#(Kariya slots all too easily into 4's lazy blacksmith with a female knight who pushes him into trying.)

[regallibellbright]

Since I'm playing RF5 again I'm thinking about the Guardians AU again and honestly I kind of love that setting up the AU by its nature basically reverses all the TWEWY characters?

Okay, Joshua's still a dragon-coded god-coded character, but now his extended isolation wasn't entirely a choice - the last time he made friends, they all sacrificed themselves for him, and he's still hurting from that eight hundred years later. Neku is now the one who functionally betrayed the group by being the first sacrifice and not telling them before he did it. (Neku also went through his character arc, like, ten years BEFORE he became a Guardian, he's in his mid-twenties.) From Joshua's perspective, everyone (except Eri) betrayed him by saving his life. Rindo and he are actual friends now because they make a deal that requires them actually interacting.

Everyone knows that Shiba's group are spies for the Empire, but Megumi's still around so it kind of... doesn't matter? They're not in a position of real power. He and Megumi have periodic conversations made of veiled threats that go nowhere until Rindo remembers things and sidesteps the entire second arc by just going "hey so the Empire's after the Rune Spheres, secure them."

Megumi wakes up that morning to be the knight in charge of actually running the city and discovers some man at least ten years his junior who has seniority not just over Megumi as a person but over his TITLE. It is made abundantly clear that this is Megumi's problem to deal with, not Neku's.

Sho's an adopted de Sainte-Coquille. Guy showed up on our Porcoline equivalent's doorstop some years ago and was taken in whether he wanted to be or not... I may make that NOT be Ken Doi but instead straight up be Porcoline for maximum chaos. (By character goal he'd actually fit in the Ethelberd slot but that's way less fun.) He's basically his Another Day counterpart in terms of being way better adjusted since in this universe there's no real way to kill and become god (again, unless you're Ethelberd but that's way less fun) and he has a true supportive figure in his life, encouraging his creativity. (... Yeah, I'm just keeping Porcoline in this AU.)

(... I think I just talked myself into making the Prince a de Sainte-Coquille as well. That tracks alarmingly well. Non-Rune Factories, draw what conclusions you will about this family from THAT.)