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almondemisewriting · 1 month

Text

doomed to repeat

prologue: original sin

This story happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. It is already over. Nothing can be done to change it. - Matthew Stover

notes: as mentioned before on my main blog @almondemise, I recently watched the acolyte while recovering from an infection and became rather obsessed with it. I fear this might be my roman empire. star wars had never really interested me but you can count on the fact that I watched every single of those movies after finishing the acolyte. although I haven't written fanfiction in years, I better put this english degree to work. no oshamir as I fear I can't do them justice. / banners are by @cafekitsune & gif by @goodsirs

summary: after Osha and Mae had banded together and betrayed Qimir in the forest of Khofar, he killed them. now, once again, he was alone. how good that he had already been working on another plan. on the other end of the galaxy, there was a girl born out of pure force. a weapon raised for one reason only: to kill him. but the force works in mysterious ways.

word count: 3.6k

pairing: qimir x female oc; the stranger x female oc

warnings: english is my second language, jedi evil arc, manipulation, psychological abuse, physical abuse, violence, martyrdom and other religious themes, probably inaccurate star wars lore & deviation from both plot and general worldbuilding, explicit content and other sensitive themes in following chapters

She had never chosen to be the Chosen one. Her destiny of martyrdom was forced onto her as retribution for her original sin: being born. All the suffering Amalthea endured throughout her life never could quite make up for it.

In fact, Amalthea had never made a decision, she was simply an amalgamation of all the choices made for her. She had no particular feelings about it. It was not like hate was a feeling that was allowed for her to feel anyway. There were dozens of rules for her to follow, a hundred things being forbidden to feel, a million things not allowed to experience, all for her safety.

If pride was allowed, Amalthea would have been proud of being good at following rules. It made her life easy, but it also made her lonely. Late at night, she lay awake, a blanket of unhappiness weighing her down, the viciousness of isolation gnawing on her bones so tangible that she bit her lips bloody. There was no one she could talk to. Amalthea was not allowed to speak to anyone unless spoken to. Emergencies excluded, of course. An easy rule to follow.

But at Anantore Point, only a couple of people were authorized to talk to her at all. Her days were spent in perpetual silence, thinking, listening. Often she went days without talking to anyone. It helped that people usually ignored her, acted like she was part of the furniture, her Cortosis ring and the veil helping to keep her hidden. Amalthea often imagined the others not being able to see her at all.

Until a year ago, no one bothered to correct her daydreams. It would have been worse if there were people who actually wanted to talk to her. A connection. Any connection. Amalthea vastly preferred being invisible. At least that is what she often told herself.

With time, not being able to talk to anyone made her into someone who was an excellent listener. And she was eager to listen. Going into most of the rooms of Building C and blending in to eavesdrop was easy.

"..heard that Team Three did not come back from their mission. Apparently they sent a message that they found him and then just vanished. They couldn't even track their ships!" "And they won't try to find them?"

Kiani and Odessa were low-stationed officers who mostly did administrative work but had a hang for gossip. Amalthea became acquainted with most of the events at the station thanks to them. Usually, it was just who slept with who, complaints about what food they served in the canteen, and other inconsequential things. But sometimes Odessa had interesting news thanks to Nyseth. Amalthea did not know exactly what his job was, but she did know that they tried desperately to hide their relationship.

Knowing so many secrets of the people living at the station did not make her feel bad. It was not like she could have told anyone. And with news like that she could not help listening in a bit more closely. Sinking into a plush brown chair close to them, she acted like she was reading one of the books she always carried around, but focused on their mouths. Conversations like these were often whispered and she was lucky that the veil hid her stare.

"No, I heard Yavin say that they will not send a recovery ship. It's too dangerous. He is probably on some other planet already, but all kinds of cultists will be searching for him. He says that having multiple ships in the same vicinity will end up with us losing more teams."

Odessa's voice was hushed and taut. When she named him, she almost stumbled over her own words, her fear transforming her dispatch into a jumbled and croaky mess. Amalthea heard Kiani gasp. There was a short silence after.

"I guess it will be time then soon," Kiani mumbled. Both she and Odessa started looking towards Amalthea. The insinuation made her sick to her stomach. She promptly lowered her gaze down to her gloved hands. Had the others seen her staring? Were they still looking themselves?

Trying to sink deeper into the chair, her shoulders slumped forward in an unnatural curve, her veil almost touching her knees. Now, standing up and going anywhere would have made it obvious that she listened in. So she agonized in the awkward silence, trying to make herself invisible again, the feeling of uneasiness leaving behind an uncomfortable prickle on her skin.

Suddenly, loud chatter outside the door interrupted them. The metal of the double doors crashed into the sandstone walls next to it and in came a whole barrage of people back from their missions and other work, ready to storm into the canteen to fill their grumbling stomachs.

By now, Amalthea knew all of them. At Anantore Point there were less than fifty people employed and even less than that were allowed to enter the buildings on a permanent basis. The less people knew she existed, the better.

The loudest group of all were Brom, Qimir, and Kona. Qimir was today's good news. During a mission over the last couple of days, his ship suffered sudden engine failure while in hyperdrive, and while going back into realspace he got unlucky and landed in an asteroid field where he got cut off from the rest of the group. Just this morning he was able to find them again, his ship completely beaten up, but his mission completed.

Amalthea did not know what to think of him. He was unprofessional, goofy, carefree, and not the smartest. But he knew his way around ships and various planets better than more experienced explorers at Anantore Point and he had come here on personal recommendation by Senator Fasmum. Most importantly, he was her anchor point when the time came.

Qimir's job was being responsible for getting her safely to him so she could do her job. Perhaps the last person she would ever see. Still, he was the reason she had to wear the Cortosis ring. At least that is what Amalthea guessed. Until Qimir showed up a year ago she never had to wear one. But like her, he was Force-sensitive, although he never studied it. They tested him and he could barely even light a lamp. Master Xylter said that the Force was wasted on someone like him. But Qimir could still observe it.

And that was the problem. Although Amalthea could not see it, she exuded massive amounts of the Force and that was distracting for every Force-sensitive person who came close to her. Close in this case was relative. Depending on how sensitive someone was to the Force, they could feel her from hundreds or thousands of miles away, even if they were strangers.

She wondered what it looked like, but no one had ever bothered to tell her. And Amalthea did not dare to ask. Master Xylter had said that it was because more important guests would visit after the recent happenings, but it was obvious that Qimir could not concentrate on his job with her around in this state. Amalthea did not mind the Cortosis ring. Sure, it was heavy, but having it rest on her collarbones was strangely comforting sometimes.

However, not even the ring could make Qimir stop looking at her. She felt the weight of his stare bearing down on her without mercy. And she just didn't understand why. Most of the people at Anantore Point didn't even give her a single glance, never mind a second one. Meanwhile, it was like he could not rip his eyes away from her.

Sometimes, when she sensed him, she looked back and it was like he could stare straight through the veil into her eyes, making the hairs on her neck stand up. At least, he was good at concealing it in front of others. Amalthea was not ready to be lectured on being too noticeable.

So, like many days in the last year, she decided to eat her dinner in her room. Nobody looked at her when she got up and made her way to the door. Except Qimir. His gaze was glued to her. When she walked past him to exit, she could have sworn that their eyes met. Knuckles white and straining, she clutched the front of her robe in her hands and got out of Building C as fast as she could, stumbling over elevator entrances, stairs, and her own boots.

Could he see underneath her veil? That was impossible unless you were a Jedi and had enough control of the Force. And there were only five Jedi living at Anantore Point: Grandmaster Torinn, Master Xylter, Yavin, Ecla, and Amalthea. Shuddering, she tried to physically shake off the feeling, her dense robe rustling in the desert winds outside. The way from Building C to Building A was, as usual, completely empty. Out of all of the people living here, only four had access to Building A, Amalthea being one of them. Only Ecla was standing in front of the entrance ready for her night shift and nodded at her. "Meditation?"

She simply nodded back and made her way to her room. As her guard, Ecla was allowed to talk to her. When she first came to Anantore Point six years ago, Amalthea was really excited but soon understood. Ecla was here to do her job, not make friends. She would later quietly enter her room to put down dinner and then leave as quickly as she came. The same routine as most days. Only after closing the door behind her, she realized that her books still laid in the employee room.

Although Amalthea was bored a lot, she was grateful. The Conclave of Light had saved her life when she was a baby, housed, fed, and trained her. In exchange, she did what she was born to do and it was an honor. There might have been many rules, but they were all there to keep her safe from Rebels, Wildlings, and, in the worst case, the Sith.

Most people believed them to be extinct, but you could never be too sure. And suspicious events over the last years had proven the caution of the Jedi right. Soon it would be time for Amalthea to go. A nameless Sith had been slaughtering people. Jedi searched for him and ended up dead too. He was not a dark user with many followers, but he was amassing amounts of Force that made it clear that he was a danger. Not just to the Jedi, but to the Republic at large.

Just a month ago he had executed multiple Jedi and civilians on Khofar, then vanished without a trace. It was Amalthea's responsibility to stop him. A final fight. It was all Amalthea had been working towards. The climax of her entire life. Her purpose. Her dream? She had never asked herself that. She would rather not. The choice had been made for her, the Chosen One. Her immaculate conception would either end in immaculate victory or immaculate death. Before her thoughts could get any louder, Amalthea assumed her meditation pose, closed her eyes, and concentrated.

Amalthea did not know how much time had passed since she started meditating when she heard Ecla enter her room. She often lost herself in her concentration, not knowing when and where she was when she awakened, saturated with Force and strengthened with knowledge. Ecla did not put her dinner plate down or leave the room. When Amalthea turned towards her, Ecla did not even hold a plate.

"Master Xylter requires you in the main office in Building B."

Immediately she knew what this would be about. Actually, Amalthea had already expected to be called in soon. It was time. The feeling of finality grabbed her by the throat and squeezed. But there was no time to acclimatize. She put her gloves back on and followed Ecla outside, struggling and breathless.

Amalthea could have found the way to the main office herself, but it was night, and Anantore Point, being the only cluster of buildings in this desert and desolation, stood out. Not having others around made it safer, but the lights flickering could be seen far away. So as soon as the sun tinged the sky with hues of pink and orange, Amalthea was not allowed to walk outside alone. She moved gingerly behind Ecla, almost hiding behind the broad shoulders of the experienced Jedi warrior, becoming invisible in between her massive strides.

Often, Amalthea pictured Ecla before Anantore Point in her head. She knew nothing but her name. Nevertheless, she trusted her. And, while she could not tell anyone, she admired her. She knew that Ecla would always keep her safe. Amalthea had personally seen her finish off intruders before. Secretly, she wished Ecla would come with her on her mission. She knew she was sinning heavily with that wish. Personal affections were forbidden. Any outside help during her mission was forbidden. But no one would ever know what she thought. No one ever asked.

Master Xylter was not the only one waiting in the main office. Amalthea had a look at the others. Grandmaster Torinn. Yavin. Qimir. So it was as she expected. Master Xylter cleared his throat and she quickly got down on her knees and looked to the ground. "Greetings Master." Amalthea could hear Qimir swallow loudly. When she got up and glanced at him, he was glaring at her. Was he angry that she didn't greet him? But there was no time to contemplate.

"You know why you are here. Your mission is in three days. Say yes if you understand." Master Xylter had never been patient. "Yes, Master."

Amalthea pondered for a moment. It was now or never. "I don't know if I am ready for the mission yet. I still have not been knigh-,", she began.

Master Xylter reacted fast. "Insolent!" His voice was so loud that even Ecla flinched. Immediately, Amalthea fell to her hands and knees, her veil brushing the dirty ground. Not a second later, Master Xylter's boot secured it there. Desperate, Amalthea pleaded for forgiveness. She should not have acted so rashly and the humiliation of her audacity stung worse than a cut.

"How dare you question the decisions of the Conclave! I must have spoiled you too much. You have not been knighted because you're simply not worthy. I do not care if you do not think you are ready, you are ready when I say you are. You will do your duty and you will do it gladly," Master Xylter exclaimed.

"Stand up." Slowly, Amalthea got back on her feet, her posture demure, her arms hanging aimlessly at her sides. They were dirty and bruised, but it was too mortifying to openly try to brush them clean on her already ruined clothes. She decided to get this done quickly.

"I have been ill-mannered, Master. I deserve punishment."

When she was younger, Amalthea cried every time this happened. But she quickly learned it would just incense Master Xylter more. By now, she had more control over herself. Calmly, she lifted her dirty veil, her face as tranquil as an undisturbed lake at dusk. When her Master struck, not a single soul in the room dared to move.

But the corner of her sight showed something interesting. Qimir's hands, tightly curled into fists. Did he want to hit her as well? He was an explorer, after all, a job that sought people with a hang for violence.

"Thank you, Master. I will do better," Amalthea said softly. As she put her veil back down her unobstructed gaze fell back upon Qimir. His eyes seemed to bore themselves into her, his dark blown-out pupils reeling her in like the gravity of black holes. It was the first time their eyes met directly. The moment was gone as quickly as a shooting star and Qimir straightened his gaze towards the empty space in front of him, his jaw unclenching and his back loosening.

Yavin spoke up. "You will leave Anantore Point at dusk together with Qimir. He will take you to the designated place, deploy your pod, and wait for you to finish your mission. You will kill him. You will wait for further instruction," he stated slowly and clearly.

Yavin had been the commander of the explorers ever since Amalthea could remember and he was good at his job. He was deviant and did not want to be found. Commander Yavin did so anyways. He prided himself in his work, but he had gotten older as well and Amalthea could hear in his voice that he was glad that he could soon retire. It all came back to how successful Amalthea would be. Grandmaster Torinn laid a calming hand on Amalthea's veiled hair.

"Remember, Padawan. No weapons. Your Force will provide. Do not doubt the Conclave. As a last resort, please make use of this."

His old croaky voice was barely above a whisper, and still, everyone listened with reverence. Grandmaster Torinn had trained Jedi for decades, was highly respected, and had been specifically chosen to instruct Amalthea in the Force. He dropped a small green crystal in Amalthea's open hands.

"This is an Artusian crystal. It will strengthen your Force when you need it."

Next to him, Master Xylter grew impatient. "You will finish this mission. You will be successful. You will be allowed to talk to Qimir during the mission. Flight emergency situations only. Now go back to your room. Do not expect rations for the next twenty-four hours. Dismissed," he bellowed.

Amalthea clutched the crystal in her hand and felt the sharp edges press into her skin as she wordlessly left the room, bowing slightly. Of course, she didn't expect to get fed any time soon. Denial of food was Master Xylter's favorite punishment.

The three days were over faster than Amalthea anticipated. Ecla came into her room to wake her, but Amalthea had not been able to sleep and was already meditating, her new clothes equipped and her bag next to her. It was her first time to leave the building complex ever since arriving here over twenty years ago and the airfield fascinated her. There were thousands of little lights blinking like stars on the ground, dozens of ships awaiting to soar into the gradually lightening morning sky.

Amalthea felt electrified by what expected her, her stomach churning, her body slack and glossed over with cold sweat as she dragged herself behind Ecla towards a small exploration ship. Qimir was already waiting for her, greeting her shyly. Once again, his eyes wandered all over her body, fixing themselves on her face. Today was the second time he saw her without her veil.

She would not need it anymore from today on. There was nothing that could keep her safe now. So she lost her protective layers shielding her slender, bony figure and her dark curls. Qimir watched them billow in the artificial wind of the ship's engine, seemingly unsure of what to say. After some deliberation, he asked the worst question possible.

"Are you ready?" Ridiculous. Did it matter? Had Amalthea been anyone else, she would have probably laughed. Alas, she had not laughed in years. So she responded in the only way she knew and silently climbed into the ship that would deliver her into the hands of her destiny.

#qimir #the acolyte fanfiction #the acolyte #the stranger #qimir the stranger #qimir x oc #qimir smut #the acolyte fic #my writing #star wars the acolyte #star wars qimir #qimir fic #qimir the acolyte #almondemisewrites

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unkipt · 1 month

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Hello! Just to start I love the world falling series and your writing :)

I was wondering if you have any historical inspiration for the world falling series? Like, time periods, places etc?

Keep being amazing and have a great day :)

hi! I'm so glad you like the series!

As for historical inspiration, oh boy do i. I'm a history major, so there is a Lot of things. I'm gonna do this by kingdom to make it easier if i can lol.

Ok, first, the End: The End is kind of a weird one because it's a blend of its older culture plus what Enderian, who is originally from the Overworld, brought with her and implemented when she took over. One of the main things is the use of rivers to separate the three old kingdoms, and the fact that the Shulk castle/the one the first fic takes place in is on water. A lot of borders historically were designated by water because it was the most consistent way to remember them since they didn't have modern tech, same with having cities on water because of transport, ease of farming, etc. Even though the End is an ice land, the rivers would still provide faster travel then through large drifts of snow. In the last chapter of WF the duke gives rae an elytra, though he doesn't tell him much about it other than the fact that it took craftsmen from all three kingdoms to make them, which was meant to be symbolic of a steady trade relationship between the three. that was slightly inspired by indigenous communities who would make art of some sort of pattern to represent allyships between various communities, and was also a fun way to tie in the elytra to the story (it will become relevant again in this fic, eventually)

The Nether: The Nether is fairly simple, in that it's meant to be a really warm climate, with lots of autumn ish coloured trees, so not totally realistic, but I tried to describe a lot of their fashion to be both unique and have some influence from their neighbours. Largely, i looked at warm climated areas irl, like india, or south america, and took influence from that, with the silks and light fabrics in a wide variety of fabrics. this was definitely also inspired by how Athena portrayed the Nether in their lore, but i tried to expand it a bit. as for political, it's sort of inspired by like 1500's ish germany, where there were many princes but one high prince (holy roman empire actually, i think?) so before netherum and soul, the princes would have been in charge of smaller areas, but then netherum and soul united all the lands into the Nether, and as an act of good faith they were elected as the King and Queen (this is more fantasy than fact based), but, all the previous princes, are still princes, so they are largely in charge of their own lands still, but they refer to Soul now, netherum in the past, about certain things. it's sort of a state situation? i was mainly thinking HRE when i planned it.

The Overworld: Admittedly, the Overworld is pretty plain. It's basically Canada inspired, since that's where I'm from, so that's where my brain goes. It's the most north american of all the kingdoms, with 4 seasons, but the northern parts of the kingdom are snowy most parts of the year, though not quite to the extent of the End. It also used to be about 4 different kingdoms, with Morningstar kingdom being the largest, so when magic hit and everything started going weird, the four kingdoms kinda came together under Morningstar, which then got renamed when Enderian took Rae and erased the name Morningstar from most memories. also, the capital of morningstar is crete. greek myth is not canon to the wf series, but ill be damned if i can't make references to it lol

The Aether: I have not talked about the Aether a lot! BUT cliamte wise I imagine it like England, where it's kind of mild most of the time, if it snows its fairly minimal, and it rains a fair amount. we're ignoring the scorching summers tho. I did also take inspiration from like Ancient Greece and Rome, just due to the Aether sort of having the rep in canon/in the fic of having the library or being scholarly. I also imagine a lot of their aspects of culture, like the wine, the art, etc. maybe not the nudity

The East Isles!: This was purely me wanting Ocie to be a queen. Again I kind of took inspo from like irish/scottish history, with britain especially. except in this case britain is the overworld, and not the aether, even though i just compared the aether to britain lol. other than that it doesn't really have any historical inspo

And thats it! the End and Nether are definitely the most historically inspired, but every once in a while i learn something new in one of my classes and i just kinda shove it in because its neat. there may very well be more, but this is what i can remember right now

thanks for the ask!

#worldfallingfic #roughroadfic #fanfic #writing #fsmp

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imagineitdearies · 7 months

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Me looking intensily at Cazador's mind trying to figure out why he wants to sacrifice all of his 'sons' and not Cyrus,and especially Astarion why does he wants to kill astarion.

My shot is that he wants a new beggining as the ascendant,no more forced family,no more ghosts of the past,no more therapy by making some random ppl going through what you did.He is going to leave all of that behind him.

But like Tyrus is a fairly powerful mage,and I think he represents some trauma that he is not ready to leave behind even when he ascends.

But I just think he's being stupid, because as said in the fic itself there are ways to get a soul to consent, go to the lower city and say oh I need to tattoo something on you and I will give you a house, and you just need to come when I call you.

Or like idk even the servants the crazy servants.

But nope,he will kill the seven spawns and told this fairly powerful mage,and one of the seven sacrifices is the boyfriend of said powerful mage, like man...I think that fairly powerful mage who is immortal will find a way to save his boyfriend and if he fails he will pass all of eternity trying to look for a way to avenge said boyfriend,idk.

If you look at Cazador's predecessors they do not last long, they cant pass a bit more then a 100 years. So maybe Cazador,aware of this fact (me manages to last 215 years,yeah if you are an elf do not turn yourself in a vampire if you think you will be immortal, not worth it) decides to kill all of his spawn,but again...HE LETS SOME MAGE THAT WILL HAVE NOTHING TO LOOSE AND THAT WANTS TO AVENGE HIS BOYFRIEND.

And I'm just saying this from the point of view of someone who doesn't know what's going on in anyone's head.

And talking as someone who knows whats going on in some head: IT'S NOT POSSIBLE THAT CAZADOR DIDN'T THINK SOMETHING LIKE "hmmmm maybe this mage that is in a codependent relationship will do something crazy like kill everyone than himself to make sure that his boyfriend lives".

Cazador your mind is my roman empire because how can you be so intelligent (cause again this bitch managed 215 years when the ones that surpassed 100 where outliers) BUT SO STUPID.

Haha it was great to read this little rant anon, I'm glad you're so passionate about this story!!

I think some people online have joked about how Cazador must just be super petty to wait around for Astarion to return/be returned when he could have replaced him with anyone else (like Dufay fears in his journal entry). I personally don't view this is as true, based on my interpretation of the following:

How Astarion describes Cazador having plans within plans, thinking of every contingency and just generally being an excellent schemer. I'm pretty sure if this was an option, he'd have realized.

How much less competent Dufay is just for the sheer fact he switched around bottles and got both himself and his gf killed. Big F in the chat. So yeah, based on that there's a good chance he was just an idiot, and couldn't have taken Astarion's place. But even if he could, that leads me to my third reasoning...

In an Astarion origin run, Cazador says all the souls Astarion brought him are "all linked through those lines I carved on your back. All linked through blood," and if Tav goes to him knowing nothing of the ritual, he explains that each of the 7,000 souls "bear the scar of the one who brought them to me....in their blood I shall be reborn." it isn't a ton to go off, but because I find it more compelling to believe in a big bad guy's competence, my interpretation of why Cazador (or even Dufay) could stand in for Astarion while any random soul couldn't is that there needs to be both a literal and figurative blood link--the blood of at least a thousand of these souls is on Astarion's head, and arguably Dufay has their blood on his hands too, even if he didn't do the luring. No one's ledger is as dirty as Cazador's, of course. And actual blood links them altogether as well, thanks to Cazador's tendency to put his fangs in so many people's necks.

As for Tyrus getting added to this mix in PS, Cazador tells Astarion in bg3 that he was always a means to an end, important only thanks to Cazador's purposes for him. Because Tyrus's purposes can stretch beyond Cazador's Ascension, he is spared--and while Cazador isn't stupid, he is a bit overly confident that there is no other way for a spawn to overcome their master. Plus, he has never loved someone, even in his pre-vampiric days, nearly enough to sacrifice everything for them. Tyrus's unselfish love is a huge blindspot for this otherwise very competent vampire lord!

Thanks for sharing your thoughts anon, I hope you enjoyed my ramblings in return 😊

#ask me anything #fic: perfect slaughter #cazador szarr

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the-darkness-does-not-bargain · 1 year

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Oh you’re tempting the medical gods with that post.

Prompt: Lilith and sunlight

Okay! Here we are. This one took a very different path than I thought it would at the start, but I was able to make the original title work anyway. This is set in mine and @horse-in-a-star-spangled-rodeo Immortal Roommates AU, where Lilith is a vampire, Ava is immortal, and they've been living together for thousands of years. I hope you like it!

If you want to know where my head was at, generally, you can check out this song. Obviously this is where the title came from.

/////

Death and the Setting Sun

She's hungry. There is blood in her mouth, pouring down her throat in great gulps, but it has no effect. If anything, it just makes the gnawing in her gut worse, compelling her to drink more.

She tears her fangs out of the legionnaire's throat, catching threads of his jugular between them as she does, and tosses his drained corpse aside without care for where it lands. She’s so hungry. Her stomach is a void, a yawning chasm that cannot be filled.

That doesn't mean she won't try. Her lips peel back from her teeth in an inhuman snarl, and her eyes, bright as a raging fire, scan the field for her next victim, the next Roman fool that dares to stumble into her path.

There are plenty to choose from, an entire camp's worth, in fact. Some run from her. Some cower in their tents. Some even try to fight. One tries to swing his Gladius at her, only for her to catch his wrist without looking and pull his arm clean from its socket. She breaks him apart piece by piece, and his screaming face splits into a hundred screaming faces. His body becomes a hundred bodies, all blending into each other, an endless feast to feed her hate. She rips, and rends, and drinks. She drinks and drinks and drinks and still, it isn't enough.

She is Hunger. She is Hatred. She is the night itself, running free with the setting of the sun. She is Death. She is—

She is awake, lying on her back in bed. The room around her is quiet and shadowed, the curtains pulled shut across the window. Despite the darkness, she knows instinctively that it is afternoon, only a few hours before sunset.

This is unusual, as her internal clock is typically very strict about avoiding the daylight hours, but when she tries shutting her eyes again, sleep will not return. Her mind is too preoccupied, caught up in the memory of echoing screams and pink mist to quiet again.

Eventually, Lilith rubs her eyes roughly and sits up, groaning in frustration as she does. She climbs out of bed and marches her dragging feet to the kitchen to make a pick-me-up.

The smell of coffee wafting from the pot is soothing. Even as she fixes her cup with cream and an ounce of pig's blood, it helps her stomach to settle. She keeps the mug clasped between both hands as she takes a seat at their battered kitchen table, and she sips from it with care and control, in sharp contrast to the mindless devouring of her dream.

There's nothing for it, she knows. Centuries have passed since that night in Gaul (all of those nights in Gaul), but the memories still sneak up on her when she least expects them. She's long accepted that they will never leave her, but she does wish, childishly, that they would give some warning to their approach. Then she could plan around them. They had the power to derail her entire day sometimes, and it was becoming increasingly inconvenient to take a day off in modern society.

She sighs tiredly. The kitchen curtains are still open, casting warm sunlight onto the table. She finds herself watching the light as it creeps across the faded wood.

In her idle moments, she sometimes wonders if sunlight is so dangerous to vampires not because it burns them, but because they miss it so much that burning seems worth it. It holds a terrible power over them, in more ways than one, and Lilith knows she is no exception.

In those days, the sun was the only thing that could bring her back when she lost herself to delirium. The threat of it triggered her survival instincts, stirring her thinking mind out of the haze of slaughter so she could find shelter. It also illuminated the carnage she left in her wake. And while she never felt an ounce of remorse for killing Romans, being forced to confront her monstrosity had never failed to drive her back and send her fleeing in shame. At least until the sun set again.

She isn’t sure how long she sits there, watching without seeing. She slowly works on her drink, waiting for the caffeine to kick in, while her mind continues to wander. The orange-yellow glow continues to slide up the length of the table. Eventually, she stops noticing it, oblivious to how it creeps ever closer to her exposed fingers…

“Whoa, close call there!” Ava’s voice rings through the room like a bell. There comes the quick shrush of curtains closing, taking the advancing afternoon sun with it. Lilith registers all of this at a sluggish pace, barely reacting when she feels Ava lean in close to peck her on the cheek. “What’s up, babe? You’re not usually up this early.”

Lilith blinks slowly, her thoughts still caught up in the past, but she turns her head to answer her lover’s question. “Woke up,” she murmurs. “Didn’t feel like staying in bed.”

“Okay,” Ava responds easily, running a gentle hand over Lilith’s hair. “You must still be pretty tired though. I know we don’t have to worry about you getting crispy anymore, but you still almost got a nasty sunburn there, εραστής.”

Lilith merely shrugs, forgoing a verbal response. Ava’s presence alone is enough to dispel the worst of her dark mood, but she still doesn’t feel particularly chatty.

Ava notices this immediately of course, her brow furrowing in concern. She walks slowly behind Lilith and leans down to wrap her arms around her neck. Her lips bury themselves in raven-black hair, coaxing Lilith to relax into her embrace.

“Êtes-vous d'accord?” Switching between languages has always been effortless for Ava. Lilith is no slouch, of course, but in her distracted state it takes her longer than normal to acknowledge the change from English to French.

“Bien. Juste penser à des choses,” she eventually answers, prompting Ava to hold her tighter.

“Avez-vous besoin d'une distraction?”

This is what they do for each other. They have enough years and enough sorrows between them to drown the world, and Lilith firmly believes that the reason they’ve stayed together for so long is because they’ve learned each other’s preferred methods of dealing with things. For Lilith, that usually means drugs, hunting, or sex, and for Ava, it means getting involved in zany, half-baked schemes just for the sake of creating chaos. It's a mutual understanding of each other’s needs that's kept their relationship strong for thousands of years.

Lilith isn’t sure what she wants this time, however, because the lingering shadow of her nightmare is still resting heavily on her mind.

“Just…” She stops, takes another second to collect herself, and then starts again. “What was that silly television program you were telling me about?”

“Buffy the Vampire Slayer?”

Lilith nods, already feeling her lips start to twitch into a grin. “Yes, that one. I want to watch it, and see how ridiculous it is.”

She can feel Ava smile against her temple. “It’s a date, babe. A new episode comes on at 7. We can make dinner and eat while we watch?”

“I’d like that.”

Ava kisses her hair again. “Great! I’ll warn you though, Sarah Michelle Gellar is in it and she's super hot, so inaccuracies aside, you won’t think it’s ‘ridiculous’ for very long.”

#warrior nun #ava silva #sister lilith #ava x lilith #avalil #immortal roommates au #my writing #writing prompts

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siren-nate · 2 years

Note

!! !!

I'll stick to ones you (probably) don't know about, rather than going over G7 or AGB again-

This is Salvage the Accident, my Sonic OC! Basically a robot that was born by complete accident in Eggman's personal junkyard, out of bits and pieces from tons of discarded one-time bots throughout the series (Silver Sonic, Tails Doll, Mecha Sonic, Mecha Knuckles, an Artificial Chaos droid, E-101 Beta MK 2, Hei Hou, Shiversaw). Eggman promptly recruited them, and they have something of a complicated relationship.

Salvage is not naive or stupid, but they're also good-hearted and don't really agree with everything Eggman is trying to do. At the same time, though, they continue to work for him because they think that they can keep him from becoming a truly terrible person by being a positive influence on him, and they're sort of right; a lot of Eggman's better qualities come from genuine care for his sapient creations. So, despite working for the main villain, Salvage is pretty personable and kind, and has more of a good-natured rivalry with the heroes after their first few encounters.

These reference images of them were drawn by my bestie @houndfaker! Also, nobody will believe me, but I had the idea for Salvage years before the Scrapnik Island comics series that explores very similar themes.

I don't have a ref for this next one, but my Kid Icarus OC is named Apollo, named after the Greco-Roman god of music of the same name. They're genderfluid and can pitch their voice to sing any way they like, but always keep a consistent appearance, because I didn't want to fall into that whole genderfluid shapeshifter trope after consulting with my trans friends. Despite being formally recognized as the god of music, Apollo moreso considers themself the god of humans and humanity, since music is a purely human creation and Apollo was born from humanity's collective frustration and discontentment towards all of the gods.

Because of that, Apollo has an innate distrust and resentment of nearly all other gods and godly figures - even the pure "good" ones like Palutena and Pit, Apollo finds wrongs in and disagrees with. They're not totally unreasonable to, either, since I think a badly under-explored theme in Uprising is that Palutena doesn't always know what's best for the world, and Pit is a little too dependent on her direction despite being unwaveringly kind and fearless and strong. I have a whole original storyline framework written out where Apollo is pretty much playing the part of the bad guy, dethroning all of the other gods and stealing vital magical artifacts to gain a piece of their power, eventually ending with them on the throne as Top God with tons of plans to fix absolutely everything they see as wrong with the world!

...But then, obviously, they learn that things are more complicated than that, and no one person - no matter how well-intentioned - can ever know what's best for the entire world. After making a colossal mistake and begging everyone for help fixing it, Apollo gives up on their plans. But despite that, the fact that they shook up the status quo so hard did enact a ton of positive change in how godly affairs work, so they manage to avoid falling into despair and keep up an active role in representing the helpless humans, making sure they never suffer unjustly due to godly fallout.

#Sonic the Hedgehog #Kid Icarus #Original Character #OC #Sonic OC #Kid Icarus OC #KI OC

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anxiouslyfred · 2 years

Text

Abandoned Factory

Summary: Roman wasn’t originally overjoyed by the location he was drawn to as significant to him and his soulmate, but over time he might just make it perfect. Even if his desire for a soulmate was what cause the argument with his brother years ago.

/\/\

Once Roman and Remus had been inseparable. Their parents had accepted it only grudgingly, even ready with something they thought their kids should or shouldn't be doing or enjoying and irritated when even if Roman liked it, he'd enjoy the chaos Remus brought as well.

That had been years ago, before their arguments over soulmates and a million things Roman knew he shouldn't have said and had only meant in the heat of the moment.

Roman had followed the tugging in his side almost as soon as he could feel it, curious over just where would be so important to him and his soulmate in the years to come. He'd been excited, sure that the location would be wonderful, romantic and maybe the perfect place for their first meeting. That had to be the most important thing that could happen after all.

Unfortunately it was nothing like that. In fact Roman could think of no reason other than this soulmate connection that he might enter an abandoned factory. The area was large, empty and scattered with litter that must have blown in from outside.

He'd returned from that trip moaning over the location, and trying to get Remus to agree that the area was horrible and to learn where Remus's tugging led him to. At that point Remus had still been refusing to follow it, claiming there would be nothing more important to him than his brother, and creating glory from dirt, trash and dead things.

It had taken Roman months of wondering about his own soulmate and nagging Remus to at least leave space in his life for his own soulmate to finally be told where the soulmate tugging was leading Remus to. His brother had returned fascinated and besotted with what he described as a perfect location. He'd raved over how rundown it was and how he was sure bats would be reclaiming the building from humanity in no time. Roman had questioned how that could be a good thing but was used to Remus's fascinations with the things people usually looked away from.

It's funny what memories were raised by returning to the factory that was meant to be oh so important to him and his soulmate.

Roman had been wandering around the factory for an hour or so, wondering at who he might meet here, who would share this oh so important moment at some point in the future. It didn't look any different from the day he'd first entered and Roman was surprised at that, wondering at the stability of the abandoned place.

If only to drag himself away from thoughts of a brother lost to the world after their argument, Roman looked again at the space, trying to imagine what it could look like as a romantic meeting place and figure out what might get it there.

Instead he could see a large blank wall opposite what was once a window that would be perfect to paint on. Roman might never have actually done graffiti but he'd learnt the skills of working with spray paints alongside his brother in their teens. He could definitely get a mural to cover that wall and bring some colour into the area instead of the swathes of grey that the building currently had.

There wasn't a plan, no sketching or thinking over what could be painted there for the mural. Roman basically threw out all his normal views of working on artwork in favour of just buying some spray paints and beginning to paint the wall, only focusing on the line he was drawing in that moment, or the area he was filling with the colour. It wasn't making Roman more convinced of the importance of the place and definitely wasn't a shared experience, but it helped him remember that he didn't have to perfect every creation before releasing it to the world, nor did releasing something to the world mean it would get seen.

It was a wall in an abandoned factory that anyone with the urge to could enter and see, but it was entirely Roman's just for now.

The next time he visited he had rubbish bags and a litter picker in the back of his car. If he wanted this to be a lovely place for an important scene, the litter had to go. The afternoon vanished in filling bags and clearing the space but by the time Roman's eyes were straining to see in the dusk light through the windows, he was proud of how much tidier the area looked. That made having to fill his car with rubbish bags and stop at the tip on his way home worth it.

Slowly now Roman started turning the abandoned factory to something safe, special to him, even though he never saw anyone else there, never looked back at the mural he'd originally painted to admit just why he was seeking out an abandoned factory for somewhere to escape the world. That was his company and something he could not actually face straight on since there was no resolution in sight for it.

Furniture got added to the space, just camp chairs and a storage shelf that could fold and unfold, all facing out of the space, away from the mural and Roman was dithering over bringing in some fairy lights, or battery powered lamps. It felt like making the area too much of an escape to bring lights in so he could stay longer into the evening.

/\/\

Remus had only followed the tugging the first time because of their brother's prodding. They had never intended to follow it again after they stopped talking, after the argument, but their friends had just learnt that they were actually soulmates and they were lonely now.

That was why they were climbing through bushes, having left their friends half a mile back on the side of some road and with only the torch from their phone to light their way. Remus knew the route from the road would be easier than this, but where was the adventure in that? The challenge of going the distance to find this space so special to their soulmate and them.

They didn't dawdle once in the factory though, already moving to the room they remembered being where something important would happen.

It wasn't the room as they'd seen it before. It barely even looked similar and unfortunately not because of bats and their droppings taking over.

There were camping chairs facing out of the window, and a collapsible shelve with books on it beside them. Any rubbish they'd delighted in arranging last time had been removed and there was even a small bin on the edge of the space.

Then Remus turned around and knew they weren't going to be leaving the factory for a while.

Their face grinned back at them, leaning almost reaching out in a way they knew they'd done before but couldn't imagine who would choose that as the image they wanted to paint. In the background there was another figure, shadowed, vague but detailed in red. There were arches over the figures painted as if wings, or some other worldly being watching over them and for the first time since that argument Remus was ready to stop and breathe.

Remus turned the seat around happily, watching the mural as if it would move.

They fell asleep there and even when waking and stretching out the aches from sleeping sat up they didn't want to leave. Eventually they decided to get food and come straight back, leaving their jacket behind since the day had already gotten warm.

Roman was holding it when Remus got back to the factory. A bag was abandoned near the entrance of the room that they almost tripped over while hurrying into the room to eat and see the mural again. “I was wondering if the chair would have been turned around again, but my jacket broke you instead?”

“It's you? You're – you're here?” Roman jumped, startled eyes shooting to them from the jacket.

“Seems like it. I'm gonna have me tea with me. You mind letting me have the seat back?” Remus shrugged, heading over to collapse into the chair.

Roman didn't step back, holding their jacket out for them before going to turn the other chair to face the mural. “I've missed you. There's so much I should never have said to you and wish I could take back, because I never meant them.”

“Missed ya too. What am I meant to be looking at here?” They didn't want to talk about the argument, or the time they'd spent without their brother. The mural though was interesting.

“I don't know.” The admission had them looking away from the wall, frowning at Roman.

Remus huffed, grinning a moment later. “Even without being here, I'm getting you to stop thinking things through?”

“I wanted some colour in the space, so I drew some lines, filled in some sections and then realised what I'd painted and didn't know what to do.” Roman shrugged. “If I could've I'd have called you that night, apologised, asked if you were safe.”

“I'm as safe as anyone in this world ever is. I just admit to the dangers that daily life brings and revel in them rather than deny they're even there.”Remus decided. “Oh by the way, I changed my pronouns. Don't think I told you that before the argument. I use they/them now.”

Roman let out a heavy breath, meeting their eyes and nodding. “Nice. Are – are we staying in touch now? Able to create things together again?”

“Wellll- pretty hard to imagine anything half so significant to our lives happening again so I think I can't abandon my soulmate when he needs some comfort.” Remus drawled out, holding the bag of chips they'd started eating out in offer.

Roman finally let a small smile show, before looking around. “I don't know, I think meeting some handsome prince to sweep me off my feet with you probably now watching in person and in mural form would be bizarre enough to be more significant.” He teased.

“Just tell me you've got lights in that bag so we can talk for longer. I grabbed a camp bed when getting food.” Remus decided nodding back to the bag in the entrance.

“Fairy lights. They aren't going to be bright.” He admitted.

Remus snickered, “Just like you then. They'll work for talking by.” They descended in to cackles at the offended reaction they got.

They'd managed to find each other again finally.

#creativitwins #roman sanders #remus sanders #soulmate au #soulmate location #hurt/comfort

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fanboykyle · 2 years

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Fanboy Fantasy: Quixo-WWE 2021 WrestleMania 37

(originally posted November 21, 2020)

Introduction: Since I've moved away from my old Quixotronic website, I will be posting some of my old wrestling articles here on Tumblr to see how they turn out. This way they can be saved here? Or something. Either way, here is how I would have booked 2021's WWE WrestleMania 37 back in November 2020.

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We’re at the halfway(ish) point of the WWE season now that we’re past SummerSlam and especially with the brand draft now finally done. What does that mean? It’s time to fantasy book next year’s WrestleMania far too early! Hooray!

So fun fact - I had an entire card in mind before the brand draft happened and easily dismantled 80% of the card. Most of the card’s story revolved around the unification of the major titles - Drew McIntyre vs Roman Reigns for the World/Universal titles, Asuka vs Charlotte Flair for the Raw/Smackdown Women’s titles, and pretty much all the tag teams in a gauntlet match for the Raw/Smackdown Tag Team titles. This would have all set off by two things: Charlotte Flair winning the Smackdown Women’s title and deciding to do what Brock Lesnar couldn’t and win the Royal Rumble as champion (which she does) and choosing to face Asuka to unify the titles. Of course Brock Lesnar shows up in the men’s rumble and wins it only to declare that he wants both titles due to his history with both men’s champions (Brock would be pulled from the main event for reasons). At that point why not also unify the men’s Tag Team belts (the IC and US belts would have remained solo to each brand).

Another match I had planned was Big E vs Kofi Kingston vs Xavier Woods in an Intercontinental title match not because they broke up and were feuding, but because Big E had won the title and they were defending it under Freebird rules and having all of the fun. All of it. They then decide to have friendly match to see who would win (spoiler - it would have been Woods). But is that possible now?

Big E did not need to be separated from Kofi & Xavier to get his singles push. Nobody wants this. Not the Quixotronic offices, not the New Day themselves, nobody. But what if we made it work? The Big E singles push in my original thought would mirror Kofimania to show that god dammit these guys are friends and they support each other no matter what. But what if the story is about the opposite? What if it's about when that support goes away?

Big E feuds first with Baron Corbin who mocks him for no longer having any friends (seriously, you can just picture this one, right?). They end up both being on Team Smackdown at Survivor Series (along with Rey Mysterio, Seth Rollins, and Kevin Owens just to make it a team that just does not want to cooperate) against a somehow smoother Team Raw (Randy Orton, Kofi Kingston, AJ Styles, Andrade, & Keith Lee). Big E and Kofi refuse to fight each other if they happen to be tagged in at the same time, and Team Smackdown wins with surviving members Big E and Baron Corbin. Big E and Corbin settle their differences at the December PPV (TLC?) with a solid Big E win before clearing them both for entry into the Royal Rumble.

In the Rumble, the final four are Big E, Kofi, Andrade, and Keith Lee. Andrade is able to eliminate Lee and then faces down E and Kofi. New Day huddles to decide on a game plan until Kofi just jumps out of the ring. Both E and Andrade are shocked but Kofi yells that it’s E’s time. Kofi’s been there, he doesn’t need it again. Big E (obviously) wins and the New Day celebrates in the ring as we close out.

At this point, Roman Reigns has defeated Jey Uso (again) forcing both Usos to admit that he is their Tribal Chief (™) and are members in his new stable The Tribe or Bloodline or The Family or whatever. Roman brings Tamina into the fold as well as the Usos' dad Rikishi, but this is “I did it for the Rock” Rikishi - he’s a badman. Roman has also sent feelers over to Raw to bring Nia Jax (who is still Women’s Tag Team champs with Shayna Baszler) into the fold as his agent on Raw. Naomi, also on Raw, is not brought in and is used a leverage against the Usos to keep them in line.

What was Roman doing while Big E was winning the Rumble? He was absolutely demolishing Daniel Bryan in a title match because he decided he could. Every time he won the Rumble, people chanted for Bryan instead. Every damn time. So yeah, Don Roman wants to ruin everyone's Royal Rumble again - Bryan is eaten within three minutes.

(Did somebody say three minutes?)

Mob Boss Roman Reigns first sends the Usos to Raw the night after the Royal Rumble to cost New Day their Raw Tag Team titles in a match against Shelton Benjamin and Cedric Alexander of the Hurt Business. This causes Triple H to close the borders between Raw and Smackdown - any wrestler who interferes on the opposite brand will be first fined and then terminated. This fully separates Big E from Kofi and Xavier just as Roman wanted. (Why is this the act that finally stops inter-brand shenanigans? For crying Big E reasons).

Roman next manipulates Seth Rollins to go after Big E based on their Shield history, though Murphy can clearly see that the Savior of Smackdown is just being used. Rollins thinks he helping save Roman from himself somehow. Big E defeats former-World Champion Seth Rollins at Elimination Chamber to establish that yes, he can defeat World Champions (yes he’s defeated Sheamus also but it doesn’t have the same feel, right?). Roman sends the Usos, at this point the Smackdown Tag Team Champions, formally after Big E in a handicap match at Fastlane with the stipulation that if Kofi and/or Xavier show up that Big E loses his title match at WrestleMania since they can’t really be fined for being at a show that has both brands anyway. Big E is able to power through and wins the match - one of the Usos also may or may not have allowed Big E to pin them in solidarity just like during KofiMania, but it’s less obvious this time.

That leaves us with one final destination: Big E vs Roman Reigns at WrestleMania. One man who's mostly lost his family and refuses to let the darkness consume him against the main who has remade his family in his own darker and darker image. It's very dramatic - here's Big E's review of the story and match:

Who will survive!?

Quick ground rules - we're still in a Quixotine so WrestleMania is two nights again. Also despite Edge vs Randy Orton being an obvious match, I'm not sure if Edge will be healthy by then so we're skipping it and Orton is taking the night off.

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Quixo-WWE 2021 WrestleMania 37 - Night One

WWE World Title Match: Andrade Almas vs Drew McIntyre ©

Fanboy Fantasy: Despite us living in a world where Andrade was somehow not drafted in the brand draft this last week, we’re fixing that. Andrade makes his return to Raw with his fiancé Charlotte Flair as the new power couple. Andrade goes on to join Team Raw at Survivor Series (see above) and is the last surviving member before falling to Big E. He rebounds with strong wins over Jeff Hardy and Matt Riddle before being the iron man of the Royal Rumble by entering #3 like his future father-in-law and being the last surviving Raw member. Andrade goes on to win a mini-tournament to crown Raw’s #1 contender defeating Keith Lee in the finals due to Retribution interfering and costing Lee the match (a little more on that later). This leaves Andrade primed to once again defeat McIntyre like he did in NXT for the NXT title. However, we’re going to start WrestleMania on a happy note: McIntyre retains his title. Sorry, Andrade!

Your winner: Drew McIntyre

Buddy Murphy vs Seth Rollins

Fanboy Fantasy: After Rollins and Rey Mysterio are both eliminated from Team Smackdown at Survivor Series their feud is somehow ended. I don’t care how anymore. Rollins and Murphy focus on the Rumble where Rollins eliminates Murphy. Later on Rollins tries to explain that it was for the greater good and Murphy bides his time. Rollins then falls under the sway of his former Shield brother Roman Reigns and is used as a hitman unsuccessfully against Big E. Rollins gives every excuse possible to explain to both Roman and the WWE Universe why he couldn’t finish off Big E. If Seth Rollins has been playing Jesus this whole time, then Roman is his father/God and maybe he needs to die so he can once again save. Roman gladly grants him this wish at Fastlane in a rare heel vs heel match. Roman retains and Rollins again lashes out at Murphy when he finally stands up for himself and fights back to set up a WrestleMania showdown. However it’s not quite Buddy’s time yet - Rollins wins.

Your winner: Seth Rollins

WWE Smackdown Tag Team Titles Match: Artist Collective (Sami Zayn & Shinsuke Nakamura) vs Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode vs Los Mysterios (Dominik & Rey Mysterio) vs Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford) vs Usos (Jey & Jimmy Uso) ©

Fanboy Fantasy: The Street Profits hold onto their titles for the rest of the year until on a random Smackdown they lose the belts to Los Mysterios, giving Dominik his first taste of WWE gold and proving that Rey can still go. By this time Jimmy Uso is healthy enough to rejoin Jey as a fellow unwilling member of the Tribe and Roman tells them the Family wants the Tag Team titles. The Usos go and do what they do and win the titles from Los Mysterios. They are able to retain against the former champs (both Mysterios and Profits) though, as already mentioned, do lose a handicap match against Big E at Fastlane. This makes them possible underdogs going into WrestleMania when we have a generic throw-multiple-teams-in match. However the fear of Roman prevails and the Usos retain. Don Roman is pleased.

Your winners: The Usos

Keith Lee & Mercedes Martinez vs Retribution (Dominik Dijakovic & Mia Yim)

Fanboy Fantasy: Keith Lee loses the #1 contendership tournament due to Retribution costing him the final. Why? Because after being in the final four of the Rumble, Retribution tried to unsuccessfully recruit him to their cause - apparently being fighting friends with Dijakovic means nothing anymore. After costing him the match we get a full main-roster feud between Lee and Dijakovic because they should fight forever (clap clap clapclapclap). To make it a touch different, we’ll bring in Mia Yim (the other main Retribution member with history with Lee) and Mercedes Martinez as the Retribution member who got out. Lee and Martinez are able to defeat Retribution and cause them a momentum-blow going into our other Retribution-related match of the night.

Your winner: Keith Lee & Mercedes Martinez

Three Stages of Hell Match: Bayley vs Sasha Banks

Fanboy Fantasy: Bayley retains against Sasha Banks at Hell in a Cell and gives her a “career-threatening” injury. Guys, Sasha may never wrestle again. It’s okay, she can always star in more seasons of The Mandalorian, right? Bayley, absolutely full of herself holds onto the title a little longer until a fluke loss to Smackdown-newbie Bianca Belair. Belair retains in a rematch. After a second rematch that Bayley loses, Banks returns to attack Bayley - but after Bayley had already lost just so Banks can rub it in. Their hate leads to a Three Stages of Hell match - the first pin fall is a normal match, the second is first blood match, and the last is an I Quit match. Bayley wins the first match by cheating behind the ref’s back, but Sasha busts Bayley open to win the second fall. Sasha locks on the Banks Statement on for an unbearable 5 long minutes to force Bayley to admit she quits.

Your winner: Sasha Banks

WWE United States Title Match: Mustafa Ali (w/ Retribution) vs Ricochet ©

Fanboy Fantasy: Mustafa Ali has been busy since coming out as the leader of Retribution - he first feuds with the New Day because what some people forget about KofiMania is that Kofi wasn’t even supposed to be in the Elimination Chamber match that year - Ali was. When he went down with an injury, Kofi was subbed in and something magical happened - but that was Ali’s spot. After losing that feud at Elimination Chamber, and while members Yim and Dijakovic deal with Keith Lee and Mercedes Martinez, Ali gets himself a United States title match with champion Ricochet (he beats Bobby Lashley for the belt at some point) after Ricochet also declines to join Retribution. The two have what can be described as an AEW-style match with all the flips and all the kick outs but Ali secures the win with no Retribution interference.

Your winner, and NEW WWE United States Champion: Mustafa Ali

Firefly Funhouse Match: AJ Styles vs "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt

Fanboy Fantasy: Since switching to Raw, AJ Styles starts acting as neither face nor heel - he’s just putting on great matches. He becomes part of Team Raw at Survivor Series. Styles is eliminated from Team Raw when an Undertaker gong goes off mid-match and freaks him the fuck out. At this point Styles is having PTSD-like flashbacks to being buried alive and his work begins to suffer. Bray Wyatt, the helpful friend that he is and now backed by both a fully possessed-Alexa Bliss and golem-like Braun Strowman (for love of Eddie Guerrero give me this!), offers to help Styles with his problem - all he has to do is what John Cena did last year - come into the Firefly Funhouse and work out his issues with Bray. Ignore the fact that Cena did not come back after said match. The Fiend will show him the way. If AJ realizes all the accolaides he's had that the Undertaker never had, it would repower him! The Fiend will show him. The Fiend will let him in. AJ makes the worst decision he can and accepts the match(?). AJ’s statistician Joseph Park warns him not to but AJ enters anyway.

AJ awakens in a WCW Thunder ring teaming with Bray Wyatt in the WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Titles tournament - we don’t see their opponents but their silhouette’s appear to be Undertaker and John Cena - and we hear Cena yell “Get out!” Bray laughs the “noise” off before an Undertaker gong goes off. We have a quick cut of Undertaker dragging AJ across the graveyard from last year before opening back up on an unfamiliar and plain ring with a beaten Jeff Jarrett in the middle of the ring. AJ is now holding a blurred-out NWA World Heavyweight title belt. Bray, in a referee shirt, whispers to AJ "did he ever have that?" and laughs.

A gong cuts us to the next scene - and another quick cut of Styles being buried alive - followed by a similar plain ring with broken tables and blood splattered all over and Joseph Park kneeling and crying in the corner and a mask near him. Styles runs to him and asks him why he followed him. Park heard the whispers - the familiar whispers and he couldn’t help himself. John Cena's voice screaming can be heard in the background as the lights begin to blink out. The screams fade as Wyatt can now be overheard telling Park to “put the mask on” while Park cries “no please no.” Park slowly lifts the mask up and Styles yells as the lights go out only to come back with Park fully dressed as TNA’s Abyss once again - he powerslams Styles through one of the tables and disappears.

Another gong sends us to the next scene - another quick cut of Styles being buried - and then Styles walks out in a Japanese-looking arena and walks past Finn Balor in full Demon paint. The two eye each other as they walk past and Demon Finn fades away as Styles passes him by. Cena, dressed as NJPW’s Kazuchika Okada, is laying in the middle of the ring as Alexa Bliss hands him another blurred out championship. Bray whispers again and tells Styles this is another win he has that Undertaker doesn’t. Soon he’ll be able to face Undertaker again and do what he couldn’t before.

Undertaker gong, quick buried cut, and we’re on the Smackdown set and AJ is face to face with John Cena who looks very worried and is wearing his nWo shirt from last WrestleMania. “AJ! He won’t let me leave!” but the two then go into the motions of a match while Bray laughs. Quick cut and now we’re finally back at the Graveyard match from last year and AJ is face to face with Bray Wyatt dressed as the Undertaker. AJ tenses up to fight but instead uses his words - he’s not mad at Undertaker, he’s mad at himself. He's not mad at Cena either, it was just his job to fight him.

Bray, as the Dead Man, continues to smile. "AJ, the Undertaker is done and you lost. There is only the Fiend now - and you're in my home, boy. You're now part of my collection!" Bray transforms into fully into the Fiend and throws AJ into a shallow grave where AJ lands next to Cena’s unmoving body. We cut to a POV shot from in the grave to see Fiend, Bliss, Strowman, and Abyss all staring down into the grave as dirt is shoveled in. The two are buried and Bray and his crew walk away laughing.

Your winner: The Fiend

Baron Corbin vs Chad Gable (w/ Daniel Bryan)

Fanboy Fantasy: In my official “does this really have to be on the card” match of the show, it’s also very specifically slotted to be the match between the Firefly Funhouse and night one’s main event - feel free to go grab a snack and take a piss. After Daniel Bryan’s murder via Roman Reigns (see above), Corbin decides to mock Bryan now that he’s done mocking Big E - it’s not a great start but for Corbin it works so damn perfectly. Corbin and Bryan face off at some point and Corbin beats Bryan cleanly. It’s at this point that Chad Gable comes to Bryan’s aid. You see, back when it was revealed that Jason Jordan was revealed as then-Raw General Manager Kurt Angle’s son (sorry for the reminder), Chad Gable started jokingly calling then-Smackdown General Manager Daniel Bryan “dad.” Gable is tired of Baron Corbin getting the last laugh on Daniel Bryan when he was down, he’s tired of Corbin pinning Kurt Angle in his last match, and most importantly, he’s tired of going by the fucking name “Shorty G” because of Corbin. He may have lost to Corbin in the finals of the King of the Ring tournament and allowed Corbin to call himself “King Corbin” but that’s all done with. Corbin isn’t facing Shorty G at WrestleMania - he’s facing Chad fucking Gable and he’s got Daniel Bryan in his corner. And it’s a quick match: Gable with the upset (?) win.

Your winner: Chad Gable

WWE Raw Women’s Title Match w/ special guest referee Becky Lynch: Charlotte Flair vs Asuka ©

Fanboy Fantasy: After returning alongside Andrade, Charlotte Flair wins the women’s Rumble for the second year in a row because we can’t have nice things - also she was also #3 like her dad and fiance. Though she has won every women’s singles belt, she has never walked out of WrestleMania with the Raw Women’s title (she won the WWE Women’s title at WM32 pre-brand split, retained the Smackdown Women’s title at WM34, and won the NXT Women’s title at WM36 - thanks random wrestling stat generator!). Plus, she’s beaten Asuka already at WrestleMania so why not do another repeat while she’s at it. However, this isn’t just-out-of-NXT Asuka, who to be fair is a monster anyway. This is dancing and murdering Thunderdome MVP Asuka. Sorry Raw power-couple, no double gold this time: Asuka retains. Asuka dances. Delight in all things Asuka.

Your winner: Asuka

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Quixo-WWE 2021 WrestleMania 37 - Night Two

WWE Intercontinental Title Special International Ladder Match: Aleister Black vs Apollo Crews vs Cesaro vs Kalisto vs Sheamus vs Kevin Owens ©

Fanboy Fantasy: Much like Keith Lee and Dominik Dijakovic on Raw, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn fall into the “fight forever” side of things. After Survivor Series, Zayn tries to reteam with his good friend Kevin Owens, but Owens sees how annoying Zayn has become and powerbombs him immediately. Owens beats Zayn for the title on the Christmas episode of Smackdown, Zayn regains the title at the Royal Rumble due to interference from Cesaro & Nakamura, and Owens regains it again shortly after due to botched interference from Cesaro. Cesaro ends up splitting off from Zayn and Nakamura who decide to pursue the tag belts. Owens defends against Cesaro at Elimination Chamber and Kalisto at Fastlane. Owens decides to hold an “International Challenge” match where every competitor is from a different country, so we get Aleister Black (Netherlands), Apollo Crews (America), Cesaro (Switzerland), Kalisto (Mexico), Sheamus (Ireland, Owens invites him because he feels sorry that Sheamus has won everything except the IC belt and even covers the money needed for him to show up on another brand) and Owens (Canada). They’re not all winning storylines folks. Aleister Black wins the title because I want him to have nice things.

Your winner, and NEW WWE Intercontinental Champion: Aleister Black

NXT vs NXT UK Titles Match: Finn Balor © vs WALTER ©

Fanboy Fantasy: Finn Balor and WALTER were supposed to face each other at NXT UK Takeover: Dublin in May but then waves madly all of this happened. NXT UK went on hiatus and Balor came back to NXT Domestic and won the NXT title. However now that NXT UK is back and once Finn is healed from his broken goddamn jaw he starts calling out WALTER. He wants his match. Over on NXT UK, WALTER calls out Finn also, telling him to get his ass back to England and face him like a man. The announcers put over the fact that they can’t actually travel back and forth but by WrestleMania time the correct parties are bribed and WALTER arrives in the USA for a special NXT vs NXT UK titles match - winner takes all. The two put on a very British catch as catch can match before the rest of Imperium interferes causing the DQ finish and each man walks out with their respective titles. They’ll get another round whenever the next NXT UK Takeover is eventually held.

Your winner: Finn Balor (by DQ)

John Morrison vs The Miz

Fanboy Fantasy: The Miz gets more and more angry that not only is WrestleMania not in Hollywood like it was supposed to be because of the so-called “pandemic” but because he doesn’t have a match for the show. He and Morrison don’t qualify for a United States title match or a Tag Team titles match (they even try sneaking back into Smackdown and fail there as well - they have the cash to cover checking in on the other brand). Finally with a week before the show, Morrison has an idea - what if they turn on each other? They’d have to settle the score at WrestleMania! They both shrug, Morrison winks to the camera, and they very playfully hit each other while yelling "I'm turning on you!" and “how dare you!” and “I’ll see you at WrestleMania!” This of course works and they get a match on the card. The match starts with them having a nice gentle match but as it goes on they both start hitting stiffer and stiffer. Miz eventually wins by putting using his legs on the ropes for leverage - after WM he can use his win to argue into a future World title match with Drew McIntyre. Morrison doesn’t see the dirty win on the show - but eventually figures it out and really turns on Miz with Morrison sliding into the face role with Miz staying in the heel role as he forever should be. Morrison eventually wins the more feud to set him up as a hopeful world title contender.

Your winner: The Miz

WWE Smackdown Women’s Title Match: Zelina Vega vs Bianca Belair ©

Fanboy Fantasy: Bayley loses her belt to Bianca Belair in what she immediately calls a fluke but it really isn’t. Belair establishes herself by defeating Bayley in the rematch and goes off looking for challengers. Zelina Vega, now also on Smackdown and without either Andrade or Angel Garza, slowly defeats everyone else on the roster not named Bayley or Sasha who are off in their blood feud to become the #1 contender. Vega is able to score the win and take the title. This is when Aleister Black shows up to very darkly and calmly celebrate with his wife - it is Black and Vega who are your new power couple, not Charlotte and Andrade! Swerve, bro! Oh, and Johnny Gargano and Candice LeRae show up on the Smackdown after WrestleMania. Boom, power couple feud!

You winner, and NEW WWE Smackdown Women’s Champion: Zelina Vega

Cage Fight Match: Bobby Lashley (w/ MVP) vs Brock Lesnar (w/ Kurt Angle)

Fanboy Fantasy: Here’s your special exhibition match for this year’s show - an MMA style Cage match (or Fight Cage as they called it during the Matt Riddle/Timothy Thatcher match on NXT this summer). Easy set up: Brock Lesnar returns in the Royal Rumble with Kurt freaking Angle by his side. He eliminates a few people (except iron man Andrade) before Bobby Lashey enters next a heads right for Lesnar - the announcers put over that Lashley’s MMA record is better than Lesnar’s though it was not UFC. The two brawl and eliminate each other. On the next night’s Raw, Angle informs us that since Lesnar lost at last year’s WrestleMania for the second year in a row, he thought maybe he was finished. Then his advisor, Paul Heyman, left him for one of his enemies, Roman Reigns, he thought maybe he was finished again. That’s when he reached out to Angle and the two agreed - Lesnar wasn’t finished yet. This brings out MVP and his client Bobby Lashley who issue a very simple challenge: Lashley/Lesnar at WrestleMania - they’ll make it Lesnar’s third strike at the show of shows. Angle accepts on Lesnar’s behalf and the match eventually becomes the cage match we get. In the mean time we get what we haven’t seen since roughly 2004 - a weirdly good guy Lesnar mostly due to his handling by Angle and he shows up to work (sometimes). At Fastlane, we get a preview of sorts when Lesnar and a partner of his choosing are allowed to face the Raw Tag Team champions Alexander & Benjamin and Lesnar shows up with former Team Angle member Charlie Haas (I just want to see Lesnar, Benjamin, Haas, and Angle all in the ring together for a minute). MVP causes a DQ and Hurt Business keeps the belts. Finally at WrestleMania we get the MMA(-ish) match - Angle and MVP are kept on the outside and Lashley gets the job done - he beats Lesnar clean. This completes the rebuild of Lashley as a World title contender (who perhaps is the one to finally beat McIntyre?) and Lesnar goes on to have a few special challenge matches with Angle at his side - Matt Riddle and Chad Gable are obviously contenders - before finally deciding to retire to the farm.

Your winner: Bobby Lashley

WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles Gauntlet Match: Flex Appeal (Dana Brooke & Mandy Rose) vs Lacey Evans & Lana vs Liv 2 Riott (Liv Morgan & Ruby Riott) vs Rhea Ripley & Shotzi Blackheart vs Nia Jax & Naomi © vs Shayna Baszler & [mystery partner] ©

Fanboy Fantasy: Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax continue to be the unlikely team as they chalk up win after win after win. However, after working so well together they start to fight again, but continue to win. At some point, Nia Jax (as a favor to Tribal Chief (™) Roman Reigns) decides to defend the titles with Naomi - and does so successfully. Baszler lays down the challenge - Jax and Naomi can defend their half of the title while Baszler and a partner of her choosing with defend her half at WrestleMania - winners take all. And because it’s WrestleMania it’s a 6-team affair - including NXT’s Rhea Ripley and Shotzi Blackheart because I like good things. It’s a gauntlet match and due to various match-determined reasons, Jax and Naomi will be the first team and Baslzer and [mystery partner] are the last team. Jax and Naomi first defeat Lana & Lacey Evans easily, and eliminate Ripley and Blackheart second (sorry). Mandy Rose and Dana Brooke come in fourth and pin Naomi to eliminate one half of the champions. Ruby Riott and Liv Morgan enter next and eliminate Brooke & Rose, and finally we get the other half of champions: Shayna Baslzer and of course RONDA ROUSEY. Baszler starts the match but as soon as Rousey gets in she refuses to tag Baszler back in. Her hubris gets the better of her and Riott pins her for the win and the belts. This gets Riott and Morgan the prize of being champions and also Riott revenge for losing to Rousey years ago in like 5 seconds. That was bullshit. Baslzer, already having lost one frenemy is the one that rehabs the relationship for the next few months, long enough to get a fucking WWE/NXT Horsewomen vs MMA Horsewomen match at the 2021 Survivor Series (Lynch might be ready to come back by then?). Then, and only then, does Baszler murder Rousey. Oh how the Quixotronic offices will rejoice. Murder, Baszler, murder!

Your winners, and NEW WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions: Liv 2 Riott

Hardy Compound Exorcism Match: Alexa Bliss (w/ Braun Strowman) vs Nikki Cross (w/ Jeff Hardy)

Fanboy Fantasy: Since moving to Raw, Alexa Bliss has become fully possessed by Sister Abigail and begins actively teaming with Bray. Braun Strowman, thinking wrongly that he was finished with Bray, tries to get through to Alexa but she finally turns him over to Bray’s side, becoming a golem-like unblinking uncaring monster who destroys only for Bray and Alexa. You know how in X-Men comics Shadowcat walks around with Lockheed the dragon wrapped around her neck? I want that with Braun and Alexa. The size-difference is not that far off. Nikki Cross, however, is now left alone and fully abandoned by her former friend and she doesn’t know what to do. After Braun bulldozes through Jeff Hardy in the Royal Rumble match, in the coming weeks Hardy comes to Nikki and tells her he saw something in Braun’s eyes - the same thing Nikki sees in Alexa’s eyes. It’s something he thinks he can get out of them, but they need to do it away from the Thunderdome and away from the Firefly Funhouse - they need to get them into the Lake of Reincarnation. The challenge is layed, Bray allows his minions to leave (especially after such great work the previous night) and we enter the Hardy Compound. Braun and Jeff are primarily on the sidelines and the main fight is Alexa and Nikki - Jeff mostly stops Braun from trying to smash his way into the fight. Nikki and Alexa fight all around the Compound and Nikki gets more and more wild throughout the match. They get closer and closer to the Lake of Reincarnation and fight onto Skarsgard the boat. The boat drifts out as the two fight harder and harder with Nikki trying to push Alexa over into the Lake. Alexa goes for a Sister Abigail but Nikki reverses it into a perfect Sister Abigail herself and drops Bliss into the Lake. Cross sighs in relief and sails back to shore. It appears that all is well until Braun’s fist appears from off-screen and knocks Cross out - the final shot is Braun quietly and calmly dragging the unconscious bodies of Nikki Cross and Jeff Hardy into the Lake as all three submerge. This eventually leads to Bliss/Strowman and Cross/Hardy switching roles - Bliss and Strowman are released from Bray’s control via the Lake of Reincarnation but at the cost of Nikki Cross, the new avatar of Sister Abigail and back to her crazy-NXT self, and Jeff Hardy, now working his Willow gimmick, both in employ of the Fiend. Now that Bliss and Strowman are back - what will they do to save their friends who damned themselves to save them?

Your winner(?): Nikki Cross

WWE Raw Tag Team Titles Elimination Match: Catch Point (Drew Gulak & Matt Riddle) vs New Day (Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods) vs Hurt Business (Cedric Alexander & Shelton Benjamin) ©

Fanboy Fantasy: Kofi and Woods hold onto the Raw tag team titles until the Raw after the Royal Rumble when they lose the straps to Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin due to the Usos’ interference. Hurt Business retain the titles in an Elimination Chamber match with New Day, Miz and Morrison, Lucha House Party, Mustafa Ali and Dio Maddin of Retribution, and new (but actually old) team of Matt Riddle and Drew Gulak - they’re like the Bro-serweights except Gulak likes to punch Riddle more. Once we get to WrestleMania we drop it down to a three-way match with New Day, Catch Point, and champions Hurt Business in an elimination match because Gulak couldn’t keep his mouth shut about being able to defeat both teams. Catch Point, of course, is eliminated first - Riddle even allows the pin to occur on Gulak (very un-bro of him). New Day is able to put away HB and retake the titles - now we wait for Big E to bring the rest of the gold home. (Also we’re not done with Catch Point - they face each other a few times but decide they actually make a better team… until Pete Dunne returns to the US that is!)

Your winners, and NEW WWE Raw Tag Team Champions: New Day

WWE Universal Title Match: Big E (w/ New Day) vs Roman Reigns (w/ Usos) ©

Fanboy Fantasy: And now the big match arrives. Big E arrives while New Day are still celebrating in the ring and the three dance for a moment before Big E readies himself in the ring and New Day goes off to his corner. Roman arrives flanked by the entire Family - his cousins the Usos, his brother Seth Rollins, his advisor Rikishi, his enforcers Tamina, Nia Jax, and Naomi, and his advocate Paul Heyman. All but the Usos (even Heyman) are ushered away as Jey and Jimmy take Roman’s corner. The Usos eye down Kofi and Xavier but never actually go after them. As for the fight - it’s far more evenly matched than it has any right to be. Big E holds his own against Roman despite him going into full Big Dog mode. Superman punch, spear, Big E kicks out. Superman punch, spear, Big E kicks out. The closest the Usos get to attacking New Day on the outside is when they get close to Kofi and while Roman powers up in the same corner, Jey Uso trips Roman and blames it on Kofi. Kofi owns it and acts as if he did it but Roman knows his Family doesn’t have his best interests in mind. Roman and Jey lock eyes and Roman knows. Roman knows. At this point the Usos and New Day end up covering all four sides of the ring as Big E starts to make his big comeback. Now we go classic setup - Roman spears the referee by mistake giving Big E time to hit the Big Ending three times and goes for the pin - New Day and Usos all count not just to three but to FIVE and E has Roman beat - but the ref is still out. New Day jump in the ring to wake the referee while the Usos help Big E up. However just as everyone is up Roman spears Big E out of nowhere. Superman punch to Xavier. Superman punch to Kofi. Spear to both Usos. Spear again to Big E and the referee counts one, two, three. Roman wins. Roman takes his title, screams at the Usos as they stay laying on the mat, and literally kicks Big E while he’s down. Roman grabs a mic and a camera guy and looks directly into the camera.

“This is not your happy ending. This is my life. This is my family. And this (he holds up the Universal title) is my life. Believe that.”

Credits.

Fade out.

Fade back in.

Epilogue. After we fade out from the arena, we cut back to the graveyard - we hear a shovel pulling up dirt. We see Styles and Cena’s dirty bodies sticking out of the dirt as a hand reaches out and pulls them both out. The Undertaker, more Dead Man than Biker once again, smacks them both awake. AJ and Cena are both glad to see Taker but AJ asks the obvious question - why did he save him? Last time he saw him he buried him alive. Why?

“Kid - you got better, didn’t you? Plus, he used my face. He shouldn’t have done that.”

Fade out.

#wrestling #wwe #wrestlemania #fanboywrestletronic #fanboyfantasy

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hekateinhell · 2 years

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I’m high and in my TVA feelings, so naturally I made an incomplete, incoherent wish list for what we should’ve gotten but didn’t:

Daniel

Can’t skip over the obvious. Armand literally and figuratively destroys this man’s life and he only gets couple paragraphs? I get the subtext, the wound’s still fresh, etc etc, but like…

Was there a time where Armand realized Daniel was starting to lose it/lose what little of it he had left? If he so, did he feel responsible? Did he panic that he might have another Nicolas on his hands, only this one belonged to him?

Who left who? Did Daniel nope out of there one last time? Did Armand just abandon him to his own devices to go stalk Lestat? Was it another angsty (it was), sort-of-mutual, sort-of-not disintegration/separation like with Armand and Louis? Was Armand the one chewing grass this time?

I could devote an essay to Daniel Questions, so I won’t right now. But know I have them.

Speaking of…

Louis

What was that reunion like? You know they’d never planned on seeing each other again, then Armand shows up with Mr. Daniel “You Are a Gift to Me From Louis” Molloy.

Did Louis get a thank you, at least? Was he absolutely mortified when he saw Daniel? Louis is someone who knows good and well what Armand is capable of, and in fact, had witnessed first-hand what became of one of Armand’s other human pets.

Which brings me to…

Denis

???

I don’t believe for a second Armand only had two human pets over the past 500 hundred years (maybe 200 years, since it was a CoD rule that vampires weren’t allowed to reveal themselves to humans, so it would’ve been after the dissolution of the Les Innocents cult — but back to CoD in a minute).

How many more pets were there? What was the criteria? We know Denis was quite young, but Daniel was an adult. Was Daniel the exception to the rule because he had known Louis? Did Armand ever have any rules here to begin with?

We got to see a human/vampire dynamic at play in the Venice years, but would’ve been a fascinating parallel to read in Armand’s own words a detailed account what it was like being on the flip side of that, with any of his pets!

Was he intentionally trying to emulate Marius (as he remembered him) with Daniel? Denis, maybe, to an extent? I doubt Armand formed any sort of deeper, beyond-the-blood attachments to Denis and the others—which is what set Daniel apart when the time came (and once again, I would’ve loved for Armand to tell us what exactly it was about Daniel that did it for him).

Last, but most certainly not least…

Children of Darkness, Theatre des Vampires

TVA gave us a basic intro to the tortures practices of the Roman coven, and we already met the later Parisian coven in TVL, but I wonder—what was their day to day like?

Just how intricate were the CoD social hierarchies?

How developed was their system for dealing with “unwell vampires”? Armand clearly already had a very refined, methodical approach by the time Lestat dropped Nicki in his lap. Eleni seems to be in the know when she’s corresponding with Lestat in TVL, it’s obviously part of their coven culture. So where/with whom did this originate? How expansive was it?

Theatre des Vampires! What was the development of that like? What did Armand think about making it in the Parisian newspapers, after spending so long in complete obscurity? We know he didn’t care too much for this coven either (evidently), but why?

I don’t believe for a second he Frankenstein-monstered Claudia (he’s a smart guy, he’d been around 400 years by then—I have to imagine he played around with heads before and knew it wouldn’t work). I do believe he had a lab though! Especially given how obsessed he was with taking things apart and experimenting in QotD.

There’s more, but I don’t remember it right now. I’m in a mood.

#hekate rambles #I can headcanon answers to all of this but I’ll never really know #truly devastating #I also have more Louis questions but they don’t come up until around the Trinity Gate era SO #the vampire chronicles #vc #armand #tva

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sidespart · 4 years

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The Fall of King Romulus

Summary: Twin Princes Remus and Romulus are cursed at birth with Honesty and Obedience. When Romulus, who cannot disobey any order, is told to kill his brother the next time he lays eyes on him, he changes his name to Roman and runs away. Roman joins up with a misfit group of adventures and plans to never return to his homeland. But the fae have other plans for him...

This was originally a fake fic but I decided to turn it into a real fic because it looked like fun, The fake fic can be read as a prologue.

Warnings (for whole fic not necessarily individual chapters): Violence, mind whammying/memory altering, curse of obedience related consent issues, references to sex, references to war related injuries/PTSD, references to child abuse/neglect (YMMV on that one but just in case), antagonstic-but-not-exactly villian!Janus, Extremly-moraly-dubious-but-not-exacty-unsympathetic-Remus

Chapter 1

Previous (prologue) Next Chapter 2

When Roman had first left home, he had no intention of making friends.

Romulus had never had them, unless you counted Remus in their younger days. Royal life was often one of seclusion and once his… particular problem… had come to light, his parents took the necessary steps to ensure he was as isolated from others as possible.

This was for his own good. Romulus could not protect himself. Romulus was a liability to the himself and the Kingdom. One slip before a supposed playmate could lead to discovery and disaster. His father explained this to him when Romulus was eleven, and had taken to following the young Marquis de Orenlla around like a love sick puppy when the family visited the palace.

“Suppose that boy notices,” his fathers voice was a hiss, his hand gripping Romulus small shoulder hard enough to bruise “suppose he realises you will do anything he asks, and he asks you for family secrets? Suppose he waits until your are older and orders you to favour his family, to give them position in court, to promote them above their deserved station- or to harm their enemies. Do you understand the risk you’re taking Romulus? Swear to me you will keep to yourself. Please.”

Phrasing, Romulus had come to learn, was extraordinarily important when dealing with his curse. The final ‘please’ from his father had turned the order into a request – something Romulus could technically choose to ignore. But the grip on his shoulder suggested it would not remain his choice for long. So he nodded at his father and swore to keep away and was rewarded with a smile and a hand stroking gently though his hair, before he was dismissed to go and study before his afternoon lessons.

He should have been lonely. But he had his parents and his instructors and his servants. And the occasional, highly orchestrated, public appearance wherein he would adopt a practiced air of aloof politeness, wave and make measured conversation with those who would never dare to give him an order. It could have been worse.

Still, he understood that once he left it would be necessary to speak to many more people then he had up to now. He would need food and shelter and work and direction, none of which he had had to procure for himself before.

So he prepared himself to make conversation with strangers, perhaps acquire acquaintances. He expected to find admirers once he was far South enough that he could perform with his lute without fear of recognition from the crowd. He hoped, perhaps, for some romances, some temporary but dashing companions to join him on adventures. He had read about such things during hours spent locked up in the palace library and told to entertain himself.

He had not planned on making friends. Traveling with anyone for too long, getting to know them and allowing them to learn about him – it inevitably increased the chance of them discovering his secret. Of exploiting him as his parents had warned against. It was not worth the risk.

And yet.

And yet somehow, he had acquired three.

Virgil and Patton and Logan.

Brave and kind and wise.

Not a drop of aristocratic blood between them but without doubt the most noble companions a man could wish for. When he thought of them, of how they had accepted him into their little band of misfit adventurers, his heart felt more full, his mind more alive and sharp than it had been in years. His blood buzzed with creativity and songs of friendship, love and loyalty sprang from his lips almost unbidden.

Not right now however.

Right now sort of wanted to kill them. Specifically Virgil.

Roman scowled at the surrounding trees “If there are any depressingly dressed half elves out there who want to APPOLOGISE for being JERKS the floor is open!” he called.

The trees remained silent. They had done that the last three times he tried.

Roman left out a dramatic exhale and flopped back on the ground.

The thing was. He knew, intellectually, that this wasn’t Virgil’s fault. Not Intentionally.

Virgil was prickly. And unpredictable. Last night, Roman had wailed in dismay at the sorry state for a fire the young man was building. Virgil had responded that they would be lucky if there was no fire at all, since that would mean no one would have to be subjected to Romans cooking. Roman had insulted Virgil’s hair. Virgil had made a creative suggestion for where Roman could stick the firewood he was holding. And back and forth the insults went until between them they had built up the fire and set the stew boiling upon it.

It was banter. Virgil had been giggling the whole time, Patton hadn’t interjected once to tell them to be nicer.

And then this evening they’d gone hunting for firewood together. And Roman had made some sly remark, hoping that Virgil’s fire building skills had improved somewhat overnight.

And Virgil had turned round and snarled at him to “shut UP Princy. I don’t need you to help me – just, just get lost.”

Virgil didn’t know about the curse.

Romans mouth had dropped open in surprise. And before he’s had time to close it, his feet had spun round one hundred and eighty degrees and marched him away from his friend, away from the path, deeper into the heart of the forest.

His feat had carried him on a winding route, over one shallow stream and through an extremely dense thicket of brambles that left Roman desperately hacking away at the thorns in front of him before they could shred him to ribbons. He had eventually stopped after an hour of relentless marching and sprawled at the foot of an impressively knotted oak tree.

Unsurprisingly, his surroundings were totally unfamiliar. The trees grew so thick here it was impossible to see more than twelve feet in any direction. He was well and truly lost.

Roman had spent an unsatisfying few minutes ranting to the trees about elves and their unpredictable mood swings and marching and blisters and curses and Virgil’s still subpar fire lighting skills until eventually he had run out of steam and settled himself down for a good sulk.

Phrasing was important. Virgil had told him to get lost but he hadn’t said to stay lost. And now that he was lost, there was nothing to prevent him being found again.

Patton was an excellent tracker. The idea of sitting around waiting to be rescued stung Roman’s pride, but his feat had already been aching from the days travel before his unintended march. His stomach growled, the smattering of cuts from the brambles burned, and evening was already turning to night. The most sensible thing to do was for Roman to stay where he was and wait to be found.

Assuming they wanted to find him.

Roman bit his lip sharply to try and banish that line of thought. They wouldn’t leave him.

Although, he drew his legs up and wrapped his arms around his knees to fend off the evening chill, There was a strong chance they wouldn’t find him tonight. Patton had looked exhausted when Virgil and Roman and left on their hunt for firewood, in fact he’d been falling behind all day and –

Oh.

Patton and Virgil were born in Krutova and Finaley’ed respectively. Two small neighbouring kingdoms, politically insignificant and famous only for their densely forested landscapes and their intense dedication to wiping each other off the face of the Earth. For the past eighteen years bloody war had raged between the two. Roman had never asked directly, but he was fairly certain that this conflict was where Patton had acquired his enormous broadsword, his limp and, quite possibly, Virgil.

Neither of them liked forests. They carried extra tension as soon as they stood under the shadows of the trees. In addition to that, the uneven terrain aggravated Patton’s hip, sometimes leaving him hissing between his teeth with every step.

Roman had been walking up front with Logan all day, arguing the merits of modern Raspanzean poetry compared with the old masters. He had thought they had called a halt to the day a little early, but was tired enough himself not to question it. And really, since he and Virgil had been on fire and cooking duty last night it should have fallen to the others today…but Virgil had scampered into the woods as soon as Patton was settled on his bed roll, and Roman had gone chasing after.

Virgil fretted. He fretted after all of them, but Patton most of all. And Roman had chased after him when he was already stressed about his best friend and then started needling him about his fire making skills.

Roman groaned and pressed his face into his knees.

Maybe he was the jerk.

“It sounds like it.”

Roman sighed, hating the whine in his voice as he replied “but he still shouldn’t have taken it out on –“

Romans head snapped up so fast he hit his skull hard against the oak tree behind him. Wincing he twisted his head left and right, but the area remained deserted.

He frowned. Perhaps he was more exhausted than he thought –

“You certainly are over tired little Prince,” Roman made a sound which he refused to think of as a shriek and scrambled to his feet.

Standing not three feet- two feet – five feet- three feet from him, stood – hovered - sat – stood a figure in – black – yellow- black – shadow – gold - black. He- she – it – he? Laughed sweetly and stepped – slunk – prowled – flew – stepped closer

And drew back abruptly as Roman held up his dagger between them.

Roman’s sword was the best he could buy, made of blended steel with a bronze handle. He cleaned and sharpened it religiously and practiced often. It was beautifully made and perfectly balanced, suitable for a solider but ideal for a traveller in who knew how to use it.

Romans dagger was old and brittle. And more than once Logan had tried to surreptitiously throw it out and convince him to replace it with something usable.

But it was made of pure iron and it kept the scowling fae at bay.

Looking directly at the fae made something in Romans stomach twist. But he kept his eyes at a squint and held the dagger firm between them, even as his arms shook from the effort.

“What do you want from me?” he gritted out

“What do I want?” The fae’s face would not quite settle, the edges shifting and billowing, but when he smiled Roman was certain he saw fangs “You’re the one trespassing in my home, little Prince, I should be asking you”

Suddenly the fae was as close as he could come, his face less than an inch from the daggers edge. Up close, Roman could see two eyes clearly, one black and one pulsating with a sickly yellow light. “Come to make a deal with the devil, Princey?”

Roman squeezed his eyes shut and held himself firm, even as the shaking began to spread over his entire body.

“I am. A. Lost. Traveller.” He gasped out “I. mean. No. disrespect. To you. Or. Your court” for what felt like an eternity the shaking continued, rattling his brain and sending one knee crashing to the floor. And then it stopped.

Hesitantly, Roman cracked one eye open and looked up. The fae had, mercifully, settled its form. It had picked a face identical to Romans own, save for the yellow eye and scales that spread over its left side. A cloak of shadows hid most of its body from view, but when it moved towards Roman now it seemed to slither rather than step.

“You mean no disrespect” it nodded towards the dagger still clutched in Roman’s sweaty hands “but your bring a weapon to my home?”

“it is a shield, my lord, not a sword, despite it’s shape”

The fae harrumphed, a disconcertingly human noise, and circled Roman once. “You’re not from around here.”

“I’m lost, my lord.”

“I know that” The fae stopped in front of Roman again and rolled it’s eyes. “I meant you are not one of the town folk who trespass in my wood so regularly. You know how to speak to me.”

Roman opened his mouth to say ‘in my fathers Kingdom the Fae are welcomed, and representatives of the Saelie court attend each ball and function’ but managed to snap it closed before he made a sound. Rule one for dealing with the Fae, even those considered allies, was not to give them any information that they didn’t already know. “You flatter me my lord” he said instead.

Roman still hadn’t moved from his half kneeling pose and now the fae coiled down so that they were once again face to face. “Most humans in your position” he said, “would have already started begging for a deal to relive them of their…little problems. What’s the matter Princey, curse got your tongue?”

Roman couldn’t help the way his heart rate sped up at the faes words. But he did his best to keep his outward face calm. It was true, the first deliberate order he had received when his curse was discovered was to never talk about it, he couldn’t have brought it up to this fae if he wanted to.

But more than that – the fae who allied themselves with his father’s court had done everything in their power to remove the curses from him and his brother. Nothing had worked. “A gift once given can only be taken back by the gifter” an elder sprite in the guise of a kindly woman had told his mother. “And their gifter is unlikely to return here.”

The gifter was also unlikely to be a snake shaped creature tied to a southern forest. “I want nothing from you my lord, except to be allowed to leave your home” Roman intoned honestly. He had wondered, for a moment, when the creature had called him Princey – but Virgil and the others often called him by that nickname. If this was a lord of the forest he could have heard them when they passed by.

The fae stared at him for a long moment. And smiled. “Liar.”

Roman frowned – “what-“

“Roman!”

Roman jerked his head to the side, the shout had come from close by, he was sure. “Pa-Padre?”

A whisper in his ear: “time to go home Roman.” Roman quickly looked back to the fae, but it was gone. On the ground where it had been, lay a single oak leaf dyed a brilliant, autumnal, yellow.

He didn’t need to look up at the oak trees leaves to know they, like every other tree in the forest, were still a vibrant green.

“Roman! Roman are you here?”

Without much conscious thought, he reached forward and snatched up the yellow leaf, burying it deep in his pocket.

“I’M HERE. Patton? Virgil? I’M OVER HERE”

Within minuets all seven foot of Patton was crashing through the tree line and baring down on him, Virgil not far behind.

“Roman, oh my goodness we were so worried! Are you hurt? Can you stand? Why do you have your dagger – did something happen?”

“Princy! Shit are you – are you okay? I am so, - I’m really- We looked EVERYWHERE“

“I’m fine.” Roman promised ‘Its fine’ he added to Virgil, “I just – I figured you needed some space so I tried looking for wood on the other side of camp. Guess I got a little turned around” He allowed Patton to pull him to his feet, giving them both his best sheepish grin. Embarrassed but ready to laugh at himself. He really had got lost. Silly Roman.

It’s not like he could tell them about the curse.

“We’re not the far from camp” Patton told him, he glanced around frowning slightly “I’m sure we searched through here before.”

“I was trying to make my own way back,” Roman lied easily “I probably ended up walking in a circle and missed you.”

It’s not like there was any point telling them about the fae.

“You sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine Pat, what about you? How’s your leg?”

“Oh this old thing?” Patton gave them a wide smile “it’s just fine, Ro, don’t you worry. Now I think I know a short cut back, you two follow close to me alright?” and with that the large man spun round and headed into the trees.

Virgil and Roman shared an exasperated glance. The man was clearly in agony.

“Listen, Princy I-“

“I’m sorry too.” Roman cut him off. Bumped his shoulder against Virgil’s and winked. “Now lets get back to camp before Logan paces a trench in to the ground hm?”

Slowly Virgil nodded, although he was still staring at Roman guiltily. The two of them headed into the trees together, collected Patton from where he was half collapsed against an elm, and the three slowly made their way back to camp.

By the time they were explaining what had happened to Logan, the memory of the fae had faded like mist.

With a days more travel they would be out of the forest and on a path to Steveange. The largest and greatest city of the Central Kingdoms. From there they would have to chose whether to head east, towards the coast line, west to catch the merchant festivals or north, where Roman had always refused to travel.

Stuck between two pages of Romans notebook, a unseasonably yellowed oak leaf shivered.

Time to go home.

#sanders sides fic #roman sanders #janus sanders #virgil sanders #patton sanders #logan sanders #remus sanders #but not in this chapter #creativitwins #sidespart writes #TS: Fall of Romulus

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naminethewriter · 2 years

Text

Side Story: 1 Year After

Day 2 and once again I’m shamelessly using this opportunity to expand my AU. You can’t stop me 🥰 No real need to read the series, it works as a stand alone I think. @loceitweek2022

Here on Ao3

Masterpost | Loceit Week 2022 Masterpost | Remus and His Daughter Masterpost

Summary: It's been a year after Remus left and Janus won't answer his phone. Logan is worried and decides to check on his friend.

As Logan walked down the dorm hallway towards Janus room, he couldn’t help the déjà vu. Exactly one year ago he’d done the same thing for the same reason. In a way at least. His worry this time originated because Janus failed to answer his messages when he normally replied within 24 hours at least. Logan hadn’t heard from him in two days and considering the date (and the fact that his projects were handed in and exams had been written) he had decided to check up on his friend in person.

He hadn’t told the others where he was going. Roman still refused to even acknowledge Remus’ disappearance, Patton’s smile whenever Remus’ name was spoken was forced and uncomfortable and Virgil hissed even when the topic was Janus himself. So Logan made up an excuse and came alone. Janus would prefer that probably anyway.

It was eerily quiet, most of the students were probably out celebrating the nearing end of the semester or simply enjoying the sunny day outside. Janus might not even be in his room. Which might be a relief to Logan, knowing his friend wasn’t holed up in his room all by himself. He’d have to check either way.

By the time he reached Janus’ room, he’d only passed one other person. Honestly, he preferred it that way. He took a moment to gather himself before knocking. He couldn’t hear anything from behind the door, maybe Janus truly was out. Still, he knocked.

Unlike last time, he got an answer immediately.

“A moment please!” Something rustled inside the room, probably papers. Logan hoped he wasn’t interrupting Janus’ studying (though, again, there shouldn’t really be anything left to study for). The door opened shortly after.

“Logan. I certainly expected you.”

“Salutations Janus. I came by because you haven’t been answering my messages.” Janus’ eyes darted over to where Logan assumed his phone lied outside of his view.

“Of course. I was definitely aware that I hadn’t done so yet. I apologize, please come in.” Again Logan experienced a déjà vu as he followed Janus into his room and the other took a seat at his desk. Logan didn’t follow his example this time around though, attention drawn towards what was spread across Janus’ desk.

“Photographs?” he asked, coming closer. Janus glanced at them and nodded.

“Yes. I plan on acquiring my degree within a year and since I will be returning to my parents’ house shortly, I wanted to see what I could already take with me to lighten the load once I move out of here.”

“I admire your foresight.”

“Thank you.” Logan stood next to Janus’ chair, looking over the photographs. There was a wide variety but had one thing in common: Remus was either in them or most likely the one who took it considering the locations and situations they depicted.

“That is quite the collection,” Logan commented, unsure what else to say. He picked up one picture after the other, studying them closely though he did keep an eye on Janus’ reaction. Considering the timing, he could hardly believe it a coincidence that it was this group of photos in particular that Janus had dug out.

“Indeed.” Janus absentmindedly brushed his fingers over the pictures, picking up one now and again before placing it back down, seemingly lost in thought. “I received these from Remus over the last few years. I’m not really one to print out such memories. But he always was more the sentimental type, wanting to catch these moments so he could remember them forever.” He showed Logan the picture he had in hand currently. It was blurry but the fire in the background was easy enough to make out, as was a person standing in front of the flames that Logan could only guess was Janus.

“I would also not be stupid enough to photograph a crime I was committing.”

“And yet you kept the picture.”

“Indeed, I did.” Janus laughed quietly. “This one would hardly be eligible as evidence in court though. It’s too out of focus and the person could be almost anyone.” Logan nodded, amused, and handed the picture back. They looked over the photos in silence for a few minutes until Janus spoke up again.

“I put them all in a box because I wasn’t sure what to do with them otherwise. It didn’t feel right to throw them away but I also didn’t feel like hanging them up in a room I knew I would leave soon anyway.” Logan listened, nodding along but didn’t interrupt even when Janus quieted down for a few moments before speaking up again. “So I just put them in a box to deal with them later. I had pretty much forgotten about it until I found it yesterday. I was thinking of maybe buying an album for them or something. Putting them somewhere more significant, not a box I almost forgot about as soon as I didn’t get anything new to put in it.”

Logan could hear a hint of bitterness in his words, like he was mad at himself for forgetting. It seemed Janus was more emotionally compromised than he let on.

“That is a wonderful idea. I’m sure Remus will be delighted to see that when he comes back.” Janus leaned back in his chair, away from the photos and looked up at Logan, a sour look on his face.

“You seem very certain that he will return.”

“I do believe he will, yes.”

“When? It’s been a year and not one word from him!” Janus’ word grew louder, openly frustrated now. “Apparently it was real easy for him to just up and leave me behind while I only so much as find one photo with him on it and it almost brings me to tears!” Frustration had let to anger and Janus stood up and slammed his fist on the desk, sending pictures flying everywhere. Logan let him, just watched and waited until he was sure he was finished before speaking up.

“I think you are influenced by cognitive distortions. Please take a few breaths and let me explain what I mean.” Janus stared at him for a few moments, breathing heavily before the anger seemed to fade from his eyes and he sat back down. Logan took that as his cue to continue.

“There is no way for us to know how Remus is feeling right now. You are taking his prolonged absence and failure to communicate as a sign that he is fine with leaving but that is you jumping to conclusions. Considering the circumstances during which Remus left, it is plausible to argue that he may not feel ready to come back or may not be able to contact us because he is missing our contact information. There is a number of reasons why he is not here right now but you cannot be certain that it is easy for him to do so.”

“I know. I know,” Janus sighed and buried his face in his hands. Logan laid a hand on his shoulder to try and comfort him.

“From my observations, Remus had been struggling long before his relationship with Patton, so I believe he might just need some time to find himself. But I’m sure he will return once he feels ready to do so.” Janus continued to take steady breaths for a bit longer before he lifted his head and nodded.

“Yes, you’re probably right. He was not doing great, things with Roman were getting worse, Virgil pulled away from him more and his grades… yes, he probably just needs more time.”

“Your feelings are valid though, Janus. Feel free to contact me to let out your frustrations verbally when you need to.” Janus chuckled.

“Will do, Logan. Thank you for being the friend I needed for the past year.”

“No problem. It was my pleasure.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Somewhere a few hours away, Remus sat in a locker room, pressing an ice pack against the blooming bruise on his cheek. He had his phone in hand, looking at the few pictures he had backed-up and then transferred to his new phone. He stopped and stared at a group picture of him, Virgil and Janus before closing the app and moving to type in a familiar number, thumb hovering over the call button. He froze until the screen turned black and he let out the breath he hadn’t noticed he was holding. He put the phone away.

He couldn’t. Not yet.

#namiswriting #loceitweek2022day2 #day 2: photgraph #platonic loceit #Remus and His Daughter Series #logan sanders #ts logan #janus sanders #ts janus #hurt/comfort #reblogs are appreciated #sanders sides fanfiction

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aspoonofsugar · 4 years

Text

Emerald + Mercury = Cinder

BEGINNING OF THE END = MIDNIGHT

The episodes Beginning of the End and Midnight can be seen as complementary.

Both share a similar structure with the first part telling Cinder’s story and the second part showing how past events are influencing the present. At the same time, they show the links among Cinder, Emerald and Mercury and explore their changing dynamic.

In Beginning of the End it is shown how they came together and we reach the climax of their cooperation. The Fall of Beacon is when the trio is at its strongest. It is only because of their coordination and teamwork that the plan succeeds. In Midnight instead we are shown the beginning of their separation.

For different reasons (fears and wishes) both Mercury and Emerald are about to leave Cinder. Mercury already has and it is probable Emerald will soon.

The two episodes also give us two opposite and complementary visions of Cinder.

In Beginning of the End, we have the way Cinder wants to appear:

Cinder: (stepping forward slowly, glass anklet shifting with her footsteps) I've already told you. And I don't like repeating myself.

Salem: I would like to think I have shown a great deal of patience over my many years walking Remnant. But I do hate repeating myself.

Mercury: Is this how you treat a patient? (Emerald reaches over and twists the screwdriver in his leg, causing him to wince) Ah, too tight!

Cinder: Enough. Our Mercury put on a wonderful show. He was quite brave.

Salem: Do you find such malignance necessary?

Watts: I apologize, ma'am. I'm not particularly fond of failure.

Salem: Then I see no reason for your cruelty towards young Cinder. She's become our Fall Maiden, destroyed Beacon Tower, and most importantly, killed dear Ozpin. So I'm curious, to what failures are you referring?

In Midnight we see who she really is. Moreover, it becomes more and more clear that her imitation of Salem is different from the original:

Salem: I will tell you when and where you are needed.

Cinder: Both of you, get out. I’ll let you know when you’re needed next.

Mercury: Yeah about that, Salem’s got other plans for me. I’m not gonna be taking orders from you anymore.

Why is this being shown through her interactions with Emerald and Mercury? Why are they important for Cinder’s character?

First of all, Mercury and Emerald are Cinder’s kids, at least narratively speaking:

Roman: Oh, look! She sent the kids again! This is turning out just like the divorce!

Roman calls them so when they first appear and later on several characters refer to them as kids in relation to Cinder.

Raven (about Emerald and Mercury): Two children you've tricked into following you.

Tyrian: (chuckles as he slowly walks toward Emerald) Careful, little girl. Cinder isn't here to protect you anymore.

Tyrian (mocking Mercury): Oh yes, the world is mean, and I'm a big, bad man now just like the others.

Salem (to Emerald): Speak, child.

In short, they are meant to be the last link in a chain of abuse that starts with Salem, goes on with Cinder and finally arrives to them.

At the same time, as the title says Mercury + Emerald = Cinder because they are nothing more than parts of Cinder herself, both in their backgrounds and in their personalities.

CINDER + “HUNGER” = EMERALD

Cinder: Follow me, and you'll never be hungry again.

Cinder: It's... an emptiness. It burns. Like hunger. I like it.

In Beginning of the End Emerald and Cinder are shown to share a hunger motif.

Emerald is presented as a street rat who survives through stealing. She is poor and starved, so she accepts Cinder’s offer to be taken care of and to be given food. That said, it is clear that other than food what Emerald is truly starving for is love:

Emerald: I just... (sighs) Cinder was the only family I ever had. She cared about me, taught me things...

I'm the one Who rose out of filth and was loved by no-one

Similarly, Cinder too is shown to be hungry. More specifically, she is hungry for power:

Cinder: I want to be powerful.

It is meaningful that in the episode where Cinder tells Emerald she won’t have to starve anymore, she herself is starving. This contradiction conveys the tragedy of Cinder’s character aka a traumatized girl taking in a kid similar to her and becoming like her past parental figures.

As a matter of fact Emerald and Cinder’s first meeting has parallels with Cinder meeting both Madame and Rhodes.

When Cinder meets Madame she asks for food, but is negated it:

And she is later shown to have survived through leftovers.

In contrast, food is the first thing Cinder offers Emerald, who she recognizes as a girl who has survived in poverty, like her.

In their first meeting, Cinder also treats Emerald pretty much like Rhodes treated her. Both discover a young girl, who has just committed a theft and confront her. However, instead of punishing the girl, they both offer to be the girl’s mentor and become her idol.

As a matter of fact both Cinder and Emerald are shown to idolize their saviors to the point that both girls try to look like them by changing their hair/clothes:

So, it would superficially seem that Cinder is acting like Rhodes and in the opposite way of Madame. However, the reality is far more complex. Deep down, Cinder is acting like her adoptive mother because she is targeting a girl and thinking about how she can weaponize her. At the same time, there is a key difference between her behaviour and Rhodes’s. Rhodes had Cinder give the sword back, while Cinder never stopped Emerald from stealing. If anything, she encouraged her criminal activities changing her from a thief to a terrorist. In other words, Cinder radicalized Emerald.

This is once again linked to the motif of hunger both girls share:

Cinder: You Atlas elites are all the same! You think hoarding power means you'll have it forever, but it just makes the rest of us hungrier.

Cinder’s trauma is rooted in the unfairness of the world. She was made to starve simply because she was born in the wrong situation and society completely failed her.

What is more, when Rhodes refuses Cinder as well, she too refuses his vision of the world. Rhodes, pretty much like the Prince of the original fairy-tale, offers Cinder a way to social-climb. In the fairy-tale, Cinderella marries the prince and so becomes a princess in the end. Here, Rhodes is telling Cinder she can reach her own castle. Cinder can escape her misery and reach Atlas. However, this is seen as a lie by Cinder the moment he attacks her.

So, Cinder giving food to an orphan like her and trying to destroy the current order are both coherent with the idea that the world is unjust and needs to be changed. However, Cinder is using the same problems she criticizes to her advantage. What is more, she is exasperating them in order to fulfill her personal agenda, which is only about herself and her self-image.

Let’s see now, what do our two young thieves steal? What are they “hungry” for?

a) Emerald steals a ring:

Salesman: A beautiful ring... for a beautiful woman.

Interestingly, the ring itself might be a reference to the original story of Aladdin, which is apparently Emerald’s allusion.

In the original story Aladdin meets two jinns. The first one is in a ring and Aladdin uses it to save himself and to escape with the magic lamp, where a stronger jinn is. So it makes sense for Emerald to steal a ring (something she wishes) just to meet a woman that promises her she can have more (her personal jinn aka someone that can realize Emerald’s dreams).

Why does Emerald steal the ring?

It is possible she just wants to sell it in order to buy some food, but I like the idea that she steals it also because she wants some beauty (”a beautiful ring for a beautiful woman”) in the harsh and horrible world she lives in (“filth”).

b) Cinder steals a sword:

Like in Emerald’s case, the object of Cinder’s theft can be seen as part of her fairy-tale’s allusion.

As a matter of fact, in Cinder’s adaptation of Cinderella the swords are nothing, but her glass slippers.

This is made clear later on when Rhodes (both the Prince and the Fairy Godmother) gives Cinder the first sword. It is meant to be a prize on his part. He is showing Cinder she does not need to steal it anymore because she has gained it. Moreover, weapons are said to be extensions of a person by Ruby, so it makes sense that the slipper of the original Cinderella becomes a sword in this version. It fits the personality of our Cinder, a fiery young girl, who wants to become a huntress.

Finally, since Cinder’s story uses both inversion and deconstruction when adapting the fairy-tale, it is interesting that in the end the Prince refuses to give Cinder the other sword (slipper) and Cinder takes it by force:

In this way, Cinder goes back to stealing, which was what Rhodes had originally tried to avoid.

Why does Cinder steal the sword in the first place?

She steals something to defend herself with and to hurt her tormentors. Violence is rooted in Cinder’s first theft.

In short, Emerald wants something beautiful, while Cinder wants something powerful.

This difference is coherent with their respective semblances since Emerald creates illusions, while Cinder is able to overheat objects, so that she can create explosions and manipulate their shape. Both powers are representative of their user’s flaw and coping mechanism.

Emerald is a person who has reacted to her traumatic life by chasing illusory dreams of warmth and love. She tricks others and is tricked because she refuses to dispel her self-delusions.

Cinder is instead a person, who has been molded through violence just like the glass statues in the hotel. She is forced to endure until she can’t take it anymore and she explodes:

She herself is the Glass Unicorn, which shatters like Cinder’s innocence when too much pressure is added. Not only that, but Cinder too has started molding others to her will. She has been grooming both Emerald and Mercury for her own ego. This is why the name Scorching Caress fits her so well. It is because behind every act of care it is hidden an act of manipulation. And this happens because Cinder too has been treated utilitaristically and the only kind of love she experienced (Rhodes’s) was a “weak” love Cinder ended up perceiving as fake.

In short, Emerald and Cinder have different coping mechanisms and aim for different things. However, this does not mean that one is better or worse than the other. Their main difference is that right now Emerald is more in touch with her own needs and wishes. Ironically, the delusional girl has never lost sight of what she truly wants.

Emerald wants a family. She has been looking for it in the wrong places and she has been pursuing it in the wrong ways. However, Emerald has never forgotten what she is truly after and she is starting to realize she won’t have it, until she stays on Salem’s side:

Salem: It's important not to lose sight of what drives us: Love, justice, reverence... but the moment you put your desires before my own... they will be lost to you. This isn't a threat, this is simply the truth. The path to your desires is only found... through me.

Tyrian: Shh, shh, shh, shh, shh. I want to tell you both a little secret. Your question is all wrong. (laughs)

Emerald: What?

Tyrian: "What do you want from this?" Children, please, if you're not loving what you're doing, then you're in the wrong field.

Salem promises to fulfill Emerald’s wishes, but Tyrian has already told her that pursuing a wish while working for Salem is useless. Emerald is starting to realize it and this is why she will probably leave.

Cinder has instead forgotten what she originally wanted:

Cinder: Like you? You can do whatever you want, go wherever you want.

Cinder’s original wish was to be free and also to be loved, like Emerald:

You're no good I hope you know That your life is of no use And the truth is that No one's ever loved you

However, her being failed by the adults has twisted her wish into a desire for power.

This difference is well conveyed by Cinder and Emerald’s respective line in Beginning of the End:

Cinder: Follow me, and you'll never be hungry again.

Emerald: Thank you...

Cinder: The Huntsman severed the connection before it was complete. (pause) Yes. It's... an emptiness. It burns. Like hunger. I like it. (pause) Yes. I will claim what is ours. (pause) Thank you.

Emerald thanks Cinder because she won’t have to be hungry anymore, while Cinder thanks Salem because she is able to feel a hunger she likes.

This fits well with Cinder’s last words to the Madame:

Cinder: You’re right. Without you I am nothing. But because of you, I am everything.

Emerald does not want to be hungry, while Cinder has been tricked into thinking that being hungry is the only way she can become not even “everything”, but just “something”.

CINDER + “EVERYTHING” = MERCURY

Cinder: Because of you, I am everything.

Mercury: So I got strong, but I never got it back! I've had to work harder than anyone to get where I am.

Cinder’s way of thinking is very similar to Mercury’s. Not only have they both endured their parents’ violence, but they have tried to give this violence meaning. It is because of Madame that Cinder has become “everything” and it is because of Marcus that Mercury has become “strong”. They must believe that it was not all for nothing and that the pain they felt made them stronger instead of weaker.

This is why Cinder thinks that deep down her “hunger” is good. It is because it drives her, but she ignores that it blinds her too.

This is why Mercury keeps going back to his father:

Mercury: Bad hair, used a scythe, and smelled like my dad after a long day. It was him.

Mercury: My dad always said... "if you need to know a city, ask the rats."

He mentions Marcus here and there and uses his teachings to solve problems. That is because those teachings must have some value, right? If they don’t, then Mercury’s life means nothing.

The nature of Cinder and Mercury’s foiling is clear in their first meeting:

Like in Emerald’s case, Cinder finding Mercury calls back a moment of her past.

In particular, it parallels the murder of her adoptive family and Rhodes discovering it. Mercury, just like young Cinder, has just killed an abusive parent and is confronted by a person after the fact.

Once again, Cinder seems to act differently from the adults that let her down. Rhodes was horrified and attacked her, while Cinder praises Mercury and has him join her group.

However, she is deep down acting as Rhodes did. As a matter of fact what truly hurt Cinder about Rhodes’s reaction is that he convinced her that she is irredeemable.

The whole scene plays with the Cinderella’s allusion and inverts it:

The clock strikes midnight and just like in the fairy-tale, the magic is over. In Cinderella, the protagonist goes back to her true self and runs away not to be seen. However, in the end, the prince recognizes her through her slipper (a symbol of her innate beauty and kindness) and marries her despite her humble condition.

In Cinder’s story, midnight is when she reveals a part of herself to Rhodes. She shows all the anger and violence she has been repressing. Cinder is not a “good victim” like the Cinderella of the fairy-tale and Rhodes can’t accept it. Not only that, but he negates Cinder’s dream to be free:

Rhodes: You can run, but you’re going to be running for the rest of your life.

Cinder: I won’t have to run now.

Rhodes: That’s all you’ll ever do.

This shatters Cinder’s hopes and self-perception. She internalizes that she will have to live in opposition to society because she is somehow “a bad person”. She is not a huntress (a princess), but a nobody who’ll have to use violence to survive. And she starts doing it immediately. As the song that starts playing implies, she has been awaken from the “fragile lies in bones”. However, this “truth has broken her soul in two”. This wound is still there and it has influenced, among other things, her reaction to Mercury.

When Cinder meets Mercury, she associates him to his father three times:

Cinder: And you're his son. We saw your fight from the treeline. He's taught you well.

Mercury: Guess so.

Cinder: What's your name?

Mercury: Mercury.

Cinder: Mercury... Tell me, are you anything like your father?

In this way, she strengthens the connection Mercury tried to cut by killing Marcus. She is indirectly convincing him that he can’t be different from his father:

Tyrian: All you ever learned was pain and violence, and now you're too afraid to leave it. Such a tragedy.

Tyrian spells it out clearly for both Mercury and the audience. The only reason Mercury joined Cinder and is now working for Salem is that he is scared. Not only is he scared for his own survival, but he is scared about failing to be anything else than what his father taught him.

Cinder is deep down scared too by Salem and her group:

However, she too, like Mercury, has given up on being anything different than a criminal. She puts up a strong demeanor, but is actually really frail. She is like glass that has been bended through heat (violence) and can easily shatter.

Both Mercury and Cinder are two violent victims. This duality is kind of conveyed also through their names and colors.

“Cinder” is something that has only partially burnt. They tried to reduce her to ashes, but failed and a part of Cinder is still burning. This is why her main colors are black and red. She is black because she was burnt. She is red because she can burn. She was both hurt and has hurted others.

Similarly, “mercury” is a silver/gray metal and this is Mercury’s main color. This choice gains a possible deeper meaning when one considers that his aura is white and that his surname is Black. His aura can be seen as Mercury’s nature, while the surname “Black” is a symbol of the “nurture” he received. Mixing these two factors made so that Mercury turned out like he is (a gray character).

So, Cinder and Mercury have been shaped by their abuse and this is clearly visible on their bodies as well:

Cinder keeps the scar on her neck hidden, while Mercury has chosen to weaponize his missing legs.

It is telling that Mercury made of his own mechanical legs his weapon and that he mostly uses kicks to fight. It is another detail that shows how he is reducing both himself and his trauma to weapons he can use.

Cinder too shows how frail her sense of self is through weapons. It is not by chance that her current weapons are made of glass. In her backstory her swords were a symbol of her true self and of who she could become. Right now, they are nothing, but glass imitations of that ideal.

In short, Cinder and Mercury are both victims and murderers and they needed to have both sides of themselves accepted by their mentors.

However, Rhodes and Cinder failed to do so. They both refused the victimhood of the child in front of them, but they did so in opposite ways.

On one hand Rhodes refused Cinder’s violence and its reasons. He ignored his feelings of affection for the girl and steeled himself, so that he could fight her.

On the other hand Cinder gladly accepted Mercury’s violence and groomed him (Scorching caress), so that he would completely embrace it too.

The difference between Rhodes and Cinder lies in them having different reactions to the violence perpetrated by a child. However, they both fail to address the child’s pain. Rhodes does so because his vision is too black and white. Cinder does so because she is not even able to address her own pain.

However, both Cinder and Mercury need to address their own victimhood. Still, they refuse to do so because it would mean to accept their vulnerability. It is easier to convince themselves that they are the strong and violent ones. They are the ones others are scared of:

Mercury: We're the guys you should be afraid of.

But it is precisely because of this refusal that they are currently caught in dynamics similar to the ones they escaped:

Salem and Tyrian are nothing, but more dangerous versions of Madame and Marcus.

Salem treats Cinder as a pawn, rather than a person. She strips her of her personhood and agency and punishes her violently.

Tyrian is a killer, who enjoys his job like Marcus. He keeps invading Mercury’s personal space and threathens him. Moreover, his own semblance is similar to Marcus’s. It might not steal people’s semblances, but it still messes with their auras (with their very souls).

Cinder and Mercury struggle to recognize their own situations because to do so they must accept they are still stuck in their horrible childhoods:

Mercury: You may not like it here without Cinder, but I think I'm right where I'm supposed to be!

Cinder: I don’t serve anyone. And you wouldn’t either, if you were built that way.

However, this refusal is confusing them about what their true needs and wishes are:

Cinder: I want to be strong. I want to be feared. I want to be powerful.

Mercury: So what's in it for me?

In Beginning of the End both characters receive a line where they express some kind of wish.

As stated above, Cinder’s wish is not her original one, but a twisted version because she thinks she can’t reach her true desire.

When it comes to Mercury, he is not even sure of what he really wants. This is made clear even later on:

Emerald: I mean, there has to be something you want from this, right?

Mercury: Salem's promised us everything. We win this thing for her, we'll be top dogs in her new world. What more do you want?

He says Salem will give him all he wants, but he still fails to answer Emerald’s question. What is it that he wants?

He wants “everything” Cinder can offer him and later on “everything” Salem offers him. However, this is just another way to say he’ll take anything he is given, be it even something as basic as survival:

Mercury: Look, even if what he said was true, we can’t stop Salem. You told me yourself, Hazel tried. He failed and he got in line. Big guy’s not going to pick fights he can’t win, and neither should we.

This is because Mercury is so scared and hurt he can’t even start to think about what he wants.

Similarly, he goes back to a fatalistic vision of the world:

Mercury: Just made sense.

Emerald: It made sense?

Mercury: All my life, my father trained me to be a killer, an assassin like him. And then moments after I killed him, you two showed up looking for someone with my exact skills. Just felt like it was meant to be.

Let’s highlight that Cinder does the same:

Pyrrha: Do you believe in destiny?

Cinder: Yes.

Cinder: You know, Neo, someone once asked me if I believed in destiny. And I'm happy to say I still do.

Both Mercury and Cinder have convinced themselves that there is a “destiny” written for them and that they must play that role (the role of an assassin, the role of the Maiden). However, in this way they are just chaining themselves and accepting to Do As They Are Told by adults and mentor figures, who do not really care about them.

EMERALD + MERCURY = SOUL + BODY

I'm the one That was born in a nightmare a murderer's son Got no gun But I gleam like a blade and I'm harder than iron I'm the one Who rose out of filth and was loved by no-one Delusion I'll steal til your blind and defeat you from inside your mind

I'm the one That was ripped from the earth and exposed to the sun Overrun By the hate and the beatings defiled by a father I'm the one I'll race with your eyes and you'll never outrun Illusions Will conquer your mind and will make you fulfill my design

Mercury and Emerald’s song says several things about them.

First of all, it conveys the idea of two kids that feel let down by the world and have decided to retaliate. They mock their opponents and praise their respective abilities. However, it is clear from the verses above that it is just a mask to hide their pain.

This fits with them appearing for the first time in Best Day Ever where Ozpin says this:

Ozpin: And they will be, but right now they're still children. So why not let them play the part? After all, it isn't a role they'll have forever.

Differently from out protagonists (at the time), Emerald and Mercury are not playing the part of kids, but they are acting as big bad thugs to prove themselves to the people around them.

Secondly, the song is useful to explore Emerald and Mercury’s foiling.

I'm the one Who rose out of filth and was loved by no-one Delusion I'll steal til your blind and defeat you from inside your mind

I'm the one That was ripped from the earth and exposed to the sun Overrun By the hate and the beatings defiled by a father

Emerald was never given love, while Mercury was given hate:

Mercury: I'm sorry you didn't have a mommy that loved you, but I had a father who hated me!

This difference is at the root of their different personalities.

On one hand Emerald attaches herself to the care Cinder gives her and takes it as the most love she’ll ever receive.

On the other hand Mercury is just content with not receiving hate and violence from the people around him.

Emerald is more open about her connections with others, while Mercury is more disillusioned. She is strongly driven by them, while Mercury is too scared to fully embrace them.

Emerald has clear wishes, but she is deluding herself about them. Mercury has fears that do not let him realize what he wants.

This difference stems from the different nature of their traumas. Who was never given anything accepts whatever they are offered, while who received pain thinks even nothing is better than more pain.

Still, we are currently seeing an inversion of this dynamic. Emerald’s wishes and their not overlapping with reality are making her doubtful. Mercury’s fear and survival instinct are making him refuse the truth:

Mercury: And all of this is pointless, anyway. Salem’s not ending the world.

In the end, facing one’s own feelings, being them wishes:

Or fears:

Is still better than repressing them, even if it might be painful.

I'm the one That was born in a nightmare a murderer's son Got no gun But I gleam like a blade and I'm harder than iron

I'm the one I'll race with your eyes and you'll never outrun Illusions Will conquer your mind and will make you fulfill my design

The song I’m the One has four key verses. In the first two ones both characters tell a little of their past and then discuss their abilities, while in the other two Mercury mostly talks about his past and emphasizes it, while Emerald highlights her semblance more.

This ends up foreshadowing the importance of Emerald’s semblance and Mercury’s lack of one (”got no gun”).

Emerald’s semblance is important on different levels. As stated above, it perfectly embodies Emerald’s flaw:

Mercury: You're in denial.

And it is linked to unconscious aspects, like wishes and fears. Finally, it is a semblance linked to trickery and lies and these are among the causes of The Fall of Beacon:

Cinder: Our Kingdoms are on the brink of war, yet we, the citizens, are left in the dark.

It is not by chance that this semblance specifically has been so instrumental in Cinder’s plan, after all.

Similarly, Mercury’s lack of a semblance is one of his defining traits:

Mercury: He never went easy on me! Every day of training was a beating. And when I unlocked my Semblance, he stole it with his!

Ironically, this would make for an excellent narrative objective for Mercury’s character. However, he is so sure his semblance can’t be taken back that he has completely given up on it. This even if he is clearly bitter about having had a part of himself stolen.

The key aspect here may be that Mercury has failed to get his semblance back through his father’s teachings:

Mercury: He told me I could have it back when I was strong. So I got strong, but I never got it back!

And he is now considering it lost forever. It is possible that the path to find his ability again is instead another one altogether.

That said, while Cinder mostly used Emerald’s semblance in her plan, she also made great use of Mercury’s skill and of the peculiar nature of his body:

The first step in her plan, after all, uses both Emerald’s semblance and Mercury’s prostethic legs to spread negative emotions. This tendency continues in PvP where Emerald uses her semblance and Mercury, unhurt because of his legs, prevents Ruby from interrupting the fight.

In short, Emerald mostly relies on her semblance, while Mercury mostly relies on his legs and fighting prowess.

This detail adds to the idea that Emerald and Mercury have been acting as a unit and have been complementing each other. Emerald acts as the “soul” and Mercury as the “body”.

The soul is one’s personal essence (like the semblance). It is where (once again) wishes reside. The body is what protects the soul and is animated by instincts and self-survival.

They complement each other. This complementarity is shown in Emerald and Mercury’s fights.

In the Vytal festival, Mercury takes on both Coco and Yatsuhashi for a short while, so that Emerald can size her chance to fight Coco at her own terms (and she wins by using her semblance).

In the Battle of Heaven, Emerald uses her semblance to help Mercury fight and, in a sense, she compensates for his lack of one:

This perfect complementarity used to make them strong, but right now it is clear that it has become limitating:

Blake: When you’ve been at someone’s side for so long, after a while they become a part of you. But that’s just it, they’re only a part of you. Don’t forget about the rest.

This is why they are currently being separated by the narrative.

On one hand Emerald must learn not to be so emotionally dependant from others and must make her own choices. This is also why her using the lamp might be meaningful:

Qrow: This last great creation would be given the power to both create and destroy. It would be given the gift of knowledge, so that it could learn about itself and the world around it. And most importantly, it would be given the power to choose, to have free will to take everything it had learned and decide which path to follow - the path of light or the path of darkness.

The whole point of the relics (and of the journey we are going through) is to learn about the world, about creation and destruction, so that in the end a choice can be made.

This is why the first relic we saw is the relic of knowledge. Now, Emerald is a character that has been dependant on others, so that she could realize her wishes. Aladdin itself is a story about a character depending on a Jinn to make his dreams come true. However, it is possible Emerald’s arc will be different and it will be about gaining the knowledge to act and realize one’s wishes.

On the other hand Mercury must face himself and learn what he really wants. He must start living instead of simply surviving. In a sense, he must take the soul his father stole back.

Mercury quoting Marcus: "This is a crutch!" "This makes you weak!"

Marcus was wrong. One’s individuality (semblance) does not make them weak. If anything, Marcus’s abuse of Mercury made him need a literal crutch (since he lost his legs) and the boy is still hiding behind this violence to avoid any real choice about himself. This is what prevents him from becoming strong:

Yang: You might be powerful, but that doesn't make you strong.

Raven: Who do you think you are, lecturing me?! Standing there, shaking like a scared little girl?!

Yang: Yeah, I'm scared. But I'm still standing here!

His connection with Emerald might still play a role in this. After all, Mercury is, among other things, the god of thieves and this allusion has been played with by making him protective of Emerald (whose surname means “thief”). It might be used in a deeper and more meaningful way later on.

Emerald and Mercury must grow because if they don’t, they’ll end up as their dark foils:

Both Hazel and Emerald ended up joining Salem out of a feeling of love that was twisted. Emerald joined Salem because of her loyalty to Cinder, who is using her. Hazel joined Salem because of the death of his sister that he blames on Ozpin. Their semblances are even symbolic of their respective flaws since Emerald is caught up in her own delusions, while Hazel is unable to properly grieve, so he can’t “feel pain” on more than just the physical level.

Both Mercury and Tyrian are assassins and Tyrian is who Mercury might become if he truly chooses to live only to kill and does not find a different goal.

It is also telling that both Emerald and Mercury are currently put in similar circumstances as their two foils. As a matter of fact Mercury is leaving with Tytian, while Emerald and Hazel have been given the password to use the lamp and must choose what to make of this information.

At the same time, Emerald and Mercury have also some traits of respectively Tyrian and Hazel as well.

Emerald is fiercely loyal to Cinder like Tyrian is to Salem:

Tyrian: So devoted to someone so incompetent.

Hazel wanted to protect Gretchen (and is still acting on these unfulfilled feelings of protectiveness) like Mercury is trying to protect Emerald. Moreover, Gretchen and (probably) Emerald’s choice was/will be to fight an enemy that can’t be beaten, going against Hazel and Mercury’s wishes.

All in all, Emerald and Mercury have had interesting interactions with both Hazel and Tyrian that can be (ironically) seen as two incomplete and flawed mentor figures.

On one hand Hazel has been acting as a protector of sorts. He carried Emerald when she lost consciousness after the Battle of Heaven and he tried to protect both Emerald and Mercury from Salem’s rage after their failure.

On the other hand Tyrian is seen tormenting the two kids whenever he gets the chance. That said, he ironically ends up spelling out for them truths the two must face:

Tyrian: Do what makes you happy children... please? I'm begging you...

Tyrian: Of course she is! You’re surprised? Salem is destruction incarnate! Our mistress wishes to see the end of it all! There is no ideal more beautiful.

In short, some kind of interesting foiling seems to have been set-up for the four of them and it will be interesting to see if/how it develops.

MIDNIGHT = BEGINNING OF THE END

In a sense, when the clock stroke midnight it was the beginning of Cinder’s end because she entered a spiral she has not been able to stop since then. Not only that, but she has dragged other people in that same spirals and those people are now struggling against it, just like her.

At the same time, midnight signals the end of illusions and that may be a fitting description for where we are in the story so far.

Ruby has just announced the existence of Salem to the world, Emerald is uncovering several truths about Salem, Cinder and herself and the Ace Ops are being forced to face their emotions. Of course, when some illusions end, new ones appear. However, it is clear we are in a pivotal moment, which will hopefully lead to some changes.

Similarly, Cinder, Mercury and Emerald will probably go their own ways soon and it will be interesting to see how their paths will foil and where they will meet again.

As for now, it seems that because of Emerald’s allusion to Aladdin, she might use the last question to Jinn. If so, she will probably aquire knowledge and wisdom (emeralds are the stones of wisdom apparently).

Mercury will probably spiral a little bit as for now, but I wonder if he will receive some pivotal focus in the Vacuo’s volumes. Other than him going there with Tyrian, there is also the fact that it would make what is currently just a juxtaposition with Penny (thank you, @hamliet for noticing) a more interesting foiling.

Penny is an artificial human, a creation who was given life because her father loved her so much that he sacrificed a part of his aura for her... twice. She is at the centre of the theme of creation and it represents the good sides of it. She is a creation with a soul, a child, the fruit of parental love. It is because of the love she received that she is willing to protect creation:

Penny: That is not… I choose to fight for people who care about me.

Penny’s arc is about self-actualization. She struggles to be her own person outside her role, her purpose and even her parent. However, even if she has been objectified and keeps being objectified, she has also been given affection and this is why she fights.

Mercury is her opposite. He was the target of his father’s violence. Marcus not only stole his legs (while Pietro built Penny a body), but even a part of his soul (while Pietro gave Penny a part of his). He taught Mercury hate and violence and this is why he is currently helping a witch to destroy the world. Because of this, it would be interesting for such a character to receive focus on the volumes about destruction.

Finally, Cinder, as the Fall Maiden, is linked to the theme of choice. This has already been explored a little bit in her being obessed by destiny, as said above. However, the theme of choice is one which must still be fully explored.

In particular, there are several references to choice and destiny when it comes to Cinder’s foil aka Pyrrha:

Cinder (about Pyrrha): Hmm... People assume that she's fated for victory, when she's really taking fate into her own hands.

Cinder: It's unfortunate you were promised a power that was never truly yours.

Pyrrha: When I think of destiny, I don't think of a predetermined fate you can't escape. But rather... some sort of final goal, something you work towards your entire life.

Red-Haired Woman: She understood that she had a responsibility... to try. I don't think she would regret her choice, because a Huntress would understand that there really wasn't a choice to make. And a Huntress is what she always wanted to be.

Pyrrha’s arc is about making a choice. She must choose if she wants to become a Maiden. She struggles, but in the end she accepts this responsibilty. She embraces her idea of destiny and tries to be a Maiden even without powers.

Cinder’s idea of destiny is not fully explored. In a sense, just like Pyrrha, she has taken destiny in her own hands. However, she also seems to use the idea of destiny to nurture her self-image as the Chosen One and as the Worthy One.

At the same time, Pyrrha’s choice led to her tragic death. Not only that, but in the end her death accomplished little. Even Ruby activating her silver eyes has more to do with her wish to protect life, rather than with death. Why is that so? It is probably because Pyrrha’s choice was made without knowledge. She had been explained only a fragment of the truth, while the whole point is that one should learn, meet creation and destruction and then make a choice. This is why we have yet to meet the relic of choice.

My guess is that the theme of choice will mostly be explored through Cinder’s character, who will be asked to choose her destiny in the end.

#rwby #rwby meta #cinder fall #emerald sustrai #mercury black #my meta

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fantastic-rambles · 3 years

Text

Random BSD Thoughts: “The Untold Origins” and The Decay of Angels

WARNING: Spoilers for “The Untold Origins of the Detective Agency” LN (Brief spoiler for Chapter 91 near the end.)

So I’m still plodding my way through the light novels and making notes on the various things that catch my interest. For those who have read the third novel, saying that I’m going to discuss the Decay of Angels in relation to it might seem odd, but there’s a method to my madness (in my own head, at least).

Right now, we’ve been introduced to the five members of the Decay of Angels in the manga, which seems to have rounded out the group. And the light novel, as the title suggests, refers to events that happen a long time before the events of the manga. But I think that the novel could be hinting toward the existence of the Decay of Angels even back then, with Ranpo and Fukuzawa briefly catching its tail.

(My thoughts/reasonings are pretty tenuous, so there’s a very good chance that I’m wrong/will be proved wrong since I’m no Ranpo who can solve a mystery by looking at it, but this is just where my brain went and I felt like sharing. xD)

“V” and the Decay of Angels?

(I’ve learned how to use headers instead of having enormous walls of text, go me!)

The lines that caught my attention and sent me spiraling down this rabbit hole are these, which appear near the end of the light novel:

Behind it all was a domestic underground syndicate known as “V,” whose goal was to rid the country of skill users.

And the battle against them was only beginning.

Of course, it doesn’t name the Decay of Angels explicitly, but there are a few things just in the first line that caught my attention:

They are a domestic syndicate. Of course, the Decay of Angels (currently) has skill-users from several different countries, but their leader is very much Japanese. And maybe back then, they were primarily Japanese, with Fukuchi recruiting the others in the years since (more on this later).

“V”: the Roman numeral for 5, which could refer to the five “signs” of the impending death of an angel (one of which is the “lack of delight in their heavenly seat” or something along those lines that the ADA fulfilled--I think I’m mixing up the Mouryou no Hako description with the BSD description, but you get the point). It could also refer to the number of members, but I find that unlikely given that “V” does seem to have more than five people at this point in time.

Their goal, to rid the country of all skill users: isn’t that literally what Fyodor wants to do? Though on a slightly larger scale, as he apparently wants to rid the world of them altogether. But again, if he were recruited later, that would have provided him a strong incentive to lend his support to the DoA.

We also learn that this organization is willing to use any methods in order to achieve their goals, which is rather reminiscent of the methods of the DoA, especially Fukuchi orchestrating an enormous terrorist plot in order to gain control of an international, non-affiliated army and destroy all of the countries.

Plus, the member of the organization who is caught by Fukuzawa and Ranpo is a police officer, Jun Mitamura. Was he an early member of the DoA or the Hunting Dogs under Fukuchi? Yes, he doesn’t seem to be a skill user, as is the case with both organizations now, but it’s also established that back then, the knowledge of skill users wasn’t well-known, and the government seemed to be trying to collect them. So I don’t think it’s unreasonable that some of the earlier iterations of the groups might have had non-skill user members, and it would make most sense to recruit them from law enforcement and/or the army.

To prevent him from talking after he was captured, Mitamura was stabbed by a blade that disappeared (as was Kurahashi); I don’t know when Fukuchi obtained Amenogozen, but it certainly seems like something he could have done if he did have it then. Especially since he was also affiliated with the military (and maybe was starting to get a reputation?) and could probably walk around a police station/jail without raising suspicion.

Angels in the Light Novel (an aside, mostly)

Another interesting tidbit is that “angels” feature prominently in the story, most particularly in the play that is performed early on that has a minor mystery for Ranpo to solve, including the death threat that is received:

An angel shall bring death, in the truest sense of the word, to the performer. - V.

Although this is part of the plan to fake Murakami’s death, it seems clear that “V” and Murakami and/or Kurahashi were in contact in order for this note to be written. After all, it would be a wild coincidence for them to have randomly chosen “V” to be the anonymous sender of the letter and then for this organization “V” to show up later in the novel.

Of course, the “angels” in the play don’t actually have great bearing on the story (as far as I can tell), and the depictions of skill-users in the play are considered inaccurate/dramatized in general (again, since they’re not well-known about at this point), but it is noted that it’s very unusual to include them since they’re generally considered some sort of urban legend. But if “V” had a hand in writing the play through Kurahashi, they could have provided information about skill-users (possibly to pique Natsumi’s interest and get him to show up?) as well as influenced the theme of the angels.

Overall Timeline of Events

So with this information, I’ve organized a rough (theoretical) timeline of events for the development of the Decay of Angels. Starting from three facts:

14 years ago (prior to the present shown in the manga), Fukuchi joins the army and comes to hate war.

12 years ago, the ADA is founded.

8 years ago, Fukuchi defeats Bram Stoker and forces him to join the DoA.

Presumably, around those 14 years ago, that’s when Fukuzawa left the army/being a government assassin and found employment as a bodyguard instead. But Fukuchi did join the army and was caught up by the horrors of war, which led him to start forming plans to destroy all of the countries and establish world domination. So by the time Ranpo meets Fukuzawa two years later, possibly Fukuchi has formed a proto-Hunting Dogs/DoA organization that is called “V” with his charisma and growing fame.

Then, in the following years, he goes on being the world’s hero, fighting against highly skilled and dangerous skill-users. With his reputation and image of reliability, trust in him grows and he’s able to freely go almost anywhere, which would give him opportunities to meet and recruit people like Fyodor and Gogol. Gogol seems to be close friends with Fyodor, so they probably came as a package, while Fyodor may have agreed to the cooperative relationship so that he could get the Book and erase skill-users, while Fukuchi would be able to benefit from Fyodor’s malicious and thorough ability to devise complex plots to achieve their goals. Also:

MANGA CHAPTER 91 SPOILER: “One Order” is apparently an ability that “frees soldiers [people] from the yoke of sin”/takes away their guilt (over committing murder). Sound familiar??? This might just be a coincidence, though. But if Fyodor is also interested in this, it could further explain why he joined up with the DoA.

But not all of the collaborators are working with Fukuchi willingly, as is seen by Bram Stoker. But when he defeated Stoker, Fukuchi clearly thought that he would be useful (either his own idea, or possibly Fyodor’s if they’re working together by that point) and kept him secretly for 8 years. So this is a plan that’s been in the works for a very long time and only coming to a head now, since the ADA has grown enough to be able to realistically pin the terrorism accusation on them.

Miscellaneous Thoughts

How does Fukuzawa get his ability of “All Men Are Created Equal”? If he does have this ability, at the very least, he doesn’t recognize it at this point of his life. Possibly it’s again due to the dearth of knowledge/interactions with skill-users (especially any that would be under his leadership since he’s very much a lone wolf), but is it actually possible to develop a skill later in life as is mentioned in the play, and which Fukuzawa uses to convince Ranpo that he’s a skill-user? (I’m inclined to think not, and that it just becomes applicable after he establishes the ADA and skill-users join, but still curious.)

Little Oda! When the assassin with two pistols showed up, I hoped he was Oda, and he was! Which means that Ranpo and Oda met (ish) before Oda decided to stop killing, and again when Oda decided to start killing again. And Little Oda still likes curry. D:

#bungou stray dogs #bungo stray dogs #bsd #bsd light novel #bsd decay of angels #bsd hunting dogs #fukuzawa yukichi #yukichi fukuzawa #edogawa ranpo #ranpo edogawa #fukuchi ouchi #ouchi fukuchi #random thoughts #analysis #mine

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thephantomessoftheopera · 3 years

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Notes on Gaston Leroux’s “The Phantom of the Opera” - Chapter 13: “Apollo’s Lyre”

Image of the Apollo statue on the rooftop of the Palais Garnier from Wikimedia Commons

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The chapter “Apollo’s Lyre” constitutes the basis for the “rooftop scene” between Raoul and Christine in the ALW version, but in the book, it is really all about Erik. It’s quite possibly the most important chapter in the novel because we meet our title hero face-to-face for the first time, and because Erik overhearing Christine‘s plan to escape provides a turning-point for the plot.

The symbol of Apollo's Lyre is not only present in the Apollo statue on the highest point of the rooftop (that Erik is supposedly clinging to here), but also adorns the chandelier both in the Palais Garnier and in the original production of the musical.

At the end of the preceding chapter, Raoul had vowed to take Christine away, but she is still at war with herself about the idea. She wants to leave because she is afraid, but at the same time, warns Raoul that he will probably need to force her to leave since she isn’t emotionally ready to let go:

““But if I refuse to go with you when the time comes for you to take me away, you must make me go!” [...] she spoke these words with a forcefulness that seemed to be directed against herself.”

Every time Raoul offers to take her away right then and there, Christine refuses with an excuse of why it’s not possible to leave just now. Yet she is afraid that the next time she goes to Erik, she may never leave again. Erik seems to make her feel very deeply - but too much feeling can be very terrifying, especially if it’s a wild ride on that emotional rollercoaster of ecstasy, horror, pity, despair and passion that he sends her on. It’s no wonder she rationally wants to get out before it consumes her, and yet is afraid of losing it.

While she begins telling Raoul the whole story from her perspective, they repeatedly think they hear sighs, but still remain in the same place. This is a bit odd, considering how they kept running around before, but now, Christine insists that they stay, which is a bit curious. It is possible that she thought they were safe - but considering her general unwillingness to leave, I think it is even possible that she might be subconsciously sabotaging her own escape plan.

When Christine speaks about how she first met Erik, it becomes clear that masquerading as the Angel of Music was not initially Erik‘s idea. When Christine heard Erik in her dressing-room for the first time three months ago, he sang and spoke to her like a real man, except that he had this beautiful angelic voice and was hiding in the passage behind her room, so that he could not be seen. The first person to suggest that he might indeed be the Angel of Music is Mama Valerius, who prompts Christine to ask Erik if he is the Angel her father had sent for her. Erik jumps at the opportunity presented to him and confirms that her assumption is correct, and asks if she will let him teach her. She consents, and together they make amazing progress, developing both Christine’s technique and her inspiration to hitherto unknown heights.

One day, Christine sees Raoul at the Opera, and eagerly tells Erik about it. I bet he bitterly cursed himself then for passing himself off as an Angel, leaving enough space in Christine’s heart for a real man. But his threats to leave cause her to despair and to try to ignore Raoul - also because a marriage to him would be out of her reach anyway. Now it’s Erik’s turn to whine and accuse Christine of being in love with Raoul in the same way we’ve seen Raoul do before. But just like with Raoul, she won’t have that and even challenges Erik that she will ask Raoul to accompany her to Perros. According to her, Erik’s jealous reaction made her realize that she loved Raoul. I wonder if madly jealous Raoul also made her realize that she might possibly be just a little bit in love with two very different men?

Subconsciously, she seems to kind of know already that Erik is not really an angel, because when the chandelier falls, she is half-mad with panic and terribly afraid that it may have killed “the Voice” (and it would be a bit difficult to kill a heavenly being even if you dropped a chandelier on it). She also admits that then, Raoul and Erik were both “the equal halves of her heart” (and I think they still are, beneath all the complications that have arisen in the meantime). She runs to her dressing-room because that is where she is most likely to find “the Voice”, and when she hears the sounds of Erik singing and playing the “Resurrection of Lazarus” on his violin, she follows his voice through the mirror without being able to say how exactly she disappeared through it. She suddenly finds herself being gripped by a man in a black cloak and a full-face mask and tries to fight back, but then faints. When she wakes, she is resting on the ground near a fountain, and Erik is gently tending to her, but doesn’t reply to her questions so as not to give himself away as “the Voice”. Christine recognizes César the horse, and realizes that even though she never believed in the ghost, she had heard the rumours about him stealing the horse.

Erik takes Christine to the house by the lake, first on César’s back (that’s what he needed the horse for, after all) and then in the famous boat (which is rowed in the novel). She is no longer terrified, but feels strangely peaceful - an effect which she attributes to the possibility of having been drugged, even though she admits that at the same time, she was still in full possession of her senses.

“Lake Averne”, the name of the lake under the Opera House, is a play on words as well as meaning. First, “lac averne” is almost the same as “la caverne”, which means “the cavern”. There is also a real lake named “Lago d’Averno” in Italy, and in Roman mythology, that lake is one of the entrances to the Underworld. This fits with the fact that Erik also bears characteristics of Charon, the ferryman to the Underworld, whose name can be literally translated as “with glowing eyes”. The iconic boat ride certainly resembles the passage into the Hades, which is even alluded to in the novel.

The water tank below the Palais Garnier. Image from atlasobscura.com

Let’s stay in the Underworld for a moment. “The Phantom of the Opera” can also be seen as a variation on the story of Hades and Persephone (Christine’s ship in “Love Never Dies” is not called “Persephone” for nothing). Hades, the god of the Underworld, fell in love with the young and beautiful Persephone and wanted to marry her, but as the goddess of spring, she wasn’t willing to abandon the world above and go to live in the Underworld. Therefore Hades abducted her, she finally consented to marry him and became queen of the Underworld. Due to the intervention of her infuriated mother Demeter, it was finally decided that she would divide her time between living on earth for some months every year and living in the Underworld for the rest of the time.

When they arrive, Erik sets a confused Christine down in his brightly lit drawing-room, which has been decorated with an enormous amount of golden baskets full of flowers. It is not quite clear where all the flowers come from, so I guess he bought them all for her. With a salary of 20,000 francs, he could probably afford the luxury of spending so much on flower decorations… He tells her that she is in no danger, as long as she doesn’t touch his mask. When Christine realizes that the Voice is not an angel, she starts crying. Erik then kneels down in front of her and proceeds to tell her without further ado who he is, begs her to forgive him, and lays his heart at her feet. He confesses how much he loves her, and how wrong his actions were, but that he did everything out of love for her. It seems that Erik was rather anxious to reveal the truth that he is not really the Angel of Music and end his deception, but at the same time, was waiting for an opportunity that would allow him to explain everything without the risk of her running away from him forever. Keep in mind that he took on the role of the Angel of Music for just a couple of months, not years as it is commonly assumed.

Christine then stands up to demand her freedom, and is taken aback when he actually concedes it to her, telling her that she is free to leave. But after all, she does not leave because he starts to play the harp and sing for her. The piece he is singing here is the “Canzone del Salice” from Rossini’s “Otello”, in which Desdemona laments the cruelty of love. It is often assumed that the „Otello“ Leroux is referencing here is the more famous “Otello” by Verdi, but that one didn’t premiere until 1887, while the story is definitely set before 1886. Furthermore, Rossini’s version of the “willow song” is the only one that starts with a harp solo. The song is included in the playlist, listen to it here:

https://open.spotify.com/track/25ILZhCIWIRjJVK8SqDWzn?si=U5EPiO_ySBOlIy5XvI1BGw&dl_branch=1

The next morning, Christine awakes on the couch in „her“ bedroom (aka the “Louis-Philippe room”) where Erik must have carried her after she had fallen asleep. When she can‘t get out, she suffers a fit of hysterics, although it seems that she has simply been unable to locate the door set within the wall. Erik has been out shopping for her, which is a rather cute scene when he comes back with all the boxes for her while she yells at him. He calmly tells her to get ready for lunch, and she slams the door in his face so she can take a bath in peace. She places a pair of scissors within reach so that she could kill herself if Erik “stopped behaving like an honourable man”. Her concern is understandable, being alone with the man who is madly in love with her, however it is important to note that Erik never physically forces himself on her throughout the story.

Remarkably, Erik’s house had both hot and cold running water, something that was still very rare then, which suggests that he actually lived in better hygienic conditions than most people at that time, and that he was a skilled engineer.

When she finally joins him, he tells her that she does not need to be afraid, and that all he asks for is that she will spend 5 days with him. After that, he hopes that she will come back to see “poor Erik” from time to time, shedding a few tears beneath his black mask as he speaks. He serves Christine lunch in the drawing-room, consisting of crayfish, chicken wings and Tokay wine, but he himself does again not eat or drink. From their conversation, we learn that Erik has taken on his name “by chance”, whatever that means. The meaning of the name is “sole ruler” which is quite fitting for him.

When Christine has finished eating, Erik invites her to see his room, and she doesn’t hesitate as she instinctively trusts him. Apparently Erik has a very gothic taste as far as room decorating goes, and all this also plays heavily into the death symbolism of his character. Erik sleeping in a coffin is reminiscent of vampire stories, especially because it seems to be a choice and not a necessity. There is also an organ with the score of “Don Juan Triumphant” on it, written in Erik’s customary red ink(?). Erik tells her that he started composing it 20 years ago. Christine asks him to play her something from his “Don Juan”, but Erik refuses because “some music is so formidable that it consumes everyone who approaches it”. It is quite significant that the “sing for me” motif is absent from the novel version, in contrast to the ALW version where it is very strong. Erik, in the novel, has no plans for Christine to sing any of his music. He wants her companionship and her love, and he wants to sing together with her and lose himself in their shared passion for music, but he definitely does not see her as an instrument of sorts. He did help advance her career, but not with the intention of having her perform his work.

Erik makes it clear that his own music is very different from Mozart’s „Don Giovanni“ and from “opera music” in general. “Don Juan Triumphant” can be seen as an allusion to Lord Byron’s epic poem “Don Juan” (in which, incidentally, Don Juan is sold as a slave to the sultana of Constantinople).

He sits down at the piano and starts singing the duet from “Otello” with Christine. There is of course more than one duet in “Otello”, but this one is most likely “Non arrestare il colpo/Notte per me funesta” from Act III (here: https://open.spotify.com/track/151M60b3qxzqKLDFwIVuUB?si=WX4TDWCeQVmIChqd6u7CyQ&dl_branch=1 and here: https://open.spotify.com/track/2Ep1OncGZCNR9yFevG6Pb6?si=QzG2JztuQ42MDoiVrLAaew&dl_branch=1 ) In this scene, Othello accuses Desdemona of betraying him, while she tries to convince him that she is innocent. She realizes that she has fallen victim to Iago’s plot, but Othello does not believe her and stabs her. This opera, for once, is in Italian, while most of the other pieces that appear in the “Phantom” are sung in French.

The unmasking in the novel happens while Christine is swept up in the passion of her duet with Erik. She “stepped closer to him, attracted and fascinated, enticed by the idea of dying at the center of such passion. But before dying [she] wanted to see his face…”

It’s not like she is sneaking up to him out of pure curiosity, but rather reacting to an instinctive wish to pull away the barrier between them. The scene is even more tragic because with a normal face, the passionate mood that Christine was in would have potentially led to her kissing him. But sadly, his face is anything but normal, so Christine recoils in horror instead. Erik’s reaction to the unmasking is violent and horrific as he goes mad with rage at her, even hurting his own face with her fingernails - an expression of his self-loathing. Throughout the scene, Christine seems fixated on the horror of his face more than his behaviour, though. Ashamed of himself, Erik crawls out of the room and shuts himself up in his bedroom.

“Apollo’s Lyre” by Annie Stegg Gerard

Erik’s appearance as described in the novel is indeed bordering the realm of the fantastic and supernatural. He is so stuffed with death symbolism that it is hard to take everything literally. Christine’s description makes it rather hard to see him as “real” because he seems to look like something straight out of a nightmare.

It is important to note that Erik is not just run-of-the-mill ugly, but that he is very clearly associated with death in many ways - from sleeping in a coffin and having funeral-style decor in his room to actually looking like a „living corpse“. Erik and Christine can be seen as a literal expression of the artistic topos „death and the maiden“, which especially towards the end of the 19th century associated death very strongly with the erotic (see https://eclecticlight.co/2020/01/05/paintings-for-our-time-death-and-the-maiden/ for a very good overview of the motif). Death here is usually represented as either a skeleton or corpse, or as an angel - which is very much in line with Leroux’s Erik.

”Girl and Death” by Edvard Munch

Combined with the fact that Erik‘s music creates feelings of passion, rapture and ecstasy in Christine, it is not a big stretch to conclude that Erik is associated not only with death, but also with sexuality. The duality of sex as both a life-creating and life-threatening force was acutely perceived by the people of that period. Love and death are connected, and both are represented in Erik‘s character. ALW‘s musical adaptation recognized this strongly erotic undercurrent in the story and translated it very aptly into songs such as „Music of the night“ or „Point of no return“. The way in which Christine describes her lessons with Erik - that they “awakened an ardent, voracious, and sublime life” in her, and made her live in a “kind of ecstatic dream” can also be interpreted as her romantic awakening, with all the frightening emotional chaos attached to it.

Raoul, on the other hand, is more associated with purity and propriety - which is reflected in how he views Christine, and the standards that she must conform to in his opinion.

Before seeing Erik’s face, Christine admits that she *would* have come back, but that now, she would never return because “you don’t go back into a grave with a corpse that loves you”. Note how she switches from the first person to the impersonal “you” in this sentence - “you” might not do that, but we already know she did in fact go back more than once. And she is still able to see something of the angel in him because he does not take advantage of the situation, but leaves her alone, turning to his music again.

And then, “music has the power to abolish everything in the outside world except its sounds, which go straight to the heart”. Erik starts playing the finale of “Don Juan Triumphant” where “ugliness, lifted on the wings of love, had dared to look beauty in the face”. Through the music, Christine can glimpse into the depths of Erik’s heart and soul, feel his torment and suffering, and is overwhelmed with compassion.

Once again, she is the one to tear down the wall between them. She pushes open the door to Erik’s room and asks him to show his face, sincerely thinking that she can handle it - but it turns out, she really isn’t quite able to when there’s no music between them. But she manages to put on a brave facade and lie to him about being able to look at him without horror. She despises herself for her lies, but then she also does what she must in order to be set free. Erik takes her for walks along the shore of the underground lake, and for carriage rides to the Bois de Boulogne (that’s where they ran into Raoul in Chapter 9). After two weeks, Erik finally trusts her so much that he is willing to set her free (with conditions, of course). It’s really heartbreaking when she mentions how he dared to try to make her look at him even when he wasn’t singing, like a “timid dog”. At this point, he is in her power just as much as she is in his.

When she finally leaves, she is moved more by his tears than by his threats, and his pain is what gets her to come back in the first place: “Those sobs attached me to him more strongly than I thought when I said good-bye to him.” Part of why she is afraid to leave is that she fears it will kill him if she leaves him.

At the end of the chapter, Raoul asks the fateful question that sums up the tragedy of Erik and Christine:

“You’re afraid, but do you love me? If Erik were handsome, would you love me?” “Why tempt fate, Raoul? Why ask about things that I keep hidden at the back of my mind, like sins?”

Christine’s reply along the lines of “Don‘t ask” was cut from the de Mattos translation. It clearly evidences that Christine has conflicted feelings for Erik that go beyond only horror or pity, and that she prefers to suppress them so she doesn't have to deal with them. The statement also shows that if Erik had not been cursed with his face, then things might have looked very different for him and Christine. Attentive readers of de Mattos might nevertheless notice that her next line „If I did not love you, I would not give you my lips“ evades addressing the „what ifs“ Raoul posed, but it still makes her appear less conflicted than she really is. Christine’s heart is a pretty deep ocean of secrets, and at the back of her mind, there seem to be quite a few things that she is unwilling to admit to herself, as Raoul suspected before:

“You obviously love him, and your fear, your terror - all that is still love, of the most exciting kind! The kind you don’t admit to yourself.”

I haven‘t really counted, but this must be like the fifth time that Raoul insists on his suspicion that Christine is in love with Erik, and he just can‘t get a „no“ out of her. That “no” is given very directly though when he asks her if she hates him. She kisses Raoul to prove that she loves him, at the same time telling him that the kiss is just a one-time thing („for the first and last time“). Then “the night is torn apart”, and the last thing they see is a pair of glowing eyes looking down on them from Apollo’s lyre - which are clearly Erik’s, who has overheard the entire conversation…

Image from wikipedia

Next chapter >>

#phantom of the opera #leroux phantom #lerouxreadingguide #gaston leroux #erik x christine #erik the phantom #erik in love #christine daae #the phantom of the opera #opera ghost #apollo‘s lyre #leroux #the phantom #raoul de chagny #poto

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renegadewangs · 3 years

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Van Zieks - the Examination, part 11

Warnings: SPOILERS for The Great Ace Attorney: Chronicles. Additional warning for racist sentiments uttered by fictional characters (and screencaps to show these sentiments).

Disclaimer: (see Part 1 for the more detailed disclaimer.) - These posts are not meant to be taken as fact. Everything I’m outlining stems from my own views and experiences. If you believe that I’ve missed or misinterpreted something, please let me know so I can edit the post accordingly. -The purpose of these posts is an analysis, nothing more. Please do not come into these posts expecting me to either defend Barok van Zieks from haters, nor expecting me to encourage the hatred. - I’m using the Western release of The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles for these posts, but may refer to the original Japanese dialogue of Dai Gyakuten Saiban if needed to compare what’s said. This also means I’m using the localized names and localized romanization of the names to stay consistent. -It doesn’t matter one bit to me whether you like Barok van Zieks or dislike him. However, I will ask that everyone who comments refrains from attacking real, actual people.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10

Bring on the game's credits! BRING IT! The Resolve of Ryunosuke Naruhodo part 2 is here!

Episode 2-5: The Resolve of Ryunosuke Naruhodo, part 2

This is the first time in a while that I actually want to try other options to see what happens. The 'accusation' leads to some witty banter with a frustrated Stronghart, but 'report' is one that gets a reaction from Van Zieks himself. Ryu theorizes that 'since Klint was a well-bred and fastidious man, and knowing the end was near, he might have wanted to tie up some loose ends in all of his outstanding business'. Van Zieks immediately replies that his brother had no outstanding business.

DID I JUST GET PENALIZED BY THE DEFENDANT??? Just for implying his brother might've had some loose ends to tie up? Van Zieks really hates it when people show his brother even the slightest bit of disrespect, huh? Well, it's about to get a whole lot worse. Let's go for the confession option! Van Zieks definitely doesn't take kindly to this one.

“What are you saying? Do you even realise?! A confession...about the true identity of the Professor... That, that would mean...”

He fumbled his speech, there. We've never heard him do that before. And he's gone back to that bobbing, unsteady animation halfway into the above dialogue. Ryu insists it's the only explanation that fits. The man who murdered those members of the aristocracy wasn't Genshin Asogi at all, it was the one believed to be the fifth victim, Klint van Zieks himself.

Welp. We broke him. Stronghart remarks that Pandora's box has opened at last, making it clear he already knew what we just revealed. The gallery is outraged.

We've gone from well-bred to thoroughbred, have we? Susato feels very bad for Van Zieks, but Ryu asks himself whether such a brilliant prosecutor never suspected “what his older brother really was”. To clear up doubt further, he asks whether Klint Van Zieks owned a dog. Barok doesn't intend to dodge the facts of the situation, it seems.

Not what the concept art says, but it's possible Klint owned a different, smaller dog before Balmung. Van Zieks talks about how loyal the dog was and how it wore a jewel-studded collar which was stolen from the house “some years ago now”. This implies it was less than ten years ago, and must've been kept in the house as a keepsake even after Balmung passed away. Ryu and Susato bring up that they've seen such a collar; it was Selden's loot in case 2-2. They note the fancy B emblem on it, and this is the first time we find out that Klint van Zieks was a married man. His widow's maiden name was Baskerville. It's a little odd to me that for someone who thought so highly of his brother, Van Zieks never mentioned his sister in law before now. Conveniently, it never came up for the sake of a twist, I suppose. Either way, the emblem confirms the collar they saw was Balmung's. Ryu notes there was a considerable amount of blood on the collar (nobody washed this thing?) and while it could've come from typical hunting trips, it could just as well have been human blood. With that, the gallery begins to lean towards the truth that Klint van Zieks really was the Professor himself. Stronghart seems to have realized there's no way out of this now and announces that 'they may have the truth'.

Here comes that 'true nature' thing again, just worded a bit differently. Van Zieks doesn't intend to shirk away from it, though. He's open to the insinuation that his brother was, in truth, something truly horrible. Stronghart explains that Klint attempted to fight the growing darkness in London, only to end up being consumed by it. He also admits that after the fourth victim fell, Genshin showed up at his office, putting forth the accusation that Klint was the Professor. He didn't have any evidence and needed a warrant to get some, but Stronghart refused to anger the aristocracy based on the accusation of a visiting student, so he sent Genshin away. As a result, the man headed over to the Van Zieks mansion and Klint perished. Stronghart continues to admit that he was responsible for pinning the Professor's crimes on Genshin, right down to ordering Gregson to fabricate evidence. Sure enough, the late inspector's earlier claims ring true: it seems he did genuinely believe Genshin to be the killer, but was reluctant to falsify anything until Stronghart strong-armed him into it. The jailbreak agreement was also part of Stronghart's plan; he manipulated Genshin into agreeing by proverbially dangling his 14 year old son in front of him. Van Zieks brings up one more point: that Stronghart was the mastermind behind the Reaper organization. Not only does he admit to it, he calls it a “brilliant idea” and even takes credit for how his “minions” worked tirelessly to ensure Van Zieks was never accused of being the Reaper himself. What a smarmy bumhole. He insists it was all for the preservation of law and order across the empire, and the gallery is actually suckered into falling for this ploy. It seems as if he's going to get away with his masterminding without decent consequences. Kazuma now has one more question for Van Zieks, and it's the exact one Ryu asked himself earlier; did he never have any doubts about his brother?

“My brother's sense of justice was extremely strong. Perhaps...too strong, I observed. […] During the time of the Professor killings, my brother did not appear to be himself. But it was only once. Not more. Klint wasn't the culprit. That was my conclusion at the time. And I still believe that now. […] The third victim...was the Lord Chief Justice at the time. It was he who had recognized my brother's potential and trained him as a prosecutor. No matter what the circumstances, it's unthinkable that my brother could have killed his friend and mentor!”

So here, we learn that Klint wasn't an infallible paragon of virtue in his brother's eyes. Simply by saying that his sense of justice was “perhaps too strong”, a flaw is being brought to light. Younger Barok saw that Klint's need to ensure justice was overpowering him, and he also saw that during the time of the killings, something was off about his behavior. Enough to have the younger Van Zieks consider, for a brief time, that perhaps the Professor was him. However, the death of the third victim was like a lifeline to him, a flotation device keep him from going under- or perhaps more like a straw to grasp. It offered a sort of justification to him; a firm belief that Klint would never kill his own mentor and therefore he couldn't possibly be the Professor, and Barok was wrong to ever doubt him. However, it was just a very meager excuse to put his suspicions at ease and blind him to the truth. There are, after all, plenty of reasons why Klint would kill that Lord Chief Justice if indeed he were the Professor.

So Stronghart now tries to wrap everything up with a neat little bow, saying that's all the truth they'll be able to get from this trial and he'll present himself at the Ministry of Justice for whatever sanctions are deemed necessary. Since he's the Lord Chief Justice, I can't imagine the Ministry of Justice will give him more than a slap on the wrist. However, he says just a bit too much in his closing statement and Ryu jumps on that immediately. A third page of Genshin's will was hidden from everyone! Turns out, it was a personal message to Kazuma that they never bothered to send to Japan. Governor Caidin conveniently brought it with him and the contents are read aloud after some pressuring. With this last secret message left behind by Genshin, Ryu manages to find Klint's last will and testament hidden inside the Asogi clan's sword. GASP.

Oblivious to the shenanigans playing out in the Court Record section of the game, Stronghart once again tries to end the trial and even goes so far as to say Klint was basically insane when he took his mentor's life (to which Van Zieks objects fiercely). Ryu interjects, saying he has one more piece of evidence to present. When Stronghart calls the very notion absurd, Van Zieks once again raises an objection, pointing out that “this gentleman has an uncanny habit of producing evidence at the final hour that had escaped everyone else's attention.” Which, y'know, is true. That's how Ace Attorney works. I do want to draw attention to the fact that he said “this gentleman” as opposed to “this Nipponese” or even something like “this barrister”. He considers Ryu a gentleman now! So with that, Ryu has the opportunity to shove Klint's will in everyone's face and things escalate very quickly.

Ooh, his speech faltered again. He is shook! And it gets even better when he gets a closer look at the document.

Stronghart panics and demands Ryu hands the document over to him at once. When that fails, he even tries to forcibly adjourn the trial and get everyone to clear the courtroom. If that isn't suspicious, we don't know what is. It sure is satisfying to watch him squirm. Naturally, he can't actually put an end to the trial now- not with so many people watching, so the document is read aloud. It's revealed that Genshin challenged Klint to a duel, so that he might “depart this world with honor”. Klint goes on to write that he finds himself undeserving of this honor and that “the Japanese are a truly merciful people”. So here, already, we get the final nail in the coffin for Van Zieks's entire motivation for racial prejudice and for hating Genshin in particular. Klint never thought ill of Genshin, not even in his final moments. If anything, he was grateful for being put out of his misery and being allowed to 'depart the world with honor'. Genshin's actions were not betrayal; not ever. They were merciful. (COOL MOTIVE, STILL MURDER.) What we also learn is that while Klint did indeed take the life of the first victim on his own accord, he was then immediately identified as the culprit and blackmailed into the next three killings by someone else. You guessed it, it was Stronghart! Despite his earlier panic, he now has a myriad of justification ready, talking about how sacrifices have to be made for the sake of justice and whatnot. He also explains that he was the one who pressured Jigoku into shooting Genshin in the graveyard when Drebber showed up there. He acts like Jigoku is the only one to blame, but considering Stronghart was basically screaming in Jigoku's ear, I wouldn't be surprised if this poor man pulled the trigger by accident simply because he was startled by the shouting. Stronghart was the one who decided that Genshin needed to die and forced Jigoku to act, so Stronghart is the one ultimately responsible. Naturally, Ryu and Kazuma both attempt to argue Stronghart's justifications into the ground. At one point, Stronghart plays the victim card and asks them to acknowledge his 'struggle', but Kazuma insists that this jerk has done nothing and:

WELL. Okay. Looks like we've finally convinced Kazuma that Van Zieks is a victim in this whole ordeal, as well as someone who 'acts justly'. That's a wonderful way forward. With all this out in the open, though, Stronghart offers a literal round of applause. It's true; he's “done nothing” and “merely been surrounded by fools who've acted very rashly indeed”, which means he can't be charged with any crimes. We can't even prove he threatened anyone into doing his bidding, as he says it might as well have been “bargaining”. Thing is, bargaining with someone to end a third party's life is known as “contract killing” and is, in fact, illegal. I can't find any sources to verify whether it was already illegal in 1900 England, but I can only assume so, or people would've gotten away with murders very easily. I guess the bottom line here is that we can't prove Stronghart really did extort or pay anyone to take a life, since there's no material evidence for that sort of thing, nor anyone who can testify on it. Stronghart claims that the minutes of the trial will be heavily redacted to remove matters not related to Gregson's death, in the interest of preserving law and order, as well as to protect the queen. The gallery has now turned against us as well, chanting Stronghart's name.

Here we have a singular opportunity to deviate into the closest thing to a bad ending this game series has. Anyone who remembers the iconic 'the miracle never happen' ending in AA2, or even the bad endings in AA5 where either Trucy or Athena is implied to be killed by Aura, will be sorely disappointed by this one. First, to compare... In the standard ending, no matter how far along you've gotten in the trial- including proving that Stronghart was the Reaper- Van Zieks will still be found guilty. Stronghart will utter the words that he “would like to think however misguided, [Van Zieks] acted out of a sense of justice nonetheless”, and then pronounces the poor man guilty of crimes we've already proven were never committed by him. Now, in this slightly different ending, if you run out of all your penalty points because you fail to present Harely, the dialogue is tweaked. Stronghart declares that for the sake of justice, “the only correct course of action has been unanimously acknowledged by the clear majority here present. All mention of that which has been discussed in this courtroom today will be struck from the records. Barok van Zieks – Or should I say, Reaper of the Bailey... The heinous crimes committed by your brother, Klint van Zieks, will be lost in obscurity, this time forever. May you also find peace now as you join your sibling in the eternal darkness.”

And then, just as in the standard ending, Van Zieks is pronounced guilty and the doors slam shut. So effectively, the only real difference here is that Stronghart really rubs it in our faces that Van Zieks is taking the fall as the Reaper in the eyes of the public. He knows Van Zieks isn't the Reaper- everyone present in the courtroom knows it. However, since the entirely gallery is siding with the real mastermind, the minutes of the trial will be confiscated and destroyed so that the truth will be lost forever. Neither Kazuma nor Ryu reacts to this turn of events on-screen, which is a shame. Van Zieks doesn't fight the adjudication either, he simply accepts the verdict in silence- Hang on, where have we heard that before? Genshin? And didn't Van Zieks say that so long as his death served a purpose, he wouldn't mind dying over being called the Reaper? Stronghart certainly seems to feel that Van Zieks ought to be thrown under the omnibus and sent to the gallows for the sake of minimizing crime in London.

But we're not going to let the true antagonist of this game get away with his bullshit! Time to pull Harely's ears! Cue another (S)Holmeus Ex-Machina where it turns out the entire secret trial has been livestreamed to the Queen of England through holograms. By royal decree, Stronghart is stripped of his title and will be prosecuted for his crimes at a later time. FINAL BOSS, DEFEATED.

With Stronghart out of the way, Van Zieks has some closing sentiments to offer.

“Is that my brother left this world without a word to me.”

I can see why that might bug him. Van Zieks always looked up to his brother and shielded him from disrespect even a decade after his death, but Klint in turn didn't seem to want to leave any parting sentiments for him, not even a simple farewell. That's not the case, though! Susato points out there's actually more to Klint's will than was read aloud, so let's hear it now.

“Barok, you have always looked up to me, and now, you follow in my footsteps to become a prosecutor. It is my fervent wish that my unspeakable deeds should not hinder your advancement. I ask not for understanding, for none could understand my depravity. I ask only for forgiveness. Asogi is a fine detective, and a hunter worthy of respect. He has agreed to honour my final two wishes. The first is that this document survives. The second... I cannot commit to paper. I have confessed my sins to my wife. May she find resolution in my death. With my eternal gratitude to my Japanese friend, I rest my quill.”

Imagine how different things would've ended if the will had found its way to Van Zieks shortly after Klint's death. It would've prevented so much grief and so much prejudice, because if Van Zieks had learned that Klint still regarded Genshin with so much respect and gratitude even in this situation, he would never have blamed him for Klint's death nor considered it too great a betrayal. Everything that happened was in line with Klint's wishes. As it stands now, the words in Klint's will basically serve to scold Van Zieks for his attitude and hatred these past ten years.

Yep, there we go. The final straw. He's been truly, utterly embarrassed and made to confront his mistakes. When Stronghart explains how his ambition to become Attorney General is what prompted him to silence people like Watson and Gregson. Van Zieks asks him whether he ever bothered to count the number of brilliant people he had killed. Kind of a questionable remark, since Stronghart mostly had criminals killed. We don't even know for sure whether Watson was a good person or not; he comes across as a cowardly skeeve. I guess Van Zieks is mostly talking about Genshin, but even that is... Uh...

I received an Ask a while back, bringing up the matter that Genshin appears to be exonerated of any wrongdoing when the truth of Klint's death is revealed. That despite duels being outlawed and it being literal murder, Kazuma seems to take this truth as his father's name being cleared. Indeed, going over everything we've learned so far, it feels as if the narrative has set up both Klint and Genshin, and even characters like Jigoku and Gregson, as victims of Stronghart's manipulation. The thing is, though... Both Genshin and Klint took at least one life of their own free will, Jigoku pulled a trigger twice for the sake of his own career (and recruited someone into an assassin plot), Gregson conspired with a notorious assassin to commit over a dozen murders just because his boss told him it was the right thing to do... Feeling bad about murder or resorting to it because 'the other person is even worse and needs to be stopped' doesn't change that it's murder. It doesn't seem as if Kazuma or anyone else outright says their loved ones are absolved of any responsibility/their names are cleared, but it does really come across as if the narrative wants you to forgive them. So uh... Yes. This is something the game should have properly addressed, instead of just going 'oh, these poor people, all used as puppets by the final boss'.

Anyway, (S)Holmes takes the time to remind Van Zieks that he's the defendant in this case, not the prosecutor. Our old friend Santa Judge returns for the adjudication! Turns out, he was in the gallery all along. (Was he chanting Stronghart's name too?) He talks about how the darkness of the past ten years has lifted, in part thanks to a bright young star from the East. Awww, we've completely won over the judge! Van Zieks now also has something to add.

“I had the faintest of intimations. That if British justice, so warped and twisted over its long history, was finally to know change... This might just be the man to do it. But at the time, I wouldn't allow myself to acknowledge the possibility. I couldn't overcome my hatred of the Japanese, after the circumstances of my brother's death. Mr. Naruhodo...”

He takes a flourishing bow here, an acknowledgment that Ryu is worthy of his respect and perhaps even that Ryu is superior to him, then stands up straight again for the final whammy.

Ryu is shocked and Susato is brought to tears. We did it, y'all. We've secured the full, heartfelt apology. I'm not sure there's really anything to add to this, nor anything we could want from it at this point in time. Ryu doesn't say he forgives Van Zieks for his discourtesies, but considering how hard he worked to get this guy cleared of murder, that would feel kind of out of place. The forgiveness happened long before Van Zieks apologized, or so is the implication. (Is that the correct narrative path? Not at all, but I'll get back to that in the conclusion.) So after some more closing words from Ryu, Van Zieks gets his not-guilty verdict and court is adjourned.

In the defendant's lobby, Ryu feels a bit conflicted about how this whole thing went down. Susato tries to cheer him up by saying that everything will seem much better once he sees Van Zieks's smiling face. Indeed, in most other Ace Attorney games, this would be the point where at last, an emotionally distant defendant/witness drops their walls and allows themselves to smile (or cry). Just think of Gina, Lana Skye or even Athena Cykes when she cries tears of joy during AA5's ending. Hilariously enough, Van Zieks is not one of those characters.

This is a really fun subversion of expectations and Ace Attorney tropes. And I still believe his face got frozen like that. Even so, he's got something heartfelt to say.

“For you to have risen to the level of excellence you demonstrated today... Well, it's quite remarkable.”

Sounds like a hatchet job of a compliment at first glance, but the sentiment is there. It is extremely remarkable for a foreign exchange student who's only been in the country for about 9 months- and who only spent like 2 of those as an active lawyer- to rise to such a level that he not only uncovers the truth of the current case, but of a cold case from 10 years prior, which was part of a huge cover-up. Ryu points out that he exposed a most 'unpalatable truth' in court and that he feels as if he robbed Van Zieks of something precious. Van Zieks doesn't seem to agree. He reminisces on Stronghart's words.

“But that... That was just the feeble excuse of a coward. Only those with a steadfast eye for the truth have what it takes to fight the dark forces of crime. You made fine work of establishing that fact in court today.”

So once again, he's complimenting Ryu's courtroom performance. Not only that, but he's acknowledging (in different words) the earlier sentiment that the truth needs to come out, no matter how painful. Perhaps, indirectly, he's calling himself a feeble coward as well. Ryu and Susato are proud of Van Zieks's growth, with Susato saying that surely Kazuma would be smiling if he were here. Naturally, when he shows up at that very second, he isn't smiling at all. Like mentor, like disciple! Kazuma takes a polite bow before Van Zieks and congratulates him on his acquittal. Naturally, after watching Kazuma prosecute so ferociously for two whole episodes, that doesn't feel sincere. Van Zieks asks him whether he doesn't instead want to curse him. Kazuma apologizes for his earlier behavior, which does feel 100% sincere.

“Your father, Genshin... If I had been stronger, then perhaps... I made an unforgivable error of judgment. … I can offer no excuse.”

One more apology to add to the pile! And here we once again reach that question of whether the narrative is acting like Genshin should be absolved of all blame. In a technical sense, Van Zieks wasn't wrong to prosecute Genshin, since he did seriously murder Klint. That alone is already warranting of the death penalty, so the added crimes of the Professor on top of that don't change too much. However, I don't think Van Zieks's lines truly relate to the Professor trial itself. The error of judgment, in my eyes, can also be seen as the blind acceptance that Genshin betrayed him (as well as Klint) when there was actually far more at play. This notion that Genshin was a horrid traitor who abused their trust and hospitality was then allowed to grow into an irrational hatred which festered for a decade. Regardless of whether Genshin killed Klint, the insistence that the man's true nature was that of a monster was wrong, and I think that's what he's apologizing for. To be clear, he's not apologizing for racist sentiments uttered towards Kazuma or anyone else from Japan with these lines. This purely relates to his treatment of Genshin. However, he already apologized for his many discourtesies back in the courtroom and I think the racist outbursts were part of those discourtesies.

Kazuma says he can offer no forgiveness, which is totally fair. Kazuma isn't obligated to forgive this man. He does, however, admit that he has respect for Van Zieks, since he “fought for justice and the truth”.

Awww! Remember how in my very first 'strong thought about Barok' post, I pointed out that Barok almost appears to have been designed to be Kazuma's rival prosecutor instead of Ryu's? Yeah. Here we see it very clearly. The reconciliation conversation between these two feels like a much better resolution than the conversation between Van Zieks and Ryu.

So now Kazuma brings up that Genshin promised to do two things for Klint, but the second wasn't mentioned in the will. Mikotoba shows up to share a very heartbreaking tale about Klint's unnamed widow, the lady Zieks-Baskerville, who was hiding out in Dartmoor and passed away from childbirth very shortly after Genshin was executed. The newborn baby girl survived, though! Van Zieks blurts out that that makes no sense. “Why on Earth wouldn't Klint have entrusted the child to my care in that case?!” And that alone is already kind of tragic, but what really packs a wallop is this:

This means Klint and his wife deliberately kept the pregnancy from him. It's never explained why. Genshin showed up at the manor in the spur of the moment and Klint died that very same night, when his wife must've already been around 8 or 9 months pregnant. (she gives birth about a week or two later, after all.) Klint says that he 'confessed his sins to his wife', but that also must've been very recent, if not that very same night, since Stronghart was threatening to tell Klint's wife and brother of his misdeeds. Stronghart's hold on Klint would've weakened if he'd told her the truth months ago, which in turn implies the both of them decided not to tell Barok while she herself was still oblivious to the Professor truth. Honestly, it all feels like a vague plotconvenience.

What is explained is why the newborn baby wasn't entrusted to Van Zieks. It isn't because Klint had the amazing foresight to know his younger brother would become a salty, loner alcoholic; it's because he and his wife feared the truth of the Professor might come out. Heck, if Genshin had never been arrested for Klint's death, perhaps it would've come out for certain. “The girl would be forever branded as the daughter of the infamous mass murderer.” So the baby girl was distanced from the Van Zieks family as much as possible, with all of London unaware of her existence. This girl is, of course, Iris.

Right on cue, the Harely plushie activates to receive a call from (S)Holmes and Iris. She invites everyone over to 221B for a feast and makes sure to invite “Mr. Reaper” too. He very awkwardly declines the offer.

Humanization? Humanization! He does, however, give Iris his word that he'll present himself at 221B in the near future to express his gratitude. I think a big part of why he declined the offer was because he wouldn't feel at home during the big celebration when a whole group of people is there. He'd much rather visit Iris during a more quiet, private moment and that's sweet too. Plus, I don't think he's in the mood for a celebration, considering all the horrible truths he's learned in a single day.

So now Kazuma prepares to leave and asks Van Zieks to accompany him. The wording of “would you care to-” makes it very clear this isn't a demand, it's a very soft request that Van Zieks is free to decline. Not that he hesitates for even a second. Here's some more parting words.

“I believe... You saved my life.”

He takes a deep, flourishing bow and honestly I've lost track of how many times he's praised/thanked Ryu by now. More than Edgeworth thanked Phoenix, most likely. The prosecutor duo prepares to walk away, but Ryu calls after Van Zieks, asking him to wait. Which he does. Ryu asks him what he intends to do now.

... “Prosecutor van Zieks chooses death”??? In a way, he's thinking of pulling a similar move. He intends to publicize the full truth of the Professor, and I can only imagine that includes Stronghart's involvement in what went down 10 years ago. Maybe he'll even share the truth of the Reaper who's haunted the courtroom all these years. He believes that “once that's done, the Van Zieks family will be ostracised completely from London society.” (I don't think he means living family members, but rather, the legacy of the Van Zieks name and the rights associated with it.) So because of that, he intends to leave the capital as soon as he's free of his employment. Considering how easily this man took a five year sabbatical and adding in the fact that the Lord Chief Justice just got arrested, I expect his resignation could be as easy as packing his desk and leaving his office without saying a word. Kazuma, however, calls him a fool and a coward. He basically dares Van Zieks to keep going now that he's finally freed from the pseudonym of the Reaper. Van Zieks neither agrees with the sentiment nor shoots it down, instead saying it's unexpected to hear those words from Kazuma of all people. With that out in the open, they leave for realsies.

Just as Van Zieks doesn't attend the Baker Street party, he isn't there when Ryu's at the docks to return to Japan. I like to think Kazuma did bother to tell Van Zieks that Ryu is leaving the country, because withholding that information seems like a bit of a jerk move, but... Well. Not showing up at the docks to say some final farewells is even more of a jerk move on Van Zieks's part. Though it's possible he felt he wasn't wanted there, and may eventually ask for Ryu's address so he can write a letter (which is far less imposing than invading a heartfelt farewell with a scowling face). It's a shame, though. I would've liked to hear his thoughts on Ryu's departure.

We learn that Kazuma will “stay in Lord van Zieks's tutelage for the time being” to become a full-fledged prosecutor. Which is fine, I guess. It doesn't matter whether he's a defense attorney or a prosecutor; all that matters is the pursuit of the truth. What catches my interest is that even with all that bad blood and refusal to forgive Van Zieks, Kazuma still agrees to keep studying as his disciple. This implies to me that he sincerely doesn't believe Van Zieks to be a bad person anymore, and acknowledges he can learn a lot from this man. Which is not the same thing as being on friendly terms with him, but at the very least he's giving Van Zieks the benefit of the doubt when it comes to improving their... Well, their dynamic, I suppose I should call it.

On to the credits scenes we go! This time, Van Zieks legit does get a scene of his own, but before we address this one, I want to skip ahead real quick to Albert Harebrayne's scene.

“He sent me a very nice letter saying he'd like to show me around now that everything was settled. B-But what have I done? I was so excited, I picked this splendid hotel and now I can't afford the bill! Oh Barok! Come to my rescue again, please! I, I wish I could just vanish into thin air sometimes!”

Several things of note can be taken out of this little scene. First of all, with the Reaper nonsense behind them, Van Zieks seems to have wasted very little time with asking his best buddy to return to London for that sightseeing that was promised. Presumably, he even paid for the trip (again), since Albert still seems to be very low on money. This, coupled with the fact that Van Zieks was reading that letter with quite a bit of dedication in his jail cell, indicates to me that he's longing for the good old days, when he could smile and have friends. He's trying to return to a sense of normalcy and since Albert is still considered his closest friend, it makes sense he'd reach out to him instead of a relative stranger like Kazuma. Baby steps. Now, the fact that Albert says “come to my rescue again” sets the very clear tone that this guy believes Van Zieks has helped him before- during the trial, of course. It's another reinforcement of the notion that Albert is thankful Van Zieks chose the role of prosecutor in order to defend the teleportation theory, even if it meant that he himself would be branded a murderer. Despite his gruff exterior and blunt words, Albert thinks of Van Zieks as a sort of knight in shining armor who will come save him. … With cold hard cash, in this case, but it's the gesture that counts. Van Zieks might allow Albert to stay in his mansion instead, but it depends how high the risk of assassination is at this point in time. People are probably hating on the Van Zieks family now that the truth of the Professor is out.

On to credits scene of Van Zieks himself! We have confirmation by now that he hasn't retired as a prosecutor, since Kazuma already expressed his intent to keep studying under him. So we see Van Zieks in his office, addressing Klint's painting.

“In those days, when I was known as the Reaper, I felt your presence at my side. Once, unable to bear the burden of that grim pseudonym, I even retired from the courtroom. Despite everything, I still wear your prosecutor's badge with pride. But the darkness that beset me is no more. As you, too... Are no more.”

The first two sentences of this bit feel very disjointed and barely related to me, so I had a quick look at some fan translations. First is the sub translation on Youtube: “I could feel you standing by my side through the days in which I was called the Reaper. Yet there were times I could not bear the burden of that name, and left the courtroom far behind me.” The “yet” is very crucial, since it makes the insinuation that feeling his brother's presence was very important to Van Zieks, but the burden became so overwhelming that he retired anyway. Taisa the Gamer's script doesn't have a “yet” in it, nor any equivalent, but the sentence structure still flows well enough not to cast doubt on how he felt about Klint's supposed presence. Contrasting that, the localization's wording with “even” almost makes it seem like feeling Klint's presence was a negative thing- that he was overwhelmed by it and that this was the burden associated with the Reaper name, as opposed to the killings. Which can't possibly be right; he already admitted to us that the idea of his brother's ghost helping him was one of the main reasons he kept on being the Reaper. So long story short, the localization's take on these first two lines is a little off.

The prosecutor's badge thing, however, is spot on. Despite everything- despite the 'true nature' of Klint now exposed, Van Zieks still wears the badge with pride. We know the badge is symbolical, of course. He still believes in Klint's sense of justice and he's still going to openly admit to being Klint's brother- to being a Van Zieks. That's sweet. He goes on to say that the darkness within him is no more. To really grasp what that means, let's go back to the end of case 2-3 for a second. There, Van Zieks says that after his brother's death, he found himself in “a very dark place indeed”. In case 2-4, he mentions that he refuses to trust others to protect himself against betrayal, but has now sunk into a proverbial mire which makes it impossible to breathe. All of that is the same darkness he's referring to now, I'm sure. I don't believe depression can lift this easily; there's no way that darkness is no more. However, I think what he means to say is that it no longer has such a strong hold on him that it manifests in paranoia and irrational hatred. He has a chance now to start fresh and that's what he intends to do. He's striding away from that darkness, towards a brighter future. In order for a person to change for the better, they themselves have to want to change, and it looks like Van Zieks is all for that. Which at last brings us to the conclusion of this essay series! The conclusion, which looks back on the original query posed in Part 1, will once again include a load of screencaps. To keep the post size lighter, I'm going to put it in a separate post. I hope you'll look forward to it!

#dgs #dgs spoilers #tgaa #tgaa spoilers #barok van zieks #ALMOST THERE #HHHHHHHHH

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