#and the corruption and chigda and the vines and wishes and

[pinkseas]

no bc like. is it just me or are the banshee and the original wishful aurosa outfit CRAZY complementary ???

the colors VERY obviously ofc, you have the banshee's red hair vs nikki's green, all the reds and silvers and grays and blacks vs the gold and white (even down to nikki's gold eyes vs the banshee's gray), but even beyond that just.

the roses get me so bad. both of their outfits HEAVILY incorporate them: both circlets, countless details on both dresses, both chokers, both tights and shoes.

on one hand, there are the banshee's red roses for elegance and passion (and very possibly sacrifice and martyrdom), versus nikki's golden ones for perseverance and eternity.

but beyond that, the banshee's roses bear GREAT resemblance to the desperate vines born of the dark. the ones that infected the wishing woods, born of the same power which caused the coma incidents. directly opposed by nikki's wishful aurosa, an outfit that specifically allowed her to wake the coma victims, to purify that darkness from their souls.

just. something about the banshee's extremely strong associations with death and corruption, and how she's been creating/capturing people as puppets but its clearly stated that she herself is a puppet of the dark as well. all of that death and entrapment, the warped and twisted eternity that comes with undeath in the first place.

versus nikki, who tracks the banshee down, who dances with her fearlessly, who's capable of matching her if not beating her outright in the styling competition even though the banshee is actively attempting to possess/corrupt her in the process.

we see it!! we see the banshee actively pulling nikki around like a puppet on strings, and we see nikki, halfway through, begin to Resist That Pull. to dance of her OWN accord, instead of under the banshee's influence. nikki's own ability to resist that corruption vs the wishful aurosa's ability to, at least to some degree, actively purify it.

the banshee as the sovereign of elegant and the wishful aurosa specifically as an elegant outfit. how well they compliment one another. death vs life, freedom vs control, purity vs corruption. eternal sleep vs finding eternity in waking.

[pinkseas]

my dealer: got some straight gas, this strain is called "sovereign of elegance" you'll be zonked out of your gourd

me: yeah whatever. i dont feel shit.

15 minutes later

me: the previous sovereign of elegance, glorier, had fiery red hair and won her title while wearing a black gown. she vanished 15 years ago, her last known location in the wishing woods. the same time frame that the other missing stylists were kidnapped by the paladins and locked up underground in the wishing woods. in the diary pages of an unknown stylist, the writer refers to the wish master as nothing more than a "puppet" of the dark, and remarks that they've been cruelly experimented on, their body tortured. "even bathing in this moonlight is a rare luxury." the banshee is only ever out at night, under the moonlight, but nobody save for you has actually encountered her clearly. those who might recognize her as glorier haven't ever seen the banshee themselves. the banshee refers to those she enthralls as her puppets, and there are multiple places where her body looks cracked and damaged, more like a porcelain doll than human skin. that same diary remarks that the writer has a daughter waiting at home, and that "even in this dire situation, i will never submit. the unyielding elegance within my resolute and noble soul is my last ace." a torn note found in the room where the humans were imprisoned states that the strongest were tortured and perished or disappeared, expressing a want to go home, written in a very similar manner to the way the banshee herself speaks at the end of your duel with her. if you fail, the banshee tells you to become her puppet and suffer alongside her. an imperfect victory mentions that memories are not enough. a brilliant stylist is rumored to have opened a realm that no one else has entered before, and some say that the most exceptional stylists might even create their own personal realms. cantore's poem states that should one be a fool, their soul will fall into "that bewildering realm" to become another puppet, ensnared for all eternity. "the bitter end awaits with no return, leading you into the heart of the night's abyss, where even the stars fade away." underground, those imprisoned stylists couldn't even see the stars. the reason they were locked up was to attempt to recreate the power of the aureum vase for chigda, who had made a deal with The Dark for eternal life. from him the power of the mutated vines returned, but he was not their original source, nor did they vanish when he was defeated without need for giroda's sacred power. those mutated vines bear great resemblance to the vines, thorns, and roses surrounding the banshee within the visuals of cantore's poem. the banshee wants her puppets to suffer with her, implying that she herself is already suffering. is she, too, a puppet of the dark? back then, could creating a realm have allowed her to escape? did something go wrong? did she, like giovanni, attempt to make a deal with the paladins or chigda, only for it to backfire? did she attempt to defeat chigda herself, only to become corrupt by the vines? if she was captured and held in the wishing woods and hails from florawish, why is it that the banshee now haunts the breezy meadow and shimmer pond specifically? igrainne forbade nonoy from investigating more about her past. the banshee chants a bewildering melody, not dissimilar to that melody of the wishing one from nonoy's music box, the one left with her by her birth mother. how much does igrainne know? was she worried for nonoy solely because of the nature of glorier's disappearance, or is there more to it? could the direct power of the wishful aurosa be enough to save the banshee? how much of her past life does the banshee remember? what am i missing?

my friend nikki pacing: how do i tell nonoy i need to fuck her mom