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lowkeyclueless5137 · 1 year ago

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Heard of Puppeter (PS3)? If not, well the summary is(pulled this from Wikipedia) “The story occurs in a concave world representing Earth's Moon, inhabited by pseudo-folkloric characters: the first half on the dark side of the Moon, and the second half on the Earthward side. Its premise states that the world's ruler, the Moon Goddess, was overthrown by her subordinate, Little Bear, when the latter seized her 'Black Moonstone' and the magic scissor-set 'Calibrus', and declared himself 'Moon Bear King'. Throughout the game, each of his twelve generals (the animals of the Chinese zodiac) has set part of the moon-world in disorder: each holding a portion of the Goddess' 'White Moonstone.’ The player-character 'Kutaro' is one of many children whose souls were spirited away from Earth in their sleep and changed into animated wooden puppets to be enslaved in the King's mobile fortress, Castle Grizzlestein. After having his head pulled off and his soul devoured by the Moon Bear King, Kutaro is found in the dungeons by the Goddess's cat, Ying Yang, who leads him to his current mistress, the Moon Witch Ezma Potts. Potts, who is secretly planning overthrow the Moon Bear King herself, orders Kutaro to sneak into the throne room and capture the magic pair of scissors Calibrus. This weapon allows Kutaro to dispel the King's magic and defeat his puppets to release the souls within, allowing them to escape back to Earth. When the Witch demands the scissors, they adhere to Kutaro, and she allows him to use Calibrus to oppose the twelve generals. During the defeat of the first (General Tiger), Kutaro rescues Pikarina, Princess of the Sun, whom the Moon Bear King had captured. Under Potts' guidance, Kutaro and Pikarina venture to the various realms of the moon, to vanquish each general in turn: the Moonwood Forest guarded by Rat and Snake, the Moonshine Sea patrolled by Pig and Sheep, the Wild Wastes trampled by Bull and Horse, Hallowee-Ville controlled by Dog and Monkey, and the Land of Time conquered by Rabbit and Rooster, ultimately facing off against Dragon. When the White Moonstone is re-assembled, Potts revealed to be as the Moon Goddess as she transforms back; but is instantly trapped by the Moon Bear King, and must be rescued by Kutaro. Propelled thereto by a cannon, Kutaro and Pikarina disable Castle Grizzlestein and reduce the Moon Bear King to his former shape of Little Bear, who surrenders the Black Moonstone in exchange for Kutaro's friendship, and restores Kutaro's head. All the twelve Generals are resurrected and converted from evil to good; and Kutaro, accompanied by Calibrus and Ying Yang, returns to Earth.” So the very reason I brought this up is cause uhhh, you think you can make it AU for twst here?

Hmmm... As per see... I have a hard time understanding this... But it lowkey reminds me of that Sonic and king Arthur game, so at best, I tried to cook out an Au that is inspired by the 2.

Bear with me anon... I'm dumb :'3

Say a moon kingdom... But since we are dealing with the afterlife motifs, I say something else: a kingdom that can be manually accessed only from the moon, otherwise with the help of magical scissors called keys. These scissors were made out of a special metal called Starlight platinum, which made them all the more powerful, for they have to be infused with pure light moon energy in order to function as a gateway in between the moon kingdom and the earth.

Now... What is Light moon energy? (LME for short) It's pure energy that the moon lands generate over the souls that have made peace with their death, as such, their afterlife is short lived if not bearly a few seconds as they can fully rest and their energy to become distant stars.

It's opposite force, meant to have balance, it's the Dark moon energy (DME for short) that is cultivated on the dark side of the moon, where vengeful spirits and those filled by dark/evil thoughts are punished until they get destroyed. As such, it's a very volatile energy, which can quickly consume the poor of will. LME is it's only cure, but at the same time, both are on same power level as long as they are in balance.

Now, who's living in this place? Well... Moon people and creatures alike. They all depend on the moon energy balance, as such they can do some small magic, enough to help them with their day to day life.

But it all seemed to change once the 'dark era' began. An overtake of DME, overtaking by force the lighted side of the moon. As such there was an imbalance and less stars seem to be born, despite peaceful spirits coming in like they did all these years ago.

But! We need to meet our protagonist after all~ :3

We are following Malleus, a pretty normal guy... He's a bit introverted, a bookworm and is absolutely mesmerising until he opens his mouth and spurs his undying love towards gargoyles. :'3

One day, he is involved in an accident, where he manages to survive, but Sebek, Lilia and Silver don't. That's tho, when strange things happen.

One guy with fire hair and all clocked in darkness came up and declared that Malleus should have died, since his 'clock' stopped ticking. But another guy started fighting the first one. Of course, not wanting to fucking die, Malleus helps out the 2nd guy and as such he is whisked away to the moon kingdom, helping the said guy that saved him, who also explains that the one who wanted to kill him was Idia, one of the 6 moon generals, right hands of the evil Dark moon emperor. To instaurate a 'propaganda' of balance, 3 of the generals (Riddle, Vil and Kalim) are LME bearers, while the rest (Idia, Leona and Azul) are DME bearers. They regin over their assigned districts of the kingdom and since they came to power, there was an unbearable regime.

And as such, Malleus is guided by his misterious helper, uncovering the moon ring. An aincent weapon that is meant to wield both LME and DME, as such the ring was only entrusted to royalty and/or legendary heroes. The ring can transform into various weapons and also it gives Malleus the immunity of not having your life slowly sucked away, as here only the moon people and souls could live. Humans die after a while if not protected by a charm or in this case: the ring. (basically pretty lil outfits for each district)

As such, Malleus begins his adventure, in hopes that he could bring justice and also help Silver, Lilia and Sebek to pass away peacefully.

Now! I really thought about it from a video-game perspective, which tbh, it would be a fun game.

At base, it would have pretty simple mechanics, walk around, interact with the locals of each district(levels) and solve a puzzle that will take you to the district ruler(the boss of each level).

The levels, in question are as follows:

Artsristua district

A district for beauty and fine arts, where souls who dealt in their past life with problems regarding their image are taught how to accept their inner beauty and pass away without a worry. Definitely the easiest to access district, with Malleus's task being to mingle into the backstage staff of Vil, the district leader's show. As such Malleus has to wonder and talk with a lot of people or find sum stuff in order to please everyone and gain himself a spot inside.

Vil's boss fights is more of the tutorial, the tutorial itself being introduced via hunged signboards that our misterious helper is showing to us via the lighting bridge above the stage. Vil's gimmick, despite being a tutorial boss, is a bit tricky. You have to listen to his boss fight music in order to see when he attacks. At first, you might be tempted to attack the singers, but if you do, you allow Vil to have blind spots, in which he can attack you by surprise. The tutorial also says that, as such there's only 1 blind spot when Vil can choose weather to attack or not.

Fantasy district

A place where souls of children venture and pass away happily after they have one more successful playtime. The district itself looks like a mad land, where logic is abruptly left aside. In here, Malleus has to play 3 minigames in order to entertain the children and gain the attention of Riddle, the ruler. Those 3 games are: A game of freeze tag, hide and seek and a life-size magic chess. Once Malleus meets Riddle, his boss fight commences if Malleus makes him angry. Which is pretty easy. :'3

As for the fight itself, Riddle's has 2 stages: Stage 1, where he retains his flowery appearance and only summons 4 guards to protect him: Deuce and Ace, who work as the first pair. Ace defends while Deuce attacks and they switch in between. To defeat them, you have to knock out the attacker and inflict damage on them. As such they are forced to switch until one takes the finishing blow and both have to retreat. Next is Trey and Cater, who have the same gimmick, but more difficult. Stage 2 is when Riddle actually reveals his true colors and you have an epic swordfight with his true form, a fire monster, all in the middle of a ring of flames. Riddle would summon obstacles for Malleus, but alas, once he's dizzy, you can inflict quite a lot of damage in 1 hit.

Seaborne district

More like the very wierd district, which is underwater. Malleus has to get a mer potion, which he steals from Riddle, as such, he gets to explore the underwater kingdom. It's pretty easy to see Azul's grotto, the district leader, but after seeing him and realising his intentions, despite Malleus never getting a peek about who's he's dealing with, Azul puts his henchmen, Jade and Floyd to individually fight Malleus. If he defeats them, Azul will get mad and finally get out of his grotto, revealing that he is a gigantic octopus mer.

As for his boss fight, Azul attacks from multiple sides and also has the foul habit of punching in void with his tentacles. The gimmick is to dodge him until you find a piece of teary eye coral, which you can throw in his face and make him cry, thus vulnerable enough so you can land a few hits.

An important note is that after Azul's fight, he begs of Malleus, telling him that he's doing a big mistake, that he is doing the dirty work of someone else and that he shouldn't defeat them, for they lose their powers and leave the capital castle, where the ruler of the whole kingdom is, defenseless.

Malleus, rightfully is taken aback by this sudden, desperate, approach, but the misterious helper wasn't with him in here, yet they warned that Azul was sly and 2 faced. So he takes it with a grain of salt, saying the he shouldn't trust him. Surprisingly, Azul admits that he is not to be trusted, that he always wanted to gain something out of his deals, but now, now he is so desperate, to the point he gives to Malleus his shell pendant, his sign of status, telling Malleus that the shell is a protective pendant. And it will protect Malleus on his journey. Again, Azul begs of him that it was still not too late to give up on this, but ultimately he lets Malleus go, despite still being very capable to put out another fight.

Sunrise district

A district full of rabid and aggressive spirits, this district is rough and you had to be tough and show no mercy if you wanted to crawl alive out of it. In here, Malleus has to steal different uniforms of police grades via ambushing the people in question. This is how he comes to see face to face with the 2nd puzzle, Ruggie and Jack. In order for Jack to let you pass, you had to bring him something that proves the grade of uniform you have on. As for Ruggie? He doesn't wanna make an extra walk so he asks to find for him a deluxe meat sandwich. Once you gain both of them's approval, you finally meet Leona. :3

And Leona is a very tricky boss. He uses sand to make copies of himself, put obstacles in between him and Malleus and inflict immense amounts of damage via heavy attacks. He, tho, has a weak spot only when he is casting those heavy attacks, so you have to make sure you have a clear way to attack him when he does that.

Unlike Azul, where there it wasn't Malleus's helper so he talked to Malleus directly, Leona straight out addresses to the helper, ignoring Malleus, berating it for choosing such an idiot to do the dirty work. Malleus is taken aback, but Leona charges up a last power attack, which Malleus parrays and Leona ends up unconscious, unable to disclose anything anymore.

You see, that's also when Malleus's doubts start to form.

Manosi district

The richest district, full of luxury from left to right. In here, Malleus surprisingly is welcomed with open arms by the ruler, Kalim, who kindly invites him over for diner. Malleus's puzzle in here was mostly to keep a nice appearance and make the right hand of the ruler, Jamil, to trust him.

Except that the boss battle is Jamil himself, who wants to protect Kalim from the danger that Malleus poses. As such, we get a very epic fight against basilisk Jamil. The trick to defeating him is by defeating Kalim.

Even after the defeat tho, Kalim is accepting his defeat graciously and tells Malleus that he welcomed him because he saw Azul's pendant and knew that Azul put his trust in Malleus making the right decision.

Ceasornic district

In here we re-meet Idia, as this district is only ruled by machines, the tall middle tower being where Idia is residing. In order to reach Idia, Malleus had to make his way through various puzzles and disarm machineries. He also finds Idia in the middle of what one would call a ceremony ritual, him looming over a piedestal with a small pocket watch on it. The watch was ticking and Idia was mumbling how it still had long to go, even so, he couldn't possibly handle the moment it stops. When Malleus comes, Idia halts and immediately tells Malleus that he has an offer for him: He has the souls of Silver, Lilia and Sebek. They died pre-maturely, so Idia came to take care of them until their clocks would've finally stopped and they were ready to pass on. But, Idia could also do various things with those souls, including reincarnating them.

That's when the battle starts, with Idia keeping his distance from Malleus. In here, Malleus has 4 different stages: stage 1 where Malleus gets to retrieve Sebek's watch, stage 2, where he retrieves Silver's, stage 3,where he gets Lilia's and stage 4, where he gets the 4th watch, the one Idia initially holded on the piedestal.

This fight ends with Idia absolutely desperate to retrieve the 4th watch, as that one was of an actual living human. Malleus didn't have any right to tamper with lives of others, neither did Idia. He reveals that he can summon the watches and could only watch them. There are rules in this place. Rules that are meant so that no one could play god. And right now, Idia accuses Malleus that he is a mere human, one who thinks he has every right to waltz inside and fiddle with the balance of everything. But still, if what the other leaders told him was right, maybe Malleus was simply just a pawn. He begs for the 4th watch, as it's everything he wants. He offers to give Malleus his power he offers everything, just give him the watch.

Taken aback, Malleus looks at the 4th watch, noticing that on the side it was engraved a name: Ortho Shroud. He knew the boy. It was a middle school kid that would always come to the library when Malleus happened to also be there. He didn't knew too much, but he wanted to give up the watch, as it wasn't needed.

But Malleus's 'helper', tho, tells Malleus that Idia is lying and bluffing so he would show mercy. As such, they insist on Malleus destroying the watch.

Malleus tho, keeps the watch in his pocket, along with Lilia's, Sebek's and Silver's. And tells Idia that once he is finished with saving this place, he will return the watch back. Idia yells at him that he is not saving anything, that he's a mindless puppet that listens to that monster, but the 'helper' shuts Idia up with a spell.

In the end, we get to the palace, where, surprisingly, no emperor was there. Malleus is confused, but that's when the 'helper' reveals their true colors, as the dark overlord, who needed a human that cheats death in order to harness the power of the moon ring and gain access to the throne.

Basically Malleus did the bidding of the actual dark emperor he initially swore to defeat. The emperor wanted to destroy Malleus, now that they got to the peak of their power, but Azul's shell pendant protects him, cracking up and crumbling apart from the immense power.

Only now realising the actual situation, Malleus sets to make his record straight and fix his mistake, by taking on the dark emperor and using all the power and knowledge he had gained through this adventure.

In the end, the dark emperor is defeated and the generals are given back their powers. When meeting again with Malleus, they are glad that finally, the threat of the dark emperor doesn't hang upon their kingdom anymore. As such, with the moon ring still on his finger, Malleus was almost crowned king, but he denies. He wanted Lilia, silver and Sebek back. That's why he got involved in this mumbo-jumbo in the first place.

But his wish cannot come true. As the 3 watches stopped ticking, meaning the 3 souls came in peace and passed away. Malleus is devastated, but in the end, Kalim is the one that gives him his pair of scissors, telling Malleus that he deserves to live, for their sake. To make them proud by becoming the best version of himself. He tells Malleus that the scissors are now his, so that he could visit them anytime. The ring also was his and they hope that one day, Malleus will raise to be the hero he, himself, wanted to be.

In the end, Idia is the one that guides Malleus back, the latter returning Ortho's watch along with the other 3. But Idia denies the other 3, telling to Malleus that he should keep them, as a reminder for what he strives to be and who he wants to make proud.

In the end, Malleus is back to his normal life and he's happy with it... :3

#twisted wonderland #asks :3

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