#destinyfaces300

so a character connected to death huh.... as you know he's been on my mind a lot lately. i was originally going to do xiao, who i may still make an edit for on this theme just for fun! but after finishing the sumeru archon quest and just everything ever the past few weeks or so, dear lord. it's so hard to do anything that's not scara for this.

scara is someone who's been cast aside and disregarded for pretty much his entire life. whether it was ei discarding him and deeming him weak, people fearing him and ostracizing him, or even mortals succuming to their mortality around him, he's never been able to find real solace in anyone, anywhere, anything.

in a way, he's not so centered around death, but an idea of rebirth, but to be reborn you first have to die or be destroyed one way or another, so i think he counts well enough. if not, just look to the death he's witnessed around him or left in his own wake, the mortals around him who have "died" and abandoned him, the death of his own humanity and emotion as he vowed to shed any traces of them, the death that he even onced longed for and his wish to have never been born at all, or even the "death" of his name and history from irminsul.

i've not gotten to play inversion of genesis yet but i trust you fully when you say it's going to fuck me up so bad. but i know that when you look at it, "scaramouche" "kabukimono" and "kunikuzushi" are all identities that have "died". i know that eventually, he's able to start to let go of all the pain, hurt, violence, anger, and trauma connected to these names as he assumes the new role of the wanderer. he's able to shed the burdens of his past and no longer be defined by it, and is instead given a chance to start fresh, to learn better, and to be good.

in this way, his story is one of not just death, but rebirth and redemption. kunikuzushi, kabukimono, scaramouche, and all of these titles he's gone by in his hundreds of years in teyvat have all died, so that way he, as the wanderer, can live fresh and start new.

and a few extra graphics for good measure....

Ta-da! How many of you were surprised I'd do Lycoris Recoil instead of Madoka Magica, or Ave Mujica? Teasing, teasing. Originally I was going to do one of the two, actually, easy for Ave Mujica because of their overall aesthetic and pmmm because of.. well. you know already. though if you want me to go crazy about that, you can always ask, hehe! I saw another person use spider lilies in their piece too (wonderful work, btw!) and so I am excited to present it to you again. we made all of the lycoris flower stims ourselves. I'm also not the best at explanations but um... I'll try. smile

What a more fitting source than one with it literally in the title, right? If two characters defeat the purpose of the prompt, have Takina be the focal point, it's who I kin after all so it is from that perspective mainly. Higanbana or Lycoris Radiata, more commonly known as the red spider lily, are flowers often associated with darkness, grief, despair, rebirth/reincarnation, and of course... death. Radiata's counterpart, Lycoris Albiflora, or white spider lilies, are associated with light, healing, freshness, renewal/reincarnation and opposite to her tragic partner... life. I felt it would be perfect to incorporate both flowers to represent both Chisato and Takina and how they reflect each other in opposite ways throughout the entire story. At first, we're shown that Chisato is a pacifist, who uses her gift and privilege to save others. Trained to be a killer with the high expectations to harm, she uses only non-lethal methods to protect herself and those around her. Lycoris Albiflora. Takina, however, is a trained killer who has been shown to have killed and was relieved of her privilege due to reckless behavior. She had to learn to take things slow, she had to learn how to show mercy. Lycoris Radiata. Though on the opposite side, Chisato's (spoilers?) looming themes of dying and/or leaving ties her to Radiata in the same sense that Takina learning to use the same non-lethal methods and being less reckless around others/protecting them connects her to Albiflora. Both of them embody life and death, one more than the other, but to me it is simply yin and yang. I also think the fact that a lycoris is still a lycoris despite what color it is... we love good motifs <3