Friends. Loved ones. Lore enthusiasts. Yuri enjoyers. Have we considered the Taurie and Artist duo.
Women who grew up in the shadow of the Black Talon, of the Entity, who lost everything to it, but where Carmina had everything torn away from her Taurie gave it willingly. And neither of them want to be, or should be, what they are.
Carmina was an inspiration, a force against fear and oppression turned into a tool of a being that thrives off of it, where Taurie devoted her life to serving the Entity, was enthralled by the feeling of power she got from it, and was taken to be a sacrifice instead of a killer.
Carmina never wanted the Entity's attention yet it seems to favor her, it is obsessed enough with her that it sent crows for watch her even in the world outside the realms where it has limited power. Taurie did everything for the opportunity to prove herself to the Entity, and it only even took her because her weakness would make her good game.
Even in what little characterization of them post Fog we get, they're dealing with being in the realm in ways that are so different yet so. Taurie's voicelines are mostly her desperately pleading to the Entity to give her another chance, in one line she outright says "This is just another test. I'm sure of it." She's confused, frightened, can't understand what she did wrong or accept that this is how the Entity sees her. And then you look at her perks, which afe Clean Break, Shoulder the Burden, and Invocation: Treacherous Crows, and they all encourage altruistic gameplay to the point of actively putting yourself at risk for your fellow survivors. Now, I think you can actually interpret her perks as either Taurie giving up and accepting her role, or as her trying REALLY hard to be the bestest survivor, probably to the end of impressing the Entity and hopefully getting her wish of become a killer granted, which is never gonna happen, the big spider doesn't give a shit about what you want unless it can use that to manipulate your emotions and make itself some dinner.
The Artist, meanwhile, is the owner of some of the most effective slow-down perks in tha game, those being PainRes, Grim Embrace, and Hex: Pentimento. This primarily show Carmina's deep connection to the Entity and the realm by how she exerts direct control over everything from hooks to generators totems. Grim Embrace is even specifically contextualized as the Entity rewarding the killer, as it's old flavor text was "Your act of servitude to The Entity has not gone unnoticed." Carmina hasn't just complied with the Entity in spite of how brutally it took her, she's apparently serving it well, and she doesn't even seem like. terribly unhappy. The roost on Eryrie is of course occupied by her crows, but she seems to live there too. There's used, even still lit candles around the library inside, and a very intricate painting of a crow on an easel is outside on the balcony. Carmina spent her life trying to oppose the Black Talon and the Entity and her final moments before entering the Fog were made of soul-crushing despair and guilt. She did not want this, yet she seems to be making the most of it. She was both a visual artist and a poet, and she nkw has a library all to herself and seems to still be painting. *Is* still painting, actually, we know that for a fact because the short movie that accompanies her memory fragments in Tome 19 shows her hooking a man in the basement and making an art piece out of him. She even still had her eye for composition; she uses his blood to paint on the wall behind him so that when standing in front of him, he appears to have wings.
I've been mulling over this for like an hour and I'm running out of steam but do you SEE IT. Carmina is literally everything Taurie ever wanted to be through no fault or will of her own, and TAURIE is a willing lifelong member of the cult that chased Carmina her entire life, now served to her on a silver platter for the express purpose of getting brutally murdered. I feel like there is a weirdly small amount of canon survivor-killer nemesis feuds happening at least amongst the cast of original characters so we need to get on this. I GUARANTEE you Carmina is slugging Taurie until she bleeds out whenever possible and Taurie is throwing it back on top of the hatch just to taunt Carmina at every given opportunity. And then they can kiss if you want idc but DO YOU SEE. THE VISION.
jacobvanloon
