#(Also as a lil spoiler for my version’s lore:

[seven-thewanderer]

Okay so if I’m not mistaken, when I shared that for my version of the FNAF:SB story that there were 5 Wind-Up music men (red, purple, yellow, green, & blue), I shared that there was also a 6th one, an orange one

but I never shared that one…

until just now!! (Cus I just drew em!)

This is the 6th Wind-Up Music Man, and they’re very adventurous

well… they were…

cus in my lore they kinda get a wee lil’ bit destroyed…

(And here’s that)

(They lost 1 leg, & 2 suction cups. They also lost their hat & some of their face)

(And they lost one of those little clappy instruments that I think is called a symbol but idk)

But yeah this is the orange one!!

[skynapple]

Spoilers for Xavier: 21 Days!

It's been a while folks but I'm back with the essays.

Mentions: spoilers for Xavier's completed myth and anecdotes as well. Read at your own risk below!!

I. Initial Thoughts

FIRST OF ALL

akskdkjshHhwhLWKJEKWH;ksjdSg;kdhdga

NEXT OF ALL

This card is so beautifully written for so many reasons. I am literally,,, going insane already.

YOOOOOOOOO OK SO LIKE

A. Xavier has been holding back a long time

It's so clear Xavier has been holding back, holding on for SO long. But he's also?? So freaking scared.

BUT THIS RIGHT HERE.

He holds soooo much for that girl who died in his arms; that girl who loved him so much and it was too late before he realized. And now he knows deeply that the roles feel reversed and he's terrified.

B. Contrary to Popular Belief; MC Has A Right To Be A Lil Confused

I don't think they show enough that MC still does fear losing him, and it's so obvious she's so curious about him, and wants to feel closer, but she DOES feel that wall he's built to protect his identity.

I groan a lot at how flippant and distant MC is, almost seemingly constantly rejecting Xavier's affection.

But Idk if you had a coworker who was scarily good at his job, also militant, gone for god knows how long, who knows where, and then was weirdly affectionate but then when you ask him like idk what his favorite color is he gets all "that's classified" which ok hasn't actually happened but it FEELS like it has.

He's always misdirecting anything super deep with her so yeah it goes without saying but she has every right to think that maybe he's trying to keep things professional so why wouldn't she always want to keep things professional even if she wants more?

But now he's actually being really honest. He's telling her things he's held on to for centuries (not that she knows that LOL) and you can literally see the relief in his eyes (and major props to the VA for conveying this cause my godddd it literally sounds like Xavier is TREMBLING??). And she still feels the need to clarify, hey is this real or are you lost in the moment?

Because honestly, I do feel MC does want this and has for so long. Her little "sneaky kiss" was her way of trying to say that like, what took you so long? and yes, because she does want it, she needs to be sure that he's being for real.

And props for Xavier for not wanting a three-peat of what happened with her past versions and all the miscommunication. He's done with that. He's putting his foot down to get what he wants.

C. Xavier Finally Being Honest With Himself

And for a former prince who literally gave up everything for her, he has never once allowed himself to convey just how deeply he does want her, and how much he really actually needs her and wants this with her.

I gotta hand it to @rose-tinted-kalopsia for saying this, too, cause like, this really is him accepting the whole of the past, and all of him, and saying like, "no, it's been like this all along, and I'm done hiding from the past versions, screw that, screw this, I'm getting my happy ending with you."

Cause for all of his sneaking in bits of lore (i freaking died!)

I KNOW IT'S A JAB AT HER PAST SELF I JUST KNOW IT. YOU JUST KNOW HE TENSED A LITTLE BIT AT THE ELOPE LINE.

THAT ARGUMENT HIT TOO CLOSE TO HOME.

They didn't elope because of communication issues!

He did leave and break ties with his family and she couldn't possibly know or remember that (It literally slips out and is not part of the script and you know he feels guilty about it but even that feeling and maybe mixed emotions - not anger but idk maybe a lot of THICK mixed emotions about it; none of which are regret! but STILL) like he has never been able to say it out loud and he does, he DOES. He FINALLY DOES.

So now there's a lot of the table.

D. The Spilled Cherries But It's Not What You Think

It's messy, my god how could it not be. Even the spilled cherries is like.... it's more of like "this is a mess, we're a mess, this relationship is all over the place" and the bowl gets knocked over, cause this whole situation has really literally tipped their bowl over. It's all out on the floor.

All her emotions of feeling that wall that she references a Lot™️ in all their cards, she finally breaks through and gets him to be honest with himself and with her

They actually kinda did sort of have a real genuine argument and maybe it's the first time he felt that way with her and i think honest to god he panicked a little bit - and I think that's why he says "that was normal" to her like, he has to reassure himself that's kinda normal?

good god the cooking!! he really has to wrestle with the fact that there are things he just can't do well all the time and he puts the work in to actually learn and he's semi-decent now! like maybe this man isn't about to make chicken fricassee anytime soon, but he can make some stews and simple dishes. So even that emotion of "i'm learning i'm trying to be better" is out

Their actual physical connection - she's finally stopped pressing him away, and has dropped the denial that she wants it too, but I think mentally she's a bit tired so that bowl toppling over is like, nah man I'm done with this rollercoaster too

They really do have so much synergy. Like who bought the cherries in the first place? She did, because she knows they're his favorite

The shadows merging like- his whole tearing in their earlier conversation "Do you think our shadows look like there's?" they don't specify what they were looking at out the window but it was probably a couple passing by, maybe sharing intimate proximity and a kiss and honestly that's helped tip the bowl too

the cherries being like- almost a metaphor of all these factors; all the times they've had so many, many, many miscommunication issues but it's all gone and said and done now (maybe not ALL but many of their issues)

So I'm really excited to see how it all goes moving forward.

This does not even capture half of my entire breakdown over this card but that's a majority of my brain dump.

What was your favorite moment in the card? Comment below!

[sparks-chaotic-cove]

(Vague spoilers for Bound lore on 9/12/24, Rune and Vast, "Bound Together")

Latin for the magnesia crystal-

"Quaerite Potestatem" - "Seek the Power"

Technically, Quaerite can mean "Search", "ask", or "research"- which is interesting, considering the context! It's in the imperative form, but funnily enough, the plural imperative form (I believe the singular imperative would be Quaer!) Potestatem is straightforward, most of the definitions I could find agreed on the most common translation being "Power"! (it's in the accusitive direct object!)

"Abscondere Ab Iniuria" - "Conceal from harm"

So- the forms are a lil wonky? Abscondere is in the infinitive mood, so technically this sentence means "To conceal from harm" or "To hide from harm". Additionally, the preposition "Ab" ("a/ab" technically) means "from", but more specifically "Away from", so this could technically also mean "To hide away from harm"! (assuming Iniuria is in the ablative origin)

"Amator Meus Protegat" - "Protect My Lover"

I believe Protegat is a lil mis-spelled, closest is Proteget (just that change in the e there, which effects the conjugation and all) additionally, this is actually a future tense verb- it's 3rd person singular future. So roughly "He(also she/it) will protect". Meus is also a masculine version of the word for "my"! (Fem = Mea, Neu = Meum). Amator is straightforward again, meaning "Love"/"Lover" (one did include "Boyfriend" as a translation, which leads me to believe that there's probably a feminine version, which I'd guess would be something like "Amata"). Interestingly enough, it's in the Nominative case, which I believe is for Subject and Predicates only... so technically, this sentence could be read as "my lover will protect"! Amatorem is the correct bit for "Protect my lover" (So it'd be "Protegete meus amatorem"! switched the verb to imperative as well)

Okay sorry I like Latin off I go!

[octo-in-the-mainframe]

Side Order Spoilers!!!

Okay does anyone else find it weird that Smollusk and Pearl referred to both DJ Octavio and Agent 4 as "big shots"?

And that Pearl says Agent 4 "was supposed to be such a big shot"??

And that even though pieces of their souls got sucked into the Memverse they canonically have not been seen after the events of Splatoon 2 and 3 respectively???

Knowing that characters were added to Tableturf after the DLC, namely, Pearl, Marina and Acht, I wouldn't be surprised if more characters are added later.

"But Octo, didn't Nintendo say there would only be two waves of DLC?"

Well, yes...but I have reason to believe otherwise.

First, when announcing the two waves of DLC, yellow and blue were used for the first and second waves, but despite there being four colors used for the announcement, red and green made no further appearance.

I'm sure if Nintendo really wanted to, they could have found a way to make just the yellow and blue look nice, but they specifically added those two colors. Red, I get, that's Big Man's color, even if they don't use it much in promotional material, but GREEN?

If Nintendo were to make more DLC, three waves WOULD make sense, considering the leitmotif of threes throughout the game. It's the third game, there's 3 idols, 3 forces united as one, 3 Splatfest teams to choose from, etc.

But that still doesn't explain the fourth color. It breaks the pattern of threes and uses a color that is barely anywhere among our cast of characters, besides Marie, DJ Octavio, and maybe Callie.

And then I thought...what if it's to give us a taste of the next game? Next IS Splatoon 4, so I wouldn't put it past them for a sneak peek.

My other, and more likely idea was that it would center around Agent 4, which kind of ties in with the weird wording used for both Octavio and them. Perhaps we'll finally get to see what they've been up to, maybe even teaming up with a certain DJ?

As for the third wave...I'm not too sure. I think it might have to do with Lil' Judd and Marigold, though.

As we collect scrolls in Alterna, we get tidbits of the other characters' lives and some info on the Splatoon world itself.

But something that stood out to me is when we get to Pearl and Marina's scroll.

It's their outfits from the DLC, clearly meant to foreshadow their next appearance. And right before that was a scroll for the Squid Sister's podcast (and that dried up squid), which lines up since their hub world was brought to the game in the first wave of DLC.

But after Pearl and Marina, it's Lil' Judd.

Lil' Judd planning for Judd's demise.

Which has not been brought up seriously in the main game.

That...that means nothing, right? I mean, more DLC hasn't even been announced, ha-ha!!

But then the next page is Marigold, with her many pictures crossed out, with multiple names to the same-ish face. It's secretive; does she have various clones, multiple siblings? What is she?

And then, there's also the concerning connection between her and Lil' Judd.

Marigold works at Grizzco, evidenced by her voice at the counter and her vocabulary. Lil' Judd...is in CHARGE of Grizzco now, majorly implied by the new inclusion of a headpiece on him after you finish fighting Mr. Grizz.

I think the third wave of DLC will be focusing on Lil' Judd's plans to get rid of Judd and will involve a further look into Marigold and how Grizzco operates.

I mean, we can't keep stealing Salmonid eggs forever, can we? Eventually they'll run out. This endless back and forth has resulted in Big Run's happening, so it's not out of the question that we get a resolution to this.

(I personally think Big Run will have its own version of an ending, one where whenever you play Salmon Run after it it's "in the past," so that it doesn't affect whatever the conclusion was. Otherwise, the Big Runs would likely just get worse.)

Maybe we'll get to be Neo 3 this time and learn more Salmonid lore with our Smallfry friend!!

Of course, most of these concepts are speculation, but I do want to show off one last piece of evidence that I think can be rather damning.

The roped off barrier by the Metro. (Sorry I don't have an image of it, and I don't want to use anyone else's footage.)

Only removed once the DLC trailer was shown.

And look what we have here, as far back as the original Splatoon 3 Direct...

Another roped off barrier in front of the arch. Not just construction, like how Splatoon always sets up new places for the next game, no. It's a barrier, with a big empty space behind it.

I always thought it was so weird we weren't allowed to go over there, and now it seems so obvious to me what Splatoon has been implying.

I don't want to get my hopes up, or anyone else's, but I'm finding it exceedingly difficult to just move past these details and pretend like they're nothing.

What about you guys? Do you also think all of this is mighty suspicious? Do you have any theories regarding more waves of DLC, and what they could possibly be? Oh, and if you have more evidence for there being four waves, please feel free to tell me in the comments or through message. (I might not see the messages, though, because mine haven't been working that well, so mostly stick to comments and reblogs.)

Lastly, I did want to ask if anyone knows what the European version of the shop for the DLC means by “It’s possible that additional DLC, not listed above will also be distributed with the Expansion Pass.” I saw somebody mention it, I don't remember what post, but I was wondering if that was just a standard description for the European page or if it was just for this DLC. I'm in the US, and mine doesn't say that. If I'm completely wrong about this fact please tell me,,,

That's all I got though!! So, buh-bye!!!!

[jester-lover]

SLENDERVERSE CHARACTERS: giving you a hug!! (Marble Hornets ver.)

FLASHING GIFS

Warnings: fluff, comfy, lore spoilers, mentions of violence, the author is new to this, not proofread, some can be taken as platonic, others not

Characters featured: Alex, Brian, Tim, Jessica, hoodie, masky, skully, the operator

Alex Kralie

Alex isn’t a big fan of touching anyone

He often avoids being close to anyone he doesn’t know

Even after the two of you are together for a while, Alex tends to share his feelings in a verbal way

Words of affirmation!!!

But if he sees that you are under stress or breaking down, and you ask nicely, he will give you a hug

It’s very brief, and a little awkward, but since he’s so thoughtful about physical affection, you are really thankful

“I hope you feel better.”

Brian Thomas

Will give you a hug before leaving the house

Will give you a hug after coming home

This man is so sweet it hurts

He’s so warm too

his head is on your shoulder

He smells like the woods, 🧐 I wonder why?

Will sigh every time he hugs you bc he literally melts into you

“Finally”

Tim Wright

Whenever one of you is tired, you tend to collapse onto the other person

He’s so dramatic

Tim, I love you but you smell like death rn

:(

Lots of hugs from behind, but if you try it on him he will screech

Smells like cigarettes and musk

He’s also very awkward with affection, unless he’s disoriented, he’ll want to know if you’re real

He tends to hold you closer if he’s paranoid

“I don’t want you to end up like me.”

Jessica Locke

She is so good at giving hugs

Like, patting your back, head on your shoulder, legs slightly tangled

Loves hugs in the morning, before you venture off on your way

Absolutely gives forehead kisses, canon in my heart

A hug and a lil smooch on the forehead!

NICKNAMES.

If you do makeup, she will hug you from behind to startle you

“Hey sweetheart.”

Hoodie

Lil freak

How can a hug be so terrifying

Probably runs away after the hug

Brief

“*distortion*”

Masky

Hates touching ppl

If he’s hugging you, it’s probably for a reason

(He enjoys your company but he would die before he’ll let you figure it out)

It’s probably you who breaks off the hug

Cigarettes, blood and no showering doesn’t make a good scent

*heavy breathing*

Skully

(I know very little about this character)

Probably doesn’t ever want to hug you

But, hey it’s been a long day, and even creepy forest people need loving

It’s a very shaky hug, and leads to a lot of weird hair stroking

The Operator

Honestly you have to have some kind of god level sweet talking to get an eldrich abomination to hug you

Long, long arms

This is ideal for hugging because he literally can wrap around you like a snake

His skin is cold like ice, and you swear you can hear some muttering

It’s all cool until you pass out and wake up in a whole different town

He got shy!!:(

——————————————————————

Thank you for reading! I will be doing a emh version!!

[lo-shouldve-been-an-email]

So remember my post about ranking different Thanatos across media?well I’m doing it again.(just with Hermes this time.

Also spoilers.

Percy Jackson(I know this is movie Hermes but I couldn’t find a good illustration of book Hermes.):

8/10

Better than the other gods in this series,at least he stuck with Luke until the whole May thing.also he does genuinely seem to care about Luke.so he gets better rating than I would give the others.

Lore Olympus:

7/10

He doesn’t get much screen time but I wholeheartedly think he’s the second best character in this entire comic(you should be able to guess who’s my favorite)

So yeah,he’s pretty dope.(unlike other characters in this comic *cough cough* hades)

Hades:

10/10

I can’t even describe how much I love him.

When I think of Hermes this is the characterization I think of because it’s just so good.

Like,speedy?here,have +30% speed.trickster and liar?hmm,I wonder where Persephone is,also what Hermes is doing.merchant?well,just ask his associate!(also side hustle)

Also,he has some really good boons like side hustle,rush delivery,the automatic god meter one,plus dash,and side hustle.

And the lambent plume is really good.

Another thing,I just got the prophecy where he bets you to beat up Charon twice in a row and he really just said “hey so I made a bet with my boyfriend that you could kick his ass could you,like,go do that?”

Osp:

9/10

Cool lil guy.

He’s fast and mischievous and a little shit in more ways than one and I love him for that.

Also his design is cool.

Digimon:

7/10

Does this guy count?Only in name.

But anyways,I’m just gonna take this time and tell you to go watch Digimon savers(sub,I wouldn’t say the dub is terrible persay but it just takes away at a lot of nuance that I liked in the Japanese version)

If you like series where the main character saves the day with the power of friendship and this orange/yellow dinosaur they found(and a healthy dose of kicking ass)you WILL like this series.

But,going back on track I like him.doesn’t feel like a Hermes but still cool.

The thing with rating Digimon like this is that they tend to vary between games/anime,my main example being alphamon in world ds vs cyber sleuth(both of which you should play btw).

But thankfully he only appears in savers and I like him a decent bit there if only *spoilers*

Punderworld:

8/10

Okay,you might be wondering:Moxe,why is punderworld here if it wasn’t in the Thanatos post?

First of all,I forgot about him,sorry.

Second of all,literally the only thing to note about him was the torch thing which I found pretty cool.

So back to Hermes,I really like him.

His interactions with Alecto were fun.

I don’t really have much else to say.

[melodyfsoul1]

Okay Loki S2 E5 Reaction/ Review Time

SPOILERS AHEAD BEWARE

"Science / Fiction"

OH MY GOD THAT TITLE

I cant believe I was right about all of them being scattered across different time line branches, Loki having to get his friends back and them not having memories of him :O

Also the fact that the fans predicted Casey to be a dangerous / criminal because he was always so gentle in the TVA and then we see him breaking out of freaking Alcatraz?! And the fish references too XD

B15 being a Doctor was so freaking wholesome, she really just wants to help people whetevee she is :D

OB being a Scifi Author and Scientist was just perfect XDDDD

AND WE FINALLY GOT MOBIUS ON A JETSKI THIS IS A WIN FOR THE FANDOM

And again, the fact that the fans immediately predicted that Mobius was a (single) dad in his life, because they spotted a couple toys in front of the house in the mid season trailer :D

(I could literally hear the fanfiction authors melt into a puddle at the potential of Loki x single dad Mobius XD)

And the fact that he isnt just a Dad, no he is a SINGLE FATHER of TWO SONS

The freaking parallel of Mobius' two sons and young Thor & Loki?!

One being a lil mischievous prankster and the other (most likely the older) one who has to keep him out of trouble?! And the fact that he said he loves snakes?!?! That is just straight up a Thor reference?!

No wonder Mobius knows how to deal with people like Loki XD

But as much as I like the parallel of the two sons, I also feel kinda weird about what it could imply for Mobius, like does that mean he is supposed to be a mirror or opposite of Odin? A version of a dad that didnt mess up with their parenting? That this is why Loki feels drawn to Mobius? Is that what we were supposed to conclude from that?

I know we joke about Loki liking older men, and of course Loki has his daddy issues, but if Mobius is an opposite of Odin then what does that mean for Lokius?

Now to some more lore related stuff:

Can I just say that the spaghettification effect is absolutely terrifying?!?! (as stupid as it may sound) Seeing people get spaghettified fills me with just as much dread as the Dusting from the Snap, but it is so much more horrifying because it looks so brutal compared to how "gentle" the Dusting effect is....

Then Loki & Sylvie's talk about being selfish, about their own wants & needs

"Whats wrong with wanting sth?" -  she asks Loki, but in reality, has Loki ever gotten anything he truly desired? (At least L1130 hasnt, man went straight from the Events of Thor 1, to Thanos to the New York attack, he was never able to mend his relationship with Thor or find friends...)

Now... Sylvie, she still frustrates me.... I do get that she wants a life, but you cant just stab or ignore your way out of everything... plus their world is still ending as a matter fact...

It literally took her fav lil branch getting wiped out, to realize that she was wrong, that Loki was right all along, and that was AFTER she had just convinced Loki to give up his quest... because "wanting his friends back" would make him just as "selfish" as her wanting a life... But the difference is, that while Sylvie would chose her life, instead of helping fix everything, ignoring the casualties it brings, Loki would be self sacrificial enough to give up his own needs, which he literally was about to do, until Sylvie got back because she finally wanted to help avoid the impending doom that threatened to destroy them all.

I think we all kinda knew Loki's drive wasnt necessarily saving the TVA, but wanting/ needing his friends back and wanting to keep them save, but Loki actually admitting that he "wants his friends back, that he doesnt want to be alone"

THAT BROKE ME

Especially with the motive of "no one deserves to be alone" but the Lokis only ever having themselves to find comfort, and if they tried to change that, the TVA showed up to prune them, loneliness was literally what drove Classic Loki out of his hiding and into the arms of the TVA.

And Loki saying "Without them (his friends), where do I belong?"

I didnt know it was possible, but that broke me even more... he just wants a place where he is wanted and safe...

Then the time slipping, Loki being able to Control it?! IS THAT HOW THE MCU INTRODUCES LOKI BEING A WORLD WALKER?!

Loki realizing "Its not about the when, where or why. Its about the Who" (god that part was so sweet, right in the FEELS, it was so over for me, my heart cant take much more of this)

And finally Loki chosing to rewrite "The Story"... actually "Play God" thats now full confirmation of Loki God of Stories right?! RIGHT?! I wanna see my boy, God of Stories Loki is one of my Fave Lokis :DDDD

[lowkeyclueless5137]

And ANOTHER P5 x Twst au :3

Oh god this is gonna be a trainwreck :v

But what else is new in here? :'3

Anyhow, I got like... Months ago an ask about another possible p5 x twst au and, of course, this derailed into shaping a whole thing.

Yet it wasn't enough for moi. It had a lot of holes in the plot and if you know me, you know that I gotta fill those up until I'm satisfied. :3c

So here we are✨

We are gonna reflect the whole time-line: top to bottom, explain every lore bit to the best of my pea brain's capacity and see what crawls out :v

How are we gonna do it? Well it's gonna be simple: we will go plot time-line wise and when things that do need explanation will pop out, they will be explained underneath the paragraph in smol text. If the marked section consists of a spoiler, it will be marked AND colored, which means it will be explained later, in a smol text, post the spoiler paragraphs.

Explanations will consist of:

plot irelevant information

games cannon points

the ooc lore that ties in the 2 games

time-line clearance :'3

I'm also gonna refer to the P5 protag as Ren Amamya, so yep. -3-

Fair warning: there will be spoilers for the whole P5 vanilla version along with Twst's latest story chapter. Since we are going cannon time-line wise, you can either go and read it until you don't want to be spoiled or you can simply read it after you saw your spoilers in the cannon games. :3

Now onto the fuckery! :D

We start off with how it all began :v

Ren's school had a letter exchange program, as a way to teach English to kids in a much more engaging and fun way. And what is a more fun way to learn a language than kids making a pen pal? He was in middle school at that time, pretty excited for this thing. They were given a few options as well.

Except that poor lil Ren didn't know how to write a school address from the options given. Instead, because of his excitement, he only wrote 'pen pal :3' in the bracket meant to have the address to send it to.

What Ren was unaware, was that, despite giving it in person to the mailman, the letter got lost among the hundreds of other letters meant to be sorted and sent.

It does get sent anyway.

And the answer is quite over everyone's heads.

You see, a few days later, Riddle was asked to pick up the mail by his mother. He would usually read the address, not expecting for anything to be addressed to anyone but his mother.

Watch his utter surprise when he sees a letter intended for 'pen pal :3'. Riddle was shook, but knowing that all the letters for his mom have her name on it and a fancy adress, the kid's brain makes the connection that HE is the one whom the letter was meant for.

So he hides it and keeps it to himself, until late at night. He uses a small light spell as he excitedly opens the letter. His mother always banned him from seeing her letters, so he believes this is also a very private moment.

And the contents were as follows:

'Hello! My name is Ren. I'm 7 years old. I live in Japan. I lika red and cads! What is your feivoriite color? Do u like cads? I'm exxcitd to be friends! -Ren'

Yes, it was short and yes, the errors were there amongst the sloppy writing, but it was authentic. The doodles did help Riddle understand that Ren liked cats actually. He even drew himself too! Even if it was a stick man with a lot of black for hair. And he even said he wanted to be friends! His very first friend!

Of course, being the very first friend, Riddle was over the moon. He didn't know how to even redact his letter. His mama always wrote hers, again, alone, without Riddle being allowed to see, thus the redhead believes that, again, it's a very personal activity.

And he got a letter. It would be rude to not respond to it!

So next morning, at individual study session, when Riddle is left alone, he pulls out Ren's letter. And uses it as an example. He puts Ren's address at the 'from' as he puts his full adress too, thus completing the destinations rubric completely. He quietly puts it in the mail needed to be picked up by the mailman and then off he was to continue his studies.

A few days later, Ren receives a letter with very nice writing. His parents think for a hot minute that their kid got a letter from a fancy school or smth. But no, it was from Ren's new pen-pal. The boy was so excited that he ran off the stairs and almost smushed on the ground. He left any breakfast he had on the table and almost spilled over a glass of water in his excitement.

Riddle's letter was far more difficult in terms of quality and English, yet Ren did make a big Boi effort to understand it. For the sake of pen-palling!

'Hello, Ren! I am Riddle Rosehearts. I am, as well, 7 years old (my birthday is in August) and I live in the Queendom of Roses. I am very happy that we will be pen-pals from now on! My favourite color is also red. And I do like cats, although I am not very sure what my favourite animal could be. I do want to ask: how is it in Japan? I never heard of such place. Is it nice? I would love to hear more from you and I'm very excited to be friends through the mail. -Riddle'

It took a lot to deschipher the letter itself, which only added more to the time for making another response.

Meanwhile, poor Riddle thought he made a bad impression for not adding doodles. He didn't really have time for such things. Yet, after a week, he gets a letter for him, from Ren and he's absolutely happy when he sees the response. Ren even made an effort to say that his pen-pal has very pretty hand-writing. As such, Riddle gets an idea of how Japan might look like, or at least Ren's little hometown. The redhead tried to research about Japan, but found nothing, thus assuming it was a local name for some country close to the land of the dragon. Meanwhile, Ren said promptly that his pen-pal is from the Queendom of roses, but everyone assumed he was referring to UK. No one questioned it, assuming that it was a thing in between the 2.

-they also believed such thing because in cannon of twst, time is reffered as our normal time

-in here, the time is the same for both worlds. Japan time is sage island time, so there's a small decalation of hour.

This letter routine continued. Ren was a fast learner, thus he had a quick evolution in his English, which gained praise at school. Meanwhile, Riddle was finding a warm and fuzzy spot whenever a new letter would come for him. Both found to grow very close to each other, like a brother you would tell all your Woes to. The letters came from simple things, to much longer ones, about one's week, personal problems or even funny side-stories.

Since Riddle was helping Ren with his studies, the latter found it fit to teach his pen-pal Japanese. This also shifted the contents of the letters, containing small notes in Japanese. Just how Ren's English looked sloppy at first, Riddle's Japanese was the same.

The letters also came more thick at one point. Ren would send small things, trinkets and candy, while Riddle sent in trinkets and pressed flowers. When the small objects were exchanged, Riddle unfortunately already was busted long ago for sneaking out to play with Trey and Che'nya. So imagine that Ren sending him such small trinkets, there was bound to be some sort of reassurance.

And while strawberry tarts were great, Riddle found Mochi to be his comfort food. It was small and was eaten easily. In his mind it was similar to a tart: comes in a big variety and it was given to him by someone he holds dear in his heart. Along with the fact that his first ever taste of one was always the strawberry flavour.

-he told Ren in a letter that he liked strawberries, so the latter made an effort to choose strawberry sweets.

Meanwhile, Ren was very happy with his own lil trinkets and things. He made a small glossary of all the pressed flowers as well, although at first he thought the 'sweet rose' was candy and ate it. Imagine his surprise when he discovered in the next letter that it wasn't supposed to be eaten. But it still tasted nice. :'3

-Riddle sent another 'sweet rose' for Ren's glossary after that, as to have the entire collection

This becomes a routine, that is followed all the way to high-school. Ren started first high-school and had to explain to Riddle how the Japanese sistem worked. Nonetheless, Riddle was expected to start his first year while Ren was around the middle-end of his. So there was that.

-Twst follows the European/American school model, thus it has some decalation with the Japanese school model.

Riddle also expressed his considering of taking on for the dormleader position once he got his acceptance letter. Ren, tho, said that it wouldn't be good to paint a target on his back so early. That maybe, first, he should gain a good reputation and trust of the others so he could be recommended rather than simply taking it by force. It would look far better in this case scenario, which would be easier to gain respect out of others once he does get the position. He makes some good points, which gives Riddle a much rounded idea of how he could raise as a much more respected Dormhead.

Trey inevitably thinks that maybe he managed to talk sum sense into the redhead, whom initially was dead set on taking that position. So for now, he got a bit of credit for this. :'3

Although, for Ren's end of the year, things get a bit messy. Like in the cannon of P5, he gets charged with assault for pushing off the man that tried to force himself on a woman. In his urgent letter, he stated that the man's name, which Riddle takes a note of for future reference.

Still, the redhead was worried sick for his friend. He did change his letters accordingly, in April this whole Tokyo probation would start, so Riddle still didn't finish his first year by then. Ren told him that for the time of the formalities of moving and getting enrolled into the new school, he won't be able to write, so Riddle could let off a worry if he didn't receive the usual letter.

-Ren had to pack things and move to Tokyo, thus, still waiting for the new address, he couldn't have Riddle write accidentally the same address and send the letter to the wrong place.

The night before Ren's first day of school, Riddle wakes up in a theater room. He was chained with ribbons by all limbs and a guy that was painfully similar to Jade, introduced himself as his brand new attendant. This Jade was strikingly different from the real one, mainly by the white hair in an undercut and the more punk appearance, which wasn't fit st all with the theatre's elegant presentation. Unfortunately, the master of this room was not availabile now, as he is tending to the other wildcard.

Despite that, Riddle feels like someone else is watching him. Like there are 3 persons in this theatre and one of them was the redhead himself.

Still... It was wierd af :'3

Imagine being in Ren's shoes. You have your brand new school day after a freaky prison dream. You are in your uniform, meet a kinda nice guy and together you head to the school, only to be found in front of a castle.

To add salt to the wound, they hear a scream from inside and rush in to see 2 guards dragging out a small, struggling guy. Ren recognised him as Riddle and the latter tried to free himself when the guards stopped to 'interrogate' Ryuji and Ren.

-the 2 exchanged photos with themselves at one point, after all they've been mailing to each other since 7.

Guess it's now getting Dormeo-ed and waking up in a dungeon cell. Riddle was freaking out since he was just heading out to PE, while Ryuji and Ren were just getting to school when they found themselves in this freaky place.

The redhead mentions how his magic didn't work out in here, to which the other to swipe it under the rug, in favor of finding a way out and trying to survive this crazy shit. :'3

Cue Kamoshida coming. Riddle is absolutely baffled that this is a PE teach. Like sure, Vargas had an obsession with muscles, but the man had sum decency, ya know?

The situation was overkill for Ren tho. Like this is the first time he meets his pen-pal, his brother in arms if you will, and he is now gonna get killed by his new PE teach who is in just a speedo with a wierd cape.

The first one on the line of execution was supposed to be Ryuji, but Riddle charged in and pushed a guard aside, which got him to be deemed as the first one on the chopping board.

Cue Ren's very epic awakening. Everyone is simply losing their shit atm. :3c

But that, clearly that had to be magic. Using that as a distraction, when the guards turned into your run-of-the-mill Jack-o-lanterns, Riddle spared 0 time in grabbing a sword and cutting one of those lil shits's heads. Ryuji stole the keys and together they closed off Kamoshida in the cell, trying to run away.

Cue realising that they are lost. :'3

So, instead of jumping on the other side of the river, they decided to look some more in here, try to find a sturdier bridge, because it was unclear if their adrenaline was yet to wear off.

They, unfortunately, stumble across a few cells with students that Ryuji recognises. The blonde explains to the 2 that these people are actual students at their school and he wanted to free them. Unfortunately, the keys didn't work and so they had to ditch them. Ren is very collected about this shit, preffering to not act rash in a situation where their very lives are on the line.

Riddle tho? Riddle sees it as unfair. And he's absolutely enraged. He insists to bargain with Kamoshida for the captive students, but, upon returning to the cell, they find no Kamoshida and that the whole door was blown away by smth. And not just anything, but something very powerful, as it left quite horrifying trails and marks. This gets Ryuji on board to finally ditch everyone else for now and try to get out before they get killed.

But, they have a run-in with a red-armoured guard, tasked with taking care of this 'intruders'. By how everything was shaped around, Ren looked drained from his transformation and Ryuji had a small halebard found on the ground to fend himself with. Everything was absolutely wrong and someone had to fix it before their heads get rolling. And Riddle deemed himself as more than fit for the job. He was well versed in the art of magic and his senses simply told him to protect his friends, to protect the people he holds so dear.

Cue epic af awakening.

With this new power, the redhead demands for Ryuji and Ren to run away while he deals with the guard. Because it didn't turn in any shadow, Riddle used that to knock off the guy from the horse and take the animal to ride and catch up with Ren and Ryuji.

Cue meeting Morgana, just as the 2 freed the cat-thing. Morgana introduces himself as a very skilled Phanthom-thief and as such, he sees some potential in the now 2 masked guys. So now they took it by steps towards the exit.

-the horse was also a shadow, so it had to dissappear, plus Morgana insisted to be discret.

Ryuji is lowkey all like: what's with the people burning alive and getting sick outfits????

The cat gives us drugs! (yes, I love that joke for sum reason) :D

Morgana also shows a demonstration of how personas work. Arsene was mainly using curse attacks and physical ones, while Judgement queen was had mainly fire and a tiny bit of bless, thus keeping the distance.

While escaping, the 3 return to Tokyo, which is bad, since Riddle was supposed to be at NRC. Everyone was, rightfully, freaking out about it. Thankfully the new badass outfits didn't come over as well. :'3

Riddle does look around and uses magic to change his uniform into something akin to a more normal school uniform. Cue Ren and Ryuji freaking out since that was actual magic and Riddle was not making shit up in his letters. Ryuji brings up that this is how the redhead dyed his hair so vibrant, to which Riddle replies that no, his hair is natural.

-In P5(not royal) universe, there are no wild hair colors. The dark blue is meant to represent a colder black. By Japan's standards, some would believe that a bright red hair could be either a delinquent or a J-pop idol. :'3

So Riddle does use magic again, to make his hair black, although still it retained a tint of red to it. It was absolutely sick for Ren and Ryuji, while Riddle was more concerned with getting himself back to NRC.

They re-meet Kamoshida and Ryuji with Riddle are immediately ready to square tf up. By sum miracle, the redhead understood perfectly Japanese, as if he was an avid speaker, which wasn't the case at all. No one brings it up, Ren and Ryuji assuming it was sum fancy magic shit.

-Cannon P5 has the group understand Morgana as a cat, so it can be expected that a more human language could be altered to be universally understood.

Riddle has to wait outside, which means the latter gets to explore around a bit. They exchanged phone numbers already and Ren with Ryuji asked the redhead to get them smth to eat post classes. Already they were through more than half of the school period, so it didn't take too long. Along with this, the 2 didn't want to catch the empty school shop, so Riddle was their errand boy for the day. :'3

On the way around, Riddle meets a nice tall guy who tells him where a cheap store is. That was a blessing for his already almost broke buget. :'D

The tall guy goes with Riddle to the store and with the extra given coins, Riddle decided to give them to the guy as a sort of thank-you, so he could complete his price for his food take.

Riddle has made a new friend: Yusuke! :D

Unfortunately both of them forgot to exchange phone numbers and only realised this when they parted ways already.

Ren and Ryuji are very happy with the food and together, the 3 discuss about what are they supposed to do. Ren offers for Riddle to sleep with him, but Sojiro might not allow it and Ryuji didn't have any space in his small place. They decide to sneak the redhead in when the latter shows them an invisibility spell he knows.

For the night, Ren and Riddle discuss a bit. The redhead admits that he was a few seconds, at best a minute or 2 before Ren and Ryuji came. Riddle also mentions about his freaky dream with the blue room, to which Ren is all like 'damn, me too'.

The 2 draw a few lines:

both are wildcards, whatever the hell is that

Igor is the master of both rooms

the theatre is not like the prison :'D

Ren got the short stick with the attendants/wardens

So they go to sleep.

And surprise, surprise, Ren is back in the Velvet room. With this opportunity, he asks Igor what is up with his friend and why is he also deemed as a wild-card. Igor says that he was chosen for another motive, but it has nothing to do with Ren's rehabilitation.

On the reverse side, Riddle asks about Ren's velvet room. Again, Igor wasn't here, but Jade says to not question his master's wishes, for they all have a purpose in 'delivering the perfect story' along with shaping Riddle in the 'worthy protagonist' he has to be.

When waking up and everything, Ren makes sure to spare half of his curry for his buddy, while Sojiro wasn't looking. As such, re-meeting with Ryuji, the 3 re-trace their steps post classes. Riddle was again sent through the city for things, meeting again with Yusuke and the 2 hanging out for a bit. This time they did exchange numbers. Yay! :D

They discover the metanav, the freaky app on all 3's phones. Riddle theories that since he came first, he has to also leave first, as to separate the 2 and thus return to their respective worlds.

-it was realised that since magic was common in Riddle's place, the latter was from a different dimension altogether.

This time, they re-meet Morgana, get more things explained and Ryuji promptly has an awakening post facing Kamoshida yet again. Really Riddle was getting impatient and wanted to behead for real the guy. Unfortunately Morgana said that if you kill Kamoshida in here, he has a mental shudown irl and actually dies.

This time, when they return to the real world, Riddle is back in twisted wonderland, while Ren and Ryuji are back in Tokyo. Their phones could still message/call one another, which only was used for them to confirm that indeed, they have to leave separately in order for everyone to go to their respective worlds.

Riddle had to call in sick for yesterday and today, which was plausible. He had a single room due to the Heartslabyul first years not being unable to divide evenly by 4. Trey was the first one to tell Riddle that he was really worried for him, while Cater managed to get him the lost lesson notes, from Jade.

-in cannon twst, the Heartslabyul dorm rooms for the 1st years are split 4 by 4. Riddle is still in his first year as of now.

Now, the redhead stood amongst first years at the one with an absolute perfect score at everything, including attendance, so it was pretty understandable that I'd he was sick he wouldn't come, as such no one really bothered to bring it up.

Still, despite all that, Riddle couldn't help but feel that someone was watching him. He tried to swat it off as being just over dramatic, but the feeling did not dissappear, whatever Riddle would try to force himself to believe.

Meanwhile, Ren makes a Gc, which is titled 'The Bois'. In here, Ryuji makes a list of people he saw in the palace and whom they should interrogate for future reference. They know that Kamoshida is abusing the students, as such they should be careful at how they could address the situation.

Riddle still was doing his best to help Ren and Ryuji with their investigations, via suggesting approach ideas or reminding them of rules and regulations that could be used as a shield for their actions.

Now there is a new routine, which also means that Ren, Ryuji and Riddle sync together when entering into the palace for investigations. Morgana came up with the code-name idea, so everyone was based off a motif from their own costumes, except Joker and Mona. So you have Skull and Rose, with their nice visual themes and then there's Joker and Mona. :'D

It's also time they discover what a wildcard could actually do. Both Riddle and Ren were spooked when their own negociations went a wierd way and gained new personas. Even weirder was the following velvet room trip, where the concept of persona fusions was presented. Ren told his buddy that he had to witness the gulittone execution, while the redhead said that he saw nothing, but heard a chainsaw for some goddamn reason.

Even so, you have Ann joining the group and expulsion hanging over Ren and Ryuji's necks. Now they did have a deadline and it was something that gained the loudest 'what' possible from Riddle.

The redhead tells the 2 that maybe they could avoid expulsion. They had to plead their case, because it wasn't legal to simply expel a kid with no backing motive and a proper investigation. And if there's a proper investigation, then Kamoshida could be shown as the absolute disgusting being that he is.

As such, their dead-line is given a bit more of a stretch, so that everyone could breath a bit in relief. Clearly they were forcing Kamoshida's hand and no doubt that he could find more 'plausible' accusations to give them. But that takes time. And they need that time for sure.

Cue these lil shits making a heist. :v

Ren was deemed as the main leader, while Riddle had to take over in certain situations. It was basically these 2 switching around. Riddle was a no-mercy fighting guy, while Ren was thinking more and stacking power.

Ann also had the brilliant shock of red to black that is Riddle's concealing charm. She brought up that, nonetheless, the guy was adorable and she definitely wanted to take him through the mall sometimes because there were so many pretty outfits he could rock. Riddle did not share the same excitement unfortunately. :'3

Ren and Ryuji realise that their buddy here has that cute charm that makes girls actually approach him.

Back in twst, not a lot of people noticed Riddle's absences. He wasn't that present post classes anyway, even so Cater did bring up that the redhead is pretty absent from the dorm post classes and/or clubs. The dormleader doesn't give it much thought, saying that perhaps he made a buddy and is hanging around. Trey seems to be pretty happy with this more outgoing change after all.

Meanwhile, our lil buddy here is getting traumatized by the horny castle. :'D

Kamoshida is horrible and Panther was more than happy to beat the shit out of him. Mona tried to be reasonable, but Ren said that if they leave the guy alive, then they could still beat him up to a pulp. >:3

Post that and the successful change of heart, the group wanted to celebrate. Ann made the great suggestion to go to this fancy buffet with the pawned money and treat themselves to their heart's content.

Riddle really didn't know how to prepare for such buffet. So he dressed up in smth nice and called it a day. Everyone had the same idea it seems, except Morgana, who is a cat.

Ann had a sweet tooth. And unfortunately she noticed that Riddle also had a sweet tooth, so the 2 indulged in the cakes and sweets, while Ren, Ryuji and Morgana went ham on the meat and other savory foods.

Then it came time to name their group. Upon a vote, it was decided to be named simple: 'The Phanthom Thieves of hearts'. Riddle brings up that it maybe they should lay down low for now, since clearly police would look into it. And Ren was on probation, so any bad light can be a fatal move.

Later on, Riddle hears from Yusuke, who tells him of this art exposition. And him having extra tickets, he was thinking of bringing his friend to see the art of his master, Madarame. The latter couldn't possibly decline the offer, so he gracefully accepted to come by in the weekend.

But before that, Morgana said 'let's go into the mementos' and we get introduced to the Monabus. :'D

The freaky part is when they encounter a stalker, whom, after defeat, accuses Madarame of exploiting them. It brings out a very wierd situation. Riddle offered to properly face the man in an interrogation, for he cannot actually be identified in this place, while the others listen in.

Indeed, the guy accuses again Madarame, saying how he wishes for nothing that he put effort in to be taken from him. Unfortunately, that got out of hand when his ex decided to break-up, thus the stalking. But now, seeing actual reason and realising how horrible his behaviour was, the guy begs of our groups to try and use their miraculous ways to save the children under Madarame's 'care', so they couldn't be exploited anymore.

Post that, Riddle mentions how he has a ticket to the art exposition, courtesy of Yusuke, his friend. There is also this wierd alcoholic reporter, who tries to get a scoop on Madarame, having all kinds of rumors on him. Coincidentally, Yusuke saw Ann and deemed her as the perfect model for his next art piece.

So there are 2 different plans of action:

The exposition one, where Riddle is gathering info about the paintings displayed, along with how Madarame himself acts around. Frankly, the old man was quite humble and kind, addressing to Riddle as Yusuke's friend and being happy about more youth attending a traditional art exposition.

Meanwhile, Ann is refusing far and beyond to pose nude for Yusuke, once the true intention of the painting is. In between us, Ren was pretty down to be a nude model. :'D

Still, our group finds the Madarame palace and BOI is that thing FANCY. All gold, abstract building and whoever decided to put pots on the roof. :'3

-In the P5 game, you can steal art pieces on the roof, who coincidentally look like pots

Riddle had a very familiar, yet foul feeling about this place, but he mostly kept it to himself, in favor of how to deal with this place. The pupil paintings were almost the last straw, but still, Yusuke was loyal to hell and back to Madarame. Simply telling him that this guy is bad won't do anything but to sour their already complicated relationship with the guy.

Still, they couldn't proceed further because of the peacock feather doors. So Ann FINALLY accepts the modeling gig, but with a catch: she took all the closet on her. :'3

Meanwhile, Riddle and Mona were meant to sneak in and open the door itself. Using an invisibility charm, the 2 had to both open the door and have Madarame see it open as well. Morgana wanted to lock pick it, but Riddle said 'nah' and straight up opened it with magic.

Unfortunately, neither was fast enough to catch that hefty thing and so it slammed on the shabby floor, which was heard through all the house. So the 2 knew that now either Madarame reaches them first or Yusuke and Ann.

-Yusuke assumed something bad happened or something got broken and thus wanted to assure for the well-being of his master

In a panic, Riddle and Morgana go and hide in the dark room itself, leaving wide open the door. Yusuke and Ann come first and out of instinct, Ann switches on the light.

Poor Yusuke is in an absolute shock. Hearing the footsteps of someone also coming, Riddle uses his magic to turn off the light along with turning Ann and Yusuke invisible. Yusuke wanted to yell, say smth, but Ann shushed him, just as Madarame entered the room. Yusuke saw first hand how the man actually acted around, quite arrogant, yet panicky that maybe someone actually stole a copy of the Sayuri.

Now that he was invisible, Yusuke also saw Riddle and Morgana, which was far more confusing since, for him, it was wierd that Madarame didn't even notice their presence altogether. Fleeing the place, the group came with the metaverse escape, once Morgana accidentally knocked off a painting and Madarame was convinced someone was truly there.

Cue Yusuke freaking out. He was in this metaverse place. In here, all the charms Riddle initially made were lifted, so cue the briliant shock of red hair again. :'D

Rose decided to got directly to the point: this is how Madarame views this whole art business and himself. As a museum of himself, where his vanity knows no limit.

The 2 had to re-meet with Joker and Skull. Yusuke has just a bad time overall and Riddle could only offer to step back and protect Yusuke, while the others fight shadows upfront.

Yet Yusuke also awakens to a persona! Yay! Now we can kick that grandpa's ass! :D

After the whole escape, Yusuke is very down. Ren tried to comfort him, but ultimately Riddle got to send the message across: just because someone raised you, doesn't necessarily mean that you are allowed to excuse every mistake of theirs. You can admit that the person in question is bad, even if they had you since you were a baby.

-Since Ren talked sense in Riddle prior, the redhead is aware already of his own mother's wrongs and thus, is the best to talk with Yusuke about this

Yusuke is now determined to change Madarame's heart and have him answer for his deeds against all those innocent pupils he exploited.

But, Madarame's wary af and thus asked police to make an investigation of the place. The investigation proves to be futile, as no one could find any evidence, besides the lock being thrown on the floor. Still, they were drawing a few suspects, one of which is Yusuke. This puts on fire the group since if Yusuke is accused of breaking in, it's over.

Yet, Riddle gets his summer holiday now. He had to make sure his mother was out in town while he 'studied' in order to sneak out via metaverse. Even so, it hardly changed the routine, since Yusuke also had very lil time to slip up.

By the middle of June they manage to find the treasure, send in the calling card and have the heist. Yusuke gets even more traumatised by Madarame's greed and the group find out about a black mask roaming around.

The confession, of course, is followed by a lot of uproar from the public. Yusuke now was living the ✨broke✨ life and Ren, Ryuji and Riddle are roped in with Mishima onto investigating the maid service, discovering that Kawakami works it as a side-job.

We also see the fireworks! :D

But, later, Riddle notices smth wierd. They were followed, quite indiscretly, by a girl. Ren explained that she was the student council president and it could only mean bad things for them.

Riddle, being done and over with that feeling of being followed, confronts Makoto upfront about stalking them. Like damn, can't a guy have sum privacy and hang around in peace?!

Makoto confronts them back with them being THE Phanthom thieves. Of course, this puts the group in a tight situation as Makoto wants them to prove their ways by changing the heart of a mafioso boss. They need a name tho, so using the journalist Ren meet previously, they deduce the name of Junya Kaneshiro. Their problem was the need to see Kaneshiro in person and deduce the nature of the palace in question.

Riddle tho, stopped her, saying that he is the guy on the terrain and that Makoto shouldn't get involved with those guys directly. Makoto tho, dismisses him, which almost gets them caught off in trouble with Kaneshiro, but thankfully magic is a godbless in here and Riddle doesn't hesitate to use it in order to confuse the people around and thus avoided an insanely close bullet.

Still, in order to fully escape, they used the metaverse escape, getting yeeted in the fricking bank. Since Kaneshiro knows them now, they gained access oh so much before the 'bank owner' demands cash for their damage done in the club. And a quite exaggerated sum, which could put poor Makoto in a life long debt.

Cue awakening! Heck yeah! We have a motorcycle now! :D

Makoto has many shocks today. Magic, metaverse, personas, the very close escape from ruining situation... Really a lot. Even so, Ren reasons that there is a possibility that the cameras could've caught their faces. It would take a bit more to get the footage and identify them, but when that happens, no doubt that Kaneshiro would want a hefty payment to keep shut.

Still, with sum effort and a very nicely set calling card, the group pull it off. Kaneshiro drops for them sum info about the black mask, but it's not really helping them in this situation.

Cue summer holiday like pros and Riddle starting his 2nd year at NRC. This was marked as special, since last year he was named Dormhead, by the previous one, whom now is in his 4th year. Ren quietly congratulated his buddy, who insisted to be kept on the low.

Still, what Riddle didn't expect was the mountain of tasks that would get dropped on his shoulders. He had to oversee a bunch of things and along that, by sum unspoken rule, he was put in charge of confirming that every Dormhead would come to the entrance ceremony. So he wrote nicely a few notes for the Dormheads, handing them personally to themselves, vices or students who can safely take it to them.

All, well except Idia. Riddle brought this problem to Ren. Like how he could even get that guy out to attend the ceremony. It's not something hard. He could still bring his tablet and speak through it. He wasn't unreasonable. But attendance will be mandatory and to top it off, Ortho, the deemed younger brother of Idia, really wished for him to attend the ceremony. It's not like he was sick or anything. Ortho confirmed that his brother can attend the ceremony with no problems. So it's more of a 'get yo ass out and stay in a corner for 30 minutes' kind of thing.

The rest of the group suggest their own things, but it all boils down to 1 idea: go in person and confront the guy.

Despite Riddle expecting to have a shy guy that maybe needs a bit of a nice word of encouragement to get the things going, Idia was snarky. This guy wanted nothing to do with the 'Resident rule perfectionist' as he put it into words. And that, in turn, railed up Riddle too, which turned into a back and forth with only the closed door preventing Idia from getting his ass whooped into attending.

-being so absent during April and the end of the year, people didn't get to see Riddle as more than just a guy that follows rules to a T

So Riddle, upon Ren's guidance, guilttrips Idia into confirming his attendance for the sake of his brother, who was really looking forward to it. It was a success! :D

Except it wasn't, because Idia didn't show up, despite Ortho saying that he saw his brother in the ceremonial robes, leaving before him even, just how the dormleaders were required to. Add salt on the wound, this wierd magicless peep stumbles in, a cat-raccoon puts on fire the whole goddamn room.

And Azul is his partner in catching that cat. This night couldn't possibly get worse, could it? At least, being used to thief shenanigans, it is far easier to outpace Grim and catch the lil monster, not before collaring him first. It would've been easier if Azul didn't almost blast him off with a missed spell. :'3

Post all this, luckily Ren and him meet up to hang out. In the metaverse to blow off some steam, ofc. Riddle does mention about Yuu, but when Ren suggests to take Yuu himself over to this world, where they belong, Riddle responds that there is a chance that this stranger was brought by the dark mirror. Something was up with this Yuu and he isn't going to risk it until he has evidence that they could be truly sent back safely without them being brought back by accident again.

-Yuu mentioned their home when the mirror asked for them to be sent back, as such it was clear it was a place from Ren's world.

This gets reinforced when Riddle wakes up in the velvet room. He was never summoned there for anything than at first 2 times. He had to ask for different procedures that Ren discovered when he was summoned. So there's that.

But the velvet room this time was more eerie. Far darker around and the bindings were tighter, even hurting when the redhead tried to move. He called for Jade, but he didn't respond, nor was to be seen.

All Riddle knew was that someone had their hands on his seat back, tilting a bit as a way to gain his attention. The person in question spoke very quiet and softly about how this game is rigged and that Riddle should, under no circumstances, mingle in with the magicless human. The redhead is allowed to ask 1 question before their time runs out. And Riddle, naturally, asks who the hell is this person behind him.

The response is: Someone he should've meet much earlier.

Of course, the redhead shared this encounter with Ren. Something definitely was up. He wanted to bring it up with Igor, but Riddle insisted that this stays in between them. Who knows what velvet room shenanigans are truly going on?

First proper day of NRC school and Ren just calls in to check on his buddy, only to be hit with the 'these dumbasses charred a statue, broke an insanely expensive chandelier and almost avoided explosion by trespassing in an abandoned and, possibly, Hazzardous mine'. When Ace allegedly stole a tart, it was the last straw and Riddle collared him. He didn't explicitly kick him out, but the guy left the dorm puffing and huffing so he didn't stop him.

-the way Riddle phrased his nagging made Ace believe that he was kicked out

Ren just suggests that tomorrow he should talk with Ace and Deuce. And just make it clear that he expects the 2 learned their lesson and won't do that absolutely dangerous shit again.

It goes actually well! :D

Ren is also invited to the tea party. The others were a bit busy, hence Ren finally got to visit Riddle's world. There was fun and nice food, so he wasn't complaining. U-Ub

Ren also gets to see firsthand how it truly is in a place where everyone uses magic. The roses were turned red by a flick of a wrist, the dishes were flying off their table on their own, even Trey's Unique magic was amazing for Ren.

Ren also meets Yuu, the magicless hooman in question, along with Grim. Since Morgana also was there, Ren jokingly said that they are kinda the same. Yuu notes how, from Trey's Intel, they didn't expect Riddle to actually have other friends, outside the school. Well Che'nya was an exception, but still! It turns out Yuu was also from Japan, them casually mentioning how in their world, at least, there were those wierd mental shutdowns and sum rumors about Phanthom Thieves. It was very freaky and Yuu was actually glad they weren't there atm.

-Ren lied and said he was a magicless student studying around, coming from the Queendom of Roses as well.

Post that, Ren was pretty glad that Riddle called off the idea of bringing Yuu back home via the metaverse. So far, their idea of the thieves wasn't all pink and sugary, so there was a fair chance they would rat them out.

Post the party, Riddle and Ren talk as the redhead is 'getting back to school' the latter. Riddle does mention about the other Dormheads and how they kinda are in terms of personality. Not the most happy bunch, but NRC was notorious for stuck-up brats after all.

Discussing those matters, Leona's name gets dropped. And what you'd guess, the metanav picks it up. It halts the 2's convo as they realise that 'oh shit, the metaverse is not Tokyo exclusive'.

So until they reach the mirror chamber, they try different things. It does pick up 'coliseum', 'envy' and 'sloth', getting the 2 to come face to face with a more antique place, where gladiator fights were the main attraction. Still, they didn't venture too much. They had to talk with the rest of PTs about this palace.

It comes to a comune accord that this palace was something that needs to be dealt with. At least before inter-dorm magishift season starts. Azul was in charge of organisation so they had to take a leap of faith and get somehow a clue about what Leona might pose a threat to. His palace was cold and straightforward. Shockingly very easy to go through.

Their problem tho, comes with Medjed, back in Tokyo, taking upon a 'duel' with the PTs. For that, Alibaba, a misterious hacker, requested to have a heart change. So Leona's palace had to wait a bit more.

Everyone honestly was thinking that the desert tomb was mocking them with the endless heat, only to have back irl the autumn coldness. Still, they manage to change Futaba's heart, or more like she helps in changing her own heart. This does cause a collapse episode in the real world, something which Riddle can freely use some simple healing magic spells. Still, Sojiro, unaware, called in Takemi to check.

With Medjed dealt with, Riddle is informed of the string of accidents on the school grounds. Yuu, Grim and Adeuce were looking into it, so the redhead assigned Cater to also look a bit in this mess. Clearly, he knew Leona had something to do with this. His palace was straight out outing this thing, but Riddle had to play it right and not raise suspicions.

So he devises a plan to stop the sabotaging, all the while the rest of the thieves group go and steal the treasure. Riddle promised that he will confront Leona face to face, as such they won't need a calling card and make their presence also known in here.

-since Yuu knew about the Phanthom thieves in their world, a calling card would immediately raise suspicions.

Cue busting Leona at the magishift grounds, just as, in the metaverse, Ren was leading the heist.

Except that what wasn't taken in account, was Leona overblotting. This shook up the whole plan and not only did Riddle have to deal with an overBlot, the rest of the thieves got out with the treasure, only for the thing to crumble apart right in their hands.

Instantly, the metanav confirmed that the palace still was standing, so it was clear that now everyone meet in front of it, seeing the now abandoned ruins of the once prestigious looking coliseum. No more shadow readings, treasures or anything that would do with distorted desires. It was like a shell of it's former corrupted glory.

Riddle says that in the real world, Lilia came in between him and Leona and berated him so bad he actually overBlotted. Something like this was absolutely unexpected. And so far Leona was still preparing to play in the exhibition match. He had to return and arrange the Heartslabyul team, so the others decided to come too and keep an eye on the matches.

Magishift was, clearly, something that hyped up the whole group. It was also Futaba's first time outside, at a grand event such as this.

Still, Leona was acting like normal. He was sent to the infirmary to rest after this thing, while Yuu was sent there post getting bonked with the Disk.

For a few days, Riddle kept a close eye on Leona. The palace was in a state of decaying and the guy himself looked like nothing changed. No change of heart was made, but some sort of inner change was done by Leona himself. Something that compromised the whole palace.

After that, there is the Halloween event, where Riddle invited his Tokyo buddies at the open gates event. Magicam monsters like magicam monsters. Still getting a kick outta them. :v

The actual noteworthy thing is post that, when the endless Halloween night starts. In the land of the afterlife, Riddle could feel his personas brimming inside. It felt awfully like some sort of metaverse, but it wasn't his metaverse, more like some sort of extension.

And since WHEN did Lilia need glasses?! They were that hot pink, bedazzled with prints on their rims along with a colorful chain full of beads. Really standing out against his Halloween attire. Still, he said that it was his idea, as to cheer up Malleus for the inevitable end of this big school party. Pepaw, dunno if u have health insurance, but I'm sure af that Riddle doesn't give a damn about it. :'3

Following that, in Tokyo, people didn't really believe that much in the power of heart change. The thieves needed some big target to hit, but that could also be compromising. It does get into a heated argument, with Morgana ditching the group in a rage fit. Everyone is just all over the place. They decide to target Okumura and run into a spaceship palace! :D

Meanwhile, Ren and Riddle decide to solo investigate the mementos of twisted wonderland. They didn't really have a clue how to get to rotten souls, but Riddle suggested to try out students names. This mementos was an extension of the usual mementos, accessed through a cracked mirror and resembling an upside-down tower.

The 2 stumble upon the shadow of none other than Azul. It was surprising, since Riddle knew how greedy and perfectionist this guy was. He expected a more grandiose thing out of him, not a simple shadow.

Still, using the fact that they could easily change his heart and that also there was no trigger for overBlot rn, they do defeat the shadow. It was more as an experiment, to see if a change of heart actually works in twst or it is something else.

Azul had absolutely 0 change in his behaviour. Still he's scheemy and still he has that honey-sweet Demandour, appearing to be friendly and rope u in a deal.

In fact, a lot more people got roped in a deal. Ren wanted to say that they did worse, but Riddle reassured that this was absolutely no surprise: exams were coming up. With Azul as a dormleader now, along with his 'reliability' in the previous year, it was no surprise that the clients would come in more numbers.

So while the whole Octavinelle plot is going on, the PTs are managing the Okumura palace. They have Mona back, along with a new addition: Noir, or by her real name: Haru.

There are 2 things that result in this whole Aftermath: Azul Overblots and Mr Okumura dies live on press. This is pivotal, as the Tokyo public believes that the Phanthom thieves are criminals, while on the twst plan, Azul still is hunting for contracts, although he seemed to lower the actual conditions, to the point is outright too generous. It was a sign of desperation.

Haru needs sum time off to think. With the sudden public death, the voting was postponed at a later date, to firstly let this scandal die down and re-make the whole voting options. It proved as a good time for other prime-minister candidates to make PR moves and capitalise on the death of Okumura for the sympathy of the masses. The ballouts would be hosted in March now, Japan waltzing in the new year with a lack of a prime-minister.

So Haru spends the small winter vacation with Riddle, at NRC. It was away from all this Tokyo Chaos. The others still checked up on her, to make sure she was, at least, able to cope well with the situation. There was a nice atmosphere in the Heartslabyul gardens, nice tea and along those, Haru seemed to enjoy the company of the local small critters and flamingoes.

Of course, due to this, it was no surprise that a certain Floyd Leech would bust the calm, mostly since 'Goldfishie stood over!' and he wants to play with someone else. Esp since Azul and Jade always were with him during the winter break so it was boring. Last year's break was enough for Floyd apparently. :'3

Although Haru found it entertaining the said chase and the chaos Floyd brought, what she didn't quite appreciate was when Yuu and Grim crashed into Octavinelle in the middle of the night and Haru joined, not expecting to be put through a training camp. Still, there was nice food and Kalim seemed very kind at first glance.

Then evening rolled up and Kalim wasn't so nice anymore. Just how Yuu and Grim said, this guy had worse moodswings than Floyd himself. So they split up to investigate: Haru and Jade separate Kalim from the others, while the rest keep Jamil occupied.

On the Kalim side, things were going smoothly once Jade used his unique magic on the latter, now the whole thing boiling down to asking the right questions. Haru was perplexed that Kalim's willpower to keep his promise was so strong, but this is also what outed the whole thing as well if you count in Kalim's connections. It was ironic, really.

Meanwhile, Jamil takes note that Riddle is very precise in the board game, which made him quite the fearsome competition. The redhead doesn't ignore the given compliment, saying that is very simple to advance if you know the rules and don't loiter around thinking of the points, rather consider the penalties. Yuu also notes that the redhead had quite the longer hair, this time being braided around pretty nicely. Riddle says that he didn't really take in account his hair situation at all.

-Haru braided it for him as a sort of relaxing activity for both.

Regrouping back in the guest room, a plan is devised and put in action the very next day. Jamil is exposed and this guy has a breakdown and overblots.

Cue getting yeeted across Scarabia. It came as an absolute surprise, which, to Riddle and Haru's further horror, they discovered that, indeed, Jamil had a palace all along. Who would've suspected such humble guy to turn out like this?!

Haru has now rights to commit extreme violence in the real world. Haru is very happy. :3

Poor lil Kalim... He's devastated, but nothing much could be done about it. Haru has her lil pep-talk with him, which turns out on a nice note, with Kalim declaring that he will do his very best to improve, for the sake of Jamil and everyone else.

Jamil also got a pep-talk, but no one really has an idea if something stuck with the guy or if he's just playing along for the sake of getting out of it faster.

Following that and an oasis hangout, Haru decides that she should come back. She stood for 4, maximum 5 days and deemed that all of this small adventure helped her rewind a bit and clear out her head.

Post her leave, Riddle still had the rest of the holiday to spend with the freshly returned Adeuce. Still, Floyd didn't leave him alone at all. He did inquire to know if he didn't get bored of him post the Scarabia incident. They were put to hang out for days together, so how come Floyd didn't get bored?

-in cannon twst, Yuu called Adeuce before breaking out with the carpet, as such the 2 rushed in here as fast as they could.

The latter responds that he knows Riddle's getting more risks taken and that the redhead is mingling with forces he should fear. It wasn't a nagging, because for the end, Floyd says that he's curious of what would come out of all this and expects Riddle to continue this type of shenanigans.

Riddle wanted to ask what in the world is the latter on, but decided to leave it at that and mind his own business. He went to the velvet room, where the other Jade was patiently waiting for him and any questions he may have. The latter has only 1 question: does this Jade have a twin? The attendant hesitates before giving no response, Riddle taking it as a confirmation.

It verified Riddle's theory that this Jade has a connection with the actual Leech twin in real life.

Despite everything, Jade says that, unfortunately, he cannot disclose information regarding the other attendants or about his own position, which further vexes Riddle. Clearly he knew of the twin wardens from Ren's velvet room. And Riddle now knew that in this theatre are supposed to be another pair of twins. But it was only 1. This had to be some sort of parallel. Things so far seemed way too separated, yet they had to be connected. Riddle has never seen Igor, while Ren always was welcomed by the said misterious man. Riddle had 1 attendant, posing as the one and only, while Ren had 2, split into an equal duty.

With those aside... It takes a bit of time, before our group is blackmailed by Aketchi into clearing Sae's palace. It put this whole thing on fire for everyone. And if for Riddle it wasn't enough, for him, this year, Crowley gave him the duty of overseeing the organisation for the culture festival. Mountains of papers and a lot of places, with little time to even rewind for himself a bit.

Aketchi gets also aquitanted with Riddle, being quite taken aback by the fact that 2 wildcards are in the group. Sure, fancy pants... Sure... -3-

But, with all of those Woes and troubles, Ren suggests that the group should also take a break, in the form of the culture festival. An open gates event where they could take 1 break, preferably to clear their heads before the big heist day and to enjoy themselves. Riddle actually looked very forward to it. He liked when his Tokyo friends would visit him. So he marked down the date and he did everything in his power to clear it. Making sure everything was to a T, so that no unexpected worries appear on the last second.

It adds far more on his plate than Riddle would like to admit. But he had to push it through. He had to make sure everything went swimmingly. It all depended on him, the 3rd party that wouldn't be affected by Sae's change of heart. The palace was investigated in record time and add to it that Ren even offered to help the redhead with sum paperwork, so he could speed up the whole process.

What was a thing Riddle overlooked, was literally the other Heartslabyul students. He overlooked that some might mess up something. And when they did, it resulted in a quick lashing out, a collar taken down seconds after realisation settled in and a profund apology for the scare. Those signs also showed in the palace. The reason they advanced so quick was because Riddle adapted an approach of 'wanna negotiate or taste my gun'.

This problem was brought forth with Trey. Him being the vice, the others decided that he is the best person to snap Riddle out of it. Cater even offered to take some of Trey's duties off his shoulders so he could take some of Riddle's in turn and at least clear up some time. Adeuce were gone, an unbirthday party was planned literally 2 days before the VDC. Time was on fast forward and it seemed Riddle had a hard time keeping in the pace.

-Ace and Deuce were at the VDC camp.

Trey tho, swats off the others, saying that it's simply just a more hectic period. A lot of things need to have Riddle's presence or signature, so it's not far fetched to say that even if they wanted to help, there's very little they could do. Cater tho, insists that even that little help they could offer is better than no help, but Trey shuts down the idea, saying that he'll take care of it, the same way he did on Riddle's first year: have a talk with him.

And that goes as well as one would expect: down in the goddamn gutter.

To start off, Trey postponed the deemed talk, until before the unbirthday party. At This point Riddle was piling even more stress, after a morning call where his mother finally got to nag him about staying at school for the winter and also forgetting to give her the weekly report yesterday. It already put on the down mood for the day and that only added up when his dorm students reported that apparently one of the flamingoes escaped, a hedgehog had a bellyache and the roses will take a few extra hours to be re-painted because some first years accidentally turned them green and got lost in between the leaves.

Add to that the poor sleep schedule and the overall tiredness. He intended at first to stay in the lounge and finish some urgent papers he'll have to send over to the light music club, regarding their performance duration, when he fell asleep.

Trey woke him up a few hours later and told him about his slip, which made Riddle to spiral in a panic, asking why in the fresh hell didn't he wake him up earlier?! He had to send those papers today, because those are meant to confirm the presence of certain club performances and allow for the schedule of the festival to be posted. Those were PIVOTAL for the organisation. And he slept on them! Now he couldn't attend the unbirthday party, so he'll just postpone it post VDC.

Cue Trey telling him that already everything was set and they couldn't possibly postpone it, when only the redhead was missing from there. He tries to tell the latter that he should take a break, but Riddle panics, saying that he took a break just now and he destroyed all of his plans. He won't have enough time, he'll have to work even on the VDC day, thus he couldn't take his friends out through the festival. It was all a mess. His only free day was forfeit because he fell asleep. Everything just came in, crashing and burning.

Cue a breakdown and an overBlot. Surprisingly, a quite weak one, since already Riddle was still tired and it was easier to knock him out.

So while the redhead actually does sleep in the real life, Riddle wakes up in the velvet room, again being dark and eerie. This time tho, the bindings were a bit more loose and his hands were smudged with ink. He knew that behind him was, again, that misterious someone. Fortunately, Riddle had a theory and a name for the one behind him.

So he calls out for Floyd to come forth. The latter does listen and presents himself as Jade's twin and Riddle's initial attendant. He was quite different, with longer hair and an attire fit for an actor on stage more than anything. Floyd explains that he waited for this moment. For things to crumble down and allow him a moment longer in here. Jade was very limited in this situation and he adds that Azul's initial plan of sneaking in was busted by that pesky shrimp.

Riddle doesn't really understand what's truly going on, but draws one conclusion: the velvet room twins and the irl Leech twins are one and the same. And Floyd here says that he's supposed to be Riddle's true attendant. Then what's Jade's role? And what does Azul have to do with this whole ordeal?!

Floyd doesn't explain, saying that time ran out and that someone is waking up Riddle in the reality, thus their time is cut short. Nonetheless, if he has any questions or truly wants to see what was truly hidden from him, then he reccomends Riddle would seek him out in any world he deems fit.

When the redhead really wakes up, Trey was holding him, while Cater and Che'nya were also in sight, both ferreting around like headless chickens. Riddle asks what happened, to which he's told that he overBlotted. Now he's lost even more time with his 'temper tantrum' and the inevitable knockout session he had. It immediately ends with Riddle crying, saying that he cannot handle it anymore, that he wants to simply stop time to do everything.

Trey doesn't know what to say, but he tells the redhead that he needs to take a break and recover, weather he wants or not. It doesn't reassure at all the redhead, so Cater steps in, saying that he will talk with the club representatives that have performances planned and have them come here and pick up the papers, as to cut some shortcuts at least.

This reassures a bit Riddle and he only demands now for a bit of privacy.

And he uses that privacy to go to Ren. Now, the latter was a bit taken aback by the sudden visit, but indulges in and welcomes the latter with an awkward hug. He doesn't ask what happened, he just waits for the latter to explain. Riddle does tell in between sobs what happened. Due to stress and using so much magic to patch up for his shortcomings, he overBlotted. He really just wanted a nice lil hangout day before they pull the big heist, but everything was compromised.

Ren, as a gud friend, does 2 things: 1. Comfort his buddy and offer to come with him and help him out. 2. Plan Crow man's funeral in advance and prepare a bat for Clover.

-Ren is aware Trey is a vice and therefore could've taken some of the duties and papers with no problem from Riddle's intel.

Riddle feels like he's asking too much from the latter, but Ren admits that the redhead did so much for him and the rest of the Phanthom thieves, by covering their traces, prolonging their deadlines and helping out with anything possible. He feels it's only fair that he will be here, with a hug and a helping hand when in need.

What Riddle does add is that something is wrong with the velvet room. At least his velvet room, for apparently he has a wrong attendant and both he and the actual attendant are real life people. There's also a 3rd person roped in this and it's none other than Azul, whom at first Ren and Riddle had under a close eye due to odd behavior.

Ren admits that it's wierd, but for now, he says that it would be better to take a deep breath and focus on the now. Not on the what they should do next. So he calls in the rest of the group, filling them up ONLY about the overBlot news. Clearly Aketchi had to catch up with the whole magic shit, but Riddle made it clear that overBlot is an external factor and cannot mean that a person necessarily has a palace.

Aketchi suggests that they still have a week or so until their deemed heist day. They said a week, because Sae is out of town, as of now, and on the first day she returns to Tokyo, she'll get the calling card. So, from his perspective, all the previous overBlot cases share a similarity: they were triggered by something. So he asks for Riddle to re-trace his steps of the day, because something doesn't add up.

So the redhead does that. He starts with the usual, but reaches the end, adding that it was just like any other day lately, until he snapped. Ann does ask if by chance he got upset over something, maybe a discussion, a mistake, something that would usually be brushed off easily. Riddle admits that he didn't think much about it, but now that he recalls, he had in the morning a call with his mother, which did make him upset for the rest of the day. It totally flew by him since just so many upsetting things happened lately that he didn't even realise that the call was actually the one who started the string.

Now Ren knows that his buddy's home situation is rather a delicate problem, so when Aketchi proposes to feed Mrs Rosehearts's name to the metanav, Ren intervenes and tells that they will all take action if Riddle deems it fit. This is something very personal and as such, the latter gets to call the shots.

Riddle decides that he has to finally address the flags he kept ignoring. He knew from a long time that something was wrong with his mother. Ren did help him see that. So he hopes to clear everything up one way or another. And if this is the fastest option, so be it.

Still, it came as a heavy hit for Riddle when the metanav confirmed that, indeed, Mrs Rosehearts had a palace. Unfortunately, his hunch was right and Riddle didn't miss a beat on the other words needed for the navigation process.

The group is meet with porcelain towers, over which are engraved different words/scripts, flailing with their colorful velvety flags. They seemed to represent things like 'honesty', 'loyalty', 'kindness', 'wisdom' and the middle one, the tallest, being 'obedience'. The treasure itself was visible from afar, sitting in the place of the top flag of the obedience tower. The towers were way too apart to grapple hook from one another and neither did they have walk-ways or anything interconnecting them at first glance, protected by gigantic spiky walls. Still, they didn't stay much and returned immediately back.

Ren asks again what shall be the call. Riddle stays a bit to think about it, before he demands that the rest of the team take no action regarding this one. Their most pressing issue is the casino heist right now. So everyone leaves it on a heavy note.

Ren tho, wants to have a heart-to-heart with the redhead, asking on why he doesn't want to change his mother's heart. Riddle explains that his mother is a well-respected doctor. It's clear that if her heart gets changed, not only his own living conditions will be revealed to the world, but no doubt suspicious medical records or less than innocent acts could also come to light. He says he fears for the consequences.

Ren tho, begs to different and says that maybe Riddle isn't afraid of the consequences of his mother, rather he fears what he'll discover inside. He offers to assist Riddle in exploring the place itself, promising that they will not change the woman's heart at all.

Riddle tho, admits that if they are going to do this mission together, he wants someone else to tag along too.

As such, one could see the next day the redhead going to Octavinelle. It was a surprise to see him asking for Floyd's presence, not that the latter wouldn't give it in a heartbeat. Floyd was very eager to find out what does goldfishie need so bad out of him. Riddle himself brings up that he wants Floyd to live up to his attendant duty and assist him in a palace.

And while the latter firstly brings up how Jade or Azul would've said a flat no, he wasn't them. And he was still absolved of his position until further action is taken. Clearly he points out what Riddle would even benefit from his presence in there. The redhead does admit that he has little to benefit, but he doesn't doubt that, as an attendant, Floyd would bring on the table something no other persona user could.

Floyd's response still stays yes, although he almost hesitated when he heard a big condition was to not tell anyone about it. Nor Azul or Jade. Still, the answer was yes and that's what truly mattered for Riddle.

Watch Ren's surprise to finally meeting another attendant that wasn't a smol child set on beating him up. We'll... Scrap that, Floyd was tall af compared to the twin wardens. So in his mind, he concluded that if u are tall, you get a shortie attendant, but if u are short, you get a tall attendant. Ah yes... The math is mathing.

Still, Floyd was the same old loose cannon. He had a glossary of personas, able to summon only the ones that Riddle discovered up until now. You could say he was a pelicular flavour of wild card.

Still, first 2 times it was more of sneaking around, seeing the place itself. It was disturbing at best how much everything was in order, nothing amiss, not even a beat or step of a shadow.

A noticeable thing was that Ren also had to drag off the twin wardens to see places they demand to see. So Riddle found it fit to tag along with Floyd as to entertain the guy for a bit and give Riddle peace with the whole 'goldfishie' teasing. One pelicular thing was that Floyd didn't recognise Justine and Caroline, but the 2 knew Floyd as 'Tragedy' and were aware that Floyd had a twin.

Then, you have VDC day. The day that, despite Riddle's initial pesimism, it went well at first. Only some early morning work before the meeting hour. The rest of PTs arrived at the established hour, and St first it was sunshine and rainbows. Going around stalls, talking with each other and having a great time together.

Although, Riddle did passively mention that NRC's VDC representatives are led by Vil Schonenheit, a famous actor and model. The name rings a bell for Makoto, who remembers that while they went in mementos without Joker or Rose, they encountered a shadow of someone named Vil Schonenheit.

-Joker and Rose were investigating the Mrs Rosehearts palace at that time, so the others were allowed to venture through the weaker levels of mementos.

This puts a question mark for Riddle, since Vil didn't overBlot, nor anyone said that he had any change in behaviour. Even the VDC started like normally. Thankfully Riddle managed to smuggle in the rest of the group in order for them to see the performances. Ofc, a vote went to NRC.

Yet RSA still won. Goddamnit Rook. :'3

Everything seemed way too fine. Still they had time until Sae turns back, so the rest of the day was spent goofing around a bit.

At night tho, the 2 wildcards and the attendant are wrapping up their exploration progress. The palace was so in order that it was shockingly easy to reach the treasure, while still seeing every nook and cranny of it. Indeed, as Riddle predicted, faulty medical records, decease notes, organs files, important documents and other medical illegalities were represented towards the bottoms of the towers, where one would find the underground tunnels meant to connect the towers one by one.

Except that in the obedience tower it was someone meant to be kept there: Mrs Rosehearts's cognitive Riddle. A puppet made out of porcelain, just like the towers, representing that just like this palace, Riddle was a product of work in his mother's eyes. The only things truly noticeable were the cracks through which roses would grow out and the strings that were attached to the ceiling, moving via a complicated mechanism over how it was dictated. Some were broken and thus the puppet was left discarded, in a corner of the room, hoped to never be noticed again.

Riddle knew well enough that Crowley had to inform his mother about the overBlot. Clearly she didn't outright tell him, but in her mind, already the redhead was a failure, a defective puppet. The puppet himself seemed to perk at the newcomers and as such he wanted to challenge them, for they aren't allowed to go further.

Rose demanded that this will be a battle in between him and... Well... Himself. So Joker and Floyd will stay on the sidelines as the 2 engaged in battle. Despite the puppet's best efforts, Rose still won and held the cognitive Riddle at rapier's point. He hesitated, which made the puppet mad and demand on why is he spared, why is Rose so weak that he cannot finish a given job.

Rose responds that, fortunately, he learned his wrongs and whatever his mother sees in him as 'obedient' and 'loyal', was truly something that died long ago. Because of this, now the cognitive Riddle is discarded and not wanted anymore. Because he disobeyed. And now is not worth to try and fix anything. The damage already was done and for once, it was a necessary evil.

So he cuts the puppet's head off, making it to shatter in a pile of shards and wilted flowers, who disappeared slowly. Joker does ask if they should go forward, but Riddle says that it's enough. That they won't return here at all. He got what he wanted and there's no more reason to go forward.

Floyd does ask why he is so prompt on not changing his mother's heart. The reply is simple: despite everything, Riddle still loves his mother. And if he makes the change of heart, he'll basically condamn her to jail, to a humiliating punishment. And he he only wants her to at least live in peace. It is no doubt that her actions will catch up with her at one point, but Riddle would rather first cut all the necessary strings in the real life before the punishment will befall her.

And even if he loves her, this was truly a more cruel punishment than simply changing her heart.

So this palace is left alone, to exist on its own and wait until it will destroy itself.

Except that shit cannot be easy at all, because the very next day, Riddle had a club meeting when they get busted by Charons. Despite putting his best fight with magic, the redhead is put down anyway, not after scorching a good chunk of the sports field. :'3

Oh, the other overBlot victims are here, which for some reason has Vil. Riddle asks what happened with Vil, to which the latter responds that he overBlotted, as a consequence of his actions. Not much detail it is given, nor Riddle pushes for more.

-At the end of chapter 5, everyone agreed to keep the overBlot a secret, as Malleus fixed the stage as well.

We are seeing Idia again! Not really the best place to meet your high-school aquitance, but anyway. :'D

Ortho was very happy for the fact that the others are here and they can play video-games together and hang out. Idia explains that they are here only for a few tests, so it won't take long until they'll be back to NRC like nothing happened.

Despite expectations, Idia allows for the others to have their phones, but they didn't have any signal, nor Internet access. Any photo/recording attempt was shut down immediately, rendering these things as absolutely useless.

What was not useless tho, was the metanav. Riddle discovered that since the thing worked with no problem. Neither his messages with the PTs were affected. He could still send them like normal. So it was no surprise that the others were shook at the news that their 2nd wildcard was in the magic FBI rn. :'D

Still, Riddle managed to look over the palaces history. Leona and Jamil still holded their decaying palaces, while Azul and Vil had no more mementos locations, nor a palace.

So with a wild thought, Riddle puts in Idia's name. The guy was pretty apathetic and despite his shy Demandour, he was snarky and mean when provoked. Add to that his high position in STIX.

It's not a hit.

So Riddle puts instead Ortho's name, not expecting much from a robot.

It's a fucking hit. And not just any simple one, but am entire palace.

Of course, Riddle has a hard time guessing what Ortho's distortions would really be. He guessed right that the latter has the entire world as part of his cognition. But what was surprising was that it was distorted as a torture room. He never expected for the kind robot boy who is so happy and cheerful every day to see the world as a horrible place meant for suffering.

Of course, Riddle had a few hours to himself as the results are rounding up post the VR tests. Those were literally the only tests done. As such, Riddle took the liberty to wonder through that palace.

He finds the ruins. A former shell of what it was supposed to be, depicted as a grueling place, where many lost their lives and lie there as decaying corpses. There wasn't any putrid smell, rather it was smelling like Sea-breeze.

This was a sign of overBlot, but something didn't add up at all.

Cue going back to the real world, just as alarms were blaring. This put Riddle on the spot as he firstly found the emergency door and opened it via magic. He did summon his magic pen insanely easy, so changing in his dorm uniform, Riddle got out on the main hall.

Which had him immediately bump into Idia. And not just any bump, the 2 barreled into each other. Of course, Riddle was ready to pin the latter to the ground and almost stab his staff into him, but then he noticed that Idia didn't wear his STIX attire, rather something more similar to his usual school uniform, with a few differences: the hoodie was fully opened and on the left leg it was a holster for a silver revolver. Idia also noticed the redhead holding his phone with the metanav still opened.

Pretty much is that spiderman pointing meme.

Idia insists that he has no time to waste, but Riddle says that he needs to come with him and find the others. Something is going on in the tartarus and currently, the 2 had vastly different priorities.

But, those get put aside when hacked Charons find them and are ready to blast these 2 off. Riddle wanted to use magic, but Idia is more faster in pulling out the gun itself. The redhead expected for Idia to shoot in the Charons, which wasn't that much of a smart move.

Watch his utter horror when Idia puts the said gun to his own temple and shoots with 0 hesitation. Instead of blood, it is heard a glass shattering sound as there is a boom of light and blue flames, before Riddle could clearly see a persona, in real life, which Idia used to put the Charons in their place.

It goes more like:

Idia: look... I know it's wierd, but you'll 100% forget it, so just roll with it for no- Riddle: YOU HAVE A PERSONA?! Idia: Yeah yeah... Detai-... wait... HOW TF DO YOU KNOW ABOUT PERSONAS?!

Screaming 101 with these 2 doofuses. :'3

Still, Riddle insists that they have to find the others, but Idia refutals that it's no doubt futile. Still, while they argue, the others find them, including the group led by the French he-man. Yay! Everyone's in here! :'3

So they bust in the main command room, dragging Idia by the scruff to also follow. Naturally, the whole situation is presented and so everyone has to split up. Idia additionally went with Azul and Riddle.

Upon entering the Tartarus, Riddle immediately was turned into his thief attire, sign that he stepped into a cognitive world. He's so fricking confused and Idia is also losing his shit about it.

Azul's all like: you 2 are done screaming or I'm gonna miss my appointment at 17 too?

The latter clears it up for the 2: they are both wildcards, but they hail from different sources of will. Riddle's persona was manifested because of his rebellion spirit awakened, while Idia hailed from the lineage of death itself, his will manifested as the embrace of inevitable end. As for Azul himself, he's simply an attendant of a 3rd wildcard.

Clearly, Idia and Riddle lose their shit at this new information, but Azul says that mayhaps they should mind their current business, prevent the gate of the underworld from being yanked open and allowing Ortho to crawl out. Riddle, naturally, is very confused, to which Idia explains that the Shroud's curse is a sign of godhood. Except that this godhood is limited by the mortality itself and the sacred duty of guarding the underworld. Ortho was lost long ago to the tartarus, thus his godhood coming in full swing and hence by the real Ortho breaking out without anymore mortality chaining him down, it brings out only calamity. As such, Idia had no other choice but to accept his status as a wildcard and give his own godhood in order to seal his younger brother away. This was the backstory behind Idia building Robo-Ortho, as a way to cope with everything.

Azul, unlike Floyd, doesn't summon any persona, nor shows how his attendant self looks like. He keeps it 'humble' and insists to not give it too much thought about it.

Cue going down and finally facing the true Ortho. The other 2 teams already did do their damage, so it was time for the last 3. Idia had to summon his best persona he had: Hades, which paired with the thunder spear, was enough to knock off Ortho back into the underworld.

Except that he also dragged the robot body and Grim down, which Idia couldn't allow. So you guessed it, the leap of faith. :3

Vil saves them tho. Idia managed to grab Grim, initially saying that he confused him for Ortho. The reason he did that was because grim coughed out Ortho's memory card, which is what Idia felt as his brother.

But old man Vil! Old man Vil! :D

Returning back to NRC, Malleus does one thing right and returns Vil's youth. Lilia was also there, mostly to supervise Malleus, yet he still gave a greeting to Azul, who responded as well before he was bodyslammed by the twins.

For Riddle tho, in a few days, he had to help with the casino heist. Immediately that one goes in the gutter as they are forced to split up and Joker is caught by the police.

But despite that, Riddle still made a slip for 2 days, staying overnight and helping Sojiro with the cafe, while he and Sae got back Ren, via a switcheroo. Get bamboozled, Aketchi. :3

-Post Futaba's palace, Sojiro was made aware of the phanthom thief business along with Riddle's presence and the magic :'3

So the group's new target? Shido! Riddle recognises the name as the name of the man Ren said he got him on probation in the first place, so clearly this makes things personal now.

Usually, the leadership decisions were taken in between Riddle and Ren, but since now it was personal, Ren had full leadership role now.

So they don't waste time. March was just around the corner and so they didn't have much time until the ballout counts will commence. So there was little one could do in this situation. They had a tight deadline and they had to cater to it.

Despite initial expectations, Idia returns after a week, with the brand new Ortho. It seems like, finally, Idia chained Ortho's godhood and real self in the robot body, thus returning his 'mortality' and allowing him to roam the world freely. With that, Idia also offered to repay Riddle for his immense help. And as a fellow wildcard, Idia accepted to join in the Shido operation.

Everyone else in the PTs are losing their shit when they see just how Idia summons his personas. No badass outfit and straight up giving people heart attacks. :'D

Idia and Futaba are now friends tho. :D

Despite expectations, when hanging out in Tokyo, Idia was pretty used to Japanese culture and used a charm to hide his flaming hair and blue lips. When asked about it, Idia admits that it's not his first time in Japan. Although he initially was on Tatsumi Port Island when he was around 8 to 9. That was the time when he sealed originally his brother. And forfeit his godhood for the greater good.

He explains that gods are chained down by the mortality or the cognitive nihilism as a way to prevent them from bringing calamity. The real world would crumble apart along the cognitive world if a god were to fully roam around the normal people, for it couldn't stand an imense power without reprecausions.

Still, the Shido palace has us facing Aketchi again and finally seeing his true look and his real persona: Loki. There's little to do against the cannon so I guess we say bye-bye to the sketchy detective. :v

For the calling card, Idia aided Futaba in hacking on with the video and everything. He wasn't a tech genius for nothing, so finally meeting his match in programming is smth that gets both Idia and Futaba really fired up. Plus they both like animes and can bond over the burden of social anxiety.

So the day of the big heist comes. Shadow Shido is not smth to play around with and everyone realises it when the shadow sees Joker as the deemed leader, so he separates him from the others and takes him on a 1 vs 1.

Joker ofc wins and they have to make a run for it. They think Skull bit the dust, but nah, he's alive! So all is well. :D

Except that once Shido does confess, nothing really changed in the public's opinion. They still wanted Shido to be prime-minister, but with the guy dipping out, clearly it was chaos in the political world.

Meanwhile, back in NRC, Lilia announces his sudden retirement. With things getting so messy back in Tokyo, Riddle didn't pay so much mind to it. Idia did do his part and filled him up on the necessary points, including the bigass farewell party.

So that's going to gutter when Malleus goes delulu and overblots, trapping everyone in their dream worlds. Unfortunately, for Riddle, he finds himself in the Velvet room. Except that Jade wasn't here, but Floyd. The latter admits that he summoned Riddle here as to avoid him falling victim to Malleus's unique magic and get wrapped in a fantasy.

Riddle does ask what is he supposed to do now. He needs to reach Ren somehow, he needs to fight the overBlot and get it over with, but he's bound to this damn chair and Floyd cannot do anything about it.

The latter admits to it, but also adds that these bindings were set for him by a fake god, who wanted ultimate control. And it all dials back to the first wildcard who defied fate: Idia.

Idia's attendant is Jade, the supposed macabre Comedy that Idia has to deal with. With Ortho falling into tartarus and thus being freed from his mortality, Idia had to forfeit his godhood. But that wasn't the entire story. Idia worked with Igor, the master of the velvet room. An entity that lives in between dream and reality. It was a loophole where gods could retreat and live peacefully, yet in solitude. Clearly, not a lot of deities liked the idea, so they either confined themselves by mortality, roaming among normal people or went into the cognitive world, seeking to have their control in there.

One such instance was a rogue entity that created the TV world. Azul was the interlude in between comedy and tragedy, as such he was the deemed attendant for that wild card: Lilia. Being such an old wildcard, Azul had time to shine as an attendant, as such, Igor deemed him to take over the twisted wonderland's velvet room. As powerful as Igor was, he knew that when it came Floyd's turn, there was going to be a tragedy. And it truly did when the fake God of control proposed a game, locking away Igor and denying Azul's soul from entering the velvet room. Jade was forcefully put to be an attendant, as such Floyd had access inside only when Riddle would start to crack from his expected evolution. As such, when tragedy truly struck Riddle, Floyd was able to freely go in and out of the velvet room, releasing his twin from his forced place as an attendant.

-Azul used the contracts to cover his soul with multiple ones as to try and by-pass the said ban condition

The magicless world was meant to have same fates as twisted wonderland. It was a reflection of fates and circumstances that was broken with Idia, maintained by Lilia and now it was Riddle's turn to either maintain the streak or do something else. And Floyd advises that he wants to see what Riddle truly thinks of this binds for now.

And Riddle, trying to break out of his seat, he manages to rip off the ribbons. They still left some nasty marks, but Riddle was free and he felt liberated. Still, he has to warn Ren about it, so he demands for Floyd to lead him up to Ren's velvet room.

The latter says that he currently cannot do this. Something is blocking him. The best he could do is reunite with his twin and Azul and get free from Malleus's dream spell before doing something more rash.

Meanwhile, with Idia and Ortho managing to find Silver and Co after promptly getting trauma dump by the war, Azul also manges to find the group, snapping Lilia out of it (via roundhouse slapping the Mcshit out of him).

-the dream version of Lilia was the general Lilia, henceforth he had to be shook awake from this.

We also finally see Azul's attendant look for the first time. He was more or so resembling some pirate mixed with mafia aesthetics if one wants to pinpoint. But maybe it's because of the frilly blouse. Unlike the twins's hetercromia, which allowed for 1 gold eye, he kept his blue eyes, them changing to gold whenever he summoned a persona or got extremely mad.

So we get to fight Malleus via different dream planes thanks to Silver's Unique magic! :D

Still, once Malleus was snapped out of it, there was one problem: back in the real world, Riddle still was in his thief attire, sign that something was wrong. Lilia admits that he never saw such thing, but Idia says it's akin to the dark hour, which wasn't supposed to happen. The dark hour was abolished, thus separating the cognitive and real planes for good.

Riddle concludes that he needs to go to Tokyo ASAP. But Grim ate Malleus's blot stone and went ravenous, into a gigantic beast.

So Idia and Lilia reassure that they could handle this. Riddle should go and hunt down that pesky god of control that made this mess of their worlds. And for their sake, to beat it up extra hard. >:3

Azul is the one that opens the velvet room prison door, telling Floyd to go as well and tell Igor that he did everything in his power to stop this. The latter doesn't want to go, but Jade and Azul insist that Floyd pulls to the end with his job as an attendant. This is what all of their siblings want.

Idia be all like 'wait you 3 are ACTUAL SIBLINGS?!' Sure... That's what's bothering u rn?

Nonetheless, thankfully Riddle comes into the prison at the time the fake Igor already left and Ren fused the twins into Lavenza. Now that's someone that Floyd recognised as 'his youngest sister'. Lavenza was also happy to be back, yet the threat of the false god hung over everyone's necks right now. Now free in Ren's world, it made the metaverse and the real world to crash into one another. Riddle confirms it by saying that in his world, already this is happening as well. Idia and Lilia are taking care of the overBlot Grim that is causing havoc.

So with finding all of PTs and roaming the new reality/palace of masses, we get to fight the false God.

Now, for the grand finale, imagine a double awakening. Both Arsene and judgement queen evolve into Satanel and Chernaborg respectively, ending with 2 bullets shot. One is through the false God's head, while the other goes through the chest, both killing it and making it to desintegrate as everything crumbles back to normal.

The Aftermath consists of Yuu coming back to their world as the false god originated from twisted wonderland thus by swapping places with Yuu, it allowed for them to defy fate and tip it in their favor of starting that ruin chain. Grim was merely created as a product of that magic exchanged as Idia explained later.

Speaking of Idia, he doesn't have many plans for his 4th year, but he said that Ortho kept insisting to visit around, so he guesses he'll comply to the wish and maybe travel in between his internship and work.

Lilia is still retiring, although he said he'll just go to his favorite town, Inaba, and live in there quietly. He promises he'll visit the Briar Valley from time to time tho. At least Malleus, Sebek and Silver get reassured that in the end it will be alright.

For our Octa trio, the 3 still have to finish their given lives in here before they will fully go back to the velvet room. Doesn't mean they won't stay over at their other siblings more often than not.

As for Riddle and Ren? Well, Ren was bailed out of juvi and will go back to his hometown. And Riddle is settling himself to move out on his own and simply cut ties with his mother for good. Now the 2 do visit each other, via the shells of the palaces that had their rulers ob irl. Those are pieces of metaverse that cannot dissappear and thus are their gateway in between the 2 worlds. Still sometimes the 2 also plan to visit Tokyo and see their friends too.

In the end, everyone was free!

And that's it! :D

It was fun to make a plot line where you don't only include a different take on the usual elements you keep using, but also add sprinkles of lore that tie in much more stories and hint at the other persona games.

Other than that, I'm pretty proud of how everything flowed out.

And a smol tag of @grandstrangerwhispers ! Thanks for permission to use your ask idea for this! Hope you enjoyed this extremely long trainwreck. :'3

Welp! Until next time! Buh bye!

[neoncat666]

extremely long shadows over welde character analysis post

by extremely long i mean its fucking 3k words cause I go too silly.

Spoilers up to ep 8 and its mostly rambles so apolocheese. I also posted this on my twitter so if u saw it there here's an actual text version LOL

Argentum:

Oh my god. You are soooo…… First of all, in the story we’ve gotten this. Argentum is a strong headed, curious person who is a bit stubborn and holds themself at a bit of a graceful appearance on the outside. They are smart, witty, but also a bit of a temper especially when it comes to frankly a little stupid ideas. They are also kind and care for others. We were shown from the beginning that they enjoy their work and meeting fans and even with people they just met are willing to help them stay safe. Also they’re a little dumb. Sometimes curiosity overrides rational thinking and that was shown when they touched the weird fucking webbing in the cave and also that ENTIRE plan when there was the confrontation between Vhaeraun and Lolth which was fucking actually crazy. This isn’t even beginning to talk about the head friend. I am constantly thinking about that voice and who that could be. Brings us speculation around them. Argentum is not human, or at least fully human. Their eyes are def not human and Hayden is a silly lil guy who would pull a trick like that. There was one speculation on them possibly being a Kalashtar and I think it could fit but honestly for now it hasn’t been on my forefront. I also bought the inscriptor class finally and was looking at how possibly they were built. What stats what subclass ect. I don’t fucking know.. Now you might be asking “Hey why don’t you just ask?” CAUSE IM SCARED. But honestly cause I wanted to see if I could figure it out myself lmao. It boiled down to either Mystery or Historian subclass is what Snail helped me narrow to. Could be wrong tho. There’s also little tidbits about Argentum that have come from outside the sessions like when I asked if they had a canonical birthday cause “celebrating fictional characters birthdays is cringe” “fuck you happy birthday argentum” is funny. Still honestly wanna know if any of the party has canon birthdays. I got hit with the “Oh they don’t know their own birthday.” and then swindled. There was also the discussion on Hayden’s pcs never really having parents or family and Argentum was included in that list which more or less got confirmed in session this episode (7). I still don’t know their motives, still don’t know their relationships with others because it seems everyone is connected to someone except Argentum, and I still don’t know who their patron is and if that is the same as the voice in their head. Love the silly though

Phoenix:

Fifi….. Not much was known about you until today and holy shit did it rock my world. Before we had known he was the apprentice to Ipswich and was sent in his place as guest of honor. We also then found out he was a spy working on tailing Lolth and that’s kinda all we knew about Phoenix for a bit, at least heavy lore wise. He’s a sarcastic, witty, bitch and I love him so much. I could never surpass Snail as Phoenix Enjoyer but it’s close. We learned a bit more during the nightmare drink sequence where he met his patron and got his powers fucking zapped. A couple things stood out to me from it. How his patron looked and specific wording from Phoenix. We know Ipswich isn’t mortal anymore but Phoe had said something along the lines of “I’d get my ass kicked and be right back here the next day.” He is surrounded by death or even just the undead. His patron deals in undead magic and I don’t think if Phoenix gets knocked down he wouldn’t be back again looking all fine the next day. We don’t know his patron’s name which like. Fuck. but lmao. Anyways Ipswich is tracking him like crazy and says he has this important quest although we don’t know a lot of Phoe’s thoughts and feelings on what he’s doing. To me it almost seems like he’s a tool or pawn for others and idk if I can fully call him a good person. Doing a bit of research into his pact and such it seems that he’s just going to possibly lose more and more humanity as he gets stronger but also i couldn’t tell you how much he has already. There’s also the whole cousins and throne thing that got dropped this episode. It seems his family is also involved with this whole scheme but Phoe is the favourite of the bunch. The idea that he could possibly be royalty was also thrown around and i think if he was like secret prince it would be from a large family all vying for a throne or he is working with Ipswich and others to usurp the current ruler and take the power for himself. Although knowing Fifi it’ll probably be like a secret third option. Not much except he’s so 90s movie older sister to me and the fact Ipswich runs a school for swindlers which is kinda funny.

Sunder:

Babygirl. Pookie. Love of my life who I want to kill me. God. This is now my love letter to you. I saw you across the bar and thought you were sooo scary and I’ve been enraptured ever since. Anyways that’s a freak. He’s not the most talkative and seems more lonely despite everything. They’re funny, loyal, kind, and ruthless. We didn’t get much for Sunder for a bit until mostly the shopping episode. We learned a bit through Kelly and the nightmare drink of what makes up Sunder but it didn’t really culminate until the head crushing I would say. Honestly I don’t even care I just fucking love the way Sunder is played. Like I’m sitting here trying to find words that aren’t just I think he’s neat cause I do think analyzing him is intriguing. They’re going to get angry and they’re going to get violent and you are not safe. It’s something that was so surprising at first because of how much Sunder kind of fell into the background. The nightmare drink gave us the first look at this, that Sunder had apparently killed someone, a kid even, but a lot of their violence was played off as a joke by the community, I know I did. Learned today that the person in that nightmare was Ilmater and it shows that she wasn’t lying when she said that visions and nightmares of this accident are a plague. I believe them when they say it was an accident and idk how young they were but to harbor that from a young age will fuck you up. Their morals are something that intrigues me i would say the most. No trouble in murder although I assume that’s more or less towards people who piss him off or are generally bad people. He’s kind hearted and that’s shown a lot especially with this last interaction I’d say. I still need to like rewatch a lot of parts of it but “we were just kids” genuinely fucking rocked me to my core and it got me i won’t lie. We’re still very early in but idk, I want to see Sunder truly happy and not haunted by the ghosts of their past. I feel this was most likely the first step but it’s hard to say as we go forward. I think violence and blood will always follow it’s just how they choose to take it.

The Wall:

I think now Wall is the character we know the least about, at least to me. We know his duty to Eilistraee and his duty to Zephrael and also his little foodie quirks (love him dearly) but outside of that I don’t think we know a lot. He’s the character I have the least notes for now but I do know this. He is loyal to a fault, a little dense, kind, and revels in battle and violence. I think about his nightmare and the fear of losing her and the sword then what happened to this episode. He’s had this since he was a child and then he had this dream, this trip to the beastland plane and looked Eilistraee in the eye and fought her. I believe he still loves her, cares for her, but I also think it has changed since that episode no doubt. Rewinding a bit, I think a bit about him being told he has to be pure of heart in order to wield the sword. What does pure of heart truly mean? Wall loves fighting and murder. He actively committed torture. Also he’s the bodyguard for an objectively bad man. There’s the argument of his intentions are pure although I doubt you can do a lot of what he did and have those intentions be fully pure. It’s just something I think about more than probably a normal person should teehee. Anyways the conversation he and Rae had at the beginning of this session should classify as psychological warfare cause I genuinely do not think I’m ever going to recover. I have been talking about it for weeks how they are the chosens, favored, by literal enemies and seem to have some sort of hit on them by a couple of deities now. I thought about how it might affect relationships and how Wall views them. We know he’s very loyal but I always wondered how far he would need to be pushed before that is broken. Seems like an extreme amount. His morals are probably what intrigue me the most tbh. I’d kill to know what his alignment is LMAO. Most of all I just really love the Wall because he is goofy and silly but he also isn’t a stupid brick wall that doesn’t know anything and I really enjoy seeing the times he gets to explain things. Fuck it we Wall.

Zephrael:

Okay so this will be the longest one cause I’m biased and yes Zephrael is my favourite. I always feel a little bad when it comes to that and showing that favouritism because I truly do love the entire party so much. This hit me the most when the show was just starting out and I did feel like I needed to show how much I loved each character and not just focus on Rae lol. I hope this thread can at least show that (if you even make it this far) Anyways Zephrael is a fucking freak and I love him so much. I’ve done multiple posts on him before and yeah Im gonna repeat some of it here i wont lie. Right out the gate we probably learn the most and yet the least about Rae’s past and present. He is an emissary for the reformed church of Lolth and an honored guest. He had known about Edo’s work before and talked about how it had helped with relations between the public and the reformed church. This means everything and nothing to us. But it does show that despite Rae’s… oddness, he is extremely well spoken when he wants to be and I think about that speech a lot. The next few episodes gave us some more information yet also a lot more questions. These weird pains that seem to predict disasters, the extreme phobia of spiders despite being a paladin of Lolth, and his both egotistical yet self deprecating attitude. It was fascinating to watch him because he clashed but never in a way that made him irredeemable and I’ll go more into that at the end section. A few early things I thought about a lot before the catalyst that was the nightmare drink were who the reformed church was, where did Zephrael come from, why was he chosen as this ambassador, and why he didn’t know undercommon but knew abyssal. These are still questions I have to this day LMAO. The nightmare drink vision I possibly overanalyze the most next to Phoenix’s. It stood out due to the fact that it wasn’t, bad. Rae could see again, he saw his father and best friends again, he got told he was going to learn the truth again. Why was this considered a bad thing? Everyone else experienced horrors and regrets yet Zephrael got sorrow. It jumpstarted the part aasimar Rae theory tho. Angel imagery Rae makes me clinically insane I won’t lie and his father having these large wings and bright white light did not help. There’s the big question of what he is and also how he joined the church. Hell, even how he feels about the church as well, truly at least. During one of the hiatuses fandom went crazy and Snail Snailmuds dropped out of nowhere that the runes on Rae’s body weren’t just random but fucking translated abyssal that said “PAIN CHAOS POWER” which first of all goes hard second of all what the fuck.

Theory crafting for Zephrael always feels like climbing uphill and also being constantly shot at cause every time something happens with that man it turns out to be a secret third thing going on oh mygod. Anyways I’ve discussed whether or not he was forced into this church, was kidnapped, born into it, ect because at the end of the day, he seems to very much be a tool or pawn for this church and/or Lolth. Also the whip being an artifact of Lolth or whatever they’re called again I forgot??? What the fuck dude. ALSO HIM SLEEPING IN BATHTUBS????? Grizzly has said this will make sense later but genuinely what the fuck there is something wrong with him. Moving on, revelation about the tattoos comes out and we get the torture episode. Well we get the holy shit they just killed those guys begining and then torture. First of all, I cheered louder than anyone else when Rae actually did fucking combat instead of running away and also the fact he can use his whip. Anyways dumb and dumber torture a guy and first of all the lay on hands to keep him alive during torture was insane and I hope to see it again in anything and it’s also where it’s learned that the tattoos on him were “forcibly engraved” which was honestly brushed off and a lot happened that I think most people forgot but I didn’t cause I’m crazy. Anyways moving on from THAT we get the typical Rae. Dodging questions when Argentum tries to interrogate him and also dunno if he’s just fuckin lying or not when he does actually answer them.

Episode 6 and 7 are where I think Rae slightly pivots. Not really noticeable but he feels a little more, close. It was also a change I noticed with the cast and I think that helped a lot of character dynamics as well. Rae’s stupid beef with Argentum was so fucking funny and I do think about him wanting to heal Sunder before himself after the Bulette because if he heals Sunder, how would that help him. Yes they’re his bodyguard but the monster is dead and it’s not like Sunder can heal him back. It was a decision that I think was the most different for Rae because he was shown to care deeply for Wall but not so much the others as much. He still doesn’t care for the others as much as he does The Wall but I do think he has grown a fondness or care for the others whether he wants to or not. And thats the thing, I could not tell you if he does actually wanna care for them or not. Yes they are allies and help but he seems to try and keep things at a transactional level or how much power it may bring him. He still does but like his dynamic with Argentum seems closer cause the antagonizing feels more like siblings getting on each other’s nerves rather than a growing distance. I think Sunder also displaying that brutality may have put him more into Rae’s good books too. Anyways he read a fucking book huge day. Now he has even worse mommy issues. Ep 7 killed me with hammers but that was spoken about. His relationship with Wall is something that fascinates me though. Rae is selfish, it’s not hidden at all, yet he does seem to care deeply for Wall and almost defends him more than he would defend himself. It’s nice to see for this bodyguard and his charge dynamic but ep 7 spread some light on it and I do think their bond will outlive the will of the Gods but what do I know, I’m not anyone at that table. Zephrael is rude, odd, egotistical but also masochistic and does care deeply when he wants to and you don’t see that kind of character as much I wanna say. He’s my favourite cause his weird gnc swag enraptured me thats all he is post over.

Not actually over cause there’s one last thing. These characters would not be these characters without the wonderful players behind them. Each episode brings out better and better performances that have me actually going crazy over them. I genuinely wouldve had nothing to write about if it weren’t for the fact everyone brings so much life into these characters and loves them so much that they feel so fucking real. They don’t feel flat or simple but very nuanced characters that I love to study and even be wrong about (i actually hate being wrong and every time im wrong i get so ashamed) but Argentum’s flourishes and talks to get out of situations, Phoenix’s wit and holy shit that dread form voice, Sunder during the market fight and then the softer scene with Varic, Wall’s humor and even talking about the more serious stuff, and Zephrael’s ability to balance harshness and endearing at the same time. That’s Hayden, Leizu, Juzo, Ben, and Grizzly and I genuinely cannot fucking talk about the performances enough. I’ve thought about making a post just about it but I fear I just wouldn’t be able to articulate what I wanna say enough. Then obviously it wouldn’t even be possible without the fucking amazing world building and npcs Jonah has provided. Everything is so immersive and I find myself caring for each and every npc we meet whether caring for their safety or caring too much cause I dislike them. Every npc sticks with me and I grow so attached so quickly because they feel so real in this world that also feels so fucking real. It feels like we are just peeking into another world and I actually can’t multitask when watching sow cause I get too sucked in. It’s really hard to do that and I talk about it a lot but never really publicly so I thought I would here.

Anyways for real this time post over, this ended up way longer than I thought it was gonna be so ur a real one if you read this all the way through lol. I’m off to go think about sow merch again as I wait for permission and stuff cause im crazy. See ya later

[lovelyladylavie]

Background character sketches for "My Brother’s Child", a fic I've been writing for about a year. It is E-rated for s*x and graphic vio lence, but it's also full of Rise-style fluff, family moments, and humor. But I'm adding a T-rated version soon, and when I do, I'll drop the link.

The fic is generally about the different stages of love and loss the adult turtles go through during the apocalyptic future in the Rise Movie, and how things change over the course of the years until Time Travel Day. The fic is canon compliant, so all the losses suffered in the movie are, in fact, in the fic, or will be soon.

So i needed some background characters that can create situations for the turtles to navigate. Expendables, if you will.

This is the Mad Dogs Hockey Team (and a few others). They're Raph and Cass' scavenger squad full of ultra-strong weirdos. All their weapons and armor were made by Donnie during a fit of unbridled inspiration.

But anyway, in case you can't read my chicken scratch (from left to right) under the cut:

Denzlo:

-Stinky Boy

-Doesn't shower much to conserve water

-Fiercely Loyal to Raph and Cass

-Incredibly kind, but has a short fuse

Evans:

-Out of the Box Thinker

-Tall and Buff (gotta stay fit in the apocalypse)

-Smartass

-loves his wife, Spice

(Not on here, but recent lore drop in the fic, Evans was training to be a radiologist, so he's the group's de facto medic. He also loves stealing dried herbs/spices during scavenges to spice up he and his wife's rations)

Spice:

-Soft spoken and stealthy

-uses Donnie-Tech camo cloak

-high kraang kill-count

-loves her husband (they dance together at bad times)

-was a law student

Pietro:

-Angry at everything, was scared of mutants (still kinda is.)

-has two kids (Trish and Tai)

-unpleasant person in general

Quinn:

-Short Queen, sweetheart

-Used to be a mortician

-Goth, from Jersey

-Took care of Raphael’s body

Maya:

-A bit self-centered, brutal, sadistic

-likes cute things

-likes Mikey

-uh oh

The honorable Rabbi Venkman (Not a member of the Hockey Team, but one of Mikey’s 'Light-Steppers', the mystic warrior squad he teaches):

-handles all religious crises in the rebellion base

-Thinks the world of Mikey, learned mystic arts from him

-very tall and soft spoken

-very moral and fair, if a lil sassy

Delia Vardanyan (civilian):

-In charge of the war's orphans, takes care of all children on base when their parents are busy, in charge of their general education.

-HATES Donnie (likes his brothers, though?)

- Armenian immigrant. survivor of the original kraang attack. Very loud/outspoken. They found her eating MREs in a turned over battleship in the harbor.

-Trusts. NO. One. (Sleeps a lot)

Yuri:

-Was a tourist/exchange student in NYU from Sweden

-Struggles with English and has a very heavy accent

-Maya is his bestie by default bc she speaks fluent Swedish and was the only one who could understand him when the world flipped upside down. His English has gotten better over the years, but he still needs her.

-Speedy in battles. Will share his rations. Bit of an appreciator of the finer things in life, like wine.

-Maya and Yuri have both slept with Mikey. Mikey is quite a Casanova in the resistance due to his mystic mystique. (That... might change once he starts aging more rapidly, however...)

There's another page of characters, but it contains spoilers, so im gonna have to correct that before i show it.

[simpfiles]

Sweet Paprika

a sexually repressed workaholic business woman enlists the services of the office’s fuqboi to help her be comfortable/confident enough sexually to seduce the man of her dreams. despite being only 12 issues the plot is jam packed with all the typical hallmark tropes but with a pg-13 rating (for the american release) and characters that hold more depth than expected.

the series is shockingly vanilla for a comic about devils and angels, which serves more for aesthetics and puns than lore or plot purposes. but there are two possible trigger warnings to be cautious about and that’s the initial slut shaming that’s prevalent through the first six issues and an emotionally manipulative ex.

the art is beautiful and stylized in a colorful cartoonish way that doesn’t take itself too seriously. it’s a shame that half of pages are over saturated by text that go to great lengths of spoon feeding the reader exposition. while the ending does resolve itself rather quickly, the journey was a fun ride. if you’re looking for a feel good comic with a happy ending then look no further. i laughed, i cried, i gave it a 4 out of 5 stars and put the spoilers part of my review below a read more.

i will come right out and admit my bias for this comic is deeply rooted in the fact that found myself projecting on to so many elements of this story it was insane. paprika’s relationship with sex, dill’s relationship with his father, anisette desire for recognition, even paprika’s trash ex, burnet, it was like mirka cherry picked aspects of my life and rewrote it into a romcom.

but aside from that, i really enjoyed how all the characters in the series whether protag or antag were given a chance to be more than just their archetype. no one is inherently all “good” or “bad” or too far beyond redemption (even brunet >:I) and speaking of characters i just want to gush over a few of the main players.

paprika. sweet sweet paprika. i love her so much. as far as romcom heroines go, she’s not as intolerantly volatile as some of the hallmark ones. i appreciate that she tries clear up misconceptions through actually talking to the other person and actually admits when she’s in the wrong (something that seems to be an impossible task for most  hallmark heroines). her need to always clarify “petting included” is also a lil fun gag.

dill. need me a dill pickle sandwich amirite?? [[BRICKED]] i shouldn’t like this man as much as i do. he has all the makings of a typical fuqboi manchild and yet his desire to be “good” and pathetic allure has me captivated. also his communicate skills are next level. he stands talls where all other romcom heroes fail and i respect him so much for that + cute doggie uwu

za’atar. look, i don’t love him but i get it. he has a nasty temper, and a perfect mixture of possessive but still respectful. i like the contrast between his romantic life vs work vs the version that paprika has made up in her head of him.it’s very multifaceted. and i LOVE how nervous in bed he is. it’s not that he’s inexperienced but gosh, what a loser. i am once again captivated.

burnet. hate him. wish he had a worst fate.

anisette. bby girl bby girl. ty mirka so much for making more complex than the Bitch(TM). she’s still an archetype but a good one. i wish her nothing but love and happiness. i enjoy that she brings out a different side of za’atar and was able to be with him without being the “second” choice.

like i said, the ending was way too rushed bu this is one series where i’m glad everyone gets a happy ending (expect for burnet. die) and that’s a testament to just how great the characters are.

[fire-lizard-ro]

HSR Theories pt. 1

This post is more for me than anything else.

Because I need to write these down so I can keep track of my current theories.

I'm SUPER into HSR theory crafting and lore.

So if you are also into that, then have a peek at this, I suppose. Fair warning- It's going to be a bit all over the place.

I'll be adding stuff later, because I don't have the energy to right now.

Theories under the cut for spoilers. Like- MAJOR spoilers.

Blade, Dan Heng, and Jing Yuan

So these are theories I've had for weeks, now. And I was correct about Blade being immortal and seeking his own end, so that's already a win.

From what I understand, Blade, Dan Heng, Jing Yuan, and Jingliu are four of the five members of the High-Cloud Quintet.

All four of them wear a red ribbon. Likely to symbolize the bond they once shared. Jing Yuan's is in his hair. Dan Heng's is on his spear, Cloud Piercer. Jingliu and Blade's are on the back of their clothes. I wonder if those two share the spot they put their ribbons for a reason...

It's somewhat sad, because just like in Jing Yuan's voiceline "About Self" he and the rest of the High-Cloud Quintet all walk very different paths now. "My past enemies are either dead or captured, and my past friends are scattered to the winds..." Jing Yuan is an Arbiter-General of the Xianzhou Alliance who must uphold his duty, Blade is a Stellaron Hunter who is wanted dead or alive by the IPC, and Dan Heng is running from a past he doesn’t remember as a Nameless of the Astral Express. Jingliu is... well? She's alive, as we've seen in Yanqing's companion mission. But we aren't really sure what she's been doing all this time or how she's alive. Just that she's looking for the man who now calls himself "Blade".

I'm almost certain that the three people that Blade talks about is Jingliu, Dan Heng, and himself. Jing Yuan is not one of the choices since Blade has already said himself that "you are not one of them, Jing Yuan." Since Blade, Jing Yuan, Jingliu, Dan Heng, and one other person are all part of the High-Cloud Quintet... Of five people, three must pay the price. The Quintet is a group of five people who were all connected.... quintet, literally meaning five.... It makes a lil too much sense to me... And since Blade is seeking his own end, it makes it more of a possibility.

Also- About five star Dan Heng/Vidyadhara Dan Heng... We already know he's Imbibitor Lunae. Now about the sedition of Imbibitor Lunae. I'm almost certain that Blade's immortality has something to do with Dan Heng.

I think that's why Dan Heng was banished from the Xianzhou Alliance. Something to do with breaking a law among the Vidyadhara that has to do with the mara struck, perhaps. Because in the 1.2 livestream, they confirmed that Blade has mara in him and that it flares up and Kafka is able to use her ability to keep it at bay.

Remember that one of the quest NPCs we see a lot for Luofu quests said that the Vidyadhara have different rules than them. But Imbibitor Lunae was the High Elder of the Vidyadhara and the Luofu. But laws and whatnot with the mara struck have to have worse consequences...

I also think that Dan Heng had a cycle of rebirth (or whatever the Vidyadhara call it) while imprisoned before being sent away. Based on some of the things he's said in the story AND based on Dan Heng's voice line "About Self: Past". "I come from an alliance, and was born on a gran and beautiful ship that I barely had the chance to see... I can never return."

"barely had the chance to see", huh?

AND in the new version trailer, we hear Jing Yuan ask, probably Dan Heng, "Has coming here triggered your memory?"

We already know that with the Vidyadhara, when they have a cycle of rebirth and return to being an egg to hatch into their new self... They no longer have the memories of the previous cycle.

"The power to turn into dragons was a rare inheritance passed down only to those who could successfully complete numerous rites. A long-lived species, Vidyadhara molt after living for centuries, repairing their bodies then hatching anew from eggs with their memories wiped. They are unable to have offspring."

Only certain Vidyadhara will have the appearance of a dragon with the horns and tail, according to what Dan Heng himself said. And they would have the chance to be the Vidyadhara High Elder, from what I remember.

For the Vidyadhara, each cycle of rebirth might as well be an entirely new life.

While they are the same person at their core, all of the memories that shaped them have been erased.

Like a slate wiped clean.

We already know he no longer has any memory of his past as Imbibitor Lunae. But I think that with Dan Heng once again obtaining his old Vidyadhara form, he'll be getting back his memories. It seemed like it in the leaks and based on what we saw in the version trailer.

That's all I can remember theorizing, but I'm sure I wrote down more elsewhere. So I'll edit this later if I remember more of what I'd thought about.

Edit 15/07/23

You know how I said that I think Dan Heng has something to do with Blade becoming immortal and it's likely also the reason he was banished from the Xianzhou Alliance? Maybe those things have something to do with the fact that the Vidyadhara are known as Long's Scions. As in Long, the Aeon of Permanence. And Dan Heng was the High Elder of the Luofu and the Vidyadhara, meaning he'd passed the trials that the Vidyadhara must pass in order to have the blessings of their kind, includnig the features of a dragon. Maybe that has something to do with Blade becoming immortal? Dan Heng being a one of the strongest beings who were descended from the Aeon of Permanence?

[nibsthoughtcorner]

The Old Ruler and The Forgotten

A Disney Dreamlight Valley Theory

POTENTIAL MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE MAIN STORY! (Also spoilers for Dazzle Beach Story Quest and Glade of Trust Story Quest)

So here’s the dealio

When I unlocked the Story Quest for Dazzle Beach, I obviously got that lil cutscene of The Forgotten going into a portal through that cave, and if you remember the cutscene, the shot was of The Forgotten’s shoe.

Now I don’t know if anyone else noticed, but I noticed that with “my” Forgotten, the shoe looked an awful lot like the sneakers my character was wearing.

And obviously if Disney was going for a unique design for The Forgotten, they wouldn’t design them wearing plain clothing.

Which leads me to believe that The Forgotten isn’t their own person, but rather a different form of The Old Ruler (aka us, which we only find out after Glade of Trust Story Quest)

So

I propose that The Forgotten is a physical manifestation of the negative/shadow side of The Old Ruler.

If you remember some of The Old Ruler’s diary entries, they start to get kinda creepy after Dazzle Beach is unlocked. You see weird purple drawings, which is the same color of the magic making up the Night Thorns, as well as the same color as The Forgotten’s apparition.

In those creepier diary entries, The Old Ruler talks about more negative emotions such as fear, longing, loneliness, and other such feelings. Which leads to the next point.

The Forgotten is the manifestation of The Old Ruler’s negative emotions and fears.

This would explain why, despite the fact that Merlin is a wise and powerful wizard, only we can get rid of Night Thorns. They’re born from a twisted version of our own magic. It’s essentially a reversal of our own spells.

It would also explain why we’re the only ones who can enter and leave the cave Ursula is trapped in. The Forgotten trapped her, and since we and The Forgotten are counterparts of each other, we serve as the exception to any spells and effects The Forgotten placed on the valley.

Now with this theory in mind, it now makes more sense as to why The Old Ruler tried to leave. The baseline logic here was likely that, since The Forgotten and The Old Ruler are connected, The Old Ruler thought that if they left Dreamlight Valley, they would, by default, take The Forgotten with them.

The problem, however, is that it seems that, if The Forgotten was more dependent on The Old Ruler prior to The Forgetting, they became much more independent by the time The Forgetting happened. This probably means that The Forgotten does indeed have its own consciousness, despite supposedly coming into being as a manifestation of negative emotion.

Now obviously, I don’t have all the information. Like, I seriously started Dreamlight Valley on Xbox, and I’m replaying it on Switch. On neither console did I ever reach The Forgotten Realm. My assumption here is that once I do, I’ll have a lot more to work with in terms of lore surrounding The Old Ruler, The Forgotten, and their connection to each other.

But for now, since on Switch I only have The Plaza, Peaceful Meadow, and Dazzle Beach, this is as far as my theory can go with the knowledge I have.

Once I unlock other regions (and subsequently more lore), I hope to revisit this theory and come up with a part 2, where I add more thoughts, proposals, and possibly tweak any assumptions I feel may have been disproven by the lore.

I hope you all enjoyed my theory and analysis on the connection between The Old Ruler and The Forgotten in Dreamlight Valley.

And hey, if you enjoyed my little theory, check out my blog for future theories and thoughts (and maybe even analyses).

Until next time,

~Nib

[jackiebrackettt]

okay so a little lore dump thing for my bitb lab au ^_^ I want to mention that this Will include spoilers (and so i’m putting it under a cut) but please note that I have no current plans to write this fic out more than what you’ve already seen - certainly not to the level where it’s a coherent story at all

however! i am kinda encouraging ppl to write their own versions of it if they want. and if anyone Does do that -> how much they stick with this bit of lore/backstory is up to them

(Tagging @alkalineleak , @kasperconvergence and @transatos bc u guys seemed interested in hearing more :] also! rbs appreciated)

anyway onto the lore:

personally I didn’t want to go too in-depth with an unethical/morally ambiguous lab but there’s elements of that that can be built on. in this au I imagine they’re not all from Galloway bc I think it’s more interesting if Rand Kian and Rolan didn’t know each other beforehand - which feels impossible if they’re all in Galloway

Kian and Becky are exes and this was known by the lab - in fact, they were explicitly seeking out interns who knew either Becky or Rolan. kian’s music career was failing like with canon and someone approached him with the job offer and he took it. the timeline on this is a lil iffy but whateva. kian didn’t know becky was one of the bug monsters until he read the brief and signed the contracts etc etc

the idea here is that the scientists are trying to figure out if previous attachment to a person carries over to the bug-ified version

becky and rolan both turned themselves in to the lab and are there of their own volition. rolan is less there for studying/to help humans and more there bc he doesn’t trust himself and is freaking out. this is why kian says that rolan is safer than becky - as much as becky didn’t want to hurt kian, she wasn’t afraid that she would until it was too late

kian is there because the forms he signed essentially worked as a “i consent to being quarantined if something goes wrong” rand has also signed these. it was Very obvious and they weren’t trying to trick them. kian is mostly just pretending that he’s doing okay and that this is just a bit inconvenient/boring -> he’s pretty freaked out to understate it

relationship-wise: kian had a bit of a relationship with both becky and rolan. both of them very much knew about the other etc etc hashtag poly win! i say “a bit of” bc it was kinda cautious/early stages for both. rolan was starting to open himself up to the idea that he’s not inherently dangerous and then the thing with Becky happened so now he’s back to square 1

now! for the major spoilery bit:

i mentioned earlier that the scientists are specifically looking for interns with connections to the bugs and also that Rand doesn’t have any connection with them. this is bc there is actually a fourth bug monster that they are keeping in the lab and this is the Queen Aka Rachel

once rand gets settled into things they’d probably introduce him to Rachel and then I imagine all hell would break loose - I never really thought too much about plot which is why I’m kinda happy to move on from this idea (also I really don’t need another longfic on my plate o(-( man..) the queen is separated from the other bugs to try and minimise her control over them. i’m also kinda thinking that maybe becky came to the lab specifically to try and get close to the Queen to help her and then kian showed up and things got complicated

real quick: relationship endgame I imagine is nbr+becky dating kian

anyway yeah ^_^ that’s everything I have -> lmk if you have any questions or if ur thinking about taking over this concept from me :]

[fantomette22]

QUICK!! LET’S TALK ABOUT YOUR FIC CAINHURST OCS SO WE CAN INVITE THEM TO ME AND BIMBOM’S OC TEA PARTY AND WATCH THEM ALL FIGHT!!

OH OK Ok !!!

So i will keep it to my main fic « OCs »because if i add the 3 version of Maria family tree or smt it’s never gonna be over 😂

Potential lil spoilers for my fic too ahah (but I didn’t put any big spoils!) Also some are complete Ocs but other are based on the portrait or even fit in the lore and could be more of an oc with a prompt /interpretation. And funny things to note but literally more than half of my bloodborne ocs are from Cainhurst 😂

Ok let’s begin with Vledemyr!

The young newest addition to the royal guard. Maria & Annalise cousin & friend, future head of the royal guard of Annalise (and one of the most powerful vileblood one day). In my notes I said he is 4y older than Maria and 1y older than Annalise. That guy is like the mvp of cainhurst. Best inhabitant of Cain after Maria probably. I already talk about him I think ( I love him so much). Ok he would do anything for Annalise yeah but Maria too. Always here to watch over her like an older brother. He’s a bit overprotective of the girls when they were young yeah. Really a great support character, the ideal knight ! He’s not annoying like the rest of the typical cainhurst nobles too. His only default is maybe to be too loyal and obey order without contradicted them. Oh and he’s the one who take care of the crows & raven of the castle. (He’s the best that’s why you need to know)

Lady Sveta/ Svetta smt (kinda place holder name)

she’s a young noble lady from Cainhurst, similar age to Annalise and a close friend of her, Vledemyr, Maria etc She’s a calm & thoughtful lady who managed to become quite influential over the years at Cainhurst despite her young age. She’s not a knight but like most aristocratic cainhurst ladies she was taught how to weld a dagger at least. (Vled taught her quite a few extra tips too!)

Charles : What can I tell about him without telling too much🤔 He’s Maria, Annalise & Vledemyr childhood friend. His family don’t live at Cainhurst anymore and he’s not a super high class noble. The executioner gloves came from his family yep. He was a students at Byrgenwerth too. He begin his course 1y before Maria (1 year older). As a kid the 2 were really the inseparable little trouble makers of Cainhurst 😂 He grew more mature since but could cause troubles if he wish XD (a bit like Laurence, when told them NO and they say YES.) Yeah he’s a lil bastard basically but I love him.

He hope one to impress the noble from Cainhurst and have an important place one day. And you know help restore the great strength Cainhurst lost over time (it’s the shadow of it’s former glory)

He could have quite a decisive role at some point…

Richard, he’s the precedent king consort of cainhurst and Annalise’s father. Poor guy, so much stuff is going on in front of his salad and he can’t do anything about it xD. Yeah he’s not really the one in charge the old ladies of their council don’t even consult him every time ;-; but he’s trying his best and dream of a day where Cainhurst would be xxx again! Of course he’s not perfect but he tried. For exemple he’s really compatissant with Maria wanting to go study far from cainhurst and travel when she’s supposed to become a royal guard. And he prepared Annalise as best as he could and preferred to take pressure on himself than on his dear daughter. Still, sometimes (bc it’s his right) he’s wearing one of the most precious tresor of cainhurst. One of the crown of illusion. Said to diccipe & create illusion in the ancient times. The 2nd crown was lost century ago far into the plumerias labyrinth and all it’s just a normal crown now. All it’s mystic power seems to have disappear long ago…

Well there’s the late queen I guess. (Don’t have a name yet sorry) she was loved by her subject and yeah typical queen too. She was actually the one to try to begin expedition to pthumerians underground again. After decades/centuries of nothing because cainhurst was to salty at the war their loose against their cousins

The ex body guard of the queen (I don’t have a name yet 😐). Will be relevant at some point… He was originally a mercenary hiring by Cainhurst to go to Loran. One of the only person who came back and they made him knight for his exploit. He even become the Queen’s personal bodyguard. He mysteriously disappeared some times after the Queen passed away…

The Royal guard captain? Or at least one of the head of the knights (when Maria was a student at Byrgenwerth). He’s an asshole. Other instructors are much sympthetic but this guy omg… you will understand when the time come. He’s really strict, almost abusive and doesn’t support when you contradict him or try to insult him to his face 😬

3 squires : future royal guards in training about Maria’s age. The 4 of them are supposed to become the next royal guards & Annalise personal guard.

(Maria is on the right & Vledemyr supervise them. It’s a meme too xD)

There’s a young woman (chikage and Evelyn) and two young men, one really strong with 2 chikages and the other one wielding a reiterpallasch and an Evelyn)

I need names too. And I can’t tell you really much more for now.

The next 3 are inspired by a song my friend made.

Twins musician : 2 of the most incredible musicians of Cainhurst. They both can play a clavecin in sync for exemple. And really fast

The master of dance/maestro : He teach the young noble how to spar & dance. And is a bit crazy really XD he often wear a knight helmet with a black suit.

Oh I almost forgot but the chiefs cook ! They come from the same country as Yamamura. If you do shit with their food or tried to cook one of their signature dishes horribly they will fight you.

Then I guess there’s Maria’s close family & other relatives ? You know her parents, the other nobles (but not really ocs more like background character you know) and her annoying grand aunts… 🤣 « But Annalise you can’t stand grand aunt Suzanne either ! »

The birds (crows mostly), horses and dogs don’t count I guess rip 💔 (I’m looking for names too. Yes they are important and relevant background characters)

I know Bloody Crow is not an OC but does baby Bloody Crow (when he was a baby/kid/teens) aka Voron count ? 🥺 No? ok. All I will say for now is that Maria is his godmother.

Ok so Leo don’t count either I guess so not for today. I don’t think his half siblings : Lupin & sister count either XD they are not noble and from Hemwick so (also in the family of my dear hunter)

There’s one last cainhurst oc I have… I think… but hm i can’t really talk about it (a lil secret kinda) I will only say that this oc was a young and sweet little girl who loved flowers and her family. She is deeply missed.

Anyway can’t wait see a hell of a typical Cainhurst duel on the table 👀 oh I mean tea party sorry x)

[persephoneflowerpetals]

One thing Hercules actually gets right is how inconsistent things are in this franchise when it comes to characters and stories at times. Just like Greek Mythology in real life.

Lol I mean true. With all these different AUs of Hercules I can believe it lmao.

I mean we have the movie universe, the series universe, The Hades Challenge universe, the Go The Distance universe, and the House of Mouse universe (not to mention other Disney based video games like Twisted Wonderland and Kingdom Hearts)

I mean we have so many different versions of lore in each universe too which is hilarious like

Movie Universe: Pretty self explanatory if you’ve seen the movie lmao

Series Universe: Hades knows Herc is alive before he’s 18 and is constantly interacting with him (Pain and Panic may also be teens in this universe)

The Hades Challenge Universe: Pretty much the same as the movie universe, but more accurate to original Greek lore (Ares and Athena are Zeus’ kids and Herc’s siblings in this universe and Hades ended up kidnapping Persephone)

The House of Mouse Universe: All the characters are celebrities in the toon world and are pretty much just movie actors (however their movies seem to be based off of real events that took place in their lives almost like re-enactments or something, also Hades dates Maleficent in this universe)

Go The Distance Universe: (spoilers if you haven’t read it) Pretty much the movie universe, but with a twist ending, Meg has to become a goddess in order to be with Hercules, we learn more about her ex and her backstory, time runs differently in the underworld and that’s why Meg was tricked into thinking her ex had left her immediately when he had actually been looking for her for a while, Hades and Persephone (who is described differently than how she looked into the movie) are madly in love and get engaged by the end of the book, Meg marries Hercules and becomes the goddess of vulnerability while Phil trains Aegeus’ (he’s Meg’s ex btw) daughter to become the next big hero, Meg is also on good terms with her ex and his family by the end

Twisted Wonderland Universe: Hades is the head/founder/mascot for a Disney villain college (fraternity?) house called Ignihyde

Kingdom Hearts Universe: There’s a whole bunch of lore for those games but it’s sorta the same as the movie’s lore but literally Donald, Goofy, and a lil anime boy (Sora) as well as a bunch of other characters from the Final Fantasy game franchise are involved in the stories

And of course there’s my whole AU that’s pretty much a mixture of the movie and the series, but obviously that’s not canon 😂

But yeah, Disney certainly does like to give you different versions of Greek lore just like literal Greek lore lmao, I wonder if that was intentional? I doubt it tbh lol, Disney has had continuity and lore contradictions with lots of their other movies lol

And of course, there’s gonna be a new book and graphic novel coming out this summer (I also heard there’s gonna be a Disney Villains comic series for Hades coming too, I have no idea of when those are coming out, I’ve only seen the front page comic art of said comics, literally don’t even know if those are actually out and being sold, need to do more research on that lol)