#As of right now he could set fire to Penacony‚ the IPC and the Astral Express and I would throw hands to defend him anyway

[fragmentedblade]

I would let Aventurine scam me

[legendaryevokercupcake]

YES I DO ACTUALLY- Ok so... First of all, there are two known species associated with wings. He can't be a wingweaver because they seem to all follow the Abundance. He can't be a Halovian because he doesn't have a halo. Since he's male and male halovians (as shown with Gopher and Sunday) have bigger halos, it would be pretty obvious if he had one. That means his wings come from something else. What is that? The Trailblaze. We know that Trailblazers can follow other Aeons as well (Oswaldo being the best example, he's ex Nameless and now IPC). Akivili is referred to as the Cloudstrider in the Xianzhou Alliance. Gives some vaguely bird-like vibes, so it wouldn't be a super far stretch to say Sapphire's bird symbols are associated with Akivili's bird symbols. This is further backed up by the fact that sapphires can represent divine favor, so saying that Akivili gave him wings (probably because he was literally the only full blown Trailblazer (not just Nameless, Astral Express Crew) for probably about 2,300 years (Tiernan fought Zulo 2,400 years ago, Granholm was Navigator at that point and also was the last navigator before Himeko), so yeah, it's not a far stretch to say "divine favor" came into play.

Second! The colors match.

Top one is Misha's coat, bottom is Sapphire's. Same blue, same gold. Also!

Misha's gem, Sapphire's Cornerstone And even the hair colors could very well either match or make perfect sense. Sapphire's hair is dark blue under shadow, which means it could be light blue, and if that isn't true, Mikhail's hair is blue/white to begin with. If stress causes regular human hair to go silver, it seems decently logical that, for a species with hair that is already silver, stress (like having Gopher Wood within ten miles of you... or raising hundreds of children because you can't stop adopting.)

Also this section of the panel with his gryphon (who I have dubbed Estella in honor of the late Razalina Jane Estella) has the warp colors, so more ties to the Trailblaze.

... also the idea of being pushed so far for so long that you lose all sense of what you're here for and just do whatever it takes to survive compels me. The idea that at some point, using every bit of energy he had to just try to keep Dreamflux Reef safe drove Mikhail to seek a source of protection (a Cornerstone) from the very people Penacony proper was founded to fight is just... it itches my brain right. There's also the "everyone broke their promises to me so I hold promises above all else" is just... aughhhhhhh WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

And then there's the symbolism of probably too many things. 1.) Gryphons. Power (blessed by the Trailblaze as established earlier, Cornerstone), Wealth (the IPC is rich, the Watchmaker is rich), Courage (the whole knighthood thing, fighting the IPC, standing up to Gopher) and Prestige (P45 or P46, one of the single most important figures in Penacony) 2.) The name Mikhail. "Mikhail" is derived from "Michael", meaning, roughly, "He who is like god". The Cornerstones are each a piece of Qlipoth's power, but also a piece of Qlipoth's body. Having the body of an Aeon does make you somewhat like God. 3.) The name Char. One of two things. First, fairly simple, the result of fire. Very common name for dragons, a mythical beast. We establish with the gryphon that Sapphire is tied to mythical beasts. Second, "Charles", meaning "free man". Would be interesting with the kind of backwards freedom of the IPC, him having fled the Family and become more free, but of course, as a Stoneheart, "leaving" is probably more complicated than saying "I quit" and walking out the door. 4.) Sapphires. Wisdom (2,400+ years old and parent to many), royalty (major important figure in Penacony AND a super relevant, title-related hat), prophecy (time and related time telling devices), divine favor (covered above). Also, supposedly the 10 commandments were set in sapphire tablets, and Penacony has huge religion related lore drops, so... Also also, Sapphires come in any color but red, and supposedly the Watchmaker has appeared as many people, sooooooo... 5.) September. Sapphire is the birthstone of September, and September symbolizes refocusing of energy. You know, like leaving Penacony to join the IPC.

Anyways, like I said, it's a crack theory. It's almost certainly not true, but the idea does compel my gay ass.

Crack theory, Mikhail = Sapphire