She/her Professor Layton, Zero Escape, Ace Attorney, Ghost Trick, AI the Somnium Files, Trauma Center, Trauma Team, Your Turn to Die, Hotel Dusk, Rhythm Thief, Rusty Lake, Persona, 13 Sentinels, Miraculous, and more Watch for spoilers and spoiler tags @cayenne-twilight is my Layton blog
This post is a mile long, so for that reason I’m putting a read more very early in. That being said, I got like, every character in the season four intro in here, all several times at least, and a few other characters, so come get y’all juice. If you read all of them ily and also which one is/which ones are your favorite(s)?
The semi-popular headcanon that Kagami and Ondine go to the same school and are jock friends? *chefs kiss*
There’s also that,,, not even headcanon,,,, but theory that Alix used to be friends with Chloe and Sabrina as a mean girl trio. It’s based on scrapped early concepts where Alix was the third mean girl, and their three names referenced the main trio of Totally Spies which Astruc worked on. Considering how ml likes to work its scrapped ideas into canon, I think it’s plausible that this could come up in the show, and it’d explain the interesting way Chloe and Alix interact.
Chloe can’t bring herself to treat Alix the way she treats everyone else because she’s intimidated by the person Alix used to be, or maybe she misses that Alix? On the other hand, Alix cut Chloe off completely when she became a better person, and she doesn’t feel bad giving her a taste of her own medicine, but she isn’t scared of her like everyone else because she’s seen her normal side.
Mylene has a little ukelele she plays sometimes while Ivan plays his hand drum. She knows the basics, and occasionally they sing too.
When Marinette was younger, she was obsessed with those popular crafts like lanyard and bead stuff, rainbow loom, and duct tape fashion. She made Tom and Sabine a duct tape wallet and lanyard keychain and they were like aww. One day they walked into her room to see a full ball gown made of duct tape and woven beads and were like AAA
*Marinette cocking a hot glue gun* “wanna know how I got these scars”
When Alya goes to art club she’s usually developing photos from candid street photography
When Max is there he’s either 3D printing little knick knacks or working on making games. His akuma fighting game was a street fighter-like 2D game with pixel sprites, but he’s trying to learn 3D modeling so he can make something more complex.
Marc and Nathaniel’s manga contains information about Ladybug and Chat Noir that they should have absolutely no way of knowing.
Kagami reads their work religiously, but she only noticed the dedication to Marinette in volume one after a few rereads.
Kagami in the locker room: Marinette, your conversation with Adrien a moment ago was just like when Reverser first met The Mightillustrator. In the book, they- Marinette: Marc and Nath? I’m the one who set them up in the first place. Kagami: W- Mari: they’re literally upstairs right now. Wanna go meet them? Kagami: Wh-
Alya and Nino are both massive film nerds. Nino is obvious (Horrificator, Queen Banana) but have you seen Alya’s insta? Constant movie dates with her bf and all the besties. (I counted. Six different posts plus two on Mari’s account and one on Alya’s about Nino making a new film) They watch almost everything notable that comes out and talk about the movies in that pretentious film bro way, but they’re both so into it.
Whatever is going on with Alix and Nath’s hair? They did that together. 2am, random scissors, box dye. That’s gotta be canon, there’s no other explanation.
Zoe listens to Girl in Red and Clairo and stuff (I say this as someone who doesn’t)
Sabrina is scary good at FPSs
Going on stupid one-on-one adventures with Kim is like Zuko Field Trips from ATLA. Truly a formative experience. Have you really lived if you haven’t followed Kim on a dare, messed around, and made some dumb choices? All his friends have.
You also haven’t lived if you don’t have a friendship bracelet woven by Rose
Alix can’t swim
Ivan gets all the tea in class. He sits there in unsuspecting silence minding his own business, but he’s in the perfect location to hear everyone’s conversations at once, even when they’re whispering. Don’t worry, your secrets are safe with him.
Nath chose to sit alone in the back so he could have personal space and privacy while he draws sleeps slacks off learns, but Ms. Bustier just had to put Lila right next to him. He quickly starts to dislike her not because he knows of her true nature but because she just never shuts up like oh my god how can anyone talk so much about nothing? He doesn’t know she’s lying, but that doesn’t matter because he stopped listening anyways.
Eventually, Nath moves into the empty seat next to bestie Ivan and Lila is left alone in the back.
Everyone always expects Juleka to be something goth and/or scary on Halloween, like a vampire or classic horror movie masked serial killer, but she loves dressing up as girlboss villains. Once she was Harley Quinn while Rose was Poison Ivy, and once it was the other way around. That Harley wig was revamped from her Junko Enoshima cosplay from years past. Recently she pulled off a Cruella design that made Marinette wish she came up with it first.
Chloe, wearing a bee costume that’s actually just a cute outfit with an antennae headband: In Girl World, Halloween is the one night of the year when a girl can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it. Alix wearing a Meowth onesie: Meowth, that’s right!
Nath and Marc are Jesse and James. They came up with the idea.
Mylene is one of those girls whose insta story is always full of activism posts
Nino feels the need to appear cool and mature in the media he consumes. He’d be embarrassed if someone caught him listening to dance pop off the top 100 or watching the Ice Age movies. He leaves those movies out of his Letterbox, and he has one of those performative Spotifies where all his “cool” songs are organized by vibe in playlists with pretentious names and captions, and they all have matching aesthetic photography as the covers.
Adrien is the opposite. His Spotify is a mess of spontaneously made playlists of songs he felt like listening to in the moment as well as oddly specific playlists. He only makes them look nice if they’re for someone else, but otherwise they’re either cover/captionless with the default Playlist #n name or names like songs to appease the cheese demon, classical music to cry over algebra to, Ninocore, Chloe watch One Piece, and Persona 4 Dancing All Night OST.
Rose is so good at getting people gifts. She knows exactly what everyone would like, and if she sees something that reminds her of someone while shopping she’ll just buy it and hold onto it. Or not. Surprise present!
Mari, Kim, and Nino childhood friends headcanon my beloved
Zoe and Marc don’t refer to each other as friends, but rather as lab partners, which they are. The word “friend” doesn’t capture the frenemy bond between two people who are surviving Mendeleiev’s class together. Zoe keeps skipping parts of the procedure or accidentally messing up measurements like haha oopsie daisy and Marc’s like *deep breath* yeah :) haha :) oopsie daisy :) you’ll get it next time, though :) ...right?
He’s a perfectionist, control freak on a bad day. Falling behind makes him super anxious, but he also hates when his work isn’t as good as it could be if he had more time. He’s one of those people who hates group projects because he doesn’t trust the work of his group members to meet his standards.
Sabrina’s into murder mysteries and true crime. She watches documentaries late at night and tries to stay ahead of the narrator by analyzing the evidence.
Crime and mystery TV/movies, even the fictional ones, scare tf out of Chloe, as much as she tries to hide it. She makes Sabrina watch corny chick flicks, romances, and hallmark Christmas type movies when they have sleepovers.
Juleka would love to decorate her room with something super aesthetic like a bookshelf full of vintage tomes or a shelf full of candles and cool glass trinkets, but alas, she cannot because. Boat.
Luka doesn’t have this problem because he’s fine with few decorations. He likes the simplicity, open space, and natural light. He’s a minimalist, and he finds his twin’s maximalism overwhelming.
Juleka bullies Luka, but Luka can’t bully Juleka without feeling awful about it afterwards.
Juleka practices cosmetology on Luka, and she’s been doing it since they were little. She got one of those kiddy makeup things for the holidays once, and turned him into a clown, but these days the things she does are much more impressive.
Alix makes friends everywhere she goes. She’s like the “guy who knows a guy” of the group because she has connections everywhere. You thought Marinette meets every single person in Paris? Alix has met their pets and sends them happy birthday texts. Her snap score is insane.
Markov sees himself as mentally a bit younger than Max and his friends even though he’s physically less than a year old, yet contains more knowledge than they can ever hope to learn in a lifetime.
Markov emulates DS games and speed runs them. He’s always looking for new bugs to take advantage of. Despite his ability to do a ton of things at once, he can become so absorbed that he doesn’t pay attention to the things going on around him
Markov: *mindlessly following Kim and Max after school* *bumps into a pole* Max: whoa, Markov? Are you oka- wait. You’re speed running Super Mario 64 again, aren’t you. Markov: ... *blank stare* Max: yeah, okay. Please fly higher when we’re crossing the street, though?
Marinette has Operation Secret Garden code names for all of her friends, y’know, just in case.
Kagami is Nightshade, Zoe is Daffodil, Luka is Iris, Nino is Carnation, Kim is Morning Glory, Max is Hyacinth, Markov is Phlox, Ivan is Foxglove, Nath is Amaranth, Marc is Hibiscus, Chloe is Marigold, Sabrina is Zinnia, and Lila is Lilac (subtle). Good luck remembering who’s who now, Rose. I mean, Tulip. I mean, Rose.
Mylene is the secret prank master, but she doesn’t pull practical jokes very often, so she goes unnoticed. When Alix and Kim are in a heated prank war, Alix comes to her for help the way the hero of a martial arts movie will walk into an unassuming restaurant, say the secret code, and be ushered into the dojo basement to learn the ways of the hidden master.
Speaking of restaurant, the hc that Kim’s parents run a Vietnamese restaurant? Very good.
Nath is immune from pranks because he’s paranoid. No horror movies or weird unreality jokes either
Alya found Marc’s tumblr. She knows it’s his because it’s linked to his AO3 and she recognizes his writing. She reads it. A lot. His icon is Celestia Ludenberg over the rainbow pride flag. She will never tell him because if she did, he’d have a heart attack and die.
Chloe has a private spam insta that very few people are allowed to see
At first, Ivan and Adrien’s other friends from school are intimidated by Luka because,,, cool mature guy,,, but soon the tables turn and Luka is kinda intimidated by them because they could sit down, craft an elaborate bank robbery plan, carry it out successfully, and be home in time for dinner just for fun. They run around Paris doing dumb things and he’s trying so hard to mom friend them.
Marinette always uses the “class representative” excuse to be the leader of the group and take care of her classmates. Mireille is the class rep for Mendeleiev’s class and all she does on a normal day is take the attendance down to the office. Mari knows the details of everyone’s lives like Santa.
“I’ll start getting better grades if I just buckle down and study, really” “but I’m your class representative! Let me tutor you” “As your class representative, it’s my duty to attend your extracurricular sports competitions and performances” “Marinette, it’s a papercut. It’ll get better on its own” “what kind of class representative would I be if I let you walk around with the risk of infection? Let me clean that and put a bandaid on it”
Kim is really good at cooking. At first, nobody trusts him around sharp objects and fire, but he goes full dad mode at the stove. He loves the attention that comes with feeding a bunch of hungry teenagers and listening to their compliments.
If you’re feeling under the weather, Rose will be at your front door with a homemade care package as soon as she finds out.
I think this is canon? But Ivan shaves the slit onto his eyebrow ‘cause it looks cool. No scar or anything. Just badass aesthetic
Trans Nath trans Nath trans Nath
One of the biggest reasons why Max started building Markov is so that he wouldn’t be lonely at home when his mom goes to astronaut school, and later, space
Marc can get super competitive playing games. No one likes playing cards against him ‘cause he nearly always wins. Don’t even think about Monopoly. Full Nicole Watterson mode
Ivan’s family is Eastern European
Aurore is like the “Queen B” of Mendeleiev’s class, but her mean girl act is more sassy and iconic whereas Chloe is just a bully. Aurore can be self absorbed and entitled at times, but overall she’s pretty well liked. After she lost the weather girl competition, she started goin out of her way to be supportive of the people around her and hype them up.
When Ondine exists outside of the swimming pool, which she does, her street clothes are typically athletic, like leggings and jogging jackets. She wears a lot of flannels. Oh yeah, and canon reminder, she’s suuuper tall.
The canon idea that Juleka got held back one year is a result of retcon bs, but I like the hc that she was held back as a result of her anxiety. I also have an idea that Anarka noncommittally homeschooled the twins as kids, and Juleka ended up being a year behind the typical curriculum while Luka was fine.
Nath and Alix aren’t keen on going out with the whole friend group. They much prefer spending time with one or a few people at a time.
Adrien and Kagami are forced to go to all these rich people events chock full of Paris elite, and even though they’ve met all sorts of celebrities in person, they’re pretty done with them. They’re much more starstruck by their own friends than Jagged Stone, XY, or Prince Ali. Their autographed Kitty Section CDs (cover art by Marinette, burned onto blank disks on Max’s laptop) are more valuable to them than their autographed CDs of Clara Nightingale’s unreleased next album.
I have sooo many future headcanons that I think they deserve their own post, so I left them all out of this one. I will make a future hc post... in the future. >:)
If you made it to the end, here’s your virtual pound-it from me <3
Those annoying tik tok influencers that call everything __ theory are a lot funnier to listen to if you imagine them as a zero escape AU where everyone’s a dumb bitch.
Akane: have you ever heard of “Hair Theory”?
Junpei: huh? What’s that?
Akane: it’s the idea that doing something so simple as changing your hair manipulates the way others perceive you. Going for a different style or even just framing your face differently can make you seem like a whole different person.
Snake: incredible… to think someone could do all that with only a haircut
Ace: changing… your hair…?
Clover: big deal. I change my hair all the time and I’m still me
Santa: imagine a version of me with white hair and a version of me, in a different timeline, who dyed his hair black
Junpei: imagine if we all went bald. No, that’s stupid, why would I- wait. These memories. Where are they coming from? I’ve never been bald, have I? But
Now that Project: Eden’s Garden is cancelled, my old theory posts are getting traction again, and reading back on them, I kinda like some of my theories better than the actual story plan lmao. In this post, I want to react to the planned story and make rewrite ideas for how I would’ve handled the later plot points I’m not so satisfied with (mostly chapters 4 and 5, get ready for basically fanfic).
Chapter 2
Okay I totally called Ulysses and Jean dying next, but my prediction swapped the killer and victim lol. I do like the idea of Jean having this dark side and being a much worse person than he makes himself out to be, and I feel like it was foreshadowed already. The planned execution for him sounded great and totally on-brand for the series. I remember the team saying it was gonna be extra disturbing with gross noises? Maybe a bone saw? Not too sure. I hope we get the details of the murder mystery when they do the comprehensive lore drop.
The economy motive sounds like it would’ve been a lot of fun, and I really regret that we were so close to seeing Wenona become important. She had that main character vibe from the start and I was excited to see her development. Getting confirmation that she would’ve been a major support character makes me extra sad we didn’t get to see her do that and her dynamic with Damon.
Chapter 3
I do really like this concept, as much as it hurts. One good thing about the game getting cancelled is that Kai and Toshiko will never die! Yay! I think it would probably have been a really interesting mystery based on what we know, too. From what I understand, maybe mixed with my own theories, Kai doesn’t die right away and stumbles to a different location. Then, after he dies, Tozu and Mara mess with the crime scene and possibly move him back and bash his head again but worse to conceal the original injury?
I think it’s sweet that they try to help her out and certainly something we’ve never seen before. I do have issue with the idea that Toshiko wouldn’t have understood the gravity of what she’s done. She’s 14, not 5, she knows what homicide is. I also would prefer if she had a bit more premeditation than just killing Kai because she realized she could in the moment. I don’t think she’d do something so reckless considering she knows she has to get away with the murder and has already witnessed the team successfully solve two convoluted and planned-out mysteries. I would change it so that Toshiko planned out a death trap mechanism ahead of time and simply waited for someone to randomly trigger it. That way, she wouldn’t have to even be there and wouldn’t have as much guilt on her hands. Plus, of course, extra tragic that she’d end up killing the main character’s love interest by chance.
I hear there were two ideas for the execution, one merciful one where she freezes to death or something and one where Diana covers Damon’s eyes. I’m reminded of Mikan’s execution where people theorize that all that weird stuff was her hallucinating from a lethal injection. Maybe they could’ve done something where it looks chill but is a euphemism for something worse? Another idea I have is having Toshiko walk around in the ice world and come upon a Sleeping Beauty ice coffin. She lays down in it and gets ready to freeze to death beautifully, but then a guillotine drops out of nowhere and decapitates her. This would ironically mirror the way she killed Kai, and it would make the viewers think about what would really be more merciful. You could argue that freezing is merciful because it’s nonviolent, but at the same time, it’s very slow and painful. On the other hand, the decapitation is simple and instant yet very gory to look at. The people watching might ask themselves if they wanted the end that’s actually nicer for Toshiko, or if they wanted to see the option that just makes them feel more comfortable.
I also think the choice to kill Kai so early is really interesting and adds to the pain. You can’t save all the major players for the last couple chapters. That’s too obvious. Damon is left with the knowledge that he could’ve saved him if he was selfish and used his perk from the start.
Oh and another thing. I think Toshiko not having anything behind her fan is such a letdown. Give her braces cmonnnn!!! It would make it extra sad during her breakdown when she starts crying and she’s just a kid who’s been insecure about her braces this whole time, especially if they have like little pink and red rubber bands or something.
Chapter 4
Ok this is a whole mess and everyone knows it, even the team themselves from what I hear. They probably would’ve totally rewritten all this if they got this far. I want to try and come up with a way to make the scenario make sense without messing with the death order.
Daily life would include Mark confessing to Jett and getting rejected, but this wouldn’t be directly related to the case. In fact, it would be a sort of reverse-psychology red herring. This event would happen in a gossipy way where everyone finds out about it fast, and they’d all rush to ask Jett wtf happened or go console Mark. The soap opera romance drama would be resolved, and Jett and Mark both seem fine by the end of it. Then, Tozu introduces the next motive.
Case 4 is around the time of the game when all the most trigger-happy participants are already dead, and everyone left is scared and tired, just trying to ride it out. It’s not unusual for mainline DR to deal with this by stirring things up with some crazy or totally unfair mechanics. I’m thinking despair disease and the funhouse in SDR2, forbidden actions is DR3, the entire very first case in V3, and maybe the VR world. Sensing that everyone’s become too friendly and pacifistic, the people behind the game might devise a motive that’s secretly targeted to screw a specific person over, just to get the ball rolling again. After all, they basically did that to Eva.
Tozu tells everyone that as a prize for making it this far, the game organizers will reward everyone with gifts catered to their wants. Damon receives a bunch of prize checks with big sums as well as random recognition awards and luxury formal clothing. Being cynical, he quickly realizes this is the next motive and asks around. Wenona’s been receiving insider trading tips and offers to acquire smaller companies, while Diana has been getting contracts to work for huge Hollywood productions, collaborate with brands, and all sorts of expensive cosmetic supplies. They all realize that their most enticing prizes are useless inside the academy, so Damon figures the motive must be to get someone to try and escape so they can redeem their checks or contracts. He thinks this is an idiotic motive that no sane person would ever fall for, especially without knowing for sure if any of this stuff is even real, which he doesn’t think it is. All the current survivors agree that it’s all very suspicious and probably a bunch of hogwash.
What Damon doesn’t know is that Mark had been struggling with addiction before coming to the academy, and his gifts have included all the drugs he could ever want. He initially resists temptation, but the stress of the killing game, his worsening mental health, and the fresh pain of rejection cause him to cave in.
One day, Tozu suddenly tells everyone that their gifts have been taken away, and if someone kills, their prizes will be returned with plenty extra. Damon goes wow this motive really is the dumbest shit I’ve ever heard. Cassidy cracks a joke lamenting that now she only has four fancy gaming monitors in her room instead of seven. How will she survive? Mark quietly panics because not only is he actively addicted to multiple substances that he can no longer get, he realizes he’ll soon start experiencing dangerous, maybe even deadly withdrawal symptoms. Plus, if he’s going to die either way…
The next day, Ingrid is found dead, seemingly by suicide. There’s a gunshot wound in her temple, and one of Desmond’s handguns (that he got rid of) is on the floor under her limp arm. There’s a note next to her in her own handwriting about how she deeply regrets not being able to protect anyone, especially Toshiko, blaming herself for not keeping a better eye on her. She also starts going into her personal life, talking about how she feels like she always owes something to her family no matter how successful she becomes, and how although she loves her girlfriend, she’s afraid their relationship would never actually work out.
Now I hope THH fans would see a buff woman dead by suicide in chapter 4 and go hmmm wait a minute, I’ve played these games before.
That night, Mark asked Ingrid if they could meet to talk about something that’s been bothering him. He said he felt the most comfortable around her since she was so understanding, and he didn’t think anyone else would really understand. Now, don’t get me wrong. Ingrid is actually deeply suspicious. She’s seen three killings already. But she figures he had more success with his talent than he’d ever wanted, so the motive wouldn’t mean much to him, and if he tried to attack her, she could probably stop him. She agrees.
He sits down with her, but then goes quiet and says his problems are too difficult to talk about out loud. She days why don’t you write them down, and he asks if she could do the same so he wouldn’t feel weird. She agrees, and they both write letters. After Ingrid reads Mark’s, he kills her.
I’m not gonna come up with full murder mysteries, but maybe they can figure out it wasn’t a suicide because the blood splatters won’t be at the expected angle. They could also find the ashes of Mark’s note after he burned it and a needle that he accidentally didn’t dispose of properly somewhere else in the school.
As for the execution, which I don’t think they had planned at all (?), idk would having him overdose be too fucked up? Just letting him do it himself would be unique but also too similar to my idea for Toshiko in that there’d be two chill executions in a row. A better idea is he could be put in the audience of a festival where a mannequin wearing his stage persona’s mask is doing a set. Then, the crowd, also mannequins, starts moving around more and more excitedly and violently in larger numbers until he’s crushed. The other executions are related to the person’s talent, and being forced to listen to his own music in the middle of a big crowd would probably be despairing for him. What do we think about “Confession to a Crush” as the title?
Something I didn’t feel good about for ch 4 and 5 is how it felt like there were too many accidents, suicides, or meaningless deaths, so I’m hoping my rewrite makes it more satisfying by letting the characters end up in their situation due to their own decisions. But at the same time I am continuing the mainline DR trend of the musician character being screwed over and doomed lol. For ch4 specifically, I felt like the writers did not really know what to do with Ingrid, so I tried to work with her character flaws a little more. Not to be too woke, but I’m noticing a pattern where people will add a big butch woman to their cast for character design diversity but then struggle to give her a personality half as deep as the lean/conventional body type characters. Does anyone else see this? Anyway
My version of this chapter doesn’t result in Jett literally losing his helmet, but I feel like it would be understandable if he just decided to stop wearing it and be honest about his real backstory after seeing what happened to his broski who felt like he couldn’t be open about his darkest secrets.
Chapter 5
Ok this is the one where I reread my theory and was like wow I was cooking, this seems way more satisfying than the official outline. This’ll be based off that lol.
Desmond and Eloise form an alliance of trust, having already known each other from before the death game. They regularly meet up after lights out to talk about what’s been going on and try to strategize.
This whole time, Desmond has been doing everything he could to stop the murders, but has been growing increasingly hopeless. The last killing was committed using a gun that was only there because of his talent, after all, and maybe it wouldn’t have been accesible if he’d handled the weapon situation differently. At this point, Desmond feels like the other students don’t really care about taking action and just stand by as things unfold around them, hoping to not get caught up in the next case.
Eloise has been growing more paranoid than ever. There may have been a brief moment when she found herself opening up to everyone else, but not anymore. In fact, if Desmond asked her to meet for the first time now, she would’ve surely said no, but since they’ve been hanging out for a while now and nothing’s happened, she’s sure she can trust him if no one else.
One night, they bump into someone in the dark hallway. In surprise, they start to fight the other person, who pulls something metal out of their pocket. Eloise panics and stabs them, after which they fall to the floor. Dragging the person into the courtyard with its fake moonlight, they realize she’s just killed Tozu, who was trying to call Mara for backup. They’re not sure how to respond to this. Desmond suggests they hide the body as best they can for now, but fears the organizers probably have them on camera.
The next day they both receive a message from Mara. She says the organizers deliberated long and hard about how to handle this. Under normal circumstances, messing with the game host would result in their immediate execution, but considering exactly what went down, how late it is in the game, and what Tozu did in chapter 3, the organizers have decided to give them a chance and treat Tozu’s murder as they would the murder of a student.
Eloise is shaken, but tells Desmond that the students probably wouldn’t even notice Tozu was missing for a good while and there’s no way they’d go looking for him, so as long as they keep the body hidden well enough, they’ll be fine. She suggests cutting him into tiny pieces or dissolving him in chemicals, but they’re both too squeamish to actually try it. Desmond is sure the body would be found eventually, even by accident, so he starts to hatch a plan.
Damon and friends enjoy their much needed peace and quiet for a few days, but get suspicious when they haven’t heard anything from Tozu in a week. They start to feel concerned. Diana suggests they should try to get to the bottom of his disappearance just to put everyone’s minds at ease, suspecting that there’s a perfectly normal reason for his absence. Grace says why look a gift horse in the mouth, and Wenona is suspicious that this might be part of some weird trap. Diana convinces Jett to come investigate with her, and Grace goes too out of concern. They end up finding Tozu’s body.
During the investigation and trial, it’s initially totally unclear who killed Tozu, especially since he was dead for so long already, but the puzzle pieces slowly begin implicating Desmond. Eloise is petrified, but framing himself was his intention all along. Given the choice between her survival and everyone else’s, he decides that she deserves to get out of here, especially since she’s the one who’s done the most to end the game at this point.
The trial nearly closes with him favored as the culprit, but Damon notices something that doesn’t make sense, stopping everyone from ending the trial. After talking about it, they realize Eloise was the one who delivered the stab. Both of them, who had been playing dumb this whole time, suddenly start trying to confess that it was them, but Damon proves it was Eloise.
If we’re sticking to talent-themed executions hm. Ok the scene opens to Eloise standing on a decorated stage opposite a fencer robot modeled after the black swan. Obviously Swan Lake is playing. They start fighting. Then, after the music swells, the floor of the stage falls away to reveal that they’re standing on a balance beam over a deadly drop, and the camera zooms out to show the stage is actually a little set being held up by a giant construction crane. Eloise starts gaining an advantage over the robot, and pushes forward with determination, but then it suddenly retracts its epee into its arm and rumbles a little. Eloise catches herself and squares up. The robot’s midsection flies open as a comically large boxing glove springs out, knocking her off the beam. The fall kills her. Let’s call it “Duck Duck Swan” <- sometimes I have to remind myself that mainline DR execution titles aren’t particularly creative or witty, at least until V3. I mean one of them is called “Deep Fried Teruteru” idk why I feel pressure to come up with good names
Yeah Desmond is totally losing it atp. He’s pissed. During the prologue he was on my survivor list so I can totally just let him live this time, but I did say I was gonna stick to the canon deaths. Desmond decided one way or another, he refuses to keep playing this game. Having been ready to die anyway, he pulls out a gun and fires a shot at Mara. She dodges it and pulls her own gun out. All the other students have nowhere to run, so they just duck behind the podiums and hide. A shootout ensues while the typical execution theme plays, and at the end, they both end up dead.
Two executions in a row! Whoa. Maybe this is a little Kiibo killing Tsumugi inspired. I always thought it was a bit of a shame that the only time we see a student die for breaking the rules is Mukuro so early in the series (and her death was rigged anyway), so I thought it’d be interesting to have the gun woman actually be a real threat. Desloise have died, but they both got more done than anyone else did, which sets the stage for the finale.
Chapter 6
Tbh guys mastermind Cassidy didn’t exactly surprise me, but it also concerned me a little that they could just swap her in since Eva was originally written to be the mastermind. To me that indicates that her individual character wasn’t strong enough from the start. SabrinaTwyla said she wasn’t sold on the writing and hoped for a redeemable Cassidy, and she’s like the authority.
When I did my theories, I thought Cassidy would be the random crazy character like Genocider/Togami, Nagito, or Kokichi who fuck stuff up but aren’t on the villains’ side. All these characters have been red herrings for the real villain, so I think it’d be fun to make one who is doing it for evil. If I were to write Cassidy, I wouldn’t make her the mastermind like Junko, but maybe a traitor planted in the game by the cult who organized it. (I think this is canon actually?) she was indoctrinated into extremism at a vulnerable time in her life. Cassidy wouldn’t be the one who actually organized the whole game and is controlling things, just a traitor they added in to influence the others.
On that note, I don’t really understand why Damon has to die from a narrative perspective or why things play out the way they do. He find the traitor perk in ch3 and just coasts through the next few chapters with it ig, but then people stop dying and he’s screwed. People are asking why he wouldn’t just kill Cassidy. I think there’s a cool opportunity here for two different endings, one where Damon decides to kill Cassidy once he realizes she’s the traitor and save himself, and one where he decides to forgive her and sacrifice himself. Apparently, though, Damon’s death was supposed to help figure out who the mastermind was somehow. Dude idk maybe she has a pager that beeps when people blow themselves up lol.
I don’t know how I’d rewrite the last chapter because idk what was supposed to happen in it, but overall I think I’d make Cassidy progressively get more unnerving, untrustworthy, and downright scary over the course of the game. Maybe she’d face the reality of the job she agreed to do and realize that the further she went, the more she actually wants it to end. She would do a good job of playing a normal character for a while, then the mask would start to crack, and eventually she wouldn’t even care to hide her true face anymore. The others might think she’s just losing it because of trauma, but then her identity is revealed.
Maybe I will take an actual crack at rewriting ch6 if the comprehensive lore actually says what was supposed to happen. Sorry for not having much to say about it.
Well if you read the whole thing, tysm! Hope you liked it and I hope to see people coming up with their own versions of events too.
I was looking at miraculous posts on Pinterest in the middle of the night, and this screenshot of Alix is absolutely frying me because it immediately reminded me of “30 times the glass was not strong enough” and I couldn’t stop cycling back and forth between these two images
would totally try to help come up with names for your au but i'm having enough trouble coming up with a name for mine 💔
anyways what are some songs u associate with the au and/or different characters in the au 🙏
Not to be lame but I didn’t really think about songs. I’ve been poring over this ask for a long time and I regrettably might just have to throw the towel in. I’m not a big character playlist person, especially for non-original stuff, and I’m not much of fan of the stereotypical character playlist genre of music.
No matter how many layers of AU you put on the ladybug universe, I still associate it with whatever mainstream pop is huge among grade school girls at the moment. This might be because of the side of the fandom that you’d see more on other social medias who’s on average younger and they keep making posts like omg Marinette is so swiftie-coded or kpop-coded lmao.
If you’d like music recs based on something more specific I’m sure I could come up with something though. Sorry for the underwhelming answer!
In The Mermaid’s Curse, during the Avi chapters where he and Circe discuss history, Avi quotes the opening to The Tales of the Heike. He then says he doesn’t get what it means but memorized it because he thought it sounded cool.
After finishing the story, this moment stuck out to me for a few reasons.
1) Tomoshige clearly didn’t get it either. This man spent centuries trying to revive the glory of a clan whose story is always told prefaced by “the warning that all things are impermanent”. The most important detail about the Heike in pop culture is that they rose, but then they fell. Being cursed with immortality made that lesson harder to swallow for Tomoshige as he thought he had plenty of time ahead of him, but his lifespan wasn’t infinite either. He couldn’t accept that the Heike were defeated nor that his time with Sato was long over.
2) As a rather verbose writer, you’d think Avi wouldn’t have a hard time comprehending some figurative language. I think he may have understood exactly what the words on the page were supposed to mean, just didn’t agree with their message to the point where he acts like he didn’t get it. In his glory ending, we see that immortality is actually a great time of adventure and success for Avi, and he wishes he could extend his 800 years for another round. Considering that the sentiment that “all good things must come to an end” literally didn’t apply to him, it checks out that he’d scratch his head at The Tales of the Heike. It’s interesting that he was so confident things would turn out that way so far in advance.
3) The passage’s description of impermanence with “what flourishes must fade” and “dust before the wind” is similar to the game’s description of what happens to immortals when their 800 years are up. They don’t go out in a magical blaze, they don’t speed-run aging in a flash of body horror like in some stories, they don’t turn back into a mortal, they just fade away into dust.
I’m putting a break because spoilers for everything
“There’s no way they’d put bird stickers at the bottom of the ocean, right? That would be ridiculous,” I, an idiot, thought.
The mocking birds theme song is so bumping omg the silly kazoo I love it
Sato was born in the wrong generation I just know her screentime would be in the teens
Wow she was born in the really wrong generation
I feel like I’m genuinely being queerbaited by Sato and Tsukasa
Man I was right on the money predicting Yumeko was in Paranormal Affairs but also I feel like that wasn’t hard to figure out
Seeing Tsutsumi and Mio’s names in the files had me pointing like the soyjak meme
Avi has the same voice as Jonas Gnosia in my head when I read their lines
^ After seeing his endings, this has become funnier iykyk
This game has its own So Sejima
Little did I know, this game would also have its own Saito Sejima. Who would’ve imagined?
There’s a low-hanging AI AU here I feel. Paranormal Affairs = ABIS. Yumeko is a psycher and Sodo is the AI ball. Tsukasa is Iris I guess idk
Yumeko and Sodo miiiiight be my favs so far but also I like all of them
Although the Avi route has a lot of heavy lore dumping moments in it that kinda tired me out a little
I also wish Circe had more dialogue that wasn’t playing the straight man to Avi. Let her be sillier
I wonder if they’re supposed to be speaking English or Japanese in the scenes where they’re alone
Does morphogenetically fielding info about the crest to Avi actually affect anything or is it just a fun extra thing
Funniest running gag I had with myself was every time Wakamura was on screen I’d be like hm turn around for me please there might be a mocking bird sticker hidden on the back of his bald head
The phone call scene was pretty funny. I wonder what would’ve happened if they never picked up. Surely that would’ve been a good thing, right? At least for a while
Sato coming back from the dead is so freaking tuff she’s so nonchalant
Shotaro is the only one reacting appropriately to all this rn
It hit me that it was Kikuko only when the camera lingered on that random pool of blood on the ground at the jetty and I was like wait a minute isn’t that where Kikuko was? … noooo. I didn’t even put together that she was the one who showed up and “witnessed” Yuza and Azami standing over Tsuyu right after she died. In a place where nobody usually goes at night. From Sato’s POV, when you spot her hiding she’s super tiny but you can still tell those are her clothes by the colors, and she comes back from that direction when she walks up on the boys.
I guess in the bad ending Sato dies since it took Yuza a few days to wake up (?) but I wonder if she died in the ocean or if she managed to get back to the island but couldn’t talk to him/got intercepted by Tomoshige :(
I have so many more questions about the logistics of immortality. If you lose a limb but then get vaporized years later do you regenerate the limb? If you get your wisdom teeth removed but then step on a land mine will you have to get them removed again? If someone rips your heart out and puts it in a blender would the heart have to regenerate and build the whole body from scratch while the perfectly good intact corpse disintegrates?
LMAO I totally called Wakamura’s sorcerer being Suigen Gamyodo that made me giggle. I always felt like that story thread was a loose end so I’m glad to see there was more to it. Also crazy how this was foreshadowed in those silly little birthday posts from the official social media
Shogo did the whole “going into corporate consulting at a young age despite not having a lot of experience and making bank” thing before it was cool
Frankly disappointed that there are no timelines where Shotaro explicitly dies. There’s that scene where Yumeko asked him if he took a business card and he says yes, and no one tells him to get rid of it (lmao by the way) and then “Ikoma” appears immediately after. I thought for sure they were about to kill him off for shock value. But nope!
I gotta say I love his facial expressions though. At the end of the game he pulls the Sarah Paulson horror face, the chill friendly 😉✌️ face, AND the scheming anime villain face all in the span of a ten min conversation
Yuza says he doesn’t want to tell Tsuyu and Azami about his immortality because he’s scared they’ll ostracize him, but let’s be fr, he should know they would never do that. I think he just didn’t want to admit to them that he attempted suicide. Thinking about how excited Tsuyu was that Yuza was coming home with the circle on her calendar. Azami would never care that Yuza’s immortal but I think he’d be pretty hurt if he found out he tried to kill himself after everything
The game says Yuza knowingly put his immortality to use while ama diving because he didn’t have to be scared of drowning and never really reacts to failing a dive, but Sato recalled in horror how drowning over and over was hell. Much to think about. Suicidal immortal guy coming up with most elaborate and extreme way to self harm without anyone noticing
After what happened to Somekawa I feel like this might have a genetic component too, like the power of friendship is so awesome but I think SSRIs might be worth a try this time
Shogo 🤝 Yuza : finding out you have strange supernatural powers and immediately figuring out how to turn them into an infinite money hack
In the first game, the stickers had a supernatural vibe about them, but they were mostly located in completely normal places like the city bridge! And the public park! But the tone kinda shifts in the second game. If I dove into an underwater cave that was previously inaccessible because an earthquake only recently reopened it, and I knew I was the first person to go there in centuries, but I pointed my flashlight up and saw a very modern looking sticker of silly birds on the cave ceiling… I’d poopoo my pants. Idk maybe I’m just sensitive but I think that’s creepy. And when Yumeko looks at them they’re… purple? What does that mean? If green is normal and red is immortal is purple like,,, godly? I wonder if the lore surrounding them will ever go deeper or if they’ll stay as mysterious little Easter eggs and nothing more.
Hayase at the bottom of the ocean was also scary I think that hits a very specific phobia for me. Going deep into the ocean and turning a corner and seeing a giant dangerous creature just waiting there? Spooky
I wish we got to learn a little more about who she actually was tho especially compared to the other two mermaids
The first game was soooo Twilight Filter compared to this one whoa I didn’t even notice until I went back to look at old posts. Is it because of the pollution? Why is everything so green and blue tinted
I think I liked the self contained narrative aspect of the Honjo story more than the openness of this one tbh. It was cool to get more world building but I think it could’ve been more interesting if a greater portion of the story was focused on Kameshima and the people there
Like there’s that one character we only see when she dies in the massacre route? Who even was that. Am I stupid who is that
Paranormasight 1 was for the aros (playing as 1) guy who has terrible luck with girls 2) kid with no love interest 3) super divorced man 4) woman who’s not divorced but probably should be 5) woman who was happily engaged but tragically lost her fiance). Paranormasight 2 was for the allos (playing as 1) soulmate couple I guess 2) woman who defied the laws of nature to be with her husband and 3) hopeless romantic single guy)
Kinda neat that there was no secret 5th playable character btw I’m glad they’re not reusing twists like that. Wonder how else they could maybe introduce a surprise extra PC in the future without it being redundant, maybe by doing it like the part where you play as Erio
Speaking of Erio and how Mio realized you were him, there’s a part where Circe has a similar reaction to Avi but I don’t remember exactly where that was
Sato and Yuza have a problematic nonchalantness gap in their relationship
Lowk thought they were gonna be secretly related and it seems like some other people thought that too. I guess the thing about being attracted to people who look similar to you is true
I wonder if the legend about Princess Hatsune being the baddest bitch around was simply propaganda. Not that she isn’t pretty, and multiple guys do like her, but tons of people fighting over her? Really? I guess they didn’t have celebrities back then so maybe the beauty standards were different.
For some reason in the true ending I’m focusing the most on Tsukasa becoming a business major. Get that bag. Be ready for the tourism boom way before it even happens
Avi’s good ending spits on the “immortality is a curse” trope more blatantly than Yuza and Sato’s story like no Sato’s not weird for enjoying it being immortal is just fucking awesome actually
I’m glad Kikuko’s death was addressed in the bad end but it’s kinda funny that her being dead or alive doesn’t change anything that happens in the main ending route like no one gaf
It should’ve been Shotaro
The final puzzle wooooah woooooah
Me when I go on a quest to find a mermaid and learn the truth of my parents’ deaths only to find out the mermaid was probably cracking my mom
This game did in fact have yuri just not where i thought it would
Polyamory is still an option
Woah the way you zoom into the portal when you start the game. Did not consider that
To be completely honest I saw that title screen Sobae shit coming from a mile away but everything else was a surprise like woah
I was even like hm this game has way less meta stuff than last time. Little did I know they just wanted to shove it all at the end
Ryugu seems boring as hell what does Sobae do all day? Sit on that damn rock and nothing else? If I died and went to Ryugu I’d be pissed it seems depressing. Maybe the wonderous magical dragon palace is just around the corner, but this infinite barren rock landscape does not inspire eternal peace to me
If the ghost is decapitated Yuza, why is he wearing diving clothes instead of his street clothes… eh don’t worry about it
EHAT FO YOU MEAN SHOGO AND YOKO’S STORY HASNT ENDED YET WAHT
Paranormasight 3????? Or 2.5???? Localize that manga too while you’re at it
That actually makes me really curious — are there any unanswered mysteries in this game like in the last game? I feel like Yumeko’s history with the bureau wasn’t fully explained
I want to see her husband so bad please tell me he speaks in a normal human voice. Official art drop when. And I need to see that photo of Circe and Mio
I guess Shogo and Sodo are distantly related. And also have met
We never saw Circe use her guardian spirit ability while the rest of her and Sodo’s abilities were used, maybe that’s something that will come back again
Give us the Yumeko and Tetsuo spinoff. Wow I sure did enjoy files 23 and 38, and hope to read 25, now where are the other 35 files? Actually I was just thinking, if there’s only one year between 23 and 38, that suggests the bureau can’t have been around for very long, right? Either that or paranormal crime is on the rise like crazy this one year in particular. They make it sound like paranormal affairs has been established for a long time but what if it’s only been operational for like three years
Earlier on I was under the impression that the three mermaids were sisters or something but I guess they’re just like coworkers? Lol quit your job (mermaid) join my emo band (paranormal detective division)
Yeah def curious about Yumeko not having an ending and seemingly doing some stuff off screen. I expect more of her
Does anyone know what’s up with Amamori in Paranormasight? I thought it was kind of odd that he only shows up very briefly in one of the “non-true” endings without any visuals nor any proper introduction, but unlike other faceless characters, there are several pieces of official art of him, including what looks like a sprite. I also can’t help but notice that his name is very similar to Chairwoman Yamamori.
I haven’t read the manga (I hope they localize it!) but does he show up in it? I suspected they intended to make a spinoff about Richter’s PI agency since there’s a suspiciously large amount of fluff info about something that’s only relevant for ten seconds in an optional part of the game. I see that the game is file 23 and the manga is file 25, so it seems they’re giving themselves plenty of space for spinoffs since game 2 is file 38.
New Paranormasight?!?!? Yayayayayay omg. And they announced it close to its release date?! (Side eyeing some other stuff I’ve been waiting for). This is so exciting! Omg I wonder if there will be any connection between the games. I mean they very likely all take place in the same universe and time period but I mean I wonder if we’ll hear from the file 23 characters again at some point or if each game is entirely standalone. Or if we might learn more about that special paranormal investigation department.
Also I saw the new official art of the first game and, spoilers under the cut
I think it’s rly funny how they always depict everyone just chilling together, especially Shogo and Yoko. “Me and bestie who conspired to murder me! :) oh yeah and jeffrey dahmer is over there hanging out with our other pals”
Introducing my bug!Nath and cat!Alix AU! I’ve been seeing a lot of Nateybugs on my feed lately and decided it’s finally time to realize the concept of my own that’s been floating around in my head for a while. Why haven’t I made it until now? Um. It took this many years of art experience to be able to draw the hairstyle I had in mind. Lmao
This AU is very canon complaint, and the idea is pretty much a Scarabella and Kitty Noire situation where they’re temporary stand-ins in the main universe, but there’s also a timeline where they’re the permanent holders.
Nath has zero confidence in his ability to pull this off and is convinced he’ll be defeated immediately. I got the idea that he could wear the miraculous as cuff links instead of earrings as a failsafe. Him internalizing this notion of being “fake ladybug” causes his transformation to look like a harlequin ladybird. Once he actually gets into a fight, he realizes it’s not as bad as he thought. Over time, he starts developing some leadership skills.
Alix, on the other hand, is way overconfident. She considers Bunnyx to be the superhero with the hardest job, and imagines that using the cat will be a walk in the park in comparison. She’s excited for a chance to try out actual combat without considering that she has little to no experience due to spending every fight sitting on her ass in the burrow, and she weighs like three apples.
I think in canon, Alix doesn’t really have a lot of overt character flaws, and the ones she does have are often completely overlooked by fans, so I wanna dial it up to ten for this AU. I headcanon her as being kind of narcissistic and having an inflated ego, but it’s not easy to prove her wrong. She thinks that her work as Bunnyx is literally keeping the world spinning? Well yeah I guess it is. Her grades are at the top of her class. She’s focusing in STEM, and she’s good at art, and she’s athletic, and she skates, and she’s popular, and everyone thinks she dresses cool. This is what being a pink haired anime girl does to a person. Being Bastet is the first thing she’s actually. Bad at. At least at first, but getting to live the failgirl experience makes her start to rethink some stuff.
Another motivation for making this AU is that there is like. No Alix and Nath content out there and 95% of the stuff claiming to be it is actually Marcaniel fanfiction where Alix shows up briefly to be the cool wingwoman and that’s it. I’m crying misogyny. Even in canon we got a nice two milliseconds of implications of their relationship. More please!
I’m putting this image in again because I spent a reallllly long time rendering it. Design notes:
I wanted Crimson’s hair to be kind of a stereotypical shonen anime boy hairstyle but also have the shape of a ladybug shell
The back of his little coat is also shell shaped and the lapel is influenced by Rooster Bold
You can’t see it but his shoes are platforms. But you already knew that
I used the “skinny optical illusion” black lines on the side of his suit like how Caprikid has
Bastet’s suit is pretty techwear-inspired and born of my wish that her canon designs were cooler. I think all the people who liked Canigirl’s design were playing a prank on me
She has metal elbow pads because techwear + skater + …she’ll need them. They balance out the metallic parts of her design, but I drew them in a pose where you can’t really see them
I tried to play with textures. For example, Bastet’s belt is like a seatbelt-ish texture and Crimson’s boots are like PVC
I gave Bastet that vest inspired by the weird little vest Alix is wearing in her normal outfit but I still don’t understand the vision behind that. I need an essay from the character designer who made her explaining every choice
Also obviously her mask is inspired by the ancient Egyptian kohl eyeliner style and I put a little ankh charm on her collar for the aesthetics and as protection because she’ll need that too.
When I draw lips I usually draw the top one in solid black and the bottom as one line, and I usually color over the top one, but I decided to leave hers
I’m not entirely sure where I want to take this AU in the future or how to put it out. I could do it as fic or try to draw comics. I’m not super good at comics but I want to improve. I want to do something with their first fight together for sure, and I have an idea for a re-verse evil AU but it’s way too early for that. I think what I end up doing will depend on feedback so please give that to me!
Introducing my bug!Nath and cat!Alix AU! I’ve been seeing a lot of Nateybugs on my feed lately and decided it’s finally time to realize the concept of my own that’s been floating around in my head for a while. Why haven’t I made it until now? Um. It took this many years of art experience to be able to draw the hairstyle I had in mind. Lmao
This AU is very canon complaint, and the idea is pretty much a Scarabella and Kitty Noire situation where they’re temporary stand-ins in the main universe, but there’s also a timeline where they’re the permanent holders.
Nath has zero confidence in his ability to pull this off and is convinced he’ll be defeated immediately. I got the idea that he could wear the miraculous as cuff links instead of earrings as a failsafe. Him internalizing this notion of being “fake ladybug” causes his transformation to look like a harlequin ladybird. Once he actually gets into a fight, he realizes it’s not as bad as he thought. Over time, he starts developing some leadership skills.
Alix, on the other hand, is way overconfident. She considers Bunnyx to be the superhero with the hardest job, and imagines that using the cat will be a walk in the park in comparison. She’s excited for a chance to try out actual combat without considering that she has little to no experience due to spending every fight sitting on her ass in the burrow, and she weighs like three apples.
I think in canon, Alix doesn’t really have a lot of overt character flaws, and the ones she does have are often completely overlooked by fans, so I wanna dial it up to ten for this AU. I headcanon her as being kind of narcissistic and having an inflated ego, but it’s not easy to prove her wrong. She thinks that her work as Bunnyx is literally keeping the world spinning? Well yeah I guess it is. Her grades are at the top of her class. She’s focusing in STEM, and she’s good at art, and she’s athletic, and she skates, and she’s popular, and everyone thinks she dresses cool. This is what being a pink haired anime girl does to a person. Being Bastet is the first thing she’s actually. Bad at. At least at first, but getting to live the failgirl experience makes her start to rethink some stuff.
Another motivation for making this AU is that there is like. No Alix and Nath content out there and 95% of the stuff claiming to be it is actually Marcaniel fanfiction where Alix shows up briefly to be the cool wingwoman and that’s it. I’m crying misogyny. Even in canon we got a nice two milliseconds of implications of their relationship. More please!
I’m putting this image in again because I spent a reallllly long time rendering it. Design notes:
I wanted Crimson’s hair to be kind of a stereotypical shonen anime boy hairstyle but also have the shape of a ladybug shell
The back of his little coat is also shell shaped and the lapel is influenced by Rooster Bold
You can’t see it but his shoes are platforms. But you already knew that
I used the “skinny optical illusion” black lines on the side of his suit like how Caprikid has
Bastet’s suit is pretty techwear-inspired and born of my wish that her canon designs were cooler. I think all the people who liked Canigirl’s design were playing a prank on me
She has metal elbow pads because techwear + skater + …she’ll need them. They balance out the metallic parts of her design, but I drew them in a pose where you can’t really see them
I tried to play with textures. For example, Bastet’s belt is like a seatbelt-ish texture and Crimson’s boots are like PVC
I gave Bastet that vest inspired by the weird little vest Alix is wearing in her normal outfit but I still don’t understand the vision behind that. I need an essay from the character designer who made her explaining every choice
Also obviously her mask is inspired by the ancient Egyptian kohl eyeliner style and I put a little ankh charm on her collar for the aesthetics and as protection because she’ll need that too.
When I draw lips I usually draw the top one in solid black and the bottom as one line, and I usually color over the top one, but I decided to leave hers
I’m not entirely sure where I want to take this AU in the future or how to put it out. I could do it as fic or try to draw comics. I’m not super good at comics but I want to improve. I want to do something with their first fight together for sure, and I have an idea for a re-verse evil AU but it’s way too early for that. I think what I end up doing will depend on feedback so please give that to me!
Project Eden’s Garden Imitation/Echo Art + Animal Symbolism Analysis Pt. 2
I am finally continuing this all the way from April! The first post has been getting some attention lately so I’m doing another one. Link to pt. one ⬇️
💬 0 🔁 9 ❤️ 61 · Project Eden’s Garden Imitation/Echo Art + Animal Symbolism Analysis Pt. 1 · (With some predictions and theories thrown in
Also, naturally, spoilers for chapters 0 and 1 of p:eg as well as the canon DR games. When I try to look up this art album on Google my own post is the top result which is cool but also unhelpful to me lol
Toshiko: a wish
I’m gonna start off strong with my most insane crackpot theory. Hear me out. What if there are two “Toshiko”s and they’re twins.
“What are you talking about?” Ok. Most of the other imitation pieces include more than one depiction of the character at once since that’s kind of the point of the series, but this one has a much more literal feel to it than the others, like Damon looking at his child self, Winona being a bunch of spooky swam monsters, and Grace clones being her own friends. Here we see two Toshikos, one in a yukata (?) and one in casual summer clothes, looking at a sparkler. The casual Toshiko’s mouth is blurred out with liquified lines sweeping back and forth. The traditional one is wearing a face mask with her “two flamingoes” logo on it.
None of the other characters have more than one of their animal symbol on them save for Cassidy, who has a spider web pattern on her leggings but no actual spider. Toshiko’s logo is two flamingoes facing each other. This makes sense to symbolize a matchmaker, but what if it means something else? What if it represents how there are literally two of her? I realize this sounds far fetched, but I can come up with some more support for it.
People theorizing about her mysterious mouth and why it’s always covered have pointed out that other characters can surely see behind her fan in group scenes, and it’s only hidden from us, the audience. Plus, Ingrid has probably seen her going to bed and first thing in the morning. If Toshiko is a twin, what if she’s hiding something that distinguishes her from the other one? Maybe one twin has a unique mole or tooth gap that the other doesn’t. Especially if it’s a tooth difference, she could easily hide it from the other characters by covering and closing her mouth, even if they catch a glance of her face. Perhaps at some point we’ll see under the fan, then see her again later but notice something different. This theory leads me to predict she, or one of them, is going to be a victim, and this will come to light when investigating the body. (BuT shE’S a ChilD thEY wOnT kIlL hEr. lol. lmao even. I think they would). Imagine Toshiko 1 tries to poison Ingrid, but Ingrid decides to gift the food to Toshiko 2 as a treat and 1 accidentally kills 2. What if.
Another point I’m going to bring up is the Fregoli Delusion poster again. It seems like a big fat Chekhov’s gun to me so let’s try to figure out what that’s about. The Fregoli Delusion is that multiple people around you are actually one person in disguise. If my theory is true and there are two Toshikos, what if this is poking fun at that and trying to say you’re delusional for thinking Toshiko is two people?
Discarding everything I just said, assuming my theory is insane and wrong, the poster could also be poking fun at people who think there’s a traitor assisting the masterminds (a position Toshiko is a high suspect for among fan theorists). The drama masks on the poster look like Tozu’s mask.
“I am a wish” could mean that Toshiko sees herself as performing a role, maybe one that’s expected of her by other people but one she may not want to play. She could think that her true inner self is just her own wish, but she’s forced to be a certain way on the outside.
I don’t know if flamingoes necessarily have an archetypal symbolical meaning, but there are some things we can associate them with. They’re flock birds, which goes along with Toshiko’s talent as a matchmaker and her social demeanor. They’re seen as sort of flamboyant and whimsical. They’re also famous for their unique pink color from eating shrimp. This might be a stretch, but flamingoes reflect the environment they live in and what they consume, so perhaps Toshiko is meant to be a reflection of the culture she grew up in. She reflects what she consumes when it comes to romantic media and advice since she’s just a kid without much experience.
Ingrid: an obligation
Her echo art is one of the most unnerving! I had no idea what to think at first. Haha what a sweet and cheerful character!
Starting off with analysis of the art itself, the imitation art shows her covered in hands. We know that Ingrid has the expectations of her family business on her shoulders, and that’s the most obvious interpretation for what her obligation could mean. We can interpret these hands as belonging to her family members and ancestors guiding or forcing her in a specific direction. BUT. The imitation art is all just the one character right? You’ll notice these arms all look like they belong to the same person. I think they represent Ingrid putting a lot of pressure on herself under the guise of obligation to others. The echo art reinforces this. Ingrid in this image looks like she’s being suffocated by her own two hands, no other arms reaching out, just two.
Predictions for game events? Maybe Ingrid will get into trouble by being self-sacrificing and putting other people above herself. “I am an obligation”. She may prioritize taking care of everyone as we’ve seen her do so far, but at the cost of neglecting her own best interests. She may also fail to ask for help in a situation where she really should have due to her own perfectionism, then have it come back to bite her by leaving her alone in a dangerous position. Conversely, if she puts so much pressure on herself over the family business, she may feel obliged to escape, using it as an excuse to cope with her own wants. It sure would be a twist if the kind and helpful character ended up being a killer, but it could also be a situation like SDR2 ch4 where she does something “for the greater good”. Speaking of DR, I feel like surely between Ingrid and Jean, one of them’s gotta survive, right? For the ch4 buff people death trope subversion, cmon right? Watch they’re both gonna die, just not in ch4.
Ingrid is represented by a lion, an animal with a classic archetypal symbolic meaning. Lions are supposed to represent strength, courage, and pride. Ingrid is obviously very strong and protective of those around her. Pride could potentially be a flaw of hers if I’m interpreting these artworks accurately. Maybe she holds herself to too high of a standard and expects too much of herself. Lions in real life live in groups and rely on each other, but are often portrayed as being independent, especially when used to signify royal power.
Jean: a secret
I didn’t really know what to do with this image tf. I’m just gonna start spitballing. All the guys here look like different people, but are actually just Jean with different clothes, hair, and facial hair styles, and they’re all scared of the canon design Jean who’s in the shadow silhouette. The composition paired with Jean’s talent gives this scene mutiny vibes.
My first reaction to this image was that the men are Jean’s crew before realizing that they’re him. I thought he might be a harsh and tyrannical captain while acting cool around other people, but I don’t know about that after figuring out that everyone is him. Maybe “I am a secret” suggests that Jean actually doesn’t even have a crew at all and works alone. Perhaps he’s enthusiastically trying to recruit his new friends to form one because he’s alone otherwise, but is trying to hide it. Him pointing a gun and threatening other versions of himself could be like him telling himself to keep quiet about the truth to maintain his image. He might be “a secret” because he doesn’t let anyone know him very closely or work with him.
Another possibility is that he’s a sham in some way. This could be as extreme as him having a secret different ultimate talent/be an impostor, but it could also be him lying about his maritime adventures. I’ve talked before about how p:eg plays with the concept of ultimate titles, how they’re awarded, and who deserves them. Maybe Jean earned his title through a single isolated event or something, but is pretending to be a seasoned captain with many tales of experience to make himself feel more valid.
As a character who has shown strong leadership among the cast, I feel like Jean’s raising a death flag. Killers like to take out people who they see as having too much power over the group (cough chapter one cough), but someone who can easily manipulate trust can become a covert killer as well. I said I hope either Ingrid or Jean survives, but going entirely on vibes in feeling Ingrid is more likely to make it. I can see Jean being an earlier game death, even as early as next chapter since he’s already had some decent screentime. I have no doubts that we’ll learn some secrets about him before that happens, though.
Jean’s animal is very interesting since it’s the only one that’s not exactly real. His tattoo looks like the type of dragon you’d see in western fairy tales. In eastern stories, dragons are usually associated with bodies of water and weather, which would make sense for a ship captain who has to navigate the ocean and fight storms. Western dragons, though, don’t have this association and are seen as majestic and powerful, yet dangerous monsters. Going back to the idea of Jean being fraudulent in some way; if he is, that would go quite well with him being symbolized by a fantasy animal. Dragons may be powerful, but at the end of the day, they only exist in stories.
Wenona: a foe
With what we know about her backstory, you’d think Wenona’s biggest enemies would be business rivals and gold digging fake friends, but here she’s represented as her own worst enemy (I’m sensing a theme in today’s pieces). Wenona is represented as some sort of siren-like water monster. Idk if it’s referencing a specific mythology, but many cultures have evil trickster mermaid myths. As a CEO, Wenona had to do some underhanded stuff to gain power, like her story about false advertising, so she might think of herself as a dangerous or immoral person. She may have screwed people over or sacrificed safety/quality for profit as big agriculture companies are known to do. Maybe deep down she feels guilt for things she’s done for the sake of business or ways she may have betrayed people in order to form a monopoly. Her success as an entrepreneur may have isolated her from the people who used to be there for her.
Predictions? I think if Wenona dies, it’ll probably be pretty late into the game, like ch4 or 5. She has a lot of room for development, and I think she could have some really interesting dynamics with other characters like Damon and Cassidy, who I also think are unlikely to die too soon. Maybe I just think this because she’s Togami-coded, but in ch0 she struck me as a potential major player, although she hasn’t done much yet except be generally logical in trials. I could even see her being an investigation partner for Damon in a future case.
Not to make this about Ulynona buttt Ulysses is the character she’s closest to and most open with, and I predicted he would be an early death. Maybe him dying would catalyze her arc. Something about his case might make her decide to follow her moral compass and start helping everyone more openly. Or the opposite! Maybe she’ll go Togami mode and start sabotaging investigations or being extremely selfish, who knows!
Wenona is symbolized by a bear, an animal known for being powerful and dangerous, but also well respected. They’re also a classic example of American wildlife and have a symbolic significance in many Native American cultures. Bears are strong and independent leaders, but also quiet and wise. This all lines up perfectly with Wenona, but like Ingrid, it may also hint at a sense of loneliness. Wenona acts like she’s better than average people, pushing them away, and makes a big deal out of keeping a low profile. Despite what she says, she may be afraid of being vulnerable and actually getting close to people.
Ok I’ll end things here for this post. That leaves five characters for next time + Cara I guess but damn idek what her deal is. I have so much to say about Diana omg it’s been simmering at the back of my mind. Next part will not take nine months to make I prommy <3
