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Storytime!

A continuation of this artwork because it's day 20 and I am obsessed with Lady Dimitrescu and basically RE8. SPOILER ALERT:

Basically I have this "headcanon" that Alcina is afraid of what mother miranda turned her into because of the Cadou, Alcina's previous life as a mortal woman must be very different.

It's said in Heisenberg's factory that Alcina was one of the subjects being tested, and she is able to adapt to it fast and not die because of her blood condition, she developed it with the Cadou virus and has to keep consuming blood and flesh from humans.

Due to her high speed regenerative abilities, she grows larger over the course of the years, hence her size. I've a feeling she was already pretty tall to begin with, which causes a whole slew of insecurities from an era that is basically WW2 and beauty standards back then must've been particular about women's sizes.

But prior to all this, she wasn't even meant to be in the village, it was suspected she was born around the 1900s and she was 44 when she was tested on, Mother Miranda beckoned her back to her noble lineage with the castle and Dimitrescu name. She grew up outside of the village which leads me to suspect she's not one of the main descendants of the castle, and most likely only got it back with Mother Miranda forcibly removing the original family, hence the castle has the nobleman's secret puzzle section where you'll find the casket has several skeleton heads put together which suggests she killed them, or someone else, because in the castle section the maidens that were killed by Alcina and daughters were not beheaded.

Maidens were drained of blood for the Sanguis Virginis vintage wines, which were already a thing for the Dimitrescu family. Alcina takes over after her family's "deaths" and proceeds to rule over the castle as one of the four lords with Mother Miranda's power and "gift" - she seems very obsessed with being Mother Miranda's favourite child and tries everything she can to one-up the other lords.

She likely grew up tall as a person prior to this outside of the village, she wanted to find a family but due to her height everyone would be afraid of her due to that 1930s and 1940s ideal beauty image? Also knowing humans, she was probably bullied for it as well because people can be dicks. Also this was set in Romania, and during WW2 Romania was in a mess, then again this is a remote village so it was likely unaffected during the war. Romania supplied goods for the German army and nazis during wartime but their resources depleted fast and they switched sides eventually.

When she lives in the castle and is basically immortal, she grows lonely and asks for family, something she can be with, and Mother Miranda likely took pity because she knows what it is like without her own daughter, and so gives Alcina the 3 girls which she tested on with the Cadou. She was probably already testing them as vessels for her own daughter as well but with the fly experiment, which results in the 3 dead girls turning into who we know as Bela, Cassandra and Daniela.

They are pretty tall in game as well, probably because of the Cadou's effects. in a diary entry Alcina says she felt a motherly bond with the girls right away when they woke, and the daughters liked her too. I think it's also a size thing because the way they see Alcina as the one they laid eyes on, she's the biggest thing in the room so they feel like that's their mother, like a swarm of flies to a queen.

In the voice acting lines recorded of the three girls:
Bela is the quiet and calculative oldest child who yearns for Alcina's motherly approval but she has to clean up after her two younger sisters, so she's always trying to get to her but the other two won't be far. It drives her nuts but she does it for her mother, like it will eventually pay off because she holds herself to that responsibility, to prove she can be trusted and more reliable as part of her fierce loyalty.
Cassandra is the playful one who likes hunting and being the hunter, she takes her time to savour it and in spring goes to hunt deer, I suspect she occasionally brings her things back home to the castle as livestock or as large prey animals, indicated by the animal skull collected for one of the statue puzzles. She likes Bela a little more than Daniela, because she finds that Bela is the smartest of the three. Cassandra herself is more inclined to strength than strategy like Bela, she is a bit more sadistic. Fun though!

She's also special to me because she's the middle child xD And of all kinds of middle children I've seen, I can confirm this is sorta what it looks like. They just have very different personalities and you'll see them when you stare at them long enough.
Daniela is the youngest and most adored because she likes to turn herself into mini Alcina and play little games, she likes to be feminine and mysterious like her mother, just more twisted. She is also found in the library in the game, she doesn't hunt you down like Cassandra or Bela. She knows you'll stumble upon her eventually and uses it as a means to further her seduction. In the first scene, Daniela turns away in the scene with Ethan getting strung up like Alcina does, which is slow and deliberate, trying to be flirty.

Bela straight up waves bye like seeya bitch, and Cassandra's the fun one who picks up the lace handkerchief to sniff and wave around as part of her tease.

All in all, Bela knows what she wants and it's her mother's attention, Daniela wants to become like her mother, but Cassandra doesn't want to fit into those things, she just wants to be herself, hunting deer in the woods and other animals. She strikes me as the child who yearns for self discovery away from her family which she has known for ages. She likes a challenge, she likes to push herself and see what she's capable of with her strength, and comes out on top with games and her hunts. This is what she prides in, the freedom to do what she wants as a predatory beast, while still maintaining the beauty she has on the outside for her mother Alcina.

Because of this, I feel that Alcina's fears of what she turned into for Mother Miranda - is different from her daughters and what she felt for them.

She obeys Mother Miranda and does anything for her attention from the other lords, just like Bela does from her siblings. She's struggling to find the inner woman of herself which is still desirable despite her height issues prior to her Cadou experiment in her mortal life, which is kind of like Daniela and her delusions of reality, having never had much experience with men and romantic relationships or courtships, except for the books she reads which likely contains such titles.

Cassandra is about the path of self discovery and finding out what she wants for herself as a person and identity, which is the one aspect that escapes Alcina, knowing she doesn't show the hideous monstrous part of herself to anyone else but Mother Miranda. This she confesses to Ethan at their final battle at the castle. Alcina knows she isn't what others see her to be, she puts on the regal and noble outlook as a sign of power, but inside she knows she's hideous and the only person with the sort of "right" to see her that way truthfully is who she respects most, which is Mother Miranda.

When Alcina worries she might slip up and show the ugly side of her, she doesn't want her daughters to look at her that way, and hides it away with her and tries to beautify herself with her fashion and her castle, but she's afraid of confronting that fear of herself that she doesn't want people to see as a disease. It's a bit like her height issue, but she's probably long forgotten about those fears because she keeps growing over the years. People can visibly see how tall she is, but they won't know she's a mutated dragon creature.

Cassandra is the reflection here that Alcina needs because Cassandra is the daughter that broke free from regime and does what she wants when she wants - she goes hunting because she likes it, she plays games because she likes it. She doesn't do it for anyone but herself and has her own identity fully bare for the world to see, she has nothing to hide. She's not even shy about her sadistic tendencies to her prey, let alone to her sisters and her mother.

While Bela and Daniela struggle to compete for Alcina's love and likeness, just as Alcina competes with the 3 lords for Mother Miranda's attention, Cassandra has no reason to obey Alcina. She is still her daughter and she is still a sister, but she ultimately wants to have a part of her own world where she can be herself in front of everyone else and not be kicked down for it.

In the end I realised maybe she did love her mother enough to obey, as seen in the secret game dialogues where Alcina tells her "You're my daughter, now act like it!" and she goes "Of course, mother!"
The daughters are each a reflection of sorts to Alcina, like how kids take from their parents.

Cassandra stays obedient to her and does what she says, and I think the reason for this is because they have a strong enough bond for Alcina to be a bit like herself to at least one of her daughters, which ends up being Cassandra more than the other two. She actively calls upon Cassandra in the castle because she knows Cassandra, somehow, to be the part of her that has her true personality as a predatory creature, enjoying the hunt and honing on Ethan, the prey.

That's when I thought hey, how would they have this bond? Something must have happened to allow it, something significant enough to bring them together the way they are. Then I realised that maybe it's because Cassandra does know that her mother is in truth a deadly beastly creature, she somehow sees it or puts two and two together. Bela and Daniela look to their mother as though she is absolutely flawless without any faults, and Alcina's too afraid to show any of it to her daughters out of fear, but Cassandra is the huntress who fears nothing. To her it's a game of who's stronger than the other, much like how Heisenberg puts it, in a world where the strong will overpower the weak. She'll root out the cause for her mother's occasional odd reactions to things or when she starts feeling insecure about herself in front of others, and because she loves her mother, she teaches her that she's still loved by her family for who she is.
This is how Cassandra would find her place as Alcina's daughter, and for Alcina to finally be accepted in a place where she could experience the trust and love from her family.

After some time even in the game, we can observe that she holds back when she calls for her mother to come attack Ethan. She wants to let her mother share in the hunt, to be a part of her world, and to understand the meaning of the game and the joy of ripping people apart I guess xD She's letting her mother express herself in a rare chance, whereas the other sisters would have killed or brought the prey directly to Alcina, skipping the hunt altogether. It's wholesome and gruesome, also surprisingly sweet?

It also makes sense when she realises Bela's dead and demands Cassandra to "stop playing games" and get Ethan's head directly, an indication she has lost her mood to play and hunt and now has gotten serious enough to swiftly murder whoever dares harm her children. When she does vibe with Cassandra, it's beautiful and personal on many intimate levels, because it truly is mother and daughter sharing in an interest and doing it together. Of the three, she probably relates to her the most, as she was the child she needed to work on more in order to reach the stage she is in now where she could openly adore her daughter as herself, more than just "mother", she's now Alcina reacting to her child and bonding with her.
This is also kind of proof as to why when Cassandra dies, her quote was "Cassandra?... Cassandra. NO! How much blood and sweat did you think it took to raise those daughters? You have incurred an impossible debt!"
It subtly hints she took more time with Cassandra and places more value on her hard work for her, because it felt mutual for with Cassandra opening up to her. This in turn would allow her to open up to the other 2 daughters and establish a better bond.

That is a loooong explanation for why I believe Cassandra is the favourite child xD Don't get me wrong, I adore Bela and Daniela, but Cassandra has so much potential with the way she interacts with the family. I love them all still, they are all adorable in their own way.

Bela = I brought you presents mom!
Daniela = I wanna be just like you mom!
Cassandra = Come play with me mom!

I want to do one with Alcina and Bela, because poor Bela had to go first Bela is so so cute. Every mother wants a Bela. Every sister wants a Cassandra. And for every Cassandra, there is a Daniela xD

EDIT: Also forgot to include this: www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZ54mB…
I had this on loop for a while now drawing Dimitrescu fanart xD And I can't help but feel like that one song sung by Jo Stafford, 'Every Day I Love You (Just a Little bit more)' is so perfect with Alcina and Cassandra's relationship. Ya think Alcina likes keeping vinyl records and listening to Ella Fitzgerald? xD

Description

Storytime!

A continuation of this artwork because it's day 20 and I am obsessed with Lady Dimitrescu and basically RE8. SPOILER ALERT:

Basically I have this "headcanon" that Alcina is afraid of what mother miranda turned her into because of the Cadou, Alcina's previous life as a mortal woman must be very different.

It's said in Heisenberg's factory that Alcina was one of the subjects being tested, and she is able to adapt to it fast and not die because of her blood condition, she developed it with the Cadou virus and has to keep consuming blood and flesh from humans.

Due to her high speed regenerative abilities, she grows larger over the course of the years, hence her size. I've a feeling she was already pretty tall to begin with, which causes a whole slew of insecurities from an era that is basically WW2 and beauty standards back then must've been particular about women's sizes.

But prior to all this, she wasn't even meant to be in the village, it was suspected she was born around the 1900s and she was 44 when she was tested on, Mother Miranda beckoned her back to her noble lineage with the castle and Dimitrescu name. She grew up outside of the village which leads me to suspect she's not one of the main descendants of the castle, and most likely only got it back with Mother Miranda forcibly removing the original family, hence the castle has the nobleman's secret puzzle section where you'll find the casket has several skeleton heads put together which suggests she killed them, or someone else, because in the castle section the maidens that were killed by Alcina and daughters were not beheaded.

Maidens were drained of blood for the Sanguis Virginis vintage wines, which were already a thing for the Dimitrescu family. Alcina takes over after her family's "deaths" and proceeds to rule over the castle as one of the four lords with Mother Miranda's power and "gift" - she seems very obsessed with being Mother Miranda's favourite child and tries everything she can to one-up the other lords.

She likely grew up tall as a person prior to this outside of the village, she wanted to find a family but due to her height everyone would be afraid of her due to that 1930s and 1940s ideal beauty image? Also knowing humans, she was probably bullied for it as well because people can be dicks. Also this was set in Romania, and during WW2 Romania was in a mess, then again this is a remote village so it was likely unaffected during the war. Romania supplied goods for the German army and nazis during wartime but their resources depleted fast and they switched sides eventually.

When she lives in the castle and is basically immortal, she grows lonely and asks for family, something she can be with, and Mother Miranda likely took pity because she knows what it is like without her own daughter, and so gives Alcina the 3 girls which she tested on with the Cadou. She was probably already testing them as vessels for her own daughter as well but with the fly experiment, which results in the 3 dead girls turning into who we know as Bela, Cassandra and Daniela.

They are pretty tall in game as well, probably because of the Cadou's effects. in a diary entry Alcina says she felt a motherly bond with the girls right away when they woke, and the daughters liked her too. I think it's also a size thing because the way they see Alcina as the one they laid eyes on, she's the biggest thing in the room so they feel like that's their mother, like a swarm of flies to a queen.

In the voice acting lines recorded of the three girls:
Bela is the quiet and calculative oldest child who yearns for Alcina's motherly approval but she has to clean up after her two younger sisters, so she's always trying to get to her but the other two won't be far. It drives her nuts but she does it for her mother, like it will eventually pay off because she holds herself to that responsibility, to prove she can be trusted and more reliable as part of her fierce loyalty.
Cassandra is the playful one who likes hunting and being the hunter, she takes her time to savour it and in spring goes to hunt deer, I suspect she occasionally brings her things back home to the castle as livestock or as large prey animals, indicated by the animal skull collected for one of the statue puzzles. She likes Bela a little more than Daniela, because she finds that Bela is the smartest of the three. Cassandra herself is more inclined to strength than strategy like Bela, she is a bit more sadistic. Fun though!

She's also special to me because she's the middle child xD And of all kinds of middle children I've seen, I can confirm this is sorta what it looks like. They just have very different personalities and you'll see them when you stare at them long enough.
Daniela is the youngest and most adored because she likes to turn herself into mini Alcina and play little games, she likes to be feminine and mysterious like her mother, just more twisted. She is also found in the library in the game, she doesn't hunt you down like Cassandra or Bela. She knows you'll stumble upon her eventually and uses it as a means to further her seduction. In the first scene, Daniela turns away in the scene with Ethan getting strung up like Alcina does, which is slow and deliberate, trying to be flirty.

Bela straight up waves bye like seeya bitch, and Cassandra's the fun one who picks up the lace handkerchief to sniff and wave around as part of her tease.

All in all, Bela knows what she wants and it's her mother's attention, Daniela wants to become like her mother, but Cassandra doesn't want to fit into those things, she just wants to be herself, hunting deer in the woods and other animals. She strikes me as the child who yearns for self discovery away from her family which she has known for ages. She likes a challenge, she likes to push herself and see what she's capable of with her strength, and comes out on top with games and her hunts. This is what she prides in, the freedom to do what she wants as a predatory beast, while still maintaining the beauty she has on the outside for her mother Alcina.

Because of this, I feel that Alcina's fears of what she turned into for Mother Miranda - is different from her daughters and what she felt for them.

She obeys Mother Miranda and does anything for her attention from the other lords, just like Bela does from her siblings. She's struggling to find the inner woman of herself which is still desirable despite her height issues prior to her Cadou experiment in her mortal life, which is kind of like Daniela and her delusions of reality, having never had much experience with men and romantic relationships or courtships, except for the books she reads which likely contains such titles.

Cassandra is about the path of self discovery and finding out what she wants for herself as a person and identity, which is the one aspect that escapes Alcina, knowing she doesn't show the hideous monstrous part of herself to anyone else but Mother Miranda. This she confesses to Ethan at their final battle at the castle. Alcina knows she isn't what others see her to be, she puts on the regal and noble outlook as a sign of power, but inside she knows she's hideous and the only person with the sort of "right" to see her that way truthfully is who she respects most, which is Mother Miranda.

When Alcina worries she might slip up and show the ugly side of her, she doesn't want her daughters to look at her that way, and hides it away with her and tries to beautify herself with her fashion and her castle, but she's afraid of confronting that fear of herself that she doesn't want people to see as a disease. It's a bit like her height issue, but she's probably long forgotten about those fears because she keeps growing over the years. People can visibly see how tall she is, but they won't know she's a mutated dragon creature.

Cassandra is the reflection here that Alcina needs because Cassandra is the daughter that broke free from regime and does what she wants when she wants - she goes hunting because she likes it, she plays games because she likes it. She doesn't do it for anyone but herself and has her own identity fully bare for the world to see, she has nothing to hide. She's not even shy about her sadistic tendencies to her prey, let alone to her sisters and her mother.

While Bela and Daniela struggle to compete for Alcina's love and likeness, just as Alcina competes with the 3 lords for Mother Miranda's attention, Cassandra has no reason to obey Alcina. She is still her daughter and she is still a sister, but she ultimately wants to have a part of her own world where she can be herself in front of everyone else and not be kicked down for it.

In the end I realised maybe she did love her mother enough to obey, as seen in the secret game dialogues where Alcina tells her "You're my daughter, now act like it!" and she goes "Of course, mother!"
The daughters are each a reflection of sorts to Alcina, like how kids take from their parents.

Cassandra stays obedient to her and does what she says, and I think the reason for this is because they have a strong enough bond for Alcina to be a bit like herself to at least one of her daughters, which ends up being Cassandra more than the other two. She actively calls upon Cassandra in the castle because she knows Cassandra, somehow, to be the part of her that has her true personality as a predatory creature, enjoying the hunt and honing on Ethan, the prey.

That's when I thought hey, how would they have this bond? Something must have happened to allow it, something significant enough to bring them together the way they are. Then I realised that maybe it's because Cassandra does know that her mother is in truth a deadly beastly creature, she somehow sees it or puts two and two together. Bela and Daniela look to their mother as though she is absolutely flawless without any faults, and Alcina's too afraid to show any of it to her daughters out of fear, but Cassandra is the huntress who fears nothing. To her it's a game of who's stronger than the other, much like how Heisenberg puts it, in a world where the strong will overpower the weak. She'll root out the cause for her mother's occasional odd reactions to things or when she starts feeling insecure about herself in front of others, and because she loves her mother, she teaches her that she's still loved by her family for who she is.
This is how Cassandra would find her place as Alcina's daughter, and for Alcina to finally be accepted in a place where she could experience the trust and love from her family.

After some time even in the game, we can observe that she holds back when she calls for her mother to come attack Ethan. She wants to let her mother share in the hunt, to be a part of her world, and to understand the meaning of the game and the joy of ripping people apart I guess xD She's letting her mother express herself in a rare chance, whereas the other sisters would have killed or brought the prey directly to Alcina, skipping the hunt altogether. It's wholesome and gruesome, also surprisingly sweet?

It also makes sense when she realises Bela's dead and demands Cassandra to "stop playing games" and get Ethan's head directly, an indication she has lost her mood to play and hunt and now has gotten serious enough to swiftly murder whoever dares harm her children. When she does vibe with Cassandra, it's beautiful and personal on many intimate levels, because it truly is mother and daughter sharing in an interest and doing it together. Of the three, she probably relates to her the most, as she was the child she needed to work on more in order to reach the stage she is in now where she could openly adore her daughter as herself, more than just "mother", she's now Alcina reacting to her child and bonding with her.
This is also kind of proof as to why when Cassandra dies, her quote was "Cassandra?... Cassandra. NO! How much blood and sweat did you think it took to raise those daughters? You have incurred an impossible debt!"
It subtly hints she took more time with Cassandra and places more value on her hard work for her, because it felt mutual for with Cassandra opening up to her. This in turn would allow her to open up to the other 2 daughters and establish a better bond.

That is a loooong explanation for why I believe Cassandra is the favourite child xD Don't get me wrong, I adore Bela and Daniela, but Cassandra has so much potential with the way she interacts with the family. I love them all still, they are all adorable in their own way.

Bela = I brought you presents mom!
Daniela = I wanna be just like you mom!
Cassandra = Come play with me mom!

I want to do one with Alcina and Bela, because poor Bela had to go first Bela is so so cute. Every mother wants a Bela. Every sister wants a Cassandra. And for every Cassandra, there is a Daniela xD

EDIT: Also forgot to include this: www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZ54mB…
I had this on loop for a while now drawing Dimitrescu fanart xD And I can't help but feel like that one song sung by Jo Stafford, 'Every Day I Love You (Just a Little bit more)' is so perfect with Alcina and Cassandra's relationship. Ya think Alcina likes keeping vinyl records and listening to Ella Fitzgerald? xD