Sol ☆

I would be quite content, my dearest one, to be allowed to stroke your hand.

Franz Kafka, 1913.

July 21: Don't despair, not even about the fact that you don't despair. When everything seems to be over, new forces still emerge; that means you're alive.

Franz Kafka, 1913.

Kafka outfits

#HonkaiStarRail #崩壊スターレイル

sketch of kafka from honkai star rail

#hsr #honkaistarrail #kafka

#kafka #honkaistarrail

My full piece for Dreams of Distant Stars: Star Rail RNG zine! 🫧✨

You can check out the full zine for Free over at starrailrngzine.itch.io/dods !

Thank you @bycmykae.bsky.social for organizing and hosting all these wonderful artists and writers!

( #art #honkaistarrail #hsr #jingliu #kafka )

【 #HSR #Archer #Kafka #FateUBW 】

✦ Nova Arte Oficial do Archer & Kafka da Colaboração de Honkai: Star Rail x Fate[UBW] ✦

sketch
#HonkaiStarRail #Kafka #Kafkahsr #Sparklehsr #Sparkle

#kafkahsr #kafkahonkaistarrail #hsr #honkaistarrail #fanart #hsrmeme #art #digitalart #memeredraw

wife🙏🏼

#kafka #hsr #honkaistarrail #hsrart #art #fyp #starrail #honkai #kafkahsr #art #崩坏:星穹铁道

( #honkaistarrail) Kafka kafka kafka
#live2d | #animation | #hsr | #kafkahsr | #art | #artsky | #digitalart

( #honkaistarrail ) What do you think is Kafka's favorite drink?
#hsr | #kafkahsr | #animation | #live2d | #art | #artsky | #animeart

a girl with purple hair is surrounded by butterflies and roses ALT: a girl with purple hair is surrounded by butterflies and roses

❣️

In case I have not yet said this to you, I shall say it now: you are sweet and good.

Franz Kafka, 1920.

800 days of loving you. And I keep falling in love with you more each and every day. ❣️

Dearest, there are still many joys ahead of you!

Franz Kafka, 1912.

But the truth is: neither of them moves for a long time but the love still survives. Their bond is one that undergoes many ruptures, to the point of existing on a more symbolic plane; it is a love of sealed letters and lingering memories, but one that never dissolves, only changes form.

In trying to hold on without disrupting the delicate balance between them, Sol ends up trapped in a cycle of almosts. She doesn’t walk away, but she doesn’t step forward either. She waits, for a moment that feels safe enough, or for Kafka to turn around.+

she lives between the desire to express herself and the fear of breaking what exists, even if it is fragile, so she lingers in the in-between, writing drafts of confessions she never sends, replaying moments in her mind to find the right words she’ll never say aloud.+

Kafka and Sol also share this kind of renunciation, especially Kafka, who, being more scarred by painful relationship experiences, understands the need to protect something as precious as her love for Sol, even if it means never consuming it. Sol, on the other hand, is like Su:+

at least in each other's presence. At the end of the film, Chow buries a secret in a stone wall, sealing his story with Su forever. There is no reconciliation, only memories remain. They choose to leave each other behind, but will carry each other forever in some corner of their souls.+

keeping parts of themselves hidden as a way to keep those around them at a distance and, therefore, also keep the pain that attachments bring far away. But when they are face to face, they are able to perceive the artifice, and that is the starting point for dismantling their masks,+

It is a way of processing the pain while keeping it at a distance. Kafka and Sol also live on this threshold between reality and performance. Both are locked into roles and archetypes that are only the facade of their being,+

⌛ Theater, unspoken confessions, and memories

Chow and Su rehearse the confrontation with their spouses, imagining how it would have been—pretending to be the traitors, playing roles in an intimate theater.+

Kafka and Sol, as a pair, have red as their symbolic color for precisely this reason. It is not the red of possession and passion, but of the wound, of the tension that never dissipates. The love is still there, alive, pulsating, but continually pierced by the stifling forces of fate.

🌹 The color red

Red is always lurking in In the Mood for Love: on the walls, in Su's clothes, in the light of the rooms. It is passion that never explodes, desire barely restrained.+

In any case, they are able to perfectly interpret each other's looks and gestures.

Kafka and Sol also inhabit this kind of space: they often remain silent even when sharing moments together. It takes time for them to open up to each other, and even then there are things they prefer not to express explicitly.+

Su and Chow rarely express their feelings out loud. There is mutual respect for each other's boundaries and wounds. The silence between them is not empty, but filled with tension, longing, and care. They communicate through gestures, repetitions, and constant presence.

Their circular dialogues, recurring moments of hesitation, symbolic exchanges (chance encounters, objects and memories they keep from each other). Each repetition of the moments routinely shared between them is like a way of saying, “I'm still here.”+