigh-high boots don't help your image any, dear." Celine continued, ticking off the items on her fingers. "And you know what they say about men that talk with their hands... and then there's the overdramatic way you talk sometimes, darling, it's like putting a ray spell over your head that spells out F-E-Y."
Ashton twitched. Violently. Celine, of all people, had no room to accuse him of being overdramatic.
"And it's not as if you have to do anything, just look pretty and try to haggle down the price. Three or four hundred fol should be all right, especially if I can get the glue off this beryl and pretty it up a bit... I think I have enough minerology to make it look higher-grade than it is. I think we might have a fairy glass in my pack somewhere, dab a bit of that on before you go, that'll help even more. I hadn't thought to do that when I went up there, but I suppose it's just as well." Celine dug through her bag (which depsite her words was not a pack; it was more of a fashionable valise) until she came up with the promised fairy glass. "And isn't it ironic that it's called the fairy-"
"/One more word/," Ashton grated out with uncharacteristic irritation. "I dare you to say /one more word/, Celine Jules."
Celine was so shocked that the actually shut up. Ashton grabbed the bottle out of her hand and shook some of the concoction into his hand. It was some compounding mess that Bowman and Celine had come up with, but at least it succeeded in making shop owners more tractable. Some kind of pheremone, maybe- no, he wasn't going to take that train of thought any further, not with the memory of Celine's disastrous attempt at aphrodisiac. Rena had followed her around like a puppy for hours.
"Which ship is it?" Ashton asked, handing her the bottle again. He ran his fingers through his hair and straightened his headband.
notes: I realized after playing through the game again that I made a mistake- the cologne Celine gives Ashton should be the Cinderella Glass (lowers prices in shops), not the Fairy Glass (zero MP consumption). I kept the mistake because it makes a dorky "Ashton is gay!" joke. I'm just surprised no one (on either the Pit or Skyehawke) called me on it. And as for Ashton knowing what old Lingan looks like: the people we know are from Cross (Dias and Celine) and the people we know are from Lacour (Bowman and Precis) both look very different but are colored similarly to each other, I ran with the idea that they were ethnic traits. Ashton is colored like Bowman and Precis, therefore in my universe he's from somewhere on the Lacour continent and thus has seen Lingan before.
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