#Slay the Princess Headcanons

[minotaur-asterion]

Voice dancing headcanons. I said so.

Hero’s halfway decent when they’re alone. As soon as there’s any other people around them they overthink it and end up bobbing to the beat instead. Embarrassing…

Opportunist uses a lot of hand motions. Not one for quick movements

Skeptic… somehow knows ballet. ??

Cheated can breakdance. Can maybe also Fortnite dance?

Contrarian knows the Just Dance choreography and nothing else

I’m so sorry. Paranoid dances like a worm sad emoji

Smitten likes to do two-person dances. It doesn’t have to be traditional- in fact, it can be improv! He’s surprisingly good at reading his partner

Dancing just isn’t something that comes natural to Cold. Not good at all

Stubborn knows the Cupid Shuffle. That has to count for something!

Hunted doesn’t know what dancing is.

[slaythebirdman]

how do the two of you kiss when the protagonist/hero/slayer/long quiet has a beak?

💛I immediately jumped on this one because I have STRONG feelings about our local bird boy and his touch-starved-ness. Hope you enjoy~!

How to Kiss a Bird Man

-Very carefully. -Jokes aside, kissing a beaked creature, no matter how determined, isn't exactly a straightforward task... But quitting is for losers, and he deserves kisses. -Quiet hasn't had much in the way of non-hostile physical touch in quite awhile, with his only positive non-princess company being voices in his head.

So that task is yours. -The presence of a beak is only a limiter if you believe kisses have to be lips on lips. There are SO many creative ways to kiss, and he wants them all. -First thought that comes to mind is just kissing along the top of his beak like you would kiss the tip of someone's nose. That level of face-to-face closeness is super sweet and intimate. -Kisses to the cheek and forhead too: thin, soft feathers make it very easy for him to feel it, and there's always something tender about a forehead kiss.

But the face isn't the only place that needs attention. -He has a neck and shoulders covered in down feathers, ready for you to bury your nose in and snuggle into. -And of course we have the most sensitive part of any bird-esque creature... the wings. -If you manage to sneak up behind him and plant smooches on his wings, you're going to end up with a very surprised, very flustered birdie. -Or you could always take it a step further: getting him to lay down on his stomach while plant touches and kisses all along his wings. That's a sure fire way to rile him up and get him needy and flustered. -All kisses, like any touch really, is good, and he's sure to be receptive to most any positive physical touch you're willing to share.

So, what about Him? How does He kiss you? -It is a little hard with the beak, but little gentle soft pecks to cheeks or shoulders or even the neck. Very gentle, very slow, just touching his beak to you. -He never suprises you with these because he's definitely worried that he'll startle you and you'll accidentally bump yourself on it. He really doesn't want you to get hurt because he tried to kiss you, especially since good touch is so new to him. -But he's found a middle ground touch he's very happy with: gently headbutting you every chance he gets. -Little bumps on the arms, shoulders, back, just whenever he can. Never with much force, just tiny little reminders that he sees you and loves you and wants your attention. -His favorite version of this is when he gets the chance to rest his forehead against yours. It's just so sweet and intimate, and he dosn't have to worry about hurting you. -Please let this bird boy show you how much he cares for you.

[stp-imagines]

Welcome!

Welcome to stp-imagines! This is a new blog that focuses on headcanons and imagines (one-shots) for the video game Slay the Princess. A copy of the rules is below the cut for those who are mobile-bound, and for any Path to Nowhere fans, check out my other blog, @ptn-imagines!

Be patient. I am a single person struggling with chronic fatigue. I will try to get to requests as quickly as possible, but some wait time should be expected, particularly with imagines.

Be kind. Again, I am a single person, and my perspectives and interpretations of the characters may be different to yours. Be respectful when interacting with this blog, please.

No bigotry allowed. I will not tolerate any form of discrimination on this blog, whether it be LGBTQ+phobia, racism, ableism, religious discrimination, or anything along these lines.

Specify if a request is a headcanon or imagine. Headcanons are bulletpointed lists of, well, headcanons. Imagines are full one-shots. I will write the same request as both headcanons and an imagine, but not in the same ask.

Be specific. This greatly increases the likelihood you’ll get a satisfactory response. In particular, if it isn’t specified, I will assume the “reader” in each scenario is the Long Quiet.

I will write for fan-made Princesses, but again, being specific gives a higher likelihood of getting what you want. If you can’t fit all the information into an ask, you may send a DM with any addendums.

Please request no more than three characters in any given request.

I will write scenarios for the Long Quiet, the Narrator, and the Voices, not just the Princesses. Ask if uncertain. This includes romantic scenarios (such as Skeptic x Hero content, for an example).

I will write NSFW content. Please only request this if you’re 18+.

I will not write romantic or sexual content involving the Den (the Beast is fair game. She passes the Harkness Test).

I will not write content that includes p*dophilia, r*pe, in*est, or abuse. “X helping the reader to escape an abusive situation” and similar requests is alright, though I reserve the right to decline any.

Please do not use characters from other media as a basis for your request. If you want a Voice/Reader/etc. who acts like, say, Dante from Devil May Cry, you will have to describe the desired personality traits the long way (so for Dante: a flamboyant, larger-than-life personality which they use to cover up how much they deeply care).

[chaoticgoodthief]

Echo

[dobodleaday]

07.24.24 Big Hater and the Littlest Hater

[swanpyart]

Some designs for the Voices! Since the Long Quiet is a bird man, here's a bunch of bird men

[lady-quen]

My thoughts on Quiet's mouth(s). No take backsies you're all stuck with this cursed imagery

[beartitled]

so how the long quiet would look like as female? so voice of the heroine?

Women ✨👭

This design was kinda challenging for some reason 💥

It’s probably bc I headcanon protagonist to be genderless (he’s the bird creature he needs no gender 😈)

But I believe he’s male by the canon (at least always referred to as him in game, so I assume so)

I didn’t want female Long Quiet to look like this meme 😭

*sobs* why is genderbend characters are so troubling to design 💥

I think it’s quite interesting topic to research/explore (and also fun)

[yourfaveisafearavatar]

The Player from Slay the Princess as an Avatar of the End.

[moonpool-system]

Plurality in Slay the Princess: Part 1

[pt: Plurality in Slay the Princess: Part 1]

Imagine you're standing facing the unknown, and then a little internal voice begins narrating everything you see.

[The Narrator] "You're on a path in the woods. And at the end of that path, is a cabin. And in the basement of that cabin, is a princess. You're here to slay her; if you don't, it will be the end of the world."

He seems pretty biased.

One of the best indie games to come out in 2023 was Slay the Princess, an indie horror/romance visual novel featuring your player character and the being he's meant to slay, known simply as The Princess. However, you're not alone, in more ways than one- both your player character and the Princess display clear aspects of plurality - aka, multiple identities residing within/utilizing a singular physical body. This can take many forms in real life, from disordered to non-disordered variants, and a good few of them are prominently recognized in this visceral narrative experience.

After the read-more will be some spoilers from the various choices you can make throughout the early game- so while this is part 1, there will be no endgame spoilers yet! It'll start off with Chapter 1 and go deeper from there. If you're intending on playing the game, we HIGHLY recommend you play only after reading Chapter 1 information, or only after this part 1 at most! It's best experienced blind as possible, and trigger warnings are present upon opening the game. This analysis took a while to write, so please consider reblogging if you enjoy!

...

Right from the beginning, the plural undertones of the story are clearly apparent. Once the Narrator stops speaking, you as the one controlling the body are able to communicate by asking various questions directly to the Narrator to press upon, enthuse over, or counter his point. The Narrator is speaking to you mentally, but is not you.

If you continue on the path to the cabin, you're presented with someone else speaking to you internally, titled as "The Voice of the Hero". The Narrator quickly responds with "Ignore him. He doesn't know what he's talking about." This situation tells us a lot of interesting things! First off, the Hero defers to the pronoun "we" - as he's clearly responding to the Narrator's direction, the other individual in this situation must be the controller of the body. The Narrator reinforces this concept by talking directly to you, telling you to ignore the Hero. So right off the bat, there are three people in this body- the Host, whom is being controlled by the player, the Narrator, and the Voice of the Hero. They stay with you throughout (most of) the entire game, so even without much happening, the main character is very blatantly plural. The only thing we can tell about them so far is that they're a polyconscious system, wherein each member displays their own individual consciousnesses rather than sharing one, and can all perceive the world using separate streams of thought.

Let's say you head to the cabin, speak to the Princess, and don't even bother taking the pristine blade meant to slay her, as you're intent on saving her. You speak to her with options using "quotation marks" to indicate vocal speech rather than how you've been thinking to the other members of your system, and you free her from her bindings. Just as you're walking up the stairs, the Narrator decides to try and impose his decision instead, and save the world by using the arm of the body to raise the blade to her. Being in control of the body as a plural/system is called fronting, and oftentimes in intense circumstances, one member can "take" the front from another. This is what we see in the desperate Narrator, and the fact that the Hero expresses his frustration at the Narrator's actions at the same time indicates once again that the members of this system are polyconscious.

You resist the Narrator and warn the Princess, and she also notices and addresses the sudden shift in motivation. She then takes the blade, and uses it haplessly against you in self defense. Such is this end of Chapter 1; everything goes dark, and you die.

!!! CHAPTER 2+ SPOILERS BEGIN HERE !!!

[pt: !!! Chapter 2+ spoilers begin here !!!]

Chapter 2 is titled "The Damsel". When everything loads, you're back where you were before- the Narrator doesn't seem to remember you or what happened, but you and the Hero clearly do.

Not only that, but another character has joined the mix since your supposed death- The Voice of the Smitten loudly proclaims his love for the Princess and hatred for the Narrator. Plus, he says something unique- he mentioned "the four of us" foiling the Narrator's "assassination attempts". This four includes the Princess, the Smitten, the Hero, and the Host/player, establishing how everyone here perceives the others as separate entities. Plus, now that naming consistency with the others established, the Narrator, not labeled as a "voice", starts to stand out as something... Different, from the rest of you all.

But it's not just you that's changed; everything within the cabin looks different, and it's not only that.

The Princess has metamorphosized; the Damsel wears a new dress and crown, has a much more gentle and delicate disposition, and her voice sounds significantly higher pitched and kinder. Not only that, but her bone structure is physically thinner, as is addressed later in the route. She has inarguably become different in not only personality but appearance too. Additionally, while she recognizes you and your earlier confrontation, she uses the pronoun "I" to refer to both herself as the Damsel and herself as the Princess before. This is indicative of monoconscious systems, where members share an individual consciousness/train of thought and switching involves the feeling of one member "becoming" another in a smooth transition, and median systems, where members often feel like facets of an overarching identity rather than completely separate entities. We see more evidence to medianhood after the two of you escape, and the Damsel seems to be taken away by... Something. You find yourself presented with the Entity holding her gingerly.

"Something finds me in the Long Quiet and brings me the gift of a fragile vessel."

She cradles her and describes the vessels as "nerves and fibers to feel the worlds beyond. Perspectives to make my own", and the Damsel as "soft and delicate. You molded her to love you, and she'll make for a gentle heart." She words it as if they are the same, and yet different at the same time. You ask if she is the Princess, and she says this;

upon pressuring, she states that you're speaking in circles. "Does it matter where one thing begins and another ends?" This once again supports the fluid concept of median plurality. She is different, and yet she is the same. It's hard to tell the lines between one and the other, even though they both still distinctly exist. She asks you to "bring [her] more perspectives so [she] may be whole", wishing for the facets of herself to be returned to her via completing different routes of the game. Interestingly enough, it seems the Entity displays polyconsciousness during these segments, unlike the in-loop Princesses. In another route she mentions the Princess having a will pushing against her own, and at the end of your conversation she mentions one last thing;

You're flung back to the beginning, with only the Hero and the Narrator at your side, and not a single memory ingame of what happened. You can't re-access old routes, so you have to choose to do something different the next time, to bring different parts of herself home to her.

There are many different routes you can end up on, and the Princess will change in many different ways depending on your decisions. Let's go over some interesting notes on how the two's plurality presents over the course of the time loops.

- The Princess seems to be completely monoconscious when within the loops, sometimes acknowledging herself as different but never referring to her other facets as a separate perspective ("I/me", never "she" like the Entity refers to her vessels.) This rule is only broken by the Stranger route whom, where due to the world literally fracturing, had multiple perspectives shoved into a single one, and she refers to herselves as "we".

- The origin of new facets of the Princess seems to correlate directly with the reset of the world they're in, and we never see her looping forms change otherwise, meaning we can likely assume this to be their origin. While time loops aren't recorded to have happened in this universe, we can safely attribute some sort of metagenic origin to the Princess's median facets. The only other time we see her "change" other than after a reset is her disposition & voice upon the first time meeting her, depending on whether or not we take the pristine blade. This displays that the player character's actions directly affect the Princess's facets as well, however delving into that would get into endgame spoilers, so it'll be touched on in part 2.

- Due to the lack of evident amnesia, distress, or disorder expressed to be caused by her plurality (aside from the Stranger) it's safe to assume the Princess falls under the category of systems/plurals without a dissociative disorder such as DID, P-DID, OSDD1, and UDD.

- On the flipside, the Player's system shows quite a lot of distress and disorder, from the Broken and the Smitten attempting to kill the body to the Cold eager to harm it, as well as many different system members with specific jobs meant to help counteract or ease the negative circumstances of the previous loop. Additionally, during the Moment of Clarity chapter, the Host explicitly experiences amnesia of traumatic memories the other members remember everyone experiencing, displaying dissociative amnesia. It's likely this system falls under the category of plurals with a dissociative disorder such as DID, P-DID, OSDD1, and UDD.

- Many speculate the members of the Player character's system to be your past lives or iterations of you after your death, since for the most part, a new one appears every time the body dies. This would be known as a fenigenic/phoenigenic origin. However, there are a couple instances where this theory falls apart- for example, in the No Way Out route, the Player, Hero, Narrator, and Cheated are joined by both the Voice of the Contrarian and the Voice of the Broken at the same time; right after, the Hero states that this is your third time, meaning if the past life theory is true, there should be only two new members, not three. (The line between alive and dead gets fuzzy later in the route, but this one is cut and dry.) Instead, I propose the Player's system to be an adaptive system, ending up with new members whenever they must adapt their mindset drastically to the situation. The new members often tend to be a reflection of the body's actions during the last loop, which supports this concept as well.

- Routes such as No Way Out and The Adversary complicate these assessments. In No Way Out, every time you die you try something different, which results in a new system member every time. In The Adversary, you fight over and over again with the same determination, and The Stubborn remains as the only new member from the beginning the entire time. However, in both of these routes, the Princess stops changing form at all. Evidence once again shows itself that the Player Character's perception not only affects what the Princess will be, but what the results of his own changes will be as well.

- Another differentiation between you, the "voices", and the Narrator, aside from his lack of memory between loops and insistence that he's not the same person as other versions of him, is how they both treat and experience the Mirror. The Narrator is notably distinct in that he cannot see it during regular gameplay, and that once the world is replaced with it at the end of a route, he's no longer existent to perceive it. The ones labeled "voices" are able to see it and fear it instinctively- while they're different from the Narrator, even they disappear when you look in the mirror and speak to the Entity. Hypothetically, this could mean that you are to the Voices' perspectives as the Entity is to the Princess's. The Entity mentions that nothing but you and her come to the space where you speak.

- Upon meeting the Entity after the third time you bring her a vessel, she greets you with this line; "I am a growing chorus of contradiction. A mass of tides ebbing and flowing all at once in more directions than my attention can bear to hold. To look at any one is to shift them all into something new, and to look away is to reshape them yet again. All of me is changing, and yet the rest is still the same." This is an interesting perspective into her relationship with the vessels and how her overarching identity is affected by her medianhood.

- A case that deserves special mentioning is the route of the Spectre, after killing the Princess without hesitation in chapter 1 and then proceeding to kill yourself after. In Chapter 2, you're then presented with the option to let the Spectre possess you temporarily, giving her not only access to your body, but to your mind. For a brief while, she can hear and interact with all the others currently present with you- at the time, the Narrator, the Voice of the Hero, and the Voice of the Cold. Once she's within you, the Narrator can't even get out a full sentence before she comments, "So this is what it's like to be you, huh? Disembodied voice narrating your every move?" She addresses the Voices differently than the Narrator; "All these shards of broken glass on the floor... Are they also supposed to be you?" The Hero takes initial offense at this, saying that "I'm me, is what I am." The conversation continues to the Hero questioning the Narrator's existence, to which he responds, "You don't need to know what I am. You just need to know that I'm different than you. More important."

To this, the Princess answers, "So you're the one that pulled the strings and made me dead. I can tell you don't belong here. You're barely even there. Like the shape of something left behind. You're more of a... Memory, than a person." And then, "You're kind of like me, actually." What does she mean by that? Is he like a ghost? Something else? It'll be addressed in part 2, but clearly he's different from the rest.

- One of the most affirming dialogue options you can have with the Entity is after the fourth time you bring a Vessel to her, where you both speak about how your systems operate. You can ask her, "When you send me back, I'm not alone. There are voices that speak to me. Some of them are me, but one of them is something else. I call him The Narrator, and he wants me to kill you. Do you have a Narrator? Have the Vessels had one?" This is yet another hint that the Narrator is fundamentally different than the rest of the Player's system, making it clear that together they make up a mixed origin system. In response to your question, the Entity responds with this:

From this we get a few things. For one, the Princesses are referred to in the plural sense ("their minds"), enforcing the separation between them. However, she goes on to describe them existing and constantly metamorphosising into something new, basically confirming the concept of monoconsciousness within the Princesses themselves.

....

From all this, we've drawn a lot of conclusions about the plurality of the Player character and the Princess/Entity from Slay the Princess! Such depth of plural experiences is extremely rare in any media, and this one exemplifies it very well, balancing both personhood and parts-based conceptualizations in its depiction. In part 2 we'll go over how the endgame and its philosophy applies to these concepts, as well as the revelations about the characters involved. It's wonderful to have such vibrant and unique plural representation in a video game; thank you for reading this disambiguation!

[wysteriaisapenguin]

We already have Smitten sounding like Skeptic when he's angry but...what if... it's also possible to have the other way around?

Like if Skeptic's emotionally overwhelmed and/or is in a state of panic, his tone becomes slightly more lighter and his gruff voice becomes more fluttery. After suppressing his emotions in order to "prioritize logic", he lets it all out, slowly striking a resemblance to his counterpart.

[minotaur-asterion]

I’ve been thinking about the Stubborn baking headcanon

As you know, baking can be a delicate process: specific ratios of ingredients, specific ways of combining them, specific temperatures- a lot of science goes into it. I can only imagine his first few attempts at it have ended in (catastrophic) failure. He may also have punched the stove a few times, which burned him, and it just made him angrier

There needs to be patience in baking. Hell knows I’ve gotten bored waiting for focaccia to proof. Stubborn doesn’t have that. For him, waiting is useless, and he wants to get to the meat and potatoes of the situation now! It’s a miracle if he doesn’t give up halfway through

It’d take months to actually be any good at any of it, especially considering Stubborn is almost entirely new to it. The voices are like new people, and all they have to go off of are old memories from a dead man, if that

But! Maybe, just maybe, seeing a little bit of improvement in his skills- the edges aren’t as burnt, he didn’t even start a fire this time, the food is kinda sorta edible, etc- would spur Stubborn to keep going. He finds that overcoming the obstacles proves more and more satisfying every time

Maybe he mellows out a little

[slaythebirdman]

post "And? What happens next?" where despite leaving as mortals and not gods both quiet and the princess maintain a little bit of their weirdness. like the princess' appearance and personality still changes at least a little from day to day

💗 love love love this ask. it's perfect since it's the only ending we've gotten so far. also, i've never heard birdie be called the quiet before, so that's neat. i'll address him as such in this post. this also ended up being a bit more than you asked for, but oh well. i also imagined them eventually getting/building a house together!

And? What happens next?

The Princess: -She's... still figuring herself out. Sometimes her appearance will shift depending on how the Quiet sees her. For example, one time, the Quiet forgot to clean the dishes when it was his turn, and when the Princess found out and yelled for the Quiet, she grew horns and her teeth became sharp. Her personality feels like spinning a wheel some mornings, too. There are days where she's softer and more agreeable, kinder with her words and actions, and there are others where she feels more like a goddess that every being should kneel before and beg for their lives, and others still where all she wants to do is fight until she can feel something again... She and the Quiet are both working through these changes together. -She is so over the dresses and is very open to trying other clothes now that she isn't tied down to what the narrative says she should wear. She does eventually lean more into wearing warmer clothes though because: -She's afraid of feeling cold. It terrifies her that one day, those hands will manifest and drag her away from this life they've built for themselves. There are sweaters and warm house slippers lying all over their house, and the Quiet will wrap his wings around her tightly to warm her up if he notices her clutching her arms and looking panicked. The Quiet: -He still catches himself talking to no one and expecting a response in his head. It's... lonely. Unnerving. Even when he's talking with the Princess, there's an uneasy feeling he gets when he asks a question in his head and receives an infinite silence in return. -Along the same vein, ironically, the Quiet has a difficult time dealing with the quiet. It's oppressive, constraining. There always has to be some noise, preferably someone else talking, whether from a podcast or a radio or a television depending on how advanced the technology is in the world you imagine the two stepping into post-game. -His appearance also changes from time to time, though it is nowhere near to the extent of the Princess's changes. It's more subtle, though that doesn't mean it isn't noticeable when he finds himself to be more bony one morning than he was the night before. It doesn't bother him too much, though. -Their house changes as well. Not the outside, just the interior. It's nothing as drastic as before, but the color and pattern of the wallpaper with occasionally shift, and the wooden floorboards will become stone, or linoleum, or carpet. Sometimes the change will happen within a day, and sometimes it takes weeks. When the Quiet comes home and sees the living room looking a bit more... voidy than usual, he knows that the Princess is in a particularly bad mood. -Crows. Something in his chest aches terribly at the sight of them, longing and hurt and regretful. It's bittersweet, though some days it tastes much, much more bitter than it does sweet. -Similarly, the Quiet avoids mirrors at all costs. Not even his reflection, just specifically mirrors. He gets too emotional, too lost in his own head, and it's a worse place to be stuck in now than it was before without anyone in there to talk with. There aren't many mirrors in their house, and the ones they do have, the Princess keeps covered.

[salty-an-disco]

Contrarian is that kid who was forced to go to church all their childhood and as soon as they hit adulthood and gained more freedom, refused to step foot on there again and now has a knee-jerk disgusted/fearful reaction to anything that reminds them of church

[chaoticgoodthief]

I Can't Believe I Made This

[clodsire-the-random-creature]

My interpretation of the voice of the hero