#i'm posting this ahead of the ch17 release

[tenspontaneite]

PIAJ Q&A 1

Having decided to stop answering individual piaj-related asks on my tumblr, I’m implementing Q&A posts now. I’ll also be answering questions from ao3 comments here, though in some cases I’ll reply to those on the actual fanfic as well. Given I answered the vast majority of post-chapter-16 questions already, some of this is repetition, and I’ve not included all of the questions here. Anything going forwards will be addressed in the post-chapter-17 Q&A.

Spoilers for: Up to Chapter 16.

Subjects covered: Rayla’s braid, Rayla’s strength, Cairon’s name, snow melting on elf horns, elf resistance to cold, elf immune response, temperature of the current weather conditions, canon stance on Rayla’s hand.

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Has Rayla lost her braid, or does she still have it?

Rayla still has her braid. Nothing has happened to lead to her losing it.

 Does Rayla’s weird extra strength have anything to do with: Moon Nexus, Azymondias, horns, lilium-

Nope. The revelation regarding Rayla’s strength has been written and is coming out next chapter.

 Is Cairon’s name based on Charon, the ferryman of the underworld?

Yes. Yes it is.

 Does snow melting on Rayla’s horns indicate she’s feverish?

No. It indicates that her horns contain living tissue, have a blood supply, and accordingly lose enough heat to melt snow that lands on them.

 Are piaj elves more resistant to cold?

Skywing elves and Tidebound elves are highly resistant to cold in piaj worldbuilding. Any resistance that other types of elf have is very minor. Effectively, Rayla is about as cold-resistant as your average human; or perhaps slightly less, given she can lose heat through her horns.

 Do you have any thoughts on elf immune systems vs human immune systems?

I do. The basics of this is that elves have reduced immune response compared to humans, and ‘outsource’ a fair bit of their immunity to their native magic. When ambient magic of the relevant Primal is particularly low, they can be considered mildly to moderately immunocompromised, and are at higher risk of sickness and infection. This is one of several deleterious effects that insufficient magic can have on elves. When adequately supplied with their native magic, elves have on average better immunity than humans, which scales by individual power.

 What is the temperature in Celsius that the kids are facing in this storm?

I’d estimate around -20c at the worst, which outside of a blizzard is severely unpleasant but honestly not that bad. I’ve camped in -15 on a mountain before, at considerably greater altitude than the kids are currently at. I think it was around 3900m for that particular campsite? It was extremely unpleasant, but there were no winds, snow, or lightning preventing tent use. We hunkered down in our sleeping bags in the inner-layer of our tent and were fine.

The danger comes from not being able to take adequate shelter in an enclosed space, being assailed by wind and ice, and so on. I expect the temperature to drop further during the night, but I don’t have solid numbers on how low I think it gets. Suffice to say, it’s bloody cold.

 Did you see the post by the animators indicating that canon Rayla’s hand is not the same after the binding?

I didn’t, on account of having been on something of a social media blackout since a few weeks before quarantine. I’m very much out of the loop now, but it was necessary for my mental health early in lockdown. I approve of the general sentiment that Rayla’s hand has lingering effects from binding, which was relatively evident in a couple of s3 moments, but the ruthless realist in me can’t quite forgive how rapidly and near-totally it recovered in s1 >.> if you’re going to say there are lasting effects, at least let there be some sort of nod towards it hurting a bit following the unbinding…still. It’s far from my greatest gripe with the show, and on the whole, I don’t care enough about any of my gripes to stop enjoying tdp.

But. Suffice to say, piaj Rayla isn’t getting off nearly as lightly as canon Rayla. :D