Chinese College Girls Slay (cr: 哭天喊地六仙女）

she’s right

So this is part two of the lines that stuck out to me for Leander so go look at the first one if you haven’t seen it yet 😗🤪https://www.tumblr.com/cacaobean760/735020263224360960/ok-so-this-is-my-first-ever-post-but-i-actually?source=share

So if we are picking up from right where I left off we are still outside talking to Leander and he is trying to get us to touch his hand and so he of course, has to pull this ICONIC line when we say that he does not know what he is asking us

ok bud, hold on, we literally just met you, why the heck would we trust you. It's pretty weird when you think about it especially after you see the next situation.

The next options we have are to touch him or hold back. If you do choose to touch him, nothing happens, everything goes fine. But if you choose to to hold back well.......this happens

Leander fully expects you to touch him and not hesitate, he fully expects you to trust him. Which is definitely weird because well, why would we, we just met him. So Leander must be really used to people trusting him even when they just met which means this is not his first rodeo with this. Also I have no idea what actually happens here, weather our curse actually effects him for a bit or he is just playing it off because I feel like he deff knows he done messed up when he grabs our hand but...

He plays off the whole thing no matter what actually happened to him after touching our hand! He makes it seem all fine and dandy even when it's not because it would be a shock for someone to just grab you like that even if you kinda suspect it happening. I mean I feel like any normal person would remember and take notes of what went down. This kinda goes back to when you consider how if you choose to refuse the flowers when he first offers them to you he just pretends like he did not hear you. But if something even scarier happened to you, for example, Leander getting effected by the curse, you would kinda forget about the fact that he forcefully grabs your hand. And then he touches you AGAIN??!!?! This is meant to be comforting and establish some more trust between the two of you because he seems like a safe space after this.

Then he says this??????

Bro might as well just say that he is the only person you can trust.

Also if we rewind a bit, So far Leander has been very kind, open, and friendly towards us but then he says this uhhhhhh.... very unusual line

This is actually talked about a lot I feel like when it comes to Leander because I feel like it sums up his character with just this line and the one other line about flowers not lasting long but leaving an impression.

When we finally go back inside he finishes off our chat by saying this

By doing this, he is saying that he is a safe space to go back to, he is someone you can trust. Which I feel has been the whole point of this whole conversation, to establish some trust and build up a relationships. And when you look at it from that point of view, one could say that Leander is actually using our vulnerable situation to make us feel like he is the only one we can turn to.

And I think I am finally to the last line, but it is about Leander and his escapades

Listen, I am not shaming, you do you boo, but like I feel that Leander does this for more then just some good ol' fun. First off, even if they are one night stands, there establishes more of a relationships then if they were strangers. I also feel that Leander KNOWS how much of a pretty boy he is and so he fully expects for people to want to.....meet up again lets say. And also this feeds into the illusion that he is a perfectly good, fun loving guy. No one like him could be bad right? It feeds into his act of being a party animal, someone that does not take life to seriously. But I think that is all part of his plan.

So ya, I could just be super overthinking everything but I actually kinda hope that Leander turns out to be the most morally gray or bad out of all of the LI's because I think that would be such a good twist.

sometimes you need dialogue tags and don't want to use the same four

Barn Owls

Photos by Ryan Bourbour

once again thinking of mhin and mc as mirror images to each other; two sides of the same coin. how mhin is cynical and believing in only themself, unwilling to trust another as much as they do to their own ability and instinct from what is presumably their own prior experience of having trusted before and then having to crawl out of hell as a changed person as a result of it; how mc has gone through the same thing, travelling through the cursed world beyond eridia alone and undoubtedly suffering their own betrayals, and still has the capacity to trust, to hope that they will find a cure to their curse. how mhin stares at them and sees a reflection of what they could have been, can’t help but wonder: is it because they are just so good in their heart? was i lacking in a way they weren’t? why is it just me that suffers, and not them? but mc smiles at mhin again, treats them kindly despite their insistence on pushing them away, and mhin realises: oh. oh.

maybe they still have a chance.

"MC is supposed to be weak and frail" maybe we should start wondering why we're always forced to be weak and frail in romance VNs and I'm afraid we won't like the answer.

Nooo, you're supposed to have your agency removed all the time!! It's supposed to be like that!!

Okay now tell me why.

I just love Hakita.

He is so weird, but in a good way :D

Wait One Goddang Moment

Image: Screenshot of an ask back in January 2024, with Red Spring Studios explaining the difference between Monsters and Soulless:

Caption: "How are Soulless different from Monsters?" "Though they come from the same world, Soulless are feral beasts driven purely by bloodlust. No one knows why Soulless lack sapience, but there are some who believe that they’re sinners reborn as punishment for their wickedness."

To contrast with today's loredrop:

Caption: "Does the curse have long-term effects?" When it comes to humans, MC’s touch results in the permanent destruction of the mind. Soulless are a different story. The curse seems to only pacify them for a short period of time.

SOULLESS WERE ONCE HUMAN/IS THAT WHAT'S GONNA BEFALL MHIN IF THEY CAN'T FIND A SOLUTION FOR THEMSELF?!

Please feel free to add to this y'all I am SCREAMING—

I could talk extensively about how I think Vere represents hedonism, whereas Mhin symbolizes self-repression, and that’s why they’re both enemies and foils. And I will. 

Hedonism. In broad terms (and without getting into distinctions between axiological and ethical hedonism), it could be defined as the theory that describes the pursuit of pleasure and satisfaction of desires as the end goal of life. 

Good music, fine clothing, quality champagne, drawing, sex. Vere gives himself to everything natural to the soul without restraint. One may even argue that his predilection for suffering (and I quote, it is precisely suffering that makes MC’s soul “so irresistible” to him) may too be related to this. What is wallowing in sorrow but yet another excess of the heart? 

Vere is an ancient, supernatural being that seemingly exists purely through self-indulgence and physical demands. Hunger is a relevant theme to his character; he embodies both the primordial need for sustenance AND the fear of being preyed upon, a terror most animals —humans included— share. He craves what is authentic, and, despite his continuous teasing and lying, he is undoubtedly the most honest character so far in letting us know what he is and does. Vere is natural, raw, and, for now, unashamed. 

Now Mhin, to me, they embody the concept of resistance. We’ve seen how their fatal flaw states they will try to resist change at any cost. They’re a newcomer plagued by a curse they do not want, a monster that lives within them and they resent. If you look closely at their “monster forms” in the trailer, you may be able to appreciate that Mhin’s (along with Kuras’…chest…face thing) is the only one that seems to be crying. 

There seems to be a clear divide between Mhin’s human consciousness and the monstrous bird form that takes over them. This gap is insurmountable enough for them to feel as though their transformation involves a breach of emotional consent: they resist this metamorphosis, yet it happens violently regardless of their desires. This makes them repulsed by anything that side of them represents, sickened by what is inherent to them. 

If we consider Mhin’s constant rejection of natural desires in opposition to Vere’s embracing of them, it is easy to understand why they don’t get along. They are what the other despises the most, and have a disposition towards life so antinatural to each other that any chances of meeting in the middle are immediately discarded. 

This just makes me want to see more of them interacting together, though. 

That is all.