Excuse The Semi-personal Post If I Bore Anyone; It Seemed Tangentially-related, So Make Of It What You

Excuse the semi-personal post if I bore anyone; it seemed tangentially-related, so make of it what you will:

Yesterday, I discovered that I had somehow devised a formula or a partly unintentional “uniform” for dressing for semi-formal events, on the occasions when I don’t bother wearing a dress. It’s happened thrice so far this year, and I’ve only caught onto the pattern now: item one is some kind of formal, black top (it’s been a different one every time—that could be why I didn’t catch onto to this at the start), item two is usually pale, grey pants, for high contrast and low-effort/thought, and then, there's silver jewelry.

Slightly Cursed TOTSMOV41 Thought?

The other day, I had a horrible yet probably true thought about Rafal in TOTSMOV41. He technically punishes himself. Ok, yes, the Storian is responsible for the red-hot iron shoes, but it happens inside the crystal, which I failed to consider, and that means that Sophie, Agatha, and himself (their collective, error-prone memories) are the forces punishing him. It's unconscious on all their parts, but it just seemed weird enough to mention.

In my conceptualization of it, the crystal will work like an alternate reality of a kind, a reality but also a simulation or unreality, where true and false intersect because I'm trying to match the TCY themes and so, there are both real and false elements and real and "false" injuries.

But, I'm kind of at a loss as to whether this works. Seeing as I don't have a complete explanation, I don't think this will change in the final draft, but it's certainly a... feature.

Basically, I'm not sure how well this works because the version of Rafal in the fic is the one from TLEA who isn't supposed to have a guilty conscience, so why would he be punishing himself, even unconsciously? And really, I'll have to blame it on Sophie, Agatha, and Rafal's memory of the Storian itself, leaving a painful impression on them in some way or another because it would make less sense for Sophie, Agatha, and Rafal himself to be subconsciously punishing him.

This is kind of a knee-jerk reaction at my attempt to find a reason for everything I can possibly conceive of. It probably shouldn't be taken that seriously, and at the moment, it doesn't seem to be a plot hole?

Any reactions or ideas, anyone?

Steps towards you wetly

@xxjoyxx I think part of his inconsistency is a symptom of how he underwent "positive" character development, but thank you all the same!

when a character is written inconsistently because nobody thought about it that hard and you're like it's time for me to get in there.. and think about it that hard

they are canceling me for the way i deal with grief. also, for the infinite number of destroyed universes

To amuse myself, I made another aesthetic based on TOTSMOV41, and I'll even drop a "fun" line because why not!

If all else failed, he would call down one of his own Stymphs to end him quickly.

There may two biers in this, but the fic will only have one. Corpse not included.