#i was gonna rb the original but i bark

[canineclown]

for the meowers

[skybristle]

okay so the thing ive been following almond (good coffe and hot) for a while and i seen sundae mentioned every once a while. Who is sundae what is its purpose, like not trying to be rude but i dont know shit about her

[pls rb i put a lot of thought/effort into these posts, especially my own ocs!!]

literally copy/pasted all of this from a discord conversation so some of it might not make complete sense but . Sorry . also extra sorry to @/official-tbd for putting up with my shit in real time

this is really long and also. spoilers for suicidal ideation, suicide attempt, murder, mauling, generally super fucked up mental states and like . Sundae is really fucked up her lore is not for the faint of heart

starting with explaining my fanons magic mechanics because . Theyre important i promise . if you recongize the series i stole like half of this from no you dont.

SO BASICALLY there r a shitton of kinds of magic and practices and whatnot, primarily into 3 categories [shamanic [like . What affogato does], witchy [relying on potions/alchemy/physical ingredients and curses to produce magical results], and what's primarily practiced in parfaedia ; 'true' magic [typically relying on a mage gift in the user, which ill explain more thoroughly]. They're not,,, mutually exclusive and overlap a lot and there's others and its very messy but thats kidna the point and this is the best brief explanation i can give. Okay. Sounds of insanity and barking in my enclosure

So basically a mage gift is like. Generally you're born with it, can be inhereted or random and its fairly common, especially in parfaedia where there's such a high concentration of mages / magic in general. though it takes a while to properly show up , usually in preteen/teenage years but some r different. And they stay dormant up until then. it's basically a part of you in the way an organ/muscle/bloodstream kinda all three is and for all intensive purposes a stable magic system is just as important to your living as anything else. magic will show up when it will and basically never pops up early, usually only under severe duress where typically that explosion of magic Will Never End Well, and it's exponentially worse depending on how powerful the mage was originally and will generally leave their magic system permanantly kinda fucked up depending in which way it blew up. I thinkkkk thats everything important ??

so sundae is just a really pathetic wet paper bag of a kid . Kinda hopelessly in the worst parts of the city, an orphan, and not doing so hot because . Pathetic ass can't steal for shit which is kinda the only option and when it gets cold in parfaedia It Gets Cold.

So she's left to basically die due to a shitstorm of untreated diseases/starvation/hypothermia . Rip queen . Thats actually it actually she dies in some alley end of story sorry for the dissapointment /j

But no seriously actually she's laying there kinda accepting Damn im really gonna die until some asshole smacks her, shoves a canteen in her face and asks her if she's okay. SPOILER ALERT thats crumble he's also an orphan who is doing Slightly Better|

so he's like HEY CUNT want to . Not die and usndaes like oughshhshdh and he's like "i'll take that as a yes :]" and drags her off to a shitty attic of an abandoned building somewhere he proudly proclaims is his home base and nurses her back to health . Love wins. queue 20 years of friendship and codependency that totally wont end in tragety

i should mention they aren't ever romantically involved in any way. sundae's pan and crumble's bi but they arent into eachother they're just SO bestie. maybe QPLPs

but yeah they're very close and so so bestie . And also stupid kids <3 crumble is a huge thief and just steals so much shit even if it isnt important . He's a moderate kleptomaniac tbh but things r,,, Okay??? but it ends up so that sundae feels useless and like a leech on crumble's life since she can't rlly keep up,,, and she so desprately wants to escape but is completely powerless. And is like,,,, mostly convinced she's born on the streets to die on the streets and develops a pretty fucked up sense of self worth and general morality. Oops. This totally wont come back with a vengance

So uh. Turns out sundae has a very powerful mage gift brewing that she has no idea about . untillll tragety strikes, crumble gets caught stealing, and given how the authorities rlly dont give a shit about this place the merchant decides to kill the problem . So sundae freaks the FUCK out understandably so because that's her bestie and also her lifeline and uh . In the heat of her panic as crumby is about to get his throat slit or something The Entire Fucking Alley Bursts Into Flames [Including The People There]

[except crumby] [he does get his arms scorched pretty badly from trying to shove the assailant off and said assailant bursting into flames but him and sundae are relatively unscathed. Except sundae's mage gift literally exploded and she's in really bad agony from that even if there's nothing physically wrong with her oopsieee]

Sundae's kinda having a crisis and crumble is like WOW thats so cool :] but sundae kinda realizes eventually. Holy shit she has magic and begs crumble to steal some magic books for her. she finally has hope that she could have a way she and crumble can get out of here, bordering on obsession

But you see her magic is all fucked up and wacky . She eventually bullies it into behaving normally for proper spells but uh. Getting to that point is desperate and requires a bit of help from the crescent moon. She's barely aware of how DANGEROUS this is and is like :] and self teaches herself magic. She's actually surprisngly good at it but gets more and more investedi n darker magics

it gives her an edge,,, and when she has to fight for her place and to climb,,,, Well,,,, it feels like it doesnt have a choice. Not realizing how insanely powerful its gift actually is . It's part of the tragety of her story; this really never had to happen. When the downfall was completely avoidable but the character doesn't know this >>>>>

there arent,,, really any drawblacks. she notices her hands r blackened with claws after a while . not a big deal, she thinks, but it's the first sign of magical corruption. Which. weaponizes your mind to feed on misery and despair you cause after a while! though sundae is none the wiser and it takes a long time for it to really set root in her magic and start with the mindfuckery

she gets very good at magic ; her ways r kinda backwards from being mostly self taught and shes missing some stuff but her intellegence makes up for it. she's really good at spellcasting [think complicated shields, locks, etc etc rather than the showier artistic /offensive magics] though is fairly well rounded. She slowly climbs up the economic ladder and takes crumble with eachother, obviously, they need eachother

crumble is so good and kind and sundae needs that grounding desprately. she always thinks about him when thinking about her future, how one day they'll be comfy and rich and happy, both of them together. he's her bestie!!

he relies on her for direction in life,,, a lot. he's really a guy about living in the moment but he would have never escaped the slums alone . and also he's desperate for companionship and relies on her as a shoulder to lean on

I <3 CODEPENDENCIES

mainly she doesnt have to worry about offensive magicsince generally throwing her insane fucked up raw fire magic at something solves the problem [it does its best to ignore the streaks of black in the flames]

she uses a necklace crumble gave to her and enchants it to mask the magical effects of her growing corruption, thinking it'll ruin her social chances over it being an actual danger to herself because she doesnt know any better. I forgot to mention every mage has a sort of 'magical signature' and you can read it / know who it is if you know the mage unless its specifically masked. So sundae figures out how to mask it's own, giving the impression of just batshit fire magic rather than something even more fucked up

She just . ignores it. it cant cause any problems right? and tbh the magic acadamy when she finally gets to peer into the famed institute just enforces that . There are practicing dark mages and it isnt a big deal. she's a good person. she wouldn't let something bad happen. it doesnt matter.

she also has a motivation of so badly wanting to get to a good spot so she could help people like her. make actual changes rather than languish in misery over her upbringing. she wants to do good so bad. she cant be some evil dark mage. she's better than that. she knows that.

[she doesnt realize the caviat to dark magic is having to actively prevent it's spread until its far too late]

and it eventually, finally, makes its way into the institute. as a teacher!! she proves herself despite her questionable background and is allowed to finally have a stable job + help people!! budding students and lots of charity work on the side, it's great. For now. it's finally happy, crumble is loving working with kids even if he isn't technically employed,,, + the entire school third wheels for it and latte when its obvious theyre fruity HFDSLJKFDSK. and they're happy and gay and happy and sundae makes friends among the institute and . Ya !!

It's all great. Until it isn't!

sundae has a lot of intrustive thought set in, mostly revolving around violence, particularly towards people she cares about. it starts sparsely at first, then just gets worse and worse over time . its terrified of speaking out and making the people around it think less of it after its fought so hard to get recongition. she keeps her mouth shut and prays it doesnt get worse. it wont get worse

it gets worse and worse until she's convinced she's going to hurt someone. it wont go away. it's completely terrified and locks itself in its lab, convinced she'll get better, convinced she'll figure out a spell or cure or something. it's so used to having magic save everything in her life she doesnt even realize it's the problem. her thoughts are constantly plagued by violent fantasties and even self harm, digging her claws into her skin until it bleeds. Trying to claw whatever's wrong with her out. it's eventually in a haze of angry pacing and nobody knows what's going on as days and weeks go buy of thrashing and breaking glass fill the room. they're all worried about her but scared of going in since sundae is scarily powerful and who knows what she'll do in this state. Everyone's stuck.

and crumble is the most freaked out. this is his best friend and lifelong partner, and he's wracked with terror she might hurt herself in there. he knows something is wrong, obviously, and they've known eachother for so long. he'll be safe. he'll talk to it. he'll help it. he's as confident as he can be as he lockpicks the door and cracks it open

she practically begs him, crying, backing up into a wall to leave, to please, please just get away and hide and never come out. it's so scared but it feels powerless. It doesnt know what it can do anymore. even to him. she's been used to her magic being unable to touch him, it knowing intrisicly that he is not to be harmed.

but she loses her grip on her mind in short order, and well. Her magic isn't the thing that kills him

It's her own claws. it mauls him. and there's nothing it can do to stop it

when she's back to herself, the worst part is now she's fully lucid. she knows what she's done and panics, tearing her lab apart and doing all sorts of irresponsible and borderline suicidal spells to fix it, in an absolutely grief maddened and paniced state as eyes turn inwards and crumble's 'gone missing'. It's only a matter of time until the truth comes out. and it's painfully aware of that. all of the spells it tries results in failure and she has to deal with the fact that her grounding is dead and it's all her fault. They're closing in. her paranoia is getting worse and worse all over again. the extensive spells only make her corruption worse, giving her her tail and trailing up along her face until its impossible to hide. it's fucked, and eventually is lead to no further choice. it flees and , while looking latte in the eyes and holding crumble's body, spins up a portal to seemingly nowhere and whispers an apology before vanishing into the flaming rim. all of the magic use and lack of sleep and everything should have killed her, but it didnt, but with its entire life basically gone it fucking wishes it did. god forbid a she/it have anything

turns out the place she portaled to [note, a super draining spell you do not take lightly] seemed to be nowhere to those observing, but was the place her and crumble met. in a daze, hoping that if she uses enough magic and pushes herself and is stupid enough with it it'll do her in. she halfheartedly pulls up a curtain of illusion and begins ripping up the concrete and building a grave, a silent beauty in the middle of nowhere. she's fully expecting that when the magical blowback takes hold it will kill her, but she needs to lay him to rest first. she buries him under a clandescent silver and autumn tree grown with nothing but magic, closes in the illusions and hiding of this sacred place, and lays down to die

But it doesn't.

like obviously Suicide Isnt Good Kids but like . God does she want to. she's already lost her life but she isnt dead

idk it just gets me so badly about how what kills crumble is his love. he wants her to be okay and he wants to help her so badly, and his love blinds him from the truth of how dangerous she is. and it's the reason he's buried under that tree. their dynamic and codependency actually makes me level 5 critical insane

but yeah. she comes back around very much not dead, in agony and barely able to move but alive and slowly recovering, and she really,,, realizes what she did, realizes the weight of the corruption now spread all along her body. the lagging tail trailing behind her and weighing her down, literally and metaphorically. and it Does Not Cope Well

but it comes out with the conclusion that she really is bad. she was a bad person all along. a stupid, stupid, bad person. and shes desperate for control back of her life, desperate to see something again.

so in her fucked up state, she hangs the necklace on the tree branches, steps outside the curtain, and embraces it. embraces that she's fucked up and sick in the head. and desprate for control she turns to Crime !

she's exactly back where she started, the slums, but oh, now she has power. and she's going to make it everyone elses problem. it's completely fucking miserable the entire time though obvioudly.

it gets deep into parfaedia's criminal underground,,,and while i wouldnt call it a mob boss it's associated with a lot of bad people and her magical corruption is thriving off it. it loves the misery and control and pain she's inflicting at its whim. a lot of murder and violence and magic and stuff, all under the radar of her being thought dead [who wouldnt after all that insane magic usage and a likely suicide] and her impeccable ability to hide her tracks

she feels awful constantly but tries to sweep herself up into the glamour and power of it all,,, and its like,,, Half working

and life continues as normal back at the institute,,, mostly. they scrub her and crumble clean of all records, and latte especially quietly greives, never really taking on another lover just because what she had with sundae never received closure and she cant really get over it. the only thing that remains of sundae is old newspapers, pictures in latte's desk, and empty frames in the staff hall

years later, when light the beacons happens sundae's curiosity is peaked, but once it blows over and is handled she just ignores it. it isnt relevant to what she's doing here.

BUT THEN it happens again , on a much larger scale [war on shattered skies] [the one tea knight and eclair were introduced in] [except tea knight doesnt exist and never did im devsis] and sundae tries to blow it over but she watches from the shadows as the city she loves is torn apart and the dragon has only come back stronger, and the mages are losing. badly.

sundae, despite everything, still holds onto her deepset want to do good. in the end all she wants to do is be good, even if she's given up on chasing it.

but in that moment she hesitates, sighs, and then gives up her spot in the shadows as flames spool out from her palms. blackened chains drag the dragon into the fire, and it's a messy attack spell, one that's a massive drain, but it's effective, and really sundae doesnt care what she does to herself anymore

and with terror, latte and eventually others recongize the magic signature of someone they thought had been dead for years

but sundae suceeds and, because of her excessive magic use and careless nature of going about it, she drops unconcious, leading everyone with a massive mess to clean up

they worry more about picking her up and letting her recover and cleaning up the mess the rifts left [the dragon was the most apparant issue, but there r tons of other beasts running around] and THEN latte fights with almond about it being let off the hook because "well officer we used to bang" and also like she IS the reason parfaedia isnt a pile of smoldering rubble rn. And she convinces him eventually because uhhhh i said so . FUck you girlboss powers .

and sundae expects to wake up to an interrogation,,, but,,, doesnt??? latte asks if she's okay, where the hell was she, and what happened,,,,, and Wow does it hit sundae all of this could have been prevented if she just asked for help. They loved her. they could have helped her. they would have helped her. but it insisted on fighting alone

and she just . Augh it all hits her and she breaks down and latte comforts her and despite being at her lowest things are looking up

Over time and with a lot of help she slowly heals and gets a grip on her mind, her corruption doesnt go away but retreats back to a more managable state and while she'll never be the same, she's stable, and happier. she doesnt return to work, but helps wawa learn magic in private, and eventually branches back to hanging out and reconnecting with old friends, as well as mending her relationship with latte. love wins !

she also obtains baby later [mocha milkshake] and mocha has her own moderately angsty shit going on [not nearly as bad] but TBH i dont want to get into it any also . God this is so fucking long do you REALLY want to read more.