#He is just so hard to describe

[aieevee16]

An (Over) Analysis Of Obscura: Cirrus

This is mostly me ranting about Cirrus' character and my opinions about him.

Spoilers ahead for Cirrus and his route ahead.

Trigger Warning: Implied abuse of power, trafficking, murder, religious themes and Sadism.

First Impressions

Cirrus is one of the main Love Interests of Obscura and he's portrayed as the "Humble Priest", which is stated in the intro of the game, the game's main page on Steam and Itch.io, and the Trailer.

Looking into Cirrus at first glance, he is shown as the "Guiding One" whenever someone comes into the Lunar Church in the Marketplace. He is the priest of the church after all, so it is his duty to provide guidance to the people who seek help or retribution.

Route and Character

[Spoilers for Cirrus' route up ahead.]

In Cirrus route, Cirrus comes off to Vesper, or the Player, as a welcoming being when we first step foot into the Lunar Church. He is seen as benevolent and open to all who comes in. But as soon as we try to engage in small talk, he almost immediately shuts it down, commenting on how mouthy Vesper is. It's safe to say Cirrus doesn't like small talk.

Looking at this interaction alone indicates how he prefers to go straight into business and not wanting to beat around the bushes. He is a busy man, after all; a priest, nonetheless. He'd rather get things over with as quickly as possible so he could move on to his next business that needs to be attended.

Moving forward with Cirrus' route, he can be pushy at times when we refuse him. For example, there is a looping sequence where if you refuse, Cirrus highly recommends to rethink our decision. And if we still refused, he says the same thing over and over again until we comply to his word.

Cirrus does not take 'no' for an answer. He wants obedience and submission and doesn't want any questions to be asked when he tells them to do something. His position in power gives him an edge compared to everyone else, so he's more of an imposing figure and will most likely pressure someone to comply, whether they like it or not.

And as we go forward into Cirrus' route, depending on our choices and interactions, the tension between Vesper and Cirrus becomes more... Intense, to say the least. Cirrus has a way of building up that tension. He comes off to Vesper as a welcoming and Humble Priest, like we see him in the beginning, but slowly demonstrates his dominance and power over others.

And when I say "dominance", I say it as in an intimidation tactic. Cirrus uses his power to influence our choices; quite literally when the choices are:

"Yes."

"Yes."

"No." "Yes."

At some point in the game. In other words, we have no choice but to accept him. And this is seen strongly during our first timed choices. The timed choices gives us pressure to choose and makes us panic. And depending on which option you choose, it can result in multiple bad endings if you're not careful.

But if you manage to get to the path leading to his neutral or good ending, his presence is still intimidating to us as the player. And that dominance seen clearly in his CG art. Comply to whip yourself, he looks down on you and watch with a sadistic smile. Don't comply; he does the whipping himself.

Here, we see him towering above Vesper, making them look small in comparison to his already talk stature. He looks down with a grin. The lighting of the scene makes him look malicious compared to when we first meet him.

Cirrus may be known as the "Humble Priest" when in actually, he is the "Sadistic Priest" once you play his route.

After the initial whipping scene, it can go either way depending on your choices, he could either help you on finding the Lunar Ichor cure or get rid of you as soon as possible.

The Endings and Intimacy Points

I won't do each ending because there's a lot of endings but I will talk about how Cirrus handles the situation in the endings. There are two categories of Cirrus' route endings: Help and Remove.

If I remember correctly, Cirrus has two Help Endings.

The neural and good ending tells us that Cirrus sees us as someone who's worthy of his time and energy to lend a helping hand in finding the Lunar Ichor. The Help Endings tells us that Cirrus will only give us help if we show him he has power and we submit to him. If we are willing to give him power over us, he will provide us with the answers we need. He is a priest, after all. He is there to provide to those who seek help and guidance.

And then we have the Remove Endings. As what it implies, there are many ways for Cirrus to "remove" us from his presence. One of which we remove ourselves from him all together if we have chosen one of the timer options. Going back to Cirrus, he has other ways of removing us from him, which are literal back stabbing (murder on the spot), and selling us off to someone else.

If he sees us as someone who's unworthy of his time and energy, he won't hesitate to get rid of you. It is "out of sight, out of mind" for him. He is a priest, after all. He has other important matters to attend to.

And when it comes down to his Intimacy Points, you just gain a perfect 6/6 when getting his best ending. If not, you're automatically on the neutral and bad endings. The points tells us that Cirrus prefers perfection and has high standards when it comes to devotion. It's either him or not when it comes to his standards on you.

He's the "You're either with me or against me".

Design

When it comes to Cirrus' design, he has subtle hints that he is not all that he seems to be.

If we look carefully into his design, we see a lot of snake imagery on his priest robes. Snakes are often associated with evil or the devil in Christian Mythology. The snake also represents deception, trickery, and manipulation, which is also seen in the story of Adam and Eve, where Eve is tricked by a snake, who is the devil, into eating the forbidden fruit.

Cirrus is a priest; a follower of the Lunar God, nonetheless. The star pattern on his blue scarf and crescent moon brooch indicates his worship of the Lunar God. But he doesn't act like how a priest should be like as we progress into his route. The snakes on his robes may have been a foreshadowing as to who Cirrus really is.

Moving on to Cirrus' himself, in all of his sprites, he stands straight up with his shoulders square and chest out. Here are some examples of his sprites as reference.

He is not seen slouching or hunched over in any of his sprites. He stands straight and tall. It gives him a kind of presence that tells us that he is a very important person, as to which is is. His posture, along with his already tall height, adds to his intimation and dominance over us as Vesper.

A proper posture for someone who must be seen as nothing but perfection. His statues as a priest also comes into play here.

As a follower of the Lunar God, and quite possibly the closest thing to the Lunar God themselves, Cirrus must be seen something similar to a God. He must be perfect in everything. From how he stands, the way his clothes are fitted, the way his hair is styled, even the design of his mask.

He is seen as someone who's other worldly, given the fact he's much paler in comparison to the other Love Interests. His white hair also gives him a somewhat glow to his figure. He is, in other words, ethereal to look at.

And finally, his mask's design. The mask is simple in design, but it's also eye catching enough with it's intricate lines that makes us look at his face more than anything else on him. The mask is eye catching enough for us to pay close attention to him more, which gives him an advantage when conversing with us, and possibly manipulate our decisions.

Conclusion

Cirrus is a complex character that has many layers to him. He is cunning in deceiving the player and manipulate our choices. He is a master with his way of building the tension between him and Vesper as the route progress and how we see him go from the "Humble Priest" to the "Sadistic Priest". I'm sure there's still more about his character I've most likely skimmed over. But this is what I've managed to gather so far about him and his character in his route. And so far, he's terrifying yet fascinating to study on.

[chloesimaginationthings]

The REAL lore from the FNAF survival logbook,,

[raepliica]

priest guy sending mixed signals, what is he up to?🤨🕶🤏

~~~

[Image Description: A warm-toned comic featuring Trigun98 characters. It opens with Vash shouting "YOWCH!!" as a half-eaten donut flies through the air, a bruise on Vash's tongue. Meryl, editing papers, is annoyed as he complains: "Ow! Ow! I bi'e my 'ongue..." "What's the rush?" Meryl asks, "They're all yours." Vash, still hurt, tries to explain: "They're jus' sooo good!" Meryl argues back, "Well, savour it then!" Wolfwood has been watching the scene unfold as Meryl continues, "Satisfying your sweet tooth doesn't come cheap, unfortunately." Wolfwood clicks his lighter open and closed, again and again. Without a word, he leans closer, his thumb on Vash's lips. "Wolfwood...?" Vash trails off. Then, Wolfwood opens Vash's mouth and knicks his thumb on one of Vash's canines in one fell swoop. "Wah? Huh??" Vash says as Wolfwood pulls his bleeding thumb away. He licks the blood off the wound then snickers at Vash. Meryl looks disgusted, Vash has lit up in an embarrassed explosion, and Milly remarks, curious: "Those are surprisingly sharp, Mr. Vash!" Question marks float around Vash, and his donuts lay discarded on the table. Each panel is signed by raepliica. End ID]

[benevolenterrancy]

Scholarly peak is catching up on recent literature

[voltaical-art]

im in agony. a little self indulgent but I think wyll deserves to be told he's loved and have a small breakdown about it

[naamahdarling]

You know what? You know what I think?

I think that if we lived as we were meant to, in larger intimate ("extended family") groups and with more shared labor and time to do it (UBI NOW) people like me would not feel so useless and burdensome because there would be people around to help and to do what neurodivergent people can't while making valuable space for the neurodivergent to do what they ARE good at.

The way we live right now, all right, the way we live right now forces units of two adults to be able to do EVERYTHING or PAY to have someone come do it for them. I have to do the housework. I have to do it! But I am having to do a million different things and most of them I am not good at. I suck at them.

I wouldn't feel like shit, okay, if I had more than one other person around who was not a child and who could do the things I can't, like do the yard and cook and do repairs and basic maintenance; and someone else to split everything else that I like but is too much for me. It would free me to do what I am good at and enjoy. Cleaning, as in the sink and toilet, the windows, the blinds. Taking out trash. Folding, hanging, and sorting laundry.

But because all the shit I can do often relies on other shit being done first, and I can't do or have trouble doing those things, the shit I can do often can't be done. And even the shit I can do, I can't do ALL of it. So I can't keep up, and things get very bad.

We aren't meant to live like this. We are not meant to live like this.

That thought hurts so much because being able to flee the birth family is integral to survival for so many people. I'm so afraid that living in larger family groups would create more opportunities for, say, queer kids to be isolated, rejected, bullied, and abused. But if we gave people enough money to survive, and stopped considering children the property of their parents with no system in place to help them escape bad situations except a system that is often just as bad, just different.

I'm aware that communes and collectives aren't all that successful and are kind of a joke. I don't mean that. I mean a fundamental shift to multigenerational families where taking in "strays" (which my family did) is also normalized so people escaping abuse into existing households was accepted, with these families centered in maybe a couple of different larger residences so not everyone has to buy and maintain their own fucking washing machine and vacuum cleaner, and so people can benefit from large group meals that yield leftovers, and so child and elder care can also be centralized.

Then disabled people and the neurodivergent and sick and injured people, and pregnant people, and grieving people, would not have to either labor through all those stressors or consign themselves to living off an unlivable pittance or being put under legal guardianship.

I'm not saying anything new. People live like this in other parts of the world and maybe it sucks and I am wrong. But I'm just really mad right now because I can either do laundry or clean the sink but not both, and I really think we could improve society somewhat by making it so I did not have to choose one without sacrificing the other.

[saryasy]

I love you, Erin Greene. I’ve loved you my whole life. One way or another. I love you, too. I did my best. I did my best.

MIDNIGHT MASS (2021) | Book V: Gospel

[coolnonsenseworld]

(it's a continuation of previous posts about the calendar)

For March Lance voted to do some tree hugging and grass touching in a constantly busy world of trying to pass exams and earn money and they had a picnic for an entire day. Keith wholeheartedly agreed, but also felt like it’s way too cheesy. Still, Lance didn’t even have to win him over with sushi. Sushi was just a nice surprise. When Lance reports back to Hunk how his Saturday went using the phrase "dancing underneath the moonlight", Hunk opts out of the details. Lance tries to explain it’s not an euphemism, but Hunk just politely reminds him he can keep speaking just. No. Details. (he does that a lot when Lance starts gushing about Keith)

[monteruu]

they like to go on walks together to get some quality chatting time when madeline isn't busy <3

[image id: digital illustration of edgar, miles harding, and madeline robistat from electric dreams (1984). they are walking in tandem with each other while edgar and madeline are excitably chatting with indiscernible text above them. miles looks off to the side with a small smile and has a thought bubble that says "that damn stupid brick" and a small image of his earthquake brick.

miles has one hand hooked around one of edgar's arms and is wearing a yellow long sleeved button up with a green vest over it and brown slacks. egdar is quite a bit larger than the other two and has his red horns and devil tail curled behind him. he is wearing a light pink button up with a bright pink tie that has a smiley face pattern and an oversized brown jacket that mostly covers his hands and striped reddish pink pants. he is holding his hands nervously in front of him and is looking down at madeline while smiling. madeline has a wide smile on her face as she elbows edgar playfully and looks back at him. her hair is up in a loose side ponytail and is wearing a light blue poofy button up with a dark purple dress that ties into a bow in the back. the background is a yellow to green gradient with halftone texture over it. end image id.]

[bitchslapblastoids]

sun hasn’t even risen yet and I’m feeling so emotional about how Dan is living proof that growth takes time but is so worth it and sometimes you don’t work through the hard stuff until you’re well into adulthood bc just getting by took enough energy and you simply didnt have the tools yet and we now know that things got so dark for him and im sure the darkness will come again bc that’s how these things go but now he’s smiling with his crows feet and laugh lines and silly clothes bc now he can love his body enough to put it in silly outfits before going out into the world and he’s goofy and playful and in love and idk guys life can be so defeating and it sure was for him at times but here he is this gleaming imperfect beautiful example of work and growth and acceptance and self love

[heybiji]

double life

[sluckythewizard]

FIIIINALLY almost nailed my designs for lizzie and caspian can i get a HEEEELLL YEAAH???? i think these two make a vvery cute duo and i cannt wait to see them again. i also hope they both get hurt reaaaallly really badly. togeter

[sesamestreep]

sexy himbo jock interpretations of James Tiberius Kirk are silly and do a disservice to the character for a lot of reasons, not least of which is that it fundamentally ignores all the times in canon when Kirk is faced with a scientific discovery or oddity and you can see the effort it takes for him not to clap and skip with excitement. like in ‘the devil in the dark’ when Spock posits that they might be dealing with a silicon based life form and McCoy’s like “but that’s impossible!” and Kirk literally crosses the room to flirt talk excitedly with Spock about the prospect and how it could work! and what it would mean!

What I’m saying is, Kirk’s gotta be smart and a huge dork because how else could he pull a bad autistic bitch like Spock?

[razberrypuck]

anyway Dr. WD Gaster being a soft and kind soul makes his character infinitely more interesting to me than him being evil or even just kinda mean. like his passion for his craft lies not in fucked up experiments, but in a genuine love for learning and the opportunity to teach others and do good by his people. he's definitely strange (all scientists are) and kinda intimidating but he's literally the most thoughtful and considerate person ever it's just a little bit hard to tell because of the way he speaks does anyone HEAR me. he's one of the few characters that WOULDN'T benefit from the mad scientist trope.

[todayisafridaynight]

[rosalinesurvived]

Kunikidazai is a galaxy-brain ship obvs but but i need a fresh out of the PM Dazai viewing Kunikida as like the Ultimate CumulationTM of both Oda and Chuuya, the people who loved him, one Dazai left and the other who left first, I need Kunikida terrified of Dazai not because of any PM suspicions but because Dazai’s everything Kuni could be if he skewed to the right: the sucide obsession, the dangerous morality, the lost ideals, the general bizarreness–what puts Kuni off of Dazai is that he’s everything like Kuni and at the same time nothing like him, surely and that has to Fuck You Up, being stuck with your distorted image day in and day out.

“You are everything I could have had,” Dazai thinks towards Kunikida

“You are all of the horrors I could become,” Kunikida thinks of Dazai