Mystic Flour Cookie

Mystic Flour Cookie (Korean: 미스틱플라워 쿠키, misutig-pullawo kuki) is one of the five Beast Cookies of Cookie Run: Kingdom. She is the first to be released, being made playable alongside Cloud Haetae in the Awakening of White Apathy update (v5.5) after briefly appearing in a Secrets of the Silver Kingdom update (v5.0) cinematic. She is of the Healing type and her position is prioritized to the Rear.

Originally revered as the master of the ancient Ivory Pagoda, Mystic Flour Cookie answered the wishes of countless Cookies in ages past. As time progressed, the avarices and uninterest from her followers prompted her to adopt a doctrine established on futility, believing that all aspirations are inconsequential and that the endgame for the world's growing pains is for Cookies to relieve themselves of their crumbly bodies and return to floury dust.

Mystic Flour Cookie wields the power of Apathy, a corrupted side of the Virtue of Volition she once held. She was the original owner of Dark Cacao Cookie's Soul Jam, being stripped of it upon her descent into villainy.

Game Description: An absence of color. Pure, undistilled white flour that symbolizes freedom, enlightenment... and futility. When magic first blessed these lands, Mystic Flour Cookie was revered as a saint—capable of granting wishes both big and small. Yet, as the crowds faded away, she was left with only apathy. Her once radiant light tarnished, leading her to join forces with the fallen Beast Cookies. Despite everything, Mystic Flour Cookie neither feels anger nor sadness, as wishes are nothing but mere illusions, and all worldly desires are destined to disappear one day. A world of nothingness. A world where every Cookie is liberated from burden. That is the perfect world she envisions. Once reaching that enlightenment, one shall open their eyes to the blinding truth: Apathy.

Soulstone Description: This stone holds a piece of Mystic Flour Cookie's soul. A white fog dissipates. Nothing remains.

Skill: Creates the Realm of Apathy, shielding the allies with the Cocoon of Futility. Allies within the Realm of Apathy have their HP periodically restored. They will also gain the Touch of Meaninglessness buff. Once the duration of the Realm of Apathy is over, the allies will be Healed for a portion of the DMG they have dealt.

The Cocoon of Futility cannot be Dispelled or removed by Zap or Overcurrent. The effect will remain even after the HP Shield reaches 0 capacity. If the target is at Max HP, incoming Healing will restore the HP Shield instead.

If an enemy Cookie enters the Realm of Apathy, their Cooldown will be increased, otherwise their ATK SPD will be reduced. They will also be debuffed with the Pale Plague, increasing the remaining Cooldown when dispelled.

Mystic Flour Cookie will increase her own DMG Resist based on the decreased amount of Cooldown. Her Lantern of Apathy will keep healing the allies regardless of Mystic Flour Cookie's current status and will be further enhanced when she is defeated.

If there are no Safeguarded Cookies in the team, Mystic Flour Cookie cannot be incapacitated, and gains increased Max HP. The amount of Healing coming from the Lantern of Apathy and its trigger rate will also greatly increase. Ally Cookies will also be provided with Buff Protection.

Mystic Flour Cookie is immune to Apathy along with all targets of the Cocoon of Futility and disrupts the Power of Apathy effect affecting enemies.

Appearance: Mystic Flour Cookie is a slim, average height Cookie with pallid white dough and a small mouth. Her eyes contain thin, vertical white pupils with gray sclerae that occasionally become pure black at her will. Each eye is each fringed with prominent, powder-white eyelashes, with the upper lashes fading to a slightly more tan shade on the outer edges. She is often seen with her eyes either closed or only partially opened. Mystic Flour Cookie has long white hair with soft, curved bangs angled inwardly and parted in the center by the wheat-shaped ornament containing her Soul Jam. The back sections of her hair are divided into two long tassels with a light brown cap covering the ends, resembling dripping dough and perhaps hearkening back to the elongated earlobes of the historical Buddha and of Bodhisattvas, which usually reflect spiritual authority. The upper section of her hair is tied into a bun on the top of her head, giving her veil its height and a place to rest.

Mystic Flour Cookie wears a hanfu (Simplified Chinese: 汉服; Traditional Chinese: 漢服) beizi suit (Chinese: 褙子套装) of pure white aside from her tan waist skirt, with her pibo levitating in the air around her and above her arms. She also wears a plain, off-white veil with one beige tassel on either side, resembling wheat kernels. The veil, secured by her hair, does not come into contact with her sides or arms and is long enough to rest against the floor. Mystic Flour Cookie's only other accessory is a golden necklace with three diamond shapes at the front. She does not appear to wear shoes.

Aside from discrepancies created by movement, Mystic Flour Cookie's attire and facial features are almost perfectly symmetrical. She is hardly even seen smiling or frowning, always wearing a neutral expression. She almost always maintains the abhayamudra hand gesture.

Personality: Mystic Flour Cookie was initially a kind, benevolent Cookie who diligently followed her beliefs and granted the wishes of all those who sought for her. However, as time went on, she grew increasingly overwhelmed with the sheer number of requests she received and disheartened by the Cookies' abandonment and disregard of her, instead becoming the jaded and apathetic being she is today. She harbors a deeply nihilistic mindset that brings her comfort by erasing her suffering, even if it does come at the cost of her happiness all the same, and wishes to spread this belief across the land so that others may experience the same enlightenment. While this has brought great harm unto others, Mystic Flour Cookie does not necessarily have malicious intent when doing so, instead truly believing that her actions are for the betterment of Cookiekind by freeing them from earthly desires and removing any sort of variability in their lives - good and bad.

Following her beliefs, Mystic Flour Cookie embraces the concept of apathy to her very core. She maintains a calm and aloof demeanor at all times, rarely expressing anything beyond neutrality, though this front has been shown to crack at times. These small glimpses into her true thoughts exemplifies her incredible levels of self control and restraint, as her emotions are still very much present but remain actively suppressed at all times. Most notably, Mystic Flour Cookie appears to harbor a great deal of spite and some twisted remnant of her original benevolence, as her main goals are to spread her message of apathy across the world and reclaim her original Soul Jam in the process. While this spite has mostly been directed towards Dark Cacao Cookie thus far, it is likely that she also feels a lingering bitterness towards Cookies for driving her into her cocoon, as many of her quotes mention distaste towards the greedy. One of her loading quotes in particular, "Once again, I face the selfish greed of another," implies that she has a clear memory of such unsavory individuals in her past. In some respects, Mystic Flour Cookie relies on apathy as her shield against unenlightened, individualistic Cookies that would dare to question or disrespect her philosophy, using it as a justification to dismiss all threats and arguments made against her.

Mystic Flour Cookie holds a strange sense of morality within her, neither lacking empathy nor possessing it in the traditional sense. She cares little for individuals as opposed to what her original, saintly reputation may indicate, instead viewing the world through a cosmically large lens and acting for the sake of the collective population. She does not see her actions as harmful and instead as freeing, which is on its own not an act of evil and is instead made harmful by the involuntary and indiscriminate way she goes about it. Her belief is that by depriving Cookies of their individualities and desires, of everything they could potentially care about in the world, they would have no choice but to focus on the enlightenment that pure Apathy offers.

Ultimately, Mystic Flour Cookie contrasts Dark Cacao Cookie like how a white cloud would contrast a black stone. Attuned to the heavens and untouchable by any blade, she espouses the spiritual and divine at the cost of the physical and mundane, now believing that all Cookies must forfeit the latter to attain the former. Instead of standing as a bulwark against conflict, she envelops others in a fog of visions to obscure their path forward and render them helpless, until they have no choice but to acknowledge their own futile actions. But though a cloud can never be harmed by a stone, a stone can never be moved by a cloud in return; similarly, Mystic Flour Cookie's apathy can never directly force an obstacle from its path, not without the firm, worldly strength of Resolution that she now lacks. Unmoored from both real life and the suffering of Cookies, her philosophy now moves without purpose and substance, capable only of enveloping those who would fall into its clutches with endless notions of their own meaninglessness.

Character Inspiration: Mystic Flour Cookie is most likely based on Guanyin (traditional Chinese: 觀音; simplified Chinese: 观音), the Han Buddhism version of Avalokiteśvara (Sanskrit: अवलोकितेश्वर)—especially in her White-robed form. Guanyin, to which she will be referred for brevity's sake, is a pure-white Bodhisattva—and, eventually, a Buddha—who is closely related to compassion and mercy. She is often called upon during times of strife, pain, and suffering.

At surface value, Mystic Flour Cookie's appearance clearly mirrors that of Guanyin: the Bodhisattva often is depicted with snow white hanfu (traditional Chinese: 漢服; simplified Chinese: 汉服) and skin, a golden necklace akin to that of Chinese royalty, a tall headpiece sheathed in fabric and adorned with an icon, and a halo of light around her head, all while being positioned in a blooming lotus[3]. Where Mystic Flour Cookie's design differs from Guanyin's common depictions, however, is that she also bears a floating pibo (Chinese: 披帛)—a "celestial raiment" often seen in depictions of Chinese mythological or religious figures[4]—and that her halo of light only appears after a certain promotion grade. Additionally, Guanyin is often associated with dragons[3]; this may relate to Mystic Flour Cookie through the Black and White Dragon of the Dark Cacao region along with the dragon seen in her gacha background.

A parallel between Mystic Flour Cookie's modus operandi of reducing beings to flour dust, along with her overall flour theming, can be seen in portions of the White-robed Guanyin Mantra (Chinese: 白衣大士神咒): "By powers of sky and earth, I implore with firm resolve, All hardship leave us behind, Into dust they shall dissolve."

Mystic Flour Cookie's convictions of continuous suffering, impermanence, and emptiness coincide closely with the teachings of Buddhism, in which the three marks of existence are duḥkha/dukkha (Sanskrit: दुःख; Pali: dukkha; Chinese: 苦, kǔ) (unease, suffering), anitya/anicca (Sanskrit: अनित्य; Pali: अनिच्च; Chinese: 無常, wúcháng) (impermanence), and anātman/anattā (Sanskrit: अनात्मन्; Pali: 𑀅𑀦𑀢𑁆𑀢𑀸; Chinese: 無我, wúwǒ) (a state in which living things have no true soul, essence, or "self"); her wish for all beings to be freed from "the fear and pain of the perpetual cycle of being baked and crumbled" aligns with Buddhists' seeking of an escape from the cycle of saṃsāra (Devanagari: संसार) through an attainment of nirvāṇa (Sanskrit: निर्वाण; Pali: nibbāna; Chinese: 涅槃, nièpán), or enlightenment. Additionally, Mystic Flour Cookie's Light of Apathy more accurately translates from Korean (허무의 빛, heomu-ui bich) as the Light of Nothingness, Futility, or Emptiness, which directly correlates anattā/anātman—"the self" and the "essence" of living beings have no meaning nor existence, thus being "empty." Where Mystic Flour Cookie's ideology differs from Buddhism, however, is that she seeks to prematurely cut off the lives of every being regardless of their deeds; true Bodhisattvas of Buddhism seek to guide beings into attaining their own righteousness with the time they are given in life.

Regardless of her methods, Mystic Flour Cookie's actions still remain akin to the responsibilities of the Bodhisattvas—both seek to free sentient life from the mortal coil and influence them towards what they consider to be enlightenment.