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24 Nov 2024

Avery: Rest at last.

?????: What do you think you're doing?
?????: You dare turn your back on your master?

Avery: !?

?????: Are you really in such a hurry to save yourself,
?????: That you forget what you owed her, and everyone else?
?????: I won't allow it.
?????: You can't be the only one who obtains salvation.

Avery: P-proxy!?

Proxy: To think you'd even take a piece from the living...
Proxy: What a fool.
Proxy: Shall I wake you up from your stupor?

Proxy: Don't be selfish, and deny us the only hope we've got.
Proxy: My suffering, their suffering, it all continues,
Proxy: Without her, we're all dust.

Avery: W-what are you g-going to do...

Proxy: Oh, just show you the consequences, Avery.
Proxy: You made a powerful spirit, almost as much as her, but your unstable emotions ruined it all in the end.
Proxy: You forgot where your loyalties lie, so prepare yourself for what comes next.

Avery: Oh.... oh, no...

Proxy: There's no way I'd ever let you betray everyone's greater good just for your miniscule, utterly insignificant little excuse of a resolution,
Proxy: You ingrate.

Proxy: Let's get this over with.
Proxy: I don't have a lot of patience left by now.

"Proxy": Remind him.

Proxy: That so-called "healing"...
Proxy: You really feel no pain with it... truly?

Avery: ...N...no...
Avery: No... it hurts...

Proxy: That's right.
Proxy: It hurts so much to remember, doesn't it?
Proxy: Especially that repeating memory, Avery.
Proxy: It will always be the most agonizing of all.

Avery: ...No... NO...

Proxy: Now, cry, and let the world know,
Proxy: That nothing has been resolved,
Proxy: And that this was a grave mistake.

Avery: I-It hurts!
Avery: It hurts so, so much worse now!

Meimona: What's wrong, Avery!?

Nino: Whoa, hey, get a hold of yourself!

Avery: All b-because, I remembered...
Avery: And now, I can't stop remembering!

Meimona: Huh...?

Avery: Cry for help.

Avery: Mom... and everyone else...
Avery: Everything, everyone...
Avery: They were all gone!

Avery: And... I... was the only one left.

Avery: Even though she said...
Avery: "Goodnight, see you tomorrow",
Avery: It never came to be!
Avery: Instead, I was left behind, trapped among those complacent fools,
Avery: Waiting for some kind of salvation that I couldn't even understand...

Avery: No, no... this is not RIGHT...
Avery: It's not RIGHT at all!
Avery: Why are you making ME remember this? WHY!?
Avery: I don't want to think about something so PAINFUL!

Meimona: H-heal him, Nino!

Avery: NO, no, no, NO!
Avery: Don't ever TOUCH ME AGAIN! Don't you DARE!
Avery: Stay AWAY from ME!

Nino: This... this doesn't look right.
Nino: Mei, back off a little!

Meimona: And just leave him in such pain!? I can't!
Meimona: Come on, Avery, we'll help you-

Avery: STOP IT!
Avery: D-don't CALL OUT to me!
Avery: Don't do ANYTHING for me anymore!
Avery: I BEG you! J-just let me move on!

...

Avery: Please, please, PLEASE...!
Avery: .--. .-.. . .- ... . !!!

Again and again.

 

 

Please, I beg you!

Leave me alone!

Don't open that door...

Don't call out to me...

Don't make me face reality!

The memories rewind and repeat.
A scene flashes again, like a video on a screen.

You already know what's coming, and no matter how much you don't like it, you can't change what has already happened.


 
This agonizing memory, burned into your mind.

It is the shattering of a child's final sanctuary, the moment when the last shreds of innocence were robbed away, leaving nothing but broken dreams.

It is the very first point of no return, from which many more would then be born.

 
 


 
How regretful, indeed, that what is set in stone can never be changed.

Oh, captain.

If only you didn't open that door, then...

 

Captain: Hug.


 
Perhaps, he would still be...

 

Captain: Console.


 
...

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Lunk
Lunk
16 days ago

So, my first instinct was that "Proxy" was, like, the absolute source of spirits. All spirits exist because Proxy wills them to and such. If so, I can't even imagine a winged having that kind of power. A celestial, maybe?

Since the Book of Wonders, I've actually been considering the possibility that all celestials come in pairs— rather than just the Prosperous and Unforseen, as in the popular theory— with one coming from the Liriodendron (Tulip Tree) and the other coming from an Apple Tree. (Thus, "A Child of Apple Trees.") Proxy could be one of these Apple Tree celestials.

The question, though, is who / what they're a proxy for. The most obvious answer is that they're a proxy for Kotori, but they call her "your master" not "our master," which seems to imply that they aren't actually taking orders from her. So I'm not totally sure about this one.

Another thing to note would be Lune's eye here. It's very clearly not normal. The only idea I have at the moment would be that the symbol in her eye represents Proxy, and that this is an illusion created by them to take advantage of Avery's mental state. (As spirits are wont to do.)

Something else I feel is important to note is that Avery's name in the dialogue boxes has changed from "Avery?" to "Avery" again, which seems to imply that he's drifting away from his previous life and back into the life Kotori gave him, as the name "Avery" was her invention.

Anyways, can't wait for someone to go back through every image in the entire comic + all noncanon art to see when this color (#891137) appears. I do recall a few mentions of slightly off-Kotori colored things appearing.

Last edited 16 days ago by Lunk
redaer
redaer
14 days ago
Reply to  Lunk

Going by some of the earlier dialogue, Proxy sounds more like a spirit:

Proxy: Don't be selfish, and deny us the only hope we've got.
Proxy: My suffering, their suffering, it all continues,
Proxy: Without her, we're all dust.

That third line seems to imply that they're not the source of spirits, at least.

Last edited 14 days ago by redaer
StarryMicrocosm
StarryMicrocosm
13 days ago
Reply to  Lunk

My Occam’s lazer says that Proxy might be some sort of chief spirit, but nothing more.
(Occam’s lazer is a pun on Occam’s razor: when crafting theories, prefer the most simple and obvious explanations first.)

As for the color #891137 and the .proxy class, it didn’t exist at all until very recently. I can’t say when it appeared, but it didn’t exist at the time of “Nino: Diplomacy.”

Lunk
Lunk
13 days ago

Yeah, Proxy being a chief spirit would make sense. I was just stating my first thought.

And about the colors, I was more thinking about images rather than text. I recall seeing an image somewhere (The Discord server, probably) of various non-Kotori off-red colors that had appeared in the comic before, many being from images of the red moon.

Lunk
Lunk
10 days ago
Reply to  Lunk

Okay, I was rereading page 243 (as you do) and realized something that I haven’t seen anyone mention yet. I’m putting this here to hopefully increase the odds of it being seen.

The narration says “Yet, in that hell, I suddenly felt her long-dead gaze,” Referring to the Herald.

While we have no in-canon source for it, a lot of extra-canon sources seem to imply that the Herald had the ability to see the future. (Using either the Beginning’s or the Reformer’s eyes or something.) This line I have quoted above is very likely implying that, in the past, the Herald used this future sight to directly witness what Avery and co.’s wish. (Though she doesn’t seem to be the one who actually “revived” them.)

It’s totally possible that the observers we’ve seen thus far (Via tree eyes or Prospy painting) were actually the Herald, looking into the future from the past.

Of course, it’s possible it was someone else using the Song of Sight, but that almost seems to be implied to be something entirely different from the Herald’s future sight. (A lesser version, maybe?)

But either way, it tells us that the Herald was actively looking as far forward as a time when Lune was not just alive, but seemingly already a teenager / adult, judging by Avery’s memory of her. (Neither Nino nor Mei has ever seen Lune as far as we know, so this memory of her has almost certainly come from Avery himself.)

Just more proof that the Herald’s the coolest celestial, I guess.

Last edited 10 days ago by Lunk
mysteriousmaverick
mysteriousmaverick
3 days ago

Avery: What's done is done. You have suffered, but you have also done well based on the circumstances. Just hope that mercy shall remain in the hearts of those who have taken effort to assist you in your pain, and that your last moments contained those who wished to help you.

^