I THINK THE WORST PART IS THAT ALMOST EVERYONE HIKARI HOLDS IN HIGH REGARD EITHER VIEWS HIM NEGATIVELY OR HAS COMPLICATED FEELINGS ON HIM FKDGDKHSJ o|-< how is hikaris life to the point where his antagonistic relationship with his biological brother is the most straightforward relationship he has. me with my self indulgent hc where hikari is a disney princess because if he cant be liked by people he needs to be liked by all manner of animals (delusionally spawned from that one cutscene at the start where hikari rides a horse. horsegirl hikari is real. TO ME)

i do like to hc that hikaris ch5 is one of, if not the last chapter to be done in an order that makes most sense sequentially...... cause ironically enough. his final chapter is actually one of the least urgent FKDHKHDS everyone else aside from throne has a very clear deadline (even agneas dance off 😭) or an active threat for their final chapters which cant be put off so. once everyone elses business is done and dusted hikari just brings the entire gd cavalry to take back ku. oboro watching from his perch as a multicoloured rainbow group of travelers crest a sand dune and approach threateningly

i fr thought that hikaris story would end with him accepting his shadow cause of yin yang imagery ykno..... needs to be balanced..... and methinks it would be more compelling if hikari embraced that part of him which also reflects all of kus atrocities and still does his best to carve a new path forward for ku..... and also how that might affect his final confrontation with oboro who was consumed by the shadow..... but whatever i can be delusional and pretend thats how his arc Did conclude in the 8path 2 longfic that exists solely in my brain

oh my god i was only thinking of older!ritsu from his perspective BUT YOU MAKE A VERY GOOD POINT WITH HIKARI CLINGING TO RITSU AS AN ELDER BROTHER FIGURE TO FILL IN THE VOID MUGEN LEFT...... (has been converted to an older ritsu believer) this really shaping up to be one of those brain chemistry altering homoerotic friendships that scar you for life. regarding hikaris ch4 banter with throne, i think def a part of his competitiveness came from his childhood rivalry with ritsu, knowing them ritsu would Hate for hikari to pull his punches and hikari himself doesnt want to disrespect ritsu by holding back
FUCK hikari being jaded after his mom got killed in part to two of his elder bro figures actions, but seeing ritsu and mikkas relationship and the lengths they go to to look out for the other helps him restore his sense of hope
ritsu growing up with hikari who is this unattainable ideal he can never reach or surpass, even though he is the older one, and then years down the line finding out that all this time hikari had a natural inherent advantage due to his birthright that he has always been rejecting..... 🫠

honestly yea i wonder about how genuine temenos' faith is.... most times it seems like hes super flippant about it but then other times he sounds like he means it, and ofc how he actively always tries to rely on his own ability and look at things from an objective standpoint..... i was thinking that maybe unlike the majority of adherents who find strength and hope in religion, temenos draws those same things from the sense of community derived from having the same belief???? so he himself doesnt really put too much stock into the practice but still uses it as a means to connect with others?? which would kinda explain why he tends to sound more earnest when invoking the sacred flame stuff to other people..... idk lol but ofc growing up in a church he will still feel the religious guilt creep in no matter how detached he might be from it all LMAOOO i would know as a person who spent a decade in catholic schools and still experiences religious guilt despite not having a belief 👍
👀 hikari who gives thanks both at the start and end of his meals getting curious about temenos' meal rituals since he is also the only other traveler who has such habits 👀

HELPPPP [ku npc vc] why does the king of ku/that strange proselytiser call you babygirl FKFHDKGSF...... im just thinking about how hikari is probs too busy to know too much of the rumour mill but temenos who comes and goes often and mingles with the townfolk is just subjected to all the harassment first hand..... him and his ambiguous relationship with the king is the hot topic amongst middle aged and elderly gossip circles at teahouses and they are NOT shy about it. every day temenos gets subjected to gossipmongering in ku then is ran circles around by beastling children who poke at his prone body lying in the dirt when he collapses from exhaustion (he is content)

REALLLL idc "doubt is what i do" / "then let trust be what i do" is so canon to me. i was kinda disappointed temenos' banter with hikari didnt touch on that betrayal at all, and that throne didnt even Have a banter with him..... would have wanted to see one of them warn hikari pre rai mei and the other advice him post rai mei but whatever its fine. wanted to see a therion/cordelia esque convo regarding trust between those three but ITS FINE.
YEA FAIR ochette didnt escape unscathed either 😭 stormhail (derogatory)
FKFBDKDBS one never truly escapes the haikyuu trenches <- person who got dragged back into it during the height of covid
osvalds vidania dialogue was really short but it felt genuine, like he def ended up in a vastly better position than when he started his journey and hes truly reignited his sense of hope and it shows..... on the other hand temenos sounds so bleak, as though he doesnt truly believe what hes saying, and hikaris being centered around oboro is so 🫠 they have been through the Horrors^TM
and that really lines up with temenos' character doesnt it...... taking on the dirty work to pave the way for someone brighter, like he did with roi, trying to protect the people he sees as the embodiment of light and hope..... throws up and dies

yea i really would wanna know more of what happened during the timeskip in hikaris ch1..... im sure ritsus resentment built up for a Long time but i keep wondering whether there was some straw that finally broke his back in those three years..... i can kinda excuse that maybe ritsu just spent all his time in the castle but its kinda strange that hikari didnt even see mikka either, whos still been living in castle town this entire time

FNDBDSHDM youre so real for that. hikaris ponytail can stay on during sex if hes lying on his front [i am forcibly pulled off stage] this reminds me but ykno of those posts where men say they started developing a pavlovian reaction to their girlfriends pulling their hair back into a ponytail? that but temenos when hikari lets his hair down fhdjshsds [i am forcibly removed from the room] i still think it was a missed opportunity to not get more hairstyle variation for hikari (osvald too), i wanted to see him in a bun. or a braid. or half up half down :( i really liked seeing the different hairstyles primrose and ophilia got (apothecary primrose my beloved) so i was hoping the long haired men in 8path 2 would get that same energy

in pursuit of elena doesnt quite have the same ring to it but it reminds me of haanits for master..... and yea hikaris motif being for home is so 🥹 his goal was the one that def snagged my interest most pre release. for kingship works too but i like to think of his home as encompassing both ku itself, which he does love dearly, and also the people he loves..... calling back to his promises to tsuki, his father, and ritsu to make ku a better place once he takes up the crown.....
I SAWWWW YOUR FLOWER ARTWORK you are always so correct 🙏 it really is interesting to think about how the 🌼🗝️👁️🏯 quartet in particular have such close and diverse relationships with death.... hikari and throne both bring death but for hikari its a personal failure whilst for throne its a mark of success, castti tries to prevent death or at least make peace with it, and temenos usually only arrives at the scene of death and works with corpses. considering the roles they play with death, throne and temenos can separate themselves enough from it to not be extremely affected by the deaths that dont personally involve them, but yea for castti and hikari they both see every death as a preventable thing they simply failed to stop.... i think castti in particular is self aware enough to know that its unhealthy to think that way (esp post trousseau) and that as a professional healer she needs to have that sort of boundary but she clearly still cant help but feel guilt over all the people she couldnt save, whilst for hikari its very much like a. 'my ideals werent enough to convince them' self flagellation thing....

👀 omg.... 👀👀👀 its not even entirely unfeasible either cause the moonshades ultimate goal in ku is to get ahold of mugens darkblood blade and after kuras death it seemed like no one aside from rai mei would have noticed hikari disappear. oboro wanted hikari to turn traitor and overthrow mugen, so he also purposely fanned the flames between mugen and hikari, in an effort to embitter hikari completely..... maybe also advised jiro to stay distant from hikari in order to protect him from mugen, and tried to isolate hikari completely before the unexpected appearance of ritsu and mikka foiled that plan..... me, looking at any aspect of hikaris backstory: how can i make this about oboro

seeing hikaris ch1 gang interacting with his shadow will fix me (a lie) (i would have become more insane) cause all three of them would have such different reactions to it..... oboro in particular intrigues me cause if we're going by the delusion that his initial plan was to try and turn hikari over to the moonshade orders side, he probs would looked at hikari and went "i can make him worse" fkfbdldbds
i also think it would have been so cool and epic (read: traumatising) for hikaris shadow to make a proper appearance in his ch4 tbh cause rai mei having to come face to face with the shadow again but this time without her brother protecting her, especially in this time of uncertainty for her where she has to choose between placing her faith in hikari or submitting to mugen...... giggles insanely
EXACTLY temenos' appeal is that hes just Some Guy..... hikaris everything and hes just temenos /j but fr i think a lot about how temenos could have probs lived out his whole life in peace as an ordinary cleric but he chose to take on all the burdens the dead left behind and suffered for it...... he may act soooo aloof but so many of the major turning points in his life was him acting out of love o|-<

FJDVDKGDNDHS THEYRE SO FUNNY i think for hikari sparring is an honest measure of skill, and he feels uncomfortable having to deceive others which is a needed skill in poker..... even tho he himself is perfectly fine being the deceived 😭 me pairing up the most dishonest ass travelers with the most painfully honest traveler and studying their interactions like lab rats. but it really was such an unexpected surprise that hikaris earnestness somehow managed to break down temenos' and thrones walls LIKE THAT IS CANON. THEY WERENT EVEN LIKE DRUNK OR ANYTHING WHAT THE HELL. lives in my mind rent free

fnfhdkdhks yea thats fair, i think of hikari and agnea purely in a platonic/familial kinda dynamic, never really vibed with them as a romantic pair even tho its obvious there was a lot of art and text hinting at them. then again tbf i am Extremely picky about my m/f ships and get easily annoyed when it seems like im being pushed to like a specific one ehe.... side note the idea of agnea and hikari becoming in laws once pala and mikka officially get together is hilarious to me FJDBDKBD i think hikari king of ku should have formally invited the travelers down to the mourning festival when almost every single one of them lost someone of importance in their journeys to kickstart the epilogue but hey thats just my opinion!!!!

ARGHHHHHH the fact that theyre both so covered up makes me even more insane when i think about those accidental fleeting touches against the small exposed bits of their skin..... (fainting at the sight of a victorian maidens ankle energy) i indulge in the thought of temenos having to get close to heal a head wound on hikari and accidentally brushing his fingers against hikaris neck when he pulls away [dies]
temehika hivemind real⁉️ it really is so funny that theres such a common recurring theme in temehika works fmfdkdhss we have a Type 😔 something something about how both temehikas nighttime path actions are specifically about getting more information when theyre both individually hiding so much hehehe (just ignore how hilarious hikaris bribe would be in universe) not to mention how temenos coerce could specifically interact with hikaris shadow

also RAAAAAHHHHHHHH🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️ @ the spyxfamily temehika art i was the one who sent that ask fkdbdkdhs im not even a Huge sxf fan but the thoughts been living in my head ever since i noticed the similarities both character and design wise..... they are so gorjus 🫶 the yuri throne addition is so cute too fjdgshgs They <3