#bitternight darknibs

[bebrave-live]

Siobhan: "Bitter Knight was a warlock who had sold her sugar for magic, and the secret is that actually she was Amethar's oldest sister, Rococoa, who was a Revenant, because she came back to revenge herself against Calroy for killing her family."

[chungledown-bimothy]

I have so many Thoughts about the ACOC backup charaters, especially in relation to the player's primary one.

Zac: Lapin and Cumulous are both socially reticent guys just on the periphery of the family. They both serve a higher power that is not the Bulb. Lapin was tricked into it, while Cumulous was created for it. Lapin hides it, Cumulous basks in it. Different perspectives on Fuck The Bulbian Church.

Emily: Neither Jet nor Saccharina wanted to rule. Jet would have envied Saccharina's freedom even more than she did Annabelle's, and Jet had everything Saccharina wanted most. Essays could be written about these two, so I'm gonna leave it there and move on.

Lou: We know very little about his backup character, but we do know that his name is Murdo Brer, and he's a necromancer (wizard) who lives way out in the far reaches of Candia. His extreme interest in the dark side of magic turned him into an oozing, slimy, legless molasses man. The exact opposite of Amethar, the illiterate pillar of a rock candy barbarian/fighter whose life is the center of everything.

Ally: Liam is an outsider, he doesn't really belong there. But Caramelinda went out of her way to check in with him about his well-being and suggest a way out of the castle, if he wanted one. He's the only person she was nothing but warm and kind to. (of course. her husband and daughters certainly didn't help that) And then Ally's backup character is Sir Amanda Maillard. The s'mores paladin having an affair with the queen. She belongs in the castle even less, and, of course, her relationship with Caramelinda is very, very close. These two spots of warmth and kindness in Caramelinda's otherwise extremely stressful and challenging life.

Murph: Saying that Theo loved Lazuli and that he is who he is because of her is an understatement. All we know about his backup character is that it was a Bubblegum Monster construct created by Lazuli. That obvious parallel aside, there's something there in the chewiness of gummy bears and bubblegum. It's candy that takes a wile and some effort to finish. They've got staying power. We see that in Swirlwarden's ability and really everything about Theo, and I think it's safe to assume that a construct that looks like that is also not easy to take down.

And then there's Siobhan. Where this started, for me.

Her backup character was Bitternight Darknibs, a warlock made of sugarless chocolate. She said that, if she were to have played her, she would have been Rococoa, having come back from the dead as a revenant to get revenge on Calroy.

Rococoa's need to avenge her murdered family being so strong it brought her back from the dead vs Ruby feeling like part of her died when Jet did and revenge being the only thing keeping her going. Jet being the one connected to Rococoa. If Ruby had died, Amethar would have lost his daughter and gotten back his sister, kind of.

We don't know how aware of her past Bitternight is, maybe it's just, like, a thing we know and will devastate Amethar to learn later, or if there is a more immediate recognition/reunion sort of thing. But no matter what, it would have been absolutely devastating.

[silentlycrazy]

This whole season destroyed me. Jet especially because....really? Jet?

Amethar is the one targeted for assassination.

Ruby is shot through the neck at the end of episode 1!

But Jet is the one to die. As her sister escapes and her father makes a miraculously safe landing, her light fades out.

We knew there was death in the campaign, we even knew players would be back with new characters. But not her. How did it end up her?

dimension 20 classic. devastating character moment and then a joke to deflate. but it's not even on purpose bc they have no idea . at this point. that one of them is going to die. sometimes role playing game is like experiencing history as it happens

[dysaniadisorder]

would yoy like to know about amanda maillard and bitternight darknibs my white whales my brief glimpse of a potential future that will never come to pass . perhaps

i alwaysdo i always fucking do

[hellishfig]

interesting thing i thought about while rewatching a crown of candy w/ my sibling who has not seen it:

jet and ruby both have connections to one of amethar’s sisters. jet wants to be a warrior like rococoa, while ruby wants to practice magic like lazuli

when jet dies, emily’s second character is saccharina, who had a connection to lazuli, similar to ruby, which causes friction between them

but if ruby had died, siobhan’s second character was to be bitternight darknibs, who (as revealed in the final acoc adventuring party) was going to be a revenant of rococoa if she came into the game

i think it’s interesting that the connections to amethar’s sisters that the twins have are reversed in their second characters, and it’s very cool of emily and siobhan to do that

[zeldonovan]

(id in alt text) WOO @d20exchange gift for @sharkodactyl !! i love the acoc backup pcs we didnt see sm (bitternight and sir amanda in particular) and making candian designs is always so fun !! (also alt versions + murdo and ayda sketches i didnt finish under the cut)

[thevalleyisjolly]

Another thought: Jet lives.  Ruby dies.

Some things would probably stay the same.  The desperate escape from Castle Candy, the flight across the city with a body lovingly cradled in gentle arms that clutch too hard, too desperately.  Some things might rhyme - it isn’t hard to transpose Bitternight and Saccharina.  A leader, a mage, an outlaw with a vengeance to sate.

And then there’s everything else.

In some ways, Bitternight both solves and presents the same problems Saccharina does.  Rococoa is a sister with a lawful claim to the throne, a powerful warrior on the battlefield, a capable leader.  Bitternight has been hurt, grievously, and desires vengeance against those who hurt her, even at terrible cost.  Bitternight is Rococoa, Bitternight is not Rococoa, Bitternight is sweetness turned bitter, strength turned brittle, the past made present.  Bitternight-

Jet.  Jet, who wields Rococoa’s sword, who holds Rococoa’s old title, old position, who lost her sister, who nearly died to Calroy’s treachery.  Time isn’t a circle, but it parallels sometimes.  Jet, meeting Bitternight’s gaze, recognizing something familiar, not recognizing anything at all.  This is not Ruby and Saccharina, this is not a sister in place of a sister.  A dark mirror, perhaps, a razor’s edge between them.  Fighters, princesses, heirs.  Bitternight is Rococoa, Bitternight is not Rococoa.  Jet is not Rococoa.

(Who is Rococoa?  Who was Rococoa?  Does anyone remember anymore?  Is there anyone left to remember?)

((Amethar, always Amethar, always Unfallen))

And Amethar, hell, Amethar looking into the face of Bitternight and it hurts because there’s a face he knows like his own and yet she isn’t her, she doesn’t look at him like Rococoa used to, with the fondness and the love and the exasperation that only an oldest sister can know softening the stern lines of her face.  This is his sister, his big sister, the sister who should have been queen, and it isn’t.  She could be his sister again, his big sister, the lawful queen of Candia who wouldn’t fuck everything up, who’d know just what to do like she always did, except she couldn’t.  There’s too many years between Bitternight and Rococoa, and a gleaming blade wielded by a traitor.

(Amethar can understand that, the feeling of steel in your back.  He is Amethar the Unfallen, not Amethar the Unchanged)

Rococoa Rocks died.  Bitternight Darknibs lives.  What kind of life is there, after Calroy?  After Calroy’s knives, after Calroy’s death, when something like vengeance is satisfied, if it ever can be?  Chocolate is sweet, chocolate is bitter.  Bitternight is Rococoa, Bitternight is not Rococoa.  The past is a ghost, lingering.  The present is here, changing, changed. 

What, if anything, stays?

[the-apotheosis]

ACOC: The unused backup characters

(from the behind the scenes video)

Bitternight Darknibs: Siobhan’s backup, a sugarless warlock, mentioned in episode 1

Murdo Briar (? that’s how the cc spelled it): Lou’s backup, molasses necromancer

The Bubblegum Abomination: Murph’s backup, bubblegum covered in stuff, created by Lazuli

Sir Amanda Maillard: Ally’s backup, s’mores knight, Queen’s champion, knight of  Castle Candy and House Cruller

[azurecanary]

Team Red:

Ruby Rocks

Caramelinda Rocks (Candian lords and ladies in power during Amethar's rule)

Amanda Mallard (Half of the Tartguard)

Murdo Brer

Bubblegum Monster

Team Blue:

Saccharina Frostwhip (the Marauders & Cinnamon)

Cumulous Rocks (Order of the Spinning Star)

Theobold Gumbar (Half of the Tartguard)

Bitternight Darknibs

Liam Wilhelmina (House Jawbreaker)

Allegiance of other kingdoms:

Dairy Islands: Probably allied with Team Blue due to Liam and Primsey's relationship and eventual marriage

Meatlands: Previously allied to Saccharina (Team Blue).

Vegetania: If the Bulbians are still in charge, neither side would trust them, nor would the Bulbians ally themselves with a sorcerer. However, if Vegetania has denounced the Bulb, i could see them going either way.

Fructera: It's very likely succession would pass to Amangeaux's son, and again, that could go either way (and fuel some delicious dramatic irony).

Ceresia: Again, neither side would be willing to trust them, but Team Blue is slightly more likely.

Soprophus: If they announced themselves as the seventh kingdom, could also go either way

Just realising that the end of Crown of Candy could very well have led to a House of the Dragon situation on whether Saccharina or Ruby hold the right to succession

[allsevenmaidens]

Secondary Characters we never got to meet!

Bitternight Darknibs- sugar free chocolate warlock, Siobhan

Murdo Briar (?) Murd O'Briar (?) Murder Brian (?)- molasses necromancer, Lou

The Bubblegum Abomination- chewed bubblegum construct of Lazuli's with a butterscotch ax, Murph

Sir Amanda Maillard- smores knight of House Cruller with graham cracker armor and a molten spear stabbed through a marshmallow, Ally (one Rick Perry's favourite minis of the season)

[pricemarshfield]

possessed gramophone

Written for Day 6 of @acocweek; Alternate Universe + Favorite Backup Character + Cumulous. Read on AO3 here.

"This house is, definitively, haunted," Lazuli concludes, and Cumulous wouldn't believe her if she hadn't died here over a decade ago.

"Oh," Cumulous says. "So you were actually right about all the ghost things."

"It seems so," Lazuli says, seemingly happier to be vindicated in being right than annoyed about being dead. That's very Lazuli, though, so he won't question it. "How did the business do?"

Ghost hunting's had its boom with the whole internet craze over it, all the Unsolveds and the Ghostfacers and the Haunted House Inspections. (Cumulous really likes that last one.) But there's only so much ghost hunting business a town of 800 will have, and the tourism Dulcington gets over the haunted Rocks house is really only a summer thing.

Still. This might be enough to push it over.

"Should I take pictures for our website?" Cumulous asks.

"What's a website?"

---

Cumulous has always liked ghosts and mysteries and magic and things. He'd just--sort of lost faith in it all, especially after Lazuli had died in the same house that all her sisters ended up dying in, too. Amethar won't talk to anyone about it, and Ruby's cryptic nonsense about her idea of Lazuli doesn't fit with a lot of people's popular guesses online for the solution to the grand mystery, which is that Amethar's best friend killed them all.

It's ridiculous. Calroy has an alibi for two of them. Including Lazuli.

"So do you want people to know you exist?" Cumulous asks. It'd taken awhile to get any food delivered to Dulcington's most famous haunted house, but one especially brave driver had left the food outside the gate, so he's got some orange chicken. Lazuli had asked for the fortune cookie, but it had just said "always follow your dreams", which isn't really a fortune or helpful advice for someone who can't do anything.

"You always used to want to show proof ghosts were real to the world," Lazuli says. "Why not now? Did something happen?"

"No," Cumulous says.

Lazuli sighs. "This is the part where you elaborate, Cumulous."

"I spent so much time and energy keeping Spinning Star above water that I just didn't have time to try and find any more proof," Cumulous says.

"Well, you have proof now," says Lazuli with a nod. She still feels like his boss. Is she still his boss? Can ghosts still be in charge? "I--"

Someone knocks on the door, hard enough to shake the hinges.

Cumulous turns, ready to grab--something. He's not going to hit whoever it is with the camera equipment, that stuff's expensive.

"It's fine," Lazuli says. "It's just Rococoa. Sorry, Bitternight. Dramatic."

Cumulous does not understand, especially when he goes to open the door and no one's there. "Isn't she dead?"

Lazuli's nod isn't a surprise; the look of irritation on her face is. "Obviously. But she didn't want to just accept it and spend time here. Citrina didn't either, so she's--somewhere else, and I'm sure Sapphria is skulking about somewhere, but Rococoa...well. You'll see."

Cumulous closes the door, and before he can ask Lazuli what she means, someone hits him on the back of the head with his camera equipment.

God, he hopes it'll still film alright.

---

Cumulous wakes up tied to a chair with ragged, dusty curtains and with two ghosts and someone in a brown hoodie staring at him. He can't make out any of the details of their face, but they're tall, taller than Sapphria and Lazuli where they stand next to them.

"Is this Rococoa?" Cumulous asks, and the person in the hoodie says, "Lazuli, I really thought you were exaggerating how little this guy seems to care about crazy shit."

"Is this the guy who killed Limon?" Sapphria says, waving at him.

"That was never proven," Cumulous says, and Sapphria laughs.

The person in the hoodie pulls their hood back, and it's not quite Rococoa. Her face looks like a hollower version of what the pictures Lazuli had on the walls of Spinning Star used to, and she doesn't have the muscles that he'd have expected.

"Bitternight?" he asks, and she nods even as Sapphria makes a face. "Can I ask a question?"

"Sure."

"What are you?"

"Jesus, you don't mince words," says Bitternight. "It's complicated, and I'll tell you, but you can't post any proof. None at all."

"Rococoa," hisses Lazuli, and Sapphria says "here we go again" and floats over to undo Cumulous' binding.

"It's not safe!" says Rococoa.

"What, you think Calroy's going to suddenly disappear because one more person posted proof of the haunted Rocks house?" Lazuli says, throwing up her hands. "We could be showing people proof of the afterlife!"

"I need to stop Calroy," says Bitternight, not Rococoa, because the voice that comes out of her could not possibly belong to anyone who was ever just a person. It's more a snarl than speech, and the windows shake with the force of it.

"Well, yeah," says Sapphria. "But if there's proof won't he come here to try and silence you, or whatever? Then you can kill him?"

"I don't understand even a little of what's happening right now," Cumulous tells Sapphria, who nods sympathetically as she finishes untying the last knot in the curtains tying Cumulous to the chair.

"Look," says Rococoa, voice back to normal. "I've given up a lot to enact justice on person who killed me. You can post proof after."

Cumulous nods. "Fair."

"That's it?" she asks. "I mean, I've just told you basically the big dark secret that's kept everyone bound to this house, and you leave a one-word response?"

Cumulous shrugs. "It makes sense."

Lazuli frowns at him. "But how long will that take? You've been on this revenge quest for decades."

Rococoa groans.

"Why don't I just post something ominous on our page?" asks Cumulous. The sisters turn to look at him, both stares equally intimidating in very different ways. "Like, I know who did it. See if Calroy tries to silence me."

"Then I could kill him," says Rococoa, nodding. "That...might work."

"See?" Lazuli says. "I told you that you should have asked Spinning Star for help."

"If all goes according to plan, we should be released," Sapphria points out. "So the proof is worthless."

"Getting revenge on Calroy was Rococoa's thing, not mine," says Lazuli. "I'm here to get proof ghosts are real and tell Caramelinda to just divorce my brother and marry Amanda instead. It'll be better for everyone."

"Okay," says Cumulous, examining the tripod. It's a little bent from where it hit his head, but it still seems to stand steadily enough. Good.

"Are you actually worrying about the camera equipment right now?" asks Sapphria gleefully, and Cumulous nods. "Wow, you're weird. Lucky you're the one who found us."

"Sure," says Cumulous.

[thehouserocks]

I don’t care what Brennan says about alternative timelines, I choose to believe that bitternight is revenant rococoa in canon and the ghost the living rocks see is an illusion created by lazuli and voiced by master of disguise sapphria because her sisters support her and helped her escape the SPF.

[tinygalaxykid]

Very cool alt character death timeline for acoc

This is what I think would've included the most interesting backup PCs

Amethar survives both assassination attempts

BOTH Lapin and Liam die in the cathedral (liam goes back for lapin)

Enter Cumulus and Sir Amanda Maylard😍

They survive the attack at sea

Ruby dies INSTEAD of Jet in Dulcington (my reasoning for this is that I really want one of the daughters alive but if I had to choose, I like the idea of bitter night dark nibs better than Saccharina)

No one dies escaping the castle and while saving Joren

Cumulus dies to the Sugar Plum Fairy and Lapin is resurrected

End Party: Amethar, Jet, Theo, Lapin V2, Amanda, Bitternight Darknibs

Dont get me wrong, I loved all the arcs this season but ooooo boy did I want to see Amanda and Darknibs

[mermaids-ate-my-dinner]

Love Zac’s face journey as Siobhan reveals her secondary character’s lore.

Same, Zac. Same.

[queermustelid]

BITTERNIGHT WAS ROCOCOA WHAT

[curlsfromthenorth]

Omg... Bitternight... Roccoco... is it bad to wish Ruby had died? What we have lost