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stepswowdsen · 3 months ago

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【KagePro】 KuroEne AU: MaryEne infiltrate Saeru's lab and confront him

Summary:

KuroEne AU: MaryEne team up against Kuroha/Saeru

Kuroha manipulates the MekaDan into splitting up and kills them one by one

Before leaving the hideout, Kuroha reassures Ene that he will be sure to come back for her... After all, he always keeps his promises (^-^) 🖤

Mary feels the snakes slowly return back to her, and Ene wonders why Saeru insisted on going by himself

Mary uses Captivating and Concealing to distract Saeru once he reveals his identity

Ene runs away carrying Mary and finds temporary refuge in an abandoned building so they can plan their infiltration of Saeru's lab

Mary uses Focusing Eyes to obtain entire floor plans of Saeru's lab

Ene uses Opening Eyes to disable security systems

Ene confronts Kuroha alone to stall for time so that Mary can learn how to control the Kagerou Daze with Combining

Lengthy discussion between me and Feila.

These are the main points ^^

I was imagining a scenario where, after Kuroha kills everyone on August 15th and leaves MaryEne alive on purpose, he reveals his true motives as the “traitor” of the Mekakushi Dan and the one behind everything.

Mary and Ene confront him at first, and then realize that they can't outrun Saeru due to his super strength and speed due to Awakening Eyes.

So, Mary, who absorbed the MekaDan members’ snakes after their deaths, uses Captivating Eyes to draw his attention to her, and then uses Concealing Eyes to completely blank out his surroundings in white.

And then Ene uses the distraction to carry Mary and run away with her since her android body won't get as easily tired, giving them some time to run and find a place to temporarily take refuge.

I HC’ed that Ene carries Mary cuz she hardly spends time outdoors, so she’d get tired easily due to her lack of exposure to sunlight.

So Ene carries her since she doesn’t get as tired with the body that Saeru built.

Ene then tells Mary that they need to come up with a plan to make the first move, otherwise they'll eventually get cornered.

My dialogue script WIPs and rambles are under the cut since this post is super long.

Dialogue Script WIPs

Rambles

Decided to show some dialogue snippet WIPs from the KuroEne AU Route where MaryEne team up against Kuroha/Saeru because I never posted them before.

I haven't cleaned up the rest though so I'll only post these snippets. I used line breaks to distinguish between different scenes since I write down ideas as they come to mind.

Saeru tells them, "You [two] have nothing left," telling them that all of their struggles are pointless and that their efforts will be in vain since they're the only ones left.

Therefore, the Queen (Mary) will use her powers to rewind the world to see her friends once more.

...

Ene realizes that she can stall for time against Saeru by engaging in conversation with him first, and then baiting him into intimacy, since she knows he won't turn down the offer to indulge in more pleasures with her.

I imagine that Saeru will eventually realize that Ene is stalling him... and that she must be desperate to resort to this, but realizes that her wanting to stall for time for Mary's sake for as long as possible is not the only reason for this, but that she's acting based on her inner yearning too.

While they're still talking, though, Saeru tells Ene that he basically decides who lives or dies, and that he could end her life right now if he so pleases. But then Ene counters this by telling him that Saeru is more interested in seeing how things will play out.

I especially love Saeru's line, “How could you ever expect to defeat someone who surpasses you in both knowledge and strength?” because it’s true.

Ene uses Saeru's interest/willingness to see more outcomes/gain more knowledge of her antics against him, and then counters him by saying that he’s not immune to “human sentimentality/emotions,” despite claiming to be above it all…

"You've always been much more interested in seeing what choices I make."

Also I feel like Saeru seems especially excited seeing his S/O (Ene, in this case) stand up to and defy him.

He looks down on humans and thinks he's above all human sentimentality while also claiming to love humans and their foolishness... That's such a human-like contradiction.

...

I think Focusing can be used more than once to check his whereabouts (assuming he doesn't change his appearance)

I don't think he even bothers changing his appearance since it's just MaryEne left.

Though MaryEne think it's best to use Mary's Eye Abilities sparingly so she can preserve energy and not get too exhausted. Saeru is aware of all of the Eye Ability Snakes and what they do.

Mary’s gonna try and use them sparingly to avoid revealing too much of their hand. Otherwise, he'll find ways around them and counter Mary's Eye Abilities. Like don't use them more than once in front of him in a single Route. Cuz he can still be caught off guard with the element of surprise.

Novel Route states that “he is a living encyclopedia with a full grasp of everything from the start of civilization up to modern science” and due to his nature of existence as the embodiment of Azami's knowledge/wisdom, also knows things beyond what Azami knew about herself.

Saeru told Azami (Mary’s grandmother) to create the Kagerou Daze in the first place, when she wasn't even aware she could do that.

Saeru can counter Combining Eyes (Queen Snake) in the Novel Route and MR2 by just using Awakening Eyes to rebuild his body

The most useful Eye Abilities to use against him are:

Combining, Locking, Captivating, Concealing, Focusing, Deceiving (maybe)

Discussion Rambles

KuroEne AU ideas I came up with just now

Also I just thought about something.

Mary would be able to know Kuroha/Saeru's whereabouts with Focusing Eyes as long as he doesn't change his own appearance (like he did in MR2 to avoid detection by Hiyori's Focusing Eyes)

Not sure if he's gonna do that here.

Depends on if he wants to make the game easier for them (not considering it a threat due to his ego since Mary is bound to reset anyways with only the two of them alive), or if he wants to make things harder for them on purpose.

I assume he's not gonna bother to change his appearance with Awakening Eyes in the first KuroEne AU Route with a MaryEne team up cuz only 2 are left.

Though ofc I still want to write a KuroEne AU Route where Ene gets to see Kuroha/Saeru's MR2 form...

In that case, Mary would still be able to see where he is with Focusing Eyes.

F: Tbh even if he changes his form, if he looks odd enough it'll be detectable at somepoint

How tf does Focusing Eyes work again-

Me: Yeah I think Focusing Eyes works by being able to zoom up on any person you imagine if you've seen them before.

In MR2, Saeru changed to the MR2 form to avoid detection by Hiyori's Focusing Eyes. Though once the MekaDan confronts him in the forest, Hiyori is able to use it to detect his whereabouts and can estimate how long it’ll take to reach them. Like Hiyori goes, "He's on the move again...!"

After he gets hit by a land slide and the mf just regenerates with Awakening Eyes

F: Oh no wonder it didn't work 😭 So you have to imagine their appearance first, then you can find them. I thought it'd be like zooming in really really close towards a certain area

Me: I think Hiyori has to know their appearance to zoom in on a certain area. This is probably one of the most useful abilities to use against Saeru.

Locking (Mary), Combining (Mary), Concealing (Kido), Captivating (Momo), Focusing (Hibiya), and maybe Deceiving (Kano), are the most useful ones to use against Saeru imo.

Focusing (Hibiya) and Opening (Ene) are really useful for infiltrating his base though

Me: Ok I just checked Focusing Eyes' wiki page rn to remind myself.

Hibiya can use Focusing Eyes to obtain entire floor plans of Saeru's lab after seeing a picture of Kenjirou.

I imagine that's how MaryEne's going to keep an eye on his whereabouts and plan their infiltration.

So Mary can still find his whereabouts while they temporarily take refuge in an abandoned building. Ene can use Opening Eyes to check out which security systems she needs to disable before entering

Me: One other thing I realized.

In Outer Science, the Bad End of the Music Route, since Kuroha kills everyone at once, this triggers Mary's transformation into a "monster" or Medusa, as Saeru calls it, since she absorbs all of the dead members’ snakes after their deaths.

In MR2, the members get killed throughout the day with some time in between.

I remember Mary was lying in bed first for a while from exhaustion because she was slowly turning into a "Medusa."

Mary instantly feels when a member's snake returns to her when they die.

Kagerou Daze: Ch. 57 - 58

In my KuroEne AU, Kuroha/Saeru splits up everyone in the MekaDan to search in pairs of 2 for the "Clearing Snake"

Then he starts to kill everyone, so the remaining members later try to search for the missing members.

Even if they don't know what exactly is going on yet, Ene and Mary must feel that something is terribly wrong

To get a specific member's snake back basically means their death... But I don’t think they would realize what it means at first.

F: Mary would stop every once a while like "Hold on... I feel another one coming back to me," or something like that as if she was trying to process what's going on

Me: Yeahhh like at first I don't think they know what's going on

Me: Imagine if Kuroha told Mary and Ene they should stay inside the base at first so Ene can take care of Mary?

Ene probably watches over Mary while Mary’s in bed at first. Since in MR2, she looks exhausted and her hair shortens (and gets blackened at the ends) as she absorbs more of the members’ snakes. And then eventually, Mary gets out of bed after feeling slightly better.

So then Ene worries that if the “Clearing Eyes” guy is targeting everyone in the city, then their base might not even be guaranteed to be safe anymore, so she leaves the base and takes Mary with her

F: MekaDan has 9 members, so spliting up into teams of 2 would let one person not get a team, which would be Saeru, it's all apart of his plan—

Me: RIGHT

I imagine Ene eventually gets a sinking feeling about this (once Mary starts getting snakes back) but ofc... he is her lover, so she wants to believe in him at first (before the reveal)

At first, Ene thinks, "Kuroha would understand if we temporarily moved locations to some place safe... Because frankly, I don't even know if our base is safe anymore... We'll regroup with him later! And then we'll try to find everyone! It's better if we all stay together!"

(Note: In Routes where Saeru pretends to join the Mekakushi Dan, he goes by "Kuroha" for obvious reasons)

I imagine there's going to be some scene where Ene gets teary eyed at the thought of Saeru leaving the base alone (like right before he leaves the MekaDan's hideout) and clutches onto his sleeves, saying, "Don't go... What if something happens to you and that 'monster,' the 'Clearing Eyes' guy, gets you!!!"

And Saeru just goes (...) before he turns around to face Ene.

Saeru reassures her that he has Awakening Eyes' super strength so he can scout across the city. And he pats and ruffles her hair and smiles at her like (^-^) and then gently caresses her cheek.

Me: One more thing I imagined.

Before Saeru leaves the hideout, he tells Ene, "I promise I'll come back to you."

And then, when he finds Mary and Ene (after he killed everyone), he goes like, "See? I always keep my promises..."

He is so evil for this honestly.

F: Oh God... 😭😭

"Jokes on you, I WAS CLEARING EYES!"

Me: Yeah honestly it's already devastating enough on Mary since he killed all of her friends and she physically feels the effects of slowly becoming “the next Medusa/Master” (as Saeru puts it)

But then Ene??? It must be so devastating to find out that her lover of 2 years is actually the mastermind behind everything who orchestrated everyone's deaths and killed everyone.

This must feel like your entire world flipped upside down and came crashing down on you all at once. The situation is so DIRE now.

Ene feels like she can’t afford to let her feelings get in the way, now that it’s been revealed her lover is actually a monster that needs to be stopped at all costs.

And Ene would definitely try to hide how she feels to avoid worrying Mary by keeping up a (^v^) shtick, but Mary ends up telling Ene that she should tell her how she really feels.

Honestly heartbreaking cuz she was probably getting flashbacks to all the happy times she had with Saeru (before of all of this happened) while she was running away with Mary.

Me: Yeah and then I imagine Saeru comes back to the base (after killing everyone) to find it's completely deserted. Saeru notes it's a good call on Ene's part, cuz if they just stayed in the MekaDan's base, they would've been cornered by Saeru.

Then he assumes that MaryEne either figured out his identity, or that Ene decided to take Mary with her after seeing their base might not be safe anymore (which is more likely)

Though they're probably laying low while trying to find out what happened to everyone.

On Mary and Ene’s end, no one is answering their text messages or phone calls, which is extremely concerning.

I imagine they’re not running around the city to avoid detection, just so Mary can preserve her strength just in case they run into the so-called "monster," so they move around quietly. At this point, Saeru probably eventually finds them by scent since he’s a snake.

F: Not to mention not listening to Shintaro's warnings because he was the one who had a bit of suspicions for Saeru

Me: Yeah I imagine Shintaro and Kano would've been a bit suspicious of him... 😭 Ouch

Me:

Kagerou Daze: Ch. 21

I just imagine Ene does that thing where she quickly goes back into her cyber body and tries to find the other members' whereabouts through GPS but just gets an error message. Something is OFF.

And no one is answering their text messages or calls...

Me: Mary feels the other's snakes slowly return to her (throughout the day) while they're still in the base, and goes, "What is this......? I suddenly felt..."

And Ene gets concerned when Mary's hair starts to fall off and she grows snake scales on her, and just goes like, "…Mary?"

Me: And then Ene eventually just thinks back on Saeru’s decision to go scout for the other members alone, "Why did he insist on going alone... A group of 3 would've been better!"

Mary: He probably wants to go alone—

Ene: But why? Does he not want to be included? It's odd...

Me:

Ene: But the killer is on the loose...! It would've been better if everyone all stayed together...!

Ene: But I guess he’s always been a solitary person...

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gingermintpepper · 10 months ago

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Okay, let's finally talk about EPIC's Apollo

I feel very compelled to say, first of all, that I do not dislike Epic. In fact, I am very fond of Epic and have been following its production and status very eagerly! I attend all the launch streams, I watch all of Herrans' update videos; I am, at the end of the day, a fan and I want it to be known that my words are spoken out of love and passion as much as they are spoken from a place of critique.

So really, what my problem with Epic's Apollo?

In the briefest possible terms; the choice to have Apollo be defined by his musical aspect in God Games is thematically strange. And not in the 'oh well in the Odyssey, Apollo was important to Odysseus and his family so it's weird that that wasn't kept in Epic' strange, strange in the sense that Odysseus' character arc since My Goodbye has been getting more and more obviously Apollonian and so it is positively bizarre that when we get to meet Apollo, the god seems entirely disinterested in him and his affairs. So much so that he is not even defined by any station that would indicate that he has been watching over and protecting Odysseus and his family.

What do I mean by 'Odysseus has been following an Apollonian arc'? I'm so glad you asked!

Remember Them is the last song in which Odysseus explicitly uses his sword until Mutiny where he must use it to defend himself against Eurylochus' blade. He uses it to help enact the plan to conquer Polyphemus and, due to Polites dying in that battle, Polites who wished for Odysseus to put the blade down entirely and embrace a post-war life, Odysseus also retires his sword. This is an action that symbolically separates him from Athena - and the image of Odysseus as a traditional warrior set for him in Horse and Infant - as much as My Goodbye physically separates him from the goddess and her war-ways - from this point onwards, Odysseus will no longer be leaning on Athena's wisdom or methods to solve his problems. Likewise, he will no longer be able to rely on her protection.

Odysseus thusly solves most of his upcoming problems through diplomacy and avoidance. He approaches Aeolus - a strange and ambiguous god (both in gender and in motivation) and appeals to them for help. Circe too, he approaches not with wishes to conquer or for revenge, but for the safe returning of his men and an alternate way forward. In all of these scenarios, there is some Apollonian element which is subtly interweaved alongside the influence of other gods; it is with a bow and arrows that Polyphemus' sheep is slain (and thus it is this Apollonian element which is at the root of Odysseus' spat with Poseidon), it is a vision of Penelope that warns Odysseus that his men are about to open Aeolus' wind-bag, Circe's peace offering to Odysseus is to refer him to a prophet of Apollo who has since died.

In this way, Apollo is walking alongside Odysseus for all of his journey after Athena departs - even in the Underworld, he is guiding him. It is Tiresias' proclamation that is the last straw for Odysseus, it is by the power of a mouthpiece of Apollo that Odysseus decides to embrace his ruthlessness. It is with the bow and arrow that Odysseus subdues the siren who sought to trick him, likewise, Odysseus does not attempt to undermine or escape the fate of paying Scylla's passage price - he knows of the doom about to befall the six men and quite unlike the rest of the journey until this point, he does not fight against it. This all comes to a head on Thrinacia where it is a blade which sacrifices the sun god's cow and brings destruction upon the crew once more.

My point with all of this is that when I heard the teasers for God Games years ago, it made perfect sense to me that Apollo would be Round One - he is not Odysseus' adversary and has no reason to oppose Athena's wish to free him. From other teasers about what will happen in the climax of Epic, Apollo will still be walking alongside Odysseus - it is Apollo's bow that Penelope will give the suitors to string. Likewise, it is Apollo's bow that will prove Odysseus' legitimacy and identity. That bow will be the power by which Odysseus hunts his adversaries and cleans out his palace - it is Apollo who is the avatar of Odysseus' ruthlessness, not Athena.

So tell me, truly, what was the point of having Apollo raise a non-argument in God Games? Why have him appear unconcerned, aloof and slightly oblivious? Why have him appear in his capacity as the Lord of Music at all?? And if the intention was never to make Apollo an active player in Odysseus' life like he was in the Odyssey, why keep Odysseus as a primary archer?

The answer of course is that Apollo is inextricable from the fabric of the Odyssey - his influence and favour exudes from Odysseus just as much as Athena's. In Athena's ten year sulk, it would have been Apollo who kept Telemachus and Penelope safe. It would have been Apollo protecting Odysseus from Poseidon's gaze as he travelled the seas (according to the Odyssey anyway)

Forgive me for not being excited about something that I thought was being purposefully set up. I was extremely ecstatic about all of the little Apollonian details that litter the sagas because I know where this story ends up (loosely) but all God Games did was reveal that maybe those Apollonian details were not intentional at all, but merely the ghost of the Apollo who persistently haunts those he favours, even if he cannot explicitly come to their aide in an adaptation.