#askdfghjl

i did say that they appear ideal, but it’s actually nice to learn that in each route of the five you learn that isn’t the case when it comes to the reasons for fighting / joining. like, yeah, perhaps there’s some commonality to their motivations around; but there’s a definite selfish/shortsighted angle to it somewhere. makes them seem less ideal, more human and relatable to an extent. a non-cast example would be that one soldier that challenges ray for the king position in ray’s route - the determination to protect his family is admirable, yes, but it seems rather dubious if he also took into account that by being king, he will take into his shoulders the burden of fighting a war and its possible aftermaths. it’s not just some title that holds weight during a war and vanishes afterwards - its a great responsibility that lasts, whether through victory or defeat. it’s just that his drive & pressure to protect his family is greater than everything else that he fails to grasp the full picture.

now for the ba five: in my opinion, fenrir’s probably the closest you’ll get to a selfless reason for joining - there’s some agenda there, but not as heavy as the other four. ray’s next, but he’s a far second considering his past + burdens. sirius himself downright admits that his reasons for being in the army are selfish, what a guy. rather than being spurned on by external motivation/life-changing event, luka’s reasons for joining the army are more personal than the rest. seth... well...  ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

sirius:

he grew up having lotsa siblings + if you count the black army as the whole he’s raised a lot of brats lmao, so alice having a kid doesn’t faze him the slightest!

in the prologue where ray ends up catching alice, sirius ends up catching her kid instead. thinks the kid’s five years old or something. sirius is about to ask the child some basic questions, but the kid suddenly points to a running blanc so whoops. before the strange pair go rushing after blanc, kid says a thank you, mister! and that earns immediate brownie points because the! kid! called! me! mister! and sirius proceeds to make that veeeery clear to ray lol. maybe to fenrir and seth too, later.

so after all the prologue drama, alice & the kid formally introduce themselves as mother & child to the black army. there’s a few murmurs of reallys and awwws because tbh alice looked rather young to be a mother but oh well. it doesn’t change sirius’ welcoming and accommodating approach, though he keeps more tabs on the child because honestly...

a young child in the barracks... where there’s a stocked armory + shiny magic crystals... ridiculous brats - ehem, grown men prone to showing off + creating trouble... yeah. though it’s really not a hassle on sirius’ part to somewhat act like a babysitter, he gets to suffer being teased about nonsense like paternal instincts coming to life in full force lol!

though seriously speaking, he’s very careful not to ask / bring up the biggest subject of them all: alice’s husband (if there’s even one to speak of, ooh). on the kiddo’s side of course, it’s already hard enough that someone so young suddenly ends up in a strange place + gets their mother and themselves threatened by a whole goddamn army (sirius, to lancelot: i stg what are u doing???) + has to live out a whole month in a new environment all of a sudden, so he believes the least that he & the black army can do is keep the child comfortable enough so that the feeling of fear would be lessened, get a sense of comfort going on. sirius definitely can’t blame the kiddo if they start crying out for their father/home though - though he knows it’s not his fault + can’t do anything much, he’ll feel bad about the fact that he can’t do much for the child’s homesickness.

he’s not going to broach the topic on alice either - if alice wanted to talk, then he’d do his best to listen. if she didn’t then he wouldn’t dare ask, it’s a very personal topic after all. who was he to pry into her personal matters when she + her child would be leaving in a month???

so picture this: he did say he’ll help watching over the kid, but there’s not much to do bc her child is good enough. what a little angel, polite and curious and quiet. maybe a little too quiet, withdrawn??? hmmm. either way, the child didn’t seem too (pro)active. or was playful the term sirius was looking for?

like sure, there’s the loud laughs for stupid antics, answers when talked to, smiles and walks around the barracks on their own but... more often than not, the child keeps close to alice or is just around her general line of sight. separation anxiety, maybe??? that’s natural, so okay. or maybe it’s alice who’s always hovering around her child??? either way, there’s nothing odd about that, but upon longer observation...

the kid is just... really responsible / really loves their mom??? alice watering the plants??? quickly looks for another watering can / gets a bucket of water to refill the can with. general cleaning or laundry??? puts a hold on whatever they were doing, rolls up sleeves, gets ready to do some work. prep work for dinner??? peeling’s a bit wonky, but they’re doing their best while trying not to cut themselves...

this strikes off as a bit funny to sirius, because wow, they really are related. where alice is quick to offer her help on all sorts of tasks in the barracks, her child is just a step behind her, little hands willing to do some work. on some tasks, alice does tell her kid that she’ll be alright doing it on her own, but her kid insists doing it alongside her anyway. and that there, that’s a very alice thing to do, too. sirius - heck, maybe the black army would know that by now as well, lol, considering how alice flutters around the barracks looking for something to do if she’s not having some alone time + private time with her child.

though, as much as the help was appreciated... it doesn’t sit well with sirius that the mother & child are spending most of their hours working rather than enjoying themselves in cradle. he thinks it’s a shame, especially for the kid. back when sirius was younger, he would...... then he’d go to....... and then sometimes he’d.............

.... right. if the guests wouldn’t relax themselves, then sirius would take it upon himself to show them a good time. it doesn’t have to be through big events, it doesn’t have to be everyday, it doesn’t need to be through fancy or expensive gifts either...... if only just to see both of them smile more often, then it’s definitely worth the time thinking about.

more bonus points if he’d get to see alice’s kid start acting like... well, a child! while there’s nothing wrong with being responsible or wanting to help, a kid should definitely experience all sorts of things, explore what they can, and most of all, enjoy themselves.

that’s what it means to be young, and alice should do the same as well... being in cradle is their adventure, after all! they’re not completely unrelated to the war but..... if anything else, sirius wants to fulfill the black army’s promise of precting them until the full moon comes around, and when that day comes.... he hopes the two have made a ton of good memories of their stay in cradle.

......... funny that this guy’s thinking about how make the two relax when he can’t even stop and do that for himself lmaooooo 

luka:

lol he starts off the same as he’s always been in most routes: shying away + nothing much to say to the parent/child combo now suddenly under their wing.

though, he does keep watch of their eating habits on the first days of their stay: alice eats anything + everything so that’s a relief, she’s adjusting. now if only he can say the same for her child....

imagine alice’s kid still being uncomfortable & cranky a few days in cradle + black army company, refuses to eat much even though his mom’s urging him to. breaks into a tantrum one day, saying that i wanna eat mama’s cooking instead! or something similar for everyone in the dining room to hear before storming out. ooh. there’s a brief silence - most stares land on luka, who isn’t really offended.

..... well, okay, so maybe it did sting a little bit. alice apologizes to luka before going away to calm her kid down. fenrir + ray tell him not to worry about it, seth + sirius muse about the kid feeling all homesick / sensitive. cue other soldiers saying something about puberty (whut lol). or y’know, kids being kids.

luka tries thinking about the kid’s situation for a bit. away from home, living in a whole new environment, surrounded by a whole lot of other people with attitudes and faces way different from those around at home... huh. that kinda sounds like himself in a way, except that the away from home bit on luka’s part was a voluntary choice.

having realized that, luka has a better guess of what the kid might be feeling. overwhelmed, definitely. from a very hostile welcome with handcuffs + the red army carrying the threat of death, suddenly being surrounded by the kindness of the black army is a total 360. must feel unreal, suspicious, even. the sight of real weapons around, the existence of magic and all that, unknowingly having a power so strong the whole country fears it. sounds like too much too process for a child.

..... alright, but looking at alice’s kid being unfriendly + clingy to alice 24/7 + being such a crybaby also reminds luka of... uh, himself, when he was younger. not to his own mother, but to... well, jonah, ugh. it’s not an easy pill to swallow (it takes grudging acceptance), but at least luka gets to know why he always felt some pang of irritation looking at the child.

so the next time the kid starts crying over something/causes trouble for alice, luka surprises everyone in the room by taking the initiative to scold the kid for acting so selfish. tough call, by the way - the child is wow, stubborn as hell + likes to keep the waterworks going while screaming; luka’s got a pretty good idea of what he wants to say but is having trouble getting it across properly and in a less menancing manner, so in short its a mess. witnesses ray blackwell + fenrir godspeed find the whole scene sorta funny though, much support lol.

alice wants to cut in, but sirius + seth tell her to leave it to luka, who seems to be winning since her kid’s running out of energy from crying & shouting at the same time. luka seems to be calming down too, because his tone + volume + facial expression is getting less stern. this seemed like a good time to mosey out of the scene so sirius ushers the audience to go away lmao, even the worried mother (who, decides to eavesdrop instead. no one has the heart to pull her away... so they hover around the doorway with her too.)

not arguing with luka anymore, the upset kid starts to babble of nightmares about the scary men in red with their sharp swords, not wanting to sleep because maybe when they close their eyes mama might suddenly be gone and they’re all alone, the scary feeling of losing mama to strangers, and the list goes on and on. its a collection of fears + worries of a child, and luka’s patient enough to listen. in fact, he smiles wryly when there’s mentions of monsters under the bed: it’s embarrasing, but luka used to cry over that too.

... seeing the kid bawl their eyes out like this, luka really is reminded of his younger self. the clinginess, sudden outbursts, the fear of maybe one day, they’ll be left behind and will be all alone. luka might be speculating the kid’s feelings, but more than anyone else, luka would be the closest one who could relate to what the kid was going through because.......... he acted that way towards jonah, back when they were younger.

he wonders if they’ve mentioned any of this to alice, even if just the smallest of their fears. he wonders how long they’ve been bothered over those fears, if they’ve been sleeping well at night. with all those questions in his mind, luka’s not so sure what to say; how to comfort the child.

he still tries though, even if his words come out a bit clumsy, even if the kid’s still sniffling all the way through the process. it’s a quiet moment, one that lasts till the child has cried themselves to sleep. they just stay that way for awhile, the kid resting their head on luka’s arm, until luka decides to carry the child back to their room........ alice must be worried.

..... she is, actually. when she and luka talk, she keeps quiet of her eavesdropping. luka doesn’t tell her everything either, because he believed that some of the things they talked about are better said by the kid themselves rather than him relaying the message to alice.

there’s nothing much to say after that, so luka goes on his way. alice says a very sincere thank you before he goes. she... has a lot of other things to say other than just that, but.... maybe another time. maybe when she’s plucked up the courage.

anyway, after all that alice’s kid seems to have gotten off their... spoiled phase, lol. still a little clingy to alice, but is getting less prickly + talking to others now. most notable development though, is if the child isn’t around their mother......... they could be seen hanging around luka.

like, reveal a little of this and that, buuuut not so much as to leave more coverage material/perspectives for other routes to get more exposition on...... then the rest would focus on the ikeman’s development + romance + unique conflict???? admittedly though, that sounds good in theory but harder to do in practice that’s fit into a total of 27 mobage chapters ┐(‘～`;)┌ (and especially if cybird’s scenario writers aren’t coordinating/different throughout routes.)

additionally..... a significant plot point in ray’s route, the day that went dark, is touched up by only two other routes so far, namely fenrir’s & kyle’s..... so...... aha........... this is a very important event that had a heavy impact on these three & their character arcs, are we not getting more info about this again?? no?????? not even a sliver of foreshadowing/passing mention/explanation???? okay then......

anyway... i think it would be interesting if:

note that alice admits of being afraid of cradle + ray. he himself tells her to look the other way then till the full moon comes. from that point on..... alice seems to be taking his words to heart???? say that sirius (or the other three) do try to do something about the odd air between ray + alice, but the attempts aren’t working so well/smoothly - in fact, it carries out the opposite effect, making alice more unsure about ray & ray slowly getting frustrated about wanting to do something about alice’s jittery attitude, but doesn’t have the slightest clue on how to approach her properly without scaring her any further. i guess the point of interest here would be: without the encouragement of sirius/seth/fenrir who helped & encouraged alice to see ray in a different light in the actual storyline, how would have their relationship/dynamic progressed if alice or better yet, ray took the initiative to clear up the air (that he messed up in the first place)?

alice gets to learn that ray’s a magic user through the magic tower kidnapping attempt....... but what if that instance went awry???? like, for someone who refused to use their magic ever since its discovery, you’d think ray would have zero to no control of his powers - though maybe after the day went dark he was secretly taught to control his powers and after that training, he decided never to use it again....... so anyway, what if, during the time alice was cornered, ray couldn’t reach out to her in time + is about to witness her about to be killed and as a result, he’s unable to control himself and uses his powers by accident??? if it results into the disciples of magic crumpling to the ground like rocks (not dead, gosh what rating is this game again) + alice gaping at ray in shock, slightly injured with little cuts because of the sudden wave of magic + ray entering his the day that went dark bsod upon seeing what he did.... what would happen from that point on?

the deal relationship if put into actual effect, lol. like, it comes up occasionally in the route but it’s obvious that they’re just words and not actual binding. now, this would greatly alter the route as ray making the deal an actual thing™ would come off as ooc considering his actual personality as you see in his route, but what if there was a do or die situation involved, some unavoidable circumstance that would trigger conflict early and that has alice joining the fray? have a test/showcase of ray’s capabilities as a king.... with a pressing major problem as the war goes on: as willing as alice is to use her powers for their cause, why does the urge to stop her grow stronger each time she goes to the battlefield??? is it the guilt of saying that ‘we’ll protect you’ when in the end, he’s exposing her to more risk??? or is it because he’s seen her out there pushing herself too far, doing everything and anything to make sure no one gets hurt; looking eerily similar to himself in his younger days post the day that went dark??? or is it because of the constant nagging of the others getting to him now, telling him to take alice away from the vanguard and only to appear when absolutely necessary????