Shizue

Your local Seele fanartist | Currently migrating from Twitter | Art + Ideas dump

[e17omm]

Chapter 104 of Snippets of Sirin Schariac's life is out on AO3!

Go read Ich Liebe Dich and Death!

This is quite a long chapter (for my standards) at over 7,000 words!

This chapter continues from the previous chapter, mainly focusing on Seele and Sirin in the Theater of Dominance.

[cloud-ya]

commission for @phoenix-is-the-hottest-thing based on their fanfic "Prey Tell". got asked specifically to post it myself 👍

[eggymints]

who is bro talking to

[fervent-tempo]

SSHC is my favorite arc personally

[legitseele]

[somanychens]

[fizh-face]

veliona doodle

[phoenix-is-the-hottest-thing]

@shizuedayo

[shizuedayo]

AHDKANBCKSNCKSKCHSMCKKFNWKBSKSHDMSKABDND QWQ)🙏

ahem

Thank you for mentioning me \o/

[elisbian-core]

[byjove]

I like stories where a normal human child is being raised by a sinister supernatural being who is totally malevolent except when it comes to their kid. Those are so much better than the “kids are scary” changeling type horror movies.

[byjove]

Like a perfectly well-adjusted well-mannered friendly child that is like “This is my dad, Surazal. He comes out of the mirrors in dark rooms. He makes really good blood pudding but he’s bad at playing catch. Most people can’t see his corporal form but I can because he says I have special eyes.”

[byjove]

“Mom says that you can stay over but you have to promise not to leave my room between midnight and 1 am. You can play Mario Cart with me! But you have to knock on every closed door in the house before entering just because dad might be in there and if you look upon his visage without drinking the holy fruit juice, you might go crazy or something. Also dad is really excited I have a new friend and he’s going to to make hardtack and mystery stew for us! You’ll love it!”

[byjove]

In high school the kid gets a friend that is an amateur demonologist who initially befriends them in hopes of exorcizing their house but ends up becoming buddies with Surazal too because they crave parental affection.

[byjove]

Surazal stands at the end of the vast dark hallway and says “You Too Have Special Eyes, Little One. You Can See Me Without Being Taken By The Madness. Within You, I Sense Great Turmoil And Sadness. In My Younger Years, I Would Have Exploited The Sadness As Weakness In Your Very Soul. I Would Have Worn Your Skin Like A Mask And Run Through The Village Streets, Supping Blood From Every Man I Encountered. But Now I Have No Use For Woe. Perhaps You Would Like To Watch Beetlejuice In The Family Room With My Daughter While I Prepare Cupcakes. I Am Sensing You Have A Fondness for Red Velvet.”

[rotationalsymmetry]

Monsterfucking is out. Monsterparenting is in.

[fierceawakening]

Why would you hide this in the tags

[noidandpencils]

Ohh could you draw Herrscher of Rebirth Seele from Hi3?

hellooo anon, yes i can! aka i already have lol

her design is really complex compared to other characters i've seen, but at least she's fun to color!

[ad-wills]

[elisbian-core]

happy valentine!!!

[sacron1143]

Saw a couple of these going around and thought Captainverse needed one

Which of these did not happen in the Captainverse?

Mei turns into a Christmas reindeer because "Can't think of other roles for you"

Twins are escaped multiversal criminals

Time loops make you allergic to vampires

Mei loses a cook-off to Kiana

7 Sakuras didn't notice their missing sister was next door since she's a Theresa

Crab fakes his own death

Theresa gets locked inside her weapon because she's too lazy

Bronya and Seele make a girl kill her adoptive mom

Kiana and Fu Hua call each other pet names

Water Djinn became a NEET because Otto bankrupted her

King and Queen can't tell Durandal apart from a goose statue

Captain first met Seele in a hotspring

Voting ended onFeb 18, 2024

[sacron1143]

Congrats to the 56 people who voted "Mei loses a cook-off to Kiana", you were correct. Maybe if it was Rita it could happen, but Kiana can't beat anyone in a cook-off unless you win by knocking them out

As for the other options, let's go in order of votes:

12. "Theresa gets locked inside her weapon because she's too lazy", 3 votes

This one happens in Winter Rhadopsy. Theresa believes that she is actually dreaming and refuses to move. They can't leave her behind, as she was given the role of Alice. Captain's solution to the problem? Lock her inside Judah and carry it on his back the rest of the way.

11. "Twins are escaped multiversal criminals", 4 votes

Turns out that the Roza and Lili from the Gemina Invasions, jokey chibi manga are the main ones that show up in Captainverse starting from Honkai Kingdoms. Makes you reconsider the amount of deaths they caused directly and indirectly, huh.

10. "7 Sakuras didn't notice their missing sister was next door since she's a Theresa", 5 votes

Almost couldn't fit that one in the option, but it is actually true. In one of Odd Drifter's world fragments, Otto steals a magical sakura flower and kills everyone in Yae Village with a plague. The magical tree revives it's priest, Yae Sakura, and to keep her company turns it's other 6 flowers in copies of her to keep her company, but the stolen flower takes the form of Theresa.

9. "Kiana and Fu Hua call each other pet names", 6 votes.

This one was @phoenix-is-the-hottest-thing's idea Fu Hua stumbles in the Honkai Kingdoms bubble while looking for a way to go back to her world. She defeats the evil queen and pulls out the legendary sword, but because the order got reversed, the angel sent to help her, Kiana, gets stuck with her.

8. "King and Queen can't tell Durandal apart from a goose statue", 7 votes

This is one of the newer events, coming from Estival Seaside Amusement Park. King and Queen are lazing around as usual, and decide to make a life-sized sand statue of their boss, only...

7. "Bronya and Seele make a girl kill her adoptive mom", 8 votes

This one comes from Fallen Rosemary's debut event. After a Shicksal experiment turns a Joyce clone into a Quantum Shadow who kills Seele, a distraught Joachim makes a deal with a certain witch to save them both. Seele's soul is put in the rosemary bed, allowing her to possess those who smell it, and Joey and Joachim switch bodies.

Bronya, the only survivor, decides to use that to get her revenge. One of the steps includes making Sora kill Raven by having Seele possess her after luring her out with Sora's kidnapping.

6. "Water Djinn became a NEET because Otto bankrupted her", 9 votes

Back in the Odd Drifter fragments, the Water Djinn started off as the goddess of The Woodcutter and the Axe story, but Otto would abuse the reward system by constantly dropping things and getting them back in gold and silver.

[1/2]

[sacron1143]

[2/2]

5. "Time loops make you allergic to vampires", 9 votes

Tied with the last option, this is another one that came from the later events. While not an allergy per se, the repeated time loops did warp the world's rules, making it so that Luna's and Captain's fates are tied to each other, and not in a good way. The closer they get to each other, the weaker they get, eventually resulting in the death of one of them. This is why Theresas can't get good endings.

4. "Crab fakes his own death", 17 votes

In the Captainverse epilogue, the crew gets stranded in a bubble and receives help from the local Chief Crab, a void chela lookalike. After "The company" threatens him he goes into hiding, only for his claw to be found on the ground. This was an actual void chela's claw, a distraction to allow him to sneak away to sabotage the crew.

3. "Mei turns into a Christmas reindeer because "Can't think of other roles for you"", 20 votes

Back to Winter Rhapsody, it was revealed at the end that the entire event was a set up for Seele to meet Bronya again, and she was responsible for the characters they played. While Theresa and Bronya for some reason got switched roles, but when it came to Mei...

2. "Captain first met Seele in a hotspring", 25 votes

The Seele's Quantum Diary event was one of the first "recap" events, serving as a retelling of the Azure Waters manga and an introduction of Seele for the game only players. In the event, a tired Captain decides to chill on a hotspring, only for his phone to be accidentally hijacked by Seele, allowing him to converse with her and hear her story.

"Mei loses a cook-off to Kiana", 56 votes

And this is the one option that won, with a big lead at that! And indeed, this one is the one option that I made up. Perhaps I made it too easy this time...

[lostacelonnie]

the start of salt snow arc is still unbelievably funny to me because you have this setup for a story about how humanity rebuilds their own home after transcending finality for the first time in history and also about the grey serpents, what it means for them to be a collective vs an individual and what is the cost of independence. but then a wild misteln appears and the arc takes a sharp turn into a completely different direction. the grey serpent storyline is never touched on again

[herrscherofmagic]

okay I love this because I do feel like they actually kinda touched on this, but in a different way. I do wish they hadn't dropped the Grey Serpent plot line so quickly, but if we expand it beyond just Grey Serpent and instead address the whole idea of "artificial life", it actually continues through the whole arc.

I've had these ideas mulling about in the back of my head for a while now so pardon me for the wall of text I'm about to throw at you! i'm not trying to be like "oh you're wrong" cause I 100% agree that it would've been nice to see more of Grey Serpent's particular storyline, but I just want to share some other related thoughts because I loved the SSHC arc so much and there's a kinda surprising amount of depth to it, lol

We start with Grey Serpent, who is clearly an artificial lifeform, and we're presented with this question of "what makes this being so different from any other human?" It's pretty obvious that he's not "human" because he has such a strange appearance, and he's a primarily cybernetic being; hence why he seeks to replace his mechanics with flesh so that he has a chance at properly fitting into society, since he feels outcasted by his unusual nature. This was very clearly demonstrated to us in that first chapter and it was the central focus of the opening to the SSHC arc as a whole.

But then look at the rest of the cast:

Humans: Blue Seele, Susannah, Kira

Stigmata: Red Seele, Misteln, Abnormal Stigmata 0013, 0014, and 0015 ("Chen", Sage, and creepy "Seele")

AI/Android: Prometheus

Herrscher: Senti

Clone: Vita

If we include some other minor characters then we also have Charter (AI), Dr. Marrah (human trapped as a digital consciousness and put into a monstrous form), Dr. Norton & Dr. Tyler (also humans trapped as digital consciousnesses, but rapidly deteriorating), and Niggurath & Elder Konpeito (aliens).

Of all these characters in the SSHC, THREE are "proper humans" that had genetic parents and were directly born of another human being and which still possess an outwardly-human body. Everyone else is some form of artificial lifeform that came into being through supernatural or man-made means. Some were constructed & programmed, others were humans who were transformed and stripped of their freedom and bodily autonomy, some are extraterrestrials, and others still are entirely unique existences that don't "belong" to the real world.

The whole Salt Snow Holy City arc more or less touched on this concept of (in)humanity and what makes a being more or less human. Even after Grey Serpent was removed from the picture, we had the scene with Misteln & Prometheus discussing the meaning of life, plus we had the discussion between HoRB Seele and Vita after their fight.

Then we can even look at how all the inhabitants of the SSHC are technically "virtual beings" of the Sea of Quanta, and their counterparts in the Country of Iron and Sand are even less "human" because they're more like shadows of these shadows. Plus we're even told at the end that because their worlds are now stable, all the people in the Country of Iron and Sand are slowly going to disappear.

Again, I still wish we got to explore more about Grey Serpent, and it's kinda disappointing that we didn't continue that particular plot-line. But I still think it fulfilled its role in the story and led as a strong thematic build-up to the ideas we'd see later on. Almost none of these characters are "actually" human, after all.

What makes Red Seele more human than Grey Serpent? The fact that she looks like she has normal skin, and that she has a pretty face?

And what about the residents of the Country of Iron and Sand, who have no physical form yet have false memories of the lives of their real counterparts in the Salt Snow Holy City? Do they deserve to be treated as more human than Grey Serpent?

Or what about the abnormal stigmata, like 0013 which would spontaneously shift between appearing like a normal human and then appearing as a quantum monster?

Or 0006, which was a seemingly monstrous entity that assimilated other lifeforms from the bubble world it landed in and had to be euthanized by Misteln?

Speaking of Misteln, does she get to be "more human" because she's a more stable Form that can perpetually exist, or is she one and the same?

What about Red Seele, a Stigma that now has a physical body and could pass for human in the real world without anyone ever realizing her true origins? Formerly an intangible being in a stigma space, only limited to interacting with the world through the body of her host; now that she owns her own body, does that make her "human"?

Is Dr. Marrah still considered human after losing her original body, being placed in an animal form and denigrated by the OG Vita, and then placed into a twisted monstrous form and losing almost all autonomy?

And what of Dr. Norton & Dr. Tyler, who have lost almost all their mental faculties, one of which was placed in the form of a simple guard mech and the other placed in a god-damn jukebox?

And what of Vita, who is a clone (much like K-423!) and who had to follow orders from a higher being with almost no room to actually think or act for herself?

Is she more human than Grey Serpent, a being with a less appealing outside form yet complete individual autonomy?

None of these questions are asked explicitly, but I feel like the implication is there. Of all the story arcs in HI3rd I think this one really had some of the most insightful themes about humanity & our biases on how we perceive other beings, how we judge them based on their behavior or their external form.

Of course, I do still want to learn more about the plight of the remaining Grey Serpents on Earth, and I'd love to meet more of them in the future too!

[lostacelonnie]

YESSS I ABSOLUTELY AGREE WITH EVERYTHING YOU SAID HERE. i think the exploration of human identity in salt snow arc is actually very nicely tied into the general discussion of humanity in honkai, and expands upon it

since like. this theme has been around for a While, between kiana herself, herrschers in general, and more recently the flamechaser simulations [mobius in particular]; honkai had been playing with the idea of what it means to be human for a long time and i actually loved to see more of it [especially as a misteln enthusiast]

i Could talk more about it but at the end of the day id probably just end up repeating what youve already said JSDKFJG...... salt snow arc is my beloved and favorite in the entire game [ESPECIALLY after the mess that moon arc was....] so i really didnt mean to criticize it, the start was genuinely just really funny to me bc of how suddenly it changed setting and surface theme

i do wish we get the grey serpent storyline back tho.

[phoenix-is-the-hottest-thing]

I think the ending of the Gray Serpent arc for this one is interesting though. We (belatedly) do learn exactly what happened to him:

Stigma 15 was born, and then she ate him to survive. That Gray Serpent, himself, had been trying to assimilate medical prosthetics, which you could see as a somewhat similar act.

Mobius did the same thing to Klein— ate her to survive, albeit subconsciously. They are all ruthless in their desire to live. Is that not a human desire?

Hell, Vita had to “eat” everyone else to survive, too— she murdered everyone within her reach but the Seeles for her plan’s sake, and the arc after Salt Snow explicitly shows us that Sa has always denied her humanity.

What does this all say about being human? That it’s worth fighting and killing for? I think that’s a really interesting nuance to give the matter. Hi3 has been very clean in the past few arcs, people rarely disagreeing, violence kind of glossed over and censored in dreams and simulations.

Salt Snow actually shows us a glimpse of the violence is can take to affirm your humanity, whether it’s pilfering body parts after crawling over your siblings’ corpses (Gray Serpent), killing and eating someone (Stigma 15), or ruthlessly gambling with innocent lives including your friends’ (Vita).

You could even say Misteln fits this pattern because she had to hunt down and capture or euthanize her own children, and then sacrifices herself— her motives include connecting with human mortality for that one.

There’s also an interesting parallel to make with The Little Mermaid (Daughter of the Sea is the CN translation of the title back to English), which is a story about becoming human and violence.

To try and become human, the little mermaid loses her voice and feels excruciating pain whenever she walks with her new legs, and she’s supposed to turn into seafoam if she fails. When she does fail, the solution offered to save her from oblivion is more violence— murdering someone she thought she loved!

From what I remember, the original story of The Little Mermaid isn’t so much a love story as a story about wanting a soul, which mermaids don’t have but humans do (Christianity for ya). Lacking an immortal soul means mermaids are nothing after death. Whether it’s being a mermaid again or seafoam, the end would be the same for the heroine— so she doesn’t use the knife, and in at least one version, that is what grants her the chance to get a soul. She becomes an air spirit and can work towards one through good deeds. (Sounds familiar?)

TLDR The Little Mermaid story is about wanting to be human so one may have a soul (and live after death).

In Chinese, Herrscher of Rebirth isn’t written new life (a recurring phrase Vita uses on Sa’s behalf) but death life, literally life after death (bonus points: Vita, who calls herself reborn, is the one to come up with the name).

At this point I want to note that those who reach humanity through violence are all morally gray in Hi3. Stigma 15 is a trouble child and explicitly needs to learn better, Gray Serpent is a villain, Misteln is a known motherfucker who is disliked by multiple characters because she messes with people, Vita goes as far as to call herself a villain, Mobius.

Meanwhile! Unlike the other characters who trample others over their own struggle to be human, Seele is unbendingly kind. She was born human, but she loses her humanity midway through chapter 39, as Veliona betrays her and turns her into a Stigma, and then she comes back as a Herrscher after a clear “seafoam” parallel.

Just like in the little mermaid, she came back after death not through violence, but through being granted a miracle for her goodness. Vita nudges Veliona into saving Seele and notes that perhaps she subconsciously guided the Herrscher Core to her vulnerable beloved— Seele is saved not through violence but because she is good and loved.

What a contrast!

Keeping with that theme, Seele doesn’t use her “knife” against Vita either, refusing to use Death powers, and achieves a happy ending.

Misteln’s self-sacrifice ends well, with her being separated from some of her loved ones but achieving the human mortality she wanted, finding a home and having more children to adopt.

Stigma 15 agrees not to commit further violence and happily integrates into human society under her sister’s watchful eye.

Gray Serpent (and Mobius) never repent and stay dead lol.

As for Vita she goes on to trick and murder more people in the subsequent arc, and despite her victory, her ending in 1.5 is a lonely and sad one as she’s lost her family, in stark contrast to her joy at the end of the Salt Snow arc where she had spared everyone through tricks and enabling Seele’s powers to revive everybody.

All a bit moralistic but interesting isn’t it?

[legitseele]

happy valentines!

[sen-077-deactivated20240609]

REMAKE WIP

[shizuedayo]

oops I dropped something (ﾉ≧ڡ≦) (fyi there's more GIFs that I can't send since tumblr has a 10mb limit for GIFs but you can get them here)