Sundae Night

The smog of the late evening blanketed the city of London, covering the stars which still tried to pierce through as if calling attention to their beauty. And yet, the only one who seemed to be gazing up to look at them was a young woman with somewhat bushy but well-kept dark brown hair that complemented her rather enigmatic beauty.

Though said beauty was being masked by a heavy sadness that threatened to fall from the woman's eyes as she tore her eyes away from the stars and back onto the busy London streets. She peered into the crowd of weaving bodies, feeling both out of place and awkward in a familiar yet unfamiliar place.

How she had gotten there and why, she had no idea. Thankfully, she seemed to have retained all her memories and knew that her name was Ada, but her main concern wasn't even herself, but of the person who should've been right next to her. Glancing down at her hand which she brought up close to her face, the young woman paused to force herself to relax.

A dull slightly rusted wire curled into the sharp of a ring was fitted onto her ring finger.

Where is he? Where was her Emil?

Ada glanced around once more and felt even more helpless and lost. This wasn't quite the London she knew. While it looked the exact same, she had noticed with some amazement that magic appeared to be a reality in this world.

However, it appears that similar to some of her childhood fairy tales, magic was seen as evil as only witches who wish to bring harm to hapless victims and ruin to society.

At first, Ada was skeptical over such a supernatural force existing in such a world, but as she walked the streets, observing and listening carefully, it certainly seemed plausible. Granted, there was even talk of a society that locked up all the magic and related items within London's oldest tower, so there must be some weight to the existence of magic.

And anyway, Ada found herself leaning to believe after realizing how magic and the attitude towards it was similar to her experience with hypnotherapy. Truly, wasn't science just a part of the "magic" of her reality?

But none of that mattered right now when her beloved was missing. Ada thought long and hard about when she had last seen Emil. Nothing. Just a blank in her memories. It was almost as if whatever had happened right before she had been transported here was actively suppressing itself.

Growing increasingly frustrated and unnerved over the whole situation, Ada quickened her pace through the crowd and took some heart in clutching her whistle which was attached to a chain so as not to so easily lose it.

Brushing past those who paid her no mind, Ada was almost at her wit's end when some words from a couple gentleman standing by a news stand caught her attention.

"I heard that mongrel you bet on lost horribly to Mr. Pierce's bread and butter," a gruff yet well-groomed man spoke jokingly to the man next to him. Both looked as if they were of nobility.

"Hrrmph," his partner grunted, looking disgruntled. "Arthur had sworn up and down the mutt was capable of holding his own, but I should've known."

Ada slowly stopped where she was and with a churning stomach heavy with foreboding tried her best to appear busy with window shopping (oh my, just look at how pretty the flowers on display are!).

"Still, nothing compares to seeing an actual brat fight those mutts. Always bet on man to conquer beasts of nature," the first man was saying heartedly.

The other man laughed. "Are you sure the boy wasn't a beast himself? Heard he once attacked a guard for some scraps and acted worse than the dogs."

At this, Ada's anger flared to blinding levels which nearly caused her to blow her cover. It was surely Emil that they were talking about, those scoundrels! Those absolute wastes of space.

Ada was never one for violence despite once subjected her patients to some awfully painful treatments which she had stopped doing ages ago. And yet, a large part of her wouldn't mind going back to those ways for these dear gentlemen who clearly need some sort of psychiatric evaluation.

Just as she was about to take some action, the clock tower in the distance rang out, tolling the hour. The two noblemen suddenly stood to attention with the gruff one mentioning how they were late for the next bout. And off they went in a flurry.

Ada wasted no time tailing them, feeling slightly sick to her stomach but the tingles of anticipation of finding Emil was too great to ignore. Even if…even if she had to face finding him in a state that was worse than his worse when she had met him at White Sand Asylum.

In the end, Ada was left rather out of breath by the time the two men had reached their destination—a rather seedy looking back alley within an entertainment district. Dark and somewhat cluttered with debris and trash, it certainly wasn't a place one would expect to find the sharpest of nobles.

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It's a pretty short story but straight-forward and honestly appreciated this since back during the livestream I felt out of all the essences that were revealed for this season, this one was the "weakest" when it came to the story.

By that I mean that they didn't give us much so I was honestly kind of lost until the PV came out. Then, I still was like what's happening? lol

But I find it cool that each magic represents each character pretty well. Emil is self-explanatory. Admittedly, Vera, I need to brush up on her lore. Frederick is quite interesting and I kind of find him the most amusing (due to some jokes/memes I've seen in the community.)

Deep within the Anti-Magic Tower lies a heavily guarded room, heavily protected by a group of mindless armored soldiers. The room contains numerous magical containers of varying ages, shapes, and styles, meticulously categorized. Each container holds a magical source from ancient times. The room belongs to an ancient society called the "Balance Pact," which regularly dispatches investigators with exceptional magical discernment abilities to reinforce and inspect these containers.

On Friday, June 13th, the investigator, as usual, went to perform his duties. However, upon descending to the underground level of the room, he found the door wide open and the guards nowhere to be seen. He checked the magical containers and discovered that three, marked with CT numbers 1, 4, and 7, were missing.

Meanwhile, unnatural incidents began to occur frequently in the city. Rare flowers disappeared from the gardening event that Ms. Sinnan attended, and some of the dignitaries present did not even remember that the flower had been exhibited. The gentlemen who were watching the dog fight with Mr. Fianna in the underground arena suddenly went mad and attacked each other. The social season that Uaithne loved most had just begun, and the ladies of noble families rejected marriage proposals one after another, all claiming that they already had someone they liked.

Interestingly, when it came to his gameplay trailer, it was only Lucky Guy and Doctor who appeared. If you were here before when I talked about "Dentist's" trailer which featured Doctor and "Little Girl," I mentioned how they tend to put in lore relevant characters for the character being showcased.

For Emil, you would think Ada and Helena, but nope. Guess that's only for Game 0. Though a part of me still can't imagine Emil on all fours chasing and attacking Ada but I guess we're gonna face that reality soon enough.

But speaking of Ada, the GIF doesn't do this justice but if you listen to the sound effect made when Emil pounces on Lucky, it sounds JUST like Ada's whistle. Also, if you look at the mark above Lucky, it again resembles Ada's whistle.

That's kinda sick when you think about it...

So even like that, Ada's influence on Emil is undeniable. Anyways, with the gameplay trailer out, that means the essence trailer is just around the corner so looking forward to that!

Obviously, I’ve already talked about the fact that Florian’s real life counterpart is St. Florian, a Roman soldier who was executed for not persecuting Christians when he was actually one himself. I have also mentioned how Florian’s father introduced Florian to theology from a young age in Florian’s 1st birthday letter.

Now, this is said in passing so a lot of people overlook that fact but it’s clear that it stuck with Florian. I mean, look at him saying “miracles this” and “miracles that” in his character trailer. Miracles are typically tied to religion, specifically Christianity and more so for Catholics. White Sand Street Orphanage, by the way, the place Florian would end up after his parents died was run by the Catholic church in the area. This is evident from the appearance of nuns in his trailer and his one deduction note that refers to a nun as “Sister” a common title to address nuns.

This deduction note also implies Florian used the drugs as fuel to start the fire at the orphanage despite his character trailer not showing that.

Also, this is just a little thing but the fact that Florian’s first ever sticker in game is labelled “Pray” is something to note.

Florian is seen here making a gesture as if he's praying. This sticker came out during the Halloween event last year (more on that in a moment.)

But how does this affect Florian in the long run? Like so what if he’s religious? 

Well, it could just be a small aspect of his character and nothing more. However, I speculate that it’s a bit more complicated than that. While I don’t doubt Florian’s faith in theology or a higher power was solid in his early days, I feel as if as time went on, he grew less and less sure such a higher power existed.

See, this thought first formed in my mind when I played the Halloween event last year and Florian said this:

Most important part I think is: "Why cling to prayers for gods who've left, or to magic fading away?" and "From the very start, we never depended on magic. We can live without it...even without magic, humans can still move mountains."

It felt at odds with what I knew about him before, that as an individual who was probably religious and believed in God. And then it got me thinking, he probably did believe in a higher power. As his father had stated in his letter, it is important for people to believe in a higher power. A young Florian probably clung onto this until he was sent to White Sand Orphanage and something happened that broke that faith.

I didn't notice the first time I watched this that Florian's expression on seeing the nun tamper with the food/drinks for the children is that of shock or disbelief. Though to be fair, this GIF is slowed down to better see it too.

What was it exactly? I can only speculate that what he saw and discovered over the course of his years at the orphanage started to shake his faith until perhaps the cherry on top was the discovery of seeing the nuns drugging the children became the last straw (though naturally I assume he suspected the nuns for some time and it was seeing it with his own...eye..that he finally concluded what sort of action he should take.

But regardless, the very people who should have lived on the side of pure faith, those who prayed over the sick and unfortunate and preached goodwill, those who should have cared whole-heartedly for the well-being of the most vulnerable, ended up being the same ones who were hurting and exploiting them.

I have no idea if Florian was aware of some of the nuns' treatment towards the kids like Alice here (especially since Alice was said to have been in a separate area of the orphanage) but if he knew, that would've only added fuel to the fire. Look, you can see a nun seemingly leading the charge to antagonize a poor little Alice.

Anyways, it was probably a shock, and this is what led Florian to commit his first act of arson. And yet, he still tried his best to save everyone, even the orphanage staff apparently.

This feeling of being his own small miracle and passing forward the warmth, love, and sacrifice born from his parent’s death is possibly what led Florian to continue to indulge in such acts in order to not only cling onto the last vestiges of his parents’ memory, but be a hero. Twisted as it became, unfortunately, as it's even thought that Florian has a Hero Complex which isn’t a wrong speculation to make. 

He mentions miracles here but I've always felt there's something more behind such a sentiment especially when I noticed just how little miracles are actually mentioned by him outside of this trailer.

Going back to what Florian says in the Halloween event, I’m led to believe that him wanting to become a hero wasn’t just for selfish reasons. He had probably looked up to those nuns and Christianity and yet when it failed him, he realized it was time to take matters into his own hands to help others. 

As a man of science, I wouldn’t put it past him to believe himself capable of being the one people need in dark times where no one seemed to be coming to help—no higher authority, no God, no one who could be a light in the dark. If that’s how it was going to be, then he would step up and be that hero who could save people from these dark helpless times, from the impossible.

Despite all of this, Florian himself seems to hold no ill will nor disparages religion or believing in a higher power. In the above quote from the Halloween event, he explains things as how he sees it matter-of-factly. 

For those that didn't know, his parents in that story experimented with magic. They were not witches, but normal humans who unfortunately died due to an accident involving magic.

Interestingly, Florian himself seems to be rather adverse to magic in the story, but uses it (specifically fire magic, of course) when he needs to protect himself and the protagonist from the undead. He uses it only when needed.

The protagonist points out that Florian's thinking is a little flawed since they're in a realm of magic. Florian would go on to say that's why he still studies it as the rules of magic still appear in this place.

In COA IX which has heavy religions, specifically Christian, themes, Alice observes in her personal notes that Florian  “alone holds no deep hostility toward the Holy City.” That is rather huge if you remember that Florian is the only one who is able to see the reality of the Holy City from the start and yet, somehow, he holds nothing against the place or its Deity by extension. 

This scene above is when they arrive and already making their way through the procession. Florian is the only one in the group to look positively impressed and awed despite the mission they have to do.

So why doesn’t he? Perhaps because there would be nothing for it since what difference would it make. Or perhaps Florian himself still holds a small belief in a higher power and hopes to seek out proof of such an existence? 

Florian partially echoing what his father says in his first birthday letter. People always need something higher than themselves to believe in. Something for their peace of mind and survival in every day life in this beautiful but brutal world we live in.

Regardless, only time will tell if the IDV writers will continue to explore such aspects of Florian’s character but I wouldn’t be surprised if this more hidden and less noticeable side of Florian gets showed more in depth in the future whether that be through cosmetics, side stories, or main lore (rather that be his birthday letters or his canonical lore).

Side Note: Season 32 Essence 3 - Florian's debut as a Phantom Thief

Talked about this more in depth here.

Naturally I have to throw in there Florian's debut S-tier Essence where the storyline was him infiltrating a museum to get his hands on to burn an ancient demonic grimoire or cipher as it was also called in this sentence: After all, there is a second half of the rumour surrounding the cipher: "This is a contract with the devil, and an eternity of suffering equal to the wish will be released."

I already talked about how his essence strangely could tie into Novelist, Journalist, and "Little Girl's" respective debut essences despite the three being confirmed to be connected in their own series called "The Banquet of Vanities" which is heavily steeped in Christian influences (specifically the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve, etc.). Yet, an outsider like Florian's essence oddly can be tied to the series as well.

Delphi had to be in a specific environment with the right soil and water to grow successfully. It was a finicky thing hence why the writer of these records had such difficulty in cultivating the plant because it seems he wanted to raise them in an unsuitable location (Oletus probably).

Be aware that these Memory Pages may end up being retconned or slightly altered by the time they are acknowledged in the main story (if they are ever) as this was the SECOND anniversary after all, so 2020, 6 years ago.

Granted, I'm not sure who the test subject is that's stated here though the person he is referring to as "already suffered enough" is probably Alice who at the time was still at White Sand Orphanage or in Australia (most likely the latter probably).

Alice as seen being experimented on presumably in Australia.

Originally, if the Delphi plant was initially seen as a cure all especially for psychological pain and trauma, I could see "Orpheus" working to cultivate it for Alice's sake.

However, as time went on and more games were held, I wouldn't be surprised if the original intent became twisted as it became clear Delphi wasn't the cure all it was thought to be and held other effects that could be both useful and diabolical in usage.

Melly and Alice actually discuss the Delphi plant briefly in the Affection System dialogue when they first meet up. Interesting to note here that Melly mentions that they only grow in a unique part of the Mediterranean Sea. Perhaps initially, but Delphi has been recorded to actually be cultivated at Lakeside Village by the followers of Hastur's cult, The Brotherhood of the Yellow Sign, who also uses the plant as a symbol for their cult.

In addition, the plant is now cultivated rather successfully on manor grounds hence why they talk about it in the first place.

I'm still not sure who the family of aristocrats are though we probably know the event Melly is talking about.

This scene is from "Queen Bee's" background story and it shows "Orpheus" in the foreground talking to some individuals. The chemist Melly mentions is Sam Bourbon so at this point "Orpheus" and Sam were already in cahoots with each other along with Joshua, Melly's husband.

Though interestingly enough, as late as "Orpheus'" recent birthday letter this year, the purpose of how to use Delphi is still being questioned (though obviously we don't have a confirmed time stamp on this letter).

I find it intriguing that Sam seemed to actually be disturbed by the progress of the experiments and left before things got too wild. When Sam left is a little up for debate but since it mentions "the first pathological subject," it's possible it could be Emil as Game 0 was the first official manor game/experiment and seeing how Emil changed over the course of the experiment is rather disturbing.

Sam took one look at this, said I am neither built nor paid enough for this and bailed so fast. Can't blame him honestly. He still sucks though.

Although this is just conjecture as we are still treading through murky waters when it comes to the early days of the manor games and its participants both as researchers and test subjects. And this is why Game 0 is really important as the one that started it all, the one that would serve to be a precedent for future games.

Still, to me, Game 6 feels more disturbing than Game 0 in terms of events so it's a wonder Sam didn't leave then.

Speaking of that game, Demi, Sam's sister, ends up being in Game 6 and due to the lore we have at this time, it is believed she never met him. I mean, he could've been lurking around the manor still, but for some reason I find that difficult to believe.