Forgetting any other home but this-famousinthatanonymousway
I read this fanfic and, OH MY GOD, I was ready to cry.
But that didn't stop me from being inspired by the description of Carlo's costume and spending some of my free time creating it. (This is how I understood it from the description.)
I took the mask from @chocochipclaire artwork. (sorry)
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
"Let's practice together!"
It takes a long moment of keeping his hand extended, but, like a cat, Carlo unfurls further.
His skin is pale under that dark mop of hair, which makes it very easy to see how long he's been crying. His cheeks are blotchy and red, and there are clear tracks where the freshest of his tears still dry.
The boy cautiously unwinds an arm from around his legs, and reaches for Romeo. His fingertips graze the center of his palm, the chill of them against the warmth of Romeo's skin causes his cheeks to ache from the smile that splits his face as it broadens. "Call me Lampwick!"
"Lampwick...?" Again, his nose scrunches up. "That's not a real name."
"Sure it is," Romeo argues. "...It's just not my real name. It's my Stalker name."
"...Alias."
Romeo blinks. “Huh?”
The boy scowls. "That's the word for a Stalker's codename. I...read it in a book."
Chapter 4 is out!
(this chapter is the length of a 40k+ fanfiction, and is a collection of vignettes. while this chapter will contextualize parts of this fic, i do not think much will be missed if you decide you need to skip it.)
(TW: blood, funerals, mentions of amputation, mentions of period-typical homophobia, implied consensual underage sex)
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
"Let's practice together!"
It takes a long moment of keeping his hand extended, but, like a cat, Carlo unfurls further.
His skin is pale under that dark mop of hair, which makes it very easy to see how long he's been crying. His cheeks are blotchy and red, and there are clear tracks where the freshest of his tears still dry.
The boy cautiously unwinds an arm from around his legs, and reaches for Romeo. His fingertips graze the center of his palm, the chill of them against the warmth of Romeo's skin causes his cheeks to ache from the smile that splits his face as it broadens. "Call me Lampwick!"
"Lampwick...?" Again, his nose scrunches up. "That's not a real name."
"Sure it is," Romeo argues. "...It's just not my real name. It's my Stalker name."
"...Alias."
Romeo blinks. “Huh?”
The boy scowls. "That's the word for a Stalker's codename. I...read it in a book."
Chapter 4 is out!
(this chapter is the length of a 40k+ fanfiction, and is a collection of vignettes. while this chapter will contextualize parts of this fic, i do not think much will be missed if you decide you need to skip it.)
(TW: blood, funerals, mentions of amputation, mentions of period-typical homophobia, implied consensual underage sex)
Your Promeo art is making me squeal, it's so good!!! Especially your latest Prelude AU, I love them so many 🥺
Also RIP P, poor guy definitely ate some snow while slipping all over the place (while Romeo is utterly bewildered the entire time)
thank you!! this idea really just came from the co-op section with lea and how fun I thought it would be to have it with romeo too, without changing too much about overture itself
I obviously have to shout out @iszapizza’s overture au art too, romeo extending a hand to p in both the past and present and p only accepting it in the past makes me SO crazy. mine is just slip and sliding into a snowdrift while romeo’s like what the fuck was that.
prelude au things aka super vaguely ghibli howl’s moving castles your pinocchio soulslike:
- post rise of p ending! overture starts off largely the same, the only major difference of course being that p is sent back just a bit earlier. still has that moment at the top of the hill where you see krat zoo before hearing what sounds like fighting from somewhere below. p books it to help but has never experienced ice before <3 slip and slides directly into a snowdrift on that spot with the iced over pond before the zoo proper, where romeo is in the middle fighting some carcasses
- romeo introduces himself as ‘lampwick’. it’s entirely on the player (and p) to recognize the name, weapon, and voice. also toyed around with the idea of romeo having a mask (lore being that lea did commission a mask for him and carlo as they were nearing the end of their apprenticeship, but carlo died before she was ever able to give them. she still gave romeo his months later and he never wore it until this first solo mission). romeo still gets taken in this au, so you would find both his broken scythe and mask in the savanna experience center
- p is dazed as hell taking romeo’s hand (for the first time! for the second time!) and when romeo tries to help him up he gets pulled to the ground because p is a heavy little puppet. this is important to know.
- romeo already has the petrification disease by this point, his visible symptoms are just hidden under clothes (scales on his ribs) and he has issues getting air sometimes. stupid slutty deep v neck shirts in the middle of winter specifically because they’re loose so he can breathe easier. he did not tell lea he’s sick
more under cut
- as I said, romeo does still get got by arelecchino in this au. this idea started off as being Very canon compliant where p is sent back just far enough where you can do a buddy take down system on the zoo like you do with lea on the run up to the rose estate, with romeo also having various lines about thinking p’s fighting style is familiar (especially when they’re fighting back to back). for one reason or another p and romeo split off and you hear horrible metallic clashing and screaming coming from the savanna experience center, which now has the doors barred from the inside. you do not get to romeo in time
- still follows overture roughly the same, it’s now just flipped where lea is the one trailing p who’s trailing arlecchino (she did not wait for romeo to lose contact at the zoo, she was already stumbling her way out of bed the second she read his letter saying he was doing this mission on his own). arlecchino is also leaving various messages implying there’s not just one puppet after lea’s precious apprentice. lea is ready to rip p’s head off when she catches up to him
- ghibli howl’s moving castle rules here with the time travel and romeo knowing p in base game but p not knowing romeo, and I’m inserting this art here into something that maybe happens. p knows he’s being pulled back the present and he cannot stay. find us in the future !!!!!!!
- base game changes in some small ways too because romeo already knows that this puppet is not carlo, and part of his motivation for agreeing to geppetto’s deal is that he wants to see p again in a purely ‘you are not someone I know but I would like to’ kind of way. the realization for both romeo and lea on who p is clicks when they see nameless puppet, and romeo’s new goal is to try and at least keep carlo’s soul - which he now knows is in p - safe from geppetto, since neither he nor lea could keep carlo’s body safe. for both carlo’s sake and the person who grew from his ergo who romeo only got to know for a little bit
- when romeo finally sees p in the opera house years later for him, he knows something is wrong because of p’s short, dark hair. dialogue in the opera house still being some variation of “you sure made me wait” and “we have to stop the alchemists, the zoo experiments were just the beginning”
- p’s final words to romeo in overture being “I’ll bring you back” right before being sent back to the present and romeo not knowing what that means until p is about to kill him in the opera house. romeo’s final line now being some variation of “I’ll see you again soon”
- p introduces himself to romeo as “p” in the past. romeo’s message in base game is now addressed to p. p does not know why this name feels so right.
- the message is now asking directly for p’s help, to help keep krat safe like they tried to do years before. p has no idea what the fuck /that means and honestly kind of just slides that under the mental door of ‘weird but okay moving on’
- p is having a Bad Time when overture kicks in and he suddenly realizes exactly what that message from the king of puppets meant. and now romeo doesn’t know him!! come on!!!!!!
- p is very very frantic to bring romeo back because everything has finally clicked. it’s been years for romeo since that week at the zoo, and only hours for p. they are pulling this move on the workbench when romeo wakes up
- they get this one also
- p apologizing for making romeo wait so long. romeo saying “there you are” when he wakes up and sees p as he remembers first meeting him all those years ago in the snow. romeo saying p’s hair looks like starlight etc etc
- very important to me that there’s no romance in the past, just seeing someone you want to help in the future any way you can
PLEASE share more about your corrupted Romeo idea, it's such a fun awful concept!
thank you, I also think it's fun and awful :)!! I'm a huge sucker when it comes to narrative hindsight being 20/20 and lop is one of the best stories for that I've experienced in a looong time, so that angle is definitely one of my favorite puppet spaces to play around with!
charity market is one of my all time favorite bits in the game, especially on ng+ when you finally have /all the information on what's truly happening in krat. you have the puppets grieving their king, yes, but you also have the absolutely insane environmental storytelling via enemy placement where the puppets right before the arcade are clearly intended as the first line of defense against any carcasses that might escape. like they are literally facing Towards the arcade and the barricade they clearly constructed themselves. they don't get to grieve the way the puppets closer to the opera house do because they are the only thing keeping the carcasses contained on their end, and p just leaves that door wide open on his way to the grand exhibition and it SUCKS!! <33
so very much like the corrupted parade master, I love the idea of p having to backtrack through the opera house for one reason or another (maybe every other path is blocked off and since rosa isabelle street directly leads to the hotel, that's the only option) and running into a now corrupted romeo. like. as I'm typing this out I think my original thought process of the parade master puppets being the same is accurate since you only get an ergo from the first one, maybe implying that the corrupted one is just the shell? so I mean. p leaving romeo's now empty husk of a body in the opera house to be infected by the very thing romeo was trying so hard to prevent. I do love the idea of romeo still being aware of what's going on in some capacity, like to go from being puppeteered by the grand covenant to something /else, but I'm not sure how would that go without an ergo. and also having to literally burn the infection out of him. set that guy on fire TWICE!!
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
P wilfully peers over his mountain of vegetables at a tray of tiramisu at the centre of the table, already feeling himself salivate at the sight of it. Later, mouths Romeo.
Heartily, P digs into his meal. Now and again he adds onto one of the conversations occurring, but more than anything else, he delights in the mere act of sitting with his loved ones, eating his fill and bearing witness to the incredible gift that is their joy—sharing in it. Four months ago he could’ve scarcely imagined himself being here, probably couldn’t even have fathomed an occasion such as this existing at all. But now it’s here. It’s real. He could’ve missed all of this, had he ever given up—had ever let his resolve falter.
Something trembles inside of him: a twitch, a faint twinge he cannot place instantly. For a second he worries the tuna he has eaten doesn’t agree with him, but quickly the sensation turns from a curious tingle in his chest to something much broader, spreading through his limbs with a pleasant warmth, and P realises it is something innate.
If there is any part of Carlo that can still feel this, understand this, see the world through my eyes, thinks P, I hope that he is happy, too.
Chapter 11 is here! In which the hotel residents celebrate Krat's winter holiday.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
“Well! È finito. I will be the first to admit, it was not easy! Krat does not have as much material to offer as she used to. But as they say, genius is ninety nine percent inspiration, but one percent perspiration."
“It's the other way around, I think,” Gemini pipes up.
Venigni's eyes flick to the lamp – still with an edge of surprise that Gemini speaks at all – before clearing his throat and continuing. “Regardless, we have had to take creative liberties! And, now that everything is in place, the hardest part is over.”
He turns to P. “Seeing as he is your friend, compagno, I believe you should do the honors of reintroducing his ergo.”
P nods, his voice stuck under the weight of his tongue.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
At this early hour of the morning, Hotel Krat is asleep. Humans need a lot of it, he’s found, and there are nights when even Polendina and Pulcinella leave their posts to take a few hours for shutting down to re-calibrate. The concept of both is foreign to him – weapon that he is, those that fell to his saber supplied him with enough ergo to keep going endlessly – but he respects those hours of quiet, and keeps to himself.
There was no need for loud noises in these hours. All that needed to be done could be done when those at the hotel had risen. P has found no reason to make an exception.
