#in vlr the most i can think of her going through it is luna end after everyone dies + when sigma just abandons her in that route

[meowsticmarvels]

posted this on twt but god. i have talked a lot about how insane phi's character is to me but it's just. i will never get over how for most of both vlr and ztd she's relatively cold and unemotional but ztd has moments where she just. breaks. i.e. the shoot:live option of fire where she literally breaks down crying and can barely get a sentence out even BEFORE diana kills herself. or in the final decision when she fucking YELLS at delta and kicks him in the face not even out of reasons like with dio but out of sheer anger for everything he's put her though. like IDK. i fold easily for the "unemotional character is pushed to their breaking point and shows MUCH more emotion than usual" trope but its so fucking interesting. phi i love you we will get you therapy

[colourful-void]

I have finished Virtue's Last Reward!

what was that.

-

alright thoughts, here we go!

Im glad the time paradox thing was addressed, to my understanding it's like. the two branches diverge no matter what, but instead of living through the Good Branch, we're here on the Bad Branch. it's not going to cease to exist if Phi and Sigma and kyle??? can change the past, we're just fucked.

I'm with Tenmyouji! Junpei is never wrong I agree with him always. That is not the Akane Kurashiki i once knew. She is long gone. (spike chunsoft please bring her back)

This ending is so much more of a downer than the last one. I'm a little bummed out actually. Like I know Akane's telling me its up to me to save the world and everything but like. It's a narrative video game fuck the world man I want my little guys to be happy. 999 was weird as shit and has like. a higher active body body count (3 characters in game die no matter what as opposed to vlr's 0, but 7 billion if u count. the earth.), but despite all that? the ending feels hopeful. and then really weird because alice being there was such a jarring shift but like ignoring alice?? very good.

Actually, Akane talking to Kyle felt more like she was talking to me, Void, more than any other interaction in this entire game. "You want to know what happens between Dec24 and new years eve? then you have to go back. you have to do it." It's like a threat. What the hell akane. I do want to know. you're going to make me play another game but ur fucking right i do wanna know.

I'm glad that Tenmyouji and Quark will stay together. I love you Quark. I love you tenmyouji.

Seriously Phi explains jackshit.

Game thoughts as a whole! Uhh a little mixed? mixed! there's more I like than I dislike, but my thoughts are kind of. muddled a bit

A lot of things were frustrating (mainly puzzles) but a lot of things were really exciting (mainly story).

some puzzles were really exciting and fun (the whole archives, the lounge, the final cube puzzle, the pec door puzzles, the rec room) and some were really annoying (darts, most of the pantry, anything with a lot of math and cross referencing really). ((some of this is because im bad at puzzles!!)

Most of the story was really fun (All of Quark and Tenmyouji really, Luna's backstory, Dio's backstory i still hate him but its good, K's initial backstory just from his ending, going through the different endings and combinbing knowlege from em,) Some of it was really annoying (Sigma being gross to the girls, the weird radical 6 based contradictions, a significant portion of the ending though i dont feel fair making a full judgement on it because half of it still makes no sense to me and im not sure how much of this is sequel bait, the general sudden downer shift of it all)

menuing and q-o-l wise: i did get used to the sprites and menuing, though part of that comes from a shift to displaying it on my tv (the display darkens and softens it out a bit so its nicer,) and getting a controller (item tabbing!!!) though i never really ended up using the ingame notes past the first room. instead i took paper ntoes and my journal is a mess for it. i do have a very important complaint to raise re game display:

THE FUCKING MAP SECTIONS TAKE WAY TOO LONG!!!! unless you're already fastforwarding, it's really slow and there's no way to skip it! I know where the lounge is by now this is my 7th run but no i've gotta watch the little dot move all the way from the b floor warehouse and it's just really annoying. why was there not an option to just skip it. goddamn.

In review: im not sure what to think about vlr yet? It's definitely left me much more conflicted than 999, and I probably like 999 more overall. The twists in vlr were really fun and unexpected (favourites are the inital betrayal from alice turning into an ally, seeing k's mask come off, tenmyouji's picture of akane, the first time more stuff was added to the flowchart like that, seeing the moon and everything.) and there were a lot more of them, but i think the ones in 999 hit me harder, while there were fewer. (Learning akane was who died, learning ace's identity, when the dialouge switches to first person).

But i;ll be fair, I was probably always going to be biased towards 999? it's aesthetics are more my taste and while this sounds weird it's... a lot more down to earth than vlr? Vlr is really high concept and i feel like if I spend some time with it or look at stuff AROUND it i'll grow into it. but it's a lot more than i usually. swallow at once. im a weak man okay my brain can't handle it.

Vlr's ending much like it's beginning is gonna be one of those things i thing where at first im like 'fuck this' and then over time im going to really love it. I'm already liking it a lot more than I did like. 15 hours ago.

Will I play Zero Time Dilemma?

Well im curious where the story goes, but I'm also wondering like. Yes? Play it? or is like a 'play the first two and pretend zero time dilemma never happened' situation. my only interaction with the fandom of zero escape is whatever you all send me, and a meme of akane my brother once found.

Here's the part where I was gonna say that video games are expensive and I'd see based on ppl's reccomendations and pricing and how much I'd need to save whether and when i'd get it but like. i forgot steam summer sale is on and it's like. 9 dollars right now so I'll probably get it anyway.

still curious though, other people's opinions, please weigh in! do you think I'm being too harsh to vlr? is there something I haven't considered? do you need to play ZTD to really give VLR a fair shot? what are your favourite parts of vlr? did i completely fail to read something important in the game and its fucking my perception. should i go back and play those two endings that fuck over quark i avoided?

let me know!!

[strawberryjamsara]

I’m interested in your thoughts on ztd since you said you don’t think it’s that bad (I have never played a Zero Escape game btw)

Hmmmm. I’m probably gonna state some unpopular opinions in this but sure.

So I’m gonna start by saying I don’t think this entire game was one big asspull. There are several, but lots of stuff had been hinted at in earlier entries, and… unfortunately mind hack was foreshadowed in the very first entry. And sadly, it makes the twist that Cradle Pharmaceuticals was in the pocket of Brother which I didn’t like in vlr make more sense because it would mean Delta gathering more information on that. I think it’s the way it’s written that’s so infuriating. It’s essentially a last minute plot device that isn’t really properly explained, and doesn’t even have any bearing on the plot, which is better than if it was a huge inescapable part of the plot, but good lord it feels contrived.

I also heard a lot of decrying before playing this game that everyone was ooc but I… respectfully disagree. It felt more like a sense of not knowing the characters as well as I thought I did and trying to adjust my view. Akane is not running the game for the first time so it changes the way she acts. She’s vehemently against it when Junpei wants to kill everyone and yeah. Fair. She did kill people as part of the plan in 999 but for her, those were people who put her through misery and killed her. I can understand the shift in tone. She’s willing to kill to achieve her goals but she’s not bloodthirsty, and she’s in this timeline specifically to have the life she couldn’t in the others. She wants a fairy tale future, and she’ll even ruin another chance with Junpei to have this ideal. This is Akane Kurashiki, wanting things desperately to go back to normal after the nonary game, when they never can and never will.

Sigma I was expecting more mad scientist and evil vibes out of, but I think it’s more fascinating that he’s just himself but overly serious. He’s still a self sacrificial goofy dude, and knowing who he is and what he’s done makes it all the more stomach sinking when you see that, despite the change in tone, he IS Sigma. Sigma did what he did not out of any sort of malice or hatred towards anyone, not even for his children who suffered, but because he loved the world and everyone in it so much that it was worth everything he did to save it, which is so in line with his character in VLR, but to a horrific degree.

Also Junpei being emo. I’m fine with it. He went through a death game. Old man Junpei in VLR is a good person overall but he has had moments where if it came down to Quark or everyone else, he would choose Quark and this is the same but with Akane.

The new characters are where it starts to fall apart a bit…

So I think Diana was a good character and predecessor to Luna. I don’t really have much to complain about with her. She’s a kind person. Kind enough to kill six billion people. And that’s a brilliant premise of Sigmas love interest because, for the reasons listed above, she’s the perfect foil. Kind enough to save the world at the cost of people close to you and kind enough to doom it for the people close to you.

Carlos is also a good character. Sometimes all you need is a fun goofy dude who loves his friends and his little sister. I also think he’s a parallel to Aoi in a sense. Akane is close to some dude who won’t shut up about how important his sister is, and there’s moments where she directly calls to how he’d do anything for his sister, and all I can think is if she’s thinking of Aoi in that moments. Aoi would do anything for her. He doesn’t get much in the development department despite the fact that he’s one the only ones who remembers most of the timelines though, which is dissapointing. I liked that they took away the decision to have him shoot delta at the end. That was his choice in this world, and nothing else mattered to him at the moment.

Q is also a pretty good character. He’s a sweet kid, and I enjoyed his arc where he learns his role in the game and his nature, and still wants to form relationships and be happy.

And then you have the last two…. Mira and Eric

Mira had me fascinated when I learnt her backstory. A serial killer who wanted to know what a heart is. That’s cool! I can’t wait to see more! How she develops or gets worse! She has a deep sadness that she herself can’t understand, and she does love Eric, but not for him. She doesn’t even know what she wants or even seem to understand what she’s doing is wrong. It’s a beautifully toxic relationship. But we really don’t get anymore besides two scenes. I also thought they were gonna drop the reveal that she killed Eric’s mom because of the parallels between her first victim and him, but it didn’t really come out. Sad.

Eric is a character that I can see where a lot of the hate comes from, and I can also say he’s not a good person… but he’s a very interesting and sympathetic character. He’s gone through so much trauma, he has essentially become just like his dad, and he thinks love will fix him, because his dad was so happy when mom was alive, obviously this pretty woman will make him better too. We don’t really… get any conclusion though. He flip flops between finally calming down and being better to Q than his father was to him to rageaholic murderer, and the game ends with his kind send off to him which after all we’ve seen doesn’t feel like it’ll stick, and seemingly blissfully ignorant that his girlfriend wants to murder him. Again, like Mira, this was a character we could’ve watched get worse or better but we didn’t get anything.

So yeah the two extras on Q team didn’t really develop. I understand it’s hard to have characters in a story with multiple timelines have consistent development, but give us something man. Or better yet, just replace them with old characters who’d we already be able to recognize as full characters. Have Aoi there. It’d make the parallels to Carlos more obvious. And maybe Lotus, since this sort of mars mission seems up her alley. It’d also be very funny for these two to see each other again, they see each other on the base and spiderman point at each other. Oh, I actually love the idea of an Aoi Lotus Q team. I want this now.

But yeah then there’s the worst character of all… Delta.

Delta fucking sucks man. In 999 and VLR, Zero was the highlight, and now they follow up Akane and Sigmas act with this guy. The ‘complex motives’ stuff he keeps spouting is the kind of thing you put in your first draft with a ‘rewrite later.’ next to it. Like seriously? That’s what you come up with? You could’ve drawn from resentment of being abandoned by his parents, maybe have him bring up the whole ‘Timelines you shift to have the consequences left behind’ thing incorporated while he looks directly at Akane because he can’t shift and will have to deal with whatever choices his sister and father will make. I dunno. Do SOMETHING. Also why did he kill the dog? To make him more evil? Uchikoshi why did he kill the dog-

I like his design in the Zero costume though. It looks like a plague doctor which is very fitting. He’s still a dissapointing reveal of Brother though. And hey, if Dio was a clone of him why did he have blonde hair? Why did he have blonde hair Uchikoshi-

Also the models. They’re an improvement on VLR… but still bad. I’ll give them credit on how they stylized them a bit. They have defined lines that makes them look like sketches, and a very cool cell shaded style. When paused the game looks good! Only when paused though. The second these guys start moving it is laughably bad. Sigh. I miss the first games sprites.

But anyways. I think the game had a lot of stellar moments. Akane making her decision to save the world from R6 hurt, and I also adored all of c teams interactions. Diana giving the phone call that reveals she was the one in vlr who we heard declare she’d kill 6 billion had my heart in my stomach. Carlos telling everyone he was friendly while covered in blood… was hilarious.

I think overall the game had great scenes to set up VLR and while the near ending and villain reveal were incredibly bad, I think I liked where it left off. The characters make the decision to create their own future, and break free from the shifting and loops we always see, and for finality’s sake, Carlos pulls the trigger without any alternate routes. That’s a good ending. Delta still sucks but that’s a damn good ending.

So overall, I think the game has some dropped arcs and a woefully bad villain in a game that lives and dies by its villains, but it is NOT the worst ending to a series I’ve ever seen, go watch the dr3 anime and then tell me that this ruined the series for you.

[wherestarsarestillasleep]

p5 joker for the character bingo, and sigma/diana for the ship bingo? (if you haven’t done them in the past that is!!!)

hehe ask games i love ask games

Joker's hard to talk about because he's... not anything. I love his design and his mannerisms and thats all there Is to like about a silent protagonist. I'm fond of the image of him I created in my head and some of the trends in how fanfics tend to depict him. I appreciate that because the persona writers simply did not write him he is the only character free from the persona writers' bullshit. i hesitate to say persona would be better if the protagonist wasn't silent because of this. In the blank space where the character you play as in persona 5 should be like in the outlines of his context and the small cues about him i think there's fucking interesting space to elaborate on and picture a good character. lyrics of shapeshifter (??? the poes masquerade song) are interesting in the context of a silent protagonist thats really cool, the way Arsene talks to him is interesting that's actually the most direct character we get on him right because Arsene is a facet of Joker with real set in stone dialog and what he says is aren't you tired of being nice don't you want to go apeshit. ravage them. i like akira in my head and hey i like elaborating on characters in fic and a blank one makes a very obvious space to do that so i guess thats one benefit of him not talking

they are more interesting offscreen than in ztd. largely it makes luna way cooler her being created in the image of a dead woman who she exists partly to kinda sorta bring back to life/be replaced by in a better world is sick. the secret password in the gaulem bay being "reminescence" is sad with Diana in mind. i think she is a cool backdrop of context to VLR the rhizome does get sadder going through it with her in mind. there's a lot of weird stuff to explore with how like. sigma can only meet her after she already knows him, she can only meet sigma after he already knows her. she falls in love with a dude and then he gets really essentially replaced by a very different 40 years younger version of himself and she is just kinda bound to be his anchor assistant

but whats actually in the game. i barely remember a thing about diana ever other than the happiness is closer than you think scene which is good and the two parts where delta talks to her. like i just cannot tell you much about diana she leaves very little impression on me. and ztd sigma well he doesnt really either... theyre fine? their end is one of the better parts of ztd. or at least one of the more memorable. Like most of ztd there's some theoretically interesting concepts you can expand on in fic etc but the game itself doesnt get and/or utilize the space to go into it much itself.

[mesaprotector]

After about a week to recover following 999, I started Virtue's Last Reward.

Thoughts after having made an attempt at each path down the branch that starts with going through the magenta door with Luna.

Compared to 999, there are things I like more, and things I like less. But either way it's another incredibly cool and fun game.

I'm not sold on most of the characters yet, but a lot of them do seem really interesting and more complex than in 999. I may have loved Seven but I can't claim his motives are all that unique. VLR seems to be doing a lot more exploration of how the same people can act in seemingly contradictory ways. Like, in the very first ending I reached, K chose "betray" in an attempt to leave everyone behind. But in at least one other ending he chooses "ally" knowing it'll likely doom him. Nearly all of the characters who survive long enough to be put in morally ambiguous situations (sorry, Alice) show that kind of duality, and that makes them feel even more human.

(Anyone who's seen Akanesasu Shoujo, which Uchikoshi came up with the concept for - this is pretty much its entire premise.)

The aesthetics are the main downgrade, I think. Even though I have some fondness for sterile industrial-type spaces, the setting of VLR feels very gloomy and dead. That may be intentional, but regardless it doesn't match up to the claustrophobic-but-cozy ship's interior from 999. The 3D character models also feel uncanny-valley at times, particularly Clover's (though it might just be noticeable with her since she was in 999, and adorable in it).

As for gameplay, the puzzles are solid and on the same level as those in 999. I've played only in "hard" so far, and I kind of miss the other characters giving you hints like they did in 999 - it made them seem smarter :P That' totally my fault and my choice, though, so no use complaining.

I’m very familiar with the Prisoner’s Dilemma (which the Ambidex Game totally is), and being so I immediately chose “ally” with Luna on the first round. It helps that Luna is an absolute cinnamon roll (it physically hurt me to betray her while checking out different endings).

If a Prisoner’s Dilemma lasts only one round, the rational self-interested choice is always “betray”. But since this version is repeated that isn’t the case. In fact, assuming nobody in the group is out for sabotage, and given some time to think about it, I’m reasonably sure everybody would choose “ally” in Zero III’s version. Of course, the evil porcelain rabbit (I really do love this kind of villain don’t I) made sure to not give people any time to think things through - and even one betrayal in the first round makes things very messy, almost guaranteeing someone will be left trapped.

I almost want to say that VLR feels a bit too "structured" - there are no dialogue choices except when the story branches, and you don't have characters breaking into sudden conversations about curses and monitors and Locke's Socks in the middle of an escape room. But the extra choices and not knowing what mattered and what didn't was a touch frustrating in 999 (I still have no idea which things I had to do right to get Clover to not axe me to death), and it'd be a lot more so in a game with 19+ endings instead of 6.

As to speculation - I feel maybe everyone in the Nonary Game is a clone like Dio. At least, I forget what year 999 was set in, but Clover makes no sense in this game, and it makes even less that she’s coworkers with a woman named Alice whose makeup is meant to make her look ancient Egyptian. Speaking of Dio, I really tried to find something worth liking about him, but failed. He's an asshole, he gets in everyone's way, and he acts incredibly stupid at times. I guess finding out that he's a member of a religious cult who's hanging out with us for unspecified reasons explains part of that, but it doesn't make me stop rolling my eyes every time he starts talking.

I’m going to keep trying to explore one or two more endings each evening in the near future. I know the consensus seems to be that VLR is the best game in the series, and I’m really trying not to have my expectations too high. But for now I’m really having fun.

[easyfella]

plaudite. acta est fabula: thots on my third vlr playthrough

annnnnd done

with all the alt timelines down and all but two secret files obtained, i’m feeling pretty good ending my 3rd (and probably last for at least a long, long time) vlr playthough at a slick 20 hours. i’m pretty excited for my dual phds in metaphysics and philosophy, earned from completing the famed “tripletion” (triple completion), to come in the mail!! anyway, i enjoyed the game, but holy shit, do i have some things to say (spoilers and everything else beneath the cut as always).

i guess i’ll start with the fact that this is a hell of time to pick this game up again, concerned as it is with quarantines and pandemics and plagues and all that. Radical-6 I think hit me harder than it did when I first played this game when i was 15 (context: i turned 21 this last december), for obvious reasons. I remember at one point the game says that 100,000 people died from R6 and it was a huge, global tragedy ... weird to see that so directly mirrored in just the US headlines alone. I don’t have much more to say about the pandemic aspect of the game, but it was a weird thing to start off my playthrough confronting. 

Like I mentioned, my first playthrough was when I was 15, my second I think I was 17, and here I am 4 years later. So why do I keep going back to this game? Well, for one, the plot is dense enough, and my brain is sparse enough, that i find myself surprised by one aspect or another every time. This time, Dio’s blackmailing Sigma to get the Axelever (sp? who cares), how much I liked K, and a lot of the plot after the final puzzle room were surprises for me. That being said, there were also things I dreaded and did not want to revisit: Quark’s and Alice’s suicidality, the part after the first AB game where you go to three different rooms and people info dump on you, most of the puzzle rooms tbh, and good god the part where Luna’s face melts off. I hate it. I hated it at 15, I hate it now. 

And, though my memories are quite fuzzy on ZTD, I’ll say (expanding on Luna’s face melting off) that this is the only game in the series that inspires genuine dread from me. I think, honestly, that it’s 70% how uncanny the models are. K is the only that looks remotely OK, and that’s because he’s a big silly suit of armor in a monk robe. On the flip side, though, this uncanny valley I think works tonally very well for the game. It makes me feel uncomfortable to look at the visuals. Half the environments look like they’re from the original Silent Hill, for God’s sake. It’s not good, but it’s serviceable, and even functional in an accidental sort of way. However, the visuals are the reason I’ve never been able to recommend this game to other people (that and the walls of text, the obscure psuedoscientific rants, the way Alice’s tits are just out ...). 999 is far-and-away the more charming game visually, but I think VLR in its own way has carved out a visual style that works, though it’s jarring initially. Though, I do wonder how approachable the game is in 2020 compared to in 2012, or in 2014 when i played it. I think our need for quality graphics and disdain for poor graphics (especially this sort of ugly, gumby shit) have only increased since. I guess if anyone has any more thoughts on how they feel about the graphics and how approachable it makes the game, pls feel free to dm me. I’d love to talk about how weird this game is.

Changing subjects, I remember liking the music quite a bit more on my earlier playthroughs. Maybe that’s nostalgia talking, or maybe I’ve just grown as a music listener since high school. Probably both. I think it’s really appropriate for the game and great for setting a mood (and I love, love the twist in the credits track), but I think some tracks were overused. “Dun dun .... Dun dun ... Dun dun”  ad nauseam. Uh oh! I know that track! Looks like something deeply horrifying is about to happen! ^_^ I sure hope it’s not that same ugly rendering of Alice being stabbed in the chest :3c (it is. it is the same ugly rendering of Alice being stabbed in the chest.)

Maybe I’ve come across as overly critical, but I do have a deep appreciation for this game. I think that it easily has the best premise I’ve ever, ever come across in a video game, and, no jokes, every game I’ve played since I first came across VLR has failed in comparison to how absolutely genius i think this game is. I’m not exaggerating. The way the plot mirrors the actions of the player, the unique incentivisation of replaying, the way it lets me just be straight up evil occasionally, the twists, the turns, the way i had to cut off my own arm using a warehouse door. the list goes on. The reveal of Zero Sr. is, I think, the most impactful twist in a piece of media i’ve ever experienced. Perhaps I’m a buffoon, but i think this game slam dunks it in terms of pure plot showmanship. that said, i think the exact details of what’s going on where and why (especially at the end irt Kyle, but that’s more of an issue to do with ZTD, and we’ll come to that when we come to that) can get quite murky. 

Admittedly, the game does explain what’s happening; in fact, oftentimes it takes an infuriating amount of time walking through the minutia of what was going on where (the infamous door and map animations are infamous for a reason), but i think that a vague gesture toward the plot is all i need, or really all i get from the game at the end of the day. For me, the plot is more of a vehicle for the scenarios of the nonary games, not the other way around. In a sense, I could care less who’s at what point in time where -- just let me brutally betray this old man in a prisoner’s dilemma situation.  And the game, after pontificating, eventually does. and I fucking love that. God, I adore just smashing that betray button. 

And that’s the fun of the game. Past the over-detailed plot, the predictable music, the gummy looking character models, I love vlr because of how it lets me interact with its world and its characters. I always get to choose either ally or betray, and what happens happens because of that choice that I made. I wish more video games operated like that. Also, I just love Phi. I know this paragraph isn’t about her, but i love rude girls. 

So, I think that’s that. VLR is a mixed bag, but I’m ecstatic that it evens exists, bizarre as it is. 

i’ll be starting my ZTD playthrough probably soon. I don’t remember much about the game besides playing on launch day, finishing it within 48 hours, and being vaguely disappointed, but it’ll be good to move on from all this murdering in VLR to a whole different set of murders.

[pomegranate-belle]

I'm having like massive fucking difficulties picking a mere 500 words from MK1-END, so I kinda want to just give you the entire section beginning 'The elevator is locked, and there’s no way out. They’re all going to die.' and ending 'What’s happening around her, around them, fades away, but she can feel soothing heat and sadness and an ache in their chest,' and let you decide how much from that you want to do, and how.

Oh boy, I have a feeling this is gonna get long but… Oh welllmao

Ok, so… This first part is sort of the first time we’reseeing into the main ZTD cast – like, before that there’s sections that shiftaway from Kyle and Maria, but they’re short and they’re still tangential to thejourney those two are taking. But it’s way, way more exciting to have Kyle-Mariashow up from a different point of view than theirs. Also I might have some CSexperience but I know -5 about hacking, I am admitting that now, that wasdefinitely part of the reason the narrative shifted away from them at thatspecific moment lol

After that, it kind of devolves into Delta, and Delta’sthought process. I’m gonna be honest with you I wasn’t really… Convinced bywhat he says in ZTD and I think that ended up reflecting here. I think I kepthis arguments relatively in line with the ones he makes in the game, but I hadthe others, Maria especially, cut in with my objections to his logic. The wholestory is about Kyle and Maria working together, sharing their strength back andforth to save their families, but when they argue against Delta in unison, thatwas the one thing I really wanted them to connect on. The idea that they’d hadtheir worlds manipulated by him and that instead of just acquiescing they wererejecting his right to do that.  

It’s sort of the climax of the story, I think. In the sensethat it’s a culmination of their shared strength and their determination tochange the timeline they’ve been put into. But the part immediately after:

“You’re lying,”Maria realizes slowly.

Her lips are numb,and she doesn’t quite know the meaning of what she’s seen, but it’s there.Something, huge, something he’s not telling them. She thinks it must be aboutLeft, but she’s never been able to learn enough about him or about Free theSoul to be able to determine now what Delta’s motives truly are.

That was actually one of the first parts of the story Iwrote. And it really reflected my own views when I reached the ZTD True End forthe first time. We never got the backstory about FtS that we were promised, soeven though I was absolutely certain Delta was lying to us, there wasn’t enoughcontext to figure out why or about what.

And then we return to the gun. It’s er… Well, I guess wecould call it Chekov’s Gun, couldn’t we… I tried not to draw direct attentionto it, but the question of ‘where’s the gun, who’s holding it, where is itpointed’ was on my mind the entire scene inside the Test Facility. Which ofcourse leads to the gun ending up in Diana’s hands. Sort of a mirror to themoment in the game where we put her in a similar situation as Delta does here.I always knew I wanted it to be her. Eric is the gun-happy nutbar, but Dianaand Delta’s relationship is too interesting not to try and play with like that.

Maria jumping into Delta’s body was also something I wantedto explore kind of from the beginning. Just because we the player (or in thecase of this fic’s canon, Maria herself) were inside Delta’s PoV the wholetime. The thought of going back to it knowingly, even though she didn’t wantto, was interesting. And the truth is that the part about him not letting go ofher… My brain was absolutely 100% on that scene near the end of Anastasia lmaosorry Delta you are Rasputin now.

And then, after all the drama, I had to insert a littlelevity. Thus the “oh no she’s hot” exchange, which was an enormous amount offun to write. And it was a good transition into the Phi/Maria from the prompts.They (obviously) don’t interact in canon, so it was tough to try and find adynamic for them and a way to parse the attraction so that it wouldn’t read astoo sudden and unrealistic. With ? being Maria, I had a lot more leeway withthat, since she ended up getting to know everyone from VLR really well bydefault. But I mean, being the big fucking romance dork I am, I had to do the Lady-and-the-Tramp-esquebit where they touch hands.

I added in my own little headcanon about ZTD Dr. Klim – I’msure if you look at my old ZE posts it’s there somewhere – being the youngSigma from VLR. I was very proud of that bit because time loops always N

I couldn’t resist Carlos scolding Maria for the cuss words,probably because that stupid “Language!!” gag from AoU was on my brain. I alsocouldn’t resist namedropping Dio because I just gd love that garbage clone.What a fucking tool.

The exchange afterwards between Dr. Klim and Diana was atough one. Not in the sense that it was difficult to imagine the exchange, butin that I wasn’t really sure how to resolve it. Of course Dr. Klim was havingthe same problem, so maybe that’s why it worked out in the end. I think Idefinitely drew on a lot of Doctor Who related angst for that exchange.Everything from the Journey’s End exchange to that phone call in Deep Breath.The idea that the version of the person that you love is gone and a strangerthat is also paradoxically him is taking his place is one that’s pretty uniquebut it fits in ZE and in Doctor Who, thanks to the power of time travel.

This part here:

He takes a moment,breathes. Flexes the fingers that are and are not his own. The way he looksdown, aside, is one Maria knows intimately because Kyle recognizes it as hisown – a nervous tic to hide his fear of rejection.

Is one I added one one of my later passes, I think. But I’mreally proud of it. There are definitely ways in which Kyle and Sigma aresimilar and I think that this sort of emotional fragility is one of them. Ireally liked the thought of expressing that similarity through a gestureinstead of words.

Originally, I wasn’t going to have Kyle express a desire toleave so soon. But after the scene between Dr. Klim and Diana, this sort ofsinking feeling hit me. Or Kyle? Both of us I guess. Because it’s true he doesn’treally belong in 2028. He could, maybe, eventually… But then it hit me that hestill had unfinished business in 2074. And maybe that was always in the back ofmy head, that need for a resolution with Luna, just because she’s so near anddear to my heart. And the reason that Kyle begins to see her differently isbecause he sees her through Maria’s eyes, so in that way she’s helping him onelast time.

Their exchange about meeting again, I’m sure I’ve admittedto this before somewhere, is absolutely based on the “End: Lost in the Waves” FEFates DLC. That, in addition to the epilogue, was added on my second or thirdpass through the fic. Originally it ended with Phi and Maria holding hands, butI wanted to see Kyle again, so changes were made.

In the same way that I wanted to hint to a Kyle-Lunaresolution, I knew I had to start mending the ties between Sigma and Kyle,which is what his exchange is all about. I can’t remember who it was that madethat comic about Sigma getting attached to his clones but they kept dying andeventually he cut himself off from them but I think that played a lot into howI conceptualized their relationship. Now that their mission is done, there’snothing holding them back, there’s no longer a wall between them. And Kyle wasnever sure if that was really the problem, or if Sigma just truly didn’t care,so that reassurance is really important to him.

And of course I couldn’t have Kyle leave without talking toDiana. But in addition to having no idea what they would say to one another, Ialso wanted to expand a little bubble of privacy to them. Playing with the waythe body-sharing works was part of it too, because I think up until that pointthe only one who’d leaned back out of control far enough to mute the outside worldwas Kyle. I wanted to see it from Maria’s perspective too, and emphasize thatat their core – emotionally – they’re still connected no matter how far theylean apart.

I guess that’s all of it lmao wow.. I hope that didn’t soundtoo pretentious, I’m sure I got a little long-winded but look….. I revised thatfic like ten times before I posted it and it’s really one of my most polishedworks and I am So Damn Proud of it!

[jupujuu]

for 1: olivia/juni, bonny/trucy, junpei/carlos/june & december/iiri (and prax/arlee as a joker because man, lemme tell you-) / for 2: praxus, harry mason, tová, luna (vlr) / for 3: all your humanoid ocs

Oh what a pleasant surprise, didn’t expect you out of all people to send me something. ;)

001

Olivia/Juni:

when I started shipping it if I did: When it was first brought up, honestly… sooo, last year?

my thoughts: Olivia is way too hot for Juni tbh. But! I guess personality counts for a lot so Juni is forgiven for not being a hotbabe.

what makes me happy about them: I love how they’re kind of similar in some aspects but at the same time pretty different! Like how they’re both highly compassionate and trusting, but due to past happenings they view these traits very differently; Juni embraces them while Olivia kind of views them as a hindrance, and so on. Not to mention that they’re just, like, really cute together and I honestly can’t wait to see how their dynamic is going to develop in the future!

what makes me sad about them: All the bad stuff that’s gonna happen to them B’) Gotta be sad before you get to be happy wooo

things done in fanfic that annoys me: hmm I wonder

things I look for in fanfic: gay

who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: IDK there aren’t that many characters yet for me to choose from lol

my happily ever after for them: Peace and quiet! ;’0 And happy family life and no sad times!

who is the big spoon/little spoon: Juni is the big spoon ‘cause she big, though I honestly can’t see her opposing to the idea of Olivia being the big spoon either haha

what is their favorite non-sexual activity: Crying probably? I mean like that’s what they’ve been pretty good at lately? On a more serious note though, I’m not sure. :0 Their current situation doesn’t really allow fun lmao

Bonny/Trucy:

when I started shipping it if I did: As soon as I learned how much Bonny adores Trucy! I thought it was super cute ahah

my thoughts: They’re just, you know, a real feel-good couple to me :’0

what makes me happy about them: That they’re such good friends even after the trial and that Trucy is such an inspiration to Bonny and continues to support her! ; v ; Oh and I’m also glad that Bonny didn’t turn out to be the murderer bc somehow MY FAVOURITE IS ALWAYS THE MURDERER lmao

what makes me sad about them: That Bonny will probably never be seen again……

things done in fanfic that annoys me: IDK man I don’t read fanfic

things I look for in fanfic: gay

who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: Trucy/Pearl is pretty good! As for Bonny… I dunnooo we never saw her interact with that many characters.

my happily ever after for them: Not sure, they’re like… literal babies, so just let them be literal babies and do baby stuff for now. Going on fun dates and doing magic shows together. ;>

who is the big spoon/little spoon: Trucy is the big spoon mmmmmaybe?

what is their favorite non-sexual activity: Preparing for magic shows and learning new tricks, honestly! They’re both super into it!

Junpei/Carlos/Akane:

when I started shipping it if I did: Shortly after finishing ZTD last year!

my thoughts: These three made such a perfect team in ZTD, I doubt I would have liked Carlos nearly as much if he had been teamed up with anybody else!

what makes me happy about them: Their awesome dynamic, I loved all their interactions in ZTD ahaha

what makes me sad about them: Not canon :(

things done in fanfic that annoys me: Still haven’t read any fanfic

things I look for in fanfic: stuff

who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: Junpei and Akane work well as a couple too, but other than that I don’t know really! Akane/Sigma is also pretty good tho.

my happily ever after for them: Happy peaceful domestic life without awful life-or-death games

who is the big spoon/little spoon: Carlos is the big spoon usually, Junpei is always the little spoon, Akane can be anything she wants and no one objects

what is their favorite non-sexual activity: Teaching Akane how to solve sudokus… B’) It’s a good skill to have you know!

December/Iiri:

when I started shipping it if I did: I can’t remember anymore ahah. Way back when December was introduced? ;0

my thoughts: They’re so good for what they are, I think having a slowly developing, light-hearted ship like this really balances out all the more… dramatic ones, haha

what makes me happy about them: They’re just two ordinary sweethearts living their ordinary lives and being happy most of the time. It would be boring in any other universe but works so well for these two! : v ;

what makes me sad about them: Nothing really!

things done in fanfic that annoys me: pls show me some hot Berry/Iiri fanfic

things I look for in fanfic: gay

who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: No one! >:( … I just don’t know any other PKMNation characters that well ahahha.

my happily ever after for them: Just being happy and raising a million Vulpixes and Lillipups and Eevees etc

who is the big spoon/little spoon: Wow I’m not sure actually! Either of them would work as either, tbh, but maybe Iiri likes being the big spoon hahah

what is their favorite non-sexual activity: Skipping farm work to do something way more fun!

Prax/Arlee (hhhgh why are u doing this to me u know I’m weak):

when I started shipping it if I did: I’M NOT SHIPPING THEM I PROMISE

my thoughts: Too early to say anything definitive but I’m seriously liking their interactions so far! Just two dragons with TONS of baggage, sheesh. Poor kids. I also want them to FIGHT someday

what makes me happy about them: The fact that Arlee could probably lift Prax and carry him around like no problem and I fucking love that mental image bc Arlee is such a tiny

what makes me sad about them: I mean I could list a lot of things that make me sad about each of them individually, but as an item? I don’t know at the moment? Maybe the fact that they could work really well together but they’re both so good at emotionally distancing themselves from others that it’d take them five hundred years to realize it

things done in fanfic that annoys me: omg I would love to read some fanfic of these two actually

things I look for in fanfic: things ;)

who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: Again, not too many characters to choose from right now! I think I had a dream involving Tová/Arlee so I guess that could be good? but I dunno.

my happily ever after for them: Just let them rest please, they’ve been through so much……. damn imagine how cute their kids would be though NO, I’M NOT GOING THERE

who is the big spoon/little spoon: Arlee sucks at being the big spoon but she tries! Usually it’s Prax tho

what is their favorite non-sexual activity: Napping bc Arlee needs lots of sleep and Prax just rolls with it

002

Prax:

how I feel about this character: I really like him so far, but I want to know more about him and his past! I want to know what made my sad boy so sad (well I do know some things but not everything)

all the people I ship romantically with this character: no no no don’t ask me about this

my non-romantic OTP for this character: Arlee for sure!

my unpopular opinion about this character: I doubt I have any. :D

one thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I can’t wait for the ghosts of his past to show up! B) He also needs to fuckign punch Juni in the face or something bc come on, she tried to kill you, man! Oh and like I said he should FIGHT ARLEE TOO honestly just have him fight everyone and be angry (and cry too) … okay no, he should never ever fight Olivia. No one should.

my OTP: None yet, really! Why are there so many shippy questions!

my cross over ship: Eh I’m not a huge fan of crossovers, especially with OCs

a headcanon fact: I’m… not sure if I have anything for him yet? :’0

Harry Mason a.k.a. my husband:

how I feel about this character: I’d marry him right here and right now if he appeared on my doorstep

all the people I ship romantically with this character: Me

my non-romantic OTP for this character: Lisa :’0

my unpopular opinion about this character: SHSM Harry is the fucking best

one thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: He could’ve, like, you know, lived. I would’ve really liked that.

my OTP: Harry x me

my cross over ship: Harry x me

a headcanon fact: He actually has glasses in SH1 too but he either lost them or wore contacts when in Silent Hill ;( I love Harry with glasses! 

Tová a.k.a. my wife:

how I feel about this character: Tová has such a lovely design and even though I don’t really know much about her actual personality yet, I’m absolutely in love with her. * o * And feel so bad for her too! Way too much suffering for a babe like her hhhhh

all the people I ship romantically with this character: Me Like I said, Arlee is pretty cool but other than that I don’t know. Would need to know more about her to make my call ;0

my non-romantic OTP for this character: Tová/Thaolas were probably really nice when they were younger ;( Also Tová/Arlee again, I think I prefer them this way even if my dreams tell me otherwise

my unpopular opinion about this character: Hard to have unpopular opinions about OCs haha

one thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: GIVE HER A CHANCE AT HAPPINESS AT LONG LAST!! ANd also give her glasses please, she needs to see

my OTP: I still don’t know! ;’(

my cross over ship: –

a headcanon fact: Since I don’t know much about how she used to be before she was uh, imprisoned, I think most of my guesses about her personality are headcanons at this point? :D All things considered, I’ve seen her as altruistic, well-meaning and maybe rather weak-willed so far? But seriously, no matter how her personality turns out, I’m sure I’ll love her so much hhnhg

Luna a.k.a. (also) my wife:

how I feel about this character: I would die for her pretty much, absolutely the loveliest character ever who isn’t one of our OCs haha

all the people I ship romantically with this character: Clover! Sigma too! :’0 Alice/Luna is very cute also. There are so many good Luna ships!

my non-romantic OTP for this character: Sigma/Luna again! I think this is how they work best, really.

my unpopular opinion about this character: She’s the best ZE character ever? I dunno, is that an unpopular opinion? Maybe not.

one thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: HAPPY ENDING & FREEDOM

my OTP: Luna/Clover! ;0

my cross over ship: Luna x me

a headcanon fact: She thinks it is normal to pay almost 2000 dollars for a dress at a flea market. :—D Oh wait, that is canon, kinda.

003

I think you meant like… picking five faves out of all my OCs instead of ranking them ALL, right?? :–D

I couldn’t decide how to actually rank these five so they’re in alphabetical order! Honestly though, my top five is highly influenced by which universe is currently the most inspiring to me… so yeah, if you sent me this ask again next year, my answer could be drastically different! ;0 Either way, let’s go:

Arlee

Juni

Liese

Valeria

Viira

I was a bit hesitant to put both Arlee and Juni up there because even though they’re my current loves, I’m not sure if they’re actually top five material? But for now yes, they are, and they totally could be in the future as well! Arlee has gotten a ton of backstory within the past couple of months and is such a good character now (and very different from what she was supposed to be!), while Juni is still the best thought-out of these two and has a very special place in my heart always.

Liese was a no-brainer, she’s one of my all-time faves for sure. I’m surprised her sis Valeria ended up in my top five too, but eh, maybe that one RP marathon boosted my love for her. ;> Gotta love them Finkels.

I knew from the get-go that one of my PU characters would take one of these spots, and I wasn’t 100% certain if it should be Viira or Charlotte. I definitely RPd as Lotte a lot, lot more, but by the end of the day, when I look at Viira’s story arc as a whole, I couldn’t not go with her. She just breaks my heart. ; O ;

Honorable mentions yo! Also in alphabetical order:

Charlotte, Dahlia, Diana, Iiri, Sinna, Vance, Verna, Viika

[mortaveritas]

dumping some headcanons about sigma and family, huge spoilers (vlr and ztd) under the cut

first, his home life. In-game, Sigma claims that his family was “average”, he’s not rich (no great ransom), but not poor either. We don’t really get anything more than that, though.

Honestly, I’m kinda conflicted on what I think his family is like. On the one hand, I love the idea of him having a very large family, both because I feel it fits, and I feel like it makes a nice contrast with Phi. On the other, the idea of him having a deadbeat dad (and that being part of why he’s so abysmal as a father) is also quite plausible.

I do see the potential of mixing these HCs, tho. It’s possible that he was raised by his mother, but his extended family was still large. I doubt he’d have contact with his paternal grandparents/family, but his maternal grandparents would still be alive. (perhaps his mom just had a lot of sisters? potential for cousins there.)

Regardless though, I feel like while the family was large, it didn’t get together super often. There’d be a big get together at christmas, and a family reunion in the summer, but other than that? not much, really. And as well, there still weren’t that many positive male role models in his life. He didn’t really see what a dad was supposed to be like.

Sigma and women is a... complicated issue. He’s hopelessly perverted and doesn’t stop making jokes, and yet at the same time, he proves that he does know when to be compassionate, and when to shut up with the quips. He can take things too far, certainly, but he also does(usually) back off when they tell him to.

So, I feel like I’m confident in saying that he had good female role models growing up, mostly in his mother. He probably has a lot of respect for her (considering she raised him on her own). The perversion and stuff is just because he’s a dumb frat boy who talks first and thinks second, usually. he gets better with age.

for kids.... oh god that’s complicated. so fucking complicated.

first, in vlr: Sigma isn’t super awkward around Quark (when he’s awake). He’s definitely not a good role model for a kid, but he cares and he wants to keep quark safe. Hell, look what he does in quark’s ending- he lets himself get betrayed and then severs his fucking arm just to save Quark’s life.

However.... all good things must come to an end. and the good thing that comes to an end here is sigma being ok with kids.

I mentioned in a different post, but I was talking with indigocrash about just random headcanon things about Sigma and Kyle and Diana and Luna, and I really now like the idea that DIana was pregnant (and lost the pregnancy) right around when she died.

so right off the bat, we’ve got Sigma having a very upsetting experience regarding children. He loses his wife and unborn child (probably within the span of a month-2 weeks), and he knows. He knows what’s going to happen, but he pushes it off.

The next thing he does is create Luna, out of loneliness. After time he realizes that he needs to start seeing her as her own person, and not Diana, so he tweaks her personality and voice so that he has to force himself to see her as a separate person. And, it works- Sigma acknowledges that Luna is her own woman, and he starts to see her as a daughter. It’s about then when he gives her the blue bird and tells her the (albeit depressing) story that does with it. It was a symbol- he wanted to tell her that she was capable of being more than just what she was programmed for. That she was capable of becoming her own person, despite her status as a gaulem.

So, he’s got Luna, his daughter. But then, Kyle. Oh, Kyle, my poor poor boy.

I’ve mentioned numerous times about the HC where kyle dies over and over, so I won’t go more into it here. However, that’s what really screws with him, in the end. It sorta puts the final nail in the coffin of him becoming “dr. Klim”, as he distances himself more and more.

I do feel like he’d still talk more to Akane and Luna, but he just can’t bring himself to get close to kyle. In the period where Kyle works with him, I do think it makes him genuinely happy as well- but he knows it can’t last.

When Sigma finds out about Phi in ztd, I feel like he’d almost feel guilty. Because he has Phi, sure, but he’s lost Luna and Kyle.

Hell, it’s possible for him to recreate Luna, and because quantum computers it’s technically possible that he could create a ‘shifted’ copy of her personality, with her memories, and bring it to the good timeline. But kyle... oh, my dear sweet boy. My poor boy.

There’s two options to how Kyle can get to the ZTD true end timeline. One, the idea that I really like and actually do hc: he shifts with the spare carlos, the one that should be there from the transporter. That means that Carlos is “???”, I get to be happy because carlos and junpei meet up again in vlr timeline (and akane too, go to earth and see your tsundere fiance who’s too stubborn to see you), and I also get to be happy because Kyle on the true end. It’s the best-case scenario- Sigma can have his ‘family’, no matter how broken it kinda is. He could introduce Luna and Diana (lol that’d be a fucked up conversation), and Kyle could have an actual mother (although tbh i feel like he’d be really damn reluctant because a) not akane and b) looks like luna).

Now, this would still not be a happy ending- there’s no real ending where Kyle can just forgive Sigma. That’s not gonna happen, not after years and years of parental neglect. However, I do hope that at the very least, there’d be the possibility of some form of reconciliation. The idea that they could at least get along as ‘friends’, although not perhaps good friends.

The second, and far more depressing option, is that Sigma himself shifts with Kyle. There’s a lot to be lost here- depending on theories, it could almost be suicidal. (if you agree that having 2 of the same consciousness in the same timeline aware of each other would fuck things up, like a schrodinger’s cat situation. everything’s fine, until you know there’s two.)

In this case, one of the Sigmas would have to die- if the action of shifting with Kyle didn’t kill one/both of them right off the bat. It would be tragic for Diana, Phi would likely be goddamn pissed at him, and honestly? I don’t think Kyle would want that. It’s a better world, maybe, but it’s a world where he knows nobody apart from Phi. Akane isn’t the same, tenmyouji isn’t tenmyouji, and even Phi knows too much.

the hidden, best option? transporter. Clover and Alice heavily imply that they’re going to use it in the end of VLR, which means that Sigma knows where it is. And, how to still activate it.

My best idea, then? Clover and Alice go first (transporting to the early radical-6 outbreak to meet with Light and the other sois people), then ten months later, it’s Quark and Kyle.

I love this idea the most because a) Quark getting to live through an actual happy world is amazing, and also he gets to see young grandpa and just, a world where junpei doesn’t get to meet quark is kinda sad,,,, and b) Kyle gets to go to the good ending without feeling like he’s stolen anything. Plus, him and Quark can relate to each other about  things- i could almost see him sorta big bothering Quark.

I... I think I lost my train of thought along the line.

but, yeah. let quark and kyle use the transporters 2k74.

[meowsticmarvels]

one of the things i WILL give zero time dilemma credit for is how most of the past participants from 999 and vlr just. get Worse mentally.

junpei the hero-type character in 999 who's a bit awkward but tries to save everyone to struggling with the trauma from it all and his detective work in ztd. now falling down the path of cynicism. he says he used to drink himself to sleep most nights and slept in the shower just to get the blood off. by the time of ztd he's learned not to trust people and knows people have to die - he just wants akane to be safe at LEAST. even if it means sacrifice.

with akane its not as obvious but she's no longer got the control she had in the nonary game. she's alive, junpei saved her, but she's not zero anymore. she can't prevent people from dying like she did in her nonary game. losing junpei makes her lose it a few times - to the point of violence towards carlos and its so insane. or her willingness to sacrifice d-team and other versions of c-team so they can SHIFT elsewhere. it's crazy. she also knows, vaguely, about the radical-6 apocalypse future and it's vlear from how she acts in c-end that she's willing to go to any measures to stop it

sigma's come back from the future having spent 45 long years preparing for the 2074 nonary game, almost completely alone on the moon. he watched diana die, built luna in his grief, and now sees her here. he KNOWS what he's done to kyle. and now he's trapped in the opposite situation as himself in vlr - the mind of a 67-year old man stuck in a 22-year old's body. and it's clear from how he acts and some of the things he talks about that the decades he spent on the moon like that clearly do not leave a person normal at the end of it

and then there's phi. her change isn't as noticeable unless you really pay close attention to her dialogue but its worth bringing up that for her, mentally since she spent the 45 years sigma experienced in cold sleep VLR only happened a few days prior to the decision game. she has a few days at dcom but her, sigma and akane spend most of those worrying about radical-6. and as a flashback with her and diana shows she's just... tired, after everything. where she could be scared about her death a few times in vlr gives way to her now being completely apathetic to her death in ztd. she's the only player who doesn't react at all to being executed, and in the "fire" fragment no matter what option she doesn't feel her life matters enough to be worth sacrifice. she's also notably more emotional than she is in vlr - see how she's driven to break down in tears when sigma dies in that same fragment, or lashing out at delta out of pure frustration and anger! which she would've never done in vlr! (though she does stop dio the same way, that's more out of necessity to stop him, with delta it's more just pure frustration)

its just. idk it's something i think about a lot. i looove when characters are allowed to get worse and visibly shown to struggle with the things theyve been through before in a previous entry and is something i do actually find insane about ztd

[mortaveritas]

♥ ♫

♫ - headcanon about music

Sigma’s probably a classic rock kinda guy, he’d listen a lot to those stations that only play music from before 2000. Not for any hipster reason though, he’d just do that because that’s the music he enjoys.

Although, I bet he guilty pleasure listens to really upbeat cutsey pop songs when nobody is around to hear him. Even sings along if he’s 100% positive he’s alone.

♥ - headcanon about love

I touched on this a bit in a previous post, but basically: Sigma has been in many relationships, but he’s never really been actually in love. Relationships were physical first, both for him and the people he was with, and he was totally ok with that.

He was probably with his ex-girlfriend for a good couple months (which is one of his longest relationships) before vlr happens, but aside from that he’s actually pretty inexperienced in like, romance.

In terms of other loves: He understands platonic love very well, and he’s the type of person who would die multiple times to find a way to help his friends.

...that makes more sense in context, i promise.

major spoilers under the cut for vlr/ztd, this is endgame stuff for both games

As for familial love; that gets... a bit complex. He had a good relationship with his parents, however, when it’s his turn to become a parent? He kinda falls flat on his ass.

I could go on for days about the train wreck that is his and phi’s relationship, and the eternal suffering of what the fuck uchikoshi why did you have sigma flirt with phi you did that shit on purpose, and we all know that there’s probably no way he could ever have something even slightly resembling familial relations with Delta, but those two aren’t the interesting ones in this question.

No, the interesting ones are, quite obviously, Kyle and Luna.

First off, Kyle. I really like the headcanon that Sigma tried (and failed) multiple times to create Kyle, because I find it really hard to believe that he could live through the AB game, remember how much their relationship hurt Kyle, and yet still be so distant and cold. It makes far more sense to me that ‘kyle’ died many times while Sigma was attempting to create him, each death making Sigma grow more and more detached. By the time he finally succeeded, he didn’t want to be close to Kyle. He was certain that if he grew close, then Kyle would just die again.

is this acceptable? No, of course not. Is it understandable, though? Yes.

Sigma is, self-admittedly, a very selfish person. He was forced into a position where he has no choice but to become a savior for the entire world, and I honestly think that some part of him will always resent what was stolen from him. (Because, do recall, the youngest Sigma can ever be when he reaches a happy ending is 67. He will never live through these events and reach a happy ending at 22.) As such, when he realized that Kyle was going to keep dying, he decided that it was just easier to distance himself and feel nothing, rather than risk hurting himself again.

His relationship with Luna is somehow even more complicated. While he didn’t have her dying over and over, he modeled her after his dead wife. I figure that he actually originally created Luna long before Kyle, and just programmed her to stay away from him- he wanted to see Diana. He was so desperately lonely that he spent days and nights just working on her code, tweaking everything about her until she was (supposedly) the perfect replica of his deceased wife.

However, once she was complete, he realized that he couldn’t stand having a fake Diana. And so, he started tweaking code- he changed her voice, and he edited little bits of her personality data so that she would be just ever so slightly different. This led to him seeing Luna not as a woman to love, but rather as a daughter.

The complicated part, is that Luna falls in love with Sigma not as a father, but as a man.

So, tl;dr, Sigma is a fucking mess with family relationships and you should never give him a child because they’ll apparently either hate him, kill him, fall in love with him, or get sent through time and become the same age as him in the most confusing and unfortunate bootstrap paradox ever.

I hate the Klim family tree. I hate it so fucking much. I hate all of this. Uchikoshi why did you play me like this. I didn’t even ship phigma, I always thought Phi was either gay or ace, but still. You played so many people like damn fools. And you pulled that shit again with Diana. What the fuck, bro. What the fuck. You knew and you were laughing at everyone. You monster.