#knowing that ccino was safe and helping others it concentrated on trying to slwo dream down.

[ancha-aus]

We got here :D

It is a gift friend <3 take what you want of the lore :D

exactly!!

Ccino was a seven year old when he started. he got thrown into this world with no pretraining and he just had to learn on the job. About what to do as servant. How to cook. AND how to take care of two children. It was swim or drown. and he was going to drown... but then there was a small miracle.

and very much. Nim saw that ccino managed and not once thought it was because ccino worked hard or anything. just that she made the perfect pick. see? he is doing fine. clearly he was meant to do this. Not once thinking about how much training and lessons he would have needed to perform this well. How mcuh ccino must have struggled to not just keep up but be perfect. because ccino knows. if he wasn't perfect? well... he saw what Nim can and WILL do.

(okay but as we mention pleasing to the eye. I can just see that when they first arrive the first week Nim keeping a close eye and just one day taking Ccino's dinner away with a huff like "You are heavy enough as it is. You are meant to be perfect." and so ccino gets less food. he is probably short because malnourishment and shit but that is a whole other lore/story point. I also like that ccino had to be so careful to not get any marks. hell he probably had the royal healers look after him. All the adults knew why ccino was here. what his role would ahve been. and the healers making sure nothing heals wrong? any cut heals perfectly. everything.)

Those passages were the only thing on his side. to get where he eneded to go in record time. He knows those passages before he even fully knew the castle's layout. he learned to notice which ones would lead where. Would know when a secret passage would have just shifted and lead somewhere else. He almost got a sixth sense for it. almost as if he just knew.

God young ccino taking care of the baby/young kids twins. needing to get them their snack but the kitchen is ALL the way at the back of the servants area because no one of importance should ahve to deal with the noise or smells from the kitchen so he just sudenly has a passageway that leads there (ccino is very aware these passage ways are near impossible. sure they kinda follow the layout of the castle but he is pretty sure he just ran striaght through the war room there but that was still his pasage way). he gets the special snacks and returns tot he room wihtin three minutes. He knew he shouldn't know somethings and was afraid that if he knew Nim would find out. he watched a few times. mostly when Nim had meetings with councilman he didn't trust. heard them mention him a few times or something and kept an eye on it. He heard quite a few things he would prefer to have never heard. but he at least knows which people to dodge and NEVER be alone with. and who to keep the twins FAR away from. (omg i love that. Nim may have ruined his magic for a long time (which nightmare healed tiny forces snack by forced snack) but it was just another one of her downfalls because ccino got so weak to be hardly noticeable (in nim's opinion as servants should be) but the tree deciding to mask him? because his magic is so low it just could do that without it being hard for the tree's own hurt magic. and boom. invissible person in the walls watching and listening. rushing along and no one is ever the wiser)

I agree. as teen he just wasn't able to use the passageways near them because now the twins also know all the servant cooridors locations and ccino was worried nim would be able to pull it out of either twin. what they don't know they can't be hurt to tell after all. but ccino didn't need them as much. he was stronger and faster (even if his energy was at an all time low because being in his growing years with zero nutrients does that to you.) that together with adrenaline and he managed to maak it through his teen years. The idea that ccino as he rushes through a passage way just mutters a soft thank you. or when in bed just does a little makeshift prayer. it isn't a lot but it is all he can offer whoever is helping him this much. (dream and nightmare were the heirs of the king. but ccino was the tree's little priest/acolyte/favourite.)

makes it even more fitting. nightmare becomes king. the tree must have been a little worried. there was such a fragile balance. and ccino just reinforces this balance once again. he is here to help. he still cares for nightmare. ngihtmare is SAVE with him. and nightmare. nightmare does the one thing the tree would ahve wnated. He named Ccino Master of the House. Made it an official title and rule. Nightmare may be the king. but ccino is the castle's master. (and nightmare isn't even aware of just HOW correct he was to do this.)

as an adult he still uses the tunnels. every single day. the only other beings that can also use the tunnels are his army of cats. and well. everyone is used to cats disappearing and appearing. (it is why people think ccino is their boss/owner. because ccino also just appears and disappears) I like the idea ccino used them to spy on a few of the first trainings. just to make sure everyting was okay and nightmare wasn't in actual danger. once he saw it for himself he let them be and got to work. he got so many things to worry about and take care of.

okay but the mental image of EACH knight trying to trail ccino is so funny. It is after they are loyal and they are just so CURIOUS with how ccino does it. how he gets to one place so impossible quickly.. Killer tried first and failed. he kept losing ccino so quickly.

Dust asks killer about it and killer says he never found out. so of COURSE dust has to also try. he also fails.

horror doesn't think much about it until he one time in the kitchen is helping ccino and a cat comes to snitch. ccino disappears only to appear a 10 minutes later. saying that some guards were talking shit and he kicekd them out. Horror later learns it was ALL the way by the front gate. he does the math. checks it. there is no way to even make it there in 10 minutes. much less get there. kick them out with other guards and make it back to the kitchen. He asks about it and ccino shrugs as he just says he rushed.

cross also tries to follow ccino around for a bit. also unsuccessful.

Nightmare knows ccino goes around impossibly fast. but he jsut shrugs at it. it is Ccino. ccino is just amazing like that. why should he look into it? ccino is completely trustworthy.

I AM BACK :D As promised hihi

So. Ccino and the secret passage ways :3

I got this little idea a while ago and it lives rentfree in my head haha

it has to do with the fact that you said that the castle is kinda sentient.

We alsready spoke about how it used to be the tree and stuff and that the castle is made or petrified roots and branches and stuff (also i see how you called it the wooden kingdom. i see your tricks)

but that the castle? very much still sentient but can't do anything against the king of the land because of the apple.

so. What can it do?

it tries to shield each generation of children. but again. it is limited and the heirs are watches closely.

But you know who isn't watches as closely? who obviously deeply cares for both children? even when told to prioritise one? while knowing his faith is to be just another pawn/plaything?

exactly.

So. child Ccino. still learnig the ropes and everything. is sad a lot but isn't allowed to show it.

Maybe he notices something in the distance. maybe even a cat? weird. those aren't suposed to be in the castle.king nim will get mad and hurt the poor thing!

so ccino rushes after and like "kitty kitty. where are you?" he thinks he saw something behind the armourstand? he dives behind it but no cat but he does see this little door? He can't remember one being there before. so he enters it.

and it is tight. it is barely big enough for him. it feels secure and the path seems clean. not a spec of dirt or dust or grime? and he just crawls through it looking but he can't find any cat. but it is a nice little hidy hole so he takes a quick nap.

only to wake up in a panic and try to rush out. he was suposed to go to the entry hall to meet the new guards and-

he is... right by the stairs in the entry hall?

He rushes to stand with the others but whenever he asks any of the servants they just wave it off and say it are the servant cooridors.

ccino can't help but fele like it feels different. those passages are filled with supplies and often kinda messy. also those are big enough to walk and run through. this one barely fit him.

but hey. it isn't like anyone listens to a kid.

and ccino keeps finding more and more of these passages. some of them where he even has to climb up from one platform to the other. but it leads from the gorund floor to being right next to one of the towers! which is normally a terrible climb and run to get to within ten minutes! and this took two!

ccino even knows a pathway which leads right to the walls of the private study of nim. the passage ends perfectly that he can just look through a tiny hole in the wall and see into it wihtout ever being in direct line of sight!

ccino knows these pathways are different. but it isn't like he knows what it is...

(depneding on if you make him religious he could even just leave. tiny offerings to the castle (ccino thinks it is a spirit or god or something) because what else can he do?)

curiously? he never sees another cat after finding that first tunnel. at least. that is until nightmare takes over and the cats just SWARM him. he swears he isn't leaving any snacks for them out.

Omg.... finally getting around to this but- RAUGHH. ANCHA!!!!

I am. I am shlorping all of this into the Lore if u don't mind. *frantically shoveling it into an oversized thief bag with a $ to cartoonishly throw over my shoulder and abscond with*

No but so so fr. This is how Ccino survived in those first few years. When people expected too much of him, when he physically shouldn't have been able to keep up so flawlessly. Nim thinks nothing of it, just patting herself on the back for finding a good one and then ignoring him so long as he stayed in line and remained pleasing to the eye. (Ccino doesn't have a single scar either, no accidents, no broken bones, nothing.)

He used those passages like a lifeline and they benefitted him so so well. If he was on break and didn't feel safe going back to the servants quarters? He'd rest in the tunnels and they'd always have him awake next to his morning duties. If he needed something for Dream and Night but it was far off and he didn't want them alone that long, he'd hurry off to a secret tunnel and it would half his time. And ofc the secret spying passages. The one to Nim's study (which eventually became Night's) was one he used not often. He learned far too many heavy things. Ones that prepared him for his life, to shelter the princes, but ones he didn't ever want to hear again. (And the thing we discussed prior? I think that with his low magic forced by Nim as well as what little power the castle has, it was able to Erase Ccino's presence from the walls entirely.)

I think as a teen, the twins are bigger handfuls abd a lot more observant, so as long as they're around it's not quite an option to use his secret passages as often, but at that point I do like the idea that Ccino sort of treats the castle's help as a sort of divine power. He knows it's not the King, so I don't think he'd dare to leave anything physical, but on late nights he'd thank it outloud (or in his head when he's rushing places) for being so generous with him. It's a special privilege he seems to have been gifted, one that helped him survive. And, unbeknownst to him, his positive emotions actually *do* help feed the tree. His reverence towards it as an entity re-enlivens some of its old power. Just ever so slightly. (Dream and Night might have been the Heirs, but Ccino was the Tree's favorite.)

Just... this is so perfect...

Picturing Ccino as an adult still using the tunnels. To do his work as head of house, he's practically everywhere all at once, and the rest of the staff can't figure out how. He tries not to eavesdrop on people Nightmare trusts once he's got them, but he's seen a few of Killer's first trainings, same with Dust. Trailing them occasionally just to be sure they were safe. But mostly he just uses the tunnels to get to Nightmare more quickly. Kitchen is all the way across the way from Night's study? No worries, he has secret halls that cut the time in half!

Oh, and he's totally the guy who can't be trailed. Turns a corner out of a threats sight? Gone.