Hello again, everyone! I'm back with another player plot. Those of you who have been around for a while may have noticed that this is the one I've been building up to for, like, forever. So here's a super-short summary of the way it's going to run:

On March 15, Grune will be mallynapped. This will last until early in the morning on March 18.

From March 18 to no later than March 31, she will have her memories back. All of them.

This is where it gets interesting.

For anyone who doesn't want to be spoiled for the ending of Tales of Legendia, please go here now. For everyone else, I have two explanations as to what Grune with her memories back is going to entail: the pseudo-short one and the really, really long one.

One of the nice and yet frustrating things about Tales of Legendia is the way it lets you draw your own conclusions. It's possible for two fans of the games to take the exact same facts and arrive at very different conclusions (which has happened on one or two occasions with me). So, this is my interpretation--other peoples' mileage may vary.

With that said, as I mentioned back when Schwartz turned up for the fourth wall event, though everyone assumes Grune is an Orerines (AKA human), she's actually a goddess--or rather, that's the term that's used on Melfes (AKA "Shining Blue," the planet Legendia takes place on). What her true species is isn't given; Grune only says when Norma asks if Schwartz is a goddess, "That is what you would call her in your language." What's true for Schwartz is typically true for Grune; since Grune significantly downplays her abilities to avoid scaring her friends, you have to read through the lines a fair bit to get information about her.

To get an important question out of the way early: Why has Grune been such a . . . non-goddessy sort in Luceti? Well, apparently, it may have been a mistake for Schwartz and Grune to come to the world of Melfes. The summon spirit Rem, one of Grune's partners in her fight against Schwartz, says at one point, "Your memory and your power have been sealed. It must have been an unavoidable decision, considering how far this land is from maturity." It seems Melfes wasn't strong enough to support both her and Schwartz, and so she came to the world knowing only her name and one basic spell. She forgot her purpose and her reason for being. Her personality, too, as everyone might have guessed, was greatly altered. However, every once in a while on Melfes, little things slipped through--which some characters in Luceti have also experienced for themselves.

Something important to remember that I mentioned when Schwartz turned up is Grune and Schwartz together make up one being. They aren't complete on their own--you could think of each one as being half a soul, with each half residing in a separate body, because they are so in opposition they could not physically remain together. Grune would explain it as a more extreme version of what most beings already have: a light and a dark half, both equally necessary for one to be a balanced person.

Their reason for being is extremely defined. As Grune says, "To me, my existence and my objective are one and the same." Both of them exist to answer the prayers of one person or many people who are searching for an end to suffering. These prayers can come from a person or nation or oppressed group, or even a deity. On Melfes, it was the native deity Nerifes who prayed for an end to the suffering of its people, the Ferines (in Luceti, Walter, Fenimore, Stella while she was here, and Stella's daughter Sophie). In other words, Grune and Schwartz are the deities that answer the prayers of other deities.

However, "[t]here is more than one way to free people from their suffering." As far as I can determine, typically, Schwartz will answer the prayer first. She believes that existing with emotions is what causes suffering, and so to save a world from its pain, Schwartz's goal is to make it so that the world never existed. Grune's purpose is to act against her and stop her, thereby preserving the world in question.

When both of them "descend" to the world that has called them, Schwartz causes pain to strengthen herself--she feeds off the negative emotions of people. Grune brings hope and attempts to resolve the world's conflict--she's strengthened by positive emotions. In the end, with the strength of the world's people fuelling them, Grune and Schwartz fight. Whoever is the victor determines the fate of the world. If Grune wins, the world is saved and she and Schwartz fade from it. If Schwartz wins, she returns it to nothingness; there will never have been that world in all of existence.

It's not stated outright how long Grune and Schwartz have existed. Schwartz says they've "chosen this path countless times before." I'm interpreting it as, so long as there has been sentient life in the universe to struggle and suffer, both of them have gone through this cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. As for who wins the most out of the two--well, it's implied that it isn't necessarily Grune.

So, what is Grune like with her memories back?

Well, she's serious and driven, sharply intelligent and dignified. She won't be satisfied with simply accepting her situation, but will be seeking out anyone and everyone with information on the Malnosso and the barrier. Her voice will also be different, and not just in terms of her vocabulary and manner of speaking. This is normally how she sounds. This is how she sounds immediately after "awakening." This is what she sounds like in battle. I mentally headcanon her speaking voice when she has her memories to be somewhere between the latter two videos, to give everyone an idea--like this.

But yes. In short, she's going to be extremely different.

HOWEVER--this is the important part. In 99% of cases, her feelings for your character will not significantly change. If Grune without her memories considered your character a friend, so will she now. The exceptions to this will be: First, Grell, because Grune once witnessed her being her villainy self without being able to understand what it meant. Now, however, she will, and she will not be pleased. (Although there will be more than a few complications there, given she'll also have her other, positive memories of their odd sort of friendship.) Second, Mithos, because the first time they met, he tried to kill her. :| And third, Dhaos, because another one of the things Grune will be getting back? Will be her complete understanding of romantic love . . . and her sexuality. /cough

Those exceptions aside, in general, Grune will still care for your character every bit as much as when she didn't have her memories--it doesn't matter whether you're a king or a Japanese schoolgirl. Or a king who might dress as a Japanese schoolgirl. However, she will also understand a great deal more about them. All those chance comments you expected to go over her head when she didn't have her memories? Will have been retained, analyzed, and will have had further information extrapolated from them. These things will be also taken into account when it comes to her dealings with your character during this period, both involving things that are serious (such as Giles' thinly disguised stories of Sunnydale, which will have ramifications for everyone from there) and things that are...not so serious (such as the kiss on the mouth Lupin gave her under the mistletoe at the Christmas ball).

In addition, your character's behaviour during this period may well result in a change in how she sees them for as long as she has her memories (but not when she goes back to "normal"). Fair warning.

Finally, while Grune's feelings for your character will not change when she regains her memories (unless you're one of the exceptions), the way she expresses them certainly will. With her memories, Grune will be far more reserved and guarded--oddly enough, especially with her closest friends. After seeing the reactions of her housemates, she won't want to frighten her other friends with what she's become, and so she's likely to at least initially avoid anyone she considers a friend. Perfect strangers, you're the ones who are more likely to see Grune this week-ish, unless her friends make an effort to seek her out and talk to her. (And I'll attempt to provide as many occasions for this as I can.)

I've put together a fairly exhaustive list of videos for reference; for more information about how Grune recovering her memories plays out in the game, go here and scroll down to "Grune's Quest" (or the ending of Jay's Quest if you want to see Schwartz in action). I've bolded the most important ones, but if you're going to see just one, I would highly recommend this one:

Grune, surely you can see the hopeless difference in power between us?/Do I appear strange to you?/I don't think I can just run up to her and hug her anymore. (2:57)

In just under 3 minutes, it encompasses how Grune and Schwartz interact, Grune's confusion at the way her friends are scared of her now (especially her best friend, Norma), and how everyone reacts to the huge change in her behaviour.

At the end of the week or two I'll have her with her memories, Grune will go back to her amnesiac state. She won't remember a thing about that time; all she'll notice is how inexplicably awkward everyone is being and that a week seems to have disappeared on her somewhere. Even if your character and Grune with her memories ended up in conflict, she won't remember it and will treat them as she always has. And that will be that.

...Until the next time I decide to do this. Once it happens once, it makes it all that much easier to occur another time.

Phew! Thank you for reading all that. Questions can go below. If you'd like to know in advance what Grune will think of your character when she has her memory back, or you'd like to plot out something specific, comment away! ♥

EDIT: Something I probably should have made clearer: While Grune will definitely need people being calm and accepting of her for purposes of support, that doesn't mean I'm not interested in playing out any conflict that might come up due to this being such a huge change. So please don't be shy, all right? ♥