starf

Everytime I think about the Nursefathers my mind always goes back to Shiomi Yoru and Valencina. I don't think it's any coincidence that the two female Nursefathers are the only ones truly stuck in the House of Spiders with Yoru being literally caged to the place and Valencina being bound by the strict rules of the Thumb hierarchy.

Rien was never truly stuck there. Being part of the HoS is just a prescript to him like any other. He chose to join the Index and become Dad-GPT. He has no excuses.

Matthias doesn't even feel bound by the HoS. He's still walking around with the sword he stole after betraying his siblings, indulging in all the vices the Middle's money and status provide.

Callisto is a one-hit-wonder and has a bad reputation but the Ring isn't trying to kill him for being washed. He still has his own gallery and noone is forbidding him from creating art. He just gets no guests cuz his art hasn't changed in like 30 years and instead of evolving he keeps hitting the same key hoping it will make a different noise.

This is them to me

Meanwhile we never get to know what Valencina did to be sent to the HoS. She might have done something unforgivable and traitorous, or she might have sneezed while the Capo dei Capi was talking. In the Thumb both are punished equally. She has absolutely nothing. People outside the Thumb just see her as part of the Thumb and avoid her like the plague. People inside the Thumb see her as a pariah.

And it's not like Valencina chose to join the Fingers like the others did. From her last name it's likely her bloodline was already part of the Thumb.

On the other hand, Shiomi Yoru is just physically bound to the place. Her floor is a rooftop with no exits, guarded by a man who used to be a star of the city and has an omniscient being to snitch on whatever she tries to do to escape.

We don't know who she was, what she did, what her views on the world were, if she was this cruel from the start or if she used to be a better person.

I would've killed to see ONE canon interaction between them with Valencina sober because out of everyone there, they are the only ones that have some kind of common ground, even if it is a shared misery.