everything is normal!

hi hello welcome to my little house

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ok i totally deleted my old pinned by accident. here's the new one!

notice: mentions of a 'mephisto' here refer to the jtta oc! he came first, therefore first come first served. canon mephistopheles will be referred to in full when he comes up, because he is not my beloved

call me kin (they/them)!

journey to the attic (jtta) is a found family obey me fic; it is complete at 50/50 chapters and ~700k (wow) words! read it on ao3 here!

your main character is ik, a very cool kid who cannot stop getting into trouble! the fic adapts season 1 of the original game with a bunch of new lore and world-building layered in, and starts deviating significantly from the original riiiight around lesson 16. there's a chapter dedicated to playing magic vr minecraft and another to going to a devildom zoo!

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.. is Lucifer ACTUALLY dead in the detective au?

i have two versions of that case in my head:

lucifer is capital d Dead, his body is found in his office after the phone call to satan, and the case kicks off when they start investigating his death

lucifer faked his own death with the gunshot and went into hiding, and the case kicks off when they start trying to investigate his disappearance

either way the larger case is to do with 'm' and raphael (as well as beel & belphie, and possibly ik's dad) - so the only difference between 1 and 2 is how quickly lucifer moved after getting caught up in things. his phone call is basically the same thing either way, but in ver 1 it's cryptic bc he got killed before finishing his explanation and in ver 2 it's cryptic as a sort of code for satan's safety

i imagine this being a season 2 finale type thing (season 1 finale would be a case with the phantom thief). lucifer's a mostly unimportant side character on s1, appearing periodically to tell satan off and/or try to convince him to give things up and come home, but softens a little after satan catches the phantom thief. maybe earlier in s2 he came to the agency with a case of his own (which in turn lead to him becoming of interest in the 'm' conspiracy')

either way the whole thing is very dangerous and a lot bigger than it first appears, and it gets satan to re-examine his relationship with his brother and the stuff that was going on in his world. in ver 1 it's all post-humous while in ver 2 it becomes the catalyst for them to reconcile proper

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I had a thought plot when you posted the agency/room and cast.

Maybe during a part-time job at the cafe, while there are no active cases, Luke is worrying to Simeon about his job and the duo/just IK overhear it. Luke is getting in trouble because of a specific house claiming he never drops off their newspaper in the mornings. The newspaper boy is worried about getting penalized or fired as the customer is kicking up more and more of a fuss, and while he knows he is dropping the paper off, he doesn't know how it disappears in between him leaving it and the owner stepping out to grab it. He even stayed behind once to watch the paper so he can see who grabs it (getting a different earful for all the papers being delivered late that morning) but he was distracted for a second and then the paper was gone.

IK might offer to go with him the following day to watch together, two eyes are better than one after all and the stakeout begins. If it was episodic there might be a few hijinks of missing what happens to the paper (maybe with cameos from other cast members), but skipping that for now the pair are prepared with a camera. IK follows along and watches as Luke drops the paper off, then the two pretend to move on but really hide in some bushes/behind a wall. They wait, camera poised to shoot, but nothing happens. One minute, five, ten and Luke starts to worry he'll get in trouble for also being late on the other papers. A loud sound from behind distracts the pair and they look away, IK's trigger finger clenching the button on accident. When they look back, the paper is gone and Luke bemoans it was all for nothing. But wait! The camera might have caught something! Depending on the era it may be immediate, maybe it prints out and they have to wait for the photo to reveal itself, or they have to take it to a dark room and develop it. But they have their proof, and its a mysterious figure picking up the paper that Luke assures is not the owner of the house. Do they drop it there, Luke having proof that someone was stealing the paper he has been delivering? Or do they dig deeper, who is this mysterious figure and why were they coming out of the house, stealing the paper as they left?

I saw an episode play out in my mind and I felt the need to relay it to you.

oohh i like it!! feels a little spooky and also like it might be an element of a larger story, but they don't realise it until later - like, they solve this case and think it's all over with, but then it comes up again in a really serious arc and they're like ohhh shit

alternatively (because i've so far not mentioned the newspaper club in this au) it's just pink mephisto messing with that household and also therefore messing with purple mephistopheles bc he's outraged that he's got the same name as him

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How old is Ik in the main game and in nightbringer?

ik is 14 at the start of the main game's story and turns 15 during her exchange year (and then turns 16 at the end of the epilogue! as for nightbringer, i think realistically it would take place when she's at least 17, but i nearly always imagine her still being 15 lol. she's just that age eternally in my mind

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The concept of mammon finding the most perfect little trinket for IK but that means he'd have to buy it...with money....

Mammon: ohhhh,this would be perfect for my little human but ohhhh my poor wallet,my sweet sweet money,buy ohhhhh IK would love it but ohhhh my poor Goldie (still ends up buying the item)

i think mammon's got this weird standard where he'll hum and haw over cheap things (though he always end up getting them, of course) but if it's something expensive he won't even think about it before swiping. he'll spend like ten minutes walking to and from a display case of key chains debating whether or not to get one, but then he sees this incredibly rare and expensive little clockwork chimera and he's like OH BOY I'M GETTIN THAT FOR SURE

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i'm actually obsessed with magistrate ik's sad droopy little ahoge...... please let there be good things for her :(

if this were a full continuous comic then i would communicate ik getting happier as she spends time in the devildom by having her little ahoge slowly start pointing up again :D

there are good things for her! honestly she's basically had all of her suffering already, she mostly has a nice time of it (at least, she does after the brothers stop being jerks)

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here are my ideas for cases for satan and ik to solve

a burglary gone wrong that results in murder, and the culprit could be any one of this gang of street urchins. this case is what results in satan taking ik in

jewellery robbery at the music hall - introduces asmo + the phantom thief

detective vs thief heist case

a corpse in thirteen's mortuary gets up and walks out, but she was one hundred percent sure he was dead..... and no one seems to know the corpse's identity

a dead man is found in asmo's dressing room and they prove his innocence while finding the real culprit, earning his respect

someone is deliberately sabotaging simeon's coffee shop

A Case of Two Brothers, also known as Lucifer Fucking Dies: satan receives a cryptic phone call from his elder brother that is cut off by a gunshot

extended slapstick involving raphael attempting to murk satan but repeatedly failing

satan gets kidnapped by a crime ring he's looking into and ik gets to do a solo investigation

a potential client is shot by one of the guns on the office wall while apparently alone inside, and somehow ik gets accused. satan's solo investigation

Barbatos is Shady

belphie foresees a murder at the carnival of curiosities and it actually happens

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here is the office i recall from my incredibly detailed dream of a detective story. you can also view the whole cast's roles (these have mostly been made after the fact) under the cut!

and here's a bonus for making it this far!

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Super Serious Detective Agency

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potentially incoherent magistrate au doodles GO

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i may be committing to this magistrate au minific. i like it too much. god help all my other drafts and the still-incomplete think back. it's really fun writing this more jaded version of ik while still keeping in line with the basics of her outlook + personality + interests.. (but don't ever ask me how long it'll take)

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So I just read that in magistrate AU, the Celestial War lasted 500 years ago.

Assuming IK comes from our modern time.

That means Henry VIII was on the throne when the War started. Specifically, in 1526, he was still married to his first wife.

....does the Celestial War prevent Henry VIII's six wives from happening? Consequently..... does it prevent the Protestant Reformation in England?

Actually, what is even happening with the Christians? They did kind of just get their religion soft-confirmed. Just, uh, with a lot more hot anime dudes in it than expected......

i. i hadn't even considered that oh my god

the sky opening up and a giant inter-realm conflict spilling over into the human realm probably would mean there would end up being a lot more on henry viii's mind than the whole falling-for-boleyn, divorcing-catherine-and-dissolving-the-church thing. he might've tried to keep ruling though in my mind the war lead to a lot of ruling figures/bodies being dissolved

i guess all the christians would think it was the apocalypse at first? and then realise as the war goes that humans are barely even part of the equation to the beings actually fighting the war. in a way it's a great equaliser for the whole world, though there are almost definitely still splinter groups of the 'devout' who still believe enough repentance and various cultish activities will save them

also LOL imagine the first casualty of the war falling down into the middle of a (very christian village) and everyone gathers around it to conduct rituals/chant prayers/etc., but then there's a sort of awkward pause. and someone clears their throat is like "does anyone else think.... it's kind of hot" and then everyone's like "omg i didn't want to be the first to say it but-"

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I'm a little afraid to ask. But how is Zhao doing in the Magistrate AU? Please tell me he's still alive

who knows!!!! (well. i know, but no one in-universe does)

they were separated during yet another 'disaster in the human world as collateral for the celestial war' incident when ik was about 10. this is a pretty common happenstance and ik is taken in by the closest human settlement without much fanfare

there are programs for reuniting separated loved ones, but these often have to go on pause while the everyone hunkers down and hope no giant hammers or showers of spears or burning blood come raining down on their houses, so ik hasn't had an opportunity to use it yet. and then the whole magistrate business gets her before the post-war programs do

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submission from @mazlodowki! (who also currently has emergency commissions open!!!! please go see if you are in the market!!!!!)

hi I doodled IK staring at Henry 2.0… or at least how I saw her while reading dndbhend

I know her face and the anatomy is a bit wonky shhhhhhhhhh

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oh my god?!?!?!?!?!?!?! she's GORGEOUS..... her soulful eyes......... the Shape of henry 2.0....... i love how you render things..... thank you so much agh!!!

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HI so sorry if someone asked this before but im on like my third reread of The Fic™ and I got to the chapter with the whole ball thing and it got me thinking..

How would IK go about like, learning makeup stuff? Sensory issues aside, since there's some lightweight makeup that feels like basically nothing on your skin (coming from an autistic girl myself who can't handle being in full-face for too long), I reckon she'd really enjoy trying to recreate those artistic, Wei and Jin dynasty inspired makeup looks, and the ehuang makeup styles of (I think?? it was called the six dynasty era or smth like that?? idk my memory's bad).

OH AND I forgot the name of the makeup style and what it's called but the lotus forehead decorations!! I believe it was popular during the reign of We Zetian??

Asmo would probably have to teach her how to blend properly, though. He'd be a way better teacher than YouTube tutorials.

also, out of sheer curiosity, what does IK think of the legend of the white snake?? (and, if I may, what would she name a character based off of Bai Suzhen? She's very good with names :))

i think ik's main issues are 1. the sensory experience of the actual process itself and 2. sitting still long enough to figure this stuff out, and it's one of those things that she'd like to at least try at some point, but just never gets around to, so it's definitely a "go to asmo" thing. his process is probably not 'authentic' but he can take one look at the picture and basically recreate it perfectly!

they prob reserve it for fancy dress events (maybe the occasional mini home fashion shows). to ik it's a novelty like facepaint at the zoo, probably not the sort of thing she'd do in her day-to-day. she's just very used to the face she has and feels weird seeing it made up, but it is fun when it's part of dress-up (she has all the tropes and mannerisms down pat)

legend of the white snake is definitely a story her dad's told her at least several times over - specifically the version that's usually told in opera. as a small child ik would get bored as soon as he got to the falling-in-love part, so zhao would have to make up a lot of prelude episodes about the two snake-ladies going on adventures together first

and then she would get angry with xu xian because in her opinion it's much cooler to be a snake. therefore you should love your snake wife even more now. she used to be so mad about the imprisoning that zhao would only ever tell the version where xiaoqing comes back and destroys the pagoda

these days ik is still mostly not enamoured by the love story aspect of it (she prefers the cowherd and weaver girl as a love story) because she still thinks xu xian is a coward. but she does appreciate it a little more

as for a bai suzhen character.. there are a number of directions you could take, but i am imagining specifically just a big beautiful white snake. and ik would name her pearly

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watched the odyssey today and managed to tenuously do this with it (magistrate au)