#cloudedrambles

[cloudedgalaxies]

ANYWAYS Idiyuu is Hades and Persephone conspiracy:

Persephone is not from the Underworld. She is called back to the Mortal Realm eventually because she has to return. Yuu is literally from another world. They are not suited to Twisted Wonderland, and are nothing like Idia has ever seen. They have to go back eventually.

Hades is probably one of the few TWST boys to have a “canon” spouse (at least in Greek mythology, which Hercules’ Hades is obviously based on). On top of that, Hades and Persephone is the love story between death and life, isolation and abundance, ending and rebirth. Idia is a gloomy, pessimistic boy who has been condemned to be the keeper of the Underworld. Yuu is a kind, gentle prefect who has been there to help and has helped everyone they know, again and again. 

Night Raven College has been in a ‘winter’ for all of its history. Everyone is hostile to everyone, no one wants to cooperate or work together, and every single person there has some ulterior motive. In comes Yuu, who is a breath of fresh air. A new perspective. A new season. They bring ‘spring,’ showing people that they can bloom. They can harbor feelings that aren’t cruel. They can do things that aren’t harsh. And slowly, they start to thaw. Flowers of friendship and something gentler bloom. Yuu is there to help pull the boys from their darkest moments to see the light again. Idia is no exception.

I think that the way Book 6 was set up makes Idia and Yuu seem a lot more meaningful honestly, though I'm probably reading way too into things lol. Yuu originally goes to the Island of Woe to save Grim. They don’t particularly care much about what’s going on with Idia—they just want to get Grim back. But then later, once they realize what’s going on, they do. There isn’t much, if any, personal connection to Idia’s overblot like there was with all the others. Yuu doesn’t have to do anything to help. And yet, they still do. Even after Idia basically kidnapped Grim, they still help him. They still try to end his winter.

Persephone, in many forms of the myth, didn't originally go to the Underworld willingly. But eventually, she came to love Hades, and they were happy together. Idia and Yuu have no reason to care about the other at first. But they eventually do, after everything that happens and everything that brings them together.

Hades and Persephone are in a constant push and pull. Persephone has to leave because if she stays, winter will never end. She does not want to leave, because she loves Hades. Yuu has to leave Twisted Wonderland, because they have a home beyond it that they need to return to. And yet, they don't want to leave because they love Idia. Idia doesn't want them to go, because it finally feels like spring again. But the seasons have to continue in their cycle, so what can they do?

Also, I think it’s really funny and really beautiful how Idia and Yuu’s first meeting was probably the Ghost Marriage event. This guy who thinks he has 0 rizz ends up having to be saved by some strange new isekai'd student and their gang of potential suitors before he gets his first kiss and promptly dies afterwards. Idia, the boy surrounded by death, is saved by the prefect who seems to be giving everyone a new chance at life. Imagine how poetic it’d be if Yuu and Idia end up getting married in the end, except now neither of them are going to die and they have the rest of their new lives together. There will be winter, but there will also be spring. The cycle of seasons will continue, but flowers will always bloom. They will always return to each other.

[cloudedgalaxies]

YOOOOO WHAT THAT'S INSANE

Aaaah that's giving me soo many thoughts you have no idea!!! That sounds like it could be such a good moment for both Yuu and the boys to better understand each other.

Night Raven College isn't the most hospitable place to be incredibly confused and ask a lot of questions. As Yuu finds out throughout the story, asking for help usually ends with criticism and rejection at best, and full-on conflict and confrontation at worst. This especially holds true for the biggest/most important forces they have in their life now: Crowley and Grim.

Grim belittles Yuu by automatically making them his minion, instead of the other way around or, even better, just seeing each other as equals. He is in no way thoughtful or helpful about Yuu's situation. He actively finds more trouble and problems for Yuu to solve on top of trying to grapple with all the new information they rapidly have to learn to even survive, let alone pass classes at NRC. After everything they go through, Grim becomes a lot more considerate and caring towards Yuu, but that doesn't mean that he wasn't just as bad as the others in the beginning.

Crowley, who comes off as someone dependable and willing to lend a helping hand, very quickly gets revealed as not that. In their very first hours in Twisted Wonderland, instead of giving them somewhere actually habitable, he sticks Yuu in an abandoned, falling-apart dorm that is also haunted! Yay! He leaves them to their own devices to manage not only the drips, but the ghosts that are trying to scare them nonstop. Maybe he knew that the ghosts were just trying to get a bit of fun, but to a person who has just dropped into a world where ghosts are real and are saying that they're going to turn you into one of them, that hardly seems like anything other than a very real, very serious threat. On top of that, Yuu has no idea how to exterminate ghosts, so they have no way to resolve it beyond running and hoping for the best. Let's also not forget all the times that Crowley either pawns off, rejects, or outright ignores Yuu's requests for help. His biggest and arguably worst instance was during Book 4, as we all know -_-

(adding the break because this got wayyyy too long omg 😭😭)

Most of the boys were also less than understanding with Yuu. During a lot of first meetings, they looked down on Yuu for not having magic, and throughout almost all parts of the game (stories, home screen dialogues, and even lessons) there's quite a bit of ‘teasing’ and comments about how Yuu is struggling to understand things. None of them are really giving Yuu the credit they deserve. They just got dropped into a whole new world with no warning, no background information, and no help whatsoever. When they come from a world without magic and where half the things that are real in Twisted Wonderland are pure fiction in theirs, of course it’s going to take a little bit of time to first come to terms with it being fact now, and then to adjust their thinking and actions to account for it all.

Off the top of my head, Yuu seems to be rolling with and quickly accepting whatever new information gets revealed to them as soon as Book 2 instead of trying to take a moment to wrap their head around it. That’s incredibly impressive, especially considering how alone they are throughout it all. They’re probably scared out of their mind and trying to find some stray source of comfort that no one is giving them, and their one solace is learning more about Twisted Wonderland. At least then they can actually understand and keep up with what’s happening to them against their will. Pair that with how quick they have to react to survive hostile mages, dangerous potions, and deadly overblots, and the two choices they’re offered with are to take any information they get and run with it, or hesitate and maybe lose their life as consequence. 

For comparison, I think Yuu’s situation would be a lot like trying to learn rocket science in a dead language. The one dictionary that exists for it is in another language you don’t know, so now you’re using two dictionaries to try to get it back to the target language. Oh, and by the way, both dictionaries may not be entirely accurate. Your problem, not ours. Also, no one is going to help you! Every week we’re going to test you, and every week the tests are going to get harder and more complex regardless of how far you get. Any time you get something minutely wrong, we are all going to point and laugh and judge, then spin a wheel that will decide whether we beat you up or shove you in a closet with your worst fear.

So imagine what would happen once, for the first time in their lives and the second time in Yuu’s, everyone is thrown into a strange new world that no one understands. They don’t know how long they’ll be there for. They don’t know anything about the way this world works. Magic does not exist here, which means that many things they take for granted in their lives every day will be completely different. There is no one to teach them about this world, or to help them when they’re confused. Sound familiar?

Except this time, Yuu is the one with the advantage. They’ve gone through this once—they have experience understanding incredibly strange things incredibly fast. They have the ability to adapt to things they once thought impossible. And now, they’re surrounded by many of the people who criticized them during their confusion in exactly the same situation as they were. They could help the boys, and show them kindness that they did not show to Yuu. Or they could be a little petty, a little mean, and tease them all just as much as they teased the prefect. They could give the boys the full experience of their first time in a strange new world, with no one to turn to and no one to help them.

If you were Yuu, what would you do?

As I'm playing the Nightmare Before Christmas event, when the scene where the students are shocked to find out that Jack Skellington doesn't know what or where twisted wonderland is, I just can't help but wonder how Yuu would feel. Everyone is baffled, stressed, uncertain,,, do they understand how yuu felt the moment they had found themselves surrounded by coffins, estranged from their home?

It's another lost in the book event where it's established that the students aren't truly in Twisted Wonderland, but comparing the reactions in this event with the Stitch event where the majority of the characters didn't really show all that much fear about their estrangement, twst NBC's featured characters are more aware of how scary and dire the situation is...

Leona concludes that the place they found themselves in "doesn't follow their logic/common sense" (rough translation bear with me lol), and I just keep thinking of yuu!! That's the same case for them, at the very start! Magic?? Beastmen ?? Being pulled into a different world/dimension to begin with?? Yeah, that certainly doesn't follow any logic they know of! And the way Skully and Jack show barely any remorse or true worry about how the other might feel about this sort of situation at first is exactly as jarring as it was for yuu when they were hurled from one situation to another with extreme dismissiveness from Crowley!!

I might be reaching a little bit but GOSH that part just got me?? Yuu is my roman empire OTL

[cloudedgalaxies]

Hey yall,,,,sorry that I haven't updated STSH for forever, I have even more finals next week so I've been studying 😖😖😖Hopefully I can post the next chapter sometime next week or the week after!

As thanks for waiting so patiently, here's a sneak peak of the next update. One of the rare few that won't be from Yuu's PoV, hehe

[cloudedgalaxies]

The cliffhanger for Book 7 Part 6 is FOUL. I went on a whole journey, experienced the five stages of grief stronger than I ever have and now at the very end when there's a teensy bit of hope returned through the literal sea of darkness and pain you're telling me that I have to wait another few months until I get the next chapter?!?!? 😭 😭 😭 😭

The devs can't keep doing this to me omg one of these days my heart is gonna stop working OTL OTL OTL

[cloudedgalaxies]

To play devil's advocate for just a moment, I do kinda understand where anon is coming from? Like very vaguely in a sense. I'm getting the vibe that anon was a little jealous Malleus was showing up in most Books, while other characters who not involved in that Book's plot (that Book's dorm and the previous Book's dorm) weren't as well. They could have done the same thing with other late-Book characters, like Pomefiore or Ignihyde. Honestly, I do kinda feel like Book 6 might have benefitted somewhat if we'd seen Idia and Ortho more before Book 6, but the two of them being so shrouded in secrecy (haha) did also elevate the sense of mystery and being out of our depth in Book 6. It was the first book to go off-campus, after all.

From a meta perspective, what you have to remember is that all of these other late-Book characters had events where they were the SSR or were important in pretty early on. Even if they weren't that present in the main story, they weren't completely lacking for content. My own previous argument of Pome+Igni showing up before their Book is voided by this: Rook+Vil were two of the first 6 Halloween SSRs, Idia nearly got married to a ghost and Epel had to help save him, and Ortho went up into space to change the weather. Diasomnia's even the same way: Silver was another of those first 6 Halloween SSRs, Sebek was a giant part of the Camp Vargas plan, and Lilia got a rerun card for Ghost Marriage, but he also shows up in a lot of events he doesn't even have a card in. All of these events were in the first 1-2 years of the game. None of them had their Book yet, but they still had plenty of content.

Now you could argue that Malleus had a big part in Halloween 2 (he did cause it after all), but he didn't show up until the very end. Compared to the other characters, Malleus has a habit of not getting much screen time, even in events where he has a card. Heck, this has carried over to his own Book when it's supposedly his turn to shine. Him showing up in a lot of Books helps compensate for that. He might not get a lot of cards, but he does get screentime in the main story when he "shouldn't" since it isn't his Book yet.

From a writing perspective, Malleus showing up this often helps to greater emphasize Book 7 when we finally get there. As both previous posts already explained, consistently showing Malleus and his relationship with Yuu helps to solidify how important Yuu is to him. His overblot is because he's suddenly being forced to face losing two people incredibly important to him. We already know Malleus is close to Lilia--the two of them show up together a lot, and in events they're in they always mention each other. The two of them have history prior to coming to NRC. While we don't get told the details of that history beforehand, that's because it's one of the main topics of Book 7. We literally get to witness a large portion of it there. We're given the big picture, then we get the details later.

Then there's Malleus and Yuu. There's subtle clues with them about how much they care for each other, too (Malleus is one of, if not the only character who consistently checks in on Yuu in every event). But we don't have to wait until Book 7 to get their history, their "details." Their "big picture" begins at the start of the school year. We're living through Malleus' history with Yuu as it happens. So of course Malleus is going to show up consistently, because every little appearance is another brick added to the wall of pain that is Book 7. If anything, Malleus should have shown up more. We're told that Yuu and Malleus go on near-nightly walks together. Very easily could each Book's epilogue instead have been Yuu recounting to Malleus what crazy things just happened to them as they go on their stroll.

If we didn't have their history before the Book, Malleus' overblot wouldn't have been nearly as impactful. It'd be like if Book 6 was what it already is, but the reason why Idia stops overblotting is because Yuu gets through to him thanks to their deep friendship (what friendship? Don't get me wrong, I love Idiyuu, but you gotta admit that canon has given little, if any, Idia+Yuu interaction. That's a ramble for another day though). We don't meet Idia in the main story until Book 5 (sorry if this is wrong). If we met him for the first time then, then were told during Book 6 that his bond with Yuu is so strong that it let him overcome the blot, I'd be a little skeptical. Where's the evidence of this relationship? "Show, don't tell" is a thing. We're being showed Malleus and Yuu have a relationship instead of being told.

Also, I think Malleus and Yuu meeting so early in the year is incredibly symbolic. Like Mal pointed out, Malleus has already been known to tour Ramshackle. It's old, and it's an old habit of his to go there. However, Yuu comes, and suddenly there's this new creature there. Ramshackle isn't abandoned anymore, but Malleus has found a friend. There are beginnings in something else's end. For Malleus' overblot to stop, he'll have to come to terms that things do end. Things change. But for everything that ceases, something new comes into being.

And it's kinda funny for the magicless loser to be friends with the OP magic loser regardless. They complete each other honestly. Where Yuu doesn't have magic, Malleus does. Where Malleus doesn't understand emotions, Yuu does. Unfortunately they are both equally dumb on how the world works. Yuu's from another world entirely, and Malleus doesn't understand what the Internet is. They're doomed with or without each other. Might as well put 'em together.

I cannot stand Malleus's involvement in the main story. And I don't mean in Book 7, since every overbloter goes with their respective book, or Book 6 since they need to set up the plot for Book 7. However in every other Book, I HATED Malleus being there. Mainly because he wasn't necessary.

I know that some might think "But in book 2 he's the whole reason Leona hurt so many people." And yeah, I will admit he is important to book 2. However if I were a writer for twst, I would not have had the Diasomnia dorm even make an appearance in Book 2. It was WAY too soon to introduce them, now if they were just mentioned, that would be fine, but to have their models be actually there was pretty ugh to me.

I also didn't like him showing up to Ramshackle, this is mainly because again he didn't need to be there, and it kind of ruins Book 7. This is because 1. Yuu already has friends, 2. There are no gargoyles at Ramshackle dorm, 3. Yuu is now literally his friend, and 4. It gives too much away about Malleus before it's his time to shine.

I will expand on 3, and 4 because they affect Book 7 the most. With Yuu being Malleus's friend it really makes it weird Malleus is so upset with Lilia leaving, since he has Yuu, and there's no guarantee Yuu is even going to go home soon. I say this because Crowley is unreliable. And with having Malleus talk with Yuu about his interests, and himself it made me feel like I didn't really need to read Book 7. It's like if Yuu talked to Idia, and before we got to Book 6 we found out that his brother's death made him not want to explore, and highkey gave him PTSD.

I also feel like having Yuu talk to Malleus doesn't really have any world building. In my opinion I think that Rook should have talked to Yuu at night instead of Malleus. This is because 1. He would be totally interested in Grim and a person from another world, 2. He could explain the twst world, and 3. He's not a main part of Book 5 besides the voting thing.

I've always said Malleus is too important for his own good.

(He's probably too important for anyone's good.)

But seriously, his importance to the story and basic writing mechanisms require him to have effective setup and substantial preliminary involvement.

You might not like Malleus. But this is TWST sticking to the absolute bare minimum of what constitutes passable writing. We talk about that a lot on here and Malleus is one of the characters they actually tried with. So no, replacing him with a less featured character doesn't make sense or improve the writing.

I'm not going to dismantle this take piece by piece unless someone really wants me to. For now, just know that I acknowledge your hot take and leave the rest to the reblogs and replies.

Thank you for your take.

[cloudedgalaxies]

Ugh I've been trying so hard to get that next STSH chapter out but school has literally been trying to kill me recently... I feel so bad that I didn't manage to get anything out in February and now we're nearly halfway through March already TwT OTL

For those of you who read STSH and are caught up to and/or finished Book 7, just a reminder that I started writing and planned STSH out in advance to knowing its end, and since I only play in EN I won't really know what Book 7's end is for sure until it comes to our server. Ultimately there are some little details I could maybe change here and there to make it fit better, but in the end idk if it'll be very lore-accurate to the end of Book 7, sorry (this is like my 1 true fear in the world so I'm probably taking it harder than I need to lol)

[cloudedgalaxies]

Welcome to Madness

Hi! Welcome to my insane little corner of the universe :)

My name’s Clou, or Clougal, or whatever version of my username you want to call me (she/they, either works)! I like writing and brainrotting and Twisted Wonderland, so this is gonna be a doozy of a blog (or at least it hopefully will, once I figure out how to stop being shy lol) 

Links

Archive of Our Own

If you’re new to me, here are a few little things to keep in mind:

I am still in school, so if I ever take long breaks or drop off the planet, please bear with me! I love you and writing, I promise, but sometimes homework and tests have to take priority, unfortunately ( ╥ω╥ )

I play Twisted Wonderland on the English server. This means that my works, fic or drabble or anything else, will for the most part only follow and use what has been released there. However, I suck at not getting spoilered, so there will probably be more than a few instances where I reference and/or talk about something on JP. I’ll try to add tags accordingly!

While I mainly write fanfic and post on AO3, I’m totally open to writing stuff on here too! If you have any requests that you’d like to see out of me, or just want to chat, send me an ask! Since I’m super new to this, I haven’t made a rulebook for requests and whatnot yet, but I probably will if I end up getting popular or something ^w^

*A note about my writing: I typically write using my version of Yuu in my TW works. Most of my works on AO3 have some little reminder about what this entails, and I also explain more about her here. If someone ends up requesting something, I could write using either her or something more inclusive/neutral, your choice! 

Requests

Requests are currently closed! If you request something from me, please specify if you would rather me write:

headcanons (bullet points) or drabbles (short scenes)

with my Yuu or with a G/N Yuu (the default will be G/N Yuu if not specified)

Constellations being revealed (WIPS):

Something Twisted Stirs Here (my take on a potential Book 8; Everyone & Yuu, may include romance in the future! Link to form to vote for what ships, if any, appear; link to Q&A form)

Unclouded stars (recent works):

Part 3 of Of Starlight and Seaspray: Four Souls, Five Nights, Six Hearts (Octatrio/Yuu)

Three Nights Remain (Leona/Yuu) (part one on Tumblr) (read on AO3)

Tags

#cloudedrequests - requests I've gotten!

#cloudedrambles - brainrot and rambles about things!

#writtengalaxies - longer written works!

#theorizedgalaxies - theories!

#emptygalaxies - shitposts and other silly things!

#cloudedpolls - polls!

Please enjoy your time here!

[cloudedgalaxies]

Where'd I Go?

Hi! Sorry for the lack of activity recently!! I thought that summer break was going to give me a lot more time to work on fics and stuff, but turns out that is not the case 😭

I don't want it to be full radio silence over here, so this is meant to be kind of a what's going on update. Real life responsibilities have been getting in the way of me being able to write a lot of TW-related works, including the last couple of requests I got before I closed them. I've kind of felt like I shouldn't be posting on here unless I have content to give beyond reposting other people's stuff, so I've kind of been avoiding logging on until that happens, but it hasn't yet lol. My summer class literally starts tomorrow too, so it might just get worse...

That brings me to: what's the plan for summer? Currently I'm not all that sure how much will be written, but I will definitely be posting something to AO3 (and here) in the next few days, so look forward to that :) Seeing as the Stitch event is here, I will probably be posting stuff about that, too! I'm also going to try not to just ditch the platform like I have, because you all deserve better than that and I feel really bad for doing it recently.

Finally, if you've read this far, thank you so much, you're incredible <3 Happy father's day to the best and worst dads in Twisted Wonderland, Lilia <333 and Crowley 😒😒😒