#deimos' understudy

[moonfurthetemmie]

so with the addition of this lass, I'm (already) retconing lore.

Please welcome this alternate of a character that barely existed in normal JMV. Peridot; or, in this AU:

Alinda

She should have been the protagonist. The hero. But Gonzalo and Petruccio made sure she didn't have the chance.

Alinda managed to put all the pieces together of what’s happening. She tried to stop it. She kept it super secret, though. She didn’t want to get too many people involved, because she knew that those two would find out she was onto them quickly. She recruited a few people, yes, but not even her husband knew anything about it.

Her husband, by the way? Antonio.

Alinda was, at one point, military. She and Antonio both, though they retired from that when they found out they had a daughter coming. They both had ‘normal’ civilian jobs, and there was always at least one person home to take care of little Peony.

The actual reason Gonzalo and Petruccio targeted Antonio’s family is because they needed Alinda out of the way. Antonio is told the same thing that I originally said; that they just needed a sacrifice and didn’t want to put on a whole big show of it with just the two of them. But that isn’t true.

Gonzalo and Petruccio tried to destroy any notes or documents she made of what she found out. But there were many, many copies. Her cohorts had at least one each, and there were more in their ‘base’.

They found each of her teammates and their sets of notes.

They never did find their base.

Deimos, however, does. Entirely by accident.

Alinda was created by the Tree of Feelings. Having watched Gonzalo and Petruccio’s descent into madness, the Tree knew that someone needed to stop them. It intended to use the magic of the two spirits within it to create a third guardian to keep the other two in line, but they, unaware of its plan, stole the power themselves. The Tree had just enough magic left to make Alinda’s form and give her life, and a mission, but she has no magical abilities beyond unnatural physical strength and an extended lifespan.

As she didn’t have any magic, nor really any idea what she was supposed to stop Gonzalo and Petruccio from doing, Alinda wandered around a while. Eventually she stumbled into Antonio’s home AU, where she stayed almost exclusively until she found some way to reliably travel between universes, which likely involved some magical technology bullshit. However, by that point she’d gotten quite comfortable in this AU, and decided she’d just. Live there.

She joined the military for a number of reasons. Namely for the combat training, to be nosy and snoop to see if anyone’s heard anything about Gonzalo or Petruccio, and to try to find people who can help her deal with a couple of crazy bastards.

For a while she doesn’t find much. Gonzalo and Petruccio are keeping low. But slowly they start making Big Scenes™. They weren’t nearly as big as the shit they’re doing in the present, but enough that they’re hearing about it from other AUs. Alinda rallies her little group and they start making plans.

They have a hell of a lot of trouble, though. It doesn’t help that Gonzalo and Petruccio are constantly on the move, and they can never, ever predict where they’ll strike next. But they are getting some good intel. Bits and pieces. As Alinda gathers these bits and pieces to present to the whole group she goes “...oh. Ohhh no”

Sometime in the middle of all that she meets Antonio and they fall in love etc etc.

She’s. Unsure. When he asks her to marry him. She wants to. But it would be so dangerous…

So she says something like “I have a very important mission, that was given to me literally the day I was born. And it’s very, very likely that I would put you in danger just telling you about it. I love you. I really do. But I absolutely cannot tell you anything. I’ve got a few people helping me, but even that feels like too much, and god damn it I can’t put you in that danger. I’ll marry you, if you are willing to accept that I’m going to be hiding something very important from you.”

Lovestruck fool that he was, Antonio agreed. They were very happy together! Peony’s conception freaked Alinda out a lot but things had been very quiet for a while. And honestly, an excuse to leave the military, to have more time not only with Beloved but also to find Gonzalo and Petruccio, was…very tempting.

Alinda had a 20-point plan made for how she’d keep her family safe if Gonzalo and Petruccio found out about her, and a second, more complex plan for if they also found out about said family. She had taken all the precautions she could think of, and even asked her cohorts if they could think of anything else.

There’s a good chance Alinda knew they were coming. She called Antonio to get home quickly, and had Peony start packing, so they could run as far and as quickly as possible. At which point she’d have to explain everything to Antonio, but he deserved that much.

But Gonzalo and Petruccio moved in too quickly. She’d only just hung up the call with Antonio when they grabbed her and Peony by surprise.

Alinda had sounded nervous when she called, but did a very good job acting like it wasn’t a huge deal. Peony was already freaked out. She needed to stay calm. And Gonzalo and Petruccio acted like it was tooootally random.

Gonzalo and Petruccio decide that it would be a very poetic form of revenge to make Antonio work for them, after poor Alina tried soooo hard to stop them. Him turning out to be an excellent fighter was just a wonderful surprise.

A few years later, when Deimos stumbles upon the last remaining notes that Alinda and her team had compiled, he finds way, way more than he’d been able to figure out so far.

He’s heard the name ‘Yighraru’ before. He’s very alarmed to find out what manner of being Yighraru is.

He also finds some speculation on whether or not they’re going to try and summon Yighraru, or if they’re just going to sacrifice people to it. Some speculation on how the summoning might work, whether or not the dramatics are just Gonzalo and Petruccio being Gonzalo and Petruccio or if it has something to do with the worship of Yighraru. So on.

He takes the notes to the castle he and Phobos live(d) in. Makes a digital copy. Changes some keywords and names, rephrases a lot of stuff. Maybe organizes it better for himself. Then locks it behind a couple of different passwords, so that, hopefully, no one else can get into it, and doesn’t understand the significance of they do. But especially not Gonzalo, Petruccio, Bella, or (and it hurts him to even think it) Phobos.

He pokes his nose around the manor a little more, and makes a mental note of what the mysterious writer was right about, what was incorrect, and so on. He adds to the notes with his own discoveries.

He is now much better prepared that he was before. But it still might not be enough.

[moonfurthetemmie]

A WILD DEIMOS HAS APPEARED?!?!???

Finally he is here

for some reason it was harder to draw him then Gonzalo

Deimos ’understudy by @moonfurthetemmie

I also try drawing in digital , i didn’t like it but its here for some reasons

[moonfurthetemmie]

So i said that part of Gonzalo and Petruccio's separation anxiety and jealousy was because, when the rings showed up and everyone else killed each other, some people almost found where they were hiding

And while i think that's definitely going to be part of why they're so protective of each other, but i think the rest is more from travelers who came by afterwards.

Do you think two kids who just witnessed such a horrific scene would've buried the bodies? Especially with how awful the villagers were to Gonzalo in particular?

Maybe some of their friends from the traveling theater troupe, but most of the bodies were probably ignored.

Imagine being on a long journey, and you see a sign that points to a nearby village, and you decide to stop to rest and maybe stock up on supplies.

But it's empty. Not a soul to be found.

Until you find your way to the stage set up near a hill with a strange tree on it, and you find the rotting corpses of everyone who had lived here. There's blood on the stage, maybe still in the grass.

And then these two kids come down from the hill. They look human, but not quite. They have these odd rings on chains around their necks. They ask you where you came from. They look at the corpses with disgust but seem otherwise unbothered.

Something is wrong with them. They look at you like a spider watching a fly as it wanders near the web. The younger of the two looks like he's expecting you to attack them, and is ready to stab you if you try.

And they will kill travelers sometimes.

Sometimes their guests realized that they're in danger before it gets that far and are ready to defend themselves.

Sometimes their guests know about the Tree and want to steal the fruit, through whatever means necessary.

Sometimes (though rarely) their guests are also looking for a new victim, and don't care if they're kids if it'll satiate their bloodlust.

And sometimes their guests noticed absolutely nothing, and just felt bad for the two kids living alone with nothing but each other and the remains of the dead for company.

They've probably been tricked and forcibly separated from each other multiple times. Each time, whoever went off with the stranger got hurt and almost died.

Or the stranger tried to 'adopt' one of them and take them away.

Occasionally there are other kids. Kids they get along with. Kids that may get along better with one of them than the other. And Gonzalo never had a friend his age, so any time one of those kids decided they liked him, he'd be much more excited to go play with then than Petruccio would be if he made such a friend.

Petruccio probably became much better at taking care of Gonzalo out of necessity once they got the rings, and between their precarious situation and everything that they'd been through he feels like he's the only one Gonzalo can really trust.

And that Gonzalo's the only one he can really trust.

So seeing his dearest friend spend more and more time with someone else...

Gonzalo, used to Petruccio spending time with other friends, doesn't care as much. so he thinks it's funny. in fact he probably thought it was so funny as a kid he did it on purpose a lot. Part of it might've been because Petruccio would never have gotten so jealous if he didn't care about Gonzalo, and the thought made Gonzalo very happy.

it probably took a while for Petruccio to notice, and which point Gonzalo had chilled with intentionally making him jealous. he still thinks it's funny though.

[moonfurthetemmie]

i now have a fantasy AU Deimos and Phobos. and oh my god did i have fun with Phobos in particular

it got long. there was a lot of rambling.

Deimos

don't mind that his tail is clipping through the fabric. there is literally nothing I can do about that other than take the clothing thing away.

Mostly in part to being partially a snake, this version of Deimos doesn't really neeeeed to wear clothes, but he likes the look of them. Also they're just nice and soft

While there is a familiar-looking blue in his wings and horns, it's not that blue, because he's not related to Gonzalo and Petruccio's warlock bullshit.

He can fly, but his snake body obeys the laws of gravity normally, so he has to go real fast unless he wants to just be dangling in the air. Usually it's much easier for him to deal with small terrestrial enemies on the ground. He can use magic to attack, but he's got those wicked claws so he might as well use them, right?

I tried to make the whole thing with Astra (and by extension, Deimos) being a little bit Glowy more apparent here. and i think it worked, more or less. Not quite the way I would've liked it to, but still works.

Phobos

i took some of the pictures before finalizing the pose/face because i got over excited to share some of the really cool shit

look i don't know WHAT he's supposed to be. but he's a demon, and it'd be pretty boring to make all the demons look the same, so i figured i might as well get weird with it. Apparently that meant bird feet, frog hands, fuzzy ears, funky eyes, tiger stripes, and three 'alien' tails* with stingers

*technically only one of them is a tail. the other two act more like the basic corrupt tentacles, aside from him having complete and perfect control over them.

as i said. idk what's happening. but look at him. he's so cool........he looks so out-of-place in the bright 'environment' of the background. He looks like everything around him should be way darker. and i fucking love him

i love how his eyes seem to match the mark on his face perfectly. i love how freaky the 'tails' are with them being partly skin-toned (more-or-less). i love how his glowing magic can either Pop(TM) or be a lil more subtle depending on where I put it (Spearhead vs. stripes)

im normal about him i SWEAR (lie)

He's much faster than he looks, and those stingers aren't just for stabbing. I haven't decided what kind of poison he has, though; or whether or not it's lethal. He can also use his claws to fight, but he prefers his spear most of the time.

He can grab onto almost anything with those feetsies of his; they've probably found him hanging from a tree or the rafters from his feet like a big fucked up bat.

So. Deimos is probably bound to Gonazlo, and Phobos to Petruccio. the jetsidian and jadark brainrot is inescapable.

And I'm thinking that perhaps there is some incomprehensible outer god they're doing stuff for, but due to being more involved with the races of the planet our unhinged little blorbos live on, they're much less unintentionally dangerous. and I'm thinking that the stuff they're doing is still putting on grand theater productions for their entertainment and the entertainment of the other mortals.

Or in short: Cthulhu (not literally cthulhu) is bored and is very curious about the plays mortals can write and put on

I'll think more about the details tomorrow tho

also

those demon claws are uh. they're. they're a thing, huh. ow

[moonfurthetemmie]

Carter

yeah he needs to be unfused. defused, even. split into his base components. gorgeous wings though

made that coat himself, and figured out how to make the stars glow with magic.

his abilities in a balanced state/at equilibrium is probably 60% ‘stage magic’ and 40% hypnotism and trippy illusions to help him draw people into Yighraru’s service. Or just make them do something stupid/weird/unhinged for fun. Probably has recreated the grisly scene that played out when the rings came to Gonzalo and Petruccio’s home village at least once.

The ‘stage magic’ is essentially controlling practical effects as well as other things to add a little pizzazz to costumes/clothes, set pieces, props, so on. That’s probably how he managed to make his coat glow.

Keeps breaking out in mad giggles randomly. Talks to himself. Quite excited about this, though. Gonzalo and Petruccio can never be separated again 🥰

Refers to himself as a singular entity and a plural ‘we’, which can mean ‘Gonzalo and Petruccio,’ or ‘Gonzalo, Petruccio, and Carter’. Even in context, it’s not clear which. It’s not a royal ‘we.’

Fascinated by his new wings. They’re not like Gonzalo’s; even ignoring the color change. How the frick did that happen

also it’s far more obvious that something has a hold of Carter and his mind than it was with Petruccio and Gonzalo as separate entities.

Has several of Gonzalo and Petruccio’s magic-caused marks (more green and blue crackles, more yellow and blue symbols), and has Petruccio’s freckles and Gonzalo’s snake tattoo. They’re just as confused about the tattoo transferring as everyone else is. I just didn’t think it was fair to have him resemble Petruccio so much more

Front of hair is pulled back into a half-ponytail.

Has Petruccio’s rapier and Gonzalo’s dagger. Dual wielding isn’t advised, but it gives him options

I made the coat slightly metallic with the intention of having it look like metallic thread was used, but instead it looks like satin and I’m genuinely thrilled about this

I know I already gave the reasoning for his name, but just to make sure i've covered my bases: I named him after Randolph Carter, who is a recurring character in the Cthulhu Mythos and may or may not be an HP Lovecraft stand-in. It would’ve been Lovecraft, but that’s Obsidian’s canon last name which I can’t say/type that with a straight face, and that’s not very fair to Petruccio, now, is it? anyways thanks mom for having a braincell

He’s both much more stable and significantly more unstable than Entropy

Petruccio and Gonzalo are so incredibly close, and have the same goals, so he has no conflicts there. however they're both batshit insane and he is no better. Worse sometimes, even. No one is quite sure if them becoming one person is better or worse, because on the one hand, now they only have one guy to deal with, but on the other hand, he is…quite a problem.

also hey. fun fact. i was thinking that the reason the rings made the one guy go absolutely ape shit so fast and cause a huge scene is because, worn together, they're far too powerful for a single being. With Petruccio taking one and Gonzalo taking the other, they were able to use them very well.

Carter…since he was already too far down the rabbit hole to get too fucked up too fast, it's not as bad. And he is still technically two guys? But it's still two incredibly powerful cursed artifacts warping one singular mind, so he's not that much more resistant. everyone is absolutely terrified by how much worse he's getting.

Clever, creative, dramatic, and cutthroat. He might actually sacrifice some of his team on stage in public. Possibly even Bella, if he thinks it'd be a good show and/or Yighraru would want her. but bella would probably let him at this point.

If Gonzalo and Petruccio couldn't summon Yighraru, he definitely will. someone help

[moonfurthetemmie]

oh. by the way. uh.

gonzalo and petruccio to deimos and phobos

[moonfurthetemmie]

Hiii I survived the hurricane

We actually got really lucky and the worst part was just power going out for a hot while. But we had enough gas for the backup generator to last us until the power came back, so we were able to plug the main fridge in and some of our window AC units.

In the 21 hours without power or internet I spun some more ideas for the Horror Theater Kid AU

In normal JMV and the normal Theater Kid AU, Obsidian is delighted that the people in Silver’s AU think he’s a god and is like “hell yeah I am! Bring me human sacrifices!!”

or some variation of that. In the theater kid AU Puck helps Lear make a big show about it

In the Horror Theater Kid AU, Gonzalo and Petruccio deny that Gonzalo is a god, but instead insist that they serve a much higher power. They are then called spiritual messengers, and the people gladly give them human sacrifices. Lodovico was not the first, and far from the last. But Gonzalo and Petruccio wanted to see if there was anyone there they could recruit somehow, or try to use to bring even a small bit Yighraru’s essence to their world, so the first few sacrifices were brought to them alive.

Lodovico is the only one who survived. While everyone from their home universe thinks they’re dead, it’s treated more like they were raised to sainthood. A great honor was bestowed upon them. They were taken away alive. They must’ve had something special in them.

So, Lodovico knows about this god shit, but they think it’s just an excuse to do satiate their bloodlust. At most, Gonzalo and Petruccio are completely insane. Their lack of faith is probably one of the reasons they were sacrificed so early on.

Antonio watched his family die. Gonzalo and Petruccio were going to sacrifice him, too, but they saw how much he cared for them while figuring out their plan of attack and decided it would be very entertaining to let him come home just in time for his spouse and child to see him ooonne last time.

He lost his shit. Understandably.

Unlike in normal JMV, Gonzalo and Petruccio weren’t wanting to cause a huge commotion. They didn’t have the resources (namely people) for the kind of display they really wanted to do.

So most of Antonio’s neighbors, who didn’t see Gonzalo and Petruccio and didn’t hear his family scream for help (because they couldn’t. Petruccio made sure of that very quickly), think that Antonio either just fucking snapped, or pissed off someone who was deeply unstable. The fact that Antonio was never seen again isn’t encouraging.

Antonio stays with them because he has nowhere else to go, and is terrified of what they’ll do if he tries to desert. He’s absolutely convinced his neighbors think he killed his family and the thought of trying to go back scared him even more. At least there are some people here who understand, and who are friendly.

Beatrice’s version of Ruby is still dead, but the pair were lured into the woods before Gonzalo and Petruccio tried to kill them. Ruby was caught off-guard, but Bea had a split second warning and managed to defend herself so well that Gonzalo and Petruccio thought she needed to join them. Much like in normal JMV, she wasn’t actually given a choice.

Isabella’s story is mostly the same as the normal theater kid AU. Including the part where only Gonzalo found her. There was a little portal mishap. Petruccio freaked. Gonzalo would’ve freaked but he was too busy being really fucking confused

He would’ve told Bella that she was a friend of his before, but in his distress and confusion he started with a “where the hell am I and who are you”, so. Kinda botched that one. But he still offered a way out of the anti-void, under the condition that she helps him and Petruccio with something. Bella tried to ask what, but she was too anxious to get out of there to really question why Gonzalo was being dodgy about it.

Probably she pissed Petruccio off by calling him a nerd (derogatory) for all the theater stuff and the plays he’s been writing. You do not insult his art. He will fucking get you. Gonzalo wasn’t too happy either.

The fact that Petruccio now asks her for her opinion and to proofread and stuff shows just how much he’s come to trust her now. Or perhaps he’s simply forgotten why they broke her mind. It’s hard to say. Bella certainly doesn’t remember anything about it.

[moonfurthetemmie]

Yes, I DO have a tag for the Fantasy AU

No, I did NOT make any of the normal Theater Kid AU guys for it

gonzalo is lizard

hey look it's that eye thing again. woag. what could it mean

amulet for magical focus? Nearly identical staff to Petruccio's? wiggly dagger of fuck you? You betcha

He and Petruccio are still definitely a pair of drama nerds.

I'm thinking they probably use most of their warlock magic to help with special effects when putting on performances, but I'm thinkin it's more of a hobby + good way to distract enemies and people when fighting, or when they need to sneak off. they're crafty little shits

i am also thinking that perhaps Deimos and Phobos are both demons, and due to some shenanigans they are bound to Petruccio and Gonzalo by contracts. Which they signed knowing exactly what they were getting into and are 100% okay with.

I don't think they could both be bound to both warlocks, but i do think there's a clause in each contract that says the other warlock can tell the demon not bound them what to do sometimes? Either way it's very unclear which demon is bound to who. It doesn't help that they are always seen together wherever they go

my only hesitation is that Fantasy AU Jet is a demon bound to a warlock, and I don't wanna....make them the same.....guh............

[moonfurthetemmie]

ok so hear me out,,,,

a handful of times i've talked about the Fantasy AU, which is a big, mostly-soft Fix-It AU where everyone's friendly (if not actually friends), and the biggest conflicts come from Misunderstandings and also the occasional generic monster attack that destroyed an entire town,,,

anyways. um. cheetah furry pretruccio?

I thought he'd make a good cat, but i couldn't decide which decals/fur patterns i wanted so i used a randomizer. that ended up working out tho because Cheetahs' claws are just Out all the time, like a dog or wolf's. i wanted the furry-looking paw feets, but they don't have retractable claws. win-win.

The first outfit is the "I'm going on a fucking QUEST and I need my GOOD gear" set, and the second is "Casual adventure time!!" or perhaps just general casual wear.

this time i actually made the questing outfit first. and then i thought "well. it's kinda unfair if the human dresses like a hoe but the cheetah furry doesn't." so i did the second one.

I'm thinking he and Gonzalo are warlocks, but the issue is that warlocks here work more like World of Warcraft warlocks than D&D warlocks, despite the heavy D&D inspiration.

In D&D warlocks pledge themselves to a deity of...dubious morality, at best.

In WoW, you just use Demon Magic and bind demons to your will to fight with you. and then obliterate your enemies.

...warlocks are fun in WoW

Anyways, the initial idea was that they're still pledged to some deity, but. that's D&D rules. And I'm not sure how to make it work with the WoW rules I'm using.

but it's also like 10:40 at night and i don't usually stay up this late. so.

[moonfurthetemmie]

alright well since i'm already causing problems by trying to make two characters kiss, how much you wanna bet Deimos starts flirting with Antonio before they even get half a plan started

i mean Petruccio and Gonzalo are teaching him most of the basic tactics in sign language already. Granted, their intention isn't to teach him so much as just flirt with him in a new (for him) language, but still. he's learning it.

Antonio might be a little oblivious right now seeing as how he's got vengeance to claim and a multiverse to save and all that, but if Deimos did start flirting with him, would it work?

[moonfurthetemmie]

Sometime after finding the last surviving records from Alinda and her team, and doing a little research himself, Deimos realizes he's going to need some help. maybe a lot of help.

He has to be very careful about who he asks.

Lodo and Bea seem like they'd be willing, but they also seem to be more afraid of Gonzalo and Petruccio than most of the rest of the manor. He's not convinced they wouldn't tell those two everything the moment they ask.

Antonio seems more likely to want to help, but Deimos isn't fluent in ASL which would make it pretty difficult to talk to him. A small hurdle, but he's not ready to jump it until he's assessed all of his options.

Sortino doesn't know shit, but as the maid and cook it would be very easy for him to hang around people under the pretense of cleaning to eavesdrop. Gonzalo and Petruccio may not suspect him of trying to stop them, too, even if they notice he's heard something he wasn't supposed to. which they likely will. He's not too eager to get on their bad side, though. He might not be willing to help.

He might not realize at first that Bella is 100% on Gonzalo and Petruccio's side, but it won't take long. Especially since, presently, no one really thinks he's going to try and work against them. Clearly they haven't convinced him to stay and help them, but he's doing an excellent job of feigning innocence so far.

Francisco seems to know a lot. Demios will definitely need to ask him some questions. But he's awfully scared of the pair as well, so he might be a risk.

Sforza...Deimos only met him once, but he doesn't like that there's so much of that blue magic all over Sforza's skin. He doesn't seem to be in any condition to help, anyways.

That leaves...Antonio, Francisco, and Sortino. Great. Well, that's three more potential allies than he had before.

He decides that, ultimately, it would be a good idea to learn ASL anyways. It looks like everyone in the manor is fluent, so they could talk about things in complete silence. Anyone who saw them would know what they were saying, but it would be better than speaking out loud. Theoretically.

With that in mind, he asks Gonzalo and Petruccio to teach him. As expected, they're delighted to! They love hanging out with him. And if he wants to be able to talk to and understand everyone here, well...that's most likely good for them.

They're aware that he's still suspicious and wary. That he's been wandering off on his own quite a bit. But they also know that he's still struggling to keep his distance from them. They're quite confident that they'll get him eventually. If they can't convince him nicely, they have other options. They'd rather not, buuuut if they have to...

he is not aware of their backup plan. if he doesn't figure out how Bella ended up being such a trusted member of the team, he's prooobably fucked.

deimos made a slight miscalculation. they're very patient teachers with this and it's making him like them more and he's pretty sure they're not doing it just to gain his trust. help him

anyways. One by one, he manages to get Antonio, Francisco, and Sortino's help.

Sortino's not too easy to convince, but Deimos manages to convince him that while he doesn't have a plan to stop them yet, he does have a plan should Gonzalo and Petruccio find out about his helpers. Deimos doesn't elaborate, but he promises that he'll make sure that Sortino, and whoever else he manages to recruit, won't get in too much trouble if they're found out. When Deimos mentions having some info on what all is going on here, Sortino becomes a little more interested.

Francisco was pretty sure Deimos was starting to sympathize with Gonzalo and Petruccio, so he's very suspicious when Deimos comes to him. But Deimos says he's found something very interesting, he he'd like a bit of help from Francisco when he goes through it. He can tell that Francisco knows a lot about what's happening. He hints that he thinks what he's found is the answer, and he'd like to see if any of it matches up with what Francisco knows. The prospect of finally getting the answer to this puzzle, as well as maybe being able to stop Gonzalo and Petruccio from murdering, kidnapping, or torturing more people, convinces him to help.

Antonio is surprisingly easy to convince. Deimos is the one who's suspicious now, but Antonio tells him that Gonzalo and Petruccio killed his family in front of him, and are the reason he lost his hearing. Of course he wants to stick it to them. If Deimos can promise that he can keep his help from getting too fucked up if Gonzalo and Petruccio find out what they're doing, he'll be happy to help. Keep in mind, he still has absolutely no idea what Alinda had been doing, and currently doesn't have any reason to suspect that it had anything to do with Gonzalo and Petruccio.

His little team now assembled, he tells the three of them, separately, to meet him in Francisco's office around midnight. Gonzalo and Petruccio should be asleep, so they won't notice a thing.

Deimos goes through the basic shit. He found this stuff in an abandoned building, looks like some people were trying to figure out what was going on and how to stop it. Long story short, they think Yighraru is some kind of eldritch god.

and all three of them go "huh?" and then Antonio and Francisco, but especially Francisco, go "oh god that explains everything"

they fill in whatever Sortino didn't know about, which is a lot because he was, up until now, trying to keep his head down and stay out of everything.

Beyond that, the only other solid idea that I have is that in the very beginning of their notes, Alinda put basically the entire story of why she even exists, and what her mission is.

While she never said a word about her mission, she did tell Antonio what she was, and that she was given a super secret mission the day she was born. She never went into where she came from.

Some months into their alliance, Deimos lets the others see more of the documents for themselves.

Deimos may have changed the names in the document, but so much of that opening was so achingly familiar that he had to ask Deimos if he remembered what the name actually was.

And by this point, Deimos has found out what happened to Alinda and her team. So when Antonio very shakily tells him that 'Peridot' was his wife, who told him a good chunk of the stuff in here, Deimos has to figure out the gentlest way to inform him that Gonzalo and Petruccio completely wiped out the whole group.

Somehow, despite everything, it just got even more personal for Antonio.

It wasn't random. They specifically targeted Alinda. And for some goddamn reason, they decided that they should kill her and their ten year old daughter, who had nothing to do with everything. And that they should specifically wait, until Antonio got home, and could watch.

anyways. antonio's mad

[moonfurthetemmie]

so Alinda and Antonio's relationship was probably in a weird state of 'they're happy, but they can both feel the weight of the secrets being kept and it's only a matter of time before something happens.'

They were doing their best, but still.

As time went on Alinda was only going to get more paranoid about Gonzalo and Petruccio finding her family. If they hadn't, then either Antonio would try to ask her about it and it'd result in a fight because she's freaked out and absolutely too stubborn to risk telling him anything and he's been getting more and more concerned and is too stubborn to back down, or she'd just...disappear.

In the former case, there'd be like a 50/50 chance that everything would slowly fall apart, or they'd eventually get through it. but in order for them to get through it by that point Alinda would have to tell him everything.

If she runs off, she might leave a note, but it'll depend on whether or not her desire to keep Antonio from looking for her is stronger than her desire to not make him worry too much, and to not leave without saying goodbye somehow.

But he's going to worry anyway, and she knows it. So she'll probably leave a note telling him why she left, in the most detached, clinical way that doesn't even really tell him anything except that she thinks they're in danger and she's trying to keep attention off of him and their daughter. and hey, maybe it'd have worked! but Antonio's upset and afraid for her, and Peony doesn't understand why Mom left at all and just wants to know when she's going to come back, and Alinda certainly doesn't feel good about this even though she's sure she made the right decision for their safety.

but they'll never know what would've happened if she'd survived

[moonfurthetemmie]

I finished a good chunk of the other refs for the horror theater kid AU last night

So I just gotta finish Lodovico, do Sortino and Francisco, and decide if I like Sforza’s outfit enough to leave it

And then I gotta figure out what the DINTIS guys’ deal is and decide what I want to change the mf AU name to because “Horror Theater Kid AU” is too long

All of that will have to wait until after work though 😔

[moonfurthetemmie]

ok so hear me out actually. i have an idea for how nightmare could actually stop Petruccio and Gonzalo

through a series of very unusual events, Petruccio (and only Petruccio) is captured and taken to JR.

Gonzalo spends several days frantically searching for him, and eventually he runs into the Meme Squad. They think he's a little off, but when he tells them he's looking for a dear friend of his who went missing they're like "oh. that'll do it" and just accept it.

Then he tells them that Petruccio is a corrupt and they all go "oooooh. uh...do you perhaps know if people wearing gold pins with the letters 'JR' had anything to do with your friend's disappearance"

"...what do you know."

they point him to JR and tell him about Dream.

Gonzalo wastes no time in tracking this mother fucker down and attacks him. With the element of surprise and Dream severely underestimating how violent and murderous a radiant could be, Gonzalo pins him down and manages to get Petruccio's location out of Dream.

Dream isn't fatally injured, but boy did he get a rough and painful wake-up call. Gonzalo leaves him, with the vague threat of a fate worse than death if he finds out Petruccio is dead.

Petruccio's alive and mostly well. He was freaking the fuck out these past few days but aside from that and being treated like a rabid animal in confinement, he's fine.

Gonzalo breaks him out. Big hugs and apologies and shit. They find the Meme Squad again to thank the three for their help.

They end up hanging out with the Meme Squad for a while, and the pair decides that they quite like these three.

Nightmare, thinking that it's mostly common knowledge and that they'll find out anyways if they hang out long enough, mentions his and Dream's destiny bond. Upon prompting he explains what that is and is like "you were probably going to hear about it anyways, sooo"

And Gonzalo and Petruccio go "...ah. that's...an issue."

Nightmare: ...Why?

Gonzalo, tapping his chin: Well...We like you. We like you a lot. You're fun.

Gonzalo: Dream, however, needs to go.

Nightmare: Nightmare: uh

Petruccio: ...You said he's trying to kill you, though. That must mean he's working on a way to break that bond.

Nightmare: Uh?

Gonzalo, grinning: Oh, I think I have a wonderful idea.

And they leave before the Meme Squad can properly process any of that.

Gonzalo and Petruccio drop Francisco off at JR and tell him to offer help in breaking Dream and Nightmare's destiny bond. They explain everything he needs to know, but tell him that if he tries to betray them they'll know and he better fucking not.

he decides he doesn't want to find out what they'll do to him if he does, so he quietly does as he's told.

Dream finds something strange about this, but when asked Francisco's face becomes Afraid and Regretful for a split second. And then he smiles and shrugs and says "I just thought I'd see if I could help."

Something about Francisco also reminds Dream very much of Petruccio and Gonzalo, but he can't place what. it's the magic tracker they put on him btw. dream can sense it. it's faint enough though that anyone who isn't them won't know what it is.

fast forward and Gonzalo and Petruccio get a message from Francisco saying that the soul bond has been severed, and Dream is now dedicating most of his resources to finding and catching Nightmare.

Gonzalo and Petruccio crack their knuckles and start setting something up.

they're basically planning on making a big show of trying to quickly and forcefully making him a vessel for Yighraru. They're not even sure how well it'll go, but either they'll get the perfect revenge, or he will have a gruesome, painful death, or he'll be left a mere shell of his former self from the trauma. All of which is a win for them!

Either way. They set up a little stage somewhere. Dream vanishes for a few days around when they start setting that up. And then they day arrives, and the whole team comes. Bella hides off-stage. Antonio, Bea, and Lodo hide in the audience and wait for their cue. They're all in costume. They won't be recognized.

Gonzalo and Petruccio made absolutely sure that the Meme Squad would be nearby when they started.

Dream is tied up and dragged onstage. He's pretty beat-up. A crowd quickly forms, but the stage isn't easily accessible unless you frequently hop/vault/climb over 3-4 foot objects, so they mostly just murmur nervously. it helps that Gonzalo and Petruccio's faces have been on the news and no one is too eager to fuck with a corrupt and a clearly deranged and exceptionally pissed radiant.

They have their speech about how Dream was teeechnically right about Petruccio, but Gonzalo's just as bad if not worse. Also Petruccio was like this while he was still the positive spirit. They basically just poke huge holes into Dream's deep-seated beliefs about positivity and negativity while laughing at him. Publicly. There's probably at least one camera that they planted so that it'd get on the news at some point, in case no one filmed the thing themselves. It'd be no fun if there was no video recordings of their show!

Petruccio and Gonzalo realized pretty quickly after meetings him that, despite being reasonably upset about Dream's bullshit, Nightmare still really cares about him.

So, as expected, when the Squad rolls up to the show Nightmare goes "HEY WHAT THE FUCK??" and runs over to try and help Dream, Cross and Error in tow.

Antonio, the strongest, catches Cross and physically restrains her.

Lodo grabs Error and holds her arms behind her back, trying to ignore how badly Error's freaking out about being touched at all.

Bea just holds her arm out. Nightmare skids to a stop to avoid getting sliced by her fucking CLAWS and she grabs him from behind, pinning one of his arms to his body, and putting the blades on her gloves right under his chin.

Antonio and Bea mumble apologies. Lodo, not that Error can see it, slowly nods. she is also very sorry for this.

Petruccio and Gonzalo act surprised, and then go "aww, did you want to help him? After all these years of him hunting you down for the crime of being born a certain way, you don't want to watch him die? How heroic! You could learn something from him, Angel boy. A shame you won't have the chance to."

they pick on Dream some more about how fucking Nightmare just tried to come save him.

After a few moments of this Petruccio yanks Dream's head up by his hair and Gonzalo presses the blade of his dagger against his neck-

Nightmare "manages" to break free of Bea's hold, summons his spear, and jumps onto the stage, only to be grabbed by oddly familiar blue strings and yoinked mid-air. When he stops rolling he finds himself wrapped up in strings like the worst kind of mummy, almost entirely unable to move, and Bella steps onto the stage.

She kicks him (rather gently, but he still yelps) and goes "Don't you know it's rude to disrupt a theater production? Now look at you. So much for a hero."

She joins Petruccio and Gonzalo, and they start the 'real' show.

the crowd does not like the real show but they can't find it in them to turn away. Even Bea's straining to hear as much as she can.

but unbeknowst to everyone except Cross and Error, Nightmare has ooonnee little trick up his sleeve.

or more specifically. a pocketknife in his boot.

the eldritch magic being displayed and the way Dream's starting to freak out as his magic slowly turns blue isn't distracting the crowd so much that they don't notice as Nightmare trying to inchworm away and try to grab the knife. He can bend his spine and his knees and shit, he just can't move anything else. so he's just. awkwardly trying to contort his body so he can get that LITTLE FUCKING KNIFE and trying not to swear and draw attention to himself.

he manages to get it. freezes and looks back at the three trying to summon something. starts trying to cut the strings without cutting himself too badly. He gets one arm free, than the other, then his legs. As he's doing this he's trying to think of some way he can get Dream out of this. There's no way in hell he can take all three of them in a fight, and he's sure their lackeys that grabbed him and his friends are going to help bring him down. He's going to need something better than his spear, but what?

as he scrambles to his feet and looks around frantically, he is quite surprised to see the perfect weapon.

He exits stage left. and then quickly enters again and swings a metal folding chair at Gonzalo, Petruccio, and Bella's heads.

with three rather sickening BANGs, the three of them crumple to the ground. Dream slumps to the floor as well, alive but exhausted and in great pain. Everyone stares at the three in silent shock. Nightmare slowly lowers the chair and says, shakily, a little awed himself, "why did they even have this back there?"

Cross and Error wheeze and yell, loud enough for everyone to hear, "What's this?? It's Nightmare with the metal chair!"

the crowd starts laughing too, relieved that Dream is alright, and actually starts. cheering?

nightmare blinks. why are they cheering. what the hell

and then Gonzalo and Petruccio stir. Whether or not Bella survived this I'm not wholly sure, but the two spirits are quite durable.

Nightmare immediately goes "oh FUCK", drops the chair, and drags Dream's half-concious ass off stage.

Antonio, Lodo, and Bea step back and Bea's like "did...did he actually hit them with a metal folding chair?? holy shit."

Lodo signs something about being surprised that Gonzalo and Petruccio didn't account for the 100+ year-old wanted criminal having a back-up weapon and being very resourceful. They really shouldn't have had that chair.

Some people from the crowd get to the stage before Cross and Error do, and help Nightmare get Dream down. Dream's bonds are cut, a portal is made, and they get out.

While Gonzalo and Petruccio still very much want Dream dead and are really pissed about what happened, they're not too keen on fucking with any of them again after the Metal Chair Incident.

Francisco spills the beans to Dream when he gets better, and Dream goes 'oh christ. okay. do you want to stay here we can put you in witness protection and probably get rid of that tracker thing'. there may be gay shit after. maybe. too soon to know

Nightmare's face is once again circulating around the internet, but for once everyone is praising him. and he is still so fucking confused

Unrelated to the last post (joke) do you think an eldritch creature could take advantage of a destiny bond to fuck with DS Nightmare and Dream? because if yes they definitely will need extra help because Nightmare is in no shape to try and stop H!Lear and H!Puck.

The thing’s influence might be too powerful once he gets near the main sources of its power in this dimension (the rings), and when he gets there he suddenly can’t remember what he was trying to stop them from doing and just joins them

[moonfurthetemmie]

cracks knuckles

So. In normal Dreamtale, Dream and Nightmare are really, really durable. And they have a lot of power in their lil skeleton bodies.

In the JMV, DINTIS, and DS versions, corruption isn't the magic from the Tree getting fucked up, it's specifically a more potent version of negativity. And radiance is the more potent version of positivity.

Radiants and corrupts are fully-powered negative and positive spirits. Ergo, radiants and corrupts have far more power than base positive and negative spirits

Also, like I said, spirits are pretty durable. I'm sure corrupts and radiants are more durable as well.

...obsidian certainly seems to be. He's definitely an extremely powerful spirit, at the very least.

I would imagine a being that already has surprisingly vast power reserves and incredible durability, for a mortal, would make an excellent vessel for an ancient, incomprehensible being.

Let's hope that, should they meet Obsidian, Gonzalo and Petruccio don't have the same thought I had :))

if he hurts one of them though he's DEFINITELY fucked

[moonfurthetemmie]

Deimos’ Understudy: Horror Theater Kid AU Master post

Nicknames

Gonzalo and Petruccio

Alinda

Phobos and Deimos

Everyone else

Yighraru

The Rings

Bonus content: Carter

It’s been one hundred twenty-two years since the cursed rings of Yighraru came into Jade and Obsidian’s possession. Despite how long they’ve been working, only in the past few years have they made notable progress. The one who was meant to stop them is dead. Her organization, wiped out. They have a highly effective team behind them, and one of them is as dedicated as they are.

Some months ago, however, they made the (potentially fatal) mistake of pulling one Umbra into their madness. It happened so quickly that Astra’s jealousy almost didn’t cover his concern. In trying to dig up even the pettiest of dirt on Jade and Obsidian to get Umbra away from them, Astra finds a much more serious problem lurking beneath the surface. Something far bigger than any of them.

Everyone who lives with Jade and Obsidian has been touched by it.

Including Umbra.

Now Astra must find a way to stop this madness, despite his desire to just grab Umbra and leave everyone else to their fate. But Jade and Obsidian are trying to pull him in, too, and they’ve had decades to perfect their acting and manipulation skills.

The odds are against him. But if it means getting Umbra back and away from anyone who tries to take him from Astra, then he’ll find a way through.

The clock is counting down. Jade and Obsidian aren't as patient as their master.

Notes:

Astra (Jet) and Umbra (Dark) are from another Horror version of DINTIS that, at the time of this post being written, hasn’t been released. There’s some little comments and fun facts shared about them (mostly Astra) in the AU tag for Deimos’ Understudy, though, and eventually I do plan on talking about the AU (and the corresponding JMV AU) that Astra and Umbra come from >:]

Carter’s cool you should go look at him :3 (please 👉👈 look at my most fucked up beloved yet) (except for ebony in certain fics/aus/etc. pats his head. this baby can fit so much trauma and mental & emotional instability in him)

The lore is all over the place. Please feel free to dive through the tags and consume everything.