#Lilakh

[shmowder]

Stakh has him blocked

[sorcerous-caress]

This ship is STARVING have some memes

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And a realistic version bc I hold the power of god

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The day I stop talking about these two's doomed romance is the day god smites me

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true love is in the air

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She doesn't have a favourite healer wdym

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your honor i love them

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my new fav hobby

[sorcerous-caress]

she's trying her best...on the wrong account

[sorcerous-caress]

Aglaya and Artemy are so smitten with each other oh my god. A doomed romance neither of them expected to blossom amidst the war and plague.

How she desperately tried to protect Artemy at each corner and turn, only wanted the best for him and put in so much effort to understand the kin in such a short notice despite her busy schedule and death knocking on her door.

HE DOESN'T EVEN HESITATE BEFORE CALLING HER HIS WIFE WHEN THE LITERAL ARMY CORNERS THEM. Fleeing together and choosing their own path! Choosing their love over the town and all the people in it! In Artemy's view, that might as well have been their wedding vows.

She's such a powerful woman who instils fear into everyone she crosses. The infamous inquisitor who broke the mind of everyone she has called into questioning so far, who had the Bachelor thinking that she'll order his execution. Who had the kains shaking in terror, crumbling down the three old powerhouses of the town in a couple of days.

Mansplain Girlboss x Himbo Malewife fr fr

I always felt like their relationship progressed a little too fast in P2, but when I played P1 I completely understood why. it's expanded upon so much more and you get to see exactly how they slowly fall in love, how much their trust in each other multiples by the day.

How everyone around them can see it clearly.

MY WIFE <3333 M Y WIFE I AM IN HEAVEN.

There are just so many golden lines between these two. There are so many adorable moments of them being silly and weird, and so so in love like:

Aglaya makes her interest in Artemy as a person very clear. She recites us peotry upon first meeting him, saying he will learn the meaning in the future.

Yet she compares his mind to that of a poet later on.

Saying how much she respects him, how she incoperates a steppe term into a beautiful flirtatious line when she thinks it's time to say goodbye. When she thinks we won't return her feelings.

And yet despite her feelings burning with the intensity of a thousand suns, she never allows it to mix with her job, even telling him not to get roped into politics because he's on the path of priesthood while she acknowledges the manipulators she works for.

All to protect him, to protect you.

She is very sweet and thoughtful, calculated yet sincere in her feelings for Artemy. She never once acts like how others claim she would. She never walks anyone else's path of expectations.

All of her infatuation stems from the fact that Artemy answered her lifelong question so simply. Because he loved this town he grew up in and wanted to protect it.

Because he proved that having free-will makes very little difference in the grand nothingness of the universe. Even if other people interpret his actions or use it to benefit their schemes, Artemy will walk a path of his own making and follow his own heart to know what's right or wrong.

He showed her that she has always been free, not the puppet she thought she was. That constantly trying to spite greater forces isn't a way to live your life. Rather, actually living that life how you want is true freedom.

That finding your own happiness and looking out for the people you love is the best revenge you could deliver.

Even if everyone was a puppet and their entire reality has been nothing but a game, even then it wouldn't make a single difference to Artemy.

Because his love was real, his feelings were real enough. Puppet or not, he loved his father. He loves this town, which nursed him young. And he will deliver that love back when it's in need, when the kids he swore to protect are in danger.

And yet, I have a theory. I think it's the player she is in love with, too, rather than just Artemy.

It's because technically, only the player has free will. Only the player gets to escape the narrative.

Only the player is the full fledged human being that she fell in love with.

But I might be wrong, I need to play the Bachelor's route to confirm this, I've only done the Haruspex in P1 and P2 so far.

So far she is indifferent towards him, at least in Artemy's route, she views the Bachelor as a useful tool, a means to an end. Maybe it changes in his route and she falls for the player again? or maybe it's exclusive to Artemy because while she likes the player, she still loves Artemy himself on his own, even without the free will.

Or maybe you need a combination of both to results in Aglaya taking notice of you. The Bachelor is bound to Maria, who's trying to become Nina, and Aglaya loathes the kains and seeks revenge against them.

While Artemy walks free, he isn't bound to anyone she despies. Not to mention how fascinated she is by Steppe culture and the natural miracles, how excited she is when she finds the town is alive, how much invested she is in Artemy fullfilling his father's inheritance.

UPDATE: The game confirms Aglay is in love with Artemy and not the player, even without the free will. You can talk to her as the player at the end of the game, and she still refuses you and asks for the haruspex back instead. Screenshots here.

I wish there was a timelife where she lives. It seems that it doesn't matter what you do, she will always perish.

A doomed romance, she finally found something in this life worth caring about, someone worth calling her own.

And just when you think you've outsmarted the system and escaped hades, the game steals her away from you and humilates you by making you walk all the way back.

"You really thought it would be this easy?"

"You should've seen this coming"

"What did you ever expect? a happily ever after?"

"That's what you get for attempting to ruin the play, now get back inside."

So you reload an earlier savefile with a bitter taste in your mouth.

You play by their rules this time around.

Do whatever you can to appease the powers that be, keep showing up every day to deliver the best possible performance.

Willingly let yourself become a puppet and never go against the strings pulling you along.

The most painful part, however, is having to reject Aglayas' proposal to run together.

She doesn't understand. She is desperate trying to get you to see her point of view, like you effortlessly did so many times before.

She is confused, why are you suddenly rejecting her ideas, why did your trust in her vanish overnight? Did she do something wrong? Please listen to her. She loves you and wants to live with you.

Please just listen, I'm not lying i swear.

Please come with me.

I love you.

And I can't go on without you.

You have to sit there and deny her request, time after time after time, each more painful than the last. She explains herself, but you won't listen. You can't listen.

Because if you listen, she will die.

You know the future. You're trying to protect her like she has protected you so much before. She can't understand, so she gets hurt. You're whispering sorry to a screen like a fool.

...

..

.

She still dies.

You've hurt her for nothing. She loved you, and in her final moments, you broke her heart.

For nothing.

All of your work and effort, your dignity and pride reduced to mud in which you've rolled through to appease two stupid kids from taking your wife away from you.

Because she still fucking dies the next day.

To rub salt into the wound, her demise is off-screen this time. Like one of the nameless npcs in the number counter of deaths we see at the start of each day.

One of them was Aglaya. Reduced to just a number on a counter, like the thousands before her.

Doomed if you do.

Doomed if you don't.

Used and discarded like an old toy.

A mother's beloved childhood doll.

Was worthy of love afterall.

[shmowder]

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EVEN AT THE END, AGLAYA TRIED TO PROTECT ARTEMY ONE LAST TIME.

She tried to trick General Block into thinking she had been the most strict and troubling to the haruspex, so he wouldn't be suspicious of her giving you favouritism and always helping you.

She literally throws a wrench in everyone's plan around her, except Artemy. She actively solves problems with you, guides you towards the solution, and gives you advice.

Hell, even the way she speaks to you is far gentler and more sincere than she ever does with anyone else. You see her demonour change completely when in the presence of Capella, the ruthless facade she puts on and the cold way she adresses you.

How the mask immediately slips off the second it's just the two of you in the cathedral again.

But General Block saw right through her. Even Daniil noticed her blatant favouritism early on. She really tried to protect Artemy from her own sins until the very end, but it just wasn't enough.

If you go to the cathedral early on day 12, the executor prevents you from entering. Keep talking to him, insisting that you must go inside and meet Aglaya, and he'll tell you how the same wretched fearsome inquisitor was crying, actually crying that very night. Condescendingly dangling this slip of vulnerability over your head, taunting you for failing to be there for her. You're not allowed inside. When it comes to Aglaya, you will always be in the merciless hands of the powers that be.

God. She signs her letter to you with "yours, A."

That simple exclamation mark, coming from someone who is usually so stoic. It's genuine, authentic. She trusts you. She never asked for you to trust her back. Yet she willingly gave you her trust, you, Artemy, a stranger.

It's not even Lilich anymore. There is no last name in that letter, Aglaya full stop.

She isn't thinking of her revenge against the kains at that moment. She isn't thinking of the lilich family nor avenging her sister. She is thinking of herself, of just Aglaya.

Signed, yours.

The final letter afterwards is, too, signed with just A.

You see her struggling with her words. This is the farthest thing from a professional letter by a state inquisitor to a menkhu priest.

She wrote an almost confession letter. Almost said her feelings, almost changed her own fate. She almost followed Artemy's advice of how every action is right as long as its willed, but backed off on the last second and decided it's better to bury her own feelings and take them to the grave with her, rather than for you to live with a broken heart.

Rather than start something she knows she cannot finish, she simply won't be able to. The powers that be said so.

This is how it has to be.

Whatever you choose, she will understand.

She'll love you regardless.

A.

[shmowder]

whether Aglaya is in love with the Player or Artemy was a theory I mentioned in my post here. Since the player is the one who actually weilds the free will, which was what made Artemy stand out to her.

But apparently, the game answers that already!

In the end, if you manage to meet the makers, you can talk directly to Aglaya later in the cathedral as the player.

She is in love with Artemy.

And not you.

She tells you to fuck off, she wants to be with Burakh, not with you. Even if he is a stuffed dummy.

The way she calls him HER haruspex, my heart.

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okay last one before going to sleep fr this time

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Thinking about Aglaya sending Artemy letters while travelling for her inquisitor work, never mentioning any details about her work. Instead, she talks about herself and how she spends the sparce free time she's graced with, about missing him and offering to lend her aid with any difficulties he might be facing, even if she's far away.

At the end of each letter, she quotes a different poem, sending Artemy on a wild goosechase to figure out the meaning while balancing his menkhu work and raising two kids.

He knows when she's coming home to the town because she always qoutes the same poem she told him upon their first meeting in the cathedral.