#the same could be said with pmd1 and pmd2

[xenowerm]

Playing toontown as an adult who had wizard 101 permanently engraved into their soul since childhood is such a surreal experience

[infini-tree]

thinkin abt the final leg of the fugitive arc, but first a little bit of backstory:

in the au, grace wain is a secret rank solo explorer-- a rarity in the au. she climbed the ranks not only scarily fast, but without disclosing what she even looks like

she is also their last hope. at this point the fugitive situation has become untenable, and their close calls have gotten too close for comfort. so they seek her out based on some rumor of where she is

the only problem is that said rumored place is… a volcano. between two members being weak to fire, and the third potentially overheating it would be extremely difficult. krupp is skeptical of the information, but goes along with it anyway since they're running out of options

(as a sidenote, as a result of the heat melting all the snow on him, they can't switch krupp over. whoops!)

once they reach the peak of the volcano, the clearing is strangely dark. though, fortunately for them, grace is there! she throws up a weather orb so everyone can cool off, hands them her badge to legitimize their claim and tells them to leave

(another sidenote: the implication here is that she's willing to put her rank on the line to vouch for them to potentially overrule a guildmaster)

of course the rather curt exchange doesn't sit with any of them well. krupp argues why she couldn't help them directly. harold shines some light on the situation

surprise, grace is a shiny haxorus! they eventually figure out that grace is future erica, and more conversations happen. seeing as she's from the same timeline melvinborg was from, she went back to try and stop it and their deaths, the latter of which she doesn't mention (but sure makes witful/cryptic comments to it).

however, since her present self is too entangled in the events, she can't help them any more than what she offered them. directly affecting her timeline like that would cause major ramifications and could write her out of existence before the job was done

(the only reason why 'borg could is with a potentially artificial time gear)

so they part ways. the boys use the badge to warp back, and now they're standing at the foot of the guild-school. the next bit plays out to pmd1's return scene-- borg orders the staff and students to attack them, only for them to chicken out or-- in the case of erica and co., refuse. even more back down once they see the badge

borg tries to save the situation saying that they could easily have stole it, but everyone is unconvinced since stealing from someone that high ranking, considering who they are, would be near impossible. george and harold don't know whether to be touched or insulted by the back handed circumstantial evidence

so does that mean krupp's back as guildmaster? no! 'borg pulls out the Beaurocratic Red Tape that states that any overruling backed up by a secret rank needs time to be processed and that no one is allowed to leave the school-guild premises in the meantime because of it. in the meantime, krupp is the vice principal/whatever chatot's rank is in pmd2

and something something character interactions, then Tattle Trial Time