taniahylian

[taniahylian]

Sweetheart: The first succubus in the game

So, as many of you out there, I'm very excited for the upcoming release of Anjo Nala, our first playable succubus in R1999... or is she? There's actually another character that descends from such a lineage; Sweetheart.

Yes, the 5-star beast that was a Hollywood actress. That Sweetheart. Why do I think that? Mainly a piece of evidence from Eternity's anecdote reminiscence fragments, but there's more than that.

As you can see, the game asks us to dispatch one commercial film actor, and the only one who meets this criteria here is Sweetheart. And the quote we get from her is signed as "The descendant of a succubus". Case closed, right? Yes, but there's more evidence if you're interested.

So, her grandparents were "monsters" that transformed back into their human form in a cloud of purple smoke... that's very similar to how Anjo turns into the giant goat monster we saw on 2.0, isn't it? Yet they have beaks; a reference to Sweetheart's udimo being some sort of pink bird. We learned from the livestream that the ram with a snake tail is the udimo of the oldest family of Succubus (Anjo's family), but this implies other families have different forms.

Still, some similarities remain, like the patterns around Sweetheart and Anjo's eyes.

I know it's not a one-to-one comparison, but it is similar. Also, the fact that Sweetheart has these feathers in her human form is similar to how Anjo can have a tail, horns and claws despite being otherwise human-looking.

It's also interesting that Sweetheart was a famous actress, while Anjo, judging by her I2 art, seems to have been a singer, suggesting that many succubus choose to enter the entertainment industry, as it's quite a good fit for their talents.

And finally, their combat abilities are very similar, not only when it comes to their animations, but also what they do. Not to mention, they're both Beast afflatus.

Anjo inflicts "Titilated" with her one-target attack, while Sweetheart inflicts "Enchanted". Both translate to reduced damage delt by the enemies, but "Titilated" is a lot more powerful because at certain stacks it turns into "Captivated" and stuns them, rendering them unable to do anything. Meanwhile Sweetheart can't really stun enemies except with her ultimate.

So, in conclussion, Sweetheart is a succubus, but appears to be much weaker than Anjo Nala, which is probably because she's only half a succubus. After all, we only know two of her grandparents were succubus, and she's in the Arcanist category in the Atlas, not the Beyond category. Not to mention that she's a 5-star while Anjo, a presumably pure-blooded succubus, is a limited 6-star, so she's quite powerful even for 6-star standards.

Thanks for reading this rather long piece lol. Let me know what you think!

[taniahylian]

Canon now idc. I have no proof but I also have no doubts.

congrats????? on the child????????????????????

[taniahylian]

Ms. Grace: a Foundation spy

Okay, buckle up because this is a wild theory, which was sparked by just a single word, but it's backed up by a lot of facts, so let's dive into it, shall we?

First of, left's look at the description of an event that will become available next patch: Phototaxis in study.

You see it, don't you? Now, let's first remember that we, as the player, see everything through Vertin's eyes. As such, if someone named "Moth" sent intel to us, they're likely affiliated with the Foundation in one way or another.

Moth is likely a codename, however, and not the character's actual name. Why? Because we have already seen a character associated with moths, and her name is Ms. Grace, and she's a spy.

Quite a lot of moths in her design, right? Seems rather intentional. Not to mention that, when she's disguised as Kayla, the only difference between them, aside from the eye color, is that Grace has a moth pattern on her bandana.

Not to mention that, when Vertin encounters Grace for the first time, an odd detail is mentioned; a white moth landing on the flowers Grace was holding.

Okay, so we've stablished that Grace is heavily associated with moths, but how do we know she's a Foundation spy that infiltrated Manus Vindictae? Very simple; a trail found in this event.

First we see this report from Andreas Sylvester who, if you remember, is a low-ranking Zeno soldier that was left behind at the abandoned Texas facility. As such, he is unlikely to be privy to classified information and, although he does in fact seem to know that Grace is a spy, he came to the rather logical conclusion that she's a Manus Vindictae spy that was sent to report to them about Zeno's activity in Texas. However, Constantine's response is very suspicious.

She recommends him to not interfere with Ms. Grace's work, likely because she knows Grace is actually a Foundation spy, carrying out her orders, rather than an actual Manus member.

Also, if Ms. Grace is a spy, that would explain why she was using transformation rituals; she needed to change her appearence into someone the Manus would have no knowledge of (since she's likely a high-ranking Investigator, the Manus probably already knew her original appearence), so she picked a random country girl (Kayla) to change into her, and ended up accidentally trapping her in a mirror in the process... or perhaps it wasn't accidental at all; after all, it'd be very bad if the Manus ever met the real Kayla.

Let's also not forget that, according to Vertin, the Foundation teaches this particular transformation array to their SPDM students, which furthers the connection even more.

There's also what happens at the end of Anjo Nala's trailer. If you need a refresher, after the Manus members give Anjo order after order, she snaps and kills them... but here's the thing: Anjo physically can't disobey the commands given to her by the seal, and she also can't even touch her master, much less harm them. So how could she kill the Manus members? ... Unless she was ordered to.

And who was holding Anjo's seal during that scene?

Ms. Grace, of course. She's also the one who says the final line in the trailer, in the format of some sort of report: "Towards the end of 1990, the succubus left for Sao Paulo". And we know for a fact that, indeed, Anjo followed their orders and ended up going to Sao Paulo.

So, Ms. Grace isn't dead; she's the only survivor of that massacre and, if my theory is correct, she's also the orchestrator. She used Kimberly to kill these high-ranking manus, while at the same time not blowing her cover, and making Kimberly seem unstable/unreliable, so the Manus would probably want to get rid of the seal. Quite a smart move, if you ask me.

But what do you think? Too crazy? Honestly I can't wait for the big reveal that Grace was working for the Foundation all along, if it happens at any point in the future.

[taniahylian]

Vertin sending random frog pictures to the entirety of her team unprompted is canon idc (bonus points if it's at like 3 am or when they're in the middle of a mission).

[taniahylian]

BRAVE THE STORM

A reverse 1999 Fan Zine

Hello everyone, we're here to finally announce the publishing of the zine! Thank you all so much for all the support you sent over these months.

We're really proud of how this project came out, and we highly encourage you to check out all the artists and writers that contributed to this project!

Cover art by @rena-yume

You'll find the link to view the zine under "read more"

The link is here

The file is very heavy and Google might send you an alert saying that you might be downloading a virus, please do not worry! The zine is 100% safe.

For any questions regarding the project, feel free to leave an ask!

[taniahylian]

Genuinely fuck Israel. Those criminals are opportunistic bastards and I bet the attacks won't stop here. I just wish the citizens of Syria stay safe.

Israel has invaded Syria.

[taniahylian]

The Friend from Afar's letters

Okay, so can we take a moment to talk about the letters we receive in the game's mail from "The Friend from Afar"? Not only it's interesting that to this date we haven't actually seen her, but also that she's described as "a blind lady" and has the exact same voice as Bessmert/Marta. In fact, I think in her letters we get yet another clue that she's indeed the same person as Marta, at the very least.

Here, she says "thanks for listening and sharing" and also "this is not your own story", both of these together indicate that she was also present on the current story, which in the case of this particular letter was Vereinsamt, or the release of chapter 7, where "Marta" is present.

Now, at first I thought maybe it simply was just a new format for the events in which Vertin doesn't participate, or at the very least is not the only protagonist... but lo and behold the letter we received for the 2.0 event, in which Matilda is the protagonist and we get no mention of blind ladies.

We go back to the same wording as before "although I wasn't able to witness it myself", so it was only the Vereinsamt letter that was so suspicious.

I wonder if, in the future, when we get blind ladies, or it's implied the "Friend from Afar" participated in the event, we will once again get the Vereinsamt letter, to imply she also witnessed the story.

[taniahylian]

Omg, this is so cool! Thanks for the addition!

Honestly I have no idea how the wheel would work with ppl who were in an immunity zone, but given that everyone acknowledges Sonetto as being the timekeeper's assistant now, I'd say their memories were probably rewritten as well. But of course this is all still a mystery that I hope will get explained at some point.

Sonetto was reversed by the storm

Okay, I know it sounds crazy like most of my theories tbh, but hear me out, cuz there's a lot of evidence for this one. And I do mean A LOT, especially since they changed the dialogue of the Prologue to be better translated, although I suspected it even before I checked out the new version.

So, first of all, let's talk teleport floppy discs.

The new dialogue emphasizes that the one Regulus steals was the last one Sonetto and her team had with them. You could deduce it before, with the old dialogue, but it wasn't as obvious as this. One of the investigators even tells Sonetto that they'll have to go back on foot, after Regulus steals it.

Now, this particular piece of dialogue is weird because we all know that being caught up in the Storm actually means you get reversed, but I assume the female investigator here meant that, if someone catches the Storm Syndrome, they're descualified as an investigator, which makes sense, since we also know the symptoms get stronger and stronger the closer we're to the actual Storm.

Still, the point is that it's urgent that they go back, and Sonetto even agrees, sending her team back to headquarters at this point. However, she stays to search for Regulus.

But, after Regulus escapes a second time (thanks to Vertin in this case), Sonetto still insists that she'll go find her, at which point Vertin actually seems quite worried about her.

She also emphasizes that if Sonetto doesn't go back now, it'll be too late. Still, Sonetto recklessly continues searching, and by the time she finally accepts that she has to go back to headquarters and abandon the mission, only ten minutes are left... although in-game it actually seems more like 10 seconds. But, even if it actually was ten minutes, that hardly seems enough time to get out of London and to wherever the Foundation is, especially considering that all employees returning from the Storm have to wait in line to get in, and many don't make it.

It's at this point that Sonetto runs off and we don't see her again until we summon her at the spinning wheel (and I'll get to that in a moment), but I'd like to point out to a scene in a trailer that was never released in their official global channel. We see the storm of 1966, which we can recognize for the cartoon patterns everywhere, as well as the café Regulus was hiding at, and caught in this storm we see... Sonetto, getting reversed.

But I hear you, Sonetto can't be reversed, right? She's still here, in the suitcase! Yes, but... How exactly did she get into the suitcase?That's right; through the spinning wheel, which has... some interesting connections to the storm.

So, the "lake" is actually made of rainwater from the storm, not normal water. Not only that, but now we know that it has that weird hallucinogenic fog that makes people fall asleep (except Vertin) and grants immunity to the Storm, just like the Aperion cave. And that's not even the only evidence here.

When you summon someone, you can see as the drops of water begin to rise from the lake, just like when the Storm happens. My theory here is that the spinning wheel isnt't able to summon anyone, but only people who were reversed by the Storm and that Vertin knew personally. Why do I say that? Because when she summons Sonetto, the game describes it as the line "forming a path on her mind", and I bet at that point in time Vertin was actually worrying about wether Sonetto had made it to safety or not, which is why she was the one summoned.

Also, let's remember that, although the wheel is part of the gatcha mechanic, Sonetto is, canonically, the only character we know for certain that has been obtained by this method. In most other cases, the game actually goes out of its way to explain how they joined Vertin and/or the Foundation (the exception being those we don't know about yet).

Also, if this is indeed the case; if the spinning wheel actually brought Sonetto back from being reversed... it did much more than that. It rewrote history so that Sonetto was never reversed. Why do I say that? Because Sonetto already had the mission capsule with her, which she had supposedly obtained in the Chicago office, and had also spoken to Madam Z and the commitee and been informed of her new post as the Timekeeper's assistant... all of this in less than half an hour? And right after the Storm too?

Doesn't seem possible, does it? Especially since the headquarters, where Sonetto was headed before the Storm, are in Europe, while the Chicago office is, well, in Chicago. To me, it's a lot more plausible that the wheel rewrote history so that, in Sonetto's memory at least, all of this happened in the past 24 hours instead of the mission to register Regulus in. Although she still remembered Regulus because it's implied that Sonetto and her team had been following her for a while.

Anyways, what do you think? Too crazy? XD

Someday I'll write my theories from the inside of the Laplace Rehabilitaion Center, I swear lol.

[taniahylian]

No, you're right. Matilda's next mission was to track down the UTTU editor Urd on route 77, but then got assigned the Joe mission instead, and that's why the route 77 mission was assigned to Vertin instead (which we'll see next patch, it seems). I didn't mention it, however, since I don't see how it could relate to the New Age market we see in this event, but... I guess time will tell.

UTTU and The New Age Movement

So, has anyone noticed that the weird statue thingy in the New Age market in the Golden City event looks kinda like the UTTU Magazine symbol?

I wonder what's the significance of this. I doubt it's just a coincidence. Maybe UTTU had something to do with the creation of the New Age Movement, since we know it was mostly arcanists who participated in it, and that the magazine is mostly for arcanists and about arcanists.

What do you think?

[taniahylian]

UTTU and The New Age Movement

So, has anyone noticed that the weird statue thingy in the New Age market in the Golden City event looks kinda like the UTTU Magazine symbol?

I wonder what's the significance of this. I doubt it's just a coincidence. Maybe UTTU had something to do with the creation of the New Age Movement, since we know it was mostly arcanists who participated in it, and that the magazine is mostly for arcanists and about arcanists.

What do you think?

[taniahylian]

Sonetto was reversed by the storm

Okay, I know it sounds crazy like most of my theories tbh, but hear me out, cuz there's a lot of evidence for this one. And I do mean A LOT, especially since they changed the dialogue of the Prologue to be better translated, although I suspected it even before I checked out the new version.

So, first of all, let's talk teleport floppy discs.

The new dialogue emphasizes that the one Regulus steals was the last one Sonetto and her team had with them. You could deduce it before, with the old dialogue, but it wasn't as obvious as this. One of the investigators even tells Sonetto that they'll have to go back on foot, after Regulus steals it.

Now, this particular piece of dialogue is weird because we all know that being caught up in the Storm actually means you get reversed, but I assume the female investigator here meant that, if someone catches the Storm Syndrome, they're descualified as an investigator, which makes sense, since we also know the symptoms get stronger and stronger the closer we're to the actual Storm.

Still, the point is that it's urgent that they go back, and Sonetto even agrees, sending her team back to headquarters at this point. However, she stays to search for Regulus.

But, after Regulus escapes a second time (thanks to Vertin in this case), Sonetto still insists that she'll go find her, at which point Vertin actually seems quite worried about her.

She also emphasizes that if Sonetto doesn't go back now, it'll be too late. Still, Sonetto recklessly continues searching, and by the time she finally accepts that she has to go back to headquarters and abandon the mission, only ten minutes are left... although in-game it actually seems more like 10 seconds. But, even if it actually was ten minutes, that hardly seems enough time to get out of London and to wherever the Foundation is, especially considering that all employees returning from the Storm have to wait in line to get in, and many don't make it.

It's at this point that Sonetto runs off and we don't see her again until we summon her at the spinning wheel (and I'll get to that in a moment), but I'd like to point out to a scene in a trailer that was never released in their official global channel. We see the storm of 1966, which we can recognize for the cartoon patterns everywhere, as well as the café Regulus was hiding at, and caught in this storm we see... Sonetto, getting reversed.

But I hear you, Sonetto can't be reversed, right? She's still here, in the suitcase! Yes, but... How exactly did she get into the suitcase?That's right; through the spinning wheel, which has... some interesting connections to the storm.

So, the "lake" is actually made of rainwater from the storm, not normal water. Not only that, but now we know that it has that weird hallucinogenic fog that makes people fall asleep (except Vertin) and grants immunity to the Storm, just like the Aperion cave. And that's not even the only evidence here.

When you summon someone, you can see as the drops of water begin to rise from the lake, just like when the Storm happens. My theory here is that the spinning wheel isnt't able to summon anyone, but only people who were reversed by the Storm and that Vertin knew personally. Why do I say that? Because when she summons Sonetto, the game describes it as the line "forming a path on her mind", and I bet at that point in time Vertin was actually worrying about wether Sonetto had made it to safety or not, which is why she was the one summoned.

Also, let's remember that, although the wheel is part of the gatcha mechanic, Sonetto is, canonically, the only character we know for certain that has been obtained by this method. In most other cases, the game actually goes out of its way to explain how they joined Vertin and/or the Foundation (the exception being those we don't know about yet).

Also, if this is indeed the case; if the spinning wheel actually brought Sonetto back from being reversed... it did much more than that. It rewrote history so that Sonetto was never reversed. Why do I say that? Because Sonetto already had the mission capsule with her, which she had supposedly obtained in the Chicago office, and had also spoken to Madam Z and the commitee and been informed of her new post as the Timekeeper's assistant... all of this in less than half an hour? And right after the Storm too?

Doesn't seem possible, does it? Especially since the headquarters, where Sonetto was headed before the Storm, are in Europe, while the Chicago office is, well, in Chicago. To me, it's a lot more plausible that the wheel rewrote history so that, in Sonetto's memory at least, all of this happened in the past 24 hours instead of the mission to register Regulus in. Although she still remembered Regulus because it's implied that Sonetto and her team had been following her for a while.

Anyways, what do you think? Too crazy? XD

Someday I'll write my theories from the inside of the Laplace Rehabilitaion Center, I swear lol.

[taniahylian]

Don't mind me, just a silly thing I made lol.

[taniahylian]

Paulina and Regulus

Okay, I'mma post this cuz I think I'm going insane (I probably am), but here me out. There's too many coincidences that point out to there being a connection between the two, even if don't know exactly what kind of connection.

First let's start for the most obvious thing... Paulina's blue polka dot scarf.

It's not the same as Regulus', obviously, but it is very similar. Yet, if this was the only coincidence I wouldn't be making this theory... yet here I am.

Next it's this peace sign sticker that's next to Paulina's picture at the restaurant, but also on Regulus' backpack. Again, on it's own could be just a coincidence, but maybe it's not.

In that picture it says Apple on the background, and there's an apple in that same poster, and I don't think I need to saw how this connects to Regulus. To the side there's also a vinyl disc, like those Regulus always carries with her, which wouldn't be a big deal... except we're in the 1990's, when using CD's was already a lot more popular than vinyls.

And there's also the fact that Paulina's mom married J's father, who was from a world-famous family of alchemists. How is this relevant to Regulus? Well, she's an alchemical genius. Maybe Paulina's mom had an interest in alchemy too and that's how she ended up meeting J's dad.

Now... I want to point out that, at least to me Regulus and Paulina look quite similar.

It's not a one-to-one resemblance, of course, but they look similar enough for me to think they might be related, maybe, especially since Paulina's blue scarf was a gift from her parents. That said... as funny as it'd be to say to Regulus "So you are a mother!", I don't think that's the case at all. Firstly because Paulina is French, while Regulus is British, but most importantly because Paulina is human; she doesn't have any powers at all.

Of course we don't know Regulus' lineage, so she could be only half-arcanist, and therefore she'd be able to have a mostly-human child if she married a pure blood human, but... I don't think that's the case. Sonetto says in ch1 that Regulus' talent is rated "S", which most likely mean she's either pure blood, or very close to it, so any child she had would be at least a half-blood arcanist.

That said... the dates would match. Regulus was 15 in 1966, and lets assume Paulina was the same age when she left J, let's say 1989, one year before the event takes place. That'd mean Paulina was born in 1974, and Regulus would've been 23 years old at that point. However, if she is Paulina's mom, she died very young (around 30 years old?), as we know Paulina and J became orphans soon after becoming sibilings... and, believe it or not, the fact that Regulus would die young is actually hinted at by Mr. Apple in the mini chapter after ch7.

So... it is possible that Regulus had a child with a French person, said child, Paulina, happened to be born without powers despite her arcanist lineage (like Kumar, for example), then they moved to San Francisco, where Regulus met J's father, bonded with him thanks to their shared love of alchemy, got married and then died soon after. However... idk, it doesn't seem right to me? I think there might be different kind of connection between them, although I'm not sure what.

Maybe I'm just losing my head, idk. Most likely, honestly, but it's fun to speculate XD

Anyways, thanks for reading! Let me know what you think.

[taniahylian]

Hi, I just had to draw my favorite character from the 2.0 event. Wdym she just showed up for 5 minutes, that's still enough for me to obsess over her lol.

[taniahylian]

Kimberly

Alright, first of all I want to apologize to all the characters in the Golden City event because I got absolutely obsessed with a character that literally appears for 5 minutes just to be the final boss 😂💔. But I think there's so much lore in those 5 minutes, so I wanted to share my analysis with you.

Now, to be fair I know a little bit of what's to come on future patches, so I might be slightly biased (I absolutely adore this hellish creature), but I'll limit what I say to the current patch. That said, spoilers for 2.0 ahead! Read at your own discretion.

First off, let's talk about the way she's introduced. A very unique way indeed; Eternity, being contracted by Apostole Mathew to get him out of the Elysium safetly, but not wanting to escort him herself, gives him a simple old wind-up robot toy (probably from the 1800's, when they were cheaply produced in mass quantities for the first time).

She also says that it's from the Saint Pavlov Foundation, and that an employee stole it and sold it to her for some cash. Not only that, but it's not the only artifact that was stolen and sold to Eternity during the chaos after the storm; this toy is part of something they call "lost assets" that they're urgently trying to get back.

However, Bernard calls this toy the "most important one" of these assets, so... why? What does it do, exactly?

Well, you just need to wind it and...

It's just like the tale of the genie of the lamp, isn't it? Wind the toy and a beautiful girl obligated to fulfill all your wishes appears. We also know her name is Kimberly, since it was inscribed on the toy.

But here's the thing... Kimberly, this girl, is literally forced to do anything her master wants. ANYTHING. Let that sink in. She's literally a slave. Why do I say that? Well, she says it herself; she'll obey any command.

Her voice isn't exactly thrilled when she's summoned, nor is her expression; the game even points out that she looks frail and weary. It sounds like she's only ever summoned to do very bad things; to the point that when the Manus Believer asks her to kill J and his friends, she says "Is that all?" And seems happy that it's a relatively simple request.

Still, she doesn't exactly take pleasure in the task; it's more of an automatic response for her. Sure, she also has some blood thirst in her, threatening to rip out their spines and all, but she also says that she's a skilled hunter and prefers to kill her prey fast. And honestly, even if she has developed a thirst for blood and questinable morals... can you blame her? We don't know for how many years she's been enslaved and forced to perform henious acts for her masters; this kind of life would change anyone.

But why was she enslaved, exactly? Well, we know she's a very powerful being, first of all, because she easily breaks J's new knife, which was made with a mystical magic metal that had to be found with a literal ancient map.

So, from this we can already infer that she's no ordinary arcanist... and then comes the big reveal.

Now, I don't know what creature this is, exactly, but from the goat face and horns and all... it looks like a sexy demon. My speculation is that she's a new type of "Beyond", which we know are arcane creatures that possess human-like intelligence and attributes, but usually have tremendous power; Voyager, Jessica and Valentina are examples, but Jiu is a half-blood of this kind too. In real life mythology I'd say Kimberly looks kinda like a succubus? But we need more information to conclude that imo. She could also just be a very weird genie lol.

Regardless of what she is, I think we can safely conclude that her story, being a slave for who knows how many years, and then being trapped in the wind-up toy in the foundation for a lot of time, is very tragic, especially since we're shown that the only thing she wants is freedom.

She was given to a Manus Believer; he's her master, but he's a mindless monster that doesn't know what he wants, so she's free... for now. If either the Foundation or Manus Vindictae find her, however, I don't think it'd go well for her... although actually it might be better if the Manus found her, since the Foundation would just put her back inside the toy and store it away forever.

Now, judging by what Eternity said, I believe she might think that she did Kimberly a favor by selling her to the Manus.

However, I wholeheartedly disagree and I'm personally holding Eternity responsible for whatever happens to Kimberly after this patch. She had a slave in her possession, and she could've probably freed her somehow (like ordering her to be free or something idk), but instead she chose to sell her for profit (like a true Ameri- I mean, capitalist) to one of the leaders of a terrorist organization. Do you understand how fucked up that is? The Manus have no morals, and giving them absolute control over anyone is bad enough, but this one is a supernatural being on top.

Also, we know Kimberly didn't want to be sold. She didn't want to be used. Sure, she liked getting some fresh air for a change, but she would've prefered to stay in Eternity's bag. How do I know? Simple.

This fucking broke my heart. I feel so bad for this poor creature, and I just hope she finds true freedom someday :c

Sorry for this extremely long analysis of an npc lol, but I'm absolutely obsessed with her lore and I can't wait to learn more about her. I hope I at least aided you to view her in a more sympathetic light.

[taniahylian]

I'm pretty sure that the people who get reversed by the storm do actually come back when their era returns, actually. See: Kakania. Let me explain.

Kakania, Isolde and their brothers were friends with Heinrich before the storm of 1912; Kakania mentions that Heinrich went to live in Berlin for two years, and we know from Semmelweis' conversation with Greta that he met the Manus in Berlin and survived the 1912 storm, while the rest of the ppl he knew were reversed.

Then, the storm took us back to 1913, where Heinrich, having been with the Manus through the storms of 1966 and 1929, returned to meet his old friends and even gave Kakania a book from the future. Similarly, Marcus was excited about her era returning and wanted to go to her old orphanage, likely to meet her friends again.

Now, Paulina was from the 90's, but the problem here is that she lived all the way to 1999 and beyond, to the storm of 1996 (2002). Let's imagine she was 15 when she joined the foundation and 2 years have passed in J's perspective; she'd be 17 in 1990. However, since in reality she lived 12 years more, the Paulina who got reversed was around 29 years old. That's why he didn't recognize her and why she had a ring on her finger; she was an engaged adult, not the teen he remembered.

I suspect the reason she didn't reappear in 1990 is because she would've been in the foundation at that year, but in the foundation there's no storm; time keeps moving forward, so it's actually 2007 inside the foundation, not 1990... which would also mean there's no way for Paulina to come back.

Honestly... I'm starting to think it might be better for the characters to get reversed. That way they stay anchored in their era and oblivious to the storm. Problem is, if that happened, we wouldn't get them in our suitcase XD

So there’s some interesting things I found out about Paulina thanks to Reddit:

She was mentioned in Chapter 4, in the Dances of Fire conversation with the old man AND Hoffman talked about how she saw her get reversed in “The Star” Part 2, and how Paulina’s hand and her scarf were the only remnants of her.

This does brings up a lot of questions regarding Paulina and the “Storm”:

If we know Paulina is from the 90s, does that mean J was reversed in a previous Storm? Is the J in 2.0 the same J that Paulina knew as her brother, or is he a different J? Would he even recognize her if she was still alive in 2.0 and they saw each other again? Do people who get reversed in the “Storm” come back if their era returns?

I know this might go into some foggy territory–mainly things like alternate timelines and weird time travel shenanigans–but it does bring up a lot of implications.

- Mayeux

I was trying to figure out where Paulina was mentioned before because I remembered the name and scarf, but not where they were mentioned. You saved me so much trouble!

For some reason my text is cut off but maybe in the future I can put all the evidence of Paulina together.

This is the exact location for anyone else looking the exact trail.

And this is from The Star pt 2 like Mayeux said.

Another interesting thing is why was her hand left behind? Usually only clothes and accessories are left behind, not body parts. This makes me think about the ring on her hand. J said Paulina never mentioned getting married and he does not recognize the ring. Even if her hand was in the safe zone, shouldn't have been Reversed like the rest of her?

Did the ring help preserve her hand after it entered the zone?

Although, we don't know much about Reversal and there could be other instances of limbs being left behind that we haven't heard about yet.

I agree, the "Reversal" seems to be something other than going back in time.

"Do people who get reversed in the “Storm” come back if their era returns?"

The implications! We haven't met anyone yet, but if we did OH BOI

[taniahylian]