#cold casement

[coldcasement]

So! It's a crumbled paper ball, based on the design of "the culprit"* from Detective Conan. But this is just a suspect, so one will have to observe their behavior and use acts to see if they're innocent or guilty of a "crime". Then you can spare them! Here are the designs for the innocent and guilty forms.

*For those who don't know, its a design to show details of how the crime was committed, but not to reveal which of the suspects committed the crime. Danganronpa also does a similar thing in the case summary part of trials.

For their Light World objects, the innocent Suspeculiar is a receipt for something Asgore likes and wanted to buy, like a new watering can or special fertilizer. Their paper ball is super light, since it's not weighed down by guilt. And since it's "morally good" it also has a flower motif, since Asgore likes flowers.

But the guilty Suspeculiar is payed bill or taxes in the Light World. Guilty Suspeculiar are reluctant thieves, they feel remorse for "stealing Asgore and Carol's money" but they must do it. This reflects Asgore's view on bills, they're hurting his situation and he hates paying them, but he knows he must and they're probably financing the larger infrastructure to provide electricity, water and stuff. Their paper ball is heavy, and they roll it like Sisyphus/dung beetle. They also have a bit of an aphid motif, since those hurt flowers. Oh yes!! also their hands are cuz "they're caught red handed".

(Pun name explanation: Suspect + peculiar + liar)

[coldcasement]

It's the intro mini-boss battle! An encounter against Hintoree and Kluedo, two darkners obsessed with mystery. Hintoree claims they're bitter rivals competing to see who's the best detective, but Kluedo says he's just a lone investigator with an unwanted tag-along. (name origins/pun explanation + teasers for larger role in cold casement story below the poll)

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE! ...or at least there would be if I had completed the more. I've had difficulty putting things together the way I wanted to, and the last few weeks I've only been able to finish the results of the weekly polls and not had the motivation to push myself to work much on other things regarding Cold Casement. I've got a lot of stuff 60-80% there, but those last bits have been vexing me.

So! To remedy this I wanna do a poll to motivate me to finish the things I've worked on to show off my ideas regarding these two! Since polls help me get things done, and splitting stuff up into more manageable chunks helps too.

Here we go. Splitting it up into stages so I can focus on finishing one of these aspects at a time! You'll get to see them all eventually, but I wanna keep things a bit varied, since that's fun for me.

Which of these do want to see expanded on first, regarding the battle against Kluedo and Hintoree?

Dialogue (pre-battle dialouge + some flavor text & in-battle dialouge)

Acts (Including check & S-action & R-action + tiny bit of flavor text)

How to spare + attacks (+tiny bit of info on acts & dialouge)

Voting ended onOct 18, 2025

Name origins/pun explanation: (since pun-name explainations are apparently a part of my presentations now...) Kluedo: Kudo with some letters added, the word clue and "Kluedo" is also a version of the title for the board game Cluedo/Clue. Hintoree: Hattori with more letters and vowels changed (I think it still has the same rhythm though), the word hint and also "jamboree" because I distinctly remember playing a mystery/hidden role board game that had "jamboree" in the title as a kid, but I can't really find anything about it now? It's the case of the mysterious disappearance of the mystery board game! The names are both based on the characters last names, since the two call each other by their last names in the source material. (In various translations them calling each other by their first names is more common, personally that decreases my immersion when it happens lol)

Teaser about the role in the larger story: Kluedo and Hintoree are major re-occurring characters in Cold Casement. Think about the size of the parts of Berdly in chapter 2 or Elnina and Lanino in chapter 3. Things will focus on their rivalry/admiration for each other that they both don't want to admit they have. Their dynamic will evolve over time as Kris, Susie and Ralsei make their way across the Dark World.

I just want to explore that aspect, since in canon they become friends (begrudgingly in the case of Conan) by the end of the second case they have together and we only get some slight returns of their rivalry at times. Which I do like! I like their friendship, their canon dynamic is probably a lot of why I return to Detective Conan again and again. (Might be because the first random episode I caught on TV as a kid was an episode of them working together?) But because we only get a brief stint before they officially become allies, I want to explore that because it's an interesting hypothetical to me! I don't know how common this kinda character dynamic is in other fiction, I tend to fixate on pieces of media for months before moving on to something else so my width of experience isn't wide, haha.

Also yeah! I'll be writing like 95% of all character dynamics in Cold Casement with platonic bonds, including these two. I don't have anything against shipping though, so if you want to interpret stuff that way I don't mind. It's all fiction and meant to be fun, so if you have fun seeing things that way go ahead! I'm just letting you know what kinda writing you'll see from me :D.

[coldcasement]

So! They're... Nothing? ...Nah. They're resealable bags, like the things you put evidence in. See below

Here's where I draw the parallel; one often focuses on the evidence inside the bag and overlooks the bag itself (vital for handling evidence), like when in a detective/cop-focused stories, one focuses on the evidence itself and overlooks the forensics personnel responsible for gathering that evidence. Or one just makes the investigator of the story find the evidence, that forensic personnel might have to find in real life.

(And don't get me wrong! That is usually the right call for investigation-stories, focusing the attention on the main character to get you centered on them and the investigation in a more focused way, without all the different kinds of professionals who take part in real crime investigations. But it still makes me a bit sad, cuz some forensic science is really cool.)

So, I've decided to make this darkner! At the start of a battle, you can't see them well at all, but you need to use ACTs to reveal them to spare them.

Their name doesn't even show up in the target selection menu before they're revealed. Which could cause a funny/interesting moment of a hypothetical player only realizing after they've spared the other enemies but the battle isn't won, that Konseald is there.

There are other ways to spare them, like ACTs of other enemies that give MERCY% to all enemies in a battle. Then I guess you could spare an unrevealed Konseald, if you wanna do that?

And if you spare* investigator-type enemies before Konseald, the acts to reveal them and spare them become more effective, kind of calling back to Migosp from Undertale, haha. But yeah, it's also to tie more into the theme of other types of characters in mystery fiction are in the spotlight more often.

(*or you could make them flee/lost if violent playthrough I guess.)

Also, I'm glad I've found some more stories with focus on forensic professionals or specific forensic sciences while making this project.

(Pun name explaination: Concealed + to seal -> cuz they're a resealable bag.

[coldcasement]

The areas of the Cold Casement

(Also yep, Cold Casement the Dark World’s in-universe name.)

Important note! This hinges on my theory about the interior basement door hidden in Asgore’s flower shop.

Lightworld-equivalent map-sketch:

(It's not layed out that way, it's just to get the journey across somewhat. Like projecting the globe onto a flat piece of paper, y'know? Not accurate, but useful.)

Area 1, Interior basement stairs [name undecided]: Like the purple cliffs at the start of chapter 3. Mostly to be ominous, enable dialogue and to introduce some small mechanics unique to the Dark World. The intro mini-boss fight takes place here. Kris, Susie and Ralsei have to move into area 2, because the rest of the way is blocked by gardening stuff.

Area 2, Corkboards [name undecided]: A major area, expansive with lots of puzzles. Uses climbing claw walls and strings as ziplines. Has lots of both vertical and horizontal movement. It's a messy city with lots of nooks, crannies and dead ends. You're encouraged to explore. You have to do some puzzles to progress, but there are a good amount of optional ones too. You encounter the mobile item shop pretty early on. The first puzzle-help shop is there too, and there is an NPC you encounter near each puzzle, which you can use to fast travel to the shop to get help. There's a shortcut door centrally somewhere here, it'll open up later. When you've reached around the end of the area, the mobile item shop will have moved here.

Area 3, Littered floor [name undecided]: A more linear area, but it has some optional stuff too. A lot of the stuff littered on the floor is car magazines. So it has a car chase/race, think a bit like roller coaster Berdly fight and driving queens car in chapter 2. There's a pitstop in the middle with some helpful optional stuff. Among other things, the mobile item shop has moved here for the time an being. You can also choose to battle the second miniboss here, which will affect the outcome of the car chase/race. A shortcut door will open in the pitstop area later, so you can come back there before you go to the final boss.

Area 4, Desk and drawers [name undecided]: Another major area and also has lots of puzzles. Area 2 and area 4 mirror each other, they're foils to one another. This area also has climbing sections, some ziplines but not as much. The drawers are the main climbing-mechanic expansion here, moving platforms that can help or hurt on the way to the top. It's also a bit more structured than area 2 in terms of layout, but still has that same exploration focus. At the beginning of this area is when you encounter the third mini-boss fight, which you have to get though to get to the rest of the area. Like area 2, you have to do some puzzles to progress, but there are optional ones. The second puzzle help shop is here, and it also has an associated fast travel character. You actually officially get introduced to them in area 3. There's a shortcut door centrally somewhere here, it'll open up later. The mobile item shop will also have two locations that it can show up in here.

Area 5, Exterior basement stairs [name undecided]: This area is more linear again. Doesn't have that much climbing mechanics, but you get to climb up vines to get up the steps. Each step up has a torch holder, that you can interact with. What happens depends on what puzzles you've solved. In the different areas there were certain puzzles that when you solved them, your reward was talking to a flower, about the size of Flowey that disappear into the ground after you talk to them. They say like one line of dialogue. The one's you've talked to appear again to fill one torch holder each. You've talked to enough flowers and filled each torch holder, you get access to the chamber that holds the final boss. If you don't you have to backtrack a bit (the shortcut doors open up now that you've reached this area) and solve some more puzzles. The one's that give you flowers are identified pretty quickly by there being some vines present in the puzzle rooms. (But you can also ask an NPC which puzzles specifically, if one doesn't wanna go check and stuff.) The beginning of this area is the final location where the mobile item shop shows up, so you can stock up on generic healing items before the final boss.

(Btw, just repeating it here cuz relevant: Content regarding the specific areas will be tagged with "area [1-5]" and later also with the area's names when I come up with them.)