I’ve recently played this game a few weeks ago, and my gosh I love the lore and the aesthetic soo much!!(wild cause I played this vn blind, I didn’t read the description cause I wanted to be surprised) and to my surprise- I ended up dying first try in the intro alskskdk
As much as I enjoyed everyones personality and design like gosh yeees👌✨ I was definitely entertained with the player and puppet’s dynamic a lot
This is a little summary of an idea I've been rotating for a while, about a TEAG AU where the Puppet has more agency over their actions and gets particularly attached to the twins, Shams and Noor.
What changes in this AU?
A few things are changed, the most relevant being the Puppet, around which this whole AU goes round and round.
The Puppet has more of their own will. They have a personal objective, and as they experience more timelines with the player they mantain their memories of them, and their synchronisation gets lower. This leads to the Puppet (which, since this is a reader-insert kind of scenario, can be the player's OC like in the original game) making choices of their own, and even discussing with the player on occasion.
The player's experience however is also changed! It's a mild change and of course it cannot be as neutral of an experience as it was for the original TEAG experience, but I still tried to not make it too restrictive.
The Player (so you, dear reader) is described in this AU to be a bit more sentimental, someone who gets attached to all the characters of the game and grows fond of all of them; including the Puppet, which is partially what allows them their freedom. However, because of the lower synchronisation and the added influence of the Puppet, many of the previous privileges are lost to the Player. They can still become the "new creator" in Septem's route and help Nulla destory everything in his route, but it's something that the character of the game have to help with - think of it as the same potential, but behind a thicker shield. Like a chick that cannot break their own eggshell and need someone to do it for them from the outside.
Because of this, the Player cannot defy the rules enforced to the Puppet. They can ignore advice and warnings - such as the beginning of the game if they decide to reveal themselves and enter Nulla's route - but they cannot ignore orders. Which brings us to the point of the AU.
How do the routes proceed in this AU?
They don't!
In this AU, the Player had picked Unum's route as the last to play (from the main three, though we consider the Memories route to be "part" of Nulla's in this situation). In this route however, unlike the previous ones, the Puppet and the Player get to live as a single entity, and the Puppet starts to develop and attachment to the twin stars, Shams and Noor, seeing as they are their own children. Unlike the other routes, the Puppet isn't despised in this one, they aren't talked about like an obstacle or hurt for the sake of being hurt. They simply are, along with the Player.
However, the lower synchronisation and the lack of privileges makes it so they cannot access the Player's full potential; thus, they are unable to override Septem's order to never speak Sirius' name. This route ends with the Puppet being killed by Noor. This reads as a "bug" of the game, as the Player should be presented with the right option after some time.
More attempts bring about the same result; a few weeks of peace for the Puppet (though the Player perceives them as mere minutes), ending in blood every time.
At this point, the Player can try to go through different routes, but the Puppet always begs them to help creating a future where they can be with their chidlren. The Player also start earning more access to the world of the game - a glitch that redirects their "privileges" into the hands of the Puppet, which presents them with more choices than they would have had. Options that weren't there start appearing (explorations, dialogues and actions) and eventually [redacted] implements in the code a keylogger, which allows the Puppet to read whatever the Player types on their keyboard. This creates a way for them to communicate more clearly than the dialogue options, though it forces the Puppet to speak in the textbox which some other characters of the game may be able to read into. Other characters may also gain access to the logs of the keylogger and learn of the Player's true thoughts.
However, the Player still cannot proceed down the Unum route without getting killed; and the other routes also start presenting problems which make them almost unplayable, or at least impossible to complete.
The Puppet (and technically the Player) are now stuck in a loop inside the game. They may restart the game how many times they like, but they'll never reach a real conclusion.
How do the other characters react to this? How are their routes affected?
Septem's route becomes nearly unplayable due to the low synchonisation between Puppet and Player; he tends to kill them often, at the first acting out of the Puppet. The freedom of the Puppet seems to make him nervous, he doesn't understand it and it worries him, making him more alert and more likely to punish and harm the Puppet. He becomes even less friendly to the Player, suspecting they may be unable to help him as the game gets more and more corrupt.
Unum's route is largely unchanged except for the fact that it's impossible to move past the events of act 2.5. Unum is completely unaware of the Puppet-Player situation, dismissing even contradicting behaviours as "humans being humans". His wives are none the wiser, just like the twins.
Nulla's route may look the same, but he's aware something is off. From the fact that the file he had asked the Player to fill in is already done, to parts of the coding looking off like the keylogger's implementation or the Player being able to interact more with the digital world, to the Player already possessing Nulla's icon in the corner... he grows suspicious. He gets more paranoid and less likely to listen to deviations from his plans.
Is this all?
No! There is more but I am very eepy and need to eep. I'll post the rest another time.
