History NightmareFuel / Arknights

* Continuing on that, what we know about the Flame Demon Incident. Rhine Lab is very powerful and seems to have its hands everywhere all over Columbia, and Kirsten Wright is all at the head of it. The same Kirsten Wright, who, by the way, has ForScience as a primary motif. And so, she together with a number of other people took or created a young girl, artificially infected her body with Originium ForScience. The worst thing? ''Saria knew all along''. She argued with Kirsten over it, but Kirsten pressed on anyways until everything came to a head in the Flame Demon Incident where Ifrit went out of control and was transferred. Afterwards, when Silence went to Rhodes Island together with Ifrit and Ptilopsis, Saria made sure that Rhine did not come after them, but what she should have done was making sure that the entire Incident never happened, which implies that all of this could have been avoided.

** Furthermore, the idea that there are people who actively seek to implement Originium into ''living people''. This was only vaguely addressed by Silence, but the third anniversary video has a short feature from the perspective of Ptilopsis who accesses Rhine Lab's database. All is fine, introducing the branches and the directors of the scientific sections, until Ptilopsis tries to access the highly confidential file about the Flame Demon Incident. The visuals immediately glitch out, the voice gets a dark filter over it, and we see [[https://i.imgur.com/8bUcvvB.png a faded and discolored but rather graphic bit]] of Originium being directly implemented into cells. Still images don't justify it as it can be seen behaving like any normal piece of tissue would, until what seems like a large syringe injects it with Originium that immediately starts assimilating the cells. As if that wasn't enough, this painful process is already implied to have happened to Ifrit.

** The collab event "Originium Dust" has us witness firsthand what happens when a person dies due to succumbing to their Oripathy infection. The Oripathy lesions and crystals growing from an infected person's will start glowing and get brighter until finally the infected person's body disintegrates into Originium dust. Despite the whole process being described as a "Brilliant, dazzling, prismatic light" the very sight of it horrified Ash. To add insult to injury, Tachanka confirms that even if the body is buried beforehand, the light and Originium dust can still seep past the earth.

* Sussurro's record ''Professional Doctor'' drives home just how [[DeathWorld inhospitable]] Terra is, and plays it for grusome MedicalHorror. A Rhodes Island team are called to Leithania for disaster relief after a Catastrophe disturbed a nest full of [[BigCreepyCrawlies meter-plus-long, venomous insects]] and drove them towards an evacuating town. Many of the survivors were left with horrific injuries, including a Savra who lost one of his arms trying to protect his family, with the other left in such a condition that it would likely have to be amputated too, and another victim who was somehow still concious after having his abdomen torn open and contaminated by poison. There aren't enough medics to treat everyone, and worse, many are infected, meaning there's a risk of a severe biohazard should any of them die. The fact that Sussurro is able to keep her composure and take command despite this is impressive, but the idea that someone as young as her has been through so many similar, and in some cases even worse situations that [[ConditionedToAcceptHorror this barely phases her]] is chilling in its own right.

* Equal parts sad and disturbing is that this side story shows us exactly what happens when an Infected person dies because of their Oripathy. While it was hinted at in the main story, it is displayed in equal parts beautiful and frightening detail. The Infected person's body begins to glow and crystallize, and eventually explodes into [[TitleDrop originum dust]] accompanied by a beautiful, mesmerizing multi-colored light. Rather telling is the reactions of veteran operators like Franka and Liskarm when they see the telltale signs of an accelerated transformation into an infectious vector: they swiftly grab the body and carry it to an enclosed room and cover any openings with sheets or whatever else they can find, all with a clear indication that they are legitimately terrified of what would would happen if the body transformed in the open. Also telling is what the veteran Tachanka tells Ash when she tries to see what is happening:
--> '''Tachanka''': "Don't look. Just... don't."

* ''There are honest-to-god eldritch demons living on the outskirts of Terra''. The Emperor's Blades, famed in universe as being able to each exterminate an army by themselves, are the way they are because they've voluntarily sealed parts of these demons into themselves through pocket dimensions, running the risk of them leaking out and contaminating the world with...''something'' otherworldly if their armor is to break. Not only are these things powerful enough that entire squads of Emperor's Blades are expected to face heavy casualties when fighting them, they're explicitly stated to grow stronger ''simply by being known.'' Both Kal'tsit and the Emperor's Blade she fought quickly opted to halt their fight after she damages the latter's mask, because they're that wary of the demon getting loose.

* Will you willingly obey your orders knowing your superior might send you and your squad to die or disobey and risk jeopardizing the entire operation which might or might not decide the outcome of a war? This is the relationship between the Doctor and his operators during the Kazdel Civil War. While the present Doctor is no longer that person, the fact that he used to not see his operators as a living person is appalling. Ines describes this well after mentioning how past Doctor saw his operators:

* ''There are honest-to-god eldritch demons living on the outskirts of Terra''. The Emperor's Blades, famed in universe as being able to each exterminate an army by themselves, are the way they are because they've voluntarily sealed parts of these demons into themselves through pocket dimensions, running the risk of them leaking out and contaminating the world with...''something'' otherworldly if their armor is to break. Not only are these things powerful enough that entire squads of Emperor's Blades are expected to face heavy casualties when fighting them, they're explicitly stated to grow stronger ''simply by being known.''

* Rosmontis is as unnerving as she is powerful. Her behavior is already somewhat off-putting and downright unstable at times, but then combine that with her insanely strong psychokinetic abilities that she coldly sics on the Reunion members she seeks revenge on. We don't see exactly what happens, but what little description we get isn't pretty, to the point where the Doctor is downright traumatized by the display, and Kal'tsit even warns that directly seeing her Arts can drive the weak-willed outright insane. Seeing a 14-year-old girl voluntarily step into battle and wield such terrifying powers is unsettling, especially since they depend on her unstable emotional state in order to not leak out and cause catastrophe like, let's say, ''obliterating an entire mobile city.''

* Levi Klitschko's experiments on the local wildlife and Infected are already unnerving, taking a leaf out of Mephisto's book and turning them into horribly mutated Originium monsters that follow his orders (due to him ''implanting Originium growths'' into his own body, no less), but ''by far'' the creepiest thing he creates is the FinalBoss of the mission, the Essence of Evolution. An EldritchAbomination that doesn't resemble a living thing as much as it does an vaguely spherical, inchoate mass of twitching flesh and sentient Originium, the thing instantly kills Levi after being released and goes on a rampage, tearing up the facility and disgorging a seemingly unlimited amount of lesser mutants from its body while reforming from any damage taken. Even worse, the thing evolves over time in its fight, mutating itself into increasingly grotesque forms, the last of which kills itself quickly as if it had evolved too far and is causing harm to its own body to continue mutating. The descriptions the game gives of it are unflattering, to say the least.

* Equal parts sad and disturbing is that this side story shows us exactly what happens when an Infected person dies because of their Oripathy. While it was hinted at in the main story, it is displayed in equal parts beautiful and frightening detail. The Infected person's body begins to glow and crystallize, and eventually explodes into [[TitleDrop originum dust]] accompanied by a beautiful, mesmerizing multi-colored light. Rather telling is the reactions of veteran operators like Franka and Liskarm when they see the telltale signs of an accelerated transformation into an infectious vector: they swiftly grab the body and carry it to an enclosed room and cover any openings with sheets or whatever else they can find, all with a clear indication that they are legitimately terrified of what would would happen if the body transformed in the open. Also telling is what the veteran Tachanka tells Ash when she tries to see what is happening: "Don't look. Just... don't."

->'''Ines:''' We’re all objects. Inanimate objects. There was only one person, one thing really alive on that battlefield. And it was that one.

** Of the five members of the group, [[TheHeart Gummy]] seems to be the most cheerful and happy all the time, but in actuality she's the one hit the hardest by the tragedy. By all accounts, it was her of all people who had to eat the corpse of a fellow student in order to survive. One shudders to imagine what horrors she must have had to go through, and then it dawns on the player, that her sunny, happy-go-lucky persona isn't quite genuine, but a ''[[StepfordSmiler coping mechanism]]''. While she does a good job of hiding it, her PTSD does seep through occasionally, if her biting Dur-Nar is any indication, [[HorrorHunger and Gummy will go feral when starved]]. Worse, [[PrimalFear she has to keep the lights on even when sleeping]], since being shrouded in darkness brings back those terrifying memories, and may cause her to lose herself. Though the students may have been rescued and given a new life within Rhodes Island, the trauma might very well haunt them forever.

* Equal parts sad and disturbing is that this side story shows us exactly what happens when an Infected person dies because of their Oripathy. While it was hinted at in the main story, it is displayed in euqal parts beautiful and frightening detail. The Infected person's body begins to glow and crystallize, and eventually explodes into [[TitleDrop originum dust]]. Rather telling is the reactions of veteran operators like Franka and Liskarm when they see the telltale signs of an accelerated transformation into an infectious vector: they swiftly grab the body and carry it to an enclosed room and cover any openings with sheets or whatever else they can find, all with a clear indication that they are legitimately terrified of what would would happen if the body transformed in the open. Also telling is what the veteran Tachanka tells Ash when she tries to see what is happening: "Don't look. Just... don't."

** Speaking of the murder of the Infected, why did Talulah decide to burn down the village? When a group of Infected survivors appeared looking for help, instead of helping or even refusing or attacking them, the villagers tricked them into entering a building allegedly storing food, then locked them inside and let them starve to death, to the point where the walls are covered in scratch marks from them trying to claw their way out. As Talulah pointed out, they could have chased them away or even straight-up killed them, but they instead chose to give them a false sens of hope before killing them in the cruelest, most drawn-out way possible.

* The result of Mephisto's transformation wasn't limited to just himself either. As soon as he walked...or rather, crawled out of the sarcophagus, he began passively spreading Originium particles around him that induces bizarre mutations to any living being they made contact with, starting with his Sarkaz escorts that made the Enraged Possessed infected looks tamer in comparison. The sarcophagus hadn't just devolved Mephisto, it had accelerated his Oripathy to the point he became patient zero of a severe biohazard. It was so bad that Rhodes Island operators under Kal'tsit and the Doctor have to fight the horde using bio hazardous equipment. Be mindful that the mutation begins as soon as the particles made contact, not when Mephisto prompted it to happen with his Arts unlike before. Let that sink in, this happens naturally.

* Fancy being a victim of dying by being set on fire? The entire village Talulah burned had to experience that. If they hadn't been lost to the fire, the smoke inhalation would've killed them. Both would lead to dying slowly and painfully regardless in a world where death usually don't come easily for the Oripathy infected.
* The revelation that the Doctor of all people, was the one that murdered Theresa. Imagine, your closest, most trusted friend suddenly shank you? The one you would call brother/sister? How many more ''friends'' out there that have ulterior motives and those who don't?

* Remember those three (now five) quirky Ursus students who seem oddly cheerful despite being the survivors of a horrific Catastrophe that razed their hometown to the ground? You will never see them the same way again after going through the lore revealed in ''Children of Ursus''. Imagine, if you will, a bunch of school children trapped in the middle of a disaster area with no adult supervision and basically left to rot by Reunion forces under Mephisto. The noble factions promptly tried to hog all the food for themselves, after which the equivalent of war broke out before their food supplies were destroyed in an accident, forcing these students to murder and quite possibly ''[[NoPartyLikeADonnerParty cannibalize]]'' each other in order to survive. Let us remind you that these students are literal ''children''.

** Look at this line from Zima

*** Zima killed or gave the order to kill students who are traitors. Keep in mind that she's a ''student''. She had to be ruthless to keep herself and the Ursus Self-Governing Student Group alive. It is also why she is haunted by nightmares of the students she "dealt with". In the event story it's even worse as she's taunted by her own conscience for various things she'd done during Reunion's occupation at her school. It's no wonder she still suffers from PTSD from the events

** Worse still, it's description and some words from the protagonists make it clear that this ''thing'' is so alien that its very nature contradicts everything in Terra, right from its origins of Levi coming to Terra and Originium existing on Earth. It's data entry seems almost unnerved, warning the player that this is something that fundamentally should not and must not be allowed to live.

** In Chapter 6, it shows what happens when Mephisto loses it and lets loose. His horde of zombies mercilessly attacks everything in sight, whether friend or foe, and turns their victims into new members of the horde. They even tear the enlarged Originium chunks off their bodies and hurl them at targets.

** Before Ash, Blitz, and Schwarz confront Levi towards the end of the story, they find a captive and unrepentant Drudge, who shamelessly tries to strike a deal with the three to save his own skin, unrepentant over everything he had done. Ash responds by having him let out of his cell before [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown beating the living shit out of him with her bare hands]], and only finishing when he's unable to even speak anymore. It's even [[https://aceship.github.io/AN-EN-Tags/img/avg/images/avg_ac17_11.png accompanied by a CG]] of her with Drudge's blood splattering over her face and knuckles, with her expression being one of pure wrath. Even if Drudge was a complete AssholeVictim who 100% deserved the beating, seeing Ash enact such violence, and the game depicting it in such detail to boot, is still quite unnerving.

** Before Ash, Blitz, and Schwarz confront Levi towards the end of the story, they find a captive Drudge, who shamelessly tries to strike a deal with the three to save his own skin, unrepentant over everything he had done. Ash responds by seemingly cooperating and having him let out of his cell... before walking over and [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown beating the living shit out of him with her bare hands]], with his pleas for her to stop getting interrupted with every punch. It's even [[https://aceship.github.io/AN-EN-Tags/img/avg/images/avg_ac17_11.png accompanied by a CG]] of her with Drudge's blood splattering over her face and knuckles, with her expression being one of pure rage and only finishes when he's unable to even speak anymore. Even if Drudge was a complete AssholeVictim who 100% deserved the beating, seeing Ash enact such violence, and the game depicting it in such detail, is still quite unnerving.

---> Tachanka: ......
---> Mercenary: ... No... I had nothing to do with that. It wasn't me!
---> Tachanka: (Russian profanity), I'm going to twist your *profanity* head off.
---> Mercenary: I just... don't...
---> Tachanka: You're done for, (Russian profanity). You're toasted.
---> Mercenary: No! Don't hurt me! It wasn't me! No!
---> ''WHACK!''
---> Blitz: Alexsandr! Stop! Calm down!
** Before Ash, Blitz, and Schwarz confront Levi towards the end of the story, they find a captive Drudge, who shamelessly tries to strike a deal with the three to save his own skin, unrepentant over everything he had done. Ash responds by seemingly cooperating and having him let out of his cell... before walking over and [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown beating the living shit out of him with her ''bare hands'']], with his pleas for her to stop getting interrupted with every punch. It's even [[https://aceship.github.io/AN-EN-Tags/img/avg/images/avg_ac17_11.png accompanied by a CG]] of her with Drudge's blood splattering over her face and knuckles, with her expression being one of pure rage. She only finishes when he's unable to even speak anymore, and unlike last time Blitz is hardly concerned at all, only stopping her so that she could save her strength for Levi and not out of any concern for Drudge, and that too only after Ash was pretty much done already. He even casually comments on how she had "completely rearranged his face". Even if Drudge was a complete AssholeVictim who 100% deserved the beating, seeing Ash enact such violence, and the game depicting it in such detail, is still quite unnerving.
---> Drudge: (After being let out) Good call. We all know the score.
---> Ash: (Walking over) Yeah. I sure do.
---> Drudge: Hold on, what are you doing? ''WHACK!'' Agh!!! ''WHACK!'' Hey! You crazy... ''WHACK!'' You... ''WHACK!'' Help me...... please...... ''WHACK!'' Please... ''WHACK!'' ...... ''WHACK!'' Please... stop.
---> Ash: Hah. You can still talk. Guess I'm not done.
---> ''WHACK!''
---> Ash: [[AndThisIsFor And this one's for Dr. Miarow]].
---> ''She finally drops him''.

** Worse still, it's description and some words from the protagonists make it clear that this ''thing'' is so alien that its very nature contradicts everything in Terra. It's data entry seems almost unnerved, warning the player that this is something that fundamentally should not and must not be alive.

** There aren't many cases that you can actually ''see'' the physical effects of Oripathy due to most characters either being in the earlier stages of infection or wearing body concealing clothing (or both), however Lappland is in the advanced stages ''and'' wears cloths that show off her legs. This lets you clearly see the black, jagged crystal shards growing painfully out of her skin.

** Levi himself immediately shows himself to be one of, if not the darkest villain in Arknights so far. There's no sympathetic background, no understandable motive such as power or money, and there's nothing he would not stoop to achieve his goals of pushing the boundaries of science, regardless of reason and sanity. Then there's his SlasherSmile when he requests his benefactors to 'Bring [him] more corpses', which is by far the creepiest facial expression in the game.

--> ''Huge spherical creatures crumble and disintegrate into scattered, writhing masses of organisms that refuse to die.''

* Levi Klitschko's experiments on the local wildlife and Infected are already unnerving, taking a leaf out of Mephisto's book and turning them into horribly mutated Originium monsters that follow his orders (due to him ''implanting Originium growths'' into his own body, no less), but ''by far'' the creepiest thing he creates is the FinalBoss of the mission, the Essence of Evolution. An EldritchAbomination that doesn't resemble a living thing as much as it does an vaguely spherical, inchoate mass of twitching flesh and sentient Originium, the thing instantly kills Levi after being released and goes on a rampage, tearing up the facility and disgorging a seemingly unlimited amount of lesser mutants from its body while regenerating off any damage taken. Even worse, the thing evolves over time in its fight, mutating itself into increasingly grotesque forms, the last of which kills itself quickly as if it had evolved too far and is causing harm to its own body to continue mutating.

** In "Stories of Afternoon", Midnight and Orchid stated that they didn't know how they contracted Oripathy. Orchid's employers suspected she came in contact with Originium randomly for awhile without her knowing, while Midnight suspects that his rivals sent him to spend time with an Infected without him knowing. It shows that Oripathy can be contacted easily, without being known until symptoms shows up