It was only raw lust at her nun fit in the start because I am superficial and a walking ulterior motive, but I have to say The Masses' Travels absolutely sold me on Archetto/Hildegard.
It's that damn scene, man, it's that damn scene where she pours her entire heart out about her joyful memories, the good, the bad, the easy, the hard, the sweet, the bitter, about Laterano, about busting her ass off and breaking her back for Landon Monastery, and generally, for Laterano, her life's work dedicated to bettering the monastery, and those it aids, reminiscing about all the good times with the sisters, with the abbot, the little games and pranks, the outings, the efforts, the sacrifices, the successes, all of it, not just the monastery, but of Laterano itself, the best places to eat, the best sights to see, and the wonderful people she's met and loved, be they Sankta, Liberi, or anything else.
Hildegard then asks if that all is invalidated just because she has no halo, simply because she has no halo. She asks if she is not a real Lateran despite all of that, pouring her whole bleeding and beating heart out, simply because this is a binary of halo or no halo? Is she not a real Lateran?
And the Nurturer simply answers, with all the grace of a crude shiv between the ribs, no, you aren't. You aren't a real Lateran. You simply aren't and you will never be unless you are given a halo.
I cannot tell you the raw anger that evoked in me as a reader and human being in a catholic country where I have seen the very same scene play out far too many times for comfort. I am privileged with a halo, let's say. I've seen far too many people be written off, othered, because they weren't born with one. It made me want to cry, my eyes were legitimately burning reading that. It unbottled all that anger I thought I had already resolved and come to terms with. No, it turns out, this still burns a bit too bright, that hypocrisy makes me want to burn at least one of the numerous gilded churches you can find every three streets around here.
Beyond that, holy shit, kudos, because Archetto was a character that was an absolute nobody in my radar until this event and now I've done a 540, she's got shooters and I am as many of them as she needs me to be.
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