5555 QUESTIONS

[worthathousand]

I sure did write 5,555 comments on this account!
That's so many comments, you guys. It's SO many.
(It is, perhaps, not that many in the grand scheme of things, but it's a huge milestone for me.)

I'm 3 shots in right now and I'm ready to answer your questions, so let's do this thing.

Comments

[forgottenmercy]

CR mine, I guess?

[worthathousand]

"I guess" —he says, when I specifically reserved comment no. 5,555 for him


***

So, Amaranth's CR with Persephone has been such a slow burn sort of journey. When I apped her, I imagined that said journey would be one of coming to relate to one another out of the context of being related, and that existing as peers of a sort would stand in contrast to how Tomoe related to Kaede. But that wasn't what happened. Instead, it didn't take long at all for Amaranth to learn that Persephone was most likely her son, and everything since then has been just like. "WELL HERE WE GO??"

I've been playing Amaranth as someone with a high Conviction score, so to speak, and as a result of that part of her nature, she feels strongly driven to have something to do; as soon as she learned that Persephone was/is her son, she felt she had to take some sort of action about it. But what even is there to do in a place like Tokyo-F? They're forcibly parted from their home, and thus from the ability to affect anything in their home. Instead, their CR feels like it has been a somewhat awkward, halting dance of quiet healing—with Persephone reconnecting with the idea of caring about people and having a family, and Amaranth trying to navigate the wreckage of her life without knowing how her life came to be little more than wreckage.

It.... is surprisingly hard on her, though never in a way that's unpleasant. More that she finds the uncertainty almost unsettling as the uncomfortable possibility that something very, very bad happened.

Recently, Caelestis confronted Amaranth with the fact that, as far as he knows, she's dead. The worst part of it was that it wasn't surprising. Amaranth knows that something terrible must have happened, and though she doesn't know exactly what, she knows that she got a potentially mortal wound, and that her family was irrevocably affected. But, as you know, she still hasn't really talked about it with Persephone. Part of that is because she doesn't feel like she knows enough to know what to say; part of that is a kind of superstition that talking about it would make it more "real"; part of it is just straight-up determined optimism (or denial, if you want to be more cynical).

Even with all of that, Persephone has the unique ability to be Amaranth's eye of the storm: that is, no matter what else is happening in Tokyo-F, with him she feels at ease. It's not as though the rest of the world goes away—the storm is very much so still raging around them—but the weight of the world doesn't feel so heavy. Instead, she can just be. And that's remarkably important to her.

***

...Also, of course, I would love to hear your CR thoughts in return!

[worthathousand]

FUCK i got so into writing about Persephone that i didn't write about Heliotrope

***

Heliotrope is Amaranth's feral cat son (you know, in contrast to Persephone, her persian cat son) and she loves him.

Genuinely, I can't overstate how formative Capitalism Game was for her relationship with him and how she sees him. For all that you assumed Heliotrope/Mika would mostly be the new LiliS yandere, that game served to cement him in Amaranth's mind as someone who is fundamentally compassionate—and, what's more, who is willing to make hard, self-sacrificing choices in order to do the right thing.

....So, you know, she thinks he's great.

She does worry about him, though: she's had enough experience with pushing too hard to "fix" struggling members of LiliS, and then getting shut out as a result, that she's very hesitant to do the same when it comes to Heliotrope's issues around food and his own self-worth, but she's still almost hyper-aware of them. She still has no idea exactly what to do about the issues she sees, but at least she knows what doesn't work, now, so she's just angling for being gently supportive and encouraging in the hopes of eventually wearing down the walls he's built up against valuing himself.

The other tricky thing with him is realizing (especially with the Betrayal 2 aftermath that I'm still....... backtagging slowly....) that he shares some of her potential for bitterness and vengefulness, which are nooootttt.... exactly traits she's thrilled to have, herself. It's a fine line between caring about justice and being overwhelmed by anger, and she's not always confident that she's walking it successfully—which means that being honest with Heliotrope about LiliS's struggles without breaking his faith in other people is a genuine concern for her.

[wastoldto]

It's really kind of funny how Wrong she is about him, in a lot of ways, at least in seeing him as better than he is. Like he's compassionate about kids, which is a good trait the game managed to hit, but nottttttt so muchhhh about justice or "doing the right thing". Sorry not sorry flowermom.

I mean, he's still going to most likely be the lilis yandere, depending on who we get, but at least he hasn't had much chance to be Really Bad yet. Though he's worried about disappointing her, especially since she's the first adult Ever who hasn't/hasn't yet failed him.

"Without breaking his faith in other people". I mean, she can't break his faith in other people if he doesn't have any.