Nephiliet: Lightweaving Kiss
Designer's Reflection: Lightweaving Kiss
Obtained: Arachnus Flutterby: Into the Deepblue hell event
Rarity: UR
Attribute: Purple/Sexy
Awakened Suit: Midnight Stealth
Story - transcripts from Designer's Reflection
Chapter 1 - Web of Death
Chapter 2 - Cocooned Within
Chapter 3 - Nestled Love
Chapter 4 - Mayfly Sadness
Chapter 5 - Eternal Love
Story - summarized
Deep in the Ninir forest lies Nephiliet, a humanoid spider girl who will hunt anything and everything that gets caught in her web. Even other spiders are prey to her. She doesn't know any other life than "hunt or be hunted."
Soon, she spots humans in a greenhouse not too far away. Nephiliet tries to trap one of them, but is repulsed by their stench. Still, it's rare to see so many humans here, so she watches them every day. And then, Nephiliet finds out what they were doing: conducting an experiment on a humanoid butterfly. If this many humans swarm around the butterfly and draw its blood for "research," then surely it must be the best-tasting prey, right?
Nephiliet sneaks in one night and steals the butterfly, still in its strange pod. But she quickly learns this is no ordinary butterfly. It calls itself Evangelos, shows concern for her well-being, and enjoys decorating the web. But it drains itself quickly and needs to rest on the web often.
The humans are outraged that they lost their experiment, so they find a way to repel all creatures from the spiderweb. Except when Nephiliet finds out, she sets up a trap for insects to swarm the humans there. She returns home triumphant - Evangelos is hurt and dying.
She weaves her spider silk into a cocoon for it. Evangelos fully recovers, but now Nephiliet is weak. She spun a lot of silk in such a short time. If they continue with this method, both of them will die soon. Nephiliet returns to the greenhouse, desperate to find something to save Evangelos. Instead, she finds a wedding picture. She realizes she's in love with Evangelos, and she wants to spend the rest of her life with it.
Connections
-This is the third wedding event in Shining Nikki. First was the wedding dress contest in Wintermount. Then came the Halloween-themed Dreamy Reflection with the ghost and the witch.
-Evangelos may be the first nonbinary character confirmed in-story, but it's not the first nonbinary character in the game. Most of the gods, like Arionus, Hephaes, and the God of Styling, all go by "They" and are assumed to be either genderless or all-gendered, despite having a gendered voice actor.
-Other characters in Miraland have been subjected to torturous experiments, too: Joy in Perfect Experiment, Ashley in Vol. 2, Ch. 10, and even Nikki in Vol. 1, Ch. 8 when she tries to find Joy in the abandoned lab.
Fun Facts
-The Awakened art for Nephiliet's and Evangelos' Reflections are the same moment, but from different angles. Nephiliet's art shows her draping the veil on both of them and gently cupping Evangelos' face.
-The experiments in the greenhouse were actually illegal and unethical, and it seems Evangelos is the only surviving test subject.
