#i think they are ultimately the same in that theyre criminally self sacrificing people

[isaacathom]

on naielle odelia, florian de kasimir, and the idea of sacrifice

naielle is a celestial warlock. she's a backliner, a combination support and damage.

florian is a man at arms, a soldier, armed with sword and shield. a front liner, a tank, a consistent damage dealer.

being in the front lines means risk is always present. and florian considers it his duty, his obligation, to remain. he considers the idea of fleeing first to be a violation of his job.

he is deeply afraid. he always is. but he has to be the first and final line of defence.

when he was killed, time froze, and he saw the state of his friends, battered and near death. he saw the monster that stood before them.

he had once taken great umbrage with a man who had made an ill-thought out deal with the devil.

and when push came to shove, and the devil held out his hand, florian took it. because if he didnt, his friends would die. it wouldve been a waste.

naielle's devil hangs over her head, a sword of damocles. you are a healer, aren't you? the front line will fall without you. you must run in, and you must help them.

her devil is not her patron. her devil is herself.

florian is constantly aware of the danger he is in, and considers himself illsuited to all of it, and simultaneously suited to nothing else. all he can be is a sharp object pointed at a villain. when mauled near death, watching the party's witcher fall, he ordered the retreat, and unable to stand still tried to protect the party doctor's spirit.

naielle forgets her own risk. she sees the threat posed to someone else, the blood that issues forth, and she sees the solution held in her hands. she would be a failure not to administer it. withholding the cure from the dying would go against everything she tries to believe and hold herself to. she does not balance it with the idea that her premature death might leave things worse. its the now, now, now.

she'll defend the man defending her, even if he says she shouldnt.

when the mission came down to it, and the devil's plans laid bare, florian considered it his moral duty to lay down his life. he could not stomach to kill the woman who had brought him here, to betray her so utterly. but for the party priest, he paused. because to give up himself, to act as Emelia's final defence, he would doom the priest. The two would either die at the traitors hands, or by a devil collecting on unkept promises.

he couldnt sacrifice himself to doom another, to doom a man in service to a woman he hadn't met and owed no alleigance too. florian could not demand that of him, and thus could not give of it himself, much as he wanted to.

he was forced to live, and to see her die, and to know he'd failed.

naielle hasn't reached that crux yet. the mountains peak lies high above, and many descending tracks offer solutions from this vantage, though they may lead simply to deep ravines.

for her to give herself to her patron, to play the numbers game, she would save many. she would damn herself, damn her sister, damn her twin brother, her wife, her mother, her father. all the people she's met and known, ill and well, would be hurt. depending on the relationship, on the timing, she might even kill them.

but naielle would play the numbers game. its an easy game at that scale - a world, or an elf? she'd like both. but maybe her goal, to do good, necessitates giving up the opportunity to see that good done, and only to know it was.

after his betrayal, he heads north. he has loose ends to attend to. peoples lives to try and fix. a war to join. he expected to die in that war, as he expected to die in that manor, as he did in that forest, as he thought the griffin might, like the previous war had thought to.

he doesnt die. the war spits him out, like it had before.

and he stands on a rural farm, holding out tools for the farmer reparing the fence, and he wonders:

why did he always try to throw it away?

[anxietyfluffy]

Who is your favorite CC character?

Oh, this is easy. Karen Knight and Tony Marconi, ofc. But, it isnt just because theyre cool ass characters who serve as good antagonists, but its because of their characterization and how a lot of their actions aren't out of a place of malice, but out of a place to protect their families. (spoilers for the first game, pacific bay and conspiracy under the cut!)

People love demonizing both of their actions, which pisses me off cus its always the same people who act as if characters like jones and frank are perfect people. like, i adore frank and actually have grown to like jones, but you cant sit there and act as if theyre perfect people and then demonize characters who did very similar things. For example, Karen. She did some obviously shitty things, dont get me wrong, but then you learn its because she wanted to get her dead daughters back. She organized a whole heist and held Andrea hostage to get Frank back because she wanted to power the supercomputer and get her family back with Frank. In grief, she decided that she'd rather be a criminal and have her family back then simply move on, as her daughters had been taken from her at such early ages. But, then, when its revealed Tesla n Alden were using her n wanted to destroy the world, she ended up ultimately sacrificing her LIFE to make sure pacific bay doesnt die because of her own personal mourning. THAT is a beautiful, complex character. and yet shes constantly shat on like shes the 'mail villain' of pacific bay when, really, shes far from it. Plus, the characters in the game - other then frank, of course - act like shes pure evil and that shes a demon at heart. which sucks. And then, Jones, when Zoe goes to prison (which i honestly think sucks n think she deserved way better), Jones wants to break her out of it to get her girlfriend back. Understandable. But to do this, he threatens Tony Marconi at gunpoint, and the only time he gives up is when Tony TACKLES HIM in self defence to get the gun away from him. Jones then screams revenge, and BREAKS INTO TONY'S HOUSE, after all is said and done. and yet, when this was discovered, he wasnt deemed as evil, instead he got a slap on the wrist by diane and he isnt shat on by the fandom as much as well. yea no so i get really annoyed at that. when people demonize characters like karen and then act like other characters are saints even though they did similar things. also i'm so sorry this ended up a huge rant UGEFWU