The beast...it lurks within us...

Eventually I wasn’t able to keep up and he qualify of my posts for the blog dropped, so after the recent posts when we both went on a temporary hiatus at the time, I was trying to come up with ways to continue the blog but due to how things became they wouldn’t have made sense.

Thank you to all of those who stayed with us, as mentioned by mun qwerty this blog will be staying open as an archive for both us and all of you. If we do start this blog again under a new name and blog we will make sure to keep things planned and organised to avoid instances that have caused this blog to get to where it is.

As you all might have figured by now from the lack of updates, this blog is officially... on indefinite hiatus.

It’s been a long journey; this was one of my first Just Shapes and Beats askblogs, and I poured my soul into filling it with as many ideas, concepts and bits of lore as I could handle, both original and references to other things.

For a while, I think it worked, somehow. A complex story of robots, shapes, and mythical beasts coexisting in some chaotic world.

However, as time went on, the other mun and I began to pile on more ideas and plotlines, as well as backtracking on preestablished lore and building new ideas off of the remains, leading to many plot holes/loose threads. It quickly turned convoluted, a haphazard story which couldn’t stand on its own in the loosely linear fashion which we chose to tell it through.

I think I began to realize how badly this storyline went around the reveal of Tio’s Treeangle heritage; even though we’d set up some minor foreshadowing, hardly anyone understood the reveal, let alone guessed it early on. It was totally out of the blue. 

Because of issues like that, the blog began to become tiresome to work on, confusing to sort through disconnected lore, and I often dreaded having to frequently update information to make old posts make sense.

Everything ran on angst, shock value, and poorly placed “gotchas” to justify scenes moving painfully quickly.

All in all, this blog was poorly planned, and I admit, in the past I took offense to fair critiques of issues with the storyline. I see the issues glaringly now, but it’s far too late to fix them on this blog.

So, since I don’t want to leave everyone without answers, I just wanted to address those things, as well as give this blog a proper goodbye. This blog will remain up as an archive, it will not be deleted, and we’re keeping the current url. 

I haven’t abandoned this AU entirely, however, and perhaps one day I can rewrite it from scratch to figure out how to tell this story in a way that makes sense. Many things have already been changed, and in the possible reboot, most of the lore from this blog will be obsolete in the new version of the AU.

We’ll leave the askbox open for a bit, to answer any questions, comments, concerns, or just to let any remaining askers/followers say goodbye.

Not exactly. The asylum was built in 144X, first as a prison, then a makeshift hospital, before being finally renovated to the facility that it was. 

The actual flashback took place some time in the late 1800s, years after the asylum’s outdated practices became obsolete. Violet was one of the last patients, and the only reason why she was classed as “insane” under the outdated version of the term was because she claimed to have been in a relationship with the Treeangle. Everyone thought she was nuts and locked her up, but since it turned out to be true, she was kept locked up anyway.

I’m just gonna explain it since people aren’t getting it:

Tio is the Treeangle’s son. The Treeangle reluctantly allowed Tio’s mother to take care of Tio on the condition that he would grow up to be a good person. However, Tio’s mother died soon after that, leaving Tio in the care of Chorus.

Since he was hardly a year old when this rule was put into place, and his mother died when he was five, Tio forgot the reason why he’s not allowed to hurt anyone. However, this rule manifested later in life in that he’s a doctor, he’s a generally caring shape, and a bit of a pacifist.

He’s literally not allowed to kill a shape, even one who attacked him or his family. Any time he has harmed a shape directly has been out of his control, and he was incredibly ashamed and hurt by his actions. He didn’t mean to kill Chill. Thus, he, being a doctor and the son of a scientist who discovered how to undo death, he prevented Chill from dying.

Tio laughed, nodding.

Tio grinned sheepishly.

“It was confusing to me, too, especially in my, uh... Time Demon mindset. But I realized one important thing...”

His tone turned serious.

The flashback ended...

Chill and his blossom companion exchanged confused glances before looking back at Tio.

Violet pleaded, “But... my son... if I stay here, he’ll perish.”

The Tree waved a hand. 

“Which is why I’m entrusting his protection to my Noxakuma, Tear. Should the child stray down the path of evil, Tear shall remove his mortal status and return him... to me.”

The shadowy, six-eyed bunny appeared from the shadows, frowning in irritation at the idea of having to watch over a child.

The indigo square looked on in horror as the Tree continued.

“Violet Overture, as you are found guilty of interacting with the sacred Treeangle, you shall be sentenced to lifetime imprisonment within the defunct asylum’s walls...”

The Tree’s voice was thunderous.

“Vertex and Arc, guards of the 144X Paradise Asylum, you have violated one of the rules of Paradise. You have harmed one of my protected shapes, and for that...”

The tree approached calmly, slowly, cape billowing in the wind.

Congratulations, @inky-bun!! You’ve won our very first raffle!

Tio sighed, the illusory flashback shifting.

“The Treeangle itself was disturbed by the screaming of the square...”

“It appeared in its mortal form to... punish those who angered it.”