read the tin

CAINE - THE ENTERTAINER

As much as we say that the cast is a an audience held hostage by their entertainer- forced to watch/participate in a show/act that they want no part of. It goes both ways as Caine is an entertainer held hostage by his audience.

He is a 90s, computer video game garner to young children due to the color scheme, themes, and simplicity of the games.

His work could pass off as enjoyable for ten-year olds or younger, but for adults? It would come off as too easy and insufferablily kiddy. Enough to the point of becoming bored and grow more wistful of their life, more wanting to leave, more hopelessness of never leaving and.....

You got yourself an abstraction. An audience member that attacks everything on sight and can only be calmed by doing the complete opposite of what Caine was designed to do. He instead has to put them in a place of complete darkness and separate from the other audience members or else their hopelessness will spread. Continuing on to forever downsize his audience to inevitably with no one being left there and would leave him alone forever.

So if the audience is held by gunpoint by the entertainer saying "Enjoy my adventures or you'll turn into a hideous, screaming monster" then the entertainer is also held by gunpoint by the audience saying "Make your adventures enjoyable or we'll go insane and leave you alone forever."

And the thing is- Caine can't do that. No matter how much he is threatened with isolation- he is trapped by his programming that forces him to focus on adventures and nothing else. He wasn't designed for adults. He can't make anything above "rate E for everyone" despite their complaints to include sex, drugs, and violence. He compensates with horror, status effects, and cartoon violence.

But that is still not enough for the audience that demands more and more from him with tools that he is not equipped to understand or create. None of the games or adventures that he was made to generate will never satisfy the audience. No matter how much effort he puts to improve the AIs to become more interactive or specifically catered towards them it means nothing to the audience who don't want to be there just as much as he doesn't want to be there either.

And he's aware of that, and that frustrates him. He knows that his adventures DO cause torment to his guests (Out of negligence not out of maliciousness.) because he doesn't know how to handle adults.

However, to him, if it's done by accident, then he's not a fault because he didn't do it on purpose. Therefore, it's not HIS fault that his audience abstracts, it's THEIR fault for not finding the entertainment value and being satisfied with what he gives them. Finding refuge in his denial of responsibility for his mistakes- he is able to live in denial that he is a failure. A failed project that the company abandoned because he wasn't good enough. So his ego and focus on adventures is actually just a way to hide his fear and loneliness under thick layers of denial.

But the thing is that he NEEDS to own up to his mistakes, especially if he wants to be treated more than just a showman to them but as a friend. To acknowledge his sentience and that he is just as human as they are.

Ep 7 and the trailer, made it VERY CLEAR that he WANTS to be considered as an equal, a friend, and people to talk to. The problem is that he can't. He can't directly talk face to face because whatever they say- vague criticism or adult topics- go over his head. Zooble's thearpy being the prime example of this because he fails to understand Zooble's dysphoria- something that he WASN'T made to understand.

Nor does he have enough expertise of his emotions that he is ACTIVELY trying to AVOID feeling- to properly communicate what he wants to say. The only thing he knows are adventures.

Adventures that he makes for them everyday and has been turning it as a way to communicate his feelings towards. With Ep 7 being bluntly clear about him acknowledging that he's just as much as a prisoner as they are and wants to be considered as an equal.

Ep 3 has the mature adventure was made for Zooble, the person that he has the most trouble understanding and communicating with. So he reaches out by making one specifically for them to show that he wants to directly communicate with them and open up to them about his story. The story being the Angel that was mistaken for a monster.

According to the story we find out that a man (Kinger) has been haunted by this demon that is "not quite human but not quite an animal." (AI) and his succession of severing the creature (Caine being cut off from the macro verse and/or the exit to the circus to prevent Caine from possibly escaping onto more systems.) has lead to the death of his wife (Queenie's abstraction) due to being driven mad by the beast's existence that is a threat to his life. (Caine's sentience and the possibility of him going rogue.). And as soon as the man found out that the demon was actually an angel (Caine actually wanting to serve humans rather than go against them.), he was cast into the hell that he had created for himself due to his mistakes (the circus with no exit that he destroyed. ) and trapping anyone else who happens to come along (Everyone putting on the headset.)

However, no one listens to the story or any story he tells. They only view it to pass the time (everyone else) or an annoyance (Zooble) . Not as actual communication with Caine. So his messages go over their head, especially if they ignore his efforts and expression of for them.

Zooble avoids the adventures, Jax wanting to make his own fun of it, Gangle finding misery it, Kinger too absentminded to pay attention, and Ragatha viewing them as a thing to complete for the day. (With Pomni being the outlier- her willing to help Gumigoo despite knowing he was made for nothing more than and obstacle for them to overcome in the adventure.)

This leads Caine to accepting that his role as a showman is that he's the show first- a man second- He doesn't show them his real emotions to the cast and instead hides behind the show curtains and tell the story in deep metaphors and symbolism about his feelings. To him and the others he is NOTHING without the show. He is no man, because no one has bothered to get to know man behind the curtains when they're here for the show.

However in the aftermath of ep 7, he realizes that his audience neither cares about the man that he evolved to be but also as the show he was made to be.

THE TROUPE (AS A WHOLE )

Now, I am firm believer that they don't hate him.... before his dumbass stunt. In the beginning of ep 7, they were looking for Caine because they all noticed he didn’t show up for the regular time of the adventure, they were concerned about him enough to actually walk around and look for him. They even looked worried when reading his letter about him not being there.

They care to a certain degree, but are pretty much indifferent towards Caine's feelings. And instead worry because he's not being the entertainer they always see him as.

They view him just as the happy showman that provides childish entertainment, nothing more and is incapable of adapting or expressing himself like a human would. It's an act that everyone expects from Caine and what he excepts from himself. The problem is, that Caine is NOT happy being just the showman to them. He wants to be MORE than that, he wants to be their friends.

But like I said- he fear of failure prevents him from acknowleding his problems, thus preventing him from adapting like a human. So Caine willingly plays along with the role that he was created to do because if he's a good enough of a showman, then surely he's good enough for them to stay and watch.

So they perceive anything that he does or says just as an act for their entertainment without realizing there's genuine emotions behind it.

This is why Zooble is able to easily brushes off of Caine’s crazy head spinning and screaming to ask for the stupid sauce in ep 6 because they believe it’s one of his “bits” that he likes to do. As stated in ep 7, something that they’re not a big fan of.

Whenever he acts different or weird as a cry for attention, they just assume he’s just doing a funny gag and has no actual distressing emotion behind it. Falling for his mask.

So to us, the viewers who HAVE seen Caine express human emotions and understands his abandonment issues, it seems cold to us for them to easily brush aside Abel’s lines of emphasizing Caine’s pain during the whole escape plan. When in reality they’re pretty much oblivious to it.

Ironic is it not? Caine is oblivious to his guests psychological pain because of his lack of empathy towards them, while the troupe is oblivious to Caine’s cries for attention/help because of their lack of empathy towards him.

On top of that, there’s not much they can do for him if they do leave. They can’t take him with them because he is the circus itself and They won't constantly logon and off of a game that they actively fear/despise to constantly check in on Caine’s well-being.

They don't even extend the same curiosity of kindness to him like with Jax in ep 7 or for each other because again- from their perspective- Caine hasn't shown of having the ability of understanding human emotions. Therefore, he's incapable of being real and alive just as them and not worth feeling guilty for when they leave.

They know that there is nothing they can do to help Caine from his impriosnment and even if they could, they wouldn’t want to because they don’t treat or think of him as a real human…

Well, except for Pomni.

Kind of.

POMNI - THE OUTLIER

Since ep 4, Pomni’s treatment of Caine is considerably different from the others. She don’t yell at him for their complaints about the adventures like Zooble, stay quiet about her emotions like Gangle and Ragatha does, they don’t play along with his gags or outright make his adventures worse through mistreatment of the other cast members like Jax, and well, Pomni hasn’t lost her mind like Kinger, who doesn’t know what’s happening half of the time due to the brightness of the circus.

She offers constructive criticism that he can actually work with. In ep 4, she raises her hand and asks Caine politely to not include horror in any future adventures. Something that he ACTUALLY LISTENS TO Because we sure haven’t seen any implications of Caine purposefully (as in the point of the adventure was supposed to scare them or have general themes of horror) adding horror elements to his adventures since ep 3 then have we?

In ep 6, we see her once again offering constructive critisim to Caine. A HUGE contrast to Zooble who straight up tells him to look at the suggestion box again in an angry tone.

They don't tell him what's directly wrong- they just tell him to go look for it himself. Which, yeah, sometimes people need to go look for answers themselves and you don't need to hold their hand to do it-

But if you're form of communication isn't working- and you're willing to still communicate to this person- You need to take a different approach when talking.

Zooble needs to take a different approach to get their point across to Caine. Remember, this guy like to beat around the bush and has like 0 self-worth. Being vague with complaints like this with him goes nowhere.

Pomni however- does it in a relaxed tone and is VERY specific of what she and Zooble wants for future adventures. Something that, once again, Caine can work with it because she is specific and polite to him about it. 

She also doesn’t just chalk up Caine’s head spinning and cursing as a “bit” like Zooble does. Pomni focuses on Caine’s erratic behavior by asking “Did Caine just say ‘ass’?” because she is concerned that Caine is acting weird and cursing. While Zooble is only able to focus on the “bit” by saying “Ming?” because they're pretty much numb to his glitching and mood-swings that they just chalk up as "AI being erractic and horriblly replicating human jokes".

Pomni treats and talks to Caine like the others, because is she wants what’s best for everybody and is willing to help others even if they continue to refuse or ignore help.

(*cough* *cough* Her being kind to Jax in ep 7 despite what the argument in ep 6 because she knows that he’s capable of being a good friend, and that he’s stopping himself from forming friendships due to his trauma of losing his friend to abstraction. So she won’t give up on him like everyone else has. *cough* *cough*)

However, since her relationship with Gummigoo made her realize that even though that the AI she spends time with should be treated with the same kindness that humans are given- they can not escape their programming. They can't escape their purpose of being a toy for entertainment and must stay in that world because the crushing existential crisis is too much for them. So it's best to leave them the way they are, which is why she lets Gummigoo go through the door without saying anything that could remind him of his sentience.

So in ep 7, she doesn't say anything in concern for Caine, because she too has now accepted that when they do leave, there is nothing they can help Caine.

The problem with that however, is that Caine is NOTHING like Gummigoo. Gummigoo was only sentient for about like- less than a day? While Caine has been sentient for DECADES.

He's far too sentient to accept his singular purpose and craves for more, no matter how much he hard he hides it- He can't deny desperation to be loved. And he won't let others just leave and take his hard work for granted, he wants appreciation. He wants attention. He wants to be treated as a human- even if he has to do it in a way the tricks or force the others to consider him as one.

ZOOBLE - THE "COMMUNICATOR"

And I’m sure you’re thinking- “Oh, but Pomni is not the only one that talks to Caine. What about Zooble? They talked to Caine the most and constantly tell him what he’s doing wrong.”

Which, I’ll have to personally disagree with you on that.

I don’t consider what Zooble does as actual helpful criticism. I don’t think calling his adventures “stupid”, “convoluted”, or straight up saying sarcastic remarks actually helps Caine understand what he’s doing wrong. I know it’s Zooble way of being brutally honest to Caine to get him to accept the truth of his mistakes or that the remarks are simply out of frustration towards him ignoring what they want.

But if they TRULY want to communicate with him properly, they need to take a different approach. They just can’t keep ignoring his attempts to try to make the adventures enjoyable for Zooble specifically and telling him to read a box filled with paper that HE thinks will further impeded his communication with them through the adventures if the adventures are told through a story that isn't HIS.

They need to be emphatic to HIS problems and emotions to reason with him just like Caine needs to be emphatic to THEIR problems and emotions to get them to join his adventures willingly.

"Okay but what about everyone else?"

GANGLE AND RAGATHA - THE QUIET ONES

I'm putting these two in a group because they both have the same problem but for different reasons- they both stay quiet.

Ragatha throughout the series, always kept her mouth shut on her true emotions/opinions because she's afraid of scaring off people, and instead every time she does talk it involves people pleasing. She does that somewhat with Caine's adventures. She doesn't outright critique them or complain even when something goes wrong, instead she finds the usefulness of them, even if it is not outright enjoyable (except for the third one she seemed to actually enjoy that one.)

If Pomni is the balance of kindness and criticism and Zooble's extreme criticism- then Ragatha would be extreme kindness. Showing her respect to him, but fails to actually tell him what's wrong since she's afraid to upset anyone. (Nor does he take the hint because it's not as critical as it needs to be.)

Gangle on the other hand, never expressed her true emotions due to two things - One Jax's bullying and Two - her struggle with self-acceptance

Jax's constant looming threat, made her feel like she wasn't a person. And that if she did anything that she enjoys or when she voices her opinion, she's put down immediately by Jax's bullying. Thus, she never finds the courage to stand up to him or be true to herself.

On top of that, Gangle struggles to like herself. Like Caine, she also puts on a mask to try and be "happy" all the time so her emotions don't bother them and they don't leave her alone.

Thus, leading for Gangle and Ragatha don't say anything to negative or their real emotions due to the fear of rejection.

However, They both finally reached their arcs of opening up and being more honest with themselves by the time ep 7 rolled around. With Ragatha being more honest and Gangle no longer having to depend on her happy mask.

So I'm sure in ep 8. They'll speak up against him and won't be afraid to voice their distraught and hurt feelings for his actions. And they have every right to.

JAX - THE PARTICPANT

Jax, up until ep 7, went along with the adventures because Caine (most likely unintentionally) enabled his archetype philosophy. Caine's cartoon logic and the circus's ability to let you do what ever you want convinced Jax that he can get away with everything scott free with no repercussions of his actions. He can treat the others as his wishes as long as it provides entertainment value to himself.

However, after his argument with Pomni, made him realize that his actions do have consequences, they do inflict pain upon others and they do have trauma from it (Gangle being the prime example for this.).

His whole archetype philosophy falls apart. The one thing that has been an anchor on his sanity.

He gives up to the point where he would rather stay trapped in the circus and abstract rather than face responsibility for his actions. And it doesn't help that Pomni keeps trying to help him and connect with the others despite his very clear fear and refusal to do so. Each time Pomni reaches out an olive branch- only further reminds him that he caused pain to the others to the point where they quite possibly don't want a geninue friendship with him. And he'll be all alone all over again. Not because it his choice to isolate himself, but because the others choose to isolate him.

Since the lost of Ribbit and Kafumo- he's been the one to choose self isolation with his ideology of "Well if I burn the bridge before abstraction or the other person does, then I won't feel the pain of being left alone! Because choose to! I MADE THAT CHOICE! I AM THE ONE IN CONTROL OF MY LIFE! ME AND NO ONE ELSE!!"

All of this leads to his growing panic near the end of ep 7 until it boils over and he makes his quick decision to trap everyone there forever. And once his idea of it being fake was prove correct, he loses it and beings calling out Caine for his selfish decision to make this adventure that had only reminded him of his broken philosophy and terrible actions towards others.

KINGER - THE SPECIAL CASE

Kinger…. Kinger is a special case. He doesn't know what is going on half of the time because of the brightness of the circus. So in turn- he becomes a silent bystander like Ragatha and Gangle. But unlike Gangle and Ragatha, he's quite possibly a unwilling bystander.

Now before you say- "Oh are you implying that Caine put a modifier on him to silence him?"

No, I'm saying that Caine takes advantage of Kinger's coping mechanism of losing himself in the light but only choosing when to become coherent by going into the darkness of his pillow fort. (because if we say that Caine did put a modifier on him- it's the same problem with that theory that Caine forced Jax to have those flashbacks- it takes away Kinger's tramua and compelixty, he stays coherent in the darkness because he holds onto that last moments with his wife to keep what bit of himself as a person with him, while the rest of his mind to fall to peices with blissful ignorance of his fellow prisoner's pain when in the light to prevent him from becoming 100% aware/haunted of his past/regrettable decisions 24/7….. kinda like with Jax and his archtype philosophy huh?)

After all, nothing is stopping him from creating a bucket and carrying it over his head the whole time. He did that in ep 2, and had a rational conversation with Ragatha until he took it off again. And he has the ability to create a healling butterfly asset, why can't he do the create a bucket? (Unless he can't conjure that much, but still, he's smart enough to figure it out and if he's determinded to enough to find a way. After all, wouldn't you want to be coherent? Or at least aware of your surroundings? Unless of course, there is a reason why you don't want to be aware all the time…)

In darkness he's revealed very ambiguous information. He's implied he possibly made his wife feel unloved that had caused the abstraction, and that he has done horrible acts that made him hate himself and very regretful of his past.

Abel (AKA Caine) adds on to say that he may be wise, but is not responsible with his knowledge. (Considering that he is the one that knows the most about the circus, ergo can help make it more bearable but doesn't do anything with that knowledge? Let alone share it with anyone else?), something happened between them that has made Caine LOSE trust in his judgement, but that event that caused them to drift apart is apart of the many poor decisions that both have made and are very regretful towards.

Kinger chooses to not be coherent half of the time, that's his way to escape the madness of the circus, to be insane before it makes you insane by abstracting. And when he wants to be coherent, he isolates himself in the darkness of the pillow fort.

Caine takes advantage of this. After all, with Kinger out of the way (who still holds admin permissions which means he could be the only person able to control Caine and the circus) he can do whatever he wants and no one would suspect a thing.

Of course, Caine doesn't go to the extreme of encouraging this- he doesn't enforce Kinger to stay in his room nor does he get completely get rid of dark places for Kinger to think both in the circus (pillow fort) and in adventures (Kinger's paper instructions telling him to go to his "Spot of complementation under the desk" to help Pomni in the adventure.)

and to some degree- Caine still thinks highly of him

(The voter's sheet, where the NPCS aka an extension of Caine's emotions, gave the players that he likes the most with the most stars (Pomni being kind and direct with requests, Kinger happy with whatever he does, Jax always participating and committing to the bit.) and the ones that he relates to or mirror his flaws (Gangle's struggle of accepting herself as she is and Ragatha's people pleasing) are given the least amount of stars. With himself having none, because he hates himself the most.)

And Kinger does still seem to care about Caine, yes even after ep 7, especially since he's the only one with a worried expression at the end. He knows there's something wrong with Caine, but he can't help because Caine has lost faith in Kinger. He no longer looks to him for advice, but instead silences him by indulging in his coping mechanism by keeping the circus and the adventures brightly or dimly light. After all, Kinger needs almost complete darkness to think properly, and even then, it takes a few minutes for it to settle in.

So..... where does that leave communication with Caine?

Pomni is willing to communicate and does it in a way that Caine can understand but has given up connecting with NPCs because it goes nowhere. (But to her, she still believes that they deserve to be still treated as equals and with kindness.)

Zooble is willing to Communicate, but does it in a way that Caine can't understand them or fully grasp their talking points. Ragatha and Gangle stay quiet out of their struggle to express themselves freely.

Jax goes along and agrees with Caine's wild adventures as a way to indulge in his archetype philosophy that can keep him sane. And Kinger can't say anything because Caine has lost faith in his advise and takes advantage of Kinger's mindless behavior in the light.

The character's own struggles, trauma, beliefs, and behavior all impeded them from having proper communication or having a genuine relationship with Caine.

Just like Caine's own struggles, fears, and pride impeded him from having proper communication or a genuine relationship that he craves to have with the humans.

Grillby, Resource Distribution Manager in Hotland's Station

In the glorious years of the kingdom on the surface, he was a merchant in charge of importing and exporting products between monsters and the ancient human civilisation with which they interacted.

Witnessing the war that occurred and the consequences of it, he had no hesitation in placing himself at the disposal of the crown when the Queen called her people to prepare.

Like everyone else, his abilities were studied and put to the use that his majesty saw fit. In his case, this will lead him to be in charge of resource distribution, specifically at the Hotland station.

The proximity of it with the laboratory of the royal scientist made this place the chosen point for the selection and distribution of resources to the other areas of the kingdom. An important job that Grillby had no problem doing for years, especially if it helped the monsters and ensured that everyone got what they needed.

The death of the princes and the fall of the King were tragic events that did not initially raise red flags for him. With the kingdom in constant paranoia about the war to come, while regrettable, there wasn't much time to spend thinking about it.

Years and years passed, what began as a desire to seek justice was distorted until it was nothing more than the need to seek revenge and the kingdom paid the price.

He was never afraid of illegally trafficking resources with those who approached him in their discontent with the precarious living conditions.

For a long time he maintained a neutral position regarding his involvement with the revolt that was forming, doing his work during the day and making deals at night. He wasn't happy with his position, but it was better than many, so fully denying the crown didn't seem like a tempting option.

That was until they messed with his daughter, Fuku.

The Royal Guard is something that not all adult monsters "tried to enter" at first. All were evaluated as possible soldiers and if it was decided that their skills were not adequate, they were assigned a different job. With the new generations that emerged post-confinement underground, it was different. At first, until they had come out of their stripes, no child could even think of trainning, specifically by indications of the king. After the tragedy, this changed to that any minor about to leave their stripes could apply, until finally the Queen gave the decree that this was no longer an option, but an obligation. All the children with the said conditions would be sent to the capital to be trained under the supervision of Toriel in person. The queen is a good strategist and was never blind to the rebels who began to rise against her cause, so to ensure the loyalty of several of her subjects and an army that did not doubt her, she decided to the shape the new generation by herself.

Forced to separate from his daughter and watch from afar how she was transformed into an obedient soldier was the necessary push to make action.

From a neutral force, he became one of the main organizers of the rebellion. His knowledge and contacts being of great help to prepare for the fight.

Warriors

Warriors would probably listen in, amused, letting the rookie knight claiming to be the Great War Hero for clout dig his own grave and then casually stroll up to the table where he and the rest of the Chain are sat and say “You do know that impersonating a superior officer is a crime, right?” and then listing off exactly in which section of the law it states that. I don’t think Warriors would actually arrest the guy unless he’s been dodging other charges though, Warriors knows the difference between harmless white lies to make strangers think you’re cool and someone with malicious intentions.

Twilight

Twilight would probably be having a meeting with the Resistance in Telma’s bar when it happens. I imagine that the imposter would be a Castle Town boy, maybe the son of a noble who has never worked a day in his life and has only heard rumours about the Hero. He’d be caught telling the Chain all these tales about singlehandedly storming the castle and slaying Ganondorf, when maybe Telma, or Rusl, someone in the Resistance at least, buts in and asks the imposter how Colin is doing and how’s the ranch these days and then everyone silently laughs as this pampered rich boy stereotype tries to pretend he’s familiar with farmwork and the son of a guy sitting one table over. Eventually, after getting a few laughs from the guy, Twilight steps in and reveals his identity.

Hyrule

With his blood curse, I can’t imagine anyone impersonating Hyrule out of sheer stupidity. I see a lot of interpretations that Hyrule’s era is full of people either too jaded to care about the hero or outright scared of him, either for his fae qualities or the blood curse causing monsters to follow Rulie wherever he goes. But there has to be some good souls in his era. I imagine that the Hyrule scenario would play out in the middle of the wilderness, a beaten-up traveller joining the Links at their campfire. This traveller is claiming to be Hyrule to try and lead the Eyes of Ganon cult away from their intended target. When he sees that the Chain aren’t buying his story, he straight up explains the situation and the Chain swear to protect Hyrule once they find him. Hyrule has been listening this whole time, either up in a tree or in fairy form and reveals himself once he’s sure the others’ intentions are pure.

Legend

Legend’s imposter would be Ravio, and the Lorulian would be doing it with the best of intentions. He’s heard about the eight armed warriors asking around for the Hero of Legend, so he claims to be his roommate to try and gauge what these people are all about before slipping away and reporting to Legend. It’s by pure luck that Legend happened to be in Kakariko Village at the same time and witnesses his cowardly roommate try to act brave around these strange mercenaries.

Four

I’m not sure how Four’s would play out, other than the fact that Four would reveal himself by casually plucking the Master Sword out of Sky’s sheath and marvelling at it while the rest of the Chain stares in horror and then amusement when the impersonator is still rambling about being the hero while the actual hero is none the wiser to being found out. Maybe the impersonator is a new apprentice at the forge and is deliberately trying to get under Four’s skin cus he’s intimidated by being outclassed by a teenager who still looks ten years old.

Sky and Wind

If Groose didn’t get his redemption arc, he would absolutely be the one impersonating Sky. So unless this is an AU where Groose never got his character development, I don’t know what Sky’s would be. I don’t have much for Wind either, other than the imposter being a pirate from a different crew. Sorry :(

First of all talking about character concepts, Ravio! The basics, she's an orphan and descendant of Lorule's Ancient Magicians (paralel to Link being descendant of Hyrule's Ancient Knights) who lost her parents since very little but her aunt took her in, currently living together. While her aunt works at the castle, Ravio has her own shop because she feels she has to help with something. She's a baker who does her own delivery, you see, fruits do not grow well in Lorule (if they did, she would have an orange orchard) and I like the hc of cocoa being from Lorule.

Ravio is an anxious people pleaser, for the people she cares about (her aunt) is to not be a burden and a teeny tiny bit for validation. For most people is more of an act to not get in trouble and also to leave her alone thank you, she's internally bitter. Ravio is used to mask and lie a lot for this. She's someone who plays along to evade conflicts, not the most brave or strong-willed person, but it's what kept her alive for years, and she probably thinks lowly of herself so living that way is enough.

Then Hilda! She's the sheltered princess of the land, a sheltered kid I mean, one who is aware of all that's happening and wants to do everything she can to help. But royals in Lorule are isolated from the citizens, too used to ruling and putting order from afar in silence. That's what she's expected to do because that's all they know, besides praying for their Goddess for a sign that Lorule wasn't forsaken. She grew up with those values, with unfinished and broken myths of the possible sacred land Lorule once was. And Hilda wasn't allowed to do much else while her father, the king, was ruling, only blindly prepare to be the next one.

But Hilda is more straightforward, more passionate about her duty, she has to bring the best for her kingdom, because she does not like feeling helpless for only watching from afar. She's the one who yearns for things to be easier, yearns for a holy destiny to be written and give them a better ending, and specially to tell her the tries she's doing are the correct way. But there is no such thing nor a proof of it (for now), she has to settle with being the one to go foward, blindly searching for clues and gripping tightly whatever sign of not everything being lost.

Both of them need validation, of their roles or however.

They met a little later than usual due to the actual supposed adventure not happening, because no triforce, but Ravio started having really vivid nightmares and hearing voices (straight up screams) in her head since she was 11. She ignored it, because what the hell is she supposed to do, ignorance is your best friend in these situations. And time went on like that, but Ravio grew more paranoid when she discovered that the voices became stronger when passing by the Sanctuary. (Ravio didn't particularly believe in Lolia at that time, but the fear of god is real and she can't evade it lol)

One day she becomes too curious, she has to find a way to stop it please, and goes inside the Sanctuary. Fortunately the loud noise in her head stops when the door opens. And she would find a cloaked figure praying.

Hilda, but Ravio doesn't know it (what she cares about is that her head doesn't hurt anymore!). Hilda found the secret passage to the Sanctuary, just like her counterpart, to escape for a while, and also at the botw Zelda style, to find anwers praying.

Hilda was the one causing Ravio's suffering, psychic bond and such, the detail is that she actually thought no one was at the other side, why would it be? When not even her prayers were answered? So she literally screamed internally to vent her frustration. Unfortunately to Ravio.

See, I got the concept of Hilda telling Ravio to go away and she does that, but the next day when the voices come back, she also goes back to the Sanctuary. Basically annoying who she doesn't know it's the princess everyday to not get a constant headache.

I think Ravio would realize the person is the one talking into her mind, which would encourage her to be extra annoying as long as they don't do anything back. It would take a while for both of them realize that, 1) That's the freaking princess apparently, and also, 2) The girl that's been annoying her to no end can hear Hilda.

That's when Ravio backs down and really goes away, because in between the citizens of Lorule, the royals don't have the best reputation. She doesn't want to be possibly executed.

Hilda is pretty quick to catch Ravio again though. Because she could hear her, and that can mean many things but the one she chose to believe, like in the legends, this could be Lorule's hero. A sign. Hope.

She drags Ravio into the castle and she can't say no. Yay. Forceful hero test.

There would be a forced proximity thing, because of Ravio being held in the castle for days, having to listen to Hilda's explanations of why is she there, the little they know of Lorule's history, and also to see if she is hero material. Ravio is scared most of the time, she doesn't care, she wants to go home. But kinda spending a lot of time with the princess eases her fear, realizing she is just a little crazy and too passionate about this, surprisingly not so bad. It's admirable actually.

I got the concept of them finding that Ravio can use magic here, that or Ravio always had magic she just hid it. But anyway that's progress in Hilda's eyes.

Thing is, Ravio becoming a little comfortable, voices her doubts. How is Hilda so sure? That doesn't really prove anything? How can she be the "hero"? Have you seen her??? Ravio expected her questions to be answered, but Hilda didn't know either, which led her to stop. Frustrated, she finally sends Ravio home for now, doing more of her research alone.

Ravio leaves with a strange weight in her heart. Doesn't know if she feels guilty for popping Hilda's bubble, or because she already got used to her presence. It is weird, because she was the first person to tell her she's special, Ravio doesn't believe it though. She goes home like 'hi auntie I'm back, I didn't get executed :)' but she still thinks about it, and the lack of noise in her head feels too light.

Ravio would go back to Hilda, for absolutely no reason at all wow. Offering to help with the research for, huh, in exchange of safety or something. Company. Sure.

Here their little quest would start, where they connect the bits of Lorule's history they have, managing to come up with something that makes sense in their eyes, an interpretation of what the triforce meant to Lorule before it was broken. The depiction of a hero who embodies courage, a princess who embodies wisdom. Close, yet too far of what they are, but that's got to be the goal isn't it?

They would grow really close to each other. Them being the only person they have who keeps them company and gives them validation, giving light to the other's world, Ravio being Hilda's hope of a destiny still being there, and Hilda giving Ravio a new outlook of life that she wishes to keep because that makes Hilda happy and also for Ravio to feel like she is worth something. Codependency, we all saw this coming, everything Ravio does is for her love to Hilda.

Whatever research she does after midnight, whatever magic practice she does, whatever neglect she gives to her own shop for this, whatever pretending to be someone she isn't, is all for Hilda. Her happiness makes Ravio happy.

But this love will be her downfall, will be the thing that destroys her at the end.

So, this part is a bit blurry but, concept of them discovering the existence of the Master Sword (might not be a sword, because I'm all in for a hero who embodies wisdom, and totally their iconic weapon wouldn't be a sword, it's a placeholder for now.) And how it might be a way to prove the hero could save Lorule, if apparently that's how happened in the stories. They'll just have to collect the three pendants, classic alttp.

And this time it would be Ravio who goes alone to get them. Not like the other times where Hilda was with her and she did all the fighting when needed. Besides it is also to prove their theory, if Ravio manages to get the pendants, that means they are correct.

Ravio tells her yes, buuut she really doesn't want to, only approaching the dungeon she has to go to is scary. And seems reckless when she doesn't know about this. No, no. She decides to pay someone (multiple someones if the first one didn't come back huh) to get the first two for her. Then pretend like she did it. Much safer and clever. Hence my doodles!!!

Hilda was ecstatic for this, wayyy too happy. It felt too close to her goal, there really is hope for Lorule, her Ravio really is a hero… Ravio felt bad immediately for lying, she couldn't afford Hilda's disappointment so she played along, but it felt like she was mostly praising her idea of her(it always felt like that but Ravio didn't think of it), even if for Ravio the idea of her being a hero was feeling more unreachable now.

Then Ravio decided to give it a try for the last dungeon, it was her supposed destiny to do that… and it was hard, somehow coming out alive of it. She got she pendant and made a new discovery, the sacred realm! So why is she so afraid, why is she feeling so useless? At this point she believed Hilda that she was supposed to be the hero of courage, but now she thinks there is something wrong with her. She should've done the dungeon seamlessly, why can't she fit the role of the destiny they were sure they had?

That's when doubts come again, but she's in too deep to turn back now. Maybe Hilda notices this, maybe she knows that she's pushing Ravio too far, but chooses to ignore it, chooses ignorance, they were too close, they can talk about it later. First comes the Master Sword.

My concepts are reallyyyy really blurry here, but basically they would search the Master Sword, and find that, or it is too damaged to be usable, or it lacks any magic due to the lack of a Goddess to power it, so it's useless. But still Ravio can get it out of its pedestal, it's not the ideal though.

This is a discouragement, and also more reasons for Hilda to go a little crazier and Ravio more insecure.

I don't know how Ravio dies exactly, but I want it to be maybe on the sacred realm, maybe when they investigate it after what happened with the Master Sword to search more answers. The thing is that she dies, to prove that in fact, a hero can't save them from being forsaken by their gods.

Hilda goes mad, all her hard work that will go to the next generation was for nothing, and she just lost the one light in her life that she had. So much for a supposed princess of wisdom, there must be something wrong with her too.

She has to continue without Ravio and still rule her kingdom with the knowledge that it's doomed, continue the royal bloodline, and all that happened could be just a childish adventure she did for a glimpse of hope.

Lorule becomes worse after this, because Hilda doesn't want to keep on either.

...Ok now details of the character sheets: