Narrator got the fledgling gods mixed up. Putting Change in the role of the hero (making her 'The Adventurer'), and Stagnation in the role of princess ('The Royal'). And because none of the echoes have reason to believe anything is amiss, they still proceed with the script as usual, guiding the Adventurer into slaying the Royal to stop the end of the world.
some scattered thoughts copy-pasted from discord under the cut:
– Shifty still has Hero with her because he's the representation of choice here, and she's the one making choices in this AU, but that's the only voice she ever has besides Narrator. Quiet still get to be a stuffed clown car in person form, cuz she still can't really change herself
– the main gimmick is that Adventurer will slowly change as she makes choices and/or react to Quiet/Narry
for example, as soon as she decides to take the knife or not, she'll either become 'sharper' or 'softer' (smth Hero notices, and maybe even Echo describes)
and as this keeps happening, Echo may eventually realize who she actually is and freak out. Saying she's a monster, that she tricked him into putting her in the hero's shoes, etc etc etc
and it's usually in that moment that the Adventurer will fully transition into whatever identity will be predominant in Chapter 2
for example, I have this idea of Royal, seeing the Adventurer acting weird because of the Echo, and acting outta fear to stab her in the back and run away, and that's how we get Witch
– Hero being with Shifty here means he's more like her than like Quiet, so he also changes slightly to accommodate to her new personality
tho when Narry freaks out, he gets very confused and a bit caught up on the "Wait…… so– we're not a hero?" thing to help much
tries to make up for it in most chapter 2's by promising to make sure Narry doesn't pull anything like this again
for the moments in-between, I imagine LQ referring to the perspectives as 'shards'. "Lenses through which I can see the worlds beyond. Focus points that light up my alleys."
I also wrote some descriptions just for fun which I thought I'd share here–
[Cold]
"This one speaks of numbness. Projecting it like a shield in hopes it'll absorb all impacts. But it is hopeless and lost, longing for something it can never truly reach. But it'll never stop trying. It will make for an unmoving heart.
There's no need to mourn it. For it has found what it's been searching for."
[Opportunist + Broken]
"I think this one has more than one shard this time."
Yes. A pair that melded into a single set of eyes the moment they were brought to me.
This one speaks of deceit and hopelessness. They fear for a downfall they want to avoid at all costs, and yet sees it as inevitable. They will make for an obsessive heart.
There's no need to mourn them. They don't need to fear anymore.
[everyone]
This one is a cacophony. So many wants and pleas being spoken at once that it all converges into a single thought. Silence.
They will make for a quiet heart.
There's no need to mourn them. For they have reached their potential.
some doodles of how Royal looks like with different voices on the wheel
they don't have a mouth when it's only Quiet, but as voice come in, a mouth appears. Considering whether chapter 3's and forth Royal should have multiple mouths; gonna have to sketch that out to see how I feel about it.
And the boi!! Made him a fox in this AU cuz I wanted him to be a different animal from Quiet and because I also associate Hero with foxes (and for self-indulgence, cuz it's my AU and I can).
since Adventurer is the one going through many drastic changes (physically and mentally) in this AU, Hero remains mainly the same to serve as a source of stability for Addy.
