Kathryn Nächtlich

After the anniversary event concluded, members of my Patreon decided to share Columbina's answers with everyone! So this week, you'll get to see the first batch of questions she answered.

I'd also like to let you know that development updates are already underway. Patrons receive these updates one week early, and then they'll be reposted on our other social media platforms afterward! Meanwhile, @destinysquared is working on the next official canon comic about Harlequin's pet!

She'll be streaming some of the pages on her Patreon if you'd like to catch an exclusive early preview.

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Após o evento de aniversário os patreons decidiram compartilhar as respostas de Columbina, então essa semana vocês vão ver a primeira parte das perguntas feitas para ela. Também gostaria de avisa-los que a programação da atualização ja esta em andamento, os patreons recebem as atualizações uma semana antes, e depois ela serão repostadas nas outras redes sociais!

E enquanto isso a comic oficial da historia do pet de arlequim esta sendo feita pela @destinysquared

Algumas paginas serão stremadas no patreon dela caso vocês queiram um preview.

Neko: Did you guys expect that?

Neko: Her second favorite season is winter

Neko: Oh, Memories~

Neko: Doctor began to see plants in a new light

Ticket Taker is described as loyal and protective. Two words which both Jester and Pierrot use verbatim. When asked to compare the troupe members to animals, Jester describes TT as a wolf, and Pierrot describes him as a lobo-guará (aka a maned wolf). Upon closer examination, Ticket Taker’s monster form may actually be closely if not directly related to a maned wolf.

Maned wolves are a type of canid found in South America. Though they mainly reside in tropical savannas located in central and eastern Brazil, they can also be found in parts of northeastern Brazil (where TT came from).

Maned wolves have a deceptive name and appearance; they are neither wolves nor foxes, but are their own type of canid. This can interlace with Ticket Taker’s ‘human disguise.’ As we know he is not human. And perhaps he might not look fully monstrous. He may look like both.

Maned wolves are also characterized by their abnormally long limbs and tall ears (which can grow up about seven inches).

A distinctive characteristic of Ticket Taker is his long legs. They make up about 55-60% of his body.

Another distinctive characteristic comes from this frame in a hidden cutscene. TT’s arms look abnormally long here, which, in addition to his legs, are traits similar to a maned wolf.

The most striking physical similarities, in my opinion, come from his fingers. In maned wolves, the paws of the third and fourth digits are positioned proximally close together. Comparing this to a human hand, this would correspond to the middle and ring fingers, which we can see him holding together in several frames.

The final physical characteristic that I see similarities with is the appendage on the top of his head. In my other predictions for his monster form, I shifted my interpretations of this appendage. At first I saw it as a ghostly wisp, then I saw it as a fin. However, now that I’m looking closely at these particular similarities, I believe that it’s an ear.

Considering that maned wolves have incredibly tall ears (and the fact that this appendage looks too soft to be a horn) it’s not completely far fetched. Also, maned wolves are often hunted (in some cultures, there is a belief that some of their appendages have medicinal benefits) and are currently struggling with massive habitat loss due to agriculture. Maned wolves are an endangered species.

I believe Ticket Taker only has one ear and the other was ripped off. Either this being from a hunter or from a general fight is up to interpretation.

If you’re familiar with my other theories you know that I am strongly convinced that Ticket Taker has some associations to the moon. We not only can interpret this symbolically through the game’s visuals, but we can also take into consideration that he is literally compared to a wolf. Wolves are heavily associated with moons.

When it comes to maned wolves, however, they are nocturnal and mainly do their hunting in solitude under the moonlight. We know that Ticket Taker is the one that turns off the circus lights at night and is considered reserved.

Despite maned wolves being solitary and not necessarily pack-oriented, their protectiveness can come moreso from close bonds or with those they trust. Which, as Neko has described, is extremely difficult to earn from him.

We have seen TT’s defensiveness quite a few times. The most notable instances were his protectiveness over Jester when an asker came on too strongly, and when MC became too curious of Carol when bumping into her. In addition, TT can be perceived to be the ‘gatekeeper’ to the circus; being the one to manage who enters the circusgrounds. Maned wolves are also territorial, which his role as ticket taker can be a representation of.

The final quality of TT that I want to connect to a mane wolf is his agility. Maned wolves are considered incredibly agile when paired with their long legs. Ticket Taker has both of these characteristics.

DID WE AS A FANDOM COLLECTIVELY FORGET THESE GUYS AREN’T HUMAN??? PLUS IS BEING 6 FT CONSIDERED “SHORT” TO EVERYONE???

(Saying this in the most respectful way possible) I *KNOW* people can’t talk knowing that Harlequin is just an inch taller. But do you see people calling Harlequin short??? Noooooo you don’t.

Can we be nicer to Ticket Taker. Please? 😔💔

I feel like both of these statements can be true at the same time, but people in this fandom will take one side and exaggerate it ten fold. He's not just beating people up on the streets left and right but he's not also this innocent small bean who can't comprehend what he's doing it wrong.

I mean, both of this sides ARE him. He is freak who will drug MC if they don't want to see him and breaks into their house and clearly not really respecting boundaries, but at the same time him being cute and gullible is also him. He is naive a bit and easily falls for Harlequin's stories for example. That's why I like him, because he combines both of those sides.

I also think he isn't some kind of master manipulator. Yeah, he tries to hide the more weird and scaries parts of himself, but for me it seems like a natural behavior. Like, anyone wants to be seen in better light, especially in front of their crush. It's not like even humans irl shows instantly all of their sides. I don't mean that he isn't manipulative at all, I just think it's at least partially not intentional.

I always afraid that I mischaracterise Pierrot a lot but at the same time I get pissed off when people focus only on his cute side and thinking that he wouldn't hurt a fly (tho he killed a person in game in front of our eyes. not to mention all other shit) or see him only as scary fucking motherfucker (which is again ALSO TRUE TO SOME DEGREE. He stalks MC, isn't against drugging them AND KEEP THEM DRUGGED IF THIS IS NEEDED) but both of this are him. Just different sides of his personality.

I probably also need to clarify myself a bit, he is certainly manipulative in a way and I'm pretty sure that he can be intentionally manipulative if this needed to make MC stay by his side. But as for now, I see his behavior more like unintentional manipulation stemming from his fears of being rejected and shit. Not excusing him obviously, but for me personally unintentional shit is more forgivable. Pierrot isn't well mentally and this clearly affects his actions.

A lot of people make Pierrot the most #vanilla of the clowns because he's the face of the game, and people think that he therefore has to be the most approachable and "safe." Which IMO: Boring.

I think that's especially true with all the fandom newbies who clearly don't enjoy the heavier and darker themes of the game, so they kinda have to "distance" him from the "dark" themes of the game. So he ends up being framed as this puppydog guy, who doesn't know about sex, and definitely could not be kinky or creepy, or genuinely dangerous at all! Even when he clearly is. (Also the weird idea that virgins can't be kinky or have fetishes. You don't need to swing your thing in a circle to be the nastiest kinkiest mofo out there.)

I mean look at the game, even if not yet shown super explicitly, there's a lot of dark stuff that's just part of the lore. This isn't a game for people who cannot handle dark themes. Yet there are a lot of people who've joined who seem to have incredibly low tolerances for dark themes, and even hold ideological views against dark stories like TFC existing, yet they're still here.

So a friend and I were talking about the characterization of Pierrot and how, well, the general fandom seems to be looking at him.

I've had a feeling that a good chunk of people only have surface level knowledge of Pierrot, or even just get most of their "content" from fanon, rather than looking at the actual source material.

Pierrot himself during his nighttime rambles shows us, the reader, so much more. Yes, he shows MC his sweet side, smiling and showing affection. And when we make all the choices he agrees with, he plays nice.

But I stated it this way "He is playing nice because it is working. If it wasn't working, he wouldn't BE nice."

MC doesn't get to see Pierrot being scary because he's trying to do things the easy way. However, he makes it abundantly clear that he's not taking no for an answer, and that you belong to him, period.

So yes, Pierrot comes off as a cute innocent precious bean who could do no wrong, but if that's all you see, you've fallen for his little act.

He can be. And will be. Very scary. Even in front of MC. He's just usually been good at holding back. He does his best to hide his fangs, but sometimes he slips when things aren't going his way.

One more perhaps? I don’t have anything conclusive to say like I did with Pierrot. This one was definitely more let’s cosplay as researchers rather than me actually trying to guess what’s going on - a yap session if you will- even still I hope you enjoy my thoughts.

Another peak at a freak

Please, I'll take whatever lore crumbs about this bird man you've got

Let's see what I can share about him...

He's one of the ones who sleeps the least

When he's really excited or daydreaming, he usually talks to that... doll in his tent; Harlequin always finds it fun to watch

Whenever he notices one of his companions looking tired or a little under the weather, he’s the first to step in and encourage them to rest.

He’s very skilled and precise at cutting meat, since he practically knows by heart where every bone is so he can avoid them or cut them properly The first circus performer he came across wasn't in very good condition, which made him move closer

Just a silly little thing I did for Mother's Day after seeing Destiny working on her comic, haha

Let’s talk about the divorce okay

So here’s how I imagined it all. Ticket Taker (“the kind stranger”) and Columbina met with the rest of the members.

He saw Doctor and they became close. They’re both the eldest members and introverts. Quite unlike the other three. I headcanon that Doctor is in his mid thirties so he’d be pretty close to TT in age (even though they were younger at that point, you get the point). Maybe their subspecies are similar or have a special connection? Or at least their subspecies are close in a way that they can understand each other better? (Take that with a grain of salt, like all my theories lol).

Doctor seems calm and cool (which TT appreciates). Doctor is logical, thoughtful, even though he’s a little dense. Ticket Taker is organized, also highly intelligent, and sharp. They complement each other well.

But after the cannibalism, Doctor changed. His eyes changed.

And he became more unstable. Ticket Taker, already grieving the loss of his surrogate daughter, sees his closest friend devouring the most of her. Taking too much. At first he doesn’t think much of it. “We all ate a part of her” but slowly and slowly he became more distant. With each time Doctor would become unstable, he drifted away more.

He’s chaotic. He became what Ticket Taker dislikes.

In the comic, I like to think that they tried to make it work, or Jester at least thought things were okay with them or wanted them to get close again (hence the Pantalone and Dottore shtick they had). But once they developed their own shows, they didn’t need to be around each other as much.

Doctor is messy. His gloves are bloody. He likes gore and vivisections. Messy kills. Ticket Taker is psychological. His gloves are white. Pristine. Clean. He dislikes mess.

Doctor’s habits are things Ticket Taker dislikes and he seems to hold his values quite firmly (Doctor doesn’t even seem to clean up his gloves and clothes from blood sometimes lol).

So, Ticket Taker (having developed newfound respect for Jester and since he also uses psychological methods and isn’t “messy” like the others) ‘divorced’ Doctor.

I think they’re both detached with each other (For example, TT doesn’t refer to Doctor as just Doctor but “THE Doctor.” That’s detachment. That’s deliberate). But there’s still either an underlying respect or maybe even a yearning for what they used to be. What they used to have.

Doctor, ready to handle the “dirty work” TT doesn’t wish to employ with “unruly guests,” is not only doing what TT says, but is trying to protect someone dear to him. Even if their relationship is complicated.