at some point everyone gains a human-name "alias" because ik was talking to/about one of them in front of a regular person and panicked about using their actual names, and then everyone ended up getting one. these are, respectively:
"lu— uhhh, louis—"
"no this for ma.... matt"
levi gets a pass bc his nickname's not a terribly unusual name, but at some point he felt left out and wanted his own alias: "okay then you're hmm.... lennon?"
"wait, sa— am, sam, come take a look at this"
"you could be ash?" (asmo thought ahead and got his human name sorted first)
"they're twins, actually, that one's.......... bert...... and that one's..... benjie"
"hi, sorry, i've lost my friend, could you do an announcement for, um... dan?" (diavolo wandered off inside a massive supermarket)
"oh yeah this is my uncle barr..... barty"
simeon, solomon and luke all also get passes because they're normal enough sounding names, but like levi they wanted aliases anyway: "okay then" (pointing) "simon, sebastian and leo"
then simeon protested that simon is too close to his real name so "FINE, you're seth"
thirteen already has her own alias that she operates under if needed to in the human world ("adel" - she spent a lot of time in europe)
raphael would rather just go by "raph" than have an alias, but inevitably people mishear it as "ralph" anyway
om mephistopheles is very against being given an alias but he gets one anyway, and it is "phil", (mephistopheles) which he hates but has to respond to so as not to arouse suspicion
the newspaper club did their research ahead of time and picked their own aliases: lee (mephisto), roman (astaroth), winnie (wiz) and alex (alecto)
How did the characters feel about carrying newborn baby IK? Especially Lucifer.
it's overwhelmed tears all the way down (half joking)
i think you've got one camp of characters who are so so excited (diavolo, mammon, asmo, belphie but he won't admit it, solomon), another of characters who are so so scared (levi, raphael, thirteen, satan), and then another of characters who are at peace and have possibly achieved nirvana (beel, barbatos, simeon, mephistopheles). and then there is lucifer, who is having some kind of transcendental dad experience that changes him irreversibly
some highlights
belphie pretends that it's no big deal but is there in 0.1 seconds when asked to hold her, and refuses to pass her to anyone else for at least an hour
thirteen basically turns to stone when she is given the baby and only loosens up after about five tries, but after that she's lugging her around like a careless father
as soon as they give her to barbatos everyone gets hit by this distinct feeling that they're never getting her back. barbatos smiles threateningly at anyone who looks like they want to swap with him and at this point will only give in to lucifer or zhao
solomon has the biggest grin on his face the entire time and is also number one peekaboo player
levi also tears up as soon she cries and has had to be sent to his room to calm down on one occasion
lucifer always goes quiet in a way that's a little terrifying (this kind of serenity on him is usually only a front for extreme anger) but the look on his face is kind of beautiful. he's practically glowing
quite a long post ahead! i've done my best to format this so that it's readable. for this purpose i am even going to adhere to the full rules of SPaG in a tumblr post (rare)
Contents:
The timeline
Loose background/lore
Where are they now?!?! (Characters)
Relationships (short)
The wider timeline (and what went on in between)
IDO Future and Nightbringer are divergent futures for JTTA. In a timeline where NB happens, IDO doesn't follow; in IDO Future, Nightbringer didn't happen. (This is because the events of NB would shake up the development of things enough that things don't progress into IDO in the same way. That stuff does things to a kid's head.)
IDO Future is essentially one where the story went from the OG game to NB S3 - i.e. no time travel - and then timeskipped into IDO. This doesn't necessarily mean that there are direct JTTA analogues for all of OM S2-S4 like there was for S1.
The OM S2-S4 and NB S3 events are also sort of combined over a wider time scale - multiple years - rather than being three distinct chapters in the timeline.
This covers (but is not limited to): A second exchange year at the R.A.D., the three-worlds imbalance (Lucifer amnesia arc), Raphael+Thirteen+Mephistopheles' arrival in the Devildom and subsequent development, IK's biological + adopted dads getting together, the human world vacation arc, and the moon going haywire.
Simeon's brief soft-exile from the Celestial Realm did occur (he still steals the Ring of Light, after all), but his change into a demon doesn't. (Half for the sake of the setting, half because I do think the demon-turning was at least partly because of the whole being-in-love-with-MC thing)
IK part-times the second exchange year, since she also has human world schooling to be doing and Solomon has threatened to wallop everyone involved if she fails her GCSEs and/or A-Levels because of them
A lot of the non-AU pop quizzes are included in the timeline and within the time-skip to IDO as well. (The only relevant one to these notes is that wedding festival one.)
IDO Future takes place somewhere around 14 years after JTTA ended.
Story beats from IDO will be adopted very loosely, mostly from Lucifer's route since... y'know, him and Zhao. (Most of my notes are just about the setting, actually, so this doesn't matter too much)
Background
RAD
The way the exchange program works has been overhauled. Diavolo has finally realised the logical errors in his plans and is now being much more sensible about it!!!
Currently, applications are open for roughly fifty additional students per year. Most of these students are sorcerers/witches from the human world, a small percentage of reapers, and an even smaller percentage of angels.
The aim is to establish a steady student population of witches/sorcerers - humans who adapt more easily to the Devildom - before beginning to bring in more non-magic ordinary people like IK. Since the whole 'giving the human to the student council to babysit' isn't really the sort of set-up that can be repeated
Studying and certification for non-magic humans will be a separate system from the main one, and it's currently still being fine-tuned.
Diavolo has set up a new Inter-Realm Communications department at RAD to aid with development.
World
Sonno's brief re-emergence during JTTA has had some slow butterfly effects. Mainly, demons are beginning to become restless about his absence. While no one knows he reappeared, even if only in dreams and reflections, his power is such that his influence was felt subconsciously across the Devildom.
More modern-minded demons are beginning to whisper that Diavolo really ought to just take the throne soon. The more traditional ones are still stung by his open acceptance of angels and humans in the Devildom, and would much rather Sonno return to rule.
Sonno has been silent since that incident. There isn't really any way to check on him - Archaic Pit, guarding enchantments, you get erased from time itself if you get caught, etc. - and Diavolo has been tentatively making adjustments to policies, organisation, etc.
House Clauderic (as seen in Lucifer's route) was greatly favoured by Sonno during his rule, but mostly faded into obscurity after his departure. Recently - thanks to the old bat's influence - their resent as to their fall (both socially and politically) has been building. They may or may not be about to make some big moves about it
(Note: family names aren't really a thing in the Devildom. However, in the past, a lot of nobles followed Sonno's example and adopted monikers to act under to prevent enemies from using their true names against them. Noble families are generally referred to by the name of its head, and Clauderic is the false name chosen by this family's patriarch. (This is sort of also why the brothers are always referred to as "Lucifer and his brothers". Since he's the head of the family, his name becomes the family name. The "House [Blank]" format is reserved for 'pureblood' noble families, though.)
The Celestial Realm has seen some recent shifts in rhetoric and organisation. It's still very reluctant to deal with the Devildom, but rules around angels visiting the human world have relaxed even more, and many angels are doing so for the purposes of learning about it.
The Celestial Father (i.e. God) has been very quiet recently. This may or may not have something to do with Sonno appearing to have gone dormant.
Remember the lore about how the Devildom's stars are placed in the sky layer by the current monarch? It turns out that that this firmament is actually laid on top of a true sky with its own natural stars - discovered for the first time following the whole Moon Incident. The first rulers of the Devildom were just so vain and convinced of their own power and glory that they thought their own sky would be better, and over-wrote an entire layer of Hell because of it.
There has been a recent shift in how reapers organise and interact with the human world in specific. Their practices previously hadn't changed since, like, the Bronze Age. New reaper code of conduct is adapted more to the way human society runs now, and involves a lot more personal excursions there.
How Everyone's Doing
Yi Family
IK returned to the RAD periodically on a part-time basis, with an accelerated program so that she could just focus on the subjects she could actually do rather than just sit and listen to magic theory. Diavolo gave her an honorary diploma around the same time that she graduated from human-world university.
In the human world, she studied a degree in zoology with marine biology, spent a few years doing field research, and considered pursuing a doctorate but ultimately opted not to. She currently splits her time between part-time work in the human world (guest lectures; tutoring) and as a junior staff member at the RAD, undertaking research and teaching in Creature Studies under Professor Elderflower.
The new system being built for non-magic humans is based on her study track. She's also the lead officer for the Inter-Realm Communications department.
Zhaoxi was invited to study medicinal herbs and potions at the RAD while IK was away at university, and has a position as a medic/pharmacist. He spends most of his time in the Devildom these days, but he still goes back to the human world often. He's still not very good at gardening, but he's very slowly turning the HoL's garden into a small jungle.
The shadow that he ran away to England to get away from has mostly been diminished. This may or may not be thanks to some strings pulled with the Sorcerer's Society, courtesy of a certain friend. He lost employment during the Year Where Everything Sucked For Him (i.e. the first exchange year), and it took some time for him to properly fresh-start, but he TA'd for a few years before his relationship led to integrating more into the Devildom.
The Brothers
These guys have technically had sufficient credits to graduate from the RAD for ages now (Lucifer hadn't actually attended any classes in years and years - he was mostly just doing organisational work). So, when IK received her degree and honorary RAD diploma, they all figured they might as well move onto the next chapter as well.
Since they're no longer students, the Student Council has elected new officers.
Lucifer currently holds an administrative position for the RAD, and he also does additional odd work for Diavolo. He doesn't have a formal government title or position, but it's fairly well known across the Devildom that he's basically second-in-command.
Mammon has done various announcer and presenter jobs (incl. the fight ring gig from the IDO game) and is involved in a lot of entertainment in general - competitions, quiz shows, similar. He also models on a commission basis, although he doesn't do it too often because he finds the whole ordeal stuffy.
Levi has published his first light novel - under a pen name - but still hesitates to call himself an author. He's currently still trying to find the inspiration for the next book. In the interim, he's taken up streaming (behind a dragon VTuber model). (Whenever he makes appearances as the author, he wears a snake mascot mask over his head. Most fans are aware that the dragon and the snake are the same guy, though.)
Satan is the head curator of the RAD's library (which has seen significant expansion under his management), and also acts as primary advisor to the Student Council. He likes to sit in on classes for new courses of interest. (He's also a seasonal part-timer at a cat cafe on IK's workplace campus.) (Yes, she helped him get the job.)
Asmo did a lot of lifestyle/beauty social media stuff, brand deals, etc., then began getting offers to act in small dramas and sort of built up an acting career from there. He ended up moving away from the high-visibility celebrity stuff and has been funding and appearing in more independent film projects.
Beel bounced between part-time busywork for a time, but developed an interest in creatures after IK and Elderflower enlisted his help in a rescue operation. More recently he's been working with them on establishing wildlife sanctuaries and habitat re-development in the wider Devildom.
Belphie apprenticed under RAD's Prof. Bune (astrology) for a while and took up some hobbies in divination on the side. Currently, his main interest is in mapping and navigating the true sky, and he funds this through a side-hustle in fortune-telling. (Fortune-telling is a little controversial, given that any demon can study divination magic, but it's notoriously finicky; superstitious demons with deep pockets often pay a lot for consultation.)
Purgatrio
All three retroactively were given honorary diplomas from the RAD for their first exchange year, but the angels in particular have only been able to attend sparsely.
Simeon was eventually allowed out of his soft-exile and even re-offered seraph status. This was a ploy to regain control of him, and of this he was fully aware, but accepted anyway. He's been using the position since to ve-e-e-e-ry gradually enact change. He has to be cautious though - many angels distrust him following his perceived lapses of faith, but slowly and steadily he's been able to shift opinions and viewpoints.
Luke grew up alongside IK (quirks of angelic development) and currently ranks about two tiers below seraph; he acts as a 'sanctifier' who maintains order, which these days involves getting to visit the human world to clear up magical anomalies often. He apprenticed briefly under Solomon for this before realising that Solomon is often the source of said magical anomalies.
Solomon travels often, flitting between the human world and the Devildom, undertaking his own research and occasionally completing odd jobs for the Sorcerer's Society. He tutors at the RAD occasionally, and is also the human representative for the Inter-Realm Communications department.
Royals
Diavolo has had a pretty big step-up in terms of management and taking charge recently, and he has his work cut out for him. He's becoming increasingly aware that he needs to make a big move soon, but he doesn't quite dare claim the throne yet. At the very least, he's done a lot of re-organisation and initiative that looks very promising for the future... the paperwork is neverending
Barbatos has shifted away a little from butler-work - although his main objective is still to make sure Diavolo doesn't collapse under the weight of everything he's trying to achieve. He works with Mephisto in establishing connections with ancient demons on the fringes of the Devildom - old chronodae, nobles who left after Sonno's departure, etc.
Newspaper Club
These four opted to graduate together soon after the brothers did. None of them had actually realised that was an option, somehow.
They still have their satire paper, which now publishes Devildom-wide instead of being only a school newspaper. Issues are sparser than their school days, though.
Many of the others guest-write for it. Satan is the most frequent contributor, under the pseudonym "Mr Tabby". (Everyone at the RAD knows it's him.)
Wiz works at the RAD part-time, teaching on the Curse-Breaking and some specialised magic courses. Her main job is as an artifact hunter, which involves a lot of expeditions into ancient grounds as well as forays into the human world. Her research and experiments are both dubious and dangerous, but she's having the time of her life
Astaroth does commission work from home as a composer, and is also Belphie's research partner. Specifically he acts as the 'astral navigator' who explores and finds the new stars, which Belphie then maps.
Alecto trains the demons at the same fight ring that Mammon announces for, makes sure everything's up-to-code and organised using her previous experience in illegal cage-fighting. She's Wiz's extra security and helping hand during her expeditions, and also frequently does 'favours' for the RAD.
Mephisto works with Barbatos; he deals more with the chronodae and fell-out-of-society types, since the estranged nobles typically remember him as Sonno's dirty-work agent and don't particularly respect him. He also travels with Solomon on his research expeditions.
The beautiful polycule <3
I've decided that they're canon to JTTA now and you cannot stop me
Thirteen is still technically a student; since she's out of the Devildom more often and also frequently skips class, she doesn't have the credits to graduate. She only studies part-time thanks to the shift in reaper duty. She's also the (reluctant) reaper representative in the Inter-Realm Communications Department.
Raphael hasn't graduated either. Following events involving Simeon's soft-exile and subsequent return to the Celestial Realm, he resigned from his position as seraph. He's spent some time traveling in the human world with Thirteen and attending the RAD.
Mephistopheles graduated around the same time as the Newspaper Club and inherited a military title thanks to noble tradition - though it's mostly accessory. He sponsors the club's satire paper, and is also the supervisor for the Devildom's actual newspaper (which is a little controversial to some.) He's also a benefactor of the Devildom Zoo and various creature rescues, and helps manage research funding for the RAD.
Relationships (very brief overview)
Wiz and Alecto were formally married under Devildom law soon after graduating. (Side note: I think Devildom marriage customs ought to vary a lot from human ones and I definitely want to elaborate on that some time)
Belphie and Astaroth have been dating for a while. Neither's really floated the idea of marriage, but they're very happy.
Thirteen, Mephistopheles and Raphael have never really announced anything, but everyone with eyes knows what they've got going on
Zhao and Lucifer are basically married in all forms but legal. (They had that ceremony during the wedding festival, after all, which basically everyone considers to have been the real thing. Consequently neither has really considered the whole demon-marriage-rules thing because as far as they're concerned they've been married)
Solomon and Mephisto are doing the world's stupidest dance around each other and refuse to declare any kind of official-ness or exclusivity despite functionally doing that already. (On their timescale, over a decade really isn't that long for a situationship to last)
I'm not sure if this has ever been asked before but what does Aunt Lisa think of the brothers + the side characters??
the short of it is that she's positive to positive-leaning on most of them, with a few exceptions. ahem:
lisa hates lucifer. she cannot stand his personality OR face OR fashion sense. at first it was more to do with his involvement in ik disappearing for a year, but separately from that, she also decided that she didn't like him anyway. she is the biggest hater. she looks away whenever he does anything that makes her feel good-will towards him
she's often irritated by mammon's antics but equally endeared. as much as he says and does dumb things, he also adores and dotes on her dearest niece, which is big points in his favour - and she has a soft spot for the "well-meaning idiot" archetype anyway. she's also a big fan of crows, which helps his standing a lot
levi is really intimidated by her so he's usually hiding from/avoiding talking to her, and when he has to he tries to be very polite. lisa thinks he's a bit of a wuss but in a sweet way, so she generally tries to put him at ease - but she equally doesn't know how to talk to him, so they don't interact much
she gets along well with satan; they have similar dry senses of humour, she respects his taste in literature, he admires her eye for poetry, and they both like cats a lot. they have chats over tea every now and then (and of course satan takes glee in her clear and open dislike of lucifer)
really doesn't know what to make of asmo. she appreciates his taste in cosmetics, but she's less wowed by his fashion sense and is also inherently suspicious of flirtatious men - though she starts bouncing back some flirting as banter when it becomes clear that asmo's just Like That
beel is polite, appreciates her amateur baking, and helps with heavy lifting in the garden when asked. very nice young man, 10/10, the only real con is that sometimes he eats the flowers he's supposed to be helping tend. she also thinks he's a lot smarter than other people (including himself) give him credit for
she finds belphie a little shady for reasons she can't quite put her finger on, and she gets pretty annoyed when he plays up the baby brother thing because 'okay? you're a grown ass man' - but she does begrudgingly find his "teasing big brother who is clearly SO fond" thing cute. offered to let him sleep in a casket once
very very little patience for diavolo. partially because lisa hates all royalty on principle, but also diavolo's mixture of jolliness, occasional obliviousness, and occasional bumbling attitude to things that are really quite serious - all blends together into a kind of person that she just gets irritated by
inherently understands barbatos is kind of beyond her understanding but thinks he's a bit of a doormat nevertheless. she can't quite take him being a butler seriously. enjoys chatting with him on occasion, but standing next to him for too long starts making her feel self conscious about tidiness, which she doesn't like
finds simeon quite charming, enjoys entertaining his questions about human world things as well as hearing about the celestial realm. isn't aware of simeon's part in the celestial war, of course, but can sort of sense that he was a bystander in something or another, which does make her look at him a certain way sometimes
luke gets the standard "kid who is friends with my niece" treatment. awkward hospitality and some attempts at small talk, offers of juice and biscuits. luke also has quite a lot of big questions about human mortality which lisa is delighed to answer
she considers solomon to her is 'one of the mums', metaphorically speaking. facebook friends. their conversations are friendly, oftentimes gossipy, and they go to the pub sometimes - but there's definitely a wall up in front of anything too 'personal' for both of them
Wait actually, did they all start doing that on their own or was it a trend that Lucifer started?
i reckon it's a mix of both! lucifer started doing it first, mammon did the same some time later, and then solomon started doing it as a part of a joke he made to ik. simeon saw solomon's wallet, thought it was sweet, and started doing the same (he also added a photo of luke)
diavolo and satan both got the idea from lucifer (diavolo thought it would be fun, satan took it as a challenge), and then barbatos copied diavolo. around that time asmo also got a really cute polaroid of ik that he decided to keep on him, which he showed off to the twins, who managed to independently choose the same photo to keep in their own wallets
luke decides to copy simeon because he thinks it'd be funny. then (if the s4 trio is involved) raphael gets in on the joke, and of course mephistopheles sees diavolo's wallet and imitates him. thirteen steals solomon's wallet as some point and decides to steal his picture, which he later replaces
it isn't until that moment with the inspector that everyone finds out that literally everyone else also has a photo in their wallet, because they were under the impression only they (and the person they were copying, if that applies to them) had it. both ik and the inspector just have to stare at each other awkwardly as the others fall about laughing, then start critiquing each other's chosen pictures
if u ask ik who her favourite friend was she'd be like "oh no i can't choose D:" meanwhile if u ask literally anyone else they would all say "ik" immediately and i think that's beautiful
