Main AU (aka Present Timeline)
When I refer to my Main AU, I usually mean the time space between Volume 2 and 3. Vol 3 characters appear, but events from the previous have already happened. Although, I usually have both Crimsons featured unless I'm trying to be fully canonical. Of course, spoilers ahead
uhhh I guess this post is going to be a mix of fact dump, history lesson and lore?
Oh, for reference, I made a timeline at some point, accuracy is debatable
Let’s start with history/lore from the past/character backstories
Jimothy Red was born in Drakonia and grew up there until his early teens. He had an okay relationship with his parents, they weren’t great, but he loved them enough to be pretty upset when they were killed on Halloween (reason why he stopped liking it in the future), along with other kids in the area cuz “no witnesses”. So he reported the situation to the Iron Tsar as manslaughter, just to be hit with “Yeah so, your parents were against me and I didn’t like that so I hired people to kill them.” Jimmy was rightfully pissed, because he himself was okay with the Tsar, but that crossed the line. There was no reasoning with the death of his parents, but when Red brought up the dead kids, the Tsar was like “okay hold on, slow down. They killed others too? That was not my order. Right, here’s the deal. I’ll punish them, but don’t get it twisted, it’s only because they went against my orders” and sent Red away. The next day the two assassins were publicly hanged. Jimmy himself was sent into foster care and ended up overseas to go to a new family, aka in the US.
The family already had two other sons, there used to be a third, the eldest, but he ran away because of pressure and expectations. The parents knew this, so they lowered expectations for the younger two and Red. Unfortunately, Red was a perfectionist and though he knew it was from a kind heart, he didn’t want to be praised for doing a “good job”, he wanted a “great job”. Basically in short: He works better under pressure.
The relationship to the youngest son was a bit shaky, he would piss Red off on purpose and it would result in Red locking himself in his room. A good few talks between them and the mother eventually settled it, and Red got adopted into the family, making him Jimothy Red-Kobayashi (he wanted to keep his old name).
Fast forward about 20-30 or something years, Red goes back to Drakonia because he was still holding a grudge. Broke into the Tsar’s palace and of course he got captured. Decided it was a good idea to mock dear Vladislav. This is how it went: “Why don’t you throw me in jail then? Oh right, you hang every criminal no matter how small.” “You’re asking to be killed, aren’t you?” “Maybe.” “Well I’m not going to do it just to spite you. But since genius me never thought of setting up jails, I’ll just have to keep you here. Probably goes against the entire point of punishing you, but I’m just doing this to spite your probably suicidal self because seriously, that aside are you okay bro? Why would you even consider-” I’m derailing from the topic.
During his stay to a confined space he somehow managed to pull Vladislav. How? Apparently he has a thing for bossy men, while Vlad finds his stubbornness weirdly admirable. So uh, they got together (should I remind y'all Vlad is 80+ and Red is still in his late thirties at that point?) The Tsar thought “maybe he’s not that bad. I should probably let him free” and that he did, Red went to the Deduction College, led the reenactment club while occasionally visiting Vlad during holidays, before going back to Drakonia and what did he do?
Started a revolution against the very man he claimed he loved. Oops.
Vladislav escaped, my butler OC Eros fought Red back until he got stabbed in the stomach, to which in response he cut off Red’s hand, and then got his neck broken by the dude.
Fun fact: This used to be a separate AU, until (me): “and then revolution happened” (friend): “I thought it was an AU girl, why😭” (Me): “it was, buuuuuuut >:)”
That’s how it became part of my main timeline.
Fun fact: His name actually used to be Red Kobayashi, so his “last name” was his first name, until I forgot and added Jimothy in front. Also makes more sense that way, given colours are usually their surnames.
Oh also, he has war ptsd. A single gunshot is fine, but rapid firing is what sends him back.
Anyways, I think it’s fair I talk about Vladislav himself.
Born royalty, obviously, strict parents, was given a personal butler and arranged friend Eros when they were both teens, Vlad 13 and Eros 15 to be exact. And he pretty much remained Vladislav’s only real friend, given commoners were “not ideal” and the prince was mistrustful towards overly nice nobles, thinking they were going to use him for money or brag about being friends with a royal. And of course, he was swamped with studies and everything, leading to sleepless nights just to do well enough for his parents to be proud of him. Eros tried reasoning with the royal couple, but the Tsarina was like “you do not give us orders. Now shut up before we fire you” and added a slap on top of that.
Vladislav was gifted in the artistic direction, but he never really got the chance to work on it, mainly because his parents (especially his mom) weren't in favour of him "doing some silly drawings" (he wanted to show them a painting he worked months on, but they didn't even look :c)
So he gave up drawing entirely and focused on the future, as he planned to make Drakonia great and break the cycle of "gaining respect through fear".
As much as he didn't want to admit it, he failed and became an almost exact copy of his parents, maybe even worse. Eros tried giving him gentle nudges to the other direction, but it simply wouldn't work with a mistrustful folk. Red had asked him in the future "why don't you treat your people nicely?" "If I want to keep my title, then it's necessary that they fear me. You will understand one day"
The entire "feared ruler of Drakonia, the Iron Tsar" gig kind of became his entire personality in the end.
Also funnily enough, Major Red had a similar idea during the revolution. Free the kingdom from the monarch's iron fist and become the new ruler who would have the folk's support and love. Yeah, when he actually got the throne for a while, it was an "I told you so" moment because he pretty soon realized "okay. Maybe this wasn't as easy as I thought"
That's pretty much the whole gig with them all the way into the present.
I want to add one small thing though. So we know Red was captured by the winning party in the second Civil War at the end of Volume 2, right? In volume 3 it was revealed he escaped and I did a little something with that.
The son who ran away joined White's military army and was the guard to Red's cell. He knew they were of the same family name and said "I don't know you, but I know you're my brother and I feel like it's my duty to help you, so I'm letting you out"
He covered up the plan pretty well and made it seem like Red was some escape master.
Logico family time
Ink (short for Inquiry) D. Logico, formerly Ink Hernandez before marriage, was a serial killer in her late teens/early adulthood, her victims consisted of people who wronged her in any way (as Murdle logic goes). When she wasn't going on her rounds, she worked as a barista and studied economics at the local college, where she also met Petrov D. Logico, who studied interior designing and was also a self taught mechanic, sometimes doing occasional repairs for his neighbours for a good dime. They hooked up and eventually started dating. Petrov was a real chill dude, open and kind, almost never got pissed even if he was wronged, just mildly annoyed. Ink found herself to be attracted to that and usually let off steam by ranting to him and Petrov was always like “you’re so valid for that. I honestly would be pissed too”.
Fast forward, they got married, Ink has completely stopped her murderous sprees. Petrov started working as a butler, Ink continued her job but full time. Eventually they had Falsone and Ximena, a pair of twins. Ink is of Spanish heritage, while Petrov is of Italian, it was only fair they each gave the kids a name from that language (they also grew up trilingual). Falsone found his sense of fashion pretty early and could put together at least 30 outfits with just 5 items. Ximena took a little longer to find her calling, trying this and that but nothing ever really stuck besides her liking for jigsaw puzzles, and options were limited due to the financial situation the town was in and therefore the family. She eventually came out as trans at around 14 and became Sandro, the Logico we know today. Sandro would have been his birth name if he was born a guy :p. Both Falsone and Sandro kept their hair long because why not, Falsone often helped his brother with creating outfits fitting his style of the time, emo. Falsone himself had more of a rebel-nerd style.
When they were 16, Ink was arrested because her crimes had finally been uncovered. Sandro dug through as many old newspapers as he could find, just to find anything that will prove his mother was innocent, but all that he found was that all the clues and hints he put together confirmed the harsh truth he refused to believe. His first exposure to crime solving ended up leading up to her death, as she was given the death sentence back then. Despite that, he still went with his profession as a deductive. At least Petrov was a great dad, despite being a widow.
Sandro took up an interest in chess after playing a few rounds with classmates, but never really practiced it until college, besides the occasional after school activity.
The two brothers moved out of the old town and went down their own paths. The irony that they had a drastically different level of success (financially). Falsone opened up his own fashion brand and is practically internationally known. Ironically, he doesn’t always enjoy the fame. Yeah, he’s happy his passion became a stable income for him, but he literally can’t go anywhere without being recognised by someone. Reason why he regrets ever putting himself as the model for the front page of an magazine. Also, it’s consuming his entire life, as Sebastian, his Chief Financial Officer, would put it. His works controls his life. Falsone denies it and just claims his stress is only self induced, he just needs to manage his time better and stop overthinking. And despite modelling, being healthy and everything, he still doesn’t feel like he looks good enough and can’t figure out why.
Scrapped concept: An idea I had was that Falsone was tricked into joining the Red Army at some point and fought in the civil war in Volume 2. He saw Sandro and Irratino heading towards the zeppelin and wanted to follow, but stepped on a landmine, losing both of his legs. At least his brother noticed and he could be brought to safety and treated, albeit being permanently crippled. Red still sent him a medal later on for even taking part in the war, despite running away.
Sandro on the other hand is fine with how he looks, despite not having his ideal body shape yet (aka top surgery which he can’t afford). He also has a pretty wide vocal range, after voice training to sound more like a man and managed to get pretty deep. Sometimes when he’s annoyed or frustrated, he starts cussing to himself in Spanish. Doesn’t mean he can’t speak Italian. Irratino learnt Spanish amongst others at some point in his life, but to fuck with him, Sandro speaks Italian to make him feel stupid like “did I forget everything I learnt-?” (His Italian is very rusty). It isn’t until Logico says something like “io sento” he realizes and goes: “you motherfu- that was Italian” and Sandro reacts with “hehe, I love making you feel dumb” and the Irratino proceeds to drop something in Norwegian or some other random language.
Fun fact: Transmasc Logico came to me in a dream
Talk about him, Irratino family time
So first of all, Irratino’s full name is Evander Marco Irratino. His biological mom is the red-haired one, Isabell, the other one is called Cheyenne (totally did not steal that from Berry).
Concepts (not officially decided):
Evander’s dad was neglectful or abusive, at some point he took his son to an abandoned building, hurting him in a way it gave him a permanent limp in the future and also sparking his fear of abandoned buildings. He eventually just left forever and Isabell remarried.
His dad wasn’t bad, they loved exploring the unknown together. They entered an abandoned building once, but an accident (maybe a collapsed floor) resulted in Evander’s permanent leg injury, while his dad had a bad landing and passed away moments later.
I’m leaning towards the second option, just to not give the boy trauma upon trauma.
There isn’t all too much to say to him.
Evander actually had a feeling something was wrong when his parents departed for the expedition, but couldn’t pinpoint it and just pushed it down. One night after finding out his moms died, the angel of Belief, Ryomen, formed a bond with him under God’s command, indirectly Nemoyr, angel of deceit, as well. God then gave him a vision showing how his parents really died and you know the rest. That’s how he gained the ability to talk to spirits, God and understanding cryptic messages.
I know I’m talking about a godly bond and stuff, but Evander doesn’t follow a specific religion. He just does what he knows, what God or his angels tell him. Also, while most of us need a few seconds or minutes to unscramble words/decode a message, Evander can read it like it’s normal. Encoded messages are like a second language for him.
scrapped concept: Before knowing of his past, my original idea for his heavenly bond was that one of the butler’s was jealous and killed Evander’s main one, to take his place and be higher on the list of inheriting a portion of their money in case of sudden death or similar. Another scrapped idea was that Evander had a twin, who I called Irritano (before figuring out Irratino is actually his last name). His brother killed someone, a bully, Evander saw that amongst other crimes through his dream visions, got his bro arrested, and Irritano ended up leading a life of crime.
For the Aureolin fans out there, I got a small story for her as well
Aureolin’s husband’s name was Sir Irving, he is a gardener for hire. They had a nice relationship, quaint home, their own backyard and stuff, but unfortunately neither of them really spent time with each other. Aureolin was almost always away for her shows, and when she was at home, Irving was out and about. This has resulted in some arguments, in which they may or may not have insulted each other’s professions one or two times. Eventually Aureolin said “You want quality time? Fine, I got a show next week and I want you there. After that, I’ll go with you to whatever plant fair you planned on going to.”
They went through with the plan, except Aureolin killed him during her show by sawing him in half. Oopsies
Uhh at some point she got together with Obsidian, but now they’re exes.
Grayscale because of course
His dad went to get the milk, so it was just him and his mom.
Jamie Grayscale has always been a kid with little emotions/expression. That was the reason why he never really had friends who stuck, he was too uninteresting for them with his monotonous voice. There’s no excitement in anything he says. His only real friend growing up was his mom, and that has definitely been used as an insult before, but he usually responds with “I love my mom, so I don’t really care”.
Dated every now and then, but it never lasted very long because it really was only out of pity, so he eventually stopped trying and lived contently as a single numbers man. Oh also, his poodle’s name is Phoebe and she’s 2 years old ^-^
and concerning the dog attempted murder in Volume 2, I assumed some other dog tried to attack Phoebe and Grayscale held it back by those leashes that tighten themselves, hence why he nearly choked the other dog.
Shipping time
Since we’re already talking about Grayscale, I might as well talk about a ship of mine with him :)
If you’re new, i ship him with Eminence, usually tagged Viscount CPA. It started with the emotionless x perpetually angry as a trope and I kind of went from there.
They met shortly after the civil war in volume 2, while Grayscale was heading home from work. Eminence was on the run, soaked from rain and homeless because he doesn’t have a permanent residence in the US. Took a bit of convincing, but Eminence eventually agreed to stay temporarily with Jamie.
He kind of never left because they got used to living together. They got closer, became friends “partners in crime” stuff, and then fell for each other. Grayscale was first to confess through a poem he left before going to work and Eminence responded with chocolates during his break.
What about the age gap? Yeah that was their worry too, but eventually Grayscale “We’re both consensual adults, not young ones either, it doesn’t matter anymore” and eased out of it. They had some ups and downs, but it was only a problem of communication, which they fixed
Another ship of mine is Red x Gunmetal, aka RedGun. Work colleagues to lovers. Sounds innocent, and they do love each other, but the thing that makes Viscount CPA work is missing between them. Gunmetal often jokes around, often purposely pissing Red off, and the latter reacts either aggressively or violently. So it’s uhh not going too well for them.
I stole the ship Amaranth x Blackstone from Berry, lol. Don’t really have a backstory for them though, same with Mauve x Slate
Adopted Saffron x Aureolin from the fandom
I also ship Rulean x Silverton x Dr. Crimson, only because two daily Murdles implied Silverton liked both of them. Also Rulean and Crimson kind of have an unspoken rivalry or sorts? You can find a short vid I made on my account
Usually I go by canon, but the dailies sometimes give little extras, like Red and Lapis being childhood friends, so I try to incorporate those too
Also I recently found out Grayscale actually has a crush on Turquoise so uh. I’ll just pretend I didn’t see that, besides using it as a trope for a Hanahaki AU (friend’s suggestion) :^
Radical Crimson x Aubergine originated from my Infection AU fic I still need to continue. Crazy x crazier stuff
And of course the oxymorons. Like, how can you not ship them?
Other headcanons
Logico has a cat he adopted after finding it as a stray. He calls her Muffin, she’s a ragamuffin who was abandoned as a kitten. He also fosters and later on adopts a boy called Leo, whose single dad was murdered. Logico’s colour, besides black, is dark blue. He’s 35
Irratino’s colour is green/dark green for me, although I know for the majority of the fandom it’s purple. He’s 37 and hates going into abandoned houses. I think I’m the odd one out for not seeing Irratino as someone who would wear dresses or skirts for the sake of wearing them. In my hc, he would wear them for a dare or challenge, but not as everyday clothing
As already implied, Red doesn’t like Halloween and has a bionic left hand. Also he’s a demiboy, 55
Smoky is the youngest adult at 18
Gunmetal has bionic arms. Yes, both of them, I haven’t decided why or how yet, he just does. He’s 51
Indigo is a cross dresser and is proud of it. I used to absolutely loathe him, but I lowkey like asshole personalities, although for me it leans more towards sassy aunt who’s kind of passive aggressive. Even if it doesn’t seem like it, he still cared for Olivia, even if she was always second behind his job. Like, she could ask him for help with a project, Indigo finishes whatever he was doing before and goes to help her as soon as he can.
Fun fact: I used to hate Copper, because of my general animosity towards cops who abuse their power, but now I’ll tolerate her.
Crash Test Apricot is the younger brother of Actuary Apricot
Taupe is a gentle giant
Mauve is the closest to being the same as Indigo, without the whole “yeah so I’m gonna force you into the VR world whether you like it or not” thing
Gunmetal and Logico joke about being father and son solely because they look similar
Grayscale is into literary and can play the piano
Eminence rediscovered his love for art and is a fan of Edgar Allen Poe and similar style authors
Names all listed again: President Alexander Midnight, Louise Midnight iii, Benjamin Midnight, Dr. Addison Crimson, Rae “Radical” Crimson, Nayra Aubergine, Vladislav Eminence, Jamie Grayscale, Jimothy Red, Sandro D. Logico, Evander Marco Irratino
Random facts or lore fragments
Logico and Irratino end up having a kid, who has their DNA, but isn’t born. Some people managed to get their genes somehow and created a baby in a lab, who was then dropped off in front of their doorstep stork style. This kid ended up being adopted and named Potino, though the two of them never figured out where he came from
I used to joke my persona Lynn dropped off the kid, but I eventually settled for a more in-universe explanation
Red and Gunmetal actually ended up getting relationship advice from Eminence and Grayscale and it did help getting them back on track
I have exactly two self inserts, besides other OCs. One is Estella who met Logico at a murder scene and kind of just stuck around, because she had evidence photos and has since worked with him as a mini job. 5'6, left-handed, Pisces
The other one is based off of my username in the Detective Club discord sever, Amazing Aureolin’s Apprentice (AAA). Her name is Hemani Globe, reference to hemoglobin. As the username already implied, she’s Aureolin’s apprentice and may or may not have helped with a murder or two.
Another OC is Hawk “little bee” Keppel, first featured in my Infection Au fic. Enthusiastic workaholic, pretty soft-spoken but will fuck you up if he has to, does get easily anxious. Uhhh oh, and Misc Cider, non-binary forensic detective. No nonsense attitude, pretty strict but caring nonetheless. 6'1, ambidextrous, Gemini
uhhhhhhhhh
fun fact: out of all the three books, I remember volume 3 the worst. Idk why, I just can't remember shit well enough from that book
No I have not read Murdle Jr, so there can very much be something that goes against everything I've said
I think that’s all so far
Future AU post is next
