Welcome to my SAGAU mixed with A Hat In Time, AKA:
(I… Haven’t found a name yet…)
It takes place in The Imposter route, after The Creator has died, which isn’t something touched upon often. But what comes after? What happens if she becomes something like a certain spirit called Snatcher? Well, that’s something we’ll be talking about here!
Please refer to Mod as Thorn, she/her. Don’t be creepy in the asks please.
Character list
For Those Who’s names aren’t known/Isn’t In Canon at all (Will be updated as new are introduced)
When Luka was finally introduced to Qiqi properly, and she managed to touch him without him being physical, that was when Fiona realized that she needed to explain why Qiqi hadn’t been killed. The explained the soul and body situation to him in hushed tones, in order for eavesdroppers to not hear and for him to not freak out.
It didn’t actually keep him calm, but he didn’t freak out as much as he would have.
Fiona never thought that she’d get back anything akin to home. But then, she met Qiqi and Luka. And she realized that home was never truly a place. And she knew that if that final nail fell on her new home, it could never recover. Sure, all of the other spirits would be fine, but Qiqi wouldn’t. Vanessa would be free to wander the land with no restrictions, would probably go straight to hunting her new brother Luka. She can’t have that, but no one has successfully killed that Ice Witch and no one can truly stop Celestia. But that doesn’t mean that Celestia isn’t losing. The world outside the forest is dying, and soon they’ll find that their “Creator” is the True Imposter.
When Fiona was alive, she had an English degree. She loved history, and myths, and literature. She collected every Genshin artifact, weapon and book. She even wrote down all the lore in a group of notebooks, one for each type. And she was the kindest person one could ever meet.
Her degree didn’t get her as far as hoped. She worked in an institute’s archives section. Sure her boss was a strict, old woman and some other assistants would go missing after trips with her, but it was nice. Then the woman died, and everyone got laid off instead of going to work under her replacement.
Then Fiona got a job at a library. And it was great! More peaceful too! And then the owner’s son started to have an interest with her. And when she rejected his advances… well, let’s just say that when she got pulled into Teyvat, she didn’t have a job anymore.
When Fiona first spotted Luka, she was dealing with a particularly rowdy abyss mage. She had to quickly overlook that due to said abyss mage attempting to escape and fell into the swamp. The soul was managed to be grabbed before it drowned. The body wasn’t recovered.
Her second encounter was similar, so was the third, and the fifth. Just a spirit watching her do her job, and fleeing once spotted. Then there was Luka’s encounter with an abyss herald. That’s when they finally, properly, met.
Truth be told, the herald did not mean to harm Luka. It was just looking for The Collector, and came across the wrong spirit. It managed to completely corner Luka, unaware of the subconites watching and going to warn Fiona, and managed to subdue the spirit to try to corrupt him. The herald didn’t notice that Fiona had snuck up behind it until after she took it’s soul and proceeded to basically vaporize it and it’s abyssal energy.
Fiona’s both themes. That’s something I’ve been thinking about. Yes, themes with an s, it changes depending on whether or not there’s Qiqi on the team.
For both there’s a base of the song/remix known as Subcon’s Royal Waltz by Honnojis on YouTube, a remix of Subcon Forest, Your Contract Has Expired, and has some ASGORE Motifs. For the non-Qiqi team, it’s just that. If there is Qiqi, the ARGORE motifs are replaced with motifs of Ralsei’s Lullaby and Heartache. An “I’m sorry, little one.”
For the first phase, it’s played with instruments of the flute family, though in the second, there’s a tie in of guitars, violins, and drums. A “think of who will be put in danger if I am beaten” kind of thing.
How you would get to fight her, or what it’ll be like, I’m not really sure.
Wait.. can’t Nahida see the dreams of the Subcon residents despite them being spirits?
No… unfortunately she can’t see the dreams of the dead. So while she is aware of a kingdom once residing there, and that there is a dangerous spirit who claimed it as it’s territory, she doesn’t know that the spirit is actually the second to do so, nor the extent of the amount of spirits residing there.
The Subcon kingdom & forest was the only information that was not erased by Celestia, yet was banned from being accessed.
Don’t answer if uncomfortable or has spoilers to what you’re planning.
No. No she shall not. Not with anyone outside the forest due to everything causing her to not really trust outsiders, not with Qiqi since thats very wrong (don’t ship adults and children). She won’t be shipped with any subconites, dwellers or Prince Luka because no matter how one looks at it, there is a big age gap.
She shall not be shipped and I ask that you don’t ship her with anyone. While there might be ships, it won’t be between anyone in Subcon.
No offence, but Prince Luka thought she’d die from the second he spotted her. Thought. Because he saw her again and again, in the villages, around the forest, in The Collector’s Tree, and that proved him incorrect. He doesn’t know why this one is so different, why she gets a cloak and mask, when all other trespassers are killed. And that not-knowing’s going to bother him for a long time.
If there was one way to get rid of particularly… unruly contractors, or those who manage to prove themselves too well (fixing so much damage that there wasn’t much else to do), Fiona would send them on a final contract. If they completed it fully, they get to live and leave, something she would otherwise be against. The contract was, to kill the creature known as Queen Vanessa, bring back proof of her death, and not break any ice statues along the way. This was dangerous, and Fiona was well aware that if the blizzard clouds above the forest cleared up, that would be proof enough that the Mad Queen had died. Hopefully. Because Fiona didn’t know if that would make the storm clear, for light to be able to enter Subcon once again without being filtered through clouds.
No. Remember how I mentioned that when the forest is entered, visions stop working? Thats due to Fiona’s magic. This also means that she can reinstate a vision’s effect without it being an eye for Celestia, or mess with the wielder’s ambitions.
Well, she has her own room (/house, since Fiona can barely fit in noodle form) now, and ended up getting her own small garden after, well, she tried climbing a tall cliff to get a plant that grew at the top. This, as most might think, is very dangerous, and Fiona wasn’t too happy when she eventually fell. Therefore, garden with most plants.
It was a surprise to find that, due to either her undead or spirit situation, she can touch spirits even if they weren’t willingly “physical” (as in, no touch possible. However, this doesn’t work if the Dweller mask is active.
She is aware of his existence, in the same way she is aware of who Queen Vanessa is. And the method is: simply asking the subconites. Most are from the old kingdom after all, even if they can’t remember their old lives fully. As for his spirit, well, Qiqi was the only one to see him, and hasn’t told anyone yet.
Ok so I need to talk about the soundtrack I’ve been thinking about for this.
For almost the entirety of the thawed forest (minus the villages, the swamp & The Collector’s tree), there’s a haunting melody of woodwinds (more specifically, from the flute family). Not exactly as upbeat as the regular Subcon forest OST, but still very creepy. Honestly, it’s also kinda beautiful. Thats… as much as I can say to describe what I’m thinking of, since I don’t have a particular tune in mind for all except for Fiona’s boss fight theme.
Subconite village and Fire spirit village are similar in their themes. They’re both much more upbeat, though the FSV will sound more like what you might hear at a festival while the SV has a more… homey feel. In both, the flutes take a step back, but the instruments that take the lead are different. In the FSV, there are drums, and the SV has instruments like guitars and other trying instruments. No violins or any of that sort though.
Fiona’s Tree doesn’t have any notable changes in the instruments (except for the inclusion of a percussion instrument known as the wooden block) but I’d feel like it has a base theme of HOME from Undertale, as well as a few motifs from It’s Raining Somewhere Else (Undertale) and The Subcon Caves (A Hat In Time), all three being mixed to make a beautiful melody.
The swamp is almost entirely silent, safe for the sound of wind. If you manage to climb high up enough to get near the blizzard clouds, no matter where you are you will hear a piano playing something not to dissimilar to what plays in Vanessa’s manor in the base game. If you come back once the clouds are gone (once she is dead), you will instead hear nothing but wind and birds chirping.
Speaking of her, the frozen area of Subcon has a haunting piano melody, similar to the theme Entering Vanessa’s Manor (A Hat In Time). A A “Get out while you still can”, a “Danger”, so to speak. Wandering around her manor has a similar melody, but being in a room she isn’t in and isn’t following you into allows you to hear an underlying violin motif. A calming one, while the rest of the music is eerie. Her chasing you has the same sound as in the base game.
The three spirits (Fiona, Luka, Vanessa) as well as Qiqi each have their own instrument representing them. Qiqi has the wooden block, Fiona the flute, Luka the violin, and Vanessa the piano.
How did Qiqi react to the spirit of “The Imposter”? Did she even recognize her as such, or at all?
At first she didn’t, but she did after Fiona gave her a Dweller mask so she could get around safer. You see, Dweller masks, can also reveal a ghost’s true form. This means that, while at first glance Fiona looks like a fluffier Snatcher, she looks the same as when she was alive to the mask wearer once it’s activated. Also, Qiqi immediately clued in that the “imposter” everyone was hunting wasn’t really the imposter once she saw The Collector’s true form, after all, if the plants are dying while the “creator” is alive and the “imposter” is dead, that means that their roles are reversed.
Out of all the species in Subcon forest, none survived the great freeze. Well except for one. Bushcats were lucky. Being part plant meant that, when they were frozen over, they went into hibernation with so many other plants. And when Fiona thawed one out, she was surprised to see that it had survived, and overjoyed.
The bushcat population have been steadily increasing since her portion of Subcon thawed. Some have even managed to wiggle their way into Liyue and Fontaine, reviving there species there. How they went “extinct” in the first place? Well, a plage wiped them out. Specifically them. Don’t worry, Fiona made sure to bless each thawed one with good health and stronger immune systems. A blessing transferred through generations.
A bushcat was freed near the thawed-frozen border. It was found hissing at what was assumed to be her, Vanessa. What made it unique, was that it had a collar, one that had the name “Rough Patch”. On the back of the tag, there was the royal family’s symbol. Fiona doesn’t know why she would kill what would have been her pet, but as Subcon forest’s new ruler, it was her duty to take in what was essentially a citizen. Qiqi seems to like him quite a bit though.
