how is it for Yuu who has never ever saw a sea up close

they look out of many NRC windows, and suddenly it clicks that the horizon line is never covered with a skyline or a forest or a mountain range they look and look and it's always just a line between the sky and the sea, vast and boundless

they're taking the first chance they get to go to Foothill Town. to go to the beach. to stand at the waves' edge and marvel because wow they didn't even have to travel for hours after spending stupid amounts of money to get there? and the water is so clean and there's not even trash on the beach??? it just exists and you can come here?????

but it's not thanks to plot convenience or protection spells or anything

it's because Ramshackle is a haunted house of the "questionably living and sentient variety" and all these years it's been feeding on those infestations as soon as they so much as moved in

thinking how RSA's Alice dorm embodies curiosity

thinking how RSA's Alice dorm's 'warden could be embodying a more applied variation of it, like curiosity about other countries but specifically in the trail-blazing, explorer's wanderlust sense

thinking how RSA's Alice dorm's 'warden could be bemoaning the modern era, because everything has been discovered already, you can't have fun adventures like twst!Indiana Jones anymore!

smth smth foil to Riddle who learns because he has to and slowly discovers what he actually wants to learn, smth smth vs twst!Alice who's learned all they wanted and is losing interest in what they originally liked

but then:

my brain: "Hey, remember that HC of Rook's family being explorers?" me: "Are you suggesting..." my brain: "What if Alice dorm's 'warden is actually Rook's younger sibling. Rook never mentioned it because either 1) Rook never tells anyone anything, or 2) his sibling is embarrassed their brother is nearby, and Rook respects that by never mentioning "oh actually my sib goes to RSA", or 3) both"

what if - a TWST event set in Henson's Labyrinth

like one of them "lost in the book" events? where characters reenact the general plot beats?

Grim is obv Toby. Sarah's role is shared among the Heartshackle trio; actually either of the three acts as Sarah, Ludo or Didymus depending on the situation. Lilia would probs have fun with Hoggle's role?.. but actually, whoever would work can take it

now you'd think that Jareth's role should go to Malleus, but no no, not to Vil either

Idia would be a hilarious choice. JUST because of the contrast.

what's it population like? it can't be just shopkeepers and owners of businesses that cater to both magic schools, right? there are gotta be, like, actual families? generations of Sage Islands residents living there?

is there a school for non-mage kids living on the island? it's mentioned that Sage Island isn't exactly easy to get to, so there's gotta be a non-mage school there, right? (imagine Prefect bringing Grim along to attend grade school lessons)

also, imagine being a girl and a mage, and living on Sage Island with two major magic schools north and south. neither of which you can attend 'cause you're a girl, so you need to enroll elsewhere. and i'm sure some would jump at the chance to get off this remote piece of landmass, but what if someone doesn't want to leave their family?

imagine older people being friendly with students from both schools, always ready to pass down good advice. imagine well-meaning aunties teasing boys about their crushes. imagine men stepping in to break up fights or give practical help. or younger kids hounding students for fun anecdotes about their schools.

and good people of the tumblr have a few screenshots to share, huh

and can i just say

and y'all know what could be interesting to assign to Ace? being aroace

yes, yes, because the pun is right there, but also like. consider how you could write about his time at NRC as his journey to the realization he's aroace.

i mean like? he had a total of one het relationship in middle school (that we know of), and we're told how it went, and are also told that Ace would rather hang out with friends than look for a girlfriend. so you could spin it as Ace thinking "Okay, maybe I'm just not attracted to girls?" and sitting with the idea for a while. then he goes to NRC, what a good opportunity to learn in more ways that pure academics, and - huh, none of the guys looks attractive either??? and like, Ace is not blind or oblivious, he can tell who's likely to be considered "good-looking" or a "good catch"; but no one makes him feel anything?????

idk, it's just feels like something he might be insecure about, on top of everything else he has going on? so it might be interesting to explore how he would go about it. esp if he wouldn't realize that some of the things he means 100% platonically could be seen as flirting.

i mean, yes, the canon game has rough language (look at all the yaro, kuso etc in OG Japanese), but like? what if we changed things up for funsies?

like, imagine if each time Prefect swears, the auto-translate would either output it as noise/silence, or leave those parts out untranslated and spoken phonetically

the latter option is funnier to me, because imagine the first time Prefect hears "fekiŋ hel" spoken by Ace or Deuce or even Grim (with the accent of TWST common, but still recognizably the native language of their home world) and realizes that while no one understands the meaning of their swearing, nothing is stopping anyone from repeating it

Ace, dropping a plate at an Unbirthday Party: Aw, fekiŋ hel. Riddle: What was that, Trappola? 🤨 Ace: Oh, it's just something Prefect says when they're upset. Prefect, trying not to panic: Yeah, uh, it's just a common phrase back where I'm from! To express emotion! In inconvenient situations!

the noise as censorship option would also be funny, because not only it would confuse people tf out, it would also give Prefect away each time they swear should anyone catch on