#Lone Trail

[leithanienwnt]

Lone trail

#arknights #how much to commission this as Kristen and mumu.... #lone trail

[mokadevs]

you've given me nothing to miss

#arknights #lone trail #saria arknights #arknights saria #kristen arknights #arknights kristen #kristen wright #listened to this song on loop for the entirety of drawing these #im in the middle of writing a fic about them ill get there just you guys wait #shakes my finger through tears #theyre everything to me. please talk to me about them #and by to me i mean at me because im unable to form coherent thoughts through anything but mediocre art #kiki draws

[wolfgirlfloof]

my favorite part of lone trail was when rosmontis said it's rosing time and rosed all over those guys

#arknights #lone trail #GREATLY enjoying this event #the politics the conspiracy the divorce #and iffy and rose are precious

[shoey-box]

"Goodnight, Terra. Goodnight, Universe."

'If, in a century or a millennium, our descendants walk among the stars, the masses will sing her praises.'

#illustration #digital art #fanart #my art #arknights #arknights kristen #lone trail #arknights lone trail

[burstfoot]

Your name is Kristen Wright. You’re barely 10. You’re at the outdoor funeral for your parents, a pair of genius scientists that Terra will never see again. You’ve spent the last two weeks giving false smiles to women and men who pretend to grieve them while spending every moment they think you’re not looking lauding them for their ‘foolishness’ and ‘hubris’. Sitting amongst a crowd of these intellectuals, your feel nothing looking at their crocodile tears, knowing they’re just happy there’s less competition for next year’s grants. Your new guardian grabs onto your hand in an attempt to grant you a modicum of comfort. You stare blankly at the sky above.

You’ve never felt so alone. You don’t think this feeling will ever go away.

Your name is Joyce Moore. You can hardly communicate anymore. Your best friend killed herself trying to replicate the experiment that gave you permanent brain damage. Every scientist at Rhine Lab now treats you like a child at best, and an animal at worst. Your parents have not come to see you. None of your colleagues seem to understand that you are still you, with a sense of humour, good taste in TV shows, and fucking feelings, god damn it.

You’ve never felt so alone. You don’t think this feeling will ever go away.

Your name is Ferdinand Clooney. You’ve lost everything you’ve ever worked for in a futile grab for power. The department of defense has you by the dick after saving you from a group of Pioneers who (justifiably) nearly beat you half to death. It’s playing fiddle to their whims or the rest of your life in prison - or, most realistically, a tragic accident report. Your aspirations aren’t within your reach anymore, and you know that it’s your fault. You will never be Kristen Wright, and it’s eating you alive.

You’ve never felt so alone. You don’t think this feeling will ever go away.

Your name is Parvis Ahrens. You’re not that old. You’re only 58. But you’re losing your mind. Every day, a little more slips away. You rely more and more on encyclopedic entries for information you took immense pride in knowing from your heart. You’ve spent the last few years focused on the pursuit of progress of all else. As part of this, you manipulated your star pupil in an attempt to permanently get her under your wing, outside of the influence of the Defense Director, a weak-hearted woman everyone else seems to think is cold as ice. She has years of life to change Columbian science. You don’t.

You’ve never felt so alone. You don’t think this feeling will ever go away.

Your name is Jara B. Wilson. You feel like you don’t see the girl who lived for you with so long in Kristen anymore. You’re a washed-up movie star, working for her cause above all else. Do you have anything that you’re working for for yourself anymore? She’ll be gone soon. You know that.

She hasn’t even left yet, and you’ve never felt so alone. You don’t think this feeling will ever go away once she leaves.

Your name is Nasti Londrey. Your people have never had a home. They might never have a home.

You’ve always felt alone. You will always be alone. That’s fine.

Your name is Justin Fitzroy Jr. Your dad died a week ago, and the cure has just been found for the hereditary illness that threatens to cut your lifespan in half. It was found by accident.

The sword of Damacles no longer hangs above your neck. Why then, do you still feel so alone?

Your name is Loken Williams. You reach out to a girl you tortured, who you know can’t remember what you did to her, because you’re going to die soon, and you need someone to remember what you did with your life.

Even if she kills you, at least you won’t die alone.

Your name is Trevor Friston. It’s been thousands of years down here. You just want to see your daughter again, and it will be another thousand until you do.

You’re very familiar with the loneliness that wraps around every single nanometer of your circuit board.

Your name is Dorothy Franks. Your whole family was killed in a Catastrophe. Your name is Elena Urbica. Your whole family, besides your twin sister, has disowned you. Your drive yourself head-first into the sciences to distract yourself from the loneliness.

Your name is Ho’olheyak. Centuries of ancestral memories swarm around your mind. Because of this, your lifespan was cut to a fraction of the life you should be living. You are obsessed with the history of your people, and you resent them from tearing your life away from you. You tear over books and tomes of history to find all means of unspeakable knowledge, hoping that somewhere in there you’ll find something that you can connect to.

You don’t even know you’re lonely.

Your name is Muelsyse.

You saw the writing on the wall. Saria and Kristen just had a massive fight. You’ve been drifting apart since college, but the only two people who you’ve felt a real connection to on all of Terra will hardly speak to each other anymore. Do you try and mend what happened between them? Can you? You don’t know what to do besides take all means to protect yourself in the fallout. You wish you weren’t so paranoid, so self-centered, that all you know how to do is ensure your own safety.

Is there anything on Terra for you besides loneliness?

Your name is Ifrit. It’s cold, and quiet, and you’re pretty sure you’ve killed everyone around you. Your eyes are blurred, you hands are shaky, and shards of black crystal stick out all over your body. Before you pass out, you think one thing:

Hell, you might be alone, but at least those bastard whitecoats got what was coming to them.

Your name is Olivia Silence. You pull yourself out of the rubble in a destroyed laboratory, where you see Saria looming over Ifrit, beaten half-to-death. You beat yourself up for thinking you could trust her - that she was there to protect Ifrit, and you. You can’t trust anyone in Columbia. You run to embrace Ifrit with your entire body, to protect her from the cold eyes of Saria standing above her. You look back at her with nothing but fear in your eyes.

You’ve never felt so alone. You have to get Ifrit out of Rhine.

Your name is Saria. You’re barely 8 years old. You went your father in tears, as a group of bullies came after you and destroyed your toy car. He tells you to stop crying. You’re not accomplishing anything by throwing a fit in front of him. He tells you to fight back - take responsibility for your weakness.

You’ve never felt so alone.

You won’t ever be this weak again.

Staring up at the sky, looking up as Kristen’s ark sends her out through the hole she tore in the false sky, you know that you were foolish to believe you could bypass your own weakness through sheer will.

And you’ll be lonely for the rest of your life without her.

#arknights #fic #(i suppose. this is moreso like. an appreciation post in prose form) #arknights spoilers #lone trail spoilers #lone trail #your name is Mayer Stony. honestly you’re doing completely fine

[cerastes]

What's your take on MumuDoc in Lonetrail?

Muelsyse in Lone Trail felt, in many ways, like seeing someone diving in a pool, and at first, you're not alarmed. They know how to swim. You don't really think much of it. But then a minute passes, and they are still underwater. Concern sinks in, and you make your way to the pool, and as you're about to jump in, their head surfaces, they are back up. They cough, they tough it out, and are a bit nervous about diving again, but you're going in the pool with them now, and they feel more at ease.

Take this, intensify it a hundredfold, stretch it a hundredfold, and scrutinize it a hundredfold, and you end up with Muelsyse, in her barest form, like a diamond born from a chunk of charcoal that had too much pressure put on it.

I can see Muelsyse's dynamic with Doctor being romantic. I can see Muelsyse's dynamic with Doctor not being romantic. Both are fine interpretations, if you ask me, I mean, her theme song is very much a love song, and at the same time, she feels desperate to find anyone who can just... Empathize in even the slightest of ways to her. Either read is fine, outright discounting either feels a tad disingenuous.

Alienation. Complete and utter alienation, an edge sharper and more injurious than isolation. This is, if you ask me, the main theme surrounding the Rhine Lab arc and cast.

Saria is alienated. She cannot find common ground with anyone else around her for the longest time. She used to have a shared dream with Kristen, but that bridge has burned and frozen and turned to ash all over. Kristen is alienated. She simply cannot see a point to anything except that obsessive doggedly persistent dream of hers, and it has been weighted more important than her humanity. Joyce is alienated. Forever a partial prisoner in her own head, there are few and far between that will ever put up with the unique intricacies of having to deal with someone that talks like her, has sudden Oripathy attacks like her, and falls asleep on the spot seemingly at random like her, fully cognizant of how high maintenance she can be on others. Ho'olheyak is alienated. On borrowed time, without kin or friend to call her own, living for a transcending mission far bigger than her and so, so small in the overarching beats of a world that can't be bothered to stop for her. Silence. Ifrit. Dorothy. Tin Man. I could go on. Alienated, all of them. Not isolated, because isolation would imply the lack of physical company. This is far colder, far darker. It's alienation. It's seeing the other side of the cliff, and no possibility of a bridge to connect it to your end of the cliff. Isolation stings, it's a pain you know is there. Alienation drowns, because you can see the surface, but you are convinced you'll never make it there, and it's a hundredfold worse.

Muelsyse is no different. Muelsyse is alienated, and goodness she has tried and tried and tried, she swims so, so hard to reach the surface, but she can't reach it. Being in Rhine Labs necessarily means you need to resort to some cutthroat cloak and dagger, it becomes routine, all for an ultimate goal, but is that ultimate goal even possible? With every step taken by Muelsyse, it seems two new steps materialized at the end of the staircase. Everyone she's met, for years now, has either been someone looking to use her, or someone she can use for her own advantage. Usually simultaneously. And it's in this context, when the 9 to 5 becomes tricking, blackmailing, snuffing and silencing that by chance, she comes across someone, possibly the sole person, that can actually understand the sheer weight on her shoulders: Doctor, someone who doesn't own their own past, but is shackled by it, someone who has no one to relate to, someone surrounded by sufficiently similar but ultimately infinitely different people to themselves, someone who by all means should be drowning in the same pool as her, but somehow, this person reached the surface. It's very easy to see why she'd become so utterly fascinated by this person, who shares many similarities with her, and yet, who seemingly has it so good, has it so sweet. It could have easily been jealousy, but end of the day, Muelsyse IS a sweet person. Yeah, she plays it up, always so cheerful and whimsical, but end of the day, Muelsyse is playing up something that is already there in the first place. Instead of jealousy, it brought her happiness, because maybe, just maybe, she could enjoy a bit of that je ne sais quoi that Doctor seems to have in spades and she is completely bankrupt of.

The first interactions between Muelsyse and Doctor are telling of this overwhelming rush of emotion: Muelsyse less talks with Doctor and more talks at them. She vomits words, emotion, whimsy, as if trying to put these emotions into words and actions after so long, emotions that was ready to never need to put into words in the first place. It eventually becomes a dialogue between two parties, but Muelsyse's interactions with Doctor are initially extremely one-sided, and they remain one-sided to some degree even moving forward. It was heartwrenching to me, honestly, to see the sheer joy Muelsyse radiated while around Doctor, because that is an almost manic amount of joy simply from possibly finding someone that gets it. Muelsyse has not had a bridge in so, so long, and suddenly, the finds someone that not only resembles her a lot, but also seems to have bridges in spades. Muelsyse and Doctor's dynamic should never be considered in a vacuum just between the two of them: One of the first things Muelsyse saw with her own eyes was that Doctor had a pretty friendly relationship, mutual respect included, with Saria. That, is immediately very telling of Doctor, given that Muelsyse understands exactly how difficult that is. We also know Muelsyse sneaks around Rhodes Island and chats with Ifrit now and then, and Ifrit also expressly has a very high opinion of Doctor. It simply makes sense that Muelsyse would feel as enthusiastic about her Dorothy's Vision brush with Doc, and all that Lone Trail entailed: It's terribly sad, because they don't even know each other, and even then, it's the shiniest ray of hope for herself that Muelsyse has had the chance to bask in: Doctor's essence, Doctor's existence, in and of itself, is a massive beacon of hope for Muelsyse.

And it's so damn sad, that this perfect stranger is the most familiar comrade she'll ever find.

Is this romantic love? Hell, the molotov cocktail of emotions involved might as well be, either now or in potentially in the future. Is it something unhealthily dependent? Yeah... Yeah. It might just be the euphoria of knowing that she can reach the surface, after all, that bridges, too, are possible for her to have, with not underlying motive, with no ulterior motive, without needing to offer something or to extract something. To put in the most basic of terms, Doctor, to Muelsyse, might as well represent the very first person in who knows how long that she can relate to at all. It is an immensely sad emotional starvation, and she finally found something to sink her teeth onto.

This is personal, but the way Muelsyse struck me, it felt to me that when she had even the barest of handles on Doctor, she related to someone for the first time in forever, and it shook her to her very core. It may have been the first time she saw, in someone else, a potentially happy Muelsyse.

It's extremely bittersweet. If you've ever dealt with alienation, think back on the first time you found someone who truly "got you". Add to that the fact that her routine of interacting with people had become to see others as tools, and to always be on the lookout for those wishing to use and expend you as a tool. Then, add to that that there are definitely more Elves, but Muelsyse is so fundamentally different to them that the sheer differences in temperament and culture make it so it's impossible for her to relate to them anyway. What could be lonelier than that? It's called Lone Trail for a reason, because alienation is a main theme for all of these people.

In finding the sole person that could possibly relate to her in circumstance and temperament, it's easy to see where Muelsyse's interest in Doctor comes from. Whether you interpret it as romantic or otherwise, it can't be denied that this immensely strong interest exists. It comes from finally seeing a way to reach the surface after the world told her for decades that she simply could only drown. Because Doctor is the only other person that could understand her in being the last of their race and in having no past and maybe even no future, and yet, Doctor having so many bridges, while she has none. I think Muelsyse craves companionship, not necessarily romantic, from Doctor, and, this is important, also wants to have what they have, and be part of it, of so many bridges built without ulterior motives.

#arknights #muelsyse #doctor #lone trail #justintaco

[dangoulains-devotion]

this room was built for one chair only,

i'm not empty, i'm just lonely

#arknights #muelsyse #arknights muelsyse #lone trail #my art #<- i am moonlight elegy on twt #anyway WHEW i went out of my comfort zone TWICE here... #i never draw backgrounds (you can tell) and i never draw flowers (you can tell) #but they're meant to be lilies... symbolising loneliness and sadness.... hehehe #i'll be honest i came out of lone trail like eh mumu's alright. not my favourite but i don't dislike her #and then she ends up being the first one i draw from the relevant characters. standing man emoji #i got insp for this while listening to ho'olheyak's theme too btw L O L #also i know there's details missing from her outfit but consider. deciphering and drawing arknights designs is sometimes a ball ache #gorgeous to look at. but don't make me do it or i'll scream and throw up

[galacticsuperstitions]

the minds of a lab at three different points (LONG rambling under the cut)

I am constantly in awe of the analyses people put out about Arknights on this website. I feel like my own interpretations are somewhat lacking as a result, but I was confident enough to post this, at least. I've had this idea for a long time now, I think since Lone Trail released, but I've only been able to make the time for it now.

Rhine Lab has so many fucked up elements and people involved in it that it's actually impressive. They were really gunning for "most unethical scientific consortium" reward. Really, though, it's just the result of Kristen gunning for her parents' wishes. All of the directors want something and all of those somethings are different.

Things I want to mention or just feel proud of (allowing myself this because of how long this took):

-I was originally planning on crossing out Saria's surname to reflect that we still don't know what it is in canon, but I don't know why whoever has this poster would do that, so I just kept it in. Hermon refers to Mount Hermon, which Saria's name apparently derives from. Technically, her name here is the same thing twice. Oh well.

-I don't know who this poster belongs to. It's just in some Rhine Lab tech's personal desk, I guess? Doesn't explain the doodles, though. Maybe they were bored and feeling spiteful about the potential job insecurity of your boss being comatose in space.

-I realized only while making this post that I made Saria's, Muelsyse's, and Jara's doodles reference Kristen, yet Kristen's only references herself and her parents. Completely unintentional, but appropriate nonetheless.

-I am so happy with how the poster came out. It makes up for how hard I had to fight Canva for it to come out like that. Here it is in full if you want to look at it closely for whatever reason. (writing an actual description for this thing was fun!)

-Andenate doesn't actually have a face under the sticky note. That's why he's still Mike Wazowski'd in the poster png. I didn't feel like drawing one since it wouldn't be shown in the finished pieces anyway. His jacket is just the same as Magallan's.

-Ifrit's picture board was a literal last-minute addition. It's why the images are sketches rather than being in the lineless style of the poster. It feels fitting, though, so I'm keeping it that way. Seeing Ifrit all grown up and doing so well in Lone Trail was wonderful. There's something in her being happy and healthy and also surrounded by not just her loved ones and friends from Rhine Lab, but also people outside of it. She's cultivated her life to be as fulfilling as she wants it to be, and while there is still room to grow, she has plenty of support and insight from others for it to do so. I may be misrepresenting her a bit (the sleepiness doesn't help), but man. I love Ifrit. She's so cool.

#she rhine on my lab til i (incorrect buzzer noise) she ark on my horizon til i (incorrect buzzer noise) she diabolic on my (LOUD INCORRECT B #i think you can tell when being awake for too long started to get to me lol #arknights #rhine lab #lone trail #lone trail spoilers #kristen wright #saria #arknights saria #muelsyse #jara wilson #ahrens parvis #ferdinand clooney #arknights dorothy #dorothy franks #nasti lunorey #justin fitzroy jr #andenate maryam #(i guess) #ifrit #arknights ifrit #olivia silence #arknights silence #i'm not tagging everyone else. #luc art #fan art

[lanymme]

Lone Trail needs the segment with The Preserver. It’s load-bearing.

The stuff he brings up is central to the themes of this event, to understanding Control’s Wishes, the thing so core to this story that it, not the event title, gives the event stages their names.

Arknights is, ultimately, about tapping into the heart of our world’s struggles, but also its art, and weaving emotional narratives out of it that reflect the human condition.

To me, the piece of art central to this event is this image.

This is The Pale Blue Dot. The image of Earth from six billion kilometers away, taken by Voyager 1, whose launch sequence can be heard in Kristen’s theme, Control’s Wishes, played during CW-10.

Can you see Earth? That tiny speck, in the last band on the right?

This image was meant to show the vulnerability, the preciousness of earth—how alone we are, traveling through the vastness of the universe.

When we look at space, at the cosmos, we think about our place in it. We reconsider our sense of scale, of time, and realize how small we are. What a miracle we are.

This kind of reflection, this reframing of the mundane world we have become accustomed to into its greater context, this asking of the bigger questions—who are we, why are we here, what is this planet we live on, when will its time run out, why must we fight each other, is there anyone else out there—these are just as much a part of breaching the atmosphere as rockets and countdowns and scientists.

Control’s Wish wasn’t just to design a rocket that could pierce the false sky. It was to show all of humanity that it could be pierced, and that something lies beyond. To raise questions, and become the foundation of new thoughts, new journeys.

Carl Sagan, famously, said it best.

#arknights #lone trail #kristen wright

[mogwai-muse]

While it is hilarious that Kristen trap doored Saria out of her space ship like some Looney Tunes character. It obscures the point that Kristen, if not just tried to kill Saria, at the very least got her out of the way without regard to whether or not she survived. Kristen didn't drop Saria into an escape pod, she dropped her into open air somewhere between 5037 and 6152 meters above sea level. It's stated explicitly in text that Saria can't survive a fall like that, no matter how much she reinforces her body.

Saria isn't still alive because Kristen wanted to 'save' her and wished for her to watch over the world in the Perro's stead. Saria survived because she got stupidly, 1 in a million lucky. Twice.

First: she was falling close enough to the escape pod to be seen with the naked eye, while the pods spinning brought her into view of Muelsyse and the CCS employee. Mumu was then willing and able to expend all her water to cushion both the escape pod but also extend it, through the incredible air resistance of failing at that speed, to Saria.

Second: Silence was close enough to Saria's impact point to see her in time to set up both her drone and air cushions to further slow her fall. Which is a lot less likely than you think, sure Silence was heading in that direction to help survivors, but debris falling from that height could spread over miles depending on profile and wind speed.

Saria ultimately survived Kristen's carelessness because others cared enough to save her. Others who happened to be in the right place, at the right time with the right equipment and skills to do so.

#arknights #saria #kristen #silence #muelsyse #lone trail

[cherry-blossomtea]

Ooooohhhh thinking about how alone Saria was, thinking about how she grew up emotionally neglected, thinking about how she loved Kirsten and devoted everything to her changed her own dreams for her and Kirsten loved her but not enough and Saria pushed everyone away and was cruel and unfeeling because it was easier that way to block everything out (if you don’t care you don’t get hurt) and

Ifrit Ifrit Ifrit that terrified, sick little girl that burst through the dam in her heart. She could care about one girl, couldn’t she? And Silence who reminded Saria so much of Kirsten in her idealism and devotion to her research, maybe she could care about her too.

Until it all went to hell and Saria glimpsed for a moment what was behind the curtain and then forcefully drew it shut again (out of sight, out of mind). She could clean up the mess because that’s what she was good at, she could fix it and hold Ifrit and Silence in one part of her heart, and Kirsten and all her (their) sins in another. But Silence saw through it too quickly and said she didn’t want Saria’s help and she was absolutely justified. It didn’t matter if Saria’s heart ached with the loss of a friend and a sick little girl because she had kept the hurt out before and she would do it again. It didn’t matter if she was alone.

No Ifrit, no Silence, no Rhine, no Kirsten, just Saria diligently picking up the pieces of a mess that might have partly been her fault but it didn’t matter anymore because she was doing what she was good at. And of course there was Muelsyse who was the closest thing to a friend she had left. Even if Saria wasn’t sure where her loyalties truly lay. Maybe she didn’t need a friend at all. But the important thing was that Kirsten had gone too far now, and she had to do something about it.

But maybe in a vivarium hovering thousands of meters off the ground she at least wanted Muelsyse to understand why she had to stop Kirsten (from hurting herself, if anything). And Muelsyse said “I can’t hold on to both of you” and chose Kirsten over her which frankly Saria understood because hadn’t she chosen Kirsten over Silence and Ifrit so long ago? So maybe it was all right that if she couldn’t get Kirsten to stop they could both go up in the conflagration of Kirsten’s dreams, though she didn’t count on Kirsten knowing her too well. Maybe her death would be deserved, alone, because she gave up on Kirsten. And wasn’t alone how you always wanted it anyway Saria?

…

But maybe it wasn’t all lost. The fall hurt like hell but at the bottom was forgiveness she didn’t feel like she deserved but was offered nonetheless.

#oh this one got away from me but #holy fuck I just love Saria so much #arknights #lone trail #filed under Yet Another Character to listen to Innocence by Nathan Wagner about

[aliceoverzero]

So my sister was possessed by some kind of minor demon after seeing this part of Lone Trail . . .

. . . and talked about wanting to actually give that a try. Well she finally got around to it today.

Good for her? I guess? I wouldn't have tried it. I'm not as strong as her or Ifrit if this is what strength is.

#arknights #lone trail #hot dog #food crimes

[exceptionally-stupid]

Arknights is great because this is the in-lore president of the United States of America

#arknights #lone trail #spoilers #somebody who hasn’t played arknights #ask me in a reblog #''whos the guy he’s perched on?''

[paladinguy]

I have been emotionally wrecked by Arknights, again.

#arknights #lone trail #lone trail spoilers #arknights spoilers #saria #saria arknights #silence #silence arknights #ho'olheyak #muelsyse #kristen wright

[rhythmgameurl]

"Average Arknights Lesbian has been divorced at least once" factoid actually just statistical error. Average Arknights Lesbian hasn't been divorced even once. Divorces Saria, who's been divorced more than 4 times, is an outlier adn should not have been counted.

#arknights #saria #lone trail #muelsyse #kirsten #silence #most divorced woman in fiction

[day-at-rhodes-island]

Idk about Lone Trail.

It's not generally bad, but for the big Rhine Labs event there sure was a lot of stuff that wasn't Rhine Labs (it could definitely do with a little less Preserver).

Like, I get that they're following up on some of the RL story bits that they've planted in other things, but they probably should have given more time to Kirsten and Saria and just generally explored the pre-established character relationships more.

Also, Silence and, even more so, Ferdinand are main characters for no reason. Why? Genuinely, what was the purpose of giving them that much screen time?

It ended up being an event about legacy and progress that just happens to feature RL, and that seems off to me.

Also, the Doctor and Muelsyse thing is entirely unnecessary, and I want everyone to give them shit for it when they open the event survey. We can't have them doing this again.

#I dont hate it as a whole it's just a little :/ y'know? #arknights #lone trail #ramblings #just let the doc be a funky little creature who's sad sometimes #don't involve them in your waifu bullshit #don't involve ME in your waifu bullshit