#silver crow

(Lucanis Dellamorte, a few years after Veilguard)

there's something fascinating about the double-layer structure of the avatars of characters in accel world

the public avatar that's a chosen appearance, and the combat avatar that's based on repressed emotions, built on trauma, like a pearl around a parasite

and what's beautiful is how this plays into characterising both main characters;

kuroyukihime's public avatar is a beautiful piece of design, meticulous, adorned with a pair of dazzling dark butterfly wings, while her combat avatar is a dark angular sharp menacing construction she hates

haruyuki's public avatar is a little cartoony piglet he was forced into by bullies, but he made it his own regardless; meanwhile his combat avatar is a sleek aerodynamic shape of gleaming silver

and it too is winged, like kuroyukihime's public avatar

but hers are purely aesthetic

while the silver crow can fly

and i think that's where a core part of the entire multi-series story lies, really

like, it seems a weird contrast at first, since kuroyukihime clearly seems to be the stronger, more capable, more knowledgeable one

and she is. she is for now

but it also makes perfect sense, because kuroyukihime does not want to be the strongest. it's destroying her. her combat avatar is all jagged sharp edges, she doesn't even have hands, she wants someone else to be stronger so she can stop being strong

so she can stop pretending to have wings

and have someone who really has them take her place

and this isn't a new thing, is it?

because of course, even if she may not know it, she's an isotope of star king. of kirito

she was always like this

she's *happy* when yuuki beats her

pretty much her last words to eugeo while he was dying were "you're already stronger than i am"

she doesn't want to be strong, but constantly feels like she has to regardless, and every time someone does surpass her they end up dying

again and again and again

and now kuroyukihime has found haruyuki, just like how kirito once found eugeo

maybe this time she'll break the cycle

Scarlet Rain (& Silver Crow) // Accel World