Mint_Hiddenite

Now, without further ado, I present to you the premise of the fanfic I've been working on for the past 5 years or so

Limbo: Between Worlds

(read in the same cadence as "Workin' Boys: A New Musical!")

Also! This post contains spoilers for Death Note (including Another Note), Gravity Falls, the first arc of Black Butler, aaaannnddddd Assassin's Creed Origins (if anyone's concerned about the ending, I rarely see the game talked about)

Yeah, it's a crossover fanfiction. Surprise!

Post breakdown:

Main characters (and the groups they’re in)

Explaining the setting

Character Summaries

(Some) Chapter Summaries

Map of Limbo (contains major story spoilers! I’m going to revamp it and make a version with and without spoilers)

Note: some things may be subjugated to change, especially the map

Main characters

There are nine (9) main characters:

Meowth (Pokemon Anime)

Rocket Raccoon (mix match of Guardians of the Galaxy continuity, but mostly takes elements from Gotg vol 1 and the Gotg cartoon because I can)

L Lawliet (Death Note)

Bayek (Assassin's Creed Origins)

Beyond Birthday (Death Note Another Note)

Grell Sutcliff (Kuroshitsuji/Black Butler ...THE MANGA! IT'S THE MANGA VERSION!)

Stanford Pines (Gravity Falls)

Ryūjirou Tsuchigomori (Jibaku Shounen Hanako Kun/Toilet Bound Hanako Kun)

Colress (Pokemon Games)

They're split up into groups of three: Meowth, Rocket, L, and Bayek are the central group, Beyond and Grell are the antagonistic duo, and Ford, Tsuchigomori, and Colress are a sort of background group that ties in with the overarching plot. Characters have interactions and relationships with those outside of their groups (ie Bayek and Tsuchigomori are friends, Meowth and Rocket hate Colress (if you know you know), L and Beyond have a very... messy relationship (to put it lightly), etc...)

Explaining the setting

Characters find themselves in a random world that's basically an island. The world past the ocean wraps around Coraline style. People can hear others talk in different languages, but no matter the language, they can understand what everyone is saying (regardless of if they previously know the language or not). This knowledge does not carry over to writing

The three main spawn points are Midground Mountain (a snowy mountain that no one's been able to get to the top of), the Decaying Forest (a rotting forest to the left of Midground), and the Prospering Forest (a healthy, thriving forest to the right of Midground). Characters who are still alive when they're taken appear in the Prospering Forest, characters who died appear in the Decaying Forest, and those who are sort of in between (such as supernatural beings) appear at the foot of Midground

If someone dies in Limbo, they come back to life 4 weeks later in perfect health and loose the memories they had 4 weeks prior to their death. Due to this, each of the 12 months are 30 days long. Somehow, the world of Limbo itself seems to sync up with these changes perfectly…

The protagonist of the series is Meowth but the series frequently focuses on other characters, including side characters

Character Summaries

Meowth

- A Meowth who taught himself to walk and talk like humans to impress a girl. He turned to a life of crime so he could become rich and joined the Pokemon poaching organization, Team Rocket (which is basically a yakuza). Due to being a screw up, he was put in a team with Jessie and James

- A mischievous and crafty thief and conman. He's ever the optimist and is quite compassionate

- Woke up in the Prospering Forest

- He's willing to do anything for those he cares about, even if it means personally going into combat (something he rarely does)

- Still has cat-like characteristics, like disliking water and enjoying playing with yarn

- An engineer who's incredibly talented and is even capable of building mechas; he can fix tech faster than Rocket (who refuses to admit this)

- He's an excellent cook and a pretty good actor

- Constantly fantasizes about his boss praising him for his "brilliant" ideas. He doesn't realize (and refuses to realize) just how homoerotic his scenarios are

- Due to him being a Pokemon but also behaving like a human, he sometimes feels insecure about his place in the world

- A hopeless romantic (who's typically rejected)

- He enjoys the night sky and singing while playing his acoustic guitar

Rocket

- A bounty hunter who became a Guardian of the Galaxy upon saving the galaxy from mass destruction on numerous occasions (also still a bounty hunter)

- Tries to drive people away before he can get attached to them. There are very rare exceptions (like Groot, Meowth, and Nny, but even then he can be an asshole to the former two (note: NEVER be an asshole to Nny)). With that being said, he still cares very much about others, even if he'll never admit it

- Woke up in the Prospering Forest

- The rest of the Guardians are not in Limbo. This left Rocket feeling alone and isolated (more than usual). Rocket stole Quill's cassette tapes before he awoke in Limbo and they're the few things he has to remember the others by. He'll secretly listen to them when no one else is around

- I always headcanoned him as an Earth raccoon that was taken by the Ravagers and brought to Halfword to be experimented on because of one of the GOTG animated series shorts, but apparently James Gunn canonized the Earth raccoon part in Vol 3! Everyone say “Thank you, James Gunn!”

- Oh yeah, he's the result of animal testing (if you didn't know already)

- Escaped from every prison he was put into (23 so far)

- I'm taking some inspiration from the GOTG cartoon, so Rocket has an item called the Pocket Dimension Storage Vial that helps him transport his arsenal (along with other assorted items such as duct tape and food pellets)

- He's constantly making weapons of mass destruction; keeps extra bombs in an unmarked box

L

- The world’s greatest detective (now former because he’s dead :P)

- Secretive and mysterious but also blunt and witty

- Woke up in the Decaying Forest

- Despite not showing a lot of emotion, L does care about others

- Undaignosed autist; he needs help with daily tasks (such as making food and changing clothes), which Watari would normally help him with. Bayek and Meowth help him whenever they can

- Christian but does very unchristian things (as seen by the next two points)

- Ethics? What ethics? He'll do whatever it takes to solve a case or make someone confess, no matter the morality or legality. Although he could typically get away with this when he was alive (as he was extremely rich and powerful), he usually faces repercussions now that he's under Aizawa's leadership. But he knows he can't be punished if Aizawa doesn’t find out…

- Lies more than he tells the truth

- L heavily resents Light and doesn't let the Task Force live down the fact that they didn't listen to him. He did, however, gain some respect for Matsuda after learning about him shooting Light at the warehouse

- He regrets not being more involved with the successor program as he feels responsible for A’s suicide as well as B and Mello going off the deep end

- When giving percentages to indicate how much he believes something, he intentionally keeps them low

- He doesn't like going undercover, but will do so when needed; he's a pretty good actor

Bayek

- A former Medjay (protector of the pharaoh and people) who now runs the Egypt branch of a secret assassin fellowship known as The Hidden Ones

- A genuinely affable person who wears his heart on his sleeve; his anger is only directed at those who harm the innocent

- Woke up in the Prospering Forest

- Although he strives to stay hidden from the public eye, he tries to help others whenever he can

- The only one with a fully functional moral compass in the central group

- He misses his wife, Tails. He misses her a lot…

- Feels like he’s wrangling kids when dealing with Meowth and Rocket

- Detests L's ethics (or lack thereof)

- Good friends with Tsuchigomori as he feels he can comfortably talk to him (as he's the only other sane man) and can somewhat relate to his loss

- The death of his son haunts him and led him down a path of vengeance, one he wishes to never go down again

- Having a crisis because he thinks he should be damned for his actions (take a wild guess what he did… If you said “assassinate people,” you’re correct! 🎉)

- Genuinely thinks Limbo is a punishment from the gods (can’t blame him)

- Very religious; follows the polytheistic Egyptian gods and personally resents Pharaoh Akhenaten (who made a monothestic god named Aten to replace the polytheistic gods). With that being said, he doesn’t bother those who do like Akhenaten

Beyond

- One of L’s first successors, once known as “Backup”. After being removed from the successor program, Beyond created an elaborate string of murders in defiance to make a case L couldn't solve. He ultimately failed

- Although he keeps an friendly demeanor, he’s usually scheming or thinking about revenge

- Woke up in the Decaying Forest

- Wants to haunt L the way L haunts him. If only he knew he already does

- Do NOT refer to him as "Backup" under any circumstances

- Much like the other successors, he was groomed by the orphanage Wammy's House to become the next L. His whole identity was centered around becoming someone else, until one day it was all taken away from him

- Beyond was (somehow) born with shinigami eyes, which means he can see the names and remaining lifespan of those whose face he sees. (This congenital condition is why he called himself "Beyond Birthday")

- Between the disturbing cases he solved from a young age and his shinigami eyes, Beyond has become apathetic to death (even the death of children)

- A master of disguise who's technically proficient with makeup

- Hides his burn scars with liquid foundation; he rarely shows his scars to others

- Despite insisting he's an "aggressive top" (to those who haven't read Another Note, yes this is an actual quote), B is still quite cautious and uses this faux confidence to cover up his insecurities. With that being said, he is very driven and will do anything to achieve his goals. However, his one track mind often times overlooks the things right in front of him

- He has been severely depressed for quite some time and his failed suicide attempt during the Los Angeles BB Murder Cases (and subsequent arrest) only made it worse. Despite his seemingly carefree facade, he's still very much suicidal and is tormented by the fact that he can't permanently die in Limbo

- He was once quite religious (he used to follow Christianity), but over time he grew to resent God. In Limbo (after he had died and learned that there is no afterlife where he's from) he has concluded that there is no God, and if there is one, He has been dead for a long time

Grell

- A deadly servant of God know as a grim reaper

- Just a silly goose who hasn’t done anything wrong~

- …Okay, well… maybe she murdered people she wasn’t authorized to kill… (god forbid women do anything 😤)

- A grim reaper who went against the code of only killing humans without bias. She was suspended from her duties after her supervisor found out she assisting with the Jack the Ripper murders

- Combative, impulsive, and straightforward, she often gets herself (and others) into trouble. She tends to play up her emotions to a theatrical degree

- Woke up at the foot of Midground Mountain

- In her training days, Grell was an A student who excelled in wielding a Death Scythe, a tool Grim Reapers use to collect souls and review the lives of the people they kill

- Her current Death Scythe is an invention of her own and is fashioned after a chainsaw

- She has gender dysphoria as she feels depressed without makeup and believes that God made a mistake by putting her in the wrong body

- Due to her being a Reaper, she is stronger, quicker, more agile, and has more endurance compared to an average human. She can also make herself invisible to humans at will and can jump very high. Reapers don't need to breathe, but they do need to eat and rest. Reapers are also near sighted, so they need glasses to properly see

- She killed the other woman behind the Jack the Ripper murders and stole her coat, which she now wears constantly

- She is beauty, she is grace. Do not kick her in the face ❤️ (she will kill you)

Ford

- A scientist and former dimension hopper who studies the occult

- Although he's rather self absorbed and sometimes standoffish, he cares deeply for his family and friends

- Woke up in the Prospering Forest

- Made a deal with an interdimensional dream demon (Bill Cipher) who helped him build a portal that tears rifts between dimensions; Ford still remembers the fundamentals of the portal plan

- He was born with central postaxial polydactyly on both hands and is able to move each finger; he is also ambidextrous

- During the 30 years he was dimension hopping while trying to get home, he had a metal plate surgically installed into his head so Bill Cipher couldn't enter his mind

- He was into science fiction and the supernatural when he was young

- Raised Jewish and celebrates Hanukkah with his family

- Has 12 PhDs

- Still trying to figure out modern technology, but is making significant progress

- If there's a mysterious and dangerous creature, he would provoke it or take it in for research

- Learning to smell the roses instead of constantly working

- He's a great pianist and has a weakness for jellybeans

- Torture him all you want, he won't talk (Bill can attest to this)

Tsuchigomori

- A tsuchigumo disguising himself as a human science teacher and librarian

- Although he typically acts meek in his human disguise, he's actually rather sarcastic and aloof (but even that is partly an act, as he does care about others). This change in personality is purely for the hell of it

- Woke up at the foot of Midground Mountain

- The sudden unexpected death of his student, Amane Yugi, still haunts him... (literally, his student is now his boss)

- Back in his world he has the ability to change the future, but at the cost of being erased from existence

- Has a father-son dynamic with Hanako (the aforementioned student)

- The specific science class he teaches is biology; he is Kou Minamoto's homeroom teacher

- He doesn't let the kids make him coffee (Hanako, Nene, and Kou because he thinks they'll mess up and Teru because... well, it's Teru)

- Hates driving and fears cars due to how fast they are

- He enjoys bekko candy and makes hard candy (mostly so that the Mokke don't kill him)

- Finds table magic interesting

Colress

- Froze over a city (and its inhabitants) and tortured a legendary Pokemon... for science! (Somehow got away with this)

- His polite demeanor is hard to read; he’s secretive but a good sport as he will give up the ruse once he’s found out

- Woke up in the Prospering Forest

- His Pokemon team consists of Beheeyem, Klinklang, Rotom, and Metagross (the latter of which can mega evolve)

- Hasn't told Ford and Tsuchigomori that he's a war criminal (and intends on keeping it that way)

- An International Policeman, Looker, and a former Unova Elite Four member, Grimsley, are watching him to make sure he doesn't get into trouble. Grimsley's threatened to tell Ford and Tsuchigomori about Colress's crimes if Colress doesn't come clean himself

- He genuinely hates Ghetsis but didn't say anything during his time working with Team Plasma because he was given resources to carry out his experiments

- An opportunist to his core; he'll do anything for science

- Has a labcoat called the "Achromatic Wearable Console" with touch pads on the forearms and a cooling system built into it. Tsuchigomori calls it "the fridge"

- Doesn't know why Meowth keeps glaring at him (he's from the game canon and Meowth's from the anime canon)

- Colress and Grimsley (both of who are from Unova) met in Alola. They're both confused as to what the other is/was doing there

- Trying to figure out teleportation

- Has not learned his lesson. At all.

Summaries of a couple chapters

(can you tell which ones I've planned out the most?)

Ch 1

The story begins with Meowth arriving in Limbo and being helped by a forest ranger. He meets Rocket on his way to a restaurant, unaware that Rocket's trying to use him for free food. The waiter explains that newly arrived people get free food and that they could share some of it with others, but because of Rocket's hustle that has since stopped. L, who is sitting nearby, pays for Rocket's food and joins them (without permission). L tells Meowth about Rocket's crimes and explains that the only reason he isn't in jail is because said crimes accidentally saved people and his scams don't have any laws against them. L says how he's leaving for the Decaying Forest, as he's investigating mysterious disappearances for the police, and tells the two not to go there. ...Guess what they do.

Turns out there are soldiers in the forest and they've been trapping people to lure out a Medjay. Rocket and Meowth see that L has been caught and their whispers get them captured. The soldiers try to kill them to lure out the Medjay, but the Medjay kills the soldiers first. The Medjay introduces himself as Bayek and L takes everyone down to the police station. There, Bayek and Meowth have their personal info put into a database, Rocket looks at bounties, and L is pestered by Light and Matsuda. Because of a housing crisis, L asks Meowth, Rocket, and Bayek to stay at his house (which fairly small) so he can talk more with Bayek (who he's trying to get to join the police force) and see what Rocket and Meowth are doing (as he rightfully doesn't trust them alone)

Ch 2

Bayek is hesitant to join the police force due to a mix of distrust (as the higher ups he was working for before were corrupt and were using him to benefit the group he was fighting against) and guilt (he doesn't think he should be an officer because of all the murder he's committed but between you and me, the guys he killed had it coming). He eventually decides to join

The police, lead by Chief Aizawa Shuichi (one of the Task Force members who worked under L during the Kira investigation), have a debrief on a grim reaper who's been going around violently killing people for funsies. They show a video of her basically doing a Q&A with the police (with her shouting from the top of a building and the police filming her from below). The reaper's name is Grell and Bayek gets a packet of information about her. L helps him understand it when they get back home as Bayek doesn’t read Japanese or English (because he’s from the Ptolemy era)

While all of this is happening, Rocket is trying to help Meowth get a job. After numerous failed attempts, Rocket proposes that Meowth can help him with bounty hunting (benefits split 50/50), to which Meowth agrees. In one segment of this plot line, Rocket and Meowth are in the Prospering Forest and encounter Rocket's old nemesis, Blackjack O'Hare. Meowth mistakes them for exes (you see where I’m trying to go with this plot line?) but Rocket explains that they're really rivals because Blackjack likes to swoop in and take Rocket's bounties. Towards the end of the chapter, Meowth wonders if he should try getting a job at the restaurant

Ch 3

It's time for Meowth's first bimonthly town meeting, where the residents get an update on how the leading scientists are planning on getting everyone back to their own world. The town mayor is Desmond Miles, who introduces Professor Membrane and Dr Stanford Pines. Membrane focuses on the technology that focuses on quality of life while Pines focuses on inter-dimensional theory and how Limbo as a world operates so he can figure out how to return everyone to their respected worlds

The chapter focuses on the central group (Meowth, Rocket, L, and Bayek) meeting Ford. Colress and Grimsley (both from the Sun and Moon era and video game canon) are also introduced in this chapter

Ch 4 (my personal favorite so far)

Light Yagami is late for work, so Aizawa asks Matsuda to see if he's alright (since Matsuda is taking the day off and lives in the same apartment complex as Light). Matsuda finds that Light has been brutally murdered inside his locked apartment. The apartment is very clean except for the blood splatter. Nailed to one of the walls is a wara ningyō. The police are sent down to investigate

Soichiro (Light's father), L, and Bayek (along with some other police officers) arrive on the scene together. L starts acting strange when he sees the wara ningyō, which makes Bayek and the other officers think he's hiding information that may be relevant to the case. Bayek swears to Soichiro that he'll avenge his son as he believes such gruesome desecration of a corpse is too far, even with Light's past. L says he's not going to be directly involved with the case as he feels he's to close to the subject to make unbiased decisions. Instead, he proposes Bayek investigates the case, to which Aizawa agrees

Through reviewing evidence and interviews with suspects, Bayek comes to the conclusion of who the culprit is. When he shares his findings and suspicions with L, he seems to agree. The suspect is brought in for another questioning

There, the suspect reveals himself to be Beyond Birthday, who has been using a fake name since he's gotten to Limbo. It's also revealed that L not only knew that Beyond was the culprit, but who he was this whole time. This leads Bayek and the others to wonder what else L's hiding from them. Beyond is moved to be temporary held in the police jail before they send him to a more secure facility. But shortly after he's behind bars, Grell breaks in to rescue him and reveals to be an accomplice in the case. Bayek and Aizawa try to chase the two down, but they escape

Back at the house, L and Bayek have an argument over L withholding important information. L doubles down and tries to justify it by saying that he didn't want to potentially sway people's opinions on who the culprit is, but Bayek doesn't believe his story and eventually gives up

Beyond and Grell return to a small, abandoned house somewhere in the Decaying Forest. (Due to the Decaying Forest draining the life force of the living that stay there for too long, the construction effort was abandoned.) Beyond explains to Grell that he intends to ruin L's image and humiliate him, but most importantly, he wants to torment L for everything he's done (further reason is not given at this moment). Grell reminds him that she's just in it for the ride (as she can't reap souls in Limbo, meaning she's out of a job) and that if he backs out of their plans, she won't hesitate to kill him

Ch 5

Ford hears about a mysterious supernatural creature in the Prospering Forest and goes to investigate. He convinces one of the main librarians, Tsuchigomori, to tag along with him. Ford learns that Tsuchigomori was the supernatural being the whole time as he had to out himself to save Ford from getting mauled by a bear (because Ford provoked it). Ford promises to keep Tsuchigomori's true identity a secret

Meanwhile, Rocket and L get into a fight and refuse to speak to each other, leaving Meowth and Bayek as mediators trying to figure out how to get them to stop fighting

Map of Limbo

This map has been around for a while now, so I’m going to make a revamped version of it (one without spoilers and one with spoilers)

This map is a first draft and the only frame of reference I currently have to how Limbo looks as a bird’s eye view