Skipped the character summary, since as you can see with Mysty's profile, it's basically what we got in the game.

( Profile information: the sin of ignorance; Jelanda's revenge... )

And then... developer notes. :D

( Q&A: what happened to Artolia? Why did she like Arngrim? )

It sure sucks to live in Artolia. Makes you think people should've been smart enough to get out, and never mind the practical complications involved in migrating to different countries. :P Actually... since Artolia has been around for quite a while, it makes me wonder how they lasted so long, if they're occupying prime real estate. Did their borders shrink? Did they have a stronger army at one time? I guess that's kinda sorta implied in the character profiles in VPS. Maybe. I don't remember.

These questions will, hopefully, be answered later in the book. And much much later, in terms of my translation speed. XD

Okay, prepare yourselves - this is a translation I had mostly finished last summer, before I ran out of time, motivation, or whatever stopped my run of entries. While I'm actually doing this work I er, know what I'm doing, but six months after the fact... since it was mostly done and I can't find any notes, it's harder for me to see what I need to correct.

So, the point of this disclaimer? There may be a hell of a lot wrong with this. I hope you can empathize with my desire to start something new rather than redo work I've already done. :p All I did tonight was finish the last half of the third section.

( Mystina - the rest of her profile. )

What a blow to the pride. I hope Lezard's profile says something embarassing.

Anyway, this is the last of the old stuff. From now on I'll take more care with the final editing.

This is great inspiration for glance_reviver~ The piece I was working on felt stale, but now I think I can make it work.

Gods, Zephyr's history is depressing. I finally got Word to be useful, but it's notorious for causing problems when one copies and pastes from the program to just about anything else. I'll fix whatever I spot, of course. If you have a problem displaying anything, let me know via comment. :D

Also, I must say... brand really does make a difference when it comes to grape soda. There's no getting around it!

( PW p.193: Zephyr's history, Gaspar, Melchoir, Joshua Black. )

That finishes Shevat. Balthasar is somewhere else, and I don't feel like picking over his profile at the moment. That would almost obligate me to do Maria and Nikolai, and I want to stick to my list for now.

... HOWEVER, since Livejournal is down for some scheduled maintainence that I don't think was actually scheduled, I guess I'll have to do some more work. WTF, LJ. (I just know there's going to be an issue with the text I copied, and I'll have an extra long entry to painstakingly edit after this.)



( Mystina: 'from the developer's room' Q&A. )

The entire VP section was troublesome because of its conversational style. I was going to wait on posting it, but sleeping on it probably won't yield any sudden answers. And if it does, I'll make the changes tomorrow. Believe it or not, I do sleep. :p

Okay, with so many people on my F-List doing ficbit memes, I thought I should at least try to finish all of the drabble challenges you guys gave me... I think it was two years ago. Ahahahahahah, I'm so on top of things! The one exception will have to be karthur's request for Flik and Odessa, because I realized how little I remember about them. (And to think I was obsessed with Odessa. For shame.) I'm sorry. ;_; If you want to switch to something else, I owe you fic.

1. Suzume: Suikoden III, Sarah's childhood --> The Finer Points of Instruction (written 07.08.05)
2. Nyuna: VP's Japanese characters --> Honor in All Things (written 06.07.07)

Upcoming:

3. Wally: VP, Jayle and Crell Monferaigne -->
4. Rey: Xenogears, Yui and Shitan -->
5. ??: Xenogears, Billy and a crisis of faith -->

You'll notice these aren't drabbles or ficbits, like they should be. I wonder why they never got done. HMMMM.

In preparation for upcoming fics: ( Valkyrie Profile World Guidence - Jayle, 'From the Developer's Room' notes )

I chose this part of her profile to work with because the paragraphs dedicated to her senario were all about her relationship with Fahn. Questions about her past were assigned to this tiny little corner. Even here, they're not very specific. We don't know what Magnus did to her family, just that he did something. Kind of annoying, isn't it? Oh well. I'll try not to overdo it.


ETA ---> checking up and correcting will be done tomorrow. I didn't realize how late it was. >_>

ETA pt.2, for no real reason: every time I hear Small Two of Pieces, I fall in love with Xenogears all over again. Then I come to my senses when it's over. What the eff.

Same drill as last time, from page 99 of the World Guidence, which is part of the Valkyrie Profile Material Collection.

( Original Japanese text. )

Translation:

Odin

Valkyrie Profile Canon: "Leader of the Aesir"
Reigns over the Aesir as chief god. Although he was originally a being of minor power, he was different from the gods in that, as a half-elf, he possessed (1) the ability to grow. As a result, he finally attained the power to surpass the others. (2) He prepared for Ragnarok, gathered einherjar, and was defeated by Loki, who had absorbed the power of the Dragon Orb. (3)

Reality: "Supreme God of Norse Mythology"
Such things as the creation of the runic alphabet and poetic composition characterize Odin the All-father (4), yet he is also known in Norse mythology as a violent god who prefers battle and blood to cultural pursuits. He went to Mimir's Spring to taste the water of wisdom and sacrificed one of his eyes to its guardian; as a result there are a lot of images etc. of him as 'one-eyed.' (5)


Notes:

1. The verb is "togeru," attain or accomplish.

2. The verb here was "tsukeru," to establish. While this (and the word in #1) makes sense as far as the meaning goes, it doesn't render very well into English that way in my opinion. I'm sure there's a way to stick closer to the original vocab, but that would require more editing.

3. This seemed to be a series of actions, so I wrote it more or less literally. It doesn't say "in order to prepare for Ragnarok," and at the time I wasn't sure if I should put it that way or not.

4. I took some liberty with this sentence. I'm reading it as the noun phrase "Chief god of Norse myth" modified by the sentence before, which speaks of a violent nature and preference of battle; this makes sense to me, so I hope I'm not in error.

5. I really didn't know what to do with the last part of that sentence. Perhaps I misread, but it seems misplaced.


In any case. Neither Roni nor Odin are presenting me with new information in these entries. I chose characters I knew something about so I could attempt to do this without a grammar guide, to dredge up as many memories as I could. Japanese practice is alotted up to an hour a day, but no more, in an attempt to keep myself motivated. So tomorrow, or after a third paragraph, I'll go back and check everything, and spent the hour on corrections. Help is always appreciated.

You know, I never remember what "として," "ほど," or "など" mean on my own. Whyyyyy? I get the feeling a dictionary is the last place I want to look those up. -_-;

This is for my own benefit, since the game will be out at the end of this week. (Yay~~~!) However, an English strat guide won't help me decipher some of these, so.

( A long list of VPS items and their translations as far as I can tell. )

Geez, that took forever. But at least now I'll have a reference if I forget something. I never remember all of the items for the various status effects, so I end up scrambling for dictionaries at the worst times. ^^