Liketwoswansinbalance - LikeTwoSwansInBalance

On the occasion of the winter solstice, the darkest day of the year, I thought it would be an appropriate time to post some of my old Raphie aesthetics that I'd stored away. I think nearly all of them predate Rise, so yeah, I'm contradicting canon. What about it?

Also, as usual, none of the photos are mine, and I drew inspiration from other edits I've seen. The only things I can claim are the editing done to some of the images and the dialogue in the first image.

A simple, pink-toned sketch of Sophie. 💃 🖤 🥀

These quotations from The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy reminded me of Rhian, mostly from Rise:

“But however much he thought, he found no answer. And when it occurred to him, as it often did, that it was all happening because he had not lived right, he at once recalled all the correctness of his life and drove this strange thought away” (47).

“The dreadful, terrible act of his dying, he saw, was reduced by all those around him to the level of an accidental unpleasantness, partly an indecency [...] in the name of that very ‘decency’ he had served all his life; he saw that no one would feel sorry for him, because no one even wanted to understand his situation. [...] This lie around and within him poisoned most of all the last days of Ivan Ilyich’s life” (37-38).

There's this emotional suffering to it, or if I skew my interpretation, a restlessness, or failure to find love. Rhian's treated like his love life is something barely pitiable, his troubles minimized. He's not awarded any understanding, even by Rafal, his own brother!

No one bothered to sympathize with him because they didn't see his problems as worthwhile. Everyone saw his losses as shallow, generally, I'd say, like: his crush didn't work out, so what? He fell for a major red flag, so what? Even Rafal. Rafal failed at his job as a sympathizer. He lacked empathy, so we have to fault him for that.

Also, I'm pretty sure Rafal would be the type of child to pop Rhian's balloons intentionally when they were younger to spook him.

Here's rough dialogue from a more skeleton-like section of the outline of TOTSMOV41, not fully "rendered" yet:

Agatha: What's he doing out of the grave?

Sophie: I don’t know!

Rafal: Taking a stroll out and about. Being dead is rather pointless. Had to stretch my legs.

Agatha: Can’t you put him back?

Sophie: Ah, well, I’m afraid the flower didn’t offer me a receipt. Besides, even if I could return him, I wouldn’t. I just got him back!

Agatha: Flower? What flower? Are you all right? Are you drugged?

Rafal coughed to interject.

Sophie spoke over him: It’s complicated.

Agatha: But—

Rafal coughed again and cleared his throat, but the girls paid him no mind.

Agatha: Why?

Rafal: As much as I don’t want this quarrel to end, I think we should flee.

The girls looked back.

And together, the three ran.

I never wanted to be a pile of dirt before, but there you have it. I’ve never wanted to be a freshly dug grave more in my life.

Is the Brig of Betrayers called the Brig because Rhian just had to name it something pirate-ish?