This is for ianthefira, who requested something involving the Baten Kaitos characters Xelha and Kalas on Mira, a transient island that is home to a town made of sweets, paper robots, mirrored gardens, passing souls, and an amalgamated chunk of a group of ancient gods.

It's a great place in which to raise your kids!



Since Parnasse wouldn't have been a surprise, Xelha and Kalas are in Detourne, the home of creepy hand-spiders worst dungeon in the game blatant ripoff of loving homage to The Tower of DRUAGA Mystical Garden. For those who haven't played the game, Detourne is a bizarre "dungeon" that defies the laws of gravity and good taste, with one room being vertically symmetrical (right down to having pools of water on the floor and the ceiling), another containing a set of weights that balance the entire garden, another containing a giant card-boss, and the whole set tied together with an 8-bit side-scrolling basement. I imagine Xelha is trying to call Kalas's attention to the key jammed between the giant chain links in the middle of the main garden room, but with Kalas being a native to Mira (he probably had to deal with things like creepy hand-spiders and inverted forests whenever he left his hometown), he already has an idea of how to get ahead.

Coincidentally, this is when Xelha begins to realize the truth of what Kalas did in Parnasse. (He refused to help Gibari chew through that solid wall of sugar, but he took a pastry with him, anyway! Kalas is such a brat. No concept of team solidarity at all.) If I remember correctly, Xelha's bond with Kalas only became very strong after the events on Alfard, so I avoided making them appear too close to each other here (emotionally, that is -- spatially, they're right on top of each other).

I hope you like the drawing, Ian! I only wish the original sketch had transferred better (and that the chain didn't look as if a four-year-old had drawn it).



Also, good news: my applications for graduate school are all finished, save for the one for Cornell! I'm glad that I can finally enjoy my break.

Here's hoping everyone is having a good winter or summer thus far!