#there will be no intellectuallizing things for you girl

[thelyreoforpheusmp3]

just saw aftersun. it was good (great)

[katyspersonal]

Please willem/rom-pill me, oh great teacher

Girl fdhfdhsds I don't know, I was not prepared to explain this XD

But I guess it started out mostly as a joke about 'Lol, Willem x Rom is just Gehrman x Maria but with different aesthetic'! An old weird teacher with his best (?) student! (for the people who are in my blog from other Soulsborne fandoms: Rom being a scholar at Willem's Byrgenwerth is actually never stated in canon, it is just a very popular interpretation that I decided to use too!)

I thiiiiink I decided Maria x Rom is better (and mental image of Gehrman and Willem seeing them kiss and doing that anime "turning bleach white from dying inside" thing is a peak comedy if you even care fgddfgfd)! At the same time, possibility of Ebrietas and Rom being in love I can't ignore, it is tooooo good. My more "genuine" interpretation is that Willem basically married them.. granted, fits thematically, bro is designed to look like a pope! But Choir and Ebrietas is kind of my cornerstone about thinking of connection Willem and Rom had!

^^^ I don't think "Laurence is Choir and Micolash is Mensis divide" is true at all; not only Laurence is the head of the whole Healing Church, so, any faction within it, but it also appears that Choir is the "rebellious" faction and not School of Mensis! The thing about Choir is that it takes inspiration from Willem, despite Laurence splitting ways with him! The Eye Rune that became the symbol of his research is voice of Ebrietas, Yurie returns to Byrgenwerth, their blindfolds are designed to honor his. And! Rom has been there before her "death", and astral projection taken into lake by him!

Since he is also the one to encourage us to hunt her, I think his motivation is to unveil and stop Mensis Ritual that he must be aware of in this state, and primarily, he put Rom in the lake to conceal Eldrich horrors from those who aren't ready for them!

But before Rom's ascension into a spider, I think she could also be Willem's eyes and ears within the walls of Choir! In Byrgenwerth's isolation, Willem lost quite a lot of resources for research, let alone how inconvenient it was to lose a chance to contact the Great Ones! I always saw Rom in Conductor of the Choir as sort of a double agent, but I bounce back and forth on for who: Micolash or Willem? This one explores the latter idea.

I don't think he was too concerned for the Healing Church members that left with Laurence but went "shit, Willem had a better point after all 🤔"; commendable reflection, but they way to ascension they searched was to forsaken humanity like sort of a filth and burden, when he simply wanted to improve onto it!

They were a lost case. What was not, is the information and materials they still had access too! I am not sure whether Rom communicated via "autistic on autistic communication" or directly, through the secret passage between Yharnam and Forbidden Woods (used by Fauxsefka and Yurie it seems), but in either case, I'd think she would sneak him enough things to get Byrgenwerth go somewhere as well! 80% of Byrgenwerth is now floating in the Nightmare, the scholars are Kin too now, Willem transcended humanity from the shell of his body somehow. (very OG Azur and Lusat tbh) I think Gardens of Eyes were one of the variants Research Hall patients could get if they clung to Amygdalae voices within the deep sea horrors rather than Stars or Kos, and Rom might have played the role into them following to the Byrgenwerth walls.

But, I also have these guilty thoughts that the proximity between them went beyond just this secrecy. They could have had more secrets than this! Teacher x student is hella imbalanced, and them having like 50 years age gap at least is weird even for the two adults ok fdhfdhss She might have been his favourite student, not only for potential and receiving absurd amount of cosmic horrors without going insane, but also for being "trustworthy" (read as, easy to control).

Rom is literally referred to as being intellectually handicapped (白痴) in Japanese, word 'vacuous' is too ambiguous :p So like, picture this super neurodivergent, almost child-like person, sharing absurd useful insights like radio receiver catching the right frequency but being literally too "dumb" to lose sanity over them, that idealises him and can keep secrets very well, including whatever he might ask of her.. or what they might do together after classes.

With my Rom, it is QUITE hard to make her uncomfortable with intimacy of all things; she is super friendly and simple unselectively, to the point she needs a friend by her side who could scan between right people and those who merely take advantage of her! She would not be uncomfortable with Willem, maybe just shy and blushy at worst, but easily bribed by the sense of being trusted and singled out from her peers as the "most promising". (well? was he WRONG about her tho?) And he would feel quite attracted by the obedience and trustworthiness. Compared with how normally his smartest students consistently rebel against him and do weird shit without him knowing? She is special and the only one who "gets it" and "respects" him! But.... let's be real, literally anyone who learned about this would kick Willem in his chair down the river for being the creepy old man taking advantage of a naive young lady that idealises him. 🤦‍♂️ So much talk about how flawed humans are, only to fall for one of THE most classic flaws of them all. 🤦‍♂️

I hope you see what I was trying to convey here! Rom is not miserable by any means, but they are NOT very balanced, are they? Heck, bro probably makes the concept of grooming an adult possible fsdffsd He is possessive, and wounded by all the good ones wanting to walk towards their doom instead of listening to him (was he wrong tho???) until Rom became close. He can't get ENOUGH of the feeling of demanding something and being obeyed, to the point his requests were not only research-related. Rom is way better at perceiving Great Ones than at seeing through manipulations, but also helpless in MANY aspects of daily life due to intellectual disabilities and thus needing someone more mature, more adapted and smart.

(In my main version of things, Yurie is not just her best friend, but also basically a service to help her with accommodations! She helped disabled people a lot before going to Byrgenwerth, she is used to it! I guess this """ship""" sails in the version where Yurie and Rom are not actually close for this or that reason)

[dizzy-and-friends]

Alice: Why Here?

“ I can’t Imagine what it must be like back at the throne. My court of desperate, forsaken, and classless intellectualls who mill about my grand hall whispering deciet to my enemies. Four months I’ve been gone, but what do I know of their time, these two worlds are only linked by old tomes and lies.” Alice mused in thought, watching Fiona type furiously into her homework. 

“Here I sit, as a countess of land flanked on all sides by filth, vermin and powerhungry lesser fiends, lower than my self even. Babysitting a ragged child of human blood, driven to fate’s edge by medicines, my self and her mentally curdled parents. Humans are my food, my toys and my messengers on this plane yet I sit locked in her room as a Poltergeist and slave to the whim of the material world. 

Driven to suicide, we’d both die. Driven mad, I’d never learn my role - a mission granted to me by greater beings? Driven to passion, and she will be jailed like I am now. I cannot leave her conscious sight. Her mind’s eye must perceive me otherwise i will be forcefully perceived. On numerous occasions I have been thrown - violently - into positions where she would like to find me present. Like a slaved Djin i am summoned - and i carry no wishing spells? My majika is mute and spayed, not even Fiona herself is wooed by my incantations.” Alice, trapped in her own limbo, can only etch her thoughts down onto delicate carbon paper which is also used for transfering her prose and prayers when Fiona feels cooperative. The only trickery Alice can employ on the listless young woman is her charm, and guile. Her silver tongue and passionate immagination allows Alice to intrude Fiona’s thoughts quite often. Fiona is a middling child, her opinions are weak because they are molded by the company she keeps. Her charisma is stunted by the parents she heeds. Alice could drive this child to murder, and it would be glorious. 

Murder, however, is a sin that is punished by all of the celestials. Should any be toying with her, she would be set to a pyre and bound to a death under the glorious sun. She can only assume that her torture here is rebuttal for tortures she has so easily passed on to others. You cannot punish the Unforgivable that Alice has turned into.  “Do you think there are other girls like me, Alice?” Fiona asked, seeking an intermission from her tedious Essay. “Maybe they’ve gotten rid of their Alice, and we can figure out how the did it.” Alice swatted her hand dismissively, passing it through the carbon paper entirely.  “It takes a lot of focus to etch these words down, you know? I’m learning though.” “Alice, please.” Fiona grumbled.

“Yes yes,” then Alice sighed. 

“Okay say there were other hopeless, tragic wastes of reproductive material like yourself. And they had the honor of torturing the duchess of a blistering economic powerhouse like myself. Who would you tell about me?”

Fiona rolled her eyes, but acknowledged the purpose of the question.  “There are always stupid people on the internet. Maybe they have a forum, or a webpage somewhere. Maybe a youtube account?”

Alice nodded softly, but dismissed the idea. “As many times as I’ve come to this shitty little planet of yours, I’ve always understood that anyone can claim anything they want on the internet. So how would you know?” Fiona blinked - she could not perceive Alice much as she is now, let alone as a recurring visitor. The human mind tends to patch over information that is larger than itself. “Er.. huh. Okay so I don’t know anything about demons, or .. you. So what if we talked to people about their demons specifically. Things only you can know about yourself, right? Like .. I don’t know, do you … things, usually clean your horns? Are they trimmed ever?” Alice could almost cry herself to sleep! how disappointing the child’s ideas had became. Of everything so important to Feinds and their cultures… “Horns are not unique, bloodurchin. But I understand your meaning. I will humor your ineptitude. However, I will only cooperate with you under one condition..” 

Fiona hated negotiating with Alice.