WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT IS THIS THE GREATEST THING
LET’S TALK ABOUT THIS
Clamp absolutely set the precedent for this with our visit to Shura/Shara all those years ago. We’ve SEEN the possibility of being in the past and future of the same world and teleporting between the two. We knew the feathers could appear pretty much anywhere in the timeline of a world, given how time works differently across the mutliverse, and we DID just straight up go backwards and forwards in time via Mokona, so it’s absolutely possible for them to appear in the Past of the Kingdom of Clow.
WHICH IS APPARENTLY ACID TOKYO????
WHICH JUST ABSOLUTELY BLOWS MY MIND WHAT THE FUCK
WHAT A WAY TO TIE IT ALL TOGETHER??
X/1999 IS THE SET UP TO THE CLOW KINGDOM?
THE CLOW KINGDOM IS IN THE RUINED ECOLOGICAL DISASTER OF OUR OWN CURRENT WORLD???
Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle as a pseudo-not-really-but-kind-of-sequel-event to Cardcaptor Sakura but ACTUALLY ALSO being the sequel-kind-of-but-not-exactly sequel to X/1999???? Or Alternate Timeline X/1999? Where things are ever so slightly different but the world was ruined in the same way?
AND THE RESERVOIR
THE RESERVOIR IN ACID TOKYO IS THE RESERVOIR IN THE CLOW RUINS????
I’m REELING OVER THIS
THEY SET THAT UP
SAKURA WALKED THROUGH THE DESERT TO PURIFY THE WATER TO SAVE THESE PEOPLE AND IT MADE THE RESERVOIR THAT LOVED SAKURA SO MUCH THAT IT PROTECTS HER
AND WATANUKI! WATANUKI WAS AN ESSENTIAL PIECE OF SETTING UP THE RESERVOIR IN A WORLD BEFORE HE EVEN EXISTED IN THAT TIMELINE
And that’s Definitely the feather they’re talking about, isn’t it? The feather that Sakura left in Acid Tokyo is still in the Reservoir right now, and is the reason the water is magic and loves her so much - because it’s a piece of her, and -... well, a piece of her clone. But it’s a piece of SAKURA, and so they resemble and resonate with each other, and that's why the water is so close to her, but 'Sakura' can’t absorb the feather because she’s already a full person and those aren’t her memories, but the memories of her clone.
Meanwhile Sakura (ie, our cloned Sakura) is currently on the other side of the portal at a point in time that DIDN’T exist a few seconds ago, for Original 'Sakura', but the rest of the universe has moved on and decades have passed (even though no time at all has passed for her) and now the feather from her clone has ended up in the past that set up the reservoir potentially centuries before she was even born.
Timeline!
Oh my god?
Oh my god.
I’m going to be thinking about this forever.
No wait I’m not done ACID TOKYO WAS like THE point in the narrative where everything changed forever. And from a Tsubasa point of view it felt like a world picked at random for all the Important Narrative changes to take place - but it never was! It was the most important world of all! It was the Clow Kingdom!
So Syaoran lived his life in the Clow Kingdom, and then his soul collapsed in Acid Tokyo, which was ALSO the Clow Kingdom, and then he went and died defending Lava Lamp, in the Clow Kingdom. All at completely different points in the timeline but all in the exact same world.
Though I will say I am thoroughly baffled by the connection between the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building and THE CLOW RUINS???
ARE THEY SUPPOSED TO BE THE SAME BUILDING?
Oh my god they’re in the same location aren’t they. The reservoir was underneath it and now it’s under the ruins. I suppose they have Magic so they could probably reshape them however they want but WHAT A CON CLAMP HAVE PULLED ON US
TO SPEND THE ENTIRE MANGA STARING AT THE WINGS OF THE CLOW RUINS AND THEY WERE SECRETLY WAITING FOR THE RIGHT TIME TO TELL US THAT WE WERE ACTUALLY LOOKING AT THE TOKYO METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENT BUILDING ALL ALONG
I wanted to do something different, I was thinking of doing something simple but I was listening to lo-fi and my head did the rest x_x
And I also wanted to do it with a little-known Henchmaniac, but at the same time he is my favorite! I even gave him a name bc the poor guy doesn't have one :<
Welp... *dies in details*
PS: In the cup there are some references to other popular henchmaniacs, you can find them all?
self indulgent phone guy stimboard for me! this was so fun to make, sorry for not actually including vincent this art just scratches my brain /pos art credit 📞
Syaoran is just gushing blood at this point, to the point that HIS EYE COMES OUT
OR RATHER, FAI’S EYE COMES OUT
THE COLOUR (IE, THE SOURCE OF FAI’S MAGIC) COMES OUT OF HIS EYE AND CRYSTALISES LIKE FAI’S OTHER EYE DID BACK IN NIHON
Which gets me from a few angles, because like, could that go back to Fai now? Could he get that magic back? Or did he already trade away the ownership of it when he traded all of his magic to Yuuko? Does he even want it? It’s uh… caused many problems. And painful memories. And even more painful injuries.
BUT ALSO THE LOOK OF SYAORAN WITH HIS NORMAL EYES RESTORED?
THAT’S JUST SYAORAN!
MY CLONE SON IS DYING
AND IN HIS HARSH BREATHING HE FINDS HIMSELF MENTIONING THE FEATHERS BECAUSE OF COURSE HE DOES THAT WAS HIS CORE ALL ALONG
If he was going to have to talk about anything in his final moments it would have to be the feathers
And he almost looks lifeless as he passes on that they should give the feathers to Sakura. Because that was his central programming from start to finish.
Unless he knows something else?!
Is this the implication that maybe giving the feathers to Sakura at this point might cause something?
Is there a thread of a chance that Sakura is not just an empty body but that there is still something to be restored?
(And how cruel would that be to bring her back only to find that her most important person has died all over again?)
OH NO IM SCREAMING
HELLO ITS REALLY HIM
ITS SYAORAN tALKING ABOUT HIS FAMILY ON HIS DEATHBED
I WASN'T PREPARED FOR THIS
OH NO NOW I AM ALSO DECEASED
HE SEEMINGLY ROUNDS OFF THE FAMILY BY MENTIONING SAKURA BUT THEN ALSO ADDS LAVA LAMP
SCREAMING CRYING THROWING UP
HOW WILL I EVER RECOVER FROM THIS
THEY NEVER EVEN TECHNICALLY KNEW EACH OTHER
THEY SPENT THEIR WHOLE LIVES INTERTWINED
THEY FOUGHT AND TRIED TO KILL EACH OTHER AND DIED TRYING TO SAVE EACH OTHER
LAVA LAMP GAMBLED HALF HIS SOUL ON SAVING THIS BOY AND WATCHED SYAORAN'S ENTIRE LIFE FROM HIS OWN EYES RIGHT UP UNTIL HE LOST HIS SOUL
AND NOW HE’S HOLDING HIM AS HE DIES RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM AND SYAORAN LISTS HIM AS PART OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PEOPLE TO HIM, MAKING THEM FAMILY FROM START TO FINISH
Do you happen to know any ways to torture a shapeshifter effectively?
I'm assuming said shapeshifter is gonna shift bigger/smaller to get out of any restraints? In that case...
The good ol' pitfall with spikes at the bottom, and then you gotta put like a lid on it that also has spikes. Like an iron maiden type thing. Basically just make it spikes on all sides! They might be able to make themselves real small to avoid being hurt tho 😔
But hey, while they're trapped, light a fire under that shit because even if they aren't getting poked they sure as fuck can't get away from the heat <33 or cold you could also freeze it whatever suits your fancy
Trap them completely underwater. They can turn into a fish? What if that water is acid instead, or molten metal :) And you can let that metal cool and then wow you have a fun mold!!!
I am now remembering that maybe they shouldn't die, but you can still do less intense variations of some of this stuff, trapping them in a metal box and getting it hot or spraying acid on them where they can't avoid it
They might be able to shift out of restraints, but what if I impale them on the ground with a piece of rebar, huh. what then
Give them a nice brand or marking that's visible no matter how they shift, so you'll always know it's them
Good old starvation and dehydration (and if they turn into a camel then that's just cool you got a camel hell yeah)
In conclusion, as long as you can figure out a way to keep them from getting away, you can do whatever you want, baby