#extra crypty (tl;dr)

[oersteds]

twiz lore summary (With Shitposts) (Part Four) (vine boom)

But wait! There's more! Call today and get a free Time Crash with your Corpse Flood, FREE!

Long post under cut.

Content warnings for: General horror themes, fourth wall breaking(?), obsessive character

note: this is all a rough draft / shitposty summary. even the first three parts. i'll probably never actually write the whole fic, i just need to get the ideas blasted out of my brain before it collapses into a black hole

It's the next afternoon, Twiz and the others are awake. They went to bed at 5 AM, what did you expect? They scramble on down to the beach. There's more people there. Fuck.

A few passionate townsfolk decided to stay up a little longer, trying to determine where all the corpses are coming from, or how most of them are still alive. (And why I keep calling them corpses despite almost all of them being Not Dead.)

They've all come from a single location, far off on the east. Math wizardry has determined that it's coming from a specific building. It's been identified as [whatever the fuck Twiz's homeland is called] Castle. Yes that's a placeholder name, what're you gonna do, call the cops?

"Hey, wait a sec. I lived there!" oh she has no idea does she

"I could probably sneak in and find out what's up!" ohhh twiz you sweet summer child. you have no idea, do you?

SHE'S FUCKED SIX WAYS FROM SUNDAY!!!!!

Also, this is Viltas, Twiz's childhood friend. He comes into play now. Same artist as before, same link [here]

Viltas is an ice mage, and Twiz's childhood friend. He was there to witness Twiz unsealing the ressurrection magic, and got some rez magic of his own from the explosion. He's also very good at being evil

(i am so sorry to the artist for making viltas so evil here, lmao. they've no idea)

(Image captions, in order from top to bottom:)

"You offer to investigate the corpse flood, because it's your homeland, so you'll be familiar with it!"

"Your new friend is very insistent on you not going, but you promise you'll be okay! (Why's he worried...?)"

"You get there, everything's gone sideways, you can't find your cat either, why did you sign up for this...?"

"The mages guild has seemingly forgiven you, at least! This might not be too bad...?"

"You get to the castle, the staff seem very friendly to you! (A little... *too* friendly...)"

"You find a time to sneak out, and investigate further. You find a girl who looks vaguely similar to you, and is wearing your style of clothes. She begs you to hide her, because she'll be killed when they find you both. (Oh god)"

"You found your cat. He's lounged on the lap of your childhood friend, who's managed to take over your homeland in a matter of months. He's looking at you with an intimidatingly affectionate stare. (You *really* should've listened.)"

"Your childhood friend lost his mind because he thought you were dead after you unsealed the ressurrection magic too violently. He's behind the corpse flood, and countless other atrocities, all to bring you back."

"He's going to kill someone he'd kept around as a ""replacement"" because you're here to stay now. Better get comfy, pal! Have fun!!! (Hopefully you hid that stranger well enough, or that she can run fast!)"

Yep. Twiz just found a captive. She fucked around and has now found Alicia, who's being kept as a ""Twiz replacement"" for Viltas. Worse yet, she seems fully aware of this, and of what'll happen to her when Twiz is found. Twiz agrees to hide her, because neither of them asked for this shit.

With a deep sense of unease, Twiz regroups with the guards who keep insisting on following her. She's led to the throne room, where Viltas sits on a throne (duh) like the bastard he is. He explains "everything", but not before clearing the room of everyone besides Twiz and himself. Incoming verbal stunlock!!!

He'd taken over the entire kingdom in the span of a month or two, "replaced" the entirety of the mage's guild Twiz had been a part of, and is keeping everyone rather complacent with everything through a lot of bread and circuses. And, despite the atrocities, he's still kind to "his" people. They're almost like a buncha cats... Speaking of which!

The bastard has Twiz's cat, too. Granted, any good friend would take care of an assumed dead friend's cat, but STILL. (Probably a testament to the cat's blind faith. They don't care who you are, or what you've done. If you feed them and properly give them affection, they'll love you.) And the cat seems pretty affectionate with him, lounging on his lap.

He's behind the corpse flood. All of the people who'd washed ashore? He ressurrected them. Or... he tried to, at least. He didn't think any of them would survive, but all he really cared about was getting Twiz back. Not to mention, his plan doesn't really need him to pull living people from different time periods... He just has to pull anything from other times! To wear down the integrity of time and space itself. After all, he's to summon a God. A God that he'll use as a weapon. He won't stop at just one country. He needs more. Being the Demon King that he is, he's insatiable, can never do enough...! (Wait, two demon kings...?)

As to how he's able to do this... You already know, don't you, Twiz? You've the same ability, after all... You were there. Surely, you'd heard that same God...? Ah, but that doesn't matter. You'll see it for yourself soon. Perhaps you can use Nihilo, too! Perhaps... Well, regardless of how he's done this, he's done it. (don't look in the basement, twiz)

He's been doing this all for Twiz. Because he """loves""" her. He just wants her to be """happy""" and """safe""" with him. (Fucking BULLSHIT, by the way! Twiz was doing a perfectly fine job staying safe on her own!!! Not to mention she hasn't been able to get in a single sentence during this fucking monologue.)

Oh, but... He feels so awful, for having tried to replace Twiz with this random princess he'd ressurrected... So, to make up for it, he'll kill her. For Twiz~! (Despite her not fucking asking for ANY OF THIS.)

Twiz is screwed. Better think of a plan, and fast...! Anyways I'm holding Part 5 hostage until Tumblr gives me my fucking polls feature. (joking. it'll come out when it's ready. though i really want my polls... tumblr pls.)

#twizposting #my god what have i done #extra crypty (tl;dr) #lal fc #(maybe?) #i could probably replace the lal characters here #and make this an entirely new thing #but hey. it's *my* oc/fc and *i* get to write the story #btw whoever asked for alicia in my au #i am so sorry #this shit's barely a live a live au right now huh. #do i even tag this as live a live...? #let me know if i'm allowed to #cw horror #cw unreality #cw obsession

[oersteds]

If Yun is there: "Well, we did defeat him. You and I are the youngest, and still stood our ground against the King of Demons." Akira: "...DUDE! THERE WAS A GHOST CHILD BACK TRIAL OF HEART!" Cube *Beep* (Actually, I'm the youngest! So he's afraid of me!)" If you wanna get meta, Near Future could imply the 2000 souls included kids. And if the Successor isn't Yun, Odio taken his life away along with the other pupil. That's three instances of child murder. Two more attempts considering Billy & Cube.

okay this is gonna be a bit of a strange headcanon for most of the live a live fans but hear me out:

i don't think odio controls, or even is his incarnations outside of battle + their last words. after all, it's just a name to foreshadow his existence. to really twist the knife. the big reveal wouldn't hit so hard otherwise, would it?

he just drives them like he's in mario kart for that short time, and whether or not he's getting blueshelled depends on you. best hope you've enough levels, pal!!

it would take away hella agency from the incarnations as well, if they were just possessed by odio the whole time. straybow wasn't possessed! oersted wasn't possessed! why should the incarnations get a free pass, huh!? if one of 'em chose evil, they ALL chose evil.

because when oersted said anyone can become a king of demons, he meant it.

there can be more than one demon. odio was not the only one.

there will be more demons. odio was not the last one.

you just gotta keep going. just because there's seemingly no end in sight, doesn't mean you, or i, or anyone else should just lie down, give up, and cry about it!!!

and if someone decides to give up, to let others take the reins of their entire life... by doing that, they lose the right to bitch about the results, at least in my eyes.

(My MANY thoughts on Alicia and her bullshit below the cut. I get a little heated here, be warned)

tl;dr for below the cut: alicia apologism is a MASSIVE RED FLAG to me.

yet another (non trauma-related) reason i despise alicia so much. she did nothing to save anyone, or help either oersted or straybow. straybow literally walked out for the regicide bullshit! alicia coulda followed out on a return trip! and yet she doesn't. she stands idly by while she (if the statue wasn't somehow soundproofed) hears about how straybow killed her father, sits around while he, too, is killed, and only then comes out. and to do what? to tear oersted apart for a nonsensical reason, a reason entirely outside his control. "WAAAAAH WHY DIDN'T YOU SAVE MEEEEEEE IT'S BEEN LIKE A DAAAAY WAAAAAAAH YOU SHOULD'VE BEEN FIVE MINUTESSSSSS" and then stabs herself because "MUH STWAYBOW DED WAAAH"

shut the fuck up. SHUT. THE FUCK. UP. "but what if she thought oersted was actually really evil and abusive or blah blah blah" my sibling in arms that wasn't her only chance to die. like yea, that sounds morbid, but hey. considering that her defining character moment is a storm of unjustified verbal abuse, directed entirely at oersted, who you've followed throughout the entire chapter, followed by stabbing herself... you can only go up from there. because how the FUCK does ANYONE sympathize with THAT. and personally, i think alicia was designed, MADE to be hated. if you're doing apologism for her i feel that you've missed the point entirely, and i can only assume a lot more will fly right over your head. i can only assume you'd readily do the same apologism for those that've hurt me in the same manner.

#cryptid running the drive thru (ask) #extra crypty (tl;dr) #live a live spoilers #cw alicia #cw alethea #no longer maintagged #i still stand by this

[oersteds]

Oh dear. Yeah Oersted can be misinterpreted because either people felt really sorry for him and agree with his cynic nature or condemn him to hell for being Odio. Like... he's just human in the end. That was the whole point of his character, lashing out after experiencing the worst time of his life. Akira's speech summarizes the Knight's deal efficiently.

hm.. i'm in a bit of a strange position within your dichotomy. because i feel really sorry for oersted (probably because i can directly relate to most, if not all, the shit he went through... except not to such an extreme degree, and without the murdering part right after)

but i don't agree with his cynical nature. while i've given up any hope for my happiness, that doesn't mean i've given up on anyone else having a happy life, or at least the chance for an okay future, y'know? but i wouldn't be yellin' at someone so deep in despair either, like akira was doing. imo it was a jerk move, and it reminds me of the fuckers that've hurt me when i was already in enough pain.

but also... what other choice did oersted have, there? i feel his options could be narrowed down to three, all being extremely shitty for him:

turn himself in again, and get executed

fuck off into the woods or something to become a hermit, never having any peaceful contact with humans again (the knights would most likely hunt him down for the rest of his life regardless) (didja know that isolation is usually pretty fuckin' bad for the human psyche?)

become a demon, and lash out at all of humanity for what he went through (the only option that, while it would fuck over everyone else, probably seemed the most reasonable to him in that moment. the human psyche is not known for being reasonable in situations like this)

given these options, and given that oersted had basically zero time to comprehend the events of the chapter, i kinda see why oersted became a demon. i would've done the same, had i been given the chance right after i'd lost all hope for myself.

regardless of all that, though? my post was about people that blame oersted for being betrayed in the first place. some shit about "he didn't realize sooner therefore he's arrogant / selfish and he had his betrayal coming to him." youtube comments seem to consistently have absolute garbage takes, jeez...

#cryptid running the drive thru (ask) #extra crypty (tl;dr) #live a live spoilers

[oersteds]

I heard the Middle Ages trio's deal is what if the Cecil/Rose/Kain situation in FF4 was switched around, and that made results. Shizuma Hodoshima voices both Cecil Harvey and Streibough for the complete irony, when Cecil is even the victor of the love triangle. While Kain is filled with envy, that it made him vulnerable to possession by dark forces.

ngl i think both oersted and straybow deserved better than princess bitchtits. i don't count her as a part of the oersted/straybow duo, but rather... a minister/king/alicia trio. the royal trio, if you will

the lal cast is so deprived of women, and they had to settle for alicia. sheesh... nobody deserves to get saddled with her, let alone fight over her.

+ oersted wasn't possessed, he chose violence. he was pushed to his limit, sure. i can see why he saw no other options. doesn't mean he was possessed by a demon.

and the shilling some of these fuckers do in universe. there's this one npc that goes "alicia is our guiding light!!" brother, if she's your brightest star, you are living in a grimdark fantasy

more alicia hot takes under the cut. it gets lengthy

i. i really hate alicia on every level, huh. i try to find something, anything that i like about her, and i just keep finding more to hate about her. "but oersted still loved her!!! his last words in the neutral ending were her name!!!" yea what if he was cursing it. kinda hard to tell by tone, even with context. for example, the "saint alicia" move could be many different things, such as:

oersted/odio trying to remember alicia, and only remembering the anguish she's caused him (emotional damage for both him and the targets) (my personal hc)

alicia's soul, somehow being repeatedly used as an attack (this doesn't make much sense to me, how could oersted/odio restore the soul from that)

something something "he still (somehow) loves her and sees her as the only "saint" in this evil world" (makes even less sense when you realize it's an attack that does A LOT OF DAMAGE to the targets, topped off with a myriad of detrimental status effects)

oersted/odio is a dnd bard and saint alicia is his personal version of vicious mockery (funny, but neither oersted/odio are bards)

also consider: my theory that the battlefield you fight odio on could very well be an illusion... hence the track name for the first phase being illusion. Mount Corpse Pile coulda been odio throwing off the protags.

finally... oersted's last words in the neutral ending are the only time he's talking directly about alicia in the final chapter. if you don't kill oersted after the pure odio fight, alicia is never mentioned by name again, and not thought or spoken of at all unless pogo is your finale protagonist. and even then, it's just "love," which can mean many things.

this is why i feel alicia is meant to be at best a throwaway character for breaking oersted's spirit, and at worst a character that we're supposed to hate, or (possibly) even a statement about how some people don't deserve your forgiveness. though that's pretty unlikely given the message of the game. that being said...

the fandom may forgive alicia, but i sure as hell won't

#cryptid running the drive thru (ask) #extra crypty (tl;dr) #live a live spoilers #cw alicia #cw alethea #no longer maintagged #i still stand by this

[oersteds]

is Duskie a cryptid to you btw. just curious. (@skyhighchibi)

unfortunately, i've a very... unusual definition of what counts as a cryptid to me. or at least the type of cryptid i am. might make a checklist or test or something eventually, but for now, i'll give a few pointers on being a... whatever kind of cryptid i am.

so duskie eats rocks, right? does he enjoy eating the rocks, or is he fully tasting the "yep that's a rock, i shouldn't be eating this" flavor and continuing anyways? like.. is he fully aware that eating rocks isn't a normal thing, but continues regardless?

i've a character that eats fancy soap. she knows it tastes bad. she is completely and fully aware that eating soap isn't a normal thing to do. she does it anyways, out of love for the ""art"" of... eating soap, apparently. "i love eating soap! it tastes horrible! :D" would be a somewhat accurate quote. she genuinely loves doing this. and who am i to stop her?

catboy cryptid!odio is another example. he's fully aware of his cryptid status, and he's makin' the most of it. he joins groups of people trying to find him. he doesn't even try to stop them, either! he tries to hide the fact that he's the cryptid from them for a while, of course, but he does a little trolling before goin "maybe the real cryptid was the friends we found along the way" while giving the smuggest grin until they realize.

i guess i'd call this the "self-aware but unapologetic" cryptid...?

#cryptid running the drive thru (ask) #extra crypty (tl;dr)

[oersteds]

how pettable is Duskie (@skyhighchibi)

gonna take the time to explain my placements rq below the cut (duskie would likely be placed in god tier, in case you'd rather not read all this)

so i didn't add odio / lod!straybow because idk how to add images to a tier maker. they'd probably be on the same tier because i didn't really consider "would they consent" as a factor for ranking here. i ranked them on the overall petting experience if they went up to you like "hey. pet me." (and if it's physically possible to pet them, even)

matsu is unpettable because his goddamn hair is a celery stick. it is physically impossible to pet that man, consent or not. same reason why the steel titan's unpettable. Too Big To Pet.

i hc akira as using a shitload of hair gel to get his hair Like That. i can't imagine that kid's hair being fluffy, i just Can't. for mad dog / sundown, i don't think they're very fluffy. like at all. also i'd feel a little weird if i were asked to pet them.

and ryoma's a weeb for br*tsh people. i cannot in good consience pet him knowing this /hj

gori was removed to spite One Guy. this is why i ask people "hey please don't tell me what to do" because his omission is almost entirely because this One Guy specifically asked for gori to be placed in god tier and didn't try to justify why. same reason why hasshe was removed, actually. i also just Don't Like Hasshe.

so zaki's placed in mid tier becausei hc him being very protective of his hair. so... complaining about the petting, basically. and pogo... is pogo. he gets a little... too into it. oboro's like a cat. he just kinda.. scrunches down when pet for some reason. that's why mimic mammet is placed higher. masaru would be "no it's ok you can be rough!" while i'm putting my entire weight into petting his absurdly thick skull. petting that man would be a fight in it's own right

hong just looks pettable, mmkay? he seems nice. i don't need to explain further. beru too. and yun. ...and mimic mammet... man this is just the "they are pettable, no explanation needed" tier. they'd carefully lean into the pets. overall nice petting experience.

so straybow's in a tier by himself because 1: i didn't want to delete either his tier or the god tier. 2: he will pet you back. as you're petting him. the reason he's not in god tier? well, oersted's just got fluffier hair. no amount of petting you back will change the fact that he just. doesn't have all that fluffy of a hairstyle. (again, this tier list is based off of if the character asked you to pet them, not if you walked up and pet them)

taro and cube are self-explanatory. they don't even have to pet me back. they're just. pettable. lei's just got fluffy hair as-is. we need more characters that have long and pettable hair. give the girls fluffy hair! oersted's just oersted. perfect lad to pet. he'll even pet you back! i am not biased at all :) (lying)

#cryptid running the drive thru (ask) #extra crypty (tl;dr) #petting tier list #live a live spoilers #i can't maintag this

[oersteds]

yesterday i was in a lengthy vc, just the usual stuff, and i had Many Thoughts as to why i don't really like alicia / alethea (live a live) (spoilers below cut) (also massive textpost under the cut. by the gods i should be in bed sleeping, it's 3 am as i write this, i'll be cursing myself in the morning at this rate.)

i think the main reason behind my dislike is the lack of agency she has. i know that's not exactly her fault, especially given the setting, but that doesn't make me less pissed when her only act of agency that's 100% guaranteed to happen (the trial of heart is optional content) ends up leading to the demise of an entire kingdom, and puts all of time and space in danger.

"oh, but she didn't know it would happen!" is a correct statement, albeit it takes away even more agency from the little she had in the first place. this is probably just me, but i get a lot more attatched to characters that have agency. i find it nearly impossible to like a character that's just being dragged around by the plot. at best, i'll be indifferent to them, maybe wondering "why do people like this character?" and at worst, i'll be wondering "how does anyone tolerate this fucker, in universe or not???" it's why i tend to dislike the "tagalong kid" trope. because all they seem to do is scream, cry, generally make things worse, cause conflict, and make me wonder why they're being brought along in the first place.

if all a character does is cause problems on accident, i find it incredibly easy to hate them. funny, then, how i like characters that cause problems on purpose... now i wonder how i'd see alicia / alethea as a character if she was outright confirmed to actively wanting to fuck over the entire kingdom, or even just oersted through her actions after straybow's death. straybow, for one, wanted to ruin oersted's life by pullin' that shit. he just ruined more than he expected. alicia just wanted to join straybow in the afterlife.

i mean, she's regretful about it regardless, and she tries making up for it by letting the heroes out of the trial of heart while basically goin "hey. fix this" (it's not even 100% confirmed that she opened the portal herself, too, considering that the exit portal in every trial minus the trial of time opens when you grab the ultimate weapon in it. for all we know, it's a coincidence that the portal opened. hell, it coulda been odio opening that portal, or what little of oersted's left in there.)

i'm not saying i automatically dislike characters without agency, mind you. i can enjoy the damsel in distress trope if the damsel doesn't make things worse, accident or not. princess peach in the first two paper mario games? she's doing something there. in fact, she's helping her rescuers out by spying on her captors. so give the girls some agency. i support women's rights, and women's wrongs. let the girls do crimes.

i look at alicia and i think "damn, no amount of fanon's gonna change my perception here, huh." because to me, alicia is defined by her lack of agency. if a fic gives her agency, she's not gonna seem like alicia anymore. which... sucks, honestly. i wish i could see alternate universes as their own thing, instead of a different version of canon.

(tl;dr) it's the lack of agency. + the crimes may be fictional but my annoyance is very real

#live a live spoilers #wow i really rambled here #extra crypty (tl;dr) #do i even maintag this