#cazziel

Or, I guess more broadly, are the changes to the overall story, plot, lore, etc. in this au be exclusively due to the changes in Bendy, Boris, and the Cupbros backstories, or are there other factors that have changed unrelated to them that contribute to this au's difference from the main story?

Sorry if that doesn't really make sense I'm not sure how to properly word my question ^^;

There are absolutely lore things from IM that also apply in the Just a Step to the Left series! One of the perks of working so close with Tap and M on IM is that I've known a lot of the lore reveals waaaaaaaay in advance and have been subtly working some of them into this series. The micco lore reveals aren't the only thing, either. :3

Most of the changes for this series are a result of things playing out differently five years (ten for IM) before the story starts. A lot of major events happened for everyone that year. Bendy was brought to the Upper (Surface for IM), Cup and Mugs fought the Devil, and Boris is separated from his birth pack and ends up at an orphanage. For this series, there are a lot of big things that those three events happening differently change for a lot of characters.

(There is currently one character who is not the right age compared to their IM counterpart, but that's more an oops on my part when I was figuring out everyone's ages . . .)

We are already seeing how things are different for Alice and Jake, Cazziel just changed his whole career, and Ortensia and the rest of the Circus crew are claiming Bendy as one of theirs. Cup and Mugs getting "the good ending" has toppled a whole tower of cards by freeing the Isles debtors and created several issues for the Devil. The changes from Boris aren't as far-reaching, but I hope they will be felt when we reach certain characters.

Thanks for the ask!