Look, I Know This Is Practically The Antithesis Of Rafal's Character (with His Whole "pirates Are Pests

Look, I know this is practically the antithesis of Rafal's character (with his whole "pirates are pests and subpar villain material" ideas and pirates being the opposite of his "orderly civilization" line of thought) but...

If I haven't convinced anyone based on premise alone, here's a drafted excerpt for the heck of it:

The iron stench of blood clung thick in the air, clung to Rafal’s new garments.

Craning his neck upwards at the barque, Rhian could’ve sworn his brother’s clothes smelt of blood, but he couldn’t see a trace of blood on him. Just, streaks of—blue—a strange, deep, sapphire blue on his clothes, tinging the edges of his hair, a spray of an inky substance speckling his jawline and the side of his face, and smears of blue on the… Night Crawlers assembled behind him.

And by the Storian’s grace, were those real Night Crawlers? He’d never seen them outside of storybooks. It was like Rafal had dredged himself out of a storybook, out of the deep undersea, like a myth among myths.

Rhian would have concluded it was blood, but it couldn’t be, could it?

Thoughts?

Minor TOTSMOV41 Spoilers

This post references this post.

Spoiler #1: Someone, perhaps two someones, ought to land in hot water for this:

Kiko nearly dropped dead at the shock of Good’s shining spires terraforming, blackening, as if a sinister plague had spread from Evil, up its towers, across Dean Sophie’s breezeways and catwalks, creeping up the base of Good’s glass castle to its highest turrets, toxic, emerald green fog choking the atmosphere around the Schools, the Blue Forest drained of its signature hue, until… the rot receded, just as quickly as it had emerged.

“Praise the Storian!” she cried, relieved that her bare arms were absolutely featherless, thudding to the floor in a faint.

⸻

Spoiler #2: There will be an unorthodox murder weapon that harkens back to the prequels. (It is not a letter opener.)

Slightly Cursed TOTSMOV41 Thought?

The other day, I had a horrible yet probably true thought about Rafal in TOTSMOV41. He technically punishes himself. Ok, yes, the Storian is responsible for the red-hot iron shoes, but it happens inside the crystal, which I failed to consider, and that means that Sophie, Agatha, and himself (their collective, error-prone memories) are the forces punishing him. It's unconscious on all their parts, but it just seemed weird enough to mention.

In my conceptualization of it, the crystal will work like an alternate reality of a kind, a reality but also a simulation or unreality, where true and false intersect because I'm trying to match the TCY themes and so, there are both real and false elements and real and "false" injuries.

But, I'm kind of at a loss as to whether this works. Seeing as I don't have a complete explanation, I don't think this will change in the final draft, but it's certainly a... feature.

Basically, I'm not sure how well this works because the version of Rafal in the fic is the one from TLEA who isn't supposed to have a guilty conscience, so why would he be punishing himself, even unconsciously? And really, I'll have to blame it on Sophie, Agatha, and Rafal's memory of the Storian itself, leaving a painful impression on them in some way or another because it would make less sense for Sophie, Agatha, and Rafal himself to be subconsciously punishing him.

This is kind of a knee-jerk reaction at my attempt to find a reason for everything I can possibly conceive of. It probably shouldn't be taken that seriously, and at the moment, it doesn't seem to be a plot hole?

Any reactions or ideas, anyone?

To amuse myself, I made another aesthetic based on TOTSMOV41, and I'll even drop a "fun" line because why not!

If all else failed, he would call down one of his own Stymphs to end him quickly.

There may two biers in this, but the fic will only have one. Corpse not included.

Insane thought about dismemberment incoming—

"Removing the pinion joint of a bird stops the growth of the primary feathers, preventing the acceleration required for flight and is analogous to amputating a human hand at the wrist" (Source).

If Rafal's hands were cut off, would he be able to fly? Or rather, would he be able to balance properly whilst in flight? I know his flight relies on magic, but logistically, this could be interesting...

they are canceling me for the way i deal with grief. also, for the infinite number of destroyed universes