Know That

Know That

“Oh, you just need to flip the switch over there,” Sidekick called to Hero as they made their way through the control room of Villain’s lair. 

“How would you know that?” Hero spun on their heel to face Sidekick. 

Sidekick froze. “Uhhh, lucky guess?”

Hero frowned. “No. It is not a lucky guess.”

And it wasn’t. Sidekick had been sneaking out every night to meet up with Villain’s Sidekick to do…things. 

“You know what? I don’t want to know.” Hero flipped the switch and continued on. 

❁ ❝ 𝗸𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗼𝗸𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗯𝗮𝗿𝗯𝗲𝗰𝘂𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝘁 𝗿𝗮𝗺𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗹𝗲 ❞

━ first years and gn! reader (reader can either be yuu or an oc/twstsona) ━ the weekend is finally here, and you and your dear batchmates have decided to make the best of it with a simple get-together. (f/n means first name)

this work does not contain spoilers for chapter 7, diasomnia's arc.

do not steal or translate without my permission.

­­­­knock, knock, knock

the obnoxious thumping on the door abruptly interrupted your blissful weekend nap. you groaned in annoyance as you sat up, rubbing your eyes and realising your accompanied creature with an abyssal appetite was nowhere to be seen.

you got out of bed and opened the door in a rather grumpy manner, preparing to show your frustration to whoever was knocking on your door on a weekend.

as soon as your eyes landed on a familiar group, your frustration grew even more, “what’s the big deal, guys?”

deuce was the first to apologise sheepishly as he spoke, “ah, sorry, n/n…” before he could continue speaking, however, a certain first year cut him off, casually draping an arm on your shoulder with that cheeky grin on his face.

“happy weekend, n/n~! remember the plan we talked about? also, it’s 3 in the afternoon, why are you still sleeping?”

ace’s words made you realise this weekend had some plans for you with your batchmates. it was no wonder that epel, jack, and ortho were standing by your bedroom door as well. however, there was one missing person…

“where’s sebek?” you asked, trying to get ace’s heavy arm off your shoulders, but he took it as a sign to tighten his hold onto you just to annoy you even more.

“he’s in the backyard, setting up the grill,” replied jack, and as soon as he said that, he excused himself and went to the backyard to assist sebek.

“the foods to be grilled are all prepared! go and dress up, n/n,” spoke epel as he smiled at you before walking away, presumably heading to your kitchen, leaving ace, deuce, and ortho with you. the Ignihyde child had a bright smile on, showing how excited he was to spend time with you.

“f/n-san! good afternoon!” greeted the child enthusiastically, causing you to smile as all your frustrations from earlier disappeared in the blink of an eye. you patted ortho’s shoulder as you replied, “good afternoon, ortho. well, i’ll make me look presentable.”

ace hummed as he replied teasingly, “you should. you look like you came out of a cave after a century has passed."

you were about to reply but he quickly left with deuce and ortho in tow, heading to either the backyard or the kitchen to prepare for today’s hangout. you sighed, shaking your head slightly before closing your bedroom door.

“grim! that’s my chicken!” yelled epel as he tried to get his barbecue chicken from grim, but it was long gone from his hands as it met the darkness of his stomach. you gave epel a piece of your chicken to make up for grim’s behaviour, “you should have guarded your food better, epel~”

the pomefiore first year huffed before trying to hand you back your meal, feeling embarrassed that you had to give up something of your own for him. your conversation was abruptly cut off by a loud voice from the microphone coming from the lounge.

“HELLO!!!”

the rest shrieked, almost dropping their food or drinks in the process before you looked at sebek standing by the lounge window with a disapproved expression, seeing him hold the microphone as he tested its volume. jack, who was beside him, was clearly annoyed from the loud noise, “sebek, don’t yell into the mic…”

“i was testing it!”

“you could just tap it…” mumbled jack before lowering the volume a little.

you chuckled at their dynamics before sipping on your drink. deuce and epel were busy grilling the marinated meat and potatoes. the aroma of the savoury meals reached your nostrils, filling you with delight as you felt your stomach rumble a little.

ace noticed you had been staring at the grilling barbecue meat and potatoes, and without a word, he grabbed a small plate and filled it with the recently cooked meals. he then approached you, sitting beside you as he handed the plate, “you did not eat yet and i could see how you were drooling at the sight of the grill.”

deuce quickly glanced at you as he continued grilling the potatoes while epel continued grilling the meat, grabbing your preferred sauce, and handing it to you as the heartslabyul first year smiled, “eat up, n/n. we still have plenty of food to grill.”

“thanks, guys, but this is a lot. i can’t finish this,” you spoke as you looked at the filled-up plate. ace grabbed some utensils and said with a teasing grin, “who says you’re eating that alone? now, scooch over.”

“the karaoke is all good!” announced jack as he and sebek stood by the window of the lounge with a proud smile. the karaoke machine was seen behind them as it was flickering colourful lights to indicate that it was on. “i’ve updated the song list, too!” added ortho, causing epel and ace to cheer in delight, feeling excited to just start singing with drinks and barbecues on the table.

“let’s eat first before we sing our hearts out,” recommended deuce as he continued grilling the potatoes. “more like annoy people,” corrected epel with a soft snicker as he continued grilling the meat.

as you all ate to your heart’s content, evening came rather quickly. laughter and light-hearted bickering filled the atmosphere as you enjoyed your drinks and meals with your batchmates. as soon as the sun had set, ace decided to use his magic to put up some lights in the area – to impress, perhaps, or to fish out compliments.

“oohh, that’s more like it. now, i can see if a certain paw tries to steal my food again,” remarked epel before grim huffed. “you were not even eating it, so i did the meat a favour and devoured it!” spoke the cat-monster as the rest of you chuckled.

after a few minutes, you were conversing with sebek about the books he lent you a week ago. he was seated beside you, the grill settled on his other side as it remained closed after having all your meals. your conversation was unfortunately cut short by a sudden loud singing.

(1) “🎶 YOU CAN RELAX MY FRIE—”

“not yet! the instrumental isn’t even playing yet,” exclaimed epel as he laughed, stopping ace from singing with no background music. deuce chuckled while ortho had a smile on as he spoke, “ace trappola-san is just excited to sing!”

“the lyrics he sang did not match his current demeanour, though,” remarked jack.

“ortho is right! come on, epel, play it already! i’ll show you all that i’ll get the highest points!” cheered ace as epel sighed, playing the instrumental as ace started singing. both you and sebek were already cut off from your conversation and listened to ace’s singing. as much as you wanted to tease him, he sings pretty well that you can help but sway to the beat.

after ace completed the song, the point system showed up and he got a perfect score, making him cheer, “WOOHH!!! told y’all so!” deuce sighed and stood up, snatching the microphone from ace as he spoke, “it’s too early to celebrate.”

deuce went through the track list, wanting to see which song he would start singing. it took a few seconds until he found the song he wanted to sing. as soon as the instrumental started playing, he started singing.

(2) “🎶 welcome to wonderland, we’ve got it all~ 🎶”

if you had a light stick, you would have been waving it. you enjoyed deuce’s performance, complimenting him once he was done singing as you liked how his voice sounded. he was bashful due to your compliment but remained calm as he thanked you.

as soon as deuce’s points showed on the screen, ace chuckled and said, “hah! you’re just 3 points lower than me!” deuce huffed as he retorted back in reply, “i-i didn’t give it my all, okay!” ace laughed in response, “nah, i’m kidding. there’s actually a trick in getting the perfect score during karaoke.”

and with that, the heartslabyul first year shared his trade secret, but of course, he wanted something in return.

once that was done, it was jack’s turn to sing, but he declined the offer, “no, i don’t sing… it’s not my thing, you know.” his words made the rest of you let out disapproving groans as deuce practically shoved the microphone to him, “it’s all for fun, man! don’t worry, we won’t tease you.”

“hehehe…”

“ace, stop chuckling.”

as the rest continued bickering and laughing about, you remained seated with your arms crossed and a smile on your face, eyeing each and every one of them as thoughts swirled in your mind, finding peace, comfort, and happiness from just being surrounded by them, by the people you call your friends.

‘you always make me feel included... like i belong here...’

lyrics are taken from: 1 – Open Arms by Jorge Rivera-Herrans, Steven Dookie, and EPIC Ensemble from EPIC: The Musical – The Troy Saga 2 – Welcome to Wonderland by Anson Seabra

© twstgarden 2023 || please do not steal, translate without my permission, or use this to train a.i.

Back with some more thought experiments! This time, let’s talk about the actual worldbuilding of Twisted Wonderland. I mean, this is a completely separate world where fairytales and fantastical things actually exist. It’s functionally impossible for Twisted Wonderland to just be Earth plus some Disney sprinkled on top.

The biggest point that really gets me is that fact that methods to foresee the future exist. Astrology is a valid class in NRC and Yuu suffers from plot convenient prophetic visions. The mere idea that the future can be foreseen should have huge ramifications on how businesses and governments operate. Imagine knowing the effect of a deal or policy before it even happens. Or minimizing crisis by knowing about it before it strikes.

Magic should also affect technological development. We know that there was an age before magic was widespread among humans, thanks to Trein in GloMas. In that sense, I can see how up to a point technological development may be similar… but post-magic the technology should be different due to a different set of limitations.

Language is also an interesting topic. Setting aside things that humans probably can’t event speak like the Fae languages seen in game, what of the languages used in Twisted Wonderland? Would they be similar to Earth as a result of the Disney movies used to create its history? Does that explain why Rook speaks French?

This isn’t accounting for religion either. The Age of the Gods is a thing, drawing from the Hercules movie. That would mean that the Greek gods actually exist in Twisted Wonderland. So how did they fall out of worship? I mean, only Hades seems to be recognized anymore due to the Great Seven, and not even in a religious way.

Look, I’m going to hit the character count if I keep trying to list all of my questions. This is just all so fascinating! And true to my fixation on Yuu, this is all great content for exploring just how alien Twisted Wonderland must feel. Like, Yuu should honestly ask more questions. I don’t buy how easily they adapted in the game.

- 🦐

*cracks knuckles* Shrimp you have brought up stuff I've been thinking about for a hot second, I'm so glad you have come into my inbox ( ๑ ˃̵ᴗ˂̵)و ♡

I agree that I don't think Yuu would have adjusted as easily as they are depicted to in game, but this is a mobile app gacha game licensed by Disney so it's not going to focus as much on stuff like that. Luckily that's what we're here to do anyway~ I am going to go through these points one by one.

Point One: Astrology

The most we learn about how fortune telling works in game is from the Scalding Sands hometown event. There is an exchange between Cater, Trey, and Jamil about using coffee grinds to tell fortunes, and Trey specifically says something I think is interesting: we get two really interesting lines:

From what's said here we can tell two things: A) there is a distinct difference between types of fortunes and B) a distinct difference in the quality of fortune tellers. Someone like Cater is correct most of the time with his divination, but not everyone will be making actively relying on it for major decisions. I could absolutely see older kingdoms having a seer employed who a ruler could call on for supernatural advice, but I don't think that would be common practice in modern day Wonderland outside of maybe Briar Valley. Besides, just because you know something bad will happen doesn't mean you will be able to efficiently mobilize your forces in time to make a meaningful difference.

Speaking of which, not to touch on spoilers too much but Leven seems to be implied to posses the ability to actually clearly see the future, and as for Yuu's visions...

Well Lilia says he thought they might have a curse like Silver's (not that he knew why they were dizzy)... and the ability to see the future IS often handed out in Greek Myths as a curse, but well. Make of that what you will.

Point Two: Magi-Tech

The way technology works in Twisted Wonderland is a bit vague. From how Idia talks, I think there is a distinct difference between technology and magitechnology, with Idia specifically specializes in the latter. I actually went a really long time thinking that since Yuu hadn't a single trace of magic on them they wouldn't be able to ride a magi-wheel because of how Deuce talks about it syncing with your own magic and what not. Even magicless people in Twisted Wonderland don't seem to be completely magicless, they just don't have enough of a mana pool to actually cast a spell.

I think it would make sense to suggest magic and magitechnology probably affected Twisted Wonderland's development in the same way the silicone chip did ours, but the key difference would be that if you put too much magic into a device most humans can't use it. That would bring up a completely separate set of setbacks and issues... while there might not be a difference in the type of things built their internal construction would definitely be wildly different.

Part Three: Language

I think the easiest answer to this is yes. We know there is a "common" language that most places now use... I like to headcannon that language as being unique to Twisted Wonderland but I have seen some people think it is probably English. Which brings out my scrunchy face because the prevalence of English in our world is because of the British Empire... which never existed in Twisted Wonderland.

Rook speaks French because one of his favorite plays is set in Fleur City/the Shaftlands... which as a side note. In his Vampire card vignette he names the play that made him like Neige so much: Kingsroad~ The Sword to Become King!~ which is literally the Sword in the Stone based off of the little song he sings from it. I have been going crazy since GloMas thinking about if this suggests that King Arthur is french in Twisted Wonderland or if Rook is referring to another play... personally I think he's from Sage's Island but that's a crack for another post

Part Four: Greek Myths and Religion

There doesn't really seem to be any religious presence in Twisted Wonderland at all. It's unclear if Hades was ever worshiped or if he was just referred to as a god due to his perceived immortality and power. Given that there is something called the Jupiter group... and the Shrouds are a branch of the Jupiter family... AND that the Titans you fight in Chapter 6 are yelling about getting to and killing Jupiter... I think that it's highly likely there are events in Twisted Wonderland's history that correlate to the stories of the Great Seven, but didn't necessarily involve the Great Seven themselves. It's just that those events are remembered as having been done by them... for some unknown reason. Not to be conspiratorial... but do we have any proof they ever actually lived in Twisted Wonderland at all? (━＿━)ゝSure there are relics and things, and there are apparently paintings in the Land of Dawning Meusuem, but where did they come from? How old are they? I don't need sleep I need answers, is this a primary or a secondary source about the Queen of Hearts Riddle?

The End

I also wish Yuu would ask more questions, but I get why they don't :/ this is a gacha game blah blah blah but also. I don't think Yuu knows what questions to ask, there's a lot of stuff about life you don't think about as being abnormal until someone looks at you funny and I think Yuu realistically does a lot of that, but if you put every single instance of that into a game it would get very exposition heavy very fast. Luckily you, I, and everyone reading this have massive brains and can talk to each other about it!!!

whoever said all-nighters are exhausting is a liar i'm doing great. i've never felt better in my entire life, the birds are chirping as they welcome me into the gates of morningdom

Due to obvious issues, I didn't feel like doing something like this. . . But after a bit of reconsideration, I decided to cave and did this. . . Just this once tho!

In Twisted Wonderland, Yuu, "The Perfect Of Ramshackle," is forced to become the therapist of several men of NRC, getting into all sorts of situations & nearly dying on most occasions, all the while trying to get home. . .

But, I think it would be a hundred times sadder if Yuu was the biological child of the headmage(aka Crowley). . .

Imagine Yuu for a minute, no alive relatives, an only child, their mother passed & their father was "out of the picture. . ." Now in NRC, imagine them, searching, desperately trying to find a way home. . . only for them to find out. . . this is their home

Not even from this world…

I’m not really the type to have a bunch of headcanons or make some but if I had to have at least one it would be that when Sam says that it’s in stock, then it is in stock. No matter how much you doubt it

And then Yuu realises they can buy products from their world and starts wondering what kind of dark shenanigans are happening in Sam’s shop… Doesn’t work with people tho, only inanimate things.

(And it branches out to a personal AU I have in my head where yuu gets a bunch of songs from their world and sings covers of them online as a fun little thing anonymously and gets unwanted fame, cringe secret idol AU yeah)