Code Realize: Future Blessings: Lupin!
Feb. 6th, 2019 04:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alias_sqbrMasterlist of Code Realize posts
Just some fluffy cuteness set after canon, mostly a lot of established relationship fluff but some nice moments with the other characters and relationships too.
Here's the trailer to give some idea of exactly how much fluff I am expecting.
So to start with I'm picking "After Story: White Rose" which is described as "Tales of joyous union following the events of Guardian of Rebirth". There's also stories focussing on (S)holmes, Delly, Finis, and a (possibly female??) character I don't recognise. All of which I am also curious about!
But first, Lupin's path!
Me: So how can it be "joyous union" if we already saw the wedding?
Lupin: That was the night...
Me: WAIT IS THIS A SEX THING
Lupin: The night I stole the heart of a girl desperate to know what it was to be loved.
Me: Oh, THAT night.
(God, I forgot how annoying these original settings were *tweaks*)
He talks about how sad and emotionally closed off Cardia was when they met, and how he vowed to himself he'd help her be able to experience the touch of another person.
Cardi POV. It's a few days after the wedding. She slowly wakes, trying to remember the night before: they took tea in their room, shared conversation, and then he kissed her so fondly...
Lupin lays next to her, snoring, and she affectionately touches his hair. She looks down at her chest (none of this is illustrated but I shall assume they're both naked lol) and the now white and harmless gem that lies there. She carefully touches her mirror to make sure it doesn't melt.
LUPIN JUST WOKE UP AND THERE'S A CG and, uh, Cardia's not naked (she's just wearing a low-cut nightgown)
Lupin: If you must touch something, touch me ;)
Cardia: But what if my poison comes back??
He pretends to be feeling trepidatious as he covers her in delicate kisses.
Cardia: Why do you always sneak into my room, we always end up sleeping together. Waking up to see you looming over me can't be good for my heart.
Me: Cardia, you don't have a pulse, and your heart is a literal rock.
Lupin: Where's the adventure in that? I'm a thief and you're my prize ;)
She secretly agrees this is all super hot and he asks for "five more minutes" in a very sexy way and things fade to black and then it's the afternoon haha.
Saint-Germain: We missed you at breakfast ^_^
Cardia: I. Uh. Overslept >.>
It was her turn to make breakfast and she is a bit unhappy with herself for being unable to resist Lupin, and feels the relationship is too one-sided. I'm not sure if she wants more agency or to make him feel more loved by her?
Saint-Germain: You always say he stole your heart, have you considered stealing his back?
Victor comes to give her a regular checkup. She explains everything to him and he blushes haha poor guy. AH the problem is that Lupin makes her feel overwhelmed and flustered but always seems calm and in control and she wants to have the same effect on him. Victor thinks it's a cute normal girlish concern (bluh) then says he's not the world's expert on romance but will put thought into it and ask the others??
Van Helsing awkwardly compliments Delly on a job well done at a political meeting at the palace. Victor rushes towards them (with VITAL NEWS ABOUT LUPIN'S SEX LIFE, I guess?) He's happy to hear they're having success persuading the British government to put in vampire protection legislation, based in part on Van Helsing's testimony about the truth of the vampire war. This inspires Victor to offer to testify as well, since he knows how difficult Van Helsing finds it to talk about that time.
VICTOR WHY ARE YOU ASKING DELLY TO HELP WITH THE CARDIA THING. HE IS LIKE THIRTEEN.
Van Helsing: Leave well enough alone. You mollycoddle her.
Delly: You friendless blackguard, unable to grasp the delicate mysteries of courtship! Impey would be more help than you!
Me: DELLY YOU ARE THIRTEEN WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT COURTSHIP
Van Helsing: FINE. It has long been said that the bonds between man and woman deepen when they overcome an obstacle together. I had comrades-in-arms whose bonds were forged in the bonds of battle, and never faded.
The translator probably just added gendering without thinking it through, but I choose to read this as Van Helsing having had multiple female soldier bffs :D
Victor: Yes, I once read a paper theorising that trauma-induced duress resembles the mental processes of romantic love.
You all have war-related trauma? And saw Cardia and Lupin nearly die together not long ago?? ANYWAY. IT ALL GETS VERY SILLY FROM HERE.
Van Helsing and Delly somehow persuade Victor to dress up like a Twilight agent and pretend to attack??
Lupin and Cardia reminisce as they fall back into their old thief-and-apprentice dynamic fighting the "Twilight agents". Cardia looks back on the "old days" and it occurs to me that 6 months feels like a long time when you've only got 3 years of memories. She talks about how cool and collected Lupin always seemed.
Lupin: I'm glad I SEEMED that way, but I think all those close calls aged me a few years.
Impey and Saint-Germain persuade Cardia that THEY know how to fix all this and Cardia tells Lupin she's off on a date and certainly does succeed in making him flustered.
Urgh the plan really is for her to go on a date with Impey and Saint-Germain to make Lupin jealous?? Cardia feels kinda guilty and Saint-Germain justifies it as basically punishing Lupin for not making her feel appreciated.
JUST. TALK ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS. WITH YOUR HUSBAND.
...ok I am possibly into Saint-Germain and Impey competing to be the most charming fake date. More of the sort of romantic nonsense I like, game, and less of the sort I don't!
"Some distance away from the happy threesome..." *snickers*
Lupin trailing them, jealous, is very silly, and Cardia is implicitly treated as passive object to be stolen. But there is a cute CG of him resting his head on Sisi and pouting.
The "happy threesome" discuss how London has rebuilt. Cardia feels melancholy that the city that has been so important to her is so permanently changed, and that their group of friends has broken up. Saint-Germain muses on the inescapable passage of time, and Impey says it's ok to be sad, but they're all following their dreams, and will remain friends forever however far they may be. Aw.
Haha I just realised the text on the cafe background says "Refreshing sauce of green".
Ok I am less annoyed at Lupin: he intellectually recognises that there's nothing inherently wrong with her taking tea with two friends, which is why he's not annoyed at her. He's telling himself to stop being immature and go home but then Cardia starts talking about how much she loves him, encouraged by the other two, and he gets adorably flustered.
Awww but then she talks about how she doesn't offer him anything in return for the happiness he brings her. That was what she was worried about? Lupin reveals himself and there's cute friendship and relationship stuff.
Lupin places her hand on his heart, and she feels how hard it's beating: he's a master manipulator, so he always SEEMS calm, but she makes him just as flustered as her inside. He describes them as family which fills Cardia with a gentle warmth: not flustered, but deeply happy.
Cardia dreams, a memory of original!Cardia gathering flowers for her room. But then she is herself in the crumbling mansion, hearing Isaac speak of his love for his daughter. He sounds far away, and she realises he was never speaking to her.
She wakes next to Lupin and tells him she had "a sad dream from before I was born". She thinks of the dead clones, her "mute, dead sisters", and wonders how to think of Isaac. Did he ever think of her as his daughter?
Lupin: All we can do is understand our own feelings, and even those can be too much sometimes. So how do you see him?
Cardia: I think...I still want to think of him as my father. I'm not the original Cardia, but I felt his love for me.
But did he really feel no love for Finis? And how can she reconcile the loving father with the mad genius?
Lupin is cheerfully cryptic about enjoying the chance to make her happy. The next day he gets her to... help him break into the palace!
Cardia: When we left the mansion you said, and I quote-'We're just letting ourselves into an acquaintance's place, no big deal'.
The English translation has Lupin add in little bits of French ("merci beaucoup" etc), but afaict the original Japanese never uses any. In those parts it seems to often use the English word, which I guess creates a similar exotic European flavour for Japanese players. Meanwhile English characters use words like "strewth" and "dang" in an inconsistent way that makes me suspect the translator is an American trying their best.
Leonhardt grumpily leads them to a secret library where even the individual shelves are locked with chains. All sorts of secret apocrypha...including Isaac's diary.
Isaac happily talks of life with his infant children, wanting to take them to meet his old colleagues and see the beautiful city of London. Cardia was a bit of a daddy's girl, and Finis a bit of a mummy's boy, which partly explains the later dynamic (poor Finis!)
"I wanna marry you when I grow up, papa!" FULL BODY CRINGE D:
The last entry is the twins' fifth birthday, and there's a photo of the family.
Cardia decides that Isaac's one, constant motivation was his love for his family. She can't forgive him and Finis, but they are her family all the same. "The me who is not me...she feels it too. Some essence of her is still alive."
Lupin hugs her, and she goes into the future with her new family.
Closing credits!
Cardia stands on the outer wall of Steel London waiting for Impey to bring her...a tied up Lupin?? Impey kicks him out of the ornithopter and Lupin unties himself mid air and lands gracefully.
Lupin: Anyone else would be DEAD!!
Impey: I'm off to America! Bye! ^_^
Cardia says she brought Lupin here to give him a present (the tying up was Impey's idea). She does a pirouette and then points to the city of London itself. She found out about this spot, and it's view, from the rest of Isaac's notes. This was the spot where he wanted to show his children the city. She wonders if Finis ever visited here (and we know he did)
We see Impey wistfully watch them in his mirror as he flies away. Then he cheerfully goes on towards America, and the MOON.
Victor is about to speak at a conference calling for a ban on "inhumane weapons". He's not running any more, thanks to his friends.
Van Helsing, at work as a bodyguard, thinks to himself that the same friends taught him that it's a far great challenge to wield one's weapons in self defence than to seek vengeance.
Saint-Germain looks up at a sky he thought would never change. It's more beautiful than he ever imagined it could be. Guinevere is checking up on him, quietly glad to see him smile. She says their paths will not cross again until she comes to visit him on his deathbed.
Saint-Germain: I look forward to it...as leisurely as possible ^_^
He decides to spend his remaining years looking after this place for his friends to come back to. "How queer...to think of a future filled with light."
Lupin is very happy with his gift: a beautiful city full of memories and feelings. And then they are surrounded by a whirl of white petals and Cardia hears an impossible voice say "congratulations". She says to the city, and Isaac, that she will be happy, and have the love he wanted for her.
She and Lupin kiss. She thinks "I was not born a monster. I was born me."
THE END
That was sweet! I didn't sympathise with Issac as much as I was supposed to but I'm glad Cardia feels happier.
I have unlocked the "Memory Trunk", with all the CGs and movies etc, and a thing called "Delly's Room".
Delly: Just because I'm in charge of bonus content doesn't mean I'm nervous or anything...g-got it?
Oh no, I hate when game characters address me the player /o\ Well, on the upside I can be pretty sure he won't flirt with me, but I hope I don't get misgendered :/
"There's 8 secrets to reveal, and I'm sure each will demonstrate my greatness!"
For now, I have "Clean". Cardia's cleaning the mansion, using skills Victor taught her. Delly says he'll help and is very proud of his efficiency...but just stuffed everything in a cupboard.
Ah, I see how this is going to go, haha.
Anyway! That was all VERY FLUFFY and FAIRLY SILLY but I still enjoyed it overall.
There's a cute CG of Lupin and Cardia dancing that's in the trailer and title screen but not in his path?? The "Memory Trunk" says I have all the CGs from his path (and I'd expect to, since there were no choices) so idk what's up with that.
Just some fluffy cuteness set after canon, mostly a lot of established relationship fluff but some nice moments with the other characters and relationships too.
Here's the trailer to give some idea of exactly how much fluff I am expecting.
So to start with I'm picking "After Story: White Rose" which is described as "Tales of joyous union following the events of Guardian of Rebirth". There's also stories focussing on (S)holmes, Delly, Finis, and a (possibly female??) character I don't recognise. All of which I am also curious about!
But first, Lupin's path!
Me: So how can it be "joyous union" if we already saw the wedding?
Lupin: That was the night...
Me: WAIT IS THIS A SEX THING
Lupin: The night I stole the heart of a girl desperate to know what it was to be loved.
Me: Oh, THAT night.
(God, I forgot how annoying these original settings were *tweaks*)
He talks about how sad and emotionally closed off Cardia was when they met, and how he vowed to himself he'd help her be able to experience the touch of another person.
Cardi POV. It's a few days after the wedding. She slowly wakes, trying to remember the night before: they took tea in their room, shared conversation, and then he kissed her so fondly...
Lupin lays next to her, snoring, and she affectionately touches his hair. She looks down at her chest (none of this is illustrated but I shall assume they're both naked lol) and the now white and harmless gem that lies there. She carefully touches her mirror to make sure it doesn't melt.
LUPIN JUST WOKE UP AND THERE'S A CG and, uh, Cardia's not naked (she's just wearing a low-cut nightgown)
Lupin: If you must touch something, touch me ;)
Cardia: But what if my poison comes back??
He pretends to be feeling trepidatious as he covers her in delicate kisses.
Cardia: Why do you always sneak into my room, we always end up sleeping together. Waking up to see you looming over me can't be good for my heart.
Me: Cardia, you don't have a pulse, and your heart is a literal rock.
Lupin: Where's the adventure in that? I'm a thief and you're my prize ;)
She secretly agrees this is all super hot and he asks for "five more minutes" in a very sexy way and things fade to black and then it's the afternoon haha.
Saint-Germain: We missed you at breakfast ^_^
Cardia: I. Uh. Overslept >.>
It was her turn to make breakfast and she is a bit unhappy with herself for being unable to resist Lupin, and feels the relationship is too one-sided. I'm not sure if she wants more agency or to make him feel more loved by her?
Saint-Germain: You always say he stole your heart, have you considered stealing his back?
Victor comes to give her a regular checkup. She explains everything to him and he blushes haha poor guy. AH the problem is that Lupin makes her feel overwhelmed and flustered but always seems calm and in control and she wants to have the same effect on him. Victor thinks it's a cute normal girlish concern (bluh) then says he's not the world's expert on romance but will put thought into it and ask the others??
Van Helsing awkwardly compliments Delly on a job well done at a political meeting at the palace. Victor rushes towards them (with VITAL NEWS ABOUT LUPIN'S SEX LIFE, I guess?) He's happy to hear they're having success persuading the British government to put in vampire protection legislation, based in part on Van Helsing's testimony about the truth of the vampire war. This inspires Victor to offer to testify as well, since he knows how difficult Van Helsing finds it to talk about that time.
VICTOR WHY ARE YOU ASKING DELLY TO HELP WITH THE CARDIA THING. HE IS LIKE THIRTEEN.
Van Helsing: Leave well enough alone. You mollycoddle her.
Delly: You friendless blackguard, unable to grasp the delicate mysteries of courtship! Impey would be more help than you!
Me: DELLY YOU ARE THIRTEEN WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT COURTSHIP
Van Helsing: FINE. It has long been said that the bonds between man and woman deepen when they overcome an obstacle together. I had comrades-in-arms whose bonds were forged in the bonds of battle, and never faded.
The translator probably just added gendering without thinking it through, but I choose to read this as Van Helsing having had multiple female soldier bffs :D
Victor: Yes, I once read a paper theorising that trauma-induced duress resembles the mental processes of romantic love.
You all have war-related trauma? And saw Cardia and Lupin nearly die together not long ago?? ANYWAY. IT ALL GETS VERY SILLY FROM HERE.
Van Helsing and Delly somehow persuade Victor to dress up like a Twilight agent and pretend to attack??
Lupin and Cardia reminisce as they fall back into their old thief-and-apprentice dynamic fighting the "Twilight agents". Cardia looks back on the "old days" and it occurs to me that 6 months feels like a long time when you've only got 3 years of memories. She talks about how cool and collected Lupin always seemed.
Lupin: I'm glad I SEEMED that way, but I think all those close calls aged me a few years.
Impey and Saint-Germain persuade Cardia that THEY know how to fix all this and Cardia tells Lupin she's off on a date and certainly does succeed in making him flustered.
Urgh the plan really is for her to go on a date with Impey and Saint-Germain to make Lupin jealous?? Cardia feels kinda guilty and Saint-Germain justifies it as basically punishing Lupin for not making her feel appreciated.
JUST. TALK ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS. WITH YOUR HUSBAND.
...ok I am possibly into Saint-Germain and Impey competing to be the most charming fake date. More of the sort of romantic nonsense I like, game, and less of the sort I don't!
"Some distance away from the happy threesome..." *snickers*
Lupin trailing them, jealous, is very silly, and Cardia is implicitly treated as passive object to be stolen. But there is a cute CG of him resting his head on Sisi and pouting.
The "happy threesome" discuss how London has rebuilt. Cardia feels melancholy that the city that has been so important to her is so permanently changed, and that their group of friends has broken up. Saint-Germain muses on the inescapable passage of time, and Impey says it's ok to be sad, but they're all following their dreams, and will remain friends forever however far they may be. Aw.
Haha I just realised the text on the cafe background says "Refreshing sauce of green".
Ok I am less annoyed at Lupin: he intellectually recognises that there's nothing inherently wrong with her taking tea with two friends, which is why he's not annoyed at her. He's telling himself to stop being immature and go home but then Cardia starts talking about how much she loves him, encouraged by the other two, and he gets adorably flustered.
Awww but then she talks about how she doesn't offer him anything in return for the happiness he brings her. That was what she was worried about? Lupin reveals himself and there's cute friendship and relationship stuff.
Lupin places her hand on his heart, and she feels how hard it's beating: he's a master manipulator, so he always SEEMS calm, but she makes him just as flustered as her inside. He describes them as family which fills Cardia with a gentle warmth: not flustered, but deeply happy.
Cardia dreams, a memory of original!Cardia gathering flowers for her room. But then she is herself in the crumbling mansion, hearing Isaac speak of his love for his daughter. He sounds far away, and she realises he was never speaking to her.
She wakes next to Lupin and tells him she had "a sad dream from before I was born". She thinks of the dead clones, her "mute, dead sisters", and wonders how to think of Isaac. Did he ever think of her as his daughter?
Lupin: All we can do is understand our own feelings, and even those can be too much sometimes. So how do you see him?
Cardia: I think...I still want to think of him as my father. I'm not the original Cardia, but I felt his love for me.
But did he really feel no love for Finis? And how can she reconcile the loving father with the mad genius?
Lupin is cheerfully cryptic about enjoying the chance to make her happy. The next day he gets her to... help him break into the palace!
Cardia: When we left the mansion you said, and I quote-'We're just letting ourselves into an acquaintance's place, no big deal'.
The English translation has Lupin add in little bits of French ("merci beaucoup" etc), but afaict the original Japanese never uses any. In those parts it seems to often use the English word, which I guess creates a similar exotic European flavour for Japanese players. Meanwhile English characters use words like "strewth" and "dang" in an inconsistent way that makes me suspect the translator is an American trying their best.
Leonhardt grumpily leads them to a secret library where even the individual shelves are locked with chains. All sorts of secret apocrypha...including Isaac's diary.
Isaac happily talks of life with his infant children, wanting to take them to meet his old colleagues and see the beautiful city of London. Cardia was a bit of a daddy's girl, and Finis a bit of a mummy's boy, which partly explains the later dynamic (poor Finis!)
"I wanna marry you when I grow up, papa!" FULL BODY CRINGE D:
The last entry is the twins' fifth birthday, and there's a photo of the family.
Cardia decides that Isaac's one, constant motivation was his love for his family. She can't forgive him and Finis, but they are her family all the same. "The me who is not me...she feels it too. Some essence of her is still alive."
Lupin hugs her, and she goes into the future with her new family.
Closing credits!
Cardia stands on the outer wall of Steel London waiting for Impey to bring her...a tied up Lupin?? Impey kicks him out of the ornithopter and Lupin unties himself mid air and lands gracefully.
Lupin: Anyone else would be DEAD!!
Impey: I'm off to America! Bye! ^_^
Cardia says she brought Lupin here to give him a present (the tying up was Impey's idea). She does a pirouette and then points to the city of London itself. She found out about this spot, and it's view, from the rest of Isaac's notes. This was the spot where he wanted to show his children the city. She wonders if Finis ever visited here (and we know he did)
We see Impey wistfully watch them in his mirror as he flies away. Then he cheerfully goes on towards America, and the MOON.
Victor is about to speak at a conference calling for a ban on "inhumane weapons". He's not running any more, thanks to his friends.
Van Helsing, at work as a bodyguard, thinks to himself that the same friends taught him that it's a far great challenge to wield one's weapons in self defence than to seek vengeance.
Saint-Germain looks up at a sky he thought would never change. It's more beautiful than he ever imagined it could be. Guinevere is checking up on him, quietly glad to see him smile. She says their paths will not cross again until she comes to visit him on his deathbed.
Saint-Germain: I look forward to it...as leisurely as possible ^_^
He decides to spend his remaining years looking after this place for his friends to come back to. "How queer...to think of a future filled with light."
Lupin is very happy with his gift: a beautiful city full of memories and feelings. And then they are surrounded by a whirl of white petals and Cardia hears an impossible voice say "congratulations". She says to the city, and Isaac, that she will be happy, and have the love he wanted for her.
She and Lupin kiss. She thinks "I was not born a monster. I was born me."
THE END
That was sweet! I didn't sympathise with Issac as much as I was supposed to but I'm glad Cardia feels happier.
I have unlocked the "Memory Trunk", with all the CGs and movies etc, and a thing called "Delly's Room".
Delly: Just because I'm in charge of bonus content doesn't mean I'm nervous or anything...g-got it?
Oh no, I hate when game characters address me the player /o\ Well, on the upside I can be pretty sure he won't flirt with me, but I hope I don't get misgendered :/
"There's 8 secrets to reveal, and I'm sure each will demonstrate my greatness!"
For now, I have "Clean". Cardia's cleaning the mansion, using skills Victor taught her. Delly says he'll help and is very proud of his efficiency...but just stuffed everything in a cupboard.
Ah, I see how this is going to go, haha.
Anyway! That was all VERY FLUFFY and FAIRLY SILLY but I still enjoyed it overall.
There's a cute CG of Lupin and Cardia dancing that's in the trailer and title screen but not in his path?? The "Memory Trunk" says I have all the CGs from his path (and I'd expect to, since there were no choices) so idk what's up with that.
