Thanks for the analysis, I got my motivation.
A Little Lily
Flowered In The City,
Feeling So Very Desirous.
Even With Her Greed,
She Saw Her Need
To Say Goodbye To Iris.
That analysis got me wanting to switch my vote but I need to hear these words from Lily.
I like your funny words poem man.
What's so strange about it? It's only natural that one of the easier ways to gather the Light in a place is to use a candle.
And this logic is for real slick, the idea it draws Carmen's
attention specifically, like some kind of Cogito Ping System, gets me going especially.
Certainly provokes the question of if these Distortion Candles, functioning as a slow burn buildup deal, are
meant to make acquiring an EGO easier than the alternative, even if, uh, all it seems to manage is making the downward spiral a long term paranoia gauntlet instead of snap mental implosion.
Hey, don't rule out Lily's contributions just yet, maybe she'll leave Yomi before Mao and land the finishing blow on Moon. Now, I know what you may be thinking and sure, that just means Mao did 80% of the work instead of 90% but at least it's something.
This reminds me, when it seemed cut and dry that the Yomi Dream Visit would be the actual second phase, it felt natural to assume that Lily and Mao would be fighting two different incarnations of Moon's illusion puppetry and maybe meet in the middle for the final confrontation, with the risk of one or both of them being totally brain garbled by then, but with the way things are...Hm.
With our understanding of the Illusion of Yomi under question, it seems reasonable to go back to the initial theories about the theme language of the "Red Damage Spurned Lover" ideas for Skaimounm Phase 2:
This fight seems to be following the same development Sun and Moon's relationship went through, yes? This is currently the "Honeymoon" stage (pun not intended, but very apropros), when Moon was heaping all of his "love" onto Sun. Represented mechanically by Weeping Heartstring's current win condition, reduce Sanity to 0 and make people become it's lover.
What triggered the relationship to turn abusive was when Sun rejected Moon's "love". Which in this case, would be Lily and Mao dealing enough damage to make the Distortion go to it's second phase. I don't think it would target it's Lovers then, at least not before it attempted to target us, because they aren't the ones that rejected it's "love". Lily and Mao are.
This especially hones in on the idea that rejecting the last desperate gift of "perfect love" that is Yomi is why Moon will flip to domestic abuse breakdown mode, and with what we've seen of the first stage fight, I think I have a clearer idea on how the Lovers are supposed to play into it. Like, okay does anyone remember
these moments?
"… Yeah. But aren't you forgetting something?"
"Huh? Oh. Heh."
You pick up a strange wet slapping noise –
[Melee Check: Medium. Pass.]
They're wrestling. Hardcore wrestling.
[Instinct Check: Medium. Pass.]
Touching. Pressing. Melting. Slurping. Eating. Drinking.
[Insight Check: Hard. Fail.]
Whatever it is, it sounds utterly disgusting, and if your stomach's any weaker, you'd be retching by now.
"Haahn~"
The noise thankfully stops, finished off by a slurp that makes you shiver, and a sighing moan that makes you green.
A giggle. "… I'll never get used to this."
You hear their footsteps change into something harder as they move into the Market's Concrete Skeleton, echoing between walls and pillars, and you move with them, sliding behind the pillars, moving quietly as they go deeper through, deeper still, their echoing step almost confusing you, until – until you see light. Dim. Weak. Barely embers. Crackling in the air. But in the dark, it's more than enough to nearly light up this small spot within the Market Skeleton, shadows and silhouettes forming, bouncing off one and another; pillars and men and… something intermingling into one another, melding, and melting.
Sun giggles at your look, and Mao snorts, smirking. Her hand hovers, just inches away from you, and you just need to take it. "It'd be nice," she mumbles, eyes looking bashfully. "If we could live together. I would cook you breakfast every morning, and, and…" she trails off, cheeks flushed.
You raise your hand – Till Death Do Us – and reach out.
[Ego Check: Hard. Pass!]
Come on! Come on! Snap out of it!
You stop. Pause. A choke.
Mao blinks, before raising an eyebrow. "Come on, I'll treat you to an all-you-can-eat buffet –"
Bzzt!
You jump. Light. Golden amber sparkling blinding light sears deep into your eyes, and you let out a scream, leaping back –
[Endurance Check: Hard. Pass.]
You're fine, sister – don't close your eyes!
"Close your eyes, tiger!"
You close your eyes, blinking, something warm and wet tracing down your cheeks. You instinctively leap back, feeling the air before you shift, before you're violently stopped by something hard, your back slamming against a pillar. You open your eyes back up, spots forming all around. You can't see. Not yet.
"You alright?" you snap your head to the side. Mao. The real one. Fuck. What the fuck just – "Good, you're alright. Ish," through the blind spots, you catch her grin – there's blood running down her left ear. "But we're not done here yet," she turns serious, nodding ahead. "I'll distract Mia –" a grunt, and you hear a squelch as blood spurts from her lips. Amber eyes contort. "I'll destroy this fucking asshole. Get ready!"
Violently disgusting implications aside (also reeeeeeeally hoping that 'warm and wet' something was just eye blood), there's something, Incongruous, regarding the state of being the Lovers are in beyond just being mind controlled:
You curse, and stomp your foot forward – the one below you skids to a stop, barely, your boot missing his leg by an centimeter; you brace your knockbar with two hands. The jumping fixer smiles, and rears his back, and chucks it like a fucking spear. You growl, and swing – steel clash against steel, a loud shrieking clang echoing as you hit the tip of the blade; it bounces, flying straight back towards the fixer, and he simply catches it off air by the hilt; he twists with sword's momentum, falling away down the floor. But it's not ever yet – below you, a sword shoots out; you snap your head back – a thin stinging line drawing from your chin as it barely grazes your skin.
Growling, you glare the fixer below you, aiming your weapon down at her, and – and you stop. Something catches in your throat. Hair white as ice, strands of it draped across the barely visible floor – and her eyes, cold frozen blue, blank, nearly emotionless if not for the slight curve to them; the small smile connected to it.
[Empathy Check: Easy. Pass.]
Warm. Below that exterior, there's warmth. She cares for you. Lovingly so. She wants the best for you.
"K-Kai?" your breath hitches, voice echoing, eyes wide. Cold air fills your lungs, from your mouth, into your throat, your lungs and your ribs. Ice in your stomach; a large gaping hole, freezing you from within. You lower your weapon. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm here for you, Lily," Kai answers you, soft, her voice devoid of emotion – but you know better than that. "
[Perk Activated: Kai's Partner.]
"You shouldn't be here."
[Item Activated: Red Ribbon]
You feel the temperature drop.
Because she's not!
You inhale sharply, and the cold air in your lungs stab into your heart, choking you. It snaps you awake. You should be. But she's still there, and – and she should be in the other side of the district, you fucking idiot! Snarling at yourself, squeezing your throat, you slam your knockbar down. But she, Kai, no not Kai, but she looks like Kai, sounds like Kai, and that's not possible – Kai rolls to the side, shattered web crack forming where she used to be. You pull your leg behind, and –
And you kick the air – you hear a grunt, feel steel clash against your boot as a fixer lunges in, his weapon raised just in time. He recovers to the ground a few steps away, and you turn to Kai – she's not there. Snarling, you swing your knockbar around in an arc, and a pair of fixers halt their attacks, hurriedly blocking it; it breaks their guard, pushing them away from you, and walk to them, and – from the side, Victor shoots out from the dark, his steel-tipped tonfa glinting almost, as it slams into your gut; or it would have. Instead, it strikes the back of your guntlet. You swing your knockbar in response, and he sidesteps it, and steps into your space; his tonfa glints, and you leg buries deep into his stomach – but you feel steel underneath your soles.
He grunts, pushes back.
[Crowd Deals no Physical Damage.]
[Crowd Deals 1 Sanity Damage. Lily's Sanity: 22/25.]
[Lily Fails to Hit.]
[Lily Fully Blocks Victor.]
This is at the first brush of the fight, Lily still on the highest Sanity bracket, and one of the Ninth Grade Fixers takes on Kai's appearance. That's the primary way their Sanity Damage is translated in the narrative, being able to interfere with perception in the same way Weeping Heartstrings does, which makes me consider–
Vow: When Enemy's Sanity drops to 0, becomes Weeping Heartstrings' Lover.
Husband and Wife: Takes the Appearance of One's Loved Ones.
Till Death Do Us Apart: Lose 11 Health for every Dead Lover.
–It
might be a failure of reading comprehension to have assumed the Lovers remain distinct entities rather than, strung up outgrowths fused to Skaimounm as finger puppets; that is, after all, the reason Sun stopped loving Moon back, feeling more and more tied up as this single codependent mass of overwhelming affection, it fits that Moon's Distortion would make this. Literal. Under the delusion of a mutually chosen partnership.
I think what's gonna happen here is that Moon will pull the cord and refill his health bar with the Lovers remaining–I'd been at odds about whether killing them all would ramp up the danger of Phase 2 or diminish it in the first round of plans, but with the way things are stacked up it seems much more likely that's the case, and by that, I mean Mao's presence:
Mao. Health: 32/35 (Healthy). Sanity: 31/35 (For Better, For Worse). +3 Armor Resist. +2 Mental Resist. +2 Damage with Machete. +6 Damage when Ranged. Perk: Mao, Vice-Chief Fixer of Scarecrow Office: +4 to Ranged Roll, +2 to Melee Roll, +3 to Evasion and Block Roll. .Amber Alert: By Sacrificing 1 HP, Successful Attack Ignores Armor Resist. By Sacrificing 2 HP, Successful Attack Ignores any Damage Reduction. By Sacrificing 4 HP, Attack Ignores Any Roll Against It. ???: ???.
Mao is an
absolute fuckmachine, she accounted for 77-87 of the damage dealt to Moon in 10 rounds, and we're meant to understand that by all narrative and game mechanic building blocks if she did this alone she'd have fucking died.
EDIT:
Where was I? Right, what I think will happen is that any of the Lovers survived past the Phase Change, they'd fuse back into Moon for at
least the 11 HP they represent returned for each of them that lived, maybe their full Health totals on top of that (what Alectai says below makes me think the latter is the Bare Minimum of the boosts Weeping Heartstrings gets from this), which would undo most all the work Mao accomplished if she tunneled on ending him first and foremost without concerning herself with the adds (which would be the most effective option by most perspectives, the Lovers would have a harder time meaningfully damaging her than they did Lily after all, wouldn't even cost her Sanity until the damage Moon deals pushes her down the bracket debuffs), with a noticeable Health and Sanity cost that Lily's support cut down
just enough:
Bzzt! Golden amber light fills the room, blinding, searing off your eyes, but you keep them open, and they don't.
Scurrying. Scrounging. Crawling in the dirt, and mud – groveling down to these fucks who looked down on you – to lower your head whenever Landlord Lin chides you, to obey and listen to every word he says, to starve and bleed and die. Begging, pleading, cryin' like some fucking pussy; getting beat, getting killed, getting fucked over by Rats and Syndicates and Fixers. Bzzt – golden amber light fills the room. It comes from somewhere, elsewhere, a place beyond you, and it sears your eyes off like thunder. You keep them open even as Victor squints his eyes.
It ain't all just for survivin' – you wanna fucking thrive.
You hum. "I know," and you do. If you close your eyes, you could see it, and what a future it would be. "But –" you hear a whistle – a bzzt, followed by a flash of amber. You turn around, Sun in hand, and raise your knockbar. Your flesh and body and limbs move on their own as Mom turns her tonfas on you, squaring against her strikes. None of them reach you. "But I don't want or need what's best for me."
Your ears bleed, and your vision blurs. You pause, stop, and then stumble to the ground – tears, they are tears, run from your eyes, and form a pool of blood. You see your reflection, staring back at you. Bzzt – amber light sears your eyes, sears the entire room, and you glance up, and see –
These are all the times Mao used
Amber Alert this fight, which going by the tiers means she's down by 4 to 16 Health (not accounting for Dodge Temp HP that might've accrued, because that's the path of madness), and since Lily managed to take out three Lovers she's only taken 8 guaranteed SAN Loss, so 28/35 Health and 23/35 Sanity (For Richer, For Poorer
) in the best case scenario.
That scenario is
unlikely to say the least, and the damage Mao was doing notably stalled in the three rounds between Lily's mook Fixer kills, as expected from the drawbacks of her high damage output in the face of Moon's version of
For Better, For Worse:
For Better, For Worse: Enemy Loses 1 Damage Against this Enemy for Every Sanity Bracket Lost.
This ultimately paints the picture for why Mao was set to fail as a solo act, because even rolling the most absurdly lucky game would lead to her halving her Health and Sanity to the brink, defanging her for Weeping Heartstrings Harem Climax Overboost Mode, which is why in the first place Lily's main conflict in this fight was basically a race against Mao to kill as many Lovers as she could before her senior accidentally self-destructed being too much of a fucking beast, so, to wrap my point back to the response to PUNisher's comment it is, I think by the time the dust settles, it'll be clear enough that Lily accounted for a solid 25-30% of the work already, and she has a
bit more to even the score yet.
Now, digging through the thread reminded me of the Color Fixer name discussion, like with this:
You have a point upon review. Mist, Tear, Reverberation, Silence, Gaze, all of these are more...ephemeral? Abstract might a better term. Cross, and Wonderland to a lesser degree, are more substantial but still somewhat open to the mind. Dreadnaught is a solid idea, a solid thought, that does not really match up well with the others.
The other important part is that the title is something that defines the character it is attached to. We have the obvious with the Vermillion Cross wielding a giant flaming cross but the others are not quite as straightforward. The Red Mist is known for what she leaves behind but not her blinding speed. The Black Silence is known for the silence that announces their presence rather than the armory they wield. Lily does not have anything like that yet, nothing that truly distinguishes her from the rest.
Well, except maybe for one thing, Twice-Beating Heart. So maybe it would be Pulse or something similar in reference to her heart beating once more.
Would that make her emblem the opposite of the Black Silence?
Which I still dig, but it came to mind that while
Crimson is the natural appellation to consider as a point of distinction from Kali's title, there are other shades of red that could better serve the role, which is why the name
Carmine Gluttony came to mind as a potential Color Fixer title Lily could earn; carmine, as a purplish-red pigment, is
eerily close in name to the root of the Light that's driving her ambitions (Lily even has a red hairband for her ponytail like Carmen!...That's a little concerning when I say it aloud, hm), and it's another Deadly Sin that most associates with eating and overindulgence without being as on the nose as like, Avarice, which also fits how Color Fixers get their names more by popular perception than substance, Lily's a mite too food preoccupied and fair about pay to read as Greed aligned unless you pay attention to her narrative motifs.
...Actually, I wonder if it's a misunderstanding to assume that she'd get something Red based just because of her heavy Fortitude focus (when it's just as likely her endgame build will be more balanced, or even leaning more on Justice or the like by some twist of fate), when a lot of times they match the hair colors and...
Gold Eater has a nice ring to it, yeah?
Wait a minute, Rapacity is a good midpoint, it's a synonym of Voracious (wanting to devour a lot of food or having a big literal and metaphorical appetite), animals that eat prey live, and aggressively greedy plundering, Carmine/Gold Rapacity would be metal as hell. It also kinda rhymes with "Rhapsody", indirect music motifs are nice.
