#queen vicorgia

[masen-in-a-jar]

What shoes you got on in your casket

[khrysalisposting]

a rottingham x phileas first meeting ficlet for the soul

trying my hand at writing again! Been a few years since I actually wrote anything, and my first time writing something wiz-related so im a liiiiitle nervous. i adore both rottingham and phileas and i believe theyre the one that can melt his cold imperalist heart <3

Governor Rottingham Weiler is the most feared man in Novus. Notorious for his cold, stubborn demeanor and outright horrible attitude, he’s not someone anybody would approach willingly.

At least, until Phileas came along.

“Come in.”

The Governor sat at his desk, hands folded under his chin. He wasn’t excited. 

He had told Her Royal Majesty Queen Vicorgia that he didn’t need any assistance in the expansion of New Vicorgia. He could handle it, find a way to make sure it was everything she expected and more. In Her Majesty’s eyes, however, it was nonsense.

You need a scientist, she said. It would be good for the development, she said. You needn't not be so stubborn, Weiler. Any help on the shard is good help, she said.

Like rot it was.

The wooden doors swung open. The first thing Rottingham noticed was their… quite vivid pink hair. Interesting… to say the least. Not exactly the most professional style for a political workplace in his eyes. He kept his eyes focused on them as they skipped into the room, lab coat fluttering behind them.

“Royal Foremost Everythingist Phileas Dogg, reporting for duty!” They smiled, their hands motioning a small salute. 

Rottingham forced a small smile, his hands unfolding and resting on the edge of the glossed wood. “Ah, welcome. I’ve been expecting you.”

Their tone was almost sickeningly cheerful. “Happy to be here, sir!”

He looked off to the side, rising to his feet to meet Phileas proper. His eyes scanned the scientist, taking in every little button and pin on their lapels. How naive, he thinks. But… adorable nonetheless. He notes the four-colored flag under their Royal Marleybonian Empire insignia; yellow, white, black, purple.

“Oh! I made you a little gift to start our time together right, sir!” Phileas rummaged through their pockets, shifting crumpled-up notes to the side as they searched. After a minute of mumbled scoffs and grumbles, they finally pulled out a small… well, something. Rottingham couldn’t exactly figure out what it was.

“That is… wonderful,” He mumbled, his jaw stiff. “How thoughtful of you, Phileas.”

Their smile widened. “Oh, that’s not all. Just watch what it does!” 

At the press of a button on the underside of the gizmo, it opened up, revealing two robotic looking puppets on either side of a Marleybonian flag. They twisted and turned, the imperial anthem playing through a small speaker. One of the bots mimicked Phileas’ looks, a pink feather representing their hair and a carefully soldered piece of metal making up the majority of its form. Across from it, doing the same janky dance, was one that Rottingham could only regretfully assume was himself. Little cotton balls made up the Governor’s wig, blue iron comprising his tiny artificial outfit. 

He couldn’t help but chuckle softly, catching himself with surprise.

Phileas looked at his expression with curiosity. “What do you think?”

His eyes met theirs. Normally, he’d say it was ridiculous. How could someone waste time on something so mediocre, let alone have the nerve to present it to him?

But his expression softened. His once-forced smile was almost… genuine.

“It is a welcome gift,” He remarked. “I admire your creativity. Very fond of the… cotton ball wig.”

They placed it in his hand with a gleeful smile. “For Queen and Skyway, sir!”

He looked at it slowly. He could feel the smile grow ever so slightly on his lips, and the warmth in his heart flutter through his chest. “For Queen and Skyway.”

Maybe this would be a welcome change. Perhaps he’d benefit from their help.

Maybe he had a reason to be excited.

[soulhavens]

more thought

the spiral powers' plan was to blow up novus???????? wtf

aaaand now we're planning on.... running to the kings/queens of those powers instead?

are we getting the entire gang back together??? omg theyre so happy to see us??

did... did mandar always sound like that?

buck and duck savage just casually building a rocket? lmao "WHAT JUST HAPPENED" indeed Mario di Mario

DOOM MOON

"For my mana, this was tougher than it should have been. Never seen magic like this. Blending schools, you say? That's nuttier than a peanut butter pecan pie with a side of almonds." - interesting, because like... idk, balance blends schools already?

are... are we mecha-ing?? wtf

the w101 forum doesnt have dialogue yet and i was teaming up so i couldnt read it slowly enough ))): but what.... is going on. lol. i do like the mechanic though...

dasein taking the divine paradox shadow djkgl;adjfl;skjdak dj

"red rosa, princess pesca, king gortez, queen vicorgia" interesting..

WE ARE NOT AMUSED. LMAO.

nooooo not the royal plumber again. the pipes are filled with turtles. - i see you KI, i see you

dasein mimicking judge veg now... "Huh, not gettin' less weird" if you see a clone of yourself would you fuck it and is that weird

gathering the gang back together 2, electric boogaloo (arcanum edition)

DASEIN. YOUR COAT. LMAO. (i'm getting dr who vibes)

IM GOING TO CRY - "But I wanted to speak to you before the Summit. Prior to meeting you, I was alone., lonely though unaware of what loneliness even was. You gave me Everything, were patient with me as I learned. YOu found me when I was lost, and protected me when I was afraid. You are a true friend. Like me, you are an outsider to this Spiral, and you helped me find a place and a purpose within it. Thank you for all you have done." jdkal;gldksjf;dshaldhdahkefsjdsfl i am so normal about this, screaming crying throwing up

dasein estate!!!! im!!! djgkls;djkfs ok actually it is. not what i was expecting. very surreal lol

DUNCAN GRIMWATER??? the quizzler?? so many people..

now we get to unlock the door to the arcanum and show the cabal to the tree of knowledge.... i see..

the hero of nothing badge.... i am sobbing

my running list of wallaru thoughts (plus one or two headcanons)

the trauma from sybil's speech ))):

the wallaru zeke quest i midnight oil - a slurry of plant-life and dream water, used in place of coffee.... the YW definitely is the Midnight Oil addict (caffeine addict yknow??) - they run on stress and Midnight Oil lol

i hate the sounds that the dingos make when we defeat them ):

Krokodile dundara tries to fight his own battles but the YW steps in... dundara kinda reminds me of moo bo (moo bu?) in that he comments on the wiz's uhhh.... battle-readiness

anyway it seems like the wiz has some pent up aggression that they're looking to burn off with battles

the kangaroo bushwhackers comment on how the YW takes their battle v seriously.... so no holding back on the YW's part

I think it'd be cool if we get to see our companions do some of the mob fights?

the bushwhackers are unionized!!

Fallen Arachna Empire... WHAT. "Great Prince"???? oh no

lol spiders of the multiverse. i see you KI, i see you

how did i know it was a con

fghjkkjdhg the loading screen for Rest by the Fire

daseinnnnnnnnnnn D:< i miss you

did we just get a cut scene for a cannonball-ed emu?

are we about to re-enact the emu wars LMAO

phett and cadd - i see you KI, i see you

when we're destroying the emu cannons... we're walking along quite a thin ledge. i bet the yw isnt in a great headspace here for a number of reasons

did we just get called out for being isekai-ed into the spiral???

i bet the outback makes the yw feel nostalgic for the aero plains (god i miss the aero plains..)

dasein )): "It is you! the real you" im gonna cry

aaaahhhhh "and what are my dreams, my unrealized reals?" "I want to be Something. I want to be good. I want to belong (everywhere)"

has the wallaru loading screen been changing as we go through the world? like it was just the poster and now its the poster with "ned collie was right" and i think thats super fucking cool

in hindsight it's probably cued into which area you're loading.... but it gives the effect of "its evolving as you play thru wallaru" which i like

the yw keeps nodding off and having dasein dreams, which makes me think that during this world the yw is just chronically running on a lack of Good sleep, yknow?

something about judge judi is throwing me off. i dont like her.

VEG???? not you ):<

wait actually? maybe not so bad....

who tf is the prince theyre talking about. i s2g.

oh goodie. corrupt government. didnt see that coming.

patrick warburton??? (no, unfortunately)

fought the law and won..... what an interesting badge. the yw is collecting so much trauma (:

bonesbury rules of magical combat?? (ok i know this is a play on john locke... but im intrigued by there being various sets of magical combat rules)

i love morp

oh god wait are we about to get into some matrix plots? yknow. cos morpheus?

"Even way out here we've heard of the one who walked the Reverie" i think its interesting that diff NPCs know the YW for diff reasons which is cool

"can't let anyone around the barrier with corrupted influences about" but we are child of light and shadow, divine paradox, touched by shadow.... hmm

me, staring at the magistreto, squinting: "...maestro? master? professor hex? the professor? is this another dr who reference??"

i like how small we are in the eucalyptus forest

dont mind me side-eyeing sandiago

did..... did we just watch an NPC get vored? oop no theyre alive

it amuses me so much that phasmanian devils can do the apollo spell (and it amuses me still that hes a chicken because apollo. a pollo. hah!) - also... thinking about how spells work again, especially when theyre based on an in-game character/npc/boss you fight... (coughcough the morganthe spells)

i am going to slap these judges and also these gold class guests

dasein stop breaking my heart ))):

"But you can brainwrite yourself. Just jump in the lake. See the scaries what haunt them when the sand hits their eyes." - oh boy... the YW is def not in a great headspace and everyone else can tell

okay so the dialogue box says "Sandiago camel" and "old one camel" but the mob title is "Feral camel" lol? wait wait wait old one??

hey sandiago im getting a bad feeling about you and morp too (rip me from approximately 13 notes ago)

"The Dreamer has only ever been seen by Wallu. Imagine what it could create if fueled by diverse experience?" oh no i'm getting a bad feeling about this

Freddie Croaker says to tell Judge Veg he says hi, but it doesn't seem like we as the YW do that? (at least not in the dialogue immediately following the instance..)

welp. morp.

"They built the Great Barrier because strangers came here, right up to the Dreamer itself, and made something horrible. An engine of evil it was, that could reshape the Spiral. Even the Great Tree could not perceive it. We could not allow such a creation." Oh no oh no oh no... i'm getting bad feelings b/c dasein... and the yw... and the old one..

"then we enter the dreaming to.." sandiago.... why are you trying to access the dreaming? and with morp continually being like "i feel like i know you" hmmmmm

its fucked up that you fight hostages but also i like the mechanics. i know that damaging the hostages is like breaking the aura on them which is like the ropes, but wouldn't it fucked up if you actually had to damage the hostages to release them

god these judges are sooooooo annoying

"Ten, nine, the Spiral hates Dasein" KI ARE YOU TRYING TO MAKE ME SOB

"in these waves which are not water swim the thoughts which yearn to be real" i am sensing a major potential for YW angst right here

avatars of avarice... are we about to get into layers of hell/seven deadly sins or something?

sandiago was the one who guided the old one to wallaru... interesting........ ohhhhhh he was a founer of the cabal. wild.

i'd need to go back and do mirage since i dont really have an opinion on sandiago.... but more yw angst potential (:< this time with Betrayal

"This sapce is special. Its waters are not entirely real, thus not visible to Bartleby - a blindspot in reality." interesting piece of lore that i need to think about

oh are we finally cashing in on freddie kroaker's "say hi to judge veg for me"? nice

so far i do like the theme of "you can have done some Not Great Things in the past and still grow and change and learn"

ok wait judge veg's "I was always a fighter, a weapon to be aimed. First against the outlaws of Wallaru, then against unhealthy diets, then the Spiral itself. I don't know what to do after this." jdgkl;akdjfksoa;dkfja;dkf im - I think veg and the YW would reallly relate to the "a weapon to be aimed" line

"...because I'm a bad guy" not a big fan of this line, or of freddie kroaker in general..

freddie's plan was to remake a toxic, juggernaut crab..

the dreamer is bartleby but like different? hm "from his unconsciousness imaginings come new realities' idk how to feel about that

we get to connect dasein to the dreamer though <3

"Wizard, you are real. and so is he." ajdgkls;ajdka dasein and the yw real <3

"What are you doing here?" "We're here for you, to help you figure out where you belong" omgomgomgomgomg

dasein my beloved

"Was [our Walkabout] all you had hoped, Wizard? You did not face your demons, nor realize your truth as we all did." [insert YW's assumed dialogue here] "Haha, indeed, well said my friend. Your truth is to help others, as you demonstrated countless times in our journey. Your walk was for your friend after all." - I'm unsure about how I feel about this line too - in some sense I was hoping the YW would get more of their own conclusion, although i understand thats not possible with the way the wiz protagonist works

[khrysalisposting]

a tangent abt the 1:52 mark of the Novus war theme

i feel like it is just such a stellar theme overall, but *specifically* at that mark. as someone who has been listening to it non-stop for the past two days to the point where I made fanart, it simply needs to be appreciated more.

*DECENT NOVUS SPOILERS AHEAD*

you have the violin buildup, the high and low pitch signifying the chaos that is breaking out amongst the shards. everyone is fighting, negotiations have broken down. you as the wizard emerge from the splintered lands to see absolute chaos in new vicorgia. fleets riddling the air and surrounding the land. Phileas is freaking out, a whole war starting before their own eyes. rottingham is gone. mario is gone. you go to puerto nuovo, and everyone has turned against you. the violin increases erratically, the sense of urgency to stop this from becoming an interspiral conflict growing by the minute. you make your way onto the shore, you fight the your way through the abberrants, and then you see him.

THAT is when the 1:52 mark kicks in.

the trumpets are angry. heavy. possibly even suffocating. too strong to handle. that is the sheer power of imperialist marleybone, and rottingham stands before you, telling you to stay out of his way, to let him conquer novus and its shards because its *HIS* destiny to do so, for queen and skyway. the violins start again, rising against the low trumpets; urgent, begging for you to put an end to it, to stop him. you fight him (and him being a shadow elite definitely doesn’t help). the naval fleets riddle the air. they are a force you do NOT want to deal with. not even valencia post-armada can stop them.

it’s the young wizard vs a lord governor who thinks he is a god, a spiral superpower that is dead set on taking, taking, taking, one child vs an inconceivable monster.

(aforementioned fanart is somewhere on the w101 subreddit, idk if I should post it here or not lol)

[khrysalisposting]

i have MORE hcs and thoughts about this. because i love him.

he has a brother, and rottingham is the younger of the two. his brother was raised more respectably and has decorum (im biased bc im an older sibling) but rottingham was spoiled to no end

his relationship with his brother is VERY strained. they can tolerate each other when they’re around family and such, but if it’s just them, it’s never-ending arguments and bickering

his brother was also in the royal navy, but decided to stay rather than go for politics. he has his hangups about their father sheltering rottingham and basically using nepotism to have him inorganically rise in rank, while his brother worked for his current rank (commander)

when the war breaks out, his brother refuses to have his fleets support new vicorgia. he thinks rottingham’s goals are purely self-serving (which they are) and while he IS loyal to Queen and skyway, he holds no loyalties to his brother, and that completely fractures whatever was left of their relationship

because of this, rottingham chooses to lead his own fleets (because of the prior-mentioned service but also because of his own ego) and that ends exactly how it ends in novus

his brother also was opposed to his appointment as governor of new vicorgia because he KNOWS the kind of person he is; just a spoiled brat with no empathy for anyone that stands in the way of his thirst for power

rottingham weiler thoughts + headcanons bc i cannot stop thinking about him

(slight Novus spoilers!)

pre-governor

grew up surrounded by aristocracy of course. his family was notable for their involvement in marleybonian government and involvement in the royal navy. family was VERY classist and critical of anyone who wasn’t part of MB high society (cats, street sweepers, etc) and he was raised on that hatred

he didn’t actually find interest in geopolitics/things like that at first. but the familial pressure was so high and he had no sense of what he actually wanted to do, that he did conform and push himself to go down that path, and join the royal navy (per his father’s influence and slight nepotism)

rose decently high in ranks and served as a captain under general booth, when they were still on good terms with each other

his higher-ups knew him as a very ambitious fellow who was very smart strategically, and quick to adapt to bad situations, albeit lacking in patience and rationality. his battalions hated him, and knew him as an arrogant and hot-tempered prick who would demean, harass, and bully anyone who tried to tell him he was wrong or moving too fast with something (which would fail about 25-30% of the time. the only time he wouldn’t fail would be if his plans included a higher-up), as well as being overly violent in combat

after the shards appeared, vicorgia was leaning towards choosing booth to be the lord governor, but rottingham’s family was so set on him gaining power that they used their influence to sway her decision to him

rottingham took it despite never being interested in spiral politics + less qualified than booth to lead a colony. and that is where the power trip got even worse

as governor

met phileas as soon as he was appointed, absolutely adores them but would never make that too obvious because he is VERY emotionally guarded

sees them as the sole balancing factor to his strict attitude and bad temper (i like to think that he kinda likes them but would never admit it)

has definitely heard of the young wizard from others in Marleybone and has mixed feelings before they arrive

ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE GOD COMPLEX THAT GETS WORSE AS THE NEGOTIATIONS BREAK DOWN. remember when he said that he thinks it’s his destiny to claim novus for marleybone?? yeah. he’s dead-set.

cool, collected, and smartmouthed most of the time, but sometimes he gets so viscerally angry that he will say things that he regrets later on to those he cares about

phileas constantly tries to get him to relax and chill out a little. rottingham is so accustomed to aristocratic lifestyle and they want to teach him what it’s like being Not Ridiculously Rich (normal)

was HOPING and PRAYING for negotiations to break down so he had a reason to utilize the navy. jumped at the opportunity to plan out a total war strategy, and if he did succeed at his plans, the other spiral leaders would be completely gone. obliterated by his hand. he craves violence

give this man a squeaky thing to chew on and he will sit in his office for hours staring at the wall and chewing. do not bother him

refuses to get any other scientist despite the many times MB has offered to replace phileas after losing the last assistant. they are the only one he truly trusts and can open up to

can actually beat mario and win if mario actually fought and didn’t weasel his way out every damn time

he can sing. he sings in the shower. phileas mocks it and then they get barked at (literally)

i love he :)