#Vita Kin

[dreamcrush]

*⁀➷ . . . Vita ໒꒱

꒰ა rentry graphics with no specific themes ; @aethoshi

[starscatteredsky]

Can I get some tips for a mimic from Vita Carnis?

mimic tips

pt: mimic tips

try learning voice acting, mimicking, impressions, singing, or other recreations of human (or animal) voices

practice emotive expressions in a mirror or just on your own

do makeup looks in bright reds

try out makeup contouring, and how it can make your face look totally different, like the abilities of a mimic!

get some fake teeth to wear

try out gymnastics or other actives that test your flexibility, mimics are known for their uncanny flexibility!

try an uncanny smile

follow a regular structure to your day, like how mimics learn a person’s daily habits

wear different clothing styles to mimic!

wear lots of red

find a good place in your living space to be your hiding place

pure black eye contacts

use mimic/shapechanger/monster themed neopronouns

watch your source/kintype!

enjoy! -🩸

Requests open!!!

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a DNI banner with the background being the promotional image for Little Nightmares 2. The writing reads:

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Before you interact: We are pro mspec gays/lesbians, anti endo/tulpa "systems", enjoy MCYT/DSMP, pro self diagnoses with extensive research, multiple alters are punks/ anarchists"

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[citizenoftmrrwlnd]

self care for : a mimic (vita carnis) with perfumes and soaps, as well as a pair of gloves

x | x | x x | - | x x | x | x

[final-kin]

A Mimic (Vita Carnis) fashion kit with a masc goth theme with gloves!

Requested By: Anon

Links to Punk DIY Tuts: Tips , Battle Jacket Tips , Embroidered Patch Tut , Bottlecap Pin Tut , Patch Tut

Post that has some Cool Shops!

[ Shirt - Pants - Gloves - Bracelets - Gloves 2 - Necklace ]

[fanaticsnail]

Hear me out

Rosinante lay bleeding out in the snow, the soft dust if winters chill falling from the sky to perfectly preserve his body in a beautiful stasis. If you had met him under different circumstances, you would've cried at taking the man's life to sate your thirst.

He was just so beautiful.

You had never seen such grace in an almost departed man, especially one that wore a smile on his death-like features. Lapping at his wounds, you felt the life once again returning to you and fleeing out from his wounded body. Barely needing to puncture his skin with your fangs, you simply chose one of the unloaded bullet holes within his body to drink from.

His lungs began to deflate as a few words gently tumbled within his last breath.

"Trafalgar... D..." He began, coughing as his essence fled through his oesophagus and dribble down his chin, "...Water Law. Please," his auburn eyes parted, the gloss of life shrouding his hue began to deepen. "...Vampire. Watch him... Watch over him."

Rising from your latch on his chest, you cradle his cheek within your hand. His skin felt as warm as your flesh was, his desperation only fuelled his beauty. You felt bound, your icy heart breaking the longer he spoke.

"I won't do that, sir," you whisper, shaking your headband gazing at him lovingly, "But I will give you the opportunity to rise once more as my kin." Using the last of his strength, he gazed at you while weighing the consequences within the recesses of his fading memory.

"What-... Must I do, as your thrall?" He groaned, the gurgle of blood choking within his throat, "Heed your demands-... and fight your battles?"

You shake your head, a sweet smile ticking up at the corners of your lips.

"No, my heart," you coo down at him. "All you must do, is simply say 'yes'." You sink your teeth into your bottom lip, rubied droplets forming from your canine indents. "Is that something that you want?"

Rosinante darted his dazed eyes between yours, searching for any lie in your tone or gesture. He gazed down to your lips before looking up within your darkened pupils.

"Yes."

Within the same breath of his confirmation, you surged forward and claimed his lips beneath your own. Your hunger and passion was expressed in the weighty kiss, forging a covenant met in blood and lust.

Rising from the snow: with messy locks of blonde hair, eyes consumed with deep sorrow. All wounds faded to the silvery glow of illuminated skin, and his hunger for retribution rose alongside his bloodlust.

Donquixote Rosinante Corazon, a freshly indoctrinated vampire spawning to a much older and wiser breed of fallen Nephilim.

And he was so beautiful.

Tag list: @mfreedomstuff @daydreamer-in-training @since-im-already-here @gingernut1314 @writingmysanity @i-am-vita @indydonuts @feral-artistry @the-light-of-star @empirenowmp3 @racfoam @sunflowersatori @carrotsunshine @skullfacedlady @jintaka-hane @thenotsofantasticlifestory

I don't think I'll add any more to it, but it has been plaguing my thoughts lately.

[fymo-blogs]

Greetings!

[Greetings!]

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[sherylhooper]

BSD rant? (MANGA SPOILERS!!)

When will BSD fans stop babying Dazai? When will they finally understand that they are projecting themselves on him and don't really "kin" him? (Cuz if you kin Dazai, then ya'll should be in mental hospital).

When will they understand that Dazai is a nihilist person who doesn't care about life or death, good or evil? When will they realize that Mori didn't abuse him or experimented on him (where did that idea ever came from?)?

When will they learn that in BSD no one is good or evil? It's a place for morally grey characters!!

Kunikida and Ranpo were ready to let Atsushi die when he was kidnapped by Akutagawa. Tanizaki was very murder happy with killing Mori. Even Fukuzawa used to be an assassin!!

ADA Dazai is still PM Dazai cuz he doesn't care about anything else besides Oda's wish for him to be on the side that saves people (see how he doesn't say "be on the "good" side"?)

Oda himself said that for Dazai good or bad has same meaning, so why do these so-called fans and "kinnies" pretend that they know him better than Oda? As if Dazai won't kill someone in cold blood? He tried to drown Dostoyevskiy to win against him in latest chapters!

He doesn't hate the mafia, he hates Mori because Mori killed his friend!! That is a reason why he hates Mori.

"He left toxic and abused place" — Dazai is toxic and abusive himself. That toxic relationship between Dazai and Akutagawa and Akutagawa and Kyoka began with DAZAI, NOT MORI! (Unless Asagiri tells us it was Mori.) He didn't care about Akutagawa. No one went and forced Dazai to shoot or beat the shit out him. He did it on his own!

When will they stop babying him? As if Dazai would let anyone abuse or manipulate him, let alone his boss. He did what he did on his own.

It gets so annoying reading BSD fanfics cuz most of writers have him written "sad uwu boy who didn't want to be in Mafia but because he was abused, experimented (simetimes even SA'd) by Mori, he finally left the toxic space, hates Mafia and really wants to be a good person" 🙄

Do they even understand that all these are just "headcannons"? To them if you even say that you like Mori, you are a p*do excuser and abuser lover? Like, do these people even know how to think???

None of whatever they have deluded themselves with is Canon! Dazai is in ADA because of Odasaku. Mori isn't a p*do cuz Asagiri hasn't confirmed anything. Chuuya isn't a feminine uwu boy who can't function without Dazai and Mafia is actually very important to Yokohama.

"Mori doesn't deserve Elise" — Elise is Mori!! She is like Demon Snow and Golden Demon. She doesn't even have a personality unless Mori gives her one. She doesn't have feelings on her own. She isn't a human being.

"Mori said she was his wife" — well she is a part of Mori, so he can call her whatever he wants. Mori probably had her since he was a child. I wouldn't be surprised if he were to love her 🤷‍♀️

"The name of his ability is sus" — well, if they had read real life Mori's book "Vita Sexualis" they would have realized that the book is about a man who has very low s*x drive, probably an asexual — there, a simple answer. So, no we don't know anything about how his ability works and wiki page that says Vita Sexualis is projecting his own sexual wants on Elise isn't canon!

"He said he like his women below 12" — yeah, as a joke, both with Kouyou and Fukuzawa. Elise calling him a "lolicon" is Mori calling himself a "lolicon". Elise hating Mori is also self hatred 🤷‍♀️ Because, once again, Elise doesn't have a personality on her own, do we even know if she can think on her own? BEAST and Yosano’s past kinda raise this question.

They can hate him for what he did to Yosano but if my country was in a war, I, probably, would do the same if someone had that ability. It's one person versus a whole country. It's called necesasry evil.

BSD fans have to realize that what they want to sell as canon is just a headcanon, not everyone has same headcanons and that they are reading a Seinen not Shounen.

[riverxsong-ao3]

“But he was your father,” Harry lamented one afternoon, while they were holed away within the green drapes that surrounded Tom’s four-poster, the majority of the rest of the school away on a Hogsmeade trip. “Don’t you feel anything for him?”

“Of course I do,” Tom replied, staring at the ring in his hand. “Loathing. Nothing more, nothing less. He abandoned my mother when he found out she was a witch. He left me to rot in that orphanage. He never wanted me, and so I learned not to want him.”

“How do you know that’s true?” Harry asked. “Your mother died when you were born, maybe she left him.”

“Darling, that would be worse,” Tom said. “Can you think of any reason my mother would leave the father of her child unless he was horrible to her? When the other option was starving to death on the streets? Besides, if I wasn’t sure of it before Voldemort visited the Riddles after his fifth year, I was after that – he told me himself.”

“What?” Harry gasped. “Tom, you never told me that.”

“I don’t particularly like to think about it,” Tom replied. “I can show you the memory, though, if you’d like.”

“Are you sure?”

Tom fetched Harry’s wand from the end table and pressed it into his hand. “Go on, darling,” he said, “you’ll understand when you see it.”

Harry hesitantly raised his wand and placed the tip of it against Tom’s forehead. “Legilimens.”

Tom fell back into his own mind as Harry’s consciousness rushed in, swirling through memories. He pulled the event in question to the forefront, inviting Harry to join him. As they entered the memory, Tom found himself, sixteen once more, standing in the dining room of his father’s house, taking in the shocked faces of his relatives.

“Who are you?” Tom's grandfather demanded, rising from his seat. “How the devil did you get in?!”

“You don’t recognise your own kin?” Tom asked, smiling wickedly as the blood drained from his father’s face. By the looks of stunned horror on his grandparents faces, they hadn’t. “Oh dear, has my father not told you? I was sure you’d see the family resemblance.”

It was true: the man closest to him was an older carbon copy of himself, the same cheekbones and jawline, the same gently curling jet black hair – the only difference were the pale blue eyes, a contrast to his own dark and stormy irises. 

The man – Tom’s father himself – rose in the same imperious manner his father had. “I have no son,” he said stonily, though his voice shook. “If you’ve come looking to claim an inheritance, you’ll find none here.” “Oh no,” Tom replied coolly, sliding his uncle’s borrowed wand from his pocket and twirling it in his fingers. “I have no interest in any ‘inheritance’ I might receive, no matter how deserving of one I might be, from insignificant little insects such as yourselves. I’ve come to see you beg for mercy, to watch you fumble for feeble excuses as to why you would leave a child to the horrors of an orphanage, believing himself parentless, when all this time you lived.”

[zoiched]

some words on my Pathologic/Amnesia crossover

Those who follow me or have seen my art in Amnesia hashtag may have seen me mentioning that I’m writing an Amnesia and Pathologic crossover fanfic, buuuut a) now it’s on hiatus cuz I’m kinda confused with my own ✨philosophical and psychological✨ thoughts that i want to fit in the narrative; b) I’m Russian, and, therefore, I’m writing in Russian so English-speaking community most likely will have no chance to read this fic even I’ll finish it someday (unless Google translate will happen lol). So I want to share some thoughts on the stuff I created in my head and in my Google docs just in case cuz I find them kinda interesting and am sorta proud with myself. So here we go

• There are Daniel, Weyer and Agrippa’s homeworld, Zerzura (Alexander’s homeworld) and also world where Pathologic events take place. Not only that, there’s a countless amount of parallel worlds (I stole borrowed this concept from His Dark Materials book triology by Philip Pullman). And yes, Zerzurians abducted humans for vitae from many, many different worlds but the world of Amnesia

• Weyer and Alexander’s love have a bromance, but she ended up dying in fire of apocalypse on Zerzura nonetheless

• Weyer was escaping apocalypse on Zerzura and opened the portal aiming to his and Agrippa’s homeworld, but due to the portal malfunction he ended up landing in Town-on-Gorkhon, meet Simon and other Kains, told them about Spheres and all that. Kains know everything but keep it totally top secret cuz, well, god knows what gonna happen if regular people will know. Weyer didn’t stay in ToG for long and moved to the capital (aka St. Petersburg) and started a medic career

• Weyer is one of the people who are responsible for Thanatica’s shutdown because he a) is sorta afraid that Dankovsky will reinvent Vitae; b) has been in Zerzura for a long time and knows perfectly how obtining an immortality can spoil the society to the point of no return leading to the apocalypse

• My fic which starts right after the Agrippa ending. Him and Weyer take Daniel to ToG to teach him the arts of owning the Sphere where no prying eyes of the ordinary world (and also of the Powers that Be). Kains are willing to help with the process. Yes, Daniel is obligated to learn Russian

• Sphere gives Daniel some kind of clairvoyance ability, and, as we know from TDD, he knows how to cut the lines™, which makes him kinda close to menkhu (but not the actual menkhu, because he is, well, not from the Kin)

• A lot of jokes about Daniel and Daniil basically sharing the same name

• Alexander will be resurrected - not by Thanatica but by Daniel taking his body and consciousness from the trap of The Shadow that has a smol dimension that is very much like hell for those who used Sphere for Bad Things

• Daniel takes a test in the Abattoir jumping to this huge pit only to meet Elise Zimmerman’s ghost and to ask for her forgiveness

• Oh and there’s also my OC Ariadne, a Zerzurian who got away from the apocalypse with Weyer. I ship her with Daniel and they have from enemies to friends to lovers dynamic

I hope you’ll find this stuff interesting

[phoenix-is-the-hottest-thing]

The Restaurant event has Sa lore?!

Let me explain. So it turns out all this trouble was caused by a (Martian?) Great Eruption survivor.

Characteristics include:

Lost all her kin in the disaster, but survived by chance

Woke up having gained strange powers

Seemingly didn't age in the "100" years since the Great Eruption

Can navigate the Sea of Quanta on her own

Capable of manifesting things out of thin air

Sounds familiar?

This also retroactively explains Sa's own powers.

When she triggered the Sea of Quanta tsunami, it's likely that she was also "torn apart and reassembled", thus gaining her immortality and powers— by pure luck, but as the Martian disaster predates her, it had already happened at least once before.

That said, we don't know what the Phantom actually looks like, so I can't 100% guarantee she's not just Vita in disguise hahaha. I don't think so?

[fictionkinfessions]

A Monolith from Vita Carnis here guh… I'm a little sad to see vita carnis kins be mostly Mimics, like I like seeing other individuals from the Crawl I'm not upset about that! But where the Trimmings at, where the Meat Snakes at, u understand???

-🥩🐾

x

[citizenoftmrrwlnd]

a recipe kit for : a mimic (vita carnis) with gluten-free recipes

1. 30-Minute Mongolian Beef 2. Bloody Cups 3. Quinoa Pizza Bites 4. Sausage Rolls 5. Cherry Pie Cookies 6. Pot Roast

[final-kin]

Mimic (Vita Carnis) Titles

The hunter that stalks its prey , [prn] that disguises [prnself] to hunt , The Mimicking Monster , [prn] who treads in the uncanny valley , The disguised monster , [prn] who attacks when [prns] prey is asleep

Requested By: Anon

[monstersdownthepath]

Monster Spotlight: Mountain Giant

CR 18

Chaotic Evil Gargantuan Humanoid

Bestiary 6, pg. 153

There's a great many giants in the world who view humanity as little more than cattle (at best) or pests (at worst), but when those giants need a reminder that they're not at the top of the totem pole, it's these giants who deliver it. Mountain Giants are the boogeymen of giantkind, so awful that even normally nomadic giants like Hill Giants and Taiga Giants give wide, wide berths to any mountain or canyon they so much as suspect might host one, because even one is too many for most tribes to deal with. Only the threat of starvation or death can motivate a tribe to potentially tread into Mountain Giant territory, and even then they only stay as long as they absolutely have to, fleeing it as quickly as they can the moment they're no longer in danger.

Unlike many tall tales told to scare children, the fear giants have of Mountain Giants is 100% warranted. Mountain Giants don't just see humanity as cattle, but everything except their own kind as their playthings, hunting and killing anything they see for the sake of food and entertainment. Easily bored with just spattering victims with their giant hammers over and over, sapient creatures captured by Mountain Giants are often tortured for several hours before they're killed, butchered, and devoured raw... but this is good news for a party who gets captured alongside a caravan of disposable NPCs. They'll probably have a chance to escape the thing's lair as it messily toys with the other captured victims! Another bit of Paizo's mercy is that they've made Mountain Giants so territorial and their appetites so fierce that they don't form tribes like most giants do, with the maximum number of Mountain Giants encountered in a given stretch of territory (outside of DM interference) being 2.

Even one is more than enough for most parties, though. Mountain Giants are not dumb brutes who walk up and Full-Attack whatever they see like their lesser Hill Giant and ogre kin, they're shockingly smart ambush predators who have earned their place on the top of the food chain. They have extremely potent innate magic, able hide their 45ft tall frames with at-will Invisibility and an already-high +29 to Stealth to get the drop on creatures who may be expecting them, appearing directly next to a party and trapping their victims in their 40ft threat radius (20ft space, 20ft reach).

When that's not enough to give them the advantage, they can use Deeper Darkness at will to plunge sections of their homes into total blackness, which they can easily peer through with their See In Darkness ability to pull one over on full-darkvision parties that forgot how Deeper Darkness works. They're smart enough to know their reputations precede them, so they can draw out enemy resources ahead of time by using their 1/day Mislead to create a duplicate of themselves to absorb the first round of enemy fire while sneaking up behind the party with the Greater Invisibility granted by the spell... but if the monstrous giants don't think their prey can hurt them at all, they may just Dimension Door right into the middle of the party to get right to brutal business.

And I do mean brutal; Mountain Giants come armed with +2 warhammers sized for their Gargantuan frames, able to swing them up to four times a round for 4d6+17 damage (except not really, because Power Attack can add +8 damage). They critically strike on a 19 or 20 and deal 3x damage on a crit, and if the crushing blow doesn't kill the target, they're ALSO subject to a Staggering Critical to prevent retaliation. They have some investment in the Two-Weapon Fighting tree to also let them use the +1 dagger in their off-hand effectively, adding an extra 2d6+16 damage to their Full-Attack... or 6d6+16 when it uses Improved Vital Strike.

But why use Improved Vital Strike with its comparatively piddly dagger when it could slam its hammer down for 12d6+17 damage? Because if it uses Vital Strike with a piercing weapon (ANY piercing weapon, not just their dagger!), the victim is Impaled by the weapon, shishkebabed and held in place as though they were grappled. Any victim speared in this way can then be swallowed whole next round, shoveled right into the horrid giant's gullet to take 3d6+11 damage each round until they escape or die. No stranger to eating their victims raw and in fact rewarded for doing so, Mountain Giants can Devour any Humanoid corpse of Large size or smaller as a full-round action to gain Fast Healing 10 for one round per HD of the victim, a bonus they also get if a creature dies in their stomach.

Though they have no DR, Mountain Giants can take enormous amounts of punishment through more indirect means. If the party can't dispel the humble Deeper Darkness or even the playing field with Blind-Fight or similar, it's an uphill battle through the concealment as the Giant's health ticks up through the Fast Healing it's getting as it chows down on the party's hirelings, NPC escorts, or just some poor souls the Giant brought with them in their pocket. They're immune to Cold damage, which isn't especially surprising, but what WILL absolutely catch the party casters by surprise is the fact the Mountain Giants are immune to fear AND mind-affecting effects, something that you KNOW caught at least one Runelord in the past by surprise when they tried to do their usual "enslave the local giants" schtick. Any Enchanter hoping to gain one of these towering juggernauts as a pet to stomp all over the rest of the campaign through Dominate Person is in for a very, very unpleasant surprise. Maybe if they're lucky, the giants will at least kill them quickly for their hubris.

You can read more about them here.

[eclipian]

Can we take Local 58 and/or vita carnis for the word claim list? 👀👀👀

Local 58 Headmate

pt: local 58 headmate

reminder beings will almost definitely not turn out exactly as described, and these can be edited and changed as needed.

apart of the analog horror keywords

divider credit + picrew credit

“ This concludes our broadcast day. “

Name: Lunar, Luna, Moon, Moony, Crescent, Stella , Nova , Celestia , Gaze , America , Roxanne , Roxana ,

Age: 21

Pronouns: She/Her , Shx/Hxr , Sh✦/H✦r , Sh☆/H☆r , Sh*/H*r , Sh⭐️/H⭐️r , Sh🌙/H🌙r , Moon/Moons , Luna/Lunar , Cres/Crescent , Amer/ica , Twinkle/Twinkles , Star/Starry , Shimmer/Shimmers , Night/Nights , USA/USAs , ⭐️/⭐️s , 🌟/🌟s , ✨/✨s , 🌙/🌙s , 🌕/🌕s , 🌝/🌝s , 🇺🇸/🇺🇸s

Gender: FemMasc , Butch , Butchbodiment , Xeninbutch , Dogbutch , Butchlun , Doggirlthing , Local58ic , Avairoutfilmic , Webhorric , Americagender

Attraction: Homoflexible , Atrafem , Kin4Kin , Turbulent Attraction

Other IDs: Doggirl Butch , Dogsyn , DissoUSA , Dissostarpupil

Species: Human + Doggirl Kin

Role: Protector , Persecutor , Ego Holder

Aesthetics: Analog Horror , Digital Horror , 80s Heartthob , Spacecore

pt: name , age , pronouns , gender , attraction , other ids , species , role , aesthetics

tagging : @bahtive

[sunder-the-gold]

[Il Siracusano] Taking a posthumous look at Salvadore Texas (or, "La Vita di Texas")

It's nice when I can let the event and the characters speak so much for themselves, for me. For the most part, I just have to focus the words to shine the light.

Parallel History

On Earth, the mass migration from Italy to the United States happened well after the revolutionary period and the reconstruction afterwards.

Rather, it followed after a governmental unification of Italy. The stronger, more centralized government increased taxation, and natural disasters contributed to economic struggles. The United States offered new opportunities for improving one's lot in life; a place where one could work hard and keep the fruits of their labor.

(I wonder if Tarans preceded the Siracusans as immigrants to Columbia.)

It might have been Lady Sicilia's imposition of 'guns and order' upon Siracusa that drove people like Salvadore Texas to Columbia to seek their fortunes. That was 60 years ago as of [IL Siracusano], or roughly 50 years before he died. More than long enough for him to become a grandfather.

But just as Italian immigrants had a cold reception in America, Columbia had its own reservations about Siracusans.

Wolves in the Fold

In her play, Giovanna Rosatti puts these lines in the mouth of Sora, who takes the role of her grandmother Vivienne:

"Siracusans wear their scars and bloodstains like badges of honor" "They all say that violence and ambition runs in your veins. That you and your famiglia will devour this place… No, all of Columbia."

You don't need a violent criminal organization to conduct lawful business, and famiglia from Siracusa had not yet learned "the Columbian way of doing things". The methods of the old country involved violence, murder, fear, and extortion. The dons pointed at something they wanted, and their associates would rip it out of the hands of the one who made it, dead or alive.

As Rubio accused the famiglia: "They only knew how to plunder, but never actually learned how to govern."

It would Salvadore who lead his fellow "vagrants" to learn from Columbia's methods, with his mind open to doing things a little differently from his kin.

"He uses his fists to protect himself, and then law and order to shackle his fists. Is that not enough for you? …Other Siracusans wear their scars and bloodstains like badges of honor. Only he knows that blood is nothing more than blood."

But Vivienne would be reminded that he was, after all, still a Siracusan mobster.

"Is the man I see before my eyes truly you? So refined, so upstanding? But I've also seen the way you throw a punch, the blood dripping between your fingers until your opponent is not able to utter even a single curse. Which is the real you, Salvadore? Might there come a day when you realize that your two sides are as oil and water? Might there come a day when the trail of blood in your wake catches up to you? And when that day comes, what would you choose? When that day comes… would you remain by my side?" ~~~ "Salvadore! What are we to do now?! Am I to thank you for freeing me from the clutches of my own blood relative? Am I to thank you for spilling blood so that the Infected workers may have full stomachs? The man you killed was my father! No, I do not need a list of his crimes. I should think I know them better than you. …The deaths of those laborers were proof of his exploitation. But still, despite it all! Salvadore, I truly thank you from the bottom of my heart, for saving me and so many others. But the stench of blood lingering about you grows stronger and stronger… Let us be away from this place, Salvadore, just the two of us… Take me somewhere we will at last be able to find peace, alright? It might already be too late. Salvadore, it might already have been too late the day you first set foot in Columbia, from when you first sharpened your blade… You say this was all destined? That it couldn't have been avoided?"

The Unifier

It would be ironic if Lady Sicilia's unification of Siracusa drove Salvadore to Columbia, given the reputation he would build for himself.

Texas remembers him as a sentimental man. Giovanna Rosatti kept a picture of him posing for a photograph with her and Texas, with him smiling joyfully and kindly with the two children.

Bernado Bellone speaks of "old Salvadore's knack for unification" as "an invaluable asset." He rose to prominence in Columbia as the head of the greatest famiglia in that new country, and yet he also strove to maintain ties with the old country, and thus with Sicilia and her system of governance and control.

Agenir recounts, "Back then, Sicilia's fury towards Giuseppe for what he had done was just as great as her admiration of Salvadore."

Lappland Saluzzo thinks that Salvadore sent his granddaughter to live in Siracusa with Alberto and the Saluzzo famiglia, as a political hostage. But while that might have been true, Bernardo Bellone says "But he doted on his granddaughter, even sending her back to Siracusa, where she was fostered by Famiglia Saluzzo for several years." (emphasis mine)

Texas herself remembers the man telling her:

Cellinia, I need to send you to stay in Siracusa for a while. You have to go. The Columbian famiglie changed into opulent attire, took up residence in luxurious mansions, and stepped into the so-called upper class, thinking they had clearly delineated a boundary between them and Siracusa. 'Siracusa is barbaric, while we are not.' They spoke those words, thinking themselves superior to our homeland. Your father's been captured by this line of thinking too. As for you, I need you to see for yourself. See the place we came from. See if we're any different from them. ~~~ As far as she was concerned, she's always lived life the exact same way. But, to other people— She was just like a Siracusan. Was she just like a Siracusan? She didn't know. All she remembers is what she once said to her grandfather: 'People who keep going on and on about how life in Siracusa is nobler, or about life in Columbia is nobler, are all full of it.' To which he laughed heartily. ~~~ In her grandfather's eyes, the Columbian famiglie had soured. They'd do anything for the sake of profit, getting involved in the lowest businesses, committing murders with no morals at all. In her father's eyes, the Siracusan famiglie had decayed. Passing up profit and opportunity, not fighting for their interests, limiting their progress for the sake of supposed morality. All of it was the pinnacle of stupidity. In Texas's eyes, her father and grandfather were right and wrong. However, when she [listened to her grandfather die], when she turned a blind eye to the carwash worker, when she turned her back on her father's orders to help, the only thought on her mind was— There's no end to it all.

Distinction Without Difference

My grandfather was a sentimental man. He sent me to Siracusa, hoping I would remember my roots. I lived there for a while. People there told me all the time that I fit in, like a Siracusan. But for me, I was just doing what I'd always been doing. The way I lived my life in Columbia was no different than the way I lived in Siracusa. And what I saw in Siracusa was no different from what I saw in Columbia.

In Texas' Operator Record, she casually reveals to Exusiai that she followed Saluzzo orders to blow up Siracussa's famous "Leaning Tower". She participated in, and perhaps even lead, the sanctioned 'liquidation' of the entire Conte famiglia.

She shows no pride in recalling any of it. It was just work. Just business. And she hated her job.

…she had once asked her grandfather this question: 'Isn't Siracusan morality just trampling on the lives of the people all the same?'

And since she saw no real difference between the Siracusano famiglia and the Columbian famiglia, she was basically accusing the man to his face.

(But if that is the morality of the Siracusan famiglia, then is that how Guiseppe saw Siracusa stagnating? By oppressing the commoners too much, for the sake of pride and paranoid control? Is that, as much as his own freedom, why he wanted to break free of Lady Sicilia's leash?)

Great Is Not Good

Texas stood back, behind a closed door, and did nothing but listen to her father murder her grandfather.

What happened was just an undignified slaughter. My father bought a counterfeit gun from Blacksteel. When he pulled the trigger, it exploded and did a number on him. My grandfather fell to the ground. My father drew his knife with his injured hand, but the first stab went wide. I heard everything from the doorway. Hoarse curses, groans of pain… The commotion lasted for a long time before it finally ended.

This is the same woman who values life.

Even though her primary goal in [IL Siracusano] is simply to pay back her debt and leave, she doesn't make it that easy for herself. She goes out of her way to help Penance and the ordinary people.

Penance: Why would you go out of your way to do this? Texas: I also have a number of friends who are trying to change things for the better, in a place called Rhodes Island. I'd never accept them dying in vain either.

When Texas fights to escort Penance into the heart of Saluzzo territory for a confrontation with Bernado and Alberto, Texas thinks:

To kill, not for the sake of killing, but for an honest and sincere hope—since her return to Siracusa, this is the fight that has felt the least empty to her. That is what Texas thinks.

So Texas values life, and many people many times have praised Texas as a paragon of honor and loyalty. That's how she inspired the trust and friendship of her coworkers in Penguin Logistics.

She believes she's never been as outraged in her life as when she listened to Rubio commit suicide in protest and defiance at it all.

But she did nothing to save her grandfather.

If you look very closely, you may be surprised to see that Texas never once expresses affection or admiration for her grandfather. Either as a don or a human being.

Giovanna may have seen Salvadore as an idol, but Texas actually lived with the flesh-and-blood man.

You might know the story of Famiglia Texas like the back of your hand, but I saw it with my own eyes. Life isn't a play where every move is sprinkled with a little heroism or villainy. What happened was just an undignified slaughter.

Indirectly according to Lappland, Texas had returned home to Columbia for less than FIVE MONTHS, after seven years away in Siracusa, and what she saw in that short time left her utterly demoralized and exhausted.

So she let her father kill Salvadore, hoping that it might bring change. And when that failed to happen, she then burnt that man's house to ashes, and walked away from his empire to let all fall to ruin.

THAT is the life, and death, of Salvadore Texas.

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