Wrote like four paragraphs of my fic based around some weird fucking coal metaphor at like half twelve the other night but it’s got me thinking about riptide and fire as anger
Chip gaining his fire magic to me is a manifestation of his anger. He’s always been hot headed and irritable but it was for surface level stuff, and mostly a persona he wore to keep himself safe. I think the further into the campaign he gets, and the more he accepts how good he has it now, he realises truly how many people failed him. Where are his parents? Why did not one single good person after the black rose decide to take him in? Why are his friends favoured by the goddesses? Where were those goddesses for him, when he spent years all alone and with nothing to call his own? Why wasn’t he saved?
his fire is the pure rage that flows through him. His fire is every person who ever looked up to the sky and asked ‘why me? Why did this happen to me?’ His fire is the realisation that it wasn’t his fault— it was never ever his fault.
and again, when he left Reuben’s gang, he set the place on fire. He couldn’t deal with what he’d done so he burnt the whole place to the ground, ridding the land of his sin. And maybe that’s what his magic is: an attempt to rid his body and kind of every terrible thing that ever happened to him.
Jay’s relationship with fire is complicated. It’s always been a symbol of her family, something she used to take pride in. But her firey orange hair looks too much like Ava’s and worst of all her fathers, and the more she learns about her family the more she hates it.
fire is what surrounds her father on his worst days, when she doesn’t recognise him anymore due to the formalities and the ruthlessness and the yelling. Fire is what spread to her when she almost betrayed her friends, when she shot gillion. Fire hurts and fire is evil and fire is her family and she doesn’t know what to make of that.
And now fire is chip. And maybe that recontextualises it for her, or maybe it scares her more. Because she has lost two siblings to fire, and maybe she’s next.
Gillion doesn’t have many fire motifs, but I will place lightning under this category. Lightning is something that has always followed Gillion around. He’s been struck by it god knows how many times, but it’s also part of his magic. I don’t think he harbours the same kind of anger as the other two. He experiences it in a different way. He uses it.
lightning is a tool through which Gillion has learnt to focus his anger. He uses it in battle, and that’s mostly the only time we see him with any outward anger. Sure, he’s not the calmest and chillest of people, but that’s for different reasons. His morals are important to him, but he cares a lot about defending them the ‘correct’ way.
Lightning takes the discipline he was taught as a child, and combines it with his high energy, crazy personality. Lightning means using all of his resources, and making old techniques his own. Lightning is the power to protect those he cares about
I’m supposed to be writing my fic but I did this instead…
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I tend to care about taking a more realistic approach to Riptide in terms of resource management ect, so here's some random thoughts about clothes.
(minor spoilers up to episode #87)
Space management is important on a ship, so pirates tend to stick the essential clothing pieces, and change and wash them less than the average land-dweller.
Pirates don't smell great. This is just something you have to accept.
(except Gillion. Gillion smells of fish and salt and seaweed and the ocean, and never smells sweaty because he doesn't sweat in the human sense, he's just always moist)
Pre episode #87:
Chip has one shirt and one pair of trousers. When he needs to wash them, he will just walk around shirtless or in his underpants depending on what item is being washed. even for a pirate, this is a bit excessive.
he has like three pairs of underpants and he washes them concerningly infrequently
Jay has a change of clothes - she has a spare shirt and trousers, 2 bras that she alternates between, and several pairs of underpants. This is closer to the regular amount of clothes you would expect a pirate to have
After Chip lost his shirt in Allport, he borrowed Jay's spare one since I refuse to imagine him shirtless for the entire Feywild arc. My boy would be cold! :(
Jay is overall the most well-groomed due to her Navy upbringing. However, this isn't something she enjoys - more like something that she feels obligated to do. She finds washing her clothes a pain, and doesn't mind not smelling great or being dirty. As a kid she always hated washing and wearing uncomfortable clothes. As she spends more time on the pirate ship, she becomes less well-put-together and starts to drift more towards a Chip-level of cleanliness - though she promises herself she will never stoop quite as low as him. It's a matter of pride.
She does pick up his habit of walking around shirtless or in her underpants when she can't be bothered to get dressed / it's too hot / whatever. It's a pirate ship, social norms don't matter. Everyone on the ship is family and no-one cares.
She stops wearing bras when they are not on land for the same reason. However, when they come to land, she does make a concerted effort to make herself look socially acceptable and conform to standard norms regarding dress, since she knows this will get them a better reception with the land-dwellers they interact with.
Gillion's was raised to be well-groomed, but didn't have a chance to pack a change of clothes when he was kicked out of the Undersea. His clothes are stiff and encrusted with salt from all the time he spends in the water. There isn't as much of a need to wash items of clothing in the Undersea, as they are in water the whole time, and stains don't show up in the underwater gloom unless they're extremely obvious. Chip and Jay teach him how laundry works easily enough, and Gillion employs a similar strategy to Chip. However, he washes his clothes less frequently than they do as they are always being resubmerged in water anyway.
Post episode #87:
They finally get Gillion a change of clothes. He has an alternate shirt and trousers.
Since they have a bigger ship by this point, the crew has space for a few more fun/luxury items of clothing that aren't for everyday wear. Only a few - ie one special shirt - but it's still nice to have.
(Gillion has an emo band T-shirt) (yes they have emo bands in the fantasy world of Mana) (come on we all know at this point that the world doesn't conform to a consistent time period)
Jay realises she hates her current clothes because the starched sleeveless shirts she has been wearing, though they have become far less starched after a year of heavy use and improper wear, are very scratchy on her skin. She buys two softer woolen sleeveless shirts instead (ie the ribbed design a lot of the fanart of her features). She gives the old shirts to Chip
Chip buys the coat, which keeps his shoulders warm, and so he often prefers to go shirtless to show off his tattoos. However, he will wear Jay's old shirts when his tits get too cold.
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