Vanderwood Route - Mystic Messenger
✿ so i am a complete vanderwood trashpit, and this is my attempt to write a detailed fan-route about our favorite confused spy. if you enjoy my work and want a vanderwood route as desperately as I do, please feel free to sell your soul to cheritz in the interests of giving our leopard-print love a little more limelight.
In celebration of 1,000 followers and 100 posts… on with the show!
W A R N I N G
This is not spoiler free, and it assumes that you have played - or are at least aware of - many elements of 707′s route.
There are some mentions of suicide, abusive childhoods, and other potentially triggering topics in this route. They are not described in depth though. If you can handle the game, you can probable handle this.
General Notes
After completing 707′s route, new options will be unlocked in the deep route prologue that allow dark purple hearts to be gained. Accumulation of enough of these hearts will, much like all the other routes, cause the player to get Vanderwood’s Route on Day 5.
Calling and texting Vanderwood will not be available from the beginning of the route, but after a certain point it will be unlocked.
In the interests of making this accessible, I use ‘they’ for Vanderwood. Please, feel free to insert whatever headcanoned pronoun and gender identity you wish for them.
I have also done a little work to create a more detailed backstory for them. It felt necessary, since we know so little about them in comparison to the others. I hope this only enhances your enjoyment!
D1 - D4
The new options in the deep route initially seem to focus on 707. Much like accessing his route, you joke around with him, but the topics focus more on embellished stories from his secret agent life and his relationship to his “maid”, Mary Vanderwood the III.
This gives the player a lot of background into 707′s life as a secret agent, providing more stories like the potato chip incident. All of them are told humorously, of course. Through them, the chat begins to get a sense that Mary Vanderwood the III is actually a dear friend to Seven, who has saved his life on multiple occasions and whose life has been saved by him in return. However, Seven does not admit this, instead saying that they simply work in the same spaces, and ‘their relationship does not go beyond maid and master.’
The good options include asking about Vanderwood’s habits, hobbies, and personality, and also telling Seven that Vanderwood sounds like a very loyal friend who will go out of their way to take care of him. The other members will agree with this - (particularly Jaehee and Yoosung) - saying that Vanderwood goes above-and-beyond what would be expected for a ‘maid’, given they help him with his work, bring him tea and coffee when he’s having a hard time, and they’ve put themselves in significant danger to ensure his safety.
MC: Wow… It sounds like she really cares for you! (+1 Dark Purple Heart)
Zen: Yeah! She’s totally in love with you! I’m so jealous!!!
707: i guess we know that Zen’s into maids lololol
On Day 3, if you select an option that gets 707 to talk more about Vanderwood, he’ll send one of the first Vanderwood CGs - a picture of 707 cross-dressing accompanied by Vanderwood in a suit. It’s a surprise selfie taken by 707, and Vanderwood clearly doesn’t look happy about it.
(Seven says that the person in a dress is Vanderwood, and Zen predictably believes him.)
Seven is veeeery slowly starting to accept that Vanderwood is actually his friend by the evening of the fourth day, and he’s becoming extremely comforting pal-ing around with MC. In Vanderwood’s route, Seven is basically your bestie.
The route proper is underneath the read more due to length!
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