A/N: Yup. I'm venturing into foreign waters here. I just finished playing ToA recently, and I really loved the characters. In fact, I loved them so much I wrote down a list of potential prompts to write AS I was playing the game. :) So yeah, that's basically what these are. They're roughly in chronological order, and are short snippets/fleshed-out moments of something that struck me in the game. I'm a very strong proponent of Luke/Tear, so most of the romance will revolve around them. However, many of these deal with other characters also, so really this is a mixed bag with something for almost everyone (except slash because sorry, but I don't write slash).

With that all said (and potentially taking more space than the actual drabble...), here's my first shot at the Tales of the Abyss universe.

Disclaimer: Tales of the Abyss and all related material are property of Namco Bandai Games Inc. I merely borrow them for devious—er, artistic—purposes.


IMPRESSIONS


Impression #1: Jerk
Summary: Tear's first, second, third, and fourth impressions of Luke are less than impressive. Her fifth impression of him is even worse, when all he says about her giving up her pendant is that now he won't get his shoes dirty.
Setting: Tataroo Valley (night)
Characters: Tear, Luke


Tear's first impression of Luke was bad. Well, maybe it wasn't so much bad as it was annoying. After all, he had gotten in her way of assassinating her brother for his treason. (Somewhere in the deepest depths of her heart, she was thankful that Luke had gotten in the way, but she wouldn't realize this for a long time yet.)

Her second impression was slightly better, but that was only because he was unconscious and unable to open his big mouth. She'd always been too honest with herself to deny her attraction to something, whether it be simply cute or cute. Locrian Sergeant she may be, but she was still a young woman with a young woman's eyes, and she could very easily see that Luke had been very blessed by the physical combination of his parents in him.

Her third impression was rather neutral, or perhaps even a little pitying. What kind of secluded life must the boy have lived such that he had never seen the ocean before?

Her fourth impression was that he was an idiot who would get himself killed in under a minute in the field for all the common sense that he had. Granted, after he'd finished being a wimp, they had made a pretty good team. He was still an idiot, though.

However, it was her fifth impression that sealed her dislike of him.

"Huh. So you had something nice on you after all. Now I won't have to get my shoes dirty."

Outwardly, she just stared at him unblinkingly until he shrugged uncomfortably and moved past her, but inwardly she was fuming.

Of all the stupid, idiotic, selfish, self-centered, self-serving, self-whatever! things he could say!

That had been her mother's pendant, the only thing by which she could remember parents she'd never seen before, and that was all the spoiled brat could say? Stupidity she could deal with, but such a degree of selfishness set her blood simmering. Granted, there was no way he could have known how valuable that "something nice" was to her, but not even a word of thanks…

She glared at his back as he followed the coachman to their expensively-bought ride.

She wasn't quite childish enough to stick her tongue out at him, but she'd never been quite so tempted to ever before.