moved to @lilinka

You’re similar, of course. You are yourself in any sense of the word that matters, you have your hair, eyes and skin. You make the same jokes and tilt your head when considering the options the same way.

But there are things even Asra couldn’t teach you.

There are tics from your childhood that hadn’t carried over. Your laugh is a little different, quicker or slower to appear. There’s an inside joke that goes over your head, you don’t appear to remember details that you should and this is the tenth time you’ve asked about a recipe for this or that.

He mentions something that happened when you apprenticed under Julian and receives a blank look in return. Maybe an attempted cover up maybe not. But all the same he notices.

Of course he notices.

But there’s very few reasonable solutions to your comatose states when you remember too much.

He didn’t mean it of course. He’d never hurt you on purpose, he couldn’t have of known.

Asra was distracted– you needed something from the markets. You were healthy, it was okay to go out alone. Maybe you wanted the privacy, to prove you could, or maybe you wanted to take another weight off of his shoulders. So you went out alone with a list, coins, and a basket to put it all in.

You went to the bakery last, so it’d be warm still when you got home. You’d get Asra’s favorite, obviously. Yours too.

You talked with him while you waited for it to cook, sitting down at the table with the money at the ready. He was curious, how could he not be? You get the plague, get sent off to The Lazaret and out of everyone you come back? You’d be lucky it was him asking, and not someone angrier, someone heartbroken.

He pulls the bread out first, you put it in the basket, stand and hand the money over. Before you say goodbye he asks, and the splitting headache comes faster than you could push it back.

You fall, all your things scattering on the ground. A new pendulum, fruit and rice for breakfast tomorrow, the bread. You’re clutching your head and only just keeping yourself from screaming.

He’s horrified. He’s horrified and worried and confused. Had he done this? Was this a magician thing? He tries to help you up but by the time he does your eyes are glassy and blank. There’s no light in you. Your expression neutral, your jaw slightly slack.

Asra comes to find you but a few hours after the incident. The baker apologizes profusely, he’s kept you safe at the table, waiting. He doesn’t understand, but with Asra’s recognition of your state and his panic, he knows it isn’t uncommon and that it is serious.

He doesn’t know the cause.

But he knows it’s wrong, bad, and deadly.

Asra: A Colorful Sky: A sky full of vibrant colors that you stop and take pictures of just because you need to try and capture it, but it never looks the same in pictures. Its colors look enhanced and seamlessly blend together to make unique purples, pinks, and oranges. It’s sky that doesn’t come around often, but when it does, it’s almost like it’s performing and changing for all of its onlookers, which it knows it has.

Nadia: A Clear, Night Sky: It’s a sky so clear that you can see every star and become lost trying to count them. It’s the perfect sky for lovers to lie beneath or for a lost soul to stare at and ponder the future while an enormous moon stares back. A sky that forces you to think of missed opportunities and chances never taken or that evokes feelings you thought were buried so deep that they were finally dead.

Julian:  An Unusual Sky: A sky that is a little difficult to explain. Its clouds seem to resemble things, which sometimes those things mirror the thoughts in your head. It’s odd. In addition to that, in certain places, it looks as though the sky has opened up, and the sun is shining through. However, in other spots, the clouds are thick and dark. This kind of sky also gives no indication of season, time of day, or the weather to come. It is a confusing, intriguing, and thought provoking sky.

Muriel:  A Down-pouring Sky: The type of skies that releases an onslaught of rain that, for once, everyone welcomes. It’s the sky that appears after a drought and after it’s been unbearably hot and humid. We look forward to these skies because they restore order by cooling everything off and slowing everyone down. It’s a sky that provides the nostalgic smell of rain just before it downpours. It’s a sky that when it leaves, everything looks cleaner and greener.

Portia: Perfect Beach Sky: It’s a sky that is the perfect shade of light blue and has white, fluffy clouds that never seem to block the sun. The sun is shinning and strong but not overwhelming. There’s a light breeze that rolls over you just when you feel like you’re getting a bit too warm. It’s the sky that when you look up at it, you transport yourself to a beach. It’s the sky that you look up and see while you’re laying in the warm sand with the sounds of the ocean whispering in your ears.

Lucio:  A Summer Sunrise: A sky filled with bright yellows and fiery oranges that will become blinding in just a few minutes. A sky that is beautiful and yet so unforgiving and relentless with beaming rays that follow you until you boil and that smother you with a humidity that clings to your skin and steals your air.

Faust:  A Rain Shower Sky: A sky with a huge sun that is located directly overhead and is incredibly bright. There are very few clouds, which is why you’re shocked when it suddenly starts to pour, yet the brightness remains. There weren’t any signs, and the weather is so oddly beautiful that instead of rushing inside like you normally do when it rains, you decide to stay. It’s still warm and bright, and a little rain never hurt anyone, so you decide to stay and dance under the sun shower sky. It’s a sky that’s carefree, childlike, and a little magical.

Notes / guide to faces / whatever

What it is - basically line tracing of sprites so it would be easier for you to understand shapes of faces. Muriel and Portia can be not so accurate cause we have only ¾ view of them, so i drew side and front view by myself haha … Also Asra’s page outdated  cause we only recently got front view of him.

you ever saw a woman so beautiful you cried

your icon is so cute im dying

They would just sit there, mindlessly staring off into space. Sometimes, they would gaze at Asra and smile, like he was the light of their world. However, MC was always easily distracted, and the smile disappeared.

But the magician knew that they couldn’t live too long without proper nutrition. MC refused to open their lips. They would stare at the spoon he held out, wondering what to do with it. It broke Asra’s heart. Why bother bringing them back if they would die within a few weeks? It as if Asra was destined to suffer forever. 

He felt a flash of guilt run through him. It was his fault for what happened. 

soft

but also fierce 

my boyfriend used to make fun of me for liking The Arcana and now he is willing to voice act Slippy Boi in every chapter in Julian’s route. BUT! He wants Julian to have a russian accent, and whenever he starts a sentence he has to say “JA PIERDOLĘ” (=fuck! in polish) to adapt to a russian accent.

And im like, “That’s not even Russian! That’s polish???”

And he’s like “Yes, but it’s the only word that gets my Russian accent going, so do you want me to read this or not??”

So for a while I’ve played with the idea that Lucio and MC both represent The Fool. MC ideally being an example of The Fool upright (in the good ending anyway) and Lucio representing The Fool reversed.

Now I’ve been interested in a while by the idea of the dog in the fool card (which was revealed in book 16 but I won’t go into detail)

But now I’m thinking more about the characters and their familiars and Mercedes and Melchior have fascinated me for a while now.

And the thought occurred to me that perhaps Mercedes and Melchior are both white dogs from the fool. One should belong to Lucio and one to MC, but because Lucio is the epitome of reversed and MC is able to maintain some level of upright, both dogs gravitate to Lucio instead, trying to lead him the right way.

The thought is spurred by the fact that Mercedes and Melchior are never hostile toward MC, in fact MC is the odd one out because the two consistently try to help MC despite the fact MC is trying to get rid of Lucio.

Another interesting element is their names. Mercedes being Mercy, Melchior being light and king (leadership in a sense). 

MC is always described as being like light, while mercy is a quality Lucio obviously lacks. So it makes sense that the white dog would want to relay to Lucio that he needs to learn mercy and leadership if he wants to become the upright version of himself.

I HAVEN’T SEEN ANYONE TALK ABOUT THIS AT ALL WHY YA’LL SLEEPING ON THIS

Mc is the fool we all knew this

HOWEVER you don’t understand me when I say

MC IS ITTERALLY THE FOOL THEMSELVES

As in they ARE the major arcana themselves NOT just the representative of the card itself like the others but quite litterally the fool themselves

I repeat

THEY ARE THE MAJOR ARCANA OF THE FOOL CARD

Scout isn’t the major arcana as asra says “it’s very strange that a major arcana cannot speak” but the main figure in the fool card is not the dog but the man on the journey

The dog is the fools fateful companion who will keep him company on his journey should he get lonely

ANOTHER thing is during nadia’s route, when you are inside the tower mc tells themselves they aren’t human.

They can feel that they aren’t and nadia asks what they are going to do with her.

NOT ONLY THAT but when asra separates from mc the second time at the fountain he tells mc that the devil should not be able to come to the human relm, but he was able to anyway

alluding that it may be possible for any of the major arcana manifest in the real world by some way

BUT THE MOST DAMNING THING THAT I’VE FOUND TO SUPPORT THIS ENTIRE THING

Is the fact that the fool card in the game

Is COMPLETELY empty

The fool and the fools companion is gone, the major of the card is GONE

THE ONLY ASPECT REMAINING IS THE SUN SHINNING DOWN FROM ABOVE-

Any thanks for coming to my ted talk