deranged mochi

The basement is pretty self-explanatory, so I’ll focus on what’s behind MC and the second door.

During the table saw scene in YKMET, you can see the edges of something metallic and something wooden. My best guess was that those are the freezer and some additional cabinets, maybe storing his recording equipment.

I considered adding his pottery kiln (Gato confirmed that’s how Strade disposes his victims), but I couldn’t find space for it and I thought that having a kiln (very hot) next to a freezer (very cold) would be impractical. She didn’t include a pottery kiln in her official floor plan either, so I assume that he owns another property where it’s located. Perhaps he uses the table saw to dismember his victims before transporting them.

The bathroom is similar to the one in her plans, but I changed the layout a bit and added a storage cabinet for either cleaning products or additional medical supplies for when he accidentally goes too far.

The first floor is where I had the most fun and creative freedom with. I really liked how the collar would send a warning shock when you entered the foyer in BTD2, so I extended those red zones to all exits and the entire front of the house to create further isolation. This prevents Ren and MC from:

banging on windows to get a neighbor’s attention,

going through Strade’s garage tools and messing with his car, and

sabotaging his work for his engineering job (hard to believe this man occasionally makes money legally).

More on his office: I believe Strade would be more involved with his legal work than most people believe/what is implied, and that most of his work is done remotely. He would have a work-provided computer (separate from his dark web work ofc) and floor-to-ceiling cabinets full of documents and plans.

I placed his office and garage at the front of the house and relocated the basement entrance furthest away from the front door as possible. The symbolism was intentional. I wanted his house to reflect how his hardworking and neighborly persona hides his sadism and crimes. If you read my previous imagine about Strade’s garage workshop, that applies here, too.

I kept the upstairs similar to cannon (bedroom-wise at least). I gave Strade a walk-in closet and bathroom since those are things that primary bedrooms have and I just can’t imagine poor Ren sharing a toilet with him.

His closet would actually be pretty full with high-quality practical clothes and a few formal outfits he had tailored to be as comfortable as possible (even so, he still dreads dressing formal). In the corner he’s kept some pieces too bloodstained to wear out, but too memorable to dispose of. He has memorabilia from favored victims, too, and he gets a sense of nostalgia whenever he makes Ren and MC wear them.

For Ren’s bedroom, I think YKMET Ren would be a little tidier than BTD Ren. He’s more vocal about bathing, and I assume that most of the mess seen in his BTD2 room was a result of his mental health slipping after Strade’s death. He’s still a teenage guy though, so he sleeps on a mattress on the floor and has an entire shelf of manga and thousands of dollars worth of gooner anime figures that were totally not awkward to ask for at all.

Ren spends most of his time in his room pretending that he’s somewhere else. Strade built him a custom-built PC that he’s genuinely thankful for, and hasn’t pirated a game, manga, or movie since Strade started offering to provide them for him (as long as he’s willing to face some psychological-prying and teasing first). He also owns a collection of consoles that he cycles between regularly for the best gameplay for whatever new game Strade buys him.

The biggest additions to the upstairs are MC’s bedroom (kept bare for self/OC-insertion purposes) and a bonus room that’s used as a movie/gaming room, which is the only front-facing room with windows that Ren and MC can enter. It’s more of a privilege that Strade trusts Ren and MC to act responsibly and non-incriminatingly with, but the blinds are always drawn shut and there is a hidden camera somewhere. Any attempt to draw a neighbor’s attention is immediately punished with time in the basement; no exceptions.

Overall, there aren’t many front-facing windows as most of the living space is concentrated at the back of the house. Gato’s original concept didn’t include many windows, either I wanted to preserve more elements of her design, and it also happened to match my aforementioned symbolism. Eyes are the windows to the soul, after all.

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