This is a blog where I'll probably be rambling about headcanons and worldbuilding for my fandoms (FFXV, for example) and whatever else - things that won't show up on ao3.
In other words, fics and headcanons that will probably never see the light of day otherwise.
I don't post much, so it might be more reblogging than rambling, and I'm prone to disappearing off the face of the earth at times, but I hope you enjoy your stay anyway??
I have a separate tumblr for my default ao3 username, and thatâs my general account! Fair warning, fics on my main page can get very dark, this account is mainly Umineko and FFXV.
I wonder if that artificial Gold Coin Fruit tree that you first meet the real Alidoro by was made from Isabelle.
Main Game Sophia claims that the Alchemists were creating gold coin trees by experimenting on Listeners - of whom only three (potentially four) exist:
- Isabelle Monad
- Sophia Monad
- Camille Geppetto
- Carlo Geppetto
(maybe. P can hear Ergo whispers sometimes, but Iâm not sure if thatâs because heâs a puppet who runs off ergo or not and, unlike the average human, has to be far more in tune. However, it is his own unique ability to absorb Ergo - so itâs not something other puppets can do. Though stargazers can, and he may have been fitting with tech like that, instead of, again, Listener powers.
Also, the powers of a Listener seem to be hereditary - but given the only other three we know about are women, it might be matrilineal - a trope i donât really like if itâs never explained, because why is it only passed down to woman? - and we donât get enough lore to know.
Either way, Iâm 90% sure that the Alchemists killed Carlo to see whether or not he had the powers of a Listener, as much as a warning to get Lea to back off. His body was somewhat intact as Nameless Puppet - lacking his legs and an arm.).
Considering the tree is human shaped, Iâm assuming the human body was important in its creation.
For obvious reasons, that artificial tree canât belong to either Carlo or Sophia. Itâs somewhat implied that Geppetto unearthed Carloâs body after burial to create the Nameless Puppet (my running theory he needed Pâs heart because it carried Carloâs Ergo/memories, even though P never regains Carloâs memories, and the Arm of God to turn back time of the body so that he had âfreshlyâ died because Ergo can affect time - as seen with certain weapon descriptions and Sophia herself).
Manus wanted Sophia alive and to himself, or at least caged to him as he ascended to Godhood, and again - we see her in the main-game. Not a tree.
I donât think itâs possible for that tree to be Camille, as sheâs been permanently dead for years, and perma-died as a puppet.
Camille was killed by Markiona in a lab experiment gone terribly wrong, when she tried to further awaken her powers as a Listener by linking her to a relic (I assume the Arm of God), which also killed nearly everyone else nearby. (By awakening, Iâm assuming something like what eventually happened to Sophia, with her domain over the flow of Ergo and even time - although, at severe cost to her body and soul).
Markiona then took Camilleâs heart, and placed it inside a puppet, one that looked like Camille as well, eventually reviving the womanâs ego. Iâm assuming that Markiona, Geppetto and maybe Camille already had some theories regarding Ergo, considering how lifelike Geppettoâs puppets could be, and that is why.
(This implies that Geppetto and Camille also raised Markiona, as she put the heart of someone who raised her into the puppet body.
Iâm assuming it wasnât someone elseâs heart she used to try and revive Camille. We know, in canon, that Geppetto specifically used Carloâs heart and ergo to create P, so itâs very important that both the ergo and the heart belong to whomever is being revived, but itâs not explicitly stated if Markiona actually used Camilleâs or just Camilleâs ergo with someone elseâs heart. Because Camille was the first puppet discovered with a human Ego).
This does make me wonder if Markiona intentionally killed Camille or not, because if she designed a puppet body to look like Camille and went as far as to entomb said womanâs heart in the puppet, she very much went to extreme lengths to bring her back. Only to ship her off to the Alchemists to be dismantled again.
We donât know what happened to her original body, but Camilleâs puppet body is in pieces somewhere.
That really only leaves Isabelle Monad as a (known) candidate, who we never really learn much about in either game or dlc. Though she is, likely, dead. Either at the Rose Estate or during the Puppet Frenzy, as we never see or hear about her apart, from the Landmark Guide and Rosa Isabelle street.
Given her powers as a Listener, it would make sense if the Alchemists had captured her at some point and turned her into a tree - since sheâs the only other Listener that we know of in canon, and is the only applicable candidate I can think of considering that the Gold Fruit Tree in Hotel Krat is the original the Alchemists are trying so hard to imitate.
(The question is when Isabelle could have been plausibly captured, though - because I still struggle to understand the timeline of the Rose Estate Tragedy, when she most likely would have been abducted from the Rose Estate, just like Sophia was.
The entire timeline, as it is, has - throughout the main game, as well - been left ambiguous, which makes it hard to plot out story points).
Pretty unrelated to the previously story-line rambling post.
For those who actually have the game, how many âinvestigateâ hotspots exist in Krat for P to look at?
The little, out of the way, statues and fountains and messages that are marked with those glowing balls of light which the player can look at, to read engravings, or to see mention of characters.
(Ex: the statue in the Estella Opera House courtyard, opposite of the Antonia Cerasani fountain. I want to know who Camille is really badly, besides being Geppettoâs wife (?) who is apparently deceased if thatâs a memorial(???), but I know if I look it up, Iâm going to get spoiled to hell and back if she hasnât been mentioned once at all in the story so far if she gets mentioned at all).
A lot of walkthroughs I see end up running straight past them, or missing some of them, and it just - the messages add a bit of realism to the city of krat - like that one graffiti message at Venigni Works where someone was saying theyâd liked to be paid as much as Pulcinella.
I have a spreadsheet trying to hunt them down via gameplay videos and it may be driving me a tad bit nuts. Ignore the chapter numerals, I think I screwed them up.
Donât have the game, so watching a walkthrough alongside the power of the wiki to look up item descriptions because yes, I am the type of nerd who likes to read the descriptions in case there is lore - and there is always some amount of lore, even if it isnât storyline relevant, in the item descriptions).
Reached the end of the Grand Exhibition, so:
Spoilers up to that point I guess? This has absolutely no structure whatsoever and is just me rambling and trying to piece things together.
Case in point about the item descriptions: Last Resort. For this, really only slight spoilers, if only for everything that the first three chapters imply.
Right of the bat, for reference to people who havenât played or watched the game:
The Puppet Frenzy is the instigating event of the story, where automated puppets powered by Ergo - crystallized stones which carry powerful energy - have been running rogue and destroyed the City of Krat.
P (or Pinocchio) is the protagonist, a puppet created by Giuseppe Geppetto. Itâs implied early on that Geppetto designed him to look like his (presumably deceased) son. Out of all the cast, most refer to him as Geppettoâs puppet, but Geppetto himself always calls him âsonâ, and one character gives you a boarding school uniform that 1) Geppetto gave to them for safe-keeping, 2) has already been worn before, and 3) fits P exactly.
P is never referred to in-game by a name, so donât try look up if he is ever referred to by name in-game unless you have finished Malum District/Rosa Isabelle Street, where you get almost explicit confirmation that P is designed off of Geppettoâs son, and the first indicators of what Geppetto Jr, the inspiration for P, is named.
YOU WILL GET SPOILERS IF YOU DO.
(In other words, I suspected that P was based off Geppettoâs son, figured we would learn said sonâs name later, but I wanted to know if P himself would ever be referred to by either P/Pinocchio. Fucked around with fire and found out. Literally just before watching the Rosa Isabelle street play through.
To possibly save someone else from spoilers/confirmation - no, P isnât referred to by name in-game. Geppettoâs son gets his name mentioned, eventually, but not P).
Surprisingly, didnât spoil me as much, as Iâm far too used to falling into media where someone gets revived or possesses a doll or something or has an identity/memory-based crises.
I still am not sure if P is himself, with his own ego, or if he is literally Carlosâ soul/memories or whatever actually stuffed into a puppet body.
Focusing back on the lore regarding the Last Resort:
Iâm not sure if this is because that implies Geppetto did know the Puppet Frenzy (Last Resort is an insta-death item with a description that says Geppetto made it if his son ever woke up and went into a frenzy, needing to be insta-brought down so more adjustments could be made) was going to happen or what caused it, which he hasnât ever denied outright.
He phrases his words in that he makes it clear how ludicrous the thought of it is - but he never directly says, âNo, I didnât cause the Frenzyâ. Only that it upsets him that people resent and blame him for it occurring, for lying that he worked with the Alchemists to cause it.
The other explanation is that, he designed it because P is an experimental attempt, a prototype puppet, at the reconstruction/revival of his son.
Emphasis on experimental prototype and son alternatively.
If Geppetto did know the frenzy was going to happen, because P is a puppet, obviously he would be concerned. All puppets went on a frenzy for unknown reasons (up until Venigni posits its due to corruption or compromisation of their Ergo, as well as the Ergo Wavelengths they run and receive orders on).
On the other hand, maybe itâs because P is the first attempt and is at risk - or even has gone into Frenzy before - each time Geppetto woke him up, to see if he functioned properly.
Or, maybe his son was just Like That in life when it came to battle and would have chosen fight over flight any day, the moment he woke up.
(I have thoughts on that too, Geppettoâs relationship with his son and how that colors every action he makes towards P, because Geppetto repeats some very interesting phrases to P. Frequently.)
Besides the Last Resort and Item thoughts I have, moving to the storyline: therefore MUCH LARGER SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT.
now that thatâs out of the wayâŚ
âââââââââââââ-
GIANGIO YOU RAT BASTARD YOU REALLY LYING ABOUT MORE THAN BEING A PHARMACIST, HUH???
I swear to god, Iâve been suspicious of Alidoro this whole time (who totally isnât going to turn out to be Eugenieâs secret older brother or something), but GIANGIO??
I knew he was lying about not being an alchemist, but the hell do you mean you canât touch the Gold Coin Fruit Tree because you have Petrification Disease?
You sure itâs not because you are an Alchemist? Part of the Alchemists who created Gold Coin Fruit Trees, if this isnât literally the one from Guillaumeâd legend that may or may not curse people afterwards.
THE GOLD COIN FRUIT TREE WHICH IS CREATED FRON LISTENERS VIA HUMAN EXPERIMENTATION?????
(Which Iâve known the Alchemists do because I looked at item descriptions, and uh - letâs just say that the Salamander Daggers and Acidic Spears are quite interesting when it comes to details on Alchemist experiments and âpurification ritualsâ of defectors).
(On that note, it had to either be Giangio or Alidoro in the banned foreignerâs interview, which says ALCHEMISTS REALLY FUCKING BAD/RELIC OF TRISMEGISTUS REALLY BAD/HUNDREDS WILL DIE BECAUSE ALCHEMIST CONSPIRACY, with Medoro.
(A lot more than a hundred people died. A hundred people died on the first day of the Puppet Frenzy alone).
Alidoro has acknowledged that he doesnât use his real name, itâs a nickname. Claims to be descended from a great noble family of Krat, but only he knows whether heâs telling the truth or not.
He saved Eugenie (when she was abandoned as a child or during the Krat disaster is unclear to me). Eugenie - or, her family at least - came from the Krat-universeâs version of Japan, to the far East.
In the foreignerâs report, the ex-alchemist who warned Medoro was originally from the Far East. Which, though we canât trace it back to Alidoro, we can trace back to Eugenie who was saved by Alidoro.
Could be either coincidence or false herring, but in any game, you generally want to at least consider the possibility that there is no such thing as coincidences when it comes to hiding subtle plot points that will otherwise come and bite you on the ass when you least expect it.
Meanwhile: Giangio is a liar. Heâs lying about his occupation as a pharmacist, when he is/was an Alchemist. He claims he has the Petrification Disease, but we donât know if thatâs true. He claims he canât touch the Gold Fruit Coin Tree, or at least he thinks so, because of the Disease. We canât ascertain whether thatâs the truth or not, given Sophiaâs truth about where the trees come from. Alchemist experiments.
He claims he uses the coins we give him to treat himself, but we donât know thatâs true. Iâm extremely suspicious of the cure he gives Antonia, given everything that went down with the Miracle Cure and Simon Manus, but he was upfront with the fact that Antonia would die faster - if more peacefully - after taking the cure.
Giangio aside, thoughts on what the Ergo - Petrification Disease mean for P.
Looked at Someoneâs Memory (with the M-branded brooch) and how itâs already been worn, and the fact that Geppetto calls P son, from the get-go, have known that P was obviously modeled after Geppettoâs actual son, who was probably dead. The M is an important identifier, and promptly moved on.
Mostly forgot about it until we reached Malum District, and find that Monad Charity House Guide, which mentions it was also called the Rose Estate which was interesting to me because - back at Venigni Works, the Landmark Guide about the Rose Estate was banned and damaged.
(having just read through the part of Pinocchio was hung by Red Fox and Black Cat in the book, I get the gold coin reference and the blindness, now. Hereâs hoping they donât try to hang him in other playthroughs if you refuse to help them).
On the guide, we get to learn about how the Monad Charity House was a home for the impoverished and orphaned, and had the Rose Estate attached by sponsorship of the Monad family to train kids as Workshop Technicians, Stalkers, and Alchemists.
Given the Estate Landmark Guide was destroyed -
Totally doesnât bode well for the likely dead Geppetto Jr, (who looked peevish in his portrait commissioned by his father already, aka annoyed as hell), and by sheer courtesy of the fact that it is a collectible, I was thinking - âso the unnamed kid being called a donkey is obviously going to be Geppettoâs kid, and he was friends with a kid called Romeo, and maybe weâll met up with Romeo at some point.â
(Even if the unnamed kid wasnât Geppettoâs son, this Romeo kid was still obviously going to be important to the storyline).
If the school uniform belonged to a boarding school, with an M-initialed brooch - Geppettoâs son had to have attended the Monad House boarding school and lived in the Rose Estate, and was friends, or at least acquainted with a kid named Romeo.
(I DID NOT YET KNOW OF THE KING OF PUPPETS. Nor did I think weâd get to learn Pâs ârealâ name - Geppettoâs sonâs name - at this point. Which makes Geppettoâs sheer intensity of: we need to take him down + Iâm so proud of you for taking him down + someone got to you Very Interesting to Me).
Go back to Hotel Krat, and if you speak to Antonia after getting to Rosa Isabelle key, sheâll tell you that she knew about the Gold Coin Fruit Tree and had sealed it away - because the Krat Disaster caused Alchemists to begin arguing amongst themselves over it.
Many people died or went missing, which Antonia calls the real tragedy of the Rose Estate disaster.
So: I canât tell if sheâs referring to them as separate incidents or if it coincided with the start of the Krat Disaster, but - whatever went down at the Rose Estate/Monad House (the boarding school that Geppettoâs son was raised at and went to), meant that a lot of people died or disappeared. Including Alchemists, probably.
Likely, including Geppettoâs son (sure thatâs not why you stopped working with the Alchemists, Antonia? Because Geppettoâs son died or disappeared?).
Then we reach Rosa Isabelle street, and find that book on the Rose Estate incident:
There was a mass outbreak of the Petrification Disease at the estate, with No Survivors. The paper implied that some sort of mutation in the victims took place, which authorities pinned on the disease - which we know isnât exactly the case, if youâve found the Miracle Cure/Doctorâs Confession and Slum Residentâs scribbled notes.
Shore stole the recipe for his Miracle Cure from the Alchemists. Though he doesnât say what happened to the people who took it (the immediate indicator that, oh no there be mutations/zombies afoot), once you get to the Frangelico Cathedral and there are mentions of refugees there with the Petrification disease - oh, would you like at that, strangely mutated people who attack on sight?
Couldnât be the cure recipe that Shore stole - from the Alchemists - which, though he recreated it perfectly, likely wasnât perfect in the first place. In the Malum District, the resident recalled how âeverything changedâ when the man passed out blue medicine - most likely leading to the appearance of Carcasses, and why the resident might not have been able to positively ID his deceased brother. The man had blue hair in his cane, which - Sophia? Sophia?????? Giangio also has blue hair I think, canât tell. Maybe him. Was an alchemist. If he really ever left the alchemistâs and wasnât just trying to get to the tree on their behalf.
Iâm assuming that this âmutationâ references Carcasses, at least. Authorities shut down the investigation to keep the disease from spreading through the rest of Krat. (Totally not for the Alchemists - whose own leader ended up dying, and is potentially Sophiaâs dad or relative, courtesy of that concert flyer listing âIsabelle and Sophia M.â Because ISABELLE MONAD WAS VALENTINUSâ WIFE - to cover up that they caused a pseudo-zombie apocalypse in miniature).
(We arenât told when this happened prior to the storyline. Touched on above how Antoniaâs statement confused me about the timing.
Iâm fairly certain it happened well before the events of the game - the Krat Disaster that everyone brings up, which I assume is the Frenzy and the current epidemic of Petrification Disease. Because thatâs city-wide and not just trapped within a single location (Rose Estate). Also it probably took forever for Geppetto to design such a human like puppet as P. WhichâŚdoesnât bode well for whatever happened with Romeo, who still looks just as lifelikeâŚ
It was probably obviously to a lot of other people, but it still confused the hell out of me when people started saying the Krat Disaster because then I started wondering if the Rose Estate incident had occurred at the very start of the frenzy).
IN OTHER WORDS:
Geppettoâs son was likely killed in the Rose Incident. Given that Romeo was his friend and likely also attended Rose Estate (no clue what his in game dialogue was about, other than heâs obviously warning P about something + plus his play with Geppetto), this is probably also whatever led to him being turned into the King of Puppets (I saw those experiment notes!), as well as the death of Valentinus Monad - previous head of the Alchemists (possibly Sophiaâs dad or some other relative).
This means:
He caught the Petrification Disease and died.
He caught the disease, was given the âcureâ and turned into a Carcass.
If had been trained in combat, might have tried to help fight those who had been turned into Carcasses, and ended up being killed in combat.
That said, Geppetto is seeming more and more of a rat bastard (this is before I get into his speech patterns still).
90% sure he (maybe) knows the King of Puppets was Romeo. As in, his sonâs friend, Romeo. Or at least would have known his son. Which concerns me because Geppetto was so adamant they needed to take down the King of Puppets. Who was his sonâs friend.
Very interesting, as Romeo drops a Monad House Graduation Necklace (as told by Sophia later). And the item description says that Romeoâs friend âCâ gave it to him as a present, because:
âThe boy resented his father for not showing any interest in him.â
(GEPPETTO).
When we get back to Hotel Krat, when talking to P about the necklace, Sophia notes that P doesnât look well - and, after a moment, P can hear someone call him âCarloâ.
Given we just fought Romeo, who is repeatedly calling P by some sort of name you canât read, and the necklace he dropped is initialed with a C, AND the fact that P was designed after Geppettoâs son - this indicates the voice was Romeoâs, when he had been human, and he was referring to P as âCarloâ.
(Interestingly, pretty sure this happened back when P first met Geppetto. You could hear whispers in the cutscene when heâs looking over himself, and before the screen cuts to Geppetto, the word âsonâ.)
So, we now have:
P(inocchio), Geppettoâs puppet, designed off his son.
Carlo Geppetto, Giuseppe Geppettoâs son. Deceased ar the Rose Estate in 188X or 189X.
(personally I think the game takes place around 1889 or 1899.
The game is loosely set during the Belle Epoque era of France, and Krat takes a lot of inspiration from France (though Pinocchio is an Italian fairytale with Florentine influences, and thatâs going to lead me down a rabbit hole, probably).
The Belle Epoque lasted from 1871-1914. In game, one of the Grand Exhibition signs at the central station has the year on it (the middle scratched out to leave a timeline ambiguous) ending in a 9. Also, telephones exist in Krat, but theyâre fairly new, and phones were introduced to irl France around the 1890s.
Hence why I think the game is most likely to take place in either 1889 or 1899. The former is close to the earliest days of telephone introduction, and the latter the later.
This doesnât clarify Carloâs date of death much, other than he had to have died before the game takes place, and Geppetto would have needed an unknown about of time to construct P in his image).
To expand on Carlo and Geppetto.
Clearly, even though Geppetto mourns his son (or the idea he has of his son) to the point of trying to recreate Carlo by creating P (and thereâs however Romeo was turned into a puppet, which - ERGO ERGO ERGO), there is no love lost for Carlo considering his father. ďżź
ďżźHe is annoyed by sitting for a portrait his father had commissioned, and clearly, Geppetto was the type of father who favored his work over spending time with his son - leading Carlo to, presumably, come to the conclusion that due to a lack of interest in him and his activities, Geppetto didnât care for him at all.
He likely resented his father for it.
And now,
GEPPETTOâS SPEECH PATTERNS.
âAlways be a good boy to me.â
âNo resentment, no lies.â
âPreciousâ.
This has ticked my fancy from the moment I realized it is a recurring motif in the way that Geppetto speaks to P. He wants P to be obedient to him, to be a good boy, to listen to his father.
Even if he sends him into danger, to not build a resentment towards him, to never lie to him, as lies can cause a person unbelievable amounts of grief (he never outright says he doesnât know what caused the Frenzy, though he implies as much in the way he speaks about. The question is if heâs telling the truth).
And he always, without fail, tells P to be careful because he is precious. His precious son. Someone as precious as you.
Precious, precious, precious.
P is precious to GeppettoâŚbut in what way?
Not sure if heâs precious because Geppetto literally canât differentiate P from his own son, or if something else is in the works for P as a possession, as a tool, as a precursor to a better model puppet to truly revive Carlo - memory and all. Because even if Geppetto calls him his son, because P still isnât fully Carlo (the Carlo that Geppetto remembers).
And itâs very interesting to have said on repeat over and over from the instant P wakes up, as it could be interpreted as:
Geppettoâs regret for not saying that to Carlo as often as he could have. For neglecting his son for his work, to the point where it led said son to resent him for the absence of his father in his life.
Conditioning. Conditioning P to know he loves and cares for him, so that he wouldnât disobey Geppetto as Carlo might have in life (maybe he has trauma regarding Carlo not listening to him and that led to his sonâs death at Monad House. Or maybe itâs just cause he Is actually Planning Something and needs P to be loyal and willing to die for him at a momentâs notice.
Could be either or both or neither and more.
And now: we get to the whole ergo-Petrification disease things.
SimĂłn Manus, new head of the Alchemists, says that Ergo is produced by the Petrification Disease. It is the purified, crystallized form of the essence of human life. The Miracle Cure, perhaps once intended to treat the disease, had instead been reformulated to try and produce the same effect in people to create evolved super humans.
Presumably, he had someone spreading the cure around to fine-tune the elixirâs formula, leading to the spread of Carcasses at the Frangelico Cathedral and Malum District (Black Rabbit Brotherhood was selling corpses and Ergo to the Alchemists in a bid to escape Krat).
The exact process of disease->stone-like cadaver->ergo is not clear to me. Doesnât explain how raw ergo crystals sprouted in the Relic of Trismegistus (perhaps bodies of the farmers and animals killed in the initial collapse of West Krat by in the c. 1270s-1290s), or now mined in the modern day without committing genocide via intentionally spreading the disease and throwing bodies into the Relic to crystallize completely.
Does their whole body eventually crystallize or just their organs (Giangio mentions the disease leads to organ failure). Is Ergo literally harvested from the cadavers directly? As much as it is oroduced via Petrification disease, does it also occur naturally (plants, animals)?
All that aside, Sophia also tells P that this is why Puppets will sometimes develop their own egos, sometimes speak of memories that donât belong to them, or even âregainâ their previous sense of self.
All Ergo was once human. It carried the lifespan of a human person, as well as their memories. All puppets run off of Ergo (crystals are set in their chests. You can see the cavities on in-game models, and Geppetto setting a Ergo crystal into a puppet in the opening movie).
(And Iâd love to see how that actually works, how they convert energy within crystallized ergo to energy without destroying the crystal itself, unless the crystal needs to be replaced like a battery, or if it absorbs ambient life essence or other ergo spores, and the technicality of how the puppets absorb that energy - especially because Ergo can be measured in wavelengths when used as energyâŚ)
Puppets run off of crystallized life essence and memory.
Which. Means.
If Carlo Geppetto died of the Petrification Disease, he, too, would have become Ergo along with every other person dead of the disease.
If Geppetto had the Ergo crystals that originated from Carlo, the purest form of the essence of his sonâs life taken from - or even all that was left - of his sonâs body, not yet converted into energy and wavelengths and merged with every other bit of Ergo already used in Kratâs technology, he could try to bring his son back to life.
Of course, heâd need to see if it was even possible - and here: enter Romeo.
When Romeo is defeated, he also drops the Burnt-White Kingâs Ergo.
When the boy opened his eyes, he found himself sitting on a throne that he had not asked for. When he sought his friend of the past, he clung to his memories even though he knew there was no going back.
Romeo who, even as a puppet, still clings to and maintains his memories of when he was alive as a human.
Geppetto created the puppets. Romeo, revived as a puppet, or even experimented on in the near-end stages of life and transformed into one, is an incredibly detailed and like-life model (compared to Polendina, Pulcinella, the late Melody, etcâŚ)
In other words, I think Geppetto brought Romeo back as the King of Puppets, experimenting and trying to find ways to revive Carlo and ensure that it would be his son that came back.
Would check the box willing to become god or the devil. P has been called the devilâs puppet. Also. GEPPETTO USED TO WORK WITH SIMON MANUS.
My suspicions of Geppetto are not helped by the fact that Simon said they used to work together; even if they differed in opinion on whether to cure or utilize the Petrification Disease.
SimĂłn. Who is actively spreading the disease and turning people into Carcasses via the cure, developing the elixir for the sake of âevolutionâ. And whatever that huge machine he has, presumably on the isle, which absorbed the ergo from the first four bosses.
My wilder theory on top of that is: Romeo was trying to warn P/Carlo about Geppettoâs control over him, whether or not heâs in leagues with the Alchemists/whatever caused the frenzy (because given the low quality ergo, the absorption of ergo from the bosses, the foreigner report that totally wasnât from Alidoro (he rescued Eugenie in the past, Eugenie is from the far East, the foreigner ex-alchemist was also from the far East, having changed his name for his own safety, and Alidoro himself this isnât his real name but a nicknameâŚ.âŚ)etc - I do think it was the Alchemists who caused the frenzy.
(On the other hand: it is questionable if P is Carlo or not. If he has his own ego, separate from Carloâs, or if it is simply Carlo with a case of amnesia - the identity crisis you could put him through as he becomes more human is fun.
He could only partially have his memories, via Ergo, either way the ego goes - hence why Geppetto assumes that P does have some memories of the way Krat looked before the disaster, but doesnât remember much beyond Rosa Isabelle street).
Listen:
Romeo showed Geppetto pulling the P-Organ out of Pâs chest and placing it into a blank puppet.
In other words, Geppetto was killing P by removing his heart, in order to place P/Carlosâs Ergo and the P-organ into another blank puppet, in order to bring that other puppet to life.
Last Resort was a kill-device that Geppetto made for P, if he woke up and went on a frenzy. Was a necessary evil with adjustments were required for P.
Whose to say that it hasnât been used on P before?
If P doesnât, in Geppettoâs eyes, remain a good boy to him - if his son, if Carlo, goes down the same path of resenting and not listening to him, if P is not Carlos in the end - Thatâs lights out for P.
Hit reset on Carlo. For as long as it takes for Geppettoâs son to come back the way he remembers him. The way he idealizes him.
Always a good boy to him. No resentment. No lies.
And this is just the Geppetto family story-line. Not including Everything else going on in the storyline with the Frenzy and the Alchemists and the Covenant (poor Venigni, no wonder he was suspicious of the Ergo quality in the first place and didnât think the King of Puppets caused the Frenzy, even if he commanded the puppets afterwards. The Alchemists covered up the death of his parents!!!)
Further thoughts about the impact of Battler's death(in the Akinaka on Rokkenjima au time frame) one weekend or so after Rudolf announced he was planning to re-enter the register and had called to say Battler would be at the conference, Battler found dead on either last monday or tuesday pre conference of what looks like suicide DOES 'benefits' one side of the Ushiromiya family.
It provides Natsuhi and Krauss with a great excuse to delay to an unknown date the conference and to stir discord within the attacking faction(Rosa+Rudolf+Eva) by highlighting Rudolf's 'failure as a parent' as the cause of the delay. Do you reallly want to push Rudolf to disrespect the minimal mourning period like in 1980? Are you truly so greedy and in financial need that you cant wait one more month for Rudolf to grieve the son he had thought he had finally gotten back? Are you that eager to forget Battler like you forgot Asumu?
(Jessica watching with disgust her parents visibly relax and bask in the reprieve granted by her cousin's death. The one she was convinced/convinced herself was fine without them.
George cursing the intrusive thoughts of gladness that Battler isnt coming after all and intrusive wishes that Eva succeeds in maintaining the og conf date so he can still propose to Sayo. Until he calls Sayo himself to postpone the previous 'deadline' because he made himself genuinely sick thinking of going through it so close to Battler's death.(maybe it could spur him to ask more about Sayo's personal struggles out of fear of the squelettons he rused to acknowledge dragging her down like Battler)
Sayo watching the Ushiromiya siblings desacrate Battler's death for their own ends but unable to punish them as planned because the conference isnt happening any time soon.
All while Beatrice whose seed of love has turned to rot and whose desire for revenge and violence is trickling back to Kanon and Shannon in dangerously visible ways to the people who know them personally like the remaining cousins)
MASSIVE SPOILERS YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
In this AU, it is my hope that all of the adults, Krauss and Natsuhi especially, get hit with instant and immense guilt when they see Battler in his casket during the wake - because, in using his passing and his memory to evade HidEva + Rosaâs attempts to catch them out for embezzling, it is a desecration of his memory.
Rudolf, maybe not, because if Battler dies it would have LITERALLY BEEN ON HIS BIRTHDAY, and it would be ten times worse if it was Rudolf who found Battler dead five (?) days later - but everyone else is fair game for taking low blows at him in his grief (because I do think it would agitate Eva and Rosa that Battler died at so conspicuously a time, though Rosa might have more tact and no poke at Rudolf for it).
(Especially if investigations into Battlerâs death do bring up the baby switch, because I donât see either Eva or Natsuhi letting go of Battlerâs technical illegitimacy. Thatâs still not considering how Kyrie would react, especially since Battler may have died due to her leaving him in his room alone).
Also, I think Rudolf would really hate it when Krauss and Natsuhi used Battler to try and get the other three off their case about the embezzling (plus Kinzo, but heâs significantly of less important than Battler).
He is a failure of a parent, heâll take that much. But he wonât take his sonâs name in their mouth as an excuse to hide their own dirty habits.
(Rudolf is willing to try kill his own son in pursuit of money on Prime, but Iâll be damned if anyone else gets to talk shit or smear his name like that).
Take Natsuhiâs fierce defense of Kinzo and the Ushiromiya Name - and make it just a tinge scarier when it comes to Rudolf wanting people to stop use Battler as an excuse.
It gets worse if anyone tries to weaponize the fact that Battler wasnât Asumuâs bio-son. And adding in the deliberate barb of forgetting Asumu-
Ouch.
Those are fighting words. I mean this seriously. Those are Fighting Words.
I do, however, feel for both George and Jessica - though Iâm also a bit irritated at them (through no real fault of their own).
(George a little less so, but Iâll touch on that).
They lost contact with Battler in 1980 after Asumuâs death. Honestly, I donât think we even know if they attended Asumuâs funeral - and if they didnât, if no one except Rudolf and his grandparents saw Battker in his grief, the last time the Ushiromiyaâs saw Battler in person would have been 1979.
Seven years ago.
Seven years, only hearing from him via letter - what? Four years after the fact? 1983? Not only that, but to be told that Battler hadnât even made the initiative to write the letters himself - that Kyrie had coaxed him into doing so - and he wrote as though he were having a blast, to the point of outright saying he didnât plan to come back?
Bonds are only as strong as the efforts of the two people tied to it. And from what it seems like in canon, neither Battler nor his cousins made an effort to keep in touch - and through those letters, Battker made it seem as though he was happy staying out of touch, or his cousins felt as if heâd be fine without them reaching back out.
We donât know if Battler had tried to reach out to them before, via phone or letter. We donât know if he wrote letters to his family, but ultimately never sent them.
It is a big deal that Battler left the Ushiromiya family register. In Japan, the Koseki is literal proof of your identity, your citizenship (if a native of Japan).
He literally legally severed familial attachments to the Ushiromiya family. In a way, this could have been interpreted as abandonment - and each member of the family, including Battlerâs cousins, had their own interpretation of that as well once they were told.
Told that Battler had abandoned his fatherâs house for his grandparents. Told that Battler had removed himself from the family register, was effectively no longer a member of the Ushiromiya family, and had gone as far as to change his name to separate himself from his father, and as a result, every other member of his family.
ďżźFor example: Eva was pleased, as it meant George has one less âenemyâ in becoming family head (even if he doesnât want to be).
Natsuhi, though I do feel like it would injure her for him to abandon the name, understood the deep-rooted betrayal that Battler felt which led him to leave the register.
George and JessicaâŚ
George was likely relieved, though I do believe he would feel guilt at the fact, considering the reason Battler left was due to Asumuâs death and Rudolfâs infidelity -> both tragedies alone, let alone paired together with a child on the way.
Teenage George, as much as he loved his cousin, was also insecure in his own understanding as his role as a âgentlemanâ and his ability to charm and approach women - something that led to him developing envy towards Battler, who had no such hang ups about how to approach and hang out with others, even of the opposite sex, even when Battler was so crude and didnât always treat a person with the refined care that Eva had taught George was best.
Eva is someone always in competition, with her brother and siblings and everyone around her. She strives for excellence above all others - and, whether she intended to or not, in some ways, she instilled George with that same competitive drive.
And where Eva focused on competition against Krauss for the headship, George - George competed against Battler (one-sidedly) on what it meant to be a man, on how to connect with the affections of a young woman, on what it meant to swipe someone off her feet and have her fall in love.
I also see George as someone who did, courtesy of Evaâs high importance of raising a gentleman fitting of social class, to have a similarly classist mindset which he is actively trying to grow out of by 1986, given that the young girl he loves is of the âlower classâ, a servant of his family no less.
A mindset that would have been much more firmly in place when Battler left the wealthy (at least on paper) Ushiromiya clan for his lower class grandparents, and even changed his name.
Hereâs the thing:
I do think that George genuinely loves and cares for Battler. But that is tampered by their differences in personality, his own adolescent envy, even if he grows out of it, as well as by Battlerâs long absence from the family, meaning he doesnât know how Battler has grown or who his cousin is now, as well as a perceived betrayal of the family for a âlesserâ social standing.
George knew Ushiromiya Battler, twelve years old and full of energy and harmless flirtations and first crushes. He never met Akinaka Battler, the boy-turned-young man who spent six years and months and weeks grieving his mother, his grandmother, and his grandfather up into the point it killed him.
The memory he has of Battler, up until the funeral, will always be of that sometimes overly self-assured twelve year old who used to cling to his leg, who he had looked down on for being so crude and emotional.
So, perhaps out of a coping mechanism, and perhaps because he doesnât know this new and deceased Akinaka Battler, he defaults to relief.
(A bit like his mother when Shannon dies in Legend, even if Iâm 99% sure she and Hideyoshi were accomplices on that particular gameboard and she knew Sayo wasnât really dead).
Relief that Ushiromiya Battler, who he knows was Shannonâs first crush, will not return to swipe his girlfriend - the girl he wants to make his wife - off her feet, and without meaning to, show himself off as the much more favorable, personable, exciting young man to choose as a partner.
Because he remembers Battler as bright, charming, and a bit of goofball. Not the image of a pale, grief-stricken and white haired boy in a casket, a boy in school uniform finding his mother on the floor, both eventually shrouded an incense at a wake and hours away from being reduced to ash and bone fragments waiting to be passed into an urn.
At this point, George is far closer to Shannon than Battler. So before the funeral, and I donât think he would even mean any harm from this (perhaps even feel guilty for it), his primary thoughts would be pity for his uncle and Ange and Kyrie, and concern for how it would affect his relationship with Shannon.
Because, maybe more than anyone else, George knows how close Battler and Shannon were, for all that they had only metďżź five or six times counting all the conferences Shannon worked at.
If not due to insecurities that Shannon was still in love with Battler, than out of the simple concern that someone she had cared so deeply for - even if they hadnât met in years - had died so tragically.
(Alone. In his grandparentâs bed. Surround by mementos of Aunt Asumu, of his grandparents - of a long dead half-brother that the Ushiromiya family didnât know about until the news broke).
Same for the intrusive thought of wishing his mother could convince Krauss and Natsuhi to hold the conference as usual (perhaps as a distraction for Rudolf, on the surface?), because - he doesnât know Akinaka Battler.
(Or maybe heâs drinking a metric ton of copium as he begins to realize that now he really will never see his cousin again, when a little part of him was waiting and wanting to see Battler. In Legend he did state it didnât feel right with one of the cousins - Battler - missing during the conference. And I do think that feeling was genuine).
One such potential argument to use (likely by Eva) is that: Battler isnât an Ushiromiya at this time, in this AU.
Itâs not a âUshiromiya family matterâ by those means. Even if Rudolf couldnât attend the conference, though the conference would get his mind off Battlerâs death, it should still be held as usual - thereâs no reason it should be canceled due to the death of someone who has already been gone for the past seven years.
(In other words, to be far more tactless, the Ushiromiya Family has already lived as though Battler were dead for the past seven years. No one made contact with him over those years. Whatâs the difference now that heâs actually dead?)
I see Eva making this argument more than George himself, with it leaving a very bad taste in his mouth, even though part of him wants it to work, if only to see and check on Shannon.
George really wants to propose to Shannon, because he loves her. Maybe, maybe he even thinks that, in her grief, for a childhood friend and first love, the proposal would even be something that could cheer her up.
Much as you said, I do think that line of thought would make him also genuinely feel sick with himself. (It would feel too much like taking advantage of her. via several George fics, given that Eva - though she didnât intend to do so - took advantage of the fact that as her son George was beholden to her, and as a servant, George knows Shannon is beholden to him and his family in turn, and both of them were expected to grow up too quickly and learn just as fast how to handle things outside of their meansâŚin part why he feels a bond with her, it would feel wrong while sheâs grieving).
(And if he didnât have a girlfriend, Battler will never be able to fall in love. Battler will never be able to propose to someone he loves, he will never be able to get married. Because Battler is dead.
Somewhere deep down:
Georgeâs baby cousin is dead. He will never be coming back.)
Georgeâs relief is something he canât help, something he feels immense guilt for, something he doesnât want to feel, and yet canât change that fact that he does feel it - and slowly but surely - the grief will start to seep in, too.
(Now thinking about Battler having pictures of his cousins nearby in his bed when he died. Or gifts he had planned to give them for the conference. Gifts he will never get to give them.
Gifts everyone will have to look at and know that they were laying within inches of his cooling body after he passed, maybe for days on end. Proof that, as I touch on in Jessicaâs section, he didnât forget or move on from them when he was gone.
Also: Battlerâs friends and classmates coming to the funeral. The Ushiromiya meeting his friends for the first time. Hearing concrete stories of the young man Batter became. Maybe mentioning how he had always talked so highly of his cousins - because while I donât see Battler talking about Rudolf, I do see him boasting about Ange and George, at least.
(And knowledge of the deceased Akinaka Battler becomes far more real than the memories of the living Ushiromiya Battler).
Jessica - God, I feel so bad for Jessica.
The shock of seeing them treat Battlerâs death as a form of respite from the conferences - it might actually be worse than when she sees the adults argue at dinner over the inheritance and Beatriceâs letter in prime.
Thereâs no escape from the shroud that Battlerâs death casts - not when one of her closest friends has it wrapped around her shoulders like a blanket worn thin and still desperately clung to for warmth. No George there to try and spin their relief off as for the benefit of their kids, the well-being of their companies and employees.
Not when the paperwork for Battler re-entering the family register again has to be altered, a big fat X-mark crossing out his entry to denote his death.
It shouldnât bug her this much, should it? She hasnât seen Battler for years, hasnât talked to him - hadnât heard anything except that letter in 1983, which Aunt Kyrie had made him write, and heâd said he was just fine -
Except - saying you were fine didnât really mean you were always okay, did it?
Sometimes it just meant you had already resigned yourself to the way you were living, had resigned yourself to not changing anything about that.
Sometimes it meant trying to get others off your case to be left alone.
People who were okay didnât just go and let themselves die from dehydration. They didnât let themselves starve to death in their grandparents bedroom.
Dehydration and starvation were real painful ways to go out, the way the body shut down with nothing left in the tank for the engine to run onâŚshe had asked Nanjo about it one day, while he was leaving the mansionâŚ
And Battler had always been way more of a crybaby than he had ever wanted to let on. He always talked big about finding Grandatherâs gold or winning against Jessica in a fight - but heâd been the first one in tears at some Thunder or a scary shadow, clingy to Georgeâs leg, or go crying to Aunt Asumuâs skirt when he lostâŚ
Heâd - heâd been whiny, hadnât he? And Aunt Asumu had beenâŚ
JessicaâŚcouldnât remember the sound of Battler or Aunt Asumuâs voices, now.
Thinking on it nowâŚshe couldnât even remember what their faces had looked like, at that last conference with the both of them.
SheâŚcouldnât even remember the last time she had actually talked to BattlerâŚnot after Asumuâs deathâŚ
Jessica knows what it feels like not to be able to be her true self, not able to reach out to people she wants (her parents) to understand without being told to curb it, to alter the parts of herself which are incompatible to their view of what is best for her, and hiding it.
Sheâs more aware of things, has a sense of emotion that others donât always pick up on, because Jessica - as Battler put it in Legend - is bossy. Sheâs pushy, and even if she means well, sometimes pushes well past a personâs boundaries. This lack of tack and impulsive full-frontal assault has an adverse effect on her perception of others, which while it isnât always clear, is pretty sharp.
She is like the sun - and the sun can warm a person as much as burn them. It illuminates every object, and casts just as many shadows.
Jessica hides the parts of herself that are âinappropriateâ or undesirable, and lets them out as Jessie when given the opportunity. She is aware of the multitude of âselvesâ a person can hide within themselves.
Meaning, if allowed to ponder on it, she can wonder the selves that Battler had within himself - the Battler of 1979, the Battler of 1983, and the Battler of 1986.
(Regardless of his name, Battler will always be her cousin. Even if he threw away the family name and took someone elseâs - his grandparents. You canât run from the family line running in your blood - and, with absolute certainty, even with the questions of Aunt Kyrie and Aunt Asumu, Battler definitely carried Rudolf and Kinzoâs blood).
Which, leads me to the question:
Did any member of the Ushiromiya family reach out to Battler after Asumuâs death? Did they attend her funeral, or just send condolences? What about after her left the register?
Were they ever given the address for Battlerâs grandparents, in case they wanted to call or write Battler? Had the cousins been told to let Battler grieve on his own time, had they expected him to reach out first?
Had they thought of Battlerâs grief at all, after their own initial shock at Asumuâs death?
The thought haunts me and I want it to haunt all of them too, but in all honesty, I think itâs only really going to hit Rudolf, maybe Kyrie, and George and Jessica - and, of course Sayotrice.
From Battlerâs perspective, my personal interpretation is that he was in a state of severe grief after Asumuâs death - which initially displayed itself as anger, even if that anger burned out when the focus of it (Rudolf) wasnât around.
Given how much he loves his family, I do think Battler probably did intend to reach out - but, I also think that due to leaving the family register, he might not have felt he had the right to reach out.ďżź
He wasnât part of the Ushiromiya Family anymore.
And if his cousins and aunts and uncles hadnât been at Asumuâs funeral either - there very well could have been, just as with Jessica and George, a feeling of abandonment and a sense thatâŚthey didnât miss him enough to reach out.
That they didnât want him to reach out.
And a mindset like that scars you, even if it doesnât reflect reality.
(Brought to you by the thought of: what if Battler wrote a letter and Sayo never got it, and that one fic by the empty pen on ao3 focused on exactly that).
I have thoughts. Thoughts on Battler having written letters like Sayo wrote message bottle manuscripts, only to crumple them up and shove them in a drawer somewhere - to be forgotten, to force himself to forget, because it was safer than remembering and being afraid to reach out.
(Nightmare thought: Battler forgot the promise, but not right away. In 1979, Sayo let Battler borrow on of her books to read through and annotate, to give back in the next trip his family took to Rokkenjima, when he came to steal her away on a white horse. That next trip never happens. Seven years later, the book - filled with crumpled letters and annotations in red and blue, with a horse bookmark - is returned to her by an apologetic friend of Battlerâs).
And SayoâŚ
Oh my god.
Considering the amount of blackmail she has on everyone, especially Krauss and Natsuhi, the only thing I can hope for is that she warns George and Jessica in some way before she goes for r/nuclearrevenge and begins to read the Ushiromiya siblings for filth as Beatrice or Lion, and then detonates Rokkenjima.
Okay, I know thatâs not likely to happen - but the grim thought of her grief and her rage towards the adults being made manifest in both Shannon and Kanon, who in varying ways have to deal with abuse of the household (Eva and Natsuhi), even if she knows why all of the adults are so Fucked Up-
(Thatâs going to also fuck with Jessica and George. So much. So very much. Kanon never met Battler. Shannon did. Both are slowly beginning to deteriorate in real time on Rokkenjima, and more of Beatrice the Golden Witch peeks through their cracks at George and JessicaâŚbut especially the adults.
Kyrie was concerned about Battlerâs death destroying her happy family? Well, she might have to deal with the weight not only of having left her own son to die of his own volition, but of also potentially leading to the Rokkenjima Mass Explosion incident without any of the adults having to pull a trigger).
Praise her noble name, though it is likely no longer enough to save your lives as she reaps the sins of the Ushiromiya bloodline.
Natsuhi and Krauss about to get reminded verbally and maybe even physically that Rudolf though seeming much more carefree and chill can absolutely summon Kinzo levels of anger.
Honestly a Kinzo/Natsuhi level of furious Rudolf might be scarier or just as scary as a Kyrie hearing Winnie's name being brought up as ammunition in Ushiromiya family arguments because of the crow plushie found by Battler's side. (Would be even worse if the baby switch news hit the rest of the family)
The level of sibling in-fighting whether because of the barbs from Krauss+Natsuhi against Rudolf or Eva's arguments dealing friendly fire to her side honestly would be legendary.
Hey Rosa btw the way as a mom who frequently leaves your child alone for days how does the idea of a child you assumed would be fine on their own turning out to have been dead for shake you up? Is it seeing your nightmare of coming back home to a child dead from neglect come to life but hey at least it's not Maria only your nephew?
Whether the conference happens on the planned date or is postponed, Maria's eagerness to have Beatrice take her to the Golden Land is gonna look mighty different to her relatives with Battler's suicide still on their minds.
(I think Maria all while clinging to magic is a twinge self-aware in that aspect because of when she tells Will in EP7 that she doesn't believe in being able to protect her happiness or her mom from the black witch by herself without Beatrice's help)
Actually high possibility at the funeral of Category Five Moment of Maria Saying Understandable Words for a Nine Year Old But 900K Damage Nonetheless: 'Why is everyone so sad? Battler is again with his grandparents and his mom like he wanted. Maria wouldn't want to be alone without Mama either.'
Actually who would show up to Battler's funeral in the case of a postponed conference?
It's really hard to gauge how many Ushiromiya relatives would have been present at Asumu's funeral and would have seen Battler at his 1980 worst. Because it really depends on how scattered the relatives are georgraphically, how busy work would have been for them around that period, how short or long of a notice there was for that funeral.
With how island-bound to a long-arse ferry ride of six hours in 1980 all the Rokkenjima ones, Kinzo, Krauss, Natsuhi and Jessica seems increasingly unlikely to me.
It's a similar reasoning to the one sby can apply to the Ushiromiya siblings showing up to their respective nephews and nieces shortly after their births but grimmer context ofc.
Eva's stance(regardless of whether she believes it or is more of a means to an end) of Battler having stopped being family six years ago means she has no reason to show up to his funeral. Which could deal 10k damage to her household when she tells her husband and son her plans:
- Hideyoshi was someone who lost his entire family and was really happy to find a new one through Eva so he would be the closest among the Ushiromiya to understand Battler's actions and could hit a little too close to home if he did struggle with suicide ideation in the aftermath of the war. Maybe he would try to convince George to go in their stead or defy Eva and attend without her.
- George struggling to hang onto copium and not lose respect in his mother cause his own intrusive thoughts aside the idea of not even showing up to the funeral leaving only Rudolf, Kyrie and Ange to go for such a selfish reason as his mom suggests feels VILE.
Rosa could be pushed by Eva to not come in the name of presentating a united front or show up because hey someone should check in the third member of their triumvirate against Krauss. If she did she may end up going with Maria considering this is the funeral of a child who died all alone at home.
Krauss and Natsuhi not showing up to Battler's funeral after they used Rudolf's grief might be a little too ooc for them and there are quicker travel options than back in 1980 so their choice to not go would look real, absolutely, mighty freaking bad. Though their showing up without Kinzo and leaving only him behind on Rokkenjima would look real bad too when the funeral is about a relative who super looks like young Kinzo shut himself out and died all alone.
Jessica would absolutely hate the idea of her parents pushing for the postponing of the conference and then having the gall to consider not showing up to his funeral. And yet if they decide to not go, I don't think she has the financial or practical means to go by herself.
She probably wouldn't fight over Kinzo not coming to the funeral but her feelings on Kinzo's shut-in habits might change given Battler's death and that is a very dangerous terrain for her to poke around since Kinzo has been dead for TWO whole years. It would take a miracle to convince her to keep from telling the rest of the family if Jessica found out exactly WHY her parents want to postpone the conference with Battler's death already having highlighted the worst in her relatives even if she doesn't like her grandfather.
On the topic of when Battler is found
I have trouble not seeing neighbours, classmates or teachers forcefully checking in by Wednesday at most because of either the smell(Kinzo study parallel oh kairi ex) in the case of living in an apartment building or a house split into two to three flats, or total absence from school without any proper notice one week after the death of a relative and knowledge of Battler living, still a minor, entirely by himself.
The extended Ushiromiya family showing up would make it worse, NOW they finally come NOW they finally give a darn. Mighty kind of the cavalry to arrive when it's all over and the one person who could have used their support the most is dead.
I kinda have my oc Hotaru, Battler's fellow arospec ex and classmate, deciding to check on Battler on Tuesday for timeframe convenience. In that scenario, Hotaru delayed to check in person on monday because the school assured them Rudolf or Kyrie were going to do so. The consequences of that misplaced trust would crush them with guilt and fury. That knowledge would probably bleed into the rest of Battler's friends, classmates and teachers, and rail them up BADLY against the Ushiromiya at Battler's funeral.
Especially the teacher who believed the estanged father or step-mom to check in on Battler and learning that was the biggest mistake of their career.
Every single complaint about Rudolf's life choices and parenting as well as bad rumors on his business pratice, Kyrie's family being possibly yakuza coming to their minds. Maybe they would be able to hold back on account on Ange being present but maybe the grief would be too much and the sharpest barbs would end up thrown around.
Other misc thoughts
The topic of the baby switch possibly coming to light right after Battler's death through official channels before the funeral would turn said funeral into a war zone if Rudolf doesn't die within hours of Kyrie finding out.
btw Genius highlight of Jessica understanding all too well the multiplicity of Battler and getting 10K damage from that.
Battler and the Ushiromiya's lack of communication post 1980:
Yeah I was thinking about it too the other day when I thought 'hey Battler finally reached out 1983 but did the older cousins(Maria excluded) even answers those letters or did they just ask Kyrie to relay a mere thank you?'
(As much as I understand their own frustration over Battler's unwillingness to communicate and the technological obstacles of the era, communication is still a two-way street and they did have agency to try and reach out.)
If his cousins never answered his attempt at communication, Battler would indeed feel even more disconnected from them, even more alone after Asumu's parents died, and even more convinced they wouldn't care whether Battler Akinaka lived or died.
Haunted(beloved) by the concept of Battler's death bed featuring the knittted gifts for his other relatives and the idea of Sayo receiving the book with the red/blue notes and horse bookmark at the funeral.
Sayo Yasuda, the frog of truth hopping out of her well to shame the Ushiromiya at the funeral if the conference is postponed, regardless of extended family present or absent. (skipping work or taking vacation for that all while gazing at her 'employers' with the most judging eyes if they insist on not attending)
Maybe Sayo would bring Jessica along with her seeing how hard she's been fighting against her parents. Or Jessica would beg Sayo to take her along upon learning of her choice to attend, promise to repay the trip as well as any punishment her parents might try to push onto her friend for letting their daughter rebel like that.
I just love the idea of George, Jessica and Maria getting a front row seat to Rudolf and Kyrie, possibly even their parents, verbally slaughtered a dozen times over. Them recognizing in real time the Shannon, Kanon and Beatrice in her words. (Hey does that mean Sayo tried to cheat on George with Jessica as Kanon all while not fully having moved on from Battler? Let's not ponder that right now)
Kairi ex Rudolf or anyone finding the crumpled letters and giving them to Sayo would certainly deal 900 ton of damage.
Kyrie and Rudolf tag-team, but itâs in the worst way possible right up there next to Prime Rokkenjima (and thatâs IF Kyrie doesnât snap with the horrifying realization that she has lost her son two-three times over, and kill Rudolf for it).
Thereâs a bit of morbid and emotions curiosity on what it must have felt like, for Krauss and Natsuhi to see Rudolf display to more violent Kinzo-isms which have been missing from their lives for the past two years.
Because I can see Rudolf, much like his son vs Jessica, thinking he might not be a physical match for his older brother in a fight - but being beyond caring whether he lives or dies wins or loses, as long as it means he can get his licks in on his lying bastard of a brother using his sonâs name as a means to an ends just like heâs using Kinzoâs assets and his siblingsâ shares of their rightful inheritance.
The only thing scarier than someone with everything to win, is someone who has decided thereâs nothing else they can lose - and nothing left that anyone can do to try and bring back what they have lost, either.
âŚGod help anyone the moment they bring up Winnifred, because I have a feeling that the live and death of Rudolfâs first child by Kyrie will come up first compared to the fact that Winnifred had never died at all, and had instead been âkilledâ and ârevivedâ as Battler.
Kyrie might try to play the straight man with Rudolf literally coming to pieces, but there was no preparing for the veritable train wreck that she had set every member of the Ushiromiya family up for with her choice to turn and walk out of the Akinakaâs door and leave Battler to the fate he had already predetermined to be his own, based on anotherâs choices.
(If he had lived one more day, Hotaru might have found him still alive. Might have been able to save his life. The thought will probably haunt them for the rest of their lives, wonât it? I really hope they didnât have to find his body. At least not alone.)
And RosaâŚ.
Rosa, Rosa, RosaâŚ.
I want MarĂa to evoke the fear of God in her mother and every other member of the family the next time she talks about the Golden Land - though, I do worry that Rosa, with everything she has going on with the iconography of Beatrice since she was young and her fear of losing Maria as much as her resentment that her daughter exists in the way she does (deadbeat father, neurodivergent), would just try to beat thoughts of the Golden Land out of Mariaâs head.
(Reassuring herself that at least it was Batter that was found dead is not going to keep her from imagining it was Maria found dead in her bed. Itâs not too hard to image. Maria finding bright colored cleaning solutions and thinking theyâre magical potions, Maria getting lost one night when going out to the convenience store and not being able to get back home, Rosa not knowing for days until she finds her daughter missing -)
I also think Maria is quite self-aware, to some degree, regarding the truth of what the Golden Land represents for her and her family- especially given the curses in her grimoires which Ange later finds. And it hurts so much, thinking on that, on the pain and fear and grief and hope she must have felt and wanted to feel.
(That 900k damage of her asking why everyone was so sad at the funeral hit me too, and I donât see Ange reacting well to that statement. At all.)
Eva hurting both Hideyoshi and George with her refusal to attend to funeral leaves such an ache - because, whether she intends to or not, sheâs weaponizing Battlerâs death as means-to-an-end not just against Krauss and Natsuhi, but her husband and son as well.
Hideyoshi having sympathy for Battler, empathy from dealing with suicide ideation after the deaths of his own family before and urging the war - and Eva (openly) displaying no such sympathy for his nephewâŚthatâs going to hurt. A lot.
(Even if Eva grieves in private, I do think that there are some things that Hideyoshi would draw a line at, no matter how much it affected the future of his business. Itâs one thing with Kinzo, who they suspect has been already dead and gone for a long time, who never had a plan in place for his âmainâ kids - that we know of. But Battler wasnât an adult with inheritance and businesses on the line. He was their nephew. He was just a kid. Had likely grown up into as good a man as their George, from what Hideyoshi remembered of him as a kid.
For Eva to weaponize his death like that, in the same way she confided over fearing her had used and raised George for her own retribution against Krauss- Banquet flashbacks of Hideyoshi trying to reason with EVA-Beatrice.)
R.I.P. to Georgeâs copium, it may have one the initial battle - but itâs not going to survive the war. The only but of silver lining I see here is that, in making the choice to attend Battlerâs funeral, because that is his baby cousin and he wants to see his cousin, even if his mother disapproves, George is taking steps in moving out of her web of control.
Even if, in such terrible circumstances, it really doesnât feel like it.
If I were Jessica, I justâŚIâd be horrified, frankly, finding out Kinzo was dead. That the smells from his study were of preservatives (and someone would need to regularly administer those in some way, see: Lenin, and his own corpse rotting away in a fridge).
Because once you start thinking of that, you start thinking about how Battler was found a day after he had died alone, and if his body had begun to smell as well, if anyone had noticed -
And those are equally traumatizing thoughts, considering your cousin is the same age as you and should still be alive and not locked away inside the tomb of a bedroom like the Grandfather he took after so much in appearance.
Just: if Jessica tells the rest of the family somehow, while I donât think theyâd ever let news of Kinzoâs death slip out because it would destroy the entirety of the family name if no one else suspected it was weird Kinzo was gone until now, it would absolutely destroy Krauss+Natsuhiâs standing in the Family.
Therefore, those are two branches in absolute shreds - if not three, considering Eva at odds with Hideyoshi and George over Battlerâs funeral.
In a stunning state of reversal, Rosa is now somehow the most kept together out of all of her siblings. Which isnât saying much, everything that is going on considered. But itâs definitely something. Would check out as to Eva pressuring her to go to Battlerâs funeral, if she didnât come to a decision herself.
(I canât even begin to imagine what must be going on inside of her head).
I hope Hotaru and co light fires under all of the Ushiromiya except maybe Jessica and George (Ange and Maria are givens). BecauseâŚespecially if itâs one of Battlerâs friends, his ex who finds him dead after his so-called family was supposed to check on him?
They need to start crying out Hail Mary because only divine intervention could mark their salvation.
(Iâm now thinking of that thought of Erika and Battler being exes and that might be an even worse circumstance).
Maybe someone would take Ange outside and tell her funny stories about Battler to distract her - or just stories about how much he loved her - meanwhile, the adults are getting lit up like itâs midnight on October 6.
And thatâs all before the frog of truth Sayo speaks her piece.
None would be left behind and she didnât need to get a drop of blood on her hands, because Battlerâs blood (and her own, in Natsuhiâs case) was already all over theirs.
(Meanwhile, poor George and Jessica have to witness this happening in Real Time alongside Battlerâs classmates and friends. And Battlerâs body might still be in the room, too.
Krauss and Natsuhi might have thought it a minor win with a grievous cost, at first.
Everyoneâs a loser in the witchâs roulette spun by Battler, even if heâs the first only person who winded of dead from it.
As for the presentsâŚ
;)
Battler loves his family.
He goes to his grave thinking - knowing - most of them donât love him back.
@queenoffishingandcookies Thinking about Akinaka on Rokkenjima AU again and got hit by the idea of Kyrie of being the one to find Battler in the mist of his depression spiral.
Like she volunteered to go check on Battler after his school called so Rudolf can stay at work at this critical time, convinced at worst the kid is a little sick and forgot to call school.
Then Kyrie finds herself in front of the greatest thorn in the play of her happy family. This time, unlike with Asumu, she finds a body, if not a mind, that still lives . And here is her ultimatum of the decade:
Kyrie the witch could just walk out and Battler would die on his own.
With how dehydrated he looks Battler probably has less than 24 hours. Sure with the call she made to Rudolf when she was less than 30 minutes from the Akinaka household her alibi would be shaky but Kyrie could make up an excuse to explain why she didn't check the inside of the apartment and missed out on the dying teenager.
Kyrie could be free of the constant reminder of Asumu's existence and of the child she lost. After 18 years, she might finally be able to move on fully from all of that and so would Rudolf.
Except that it would ruin the 6-year investment of reconciling Battler with his father and of providing Ange with a caring older brother(a mediocre replacement to the one Ange never got to meet but a replacemet still). Her conspicious absence at work on the day of Asumu's death was never fully cleared in Rudolf's eyes in spite of the lack of witnesses having seen her walk in. This time Kyrie might not be able to win back his trust and with the lawsuit above their heads can they really afford that risk? Would Rudolf be able to get his shit together for the family conference that promises to have the highest stakes on all sides in less than a week?
Ange was so happy about the news that she'd be seeing her brother more often, what if she refuses to forget about him and repeats Battler's clumsy attempts to acknowledge Winnie during all those years?
(Don't think about how that crow plush embroidered with her son's name is laying beside Battler just like the reminders of Asumu and her parents as if he held Winnie close to his heart even after learning about Kyrie's twelve year-long affair)
In other words what if Battler in death becomes the unrelenting ocean slowly but surely wearing out her master piece of a happy family?
Or Kyrie could swoop in like a prince and save Battler
Wouldn't that clear away all of Rudolf's doubts about his wife? That Kyrie has the strength of character all husbands and lovers dream of, a woman responsible and magnanimous enough to not abandon the child of her rival even when it would cement a selfish kind of victory. That Kyrie has the wisdom and patience to play the long game for the sake of her happy family.
Wouldn't that wipe off all of Ange's questions about the oddities of Battler's situation? Sure he might not be the best playmate for now but Ange would still rejoice in having him this close. For her sake, just like in their previous play dates, Battler would recover faster to preserve her blissful ignorance of the squelettons in their closets.
Wouldn't that make Battler all the more grateful and obedient as a piece once he does pull himself together? The reason he will still be among the living and not have ruined his father or his sister's happiness. So many future arguments with Rudolf or Ange would become so much easier with another voice echoing her own. A reliable teenager to take care of Ange and the house would allow Kyrie to resume working full-time and have a better eye on Rudolf's business. The many possibilities of what she could bring Asumu's son back to life as are numerous indeed and everything depends on Kyrie's decision.
Even so, as thrilling as this ultimatum is, Kyrie really doesn't like the look in those eyes seeing through her all the while.
I feel I should tell you that my immediate thought was: GET THIS BOY INTO A HOSPITAL. From personal experience with health scares of family members, dehydration (likely with a side of starvation) is not something to fuck around and find out with. If not severe enough to kill you outright, it weakens the immune system and leaves you more open to developing sepsis and the like if you get infections or other illnesses.
Also, in the same vein as previous discussions regarding Asumuâs death, such as the potential scenario of preventing Battler from trying to wake Asumu only to find out she was dead later, in these AUâs, Rudolf really has a trend of assuming (or hoping, refusing to consider otherwise) that people he cares about are fine, when they really arenât fine. (Though he gets points for taking Battler out to lunch and bringing him home and trying to check in).
That aside -
(Under the interpretation that she had found Asumuâs body first) Kyrie probably had war flashbacks the moment she walked in and found Battler laying on the bed, even if he was still alive - assuming that she didnât think he was dead from the get go, and only noticed he was still breathing when she got closer.
Which makes me wonder if Battler is awake while this is going on, but in a state that it makes it difficult or impossible for him to communicate - dehydration and lack of food, possibly lack of sleep - or he doesnât understand what is going on around him in his current state, or if he is just 110% unconscious.
If he was unconscious, heâd never know Kyrie came to check on him. But if he was conscious and aware enough (in the vein of your headcanon that Battler is aware of Kyrieâs hate, or apathy at best, towards him), Battler would be keenly aware of Kyrieâs decision to save his life when he doesnât want to preserve it himself - or her decision to walk out the room and leave him to fester in a tomb of his griefâs own making.
Because itâs something for the interaction to be one-sided on Kyrieâs end, with battler entirely unconscious or unable to comprehend the world around him - but another entirely for both of them to be watching the other, waiting for the other to make a move and pondering on their own.
For Kyrie to walk out and leave Battler in the house:
Really, all Kyrie would have to say is that the door was locked when she got there, and he seemed to have gone out somewhere - even if there was a key, she could have gone in, checked most of the rooms except his grandparentsâ, or checked only from doorways, and claim that at first glance Battler wouldnât noticeably be in there.
Sheâs not close to Battler and doesnât make a habit of snooping around otherâs houses - so she did a cursory glance over, and missed Battlerâs presence. Yeah, people would still throw looks her way, but if you arenât that close to someone, you donât want to infringe on their privacy, especially while grieving unless there are concerns for their health - and in this case, Rudolf (the concerned party) doesnât think somethingâs all that wrong. Just that he might be sick and forgot to call in.
(Thereâs also the grim option that Battler was already dead when she got there, and whether he was alive or dead at that time, Kyrie later returning to move his body somewhere else to give herself an alibi that he hadnât been home because âheâd died somewhere else, avoiding going to his empty homeâ. And it would keep Rudolf (or worse, Ange) from discovering his body when going to pick him up for the conference - even Kyrie was even thinking that far ahead.
I donât think she would go that far, but the thought popped into mind nonetheless.)
Because Kyrie hates Battler, hates him - not for who he is as a person, the people he represents in her eyes, as well as everything she and her son had lost out on for 12 and 18 years.
Therefore, it should relieve her that he will be gone - nothing more than a husk that used to hold a soul - if she leaves him to literally rot in his grief. (That is additional horror for whoever finds Battler. If he dies in late summer, especially in Japanâs intense heat, and no one finds him for a few daysâŚor a weekâŚ)
He is proof that Asumu âwonâ Rudolf, and by all means, though in a contest of life and not love, âwonâ a child - a son who further cemented her place in the Ushiromiya family, a son that got to live, that she got to pamper and dote on and have raised with every care afforded to him.
Things she wasnât able to do with Winnifred, things that sometimes she can only play pretend at with Ange.
(I do think that, whether or not Kyrie loves her kids, or struggles to comprehend her own emotions + the fact that she loves/cares for them, she does her utmost to raise them with care - her attitude is logistical and, I donât have a word for it? Sassy? A bit flippant, though serious when it counts? We see her joke around and banter with battler, type attitude. However, I do think, courtesy of her Sumadera upbringing, that sheâd be a bit more serious than Rudolf and Asumu.
In raising her kids, If itâs not emotionally, than for efficiency. Kyrie is a very emotional person, though with how clinically she analyzed the world and people around her, it makes it difficult to parse her own emotional and intellectual bias effecting said analysis.)
She wouldnât have to look at his face and think that, if Winnifred had lived, he would be the exact same age as Battler. She wouldnât have to wonder if he, too, would have inherited Rudolfâs height and nose, whether heâd laugh the same way Battler did, what his likes and dislikes would have been, if Angeâs real brother would have doted on her so similarly to Battler.
(It shouldnât have amused me so much for Kyrie to describe him as a mediocre replacement. It did.)
Wouldnât have to compare the techniques she uses to raise Ange, would have used to raise Winnifred, to the way that Asumu had raised Battler - raised battler with so much faith in his mother that he left his birth family, wealthy beyond anything most average households could dream of in multiple lifetimes, for his middle class (possibly lower middle class) grandparents.
Who even now, on what will be his deathbed, depending on the choice she makes, surrounds himself with memories of his mother, his grandparents, and -
Maybe she notices Battler has something representing Ange next to him. A photograph from her sixth birthday, or a drawing she had made for her brother of all of them - Rudolf, Kyrie, herself, and Battler - all together.
Maybe even notices that Battler has a picture of Rudolf, or an old shirt or an old tie, even if itâs the item farthest from him on the bed,
Because itâs there.
Battler doesnât want to be alive if the loved ones he cares for arenât. Even if he has other people he cares for who are still alive. If heâs going to die, he wants those who are still alive to continue living. Because they wonât be alone. They will still have others to rely on.
If heâs going to die, he still doesnât want to die alone. He still wants someone to be there with him. So he gathers up whatâs left of those who have gone ahead of him, and items which represent those he will leave behind.
But maybe she sees the crow first.
Winnifred.
Winnifred is included.
Her Winnifred, who she has hated Battler on the behalf of for the last eighteen years, hated for being Asumuâs living son where herâs had died, envied Asumu for having a living son and being able to marry Rudolf.
(Makes me wonder if he would have stuff to represent Ange as well. And now Iâm thinking about the knitter battler headcanon and the thought of him having made gifts for everyone else on RokkenjimaâŚ.imagine the psychological damage dealt to the cousins).
Itâs hard to imagine what Kyrie would feel like, seeing Battler - Battler, actively in the throes of death at this point - huddled up next to the closest thing in this life that to a brother he never had the chance to meet.
Maybe anger - anger at the thought that Battler grieves for her son, her son who he took the rightful place of, for another boy he has never met, would maybe even come to hate had they both lived, as proof of his fatherâs affair with another woman.
(Or maybe he would grow to love his brother as he had grown to love, not resent, Ange. If they had grown up together, if he had lived and Kyrie could have had them play together -)
Yet he grieves for Winnifred?
Maybe it would be anger, envy that would lead Kyrie to leave Battler there to pass away. Even when heâs looking at her, through her, with glass eyes - mouthing her name like his throatâs too dry to support the actual sound of words. Or maybe heâs already unconscious, already gone, and thereâs nothing she can do anyway just like with Asumu.
A boy she has seen grow up into a young man, even if he isnât her boy.
(somewhere, I think Kyrie does care for Battler - primarily due to seeing her reminisce on him growing up when Rudolf tells her the truth in twilight - but that is smothered and drowned out by the fact that she believes he has taken her sons place and the fact that he reminded her so much of Asumu.
Very much similar to her feelings for Ange, which are so nebulous she might not be able to parse them herself. Inside the catbox, Kyrie cares for Ange but views her as a tool, or she doesnât care, but acts as she does for efficiency and Angeâs sake nonetheless - which in some eyes could be an act of love and care.
She hates Battler and doesnât care for him at all, wouldnât hesitate to kill him. Or she hates Battler and cares for the boy she saw grow up anyway, and refuses to acknowledge it, and still wouldnât hesitate to kill unless you have something like the baby switch to throw in her face - and thatâs only if she believes there to be truth in the statement).
So maybe something else. That bone-deep ache of losing her own son. The thought that of Battler wants to join the dead so much, to just let him. Anger and envy and grief, mixing and sharpening and splicing open her heart.
Maybe Kyrie turns and leaves thinking not much else of it, for the sake of her own sanity.
Ange is young. She wonât remember much of Battler as she gets older, if Kyrie moves the photographs of him out of reach and she and Rudolf donât talk of him. It would make sense, to not want to talk about the tragic death of a teen - if they had just checked on him a little earlier, not left him alone.
A sad story for the press that would be eaten up.
Rudolf would find it a little more difficult to cope, but she was sure could do just the same with photographs to keep Battler out of mind when in her house.
(As sure as Rudolf was that switching the babies would be fine, that Kyrie would recover quickly and was of stronger stuff than Asumu
As though police wouldnât list Battlerâs death as suspicious and look into his background. If Battler had life insurance (because parents can set up life insurance for their kid), thatâs suspicious with a lawsuit over Rudolfâs head. Itâs suspicious that Kyrie was supposed to check on her stepson and didnât find him.
As if it might not come to light during that investigation that Rudolf switched the babies.
That, ultimately, even if no one else knew, Kyrie left her own son to drown in his grief).
Still⌠heâs shrouded with dozens of other things - Rudolfâs old shirt, drawings from AngeâŚ.
Assuming Kyrie doesnât do a heel-turn from whatever emotion when she sees Winnifred next to Battler:
Naturally, Kyrieâs first thought would be to logically breakdown the aftermath of if she left Battler to die.
I love too much your thought of Rudolf always being a bit leery about Kyrieâs absence from work on the day of Asumuâs death. That potential âwhat ifâ which could come back around to haunt her if she didnât get Battler the help he desperately needed right away.
(In all likelihood, considering she was pregnant with Ange, she might have had a gynecologist appointment or something that day - which very much could be an alibi as much as dooming motif for murder).
Thatâs also to say, much as Rudolf likely underestimated the grief that Kyrie would go through when he switched his sons, Kyrie literally canât afford to underestimate the grief that Rudolf would go through if Battler were to die at this point in time.
Rudolf loves his son. Thereâs no two ways about it.
He loves his son. It would, perhaps not destroy him if Battler were to die, maybe heâd even view it as a sign from the universe that he wasnât supposed to return to the Ushiromiya family, or a blessing in disguise, and heâd bury his grief under all of that -
But he would still grieve.
Grieving does funny things to the human mind. It throws your carefully balanced plans out of equilibrium, and new plans have to be drawn up if you canât stabilize them.
Rudolfâs grief would be a major weak point at the conference. With so much money on the line, and the company lawsuit (does Kyrie know about it at this point?), no one can afford to hold back any jabs they can make at their siblings (spec. Krauss, in this case).
(I do genuinely think Kyrie would still massively underestimate the amount of grief that Rudolf would have and display if Battler died, but without her Winnifred Crow induced emotions leading her to leave before she actually strangles Battler or something, she can more concisely consider Rudolf + Angeâs reactions
Because Battler isnât an Ushiromiya at this point in time, itâs a question of whether or not she thinks the conference would actually be postponed and canceled. And whether or not they would go. After all, itâs not like the family tried to keep in contact with Battler after he left and vice-versa, though Battler was grieving. Kyrie will not acknowledge miss Battler, and due to lack of close contact with the rest of the family, fairly reasonable that there will be some shock, but not much mourning on the part of the other Ushiromiya.
Home deaths in Japan generally result in an administrative autopsy (external examination) by police as no physician was present at the time of death and the cause is technically unknown. If death canât be ascertained by external examination, then a judicial autopsy is performed (internal) which can take anywhere from a half a day (administrative) to several (judicial).
The conference would take Rudolfâs mind off the thought that his son was laid out in a morgue or coronerâs office somewhere, maybe even going under the scalpel.)
Thatâs not touching on Angeâs reaction:
Ange, who so deeply loves her brother. In all likelihood, considering canon, I donât think Ange would forget Batter - even if Kyrie and Rudolf didnât talk about him, and Kyrie removed his pictures and the like and placed them into storage. Ange could still find the pictures, or hide drawings she had made of Battler for her own keeping.
Even if she eventually forgot the sound of his voice or his face or the feel of his hand stroking her head, Ange wouldnât forget Battler.
Sheâd be heartbroken when she understood that when someone âpassed awayâ, they werenât able to come back. At six years old, itâs questionable whether or not sheâd fully grasp what death was except: it had made her brother sad.
Sad enough, in this AU, to even possibly kill him.
So I do think that she would follow in Battlerâs footsteps. However, instead of a plushie - it would be the hair ties he won her from that gachapon machine.
Kyrie with prince imagery saving battler is so funny, because usually itâs Battler who is designated Prince/knight.
The thought of her bolstering her standing in Rudolfâs eyes by saving Battlerâs life - cementing her place (reassuring herself) in the family, her familyâs happiness, which in turn will keep Rudolf firmly tethered to her.
Battler would hide his grief for Angeâs sake, he would help Kyrie around the house to try and be respectful, and also because heâs next oldest and the house and doesnât want to be like his dad (who, due to long work hours + affair didnât really help Asumu around the house), but again -
I think Kyrieâs biases towards Battler, taking his cheerful and goofball facade at almost face value, his fear of vehicles like Asumu, and how they color her chessboard thinking, is leading her to severely underestimate how seriously Battler takes things - especially pertaining to family - and how long it would take for Battler to recover from his grief when - six years later - he still hasnât recovered from losing Asumu.
âWouldn't that make Battler all the more grateful and obedient as a piece once he does pull himself together? The reason he will still be among the living and not have ruined his father or his sister's happiness.
So many future arguments with Rudolf or Ange would become so much easier with another voice echoing her own. A reliable teenager to take care of Ange and the house would allow Kyrie to resume working full-time and have a better eye on Rudolf's business.
The many possibilities of what she could bring Asumu's son back to life as are numerous indeed and everything depends on Kyrie's decision.
This. This entire paragraph. I find it so interesting.
Kyrieâs assumption that Battler will recover from his grief, will be able to move on, instead of - as in canon - just using bluff and bluster to hide the fact that he very much is grieving from others.
Her firm belief that he will - or she can lead him to - be on her side in household arguments, out of gratitude for the fact that she saved his life (and totally not because he had already grown to respect her in the past, though not her choice of men - which genuinely makes me wonder if Battler knew that Rudolf was cheating on Kyrie, which I think he was? There was that one short in the manga where Kyrie caught him on the phone flirting with someone).
Even if Battlerâs a mediocre replacement for Winnifred, heâs still a teen that Kyrie views as reliable when it comes to helping around the house (oh, the subtle and unintentional parentification).
The many possibilities of what she could bring Asumuâs son back to life and my brain immediately went to the concept that, in a way, ârevivingâ Winnifred through Battler.
And it all depends on Kyrieâs choice, playing the hand of god in a life-or-death matter.
That last statement of Battlerâs eyes seeing through her, thoughâŚis Battler actually conscious and watching Kyrie?
(Iâm also still thinking of the concept of her walking in on Battler already dead, and then the choice is either making the call to police, hospital, and Rudolf or leaving his body there to rot).
âBattler doesnât want to be alive if the loved ones he cares for arenât. Even if he has other people he cares for who are still alive. If heâs going to die, he wants those who are still alive to continue living. Because they wonât be alone. They will still have others to rely on.
If heâs going to die, he still doesnât want to die alone. He still wants someone to be there with him. So he gathers up whatâs left of those who have gone ahead of him, and items which represent those he will leave behind.â I already knew this about Battler but those paragraphs still hit me with the force of 900 tons of explosives.
I didnât consider Kyrieâs possible anger at the concept of Battler grieving for Winnifried but oh kairi ex Kyrie wanting to remove the plushie from Battlerâs grasp because it is not HIS and the possibility of Battler trying to hang onto it in spite of his weakened state forcing her to let go or rip it out of his hand.
âVery much similar to her feelings for Ange, which are so nebulous she might not be able to parse them herself. Inside the catbox, Kyrie cares for Ange but views her as a tool, or she doesnât care, but acts as she does for efficiency and Angeâs sake nonetheless - which in some eyes could be an act of love and care.
She hates Battler and doesnât care for him at all, wouldnât hesitate to kill him. Or she hates Battler and cares for the boy she saw grow up anyway, and refuses to acknowledge it, and still wouldnât hesitate to kill unless you have something like the baby switch to throw in her face - and thatâs only if she believes there to be truth in the statement).â <- this!!!!!!
The topic of Battlerâs suspicious time of death and insurance looking mighty bad because of the existing lawsuit reminds me of our discussions of Battler having listed Rudolfâs family as beneficiaries in a will, which WOW would sure make Rudolf and Kyrie all the more suspicious. Especially with Asumuâs parents both dying in 1986 as well, Asumu's father one week ealier.
Kyrie becoming a prince(derogatory) was my brain heating up the leftovers of my partial watch and understanding of Utena with the idea of a prince(derogatory) as someone who allows another person, a princess/damsel in distress, to remain in a situation where they need to be helped/saved recurringly for the princeâs own benefit. The prince as a perpetuator of a system rather than someone fixing the issue
On the topic of his recovery, a full and perfect one wouldnât make Battler as useful as a pawn either. Of course it's more beneficial if he becomes more functional than when she found him. However while the situation stagnating could be dangerous, Battler needing Kyrie's support to stay functional and remaining in her debt provides both a chain around her furniture's neck and a safety line keeping Battler from falling back into the ocean and drowning.
(also PARENTIFICATION STEEL CHAIR GOOOOO!)
As mentioned before in EP7 parallel of spun devilâs roulette on whether anyone will check on Battler Akinaka, his knowing eyes not leaving her all the while would follow Kyrie to the grave should she choose to walk out. A locked tight catbox of what those eyes held for the Kyrie who chose to leave: pity, disappointment, apathy, panic, happiness, sorrow, hatred? There is no way for her to know now.
âŚI honestly did not think about all of the Akinaka assets Battler had inherited going back to Rudolf and Kyrie, and how proceeds from Life Insurance and so on would look when it came to Everything going on with Rudolfâs company.
That, and his grandparents deathsâŚonce is a tragedy, twice is maybe a coincidence or heartbreak, but three timesâŚ
Thereâs no hiding from a scandal like that, not unless the unified Ushiromiya might tried to put a stop to it - and the Ushiromiya family is anything but unified, and courtesy of the other post, Battler has some very pissed off and grieving friend and classmates AND cousins now all watching this go down in real time.
(Utena mention? UTENA MENTION!!! I have only read the manga, but only watched the first three episodes of the anime and am so excited for next time I get the chance to watch more.
On the other hand: ow. Ow pain.
Kyrie, Prince, perpetuating a broken system for personal benefit instead of correcting it to truly save their Princess. OW.
And honestly, this could mean Utena herself (unintentionally), or another character I shall not say the name of if anyone reading this hasnât read or watched Utena at least a little bit.
Iâm getting war flashbacks to the manga. Iâm quite certain the anime is going to traumatize me, but I do hear that each of the arcs is far more expanses on themes of abuse and the forms they take, from obvious to the more ominously subtle, compared to the manga. )
(Meanwhile, Battler forces himself to take that steel chair like a champ. Heâs also preparing to tear Kyrie and Rudolf new parts of anatomy because that post of Ange wondering if their parents now hate her HAUNTS ME and you should know that, because that is agonizingly real to how a young child would see their parents suddenly around them less and less. Self-blame).
AHAHAHAHA.wav towards Kyrie recalling the look in Battlerâs eyes, and the truth behind the emotion in them forever being locked away inside the catbox which is Akinaka Battlerâs (Sumadera Winnifred) cadaver.
Though I do have to ask, with my most witch-like levels of glee:
In this occasion, did she rip Winnie (the plush) out of Battler grasp? Had she torn her son away from himself, as much as away from the dead brother born from the mother who had raised him as her own, in the bed of the grandparents who had raised him the same not knowing any better of the cuckoo in their nest?
Further thoughts about the impact of Battler's death(in the Akinaka on Rokkenjima au time frame) one weekend or so after Rudolf announced he was planning to re-enter the register and had called to say Battler would be at the conference, Battler found dead on either last monday or tuesday pre conference of what looks like suicide DOES 'benefits' one side of the Ushiromiya family.
It provides Natsuhi and Krauss with a great excuse to delay to an unknown date the conference and to stir discord within the attacking faction(Rosa+Rudolf+Eva) by highlighting Rudolf's 'failure as a parent' as the cause of the delay. Do you reallly want to push Rudolf to disrespect the minimal mourning period like in 1980? Are you truly so greedy and in financial need that you cant wait one more month for Rudolf to grieve the son he had thought he had finally gotten back? Are you that eager to forget Battler like you forgot Asumu?
(Jessica watching with disgust her parents visibly relax and bask in the reprieve granted by her cousin's death. The one she was convinced/convinced herself was fine without them.
George cursing the intrusive thoughts of gladness that Battler isnt coming after all and intrusive wishes that Eva succeeds in maintaining the og conf date so he can still propose to Sayo. Until he calls Sayo himself to postpone the previous 'deadline' because he made himself genuinely sick thinking of going through it so close to Battler's death.(maybe it could spur him to ask more about Sayo's personal struggles out of fear of the squelettons he rused to acknowledge dragging her down like Battler)
Sayo watching the Ushiromiya siblings desacrate Battler's death for their own ends but unable to punish them as planned because the conference isnt happening any time soon.
All while Beatrice whose seed of love has turned to rot and whose desire for revenge and violence is trickling back to Kanon and Shannon in dangerously visible ways to the people who know them personally like the remaining cousins)
MASSIVE SPOILERS YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
In this AU, it is my hope that all of the adults, Krauss and Natsuhi especially, get hit with instant and immense guilt when they see Battler in his casket during the wake - because, in using his passing and his memory to evade HidEva + Rosaâs attempts to catch them out for embezzling, it is a desecration of his memory.
Rudolf, maybe not, because if Battler dies it would have LITERALLY BEEN ON HIS BIRTHDAY, and it would be ten times worse if it was Rudolf who found Battler dead five (?) days later - but everyone else is fair game for taking low blows at him in his grief (because I do think it would agitate Eva and Rosa that Battler died at so conspicuously a time, though Rosa might have more tact and no poke at Rudolf for it).
(Especially if investigations into Battlerâs death do bring up the baby switch, because I donât see either Eva or Natsuhi letting go of Battlerâs technical illegitimacy. Thatâs still not considering how Kyrie would react, especially since Battler may have died due to her leaving him in his room alone).
Also, I think Rudolf would really hate it when Krauss and Natsuhi used Battler to try and get the other three off their case about the embezzling (plus Kinzo, but heâs significantly of less important than Battler).
He is a failure of a parent, heâll take that much. But he wonât take his sonâs name in their mouth as an excuse to hide their own dirty habits.
(Rudolf is willing to try kill his own son in pursuit of money on Prime, but Iâll be damned if anyone else gets to talk shit or smear his name like that).
Take Natsuhiâs fierce defense of Kinzo and the Ushiromiya Name - and make it just a tinge scarier when it comes to Rudolf wanting people to stop use Battler as an excuse.
It gets worse if anyone tries to weaponize the fact that Battler wasnât Asumuâs bio-son. And adding in the deliberate barb of forgetting Asumu-
Ouch.
Those are fighting words. I mean this seriously. Those are Fighting Words.
I do, however, feel for both George and Jessica - though Iâm also a bit irritated at them (through no real fault of their own).
(George a little less so, but Iâll touch on that).
They lost contact with Battler in 1980 after Asumuâs death. Honestly, I donât think we even know if they attended Asumuâs funeral - and if they didnât, if no one except Rudolf and his grandparents saw Battker in his grief, the last time the Ushiromiyaâs saw Battler in person would have been 1979.
Seven years ago.
Seven years, only hearing from him via letter - what? Four years after the fact? 1983? Not only that, but to be told that Battler hadnât even made the initiative to write the letters himself - that Kyrie had coaxed him into doing so - and he wrote as though he were having a blast, to the point of outright saying he didnât plan to come back?
Bonds are only as strong as the efforts of the two people tied to it. And from what it seems like in canon, neither Battler nor his cousins made an effort to keep in touch - and through those letters, Battker made it seem as though he was happy staying out of touch, or his cousins felt as if heâd be fine without them reaching back out.
We donât know if Battler had tried to reach out to them before, via phone or letter. We donât know if he wrote letters to his family, but ultimately never sent them.
It is a big deal that Battler left the Ushiromiya family register. In Japan, the Koseki is literal proof of your identity, your citizenship (if a native of Japan).
He literally legally severed familial attachments to the Ushiromiya family. In a way, this could have been interpreted as abandonment - and each member of the family, including Battlerâs cousins, had their own interpretation of that as well once they were told.
Told that Battler had abandoned his fatherâs house for his grandparents. Told that Battler had removed himself from the family register, was effectively no longer a member of the Ushiromiya family, and had gone as far as to change his name to separate himself from his father, and as a result, every other member of his family.
ďżźFor example: Eva was pleased, as it meant George has one less âenemyâ in becoming family head (even if he doesnât want to be).
Natsuhi, though I do feel like it would injure her for him to abandon the name, understood the deep-rooted betrayal that Battler felt which led him to leave the register.
George and JessicaâŚ
George was likely relieved, though I do believe he would feel guilt at the fact, considering the reason Battler left was due to Asumuâs death and Rudolfâs infidelity -> both tragedies alone, let alone paired together with a child on the way.
Teenage George, as much as he loved his cousin, was also insecure in his own understanding as his role as a âgentlemanâ and his ability to charm and approach women - something that led to him developing envy towards Battler, who had no such hang ups about how to approach and hang out with others, even of the opposite sex, even when Battler was so crude and didnât always treat a person with the refined care that Eva had taught George was best.
Eva is someone always in competition, with her brother and siblings and everyone around her. She strives for excellence above all others - and, whether she intended to or not, in some ways, she instilled George with that same competitive drive.
And where Eva focused on competition against Krauss for the headship, George - George competed against Battler (one-sidedly) on what it meant to be a man, on how to connect with the affections of a young woman, on what it meant to swipe someone off her feet and have her fall in love.
I also see George as someone who did, courtesy of Evaâs high importance of raising a gentleman fitting of social class, to have a similarly classist mindset which he is actively trying to grow out of by 1986, given that the young girl he loves is of the âlower classâ, a servant of his family no less.
A mindset that would have been much more firmly in place when Battler left the wealthy (at least on paper) Ushiromiya clan for his lower class grandparents, and even changed his name.
Hereâs the thing:
I do think that George genuinely loves and cares for Battler. But that is tampered by their differences in personality, his own adolescent envy, even if he grows out of it, as well as by Battlerâs long absence from the family, meaning he doesnât know how Battler has grown or who his cousin is now, as well as a perceived betrayal of the family for a âlesserâ social standing.
George knew Ushiromiya Battler, twelve years old and full of energy and harmless flirtations and first crushes. He never met Akinaka Battler, the boy-turned-young man who spent six years and months and weeks grieving his mother, his grandmother, and his grandfather up into the point it killed him.
The memory he has of Battler, up until the funeral, will always be of that sometimes overly self-assured twelve year old who used to cling to his leg, who he had looked down on for being so crude and emotional.
So, perhaps out of a coping mechanism, and perhaps because he doesnât know this new and deceased Akinaka Battler, he defaults to relief.
(A bit like his mother when Shannon dies in Legend, even if Iâm 99% sure she and Hideyoshi were accomplices on that particular gameboard and she knew Sayo wasnât really dead).
Relief that Ushiromiya Battler, who he knows was Shannonâs first crush, will not return to swipe his girlfriend - the girl he wants to make his wife - off her feet, and without meaning to, show himself off as the much more favorable, personable, exciting young man to choose as a partner.
Because he remembers Battler as bright, charming, and a bit of goofball. Not the image of a pale, grief-stricken and white haired boy in a casket, a boy in school uniform finding his mother on the floor, both eventually shrouded an incense at a wake and hours away from being reduced to ash and bone fragments waiting to be passed into an urn.
At this point, George is far closer to Shannon than Battler. So before the funeral, and I donât think he would even mean any harm from this (perhaps even feel guilty for it), his primary thoughts would be pity for his uncle and Ange and Kyrie, and concern for how it would affect his relationship with Shannon.
Because, maybe more than anyone else, George knows how close Battler and Shannon were, for all that they had only metďżź five or six times counting all the conferences Shannon worked at.
If not due to insecurities that Shannon was still in love with Battler, than out of the simple concern that someone she had cared so deeply for - even if they hadnât met in years - had died so tragically.
(Alone. In his grandparentâs bed. Surround by mementos of Aunt Asumu, of his grandparents - of a long dead half-brother that the Ushiromiya family didnât know about until the news broke).
Same for the intrusive thought of wishing his mother could convince Krauss and Natsuhi to hold the conference as usual (perhaps as a distraction for Rudolf, on the surface?), because - he doesnât know Akinaka Battler.
(Or maybe heâs drinking a metric ton of copium as he begins to realize that now he really will never see his cousin again, when a little part of him was waiting and wanting to see Battler. In Legend he did state it didnât feel right with one of the cousins - Battler - missing during the conference. And I do think that feeling was genuine).
One such potential argument to use (likely by Eva) is that: Battler isnât an Ushiromiya at this time, in this AU.
Itâs not a âUshiromiya family matterâ by those means. Even if Rudolf couldnât attend the conference, though the conference would get his mind off Battlerâs death, it should still be held as usual - thereâs no reason it should be canceled due to the death of someone who has already been gone for the past seven years.
(In other words, to be far more tactless, the Ushiromiya Family has already lived as though Battler were dead for the past seven years. No one made contact with him over those years. Whatâs the difference now that heâs actually dead?)
I see Eva making this argument more than George himself, with it leaving a very bad taste in his mouth, even though part of him wants it to work, if only to see and check on Shannon.
George really wants to propose to Shannon, because he loves her. Maybe, maybe he even thinks that, in her grief, for a childhood friend and first love, the proposal would even be something that could cheer her up.
Much as you said, I do think that line of thought would make him also genuinely feel sick with himself. (It would feel too much like taking advantage of her. via several George fics, given that Eva - though she didnât intend to do so - took advantage of the fact that as her son George was beholden to her, and as a servant, George knows Shannon is beholden to him and his family in turn, and both of them were expected to grow up too quickly and learn just as fast how to handle things outside of their meansâŚin part why he feels a bond with her, it would feel wrong while sheâs grieving).
(And if he didnât have a girlfriend, Battler will never be able to fall in love. Battler will never be able to propose to someone he loves, he will never be able to get married. Because Battler is dead.
Somewhere deep down:
Georgeâs baby cousin is dead. He will never be coming back.)
Georgeâs relief is something he canât help, something he feels immense guilt for, something he doesnât want to feel, and yet canât change that fact that he does feel it - and slowly but surely - the grief will start to seep in, too.
(Now thinking about Battler having pictures of his cousins nearby in his bed when he died. Or gifts he had planned to give them for the conference. Gifts he will never get to give them.
Gifts everyone will have to look at and know that they were laying within inches of his cooling body after he passed, maybe for days on end. Proof that, as I touch on in Jessicaâs section, he didnât forget or move on from them when he was gone.
Also: Battlerâs friends and classmates coming to the funeral. The Ushiromiya meeting his friends for the first time. Hearing concrete stories of the young man Batter became. Maybe mentioning how he had always talked so highly of his cousins - because while I donât see Battler talking about Rudolf, I do see him boasting about Ange and George, at least.
(And knowledge of the deceased Akinaka Battler becomes far more real than the memories of the living Ushiromiya Battler).
Jessica - God, I feel so bad for Jessica.
The shock of seeing them treat Battlerâs death as a form of respite from the conferences - it might actually be worse than when she sees the adults argue at dinner over the inheritance and Beatriceâs letter in prime.
Thereâs no escape from the shroud that Battlerâs death casts - not when one of her closest friends has it wrapped around her shoulders like a blanket worn thin and still desperately clung to for warmth. No George there to try and spin their relief off as for the benefit of their kids, the well-being of their companies and employees.
Not when the paperwork for Battler re-entering the family register again has to be altered, a big fat X-mark crossing out his entry to denote his death.
It shouldnât bug her this much, should it? She hasnât seen Battler for years, hasnât talked to him - hadnât heard anything except that letter in 1983, which Aunt Kyrie had made him write, and heâd said he was just fine -
Except - saying you were fine didnât really mean you were always okay, did it?
Sometimes it just meant you had already resigned yourself to the way you were living, had resigned yourself to not changing anything about that.
Sometimes it meant trying to get others off your case to be left alone.
People who were okay didnât just go and let themselves die from dehydration. They didnât let themselves starve to death in their grandparents bedroom.
Dehydration and starvation were real painful ways to go out, the way the body shut down with nothing left in the tank for the engine to run onâŚshe had asked Nanjo about it one day, while he was leaving the mansionâŚ
And Battler had always been way more of a crybaby than he had ever wanted to let on. He always talked big about finding Grandatherâs gold or winning against Jessica in a fight - but heâd been the first one in tears at some Thunder or a scary shadow, clingy to Georgeâs leg, or go crying to Aunt Asumuâs skirt when he lostâŚ
Heâd - heâd been whiny, hadnât he? And Aunt Asumu had beenâŚ
JessicaâŚcouldnât remember the sound of Battler or Aunt Asumuâs voices, now.
Thinking on it nowâŚshe couldnât even remember what their faces had looked like, at that last conference with the both of them.
SheâŚcouldnât even remember the last time she had actually talked to BattlerâŚnot after Asumuâs deathâŚ
Jessica knows what it feels like not to be able to be her true self, not able to reach out to people she wants (her parents) to understand without being told to curb it, to alter the parts of herself which are incompatible to their view of what is best for her, and hiding it.
Sheâs more aware of things, has a sense of emotion that others donât always pick up on, because Jessica - as Battler put it in Legend - is bossy. Sheâs pushy, and even if she means well, sometimes pushes well past a personâs boundaries. This lack of tack and impulsive full-frontal assault has an adverse effect on her perception of others, which while it isnât always clear, is pretty sharp.
She is like the sun - and the sun can warm a person as much as burn them. It illuminates every object, and casts just as many shadows.
Jessica hides the parts of herself that are âinappropriateâ or undesirable, and lets them out as Jessie when given the opportunity. She is aware of the multitude of âselvesâ a person can hide within themselves.
Meaning, if allowed to ponder on it, she can wonder the selves that Battler had within himself - the Battler of 1979, the Battler of 1983, and the Battler of 1986.
(Regardless of his name, Battler will always be her cousin. Even if he threw away the family name and took someone elseâs - his grandparents. You canât run from the family line running in your blood - and, with absolute certainty, even with the questions of Aunt Kyrie and Aunt Asumu, Battler definitely carried Rudolf and Kinzoâs blood).
Which, leads me to the question:
Did any member of the Ushiromiya family reach out to Battler after Asumuâs death? Did they attend her funeral, or just send condolences? What about after her left the register?
Were they ever given the address for Battlerâs grandparents, in case they wanted to call or write Battler? Had the cousins been told to let Battler grieve on his own time, had they expected him to reach out first?
Had they thought of Battlerâs grief at all, after their own initial shock at Asumuâs death?
The thought haunts me and I want it to haunt all of them too, but in all honesty, I think itâs only really going to hit Rudolf, maybe Kyrie, and George and Jessica - and, of course Sayotrice.
From Battlerâs perspective, my personal interpretation is that he was in a state of severe grief after Asumuâs death - which initially displayed itself as anger, even if that anger burned out when the focus of it (Rudolf) wasnât around.
Given how much he loves his family, I do think Battler probably did intend to reach out - but, I also think that due to leaving the family register, he might not have felt he had the right to reach out.ďżź
He wasnât part of the Ushiromiya Family anymore.
And if his cousins and aunts and uncles hadnât been at Asumuâs funeral either - there very well could have been, just as with Jessica and George, a feeling of abandonment and a sense thatâŚthey didnât miss him enough to reach out.
That they didnât want him to reach out.
And a mindset like that scars you, even if it doesnât reflect reality.
(Brought to you by the thought of: what if Battler wrote a letter and Sayo never got it, and that one fic by the empty pen on ao3 focused on exactly that).
I have thoughts. Thoughts on Battler having written letters like Sayo wrote message bottle manuscripts, only to crumple them up and shove them in a drawer somewhere - to be forgotten, to force himself to forget, because it was safer than remembering and being afraid to reach out.
(Nightmare thought: Battler forgot the promise, but not right away. In 1979, Sayo let Battler borrow on of her books to read through and annotate, to give back in the next trip his family took to Rokkenjima, when he came to steal her away on a white horse. That next trip never happens. Seven years later, the book - filled with crumpled letters and annotations in red and blue, with a horse bookmark - is returned to her by an apologetic friend of Battlerâs).
And SayoâŚ
Oh my god.
Considering the amount of blackmail she has on everyone, especially Krauss and Natsuhi, the only thing I can hope for is that she warns George and Jessica in some way before she goes for r/nuclearrevenge and begins to read the Ushiromiya siblings for filth as Beatrice or Lion, and then detonates Rokkenjima.
Okay, I know thatâs not likely to happen - but the grim thought of her grief and her rage towards the adults being made manifest in both Shannon and Kanon, who in varying ways have to deal with abuse of the household (Eva and Natsuhi), even if she knows why all of the adults are so Fucked Up-
(Thatâs going to also fuck with Jessica and George. So much. So very much. Kanon never met Battler. Shannon did. Both are slowly beginning to deteriorate in real time on Rokkenjima, and more of Beatrice the Golden Witch peeks through their cracks at George and JessicaâŚbut especially the adults.
Kyrie was concerned about Battlerâs death destroying her happy family? Well, she might have to deal with the weight not only of having left her own son to die of his own volition, but of also potentially leading to the Rokkenjima Mass Explosion incident without any of the adults having to pull a trigger).
Praise her noble name, though it is likely no longer enough to save your lives as she reaps the sins of the Ushiromiya bloodline.
About Akinaka watching Kyrie make a decision regarding his survival, you could say he spun the roulette of whether someone would check on Battler Akinaka or not and is leaving his fate to the person who did come in an ep7 Beatrice fashion. Whether that person decides to walk back out or save him. ;)
@queenoffishingandcookies Thinking about Akinaka on Rokkenjima AU again and got hit by the idea of Kyrie of being the one to find Battler in the mist of his depression spiral.
Like she volunteered to go check on Battler after his school called so Rudolf can stay at work at this critical time, convinced at worst the kid is a little sick and forgot to call school.
Then Kyrie finds herself in front of the greatest thorn in the play of her happy family. This time, unlike with Asumu, she finds a body, if not a mind, that still lives . And here is her ultimatum of the decade:
Kyrie the witch could just walk out and Battler would die on his own.
With how dehydrated he looks Battler probably has less than 24 hours. Sure with the call she made to Rudolf when she was less than 30 minutes from the Akinaka household her alibi would be shaky but Kyrie could make up an excuse to explain why she didn't check the inside of the apartment and missed out on the dying teenager.
Kyrie could be free of the constant reminder of Asumu's existence and of the child she lost. After 18 years, she might finally be able to move on fully from all of that and so would Rudolf.
Except that it would ruin the 6-year investment of reconciling Battler with his father and of providing Ange with a caring older brother(a mediocre replacement to the one Ange never got to meet but a replacemet still). Her conspicious absence at work on the day of Asumu's death was never fully cleared in Rudolf's eyes in spite of the lack of witnesses having seen her walk in. This time Kyrie might not be able to win back his trust and with the lawsuit above their heads can they really afford that risk? Would Rudolf be able to get his shit together for the family conference that promises to have the highest stakes on all sides in less than a week?
Ange was so happy about the news that she'd be seeing her brother more often, what if she refuses to forget about him and repeats Battler's clumsy attempts to acknowledge Winnie during all those years?
(Don't think about how that crow plush embroidered with her son's name is laying beside Battler just like the reminders of Asumu and her parents as if he held Winnie close to his heart even after learning about Kyrie's twelve year-long affair)
In other words what if Battler in death becomes the unrelenting ocean slowly but surely wearing out her master piece of a happy family?
Or Kyrie could swoop in like a prince and save Battler
Wouldn't that clear away all of Rudolf's doubts about his wife? That Kyrie has the strength of character all husbands and lovers dream of, a woman responsible and magnanimous enough to not abandon the child of her rival even when it would cement a selfish kind of victory. That Kyrie has the wisdom and patience to play the long game for the sake of her happy family.
Wouldn't that wipe off all of Ange's questions about the oddities of Battler's situation? Sure he might not be the best playmate for now but Ange would still rejoice in having him this close. For her sake, just like in their previous play dates, Battler would recover faster to preserve her blissful ignorance of the squelettons in their closets.
Wouldn't that make Battler all the more grateful and obedient as a piece once he does pull himself together? The reason he will still be among the living and not have ruined his father or his sister's happiness. So many future arguments with Rudolf or Ange would become so much easier with another voice echoing her own. A reliable teenager to take care of Ange and the house would allow Kyrie to resume working full-time and have a better eye on Rudolf's business. The many possibilities of what she could bring Asumu's son back to life as are numerous indeed and everything depends on Kyrie's decision.
Even so, as thrilling as this ultimatum is, Kyrie really doesn't like the look in those eyes seeing through her all the while.
I feel I should tell you that my immediate thought was: GET THIS BOY INTO A HOSPITAL. From personal experience with health scares of family members, dehydration (likely with a side of starvation) is not something to fuck around and find out with. If not severe enough to kill you outright, it weakens the immune system and leaves you more open to developing sepsis and the like if you get infections or other illnesses.
Also, in the same vein as previous discussions regarding Asumuâs death, such as the potential scenario of preventing Battler from trying to wake Asumu only to find out she was dead later, in these AUâs, Rudolf really has a trend of assuming (or hoping, refusing to consider otherwise) that people he cares about are fine, when they really arenât fine. (Though he gets points for taking Battler out to lunch and bringing him home and trying to check in).
That aside -
(Under the interpretation that she had found Asumuâs body first) Kyrie probably had war flashbacks the moment she walked in and found Battler laying on the bed, even if he was still alive - assuming that she didnât think he was dead from the get go, and only noticed he was still breathing when she got closer.
Which makes me wonder if Battler is awake while this is going on, but in a state that it makes it difficult or impossible for him to communicate - dehydration and lack of food, possibly lack of sleep - or he doesnât understand what is going on around him in his current state, or if he is just 110% unconscious.
If he was unconscious, heâd never know Kyrie came to check on him. But if he was conscious and aware enough (in the vein of your headcanon that Battler is aware of Kyrieâs hate, or apathy at best, towards him), Battler would be keenly aware of Kyrieâs decision to save his life when he doesnât want to preserve it himself - or her decision to walk out the room and leave him to fester in a tomb of his griefâs own making.
Because itâs something for the interaction to be one-sided on Kyrieâs end, with battler entirely unconscious or unable to comprehend the world around him - but another entirely for both of them to be watching the other, waiting for the other to make a move and pondering on their own.
For Kyrie to walk out and leave Battler in the house:
Really, all Kyrie would have to say is that the door was locked when she got there, and he seemed to have gone out somewhere - even if there was a key, she could have gone in, checked most of the rooms except his grandparentsâ, or checked only from doorways, and claim that at first glance Battler wouldnât noticeably be in there.
Sheâs not close to Battler and doesnât make a habit of snooping around otherâs houses - so she did a cursory glance over, and missed Battlerâs presence. Yeah, people would still throw looks her way, but if you arenât that close to someone, you donât want to infringe on their privacy, especially while grieving unless there are concerns for their health - and in this case, Rudolf (the concerned party) doesnât think somethingâs all that wrong. Just that he might be sick and forgot to call in.
(Thereâs also the grim option that Battler was already dead when she got there, and whether he was alive or dead at that time, Kyrie later returning to move his body somewhere else to give herself an alibi that he hadnât been home because âheâd died somewhere else, avoiding going to his empty homeâ. And it would keep Rudolf (or worse, Ange) from discovering his body when going to pick him up for the conference - even Kyrie was even thinking that far ahead.
I donât think she would go that far, but the thought popped into mind nonetheless.)
Because Kyrie hates Battler, hates him - not for who he is as a person, the people he represents in her eyes, as well as everything she and her son had lost out on for 12 and 18 years.
Therefore, it should relieve her that he will be gone - nothing more than a husk that used to hold a soul - if she leaves him to literally rot in his grief. (That is additional horror for whoever finds Battler. If he dies in late summer, especially in Japanâs intense heat, and no one finds him for a few daysâŚor a weekâŚ)
He is proof that Asumu âwonâ Rudolf, and by all means, though in a contest of life and not love, âwonâ a child - a son who further cemented her place in the Ushiromiya family, a son that got to live, that she got to pamper and dote on and have raised with every care afforded to him.
Things she wasnât able to do with Winnifred, things that sometimes she can only play pretend at with Ange.
(I do think that, whether or not Kyrie loves her kids, or struggles to comprehend her own emotions + the fact that she loves/cares for them, she does her utmost to raise them with care - her attitude is logistical and, I donât have a word for it? Sassy? A bit flippant, though serious when it counts? We see her joke around and banter with battler, type attitude. However, I do think, courtesy of her Sumadera upbringing, that sheâd be a bit more serious than Rudolf and Asumu.
In raising her kids, If itâs not emotionally, than for efficiency. Kyrie is a very emotional person, though with how clinically she analyzed the world and people around her, it makes it difficult to parse her own emotional and intellectual bias effecting said analysis.)
She wouldnât have to look at his face and think that, if Winnifred had lived, he would be the exact same age as Battler. She wouldnât have to wonder if he, too, would have inherited Rudolfâs height and nose, whether heâd laugh the same way Battler did, what his likes and dislikes would have been, if Angeâs real brother would have doted on her so similarly to Battler.
(It shouldnât have amused me so much for Kyrie to describe him as a mediocre replacement. It did.)
Wouldnât have to compare the techniques she uses to raise Ange, would have used to raise Winnifred, to the way that Asumu had raised Battler - raised battler with so much faith in his mother that he left his birth family, wealthy beyond anything most average households could dream of in multiple lifetimes, for his middle class (possibly lower middle class) grandparents.
Who even now, on what will be his deathbed, depending on the choice she makes, surrounds himself with memories of his mother, his grandparents, and -
Maybe she notices Battler has something representing Ange next to him. A photograph from her sixth birthday, or a drawing she had made for her brother of all of them - Rudolf, Kyrie, herself, and Battler - all together.
Maybe even notices that Battler has a picture of Rudolf, or an old shirt or an old tie, even if itâs the item farthest from him on the bed,
Because itâs there.
Battler doesnât want to be alive if the loved ones he cares for arenât. Even if he has other people he cares for who are still alive. If heâs going to die, he wants those who are still alive to continue living. Because they wonât be alone. They will still have others to rely on.
If heâs going to die, he still doesnât want to die alone. He still wants someone to be there with him. So he gathers up whatâs left of those who have gone ahead of him, and items which represent those he will leave behind.
But maybe she sees the crow first.
Winnifred.
Winnifred is included.
Her Winnifred, who she has hated Battler on the behalf of for the last eighteen years, hated for being Asumuâs living son where herâs had died, envied Asumu for having a living son and being able to marry Rudolf.
(Makes me wonder if he would have stuff to represent Ange as well. And now Iâm thinking about the knitter battler headcanon and the thought of him having made gifts for everyone else on RokkenjimaâŚ.imagine the psychological damage dealt to the cousins).
Itâs hard to imagine what Kyrie would feel like, seeing Battler - Battler, actively in the throes of death at this point - huddled up next to the closest thing in this life that to a brother he never had the chance to meet.
Maybe anger - anger at the thought that Battler grieves for her son, her son who he took the rightful place of, for another boy he has never met, would maybe even come to hate had they both lived, as proof of his fatherâs affair with another woman.
(Or maybe he would grow to love his brother as he had grown to love, not resent, Ange. If they had grown up together, if he had lived and Kyrie could have had them play together -)
Yet he grieves for Winnifred?
Maybe it would be anger, envy that would lead Kyrie to leave Battler there to pass away. Even when heâs looking at her, through her, with glass eyes - mouthing her name like his throatâs too dry to support the actual sound of words. Or maybe heâs already unconscious, already gone, and thereâs nothing she can do anyway just like with Asumu.
A boy she has seen grow up into a young man, even if he isnât her boy.
(somewhere, I think Kyrie does care for Battler - primarily due to seeing her reminisce on him growing up when Rudolf tells her the truth in twilight - but that is smothered and drowned out by the fact that she believes he has taken her sons place and the fact that he reminded her so much of Asumu.
Very much similar to her feelings for Ange, which are so nebulous she might not be able to parse them herself. Inside the catbox, Kyrie cares for Ange but views her as a tool, or she doesnât care, but acts as she does for efficiency and Angeâs sake nonetheless - which in some eyes could be an act of love and care.
She hates Battler and doesnât care for him at all, wouldnât hesitate to kill him. Or she hates Battler and cares for the boy she saw grow up anyway, and refuses to acknowledge it, and still wouldnât hesitate to kill unless you have something like the baby switch to throw in her face - and thatâs only if she believes there to be truth in the statement).
So maybe something else. That bone-deep ache of losing her own son. The thought that of Battler wants to join the dead so much, to just let him. Anger and envy and grief, mixing and sharpening and splicing open her heart.
Maybe Kyrie turns and leaves thinking not much else of it, for the sake of her own sanity.
Ange is young. She wonât remember much of Battler as she gets older, if Kyrie moves the photographs of him out of reach and she and Rudolf donât talk of him. It would make sense, to not want to talk about the tragic death of a teen - if they had just checked on him a little earlier, not left him alone.
A sad story for the press that would be eaten up.
Rudolf would find it a little more difficult to cope, but she was sure could do just the same with photographs to keep Battler out of mind when in her house.
(As sure as Rudolf was that switching the babies would be fine, that Kyrie would recover quickly and was of stronger stuff than Asumu
As though police wouldnât list Battlerâs death as suspicious and look into his background. If Battler had life insurance (because parents can set up life insurance for their kid), thatâs suspicious with a lawsuit over Rudolfâs head. Itâs suspicious that Kyrie was supposed to check on her stepson and didnât find him.
As if it might not come to light during that investigation that Rudolf switched the babies.
That, ultimately, even if no one else knew, Kyrie left her own son to drown in his grief).
Still⌠heâs shrouded with dozens of other things - Rudolfâs old shirt, drawings from AngeâŚ.
Assuming Kyrie doesnât do a heel-turn from whatever emotion when she sees Winnifred next to Battler:
Naturally, Kyrieâs first thought would be to logically breakdown the aftermath of if she left Battler to die.
I love too much your thought of Rudolf always being a bit leery about Kyrieâs absence from work on the day of Asumuâs death. That potential âwhat ifâ which could come back around to haunt her if she didnât get Battler the help he desperately needed right away.
(In all likelihood, considering she was pregnant with Ange, she might have had a gynecologist appointment or something that day - which very much could be an alibi as much as dooming motif for murder).
Thatâs also to say, much as Rudolf likely underestimated the grief that Kyrie would go through when he switched his sons, Kyrie literally canât afford to underestimate the grief that Rudolf would go through if Battler were to die at this point in time.
Rudolf loves his son. Thereâs no two ways about it.
He loves his son. It would, perhaps not destroy him if Battler were to die, maybe heâd even view it as a sign from the universe that he wasnât supposed to return to the Ushiromiya family, or a blessing in disguise, and heâd bury his grief under all of that -
But he would still grieve.
Grieving does funny things to the human mind. It throws your carefully balanced plans out of equilibrium, and new plans have to be drawn up if you canât stabilize them.
Rudolfâs grief would be a major weak point at the conference. With so much money on the line, and the company lawsuit (does Kyrie know about it at this point?), no one can afford to hold back any jabs they can make at their siblings (spec. Krauss, in this case).
(I do genuinely think Kyrie would still massively underestimate the amount of grief that Rudolf would have and display if Battler died, but without her Winnifred Crow induced emotions leading her to leave before she actually strangles Battler or something, she can more concisely consider Rudolf + Angeâs reactions
Because Battler isnât an Ushiromiya at this point in time, itâs a question of whether or not she thinks the conference would actually be postponed and canceled. And whether or not they would go. After all, itâs not like the family tried to keep in contact with Battler after he left and vice-versa, though Battler was grieving. Kyrie will not acknowledge miss Battler, and due to lack of close contact with the rest of the family, fairly reasonable that there will be some shock, but not much mourning on the part of the other Ushiromiya.
Home deaths in Japan generally result in an administrative autopsy (external examination) by police as no physician was present at the time of death and the cause is technically unknown. If death canât be ascertained by external examination, then a judicial autopsy is performed (internal) which can take anywhere from a half a day (administrative) to several (judicial).
The conference would take Rudolfâs mind off the thought that his son was laid out in a morgue or coronerâs office somewhere, maybe even going under the scalpel.)
Thatâs not touching on Angeâs reaction:
Ange, who so deeply loves her brother. In all likelihood, considering canon, I donât think Ange would forget Batter - even if Kyrie and Rudolf didnât talk about him, and Kyrie removed his pictures and the like and placed them into storage. Ange could still find the pictures, or hide drawings she had made of Battler for her own keeping.
Even if she eventually forgot the sound of his voice or his face or the feel of his hand stroking her head, Ange wouldnât forget Battler.
Sheâd be heartbroken when she understood that when someone âpassed awayâ, they werenât able to come back. At six years old, itâs questionable whether or not sheâd fully grasp what death was except: it had made her brother sad.
Sad enough, in this AU, to even possibly kill him.
So I do think that she would follow in Battlerâs footsteps. However, instead of a plushie - it would be the hair ties he won her from that gachapon machine.
Kyrie with prince imagery saving battler is so funny, because usually itâs Battler who is designated Prince/knight.
The thought of her bolstering her standing in Rudolfâs eyes by saving Battlerâs life - cementing her place (reassuring herself) in the family, her familyâs happiness, which in turn will keep Rudolf firmly tethered to her.
Battler would hide his grief for Angeâs sake, he would help Kyrie around the house to try and be respectful, and also because heâs next oldest and the house and doesnât want to be like his dad (who, due to long work hours + affair didnât really help Asumu around the house), but again -
I think Kyrieâs biases towards Battler, taking his cheerful and goofball facade at almost face value, his fear of vehicles like Asumu, and how they color her chessboard thinking, is leading her to severely underestimate how seriously Battler takes things - especially pertaining to family - and how long it would take for Battler to recover from his grief when - six years later - he still hasnât recovered from losing Asumu.
âWouldn't that make Battler all the more grateful and obedient as a piece once he does pull himself together? The reason he will still be among the living and not have ruined his father or his sister's happiness.
So many future arguments with Rudolf or Ange would become so much easier with another voice echoing her own. A reliable teenager to take care of Ange and the house would allow Kyrie to resume working full-time and have a better eye on Rudolf's business.
The many possibilities of what she could bring Asumu's son back to life as are numerous indeed and everything depends on Kyrie's decision.
This. This entire paragraph. I find it so interesting.
Kyrieâs assumption that Battler will recover from his grief, will be able to move on, instead of - as in canon - just using bluff and bluster to hide the fact that he very much is grieving from others.
Her firm belief that he will - or she can lead him to - be on her side in household arguments, out of gratitude for the fact that she saved his life (and totally not because he had already grown to respect her in the past, though not her choice of men - which genuinely makes me wonder if Battler knew that Rudolf was cheating on Kyrie, which I think he was? There was that one short in the manga where Kyrie caught him on the phone flirting with someone).
Even if Battlerâs a mediocre replacement for Winnifred, heâs still a teen that Kyrie views as reliable when it comes to helping around the house (oh, the subtle and unintentional parentification).
The many possibilities of what she could bring Asumuâs son back to life and my brain immediately went to the concept that, in a way, ârevivingâ Winnifred through Battler.
And it all depends on Kyrieâs choice, playing the hand of god in a life-or-death matter.
That last statement of Battlerâs eyes seeing through her, thoughâŚis Battler actually conscious and watching Kyrie?
(Iâm also still thinking of the concept of her walking in on Battler already dead, and then the choice is either making the call to police, hospital, and Rudolf or leaving his body there to rot).
The siblings having feelingsTM about Battler ressembling their dad in his youth(Battler snapping at Rudolf in 1980 for the cheating giving Rudolf Kinzo scolding flashbacks) has me wondering if the choice of the white suit from a watsonian pov was Battler unconciously picking the same color as Kinzo and Rudolf thinking it was too funny to pass up. Or Rudolf trying to assert the validity of Battler's abrupt return to the register by highlighting the family ressemblance without telling his son and also the power play would spice up the inheritance arguments.
(not even accounting for any Kinzo is dead theories and ep5-like schemes, with or without Battler being in the know, kinda paint the white suit as a suggestion of repeating history by making him a puppet heir. Or at least as a possible replacement without the financial agency to fight back long term, who might even cooperate at first for Ange or his cousins' financial safety if told it wouldnt last only for the end to constantly be pushed back)
Rudolf having flashbacks would almost be comical, except for Kinzo being massively abusive and emotionally neglectful towards all of his kids. Both the possibility of Battler unconsciously picking a white suit, and Rudolf plotting him to wear it because of his resemblance to Kinzo are brilliant ideas.
Welcome to the Ushiromiya household, where kids become weapons in the psychological warfare between siblings (and against themselves) for the price of hundreds of millions of dollars (billions of yen).
Puppet Heir BattlerâŚcaught on strings for his love of baby sister and cousinsâŚ.and the cycle repeats, embezzlement included.
I keep thinking of your Akinaka on Rokkenjima post, wherein Battler is still grieving over his grandparents, fallen into a depressive state and, applying this to Battlerâs physical resemblance of Kinzo -
Akinaka on Rokkenjima, to some degree, acts like him as well - at least considering the apathy in regards to his own life. And this in turn, gets slightly amplified when - on Rokkenjima - heâs dressed in pale suits, still warmer than Kinzoâs pure white suit that he favored in later years, but still pale in color.
There are still differences between them - Battler doesnât drown himself in alcohol (minor) or turn to physical abuse of others, and thereâs still the underlying warmth of affection he has for his family, whereas Kinzo was indifferent to them - but the apathy in regards to his own well-being tints all other behaviors, leaves him more recalcitrant and taciturn (Kanon-est, as you put it) which has the potential of Battler saying or doing something in an eerily similar manner to Kinzo.
(In Turn, after the murders and the resignation of Battler in purgatorio, we do see gameboard Battler start drinking like itâs the end of the world, which I do think is a parallel to Kinzoâs alcoholism, as much as the fact he thinks theyâre all dead no matter what, but those are under extenuating circumstances.
Would be interesting though, to examine Battler under the lens that his throwaway line about drinking practice being true to some degree - even if he uses it as a light hearted joke. Many people do drink to cope with grief, though Iâm not sure how widespread underage drinking is in Japan.)
Which also leads me to my headcanon that Battler already has gray hairs from the grief heâs gone through, which he dyes to cover up, and when his hair is undyed, it makes him resemble Kinzo even more.
In an Akinaka on Rokkenjima case, where everyone (including Batter himself) gets two weeks notice that he will be crash landing on Rokkenjima for the conference, itâs a question of whether or not heâd bother to dye his hair back to its original color for the conference.
(Not sure if Batter would be genetically disposed to it, though. When we see young Kinzoâs sprite, he has gray hair - but this presumably represents Kinzo in his 40s, and most people begin to gray by then + Kinzo felt emotionally stunted at the age he became family head (20s) which is why he appears around Battler age, but age is hard to parse on Umineko sprites unless you count the elderly cast, and Will and Lion are still actually talking to 80+ Kinzo, which may also influence his youthful appearance.
My headcanon is that Kinzo began going gray in his 20s, if not from genetics, then from grief caused by the earthquake, but canonically I donât think we ever get an answer).
All this to say, you have an Akinaka Battler who looks and somewhat behaves eerily similar to the Ushiromiya Kinzo of decades past, and the idea amuses me greatly as much as it may traumatize - everyone else.
(I am now thinking of how Kinzo would react to seeing Battler like that - as well as how all of Battlerâs grandparents, unnamed Grandmama Ushiromiya included who knew 20âs Kinzo, would react).
Still haunted(affectionate) by Beatrice managing to break the Prime AU stand off with Kyrie by using the baby switch reveal and Battler internalizing the idea of Ange and his bio mom having died because of him. That moment when you realize you have a second mom and ten seconds later she dies in front of you.
Consider this fullUmineko Spoilers. Both in the ask above and the post below, so Iâm making this huge - please look at the warning first.
Battler and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.
Heâs been awake since 10:00 AM the previous day at least, and now itâs 1:30 AM the next day - at least when Beatrice regained consciousness (manga-wise), so probably even later than that - maybe 1:45-2:00 AM.
Thatâs a total of 15.5 hours of no sleep at least, unless he took a nap off-screen/panel. Then he keeps finding the dead bodies of everyone on the island (except Kinzo, Shannon, and Kanon), none of their parents except for Aunt Eva, until he finds only his baby sister alive, and then gets found by a wounded Beatrice.
Not only that, but the lurking suspicion that his bio mom was the one who killed the rest of the family and staff (-2), in some cases extremely gruesomely (Jessica), because Ange is still alive and yet he canât find her, even if they get near the chapel and he finds his dad and George.
Kyrieâs culpability which is confirmed in that moment because it is a sawed-off shotgun showdown between her and Beatrice with a handgun, and she might have tried to shoot him too.
(Considering Battler is about the same height as Rudolf, I kind of wonder if in the rain and darkness, even well aware that Rudolf was dead, Kyrie thought it was him.
A more fucked up thought is that, from a distance, he reminds each of the adults of Kinzo as well. His face is far more youthful, considering Kinzo was likely in his 30-40s when Krauss, Eva, and Rudolf was born and his 50s with Rosa, but their builds are similar - and maybe they even saw pictures of Kinzo when he was younger.
Genji, who knew Kinzo from childhood and was the first person to remark on Battlerâs similarities to his grandfather, as much as time and other genetics in the mix also make for distinct differences, probably gets screwed up even worse but doesnât let it show. I have thoughts on Battler + Ange facial features because I would love to draw them, but thatâs for a difference post at a different time).
Itâs almost a mirror of Banquet, when Eva shoots Batter in the chest - he has pieces of the puzzle as to who is killing everyone, working through it as much as, in the first and second episodes, he also strives to deny the culpability of the people he cares for in such crimes.
And his sister is also there, getting traumatized as well.
Something something Kings of Lucis + Oracles get fevers from ascending to the throne or title/influx of power, but this can also happen in times of great emotional upset.
Something something Altissia, crystalline tree of fire and light, spectral dragons, sun goddesses, and the total disintegration of a rogue Diamond Weapon.
