Cavalry Masterpost

[speakveryclearly]

this is for brainstorming & headcanon shenanigans plus the first week there won't be anyone in the graveyard so the popcorning will be just between the three ladies until then...........................

On set:
Gundam
Stiles
Kaoru
Spain

Graveyard trio:
Rapture
Kanaya
Annie

Off set:
Lithuania
Ukraine
Beat
May
Poland
Susan
Alice
Sonia

Comments

[throe]

Rapture initially would keep up with her whole conning game just to save face and not let herself be worried or vulnerable because that's considered imperfect/weak, but it wouldn't last very long because she knows that she can't pull it off with people she's been in this game with. Though she still may try to manipulate them because it's just in her personality/who she is.

Either way, there wouldn't be much of acting like love potions exist or that Riot will save her in the past two and a half years. It would be a lot like how she is when the Stingers first start out. Her band will still be important to her, but she will just be so exhausted with trying to manipulate her way out and finding absolutely nothing.

Not so outwardly she will probably be suffering bouts of worthlessness. Music is the one major thing in her life that's brought her what she wants and without that, she'll begin to realize that she has no other talents. At least no other talents that will help them escape or help them with the resistance and basically watching this round will only drudge those feelings up even more.

[throe]

Oh and she will also be massively jealous because this round has a pool. A POOL. She didn't get to have one of those when she played, she had to sunbathe in the courtyard.

[throe]

Since everyone else is talking about how certain characters feel about other characters:

Rapture is closest to Sonia and Kaoru. Sonia will always be an honorary Stinger (she even refers to her as Valor instead of Sonia) and the person she's closest to, especially because she doesn't have Minx. She has complete faith that Kaoru will turn the game around in a such a sadistic manner that it even makes Rapture herself uncomfortable. They usually get along in a less... healthy friendship manner and more of a conniving buddy duo out to find their next laugh. She's going to be rooting for him the most.

Everyone else she really does care about, but she similarly fights with those feelings. It hurts her to feel like she's turned her back on the people she believes she's meant to be with for the rest of her life, but at the same time she wonders if this is her destiny (so to say) too because the resistance is just as strong as the Stingers are. She would fight for each and every one of their lives even if they don't believe it.

[speakveryclearly]

Who wants to bet that over the years these Stingers singalongs (stingalongs??) slowly get louder each time just because more people learning the lyrics is unavoidable

(Kanaya would participate on special occasions)

[speakveryclearly]

APPEARANCE: Kanaya was 15 going on 16 at the start of the game so she is now 19 Whole years old! Wow! She has gotten taller, unfortunately for the tops of many doorframes. For the canon familiar, butch haircut aside, she is getting very Porrim. She has learned to turn off the glow.

STUFF: Still wearing her wedding ring, probably stuck with a vintage wardrobe, she makes it work. I don't think her sylladex ever started functioning again, so she has been separated from her chainsaw and her own makeup for far too long. (Kan might have asked to learn swordplay from Kaoru but I would have to ask Aki about that IDK if he is in on this)

SPEECH: At least she has almost entirely been trained out of her Alternianisms - though Maryamisms of generally complicated speech are still well in play, she nearly never uses completely foreign words any more. Zilon is playing with the Alternian language being a thing but between blood color and the time, Kanaya never speaks that at this point, period. It may well lead to some very touching, odd reunion scenes. At this point, anything to do with trolls ever again seems like a complete and total pipe dream - she can't let the producers hang the Matriorb over her head anymore, she has to accept that the best case scenario probably doesn't even involve more universe traversal. The acceptance of this fact has a depressing affect she refuses to completely acknowledge. She only admits her fear of failure in private - as an early member of the team with the funky door, she has seen their numbers grow over time, so that has to count for something, right?? Unless she just dragged more people onto this sinking ship....

RELATIONSHIPS: She has warmed up to her fellow surviving teens at comparable-to-graveyard levels: Gundam, Sonia, Stiles, Minatsuki, and Lydia (and her recollected relationship with Dave). These relationships remain fond in her thoughts often even if they're recaptured - she remembers Rin, saying "We're all still friends." However, deep down she hasn't forgotten what it was like to be a designated killer, and the ghost of rebrainwashing haunts her - like in the first game, the only people with which she is 100% open are Annie and Kaoru. Amicable enough to theother squad members, she keeps a lot of distance from the nations for various reasons but complies to anything they ask of her.

[souredsweet]

yES resistance sword training... 100% would have happened

[motheringnation]

Ukraine would still be trying to look after her after being graveyard buddies.

[humanic]

Stiles is now twenty! And kind of a badass. Thanks to three years of being on the lam and fighting for the resistance, he's buffed up a little more and learned how to be a decent shot with a gun (and a crossbow for sentimental reasons). His biggest contribution to the cause still lies in his mind; he can pick things up quickly, research like nobody's business, and help come up with plans. As far as his behavior goes, he's a lot calmer and more confident than he was in MM. While Stiles is never going to be a cocky guy, being useful instead of helpless has given him a much needed boost in self-esteem. He still flails around a lot and nothing short of death will make him lose the motormouth, but he's less prone to panic attacks. He still tears up every time someone manages to survive the impossible though. No homo.

He's also a lot more ruthless. Not when it comes to his fellow survivors - he will fight tooth and nail for all of them - but he doesn't care at all about how many of their enemies die and will even consider risking bystanders if it's the best chance for success or minimizes the risk to the resistance. For instance, as far as Craven Castle goes, his priority is to bring the game down and get Kaoru and Spain out; he's not going to be trying to sabotage or prevent the murders, especially since if everything goes according to plan they'll be able to save them from the graveyard anyway. His martyr complex has also come into light - while he'd suppressed it in MM due to being desperate to return to his dad and best friend alive, that doesn't seem like it's happening any time soon, so yeah. He's not going to rush blindly into battles when someone superhuman would have a better chance of success, but he'll take enormous risks on his life for information or supplies and so on (while yelling at everyone else to stop being so stupid for doing the exact same thing).

As far as relationships go, his closest friends are Gundam, Annie, Susan (even if she won't admit it), and Lydia - they're the ones he'll trust most and listen to when it comes to advice, as well as the ones he'll wake up at 3 AM to go check out this rumor or that shiny thing over there. He's also really good friends with Beat, Sonia, Alice and Poland - he's pretty fluent in Polish at this point and probably passable in Japanese if he managed to badger Gundam into teaching him. In general though, he tries to talk to all the survivors and form bonds with them, having recognized that they'll likely be spending a lot more time together - and with getting home looking more and more impossible each day, they're all he has left.

[speakveryclearly]

Guess who totally taught Stiles the Alternian alphabet as a cypher

This troll

[godwhisperer]

Gundam would come down really hard on Stiles for having a martyr complex, after everything he went through in MM. In a very inscrutable way where he would explain why it's wrong but it would just be impossible to understand. But he'd be really angry and disgusted with him for risking his life too blatantly.

[pandacea]

May is now thirteen! SHE HAS FINALLY REACHED PUBERTY. Her skin is still flawless because she's a princess, but she's shot up by about a foot. Still shorter than Kaoru but not by much, and she'll catch up to him soon enough. Also, I've retroactively canon-updated her to the end of the series (the in-universe explanation being that MM took away those memories and she regained them a little while after they broke out). So she knows that even though she isn't home, her clan will be all right because Ling Yao has promised to take care of them, which makes her a lot more dedicated to their current cause instead of frantically trying to find a way back.

As far as the resistance goes, she's pretty much indispensable as a skilled combatant/medic/supplies and weapons maker/scientist. As long as she knows what it's composed of or how it functions, her alkahestry can make pretty much anything, so Kanaya and Stiles don't have to worry about running out of blood or Ritalin respectively. She's actually become less ruthless in these three years, having matured more and seeing the world in more shades than black and white. Which isn't to say that she won't take a fucker out if they're attacking her friends, but she'll speak up if she thinks a plan is too ruthless, though she'll bow to either Susan's or Gundam's judgment in the end. After what happened with Kaoru, she's learned to accept her natural sense of selflessness as a virtue instead of something that's holding her back from doing whatever's necessary to attain her goal.

She's also less gullible and less prone to bouts of fantasy. She's learned enough by now to usually know when Gundam or Rapture are lying about their arcane abilities, though she'll pretend to believe them to make them feel better. And she can still be tricked by a really good story. While she's still a romantic and daydreams about finding a perfect prince, she's stopped projecting her fantasies into reality. One day she will find a copy of Twilight.

Relationships wise, she still idolizes Susan and Gundam, and she's very close to Sonia. She's also on good terms with Beat, Anastasia, and Rapture. Still doesn't really care about the countries because fuck immortals, but she's probably friendlier with Spain because he's kind of a big kid himself. Her relationship with Kaoru is...complicated. It took her a while to begin trusting him again and forgive him for taking advantage of her trust, but eventually she realized she would much rather be friends with someone real and flawed than someone perfect and fake. So she spends a lot of time talking to him and trying to understand him more and get him to understand her perspective more as well. SHE CAN CHANGE HIM WITH THE POWER OF LOOOOOVE. (It's possible that deep down in her secretest of hearts, she still doki-dokis over him a little. She knows it's never going to happen and really shouldn't happen, but she's still going to be watching Craven Castle and Chizuru with a very sharp eye. DON'T YOU DARE PLAY WITH HER MAIDEN HEART AGAIN KAORU.)

[throe]

She's learned enough by now to usually know when Gundam or Rapture are lying about their arcane abilities, though she'll pretend to believe them to make them feel better.

You've done your Auntie Rapture well, May.....

[souredsweet]

oh my god may sTOP GROWING YOU STOP GROWING RIGHT NOW... KAORU NEEDS TO BE TALLER THAN SOMEONE IN THE RESISTANCE!!!

the secret dokis tho

[godwhisperer]

Gundam is also now twenty and kind of a badass. No, really. Although he'll always be the same strange and over the top guy, the years have largely changed him for the better. Gundam never fit in back in his ordinary life on earth, but being in a resistance and fighting for his life and the lives of his friends has actually put him in his element. Gundam has always been very intelligent and much more useful in a genuine crisis than he is anywhere else. While he's normally something of a joke, when everything gets serious, Gundam actually tends to have a very cool head, is extremely brave, and is very good at strategic thinking. When the group was thrust into a dangerous situation, he would have been one of the players to immediately start fighting and figure out an avenue of escape, and one of the players whose mindset would have adjusted to survival extremely easily. Because of that, and because the others in the group of survivors actually came to realize the extent to which he had hidden talents and was secretly always extremely capable, Gundam stopped playing aloof dark lord and started getting down to actually being a serious member of the group.

While that's an obvious extension of lessons he learned in MM, spending three years having his own, actual talents recognized and respected by people who care about him has been pretty transformative for him. Even though he still sees the world through a pretty odd filter that involves demons and dark magic, he doesn't lie about his abilities anymore, and doesn't feel the need to try to impress people by exaggeration or fake magic. He is pretty confident that he is genuinely a badass, so there's no need for that kind of posturing anymore. So, for example, he's still likely to call animals demons or refer to himself as an angel/demon hybrid or explain what he's doing in anime supervillain terms. But he will not say things just because he thinks it sounds impressive that way, and he's actual prone to moments of real honesty - he'll never sit down and explain his childhood, but if it comes up, he'll drop information that reveals just how mundane it was and just what an isolated, sad kid he was. He now refers to his life in stages - before his curse was activated and he thought he was a mere human (early childhood), when he succumbed to the darkness of his destiny (his teen years), and after he overcame his fate and learned to tame the dark forces inside him (post-MM). He understands just how transformative that experience was for him.

Relationships wise, he's become a lot more open. He still sometimes plays at mistrust of the others, but it's mostly in a playful way - for example, he'll imply he thinks Susan or Stiles intends to betray the group and are secretly the Mastermind, but he would only imply that because he thinks saying someone is a threat is a compliment. He does genuinely trust the others and feels protective of all of them even if he doesn't always like all of them. He's likely to reveal that he has a pretty caring and compassionate side: his talent, after all, is a nurturing/caring one, but he previously only ever cared for animals. In his own weird, awkward way, he's pretty likely to be the one to go after someone who is upset, or try to take care of someone who is sick or hurt. He's also pretty ruthless in protecting his friends, but still abides by a fairly inscrutable moral code.

His closest relationships are Sonia, Stiles, and May. He and Sonia are still together and have had some sort of bizarre and creepy betrothal ceremony. They may not be officially married because there are no makango to be found for a Novoselic wedding, but they are married on the astral plane and Sonia is his dark bride. They did this really soon after escaping, but their weird relationship seems to work. Stiles is his best friend; he takes pacts of broship very seriously. He tries to maintain a weird antagonistic rivalry with Stiles and always talks about him like they're fated rivals joined by a sworn bond, but it isn't very convincing because of his obvious crush. No homo, though. May he refers to as his apprentice, but treats more like a younger sister. A younger sister who is much smarter and more capable than he is.

He's likely gotten closer to everyone, though, and has a lot of respect for the others, especially the more warrior and leadership minded. His anime martial arts have probably been improved by combat training.

After three years the hamsters would all be dead but since they were a MM regain he made it out with I'm just going to...say they're still alive...he's also probably picked up a weird little army of stray animals.

[speakveryclearly]

Being putatively teen married is hard and Kanaya only kind of understands; as happened often, she does not always have any effective working idea of what he is talking about (in spite of her canonical inherent fondness for boys who bluster nonsensically to cover their benevolence), takes the metaphors too literally, and just in general they can often have a conversation and she knows she didn't get it at all. She has a fairly significant friendly affection for him that has only deepened over time; she finds him charming, just confusing. Sometimes she remembers that Sonia and Gundam promised to carry on her life's work which is pretty much on hold under the circumstances and cries alone where she hopes no one will hear her but they are probably in close quarters.... If he ever went looking for her during other similar happenings and attempted to assuage the natural distresses afflicting the souls of a discrepancy between planes of existence that whole situation would be delightfully awkward

[souredsweet]

Kaoru is now 21 and woulD LOOK THE EXACT SAME because demons outwardly age very slowly... Though he would have started off being devastated that he couldn't get back to Chizuru after having so many revelations and feeling like he could actually fix things for once, being in a terrible situation with a bunch of other people would have been something he'd adapt to quickly. The survival mentality is something he's used to so that wouldn't have been an issue at all, and commiseration is something he was desperate for and now he has this whole big group of people to commiserate with...! Which would mean that he'd not only be able to redirect his massive negative energy toward a positive goal for once (re: bringing the producers down) but he would also be easier to get along with. He'd still have his moments where everyone around him stops and goes "Kaoru what the fuck" but his maliciousness (or at least his maliciousness when it doesn't involve the producers...) has decreased a good deal, and while his humor is still very sharp and questionable, it's probably clear to most that he doesn't mean ill by it anymore.

By the time CC starts, he'd be pretty familiar with a lot of concepts well beyond his time/world and his more archaic speech patterns would have shifted to something a little more modern, though he still has his moments where someone has to sit him down and explain a thing to him. He'd also have completely dropped his polite facade which means that he's more of a butt to deal with, but an honest one...!

Resistance: Kaoru would be a pretty good asset to the resistance re: brute strength! He's very skilled in fist to fist or sword to sword combat and not too shabby with strategising, either, and his ability to heal from almost anything and desire for quick action would make him a good person to throw into the fray first. Though his medical knowledge is outdated, he'd offer as much help as he could in that arena too and would have done his best to catch up on more modern medical methods. He'd definitely be among the first to advocate for the more ruthless plans and methods, especially since his sphere of caring would have only increased to include the resistance, leaving anyone not in their number out to dry.

In the interest of keeping as many of them safe as possible, he would have also been 100% willing to teach anyone who asked how to use a sword either defensively, offensively or both. Hand-to-hand combat training or sparring practice would also be things he'd volunteer himself for immediately. He would have attempted to familiarize himself with more modern weapons, but still sticks to a sword out of preference.

Relationships: EVEN THREE YEARS LATER he'd still be learning how to people, but he'd have made some big adjustments in comparison to the way he was the day Murder Manor started. He's come to accept the fact that not all humans are godawful village-burning maniacs even though he still has disdain, and can translate that to interacting with other resistance members like a somewhat normal person. Sonia, Kanaya, Lithuania and Spain would be the people he gravitates toward the most, though he'd also spend a lot of his time with May, Poland, Annie, Rapture and Gundam. Even though he tends to get into arguments with people who still have strong moral leanings, he's reached a point where he would not leave any of the resistance members behind NOT EVEN BEAT. They are his destructocomrades in shared misery and he appreciates them all to varying degrees...

[throe]

Welcome to the (physically) harmless sadism side, guy

INTRO MINGLE REACTIONS???

[speakveryclearly]

[Feferi is the second contestant of all to show up and Kanaya laughs hollowly.]

Good lord. That's Feferi. Before you ask, yes, we did know each other. She was dead for two years before the game. [Even hollower laughter.] They could have chosen less likeable seadwellers.

[If only she knew.]

[throe]

Nobody looks interesting.

[ Read: she's already tired of this and nobody looks as interesting as her. ]

[hollowheart]

Oh man, I'm so behind ;A: Annie is now 19... And still short. She no longer has that stick up her ass, and she's a little bit less than a loner and not as hostile as she used to be. Annie had isolated herself from her comrades back in her world knowing very well she'd have to kill them at a moment's noticed, so she wasn't particularly attached to any of them (even Bert and Ernie). MM Annie wasn't that much different, aside from game development.

Post MM, it's easier for her to open up since they're constructively working towards a common goal. She jokes more, but she's not any more chatty. She acts more like a person than a block of ice.

Appearance wise, she's not really that much taller. She's at 5'4 and that's really pushing it. Her hair is much longer, though, if not well kept (despite Kanaya's best efforts). Now that she has her titan body back, she's quicker to heal, more resilient, and, uh, can turn into an 14 meter giant. I'm not quite sure if that's employable at all since it's such a conspicuous form, and they need to stay hidden.

[speakveryclearly]

LONG-HAIRED LEONHARDTS MORE LIKE WOW THERE ARE SOME BENEFITS TO THIS WHOLE RESISTANCE GIG

[vytis]

No appearance changes here, of course, since Lithuania is a nation. Anyway, this sort of adversity, while weird because his people aren't involved, is much more Lithuania's style, and he'd adapt well to the situation. This does mean burying his MM issues but don't worry about those they're not there. He's very adaptable, knows how to use a ton of weapons, knows how to survive, and has that weird sort-of-immortality going, as well as being able to heal more quickly. Lithuania also has his absolutely ridiculous pain tolerance so if he decides to get super dangerous he can do a lot of damage. In a fight he CAN be pretty cruel but only if really pushed; under normal circumstances he gets into battle aura mode and just sort of wrecks things efficiently.

Except the DKs definitely got adopted, because Lithuania needs people to fuss over. Spain is the exception because you can't adopt a nation but they're friends, though someone would have needed to point that out to them since nations don't really make standard friends under normal situations. Aside from that there would be a lot of general doting on the younger members of the group because Lithuania really likes kids and also teenagers still count as kids sorry guys. This means they can basically walk all over Lithuania in a lot of situations that don't involve life or death things and he will bake them things a lot.

Also the DKs get spoiled too. So much DK spoiling. Even though Spain wasn't adopted he gets food foisted off on them. You guys are his, sorry, it's just a thing. Lithuania is probably kind of sad he cannot feed Kanaya because of the vampire thing. Maybe there's a way to make blood cookies. If there is he has figured it out. He has bobbleheads of all the DKs and also of himself and they are lined up in his room in the base.

Eastern Europe pretty much knows where they stand, I mean EE is EE is EE. Latvia is worried about, Ukraine is his fellow Only Sane Nation friend, he worries a lot about how Ukraine is handling the Belarus thing while trying to Not Think About It himself. Lithuania and Poland are still a thing but now since they have their memories back it's accompanied with the typical Lithuania and Poland behaviors of being ridiculous bffs with centuries of history and fighting like an old married couple, so there are occasions of "are they talking to each other today?" but it always goes back to normal.

idk what else to say here if you have anything to ask me reply I guess

Ruta, being blessed with a nation master, is still an adorable puppy. Please play with her and give her treats.

[pasodoble]

Someone points out to Lithuania and Spain that they're friends and they just stare at each other and get really weirded out. WHAT IS THIS HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE REAL FRIENDSHIP IS SUCH A FOREIGN CONCEPT TO THEM

Also it's Lithuania and Spain. Spain couldn't even remember Lithuania on the map until MM and now they're friends??? What is this...

[pasodoble]

Spain is now… just 3 years older, oops. He looks exactly the same. Its just 3 years to him.

You would think that suddenly being unable to go home despite being told he was going to get to go home would put a damper on his spirits but nah. He definitely had his fair share of curses for the producers but for the most part, he stayed in good spirits. He was also pretty convinced that being on the run was going to be 20 times easier than playing another game. God, guys, he is so awful at riddles and mysteries. He doesn’t even try, he’s just so bad at them. Put him in a situation where it’s just straight action though, and he’s in his element! He can fight, he can escape, he can help, guys, he’s got this.

Anyway, so no one is allowed to feel down around Spain. He will find a way to cheer everyone up. Cheer up charms, dumb jokes, hugs, lending an ear or shoulder, teaching them something to keep their minds off of things, telling dumb stories to distract them, etc. His dumb stories are really dumb. But he'd know when to be serious and buckle down when he really had to!

Okay, so he totally has a soft spot for the DKs. He’s a little awkward around Kanaya since they didn’t exactly get along very well before but he’d work hard to get her to like him more! Definitely try to prove himself around her by being super helpful since his selfishness before is what caused them to be tense. It’s also awkward around Kaoru and he absolutely has no idea why. When he finds out it’s because of the “I liked you when I thought you were a girl” comment, he felt pretty bad! He’d only just been teasing and didn’t expect Kaoru to be upset by it. He really does like Kaoru the way he is and he proves it by teasing Kaoru whenever he has a good opening. Spain still adores the hell out of Sonia. He’s also very protective of Lithuania… but not in an aggressive way! Like, he won’t fight for Lithuania (since he can do that for himself) but he’s always watching out to make sure he doesn’t work himself too hard.

He’d very gladly teach anyone anything he could. Cooking, fighting, cartography, paper flowers, Spanish, history, strategy... anything he can to help. He'd also be willing to learn from others but he's actually a very stubborn student so it takes him a little while to get some things.

As for how he got caught, he was probably doing something really reckless like charging into a situation without thinking it through all the way. He does it all the time to begin with because he thinks with his heart and not his head and while he'd gotten better at it, everyone probably knew it was bound to happen eventually if he was left on his own.

[souredsweet]

"everyone probably knew it was bound to happen eventually if he was left on his own" SPAIN....... kaoru and stiles shaking their heads sadly as kaoru forks over $5 bucks is my fav headcanon for that moment, god.

that said, kaoru definitely would have grown pretty close to spain in the time they had together after the misunderstandings were smoothed over, and probably would have grown to find his personality kind of like... soothing, in a sense. because he's seen spain at some pretty rough lows so it kind of strikes him that he can still work so hard to cheer everyone else up! it's probably something he admires.

also yes let's just solidify spain teaching kaoru how to fold paper flowers... i wanna say kaoru'd ask to learn guitar too if they ever got their hands on one! and would have probably started to learn spanish because WHY NOT. also the sword fighting yes good

[motheringnation]

So Ukraine is three years older....and of course you wouldn't be able to tell as nation and all that.

First of all, Belarus. So Ukraine probably cried a lot the first few days but after they got a goal, take down the people who hurt them, she's been a lot better. She's still terribly sad but keeps that wrapped up because it's not going to help and she thinks that Belarus would be happier if she took out her grief on productive things like helping the rebellion. and killing people who try to hurt them

Despite everything that happened in the game, Ukraine has gone back to her default mode of worrying about everyone, especially now they're all in a group. She'll try to mother everyone in the group because they are a team now and someone has to make sure you all get food and sleep and injuries taken care of.

Surprising I'm sure a lot of people, Ukraine is pretty good at fighting and resistance type work. She's had a lot of practice after all. She also has her scary moments that probably remind the nations who she's related to, but they are quick and she doesn't seem to notice.

Lithuania, Poland and Latvia are all her little group of EE people, and she'll include Spain as an honourary member because nations. She's also willing to teach people things, knitting, Ukrainian, sniping, pitchfork techniques and other skills she's picked up over the years.

[souredsweet]

yes good can we say that ukraine taught kaoru how to snipe? he'll have been pretty good with swords in general BUT LET'S GET SOME FIREARMS IN THERE TOO.

also i think kaoru probably would have warmed up to her over time for similar reasons to latvia re: just sort of being drawn to motherly, caring personalities. i feel like they'd probably get along better closer to the end of the 3 year mark in general tho, as he kinda cools his jets and gets off the crazy train a little.

[respecting]

After 3 years, Beat would be 18, but as he is a Reaper and his state of life is questionable (and more importantly, because I'm a terrible person), the amount he has aged is directly linked to how many "points" he's gained i.e. enemy bastards he's killed off!! ...So he's only aged about a year, which should tell you that Beat is willing to do what he has to but not much more than that. Anyway, he's slightly taller than he was before, his hair has grown out a little more too, it's now shoulder length. .....And his eyes stayed red, because yeah I'm super mean and enjoy scarring my characters for life.

He also got back all his canon powers, which means he can use his player pin to read surface thoughts of everyone in an area and imprint small mental suggestions onto individuals. He can also summon noise, so he's never without a pink flying squirrel on his shoulder (it's his sister Rhyme, long story.) And he can summon a Kooma Panda from his kingdom hearts iteration which has him incredibly confused, but it's cute and eats nightmares so ???? ok

At about the 1 year point he went through a MAJOR depression where all his guilt over Rhyme and feeling helpless and useless just kind of imploded, and he probably did some reckless things on the level of like. Almost deliberately trying to get himself killed again. So someone or multiple someones would have had to pull him out and snap him out of it and help him get his confidence and hope for going home and saving Rhyme back.

AFTER THAT, though, Beat would cheer up and throw his whole heart into their missions and whatever he was pointed at with gusto. Obviously he'll still be the best at things that need brute-forcing, but he'd have become a lot more cautious and stealthy from having to be on the run. Protecting himself and the other members of the group is extremely important to him. I think the group would probably want to teach him how to ACTUALLY be sneaky though, so they could optimize the use of his player pin for espionage. Because it is in the hands of the person who was least suited for spywork, wow, but he'd be a surprisingly fast learner considering well... everything. Future Beat now knows all the best way to manipulate people's reactions with memes like "Come get some hot stuff." Amazing. TO BE HONEST he'd probably enjoy this approach a lot more than cutting people up with Giant Shuriken, not just because he's a softy, but also because these are all Reaper powers and he still kind of hates being a Reaper though at this point it's pretty far from his mind.

As he is apparently the godfather of the secret passage, he also kept up his knack for finding things, so Beat probably got them a lot of good hiding places, entrances to places they weren't supposed to be in, and rare supplies. He's smartened up quite a bit since becoming more confident too, not letting his dumbness get in his way anymore yeah!!!! but it still sometimes does because wow did he have a disadvantage starting out. There are still plenty of times when people just shake their head and go "BEAT..."

So speaking of the others, Beat has a good relationship with Stiles, Gundam and May, but really he gets along pretty well with everyone (except one guess who) and his closest relationships would be with whoever helped him out of his funk. And also whoever else wants to come teach him stuff because he had a lot to learn. He'd probably have bonded pretty well with them too. And in exchange he can teach them.... how.... to skateboard...????? well ok he'll probably be a student in most every regard. He's still pretty antagonistic with Kaoru but at this point the actual hatred has petered out. Probably. For the most part. I think at the very least he understands what the DKs went through at this point and Kaoru could... appeal to his sister complex?!?! man who even knows.

[motheringnation]

I want Ukraine to learn to ride a skateboard.

Ukraine would totally help pull him out of his funk and would be open to teaching him stuff.

[notyetlost]

Um.

This is more of a Poland toplevel I guess because trying to plan like this for Poland is something I find difficult because he is... really unpredictable so I guess it really depends on what other people's reactions to him are...

I guess by the end of MM Poland felt pretty crappy after that Stiles/button thing and that was actually his legitimate lowest point of the game. So the idea that they really didn't end up going home would be kind of like 'hahaha I knew it.' Because prophet Poland is never wrong in mm apparently.

But Poland loves a good rebellion and uprisings actually give him a new sort of quality of refreshing life so he's probably entirely in his element right now. What's a three year revolution between friends?

[motheringnation]

She's not even fighting you this time Poland!

[inthebones]

Susan is still Susan at 24 and has... not changed at all, physically. She's settled into the appearance she'll have for the next however many years of her life she'll be around and has a sort of nebulous ageless feel to her. Since she's got all her canon powers back, she's pretty ridiculously OP; in addition to her opening doors and finding people shtick and making herself unseen to anybody who isn't a child or a wizard, she can stop time, coerce people into speaking the truth and obeying commands, and walk through things. Thankfully for everyone involved, Susan generally dislikes using her powers save when necessary (vanishing from sight to take ten minutes to have a cup of tea without being bothered is totally necessary). Also if the mods feel like any of this needs to be nerfed still, go for it.

Personality-wise, Susan hasn't changed all the much, either. She's less of a mothering type than she is the strict schoolmistress, still, and she'll treat the group a bit like she treats her classes. This is mostly to mask the fact that she's grown fairly fond of most of them under a guise of being responsible for their wellbeing and making sure they have their shoelaces tied properly and so on and so forth. She's as acerbic and dry as always and has no patience for anything being done inefficiently (unless, of course, it's amusing). While horrified by Susan fan material at first, she'll have learned to weaponize some of it by cutting out stock Susan expressions out of the T-shirts/calendars/whatever they find and calmly pasting her face to people's walls whenever they do anything that deserves said expression. It saves her from accumulating wrinkles.

In terms of missions, Susan is ready to do most things after shooting off a quip or two, but she's generally on the go. She's probably not terribly pleased about Stiles, Gundam, and Kaoru being the trio that managed to insert themselves into the latest incarnation of the game and will be in a terrifically foul mood whenever she sees that he's been shot and killed.

She probably gets along best with Stiles and May, and will have decent relationships with most of the younger folks. Gundam and Sonia she'll be very fond of and will continue to tease endlessly in her half-serious manner, Beat she'll try desperately to edumacate for a while before she decides to maybe set her sights a little lower. Kanaya can continue learning about the Black Ribboners if she wants to. Annie, Spain, and Kaoru will never be her favorite people, but she's (already) warmed a little to the first two and Kaoru will be tolerated because everyone else believes in him and so on and so forth. Of the countries, she probably respects Lithuania the most and if relationships in previous games are any indication, Ukraine will perhaps eventually befriend her. Poland receives the honor of being on the receiving end of most of her best quips, but he can take it.

At some point in time, Susan totally regained Binky and he and Lithium will happily frolic together. ...OK maybe that can't happen but whatever they're cute horse friends >=(

[motheringnation]

/befriends again

[allice]

im bad at tldr so this is just a rough draft sum up. if anyone wants more info on whatever lemme know.

APPEARANCE: She looks pretty much the same as before, with the only noticeable difference being she wears little to no makeup nowadays because of limited supplies. That and she also wears more comfortable fitting clothes that cover her up because she prioritizes keeping her body safe over looking fabulous and bodacious. Her suit-icon is similar to what she regularly wears nowadays.

ATTITUDE/RELATIONS: She's fairly grumpy, moreso than before, because being on the run for three years sucks and she's a lot more pragmatic than she use to be. The only hint of optimism is that she genuinely believes that they can get home one day and stop the producers for good, so she's always working toward that. She treats everyone as friends, taking any kind of weirdness in stride whereas before she overreacted to it, and wishes that they won't have to separate entirely if they're successful. She treats Stiles like a dorky little brother and has even warmed up to Annie, even if she still has her DAMMIT ANNIE moments every so often.

THE STATE OF SPAIN: She and Spain are in a casual loose-strings attached relationship. She'll roll her eyes at Spain and Austria being in a romance together, but she won't hold it against him or being overly jealous about it. If anything she's more mad that he got himself caught in the first place like a moron and has been working as hard as she can to make sure he's brought out of there safely. And then he dies like a moron making her MORE MAD god worst friend with benefits.

WHAT SHE DOES: Secret Agent Spy Shit as usual, but mainly she works with computer decryption and hacking thanks to her crazy math skills. Of course thanks to fucking magic bullshit she hasn't been entirely successful in that department, but she tries her best to do what she can. If anyone in the group isn't trained in basic military combat she'd offer to train them herself, as well as weapons training with standard firearms. Also computer skills, for anyone who wants to know basic hacking skills.

GAME REACTIONS: She'll think everything about this round is like 1000x crazier than the run they came from like holy shit what the fuck HOW DID HALF THIS SHIT EVEN HAPPEN. So many things on fire good god these players...

As for the actual CC players she doesn't have any particular favorites. She likes the Attorneys well enough, thinks Sebastian is One Hell of a Creep and that Nanami and Kuzuryuu are easily the most competent even if the latter is a little jerk. She's also super upset Rin is there again, because she feels responsible considering she's the one who unlocked the computer data.

[respecting]

hey alice will you teach Beat how to be a superspy or is that too much of a headache 8D

[teenspirit]

PRINCESS NIRVANA IS ALIVE AND WELL and off-set. She's very in-tuned to what the plans were and probably insisted at some point on getting back onto set (as a player, even) only to be shot down by basically everybody. In the end she wholly agrees that it was best left in Kaoru's hands. She is married to Gundam. It's gross. He has become such a badass over the last three years and Sonia is happy to stand back and sigh and watch it happen.

Sonia is about twenty or twenty-one now. She's a little taller than before and has somehow become even more absurdly Mary Sue beautiful (no, really, she's supposed to be canonly ethereal because cliche princess idk). She definitely looks like someone who could rule a country. These three years have made her even weirder- as she's warmed up to everybody she's gained a lot of confidence and much more boldness (if that was even... possible...). She's always been blunt, but she talks with a bit less stilted politeness now- which is probably due to being integrated among peers instead of being an isolated princess in her castle. She has a presence: it's all at once regal and awe-inspiring yet offbeat and weird just as she's always been.

Sonia takes on an 'everyone's best friend' kind of perspective. Although she had some very rough lows during the latter half of the game, she hasn't allowed herself to fall into despair ever since. She tries her best to keep everyone's spirits up and motivate them all, although she isn't afraid to use her Royal Voice when tough love is needed. Sonia has also probably spent a lot of time teaching her military training to the others in the group (possibly assisted by other qualified characters like Annie?).

She's very ready to go home, but she's not prepared for the reality of leaving behind her friends and all the people she's come to love. Part of her has grown completely accustomed to this new lifestyle, as difficult, dangerous, and exhausting as it's been. Everyone feels like family to her, and so she focuses mostly on the goal of taking the game down. Being reminded that once that happens, they'll have to find a way home, saddens her a little. SHE JUST WANTS TO HUG AND LOVE EVERYONE AND BRING THEM HOME WITH HER

[teenspirit]

Relationships!!!

She and Rapture are like sisters and everyone is probably terrified of them because just imagine two occult obsessed blonde girls standing in a corner whispering gossip about everyone else in the group. They probably play a lot of pranks together and put on impromptu singalongs at very inappropriate moments.

Kaoru is Sonia's Best Friend, because she said so and when Sonia says something you just have to learn to stand back and accept it. Her adoration for him is so schmoopy and ridiculous that you'd think she was in love with him, and she totally is in a platonic way even though he is a little shit and will always be a little shit. The last few years have just made her EVEN MORE DETERMINED to stand by his little shit self. When he was picked as the mole Sonia fretted like crazy and probably irritated the living hell out of everyone with her constant tears and worrying. When he left she probably tried to stall it by pretending to have some sort of dramatic medical emergency which everyone proceeded to see through. While he's been in the game Sonia has been utterly unbearable and she probably sniffs the clothes he left behind daily idk

As stated in Gundam's post, they had some sort of bizarre occult astral plane teen marriage ritual soon after the escape. Sonia still firmly believes that they have a kingdom to take over when they get back (because they will get back!!!) so she alternately refers to him as 'my ascendant king/my malevolent prince/my dark lord' etc. She is just as embarrassingly open and mushy about how she feels about him as she always has been. She doesn't seem to understand that it's embarrassing for everyone when she goes on about how Pure And True And Great her love is.

She's close to the DKs in general and they have kind of a bitchy little clique that gets up to mischief probably. Things have tempered down a lot for her with Lithuania and they may even be tentative friends by now. Poland... IDK... MAN I DON'T KNOW... but he still has her horse so there's that. May is like Sonia's little sister if Rapture is her older one. They have girly princess moments 10 times a day. Susan still holds a great deal of Sonia's respect and adoration, and to everyone's dismay, Sonia has a great deal of Susan merchandise and thinks that it's utterly wonderful. She is definitely in Susan Fandom. Stiles is still a solid 7 and she probably tells him a lot that he needs to find a nice person to settle down and get married to because solid 7s are hard to come by.