#theresa (arknights)

[presscshoot]

some pic s are too old and too old im sry

[bluepicmi]

I am sorry, child

[thatlazybones]

"I'm a very fortunate soul, Kal'tsit. Every time I leave, I do so with my dearest friend by my side..."

Comm for @/sighoflethe! ♡

[zongzhii]

do you, recall?

[akakris10]

her hair reminds me of the colour of a wilting rose.

[oltammefru]

So. BB-9. It definitely has what is my favorite bit of in-gameplay storytelling in Arknights.

The game makes you place a box top lane that redirects the assassins away from the blue box and into Theresa (and also Amiya by extension!). This is the only way to beat the stage. You can do otherwise. You can not place the box or retreat it, but then you lose the stage. You cannot proceed unless you place the box and leave it there killing Theresa.

The thematic resonance of JT8-1 is that it gives you no control. There is nothing you can do here but watch in horror as it unfolds. In contrast, BB-9 gives you the choice of doing one thing and you must do this one thing and enact this horror yourself. She cannot allowed to turn Terra into a beautiful but short-lived dream. Cut off any possibility of her survival and end her life, ensuring that the Originium will devour and eventually ensure the survival of all.

Remember, diegetically, gameplay stages are a representation of the view that the Doctor has through the EYEOFPRIESTESS, at their planning table, giving their orders that will ensure life and death. What you see here is what they see. So do it. Give the command.

[potatoescanbesadtoo]

BABEL

[darlingjewels]

i must imagine the domestic life of the former king of sarkaz must have been rather sweet

[animepopheart]

★ 【梅之シイ】 「 テレジア 」 theresa // arknights ☆ ✔ republished w/permission ⊳ ⊳ follow me on twitter // bsky

[largeonions]

eterna

[cogitxtio]

weesa

[prettycottonmouthlamia]

I didn't even really talk about Kal'tsit in my post because honestly if I did there was a really serious chance at the time that I would end up having a crying fit. At the risk of being a bit melodramatic, Theresa and Kal'tsit love each other so, so much. It's legitimately painful. Kal'tsit is much more animated when Theresa is around, so much more willing to have and show her emotions around the woman she clearly trusts dearly.

Kal'tsit and Theresa each have their own hopes for each other on what Babel and Rhodes Island should mean for the other. Theresa is repeatedly considered Kal'tsit's companion and wants to help Kal'tsit shoulder the emotional pressure of her immortality.

Kal'tsit makes some of the most distressed expressions once she realizes Theresa has died. She blames herself almost automatically for not considering the possibility of an assassination. But it's Theresa who forces herself back through Civilight Eterna to help comfort Kal'tsit. To help Kal'tsit make the right decisions while she is in her emotional trauma. She cares so much for her companion that she forces herself back from the dead to make sure she could talk to Kal as she needed to.

Kal'tsit then forms Rhodes Island in her ideal, she takes close care of Amiya, she holds herself back from killing the Doctor, and she is putting 120% of herself in fulfilling Theresa's dream.

If that isn't love, I don't know what is.

[insertsomthinawesome]

Arknights [No Romance Included]

[chuurylen]

she wishes a home full of flowers

[akakris10]

How kind of you, to take my hands, to make me regret, and ultimately save me the pain of mourning you.

How kind of you, Theresa.

[oltammefru]

Hey if you've finished Babel go and read the chapter Memoria of Vigilo because it recontextualizes basically everything in it in a new light. I'll wait.

Kal'tsit definitely figured out what happened to the Doctor's memory. I think the doctor mentioning Priestess in Ep8 was the moment when Kal'tsit knew that the Doctor was not lying about their amnesia (if they had their memories, they'd know that Kal'tsit couldn't answer anything due to the lockout Priestess placed on her, and they would also know it wouldn't be a convincing way to prove that they were amnesiac) and that the probable cause was Theresa. In light of this, the numerous brain scans she subjected the Doctor feel to me like her coming to terms with this realization, that the person she cared most about in the world completely and utterly destroyed the memories and identity of the other person who she cared most about in the world. Like. It could not possibly be that. The Theresa she knew was gentle with her power and delicate in its use. She wouldn't. She couldn't. But, the things that are missing from the Doctor's mind. It's much too convenient, much too deliberate, and there's no other possible explanation, there is only one possible explanation and it has to be that.

(Also of note, the conversation right before this snippet, Kal'tsit seems confident that the Doctor's memory will come back some day, which raises of the question of what exactly saw that led her to believe this.)

There's also this conversation which now has the context it was missing and now appears in an entirely different light:

One more thing:

There's a bit of things getting lost in translation here: "prophet" and "oracle" are both possible translations of the past Doctor's codename. Memoria uses "prophet" while Babel/the ARG uses "oracle" but they are referring to the same name. Kal'tsit here is deliberately referencing the codename the Doctor had back during the precursor days. The "why are you staring at me like that?" dialogue reveals what is really happening in this scene: Kal'tsit saying the word Prophet in an attempt to trigger some sort of reaction, scrutinizing the Doctor's every microexpression and tell, probably already knowing what she'll see (nothing). This is in part a relief, she knows for certain now they aren't the old Doctor she knew. This is also in part agonizing, since she knows that the Prophet she knew, the one that she trusted wholeheartedly and saw the goodness of, is gone now, and that Theresa was the one responsible for it.