#goddam that was a lot ;0; if u need me to clarify pls hmu!

[kordeliiius]

Who are all these metronome kids o keep hearing abt, i have shit memory and they seem to have Funky Powers

HI ALRIGHT SO for everyone just tuning in, I’ll do my best to give a rundown for each main-ish character and their proposed abilities!! Keep in mind this is an odd mix of canon and headcanon that will hopefully make sense by how I’ve structured this thing. I’ll also add links to sources and additional speculation where needed, since the LN wiki doesn’t touch on everything (but it contains tons of info on other canon characters and a pretty expansive gallery)

Ten is the main playable character and he carries a device that allows him to record, edit, and replay sounds from the environment. This mechanic was the main means of puzzle solving and stage progression, though it became increasingly harder to create an engaging experience from. So instead of stripping the game of the mechanic (and by extension, its identity), the game's development was halted indefinitely. He's also shown in the demo footage to interact with the spirits he frees, but like. How does he do that. Sometime later the idea of Ten having a sixth sense arose and I started drawing him with heterochromia to symbolize that (I’ve already gone off about how I think eye color could represent magical potency in the LN world), and depending on how that impacted his social life it’d make sense if he were more keen on befriending nomes and spirits rather than people. I also think it'd be cool if he knew how to play conventional instruments as well?? It might have an advantage in certain encounters. [[This game also had the original nomes in them; they're called metrognomes and they're soulless husks created by separating a child's soul from their body (sound familiar?) Ten can control them using his noise machine.]]

The game also has a secondary protagonist, New, who was at the center of the inciting incident and had some additional role in the gameplay. I remember hearing she could’ve been an AI or the co-op P2 but all the info in my head got jumbled up and I cant remember where that factoid came from. From what little we've seen of her, I’d assume that she prefers the stealth route and will fight bare-handed if things come down to it, but the synopsis also hints towards her having magic as well. Because certain technology responds to her presence, I'm thinking this could be some unique ESP, or if you wanna get real crazy, an earlier subvariant of transmission. (Either option poses an advantage in gameplay, allowing her to perceive things that Ten’s senses can’t, but the latter would totally heighten the drama.) That being said her abilities are unpredictable and she doesn’t have much tech knowledge to begin with, so that’s what drives her to seek help.

The other kids you might be thinking of aren't actually from the game, instead the community kinda,, made them up?? This ghost girl that @/oryst and I designed in tandem has a number of influences: the unidentified face on the old website, this fanmade box art and its reinterpretations, and also Mono! We still dont know where the artist got this idea from, but I rather like the idea of Ten having a temporary ghost companion that allows for some unique problem-solving. What we've ultimately created is the spirit of a young transmitter (having the “landline” equivalent of Mono’s “handsfree” capabilities) who was sought out and killed, and is now the spirit piloting the all-powerful machine at the core of the city. After the two become intertwined, it’s not exactly clear what her real personality is anymore. She was also New's friend in life, giving our protag all the more reason to burn the place down.

There's this other community-original character who acts as a spy for the corp. (updated design) They're a double amputee and are unpowered, but probably have some special devices to assist them on the job and can command scouts as well. I originally wrote them as another childhood friend of New's, maybe a sibling, but the two of them were split up due to a grudge surrounding their friend's death. It's also super ironic that the image I based them off was actually New as she appears in-game? It used to be so indecipherable that no one could recognize her. Maybe I'll use that bit of meta-irony to tweak their story or relationship a bit, who knows.

Also worth noting that each character here parallels the LN kids in one way or another, however no connection is exactly one-to-one. Somebody could argue that Ten was the original Mono because of how technology is a big part of their schtick, but to me his overall demeanor is more comparable to Six, and the metrognome sequences parallel Runaway’s route in The Hideaway to a T. On the flipside, New is commonly likened to Six because of her design and possible AI functionality, but the notions of magic and mystery in the synopsis make her more of a Mono in my eyes. The Ghost and the Spy, however, are intentional callbacks to Mono/Rain and Runaway respectively.