RUSTICA MY BELOVED ... so i got into the game around north ballad and i started out as a very singleminded faust oshi to the point where i didnt really know a whole lot of other characters names ! like i confused rustica with nero constantly for some reason and like every time either of them spoke i had to look up whether the brown hair guy was talking or the blue hair guy !!

west ballad was the first thing that changed a lot for me, bc um . im very normal about west ballad. between the first indication that west country has heavy destructive weaponry, the murrshy, the way that unchecked curiosity brings about destruction. the way that the people on langrenus island revered oldmurr's inventions without respecting wizards or even murr himself, west ballad is just So Good in so many ways!! and i had never really paid attention to rustica before but seeing the sweet mild mannered man explode the fucking airship core made me go "who the fuck is THIS GUY"

and then in anni 1, chloe and rustica have that conversation where chloe is losing hope and rustica says to him
Rustica: “Indeed. On dark nights, many wish the same in their hearts. Let there be light.”

Rustica: “But even on nights when the light is faint, you can find it shining somewhere.”

Rustica: “And on nights when you cannot say thank you, on nights with the spirits of the unrewarded about, on nights with frightful creatures roaming around…on all of those nights, you can find the light.” (anni1 ch17 mhyk_eng tl)

and i LOST IT . characters who have a sort of unshakeable optimism who always believe in good things and are the light in the darkness are my WEAKNESS !! and little by little i started having these moments of why is he like this. what is his deal . what happened to his bride. there are so many little references in so many events and it became so much fun to try to connect the dots that i came to appreciate his character so much

also im a sucker for characters with bird motifs, elegant characters, characters who wear white and gold... i was already a west oshi.... theres so much about him where the more i looked at him the more i was like "why wasnt he my favorite from the start this is insane"

(but there's so many new skills and hobbies ive picked up that can be kind of traced back to being a rustica oshi by this point like i didnt really enjoy theorizing until i wanted to figure out what happened to his bride and now i Really like doing it when i get into new things, i picked up cooking because i was determined to make savarin for his birthday last year and now ive come to eat a lot healthier... stuff like that. the attachment has become so real since he was a guy i got confused with nero all the time)