Retracing our Steps 1101 - Arknights spoilers
Spoilers related to Kjera and small plot points of the event below
Alright Kjera fans i won't lie to you it is in fact dire. i've tried cross checking a couple places for any hint of it being okay and i've only found one small piece of info whereas there is in fact a whole mountain (now i'm sad again.) of evidence that the Saintess is going solo for the rest of her life.
A lot of what i'm pulling from is Pramanix alter's files and voice lines.
Poor Enya is yearning so bad, and taking these from Pramanix Alter's module Kjera is too.
There's a lot of references to Enya wanting Kjera to be happy with the the societal changes she's making as Saintess
but she's also still pretty scared that she will lose her way and the memories of Kjera will disappear which makes me sick to my stomach.
This concept of memory is also where we get the only good news of this entire post.
i believe that the first of Dr warfarin's notes indicates that some greater part of the mountain's power was conferred upon Enya during the events of the final story segment. This is an obvious statement yes but with the other piece of info i think this "strengthening" of Enya's connection in Pramanix alter is important.
It's been noted that Feranmuts have a perception affecting power show here in Kjera her self's operator record
I think that Astegenne's research sheet indicates that the person being affected by this power has a number of physiological phenomena occur during Kjera's "presence". it's likely that Kjera interceded on the group of researchers behalf and the "Slow delta waves characteristic of a slow-wave sleep state" indicates that Kjera is directly observing those people in some way.
This would mean in the previous screenshot when Enya feels the cool breeze and "as though her friend was always there." Kjera *is* checking in on her and wanting to know how she's doing and because of how close the two of them were even just Kjera's presence brings memories of her to Enya's mind.
I think it's pretty clear that Kjera isn't truly dead and is just in a "resting state" likely more severe than the previous one that caused the process of the Saintesses in the first place. But i also believe there's evidence to say that while she is no longer by Enya's side, Kjera is watching over Enya in a more tangible way than the usual way people talk about the departed "watching over you"
Does this comfort me in any way? uh i'm not sure, break the ice was like when the story of arknights truly "locked in" for me and i started taking the story seriously. Kjera being a huge part of that for me, and i'm still absolutely gutted that she's been effectively "killed" but i think my attachment to the character and the effort i've put into looking into a path forward (like some kind of follower of Kjerag would do, the irony isn't lost on me) shows how much i loved the story of Retracing our steps and i just pray that our goddess will return someday.
Please.